Climb In Consulting

Today’s episode is one that I’ve been meaning to record for almost a year! Since starting the podcast I’ve had so many people ask me about how to launch their own podcast and my top tips from almost 50 episodes of Climb in Consulting. to answer these questions and help you if you’re thinking of launching your own podcast I recorded today’s episode. In today’s show I walk you through the exact process you’ll want to follow if you’re thinking of launching your own podcast including: How to develop your own USP and a podcast that will appeal to your target niche. How to get yourself a killer guest list that people will want to listen to. Everything you need to know about the technical side of producing a podcast and the tools you can use to do it all for free. And the most important part of all, successfully launching your podcast and making a splash - This is the exact strategy I followed to get in to the iTunes top 100 business charts when I launched Climb In Consulting. I hope you take a ton away from today’s episode and feel inspired to launch your own podcast! if it’s already on your new year’s resolutions list let me know. I’d love to support you and share your show when you launch. If you’re looking for any of the links I reference in the show you’ll find them below. Specific things I mention in the show: Tim Ferriss - How to launch your own podcast - https://tim.blog/2016/04/11/tim-ferriss-podcast-business/ The detailed overview of the kit to use for your podcast - https://tim.blog/podcast-gear/ the video overview of the exact Kit tim uses - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRxVEcbh-Dk Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/ Canva - https://www.canva.com/ Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/ MS Teams - https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software Audacity - https://www.audacityteam.org/ How Noah Kagen launched his podcast - https://sumo.com/stories/how-to-launch-a-successful-podcast This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy.

Today’s interview is one that’s been a while coming, having recorded it back in August and I can assure you it’s been worth the wait. I’ve had a number of listeners ask for more guests from the strategy end of consulting and I always try my hardest to give you the guests you want. Today’s guest is Jess Frame, Partner and Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group. Jess was introduced to me by former guest Lyndsey Oliver after I asked her for recommendations for inspirational female consulting leaders that I could interview for the show. Jess has had a fascinating career that’s taken her across two continents and seen her move out of and back in to consulting, not once but twice. Having left consulting to work for Tesco she went on to run two multi-million pound businesses before going back to consulting as Partner and Managing Director in BCG’s Retail and Consumer practice. Jess was a brilliant guest and we had a great time recording this interview. In today’s conversation we cover so many important and impactful topics in including: Planning your career and how moving out in to industry can actually help you progress within consulting. Understanding why you’re pursuing the career you are and the questions you should ask yourself before committing to the road to Partner. Jess’s advice to junior consultants looking to set their career up for success. And Jess’s take on diversity in consulting and what the industry needs to do to improve it. I really enjoyed this conversation with Jess. Whether you’re male, female, just starting your career or have already made partner, I know you’ll take a ton away from this and I hope Jess inspires you just as much as much as she inspired me when we were having this conversation. You can find out more about Jess on her LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaframeceo/ You can find out more about Boston Consulting Group at - https://www.bcg.com/

Today’s episode is a first for the show as I get to give you part two of the story that one of my guest’s started way back at episode 2 of Climb in Consulting. If you’ve been with the show since the start you’ll know that my second ever guest was Dom Moorhouse, founder of Moorhouse consulting. As Dom explained in his interview he eventually sold the business to BT before departing in 2011. I know that many of you have wanted to find out what’s happened to Moorhouse since then and to tell part two I reached out to today’s guest to see if he’d come on the show to share it with you. Today’s guest is Richard Goold, Managing Partner at Moorhouse, the dynamic consulting firm, focused on delivering change. Over the past 8 years Richard has spearheaded the people and talent agenda at Moorhouse, championing the focus on developing extraordinary leaders. He is known for his commitment to developing agile and courageous companies that have the ability to recruit, develop and excite their people. Having joined the firm as one of their new leadership team in 2009, Richard was part of the group that successfully led a management buyout from BT in 2014 with the goal of growing the business and taking it to the next level. This growth led to Richard and the team selling Moorhouse to Expleo in 2018. In our conversation Richard shares journey he’s been on with moorhouse and how he and the leadership team have continued to grow the firm since Dom left. As my first guest who has been part of a management buyout we go in to detail on this and spend a good chunk of our interview talking about how this process worked and Richard’s advice for you if you’re thinking of doing the same for your firm. This interview isn’t just focused on the financial side though and we also dive in to Richard’s management philosophy, his approach to leadership and his advice on developing a successful career in Consulting. I really enjoyed this conversation with Richard and I’m sure you will too! You can get in touch with Richard on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gooldy/ You can find out more about Moorhouse at - https://www.moorhouseconsulting.com/ This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Specific things we discussed in the show: The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott - https://amzn.to/2m0gVaz Career Rocket Fuel by Brian Fetherstonhaugh - http://bit.ly/2m8JHWf Clear Water International - https://www.clearwaterinternational.com/uk Morgan Lewis - https://www.morganlewis.com/

