0:00:00 - Betsy Jodryn
wondering how you can turn your years of experience and your strengths and your passions into a thriving consulting or coaching business. Step-by-step, stay tuned to find out how. Welcome to the Enough Ready Podcast. This is the show for consultants and coaches who want to forge their own path to success in their businesses, their careers and their lives. I'm your host, betsy Jordan. I am a business mentor and a brand messaging strategist for remarkable consultants and coaches and their unique strengths. You can find out more about my personal branding services on my website at wwwbetsyjordancom.
So let me talk to you about this brand new series that I'm starting, that I'm calling From Career to Calling how to Build a Consulting or Coaching Business that is Profitable and in Alignment with your Unique Purpose. So in this series, what I really wanna do is show you how to turn the best of your career into a business that you love and that your clients really love. And I wanna first start off with explaining why is this topic so near and dear to my heart? Because I talk a lot. Have you been following me at all? You hear me talking a lot about building a profitable business that's purpose-driven, one that is aligned to your strengths. So let me tell you why this is so important. So it's been something like I think, like 15 years or so since I left my dream job as an internal organization development consultant at Walt Disney World. It was an amazing experience. I'm so grateful for it, and because of that experience and a whole bunch of other things that I invested in after I left Disney, like building an amazing website and working on developing my marketing and sales skills and all that kind of stuff I was able to grow my business from zero to 300,000 in the first 18 months. So that's great news, right. I had opportunities to work with clients all around the world. So you think I was living the dream, right?
The problem was with this particular business is I built a consulting business that matched a lot of what I already was doing in my career, and it was the wrong one. It's not to say that consulting is wrong for everybody, but for me and where I was at with my career, I really wanted to work more one-on-one with people and I really wanted to bring more to the forefront around my passions, around branding and helping people activate their strengths and all that kind of stuff. But I didn't do it, and the thing for me is it took a lot more money and time to finally start the right business, but once I did, it was a game and life changer. I do work now that I absolutely love. I work with clients that I make a difference with every day. So what I did is I pivoted my business to be the resource I wish I had, and I'm creating this series because it's very important for me that you build a business that's aligned with who you are the right business.
So I want you to think for a second before I dive into all the content today and before I formally kick off the series. I want you to think for a second. What would having your own high profit, high impact consulting or coaching business that you really loved mean to your career? I want you to think about that and I want you to think about what it would mean to your life. You know what would it feel like to go home at the end of every day, or actually if you're working at home, just end your day and just imagine like, wow, I really made a difference, I really used my passions and my strengths and I really did that every single day. What would that mean to you If you could say, oh my gosh, that would mean so much.
This is the series for you. This series is also for you If it's time for you to take control over your career, your time and your earning potential by starting and growing your own profitable business. So if you're still in corporate and you've been dreaming about starting your own consulting or coaching business and it's time for you to get that control, this is the series for you. You're going to love this series. This series is also for you is if all the businesses you can start because there's lots of things that ex-corporate leaders can do you know you could buy all kinds of businesses and run them and become your own CEO, but if you want to start a consulting or coaching business, then let's think about that. If this is something that you want to do, if this is the ideal fit given your career experiences, your advisory strengths, your passion for helping people grow.
This is the series for you, because I'm not going to talk to you generically about any old business. I'm going to be talking to you about consulting or coaching businesses, and this series is for you is if profits alone isn't your only goal. If you want more balance in your life and more impact in your work and you don't want to settle, then I'm so excited that you are participating in this series, because it's absolutely the right one for you. But today, what are we doing today? So now you got the big picture of the series, let's talk about what I'm going to share with you today on this specific episode of the Enough Already podcast. And what we're going to be doing is I'm going to be giving you the big picture. And answer to this big burning question is if you are all excited about creating a purpose-driven, profitable business that's in alignment with your strengths and your passions and all of that, you're wondering how? How do I make this happen? That's what we're going to be doing today. How do I make this happen? That's what we're going to be doing today.
I'm going to be giving you a roadmap to your consulting or coaching, success and significance. So it's going to be giving you the step-by-step of what do you need to do. And the thing about a roadmap you know I don't know if you're like me. You know I'm somebody who really likes to see steps in anything. You know, when I was pregnant with my kids, I was really obsessed with that whole. You know what to expect when you're expecting, because it gave me a roadmap. It helped me figure out what am I going to do when I've got all of these changes that are afoot.
