Transcript
[0:00:00] A: You? Have you ever felt like you're not making enough progress with your
consulting or coaching business? Or are you tired of those hit or miss profits and feeling like you're never getting ahead? Well, it's time to say enough already and let's go from surviving to thriving. Welcome back to the Enough Already podcast where we talk about how consulting and coaching business owners can forge their own path to success and live their best life. I'm your host, Betsy Jordan and in today's episode episode what we're going to be doing is decoding the profit puzzle and dive into the different levels of success you can achieve with your consulting business.
[0:00:33] A: So we're going to talk about the differences between stable profits, sustainable profits and scalable profits. Before I get into the nitty gritty details of each type of profit picture you can have, let me first describe what sets them apart. So first picture this. You have a consulting or coaching business that is achieving predictable profits, meaning you're making a solid income without ever worrying where is your next lead going to come from?
[0:01:03] A: How great does that sound? Right? But sustainable success is a little different. So it's not just about making sure that you have that predictable client pipeline. It's about making sure that you have a business that's making a great income while you're living your purpose and having full confidence that yes, I will be able to generate incomes for years to come. That's great. But there's another level that happens after that and it's all about scale and scaling your growth. And this is where the magic happens.
[0:01:33] A: It's about wealth creation and impact without sacrificing your values or your lifestyle. So now those are the different levels. Let me get into the specifics. So let's first talk about stability. And let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing more frustrating or soul crushing than wondering where is my next lead going to come from? Right? This is exactly what happens when we follow the very popular but entrepreneurial dream crushing advice to just get out there and get clients.
[0:02:04] A: When you have that mindset and that approach, you wind up doing the very
same things that you did to get a job, right? And what happens there? You recreate your
career in your business. And here's the real kicker. Sometimes you leave your corporate job and you start your business and you've got a very generous referral network. They're great. They are delivering clients to you on the regular but at some point it stops.
[0:02:29] A: So how do you get out of this trap? Number one, you need to really first shift your mind. Soul. Sorry? First you need to shift your mindset. You need to stop seeing yourself as an expert in a certain area or even as a consultant or coach. You need to first see yourself as a business owner who happens to sell consulting or coaching services. So that's a small shift but big game changer. So a lot of those who are listening, you work with executives and you know how a CEO is supposed to think in order to create a profitable business, right?
[0:03:06] A: You need to do those same things for yourself. You need to see yourself in the same way and give yourself the same advice as you would a CEO of a business. And so this is why when I work with my clients, the number one thing I have all of my clients go through is my signature business and brand strategy and messaging program, which is all about building that powerful foundation for your business. So this is why this is so important. Without that strategic clarity, you do wind up with hit or miss results. Because if you don't know who you're going after and what the value is that you're going to create for them, you're just going to be out there just with all of those hit or miss results. So if you want to get consistency, you really need to have a strategy.
[0:03:47] A: And that strategy begins with getting clear on what do you do, for whom and why. You need to understand who your ideal client is. And let me tell you who it's not. It's not just anyone who needs a consultant or coach. It's the person your business exists to serve. So if you've got questions and pushback on narrowing down on your ideal client, definitely go back and check out episodes 38 and 39 where I go more into why it's so essential to begin your business development on your ideal client.
[0:04:17] A: So once you know who you serve, then you want to figure out the unique value you create for this client that is one of a kind. And you want to talk about how do you deliver that value in framed up and compelling products and services. So that's the strategy. But it's not enough for this strategy just to exist on paper or even in your head. You need to manifest it on a credible website that serves as your online store.
[0:04:41] A: So if you don't have a website, you don't have a business, you're stuck as a freelancer or a subcontractor. So every business today has a website and a credible social media presence. So you definitely can land clients for sure without a website. You know that, right? But you can't achieve that stability in your client pipeline without it. And if you don't have a credible website that includes copy that gets people excited to work with you and has high quality visuals and content, it's going to impact your results. I mean, think about it. Think about the reality of what happens. Even when you get a lead from a referral, they are definitely going to go check out your website and definitely your social media platform, particularly LinkedIn. If you're going after a professional client, if it doesn't exist or is sort of hohum, well, you know what your potential client's going to do, they're going to hire someone else that conveys the trust that they're looking for or they won't pay you premium fees because you don't look like a premium brand.
