The Business of Authority

How to think about email as a tool to spread your ideas and share your expertise.Why simple is often best—and what to focus on to keep it that way.Basic automations that will allow you to help more people at scale (without overcomplicating your life).Creating the client and buyer experience that stays true to your brand and message (hint: you’ll want to test how it’s working).RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“If you're in the business of changing people's minds… it's a pretty good strategy to do it slowly over time, like drip information out in digestible bits, until finally it clicks.”—JS“We want email to work for us. We want it to engage people in our revolution—engage them in buying things from us, learning things from us.”—RM“Having things scheduled in advance and set to go out on a particular schedule is really useful from an impact standpoint, because you can help people for free at scale.”—JS“A welcome or nurture sequence…is where you're bringing them in a very nurturing, welcoming way. That's really important when we're talking about expertise, authority.”—RM“The cautionary tale is it's really easy to overcomplicate this at the beginning and think that you need to know every move each person makes to get it customized to the situation.”—JS“There's just something different about when you look at your emails from the buyer's point of view.”—RM“Periodically I'll have a big jump up in subscribers and it'll like, push me into a new category price wise and I'll be like, eh, maybe it's time to prune.”—JS “It's the brand experience—what do you want people to experience as they go through these different emails with you?”—RMLinksDitching Hourly with Jason Resnick LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

How the retainer execution model rewards a clients for life strategy, but can keep you on the gilded hamster wheel.The required mindset shift as you move away from strictly execution to higher value consulting.How to think about dandelion projects where you stay in touch with client team members as they scatter to new companies (and which business models can easily leverage this).The altitude shift from “hands” consulting to advisory work and why that tends to down-shift client longevity.Quotables“Think of a retainer as charging a periodic amount…for a given set of deliverables. An advisory retainer is not that. An advisory retainer is where you are not executing—you are giving strategic advice.”—RM“The thing about this sort of ‘hands-on’ retainer…it's like a job. It's predictable and safe and probably can be a lot longer term than an advisory retainer.”—JS“When you start that transition (to advisory)…it feels like ‘wait a minute, I'm not doing enough for this money. I need to be busier.’ You have to make a mindset shift.”—RM“Think about a dandelion project—where a buyer brings you in, and you do good work for them…and then that team from that company disperses, and they go to five other companies.”—JS“It's different working with the CEO than it is with the director level of a function. Your impact is bigger. Your potential influence is larger. And the price of failure is higher. That's why you don't come out of school and go coach the CEO.”—RM“The easiest sale is new stuff to old clients because you already have trust. They already know you're legit. They already know that you deliver results.”—JS“Growing your altitude…allows you to operate at a much higher level. And by the way, that level is exceedingly lucrative.”—RM “I've got some students who've done internal systems for gigantic brand names—like names you'd recognize—and they've just oozed from department to department.”—JS LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

How to think about your intellectual property and the steps to take to protect it under U.S. law.When you might decide to give your content away to spread an idea vs. keep it close for revenue generation.The role of registering and monitoring various elements of your intellectual property.How to decide whether you’re ready to license your knowledge (hint: it’s not for beginners).Using licensing to scale your business and create a saleable asset.Quotables“We use intellectual property laws to provide a legal monopoly on using our intellect.”—EA“Under U.S. copyright law…the copyright applies at the moment of creation.”—EA“If that trademark has secondary meaning in the mark—like everyone associates it with you—you really do want to make sure that you get protection for that so that you don't lose it.”—EA“Make sure you are monitoring use of that (trademarked) term on the internet. So if people are using it and you're not asking them to stop using it…then you can lose it.”—EA“There is a perception that IP or intellectual property is a product and it's not a product like a book or a course, or even a licensing program. IP is the exclusive right to exploit your intellect.”—EA“When we are experts, we are creating intellectual property every single day, because intellectual property is the fruit of our intellect.”—EA“A license is anytime I'm giving permission to a third party to use my intellectual property.”—EA“Obviously it (licensing) is not for beginners. It really is for someone who has established their methodology, that you have a record of success of happy clients where you do have these processes in place.”