How Nigel Green built a $1m solo practice by mastering the game before writing the playbook
"You can't be Tom Brady unless you win a Super Bowl."
Nigel runs a seven-figure consulting business, working just four days a week with Private Equity-backed healthcare companies. His clients pay $30,000 for a single-day workshop.
Yet you may never have heard of him.
While countless "thought leaders" chase followers and build personal brands, Nigel rejected opportunities most consultants dream about: speaking at Tony Robbins' Business Mastery, sharing the stage with Jay Abraham, and presenting at Grant Cardone's 10X Growth Conference.
How did he build a thriving business in an era where visibility appears to be essential for success?
The secret to his thriving practice isn't a marketing strategy. It's a successful sequencing strategy many consultants misunderstand.
Nigel runs a seven-figure consulting business, working just four days a week with Private Equity-backed healthcare companies. His clients pay $30,000 for a single-day workshop.
Yet you may never have heard of him.
While countless "thought leaders" chase followers and build personal brands, Nigel rejected opportunities most consultants dream about: speaking at Tony Robbins' Business Mastery, sharing the stage with Jay Abraham, and presenting at Grant Cardone's 10X Growth Conference.
How did he build a thriving business in an era where visibility appears to be essential for success?
The secret to his thriving practice isn't a marketing strategy. It's a successful sequencing strategy many consultants misunderstand.
After completing his geology degree, Nigel interned with Northwestern Mutual, a financial service entity. It's a summer-long programme where he learns how to sell, and shortly after, he gets a role in healthcare, selling into major healthcare marketing departments (Medtronic and McKesson) every day.
Though Nigel’s good at sales...
Though Nigel’s good at sales...
He’s not “a machine that can run through walls”
Nigel knew people back then who were seven-figure sales earners before that became more common through selling SaaS. They were animals. He’s not. He’s succeeded through efficiency.
“I was a C student in school, so I never let my studies get in the way of my education.”
- Nigel Green
He learned to hit quota with the fewest meetings possible. He was never going to crush performance through academia or relentlessness.
Meanwhile, he was working with salespeople who were hitting between 200-300% of the plan. They could grind it, he couldn’t.
But here’s where Nigel excels: relating to people and developing his craft through curiosity. That’s his superpower.
Meanwhile, he was working with salespeople who were hitting between 200-300% of the plan. They could grind it, he couldn’t.
But here’s where Nigel excels: relating to people and developing his craft through curiosity. That’s his superpower.
“One of the things I realized about myself is that I was always willing to help those top performers to get a little bit more organized, think about structure, help them navigate the nuances of a deal. I mean, they were gonna run through a wall with activity and getting deals done, but they always left a wake of destruction behind them. And I was just really good at helping them develop systems, and I said, man, I’m actually kinda like a coach… So very early in my career I was identified as someone that might actually be a good manager. So I had my first sales management opportunity three years after being a seller.”
- Nigel Green
A client introduced him to Professional Hospital Supply, which hired Nigel to lead one of their sales divisions.
He’s only been selling for three years.
The team he leads beats targets, the business exits successfully, and they no longer need a sales team.
He’s only been selling for three years.
The team he leads beats targets, the business exits successfully, and they no longer need a sales team.
So now, Nigel’s looking for his next opportunity
Foundations Recovery Network (FRN), an addiction treatment provider in Nashville, approached him. FRN had multiple US treatment centres, and growth was driven via its direct marketing department. FRN had a thesis: If they could build a real sales team to sell directly to hospitals and healthcare practitioners, and add that to their direct marketing department, they would multiply revenue.
Nigel had been selling to hospitals and healthcare practitioners for three years, so they hired him to lead this new sales initiative. He hired a small team in 2012 and doubled revenue. After proving the model, he expanded the sales team.
Here’s what that model looked like:
Nigel had been selling to hospitals and healthcare practitioners for three years, so they hired him to lead this new sales initiative. He hired a small team in 2012 and doubled revenue. After proving the model, he expanded the sales team.
Here’s what that model looked like:
- The industry norm was to populate the sales team with counsellors or people in recovery. Nigel broke that norm by hiring professional salespeople with proven sales records.
- He structured the sales team so that business development focused on meeting happy patients and asking for referrals, while the admissions team closed referred accounts, eliminating context switching.
- Leveraging data-driven decision making, he redesigned the go-to-market strategy away from geographic territories toward account-based selling and reallocated budget from PPC to hiring more salespeople after proving they delivered better ROI.
Nigel led a team of 40 reps nationwide, and more than tripled revenue ($94 to $350 million). The business subsequently sold at 10x revenue.
With this achievement, Nigel unknowingly laid the first cornerstone of his success sequencing strategy; a track record of transformational results that would later become the foundation of his consulting business.