Because the thing is is change always brings up that fear of the unknown. And the roadmap what it does is it replaces that fear with clarity. It's like I totally get it. I know where I am, I know where I need to go. It outlines what you need to do, in what order, so you maximize your time and money and avoid expensive trial and error. So that's what I want to help you do with this roadmap.
And the thing about also a roadmap and this is one of the things I really appreciate about the work I do with my clients is I own the how I own, how do we get you from here to there, and what that does is it frees you up to think about what and start dreaming about. What is it that I want my business to be all about? And the thing about moving into the unknown I'm sure you already know that change and that fear that comes along with it. You know it's always there. But the nice thing about a roadmap is it helps you get over that fear, because you're just eating that elephant, one bite at a time. You know you're not overwhelming yourself like, oh my gosh. You know, I had this friend when I was in college and every time we got to finals a week she would be, she'd come into the door and she'd be freaked out. She's like, oh my gosh, I've got to read 1000 pages, you know just this week. And I'm like, yeah, but Rachel, you only have to read 100 pages tonight. We could break it down. That's what I want this to do for you.
The other thing about a roadmap is, without it you'll get stuck, you'll start spinning because you're not sure what to do. And I'll tell you, one of my biggest hot flashpoints that drives me absolutely insane is when people say, hey, can I just go out there and get clients? And yeah, for sure you could. It could work for a time. But the thing is is that if you keep doing that just going out there, get clients and you don't really follow a roadmap that hits you to that sustainable success kind of level, you really don't have a business, you just have a job. But it's just a job and not the best form. You know, maybe you're going to recreate your career, but it's going to be like, maybe without the salary, perks, the time freedom. You know, the thing that a lot of my clients, when we start working together, is that they're either stuck in one of these two traps. You know, because they didn't do this work at the first time, you know they're in this chase for the smaller paying clients or, just as bad is, in those labor intensive projects that make them work as many hours as they did when they were in corporate. So that is what we're going to go over today To help you out.
Because this is so important, I decided to create a new roadmap that is not just a theoretical roadmap, but your roadmap. It's a PDF guide. It's a workbook. It has lots of reflection exercises that you can fill out right there. So if you want to really take this information and apply it to you and where you're at and help you really get some traction on your goals, please take a moment. Pause this episode right now. Head on over to wwwbetsyjordancom and remember Jordan is with a Y, not an. A slash roadmap to grab yours and that will help you out.
So let's dive in. So I want to talk to you at first about the roadmap whole idea. So let me give you a hard but necessary truth. There are no shortcuts, silver bullets or secret formulas to long-term success. You know, I want to be honest with you, that doesn't exist. You know, maybe you might have what I had, where you got a lot of success right away, but it's not because I just had success.
I did follow this roadmap. It took me a while to launch my business, to achieve those results. I spent a lot of time working through different things to get you to that outcome. So I want to be realistic. You know, I had an intro call a couple months ago with somebody and they're like hey, you know, could you help me make $300,000 a month? You know when I'm just getting started off and can I achieve that in the next six months? And I'm like, oh, you know, like I love that desire, I love that passion, but no, you can't get there. Sustainable success is just about like hard work but also following the roadmap.
So there's five steps in the roadmap I'm going to be going over with you today. There's three primary steps that are the core, but I'm giving you some pre and post steps to make sure that you have a business that you love and that fulfills your potential. So big picture, the five steps that we're going to be going over today. Number one you need to start the right business. You need to choose a business model that delivers on all your life priorities, purpose and profits. Then you need to clarify your brand. You need to get clear about what you do and how you stand out from the competition. Step three you need to build your website and not just a brochure website. You really want to create a credible online platform that attracts, impresses and converts clients. And yes, you absolutely can attract clients using the power of your website. Then step four in the roadmap is consistently get clients. So what you need to do here is get out of those one-off tactics and develop a system that generates leads and converts them. And then the ultimate once you are getting those profits stabilized and you are working with clients and you're getting your track record of success, it's time for you then to step into a thought leadership space, that role, that platform and become recognized as an industry expert and influencer. So that's the roadmap at the big picture.
Now let's get into the details. So let's talk about starting the right business, and what does this mean? So think for a second. Should you build a business only to make money? Why or why not?
