Seven Figure Consultant with Jessica Fearnley

When you step into the role of being the CEO of your consulting business, you need a team you can trust to make everything run smoothly.  That brings with it a whole lot of questions and mindset issues as you let go of parts of your business and ask other people to step in.  Whether you have started hiring a team, have hired and then had second thoughts, or you know you need one but don't know whe...

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. It can often reveal the personal development we need to do on the journey to become the version of ourselves we...

Are you talking to someone who is not sure they can afford to work with you? Or do you have a client who you're talking about next steps with, and the investment involved, but they are holding back? You know you can help them. You know they need to make the leap. 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 hosti...

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 but at the same time you are probably thinking that you don't want to come across as too dominant. Perhaps you were always told that children are seen and not heard and that message about blending into the background has stayed with you. Or maybe you always found t...

If you've spent time in a corporate workplace you will know that leadership and management are not the same. Woe betide the team who end up with a manager when what they really need is a leader! Being the CEO of your consulting business is probably one of the biggest personal development journeys you will ever go on. We can often feel like we're at the mercy of our businesses. It seems as if the w...

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? What about my competitors? I am discussing these questions and more on the podcast this week. They highlight a really fascinating pa...

How do you know if trauma is getting in the way of your business and who do you turn to for help? Trauma can come in many forms. You might be acutely aware of it, or it might be in the background. Sometimes trauma can surface, seemingly out of the blue, after being buried for a long time. This week my guest on the podcast is Kelly Sullivan Ruta. She is a sought-after CEO Development Strategist who...

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. You might have had a tiger mom figure in your life who pushed you to that point. But all too often - you are the tiger mom, and 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? It's a classic scenario that women in all walks of life end up in. You're stuck in resentment because you're serving this huge audience but you, the shoemaker, are going barefoot, and it becomes a negative cycle of resentment and negativ...

Have you been running your consulting business while balancing home-school at the same time? Here in the UK, schools are poised to go back and this intensely difficult phase is coming to an end. 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 p...

How much do you write for your business? When you start out as a consultant you might not write that much marketing material. You have probably put a website together but how well does it represent you now? And you might be noticing all the additional writing you are doing, from emails to your list to the preparation for a launch. I've been talking a lot on the podcast recently about what it means...

Have things started to come together in your consulting business? You've put your heart and soul into your work and now it's paying off. You're approaching projects with energy and confidence and your bank balance has increased. 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...

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? I speak to a lot of women who get torn between two directions in their business. It can be difficult to decide where to focus your efforts, or what to say to your clients about your offers. Sometimes you are doing one t...

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. Right at the start of my business when I was still finding my feet, I took a big detour and started offering low ticket services....

There's a lot of fear right now. There's a lot of uncertainty about what the next few months will hold. Some of us are in lockdown again and have kids at home instead of at school, with all the pressure and cabin fever and frustration that can bring (for us AND for them). 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,...

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 routi...

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 and we are wondering what the new year will bring. My guest expert for this episode is Jaclyn Mellone, a mindset coach, founder of the Go-To Gal podcast and of Pays To Podcast. She helps her clients anchor in their authority, grow their revenue, and build...

When I first set up my business I quickly discovered some great Facebook groups for women business owners. It always jarred with me a bit 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 particularly chime with me. I bundled money mindset up with all this talk about spiritualism and manifesting...

When I was new in business, if someone said they didn't know how to get clients I would have sat down with them and got to work coming up with strategies. I would have suggested 7 things they could try like speak at a conference, go networking, or reach out to prospective clients on LinkedIn. What would often happen then was that, even though they went away with a list of things to do, we would me...

Most people start a consulting business and put themselves at the heart of it. You are selling your skills and expertise, possibly even your time. But really, you want your business to be able to run without you, enabling someone else to take charge. 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 proc...

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. It means a lot to you that your clients have a good experience of working with you, and you go the extra mile to make sure they have a positive experience. You're fully booked. And yet you still aren't making the money you want to. In this week's ep...

Do you feel like you are already charging at the maximum level for your industry? Do you sometimes wonder if your clients respect you? They can be demanding, and dismissive of your input. Sometimes they seek alternative advice even when you've discussed it in detail with them. You never plan to work late but you seem to spend your evenings and weekends checking your work emails on your phone, and...

It feels like there's an end in sight for the first time this year. After reports this crisis could continue for another 5 years, there is a possibility of a vaccine. We have also seen two really important glass ceilings shatter with the election of Kamala Harris as the first woman Vice President and non-white Vice President. It's great to feel that wave of optimism. One of the best things about m...

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. Back in March there was a real sense of shock and trauma. Companies were planning to furlough or postpone projects. 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. So, how...

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. When you run your own business, despite being in charge, making decisions, you can still find yourself in situations where you are on the back foot. Those times when you want a conversation, or a situation to have a particular outcome, but...