After the exit, FRN is absorbed by a Fortune 300 Healthcare company:
With this achievement, Nigel unknowingly laid the first cornerstone of his success sequencing strategy; a track record of transformational results that would later become the foundation of his consulting business.
After the exit, FRN is absorbed by a Fortune 300 Healthcare company:
“I quickly realized that that is just not what I wanted to do. It created a lot of pain in the form of a misalignment between the things that I valued and what corporate America wanted me to value.”
- Nigel Green
Corporate America isn’t for Nigel, so he leaves FRN for a different industry and work environment.
Nigel starts as CEO at StoryBrand
Nigel knew Tim Schurrer, COO of StoryBrand at the time. After Nigel left FRN, Tim contacted him to arrange a coffee meeting. A few weeks later, Nigel received text messages from Donald Miller, founder of StoryBrand, who asked Nigel to visit for a chat. Nigel was a fan of Donald's work, so he was excited for the opportunity.
In my interview with Nigel, he said, “I thought Donald just wanted some free advice, which I was happy to give.”
They spend several hours on Donald's porch, with Donald asking Nigel numerous questions about how to scale StoryBrand.
In my interview with Nigel, he said, “I thought Donald just wanted some free advice, which I was happy to give.”
They spend several hours on Donald's porch, with Donald asking Nigel numerous questions about how to scale StoryBrand.
“And then he just said, I want you to run the company. And so that's that's how it came about. It went from a couple of text messages with Don, then I'm sitting on his back porch and he started asking me what it would be like to run the company.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Donald’s book, Building a StoryBrand, was months from release, but his messaging framework was gaining traction.
Recognition was growing faster than Donald imagined, and he wanted to maximize this 'moment'. He'd just been on the Dave Ramsey show, and his brand was blowing up. There was buzz, and Donald needed to figure out how to predictably scale the business without needing a Dave Ramsey-esque appearance every quarter.
Recognition was growing faster than Donald imagined, and he wanted to maximize this 'moment'. He'd just been on the Dave Ramsey show, and his brand was blowing up. There was buzz, and Donald needed to figure out how to predictably scale the business without needing a Dave Ramsey-esque appearance every quarter.
“What Don wanted to build, and he has built, was a sales machine. And that’s what I knew how to do. I knew how to take a really good offering, which is what we had in the addiction treatment space… he’s got this really great framework [StoryBrand], and how to make it into a business.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Nigel worked as CEO at StoryBrand for six months before leaving, which was all Donald needed. Donald Miller said Nigel was "a battleship captain for a rowboat." Nigel built a sales playbook for Donald and then handed the reins back to him to navigate the ship that would become an 8-figure business.
But why would he leave StoryBrand when it was taking off?
While Nigel was there, incredible opportunities were landing at his doorstep:
- There was an opportunity to write the StoryBrand book on sales.
- There was an opportunity to speak at Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery.
- There was an opportunity to get on stage with Jay Abraham.
- There was an opportunity to speak at Grant Cardone’s 10X Growth Conference.
That all felt disgusting to Nigel. He didn’t take a single one.
“I don't know if it's true or not, but the story in my head was that in order for me, Nigel Green, to have the mass appeal that some of these other famous business people have, I was going to have to water down my expertise to what I would consider like a ‘Mickey Mouse level,’ or be so self-promoting, or a combination of both. None of that actually felt like doing the work. And I just wanted no part of that at all.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Nigel didn't expect to rise to the fame of those names, but the cost of getting close was not a price he was willing to pay.
What’s the price?
What’s the price?
“Being gone all the time, not being much of a family person, not really having real friends because you can't let anybody really in. You live a very veiled and almost sometimes duplicitous life. Because there's the character, and then there's the person. And I didn't want to lose the real person. And I think, at least my experience with those individuals at that level is... that becomes who you are and I didn't want to be that. I just felt like there was enough of them already.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
So Nigel leaves StoryBrand, but remember he didn’t enjoy Corporate America, so he “quit and swung the pendulum to early stage companies.” There, he discovered the same misalignment in values.
“What you work on works on you”
Nigel didn't want to pursue another exit at the expense of his health and relationships. At 34, he didn't want to be a perpetual executive. He wanted to be a good husband and father, so he removed himself from the temptations of chasing more money.
“I'll give you a story. So, in May of 2018, I just helped a good friend of mine who's the CEO of Relode. We raised a $10 million Series A through a strategic healthcare fund…. I'd had two successful exits as a sales leader. At 31 years old, [one year on from raising the investment, I found myself] wondering still about who was hanging out with who, who was going to be invited to go to this private equity event, sneaking off in the night to go look at emails. Even when I was at home, I wasn't at home. I was more concerned about the game….
