TL;DR
My Two-Cents Worth Summary: The most successful consultants understand that confidence and marketing are inseparable—you can't fake confidence in your marketing if you don't genuinely believe in your value, and you can't build genuine confidence without aligning your marketing with who you really are.
My Two Cents Worth: The Confidence-Marketing Connection: Why Your Mindset Determines Your Revenue
The most successful consultants share one counterintuitive trait: they give away their best thinking while charging premium rates for implementation.
This paradox reveals a deeper truth about consulting success that most practitioners miss entirely. It's not about hoarding your expertise or showcasing your credentials—it's about having the unshakeable confidence to lead with value while knowing your worth.
Frank Keck's 24-year journey from undercharging trainer to premium consultant illuminates why so many brilliant consultants struggle with pricing. His breakthrough wasn't learning better marketing tactics—it was developing the confidence to double his fees and offer three-tiered proposals without apology. This internal transformation enabled him to stop competing on credentials and start competing on value, exactly where his expertise positioned him to win. The external marketing followed the internal shift, not the other way around.
This connection between confidence and marketing effectiveness explains why the smartest consultants often make the most self-sabotaging mistakes. When you don't believe in your value, you naturally hold back your best insights, spread yourself across too many channels to "increase opportunities," and try to appeal to everyone instead of specializing. You showcase expertise instead of understanding, build authority through credentials instead of conviction, and wonder why mediocre competitors are thriving while you struggle to justify premium rates.
The path forward requires addressing both sides of this equation simultaneously. You can't fake confidence in your marketing if you don't genuinely believe in your value—and you can't build genuine confidence without aligning your marketing with who you really are and what you uniquely offer. The consultants winning premium contracts have solved both puzzles: they've developed the internal confidence to give away their best thinking freely, knowing their real value lies in implementation, and they've built their marketing around understanding their clients' worlds rather than impressing them with their own. When confidence and marketing align, everything changes—your pricing conversations, your client relationships, and ultimately, your revenue.
đź“Š NEW BLOG POST: The Counter-Intuitive Marketing Traps That Keep Smart Consultants Broke
Why are brilliant consultants with decades of expertise struggling to charge premium fees while mediocre competitors are thriving?
The answer isn't what you'd expect. After analyzing hundreds of consulting businesses, one pattern emerges: the smartest consultants often make the most self-sabotaging marketing mistakes—precisely because these mistakes seem logical.
If you're frustrated that your deep expertise isn't translating into premium rates, you're likely caught in one of five counter-intuitive traps that successful consultants have learned to avoid. These aren't the obvious marketing blunders like poor website design or inconsistent social media. They're sophisticated mistakes that trap intelligent consultants because they feel like smart business decisions. For instance, did you know that showcasing your expertise can actually make clients care less about hiring you? Or that the consultant giving away their best strategies for free often wins the biggest contracts?
The most dangerous trap? The "more is better" mindset that has consultants launching podcasts, joining every platform, and creating endless content—while their focused competitors dominate with ruthless consistency in just one channel. Meanwhile, specialists who seem to "limit themselves" by niching down consistently out-earn generalists by 300-500%, and consultants building authority through controversial viewpoints (not credentials) command the highest fees.
These insights challenge everything most consultants believe about marketing, but the data is clear: fixing just one of these mistakes can transform your practice. The consultants who recognize these patterns stop competing on price and start competing on value—exactly where your expertise should position you.
Ready to discover which trap is holding you back?
Don't let another month pass watching less-qualified competitors win premium contracts while you struggle to justify your rates. Read the full blog post for the complete breakdown of all five marketing mistakes and learn the specific fixes that can shift you from competing on credentials to commanding premium fees. Your expertise deserves better marketing—and your bank account will thank you.
🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE: From Corporate to Consultant: Beverly Flores' Success Story
Ready to hear the full story? This article only scratches the surface of Beverly's incredible insights and practical strategies. In the complete podcast episode, you'll discover her powerful "watch analogy" that reframes the consultant-client relationship, learn the specific PR tricks she uses during pricing conversations, and hear the touching story of how her entrepreneurial courage inspired her son to start his own business. Listen to the full episode of the Thriving Through podcast to unlock Beverly's complete playbook for building a successful consulting practice while staying true to your values.
🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE: From $500 Speaking Gigs to Six-Figure Client Relationships: Frank Keck's 24-Year Journey
What if the secret to thriving as a consultant isn't about perfecting your marketing strategy, but about building unshakeable confidence in who you are?
In this compelling episode of the Thriving Through podcast, Frank Keck, CEO and founder of Core Build, reveals how he transformed from an uncertain trainer charging rock-bottom fees to a confident consultant with 95%+ client retention rates and top clients he's served for over 15 years. Frank's journey began in 1988 with Dale Carnegie, but his real breakthrough came when a business coach forced him to confront a painful truth: he was drastically undercharging because he didn't believe in his own value.
The turning point? When Frank finally doubled his fees (after much resistance), not only did clients pay without pushback—several told him they'd actually expected him to charge more. This confidence shift didn't just change his pricing; it transformed his entire approach to business. Frank shares his powerful morning routine that helped him move from a victim mindset to a creative mindset, his "board of directors" mentoring strategy that accelerated his growth, and why offering three-tiered proposals eliminates the fear of being "too expensive."
Perhaps most valuable for struggling consultants, Frank reveals how he built his business through strategic speaking at SHRM and PMI chapters—a "sampling strategy" that generated decades of referrals and repeat business. He also discusses how COVID forced him to pivot from in-person networking to digital marketing using tools like Seamless.ai, and why hiring his first virtual assistant was a game-changer for scaling operations while staying in his zone of genius.
Ready to hear the full story?
This episode is packed with actionable insights that could transform how you price your services, find your ideal clients, and build the confidence needed to thrive as a consultant. Frank's vulnerability about his struggles with self-doubt and his practical frameworks for overcoming them make this a must-listen for any consultant ready to stop playing small. Listen to the complete interview and discover why confidence—not marketing tactics—might be the missing piece in your consulting success.
I ran a successful consulting company for over 35 years and have spent the last 5 years launching a coaching business in today's digital marketing landscape. Even with all my marketing expertise - 10 years in product management and marketing at Fortune 50 companies and MBA in marketing from UCLA - there were many years when my marketing wasn't bringing in enough clients. And I didn't know why or what to do about it. I've talked to lots of self-employed consultants and have discovered that many (if not most) of them are struggling with the same problem. That's why I've made it my mission to help self-employed consultants develop personalized, end-to-end marketing systems that deliver consistent $10K+ months without traditional sales tactics or time-consuming content marketing activities so they can break the feast-or-famine cycle.
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