A practical way to decide what to work on first, when everything on your list has a real claim on your time:
Elizabeth Greenfield described feeling scattered — content, speaking development, client work, all legitimate, all competing for the same hour. Then she named the question she returns to.
Her words: "I try to get centered and ask myself like what step today is actually going to help me serve more women one-on-one."
Some days the answer is a business-development task. Some days it's serving a current client better. The question doesn't choose for you... it makes the priority visible.
And it only works when you're clear on who you serve and how. Without that, every option feels equal, so you spread yourself across all of them and end the day busy and behind.
Write down your version of that question, tailored to your practice. Then answer it before you open your task list tomorrow.
Want to hear how Elizabeth put it? Link in the first comment.
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #Solopreneur #Positioning …more
Going Independent
Work by Michael Ashley · Everyone on Going Independent
Saeed Amidi's one filter for founders: what's your Plan B? A good one, he passes. Coaches and consultants still half-in on your practice... half-in is a strategy for half-results. Hear him: https://inspiringfounders.com …more
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Told 2 times, Sep 30, 2026 – Oct 9, 2026
· X · Open
The one decision that moved Elizabeth Greenfield's practice more than any funnel: going all-in. Half-in is a half-result. She names the hinge moment herself... worth a watch: https://youtu.be/vXDMfaJVcNQ
A question worth answering before you touch your copy again: is your data even real?
I spent weeks rewriting my homepage. Changed the headline, changed it back, moved things around, sure the words were the problem. I kept treating the copy as the thing that wasn't working.
Then I found it. My own browsing was being counted as real traffic. The reports were telling me people were showing up, when a lot of "them" was just me. The signal was corrupted before I ever read it, and I wasn't getting enough genuine human visitors to draw any conclusion from the copy in the first place.
I used Claude in Chrome to get Google Analytics configured properly and my reports set up right. After that I could finally see where people actually came from, what they did on the site, and which campaigns were working.
The reframe I landed on: the first question worth asking isn't "is my copy working?" It's "is my data real?"
I'd been working hard on the wrong problem the whole time... and working hard on the wrong problem just gets you busier. I watch coaches and consultants do the exact same thing to their own businesses.
What's a number on your own site you've been trusting that you've never actually checked?
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #Solopreneur #ThoughtLeadership …more
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Is getting visible actually worth the effort, or just more noise?
A practitioner I work with 1:1 asked me a version of that before we started. Brilliant at her craft, mission-driven, the kind of person you'd want in your corner. And almost invisible to the market she wanted to serve.
It looked like a visibility problem. It was really a clarity problem. So we didn't start with tactics. We started with her voice and her offer: who she serves, what she actually helps them do, and how to say it in plain words. Once that was clear, consistency did the rest — showing up, in her own voice, again and again.
The change was real. More of the right people found her, and they engaged, because the work was finally legible. Yours won't look identical. The clarity is what travels, not the numbers.
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #Positioning #GoingIndependent #CustomerDiscovery …more
Told 6 times, Jul 22, 2026 – Oct 8, 2026
· LinkedIn · Open
When the clients aren't coming yet, the first move is almost always cosmetic. A new logo. A cleaner website. Fresh business cards. I did the same thing early on... convinced the next redesign was the one that would finally land it.
It almost never is. A website is where your positioning becomes visible to the market, and that's the real work it's quietly doing. When a first site falls flat, it usually isn't the design. It's that the message underneath is still fuzzy, you can't yet say in one plain sentence what you do and who it's for, so even a lovely site ends up saying it lovely and vague.
Get the words right first and the site gets easy... it nearly builds itself once you know what it's supposed to say. That's the part worth slowing down for.
If that's the part you keep circling, book a free 30 minutes with me and ask me anything about your positioning. Link's in the first comment.
How would you explain what you do, in one sentence?
#Positioning #IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoToMarket #Solopreneur
· LinkedIn · Open
Why isn't your marketing working?
Before you rewrite the copy again or try another channel, consider that marketing is usually the symptom, not the problem.
