Seven Figure Consultant with Jessica Fearnley

Is your business reliant on everything staying the same? It needs you, your expertise, and your presence. It needs the world to keep working the way it does. Perhaps it is reliant on one or two big clients.

This can put your business at risk if something goes down in your sector or industry, with a particular client you work with, or even within your own business. You are extremely vulnerable if you only do one thing.

Adding revenue streams to your business means adding a corresponding service, or maybe even a new service, to your business so that it either serves your existing client base more fully, or it allows you to broaden your reach.

Now is a great moment to be thinking this through because no matter what field you operate in, your business will be better off with more baskets. If you only have one service or one product, all your eggs are in that basket. We want to move away from that. This is about building resilience in your business.

This week's podcast is all about adding revenue streams. I discuss:

• Spreading risk in uncertain times
• Spotting the situations that could mean a change for your business
• Knowing when there is a genuine opportunity for growth and expansion in your business
• Engaging and listening to your audience
• Whether you are looking for short-term or long-term revenue
• Why you need to think about the resources involved in setting up a new offer

Useful links:

Episode 040: Is It Really Possible To Work Less And Earn More In Your Consulting Business?

Episode 002: Ready To Scale

Book in for a one-off call with Jessica to discuss your business' financial situation

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

One thing that has really been a surprise for me to discover while hosting this podcast, is how many women there are out there in the world, who are either in the process of setting up their own independent consulting business, or are already consulting under their own independent brand, but who don't yet feel part of a cohesive group of women consultants.

It never fails to amaze me that there can be so many amazing women who work as consultants and are building consultancy firms who just do not realise that there are other women out there just like them.

So I wanted to make that the theme of this week's episode.

In this week's podcast we explore:

• The mindset battles and personal circumstances that are more likely to hold women back than men.
• The opportunities for networking and collaboration that exist when you stop viewing other women consultants as your competition.
• The latent benefits you enjoy when other women overcome fear and obstacles.

Useful links:

Podcast Episode 008 - It's Time To Ask For More

Podcast Episode 006 - Closing the Gender Pay Gap for Women Consultants

Jessica Fearnley on LinkedIn

The Work Less Earn More Mentorship

When you are super clear on who you're talking to, and what they want to know about you, it's so much easier to communicate confidently and consistently every time you speak and write about your business.

My friend Lucy Eckley is founder and director of strategic communications consultancy Build Your Brand Story. She helps independent consultants build a unique story so they can stand out in their industry, get hired by their ideal clients and grow their expert status.

I invited her onto the podcast to talk about how her work applies particularly to consultants, including:

• How you can stand out by being yourself
• Going beyond the buzz phrase 'Brand Story' and exploring what this really means for your consulting business
• The two biggest mistakes consultants make when it comes to personal branding
• How your brand story can turn competition into collaboration
• Signs that indicate your brand story isn't working for your business
• The key differences between building a brand story and a traditional brand identity exercise
• Which parts of your brand story to use where
• How to share the personal messages about you and your brand story without it negatively affecting your business
• The simple check you should make before you hit 'publish' on social media posts

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

Lucy's free mini email course - Start building your brand story in just 10 minutes per day.

The narrative around growing a business suggests that in the beginning things are quiet and you have lots of time on your hands but you don't have much money coming in. And then as it grows, the amount of money coming in gets bigger, but the amount of time you have available gets increasingly smaller. And because of that, your workload and the pace the business moves at are continually increasing. You know, the hamster on the wheel, it just runs with its little paws faster and faster.

But this does not have to be the case for your consulting business at all.

In this podcast episode I explore the myths around running your own business, and why they don't apply to a consulting business, plus:

• Why consulting is one of the easiest businesses to get started, and grow rapidly to a six-figure income.
• Why working more will only earn more up to a point.
• How to keep growing your business even after you're fully booked.
• Why taking on a team isn't always the smartest way to scale.
• How your hard-working attitude could actually be causing you problems.
• What high-achieving really looks like in a consulting business.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• The Six Steps To Seven Figures Video Series
• Jessica Fearnley LinkedIn account
• More information about coaching with Jessica.

Is there such a thing as a stress-free business?

I don't know that any business will ever be 100% stress free.

But you can minimize the stress you experience, by taking one small, but important action every single month - building up your cash reserve.

When you compare it to the alternative, living hand to mouth, it's really no contest.

In this week's podcast episode I discuss:

• What a business reserve is, and why it matters
• How much cash you should be holding in your business
• What to do right now if your reserves are zero (or near to zero).

