Thinking About Becoming a Business Consultant? Watch This First.

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thanks so much, Cory, for joining us today.

Cory Mosley:
Thank you for having me. Always having to be with my ASBN family.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There you go. So, so many people don’t realize, and I know we talked before, but they could be sitting on a tremendous revenue stream if they just consider jumping in or sticking their foot in the waters of consulting, right? Some people think, “Well, I’m not a consultant.” But at the end of the day, they may very well be a consultant if they’re helping others to build their business and people are coming to them and saying, “Hey, how did you get to where you are?” Right? Everybody wants that good content.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, talk to us a little about that. I know you’ve been out there for almost 20 years consulting and doing a great job and there’s probably a lot of people look at you and, “I want to do what you’re doing.” Right?

Cory Mosley:
Yes. Yeah. I would say a couple things. Number one, when we think about expertise, that’s what it’s about. Consulting is ultimately about bringing expertise to the table. So, that can be baking cookies. That can be creating strategies that create billion dollar companies. So, I think where you have a lot of business owners right now, let’s talk about the business owners first and then we’ll talk about professionals that have left the market. But when you look at business owners first, you have people looking to get more revenue And create more revenue, whether streams, or do more from what they have now.

Cory Mosley:
A lot of times the juice is not worth the squeeze though. So, I’ll give you an example. A marketing agency, right? They’ve hit a certain ceiling in terms of where they’re getting to financially.

Cory Mosley:
Now the answer to growth might typically be, “Oh, I’ve got to hire more people. I’ve got to hire more sales people. We’ve got to be out there pitching more.” The juice might not be worth the squeeze there because your ROI on that might not make sense.

Cory Mosley:
However, let’s say I’m a million dollar agency right now. Well, could I start consulting with smaller agencies on showing them how to become a million dollar agency? There’s a whole new model there. All I have to do is look at what I’ve done, look at my framework, convert that expertise into a consulting product or service, and now I’ve created a revenue line without having to do heavy lifting. I didn’t have to buy another building. I didn’t have to hire 10 more people. So, these are some of the creative ways that real entrepreneurs out there are you utilizing consulting and the consulting opportunities that are being created today—

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And to your point, it might be a million dollar agency and you as an agency owner think, “Well, I’m not impressed with the million dollars. There’s a lot more to be had here. What’s going to make me the specialist?” But you brought up the point, but there might be somebody out there that either A, wants to get into it all together, or B, has a small one man band and they’re doing $100,000 a year or $200,000 grand a year and they’d love to be at a million dollars.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And that’s that person that’s there now says, “Me? I can teach somebody something. There’s revenue there.” There are people, and I agree with you, that are willing to pay thousands of dollars for that knowledge to say, “How did you get to the million?” Forget the 50 million or 100 million. I just want to get to the next plateau that you’re currently at.

Cory Mosley:
I tell you, often the analogy that I use when I talk to someone, particularly if they’re considering joining a coaching program or working with me, is I will say to them very simply, just imagine you were in New York and you were taking a trip to California. You’re getting ready to take a road trip. And before you started on that journey, you bumped into someone that said, “Oh, you know what? I just took that trip. Hey, don’t go down this road, go here. Skip this town. Eat at this restaurant.”

Cory Mosley:
That would be advantageous to you. And a lot of times, that’s all it takes. Fundamentally, when you think about consulting, you simply need to know a little bit more than the person that you are working with.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s all it is.

Cory Mosley:
It’s actually that simple.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Knowledge is power, as they say.

Cory Mosley:
Right. And having that expertise that you can monetize is obviously going to be the next step.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, where you come in, and I know that there’s people listening right now that say, “Well, that sounds great, Cory, but I don’t know how to be a coach, or I don’t know how to be somebody that can get out there as a consultant and consult with others in my industry. Or even though that are out of my industry that want to get into my industry, I don’t consider myself a consultant.” Is that where you come in? Is that where you can come in and work with those people to build their consulting business?

Cory Mosley:
Well, one of the things that we looked at was we looked at how much expertise and how much opportunity there was in the market. And we realized that there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity, whether that’s people that have converted to work from home, the great resignation, people that are leaving. But those people that are leaving, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on not being able to get entry level skilled workers back to work, but the great resignation is not about those people.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No, no, it’s not.

Cory Mosley:
It’s ultimately about high skilled workers. That’s right. So, a guy who’s an expert in safety, a woman who’s an expert in social media. Leaving their higher paying jobs or leaving their corporate situations and now wanting to monetize that. What I realize though, is just because you have a skill, that doesn’t mean you’re good at business.

