Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Our guest today is Hi Leva, the SVP of Sales at Oasis Financial. In today's discussion, Hi shares key lessons learned from his career as a sales leader. We discuss recruiting a sales team, compensation, the importance of follow-up, CRM systems, how to get the most out of attending a convention, and other sales topics. You can learn about Hi’s company at oasisfinancial.com And you can learn more about Hi’s background on his LinkedIn profile, and a link is in the show notes https://www.linkedin.com/in/hileva/ If you are interested in hiring an independent consultant or joining the global community of independent consultants that I started, email me, Will Bachman, at unleashed@umbrex.com  

Our guest today is Scott Friesen, the SVP of Strategic Analytics at Echo Global Logistics, a company which serves as a broker that connects companies who want to ship something by truck to the trucking company that will give the best rate, a non-trivial exercise considering that there are 40,000 trucking companies in the United States. In our discussion, Scott gives me an overview of the two major categories of trucking: less-than-truckload and full truck load.  We then explore some of the ways that analytics is changing the trucking industry, and the entry of new players including, you guessed it, Uber. To learn more about Echo Global Logistics, go to echo.com And to learn more about Scott, check out his LinkedIn profile – the link is in the show notes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpfriesen/ If you are interested in hiring an independent consultant or joining our global community of independent consultants, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com  

Our guest today is Liston Witherill, a sales coach and trainer who helps non-sales people sell more client services by staying curious and providing more help to their clients. Liston has a set of great resources available to download on his website, just go to liston.io and click on the Resources tab, where you’ll find sales email templates, a CRM spreadsheet, a sales call checklist, a list of 32 ideas for lead generation, and more. If you are looking to hire an independent consultant, or if you would like to join the global community of independent consultants that I started, email Will Bachman at: unleashed@umbrex.com  

Our guest today is Logan Sachon, an insurance expert at Policygenius who focuses on life insurance. In this episode, Logan explains to me the types of life insurance, how to select a life insurance company, how to get a quote, and some thumbrules on how much coverage to buy. After our discussion, Logan emailed me to clarify one thing she said. I asked her the chance of a healthy 35 year old man dying before he retires, and she told me less than 2%. After we spoke she looked it up and the actual chance is closer to 0.65%. Of course, your mileage may vary. Policygenius is a NYC-based tech startup who goal is to make “insurance shopping faster, friendlier and more transparent for online consumers.” If you are shopping for insurance, you might check out their website: policygenius.com. They have a lot of useful info on their site, and a comparison tool that makes it easy to compare different providers. If you like this episode, consider signing up for the Unleashed email – each week I’ll send you a summary of recent episodes, some recommended reading, and consulting tips. To sign up, visit askunleashed.com If you are trying to find an independent consultant to help on a project, or if you are interested in joining our global community of independent consultants, email me at unleashed@umbrex.com  

Our guest today is Mark Metry, who started a YouTube channel when he was 13 that gained 35,000 subscribers, and who started a company when he was 15 that generated six figures of income and became the #1 Minecraft server in the world.  Oh, just a couple side projects. Mark, now 21, runs a marketing agency and also happens to host a Top 100 podcast, Humans 2.0, whose guests have included some of my heroes such as Seth Godin. To learn more about Mark, you can search for Humans 2.0 or visit his website: https://www.markmetry.com/ If you sign up for the Unleashed email at askunleashed.com, each week I’ll let you know about the latest episodes of the podcast, a book recommendation, and periodically, some amazing bonus materials.

Today's episode is a new feature here on Unleashed - a book recommendation. I really loved the recently published book: The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discovery Joy in the Everyday, by Rob Walker. Here is a link to Rob Walker's website page on the book: http://robwalker.net/noticing/ If you sign up for the Unleashed email at askunleashed.com, each week I’ll let you know about the latest episodes of the podcast, a book recommendation, and periodically, some amazing bonus materials.

Jennifer Hartz sent me the following question: "Will, I send out a newsletter via Mail Chimp about six times a year. I also publish these on my website. I figure I ought to put them on LinkedIn as well – do you have an opinion about whether I should make them LinkedIn articles or Posts? If they are posts, I'd need to be regularly active to address comments, right?" I love Jennifer's newsletter - you can sign up to receive it on her website: https://corporatehartz.com/ I mention Mark Williams's podcast LinkedInFormed: https://linkedinformed.com/ And here are how to update your LinkedIn settings to get an email when there is a comment on one of your posts or articles: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/communications-controls/email/updates-about-you To receive the weekly Unleashed email, sign up at askunleashed.com    

A listener asked for advice on how to set fees, and here are my thoughts. In this episode I refer to, and strongly recommend, Chapter 22 of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom, by David A. Fields Visit askunleashed.com to sign up for the weekly Unleashed email - get a summary of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips.  

Our guest today is Steve Woodruff, also known as the King of Clarity. Steve is the author of Clarity Wins. He helps individuals and businesses discover their professional DNA, define their offerings, target their ideal clients, and articulate their differentiating message. You can learn more about Steve’s work at https://www.stevewoodruff.com/ Never miss an episode of Unleashed - sign up for our weekly email at askunleashed.com

Our guest today is David A. Fields, Umbrex member and the author of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom. In today’s episode, we discuss how to set up a CRM system for an individual consultant or boutique firm. A bit more than a year ago, I attended a training session that David led on this topic, and I set up my CRM system exactly that way he describes on this show. I’ve found the simple setup that David suggests incredibly useful, and I highly recommend it. While you can use his suggested setup with just about any program, I happen to use Pipedrive, which is the system that David uses and recommends to his clients.   David has a great blog that I highly recommend - check it out and subscribe at: https://www.davidafields.com/blog/