—EA“The key (to make your firm saleable) is making sure that it's something that can run without you…you wanna make sure that you've developed that independence.”—EALinksErin's website Think Beyond IPThe Hourly To Exit podcastRESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why this is the wrong question to decide whether to enter the authority space—and what to ask instead.How your risk tolerance—and financial runway—impact your likelihood of achieving success in the short-term.Why an emotional connection to the revolution you’re leading gives you an authority advantage.How skills, timing and preparation (such as building an email list and/or a side hustle) will impact your success trajectory.The importance of maintaining your focus and discipline by consistently saying no to everything not in your zone.Quotables“I understand the desire for someone to want to know the percentage chance, but it just feels like the wrong question.”—JS“Your success definition is so pivotal to your odds—and there are so many possible ways to define success.”—RM“You try to decrease the odds of a loss and minimize the impact of a loss should that happen.”—JS“It makes sense to really think through your choices and the timeline because authority is a long game.”—RM“Be clear about who you want to help. That is really super useful and increases your odds of success.”—JS“You need to say no to a client who's not ideal, say no to working outside of your genius zone, say no to working crazy hours when your intention is to have a more manageable life.”—RM“I don't know how you could write a book (to build authority), if you weren't really into helping this audience or really into this particular rabbit hole.”—JS“Decide who you want to go after, decide what your revolution is and then you can figure out how to monetize it.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

How writing and speaking play different roles in crystalizing your thoughts.The role that consistently writing and editing plays in the evolution of your authority.Why (and how) editing allows you to deepen not only your market authority, but the impact of your work.What happens when you socialize your writing—and how to edit your way to the right audience.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“The difference between writing and speaking is crystallizing your thoughts. I've never heard anybody say that speaking crystallizes their thoughts.”—JS“Writing is really a plus for introverts because you don't have to talk to a million people to do this.”—RM“Daily writing does something weird in your head where you start to see ideas everywhere.”—JS“You can't just try to put the work out there. You have to do it consistently because it's that consistency that really tests us: what do we have to say?”—RM“I did a sort of crowdsourced model where I offered a choose your own adventure discount structure. But (to get the book discount) I was gonna bug you relentlessly for questions, typos, any kind of feedback, comments...”—JS“I didn't know what else to write. I felt like I had bled out on the paper already.”—RM“I'll use examples from people who are in different places, probably almost never all in the same email, but I'll bring in examples or I'll ask for permission to reprint a question.”—JS“That preparation piece (for an interview) can give you those ideas—those unpolished gems—that you can then take and polish through editing.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why the word is both insidious and judgmental—and how it can easily become manipulative. What happens—especially to go-to, high visibility authorities—with those who consistently use ‘should’ in their client interactions (and what to say instead).How to use your point of view as an alternative to ‘should’ conversations or directives.Dealing with the most common ‘shoulds’ you’re likely to hear as you build your expertise business.The difference between saying ‘should’ to or about yourself and using it with other people.Quotables“Should is a radioactive word for me. It's usually a sign that I'm making massive assumptions about the other person.”—JS“It's way too easy to pontificate vs. actually help your client change whatever situation it is you've been hired to fix.”—RM“Stop should-ing on people.”—JS“We all know there's nuance—no two situations, no two people, no two clients are ever exactly the same.”—RM“Berklee teachers would never say that music has rules. They would say that different styles have different style practices.”—JS“If you're the type of person who responds to judgment and potential shaming…’should’ can make you start to question your own logic and thought process.”—RM“When someone gives you unsolicited ‘should’ advice, just nod and smile... and then ignore them.”—JS“The word ‘should’ is so insidious, cuz it's like you're trying to get into my brain and tell me what to do.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

