Profitable Joyful Consulting

The core question in creating your brand for your business: what do you want to be known for? You definitely don't want to be known as someone who bites off more than you can chew. Keeping the promise of your brand is crucial. In this week's episode, Samantha Hartley shares her illuminating strategies for building a successful brand.

Part One of ‘Branding Your Consulting Business’

Some small businesses don't use the term brand. There are companies that talk about brands multiple times in a day. Not just referring to specific individual brands, but actually to the job of what a brand was doing, what it was communicating, whether this action we were taking was in alignment with the brand.

But things have changed a lot over the years. One of the things that millennials have brought us is a generation of influencers. It's not only millennials that are influencers. But before them, we didn't have as much personal branding work.

“Work with a broader audience or a specific niche.” — Samantha Hartley (13:07-13:12)

Personal brands can be created for your career, for influencers, your business, and more. A brand creates expectations of what that identity is going to be and the experience that you're going to have. How does that apply to you as a consultant or building a consultancy? You can decide what you want your business identity to be, and you can make that and then communicate it.

If you don't, it will be created anyway, accidentally, but you won't necessarily be able to control as well or influence what that identity will be. So, you definitely want to take control and create your brand with intention.

Niche and specialty are also aspects of the brand that you can work with and incorporate into your brand. Specialty is that thing you do, which you're amazingly good at. It's a subset of all of the aspects of things that you could do.

Second is the niche, meaning the audience you are targeting. Let's say, food companies or food manufacturers. For instance, if you are a crisis communications PR person for food companies, that's a particular niche. 

It's highly advisable to focus on your work. It makes it really easy for you to get known for a specialty. You can see how you stand out from all the other PR people. When someone calls you, they're going to know precisely who you are.

If you're a marketing consultant, narrow that down to your specific work. For example, business growth for female consultants. You can stay a generalist and work with a niche, or you can be a specialist who works with a broader audience than a specific niche.

Part Two of ‘Branding Your Consulting Business’

When deciding what you want to be known for, think of popular brands that you know. When you think about those brands, and you bring them to mind, what are the words that you associate with them?

What are the experiences that you associate with them? One of the ways that you can decide what you're going to be known for is by looking at perfect clients. 

Who are the perfect clients that you're going to work with?

What are the problems that you want to get known for solving? 

What kind of solutions do you bring, or specifically how do you do that? 

How you present solutions is a thing you want to be known for. What's also important is setting an expectation. Your brand is a promise that the work you do fulfills.

The work that you do is actually delivering on that promise. It's fulfilling it. We decide what we want people to expect from us. You create boundaries in your brand. You don't want people to expect certain things from us we don’t specialize in.

“Foster creativity, innovation, and collaboration.” — Samantha Hartley (21:50-21:53)

There may be a lot of folks struggling with business growth, power dynamics, succession planning, and other concerns. Are you the first person they can ask for help from? Why should people come to you for help? Look into your own

Many entrepreneurs don't realize that business growth requires working with perfect clients. That’s the key to sustaining a profitable and joyful business. How perfect your clients are, how aligned they are, and how they bring out the best in you. That is 100% what makes or breaks your business.

The million-dollar question is, how and where do you find them? Do you want to turn even your former employer as your client? Let's make that possible! In this week's episode, Samantha Hartley talks about finding clients for your consulting business.

Part One of ‘How to Find Clients for Your Consulting Business’

How do you find perfect clients? Simple. Clarity about who they are. Knowing who they are is about eighty percent of finding them. By formulating an excellent question, you're seventy-five percent of the way there to answering that question. Stay clear on who you're looking for. They're out there for you, and you can find them. 

People who read their goals every single day eventually achieve them. Because they keep these things in mind. You keep your mind actively thinking. You must have the conviction to find these clients you're compelled to serve. It connects to the idea that your perfect clients are out there. They're hoping, wishing, and praying for you to show up. They're tormented by whatever's going on with them. You can solve it for them. Someone out there urgently needs what you do.

“Your attitude, mindset, and energy affect how you conduct your marketing.” — Samantha Hartley (04:22-04:27)

Have confidence. Be confident that your client is out there. That you can connect with them. If you start any marketing effort with confidence, you must believe that things are going to work for you. Be intentional and be open to receiving more clients. Your attitude, mindset, and energy affect the way you conduct your marketing.

The next thing that you need to prepare is your message. People are going to say, what do you do? They're going to think, why do I need to know you? We need to be ready and prepared with a concise, clear, and compelling message to communicate with them.

Preparation is necessary before meeting perfect clients. Maximize opportunities. Many people struggling to grow a consulting business are either avoiding or overlooking the necessary things. Success requires returning to the most straightforward, basic marketing techniques.

Part Two of ‘How to Find Clients for Your Consulting Business’

It's great to send out a Facebook ad and reach thousands of people, and create a sales conversation to convert. But even in person with the perfect client, you must know exactly what to say, what to ask, how to engage that person, to get them interested in their services. 

