“It really shifted my mindset – from me offering, to my audience’s problem. And that is what I was looking for from the beginning.”
Lilly Lei has been in the health industry for 40 years.
She started as a physician – a storefront office, a shingle on the door, and a steady stream of patients coming to her for chronic pain management. Over time, her practice evolved.
She moved away from pills and toward wellness, helping people heal differently.
Then COVID hit. The patients stopped passing by and coming in.
And Lilly – who had built her entire practice on in-person relationships – suddenly had to figure out how to market herself in a world she’d never operated in before.
“Digital was so hard, because you have to base yourself on words, on writing – on appealing through words. And that is the skill I didn’t have.”
The Search for the Right Message
Lilly knew the digital part wasn’t the problem. She’s comfortable with computers, confident with technology. What she couldn’t crack was the messaging – how to actually connect with people through words only when you’re used to connecting in person.
She tried. She took other online marketing courses – spending close to $1,000 along the way. But something wasn’t landing.
“I was just writing about my offer – just jumping into my offer. I was thinking about what I was offering, not about my audience’s problem.”
She kept applying what she’d learned. She kept not getting results. She kept looking for something better.
Then she found GeekPack – and when the cohort opened up, she signed up.
The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
Lilly came into the cohort expecting to learn tactics. What she got instead was something deeper.
Led by Glenna Garcia, the cohort did something the $1,000 worth of courses hadn’t: it shifted how she saw her audience.
“Glenna was very simple and beautiful in helping us just shift that mindset – to see from the eyes of the buyer, and not from the seller.”
For Lilly, who had spent years leading with her credentials and her offer, this reframe was incredible. Instead of asking “what do I provide?” she started asking “what does my audience actually need to hear?”
An Unexpected Pivot – Back to Her Strengths
The mindset shift didn’t just change her messaging. It changed her strategy entirely.
Before the cohort, Lilly had convinced herself that online was the only path. She was pouring 100% of her effort into attracting clients through the internet. But through the cohort’s process, something else became clear:
“The cohort made me see that I just have to get my clients with the skill that I’m good at – which is in-person networking.”
She’d spent years building deep, trust-based relationships with people face to face. That wasn’t a limitation. It was her greatest asset – and she’d been ignoring it.
The week after the cohort ended, she put it into practice.
“Immediately after the cohort ended, the next week I began networking, applying all the things I learned. And I noticed a shift. I was more confident with the messaging – which is what I had been looking for from the beginning.”
Clarity From the Chaos
One thing Lilly keeps coming back to is how Glenna handled the group’s confusion – including her own.
“The amazing job that Glenna did is to take all our jumbled words and put them into clear sentences – and we only had to recognize: yes, this is the offer I wanted to make.”
She wasn’t alone in that fog. Every participant came in with their own tangled ideas about what they were selling and who they were selling it to. Glenna’s skill was finding the clarity underneath – and holding it up so people could finally see it.
“She will be one step ahead of you, just before you get confused.”
The Community That Reminded Her She Wasn’t Alone
Beyond Glenna, the cohort community gave Lilly something she hadn’t expected: reassurance.
“It gave me more support – seeing that it’s not only me, that everybody else had that too. When other people were coming with ideas, it also helped me think.”
Watching others work through the same confusion she was experiencing made the process feel less isolating. The community didn’t just support her – it actively helped her think more clearly.
“I Can See Clearly Now”
Ask Lilly what the future looks like, and she doesn’t hesitate:
“I can see clearly now – the rain is gone. Now I know where to go. I know how to write the messaging from the buyer’s point of view, and not from the seller’s.”
For someone who spent years building a practice on human connection, then lost her footing when the world went digital, then searched and spent and tried and came up short – that clarity is really powerful.
Forty years in, she’s not starting over.
She’s starting fresh – with a clearer message, a strategy that plays to her strengths, and finally, a way forward she can see.
