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How She Disrupted Her Industry's Revenue Model (and Built a 7-Figure Business Her Own Way) with Lyrik Fryer
Episode 125 • 15th October 2025 • The Visionary Files • Adriane Galea
00:00:00 01:07:16

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When Lyrik Fryer built WorkPlay Branding, she wasn’t necessarily trying to be disruptive — she just didn’t want to keep living in the adrenaline crash around the revenue model that comes with project-based work. So she did the thing no one else in her industry was doing: she swapped one-off client projects for a high-ticket, yearlong membership model that now meets clients anywhere in the world.

But what looks effortless from the outside was built on systems, spreadsheets, and a ruthless commitment to structure. In this conversation, we get into how she engineered consistency and how she used systems to create freedom and high profit margins. If you’ve ever looked at your calendar and thought, “there has to be a saner way to do this,” you're going to love this conversation.

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What’s inside this episode


  • Why Lyrik stopped chasing $6K projects — and how it gave her a seven-figure business that also regulated her nervous system
  • Lyrik's rule and financial threshold that keeps profit margins tight
  • The #1 thing she swears by for running a thriving business and managing a team
  • Why she thinks creatives need to stop hiding from numbers — and the straight-shooting pep talk she gives to anyone who does
  • The trade-off between instant cash and recurring revenue — and why patience paid off
  • What Lyrik looked at to flip her revenue model then turn it into a global operation


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Connect with Adriane and Visionaries!



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Lyrik Fryer is the co-founder of WorkPlay Branding, a tech-enabled creative production company redefining how brands scale their visual presence. With a background in PR and advertising, she has led creative campaigns and produced content for major brands and entrepreneurs including Target, Kajabi, Kate Northrup, Selena Soo, Jordan Gill, and Ellen Yin. Through WorkPlay’s signature WorkPlay Method™, she has helped businesses drive six- and seven-figure launches while building world-class creative ecosystems.


Her expertise has been featured in Business Insider, where she shared her vision for merging luxury-level creative direction with technology to democratize high-impact branding for entrepreneurs and enterprises alike. Beyond WorkPlay, Lyrik is also the founder of Gloss Up, a beauty brand merging modern luxury with community-driven storytelling. Known for blending strategy, storytelling, and aesthetics, she continues to scale creative platforms that empower both brands and the next generation of creatives worldwide.


Connect with Lyrik:

Transcripts

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And her case study is all about how she created a revenue model that is completely different from anything else that existed in her industry. And she says her main reason for doing it was because she wanted the nervous system regulation that she knew it would bring, so that she could have the more stable monthly revenue.

And that's what we give her, the nervous system regulation. So what Lyric has built is really, in my opinion, like this is really pretty incredible. She's got more than a seven figure photography company, by the way. She's still in her twenties, which is also incredible. She travels quite often and what she's built took the traditional project based service model.

That photographers [:

You know, you might know this if you've been around for a while. Operational capacity is my love language, and Lyric speaks this language brilliantly. Even as someone who says that this is a, this is a quote from her, that she's a creative person, not a logical person. So if you're someone who's like, I'm not, like, I'm not really the str, I'm not really the strategy person.

. I think you're gonna get a [:

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Do you want to just give a little introduction as to who you are and what you do?

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of your marketing. We create [:

Because again, we've pretty much scaled our team to be everywhere for you. And then we launch it. So we help you launch it on social media, making sure you're actually using the visual content that you create. I hear it all the time where you do this big photo shoot, but then you don't get Use the content, you sit on it for months.

We wanna make sure that we actually help you implement the content into your marketing to make it effective. And we do that every single quarter. So we repa repeat the same three phases, plan, create, launch, and then it just becomes just a tool in your business on a yearly basis.

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I'm really excited to chat about this. I'm going to sort of throw in a wrench right off the bat of, I like to start episodes with a streamlined question for everybody.

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that's all the team that has [:

So I don't have to stress about being in the visionary seat and come back down into the day to day of the business because I know that it's all, it's all running the way that I would want it to be run through SOPs and systems.

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I'm so excited over hearing you say that because it's, that's it. Like, I, I'm also thinking as you do it, like, is this your first rodeo? Did you know from experience that that's what you needed to do? Because who naturally knows to do that?

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the business was. I was just [:

hen built work play branding [:

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Okay, how do we sell that a service based membership? Okay, well, how's that different than a retainer like there's so many interesting points of how does this work? I do this thing where I like to throw 12 questions at you all at the same time. So

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how much money is coming in [:

And so having recurring revenue in general, it's just going to, at least for me, I don't like the hustle every single month, a certain number of clients. I w I don't want that. And so if I had that, I'm gonna it's gonna pull me in all of these different directions. So kind of going back to that original question, how do you sit in the visionary?

pened. And then I completely [:

But I forgot other questions.

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And it's I think that's the big question with a service provider is Well, how do I start building MRR if I'm not moving into coaching, which I work with a lot of service providers, they don't want to.