I spent most of 2009 through 2015, gone and I had a newborn daughter and a 3-year-old-son, and I just didn't want it anymore. So I felt like the only way for me knowing my personality style is I had to create some spatial distance. So I quit, stepped down from Relode, and just became a board of advisors member and moved to Kentucky without having any idea what I was going to do.”
- Nigel Green
Source: Nigel Green on Surf and Sales
So he moved from the big city to live on a farm in the country and became a solo consultant.
In his first year, Nigel made around $250,000 as a fractional employee.
In his first year, Nigel made around $250,000 as a fractional employee.
But he makes the mistake most consultants make
Relode, the startup I mentioned, asked Nigel, "Now that you're a consultant, how can we buy all your time?" That was tempting and secure. All his billable hours for the next year would be covered. So, he accepted.
He essentially accepted a job he didn't intend to take.
In his words, he didn’t do the job well because he saw them as a client and they saw him as an employee. He worked in that capacity for a year until he told himself and the client, “This isn’t working.” He was doing the opposite of what he’d set out to do: sitting in a couple of hours’ traffic every day and clocking in.
Following this experience, what’s his advice to other solo consultants?
He essentially accepted a job he didn't intend to take.
In his words, he didn’t do the job well because he saw them as a client and they saw him as an employee. He worked in that capacity for a year until he told himself and the client, “This isn’t working.” He was doing the opposite of what he’d set out to do: sitting in a couple of hours’ traffic every day and clocking in.
Following this experience, what’s his advice to other solo consultants?
“If you have to be scrappy for a season, do it, but as quickly as you possibly can, diversify your client portfolio.”
- Nigel Green
It wasn’t all bad.
That period as a fractional employee gave Nigel the breathing space to figure out his systems and process
He got clarity around the types of work he offered that were most and least valuable. Which could he deliver quickly with minimal effort and resource? As he built out his consulting offer with more clients, he tested offers.
“I've gotten so clear what my offering is, I don't do sales training. So I don't train reps. I just train and coach and advise revenue leaders. And then here's the other part where it's really clear of a certain type of company. So I'm not just working with any company. You have to mostly be in healthcare, reach a certain level of size and scale, and have this ambition of exiting the business in three to five years or recapitalizing it, having some type of liquidity event or recapitalization, super nichey.”
- Nigel Green
Notice: it’s healthcare with the “ambition of exiting in three to five years.” Nigel can point to results and businesses in healthcare that the prospect or client knows, for whom he built a sales team and process, and the business exited.
By removing other services Nigel could offer, he frees up time and resources to build a repeatable, documented system that delivers consistent outcomes.
By removing other services Nigel could offer, he frees up time and resources to build a repeatable, documented system that delivers consistent outcomes.
“I just know in healthcare, in a B2B offering micro cap or mid-market, certain size or scale, trying to exit in three years, I'm best in the world at that.”
- Nigel Green
Nigel’s now working almost exclusively with healthcare disruptors
The healthcare company has a piece of technology or IP that aims to disrupt traditional practices. That’s his 1:1 client work.
“A lot of my retained work, they hire me because I've been in healthcare for 10 years, so I have the relationships. And that's a lot of times why they're willing to give me equity … because I can make introductions that can really move the business forward. As one of my clients says, you turn decades into days.”
- Nigel Green
Meanwhile, Nigel writes Revenue Harvest, following the ‘aha’ realisation that planning for a perfect farming year aligns with that of the sales leader. So he writes an almanack, inspired by A Sand County Almanack by Aldo Leopold.
He launches the book, Revenue Harvest, in 2020
According to Nigel, the launch was a failure:
“I prepped for a launch in the beginning of a year thinking that the timing of that would be opportunistic given that the subtitle of that book is, A Sales Leader's Almanac For Planning The Perfect Year. So I thought… here's a book to start your year. What I never could have anticipated is that one month into the launch, there would be a global pandemic, and every news outlet in the world didn't want to talk about sales leadership and having a perfect year… I was interviewed by Entrepreneur and Inc. magazine at the time, and they just wanted me to talk about how to help a business sell in a crisis. Nobody really wanted to talk about the book.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Despite the launch failure, the book was a success.
At the time of writing, Nigel has sold around 8,000 copies—far from best-seller status. Many business best sellers sell at least 10,000 copies on release day (excluding pre-sale). But Nigel didn't write this book to become a bestseller. He wrote it to clarify his thinking, establish authority, and attract clients. It's achieved all three objectives.
I asked Nigel, “How would your business look today without Revenue Harvest?” Here’s his response:
At the time of writing, Nigel has sold around 8,000 copies—far from best-seller status. Many business best sellers sell at least 10,000 copies on release day (excluding pre-sale). But Nigel didn't write this book to become a bestseller. He wrote it to clarify his thinking, establish authority, and attract clients. It's achieved all three objectives.
