Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional
Unleashed explores how to thrive as an independent professional, offering insights and strategies for freelancers, consultants, and solopreneurs. The podcast covers topics such as building a personal brand, finding clients, and managing work-life balance. Host Will Bachman interviews successful independent professionals to share their experiences and advice.
Episodes
656. Jean-Christophe Lanoix, Turboconsultant: Running a Solo Practice on AI Agents, end-to-end
Jean-Christophe Lanoix is the founder of Turboconsultant. He spent seventeen years at Hinicio, a strategy consultancy specialising in hydrogen — joining as an intern, rising to Associate Director and leaving in 2024, two years after the firm's exit. He now builds the system he wishes he had had. Introducing Turboconsultant An execution layer for solo consultants: a virtual team of AI agents spanni
655. Andreia Fernandes, Portfolio Careers: The future of work?
Show Notes: Andreia Fernandes, founder of the Portfolio Career Institute, explains that the term "portfolio career" was coined by Charles Handy in 1994, and it emphasizes working in different roles and contexts. Defining a Portfolio Career Andreia adds that portfolio careers involve using different skills in various contexts, such as a mathematician working in both a school and an insurance compa
654. Shankar Ananth, Micro-Casing: A Gamified Way to Practice Case Interviews
Show Notes: Shankar Ananth shares his background, mentioning his nine years of consulting experience, highlighting his experience at McKinsey and Bain, and his role in building the new app, Micro-Casing. Bridging the Gap in Case Interview Preparation Shankar explains the gap in case interview preparation methods, which led him to create Micro-Casing. He also mentions his eight years of experienc
653. Harsh Aggarwal, How AI Lets Solo Consultants Take On Bigger Work
Show Notes: Update since recording: Restack has since moved to one simple plan at $800 per seat per month, and now works across PowerPoint, Excel, and Word as a single agent. Harsh Aggarwal is the founder of Restack, an AI agent that works inside PowerPoint to turn a consulting or PE team's analysis into a client-ready deck. He was previously at Roland Berger and product lead at an $8B PE firm
652. Vaibhav Longani, Giani: Zero‑Defect, Source‑Backed Slides for Consultants
Vaibhav Longani introduces Giani.ai, the tool that helps consultants build PowerPoint decks one slide at a time. Vaibhav shares his background as a freelance consultant for seven years, working with leading consulting firms across the US, Middle East, and Europe. The Giani Design Vaibhav explains the design philosophy of Giani, focusing on knowledge synthesis and slide creation, rather than beauti
651. Chad Oakley, Current State of the Consulting Market in 2026
Show Notes: The conversation opens with an overview of the consulting market, mentioning the impact of interest rates, private equity, and AI on the industry. Chad shares his background, including his career at Deloitte Consulting, Bain, and Charles Aris, and the focus of his strategy recruiting practice. Chad explains the shift in Charles Aris's business from Fortune 500 strategy placements to pr
650. Gaurav Bhosle, Master the Consulting Journey: break-in, build & thrive
Show Notes: Gaurav Bhosle talks about his coaching practice, which is split 50/50 between helping people get hired by consulting firms and coaching current consultants. He shares his background as an ex-McKinsey consultant and his MBA from HEC Paris, noting the lack of preparation structures for consulting firms in 2006-2007. Breaking into Consulting Gaurav recounts how a former HEC alum helped hi
649. Lana Newishy, Founder of Hey Intake
Show Notes: Lana Newishy, founder of Hey Intake, explains that Hey Intake is one of several startups she has founded, which focuses on improving the client experience in the initial stages of a project. The Client Intake Process Lana highlights common issues in the client intake process, such as disorganized communication, missing information, and inefficient discovery calls. She emphasizes the l
648. Mathooshan Manoharan, From Individual Contributor to Manager: Lessons Learned at Umbrex
Show Notes: Mathooshan Manoharan talks about his time at Umbrex role and upcoming business school plans. Mathooshan shares his initial lack of business background and management skills when he joined Umbrex. Mathooshan explains his coffee chat strategy, including reaching out to professionals on LinkedIn and refining his message approach through A/B testing. The Coffee Chats Initiative Mathooshan