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That's not where our transformation is. That doesn't happen, in one photo shoot with us. That happens over the course of four. And so for each one, what are we focused on in terms of transformation with their marketing and their visuals for that quarter? And that helps them almost, compartmentalize the entire year and not be so caught up in the big vision, but what are they focused on right now? And then it just becomes a system in their business. So if you can find a transformation that can have a repeatable transformation in your client's businesses, that's what I would scale as a membership model for your service based business. it make sense.

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So on that day, we stay with you for the entire day. We execute the planning of that. So all of the logistical nightmares of a photo shoot are kind of like taken care of because we've already pre done all of the planning and then the day of is just super fun. We just create once that's done, we deliver that content, but then we also help you launch it.

So we help push that lead magnet content out on your socials. And then we do it again every single quarter.

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Yes. So creative directors are content creators in our process. You could have the same content creator as your creative director, and you actually throughout our process get to choose who you want. So if you're like, Oh, I worked with Brandon and I had such a good experience. You can request him again.

certain amount of photos. We [:

We don't want to pick, for you. We want you to pick your favorites because it's your brand and it's yours. It's your thing that you're marketing. And so that's something that's very different about us. We also can do video at the same time as photo and same thing. Everything that was shot you get. And so this almost like abundance of content that you get throughout our process again is very disruptive and a very attractive to our ideal client as we're marketing.

something and you're able to [:

So it just depends on what your goals are. Uh

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And my initial thought is like someone who's newer in their business. Do they need it? Do they understand? Is it the first thing that comes to mind? And like I think that this is whether whether that comes into play or not This is so perfect for someone who is a little bit more Advanced into their journey.

hat way of you are naturally [:

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monthly fee. It's one of our [:

You're getting a social media scheduler to schedule all of this out for you. This is all within the 497 framework. price point. So that allows us to market to anyone. We don't want costs or even where you're at in your business to be an excuse as to why you don't have good visuals. Because again, how someone is perceiving you is so important to your business, how they're experiencing you.

uh, Eliminating objections. [:

So this isn't just, you're not just working with one person. You're working with a full team guiding you. And that team is in their zone of genius because we have different phases, plan, create. You're getting a team that is so dialed into each of these zones in the system that you're actually getting more than if you were to just work with one person. And then I would just say the visuals are a catalyst to a lot of different things. So whether you're a beginner and you need visuals for all of the funnels that you're creating and all of the websites that you're launching, or you're a seasoned professional that has a lot of different marketing objectives every single day.

single quarter. visuals are a catalyst to all of those things.

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Well, how long ago did you start this?

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ve our COO who has grown the [:

It's not always 50 50. Sometimes you're putting in more work than the other partner and vice versa, depending on the season of life that each of you are in or what you're needing in that moment. and I think that we have a lot of space and grace for each other to be able to do that over the years.

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reneur and it's, you're just [:

That is a extraordinary place to be able to start it from. How has it changed? Since then like has has it basically been this is the vision from the beginning and it's just sort of grown bigger Or has it evolved

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some of the transformations [:

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What is that? Like the, the Pareto principle or some Pareto principle? Principle. So I think that's really, really smart, especially if you want to scale, you have to simplify, you have to go into this as like not being married to any one given thing and be willing to look at things sort of more holistically of like, what is actually serving you?

I would be curious to know what was the transition? What were you packaging before and what preempted needing to make that switch to be able to move forward? Forward.

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then how do you think about [:

What would that look like? So be careful On if you do want to scale something like this, not to be so greedy, maybe in the beginning of like, and maybe greedy isn't the right word, but like, be almost patient with it to to get to that bigger vision. Because now I'm like, oh, thank God we made that decision. But I can see. If you're used to getting these high injections of cash, why that might be a little scary to then only get, you know, 4. 97 from a, uh, a client rather than 6, 000 right away.

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our profit margins, margins, [:

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This is what this business does. And it's still very, very profitable. Even if we were to lower the price by a hundred dollars, 200, we can still be profitable. And so we understand those. Thresholds based off of our numbers now, but at the time we did not so what made this able to even happen is that we were delivering the service.

get up the client base to a [:

But it was only, it was only because we didn't place, a monetary value on our time at the beginning. We were just building. We wanted to get it up to a certain number of client base and we kind of dealt with problems as we went at a certain point. I was doing. seven photo shoots a week. That's every single day.

ates on volume, so there are [:

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I like to go by months. I don't like looking at the year. I like to look at months, and so I don't want the operational cost to go above that. So that's making, you know, certain decisions throughout the month in terms of investing in the business, saying we can do things, giving people raises, all of these things.

hose are all things that I'm [:

Some things you can't do, Just, yeah. Until you hit a certain threshold of MRR and number of clients. So those are all things that I am thinking about and deciding on when making those decisions and being really careful not to make a financial decision that can't, uh, flex with the revenue going up or down

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re not necessarily the money [:

You've got, uh, like taxes that you're setting aside. Is your owner's salary going outside of that owner's owner's draw? And then like, are you putting intentional aside for profit?

