How to Go Pro as a Facilitator or Trainer (New Program)
Get and Serve Clients Well
I’ll be sharing my insight with The Voyage of Consulting as a contributing faculty voice, sharing part of my own journey into professional facilitation, training, speaking, and consulting. I first met Voyage founders Darin Harris and Steve Davis through their legendary facilitator training program at the University of Wisconsin years ago that I participated in. I’ve seen their work up close. Later, they have done one of the hardest things there is to do in this world: not just become consultants, but create their own workshops and programs that people actually buy tickets for and get impact from, and keep doing it year after year. In some cases, these have even been full-week programs. That is the dream for many facilitators, trainers, and experts who want to build something of their own.
One reason I wanted to write about this program is that Darin and Steve are not just teaching theory. They have long track records as trusted facilitators, consultants, coaches, and program leaders. The Voyage of Consulting grows out of that real experience and, from the way they describe it, also out of repeated requests from people who want help making the leap from expertise to an actual consulting business. The program site frames it as a six-month launch program for professionals who want to become independent facilitators or consultants and do it intelligently, with structure, support, and a small cohort of peers.
(Just reach out on our contact form or email [email protected] to learn more about this program.)
Why This Program Matters
A lot of people know their craft.
They know how to facilitate. They know how to teach. They know how to lead workshops. They know how to solve problems, guide teams, speak, coach, and help organizations move forward.
What many of them have not learned is how to turn that expertise into a real professional practice.
That is a different realm entirely.
It is one thing to be excellent at facilitation, training, consulting, leadership development, or keynote speaking. It is another thing to know how to position your work, define your niche, shape your offer, create a signature workshop or talk, start the right conversations, and build a business around it. The Voyage of Consulting is built for that exact transition. According to the program page, it is designed to help experienced professionals launch a positioned consulting offer, create real proposals, and move toward at least one paid engagement in motion over six months.
For People Who Are Excellent at the Work but New to the Business Side
This is what I think makes the program especially relevant for facilitators, trainers, and experts.
Many people in this world have deep knowledge and real experience, but they still find themselves asking questions like these:
How do I define what I actually offer?
How do I describe my niche in a way that makes sense to clients?
How do I go from “I’m good at this” to “Here is the problem I solve”?
How do I package a workshop, keynote, or consulting offer professionally?
How do I become known, trusted, and hired?
The Voyage of Consulting seems designed for people at exactly that point. The “Who’s This For?” page says the program is for professionals with 10 or more years of experience who want autonomy, do not want to wing it, are willing to make real offers, and are ready to think like business owners. It also makes clear that this is not for people casually exploring ideas or looking for overnight passive income.
Why I Trust this Program
Trust matters when you are learning something this important.
Steve and Darin are very senior, experienced practitioners. They are not newcomers packaging internet advice. Their broader Journey of Collaboration platform reflects years of work in facilitation, coaching, training, consulting, and collaborative leadership development. Their site highlights deep roots in facilitation and group leadership, and The Voyage of Consulting builds on that foundation rather than departing from it.
What stands out to me is that they have done something many people want to do but very few sustain over time: they have built original workshops, learning experiences, and multi-day programs that people willingly pay to attend. They have done this repeatedly and over many years. On the Voyage site, they also say they built their consulting firm during COVID, economic instability, and market chaos, and generated more than $2 million in revenue since 2017. That is not the main reason I respect the program, but it does show that they have taken their own work into the marketplace and made it real.
This Is About Becoming a Professional, Not Just Chasing Revenue
One thing I appreciate is that, even though the program site does talk about revenue and paid engagements, the deeper value here is not simply “make money.”
It is about becoming a professional in a new way.
For many facilitators and experts, the hard part is not learning more about their topic. The hard part is stepping into a new identity. The site puts this well in its description of The Craft, which is about becoming the consultant, not just the expert. It emphasizes sales confidence, pricing clarity, rejection resilience, operating discipline, and the shift into behaving like a business owner.
