From Month-to-Month Anxiety to Months of Runway, with Stephanie Lowe

Stephanie Lowe 0:02

I had had the best year in terms of revenue and fulfillment, and at the same time, I had this feeling of like, I'm not exactly sure how I made that happen. And so I was starting to wonder, how long can I keep this up? I just felt like luck, rather than something I could concretely plan and influence.

Leah Neaderthal 0:26

Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more. If you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share. Hey there. Leah, here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope wherever you are right now, wherever you're listening to this, I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress in your business and taking some time for you. So imagine this. You've just had your best year ever, your biggest revenue year, and the work felt meaningful. You should be celebrating, right? But instead, you're lying awake wondering, how did I actually make that happen? Was it just luck? And more importantly, how would I do that again? That's the reality for a lot of women consultants out there, and it was the reality for the woman I'm talking to today, because today I'm talking to Stephanie Lowe, who's a coach and facilitator for social impact leaders. And when she came into my orbit about a year and a half ago, she'd come off this really great year, but she was caught in this cycle of anxiety, because every single month she had no idea how much money she was going to make that month, until, like, literally, the last two weeks of the month, she was sort of holding her breath all the time and to make her numbers. Since she was never quite sure what any month was going to look like, she ended up having to take on tons of small projects just to make the numbers work. I mean, we're talking like 40 to 50 contracts a year. And even when she did okay, it felt like luck. It didn't feel like something she could plan or influence. Frankly, her success didn't feel solid, it felt fragile. So fast forward to today, and Stephanie's booked several months out with three to four months of savings in the bank. She has a cushion, but more than that, she's not holding her breath anymore, and she can actually see into the future and plan. She knows how she did it, and she knows that she can keep it going. So what changed? That's what we're going to talk about today. So take a listen to my conversation with Stephanie Lowe, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business, and then hopefully someday soon, you'll partner with us to help you build your consulting business, and you'll come back on the podcast and share your story. Enjoy. All right. Stephanie, I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Leah, excited to be here, yeah, well, so let's start at the beginning. Why don't you tell the good people who you are and what you do?

Stephanie Lowe 3:33

Yeah, hi everyone. I am Stephanie Lowe, I'm based in Chicago, and I am a coach and facilitator for social impact leaders and

Stephanie Lowe 3:40

teams, amazing. How long have you been doing that work?

Stephanie Lowe 3:44

Gosh, officially, as a business, for years, but I really been doing, like, the heart of what I do, I've been doing for 15 to 20 years now.

Leah Neaderthal 3:55

When you say the heart of what you do, I mean, what were you doing before this?

Stephanie Lowe 3:58

So I was a classroom teacher for three years, and then I joined Teach For America staff and my work there was leadership development. So I worked initially with teachers, but less on pedagogy, and more on their identity development and their values, and really thinking about how they show up as leaders with their students and colleagues and families they work with. And then I later got to do that with increasingly more just tenured staffs, eventually working with executive directors and program

Leah Neaderthal 4:26

directors across the country. That's awesome. I'm sort of stuck on that you are a classroom teacher, which I feel like like the hardest job, but I have to know which is harder, being a classroom teacher or running your own business? Oh, gosh, they

Stephanie Lowe 4:41

are hard in different ways. It's definitely hard being a teacher. The level of responsibility I felt every day was very, very intense and every micro moment, whereas I guess as a business owner, you have moments to zoom out and not every moment abused. So they're stressful, even though. All, it can be stressful, for sure.

Leah Neaderthal 5:02

Yeah, yeah. So Stephanie, let's sort of talk about the beginning of our journey together. What was going on when you came into my orbit, or, you know, when we started working together. I mean, you reached out to us for a reason.

