Categories: Growing Revnue + Wealth, Niching

Link: https://rochellemoulton.com/soloist_podcast/pulling-out-of-a-revenue-nosedive-with-chris-ferdinandi/?utm_source=subscriber

What do you do when your consistently growing revenue suddenly takes a nosedive—and your peers are feeling it too? Soloist Chris Ferdinandi walks us through the experience and the experiments he conducted to start lifting himself out of it.

Why he built his business as a side hustle and didn’t go solo until he matched his corporate salary.

The financial and emotional hit of a 50% revenue drop—and how to experiment without morphing to panic.

What to do when you’re “too feral” to go back into Corporate: the experiments that failed and those that gave hope.

How selling to a 640-person email list outsold the results from a 14,000 list—by over 3X (hint: the new sale was in his genius zone).

Two moves to make when your revenue is tanking—and one surprising upside.

LINKS

Chris Ferdinandi ADHD Tips | Mastadon

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Chris helps people build a simpler, faster, more resilient web.

Early in his career, he felt like he couldn’t get anything done. Since then, he’s discovered a bunch of systems and strategies that let him turn his ADHD into a superpower. His ADHD tips newsletter is read by hundreds of developers each weekday.

He creates courses and workshops, publishes several daily newsletters, speaks at events, and has advised and written code for organizations like NASA, Apple, Harvard Business School, Chobani, and Adidas.

Chris loves pirates, puppies, and Pixar movies, and lives near horse farms in rural Massachusetts.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:20

Chris Ferdinandi: I also feel very positive about my ADHD. Much in the same way on your episode, the phrase like ruthless self-acceptance or there...

When you started your business, you probably imagined steady revenue growth under your original business model—only to discover that the only way to grow the way you want is by experimenting! Business Coach Jessica Lackey (a McKinsey and Nike alum) shares her year-by-year experience in crafting her ideal business model:

How she contracted for “bridge jobs” in Year 1 to ensure cash flow—and why she’d do it again.

Year 2: building a “whale” delivery model with enough whales so you’re not overly dependent on any one.

Why she pivoted from a 1-1 delivery model to group and membership options (and it wasn’t because she had a large email list).

The pros and cons of running multiple revenue models as you pivot vs. making a faster shift.

How building interchangeable assets allows you to leverage your authority faster.

LINKS

Jessica Lackey Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Jessica Lackey is a strategy and operations advisor who blends business strategy, practical application, and a human-centric approach to create sustainable businesses.

With a background in corporate leadership, McKinsey & Company consulting, and a Harvard Business degree, Jessica knows a thing or two about hustle culture and what it feels like to judge success by the bottom line…at all costs.

Now, she combines her deep experience in consulting, Fortune 500 operations leadership and coaching to help businesses grow without sacrificing the well-being of their clients, team, and community.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:19

Jessica Lackey: I had a social media team, but I actually dropped Instagram in 2023 and I stopped doing as much LinkedIn. And I really focused on those marketing platforms that took more time, but had a bigger result. So again, I write once a week, I guess teach once a month. And people are like, you do that for free? I'm like, well, yeah.

00:24 - 01:05

Rochelle Moulton: Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast, where we're all...

If this last year was NOT smooth sailing for your Soloist business finances, now is an ideal time to pave the way to better. There’s still time to avoid unpleasant surprises (think giant tax bills) and start streamlining your financial life before year-end:

The five strategic pieces of information you want in your hands before year-end.

How to think about your financial team (and why it’s worth investing in the right experts).

How a financial surprise made me completely shift how I managed my business cash flow.Why you want to build a cash reserve for your business and a resource to get you started.

LINKS

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Consultants + Money podcast episode on cash reserves (Erica Goode)

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:43

Rochelle Moulton: Think of it like a non-emergency emergency fund for your business. It's a way to smooth out the inevitable cash flow variations in our kinds of businesses. And once you fully fund a cash reserve, I can guarantee you will like the comfort and freedom that it provides. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton, and today I want to talk to you about getting your finances straight. It's late October as I'm recording this and it's the perfect time to get both strategic and tactical

00:43 - 01:18

Rochelle Moultob: as you pave the way for the year you want for your business and for your life. So let's start with the strategic. Okay, at this point in the year, you wanna have several things in the bag. 1, you want a reasonable idea of your current and projected financial position. That means how much revenue have you already closed and what's likely to hit before year end. Same thing with your expenses so you can get a feel for your bottom line year. It also means how much more can you tuck away in your taxed advantage solo 401k. Now

01:18 - 01:59

Rochelle Moultob: remember, you can make additional employer contributions above and beyond your salary deferrals. Don't have a solo 401k yet? Talk to your financial advisor or your CPA about the best options for you. Contributing consistently to your 401k is a baller move, especially for soloists since we don't have anyone funding our future life but ourselves. 2, take this understanding and

When you’re in the midst of an overwhelming business challenge—your revenue plummets, your audience dries up, you can’t seem to make a sale—what do you do?

