Jo Lilford

Julia has successfully managed to get me to step back and take a good, long, hard look at the way that I was working and running my business. I was saying ‘yes’ to a lot of work because I was frightened of turning away income.

That was really big for me, learning more about what it is that I want for my business. And the quality of the work I’ve had since working with Julia has improved a hundredfold. This has been a big impact for me.

My ‘can’t live without’ improvement seem stupidly obvious but never really occurred to me. And it was that I was working flat out with lots of work that I didn’t want. Julia said: “you’re not charging enough”.

I have a lot of International Director level experience but was thinking, “writer’s charge X amount so I should be on a par with them.” But what I do is more management consultancy writing. Julia made me realise the value in what I offer.

Julia said ‘try doubling your price and see what happens.’ And what happened was the kind of work I didn’t want to do fell away immediately. The people who see the value in what I offer stuck with me and I’ve carried on attracting clients of that type.

I’m now working half the amount as before. I was working seven days a week, now I’m down to five-ish. It means I’ve got my family life back and that’s made a massive difference.

What I love about Julia is she gives practical, tangible advice that I can implement, fine-tune and implement again.

Julia is a very hands-on, practical person and that really works for me. I want real tools that I can apply immediately to my business.