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She Skipped One Step for 12 Months. It Cost Her $15,000.
The Situation Elon Lindsay was running a successful experiential marketing agency serving major consumer brands. She led a team of five, including an account manager, event producer, director of operations, and personal assistant, delivering high-profile brand experiences that put her business on track for seven figures. Despite all of that, something critical wasn’t getting done.…
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He Stopped Customizing Every Project. Sales Came Faster.
The Situation Adam Fairhead built Fairhead Creative to help social entrepreneurs communicate their impact effectively. The agency did strong work. Clients were happy with the results. By the standards most agency owners measure themselves against, things were going well. But every project was a fresh invention. Every new client meant custom pricing, custom deliverables, custom…
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Her Clients Weren’t Following Instructions. So She Redesigned Day One.
The Situation August Ball had built Cream City Conservation into an $800K diversity consultancy serving large nonprofits in Milwaukee. She’d developed her JEDI framework (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) and was delivering workshops and training programs to organizations with over 100 employees. By every external measure, the business was working. Internally, August described herself as…
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Why Your Best Consulting Work Isn’t Turning Into Repeat Clients
You deliver strong work. Your clients get results. You care deeply about the quality of what you produce. And yet: You pour weeks into a project, deliver something you’re proud of, and the client says “that was great” and disappears. You hand over a deliverable that represents your best thinking and the client doesn’t know…
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Retainer Clients Want to Stay. But You Have to Ask.
You already know the signs. The team talks about your work like it changed their culture. New hires are thriving because of systems you helped build. The advisory board is impressed and saying so out loud. Your client takes you to dinner after sessions and gives you unsolicited feedback about how much things have improved.…
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They Want You to Hit a Number You Don’t Fully Control. Here’s What to Say.
Your client just told you their goal for next year. It’s aggressive. Double the revenue. Expand into new markets. Restructure the leadership team. Hit a number that makes the board take notice. You know your work. You know you’re good at it. But as you sit with that goal, something tightens. Because you also know…
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You Documented Everything. You Still Can’t Let Go
You spent months getting it out of your head. Every process, every step, every nuance you’ve learned from years of doing the work yourself. You wrote it down. You built the SOPs. You hired someone capable. You handed them a task and watched them do it. It went fine. Maybe even well. And you still…
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Why Your Best Clients Aren’t Asking for More (and What That’s Costing You)
You delivered strong work. The client said so. The results were real. The relationship felt solid. And then it quietly ended. Not with a complaint. Not with a dramatic conversation. The contract came up and nobody initiated what was next. Or the client achieved what they came for and couldn’t see a reason to continue.…
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Lawyer Lost $130,000 in One Meeting. He Built a System to Get It Back
Cameron Hawkins, a law firm owner and fractional chief legal officer, had been doing everything right. Or so he thought. His firm had served a large nonprofit, one that supported over 60 civic engagement organizations across Georgia, for nearly two years. What started as hourly legal work in mid-2023 had grown into a $250,000 annual…
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He Had Eight Clients. Now He Has Five. Business Is Better.
Tre Gammage, a fractional chief leadership officer who works with school principals and their districts, was running a $300K consulting company. By most measures, things were working. He had between five and eight clients. Revenue was steady. His expertise in leadership development, particularly using leadership assessments to inform staff development strategies, was in demand. But…
