Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Michael Brennan is the former CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Michigan, and now the Co-Founder and CEO of Civilla, a Center for Social Innovation rooted in human centered design to help courageous leaders tackle some of the toughest social issues. Michael decided to devote his energies to fixing a problem in Michigan: The entry point to Michigan's public benefit system is an application that is over 40 pages long. With over 1000 questions and more than 18,000 words it is the longest application of its kind in the United States. That application generated massive headache for residents trying to obtain benefits, many who got overwhelmed by the process and just never applied. It also generated unnecessary cost for the state to process the massive pile of paperwork. Michael tells a compelling story with valuable lessons for any consultant working to build alignment across multiple stakeholders. To communicate their findings and recommendations, Civilla set aside PowerPoint. They build an immersive experience in their office that senior state politicians, journalists, non-profit leaders, and other could walk through to really feel what applicants for public benefits got through. Do check out their website, for visuals and to learn more: www.civilla.com

Our guest today is Jeanne Martinet, the author of The Art of Mingling: Fun and Proven Techniques for Mastering Any Room. I've always been a pretty strong introvert and never enjoyed mingling-type events very much – until I read this book about fifteen years ago. The book was eye-opening for me, and while I would not say that I'm good at mingling, the techniques in this book at least help me survive and even enjoy myself. So it was a huge amount of fun to speak with Jeanne and discuss the advice in the book and how she came to write it. If you'd like to get better at mingling, I strongly recommend Jeanne's book.

Our guest today is Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the author of a fantastic new book titled The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times, published by Oxford University Press. This book is a great read for any leader, not just those in public health, since the lessons are so broadly applicable, and the stories are so fascinating. Also recommended for consultants who want to know how to advise a client through a crisis. Josh is a physician and a public health leader who has held senior leadership roles at the city, state, and federal level. He's been the Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, the Principal Deputy Commissioner at the FDA, and the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. And he is currently a Vice Dean at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In this episode, Josh shares stories of crises he faced – include one on the very first day on the job. The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide is not a dry manual – it is full of absolutely amazing stories – including the story of Frances Kelsey, the heroine of the FDA, who saved an untold number of American children from being born with birth defects because of her courageous refusal to approve thalidomide, despite industry pressure. The book has very practical advice on how to recognize a crisis, manage a crisis, communicate through a crisis, and work to prevent the next crisis, and it is highly recommended.

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 hosts so they can get you booked as a guest. Their website is https://interviewconnections.com/

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 Saturday, September 8 in New York City – topics include Finding your mentor, finding your purpose, Building resilience, building your financial future, side hustles, building a business to work remotely – looks like an awesome day. Registration fee is $250, but Tiffany kindly offered a discount code for listeners of this show – enter the code Unleashed at checkout and you can register for just $99. Or use this link: http://bit.ly/2wC5gAr Tiffany is ALSO the author of a new book out today, You Are a Mogul: How to Do the Impossible, Do it Yourself, and Do it Now. Tiffany is truly an inspirational leader, and I hope you enjoy this discussion.

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 meals that are conceived, prepared and delivered by refugees resettled in NYC. Eat Offbeat was the recipient of WeWork's global creator awards and has been featured in dozens of major publications. At a time when refugees may not be feeling the most welcome in the United States, Eat Offbeat is creating jobs while also helping to build bridges. And their food is delicious – I've hired Eat Offbeat to cater several events that I've run and they always get rave reviews. Check them out online at Eat Offbeat – and if you've got an event in NYC, you can't miss by having them prepare your meal.

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 plateaued. Some got derailed and didn't really recover. Nayla sought to identify the factors that differentiated those groups, and the good news is that it wasn't personality or something innate, but behaviors that are under our control. In today's episode, Nayla shares the key insights from her research on the five behaviors that differentiated those who flourished after a career setback.

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 of Manpower,Inc. McKinsey & Co., the Bracero program that legally brought seasonal farm laborers from Mexico to the United States. There is also the story of how accounting firms became the big technology consulting firms. And how consultants helped encourage the rise of big conglomerates and then the reorganization and restructuring of those same companies. Fascinating throughout. To learn more, visit www.LouisHyman.com.

