I can tell within five minutes of talking to a consultant whether they're building a business or just renting a job. If you've landed a few good clients and found yourself billing the same people month after month—becoming "indispensable" to their operation—you're not winning. You're getting trapped. I've watched this play out hundreds of times: the value decay curve kicks in around month nine, the "we need to hit pause" email arrives, and suddenly you're scrambling with one case study and zero pipeline. In this episode, I'm breaking down why the embedded model destroys your positioning, your expertise development, and your pricing power—and what the consultants who actually scale to seven figures do instead.
Show Notes:
- The distinction between "consultant" and "contractor" that determines your growth trajectory—and why your legal agreement saying "consulting services" doesn't mean you're actually consulting
- What happens between months one and eleven of every embedded engagement—the value decay curve I've observed across hundreds of client relationships, and why you never see the end coming
- The phone call that taught me loyalty is an emotional expectation, not a business strategy—and what that partner actually meant when he said they needed to "hit pause"
- Why two years embedded with one client leaves you with one case study while project-based consultants accumulate six or seven—and how this compounds into a positioning gap you can't close
- The inverse relationship between expertise and time spent with any single client—what David C. Baker's insight reveals about how the best consultants actually operate
- How expertise compounds through volume, not duration—why we can now predict consultant questions before they ask them, and how you build that same pattern recognition
- The five things scaling consultants do differently when structuring client relationships—from scoping defined outcomes to celebrating completion instead of dreading it
- The question I ask every consultant who's gotten too comfortable—and why only one of the three possible answers leads to sustainable growth
