Data Engineer Denis Gontcharov discusses his journey from aluminum smelting to data engineering. They also explore targeting medium-sized aluminum manufacturers, the division of IT and OT in the industry, the relationship between Industry 4.0 and AI, and using products/services for consulting gigs.

The Agile Attorney, John Grant, joined me on Ditching Hourly to share how he helps his clients transition from inefficient workflows, WAY too much work, and low margins, to efficient workflows, a comfortable amount of work, and higher profits.Key PointsExpectations for attention to detail and planning increase in high-dollar professional services like law practices.Many law practices lack upfront planning and make assumptions based on past experiences.Transition planning is often triggered by the need for change in firms that have been operating in the same way for many years.Maximizing employee utilization can lead to gridlock and hinder growth.Phased flat fees, where different phases of a case or project are billed at a flat rate, provide flexibility and room for adjustment.The desire for fixed pricing and the potential for higher rewards motivates software developers to move towards productization.In the legal industry, professionals are transitioning from delivery work to strategy work.Best Quotes“When the lawyer does plan, oftentimes they plan for this sort of ideal situation.”“If you are constantly having to do QA on other people’s work, it’s really hard to feel like you’re ever gonna get off that hamster wheel.”“The beautiful thing is that if you take the time and you begin to express your quality standards in a written form, then you can actually push those standards upstream.”“I think there’s been a ton of movement away from hourly billing. I think there’s more movement than most people in the profession want to recognize.”“Different ways of exchanging value for their services than they were certainly when I first hung my shingle back in 2008.”“It turned on this mechanism in my brain that immediately started asking, ‘How can I make this more effective and efficient, quicker, less work for me without cutting corners?’”“So it’s like even if they came close to what they would’ve made hourly, they have set themselves up in a way that they can deliver that thing probably in half of the time for the same money.”John's Linkshttps://www.agileattorney.com/https://law.builders/@AgileAttorney ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

James Williams of Cofebe.com joined me on Ditching Hourly to give what amounted to a masterclass on how to avoid failure and delight clients as a fractional CTO.“The chance of failure increases proportionally with you accepting what the client tells you what to do.”“If you accept 100% of your client’s suggestions and three months from they can’t launch or it fails, guess whose fault that is.”“If you keep the narrative on the goal, you can avoid debates about scope.”“I lead with questions from the back.”“I ask a trillion questions upfront to disqualify prospects before considering pricing.”“I’d rather take the advisory part and use the client’s dev team whenever possible.““I’d rather use their team than mine.””We don’t even do scope of work.““It’s not about the hours. It’s about the outcomes.”“To guide the engineers, I write paragraphs on how the client should feel at every demo and what the qualitative goal should be.““My goal is always to get smaller, not bigger.”James’ LinksWebsite: https://www.cofebe.com/Courses: https://courses.cofebe.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdubyou/Substack: https://jdubyou.substack.com/ ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Guest BioMichael Zipursky – Michael has consulted for organizations and advised leaders throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East in over 30 industries, from service providers to billion-dollar multi-national corporations, including Panasonic, Dow Jones, Financial Times, Royal Bank and many others. Michael is an in-demand speaker and gives keynotes and workshops for the Certified Management Consultants Association, Canadian Internet Marketing Conference, Social Media Camp, and others. Michael’s work has appeared in MarketingProfs, Huffington Post, Financial Times, FOX Business, Maclean's, HR Executive, Business Edge, Marketing Magazine, and in several other media and publications. He is the author of 5 books, including: Elite Consulting MindConsulting Success®ACT NOWFollow Michael on Twitter @MichaelZipursky and LinkedIn Michael Zipursky or learn more at his website: ConsultingSuccess.comAnd here's the fees guide that Michael mentioned on the show: What Consultants Really Charge In 2023 ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Pricing legend Ron Baker joined me again (for a record-setting fourth appearance!) on Ditching Hourly to talk about the nuances of the subscription model for service business.Talking PointsSubscription pricing is becoming increasingly prevalent, with the subscription economy projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2025.Pricing tiers can be implemented based on the range of services offered, providing flexibility for customers.Providing outcomes and guiding transformations creates a better customer experience.Non-rival assets, such as knowledge and ideas, can be leveraged through subscriptions, allowing professionals to serve more clients simultaneously.Wasting customers' time is a major downfall in many professional firms, and subscriptions can help mitigate this by fostering consistent and meaningful client interactions.Subscription is a straightforward pricing model that offers a set price for a defined range of services or products.There is a potential shift towards performance-based payment models, where sellers are paid based on results rather than promises.Quotable Quotes“The more services we pile on brick by brick, we add more value.”