Solo Consultants: does your growth feel stuck in the mud?

Running a small business as a solo consultant is hard.
If you want to grow your business, it’s crucial to have a plan, get external perspective and outside input, and make sure you’re setting aside time to do the work.
Whatever your current situation, wouldn’t it be nice if you had someone in your corner?
Someone who could help you cut through the noise and figure out what you should focus on next to market and grow your business (and help you identify what you can safely ignore)?
Imagine this:
Put the analysis paralysis behind you. Learn what to do next to market and grow your business — without feeling like you’re selling your soul to the #hustle-bros.
I’m Kai Davis, a consultant, digital marketer, and entrepreneur. I’ve been doing running and growing small online businesses for 10+ years. And I’d love to work with you to help you grow your business.
When we work together, you’ll get no-nonsense marketing and growth advice that you can immediately put into action. No generic “hand-wavy” principles or “cookie-cutter” advice. Actionable advice and insights explicitly customized to you, your business, goals, and current situation.
I’d shout this one from the rooftops: “If you want momentous progress in your business, hire Kai Davis.”
I would recommend Kai’s coaching to anyone who’s ready to make a real commitment to making significant progress in their business, and wants to do it the real way, the right way, the sustainable and scalable way.
– Marissa Bracke, Marketing Consultant
Get in touch today and you’ll be ahead of everyone else
In short: coaching is specific to what you need to grow your business, market yourself, and get more leads.
Ongoing, you’ll receive:
I’m an entrepreneur first, a marketer second, and a coach third. My clients love working with me because I’ve got answers to your business, entrepreneurship, and marketing questions based on my real-world, hard-won experience. I’ve been building audiences and marketing and selling products and services online for 15+ years.
With coaching, my approach is personalized to my clients and their current situation and goals. I don’t have a cookie-cutter process or signature program. I meet you where you are, we figure out where you want to be, and I support you in getting there.
In the past year, I’ve helped my 1-on-1 coaching clients:
As well as:
And much more.
Kai helped me figure out what would help my sales process and build trust quicker with prospects. He offered a lot of feedback on our sales collateral and the release of our new website. I also got a lot more clarity on what I need to do to develop new lead channels for my business.
The two biggest things Kai helped me with were developing a recurring offering (which I had been really stuck on creating given our business model) and creating an offboarding process.
I had immediate results, closing two clients for the recurring offering and earning a lot more work from the first two offboarding calls I had with clients.
I one hundred percent recommend Kai. I already have and I’ll continue to. I think really his approach and the way he thinks is very different than mine in the best way.
Plus, I think there’s so much value to that in terms of he doesn’t try and pretend to know everything, but he knows where to look. It built my trust, and it was really refreshing to be put on to other resources.”
— Matthew Tallarico, Founder, GrowthFront Marketing
1-on-1 Marketing Coaching work together is $2,000/month. I’d like to work with you for an initial three-month engagement to gauge whether we’re a good fit.
I only want us to continue to work together if I’m providing value for you and your business. At the conclusion of our first three months together, we’ll discuss if it makes sense to continue together. If we decide to stop our work together, we’ll make sure you have a clean plan for what to work on next and wrap up our work together.
I only work with four 1-on-1 coaching clients at a time. I currently have two spots available.
If you’d like to discussing working together, book a time below for a no-pressure initial consultation. We’ll have a chat and answer any questions either of us have. After the call, we can decide if working together makes sense.
“I was already working on my consultancy full-time when I hired Kai as a coach. A year later, I’ve:
And, most important, I’m far less stressed out in my day today.
Even with a great team of freelancers, being the only employee in a consultancy can be lonely. Kai is there as a sounding board for ideas, a reviewer of proposals, and is a master at rewriting important emails.”
– Adam DuVander, Founder and Owner, EveryDeveloper
Hi, I’m Kai Davis (that’s my photo to the right). I’m an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and solo consultant. You might remember me from:
These days, I love working with solo consultants, owners of small agencies, and self-employed people in expertise-heavy services profession. I help my clients grow their businesses, optimize their marketing, get more leads, and charge more.
To that end, I’ve made this marketing coaching offering available since 2014 to help people like you, dear reader.
And unlike my competitors, I don’t have a ‘signature coaching program.’ That means every call you and have is customized exactly to your unique needs, questions, and current situations, not cookie-cutter advice.
"If you're feeling confused about the best way to grow your business, call Kai.
I was feeling overwhelmed with all of the options for what I could do with my business and struggling to pinpoint what was the best direction.
