Profitable Joyful Consulting

“Don't wait until some point in the future to enjoy financial freedom and independence.” Like so many of my clients, before working for myself I had miserable jobs that made me feel trapped, frustrated, and depressed. When I left corporate, I vowed that I would never put myself in that position again.  But too often, we become our own bad bosses - overworking, underpaying ourselves, saying ye...

“What we're trying to do with a guarantee is make it okay to reverse the risk, or at least mitigate the risk, so that people can trust saying yes to you.” I have a number of clients who guarantee the outcomes of their consulting work. But should you? Do you need to offer a guarantee in order to be legitimate in your business?  Tune in to this episode of the Profitable Joyful Consuming podcast...

“When you are an advisory board member, you're being tapped to fill a skill gap to help connect that management team to particular communities or networks or people, or maybe help them secure some type of contract that can really make the difference for the company.” -- Breen Sullivan, The Fourth Effect Being on an advisory board can help you make an impact, elevate your career, and maybe even get...

“At the heart of this is: be yourself and be authentic on LinkedIn.” LinkedIn isn’t about profiles or posts. It’s about branding. It’s about telling people’s stories. Platforms like LinkedIn, as my guest Donna Serdula says, are simply great places to do that.  Tune in to this episode of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast to learn what builds your brand on LinkedIn more than anything els...

“Money boundaries protect our self-worth and our value. They protect us from over-giving, from devaluing, especially at work. They empower us to be intentional and to act in alignment with our values.” There's a lot of emotion that comes up around the topic of money and a lot of “shoulds." But you’re allowed to have money boundaries, just like you’re allowed to have boundaries in every other area...

“Appreciate what you have. If you don't have much today, it doesn't matter. Appreciate it. And as you grow, it will grow.” - Cori Arnold  A lot of us struggle with personal finance, but it’s never too late to turn things around. I want you to be really aware of your finances because I believe that if you’re not being responsible with the money you have, when you bring more money in it’s just...

“If you have love and have empathy for and excitement about your audience, then you can love sales and enroll the people who are absolutely the best possible fit for you.” So many consultants are repulsed by selling and struggle to make it feel good to them. They think of it as a necessary evil. When they do that, they miss out on everything that is possible with a different point of view. Selling...

“I believe that if you go with what you really want to do without compromise, then you are going to sell more.” - Matteo di Pascale Is it okay for you to make tons of money doing what you love?  I’m very much about passion fueling your work. Bringing your heart into your work and using your God-given talents through your business is profitable and joyful — and I want you to make tons of money...

“Your rates are going to increase along with the value that you bring.” How should you raise your rates with existing clients? It’s much easier to give a brand new client a new, higher rate. But for those who’ve been working with you for a while, it’s different.  In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, learn how to approach this delicate conversation and discover five things to consi...

“Everyone makes money mistakes, but not everyone is carrying around shame about them.” What are your biggest money mistakes? Money is such a loaded topic and can bring up a lot of shame for people. But I promise: people (including me!) make money mistakes all the time and they’re not running around crippled by shame. They learn something, get over it, and move on.  Tune in to this episode of...

“Being good with money is having a set of skills, and none of us are good at any skill until we use it and we practice it.” - Jenifer Sapel  What financial principles do you need to know both as a consultant and as a woman entrepreneur?  Most of my clients are women, and a lot of them are reluctant to talk about money. They’ve always delegated that to someone else or expected someone els...

“A passion project is something that you work on because you're excited about it, and it puts a spark back into a relationship.” Do you have a passion project? In romantic relationships, most people acknowledge that our partners can’t be our be-all, end-all. We need to have other interests, hobbies, and friendships. Requiring one person to meet all of our needs puts too much pressure on them and o...

“Vulnerability works — only to the extent that you also step into and claim your expertise, stand in your power, and know your strengths.” How can you remain in your power and expertise as a consultant, while also having a relationship with your weaknesses? This season of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast is about gifts, talents, skills, and expertise, but we all have weaknesses, too — thos...

“It's important for you to know what your strengths are because you're going to market yourself on the basis of those strengths.” “The closest exit may be behind you.”  What does this familiar line from airplane safety briefings have to do with your consulting business? It’s a reminder of the blind spots you may have when it comes to your strengths.  In this episode of the Profitable Joy...

Consultants: want to understand yourself at a deeper level, break through your automatic patterns to expand into your best self, and better understand the people you work with?  In this episode of Profitable Joyful Consulting, my guest Stephen Van Kleeck shares how the Enneagram — a psychospiritual teaching and typology system — can help. Key areas discussed: 0:00 Introduction 3:51 How Stephe...

“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 unscien...

“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,...

“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...

"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 Joyfu...

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 ce...

“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...

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 your...

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 profitab...

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...

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....