647. Mehdi Frikha, mzx.ai: Consulting-Grade AI-Generated PowerPoint Decks, in Minutes
Show Notes: Mehdi Frikha, founder at mzx.ai, explains that mzx.ai builds a crew of agents for all knowledge workers, including colleagues in the Umbrex network. Generating Brand Proposals from RFPs He introduces the first agent, Hector, which generates brand proposals from RFPs or client pitches, from as little as half a page of information. He explains that you input your output language, prefe
646. Lilly Minkove, Know Your KPIs: Become the CEO of Your Health
Show Notes: Lilly Minkove shares her background in brand and strategy consulting, focusing on retail, beauty, and wellness. She discusses her time at McKinsey, Tapestry, and Louis Vuitton, emphasizing her work in the luxury sector. Lilly explains her transition from the corporate world to running ArtLogica Group, a boutique consulting practice focused on customer insights. Introduction to HeraSphe
645. Andrew Persh, Founder of Oria, an AI PowerPoint Plug-in for Management Consulting
Show Notes: Andrew Persh, co-founder of Oria, an AI-based tool for creating PowerPoint slides demonstrates Oria. Andrew provides a brief history of his experience at McKinsey and the challenges he faced with existing AI tools for creating slides. He explains the idea behind Oria: to create complex slides that do not look like they were generated by AI. Oria Demonstration Andrew demonstrates Oria a
644. Zsigmond Fajth, Gridd: Smart Templates for the AI Era
Show Notes: Zsigmond Fajth is a McKinsey alum and co-founder of Gridd, a company that provides templates for the AI era, specifically for consultants. Zsigmond explains that Gridd is designed for independent consultants, leveraging his experience at McKinsey where he modernized client communication tools. Introducing Gridd Zsigmond mentions the creation of McKinsey's PowerPoint toolbar and the Pyr
643. Scarlett Jiang, COO at Vantage Global AI Shares 3 Live Client AI Use Cases
Show Notes: Scarlett Jiang from Vantage AI, an AI product and services firm based in London, provides a one-minute overview of Vantage AI, highlighting their focus on data foundations and AI transformation. Vantage AI helps companies consolidate data from various systems into a single source of truth. Scarlett mentions the firm's experience with hospitality franchise clients, such as Burger King,
642. Saurabh Gupta, Co-founder Binocs, AI Driven Commercial Due Diligence
Saurabh Gupta, founder of Binocs, and provides a brief background on his career at KPMG and Verizon. Saurabh explains that Binocs uses generative AI to accelerate commercial due diligence, industry analysis, and company analysis. The tool is designed to support private equity clients, particularly in analyzing private companies. Saurabh mentions that the focus of the demo will be on industry analy
641. Lauri Euren, Operating.app: An AI-powered platform to run a consulting firm from resource planning to month-end close
Show Notes: Lauri Euren, founder of Operating.app, explains that Operating is a tool for consulting firms or professional services that are growing and need help with staffing, internal resourcing, and month-end closes. The tool handles the workflow from time sheets to invoicing, supporting delivery across multiple projects. Operating.app Explained Lauri emphasizes that Operating is not a CRM sys
640. Raman Julka, The AI Platform Turning Raw Business Data into Consulting-Grade Insights in Under 10 Minutes
Show Notes: Raman Julka is the founder and CEO of ValueChaser AI Labs and a former McKinsey Partner, where he served clients on operations, procurement, and digital topics and was a leader in McKinsey's procurement analytics practice. ValueChaser.ai is an AI-powered strategy and diagnostic platform that transforms raw business data into consulting-grade insights in under 10 minutes — work that typ
639. Fred Brouillet, LearningFrontier.ai: Turning Books into AI Avatar Consultants
Show Notes: Learn Directly from Authors on LearningFrontier.ai Fred Brouillet, founder of LearningFrontier.ai, explains how the platform works and how it helps users. Fred describes the current version of Learning Frontier.ai as an AI tool that allows users to interact with AI clones or avatars of famous authors in the Lean space. Users can also access avatars of great thinkers from the past, incl
638. Nir Eyal, Author of Beyond Belief
Show Notes: Nir Eyal, author of Hooked and Indistractable, talks about his new book Beyond Belief. Nir explains the inspiration for writing the book and the book's purpose: to help people process information and put it into practice. Nir shares his motivation for writing the book, focusing on the psychology of motivation and the importance of perseverance and adaptability. He talks about the missi
