Escape the Invisible Expert Trap and Build Your £70K HR Consultancy

Most self-employed HR consultants are brilliant at what they do…

Amazing HR knowledge, passionate about helping businesses have the best people possible, and always staying on top of their employment law knowledge.

But they're invisible to the people who actually have the power (and budget) to hire them.

And that means they're waking up at night and wondering where the next client is coming from... lurching from feast to famine... and frequently wondering if they should go back to the 9-5.

They’ve unknowingly fallen into what I call the Invisible Expert Trap - showing up, doing the work, but constantly overlooked by the very clients who need their help.

So if you’ve ever asked,

 “Why is being self-employed so hard?”

 “Why does it feel like everyone else has amazing businesses and winning awards, while I'm struggling to get a full stable of retainer gigs?”

or

“Why am I STILL not getting consistent leads and clients despite doing what everyone else is doing?”

Then this episode is for you, my friend.

You’ll discover:

• ✅ A simple 4-step system to become visible, valuable, and in demand (no fluff, no faff)
• 🧠 The overlooked reason why your networking, LinkedIn posts, and DMs don't get leads and clients (and what to do instead).
• 💸 How to charge premium fees and actually get them
• 📅 Why giving away free calls is killing your business, and what to do instead
• 🔁 The easiest way to rinse and repeat your success so you’re booked out months in advance

And loads more insights you won’t find by posting motivational quotes or going to another networking breakfast.

So if you’re ready to stop being the best-kept secret in HR… And finally build the business you thought you were signing up for when you went solo…

Then listen to this episode.

Because getting clients isn’t hard when you know what you're doing.

And when you're ready, head here to grab a copy of my new book so you're no longer the Invisible Expert.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Why most HR consultants don't have the leads and clients they need for their business
• 00:42 – The harsh truth about networking and why it rarely leads to sales
• 01:39 – What it means to be an “Invisible Expert” and how to know if that’s you
• 02:56 – Introducing the Authority Amplifier Method (and why it works)
• 04:28 – What’s inside The Complete Guide to Building a £70K HR Consultancy book
• 06:11 – The foundation every successful HR consultancy needs to get leads and clients
• 07:04 – How to stand out from the crowd of other HR consultants
• 08:28 – Why lead generation is so important to HR Consultants
• 10:05 – Simple steps to turn networking conversations into paying clients
• 11:36 – When to charge for consultation calls (and how to do it)
• 12:19 – How to get more sales as a HR Consultant
• 13:14 – How to handle price objections with confidence
• 14:27 – Tracking what’s working in your marketing
• 15:

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

00:00 Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for HR Consultants with me, Nick Poninski. Today we are talking about being the invisible expert and what that means to you.
00:13 See, most HR consultants, they are stuck in the cycle of struggle that they can't quite explain. But there is a way out and that's what this episode is all about.
00:23 But let me guess, you are brilliant at what you do. Fantastic HR consultant. You genuinely care about your clients and the results that they get.
00:32 And you've spent years honing your expertise and staying on top of employment law and best practice HR. But when it comes to growing your business, you feel stuck.
00:42 You go to networking events, you shake hands, you smile politely, you come home with a few dusty business cards, but no, no actual leads.
00:50 Sure, there are people saying, oh, let's have a one-to-one, but there are friendly conversations that don't actually get money in your pocket.
00:58 Then you post on LinkedIn, like everyone says that you should, but instead of getting clients, you just get credit. Crickets or the odd like from another HR consultant or two.
01:07 You might even try sending letters to the local industrial park with teabag inside saying, have a cup of tea on me, but you don't even get a reply.
01:15 Not even to say thanks, but no thanks. you are trying anything that might work, but nothing sticks. Nothing gets you that flood of enquiries and leads to destroy feast and famine once and for all.
01:29 And the worst part? You start to doubt yourself. You wonder, why does it feel so hard for me? When everyone else looks like they're smashing it.
01:39 Well, here's what's happening. You've become what I call the invisible expert. You are great at what you do. Clients trust your advice when they work with you, but the right people, the ones with the budget, the discipline.
01:51 The decision making power and the genuine need for your service. They can't see you. You're hidden in plain sight. And that invisibility has a cost.
01:59 You wake up in the middle of the night wondering where your next client is coming from. You lower your race just to land a client.
02:07 Any client can be a client and then you regret it three weeks later. And you say yes to associate work.
02:12 That underpays you and undervalues you. And when it gets really bad, you find yourself Googling part-time jobs or even thinking about going back to the 9-5 permanently.
02:23 But then, you out of nowhere, a client lands in your inbox and you have a cracking month. You think, hey, things are changing.
02:31 But you didn't do anything differently. So that high, that fades, and the next dry spell, it kicks in. Welcome back to Feast or Famine.
02:40 It's frustrating, it's disheartening, and it's totally unnecessary because there is a solution. It's called the Authority Amplifier Method, and that's the exact approach I teach HR consultants who are ready to escape the struggle of Feast or Famine.
02:56 and build a 70k business on their terms. Here's how it works. It's a simple four-step system that plugs into your business and gets you visible, valuable, and in demand.
03:08 Step one. You attract high quality clients using strategies that actually work. No more cookie cutter advice or tactics that make you cringe.
03:17 Step two. Have simple but strategic conversations that convert into paid work without chasing, begging, or getting ghosted. You take control.
03:30 You decide who you want to work with, how much you want to charge them, and when you want to do the work.
03:37 fluff, no hype, just a system that delivers. The result? You're booked out months in advance. With brilliant clients who respect your expertise and happily pay what you're worth.
03:47 finally running a business that feels good. Financially, emotionally, and practically. And if you're wondering about Step 4, nice catch. Step 4. Step 4 is the easiest of all.
03:58 Rinse and repeat. You just do what you did to get the leads and clients into your business over and over and over again.
04:07 how do you get this Authority Amplifier Method? Well, very simply, pop on over to my website and make an investment of just £4.63, less than a bottle of wine.
04:17 And for that £4.63, you will get my brand new book, the complete guide to building a 70K HR consultancy and bonuses worth over £700 English pounds.
04:28 And then you, my friend, will have access to all the information you need to plug in the Authority Amplifier Method into your business, so that you get every claim you need for your HR consultancy.
04:42 But let's have a quick look at what you'll discover in the actual book. How will you bring the Authority Amplifier Method to life so that you're no longer the invisible expert?
04:50 Well, first off, the book is split into seven easy to understand sections. There is, well, actually, before those sections, there is an introduction to you to talk about the world of HR consulting and how to mark it yourself.
05:03 So we've got sections on the big promise, right? The book is called the complete guide to building a successful HR consultancy.
05:10 A complete guide to building a 70K HR consultancy. So there is a section in the book that talks about that and why that claim can be made.
05:19 Then we talk about how you're going to do that. How you're going to build your 70K HR consultancy. So what is it you're actually going to do?
05:27 The high level overview. Then you've got some marketing principles to understand. Then there's a free page plan to make sure that you go from feast or famine.
05:35 And to book out with retainer gigs and one of projects. Then there's an in-depth section talking about all the various mistakes that HR consultants make when marketing themselves so that you can avoid them.
05:46 After that, we dig in deep into the seven easy to understand sections. First section. Pre-marketing. This is everything you need to know before you go to market.
05:56 This is laying the foundations to make sure that you can build your 70K HR consultants in. And if you don't complete this section.
06:03 It's like you're building a house without any foundations. You'll get subsidence, problems will arise, the house will fall in and itself.
06:11 So what's involved in this pre-marketing section? Well, it's target market and its niche. We're talking about the absolute essential that HR consultants- and every other business out there cannot avoid when they're marketing themselves if they want to be successful.
06:26 questions, there's guidance on how to create the best target market and the best target market for you. Then it's time to scope up the customer, advertise so that you can do the best marketing possible so that your audience can see you a message and say, hey, this person's talking to me rather than ignoring
06:43 you. They will say, this person's talking to me, I need their help. They will get- into your DMs. It's a very simple section, but it's actually the most important section.
06:53 That's why it's listed up first. Next up is section two, the service. This is about being the best HR consultant you can possibly be, and also about standing out from the massive crowd massive crowd.
07:04 Of HR consultants that you are competing with. So we're talking here about differentiation, brand recognition, value proposition, targeted miking, customer loyalty, premium pricing, positioning, your services, what to charge, how to charge, how to work out what to charge, whether you share your public
07:25 prices publicly or not, all that good stuff. interspersed the psychological tips to make sure that you actually get the fees that you want to charge, what to do when you get pushed back on your prices, then we're going to a bit more about productivity and being the best you that you can possibly be.
07:41 Pareto principle, the Pomodoro.
08:28 next section of the book is all about lead gen. Lead gen, lead gen, lead gen, lead gen. If you've ever listened to me on a podcast, you will know that I talk a hell of a lot about lead gen. Because really, lead gen is one of the most important pieces of running a successful business.
08:41 In fact, no, sod that, let me just say it. Lead gen is the most important piece of running a successful business.
08:48 Because if you are not generating leads, you will not have any clients, you will not have any sales, and you will not have any profits.
08:54 Lead gen, lead gen, lead gen. Everything is down in the stream from lead gen. So, there is a big old section on LinkedIn to help you develop the best LinkedIn profile possible, so that your audience, whenever they click on your profile, they see you as the best HR consultant, the only HR consultant that
09:11 they want to work with. You'll understand what's right in your profile, what to post, what to DM people, so that anyone who interacts with you are falling over themselves to work with you.
09:20 And these methods, they can be transferred over to any social media platform. Then there's a look at all the other methods of lead gen that are possible.
09:27 Networking, cold calling, DMing people. Sending mail, sending lumpy mail, cold email, BNI, whatever it is that you want to use to generate your leads, there's a guide on it.
09:37 There's an instruction manual to help you generate leads the way that you want to generate leads. So if you want to go networking, there's a strategy that will help you get clients through networking.
09:47 If you want to do cold calling, there's a script. You want to send letters in the post, there's a template-let sales letter.
09:54 Whatever it is that you want to do to generate leads, there's a method for you. You'll understand how to get leads, how to generate leads, to turn those leads into clients, and how to do it consistently and repeatedly through the life of your business.
10:05 There's no hyperbole here when I say that I've done as much of the heavy lifting as possible, so that you have everything that you need to get every client and lead that you need, that you want.
10:16 we move on to Section 4. Section 4 is all about pre-sales. Effectively, it's working out three key things. Can you help them?
10:24 Do you want to help them? Are they ready and willing to pay for your help? It's no good responding to everyone who DMs you or gets in contacts and saying, Hey, I'm interested in working with you.
10:33 And you say, Oh my God, let's get on a call immediately. That's the mark of an amateur. A professional takes their time.
10:38 A professional is discerning. A professional says, Is it worth my time getting on a call? Time is the most important resource that we have.
10:48 You cannot get any more time. So protect it. Do not get on calls with absolutely anybody and everybody who flutters their eyelashes at you.
10:57 And remove your mobile number from your website. As I'm saying this from your LinkedIn profile. Get rid of it and your Calendly link.
11:04 No one should be able to get into your access to your diary. No one should just be able to call You'll have experienced this yourself if you've ever wanted to work with me.
11:12 I apologize. I want to understand your world before I invest my time in a call with you, with anyone. Calls take time, and I want to understand as much of the situation as possible before I decide I'm getting on the phone with you should be doing this too.
11:27 So there's an entirely different script on what you should be saying, why you should be saying it, how you should be saying it, so you make sure that you are only talking to people who are right for you and for your business.
11:36 Then there's a subsection here about why, when, and how to charge for consultation calls. This is really important, right? Back in the corporate world, someone knocks on your door, asks for help, you'd help them.
11:47 Why wouldn't you, right? But it doesn't work that way when you're self-employed. If you don't get paid, you don't get paid.
11:53 So there are certain times when you should be charging for consultation calls. You shouldn't be offering free calls on your website, no calendar.
12:00 Your timing expertise are Don't give them away for free.
12:09 up is section five. Section five is all about sales. I call it sales heaven. It's an easy seven-step formula you can follow which makes selling nice and easy.
12:19 No twisting people's arms around the back, nor forcing them to buy from me. Some sort of door-to-door salesman selling dice and hoovers or anything along those lines.
12:28 It's an example of how to handle sales calls so that you're in charge of the call, but you get the result that you want and your client wants.
12:37 After that, it'll be time to take them through your presentation. So this could be a proposal that you've created, or it could be your one-off signature offer that you sell on repeat to anyone and everyone that comes knocking on your door.
12:49 Whatever it is that you decide to sell as your HR consultant, this will be the time. You will be running through your presentation.
12:55 Once you've understood the process, once you've world, once you've understood that you can help them, that you want to help them, and that they are ready, financially ready and willing to invest in a solution, then it will be the time to run through that presentation.
13:06 It'll be the time to say, hey, I understand your world. Here's how I can help up is a chunky section on objection handling.
13:14 Objection handling is really important. The idea that everyone who comes here and is immediately going to want to hire you, well, it's nice, but it's not realistic, is it?
13:23 That's why I'm giving you a chunky section on objection handling. Because it's one thing to lead somebody to the point where they're going to invest you.
13:30 It's quite another to get them over the line. After that, it's everything you need to know about proposals. So why proposals can be a waste of time.
13:38 Why they're sometimes necessary. What to do with your proposals. Why you should sell them. Why you sell your proposals. Why you shouldn't just send your proposals through the post.
13:47 And how to structure a winning proposal. How to present your proposal. What to do if it gets ghosted. There is everything that you possibly need to know about proposals.
13:57 on from that, there is a section about measuring your marketing and sales results. Because, well, at this moment in time, you've generated your leads.
14:04 You've turned those leads into clients, or you haven't. It's time to measure what's working and why. This is one step you really can't afford to skip.
14:12 Because it's all well and good, keep plugging away, showing up online, talking to prospects. But if you're not tracking what's working and what isn't, you're flying blind.
14:19 You could be wasting time on strategies that don't bring in leads, repeatedly spending hours on calls that don't convert, and you wouldn't even know it.
14:27 That's where the system actually comes into play. call LAPS comes into play. LAPS stands for Leads, Appointments, Presentations, and Sales.
14:35 And those numbers that, you know, that we're measuring here, they tell a story about your business. No leads, your lead gen ain't working.
14:41 No appointments, your leads aren't qualified. No presentations, your prospects through your funnel. And no sales? Well, your pitch, your pricing, your presentation, your service, whatever it is, something needs work.
14:53 Next section is all about post-sales marketing. So what happens after you've got that client? What do you do with that client to turn that client into more of more clients?
15:01 So there's chapters on customer success stories, testimonials, There's a script for you to make sure that you get the testimonials because it's all well and good messaging someone and saying, Hey, we finished that project.
15:13 Can I get a testimonial? They say, yeah, but they never actually do it. a section on increasing client buying frequency, a section on email marketing so that you can turn clients into more clients and increase their customer lifetime value.
15:28 There's also a section I call triple R. O. R. R for regular referrals. Effectively, there's everything you need to know to turn one client into more clients.
15:37 final section of the book is section seven. What happens if you don't get the sale? A.K.A. what happens when you've taken somebody through your funnel, but you haven't turned them into a client?
15:45 How do you monetize that person? How do you monetize your email list? How do you build a funnel? What do you do with people who are leads, but don't become clients?
15:54 This is how you start to destroy fees or famine. This is how you bring people into your world automatically, repeatedly, and consistently turn them into clients.
16:04 There's everything you need to know in this A lot of it revolves around email marketing, because email marketing, it's damn effective.
16:12 It's why I you know, everywhere on the Internet says you get a return of $40 for every dollar invested, and you'll notice if you take a moment to take a look around, every business out there worth their salt does it.
16:24 They all want your email address, from Domino's, to Supercuts, to Versoce. They all want your email address because it's cheap and it's effective.
16:33 And that's one of the sections in the book. After that, the book's over. There's a conclusion, an appendix, and there's a list of other books that you could read to help you with your marketing and sales activities.
16:44 And make sure that you are the number one HR consultant and that you are consistently booked out earning 70k or more, working fewer hours than ever 
16:55 now you understand what's inside the book, well, now you might be curious what makes this book different. Well, firstly, it's written by, it's written by me, it's written by someone who worked in HR.
17:07 And as a teacher and is a copywriter. So you know that the content is going to be practical. It's going to be easy to understand, and it's going to be grounded in your world.
17:17 I'm also a devoted student of psychology, like the seminal book on marketing by Robert Cialdini, and. And I love productivity, so you'll only get tactics and strategies which work and which work quickly.
17:30 There's no point in me telling you to do stuff that doesn't work or the stuff that takes too long to get results, right?
17:36 So what does that mean? That means that you get 10% of Templates galore. Templates that take the heavy lifting out of creating content.
17:40 No more staring at a blank screen and what to create and how to create it. You'll have 95% of the content already created for you, both inside the book and with links to external sources.
17:56 So you're getting your hands on Templates which are written, tested, and approved by me and my peers who are world-class copywriters and also get scripts to help you generate leads and claims, and you'll get the exact words to say it in the exact order to position yourself as the expert HR consultant
18:13 who's in demand and knows this stuff. The kind of HR consultant that businesses are desperate to work with. You're also going to get an abundance of chat GPT prompts.
18:22 See, there's links to experts who specifically crafted chat GPT prompts that you can copy and paste alongside the templates and scripts to help you generate 99% of the content you need to market yourself and your business.
18:35 And that makes things easier than ever before to get clients. won't be generic content that is sent to you monthly to try and appeal to anyone and everyone.
18:43 This is specific content that works for you and for your audience. Not only do I give you the templates and the chat GPT prompts, I also give you full examples of the content I use in my business so you can see what best practice looks like.
18:58 And then you can give those examples to chat GPT to model. That makes sure that your content is better than anything generic that everyone else is using and that I'm sending out.
19:07 Again, this will make sure that you stand out against a flood of HR consultants out there. And if you're thinking, well, chat GPT will have the same info, so it will create the same content for me as it does for anyone else who gets the book.
19:21 Well, you'd be partly correct. Obviously, it will use the same prompts as every other HR consultant who uses them. But your outputs, they'll be tailored to your audience.
19:32 And that means there won't be any generic content and nothing that looks like anyone else's content. Finally, the book There are links to the 70 plus back catalogue of podcasts that I've created and released that explain key concepts in the book, so you can get a better understanding of what the book
19:48 is explaining, when you need it most. And then you'll learn to understand why everything you're reading, learning and getting is so effective at generating the clients you need for your 70k or more HR consultancy.
20:01 Overall, this book isn't theory. It's a do this, get results kind of book. it's not just me saying all this.
20:09 Let me share a few of. the testimonials which are popping through. Page 19 really opened my eyes. This is exactly what HR consultants should be doing, but so few are.
20:20 If you haven't read it yet, do. That's one review. You'll be able to see it on the sales review? I'm just reading Nick's new book, and page 24 spells out something so obvious yet so overlooked.
20:33 HR consultants who get this right will leave everyone else behind. If you don't have a copy yet, you really should order one now.
20:40 Again, that's a real-life testimonial. It's on this book's sales page. One final testimonial for you. Just got my copy of the Complete Guide to Building a 70-Hair HR Consultancy.
20:54 And wow, Nick Peninsky, what you shared on page 128 is pure gold. HR consultants who are ignoring this, making life way harder than it needs to another real testimonial review of the book, which you can find on the sales page.
21:12 These aren't words that I've made up. if you're ready to start building your 70k or more HR consultancy To when feast or famine wants them for all To never have to go networking if you don't want to to finally have the business that you wanted when you first went into business for yourself Then go to
21:33 the influential consultant website and grab the book for just four pounds 63 You'll get the complete guide to building a 70k HR consultancy and over seven 700 pounds worth of bonuses including another book that explains the concepts of funnels and gives you scripts to make it happen easily Deep dive 
21:51 videos to explain core concepts of marketing that HR consultants fundamentally misunderstand and a compute community to help to tap into so you're not alone when building your 70k HR consultancy.
22:03 This book you'll get instant access to and it's not on Amazon. It's not in shops. It's only on my website.
22:10 Jeff Bezos has enough of our money. He doesn't need any more. So forget Amazon. Just go to my website, get your copy of the complete guide to building a 70k HR consultancy today.
22:23 if you're thinking, oh, that sounds great. Maybe I'll do it another day. Well, let me share this with you. Another month can go by doing what you've always done, or you can change everything with one decision.
22:35 At the time of recording, we're a fairly short period of the way through 2025. And let me ask you, how's 2025 gone the way you expected and hoped when it rang in at midnight on the 31st of December 2024? Or are you still stumbling and struggling along, looking for a solution for your marketing world's
22:52 feast or timing cycle? Because if so, you don't need another networking event or to keep showing up on LinkedIn. You need this book.
23:00 It's a full system, a full strategy, a full authority amplifying method to give you all the clients you ever need and the confidence to charge what you worth every single time.
23:11 So head on over to the influential consultant website and get the book and get started today. And in the meantime, thanks for taking the time to listen to this.
23:19 And as ever, get marketing because without marketing, there's no sales. And without sales, there's no business. So get marketing.