I'll tell you, as a consumer, you have to imagine do you wanna work with somebody who's only working with you to make money or because they're passionate about it? So the other day I went in to get a massage and I was at one of those corporate massage places and I walk in and I'm super excited about my massage and my massage therapist, you know, was when I met him for the first time. We were chit chatting and I asked him, like how he's doing is like, oh, it's Saturday. I mean, actually, let me say that again he said, oh, it's Monday, when it was really Saturday. I'm like, oh, why? And he's like, well, to be honest, you know I do like massage, but I really don't want to work. And then he continued throughout my 90 minute session just complaining about working and everything that he did not like about his employer. I'm telling you it was not the best experience in the world. So think about it from that's. That's from a consumer standpoint. The same goes for your ideal clients.
So the biggest mistake that you could have is just going into business to make money. You want to build a business that you love because people will know it, they'll feel it and it won't feel good to them. But the other big mistake, as it relates to starting the right business, is this rush for results that leads you to create that wrong business. You know, part of the problem is is that there's all that unknown, so we want that unknown to go away, and so we rush for the results and we build the wrong one. So here's the fix.
What's really important about this stage of the work is you want to build a business that truly does deliver on all your priorities purpose, profit and passion. You want to have it all. Have it all is the way you define it. Maybe you had it all the way that the world defined it when you were hitting the top of your corporate ladder and then you wonder like, oh gosh, what was that all for? Now you have a chance to do something different and you could have it all your way. So the decisions that you need to make, the things that you need to be focused on, is what is the lifestyle you wanna create? Is it very important for you to have a lifestyle where you kick off work at three so you could pick up your kids from school, or is it that you wanna be able to have a business that you could take on your laptop and be on a boat somewhere or you could be traveling anywhere. What does that look like? Think about that lifestyle and then also think about the expertise and strengths you really want to leverage as the foundation of your business.
You know, one of the biggest reasons why I switched from just helping consultants to coaches is, I would say, more than 50% of people who I work with they think they want to start a consulting business in the beginning. But they really want to start a coaching business. But they have a lot of issues with that because you know they got paid in this formal expertise. So that seems to make more sense when there's something else that's going on. But there's really two different kinds of expertise. Of course there's the formal expertise. So, for example, I work with Jason for a long time and Jason has a lot of experience helping negotiate large capital mining projects, those contracts and all that kind of stuff. So he built a consulting business off of that expertise and so that made sense for him what he did as an employee. He took that and turned that into a business and that is what he's doing, but not everybody wants to do that.
Let me give you an example of Denise, and if you've been listening to my podcast at all, you've heard me mention Denise. She's such an amazing example and what she's done with her business is absolutely incredible in a very short period of time. And what I started working with Denise she was a CIO and she wanted to leave to start her own business and she was stuck because she kept thinking like, well, maybe I'll take my technology experience and go help other companies, maybe who don't have a tech person, or maybe I'll help other tech leaders and I'll help them from a technology standpoint. But then when we dove into her passions and what she really wanted to do, she had this other expertise that she developed over time, which is she's a Latina woman who wound up at the top of a very male dominated profession, and what she really felt passionate about because she had been mentoring people all along the way throughout her entire career of how do you ascend to these unique spots in an organization where there's not a lot of people who look like you. You know she's been doing all kinds of mentoring on the side. She does all kinds of events for people to help them grow.
So her becoming an executive coach in this space was really where her heart lied, but it was in alignment with her informal expertise, not the formal one that she spent all of those years building. So it was really important. But once she saw that, she was not able to unsee it and it completely transformed everything. So I want you to think about what business model makes the most sense for what you want to accomplish. So I talk a lot about the differences between a consulting versus coaching business, and I know there's going to be a lot of coaches who are listening in and saying, okay, I'm not getting the definitions right and it's okay, I'm going to use my own definitions, necessarily working with individuals or groups, because there's consultants who work one-on-one and there's coaches who work with a system. But it's about a business model. It's really focusing on whose results you want to improve and why so.
A B2B business is a business where you are there to improve an organization's results. Even if you do individual coaching, you're getting paid for how that leader behaves within a company. You know your buyer is somebody who uses company funds to pay for you and your goal, no matter what you do, is to either improve profits, culture, customer satisfaction, employee performance, all that kind of stuff that relates to an organization. The kind of services you might offer is assessment, on-call advisor, coaching, project management, speaking. There's all kinds of things you could do, but the outcome that you're really there to help is for an organization. So, for example, working with Keith he's a former HR executive who started his own business and he is focusing on helping leaders helping, actually, more specifically, visionary leaders take their big ideas and turn them into implemented reality. He does all kinds of stuff with his clients, he's a thought partner, he does workshops, he does all kinds of things, but the outcome is for the organization.