I asked Nigel, “How would your business look today without Revenue Harvest?” Here’s his response:
“My business probably isn't as successful. And that would mean, for me, it doesn't command the high fees that I get paid… [business] would probably be me … always having to defend price … and feeling like I'm always in a competitive, commoditized situation against another vendor.
I would be obscure, … probably not as authoritative on the subject, at least from the perception of the prospect that hires me. So what it did for me was it gave me some credibility. It gave me a perspective on certain functions and aspects of the sales leadership role that I think can be viewed or can be consumed before speaking with me. And I think what it has done is it has eliminated some of the qualifying. The prospects already qualified when they come to me because they've read my work. And they they know that I that I know their problems.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
More than half of his prospects arrive having read the book. The others have either listened to a podcast with Nigel discussing the book or are referred by a Private Equity who has read it and communicates its fundamentals before referring Nigel to a CEO.
Other sales leaders endorsed Nigel’s book, which endorses his credibility:
Other sales leaders endorsed Nigel’s book, which endorses his credibility:
“A number of notable sales experts … endorsed my book that I didn't previously know. They did me no favors other than just pointing out that I was right on a lot of things. So the book elevated my credibility, and it almost gave me a right to be there.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
The book forced Nigel to take a stance on sales leadership and strengthened his belief in his ideas because others, whom he respected, appreciated his work.
“From the customer's perspective, sometimes right, wrong, or indifferent, just the idea that you wrote a book, even if it was bad, it comes with this menagerie of credibility. And it gave me almost a little bit of a different elevated perception… wholly separate from it being a good book, [just having a book] elevated the market's perception of my credibility.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
If he'd delivered all these insights that he shared in the book, just as you find them in the book, but in a series of blog posts, would it have the same impact on reputation and business?
“[I] think it would be different… A part of me thinks the need to have a book is less important today than it was five years ago… I know that people less and less want to read books, but I still think there's some lingering validity that comes from a complete manuscript versus a series of blog posts, although I will admit it can be fading… And I still think that my customer reads books or I wouldn’t be… writing another one.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Let’s bring ourselves to the present day and Nigel’s business numbers
Nigel’s business does $1 million per year. In 2024, the split was:
- $500,000 from retained client coaching at approximately $5,000 per month.
- $300,000 from his sales team assessment workshops.
- $200,000 from referral revenue. This isn't a typical low-priced, high-volume affiliate model. It's high-priced products or services, like when Nigel recommends a piece of technology or consulting service.
That sales team assessment is a $30,000 workshop. That's his productised offer. Nigel inspects your current playbook ahead of time, interviews salespeople, and learns how you sell and how your prospects buy. Then he reflects on what's the buying process for your ideal fit clients, and does your sales process align with it? Often, it doesn’t. That work culminates in a one-day workshop where Nigel delivers his findings and recommendations to alter your sales process to double your revenue.
“What it actually is is a diligence project for the sales leader [often endorsed by the Private Equity Group and the CEO].. but it’s an in-depth assessment of the entire sales team to give the management team, which oftentimes is the Private Equity Sponsor, clear insights into what’s going well, what is broken and needs to be fixed, the elements that are confusing, and then what’s wholly missing altogether that needs to be added.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
So, the folks that buy his coaching and workshops. Where do those opportunities come from?
I asked Nigel, “Three ideal fit prospects will book a call with you next week. Based on the way your business works right now, where did they come from?”
There are three ways Nigel wins new business:
One - He has a clear Go-To-Market Strategy via Private Equity Firms:
There are three ways Nigel wins new business:
One - He has a clear Go-To-Market Strategy via Private Equity Firms:
“They found me because their private equity sponsor feels like there's something amiss in their sales team and asked them to go speak with me.”
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
That was interesting, so I asked him, “How do you get those introductions from Private Equity Groups?” Here’s what he said:
“I do most of my outreach to people of influence within private equity groups, and I talk to them about the investments that they've made and just say, look, I can be helpful for you situationally if one of your portfolio companies is ever struggling with sales leadership.”
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Remember, these Private Equity firms are entirely focused on supporting their investments to achieve high-return exits. Sales is a key driver of that, and Nigel is a proven operator at improving the sales performance of firms that successfully exited. These people are open to Nigel’s outreach.
Two - He's active on LinkedIn with insightful content. He's taking time to consider the questions his customers ask him, observing their behaviours that lead to negative sales outcomes, and then providing thoughtful observations on LinkedIn:
Two - He's active on LinkedIn with insightful content. He's taking time to consider the questions his customers ask him, observing their behaviours that lead to negative sales outcomes, and then providing thoughtful observations on LinkedIn:
“They saw something that I posted about on LinkedIn that was right on the nose of what they're feeling, and it prompted them to reach out.”
