Seven Figure Consultant with Jessica Fearnley

I want to start a new conversation about something I've been exploring this year: joy.

Do you believe in joy? After the last few years of Covid, any of us could be forgiven for not believing in joy!

So often we come into business with the expectation that it will be hard. As high-achieving women, we got the school grades and the university degrees and our corporate promotions because we worked hard.

So we create our consulting businesses ready to work hard and go through the blood, sweat and tears, with all the fear and scarcity in the background that we're trying really hard to hide all the time.

Where does joy fit into that? On the podcast this week, I am talking about overcoming our ambivalence around joy and the difference it makes.

I discuss:

• Comparisonitis and how it affects our perception of ourselves
• Noticing moments of joy in your life
• How I've changed the way I launch offers
• What happens when you build your business around flow
• How being intentional about joy creates a positive ripple effect in your business and life

Useful links

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Have you seen that drawing of A Day In The Life As An Entrepreneur before by Derek Halpern? It's a line with peaks and troughs charting your inner voice as you go from 'I'm excited!' to 'ugh this is hard', then 'it's working' and back down to 'I messed up'. And this is how so many of us see life as a consultant. Does it resonate with you?

Growing a consulting business from 6 to 7 figures is one of my favourite things because it's a transformational journey. So often, the amazing thing is that it's not just the business that ends up growing. We emerge from the process as higher versions of ourselves. It is so powerful.

But a huge part of this road can feel like fear.

You have to leave what you've always known and exchange it for the unknown. It means switching certainty for uncertainty. It can feel like all we do is climb mountains in our business growth plans.

A client contacted me a few weeks ago and said: 'I feel like my business is constantly mountains and I want some valleys for a change'.

And I was super inspired by this and as the words were flowing out of my mouth in reply, I thought this is a podcast episode! I have to share this! And so this is the topic on the podcast this week.

I talk about:

• Stopping playing by the rules of feast or famine, highs and lows
• Why I love growing consulting businesses from 6 to 7 figures
• Wanting something more but being scared to go and do it
• How members of The Seven Figures Club are often experiencing similar issues as they grow their businesses with me
• Two books that helped me step back and feel excited instead of fearful
• Techniques to reduce overwhelm

Useful links

What a Day in the Life of an Entrepreneur Actually Looks Like

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Do you like sales conversations? No matter what stage of business you've reached, sales calls are unavoidable.

You might have got them down to a fine art, or they might make you squirm. Regardless of whether you are comfortable in a sales environment there are always tweaks to be made. You can probably get a good outcome, but small changes can make a big difference to your close rate - and how you feel during the process.

We all want to close more sales and feel good while doing it, don't we?

My guest on the podcast this week is Connie Whitman and she is sharing her 5 step process to remove objections during sales conversations. Listening to this is 30 minutes well spent!

Known for her high-energy, passionate, heart-centred, and enthusiastic approach to sales, teaching and coaching, Connie has been the CEO of Changing the Sales Game for 20+ years helping business owners, leaders and sales teams build powerhouse organisations.

A three-time #1 international best-selling author of her book ESP (Easy Sales Process): 7-Steps to Sales Success, speaker, and podcast host, Connie's inspired teaching, transformational tools and content ensure that business owners and salespeople grow their revenue streams through enhanced communication skills.

We talk about:

• Serving your clients where they are now
• How clients might not be ready for your full programme but that doesn't mean they don't need you
• The 5 layers of buyer's resistance
• Adjusting your communication style to suit your clients
• What you need to be doing during sales calls

Useful links

Get Connie Whitman's communication style assessment

Connie Whitman's LinkedIn profile

Changing The Sales Game website

Changing the Sales Game Podcast

Enlightenment of Change Podcast

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Have you set goals for yourself, come up with how you're going to achieve them, and then when things don't go as planned, you feel like that was the outcome you expected?

You wrote down one thing, and your subconscious mind planned for another. You told yourself this was a practice run, or that that client was never going to work with you anyway, or that actually, not having that work is better because you would have struggled to fit it in with everything else you're doing.

