The Consultant Trap

Business brain, episode 637 for Friday, April 4th, National Walk to Work Day 2025. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them so that we can each keep on living those charmed lives. Here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And here in Northern California, I'm Shannon Jean.

How are you, Shannon?

I'm good. Happy Friday.

Hey, did you walk to work today? Did you walk to the podcast?

I did say I walked to. I actually run up the hill.

Do you really?

I do, yeah. I always kind of, you know, I used to do it when my kids were home, so I wanted to see me be excited to go to work.

Yeah, right.

Kind of silly, but I was used to that thing.

Okay.

Yeah, but. Yeah, but I typically run up and. Because there's a whole set of stairs.

Yeah.

Studio by my house, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. If I, if I ran across today would have been safe, but the last couple of months, our driveway has been a sheet of ice, so running across it would be ill advised.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ice is rough.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

No, it's no bueno. Yeah, yeah.

Yes. No.

So I wanted to talk. I was thinking about you while I was sitting in at south by Southwest. I was. I spent one sort of afternoon seeing a couple bands and the way it would work is the bands are 40 minutes on, 20 minutes off for the changeover. So this was during one of these 20 minute changeovers. I was sitting out in the sun in Austin, enjoying the heat, and I was just like. I would spend the 20 minutes meditating about things and I had other things to think about. And then I just sort of let my mind wander and I found myself thinking about you and I started thinking about the consulting trap because you've gotten yourself into a business where you're trading your time, your time for dollars. Right. You are in a dollars per hour business, sort of. And I know there's an asterisk there, but here I've been here. Right. I understand the consulting trap all too well. And part of why I probably thinking about this was I was sitting in Austin, and when I was in Austin, most of my income and most of the time that I was there was spent doing consulting. Right. So I also experienced the consulting trap while I was there. And here's. Here's where the. The trap gets interesting is Superman. It's great to feel like Superman. Right. When you come in, I was thinking about the. You posted A video about a woman who was literally brought to tears by the help that you were able to give her. And that is amazing and awesome. Right? Like, in and of itself.

Yeah, it was. It was raw. It was good.

That's. It's like.

Gives you a sense of purpose.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, it gives you that sense of purpose. And consulting is good for that because you get that real time feedback. You're working with people directly. You. You get that. We don't get that as much here. Right. It's. It's, you know, kind of a ephemeral sort of thing. You get bits and pieces here. Whereas when you're consulting and working with somebody. And that's the part I love about consulting too, is that, you know, I.

Yes.

I was doing a lot of it at the time, fixing people's computers, but it was the same kind of thing.

Yep.

I'd show up and, you know, they would be tearing their hair out about something, and, you know, two hours later, everything was great. I was Superman.

Yeah.

It was amazing, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

But Superman can only be in one place at one time.

Absolutely.

Okay. And. And that. That's okay because you can just. That from the outside looking in. And I mean, before you get started down this path, you say, well, that's all right. I'll just. As my. As the demand for my time increases, I will simply raise my rates to offset the time to balance out where my value is. Now, if you're really good at something, and I'm really good at that consulting thing, I know you're really good at your consulting thing. So if you're really good at something, you will experience that there is a. Eventually that there is a parabolic curve to optimize for peak dollars per hour and peak Superman effect. But the only way you find that where that parabolic curve is is by going too far. Because eventually your hourly rate, you get to a point where you wind up charging more per hour than people who are willing to treat you like Superman will pay. Right. Because there's some people to whom you are worth, you know, 10 times per hour what you're currently charging.

Sure.

But they ain't gonna treat you like Superman.

Yeah.

You know, they're. They're gonna work you to the bone.

Yeah.

They're looking for.

Yeah. They want a horse.

They want a horse, right. To ride.

Absolutely.

And they want to put it up wet to stick with the Texas, you know, ride it hard, then put it up wet to stick with the Texas analogies. So they don't have time to and don't want to bother with treating you like Superman. And so I see you on this path and go, yeah, I've said enough.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. The every. I have. Okay. I. I completely agree with you. Now let me explain where this is heading. Great. And also explain. So the overlying. The. The entire system is that I. I have always wanted to productize my knowledge, and we've talked about it here.

Yes.

We've published guides. I published a couple of books. And that was great. And that was wonderful. I still get, you know, get a lot of great feedback from that. But when I started trying to figure out the best way to productize my knowledge, I realized the easy. I don't want to say easy, but the. The natural path was to get into coaching.

Coaching consulting. Yes. Right.

Coaching consulting. Okay.

It is the way to begin. Yes, yes.

And that is the important part. It is the way to begin. And let me. What I've learned is you're absolutely right. You get your time maxed out, and I don't. I love working with clients and doing those kind of things, but I. There's definitely a limit of how many people I could work with at one time.

Exactly.

And it's hard to keep it straight, and it's hard to manage and to be on for, you know, you burn out clients.

You will burn out.

Yes, you burn out. So there's a few different ways you manage this. And I'm in the process of doing this. You know, number one, you automate like crazy.

Yes, of course.

We just had that.

Yeah.

You hire.

