In this episode, Leah Neaderthal from Smart Gets Paid got personal with us about the importance of humanizing yourself to your audience. She talked to us about the expertise/humanity scale. Women, including myself, tend to stick too close to the expertise end of the scale, and this doesn’t serve us well when running a professional services business. She reminds us that every business opportunity, even to corporations, involves a decision-maker who is a person, and making a connection with that person by showing our humanity can be memorable, engaging, and ultimately lead to successful sales. She shared with us the explosion of engagement that she experienced when she moved away from a pure expertise approach to sharing more about herself as a person.
In this episode we will learn:
· Why making human connections are a critical alternative to networking and referrals
· Moving past pure referrals makes for a scalable and saleable business
· Sharing your humanity helps potential customers to know, like, and trust you
· Specific tips about using controlled vulnerability to humanize yourself to your audience
· Leah also had some insights into the challenge of ending a business when one of the four Ds occurs.
Leah Neaderthal is a sales coach for women consultants and she’s the founder of Smart Gets Paid. She teaches women how to get more of the right kinds of consulting clients and get paid more for every consulting contract in her program, The Academy.
She’s also the host of The Smart Gets Paid podcast, where listeners go behind the scenes into her actual calls with clients where Leah is tackling their biggest sales challenges, and they can learn sales strategies they can use in their own businesses.
Prior to starting Smart Gets Paid, Leah built, grew, and sold three businesses. Learn more about Leah at smartgetspaid.com.
Connect with Leah:
Online: http://smartgetspaid.com
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtn/
Get Paid More Without Doing More guide: smartgetspaid.com/paidmore
https://www.nationalbailout.org/
Connect with Erin and find the resources mentioned in this episode at hourlytoexit.com/podcast.
Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/
Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos
Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music
A Podcast Launch Bestie production
Hello, everyone.
Erin Austin:Welcome to the hourly to exit podcast.
Erin Austin:I am so excited for today's episode.
Erin Austin:I have Leah Neaderthal with me from Smart Gets Paid and, there's so many
Erin Austin:things we could talk about today.
Erin Austin:And so I'm gonna let Leah, uh, introduce herself, but you know, it
Erin Austin:was one of those happy problems going,
Erin Austin:what am I gonna talk with Leah about?
Erin Austin:Because there's so many things on the Hourly to Exit journey that we could talk
Erin Austin:about, but first I wanna let Lee introduce herself and then I wanna dive in today.
Erin Austin:Today's topic
Leah Neaderthal:Awesome.
Leah Neaderthal:Thanks so much for having me today.
Leah Neaderthal:So I'm Leah Neaderthal, I'm the founder of Smart Gets Paid, and
Leah Neaderthal:I help women run profitable, predictable consulting businesses.
Leah Neaderthal:And in my world, that means being able to attract more of the right kinds
Leah Neaderthal:of clients into your business and get paid dramatically more for your work so
Leah Neaderthal:that you can run a profitable business and have more time for yourself,
Leah Neaderthal:and you are running the business instead of the business running you.
Leah Neaderthal:And I do that through some programs that I work with women on.
Leah Neaderthal:I have a podcast called the Smart Gets Paid Podcast where I'm sharing strategies.
Leah Neaderthal:But you know, you and I have a very similar goal.
Leah Neaderthal:We go through it in different ways, which is how can we help women run the
Leah Neaderthal:businesses that make them money and make them happy and, uh, help them also
Leah Neaderthal:grow as business owners and as people?
Erin Austin:Yeah, absolutely.
Erin Austin:And you know, I have followed you Leah for some time and I've also
Erin Austin:worked with her in her programs.
Erin Austin:Obviously there's the very practical stuff of, increasing our revenues.
Erin Austin:But one of the things that I really connected with Leah about is kind
Erin Austin:of this softer side and some of the softer skills of, running a business
Erin Austin:and being a woman in business and so,
Erin Austin:I absolutely wanted Leah to be one of the first guests on the podcast and I was
Erin Austin:thinking about what we would talk about.
Erin Austin:And then Leah wrote a newsletter at the end of March, uh, where she addressed
Erin Austin:the expertise dash humanity scale.
Erin Austin:And so basically that is, you know, how do we show up in the world,
Erin Austin:like in public and social media, speaking in our writings, uh,
Erin Austin:with our clients, you know, are.
Erin Austin:More on the expertise scale, like, what we know, we're the expert versus
Erin Austin:the humanity scale, like who we are, you know, outside of our expertise.
Erin Austin:And then she confessed that she's, you know, had some trouble over there
Erin Austin:hanging out on the expertise side.
Erin Austin:And it really resonated with me cuz I have struggled with this mightily
Erin Austin:and I was struggling with it,
Erin Austin:absolutely, when I, when I met Leah and so, you know, for me, I
Erin Austin:graduated from law school in 1992, which is yes, 30 years ago people.