Kai took the time to get to know my individual business and my individual preferences and skills so that I could find the best way forward for me.
I wasn't sure if the time I would need to personally invest in the coaching program would be worth it, but looking back I can say it was one of the most valuable investments I've made in my business.
The clarity that I got out of coaching with Kai was priceless.
At some point, if you want to grow your business without going crazy there's only so much you can read, watch, and listen to, and you need some personalized guidance from someone who understands what it's like, someone who can help you uncover what you really want in your business and most importantly the next steps to getting there."
- Crystal Ellefsen, ConsultingforAuthors.com
I only work with four 1-on-1 coaching clients at a time. I currently have two spots available.
If you’d like to apply to work together, click here to book a time for a no-pressure initial consultation. We’ll have a chat, answer any questions either of us have, and discuss working together.
Or read on for more testimonials from my past coaching clients.
Browse this selection of testimonials from my coaching clients.
“I didn’t want to do the work myself because I felt like I’d flail - I wanted someone who could give me guidance on where to invest and permission on things to skip.”
I was looking for a marketing coach to help me level up marketing for my consulting business so I could reliably generate leads. I needed to niche and reposition and identify marketing tactics to experiment with. I wanted guidance on how to prioritize and test marketing experiments to build pipeline. Plus I wanted to have someone I paid to check in with every two weeks as a forcing function for me to put time aside to work on the marketing side of the business instead of just focusing on delivering for clients.
You’d been on my radar for several years and I liked your Indie Hacker approach and ideas and you seemed like someone I’d enjoy working with and would trust. Our initial phone call confirmed that.
As a result of our work together, we niched down and repositioned in the first few months of work together. Within two weeks of launching the new service, I had closed a 20k+ project from an inbound lead. It was awesome initial validation. With some very light marketing activities, I built a pipeline of leads that I was very happy with.
“I liked that you took a thoughtful and structured approach to the marketing side of the business.”
You asked good questions that helped me examine key marketing decisions from all angles. You had a process that you’d run before on picking marketing experiments which helped me pick experiments to run. You’d executed on a bunch of tactics yourself which helped me “skip steps” with first-hand knowledge about where to invest. I liked that you were available via Slack when I had key marketing questions. And I liked that every two weeks we had a check in. I wanted to make sure we used the time well so it was a forcing function for me to move the marketing ball forward for our next conversation.
Also you found me a KILLER DOMAIN NAME!!!1
“If you’re a solo service provider and looking to get more leads, I would absolutely recommend Kai as a marketing coach”
He’s thoughtful, smart, and can give guidance on both marketing strategy and execution so you go faster. He’s enjoyable to work with and I came away from my calls with him more energized than when I went into them. With his help I went from dry spells in my consulting business to booking and getting paid in advance for gigs three months in advance. 10/10 would work with him again.
Kareem Mayan, Principal, TrialToPaid.com
I felt like I didn't have the means to be proactive with reaching out to clients. I was good at closing, I was good at delivering the projects, but I didn't have enough experience with actually getting people to my business. I wanted to find a way to create a predictable process — something that I could put my time in and get results with getting more prospect leads and customers.
My fear was maybe I wouldn't be able to do marketing and sales or learn how to do it, but working with Kai has added lots of tools to my tool belt. There are things that I'm now doing that seemed like black magic before and that I wouldn't have believed I would be able to pull off — like appearing on podcasts, starting conversations with people and influencers that could potentially help my business, and reaching out to companies with cold email outreach campaigns.
Working with Kai helped me realize that I can do marketing and sales. It helped me become a real business, not just someone who is getting projects by chance. I'm getting more proactive in creating opportunities for myself and feeling more confident with my marketing efforts, and I am getting new clients and projects as a result.
— Yuval Oren, DevOps Consultant & Owner, PineWise
“Being able to pop in, ask a question, and get an answer or direction was incredibly valuable.”
Before working with Kai, I wasn’t sure if his experience would translate to helping me grow a business with a new, specific positioning.
As a result of working with Kai, I found clarity in my positioning (who I wanted to work with) and the services I wanted to offer.
Having direct access to Kai through regular calls and through a private Slack channel was a highlight of the coaching relationship. Being able to pop in, ask a question, and get an answer or direction was incredibly valuable.
I’d recommend Kai’s coaching to other freelancers and consultants who are looking for someone that has ‘been there’ and can offer insight based on years of experience.
