7 Figure
Consultant
PODCAST
With Jessica Fearnley
Welcome to the 7 Figure Consultant Podcast, the show that takes you from booked up and burned out in your consulting business to THRIVING as the CEO of your 7 figure enterprise
Yes – you read that right!
It really is possible to earn more money from your business, by working less. In fact, these two things go hand in hand.
Jessica Fearnley is here to show you how you can work less and earn more in your business.
A lot of the content out there can feel like it is either speaking to people still fully in the corporate world, or to entrepreneurs with purple hair who work in their pyjamas and drop the f-bomb every other sentence.
Neither of these boxes feel like quite the right fit when you’re a consultant because you sit in both camps – corporate AND entrepreneur – and actually sort of between them, so in this podcast we talk about the issues that make sense for YOU.
We’re making a new box. And no one is going to be calling you a ‘boss babe’!
Tune into the 7 Figure Consultant Podcast and let’s start the conversation about how YOU can work less and earn more in your consulting business today.
Have you ever hosted a webinar? I hear all sorts of comments from women about why webinars will not work for their business. And lots of misconceptions about what a ‘successful’ webinar looks like.
To tell you all about how you can be making use of webinars, I invited Webinar Queen DeKesha Williams onto the podcast this week. DeKesha is CEO of Vizions Consulting, which helps small business owners use webinars to launch their signature offer to the masses.
What do you hear people saying they struggle with that you find really easy? Or things people look at in wonder that you think are ordinary because you’ve been accomplished at them from an early age?
Often, we don’t realise that the things we’re naturally good at can be hard for other people. You have talents you might be keeping hidden, or that you do not realise are valuable to others. My guest on the podcast this week is Debra Sunderland who is on a mission to awaken people’s genius.
We are hard wired for storytelling. Our stories influence our brands and the messages we send out about what we do and our values.
To find out more about this, I spoke to branding expert Stephanie Gunther on the podcast this week. Stephanie is on a mission to educate her clients on the sheer power of implementing and strengthening the many facets of branding: from the visual look to the brand messaging to the personality of a company and the people in it.
When you have revenue coming into the business, but not in the quantity as money is flowing out, that cash flow problem is really hard to face. Balancing those two things is a challenge!
The good news is that you can get to grips with your cash flow and sort this out. My guest on the podcast this week is Connie Vanderzanden who makes numbers easy for people by seeing a different way of how cash flows through your business and creating a different relationship with money.
There’s a reason why you didn’t fit into the corporate box. You have an energy and a sparkle that you bring to your work. You do things in a way other people don’t. Maybe you see things differently, or you have your own framework.
This week on the podcast, I’m talking to Michelle McGlade who believes success is an inside out game and leadership of self is the key to building teams and unlocking your next level growth in business and life.
You didn’t start your consulting business to work around the clock and never see your friends or family. Maybe you had a bigger dream. Maybe it’s a dream you are thinking will always be a dream.
This week on the podcast, I’m talking to Sumeena Gupta who took a sabbatical after 10 years working in the City and went travelling with her husband. They ended up building a new life for themselves in Indonesia and a seven-figure business.
I see so many women who have a goal in mind but shy away from writing it down, or telling it to anyone. And then find themselves saying, ‘but I suppose I have to be realistic…’ and they make it smaller.
If you have found yourself setting a goal and then dialling down your expectations of what is possible, then this episode is for you. I am talking about the limiting power of ‘realism’ in your consulting business.
Have you got more money in your bank account than you have ever had before? Or are you predicting that this is going to happen in your consulting business soon?
Do you know what you are going to do with it? A sudden change in fortune can be destabilising.
My guest on the podcast this week is Kaitlyn Carlson, who is President and Founder of Theory Planning Partners, a boutique wealth management firm for women in business.
Do you long for a freedom lifestyle instead of your business replicating the chaotic weekly schedule you left behind in corporate? You’re stuck on the hamster wheel. You tell yourself that busy is good, it shows you’re being productive. But are you spending your time working on the right things?
This week on the podcast I am talking about time management now you’re the CEO, and it’s not about using the Pomodoro Technique or any other systems you might have heard about to get more done in your day.
You know those days when you wake up knowing exactly what you’re going to do in your business and you start working and you just don’t have the energy. And then there are times when you get a really good feeling about doing something but your logical brain isn’t so sure.
You’re trying to do things while ignoring your energy. This week on the podcast, I am talking to Amber Annette, a soul-powered life and business coach, dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs do what sets their soul on fire.
