Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Martin Pergler is Founder and Principal at Balanced Risk Strategies, Ltd., in Ottawa, Canada. Previously, he was Senior Expert in Risk at McKinsey, where he was a leader in their Corporate Risk and ERM service lines, based at various times in their Chicago, Prague, Singapore, and Montréal office.

Soyini Coke is a McKinsey alum and independent consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the host of CEO Exclusive, a radio show in which she interviews a mid-market CEO every week. In this episode we discuss how she has invested time to build her visibility and thought leadership, such that she now has CEOs reaching out to her to get on her show. You can learn more about Soyini's firm on her website: http://annonaenterprises.com/ And you can listen to her show at http://ceoexclusive.businessradiox.com/about/

David Burnie is a McKinsey alum and the founder of The Burnie Group, a boutique consulting firm based in Toronto. We discuss how we started as an independent professional and then proceeded to build a firm and how he has partnered with software firms to offer robotic automation. You can sign up for his firm's newsletter and read more about The Burnie Group at www.burniegroup.com

Our guest today is my friend Julie Gupta, who has a Masters in Material Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Julie started her consulting career at Bain & Company, and after a series of roles in the tech industry she started her own practice, Gupta Consulting, in 2006 – so she has been a successful independent professional for 11 years. In our discussion, we focus on Julie's pro bono work, which I find incredibly inspiring. She has done pro bono consulting work at fantastic organizations that include Guide Dogs for the Blind, NPR, the Girl Scouts of America, Boston Public Schools, City Year, the Humane Society, among others. Julie shares one question that has shaped her thinking and her life: "Are you optimizing your resume or your eulogy?" We talk about how as an independent professional to find those pro bono opportunities, and some best practices to make sure that you have impact and that your time is well spent. We also talk about the unanticipated benefits – such as relationships that have led to work with for-profit clients, and skills she has learned. Read more about Julie's practice at www.ConsultGupta.com.

In this in-between-isode, Will Bachman offers suggestions on 27 action items to consider as you set up your firm.

In this in-between-isode, Will Bachman offers a perspective on the questions you should answer to create a strategy for your practice, namely: What is your definition of success? Or in other words, What is winning? Where do you play? How do you win on the battlefields where you have chosen to play?

Our guest today is Mike Feiner, who has been an influential figure in my own life since I took his class High Performance Leadership at Columbia Business School. Mike is now on his fourth career. He was the Worldwide Chief People Officer at Pepsi – so the head of HR and the top advisor on all people matters to the CEO. Here is a factoid: in the last three years, according to The New CEO Report by Feigen Advisors, 81 individuals have ascended to the CEO role. in the Fortune 250. Of those 81, eight of the CEOs had worked previously at Pepsi, several of them while Mike was the head of HR. Something special was clearly going on. After Pepsi, Mike developed and taught one of the most popular courses ever at Columbia Business School. While he loved teaching, after ten years he wanted a new challenge and took the role of Senior Managing Director at Irving Place Capital where he Lead firm's efforts in guiding portfolio company management teams build, grow & develop their leaders & managers. And now Mike is an independent professional, serving as a consultant to CEOs and senior leaders. Mike is also the author of the bestselling The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws that will make people want to perform better for you. I've given out copies of this book dozens of times – it is the most practical book on what leadership is that I've ever read. In our wide ranging conversation, we talk about how to apply these basic laws of leadership as an independent professional We talk about the Law of Intimacy, the Law of Feedback, the Law of Professional Commitment, the Law of the Emperor's Wardrobe, and more. Mike's been a lifelong runner, running nearly every day for over 40 years, and we also talk about his suggestion that business professionals need to think of themselves as Professional Athletes. We're in a marathon, not a sprint, and we need to think about personal fitness, broadly conceived – exercise, diet, sleep, mindfulness all factor into our long term success as much, if not more than our knowledge of valuation methodologies or the latest digital marketing techniques. You can read more about Mike's work on his website, feinerconsulting.com

Our guest today is Matt Weill, who is my attorney as well as a good friend. Matt began his legal career as an Associate at Skadden Arps and then he became a partner at the firm of Golenbock, Eiseman, Assor Bell & Peskoe. His legal practice is primarily focused on business and transactional matters for a wide range of clients, including private equity and venture/growth capital funds and their related portfolio companies and investments. Matt routinely counsels entrepreneurs, startup and growth-stage companies and investors in connection with the structuring and formation of new business ventures, private placements, capital raising transactions, and agreements among founders. Matt has extensive experience working with independent professionals, and for Umbrex he has prepared three contract templates – a contract between an independent professional and a client; a contract that an independent professional can use to engage a subcontractor, and a non-disclosure agreement. If you email me at unleashed@umbrex.com, I will send those files to you. Please note: these are just a starting point and don't constitute legal advice – you should get an attorney yourself to customize for your particular situation. That said, these templates can jump start that process and save you time and money. In the show today, Matt walks us through the contracts, explaining the key things we should watch out for. He also answers questions submitted by listeners, including steps you can take to get paid on time, how to negotiate non-circumvention clauses, and why you should read the fine print of the indemnity clause.

Our guest today is Dorene Stockman, an insurance agent with the Owens Group, an independent agency. Dorene helped me get my own insurance policy, and I thought she was very knowledgeable and a helpful advisor on that process, so I asked her to be on the show to share her advice for independent professionals on the types of coverage we need to consider getting. In our conversation we discuss the types of coverage that are applicable to most independent professionals, namely: Business owners insurance – closely related to General Liability policy Umbrella policy Professional liability policy Privacy / cyber policy We discuss policies that independent professionals should consider getting if you hire an employee or engage a subcontractor, including Workers comp Disability Unemployment insurance For those independt professionals that serve on the board of a non-profit or for-profit, we discuss directors & officers insurance Dorene also shares tips on how to select a broker, how often you should re-quote your policy, and how to work most effectively with a broker. Dorene prepared a much more exhaustive list of policy types that are applicable to narrower groups of independent professionals – if you email me at unleashed@umbrex.com I'll send you a copy You can find Dorene's firm at owensgroup.com Reach Dorene at: dstockman@owensgroup.com

Four reasons why an independent professional might want to start a podcast, and 17 tips on how to get started.