— Vincent Dickie, My Sales Flow
“The first couple of things I worked on with Kai immediately grew my consulting business. He more than paid for himself!”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay for monthly coaching. It’s a big commitment.
The first couple of things I worked on with Kai immediately grew my consulting business. He more than paid for himself!
Kai has done a lot of marketing – certainly online marketing. His experience is invaluable.
I appreciate the access I have to run things past Kai (site copy, landing pages, etc.) and having him working with me keeps me on track.
I would highly recommend Kai’s services!
— Matty McLain, Founder, MattyMclain.com
It's a lonely road when one's an entrepreneur and there's just so much happening and so many priorities that are competing for my time. Working with Kai, I was able to reorganize how I work and identify key rocks that need to be focused on for growth. Right away, he assigned me a couple books that reconciled where I thought my focus should be to a more methodical place of creating a consistent income and creating systems and processes. He helped me organize the first building block of what was important, which for me was creating consistent profits.
Kai helped me figure out what would help my sales process and build trust quicker with prospects. He offered a lot of feedback on our sales collateral and the release of our new website. I also got a lot more clarity on what I need to do to develop new lead channels for my business. The two biggest things Kai helped me with were developing a recurring offering (which I had been really stuck on creating given our business model) and creating an offboarding process. I had immediate results, closing two clients for the recurring offering and earning a lot more work from the first two offboarding calls I had with clients.
I would a hundred percent recommend Kai. I already have and I'll continue to. I think really his approach and the way he thinks is very different than mine in the best way. Plus, I think there's so much value to that in terms of he doesn't try and pretend to know everything, but he knows where to look. It built my trust, and it was really refreshing to be put on to other resources.
— Matthew Tallarico, Founder, GrowthFront Marketing
“Starting a business and working alone is scary. There is no one to talk to, no validation, and new ideas are often left to die rattling around in your head. Kai has given me feedback, advice, and most importantly, courage.”
At first, I was unsure if it was worth the expense. After working with Kai for one month, the value far exceeded the cost.
Starting a business and working alone is scary. There is no one to talk to, no validation, and new ideas are often left to die rattling around in your head. Kai has given me feedback, advice, and most importantly, courage.
Kai’s approach is great for consulting. He is understanding and gives soft feedback.
I strongly recommend Kai’s services. I’ve recommended Kai to 3+ other people.
Working with Kai has given me courage, a plan, and confidence. In three months I’m making a profit, and better yet, I have a plan to breakthrough into my dream industry.
Adam Nicholson, Dubu DigitalI thought that setting up an automated cold outreach campaign would be hard and too time consuming.
Working with Kai, I got the motivation and support to set up my campaign including the tools I need, the KPIs to track, help with copywriting and advice on where to put pressure and focus on my business in order to get best results.
This work with Kai has helped me close a high value client and I have more deals in progress.
Kai has a great structure around his offering, so getting clarity on which marketing efforts will get me the best results was the biggest takeaway.
Three things I appreciated about working with Kai?
I recommend this to anyone looking for support in their cold e-mail outreach efforts.
The ROI is instant and you’ll be scheduling meetings within few weeks of signing up if you stick to your plan and Kai’s advice.
— Maksymilian Majer, CEO, ITCraftship
“It’s not just ‘get more leads because business is all that matters’… he deeply understands what I’m trying to accomplish in my whole life – both business and personal – and that makes his advice and guidance super helpful and targeted.”
When I first started working with Kai for 1-on-1 coaching, I wasn’t sure Kai could help with my broader career goals.
Since I started working with Kai 5 months ago, my career has come into perfect focus. I’ve never been more clear about where I want to go and what I want to do. I attribute that alignment to Kai’s coaching.
Kai always meets me where I am. He’s able to understand the context of my life and my goals – it’s not just “get more leads because business is all that matters” … he deeply understands what I’m trying to accomplish in my whole life – both business and personal – and that makes his advice and guidance super helpful and targeted.
After working with Kai for almost 6 months, Kai has an understanding of the overall context of my life, which means that don’t have to start over with that each month!
Kai understands my communication style. I think that’s a key factor in successful coaching – working with someone who gets the way you think and talk. Kai gets me. He’s introduced me to some things I never would have considered (for example, an obscure book that was exactly what I needed for a challenge I was facing).
More concretely, Kai has helped me get better at planning and staying focused. With Kai’s help, I’ve built 3 new habits that have been life changing in the last 6 months!