On the other hand, I would say a, b to C. So B to B is like business to business. A, b to C is business to consumer and it's about working with an individual and you're getting paid to improve an individual's results and that client pays you out of their own funds. So if you're an executive coach and the organization is paying you because that executive needs to perform in a certain way to benefit the organization, it's a B2B business. If an individual is paying you out of their own funds to improve their own life, their own career, their own relationship. That's a B2C business and you might have services like mentoring, coaching, group coaching, personality assessments, workshops, retreats, all that kind of stuff. And the key to know the difference is it helps you first identify who your ideal client is, but then also where your pressure points are. As it relates to sustainability, you know from a B2B standpoint to make great money.
The reason why I was able to grow my business from zero to 300,000 isn't because I turned instantly into some sort of marketing guru. It's because I knew exactly what to do with a lead once I got one. I knew how to turn a $10,000 request into a $100,000 engagement or $200,000 engagement. So the pressure is on your sales effectiveness in a B2B business. From a B2C standpoint, your sales are going to be less because an individual is paying it out of their own funds. So they have to make a decision Do I pay you or do I feed the babies? That kind of decision. And so your marketing pressure is higher because you're going to need more leads. So it's important to think about who is paying you, why they're paying you, what results.
So let me give you another example. I have a few clients who are all coming out of educational leadership. I got them all at the same time. It's always ironic when I have lots of people at the same time. Lots of people from similar industries come to me at the same time. So Jason is a former educational leader, but he wants to help principals within an organization. So he wants to be an organizational consultant and coach. So he has a B2B business because he's interested in helping the school get better. On the other hand, I have Siri, who is an educational leader turned parent coach. She is a B2C business because she's interested in helping parents. So it's not about the entire organizational system. She's there to help parents improve their ability to help their kids become the best that they can be. And then you got Kimberly, who's sort of in the middle. So she's also a former educational leader. She's become a teacher, mental health advocate and coach. So she's got a little bit of a hybrid. She helps individual teachers sustain their love of teaching, but she also helps the schools retain the teachers that they love. So she has both sides of that business.
So the action item from step one or it's really pre-step, this starting the right business. It's a step in today's roadmap, but it's really a pre-step to really figuring out how do you build your business and your breakthrough brand? But this is the most important thing, because you want to build it on a strong foundation. So I want you to think about what is the business you want to create and why are you the one to bring your business to life? So just think about that for a second and then I'm going to move on to step two. All right, this is the fun part. This is the part I get super passionate about. I'm passionate about all the steps, but this is my sweet spot. It's really all about clarifying your brand promise.
The thing about personal branding is that it's not something like you could really decide well, do I wanna spend money and time on personal branding or not? The reality is is you have a brand, no matter what. Not having a website or having just kind of like a Wix website that you threw up nothing wrong with Wix. You can customize design Wix I'm not saying anything about Wix, but you can. You know, taking your just you know, not really having any graphic design skills taking a weekend throwing up a website that's your brand. You are creating an image in the market about who you are. You know your brand is ultimately the promise you create and deliver.
But it's also about disciplining all of those touch points that a client might have that forms an impression about who you are, and creating that one image and that expectation around that promise that you are making. So if you're not clear about who you are, what you do and what's the unique value of what you do, it's going to be really hard for you to really build that really strong, powerful brand and brand promise. So the biggest mistake that people make there's two big mistakes when you are trying to figure out what is your brand promise is one biggest one, the biggest mistake that people make. There's two big mistakes when you are trying to figure out what is your brand promise is one biggest one putting the spotlight on ourselves, methodology or our mission. Your brand is not about you and what you do. It's about the value that you create for your ideal clients, and going along with that is when you decide to put the spotlight on yourself and on your methodology or mission, you become this hammer looking for nails kind of branding approach. Rather than positioning who you are, what you bring to the table, the value that you want to offer to the person that you want to help. So that is the fix. You build a business and brand around who you serve and why. So it's first who, then what. That's the most important thing. If you walk away from anything from this particular episode, I really hope you hear this clearly, because this is one of the things that, with my clients, it's the hardest thing for them to see. But once you see it, you can't unsee it and it changes the game. It changes your clarity, your confidence and the value of what you do, and it changes your marketing effectiveness and so much more. So you want to be clear.
