life

Why most consultants need fewer leads

The number one complaint I hear from solo consultants is that they need more leads– whether from their website, referrals, ads, speaking, etc. Who wouldn’t want more leads? The problem with focusing on quantity is that you create more (unpaid) … Read More

turn zoom meetings into Evergreen lead magnets

Turn Zoom Meetings (and other content) into Evergreen Lead Magnets

One of the (many) challenges of solopreneurship is the feast-or-famine cycle of business development and project work, because there’s never enough time. Heaven forbid you might want to have a vacation in there somewhere. (After all, is it vacation if … Read More

Positioning Pyramid

The Simple Sales and Marketing Audit for Solo Consultants

The vast majority of solo consultants I encounter want more leads, and they invest a lot of time, money, and energy to get those leads, usually with disappointing results. They go through the “Cycle of Doom” (see below), or so … Read More

The Scam Economy

Don’t you just love those messages in your inbox that start “I’m so impressed by your work at [Company] and I’d love to connect to find ways to collaborate”? Or: I’m not opposed to advertising. I’m not opposed to getting … Read More

Ring, ring, your “ideal” client is calling

What do you feel? Excitement? Dread? So much of figuring out your Ideal client profile comes down to this question, because we have a natural tendency to want to broaden the circle to encompass as many people as possible. But … Read More

Cask-strength positioning for consultants

Cask-strength positioning for solo consultants

AI is all the rage (and what can I say, I find it very helpful), but for many consultants, AI is just making difficult work more streamlined, instead of transforming the nature of the work. What can transform your business** … Read More

Don't use AI to be less human

Authenticity is the currency

A lot of folks in marketing overuse the term “authenticity”, like it’s some kind of commodity you can fake, and thereby increase sales. But authenticity is precious, which is why so many people are trying to fake it. This goes … Read More

Complexity is the enemy

When we’re deep into our field, we sometimes get so deep that clients and prospects have trouble understanding. Think of a doctor describing an operation to another doctor, rather than to the patient. This is the curse of expertise. But there’s another form of … Read More

Small Year-end Solo Consulting Housekeeping Tips

Happy holidays! I hope you’re taking some time away from business to be with family, friends, nature, a good book, etc. But this is also a good time to make some adjustments while you may have a moment. Here are … Read More

Prep for 2025 and vow to do less

If you read and/or listen to a lot of business advice, the general idea is to do more. Not to say this is wrong (necessarily), but the main issue is that we don’t have enough time and/or focus to properly … Read More