Articles
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The advice they ask for isn’t the advice they need What if the most expensive mistake in consulting isn’t getting the answer wrong, but getting the question right on somebody else’s wrong problem? I saw this on an infrastructure assessment project I reviewed. The technically excellent consultant spent eight weeks conducting a detailed geotechnical analysis.…
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Most technical consultants are not short of expertise. They are short of protected conditions for using that expertise well. The options paper gets written between meetings. The expert review happens after three client calls and a morning of email. The proposal follow-up gets pushed to Friday afternoon, then disappears. The client day technically ends, but…
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Most consultants started with a version of the same plan. Leave employment, take your expertise with you, and build a practice around what you know. It’s a reasonable plan. For a while, it often works. But expertise, by itself, is not a business. It’s raw material. The consultant’s version of the hidden expert problem Employed…
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How proprietary frameworks change the commercial structure of your practice What if the expertise you’ve spent years developing is worth significantly more than what you’re currently charging for it, and the gap isn’t about skill? Most consultants carry their best thinking inside their heads. The ones who build lasting practices put it somewhere else. When…
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Why the insight beyond the brief is the one clients remember The advice that wins more work is rarely the advice the client asked for. Most consultants wait to be asked. The ones who consistently win more work don’t. There is a passage in Hold the Line that I return to often when thinking about what retained…
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How clarity attracts clients marketing never could What if the reason clients aren’t finding you has nothing to do with your marketing and everything to do with your position? Most consultants don’t have a marketing problem. They have a positioning problem. In an analysis of 140 consultants who consistently generate inbound work on LinkedIn, a…
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Three things clients observe before they decide to give you real access Your new client is already deciding whether to trust you. The question is whether you know which moments they’re using to make that call. In The Trusted Advisor, David Maister and his co-authors open with an observation that most consultants find uncomfortable: clients almost…
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Three forces working against your next engagement Being brilliant at your work is one of the most reliable ways to destroy your pipeline. In the opening chapters of The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber introduces a character named Sarah. Sarah is an exceptional baker. She loves the craft, she is brilliant at it, and one day she…
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Three reasons your expertise must lead your content If your content sounds like everyone else’s, why would a client choose you over anyone else? In March 2026, Harvard Business Review published an article with an uncomfortable question as its title: Has AI Ended Thought Leadership?1 The argument was pointed. As generative AI made it effortless…
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Every independent professional has felt the cold, familiar weight of “pricing anxiety.” It is that sudden, involuntary urge to offer a discount before the client has even raised an eyebrow. We are often told this is a mindset issue, a lack of internal conviction that requires “inner work” and affirmations of our own worth. But…