I’d recommend Kai’s Marketing Accelerator program and/or personalized coaching for anyone trying to take their business career to the next level.
Kai’s just a great coach. If you think he might be able to help you, reach out to him, even if your situation doesn’t mesh perfectly with his offerings. Remember, that’s how marketing works – you have to be super focused with your messaging, but you can still choose to do an individual deal. Same with Kai – reach out to see if he can help. He helped me a ton!
— Patrick Foley, PatrickFoley.com
I know this is the part of the testimonial where I’m supposed to say what my possible objections or worries were, but the truth is that I knew I wanted to work with Kai.
I’d seen Kai answering questions in a Slack channel, and I was immediately impressed with the level of pragmatic, do-this-right-away-actionable, totally B.S.-free advice and perspective he offered there. So much so, in fact, that I went out and looked him up on the web, which brought me to a bunch of podcasts he’d been on over the past few years. I listened to a LOT of those.
Again, I was struck by the fact that you gave solid, actionable business solutions — none of the “aspirational” biz puffery that passes for business advising and coaching so often — and I thought, “If I get this much out of this guy’s general advice, I know I’d get a ton out of the advice he’d have for my specific business.”
By the time I hit Kai’s coaching page, there were no obstacles. There was only a question of when I’d hire you.
As a result of my work with Kai:
I have completely reshaped my business positioning, and it’s the most well articulated and aligned it’s been in years. Literally, in years.
I have relaunched my website, now streamlined for my new positioning. This is something I’ve talked about doing for approximately… four years. Working with Kai, it got done.
I have created and launched a new entry-level service for my ideal clients under my new positioning.
I feel confident about where I’m at with this (HUGE) business transition, and I’ve felt clear on every step of the way.
How many people can say that when it comes to making massive changes in their business?! I’ve made about six months’ worth of progress in under three months, and I felt clear, confident, and totally supported the whole way.
Making huge changes in business is messy work, and it’s really easy to get mired in the chaos. Working with Kai, though, I never once had to worry about being left in a fog of wondering what step to take next, or feeling unsure about what direction to head.
Every call ended with clear action steps to take, as well as links, templates, or resources to assist with the steps I was taking. Every call included Kai asking, “Am I being clear about that?” and if I had any questions whatsoever, Kai patiently and articulately laid out exactly what next actions I could take, gave me examples and case studies to model, and discussed any “sticking” points or hesitations with me until I was in the clear and ready to go.
This is why so much progress has happened during our work together: being clear about where to go next made it so much easier to build up momentum with my actions. There wasn’t the constant cycle of getting frustrated, having to figure it out myself, and re-starting. It was simply go, go, go (and succeed, succeed, succeed). I’ll sign up for that all day, any day!
It’s one thing to say, “You should do this.” It’s another thing entirely to say, “You should do this, and here’s an example to give you some ideas.
Working together has given me three clear benefits:
I would recommend Kai’s coaching to anyone who’s ready to make a real commitment to making significant progress in their business, and wants to do it the real way, the right way, the sustainable and scalable way.
Making back the investment in your services isn’t even a question; if you put the work in, and follow what Kai advises, you’re going to get your money’s worth over and over again.
And because the way Kai helps people structure their services is focused on long-term success and sustainability, the investment is going to keep paying off in the long-term.
I’d shout this one from the rooftops: “If you want momentous progress in your business, hire Kai Davis.”
— Marissa Bracke, Owner, Just B Consulting
Being a part of Kai’s group coaching Marketing Accelerator Program has been one of the best decisions I have ever made from my business.
Before working with Kai, I was stuck. I felt overwhelmed by everything I needed to do in order to grow my consulting business.
When you are overwhelmed you don’t even know where to begin. I wasn’t sure where to start.
My work with Kai started with a Business Health Analysis. This in-depth questionnaire helped me tremendously! By completing the Business Health Analysis, I had a much more clear understanding of my business’ strengths, weaknesses, and goals.
With this information, Kai created a clear Action Plan for me to follow, specific to my goals and challenges. This was invaluable.
The fortnightly Group Video Calls were excellent. Being a freelancer can be isolating. Many of us have friends who are in 9-5 jobs that cannot relate to freelance/consulting life. It’s always great to be around other driven freelancers.
Having a real community of like-minded individuals is crucial for the success of your business.
The quality of the freelancers that Kai’s program attracts is incredible. We share knowledge, resources, challenges, and wins in a supportive environment.
Finally, my favorite part of the program are the 1-on-1 calls with Kai.
