Journey of a Seasoned Consultant and Serial Entrepreneur with Michael Beddows

MECE 026 | Serial Entrepreneur

 

AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview with Michael Beddows, a seasoned consultant, serial entrepreneur, and founder of the IT Consulting Group & Enterprising Group.

“Good consultants deliver value, but great consultants teach their clients how to deliver value for themselves.”

Michael shares his career journey going in and out of consulting and serial entrepreneurship as the founder of multiple start-ups.  He discusses four types of consultants – contractors, advisors, freelancers, and coaches- and how he did work in data mining, customer relationship management, content management, knowledge management, and enterprise collaboration. Michael now advises clients on customer experience and user experience.

Christie and Michael discuss the importance for consultants to have coaches as part of their career support system to go from good to great.  Michael shares his new venture, Enterprising Group, a peer to peer learning network for enterprise practitioners on various topics.   The first component of the Enterprising Group is called the IT Consulting Group, which focuses on providing coaching services to teach professionals how to be an IT Consultant.

“How can you achieve your 5-year plan in the next 6 months?”

Michael provides additional advice for younger consultants

  • Do not be intimidated by older, more experienced professionals
  • Begin working on your long term career plans now instead of later
  • Keep an eye on the impacts of artificial intelligence
  • Don’t underestimate the value of taking notes

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Psychology of Decision Making with Michelle Florendo

MECE 025 | Decision Making

 

AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode with Michelle Florendo, a former consultant, a decisions analysis expert & career coach for Type A professionals.   A Stanford University graduate with a degree in decision engineering & analysis, Michelle shares her career journey in consulting and some of her lessons learned.

“What we were taught was to be successful but not to be happy.”

Michelle unpacks the concept of decision making for those that may be feeling stuck in their career or at a crossroads.

“The quality of your decision is separate and distinct from the quality of the outcome.”

She breaks down  the components of strategic decision making, providing simple yet actionable steps, best practices, and recommendations on how you can make decisions to live a happier, healthier life.

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Big Bets, Politics, and Digital Consulting with Naresh Vissa

 

AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview with Naresh Vissa, a digital marketing millennial consultant, CEO of Krish Media & Marketing, and a best-selling author of Fifty Shades of Marketing: Whip Your Business into Shape & Dominate Your Competition and   Podcastnomics: The Book of Podcasting to Make you Millions.

Naresh turned down an offer from a leading management consulting firm to join a startup company and several years later, launched his own company.  In this episode, Naresh and Christie touch on a myriad of topics including:

  • How taking a big risk in turning down the management consulting offer from a prestigious firm to join an unknown startup paid off
  • Naresh helped the Houston Rockets basketball management team select 2007-2008 draft picks in a remote internship through the use of digital and predictive analytics
  • Embracing and exploiting the opportunities digital and its disruptive effects will have across every industry
  • Forging into political consulting, the digitization of politics and how it impacted the 2016 U.S. elections, including the launch of Naresh’ newest book, Trumpbook: How Digital Liberals Silenced a Nation into Making America Hate Again

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Exploring Pathways to Break Into Consulting with Dustin

MECE 023 | Break Into Consulting

 

Crossroads episode with Dustin, a defense industry professional with less than 5 years of work experience, is seeking a pathway into management consulting.

Dustin and Christie discuss ways to reinvent and curate a personal brand that would be attractive to consulting firms, including how to identify experience gaps.

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Projecting a Winning Image with Celebrity Personal Stylist Elsa Isaac

MECE 022 | Winning Image

In this Quick Wins episode, we discuss the importance of your image in consulting with personal image stylist Elsa Isaac.   Whether you realize it or not, scientific studies have shown that you are being judged by how you dress, especially in the workplace, which could impact your credibility, promotions, project opportunities, and raises/bonuses.

Style image is an important component of your brand and because it is such a personal choice, it is not always openly discussed, making it sometimes the “elephant” in the room.   Great consultants take their personal image very seriously.

Benefits of dressing well and creating a personal signature style:

  • Being well dressed can help you build relationships
  • Enhances your credibility and create a lasting impression when working with clients
  • Image can boost your self-confidence and elevate your energy in a way that helps you performance

Elsa helps us understand why image really matters & dispels the myth of image.  “Image doesn’t have to be a vain thing” Elsa shares.  She dissects how image could impact performance, shares her definition of being well-dressed, and provides a framework for creating a signature style and shopping techniques.

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