Stephanie Lowe 5:16

What were the reasons? Yeah, so a little over a year ago, year and a half ago, I had had the best year in terms of revenue and fulfillment, and at the same time, I had this feeling of like, I'm not exactly sure how I made it happen. And so I was starting to wonder, how long can I keep this up, if I can't really demystify what's happening, and if you know what I'm doing, will continue to bring success. And then also, I was starting to notice some of those initial clients that I had gotten when I when I started my business, were starting to go through some layoffs and budget cuts, and I didn't have a specific plan for growing my network larger and building a pipeline, and then the couple of months prior, there was a really big dip in business, to the point where I think that year, when I was first at our academy, I had a certain threshold that I wanted to make every month, and it wasn't until maybe the last two weeks of every month that I was securing that amount in month, and so that was also keeping me in a cycle of taking a lot of smaller gigs. I had, like 40 to 45 contracts a year. They're very small amounts, and I was really trying to figure out a way to get out of that cycle and have maybe half of that and maybe five to eight that were definitely five figure contracts. And like, 40 to 50 is so much so, I mean, I just the time in the sales process and then writing a contract, and all my work is so it's pretty tailored, so every contract looks different. Yeah, I was just spending so much time and invoicing even just like, and starting your relation like it's just the amount of time, it just didn't feel sustainable. It was a little hard for me to zoom out and and figure out, how do I create a business that is more more sustainable and also have these larger projects that are more fulfilling for me and also have more more impact for my clients?

Leah Neaderthal 7:19

Yeah, let's I'm just, you know, thinking about how you know every month you didn't know where you were going to be that month, right? Like, were you going to make it or not make it? Or, how did that feel? How did that sort of play out? You mentioned the small projects, but, like, that's probably a symptom

Stephanie Lowe 7:35

of, you know, something. Yeah, looking back, I can really see a little bit of, like, a chicken and egg, like a self reinforcing cycle there. I mean, it didn't feel great. On one hand, I I feel like I learned a lot of like, grew a lot in the inner like, the mental game of of not catastrophizing every month. But on the other hand, it was like I was like, holding my breath regularly. Even when I would get ahead a little, I would I felt like I was holding my breath, and I couldn't fully relax. I couldn't explain what was happening. It just felt like luck, rather than something I could concretely plan and influence.

Leah Neaderthal 8:12

Yeah, yeah. I heard something similar from my dad, of all people. I mean, I think I've started hearing this when I was, like a teenager, he said something like, you know, every month I do well, he was in private practice, right? Every month I do well, but on the first of the month, I'm poor, and I'm sure I didn't realize it at the time, like what that truly meant. But now, as a grown up with like, real bills and real responsibilities, I can only imagine, you know, what that might have felt like for him, and I see how it feels for a lot of women.

Stephanie Lowe 8:45

Yeah, it's when you bring up your dad. Because my my parents were small business owners too. My whole life and money was such a topic growing up. And I remember stressful times when they were taking on a lot of risk and working really hard. And in fact, my dad, while he would joke sometimes that I could take over the family business, he would level with me and say, Stephanie, get it job working for a big company with benefits and like, you don't have to worry about the ups and downs. And that really stuck with me.

Leah Neaderthal 9:15

And you're like, Okay, fine, right? Yeah, here you are not following his guidance at all. He's very happy

Stephanie Lowe 9:23

for me, but yeah, it was, it definitely impacted me. Yeah, taking a while to

Leah Neaderthal 9:27

take the leap. Yeah, yeah. Well, and you mentioned your parents, and I think some of the things that you and I have talked about are around money, and sort of like, sort of the cultural conversation around money in your house. Was there anything to that that either made this harder or easier? Yeah, there's all these stories

Stephanie Lowe 9:48

this, like family lore of my grandparents and great grandparents doing things so that the next generation, or even two generations down, would be set up and they would have more stability. Ability, less uncertainty. They have everything they need. And I realized in working with a coach that it wasn't so much about the temporary money success or struggles, but it was really about, am I going to ruin it? Basically, it was like, I remember saying this out loud, and I felt like, if I'm not successful, if I can't make it, and then I'm ruining it for my whole, like, familial lineage, like your whole bloodline, yes. And I said that out loud, and then yeah, my coach and I were like, at the same time, shit, that's a lot.

Leah Neaderthal 10:34

That is a lot to carry

Stephanie Lowe 10:36

on yourself. And then I realized, and saying it out loud, I was like, wow, that's, yeah, that's ridiculous on some level, but it makes sense that I, like, have internalized that somehow I was putting a lot of stakes in whether my business can be successful, and more higher stakes than is warranted.

Leah Neaderthal 10:54

Yeah, yeah. But that's, you know, how our brain works, right? So that's what was going on at the time. You know, not really sure how to sort of replicate things. Didn't really have a specific plan, and you were sort of holding your breath every month right to see if you got the clients or got the revenue. Let's fast forward to now, and then we'll play it back and sort of see how you got here. So fill us in now. I mean, what are some results you've seen from the work? I mean, like, what's changed for the better?

Stephanie Lowe 11:24

Yeah, I mean, the biggest change is that, whereas I was reaching my monthly revenue goal in that month, now I'm I'm good through the end of the year, and I'm also booking into January.

Leah Neaderthal 11:39

So from where we are today. That's like four to five months ahead.

Stephanie Lowe 11:43

Four to five months ahead. Yeah, yeah. And on top of that, like, if all of those things fall through, I built up like three to four months of savings also, so now I have, like, cushion, so, yeah, my God, that's like the top line biggest.

Leah Neaderthal 11:59

That's amazing. Yeah, that is amazing. Yeah. I mean,

Stephanie Lowe 12:04

we talk in the academy about the three different kinds of profitability. And the financial piece was like the most obvious symptom that I was dealing with. But really what was going on also was the emotional piece, because I was really stressed. I'll just share now. I have space now to spend my time in other ways that are really fulfilling to me. I just joined a board of a local nonprofit that I care a lot about, and that's linked to my professional profitability, and then also joined a grant making giving circle, and I'm on the grant my team thinking about who to fund, and so I'm just have this space where I'm not only, you know, making the money that I need to make to support the family and save, but I also have the time to grow further professionally and also in fulfillment.

Leah Neaderthal 12:57

Oh, that's so amazing. And, you know, just for everybody who's listening like the we talk about the three types of profitability, which are financial, professional and emotional, right? Financial being like making the money you want to make. Professional is doing the work you love with clients who enjoy. And then emotional profitability is having fun, having time for the people and things that matter, and feeling optimistic about the future. And I think you know what I love about what you're saying here is those things are obviously all so connected, and depending on, like, where you are in your business and what needs work, or whatever, you know, some people are like, if I take care of the emotional profitability, then the financial will come, right? I mean, to some degree you actually have to, like, put some things in place to make that happen. But it's like, if emotional is most important. So, like, if I'm taking care of myself, then, like, the financial will will sort of come, which is true, but what you're saying is also true, which is, like, Man, if I can take care of the financial, and I do it in a way that's smart, right? And we'll talk about how you did that, but if I take care of the financial, that really does help, like, the emotional profitability, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. So booked out four to five months with a few months of savings, and you have this emotional profitability where you can, like, participate in the things that that matter, so the shifts that you've made, and you know how your business is now. I mean, when you think about, like, some of that money, sort of scarcity, like, how that was affecting you before? Do you see any difference?

Stephanie Lowe 14:29

Oh, I mean, the success that I've had since starting the Academy has given me more of my own buffer in my business. So, so we had savings. We had a good amount of savings with me and my husband, but the idea of dipping into that savings, which I did have to do a couple times, felt like failing, whereas now that I've started my own savings account

Stephanie Lowe 14:54

for my business, if I dip into it, it's just like, you know, businesses sometimes have hard times. And it doesn't mean I'm, like, failing, so being able to separate that a little was hope. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean being in control of your sphere, right? Like, what is your sphere of influence, versus having to, like, ask or sort of dip into somebody else's sphere of influence? Yeah, that's important. So we talked about how your business is different. And I'd also love to know, like, how do you think you're different?

