Climb In Consulting

Today’s guest is Tony Restell. Tony is co-founder of Top-Consultant, the industry’s leading career website, and founder of Social-Hire, a social media marketing agency that counts many consulting firms amongst its client base and helps Partners in those firms to generate client leads for their practices. If you work in the UK Consulting industry then you will know Top-Consultant. It is a site that everyone I know in the industry uses, me included. In my case, Top-Consultant has led me to apply for roles that have turned in to friendships with some of the people who have appeared on this podcast.  In a world where businesses are being disrupted and challenged almost every day I’ve always admired how Top-Consultant has been able to keep such a dominant market position for so long and Tony was kind enough to share his secrets for this in today’s interview. We cover so much ground in this conversation including: How Top-Consultant started and the unusual tactics Tony used to grow the business in its early days.  How Top-Consultant grew over the years and how Tony and his co-founder were able to stay receptive to changing industry demands to keep their offering front and centre in the market.  Tony’s advice for other entrepreneurs or those thinking of launching their own business, in tech, consulting or any other field. And the importance of understanding and leveraging social media like LinkedIn when it comes to building your career or your business. Tony shares so much great advice in this episode and it was fantastic to speak with someone whose business has been such an important part of the Consulting Industry for so long. If you’re considering launching your own business or want to understand how you can grow your current business then this episode is a must listen. You can find out more about Tony on his Linkedin page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyrestell/ You can find out more about Top-Consultant at http://www.top-consultant.com    You can find out more about Social Hire at https://www.social-hire.com/  Specific things we discuss in this show:  Roland Berger - https://www.rolandberger.com    Top-Consultant ‘Art of Selling’ training course - http://events.top-consultant.com/uk/careerconference/423/The-Art-Of-Selling-Consulting-Services/  The 4 hour work week by Tim Ferriss – http://amzn.eu/d/5QUWzpd    Dot Com Secrets by Russell Brunson - http://amzn.eu/d/ilGFqsU

Today’s guest is Jo Miles. Jo is an Executive Coach and the founder of Master Your Transition, her Coaching and Consulting business. Drawing upon two decades of Management Consulting and Coaching expertise, Jo empowers and supports individuals, teams and organisations to explore challenges, gain insight and take practical steps to achieve and sustain change. Jo is a Coach and trusted advisor to senior Partners at some of the worlds biggest consulting firms and has worked with clients at the likes of Strategy &, Baringa Partners and North Highland to name but a few. We cover some really interesting topics in today’s interview including: How Jo became a Coach What Coaching is, who should consider it and why it’s important for your career. The common challenges Jo finds clients struggle with and her advice on how to deal with them How you can tell a good Coach from a bad one and the questions you should ask when assessing whether a Coach is right for you. The importance of using Coaching as a positive tool for improvement and not a negative tool to deal with poor performance And much much more! Jo was a great guest and gave some fantastic insights in to an area of the industry that many people have heard about but very few have experienced. If you’re looking to take your career to the next level and want to understand more about how Coaching can help you do this then this interview is a must listen! You can find out more about Master Your Transition at http://www.masteryourtransition.co.uk/  You can find out more about Jo on Linked In at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-miles-0283461/  Specific things we discuss in this show: Selecting your Coach – following our interview Jo wanted to add a key point on how to select your coach related to understanding their CPD. Enter Jo: “Please note that CPD can mean attending conferences, training courses, academic lectures and supervision.  Supervision is an important aspect of CPD, as it shows Coaches are consciously seeking to develop themselves and their practice through working with a supervisor” Tatiana bachkirova - https://www.brookes.ac.uk/business/about/staff/myprofile/?wid=bus-academic-list&op=full&uid=p0035809 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - http://amzn.eu/d/62NyrJC The Chimp Paradox by Stephen Peters - http://amzn.eu/d/3aF7ggs Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter - http://amzn.eu/d/3c1Obmh   Intelligence In The Flesh by Guy Claxton - http://amzn.eu/d/8V5Mv2Z Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader by Herminia Ibarra - http://amzn.eu/d/8j85oGk   Presence by Amy Cuddy - http://amzn.eu/d/9M6cIKx    Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk on Power Poses - https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en   Mastery by Robert Greene - http://amzn.eu/d/7yuT5uP

