I knew I needed more clients.

Last spring, The Solo CEO was working, but required a ton of time-consuming, manual effort to keep growing—lots of outreach and sales calls. As the political landscape and economy (especially in the U.S.) became more tenuous, closing clients at my $5k rate was getting harder.

Which only meant more calls, more nurturing, and more work.

I was attracting the right people—experienced professionals who needed to build the fundamentals of their businesses—but not enough of them to achieve my desired growth.

So when I relaunched as Essentialist CEO, I made a calculated change. Both in terms of the business model (lower-ticket membership) and messaging.

I shifted from mechanism-based messaging to outcome-based messaging. From "how to generate revenue without burning out" to "consistent $10K+ months."

I thought: This will attract more people. Everyone wants consistent revenue.

And it did attract more people.

Just not the right ones.

The workshop launched: 0.7% registration rate. 20% show-up rate. Multiple people saying "$250/month is too high."

And here's what really confused me: The entrepreneurs I actually wanted to work with, the ones making $10-20K but struggling with inconsistency, weren't responding.

They'd see "consistent $10K months" and think: "That's not me. I've already hit $10K months. Multiple times."

I'd changed my messaging to attract MORE people. And accidentally attracted the WRONG people.

Here's what I learned: Outcome-based positioning absolutely works. But only when you're naming the outcome THEY think they want—not the outcome YOU know they need.

One important note: I do genuinely enjoy working with beginners and people hungry to hit those $10K months for the first time. But, like I tell all my clients, if you ultimately want to be able to serve people who are struggling, first build a clientele of people who can afford to pay premium prices. THEN you can afford to create discounted offerings without sacrificing your own sanity, financial freedom, and personal well-being.

Let me show you what happened.

MY ANALYSIS: I looked at my ideal clients, entrepreneurs bouncing between $3K months and $20K months, and thought: "They need consistent $10K months as a foundation."

That's accurate. That's strategic. If they could stabilize at $10K consistently, everything else would get easier.

THEIR REALITY: When they looked at their business, they weren't thinking: "I need to get to $10K."

They were thinking:

See the difference?

What "consistent $10K months" signaled to them: "This is for people trying to GET to $10K for the first time. That's not me. I'm past that."

What "consistent $10K months" signaled to financially struggling beginners: "Yes! This is exactly what I need! Someone who can help me finally break $10K!"

My messaging was technically accurate. But it was speaking to MY understanding of their situation, not THEIR experience of their problem.

And that's the gap that killed my launch.

Here's what I tell my clients all the time, and what I forgot to apply to my own business:

Your buyers are not problem aware. They are symptom aware.

They know what they're experiencing—the chaos, the anxiety, the inconsistency.

They know what they think they want—more clients, better marketing, a proven system.

But they don't necessarily know what they actually need to solve the root problem.

That's your job as the expert. You understand their situation better than they understand it themselves.

But here's the catch: You can't LEAD with your diagnosis. You have to lead with their symptoms.

You have to sell them what they want AND the mechanism they think will get them there, even if the way you're going to deliver it is different.

For my ideal clients:

I can't lead with "you need positioning clarity." That's MY analysis.

I have to lead with "turn inconsistent, referral-dependent income into predictable revenue,” THEIR experience and desired outcome.

Then I can show them that the mechanism to get there is positioning + systems.

Let me be clear: Outcome-based positioning absolutely works.

But only when you're naming the outcome THEY think they want—not the outcome YOU know they need.

WRONG OUTCOME (my analysis): "Consistent $10K months"
→ Attracted: People who've never hit $10K
→ Repelled: People who've hit $20K but can't sustain it

RIGHT OUTCOME (their reality): "Turn inconsistent, referral-dependent income into predictable $30-50K+ months"
→ Attracts: People who've HAD success but can't control it
→ Repels: People who haven't built anything yet

See what changed?

The second outcome:

That matches how my ideal clients see themselves.

Here's the brutal truth about positioning:

You understand their problems better than they do.

You can see the patterns. You know what's actually blocking them. You know what they need to fix first.

But if you lead with YOUR understanding, they won't recognize themselves.

The positioning challenge is this: How do you speak to their symptom awareness while positioning yourself as the expert who understands the root problem?

The answer: Lead with their experience. Deliver your expertise.

In practice, this means:

THEIR LANGUAGE (what you lead with):

YOUR DIAGNOSIS (what you deliver):

You're not hiding your expertise. You're making it accessible by meeting them where they are.

Here's the thing I had to learn the hard way:

You can't just decide your positioning in a strategy session and call it done.

Everything in business is an experiment.

I THOUGHT "$10K months" would resonate because that's what I saw when I analyzed their situation.

But when I tested it in the real world, my ideal clients rejected it. They didn't see themselves in that outcome at all.

Testing revealed:

Without that test, I'd still be confused about why my "perfect" positioning wasn't working.

You have to test:

My "$10K months" positioning felt right to me. It was strategic. It was specific.

But it didn't work with them. And that's the only metric that matters.

Here's your positioning gut check:

Ask yourself:

Try this:

Pull up your website. Your LinkedIn headline. Your last piece of content.

Read it as if you're your ideal client. Review transcripts from past sales calls if you’re unsure.

What do you think?

If it's the second one, you're speaking YOUR language, not theirs.

The fix:

Interview 5-10 of your ideal clients (or past clients who were ideal).

Ask them:

Their answers will show you the gap between your analysis and their reality.

That gap is where magnetic positioning lives.

Starting now, you'll see this evolution in everything I do.

Less emphasis on:

More emphasis on:

OLD MESSAGING: "Get to consistent $10K months"

NEW MESSAGING: "Turn inconsistent, referral-dependent income into predictable $30-50K+ months without endless sales calls or expensive lead gen"

If you're making $10-20K inconsistently, built on referrals, feeling out of control despite being good at what you do, you're going to feel like I'm describing your exact situation.

If you're trying to get to your first $10K month, you'll know immediately this isn't for you yet.

And that's exactly how it should be.

This is what I teach. And I'm living it in real-time.

Positioning isn't about being right. It's about resonating.

You can have perfect clarity on what your ideal client needs. You can analyze their situation better than anyone else in your industry.

But if your messaging doesn't match how THEY see their problem and what THEY think they want, they won't recognize themselves in it.

The fix isn't abandoning your expertise. It's learning to speak their language first—then delivering your diagnosis.

Lead with their symptoms. Deliver your solution.

That's magnetic positioning.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if our positioning is the problem or something else. That’s why I created the Essentialist CEO Assessment to help you understand EXACTLY what is standing in the way of your scalable growth.

And why I’m running my From Referral Roulette to Predictable $30k+ Months workshop again. So far, we have a 4.9 ⭐️ rating from attendees, with one saying:

Join me next Wednesday and together we can figure out the ONE thing that’s blocking your growth and design a 90 day plan to fix it.

In love and growth,
Kasey

P.S. Everything in business is an experiment, including your positioning. What are you testing right now? Hit reply and tell me.