“Assessments help you have a conversation that is balanced between the intuitive and the more data-driven.” How can you discover more of your strengths, skills, talents, and gifts? One way is through personality assessments. Through personality assessments, you can learn more about who you are as a leader and as a person (because you’re both!). Critics say personality assessments are unscientific, or worse, that they reinforce bias and discrimination. But 80% of Fortune 500 companies reportedly ...
Mar 21, 2023•56 min•Season 13Ep. 151
“It's okay for you to be big. The only people around you who are diminished by you being big are people who are themselves small.” If you're surrounded by people who only see a small part of you, then you begin to get this impression of yourself as smaller than you are. But it’s important for you to be as big as you really are, regardless of who’s around you. You know the fullness of who you are, even if others sometimes don’t. In this episode of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast, get the...
Mar 14, 2023•14 min•Season 13Ep. 150
“People can take their imagination and create images that once they were not able to because their artistic skill wasn't there.” - Tatiana EL-Khouri. With OpenAI and ChatGPT, technology has made the biggest leap since the invention of the Internet. AI art, in particular, is democratizing the ability to make art. But what is AI art, what are the ethics behind it, and how can you use it in your business? We dive in on this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting with guests Jenna Soard and Tatiana...
Mar 07, 2023•46 min•Season 13Ep. 149
"It only took one time for me to type one question in [ChatGPT], and I knew it was going to change the landscape of everyone's lives, especially solopreneurs.” Do you want to collapse months into minutes? That’s what can happen in your business if you use ChatGPT, says my guest, Salette Thimot-Campos. Everyone’s talking about ChatGPT, but what is it? Why all the hype? On the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast, Salette shares how to harness the power of ChatGPT to boost your business. Salette T...
Feb 28, 2023•44 min•Season 13Ep. 148
Do you need to be certified as a consultant? Do you need an MBA, or other training? A lack of letters or certifications shouldn’t prevent you from doing the work you’re meant to do and making contributions in your field. I believe that success in consulting and in business is more about marketing and results, and less about educational level. Let’s dive into why you don’t need to be certified - and when you might want to get some support upleveling your skills - in this episode of the Profitable...
Feb 21, 2023•17 min•Season 13Ep. 147
“When you work with a base of 5-10 clients long-term, you tend to get fantastic results so your clients will renew and send you a lot of referrals, which creates a self-perpetuating business.” Traditional consulting businesses are mostly made up of one-off projects. That means you’re constantly on the hunt for new projects, which means you're constantly on a revenue roller coaster. You know what I mean: it’s where your income fluctuates wildly from month to month, and you’re always stressed abou...
Feb 14, 2023•13 min•Season 13Ep. 146
If you want to be a successful consultant, you need to know how to ask powerful questions that get insightful responses from both you and your clients. Solomon Ibn Gabirol once said, “A wise man’s question contains half the answer” and that has been my experience. In the formulation of a good question, you already have ideas popping up. Discover 6 powerful questions you should be asking yourself - and your clients - in this episode of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast. Key areas discussed...
Feb 07, 2023•18 min•Season 13Ep. 145
Consultants: do you feel great about promoting yourself? Do you feel brave every time? Do you love putting yourself out there? If you’re like 100% of my clients the answer is no, no, and no. Self-promotion is really hard for most of us, but you can learn how to shift beliefs that keep you stuck and take action to make self-promotion easier. Because you’re never going to have a profitable and joyful business if you don’t promote yourself. Learn how to make self-promotion easier and less soul-suck...
Jan 31, 2023•24 min•Season 13Ep. 144
What’s your life’s work? What do you want your legacy to be? I have a couple of clients who are turning 60, and they’re beginning to think about legacy: the lasting impact they’ll leave behind to inspire others. You don’t have to be nearing retirement to think about legacy. In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, we’re exploring how to start building the kind of legacy that you want to leave behind now. Key areas discussed: We all want to make an impact on the world. You don’t have to d...
Jan 24, 2023•18 min•Season 13Ep. 143
Five More Drivers of a Successful Consulting Business ⤵️ Want to create more impact with your business? Achieve bigger and better outcomes? Make an income that matches your impact without overworking? In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, I’m sharing the last 5 drivers (10 total) of successful consulting businesses. These are the strategies that help consulting businesses thrive. Discover what they are and how to use them in your business in this episode. Key areas discussed: Watch th...
