Billable at the Beach® How to Liberate Your Life & Build a 6-figure Consulting Business with Founder Amy Rasdal on Episode #0244

Hi, this is Amy Rasdal from Billable at the Beach. And you’re listening to EA Interviews.

Intro [0:06]
EA interviews, Episode 244. Inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect interview.

Mario Fachini [0:20]
Maybe you make six figures, maybe even make seven. Maybe you’re high up at a company. But how much time do you have? That’s the question. That’s why I’m excited to have Amy Rasdal on the show today, because she is going to be sharing with us how you can start your own consulting company. She did this 15 years ago, and now makes more than executives in her companies called Billable at the beach. So if you’d like more time with the same, if not more money, I’m gonna have Amy up right after we thank our sponsor.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [0:55]
Every business needs a book, including yours, visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that’s freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com.

Mario Fachini [1:11]
Here she is. Ladies and gentlemen, Amy Rasdal. Amy, how are you feeling today?

Amy Rasdal [1:16]
I’m good, Mario. Thanks for having me today.

Mario Fachini [1:19]
I’m so excited to have you on because time is so important. And I think a lot of people have forgotten that. What’s your experience?

Amy Rasdal [1:30]
I think people do. So I have a favorite book that I love. I grew up in Silicon Valley. I’m a silicon kid. And it’s from Ebro. And he makes a big point out of saying that time is our only truly not resource. You can get more money, you can get more buildings, you can get more people, more other resources. Time as hard as I try is something that I’ve never been able to figure out how to make more of. How about you?

Mario Fachini [2:00]
I’m in the same boat. I mean, you can email yourself twice, and act like it saved you time or something. But when you break it down, you only get 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week, 96 opportunities a day with 15 minute increments, to do something great about it. But you’re absolutely right. You can make more money, but you’re limited on the time.

Amy Rasdal [2:28]
That’s right, and you can only skip sleeping so it catches up with you. That one too.

Mario Fachini [2:34]
Yep, I’ve definitely been there. So I want to ask you, why would you say it’s so important for people to consider consulting instead of just driving themselves on the ground?

Amy Rasdal [2:50]
Well, consulting gives you so much freedom and flexibility. And I think some things about consulting, I think that’s something people probably understand. Now, I’m not talking about consulting, working for one of the consulting firms, but rather having your own consulting agency or just your own solo practice. I think people are aware of the lifestyle bonuses or freedom of flexibility. I don’t think anyone always thinks about or talks about what a great career it is, in terms of career path and career satisfaction. And the fact that you can make more money as a consultant than you can as a corporate employee. Not sure everyone thinks about those tools.

Mario Fachini [3:36]
You’re saying you can make more as a consultant than a corporate worker.

Amy Rasdal [3:42]
That’s right. And a lot of people don’t understand that though it’s very much in line with the things that you’re always talking about. As the consultant, a lot of people immediately gravitate towards just filling up their hours. There’s this big kind of fashionable thing right now to do fractious, EO, fractional cmo, things like that, this fractional well to me that so part time job, I don’t want you to have a part time job. I want you to be a superhero, with superpowers, making super pay. And being a superhero. It’s super fun. And that super pay part if you really can do so it’s not about just people have an instinctive sense that when they start consulting, that they make sure they fill all those hours. And it’s not the right mindset to approach it. You really have to get a superpower, being a superhero and pick those engagements carefully.

Mario Fachini [4:45]
Can you put some numbers to that because that sounds good to me. But when you’re saying make more, working less. I mean that alone is something to wrap your head around, but how much more exactly are you referring to like what would you say is typical for a corporate pay versus consultant pay?

Amy Rasdal [5:05]
So I think I’ve never thought about it in quite that way. But I can think quickly and the math seems to be enough. So I’ve seen a lot of people be able to match their corporate pay, working half the number of hours.

Mario Fachini [5:23]
So that’s like doubling it.

Amy Rasdal [5:25]
If you’re interested in working the same amount of hours. So I think double is a pretty fair number. Now, I’m not going to say that everybody can do that. And there are people, the sky’s sort of the limit, depending what you do, and how advanced you’re willing to get in terms of some of your approaches, and kind of how you like to work and who your best target client is, it can be more than.

Mario Fachini [5:52]
What if someone’s afraid to go do it, even though they’ve been in the job? 10 years? 15, 20, 30? More? I mean, you’re asking them to completely switch and turn stuff around, why should someone still consider it, even if they’re afraid?

