1. What am I most avoiding right now? 2. Why am I avoiding that thing? The first question guides me to that task which should probably be my top priority. And resistance tends to weaken once exposed to the daylight of that second question. H/T: Kristine Steinberg…

IndeCollective runs cohort-based programs for independent professionals who seek to take their practice to the next level. Three members of Umbrex whom I respect have gone through the program and recommended it to me. IndeCollective Founder Sam Lee described the program to me on Episode 460 of Unleashed. This link provides an overview of the program summarized in the three slides included above. This link has the calendar for the upcoming cohort, which starts March 24. Applications for that program close January 31. The standard ten-week…

1. Excellent example of a concise, deeply informative industry overview: “Why is the Nuclear Power Stagnant” by Austin Vernon. 2. After I shared a link to VesselFinder last week, Jeff Christiansen pointed me to LeoLab’s low earth orbit space debris tracker. So cool. 3. Great list of free / low cost design resources. 4. Just finished A Gentleman in Moscow, will definitely make my list of best books read in 2022. What should I read next?…

22 Business development ideas for 2022 1. Craft a memorable fishing line. Video. 2. Identify your core network. Podcast. 3. Make your LinkedIn profile a client magnet. Podcast and template. 4. Create a project list. Podcast and template and sample.. 5. Create a portfolio of sanitized sample work. Podcast. 6. Avoid common resume mistakes made by independent consultants. Podcast. 7. Start a newsletter. Podcast. 8. Start a podcast. Podcast. 9. Create the 5 types of content every consultant needs. Video. 10. Create a plan for the year. Podcast. 11. Craft winning proposals. Template. 12. Clarify your…

Subtraction can also be powerful, and is often overlooked. What’s one thing you will leave behind and do less of (or quit entirely) in 2022?…

Josh Spector (website) publishes one of my favorite newsletters, For The Interested (25,000 subscribers), which features ideas to help creators produce, promote, and profit from their creations. I’ve been reading every issue for over a year, so it was a lot of fun to have Josh as a guest on Episode 459 of Unleashed. This episode is particularly valuable for anyone who is thinking about creating some kind of regular content with the goal of business development. Key takeaway that shifted my…

  Thanks to Umbrex member Robyn Bolton for this tech tip: Krisp provides “awesome noise canceling for Zoom calls.  The free version only gives 240 minutes per week which is plenty for me but other may need more depending on their environs and whether or not they use headphones.”…

Loom is a great tool to quickly record a short video of both your screen and you talking on the webcam. To send a message to a colleague or client when you aren’t able to connect live on a Zoom or Teams meeting, or to document a process….

Particularly in an initial discussion with a potential client, it can be productive to flip the question: 1. Client: “Tell me about your relevant experience.” Flip the question: “To help me identify which experiences may be most relevant, do you mind if I first ask a few more questions about your project?” Comment: Clients aren’t actually that curious about our experience. They care about their problem. So try to spend time learning about their problem, not talking about your past. 2. Client: “Tell…

Here’s an exercise I found challenging. Picture yourself in ten years. Who you are then. What skills you have. Your relationships with friends and family. What you own. What you’ve accomplished and how you spend your time. Now, speaking as that person, that “you + 10 years,” talk about yourself (try doing it out loud): “I am…. “I’m friends with… “I own… “I know how to… “I’ve traveled to…. “I’ve built…. “My typical day involves… “Over the last ten years I have…….

Over the past few weeks, two consultants told me that DocuSigns they receive always go to their spam folder, and they couldn’t figure out how prevent that from happening. With most email providers, you can set a filter so that emails from a given sender always go to your inbox, never to spam. Or if you want to get emails from a given sender out of your inbox but you don’t want to unsubscribe, you can set a filter to…

On their LinkedIn profile, about 90% of the members of this community still have the default, greyish banner. This is a missed opportunity to communicate a visual and emotional message about you or your practice to potential clients. Here are a handful of ideas to serve as an inspiration for your profile’s banner image. It does take some thought and some effort to get a banner selected and perhaps designed, so the meta-message is: “I’m a person who takes the…