The longest I've ever stayed at any company is two and a half years. Most jobs were considerably shorter.

Here's the pattern that took me years to recognize:

I'd get hired because I was outspoken, confident, and driven to improve things. I had creative ideas for making their department, their work, their results better. Managers loved this energy at first.

But once I solved a problem or improved a process, I couldn't help but immediately look for the next thing to fix. I thought this would be laudable—that employers would respect and value someone who constantly pushed for better outcomes.

I was wrong.

About a year in, they'd start finding me tiresome. Frustrating. They'd find ways to undercut my work or put me in a corner. It became obvious that everyone was getting less and less happy with me being there.

And let’s be real, I didn’t handle this well — AT ALL. I would see this shift start to take place, and begin to devolve into behavior and mindset that I wasn’t proud of.

I would become increasingly impatient, resentful, and antagonistic even to the most well-intentioned pleas for me to play politics, bide my time, and, for the love of god, stop rocking the proverbial boat.

But I couldn’t do it. So I’d leave.

What I didn't understand then was that what made me valuable as a hire made me dangerous as an employee.

Corporate rewards people who solve the assigned problem, then sit quietly until given the next assignment. Or who, at the very least, can push the envelope while deftly catering to the internal politics and meeting cultural expectations.

It doesn't reward people who see problems everywhere and feel compelled to fix them. You know, people like me. And probably like you, too.

The thing I love about being a consultant? All the stuff that used to drive employers and managers crazy — the relentless drive to improve, the inability to accept "that's how we've always done it," the compulsion to speak up when I see better solutions— my clients absolutely freaking love.

I've talked to so many consultants, especially women, who tell me the Exact.Same.Story.

What made you "difficult" as an employee makes you invaluable in the market.

But here's the brutal irony: you're still writing your offer documents like you're trying not to get in trouble with them.

Note: We’re talking about offer documents here, but this mindset likely seeps into every single part of your business. So pay attention.

The $20,000 Lesson in Analytics

When I first went out on my own, I did what every "smart" consultant does—I Googled templates for proposals.

I would spend hours and hours crafting the perfect proposal. The very first one I sent took me 20 hours. Creating it, editing it, tweaking it a million times until it looked "professional."

I did that for probably a year and a half, spending 15-20 hours per proposal, trying to sound impressive and credible and safe.

Then I started using PandaDoc — proposal software with analytics that shows you exactly how much time someone spends looking at each page of your proposal.

The results were devastating.

They'd spend 7-13 seconds on every single page. Then about 60 seconds on the pricing page. That was it.

I am NOT exaggerating. Seeing those numbers was an absolute punch in the stomach.

Twenty hours of work for less than two minutes of attention.

But here's what changed everything: when I started adjusting my proposals to be more like me — less corporate template, more authentic perspective — people started spending more time reading them. They'd actually engage with the content. And I started closing more business.

The lesson hit me like a freight train: people don't buy professional. They buy different.

The Corporate Programming That's Sabotaging You

Think about how you learned to write in corporate: every email got softer. Every proposal got safer. Every presentation got more sanitized.

This was especially crucial for any of us who don’t fit the “typical” corporate mold — women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, neuro-spicy, immigrants, the list goes on and on.

For us, we knew that masking our authenticity — our unique perspective, our natural communication style, our contrarian opinions, our very sense of self — was necessary to survive and get ahead.

You spent years perfecting the art of saying nothing controversial enough to get you in trouble.

"Professional" became code for "won't make anyone uncomfortable."

And now? You're using those same defensive instincts to write documents meant to attract paying clients.

But here's what corporate never taught you: clients don't hire consultants to fit in. They hire them to solve problems that others can't.

Your "unprofessional" opinions are exactly what make you valuable.

The things that would get you fired in corporate are what will make you rich as an entrepreneur.

The Corporate Conditioning Lie That Keeps You Broke

Here's the lie corporate sold you: "Professional success comes from not making anyone uncomfortable."

But clients don't hire consultants to make them comfortable. They hire consultants because they're already uncomfortable — with their results, their processes, their current reality.

And they desperately want someone to cure their pain.

Your job isn't to soothe them with familiar corporate-speak. Your job is to show them you see what others miss and you know how to fix it.

The Solo CEO Sweet Spot isn't found by playing it safe.

Remember, it is that magical intersection between the authentic you — your skills, passions, unique background, and strong opinions — and your ideal client's desperate need for someone who thinks differently.

If you sanitize what makes you YOU so you can sound "professional," you'll never find that sweet spot.

When I worked with Pam, the HR consultant from our offer doc skillset breakdown, her first offer document read like every other HR consultant on the planet.

Polished, professional, and completely generic. Snooze. 😴

But Pam's secret weapon is that she thinks most of HR is pretty dumb. She has strong opinions about what is broken in the industry and exactly how to fix it.

Her original offer talked about "improving HR efficiency through strategic initiatives."

Corporate-approved language that said absolutely nothing.

But when we dug into what she actually believed? "Most HR departments regularly launch fluffy culture initiatives without any means to measure their results. And with little consideration of creating a measurable impact on employees or being aligned with business goals like revenue.”

That's not professional. That's positioning.

When we rewrote her offer document, line by line, to sound like Peak Pam — sassy, opinionated, unafraid to call out industry BS — everything started to shift for her.

Just going through the process of crystallizing what made her different and putting her authentic perspective on paper changed how she navigated moving her business forward.

