• Transitioning from freelancer to strategist (and the steps he took in between)
• How he repositioned himself to sell more strategic offerings
• Exploring alternative niches before stumbling into a new niche—Amish farmers!
• How a "Golden Goose" relationship led to three clients (and counting)
• The benefits of aligning your personal identity with the niche you serve
• Using a performance-based compensation model with a fixed base and % of revenue
• How Jordan manages scope and delivers his engagements
• The benefits of a retainer-based model vs. only project work
• How Jordan plans to find more clients when his target market isn't online
• Mindset shifts around mass vs. small audience marketing (resonance)

Key Links and Resources

Jordan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanmogck/
Jordan’s website: https://nicenewsletter.com/
Jordan on X: https://x.com/Jamogck

00:00 Intro 
09:09 Finding Your Niche 
6:52 Marketing Amish Farms 
24:09 Retainer Clients 
27:47 Marketing Strategies 
35:32 Mindset Shifts 
47:29 Follow Jordan

In this episode, we chatted about things like:

• How Reza got into marketing and eventually, as a mentor/advisor to entrepreneurs 
• How he was able to get one fractional CMO and two advisory clients quickly after leaving his job at On Deck
• The role of casual networking and how it led to unexpected opportunities down the line
• The difference between being specific and niching down in business based on your strengths and interests
• The role of risk-reversing guarantees and discussing prices against value during sales conversations 
• Why turning away poor-fit clients helped with his overall confidence and contributed to his early success
• How to internally handle the fact we can’t guarantee successful outcomes 
• The value of factoring in word of mouth and referrals into your marketing plan
• The intersection and overlap between teaching and advisory work 
• How Reza plans to do part-time advising in a low-labour, sustainable way 
• How Reza stays productize and organized in his work
• The importance of exercise, habits, and mental health optimization

Plus many fun tangents along the way!

Whether you currently have a job and are thinking about advising full or part-time, or you’re already independent but looking to get into advisory work, this episode will have a ton of insights to offer you.

Key links and mentioned resources:

• Reza on LinkedIn
• Reza's personal site
• Reza on X.com
• Passage.com
• Episode 200: Kevan Lee on part-time advisory work, mentorship, equity compensation, and more
• The Win Without Pitching Manifesto (Book)
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 
• 4,000 Weeks by Robert Bosman
• Readwise App
  
  

Do you start a blog? Hammer out posts on LinkedIn every day? Start a YouTube channel? A podcast?

Good question. I get asked it a lot. 

In fact, someone in Mindshare asked me about it again today, so I thought I'd break out my mental model for how I think about publishing and distributing content.

Here is a visual breakdown to look at while you listen to the latest How to Sell Advice podcast episode:

In this episode, we talk about things like:

• How he made the leap from employee to full-time web designer
• How he successfully sells web design courses on platforms like Udemy, Awwwards, Teachable, and other places
• How these courses lead to people hiring him for web design services, training, coaching and even requesting more courses—creating a flywheel for his business
• How he leveraged his expertise into a partnership with Wix, where he hosts and maintains the Creative Crew Community
• How his partnership with Wix is structured and run in terms of compensation and accountabilities
• A breakdown of his revenue streams, including services, community, courses, sponsorships, ad revenue, and affiliates
• His thoughts on publishing his courses on his own website and on learning platforms for a double benefit
• How he built and monetized two YouTube channels with tens of thousands of followers across both channels
• His advice on how to grow a YouTube channel—and how it benefits his business
• And a lot more!

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Brad's Website
• Creative Crew Community
• Brad's audio/video equipment
• Kevin's audio/video equipment
• BeCreatives - Unlimited Video Subscription Agency
• Video Huskey
• $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau 
• The Almanac of Raval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson 

Listen here or subscribe via your podcast player.

—kevin

P.S. Like this episode? Share it with another marketer and help them build a more leveraged and profitable marketing practice, too!

In this episode, we chat about things like:

• Why traditional sales processes don't work
• How he helps people win clients without being sales-y
• How having a clear target market helps your sales success
• Reframing "sales" as "educating" and "networking" as "connecting"
• Why having a strong marketing engine allows you to be better at sales
• A mental model for generating more referrals
• Should you give gifts and thank-you notes to people who refer business to you?
• Easy ways to maintain contact with people in your network

And a lot more!

If selling isn't your jam—or even if it is—you'll get a ton of value out of this episode. 

The mindsets and mental models he shares make it easy to navigate sales conversations without getting mired in tactical "steps" which can often confuse you and put a barrier between you and your prospects.

Resources mentioned:

• The Go-Giver by Bob Berg
• Alchemy by Rory Sutherland 
• Mimiran: The fun, antiCRM
• Reuben on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening, and if you enjoy the show, please share it with a friend!

—kw

I recently recorded a podcast with Billy Broas, a copywriter, advisor, and educator who has built a business around his proprietary messaging framework, The Five Lightbulbs. 

In this episode, Billy and I unpack the Five Lightbulbs and then go deep into how his business works, how he gets clients, and a lot more.

We discuss things like:

• Why having a proprietary framework like the Five Lightbulbs is key to selling advice
• How he leveraged his IP into courses, books, and other more leveraged ways 
• How he evolved his business from doing to advising and now teaching 
• Selling custom services with some productization on the back end
• Why he focuses on the evergreen fundamentals of marketing and not just the “new thing”
• How products get better by empathizing with and better understanding the customer
• Why we should systemize and codify our expertise that outlives you
• How teaching other audiences—i.e. industry software companies—leads to more business (Golden Goose Strategy)
• How teaching courses and programs can lead to consulting engagements with students
• How writing simple emails on a single topic under your own name works well as a format for email newsletters
• How to fold the Five Lightbulbs framework into your emails and other marketing materials

Find Billy Online:

• Billy’s Website
• Billy’s Twitter

Books Mentioned:

• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
• Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
• Authors like:
  • Gary Halbert
  • Victor Schwabb
  • Joe Sugarman
  • Claude Hopkins

Listen in for all the details!

—kw

Personally, I don’t really do much beyond the basic best practices. My strategy has been more focused on email, social media, and Golden Goose tactics to build awareness for what I do.

But a part of me feels like I’m missing out—especially as I begin to sell knowledge products to a large potential audience.

That’s why I wanted to talk to Tsavo Neal about how he approaches his marketing and business model. Tsavo gets almost all of his clients and customers through search engine optimization. 

It just so happens, he teaches other consultants how to do the same. Which made this episode packed with value.

In this episode of Mindshare Radio, Tsavo and I unpack:

• How he decided to niche down on helping consultants attract clients through their website
• A breakdown of his business model comprised of do-it-yourself and done-with-you offerings
• How raised the price of his course from $197 to $497 without losing deterring new customers
• His thoughts on evergreen vs. launch-based (open vs. closed-cart) access to his course
• How he sells $5-6k in digital products each month relying almost exclusively on SEO
• A walkthrough of his done-with-you SEO service and how he designed the program
• A deep-dive walkthrough of his SEO process, including research, outlining, writing, editing, publishing, and distribution
• How he chooses keywords to write articles for based on competitiveness and difficulty
• How he’s applying these same skills and techniques to rank and monetize a website in the Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu niche 
• And a lot more!

If you've ever thought you might want to get your website ranking better for search engines, get your pencil ready because this episode will show you how.

Mentioned links and resources:

• Phillip Morgan
• Consulting Success
• Ahrefs.com
• TsavoNeal.com
• BJJEquipment.com

—k

P.S. Want a deeper-dive training on how to do exactly this process? Tsavo shared an over-the-shoulder view for Mindshare members last month on how he does it. Sign up to get access to that plus a library of other training, group coaching, a private Slack community and more. Learn more about Mindshare → 

This was a really fun episode. We went deep into the nerdy nuances of fractional/interim CMO and advisory work.

Some topics we explored include:

• Mark’s transition from reporter to marketing consultant
• How he uses his training as a reporter to do positioning and messaging work
• The challenges and frustrations of fractional CMO work
• Why a strategic advisory work is his preferred way to engage with clients
• His thoughts on coaching, mentoring, and training in-house marketers
• The value proposition of interim CMO vs. fractional CMO
• Pricing and value calculations for advisors vs. fCMOs
• Refund policies and minimum commitment periods
• Setting expectations and getting clear on goals before starting engagements
• How and when to turn down clients who aren’t a fit
• The importance of continually marketing yourself
• Using video, podcasts, and showing up in person to build trust 

Books mentioned:

• The Inside Advantage by Robert Bloom and Dave Conti
• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug

Connect with Mark:

• Marketing Spark (consulting website)
• Twitter

I replied with the following:

But then I wanted to expand on this idea further since it's core to everything I teach.

That's what this episode is about: how to take your expertise out of your head so you can deploy it without having to repeat yourself forever.

Listen in and let me know what you think.

—k

We feel like to add value, we need to be able to tell people what to do.

What if instead, our value came from things like:

• Asking good questions
• Having good taste
• Running ideas through your filters
• Pattern matching against your experience
• Creating visions to consider
• Clarifying ideas that aren't well-considered
• Being an encourager of good ideas
• Wrestling with options
• Looking at things from different perspectives
• Playing devil's advocate
• Pushing people out of their comfort zone

As technicians, we like knowing the best tool or tactic to use for any situation. As creatives, we like envisioning new ideas and potential futures.

But as advisors, what if we didn't feel like we needed to have all answers, and instead helped our clients explore options until the answers became a little more obvious?

Your value isn't having all the answers. Your value comes from helping your clients make good decisions.

There are a lot of ways to get a result. The key is helping your clients choose the right way for them.

