Discover Robin Waite’s fearless business philosophy from his AdvisorPro Podcast chat with Colin Howes,learn how to work with fewer clients, boost profits,
Entrepreneurs often find themselves trapped in the endless hustle, working longer hours, juggling more clients, and burning out faster. But what if true success meant doing less, not more?
In a recent episode of the AdvisorPro Podcast, host Colin Howes sat down with Robin Waite, business coach, keynote speaker, and founder of Fearless Business, to discuss how consultants, freelancers, and coaches can double or even triple their income while working with fewer clients.
Robin’s philosophy flips the traditional growth model on its head. Instead of chasing more leads, he encourages entrepreneurs to focus on having fewer, better-aligned clients, and charging accordingly.
“A successful business,” Robin explains, “is one where you have half the clients but double the income.”
By reducing client load, business owners can:
Robin himself embodies this approach, working only around four hours per week on direct coaching while maintaining strong business growth.
For many entrepreneurs, defining an ideal customer profile (ICP) begins and ends with basic demographics, but Robin argues that’s only the first step.
This includes age, occupation, income level, and location, important, but surface level.
Psychographics dive deeper into habits, values, and environments, answering questions like:
Understanding these elements allows you to be present where your clients already are, instead of shouting into the void.
This final layer often gets overlooked. Robin highlights the importance of authenticity, presenting yourself in a way that aligns with your true identity.
When he traded his button-down shirts and business suits for Fearless Business T-shirts and jeans, he noticed a powerful shift. He began attracting clients who shared his love for adventure, family, and freedom, people who were, in his words, “fearless in their own right.”
Robin emphasises that ethical qualification is the cornerstone of sustainable business. Rather than taking on anyone who can pay, he uses three simple but powerful questions:
Many first-time coaches or consultants struggle with imposter syndrome. Robin suggests the cure lies not in affirmations, but in action and data.
He guides clients through incremental milestones:
By focusing on the process instead of the binary outcome (“I sold / I failed”), entrepreneurs build confidence naturally and remove the pressure that often sabotages results.
Robin introduces the concept of “binary thinking”, seeing everything as a yes/no, success/failure, cheap/expensive dichotomy.
He urges listeners to adopt “bandwidth thinking” instead, recognising the range of possible outcomes and celebrating small improvements. This mindset not only reduces anxiety but also opens space for creativity and experimentation.
Before becoming a business coach, Robin ran a successful design agency. But despite financial stability, the lifestyle clashed with his growing family. Late nights, demanding clients, and weekend calls led him to re-evaluate his path.
A pivotal moment came when a client dismissed Robin’s strategic advice and demanded a quick website build. Offended but resolute, Robin ended the meeting, realising he was no longer willing to work with clients who didn’t value his expertise.
“It made me realise I had all of this business knowledge that I wasn’t using,” Robin recalls. “I wasn’t letting people know what amazing stuff I had locked up in my head.”
That decision set him on the path to Fearless Business, where he now teaches others how to position themselves as respected experts, not order-takers.
According to Robin, the most successful companies often look boring from the outside.
He points to Apple and Microsoft as prime examples, standardised products that satisfy 80–90% of customer needs, produced at scale through streamlined systems.
“Imagine if every iPhone had to be customised for each customer,” he says. “It wouldn’t be physically possible.”
The lesson for small business owners:
Building on the Pareto Principle, Robin explains how 20% of your efforts generate 80% of your results, and even within that, 4% of your actions may drive 96% of your outcomes.
A real-life example? One guest appearance on Ali Abdaal’s Deep Dive podcast generated over 3,000 leads for his coaching business, equivalent to four and a half years of traditional content marketing.
This inspired him to focus on high-leverage opportunities such as:
As the conversation wrapped up, Colin asked Robin for his best advice for new coaches stepping into entrepreneurship.
Robin’s answer was simple yet profound:
“There are only two things that can go wrong in business, you might look a bit stupid, or you might lose a bit of money. Both can be overcome.”
He also referenced Tim Ferriss’s “Fear-Setting” exercise, challenging entrepreneurs to confront their worst fears, plan contingencies, and act anyway.
For Robin, the greatest failure isn’t losing money or looking foolish, it’s never finding out what could have been.
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This Scorecard has been designed to show Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to increase their prices.
