Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

The New York Phi Beta Kappa Association asked me to share some tips with recent graduates in the New York City metro area as a panelist at an event this evening. I came up with a list of 48 tips and figured I'd share them here first. Some tips are probably obvious; some non-obvious tips may also be not helpful. I hope the set of non-obvious + useful tips is non-zero. To get the weekly Unleashed email that includes a summary of recent episodes and bonus material, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Rima Nair, a McKinsey alum who is a Principal at IRI, a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, retail and media grow. In this episode, Rima explains why the largest consumer packaged goods companies subscribe to IRI's information sources, and how the world of customer insights is evolving. You can learn more about IRI at https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-US/ And if you want to reach out to Rima, Here LinkedIn profile is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rima-nair-bb57295/ Have a questions about independent consulting? Email host Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Josh Spodek, who last joined us on Episode 25 of this show. I was very pleased that Josh agreed to return to discuss his new book, Initiative: A Proven Method to Bring Your Passions to Life (and Work). In today's episode, Josh shares some of the exercises from this new primer on how everyone can make change happen in the world. Josh is a busy professional: In addition to writing books, he writes a daily blog He is also the host of a podcast, Leadership and the Environment, with over 200 episodes, that feature an A-list of guests including Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Dominic Barton, Sir Ken Robinson, Ken Blanchard, Marshall Goldsmith, David Allen, Jonathan Haidt, and many other luminaries. To find links to all of Josh's activities, visit http://joshuaspodek.com/ To receive a weekly round-up of the most recent Unleashed epsiodes, plus bonus material, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Umbrex member and BCG alum Ilana Grossman, a marketing consultant based in New York City. Her firm is called B2Both, since she works with both B2B and B2C clients. Ilana has been the Chief Marketing Officer at several rapidly growing companies, and we discuss The role of the Chief Marketing Officer, and how it is changing Key performance indicators in the world of marketing And what it is like being an independent consultant focused on marketing You can learn more about Ilana's firm at b2both.com If you'd like to receive bonus content plus an update each week on the most recent Unleashed episodes, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Ray Carbonell, the CEO at Qnary, a company that builds out and grows the reputation and thought leadership of professionals. Qnary writes LinkedIn posts and tweets for busy professionals, typically senior executives, and then writes the replies to comments on those posts. In this episode, Ray shares how his firm works with their clients to identify the content pillars that the posts will focus on, what makes a compelling post, and best practices in engaging with those who comment on the post. Ray also shares the best times to post and how often to post (3-5 LinkedIn posts per week is optimal, and a minimum of one tweet per day is recommended.) To learn more about his firm, visit https://www.qnary.com/#visible For help on finding an independent consultant for your project, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Zbigniew "Spish" Rurak, who has served as a career transition coach to several thousand management consultants as they left top-tier global firms. In this episode, Spish shares observations on how to best prepare to transition out of a big firm and how to manage a successful job search. If you'd like to connect with Spish, find him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zbigniew-spish-rurak-4131674/ If you are interested in joining a global community of top-tier independent management consultants, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Lee Frederiksen, Managing Partner at Hinge, a branding and marketing firm specializing in professional services. We discuss Researching your target client Developing a go-to-market strategy Benchmarking your marketing against that of high-growth firms How to differentiate your practice Visit the website of Hinge Marketing to learn more – at https://hingemarketing.com/ Click on Hinge University tab to see the firm's online course offerings – several of which you can sample for free, and on the Blog tab you may want to sign up to receive their thought leadership posts right to your inbox. If you've got a question about independent consulting you'd like Will Bachman to answer in a future episode, email unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Adam Braff, a former McKinsey Partner who has held senior executive roles responsible for data and analytics, and is today an independent advisor to private equity firms, corporate senior leaders, and boards in multiple industries on how to extract more business value from their investments in data and analytics. In this episode Adam shares several case studies of how he has helped clients get better results from their data, and he explains what roast chicken has to do with business intelligence. I enjoy Adam's blog posts, and you can sign up to receive his blog updates and read all about his work at https://braff.co If you'd like to receive the weekly Unleashed email which includes transcripts of each episode and bonus material, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com

Our guest today is Jason Bay, the founder of Blissful Prospecting, a firm that helps B2B sales reps, SMBs, and nonprofits create sustainable revenue growth. In our discussion, Jason explains to me the REPLY method that his firm created to guide the writing of cold emails to prospects. REPLY stands for Results, Empathy, Personalization, Laser-focus, and You. The way I connected with Jason is that he used his own methodology on me. Jason researched me and this podcast, and then sent me a personalized video message of himself speaking to me, in which he mentioned this show, and in fact a specific episode of the show. Here is a link to that episode Jason sent me: https://embed.vidyard.com/share/RgRyiMAMGugfYPERrm3jyp?autoplay=1&vyemail=will.bachman%40umbrex.com&vydata[email]=will.bachman%40umbrex.com&vydata[name]=Will%20Bachman&vydata[messageId]=41TvW5ar9WC0DOhTZ That is the first time anyone has ever reached out to me with a personalized video, and I thought it was a pretty powerful approach, partly because it is so unscalable. Sending out 1,000 uncustomized LinkedIn connection requests can be automated or outsourced, but researching a target and recording a custom video message has a high signaling cost, and I wanted to learn more about this approach. After having Jason explain to me how he creates and uses these videos using Vidyard, I think it is an approach that could work well for many independent professionals. You can learn more about Jason on his firm's website, https://BlissfulProspecting.com/ If you have questions you like me to answer on this show, or are interested in joining our global community of independent management consultants, email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.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. David advises many boutique consulting firms, and over the years he has seen partnerships thrive and partnerships fall apart. On today's episode, David shares some observations on how to make a partnership successful. We also discuss the idea of adding an advisory board to your firm, and we spend a few minutes on how to select the right gift for a client. Got questions about how to thrive as an independent professional? Email Will Bachman at unleashed@umbrex.com