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Here’s How to Convert Your Expertise to a Money-Making Consulting Business with Laura Meyer - Episode 216

2021-05-12

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Do you know how to do something so well that people are asking you to coach them? Have you thought about starting a coaching business? How do you convert your expertise to real dollars in your pocket? The truth is that people don’t talk about how to become a consultant. Being a consultant can give you a great lifestyle, a great profit margin, and allows you to work part-time hours. You also get to make a huge difference with the people you’re serving and help them make transformations at a high level. Laura Meyer—a fractional chief marketing offic...

What You’ll Hear On This Episode of Wingnut Social

[4:30] Mini news sesh: Facebook + Spotify
[6:10] Who is Laura Meyer?
[12:21] How to transition to consulting
[18:05] How to determine your pricing
[23:20] How to scale one-on-one services
[27:42] What is the value of what you’re selling?
[30:45] Get yourself in the right room
[31:16] The What Up Wingnut! Round
[35:52] Wingnut Blooper Reel!

Connect with Laura Meyer

Joybrand Creative
The Scale with Joy Podcast
Friend on Instagram
Connect on LinkedIn
The Advance Expert Network

Resources & People Mentioned

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

How to transition to consulting

Laura didn’t know what she would do when she left the photography business—she just knew she needed to shut the door. She believed if she created space for the new thing it would come to her. She says that “Great things grow in the margins.” You need space to meditate, think, and journal.

She texted a group of CEOs that she was friends with and told them she was shutting her business down because the industry was changing. They all started apologizing to her—but immediately followed their apologies by asking for help with marketing. They needed someone to come in at a strategic level to help them. It was the answer she was looking for.

What would you do for free? What are you passionate about that pours out of you? Laura recommends that you list out everything that you’ve done well. Out of that list, what can become your unfair advantage? Your proprietary process? Your signature offer? Start to offer that thing one-on-one.

Laura started with one-on-one clients and slowly increased her prices. Everyone wants large groups, but Laura emphasizes “One-on-one is where the transformation happens. It’s where you get better at your craft. It’s where you sharpen your saw. It’s where you see patterns. It’s where you develop your signature processes.” There’s nothing like it.

How to determine pricing for your business

How do you know what to price? How do you place value on your services? Laura believes this is the #1 mistake that people make. Laura recommends that you NEVER charge for your time. Instead, always always charge for the result. She notes that “The clearer you are about the outcome your services provide, the more of a chance that you can trade outcomes for income.”

Laura finds that many consultants aren’t outcome-focused. Laura makes pretty graphics, writes captions, and gets more engagement and followers on social media. The goal is to grow the business. Some social media managers make your feed look pretty. Others make your feed look pretty and grow your business—and they’re double the price. It all comes down to the outcome. If your social media is just a business card, it’s worth a lot less to the person investing in it.

How to scale one-on-one services

If you’re trading time for money, you’re up a creek. But many people worry that you can’t scale a one-on-one consulting model. Laura disagrees with that notion, and shares three ways you can scale a one-on-one business:

You can scale through agency services, where you keep the one-on-one interaction (just train more people to do that instead of you).
Another option is to license your system (i.e. Storybrand or Profit First) and scale your intellectual property.
Laura only shows up where she’s needed. Her process is well-defined and she is needed for very little.

If you have five one-on-one clients and you charge $2,000 a month for your services, you want to get to only having five 45-minute appointments weekly and outsource everything else. You speak, teach, write, and deliver. It gives you an amazing part-time consulting business. It was a lifesaver for Laura.

So how do you determine the value of what you’re selling? What is your service worth? How can you differentiate yourself in a way that creates extra value? Laura delivers a TON of value in this episode—make sure you listen to the very end!

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