Will Bachman 00:02
Today, one tip for executives who think that they might want to go into consulting in a few years, but are happy in your jobs right now. Hey, welcome to Unleashed the show that explores how to thrive as an independent professional. Unleashed is a production of Umbrex, the world’s first global community connecting top tier independent professionals with one another, and I’m your host, Will Bachman. I was recently chatting with a friend who is a vice president of data analytics, who told me that he enjoys his job, but thinks he might want to go back to independent consulting in a few years. My suggestion to him was, use the opportunity now, to build relationships with people in similar roles at other companies. Certainly, there may be a few companies that are competitors, where you wouldn’t want to open up very much. But companies in just about every industry have some executive in charge of analytics. And for a vice president at a well known firm, it’s a pretty easy request, to reach out to another vice president with a connection request on LinkedIn to say, Hey, we’re both in similar roles would love to connect for a short call and get your advice on XYZ, fill it in, fill in the blank, send out 20 of these requests per week. And you’ll get maybe two conversations scheduled each week. And you know, another four or five or six or 10 will accept your request. So that whole effort could take perhaps two hours per week. And over the course of two years to get to per week. That’s 200 vice presidents of data analytics that you’ve spoken with and connected to, whose emails that you have, whose phone numbers that you have, and who think of you as appear. Even better, get involved in the industry association, the membership committee is probably happy to volunteer help invite people to their next conference. And it isn’t as if you’re stealing time from your employer, because you’re probably getting some great ideas from connecting with peers, and maybe even, you know, getting some help on recruiting talent. Maybe they know someone who’s looking for a role. When you are ready to transition and set up your independent consulting practice, you know, have a client list that you can reach out to executives you’ve spoken to, who respect you as someone who’s been in their shoes and understands their role. And of course, the same strategy works for any function. It’s easy to focus only internally when you’re working within a corporation and you have a full time job. The benefits accrue when you reach out to build relationships outside the firm. Have you been successful at building relationships outside your firm? I’d love to hear about what you’ve done and the impact it’s had on your career. You can email me at unleashed@umbrex.com. And you can ask a question or sign up for the weekly Unleashed email or download the transcript of any past episode at ask unleashed.com Thanks for listening