Today’s Guest is Matt Rogan, Matt is chairman and co-founder of Two Circles. Exclusively working with sports rights-holders, Two Circles is part strategy consultancy, part digital agency, and part data and analytics house. Since co-founding the business in 2011, Two Circles has grown rapidly to a team of 150 people across the UK, North America and Europe. Following the sale of the majority stake in the business to WPP in 2015, Matt took up the role as Chairman. Supporting and challenging the Two Circles management team to deliver bigger and better results across all areas of the business. In addition to his role at Two Circles Matt is a published author and has been featured in the likes of the Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Sports Management. We go in to detail on a whole range of topics in this interview including: What led Matt and his co-founders to start Two Circles and the structures they put in place to set it up for success. Leading a ‘millennial’ team and the lessons for anyone looking to grow a young, dynamic organisation. The importance of process and systems in building a business, even at the start up phase, and how this helped Matt and the team grow rapidly avoiding many of the issues that new businesses face. How Matt and his co-founders achieved work life balance while leading a rapidly growing business. What to do if you’re a graduate looking to follow a career in sport. And much much more! I really enjoyed this conversation with Matt and took so much away from what he had to say. If you’re looking for clear, practical advice on how to grow your own consulting business or practice area then you’re going to love this interview. You can find out more about Two Circles at – http://insidetwocircles.com/ You can find out more about Matt on Linked In – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattrogan/ And Twitter – https://twitter.com/mattrogansport?lang=en Or drop him an email at Matt.Rogan@insidetwocircles.com Specific Things We Discuss In the Show: Lane 4 - https://www.lane4performance.com/ Adrian moorhouse - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Moorhouse Dom moorhouse - http://dommoorhouse.com/ Greg Searle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Searle Mastering Soft Skills by Julian Vyner - http://amzn.eu/d/fsSA1L0 Players by Matthew Futterman - http://amzn.eu/d/fDflklv Managing the professional services firm by David Maister - http://amzn.eu/d/jc9ee62

This episode was the result of a number of conversations I've had recently with people considering leaving their Consulting firm or the industry in general. While everyone's situation and reasons for wanting a change is unique I believe that there are some common threads that could help anyone considering a career change, be it within Consulting or outside of it. In this episode I share the advice I've given during these conversations including: The questions to ask yourself if you're thinking of leaving your Consulting firm The 'well trodden paths' that people take after consulting and the good and bad of each The one thing you should do regardless of what you're thinking of doing next If you're thinking of where to take your career next, I hope this helps.

Of all of the skills that my guests have said are critical to success in Consulting sales, and being able to sell, is one that comes up time and time again. Both Stephen Newton and Tim Smeaton highlighted it as one of the key skills you should learn early in your career to help accelerate your success. David Lancefield highlighted it as one of the key skills you need to make Partner in his firm and one of the common things that is missing from those who fail to make it to the top. With all of these successful leaders talking about how critical sales is I've had a number of you ask me how you can apply this advice if you're at the junior end of your firm and don't have the experience or level in your Consultancy to be able to walk in to a CEO's office and pitch business to them. This episode is to answer exactly that question. My advice on sales for junior Consultants. How you can help your firm with business development and be seen as someone with an aptitude for sales regardless of how senior or experienced you are. I hope you find this useful. If you have any feedback or would like me to do similar episodes on other topics just drop me an email - Nick@climbinconsulting.com

