Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is a thought leader in the area of project management. Antonio is the author of two books: The Focused Organization: How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution And The Project Revolution: How to Succeed in a Project Driven World He has been awarded the title of Thinker of the Month by Thinkers50, and has presented on the topic of project management at more than 120 conferences around the world. To learn more about his work, visi...
Jul 22, 2019•39 min
Our guest today is Christina Ungaro, the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at JLL. In case you aren’t in the real estate world: JLL is the second-largest commercial real estate services firm in the world, ranked 189th on the Fortune 500, with revenue of $16 billion in 2018. Christina was hired by JLL to build the corporate development group, and she has completed 32 acquisitions (mostly professional services firms) since she joined JLL. In this episode, Christina gives me a quick...
Jul 15, 2019•30 min
Our guest today is Josh Miramant, the Founder of CEO of Blue Orange Digital, a full-stack data science agency using machine learning to simplify business decisions. In our discussion, Josh provides several case studies of how his firm is helping clients improve decisions through better predictions, including one project for a hedge fund that analyzes a wide range of data on job applicants to help the fund hire analysts who are likely to perform better. I also learn a new term: data lake Blue Ora...
Jul 08, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Our guest today is Stephen Redwood, who has been a Partner in the Organization practices at PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey & Co., Oliver Wyman, and Deloitte. He is now running his own firm, Redwood Advisory Partners, where he helps clients develop a high performing organization and an exceptional employee experience. In today’s discussion, Stephen explains what an organizational design project is all about, and he also discusses his other business, Tri Endeavors, where he coaches elite tri...
Jul 01, 2019•45 min
Our guest today is Seiya Vogt, the VP of Growth at Boxed – where he is responsible for Marketing and B2B Sales. Boxed calls itself “the easiest way to stock up and save for your household essentials." In today's discussion, Seiya provides a behind the scenes view of the tools available to the modern marketer, and along the way he explains why direct mail – that’s right – good old hard-copy mail – is making a comeback. After this episode you may be inspired to stock up on a bulk order of househol...
Jun 24, 2019•39 min
Our guest today is Tim Hughes, who has written the book on social selling; he is the author of Social Selling: Techniques to influence buyers and customers, as well as Smarketing: How to achieve competitive advantage through blended sales and marketing. As you’ll hear from Tim, social selling is not actually about selling, or at least not about trying to sell – it is about building relationships. Tim’s LinkedIn headline is: Should have played Quidditch for England, and in today’s discussion he e...
Jun 17, 2019•40 min
Our guest today is Brian Hecht, who freaked out his family in 1994, just two years after graduating from Harvard College, by leaving a perfectly fine job to join an Internet company – before that was a thing. Brian went on to have a successful career as an Internet entrepreneur, and today he is a Venture Partner at a NYC startup accelerator called Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator. Check them out at eranyc.com And as a hobby, he, along with his cousin Rachel Dodes, hosts the very popular and ...
Jun 10, 2019•48 min
Our guest today is David A. Fields, the author of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom. David is leading an upcoming professional development program for independent consultants that I thought could be valuable for many of the listeners of this show, so I asked David if he’d share an overview of the Solo Practice Accelerator. The next one is August 18-19, 2019 in San Francisco, CA. Details: https://members.davidafields.com/s...
Jun 03, 2019•35 min
Our guest today is Hi Leva, the SVP of Sales at Oasis Financial. In today's discussion, Hi shares key lessons learned from his career as a sales leader. We discuss recruiting a sales team, compensation, the importance of follow-up, CRM systems, how to get the most out of attending a convention, and other sales topics. You can learn about Hi’s company at oasisfinancial.com And you can learn more about Hi’s background on his LinkedIn profile, and a link is in the show notes https://www.linkedin.co...