As you start to charge more for your services or when you deliver larger projects and contracts for higher profile clients, something unexpected happens. Actually, several things. But the one I’m talking about today is that you can find your boundaries are tested.
Your boundaries are an important part of your business, not just for you but for your clients. In this week’s podcast episode, I’m talking about honouring your boundaries as your business grows.
When you set up a consulting business it’s often just you delivering the work at the start. You might be thinking, ‘but there’s only me, I don’t have anything else to offer’.
My guest on the podcast this week is Erin Austin, who is a lawyer and consultant using her experience in big law and corporations to help consultants identify the hidden assets in their business. She shares strategies to decouple your time from your income and how to plan for when a potential acquirer comes calling.
What does your desk look like? Super tidy? Key things out but generally clutter free? Or paper everywhere?
No, this isn’t an episode about how a tidy desk means you are super organised and set for success. It’s about people’s perceptions of us and focusing on what matters. As you’ll hear, it’s inspired by a conversation I had with a business friend and I realised it had quite a few business lessons I’m going to share with you.
This week on the podcast I am talking about stepping into abundance after a client got in touch with me following Episode 71 when I discussed what to do if your client is stuck in scarcity. She asked, ‘how do I know if I’m stepping into abundance, or just making really reckless financial decisions in my business?’
It’s such a great question and this is the conversation we’re having this week.
Whether you have started hiring a team, have hired and then had second thoughts, or you know you need one but don’t know where to start, this episode is for you.
I am talking to Lauren Goldstein, who is referred to by her clients as “The Business Doctor”. She is founder and CEO of the award-winning and globally recognized boutique business strategy consulting firm, Golden Key Partnership.
When you first start your consulting business, some things seem so hard. You’re busting a gut to sell to lots of clients. You have all the mindset issues you haven’t worked out yet. And you think 6 or 7 figures will never ever happen.
Business growth doesn’t have to be a painful process. This week on the podcast I am talking about uplevelling your business without the growing pains and sharing how you can approach challenges in a different way.
Are you talking to someone who is not sure they can afford to work with you? You know you can help them. But you suspect they are stuck in scarcity, the fear that the things we need or want will run out, that others will be critical or hostile towards us, and the fear that everyone out there is just waiting to shoot us down. This week on the podcast I am talking about what you do when you’re talking to a client or a prospective client, and you sense they are stuck in scarcity.
As a woman consultant, one of the hurdles you face is showing up as the expert. You want to show your authority and captivate the room. This week my guest is Tracy Goodwin, an internationally known voice command coach and voice analyst. She helps successful professionals and entrepreneurs unleash their greatest asset, their real voice so they can command a presence, captivate their listeners, and make a bigger impact with their message.
When you are the CEO of your consulting business, everything you end up doing comes down to what you are choosing to say yes to. You don’t want to manage the status quo and put up with high volume, low paid work. You want to be a leader – someone who sees a solution where you don’t just settle for what’s in front of you, you aspire to something better. This week on the podcast I am talking about leadership and decision-making now you’re the CEO.
You might have read the title of this episode with a slight look of panic. I’m asking this question, ‘are you the best’ because underneath the surface, we’re not always clear on this very simple issue. Am I the best? Can I really help people? Do I deserve to be here? I am discussing these questions and more on the podcast this week. They highlight a really fascinating paradox that is often true for high achieving women like us.
How do you know if trauma is getting in the way of your business and who do you turn to for help?
This week my guest on the podcast is Kelly Sullivan Ruta. She is a sought-after CEO Development Strategist who brings a unique combination of 26 years of formal education, training, and expertise as a clinical psychotherapist to the entrepreneurial table.
Sometimes when you’re running your consultancy business, it feels like you’re in the plane with your parachute on. Will you jump? You will yourself on to succeed, even though you are tired, even though your body is saying ‘no’, and you tell yourself you must do this.
This week on the podcast I am talking about pushing ourselves to succeed and how you can grow your business in a way that works for you.
Are you working hard in your business, giving out and helping others, but it feels like you’re not making back an amount of money that adequately compensates you?
The classic entrepreneur business model is to have a standard product or course that you mass market to a huge audience. But you want your business to be built around value, not volume.
Have you been running your consulting business while balancing home-school at the same time? Women have been disproportionately affected by childcare and home-school responsibilities during lockdown, and it’s been more pronounced for self-employed women who have often ended up cutting back their paid work, and then falling through the cracks of the government grants for the self-employed.
