When I first started helping people package their corporate expertise into consulting services, I noticed some recurring muddiness in new consultants’ minds:

• I like the variety of my inbound leads — do I really need to specialize?
• I don’t have a set service that I sell, but maybe I don’t need one?

These map to two distinct questions:

• Should I be a generalist or a specialist?
• Should I sell productized or customized services?

In my own research, it was easy to find plenty of resources for each of those questions individually...

...but it seemed to me that they should be considered together.

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So I put this 2x2 together in the early weeks of The Lightbulb (about a 95% chance you weren’t here yet 😊 )

You can read the details of the framework here, but what I’ll call out today is that within a matter of days, my consultation bookings ramped up, and more often than not, the conversation would start with some version of:

“I’m stuck in the spaghetti-thrower corner and think I need to get out of it.”

It surprised me how resonant and sticky a simple framework could be, even as someone who used to build frameworks for a living.

It’s as if their minds had been swirling with a huge knot of tangled questions, and if nothing else, that matrix gave them the common language to raise their hand and open a conversation rather than struggling alone.

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When you think about the common points of confusion or struggle in your domain...

...how might you share the terms that you use to describe those topics that would create this type of self-identification and stickiness?

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Common language is inviting, powerful, and contagious.

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💡

-Wes

P.S. Are you still throwing spaghetti at the wall?

April slots for my 1:1 NicheFinder Sprint will open next week.

The last available sprint at intro pricing runs March 17-21, with a month of direct coaching access following.

Details here, and hit reply with any questions!