637. Erin-Michael Gill, Founder of Genaesis on GovCon M&A
Show Notes: Erin-Michael Gill, founder of Genaesis, shares his upbringing in Middletown, Maryland, and his education at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he studied astronomy and physics. He describes working at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office while pursuing graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in applied physics, and later earning an MBA from MIT. Erin-Michael explains
636. Sarah Pomeranz, The Consultant's Guide to Working with Nonprofits
Show Notes: Sarah Pomeranz, founder of Consultants for Impact, provides an overview of the organization. Sarah explains that Consultants for Impact was born out of her own struggle as an early-career consultant at Accenture during the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt a dissonance between the problems she solved at work and broader societal issues, leading her to explore how her skill set could address
635. Richard Millington, Contrarian Consulting Advice: That Really Works
Show Notes: Richard Millington talks about his Substack and consulting practice, Fever B. Richard shares his journey of starting his consultancy practice in 2009 or 2010, focusing on building online communities. During the pandemic, Richard received many requests for advice on becoming a consultant, leading him to start his Substack in April 2023. Richard explains how his Substack has become a si
634. Angie Lu, Founder of CasewithAI, an AI-powered Case Interview Prep Platform.
Show Notes: Angie Lu highlights her background as a McKinsey alum and founder of CasewithAI. Angie explains that CasewithAI is an AI-powered platform designed to help with case interviews, providing practice cases and drills. The platform offers objective feedback to improve case performance. Angie mentions starting a YouTube channel during COVID-19, which led to a high demand for consulting tips
633.Tarek Matar, Introducing Scalar.AI
Show Notes Tarek Matar, founder of Scalar AI, explains the tool's purpose. He describes Scalar AI as an AI engine designed for consultants to build McKinsey level, end-to-end slides and presentations. The tool is differentiated from general AI tools like ChatGPT and GPT-3 by focusing on consulting-grade presentations. The founders include a research scientist from Google Brain and two other experi
632. Jason Baumgarten, How to Position Yourself for Board Roles
Show Notes: Jason Baumgarten is a partner at Spencer Stuart where he is also the global head and CEO of board practice. He assists businesses in all sectors to identify and evaluate CEOs who motivate senior leadership teams to reach their full potential. Additionally, he assists boards with CEO succession planning, director recruitment, and identifying future leaders. How to Join a For-profit Boa
631. Stacey Dietsch, Learning Journeys at McKinsey Academy
Show Notes: Stacey Dietsch talks about her 18-year tenure at McKinsey, focusing on human behavior and organizational performance. She highlights the importance of connecting investments in talent and culture to business performance and economic results. The Creation of McKinsey Academy Stacey emphasizes the role of learning in organizational change and the need for effective talent development. S
630. Remco Visser, Introducing Saga, Legal AI Innovation
Show Notes: Remco Visser talks about Saga, an AI product used by 150 law firms. Remco explains that Saga is a legal AI innovation company helping law firms and legal departments implement AI into their practice and daily workflows. AI Training and Integration The platform includes AI training and adoption sessions to help firms integrate AI into their daily practices. However, Remco highlights th
629. Isa D'Eila, Co-founder of Goalbridge
Show Notes: Isa D'Elia, co-founder of GoalBridge, an AI startup in stealth mode opens the conversation with a brief overview of her background, mentioning she was at Amazon for five years and her co-founder, Vedant, was a software engineer at a financial institution in India. The Origin Story of GoalBridge Isa met her business partner in Berkeley Haas Business school. Through many discussions, the
628. Bruno Strunz, How to Sell Value in Professional Services
Show Notes: Bruno Strunz, lawyer, keynote speaker, and author of How to Sell Value in the Legal Market, shares his background, including his career path as a lawyer, including making partner and working for Volkswagen, and his extensive experience working with various companies and firms in both the legal departments and sales departments. Business Development for Professional Services Firms Brun