• She started networking with more confidence.

• She had clearer conversations with existing clients about new ways she could help them.

• She pitched past clients on exciting projects that aligned with her unique approach.

The result? She went from $10K to $70K per month in eight months.

And here's the kicker: she hasn't even sold the specific offer we created together yet.

The offer document didn't just change how she presented her services — it changed how she presented herself. How she showed up in the world.

And I’m seeing the exact same shift in 3 other clients right now —the offer document revision process serving as a catalyst for total reinvention as a CEO and leader.

Because when you stop apologizing for having opinions and start owning them instead, it has a cascade effect. It doesn’t just affect your sales process or marketing.

Over time, it reshapes your entire relationship with how you value yourself.

And that? It's life-changing.

What Corporate Never Taught You About Client Psychology

Clients don't buy credentials — everyone has credentials.

Clients don't buy experience — everyone has experience.

Clients don't buy "improved outcomes" — that's not specific enough to create urgency.

Clients buy certainty that you see their problem clearly and know exactly how to solve it.

That certainty doesn't come from corporate-approved language. It comes from demonstrating that you understand what's broken in ways others don't, and you have strong opinions about how to fix it.

• "Improved confidence" isn't an outcome: "Close 3 more deals per month" is.

• "Building your best life" isn't measurable: "Eliminates 15 hours of weekly busywork" is.

• "Finding your purpose" doesn't justify premium pricing: "Increases team productivity by 40%" does.

• "Growing your business" won't make prospects take action: "Increases revenue by 40% in 90 days" does.

Your corporate training taught you to hedge, to qualify, to avoid promising anything specific.

But specificity is what separates premium consultants from commodity providers.

When Your Positioning Becomes Your Compass

Here's what most people miss about authentic positioning: it goes beyond marketing copy.

And, when used correctly, it becomes your decision-making framework.

When you get clear on your authentic differentiators — your strong opinions, your unique blend of skills, personality, and work style — it doesn’t just change your offers or marketing. It becomes your North Star.

Suddenly, every opportunity that comes your way gets filtered through this clarity:

• Does this align with who I am and where I'm going?

• Or does this feel like a distraction from the future I'm building?

As entrepreneurs, one of our greatest strengths is that we see opportunity everywhere. But it's also one of our greatest weaknesses. We can easily fall prey to shiny object syndrome, losing ourselves in the constant pursuit of the next thing.

But when you have this kind of crystallized clarity about what makes you different and valuable, everything gets simpler. Not just your marketing, but your entire business direction.

• You feel more grounded because you have a stronger foundation.

• You feel more confident because you have a clear sense of where you're going and what you're doing.

• Every decision becomes obvious because you know exactly what you're building toward.

This kind of integrated clarity is exactly what the corporate world never teaches you to develop. Because corporate success comes from fitting in, not standing out.

The Differentiation Revolution

Here's what I'm working on that's going to change everything: I'm completely overhauling how I teach entrepreneurs to weaponize their differentiation.

👀 And I’ll have a major announcement about that on Thursday, so stay tuned. 👀

This isn't just about writing better offer documents. It's about systematically turning everything that makes you delightfully, beautifully, magnetically weird into exactly what makes you money. A lot of it.

When you get surgically clear on your authentic differentiators, everything becomes easier:

• Offer documents that magnetize ideal clients and repel wrong-fit prospects

• Customer experiences that no one else can replicate

• Premium positioning that justifies rates others can't command

• Client retention that comes from delivering irreplaceable value

The entrepreneurs who figure this out don't just make more money — they build businesses that reward them for being more themselves, not less.

The Permission You've Been Waiting For

Your offer document should make some people immediately disqualify themselves.

If everyone could work with you comfortably, you haven't differentiated enough.

You don’t want to appeal to everyone. Your goal is to be irresistible to the right people and obviously wrong for everyone else.

When Pam let her personality shine through — her impatience with bureaucratic nonsense, her direct communication style, her "let's cut through the BS and fix this" approach — she didn't lose opportunities. She attracted better ones.

The private equity firm that hired her didn't want another polished HR consultant. They wanted someone who would tell them the truth about what was broken and fix it fast.

Your Anti-Corporate Challenge

Take your current offer document and ask yourself: Does this sound like something I would say if I were talking to my best friend who really needed this help?

Or does it sound like something that could have been written by anyone in your industry?

For every "professional" sentence, try this:

• Replace credentials with your strong opinions and how you earned them

• Replace talking about your years of experience with sharing the tangible results you realized during them

• Replace fluffy, nice-sounding benefits with specific, measurable outcomes

The resistance you feel when writing authentically isn't imposter syndrome.

It's decades of corporate programming telling you to play it safe. And a signal that you are embodying a beautiful butterfly, finally breaking out of her cocoon.

Here's the truth: safe offer documents generate zero demand. And they’re boring as hell to write.

Your weird opinions, your unusual background, your contrarian viewpoints — these aren't professional liabilities. Combined with the way they help you deliver specific, tangible results for your ideal customers, they are your competitive moat.

What made you "difficult" as an employee makes you invaluable as a consultant.

Stop hiding it. Start weaponizing it.

In love and growth,
Kasey

P.S. The analytics don't lie: people spend more time reading authentic offers than professional ones. And they pay more for them, too. Your job isn't to sound like everyone else—it's to sound unmistakably like you.

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