You build a support team.

So I have a. I have, you know, my first, you know, assistant that works for me that helps manage a lot of stuff.

Yeah.

The third thing you do is you build curriculum so that when you're hired, you're. You're going into two different things you do with that curriculum. Some people will not. Will never pay you what you're worth. Right. They just.

Yes, of course.

And they want a more. They want more of a generic version of Shannon. Yeah. Do it yourself. Yeah. So they buy a digital product for me. Okay. Couple hundred bucks, whatever. So. So. But the other way you use that. That same curriculum is when you get a client that hired you as a coach, you put them into the curriculum track so that you don't have to start as from zero. Because there are people that hire me for the same reason over and over. And if you have to start from zero, it's. It's incredibly challenging. Right. To teach it over and over and over. Who wants to do that. I don't want to be that kind of teacher. But once you get them, you hire. Okay, great. Here's, here's this program. You start here. As you go through, there's sections that you create your own notes, you leave your own videos, you do everything, you interact. And then you put them like now I put them into a slack workspace. Sure. They can ask, ask questions, do all that kind of stuff. So that curriculum helps alleviate part of that too. And as far as like the hourly thing, it's up to them. And that's really helped me. Like I say, okay, great, we have a call today. And then I say when you're ready, book your next call.

Right.

When you're ready. So you may not like. I have a six week Kickstarter program. That's the most popular, popular thing I do. I say it's six weeks, but it may go longer because if you don't book a call for a few, I'm going to give you six calls. Up to six calls, right?

It could, yeah, yeah. The default pacing is once a week, but it could be once every two weeks.

It just depends on how it works for you. And then I do some custom bespoke stuff. But you're absolutely right. I already see that happening. And the last way is what I'm, what's happening is as some of my clients mature out of this one on one.

Yep.

I'm moving them into a group program.

Right.

A group workspace. A group call every two weeks. It's less money, but I jump on a call. So my, I only have one person in there now, but I'm the second one that's coming up. So I'll have them. So they'll be on the call together.

Yes.

And that, that's, I think going to be great. And then I have this mastermind. There's 160 people in there. It's only five bucks. They only, it's like a cup of coffee.

Yeah.

It's not about the money. It's about the commitment.

Yeah, right, right. Yeah.

So I can have a big impact on 160 people. I can drop videos there. I can do things. And I do monetize it. I get people that, from that group that want to hire me as a coach or they.

Oh yeah, yeah. Level them up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Never up. So I, I think you're spot on. And there's a lot of people I think that fall into that.

I'm spot on for me. Right. Yeah. This was, this is not. I, I believe this is happening to you. It may happen to you, but it did happen to me. Right. Yes.

Yeah. And it's never. There's never been as many tools.

Yes.

To keep yourself from falling in this trap. It's because, like, I talk all the time. I'm. I imagine in, you know, it. I mean, my experience, it typically takes a year to. To get one of these businesses really off the ground.

Yes. Right. Even. Even. That's pretty quick. But you've. You've done this a few times, so I get it.

So you kind of accelerate it.

Right.

You're kind of growing up.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know that in a. Like, I have a. A definitive system in place, and I know I have a pretty good sense of what the MRR monthly recurring revenue will be.

Yep.

Once I get this complete system configured, and I'm not going to tie that to my. To my hourly, there's just no way.

No, it'll.

It'll drive me insane.

Yeah. And this is why I wanted to have this conversation here, because the consulting trap is. I mean, there's an allure there. Right. The Superman effect.

It's all over.

It's amazing.

Every. I mean, just.

Yeah.

You can hire anybody by the hour.

Yes.

And what they charge for this or that kind of thing. And so.

But you got to beware that Superman effect. Like, that's.

That.

That's.

I agree.

And you clearly. I mean, you've articulated. You were not prepared for this. Well, you. You were clearly prepared for this conversation. You did not know what conversation I was bringing up until I said it like, correct. You folks listening? Assuming we choose to release this, which I think we will.

Oh, yeah, we're gonna. Yeah.

Yeah.

Of course.

You've heard this raw. Right. We did not live stream this because I. I wasn't exactly sure where it was gonna go.

Yep. Yeah.

But I thought it was going to go to a good place. And clearly you were aware of most of these pitfalls and engineered a path that at least gave you or gives you the opportunity to avoid them.

The only reason I know how to avoid these is because I started it. Yeah. I just started coaching and I did it for free. I did it for free because I was like, well, I don't know how to do this. Everybody's telling me I should be a coach. My stuff has taken off pretty well on. On social media. I'. Okay. And so I created a few digital products on Gum Road. And I was like, well, nobody's going to buy this, but I sold $6,000 worth and I was like, oh, over, like three weeks, I'm like, wait, this is. This is weird. And so then I was like, well, I. I'm reading about coaching this, and I don't know which person it was. That. That. Okay, I read it. But it was like, you need to constantly be building out this content that's not related to your personal time. Yes.

Right.

And then, like, volunteering to coach people for free. I picked three people that had interacted with me a lot, and I just said, hey, I'm trying to figure this out. I. I want to start. The key is action, the starting. And so I started this coaching one guy. I fit well. I shouldn't say I failed miserably, but I failed at thinking I could help him.