627. Rod Neuenschwander, Author of From Crisis to Clarity and Co-founder of GIFT·OLOGY.
Show Notes: Rod Neuenschwander, author of From Crisis to Clarity and co-founder of GIFT·OLOGY, recounts his early days with John Ruhlin, their initial plan to buy companies, and their first turnaround experience. He also talks about the formation of Ruhlin Group and their transition to GIFT·OLOGY, focusing on corporate gifting. The Transition of Ruhlin Partners Rod talks about the development of R
626. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, Author of HBR's Powered by Projects: Leading Your Organization in the Transformation Age
Show Notes: Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, a leading expert on project management, talks about his upcoming HBR book. Antonio shares his career path, including his time at PwC, banking, and pharma, and his early realization of the importance of project management. Changing the Perception of Project Management He discusses his mission to change the perception of project management from a tactical to a s
625. Samora P. Z. Wolokolie, How to Hire a Consultant in Liberia
Show Notes: Samora Wolokolie talks about his dual roles as a CPA, CA and attorney in Monrovia, Liberia. Samora lists his credentials: chartered accountant, certified public accountant, certified forensic investigation professional, certified fraud examiner, certified tax practitioner, and lawyer, and details his academic background. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Liberia wh
624. David Nour, Author of Relationship Economics
Show Notes: David Nour, author of Relationship Economics, discusses the six phases of strategic relationships. He emphasizes intentionality and a portfolio approach to relationship investing. The six phases he uses throughout the episode are: mapping, relating, nurturing, sustaining, requesting, and capitalizing. Different Levels of Relationship Management Nour explains that when a challenge aris
623. Kartik Sundar, TeamSlide, A Free AI Tool for Generating Consulting-style PPT Slides
Show Notes: Kartik Sundar, founder of TeamSlide, a tool that uses AI to create PowerPoint slides, explains that TeamSlide is available through a web browser and a PowerPoint add-in, with users starting in the web browser and eventually using the add-in for more seamless access. A Demonstration of TeamSlide Kartik demonstrates how TeamSlide converts notes into consulting-style slides using AI for
622. Brian Potter, Author of The Origins of Efficiency
Show Notes: Brian Potter, author of The Origins of Efficiency, explains his core model of efficiency, which includes five levers: production method, increasing production rate, lowering input costs, removing steps, and reducing variability. The Work behind the Book Brian discusses his background in the construction industry and his initial struggles in writing the book, including difficulties in e
621. Vadim Rogovskiy, Founder of EVE
Introducing EVE This episode kicks off with an introduction to EVE, an AI operator that turns email inboxes into lead generation. Founder Vadim Rogovskiy explains that EVE helps small businesses organize their inboxes to find leads and follow-ups. EVE saves time by drafting personalized emails and flagging upsell or churn signals. He mentions the special pricing: $250 per month for an individual p
620. Christian Derosiers, Co-founder of Flashpoint.ai
Show Notes: Christian Derosier, co-founder of Flashpoint.ai, explains that it is an AI-native market research agency that offers tools and methods typically used by market research agencies but at a fraction of the time and cost. Flashpoint.ai includes surveys, media monitoring, expert calls, and proprietary tools, aiming to provide a comprehensive market research solution. The tool is designed to
619. Uday Turaga, What the AI Boom Means for Energy
Show Notes: Uday Turaga runs ADI Analytics, a boutique firm specializing in oil and gas, energy, and chemical industries. ADI Analytics was founded in 2009, has 20 employees, and operates globally. The firm focuses on the value chain across oil and gas, energy, and chemicals, including upstream exploration, midstream natural gas and LNG markets, downstream fuels, power utilities, and energy transi
618. David A. Fields, How AI is Impacting Consulting Hiring
Show Notes: David A. Fields talks about how AI is affecting consulting firms. David clarifies that his company's active client base is 30-50 firms, and they are being asked more frequently to help firms with an AI strategy. In terms of size, 20% of their business is solo consultants, while the rest are mostly businesses that range from $2 million to $100 million. Consulting Firms and AI Adoption
617. Sri Kaza, Unconvention: A Small Business Strategy Guide