Jan 17, 2023•17 min•Season 12Ep. 142
The Drivers of a Successful Consulting Business ⤵️ Whether you’ve been in business for a while and are struggling to get traction, have some traction but are stuck on the revenue roller coaster, or are drowning in client work with no time and capacity to grow the business, these drivers of a successful consultancy will help you create and grow a more profitable, joyful business. Discover 5 of the 10 drivers of a successful consulting business in this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting (and ...
Jan 10, 2023•21 min•Season 12Ep. 141
It’s not just big businesses that struggle with creating a company culture where people want to work and having leaders who can drive the behaviors they want to see. Small businesses struggle, too. No matter how small your business, it’s not too small to have a culture. My guest, Brittany Drozd, helps small businesses master leadership and company culture. She empowers agency owners and marketers to become confident leaders, build better teams and catalyze culture change. Learn how to drive lead...
Jan 03, 2023•32 min•Season 12Ep. 140
How to position your brand for a more profitable, joyful consultancy ⤵️ Are potential clients confused about what you do? Have you gotten tired of your current clients? Have your specialty or niche changed but you don’t know how to get the word out? These issues are all examples of brand positioning, how you’re known in the marketplace. What you are known for or known as shapes everything in your business - from the referrals you get to the kinds of clients you work with to the ways you communic...
Dec 27, 2022•14 min•Season 12Ep. 139
My client Sherry Quam Taylor went from being overloaded with 37 clients to making dramatically more than she’s ever made before (and experiencing a ton of joy) doing longer engagements with fewer, ideal clients and getting stunning results. She’s a consultant who shows nonprofit CEOs how to raise millions more in gen ops dollars so they can fund their strategic plan and increase budgets by 2 to 10x. With Sherry, their teams break free from the limitations of transactional fundraising and reimagi...
Dec 20, 2022•32 min•Season 12Ep. 138
Feeling overwhelmed? One of the things that consultants often come to me struggling with is being overwhelmed in their business. They’re doing client work, working on their own businesses and usually managing a household, on top of navigating the economy and the pandemic and all kinds of things. Overwhelm happens to all business owners, but it doesn't have to knock you off your game. There are things that you can do about it if you understand why you get overwhelmed, what you can do when you're ...
Dec 13, 2022•21 min•Season 12Ep. 137
My client Erin Straza was once “just” a copywriter. When she first started working with me, she shared her vision of what more she could do for her clients. Not quite a year later, Erin is bringing transformational engagements to nonprofits and helping them no longer just with copywriting, but with strategic marketing communications. In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, hear how Erin has changed her business by focusing on transformation and working with perfect clients - large enoug...
Dec 06, 2022•22 min•Season 12Ep. 136
How to avoid ever getting another client from hell again 👇 The client from hell: we’ve all had them. What can you do to avoid them in the future? How do you prevent yourself from constantly ending up with clients who drive you crazy? The number one determiner of profit or joy in your business is going to be the clients you work with. In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, you’ll learn how and why consultants end up with clients from hell, what you can learn from the situation, and how...
Nov 29, 2022•15 min•Season 12Ep. 135
How to create your own pipeline of leads for your business with David Struasser 👇 The only way your business is going to work is if you bring in new clients. For some people, generating leads is a challenge and other people rock at it. Either way, this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting about creating your own pipeline of leads is for you - so you can bring in new business without just being dependent upon referrals. Learn how to create an ongoing steady flow of leads in your consulting bu...
Nov 22, 2022•42 min•Season 12Ep. 134
How to package your consulting services as transformational offers (aka: what do you put in that thing you sell?). 👇 If you’re trading time for money in your consulting business, you're making things harder on yourself than they need to be. You have lots of opportunities to maximize your work with your clients (and get maximum value for it) with transformational offers. Tune into this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting to learn how to package your consulting services to both differentiate ...
Nov 15, 2022•14 min•Season 12Ep. 133
How to create more financial success in your consulting business. 👇 So many consultants don’t know their numbers enough to know what they should be doing next. But if you want your business to be profitable as well as joyful, you need to be fluent with the numbers in your business. Tune into this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting with Hannah Smolinski, a CPA and founder of virtual agency Clara CFO Group, providing small businesses with financial clarity and profit maximization strategies,...