For regular listeners you’ll now that I ask my guests the same question at the end of each episode of Climb In Consulting. I find these answers hugely beneficial for my own career and I know that many of you do too. Earlier in the series I did a recap episode where I distilled all of my guests advice in to one, consise, episode. Last time I did this it got some great feedback so I wanted to do it again to give you a second dose of career advice from some of the best in our industry. As a recap, or for those of you who may not have listened to any of my other interviews before, the question that these guests are answering asks for one piece of advice for three different people: The first is someone who's just starting their career in Consulting - anywhere from 0 to 2 years in. The second is for someone 'in the middle' of their Consulting career - 4 - 6 years in to Consulting. The third is for someone who's approaching Partner or considering going out on their own to create their own business. In today’s episode you’ll hear from: Jeff Welstead (07:38) David Lancefield (11:31) Matt Rogan (13:27) Tony Restell (16:29) Andrew Denton (23:09) Karina Brown & Jim Stitchbury (24:04) Gian Power (27:05) Seb Chambers (29:29) Michael Zipursky (30:10) Harry Gaskell (36:03) Adil Khan (38:04) Lyndsey Oliver (42:03) Charles Vivian (43:02) and Michael Mahony (45:18) There are so many great pieces of advice in this episode and some really interesting common themes and principles that have helped my guests get to the top. I hope you enjoy it.

Today’s guest is Dave Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Storm Consultancy, Chairman of CiteAB and non-executive director at I Am compliant. Storm are a software consultancy that help clients create web apps, digital platforms and website designs to engage their audience, elevate their brand, and ultimately grow their business. Dave’s story is a truly unique one and having got to know Dave over the last couple of month I knew he’d make a fantastic guest for this show. Unlike many of my guests who’ve started their businesses having spent years in their field Dave and his co-founder Adam launched Storm, straight out of university, deciding that they’d give it a go and if it all went wrong they’d call it a gap year and go back to the graduate milk round. Needless to say it worked out for them and Storm is now a thriving consultancy with clients ranging from cutting edge start ups to global brands including Samsung, Yamaha and Ubisoft I regularly get messages from listeners considering what to do after they leave university and in this interview Dave shares some great insights on launching your own business and why doing it straight out of university may be one of the best opportunities you have. This interview isn’t just for new graduates though. In growing Storm Dave and his co-founder Adam have built a successful business based on practices that many would not think could work in Consulting, including not working Friday afternoons and unlimited holiday allowances. We go in to detail on Dave’s management philosophy during this conversation and why practices like these and the principles that underpin them have helped Storm achieve the success it has. I really enjoyed this conversation with Dave and it was fascinating to hear how he’s successfully built the business that he wants and a business that clients love while shunning the norms of the traditional consulting model. I hope you enjoy it. This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Specific things we discussed in the show: Ryan Carson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancarson Treehouse - https://teamtreehouse.com/ Executive Foundation - https://www.executive-foundation.com/ Shaw & Co - https://www.shawllp.co.uk/ Jim Shaw - https://www.shawllp.co.uk/about-us/our-people/jim-shaw/ Turning the Flywheel by Jim Collins - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847942555/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_oXH-CbKEK4GXT Yena - https://joinyena.com/ Storm - https://stormconsultancy.co.uk/ And their address if you want to go and get your copy of Turning the Fly Wheel - https://stormconsultancy.co.uk/contact/