Show Notes: Sri Kaza is a former McKinsey partner and the author of Unconvention, A Small Business Strategy Guide. Sri explains why he left McKinsey after nearly a decade of working with large corporations, to start working with small businesses. Around 12 years ago he decided to pursue entrepreneurship and independence. He worked for Tor Hagen at Viking Cruises, who was a former McKinsey partner,
616. Sandor Marton, Chronos Insights, a Gen AI Tool for Market Assessments
Show Notes: Sandor Marton, a McKinsey alum and co-founder of Chronos Insights introduces the AI research companion tool and explains its features. Sandor shares his background in growth strategy, commercial strategy, and due diligence work. He identifies the problems faced by small firms and independent practitioners who don't have large teams in place to assign people to do the massive amount of
615. Sid Masson, Co-Founder of Wokelo.ai, a Powerful Tool for Commercial Due Diligence
Show Notes: Sid Masson, co-founder and CEO of Wokelo.ai explains that Wokelo is an agentic platform for investment research and commercial due diligence, automating market research and desk research activities performed by consulting firms, investment banks, private equity analysts and so on. It offers private market research and allows the user to pass through hundreds and 1000s of data sets in
614. Dina David, Umbrex and Veritux Mastermind Groups
Show Notes: Will Bachman and Dina David, the facilitator for the Umbrex and Veritux Mastermind groups, discuss the program's basics. Mastermind groups are peer-structured programs for middle-seven to nine people, ideally eight, over a 10-month period. The program kicks off in September and wraps up in June, 2026. Applications are due August 15, and for those not yet members, independent consultant
613. Brian Stollery, AlphaSense's AI Market Intel for Consulting
Show Notes: Brian Stollery talks about AlphaSense, an information provider that independent consultants and boutique firms are using to gain an edge over those who rely on chat GPT or consumer LLM tools. AlphaSense is built for this kind of work, pulling in verified content such as industry reports, broker research filings, earnings calls, expert calls, news, and internal research and internal con
612. Wes Wheless, Intellectual Headshots for Solo Consultants
Wes Wheless helps solo consultants bottle their secret sauce. To do so, Wes offers two services: The NicheFinder Sprint and The IP Builder Sprint. He believes that consultants need to identify a niche or specialization and a unique approach to serving that niche, typically codified into intellectual property (IP). Each sprint is delivered one-on-one over 1-2 weeks. Niche Finder Explained NicheFin
611. Ilya Druzhnikov and Alex Lugosch, Using Cold Calls to Find Product-Market Fit
Show Notes: Alex Lugosch and Ilya Druzhnikov, founders of True PMF, explain that True PMF is a rapid prototyping and discovery service for startups and established companies who are releasing a new product or testing a new market and don't have the tools or six to eight months to try new experiments for product market fit. The firm uses cold calling tools to test out different ideas and pitches to
610. Vanessa Liu, Co-founder & CEO of Sugarwork
Show Notes: Vanessa Liu, co-founder and CEO of Sugarwork, talks about how this tool helps enterprises capture tacit knowledge by acting as a guide. Sugarwork helps companies capture specific information at scale and enables sharing, and guides companies to ask specific questions to elicit the required insights. How the Sugarwork Platform Works Vanessa explains how the dashboard works and how i
609. Ami Parekh, Chief Health Officer at Included Health
Show Notes: Ami Parekh discusses the business model and services of Included Health, a company that provides personalized healthcare. Included Health partners with self-insured employers and health plans to improve the way working Americans and their families receive healthcare. Included Health Services About a third of Fortune, 100 companies, and 10 million Americans have access to Included Hea
608. Sarah Dobson, Design of Brand for Entrepreneurs
Show Notes: Sarah Dobson, founder and creative director at Design of Brand, discusses their niche in helping founders of companies establish their brand identity. They offer a process that includes brand strategy, naming, and creating a visual identity system for launch or relaunch. She explains what a brand identity entails and provides examples of successful case studies. Discovering and Design
607. Chad Oakley, Current State of the Job Market for Consultants
Chad Oakley, CEO of Charles Aris, a second-generation executive search firm, discusses their 55-year history and their focus on four areas. Charles Aris specializes in strategy and go-to-market practice, which places individuals into corporations, private equity firms, and portfolio companies. Chad explains their areas of expertise and mentions that the firm has a team of over 100 and has comple