Listen to this episode or subscribe via your podcast player.

—kw

P.S. REGISTER FOR THE UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Next week (January 25 at 11:00 am EST) I'm hosting a live 90-minute workshop (with the recording made available) on how to package, price, and sell custom consulting services. We'll go deep on creating custom proposals that convert, so don't miss this one.

REGISTER NOW

Kevan is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to leading tech startups to significant growth. To give you an example, he helped Buffer go from $5m to $20m in annual revenue and 100,000 new customers acquisitions per month.

In his first year at Oyster, he helped the company 20x its revenue and build a marketing team comprising over 50 people. He's also involved as an educator and advisor with Reforge, On Deck, as well as a past contributor to ProductLed, and more.

In this interview, Kevan and I explore the realm of advisory work.

We cover topics like:

1. How he approaches advisory work while having a full-time gig
2. How he views mentorship and why it's important to him
3. How he prices his advice—and what he's learning in the process
4. His experience on the buyer side of equity for advice compensation discussions
5. How he packages his ideas into a playbook that he shares with paying Substack subscribers
6. And a lot more...

This conversation was a fun exploration of the world of advisory work. And like all of us, Kevan is still figuring out what works best for him.

You can follow Kevan on Twitter at @kevanlee and subscribe to his Substack at kevanlee.substack.com.

Give this a listen and subscribe to get more interviews like this in the future.

—k 

But when it comes to your own, it might be an entirely different story. And you know what? That doesn't make you a bad marketer.

It's incredibly hard to market yourself—especially if you don't have a system to follow.

In this episode, I break down the three core pillars to attracting more clients:

1. Looking good "on paper" to your ideal clients
2. Having somewhere to invite people back to
3. Opening conversations and fostering relationships

This might seem simple, and it is. But it's not easy. It takes time, energy, and commitment to build it out and for it to start working for you.

But with any luck, this framework (and the details I talk about in the episode) will make attracting clients a lot easier. When you have clarity, you can really lean into your efforts and start seeing traction faster than simply winging it.

Listen to this episode for all the nuances and details.

—k

Not in terms of quality, necessarily. But in terms of format or type.

Instead of trying to write a grand theory of mathematics every time you publish, what if we treated email more like social media?

What if we aimed for a simple, concise, interesting, and/or fun piece of content?

Something light and consumable. Not overthought. Not pre-judged. Just something you found interesting or valuable.

Would you be able to be consistent with your publishing habits? Would your readers prefer it? Would it keep you interested?

I think yes. But there's nuance, as with all things.

So give this a listen. See if it resonates with your headspace.

See if it helps you overcome that mental block stopping you from sharing your ideas with your subscribers.

And while you're at it, subscribe to Mindshare Radio via your podcast player to get more ideas like this (and interviews coming soon).

—k

And in the consulting world, the most successful advisors are the ones who have a high customer-centricity and low self-orientation.

Not sure what this all means? In this episode, I break down how to put your client at the epicentre of your business, how to reduce your self-orientation, and the trade-offs needed to do all of this well.

Even if your idea is good, it might be adjacent to the one the market wants. A small set of tweaks and iterations to the format, offer, or audience might just be what it needs to take off.

And that’s empowering! It means you’re not alone. Nobody figures everything out right away.

It’s easy to get frustrated when things aren’t clicking for you—especially when you’re trying something new that you feel really passionate about.

It can feel like two steps forward and one step back. We look around for answers but get frustrated when nobody offers the magic pill.

There is no magic pill, only iteration and innovation.

We have to hold our vision strong while simultaneously being loose about our best ideas. It’s a fine line between a steadfast vision and being oblivious to what the market wants.

If you are willing to iterate and innovate continually, it’s only a matter of time before your vision and what your audience wants are in complete alignment.

Listen in for more on this topic if you’re in this mode or subscribe via your podcast player.

Are we selling a website, strategy, or brand identity? Yes... and no. Those are features of our work. And people don't really buy features.

Maybe we are selling new customer growth? Better retention? Ease of use? Those are all great benefits of our work. But let's dig a little deeper.

What is the emotion behind those benefits? What feeling are we really creating with our work?

People buy based on how they feel about the purchase. It aligns with logic, yes. But it's driven by emotion. So it makes sense to explore that emotion people are really seeking inside of what we sell.

I believe most consultants are selling confidence. Give this a listen to see what I mean.

Get this right and it will be a lot easier to create and sell the true benefits of your work.

—k

When I first got started as a fractional CMO, I basically had two part-time jobs. The money was good but I worked HARD. I knew I needed to create better parameters.

In this episode of Mindshare Radio, I'll break down the five main ways to avoid turning into a set of employee-like hands when you sell fractional CXO services.

We'll talk about things like:

1. Setting expectations during sales
2. Defining what you will or won't do
3. Building your Rolodex
4. Setting a limit on your time if needed
5. Down-selling yourself to pure advisory work

And a ton of nuance in between.

Listen in and let me know what you think—did I miss anything important?

Hit reply and let me know.

—k

P.S. Need help transitioning into advisory/fractional CXO work? Check out my Paid to Think program or join Mindtrust, the no-brainer group coaching and training program for as little as $63/mo. when you pay annually.

You can think about niching in a lot of ways.

In many cases, the tighter you go, the easier it can be to sell what you offer. People are swimming in options, they want specific when they can get it.

So there are two angles to consider when deciding on how specific you should go with your business.

1. You can get specific about who you serve

The more specific your target market, the broader your focus can be in terms of what you help people with—while still being credible.

If I help multi-location coworking spaces do better marketing, that's a specific target market and a fairly broad way of helping them. It can be reasoned that you can have rare knowledge about marketing in a way that is uniquely applied to multi-location coworking spaces.

If I said I help anyone do better marketing at scale, you can begin to see where the skepticism may come in.

2. You can get specific about the problem you solve

When you're highly specific about the problem you solve, it makes sense that you could solve it credibly for a wide range of industries.

For example, I could say I help people sell their expertise through membership programs. And that could be a reasonably credible positioning given the specificity of the problem being solved.

I don't need to say "I help faith-based dog groomers sell membership programs." The market would be too small. And the same skills or lessons could be applied to far greater contexts.

And this is what strategy is all about.

There's no perfect way to position your consulting business. Specificity helps—but how you apply specificity is where the hard choices are made.

So what trade-offs are you making? How are you being specific about either what you do or who you do it for?

As they say, hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

I might have a fractional CMO service. Or in a sales conversation, I may say that I'm like having a part-time CMO on your team. But I don't call myself a fractional CMO as my top-level positioning.

I'm a consultant. I'm an advisor. I help companies with their marketing strategy.

But I'm not a part-time employee. I don't want to be seen as one. Nor do I want their actual marketing team to be threatened by what may seem like a new boss breathing down their neck.

In this episode, I go into:

• Why I believe it's best to position yourself as a consultant—not an employee-like person
• When to use terms like "fractional CMO" in your sales conversations and marketing copy
• How to avoid threatening the in-house marketing managers when you're hired to help their organization.

The topic is nuanced, but I think it's important if you are selling strategic advisory services.

The one that whispers. You barely notice it at first. But when you do hear it, you're inspired. 

Should you explore it? 

Maybe you don't take it seriously at first. Maybe it feels like a pipe dream. It's not always rational. Sometimes it's idealistic. Regardless, when you pay attention to it, it feels directionally interesting. 

Where does it come from?

I've noticed that it shows up when I take time away from my business. It shows up on vacations, bike rides, long walks, or while reading a good book. I'm not sure if it's the truth or just a passing random idea, but it feels worth exploring.

So what do you do when that voice says something? Do you jump to action or think about it until it no longer inspires you? Is it valuable or random? That's what I cover today.

It may just be the very thing that helps you create unique, valuable, and lasting work.

Or maybe not. Who knows.

—k

I also compare my niche (Everspaces) vs. general consulting clients came from to see if there was a difference.

And let me tell you, it was enlightening.

Do you analyze where your clients come from?

Give this a listen and let me know what you find about your own business.

—k

In this new episode of Mindshare Radio, I break down the four main things to consider when trying to fix the problem.

Give it a listen.

I'm seeing less reliance on using a single in-house marketer or even one full-service agency to "do everything" for them.

Marketing has gotten too broad with too many specialties to work like that. But there's still a long way to go.

In this episode, I share a prediction on how marketing teams will continue to evolve toward a hybrid in-house/outsourced way.

I'll get into how I see things evolving and why this presents an opportunity for you.

Agree? Got another view? Hit reply and let me know.

You can do this with a product or service ladder at different prices and scope, or you can create multiple options in your custom proposals.

In this episode, I break down the reasons why you may want to have multiple options and how to price them based on the value you're delivering.

This seemingly simple idea can have a major impact on your average deal value—often increasing your revenue by 30%+.

Listen in to learn more.

In this episode, I talk about why this happens, how to prevent it from happening, and how to both give and get the best possible advice.

—kw

Dagobert is extremely active and publishes a meme every day of the week, which is a big hit for his 30k+ audience.

But like any successful story, there's an underlying mindset and strategy that makes the tactics more successful.

So I wanted to dig into those. And he delivered.

​We’ll get into the specifics of:

• ​His overarching Twitter strategy
• ​Why he believes memes as a marketing tactic works so well
• ​How he comes up with his meme ideas each day
• ​How he actually creates and publishes his memes
• ​His approach to engaging with accounts—small and big—at scale
• ​The tools he uses to manage Twitter as a power user
• ​How he’s grown his logo design business with this strategy
• ​And a range of other topics!

Listen in to hear this episode, it already changed my thinking and approach to Twitter.