Stephanie Lowe 15:25

I'm more confident as a business owner. So I get invited to like, oh, you know, like Stephanie, I'm starting the solopreneurs like, group do you want to join? And whenever, like, people wanted to label me as a business owner, solo printer, I would really shy away. I'd be like, I started to even play around with that idea for a while. I was like, Oh, I'm really, I'm like, a freelancer, and I'd be like, Wait, what am I doing to myself? Like, I do own a visit. There's, there's a lot of work that goes into owning a business that is not the same as being a freelancer. And nothing wrong with that. But it was just, but you can hear like I was really grappling with, do I deserve the title of business owner? And now I definitely, I feel comfortable saying that I own a business because I feel like I'm operating at the level of a business owner now, like, strategically and in terms of, like, business acumen and sales. So yeah, that's a really big thing I've gained.

Leah Neaderthal 16:20

Yeah, that's a huge, like, identity shift and being able to really stand in that, yeah, for sure, that's awesome. Very good. Let's talk about how you got there. I mean, what are some things that you learned that were like, the biggest game changers for you?

Stephanie Lowe 16:37

Yeah, it's not one small thing, but it really is the system and habits coming together. I guess, if I had to boil it down to like a big aha or game changing moment, it was, I think it's been the realization of how much business development I need to be doing, regularly and really importantly, because, like, having to do a lot of business development would not have been very exciting to me, but importantly, now I have figured out a way to do it that feels more second nature, so I'm not spending a lot of emotional capacity like second guessing myself. It doesn't feel that hard anymore, and I figured out a way to do it in a way that I really enjoy, and it feels like building relationships, yeah, and I need to have a lot more in my pipeline at the different stages than I think I realized before, which, in hindsight, makes so much more sense why I was, yeah, not securing enough work month to month. And now I'm I'm further outside, yeah, I am constantly building new relationships now, I'm sending shoulder taps, I'm following up. I'm posting more regular on LinkedIn and also building new relationships through LinkedIn, which I would have stopped that in in the past, but I yeah, I'm doing in a way that like really is fulfilling. I'm meeting some really cool people on LinkedIn and finding good fits, and that's all leading to also just more spontaneous referrals to that that are good fits.

Leah Neaderthal 18:06

Yeah, it's funny. As you're talking, I was making sort of notes so I can ask you questions, and I wrote down how much biz dev slash I remember you felt a little weird about it. So when you said, like, yeah, because this was a big shift, I mean, I do remember that that was like a thing, and if we could talk about it here, because, you know, a lot of women I talked to feel a little weird about biz dev, or, like, doing marketing or whatever. So what did that look like for you? If you could share?

Stephanie Lowe 18:31

Yeah, for me, I was reaching out to people before, but I'm realizing looking back, it was like, I'm not a I'm not afraid to ask for help from my network, and when I was reaching out, it was often with less lead time. Like, now, I know it takes six to 18 months for B to B sales, and looking back, the orientation and the energy of my reach out was like, help me out. I'm like, you know, it was a little bit more like, try. I never said I'm in trouble, but I can tell there's a little bit of maybe some desperate energy in there. And now, especially knowing that doing it further in advance, there's just really this, this authentic feeling of like, like it being more mutual, like, it's not help me out, but like, Can I help you, and what's going on in your your organization and your team and your leadership, and is there something, a mutual exchange here that could be beneficial? Yeah, so there's more confidence, there's more ease, so I'm not drained and doing it, not second guessing myself as much, and then I'm just, I'm just doing it at at a higher volume, which is

Leah Neaderthal 19:44

necessary, yeah, when you sort of saw what was necessary to do for business development, was that surprising? Like, what was your first reaction?

