Make Money as a Consultant

The One Way to Stand Out and Get Hired

This is Episode 2 of my 250K Revenue Engine series, a private podcast I’m making public for the first time. It’s six episodes over six weeks, built for advanced coaches, consultants, and advisors who are ready for a predictable $250K a year.

The consultants and coaches making the most money aren’t the ones posting the most. They don’t have the biggest followings or go viral. They stand out because they speak with authority. They can explain their clients’ problems better than the clients can explain them themselves.

That takes sharp thinking. It means digging deep into your clients’ problems and figuring out how to solve them better and faster than anyone else. Do that, and everything gets easier. Your posts land. People reply to your emails. People show up to your webinars and buy.

In this episode, I explain how to build that kind of authority. I cover how to pinpoint the moments when your clients feel the most pain, how to turn your answers into your own intellectual property, and how that body of work makes you the obvious choice in your space.

Thought leadership isn’t an image you create. It’s the work you do and the results you get. Anyone can learn it, and once you do, clients will hire you and refer you again and again.

Ready to build your own 250K revenue engine? Join the waitlist for GROW Independent, my 12-month program for advanced coaches, consultants, and advisors. You’ll automatically get a spot in my free 250K Revenue Workshop this December, and you’ll be first to hear when enrollment opens and about any holiday offers.

Sign up now: https://chrisdonohoecoaching.com/250kworkshop

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Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

This episode is the first in my 250K Revenue Engine series.

A lot of independent pros are burning out right now. Feast or famine. Too many clients, or the wrong ones. No clear idea where the next one is coming from. I’ve been there. What got me out wasn’t working harder. It was getting simple.

In this episode, I share the three things that took me from burnout to $40K months, again and again:

1. A clear vision. Know the impact you want to have, and set real financial targets you’re determined to hit.
2. Bold IP and marketing. Have a point of view and stand behind it publicly, even when some people won’t like it.
3. A real revenue engine. A simple, repeatable system for leads, content, and sales that doesn’t need a huge following or constant posting.

I also share my own story. I grew up blue collar, went to Cornell as a recruited athlete, built a career in consulting, and eventually started my own firm. Today I help regular people build wealth with the skills they already have.

Ready to build your own 250K revenue engine? Join the waitlist for GROW Independent, my 12-month program for advanced coaches, consultants, and advisors. You’ll automatically get a spot in my free 250K Revenue Workshop this December, and you’ll be first to hear when enrollment opens and about any holiday offers.

👉 Save your free spot in my December workshop, The 250K Revenue Workshop: ⁠https://chrisdonohoecoaching.com/250kworkshop⁠

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

MBA programs teach you how to scale. How to build one product and sell it to millions of people. That’s great if you’re building the next big company. It doesn’t work if you’re an independent consultant, a coach, or running a boutique agency under $3M.

What you need is a practical way to take the skills you already have and package them into high-ticket offers clients want to buy.

In this episode, I break down exactly how to do that. You’ll learn how to take years of experience and a wide range of skills and turn them into a clear menu of services. Services that make sense to clients and that you actually love delivering.

If you’ve ever struggled to fit everything you’re good at under one umbrella, this one’s for you. It’s the fastest way I know to start making the money you’re worth using what you’ve already got.

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

Everyone around you is doing the absolute most right now. Back-to-back meetings. Posting nonstop. Trying every new AI tool the second it drops. And the people who aren't doing the most are opting out completely, swearing off AI and doing whatever it takes to avoid burning out.

Neither one works. There's another way, and it starts with real balance.

I'm not talking about a perfectly color-coded calendar. I mean balance you can actually feel. The kind that brings you peace, sharpens your perspective, and makes it obvious where your time and energy should go. That's how you get to have it all: the business, the family, and the free time.

In this episode, I share a simple, fresh take on finding that balance by getting back to the basics, especially when everyone and everything wants more from you.

PS. If this episode hits home, my Independence Mindset Workshop is the next step. It's where we do the real work of building a business that gives you freedom instead of taking it from you. Email us at [email protected] to save yours.

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

Owning the True Value of Your Work

A few weeks ago, someone online said consulting has no value because nothing tangible gets produced. I couldn't disagree more. Thinking IS the product. Every invention, every breakthrough, every great business started as an idea in somebody's head. So when you help a client think better, you're giving them the most valuable thing there is.

That's what consultants and coaches do. We train our minds to come up with the highest quality thoughts and ideas. And those ideas shape how people work, what they build, and the results they get.