Amy Rasdal [6:07]
So fear comes up all over the place when you start consulting? And I think that’s probably true when you start your own business in general, when I work with people in my programs, some of the things that happen over and over the mistakes that people make boil back to fear. So there’s a few different variations of that. But I think one of the biggest ones, and I think maybe your question is around, okay, why should I leave my corporate job? Why is consulting better or safer or whatever than my corporate job? Well, here’s the thing. You and I both know, as much as we think about it too much, that we can walk into our corporate job any day, and that jobs that get eliminated, they could be hours. So we can walk in any day, and our job can be eliminated. And oftentimes, that’s not when we’re expecting it. So I’m going to tell just a little story. I was consulting and working on a project with a company. And I did most of my work remotely, which is usually the way that I operate. I buy one team meeting a week. So I was in the team meeting on Wednesday, and there was a woman there. I also speak at an outplacement services firm. So I speak on the second Monday of every month to a group of people who have recently liberated, and she walks in, I had just seen her at the company on Wednesday, she walks into my transition session on Monday. And I try not to add a funny expression on my face in those types of situations. But she must have seen the surprise on my face. And she said, I walked in on Friday, and my job was eliminated. There were no other jobs eliminated, I had no idea they were even thinking about it. But all of a sudden, my job is gone. So that can happen. Every time when you have your own consulting business, you have a trawl, if your pipeline is not looking good, assuming you’re willing to face reality it’s not a surprise. So you have a lot more control than you. But that’s not always intuitive.

Mario Fachini [8:25]
So, as far as your transition process, it sounds like even if someone’s having an issue with that you can help them with it.

Amy Rasdal [8:36]
Now, I don’t consider myself a mindset specialist on how to convince you that it’s time to quit your corporate job, I can for sure tell you about the process. I’m really more interested in helping you when you’re pretty close to the decision, if that makes sense.

Mario Fachini [8:57]
Okay.

Amy Rasdal [8:57]
I think it’s almost more of a life coach type person that can help you with kind of your total life picture. On deciding that, and then I can tell you the specifics of what that’s going to translate to in consulting.

Mario Fachini [9:14]
Let’s talk about how you set this up because consulting, I do it, I love it. Because for me, if you say you have a problem, it’s like a done deal. It’s fixed. And that’s what people are looking for in the end result, but I know so many people that do it in such different ways. I mean, you can jump on the phone, you can jump on the zoom, you can jump on whatever you can jump on in person. There’s so many different ways and I’d say business models, I guess is what I’m getting at. And I want to break down a few things. One of them is how would you say someone should structure the consulting? Let’s start there. And the second one yeah. Let’s start there. What would you say is the best way to do it?

Amy Rasdal [10:05]
Tell me more about what you mean? Tell me a little more what you mean by structure. Because I’m not…

Mario Fachini [10:11]
So if someone transitions over to consulting, okay, don’t just agree they should do it is absolutely great. You’re going to have a huge impact. But you could say I have a dozen clients that I talked to three on Wednesday night, that’s not the right math. I talked to six on Wednesday and six on Thursday. And we talk once a week. So that’s one model. And then there’s other people who might say, well, we talk once a month, and some talk bi weekly, what would you say is the best structure, after you’ve transitioned with, we’re pro consulting, but what would you say is a good model for not taking up so much of your time, but still having that high touch where you can get an impact quickly, because if you only talk once every three months, it’s gonna be hard to get some momentum, I would think.

Amy Rasdal [11:08]
So I can give the most help to people who have been corporate folks, and who want us to continue to have corporate clients. One big reason for corporate clients is and it doesn’t necessarily have to be multi billion dollars, but they have to be big enough to be able to pay you well. So it can be smaller, corporate, bigger corporate, but consulting for small business, just because they can’t pay you as much. So still working for corporate clients. And then what I would tell you right, when you transition, I would tell you don’t even worry about structure, the first thing that we’re going to do is get you generating rap, we are going to get you to land a project, and put a check in and all of the structure and how many days a week, we’re going to figure all out after we start generating revenue.

Mario Fachini [12:07]
Perfect.

Amy Rasdal [12:08]
So revenue first, I’m an extremely practical person. And I assume that you’re working mentally, because you have bills to pay. And then there’s all the super fun stuff. Because you and I are lucky that we get to both do something that we love. But fundamentally, it’s still the money. I mean, if I didn’t have to work for the money, I would be so busy. I have a million nerdy nonprofit type things that I would like to be busy with. So revenue first, and then all those decisions are so important, but after you’re generating.

Mario Fachini [12:44]
Excellent, excellent. And I appreciate the honesty there because that’s exactly what I was getting at is, there’s so many different ways to do consulting. There’s no right or wrong way, I would say it’s just what works best for you and what you’re saying and what I’m hearing is if you had some corporate clients previously, or you were doing it through the company, you can still now serve these people, but in the capacity of an independent consultant, correct?

Amy Rasdal [13:15]
Right. And then we do eventually cost structure and you really hit it, Mario, exactly what I suggest people do. I suggest that from the customer’s point of view, we always want to keep it completely focused on the customer’s needs. We don’t want to talk about our lifestyle needs when we’re presenting to the customer. But as a consultant, one of the big benefits is the freedom of flexibility. So what I want you to do after you’re generating revenue after you’ve at least landed one project and have a check in the bank. Otherwise, that’s what we’re going to work on first, then I want you to look at some of the lifestyle things that are important to you. What are the types of clients that turn those lifestyle priorities for you into client benefits. And I’ll give you a really quick example. So in my core consulting practice, I’m really a high level project manager. So project management, I really like to explain it as if it’s air traffic control, something comes into me, I do a little work, send it here, something comes into me. I don’t need to do any work, but this might impact funding or something or a product launch, right. We’re just about to ship a new vaccine. It’s really important. And this is bad news, potentially. I’m gonna pick up the hotline to do something else. I spent two hours going to these four places. So I tell people, look, I like to work remotely. That’s not how I explain it. I don’t want to live in a cubicle at somebody’s company’s site. I like to work remotely. I have young kids at home. I have other things that I like to do. I will talk about that. So the customer asked me look, if I come into your facility for four hours a day, the airport’s only going to be open four hours a day. So planes are only going to fly four hours a day. I’m remote, I never say home. I always say remote, because it sounds more professional is that I’m typically on email and available for quick contacts from seven in the morning till 11 at night, seven days a week. So the airport will be open very much like the San Diego airport, which I used to live under, thank goodness, I don’t anymore. from seven in the morning until 11. At night, the planes will be flying. So I really turned it into an advantage for them. Even though it’s also an important lifestyle thing for me.

Mario Fachini [15:46]
I’m glad you touched on that, because like we were talking about early on, you can’t get your time back. But you can always get more money. And if you’re wasting all your time just doing things, I mean, you could say I make a million dollars an hour. But if you’re spending 23 hours of that day doing rambunctious stuff that makes no nevermind. I mean, it still wouldn’t be a horrible day. I mean, just saying but that would get tiring after a while. But I guess after about 20, 30 days of that you could get your own plane and not have to deal with that. But the point is, you can’t get the time back. You can’t get the time back. And it doesn’t really matter how much you make an hour, you should be creating the lifestyle, you want to facilitate both because the reality is you can help a lot of people no matter where you’re at.

Amy Rasdal [16:45]
That’s right, you can add huge value to your client. And one of the other things that I really enjoy about consulting, I talked a little bit about career satisfaction and career path. I have way more impact on my client companies as a consultant than I did as a corporate employee. Because there’s a certain mystique about the outside consultant coming in. You’re typically sponsored by one or more of the executive team. They’re paying you a lot of money. So they’re going to listen to you. I remember telling my dad years ago when I first started doing this, I said, Dad, I have to be careful what I tell them, because now they do what I say. But it’s great, right? It’s so satisfying to really see your impact.

Mario Fachini [17:26]
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I will have to say that. And I do want to touch on this real quick. I did say I had two questions. And I’m gonna ask it to honor that for the expert authority world but I realized where you’re coming from, and we don’t need to go in super detailed, but the difference between coaching and consulting because a lot of people talk about, I’m a coach and consultant. It’s kind of like sales and marketing. It’s like, they’re so intertwined, but they’re not for advertising and marketing, or advertising and sales. And just I hear all the time coaching and consulting. And again, I’ve done both, but what’s your take on the coach versus the consultant?

Amy Rasdal [18:13]
So for me, I don’t know why Mario, but I always have a little bit of heartburn. When I or someone else refers to me as a coach, and I don’t really know why I still think it’s a little bit of a weird thing in business, and to not have it be in sports. That said, I believe that consultants work on bigger projects with very concrete results. The outcomes are clear and specific. Often working now here, I’m going to say a coach doesn’t work with a team because of course in sports, that’s exactly what they do. But coaching in the business sense, is more typically individuals or groups that are working on something. But the success of the coaching as opposed to a consulting gig is less dependent on a specific product launch or something like that. What do you think, Mario? Does that make sense to you? It does.

Mario Fachini [19:14]
And it’s interesting, because people have asked me this before and I’m like, that’s a good question. Because at the end of the day, me personally, I want to get you to the end result. So whether I’m coaching you through it, versus you’re paying me a lot of money to tell you the steps, I don’t really care, I want to get you to the end result. Here’s my take on it, though, when I’m coaching you, for example, like the sponsor ad earlier with my book program and my author clients, I have programs where I can coach you through publishing your book, and I only offer those a few times a year with a limited number of people and we go through it together. It’s been very effective. Okay, it’s a lot of fun too, I can take you through and get your business book published. But I’m saying, okay, step one, everyone, we need a title, we need a subtitle, who’s your avatar? Who’s your ideal reader? Okay, I’m telling you all the answers, you basically have a cheat sheet. I’ll tell you every last thing, it’s on you. Now, the consulting, I’ve done primarily, with my concierge program, where I’m only working with you one on one, and it’s very high touch. Okay? And maybe you’re responsible for some of it, which you are. But maybe most of it’s on me saying, okay, well my team and I will take care of the cover, we’ll take care of this, we’ll but we do need to brainstorm a few things back and forth here. So to me, it’s more about the responsibility. Because you could say you’re coaching the staff of the company, maybe you’re the consultant for the marketing team, and you’re guiding them, and they’re executing it. But it’s not training where you’re teaching them how to do it. Either way, you’re guiding them though.

Amy Rasdal [21:18]
It’s an interesting idea. That’s right. And I do with my corporate clients, I always call it consulting. However, I believe my job as a consultant in the corporate world, contrary to sound consulting firms, is, I believe it’s my job to get in there and do the project and get out. I’m not supposed to make myself indispensable. So I almost always work with a team, not my team that I bring in, but I work with an internal team that I put together run for, you know, typically nine to 18 months. But my goal is to leave that team able to operate completely without me. They’ll have a new leader or they might touch base with me from time to time. But my job is to get out and move on to the next project. That’s what consulting is.

Mario Fachini [22:08]
I see it as like time compounding, you’re saving them three to five years a finger to get out on their own, you’re going, Hey, let’s take it like you’re saying nine to 18 months, I’m gonna give you all the answers. Let’s just put this in place, we’ll have weekly milestones. And by the time we’re done, you’re gonna be up and running. And I just saved you five years, or 10 in some cases.

Amy Rasdal [22:30]
That’s such a succinct way to put that. Can I use that?

Mario Fachini [22:33]
Oh, for sure. It’s one reason I love my team, which I’m very thankful for transcribing. This makes the show notes because someone asked me on one of the last episodes, they’re like, that’s awesome. Can you say that again? I’m like, I have no clue what I just said. But it’s being recorded. It’s live. And we’ll see it in the show notes. So we’re good.

Amy Rasdal [22:53]
We have it.

Mario Fachini [22:54]
Yeah.

Amy Rasdal [22:55]
Well, it’s funny, because one of the things that I have in my program, one of the exercises that I have people go through is what we just did accidentally. So when they’re working on what I call their value proposition, or their elevator pitch, what it is they’re going to be selling, everyone can always do so much that you have to boil it down for your pitch. And so I tell them to put something together and then reach out to three to five people, because other people will give them that succinct, high sizzle bullet point that they could never come up with on their own. And that’s exactly what you just did there.

Mario Fachini [23:31]
In the same timeframe too. And you’re very welcome. Because I think they could figure it out. But there’s no way you’re going to do it in the same timeframe. You give anyone a computer six or 12 months, they’ll figure anything out. But if you have a deadline next week, it’s not a good solution. It goes back to that time.

Amy Rasdal [23:51]
No. So…

Mario Fachini [23:53]
Time is money. It’s like I do it on my own. Okay, cool. Well, if you want to give away 17 months of your time versus focus for 30 days, enjoy.

Amy Rasdal [24:07]
Well, and so you just set me up for something else that I say a lot when I talk to people about consulting. And I mean, I just figured out how to do it on my own. And I always tell people that when I talk about the mistakes that people make, I know about them. How? Because I made every single one, right? I’ve made every mistake as I’ve been building my business over the last 15 years. So people will say, well, why should I join one of your programs? Can I just do it on my own? I say, absolutely. You can do it on your own.

Mario Fachini [24:39]
Here’s all the answers.

Amy Rasdal [24:40]
It’s taken me 15 years. How long do you want to wait? Right? So it’s an interesting thing isn’t in my guess that’s kind of your whole point about expert authority is time when it boils down.

Mario Fachini [24:52]
It’s another reason I always focus on the results in the revenue and profit too because if you say okay, it’ll take me a year on my own. And you might think, hey, I’ve got a year on my own when you say you’re going to lose $172,000. Oh, well, I didn’t think about it like that. No, you didn’t, you’re just thinking at the time component. But if you’re making some serious money what’s that time worth? There’s a difference from making 20 an hour to 200 to 2000 versus 20,000.

Amy Rasdal [25:27]
Well, so like, almost everybody I’ve been working from, I say remotely, but home for many years. But even still, the pandemic, like most of everyone who’s watching this, made me get new IKEA furniture from my office. So firstly, I wait for it to be in stock. But I didn’t put that stuff together by myself, or even have my husband do it. We hired a guy who all he does is put together IKEA furniture, because I can be doing my consulting work. The guy who puts together the IKEA furniture, two things, he’s cheaper by hour than what I can make. And he can do it three times faster.

Mario Fachini [26:09]
Yeah, now the aggravation of it is just you have to be in a real learning mode. And there’s so much opportunity out there now. It’s just like, you can’t get the time back. And I’ve always loved it ever since I started my company, because it’s like, there’s people who absolutely don’t want to be doing this. They hate cameras. They hate being in front of the camera. They don’t want to be on stage. I personally love it. I love what I do. And I love speaking, onstage in person. And all of it. It’s like I do, and it’s the only thing I can do. You know what I mean? Anyone can do my emails, but only we can be on? Can you imagine that? I was thinking about that the other day? Because it’s like, imagine if you’re like, yeah, I want to get into shape and go to the gym and everything. So I’m going to hire someone to do that for me. You can hire a fitness trainer and coach, but if you were just like, in the salon, can you imagine if you’re like I’m gonna hire someone to get a haircut for me? Like, okay, there’s a point where…

Amy Rasdal [27:21]
That’s not so bad. But if there’s anyone out there who can come up with a thing where you work out and in shape, I’m in.

Mario Fachini [27:31]
Yeah, there are certain things that only we can do. And it’s, it’s interesting, because I don’t think you can outsource everything. And you should know what you’re saying your superpowers are? What are you the very best at the only thing you can do. But conversely, what’s all the other stuff that you shouldn’t even be touching? I remember the first time I posted on Facebook like a decade ago, I’m like, I just got fired today from the graphic design team. And nine out of 10 people were like, Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry that the… and the entrepreneur friends were like, nice, I remember that. They knew exactly what I was doing. I fired myself for my own company from that team. And I’m like, I don’t need to be touching. I enjoy it. I’m decent at it. I don’t need to touch it.

Amy Rasdal [28:19]
I’m a software engineer by background, and I don’t allow myself to touch my own websites. Because it’s a rabbit hole that I go down. And I get so obsessed with it. That is until I have everything working right. I won’t go to sleep. And so it’s just it doesn’t work for anybody for me so I don’t even touch it. Yeah, there’s a good saying and I should know who said it or wrote it. But it is only what you can do. I think that’s kind of the crux of what we’re talking about.

Mario Fachini [28:56]
Yeah. And at the same point, when you are done with it, you look up and go, oh, it’s a new month. When did this happen? Because we know it’s better than just a few hours or a few days. I designed software to build WordPress websites automatically. And I totally get what it’s like, not the code. Again, I fired myself from that about 11 or 12 years ago. Yeah. But even just playing around with it, trying to just think and brainstorm and test and tweak them like no, absolutely not. So totally get you. That’s cool. That’s cool. So tell me about what you were doing before. How did you decide I want to be on my own? I don’t want to be corporate anymore. Tell me about that.

Amy Rasdal [29:48]
So it’s kind of interesting. I really am set out to be a solo entrepreneur and have my own thing. Did I mention that I’m a silicon kid, dad was an early Silicon Valley guy. So I grew up surrounded by technology startups. So all the dinner tables that I sat around growing up a friend, my own, everything was technology startups. So it’s almost as if we didn’t even really realize anything else existed. I did eventually get out in the world and find out there were companies that did other things. But I started out working in a corporation and my original career goal was to be a startup technology CEO. I have since decided that being a CEO is overrated, underpaid, and I love consulting. But as I look back on my early years, I always love to perform. In my other life. I’m a dancer. One of my undergrad I went to undergrad on a music scholarship. So I was that little kid who was organizing backyard shows, and charging admission. And then at intermission, I would run out and sell popcorn and Kool Aid and stuff like that. Also, I just always did stuff like that. I love selling Girl Scout cookies. In college, I had a little… I rented a little piece of a gas station, really busy gas station corner at a beach in San Diego, I sold backpacks and duffle bags and beachy kind of stuff, I would make money because there was so much tourist traffic going by there in the summer that I could work the summer, and not have to work the whole rest of the school year when I was in college. So I was always doing stuff like that. And I never really thought that much about the fact that I just always stuff like that. I started clean, babysitting when I was 10. I started cleaning, but I could make more money cleaning houses than babysitting. I started doing that when I was 14. So I just kind of always did it. But for me, I’ve also realized now that I’m a lot older, that I don’t like other people telling me what to do, I like to decide it for myself.

Mario Fachini [32:02]
I can relate to that. 100%, 150% because I started my first business when I was 12. And sold that to start this one when I was in college. It’s been a few years since then.

Amy Rasdal [32:17]
Good for you.

Mario Fachini [32:18]
But I completely understand that. So it wasn’t that you were against the corporation, you just thought that’s what everyone did. But truly, at your core, you’re an entrepreneur.

Amy Rasdal [32:33]
I think I’m wired to be an entrepreneur. And I talked about how when I work with my people fear is the thing that blocks and limits them the most. And I’m a fearless person. I don’t mean climbing Mount Everest, because to me, I’m also very practical, just like there’s not enough oxygen up there. Why would you go? Of course I understand why some people do that.

Mario Fachini [33:01]
Well, you could do a halo dive. They put oxygen on you when you jump out of the plane.

Amy Rasdal [33:06]
Yeah. So that I would, I’ve actually promised my husband that I won’t jump out of any planes because it scares him. But I would totally jump out of a plane. And those wingsuit things that they were like you’re flying. Don’t do that in a heartbeat.

Mario Fachini [33:23]
So I have a question for you. I think you could do this. Keep your husband happy and achieve your goal.

Amy Rasdal [33:35]
Okay, I’m in, what is it?

Mario Fachini [33:37]
Do you really want to jump out of a plane?

Amy Rasdal [33:42]
Oh, it’s not a burning passion.

Mario Fachini [33:46]
Okay. No one ever said the plane can’t be on the ground.

Amy Rasdal [33:52]
No, it’s true. Are you talking about indoor skydiving places?

Mario Fachini [33:55]
No, I just mean, if the plane was on the ground, you could still jump out of it. But there’s a big difference between 30,000 feet versus…

Amy Rasdal [34:03]
That’s a good one actually, that would be fun. My husband is in the music industry. He’s not talented. He works all around the backsides of it. So a client that’s also a high end pilot. He teaches pilots how to respond to emergencies like he trains, Delta Airlines people and stuff. So it’s nice flying. So we could go over to his airplanes. And I could do that.

Mario Fachini [34:29]
You could and you could even preface it like, why you’re surprised, honey, I got something for you. And then like, yeah, we’re gonna jump out of a plane and because most people’s brain naturally goes to oh my gosh, are you serious? That and then, you could hop out real quick, like, see.

Amy Rasdal [34:46]
That’s good. I love that. That would be good.

Mario Fachini [34:48]
But I love the attitude because it’s like, you want to do it. You’re not and I get what you mean. It’s like, there’s stuff you’re just not even risk averse. You’re just not afraid of it’s like Yeah, why not? Wouldn’t you do it like you want to sit in a cubicle for 9, 10 hours a day and be in traffic, like, I can’t even wrap my head around that?

Amy Rasdal [35:08]
Yeah. And so I do try to get at, they’re afraid of not making enough money, they’re afraid of people thinking they’re a loser, because they jumped off the corporate track. And so that’s why I try to explain, but not always well.

Mario Fachini [35:24]
You make more money, you have your life back. And there’s more time freedom.

Amy Rasdal [35:30]
Yeah, you work with better clients, you can say no to people. Nobody owns your career path anymore. I talked to so many guys who they’re completely CEO material, it’s not their fault. Every time when they’re just about to get that big promotion, the company gets acquired, or a global pandemic hits or the stock market crashes, something happens that they have no control of, a new CEO comes in. And we all know that often the CEO brings their own team.So he doesn’t even know you. It’s not about you. So there’s so many things out of your control. So some of the people that eventually end up working for me do consulting. Man, they’ve been trying to scramble up that ladder for 20 years getting knocked off and knocked off. And it has nothing to do with them.You get to control all that stuff. It’s the best feeling and the best money and the best career path. And you have so much impact on your clients. It’s great. You do a similar thing, right?

Mario Fachini [36:39]
Win, win, win. I mean, that’s what you go for. Some people say win win, I want to be happy, I want my client happy. But it’s like I want my client to be happy. And they’re clients are happy. And of course, me too. I don’t want to be a rug in the process. But it’s like, you got to think, if you’re serving them, they’re serving someone else. That’s why they’re hiring you. It’s like, what are you doing for their client?

Amy Rasdal [37:06]
Oh, that’s another good one. Mario win win win instead of two. Because you’re right.

Mario Fachini [37:11]
That doesn’t end between you and me. It’s one step further.

Amy Rasdal [37:15]
No.

Mario Fachini [37:18]
That’s how I see it.

Amy Rasdal [37:21]
I love that. And so part of it is that quiet that before I loved it.

Mario Fachini [37:25]
Also in the show notes.

Amy Rasdal [37:29]
I’m going to be reading the show notes from my guest appearance. Thank you so much. I’m learning so much.

Mario Fachini [37:35]
Yeah, it’s going great. I’m really enjoying this. I have one more question for you, as in the same vein about the people you’ve helped, what’s your biggest success and transformational story of one of your clients.

Amy Rasdal [37:49]
So I have? Sure. So I have one that I worked with. It was two or three years ago. And she was a woman who had just had her first baby. And it’s hard to do the corporate juggle, when you actually also add a child into the mix. There’s plenty of women that do it splendidly. And I admire them. But it’s hard. So this woman with a high level Social Media Manager working for an agency, and she was really good at what she did. But it was just hard to manage the baby and the corporate job and having some kind of a life and dropping the baby off at daycare and the whole routine, the baby gets sick and you can’t go in. And so she wanted to do consulting. And we just happened to kind of meet by chance through some friends not even related to business. And she jumped into one of my programs, she actually did it, which is not always the case. Before she left her corporate job, she kind of laid the groundwork and got ready and learned about it. And then she jumped off. Within six months, she was making twice what she had made in her corporate job working about 30 hours a week, she had been working about 50, 55 before. We all know that, at our levels, most people don’t work 40 hours most people work more. So she had actually doubled, not quite working half the time, but close to it and then that didn’t even count commuting and packing the baby up for daycare and all that kind of stuff. So it was really, Basie when we met at the six month mark and she goes oh my gosh, I’m going to consistently make twice the money in less time. And that’s the one that my mind always comes back to that I love.

Mario Fachini [39:47]
I appreciate you for sharing that because first and foremost, I think the time she’s getting with her baby is most important. The time she’s getting back for her and her life. The fact that she will financially double it. And I’d even argue it was more than that. Because like you said, if she was at 55 hours, and you cut it to 30, that’s not even a direct, then the financial amount was doubled. But you also have to account for the 20 to 25 to 35% less time, which, again, is another added bonus for more consulting time or free time. I mean, if you make the same amount and cut your time in half, that’s essentially doubling your profits already, let alone I think it sounds more like a three, four time multiplier. That’s fantastic. But first and foremost, the time with their baby and family and everything. That’s great. Thank you.

Amy Rasdal [40:44]
When I have numbers, I always, I always like to not overstate and over promise because they’re…

Mario Fachini [40:52]
If they’re real.

Amy Rasdal [40:53]
Some programs out there that talk about Yeah, no, that’s true. But there are so many programs and people out there that are searching for a million dollars your first year. And it just happens. It’s just very rare with a heavy dose of luck, I think.

Mario Fachini [41:11]
And that’s good, I would always say err on the side of caution. I’m very much the same way. It’s taken me a while to just like, get more aggressive with it. But I’m glad I did. Because for some, again, it goes back to the serving piece, if someone’s deciding to do business with you, and clearly you can help them. But maybe they’re thinking in that track when you’re when you’re saying, you can make more money, or you’ll make a lot more money or you’ll increase your money. Okay, cool. But when you say you can go from 186,000 to 276,000, which is roughly a 33% increase in six months, and I’ve done it 37 times, or 137 times or 3000 times, yeah, you’re dealing with empirical evidence. And again, don’t overstate it. But when you have that to prove, and you don’t even need to say it, you just say here’s the last 10 case studies, and then they say it, I doubled my revenue in six months and cut my time in half. I mean, the average corporate CEO is a couple 200,400 600.You can take statistical evidence and just go across the board, this job caliber, this is what they make. I mean, same thing with the US population. It’s like you can say, well, X amount of people make above this threshold and below that, and about 15 different levels in between. So you can still not be over the top with it, but still give concrete like wow, this, she’s not joking around here. This is serious.

Amy Rasdal [42:56]
Yeah. It’s true. And I agree with you, too, that the ideal circumstances when you present the evidence, and your prospect makes the conclusion that you wanted to make it much more powerful that way.

Mario Fachini [43:11]
I’ve been teaching video testimonials for over a decade. And there’s nothing better than just being like it’s just playing the thing. There’s times when I get hit with my own ads. I’m like, Oh my gosh, this wait a second. Oh, yeah. I have my team load up some of this stuff. And I’m just like, oh, yeah, we were talking about that a month ago. And then I forgot about it. Because again, this is where I focus right here right now. And some of the other things. It’s just like, wow, this was a great test. Oh, wait a second. Oh. That’s like throwing money in the wash for no reason just to find out later. So in the same vein, have some fun. We have the Wheel of Whatever round now. Guess what this is? It’s the Wheel of Whatever. So I don’t even know how it’s gonna end up. See what your question is, it’s magical. Who is the killer CEO that you would love to know more?

Amy Rasdal [44:15]
Oh, my longtime favorite. He is gone now. But I’ve been at Andy Grove Ruby. For many years. I’ve read all of his books. I kind of grew up in that Silicon Valley world. His personal story is so interesting. He was a refugee. He walked out of Hungary with nothing,, revolutionized the world as we know it. And he’s, I’m not a great writer, but I appreciate great writers. And to me, a great writer is someone who writes things that you can’t resist reading you can’t put down and he writes about business topics and things like that, in a way that’s like that. So he’s a great writer, and he’s the CEO that I’ve always most admired.

Mario Fachini [45:06]
Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing that.

Amy Rasdal [45:08]
And for those of you who have some of your listeners who are younger than I am, he was the CEO and founder of Intel. And of course Intel hat, you have Intel through your house, whether you realize it or not.

Mario Fachini [45:23]
Oh, I’m very familiar with it. Because when I was launching the show, I designed and built the new computer and decided, what, two cores is better than one, four is better than two, but 14 is better than four. So, I’m very thankful to them. Over the years, I’ve always used Intel ever since ever since ever, and I don’t want to date myself. But I’ve built, designed and built many computers over the years for the last few years, let’s say so, great suggestion. We’re gonna thank our sponsor, and we’re gonna come back with the imperfect action round.

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Mario Fachini [47:36]
And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Are you ready to take imperfect action,Amy?

Amy Rasdal [47:43]
Absolutely.

Mario Fachini [47:44]
Alright, so I have three questions for you with 60 seconds or less answers. And the first one is what is the fastest path to the cash?

Amy Rasdal [47:55]
Fastest path to the cash. For me, I have a tried and true process called three action steps to generate revenue now. So I have an exact formula that is the fastest path to cash in my area of expertise.

Mario Fachini [48:13]
Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Amy Rasdal [48:22]
Not charging enough. And we’ve talked a little bit earlier about fear. The block on not charging enough for your consulting services really is fear. Once you get past that, and realize and really learn to be a superhero with super power making super pay, you can get past that, and the market will pay for your services.

Mario Fachini [48:43]
Love that. That’s for sure. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Amy Rasdal [48:53]
Maximize customer lifetime value. I say, I’ll go back to kind of one of my main business axioms that I live by. And that is never compromise your ethics, integrity, or the quality of your work. And I think that’s the secret of maximizing lifetime customer value.

Mario Fachini [49:15]
I like that a whole lot. Because, yeah, without that you have no fun. What are some books you could recommend that expert authority worlds that have made a difference in your life?

Amy Rasdal [49:28]
So I’m kind of a one trick pony on that topic today. Because it’s an old Andy Grove book called High Output Management. And it’s kind of centered around a manufacturing environment. But it just has so many great lessons that time is your only truly finite resource. That’s why I learned that it has so many great things. Can I talk about one more? That’s a favor…

Mario Fachini [49:55]
Of course.

Amy Rasdal [49:56]
Can I be better? Other one is actually not a business book, technically, it’s a story. And it’s called On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett. And it’s the story in an older book again, an older story and Ross Perot rescues his company’s hostages out of Iran. And it’s the best lesson on teamwork that I’ve ever seen and fix results. It’s a great book. It’s a great story. But there are a lot of great lessons, though oddly enough, those are my two favorite business books.

Mario Fachini [50:35]
Well, I appreciate that. I have not heard of both of those. And they both sound good.

Amy Rasdal [50:45]
They’re great.

Mario Fachini [50:47]
Where would you like people to learn more?

Amy Rasdal [50:49]
I would like people to learn more at billableatthebeach.com. And if you want to be an action taker, like we’ve talked about, I have a free email course that billableatthebeach.com called three action steps to generate revenue now. And as I mentioned before, it’s the quickest path to revenue. And when you build your consulting business, I want you to focus on revenue first, and then all the other little things. So I would love for you to find me there.

Mario Fachini [51:24]
Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing that and making them available to the expert authority world. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this. And I thank you for your time.

Amy Rasdal [51:36]
Great Me too. Thank you so much for having me today, Mario.

Mario Fachini [51:39]
All right, expert authority world. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. God bless.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [51:48]
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www.EAInterviews.com [52:21]
Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAInterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience links to the resources we mentioned in more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.