Episode 51 · October 16, 2022

Niching to stop spinning

In this episode

This is a coaching call with a personal trainer whose client numbers had dropped and who told me straight out that she has no idea where to begin with marketing. Most of the hour comes down to one question: what problem do you want to solve? You can hear the moment she answers it, because her voice changes completely. Then at the end I get into why we build a painkiller statement by looking forward and not back over everyone you've ever worked with.

What you'll take away

  • She'd been leaning on in-person work, and when the clients dropped off it exposed what she'd never learned. Her words: it turned her to face the things she isn't good at.
  • Listen to how differently she talks about the two audiences. Flat about the desk workers with lower-back trouble. Completely lit up about the women who've been told a five pound weight will turn them into a bodybuilder. That gap is the answer to the question.
  • Her fear was that niching would limit her reach, and it's the most common one there is. Going broad makes it harder for everyone to say yes, including the people you most want to work with.
  • A specialist, or a general practitioner? If your knee hurts you already know which one you're calling. Narrowing is what makes somebody think: I've found her.
  • The signaling lives in the words. "I'm a personal trainer in New York, hire me for personal training" signals nobody. Naming who you're for, and what you understand about them, is how they find you.

In this conversation

The full transcript, in sections. Open any one to read it.

An email that made my heart burst

0:02

Leah Neaderthal0:02

And so what happens when you niche down is, first, the people who you want to work with will have that reaction that's like, Yes, I have found her, you know. And that's the reaction you want. It makes it easier for the right people to say, Yes, 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.

Leah Neaderthal1:14

Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you are, wherever you're listening to this, I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress on your business and taking some time for you. So I've shared with you how much I love hearing that people are listening to this podcast. I get messages from women all the time who tell me that they've been listening or maybe they've just found it, and it always makes me smile every time you share that with me, but I got an email recently that made my heart absolutely burst, and I wanted to share it with you. A listener sent it to me after they listened to Episode 40 called Building a consulting business that supports your life with Betsy Talbot, my former client and friend, and they actually sent this email to Betsy and me, and this is what they said, I'm sharing this with permission. They said, Hi, Leah and Betsy. I learned so much from listening to you today. You women are an inspiration to me. Okay, so. And then they go on to talk about, like, what specifically they liked about it and what resonated with them, you know, yada yada yada. But then they said this. They said, I had both of my children in the car today, and hopefully they heard the part where you say you must have a skill. I think it's something I told them last week, and perfect that skill. I think my daughter, who's particularly interested in business, she's 14, probably took in everything, and had this to say. She said, I love the podcast because it mentioned how you should fix your business before it turns sideways. I loved the analogy, fix the roof in the sunshine rather than in the rain. She continues, I'm hoping this will give me permission air quotes, permission to play more of these podcasts with my kids on the drive to work, or inspire her to start listening. All the best to both of you. See, okay, I'm feeling a lot of things right now because, you know, I tend to think that if one of my listeners, like you, has taken something from one of these episodes and applied it to your business, then I've done something right. But it didn't occur to me until I got this email that I could actually, you know, impart some wisdom to young girls, too. And it's just such a full circle moment for me, because if you've worked with me or listened to this podcast, you know that I always say to start getting higher paying clients, there's a lot to learn, but there's also a lot to unlearn. And you know, when I work with women, what we do, in addition to the things that you learn, is really helping you unlearn some of the beliefs and behaviors that are holding you back in your business, oftentimes, you may not even realize how they're holding you back. And I'm also interested, maybe nearly obsessed, with wanting to explore those beliefs and behaviors and the lessons that we picked up growing up as young girls and young women, and the lessons and how they're playing out in our lives and our businesses today, so that we can, you know, shine a light on them and change them, and all those lessons that we're now shining a light On, we picked those up. We internalize them starting pretty young. So follow me here in trying to help women unlearn and rewrite some of those things as adults. I know this sounds crazy, it actually never occurred to me that I might be able to share those lessons with young women so that they didn't ever get to the point where they had to unlearn them. Right? I'm hoping this makes sense, but if I can help them learn healthy lessons about themselves, about how to approach other people, about how to think about their capabilities, and how much more confident will they be when they start their careers and if one day they start their business? So I don't know they. Email and this realization feels like such a gift to have someone share with me that something in this podcast has made an impact, not only on them, but also on a young woman who will hopefully be able to approach things in a different way than you know, if she hadn't heard it at all, it really makes my heart full. All right, let's get into the episode. In this episode, I'm talking to a woman who's in a bit of a crisis. She's a personal trainer, and I typically don't work with women who sell just B to C, right? Sell only to individuals. But I made an exception in this case, because she's not just any personal trainer. She was my personal trainer. She was the personal trainer for my wife and me, and we absolutely adored her. So she's in this moment of, like, mild crisis where she's lost a number of clients because of a few factors, you know, namely, people's changing behavior around the pandemic in group classes, you know, changing spending behavior around fitness and all the other options out there. And she was sort of spinning around, like wondering whether she needed to start an online platform, like make a fitness app, start in a group program, like online program, do free classes on Instagram or whatever. And she was really just sort of stuck in this loop on what to do and really where to start. And what we ended up talking through was the critical question that actually comes before all of that, before you take any first step in your business, which is figuring out, you know, what's the problem you solve? Who do you want to solve it for, and how do you talk about it, because when you answer this set of questions, it makes every next step a lot clearer and a lot easier. So as you listen to this, even though this particular woman is selling her services to individuals and you might be selling your services to businesses, the principles that we talk through and the principles that I would talk to you about are really the same, so I want you to apply them to your business and ask yourself some of the same questions that I'm asking her. So I want to say a huge thank you to my client and my trainer for allowing me to share this conversation with you. Take a listen, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business?

Leah Neaderthal7:24

Do you have an actual sales process? I'm talking about not a general sense of what you should be doing, but a real process where you know exactly what step comes next, who to follow up with, and when, and you can see at a glance where every potential client stands. If the answer is no, or if yours feels clunky or you're reinventing the wheel every single time I made something for you, it's called roadmap to clients. It's a free 20 minute video course, and in it you'll map out your customized sales process, step by step, from the very first contact with a potential client all the way to a signed proposal. It's the same foundational process we use with every Academy member, and it's completely free. Go to smart gets paid.com/roadmap to get started. When you first applied, you wanted to find clients who can pay your rates, the confidence to believe in your worth. Said rates, this is what you said, and finding people who value your work and understanding that cheaper isn't better in a competitive market, is that still something you'd like to work on or talk through?

The clients dropped off, and what it exposed

8:30

Academy member8:30

Okay, that's always going to apply in my business, but I think it's definitely changed now, and my more concerning question right now is I've had a drop off of clients, and it's eaten a lot of my revenue, and I think it also exposes a lot of things that I do need to work on. I think just It scares me because, you know, I've relied on the in person experience, and I am not good at social media or any kind of online marketing, and now that I'm forced to sit with that, it's scary because I don't know where to begin. So I guess in terms of exposure, that's one thing it's turned me to face the things I'm not good at, and this is where I come to you for right?

Leah Neaderthal9:24

Totally, well, so And tell me a little bit about the types of people that you typically work with.

Who she works with now

9:32

Academy member9:32

So usually the age range. Let's start with that. It ranges from anywhere between 28 is my youngest client, and 5252 is my oldest client. So, you know, a lot of my younger range clients tend to be very active. Have multiple subscriptions to peloton to mirror tonal, you know. And then the older end of the clients. Are intend to have chronic injuries, so a lot of sciatica, you'll see a lot of long thesis. There's also, like, a lot of herniated disc issues, or, you know, like just chronic issues that they're dealing with, back pain, something like that.

Leah Neaderthal10:19

And how do they find you

Academy member10:22

either through word of mouth, which is the most reliable, and a lot of them found me through another app called Find your trainer. Okay, and how much do people pay you? So it's 130 perception now for new clients, but you know, like for older clients, it's It depends, right? When they started with me, and I like to keep that rate for them, because they've been loyal and they've been really good at keeping up their fitness routines with me throughout the years.

Leah Neaderthal10:55

Cool. And you also offer like, a package or something, right?

Academy member10:59

So it's 5% off per package. So let's say, like, for me right now, it's six pack, 1224, and it just keeps going down by 5% per package. Okay, cool.

It starts with who, and not with how

11:13

Leah Neaderthal11:13

So I'm trying to think about, you know, when, when I think about, like, how, where to tell you to go. You know, I think that a lot of people are, of course, taking their offerings online. I think that, you know, certainly, group coaching is, is awesome. I think also people are craving community. But I think that, you know, one thing that's that I'm talking to a lot of people about is it's it starts with, like, it doesn't even start with how you deliver your service. It starts with who you're delivering it for, and making sure that you give people a help people really understand why they need you right now, you know so because you know it's one thing to say, like, I'm a personal trainer, right? But it's another that's really about you, you know. And it's really about like, how do you help your client understand how they'll be different, you know?

Academy member12:12

So let's start there, offering a solution in why I'm the best person to solve their issues, right?

Leah Neaderthal12:19

But, but not as, not as like a response to, you know, like you versus somebody else, or, you know, they reach out to you, but really coming out with, like, I help people, you know, have this sort of like end state in their life, you know. So, like one of I know a woman who does a lot of body work, and she says, I help people live pain free, right? So that pain free is that, like, end state? Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So I want to think about, like, you know, the people who come to you, it it sounds like they've coming. They're coming with a broad range of issues, you know, but if you had to say, what? How are people different as a result of working with you?

Academy member13:05

So what I have been doing with, along with My Personal Training, is that mobility and stability comes first, right? Once they've achieved that, other things will fall into place. They're definitely going to get stronger. They're getting they're definitely going to get leaner. Their body pop composition is going to change, and that's going to lead into these cycles of positive feedback, right? So they're they're happier, they're pain free now, because they're moving. And this will, you know, start to change a lot of people's lives, where they're more aware, right? Self awareness definitely creates better movement, and that's pretty much what I base my training on. And then secondary goals like fat loss, right? That comes second, because if these people can't move, well, they're not going to feel comfortable going into a higher circuit training, you know, or something higher level where they cannot overload their bodies, which is one of the principles that come with training, is that you want to progressively overload Your body so that you can handle the higher adaptations to more mechanical stress in the long run.

What problem do you want to solve?

14:27

Leah Neaderthal14:27

I think that all of that is really important to get to where we're going. So it's like, Yes, you, you know, we overload your body. We start with stability and mobility, right? And then that's, that's sort of the, if I was going to think of that, those are sort of tactical, right? Then we go to some outcomes, you know, you can feel better in your body. You can be pain free. You can become stronger, you know? And I think that the challenge for you is going to be to say, Okay, I help. People, you know, fill in the blank, right, with some sort of like thing that, once they read it, it's like, desirable to them. You know? What might be hard about that right now is that you are working with people who have so many different things, you know. And so you might want to consider, like, Okay, who do I want to work with? Like, what problem do I really want to solve? Because if you can sort of come out with that, then it's like you can sort of name that problem, you know, I help people who sit at a desk all day, you know, undo the damage that desks that like office work does. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, but it's very hard to do that when you have 28 year old athletes, and then 52 year old, you know, just CEOs or see, yeah, I mean, the people who are doing that. So I think that would be the first step, like, really get clear on what problem do you really want to solve? And it doesn't actually have to limit you to a particular age range or whatever, you know, because you're not saying I want to work with CEOs that are 50 and over, right? Even that group might have a huge range of problems, right? So think about like, what is the problem you want to solve? And start there, you know, in terms of your how you sort of go out to the world, because then whatever you do, social media, you know, group coaching, whatever you sort of have identified, you're like, oh shit. Now I need to do this. It's going to make that so much easier. If you come out and you're like, I'm a personal trainer. I do group coaching. It doesn't really give anybody the tools to understand, like, is, are you for them? You know, so starting with those tactics, and we talked about the outcomes. I mean, what is the problem that you love solving? Um, I

Academy member16:55

definitely have a lot more people with, you know, like, smaller, chronic issues overall, a lot of them are in tech or finance, so they have usually the same issues, a lot of like, you know, lumbar herniation, so, like, you'll see a lot of people who sit a lot have these issues. It's just a really common thing in New York, too. Sorry, what was the question? Again? The question was,

Leah Neaderthal17:22

I love it. I picked up the phone. I was like, I was on the phone with my marketing person today, and I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna Vox you. We use this app called Voxer to, like, leave a voice message. I'm like, hold on, you know, I'm gonna box you. And then by the time I picked up the phone to do that, like, which was maybe three seconds later, I had already forgotten what I was gonna don't worry about that. The question was, what's the problem that you really want to be solving, you know, and I think you started down the path of, like, detect people and this type of, you know, lumbar issues and all of that, even without looking at the people who you worked with in the past. I mean, you could use that as, like, a an example or a data point, but like, what really is the problem that you want to be solving?

Academy member18:04

I don't know. Is that fair to say, like, I don't know.

Leah Neaderthal18:07

Like, yeah, I think it's totally fair to say

The one she lights up about

18:10

Academy member18:10

this is where I get stuck. Is because I don't know what niche I should serve. You know, because I have so many different areas of expertise, and, I mean, I love getting, okay, so let's start with this. I love empowering women to lift right, or debunking the myth that you're gonna get super bulky and turn into She Hulk, if you like, touch a five pound weight, that kind of you know that those kind of myth is that really the objection you get from women? Oh my gosh, you have no idea. Yeah, women still believe to this day that if they lift weights, that it's going to turn their boyfriends off because they have more muscle now. Or, you know, it's just ridiculous, but that's one example I hear frequently, I don't know, I don't want to get too bulky. I just want to get toned. First of all, tone is not a thing. You know, your muscles are lying under. You know, adipose tissue, which is fat, and when you exercise, your body composition will change, which means your body fat will decrease, revealing the muscles that you've always had underneath. That's where tone comes from, you know. So I that's still my number one goal, I would say, with most of my female clients, and they start to see, Oh, you're right, we totally don't get bulky. But I feel better. You know, I feel stronger, and that is so empowering to them, because they can do things that make them feel good.

Hear how differently you just said that

19:51

Leah Neaderthal19:51

You know, I love that, and I just want to point out, you know, hearing you describe that. Yeah, you're so much more animated. You're so much more excited than, you know, I work with a lot of tech people, and they have lumbar herniation, you know, yeah, definitely, you know, I really want to encourage you to solve the problem you really want to solve, you know, because it'll help you not just reach the people who have that problem, you know, the women, for example, who do want to be strong. But you know, we've been sold this narrative that says you can't lift a weight without turning into like female bodybuilder. You know, it allows you to find those people and allow them to find you. It allows you to talk to them in a way that makes sense. You know, even what I just said, right? Like, you know I know what I know what you've heard your whole life, that you can't pick up a weight without turning into a bodybuilder, and no man will ever want to date you or sleep with you or whatever person, right, no, no partner. But do you see how like if you're the person who has that problem, or you know, feels that way, you know what I want them to see when they see your stuff in whatever way they see it is, Oh, thank God, I found her right. So it really starts with that, solving the problem, right? Solving the problem that you want to be solving. That's also, that's how you start to increase the value and get paid more. Also, because if you say, I'm personal trainer, it's $130 a session. Do you want a session? You know, it's like, it's, it's hard for them to want to make that investment, because it sounds like it's, it's a cost instead of a benefit. But if you say like, you'll go from, you know, feeling like kind of soft or whatever, to strong but not bulky. That's a that's a real outcome that people will pay money for. Does that make sense?

Academy member22:04

Yeah, instead of like, say, putting like a number to the cost, like, think about invoking a feeling or an emotion that they can understand, right?

Leah Neaderthal22:14

Totally, they should read it and be like, yes, I want that. You know what? I mean, yeah, then you can decide, all right, how am I going to serve these people, and how am I going to reach these people? One fear

But won't that limit my reach?

22:27

Academy member22:27

I've always had is that if I serve only this niche, I don't know if that's going to limit a lot of my reach. Does that make sense? That's That's my only fear with targeting a certain or, like, just you know, like training women, because I do want men who are interested too, you know, or anyone in between who identifies as neither you know. So I've been actually getting a lot of not non binary people. So I also want to be inclusive of that too. So it's hard to be inclusive of everyone if I'm only serving women.

A specialist, or a general practitioner

23:10

Leah Neaderthal23:10

Yeah, I think that's a really valid, you know, question concern. Here's the thing, when you try to go really, really broad, it makes it harder for the people that you really want to work with to say yes, and it actually makes it harder for everybody to say yes, because, you know, you're trying to, sort of, you're starting at zero and trying to, like, sell something in right? Do you do you want personal training? I've got personal training going to be strong. I can make you strong, right? And when people land on your website, it's very hard for them to understand, you know, whether you're for them. And so what happens when you niche down is, first, the people who you want to work with will have that reaction that's like, Yes, I have found her, you know? And that's the reaction you want. It makes it easier for the right people to say yes, like, if you have knee pain, right, would you want to go to a general practitioner? Like, or would you want to go to a specialist? Specialist? Exactly. So niching down really does make it easier for people to say yes, because they know that you are for them, and they know that you can solve their problems, and so you're not like cutting off all of these people, right? Because it's hard to reach everybody. It's hard to get everybody to say yes, but when you can be, you know, the absolute preferred provider to solve this problem, it'll make it easier for not only the right people to say yes, but for people to refer you to their friends, you know, that sort of thing, and just going back to the problem that you want to solve, you know, you we started with women, right? And being afraid to bulk up. But that doesn't mean it has to be women. Anybody who wants to. Who gets stronger without bulking up could be in this universe. You know what I'm saying, right so. And I love the whole non binary thing, too. I mean, that could be, if you listen, if you were, if you were the trainer for non binary people in the New York area, holy crap. I mean, that would be amazing, because people, especially people who are non binary, want to work with, want to work out with somebody where they want to feel safe. Yes, exactly they want to feel safe. So think about if you were non binary, would you want to be like? You know, work with somebody who's just like, I'll train you, right? I'm a trainer. I'm gonna train you. Or would you want to, you know, land on a website that says, Listen, I know that when you are non binary, gender non conforming, not every space is safe. And so that's why I have, you know, XYZ, right?

Academy member26:01

And, you know, it would be so cool if I could serve our family, you know, I mean, like our broader family, and I do, I think that has been a goal, that I wanted more LGBTQ clients, just hard to reach them because,

Signaling the people you want to reach

26:19

Leah Neaderthal26:19

but the way you reach them is by signaling them. This is what we're talking about here. We're signaling so if you say, I'm a personal trainer, I work in New York, hire me for personal training, you're not really signaling any type of person. But if you say, I help non binary people, you know, feel get strong, feel proud of their body and live pain free. If that's something that you hear from people I don't know, you know, even if you said, I help you feel strong and be proud of your body. I mean, come on. That alone gives me chills, right? So I don't want, I just want to encourage you not to see it as cutting off all these randoms because you want to be loved by the

Academy member27:10

right people. Yes, yes. And it's exhausting. And I've learned, you know, throughout these years. So I've been training for eight years now, and there's been a lot of trial and error. I've had to fire people too, and you know, at this point, I really just want to enjoy working with the people who care and value me, and vice versa, right? Because personal training is really personal. You get to know everything about your client's life. You know about their personalities, you know, and so you want to make that hour worthwhile with these people. And you know, just building that relationship is beautiful to me, and I value that, and I cherish that. I'm like tearing up right now, but I know I really do care about each and every one of them. So, you know, like going forward, I do want to find more people like that that I care about.

Leah Neaderthal28:11

And don't you think it goes in the other direction too, right? You know, when you work with a personal trainer, you have to trust, yeah, you know, and you have to have that relationship and feel safe and feel seen and cared for. So if you, you know, move forward with this, I promise you, it'll make it easy for the right people to find you refer you say yes and and really love you.

Academy member28:45

So how do we, let's say that it's going to happen, right? Like I'm going to start doing that. What is the next step? Because there are so many online platforms and online services that provide the things that I'm already offering, right?

Leah Neaderthal29:04

I mean, there will always be competitors to, you know, to what you do and what anybody else does. So I don't want to, I don't want you to think about like anybody else. You know, there are so many people, there are so many apps, there are so many trainers, whatever. What we're talking about in terms of, like, really speaking to a unique audience and solving solving a unique problem, sort of, you know, diffuses that conversation, because, again, it's like, yes, non binary. People could download any of the apps or watch any of the videos on YouTube or whatever, but who are they going to feel comfortable with, right? You know? And so what's your next move? Well, I have to say I'm not the biggest Instagram like expert Me neither, but, but sort of taking what I would tell people on, you know, LinkedIn, for example, and sort of applying. It to what you're doing. So the first move I think that you should make is, well, let's start with your website, because I don't want you to blow up your website. A lot of people are like, I you know, when they see a sort of change of direction, it's like, I need to start from scratch and rebrand or whatever. I don't think you need to do that. I think you should change a little bit of a copy to speak more to this group and solving this problem so that at least you know when they click from Instagram and they land on something on your page, it at least is consistent. It speaks to them, you know. So make the destination relevant. Then on Instagram, you just have to start talking to this very specific audience and do that sort of signaling when you're non binary, you you already know that blah blah, blah, blah, blah, right? I think a lot of this is going to be positioning yourself on the same level, you know. Because I know that this is something that you've struggled with, too, being misgendered or something else, right, like, and so things like, we all know that, or you already know that, or you know something that just puts you on the same level, so that people know that you're not marketing to them, you're speaking to them, right, right? So you know you and I already know that. You know, bulking up is a big concern if you are taking hormones, yeah, oh my gosh, that's so good. Or we, we all know that. I mean, tell me something else that they all know and that you know because you that you are in this universe. I think there's

Why she can speak to this from the inside

31:39

Academy member31:39

a lot of anxiety. I feel it too as a lesbian woman who presents a little bit more androgynous, not necessarily more masculine, not that I am shying away from that, but my presentation seems more masculine, leaning so there's already a lot of fear, not fear, but anxiety coming from me in the changing room in a gym space where I have to compete with bros, and, you know, I get looks, and it's like, is that a dude? Is that a girl? Like, doesn't matter. But you know, in the back of my head, I'll always have these concerns, like, Am I scary? Like, am I intimidating these guys? Because I've actually had guys who have said shit to me, and I don't know whether it's toxic masculinity or, you know, something that attacked their ego because I'm there or I'm presenting a certain way. So I think I can speak for a lot of masculine presenting women, or anyone who's non binary and is masculine presenting

Leah Neaderthal32:51

Yeah, say that right. Like, listen, we know that when you're in a gym situation or a gym environment, you can't ever quite relax exactly, you know. And so the thing that's going to be, and I see the, you know, the smile, because it's like, the thing that's going to make this type of, you say, like, I'm not really good at marketing or anything social media, the thing that's going to make this really so much easier is that you were just going to speak, speak as a person, and a person who understands, because you do understand, yes, you know. So that's the signaling that we're talking about is going to, I think, come a lot more easily, because you're not trying to be all things to all people. You're going to speak to people who need you and you understand what they're going through. How are you feeling about this?

Academy member33:37

I feel really good. I feel like there's more sense of clarity. You know, I'm not just like bobbing in the dark and, you know, like dispelling some of the things that I thought I should be more careful of, but now I'm reconsidering those strategies. Awesome.

My take: we don't look backwards

33:56

Leah Neaderthal33:56

All right, so there are a few themes that you can hear in this one, and and I want to pull out a lesson that you can apply to your business today. I feel like one obvious lesson is that when you're clear about the problem that you solve and who you solve it for, it makes it easier for the right clients to say yes to you. But honestly, I feel like we kind of covered that pretty well in the episode. So what I want to draw your attention to. And what I want to leave you with is this, deciding on your niche right and coming up with your painkiller statement is hard for so many consultants, because prior to having a clear painkiller statement, many women spend years taking on any client that comes your way. I mean, you know, within reason, within a range, right? But when you look at the clients you've worked with, oftentimes they span a pretty wide range of clients, you know, with different pain points and maybe different problems you were solving, and maybe you were even doing the same thing, or, you know, set of activities, but to solve a very wide range of problems. And I see this. With just about every woman I work with, and it may be the case with you too. So when you try to create a painkiller statement that communicates the value that you provide, and you know the problem that you solve, it makes it nearly impossible, because you're trying to create one statement that encompasses all of these various clients, right? So that's why, when I start working with women, we actually don't look backwards to create a painkiller statement. We look forwards. We don't try to create a painkiller statement that encompasses every client you've ever worked with and all the various scenarios that you are working with them in. We look forward to ask, Who do you want to work with, and what's the problem you want to be solving? I will say, we don't just abandon your whole work history and client history, so we do look back, but for one reason and one reason only, and that's to really pinpoint the clients or the projects that you absolutely loved, because then we can explore what was it about them, what was it about that client or that work that you loved? And then we can start to get more clients or more projects that look just like that. So this process of looking forwards, not backwards, this is how we stop being just reactive to the clients who happen to come your way, you know, or be referred to you, and we start getting the clients and the referrals that you actually want. So if you're at this point in your business and you're thinking about, you know, how do I talk about the value of my work, and how do I get more clients who need that value and see that value? My advice to you is this, don't look backwards, look forward. And ask yourself, Who are the clients that you want to work with, and what are the problems you want to be solving, because then we can craft a plan to help you get them. Hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems every B to B consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth, in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence and how to get paid for your value, not your time, and there's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply and we can chat about next steps. All right, see you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Two ways I can help you

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Leah Neaderthal

Leah Neaderthal

Leah Neaderthal is the founder of Smart Gets Paid, where she has helped hundreds of women consultants attract more of the clients they want and get paid more for their work. For more than a decade, she has taught women consultants how to bring in clients on purpose and get paid more for their value, through her program, The Academy. She's also the host of The Smart Gets Paid podcast. Learn more at smartgetspaid.com.

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