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ar defined line is important [:

Because you do have to pay yourself. So I think the biggest mistake is, and I've done it, you know, in the past where it's like, Oh, my salary doesn't matter. So I'm not going to count that in the operations. That's not necessarily true. It does matter. And it affects your profitability. If you're taking money from the profit essentially, and saying, Hey, that's my salary, you know, there's not a clean way of running things and understanding your numbers. And then

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e with your own framework of [:

And that keeps me within the 50 percent operational margin. then allows me to have creative freedom on what I spend within the category. That's how I like to do it. That's not maybe the best advice, financial advice. That might not be how a CFO looks at it, but you do have to figure out your own way of interpreting your own numbers.

But I think before you hire that out, because as soon as you delegate it, then what happens is They come, they, they give you your, their expertise, but the financials are so important to your decision making that they might be only looking at it from one point of view. And you, as the founder, you're the visionary.

your vision. And in order to [:

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So I cut you off from your initial, I don't even know if you remember what we were, what we were talking about where you were going with that. but sort of that idea of like what brought you, what was the catalyst for making this change? I mean, like you were doing, you yourself, you were getting behind the camera and shooting seven, seven projects a week is, yes.

st for needing to make this, [:

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So I was never thinking, especially when building like five steps ahead and being not in the weeds first. I needed to understand what the weeds felt like, what it seems like, even to have empathy for my own team. Like I would never book them back to back like that. I would never book them even back to back three times in a week, right?

lling to spend and still how [:

wer end and build from there [:

season of business that feels safe, that feels comfortable, that's not going to dive the business into the ground. And then you start to learn from there. It's hard because there's no one set answer and you have to really kind of pave that way. But, there are, you know, patterns that you can take from, I think WorkPlay branding of like start small, you know, don't hire someone right off the bat.

nd be scrappy with it. Don't [:

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mount of oxygen at any given [:

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Because I think a lot of people look at, well, if I can just grow my business, if I can just get more clients, if I can just get more and more and more, it's going to make this easier because there will be more money, but you're also multiplying everything else.

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to get to that revenue goal, [:

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Where's it going to take too much of your time, energy, attention, like, and how can you support at that capacity? Did I hear that correctly?

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It's clearly worked because you, you're talking about, you've got a team, you've expanded location. So it's clearly working. But like, can you speak a little bit too specifically? What it has given you both from a, a business standpoint of like how you've been able to grow, like revenue wise, as much as you're willing to say or not say on how that has supported you, uh, in that sense, but also like what it's given you in your personal life and your ability to be able to, I love life first business

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looks like you travel a lot [:

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And so it's just doing it over and over and over again and testing and just being okay to fail. Like we've failed so many times throughout this process, to get to where we're at, been able to, I, I have so much confidence in so many other areas of my life. So just from that baseline, a hundred percent, I mean, I've been building this over my twenties.

ctory from early twenties to [:

So it's not so frantic, right? In my life. That might be going even deeper than you even want, but I, I just think that that is the fabric to everything else that I want to do. So I can travel, I can more or less go where I want that freedom to do what I want. At any given time is helpful.

And also the business, the way that it's structured, I don't have to be like at my desk every day. I'm at my desk every day. Cause I want to be, but not because I have to be to make money.

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If I go to Zen Gen Z, I don't get it. So I'm like, I'm like right there in the middle. I'm still trying to get used to like the baggy pants and Tik Tok. And, but then if I go like, you know, all the way millennial to like, you know, the punk rock phases, I'm like, I, I didn't grow up with that, you know, so I'm like, I'm lost in the generations.

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How could I make this more, Aligned to the life that I'm trying to build. So if someone's trying to find a creative solution, like what would be either your advice or your starting point of what to get clear on whether they choose to do anything like disruptive like you've done in this sense, but to sort of Show them what their North star might be.

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It's a full time job. You've got to deal with things that most people don't have to deal with because you're dealing with people. And so understanding how people work is like a prerequisite to owning or not owning, but having a team. And so if that is not like attractive to you, if that is attracted to you, I would say the same thing.

You have to systemize. your client experience. Every single part of your client experience, if that can be systemized and then you just inject yourself where you need your creative genius or your zone of genius to come into the client transformation, great. But then everything else should be automated, systemized, or supported by even just one team member.

I do [:

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It's like the, so, it's the most unsexy thing to talk about, but like time tracking, understand where you're spending your time, understand where, understand where your time, energy and efforts are going so that you can utilize. Those are all resources. Utilize your resources better.

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Right. But if you own a business, these are, these are the things that you have to know. So it's, I almost like don't have any empathy if you. If you just put your head in the sand and you don't learn this, this is, this is the part of business that you have to have. This is what businesses are. They're systematic processes. So I don't know if this is like a little kick in the pants, but you've got to have it. That's just, that's, that's the role that you've chosen to be in.

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es we're just misplacing our [:

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Then I'll plug that go, go check lyrics company out work play. But where, where can people find you?

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And of course, if you have questions about visuals and visual campaigns, go head over to at work play branding.

d of what are your four main [:

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