What exactly is a business model (and how to think about yours)?The difference between your business model and how—and what—you charge.The four most common business models we see in the expertise space and how to make each one work for you.Considering hiring employees? How to think about growing with—and without—employees.Sidestepping the slippery slope that is hiring specialized help—from mini-me’s to social VAs—to grow your business.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“How are you going to create, deliver and capture value?”—JS“If we're not creating value, we're not going to make money for very long.”—RM“You could use value pricing to increase the amount that you can charge and increase your profit margin.”—JS“If you do want to scale with employees…you have to create a job—actually define very specifically what this person will do.”—RM“’I'll just hire someone good and throw them to the wolves.’ That's what happens.”—JS“Membership models have some very specific operational kinds of things that impact how you market, how you sell, whether you do ads, whether you don't. ”—RM“A product line could take off and cause you to make a decision to say ‘oh, you know what? I would rather have customers than clients’ .”—JS“You think when you build a business (at least in the U.S.) that you have to have employees, but it's about thinking past what we're “supposed” to do and getting clear on what it is we want to build.”—RMRESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

When doing more isn’t the right move—and how it can actually prove counter-productive.How to apply 20% thinking to your business growth moves.Using consistency in making outbound development calls (to prospects, media and your Authority Circle) to avoid the desperation zone.Becoming aware of where you’re getting your dopamine hits—and managing them.Why strategy trumps all (and what to do if you don’t have one).Quotables“You've done your 20% for the day that produces 80% of the result. So why are you sitting in front of your computer, fiddling with a hundred things that don't need to be done?”—RM“Watering your garden in the summer twice a day is a good thing. So watering it 20 times a day is even better, right?...it's worse than counterproductive—it'll actually wreck what you're doing.”—“The easiest way to get frustrated is to do more outbound sales calls when you don't have enough work…that translates into a little bit of desperation.”—RM“I care what those people (in my slack community) think much more than I care what some anonymous coward on Twitter thinks.”—JS“I try to be very careful of where I'm getting my dopamine hits.”—RM“You can slowly—not overnight probably—but you can make it so that client stuff is not 40 hours a week of billing hourly.”—JS“There's a signal that consistency gives—it doesn't mean that it has to be every Monday at 8:00 AM—but there is some expectation that you're going to show up…on a regular basis. It’s how we build trust.”—RM“I think some people put a level of effort into social media that probably doesn't produce much.”—JS“The prescription, if you don't have a strategy, is to get one right now.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why having partners with different risk tolerances can actually be helpful.Engaging the status quo person—who is usually happy—in a change that will work for both parties.The role of identity in business conflicts and how to understand yours and your partner’s.Why resolving even minor conflict often means revisiting your joint objectives and strategy.How to be brave and address potential conflicts early so they don’t fester or run you off the rails.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“Plenty of soloists have a spouse that has a dramatically different risk tolerance than they do.”—JS“(Being different), you keep each other from going too far off the rails, but it does mean that there's the potential for disagreement, for conflict.”—RM“The status quo person is usually happy as a clam, and thinking... ‘if my partner would just stop bugging me about posting on social media every day everything would be fine.’”—JS“It's also about how we feel individually. Who we are and what we want to have happen in the world. When you have two business partners, your personal identity may get attached to different things in different ways.”—RM“You'll see conflict over a proposal crop up because, let's say, one person is more revenue driven and the other person is more mission driven. In a case like this, you're never gonna be able to agree how to price it.”—JS“There's a lot of those strategic and foundational identity things that happen (between partners) and the tactical issues are just how they manifest.”—RM“You might both be aligned on the objective, but you still have to agree on the strategy. There are probably multiple strategies that could work, but you gotta make sure you're both using the same one.”—JS“It's important to go back and look at the strategy, the glue that holds this partnership together. We have to be able to talk about that and be brave.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Rethinking any outmoded belief systems we carry over from our jobs—for example that the “boss” is always right.Where we owe our obligation and allegiance when it comes to dealing with client requests and direction changes.Why collaborative relationships reinforce the value of your expertise and contribute to outcomes that stick.How you can determine—as early as a sales conversation—whether your potential client will be your dream (or your nightmare).Setting boundaries to avoid becoming a martyr to the project (or your client).Quotables“You are there to fiercely defend the outcome of the project.”—JS“The way that a client feels when they own this thing that you've created together, it creates a bond between you. They're gonna want to talk about you. They're gonna wanna bring you in again…it's really powerful collaboration.”