"The Golden Thread": June Hogan’s Blueprint for HR Consultancy Success

In this episode, I'm joined by June Hogan from Wildwood Coaching to discuss her HR business journey - and how she went from struggling and overwhelmed to a market-leading HR Consultancy.

So, if you're struggling with leads, clients, sales, and profits then this is an episode you don't want to miss!

Tune in and discover:

🎯 The Mindset Shift That Transformed June Hogan’s Career – How she turned redundancy into a thriving HR consultancy.
🌟 How to Overcome the Fear of Niching – Why focusing on one area could unlock massive opportunities.
📖 June’s Inspiring Journey – From uncertainty to success, and the lessons she learned along the way.
🔧 Practical Steps to Creating Focus – Learn how clarity can supercharge your consultancy results.
📬 The Power of Starting Small – Why email lists and LinkedIn connections are more valuable than you think.
🤝 Building a Supportive Community – Hear June’s advice on finding your “tribe” and why it matters.
🎢 Balancing Flexibility and Focus – Actionable tips for committing to a niche without feeling stuck.

And if you want to connect with June then her website is here.


Timestamps:
0:00 - Welcome to Marketing Made Easy
0:23 - Meet June Hogan Career Coach
2:06 - Navigating the HR Landscape
3:14 - Defining Your Niche in Business
5:21 - Overcoming Initial Business Challenges
9:32 - Finding Focus with Ideal Clients
10:56 - The Importance of LinkedIn Engagement
12:04 - Building Audience Connections
19:00 - Website and Online Presence Tips
20:40 - Embracing Niching to Enhance Opportunities
25:39 - Reflecting on Growth and Changes
26:00 - Closing Thoughts and Future Steps

Want My Help to Build Your £70K+ HR Consultancy?

1️⃣ Grab a copy of my book – The Complete Guide to Building a £70K HR Consultancy – and discover how to get every lead and client you need.

2️⃣ Join The Fastlane Formula – and work with me 1-to-1 to fast-track your results and build your £70K+ business faster (and easier) than going it alone.

Transcript

June Hogan and Nick Poninski - 2025/01/15 11:59 GMT – Transcript

Attendees

June Hogan, Nick Poninski

Transcript

Nick Poninski: Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for Consultants with me, Nick Peninski. Today I've got a special guest with me. She has followed Marketing 101 advice and she has chosen a niche and she has excelled welcome June Hogan. Yeah, no worries. Thank you for joining me. It's yeah, we've been talking about this for a while,…

Nick Poninski: so it's great to finally have you here.

June Hogan: Thank you.

June Hogan: Yeah, looking forward to it.

Nick Poninski: So, June, give us a quick elevator pitch who for those at home listening along who don't know who you are. Yeah. Elevator pitch. Introduce yourself.

June Hogan: Here we go. So, I'm June Hogan and I'm a career coach and an outplacement specialist, but I didn't always do this work. I've only been doing it for the last five years. So, I've got a 25 year career in HR. So, that's my background. and I started out, I like to say the late 90s, but I think it was the mid 90s. and I started out in a large automotive manufacturer, graduate. I progressed super quickly through the organization. I became a the youngest, senior manager in the organization.

June Hogan: Life was going really quite well. I was super proud of myself.

Nick Poninski: Well done.

June Hogan: And…

Nick Poninski: Nice. Wow.

June Hogan: and then the company went into administration and I lost my job overnight along with thousands of other people. That was my first experience of redundancy and kind of I was about 30 years old and it was a big shock. I had a huge mortgage. I had a young baby and all of that stuff. so then I spent 18 months out of work. So I didn't have any support. The company gone into administration. There was no money. There was There was nothing. and during that time I had a baby which was lovely but I was also diagnosed with threatening illness which I had to then deal with that as well as deal with trying to find another job. That was really tough time in my life.

