Authority Builder Podcast | Client-winning strategies for coaches, consultants, and creatives who want to lead with authority.
If you’re ready to stop being the industry’s best-kept secret, The Authority Builder Podcast is for you.
Hosted by Charlotte Ellis Maldari, founder of Kaffeen, this show is packed with client-attracting strategies for service-based business owners who want to lead with expertise and grow with ease.
Whether you’re refining your message, launching a lead magnet, or finally writing that book—this podcast will help you turn your brilliance into booked-out business, one smart move at a time.
Authority Builder Podcast | Client-winning strategies for coaches, consultants, and creatives who want to lead with authority.
From Outsider to Authority: How to Attract Dream Clients Without Losing Yourself
Do you feel like you’re constantly “pedalling with one foot”—putting in the work, creating beautiful content, and building a talented team, but the clients you truly want just aren’t showing up?
You’re not alone.
In this episode, Charlotte speaks directly to the quiet visionaries: creative agency founders who feel stuck on the outside of their dream sector, whether that’s luxury, lifestyle, or premium brands. She dives deep into:
•Why “outsider syndrome” might actually be your greatest advantage
•How to leverage what you’ve already built—no more starting from scratch!
•The simple structure shift that turns content into real leads
•Practical ways to finally move from passive brand-building to active client conversations
If you’re done waiting to be noticed and ready to become the sought-after agency you’re meant to be, tune in—because the clients you dream of working with are already looking for you.
Ready to feel like the agency you’re meant to be?
Find out more about working with Charlotte here: http://www.kaffeen.co/apply
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are four ways I can help you attract more high-value clients—without the hustle:
📚 Start with my free book
Join 3,000+ service providers and agency owners who’ve downloaded Client Magnet: 97 Proven Strategies and Tactics to Attract New Business and Scale Your Creative Agency Revenue.
(It’s written for agencies, but packed with advice any service provider can use.)
👉 Grab it free: https://kaffeen.co/book
🚀 Build your lead system with LinkedIn Lead Liftoff
A done-for-you lead generation system that brings in high-quality leads from LinkedIn—no content, cold calls, or awkward DMs required.
We’ll build it, set it up, and show you how to run it in under 30 minutes a day.
👉 Learn more: https://kaffeen.co/llo
🎧 Tune into the podcast
Get honest advice, expert interviews, and actionable tips to grow your service business with more clarity and less noise.
👉 Follow here: https://open.spotify.com/show/7upjztW0B3hQi2YlHTVdNn
💬 Work with me 1:1
I work with a handful of clients each quarter to increase visibility, build authority, and land consistent £30k+ opportunities—with a system that runs on autopilot.
👉 Book a consult: ...
Hi, and welcome back to the Authority Builder Podcast. Today's episode is for the self-described quiet visionaries. So the creative agency owners doing beautiful, thoughtful work, but feeling like the new client opportunities just out landing. You know your work is strong. You built a capable team, you created long form content that says something. You're starting to attract attention even from outside of your design bubble, and yet the right kind of clients still aren't coming to your door. Does that sound familiar? So I'm gonna be talking through today, I'm just running this hot off the back of a phone call with a new client who's just signed to work with us, and so much of that conversation was. So much of what the studio leader was saying was so familiar to me, and it's a story that I hear so many times and every time I hear it, it feels like the person telling me it feels like they're very alone and they're the only one experiencing this. And I wanted to record this. An anonymous collection of thoughts around that conversation. And what I was hearing from them and, and what I said in response because I think it's really important, even though this is just a short episode for you, if you identify with that quiet visionary label for you to listen to this and think, yeah, this isn't just me, and actually this is a mindset thing and not a capability thing, and I deserve to be out there. And it, that's what I want you to take away from it, basically. Not very well formed thoughts because I've literally just got off this call, but I felt it was important to share with you. So if you do know you're working strong, you built a capable team and you're doing all this stuff but you're not finding the right kind of clients.'cause that sounds familiar. You might be stuck in what I call the one-legged pedaling phase. You've built brand, you're posting here and there. You're experimenting with different platforms, but lead generation still feels like guesswork and you're exhausted trying to make traction. Without burning yourself out. And today I'm gonna speak directly to the agency owner who feels like the outsider. Somebody who didn't go to the right design school, who doesn't feel like they have friends at the right kind of luxury or highbrow brands that they wanna be working with. Somebody who's clawed