—RM“It happens from the very beginning—setting up the expectation that they're not your boss, that it's a collaboration.”—JS“A client can be the nightmare or the dream. It's not about the person—it's about the match between you and the outcome you want to create together.”—RM“When you have them share with you how this will fit into the overall business and you pivot into The Why Conversation, bad clients will hate it and good clients will love it.”—JS“You only want to work with people for whom you can create these transformational outcomes together.”—RM“Just imagine what your business would look like if you were producing a trail of smiling clients.”—JS“Start with believing that you have something valuable to offer and setting the boundaries you need so you don't become a martyr to the project.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

The role of live speaking in building authority and how it fits into your business model.How to decide which conferences are worth your time, energy (and cash) to attend.An array of tactics to leverage your conference attendance.Using media intentionally to engage conference attendees and make your new relationships more sticky.Picking the right conferences as a new(ish) speaker and how to ensure your investment will pay off.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“I did a conference in 2015 that was exactly my target market for Hourly Billing Is Nuts, and I still keep in touch with people I met there.”—JS“If you're doing conferences—whether you're speaking or attending—there's a certain amount of energy you have to put into it to be good, much less to be great and to reap something from your investment.”—RM“Meeting people in person creates a deeper connection faster.”—JS“If you travel 1,000 miles and then sit in your hotel room for most of the conference that's not gonna work.”—RM“Let's say there's a big conference coming up and your ideal buyers are going to be there. You can piggyback a workshop on the day before. You don't even need a ticket to the conference—you can just get a room in the hotel.”—JS“When you're a speaker at a conference, you know what your job is…When you're an attendee, you still have a job, but not everybody recognizes that.”—RM“Speaking at a conference is great for your street cred. It's social proof aka third party endorsement from the conference organizers, implicity saying that you know what you're talking about.”—JS“If you're just getting started (speaking), pick a conference that is big enough so that you feel like it's worth your time, but small enough so that you have a good chance of getting in.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why it’s always a good idea to keep evaluating your client base and your product/service ladder—and what to consider now.How to think about economy-fueled pivots to ensure you don’t make fear-based moves.Managing your mindset (and your nerves) through economic change—and why staying closely connected to clients helps all of you.One hidden opportunity to grow your authority (and potentially your business) during economic uncertainty.Quotables“The kind of—almost advantage—of news about a recession or whatever is that you've got months potentially to plan for it.”—JS“The strategic part of this is to really think about your client base and start to imagine what might happen to them in the future.”—RM“If you're experiencing any kind of like trepidation or nerves around the economy right now, guess what? Your clients probably are too.”—JS“There sometimes needs to be a little air between checking in on clients to see how they're doing and offering them a new product.”—RM“I think that the key here is resisting the urge to go into your shell and batten down the hatches.”—JS“If your client base is all saying the same thing (when you check in with them), you're getting some themes to write about and speak about.”—RM“It's okay to be nervous, just don't act on the nerves.”—JS“It’s really important to manage your own mindset vs. letting the media do it for you.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why—and under what circumstances—you might want to consider a listening tour.How to choose who to interview and increase your chances for getting a yes.Uncovering specific belief systems and comments that you can incorporate into your sales copy.The one question that will get your interviewees to go deeper in sharing their experiences.Why avoiding any sort of persuasion is critical (and how to stay in listening mode).LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“It’s an ideal gig when you can basically package and sell your expertise.”—RM“There's something about writing, actual writing, not typing, that focuses me more on the conversation.”—JS“My marketing copy came out of the mouths of the women that I interviewed.”—RM“There's just something magical about unfiltered input from the buyers’ side of the table.”—JS“You really have to look at this as a listening tour—not a selling tour, not even a warm-up-to-buy tour.”—RM“Obviously this whole episode is to encourage listeners to do this…but it's also about how you're going to communicate the offer in a way that the right people will recognize that it's for them.”—JS“I looked at my job (on the listening tour) as “tell me more”. How do you think about that? What made you think that way?”—RM“You don't want to be too rigid in your thinking and then go out and try and validate that, because it'll turn persuasive and that'll just be gross.”—JS LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