606. Joe O'Mahoney, Helping Boutique Consulting Firms Scale Up
Show Notes: Joe O'Mahoney is a part-time professor of consulting at Cardiff University and a leading authority on the growth and sale of boutiques and small consultancies. He has spent 20 years researching consultancies and interviewing hundreds of owners and senior leaders. He has developed a growth drivers model, which includes factors like leadership quality, client relationships, and market p
605. Chris Freeberg, Building deck.support, which brings MBB-tools to GSlides
Show Notes: Chris Freeberg is the co-founder of deck.support, a company that brings some of the best tools for PowerPoint into Google Slides. Chris and cofounder Dimitri Limberopoulos recognized the need for increased functionality in Google Slides as more companies were switching from PowerPoint to Google Slides but wanted a larger variety of tools and functionality for projects. deck.support was
604. Stephan Meier, Author of The Employee Advantage
Show Notes: Stephan Meier, a professor at Columbia Business School, is the author of the book "Employee Advantage." He teaches the business strategy core class, which is required for all MBA students. Stephan also teaches an elective on the future of work, focusing on how treating employees and labor interacts with technology and business strategy. Stephan conducts international trips to African c
603. Dori Yona, Founder of Simple Closure, How to Shut Down a Business
Show Notes: Dori Yona, founder of Simple Closure, explains the process of shutting down a company. The process is painful, manual, and bureaucratic, with an average time of nine to 12 months. It can cost companies thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. Many companies end up doing it incorrectly, leading to fines and penalties. The Multiple Moving Parts of a Business
602. Jacob Bank, Founder of Relay.app, No-code AI Agents
Show Notes Jacob Bank, founder and CEO of Relay.App, talks about the rise of AI agents, a type of chatbot that can work on your behalf in the background. He explains that AI agents can perform tasks similar to junior-level employees or interns. How AI Agents Work An example of an AI agent working on your blog post is Chat GPT, which can automatically draft a blog post about a new recipe. The agen
601. Nikola Lazarov, Co-Founder & CEO at Eilla AI
Nikola Lazarov is the co-founder and CEO of Eilla AI, a tool that provides AI workers for private market intelligence. Nikola is an AI engineer who started his career at a London-based hedge fund, Marble Bar Asset Management, where he worked as a quant. He realized the value of AI in structuring unstructured data for private companies and decided to start a company almost three years ago. What Eil
600. Jeff Sinclair, The History of the Operations Practice at McKinsey
Jeff Sinclair, a senior global leader at McKinsey, discusses the history of operations at the firm. The firm was initially known as a strategy firm and did some organization and marketing work. However, in the 1980s, clients began to draw more attention to operations, particularly in the automotive industry in Europe and North America. Operations became a strategic function for automotive OEMs and
599. Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Author of Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
Show Notes: Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments and founder of Ness Labs, shares her approach to understanding her own life and why she does things the way she does. Anne-Laure explains that self anthropology is a powerful tool for problem-solvers and doers to understand their own lives and prioritize their priorities. By embracing uncertainty and turning it into curiosity, individuals
598. Harsh Sahai, AI-powered Due Diligence
Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman interviews Harsh Sahai, CEO and co-founder of Bridgetown Research, a company that has built an AI tool and he talks about it in this episode. Harsh previously worked at McKinsey, where he focused on commercial due diligence. He also ran a machine learning lab at Amazon, where they researched sequential decision-making algorithms. AI Pricing A
597. Jim Ettamarna, A Framework for Commercial Excellence
Show Notes: Jim Ettamarna, a renowned expert in commercial excellence, defines it as incorporating commercial efficacy and efficiency. He believes that there are two key branches to drive down in this area, and it holds tremendous potential for clients and organizations. Jim's framework for commercial excellence is value creation, which involves understanding market demand, go-to- market models, m