You’ll feel amazing when you have the opportunity to have a face to face conversation with a potential client. Watch their energy to see how they seem when they talk about what their challenges are. Those kinds of fundamental pieces of feedback are critical.

There's so much that you can learn from face to face interaction. That's why prioritizing offline marketing and offline connections are vital. You can see that when you deliver your marketing message, you're going to see a lot of micro-expressions.

The good thing about offline marketing is that anyone can do it. You don't have to have excellent technical skills. You don't have to have a high-speed Internet connection. 

You don't have to understand the ins and outs of social media. You can walk out your door and go and connect with potential clients and listen to them. It's very gratifying because the things that work offline will work online, and the things that don't work offline very often don't work online either.

You have to be sincere, you have to be engaging, and you have to connect to people before you can sell them something. If you practice these things offline, it makes you a sharper online marketer. All of these will eventually translate. Other people are going to know you according to the value that you can deliver.

“Maintaining relationships is the key to business growth.” —  Samantha Hartley (12:05-12:06)

You must keep your network intact, and you keep nurturing those connections. You never know if your simple communication with someone can turn into your first consulting engagement, and they may return again for your service.

Networking is a critical marketing technique. It's a fundamental life skill that you need to learn that can help you to connect with your perfect clients. If you're already in circles with people who know you, what you're looking to do is communicate how and who you can help.

The last is referrals. Finding good referral partners is about the alignment of values. And that can be a significant part of your marketing strategy.

Next Steps 

Discover How I Turned My Client's $22K Program into a $198,500 Offer that got a YES! https://enlightenedmarketingmedia.com/em-9xg/

On the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast, I teach you how to increase your profits and enjoy your business more. In this episode, you’ll learn how to find perfect clients. 

The key to having a profitable, joyful business is working exclusively and only with perfect clients.

Now, this may seem obvious. But if it’s obvious - why are you still working with rotten clients?

Rotten clients are bad for your business. It's actually not even worth a little bit of a compromise or fudge to work with somebody who isn't a good fit to share with you — no matter how much they’re paying you. 

Some key areas covered in this episode: 

I hope this episode gives you permission to work only with those who can most benefit from your services and not with just anybody who shows up. 

And in times when you feel pressured to take on a client, know that when you feel strongly that you shouldn't work with someone and you do it anyway, those are often the worst experiences. 

I’ve seen over and over again that if you are really courageous and turn down the wrong client, which can be so difficult, three really perfect opportunities show up. 

Listen to this episode to learn how to find your perfect clients wherever you get podcasts or click here to listen and subscribe: https://enlightenedmarketing.com/podcast/.    

Everyone knows that a business needs to be profitable. But people feel the joyful part is optional. If you're someone who firmly believes that it's got to be both, good for you. If it's the other way around, Profitable Joyful Consulting is here to give you a fresh perspective. Here's an overview of Samantha Hartley's podcast that you shouldn't miss.

Part One of ‘What the Podcast is About’

When your business is both profitable and joyful, you're going to do so much more. You're able to make a bigger impact. Let's talk about the areas that the upcoming episodes will cover.

“It is essential to work with clients who are considered a perfect match for your business.” — Samantha Hartley (00:43-00:53)

First of all, find perfect clients. When you work with perfect clients who are a perfect match, your business becomes incredibly joyful and profitable. They bring out your genius. You're going to have access to divine downloads. You get to develop talents and skills with perfect clients.

Working exclusively with perfect clients is one of the most important rules. Often, consultants react to what their clients need. Their clients come to them and place an order. You should have a signature approach or programs. That's one thing you can develop. You will have the opportunity to learn different marketing strategies when it comes to creating offers. These offers range anywhere from $100,000 to $800,000. This includes real-world examples of how they got developed and how you can do the same.

Part Two of ‘What the Podcast is About’

The next thing is the brand and messaging. When you have an offer, you want to notice who responds to it immediately. Branding is all about what you want to be known for. For making sure that you communicate clearly to those who are looking for you.

“Selling with integrity means having someone tell you their needs and meeting them right where they are.” —  Samantha Hartley (02:32-02:48)

The next aspect is selling with integrity. For many consultants, selling feels like a chore, but it's way beyond that. Selling is incredibly intimate because it's a way that you can bring your true self to this moment. Someone's telling you their hopes, dreams, fears, and what they want for their business.

You have the opportunity to meet them where they are. Encourage them to work with you. One of the goals of this podcast is to help you feel better about the sales process. Even if you know sales, get ready to learn additional skills and tools that will develop the kind of mindset ready for success. Having a mindset for success is critical to be more successful with your clients. Hopefully, you will subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Next Steps Discover How I Turned My Client's $22K Program into a $198,500 Offer that got a YES!

https://www.enlightenedmarketingmedia.com/em-9xg/