So, for example, when I first started working with Katie, she was talking a lot to leaders in general. So she talks a lot about leading with intention, that leaders love to lead, leaders you know, who lead with intention create high performance. It was kind of generic and it was talking to leaders in general and what we did is we really dialed into who she really ultimately wants to help and what she does is she really helps continuous improvement leaders, people in lean or operational excellence or any one of those leaders, and she really helps them accelerate the rate of learning and impact in their organization. She helps them build thriving learning cultures. So talking generic about like oh, great leaders lead with intention to. I offer strategic consulting and coaching for continuous improvement leaders who wanna build a thriving learning culture in their organization is a lot clearer. So that's the shift. It moved away from her philosophy and her beliefs to who she really wants to help. So I hope you see the difference between the two.
Another example is working with Christy. So Christy does a lot of amazing stuff for her clients, but when I first started working with her on her website you know she talked a lot about, you know her CRM software and her technology and a lot about all of that. We flipped it and we helped her come up with a very clear, obvious value proposition. She helps financial services firms outperform the competition by turning their lukewarm clients into raving fans. So the difference between the two is she got really clear. It's financial services firms. That's the who, and the problem that they had is that they wanted to improve their ability to compete and so she's helping them turn these lukewarm clients. So that's where it's like you have the who and the problem. You know it's who you serve and the problem you solve. That's the heart of your value proposition. So that's the decision you need to make.
Think about this for a second who does your business exist to serve? Who's that person? I want you to put that person in your mind. Can you see them? Can you feel them? Do you understand who they are? Can you walk a mile in their shoes? If the answer is no, you know that's a clear indicator. It's absolutely time for you to start working on your brand clarity. If you don't have the answer to this question, that's why your results are stalled, because if you don't know who you help, it's very hard to market effectively. It's very hard to help referral people to even know who to refer you to.
But the second part of this is what problem do you solve, especially those problems that are unmet or undermet. You know, one of the things that took me forever to figure out as I was pivoting from my off-purpose business to the on-purpose one that I have now is getting clear on that and what I realized after lots of paying attention and asking questions and doing my own market scan. The problem I wanted to solve is an undermet one. There's lots of business mentors out there, but most of them just kind of skip over this branding stuff that I talk about and they kind of go straight to either like a website or how to land clients and all that kind of stuff, and so I focused. The problem that I want to help people solve is the lack of clarity and confidence of what they do, and so that they can get the results installed. So that's the undermet need that I'm providing.
The other thing is think about what do you do that's different from the competition, or how are you different from how those people perceive their competition to be? You know a lot of my competition is really the DIYers. You know a lot of people want to just do this on their own. That's my competition. So you have to really think about who your competition is, and sometimes the competition is they just are doing nothing. So you want to think through that. And then the heart of your brand promise this is really key. Tune in and listen. What value or outcomes do your ideal clients get by virtue of working with you? You get to that answer. You've got your brand promise solidified, clear and you're ready to move on to the next step.
So let's move on to the next step. The next one is building a credible website that converts. So, true or false? Let's play a game for a second. Websites play a minimal role in the long term success of a consultant or coach, true or false? From my perspective, it's a big false. The big mistake, the big mistake in this step that people make is treating your website as nothing more than an online brochure or a resume, and that is where you are leaving money, opportunity, credibility and all those other things on the table. The fix is to invest in the best website design and copy that you can afford.
Now I'm not saying that you have to break the bank, but I'll tell you. When I first started my business, I had no money. I had gone through a horrible divorce. I literally got down to $200 in the bank and I was trying to decide like, well, what do I need to do? You know, do I go back to corporate or do I really invest in my business? At that point in time, my grandmother had just passed, so I had a little bit of money from her not much, but just enough to pay for my first website and some videos. And I'll tell you that that was the best investment I've ever made, because not only creating that website established my credibility and helped me quickly within like a week or so of launching my website, I had my first lead turned them into. I don't know. I think it was like a $35,000 engagement which more than three, four times paid me back, you know, for my investment, but it created all kinds of opportunities for the future. My website allows me to create content and I have now that online platform. I'll tell you there's huge differences that I see in my clients, not even just from the design itself, but what it means to them to show up with that level of credibility, that level of excellence on their website. So invest in the best that you can afford Because, no matter what happens, no matter how a potential client comes to you, your website shapes their thinking about you and the value that you can create for them in less than three seconds.