In this episode, I explain why ideas are your greatest asset and why owning that matters so much. The more you believe in the value of your thinking, the better you'll be at your job. The better you are, the more money you'll make. It's a virtuous cycle.

If you've ever undercharged, doubted your rates, or felt like you had to "prove" your worth with deliverables, this one's for you.

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

Most of us ask for advice and then don't take it. Or we try something new and give up when we're not great at it right away. It's human nature, and it quietly holds back a lot of talented people.

This week, Chris is joined by his client Lia Izenberg, who has made a habit of doing the opposite. When a recommendation feels uncomfortable, she says yes anyway, and she sees it through to the end. The results speak for themselves. This year Lia had her best revenue year yet, landed contracts she wouldn't have won before, and for the first time ever, brought in new clients who didn't come from referrals or word of mouth.

Chris and Lia talk about the excuses our brains come up with to avoid hard things, why following good advice beats thinking you know better, and what it looks like to stay committed when the work gets uncomfortable.

Connect with Lia:
Instagram: @lia.izenberg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liaizenberg
Substack: https://liairisizenberg.substack.com/

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

My goal right now is to make $1 million a year. I want to do it working only 40 weeks of the year and never more than 40 hours in a given week.

I don't know exactly how I'll get there yet. That's the point.

A lot of you are doing some major self-sabotage when it comes to your goals. Most of us were never taught to want things. As kids, wanting something usually ended in disappointment. Then we became adults, lost the structure and momentum, and got on the conveyor belt.

But the pursuit of a goal is inherently rewarding, whether or not you ever hit it. It feels better to try and fail than to sit in the comfort of complacency.

In this episode, I break down why goals matter and the 3 traps that keep you stuck in goal purgatory.

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery⁠

https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

Most people think their time management problem is about systems: the wrong calendar app, an out-of-control inbox, not enough hours in the day. But prioritization isn't something you do. It's a way of thinking.

We fall into the same traps over and over. We don't know where to start, we feel overwhelmed by all the options, and we lose momentum when things don't seem to be working. Over time those traps become loops, and the loops become self-fulfilling prophecies. The more you doubt what you're doing, the worse you perform.

In Part 2, I walk through the 4-step prioritization process I've spent years developing, and I'm teaching it for free for the first time. You'll learn how to notice the thinking that keeps you stuck, sharpen the quality of your decisions, and follow through on what matters most. The payoff is more time, more revenue, less stress, and a sharper version of yourself that clients value even more.

If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, start there, then come back for this one.

PS. My next free workshop, The Independence Equation, has been completely revamped and is clearer and more useful than ever. If you want a practical guide to landing top-dollar clients, grab your spot: https://chrisdonohoecoaching.com/independence

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery
https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/

We all struggle with time management, procrastination, and burnout. Because there's so much pressure to constantly produce more. Work is demanding. Clients are demanding. And AI is only making it worse.

But you don't have to operate in chaos just because the rest of the world has decided to. The people who are most successful right now are the ones who learn how to slow down when the world speeds up. Calm, cool, collected, especially when there's a lot on your plate.

In this episode, Chris breaks down how to opt out of the rat race of "do, do, do" and opt into higher caliber decision-making and prioritization. This is Part 1 of the most useful, actionable breakdown he's ever recorded on time management, productivity, and getting better results.

PS. Don't miss my next workshop, the Independence Equation 2.0. Sign up today: https://chrisdonohoecoaching.com/independence

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

When you work for yourself, converting sales consultations into closed business is the most direct path to making money. You don't need a ton of leads, world class branding, a perfect elevator pitch, or a large following. You need a handful of high quality conversations and the ability to turn them into a "yes."

But you'll only get good at conversion if you know how to evaluate your consultations. Most of us don't spend enough time on this, because whether someone buys can feel completely out of our control. You can't force anyone to buy (and you shouldn't try). What you can do is look closely at what you said, what you didn't say, and how your own actions shaped the decision the client made.

In this episode, I'm walking you through exactly how to evaluate your sales consultations so you can tell what's working, what isn't, and why. You'll learn why blaming the market or writing someone off as "not the right buyer" keeps you stuck, how honest evaluation puts you in full control of your results, and what to change next time so you hear "yes" more often.

Get this right and you become the most valuable consultant or coach in the room, the one clients refer often and keep coming back to for years.

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Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Urban Legend by Musical Bakery

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tunetank.com/track/3362-urban-legend/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