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Three - Referrals:
“Someone that either works with me or used to work with me recommended that they reach out to me.”
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
I got thinking about point 2.
What does it mean to be active on LinkedIn (in a way that attracts business)?
Nigel has previously said, "My audience wants to hear from me once a month, and they want it to be relevant, timely, and deep." I asked him, "How do you know that to be true?”
Here’s what he said:
Here’s what he said:
“If I don't consistently post on LinkedIn, I will have unsolicited direct messages from people that I don't even know asking what I'm up to, how am I seeing the world, and essentially, I miss your post.”
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
My immediate reaction was, "But how does a LinkedIn post constitute a relevant and deep perspective? It's just 3,000 characters max., and rarely is it deep." As Nigel points out, depth isn't the same as length:
“Deep doesn't necessarily mean long. I posted a picture of me last Thursday, just smiling and drinking a beer… I said, this is me right after a CEO asked me, why should I hire a sales coach for my sales leader? And right before I set them straight was the point. And it was short, but it was deep because if you're a sales leader, you understand how real that is. And so deep doesn't necessarily mean long. Deep can be just … hitting the nose. It resonated.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Nigel has tried to productise twice beyond his book and $30,000 workshop, but both attempts failed for different reasons
In 2020, Nigel released a one-day cohort sales course priced at $1,000, a fraction of the cost for a business to hire him 1:1. The idea was to open up a new market that couldn't afford him. He spent the year doing these cohorts monthly. It was an eight-hour workshop capped at 12 people, allowing time for participant time at the end of the day to bring their own unique situations to Nigel.
He canned it after eight months, despite selling out each month.
He canned it after eight months, despite selling out each month.
“Two main reasons I stopped doing it. One, I started to dread the actual workshop day, it wasn't giving me energy anymore. And the idea of finding every month 10 to 12 new sales leaders and trying to convince them of the value that they would get became just as painful … I just didn't want to do it anymore.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
How was he getting customers? He'd post on LinkedIn and send a couple of emails each month to his list. He used scarcity by capping it to 12 seats. Rinse and repeat each month. He'd use testimonials from previous cohorts and offer referral incentives to previous participants.
Important lesson: If you’re like me, you see opportunities to monetise through successful models that aren’t a natural fit to us personally. I get tempted by the cohort model. I see the benefits. But if I don’t like cohorts, either as a customer or a trainer, and I have no appetite to present to a group on Zoom each month, it’s going to be an unenjoyable experience with no longevity. Yes, look for business models that others are finding success with, but don’t pursue the ones that don’t align with your skill set and natural tendencies.
Important lesson: If you’re like me, you see opportunities to monetise through successful models that aren’t a natural fit to us personally. I get tempted by the cohort model. I see the benefits. But if I don’t like cohorts, either as a customer or a trainer, and I have no appetite to present to a group on Zoom each month, it’s going to be an unenjoyable experience with no longevity. Yes, look for business models that others are finding success with, but don’t pursue the ones that don’t align with your skill set and natural tendencies.
He also launched a $97 course on hiring elite salespeople.
It was a way for potential customers to make a micro-level investment. An early step on the ladder, like a book. A bite-sized chunk of Nigel’s expertise that someone buys then might hire Nigel for a higher-ticket offer.
That didn’t work.
It was a way for potential customers to make a micro-level investment. An early step on the ladder, like a book. A bite-sized chunk of Nigel’s expertise that someone buys then might hire Nigel for a higher-ticket offer.
That didn’t work.
“It made no material economic improvement to my business… I started that course thinking I could point a bunch of traffic to it and make $10,000 a month … like any of these course gurus will tell you that you can do. I wasn't willing to invest in the traffic and to point it at the course.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
That’s not to say it has no value to Nigel’s business. He shares it with clients as a value add-on. Sometimes, former clients without the budget to hire Nigel help them build their sales team. That shows goodwill, and he’s received referrals from them. It’s an asset he can gift to build relationships.
Would he do it again?
Would he do it again?
“No, I mean, I would do it and give it away… In my business, the name of the game is if you feel drawn enough to have a perspective on a subject, it's very beneficial to codify that perspective in some format, whether it's a course, a series of articles, a book, a podcast. I think it's our job. And I am less and less convinced that monetizing that thing for me is the way forward… it just needs to be almost like a springboard to monetize everything else.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Is the concept of productising expertise through an on-demand digital course flawed when selling $60,000 strategic engagements?
Nigel said he didn’t execute as well as others in the course creation space say he should have.
Nigel said he didn’t execute as well as others in the course creation space say he should have.