Jun 03, 2019•37 min
Our guest today is Scott Friesen, the SVP of Strategic Analytics at Echo Global Logistics, a company which serves as a broker that connects companies who want to ship something by truck to the trucking company that will give the best rate, a non-trivial exercise considering that there are 40,000 trucking companies in the United States. In our discussion, Scott gives me an overview of the two major categories of trucking: less-than-truckload and full truck load. We then explore some of the ways t...
Jun 03, 2019•40 min
Our guest today is Liston Witherill, a sales coach and trainer who helps non-sales people sell more client services by staying curious and providing more help to their clients. Liston has a set of great resources available to download on his website, just go to liston.io and click on the Resources tab, where you’ll find sales email templates, a CRM spreadsheet, a sales call checklist, a list of 32 ideas for lead generation, and more. If you are looking to hire an independent consultant, or if yo...
Jun 02, 2019•48 min
Our guest today is Logan Sachon, an insurance expert at Policygenius who focuses on life insurance. In this episode, Logan explains to me the types of life insurance, how to select a life insurance company, how to get a quote, and some thumbrules on how much coverage to buy. After our discussion, Logan emailed me to clarify one thing she said. I asked her the chance of a healthy 35 year old man dying before he retires, and she told me less than 2%. After we spoke she looked it up and the actual ...
May 28, 2019•42 min
Our guest today is Mark Metry, who started a YouTube channel when he was 13 that gained 35,000 subscribers, and who started a company when he was 15 that generated six figures of income and became the #1 Minecraft server in the world. Oh, just a couple side projects. Mark, now 21, runs a marketing agency and also happens to host a Top 100 podcast, Humans 2.0, whose guests have included some of my heroes such as Seth Godin. To learn more about Mark, you can search for Humans 2.0 or visit his webs...
May 20, 2019•48 min
Today's episode is a new feature here on Unleashed - a book recommendation. I really loved the recently published book: The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discovery Joy in the Everyday, by Rob Walker. Here is a link to Rob Walker's website page on the book: http://robwalker.net/noticing/ If you sign up for the Unleashed email at askunleashed.com , each week I’ll let you know about the latest episodes of the podcast, a book recommendation, and periodically, s...
May 20, 2019•7 min
Jennifer Hartz sent me the following question: "Will, I send out a newsletter via Mail Chimp about six times a year. I also publish these on my website. I figure I ought to put them on LinkedIn as well – do you have an opinion about whether I should make them LinkedIn articles or Posts? If they are posts, I'd need to be regularly active to address comments, right?" I love Jennifer's newsletter - you can sign up to receive it on her website: https://corporatehartz.com/ I mention Mark Williams's p...
May 13, 2019•8 min
A listener asked for advice on how to set fees, and here are my thoughts. In this episode I refer to, and strongly recommend, Chapter 22 of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom , by David A. Fields Visit askunleashed.com to sign up for the weekly Unleashed email - get a summary of each episode, book recommendations, and consulting tips....
May 13, 2019•20 min
Our guest today is Steve Woodruff, also known as the King of Clarity. Steve is the author of Clarity Wins . He helps individuals and businesses discover their professional DNA, define their offerings, target their ideal clients, and articulate their differentiating message. You can learn more about Steve’s work at https://www.stevewoodruff.com/ Never miss an episode of Unleashed - sign up for our weekly email at askunleashed.com...
May 13, 2019•41 min
Our guest today is David A. Fields, Umbrex member and the author of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom. In today’s episode, we discuss how to set up a CRM system for an individual consultant or boutique firm. A bit more than a year ago, I attended a training session that David led on this topic, and I set up my CRM system exactly that way he describes on this show. I’ve found the simple setup that David suggests incredibly...
May 06, 2019•19 min
Our guest today is Becca Braun, an innovator and writer whose longtime passion is capturing the voices of executives, entrepreneurs, and others in new and interesting ways. Becca is an alum of Harvard Business School and Harvard College, and the President of Braun Ink, a ghostwriting firm that writes action-packed executive biographies and memoirs. Learn more about Becca’s firm on their website, https://www.braunink.com/ To sign up for the weekly Unleashed email, visit askunleashed.com...