Cory Mosley:
So, we’ve actually created a program called the BOC, the Business Of Consulting. And it’s a six week accelerator where we walk professionals with expertise that can be monetized through a process over that six weeks to really go from not having a business at all, to be in a position to take on their first customer.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, right. And some of the benefits from doing this, it would seem to me, is that you, at the same time when you jump into this consultancy situation, you also become an authority in your market. Just by the mere fact that you’re putting yourself out there to say, “Hey, I can consult with those other business people out there.” Whether you real estate agent or an ad agency, or a plumbing contractor, whatever it might be. There’s somebody out there that wants to do that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
But then you rise to that level of, “Oh, this person, this guy or girl really knows what they’re talking about. They’ve become a consultant on it.” And then it evolves into maybe writing some blogs on LinkedIn, or who knows. Maybe it’s a book that you put together and put out there, whatever. But then that helps your business to grow. Does it not?

Cory Mosley:
That’s right. One of the things I always say, it’s very simple. Professionals hire other professionals when they need help. I’ve never met a Fortune 500 CEO that said we grew sales by 13% by joining a free Facebook group. So, expertise is in high demand. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have the big firms like Kinsey, Boston Consulting, all these people that are reporting record revenues.

Cory Mosley:
Now you think about the big boys, you say, how can I get into that? Well, you simply have to understand how to monetize what you’ve got and making sure that you’re compensated properly for it. Because you have a lot of people out there that are starting in consulting or coaching and that type of thing that are busy, booked, and broke.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Busy, booked, and broke, right.

Cory Mosley:
They don’t have confidence in how they’re pricing. They don’t have a strategy on how they deliver their pricing and-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it.

Cory Mosley:
… Sales skills. We skip over that. We go, “I’m a great safety officer. I can go into an organization and make them improve productivity 10X.” Well, if you can’t sell that right, because it’s not just about, “Oh, here it is in bullet points.” You have to be able to sell that. So, combining those skills and that’s why we go through that over six weeks. We have to break down the fundamentals of understanding what this business is going to be, understanding who it’s for. How do you protect it? How do you get yourself in business and how do you price and package?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I think the cool part about this too, is being now that everybody is online virtually, whether they’re doing their work, they’re communicating with family and friends, whatever it might be. This also means that your consultancy business could grow very quickly nationwide.

Cory Mosley:
Absolutely.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, if somebody’s in, let’s say we happen to be in Atlanta, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that person you’re coaching or consulting is also in Atlanta. They could be in California. They could be in Detroit. They could be in New York. But they want to get into your field. Great. Hit Zoom. And guess what? You’re now doing your weekly or daily or whatever you decide is necessary in terms of the number of times that you’ve got to reach that person, which is now you’ve got the whole country that you’re …

Cory Mosley:
Right. And think about it in terms of value exchange, right? So, when we think about Zoom, some things are going to require you to be on sight, some things … But this is head not hands. So, we’re not talking about how to do demonstrations on jackhammering. That’s that doesn’t pay a lot.

Cory Mosley:
Solving big problems through your expertise will pay more. So, the beauty is you get to decide how to do that. We were talking before we came on camera. There’s a cool sculpting business out in Arizona, they’re one of the most successful at running their cool sculpting business. They wanted more revenue opportunity, but more revenue normally would’ve met opening more locations.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I was going to say, yeah.

Cory Mosley:
But they said, you know what? We’re very successful at what we’re doing. Why don’t we monetize that expertise by offering consulting and training and coaching to other cool sculpting businesses that are not as successful? They make an extra half a million dollars a year in their business From content they’ve recorded and consulting that they do.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And almost zero overhead.

Cory Mosley:
With zero overhead. No new staff. No new buildings need to go up. No buildouts, no 10 year leases.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No liability.

Cory Mosley:
No liabilities.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I’ve got a good friend of mine that was a cosmetic dentist and he put together a phenomenal practice. And he had so many people that were in the dental community, “How did you do that? How did you get to that level that you’re doing millions of dollars in cosmetic dentistry?” So, he put together this little group that he said, “Okay, every quarter we’re going to, if you want to get into the group.”

Cory Mosley:
Master Mind, that type of thing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Well, today it costs $100,000 a year to get into that group.

Cory Mosley:
Probably a waiting list.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There’s a waiting list because he only takes 20. So, he’s got basically $2 million a year coming in on his consultancy business.

Cory Mosley:
And they’re happy to pay it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. Because those individuals, those other dentists came in and said, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you could grow a business like this, being a dentist and the necessary things. Where to market, how to price, how to hire people, how to get referrals. The whole deal.” So, it was worth so much more to those dentists than $100,000. They’re going to go out and make $1 million that year.

Cory Mosley:
Right. And that confidence came, that boldness came from knowing the ROI that he was going to produce for people. And a lot of people missed that. A guy tells me, “I coach also, Cory.” I said, “What do you charge?” He said, “I charge $99 a session.” I said, you can’t be very good.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
No, no, that’s exactly right.

Cory Mosley:
Because that equation doesn’t match. The ROI has to be there. So, tremendous opportunity in that area.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We’re obviously in the publishing business here with a few different platforms and there was one of these platforms that we really looked up to, they had 100,000 subscribers all over North America. We use them as the mentor to say, “If we could only be this group right here one day with our different our different media outlets.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, I happened to call the guy, the owner. And I said, “Hey, do you do any consulting with other publishing companies? We’re kind of what you are in the small business and automotive sectors.” And he said, “I actually do.” And I said, “Oh, that’s fantastic. What would be the next steps?” He said, “Here’s the starter. I charge $2,000 an hour. Okay?”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I said, “Wow, okay, $2,000 an hour.” He said, “I want you to write down before we meet in that hour, every single question you have that you think I can help you with and I will try to answer all those questions for your $2,000.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And I’m like, “Wow. Okay.” And do you know? That’s exactly what we did and the information we gathered from him was just incredibly valuable. So, much more than the two grand. Right. And he said, “If you want to do it again and fill in the blanks, or you’ve got some questions left over, or what have you know, we can do it again.” He said, it’s not my core business, obviously. But that is just because so many people have come to me and said, “Oh my gosh, we’ve got so many questions.” He said, “And that’s the way I work.”

Cory Mosley:
And you know why that is?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, he’s successful.

Cory Mosley:
No, no, no. But because professionals hire other professionals when they need help. They don’t nickel and dime it. You didn’t go, “You know what, what can I get for $500?” $2,000? Oh my goodness. What am I going to do? I can’t.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We focused on what we could make with that knowledge and not what it would cost us to get it. It was a no-brainer. And it was a phone conversation. He literally took a lunch hour and said, “Well, during this lunch hour, I’m going to make $2,000 and hopefully Jim and Bridget Fitzpatrick can benefit from my knowledge.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And we did. And there’s so many other people out there that are listening to Cory and I have this discussion that say, “Wow, I could do that.” There are other people that are, are looking for the information that you hold and it doesn’t mean have to be a Fortune 500 company CEO or sit a C-suite. It can mean that you maybe you’re cutting hair, maybe you are a real estate agent, maybe you’re an insurance agent. Maybe you are any kind of professional out there and think to yourself, “Who else would benefit from where I am?” And you’d be surprised as to how many people there are out there. And it just takes a little bit of marketing and promotion to put yourself out there to do that. I’m sure you probably go over that in your course, right?

Cory Mosley:
I do. And you know what? So much of this is free. I just had a meeting last week with a company valued at $31 billion and I’m pitching them to do some consulting work for them. $31 billion. How did I get them? I went to LinkedIn. I used a piece of software that gave me their email address. I had something of value to say in the message and I sent the message and I got a meeting.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow, that’s fantastic, yeah.

Cory Mosley:
Right. I didn’t need a billboard. I didn’t need a million dollar ad budget. I needed something of value and the gumption to go after that. Oh, this guy, $31 billion valuation, he’s not going to talk to me. Yes, he is. And yes he did.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. Congratulations on that. So, for people that are out there that you’re thinking, “Well, how am I going to grow my business?” And to Cory’s point, is it going to cost me thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that? Open up another location, get more desks, hire more people, spend more in marketing. The answer is it doesn’t have to be if you’d open up your mind a little bit and think of yourself as a consultant in the industry that you’re in. Doesn’t mean you got to do away with your own business. It just means you have to add to it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
I don’t care who you are. Everybody has a little extra time a day, and you have to look at that time and say, “What would this time be worth?” Whether it’s an hour, 45 minutes, an hour and a half, two hours a day, to say, “Wow, this is valuable time to another business owner in my field that would love to know how I overcome these objections or how I build my business.” To the point that you’re currently. So, there’s a lot of people that want to be you and Cory’s team and himself, he’ll help you get there. So, Cory Mosley, award-winning business growth expert and company principle of Mosley strategy group. Thank you so much for joining us.

Cory Mosley:
Always glad to be with you, Jim. Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We’re going to show all the information on the screen here for those of you that want to reach out to Cory. Great guy. And I can’t say enough. That’s why we love bringing them in here. So, thank you.

Cory Mosley:
Thanks, Jim.