their way into the creative space. Frankly, through she will talent and belief, but they still feel like they're on the outside and looking in and. To some extent, I think that sense of outsideness is part of the problem, and that is a mindset problem. And it does require coaching, but there is also something else that we can help you to solve. And I just wanna tell you, you're not alone. You're not doing it wrong. Alongside that mindset piece, the chances are you're just missing the structure that turns your vision into momentum within your business. So let me paint a picture. I just mentioned that I spoke to a brilliant agency founder earlier. Uh, we call him Alex, who spent the past year experimenting. He hired a team of ex editorial and luxury insiders. He launched thought leadership content. He started to see organic signals, so more followers, more people outside of design, showing interest. So not just people who wanted to work for him, but people who wanted to work with him. But leads from that like real tangible client leads, they weren't biting, proposals weren't going out. Conversations were stalling, and slowly the doubt started to creep in. And Alex told me, I feel like I'm peddling with one foot. I'm putting the effort in, but the machine isn't moving. And here's the kicker. He has so much already built. He's got a three hour interview with a really sharp strategist that I know lots of his dream clients will wanna hear from. He's got snippets ready for social, he's got long form content sitting unpublished, and yet he's kind of in this, this type of paralysis because perfectionism crept in. And because cashflow has made him question every investment and because deep down he was waiting to feel legitimate before showing up more boldly. And this is the part that really gets me. So many of you are sitting on a gold mine of content and credibility, and you just need help packaging it and pointing it at the right audience. Alex really needed, wasn't more content, it was a simple system for turning conversations into leads clarity on who he was speaking to. Hint. Not everyone. And not everyone, even in luxury, which was his chosen sector. And he also needed the permission to start where he is, not where he thinks he should be. I'm just gonna repeat that one.'cause I think it's, I have to think that's just so important. Just permission to start where you are and not where you think you should be. And we've recently gone through a rebrand. We haven't fully announced it yet. We may be seeing little bits of it coming through here and there. But a big focus around the messaging within that is around this kind of concept of the permission slip. Because I think so many of us think, I know imposter syndrome is an overused term, but this kind of sense of you're waiting for somebody to say yes, you may now do marketing. You have reached the point where you are allowed to do that. You are good enough and no one's gonna give you that. Certainly not the employers that you left to start your own business. Certainly not your employees. Your clients aren't even gonna give you it. They're waiting for you to have that boldness in order to hire you. So it really needs to come from you or filling that me, and I'm gonna give you that permission slip. That is, if that's my role, then great. Because what I do know is that the world needs more. Creative solutions, uh, not fewer. And, um, if you're good at what you do, then this is your permission slip to put yourself out there. So hopefully as of today, we're starting to work together and, my plan is to do that not by dreaming up shiny new tactics, but by using what he already has. So I wanna turn this interview that he has into his lead magnet. We're gonna map out his audience journey. We're gonna build a system for connecting with the right people without adding a million new tasks to his plate. And the result we're aiming for, is that he's no longer gonna be just building a brand. He's gonna be building a pipeline. He's gonna be stepping into the agency he's meant to be. Not hustling to prove himself, but curating conversations with the clients he actually wants. So if you're listening to this and thinking, that's me, I want you to hear this really clearly. You're not behind. You do not need to be louder. You just need a structure that reflects your ambition and respects your energy. You need the kind of momentum that makes sense for you. Not a one size fits all growth hack. So if your vision is clear, but traction feels outta reach, if you've been building credibility but the phone still isn't ringing, and if you are tired of being the best kept secret in your niche, then I wanna work with you to change that. This is the work that I do every day with clients, and if you're ready. I would love to help you too. I'm currently accepting new one-to-one coaching clients. This really doesn't happen very often. The last time we opened for new one-to-one coaching clients was back in 2021, and I am super excited about working with a wealth of new creative leaders. If you would like to hear and see more about that, you can click on the link in the show notes or just drop me a message on LinkedIn or head to caffeine.co/apply. That's KA double F, double e nco slash a PPY and if you're gonna message me, tell me where you're stuck. There's no pressure, no pitch, just.