Smart Gets Paid: Business Coaching for Women Consultants

Can you actually get paid for your experience instead of your labor? Jeanne Meyer, a corporate communications consultant who spent three decades in the field, says yes. She stopped acting like an agency, started saying no to the execution work she didn't want, and packaged her advice into offers priced on value. In this conversation with Leah Neaderthal, founder of Smart Gets Paid, Jeanne shares what changed and what became possible, and Leah closes with an exercise to start your own painkiller statement.
 
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APPLY TO THE ACADEMY
If you want to get paid for your experience instead of your labor, the painkiller statement and value-based pricing are two of the strategies Jeanne credits to The Academy.
 
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+, The Academy helps you build the two systems every consulting business needs:
→ A marketing system to keep the right clients coming in
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more
 
Learn more and apply: smartgetspaid.com/academy
 
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QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
Can I actually get paid for my experience instead of my labor?
How do I stop acting like an agency when I'm a solo consultant?
How do I package my consulting into offers priced on value instead of hours?
How do I say no to work I don't want to do without losing the relationship?
What is a painkiller statement, and where do I start?
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Jeanne went from getting paid for her labor, the hours, the deliverables, the execution, to getting paid for her experience: knowing what to do when the stakes are high.
She dropped the agency act and became a sole advisor, which made it possible to say no to execution work and refer it out through referral agreements.
She credits two Academy strategies for getting there: the painkiller statement and value-based pricing.
She prices projects individually on value instead of hours, and added an on-call option when clients said they wished they could have her on speed dial. She calls it early days, and in the first month it helped convert four clients she would have lost or never signed.
Try this: make two lists, the good things that happen for your client when they work with you, and the negative things they avoid because of you. That's the start of your painkiller statement.
 
CHAPTERS
0:00 Can you get paid for your experience instead of your labor?
4:46 Who is Jeanne Meyer, and what does she do?
6:28 What does burnout look like in corporate communications?
9:32 Is she a founder or an advisor?
12:32 Why would a 30-year veteran bet on herself with a program?
17:14 Why did she stop acting like an agency?
21:52 How did saying no and referral agreements change her business?
24:50 How do you package your advice into offers priced on value?
28:52 What happened the first month she offered it?
33:38 What almost stopped her from joining The Academy?
35:14 What happens to the "not the right time" conversations?
37:43 What advice does she have for women ready to make a change?
39:15 What should corporate communications consultants do first?
 
 
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GET ROADMAP TO CLIENTS
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal, so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity. Get the free video course: smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
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CONNECT WITH JEANNE MEYER
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meyerjeanne/
Website: https://authentic-intel.co/
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 
 
 

What does it take to build a business that can actually withstand real life? Kara van Stralen spent over a decade inside the rooms where big decisions get made, working on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and in a governor's office, before she started her own government affairs firm. That insider view of how decisions really happen became a real edge in her own sales process. But the bigger test came later, when her business had to prove it could hold up under real pressure, not just win clients, but actually support her family when life didn't go as planned. Kara van Stralen, founder of Vista Strategies, shares how she went from chaos to calm, and built something sturdy enough to catch her when she needed it most.
 
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When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
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CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

Marketing has changed for consultants. LinkedIn has changed. And if you feel like you're chasing a moving target, that's because you are. Jaclyn Sergeant, the Academy's Marketing and Pipeline Coach, joins Leah to break down what's actually working right now, including how LinkedIn's algorithm works today and why falling reach might be good news. They also share how the Academy rebuilt its entire marketing system to match this moment, and what that means for how you should be showing up today.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

Fractional work is exploding, with some estimates putting the number of self-described fractional executives well over 100,000. But there's a gap between what the label promises and what a lot of people offering it are actually delivering. In this episode, Leah breaks down what's genuinely good about the fractional model, the honest truths nobody tells you before you brand yourself that way, and the dirty little secret almost no one's saying out loud. Whether you're already calling yourself fractional or thinking about it, you'll walk away knowing what actually makes any engagement work, fractional or otherwise.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 
 

Almost every woman consultant is carrying something from a job she already left. Sometimes it's harmless. Sometimes it's the reason she won't publish, won't ask, won't say what she actually thinks where a client can see it. In this real coaching call, a client who'd stalled for months finds hers. Plus Leah's own version, and the three questions to ask when you catch yourself following a rule you never agreed to.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

You can be great at what you do, get results your clients rave about, and still not be the one deciding what you work on. That's most consulting businesses. Shanna Hocking spent 25 years in university fundraising before starting Hocking Leadership, and she went looking for help at the exact moment things were going well, because good wasn't the same as chosen. Here's what shifted, and what it made possible.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

Leah had spent over twenty years as a self-described personal development junkie, always reading, always learning, always reaching for the next book that would help her get better. But one day she sat down to work through a problem in her business and realized she couldn't hear herself think over the noise of everyone else's advice. So she did something drastic: she quit all of it, personal development and business books, cold turkey, for what turned into two years. In this episode, Leah shares what pushed her to walk away, and the unexpected things she found waiting on the other side.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 
 

Pricing head trash is sneaky. It doesn't care how long you've been in business, how much you've made, or how much mindset work you've done. In this episode, you're going behind the scenes into a real Academy group coaching call, where two experienced consultants are hitting the same wall in two very different ways. What you hear might sound uncomfortably familiar.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

You already know who you want to work with. You've known for a while. But saying it out loud, committing to it, building your whole business around it? That feels like a risk you're not sure you can take. Abby McAdams, founder of ASM Communications, felt the same way, and she did it anyway. Here's what happened when she did, and what it could look like for you too.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com
 

What do clients actually need right now? How are they making decisions? And what makes one consultant the obvious choice while another never hears back? April Uchitel, founder of The Board, sits on both sides of the table, working with clients and consultants alike, and in this conversation she's giving you the inside look. In this episode you'll hear how organizations are making decisions about outside help right now, what clients wish they could tell you but don't, and the one behavior that turns a first conversation into a client relationship that lasts.
 
—
When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are two ways I can help you.
 
1. Join The Academy
For women consultants who've been in business 2+ years and are making $120k+.
Build the two systems every consulting business needs to get more of the right clients, get paid more, and build a sustainable business: 
→ A marketing system to bring the right clients to you and fill your pipeline
→ A sales system to help clients say yes and get you paid more.
If you're ready to make your business and revenue more stable, secure, and sustainable, visit smartgetspaid.com/academy to learn more and apply.
 
2. Get Roadmap to Clients
Map out a simple sales process for your consulting business in less than an hour. Take potential clients smoothly from first contact to a signed proposal – so you can stop reinventing the wheel with every opportunity.
Get the free video course at smartgetspaid.com/roadmap
 
—
 
CONNECT WITH LEAH:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartgetspaid
Website: smartgetspaid.com
Email: team@smartgetspaid.com