If you are wondering how to outsource writing, then this week’s podcast interview is for you. I am talking to Kim Kiel, a direct response strategist and founder of boutique copywriting agency. With 15+ years of writing multi-6-figure campaigns for small businesses and non-profits, Kim helps brainy brands and experts share their gifts and positive impact with the world.
You’re now earning a really good salary, possibly more than you did in your corporate job. But if you are married or in a lifelong partnership, this can raise an important issue. That is, do you see your consulting business as the ‘supporting income’ in your household?
This week on the podcast, I am discussing the transition to earning more than your partner.
Do you offer coaching to your clients as well as consulting? Are you drawn to one more than the other, or you are offering consulting, but increasingly feel you want to be a coach?
This week on the podcast, I am discussing the dilemma of how best to run your business if you are offering both consulting and coaching, or thinking of branching out from one of these into the other.
There’s no need to be a lone wolf in your business, and work everything out the hard way. You don’t need to make all the mistakes that others have before you. There are no medals for the business school of hard knocks, and there are enough knocks on the journey anyway.
This week on the podcast I am sharing what happens when you take the long way around and the impact that can have on your business.
There’s a lot of uncertainty about what the next few months will hold. It might feel like 2021 is over before it’s begun. We start the new year with such promise don’t we? We make plans, set goals, and look forward. But we’ve been hit with so many events beyond our control already.
This week on the podcast, I am talking about how you can reframe this story about 2021. Rather than thinking the outlook is bleak, times of crisis can actually uplevel your consulting business.
The corporate world has rapidly adapted to online working over the past year. Companies are now better set up to cope with a remote workforce, and there’s a real need to ensure continuity in business so that the impact on the economy of lockdown is kept to a minimum.
But even though we are all getting better at doing life and work in lockdown, it is still hugely important that you adapt your routines to build in the self-care you need to show up as the best version of yourself this quarter.
If there’s ever been a year that has done really hard things to our mindset, it’s definitely the one we’ve just had. Now it’s time to look ahead at what the new year will bring.
My guest expert for this episode is Jaclyn Mellone. I think of Jaclyn as the go-to gal for mindset. This is a topic I’ve been speaking about in the last two episodes of the podcast and I’m delighted to share my conversation with Jaclyn with you. It’s a really helpful discussion as we prepare for 2021.
When I set up my business I discovered Facebook groups for women business owners. It always jarred with me that there was a real new-age spiritualism that often accompanied this. I didn’t have a problem with other people going down this route – it just didn’t chime with me. I bundled money mindset up with spiritualism and manifesting and I found it a bit ‘much’. But over time I’ve really come to appreciate how valuable it is to talk about money mindset.
You have strategies and plans, you might even be paying people to produce them, but none of them are working. In fact, you might even be applying strategy to a situation where you are bent on sabotaging your own efforts without realising that’s what you are doing. Over the last 6 years I have changed how I respond and I have realised that when we feel like we don’t know what to do, it’s not a strategy problem, it’s a mindset problem.
Selling your business might seem a long way in the future. You might not even have considered it. But even if this idea isn’t on your radar, the processes involved will help you spend less time working and enable you to become more profitable. My guest on the podcast this week is Michael Zipursky, CEO of Consulting Success. We discussed how to build your business so that it is not reliant on you and becomes attractive to a potential buyer.
Are you frustrated that you aren’t bringing home the money you want to be? You work hard in your business. You put your heart and soul into your work. You’re fully booked. And yet you still aren’t making the money you want to. In this week’s episode I’m talking about the most common issue I see in woman-owned consultancy businesses: prioritising volume over value.
Do you feel like you are already charging at the maximum level for your industry? Do you sometimes wonder if your clients respect you? You never plan to work late but you seem to spend your evenings and weekends checking your work emails on your phone. These are all signs you might be undercharging and overdelivering. It is a huge issue for many of the women consultants I speak to.
We have seen two really important glass ceilings shatter with the election of Kamala Harris as the first woman Vice President and non-white Vice President.
One of the best things about my job is working with women who are making a difference. This week I am talking about three ways women consultants can have a positive impact during the Covid crisis.
We are in Lockdown 2.0 in the UK at the moment. It’s a bit of a blow, but also not really a surprise. This time around, there’s more of an emphasis on continuity. We want things to be as normal as possible. Your B2B clients can’t afford to stay on pause for another 6 months. This week on the podcast, I am talking about doing business in the middle of a global pandemic.
Confidence and assertiveness are both issues that come up often for women, and they can be huge issues in our professional lives as well as our personal lives.