“I didn't invest in enough traffic to monetize. Which leads me to, I'm becoming less and less convinced that those who claim they're making whatever the number is, done for you, zero touch, automatic, inbox money. I don't know that they're actually making any money.
That doesn't mean that I don't believe that they sold $1 million or $3 million worth of courses. I believe that they did… I'll just use simple math here. I wonder if in order to make $1 million selling this course, that they have to spend $900,000 on traffic and then conversion. And is it worth it for me?
What I believe to be true, and I don't know this because I don't think any of them will actually say it, is that they don't make any money on the course… So if I were to sell this course for $79, if I were to spend $10,000 a month on traffic to try to increase those sales, I could do that, but what they're actually making money on is converting a small percentage of those course consumers into a higher ticket offering.
That's really what they're making their money on… I'm just more convinced that I can do it without all the traffic. I can make the money on the high ticket offering without the need for this traffic engine.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
From here, I want to share a series of lessons on building a solo-consulting business.
I call this…
I call this…
The Consulting Almanack of Nigel Green
1/ Good consultants leave
“The thing about good consultants is they always leave. They have to. If a consultant doesn't leave, how are you measuring the impact that they're providing to the business? At some point, there has to be an end of the consulting agreement where you teach them what you came to teach them. That's the whole point. Otherwise, you're just an employee.”
- Nigel Green
2/ Don’t cheat your craft
Nigel references Cal Newport and So Good They Can’t Ignore You. The notion that you’re cheating your craft if all you do is ‘do the work’ Monday to Friday, year-round. To become an elite advisor in your niche, solving the particular problem that you solve, is to take frequent pauses to observe, take stock, and develop informed, considered opinions on essential decisions your clients have to make.
Now, through November and December, Nigel does that. Stepping away from most client work to reflect.
Now, through November and December, Nigel does that. Stepping away from most client work to reflect.
3/ Chip away at commitments
Nigel notes that many entrepreneurs want more and our modern Western society celebrates individuals and businesses that generate more dollars yearly. Nigel has leaned into doing the opposite:
“Paul Jarvis wrote a book called Company of One and he said one of the most effective things you can do is put an upper threshold on what you're willing to do in a year. And maybe that's number of clients, maybe that's a revenue number, maybe it's an income number. And then when you get there, having the discipline to say, that's enough for now… And so I've been practising that for a few years, and what I found is that it forces me to be more creative in how I get there.”
- Nigel Green
Nigel's constantly thinking about maximising return on effort and time because he has that top-line figure that's the maximum. He's not trying to earn more; he's trying to earn that money, deliver optimal value to clients, and do it with less time and energy.
He chips away at his commitments. That’s also how he makes more money.
He chips away at his commitments. That’s also how he makes more money.
“I don't do my clients work for them. I don't come to meetings that they just say, we're having a meeting and we want you here… I've found a delicate way to say, don't invite me to your standing Monday or standing Wednesday. I'm not coming… And if they say, hey, can you send me this report? Or what do we need to report on? … [I’ll say] let's find a resource that you have that's probably more capable of doing it than me.”
- Nigel Green
4/ There are three ways to grow your business
First, raise your price. Nigel points to ways companies raise prices without customers knowing. When a candy bar manufacturer maintains prices but reduces the size of the bar by 10%, they raised prices. When TAKK released a sustainable electric toothbrush with replaceable heads on subscription, they effectively raised the price of a toothbrush because you, the customer, wouldn’t buy a toothbrush head as frequently as they send them (nor would you pay to repair a toothbrush).
Second is getting more customers, which is obvious, but few companies (consultants or otherwise) have a clear Go-To-Market plan or map of their ideal customer and how they make buying decisions on the things that you, the seller, sell. Many just fall into the trap of 'business is good enough', catching whatever comes into the net as it arrives (usually via referrals and word of mouth).
Third, sell your existing clients something else. They’re probably getting an ancillary service elsewhere that you could offer.
So, if you raise your price, have a plan to win customers, and introduce one or two new services to existing clients, “you can 3x a business pretty quickly.”
Second is getting more customers, which is obvious, but few companies (consultants or otherwise) have a clear Go-To-Market plan or map of their ideal customer and how they make buying decisions on the things that you, the seller, sell. Many just fall into the trap of 'business is good enough', catching whatever comes into the net as it arrives (usually via referrals and word of mouth).
Third, sell your existing clients something else. They’re probably getting an ancillary service elsewhere that you could offer.
So, if you raise your price, have a plan to win customers, and introduce one or two new services to existing clients, “you can 3x a business pretty quickly.”
5/ Save your best time for you
“My best hours, my freshest time, when I'm thinking the most clearly, I spend that time working on my business and not giving it away to the clients that are paying me.”