June Hogan: I did find another role and I went on to be a HR business partner for Woolsley who were the leading supplier of plumbing and heating products across the world and I had experience of redundancy managing redundancies and then I was also made redundant for the second time whilst I was on maternity leave. So two experiences of redundancy kind of that's just how life goes. and after the second experience, I took a bit of time out and then we had an opportunity to go and live overseas in North America as a family and I couldn't work at that point. So, I did have a job been doing some consultancy work and really enjoyed that and I had to give that up. So, I spent three years there, decided to train to be a coach because I couldn't work and I've always worked and I wanted to kind of use my brain.

June Hogan: And then when I came back to the UK, I was faced with a choice that I either go back into employment and I've been fortunate to have worked part-time for most of my sort of career when my children were small and there weren't any part-time jobs at the same sort of level that I would have wanted. So I thought right now or never give self-employment a go. and…

June Hogan: when I look back now, the way that I went about it was not the way I'd recommend anyone to do that. But it did work out.

Nick Poninski: Let's talk about that briefly.

June Hogan: It did work out. so I was completely naive. So I thought, " here's me coming back from the US. I was nowhere on social media." You couldn't find me anywhere. I didn't even have a Facebook page.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Wow.

June Hogan: Nothing. and I just thought People would come and find me. Surely that's how it works, isn't it?

Nick Poninski: Right. If you go self-employed, they will find What is it they say in Field of Dreams?

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah. that's how it works. It didn't work like that.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. No.

June Hogan: So, I spent probably about nine months not really knowing what I was supposed to be doing. So, I'd got this generalist background. I'd got this coaching qualification and I was just dabbling in too many different things. I thought, do I want to be a generalist? Maybe I should just put myself out there as a coach, but what sort of coach should I want to be? It was really really kind of confusing.

Nick Poninski: Okay. Yeah.

June Hogan: And I didn't earn a single penny for about six months. Not a great start. so yeah was that. but the defining moment and I can remember exactly where I was. so I joined a group program just to get some advice and some support on how to navigate this life of self-employment and it was specifically for HR consultants very similar to what you do. and I've been starting to do some kind of more outplacement related work. So I've been getting some referrals for interview coaching.

June Hogan: I've been working with a few people who have been made redundant and I was thinking maybe this is a thing for me and importantly I was reflecting on where I'd come from and my experiences and I hadn't really done that before and I was just piecing it all together. Now it all makes sense and now that I'm talking to you five years on but back then nothing I say I'm being really open and honest about it.

00:05:00

June Hogan: I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing.

Nick Poninski: So true.

June Hogan: And the person I was working with said how about giving our placement a go? you can do it for three months and if it doesn't work out, you can just do something different. And as they pointed out, they're like, "Nobody will notice and probably nobody will care." I know this sounds harsh.

Nick Poninski: So true.

June Hogan: So that's what I decided to do. I thought, "Right, I'll do that." And that was in the summer, so I remember where I was when it happened. and that was 2019. So none of us knew obviously what was around the corner in 2020. and niching as it was then, I guess I probably did I realize I was niching? Yeah, probably did. and business. Completely changed everything about what I did. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: what that world then started to look like. I want to talk a little bit about how you were a coach, you were a consultant, you didn't really know…

Nick Poninski: what you were doing and you didn't really know I guess did it feel this is a leading question. Did it feel a bit overwhelming?

June Hogan: Yeah,…

June Hogan: totally. Because I've been doing it for 25 years. and, I knew enough about coaching. I was qualified. I've got, hours under my belt and all the rest of it. But I had not the first clue about marketing. I had to set myself up on LinkedIn. I remember posting my very first post.  Literally, I was filled with dread. Will anyone even read it? What am I even doing? Who am I to post this? all of that. finance, I haven't got the first clue about, setting myself up as a I did understand the difference between soul trader and limited company, that kind of thing. But, I didn't know the detail of it.

June Hogan: So as somebody…

June Hogan: who was a professional and I do regard myself as a HR professional and I still do to a certain extent even though I've been working in one of those specific areas I felt totally lost when it came to anything to do with running a business. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: I can completely understand. when I went self-employed the first time I was a copywriter I would work with and then that presented itself with all those different kinds of problems…

Nick Poninski: because it was so very general and it felt overwhelming like where do I find clients how do I do this and…

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: yeah because you've not made any decisions in the right places it does feel overwhelming

Nick Poninski: because it's an open book. You've got the whole world to deal with, right? Yeah.

June Hogan: And it can also feel isolating and it can feel lonely and social media can make it feel like everyone else is doing really well and why you not doing well and so social media has its benefits to growing with growing a business but also you'll have to approach it with caution particularly when you're in those early days that note that phrase of compare and…

June Hogan: despair like you literally have to get your mind out.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, 100% with you on that one.

June Hogan: Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Comparison is the thief of joy.

June Hogan: Yes. Love that phrase as well.

Nick Poninski: So, you worked with this coach. Wasn't me. but this was 5 years ago, so I wasn't even on the scene.

June Hogan: Yeah. …

Nick Poninski: I was still working in HR.

June Hogan: there you go then.

Nick Poninski: But okay.

Nick Poninski: So then you worked with this coach. You decided you would explore being an outplacement,…

Nick Poninski: specialist. Basically, you chose a niche. how did things change for you?

June Hogan: H all of a sudden and…

June Hogan: I didn't so I didn't have a lot of money to invest in support so I was on a group program and again it was great and it did what it needed to but then I was right off you go then kind of thing the program finished and I'm off. So the difference that it made to me was that all of a sudden I knew who I wanted to work with. So I kind of this ideal client persona. I was really clear on…

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

June Hogan: who that person was and I was also clear on the problem I was helping them to solve or help them fix. And that really changed because it just gave me a focus and I was no longer feeling like I was all over the place.  And it didn't mean to say that in fact during that time people would still come to me get me wrong wasn't overwhelmed and say could you come and do this investigation or could you come and help us with this policy or whatever and I would turn that work away because I'm like no this is what I'm doing now. So it didn't stop people still coming to me for the thing I used to do. and had I wanted to do it I would have done it. But yeah it made life just so much easier.

00:10:00

June Hogan: And so I was able to go out on social media and again I didn't pay for any support or anything like that. I did it all myself and have that client voice in my head. I knew who I wanted to speak to and who I wanted to reach. and it just made life a whole lot easier. And I posted recently actually Terry Wogan who I used to love listening to when I was work used to love his show. He would say that he would only ever speak to one listener. He wasn't trying to speak to all of millions of people listening to him.

June Hogan: And I think it's so true that you just try and speak to one person and it can make your life a lot easier.

Nick Poninski: And once …

Nick Poninski: who that person is and as you say what problem you're solving and what world they want to live in it as you say it changes everything. what you are supposed to be saying that focus.

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: What happened with your business then?

Nick Poninski: So you've got this focus. You know who you're talking to. you've got this niche. What happens next?

June Hogan: H so I found that I was showing up on LinkedIn a lot more.

June Hogan: So for someone who didn't have a social media profile 12 months before nowhere I found confidence in showing up on LinkedIn. So I understood my boundaries and what I would and wouldn't post about. But it just made it a lot easier for me to write posts and  it made it easier for me to develop my audience. So, making my connections and spending some time doing that. So, I was relatively sort of methodical and quite committed to sending those connection requests so that my audience because who the LinkedIn algorithm is a law itself, so who knows who's going to see your post, but I was hopefully increasing my chances of my ideal client picking up my post. So, that was helpful.

June Hogan: and I was really able to just focus my attention on the services that I wanted to offer. How was I going to package those up and how would that be helpful? So, it just brought a lot of clarity to what I was able to spend my time doing and to feel like I had a purpose almost because I could sort of start to see this business developing in its very very embionic stages. It was starting to become a business whereas before I don't even know what it was.  It was just a jumble of ideas.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can completely understand because for me when I decided to not leave the copywriting world behind but I moved more into a bit more of a holistic marketing and sales area. I started off with business consultants and it felt so vague.

Nick Poninski: that is just a huge market and I thought yeah huge market great but it makes it so much more difficult because there's so many of them and…

June Hogan: Yeah. Mhm.

Nick Poninski: they all have different kinds of problems and then as you say when you're looking on LinkedIn to find these people to add them to your network to then have them popping up in your field in your feed that you can pop up in their feed etc makes it so much more difficult but when I niched down into consultants changed

Nick Poninski: everything. my feed on LinkedIn is consultants. Makes it so much easier to just add comments, whatever else. it's changed everything. That focus makes everything much easier.

June Hogan: And also I think it helps you to feel connected. So we all need our tribes, don't we?  And so I feel like there's a tribe on LinkedIn. I have some lovely people who I probably or haven't met and maybe never will meet who will support me on LinkedIn and I'm incredibly grateful for that and I'll return that as well. And so you feel kind of like you belong in that particular community. And then there are other communities which is how we met you kind of social on Facebook for example.

June Hogan: There are certain when you might want to go and do face-toface things. you can pick and…

June Hogan: choose which ones you might want to go to thinking about is that my tribe? Will I be able to make some nice connections? and I don't go to these things thinking will I get any business because invariably probably I don't and that doesn't matter. But it's about connecting and…

Nick Poninski: Yeah. It's about spending your time wisely,…

June Hogan: and showing up. Yeah. Yes,…

Nick Poninski: like you say, turning up to these things face to face. I came along to the HRI conference,…

June Hogan: we had a table,…

Nick Poninski: right? We did share a table.

June Hogan: didn't we?

Nick Poninski: I won a prize from here as well. And then back in November I went to the CIPD conference. why do I do these things? Because I know my audience is there.

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: And it's, if I'd stayed with business consultants, Jesus, where the hell would I go to see these people?  Yes.

00:15:00

June Hogan: 

June Hogan: No, I agree. and then all of that then can feed into My website use the It wasn't professionally done until last year. It's a big investment in a website. It's a lot of money. but despite that, I was able to make my website relatively specific and talk about certain things. And into I don't know It seems like a kind of a dark art.  But I'm assured that you can then, use the SEO engines and I'm pro people probably what you're talking about. but again, if you've got a specific audience you're trying to reach and you've got some specific keywords and all that good stuff. So it feeds into that and it feeds into if you want to grow your email list again. Okay, so what kind of a lead magnet do you want to offer to these people to get them on your list? What's going to be of interest to them? Do you understand again their pain point and therefore what they're going to want?

June Hogan: So it's just like that golden thread that runs through everything that makes life a lot easier.

June Hogan: No, I'm not being paid. It's just literally coming out of my mouth. I'm hoping it's making sense.

Nick Poninski: No, it's 100% making sense.

Nick Poninski: It's the exact same things that I talk about. your website should be somewhere where your ideal client, your niche, can get on to you and say, "I'm in the right place to have my problems sorted." if you work with accountants and there are pictures of accountants on your website, they'll be like, "Okay, I'm engaged now. What else have you got for me?" But if accountants click on your website and see pictures of farmyard animals, they're like, "Not for me." And they're going to click off. They're never to return again. And it's the same with if the lead magnet solves their problems, if the copy speaks to them, they will become more and more into your world. it's tentative steps, but they are making that progress. But if your images don't speak to them, they will click away.

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: This time yeah.

June Hogan: No, you're absolutely right because even when we're not working, we're looking for stuff online and if you land and I'm the same, I'm like, " I don't even know if this is for me." you haven't got much time for people to make that decision, have you? and one of the things I wish I had done was to start an email list a lot sooner. I only started that last year. So if anyone's listening, they're in the early stages. it doesn't, Mailchimp or Mailite or whatever else is out there. They're not particularly expensive. Certainly when you've only got, a few people. I think they might even be free if you've only got a few people,…

Nick Poninski: Are they?

June Hogan: aren't they?

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah.

