TL;DR
💠Thought Piece - The Paradox of Consulting Success: Why Less is Actually More The consulting industry's "omnipresence" advice is keeping talented consultants broke by spreading them too thin across platforms and services. True success comes from strategic focus—depth over breadth, sustainability over growth, and creating disproportionate value through constraints rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
The Paradox of Consulting Success: Why Less is Actually More
The consulting industry is drowning in a sea of contradictory advice. On one hand, we're told to be everywhere, serve everyone, and never stop hustling. On the other, the most successful consultants seem to have figured out something the rest of us are missing: that success isn't about doing more—it's about doing less, but better.
The Omnipresence Trap
The newsletter's opening story about the consultant earning $2,400 while spending four hours daily on social media isn't just anecdotal—it's symptomatic of a deeper problem plaguing the industry. We've been conditioned to believe that visibility equals viability, that being everywhere means being successful. But this "spray and pray" approach to marketing reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how consulting businesses actually grow.
The consultant in the story isn't failing because she lacks work ethic or commitment. She's failing because she's optimizing for the wrong metrics. Engagement rates, follower counts, and platform diversity have become vanity metrics that mask the real question: are you creating enough value for the right people to sustain your business?
The Clarity Dividend
What's fascinating about both Drew Roberts and Jeff Baker's approaches is how they've embraced constraints as a competitive advantage. Roberts refuses to niche down to a specific industry, instead focusing on four foundational areas that work universally. Baker has built a practice around data and SEO, but his real innovation is designing his business around his desired lifestyle rather than chasing every opportunity.
This isn't about being lazy or lacking ambition—it's about recognizing that focus creates exponential returns. When you're not constantly context-switching between platforms, industries, or service offerings, you can go deeper, develop real expertise, and deliver transformational results rather than just outputs.
The Platform Paradox
The newsletter's emphasis on mastering one platform rather than being mediocre on many reflects a broader truth about modern business: depth trumps breadth. In an attention economy, being memorable on one platform is more valuable than being forgettable on five.
This principle extends beyond social media to every aspect of consulting. The generalist who tries to serve everyone ends up serving no one particularly well. The specialist who goes deep on solving specific problems becomes indispensable to their ideal clients.
Redefining Consulting Success
These stories collectively point to a new definition of consulting success—one that prioritizes sustainability over growth, depth over breadth, and value creation over visibility. It's a model that recognizes consulting as a craft that requires focus, patience, and strategic thinking rather than just hustle and networking.
The most successful consultants aren't the ones with the most followers or the busiest schedules. They're the ones who've figured out how to create disproportionate value for their ideal clients while maintaining their sanity, relationships, and personal fulfillment.
đź“Š NEW BLOG POST: The Social Media Mistake that's Keeping You Broke
Picture this: a consultant posting on LinkedIn every day, creating Instagram stories, tweeting industry insights, making TikTok videos, and running Facebook ads. She's spending 4 or more hours a day just to keep up with her "social media strategy." Her income last month? $2,400. She's everywhere online but nowhere near profitability.
This is the #1 mistake I see struggling consultants make: they think they need to be on every social media platform to succeed. The marketing gurus tell them about "omnipresence" and "meeting clients where they are," so they spread themselves across 5+ platforms, never building real momentum on any single platform. Meanwhile, they're burning out, can't track what's working, and look amateur because they're stretched too thin.
Here's what successful consultants know that struggling ones don't: you can generate consistent, predictable leads from ONE well-executed social media platform. In my latest blog post, I'm breaking down exactly why the "everywhere" approach is killing your income and revealing the simple one-platform strategy that actually generates consistent, predictable leads.
🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE: From Perfectionism to Profit: How Drew Roberts Built DB Impact by Embracing Imperfection and Delivering Value
Are you paralyzed by perfectionism, endlessly tweaking your business model instead of serving actual clients? Drew Roberts, founder of dB Impact, has a message that might shock you: your biggest enemy isn't the market or competition—it's your own quest for flawless execution.
What makes Drew's approach so compelling is how he challenges conventional consulting wisdom by building success without niching down to a specific industry. Instead, he focuses on four foundational areas that work across any sector: internal and external communications, personnel management, goal setting, and technological systems.
This isn't another episode filled with generic business advice—Drew delivers specific, actionable insights on everything from conducting discovery calls that convert without feeling salesy to leveraging Go High Level as a game-changing tool for solo practices. Whether you're stuck in analysis paralysis or looking to refine your existing consulting approach, Drew's philosophy of consistent imperfect action over perfect inaction could be exactly what you need to break through to your next level of success.
Ready to stop overthinking and start thriving? This episode will show you how embracing imperfection might be the most perfect strategy of all.
🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE: Transform Your Consulting Practice Into a Freedom-Focused Business
What if you could build a thriving consulting practice that doesn't chain you to your desk 50+ hours a week?
In this episode of Thriving Consultant, host AJ Riedel sits down with Jeff Baker, a business data and SEO consultant who cracked the code on maximizing both income and personal freedom.
From Burnout to Balance: A Blueprint for Consultant Success
Jeff's journey from overworked consultant to someone who enjoys daily walks, pickleball games, and passion projects while maintaining a successful practice offers a roadmap any consultant can follow. He shares the exact strategies he used to build an audience of over 40,000 subscribers and create a business that serves his lifestyle, not the other way around.
The Data-Driven Approach to Consulting Freedom
Through practical insights on everything from finding your minimum viable income to turning failures into stepping stones, Jeff reveals why relying on data rather than blind faith leads to better business decisions. You'll discover how to overcome perfectionism, build authentic professional networks, and push through the inevitable periods of uncertainty that every consultant faces.
Ready to redesign your consulting practice around the life you actually want to live? Listen now to learn Jeff's proven strategies for building both financial security and personal freedom in your consulting business.
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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