She bought a $20,000 VIP four-day Christmas trip to Aspen with helicopter access and the St. Regis.
1. Make Money as a Life Coach® episode 367 centers on Stacey Baiman’s story of “the best business Christmas ever.”
2. Stacey Baiman hosts the show as sales expert and master coach, and she frames the episode around her own coaching business history.
3. The episode asks whether holiday timing stops sales, and Stacey argues that a strong offer can still sell in December.
4. She says the story starts in 2016, her first full year of business, when she made $150,000 and had a full one-on-one coaching practice plus a group.
5. Her group clients began talking about meeting in person, which led her to think she would need to create a retreat before they did one without her.
6. Stacey says her first instinct was to make a holiday retreat because she loves Christmas and wanted something “different and fun.”
7. She contrasts that with her earlier “Midnight in Paris in Michigan” retreat, which included boudoir photo shoots, yoga on the beach, a carnival masquerade night, and custom masks from New Orleans.
8. Stacey says the Michigan retreat sold because “my heart and soul was actually selling,” and she points to it as proof that people buy experiences with a strong vibe.
9. The Christmas retreat took place in a log cabin in the Smoky Mountains, with a Christmas tree, cranberry mimosas, hot cocoa, custom ornaments, and photo props.
10. She says about 20 women attended, wore gowns and Christmas outfits, exchanged secret Santa gifts, and spent a three-day weekend coaching and celebrating.
11. Stacey highlights the VIP version of the retreat, where she took two clients early to the Grand Ole Opry and coached them over hot coffee overlooking the Smoky Mountains.
12. The same holiday-sales mindset later led her to sell a $20,000 VIP four-day event in Aspen, Colorado for a client who wanted privacy.
13. She describes that Aspen offer as private helicopter rides, champagne on private property, the St. Regis, spa days, hot cocoa, and an intensely personal coaching experience.
14. Stacey says she did not ski, and neither did the client, but the experience still centered on luxury, mountains, and coaching work.
15. She ties those offers to a lesson that early business years should feel like “throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” with one-on-one clients, then groups, then programs.
16. Stacey says her best ideas come when she feels aligned, and she later built the first version of her three-year plan during a Cabo San Lucas retreat where they watched whales from a yacht.
17. The tone is story-driven, reflective, and celebratory, with repeated Christmas imagery and a lot of concrete scene-setting.
18. The format is a solo monologue with a few repeated phrases and a final caution that retreat and VIP work also involve behind-the-scenes friction.
19. People building coaching offers who want practical examples of high-touch sales will likely like this episode.
20. Listeners who want a short, tactical business lesson without personal stories may skip it.