Leah Neaderthal:It was just yesterday.
Erin Austin:yeah.
Erin Austin:Well, I'll tell you how long ago it was, you know, it was back when name partners
Erin Austin:were still alive you know, and so the firm I was at, old school, law firm in
Erin Austin:San Francisco and yes, literally one of the name partners were still alive.
Erin Austin:He was like 90 years old smoking a cigar and you know, you weren't
Erin Austin:supposed to smoke inside anymore.
Erin Austin:I had to wear a suit with a skirt and panty hose and the whole thing
Erin Austin:and, casual Friday meant a pantsuit.
Erin Austin:Did not mean, you know, GS and, you know, very frequently I
Erin Austin:was the only woman in the room.
Erin Austin:I was almost always the only person of color in the room.
Erin Austin:And I was absolutely always the only black woman in room.
Erin Austin:And not any part of my humanity came with me.
Erin Austin:Let's just say it was all on the expertise side.
Erin Austin:And I have pretty much stayed on that side.
Erin Austin:And it's been fine, you know, my decades is a lawyer.
Erin Austin:But it's really became a problem when it carried over into this transition,
Erin Austin:as I'm working with female founders of expertise based businesses is still
Erin Austin:trying to hang out on that expertise side.
Erin Austin:Which is why I really
Erin Austin:wanted to talk about this, and I had a conversation about, exits and, you know,
Erin Austin:I'm thinking, you know, multiples and, you know, valuation, blah, blah, blah.
Erin Austin:And she's like, well, you gotta think about, you know, the way people feel
Erin Austin:about I'm like, they care about that?
Erin Austin:I'm like, yes, they do.
Erin Austin:And so, it has, affected my voice, you know, kind of trolling vis and you
Erin Austin:know, my love affair with MacKenzi.
Erin Austin:And, um, but I'm still, it's still pretty scary for me.
Erin Austin:I still self-edit a lot, like just this week or something,
Erin Austin:I'm like, I ain't posting that.
Erin Austin:So I really wanted to, dig into this today with Leah, cause I
Erin Austin:know if I'm struggling with it.
Erin Austin:I know other women are struggling with this as well.
Erin Austin:So tell me about that, newsletter post.
Erin Austin:What you were struggling with, how we got here.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah, totally well.
Leah Neaderthal:And I have to credit, a coach that I worked with.
Leah Neaderthal:So there's a woman named Jessica Zweig, who's a great, a
Leah Neaderthal:brilliant branding strategist.
Leah Neaderthal:And she wrote a book and has an agency and all of that.
Leah Neaderthal:She was a client of mine to learn how to sell and how to, you know, increase her
Leah Neaderthal:revenue, get better clients, et cetera.
Leah Neaderthal:And when I wanted to focus on my brand, I knew exactly who to go to.
Leah Neaderthal:So I went back to her and she's the one who introduced me to this concept
Leah Neaderthal:of the expertise, humanity scale.
Leah Neaderthal:So, the newsletter that I wrote was about how I went to visit my parents.
Leah Neaderthal:After two years of, you know, the pandemic not having visited them, I'd
Leah Neaderthal:seen them, but not, you know, flown with my son and my wife to see them.
Leah Neaderthal:And now that I was back, as it always happens you are flooded with like
Leah Neaderthal:nostalgic memories and all of this stuff.
Leah Neaderthal:And, uh, while I was there, we, you know, we went in the middle of the week.
Leah Neaderthal:So I had planned to do a LinkedIn live on that Thursday, as I often
Leah Neaderthal:do on various topics related to.
Leah Neaderthal:Selling.
Leah Neaderthal:and I thought to myself, well, you know, these such cute
Leah Neaderthal:pictures of me from growing up, I mean, I was a pretty cute kid.
Leah Neaderthal:and so what if I just like showed one on camera?
Leah Neaderthal:Right?
Leah Neaderthal:Like little baby picture of Leah.
Leah Neaderthal:And so I did, and I, you know, I, I, I don't remember exactly what
Leah Neaderthal:I said on the live, but I was reflecting afterwards thinking, wow.
Leah Neaderthal:I mean I was giving myself a little credit for coming further,
Leah Neaderthal:along on the expertise, humanity scale towards the humanity side.
Leah Neaderthal:So you're right.
Leah Neaderthal:The expertise in humanity scale.
Leah Neaderthal:Imagine like a, you know, on one side of the scale is just pure
Leah Neaderthal:expertise being known for what you do.
Leah Neaderthal:And What you do in your business, what you did in your career.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:And on the other side, the complete opposite side is humanity, right?
Leah Neaderthal:Like who you are, how you feel about things, just who you
Leah Neaderthal:are outside of your business.
Leah Neaderthal:And, like you Erin, like I had spent all my time on the expertise side.
Leah Neaderthal:Right?
Leah Neaderthal:I felt super, super comfortable there because, I'm a total
Leah Neaderthal:like type a overachiever,
Leah Neaderthal:right.
Leah Neaderthal:Think about starting in school, right?
Leah Neaderthal:You do good work.
Leah Neaderthal:You get good grades.
Leah Neaderthal:That's how you unlock opportunities, right.
Leah Neaderthal:And then in our careers, we put our heads down.
Leah Neaderthal:We do great work.
Leah Neaderthal:Unlike the way men are conditioned, right.
Leah Neaderthal:We don't toot our own horns.
Leah Neaderthal:We don't have to go out and shake a thousand hands to
Leah Neaderthal:like build our, prestige.
Leah Neaderthal:We do great work and so that serves us really well.
Leah Neaderthal:I mean, to some degree could be argued, right.
Leah Neaderthal:But it serves us fairly well in a corporate world.
Leah Neaderthal:But, when you start your own business and people are hiring you, not just
Leah Neaderthal:for your skillset, but they actually have to like, know you a little bit.
Leah Neaderthal:And I had to really try hard to pull myself off of the pure expertise side,
Leah Neaderthal:and so I sort of, vacillate between sides, but it's a journey, right?
Leah Neaderthal:But it's absolutely critical if you are gonna run a business as a woman founder.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:And you do help women have visibility on LinkedIn and use
Erin Austin:LinkedIn as a outreach tool.
Erin Austin:So when we think about LinkedIn and I know.
Erin Austin:certainly, you know, the changes in the word count in the last year, so people
Erin Austin:are putting a lot more content on there.
Erin Austin:Um, people understand the value of it and are doing more, this is definitely
Erin Austin:my struggle is that balance between the expertise side and the humanity side.
Erin Austin:Is there kind of a rule of thumb about like where we fall?
Erin Austin:What's too much?
Erin Austin:You know, if it's a professional network, what's too much?
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:That's a hard question to answer, let me sort of look at it in a different way.
Leah Neaderthal:So a lot of us, especially when you first started at your business, you are
Leah Neaderthal:getting clients through referrals, right?
Leah Neaderthal:Probably people that you knew in the past, or maybe you worked with, or
Leah Neaderthal:they've gone on to different companies, or, you know, what have you, people who
Leah Neaderthal:you have some type of relationship with.
Leah Neaderthal:And that lasts for maybe 18 months to two years.
Leah Neaderthal:You know, you can, with a lot of effort, you can keep that going.
Leah Neaderthal:But if you think about it, when you start your business and when you're running
Leah Neaderthal:your business, you no longer work with a lot of people in an office who get to
Leah Neaderthal:know how good you are at what you do,
Leah Neaderthal:right.
Leah Neaderthal:And, so there's just a limit to like the number of people we can have a
Leah Neaderthal:career with, especially when we're not having a career in a big company.
Leah Neaderthal:And so you have to find a way to replicate that same, getting to know you.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:Some people really like to do that at events.
Leah Neaderthal:Of course, we haven't had any events over the past few years, but like
Leah Neaderthal:doing that through networking or, what have you, but a lot of us don't either
Leah Neaderthal:like to do that or can't do that, or just are limited, in what's available
Leah Neaderthal:to us or we wanna take advantage of.
Leah Neaderthal:So I think about LinkedIn as not just like a social network or a professional
Leah Neaderthal:network or whatever, but LinkedIn, if you have a strategy to get visible on LinkedIn
Leah Neaderthal:and know what to say and how to say it, LinkedIn essentially replicates that
Leah Neaderthal:process of we get to know each other,
Leah Neaderthal:I know that you're good at what you do, we have some type of
Leah Neaderthal:like friendly relationship.
Leah Neaderthal:It replicates that at scale.
Leah Neaderthal:So you're having that with a lot more people who are reading
Leah Neaderthal:your posts and following along and understanding the value you
Leah Neaderthal:provide and who you provide it for.
Leah Neaderthal:So if you look at it like that, then you have to have a mix
Leah Neaderthal:of that expertise in humanity.
Leah Neaderthal:Imagine if you worked with somebody who never let you see any part of
Leah Neaderthal:themselves, like it was only about the numbers or it's only about the
Leah Neaderthal:strategy or the documents or whatever.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:And never mentioned anything about, well, you know, what did
Leah Neaderthal:you do this past weekend or.
Leah Neaderthal:Anything personal, it would be really hard to have a relationship with that
Leah Neaderthal:person, even on a, cursory level.
Leah Neaderthal:The same thing happens on LinkedIn.
