The Messy Middle

Leah Neaderthal0:02

Because when you're hearing all these stories about people who are starting their businesses and getting these huge wins, it can make you feel like you're doing something wrong and you're not. You're listening to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. But I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created a sales approach that feels comfortable, makes you feel confident, and it works consistently. And now I teach women how to land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. So whether your client contracts are $2,000 or $200,000 if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever imagined, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Welcome to Smart gets paid. Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for joining me for this episode, wherever you are, wherever you are, tuning in. I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress on your business, and also taking some time for you. So I want to talk about something I've been seeing in my inbox and in my feed, and you might have seen this also, and I want to sort of shine a light on it, and I guess, call it, call it what it is. So here's what I've been seeing. I see a lot of coaches talking about how a new entrepreneur made $10,000 in a week, all right? And I'm using like, air quotes here, or this new business owner made $25,000 in two weeks, again with the air quotes, of course. And there are any number of stories out there about how people just like you, you know, as the story goes, people just like you are starting businesses and having success right away. And of course, they want to show you how right with whatever program or community they're offering at that time, and it's enticing, right? Those stories are great. I mean, who doesn't want to make money quickly, right? But here's something that they aren't telling you in those stories. What they don't tell you is that when you start a business, that first chunk of money that you make is the easiest money you'll ever make. Those first clients are the easiest ones you're ever going to get. And I hate to say it, but it's true. I mean, listen, I'm not trying to diminish starting a business, right? It takes courage, and not everybody has the guts to do it, but that first money that you make when you start a business is really the easiest money you'll make. And there are three reasons why, and I want to share these here, not to be a downer, but to be honest with you. And I guess just like, tell it like it is, and also make you feel like you're okay. Because when you're hearing all these stories about people who are starting their businesses and getting these huge wins, it can make you feel like you're doing something wrong and you're not you're just at a different place. And in a minute, we're going to talk about where you are, and you know what you can do to keep growing your business. All right, so here are the three reasons why that first money you make in your consulting business is the easiest money you'll ever make, and why, as you go on, you'll start to face different challenges. All right, here we go. Number one, you're selling to people who already know you. So the first clients in what you'll get in what I call the exciting early days, all right? I'm using like ironic capital letters here exciting early days. They're nearly always people who you have a personal connection to, right? They're people who you know, who knew you from when you worked in corporate, or, you know, whatever past jobs you had, or any other past areas of your life. They're people who already know how good you are, or they come through word of mouth from those people who know, and that's exactly how you should be getting clients in those exciting early days from within your network. So I'm not trying to knock it like that's exactly what you should be doing, but those people are what we call super warm. They already know how good you are because they either had firsthand experience working with you, or they were referred by somebody who had first hand experience. And when you start the sales process with the super warm lead, you actually don't have to do that much selling, because they're already pre sold. And now that doesn't mean that every introduction turns into a client, but it does mean that everyone who's introduced to you already has what we call the know like and trust factor. You know they know you, or they're getting to know you. They like you and they trust you because they were referred by somebody else. And since you're starting something new, then a lot of the time they want to help. So that's the first wave of clients you'll get. And everybody has that first wave. What's harder, though, is what happens after that first wave of clients is over. What's harder is continuing to get clients through word of mouth as time goes on, either from that same group or. That same group with

Leah Neaderthal5:01

the addition of some people that you meet along the way, what's harder is getting clients who didn't work with you in your past jobs, your corporate career, or who don't have a history with you. That's when the real test of can you get clients actually starts. So that's number one, in those exciting early days, you're selling to people who already know you. Number two, the second reason you have the benefit of newness. When you're just starting out, you're new, your message is new. It's really exciting, right? People are hearing about you and what you do for the first time, and you have at your disposal the single most effective tool for getting people's attention, which is the announcement email. You know, it's the one that goes I've left company, and here's what I'm doing now. I mean, I definitely sent an email like that when I started my business, and I encouraged everybody to do the same. And who do you send that email to people who already know you? So it's a warm, receptive audience. And because you're new and your business is new, whatever you say about your business stands out. And like I said, people want to help you. They know you. They want to support you. And you're new. What's harder, though, is when you're not new anymore, when you've been running your business for, you know, a few years, and you don't have the benefit of newness or something exciting to announce to get on people's radar. What's harder is when you've been talking about what you do for years. So for old people, people who have been hearing about it for a while, you need to stay top of mind, but you also need to keep building your audience, and you can't rely on that newness anymore. You have to rely on your positioning and your content to get and stay on people's radar. So you know, you need to position your work as a painkiller, the solution to your client's number one problem, and you need to communicate your value, and you need to use your content to illustrate the value you provide, and educate your audience and nurture them from cold to warm and help them through their own learning process until they're ready to work with you. That's how it works. That's business development in a nutshell. And that's when you start to find out whether your painkiller statement and your messaging and your content, are they good or not? You know, does it work? Because that needs to work hard for you when you don't have newness propping you up anymore. And number three, you'll take on any client. So just to be clear, I don't mean that as an insult, because in those exciting early days, that's exactly what you should be doing in that first year to 18 months or so, you should take any client that comes your way. That's so that you can figure out who you like working with and what you want to do more of and what you never really want to do again. When I started the business that became smart gets paid in 2015 I was really working in more of a like consulting capacity, like super hands on, doing things inside my clients businesses, and I was offering them anything and everything that related to what I'd been doing before. So, you know, all the marketing, all the sales operations, these are the things I knew how to do, and my clients needed them, so I offered them to my clients. And I think it was after my third CRM implementation that I realized I really, really dislike implementing CRMs. And then there were other things where I realized, you know, I just, I just don't want to do that again. So I was able to really whittle down the things I liked doing, and that's what I think everyone should do when they first started consulting business, but what's harder as you go on is after that first phase where you'll take on any client, what's harder is when you know who you want to work with and what you want to be doing. You just don't know how to get more of them, how to get more clients like that. And it's no longer about taking on any client for any price, right? It's about making your work more profitable, getting paid way more for your work, so that you can not only match your corporate salary, which in those exciting early days, is the first milestone you aim for, but after that first phase of client, it's about getting paid way more so you can far exceed your corporate salary and really support the life that you want. So those are the reasons why the first money you make as a consultant is, sadly, the easiest money. And I hate to say it, I mean, maybe I'll piss some people off here, but coaches who help new entrepreneurs start businesses, coaches who work with women in those, you know, exciting early days. I hate to say it, but they kind of have it easy, because in those exciting early days, you can take almost any action at all, and you'll get a big win, or it'll feel like a big win. I mean, literally, you'll get what feels like a huge return from doing anything, because at that point they're starting from zero. I mean, just as an example, around that time, in my business, I was sending newsletters for the first time, and I was blown away, because my newsletters got a 66% open rate. But guess what? I was sending them to like, 12 people. I mean, that's what I'm talking about. You can take almost any action and feel like you're on the right track and get that dopamine hit that tells you that what you're doing is working.