Stephanie Lowe 19:54

Yeah, it was really surprising. I remember doing the calculator and hearing that we needed two to three times. Was our goal and our pipeline, and that seemed way higher than I had been thinking. But then it made sense, given that a lot of my initial two or three years was was just from my closest circle, and so people really knew me, my conversion rate was really high, but seeing that I needed to grow into other circles were less familiar. It made a lot of sense. I'll say, like, all of the new those new habits and and types of outreach, felt really overwhelming at first. So at first, even though I understood I could wrap my head around the amount of business development needed, I was like, I don't know that I want to be doing like, I remember telling myself, I've committed to the academy, but maybe one of my learning questions this year is like, do I want to keep running a business like this, where I need to do this amount of business development, because it was really draining, but it just takes a while to build habits and to also make the strategies your own and find your own voice in those follow ups. And it's really become, like I said, second nature. I keep saying that. It's just, I remember for each of the modules I would like calendar out work blocks and reminders for every single thing. But now it's, I don't even have to plan it, because I just, I just do it without thinking.

Leah Neaderthal 21:17

Now, yeah, when it becomes second nature, that's when you realize, like, I'm not learning how to do this anymore. I know how to do this. Brandy Zimmerman, who, you know, because now she's a coach in the academy, she says, you know, became like, paying my credit card bill, you know, just like, you just do it. It's not something extra you have to do. And it's interesting. I do hear a lot from women who start doing this that they're like, it feels like so much work, right? It really, it feels like so much work. And the truth is, and I don't know how true this was for you, but like a lot of women, have come to this point in their business by doing not a whole lot of business development at all. And so doing anything feels like more than what you were doing, which was almost zero. And so it is change, it is change. Yeah, for sure, I don't know how much that jives with your experience.

Stephanie Lowe 22:08

Yeah, it was a new skill, so it just was taking more time for me, just with, I mean, with, I think with most people, when I talk to other women consultants, like there's just so much self doubt in the process, or we put on all these stories onto like, if we send a follow up, it's like, what does it mean if they don't respond, you know, like, it put on so much emotional, like, weight to it. So the combination of that felt like a lot of work, but, yeah, it doesn't feel like work anymore.

Leah Neaderthal 22:36

Yeah, absolutely. Was there anything else that you felt like made a big difference for you. Anything else that you learned? I would

Stephanie Lowe 22:45

also say, I think this came up in one of your podcasts, like, keep your eyes on your own paper. Yeah, and I say that I've, like, added an asterisk. I say that to myself, but the longer version is, there's a lot to learn from a lot of people, so I want to do that. But when it comes to evaluating my success and determining, like, what my business strategy is and where I'm going to spend time, keep my eyes on my own paper. Because another thing that was really draining me and stressing me out was I would see just little snippets, whether on LinkedIn or even, you know, and the Academy of, like, wins, other people's wins, and I was happy for them. And I would unfortunately say, make it mean something about myself, like, you know, if someone got a 60k contract or or whatnot, and then I would just make up all this, yeah, this big story about what it meant about their success. And I'd be like, What am I doing? I've never had a contract like that, or blah, blah, blah and and then I just realized I had to stop. And one of the things that helped me stop that is all the connections I have built with other women consultants. And just understand, like, all of our situations are different. Our goals are different. What success looks like is different. We have different amounts of debt, you know, like, so just to keep my eyes on my own paper, be very clear about what success means for me, what my like, basic income threshold needs to be, and then, like, what's extra and and

Leah Neaderthal 24:16

reflect against those. I think that is so important in such a such a good practice. And, and you're right that, and we do say this in, you know, even in the academy, because we see it a lot, like for some people, seeing other people win is very motivating for them. But for others, it's like demotivating, right? Or it could be a combination, sort of, as you mentioned. And, yeah, everybody is in a different just a snapshot of a moment. You know, it could be your day to get a huge contract, and then it could be somebody else's day to get a huge contract, and it could also be your day to have a client tell you know, that you were really excited about. And it could, you know, then the day after, it could be somebody else's turn, right? And so everybody's business is. Different, you know, and at a different point, and I think, you know, eyes on your own paper, which is something I say a lot in that respect, is just, I'm sure, just a way to, like, protect your own headspace, right, and sort of guard against what we call head trash coming in. Yes, absolutely. That's very smart, good coaching from a coach. So Stephanie, fill in the blank for me. I almost didn't work with you because, or I almost didn't join this because, I mean,