- Nigel Green
If you have no pipeline, are reactive, or feel out of control in your business, it's because you're selling your best time.
The only person thinking about your business growth is you, and if you’re not spending time on it, no one is (and when that happens, how can you expect to grow).
Austin Kleon discusses this, too, about how he saves his best hours for himself:
The only person thinking about your business growth is you, and if you’re not spending time on it, no one is (and when that happens, how can you expect to grow).
Austin Kleon discusses this, too, about how he saves his best hours for himself:
“A lot of people come to me, and they're like, God, I'm just so tired when I get home. How do you [do it]? I'm like, well, I never worked when I got home… I got up in the morning and worked before I went to work and then … I already juiced it, and they couldn't take it from me.”
- Austin Kleon
Source: Austin Kleon on The Futur
If you want to build your brand, make sales calls, build your network, and post on LinkedIn, save your best time for yourself.
6/ Work less, earn more
Nigel shared a LinkedIn post saying, “When I started working less, I earned more.”
According to Nigel, this route is available to anyone. Work less, earn more. Nigel references Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
- Parkinson's Law, Cyril Northcote Parkinson.
Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time you allocate to it.
Give yourself a day for a task; it takes a day. Give yourself a week; it takes a week. Not because the work changed, but because we changed how we approached it.
Give yourself a day for a task; it takes a day. Give yourself a week; it takes a week. Not because the work changed, but because we changed how we approached it.
“Most people work 60 hours a week, not out of necessity, but because they just give it that amount of time… For whatever reason: the hustle culture, inefficiency, there are a lot of reasons they do it.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Nigel’s Uncle Dale (a former VP of sales leading 400 reps) was a key influencer and mentor in Nigel’s life. When Nigel first became a consultant, wrestling with needing to work but wanting to be home with his family, his Uncle Dale said, “Man, you work for yourself. Why would you ever work a Friday?”
That was in 2019, and Nigel has only worked ten Fridays since then.
Suddenly, the game became, “How much money can I make in as little time as possible?”
How do you drop your hours and subsequently start earning more money?
That was in 2019, and Nigel has only worked ten Fridays since then.
Suddenly, the game became, “How much money can I make in as little time as possible?”
How do you drop your hours and subsequently start earning more money?
“Quality not quantity is the name of the game for … a company of one person. And so scale is about that return on effort. And so what it's forced me to do was like, if I'm losing a day of billable hours, I’ve got to make it up in my rate on the other four days. So I simultaneously started raising my prices … so I started onboarding clients at a higher rate.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
7/ The alternative way to increase earnings (that no one talks about)
As a one-person business, the advice seems to be that if you want to increase earnings, you increase your prices, but then beyond that, you productise to scale. That's why Nigel built the $79 course.
What’s the business worth when Nigel is generating $1 million in revenue with 80% profit margin, selling his reputation and expertise?
Very little.
What if you don’t want to productise or scale? What if you feel you’ve hit the ceiling of the level at which you can raise your prices?
There’s an unspoken, simple way to increase earnings.
What’s the business worth when Nigel is generating $1 million in revenue with 80% profit margin, selling his reputation and expertise?
Very little.
What if you don’t want to productise or scale? What if you feel you’ve hit the ceiling of the level at which you can raise your prices?
There’s an unspoken, simple way to increase earnings.
“What I enjoy about the healthy profits is I can suck loads of cash out of this business that otherwise I could have spent buying traffic, or to point to a course, or to pay to be on a stage and go sell an offering on that stage. I made the choice to suck all the cash out of the business and go put it into other assets that scale.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
He invests his capital in his portfolio. They aren’t ‘very sexy’, but they produce equity and value in Nigel’s portfolio. And Nigel points out, few influencers or authorities reference this. There’s an alternative to spending $10,000 on LinkedIn ads to promote your productised services (plus the time and energy to build that system), and it’s a much less time and energy route to invest that $10,000 in other assets.
“Do I want to go sell a million dollars worth of this course or do I really just want to take a hundred thousand dollars of cash out of this business and go put it in this other investment that's got a cap rate of 5x, I'm going to get all my money back in 12 to 18 months, and then I get all this equity and appreciation. There are so many other assets that perform better than a course or perform better than Nigel Green on a stage selling a high ticket offering that I have access to that make the idea of being at Business Mastery or at 10X [Growth Conference] not so sexy.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
8/ You have to win the Super Bowl
“I want to caution anyone that reads or hears this case study... I never set out to be Nigel, the authority on sales leadership. All I wanted to do was lead my sales team the best that I could. And I believe that if I went into that thinking about being an expert or being an influencer, … I would have made so many bad decisions along the way that would have compromised me [from becoming] a really good sales leader for my sales team.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Nigel has three successful exits as a sales leader. The Private Equity Firms, and sales authorities respect Nigel stem from the fact that, as Nigel puts it, he won the Super Bowl.