When posts don't land and outreach goes quiet, the instinct is to fix the marketing — new hook, new platform, more volume. But if the market can't quickly say who you help and why you, no amount of activity rescues that. Unclear positioning shows up as weak marketing.
I see this with coaches and consultants who are brilliant at the work. The message feels fuzzy, so every campaign has to work twice as hard. Sharpen who you're for, and the marketing gets easier, because now there's something clear to say.
If your marketing feels like a grind, book 30 minutes with me and we'll find the real bottleneck. No pitch, just a clearer read on what's actually stuck: https://calendly.com/foclarity/30min
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #Positioning #GoToMarket
· LinkedIn · Open
When a coach or consultant tells me their marketing isn't working, the marketing is almost never the problem.
I hear it weekly. "I'm posting. I'm networking. I redid the website. Nothing's landing." The instinct is to fix the visible thing — better content, a new funnel, more activity. But activity was never the issue.
Here's the pattern I've seen across 25 years of building companies and advising businesses. Weak results almost always trace to something upstream. Fuzzy positioning, so you can't say what you do and who it's for in one sentence that lands. Thin customer understanding, so you describe your work in your words instead of your client's. No focus, so you speak to everyone and reach no one.
Marketing amplifies whatever you feed it. Feed it a blurry message and you get blurry results, faster.
Try this test. Describe what you do to a stranger in one sentence. If their next question is "so, what do you actually do?" then you don't have a marketing problem. You have a positioning problem. More posting won't fix that. It just makes the confusion more visible.
The good news: positioning is fixable, and usually fixable fast. It's one clear decision about who you serve and what changes for them, made with real customer evidence instead of guesses. Once that decision is sharp, the same marketing effort starts working, because it finally has something clear to carry.
So a question worth sitting with: if I asked your last three clients what you do, would their answers match each other? And would they match yours?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #Positioning #Messaging
· X · Open
"I just need more marketing" rarely fixes a feast-or-famine pipeline. Revenue and followers are downstream... they look fine right up until they don't. The root is usually positioning or a misaligned offer. I dig into it here: https://youtu.be/bb9n-CnDGVA
· X · Open
Funnels, platforms, strategy... not first. Elizabeth Greenfield's advice for going independent: get clear on your message. You can't market what you can't articulate. More: https://mashley.com
I keep having the same conversation.
Someone who's genuinely great at what they do, and brand new to getting seen for it. That's the part nobody ever taught them.
So, an offer. Give me 30 minutes. Bring the idea you keep circling, the positioning you can't quite put into words, the page you've rewritten four times. I'll listen, tell you honestly what I think, and hand you a quick win or two and a few ideas for where to start.
It isn't a scripted discovery call, and it isn't a pitch. Think of it as a feel for what working together is actually like.
I've spent 25 years building things and figuring out the next step, mostly by learning the expensive lessons myself. Happy to save you a few of them.
Grab 30 minutes... the link is in the first comment.
Before you do, tell me: what's the one thing you'd want a second opinion on?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #Solopreneur #GoingIndependent #PersonalBrand …more
Told 2 times, Oct 1, 2026 – Oct 5, 2026
· LinkedIn · Open
Here's a simple way to pressure-test an idea before you pour months into it: say it out loud to someone who's built things and has no reason to flatter you.
Not a friend who'll nod along. Not a prospect you're trying to win. Someone who'll tell you the truth about where the idea holds up... and where it doesn't.
Most coaches and consultants I talk to don't need more encouragement. They're brilliant at the work. What's missing is an honest read from outside their own head, before the sunk cost makes it hard to change course.
So, plainly: bring me whatever you're working on and I'll give you my honest feedback. No pitch, no discovery interrogation... just 30 minutes on your actual business.
If you've been circling the same question for weeks, that's exactly the thing to bring. Link in the first comment.
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #GoingIndependent
Most coaches and consultants I talk to think visibility comes in two flavors, and they hate both.
Flavor one: stay invisible. Do great work, keep your head down, hope the right clients somehow trip over you.
