Grow Your Independent Consulting Business (Melisa Liberman)

Work-life balance is a top goal for most independent consultants as we leave corporate. Instead of achieving work-life balance, we end up recreating the same imbalance we had in corporate. The only difference is that now we're the boss instead of someone else. 

One of the primary reasons is that we thought work-life would come automatically as part of the process versus something that we intentionally create for ourselves. 

So how do you intentionally create your desired work-life balance as a consultant? 

In this episode, I share with you the approach that has made all the difference for me in achieving that work-life balance once and for all.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, you might be wondering “when is the best time to implement a CRM solution for my consulting business?” “What is the best way to track my consulting pipeline?” And, “how can I make tracking my consulting pipeline and follow-ups easier?”

My guest today, Reuben Swartz, shares that using a CRM is the best method to help independent consultants manage and grow their consulting practice. In fact, Reuben has created a CRM solution called Mimiran which is specific for solo, independent consultants. 

Listen in to learn more about when's the best time for an independent consultant to set up a CRM solution, examples of mistakes that are made when managing a pipeline, and some trends that he's seeing in the independent consulting world using the data from Mimiran.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Just as guardrails along the roadway keep drivers safer, business policies help you proactively create an experience that's representative of you, your values, and how you want to show up as a business owner and consultant for your clients.

Today I want to share with you a mistake that I made in my business back in December.  After working through the emotions of embarrassment and regret from making this mistake, I decided to look at the root cause. What I discovered was that I was missing several key business guardrails.

Listen in to learn not only how to avoid making mistakes, but also how to reduce the amount of energy you waste on decision-making and analysis-paralysis in your consulting business.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Almost every consultant I talked to is undercharging in some way. Undercharging can be blatant or subtle. No matter where you're at in that spectrum, whether you're unaware of what's possible, or you've literally been avoiding this, it's not a problem.

There are five methods or tools that work really well to help you to figure out for yourself if you are undercharging as an independent consultant. Listen in to learn more about these five methods and how to apply them. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In EP. 50 we discussed the five methods that you can use to determine if you are undercharging in your IC business. Assuming that you’re undercharging, which almost every consultant is in some way, we're going to talk about the four reasons why you might be doing this and what to do about it.

Listen in to learn more about the four root causes that could be leading to you undercharging in your independent consulting business and how to identify them for yourself.

And, watch out for next week’s episode (052), when I’ll share how to stop undercharging as a consultant.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I share the 5-step process to overcome undercharging as a consultant. I give you the 5 steps to stop undercharging as an independent consultant. And then, to bring it to life, I share two examples of how to apply these 5 steps, including (1) when you’re initially creating your consulting proposal and (2) when you’re pricing follow-on work for an existing client.

This episode concludes a 3 part series about undercharging in your independent consulting business. In EP. 50 we discussed the five methods that you can use to determine if you are undercharging in your IC business. In EP. 51 we talked about the four reasons why you might be doing this and what to do about it. And in this EP I’ll share what to do now that you know where you’re undercharging and the root causes leading you to undercharge in your consulting business.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Juggling client delivery with advancing your business goals can be a big challenge for independent consultants. While there are many solutions to this challenge, I want to focus on one that I’ve found to be very effective. And that is hiring a Virtual Assistant or VA for your consulting business.

Listen in as I share with you the nine mistakes that you should avoid when hiring a VA and also the six steps to hiring a VA so that you can effectively create more capacity for yourself to then focus on more revenue-generating tasks in your business. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Ready to hire support for your consulting business but not sure where to start? In this episode, you will hear from Silas Kim, Co-founder, and CEO of Atlas Assistant Staffing and Recruiting agency.  He shares when to hire a VA as well as how to hire, manage, communicate with and retain a VA.

This episode is jam-packed with tips and advice to help ensure that your partnership with a virtual assistant is effective and productive. 

For additional support, you can also download the full VA Playbook: The Playbook to Leveraging a Virtual Assistant in Your Consulting Business at: https://www.melisaliberman.com/va

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

For your Independent Consulting business to properly function, you need to have an accurate, efficient and repeatable set of back-office processes for invoicing, collection, bookkeeping, taxes, and insurance. Our guest today is Sara Conde. She has two decades of hands-on experience in the independent consulting world and she shares strategies and tips regarding your IC back office and the future of independent consulting. She shares an insightful behind-the-scenes perspective on what it means to run a consulting business versus to be a consultant and just have a business.

This conversation will help you to get further into that business owner mindset that we talk about so frequently on this podcast. Press play to listen now. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your independent consulting services. Using video increases engagement on your digital and social channels educates your prospects and customers, and reaches your audience with a new medium. 

Video is a powerful lead generation tool and as you will hear from our guest today, RJ Parrish, “video is this huge opportunity for all of us, but there's still some friction and reluctance for a lot of people to use it and maybe today (on this episode) we might be able to break down some of those barriers.” 

The good news is that your audience will value the more simple and raw and authentic content. It doesn’t need to be highly polished. 

So if you want to learn how to leverage video in order to become sought after and known for what you do as an independent consultant, press play now for tips and strategies on how to get started and maximize your efforts for the biggest impact.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

We all know that lead generation is extremely important to the health of an IC business. Without lead generation, it’s challenging to maximize growth and revenue as an independent consultant. 

And so today, I share with you a powerful lead generation that leverages assessments to elevate your consulting lead generation. I’ll also share a software tool that will make this strategy incredibly easy to implement.

Tune in to learn how you're able to use this lead generation strategy for your own solo consulting business, to generate leads and elevate the conversations that you're having with your ideal consulting prospects.
 

Click here  to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

A common question I get from independent consultants is “what’s a typical margin for a consulting business?”  When an IC asks me this question, they’re thinking about it from a financial perspective.

In today’s episode, I share another type of consulting margin that most independent consultants overlook…the life margin.

My own fractional CFO brought the life margin concept to my attention, and on this episode, I’m paying it forward so that you include your life margin in all the decisions you make about your business model, capacity, and consulting offers.

In the episode, I explain to you what life margin is, how to align your business model to your life margin goals, and then I'll give you a detailed case study showing how this all comes together so you can put it in place in your own business. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you’ve ever thought, “I know what I do is valuable. I know I'm great at helping my clients solve problems, save money, innovate, and become more efficient. I know that I'm great at what I do as a consultant, but I am afraid that asking the clients for things, especially money, will make me look greedy.”

Your subconscious thoughts about greed end up running your business. And when this happens, it creates a dynamic where you're underearning and overworking. 

In this episode, I share how your underlying beliefs about greed are impacting your business and what to do about it.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you hate everything to do with selling or think that you’re terrible at it, then this episode is for you.

Listen in as I share the three most common mindset mistakes when it comes to selling your consulting services, how you can determine if you’re making these mistakes and then I'll pull it all together for you with a three-step process that you can implement to make sure you're avoiding these three mindsets mistakes when it comes to selling your consulting services.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Are you experiencing revenue plateaus in your IC business? Most consultants think that this cycle of feast or famine is caused by the market, the constraints that companies put on their spending, that we’re bad a sales or because we’re time-deprived meaning that we don't have enough time to work both in our business or on our business, etc. 

What I would love to share in this episode is that these external factors are not what is causing your ups and downs. They’re not causing your consulting revenue to plateau. They don’t create feast or famine. And quite frankly, these things are not preventing you from making more money with less worry in your IC business.

