Write a book

I'm not joking.

If you're a serious, self-employed consultant, which means you're 100% passionate about whatever it is you consult in then get yourself in print.

It is one of the more painful, most protracted experiences you'll ever have but well worth it.  The cache that goes with being an author is unlike any other.  If you've sat down and thought through 30,000 words of an idea then you are, by definition, an expert.

My caveat is this: do it properly.  Invest the time to write at least three drafts and then invest the money to employ a professional editor to ask all sorts of hard questions, large and small, before your final draft.  Then self-publish.  The hidden wisdom behind self-publication is that you retain total control over your product, you get to say whatever it is you want to say in your own words and you'll still be out there on amazon.com  with everyone else.

My approach is to treat the book as a a high-value calling card rather than an income stream per se.  I've sold thousands of copies, mostly in multi-book orders from clients, so the editor's fees and typesetting costs were recovered long ago.  But I've done even better out of the business generated by the hundreds more I've given away.

Best of all: it's mine.  I wrote it and no one can ever take that away from me.

If you're interested...