June Hogan: 

June Hogan: And I would encourage anyone to start that. So, find a lead magnet, find a way to get them on your list for whatever reason or when you go to networking. but it's nice to have a community that isn't on social media. so yeah, and…

June Hogan: there's lots of mindbending stuff involved in setting up an email list because inside those systems, it is pretty tricky. But again, if you can invest in some help,'s something that's the one thing I regret is not doing that earlier. So, yeah.

Nick Poninski: Excellent. I love that…

Nick Poninski: because that was literally about to be my question. What would you have done differently? What would your advice be to those listening along at home? So, yeah, I guess you've already answered the question of what you would do differently.

June Hogan: So I would paid more attention to email.

Nick Poninski: Is there anything else? Yes.

June Hogan: I just think I had a block with it and thought, it looks really complicated. How am I going to write to people? What am I going to say? because I'm the kind of person that if I say I'm going to do something, I follow through with it.  So knowing that I couldn't just start it and then it just go dusty so yeah in fact I did dabble with it for a while and then just had to give it up. so yeah I would definitely do that. and one thing I wouldn't do but I didn't do this but I could see how some people might get sucked into that and apologies for website designers that might be listening but I built my business without a professional website.

June Hogan: I had a presence, but it was a WordPress one that I kind of did myself and didn't have any professional help. So, websites can be expensive. You can get some really good cheap options now, they look good and then they're not hugely expensive. So, if I recommend that if you've got some money to invest, but I wouldn't think I wouldn't be held back by, I can't set myself up in business yet because I don't have a fancy website.  If you've got a presence on LinkedIn, you've got a way for people to contact you, then that can be enough. And the way I built my business was through showing up on LinkedIn and through making connections and developing my tribe and my community. And as we said at the start, being known to solve a specific problem. so yeah, those are the two things that say I just give people some reflections on

00:20:00

Nick Poninski: No, I like that as well.

June Hogan: I do get that niching can feel scary.

Nick Poninski: I think as well I would agree with you that a website isn't necessarily necessary for you to go into business. it is helpful because then as we said they can click onto it find out more information opt in or opt out but it shouldn't be a blocker if you've got that LinkedIn presence it's just a way of it's your presence it's your spot in the world and it is a place where you can have your lead magnet and your email account and all that stuff so yeah I guess that would be my thought on the websites

Nick Poninski: so yeah, any advice for those listening along at home?

June Hogan: So, I've got friends that I work with in my community, and some of them have haven't niched because they just don't want to. The thought of niching is just too frightening around, I'll close off opportunities for other things. but on the weekend, I was chatting with somebody who's a friend, and they asked me for a recommendation for somebody who does a very specific service. because they needed some support in their global business for this really specific service. And she said to me, "Do you know anybody?" And straight away because this person had showed up and I knew exactly what they did and I could, …

Nick Poninski: Yeah.

June Hogan: and I know them anyway from groups that we've been in together. It was really easy for me to make that recommendation and I love making those referrals as well because I'm always very grateful when people do it for me.  So, I think that kind of really underpins what the power of being really specific. Now, I know that this person does other work as well. They don't just specialize in one area. and in fact, when you go to their website, you can see a few other services. It's very specific about what they do, and the website's really nicely laid out, very kind of clear, but I knew them for that particular thing. And that particular pain point was what my friend was asking about.

June Hogan: And so it's just easy for people to join the dots. and I said at the start, you do it for I think three months is I don't know if you'd agree, it's enough time to see if you can make a go of something. If you say, "I'm going to do it for a week, obviously too short. A month maybe not,…

June Hogan: you can't get the traction. But if you say, "I'm going to do this for three months, and at three months I'm gonna review it, see what's worked, see if I want to carry on." You can literally change your mind. Unless you've invested £10,000 in a website that says, I'm an investigator and that's all I do. so going back to your point about the website and some of these other things that might require a bit more investment, maybe during that initial, I'm going to niche,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yes,…

June Hogan: see how I get on, you might not want to narrow things down too much in terms of investment around those things. But you can change your mind because you're the business owner. You're in charge. You call the shots.

Nick Poninski: I like that.

June Hogan: And you can pivot or…

Nick Poninski: That's good advice.

June Hogan: whatever the phrase is.

Nick Poninski: You can change your mind. You're not set in stone.

June Hogan: Yeah. No.

Nick Poninski: It's not forever.

June Hogan: No. Cool.

Nick Poninski: So, yeah, unless it works, in which case,…

June Hogan: Yeah. and…

Nick Poninski: double down.

June Hogan: to be fair, there are things that I do and I'm thinking about certain little tweaks.

June Hogan: So, I love what I do and I really enjoy it and I find it rewarding and it's really valuable work. but I can make some twe tweaks and I can make some changes and I can try other things if I want to because that's within my gift.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yes.

June Hogan: Some of those things might not work, but I can still come back to the core of what I do. which is the niche that I found.

Nick Poninski: 100%. I think that is a great piece of advice is that people worry when they niche they won't be able to do other work or other people will opt out of them as such and that can happen…

Nick Poninski: but if somebody comes to you and says can you help with XY Z and that isn't in your niche but you want to do it you're the business owner go nuts go and do it if you want to do it there's no one stopping you so I have clients…

June Hogan: H. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: who aren't consultants I do

Nick Poninski: work that isn't marketing and sales. I've got a client right now who I'm doing copywriting work Back to my roots. so,…

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: if the opportunity presents itself and you want to do it, just because you have niche doesn't mean, it's this weight around your neck that you have to commit to. Yeah.

June Hogan: No, no, definitely. and when you're thinking about where to invest your time, where to invest your money, thinking about how to develop your skills, all of these things, you come back to your niche and you focus on this is where I want to gain deep expertise or, this is how I want to develop. but again if other things are complimentary then it doesn't stop you doing them but you kind of know what that core is. what that I know we said before gold thread or that stick of rock that runs through your business if you cut business in half this is what it's about. This is what I'm about. but yeah you've still got that flexibility. So it can feel maybe daunting and a bit restrictive but at the end of the day you're the business owner.

00:25:00

June Hogan: So, as you say, you can make those decisions and I know some coaches who have niched, maybe not as specifically as me, but that they do have a niche. They do have a target of people that they want to work with and they do consultancy to just prop that up, to have a level of stability. so yeah, there's still an opportunity to do things like that.

Nick Poninski: Whoa. I don't have any other questions for you, June. You've been a perfect guest.

June Hogan: That's nice to hear. Especially if you're not going to cut that bit out, are you when we put it on the airwaves? No. A Well,…

Nick Poninski: No, no, I'll stand by it publicly. No problem with that whatsoever. it has,…

June Hogan: thank you, Time's gone super quickly. yeah,…

Nick Poninski: right? Yeah,…

June Hogan: it's nice having a chat. So,

Nick Poninski: that's exactly It's just having a chat and exploring your world and listening to your story and then sharing advice for people because ultimately not everyone is where you want where you are right.

Nick Poninski: they want to get there. Successful business and an expert in their field takes time and effort, right?

June Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.

June Hogan: And just hopefully this session has maybe sparked some ideas or got people thinking. and…

June Hogan: thank you for inviting me along to share this with you. because yeah, when I reflect on the me and I can literally picture me sitting at my desk thinking what What am I supposed to be doing? I really don't know. I'd love to have just, podcast five years ago. I think they were just kind of emerging, weren't they? Maybe not so much. yeah, so I think these sessions are great. They're just nice bite-size dog walk kind of, commute on the bus, whatever you do with them in the car. So yeah.

Nick Poninski: Yes. Yes.

Nick Poninski: Perfect. thank you for joining me.

Nick Poninski: Thank you for sharing your expertise and your learnings. it's great that you found time for me and for everyone at home. All right, perfect. hopefully for those listening along at home, this has been an entertaining and educational podcast for you. And in the meantime, we're going to off. Thank you for listening along. In the meantime, get marketing because without marketing,  And without sales, there's no business. So get marked.

June Hogan: No, you're very welcome.

Meeting ended after 00:27:46 👋

This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors. People can also change the text after it was created.