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 for independent professionals on how to do the bookkeeping yourself, the signs that it may be time to outsource the work, and how to find a firm who will meet your needs. https://www.thermggroup.com/

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 can become authorized resellers of the software. A link to their website is in the show notes. https://www.log-hub.com/supply-chain-apps/

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 deliberate practice She puts time into mastering the basics until they become automatic - She studies the competition to understand their moves She regularly reviews, with an objective lens, her own performance, identifying what went well and what can be improved She is motivated not by standing on the medal podium, but the satisfaction of performing at the highest possible level She compares herself, primarily, not to other athletes, but to her own performance yesterday She looks out along the full arc of her future career, and not just to the next competition. She phases out from her life acquaintances who are a drag on her energy rather than a contribution to it Thanks to Michael Feiner, who, in his course "High Performance Leadership" at Columbia Business School, introduced me to this concept of the business athlete.

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 primarily leads private workshops within organizations, they do have two workshops coming up that are open to the public: Boston from October 18-19, 2018 London from December 4-5, 2018 Learn more on their website at coreleader.com

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 you adopt my routine, but I do encourage you to find a routine that works for you. A book on the topic I recommend is My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander.

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 functions, date functions. In this short episode, I share some suggestions on how to sharpen your Excel skills if they are rusty, and some particular Excel tools to prioritize learning.

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 episode, Per gives an overview of his firm's methodology and how they work with clients. One thing Per told me that surprised me is that he is getting a substantial number of leads from Quora. He's been answering questions on Quora, establishing himself as an expert there, and it is actually leading to business. You can learn more about Per's firm at https://www.sales4profit.com/

Are you thinking about transitioning to independent consulting? This episode provides eight steps you can take now to set yourself up for success when you officially launch your own practice.

Interviewing experts can be one of the most powerful sources of insight when learning about a company or a market. This short episode has 11 tips that I've developed to help get the deepest insights from these interactions.

Many of us stick with the 2-3 influence techniques that we are most comfortable with. Mastering the full range of 10 ethical influence techniques is a superpower. In this short episode I briefly describe each technique. My introduction to this range of techniques came during Initial Leadership Workshop at McKinsey, and I draw directly on a slim booklet that McKinsey provided called Interpersonal and Interactive Skills. That book isn't published publicly, but the author is Terry Bacon and he covers this material in detail in his book "Elements of Influence: The Art of Getting Others to Follow Your Lead."

Scheduling meetings over email is time consuming - I've spent more time scheduling a call than actually having the call. Last fall I found a solution: Calendly. In this short episode I share the basics of the tool. Check out the tool at: https://calendly.com/

Yogi Berra said: "If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there." I like to step back and reflect about once a year and write down all my goals. In this short episode I describe how I approach this exercise, suggest a few variations, and the benefits I've seen. Would love to hear your thoughts, and any questions you'd like answered on the show.

Chad Oakley is the CEO of Charles Aris, an executive search firm based in North Carolina. One of the firm's practice areas is Strategy & Corporate Development – and they've completed nearly 600 searches in that space. Charles Aris publishes an annual strategy consulting compensation study which is available free on their website. So Chad is one of the most knowledgeable people in the U.S. about the market demand for alums of McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and other top consulting firms. In this episode, Chad shares a perspective on how a stint of independent consulting on your resume can affect your job prospects if you plan to return to a full time role at some point. We also discuss, among other topics, resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and how to reach out to executive recruiters. You can learn more about Charles Aris by visiting the website, https://charlesaris.com/, and if you are open to new opportunities, you can send them your resume.

Our guest today is Umbrex member Kevin Nedd. Kevin is a McKinsey alum and independent consultant who focuses on running Project Management Offices, or PMOs. In our discussion, Kevin provides his perspective on when a company should set up a PMO, including examples of PMOs that Kevin has led the day to day work of running a PMO the tool kit used by a PMO, including templates and processes effective progress reviews PMO maturity levels We also discuss Kevin's service as a township committeeman and why he walks an hour every morning. You can reach out to Kevin directly at [email protected]

Our guest today is Umbrex member Ian Tidswell. Ian has a PhD in physics from Harvard. He did science for a few years but missed the human element and ended up as a management consultant at McKinsey. After McKinsey he worked at Vendavo, a software firm, and that is where he fell in love with pricing, which for Ian is the perfect mixture of the analytical and the human element. In this episode, Ian shares his perspective on pricing, including Why pricing is so important signs that a company has an opportunity to optimize pricing what good pricing looks like how to organize the pricing function and we walk through an example of pricing for a crop protection company. I enjoyed my conversation with Ian and I hope you find it helpful. You can follow up with Ian at [email protected]

Our guest today is Neil Booth. In our discussion, Neil shares how he became a deep expert in how to build a really well designed model – he followed what could be termed the Benjamin Franklin method. Neil then turned that skill into a career. Neil also shares some modeling best practices – such as splitting up your formulas – do one step at a time – cells are cheap. We also geek out on cell styles, how to define constants, and whether you should include macros in your model. Neil is currently working at the investment bank Houlihan Lokey where he established the firms' Financial Modeling as a Service group. His group offers corporate training in financial modeling best practices, and will also build the financial model for you. If you'd like to follow up with Neil you can reach him at [email protected].