Award-winning author and podcaster Jenny Blake takes us through the messy middle, sharing her story of challenge, resilience and percolating without yet knowing the answer:

Why her first reaction to a pandemic-induced 80% revenue drop was “I wrote a book called Pivot—I’ve got this.”

How that reaction turned to “I couldn’t fake it anymore—I couldn’t pretend anymore. I didn’t have any hope left…” when she lost a six-figure client.

Channeling her angst and uncertainty into a popular (paid) substack as she semi-publicly worked through what to do next.

The health scare that made her dramatically change how she was working.

The glimmers of her next chapter—how they appeared and how she thoughtfully nurtures them.

LINKS

Jenny Blake Substack | Free Time | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Jenny is an author and podcaster who runs a Delightfully Tiny media company. She is the author of three award-winning books, including Free Time (Ideapress, 2022) and Pivot (Penguin/Random House, 2016). She hosts two podcasts with over two million downloads combined: the Webby-nominated Free Time for Heart-Based Business owners, and Pivot with Jenny Blake for navigating change.

On her Substack Rolling in Doh, she shares personal essays about the messier parts of running a small business.

She lives in New York City with her husband and her angel-in-fur-coat German shepherd Ryder.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:30

Jenny Blake: I have no judgment about anybody working at a job, but I get sick with that kind of work schedule or the meetings and calls. It drains me of all life, all the creative juice I have. It's just not the format. I've known that about...

Being a podcast guest pays some excellent dividends: introducing you to new audiences, practice delivering your point of view and honing your message for starters. But how do you get yourself booked?

The qualities that will make you a solid, bookable podcast guest.

The 5-step system to get consistent results to your podcast guesting requests.

The one thing you must have before pitching yourself to a single podcast.

Why smaller, niche podcasts may be ideal, especially when first starting to guest.

How to craft your pitch—and the 3 paragraph format to improve your chances of a YES.

LINKS

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:42

Rochelle Moulton: The best pitches are short, impactful, and do not make the host do any work to say yes, because the second you require them to do work, your chances of a yes drop dramatically. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Molten and today I want to talk about getting yourself booked on podcasts. Now, maybe it's because I've seen some of the most god-awful pitches in the 7 plus years I've been hosting podcasts. I so don't want you to write pitches like those. But it's

00:42 - 01:23

Rochelle Moulton: really because I believe in the merits of guesting on podcasts, even when, maybe especially when, you're not hosting a show of your own. Being a solid podcast guest pays all sorts of dividends in terms of introducing you to new audiences, filled with potential clients and buyers. You also get to practice delivering your point of view and honing your message, becoming a better communicator of your message in the process. Now, what do I mean by being a solid podcast guest? Well, you like to be interviewed and have a conversation. You have some compelling stories to share and

01:23 - 02:04

Rochelle Moulton: you have something valuable to teach. If all you're trying to do is sell your services or products and you genuinely don't like to be interviewed or share stories or teach something valuable, podcast guesting is not a good strategy for you. But if you wanna do more guesting, it helps to create a very simple system, 1 that you can partially outsource if you like to get consistent results. And think of it as 5 steps. So number 1, decide why you want to be on podcasts. Number 2, Research

You’ve heard the hype about AI, but how can you tactically and strategically use it to manage and grow your Soloist business? Global AI consultant Heidi Araya—who says “experts should be experts, not task-jugglers”—gets highly specific on how we can best use AI right now:

Why your most productive use of AI starts with where friction currently lies in your business.

Saving time: buying or building AI assistants for the time-intensive tasks typical with knowledge work.

Creating a “librarian” to answer questions from your existing content—internally, externally (with or without monetizing).

Protecting your proprietary content from being used to train large learning models (LLMs).

Strategic use cases that may surprise you (and replace the thousands of dollars you might otherwise spend to uncover this data).

LINKS

Heidi Araya Website | LinkedIn

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Heidi Araya is a global consultant, keynote speaker, and patented inventor who has dedicated her decades-long career to driving multimillion-dollar business improvements using a people-first approach.

Fueled by a desire to continuously learn and push boundaries, Heidi pivoted from leading large scale change initiatives inside organizations and has embarked on her third career, first upskilling in AI and then starting her own AI Agency. Leveraging her deep expertise in business operations, coaching, and change management, she now empowers solopreneurs, startups, and small businesses to unlock their full potential in the AI era.

Heidi's passion lies in bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI technology and practical applications for small businesses. She doesn't just talk AI, she implements it. Her people-centric approach focuses on AI enablement, AI automation, and productivity coaching, allowing smaller businesses to compete with larger corporations.

When she's not empowering businesses with AI, she enjoys raising butterflies, tackling home improvement projects, and staying active.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:18

Heidi Araya: I had 1 creative agency who their clients were asking for competitor insights. So it could go out and actually look for the competitors on the internet and...

This episode is inspired by a listener question that I’ve been hearing a lot lately: how can you pull yourself out of a slump? And does a prolonged slump mean you’re not cut out to be a Soloist?

The gift (and the hidden cost) of a great first year as a Soloist.

Why hitting the wall—where your revenue tanks or plateaus—happens, especially with new-ish Soloists.

When it’s time to invest in positioning yourself appropriately and developing a sales system to consistently fill your pipeline.

One simple action to ensure you’re ready to turn around a difficult revenue situation.

Why it’s never too late to niche down—and how to do it without wasting months getting it right.

LINKS

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:45

Rochelle Moulton: If you haven't honed your messaging to focus on your ideal clients and buyers, and you haven't built a recurring system to find, nurture, and close those people, eventually you'll hit that wall. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton. And today I want to share a listener question about pulling yourself out of a slump because I've been hearing variations on this lately and it's worth addressing. So this particular question goes like this. I'm feeling stuck in my business and I just don't know what

00:45 - 01:21

Rochelle Moulton: to do next. In the past, I hit over $100, 000 in revenue easily. And 2 years ago, I broke $200, 000 for the first time and I was thrilled. The last year though, has been pretty miserable. I just barely hit $100, 000 in 2023 and I won't in 2024 unless something changes dramatically. Is this a sign I need to go get a job or is this fixable? Okay, so let's call this person Chris because they didn't want to identify themselves in the show. Chris and I tossed a few emails back and forth, and this is what

01:21 - 01:57

Rochelle Moulton: else I learned that I think is important to talk about what to do next. 1, Chris is a B2B consultant with a respectable level of expertise, about 8 years in their specialty. 2, if we were to look at Chris's website and social media, we'd see they focus more on talking about their expertise versus identifying their ideal client and the specific problems they solve. 3, Chris has been in business for almost 4 years and they need about $100, 000 in...

Does your brain seem to work differently than those around you—maybe you even went solo so you could operate at your best? Coach (and former psychotherapist) Diann Wingert shares her experience advising the neurodiverse:

Neurodiversity—what it is, why it’s a spectrum and how experts look at it today (hint: don’t think of it as a disorder).

Why so many neurodiverse people become entrepreneurs—and serial entrepreneurs.

The signs you might be on the ADHD spectrum (and what to do with that if you are).

How understanding the unique challenges and opportunities of how your brain works plays into the design and success of your Soloist business.

Why radical self-acceptance—whether you’re neurodiverse or not—is the way to go.

LINKS

Diann Wingert Shiny Objects | LinkedIn | Instagram

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

After a twenty-year career as a psychotherapist and mental health administrator, Diann pivoted into business strategy and coaching for neurodivergent entrepreneurs. Her passion is helping those who think differently build a profitable, sought-after business based on their unique brilliance.

Diann has extensive experience working with neurodivergent individuals, especially those who are gifted, ADHD, or both. On the personal side, Diann loves dark fiction, strong coffee, and laughing out loud. She is also a Peloton enthusiast, practicing Buddhist, and host of the newly re-branded ADHD-ish podcast.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

Soloist Events: in-person events for Soloists to gather, connect and learn.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:25

Diann Wingert: Understanding, oh, there is a name for my difference. I am actually neurodivergent. I've always known I was different. And trust me, if you're listening to my voice and you are neurodivergent, You've always known it. We know we're different, but if we don't know why, what most people do is go to shame.

00:30 - 00:45

Rochelle Moulton: MUSIC Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life podcast where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton and today I'm so happy to welcome my new pal, the incomparable Diann Wingert.

00:45 -...