How Amanda Heyman Turned a Proven Offer Into a Consulting Business That Works for Her Life

For years, Amanda Heyman, Managing Partner at Tundra Ventures, had wanted to build a consulting practice.

As the co-founder of a startup accelerator and venture fund, she had helped hundreds of people build businesses and had spent years advising founders.

But she also knew herself well enough to know that experience wasn’t the same thing as having an outside perspective, and decided to join the Paid & Peaceful Mastermind.

“I knew I needed that co-founder energy—someone who could spot the gaps I couldn’t see and help me figure out what actually mattered.”

As Amanda put it, she wanted to:

“dump all the brain stuff I have going on out and have someone do for me what I do for other people.”

Taking a Proven Offer in a New Direction

Amanda came into the mastermind with an offer she had already spent years developing called Base Layer. 

The program had been delivered to 77 companies through her accelerator work, and she owned the intellectual property. While she knew there was something there, she hadn’t nailed down the business model yet.

“I’d assumed that the natural next step was to turn Base Layer into a leverage, low-cost offer,” shared Amanda. “Maggie helped me step back and question that and helped me realize this could be a one-on-one consulting offer.” 

That decision changed the business.

“I’d been struggling with everything it would take to make that lower cost model work. By shifting it into a higher-touch consulting offer, I quickly saw that I could hit my revenue goals, and it became so much easier to define, market and build around. That decision was key.” 

Again and again, Amanda found herself bringing an idea, question or half-formed decision to Maggie and getting the outside perspective she needed to stop circling and move forward.

“What's really helpful about Maggie is that I trust her judgment, and so if she tells me something is good, I believe her. And if she tells me that I need to do something else, I believe her.”

That kind of support was especially useful for someone who was perfectly capable of figuring things out herself but could easily spend too much time on them.

Creating the Space to Do It Right

One of the most important things about Amanda's experience is that when she joined the mastermind she wasn't generating revenue from her new consulting practice yet.

“I finally had time to deliberately build the foundation for the practice, which meant testing offers with clients, developing the newsletter and event series, establishing delivery procedures, building systems and figuring out how all the pieces fit together.”

Part of that foundational work was doing extensive AI upskilling and building the consultancy to be AI-native, work that required time to experiment, test and learn.

“Today, I've got a whole system and foundation in place that I did not have a year ago. I didn’t have to put my life on hold to do it either. I took vacations, spent time with my family and built the consulting practice methodically. That’s a huge change for me as I’m used to building the plane while I fly it.” 

A Consulting Business Built for Real Life 

Amanda's biggest result while being the mastermind isn't a single revenue number. It's that she now has a business she’s not just excited about, but that will work for her for years to come. 

“Thanks to the mastermind, I’ve built something that works for my real life. I can scale the practice up or down depending on what else is happening personally and professionally. I’ve had the time to put the systems in place so the business can flex with me. It can be part-time or full-time, and I still have room to do more than one thing.”

That's a very different definition of business success than simply chasing the biggest possible number as quickly as possible.

“I finally have built it, and I feel like it's something that, depending on the amount of effort and time I put into marketing it and selling it, I can have for the next 10 or more years.”

A Community That Gets It

Amanda initially joined to gain access to Maggie's brain.

“Honestly, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the combination of strategic perspective, accountability, practical feedback and community support. While other members have very different businesses, the underlying challenges are the same and being able to get perspective from people who are further along than me has been incredibly helpful.” 

One of the most meaningful parts of being part of the group was completely unexpected:  finding people who shared her belief that a business can make money without consuming your entire life.

“It’s hard to find people who are actually focused on having a real business that makes money and also focused on living your life at the same time; it's nice to have a community of support and have that kind of support in real time as you are trying to live that.”

That’s what made the mastermind different for Amanda. It gave her a place to keep building without complicating her business or life.

When asked what she'd tell someone considering the Mastermind, Amanda's answer was straightforward:

“Do it. You WILL get the value out of it. It's so worth it.”