Stephanie Lowe 25:32

it was a financial investment. The most that I've made in my business to date, one of the first podcast I listened to to get a feel for it was like, Is this gonna jive with me? Like, was the episode about fixing the roof when the sun shining and not waiting for, you know, the storm? And I, like, I said, I had it the best year yet, and I was holding my breath, but I had a little bit of room. So it's like, okay, this, yeah, this is the time. Like, what if I'm six more months into this, and then, like, dipping into my savings, like, then it's gonna be harder to join so, like, this is

Leah Neaderthal 26:09

the time to do it. Yeah, that's great. Yes, I do that a million times. Fix the roof when the sun is shining and it's hard to really have the forethought like you did about it's not going to always be like this. I think we sort of get lulled into this sense of like, you know, maybe not now, because things are very strange in, you know, the world in business or whatever. But just look at right now and be like, things are fine now, but not, you know, have the presence of mind to say, Yeah, and I want them to be fine in the future as well. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Stephanie Lowe 26:42

And it really, was really nagging at me that I didn't know really what was working in a more systematic way, and it felt like luck, like if I did do better, if I waited and I did do better, I didn't want it to feel like luck, because I've been I wouldn't have solved the underlying issue. And I wanted the opportunity to keep running

Leah Neaderthal 27:03

a business, if I could. Well, and you said, you know, you didn't know what was working, and it's impossible to do more of what's working if you don't know what's working. Yeah, right. It's like, where do you go next? Yeah, so Stephanie, what would you say to anyone else who's in the position that you were back then, you know, had gotten here by what feels like luck, and was looking month to month and wondering what was going to happen.

Stephanie Lowe 27:29

So, yeah, if, like, the key elements were, like, your month to month, your pipelines kind of drying up, I would say to really invest a lot of time in building new relationships and starting to reach out and build those relationships so you have a longer runway. And yeah, the academy taught me all the little tactics of that, but like that, that's the headline that I learned, which is, like, you really do need to invest in a relationship building strategy that has you having conversations with potential clients at a lot of different I guess, stage in the pipeline, but but really, like on a different time frames. You know, people were thinking maybe one day they could work with you, but there's not a specific property right now. And then people who know, maybe in the next six to 12 months, and people that need you in a shorter timeframe to really make it sustainable and get out of that month to

Leah Neaderthal 28:26

month cycle. Yeah, yeah. No, that's great advice. Yeah. I'm curious also, what would you tell yourself if you were to go back and tell yourself something right now, I'm

Stephanie Lowe 28:39

just, I'm thinking about the message that I got, like they just felt like good timing in terms of, yeah, fix the roof when the sun is shining, I think I would maybe just assure myself that I could do it back then I was I was really wondering, like, am I capable of running a business? Maybe I'm not cut out for this. And I think I would just tell myself, like, Well, no, no one taught you, I know from the business, like, yeah, give yourself a chance. You You

Leah Neaderthal 29:09

got this. That's awesome. I love that advice. Stephanie, where can people find you? No, they can

Stephanie Lowe 29:16

find me on LinkedIn. Stephanie, low, CPC, I think that's what I have on LinkedIn. And then my website is unlock power within.org My business is called power within because while I work with so many different audiences, and the engagements can look really different, but the root of my work is really helping people recognize and access the power that they have within to accomplish their goals.

Leah Neaderthal 29:43

Oh, that's fantastic, Stephanie, thank you so much for

Stephanie Lowe 29:47

being here. Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Leah.