Our guest today is Scott Skibell. I've heard from several people that video is the new thing, that video on LinkedIn gets much higher engagement, and that if you want to work on getting your message out, you need to learn how to do video. I took Scott Skibell's course, LinkedIn Video Marketing, and I thought it was great, and so asked Scott to be a guest on this show, to discuss video in an old-school audio format. What I really liked about Scott's course is his message: keep it simple, your videos are about creating connection, not perfection. That said, he provides some tips on how to up the level of professionalism, and shows how you can add titles, text, and B-roll to your videos, all from within the iMovie app on your phone. It isn't too expensive to get started. While all you truly need is your phone, it helps to buy a few accessories. In the show notes you'll find links to the accessories I bought, which include: Tripod for $17. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B074QV4MW7/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Tripod mount for $13 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B1GQ2T8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Softbox lighting kit for $70 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GR11GT/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Cloth backdrop for $83 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BQLHFMM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Rode smartLav+ microphone for $66 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EO4A7L0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I enjoyed my discussion with Scott and hope you find it valuable. To learn more, check out his course at: www.skillcasting.com

Our guest today is Tim DeRoche, a McKinsey alum and independent consultant who is also the author of The Ballad of Huck & Miguel, a novel published in February 2018 by Redtail Press. The Ballad of Huck and Miguel is a retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which Tim imagines that Huck is alive today and instead of traveling on the Mississippi with an escaped slave, Huck is living in Los Angeles and travels along the Los Angeles River with an undocumented immigrant. It is a fabulous novel with wonderfully inventive language and great fun to read. In this episode, Tim and I discuss how he came to write the novel, and how he combines this creative pursuit with his management consulting practice. Independent consulting provides the career flexibility to pursue a career as an artist in parallel, and Tim's experience is a great example of that. I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did.

Our guest today is Umbrex member Susan Drumm, a CEO Advisor and Leadership Coach with over 20 years of experience coaching entrepreneurs and executives. Susan got her start in consulting at BCG, and she is the only person I know who has graduated from both Harvard Law School and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Susan often facilitates off-site sessions for her clients, and in this episode she shares with me a set of best practices for making off-sites successful – including how to prepare, what a good agenda looks like, tips on facilitation, and how to ensure the benefits are captured. Later in the episode she shares useful tips for staying focused and organized. Susan believes that her professional career is a natural offshoot of her own interest in leadership and self-improvement, and says, "If you would read a book or attend a conference on the subject matter that is your profession, and you would do it without getting paid because you want to, because you're so interested, you're in the right field." You can find more about Susan's practice on her firm's website: meritageleadership.com

Sunny Bates is a legend and one of the master connectors of the 21st century. She is one of my heroes and it was really a privilege to have the chance to meet with her at her offices in Midtown Manhattan. Sunny is on the Board of Directors of Kickstarter, an Advisory Board Member at the MIT Media Lab, a Brain Trust Member for the TED Conferences, and an Advisory Board Member for the American Theatre Wing, which means she gets to vote for the winners of the Tony Awards. Sunny operates wherever executives, thinkers, artists, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, educators, philanthropists connect and collide around the globe. Her genius is developing networks of extraordinary people and connecting their ideas in surprising ways toward concrete outcomes. In our discussion, Sunny shared insights on what makes a great connection and how to nourish relationships. We also discussed her idea of an ideal day, routines, habits, books, and theater. You can learn more about her work on her firm's website, which is sunnybates.com

Our guest today is my good friend, Umbrex member Celine Teoh an independent strategy and marketing consultant in the Bay Area whose functional specialties include data-driven marketing strategy and execution, strategic planning and business planning. On this episode, we discuss steps firms can take to improve customer retention. We also discuss the benefits you can derive from journaling – in terms of productivity, creativity, happiness, and centeredness. Celine has been journaling actively for years, across several different styles, and I've been working to put her suggestions into practice.