Mentioned links

• Logology
• Dagobert on Twitter (@dagorenouf)
• Black Magic (Twitter CRM/Analytics)
• Rocket (emojis for Mac)
• Imgflip (meme inspiration)

—k

Our first instinct might be to charge the bare minimum to get the job done. Or to promise the most ideal timelines—assuming nothing will go wrong—to win the deal and avoid pushback and rejection.

But we know that's not realistic. Something always comes up.

The problem is, while you think you're giving the client what they want, you're actually undercutting both you and them.

You're reducing the likelihood of achieving the very thing they're hiring you to do, which is to get a business result.

In this episode, I talk about one magical phrase that gives you and your clients more confidence to do work that may be more expensive or take longer than they hoped for.

And why it's the best thing for them—and you—to take this approach more often than not.

—k

In this episode of Mindshare Radio, I break down the reasons why I started publishing daily in the first place (549 days ago) as well as the reasons for giving myself permission to publish whenever I want.

I'm still bullish on daily content. It's an extremely powerful tactic if it aligns with your strategy. 

But for now, I'm choosing flexibility. Listen to find out more.

—k

P.S. I'd love your thoughts. Hit reply and tell me what you're doing/thinking related to publishing.

Customer surplus, in this case, means the amount of profit your customers gain after deducting your costs.

Not all profit is financial, but it's easier to think about it in financial terms.

On the one hand, you want to price your services high enough to attract people who need and value the outcome of your services.

People with the highest needs want to buy expensive solutions because they need them to work. Higher prices are both a signal of quality and they allow you to invest the resources to do great work.

On the other, you don't want to price too high or you risk capturing too much of the customer surplus, making your products and services less compelling.

It also makes you less likely to be referred because the price to value ratio after an engagement wasn't high enough to have people rave about you.

You also can't drop your prices too low or your ideal customers also won't buy it because, profit aside, they want and need something of quality that will actually solve their problems.

So should you price your work? Give this a listen.

This is a common question when selling advisory work, so it's worth unpacking this and other follow-up questions Sean had.

In this episode, I talk about:

• How to answer this question succinctly in your FAQs or sales conversations
• The difference between cash flow/budget adherence and long-term ROI
• Breaking out a spreadsheet to show potential cash flow scenarios
• Comparing their other options, like agency, in-house employee, and DIY
• Business model and pricing questions around advisory vs. managed advisory services

At the end of the day, your job is to get an ROI for your clients in a cash-sustainable manner.

If budgets are strict, your job is to work within their constraints.

But it's also worth noting that sometimes, the ROI pays dividends over a longer time horizon.

The better you can prove a business case, the easier it will be to sell.

Listen to this episode for a more in-depth response.

Here's the gist of his question:

The plan is to step into strategy/advisory within the next 6 months.

So with my current experience, I see it as an easy step to niche further into B2B - helping B2B manufacturers grow by transforming their marketing. 

However, the company I work for is actually a manufacturer/service provider in the fire safety space. As a result a lot of my experience is how to target, position, market etc to a pretty specific ICP. 

So my options would/could be:

1) General B2B
2) Manufacturers
3) Fire Safety & Security companies (B2B focussed but not all will be manufacturers)

Some of my thoughts on 3 come of the back of going to a big fire safety expo recently—there are a lot of companies with bad websites/branding spending a lot of money on their marketing!

I'm just concerned I could narrow myself too much.

As always, any thoughts are greatly received. 

This is a great question that I answered in the community but wanted to give greater nuance to with a long-form audio recording.

The question really is: how niche do you go when leaving a job and starting a consulting practice?

In this episode, I talk about factors like:

• The amount of runway you have
• The size of the market
• Access to the target market in your network
• What things you're credible at
• The benefits of staying broader at first
• Alignment of your niche with your genuine interests 
• And general strategies for transitioning out of a job and into consulting with less risk

If you're thinking of making the leap from employment to consulting and aren't sure how niche to go, this episode is for you.

—k

But in my opinion, that was a mistake. It should have been positioned as Group Coaching.

And the templates/resources should be categorized separately as knowledge products. 

In this episode, I talk about categorizing your own products and services, how to break them down, why it matters, and also how to apply it to an industry like web design.

Give this a listen and let me know if your products and services have had similar categorization issues.

—k

It spoke to me the first time I read it. It's about craftsmanship in your business and working on something you're passionate about.

It's about the power of building small-scale, high-quality work instead of mass-produced commodity work that can be scaled infinitely.

The book has a lot of great rules, quotes, and stories. I'll share one quote that came up because it fits so well into how we price our work.

Here's the quote:

Selling by the hour often doesn't feel good for either party, nor is it always aligned with the best interests of your clients.

The incentive structure is broken.

I've noticed hourly is most often the best option when you're doing commodity work, like website support or odd design tasks, for example.

I'm not bashing hourly work or these kinds of support roles. They may be necessary to grow and/or sustain your business. They can be profitable.

But I am pointing to the fact that hourly work—when it is required—is closest to commodity work and therefore should come with an orange flag.

The longer you do commodity work, the harder it will be to do great work.

When does the quality of your work suffer?

What are the ethical implications?

I talk about this and more in today's episode.

—kw

When I called to book, the new business owner asked how dirty it was. 

I said it was decent but it had some dog fur in parts of the back seat.

He grumbled and told me (reluctantly) to come in. 

They were closed a few months later.

In this episode, I get into a few lessons we can all learn, including the importance of:

• Doing work that you're intrinsically motivated by
• For people you enjoy working with
• At prices that excite you to bring your best
• So you can build a sustainable business
• Which allows you to become great at what you do
• Which becomes a continued flywheel for your business

Give this a listen if it feels timely for you.

—k

The main one, though, is that potential clients don't know what you're actually good at.

So they're left to figure that out for themselves—and there's no way to tell what you're actually good at until they work with you.

And by then it's too late.

The best clients will go to someone who looks the most qualified on paper.  They will spend top dollar with them to do things right.

And that means you'll be left with the less-than-ideal clients. The ones who don't understand just how nuanced the work is to do right—which means they won't value your work enough to pay you well.

They'll be price shopping and have unrealistic expectations based on naive perceptions that things are easy.

Yes, I think you can be a generalist and specialist at the same time. You can build around your best skills and ideal niche until you don't need to take on other clients.

But having purely generalist positioning is a recipe for having a business you don't want to run.

Strange how your environment can affect your mental state.

And to me, this is analogous to all areas of your business. 

For example, cleaning out expenses you no longer use.

Or services that are not profitable enough. 

Or clients who are not the right fit for you.

Or emails that are left unanswered for too long.

Or tasks that you have neglected and need to be either dealt with or deleted.

Or decisions you have been putting off until today.

I’m a big believer in creating space to think. I took today off calls to give myself time to clean things up and work on the things that mattered.

Without space, there’s no time to clean up. And if you don’t clean things up, your mind and your business will eventually be overrun.

This is your reminder to reserve time, clean up, and work on the things that excite you most in your business. 

Or, just take a nap. Either way.

When I asked how the process works, he told me he'd educate me on the products, size the windows, give me a quote, then I'd "beat him up" on price, and then we'd make a deal when we figured out the details.

The throwaway line about haggling over price had me feeling uneasy. I don't know anything about windows let alone how to haggle over their prices.

There are lots of lessons here to unpack. Should you negotiate? If so, when and how? What do you do when price is a factor?

We'll get into that and more.

—kevin

Just like exercising, the longer you don't publish content, the harder it is to get going again.

I noticed this recently with Mindshare Radio, too. I used to publish episodes 3 times per week—every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Then, I decided to record something once per week. But, I didn't set a strict publishing date or really commit to anything publicly. 

And that resulted in inconsistent publishing—and worse, some over-thinking and even occasional anxiety about what to create.

In this episode, I talk about why committing publicly to your publishing schedule can not only make you more consistent, it can reduce the anxiety you face each time you stare at a blank page. 

Give this a listen and let me know if you can relate.

I've been doing that for the past five weeks and it's been incredible.

In this Mindshare Radio episode, I talk about how and why it might just be the best thing for you, too.

Listen on the web or subscribe on your favourite podcast player.

Have a great weekend!

All industries have them. All of us are super-consumers of at least something. It's true. And for very logical reasons.

In this episode, I break down the concept as coined by Eddie Yoon in his book, Superconsumers—and why it matters to your both business and the clients you serve at a strategic level.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

—kevin

The reality is, we do execute. We just don't use our hands nor manage the minutia.

In this episode, I talk about how to think like an agency (even if you're doing advisory work).

At the end of the day, you're responsible for execution. You just do it differently than a typical agency.

Listen in and use this way of thinking in your own business—and during sales conversations when delivering this idea matters most.

—kevin

Do you take on the work, turn it away, or do you use this as a chance to educate them on what to expect?

Personally, I prefer the latter. And if it seems like they are bought-in to reality, I'll consider working with them.

In this episode, I talk about how to be fully conscious when clients like this come along, how to educate them about how long things should take, and ultimately to manage expectations.

Slow results are the cost of marketing from a standstill. Like an engine, it takes time to rev up.

They either get it or they don't. Better to know up front before you start working together.

—kw

Your thinking will get updated.

You will try things that don't work.

You will pivot your advice based on what works.

In this episode, I give you permission to change your mind and update your thinking—regardless of any sunk costs.

Listen in to hear more.

—k

One of the biggest challenges I hear from marketing consultants is getting stuck doing execution work.

Managed advisory services/fractional CMO is a great way to ease into advisory work. In the short-term, it can be an exciting and profitable line of work.