The difference between getting critiqued by your email list, social media types and your intimates.How to think about criticism from your circle and use it to benefit the revolution you’re leading.When to unplug or take steps to protect your mental health.Deciding whether your critics are coming for you (to be helpful) or at you (to tear you down a peg).When receiving criticism can be a form of deep care (and how to keep the right kind coming).Quotables“I think people (critics), are a little bit more thoughtful in email than social media.”—JS“Just breathe. Walk away from the keyboard...”—RM“When somebody on my list sends me one of these sort of polite pushback kinds of things, they're usually right.”—JS“I have unfollowed and blocked (social media critics) for my mental health because I don't need somebody who's just gonna go around trolling.”—RM“Where do you get your canary in the coal mine when you actually are wrong, or you actually have too shallow of an understanding of something that's much deeper?”—JS“I can feel if they (critics) are coming for me or at me—and I take critical feedback really well from the people that I know are for me.”—RM“You have to consider the messenger. When someone on my list pushes back, I'm like ‘this feedback is totally valid because you are the person I made it for.’” —JS“It's so valuable to have somebody tell you when you're doing something that they perceive differently than you do.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Just as we have each built our own systems to produce our desired outcomes, there is no one perfect model of working.Conscious experimenting—with your ultimate vision firmly in mind—will help you master how to best invest your business building time.Why when you find your sweet-spot, “work” doesn’t have to feel like work.How pivoting from serving clients day-to-day to high-level advisory or teaching (books, courses, speaking) shifts how you spend your time.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“I don't think about it consciously on a weekly basis. It's something I think about at the beginning of the year..what's going to be my strategy for the coming year?”—JS“What happens for a lot of people is we get caught in the weeds. Like how am I going to get through this week with client deliverable X?”—RM“Did you hear what my schedule looks like? I don't need a vacation.”—JS“I want work to be fun.”—RM“Slack is my social media…I know that it's not going to be a cesspool of doom scrolling.”—JS“When you're doing what you love, you can do it for as long as you want to.”—RM“Podcasting became much more important because it serves a similar purpose to speaking at conferences. They're not exactly the same of course, but bang for the buck wise, podcasting is a lot more my speed these days.”—JS“Who do you want to give pride of place in your head to…what is it that you want to write about and talk about and teach them?”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why the intersection of idle time, an outlet and a deadline is exactly what you need to build content for your expertise business (and authority for you).The importance of mindset and how to keep yours working FOR you as you go about growing your business.Giving yourself some guardrails to develop great content efficiently—without putting a damper on your creativity.How to get out of your own way so you can release your personal genius for other people to benefit from.Quotables“It's pretty common for non-business things to creep in to business coaching and become obstacles. And a lot of them have to do with internal monologue stories.”—JS“We all have our own internal hurdles to leap over. And you have to understand what those are.”—RM“I feel a lot worse after I've been exposed to a TV for 90 minutes.”—JS“When you have a deadline and some idle time or some free space in your brain, things happen.”—RM“If you want to be recognized as the go-to person, as the expert for your area of expertise, then you need to be producing content. It’s probably a great rule of thumb to be producing content regularly.”—JS“You're not just writing to write or have a podcast to hear yourself talk. It's about figuring out what you want to share. How are you going to get your audience to the transformations that you promise?”—RM“The best thing about daily writing is it makes you better. It makes you smarter. It makes your insights deeper. It differentiates you because you have new ideas or old ideas framed in radically new ways.“— JS“The important thing is that we get out of our own way as much as we can and put that genius that each of us have out in the world for other people to benefit from.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