This week on the podcast, I am talking about power because when you realise that you are giving your power away in the way you interact with others and conduct your business, it becomes easier to see how you can start taking it back.
I’m quite an instinctive journaler and sometimes find myself flummoxed by the question: how do I journal? If that is something you would like to know the answer to, then this week my guest on the podcast is Moyra Mackie. She’s an accredited coach and organisational consultant, and has developed Journal Safari to help people create a space where they can step away from being busy and articulate their thoughts and feelings.
Are you finding it hard to get projects finished? Is your to do list bursting at the seams? No matter how many hours you work, that list of tasks keeps growing.
None of us like not reaching our own standards, we are all trying to do our best. You might find this a painful realisation, but you could be the bottleneck in your business.
We often spend our time sitting on the sidelines, telling ourselves we will take a particular step in 6 months’ time.
This week on the podcast, I am talking about getting brave. If you have goals in your notebook that you haven’t started taking action on yet, this episode is for you.
Our role as businesswomen and as experts in our industries gives us the opportunity to lead inclusion. We can design the businesses we want to see more of.
This week my guest is Kay Fabella, a DEI consultant and remote teams specialist. Kay and I talked about the power of inclusion, creating opportunities and the part women consultants can play as allies and leaders.
Do you have an intense feeling of angst about your work? Perhaps there is a nagging doubt that you have done something wrong or that you are about to get ‘found out’ and will be asked to leave, or to give a client a refund. You are not alone. This is an issue many consultants come across: it is called imposter syndrome, the feeling that your success is down to luck rather than being something you have earned.
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. If you only have one service or one product, all your eggs are in that basket.
One thing that has really been a surprise for me to discover while hosting this podcast, is how many women there are, 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.
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. Lucy Eckley helps independent consultants build a unique story.
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…
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.
The sales process with corporate firms can take quite a long time. 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.
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 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.
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. 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.’
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.
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.
Everyone would benefit from having a business coach. You should have a business coach all the time. You should choose a coach with the opposite personality type to your own. These are just a few myths around business coaching that I get asked about. In this week’s podcast I’m addressing these, and exploring how you can decide whether a business coach is right for you,
How confident are you about spending money in your consulting business? What metric do you use to decide if an investment in your business is affordable or not? There is so much material available online on how to market your business, get more clients, generate more income. We tend to be more comfortable asking for and receiving help in these areas.
Often as consultants, we know that we’re really good at what we do, we are the expert in our field, but it can be really difficult to be confident in the way that we present ourselves. In this week’s podcast, I interviewed Tracy Hooper, a personal stylist who helps professional women create a style that helps them stand out, look great and make an impact.
Social media has been… A lot. We’ve had months of coronavirus and lockdown, and protests and riots triggered by the George Floyd tragedy, and flare ups and backlashes, and amazing conversations and eyes being opened to the endemic problem of racism… But there’s been such a lot of activity in such a short space of time. The emotional weight to nearly everything has been so much heavier than we would normally expect.
As the UK makes a tentative return to work and school, we’re starting to wonder what the next phase looks like for our businesses. In this episode I’m looking at the transition into the next phase of working, especially if you’re accustomed to working in close proximity to your client or meeting them in person.
As we move into a phase of easing the lockdown restrictions, I’m feeling a bit of a return to that brain-fuzz trauma uncertain place. So in this week’s podcast I’m talking about how we can see past this new phase of uncertainty, and start working towards a more secure future for your consulting businesses.
Often when I start working with clients they have a good handle on what tasks they need to do to run their consulting business, and how much money they make month on month. But what they don’t see is which activities are generating the most value.
Is your consulting business thriving during the Covid crisis? For many of us, our experience of this pandemic is considerably less bleak – and that can feel a bit awkward – as if we’re not in step with those around us.
‘Recession-proof your business’ has become the new hyper-inflated promise touted by formula-flogging ‘coaches’. It’s the Covid-crisis equivalent of ‘six-figures in 30-days’ that has been pedalled over the last few years (can you tell I’m not a fan). In this episode, we explore what you CAN do to protect (not proof) your business from an oncoming recession.
In this interview with Catherine Watkin (who coaches people on how to sell from the heart) we discussed how to handle selling to corporates at this time including how to keep selling without feeling like you’re profiteering and the simple, yet powerful offer you can make instead of postponing/cancelling live events and workshops.
Recently, I did a small survey of my email subscribers asking ‘what are the topics you would most like to hear more content about’. The most popular response was – how to attract higher value clients to your business. Once you really get your head around attracting these clients – your business will never quite look the same again.