But if you don't manage to shift into pure advisory work, it will create a lot of unnecessary stress and it will hold you back from growing your business.

In this episode, I break down the five biggest problems (and the sub-variations thereof) with doing execution work as a marketing consultant.

These include:

• Lack of time to work on your business
• Becoming an order-taker vs. being seen as an advisor
• Being non-aligned with your clients' interests
• Feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and scatter-brained
• No ability to scale your offerings and grow your business

This was a longer episode, so I'll talk about how to break free from execution in a future episode—plus the significant upside that creates for both you and your clients.

Execution is by far the most time and energy intensive thing you do, but is much lower value than you may think.

I'll get into all that and more in future episodes.

—k

P.S. Are you experiencing any or all of these pains? Hit reply and let me know!

Are you a freelancer or agency owner looking to sell advisory services in addition to or instead of execution services?

If so, are you willing to stop earning money on execution so you can become a "trusted advisor" to a fiduciary standard?  Do you need to?

Should you create a new website/business or add advisory services to your list of existing execution services?

While there's no right answer, I have some thoughts on all this and more.

—k

If you've done any fractional CMO/freelance head of growth/managed advisory work (as I like to call it), you'll quickly notice how much it limits your time to work with multiple clients and do your own marketing.

In this episode, I unpack a few topics, questions, and constraints brought up by member Rob Denton-Ross in a private discussion (with his permission to respond via podcast). 

Rob currently does some execution work and is getting opportunities to do more involved fractional CMO work. As a result, it's difficult to find time (and justify spending it) to market himself. 

I talk about things like:

1.  My thoughts on selling days per week/month
2. Hiring marketing managers instead of being the one to manage
3. Focusing on selling advisory level as soon as you can
4. What to do to market yourself when your time is limited
5. And a lot of other limits, constraints, and ways of dealing with fractional CMO work in your business

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—k

1. Prove you're worth hiring for your knowledge in the first place
2. Reinforce why you're worth listening to after they hire you

If you have difficulty selling advisory services, or if clients stop listening to your advice during your engagements, it might be due to one of the three things I talk about in this episode.

Give it a listen and share with a friend who might benefit!

—k

It can be tempting to ignore all or parts of your core process with a new client.

You might find yourself jumping into an engagement head first, reacting to demands and/or responding to tactical projects already in motion.

Things may be under tight timelines and the client feels like they know what they need to do, they just need a little guidance.

But the problem is, when you skip some or all of your core process, things quickly begin to fall apart.

Instead of deciding what to do, you're reacting to things the client wants you to do.

Instead of diagnosing the real problems and developing a strategic plan, you're working within the parameters of their thinking, not yours.

But you're hired to be the expert and you've been doing this a long time. Which means you need to be true to the process that has gotten results time and time again.

In this episode, I talk about the three big reasons why you should have a formal process and stick to it during all of your client engagements.

Every time I skip some or all of it, I always regret it. At very least, I prefer to check the boxes so I know no stone is unturned.

Listen in for more.

—k

In this episode, I break down how and why you should aim to document all your ideas and processes in your business to help you create leverage and grow without working harder.

—k

P.S. Know someone who would like to join this group? Have them visit https://mindshare.fm and click the button to join the free (or Pro) tier. Your referrals are all I ask if you enjoy the community and content.

A while back, I wrote a post arguing how specialization is simplification.

The article spawned a series of questions around how to find a niche, so I thought I'd do an episode covering just this topic.

In this episode, I talk about:

1. Why you should niche (or not)
2. Things to look for when picking a niche
3. How limiting your focus increases your opportunities
4. How and whether you should specialize in multiple niches
5. Examples of horizontal and vertical specialization
6. Why excluding industries is actually good for business
7. Why the target is not always the market
8. And a lot more!

If you're considering niching, I go deep on the topic in this episode so give it a listen.

—k

• Revenue growth and timelines from 2017 to today
• Transitions from freelancer to employee to agency owner to consultant
• Bring a specialist and a generalist consultant
• Managed advisory services vs. pure advisory services
• And other topics related to growing over the past 5 years

Give this a listen if you're wondering what my path looked like and how yours could, too.

It takes time to build, but advisory work is a great business model.

—k

Sometimes, people will not be able to afford the sticker price for your consulting services.

Instead of folding and offering an immediate discount, there are lots of ways to work with them collaboratively to create a win-win (read: mutually profitable) situation for both of you.

The first way is by removing scope.

What can you take off the table while still helping them accomplish their business objectives?

Examples might include:

1. Who has access to you (owner, staff, suppliers?)
2. Frequency of calls
3. Medium of contact (i.e. Slack vs. email vs phone)
4. Deliverables (or not)
5. Additional content or bonuses
6. What will you advise on or not
7. Access to your network/Rolodex

You can listen to episode 65 for examples of the levers of value I employ with my advisory clients.

Another form of scope change is to elongate timelines while reducing interaction.

I did this recently by turning a $27k/6 month project into an 8-month project for the same total amount.

We also agreed to do twice-monthly instead of weekly strategy calls instead, giving a longer lead time to their launch date (this was a new coworking business).

This actually resulted in being more profitable on a per-hour basis (not that I charge hourly), given I'd be having 50% less calls for 25% longer period of time for the same money.

It also reduced the stress that comes from needing to do everything quickly and intensely leading up to a launch. We have more time to get things done, which causes less stress for me.

You can also reduce prices for something beneficial to you in return.

Ideas include getting permission to do detailed case studies or testimonials (which will help win business later on), or getting constructive feedback on your process, referrals, services in kind, access to an audience, or any number of other factors that may create benefit to you commensurate with the reduction in price.

Whatever you do, don’t just discount your services for nothing in return.

There are a lot of ways to play with scope, time, access, and benefits to create a customized proposal that is a win-win for you and your clients.

The worst thing you can do is straight discount your time unless you feel there's a good reason to do so.

If people can't afford your services, and none of the above ideas work, it's not your place to subsidize their businesses.

—k

1. Why you want to develop systems in your clients' business—not just implement projects
2. Why you want to start slowly before adding on more layers
3. Why you want to watch for signs of overwhelm closely
4. And why you want to create momentum and confidence instead

…all of this so that you can create more consistent and sustainable results for your clients.

—k 

Working with bad clients:

1. Distracts you from doing your best work for your best clients
2. Ties you up from working with new and better-fit clients
3. Creates stress which you bring home to your loved ones
4. Eliminates the chances of you getting a referral in the end
5. Reduces the chance of you being able to do a case study
6. Drains you of your energy (physically and emotionally)
7. Hurts your confidence in other areas of your life and business
8. Burns you out more quickly—which is bad for business
9. Creates risk like reputation damage, lawsuits, and other negative byproducts

As a consultant, you're the asset. 

Working with bad clients is like allowing corrosives on your core machinery. If you don't fix it, you'll have no business.

Don't mistake revenue for a profitable situation. 

Remove the acid in the vessel. 

Do they make it into your proposal?

Do they get referenced during and after the engagement?

If not, chances are you're not winning as many deals as you could, and you may run into challenges down the road even if you do.

In this episode, I talk about why capturing your client's business goals during the sales process and including it in your proposal is immensely valuable to the success of your projects.

Doing this upfront and including it in your working Trello board (or whatever you use to store information) is key to actually achieving the things your clients want you to, making for better relationships and results for everybody.

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—k

P.S. I did a training on this for members of Mindshare Pro today, including where and how I incorporate this information into proposals.

And yes, I do proposals and agreements even for my productized consulting services. Sign up to get access to these trainings, resources, and monthly group coaching calls here: https://mindshare.fm. 

Last week, I had a sales conversation for a $4,500/mo. advisory engagement that I almost lost because I didn't explain what I do well enough.

Luckily, I was able to save the conversation and left the call feeling good about future next steps.

What saved it was being able to show my documented methodology, including my KPI spreadsheet, Methodology Trello Board, and Client Operating System. 

All of these and more are included in the Pro membership, by the way. 

Give this a listen to hear how I almost dropped the ball and learn how to better sell your advisory services.

—k

I saw a tweet the other day by Andrew Warner, host of the Mixergy podcast.

He reaches out to potential guests asking if they would like to appear on his shows. Only 25% of the people he reached out to replied... which is wild because he has a huge platform.

But when he started doing follow-ups, he doubled his response rate to 50%.

Which got me thinking, should you do follow-ups to your prospects who don't reply?

In this episode, I explore whether you should, and if so, how you could do it without seeming desperate.

Give it a listen and let me know what you do when following up with potential opportunities.

—k

P.S. If you're interested in jumping on a beta version of a mastermind group coaching program, hit me up in the DMs or email me at kevin@kevin.me.

I have three spots remaining in a group of five and I'm aiming to fill it this month. Learn more here: https://society.mindshare.fm/c/announcements/are-you-interested

There's a common concern that working with multiple companies in a niche might create competition among your clients—especially when they operate in similar geographic areas.

Usually, it's not an issue—especially if you don't work with companies who are going after the same market in the same locations at the same time and who are completely undifferentiated.

But what happens when you do SEO/PPC services for companies with global reach who have similar audiences?

If search engines are zero-sum, wouldn't you just be competing against your other clients by doing that?

It's a great question by  Alex Nech so I want to explore the nuances with you all to help navigate the uncertainty.

In this episode, I talk about picking a broad enough niche, helping your clients with differentiation, the ethics of working with similar companies later on, and creating custom solutions that work for your individual clients, even if you apply the same general methodology in doing so, and much more.

Give this a listen and let me know if you agree or disagree!

—k

I was asked recently by community member Alex Nech why I chose to run an advisory business instead going the agency route.