Leah Neaderthal:If you're only talking about the work or the strategies or the tips or
Leah Neaderthal:whatever, and you're not showing any part of yourself, then people will know
Leah Neaderthal:that you are very good at what you do, but they may not have that personal
Leah Neaderthal:connection, that personal affinity.
Leah Neaderthal:So, back to your question, is there a rule of thumb?
Leah Neaderthal:Not really, but, you have to make an effort to show a little bit,
Leah Neaderthal:you know, start with, let's say if you're posting three times a week,
Leah Neaderthal:start with one post every other week.
Leah Neaderthal:Should be about the personal and really there are ways to drop
Leah Neaderthal:in personal hints throughout.
Leah Neaderthal:So I always tell people start small, right?
Leah Neaderthal:You don't have to talk about your biggest trauma in your first LinkedIn
Leah Neaderthal:post, but can you share a little bit.
Leah Neaderthal:Within the ?Context of some expertise.
Leah Neaderthal:How did you start to weave that in?
Erin Austin:For me, it was mostly about wealth in the hands
Erin Austin:of women can change the world.
Erin Austin:And I had a lot of resistance even around declaring, you know, working
Erin Austin:with women is that not just from a niche perspective, but from a, is that
Erin Austin:antagonistic perspective.
Erin Austin:Right.
Erin Austin:And so, will I turn people off?
Erin Austin:Will they be offended by it?
Erin Austin:And so, that was kind of my first step.
Erin Austin:And I will say, I'm trying to think if I've ever done anything that
Erin Austin:was kind of borderline vulnerable.
Erin Austin:I, I don't think I have actually.
Erin Austin:That's still part of my, my journey there.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah, I think it's a part of everyone's journey.
Leah Neaderthal:I think the biggest hurdle that I overcame, I think it was my newsletter
Leah Neaderthal:that became a LinkedIn post or whatever it was that was the biggest mental
Leah Neaderthal:hurdle for me to overcome was I posted something about, it was like when I
Leah Neaderthal:got married, but I got married to a woman, which is like you don't see that
Leah Neaderthal:every day in a professional context.
Leah Neaderthal:And I was worried.
Leah Neaderthal:I was like, I'm gonna get trolled.
Leah Neaderthal:I'm gonna get doxxed, right.
Leah Neaderthal:Everybody's gonna come for me or whatever.
Leah Neaderthal:All my clients are gonna hate me.
Leah Neaderthal:And so I put it out there and everyone was so excited, supportive, you know?
Leah Neaderthal:I started hearing from people who had been getting my newsletters, who
Leah Neaderthal:either, were a member of the LGBTQ community, or they had family members or.
Leah Neaderthal:Whatever right.
Leah Neaderthal:And it was a signal for me that not only should I do stuff like that, right.
Leah Neaderthal:I should do more of it.
Leah Neaderthal:And I just realized like, if people didn't spark to that or
Leah Neaderthal:they had a problem with that, then they're gonna hate working with me.
Leah Neaderthal:And it's just best that they unsubscribe,
Leah Neaderthal:right.
Erin Austin:Now you work with women.
Erin Austin:I mean, you specifically focus on women.
Erin Austin:Do the same kind of parameters apply when you're not focused on women?
Erin Austin:Is this something that is specific to a female audience to wanna talk to them
Erin Austin:in a more vulnerable, personal way?
Leah Neaderthal:That's a good question.
Leah Neaderthal:So I work with people who are primarily selling into companies, right.
Leah Neaderthal:But even if you're selling into a company, you're selling
Leah Neaderthal:into a person at that company.
Leah Neaderthal:And sure, if you provide a little bit more, you know, life color, right,
Leah Neaderthal:a little bit more humanity, I don't think it's gonna hurt, you know, if
Leah Neaderthal:anything, people feel like they have some type of relationship with you, right.
Leah Neaderthal:Even if they're watching from afar, what we call lurkers as you know,
Leah Neaderthal:in pack your pipeline parlance, but people who are just in re only mode.
Leah Neaderthal:But at worst, it'll make you more memorable.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:And no matter what you're in, there's somebody else who does it too.
Leah Neaderthal:Right?
Leah Neaderthal:You're never the only person who does what you do.
Leah Neaderthal:So if the only purpose of the humanity is to be more memorable as your
Leah Neaderthal:clients are evaluating you over other providers, that still contributes
Leah Neaderthal:to success in the sales process.
Erin Austin:I like that.
Erin Austin:Think of it being more memorable.
Leah Neaderthal:And I just wanna offer that as you have been working
Leah Neaderthal:with me and following along and, you know, noticed more of the humanity
Leah Neaderthal:coming through, I would say that I practice controlled vulnerability.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:That's uh, how I'm sort of referring to it in with my team and, You
Leah Neaderthal:don't have to show everything just because you share something doesn't
Leah Neaderthal:mean you have to offer everything.
Leah Neaderthal:And especially if it's more comfortable, like it is for me to take the humanity and
Leah Neaderthal:wrap it in some expertise or vice versa,
Leah Neaderthal:right,
Leah Neaderthal:let there be a lesson there.
Leah Neaderthal:How can you tie it back to the work?
Leah Neaderthal:All of these things.
Erin Austin:I like that.
Erin Austin:So have you noticed any changes during the pandemic?
Erin Austin:I mean, I know, you did your post about going gray during the pandemic.
Erin Austin:And so like, has that resulted in a little bit more of people's
Erin Austin:personality and humanity coming out?
Erin Austin:Okay.
Leah Neaderthal:if you're listening, what she's referring to is I did go gray.
Leah Neaderthal:I stopped coloring my hair, which I had done for years.
Leah Neaderthal:And not only did I go gray, I had to, in a process of, you know, taking all the color
Leah Neaderthal:out and replacing it with gray so that I didn't have this crazy transition of hair,
Leah Neaderthal:I accidentally had a crazy transition of hair because I
Leah Neaderthal:was blonde for like four months.
Leah Neaderthal:So, I can't hide all the time, so I just may as well talk about it.
Leah Neaderthal:And actually I talk about so many things related to selling about referrals and
Leah Neaderthal:lead gen and pricing and messaging.
Leah Neaderthal:But to be honest, like the, the stuff about going gray was the stuff
Leah Neaderthal:that people really had a connection to, uh, more than anything else.
Leah Neaderthal:So that was also a signal to me.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:Have I seen a change?
Leah Neaderthal:Absolutely.
Leah Neaderthal:A woman I used to work with said I guess we don't all have to pretend like
Leah Neaderthal:we don't have personal lives anymore.
Leah Neaderthal:You know, so whether that meant dogs at home barking or children
Leah Neaderthal:who needed attention or whatever.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:And so I think a lot of people are finding it not only easier to, share
Leah Neaderthal:more of the humanity on that expertise, humanity scale, but it finding it
Leah Neaderthal:absolutely necessary, not for some strategic reason, but because we need.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:We need it for each other and we need to have that connection.
Leah Neaderthal:at least reading about somebody or sharing about yourself when you
Leah Neaderthal:can't have that connection in person.
Erin Austin:Hmm.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:For me, the pandemic has been a real game changer in terms
Erin Austin:of how networking works for me.
Erin Austin:And I live in a rural part of Northern Virginia, like the
Erin Austin:ex-surbs of Washington DC.
Erin Austin:And going into the city, which is like, you know, that was a day trip.
Erin Austin:Like you can just go for lunch or go even getting into town just to go for
Erin Austin:a drink, was like, forget about it.
Erin Austin:And so I just didn't do that stuff.
Erin Austin:And, and since the pandemic I've been able to participate in a lot more things
Erin Austin:that have gone online and then also like get more involved with LinkedIn.
Erin Austin:And so, yeah, I definitely feel that there's like getting personal online.
Erin Austin:Well, whether it's in writing or via zoom or like has become normalized,
Erin Austin:I guess, you know, like we're just much more comfortable going there,
Erin Austin:um, than certainly I felt like I was, you know, a couple years ago.
Erin Austin:So if there's any silver lining, I guess there's,
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah,
Erin Austin:we're more connected in that way.
Leah Neaderthal:Well, and I've also noticed not only are people sharing more
Leah Neaderthal:humanity, but I think the type of humanity they're they're sharing has changed.
Leah Neaderthal:You'll see a lot more people posting about, things like this is
Leah Neaderthal:really hard, or I am struggling.
Leah Neaderthal:Or I am burned out or things are happening in my life that are difficult, right.
Leah Neaderthal:Whether it's an aging parent or a child who's having trouble.
Leah Neaderthal:And it's really nice in my view, to, especially as somebody who like puts
Leah Neaderthal:a ton of pressure on herself to do everything right and be perfect and
Leah Neaderthal:overachieve, right, like I'm sure a lot of your listeners do, but we
Leah Neaderthal:know that that's not how real life actually is in our world, but we don't
Leah Neaderthal:see that in anybody else's world,
Leah Neaderthal:right.
Leah Neaderthal:Seeing that now, seeing people talk about it, seeing that,
Leah Neaderthal:other people struggle too.
Leah Neaderthal:And, it's not just the highlight reel anymore, is what
Leah Neaderthal:we're seeing on social media.
Leah Neaderthal:And, I think that that's been really nice.
Leah Neaderthal:I mean, for me personally, and for a lot of the women I know to
Leah Neaderthal:say we don't have to be perfect.
Leah Neaderthal:We don't have to pretend to be perfect and let's just show up as ourselves.
Erin Austin:Yeah, I agree completely.
Erin Austin:And, uh, yeah, I've been very, moved by the things that people have been
Erin Austin:sharing on LinkedIn and in other places.
Erin Austin:And, and it is, it really makes you feel more connected.
Erin Austin:And, and I do, I appreciate that.
Erin Austin:So I imagine women.
Erin Austin:Don't self-identify as having this expertise, humanity scale imbalance.
Erin Austin:So what is it like, but I'm sure there is a connection between the
Erin Austin:work that you do with women and them having some of these mindset issues.
Erin Austin:So what are they struggling with when they come to you and how do you work with
Erin Austin:them on some of these mindset issues?
Leah Neaderthal:Great question.
Leah Neaderthal:So, a lot of women come to me because their consulting business is doing
Leah Neaderthal:what they would call okay, but they know that they wanted to do better.
Leah Neaderthal:Up to this point, they've gotten clients through referrals but they're
Leah Neaderthal:worried that that's gonna go away, or they know that will go away,
Leah Neaderthal:cuz it always does.
Leah Neaderthal:And, they wanna finally learn how to actually get clients.
Leah Neaderthal:Women come to me because they discover what I discovered when I first started
Leah Neaderthal:my consulting business, which is that it's about a thousand times harder
Leah Neaderthal:to sell your own stuff than it is to sell or promote somebody else's, maybe
Leah Neaderthal:what you did in your past career.
Leah Neaderthal:And, this is just a skill gap that they know they need.
Leah Neaderthal:So I teach them how to get in front of the right clients, track the right
Leah Neaderthal:clients, fill their pipeline, lead a sales process, charge and get paid
Leah Neaderthal:way more for their work, write winning proposals, the entire sales process.
Leah Neaderthal:Because unless you were in sales, you don't have
Leah Neaderthal:a sales background, right?
Leah Neaderthal:So like I didn't, but you discover that, you know, even if you don't like
Leah Neaderthal:the selling part, you can actually learn how to do it, do it really
Leah Neaderthal:well, feel comfortable, and get paid very well for your consulting work.
Leah Neaderthal:But in the context of that, I see this expertise, humanity scale.
Leah Neaderthal:It's like, yeah, nobody's walking in the door being like, I have an
Leah Neaderthal:expertise, humanity scale problem.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:But.
Leah Neaderthal:Once they become aware, then.
Leah Neaderthal:You know, nearly everyone.
Leah Neaderthal:I talk to acknowledges that they feel a lot more comfortable
Leah Neaderthal:on the expertise side.
Leah Neaderthal:And in that respect, the expertise, humanity scale itself, isn't a problem.
Leah Neaderthal:It's a symptom of a problem, right?
Leah Neaderthal:It's a symptom of a problem, which is, I don't feel comfortable showing up.
Leah Neaderthal:I don't know how to position my work for value.
Leah Neaderthal:Um, I don't know how to lead a sales process and, you know, to sort of
Leah Neaderthal:take control and guide my clients.
Leah Neaderthal:And I certainly don't know how to price my work for value and get
Leah Neaderthal:paid what I could be getting paid.
Leah Neaderthal:So it's actually kind of a diagnostic tool, just as much
Leah Neaderthal:as a messaging framework.
Erin Austin:That's great.
Erin Austin:So one of the things about you, you have sold a business.
Erin Austin:And so when I have a woman on the podcast who has sold a business,
Erin Austin:I would be remiss if I did not ask her what that process was like.
Erin Austin:And if you could share a little bit about tips and what you might
Erin Austin:do differently the next time.
Erin Austin:Good.
Erin Austin:Good
Leah Neaderthal:Oh my gosh.
Leah Neaderthal:Well, I'd say the first thing I would do differently is call you first.
Leah Neaderthal:So I ran a few businesses with my former partner, who was also my
Leah Neaderthal:business partner and romantic partner.
Leah Neaderthal:And, when we split, it was time for me to walk away.
Leah Neaderthal:And like, walk all the way away.
Leah Neaderthal:And the reason why I should have talked to you is because I probably
Leah Neaderthal:made every mistake in the book.
Leah Neaderthal:Both of us did because what did we know?
Leah Neaderthal:And I think also, you know, it was to just let let's acknowledge that
Leah Neaderthal:there was a lot of emotion wrapped up in this, you know, when you break
Leah Neaderthal:off an engagement and walk away from the business and all of that stuff,
Leah Neaderthal:right.
Leah Neaderthal:So, you know, we didn't have the right iP protection.
Leah Neaderthal:I learned a whole lot, and first thing I learned is I
Leah Neaderthal:need to call somebody like you.
Leah Neaderthal:And now that I know you, that's the call.
Erin Austin:Well, they do say that, I mean, to be prepared cause you really
Erin Austin:don't know when the end will come.
Erin Austin:I mean, they say, I mean the business will end eventually.
Erin Austin:So with, or without you, whether you're ready or not, they say,
Erin Austin:I think there's the four Ds.
Erin Austin:There might be a fifth one that I'm not thinking of, but like death,
Erin Austin:disability, divorce, and dissolution.
Erin Austin:And so are you ready for what will happen under one of those circumstances to make
Erin Austin:sure that you're best positioned to not be harmed at minimum, do no harm, right.
Erin Austin:And hopefully be able to also take advantage of the value that you
Erin Austin:built in the business to date.
Erin Austin:So
Leah Neaderthal:Oh, my gosh.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:And one of the businesses that we co-founded is, uh, still around,
Leah Neaderthal:still doing very, very well.
Leah Neaderthal:Um, I don't see any of that because.
Leah Neaderthal:Of the sort of poor way that we went about it.
Leah Neaderthal:but yeah, no, mine was a mix of like, not divorce cause we were
Leah Neaderthal:three weeks from getting married and we broke off our engagement, but it
Leah Neaderthal:was certainly some disillusionment
Erin Austin:Yes.
Erin Austin:Yes.
Erin Austin:For
Leah Neaderthal:So I had one and a half of those of those items.
Erin Austin:Well, thank you for sharing that.
Erin Austin:Uh, so, you know, this is the hourly to exit podcast.
Erin Austin:And so we, uh, talk about building a service based business that
Erin Austin:can hopefully be sold someday.
Erin Austin:And so part of the elements of that are one having exclusivity in our
Erin Austin:businesses so that we have assets that we own, like our intellectual
Erin Austin:property that we have protected or, and we have a unique market position.
Erin Austin:And also that we have predictability in the business so that an acquirer
Erin Austin:knows that the business can run independently of us and that they can
Erin Austin:trust those financial projections.
Erin Austin:And so when we think about kinda the smart gets paid process, like where
Erin Austin:does that fit into creating a business that is scalable and hopefully saleable.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:Oh, I love that question.
Leah Neaderthal:So where I play in this world, I mean, there are a lot of like business coaches
Leah Neaderthal:out there, right, and they're doing all kinds of the businessy business stuff.
Leah Neaderthal:Um, the part that I really focus on is helping women get paid
Leah Neaderthal:dramatically more for their work and running a profitable business.
Leah Neaderthal:If you're not getting paid enough, if you're working yourself into
Leah Neaderthal:the ground, if you are at the mercy of your clients and their needs,
Leah Neaderthal:and you have no boundaries and you're constantly overdelivering,
Leah Neaderthal:then that's not a business that is sustainable, much less saleable, right?
Leah Neaderthal:So teaching women how to do client acquisition
Leah Neaderthal:so that your business, has revenue, You have income, you have predictability
Leah Neaderthal:on that front so that your business becomes sustainable and attractive.
Erin Austin:Absolutely agree, 100%.
Erin Austin:So this is a very meta podcast.
Erin Austin:You know, I'm a female founder of an expertise based business
Erin Austin:that I hope to sell someday.
Erin Austin:And so you are a female founder of an expertise based business.
Erin Austin:So.
Erin Austin:Are you, are you gonna go again?
Erin Austin:You gonna try this again?
Erin Austin:Are you building to sell someday?
Leah Neaderthal:I'd like to, yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:I think what I understand about my business now that I didn't in previous
Leah Neaderthal:businesses is the intellectual property that I'm creating.
Leah Neaderthal:And I have a much greater appreciation for that.
Leah Neaderthal:So yeah, protecting that, building a platform helping evangelize what I do.
Leah Neaderthal:And probably a number of things that I'm not even thinking about
Leah Neaderthal:that you would have an eye towards.
Leah Neaderthal:Absolutely.
Leah Neaderthal:I mean, I'm building it to help as many people as possible
Leah Neaderthal:and then building it to sell.
Erin Austin:I mean at the end of the day, what we can do with our businesses,
Erin Austin:one, there's the income to take care of the people we care about now, and also
Erin Austin:to support the causes that we care about.
Erin Austin:Right.
Erin Austin:There's more than one way to have an impact.
Erin Austin:And, uh, and also someday, no matter how much we love our businesses,
Erin Austin:we'll be ready for another chapter.
Erin Austin:Just like when we raise a kid, we're ready for the kid to go and do something new
Erin Austin:eventually, and same with our business.
Erin Austin:So yeah.
Erin Austin:Having a plan for our next chapter, cuz there will be one, you know,
Erin Austin:so, so we wanna make sure that that we're are ready for it.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:Having an eye towards that, you know, I think is really
Leah Neaderthal:a, a constant practice, right.
Leah Neaderthal:Because I'm having fun in this
Erin Austin:mm-hmm yes, yes.
Leah Neaderthal:I am.
Leah Neaderthal:And I'm, I feel, you know, when I see the women that I work with have, an
Leah Neaderthal:incredible win or they're increasing their prices, you know, five X and
Leah Neaderthal:they're signing new clients and they're, or they're taking every Friday off, or
Leah Neaderthal:they're taking a three week vacation and they come back to assign proposal
Leah Neaderthal:or, you know, all of these things.
Leah Neaderthal:That's, that's really fun for me.
Leah Neaderthal:And so if I can also, I guess let's make up a new scale.
Leah Neaderthal:It's the running the business now scale and the running the
Leah Neaderthal:business for the future scale.
Leah Neaderthal:So I have to bring myself from the, having fun now, a few steps closer on
Leah Neaderthal:the, um, preparing for the future scale.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:Yeah, it is a balance, but you know, the things that help you create
Erin Austin:a scalable business are the same things that make a saleable business.
Erin Austin:So we can, we can work on both of them.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah.
Erin Austin:So as we wrap up, I have a couple of final questions for you.
Erin Austin:As you know, at think beyond IP, we believe in creating an
Erin Austin:economy that works for more of us.
Erin Austin:And I personally believe that wealth in the hands of women can change the world.
Erin Austin:So I'm wondering if there is a personal organization who is
Erin Austin:doing work that you admire to help build a more equitable society.
Leah Neaderthal:You know, I love this question.
Leah Neaderthal:I, a few years ago, Around.
Leah Neaderthal:Well, this is like before George Floyd and you know, all of this, I
Leah Neaderthal:think this was around like Trayvon.
Leah Neaderthal:Um,
Erin Austin:Yeah, George Floyd was at the beginning of the
Leah Neaderthal:yeah.
Leah Neaderthal:And Trayvon is like a lot earlier, but, um, I started reading this story
Leah Neaderthal:about national women's bailout, and it's a very simple concept coming from
Leah Neaderthal:a lot of complicated factors, right.
Leah Neaderthal:And systemic factors, but, a lot of people are incarcerated for the
Leah Neaderthal:sheer reason that they can't afford bail, which to me seems like such
Leah Neaderthal:such an incredible injustice, right.
Leah Neaderthal:And sort of criminalizing poverty.
Leah Neaderthal:And so, this organization pays bail.
Leah Neaderthal:Right.
Leah Neaderthal:It's simple enough.
Leah Neaderthal:And so, it's always one that I keep coming back to because the promise
Leah Neaderthal:is so clear, the impact is so direct and it makes such a change, right?
Leah Neaderthal:Like an immediate change in the lives of so many families.
Erin Austin:I love that.
Erin Austin:Thank you for sharing that.
Erin Austin:We will absolutely have that in the show notes.
Erin Austin:So is there something exciting happening in your business that you'd
Erin Austin:like to share with the audience?
Leah Neaderthal:So the thing that's the most exciting in my life, which
Leah Neaderthal:will absolutely impact my business is that my wife is expecting.
Leah Neaderthal:She's pregnant with our second child, uh, and due this summer.
Erin Austin:Congratulations.
Leah Neaderthal:Thank you.
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah, we have a toddler.
Leah Neaderthal:Uh, my, our son, I carried him and now she it's her turn
Leah Neaderthal:to, to carry our, Next child.
Leah Neaderthal:And it's funny because I'm reflecting on how I prepared my business last time and
Leah Neaderthal:how I'm preparing my business this time.
Leah Neaderthal:And it's so different because I know so much more about how to have a baby, uh,
Leah Neaderthal:and what life with the newborn is like.
Leah Neaderthal:But yeah, that's definitely the thing that's the most exciting and, uh,
Leah Neaderthal:it's it's
Erin Austin:Fantastic.
Erin Austin:Fantastic.
Erin Austin:Congratulations.
Leah Neaderthal:Thank you.
Erin Austin:And finally, where can people find you?
Leah Neaderthal:Yeah, so.
Leah Neaderthal:you can always find me on LinkedIn as you know, Erin I'm, uh, posting all the time.
Leah Neaderthal:You can find me, just look for Leah Neaderthal on LinkedIn.
Leah Neaderthal:If you are a podcast person and I imagine you are, cuz you're listening to this
Leah Neaderthal:podcast, uh, check out my podcast at the smart gets paid podcast on apple podcast
Leah Neaderthal:or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Leah Neaderthal:And of course my website at smartgetspaid.com.
Erin Austin:All fantastic resources.
Erin Austin:Thank you again, Leah.
Erin Austin:This has been absolutely a joy.
Erin Austin:I've enjoyed having you so much, so much wonderful information
Erin Austin:you've shared with us today.
Leah Neaderthal:Thank you so much for having me.
Leah Neaderthal:It's been a pleasure.