All Audiences

If you look closely at where your latest clients came from, there’s a good chance they were sent to you via referral.

This is your gentle reminder to:

1. Say thank you to people who refer prospects to you
2. Send a note when there’s a successful engagement to close the loop
3. Send a small gift or courtesy to people who repeatedly send you business
4. Maintain contact with these people and find ways to return the favour whenever possible

It costs nothing to be extra gracious to the people who put their reputation on the line to refer business to you.

Without them, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t have a business. Let that sink in for a minute.

If you notice, as I do, that ~80% of your clients come by referrals, it only makes sense to spend a proportionate amount of time considering the people who make your business possible.

Be a good referrer and treat your referrers like gold.

—k

There’s a well-known podcast marketing strategy where you interview ideal clients and people of influence in your industry so you can make new connections… and potentially even drum up some business.

Those are valid goals and tactics. However, if that’s your sole focus, it ignores a fundamental component of the spirit of podcasting: your listeners.

If your goal is to get listeners, there’s a good chance you’ll interview different people (or go solo!) than if your goal is to develop personal relationships.

I’m not saying one approach is better than the other. You might do a little bit of both. In fact, you probably should!

It genuinely comes down to your goals.

But if you want to develop loyal listeners above all else, you might benefit most by taking a mindset of service to your listeners—not solely to developing relationships for your personal gain.

Decide on your goals, then decide on guests and format.

—k

P.S. Thinking of ramping up your advisory services? Register for my workshop on December 7th about how to design highly profitable productized advisory services. It’s a mouthful to say, but it’s going to be that good. More info here →

Quick note: Are you looking to up your consulting offerings? Register for my upcoming workshop on how to design highly profitable productized advisory services. Today is the last day for the early-bird price. More info here →

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Allow me to ask you a few questions:

• Do you want more clients?
• Do you want better clients?
• Do you want to diversify your income streams?
• Do you want more free time to do other things?
• Do you want to feel less anxious about losing clients?
• Do you want to make more money overall?

With few exceptions, most of us would answer yes!

Why not? That all sounds great.

Luckily, there’s one little (somewhat obvious) secret to it all: marketing yourself relentlessly.

Chances are, you know what to do. You know you need to start that podcast, build your email list, and give away your best thinking more often.

But for some reason, we don’t give our own marketing the attention it deserves.

We play it safe. We do a few things here and there. We post on social media and call it a day. We hope things work when deep down, we know we aren’t pushing through our comfort zone to do our best marketing.

This is your gentle and empathetic reminder that marketing gives you permission to stay in the game.

Without it, there is no game. Marketing unlocks more opportunities than anything else you’ll do.

You can’t control the results of your efforts, but you can control what you do.

Focus on what you can control by giving marketing all the time, energy, and thought you can muster.

—k

I try to reach out to at least one person a day.

A colleague, friend, past client, or someone I respect on social media.

My approach is not strategic. It’s more philosophical in nature.

I don’t do it to  “drum up business”. I do it because I’ve found that business and life is fundamentally centred around relationships.

And I want to foster that.

Building and maintaining good relationships with people you genuinely care about is inevitably going to be good for you and the people you connect with.

Maybe it will lead to some new client work down the line. Or an introduction. Or an exchange of good ideas.

Or, maybe you’ll just have an interesting chat. Either way.

I’m sure there’s a grand strategic plan you can use to stay in touch with people. But frankly, I think it would lose some of its power if you approached people with some overly strategic angle.

With no intention in mind, just say hi to people. Find ways to add value and be generous if you can.

Serendipity happens when you connect with people. Say hi, make deposits into your relationships, and you will be rich in all the ways that matter.

—k

P.S. Thinking of trying or phasing into advisory work? Register for my upcoming workshop on how to design highly profitable productized advisory services. It’s a mouthful to say, but it’s that good. More info here →

Productizing your consulting services in a way that people can buy them “off the shelf” is not quite as simple as it may seem at first glance.

Do you package things according to levels of access to you? Or by customer segment? Or by specific projects?

Should you offer “unlimited” access to you—and if so, how do you avoid being taken advantage of?

And most importantly, how do you design things in a way that is highly profitable and compelling—for you and your clients?

On Wednesday, December 7th, at 11am EST/8am PST, I’m delivering a live workshop teaching you how to design your productized consulting services.

It’s based on everything I’ve learned having successfully sold and delivered over $1 million in advisory services since 2017.

This won’t be your typical training on productizing your services. This is about selling your advice and expertise—not just your hands.

And it gets super nuanced.

We’ll cover questions like:

• The specific process you’ll want to do before you productize anything
• The key elements to include in your scope of work—and what clients value most
• How to price your services for maximum profitability—for you and your clients
• How to design your advisory services ladder at multiple price-points
• Diversifying your advisory offerings with mentorship, coaching, memberships, and more
• How to price and package fractional CMO (premium) services strategically
• What to do if you want to fully transition to advisory services and out of implementation
• How to dip your toes into advisory work while still doing freelance/agency work
• The core sections and features to include on your service pages
• How to position your offers so your prospects feel like you’re reading their minds
• How to reduce the risk of people abusing “unlimited access” to you
• How to make a compelling business case for your services on your sales page and in conversations with your prospects

And more!