“If you're going to the market with an uncommon offering, you're commanding uncommon prices.”“You are building lifetime annuities that are worth more than it costs you to acquire them.”“A business model explains where revenue will be earned when services are provided free of charge.”“I do think it's a way station. I think we'll move to a world where we're actually paid for performance and not promises.”“We're too busy selling services brick by brick by brick by brick. And that's not where our value is.”Ron’s LinksTwitter: https://twitter.com/ronaldbakerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronbaker1/The Soul of Enterprise: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/Times-up Club: https://timesupclub.com/Verasage: https://www.verasage.com/ ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

180Sites.com founder Ryan Golgosky joined me on Ditching Hourly to explain in detail how his web design company manages to add and service more than 30 new clients per month!Ryan’s Links:180sites.com ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Cross-post from The Business of Authority:Seth Godin joins us again, this time to answer the core question in his brand-new book “The Song of Significance”: What does it take to do work that matters?Talking PointsWhy right now is the best time ever to make a significant contribution to the change you want to see in your world.The importance of focusing on the smallest viable audience to accomplish significant work.How to transform your work into your art (hint: it includes the story you tell yourself about where you’re going).Why “soft skills” need to be considered as “real skills”—and why they are often far more valuable than skills that can be easily measured.What to tell yourself to push past imposter syndrome.Quotable Quotes“It's way more likely that adroit, committed, passionate, smart people are going to realize they have more tools than anyone on Earth ever had before.”—SG“What I'm trying to help undo is industrial brainwashing and remind people that significance comes from making a change in the world.”—SG “I've done more than 200 projects in my career. I've never missed a budget, and I have never missed a deadline. And the reason is that when I run outta time, or I run outta money, I'm done.”—SG“The key to significant work, particularly for the soloist you're talking about, is understanding the power of the smallest viable audience. The goal cannot be the biggest possible audience, ‘cuz that will water down your work and wreck it.”—SG“Part of my contribution is helping people tell themselves a story so they can transform parts of their day from work to art.”—SG“Real skills are honesty, generosity, leadership, connection, charisma, creativity, a sense of humor.”—SG “We have filled our lives with dangerous, ineffective proxies. Things we measure that look like they're gonna give us a hint as to what we're gonna get, but they don't.”—SG“People say, how do I get rid of imposter syndrome? And I say you can't. And that's a good thing because feeling like an imposter is a symptom that A, you're not a sociopath, and B, you're actually doing something difficult. Something important, something that might not work, something you can't prove because you're leading.”—SGLinksThe Song of SignificanceThe Carbon Almanac ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Denis Čahuk (aka “Coach Denis”) joined me on Ditching Hourly to share his experiences as an engineering team coach in the tech industry. He discusses his coaching approach of on-the-job training, or just-in-time training, and his focus on helping tech leaders improve modularity and productivity. He also shares insights on attracting leads, ideal buyers, expensive problems, and improving ROI. Additionally, he discusses his strict KPIs, pricing model, cancellation of sprints, use of JIRA, and minimal rituals for successful teams.05:50 - “My ideal buyer is a tech lead, an engineering manager, some kind of VP, or a tech technical leader in engineering that has direct reports who are individual contributors.”17:51 - “It is really easy to avoid Friday releases if you plan not to do them.”22:22 - “I wrote a script that mimicked doing exactly what the dev did, but it took them two hours, and my script runs it in 40 seconds.”33:29 - “They would waste 30 minutes every day just checking, ‘Wait, do you mean the thing thing or the other thing thing?’”36:35 - “But what we are measuring with that last subjective metric is essential. And if the team did well this sprint, did they celebrate?”47:31 - “I encourage them to cancel the sprint once the team is no longer following the goal.”Related links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/deniscahuk/https://craftingtechteams.substack.com/ ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Longtime friend-of-the-show and “three-peat” guest Geraldine Carter returns to go deep on the trials, tribulations, and benefits of niching down on a target market.Talking