Our guest today is a good friend of mine, Umbrex member Paul Millerd. Paul has experience at McKinsey and BCG as well as the Board & CEO Advisory Group at Russell Reynolds Associates, one of the top executive recruiting firms in the world. He currently has a wide portfolio of activities – he is a real Renaissance talent. He is currently an independent strategy consultant, a career coach, the host of a podcast, Boundless, an active writer who puts out great posts several times a week. He hosts Jeffersonian dinners, he is interested in the gift economy and the future of work, Paul has created a career transition playbook and other course materials including a story course. In this episode we have a wide ranging discussion covering just a few of Paul's interests – I encourage you to check out his website and sign up to his mailing list. Visit think-boundless.com

Our guest today is Umbrex member Whit Pidot, an independent consultant who was formerly a Partner in the Travel practice at McKinsey. His clients include the CEOs of some of the top travel companies in the world including airlines, rental cars, and hotels. Whit has been fascinated by the world of travel from an early age. As a hobby, he has been running a travel agency on the side since college. In today's episode, we first explore some of Whit's favorite travel hacks for business travelers, such as: For finding the best rates on rental cars, Whit likes Autoslash.com. For hotels, if you aren't going to book directly on the hotel brand's website, Whit's current favorite sites are Upside.com and Rocketmiles.com. For all travel properties, ask what the Triple A rate is: sometimes the AAA rate is better than the corporate rate. Whit once had an entire McKinsey team get AAA memberships because the AAA rate at the hotel they were staying at was better than the McKinsey rate. We discuss Whit's travel agency, and how being in the business himself with his own Sabre subscription has given him a pulse on the business that informs his consulting work. We also discuss Whit's consulting work, which has a strong focus on loyalty programs. I love hearing Whit's stories about the travel industry, and I hope you find this episode helpful.

Our guest today is Joachim Fischer, a mentor and good friend of mine who was an Expert in the Operations Practice at McKinsey when I got to know him a dozen years ago Joachim is the only McKinsey alum that I know who started his career as an apprentice cabinetmaker. As he explains on the show, the training he received as a cabinetmaker has been incredibly relevant to his career, probably more important than anything he learned in college. He still spends a lot of his free time building beautiful things with his hands, and that practical, craftsman knowledge informs his professional work driving improvement on the shop floor. Back in 2006, Joachim and I spent three days together on a quick operations diagnostic of maintenance workers doing A-checks on a 747 at John F. Kennedy airport, which has got to be one of the most fun things I did at the firm. Joachim started his independent consulting practice ten years ago, and after I started my own practice I've regularly called him for advice, and I'm really grateful for all the counsel he has given me over the years. On the show we discuss Joachim's three main areas of focus, including lean transformations, operational problem solving, and coaching and mentoring. Over ten years, about 95% of his business has come from just twelve clients, and he offers a powerful example of building deep relationships with clients that last for years. I always learn something when I talk to Joachim, and I hope you find this episode helpful. To learn more about Joachim and get in touch, visit the website of Fischer Advisors.

Our guest today is Tsavo Neal, who has thought hard about how consultants can generate more client leads with their website. Tsavo has written dozens and dozens of posts on this topic and you can find all his work on his website, tsavoneal.com, which is a valuable resource. He's got examples of best-practice consulting websites, dozens of specific ideas on how to raise your visibility, tips on how to convert website visitors into leads, and much more. Tsavo has many valuable insights on marketing professional services, and I hope you find the discussion valuable.

Our guest today is Aner Ravon, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Zirra, a technology company focused on market analysis, using big data and artificial intelligence. Aner and his co-founder recognized a real pain point for investors and anyone else doing research on smaller companies: it is very time intensive to search the universe of sources and pull together a basic set of facts. They thought, wouldn't it be nice if we could use artificial intelligence to scan public sources and pull together the basic information, so that analysts can spend their time on processing the information and synthesis. And that is just what they built. Zirra's main product is a company snapshot that is built by a combination of artificial intelligence and a human editor who provides quality control. The snapshots are created on demand and take about 24 hours or less to deliver. I've tried out the service myself and I've been very satisfied. The report you receive looks like it was created by a human. It draws on dozens of potential sources, such as LinkedIn for number of employees, Glassdoor for employee reviews, websites of the company and its competitors. All the sources the report relies on are listed with live links. The price of this company snapshot depends on how many you are going to purchase. If you are buying only a handful, the price starts at $200. If you are industrial scale, the price can get down to $100 each. The ideal target to research using Zirra has revenue in the $5 to $100 million range. For smaller companies, there probably isn't much public on the web for Zirra to scrape. And for larger companies you can probably find some Wikipedia article or analyst coverage to get you up to speed. The ideal time to use Zirra is right at the beginning of a project. If you've already been looking at a company for a couple of weeks, you will probably already know most of what Zirra will tell you. The biggest value is using Zirra to quickly get up to speed so starting on Day 2 of your project you're prepared to ask smarter questions as you pursue your research. You can get started with Zirra by visiting www.zirra.com, click on the Pricing page and submit an inquiry. Aner himself will read your request and make sure you are taken care of.