Useful links:

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

Book in for a one-off call with Jessica to discuss your business' financial situation

Jessica's LinkedIn profile

The sales process with corporate firms can take quite a long time.

Sometimes we do get in touch with the right person at the right time, and you can meet the person, shake their hand, and have the contract in the bag by the end of the week. That does happen (but not often).

Sometimes it can take six months.

Sometimes it can take 12 months.

And these really long lead times can have a huge impact on your cash flow, and your anxiety levels.

On this week's podcast, I'm talking to Laura Wright, a self published author, speaker, growth strategist and master sales coach. She has closed a cool $43 million and then some over the last 20 years, she is the founder of Epic At Sales and during our interview she shared some ideas on how to speed up your sales process.

We also discussed:

• How recovering from big financial losses has made her stronger than ever.
• The strength information and skills-based businesses have over those that sell products (especially now)
• The benefits in experiencing times of stress and strain in your business
• The key question you should ask at the start of your B2B sales process
• How to understand and liaise with the decision-making hierarchy of your prospect's organisation
• How to strengthen your pipeline with clients of varying sizes
• The true purpose behind stretch goals
• Making the most of referral opportunities
• What works best: nurturing one lead with multiple interactions, or connecting with multiple leads?

Useful Links:

Laura Wright's Overcoming Objections PDF

In the middle of the Covid crisis, many of us are in an uncertain season, a 'between Winters' stage and we don't exactly know how things will play out in the months ahead.

This uncertainty can cause a sense of scarcity, even desperation, and a feeling that we should take on any and all work offered to us, even if it isn't the work we would usually do.

I encourage my clients to have an Ideal Client in mind for their consulting services. If there's a type of business you prefer to work with, or a kind of work you prefer to do, it makes sense to focus on attracting more of this.

But what do you do if you get asked to work with someone who doesn't fit your idea of an Ideal Client, especially now, when we may be feeling uncertain about the future of our economy.

That's the topic I'm exploring in this week's podcast episode, including:

• Why you might be feeling more tempted than ever to work with people who don't fit your Ideal Client criteria.
• Why having an Ideal Client brief or avatar is important for your business
• How to know which opportunities to say 'yes' or 'no' to
• How to know when your initial 'no' reaction is sensible judgement, or fear of your own limits
• And how to use requests from non-Ideal Clients as inspiration for additional revenue streams.

Mentioned in the podcast

• Six Elements To A Seven-Figure Business Video Series

Last week I had two separate conversations where basically the same question was being asked. And I realised this is totally something that other women consultants will want to hear the answers to, so I've recorded this podcast episode.

The question that came up was 'how can I plan for anything in my business at the moment? Everything shifts so much from one week to the next.'

So in this week's episode I explore:

• The challenges that may come up for all of us before the end of this year.
• The key questions you should be asking to check in on the health of your business.
• How to decide whether to stick with your original plan or change tack?
• Is now a sensible time to be making big decisions or investments?

Useful links mentioned in the podcast:

• Work Less Earn More Mentorship - find a way to run your consulting business that energises, not depletes, you.
• Episode 019 What To Do Next When A Crisis Hits Your Business
• Episode 027 – Do you know where the value is in your business
• Scaling to Seven Figures Video Guide

There are some misconceptions around building, and having, a seven figure consulting business.

There are so many things that can affect our mindset in the area of business and money, and talking about a business with a turnover more than 1 million each year can open up all kinds of related issues around identity, what we feel able to receive, what we feel we 'deserve', what we have grown up believing we are capable of achieving.

It can be a real hot mess of different mindset issues, which I'm going to explore in this week's episode, including:

• Why I've chosen to make 'seven figures' the focus of this podcast, rather than six or eight
• How to set your own criteria for success
• The surprising way many consultants feel after hitting their target financial milestones
• The risks of scaling a business when it's chaotic or unprofitable
• Why business success often doesn't look or feel how you'd imagined.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

My LinkedIn profile

My Work With me page

Find out more about what it looks like to take a consulting business to 7 figures - grab a free copy of my report, the Six Elements of a Seven Figure business.

Do you ever feel like the content you see online for people who run their own business, isn't well suited for you? That even the premium offers, like memberships and group coaching won't work for you, or aren't what you want. I speak to female consultants every week that have felt like they don't fit the female entrepreneur mould.

In this week's podcasts I explore why you need to be careful about the content you consume, and the programmes you sign-up to, because as a consultant, you're running a unique kind of business, including:

• Why often consultants prefer 1-1 over group coaching (and how to know which is a better fit for you)
• Why the wealth of free marketing advice out there isn't suited to you and your business model
• The reason hanging out in online networking groups can make you feel uncomfortable.