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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.