Our guest today is Kenny Jahng, the founder of Big Click Syndicate LLC, a strategic positioning agency offering content marketing consulting & advisory to nonprofit, cause-driven & faith-based organizations and churches across the country. Kenny has an amazing list of clients that includes the Princeton Theological Seminary, California Baptist University, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, The United Methodist Church, & Wesleyan Investment Foundation, among many others. In our discussion,...
Nov 06, 2017•54 min
Sri Kaza, a former McKinsey partner who specializes in sales and service, left the firm to put his sales expertise to work as the SVP of Commercial Operations at Viking Cruises, and subsequently led sales for a company offering a SaaS-based solution to obtaining tax credits. Sri is now running his own independent consulting practice while also developing two separate SaaS startups. One of them is a tool to help companies hire the employees most likely to perform well and stick around, based on a...
Oct 30, 2017•58 min
Our guest today is Jason Korman, who entered the world of consulting via the wine industry. Jason is the founder of Stormhoek Winery, a South African wine label. While running that label, he retained Hugh MacLeod to blog and draw for Stormhoek, creating one of the the web’s earlier social media campaigns. Even if you don’t recognize the name Hugh MacLeod, you have probably seen his cartoons, which are absolutely distinctive. Hugh’s cartoons are generally about the world of work and marketing, an...
Oct 23, 2017•44 min
Our guest today is Ahmad Munawar, who helps boutique professional services firms build actionable marketing plans that generate more leads so they can win more business. He’s got a podcast that I encourage you to check out called “Forecast – Marketing for Boutique Professional Services & Consulting Firms” He’s also got a free video course on lead generation that you can take at fiveleadgen.com In our discussion, Ahmad walks me through the five steps that he suggests we take to build a market...
Oct 16, 2017•54 min
On today’s episode, the tables are turned, and our guest, Sophia Dai, interviews Will Bachman. Sophia received her MBA from Kellogg and then spent the past two years at Boston Consulting Group. Now a Senior Associate, she’s decided to leave BCG, and independent consulting is one path that she is considering. Two or three or four times a week Will Bachman has a conversation with a top tier management consultant considering this option. This episode captures one such discussion. In today’s episode...
Oct 09, 2017•43 min
Our guest today is Lisa Overton, a McKinsey alum and an expert on market research. Today Lisa is an independent consultant working on a range of strategy, marketing, and communications issues. Previously, Lisa ran a boutique qualitative market research firm that offered traditional services such as focus groups as well as more innovative services including customer intercept interviews. In our discussion today we focus in on how to do those customer intercept interviews, and Lisa shares a range ...
Oct 02, 2017•42 min
Our guest today is Geoff Wilson, a McKinsey alum who subsequently served as the SVP of Corporate Strategy and Development at Milliken & Company, a privately-held, diversified manufacturing company headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina with 7,000 employees worldwide. Geoff left Millikin in 2014 and started his own consulting firm. Geoff wanted to keep living in South Carolina and keep long-distance travel to a minimum, so he has taken an intentionally geographically-focused approach to...
Sep 25, 2017•53 min
Our guest today is Umbrex member Amanda Setili, and we discuss her new book that is being published today: Fearless Growth: The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate Your Markets Amanda has been a guest on the show before, on episode 8, when we spoke about the Strategic Agility Think Tank which she established, and her first book, The Agility Advantage. In today’s discussion we dive deep into the content of her new book. In the first half of the show we discuss five stra...
Sep 18, 2017•49 min
Our guest today is Alexander Petersen. He is a McKinsey alum and a successful entrepreneur, having started a pet care business called Wagly. After starting Wagly, he was able to attract private equity funding to grow the company and hire a strong full time leadership team. He is now the owner of a boutique consulting firm focused on animal health, which I learned in this episode is a $50 billion dollar industry. Alexander has built a thriving firm by tightly focusing on an industry where he’s be...
Sep 12, 2017•34 min
Larry Oglesby has been a close friend and mentor of mine for over a decade. I first got to know Larry when he was my Engagement Manager at McKinsey on a manufacturing lean operations project back in 2005, and we bonded over our shared service in the U.S. submarine force. Larry is a deep expert on operational transformation – after spending time in the Ops practice at McKinsey he joined the George Group – a boutique consulting firm focused on operations. After the George Group was purchased by Ac...
Sep 04, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Our guest today is Mike Figliuolo, a McKinsey alum and West Point graduate. Mike is the founder and Managing Director of ThoughtLeadersLLC, which provides training to corporations that is inspired by the types of internal training that consultants receive at McKinsey and other top firms. He is also the author of three books One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved Lead ...
Aug 28, 2017•49 min
Our guest today is Ravi Rao, a McKinsey alum and neuroscientist who is the author of Emotional Business . Ravi has led sessions at several professional development events for consultants that I’ve organized, and he always gets fantastic reviews. Ravi was my guest on the second episode of this show, and it remains one of the most downloaded episodes, so if you like this episode, go back and check out Episode 2. In this episode, we talk about one really creative framework that Ravi has developed t...
Aug 21, 2017•54 min
Our guest today is Vivek Soman, a former McKinsey Engagement Manager who is the founder and Managing Director of The Ananya Group, which has completed over 300 projects since it was founded in 2008. Ananya is a Bengali word meaning “unparalled.” Vivek’s firm has a very clear focus: the client focus is large $1 billion revenue and up tech, media, telecom, and professional services companies The service offering includes three types of projects: 1) competitive intelligence 2) customer intelligence...
Aug 14, 2017•52 min
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 career in the media world, which included launching, investing in, and/or overseeing 35 cable net...
Aug 07, 2017•32 min
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 our conversation we discuss the blackboard in his room and the new course he is currently developing,...
Jul 31, 2017•1 hr 1 min
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 years at REDF, a venture philanthropy firm based in San Francisco. In 2014, Esther set up her own c...
Jul 24, 2017•51 min
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 Hilary Clinton, where Steven conceived and launched the Global Entrepreneurship Program, based on t...
Jul 17, 2017•46 min
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 linkedin.com/in/chrisjfox
Jul 10, 2017•42 min
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 organizations, he provides training programs, he gives keynote speeches. In some cases he delivers h...
Jul 03, 2017•43 min
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 in NYC that has been meeting every two weeks for several years. His group includes a range of ind...
Jun 26, 2017•48 min
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.
Jun 22, 2017•50 min
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 her website: http://annonaenterprises.com/ And you can listen to her show at http://ceoexclusive.bus...
Jun 13, 2017•50 min
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
Jun 13, 2017•37 min
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’s pro bono work, which I find incredibly inspiring. She has done pro bono consulting work at fa...
Jun 07, 2017•48 min
In this in-between-isode, Will Bachman offers suggestions on 27 action items to consider as you set up your firm.
Jun 05, 2017•23 min
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?
Jun 05, 2017•15 min
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 Feigen Advisors, 81 individuals have ascended to the CEO role. in the Fortune 250. Of those 81, eigh...
May 31, 2017•54 min
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 related portfolio companies and investments. Matt routinely counsels entrepreneurs, startup and grow...
May 31, 2017•51 min
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 types of coverage that are applicable to most independent professionals, namely: Business owners insur...
May 22, 2017•50 min
Four reasons why an independent professional might want to start a podcast, and 17 tips on how to get started.
May 16, 2017•21 min