PURCHASE RECORDING — >$99
Includes the full recording + slides + sales page wireframe

Buy now →

One thing I learned a long time ago is to follow up with leads who go unresponsive. Longer than you think you should.

On the one hand, you don’t want to seem desperate. On the other, people are busy. And you may not be their priority right now.

Chances are, people are more willing to work with you than your confidence would believe. They just might be distracted.

Rather than get discouraged, I prefer to persist a little until it’s clear there is a “no”.

My preferred approach is to end emails with something like, “if I don’t hear back, I’ll assume you’re busy and will try you again in a couple of weeks.”

This reminds people that you’re not going away without a response. If it’s a “no” to work with you, you want to hear it so you can stop bugging them.

It also gives you permission to show back up in their inbox with a “As promised, I’m just checking to see if now is a better time to discuss your needs” email.

I’ve seen more deals come back—and be good clients—by following up and staying persistent with a lead longer than my comfort level told me to do so.

I don’t do it so much when I’m busy. And I don’t do it if clearly there is *vibes* telling me not to.

But if I have room, I’m going to treat it like any business would. I’m going to follow up again in the future.

Do you do this? Have any stories to share?

Let’s say you release a new product or service.

Maybe you announce a new coaching offer. Or a new course.

And at first… it’s crickets.

Did you do something wrong? Is it priced incorrectly?

Chances are, you have a great offer. The problem is, only a small percentage of people will be ready to buy today.

They’re now in the consideration phase of the purchase. In other words, they’re thinking about it.

The best thing you can do is focus on the system. To build a sustainable process for getting in front of your ideal clients consistently and (with value) until they’re ready to buy.

Even better would be to do the pre-sell. To talk about your thing long before it’s ready. To warm people up to the idea months in advance.

But since that’s not always possible, the next best thing is to launch your offer and continue with your marketing, knowing it will take time for people to warm up to the purchase.

For non-impulsive offerings, it takes time for people to be ready to buy.

Think in systems, not in immediate results.

—k

P.S. On Thursday, I’ll be dropping a couple of Black Friday things. One of them will be on how to design your productized advisory services. Things like scope parameters, value-adds, guarantees, sales copy, risk removals, and more. Keep your inbox open until then.

Advisory services come in two forms:

1. Access to your brain
2. Access to your brain with supplemental resources included

(They don’t come packaged with your hands, though. That’s something else).

The more resources you can include in your advisory offerings to supplement access to your brain, the more valuable your offerings can be.

Templates, training, playbooks, people, and other resources—all of it can make your advisory services more compelling and more valuable to your clients.

The value comes from things like faster implementation, easier knowledge transfers, and less friction overall. A number of efficiencies are created—and that creates real financial value.

With that added value, you will not only need to spend less time helping clients get things done, you’ll also be able to increase your prices commensurate with your added value.

But remember: adding more “stuff” doesn’t increase your value and profitability.

Adding more value does.

—k

P.S. This week, I’m announcing the launch of a workshop to help you design and package your advisory services. Stay tuned for that.

Being a leader doesn’t mean you need to have all the answers.

You might have an answer, but you also know there are likely many others. And the answers will vary by the person asking them.

Sometimes, your role is to be an explorer. To ask good questions and seek out answers  with and on behalf of those you seek to help

If you’re feeling stuck because you have nothing to say, try taking the explorer route.

As an educator and advisor, the biggest risk you have when working with your clients is overwhelming them.

You have to simultaneously paint a picture of the big picture while keeping them focused on what they need to know and apply right now.

One way to do that is to have a documented methodology. I include mine in the Advisor OS, but essentially it’s a Trello board with a suite of options to be deployed during my engagements.

This allows me to show what’s possible but then reign in the focus to what’s most important now. It scratches the curiosity itch of my clients without making everything a priority.

Another way to reduce overwhelm when teaching or advising is to think in threes. I try to break down a lesson into three parts. And if needed, up to three sub-parts within each.

This framework focuses your teachings on what’s most important, eliminating everything else. Your students can typically recall three core ideas in a lesson. Overwhelm averted.

A third and final way to reduce overwhelm is to end each consulting call with a question: “what are you taking away from this discussion?”

When you ask this, it forces recall and a decision around what’s going to be done next. You can work together to make sure you’re aligned on the 1-3 most important things to take away and do.

Remember, overwhelmed people don’t act at all. We shut down, get stressed, and eventually, we start to feel resentful toward the people who inadvertently create that overwhelm.

To summarize:

1. Document your standard methodology and show it to clients when appropriate

2. Break teachings down into three parts when possible

3. Ask the focusing question: what are you taking away from this?

Overwhelm is a real thing, especially when teaching and advising.

Sometimes, less is more.

—k