112
Ask, Listen, Act: Enhancing Your Client Experience
Quality is table stakes. The experience is the only differentiator you have left.
The archive
All 99 episodes
Conversations recorded between June 2020 and September 2023 with professionals across accounting, law, private equity, wealth management and consulting.
Business Development as Craft 30Deal Sourcing & Origination 6Networking & Relationship Capital 23Personal Brand & Thought Leadership 14Authenticity & Self-Knowledge 12Mental Health & Burnout 7Habits & Personal Systems 15Leadership & Management 19Talent, Hiring & Retention 32Diversity, Inclusion & Access 23Firm Strategy & Economics 17Pricing & Business Models 19M&A, Exits & Transitions 7Career Transitions & Risk 6Learning & Growth Mindset 16Client Experience & Trust 11
2023
111
Disconnect to Connect: Transforming Your Workplace and Your Life
'I don't have time for my people' is self-deception, not a schedule problem.
110
Strategic Growth for Professional Services Firms
Growth is a leadership function; one client at a time is not strategy.
109
The Power of Professional Empathy
You cannot indoctrinate accomplished adults; skill only moves through demonstrated value exchange.
108
The Nexus of Creativity and Entrepreneurship
Every firm owner is already a creative, whether they claim the label or not.
107
The Value of Thought Leadership
Thought leadership is information they cannot get elsewhere. Everything else is a sales piece.
106
Successful Cross-Selling in Professional Services Firms
Cross-selling fails on emotion, not information: experts will not risk sounding ignorant.
105
Strategic Marketing for Private Equity and Deal Advisors
In deal marketing, who is in market beats how well you word it.
104
The Power of Brand Recognition
Full service is a cop-out that leaves you competing on price.
103
Giving Emotions a Seat at the Table
Time does not kill deals. Unprocessed emotion does.
102
Empowering CPAs to Build and Scale Profitable Practices
The practitioner-owner model is what breaks CPA firms.
101
Essential Skills for Business Development Success
Business development is a team sport, because selling a colleague never sounds like bragging.
100
Finding Passion in the Work You Do
Burnout is uncontrolled stress; the fix is usually your role, not your employer.
2022
099
Resilience Breeds Success
A setback is unforeseen; a disappointment is an expectation you already tasted.
098
Building Credibility to Facilitate Authentic Connections
Your best producers will never feed a central CRM. Staff a human instead.
097
Ask Questions to Uncover Opportunity
You have not earned the right to pitch until the buyer names the problem.
096
The Entrepreneur's Mindset
Going independent buys you autonomy, not income. The old salary took four years.
095
Leading Through Challenging Situations
Crisis leadership is projecting calm you do not feel while the facts keep changing.
094
Embrace Uncertainty & Take Risks
You lead best in the rooms where you know the least.
Rethink Your Approach to Work
Capping busy season at 50 hours raised chargeable hours, not lowered them.
Increase Revenue with Client Advisory Services (CAS)
Generalist pricing is a ceiling; CAS pays only if you pick a niche.
Drive Innovation with Curiosity & Discipline
Accountability is what frees people to explore, not what constrains them.
Earn Confidence and Play The Long Game
Confidence is earned, arrogance is given, and victimhood is what blocks the earning.
Transform Your Leadership and Ignite Your Team
Underperformance is a management failure before it is a personnel defect.
Your Practice is an Entrepreneurial Endeavor
Autonomy is the payoff, and one hour a day is the price.
Firm Leaders, What's on Your List?
The accounting pyramid stopped working, so capacity is now the managing partner's job.
People Are the Most Important Asset
In professional services the people are the product, so churn cancels the results.
How to Be Ahead of the Curve
In an apprenticeship business, being technically good is the entry fee, not the edge.
Subscription Model for Professionals
Professional firms sell knowledge, not service, so the hour measures the wrong thing.
Cracking the Code to M&A Growth
Fit and expectations kill more small firm deals than price ever does.
The Human Capital Challenges of M&A
M&A deals fail on grief nobody priced into the model.
The Future of How Clients Buy
Two thirds of referrals get Googled before anyone picks up the phone.
Consistently Invest in Growth
The best time to invest in yourself is the worst week of your career.
Be Curious and Invest in Yourself
If the world's best golfers keep coaches, going uncoached is a choice.
Make an Impact and Build a Scalable Life
Judge a career on the slope of its ten-year curve, not its starting point.
Hire Smart People and Get Out of The Way
Hire people who want the story, then set the goal line and leave.
Human Connection Catalyst
Networking pays only if you stop keeping score, because the return arrives sideways.
Create Value Through Content
Publish for the reps, not the downloads. The skill is the return.