I have a growing suspicion that in situations where we are trying to grow our businesses and increase our personal wealth but we're NOT seeing the traction we want to, it's not because we aren't capable of achieving it, or creating the opportunities needed to achieve it.

It's because we are not ready to receive.

This is the topic for this week's podcast episode and I'm going to show you how to spot when you're sabotaging your own efforts.

I talk about:

• The power of our thought patterns
• Our boundaries and going beyond them
• What happens when you experience personal growth
• How women are programmed to give and not receive and the impact that has on us
• What it looks like when you decide you're ready to receive

Useful links

Apply to join my Catalyst program

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

We often get into situations in life and in business where to be quite honest, we don't know what to do.

This is what happens when we're in a season of personal growth or business growth. If you listen to this podcast regularly, you'll know that we don't usually do just one of these, we do both, personal growth leads to business growth and the two are massively connected.

When you're growing, you're in situations you've never handled before. And that can be scary. As high-achieving women, we like to be confident we know what to do and what to expect.

In today's episode, I'm bringing together some moving parts that I've been working through and speaking about for the last few months. The thread running through them is self-trust, and if you've been listening to the show, I hope it's going to help you think through some of those concepts you've heard about and how they apply to you and your consulting business.

I talk about:

• Shifting from feeling like we need to control the outcome of every situation we're in
• When you have high hopes for a new opportunity, and it doesn't live up to expectations
• How setting 'realistic' goals which we're certain we can do, keeps everything small and rigid
• How we're more motivated by impact and legacy than revenue
• Allowing your business to just be a business, and not the thing that proves or disproves your validity as a human being.

Useful links

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

One of the big transitions women go through when they are at six figures and looking to get to seven, is shifting from being the person who does all the stuff to needing to be the CEO.

You've grown your company this far. You know all the ins and outs of it, exactly how you want everything done. And you have so many ideas!

You also now have a team - and it's growing! Other people are executing your ideas. Suddenly you need processes documenting and you have people looking to you for answers about how you want things done. It can be quite a learning curve, as well as a change in identity for you as the business owner. You might be wondering, 'how do I clone myself?'

My guest on the podcast this week is Alecia Huck, the founder of MAVERICK & Company, a management consultant, sought-after speaker, and author. She specialises in helping leadership teams of fast-growing companies build the critical skills, tools, systems and processes they need to keep winning.

She is known for working closely with leaders to customise solutions, protect existing culture, and fix what is broken without "going corporate." Experienced in industries from construction to criminal justice, Alecia is proud to work with entrepreneurs so they can spend less time fighting fires and more time building what matters.

We talk about:

• Problems you encounter as you scale
• Going from being a super doer to a manager
• 3 key things you need to be aware of when you grow your business
• Why you need to be willing to not get things right
• What you should be focusing on in your business
• Enabling everyone in your organisation to own things

Useful links

If you wish you had a way to clone yourself, here are Alecia's leadership and management tips and strategies

Follow Alecia Huck on LinkedIn for short videos, smart articles, and more.

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Has life taken an unexpected turn recently? Whether in your business or in your life, no matter what you had planned, you can get thrown off course by events you had no way of knowing would happen.

There has been some heavy, bad and scary stuff going on in the world lately hasn't there? You may have been affected, directly or indirectly. Or something else might be happening in your life.

We don't build our businesses in a vacuum. We have all kinds of other things going on and sometimes this makes a really big difference or even stops us from progressing the way we planned. Sometimes, all you can see is scarcity. It's a real challenge to channel abundance at times like this.

And yet, choosing abundance can make a real difference not only to how you see the world, but what happens next.

On the podcast this week, I am talking about choosing abundance when all you can see is scarcity.

I talk about:

• When life doesn't follow your 5 year plan
• What abundance actually looks like day to day (no, it's not about money)
• Turning situations around when you hit a setback
• How choosing abundance creates momentum
• Not airbrushing out the hard stuff or the mess

Useful links

Register for Your High-Ticket Head Start at jessicafearnley.com/challenge

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Think back 5 or 10 years, did you know what your life would look like then? Could you imagine who you would be working with, or the projects you have completed? What about where you live?

