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TL;DR: I’m launching a new offering where I build a custom set of advisory sessions for folks in the very early days (think their first 100k) of building their Data & AI consultancy to help them define the foundations of their shops and how they should grow. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown below!
If you’re a fan of the newsletter, do me a huge favor and go support the announcement for that new offering on Linkedin as well! It helps get the word out to more people!
Listen up, class! I have a big announcement to make: I’m launching a new offering!!!
During my entire time building Superposition, my focus has been advising Data & AI consultancies that are scaling but have already found early success (so typically between $200K-3M in revenue), and that’s always felt a little incomplete.
This is mainly because the part of building a consultancy that feels like a slog for most people is actually the beginning, not just the part where you’re growing and hit your first big existential crisis.
So after months of working on it, I’m soooo excited to announce Consulting 101, a series of four weekly 1:1 advisory sessions where you and I cover the basics of building your Data & AI consultancy:
Developing your service offerings (AKA what you sell as a technical expert)
Understanding your positioning and ideal customer (AKA who you sell to and why they buy from you vs the million other Data & AI consultants out there)
Defining your Pricing Model (AKA how to stop billing hours and start pricing projects, outcomes, and value)
Building a sustainable GTM strategy for your niche (AKA where you need to show up for your clients to notice your Data/AI chops, and how to capture them)
The best part is that none of these are cookie-cutter prerecorded courses you do on your own time. They’re unique advisory sessions I build around YOU.
In particular, I didn’t want to force-feed those 4 topics to you if you were already past some of them, or if they don’t fit what you need.
So the approach actually goes like this: We start with a 90-minute “therapy workshop” to define what you actually want from your consultancy, then tailor or tweak the topics above to your priorities, your industry, background, and the reality of your life and work.
And then we meet once a week for 2 hours to build your consultancy together.
Easy peasy.
If you’re sitting there wondering if this is for you, here’s how you know:
Are you feeling stuck in a well-paying, fancy job that’s ok enough but keeps you from chasing your lifelong dream of starting your very own consulting shop? (Don’t lie, I know this is what you’ve wanted since you were a child)
Are you in your consultancy’s first $100K in revenue, but struggling to navigate the million decisions you have to make to build momentum?
Do you have investors backing you to grow your consultancy fast, but haven’t made real revenue yet, so you don’t want to burn through your runway figuring out your pricing, positioning, and GTM strategy the good ol’ fashioned way (AKA repeatedly smashing your head into a brick wall)
Do you have an idea of what you want to build as a Data or AI nerd, but no concept of how to get there because you don’t come from a consulting background?
Then it’s time for you to get ready for school!
If you want to learn more about what this might look like for you (or you know someone who might benefit), reply to this email or book a time here, because class is officially in session!
How do you stop the panic when it’s time to finally expand your team?
Register here to join us this Thursday!
One of the biggest milestones you hit as a consultancy founder is when it’s finally time to expand your full-time team beyond just yourself. In the early days, you can supplement with contractors, but there comes a point in the life of every consulting shop where there’s no getting around it: you need to bring new team members in to succeed.
The problem is that hiring as a consultancy comes with a whole set of obvious challenges:
How do you change the pricing of your work?
What do you do if projects run dry?
How should you set standards to make sure your team is running properly?
And most importantly, what should you look for in the people you hire in the first place?
All these questions are enough to cause a major moment of real panic for most people.
Want to learn what you should do if you reach this point?
Then you should join Hunter Muse (the founder of Midwest Data) and me this upcoming Thursday to find out the answer, because we’ll be going LIVE to talk about how I helped him and his team get past that problem, all while we build a LEGO spider together!
Make sure to register for our livestream this upcoming Thursday here, share it with anyone you know that may be stuck in this situation, and bring all your biggest questions about how to hire as a Data & AI consultancy!
Why do Big 4 consultancies succeed? Here’s a recap:
If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I think 97.3% of takes about Big 4 consultancies on the internet are bullsh*t (especially these days).
Most of the nonsense I read on the current state of those companies sounds like it’s coming from someone who either has a grudge against them or has no idea what it’s like to actually work at one, let alone to buy from them.
Two months ago, Igor Bratslaver pointed out over a few beers that I should do something about that after I explained to him what it’s really like behind the curtain, since I spent a longggg time working in that world myself.
So for the past 8 weeks, I’ve been writing about the actual reasons Big 4 consultancies succeed both here and on LinkedIn, and how we boutique consultancies should think about our work in comparison.
These articles have created so many interesting conversations about the consulting industry as a whole and where it sits today, but overall it’s been a genuine labor of love to create them. So if you’re curious to learn the 8 reasons why Big 4 consultancies have (and will continue) to succeed, check these out:
How the Big 4 business model really works: https://lnkd.in/gRdSeVpt
Why huge clients pay them 9 figures for a project: https://lnkd.in/gn4T_j6e
Whether all Big 4 consultants are a**holes: https://lnkd.in/gekzGYXR
Why liability is the reason they beat small shops: https://lnkd.in/gdN_jYsf
Why I think junior consultants are an endangered species: https://lnkd.in/gruf-Fvp
How they deliver complex enterprise projects at scale: https://lnkd.in/gPegNrvc
The dirty secrets around burnout and growing at these shops: https://lnkd.in/gtduT9aH
Why the end of ZIRP is the actual reason they're struggling: https://lnkd.in/gB-6q9m4
Let me know what you think! If you like any in particular, please make sure to like the post, and if you don’t already, make sure to connect with me on Linkedin so you can get more insights like these on a daily basis!
The Meme Team: Nothing’s Final Until the Contract’s Signed
Since we’re on the topic of the early days of building your consulting shop, we need to have a really serious conversation about something.
This came up like 4 times last week as I launched the offering before announcing it here, so you’re gonna get a truth bomb every seasoned consultant has learned the hard way.
If you're super excited because you got momentum with your pipeline in the early days of your shop, but no one's actually signed on the dotted line yet, this is you:
I hate to break it to you
That’s not to say anything of them actually paying you. Pipeline is nice, actually getting paid is nicer.
You can’t pipeline, friend. Get those contracts signed, then celebrate.
Get in Touch!
If you’ve enjoyed the topics I talked about today and want to learn more about my work - let’s chat!
I specialize in helping founders of boutique Data & AI consultancies of all shapes and sizes overcome existential problems in their growth.
So if you’re finding yourself stuck as your shop scales, I’m here to help!
Want to learn about my new consulting 101 offering? Book a time to chat here!
Want to talk about a problem internal to your company? Sign up for a free therapy session with me!
Want help to expand, ideate, and scope Data & AI projects with your clients? Sign up for a demo workshop!
And if you want more details, check out my:
Website (where you’ll find a lot more details about my work and how it comes together)
LinkedIn Page (where I post every day with many of the same lessons shared here)
YouTube (for deep dives, tutorials, and fun stories from my work with clients)
Otherwise, thank you so much for reading, and see you next week!
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