In this episode, Leah Neaderthal from Smart Gets Paid got personal with us about the importance of humanizing yourself to your audience. She talked to us about the expertise/humanity scale. Women, including myself, tend to stick too close to the expertise end of the scale, and this doesn’t serve us well when running a professional services business. She reminds us that every business opportunity, even to corporations, involves a decision-maker who is a person, and making a connection with that person by showing our humanity can be memorable, engaging, and ultimately lead to successful sales. She shared with us the explosion of engagement that she experienced when she moved away from a pure expertise approach to sharing more about herself as a person.

We’ll cover:

Why making human connections are a critical alternative to networking and referrals
Moving past pure referrals makes for a scalable and saleable business
Sharing your humanity helps potential customers to know, like, and trust you
Specific tips about using controlled vulnerability to humanize yourself to your audience
Leah also had some insights into the challenge of ending a business when one of the four Ds occurs.

Connect with Erin and find the resources mentioned in this episode at hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

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More About Our Guest

Leah Neaderthal is a sales coach for women consultants and she’s the founder of Smart Gets Paid. She teaches women how to get more of the right kinds of consulting clients and get paid more for every consulting contract in her program, The Academy.

She’s also the host of The Smart Gets Paid podcast, where listeners go behind the scenes into her actual calls with clients where Leah is tackling their biggest sales challenges, and they can learn sales strategies they can use in their own businesses.

Prior to starting Smart Gets Paid, Leah built, grew, and sold three businesses. Learn more about Leah at smartgetspaid.com.

We would love you to consider supporting Leah’s favorite charity:
www.nationalbailout.org/

Learn more about the Get Paid More Without Doing More guide: smartgetspaid.com/paidmore