Here's the latest Edition of 'The Authority', helping consultants grow their revenue by sharing intriguing educational stories.
It’s my ultimate aspiration to create a bubble of calmness with this bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress. A chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.
The Big Question
Questions I get from consultants. And my answers.
Question #11: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'I’ve always been focusing a lot on expanding and building my relationships and network to grow my consulting business. I’ve read a few articles from you challenging such an approach. Why?'
This is not the first time I come across a question like this. “Network until you drop” is how we, as consultants, are basically taught to go about business development. While building relationships and expanding your network certainly can help, my argument has always been that such reliance is dangerous.
I was never reliant on my network to grow my consulting business. Building relationships was never my ultimate goal but rather the result of my subject expertise, my visibility and my reputation on the market.
I’ve been making an effort to provide in-depth answers to the questions coming from you, my subscribers. That’s why I once again put together an entire blog article dedicated to this subject.
In it, I outline not only the dangers and the limitations posed by a relationship-first approach, but also offer an alternative – and, in my view, a significantly more reliable and scalable – model for growing your consulting business.
An interesting question for the next edition: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'How can we best protect our time to enable us to invest in getting more visible as a consultant?'
Would you like to send a question for one of the following newsletter editions?Please send it to me here.
The Disturbing Truth
Unsettling revelations from experts I admire. And from myself.
Every Monday morning, I am sharing a consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.
These advices reflect years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and span one year of writing. I've mixed my own quotes with carefully selected quotes from experts I admire and you may never have heard of.
Here are the quotes from the past 2 weeks. Let the inspiration be with you (if you let it).
Topic 02-11-2020: Creating a credible message as a consultant
Many consultants struggle to translate their expertise into an easy-to-understand, credible message. Without a clear message, a consultant can never get the right connection with their target clients, and it leads to poor relevance and visibility in the market. And on Google. (Luk Smeyers)
Topic 09-11-2020: Narrow positioning
Most consultants struggle to hone in on their expertise and build a unique niche in order to stand out as an expert in a market or expertise domain because it’s a scary exercise. It requires a lot of self-confidence and guts to turn a narrow positioning into a compelling business model. (Luk Smeyers)
The Irresistible Content
I write a lot. Here's the update from the past weeks.
In this book, Cal Newport argues against passion. We are used to thinking that if we follow our passion, we will eventually succeed. Newport makes an interesting argument that first comes your work. Passion only comes after you put in the work and start excelling in it. An interesting new perspective!
The 2 main things I learned from this book:
1. The passion hypothesis: Newport states that the key to occupational happiness is to first figure out what you’re passionate about and then find a job that matches that passion. While he does acknowledge that such pre-existing passion can get matched with the right work you do, it is rare. Furthermore, Newport believes that subscribing to the hypothesis is dangerous as it can make you less happy.
2. Hard work: Newport celebrates hard work that leads to deep expertise and excellence. THAT is what’s satisfying. THAT is what will make you feel accomplished and happy professionally. Skills trump passion. I love that!
About 'hard work': I already wrote this in one of my blogs: ‘There are so many consultants in the world that are so much more talented than you. They’re sexier. Smarter. Richer. More creative. More likeable, more charming, better-connected, and better-looking. But there is one, singular thing you can do better than them: You can outwork them!’
Carl Newport's other book 'Deep Work', has been an essential guide to me in the past years. Passionate as I am about ‘mindset improvement’ and 'focus', I learned a lot from Newport, see my learnings from that book here (book #4 in the overview).
I’m also a big fan of Cal Newport’s podcast, where he answers the questions from his readers and subscribers, discusses fascinating subjects with industry experts, and provides thoughtful, insightful information.
The Inconvenient Number
Visible Authorities have a better pipeline. The evidence.
I often say that Google is our new boss. There is also an old joke that the best place to bury a body is on page 2 of Google.
Indeed, organic search is the cheapest, most efficient way to attract potential clients. As someone is searching for an answer to a pressing question, it is YOUR content that you want them to discover that provides the type of information that they need. As a consultant, you simply can’t afford to ignore the importance of Google and search engine optimization.
95% of traffic goes to the websites displayed on the first page of Google!
That’s the reality. You can hate it, you can love it, but you can’t run away from it anymore. Yes, optimizing your content may not be your cup of tea, but your audience’s purchasing habits are evolving. Hell, they are already completely different from what they used to be a decade ago.
Time to hop on the train, learn the basics of SEO, and join the race for page 1 of Google. See also the Neil Patel SEO free training below.
A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.
People often ask me what kind of training I am following to stay on top of all the latest trends and evolutions, especially when it comes to online marketing for consultants and for my own business.
Today I’d like to share the name of an amazing influencer I am already closely following for almost 10 years. His name: Neil Patel and his website: NPdigital.com.
In 2020, he started a new approach with free awesome training programs. I’ve been an avid student of this video content from the beginning. Every program comes with a free course outline, a goal-setting document, and many templates, tools, cheat sheets, implementation guides, etc. Really cool!
I can recommend all the programs, of course. These are the programs I finalized: YouTube Unlocked, Content Marketing Unlocked, SEO Unlocked, and Linkedin Unlocked (his most recent training program).
Here’s a screenshot of the training page and here’s the link to the training overview page.
The Inevitable Learning
The programs I am teaching. To become a better consultant.
My brand new 30-Day Program: In the 30-Days Group Program, you will learn the behind-the-scenes strategies and powerful tactics that I've used to launch and grow my own consulting business. And they can work for you too. It'll be a virtual GROUP PROGRAM, starting monthly, 4x online 2-hour training sessions, life-long access to the recordings, and exclusive Q&A access to myself for 4 weeks. First group starts in November. Here's the link to the info page.
My Accelerator Program: I have A LIMITED NUMBER OF SLOTS in 2020 for senior consultants eager to attract their ideal customers and grow their consulting business consistently. The Accelerator Program starts with a full audit of your market positioning and covers the necessary long-term improvements and quick wins. The number of participants for this 1-2-1 virtual training is limited. Access on a first-come-first-served basis. Here's the link to the info page with the program content. You can book a call on this info page to discuss your participation.
My Mastermind Retreat: Due to Corona, all 2020 Mastermind Retreats are on hold right now. I got several questions from candidates to join. Please get on the list and I will keep you informed as soon as I can go ahead again. Here's the link to the program content with the button to the waiting list. Thanks for your patience!
