Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

The 70-30 squared rule says that when you are in an initial context discussion with a client, the client should do 70% of the talking, and you should do 30%. And of the time you spend talking, 70% of the time should be you asking questions, and 30% of your 30% should be you speaking declarative sentences. Visit askunleashed.com to sign up for the weekly Unleashed email - summaries of each episode and bonus features.

Time to make your April Fool's Resolution.

A listener asked me if I recommend independent professionals get disability insurance, and this short episode is my response. Short answer: yes, I encourage independent professionals to get long term disability insurance. In this episode I discuss short term and long term disability insurance, six different aspects of coverage, and the process to expect to go through to obtain insurance. Links I mention in the episode: Show notes: https://www.policygenius.com/disability-insurance/#whatislongtermdisabilityinsurance https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/your-money/life-and-disability-insurance/06money.html You can sign up for the weekly Unleashed email (summary of each new episode, links to download full transcripts, other bonus features) at askunleashed.com

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/