The big money decisions you’ll want to make early and how to decide between setting up a sole proprietorship, an LLC or a Sub S.When does it make sense to build processes to handle things like paying yourself and funding and paying taxes?What to ask your CPA and why you don’t want to wait till year-end to get advice.When to look for longer-term, perhaps tax-advantaged opportunities for savings.How to think of and use your business profits now to build your desired legacy later on.Quotables“Usually the starting point is a sole proprietorship and you don't want to hang out there too long.”—EG“If you can't pay yourself what the IRS calls “reasonable compensation”…it's not time for you to be an S-corp yet.”—EG“I'm really big on paying yourself a consistent salary—not necessarily varying with your revenue stream—because with consultants, expertise businesses, coaching businesses, you get these roller coaster spikes of revenue.”—EG“Get a small refund or maybe owe a little bit…but we try to always avoid these four or five figure surprises that you're writing a check for in April.”—EG“There's a lot of relationships with CPAs where you're just sending them a packet of documents in February, and they're sending you back something in April, and you're either happy about it or sad about it.”—EG“My preference, especially for somebody in an expertise business where they're a soloist, would be to look at a solo 401k. You can only have a solo 401k if you and or your spouse are the only employees or owners of the business.”—EG“You say: ‘I can use this to change my trajectory or my lifestyle or my retirement plan. I could use this money I'm making in this business. And the more profit I make means that I could pay off my mortgage sooner.’”—EG“It's always good to have an out of tax season conversation with a CPA… And have somebody respond with ideas that you would have never thought of (or would have taken a lot of hours of research for you to get).”—EG“If you've noticed that you've acquired two more cars, a four Wheeler, three campers and a boat, it's probably time to start thinking about some tax advantageous ways that you can spend your money.”—EGLINKSErica Goode, CPA Erica’s Newsletter sign-up Rochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

When you’re working like a dog (earning maybe $100-$250K billing hourly on a site like Upwork or from an agency or two) without real positioning—and you’re ready for a more livable alternative.When you’ve just left corporate life and are first hanging out your shingle as a freelancer or consultant.When you’re so new at your craft that you’re actually not that good yet.And even where we could make an edge case for hourly billing, we get hyper-specific on when/how to gracefully transition out.Quotables“They like the promise of not feeling like they're losing $200 an hour when they're on vacation.”—JS“Just go back to your source of leads…and significantly increase your hourly rate.”—RM “Why would anyone feel obligated to pay you some amount of money per hour because you decided to have a really expensive lifestyle?”—JS“It's a very rare person who comes right out of corporate and says ‘I'm going to do productized services. Here's what they are. Boom. Let's go’.”—RM“I don't think it never makes sense to think about how many hours something's going to take you to do, just don't base your prices on it.”—JS“Hourly rates just exacerbate that inner discussion about whether or not you're worth it.”—RM“Productized services make it easier for you to hit a home run, to deliver positive ROI, to get a great testimonial.”—JS“Offering productized services gets rid of a lot of extraneous BS because you are hyper-focused on delivering only the things that you are really good at delivering.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why May is the perfect time to schedule a strategic tax planning call with your CPA.How to pay yourself and fund your tax liability, even when you have spikes in your income.Who you need on your team to get the right advice—and why it’s worth hiring experts (hint: peace of mind is priceless).Setting up tax-advantaged plans now instead of waiting until year-end.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“So I have these like quarterly spikes…that make it hard to have a set it and forget it payroll.”—JS“As long as you give your accountant a couple of weeks to breathe (after tax day), they're usually anxious…to think strategically vs. just plowing out a bunch of tax returns.”—RM“I'd rather have the IRS hold it (my tax withholding)…I just don't want to know about it. I don't want to ever see it.”—JS“I'm pretty sure my tax accruals are more than I'm going to need. And so after I pay the IRS next year, I'll pay myself a bonus with whatever's left.”—RM“When I started my solo consulting business, I got a financial planner, a bookkeeper and a lawyer.”—JS“People who have left consulting (to go solo), the first thing they do is incorporate because they're worried about liability. You're like, ‘ah, the first thing I'm going to do is protect myself and my assets’.”—RM“It still makes sense to check in with someone who has got a bigger picture, knows more detail about what's going on—we're fans of expertise over here.”—JS“You have a lot of options depending on your business structure to tuck some money away pre-tax…it's worth having that chat with your accountant.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Addressing the chicken/egg nature of developing an idea for your course with targeting the ideal audience for it.Why building cohorts will improve the effectiveness of your course (and your future sales).How to build your course materials with reasonable deadlines that match your comfort level with teaching the topic.Why we hate launch hype and what to do instead.Quotables“The majority of the time you probably are thinking of teaching something bigger than you need.”