Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Our guest today is a hero of mine, Ethan Rasiel, a McKinsey alum and the author of The McKinsey Way and The McKinsey Mind. I read The McKinsey Way before I got interviewed by McKinsey – it helped me understand the Firm, and, well, I got an offer. In this episode, Ethan shares the story of how he got the idea for the book, how he did the research, and the reaction of the Firm.

Our guest today is Jessica Rhodes, who runs a firm called Interview Connections. They help their clients get booked as a guest on podcasts. Let's say you want to raise your visibility by being on someone's show. Jessica's firm will come up with a list of podcasts that would be a good fit for your expertise and the audience you are trying to reach. And then they work to build relationships with hos...

Tiffany Pham is a mogul, and she wants you to be a mogul too. Tiffany is the Founder and CEO of Mogul, a platform reaching 18 million women per week – users can read trending content, take courses, solicit advice from other members, find job opportunities. Visit onmogul.com Mogul organizes an annual conference called Mogul X, billed as the modern millennial classroom, and the next one is this Satu...

Our guest today is Umbrex member and Booz alum Wissam Kahi, who's been a close friend of mine since we sat together in the same cluster at Columbia Business School. In parallel with running his successful consulting practice, Wissam, together with his sister, has started an amazing social enterprise called Eat Offbeat.  https://eatoffbeat.com/ Eat Offbeat delivers authentic and home-style ethnic m...

Nayla Bahri is a former Dean of Students at Columbia Business School who has a PhD in Adult Learning and Leadership.  Nayla interviewed professionals who lost their jobs during the Great Recession, and studied their future trajectory.  After that setback, some truly flourished, and ended up far better off than before they got fired. Some managed to get back to a similar role and their career plate...

Louis Hyman is McKinsey alum and Associate Professor of Economic History at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. In this episode we talk about his new book: Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary. The gig economy is not a new phenomenon – this book explores how we got to where we are today. It weaves together the stories o...

Chara McGill runs The RMG Group, what has traditionally been called a bookkeeping firm, with about 20 employees based in New York City. Chara suggests a different term for the work her firm does instead of bookkeeping – she calls it "internal accounting operations," since the work goes well beyond the traditional bookkeeping tasks of general ledger entries. In this episode, Chara shares her advice...

Our guest today is Dirk Hanschur, the CEO of Log-hub, a firm that has created a range of supply chain analytics tools that work as Add-ons to Microsoft Excel. In this Episode, Dirk explains a selection of these apps which include geo-coding, distance calculator, live tracking, shortest path calculator, milk run optimization, and more. Log-hub is happy to partner with independent consultants, who c...

To bring her whole self to the game, the business athlete Stays physically fit, flexibility, strength, cardiovascular fitness – because in long days at work, physical fitness supports mental alertness She insists on getting enough sleep She practices some form of mindfulness, to remain centered in the midst of inevitable crises She finds a coach who will help her keep improving her game through de...

In which the Engineer Officer told me that he expected me to get out of the wardroom and put my eyeballs on the jobsite. The lesson has carried over to my consulting career.

Nick Craig is the author of Leading from Purpose: Clarity and the Confidence to Act When It Matters Most, published in June 2018. Since 2006, Nick's firm, Core Leadership Institute, has helped more than 10,000 leaders discover and lead from purpose. In this episode, Nick shares his perspective on: What purpose is How to discover your purpose The benefits of leading from purpose While his firm prim...

Certain evolutions on a submarine require the Commanding Officer's approval. This short episode is what I learned from asking permission. The same principles can be applied in any corporate environment.

The day I reported to my submarine, I was given a stack of qual cards, one of the best training technologies ever. Do you want new hires to get up to speed quickly? Then consider giving them a qual card so they can take charge of their own learning.

As a young ensign newly reported to my submarine, I handed the Engineer Officer a draft that didn't meet his standards. This short episode is the story of when I learned about the concept of completed staff work.

Every independent professional needs to determine his or her internal billing rate, that is, what is your time worth to you, in dollars. Most independent professionals I've met have not thought this through, and this leads them to spend time on low-value activities that should be outsourced.

I recently received an email with the subject line: BS Questions. Hmm - not very professional, I thought. This short episode provides some thoughts on abbreviations, and one thing I do with abbreviations at the beginning of every study.

I've been working on eliminating decisions from my life wherever possible and replacing decisions with habits and routines. One area in particular that I've focused on for the past few years is my morning routine. I've tried adding and removing elements to see what works best for me.  In this episode, I share the current version of my morning routine, which helps me win the day. I don't suggest yo...

Yify Zhang, a McKinsey alum, is also a singer - songwriter - violinist. In this episode, Yify shares how she combines her music with a career as an independent consultant.  Do visit Yify's website, where you can stream all her songs, watch her music videos, and find out the dates of her upcoming live performances: http://www.yifyzhang.com/  

McKinsey taught me this framework - the four conditions that are required to drive behavior change: 1) Understanding and commitment 2) Skills 3) Role modeling 4) Formal mechanisms This short episode gives an overview with an example of how to apply the framework.

This is a story about the actual wedding photographer who took the pictures at my wedding, Drew, and his fictional doppelgänger, Drew Prime.

Thirty years ago I stood at attention and, multiple times per day over the course of ten days, shouted "This midshipman has no excuse, sir!" What I learned from this experience at orientation before starting ROTC has proved to be a valuable lifelong lesson in extreme ownership.

Ready, Set, Go! is a great way to start a footrace. For any artistic or entrepreneurial project, not so much. When you have a new project in mind, there is no Ready. There is only Go.

Asking questions with the mind of a child can yield new insights. Here's a short episode on what a friend learned when his daughter asked a doorman why the soles of his shoes are so thick.

You wouldn't hire a plumber who isn't comfortable using a wrench, or a lumberjack who can't handle a chainsaw.  A professional needs to master the tools of the trade. For independent consultants, a fundamental tool is Excel. For most, it isn't necessary to program in Visual Basic or write macros, but it is essential to master all the basic tools, including, for example, pivot tables, vlookups, if...

Per Sjofors runs a firm called Sales for Profit – they have developed survey tools to measure a customer's willingness to pay, and the help their clients determine what marketing method is most effective in their market which advertising targets the company should focus on which product features drive the highest willingness to buy and the optimum price of a given product or service In this episod...