The Smart Gets Paid Podcast

When you’re past the “startup phase” of your consulting business, and you read stories of new business owners having huge successes, it can make you feel like you’re doing something wrong if you’re not having the same results. But you’re absolutely not doing anything wrong, you’re just in a different phase: The Messy Middle. If you’re in The Messy Middle, this podcast episode is for you.

How do you reconcile your past corporate experiences with what you’re doing now in your business? How do you position them? And, of course, how do you get clients that allow you to do more of what you like? That’s the topic of this episode. Listen in as Leah coaches a startup consultant through this process, and help her make sense of who she was then, vs. how she is now.

Is it possible to have a consulting business and an incredible quality of life? Absolutely, and this week’s guest is here to show you how. Join me to chat with Betsy Talbot, B2B copywriter for complex industries, as she shares how she’s used value-based pricing, clearly communicating to her ideal client, and strong boundaries to craft a consulting business that support her life, not the other way around.

As consultants working with clients, it’s easy to believe we’re limited in the influence we have on our clients and in our businesses, causing us to hold back (sometimes we hold back a little, sometimes we hold back a lot). In this powerful Fireside Chat episode, Leah chats with Professor Vanessa Bohns, author of the book You Have More Influence Than You Think, to talk about the ways each of us has more influence than we believe, and how we can use that influence in our businesses and in our lives.

When we think about the stages of selling and the purchase funnel, we usually think about awareness, consideration, purchase… but there’s one stage of the sales process that’s nearly always overlooked, and it can prove to be the most valuable. Listen in as Leah helps a client with a sales challenge that illustrates how to maximize the Loyalty stage of the purchase funnel.

It’s the classic consulting paradox: When you’re not busy, you do business development to get clients. Then you get busy with clients, so you don’t do business development. So in this week’s episode, I’m sharing three tips on how to do business development, even when you’re busy with client work. (And it’s not “block your calendar.”)