Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Jonathan Stark is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing: he is the author of Hourly Billing is Nuts and three other books. Definitely check out Jonathan's website, jonathanstark.com, where you can find free resources, including links to his two podcasts, his Youtube channel, a free email-based course titled Value Pricing Bootcamp and the archive of his daily email list.  

Jeremy Bieger is the co-founder and CEO of Pulse Insights, a voice of the customer platform that takes a new approach to collecting and leveraging customer feedback. In today’s episode, Jeremy discusses how online voice of the customer feedback technology has evolved, and how Pulse Insights works with enterprise clients to capture insights from customers at the relevant time. To learn more about Pulse Insights, visit their website: https://pulseinsights.com/

Rebecca Winn, founder of the boutique residential landscape design firm Whimsical Gardens, has won over 300 horticulture awards and five consecutive Texas Excellence in Landscaping Awards.  Her inspirational Facebook blog has over 600,000 followers. In today’s episode, we discuss Rebecca’s recently published book One Hundred Daffodils, the story of hear search for meaning, identify, and purpose. www.RebeccaWinn.com www.facebook.com/WhimsicalGardens www.facebook.com/WinnRebecca     IG  @rebeccawinn.writer TW @RebeccaOWinn Purchase One Hundred Daffodils at your favorite retailer: INDIE BOUND: https://bit.ly/2VB9c2b BOOKSHOP.ORG https://bit.ly/2RYZyUJ BARNES AND NOBLE https://bit.ly/2UMn7kd AMAZON - USA https://amzn.to/32bft4h WATERSTONES -  UK https://bit.ly/2JbhuX4 AMAZON - CANADA https://amzn.to/2IJi52d AMAZON - AUSTRALIA https://amzn.to/2WUTAr5 AUDIO LIBRO.FM -100 DAFFODILS https://bit.ly/2ygXiB0 AUDIBLE https://amzn.to/346lS3m

Angelique Rewers is the Founder of The Corporate Agent. Inc. Magazine has called her the undisputed champion at helping small businesses land big clients. In today’s discussion, Angelique shares tips on how to get the attention of corporate decision makers. We focus in particular on how you can create engaging events – virtual or in person. Do check out the website of The Corporate Agent, where you can find a range of free resources to get started. Also, follow The Corporate Agent at: https://www.instagram.com/angeliquerewers/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeliquerewers/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/GetCorporateClients

Lawrence Adjah is an alum of Harvard, McKinsey, Stanford. He is a community builder, business advisor, and pastor. Several years ago, Lawrence organized a family-style dinner for some acquaintances at a restaurant in NYC. Rule: no phones at the table, no discussing work. Treat tablemates like family. Participants wanted to attend another dinner and bring people they knew. A movement was born. Now, the Family Dinner Foundation that Lawrence founded has 50,000 participants.  Last year, Lawrence and his board began exploring how to build community beyond the dinner table, and that focus has now taken center-stage in the age of the coronavirus. http://lawrenceadjah.com/

Jon S. Rennie is a former nuclear-trained submarine officer with more than twenty years of experience leading industrial businesses. Jon is the co-founder and CEO of Peak Demand, a global manufacturer of electrical transmission and distribution components. He is also the author of I Have the Watch: Becoming a Leader Worth Following. In this episode, Jon shares a perspective on what it means to be a leader in the age of the coronavirus. Learn more about Jon on his website: https://jonsrennie.com/

In today’s episode, Olivia Chioma Elee shares her experience fighting the Ebola epidemic in Nigeria and Liberia. She coordinated a range of programs including contact tracing and coordinating the logistics for the command centers throughout Liberia. Her work involved participating in the daily briefings at the Health Ministry, running training campaigns targeted at healthcare workers, and visiting sick patients in the field. Olivia has a Masters degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and previously worked at Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton. Today she is an independent consultant with a focus on strategy and operations. You can find Olivia on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviachiomaelee/  