Listen in to learn what is standing the way of you making more money with less worry in your consulting business so that you're consistently increasing your revenue without working more hours.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Last week we discussed what's standing in the way of you making more money in your consulting business. If you haven't done so as yet, you'll want to go back and listen to EP. 061 - What's Standing In the Way of You Making More Money With Less Worry In Your Consulting Business. To summarize, the main thing that’s standing in your way of making more money in your consulting business is the way you're thinking about your business and your potential clients.

In this episode, I will explain how you can uplevel your thinking from an employee-based mindset into a CEO-quality mindset. I provide you with the six thought components, the six C's, that you'll want to develop and optimize as an independent consulting business owner. When you improve these six areas of your business owner thinking you'll be more confident, capable, and in command as a business owner.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Having opportunities approach you, as an independent consulting business owner, can be exciting but also really difficult when it comes to making the best decision for you and your business.

And, by opportunities I mean everything from new consulting client engagements, client extensions, client follow-on work, consulting partnering opportunities, teaming, and so on.

The question becomes, how do you know which consulting opportunities to take on, and which opportunities to decline?

I'm glad you asked because, in this episode, I will walk you through a process that I like to use both for myself and for my clients. It’s a 5-part framework that will help you to figure out whether or not to turn down an opportunity. And if you are going to turn down a consulting opportunity, how to do that without burning a bridge or feeling regret.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

When it comes to lead generation, I find that so many independent consultants are overcomplicating the process. Then, they’re ineffective with their lead generation activities.

Listen in as I share with you the three must-haves that you’ll want to incorporate into your standard operating procedure (SOP) so that you've got a really effective, easily repeatable, and results-creating independent consulting lead generation routine.

These three lead generation elements are so incredibly important. They’re the difference between having a feast or famine type of lead generation process versus a predictable, sustainable, healthy lead generation process for your independent consulting business.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview one of my independent consulting business owner clients, Nicola Kastner.

Listen in as we discuss her journey as an independent consulting business owner and her unique perspective having launched an independent consulting business twice. 

Nicola generously shares all the lessons learned and what she's done differently the second time to create a much more sustainable, fulfilling, and predictable business for herself. We cover a lot of ground so I know this episode will be extremely valuable for you. Enjoy the conversation.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

I often find that independent consultants are waiting for someone else to give them permission to increase their consulting fees. This hesitation likely originated in your corporate career when you had to wait for somebody to give you permission for something, whether it was a budget that gave you permission to spend money or someone in finance or sales had to bless it.

Now you’re the consulting business owner. You are the person in charge. So my question to you is, who gives you permission to raise your consulting fees? 

Listen as I share the three prerequisites to raising your consulting fees. I can't wait to share this with you because it really is a formula to help you get to the place where you're not leaving money on the table in your consulting business.

Get full show notes and more information here:https://www.melisaliberman.com/blog/66

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

When I meet with independent consultant business owners like you, one of the questions I ask them is, “tell me about your business plan?” 

How do they answer? It’s very common, whether it's someone who's been an independent consultant for six months or six years, for them to look at me like a deer in the headlights and admit that they don’t have a business plan.

And I get it because I've been that business owner without a plan. 

That’s why in this episode I'm sharing a really simple way for you to create an effective business plan for your independent consulting business. This “bottom-up” approach to the business plan will ensure you’re crystal clear on the results you want to create and that you have a simple, yet powerful way to achieve those results.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview one of my independent consulting business owner clients, Susan K. Moore. 

Listen in as we discuss her journey as an IC business owner over the past 31 years. This certainly makes Susan a pioneer of the independent consulting industry and someone from whom we can gain valuable insights as she’s built a successful 7-figure business over multiple decades.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

It can be a challenging shift from being an employee with paid vacation to being an independent consulting business owner whose vacation time is unpaid. Taking a vacation as an IC business owner requires diligent planning and forethought, but it’s possible. And, not only is it possible – it is important for your physical and mental health.

In this episode, I share the 3-part formula for taking vacation as an IC business owner without worrying about leaving money on the table. I want to make sure you follow through with taking time off, and that you don’t defer it like I see so many consultants doing. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you think about it, taking a vacation as a business owner is making an investment. 

When you, as a business owner, go on vacation, you’re making two investments: (1) on the vacation itself and (2) an investment of your time, the time that you've decided to use for a vacation. You want to make sure that you maximize the time you’re taking off so that it can be as rejuvenating and as impactful as you want it to be.

Today's topic will help you accomplish just that. I share the three vacation success strategies that you can leverage as an independent consulting business owner to maximize the return on your vacation and also mitigate the re-entry challenges it’s common to face when you return.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview one of my podcast listeners turned independent consulting business owner coaching clients, LeAnne Lagasse. 

Listen in as LeAnne shares a broad range of insights and strategies including how she's created a very strong reputation where ideal clients think of her immediately when they need a consultant who does what she does, how she's created a clear, compelling consulting services offer, and ultimately how she's been able to price her consulting services using a value-based pricing approach rather than an hourly or time-based approach.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

“Giving Yourself Credit” is such a critical practice to succeed (and feel fulfilled) as a business owner. But, I notice time and time again that independent consultants (myself included at times) aren’t giving themselves credit for what they have accomplished and what they do know. 

Without giving yourself credit as a business owner, you end up self-sabotaging, plateauing, stalling, and feeling much less joy and fulfillment.

And so in this episode, I share with you why this concept of giving yourself credit is so important to the success of your business and what it looks like when you’re not giving yourself credit. 

You’ll learn to identify where you’re not giving yourself credit in your business (blatantly and/or subtly) and how to turn it around so you improve the quality of your business decisions, truly feel and act like the CEO, and feel successful and in control.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

An economic downturn and its impact on your business might be the last thing you want to think about, but it’s important to take a critical look at various aspects of your business to ensure it thrives in tough times.

And so today we're going to talk about what you can be doing to prepare for a potential recession or downturn in the economy. 

To help put you in the best possible scenario where you're actually able to turn a recession into a competitive advantage for yourself, I'm going to share with you several tangible strategies and tips both from my own experience running my consulting business, my coaching business, and also a software business startup during recession times so that you can apply those to your own business to ensure that you are recession-ready.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you’re like most independent consultants, lead generation is not your favorite business activity. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. As a result, it’s common to procrastinate, defer and delay your business development routines. This inconsistency creates choppiness (or even a big, gaping hole) in your business development pipeline. 

Balancing lead generation with working on/in our business can be challenging. Today, we're going to fix this! 

Listen in as I share the 3 red herrings of why we defer lead generation, the 5 most common root causes of procrastination, and the 3-part lead generation procrastination remedy that you can implement for yourself.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

You may be in a position where it feels like you have a pretty short window left to generate any impactful revenue for the remainder of this year, but there's no reason to write off this year. 

I want to talk with you about something that you can be implementing now to impact the rest of your year. 

I'm calling it the Quick Wins Business Development Strategy.

The quick wins business development strategy will help you make a powerful impact on your business pipeline, your revenue for the remainder of the year, and really set yourself up for strong growth in the direction where you want to take your business over the next year. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview one of my independent consulting business owner clients, Jennifer Lemmert. 

Listen in as Jennifer shares her expertise in communication and how you can claim your own unique voice and branding so that you establish a reputation in your industry and are sought after for the type of services and impact that you offer. 

Jennifer also shares some behind-the-screen insights into her business. Specifically, she talks about the fear of failure that kept her stuck in her business, and how she was able to start tearing that down and rebuilding herself and her business in a more intentional way.

