Seven Figure Consultant with Jessica Fearnley

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. And it's something that, as women, I think needs to be said. This...

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.  If you've reached this plateau it can be a lovely place to pause and enjoy the view from for a while, catch your breath and plan your next move. But many of my clients first come to me because they've found themselves trapped at that...

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. Jess is the UKs most influential sales coach for service-based entrepreneurs who are looking to sell their...

Today's topic was already on the schedule for this month, but it links nicely with the impromptu mini-series off the back of the coronavirus crisis and what it means for consultants. 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...

Last week I did a spontaneous episode about how to navigate your business through a crisis and it's had a great reaction, so I wanted to spend some time today unpacking that a little more as the situation with the Coronavirus develops for all of us, and the knock-on effects of it all become more clear. The theme of this episode is really – Moving on from a crisis, and what we can be doing next, an...

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. I'm talking about: The impact your mindset will have on your business and your day-to-day experience, and how to take control of that. How to move past fear and disbelief and into acceptance and planning. How staying calm and looki...

Today's 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. In this episode I discuss: Why striving for a six-figure business is often a mistake. How this tends to be the breaking point for many unscaled consulting based businesses. What you can do about it to comfortably go beyond multiple s...

It is entirely possible to grow your consulting business too quickly. It's not uncommon, and it is hugely overwhelming. Your business may have grown too fast because you've set the business up and it has taken off from the word go, or because you've been trundling along for a while and suddenly you've won a big contract or a succession of big contracts. However you achieved phenomenal growth, this...

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. During our interview we discuss: How Leah honed her sales skills through building and selling three businesses of her own. The one...

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. A mistake that we often make when it comes to strategic relationship building in our businesses, is misinterpreting the usefulness of our contacts. We haven't built our network at the right level. In this episode I discuss: How making relationships with t...

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. I know this is one of those areas where we may have the intention of carrying it out, but it just feels impossible. But I also know that to transition from six to seven figures you need to be working LESS not more. In this...

I recently posted a discussion prompt on Linkedin asking whether people felt that investing in their business was a high risk activity.   The results were fairly mixed, so in this episode I'm looking at the need for us to balance risk and caution as we build our businesses, and the ways in which we can get this wrong, including: How going big on sales doesn't always lead to big profit How being th...

In this week's podcast, I welcomed our very first guest interviewee, Dylis Guyan. Dylis is an international B2B sales and marketing leader, mentor, speaker and podcast host. She has more than 30 years in the sales and marketing environment - 14 of those years were spent in the financial services sector. Back in 2000 Dylis (reluctantly) left her corporate career, going on to develop a seven-figure...

It's not about the money - key motivators for women as we build our businesses. 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? For a lot of women, it's not just about the take home pay and nice h...

As women who are self-employed and independent workers, we have SO MUCH freedom. I have always said this from the moment I started my business 5 years ago. We have so much choice but it is hard to embrace that and actually choose the things in the short-term that add up to the things we want in the long term. As we head into a new decade I've been reflecting on what I'd like to take with me, and w...

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. We all hear about the gender pay gap for employed women, and that's across the board from low paid jobs to corporate career jobs. In this episode I'm talking more about the gender pay gap for independent consultants, and what we can all do about that, right...

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. I use those reflections to create an even better plan for the business in the year to come. I refer to it as my business 'super plan', because when I go through the process I feel super empowered to name and fix the issues I've faced. In 2019, some of the thin...

In Eden McCallum's recent research project, conducted in conjunction with the London Business School and Harvard Business School, women seemed to be getting a better deal as independent consultants. The results of a survey of 300 independent consultants and 100 traditionally employed consultants showed that the gender pay gap is much smaller for independent consultants than the employed consultant...

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. One minute it's just you in your business and you can shut up shop if it all gets too much. But once you take on people – this changes. It's a greater level of responsibility. And it's more pressu...

The real reason you can't make those business changes, you KNOW you need to be making. Your business can mean too much to you - here's why. In the early days, you can chop and change things in your business until you find your zone of genius, the one thing that you can really help your clients with and your messaging just seems to fall into place. You really start to make money in a way you haven'...

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! In this episode: Why mapping out your business model is essential (even if it's just on a scrap of paper) The tw...

Are you scaling towards success or chaos? If you can scale your business successfully, that is the stuff that dreams are made of. To make the transition from having one stream of income that consists of selling hours of your time to your client in exchange for money, to a way of doing business that isn't time-based. But when it isn't done right, scaling is probably the quickest path to overwhelm a...

Welcome to the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast, the show that takes you from booked up and burnt out in your consulting business to THRIVING as the CEO of your 7 figure enterprise. 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 s...

Build your business with Jessica Fearnley, business coach, entrepreneur, wife, and mum of 2 pre-school boys. Jessica shares her personal experiences of recovering from burnout, life before and after kids, as well as growing a business from scratch, the pitfalls to avoid and the 'juggles and struggles' so many of us experience along the way. It's so easy to talk about starting an online business, b...