Leah Neaderthal 29:54

I loved our conversation. And if anything Stephanie said really resonated with you, please reach out to her and let her know. Leah, and of course, please share this episode with a woman consultant who might benefit from hearing it. The only way this podcast grows is just by sharing it one by one. So please share it with a woman consultant in your world. So I always like to pull out a lesson that you can apply to your business. And I really want to focus on where a lot of women consultants find themselves, to some degree, which is not really being able to see ahead in their business to how much money you're going to make or what your workload is going to be like. And so the lesson from this conversation is, if you want to be able to see ahead in your business, to know how much money you're going to make, and not crossing your fingers for luck to happen, you need a system. I mean, you heard Stephanie talk about going from literally not knowing if she'd make her numbers until the last two weeks of every month to being booked several months out with a solid savings cushion. And that didn't happen by accident. It happened because she stopped hoping and started planning, and then she activated a system to help her get there. And I think this is important, because when I talk to a lot of women consultants, like their revenue goal for a year, for example, is just like as much as I can like as much as I can make. But that's not a goal. And if you don't have a goal, then you don't know how much it will take to get you to that goal and to actually reach a goal. When you're running a B to B consulting business, it takes more marketing and biz dev than you think, and that's a big shift for women consultants, you know, especially if you've gotten all your clients through referrals. And making that shift starts with understanding what we call pipeline coverage. And pipeline coverage answers the question, how much do I actually need in my pipeline to make the money I want to make, and then we work backwards from there to start to understand how much marketing you need to do to surface those client opportunities in your pipeline. I mean, pipeline coverage is pretty simple math, but it's really powerful. So we're going to go through a quick exercise here. So we'll just use round numbers here for simplicity's sake. But let's just say your goal is you want to make in a year, you want to make $200,000 I mean, your goal might be more than that, whatever, just for simplicity's sake. So if you want to make $200,000 in a year, then that means that'll be roughly $100,000 over six months, you know, and then $100,000 over the next six months. I mean, that's very simplified, but you sort of get the gist, right. You know, 200k a year is roughly, you know, making 100k twice. So if you look at your potential clients in your pipeline, and the number of potential clients and the value of those potential projects, if that totals $100,000 in your pipeline, then unfortunately, you're probably not going to make $100,000 because inevitably, projects get pushed, or clients say no, or who knows these days, like your main client gets laid off, or whatever, like any number of random twists and turns in the sales process, right? So if you want to make $100,000 and you only have the value of $100,000 in your pipeline. Unfortunately, chances are you just probably aren't going to get there. So what pipeline coverage does is pipeline coverage says that you actually need to have between two and three times that amount in your client pipeline. So we take that, you know, $100,000 in our example, that we want to make in the next six months, and we multiply it by two, and then we multiply it by three. So our pipeline coverage on the lower end, you know, is $200,000 which, you know, remember, we took $100,000 and multiplied it by two, right? So $200,000 on the lower end, and at the upper end, it's $300,000 because, remember, you know, we took that $100,000 and multiplied it by three. So in your pipeline, you actually need the number of potential clients and the total value of those potential projects. You actually need to have between $200,000.03 $100,000 in your pipeline. And again, you know, your numbers will vary, right? But you can do that simple math just, you know, multiply your six month goal by two and then three. And here's like, the really important part of this, the amount of marketing you have to do to get two to three times your goal in your pipeline is a lot more than most people think, and it's a lot more than most people are doing right now. So if you're just, you know, posting on LinkedIn every now and then, or sharing somebody else's article, or commenting on somebody else's post occasionally, or maybe reaching out to some people, sometimes you're not going to get there. It actually requires a marketing system to be really diligent and consistent in getting in front of your ideal clients with the right messages to bring the right clients to you and bring them into your pipeline. And then, of course, it takes a sales system to lead the sales process and help clients say yes and get paid more. So I want you to be really honest with yourself. First, you know, do you have a number in mind? For what you want to make. And then do you have a plan to reach that goal? Or are you doing what we call fingers crossed selling, just sort of hoping it works out? And then, once you have that number, are you doing enough business development to actually generate the conversations and bring the clients in your pipeline that you need to reach your goals? Because when you work backwards from your goal and really understand what's required, you know how much pipeline you need, how many conversations that takes, how much marketing you need to do, you can build a plan, and when you have a plan, you're not guessing anymore. You're not holding your breath. And that's how you go from hope to certainty, you know, from fragile to solid, and that's how your business starts to be something that truly supports your life or your family, instead of just being something that makes some money. It's how you build a real business that supports your life, and that's what we're here to do. All right, so thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.

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