Jennifer is a master of networking and shares her strategies around using networking for lead generation and building a bench of sub-contractors.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, when you think about negotiations, one of two things occurs. You either try to do everything in your power to avoid negotiating because it feels so uncomfortable, or you end up rushing through the process, just trying to make it go away. 

In either case, what ends up happening is you're running a business that feels regretful since you've agreed to something that you wish you hadn't, or you question and self-doubt wondering what you may have left on the table. 

In this episode, I want to share with you the best approach to consulting contract negotiations so you can run a business where you replace the regret and second-guessing with a process that generates new business, where you feel fairly compensated, and where your clients are getting value.  

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you're thinking, “I'm bad at business development”, it’s imperative to tackle this head-on. You're running a business and you need to be able to sell. Otherwise, you don’t have a business.

I am here to help you with this work by sharing everything you need to know about overcoming “being bad at business development.”

It might be true that you’re bad at it, what should you do?

You might be lying to yourself that you’re bad at business development. I’ll explain how to figure out if you are (unintentionally) lying and what to do about it.

And finally, I share the 4-part remedy to overcome “being bad at business development.” 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Having a routine is critical to your success as an independent consulting business owner. Routines help you 

• Maximize your independent consultant business owner time
• Manage through conflicting priorities
• Balance working on your business with working in your business
• Ensure you’re proactively progressing toward your goals and business vision 
• Cut down on being reactive and wasting time on business activities that don’t move the needle

You know how important routines are. 

But, what should you include in your routine, to make it effective so you make the most of your time?

In this episode, I share the three components of the successful consulting business owners' routine. 

Listen in to learn more. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Last week, I talked about the three components of the successful IC business owners' routine, and this week I am giving you a deep dive into one of those components, which is the Quarterly Business Focus Project.
 

Tune in as I outline this concept of a Quarterly Focus Project in more detail, so you can put it into practice in your own consulting business.

In this episode, I share what The Quarterly Focus Project is and why you need one.

I walk you through the 8-part anatomy of an effective Quarterly Focus Project so you have the exact formula to build out your focus projects. 

I also share two very tangible real-life examples of what you should and should not do with a Quarterly Focus Project so you know exactly how to put a successful business owner routine in place for you and your business.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

This may come as a surprise but believe it or not, for some IC business owners having a full pipeline is a source of anxiety. 

Without some intervention, it’s common to self-sabotage and kill the momentum that you've created in your independent consulting business.

In this episode, I share how to handle the times when you’ve landed too much consulting business, or are on the verge of landing too much consulting business.

I share insights into the business owner mindsets that work best when it comes to landing new client work, and then I'll give you practical examples on how to handle this situation.  

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview one of my independent consultant clients, Maria Balcazar Tellez.

Listen in as she provides invaluable insights from behind-the-scenes into how she’s running a successful independent consulting business. 

Maria shares 

• how she's been able to transform from employee-based thinking into the CEO-level mindset required for a successful business owner, 
• how she’s increased her pricing and her pricing decision-making process,
• what's led to her creating a well-known reputation for herself so she’s consistently sought after for the type of work she does,
• how she has intentionally transformed her business from burnout and overwhelm into passion and joy,
• and so much more.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

This may feel like a gut punch, but the REAL reason your consulting business is slow is YOU. You created the slow cycle in your consulting business and on today’s podcast, I walk you through why that’s true and how to turn this around to get back to a robust pipeline and ultimately a thriving business.

 Whether your business is slow or thriving, I highly encourage you to listen to this 2-part series on what to do when your business is slow. 

 This week I am sharing the 4-root causes that are slowing down your consulting business. 

 
Then, listen to Episode 084 where l give you four detailed examples of these root causes and the 4-step process you can use to overcome this “slow period” and regain momentum toward a successful independent consulting business. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Whether your business is slow or thriving, I highly encourage you to listen to this 2-part series on what to do when your business is slow.

Last week in EP. 083 Why Your Consulting Business Is Slow, I shared the 4-root causes that are slowing down your consulting business.

This week l am giving you four detailed examples of these root causes and the 4-step process you can use to overcome this “slow period” and really build a strong foundation for you as a business owner so you can regain momentum toward a successful independent consulting business.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

When what you do comes naturally to you, it’s common to underestimate, overlook, or even completely miss the value, benefits, and impact you create for your clients. This results in common pricing mistakes that have a huge impact on your business.

 Understanding the effects of these pricing mistakes will help you decide on what to do when it comes to the overall growth and success of your business.

Listen in as I share the seven specific consulting pricing mistakes we want you to avoid and what each of them are through some examples so that you can identify whether or not you're making these mistakes and make the necessary adjustments so that you can start making more money in your business. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

For the Independent Consultant’s Pricing Assessment: https://www.ICpricing.com

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Value-based consulting fees are where you base your consulting fees on the client’s perceived value (tangible and intangible) from the services you provide. Value-based pricing is a form of fixed fee pricing. 

 You probably either have it in place, been thinking about putting it in place or you might be curious about value-based pricing and its benefits. 

 This is a pricing concept that’s very widely discussed in our industry and one of the things I see so often is that there’s an underlying fear of value based pricing. And so I want to break it down for you in a way that can help you to overcome the fear of value based pricing, whether you decide to implement it or not.

 The concepts that I'm going to share with you today are very applicable and will help you to increase the quality of your sales process, regardless of the pricing model that you choose. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

This is the time of year when pricing becomes a hot topic for you as a consulting business owner as you think about your pricing strategy and what you want it to look like moving into the new year. 

 With so many pricing options out there to choose from, I want to present you with a risk-free pricing approach you can take as an independent consultant to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table and your pricing is commensurate with the value you're delivering to your clients.

Regardless of whether you have a value based, hourly based, daily based, retainer based, or fixed fee pricing, this approach is something you can incorporate into your business and make it part of your repeatable operating system.

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant who’s juggling everything for your business. Everything is on your shoulders. 

 It’s so common for independent consultants to experience burnout, either situational burnout or overall burnout. 

 
Burnout isn’t inevitable. It’s not part and parcel of being an independent consulting business owner. 

 In this episode, I share the formula to overcome and prevent burnout and specific strategies to implement for yourself so you’re able replace the stress, doubt and worry with feeling in control and fulfilled as business owner. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Relationships are the best way to fill your consulting pipeline.

However, consultants frequently hit a challenge when they want to transition from a “networking” call into an opportunity.  

There are three common reasons your conversations aren't converting. 

In this episode, I will share what those three reasons are, examples of best practices to convert an opportunity and strategies to convert conversations into opportunities.   

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I share an incredible game changer I recently implemented in my business. I recommend this strategy for you, as I know for sure it will be a game changer for you too. 

What is this game changer? I had a four day solo corporate retreat and it brought so much clarity and rejuvenation to my business.

So in this episode, I’m sharing all the behind-the-scenes.

In this episode, I will share my experience with having a corporate retreat for my business, why you should have one for your independent consulting business, what not to do when you have one, and strategies that you can leverage to schedule, host, attend and take value from your own corporate retreat.

 Download the podcast companion checklist at https://www.melisaliberman.com/retreat-checklist

Click here to get the full show notes and more information.

 And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you find that your business isn't hitting the numbers and giving you the fulfillment, joy, and value you want then I encourage you to tune in to this episode.