Nov 08, 2022•44 min•Season 12Ep. 132
How to get more referrals for your consulting business. 👇 How do you get more referrals for your consulting business? “Ask!” says literally everyone. But what does that even mean? How exactly do you ask for more referrals? Who do you ask, and what does that look like? In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, I’m breaking down 5 ways to get more referrals for your consulting business that aren’t just “ask people for them.” Not everyone will tell you a couple of these. So tune in to hear ...
Nov 01, 2022•14 min•Season 12Ep. 131
How can you change your clients’ behavior when you don’t have any power over them? Influence! Learn how to be a better consultant by getting better at influencing people. 👇 One of the eight main consulting skills is influence. We obviously don’t have the power to force anyone to do anything, and as consultants our strength is our objectivity, perspective, and outsiderness as well as our expertise. That means we can only influence what’s going to happen. So how do you create change in other peop...
Oct 25, 2022•28 min•Season 11Ep. 130
Get video marketing tips for your consulting business 👇 Video marketing is hot, but some consultants are still reticent to get on video. It’s an amazing way for consultants to demonstrate expertise and attract clients, but it’s daunting. What kinds of videos should you make? Don’t you have to do cheesy dances? What tech do you need to get started? Finally start making the video content you need to grow your consulting business (or learn how to step up your video marketing game) in this episode ...
Oct 18, 2022•56 min•Season 11Ep. 129
Why you should bring your Inner Child to work 👇 If you want to get to the next level of your business, you have to ask yourself: what would I have to change or let go of? What’s in the way? Often people are engaged in self-sabotage or blocked in another way. When you connect with your Inner Child, you can surface the gifts you’ve suppressed, lost, or buried. You can start to understand the unhealthy coping mechanisms the Child developed a long time ago, and how that’s impacting your work. You c...
Oct 11, 2022•40 min•Season 11Ep. 128
A professional ghostwriter tells us how to write for your consulting business 👇 Writing is a critical consulting skill, one that you may not have expected to have to do SO MUCH of. We have to write for clients, for persuasion, for copywriting, for ourselves. But what about telling your story? Today's guest on the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast, Laura Elliott, reveals her secrets about mining your story. According to Laura, the best stories transform people. They’re an emotional ride, and ...
Oct 04, 2022•47 min•Season 11Ep. 127
Let’s build a pipeline of new potential clients coming to your consulting business. Find out how in this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting 👇 The most fundamental consulting skill is the ability to get clients. Some leave corporate with a network of good contacts they can call on immediately - and ongoingly - for work. But others struggle to find clients. Which best describes you? Are you able to bring new clients into your business? And if so, do you have as many as you want? You CAN have...
Sep 27, 2022•22 min•Season 11Ep. 126
If you love your clients, colleagues, and team members, you can learn to love networking. It’s simply the process of finding more people just like them! Learn how to network expansively in a way that feels good in this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting. Networking is one of the core, most powerful marketing strategies for consultants. It is the ability to connect meaningfully with others and turn that into relationships that can be professionally or personally beneficial for you. If you fe...
Sep 20, 2022•13 min•Season 11Ep. 125
Big word “strategy,” but what exactly does it mean? Are you doing strategic or tactical work? What is strategy for consultants? Strategy is a critical skill because it helps you to connect your work with clients to the bigger picture of what they're doing in their businesses. Strategic thinking can help you add more value for your clients. In your own business, strategy can help you focus and simplify so you don’t feel like you’re doing a million different, disparate, disconnected activities. In...
Sep 13, 2022•13 min•Season 11Ep. 124
Need alone time to recharge, focus and figure out what you think and feel about something? You might have the Hermit archetype! In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, you’ll learn how to connect with yourself and access your wisdom by identifying and working with the Hermit, an archetype of inner power. Archetypes are energy patterns within ourselves, and one of the archetypes that has deeply resonated with my clients - even the extraverts - is the Hermit. It’s the part of you that nee...
Sep 06, 2022•29 min•Season 11Ep. 123
What financial skills do consultants need to run their businesses properly? In the last episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting on “consulting skills,” I included “math” as a core skill consultants need to have. In this episode, I’m expanding on that conversation to share how to develop fluency around money in your business, know your numbers, and feel empowered with your money. Money often feels like one of those things you’re either good with, or you’re not. But financial skills can be learned...
Aug 30, 2022•36 min•Season 11Ep. 122