In this episode, I break down most of the reasons I chose to go this route instead of growing my agency. 

The main reasons include:

1. Higher take-home profit at the end of the year (at my size)
2. Less day-to-day stress
3. Less business overhead and complexity
4. A better overall experience working with clients
5. More free time in my day
6. And generally a better fit with my skills/personality

There are more reasons, and I break it all down in this episode including how I transitioned from running an agency to advisory work. 

If you're not sure what route to go, give this a listen and see if any parts of it resonate with your situation.

—k

But the thing is, prospects don't really care about your methodology. At least, not at first.

What they care most about are solving their pains and achieving their desired outcomes. Your marketing should focus on those things first and foremost.

And yet, having a methodology is critical to not only instilling confidence into your clients, but also to deliver results consistently and ultimately scale your expertise.

In this episode, I go into how/when to use your methodology in your marketing, why credibility is the thing you want to focus on most, and the methodology becomes valuable to you business later on. 

I've heard a few people lately talking about using day rates as a marketing advisor or fractional CMO. Things like one, two, or three days a week for X price per month.

I've even heard of people charging around $10k+/month on a couple days per week with the client. Seems decent, right?

There's no hard and fast rules with this, so I won't say never do it. But I prefer not to unless it's for single projects where I visit clients for a day or two to get things done. But even then, I usually lump it into my advisory retainers unless significant travel is required.

When you charge by the day, what ends up happening is people see you as a part-time employee. They begin to ask what you "got done" in the time allotted, or other such questions usually reserved for employees or "suppliers". 

They begin to delegate tasks instead of receiving your expertise and guidance on what to do. You become the catch-all of ideas.

It's also not scalable unless you oversell your time, but even then—now you're not allocating the promised amount of time to them.

I'd rather offer unlimited access to me for a select number of people or in a limited capacities to keep scope down rather than selling hours, days, or other such time-based metrics.

I'd also avoid the execution/project management work unless you're transitioning into advisory services using a "managed advisory services" model or if you charge a lot and limit it to a few months to sort out emergencies. It quickly becomes a full time job and it's just not worth it. 

There are exceptions to this, but that's what I've found.

It never dawned on me to do it before, but I recently did.

In this episode, I talk about why I recently sponsored a conference for $1k in exchange for a logo on the conference website and a 30-second podcast ad. 

Sound crazy? Maybe. 

While this isn't something I normally do, I explain why this was on-strategy for me this time and why I wouldn't stand at a booth, for example.

—k

In this episode, I break down my core approach to using webinars in a way that leaves people with tremendous value they can implement themselves while also subtly selling your products and services.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think! 

—k

They were nervous about the future of their business as we continue experiencing COVID impacts and wanted to conserve cash/play defence.

I suggested we have a call to discuss the financials and make a decision about what's best.

When we dug into the numbers in our KPI spreadsheet, it showed that not only were they excellent, they should be spending even more and getting MORE clients for as long as the acquisition costs stayed steady, which is safer than trying to conserve capital.

We explored the business case together of either downgrading or pausing our engagement, and it became obvious based on their current financial situation and future goals that we should keep working together.

After all, they were acquiring customers and paying back their acquisition costs in their first month, meaning every month after was profitable—including my fees.

The client wasn't close to these numbers (something they know they need to fix), so it was an eye-opening experience for them. They decided to keep at my full rate and scope for the indefinite future.

Give this episode a listen for a longer conversation on proving value and knowing your clients' numbers. Your own business depends on it. 

There's a lot of power in consolidating your focus on one goal.

In this episode, I tell a story about how a client I'm working with lacked a cohesive focus among the team. We were doing a lot of things very well, but the team of about 8-10 people were all thinking in silos.

We were marching in different directions.

What we lacked was alignment around our goals. We lacked a core marketing strategy outside of the overall brand strategy.

In this episode, I break down what we did to get in alignment and how our decisions have led to a new lens from which to look at our marketing.

—k

1. Are we delivering enough value?
2. Where will my next client come from/will it all dry it up one day?

In this episode, I address both of these head-on.

—k

P.S. I announced the new membership tier, Mindshare Pro, today. Be sure to check it out and sign up if you're interested! Check out the announcement here.

It might be time to re-think your approach. Chances are, you're talking yourself out of publishing your good ideas because you think they're not unique, or interesting, or that nobody would pay attention anyway.

In this episode, I talk about how to think about your content publishing habit and ways to talk yourself into just hitting publish.

Hint: just try to be useful to one person.

I promise that once you do, you'll feel a lot better.

Listen in.

—k

Is being a marketing consultant a risky business model?

Would you be better off being an employee?

In this episode, I talk all about risk, including:
 
1. How companies flee to expertise during hard times
2. How COVID was riskier to many employees than to consultants
3. How the marketing industry is going more flexible
4. The greater need for fractional executives

And other ideas that I think show how consulting is less risky if you are a good fit for the business. 

Consulting isn't for everyone. But if you're in the game or have clients already, it might not only be less risky, it might be far more lucrative.

—k

Your job as an advisor is to sell access to your brain. 

Sure, you may also bring a Rolodex of people, some systems and templates, training, and other supplementary resources, but that's not the same as tactical execution or project management. 

If you're doing execution and/or project management but want to be selling your brain instead, there's room for improvement which will free you from the stresses I described above. 

The critical piece to selling access to your brain is ensuring expectations are set up-front and then "installing the engine" before you begin your engagement. 

Listen in for what this means and why it's so important if you plan to scale your expertise and not get mired in the execution details.

-kw

It ultimately comprises of:

1. Your big idea/way of achieving a desired result
2. A lesson with free resources on how to DIY
3. An offer to those who need (paid) support

It's usually a webinar but it could also be a podcast appearance, conference talk/workshop, or any other kind of free training you do.

The key is to let people know upfront that you'll be sharing ways they can hire or buy your ideas at the end of the talk, but that you'll also be giving them all the tools and basics needed to take an honest shot at the DIY approach.

This has worked for me to acquire several clients who have gone on to be long-term clients with me. 

It's also worked to drive people to my free resources (and therefore email list) which has resulted in untold sales and audience growth.

Give this a listen and let me know if it gets the wheels turning for you, too!

—k

I have a Methodology, and it makes every engagement streamlined and less stressful.

It's like a checklist. Something to capture and document your ideas. But also to use as a reference in your client engagements to ensure nothing gets missed. This creates predictable outcomes when applied consistently.

I call this the Methodology. Your prospects may not care much that you have a Methodology, only that you can get results.

But once they become your clients, they do start to care if it feels like you're winging it every day or there's no method to your madness (results) to speak of. 

They also notice and appreciate it when you do show them how it works. When you create a Trello or Asana board just for them with the entire picture mapped out. It gives them a lot of confidence to see they're part of your tried-and-true process. 

In this episode, I talk about my own Methodology and the general approach I use in my marketing advisory practice. 

I store it in Trello, and every new idea or learning I get goes into the core template that becomes the basis for every new (and current) engagement I run.

If this topic is interesting, let me know. I'll give you a bigger peek behind the curtain at how it looks.

More on this soon,

To succeed as an advisor, you need to get a lot of details right.

But above all else, there are two core areas you need to get right when it comes to delivering your advisory services.

1. Over-delivering for your clients
2. Maintaining high ethical standards and integrity

When you over-deliver, you're not only more likely to get results, you'll also blow your clients away with unexpected value. And that's what creates excellent referrals, word of mouth, and long-lasting relationships.

Maintaining high ethical standards and integrity should go without saying, but there's a lot of nuance to how to do that.  

In this episode, I talk about a story of my recent experience with real estate agents and what we can learn from both great and shady practices.

Hit that like button and leave a comment if this resonates!

–kw

And with that, the sales conversation usually doesn't go super well.

In this episode, I talk about a recent sales conversation I had with someone who was not in my ideal target market.

And there were two lessons:

1. Niching and credibility are at the top of my Mindshare Methodology Framework for a reason—and it impacts the sales conversation (see image below)
2. Instead of answering how you work, start by figuring out what your prospects wants, why it matters, how they envision success looking like, and only then explaining how you work once you understand their true goals and think you can help.

Give this a listen and see if you agree.

Here's the framework I mentioned, which I talk about in Episode 134: A framework for leveraging and selling your expertise.

—kw

I'll give you a hint, it involves getting excited, saying yes, and articulating value and trade-offs. 

Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

—k

In this episode, I break down my 5-part framework for how this all works. It's the latest version of my thinking and it's always a work in progress.

The high-level points include:

1. Niche
2. Credibility
3. Methodology
4. Business Model
5. Marketing Engine

In the coming weeks and months, I'll be fleshing this out in more detail.

For now, if you're stuck on any part of this, drop me a line in the Ask Kevin channel or reply to this episode below!

Have a great weekend.

—k

Do you feel like you might not be niched enough?

Give this a listen if you're on the fence and not sure if niching is worth the "risk" for you (hint: it probably is).

Here's the top-level list:

1. When you know who you're targeting, every decision is easier
2. You can show up where they hang out
3. You can understand your target market deeply 
4. You can speak their language (which lets you be heard)
5. People are more likely to share your content (and reach more people in the niche in the process)
6. You create better products and services the more you do it
7. You become rarer and more valuable to your target market
8. You can more easily sell group programs/info products/training
9. You solve similar kinds of problems, making your engagements more efficient (and therefore profitable)
10. You have less competition, which lets you close more deals and charge a premium
11. People will travel from further away to do business, which gives you location independence and other freedoms
12. You gain more confidence in your work, which gives your clients confidence, too
13. You'll develop a better network, which can cross-pollinate and create even more opportunities
14. You can partner with others who offer complimentary services, allowing you to build your audience and make the pie bigger for everyone
15. You create better social proof via logos and case studies, improving speed to trust with your ideal clients
16. You become known for something specific, making you more likely to get referrals through word of mouth
17. You're seen as a credible expert on a specific topic, making you more likely to speak at conferences, on podcasts, media mentions, etc.
18. Your advertising is far more targeted (better reach + conversion rate)
19. You get the feeling of being great at something, which is better than solving new challenges every day
20. Those who lead a market gets the lions share of results

Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below.