Leah Neaderthal9:59

It's the messy. Middle. That's harder, the messy middle. And if you're listening to this and you're nodding your head, then you know what I'm talking about. That phrase the messy middle was coined by startup founder Scott Belsky in his book of the same name the messy middle, where he talks about what happens after a startup starts, and how to and I'm reading here how to optimize and endure the messy and unsexy middle that every product goes through before hopefully thriving. So for our purposes, the messy middle comes after those exciting early days after you've been running your business for at least 18 months or so. The messy middle is what happens when the echoes of that announcement email you sent out when the echoes of that are long gone, when you're not on everyone's radar anymore, it's when you've gone through that first wave of word of mouth clients and you're wondering what to do next. The messy middle is when it's not just about getting any clients anymore. It's now about getting the right clients, and it's after you've made some money, you know, like you've proven that you can do this, and it's now about getting paid for your value, not your time. That's the messy middle. This might sound familiar to you, and there's no doubt the messy middle is harder, because in the messy middle, you don't get big wins all the time. You know every day is not a dopamine hit like it is in those exciting early days in the messy middle. It's about making refinements and small changes. It's about looking at what's gotten you here so far, and installing new behaviors and strategies that'll get you to the next level. And it's about really looking at the things that you are doing that you might not realize are keeping you from getting what you want. And in the messy middle, you get big wins from doing the right things over and over. And that's harder, but I've always liked the challenge, which is why I work with women in the messy middle. You know, that's where I play. And I do have to say that when you're in the messy middle, the wins become more than exciting. They become rewarding, like when a client of mine was going to charge $7,000 for a project, as she had, you know, many times before, and we reworked her pricing so that she signed the next client for the same work. So, you know, delivery was the same, but she signed the next client for 37 five, which, if you're doing the math, is a 500% revenue increase for the same work. That's what we're talking about around profitability. Or another client of mine who'd only gotten clients through referrals and word of mouth, which is fine, right? But she never quite knew when they were going to come. So she started showing up on LinkedIn using the LinkedIn strategy that I teach. And because of that strategy and the content she's posting there and how she's helping people learn about her. She gets people in her network making referrals and introductions to her on the regular, and she gets clients reaching out to her, like people she's never even spoken to, who have been following along on her content and want to work with her, or like another client of mine who had always gotten clients coming to her because, you know, everyone in her network just trusted her and knew that she was good at whatever she did. You know, it was always like, go talk to so and so, right? Just the cure for whatever ails you. And that meant that she had had steady work, but the work was a little all over the map. So some of it was in her zone of genius and she loved but some of it she took on just because it came her way, and it also came from people she knew and she trusted, but the work itself wasn't all that fulfilling, and so when we got her positioning and her painkiller statement dialed in, clients started finding her and getting referred to her for the exact things and the exact work and the services that she really wanted to be doing. So like I said, in the messy middle, big wins come from keeping what's working and making it better. It better, finding what's not working and fixing it and doing the right things over and over. Now, don't get me wrong, those big actions in the exciting early days, those make a new business, but the work we do in the messy middle make a sustainable and profitable business. So if you're in the exciting early days right now, my advice to you is, seize it, squeeze every ounce of value out of it and have fun with it. You know, use what I've shared here. Send out an announcement email, leverage your network. Get loud about what you're doing. Now, take on any client so you can see what you like and you don't like. This is a really special and unique time. And if you're in the messy middle right now and you're wondering, like, okay, so what do I do with all this? I want to tell you that you're in a great place, because now we get to figure out what's working and make it better. We get to figure out what's not working and we can fix it. And we get to actually start to craft the business that you have into the business that you want. And because you're not in like, take everything and do everything mode, which is a really reactive place to be, you can start to get proactive.

Leah Neaderthal14:51

You can start to get intentional and purposeful about what your business looks like and how you want it to support your life. So ask yourself three questions. Questions. First, what would it look like to do more of the work that I love? Second, what would I do with more money coming from my business? And third, what would I do with more freedom and time outside of my business? And then, with the answers to those questions, you can start to make the right changes and grow a sustainable, profitable business that supports that life, your life. Hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system. Women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems every B to B consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence and how to get paid for your value, not your time. And There's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply and we can chat about next steps. All right, see you over there. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai