Consulting Mastery

Karie Miller & Ahmad Munawar

Welcome to Consulting Mastery, where we help B2B consultants master the business of consulting. Join us as we explore the art of delivering outstanding client value, earning a higher income, and thriving in today's marketplace.

  1. 2H AGO

    Does anybody actually want to be a solo consultant?

    You left corporate with a clear picture of what you didn't want. No nightmare bosses. No managing people who didn't want to be managed. No meetings about meetings. Just you, your expertise, and the freedom to work however you wanted. Year one felt like exactly that. By year three, you were eating lunch at your desk alone, bouncing ideas off your spouse (which went about as well as you'd expect), and wondering when "maximum freedom" started feeling like an island. The solo consultant identity is often a defensive position, not a strategic one. And the beliefs holding it in place are more brittle than most consultants realize. This episode is for any consultant who's ever said "I don't want employees" and felt a quiet tension underneath it.

    23 min

  2. APR 27

    The obligation to grow

    What if growing your consulting business isn't just a personal ambition — but a moral and societal obligation? In this episode, Ahmad defends a provocative claim he made to a group of clients: if we're truly honest about the consequences of our work on the people we serve, each and every one of us has an obligation to grow our business. Ahmad and Karie unpack why self-interest is a surprisingly low ceiling for motivation. Once your survival needs are met, your brain quietly works against further growth — even when you rationally want it. The fix isn't more discipline. It's reconnecting to who your work actually serves. They dig into Adam Grant's famous study of university fundraisers whose weekly revenue more than doubled after a single brief meeting with a scholarship recipient — no change to scripts, strategy, or training. Just a connection to the human on the other end of the work. This is pro-social motivation, and Ahmad argues it's the single most underused growth lever in consulting.

    24 min

  3. APR 20

    When does educating a client actually work?

    A consultant pushes back on something we said a few episodes ago: that you can't convince prospects they have problems they don't feel. His counter was fair. McKinsey does it. BCG does it. That's how the consulting industry has worked for decades. So who's right? In this episode, Ahmad works through the real answer, which isn't "stop educating" but "understand when you've earned the right to be heard." There are two scenarios where problem education actually works, and one move that builds more credibility than any education session ever could. This episode is for consultants who can see a prospect's problem clearly but keep walking away empty-handed.

    20 min

  4. APR 13

    Feast or famine forever?

    Most consultants assume feast or famine is just the nature of the business. The market goes hot and cold, clients come and go, and you learn to live with the uncertainty. But there's a pattern underneath the pattern that has nothing to do with the market. There's a number in your head that feels about right, a revenue level that, if you hit it consistently, would feel like things were working. That number is almost certainly not based on the value you create for clients. It's based on something much older than your consulting business, and it's quietly running the show. This episode reveals why some consultants keep returning to the same revenue year after year, where that invisible ceiling comes from, and what it actually takes to reset it. For consultants who've been at this long enough to suspect the problem isn't the market.

    23 min

  5. APR 7

    Snowflake syndrome - Best of Consulting Mastery Replay

    Most consultants we work with take pride in how unique their business is, and they're right to. But somewhere along the way, that pride shifts into something else: a belief that their problems are equally unique, that no outside perspective could really apply, that the right solution doesn't exist yet. In this episode, we unpack what we call Snowflake Syndrome, why it shows up most often in the smartest, most experienced operators, and why the distinction between a unique business and a common problem is the one reframe that changes how you buy help, how you sell your services, and how fast you actually move. Show Notes: Snowflake Syndrome defined: Ahmad introduces the pattern he keeps seeing among relatively successful consultants — the belief that their business is so unique that no one can adequately help them, and why that belief is more disempowering than it sounds.The part that's true: Your business probably is one of a kind. The danger isn't believing that. It's extending the same logic to your problems, because your problems are far more common than you think.The doctor analogy: A common diagnosis isn't bad news — it's empowering, because common problems have solutions. The version of this that should worry you is the doctor who's never seen anything like it.What consulting actually delivers: A client recently said a single idea from one training was worth the price of admission. Ahmad unpacks why perspective shift, not perfect-fit solutions, is the real product of any consulting engagement.The 80% principle: An imperfect solution that gets you most of the way there is worth far more than holding out for something that checks every box. Karie makes the case for extracting value from imperfect matches rather than waiting for the ideal one.The flip side — your own sales conversations: If you've been selling for a while, you've gotten this objection. Ahmad walks through where the line is between legitimate specificity and a prospect who's used their snowflake belief to rule out every available option.How to respond when a prospect says you're not specific enough: When your positioning is solid, you can challenge them to find something better. Most of the time, they can't — and they figure that out on their own.

    18 min

  6. MAR 30

    Disqualify to qualify - Best of Consulting Mastery replay

    We hear this from consultants constantly: I just need more calls. More activity. Better numbers. And we get the instinct, because when the pipeline feels thin, motion feels like the answer. But in this episode, we make the case that more calls with the wrong people isn't a pipeline problem, it's a burnout strategy. We get into why the best consultants think less like salespeople and more like recruiters, what happens when you disqualify someone who actually belongs in your pipeline, and why radical clarity about who you serve is the one thing that makes all the filtering possible in the first place. Show Notes: The recruiter reframe: Why the salesperson identity creates the wrong incentives from the start, and the mindset shift that changes how you approach every call on your calendarWhen one great call beats nine mediocre ones: What the obsession with call volume actually costs you, and the more insidious risk that follows a pipeline full of wrong-fit prospectsHow the wrong clients reshape your business without you noticing: The slow drift that happens when you start closing what's available instead of what you actually want"People like us do things like this": What Seth Godin's idea about identity alignment has to do with your positioning, and why it changes who self-selects into your pipelineCancel all of them: What happened when we disqualified nine borderline prospects in a single week, and why half of them came back fighting to prove they belongedThe filter that doesn't require a team: Why multi-stage qualification systems aren't the point, and what any consultant at any scale can do to make sure the right people are showing up

    18 min

  7. MAR 24

    Make more, work less - Best of Consulting Mastery replay

    We hear a version of this question constantly: how do I make more money without working more hours? And most of the time, the person asking it assumes the answer involves some kind of hustle, or a new offer, or just grinding harder until the numbers shift. But there's a different way to look at it. In this episode, we walk through a real consulting business that went from a good income to a genuinely different income on paper, without adding a single hour to the work week. We get into why most consultants are working against a ceiling they built themselves, why defining your constraint first is one of the most clarifying things you can do for your business, and the two questions that actually move the needle when you want your time to be worth more. Show Notes The assumption you carried in from your last job: Why the link between hours worked and money earned feels natural, and why it's working against you the moment you start a consulting businessWhat a 20-hour-a-week constraint actually unlocks: How one consultant's hard limit on her time forced a question most people never ask, and why that question changed everything about her businessThe ceiling that isn't your market: Why so many consultants run out of capacity before they run out of demand, and what that tells you about the model, not the opportunityFinding the 80/20 in an existing business: How we identified the one service with the highest margin, what happened when we ran the math on doing only that, and why "most profitable" is a better filter than "most popular"When demand exceeds supply: What pricing power actually looks like in a consulting business, and the sequence of moves, focus first, then excess demand, then rate increase, that makes it possibleThe two questions that replace every growth tactic: How much time are you willing to work, and what's the most profitable thing you can do inside that limit? Why everything else follows from those two answers

    19 min

  8. MAR 16

    Consultant's journey with Adam Levinter

    Most consultants think the problem with their positioning is that they haven't found the right niche yet. But that's not what's holding them back. The bigger issue is that they're conflating the positioning of their company with the portfolio of their career, and treating them as the same decision. In this episode, we're joined by Adam Levinter, founder of Scriberbase and Axis Brands Group, who spent seven years going deep on subscription commerce before the market handed him a second business entirely. We get into why the market demands simplicity from your company even when your career looks nothing like that, how he built his second venture in secret before it ever went public, and why "going all in" on one thing doesn't mean you're locked in forever. Show Notes When five clients becomes a signal: How Adam knew there was a real business in subscription commerce, and the number he uses to separate market demand from wishful thinkingBuilding in secret: How Axis Brands Group went from a handful of quiet client engagements inside Scriberbase to its own standalone company, and why that sequence matteredThe positioning collision: What happened when clients couldn't reconcile "subscription strategy firm" with "we can also run your Amazon ads," and why the fix wasn't a better explanationTwo camps, one answer: Adam's take on the focus-versus-portfolio debate, and how he reconciles running two companies, two podcasts, a book, and board work with the idea that the market wants one thing from each of themThe personal brand reality check: Why your website is no longer the front door to your business, who the face of your company actually is, and what the old head-of-sales adage has to do with it

    37 min
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5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Welcome to Consulting Mastery, where we help B2B consultants master the business of consulting. Join us as we explore the art of delivering outstanding client value, earning a higher income, and thriving in today's marketplace.

Information

  • Creator
    Karie Miller & Ahmad Munawar
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    166
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Karie Miller & Ahmad Munawar
  • Show Website
    Consulting Mastery

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