Today’s guest is Charlie Hodgson, former England international and Saracens number 10 and founder of Charlie Hodgson Performance, his leadership coaching business.             As a professional rugby player Charlie achieved everything you could want to over his 16 year career. He won multiple premiership titles with his club Saracens, played for England and went on the 2005 Lions tour. If this wasn’t enough, he is also the all-time record point scorer in the premiership with 2,625 points scored. To put this into perspective if you don’t follow rugby, the closest player too him who’s still playing professionally has 1,569 points – almost a 1,000 points behind Charlie. As I’ve said before on this podcast I’m a big believer that you can and should learn from the best, regardless of their industry, and sport is no different. Given the hyper competitive nature of elite sport, teams are always looking for an edge and given Saracens success over recent years it was fascinating to sit down with Charlie and get his first-hand insights and advice of what led them to be so successful. Since retiring from professional rugby Charlie has combined his experience of developing winning teams at the top level of elite rugby with his coaching training and launched Charlie Hodgson Performance to help executives and their teams leverage the leadership principles from professional sport to develop their own high performing cultures. Charlie shares so many fascinating insights from both his sporting and business careers in this interview including: How his club Saracens were able to go from a midtable side to the best team in the league  and the off field changes they made that were critical to this success. The importance of developing a positive and supportive culture in your organisation and the key elements to consider if you want to develop your own high performing team. How you can break down barriers between the different areas in your organisation and start to help your teams work together better. And much much more! It was great to get the chance to sit down with someone who has spent so long at the top of elite sport and learn what it takes to succeed at that level, both individually and as a team. There’s so much in this conversation that you can apply to your career and your business and I know you’re going to get a lot from what Charlie has to say. You can get in touch with Charlie via email at charlie@charliehodgsonperformance.com And you can find out more about Charlie Hodgson Performance at https://charliehodgsonperformance.com/ This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Specific things we discussed in the show: Sarcens RFC - https://www.saracens.com/ The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart - https://amzn.to/2Jqsylz Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl - https://amzn.to/2WPH3Ce I used to be a miserable F*ck by John Kim - https://amzn.to/2LQqhCc

Specific things we discussed in the show: What Price Climate Change? by Alex Cameron and David Archer - Click here to download Engaging Boards With Climate Change by Alex Cameron and David Archer - Click here to download Engaging Company Boards with Climate Action research by William Cross, Diane Mouradain, James Roberts and Sudhiksha Unnikrishnan for Imperial College Business School - Click here to download The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells - https://amzn.to/2Ur4dgk Accounting for sustainability - https://www.accountingforsustainability.org/en/index.html Task Force on Climate Change Related Disclosures - https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/ How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards: Guiding principles and questions by the World Economic Forum - https://www.weforum.org/whitepapers/how-to-set-up-effective-climate-governance-on-corporate-boards-guiding-principles-and-questions

Today’s guest is Michael Mahony, Co-Founder of the Berkeley Partnership. Michael was one of four founding partners of The Berkeley Partnership, growing it from an idea to where it is today. In 2018 Michael retired from Berkeley and now works with a number of consulting firms, helping them shape their business strategies. Founded in 1990, The Berkeley Partnership is an independent Management Consultancy who work with many household names and global organisations helping them to develop strategies and transform their businesses. The Berekely partnership are unique in a number of ways and have successfully grown their business whilst doing the opposite of what most people would consider conventional consulting wisdom. They are industry agnostic, only recruit from the upper grades in Consulting, have an extremely low partner to Consultant ratio and are heavily focused on limiting the amount of travel their consultants have to do when delivering for their clients. The fascinating thing about Berkeley is that they’ve been able to build a thriving business by doing all of this and as Michael explains in our conversation, they’ve create a place that the partners and consultants want to work.  Knowing some of the Berkeley story, I had always been intrigued by their model and how they’d been so successful while pursuing such an unorthodox approach. So when I was introduced to Michael, I jumped at the chance to get him on the show. We cover so many interesting topics in this episode including: What led Michael and his Co-founders to Launch Berkeley and how they managed to survive their early years, launching the business just before the 1991 recession. The Berkeley Partnership business model and how the team decided to set the firm up as they did. And Michael’s advice to others thinking about launching their own consulting business I really enjoyed this conversation with Michael and it was great to get so much advice and insight from someone who has been involved in the industry for as long as he has. If you’re a partner thinking about how to improve your own business or a Consultant thinking about going out on your own then this interview is a must listen. You can get in touch with Michael through his LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmahony1/ This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Specific things we discussed in the show: The Berkeley Partnership - https://www.berkeleypartnership.com/ Trust Based Selling by Charles Green - https://amzn.to/2Uynsc6 Managing the Professional Services Firm by David Maister - https://amzn.to/2D0OcYA On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon - https://amzn.to/2K613Pj