Apr 29, 2019•28 min
Our guest today is David A. Fields, Umbrex member and the author of The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom. David was my guest on the very first episode of Unleashed and it was great to have him back on the show. In today’s episode, we discuss how to make outbound calls to the people in your network. It is so much more comfortable to send an email. It can be awkward to just pick up the phone and make a call. David argues that ...
Apr 22, 2019•22 min
Our guest today is Katrin Siebenbuerger Hacki, who runs a boutique healthcare consulting firm based on Switzerland. Katrin’s firm works with medical device, biotech, and other life sciences clients by providing marketing, sales, business developing, and funding services. You can learn more about her firm’s work on their website: http://www.medows.ch/ To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each show and ot...
Apr 15, 2019•37 min
Is your LinkedIn headline totally generic? Something like "Independent consultant" or "Freelance consultant"? This episode is about LinkedIn headlines that tell a story and capture the attention of potential clients. To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each show and other bonus features, visit askunleashed.com
Apr 11, 2019•4 min
This short episode is about the most powerful question for finding work - either a full time job or consulting projects. To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each show and other bonus features, visit askunleashed.com
Apr 10, 2019•2 min
Our guest today is Mark Minukas, an Umbrex member, McKinsey alum, and partner at the firm Co-Creation Partners. Mark studied engineering at the Naval Academy and spent six years in the Civil Engineer Corps in the U.S. Navy before McKinsey, where he developed expertise in lean operations. At Co-Creation Partners, he brings his hard-core engineering experience together with the deep cultural transformation expertise of his partner, Gaurav Bhatnagar. Combining their expertise, their firm helps clie...
Apr 09, 2019•51 min
Our guest today is Nina Leffers, a McKinsey alum and partner in a boutique consulting firm Stahl Automotive Consulting. Nina’s firm works with auto companies around the world on developing the vision and key specifications for their future models, and in this episode she walks us through some examples of how her team works with clients to design the key aspects of cars we’ll see on the road five years from now. You can learn more about her work at http://www.sac-group.eu/ To ask me a question, d...
Apr 08, 2019•36 min
The CEO might think that everyone in the organization is working on the CEO's top priorities. It is worth checking that assumption. To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each show and other bonus features, visit askunleashed.com
Apr 05, 2019•2 min
Complex projects need something more sophisticated. But for simple projects, this simple set of three questions forms the basis for a robust weekly or monthly update: 1. Last month, what did we promise to do over the coming month? 2. What did we ACTUALLY get done over the past month? 3. What are we going to do over the next month? This short episode elaborates. To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each ...
Apr 04, 2019•3 min
I regularly speak with an executive leaving a corporate role, or a consultant leaving a firm, who asks me if it is possible to do independent consulting while doing a search for the next full time role. My short answer is: not a good idea My longer answer is: this episode To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email which includes summaries of each show and other bonus features, visit askunleashed.com...
Apr 03, 2019•3 min
Our guest today is Cyndi Freeman, who has 20 years of experience as a storyteller and 8 years of experience as a storytelling instructor. At The Story Studio, she leads classes in storytelling for business, among other courses. In this episode Cyndi shares some of her own stories and we discuss the key elements that every story ought to have. You can learn more – and register for upcoming courses – at https://thestorystudio.org/corporate/ To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episod...
Apr 02, 2019•48 min
Our guest today is Afua Branoah Banful, an Umbrex member and McKinsey alum with a PhD in Economics from Harvard. We discuss the spreading adoption of tele-health and other transformational medical technology. To learn more about Afua (who goes by B.B.), visit her firms' website: http://soundhealthadvisory.com/ To ask me a question, download transcripts of past episodes, or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email that includes bonus features of summaries of the latest episodes, go to askunleashed....
Apr 01, 2019•42 min