Today’s guest is David Lancefield. David is a Partner in Strategy&, PwC. David is a TEDx speaker and has been featured In the Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Financial Times and numerous other publications. He is also the host of his own podcast ‘transformation talks’ which I’d highly recommend checking it out David’s approach and outlook are hugely refreshing and something that anyone with aspirations of make Partner should take note of. If you want to get a flavour for this you can check him out on twitter @Dlancefield and see the thought provoking posts he puts out on a daily basis. David has a huge amount of experience and shares so many great insights in this conversation including: The importance of being yourself at work and what this means both for project managers and project team members. How to find your sweet spot and let others know what you’re good at. The importance of feedback both up and down a Consulting firm’s hierarchy and the mistakes people make in giving and receiving feedback that hold them back. How to make Partner in a big 4 firm and the common mistakes that those who fail to get there make. The importance of developing and managing your personal brand as a Consultant both within and outside your firm. And much, much more! Having listened to the first episode of David’s Transformation Talks I thought this would be a good interview and I have to say it exceeded all of my expectations! In-depth and actionable advice from a senior leader in one of the world’s biggest Consulting firms. I hope you enjoy it. You can find out more about  David on his Linked In Page https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidclancefield/    And on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Dlancefield?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor   Specific Things We Discuss in the show: Dan Cable - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-cable-a0b581a0 Transformation Talks by PwC - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/transformation-talks/id1400295044?mt=2   PwC’s apprenticeship scheme - https://www.pwc.co.uk/careers/school-jobs/jobs.html   David’s TED talk “How business can tap into all of our special needs“ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezXZ4z9QqiI The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - http://amzn.eu/enn0cvN How will you measure your life? by Clay Christiensen, Karen Dillon and James Allworth - http://amzn.eu/3zScfNe   Alive at Work by Dan Cable - http://amzn.eu/04NezdI

Today’s guest is Jeff Wellstead. Jeff is CEO of Big Bear Partners and Chief Strategy Officer at GtmHub. Jeff is an expert in helping rapidly growing or hyper growth start ups manage their people challenges effectively. Before moving in to Consulting Jeff was the VP of Global HR at Message Labs and Global Director of HR at SpinVox.  In both roles Jeff was responsible for helping these rapidly growing starts up overcome the people challenges as they grew and continue their hyper growth trajectories. In the case of SpinVox Jeff oversaw the 9 fold expansion of the team from just 50 people to over 450 in under 2 years! As a consultant Jeff works with organisations to create the environment to allow their people to thrive and succeed at work while supporting the founding teams in overcoming the  strategic challenges that they face as hyper growth start ups. We cover some really interesting topics in this conversation including: How Jeff and the team grew SpinVox so quickly and the challenges they faced along the way The people and cultural challenges that hyper growth start ups face as they scale and the  warning signs you need to watch out for if you’re growing a business The importance of understanding where you are in your growth journey and ensuring you build the necessary structures to maintain your unique culture as your firm grows The importance of employee experience In todays world  and what you should be thinking about if you’re looking to recruit and retain the top talent in the industry And much much more! You can find out more about Jeff on her LinkedIn page – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrwellstead/ You can email Jeff at Jeff@BigBearPartners.com Specific Things We Discuss in The Show: Dunbars number - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number   Message lab - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/messagelabs   SpinVox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinVox     Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayar - http://amzn.eu/edvxufq Exponential Organisations by Salim Ismail, Michael Malone and Yuri van Geest - http://amzn.eu/henljqZ

Today’s episode is episode 20 of the podcast and to celebrate reaching 20 episodes I wanted to share my 7 biggest career and life lessons from running the podcast! The 7 Lessons that I discuss in today’s episode: The power of Linked In for Business Development The importance of Personal Brand in today’s business world Why you should focus on delivering value first The importance on focusing on the right things and not worrying about making everything perfect How to delight your customers/clients/guests The importance of testing and iteration And why everyone should do a podcast! Things I mentioned in today’s show: Matt Cheung’s interview - https://www.climbinconsulting.com/podcast/matt-cheung-clarasys Kano Analysis - https://medium.com/design-ibm/kano-model-ways-to-use-it-and-not-use-it-1d205a9cf808 Tim Ferriss – Fear Setting - https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_your_fears_instead_of_your_goals