[0:05:41] A: So you need to make sure you have a website. And that's not enough either.
You need a marketing system. And when I'm talking about a marketing system, I'm not
talking about a bunch of marketing tactics that you do occasionally. I'm talking about an aligned set of tactics that you use regularly, consistently, to build awareness that you exist and motivate clients to work with you. So you need to move your clients along a journey towards working with you. And the reality is, it takes about seven touch points for a client to want to work with you. So you want to make sure all those touch points are aligned and compelling.
[0:06:15] A: And then that's not all. There is one very important part of this stability puzzle, and it's what you actually do to land clients. So if you're processed to give clients whatever they want or you charge by the hour, you're definitely leaving money on the table. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this when we get into the section on scalable profits and how important this is. But from this standpoint, from a stability standpoint, you have to know how to convert those leads into clients who will pay you what you're worth.
[0:06:43] A: So, for example, let me talk about myself. So when I first started my consulting business almost 15 years ago, I did the bare minimum. I just got a brochure style website. I had a friend help me with some business cards and a logo. I had a fictitious business name that was kind of it. And I got clients through referrals. I had the Disney name behind me. It was great. I was making decent money. But it wasn't consistency.
[0:07:09] A: I wasn't really getting paid in the way that I wanted, but more importantly, I wasn't getting the consistency. I was sort of like waiting for that magical referral ferry to do its magic. And then at a certain point, I had to decide, am I dead serious about building this business or not? Do I really want to go all in on this business and make this my career? So what I did is I invested in the coaching that gave me the skills and the perspective as a business owner and I invested in a credible website.
[0:07:38] A: And by the way, neither one of those things that I have a bunch of extra money
for, I had to find the money to pay for those things. Because when it comes to having the
mindset of a business owner, you have to invest first and then get the return. And oh boy,
did I get a return. So it's not just that I improved my brand image. Going through that
process changed my perception of my worth and it affected my language and my pricing.
[0:08:03] A: So I'll never forget the first client opportunity I got after launching my website.
It actually came from a referral, but I saw myself so differently and I presented myself
because I had my website, I had all this professional image behind me, this credibility. I
shifted in my language around how I describe my value to those clients and what I priced. I
think I five times my fees for this engagement and I landed it instantly and it set me on a
trajectory that was very different than what I was on before.
[0:08:35] A: So that was almost 15 years ago. So here I am. So let's talk about you. What
about you? Is your business set up for stability? So do you have clarity on your ideal clients
and the unique value you create for them? Do you have framed up products and services
that are relevant and enticing for them? Do you have messages and copy that resonates with
your ideal clients that you use in your marketing and on your website?
[0:08:56] A: Take a look at your online presence. Do you have one and does it establish
your credibility? Does it make you look like a premium brand? Check out your website and
your social media platforms. And do you have a system versus those one off tactics for
attracting and landing clients? If no, on a scale of one to ten, how important is this stability
to you? And if it's very important to you and you're not there yet, what steps can you take to
move yourself towards that goal?
[0:09:23] A: So that's stability. Let's talk about sustainability, which is a little bit different.
So sustainable success is more than consistency. For right now, it's having a business that
we can feel 100% confident will be our primary source of income and know for a fact that
we will never, ever have to give up that career control we want with our consulting and
coaching business and have to just go back and just get a job.
[0:09:49] A: So there's two things that you need to get to this level of sustainability with
your business success. Number one, you need to build a business that's aligned to your
unique strengths, passion and lifestyle priorities. And two, you need to go all in on your
commitment to making this ideal business a success. So let's first talk about why it's so
important to build a business out of the truth of who you are and what you want.
