Are you brilliant at what you do, but weary of the endless ups and downs in finding clients? In this episode, Anna shares a refreshing approach to building a steady stream of clients – without falling into the trap of burnout, relentless hustle, or relying solely on “lucky” referrals. Get ready to learn how to set up a sustainable business infrastructure that works for you, so you can enjoy greater freedom, flexibility, and fulfilment.

Key moments:

[00:00] – Welcome & context for the episode (finding clients without burnout)

[02:15] – Introduction to the Business Accelerator & call for new intake

[02:59] – Debunking the myth: “Just posting” won’t bring clients

[04:38] – The truth about relying solely on referrals

[06:23] – There’s no miracle client-getting strategy (but these things work)

[07:48] – The three pillars: Positioning, Messaging, Systems

[15:55] – How to bring in new, high-quality leads sustainably

[17:20] – The power of evergreen content and leveraging your signature process

[19:29] – Recap of actionable steps and closing thoughts

[20:49] – Business Accelerator – invitation to apply or join the waitlist

Resources mentioned:

• The Business Accelerator Programme: OneStepOutside.com/accelerate.
• Connect with Anna Lundberg: Get in touch on Instagram or LinkedIn.

How to attract consistent clients

This one is for you if you’re great at what you do, but you’re tired of that stop start cycle. When it comes to finding clients, you’re done winging it. You want steady demand, not just lucky referrals. And you want to build that without burning yourself out. Enjoy. Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your lifestyle.

Hi, I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider turned business mentor, executive coach and mum of two. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant, I’m here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom, flexibility and the fulfilment you’re looking for. Ready to redefine success and build a business that you love. Let’s get started. Hello. Hello. It is May. Can you believe it? And I believe this episode is going out on bank holiday Monday.

So I will be driving back from a long weekend in Centre Parks here in the UK as we speak. And May is also my daughter’s birthday, so Sophia will be turning six, which, my goodness, feels quite old, certainly no longer a baby. So it’s a big month all around. There’s also half term holidays coming up, so things are moving very, very quickly. After a bit of a sluggish start to the year, momentum taking off in spring and then, my goodness, it’s almost summer. So let’s get going. A quick heads up before we dive in. Now that it is May, we’re coming into the timing for intake for the business accelerator.

So we opened back in February, March, now we’re opening again June for, for a July start. This is my signature programme for founders and solopreneurs who want to grow, but to do it differently. So no burnout, thank you very much. No hustle, no one size fits all formulas. Just a clear strategic path that actually works for you with integrity, with intentionality. So if that sounds like the shift you’ve been craving, then now is a very good time to explore it. If you Message me on LinkedIn, Instagram, wherever you’re active, or you can of course go and join the wait list. At this point you’ll be able to fill in a form and that gives me an idea of where you are in your business.

And then of course, we’ll then have a call to discuss if it’s the right fit on both sides. So if you go to onestepoutside.com accelerate onestepoutside.com accelerate, you’ll be able to click through to that waitlist there. But today we’re talking about consistent clients without the constant hustle. So. So really building, I suppose what you’d call a thoughtful, repeatable client engine is the language I’m thinking beyond. Well, let’s talk about what it’s beyond. I suppose the first myth to debunk, and this is one that I have painful experience of, and I can promise you it is a myth that if we just post, the clients will come. Okay, content is not a client engine.

So if anything is a client engine, certainly content is not it. And I say this coming from a marketing background, in fact, a content marketing marketing background. In my corporate days, this was my big flag that I was flying. Content above everything else contest. Content is king, we used to say. And I have focused so much on content in my own business, in all my education, in all my programmes, with my clients, and still I’m saying that content alone is not going to bring you clients. Okay, so this is really important. It’s a really important distinction because I’m not saying it’s not, it’s not important.

It’s not useful to have content. It is. But just post, posting and ghosting, as they say, certainly. And just posting, even on LinkedIn, which is a great platform, certainly just posting, trying to chase the algorithm with reels and things on Instagram and so on is not going to bring you clients. Now more so than ever, content is not enough. There’s so much clutter and noise. I’m sure you’re seeing it in the market. Obviously, AI is making it easier to some extent for people to pump out content, which just makes it even harder to stand out.

So just posting is not going to bring you those consistent clients, certainly not in the short term as well. Really important for long term positioning. And we’ll talk about this in a moment. But if I want sales today, yes, I could say, hey, I’ve got a slot open. But just posting content is not going to bring me clients consistently over time. Okay. The other one is referrals. And to some extent I go back and forth on this because it feels really safe and it is really powerful to have referrals.

And I’ve been sharing recently with, with colleagues, people I’ve been talking to, that I’m getting a lot of referrals these days, which is a good sign, especially when those referrals are ideal clients. Because it means something in my positioning is obviously landing. It means people are clear on who I help and what I can do for whom. Referrals are also a great place to start when you’re starting out. And most likely your first sales will come from your network. And when I first started my digital marketing consulting after leaving my corporate job, I got my first few contracts via referrals, via word of mouth. So it’s a really powerful strategy. However, it’s safe until it’s not.

Unless I put in place a very systematic, structured, strategic approach to getting referrals and to making sure that I’m getting them consistently. You know, having a programme with my existing and former clients, etc. Etc. I can’t count on those. One day some somebody will very kindly send five people my way. Another day they won’t send me anyone. Right. So it’s not as safe as it sounds.

And also there is a bit of a ceiling, I suppose. You know, there’s only so much we can grow with those referrals. And again, especially when we’re starting out, because if we don’t have that many clients, there’s not going to be that many client referrals. That just is a logical consequence of not yet having proven ourselves in the market. Okay, so that’s what it’s not. It’s not just posting, it’s not just relying on referrals. So how can we bring in consistent clients? And I mean, I’m going to shoot myself in the foot here. But of course, I have to caveat all this by saying I don’t believe there is a miracle strategy that’s going to guarantee clients all the time.

And I have definitely, and not just at the beginning, but more recently too, had drier patches. Right. But I do know that these are the things that will put us in the best place to get clients consistently. There will still be ups and downs and. But that’s when we need to lean in rather than lean out, which is the temptation. In the early days, that means, you know, we’re applying to jobs because, oh my goodness, I can’t make this work. Instead of focusing on the very strategies that will get us more clients. And even later on, you know, it can be that we end up sort of procrastinating and redoing websites and rethinking the whole strategy instead of just simply, I was going to say, picking up the phone.

I never pick up the phone, but that’s the metaphor, let’s say, for contacting people and so on, the things that will lead to sales. So this sort of sustainable and client engine, I’m not sure if anyone has A better phrase for it, but certainly sort of. It is a kind of a machine. It’s a sort of system, but it’s not a funnel. It’s certainly not a content calendar. It’s more the kind of infrastructure that allows your business to grow and it needs to do so without depending on your energy or your mood or motivation. On any given day, if I wake up and I’m feeling tired and oh, I don’t really want to message people and oh, I don’t want to record, you know, that’s not going to help me with the consistency. So ideally, it needs to be happening, if not automatically, at least in a very clear, structured way.

You know, it’s exercise. The classic thing is you put your shoes out the night before to go for a run the next morning. You know, I’m feeling very virtuous because I got up at 6 this morning whenever I was sleeping and I went for a run. So this is a good analogy for me. But, you know, you make it as easy as possible for things to happen even when or especially when you’re not feeling so motivated. Okay, so what is that infrastructure? Well, I want to talk about positioning, messaging and systems. And I know systems aren’t very sexy. It doesn’t have to be complex.