Has your consulting business hit an income ceiling? An amount of money that comes in month after month, which is reassuring yet deeply frustrating at the same time. In this podcast episode I talk about the two fundamental reasons your consulting business is likely to get stuck.
It may seem counterintuitive but selling to corporate clients can be quicker and easier than selling directly to customers or to micro-businesses. The busy corporate world prefers a more direct approach that today’s podcast guest, Jessica Lorimer has honed herself, and now teaches to others.
This topic is relevant now and when we are operating under normal circumstances: How to manage your business spending and know what you can afford. Because that is a question that gets asked often – how do I know how much I can budget for running my business.
The last episode was about navigating through a crisis, so in this episode, we unpack that more as the situation with the Coronavirus develops, and the knock-on effects become more clear. The theme of this episode is really – Moving on from a crisis, and what we can be doing next.
This week’s episode wasn’t what we originally had on the schedule, but now seems like the right time to discuss this – navigating your business through uncertain times. There’s disruption, chaos, and fear around us, but we do have the capacity to respond, adjust and move on.
This episode is all about that ‘booked up and burned out’ stage of a consulting business that we often find ourselves in when our turnover is in the low 6 figures, and what you can do to comfortably go beyond this.
It is entirely possible to grow your consulting business too quickly. It’s not uncommon, and it is hugely overwhelming. However you achieved phenomenal growth, this podcast is for you.
Many of us became consultants because we are experts in a particular field – but that isn’t enough to guarantee success. We must also become experts in selling. In this podcast episode I’m talking to Leah Neaderthal, sales coach for women entrepreneurs and consultants.
The Number 1 Networking Mistake Consultants Make – And How To Avoid It. Today’s episode is one of my favourite business topics to talk about because it’s a real paradigm shifter when it comes to networking and sales.
You’re self-employed as a consultant. You’re the boss. Surely if you want to reduce your working hours, it’s easy – just work fewer hours. Job done.
If only it were that simple. In this episode we explore how you can work less and earn more.
In this week’s podcast, I welcomed my very first guest interviewee, Dylis Guyan. Dylis is an international B2B sales and marketing leader, mentor, speaker and podcast host. Get a pen and paper handy because this episode is a treasure chest of advice for consultants looking to land more corporate business.
So often, when women hit the six-figure income mark, and look to stretch themselves to the next level, this is an area where all kinds of mindset issues can come into play. Shouldn’t it be enough to go for 6 figures, why do I want to go for 7 figures? In this episode we look at key motivators beyond money.
As we head into a new decade I’ve been reflecting on what I’d like to take with me, and what I’d like to leave behind. In this episode I’m sharing three things that I have no space or time for in 2020, and I’m encouraging you to do the same.
When I’ve started talking about the issue of the gender pay gap for consultants, lots of women have said they didn’t realise this was a thing. In this episode I’m talking more about the gender pay gap for independent consultants, and what we can all do about that, right now.
At the end of the year I like to do a big review and reflection on how my business has been doing during the year. And how I’ve been doing. In this episode I share three tiny changes that have had a profound impact on me and my business.
In this episode we look at: Why independent consulting is especially suited to women; the 4 main reasons women struggle as independent consultants; how women are at least partly responsible for the gender pay gap; and what we can do about that.
Do you live in fear of building a team in your business? Have you been putting it off for as long as possible? I hear you – it’s a big step to take. It raises the stakes to build a team in your business. It isn’t something you should do lightly, but when you do it well it can be the biggest asset in your business.
In the early days, you can chop and change things in your business until you find your zone of genius, and you really start to make money in a way you haven’t before. Until one day, it starts to level off. You’ve hit the dreaded plateau. In this episode we explore why that happens, and what you can do about it.
Do you have the right business model for your business at the moment? If there’s a problem with the model, you will see this play out in your business. It impacts your turnover, your profit, your day-to-day experience of running your business. It doesn’t get more foundational than this!
Are you scaling towards success or chaos? If you can scale your business successfully, that is the stuff that dreams are made of. In this episode we explore how to build a business that gets easier to operate as it gets larger.
If you’re a consultant with your own business, looking to scale to a 7 figure turnover without the drama, you will love what we’re going to be covering. Maybe right now it’s just you in the business, or you may have a small team on the go already…
Welcome to the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast, the show that takes you from booked up and burnt out to thriving as the CEO of your seven figure enterprise. I’m Jessica Fearnley and I’m here to show you how you can work less and earn more in your business.