596. Bart Sayer, Looking Beyond the Mirror: The Business and Science of Beauty.
Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman interviews Bart Sayer, an expert on the beauty industry. Bart worked for nine years at the Estée Lauder Companies, most recently as the International General Manager for one of its largest brands, Clinique, managing the $1B P&L. Previously, Bart was a partner at Booz & Company (now Strategy&, part of PwC), focused on strategy and commercial tr
595. Robert Garmaise, AI Marketplace Insights
Rob Garmaise, VP of AI research at Info-tech Research Group, is at the forefront of Info-tech research, helping clients identify best practices across their IT operations. They conduct extensive primary and secondary research, speaking with industry experts and other clients to understand the drivers of value and proof that a given practice leads to better results. AI Vendors, Verticals, and Resea
594. Marilyn Lin, SaaS Customer Support
Show Notes: Marilyn Lin, a customer support thought leader with over two decades of experience, discusses the importance of customer support in driving business success in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. She has led global Technical Support Teams that not only resolve issues but also foster customer loyalty, drive renewals, and inform product strategies. In today's competitive SaaS land
593. Scott Markman, Conducting a Brand Diagnostic
Show Notes: Scott Markman, founder of MonogramGroup, discusses his journey as an entrepreneur and the challenges he faces in the private equity sector. Scott kicks off the conversation with a quick introduction to his podcast, "Beer Stories for Private Equity," which focuses on issues related to the firms, companies they own, and consultants. About the Agency Scott founded the agency, MonogramGro
592. Matthew Hunt, Generating Clients through LinkedIn Thought Leadership
Show Notes: Matthew Hunt talks about Demandii, a firm that helps busy B2B executives create snackable content for LinkedIn from a single monthly interview. Matthew explains that most clients struggle with time, and they don't know how to create content or want to do it. Demandii offers a structured approach where they interview executives privately, turn their one-hour interview into 40 hours of c
591. River Tompkins, 17-year-old Independent Consultant
Show Notes: River Tompkins, a 17-year-old high school senior, started his own consulting practice in Austin, Texas, with five different clients. He provides services in the experimental education space, helping school owners implement systems and train teachers. His first clients were a group of schools in Florida, where he worked on implementing student government and learner-driven accountabilit
590. Jenelle Sheridan, How to Analyze a Retail Company
Jenelle Sheridan, a former VP and GM at Athleta, discusses how to analyze a retail company. Jenelle has 15 years of experience in retail and e-commerce, working as a consultant and operating executive. She has experience in pre-revenue startups and larger enterprise businesses, and recently launched her consulting and advisory practice, Far View Partners, which focuses on helping consumer and reta
589. Gerd Schenkel, How to Analyze a Telecommunications Company
Show Notes: Gerd Schenkel discusses his experience in creating new telco businesses and how to analyze a telecommunications company. Gerd has spent over 10 years as a consultant and 15 years as an executive in banking and telco. He aims to make a differentiation in consulting work by bringing together both worlds. Developing a Telco Company Gerd spent six years at Telstra, Australia's incumbent t
588. Daniel Bauer, Creating a Summer Entrepreneurship Program
Show Notes: Dan Bauer, a Harvard Business School graduate and independent consultant, talks about the NSLC "Business & Entrepreneurship" program , sponsored by Inc Magazine. The program offers a nine-day immersion in entrepreneurship for high school students aged 14 to 18 from around the world. The students are vetted on their GPAs, and the program takes place on six prestigious college campuses,
587. Jonathan Schwartz, How to Analyze a Manufacturing Company
Jonathan Schwartz discusses how to analyze a manufacturing company. Jonathan's background includes working in operations improvement, starting with manufacturing and then transitioning to banking and non-manufacturing roles. He has worked with private equity firms and has been a lean champion at a private equity firm. Sales and Operations Planning Process One of the first types of analysis Jonatha