So you need to pay attention. Even if they come to you from a referral, they're going to check out your website and if your website looks like not that great, guess how much money they're going to pay you. It's going to be really hard for you to establish that, yes, I'm a premium brand that's worth premium fees. Oh, but my website looks like, you know, it's kind of the McDonald's level. So your website has three priority goals Connection, where you want to make an authentic personal connection with your clients and your future clients, your credibility and your conversion, and you absolutely can attract clients by virtue of your website.
But the most important thing, I want you to walk away with my favorite quote. I probably quoted this I don't know how many times on this podcast. It's from Casey Brown, who's a pricing expert, and she says this no one will know how many times on this podcast. It's from Casey Brown, who's a pricing expert, and she says this no one will ever pay you what you're worth. They only pay you what they think you're worth, and you control their thinking. And that's the power of your website is you control their thinking. You show up as a premium brand. They will think that you're a premium brand and pay you as that.
For example, I was working with Scott. He did not have a website for years. He had like a crappy one for a bit and he got so embarrassed that he turned it down because a potential client was giving him crap, saying that you know, I'm absolutely not going to work with you because of how awful this is. So he turned it off and mostly all of his business was just through referrals. So he really was skeptical, you know, when we worked on his website and getting it launched. And then when his website was under construction it wasn't even fully launched he got a potential lead calling him and they're like, hey, you know, do you have a website I could refer you to? Because he was kind of really skeptical, like, hey, do I want to really work with you? Do I want to really work with you? So he's like, yeah, I got this, it's under construction, it's 100% done. And then, soon as I saw the website, it's like, oh yeah, absolutely. And he closed the business. He closed over $200,000 in new business simply because of his website and the website that wasn't even launched yet. So right now he's still in this like new space where he's like, oh my gosh, I'm getting like intro calls from Google searches and people who find me on Google searches and all that other stuff.
So there's a lot of power in your website. So the decisions for you to make I want you to think about. You know, what is it that you want your clients to think and feel when they get on your website? What do you want them to think and feel about themselves, and what do you want them to think and feel about you and your value. And then what do you want them to do next? So after landing on your website? So this is the conversion element. So many people forget that there's an after. You know you don't want to just necessarily have a contact form and hope that that's enough, you know. Do you want them to sign up for a freebie? Do you want them to sign up for a free intro call? And I would say, hint, consultants and coaches, you all need intro calls, definitely yes. Or is there something else that you want them to do? You need to be paying attention for every content block, every page, everything that you do, that you have a path that you're taking your people on.
The other thing is thinking through your platform. You know what is the best platform to build your website that can grow with you. There's a reason why this non-techie is totally obsessed with Kajabi, because it is absolutely a platform that I could grow with. I'd love to talk to you about Kajabi. Drop me an email at BetsyJordancom or Betsy at BetsyJordancom. I should give you my full email address and I'd love to chat with you why I'm so passionate about this particular platform, because it really is the best.
And then also, do you personally, really, honestly, be true with yourself, have the graphic design, copywriting, website development skills to get a website that establishes you as a premium brand? Or should you hire out? I'm telling you that's not your wheelhouse. It's worth investing. So that's step three. Now let's get on to step four Build a marketing system. The key word here system.
So the thing about marketing is if, like, the thing about marketing is so many consultants and coaches have so many issues with marketing. So, true or false, let's just play for a second on this one. If you're an amazing coach, you'll have guaranteed success. And if you just put it out there, put a website out there, put something out there, you know people will just come to you. And the truth is it doesn't happen that way. I would love that. We would all love. The magical client fairy would just like drop clients to us whenever we need it.
So I want you to think about, like, what is it about marketing or sales? That just makes you uncomfortable or feels out of alignment with your values. Because the truth is, we have to do marketing and sales if we have a business, and you know, imagine any company that you're consulting to and if they came to you and they said, hey, we're, our results are stalled, we don't have enough customers, and they and you looked into it and they don't have a marketing and sales department, you probably say I think you probably need to do something like this. But the thing is, it's not just about marketing and sales. The big mistake in this part is treating marketing and sales in the same way as you might look for a job, and they are not the same. The other mistake is avoiding marketing and sales like the plague. As I mentioned, can't really have a profitable business without it. And then the other mistake is using scattered marketing tactics. You know like, oh, I'm just gonna hit a networking event one day, or maybe I'll post something on social media, and then it'll be like, oh my gosh, I got no results. You know, the thing is is that you have to build a system and you have to work it. And then the beauty about a system is, if you're working it, you put the metrics in. There you could see well, where's the leaks, what's not working. So that's the fix. So some of it is the system that you need to implement, but a lot of it's just the perspective.