I’ve been working on new tools to simplify and make business more effective for my clients and this concept of micro-skills was born. It’s been so valuable in making it easier to be a successful business owner, and I want to share it with you.

 Listen in as I discuss 

• what these micro-skills are, 
• a three-step framework that you can use to select your chosen micro-skill, 
• what to do after making the selection, and 
• some real-life examples of how this concept works in practice 

so that you can do it in a very doable, non-overwhelming way that builds up this foundation, month over month, quarter over quarter to transform your business. 

Click here to get full show notes and more information.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.icyourway.com.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

It's planning season!

As we prepare to turn the calendar over and welcome in a new year, I’m going to be sharing the 5-step strategy to plan for independent business success in the next 12 months.

Over the next five weeks, I'm going to walk you through a five-part process you can use to plan for the best year you've ever had in your independent consulting business.

This process will be broken down into bite-sized pieces, so that you can implement it in between episodes and really step into January with a fully comprehensive plan for you to have the most success in 2023.

This week, we're going to review all five steps of this process and then take a deep dive into step one, assessing this past year to better understand where you are in your business right now.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner, go to https://www.melisaliberman.com/coaching-for-consultants.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Last week, we took a deep dive into step one of the 5-part series, Planning for Independent Business Success. I shared a formula to assess the past 12 months of your business so you have a clear and accurate baseline from which to set goals for the next 12 months in your consulting business. 

 This week, I share part 2 of the 5 part process, Goal Setting. 

 There’s a unique approach you can take to set effective goals for your independent consulting business.

 Tune in as I share how to set goals for your business, for you as an owner, and 5 things you want to avoid as you're setting goals, specifically for an independent consulting business.

 Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

 And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

This week we’re continuing with the 5-part series on planning for independent business success.

In part 1, I shared a formula to assess the past 12-months of your consulting business so you have a clear and accurate baseline from which to set goals for the next 12-months. Part 2 was all about goal setting. I shared a unique approach you can take to set effective goals, specifically for your independent consulting business.

Now it’s time for part 3 of the 5-part strategy — creating your 12-month action plan. 

In this episode, I share the YQMWD Method to create your 12-month action plan. You’ll learn to use the YQMWD so you set up your business routines and projects in a way that makes achieving your goals inevitable.

So grab your assessments from step 1 and your big goal from step 2, and let’s create and break down your action plan for the year so that you can reach your goals. 

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, we dive into the 4th step of the 5-part planning for independent business success process — Embracing Obstacles. 

 Listen in as I share why hitting obstacles in your business is healthy for growth in your business and as a CEO. The key to independent consulting success is to put yourself in a position to create and overcome obstacles, not avoid them.

I walk you through a process to anticipate and plan for all the potential obstacles you’ll face, so the obstacles are built into your annual and quarterly business success plans and don’t take you by surprise or off course.

 
Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

 And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, we are wrapping up with the 5th and final step of the 5-part planning for independent business success process — Create a Follow-Through System To Make Achieving Your Goals Inevitable. 

It’s easy to set goals for your business.

 Where many independent consultants get stuck is consistently following through to bring their goals to life.

You get busy with your day-to-day delivery for clients.

And, when you do have time, business development can feel like a necessary evil that you have to force yourself to do.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Listen in as I share with you what I call the magic formula that will help you follow through with the actions required to make hitting your goals inevitable.

 Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

 And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Do you get stuck because you’re not sure how to turn a conversation into a potential consulting opportunity? You meet a new potential client and you’re not sure how to progress from the initial meeting into a discovery process, and ultimately to a signed engagement contract.

In this episode, I share a tool you can use to convert more of your conversations (networking, people you meet at events, your existing network, etc.) into consulting opportunities by identifying and building out what is the most neglected and overlooked type of consulting offer.

After you're aware of what this neglected consulting offer type is, you’ll be able to add it to your business development process, and ultimately improve the predictability of your consulting pipeline, improve your close rates, and increase the number of client follow-on engagements.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

I talk to so many independent consultant business owners who say their business is shifting from the work they intended to do, which is consulting, to more of a staff augmentation role.

And, they don’t want to be stuck feeling like a pseudo-employee where they have less autonomy doing work that isn’t fulfilling or challenging.
You may be having the same experience.

So today, I want to share with you the three main reasons why you’re landing contracting roles instead of consulting engagements.

I give you guiding questions with each one of these 3 reasons, to help you to overcome the root causes and shift into a sales and delivery mode where you’re so that you're operating like an autonomous firm that's partnering and collaborating, not being managed by your clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As you think about what's happening in our economy, you may feel concerned about the “poly-crisis” and how it can potentially impact your business.

I want you to know that you don't have to be in survival mode this year, hunkering down and hoping that the recession ends soon. Instead, you can use this as a benefit for your consulting business. 

Listen in as I share the 3 consulting trends I'm already seeing in 2023 and how you can apply those trends to your business so you make 2023 your best yet.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

Click here to read the blog with all 5 Consulting Trends to Leverage for Your Success in 2023.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I interview Brian Owens, a current coaching client, former corporate colleague, and past consulting client.

I invited him onto this milestone episode, #100, so you can hear and experience the way he thinks about selling. He’s sold over $100 million dollars in services over the course of his career, and roughly $1B in software and services. He’s an expert at selling, and I wanted you to hear how he thinks about sales (sneak preview: he doesn’t consider it selling), selling, and himself as he’s selling.

More specifically, Brian shares 

• Why he doesn’t call himself a salesperson
• How he thinks about sales and selling
• Essential elements of his sales process and engagement strategy
• How to get past the gatekeeper and to the decision-makers
• and so much more.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, you represent both yourself and your business. 

In this episode, I focus on personal branding for independent consultants. This topic is commonly misunderstood, misapplied, or overlooked by consultants, yet it's an important foundational aspect for IC businesses so you build a reputation, become known for and sought after for what you do, and ultimately make business development much easier for your business.

In this episode, I share how to

• Stand out as a consultant
• Become sought after for what you do
• Establish Your personal branding foundation (commonly overlooked)
• The 5 Questions to ask yourself to define and refine your personal brand

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Today we’re welcoming back to the podcast, McLean Robbins. McLean is the Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at MBO Partners and an independent consultant herself.

MBO partners is a company that helps connect independent consultants and micro business owners with enterprise client engagement opportunities. On an annual basis, McLean and her team conduct research that's called the State of Independence.

McLean is graciously sharing the most recent study results, along with her perspective, so you know how to make these findings actionable for you and your business.

If you’re looking to stand out as an independent consultant with your ideal enterprise clients and grow your consulting business in the next 12 months, this conversation is for you!

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

If you procrastinate on writing proposals for your consulting business, you’re not alone. 

Most consultants delay, avoid, and dread writing consulting proposals. It’s common to rush through, water down, and undersell your consulting proposals as a result of this procrastination.

In today’s episode, I help you with the formula to conquer this procrastination.

Listen in as I walk you through a process to identify the root cause of why you’re experiencing consulting proposal procrastination and the formula to overcome that procrastination so your proposals are more impactful and easier for you to draft.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Today we're talking about doubling your consulting revenue. 

A fear that most consultants have about doubling their revenue is that by pursuing this goal, they’ll double everything else: their stress level, workload, and more.

This doesn't have to be the case.

In today's episode, I’ll help you understand the four steps to make more money with more fulfillment, more impact, more strategic projects, and more free time for yourself.