586. Sanjar Iyer, How to Analyze a Telecommunications Company
Sanjay Iyer, a consultant for 25 years, discusses the evolution of telecommunications companies, focusing on network, infrastructure, quality, and coverage analysis. He explains that coverage is the first aspect of a network, determining the reach and number of homes it can deliver service to. The structure of networks has evolved over the years, with different types of networks for broadband, suc
585. Matt Sobieski, How to Analyze a Manufacturing Company
Matt Sobieski discusses the process of helping a manufacturing plant improve its performance by understanding the problem statement and 47 different analyzes. He suggests talking to the plant manager or head of operations to understand the biggest challenges, cost buckets, operational constraints, and capacity constraints. Diving into One of 47 Analyzes Matt explains more about the 47 analyzes, on
584. Paul Millerd, Good Work
Show Notes: Paul Millerd, author of The Pathless Path and Good Work talks about his books. He explains the behind-the-scenes process of writing about work and the relationship to it. He explains the origin story of The Pathless Path, and how falling love with a woman and with writing led to a complete change in his professional direction. Paul, who had worked in strategy consulting for many year
583. Christian Hyatt, Growing a Cybersecurity Firm
Show Notes: Christian Hyatt, Founder of Risk3Sixty, discusses the top three or four things that chief information security officers at sub-enterprise firms are most worried about right now. He explains that these concerns include the business environment, threat actors, cybersecurity regulation, nation-state actors like Russia and China, and phishing campaigns. He also highlights the unique bridg
582. Strategy Mavericks: Disrupting Traditional Approaches to Business Strategy
Show Notes: In this panel discussion, Lisa Carlin, director of Future Builders and author of the newsletter Turbocharge Weekly, and strategy execution specialist introduces the three panelists, who discuss the challenges of traditional strategy development, including volatility, uncertain business environments, and significant digital and AI disruption. The panelists, Will Bachman, Founder of Um
581. David A. Fields, Pursuing Cold Leads
Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman discusses cold outreach with David A. Fields. David advises that cold outreach is a last resort tactic and should not be included in the mix of marketing strategies. Instead, he suggests that consulting firms should focus on the five marketing musts to build their network. Why Cold Outreach is Inefficient David emphasizes that cold outreach is
580. Tish Baldez, Training Consultants
Tish Baldez, a leading expert in management consulting, has worked with small and mid-sized consultancies and 20,000 professionals worldwide. She shares the trajectory of her career from an independent consultant to a managing partner and leader at P31 Consulting LLC, a training program for professionals in management consulting, life science, IT consulting, finance, banking and more, and how the
579. Michael Rubenstein, Organizational Culture in Mergers and Acquisitions
In this episode of Unleashed, Michael Rubenstein discusses the importance of organizational culture in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Michael's expertise is broader than organizational culture; he offers a bird's eye view of an organization to help move it to the next phase in their evolution which includes: Strategy, M&A, Value Creation, People and Culture, etc. It's all about moving an organiz
578. Lisa Carlin, Growing a Membership Community
Lisa Carlin, founder of Future Builders Group, discusses her experience in consulting and the need for a more passive income stream. She has over 50 strategy execution projects and programs that focus on business strategy, project management, and change management. Lisa believes that achieving scale in these areas requires changing the focus of the business and execution messages to what is import
577. Jeremy Greenberg, AI-powered Audience Simulator
Show Notes: Jeremy Greenberg discusses the AI-powered audience simulator built by the Avenue Group. The tool allows users to provide a set of custom instructions for different audience segments, like research or interviews. It allows users to ask questions of qualitative and quantitative nature, and within minutes, results from simulated respondents are obtained. The tool mirrors the sentiment of
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