Today’s guest is Charles Vivian, Managing Director and Portfolio Group Lead at North Highland. Charles leads North Highland’s UK and north eastern US practices, a $100 million dollar consulting business. While you might be expecting the typical consulting career journey, Charles has had the complete opposite and has a hugely varied career that has spanned working for a global consultancy, founding his own start up, working for a boutique consulting firm and then working his way up to where he is now. Outside of work Charles has undertaken some phenomenal adventures including climbing Mont Blanc and running the Marathon De Sables, the world’s toughest foot race. In fact the reason that there was a slight delay on releasing this episode was that Charles was flying out the day after our interview to trek across the Artic! Charles’s approach to growing a business, growing your career and enjoying your life were fascinating and no matter where you are on your journey there’ll be something in here for you. We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation including: Charles’ start up journey, what he learnt from failing and his advice to other thinking of going out on their own. The importance of culture when it comes to building a consulting firm and how North Highland have created a culture that is open and supportive while welcoming challenge from all levels of the firm. The differences and similarities when it comes to working across the UK and the US and the importance of understanding the culture of the region you’re working in when it comes to building a Consulting business. How Charles fits adventures like his trip to the artic in to his schedule and his advice for others looking to balance work with doing more of the things they enjoy outside it. I really enjoyed this conversation with Charles. His unique perspective having worked across such a diverse range of businesses gave some fantastic insights and I know you’ll get a lot from this conversation. You can get in touch with Charles through his LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-vivian-2931b72/ or drop him an email - Charles.Vivian@northhighland.com This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Digital Marketing has moved forward, but most consulting firms haven’t. Many Consulting firms still see their corporate blog as their sole Digital Marketing channel and find themselves frustrated when these blogs yield little if any results. To help those of you who want to harness the power of Digital Marketing to grow your Consulting Business but don’t have the knowledge, capacity or in-house capability to do so I launched Create Engage, the first Digital Marketing agency for the Management Consulting Industry. If you’d like to find out more about how Create Engage can help you use Digital Marketing to take your business to the next level then drop me an email at Nick@CreateEngage.co.uk or go to our website www.createengage.co.uk where you can download our free case study that breaks down down the Digital Marketing strategies used by one successful Consulting firm to help them grow over 400% in just 3 years and gives you the secrets they used, so that you can apply them in your own firm. Specific things we discussed in the show: Quedis - http://www.northhighland.com/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/north-highland-announces-qedis-rebranding Marathon De Sables - https://marathondessables.co.uk/ The First 90 Days by Michael D Watkins - https://amzn.to/2HPIbkL Get Abstract - https://www.getabstract.com/en/ Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/

Today’s episode is a huge milestone for the show. It’s the 40th episode of Climb in Consulting. It’s been a great adventure so far and I’m looking forward to creating the next 40 episodes for you. A big thank you to all of my guests who have appeared on the show so far and a big thank you to you for listening to it! Without you I would have packed this up long ago. To celebrate 40 episodes I wanted to share my advice on one the biggest challenges I find Consultants, Consulting Leaders and Consulting Marketers face - Producing content. I speak to a ton of Consulting leaders and Consulting Heads of Marketing who say that they struggle to get content from their Consultants. Likewise I speak to Consultants who are desperate to create more content but just don’t know how. In this episode I focus on the two reasons that I believe hold Consultants back from creating more content - fear and time. By resolving these two issues you’ll be able to create significantly more content which will only benefit your firm and your own career. Specific people I mention in the show: Nigel Walsh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalsh/ Nigel Walsh’s interview for Climb in Consulting - https://www.climbinconsulting.com/podcast/2018/10/17/episode-31-nigel-walsh-deloitte-digital Natalia Wiechowski - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliawiechowski/ Natalia Wiechowski’s interview for Climb in Consulting - https://www.climbinconsulting.com/podcast/episode-19-natalia-wiechowski This episode is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Digital Marketing has moved forward, but most consulting firms haven’t. Many Consulting firms still see their corporate blog as their sole Digital Marketing channel and find themselves frustrated when these blogs yield little if any results. To help those of you who want to harness the power of Digital Marketing to grow your Consulting Business but don’t have the knowledge, capacity or in-house capability to do so I launched Create Engage, the first Digital Marketing agency for the Management Consulting Industry. If you’d like to find out more about how Create Engage can help you use Digital Marketing to take your business to the next level then drop me an email at Nick@CreateEngage.co.uk or go to our website www.createengage.co.uk where you can download our free case study that breaks down down the Digital Marketing strategies used by one successful Consulting firm to help them grow over 400% in just 3 years and gives you the secrets they used, so that you can apply them in your own firm.