If you’re setting goals for 2026, listen to this first

Leah Neaderthal 0:02

What's one thing you can do tomorrow to reach your goals in the coming year? It's one thing to be like, I'm going to do this thing, but it's another thing to say, I'm going to do this tomorrow. What's one thing you can do tomorrow? 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 Happy New Year. Welcome to the first smart gets paid podcast episode of the year. Yay. It's so crazy to say that, because I feel like the end of the year just went by so fast. I mean, it felt like a total blur. I feel like, in my mind, we're still like right after Thanksgiving, but you know, here we are, start of the new year, and this year, I have to tell you, starting a new year. This year feels even more meaningful for me personally, because back in October, my wife and I welcomed our third baby, our third child, our daughter Orly, and my wife actually carried her. And I say that specifically, because when I told the Academy members that we were having a baby, they're like, are you pregnant? Like, have you been pregnant this whole time? And I was like, no, no, not this time. So I actually carried our son, Noah, who's six now, and my wife carried our daughter, Sophie, who's three, and now also our daughter Orly. And so with orally, I took six weeks of maternity leave, which was amazing. I mean, I really got to, like, actually check out, you know, like, no checking in, no emergency calls, like, truly properly out of the office. And so I got to have like, hours of baby snuggles, bonding, time with the baby, spending time with my wife, watching our other children, sort of like bond with their baby sister, and really spend time, like, figuring out life as a family of five. And so for me, it feels like, you know, not only are we starting a new year, we're kind of starting a new season of life, right? And with a newborn, you know, everything is like kind of chaotic and also new and exciting and adorable and smells nice, right? But, you know, you're tired and you're just figuring things out as you go, and you're also just like marveling at this new little like being in our lives. And so going into this new year specifically feels special and new, and I think all these feelings are sort of how a new year can feel when you're running a consulting business too. It's, you know, a little bit of chaos. It's also exciting. You can also be a little sleep deprived at times, but you're just, you know, figuring it out as you go. And you know, when we were thinking about having a third I have to say, I was really nervous. I was like, Can we do this? You know, I mean, things felt crazy enough with two young kids and like now we're adding a third. And what really helped me was something that the parents who had three kids already, what they told me, which is that going from two to three is actually way easier than going from one to two. Hearing that advice or hearing that wisdom always sort of calmed my anxiety. And you know, so far, fingers crossed, it's proven to be true. And so sometimes you just need to hear something from someone who's been there to help you and give you the, I don't know, reassurance fuel whatever it is to go forward. And that really is the same when you're running a consulting business, you know, it's important, and it's helpful to hear from people who've been there and this year, especially, you know, as we're going into this new year, because this past year has been, I mean, nuts on so many levels, and so coming out of last year, going into this new year, it might be hard to, You know want to set big goals for yourself, so I want to share something with you that I shared at the end of last year in December at our sixth annual virtual holiday party, and it might help you as you go into this new season. And what I shared at the party was a message I think we all need to hear as we step into this new year, because. And, you know, yes, we're all looking ahead to this year, thinking about what we can accomplish. And we're also probably feeling a lot of feelings about, you know, the year that's been that it's been crazy, it's been dysfunctional, sometimes frightening, you know, world around us. But when you think about your goals and your next steps in the way that you're going to hear me talk about here, it can make them feel much closer and easier to achieve. And so in this episode, you're going to hear that message. And so if you weren't at the party, I want to also give you a taste of what it was like, because this party, this virtual holiday party for women consultants, it's honestly like one of my favorite things we do all year. It's this just incredible gathering of smart, ambitious women and consultants just like you, who are building the businesses they love. And the energy in that room, that virtual room, is just electric. So if you were there, if you were one of the more than 100 women who joined us, I hope hearing this again really sort of solidifies this message for you, and if you missed the party, you'll hear what I shared kind of like you were sitting in on the party, feeling that energy and getting a dose of inspiration. And of course, I hope you can join us live next year. So let's jump in and hear what I shared at the smart gets paid virtual holiday party for women consultants right after this. Hi everyone. Hello, hello, welcome back. I hope that everyone met somebody that they had something in common with. Does anyone want to guess the most popular breakout room? Tell me in the chat, what do you think is the most popular breakout room reading you guys. This is why I love women consultants. It was the most popular group, you know, what was one of the least popular introverts? Unite? Who knew? Yeah, all the introverts here because they were hiding, I know, and then, but you know, it's like introverts are going to introvert, right?