Okay.

When what he needed was a cfo. And so I introduced him to us.

Yeah, you helped him. Pointed him towards the cfo.

I can't. Yeah, I can't. I can't fix this problem for you.

Yeah, yeah.

And the other couple of people, it was great. One of which I still talk to almost daily and on X. So. But as I started to do that, I realized that, okay, I got to figure out some additional methods to. To build it and to where I'm not stuck with this. And because my time is. My time's all over the place too. And like I said, normal.

When you start a business.

Yeah.

That your. Your time is just going to be.

It's crazy.

It gone. But that's okay. You.

You can't lose.

That's okay for a little while.

And you. And I would encourage you to continue to remind me of this over time as I built this business.

Yeah, of course.

I'm in it. Like, in it. Like after dinner, I'm coming back. I come back up to my office and work for another two, three hours on this. You know, it's like, I feel like it's, you know, 15 years ago or whatever. I'm just kidding. You know, it's great, exciting, and I love it.

Yeah. Yeah.

But you.

Right.

You can't get. But. But I have.

But the difference between this and every other business is that most other businesses don't give you the Superman effect on like day three. Every other business, you're grinding it out. But with consulting, as soon as you hang your shingle and you get out there, it often happens with the first customer and is a trap. Super addictive. Like, you got to be really careful that you don't optimize for that unless you don't need the money, you don't need the Business to be financially successful. And you're willing to say, okay, look, I'm only going to do this 10 hours a week, and every one of those 10 hours is going to result in Superman. And that's how I'm being paid. So. And if that's the case for any of you out there, great. Amazing.

Yeah, you win.

Right. But yeah, be at least be eyes wide open about it because that's the difference with a consulting business. Is that Superman effect?

Yeah, it's a good point.

Yeah. And it's.

I know.

It's like, I mean, it's like crack, man. Addictive. Yeah. Thing. Yes.

Well, I'm, I'm a, you know, definitely. I hunt dopamine all day long. Same that I'm totally searching for.

When somebody tells me you're amazing. You did all. It's like, oh, that's why I.

That's why. Yeah, that's why on. If you go, go on my account at X, I'm always shocked. I've posted, posted and replied 25,000 times.

Yeah, exactly.

That's why. Because you're people please.

You want to get positive reinforcement.

Yeah, of course. Of course.

Yeah. And so you're a people pleaser. And the, the most important person to please is Shannon Jean.

Of course. That's why I do this show. We talk about it all the time. I know. I learned the most. I do it. Yeah. I always joke around. I'm like, I was, you know, I'm a very selfish person. They're like, no, that's not true. You're giving all this stuff for everybody else. I'm like, no, no. I do that to make myself feel good.

Yes.

I'm chasing purpose. I want purpose in my life.

Yeah. The word selfish, it gets a bad rap. It's not, it's not. It's not a bad thing to be selfish. Yeah. I mean, because it's. It's humanity. We. We are all selfish.

Yes, that's right.

Yes.

No, that's good. I'm glad you pointed it out. I'm glad we had the discussion. I feel like, you know, I'm just at the beginning of this.

You are only.

I've only been monetizing it for six months.

Right.

And I'm. I have a coach. I have a branding coach that I work with every week that helps me.

Yeah.

And he, he reviews the recordings of my coaching and everything else tells me, tells me, you know, hey, this is. This. You should try it. This, do this, do this. Really very helpful.

Amazing. That's great.

Yeah, it's super valuable. But there's a long Runway here to. To figure all this out. Oh, yes. To see where we wind up. It'll be interesting, but it's good because I didn't have anything else going on.

Right. No, I know. You had the opportunity. You had the time. There's nothing. I'm not here to be like, oh, yeah, no, no warning.

Warning. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no.

It's very valuable to have that discussion, though, to break down, and I appreciate that, and I wish that for everyone that's listening. You know, if. If you want us to dissect a business idea or to talk about pitfalls feedback at businessbrain show, we are here. Talk to us.

We would love. I would love to do this for somebody other than Shannon.

Yeah, absolutely. And. Come on. And yeah, we have a couple of guests lined up over the next month or so that we're going to dive into their business. But, you know, if you want to be a guest and talk about your company or what you're doing, reach out.

Let's do business.

We'll do it for three weeks, man.

It's part of the deal.

Talk to us.

Yeah. Until Shannon tries to convince you to join his consulting.

But I don't know.

He won't. I know you don't. I know. No, that was a joke, and I'm glad you pointed that out. Yes. No, it's.

You can't sell. They have to ask. Yes, it's better that way.

Yeah, yeah, but.

It's better that way.

But come on the show and we'll do it for free. It's like. It's what we do. Yeah.

Yeah, we do.

Yep.

Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you pointing that stuff out.

Yeah, man. No, it's a good conversation to have. I figured our listeners would benefit from it, too. Thanks for hanging out with us, everybody. Keep living that charmed life, and we'll see you next week.

Have a great weekend.