Today’s guest is Dr Natalia Wiechowski. Natalia is an award-winning Personal Branding Strategist and international Keynote Speaker who radically changed her life and career after a self-imposed sabbatical to follow her passion: Helping people to shine.  Since taking her sabbatical and moving in to the world of Personal Branding Natalia has grown her online community to over 146,000 followers, worked with global blue-chip clients including, SAP and Bosch and been invited to speak at conferences all over the world. Natalia is an expert in B2B Personal Branding and Marketing with over 46,000 LinkedIn followers! Her posts are regularly liked and commented on by 1,000s of people with one post last year receiving over 62,000 likes and 4,000 comments. If you’re looking to cut through all of the noise out there on social media and take your personal brand to the next level then you’re going to love this interview. We cover some really interesting topics in our conversation including: Natalia’s self-imposed Sabbatical, what led her to take it and her advice to others feeling unfulfilled by their current life and career. How Natalia found her passion and how she turned it from an idea in to her full-time career. What Personal Branding is and why it’s so important to your career success. How to build a deep relationship with your current and prospective clients through compelling content that solves their problems. The common mistakes that companies and individuals make when it comes to Personal Branding and social media and how to avoid them. And much much more! You can find out more about Natalia on her LinkedIn page – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliawiechowski/en And her website - http://www.thinknatalia.com/ If you’d like to emulate Natalia’s success and want to sign up for her new online Personal Branding course you can check it out here - https://thinknatalia.coachy.net/lp/master-your-personal-brand-on-linkedin-and-offline/ Specific Things We Discuss in the show: Robin Sharma and the 5am club - https://www.robinsharma.com/article/be-wise-early-rise Lewis Howes -  https://lewishowes.com/ Gimbal hand held phone stabiliser for shooting videos - http://amzn.eu/8Mdhwyv  The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss - http://amzn.eu/cZS8Mt5  Anything You Want by Derek Sivers - http://amzn.eu/6Nn2PDT  48 Laws of Powers by Robert Greene - http://amzn.eu/0D6ssqw  The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma - http://amzn.eu/dIsE9or  Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday - http://amzn.eu/7Rsfn7c  The Untethered Soul by Michael A Singer - http://amzn.eu/60xjxcR Natalia’s viral post with over 60,000 likes! - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6209953414982565888 Natalia’s Book Recommendations LinkedIn Article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-mind-expanding-books-you-have-read-summer-wiechowski/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_post_details%3Bk3vi3LmQTo%2BgaD95p9x%2FkA%3D%3D

Since starting the podcast I've interviewed a whole host of phenomenal leaders from the Consulting industry who've shared some of their best advice across a range of areas critical to climbing in Consulting. One question I ask almost all of my guests is their advice for those people looking to build a career in the industry. A number of you have told me how useful you've found the answers to this specific question so I wanted to put all of the answer together so that you have a compilation of career advice from the best in the business. 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. 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. As Tony Robbins says "success leaves clues". Here's you're chance to find them. Guests in this episode: To save you having to hear my voice over and over I don't introduce each individual guest during this episode. If you found a certain piece of advice really useful and want to hear who said it then have a look at the list and timestamps below! 00:02:38 - Simon Dennis - Founding Partner - Gate One 00:07:25 - Stephen Newton - Founding Partner - Elixirr 00:11:57 - Suki Thompson - Founder and CEO - The OysterCatchers 00:13:46 - Olly Purnell and Sharon Rice-Oxley - Founding Partners - Q5 00:18:27 - Dom Moorhouse - Founder of Moorhouse Consulting 00:20:17 - Mohamed Mansour - Founding Partner - Baringa Partners 00:22:07 - Joanna Hall - Independent Non-Executive Director 00:30:28 - Simon Walker and Tim Smeaton - Founders - Kubrick 00:33:24 - Minesh Jobanputra - Founding Partner - Deltra Group 00:34:51 - Adrian Bettridge - Managing Partner - Baringa Partners 00:37:50 - Bronek Masojada - CEO - Hiscox