—k

P.S. Want to help me out? Recommend Mindshare to a friend and I'll give you three months free to the group as a thanks. :) 

Here's the original heart of the questions asked in the "Ask Kevin" channel:

So then I began exploring what others are doing and what does that look like. I remembered you run one so was wondering about the format. Is it the same weekly or variable and what do you do when individual groups members begin to ask questions regarding their own marketing strategy / challenges. Don’t want to play fractional CMO on demand support for 50-100 marketers.

Re: "higher-touch, small-group models or something low-touch, large group?"
I was reflecting on whether it's easier to start with low-cost/touch large group and then upsell a subset into group coaching.

On Propeller do you cap the number of people re group coaching calls? Is the format of the bi-weekly assignments personalised or the same to all group coaching clients?

In this episode, I talk about:

1. The benefits of leading with a niche
2. Doing 1:1 consulting before going to group
3. Creating and refining your methodology before trying to teach it
4. Consider doing training content inside the group coaching program
5. The different business models I've seen work
6. How to design it based on your conversations, not plucking it out of thin air and trying to sell it to people
7. How to actually validate and sell the idea once you have it formalized

Oren , I hope this helps you somewhat! If you can get people interested in your day-to-day conversations, it will go a long way towards creating something people actually want.

Cheers!

—k

It was a fair questions. So, we compared:

1. The opportunity costs of not doing the project
2. The DIY option and implications
3. Hiring a generalist to do the work cheaper—and the trade-offs in that
4. Hiring a specialist to do the work—and the benefits of doing that
5. The longterm value that can be spun off of a well-produced outcome

In this episode, we go into the nuances of value conversations applied to this particular situation, as well as understanding the impacts of marginal profit and costs in the value conversations you have with your clients.

At the end of the day, you need to be able to articulate the value of working with you (or not working with you). Hope this helps you navigate your next discussions around price and value. 

—k

I also talk about your Operating System, the thing you or your clients use to run their marketing program based around the ideas you teach and implement with them.

I don't always talk about how to leverage those two things in freelance or agency (execution) business.

In this episode, I explain how those two pieces become assets to your business, whether you're an advisor or you do execution work. 

I also talk about how I organize those assets in a tool like Trello, Asana or Basecamp—and why it becomes so useful to do so.

As always, the goal is to free up your time, create leverage, increase profit, and deliver consistent and repeatable results for you and your clients.

Listen in and stay tuned for more examples on the subject.

—k

But the reality is, all you really need is your thinking—your ability to solve client challenges, in whatever way you know how.

When you first start out, you won't have a formal methodology. You won't have a documented system to give your clients. You won't have resources or a process for running your client engagements.

But that's fine. You're not selling those.

Sure, it makes your life easier. But it's not the point.

The point is to sell access to your brain. You make your time more valuable and your engagements less time intensive later on by creating documented methodologies, systems, processes, and checklists. But that comes later.

Better to get started with your bare hands and build from there. That's where most of the value is, anyway.

—k

Honestly, I can't believe I can sign up so many clients without having more than a couple case studies. Luckily, I am good at what I do!

Anyway, I used to say "kill them with proof", implying you can't produce too much proof around the work you do and results you get.

The best consultants and course creators use endless proof to demonstrate the wins people get. It's far more persuasive than simply staying what you can do.

Now I say, "win them with proof" because it's a probably a better way to say it. But regardless, the truth is: you can't over-prove yourself.

Clients don't always know what you actually do in your engagements, let alone what kind of results you can get.

Case studies are a great way to show the kinds of clients you work with, what you do, and how it impacts the business. 

Listen to this episode to learn my approach to creating case studies that convert with minimal time and effort involved to create them. 

—k

In this episode, I talk about the six signs to look for to indicate whether you've tightened your positioning enough.

Give it a lesson and leave a comment in the community with your thoughts!

—k

But we need to remember that people don't just buy results, because frankly, we don't buy on logic. We buy on emotion.

What this means is you're also responsible for delivering a certain feeling in your engagements.

Sound hippy dippy? Stick with me, it's not.

As much as your clients are looking for results, what they're really buying is confidence.

Your clients' confidence looks different before, during, and after you work with them.

It comes from a belief you can help, the verification that you're an expert, from downside protection and avoidance, and also from legitimate gains as a result of your work.

It's a tall order. And I go into detail on why you need to be confident as a consultant, too, as well as how to create confidence in both you and your clients.

At the end of the day, you can't succeed without instilling confidence—both in you and your clients. It's that simple.

It's more than just a mindset, but I do talk about that too. 

Give this a listen and let me know if you agree! I promise this won't be a kumbaya episode and will be very practical. :) 

—k

There are lots of ways to do this, but one idea resonated with me the other day. I heard it on the Three Month Vacation podcast [link to episode].

The idea was to give away the idea and sell the system.

And that aligns perfectly with my approach to having a methodology that you can sell as a system while sharing the ideas for free.

Another version of this I've heard of is that your methodology is like an encyclopedia and your marketing is ripping out a page at a time and giving it away for free.

The third version of this I've heard, which is similar, is to give away the why but sell the how.

At the end of the day, people will pay for the convenience of an organized, complete system they can actually implement, even if you give away most of the ideas for free over time. 

So if you're wondering what to share, just share as much as you can. 

Then, package everything you think is useful into a system that you can sell as consulting, coaching, memberships, subscriptions, education products, or any other delivery method.  

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—kw

And that's not always easy—especially when the stakes feel high, or if you're generally a low-key kind of person.

Sometimes, that might mean calling out tensions in the room. Other times, it might mean educating clients on the realities of their expectations and what's possible in a given timeframe. The situations will be varied.

What's important is that you acknowledge things that are going well (or aren't) be willing to say things as they are to create space for open communication.

Your job as a consultant is guaranteed to include sticky situations, unforeseen issues, challenging projects, and other things that make our job as innovators difficult.

And if you want to be able to thrive as a consultant, it means being ready to call out the world as it is, acknowledge the good, bad, and the ugly, and continue advocating for your clients best interest—even when things arent' easy. Especially when things aren't easy.

It also works the same way when things are easy. Sometimes, the work you need to do is done. You've successfully transformed your clients' business and they no longer need your services.

When that happens, you want to be proactive about either setting new targets, reducing the scope of your involvement, or parting ways. Always act in their best interest—which happens to be yours, too.  

This job requires a lot of confidence. I just want to remind and encourage you to embrace the situation you're in at all times to help create better outcomes for you and your clients.

If it were easy, it wouldn't be as fun as it is! Embrace it all.

—k

And personally, I never do it. For a few reasons.

1. In order to do the job well, you need to be properly so you can invest the necessary time and energy to get a result.
2. You need to earn a profit on your time—not just be paid for your time. You can reinvest or take home that profit. That's what a business does.
3. It wouldn't be fair to other clients if you gave them a discount and not everyone else. 
4. You need to be excited about the work you do and the price you charge. Otherwise, you won't be properly motivated. Never apologize for your price. 
5. When you discount, your clients will value your work less because you value your work less. Your expertise is an asset, not a commodity. 

So what do I say when clients or prospects ask for a discount?

1. Ask why the number is so important to them
2. Refocus them on the value of the project
3. Remove something from the scope to make it work
4. Find another lower-cost option they can buy
5. Do a custom project (which will be more expensive)
6. Ensure you're talking to the financial buyer, not an employee
7. Pass on the project if it's not a fit/you're not valued

Some people negotiate with everyone for everything. It's in their nature or disposition. I don't take it personally. 

As long as I have a scalable ladder of options for clients to select from, it shouldn't matter what your price is. If they value your expertise and you help them see how the investment will pay off, they will pay full price.

Otherwise, send them to someone who is cheaper.

Listen in for a lot more nuance on this subject.

—k

That means:

1. Find a unique and valuable differentiator
2. Double down on what makes you uniquely valuable
3. Communicate that value consistently everywhere you go

It doesn't mean you need to be the only X in your field. What it means is you're the only X (agency, consultant, freelancer, whatever) who specializes in Y in some unique way.

So if people want that unique value or angle you bring, you're the only one offering it. There are other alternatives, but they will be either more broad or specific than you, and none will have your unique angle you bring to the table.

In this episode, I shared two stories that demonstrate how this has been advantageous to me in my own consulting business.

I hope this encourages you to find your unique angle, to be willing to double down on it (which requires making trade-offs), and to stick with it long enough to see the advantages.

Are you a category of one? Let me know in the comments!

—k

P.S. Here's an article I wrote on this topic for my coworking audience, which still applies to you/your clients in general.

In this episode, I talk about the key attribute a client needs to have for you to be able to sell your expert advice and not end up getting stuck managing projects.

It's up to you to manage expectations around who drives the project forward and what you will or won't do. Miss this step and you'll end up being a task keeper at best or fired at worst.

Give this a listen and let me know if you've seen this happen in your own engagements like I have in the past!

—k

One of the most important ways to break into a niche is through relationships.

In this episode, I talked about how I created relationships to break into the coworking niche and why I don't think I'd be here today if I relied solely on my marketing efforts to attract interest.

