As a consultant, you’re in the “ideas” business. But in a strange way.

This doesn’t mean you open up a figurative store and sell your ideas a la carte. (Though you could try.)

Rather, your ideas are your free samples.

And your buyable product is your brilliance in applying those ideas to your customer's context.

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But if ideas are your samples, LinkedIn and the expertise economy at large are like the world’s biggest Costco.

How do you stand out when thousands of others are bombarding your customers with free samples as well?

This is when you have to:

1) focus on connecting deeply with just a small subset of the people walking through the store (find your niche)

2) package up your ideas into a unique form that’s relevant, actionable, and digestible for that subset (develop your IP)

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And remember, you don’t need them to load up their cart right away...

You just want them to come back to your stand and ask for seconds.

💡

-Wes

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P.S. Are you based in the Bay Area? I'll be speaking at a free, in-person networking event for fractional consultants (and founders looking to hire them!) as part of a16z's TechWeek on October 9th in San Francisco.

Come say hello! Learn more and RSVP here.

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