“You can't be Tom Brady unless you win a Super Bowl, you have to first win the Super Bowl… You can't be an expert without being an expert and people won't pay you the amount of money that you think you're going to get or that I enjoy without the Super Bowl ring.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
First, the fact that he's led sales teams to those three exits informs his expertise in building and leading sales teams.
Second, it proves he knows how to build a sales team to an exit.
Third, he's achieved something many other people would love to achieve (sales-led growth leading to market traction and a multiple increase on a company's valuation) that others are pursuing and have the budget to invest. If a current exit is worth $30 million and Nigel has a track record of building sales teams to double that valuation, what's a one-day workshop with Nigel worth? They're not buying the workshop—they're placing a $30,000 bet that one day with Nigel (plus his prep work to dissect your sales process) will materially impact the business' sales success and increase the valuation at exit by significantly more than $30,000.
That’s the often ignored piece of the puzzle.
As Nigel puts it, many aim to build a $1 million one-person firm:
Second, it proves he knows how to build a sales team to an exit.
Third, he's achieved something many other people would love to achieve (sales-led growth leading to market traction and a multiple increase on a company's valuation) that others are pursuing and have the budget to invest. If a current exit is worth $30 million and Nigel has a track record of building sales teams to double that valuation, what's a one-day workshop with Nigel worth? They're not buying the workshop—they're placing a $30,000 bet that one day with Nigel (plus his prep work to dissect your sales process) will materially impact the business' sales success and increase the valuation at exit by significantly more than $30,000.
That’s the often ignored piece of the puzzle.
As Nigel puts it, many aim to build a $1 million one-person firm:
“That is not a good goal. The goal should be, be so valuable at your job that you are irreplaceable. That's the goal… I wouldn't’ be able to do this if I hadn't spent, from the age of 23 to 31, working my ass off without even thinking about the end. It was just the means. It was just, I want to be so good at my job. And it was driven by fear, it was driven by not wanting to be irrelevant, it was driven by not having … [a] backup plan… [You can’t] skip the step of doing something really valuable in the marketplace… [because] everybody knows you're not real and … that runs its course at some point, whether it runs its course, and you get exposed or it runs its course and you realize you're a phoney and you’re a hack and you didn't really do it.”
- Nigel Green
Source: My Interview with Nigel Green
Throughout this case study, we've seen Nigel make seemingly counterintuitive choices in today's attention economy.
He turned down high-profile speaking opportunities that would have amplified his brand. He writes on LinkedIn strategically, not methodically. He doesn't have a signature framework with a catchy name.
Instead, he built what matters most to high-stakes clients: a track record of transformational results. His "Super Bowl rings"—the three successful exits he led as a sales leader—became the invisible foundation of his consulting business.
This success sequencing strategy flips the modern authority-building playbook. Instead of starting with visibility and working toward credibility, Nigel built credibility first and allowed visibility to follow naturally on his terms.
In the rush to be seen as an expert, are you skipping the critical step of becoming truly excellent at what you do? Are you focused more on your positioning than the results you deliver?
Nigel built a business on demonstrable expertise, creating its own demand because it is genuinely rare and valuable.
The most powerful marketing asset is a track record of demonstrable, transformational results for a group of people willing to pay for those outcomes.
P.S. Here’s more on Nigel's book, Revenue Harvest, plus updates on his upcoming book, How to Hire Elite Salespeople.
He turned down high-profile speaking opportunities that would have amplified his brand. He writes on LinkedIn strategically, not methodically. He doesn't have a signature framework with a catchy name.
Instead, he built what matters most to high-stakes clients: a track record of transformational results. His "Super Bowl rings"—the three successful exits he led as a sales leader—became the invisible foundation of his consulting business.
This success sequencing strategy flips the modern authority-building playbook. Instead of starting with visibility and working toward credibility, Nigel built credibility first and allowed visibility to follow naturally on his terms.
In the rush to be seen as an expert, are you skipping the critical step of becoming truly excellent at what you do? Are you focused more on your positioning than the results you deliver?
Nigel built a business on demonstrable expertise, creating its own demand because it is genuinely rare and valuable.
The most powerful marketing asset is a track record of demonstrable, transformational results for a group of people willing to pay for those outcomes.
P.S. Here’s more on Nigel's book, Revenue Harvest, plus updates on his upcoming book, How to Hire Elite Salespeople.
Want the next case study?
I publish deep dives into how top consultants develop signature content AND build profitable business models around their expertise.
Each case study reveals the strategic decisions that transformed them from respected experts to sought-after authorities.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong. Give it another go.