Consultants get a bad rap. Some of it deserved. But the founders in this section are the real deal. People who’ve built consulting firms, advisory practices, and service businesses that actually deliver results. Not just slide decks. Results.
These interviews cover every flavor of consulting. Management consulting. Strategy. Operations. HR. Technology implementation. The kind of work where you walk into someone else’s mess and try to make it better, which requires a very specific combination of confidence and humility.
The founders here talk about how they built their practices from scratch. How they landed their first clients. How they price their services, which, if you’ve ever tried to price consulting, you know is more art than science. Also how they scale without burning out. That’s the question every consultant eventually faces.
You’ll find conversations about the shift from corporate to independent. Building a team versus staying solo. Niching down versus staying broad. The pros and cons of productizing services. And the constant challenge of doing the work while also finding the work. If you’re in consulting or thinking about it, these are people worth learning from.
[quote style=”boxed”]Keep a schedule and stick to it as best as possible. [/quote] Jonathan Alpert is a Manhattan-based licensed psychotherapist, executive coach, columnist, and author of the book, BE FEARLESS: Change…
[quote style=”boxed”]I’d try to ramp up even faster. Toward the beginning, we were excessively deliberate or too thrifty in a few key areas, namely technology. I wish we’d spent more…
[quote style=”boxed”] I learned that it’s important to never waste a good crisis because what you learn when things get difficult can be the most valuable, and the most telling, about…
Meet Todd Wolfenbarger – President and Partner of The Summit Group
[quote style=”boxed”]There are countless small decisions I would make differently – as the expression goes, “hindsight is 20-20.” But my ‘big picture’ view is that I would change nothing, because…
Meet Michael Nicklin – Founder and President of The Nicklin Group
[quote style=”boxed”] I would probably have started sooner. For years, I thought sticking to one industry or focusing on a specific career path was the way to go. I wish I’d…
[quote style=”boxed”]We approach innovation by looking to find the right balance between technology and rich human interaction.[/quote] Kimberly Burris, Chelsea Woodcock Ph.D. and Kibibi Springs share a passion for helping…
Meet Kimberly Burris, Chelsea Woodcock, Kibibi Springs – Co-Founding Team of Positivity
[quote style=”boxed”]I tell every entrepreneur I know to remind themselves of what they are achieving every day, because the power, knowledge, and freedom that comes from being an entrepreneur is…
[quote style=”boxed”]One of the dangers of starting out in a technical type of business is that that kind of consumes your focus. Today, a very big part of my focus…
[quote style=”boxed”]Trust your gut, move beyond your comfort zone, and take leaps of faith.[/quote] Jennifer Martin is a Certified EMyth Business Coach, owner of Zest Business Consulting, and author of…
[quote style=”boxed”]Start sooner! I wish I had gone independent far earlier than I did, but risk aversion and getting too comfortable held me back.[/quote] Britta brings nearly a decade of…
Meet Britta Schell – Insights, Strategy & Innovation Consultant
[quote style=”boxed”]If I were to start again, I would diversify our revenue streams earlier. Being dependent on a single stream of revenue is really risky and will keep you up…
Ralph Kennedy Pope has extensive professional experience in international law, acquisitions, litigation management, investigations, and negotiating enterprise infrastructure agreements and information technology contracts. He has also provided support for a…