Speaker 1 6:53

Leah, totally depends on the year, because some years that populates like crazy.

Leah Neaderthal 6:57

You're right. Something in the past that's been poppin anyway, if you met somebody amazing, just type a name. Type the name of somebody you met. You don't have to remember everybody in your group, but tell me the name of one person you met who was awesome. All right. Kate, Amber, Jen, Jennifer, Jelena. Kate, oh so great. Amy Parker, hi. Amy Parker, okay, I love this. So okay, for the next thing, we're gonna do something really cool. Grab a piece of paper, if you will. We're gonna do some drawing, okay, and tell me in the chat just I've done when you have a piece of paper. Okay, so what are we about here? All right, this is your first Hangout with us, or whether you have worked with me before, or maybe you've been to one of our holiday parties, or you listen to the podcast, which bless you. We are all about helping women run more profitable consulting businesses. And we think about this in three ways. And you might have heard me talk about this before, but we're going to do a fun exercise about it these three types of profitability. We call this 3x profit. Okay, so take your sheet of paper, and I want you to draw a pyramid on your sheet of paper. Okay, draw a pyramid. We're going to have some fun together. Type done when you have drawn your pyramid. And on the left side of your pyramid, I want you just to write the word financial on the outside of the pyramid. Left side, when we think about financial profitability, we're thinking about making good money, making great money to support the life you want. On the right side of the pyramid, I want you to write the word professional. Professional profitability, doing the work you love with clients you enjoy. Okay, professional profitability. And then on the bottom write the word emotional Okay, emotional profitability. Emotional profitability says, Are you having fun? How's your stress level? Are you feeling optimistic about the future? Right? So we call this framework 3x profit. And everything we do in the programs or in the podcast, or everything is designed to bring all of these up together, right whether it's getting more of the right clients coming to you, or filling your pipeline or getting you paid for your value, freeing up your time, streamlining things, this is what we're going for. It's all about the balance. Okay, so today we're going to use this. We're going to have some fun, help you get inspired and motivated around all three. Okay, so let's start out with of these three. Which area would you like to grow the most in 2026 tell me in the chat which area between financial, professional, emotional, which would you like to grow the most? All right, seeing lots of financials. Okay, financial and professional, emotional, financial and emotional, okay, awesome. You can circle that circle that on your page, circle the one that you typed, all right, so let's start with financial. Then we're going to set some goals. So I know. That obviously, running a consulting business is not just about money, but strangely enough, like, life does take money, right to, like, buy the things we want, food and shelter, all the things, right? And so I want you to think about the number that you want to hit in the coming year. Like, what's your overall revenue goal in the coming year? And I want you to just write that down next to financial. Okay, all right, now that you have that, and this is just between you and the paper, okay, that specific number, so let's do something fun. If that number is over $100,000 type one in the chat. If your goal is over $100,000 okay, great. I think we're like baseline. Everybody's typing a one, if that number is over $200,000 type a two in the chat. All right, great, excellent. If that number is over $300,000 type a three in the chat. Oh, love these goals. If that number is over $500,000