Relationships come in all shapes and sizes. But building them is a skill in itself. 

Listen in for some good ideas around that.

—k

In this episode I combine my entire approach to building a scalable consulting business model.

Topics include:

• Managed advisory services
• Fractional CMO
• Coaching & mentorship
• Downgrade engagements
• Group coaching (small group and one to many)
• Membership
• Products
• Strategy/audits
• Custom engagements 
• Workshops and training

If you're just starting out or want to build a ladder for your own business, I highly recommend you give this one a listen.

—k

P.S. Know someone who would value this group! Invite them in and let me know! I'm still trying to figure out a referral program but until then, your word of mouth is greatly appreciated. 😃

In this episode, I break down some of the main benefits of niche specialization, which include:

1. Easier sales process via differentiation
2. Lower time involvement required
3. Less downward price pressure
4. Better leverage and systemization
5. Ability to package and resell expertise as products
6. Easier to find and reach your target market
7. More efficient marketing

And many more..

When you specialize, you build a competitive moat that grows over time. Once you get your marketing engine going, it becomes a real asset to your business. 

Sure, there are advantages to being a generalist, which I talk about, but as a consultant they are far outweighed by specialization. 

Give this a listen and let me know your thoughts below!

—k

This episode comes from a blog post I wrote in December and I'm sharing my highlights here because it's worth revisiting.

Below is the original post shared below (I don't talk about all of it in this episode, though):

When I work with clients, there are an infinite number of data points and layers we could look at to shape our work.

But at the end of the day, only a few high-level KPIs matter most as it relates to measuring the effectiveness of your marketing.

The KPIs that matter most at the end of the day are the following:

1. Number of leads

It could be subscribers, chat inquiries, telephone calls, contact form completions, appointments booked, it doesn’t matter.

All that matters is the total number of people who gave you their contact information and expressed interest in your business.

Subscribers are the grey area, but nobody subscribes to your list without some interest in what you offer, so I call that a lead if it makes sense for your business and is part of your sales funnel.

The main thing is that you captured their contact information.

2. Number of qualified leads

Now that we know the total number of inquiries (whose contact information you collected), we want to figure out how many of those leads are in the buying mode and qualified.

It could mean that they have the money, means, and interest in buying what you have to sell.

The definition is yours to create, but I wouldn’t consider subscribers “qualified” until they express actual buying interest.

3. Number of new clients/customers

Needless to say, this is a critical number.

If you sell products or services at various price points, break down the number of new clients by product/service so you have a better picture of where your sales are coming from.

This will matter more in the next few points, too.

4. Total marketing spend

So how much are we spending on marketing, all-in?

You’ll want to track that closely so you can figure out the next few KPIs.

Break it out by channel/type so you know where you’re spending your money, too.

I track all this in one single spreadsheet, by the way.

4. Cost per lead/qualified lead

Divide the total marketing spend by number of qualified leads in that period and you have your cost per lead.

You can do the same for total leads in general, or just qualified leads depending on what/how you’re measuring.

I mostly care about qualified leads.

5. Cost per new client acquisition

Divide the total marketing spend in that period by the number of new clientsyou signed up.

This is your cost per acquisition. This is the golden number and tells you whether your marketing is profitable or not.

But the only way you’ll know that is if you have a good idea of the next number.

6. Customer lifetime value

It’s crucial to have an idea of your lifetime value (LTV). Even if it’s a rough estimate.

There are too many ways to calculate it in this quick post, but a quick Google search will give you some formulas.

Break it out by service so you have a distinct LTV by service.

7. Weighted average expenses

Let’s say you sell consulting. It’s 80% of your revenue. You also sell a membership, which is 10%, and an eBook, which accounts for another 10% of total revenue.

I like to weight marketing expenses based on the total expected revenue in a business.

In this case, I’d allocate 80% of all marketing spend towards my consulting, 10% towards memberships, and 10% towards eBooks.

Now, I’m able to figure out my approximate cost per lead and cost per acquisition based on the weighted average.

It’s not perfect, but it works really well to give you a glimpse into whether you’re profitably acquiring leads and customers/clients for each service.

More on this some other time.

8. Profitability and payback periods

The last thing we look for is cost per lead, cost per acquisition, and payback period.

Are we acquiring leads and clients at a price we can sustain? When is our payback period (i.e. how fast do we get our money back)?

This should be obvious with some quick math based on revenue projections for the new business/opportunities.

9. Other secondary numbers

There are a ton of other things we could look at, such as marketing spend as a percent of revenue, total revenue, net new revenue growth, churn, capacityetc. but those don’t tell us quite as directly how well our marketing is performing.

You should still track those and many more things in one single spreadsheet.

And that’s it!

It all boils down to:

1. How many opportunities did we get?
2. How many new clients/customers did we sign up?
3. How much did we spend to acquire them?
4. Is all of this working out profitably for us?

That’s all that matters at the high level.

From there, we investigate where those leads came from so we can determine what’s working and what’s not.

We then go down the rabbit hole to find out how to get more opportunities and clients at a price we can afford.

Having these numbers gives us a high-level view of the health of our marketing.

There are many more KPIs you can look at in your marketing, and I share a spreadsheet template that I use in all my engagements inside of Mindshare.

—k

One of the ways I've been able to grow an audience within the coworking niche is by partnering and sharing value with other companies and consultants who have the same target audience but do different things.

I've been able to do webinars, podcasts, panel discussions, conference talks, paid seminars, workshops, and even advise others in the industry who serve the same audience.

Examples of those I've partnered with include consultants, software providers, associations, podcast hosts, and other community builders.

Why were they so receptive in letting me get access to their audience?

It's because I'm different and have a niche within a niche, which means I don't compete with them directly.

If you want to grow your business in a niche, listen to this episode for more insights.

—k

Or, do you help your clients get clear on who theirs is?

There's a lot of info on this subject and only some of it is really useful in a strategic marketing engagement.

In this episode, I talk about ways to create an ideal target market profile for your business and your clients'.

I also talk about using ideal client profiles vs. "customer personas" and why the difference matters.

There are lots of tactical ways to achieve this, so I'd love to hear if you have examples of ways you've done this and how it resulted in measurable outcomes.

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Have a great weekend!

—k

H/T to Mark Evans who inspired this episode with his insightful post on LinkedIn.

I have been building and designing websites for nearly two decades.

Wild, right? Doesn't feel that long.

I started out in the early 2000's as a hobby as a teenager. Eventually, I did it as a freelancer, turned the work into an agency, branched out into other areas of marketing along the way, and some time later became a marketing advisor.

If I had to go back to my roots and sell web design services, I'd consider doing it as an advisor with some back end digital products.

In fact, I thought about offering an advisory package to my coworking website around web design for coworking spaces. I also have a small info product on web design for coworking spaces, which would be another way I'd consider doing things.

So how would I do web design as an advisor?

Loosely speaking, it would go like this.

1. I'd specialize in a vertical/industry who need and value excellent web design and have a budget for great work. 
2. I'd offer an initial strategy portion to help get clarity on scope, goals, and strategic requirements. Price determined by expected scope and value.
3. I'd then sell a fixed-fee project based on the scope to oversee the implementation of the website design project. Basically, I'd be insurance they'd get a great result.
4. I'd bring in strong developers, designers, and content people and introduce them to the client—not marking up their time. Ideally a mix of prices to offset some of the strategy costs.
5. I'd either manage the project (not ideal) or make myself available to review and answer questions along the way.
6. I'd then potentially sell an ongoing retainer (or include some time post-launch in my project scope) to ensure the goals are met and make tweaks to help it get there if not.

It's not a perfectly clear vision in my head, but I think I could do it and it would be a net benefit for similar costs to the client in the end. But only if I specialized.

The only way you can sell your expertise instead of your hands (without a massive audience) is to be the best at what you do. Which means specializing.

Otherwise, people will roll the dice on a generalist and figure it out themselves.

This relates back to the last episode with a question from Ant Pugh. The approach is slightly different but still along the same lines, just applied to web design instead of elearning.

I'd also begin to package my expertise into a course and/or themes for a vertical industry, allowing my expertise to be leveraged at scale for an even wider audience.

—k

In this excellent blog post you talk about the conflict of interest between the same person doing the tactical and strategy work. 

Do you believe that it's just unfortunately what needs to happen in the interim until you're at a place when you can exclusively offer strategy work?

Ant is in the process of phasing out of implementation work and into advisory work and is wondering how I reconcile it with my idea that there's a conflict of incentives with selling full-service strategy and implementation at the same time. 

In this episode, I talk about the middle ground between advisory and implementation work, and how it mostly circumvents this conflict while still being hands on in getting the work done.

The conversation here is nuanced, so I go into some examples, but generally it answers the question of incentives and most importantly, keeps you as a trusted advisor on the side of your clients.

If you want to phase out of implementation and into advisory, consider the managed advisory services approach.

—k

But with that, I get a slight background concern that they could all "ripen" (like a fruit) at the same time and fall off the tree leaving my business cut in half.

I also know that a business needs turnover in order to remain fresh, just like anything else in life.

One of the things I've done to create such long-term clients while still making room to work with new ones is to create a continuity program that costs less but is also much less time-intensive.

It ends up being about 30-40% of the original workload for about 60% of the original price. Which means the client saves considerably on my monthly retainer fee and I get to actually increase my effective hourly rate, freeing up more bandwidth to take on new clients while retaining a solid base of high effort:value work.

It acts a bit like insurance for both of us - they get the value of my mind applied to their business (to a lesser degree than before), which protects their downside and keeps new innovations and ideas flowing in.

For me, it lets me build a stable roster of revenue that keeps me feeling financially secure over time. A win-win.

There are limitations to this, of course. And it's not the only way to do things.

But for me, half my job is to protect the downside for me and my clients while also incrementally building in more leverage to increase the upside for everyone. 

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—k

There are lots of ways to keep learning as you go along in your business.

The big ones, of course are:

• Books
• Independent courses
• Certifications
• Traditional Education
• Coaching

As a marketing consultant, there are at least two areas you can focus on, too: marketing and business.

Sure, there is personal development and other areas to explore, but for now I'll cover these two.

Why continue learning?
 
Usually, it's to keep growing your skills to do better work and earn more money. But you might also use certifications and certificates to demonstrate that you know what you're doing on a subject. It's a form of proof.

I personally believe the best way to demonstrate credibility is to focus on demonstrating how you solve a particular problem for a particular group of people. In other words, specializing or niching.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of courses, books, and ideas I've explored recently in the past couple years that have helped continue growing.

None of these are affiliate links. I have not bought some of the courses mentioned below. But I tell you when that's the case so you know. The rest are quality recommendations in my book.

1. Business

• Pricing
  • Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss - Book
  • Jane Portman's Productized Consulting Guide - eBook
  • Jonathan Stark - Hourly Billing is Nuts
• Positioning and Strategy
  • Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim - Book
  • Obviously Awesome by April Dunford - Book
• Sales
  • The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne - Book
• Research
  • 30x500 course - teaches audience research and product development (services, too)

2. Marketing

• Copywriting and content marketing
  • Psychotactics has lots of great small and big courses on content, copy, and marketing strategy in general
  • HubSpot has a lot of courses to learn at a high level about a lot of things
• Social media
  • Dave Talas Instagram Course - I haven't taken it but it seems credible
  • Daniel Vassallo's Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience course 
  • LinkedIn Learning 
• SEO
  • Moz's training 
• Google Ads
  • Google's Certifications
• Facebook Ads
  • Facebook Ads Certification
• Analytics
  • Analytics Course by Jeffalytics
  • Annielytics Dashboard course (have not taken this)
• Email marketing
  • If you want to learn MailChimp - Chimp Essentials
  • Email automation - Mastering ConvertKit (applies to CK but has a lot of great practices to learn for more advanced uses).
  • Autoresponder Madness - I bought this bc some people I trust recommended it, but have not consumed it yet
• CRMs
  • Hubspot Certifications
  • Salesforce Certifications
  • ActiveCampaign Certifications

I'll share more sources for continued education as I think about them or buy them in the future.

Got any good recommendations? Leave a comment below!

—k

1. The value of the expertise you have/bring to the table
2. The lifetime business value of the outcomes you create

In this episode, I break both of these down in an effort to help you understand the value at the table and also to keep it in mind when pricing your services.

The value of your work is not just the outcomes you deliver today, but the trajectory and foundation you build which lasts many years.

The value also comes from being able to hire you on demand instead of your clients needing to learn things themselves from scratch (a form of leverage).

There are many ways to think about the value you create for your clients, but these are two of the big ones.

Give this a listen and let me know how you think about value around these topics.

—k

Have you ever considered writing a daily blog?

In this episode, I break down some of the main reasons why I do it (and have done for 120 days in a row so far on kevin.me) and why you might consider doing so, too.

Some of the main reasons include:

1. Clarifying your ideas to make them better
2. Creating a body of work that becomes interconnected on your blog
3. Building credibility by sharing your expertise
4. Increasing surface area and marketing gravity
5. Creates the building blocks for your Methodology
6. It makes you more "remarkable" and rare

There are many more reasons to write daily. If you're going to do it, be sure to keep things short and sweet. Otherwise it will burn you and your readers out.

If you're up for a daily writing channel, let me know and I'll open a private section in this group for daily motivation and feedback.

Cheers!

—k

Or when you have a prospect who has no momentum with their marketing program but expects big things in year one?

In this episode, I talk about setting expectations around the speed marketing should work at.

I talk about what clients to say no to and when to educate them on the big picture.

I also touch on how your job is to build a marketing system for your clients using your methodology. And that takes time.

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—k

If you're in a marketing strategy/advisory role, you'll inevitably be called to ask to help hire someone in-house, whether it be a marketing manager, content person, or something else.

Here's my general approach for helping clients find the right candidate.

1. Provide a sample job description
   • Ideally, you have a template you can use. Otherwise, you can find a few similar job descriptions in the wild and send it to them to prepare a draft.
2. Explain the few things that matter most for the position
   • Written communication skills
   • Attention to detail
   • Similar experience
3. Publish jobs on Indeed and LinkedIn
4. Ask them to create a short list of resumes to review together and reduce down to a small handful to interview
5. Once they've interviewed people, see who they feel is the best fit
6. Suggest doing a paid trial project or period
   • Project manager - two week paid trial
   • Markeitng manager - audit the marketing and suggest ways you'd seek to improve things
   • Writer - give them a brief, get them to audit the current content marketing and propose ideas, create a draft article + social media posts for them

The key part of all of this is the trial. I've seen a lot of people who look good on paper and end up being terrible hires. 

The thing is, you never know who's going to be good until you work with them. Get them to do either a trial project or work for two weeks and see if it's a mutual fit.

Hire right, not twice!

Have you hired before and done things differently? Any insight to share? Let me know in the comments below!

—k

One thing I didn't get into is when to drop your price and when not  to drop your price.

There's a few situation when I might drop the price:

1. When the scope changes significnatly
2. When the value changes significantly (at which time I try to change scope, too)
3. When you have a great client who has given you lots of profitable work in the past, they're easy to work with, and it feels like the right thing to do

I never drop my clients to new prospects who simply ask for a straight discount (red flag), nor do I drop my prices for clients who are not living up to their end of the bargain on the implementation side of things (which impacts value).

At the end of the day, like I wrote about yesterday, you don't want to be the cheap consultant. You want to be the best consultant for people who need and value your work the most.

Otherwise you'll be spread too thin and won't be able to do the necessary groundwork needed to get them actual results.

Do you drop your prices in any other situations? Hit reply and let me know!

—k

For me, it happens a lot when I work with them for a long time. The value changes over time.

And that's the key part here: value. 

In most cases, I find new ways to create value instead of reducing my rates. I ask questions about goals and needs.
 
But in many cases still, the value decreases once I get all the hard parts of the systems and strategies in place. And with that, it makes sense to have the talk.

I try to check in with my clients often, but especially when I intuit that either I'm doing way too much or not providing a clear enough value equation for them.

If you're not sure, the best thing to do is ask what the goals are and the impact of those goals will be so you can continue making a business case for the work you'e doing. 

I like to pre-empt these conversations as much as possible and suggest new rates or new scopes proactively whenever possible. 

The last thing you want to do is be stuck doing too much work or not feeling like you're adding enough value for your clients. When that happens, it's better to air your thoughts and make proactive adjustments to keep your work aligned with their needs and goals. 

Ultimately, doing this means taking a long-term view. It's about them, not you. And when you put your clients first, you always get the most mutual value out of the relationship.

Listen in for some more context and a few specific examples of changes I've made this month.

—k

Are you fully booked? When it happens, what do you do?

Do you refer work away or put clients on a waiting list?

Mark had a great question last week:

The answer is bigger than simply having a waiting list or not.

In this episode, I talk about things like:

• How limited availability helps create scarcity and therefore higher rates
• How serving a niche market can help you create group programs and training products that serve as temporary solutions while they wait
• Why it might be time to raise your rates if you're in high demand (you can always change them back later)
• Why  it might be time too say goodbye to old, non-ideal, lower-fee clients might not be
• When to use one-off or recurring strategy calls to get the client started while they wait for your full attention
• When to consider doing a one-time project (higher fees) as time permits to kick things off while they wait for your ongoing support
• How to start trying to create more leverage to help more people down the road

At the end of the day, how well you're positioned will determine whether you're interchangeable or whether you can command a waiting list when you get busy. By having a niche focus and rare specializations, you can create that waiting list demand as well as develop training, education, and group programs to continue creating more leverage around your knowledge. 

Good positioning is the lever that makes the rest of your business more profitable and impactful. Keep going!

Hope this helps!

-k

P.S. Got a question you'd like an audio response to? Leave it in the Ask a Question channel and I'll add you to the queue!

As marketers, we have a tendency to describe and sell our approach to solving client challenges, not necessarily the systems they'll use to run things later on.

And as important as that I, most people care less about how you approach your work and more about how their marketing program will be different after you're gone.

That's the transformation you're selling as a marketing consultant: it's a new way of doing things that helps get predictable results.

That's the asset they're buying. 

In this episode, I'll explore the nuances and explain in more detail what that means.

-kw

In this episode, I cover ideas for figuring out the value proposition of the business based on why the customer buys, and ways to find more people who share a similar need or problem.

Tune in and let me know what you think below!

k

It's basically a reverse-product ladder. Instead of people ascending the ladder, they can jump in the middle and even descend over time.

In this episode, I break down the "coinsorter" list I recommend for marketing consultants, including:

1. Fractional CMO
2. Advisory
3. Coaching
4. Group Programs
5. Fixed-Scope Engagements (audits, strategy, roadmaps, workshops)
6. Strategy Calls
7. Custom Projects (only as needed)
8. Products (info products, resources, etc.)

Ideally, someone comes to you and you can easily guiide them to one or two options and still get an end result. 

Custom engagements are always there, but you save a ton of time by having service offerings that balance specificity with a degree of looseness to allow wiggle room to get all kinds of results. 

Give it a listen and tell me what you think!

—k