Unleashed - How To Thrive As An Independent Professional

Use this episode for meditation or perhaps just as some white noise when you need to focus: ten minutes of the waves lapping on the beach at Chuburná, Yucatan, Mexico, where we stayed for a few days in July 2018. Ask me a question, view transcripts of past episodes, and sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: askunleashed.com  

That is Matt Johnson, who runs a podcast production agency. If you have thought about starting a podcast, but don’t want to deal with all the logistics and the marketing, his firm will take care of all the details so all you need to do is show up and share your wisdom, or interview the guests that Matt’s firm will book for you. To learn more about Matt, visit his firm’s website http://pursuingresults.com/ where there is also a link to schedule time to speak with Matt. Ask a question, download transcripts of past episodes, and sign up for our weekly email at: askunleashed.com  

Our guest today is Kevin Stoneham, an independent consultant who is the former COO of PwC IT Services. Kevin's current focus, DigiServ LLC, focuses on digital transformation, and we discuss in particular Kevin's experience with robotic process automation. Learn more about Kevin at:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinstoneham/ Ask a question, download transcripts of previous episodes, and sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: askunleashed.com  

Our guest today is Peter Winick, who runs a firm called Thought Leadership Leverage. His firm enables thought leaders, authors and gurus to monetize their content through books, keynote speaking, the creation of training services and products and consulting and assessment tools. In our discussion, we start with the mistakes that people most often make when they think about building a thought leadership platform.  And then we go through Peter’s process step by step, from setting a strategy for your thought leadership, to product design and monetization. To learn more about Peter’s work, visit https://thoughtleadershipleverage.com/ To ask a question or subscribe to the weekly Unleashed email, visit askunleashed.com  

Our guest today is Matt LeMay, the author of Product Management in Practice and his most recent book: Agile for Everybody: Creating Fast, Flexible, and Customer First Organizations. In this episode, Matt discusses Agile for Everybody, which shows how to apply the principles of agile development from the world of software to the world of consulting and knowledge work. You can find out more about Matt on his personal website: mattlemay.com Matt is partners with Sunny Bates and Tricia Wang in a consulting firm named Sudden Compass, and you can learn about their work at https://www.suddencompass.com/ Sunny Bates is one of the master connectors of the 21st century, and you can hear from Sunny on Episode 64 of this show. Sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: askunleashed.com

That is Nick Sonnenberg, a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and consultant. Nick and a partner, Ari Meisel, founded Leverage, a high-end freelancer market place, and they built the business by using off-the-shelf tools such as Slack, Trello, and Zapier. Nick and Ari wrote a book about the experience titled Idea to Execution: How to Optimize, Automate, Outsource Everything in your Business. Nick now regularly consults with clients on team productivity and how to get the most out of team productivity tools. You can learn more about Nick’s freelancer staffing firm at: getleverage.com You can ask a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

Our guest today is Dave Nelson, who, if you’ve ever listened all the way through the credits of this show, you’ll recognize as the audio engineer of Unleashed. Dave and I normally communicate by email, and this was the longest discussion we’ve had since we started working together 150 episodes ago. In this episode, Dave shares tips on audio equipment for podcasters and some process tips for working with an audio engineer. If you are looking for an audio engineer for your own podcast, Dave has expanded his team and does have some capacity available, and you can learn more at: https://www.lensgroupmedia.com/ Here is a link to download the list of podcast equipment Dave recommends on the show: http://bit.ly/DaveNelsonEquipment You can ask a question and sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

March 4, 2019 was the 230th anniversary of the day that the United States started operating under the U.S. Constitution.   Which seemed like a good occasion to do a reading, out loud, of the full text of the Constitution and the 27 Amendments, something I had never done before.  

Our guest today is Tobin Slaven. Tobin helps entrepreneurs build email lists, conduct conversations at scale, and then monetize those lists. He is the host of a podcast that I’ve been enjoying: Stop Marketing Now, Do This Instead. Tobin emphasizes the importance of engaging in a conversation with potential customers and building a relationship. In explaining to me his approach to building remarkable, successful email lists, Tobin recalled his own sleepless nights, worrying about where his next client would come from and what he could do to move beyond word of mouth. In this show we cover the nuts and bolts of which email platforms to use and how often emails should be sent as well as techniques to use email as a continuing conversation from which business can grow. To learn more about Tobin and to find plenty of useful tips, visit tobinslaven.com To ask a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

Our guest today is Greg Albertyn, an expert in data governance, risk, and privacy compliance programs. In this episode, we discuss, among other topics, aspects of GDPR that independent consultants should be familiar with. (GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation enacted by the European Union) Among my questions to Greg was, “Can a person send an email to someone without their prior approval?” To learn more about Greg, visit his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-albertyn/ To ask a question or subscribe to the weekly Unleashed email, visit https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

Our guest today is Amy Gross, a performance psychology consultant who runs a coaching practice called Pillars4Performance.  Many of her clients are elite athletes, and that’s where we focus our discussion.  In this episode we cover how to focus on the controllables (instead of fixating on things outside your control) how to using visioning exercises effectively how to identify and overcome self-defeating narratives how to identify your zone – and how to get into it To learn more about Amy’s work, visit pillars4performance.com To ask Will Bachman a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit: askunleashed.com  

Our guest today is Umbrex member Kevin Terrell, a McKinsey alum and independent consultant based in Minneapolis St Paul. In addition to his consulting work, Kevin is the co-founder of Start Reading Now, Kevin read an article on how lower-income students tend to lose ground academically over the summer, and part of the reason is because they don’t read as much, and part of the reason for that is that lower-income households have fewer books in the house. In this episode, Kevin shares the story of what he did next. To learn more about Kevin’s non-profit, visit startreadingnow.org To learn more about Kevin’s consulting work, visit katanaconsulting.com To ask a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit askunleashed.com

Our guest today is Jonathan Stern, a former partner at Bain and the CEO and Founder of SnapStrat. SnapStrat builds tools for its clients to bring prescriptive analytics and machine learning to the tasks of regularly recurring strategic decisions. In this episode, he shares a case example of SnapStrat’s work with a top beauty products retailer, helping them use analytics to determine which free samples to give out. To learn more about Jonathan, visit his firm’s website: https://snapstrat.com/ To submit a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

Our guest today is Mary Kate Scott, a McKinsey alum who has been running her own boutique healthcare consulting firm, Scott & Company, since 2002. She has been a close friend and mentor of mine for years, and in this episode we cover a wide range of topics including: - Three things MK does before every proposal, including her five-factor rule for evaluating potential projects - The three phases her consulting practice has gone through over the past 17 years - Maintaining relationships with clients over time To learn more about MK's practice, visit: http://www.marykatescott.com/ To ask a question for me to answer on a future episode, or to sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/    

Our guest today is Robin Albin, a brand strategist and brand sherpa based in the New York area. Robin has invented – or reinvented – over fifty brands for startups and major corporations across many categories, with particular expertise in cosmetics, health and wellness, and fashion. In our discussion Robin shares some case studies of how she works with clients to help them express the promise that the brand wants to make to its customers. To learn more about Robin, visit her website, www.insurgents.io Submit your question to be answered in a future episode. Record and submit at: askumbrex.com The weekly Unleashed email includes the transcript of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips. Sign up at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/

Our guest today is Jay Martin, who’s got over 25 years of management consulting experience, including time at Arthur D. Little and IBM Global Services and nearly 18 years as an independent consultant. Jay has done a better job than anyone I’ve met at maintaining an exhaustive list of all his projects – the document is 18 pages long and includes the details on well over a hundred projects. In this episode, Jay discusses how he started building this list and the benefits of keeping such a document. To receive a copy of Jay's project list, sign up for the weekly Unleashed email at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/ To learn more about Jay, visit his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-martin-99a69812/

Our guest today is Brad Clark, who is a former management consultant – he was a Principal at Oliver Wyman. Later, he was the Chief Marketing Officer at The Motley Fool, and he has now built a holistic financial planning and investment management service, where many of his clients are consultants. In our discussion, Brad describes the five financial planning tips he believes are essential for independent professionals: entity conversion, retirement planning, insurance, paying for college, and tax planning. You can learn more about Brad's services on his website:  www.bradleyclark.com The weekly Unleashed email includes a transcript of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips. Sign up at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/  

There are two types of products: Ones where we already know the story. Example: water. And ones where the customers needs to hear the story. Example: chicha. Are you selling water or chicha? The weekly Unleashed email includes a transcript of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips. Sign up at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/  

Our guest today is Michael Frankel who has an amazing background – he’s been a corporate attorney at Skadden Arps, an investment banker, a private equity advisor, VP level business development roles at GE, LexisNexis, CFO of two companies, and held board positions. Michael is currently the Head of the Deloitte New-venture Accelerator. Michael shares his perspective on a range of topics including how large consulting firms are setting up talent pools of independent consultants interim CFO roles how consulting firms are investing in Artificial intelligence to enable experts with technology Here is Michael's profile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankelmichael/ Sign up to receive the weekly Unleashed email that includes a transcript of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips, at: https://www.umbrex.com/unleashed-podcast/    

Our guest today is Fredrik Thomassen, CEO and Co-Founder of Konsus.com, an on-demand creative outsourcing service. Fredrik shared his ideas on the future of work (hint: he says that it’s remote work), as well as the way that he runs his own company using a hybrid structure where half his team is located in Oslo and the other half are based in San Francisco. We chatted about the tools he uses to coordinate his company’s activities, how remote work is going to change the employee evaluation process, the challenges of being able to work 24/7, and how his team’s ambition is for every company in the world to eventually have a Konsus subscription. Fredrik says he is always open to chatting, and he values the many interesting conversations that have started with a simple email. You can reach him at his website: www.konsus.com or email him directly at fredrik@konsus.com.