As a high achieving woman, you will have done your utmost to succeed in every situation you faced. You will have studied what worked for others, you will have practised your pitches, you'll have made sure you were walking into the right rooms. But you can't control every variable and I bet there have been some surprises along the way.

Perhaps there was that contract that appeared out of nowhere. And then there was the time you found yourself in a conversation you never expected, which led to something else amazing.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in the last year is about the power of radical detachment and I learned it from Laura Wright and Amber Annette. They are the Sould Sisters, and they're my guests on the podcast this week. Laura and Amber work with the conscious, ambitious business owner who is actively taking her 6-figure service-based empire to 7 figures (and beyond)... and is here to live a freakin' incredible life while doing it.

Both Laura and Amber have been on the show before but separately, Laura in Episode 38 and Amber in Episode 78, so you'll recognise their voices.

We talk about:

• Knowing what you want but not being stuck on how that's going to come about
• Showing up in different ways and how that takes the pressure off yourself
• Documenting your desires and energy through journaling
• Curiosity and being open to possibilities
• Aligning yourself to your energy in different phases of the month

Useful links

Find out more about Laura and Amber on their website

Business Magic with the Elements Masterclass

Follow them on Instagram or join the Facebook community

Listen to Episode 78: Running Your Business In Line With Your Energy, with Amber Annette

Listen to Episode 38: Speeding Up Your Sales Cycle, with Laura Wright

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

Are you trying to look like you've got it all together while in reality there's a whole lot of things going on you're scared of telling anyone about?

You're not sure if you're offering the right services. You can't work certain hours or in certain ways and what if clients think you're not committed enough because of that, or that you can't be trusted to handle the work?

You've always known you were on the right track before. Top grades in school, did well in extra-curricular activities, bonuses in your corporate life. At every stage in life, you were given a reward for your efforts and that's what success looks like. But now you're the CEO and the whole structure of work and reward has shifted. Life has possibly taken some unexpected turns for you as well.

As women, we have a whole thing about needing to be perfect in order to be successful. Recently, a question I've been asked a lot (and I've asked myself) is: am I too much of a hot mess to get to 7 figures? And that's what I'm talking about on the podcast this week. I'm warning you now, I'm very vulnerable in this episode!

I talk about:

• How different rules apply when you become your own boss
• Why I had no clue about the journey I was setting off on when I started my business
• How trying to be perfect can be detrimental to your business
• The importance of knowing your north star
• What to do if your mess starts to interfere with your work

Useful links

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

When your business takes off and you start growing a team of people to support you it's exciting - and challenging.

You've always been the CEO of your business, but now you have more management responsibility than before, and you have to learn how to work with more people in your business. It used to be that you only needed to communicate with one or two people, now you need to share your vision with several people. And you have to field questions from them.

It's a stage of business where you can be unused to the amount of chaos that suddenly gets generated. You're figuring out who is doing what and what needs doing next, onboarding clients, keeping on top of customer service. You can feel like you're suddenly spending a lot of time firefighting when your days didn't used to be like that.

My guest on the podcast this week is Karen Sergeant, a Team Growth Strategist and advisory Chief Operating Officer (COO). She helps small business owners survive their growth-spurts, grow their teams — and build a strong culture based on consent and accountability. She offers short intensives and ongoing consulting engagements that empower owners and leaders to build strong equity-centred business practices and teams. She's based in Tucson and works with clients around the world.

We talk about:

• What a COO does and how they can help your business
• How what made your business successful could become an issue as you grow
• Developing a company culture
• Enabling team members to meet your expectations
• What's really happening if you feel your team isn't performing at the level you want

Useful links

Get Karen Sergeant's Hiring Guide

Find out more about Karen Sergeant on her website

Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business

Jessica's LinkedIn profile