—JS“When we're trying to teach something that involves significant behavior change, that's when I really love building a cohort.”—RM “I found it (the cohort experience) drawing me back almost like a social media network might because I wanted to find out what happened with Jason's thing that he was working on.”—JS“When you have a cohort, you are actively engaging with them. And for people who are sort of natural teachers, that feels amazing.”—RM“You do want to figure out what you think is going to make the most sense for you—not drain you, keep you energized, keep you engaged teaching the thing that you want to teach.”—JS“I want to have a really clear direction (when prepping material). I want to know how many sections and what's going to go in each one so that it makes sense.”—RM“If we sound cynical (about launches), it's because we are.”—JS“If it's right for you, I want you to have it. That is the (launch) message.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Our tendency (especially in proposal situations) to acquiesce to client requests—and how to re-direct that for the good of all.The power and status dynamics surrounding consultants serving clients and what happens if we start treating clients as higher status.How overdelivering can seep into your firm’s practices and where to nip it in the bud.Developing a healthy mindset around service delivery, providing value and decoupling your fees from effort.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“Your clients are a choice, just like your boss is a choice, but people often forget that walking away is one of the options.”—JS“You could say: ‘Listen, if we take out this step, I can't guarantee the transformation, and therefore I can't do that for you.’”—RM“The way to provide value to your clients is not to be obedient—it's to deliver results.”—JS“The proposal is the dress rehearsal for the engagement.”—RM“If you let prospective clients push you around in the sales process, it should come as no surprise when they push you around during the project.”—JS“The more that you consider yourself low status relative to clients, the worse you're going to feel about it.”—RM “There's so much ‘the customer's always right’ psychology. "Wouldn't it be better to give them more than less?" No, it really wouldn't.”—JS“This is about leveraging what you have—not playing status games that have you overdelivering and creating relationships that don't work for you.”—RMLinksTara McMullin's Instagram piece on over-delivering RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why using perfect grammar in a sales pitch or conversation still won’t guarantee you the deal.How to use grammar and language to communicate and persuade vs. to impress (and the role of status games).Why simplicity makes it easier to get the result you want.The role of grammar in expressing your brand and setting client/audience expectations.Quotables“You could do a sales pitch or a sales interview and use perfect grammar throughout and still not land the deal.”—JS“You adjust your language to meet them where they are.”—RM“You're not looking for an A+ on a book report. You're trying to get someone to change.”—JS“This is really more about simplicity and getting the result that you want.”—RM“It's all about communicating it to them in a way that is going to be digestible and not activate status roles.”—JS“Who's your audience? How do they communicate? What kinds of words are too big and too much?”—RM“If what you want is for the listener or the reader or the viewer to do something, then the most important thing is producing that action.”—JS“Language is part of the toolkit of a consultant or anyone who's trying to make transformational change in an audience.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Getting yourself the endorphin rush from physically getting up and going outside or meeting a friend.How to keep pushing the envelope even as you’re doing the routine things that make your business run.Why that feeling of putting your “baby” out there can feel crazy-scary—and how to do it anyway.How to tell the difference between when you’re laying groundwork for your next thing or just burning daylight.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“It was so much fun…I noticed that I felt like this total endorphin rush, I was in the best mood.”—JS“I've so trained myself into this virtual be efficient work from zoom/have phone conversations mode that it was almost like upsetting the apple cart to go to an in-person meeting.”—RM“It's not too bad to have an idea and then, like roughly a quarter later, launch it.”—JS“It doesn't mean that we don't double down on the things we're good at, but we just keep pushing that envelope on some level.”—RM“Talk to people like: ‘Hey, I've got three ideas for my next workshop I'm going to launch. Which one seems the most exciting to you?’”—JS“I'm waiting for somebody to write and go ‘Yeah, this is a stupid idea. And I don't ever want to hear from you again.’”—RM“If you can introduce really smart, fun people into the process (of getting outside), that sounds like a really good routine to get into.”—JS“There's always going to be those periods (of laying groundwork), but the ideal is that they're moving you towards something else, even if you're pulling your hair out while you're going through them.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Why book as business card is not the book that will still be relevant and valuable in 20-30 years.How to introduce your book content to ideal readers so they can help you use the right language, examples and stories.Using your book idea to build a tribe of support for your eventual launch.Positioning your book so it has a built-in base of readers—and is attractive to potential publishers.The benefits from teaching your material before you ever start writing the actual book.Quotables“I think this is more reliable path to write a book that could theoretically be still getting read 20 years from now.”—JS“If you're going to pitch your book to a publisher, they want to know: how does this book position against these other (competitive) books?”—RM“What you want is feedback from people who are hearing your stuff for the first time.”—JS“You need a launch team—you need a bunch of people supporting your book to help make it successful.”—RM“They might tell me my baby's ugly, but that's what I want. I don't wanna write the book and then find out that my baby's ugly.”—JS“It (a webinar) gives you a lot of experience with talking about the book and getting comfortable, listening and synthesizing what they're saying.”—RM“If people do show up for your webinar, you're getting a head start on your marketing language for the book itself.”—JS“For the kind of book that we're talking about, you've gotta have some other people invested in its success—where they get excited about it, they want to share it.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

How books have been a pivotal source of his authority (and a substantial slice of his overall revenue).The role of his communities in concepting and testing book ideas—and why members who aren’t super fans are especially valuable.Why incremental and real-life experiments are so critical to testing new ideas.The value of going for small wins—even when complexity is the “better” solution.Why being better is not enough.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“The stuff I put in my books is the same stuff I share on stage or on a podcast. But they're devalued when we hear the voice, it's eh, but once it's in a book, it becomes biblical for some reason.”—MM“Why I’ve written so many (books) is I am working on any number at any given time, usually three to four in the works.”—MM“The book is the starting point for lead flow, but it's the end point of the knowledge. It's the best of what I have accumulated.”—MM“I use my subscribers and say, “Hey, we're going to concept—who's willing to try this out?” But I will, to some degree, intentionally exclude people who’ve tried stuff out in the past, trying to always approach new people and learn from them.”—MM“What a lot of people do in their writings is they make it so it's not palatable and you lose the reader before you even get a chance to serve them.”—MM“All my books are based upon this concept of quick, easy deployment.”—MM“Being better is not enough. But many of us rely on that, we say we are better. Why don't we gain more business? We have to be noticeable.”—MM“The only experience people have with us before doing business with us is our marketing. And if our marketing is inconsistent with the actual brand experience, there's a mistrust that's going to happen.”—MM LINKShttps://mikemichalowicz.com/ LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

When moving from freelancing to consulting, how should I approach building my website portfolio? What kinds of best practices do you suggest?How do I make sure I don’t lose my technical edge as I transition to more strategic consulting?I’m not comfortable traveling or mingling with people whose vaccination and cautiousness status I don’t know—and yet it feels like everyone in my industry is anxious to attend events again. Is it possible to grow my authority business 100% virtually?I’ve built a YouTube audience of 2,000 and an email list of about 1,000 by sharing a passion of mine. While I love doing it, it’s eating up more of my time and I’d like to monetize this—where should I start?Quotables“Encourage the client to share specific benefits—probably with numbers—some kind of absolute or relative numbers of the improvement that they attribute to your contribution.”—JS“Think of your website, not as static, but as a living breathing thing.”—RM“You can go into the lab and when there's something big—something game-changing—that enables new things for you that your clients care about.”—JS“It's a little bit like riding a bicycle. You can not have ridden one for 10 years, but when you get back on you remember how to steer, you remember where your feet go. You know what to do.”—RM“Think of someone who you perceive as an authority. Have you ever met them? Probably not. Have you even been to a conference where they were? Probably not.”—JS“You can become an authority pretty much entirely virtually IF you design your business model to match that.”—RM“It gets down to who needs, who stands to benefit the most from your superpower and how different do they perceive you to be in terms of the options for solving this problem.”—JS“When talking to people who are already engaged in your worldview, they've signed on. And they're going to tell you what they want, not just from anybody to solve the problem, but what they want from you.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter