How to make a living while you’re making a difference. A weekly show for independent professionals who want to go from six-figures to seven while increasing their impact on the world.
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Financial Checkup Time
Why May is the perfect time to schedule a strategic tax planning call with your CPA.How to pay yourself and fund your tax liability, even when you have spikes in your income.Who you need on your team to get the right advice—and why it’s worth hiring experts (hint: peace of mind is priceless).Setting up tax-advantaged plans now instead of waiting until year-end.Quotables“So I have these like quarterly spikes…that make it hard to have a set it and forget it payroll.”—JS“As long as you give your accountant a couple of weeks to breathe (after tax day), they're usually anxious…to think strategically vs. just plowing out a bunch of tax returns.”—RM“I'd rather have the IRS hold it (my tax withholding)…I just don't want to know about it. I don't want to ever see it.”—JS“I'm pretty sure my tax accruals are more than I'm going to need. And so after I pay the IRS next year, I'll pay myself a bonus with whatever's left.”—RM“When I started my solo consulting business, I got a financial planner, a bookkeeper and a lawyer.”—JS“People who have left consulting (to go solo), the first thing they do is incorporate because they're worried about liability. You're like, ‘ah, the first thing I'm going to do is protect myself and my assets’.”—RM“It still makes sense to check in with someone who has got a bigger picture, knows more detail about what's going on—we're fans of expertise over here.”—JS“You have a lot of options depending on your business structure to tuck some money away pre-tax…it's worth having that chat with your accountant.”—RM
Building Your Best Course
Addressing the chicken/egg nature of developing an idea for your course with targeting the ideal audience for it.Why building cohorts will improve the effectiveness of your course (and your future sales).How to build your course materials with reasonable deadlines that match your comfort level with teaching the topic.Why we hate launch hype and what to do instead.Quotables“The majority of the time you probably are thinking of teaching something bigger than you need.”—JS“When we're trying to teach something that involves significant behavior change, that's when I really love building a cohort.”—RM “I found it (the cohort experience) drawing me back almost like a social media network might because I wanted to find out what happened with Jason's thing that he was working on.”—JS“When you have a cohort, you are actively engaging with them. And for people who are sort of natural teachers, that feels amazing.”—RM“You do want to figure out what you think is going to make the most sense for you—not drain you, keep you energized, keep you engaged teaching the thing that you want to teach.”—JS“I want to have a really clear direction (when prepping material). I want to know how many sections and what's going to go in each one so that it makes sense.”—RM“If we sound cynical (about launches), it's because we are.”—JS“If it's right for you, I want you to have it. That is the (launch) message.”—RM
Are You Overdelivering?
Our tendency (especially in proposal situations) to acquiesce to client requests—and how to re-direct that for the good of all.The power and status dynamics surrounding consultants serving clients and what happens if we start treating clients as higher status.How overdelivering can seep into your firm’s practices and where to nip it in the bud.Developing a healthy mindset around service delivery, providing value and decoupling your fees from effort.Quotables“Your clients are a choice, just like your boss is a choice, but people often forget that walking away is one of the options.”—JS“You could say: ‘Listen, if we take out this step, I can't guarantee the transformation, and therefore I can't do that for you.’”—RM“The way to provide value to your clients is not to be obedient—it's to deliver results.”—JS“The proposal is the dress rehearsal for the engagement.”—RM“If you let prospective clients push you around in the sales process, it should come as no surprise when they push you around during the project.”—JS“The more that you consider yourself low status relative to clients, the worse you're going to feel about it.”—RM “There's so much ‘the customer's always right’ psychology. "Wouldn't it be better to give them more than less?" No, it really wouldn't.”—JS“This is about leveraging what you have—not playing status games that have you overdelivering and creating relationships that don't work for you.”—RMLinksTara McMullin's Instagram piece on over-delivering
Bad Grammar—Should You Bend The Rules?
Why using perfect grammar in a sales pitch or conversation still won’t guarantee you the deal.How to use grammar and language to communicate and persuade vs. to impress (and the role of status games).Why simplicity makes it easier to get the result you want.The role of grammar in expressing your brand and setting client/audience expectations.Quotables“You could do a sales pitch or a sales interview and use perfect grammar throughout and still not land the deal.”—JS“You adjust your language to meet them where they are.”—RM“You're not looking for an A+ on a book report. You're trying to get someone to change.”—JS“This is really more about simplicity and getting the result that you want.”—RM“It's all about communicating it to them in a way that is going to be digestible and not activate status roles.”—JS“Who's your audience? How do they communicate? What kinds of words are too big and too much?”—RM“If what you want is for the listener or the reader or the viewer to do something, then the most important thing is producing that action.”—JS“Language is part of the toolkit of a consultant or anyone who's trying to make transformational change in an audience.”—RM
When It’s Time To Un-Stick Yourself
Getting yourself the endorphin rush from physically getting up and going outside or meeting a friend.How to keep pushing the envelope even as you’re doing the routine things that make your business run.Why that feeling of putting your “baby” out there can feel crazy-scary—and how to do it anyway.How to tell the difference between when you’re laying groundwork for your next thing or just burning daylight.Quotables“It was so much fun…I noticed that I felt like this total endorphin rush, I was in the best mood.”—JS“I've so trained myself into this virtual be efficient work from zoom/have phone conversations mode that it was almost like upsetting the apple cart to go to an in-person meeting.”—RM“It's not too bad to have an idea and then, like roughly a quarter later, launch it.”—JS“It doesn't mean that we don't double down on the things we're good at, but we just keep pushing that envelope on some level.”—RM“Talk to people like: ‘Hey, I've got three ideas for my next workshop I'm going to launch. Which one seems the most exciting to you?’”—JS“I'm waiting for somebody to write and go ‘Yeah, this is a stupid idea. And I don't ever want to hear from you again.’”—RM“If you can introduce really smart, fun people into the process (of getting outside), that sounds like a really good routine to get into.”—JS“There's always going to be those periods (of laying groundwork), but the ideal is that they're moving you towards something else, even if you're pulling your hair out while you're going through them.”—RM
When Your Book Is Last
Why book as business card is not the book that will still be relevant and valuable in 20-30 years.How to introduce your book content to ideal readers so they can help you use the right language, examples and stories.Using your book idea to build a tribe of support for your eventual launch.Positioning your book so it has a built-in base of readers—and is attractive to potential publishers.The benefits from teaching your material before you ever start writing the actual book.Quotables“I think this is more reliable path to write a book that could theoretically be still getting read 20 years from now.”—JS“If you're going to pitch your book to a publisher, they want to know: how does this book position against these other (competitive) books?”—RM“What you want is feedback from people who are hearing your stuff for the first time.”—JS“You need a launch team—you need a bunch of people supporting your book to help make it successful.”—RM“They might tell me my baby's ugly, but that's what I want. I don't wanna write the book and then find out that my baby's ugly.”—JS“It (a webinar) gives you a lot of experience with talking about the book and getting comfortable, listening and synthesizing what they're saying.”—RM“If people do show up for your webinar, you're getting a head start on your marketing language for the book itself.”—JS“For the kind of book that we're talking about, you've gotta have some other people invested in its success—where they get excited about it, they want to share it.”—RM
Get Different with Mike Michalowicz
How books have been a pivotal source of his authority (and a substantial slice of his overall revenue).The role of his communities in concepting and testing book ideas—and why members who aren’t super fans are especially valuable.Why incremental and real-life experiments are so critical to testing new ideas.The value of going for small wins—even when complexity is the “better” solution.Why being better is not enough.Quotables“The stuff I put in my books is the same stuff I share on stage or on a podcast. But they're devalued when we hear the voice, it's eh, but once it's in a book, it becomes biblical for some reason.”—MM“Why I’ve written so many (books) is I am working on any number at any given time, usually three to four in the works.”—MM“The book is the starting point for lead flow, but it's the end point of the knowledge. It's the best of what I have accumulated.”—MM“I use my subscribers and say, “Hey, we're going to concept—who's willing to try this out?” But I will, to some degree, intentionally exclude people who’ve tried stuff out in the past, trying to always approach new people and learn from them.”—MM“What a lot of people do in their writings is they make it so it's not palatable and you lose the reader before you even get a chance to serve them.”—MM“All my books are based upon this concept of quick, easy deployment.”—MM“Being better is not enough. But many of us rely on that, we say we are better. Why don't we gain more business? We have to be noticeable.”—MM“The only experience people have with us before doing business with us is our marketing. And if our marketing is inconsistent with the actual brand experience, there's a mistrust that's going to happen.”—MM LINKShttps://mikemichalowicz.com/
Ask Us Anything 5
When moving from freelancing to consulting, how should I approach building my website portfolio? What kinds of best practices do you suggest?How do I make sure I don’t lose my technical edge as I transition to more strategic consulting?I’m not comfortable traveling or mingling with people whose vaccination and cautiousness status I don’t know—and yet it feels like everyone in my industry is anxious to attend events again. Is it possible to grow my authority business 100% virtually?I’ve built a YouTube audience of 2,000 and an email list of about 1,000 by sharing a passion of mine. While I love doing it, it’s eating up more of my time and I’d like to monetize this—where should I start?Quotables“Encourage the client to share specific benefits—probably with numbers—some kind of absolute or relative numbers of the improvement that they attribute to your contribution.”—JS“Think of your website, not as static, but as a living breathing thing.”—RM“You can go into the lab and when there's something big—something game-changing—that enables new things for you that your clients care about.”—JS“It's a little bit like riding a bicycle. You can not have ridden one for 10 years, but when you get back on you remember how to steer, you remember where your feet go. You know what to do.”—RM“Think of someone who you perceive as an authority. Have you ever met them? Probably not. Have you even been to a conference where they were? Probably not.”—JS“You can become an authority pretty much entirely virtually IF you design your business model to match that.”—RM“It gets down to who needs, who stands to benefit the most from your superpower and how different do they perceive you to be in terms of the options for solving this problem.”—JS“When talking to people who are already engaged in your worldview, they've signed on. And they're going to tell you what they want, not just from anybody to solve the problem, but what they want from you.”—RM
The Dark Side Of Referrals
Why relying on referrals is a passive strategy with few controls—and a dangerous hidden cost.The difference between referrals and word of mouth from your authority-building efforts.The one exception where a referral system can be exactly the right approach (and it applies to a VERY small slice of experts).Why investing in broader market moves (e.g. publishing and speaking) will bring you business faster and more reliably than courting referrals.Quotables“I'm like a control freak. I don't want to depend on maybe somebody sends someone my way…”—JS“I always help people if I can, but there's a limit to what you can do for any one person before you have to turn the meter on.”—RM“Like the difference between a hunting model and a gardening model, the word of mouth authority marketing is a gardening model.”—JS“Referrals are a long-term play—and they’re so uncontrollable.”—RM“I cannot stand this feeling of just hoping the phone rings.”—JS“If you're operating on an old model (and you haven’t positioned yourself well), depending on referrals is going to get worse.”—RM“It's that word of mouth that I would rather have, and it is more predictable than referrals—it’s more like tomatoes coming out of the garden.”—JS“There's such a difference in somebody who comes to you because of the authority that you've built—they come to you basically pre-sold.”—RM
Does Appearance Matter?
Aligning your appearance—how you dress and style yourself—with your brand of authority.Why what matters most is what makes you feel confident and strong.The dangers in making assumptions about your audience’s judgement (or listening too closely to critics).How to match your exteriors with who you are, how you feel confident and the audience that you want to attract.When—and how—to call in the experts.Quotables“If people don't like your vibe, then okay—they don't get the joke. Go find someone who does.”—JS“There's also a sense of privilege that comes with this. If you're a white male, it's easier to say, oh, it doesn't matter what I wear, but if you're female or you're a person of color, it's a lot more complex.”—RM“It's almost like a game. Can I be so good and deliver results that are so outstanding that no one cares what I'm wearing?”—JS“It's not that there is this one size fits all look that you need to have in order to be an authority. It's a combination of what you want for yourself—what makes you feel powerful—and what helps attract the audience that you most want to attract.”—RM“They weren't looking for a guy to come in jeans and blaze orange sneakers and a black t-shirt so it was just a bad fit.”—JS“Once I hit a certain level, I was like, I don't care…I'm going to do that. And I don't care if anybody likes it or not.”—RM“If you don't know what it is that would make you feel confident…just get an expert—just like you're an expert at something.”—JS“It's finding the match between who you are, how you feel confident and the audience that you want to attract.”—RMLinkshttps://yourcolorstyle.com/https://elsaisaac.com/https://alexandrastylist.com/https://loriannrobinson.com/
Time ≠ Money
Getting over any residual guilt from not charging based on your effort (“I can’t charge them that much—it wouldn’t be fair/right/honorable”).Why the best clients don’t really care about how much time you spend serving them—and what they do care about instead.How to begin shifting your sales conversations toward high value outcomes and away from time.The relationship between the altitude you’re operating at and the time it takes you to provide value.Quotables“Through conversation with the people for whom you are making the thing…you can think of it like a gift. It's like here, I made this for you.”—JS“That's a whole mindset shift, that all of a sudden you're going to be paid for access…it can even feel like highway robbery at first.”—RM“You should buy the most expensive one (mastermind) you can afford so that you will be slotted in with other people who are at your level. ”—JS“Price telegraphs value.”—RM“The reason it's so difficult for freelancers to value price is because they've never had a conversation with their past clients about what value they added.”—JS“When you understand what your work is going to produce, you can work differently on the project. You can work at a higher level, you can be more effective, you can ask better questions.”—RM“You can increase your altitude, the level at which you engage with the client…and almost invariably it's less work.”—JS “Everything that we're talking about in this episode is moving you up that ladder so that you're selling your brains not your hands. “—RM
Why You Don’t Have Imposter Syndrome
Why, if you’re not feeling like an imposter, you’re not “working hard enough” (a Seth Godin quote from episode 100).Facing the fear—and the resistance—and moving beyond a self-limiting label.How working to become an expert can raise imposter feelings (and what to do).Shifting your mindset to treat your work as an experiment.The benefits of focusing on the people you’re serving vs. your own fears and resistance.Quotables“If we could deconstruct what people mean when they say imposter syndrome…it's like fake. I'm a fake, because I don't know if this is going to work or I don't know if this is the right way to do it. I don't know how to do this thing.”—JS“The thing is it's really tempting to say, ‘Oh, I have imposter syndrome. I just can't do that.’ And so I don't like the label.”—RM“If this sounds like tough love at all, it is because we don't want you in 10 years to be still stuck in the same place.”—JS“The signal you’re becoming an expert is when you realize that you couldn't possibly know everything: ‘How do I niche down in the area of expertise that’s most intriguing? How do I think about this?’”—RM“Imposter syndrome is probably that you don't know if it's going to work. You're doing an experiment. It's not like scientists are imposters because they don't know what's going to happen at the end of the experiment.”—JS“The second we turn our focus away from ourselves and onto the audience, everything's easier. Because you're focused on them and getting them the things that they want.”—RM“You're not here to be perfect or better than someone else—you're here to help. And if you focus on that, you don't have to be perfect. You just need to be good enough.”—JS“Maybe it's work it till you make it instead of fake it till you make it.”—RMLinksThe Imposter Cure The Imposter Syndrome The Middle Finger Project
Trusting Your Voice
Why a big chunk of trusting your voice is being brave enough to let your “weirdness” out so you can find your tribe.The value in being authentically consistent and how to course correct as you go.Learning to keep playing your game, in your style, no matter where you are and what you’re doing.Why trusting your voice is an iterative process—and how to ensure you’re consistently reinforcing who you are.Quotables“I definitely let my inner weirdo out.”—JS“Part of this is just learning to trust that your weirdness is compatible with other people's weirdness.”—RM“What's the best part of you that's going to show up and be really thoughtful and consistent?”—JS“You play your game, your style.”—RM“Sometimes your inner weirdo is gonna preclude you being involved in certain things, but it's much more common for the opposite to be true.”—JS“Somebody else can’t empower you. You empower yourself to put your voice out there.”—RM“You’ve gotta find and hone and refine your voice.”—JS“When you get to the point where it's almost like the opposite of imposter syndrome, you trust that you have something to say.”—RM
Breaking Rules
Why breaking the rules in a surprising way is so important.Reaping the benefits of surprise—and how to figure out which rules are made for breaking.Balancing your strengths and available time with the highest impact moves.How to think about your rule breaking so you’re not copying someone else, but building your unique brand.Quotables“Some of my favorite strategies really do have a surprising piece to them, which is that I break a rule.”—JS“‘I would never bother my audience with daily emails’—if you’re ‘bothering’ them, why send it at all?”—RM“If you're known by name it's because you probably broke new ground, you broke some rules, some style practices and came up with something new and different that connected with people.”—JS“One of the things that makes me crazy is automated content based on SEO. They look like they're written by robots.”—RM“If you need an extra five hours a week, delete all social media from your life.”—JS“There's no reason to feel like, oh, you must have music on your podcast. As we've proven.”—RM“The reason I decided against that (using email salutations) was because I don't send emails like that to my brothers. And that was the feeling I wanted people to have when they got an email from me.”—JS“You can get sucked into social media, commenting about things that aren’t building your brand.”—RM
Profit With Purpose
Why you need to answer this question: how much profit is enough for you?How to work your way up the difficulty scale to find clients with bigger, more expensive problems so that you can work less.The myth behind doing hard work—and how to work less without guilt.Making an impact with your ideal audience that leaves a memorable footprint (and builds a sustainable business).Quotables“Assuming you're comfortable with some profit, the question is how much?”—JS“What's that expensive problem that's inside your big idea, your revolution, that you can solve?”—RM“You can find people who are currently in a situation where they would write a big fat check to someone like you.”—JS“You're gradually working your way up the difficulty scale to find clients with bigger problems or more expensive problems so that you can work less.”—RM“If you only feel okay doing really hard work, then what does that look like in your future? You're dooming yourself to a life of toil.”—JS“The key is delivering huge value. You have to keep asking: are you moving the needle on your revolution by doing the work you're doing?”—RM“People do stuff all the time that is not in their best interest financially, for other reasons and one of them would be purpose.”—JS“It's not just about the money—it's about impact. It's about your footprint.”—RM