Leah Neaderthal 11:07

type of five in the chat, ooh, spicy. I love it, okay, if that number is over a million dollars, type a 10 in the chat, any 10s. Yes, amazing. I'm just curious. What is it, you know, as you look at this, what are you thinking? What does it look like? What does it say to you to see all these amazing numbers flowing out in the chat? You know, are you feeling inspired? Are you feeling like maybe, maybe you could go up a little bit, and your goals I'm seeing. Five is possible. 10 is close. What a great room. I see you all, yes, be exciting to be amber. You said it exciting to be in a group of women believing this big for their business. Love it. Okay, so let's talk about professional now. So professional, doing great work with the clients you love, and having people come to you for the right things. So listen, I'm not going to sugarcoat it right things are getting a little harder. We're hearing that if you're selling B to B, it's taking, you know, 25% longer for clients to say yes. And did you know that every B to B sale now has over seven decision makers like that is wild to me. Has anybody felt like this is getting a little bit harder? Like to get a yes, or to get leads or what have you? Just this is safe space. Just type yes in the chat. All right, yes, we're all here. But listen, you've done hard things, and you can do hard things, right? So I want to know what's one thing that you will do to be proactive in reaching your goals this year. Tell me in the chat. Will you start posting on LinkedIn? Will you make a plan to reach out to people? Will you raise your prices, value based, price your work, checking in every month. Increase your posting on LinkedIn. Amazing. Stop shrinking, turn the open sign on. I love it. Boost your visibility and accountability. Okay, great. I love all these. Keep them coming. So that's how are you going to reach your professional goals this year? But let me ask you this, what's one thing you can do tomorrow to reach your goals in the coming year? It's one thing to be like, I'm going to do this thing, but it's another thing to say, I'm going to do this tomorrow. What's one thing you can do tomorrow to put you on the path to reaching your goals? Send out proposals that have been in draft mode, yes, send an email to a prospective customer. Reach out to someone, one to one. Send shoulder tap emails. Yes. Jen, get it. Reach out to former clients that didn't close amazing. Okay, so we're bringing it down to like an action you can take right away. Okay, so that's professional and of course, you know, has to be said, if you'd like our help to do all those things and reach your goals and all that stuff, then we have a program called the academy, you know, where to find us smart gets paid.com we're not going to belabor it, but if you want help, we're here. So now let's talk about emotional your emotional profitability. And emotional profitability is about you. Are you having fun? You know, do you have time for the people and things that matter, and are you feeling optimistic about the future? And of course, it can be hard to keep up your emotional profitability. When you're running a business, maybe you have other responsibilities, you have family, you're taking care of aging parents, and, you know, just waves hands at all the things going on in the world, right? So I want to know what's one thing that you can do for your emotional profitability, okay, for your wellness. What's one thing you can do to create more fun? Tell us in the chat, can you take more walks? Can you do. Close your computer at the end of the day. Get to sleep earlier, get fresh air, swim, do more yoga, read actual books, road trip with your daughter. Oh, I love that. Put the phone away, taking your kids to the Nutcracker. Oh, I love the Nutcracker. Okay, maybe something that somebody else shared inspires you in a way that you can improve your emotional profitability, okay? And one thing you can do, and the reason you're here for your emotional profitability, one thing you can do, is to connect with the women here. This is your support, and this is your party, okay? And look at us, like, Look at this. This is an incredible community. You know, at the beginning I asked you if you've ever been in a community where you felt like not your type of people, exactly right? Remember that? So I want you to type if you feel like you have found your people, type a cheers or a hell yes in the chat if you have found your people. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. I mean, this is the community of smart women consultants. I mean, this is what you'll find in our community, in the academy, if you're listening to the podcast, if you ever wondering, like, who else listens to this podcast? It's people just like you, right? Women who are listening also. So I'm seeing these all come through. The last thing I want to do as we wrap up, to end on an even higher note. Okay, I want to take one second and just hear or see in the chat, what is your biggest win from this past year? Because, you know, sometimes we don't have space to be like, You know what? I did that, and that was awesome, right? You know, maybe your partner or spouse or the person who you see on the street, they don't want to know like you talk about it all the time, and you're not going to be like, Hey, I just signed a new contract, and the person who's checking you out at CVS is like, what? I don't care. But this is the stuff that we can celebrate here. Okay? And so tell me in the chat, what is your biggest win this year? Did you get a great client? Did you reach a revenue goal? Did you say no to the wrong clients and say yes to the right ones? How did you transform your business? And I'm going to read some of these out loud, I love not giving up saying yes to the academy. Jill became an international number one, Best Selling Author, Google it, go buy it. Got raised your rates, got somebody on your podcast, keynoted pivoting your business, became comfortable with your sales process. Goldie, I love seeing that. Getting great new clients won your first government contract. Fantastic. Joanna's personal big win. Your 18 year olds are out of the house. Give some love to Joanna. Danielle, killed it. Monica hit her 10 year anniversary. Monica, we're anniversary twins. I hit my 10 year anniversary this year too, back after cancer. Oh gosh, so happy that you're here. Jessica published a book, met your financial goals, potty training client contract for 16 months. I mean, this is this is amazing. Is this inspiring? Or what just to see these things, and we talk about in the academy, like, not every win is like a client win, or I got a new client, or whatever it's like, there are progress wins, there are life wins. There are just the wins that you're not sure if you can do it and you do it. You know, you push through and you accomplish it. So look at just the energy in this room, in this chat, the goals you've set for yourself and the steps you're going to take. And I just want to share a quote that I love. This is my absolute favorite quote, and it comes from Diana nayad. You guys know Diana nayad, the swimmer. She was the first person, not even the first woman, the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida, like, I think, in her 50s or something. She's incredible. And when things were hard and she was training, and it just like, wasn't going anywhere, and it was such a slog, she's like, can I even do this swim from Cuba to Florida? She said to herself, I'm much closer to possible than impossible. All right, I'm much closer to possible than impossible, and you are so much closer to possible than impossible, with the goals that you've set and the support we have here. All right, so I want to just end with, we're going to do a big emoji toast. Okay, go to your reactions, and I want you to open it up. Pick your favorite reaction. Okay, like your favorite emoji. I'm going to pick mine. Mine's the money emoji, the flying money emoji, okay? And we're going to raise a glass. And we're just going to, like, pound the emoji button together. We're going to do a toast. You ready? One? Two, three. I feel like we need like the pink song in the background for this, but look at this emoji, toast. This is so great. Thank you for toasting each other. Thank you for toasting yourselves. So listen this excitement, this energy. It doesn't stop here, the people you met, the colleagues you made, the connections you made. This can come with you into 2026, so let's keep it going. Bring this confidence, bring this energy, bring these new friends into the new year, and I can't wait to see what you accomplish. I am so glad you are here. Thank you so much for joining us for this party in the academy, members. I will see you in our community, everybody else, I'll see you on LinkedIn. I'll see you in the smart gets paid podcast and happy holidays and a very happy new year. Thanks everyone.

Leah Neaderthal 20:49

All right, so I hope you could pick up some of that energy from our holiday party and listen. If you're wondering if you should have been there, the answer is yes. This party happens every year. This was our sixth year, and it's really a space where you can just connect with other women consultants who get it, who are building the kind of businesses you want to build, and who are asking the same questions that you are. So when you start to see us talk about it like in the fall, pay attention and sign up. So here's what I want you to take from this episode. I mean, it's kind of all of it, you know, but I want to pull out something in particular. So you heard me go through what we call the three types of profitability, right? Or 3x profit, financial, professional and emotional. And you heard me ask, you know, what's something you can do next year to reach your goals in each of those areas, right? So, what can you do that's a goal. But I think the more important question for all of us who are trying to achieve anything is the one I ask after that, what's one thing you can do tomorrow to reach your goals? Not next week, not when you feel ready tomorrow? And I want to ask you the same question, because here's the thing, setting goals is great, but goals without action are just wishes. And you know, there's a big difference between saying like, I'm going to start running this year and actually lacing up your shoes and getting out the door. So before we end this episode, I want you to commit to one thing, just one thing that you'll do tomorrow that will move you closer to where you want to be. Maybe it's sending out a proposal that's been sitting in draft mode. Maybe it's reaching out to a former client or a warm lead. Maybe it's finally raising your prices. Maybe it's just blocking your calendar to work on your business instead of in your business. Whatever it is, write it down, put it on your calendar, and then do it because, as you heard me share from Diana Nyad, you're so much closer to possible than impossible you really are. And listen if you want to be part of a community like the one you heard me talking about on this episode, women who are setting big goals and taking action to reach them, you have a few ways to do that. First, you can follow me on LinkedIn, that's where I'm sharing strategies for getting clients, for pricing your work and for running a more profitable business. Second, share this podcast with another woman consultant who needs to hear it. You know, I don't run ads to the podcast, and yet, it's continued to grow each year because women like you have listened to an episode and, you know, done that thing where you send it to a friend and you're like, you've got to hear this, which I so appreciate everybody who shared it with their friends. And third, you know, if you want our help to actually reach those goals you're setting for this year, to get more of the right consulting clients and get paid what you're worth in community with other women consultants who are doing this work alongside you, then reach out to us. You can apply to work with us at Smart gets paid.com/academy So here's to the New Year. I hope it's your healthiest, happiest and most profitable year yet. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai