The Proven Way to Find Consulting Clients

You’re eleven months into a client engagement when it happens.

They love you, the project is on track, and every two months they extend your contract another two. You settle in to that fuzzy warm blanket of false security. You’ve tuned out the annoying voice in your head—the one screaming at you to do business development, keep your network warm, line up opportunities.

And suddenly, the company gets bought by private equity. Priorities shift, budgets get frozen, and your contract comes to an unexpected end. It’s like getting yanked off a treadmill mid-stride—you’re airborne for a second, then you’re face-down, wondering how you’re going to pay for your summer vacation.

You’ve got to find a new client—and fast!

So you try everything:

• You post on LinkedIn, but it gets 3 likes and no comments. So you open up Canva and try to design a “lead magnet” that will get attention in the feed, but get overwhelmed by templates for influencers and gurus.
• You open your CRM and start trying to draft an email to your “list” of 37 people you haven’t talked to in eleven months.
• You google “how to start a podcast” and decide you’d rather claw your eyes out.
• You consider replying to one of those shady lead-gen companies in your junk folder—one that promises you only pay for qualified leads.
• You research networking events in your area, but everything you see is for realtors, insurance brokers, and commercial cleaning companies.
• You start messaging connections on LinkedIn inviting them to “virtual coffees” to “catch up” and then suffer through hours of awkward conversations with people who didn't know they were signing up for a desperate sales pitch.

Most of these aren’t bad ideas—except that shady lead-gen company—but the real problem? There are too many options. You can’t do all of them well.

So what should you do? Not all the things. Just the one thing—your thing.

The thing that’s brought you clients before. The hard thing, the tedious thing, the boring thing, the proven thing.

Don’t chase the easy way. Every tactic is hard if you want to do it well.

Focus. Double down. Do your proven thing. And go get clients.