[0:10:14] A: So, number one, in my experience, but I have to admit, most of my clients, if not
all of them, are accomplished mid career professionals. But the thing is that for people who
already have a first career, who know exactly how to make a ton of money and have all of
those perks that come with an executive career, they don't want to just leave all of that for
money, right? Why would you go through all those efforts of facing the fear of the unknown
and vulnerability of being the face of your business if it's just about the money.
[0:10:41] A: If it was just about the money, you could just go back and get a job. No harm,
no foul. You know exactly how to do that. But when your second act or career is a business,
it's because you also know that you want to make a bigger difference. You want to live in
your zone of genius. You don't want to talk about your zone of genius. You want to inhabit
your zone of genius and you want to get balance in your life.
[0:11:01] A: So in order to stay in the game for the long term and build a thriving business
filled with clients who are your raving fans, you need to bring your passion to what you do.
You got to enjoy what you do and that vision. And it has to be bigger than any fear that you
have of marketing and sales. This is why that business and brand building process that I
take my clients through is so important. You're not going to overcome your fear and your
imposter syndrome by just working through it in your mindset on your own.
[0:11:29] A: No, it's about building a bigger vision that is stronger than that fear. Lots of
people talk about building a business you love as it's this sort of intangible byproduct rather
than the profit generator that it is. So let me talk to you as a consumer and how you might
make a buying decision. So let's say you are in the market to hire a business mentor or
coach. Would you want to hire somebody who says, you know what, I'm just looking for
anyone who wants some business coaching so that they can achieve their income priorities?
[0:11:59] A: Or would you rather hire someone who's passionate about helping consultants
and coaches like you and who has a unique skill set to solve your unique strategic confusion
challenges that are holding you back from your goals? So the same mindset that you would
go through like, oh my gosh, should I work with someone who just wants to work with me
to make money or work with me because they really care about my problems?
[0:12:20] A: It's a no brainer. You'd go for the passion person even if they charged more.
Same goes with your clients. They will know if your heart isn't in your business and if your
heart isn't in your business, you won't have anything to drive you to keep pushing yourself
to do what you need to do to make your business a success. So the key thing here is you
need to start the right business for you. When I do my brand strategy messaging, VIP
experience, we always start with an in depth coaching call to help my clients figure out what
the right business is for them. And I cannot tell you all the light bulb moments my clients get
through that one call around their direction.
[0:12:57] A: So for example, you're going to be hearing very soon from. Denise is one of my
clients who just launched her business. I'm so excited for her. I'm going to be interviewing
her about her journey. And she was a former CIO, and she originally thought that she could
go take her technology experience and benefit other companies. But when we got into that
first coaching session, she realized, like, you know what? My passion, my heart, is to be an
executive coach for women who want to become a CIO like she was.
[0:13:26] A: So this thing about clarity is it's about power. It's really about power once you
see that what you love to do the most and what you want to do can make money, everything
else you need to grow. Your business will feel almost effortless or just with less driving. So
now let's talk about your commitment to this success. There's two parts of all in
commitment. The first commitment is all about mindset and expectations that you're in it to
win it.
[0:13:57] A: I'd love to promise you that once you had a goal and you started taking action
on the goal, it's a straight line from where you are today to that ideal state. But it doesn't
work that way. Your movement towards success is more like an ice skater. You moved side
to side. You put your business out there. You put your ideas out there, the market responds,
and then you adapt. But you don't give up on your idea. If a certain tactic flops, you just flex
your tactics.
[0:14:21] A: This is one of the huge lessons I learned when I was an internal consultant at
Disney. What I love about Disney is they never give up on a good idea, ever. They never give
up on a good idea. They tweak it until it's successful or wait until the right time. So this is
what you need to do. If you want to have a brand that's of the quality of Disney, then do the
Disney principles. Stay at your vision. Be committed to it.