And I want you to think about this. I say this all the time and I truly believe this because that is why I'm doing this podcast right now. You know, podcasts, you could say, is definitely a way of establishing my thought leader. It's definitely a way of sharing my ideas with the world, but it's also a marketing thing. Let's be real. And the thing is about marketing is it's nothing more than simply a way of serving the clients. We just haven't met yet Keyword. Yet I'm put my heart and soul into this podcast because I really, really care about the clients. I want to help the people I want to help, and maybe you're not ready to work with me, but maybe I could just give you some quick wins here and I hope that you feel that what I'm doing here right now is service.
So I want you to think about how slimy is marketing. You know a client goes online looking for a solution and, oh, you have a blog that solves that problem, you know, gives them that solution. Or somebody goes to a networking event because they have all these issues and challenges and guess what? You're there. You make a connection, an offer on the spot value. Is that slimy? No, you know. Client with a problem you know goes on, takes a break and goes on social media. Oh my gosh, there's a post that you created that speaks to their very issue or encourages them. Or a client goes to a professional event. They're ready to learn and grow and guess what? You're there. You're delivering a speech that inspires them and motivates them to grow. Or a client has questions about how to grow a profitable consulting or coaching business that they love. And then here you are. You showed up for this podcast, you're listening in, you're taking notes. Is it slimy? No, it's not slimy, it's service.
But the thing is is that the way that you're also going to get over it is. One is the perspective, but also you have to build a strengths based marketing and sales system that you'll actually do. There's so many ways that you can create a system. You could build a system if you're like this people person, extrovert and you loved to. You know like there's no strangers to you. Networking events like just fill you up. You love to be in crowds, big groups. You know what A referral and networking based marketing system is really right for you. But you have to make it a system. You have to have daily, weekly tactics that you're doing to make that work for you, and you probably need other things in your system as well. You probably need some social media as well. Or maybe you're an introvert. Maybe you're somebody who does not like to go to those kind of events. Networking events leave you cold. Guess what. You could write content and you could set up that content for SEO and you could start attracting people that way. There's many ways to do this, but the key here is that you want to have prioritized and aligned tactics that leverage your strengths and values around relationship building, service integrity. You have to look at everything that you do from marketing and sales from a place of service.
I'll never forget when I landed my first six-figure consulting engagement. I had worked with a company. I'd been in conversation with a company the year prior and we were working through the terms and all of that, and there was some pricing terms in the engagement that just did not work for me and I thought was unethical, wouldn't work for them either. So I told them that and then they came back to me a year later for a much bigger project and I asked them like okay, why now? And then they had gone along with my terms and all of that kind of stuff. And they said a couple of things that I never lost is one because of my pricing, I stayed in integrity. They really respected me for that. But they said over and over again is they got more value from my discovery meeting than they've gotten from multiple client, consultant client. Let me say it again they got more value from multiple consultant client engagements that they had prior. So it really works when you use your relationship building service and integrity.
So that is the fix is change your perspective and then if you don't enjoy what you do to get clients and don't invest money or time in getting good at it, you won't do it consistently and without consistency it is absolutely impossible to build a predictable client pipeline. You need that consistency. So figure out, get your mindset straight, but then figure out what do you love to do and then do that and you will see the results change. So the decisions to make from this step is how can you overcome self-limiting beliefs, self-doubt about marketing and sales, and what are three things, just three things that you could see yourself doing regularly, consistently, to attract clients? And then think about all the other things that you do. You know how do you move clients from interest to intro calls? What sales scripts do you use? How can you get competent with marketing and sales, as you are with consulting and coaching? Because they're all part of the client experience with you. So that's step four. Now let's talk about step five.
This is also a fun part for me. It's becoming a thought leader. So think about this for a second. Who are the experts that you follow and how did you come across them? Think about that for a second. The facts are the people who shape up our existing ways of thinking, and our recognized experts are all content creators Content. Think about Brene Brown, simon Sinek, tony Robbins, and you can go on and on and on. All of them are content creators. So if you would like to be seen and paid as an expert and a thought leader, then the mistake that you're making is holding off on sharing your ideas in a bigger way. So the fix is taking small, intentional steps towards becoming a thought leader. So let me tell you what I mean by that.
