Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

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/

I'm often asked about the setup I use to record phone calls for the podcast, so I recorded this video. There are plenty of tools to record a call on your computer - I wasn't able to find a good guide on how to set up equipment to record two separate tracks when using a phone, so I had to figure this out through a bunch of trial and error. Here is a link to download the page illustrating the setup: http://bit.ly/PodcastSetup

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/