[0:14:43] A: And the other commitment is all about growing your skills as a business
owner, especially around copywriting, because there's a thousand things you need to write
all the time to market yourself. You need to write emails. You need to write, obviously,
website copy. You need to write social media posts. You need to write so many things.
Proposals, that's a huge one. You need to know how to market yourself. You need to know
how to sell yourself.
[0:15:07] A: You need to know how to persuade clients. Because guess what? You don't
have a formal place on any chart. Everything that you do, all the results that you're going to
create as a consultant or coach is 100% through influence. So you're going to need to know
how to grow those skills if you're going to be able to stay in the game for a long term. So this
is why I started that Purpose to Profits academy that I mentioned last week. I'm so excited
about it because my goal here is to provide actionable training in these areas that will
support long term success.
[0:15:37] A: And because this is so important to business owners for the long term, because
I'm all about sustainability, I created a founder's rate of only 297 a month. So it's a super
low cost way to get the skills you need. So if you want to learn more about this program,
head on over to www.betsyjordan.com. And remember, Jordanswithowyacademy. So let's
talk about you. Are you set up for sustainable growth? Do you have clarity on why your
business needs to exist outside of making money?
[0:16:08] A: Is your business aligned to your strengths, to your passions and your total life
priorities? Are you 100% all and committed to your success at a mindset level and at a skill
level scale of one to ten, how important is it that you get a guarantee that your business will
be successful over the long term? If it's very important to you and you're not there yet, you
really need to think about what shifts you need to make so that you can have that full peace
of mind that your business will succeed.
[0:16:40] A: So now let's talk about scalable growth. So one of the best things about
creating content, this is why I love podcasting, why I love content creation, is I'm always the
first student for the content. I'm the one who's learning. And this was very clear to me when
I was working on getting gathering my thoughts for this episode because I never really had
that clarity on exactly what does Scalable growth look like.
[0:17:05] A: And here's my definition scalable growth is more than a predictable client
pipeline and it's more than just being successful over the long term. It's about creating a
business that can grow and generate revenue without increasing your time investment. So
it's getting to that place that what you do in your business are only the things that you can
do so that you can maximize your wealth creation. And it's not just about the money in your
bank or your revenue. It's about having the time, freedom to enjoy everything you want to
do with the one life that you have.
[0:17:38] A: Years ago, I had a mentor who described wealth as discretionary time and I
never really got this idea until now. So how do you get to this wealth creation, this wealth as
discretionary time? Let me give you a few ideas for sure. Get free from the trading time for
money trap. If you are charging your clients by the hour or by the day, you are 100%
capping your earning potential because the only way that you're going to make more money
is to work more hours.
[0:18:10] A: This is why I'm very passionate about the approach I teach my clients. I have a
closing the deal and pricing mastery course. And of course, what I'm going to be teaching in
the Purpose of Profits Academy is pricing models that will get you paid for your value, not
your time. Make sure your business behind your business is efficient. So when I moved my
website from WordPress to Kajabi, what was so cool about it is it was an all in one platform
that dramatically changed the efficiency of my business because I didn't have to make a
bunch of systems talk to one another that was wasting so much time and it was easy to use.
So I could make changes, I could pivot.
[0:18:45] A: I had my email in one place, my landing pages, my courses, everything's all in
one place. Total game changer from that standpoint. Another idea work on elevating your
brand image and your thought leadership positioning. So what that looks like is doing things
in your marketing, like speaking, writing a book, starting a podcast, getting quoted in
publications. When you can elevate your brand image, you're going to have the credibility
and positioning to start charging higher fees, which allows you to instantly make more
money without working more hours.
[0:19:21] A: Another thing you can do is you can build an online course. So let's say you
have a signature program. You can have that signature coaching program be built off of the
ideas in an online course. You could have one online course that you can sell to individuals
and you can generate passive revenue. You could use it to maximize your efficiency with
your coaching. You can use that one course to do group coaching programs. You can use that
online course to sweeten the deal and land more clients.
