Starting a consulting business feels like you need everything perfect before you begin—the website, the positioning, the delivery system, the tech stack. So you spend months "getting ready to get ready" while your bank account stays at zero. The real problem? You're doing everything except the one thing that actually matters: talking to prospective clients. I've worked with consultants at every stage, and I've never met one who got their first clients by perfecting their website or running ads to strangers. Every successful consultant started the exact same way—and in this episode, I'll walk you through the exact sequence I'd follow if I had to start from scratch today. No theory, just the proven path that actually works.
Show Notes:
- Why "getting ready to get ready" is killing your consulting business before it starts (and what to do instead)
- The scientist phase: How to have conversations that create clarity without trying to sell anything
- Speed to revenue: Why imperfect deals with imperfect clients are your most strategic early move
- The 20% rule: How to identify which work is worth building an entire business around (after 6-12 months of getting busy)
- Raising your floor: The exact moment to stop saying yes to everything and start replacing low-value clients with premium ones
- Why the consultants who "move slow to go fast" end up with seven-figure practices while the perfectionists are still struggling years later
- The counterintuitive truth about positioning: Why you should deliberately avoid committing to your niche until you've done this first