What do you call yourself?

_{[Read time: longer than usual, but worth it]}

I’ve called myself a lot of things over the past six years running this business.

All of them some version of advice-giver:

Founder. Strategist. Consultant. Advisor. Coach. Expert.

At first, it felt flexible. adaptive, even. Like I could shift depending on the conversation. And sometimes saying I was two of these at once.

Over time, it created more confusion than clarity.

Not just for others. For me.

Each carries a slightly different meaning creating space for ambiguity.

And people simply filled in the space with their own narrative. And that was my fault, because it’s unlikely that narrative is the one I really wanted.

Funny how we agonize over what to call ourselves more than what to charge. And yet one quietly determines the other.

Words build frames. And frames influence value.

These ‘titles’ don’t just describe what we do. They shape how people interpret it.

They set expectations for what the relationship will feel like, how value will be created, and what success will look like.

Say coach and people picture one thing.

Say consultant and it’s another.

Each carries a frame. And that frame determines how the buyer perceives my value.

Of the six I shared above, there are two that don’t belong.

Founder and Expert.

Not because they aren’t true, but because they are positional, not relational to the client.

Founder describes a relationship to the business, not the client. It says ‘I built and run’ the thing, but not what I do for you.

Expert is similar, but it’s positional is depth rather than direction. It describes a relationship to knowledge, not to the client. It signals mastery, but not how that mastery creates value.

One can be an expert consultant, an expert advisor, or an expert strategist.

Yes, expertise strengthens every role; it doesn’t create a new one.

What remains are the four archetypes that actually frame value to the client (before ever doing any work).

1. The Coach

2. The Consultant

3. The Advisor

4. The Strategist

Here is my analysis, summarized…

1: The Coach

The Coach helps people grow through reflection, accountability, and consistent support. They don’t give answers; they create the conditions for better ones to emerge.

They sell growth, but what the client really buys is momentum.

The intangible outcomes (confidence, accountability, focus) becomes tangible results through better follow-through and faster progress.

And the realized value is time saved and elevated status (by becoming someone who acts instead of hesitates).

Coaches should price on based on the nuances of the partnership, meaning a strong discovery is really important.

The more hands-on and consistent the support, the higher the value. They’re not pricing an outcome; they’re pricing the relationship that accelerates it.

Coach = helps people move.

Typical pricing logic → depth of access × duration × expected transformation.

2: The Consultant

The Consultant diagnoses and solves specific problems. They bring precision and apply it to a defined outcome.

Sometimes this term is used as a catch all. Sometimes it’s specific, which means the adjectives used before it or the modifying sentence after it are important.

Ultimately the consultant sells certainty (through applied expertise).

The intangible outcomes (clarity and resolution) becomes tangible through efficiency gains, cost savings, or revenue growth.

Their realized value is more money (made or saved).

Consultants should price on ROI and scope of problem solved. The bigger the impact, the higher the price. Pricing can also reflect the cost of not solving the problem.

Consultant = helps people fix.

Typical pricing logic → fraction of potential (or real) value created or cost avoided.

3: The Advisor

The Advisor helps people make better decisions. They bring judgment, pattern recognition, and perspective.

They sell confidence in choice.

The intangible outcomes (context, timing, perspective) becomes tangible through fewer mistakes, faster decisions, and steadier execution.

Their value is realized by risk reduction and time saved.

Advisors price on access and decision leverage. That just means they are paid for availability and the level of impact their client’s decision have on a business.

The greater the stakes, the higher the value of proximity.

Advisor = helps people decide.

Typical pricing logic → future value of avoided mistakes + premium for access.

4: The Strategist

The Strategist sells direction.

They’re hired when complexity makes it hard to see the whole picture — when everything’s moving, but not in the same direction. Sometimes things work, but not together. Sometimes nothing’s broken, but no one can tell what’s right.

The strategist’s job is to restore or create coherence. To turn clutter into clarity and motion into momentum.

They sell understanding.

The intangible outcomes (alignment, focus, perspective) becomes tangible through smarter sequencing, reduced friction, and higher return on effort or investment.

Their realized value is often delayed, but compounds into more money (made or saved) time saved, and risk reduced.

Don’t be confused by this term strategy. The coach, consultant, and advisor can all think strategically, but it doesn’t make them a strategist.

Strategists price based on a return on clarity of the potential future outcomes — the measurable advantage of seeing clearly. Pricing reflects how much waste, delay, or misalignment their clarity removes and the potential it can create.

They often work in two stages (sometimes three):

• A diagnostic to uncover what’s really happening.

• A roadmap to help the client execute in alignment with that clarity.

• And support to help during the execution.

Strategist = helps people make it make sense.

Typical pricing logic → how much faster, smoother, or more profitably the client can move once they see the path forward.

This leads us to the economics, specifically the economics of the intangibles.

Because every one of these roles sells something intangible first. A feeling, a frame, a kind of clarity. But to price with confidence, that intangible has to be translated into a tangible value driver from the buyer’s perspective.

That translation makes pricing logical instead of arbitrary, and gives me a narrative that moves naturally from story to math.

In any industry, there’s always a comparable you can use to help your prospect quantify the value, even if it’s not a perfect fit. I mean anchoring the abstract to something recognizable and costly.

• Sometimes it’s a financial comparison (what an FTE would cost).

• Sometimes it’s a speed comparison (how much faster the result happens).

• Sometimes it’s a behavioral comparison (the cost of churn, rework, or missed opportunities).

The point isn’t precision; it’s relatability. It’s giving the buyer a breadcrumb trail back to something relatable to them.

A way to say: “I see what this replaces, prevents, or accelerates.”

That’s what makes pricing feel logical, even when the first level of value is intangible.

The big mistake I see (and experience) is that most advice-givers blur these archetypes without realizing it.

They call themselves one thing and price like another. They sell like a advisor but deliver like a strategist. They talk like an consultant but operate like a coach.

To close the loop on what I call myself…

I’m a strategist at my core. Not the abstract, whiteboard kind, but the kind who makes the big-picture more operational.

I may carry an advisor’s lens and a consultant’s fix-it mentality, but the core of my work lives in the cohesive tissue of a business.

Not just the narrow problem, but the ones that ripple out from it, and the ones that replace it once a solution is created.

That’s why, when I talk about pricing, it’s never just about fixing the price tag. It’s about making better strategic decisions through the lens of price — sharpening the connections between pricing and everything it touches: operations, sales, marketing, finance, and ultimately, the buyer.

Because pricing isn’t an isolated lever. It’s the thread that ties the whole system together.

A final thought….

This is the thesis I’ve landed on for these advice-givers archetypes.

A refinement of experience, the sum of lessons learned by working inside other people’s complexity long enough to recognize my own. And it builds on everything I wrote in How I (Now) Give the Right Advice (and the stuff before it).

And I know there’s more refinement to come.

Be well. Talk soon.

— Peter

P.S. I wrote this to distill my own thinking, but also to help you see the subtle (and expensive) importance of calling yourself the right thing.

So, if you had to pick one…what would you call yourself?

Send me a DM on LinkedIn or email with one word: coach, consultant, advisor, or strategist. And if you’re genuinely torn between two, tell me. Because it’s already influencing how you’re priced — and how you’re perceived.

P.P.S. When you’re ready to work with me, reserve your spot for a Pricing Audit — and step into 2026 knowing exactly what to charge (with total confidence).