[0:19:50] A: There's so many things you could do with an online course so that's one other
way that you could start building that time freedom and that scale. Another thing you can do
is come up with a specific program or offer that allows people to get access to your smarts
that don't require a lot of time. So this is why if you're a consultant, having a trusted advisor
program is really important. Or even as a coach, monetizing that on call access is huge
because it's something that you do a lot of high value to your clients. They love having
access to you when is needed, but you don't have to spend a lot of time with it so you could
scale up that particular offer.
[0:20:29] A: Another idea get very strategic about your outsourcing for all the tasks that are
on your plate that you're not good at and or you hate, hire people to help you. So for
example, if you want a podcast and aren't good at audio editing or getting the strategy of
getting one off the ground, definitely hire Hollyfield Consulting. They can get it done faster
and at a better quality and you could focus on what you're amazing at.
[0:20:52] A: Don't like social media marketing, email marketing, calendar management?
Hire a virtual assistant. There's so many low cost options out there, like the Doer's Way or I
Worker. Hire somebody to help you with those tasks and get them off your plate. So you
could focus on the high value work that only you can do. Or you could turn your
solopreneur business into a firm by hiring other consultants or coaches to support more
clients.
[0:21:15] A: Now word of caution, if you do this your day to day role may shift from
advising clients to doing more marketing, sales and then of course leadership and
management of your direct reports. So only go in this direction if you want to do that job. So
what about you? Do you have a vision for scale? And if so, what do you have in place that's
maximizing your time and inefficiency and your profits and what's holding you back?
[0:21:41] A: So there you have it folks, the profit puzzle decoded. So we discussed the key
differences between stable, sustainable and scalable profits and why it's important to
understand which type of profit your business is aiming for right now and where you want
to see yourself in the future. So what do you need to do to move from that hit or miss to that
stable profit? You need to shift your mindset. You need to stop seeing yourself as a
contractor or freelancer and see yourself as a full on business owner and do actions that
support that. Getting clear on your ideal client and your value proposition.
[0:22:17] A: Creating messages and copy in your website, building your marketing system.
Do what you need to do to create a profitable business that's predictable by thinking like a
business owner. Once you got that covered, now we can look at it from a different angle. Do
you want to have a business that you know will be successful over the long term? Then you
really need to focus on building the right business, the one that aligns with your gifts and
your passions and your priorities.
[0:22:44] A: And you need to go all in on your commitment for that success. That's how you
get sustainable success, that's how you get that guarantee. And if you're looking to scale up
your profits without spending more time, you need to implement tactics that will maximize
your revenue without time so that you can have that vision of wealth in your life where it's
not just about wealth as the money, but wealth is discretionary time. I mean there's so many reasons why we want to have our own business and it's not to be working those 70 hours, work weeks like we did when we were back in corporate.
[0:23:19] A: We have a lifestyle and we need to have the funds and the freedom to do all of those things. And if you need help making all of this happen, I'm here for you. Remember, there's no one size fits all approach to profits. Depending on your goals, depending on your vision for your business, you may be aiming right now for stable, sustainable or scalable profits. The key is to be intentional and strategic in your approach and never stop learning and growing as an entrepreneur.
[0:23:48] A: So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What resonated with you the most? What questions or concerns do you have about building a profitable business? Let's
keep the conversation going. Share with me your thoughts. Look me up on social media and
tell me your thoughts on this. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Enough Already. Podcast for more episodes like this one. We've got some amazing guests and topics lined up, and I cannot wait to share them with you. And until next time, my friends, keep building a business that lights you up and supports the life that you want to live.
[0:24:16] A: You've got this. Thank you for tuning in. If today's episode lit a fire on you, please rate and review Enough Already on Apple podcasts or subscribe wherever you listen. And if you're looking for your next step, visit me on my website at betsyjordan.com. And it's Betsy Jordan with the Y, and you'll learn all about our end to end services that are custom designed to accelerate your success. Don't wait.
[0:24:39] A: Start today.