Flavor two: become a "LinkedIn person." Hot takes, humble-brags, a carousel about your morning routine, everything engineered for reach. For a mission-driven practitioner, that's the nightmare. It feels like performing a version of yourself you don't even like.
So they pick invisible. Because if those are the only two options, invisible at least feels honest.
Here's the thing though. That's a false choice.
There's a third option, and it's the one that actually earns trust: a body of work. Not reach-chasing. Not a highlight reel. Just your real thinking, shared consistently, so people can see how you decide before they ever reach out.
And you already produce this thinking. Every week you're diagnosing a client's real problem, talking someone off a bad decision, spotting the pattern they couldn't see. That's not content you have to manufacture. It's work you're already doing in private. Making it visible isn't performing — it's letting the right people watch how you think.
Performative posting optimizes for who's watching this week. A body of work is evidence that accumulates. Buyers don't trust claims. They trust judgment they can see demonstrated over time.
You don't have to choose between hiding and turning into someone you'd mute.
So I'm curious. What holds you back more — not knowing what to say, or not wanting to sound like a "LinkedIn person"?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoingIndependent #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership …more
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Watch it on the channel.
Told 4 times, Jun 24, 2026 – Oct 4, 2026
· LinkedIn · Open
Why founder-led content isn't marketing.
At least not primarily.
For consultants, advisors, founders, coaches, and experts, founder-led content serves a different purpose.
It's reputation.
Every post is a tiny piece of evidence about how you think.
Your judgment.
Your experience.
Your perspective.
One post rarely matters.
But hundreds do.
Over time, people begin to recognize your name.
They understand your philosophy.
They trust your approach.
By the time they reach out, they've often already decided you're someone worth talking to.
That's not marketing.
That's reputation compounding in public.
The strongest founder-led content isn't trying to go viral.
It's helping the right people understand how you think.
· LinkedIn · Open
Most coaches and consultants I work with hate self-promotion. Good news: what actually builds a practice is something else entirely.
Self-promotion means making claims about yourself. I'm great, hire me. Nobody wants to write that, and nobody wants to read it. A reputation gets built on evidence instead — showing your thinking in public, consistently, until people can see how you work before they ever talk to you.
One is bragging. The other is teaching.
When you share how you'd approach a problem, what a client situation taught you, or the question you'd ask before a big decision, you're demonstrating judgment. The reader draws their own conclusion, which was always the only conclusion that mattered. People trust a pattern they've watched form far more than any claim.
So "I'm uncomfortable promoting myself" doesn't have to hold your practice back. The real assignment is visibility, and visibility runs on teaching, which you already do every day. If you can explain something to a client across the table, you can explain it in a post. Same act, bigger room.
The discomfort is real. I've watched dozens of brilliant people wrestle with it. Notice what it's usually attached to, though: a picture of marketing as boasting. Replace the picture, and the rest gets easier. Evidence, shared consistently, in your own voice.
What's one thing you explained to a client this week that would have been worth sharing with a hundred more people just like them?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership
· LinkedIn · Open
Here's a way to start showing up when self-promotion feels like it's "not who I am."
Share one thing you already know. Then do it again next week. That's it... no big budget, no perfect plan required.
Most of the coaches and consultants I talk to aren't short on ability. They're brilliant at the work. That "who am I to post?" feeling might be less about whether you're good enough, and more about the title you set down when you went out on your own... the org that vouched for you, the name that said "she's the expert" before she walked in the room. Losing that stings. It isn't proof you're not ready.
Getting seen isn't bragging... it's just sharing what you know, consistently, until there's a body of work behind you. Evidence instead of claims.
I got into all of this on a recent podcast, worth a listen if you're wrestling with it. Link in the first comment.
So what's actually holding you back from posting?
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #GoingIndependent #ThoughtLeadership #PersonalBrand
Your credentials aren't what win the client. They help. They're just not the thing that tips the decision.
I learned this slowly, against my own instincts. My brain always wants to go to the facts and the data... and I miss the story completely. Every single time.
Nobody buys an outcome in the abstract. People buy themselves into a story they can see themselves in. A prospect doesn't need your framework first... they need to meet someone who started right where they're standing now.
