Fear Less, Brand More

Are You A Strategist, Consultant, or Coach?

December 07, 2021 Season 1 Episode 2
Fear Less, Brand More
Are You A Strategist, Consultant, or Coach?
Show Notes Transcript

So what is the difference between a strategist, a consultant, and a coach?  That's what I'll be discussing today.  These terms get thrown around a lot, used interchangeably, and used wrong so that just adds to the confusion.

A Strategist will help you get super clear on the plan for your business.  A strategist is always looking for an actionable plan, exactly what the next steps are, and what direction you want to move into.

A Consultant will take something specific off of your plate.  This is where service providers fit in, managing one specific area very well so you don't have to manage it all yourself on a day to day basis.

A Coach will help guide you and ask leading questions, but they won't give you the answers.  They work mainly with mindset, behavior, and emotions that are getting in your way, and aren't always just for your business.

When it comes to hiring someone, you need to understand what your business needs. If you don't have a strategy in place, you should not be hiring a consultant or a coach. You should be getting really clear on that strategy. . And iIf you have a strategy and you're struggling with getting to that next step, but you know what the next step is, then that's usually when you want to hire a coach.


RESOURCES

https://www.stacykessler.me/blog/strategist-consultant-coach

Are you a Strategist, Coach, or Consultant Quiz https://jenniferanastasi.com/quizzes/strategist-quiz

Clearbrand Interview Information https://jenniferanastasi.com/services/#clearbrand

A Subito Media production

Jennifer Anastasi:

In this episode, we're defining the difference between a coach, a consultant, and a strategist. While there can be overlaps when providing services to clients, most people fit primarily into one category or another. It's important to understand the differences. So you can more easily communicate to people what it is that you do. And so that you understand who you need to hire for your own business based on your needs and goals. So let's jump in. When I started in the online business world, there were a lot of terms that got thrown around and I had no idea what they meant. What exactly is a coach? What is a consultant? What about a strategist about service provider? There are so many of these terms that get used sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly. And it's extremely confusing. So first let's start out by defining what. From the highest level, there is a strategist, a strategist is going to help you get super clear on the plan for your business. Often they're helping you figure out what exactly your next steps are. A strategist is always looking for an actionable plan and something that is customized to your particular. They're looking to help you get clarity, purpose, and direction. These are the three main things that a strategist will help you with. A strategist is going to point you in the right direction. In my business. I am a strategist first because the first thing that I do is sit down with my clients to make sure that we get clarity in what direction they need to move into next. As a brand strategist, I'm very specifically looking at their branding. So I'm looking at how are we differentiating you between all those other people? How can we differentiate you better? What direction do we want to move into? And then we'll work further into brand strategies from there. A consultant is somebody who's going to take something very specifically off of your plate. They are usually an expert in their particular area, and they understand that topic better than anybody. A consultant is a subject matter expert. They're that person who understands a very specific piece and they understand it very well. They are that expert. Often, this is where the service provider will fit in. Service provider is someone who implements. So for example, let's say, you're not sure how to market your business, you know from the strategist that the next step is that you need to go off and market your business aggressively. And let's say, you decide you're going to do that using Facebook ads. A consultant would tell you, okay, this is how I would run the Facebook ads. You need graphics, you need copy. Here's how I would target things based on the strategy that you've brought to me, that is what a consultant will do. They know Facebook ads backwards and forwards. They might also implement them. And that's where that service provider piece comes in. The service provider would be running the Facebook ads for you. They would often be coming up with the graphics. They're coming up with the copy. They're figuring out the targeting. They're doing that so that the business owner never has to look at the Facebook ads. A good service provider will check in with the business owner and review the results with them periodically so that the business owner is in the know, but that doesn't mean that the business owner is interacting with their Facebook ads on a day to day basis. And finally, we have coaching. Now, this term gets thrown around so often, and there's really a number of different things that a coach can do. But what they generally do is they help a business owner to figure out what their goals are. They try to help you get to where you want to go, but they do it in a very different way than a strategist. A strategist will help you get clarity and will tell you, this is where I think you need to go next. These are the action steps that you should take. A strategist and a consultant will give you concrete actions. A coach is a little bit different. A coach is going to help guide you and they'll ask leading questions, but they're not going to give you the answers. Coaching is something that is a really fuzzy gray area out there. A lot of people call themselves the wrong thing, and it's a huge issue in the online space, because sometimes you just don't know who you're hiring. What a coach is supposed to be as someone who's got experience and that they're supporting their clients in getting to a very specific, personal or professional goal. That's all done through different training, through guidance, they're helping you reach a goal. A coach is someone that's going to help you maximize that potential that you have. It's a lot more touchy, feely. It's a lot more based on your feelings based on mindset. Coaches are fantastic if you need help, figuring out how to get to the next level, you have a very specific goal, and it is your personal behavior and your personal mindset that are holding you back. That is when you want to be hiring a coach. Coaches we'll typically work with you on a one-to-one basis or in a group program, sometimes through a course where the main goal is to help you sort of break through whatever ceiling you're up against at the time. It is not always specific to your business. It tends to be more personal because it's around mindset and because it's around behavior. Which gets confusing when you talk about business coaches, because you say, well, I hire a business coach to help me with my business, but they're not there to support your entire business. They're there to help you run your business better. You are the main piece in there. You could hire a business strategist. They're going to look at your business as a whole. They're going to look at what clarity can I provide regarding your business. What action steps for your business, do you need to take to move forward? It's important to know what to call yourself. If you are somebody that's helping your clients get clarity, get that vision. You're giving them action steps. You're really trying to figure out, okay, what is the next direction that you need to go in? You're a strategist that's very different from a. You're someone that's going to come in and sort of detangle all of these thoughts and ideas. And you're going to tell somebody, okay, here where the opportunities are, and this is the next step for you to take. That is what a strategist does. If you are a coach you're helping somebody make it to that next goal. You're going to take different methods about mindset and behavior and all these different things. And you're going to help the person sort of tweak those things often in a more personal development esque way in order to get to that goal. And often it is a personal goal. It could be related to business, but often it's a personal goal. If you are a consultant, you are someone who is an expert in what you do. And your main thing is going off and sort of figuring out how do we do this very specific thing and often implementing it as well as the service provider. You're someone that's going to give that expert advice. You're going to make a recommendation. There might be a little bit of teaching, and this is all around a very specific topic that you may go off and implement for a client. And it's important that you call yourself the right thing, because just with that one word, you're communicating what you do. Saying that I am a business strategist versus saying that I'm a business consultant versus saying that I'm a business coach. These are three very different things. Next it's important that we understand this for when we're hiring. If you're in a position where you have no idea what your next goal should be hiring a coach is not going to help you because they're going to help you reach a goal. They're not necessarily there to figure out what is the next great goal for you to set for yourself. That's where a strategist comes in. If you really need help implementing your marketing, hiring a coach is not a good idea. Uh, coach is not going to help you by going into your Facebook ad account and putting graphics and copy and targeting in there. That's not what they're going to do. So hiring a marketing coach is not the same as hiring a marketing consultant. So it is extremely important that you figure out who it is that you're hiring and what problem you're trying to sell. There have been a lot of times where I have hired coaches when I really should have hired a strategist. In fact, most people will skip hiring the strategist completely and we'll move directly on to a coach, but it's basically like throwing darts with a blindfold on you have no idea what you're aiming. So that's awesome that a coach is sitting there and they're telling you, okay, here's the angle that you want to hold your arm at? And this is how tightly you should grip the dart. And when you throw really follow through with that wrist, that's all great advice. But if you don't know what you're aiming for, and you've got a blindfold on, so you can't even really see the direction. And the coach is telling you is you're feeling, this is not star wars. There is no force guidance. We need to know what we're aiming at. So it's really important that you understand the differences. Now it is important here to mention that you can have an overlap. So in my own business, I am both a strategist and a consultant. I am a service provider, so I provide the strategy, the next steps looking forward, I help people get the clarity that they need, but then I turn around and I also implement that. I have deep, deep knowledge when it comes to branding and websites, I will go off and create. A website for my client. I'm not just telling my client, Hey, your next step is that you really need a website. I'll tell my client, your next step is a website. If that's the case, that's where that strategy aspect comes in. And then I put on my service provider, my consultant cap, and I go off and I implement that in my action brand. They're two very different services. One I'm putting on my strategist hat, the second one I'm putting on my consultant hat. So there is overlap. And often with these different businesses, there are some overlap between the two, but it's important to understand where you mainly fall. And realize how that affects everything else that you do in your business to recap strategists, consultants, coaches, they're all very, very different. It is important for a number of reasons to understand the differences between these three things. There can be some overlap, but usually fall into one of these things more strongly than the other. It's important in how you communicate to your clients and how you brand yourself. But it's also important when it comes time for you to hire other people, to help you. And it's also important when you're looking to grow and expand your own. To make sure that you're hiring the right person. If you don't have a strategy in place, you should not be hiring a consultant or a coach. You should be getting really clear on that strategy. And if you have a strategy and you're struggling with getting to that next step, but you know what the next step is, then that's usually when you want to hire a coach. Thanks for listening to today's episode. There's a great blog post that digs deep into these three business models by Stacy Kessler. I've linked to it in the show notes. I've also linked to a quiz that will help you determine exactly which business model you primarily fall into. In the next episode, we're digging into the pressure to become an agency as a service provider, the creative agency model isn't for everyone. And we'll be exploring that topic and an alternative hit the follow button to be notified when new episodes drop.