That is a profound transition.
You may already be excellent in the room. You may already know how to facilitate difficult conversations, design learning experiences, or lead meaningful workshops. But making that your business requires new muscles. It requires not just expertise, but professional positioning, courage, consistency, and the ability to translate value into something clients understand and hire.
What The Voyage of Consulting Covers
The program is organized around four elements, which they call the High C’s:
The Calling
This section focuses on building an offer the market will pay for. The site says participants will define an ideal client, clarify the painful problem they solve, design a signature 45-minute talk, build half-day and full-day versions, and create a paid offer with pricing. The outcome is described simply: you leave with a real offer, not just an idea.
The Craft
This is the piece about becoming the consultant, not just the expert. It includes sales confidence, pricing clarity, resilience, daily discipline, and practicing real outreach and sales conversations.
The Compass
This section focuses on practical infrastructure such as legal setup, insurance essentials, proposal templates, invoicing systems, revenue tracking, and lead pipeline management. The point is not to overbuild, but to put the right operational backbone in place.
The Community
This part addresses sustainability and support. The site talks about building a community of fellow owners, thinking beyond one-off gigs, and developing a more stable foundation through partnerships, projects, and longer-term planning.
A Strong Fit for Facilitators, Workshop Leaders, and Trainers
I also think this program has a natural fit for people in the facilitation world.
Why?
Because facilitators often know how to create transformation for others before they know how to structure transformation for themselves.
They may already know how to build a powerful workshop. They may know how to guide a group, create interaction, hold complexity, and help people think well together. What they may not know yet is how to package that work, name it, position it, price it, market it, and get clients consistently enough to make it a business.
The Voyage of Consulting addresses that gap directly. Its month-by-month structure includes a live three-hour session each month, structured exercises, offer-building labs, sales practice, peer accountability, and implementation assignments between sessions. One early module includes identifying a painful, urgent, fundable problem, defining an ideal client profile, shaping a clear value proposition, and drafting a 45-minute session plus a half-day version that can function as a lead generator and offer pathway.
That is exactly the kind of bridge many skilled facilitators and trainers need.
This Is Not Just Inspiration
Another reason I wanted to share this is that the program is clear about what it is not.
It is not a vague mastermind.
It is not casual inspiration.
It is not for people who just want to think about possibilities without taking action.
The site repeatedly describes it as a practical build and a structured launch process. That matters. There are plenty of people with good ideas and deep expertise. The challenge is learning how to move from possibility to professional practice. Steve and Darin seem to understand that difference very well.
Why I’m Glad to Contribute
My own contribution is small, but I’m glad to be part of it.
I’ll be sharing some of my own path and tips in a conversation for participants. I hope that perspective is useful, especially for people who have spent years developing their craft but are now facing a different challenge: not “Can I do the work?” but “How do I build a real business around the work I know I’m meant to do?”
That is a meaningful question.
And it is one that deserves guidance from people who have actually walked the path.
Final Thoughts on The Voyage of Consulting
If you are a facilitator, trainer, speaker, coach, or experienced professional who has built real expertise but never quite learned how to turn that expertise into a business, this program may be worth a serious look.
What gives me confidence in it is not hype. It is the combination of three things:
real experience,
real credibility,
and a real desire to help others make the leap.
Steve Davis and Darin Harris have built trusted programs over many years. They understand facilitation and collaboration deeply. And now they are sharing what they have learned about doing one of the hardest things in professional life: getting clients, building a practice, and making your work your business.
That is a transition many people want to make.
Very few people know how to teach it well.
This looks like a thoughtful attempt to do exactly that.
If that sounds like the stage you are in, you can explore The Voyage of Consulting and see whether it feels like a fit for your next chapter. The current program site describes it as a six-month cohort, with a maximum of twelve participants.
(Just reach out on our contact form or email [email protected] to learn more about this program.)