Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Lauren Cole runs a boutique consulting firm specializing in strategy and operations for media-related businesses. Lauren got her start in consulting at Bain & Co. After getting her MBA at Stanford she entered the world of media and entertainment with a strategy role at Warner Brothers, where she worked for Umbrex member Steven Koltai, who has also been a guest on this show.  She had an impressive...

Our guest today is Josh Spodek, the author of Leadership Step by Step . Josh is an independent professional who coaches individual clients teaches leadership and entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at NYU does speaking engagements runs online courses in leadership and entrepreneurship on SpodekAcademy.com For the show we met at Josh's apartment in Greenwich Village, and in the first part of o...

Our guest today is Esther Kim, an independent consultant based in San Francisco who focuses on serving clients in the social sector, including non-profits, philanthropies, and social enterprises. After getting her Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from MIT, Esther got her start in consulting at McKinsey, where she worked with energy, industrial, and nonprofit clients. She then spent nine...

Our guest today is Steven Koltai, the author of "Peace through Entrepreneurship: Investing in a Startup Culture for Security and Development" Steven has had multiple careers. he has been a management consultant at McKinsey, the head of strategy at Warner Bros for ten years, and a successful entrepreneur. His most recent career began as a senior advisor to the US Department of State under Secretary...

Chris Fox, an alum of McKinsey and Marakon, has held executive leadership roles at Xerox and MeadWestvaco.  Since 2014 he has been operating his own consulting practice, Meridian Strategic Consulting, based in Richmond, Virginia.  In this episode, we discuss the range of Chris's practice, with a particular focus on strategy and due diligence assignments.  Read more about Chris on LinkedIn at linke...

Our guest today is Ron Hubsher, the Managing Director of the Sales Optimization Group and the author of Closing Time: the 7 Immutable Laws of Sales negotiation." Ron's book is in print but not available on Amazon – he explains what happens when you buy his book from his website., and why he doesn't sell his book anywhere else. Ron has a multifaceted business – he does consulting projects to sales...

Our guest today is Michael Bendit, an independent professional based in NYC who started his consulting career as a principal at Booz & Co. Michael has two sides to his practice He runs a consulting practice, with a particular focus on strategy and pricing He also represents multiple software development shops, primarily focused on digital marketing agencies Michael has created a referral network i...

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...

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...

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...

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 rela...

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 ty...

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

Our guest today is Rick Condon, a former submarine officer and a former Engagement Manager at McKinsey. He has been running his own consulting practice since 2004. The majority of Rick's clients are privately held mid-market companies and he works on a range of topics including preparing companies for sale; turn-around efforts, and jump-starting growth. You can read about Rick's firm Inside Consul...

Our guest today is my friend Amanda Setili, the author of two books: The Agility Advantage: How to Identify and Act on Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World, was published in 2014. Her latest book is coming out in the fall of 2017, Fearless Growth:The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate your markets. Amanda has an MBA from Harvard and started her consulting career at Mc...

Our guest today is Valia Glytsis, who runs The Paradox of Leadership, a leadership education firm based in New York and San Francisco. Valia works with leaders and organizations that yearn for a more meaningful and impactful way of working, communicating, and leading. She's got a blue-chip list of clients that includes HBO, McKinsey & Company, Digitas, Kiehl's, Soul Cycle, Edelman, New York City E...

Robbie Kellman Baxter served as a consultant to Netflix when all they did was mail out DVDs. That experience got Robbie thinking deeply about a new emerging business model.  She developed these ideas over a period of nine years before publishing in 2015 her book The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue. In our discussion, Robbie goes...

Several years ago, Srikumar Rao left a comfortable tenured position to set out as an independent professional. He now gives keynote speeches and offers his course to corporations and the general public around the world. His TED talk has been viewed nearly a million times.  Learn more about Srikumar at https://theraoinstitute.com/ Srikumar created one of the most popular courses ever at Columbia Bu...

Lilly Liu Minkove is an expert in the luxury retail sector. She focused on the luxury retail industry as an investment banker at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.  Then she gained experience in industry as a Director of Strategy at Coach and as a Director of Stores for Louis Vuitton. Presently she is a partner at ArtLogica Strategy Group which she co-fou...

Susan Hamilton is a brand identity strategist and a member of Umbrex. She is an alum of Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group, and her firm, sh. BRAND, is based in New York City. We talk about what a brand identity is and how Susan helps firms define their brand identity.  To learn more about Susan, check out her website at http://sh-brand.com/  

Known for his wit, wisdom, and formerly purple hair, McKinsey alum,  author and independent management consultant Ravi Rao reveals how we can improve the performance of individuals within the corporate culture through emotional intelligence. As a young man, Ravi wanted to be an actor but ended up in neuroscience. With a keen interest in the function and development of the brain, he obtained a PhD...