I keep hearing the same thing from consultants: "I get it, I should specialize. But how do I get there without blowing up what I already have?" The fear is that narrowing down means immediately turning away all other work and starving to death. That's not how it works. The consultants who successfully make this transition don't leap. They build. They narrow incrementally while still taking the network deals, still earning, still delivering. Then one day they look back and realize the last six months of work has all been exactly what they wanted to do at the rates they wanted to charge. In this episode, we break down the three-stage transition from generalist to specialist, including real examples of consultants who made the move and what actually happened along the way.
Show Notes:
- The CTO resume test: Why we intuitively understand that relevant experience gets you promoted in a job, but completely ignore that logic when it comes to our own consulting businesses
- The fear that keeps consultants stuck: You don't have to starve your way into specialization, and that's not what this transition requires
- Stage one, deciding to narrow: Why going from zero to 20 matters more than trying to define the perfect niche before you'll take a step
- The client who thought she had to turn everything away: Permission granted to keep earning while you build the new specialty
- The branding agency that doubled down: How focusing on the market that already represented 80% of his business didn't shrink his pipeline, it grew everything
- Compounding expertise: What happens to fees, margins, and business development when you spend 100% of your time in one focus area instead of 30%
- The question that used to make you panic: How specialists answer "have you done this before?" versus how generalists scramble through mental gymnastics
- One to three years: The realistic timeline for full transition, and what ten years of generalist work leaves you with instead