Listen in as I walk you through the four powerful steps for doubling your consulting revenue.

Be sure to listen until the very end, when I share very specific questions that will help you put all four of these components in place in your business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Most independent consultants either avoid or overcomplicate value propositions because value propositions can feel confusing, complicated, or impossible to get right. Without a clear and compelling value proposition, you can be leaving a lot of money on the table and also making your consulting business harder than it needs to be.

I'm excited to share some tangible next steps for you to continue evolving your value proposition and ultimately your business.

Listen in as I walk through: 

• The basics of your value proposition
• The blockers that are preventing you from creating the most impactful value proposition
• The 11 strategies to help improve your value proposition, build your reputation, strengthen your personal brand, and lead to you becoming sought after for what you do.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Today we’re talking about making more money in your consulting business. One of the ways that you can make more money is by selling follow-on consulting work.

Selling follow-on work is an area of opportunity for most independent consultants because most of us don’t have an intentional process to sell work to our existing clients.

Having a strategic plan to sell, qualify, and sell follow-on work can be a tremendous revenue generator for your business. And, you know what you’re getting into with existing clients where you have an insider understanding of their culture.

In this episode, I share how to 

• finetune your mindset to set yourself up for success when selling follow-on work, 
• the five specific strategies for selling the follow-on work to your existing or former clients, and
• an important tool that you can use immediately, to put a follow-on sales process into action in your consulting business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Ultimately, your goal in a discovery meeting is to fully understand your consulting prospect’s challenges and goals so you can recommend a compelling set of solutions. 

In this episode, I  share a framework you can use to make your discovery meetings more valuable.

Listen in as I share 

• what a discovery meeting is (and what it isn't), 
• the goals of a discovery meeting, 
• what your mindset needs to look like to have a high-quality discovery meeting, 
• several examples of what to do and what not to do in an effective discovery meeting,
• and then I wrap up with ten (10) questions that will get you started mapping out a higher value discovery meeting for you and for your potential clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

We’d all love to close 100% of the consulting engagements in our pipeline. Wouldn’t it feel so liberating if every one of your prospects signed a contract for a lucrative consulting project? The reality is that you won’t win every consulting opportunity.

In this episode you’ll hear why losing consulting deals is not a problem. In fact, if you're not losing deals, it's highly likely that your business is not as healthy as it could be. It sounds crazy, but losing deals is something that needs to be talked about and turned into a benefit, rather than ignored and hidden.

Listen in as I share

• What a lost consulting deal is (hint: a loss isn’t always a loss)
• The three very typical, damaging responses you could have to a lost deal 
• The six strategies to turn lost deals into a benefit 
• A very specific tool you can use to implement these strategies to turn a lost deal into a benefit for both you and your business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

A goal I hear so often from my independent consultant business owner clients is, “I want to be making more than I would have been making had I stayed in corporate.”

For you, that could translate to making ~$500k in your independent consultant business.

You might be far away from $500k, you might be past it, or you might be in a spot where a lot of consultants are, somewhere in the $200k and $300k range.

You want to increase your revenue but you’re not sure how or if you’ll be able to find the time.

In today’s episode, I share the specific path to $500k in your independent consulting business.

Listen in for:

• Three tangible examples that describe how to generate $500k in your independent consulting business
• Five specific enablers you’ll need to put into place so you hit the $500k mark
• Two specific ways that you can put this episode into action

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Does running your independent consulting business feel heavy, unsustainable, or dull?

This is a normal part of doing business.

If you want longevity in your consulting business, it’s important to build up the skills to recognize and shorten these cycles when your business feels hard or unsustainable.

In this episode, I share how to recognize and diagnose the root causes of your business feeling hard, so you can address them and avoid the mistake of making changes that target the wrong problem.

Listen in as I walk through

• Four (4) tools you can use when your business starts feeling hard
• Personal real-life examples that illustrate how to implement each of these tools 
• Two (2) specific ways you can put this episode into action 

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Setting up consulting retainers with your clients is a great way to create more predictability and repeatability in your business. 

Whether you want to center your business around retainers or you want this to be another service offering in your portfolio, it will help you end the “feast-or-famine” cycle.

In this episode, I'm going to walk you through the three steps to make this happen for yourself –either transition your business fully into a retainer or add retainers as another service in your service portfolio.

Listen in as I share

• what is an advisory retainer is
• three examples of different types of advisory retainers
• how to design your own advisory retainer
• how to create your go-to-market strategy
• four ways to generate demand as part of your go-to-market strategy
• the most important component of your advisory retainer roadmap

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

For more support, click here to learn about private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

One of the most effective methods of filling and maintaining a consistent consulting pipeline is speaking.

Yet, many independent consultants overlook or avoid speaking.

You might be thinking, “I’m not ready to be a public speaker” or “I don’t like public speaking.”

Or, you might be thinking you need a portfolio, speaker’s reel, and other assets that feel time-consuming and challenging to create.

Or, you might think it’s hard to find the right audience to speak to.

These misconceptions hold too many consultants back from leveraging this effective lead generation tool.

In today’s episode, I share with you a simple and effective process to book one speaking engagement per month. 

It is entirely possible for you to make a complete one-eighty and go from someone who’s avoidant of personal speaking to someone who uses it as an effective lead generation tool in your business. 

Listen in as I share the four steps to 

• Create speaking opportunities
• Land speaking opportunities
• Identify and put the necessary prerequisites in place and 
• Generate the mindset you need to be successful

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

You’ve landed a speaking gig, but now what? 

You want to make sure your speaking engagement creates leads for your consulting business.

It’s important to carefully plan how you’re going to convert the audience members into leads for your consulting business, so you make the most out of the opportunity. 

This episode is part two of the series focused on leveraging speaking engagements to build your consulting buyer pipeline. 

In this episode, I cover how to convert scheduled speaking opportunities into viable consulting leads.

Listen in as I share 

• The key strategies to make the most of every speaking opportunity
• Step-by-step to implement the journey from audience member to consulting lead and
• Three specific examples for you to leverage when implementing a speaker funnel into your consulting business

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I share a tool to help you solve problems or blocks that you’re having in your consulting business.

This tool helps you unlock strategies you’ve hidden in the back of your brain and will eliminate the hesitation and resistance that have prevented you from implementing those strategies.

This tool helps you to see where you might be going through the motions but not actually creating traction for yourself as an independent consultant.

This game-changing business tool will help you

• unlock creative ways to solve problems, 
• create a sense of urgency, 
• pinpoint excuses, and 
• identify logistical and mental blockers you don’t even realize are running under the surface of your thinking.

I’m excited to share why this tool is so incredibly powerful and how it can work as a universal problem-solver in every area of your consulting business. 

Stay tuned to the end of the episode when I share three specific examples that demonstrate how to apply this tool in your consulting business when you want to:

• Ramp up lead generation
• Create urgency around finalizing contracts
• Adjust your consulting pricing models 

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

I am excited to introduce Jon Younger Ph.D. on this episode. Jon is a thought leader in the consulting space as a long-term consultant, author, and expert in the Future of Work.

Today Jon joins me in discussing the evolution of work for consultants. We look at both sides of the consulting equation. First, Jon talks about the four stages of freelancing and consulting and what success looks like in each of those phases for anyone who wants stability, predictability, and longevity as a consulting business owner.

Then Jon shares the perspective of consulting buyers so you can learn how to stand out and be sought after as a consultant for your ideal clients.

With over 45 years of experience as a consultant, educator, and author, I know Jon’s fresh take on succeeding as an independent consultant will resonate.

I am honored to be able to share his engaging thoughts and research during this episode of the podcast.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I reveal the pricing mistake almost every independent consultant makes while growing their business.

When pricing out a consulting proposal, it’s common to think about what a client will be willing to pay and focus on how to hit that number.

Most consultants are overly influenced by their assumptions about the client’s acceptance when it comes to pricing. 

And, as a result, they forget about their own business pricing requirements. 

In today’s episode, I 

• Drill into the most common consulting pricing mistake so you can recognize where you could be making this mistake in your own business
• Give you three tools to fix this common pricing mistake and
• Help you overcome fear so you can shift your mindset from one of scarcity to one of abundance.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Generating a steady stream of new consulting opportunities is crucial to building a successful independent consulting business. Often we rely on marketplaces, networking, and past employers to generate leads. When you master the ability to land new clients independently, opportunities are endless.

Today, I share the best strategy for getting your foot in the door with new consulting clients. Wherever you are in your business, this best practice is applicable. So whether you have a full roster, are already using a successful business development process, or are just starting, this strategy is the missing piece that will enable you to grow and maintain a steady consulting pipeline of new clients.

Mastering this strategy means landing new clients without relying on anyone else but you. It gives you the flexibility to find and secure clients who need the skills and expertise you offer. This will enable you to break through the plateaus and false limits in your business.

Are you ready to have a healthy pipeline for your consulting business? Tune in to learn the best strategy to get your foot in the door with new clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

It’s common for independent consultants to put client testimonials on the back burner.

You know you want to capture testimonials and case studies.

You put them on your to-do list but they don’t become a priority.

Without a standard operating procedure, there will never be a “good” time to ask a client for a testimonial.

It gets pushed off and pushed off, and suddenly, it’s been too long, or the feedback no longer seems relevant.

Powerful consulting client testimonials and case studies are crucial to growing an independent consulting business.

Today I share a process for securing client testimonials in a way that is easy on you and the client.

Are you ready to see how powerful consulting client testimonials will impact your business development process?

Listen in to learn the best practices to implement testimonials in your consulting business and how testimonials benefit both you and the client.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, I can safely assume you’re responsive and professional. 

You provide timely responses to client requests.

And, sometimes this responsiveness can backfire.

It backfires when we give the potential client what they ask for without questioning it, especially when it comes to writing and sending over consulting proposals.

It is crucial that proposals aren’t written too early. Not only do premature proposals cost us time and money, but they also extend the sales cycle and increase the chance of losing the deal.

Today’s episode outlines the consequences of premature consulting proposals and how to improve your sales process to avoid this common consulting mistake.

Whether you’re reacting to a client’s urgency or operating off of overconfidence and assumptions, these premature proposals often miss the mark as it relates to the solution you’re recommending and the pricing you’re offering.

Avoiding writing a premature consulting proposal will improve your consulting sales process, increase client trust, and preserve your time.

In this episode, I share how to know if you’re writing your consulting proposals prematurely and how to navigate the sales process so you’re in command and giving the client a value-driven proposal at the stage of the sales process that’s most effective for both you and the potential client.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, getting ghosted by a client feels like the worst thing that could possibly happen. You spend time and resources on discovery, research, and proposals that amount to nothing.

You thought you had the deal in the bag. What happened?

It’s time to conduct a retrospective.

Today’s episode is about leveraging retrospectives to unlock continuous improvement so your independent consulting business is more efficient and successful.

In this episode, I walk you through how to do retrospectives in your consulting business so you make the most of all the time you invest in generating leads, facilitating discovery, writing proposals, and negotiating with your consulting buyers.

This topic is part of the podcast series focused on tightening your operating procedures. Making small changes or adding small operating procedures will tighten up your processes, improve your efficiency, and increase your value to clients. 

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Consistent lead generation is essential to building a sustainable independent consultant business. It’s easy to understand why business development is vital, so why do independent consultants commonly push this task to the back burner? 

We overlook lead generation because… 

• We overcomplicate the process
• It's uncomfortable
• We don't have a straightforward process to make lead generation easy to complete

Episode 121 drills down into how to simplify lead generation so you’re able to stay consistent regardless of how busy your schedule is.

Tune in to learn four easy tools to implement into your business that make consistent lead generation a no-brainer. 

This episode is another installment of the summer podcast series focused on tightening business operations. Making small changes and adopting procedures like consistent lead generation will improve your confidence, grow your consulting pipeline, and increase the efficiency of your business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, I dive into the critical topic of pricing and how to leverage value-based questioning to transform your consulting sales process, allowing you to command higher fees and showcase your professional skill set.

Discover the simple yet impactful micro-adjustments you can make to your sales meetings to maximize their impact and increase your earning potential. 

By implementing these strategies, you'll be able to demonstrate your expertise from the outset and position yourself as a high-value consultant worth investing in.

Specifically, I share the power of value-based questioning and the most effective mindset that will enable you increase the impact of your sales approach.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Your network is one of the most powerful assets in your business. And we all have relationships in our network that we’ve neglected. It doesn’t matter why you’ve let communication lapse with someone, it’s powerful to reinvigorate those neglected relationships.

You never know where a connection in your network might lead.

I know it can be uncomfortable to reach out to people you have let slide off your radar for so long, but there is a simple 3-step process to rebuild and strengthen relationships with old contacts.

Today I share a simple strategy to revive relationships you’ve neglected in your network so that you can put it to work for you and your independent consulting business.

This episode is part of the summer podcast series focused on dialing in your consulting business operations. Each episode includes another strategy you can implement as a consulting business owner to make your time more impactful.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

CRM (customer relationship management) tools help you maximize your time, stay consistent with your business development activities, and balance supply and demand to keep your pipeline constantly flowing.

So many independent consultants have questions about how to use and implement a CRM so they manage their business development processes effectively and efficiently.

Today’s episode is designed to address frequently asked questions to demystify CRMs for consultants.

You might be surprised, but the key to success isn’t about which software is best for your independent consulting business.

Instead, I share how you can maximize how you think about using a CRM through the lens of a business owner so you’re able to make your  CRM optimize your consulting lead generation, follow-up, nurturing, and consulting sales processes.

This episode on how to select a CRM for your consulting business is part of the summer podcast series that offers bite-sized ways to dial in and tighten up your business consulting operations to make your work more impactful for you and your clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Escaping a time-based pricing model is a common goal for independent consultants. Not only does hourly billing limit a client's perception of your value to their company, but it can also tempt you to overwork.

Many independent consultants want to transition away from time-based billing but need help figuring out how to do it.

In today's episode, I share a simple, 5-step process to adopt a new pricing model for your consulting business.

Transitioning away from hourly or daily rates into a fixed-fee or value-based pricing model can feel intimidating. You don't want to lose a deal based on pricing.

The 5 steps I share with you in this episode will help you combine a proven strategy and effective mindset to overcome obstacles that stop consultants from transitioning from time-based billing.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

You want to offer consulting retainers.

But, you’re not sure where to start.

You’re nervous that retainer clients will call you day and night, and you’ll end up scrambling to support their needs. 

On the other side, you worry the retainer clients won't engage you enough and they'll question the value you're providing.

On top of it, you’re not sure how to sell a retainer. You’re not sure why and how much a client would pay for access to you.

In today's episode, I share an easy three-part framework to help you design a retainer and implement it into your consultancy service portfolio so you can start to generate recurring revenue and long-term clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

You are an independent consultant. You solve problems for a living. So, of course, you can make anything work.

However, allowing your automatic response to be "yes" is a pitfall that drastically impacts your consulting business operations, bottom line, and overall growth.

Today's episode dives into the pitfalls of a “make-it-work” consulting business model. I discuss what it is, why you want to avoid this, and the impacts of piecing together a business instead of establishing clear protocols. And then, I share the alternative to a make-it-work business model and the steps for you to move forward.

This topic is important because it will help you avoid burnout and streamline your business.

The goal is to create a profitable independent consultant business that is simple to operate, creates impact for your clients, and sets you up for revenue growth without needing to sacrifice your flexibility.

Click here for the full show notes and more information here.

Click here to take the Independent Consultant’s Scalability Assessment.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consultant.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Every consultant has experienced this scenario: you’re making excellent progress with a potential client and have secured a verbal consulting agreement, only for the project to stall when it comes to final signatures. All of a sudden, you don’t hear back from the stakeholder. Emails and calls go unanswered, and you start to spiral.

We know it can take time to finalize agreements at the corporate level, but it’s scary when a potential client seems eager about the work you proposed and then goes silent when it’s time to solidify the contract.

These scenarios are impossible to avoid as a consultant. However, there are ways to navigate the process to make it easier for both you and the client.

Today’s episode is about how to navigate these stalled consulting agreements.

Join me as I share two real-life examples of stalled consulting agreements and how I helped these clients overcome feelings of self-doubt to regain control of the situation.

Finally, I explain the formula to follow when a stall occurs and how to implement it into your business process.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

Click here to take the Independent Consultant’s Scalability Assessment.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

By offering retainers, you, as an independent consultant, can create recurring, high-profit, and consistent revenue for your business.

There’s a misconception that it’s difficult to sell advisory retainers. So, if you’re like so many consultants, you know you want to offer advisory retainers but you don’t try. It feels daunting and ripe for rejection.

I want to demystify this for you so you can start generating a pipeline of advisory leads and ultimately deliver work that is impactful for your clients and advantageous for you and your business.

Specifically, I focus on how to generate leads for a consulting advisory retainer. Today’s episode is a continuation of the conversation about how to design a consulting retainer in episode 126 of this podcast.

By the end of this episode, you will have a solid plan in place to start building out a pipeline of consulting retainer clients.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Are you struggling with lead generation but not entirely sure why?

It turns out there’s a surprising blocker.

It’s not that you don’t have time for lead gen.

It’s not that you don’t know how to generate leads for your consulting business.

It’s likely some other reason.

What is this common reason you’re struggling to generate leads?

This blocker to prioritizing lead generation is that you won’t be able to handle the work if you generate leads.

In today’s episode, I offer a solution to unblocking your lead generation pipeline: a virtual talent bench.

A virtual talent bench is a curated list of individuals or companies that provide services and skills that overlap or are adjacent to your consultant offerings. Regardless of your goals for your business - to stay solo or expand to a small team - establishing a virtual talent bench is essential.

Are you ready to learn how to leverage a virtual talent bench to unblock your lead generation so you can be more consistent?

This episode is for you.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Do you ever feel like a fraud or like you aren’t qualified to deliver the work you’re selling? You are not alone. Many independent consultants struggle with imposter syndrome.

Melisa’s message in this episode might surprise you. She shares that experiencing imposter syndrome is good for you as a business owner. It means you’re challenging yourself.

However, when imposter syndrome goes unmanaged, the underlying insecurities and self-doubt can be paralyzing and negatively impact your business, resulting in under-earning and underutilization.

Today’s episode is a comprehensive guide to imposter syndrome for independent consultants.

Melisa starts off by sharing high-level definitions of imposter syndrome the various ways imposter syndrome can impact your business. Melisa then walks you through the tools to manage and overcome your imposter syndrome.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Do you dream of reaching $1,000,000 in your independent consulting business?

So many consultants think one million dollars in 12 months isn't possible. We talk ourselves out of trying because it feels like it would be too much work and will compromise our work/life balance.

In today's episode, Melisa shares how to earn $1,000,000 in revenue without overworking or sacrificing family life. When you start thinking of yourself as a $1,000,000 business owner, it is incredible how much that mindset shift changes what is possible.

Melisa's 5-step method is easy to follow and implement in your operating procedures. Not only is her advice practical, but it leverages sustainable working practices so that achieving your revenue goal doesn't come at the cost of work/life balance.

Are you ready to be the proud owner of a million-dollar consultancy? Tune in to follow Melisa's proven path to one million dollars.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Worrying about a soft market is a common concern for independent consultants.

As a business owner, a slow down in contracts or a lack of new leads can bring on stress, doubt, and even panic.

In today's episode, Melisa shares techniques and tools to help you navigate and respond in a soft market.

A lull or slow down in business does not mean you must take a dreaded return to corporate.

Your consultancy is a valid and viable business that can be nurtured through market challenges.

Tune in to learn how to operationalize Melisa's framework so you’re able to turn a soft market into an advantage for your consulting business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Q4 can be a challenging time for independent consultants.

You’re worried corporate clients aren't buying at year's end. You’re thinking you’re too busy because of everything you’re juggling during the busy holiday season and at year end. And, you might even be thinking of “throwing in the towel” on this year because you’re too far behind on your goals.

If you have a non-productive mindset about Q4, you’ll leave opportunities on the table.

You have the chance to think differently than your independent consulting peers, and to stand apart in Q4. Q4 can be one of the most lucrative quarters of the year if you don’t write it off.

In today's episode, Melisa shares three common traps that keep independent consultants from maximizing their Q4 results. She debunks each situation that holds business owners back from selling effectively at year's end. Melisa also offers suggestions for overcoming these mindset traps so you can finish the year strong.

So, if you’re an independent consultant who wants to make the most of Q4, this episode is for you.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on Melisa’s coaching programs that are specifically designed to tackle the unique challenges independent consultants face.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

The consultant’s pricing upper limit is the ceiling you create for yourself and your consultancy business based on the way you think about your pricing. 

Often, independent consultants adjust their pricing based on what they believe the client is thinking. For example, you might price out an engagement at $50k and then worry the client will think it’s too high and so you talk yourself into pricing it at $35k.

When you price your consulting services based on your assumptions about the amount your client is willing or able to pay, you self-impose limits on your fees.

These aren’t limits set by your clients. These are limits you create for yourself because you’re worried about losing business.

In today's episode, Melisa challenges the popular advice about how to maximize your consulting fees. Melisa shares that the #1 determinant of what you can charge is not what you’ve been taught it is.

Melisa shares several real-life examples of how pricing was set in similar situations and for similar services so you can walk away with confidence about increasing your consulting fees.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Why are some consultants more successful than others when it comes to lead generation?

Even when they use the same lead generation strategy, consultants create vastly different lead generation results.

Some consultants generate a thriving pipeline through networking while others don’t generate any leads.

Some consultants create robust pipelines from cold outreach while other consultants don’t create a single lead.

Some consultants build a repeatable pipeline from speaking while others do the same thing with no leads to show for it.

If it’s not the strategy that makes the difference for consulting lead generation, then what is it?

Why are some consultants so much more successful at building their pipeline than others?

In today’s episode, Melisa highlights which lead generation techniques are working right now.

She explains the three key differences in mindset, emotion, and skills that separate successful consultants from those struggling to build their pipelines.

Melisa shares two real client case studies highlighting how these lead generation techniques can make a difference in your consultancy business.

Finally, Melisa provides a framework to operationalize these lead generation strategies and max out your pipeline.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, it’s common to think that you are your business.

You aren’t your business. Just because you are the person operating the business, it doesn’t mean you are the business.

Why does this distinction matter?

When you think you and your business are one in the same, you take setbacks in your business personally and make decisions from a clouded perspective. Ultimately, it’s likely you'll sabotage yourself, your business, or both.

In today’s episode, Melisa explores the importance of recognizing the separation between you and your consultancy. She highlights the problems you can create by thinking you are your business. And, she shares how to separate yourself as a person from your consulting firm.

Tune in to discover Melisa's three-part framework, designed to help you think about what you’re doing from a business owner's perspective and ultimately move forward toward reaching your goals in a simple and lucrative way.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on private coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Growing a consulting business isn't easy.

There’s a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.

Sometimes you might even be questioning if it’s worth it.

In today's episode, Melisa challenges consultants to answer the critical question: “What are you willing to do to be successful in your consulting business?”

There are three specific things you need to be willing to do to grow a successful consulting business.

Tune in as Melisa talks about these three types of willingness, including relatable client examples. The episode wraps up with an actionable framework to help you put Melisa's teachings into action.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Many consultants complain they don’t have enough time for lead generation.

Let’s not sugar-coat it. To be successful, you must take responsibility for your lead generation efforts and take proactive steps to address these underlying issues. Neglecting lead generation can jeopardize the existence of your consulting business. 

In this episode, Melisa helps you tackle your lack of time so you can overcome the lead generation excuses once and for all.

This isn’t the typical advice you’re used to hearing about time management.

Melisa provides you with a three-step plan for overcoming the challenge of not having time for your consulting lead generation.

If you have been neglecting lead generation due to client commitments, extensions, and repeat business these practical steps will ensure that you have a consistent lead generation routine, even when it feels like you don’t have an extra moment to spare.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As an independent consultant, confidence is your secret weapon.

Being willing to put yourself out there so potential clients know about you requires self-confidence.

Selling yourself requires self-confidence.

Building trust with clients requires self-confidence.

But, the truth is, you won’t always feel confident as a consulting business owner or even as a consultant.

Join Melisa in today's episode as she unveils three actionable approaches to restore and expand your self-confidence. These are the strategies that you can leverage to overcome a dip in confidence, whether it is created by something that happened in your business, your professional life, or even because you're doing something new like offering a new service or working with a new client.

You can leverage these three strategies to create confidence ahead of time and get you where you want to go in your business more quickly and more effectively.

Tune in as Melisa provides real-life examples and practical strategies, to equip you to navigate uncertainties, rebuild your confidence from within, and propel your consulting business beyond what you imagined is possible.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, Melisa is excited to introduce Robert Reich. Robert is an entrepreneurial executive with 30+ years of experience creating and refining consumer and enterprise software solutions. He’s the managing partner of R2, a consulting firm that specializes in crafting AI solutions and strategically pinpointing areas for transformative change while cultivating organizational wisdom for informed, ethical AI adoption.

Robert was named inventor on six patents, has served as an advisory board member with Silicon Flatirons an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado, and a mentor at Unreasonable Institute.

In this episode, Melisa and Robert discuss the nuanced aspects of AI strategy, AI implementation, and the exciting potential of voice interface in technology.

Then Robert shares his secret for building a strong reputation – positioning oneself as an expert through platforms like podcasts, blogs, or events. He also provides recommendations to consultants on how to leverage AI in their consulting service offerings.

Don’t miss this episode, especially so you have the #1 step Robert recommends consultants take so you can leverage AI into their consulting business and client offerings.

Click here for the full show notes and more information, including Melisa’s blog article - AI in Consulting: How to Future-Proof Your Consulting Business

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, Melisa shares a key ingredient for independent consulting success: forging your professional self-identity as a consultant.

By actively shaping your self-identity, you open the door to fresh opportunities for your consulting business. You'll draw in the right projects, partner with clients who appreciate your full scope of skills, and set fees that mirror the strategic value you bring to the table.

The insights Melisa shares with you today are not just information; they are a call to action.

Take a moment to apply this episode to your own independent consultant identity so you can make marketing, selling, and running your business easier and more predictable.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

In this episode, Melisa shares a crucial first step for consultants aiming to exceed their business goals in the next year and next quarter. 

She explains how this often-overlooked step of an effective goal-setting process can lead to success, even if you're currently behind. 

Melisa guides listeners through a powerful three-step evaluation framework to set the stage for effective planning and goal-setting in the upcoming year, quarter, month, or week. 

This is a must listen episode to create the business results that you're wanting to achieve. Tune in for a practical approach to make the next year your best in your consulting business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

An obstacle for independent consultants aiming to grow their business is the tendency to argue for limitations. 

What does this mean to argue for your limitations?

Arguing for your limitations refers to situations where you justify and explain why something won’t work for you or your business.

For example, you might justify your empty pipeline by thinking the economy is soft.

Or, you might explain why you have a long sales cycle by thinking your industry is slower than others to make decisions.

Or, you might justify that you don’t have time to focus on business development right now.

You’re smart. You can find a lot of evidence to support these justifications.

But, when you argue for your limitations, you make running your business harder than it needs to be. And, it takes longer to reach your goals.

This episode emphasizes the importance of recognizing that these perceived roadblocks, obstacles, or industry norms are not fixed or insurmountable limitations.

Listen in as Melisa discusses what it means to argue for your limitations, shares three examples to illustrate this concept, and helps you identify where you’re arguing for your limitations.

Don’t miss the end when Melisa outlines steps to avoid making this mistake in your independent consulting business.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

As we approach the end of another year, it's that time to set goals for the upcoming year. Or, if you're catching this episode later, it could be time to establish or revisit your quarterly or monthly business objectives. 

If you’re implementing SMART goals or incremental-type goals in your business, you could be leaving opportunities on the table.

In this episode, Melisa introduces an unconventional method for achieving your goals. This unique approach has proven to be a game-changer for consultants, propelling them past plateaus, breaking through perceived ceilings, and shattering upper limits to unlock results they once thought were unattainable. 

Melisa is excited to guide you through this process, providing a fresh perspective on goal-setting.

Ready for a challenge? Join in to discover more.

Click here for the full show notes and more information.

And click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Many independent consultants overlook the opportunity to productize their services because they think their work varies too much based on each client’s unique circumstances and requirements.

While it’s true each of your clients is unique, that doesn’t mean you can’t turn your client delivery approach into a repeatable, productized solution.

Productizing your consulting solutions benefits both you and your clients.

In this episode, Melisa breaks down the process to productize your consulting services, and how you can do so without sacrificing the variety you want to have in your business and the customization and tailoring your consulting clients expect and value.

Melisa shares two real-life case studies to bring this concept of productizing your consulting services to life. And, she gives seven questions to help you apply the episode to your consulting business.

This episode will help you uncover opportunities to productize your consulting services, so you can charge more for your consulting work, give yourself the flexibility to engage subcontractors when and where you want to in your business, and so you stand out as the sought-after consultant for your consulting specialization.

Click here for the full show notes and more information, including the Productized Consulting 101: A Guide for Independent Consultants article.

Then, click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.

Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.