The method is simpler than it sounds: ask a real client, with their permission, where they were when you started, what changed in the middle, and where they landed. Capture it in their own words. That's the most useful marketing you'll ever do.
Your data earns the trust. Their story is what gets someone to reach out.
If you want help finding and shaping that story, grab 30 minutes with me... link in the first comment.
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #Solopreneur #Messaging #PersonalBrand …more
How to keep your practice from stalling: get as good at winning clients as you are at the work. Being brilliant in the room won't make payroll on its own... took me years to learn that. Full conversation: https://youtu.be/bb9n-CnDGVA …more
There are millions of people who don't want to build companies with hundreds of employees.
They want to build a great business around something they're exceptionally good at.
They want to coach. Consult. Practice. Create. Build. Teach.
They want to own their work, their time, and ultimately more of their lives.
But there's a catch.
The moment you become independent, you inherit all the responsibilities that used to belong to an organization.
You don't just have to be great at your craft.
You have to build a brand. Find an audience. Create demand. Write. Design. Make videos. Understand social media. Learn new software. Develop a strategy. Execute it consistently. Figure out what's working. Then wake up tomorrow and do it all again.
A large company solves this with people.
It has strategists, marketers, copywriters, designers, video producers, social media managers, analysts, agencies, and software.
The independent person has one... you.
Radi8 exists for the independent! For you!!
Radi8 changes the economics of what one person can accomplish.
For the first time, an individual can have access to capabilities that once required an organization. Yes, there's ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Muse, etc...
But access to ChatGPT and Claude isn't enough. AI alone won't solve your problem.
Most people don't want to become prompt engineers. They don't want to stitch together fifteen AI tools. And they aren't dreaming of becoming content creators.
They want to do the thing they're great at... and build a successful independent business around it!
That's why I built Radi8.
Radi8 takes the capabilities that once required a marketing organization and puts them behind the individual.
It learns who you are, what you believe, what you're building, who you're trying to reach, and what you're trying to accomplish.
Then it helps develop the strategy and increasingly does the work required to execute it. Do it together, or let Radi8 run with it, you decide.
Radi8 doesn't turn you into a marketer. It's not going to turn you into a famous content creator.
It helps you share your expertise with the people who need to know about you.
I believe AI can fundamentally change the relationship between individuals and organizations.
A person shouldn't need a company behind them to have the capabilities of a company behind them.
That's the future I'm building toward.
Independence. Freedom. …more
"I didn't know how to run a business."
Liz Greenfield, after 25 years as a nurse, in her first stretch out on her own.
She's honest on this episode about all of it. The morning she rolled out of bed and realized the paycheck had stopped. Undervaluing herself. A speaking coach telling her, point blank, that she wasn't ready.
None of that is a nursing problem. It's the half nobody teaches you inside an organization.
Watch the episode:
https://youtu.be/vXDMfaJVcNQ
Like it, comment, subscribe... it genuinely helps the show reach the next person who needs to hear it. All episodes at inspiringfounders.com
#IndependentConsultant #GoingIndependent #Positioning #CoachingBusiness …more
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"I can't work here anymore!!"
That's the moment Liz Greenfield knew.
25 years as a nurse. Fifteen of them as a nurse anesthetist. A job she genuinely loved.
She was running marathons, working 24-hour shifts, raising two small kids... and her own health was falling apart. Every lab came back normal.
The answer never came from the system she worked inside. It came from a chiropractor who took a different approach, and who told her she already had the credentials to do this work herself.
So she left, and built her own functional medicine practice.
Full conversation is up now:
https://youtu.be/vXDMfaJVcNQ
Watch it, like it, and leave Liz a comment. Subscribe to the Inspiring Founders channel while you're there. Every episode lives at inspiringfounders.com
#GoingIndependent #IndependentConsultant #Coaching #InspiringFounders …more
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What did nobody teach you about going out on your own? For most it's winning clients. I got that wrong for years too, across four exits, one as a founder, three as an advisor. Book 30 free minutes, bring one question, get honest feedback: https://calendly.com/foclarity/30min …more
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