David A. Fields had scheduled an in-person two-day workshop  for early April – his Solo Practice Accelerator. When the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to conduct the event in person, David and his team converted the event into a highly interactive, world-class virtual workshop. That took planning, technology, and setting up a studio in David’s living room. In today’s episode, David shares very practical tips on what it took to run a world-class virtual workshop that engaged attendees as much as an in-person event. I strongly encourage all my friends to sign up for David's weekly newsletter - the first thing I read every Wednesday morning: https://www.davidafields.com/blog/ David also kindly shared this checklist: People (not equipment, but will make some of the buying list clearer) Presenter Video controller (managing the different inputs) Zoom controller (managing breakout rooms, etc.)   Computers Laptop for the presenter – any laptop will do Laptop for the Video controller – this is a dedicated laptop with a ethernet port, that connected to Zoom. Laptop for the Zoom controller – this was for the team member who managed the Zoom breakout rooms PC with large monitor and wireless keyboard – this was for the Video controller to be able to send notifications to the presenter. (For instance, “Speed Up” or “Question”)   Tablets We used Samsung Galaxy 8” tablets – one per every three participants. (These were used for the breakout rooms.) https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Android-Tablet-Black/dp/B07VDB92RK/   Video Equipment Panasonic HC-V770 videocam with HDMI output. There are probably better cameras and fancier ones with remote control pan and tilt. This is a high quality camera, though, and it gives a “clean” HDMI output without any symbols on the screen. Not all videocams do that. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RBG5J02 Roland V-1HD video switcher. Possibly overkill, but allows for picture-in-picture, easy switching, etc. by the Video controller. https://www.amazon.com/Roland-V-1HD-HD-Video-Switcher/dp/B017Y3JSZ8 HDMI splitter. This allows the presenter to present to the big screen as well as the feed into the Zoom conference. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HXFARS Avio HDMI to USB converter. All the inputs (cameras, presenter’s laptop output) video mixer are in HDMI format and so is the output from the video mixer. You need some way to get that HDMI output into your computer so that Zoom will treat it like a webcam. This cool little box from Avio did the trick well. We got two of them. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZH7HRKW We also used a lot of lighting equipment, including a soft lightbox (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GCN6HV7) a lot of LED lights (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TJ6JH6) with power adapters (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CQG4V18), and a slew of tripods and Zipwall polls. Finally, about 5 miles of HDMI cables and extenders. For example, https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CTD1HAW and https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HUWVMBW   Monitors Presentation monitor – Any large, 4k HD monitor should work fine. We used this one: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN75RU7100FXZA-FLAT-UHD-Smart/dp/B07NC8ZDVL. We definitely needed that size or larger monitor for me to stand next to and still have the slides super legible. Confidence monitor – Again, any monitor will work fine. It has to be large enough that the presenter can see it and view all the participants in Zoom’s gallery view. My first choice would have been a 49” ultrawide, and that’s what we’ll use next time. The ultrawide allows you to see the whole gallery and also Zoom’s chat and participants windows easily. (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-EI491CR-Pbmiiipx-Technology-DisplayHDR400/dp/B07NFJ6M3R). Unfortunately, none were quickly available when we were in the throes of pulling this together, so I settled for a 40” regular monitor. We bought two like this, but only used one: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-UN40M5300A-40-Inch-1080p/dp/B071ZVQVFQ.   Audio We used a Movo lavalier mic, which worked fine. We have other, fancier equipment, but couldn’t actually create better sound than plugging the Movo directly into the Video controller’s laptop. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HX40Q3C We also provided a headset to every attendee. https://www.cdw.com/product/sennheiser-culture-sc-60-usb-ml-headset/3091260  

Hacking attempts have spiked upwards during the coronavirus epidemic as more employees work from home. Gary Chan is an information security consultant and shares 12 actions that independent consultants can take to enhance their information security profile. Visit www.alfizo.com/unleashed to download the list of actions we discuss on the show.    

Our guest today is Robert Glazer, an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and best-selling author. Glazer writes Friday Forward, a weekly email that goes out to 100,000 subscribers. That started as a weekly inspiration email to his team, they forwarded it to friends, and – boom. He is also the Founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, an award winning global affiliate marketing agency – and on this episode he explains what an affiliate marketing agency does. Glazer was selected by Marshall Goldsmith as one of the 100 coaches that Marshall is mentoring – an incredible honor to be part of that select group. AND he is the author of Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others, which we discuss on this episode. You can find links to his podcast, his books, his columns, and sign up for Friday Forward at his website, https://www.robertglazer.com/