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Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Latest episodes

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Nov 12, 2018 • 36min

111. Michelle Welsch on Founding a Social Enterprise

Our guest today is Michelle Welsch, a social worker by training, who is leading an extraordinary life – she has organized major events in New York City for clients including Seth Godin, and for the past five years, she has been running Learning House.  Learning House is focused on education and leadership. To learn more, visit www.learninghousenepal.com. I got to know Michelle through dinners that she organizes in New York City – we talk about those dinners on the show, and you can learn more about them on her website: http://www.michellewelsch.com. If you visit her site, you can download a free ebook that Michelle wrote: How to host a dinner party that gets everyone talking.  
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Nov 5, 2018 • 19min

110. Rosina Samadani on managing a physically dispersed team

Our guest today is Rosina Samadani, a long-time friend who was my second Engagement Manager at McKinsey, and who provided me with invaluable advice when I was starting out as an independent consultant ten years ago. For a dozen years, Rosina ran a very successful boutique consulting firm, Capella Advisors, after leaving McKinsey. She is the founder of Truth On Call, which provides fast turnaround quantitative market research for the healthcare industry, and DocNews, which was acquired by American Medical Communications and relaunched as DocWire. Since 2015 Rosina has been the CEO of Oculogica, an innovative medical device company that is building devices that use eye-tracking technology to detect Traumatic Brain Injury. You can learn more about Oculogica at http://www.oculogica.com Her team members all work remotely, and in this short episode we discuss the tools her team uses to stay connected, in particular, Zoom and Slack.
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Oct 29, 2018 • 49min

109. Anish Shah, professional comedian and management consultant

So a professional comedian and management consultant walk into a bar... Actually, that's just Anish Shah getting a drink. Anish Shah is a McKinsey alum and professional comedian who does corporate gigs around the world as well as independent management consulting. In this episode, Anish shares the story of how he built his comedy career, and we’ll hear a clip from one of his performances. Check out videos on his website, https://www.anishcomedy.com/videos, where you can also sign up on his mailing list to get notified of upcoming shows, or reach out to him about booking him for your corporate or charity event.
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Oct 25, 2018 • 16min

108. How and why to travel around Europe by train

Earlier this month, I visited London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, and Zurich to meet up with independent management consultants.  While I originally imagined I would fly from one city to another, I ended up taking the train from London all the way to Zurich, and it was fantastic. In this short episode, I share five reasons why you should take the train in Europe instead of flying between cities, and some tips from a train-riding novice.
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Oct 22, 2018 • 34min

107. Zachary Schrag on what consultants can learn from historians

Our guest today is Zachary Schrag, a Professor of History at George Mason University. Zach has been a close friend of mine for nearly three decades, and I asked him on the show to share some practical tips that management consultants can learn from a professional historian. Zach gives me some advice on how to read a non-fiction book to get the most value (hint – read the introduction and the conclusion first.) He also shares some book recommendations and discusses five core aspects of the historian’s approach. Zach has prepared this list of recommended reading for the intelligent, generalist reader: https://historyprofessor.org/reading/a-laypersons-reading-list-in-american-history-2018/
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Oct 17, 2018 • 25min

106. How to pay a subcontractor

How do you pay a subcontractor? In this episode, I try to answer that question, sharing ten years of lessons learned, covering: 1) How do you actually transfer the money, covering options including check, PayPal, wire transfer, ACH, and bill.com 2) Tax implications, W9, 1099, and 'nexus issues' you need to be aware of 3) What to ask your subcontractor for in terms of an invoice 4) How to track payments to subcontractors
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Oct 15, 2018 • 41min

105. Marni Fechter on organizing "Go & Sees"

For over five years, Marni organized “Go and See” events for McKinsey, in which McKinsey clients or prospective clients would take a field trip to visit other McKinsey clients that had gone through some kind of transformation project with McKinsey’s help. On this episode, Marni shares her suggestions on what it takes to run a successful go-and-see, and the benefits to the past clients, the potential clients, and the consultant who organizes the event. After this episode, perhaps you’ll consider connecting two or more of your own clients. And if you’d like Marni’s help with that, she is now an independent professional. Her LinkedIn URL is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marni-fechter/
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Oct 8, 2018 • 53min

104. Michael Brennan is simplifying forms so fewer people go hungry

Michael Brennan is the former CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Michigan, and now the Co-Founder and CEO of Civilla, a Center for Social Innovation rooted in human centered design to help courageous leaders tackle some of the toughest social issues. Michael decided to devote his energies to fixing a problem in Michigan: The entry point to Michigan's public benefit system is an application that is over 40 pages long. With over 1000 questions and more than 18,000 words it is the longest application of its kind in the United States. That application generated massive headache for residents trying to obtain benefits, many who got overwhelmed by the process and just never applied. It also generated unnecessary cost for the state to process the massive pile of paperwork. Michael tells a compelling story with valuable lessons for any consultant working to build alignment across multiple stakeholders. To communicate their findings and recommendations, Civilla set aside PowerPoint. They build an immersive experience in their office that senior state politicians, journalists, non-profit leaders, and other could walk through to really feel what applicants for public benefits got through. Do check out their website, for visuals and to learn more: www.civilla.com
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Oct 1, 2018 • 46min

103. Jeanne Martinet on The Art of Mingling

Our guest today is Jeanne Martinet, the author of The Art of Mingling: Fun and Proven Techniques for Mastering Any Room. I’ve always been a pretty strong introvert and never enjoyed mingling-type events very much – until I read this book about fifteen years ago. The book was eye-opening for me, and while I would not say that I’m good at mingling, the techniques in this book at least help me survive and even enjoy myself. So it was a huge amount of fun to speak with Jeanne and discuss the advice in the book and how she came to write it. If you’d like to get better at mingling, I strongly recommend Jeanne’s book.
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Sep 25, 2018 • 37min

102. Joshua Sharfstein on surviving a public health crisis

Our guest today is Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the author of a fantastic new book titled The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times, published by Oxford University Press. This book is a great read for any leader, not just those in public health, since the lessons are so broadly applicable, and the stories are so fascinating.  Also recommended for consultants who want to know how to advise a client through a crisis. Josh is a physician and a public health leader who has held senior leadership roles at the city, state, and federal level.  He’s been the Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, the Principal Deputy Commissioner at the FDA, and the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. And he is currently a Vice Dean at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In this episode, Josh shares stories of crises he faced – include one on the very first day on the job. The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide is not a dry manual – it is full of absolutely amazing stories – including the story of Frances Kelsey, the heroine of the FDA, who saved an untold number of American children from being born with birth defects because of her courageous refusal to approve thalidomide, despite industry pressure. The book has very practical advice on how to recognize a crisis, manage a crisis, communicate through a crisis, and work to prevent the next crisis, and it is highly recommended.

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