These calls are perfect for getting feedback on proposals, service offerings, or marketing materials. Kai helps me to make them more compelling so that I can close my conquest clients.
I also use it as a space to share anything private that I could not share on a group call.
The clarity and confidence that I feel about my business and my ability to market it to get the right clients is priceless.
I would HIGHLY recommend Kai’s coaching to anyone serious about taking their business to the next level.
— Jacklyn Deans, Ecommerce Consultant, Flash + Color
“I have increased my prices faster than I would have otherwise”
My first thought was that Kai was so far ahead of me, in terms of business skills and accomplishments, that he would not understand my situation.
As a result of working with Kai, I found three benefits.
First, I have developed and implemented business systems (e.g. using Calendly to organize client calls and using a client qualification script for sales calls).
Second, I have increased my prices faster than I would have otherwise.
Third, I feel better about my business prospects by joining the great community that Kai has assembled (the group video calls / lectures are very valuable and make a big difference!).
When we started working together, Kai provide an in-depth assessment of my business using a well thought-out process: The Business Health Analysis.
Throughout our time together, the ability to email Kai for advice on specific matters (like pricing, proposal writing, marketing materials, and related matters) was incredibly beneficial.
I would recommend the Freelancer Marketing Accelerator to any freelancers who are in the “in-between” stages. If you just started your side hustle/freelance business last week, then you are probably not a good fit.
However, if you are 6-24 months into building your business and you have landed a few clients and are looking for personalized, specific advice on what to do, then the Freelancer Marketing Accelerator is for you.
— Bruce Harpham, Content Marketing Strategy
“I was worried about making that big of an investment in my business… The investment paid off immediately and is the best one I ever made in my business!”
I had trouble making decisions about marketing my new service offering. I would set aside time to work on my business and never follow through because I couldn’t commit to what to focus on to follow through on things I was learning about how to get new clients for my business. As I result, I never really did anything to promote the new service offering and was not onboarding any new customers for it.
When I saw Kai’s program, I was worried about making that big of an investment in my business and wasn’t sure it would pay off. Was I going to get enough personal guidance that it would make it that much better than doing courses or reading ebooks? Would this work for me?
The investment paid off immediately and is the best one I ever made in my business:
Whenever I had a question or a fear that was keeping me from accomplishing something, Kai would quickly respond and help me overcome the obstacle to get it done and out there.
Kai helped me avoid distractions that would get in the way of accomplishing something important and give me shortcuts to get to attracting clients faster. I really appreciated Kai’s understanding of the emotional hurdles that sometimes can hold a consultant back and his ability to help break through those obstacles.
I recommend this program to any freelancer or consultant who wants more clients, but gets stuck in applying knowledge to their business. Having Kai in your corner, cheering you on to succeed in getting new clients and offering you the tools you specifically need to do it – that’s well worth the price.
I was able to achieve so much more in a much shorter time, and do so with confidence, as a direct result of working with Kai.
— Meg Cumby, MegCumby.com
Working with Kai helps make consulting less daunting by providing clarity on a manageable path to greater success.
One obstacle that almost stopped me from working with you as a coach was the initial 3-month commitment up-front. However, you gave me the opportunity to start with 1 month — and that made all the difference. Once I started, it was a no brainer to stay.
Working together, I found I got increased clarity about how to evolve and position my business.
You’re incredibly supportive and encouraging. Working on a solo business can be so overwhelming and disheartening at times. It can be tough to see the forest for the trees.
Working with Kai helps make consulting less daunting by providing clarity on a manageable path to greater success.
Three major benefits of working together have been:
I’d happily recommend working with Kai to others. You get access to terrific ideas and of expertise as a consultant.
— Jen Havice
Before I started working with Kai, my hesitation was if working with him 1-on-1 would help my business grow.
Working with Kai, I achieved a personal best: $10,000+ in pre-orders for my new course "Learn Javascript." Kai's feedback and direction on market research, email, the product, and launching all helped me reach $10,000+ in pre-orders.
Kai has also helped me test other ways I can provide value to my list, offering consulting services and other engagements.
I'd recommend Kai's coaching for anyone who is wondering "What steps should I take to delight my subscribers, launch new products, and get more sales?"
— Zell, zellwk.com
I only work with four 1-on-1 coaching clients at a time. I currently have two spots available.
If you’d like to apply to work together, click here to book a time for a no-pressure initial consultation. We’ll have a chat, answer any questions either of us have, and discuss working together.
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