Our guest today is David Topus, who helps his clients turn reputation into revenue. I think that's a pretty great positioning, encapsulating what David does in four words. And that's what you'd expect from a professional who has been running a strategic sales messaging firm for over twenty-eight years. In the first half of our discussion, we cover personal branding, with a focus on how to enhance your LinkedIn profile. In the second half of the episode, we discuss David's most recent book, Talk to Strangers, which is a guidebook on how to initiate conversations with strangers and includes dozens of examples of how David and those whom he has coached have turned conversations with strangers into business opportunities. I'm a bit of an introvert, and normally the last thing I'd do is to strike up a conversation with a stranger. But after my talk with David, and reading his book, I said, OK, I'll test this out. Over a few days of skiing I went outside my own comfort zone and initiated conversations with strangers on the ski lift. Now, I never went so far as to actually ask for contact info – I was just taking some baby steps. But I did end up having over a dozen fascinating discussions. I met a woman who works as a ski instructor during the winter and during the spring and summer produces car commercials. Met the owner of a gas refinery, at attorney at Bank of America who works on credit derivatives, a woman in college who is studying to become a dentist and who plans to join the family's 110-year old dental practice – she was helping with bite wings when she was eight years old. I met a professional rock climber, a woman who runs a business that checks on Park City condos while the owners are out of town, and the sales manager for the Western U.S. for one of the two leading printing companies. I hope you find this discussion valuable, and I hope you'll test out David's suggestion and strike up a conversation with a stranger today. Visit David's website: http://www.topus.com/ David's book: https://smile.amazon.com/Talk-Strangers-Everyday-Encounters-Business/dp/111820347X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521748374&sr=8-1&keywords=david+topus

Our guest today is Jonah Gruda, a Tax Partner at the accounting firm Mazars USA, LLP. In this episode, we discuss a wide range of tax-related topics relevant to independent professionals. We cover differences between various structures including LLC, S-corp, and C-corp. Before our conversation, I thought LLC was the obvious choice for most independent professionals, but Jonah made me realize that there are many factors that go into the equation and you really want to sit down with a professional to figure out what structure is right for your situation. We discuss bookkeeping, how to hire a subcontractor, various deductions to keep in mind, and nexus issues you want to be aware of. We also discuss the implications of the new tax law: the short answer there is that it is going to take some time for the IRS to issue guidance to resolve some of the ambiguous or even contradictory aspects of the law. To get in touch with Jonah, you can visit www.mazarsusa.com. Here is a link for Jonah's contact info: http://mazarsusa.com/about-us/our-people/jonah-gruda/ I hope this episode answers some questions you may have about the tax side of running your own firm, and raises awareness of important points that maybe were not top of mind.

Our guest today is Rak Chugh, the Founder of Byte Academy and the Architect of edChain. We met in his office in Midtown Manhattan. Byte Academy provides training in python development, FinTech, Data Science, Quant Algorithms, and Blockchain. They have a full-time program with modules that last 14 weeks, and a part-time program designed for working professionals. Their students include recent college graduates – even some with Computer Science degrees – as well as mid-career professionals who want to switch careers or just broaden their skill set. They also deliver customized corporate training programs. My belief is that as independent professionals, we need to be continuously working to stay current and build our skills, so I was quite interested in hearing about what skills Rak sees as most in demand. Right now, blockchain is a blazing hot topic, and companies in all industries and scrambling to figure out the implications of blockchain technology for their business and how to seize those opportunities. You can read more at byteacademy.co In addition to running Byte Academy, Rak is also the architect of edChain, which is an open-sourced, decentralized library that allows the sharing of educational content across applications and organizations. In the second half of the episode, we discuss edChain. Rak explains that his goal with the technology is to lower the cost for educators to publish content while providing full attribution and facilitating monetization across platforms. A second goal is universal access, so that students can gain access to the best of breed courses in the world, wherever they are. A third goal is to unlock value by enabling content to stay connected to an educator. And if the content creator allows it, her content can be incorporated into the courses of other content creators, and the technology ensures that the first creator would continue to capture a fair portion of the revenue stream from products that incorporate her work. You can learn more about edChain at edChain.io I'll also mention the social handles @byteacademyco and @edchainio, and you can find them on Twitter and all the major social networks.