How to Scale in 2023 as a Coach or Consultant

Today, I’d like to share with you what I see as one of the most significant opportunities for coaches and consultants to grow their business in 2023. This is a necessary shift in thinking and operating that any expert-based business must adopt to grow successfully in today’s crowded market.

First, I’d like to share a quick story to illustrate.

In 2010, I met Dan Sullivan at a networking retreat and had the privilege of sitting through a workshop with him. During the seminar, Dan walked us through a handful of his mental models to upgrade our thinking and uncover growth opportunities in our business. By the end, everyone in attendance was raving about the experience.?

I was blown away by how effectively Dan was able to help a roomful of 50 business owners because his tools and methods were so well thought out and organized. Each idea he taught had diagrams, models, and exercises focused on a specific need or challenge experienced by entrepreneurs.

I soon discovered that Strategic Coach had centers worldwide with dozens of coaches guiding groups of clients through Dan’s models.?They had several years of curriculum based on Dan’s unique models and way of thinking. Because of how their program was organized, Dan could spend his time working with the highest-tier clients and developing new ideas and curricula.?

At that moment, I caught a vision of how to create a scalable, worldwide, world-class business based on someone’s ideas without running into limitations inherent to thought leadership. Since then, I have consistently developed and codified methods to help coaches and consultants organize their thinking for scalability.?

We all know that scaling your business requires removing yourself from the day-to-day running of your business. This is achieved by creating and delegating standard procedures that ensure continuity and consistency in your business operations. This removes you as the bottleneck and allows the business to grow without maxing out your time and energy.

And yet, we overlook the importance of applying this idea to the tools, ideas, and methods we use to generate client results. As a result, we limit our business’ capacity to serve clients and grow.?

Systematizing your unique genius is not only vital for scalable value delivery, but it’s also necessary for creating a stand-out brand with a compelling unique value proposition.?This is more important than ever, given the number of new coaches and consultants who have flooded the market in the past couple of years.

In addition, cataloging and codifying your unique genius elevates your authority positioning, makes it easier to create a suite of offers to serve the various needs of your market, and makes those offers more credible.

Think about the top thought leaders in your industry who attract the most significant opportunities, have the most extensive reach, and have grown successful companies.?

I’ll explore this idea more in my posts and newsletters as we head into 2023 and beyond. Not only is it a significant opportunity for coaches and consultants, but it’s also necessary for those who want to expand their impact beyond working with a handful of one-on-one clients to create a wide and lasting impact.

What other examples come to your mind of coaches, consultants, and thought leaders that have scaled a well-systematized body of work?

Do you have aspirations of creating a scalable body of work?