Almost every consulting founder I speak with agrees with me on this. But hardly anyone actually does it.
Everyone says they want to build a strong thought leadership presence. That they want to attract great clients and create a steady pipeline. And they genuinely mean it. They know the value of it. They want to be seen as the go-to in their space.
But when you look at their actual approach, here’s what you’ll often find:
👉 A few scattered posts on LinkedIn
👉 A blog that hasn’t been touched in months
👉 A couple of case studies published irregularly
👉 A podcast appearance or two
👉 A webinar here and there
👉 No real strategy to tie it all together
In short, it’s all over the place. And I get it. Most consulting founders are buried in client work. They’ve got one or two channels, usually referrals or partnerships, that bring in new opportunities, albeit sporadically. So building a thought leadership engine ends up taking a back seat.
But here’s the missed opportunity.
When you do get a referral or a warm intro, the first thing that person does is check you out online. And if what they find doesn’t clearly communicate your expertise, your point of view, and how you think about their specific challenge, that opportunity starts to cool.
A cohesive content strategy, built around your ideas, your worldview, and the problems you solve, amplifies everything else you’re already doing. It becomes your reputation engine. It warms up leads before the first conversation. It gives people a reason to trust you.
But none of this happens if you stay stuck in project delivery.
So…
🌟 This is the shift you need to make: from Project Leader to Growth Leader.
Project Leaders are focused on serving existing clients. Growth Leaders make space for both: they build delivery capacity and invest in future growth like marketing, sales and team-building.
As a consulting business founder, if you’re still operating like a Project Leader in your business, here are three questions to reflect on:
❓ When a dream client looks you up online, would they immediately see that you deeply understand their problem and your unique worldview on how to solve it?
❓ If referrals and partnerships stopped tomorrow, how would new opportunities come your way?
❓ What’s one move you can make this quarter to start building a visible, consistent thought leadership engine that supports your pipeline?
✍ Curious which one hits home for you.
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Ready to add $100k-$500k revenue to your consulting business in 12 months or less without burning out? Schedule a call and let me show you how.
Image credit: Dalle-3