But we’ll talk about that in a moment. So positioning, messaging and systems. And just hilariously, I’ve noticed that that spells pms. But there you go, unrelated number one, positioning, attracting the right people. It’s about being known for something, right? And making it really obvious who you’re for. And it’s. It’s such a tricky one. And, you know, we can play around with always the exact LinkedIn headline, and this is the thing I do. And when it’s our own stuff, we’re so nuanced in it. We’re so in love with what we do, which is great. It’s so hard for us to go, yep, this is me. I’m a business coach. I hate putting myself in that box. Or this is what I do. That’s all I do.

You know, I’m a motivational speaker. It sounds a bit icky, but that’s a good thing because you need something super simple that people can put you in that box. Oh, yeah, Anna’s a business coach, let’s say business mentor, whatever language. Or this person is a career coach. They’re a leadership consultant, whatever it is. And then they know in order to refer people to you, right, they need to know what you stand for. It’s not just a niche, it’s really clarity around the classic things of what you’re solving. So not just what you do.

Oh, I do coaching and training, but okay, what problem are you solving? Who is going to get the best results from your work and why is your approach distinct? When your positioning is clear, say what you solve, who gets the best results, why your approach is distinctive. People are going to self identify, they’re going to come to you already pre qualified because they will have. Yes. Seen my brand message positioning and that filters out the noise. My favourite sales calls, so called are the ones where people come to me and they’re like, yeah, I’ve done this, I’ve read this, I’ve watched your webinar, I know what you do. Let’s just talk about which is, yep, perfect sign. Boom, right? Much better than oh, what is it you do? And oh, I just saw this article and I was curious about quitting my job. You know, that’s not really going to translate into a very good quality client.

So your positioning is already doing a lot of the legwork for you. And of course positioning does to some extent come from content you’re putting out there, but it’s sort of a long game, right, of putting out. This is why your position needs to be really be where you want to be in the future rather than sort of being weighed down by where you happen to be now, where you’re coming from. Because it takes a long time to build that positioning and therefore, and we want to be aiming for our aspirational positioning, not just kind of mapping where we are today. Okay, so number one, positioning, number two, messaging. And it’s linked, but it’s really making your value clear. You know, it’s not visibility here, it’s clarity on the real world outcomes of your work. So I was talking to a client the other day.

You know, it’s not the let’s uncover our limiting beliefs and fulfil our best selves. Yes, as coaches we can easily latch onto that kind of language. And even whether you’re a leadership consultant or a speaker, whatever it is, it can easy to again fall in love with the work that we do. We have to think, okay, the buyer here is an HR director, a general manager, a busy mom, or four, whoever is your ideal client, they aren’t waking up going, oh, I need to uncover my limiting beliefs. Right. That is going to be an important part of the how, perhaps for you. But they are waking up going, oh my gosh, I’m so stressed. I’m too busy to do this.

I feel this. I can’t achieve this. My best people are leaving. You know, retention is bad and the current climate or culture isn’t growing as you know, in line with whatever it is. There are other things that they’re waking up and concerned about. So you need to really get that in the language of your customer, reflect their language and their level of awareness. Another thing is if we’re super advanced, if you’ve been studying and working in this area for a long time, whether independently or in a full time job, you’re going to be quite advanced. And it’s easy then to forget.

And I certainly forget, you know, as a beginner solopreneur, how much I know from a decade plus of doing this that isn’t so obvious to other people. So you really need to. And that’s the hard bit. Simplified out into exactly what’s going to resonate at this stage. Where they are, meet them where they are. And then again, we’re building trust, we’re building credibility, we’re building connection. Before that sales conversation, it’s not about hyping up, but it’s about something resonating with your rights people. Right? Messaging is turning the attention, okay, they’ve been attracted to me, they’ve seen that I exist.

Now do they get what I do? Are they going to take action? So positioning messaging and then systems and you know, this isn’t about scheduling everything. In the past I’ve had all sorts of different tools and things to be everywhere and at all the time and that’s not necessary. You also certainly, at least my approach is not to use all these AI bots and things that pump out messages that there might be smart ways to do this and certainly AI is getting better and better, but I prefer the personal approach. But you do need a repeatable way to move people from curiosity, commitments and perfectly. To be perfectly honest, this is an area I’m less good at, but it’s an important one. You often teach what you need to learn yourself. So you know the whole, let’s just post and be done with it. No, you post and then when you see people are engaging, obviously you reply back.

You might message them to say, oh, I saw you comment on the poach. We can, we can feel a bit uncomfortable, but they are literally raising a flag saying, hey, I’m interested, so let’s pursue that. Right? It’s not to say, hey, buy my thing, buy my thing. It’s like, oh, I saw you engaged. Is this something you’re seeing in your work at the moment? You know, are you looking to transition into the private sector or what challenges are you seeing? Or you know, is it worth a call? Perhaps it could be a peer to peer relationship, it could be a possible client is just bringing that curiosity and having real conversations. It also looks like having clear calls to action in your posts, you know, in your about section. What am I being asked to do here? Sharing, commenting, dming, signing up, registering, booking a call, whatever it is. Right? What’s the next step? From a strategic perspective, it means having a path and it’s not going to be linear, but having a thought through path from when they discover you to when they’re going to reach out to you and then onboarding them as a client.

So really thinking about what’s the ideal path they would come through. And then yes, some light automation or delegation where it makes sense. You know, there are obviously calendar booking tools that I’m sure most of you will be familiar with by now. You know, automatic email marketing, welcome sequences, all those types of things. And it doesn’t have to be complicated just because I’m saying system, right? The point is it’s not that I’m, every time someone reaches out I’m going to say oh my gosh, what do I do? I, I, oh well should I set a call and what should I do? And I’m going to write about the accelerator and this is what it is and so or no, I’ve got certain texts I know inside out by now anyway but you know, I’ve got, you know, pre written templates or I know that the next step here is to fill out this form or to apply here or to download this thing or to book a call or whatever it is. So positioning, messaging and systems are going to help you have that infrastructure that’s going to allow your business to grow and not be totally dependent on your energy, mood and motivation, as I said. And then I feel like this is already quite content heavy. So I had a few more points that I want to briefly go over but really thinking about, okay, how can I start building new sources of leads and you know, this language feels a bit, you know, leads, they’re real human beings.

But let’s break down what we’re talking about here, right? If I, you know, and actually I should say that a lot of us think our problem is I just need more people to see my stuff, right? And that’s true to some extent. But if the people who are seeing your stuff aren’t buying right now, then that’s more important. It’s more the quality. And once you fix the quality, then you can by all means expand to have more quantity. But here I just want to share a few things. I think the first one is networking. And we don’t love this. Some people are really good at it.

I have a few clients in the accelerator who are so good at this kind of thing. Connectors, you know, going to in person things every week. In fact, in some roles, you know, that’s part of your sales business development. You have to go to an event per week, which I think is not a bad thing. And we’re not Talking about cold DMS, not talking about sleazy, ineffective LinkedIn prospecting, talking here about building real relationships. So it could be in your industry, in communities that feel aligned with past clients, with peers, so that people think of you as and when the need arises. Again, it’s kind of the long game. You can’t control when someone’s ready to buy, but you can be the person they remember when they are ready.

So that is a bit of repetition. It’s making sure you’re top of mind, perhaps sending something useful when you think of someone. It’s genuine conversations. Being a human being is a great place to start. So kind of thoughtful networking. The second one is content. Yes. However, I would urge you to consider the idea of evergreen content.

I.e. If I’m pouring my heart and soul into posts and posts, but I’m not, not saving these anywhere, right? It’s really just a post that at the moment, at the time of recording, LinkedIn is quite good at kind of sharing things a few weeks later, which is good, but that’s still only a few weeks later. Posts just disappear, right? You want things that you’ve written to work on your behalf long after you hit publish. It’s the kind of content that’s going to build trust, demonstrate your thinking and offer a bit of taste, a taste of your approach. You don’t need to be posting daily for that. If anything, it’s better to do a couple of really good posts and people say, oh, articles don’t perform well on LinkedIn. But that’s not the point.

An article there is helping the people who are, you know, happy to read a long article from you to get to know you better, to then nudge them towards taking the next step. You know, maybe a podcast episode. Hello. A short email series. Things that exist long past, as I said, those like short posts that you’re just posting every day. So smart, intentional creation that’s going to compound over time rather than again, recreating every day from scratch. Posting, posting, posting and not having anything to show for it. And finally, and this is a bit of a preview, I think it’s in a couple of episodes time.

We’re talking about leveraging your signature process, which sounds very fancy, but if you’ve, or when you’ve articulated how you get results, you’re probably going to have and you should have a framework, methodology, a point of view. And once you have that, that really does the heavy lifting for you. Right. You’re not selling your time anymore, you’re selling a transformation and you’re becoming really a one person market almost. You are the only person. You know, when I’ve taught my five pillars, that’s the book the Business Academy, I’m the only person who teaches those five pillars. Of course, other people have other frameworks that could serve a similar purpose for other people, but it’s becoming a magnet for the right fit clients who are looking for that proven way forward. So having your signature process, it’s a Venn diagram, it’s a triangle, it’s a, you know, circle with five steps, whatever it is, that’s really going to do that heavy lifting for you again.

Okay, so that did feel quite long, but it’s an important one. So you know, I talked about the myth of just posting and then they’re going to come the risk of relying only on referrals. We then talked about this strategic infrastructure that’s going to bring clients consistently that comes from positioning, messaging and systems and then three sources of leads that are sustainable that you can start building. Right. So thoughtful networking again, it doesn’t have to be showing up to events every day, every week, but reaching out to people you’ve talked to in the past, sending notes, chatting to people. It’s not just a hey, let’s grab a quick coffee. It’s a bit more intentional than that. But yeah, being, being a human being is a great place to start, as I said.

Secondly, that evergreen content, it’s not high volume AI drivel that just gets poured out. It’s really smart, intentional content that’s going to build trust and give that taste of your approach and live on far beyond the daily post. And then thinking about your signature process and again, we’ll talk about that in a couple of weeks. I will leave it there. I’m out of breath. I’ve talked so quickly, so apologies. Hopefully you can slow down the pace of the podcast if needed. But of course, as I mentioned at the beginning, these are the things that we help you design inside the business accelerator.

So if you are looking for a system and infrastructure for attracting those right fit clients in a consistent way without scrambling, without getting into sleazy, uncomfortable, manipulative sales tactics. Then get in touch again. You can join the wait list or if you’re listening to this live, you’ll be able to apply at onestepoutside.com forward/accelerate. Thanks so much.

In the Business Accelerator, we do things a little differently. This is my signature programme for independent experts who are ready to grow sustainably, strategically and with integrity. If you want more income and more freedom, but without the hustle, the hype or the one-size-fits-all formulas, then you can learn more and join us at onestepoutside.com forward/accelerate. Register your interest or join the waitlist at onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

WORK WITH ANNA

Let us help you design a business and a life that gives you freedom from the 9 to 5. There are several options for how you can work with us. Choose the programme that’s right for you.

The Outsiders Business Accelerator

A mastermind for service-based business owners, freelancers and online entrepreneurs who are ready to achieve success on their own terms. onestepoutside.com/accelerate

The Outsiders Business Academy

A self-paced course for you to work through in your own time, to learn – and implement – the foundations of building a profitable business that lets you escape the 9 to 5. onestepoutside.com/course

1:1 Coaching & Mentoring

If you’re looking for one-to-one support to help you achieve your specific life and business goals, Anna has a limited number of spots for individual coaching and mentoring. onestepoutside.com/coaching