PointsGoing all in and telling everyone where you’re headed is key to getting tractionIf starting from scratch, think about what gets you excited and what kind of work you enjoy doingDon’t be afraid to be transparent with existing clients when transitioning to a new nicheManaging cash flow is crucial during the transition periodNot getting traction feels uncomfortable but should be serially solved, while not fitting into a niche is a feeling of discomfort that doesn’t go awayNiching down has many advantages, including having your own set of people and having more control over your calendarACFA can sell certain kinds of financial advisory products and services, but it’s more common for certified financial planners and financial advisorsQuotable Quotes04:27 “They know down deep inside where they wanna be, but they just haven’t given themselves time and space or permission to let that idea surface as a possible business model.”21:50 “Once you dive into your niche, you realize just how much there is to learn.”24:01 “It’s almost like a process of elimination where they need to know what wrong feels like in order to know what Right feels like.”26:32 “Who do you like working with? What gets you excited? What are the things that you think about when you can’t help thinking about them?”31:49 “It’s not the curfuffle that you imagine it’s going to be in your mind.”35:19 “There are a lot of pieces, there are a lot of moving parts, and it includes you having a good product, you talking about that product, but also not just talking, but speaking compellingly about the product.”41:15 “CPAs do have it easy in a way, and it’s fair that they are in a profession that is in some ways legally required to purchase the service of.” ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!

Dr. JJ Peterson, head of StoryBrand, joined me on Ditching Hourly to explain why he says, “You can't build a business on hourly billing.” JJ emphasizes the importance of value pricing and project-based billing for delivering results and customer satisfaction. He offers advice on storytelling and differentiation, finding your target audience, and building an email list for lead nurturing.Talking PointsBuilding value-add strategies is crucial to satisfying your customersProfessional pricing is focused on value for each project, not solely billable hoursValue pricing involves reverse engineering and scoping based on different budgetsProductized services can help predict income and make services profitable over timeStorytelling is a powerful tool for making sense of information and engaging customersMailing lists and podcasts can increase awareness and trustFind platforms where your target audience hangs out and offer value before sellingQuotable Quotes07:16 “Showing clients what kind of return they're going to get is a huge way to position yourself as value in the field.”22:00 “Story takes a bunch of information that's out there and puts it all in a form that makes sense to somebody.”29:00 “It's not about you, it's about what your skills and experience do to solve their problem.”35:28 “Clarify your message first. Figure out what your messaging is gonna be before you do spend money on anything, creating anything else.”37:33 “You wanna be on those stages. Then the second part about that is once you figure out where you wanna be, you wanna go into those places, and you wanna add a ton of value, don't wanna actually go in and sell.”39:25 “Building your audience with free stuff and then charge quote unquote for the next level, which is to get your email address.”47:07 “What you bring to businesses and the problems that you solve and the value that you bring is huge. So don't sell yourself short.”J.J.'s BioDr. J.J. Peterson has used the StoryBrand Framework to help thousands of organizations clarify their message in order to grow their business. He teaches leaders how to leverage the power of story in marketing and messaging to get results through his Marketing Made Simple Podcast. J.J. holds a Ph.D. in Communication and has spent the last 20 years practicing and teaching communication theory. He has studied C.S. Lewis in Oxford, debated theology with filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival, directed a documentary, served in marketing and PR for two multinational non-profit organizations, is currently an adjunct professor at the Owen School of Business at Vanderbilt University, and has spoken to thousands of people about creating a clear message. As the Head of StoryBrand, J.J. travels around the world facilitating StoryBrand workshops and keynotes, helping people grow their businesses.J.J.'s Linkshttps://storybrand.com/brandscripthttps://marketingmadesimple.com ----Do you have questions about how to improve your business? Things like:Value pricing your work instead of billing for your time?Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your space?Productizing your services so you never have to have another awkward sales call or spend hours writing another custom proposal?Book a one-on-one coaching call with me and get answers to these questions and others in the time it takes to get ready for work in the morning.Best of all, you're covered by my 100% satisfaction guarantee. If at the end of the call, you don't feel like it was worth it, just say the word, and I'll refund your purchase in full.To book your one-on-one coaching call, go to: https://jonathanstark.com/callI hope to see you there!