So here's the journey to thought leadership. So you start off as a content creator, so you might start creating some content for marketing purposes, you know. So maybe you just take a little foray into posting something that is your original idea in a LinkedIn article or something like that, or maybe you write a blog, something like that. You just start small and then you become more of an enhanced content creator. So you add in new formats like video and audio, and then you become an expert trainer and presenter. You offer webinars or you're a guest speaker and then, voila, now you're at sought after expert. You get known for your expertise. Then the next step is you become an inspirational speaker where it's not just what you know but it's about your story and your journey and you use that to inspire other people. And then you're a thought leader, an author, a keynote speaker and you become widely known for your big ideas and your personal journey. That's the big picture of where you're going, but just start where you are. So if you want to become a thought leader at some point, what can you do today to get started? What is one small, teeny, tiny step that you can do? So those are the five steps, and we made it through there, so congratulations.
Quick review how do you turn your career into a profitable business that you love? To start right, you build a business that delivers on all your priorities To stand out. You begin with first, who. Who do you want to help and what's the problem you want to solve. Then, what you do To attract and impress clients. You build an incredible online store. That's your website and it's also the other aspects of your online presence, your social media, etc. To consistently get clients, you need to replace those scattered tactics with a system and to establish you as an expert, as a thought leader. You need to start creating remarkable content. Start small and move into the next phase. So your next steps here is you really do need to start creating remarkable content. Start small and move into the next phase. So your next steps here is you really do need to get honest with yourself. You know where are you really at in this journey. No shame, no guilt.
Like I tell you, when I started my business, I skipped from starting it and I went to straight to number three. I worked on my website. I worked on my skills. I started the wrong business. It took me tons of money to go back, but I did skip those steps. Did you skip those steps? A lot of my clients did. There's no shame. So did you skip a step or two? And, if so, why? You know, or maybe you're in a couple steps at the same time, but you might have skipped a step.
Also, decide this is the hard one For those of you who have invested a lot of money in, you know a website or different marketing things that just aren't panning out. This might be giving you a stomachache, but decide that even if you invested a lot of money when you skipped a step, think about the ROI of what you'll get if you go back and complete the step that you'll skipped. I'll tell you, for me, going back and completing the steps that I skipped transformed everything. If I didn't do that work, I probably would still be an organizational consultant versus being a brand messaging strategist that I am now. And then, to help you out with this for sure, go ahead and grab my roadmap and make it your roadmap. Go to wwwbetsyjordancom. Forward slash roadmap, remember Jordan's with a Y and get your roadmap where you can reflect on everything that we talked about in this particular episode and start getting your decisions made on what do you want to do next to achieve the results that you're looking for.
And just one real quick reminder before we sign off on this episode today is it does literally take the same amount of money to build an on-purpose business versus an off-purpose business. So if you want to make a business that's successful, no matter what you do, you're going to need to get clear on who you help. You need to get clear on the value that you create. You're going to need a website. You're going to need to get clear on who you help. You need to get clear on the value that you create. You're going to need a website. You're going to need to get clients and all that kind of stuff. All of that is there, but a lot of the stuff that when I work with my clients who really want to have an on purpose business, there is one incremental cost, and that is vulnerability, because if you build a business that you really love, it's very vulnerable. But the thing about vulnerability is it's an ability. The word ability is there. It's an ability to be wounded, and so you have to be able to do the dance with vulnerability.
So in my next episode in this series, I'm going to talk a lot about how do you deal with that and how do you deal with the fears that, if you say yes, I have these big dreams of what I want and what will the impact I want to have. The next thing that you're going to be experiencing is a whole boatload of fear and imposter syndrome, so I'm going to be addressing that in my next episode, so definitely stay tuned. You also might be wondering like, oh gosh, like this is all great, but I don't know how to figure out my ideal client. You know, if I narrow down, will there be enough clients who need me? How do I validate all of this? And you know, how do I get known? Blah, blah, blah, all that kind of normal stuff that we're all thinking about. If you're thinking about these things, I'm not even.
I'm not saying blah, blah, blah is a way to dismiss what you're thinking. I'm just saying blah, blah, blah because we're all dealing with it, myself included. Channel wherever you listen to podcasts to get notified when all of the episodes in this series drops, because this is going to be what's going to help you activate this roadmap in a more accelerated way. Let's just put it that way. So that is it for today. Until next time, just remember you have enough, you do enough and you are enough already. I'll see you soon.