Taking Control of Your Personal Brand
You do not own your brand. Your audience does.
Make Time For Growth
Work like a lion, not a cow: sprint, then think.
Always Look for Opportunities to Learn and Grow
If only the sale counts as a win, you forfeit the data.
Diversity Equals Alpha
Diversity is not the right thing to do; it is where alpha comes from.
Bring Action and Drive Diversity
Committees curate calendars. Only people with hiring power change who gets hired.
Everyone’s Path is Different
Traditional hiring screens filter out the exact drive they should be hunting for.
Creating an Inclusive Culture
For a closeted student, a firm's website is the only signal available.
Create Opportunities for Nontraditional Talent
Nobody applies for a career they have never heard of.
Demystifying Diversity
Homogeneous firms still win. They are just running an unoptimized team.
2021
Do What You Are Good At and Take Risks
Staying in a role that does not fit you is the unpriced risk.
Standing Out from the Crowd
When the service is identical everywhere, the only differentiator left is you.
The Art & Science of Business Development
In-person sourcing converts five to ten times better per interaction.
Be Resourceful & Build Your Network
Your competitors are the best network you have. They solve your problems daily.
Use Your Platform to Add Value To Others
Resumes get collected and ignored. Arrive with an audience to give away.
Stoicism and Private Equity
Private equity credits itself for the wins and blames the market for the losses.
Help Your Clients Solve Their "Unknown Unknowns"
Most self-described trusted advisors sell one thing, so they recommend that one thing.
Building Value-Added Connections In Today's World
The first meeting belongs on video. Save the table for the second one.
Professional Services Concierge
Private equity diligences its executives hard and picks its providers on a rumor.
Mindsets That Drive Success in Business Development
Follow-up is where almost everyone fails, which is why doing it wins.
Thinking Bigger Than Yourself
Diversity is the half firms get right. Inclusion is the half they skip.
Leading Your Team in Professional Services
Build the team before you touch the work, then back deadlines out from delivery.
No One Size Fits All Approach
The 5am workout template fails plenty of high achievers. Invert it.
Leading through Change
Serving a stakeholder and pleasing one are different jobs. Pick serving.
Adapting to Change
When events change, your goals should not. Only your response is negotiable.
Leveraging Systems & Automations
A broker who hasn't automated buyer intake cannot actually be a fiduciary.
Personal Balanced Scorecard
A scorecard that comes out all green means you set the bar too low.
Authentic Leadership
Deliverables get fifteen drafts. Leadership gets one take, and you will be visibly wrong.
Disruptive Leadership
Redefining what business you are actually in is the disruptive act.
An Open Discussion on Diversity
Diversity in middle-market finance is an access problem before it is a hiring problem.
Authenticity & Diversity: Part 2
You cannot extend more grace to others than you extend to yourself.
Authenticity & Diversity: Part 1
The first meeting a Black advisor loses is the one in his own head.
Shift Your Mindset and Embrace Your Authentic Self
You cannot build a career and manage how it looks at the same time.
Don't Let Fear Get in the Way of an Authentic You
Fear, not circumstance, is what keeps you from showing up as yourself.
Find Passion to Fuel Authenticity
Passion is not found in a flash. It accumulates by accident and repetition.
Authenticity & Business Development
Authenticity is consistency of behavior, not a license to say anything.
Set the Right Expectations with Clients & Prospects
Every missed expectation, however small, withdraws trust from the account.
Accidentally Landing in a Business Development Role
Sourcing is won by consistent contact over years, not by being everyone's first call.
Defining Business Development
Business development is an internal influence job as much as an external one.
Your Personal Brand Gap Analysis
Your personal brand is the sum of what people already believe about you.
Long-Term Business Development Success
Business development is won on execution, and the results arrive years late.
Growth Habits for Success
Growth is a muscle. Schedule it or it does not develop.
Staying Focused on Growth
Growth that is not on your calendar and owed to someone else will not happen.
Continually Seek Growth Opportunities
Every deal that goes wrong is tuition you have already paid.
Mindset: the Key to Professional Growth
Soft-skill growth cannot be measured, so your why has to be the yardstick.
2020
Investing in People
Eighty people who will run through a wall beat five thousand business cards.
The Power of Resiliency
Resilience is not optimism. The optimists were the first ones to break.
The Art of Managing Up, Down & Sideways
Your peers, not your bosses, are the highest-return relationships in your career.
Personal and Professional Benefits of Networking
Business development is the least interesting reason to build a network.
The Power of a Positive Mindset
A positive mindset is a habit you schedule, not a temperament you have.
Achieving Authenticity
Authenticity is capital, and it is built on a whiteboard, not discovered.
Leveraging Social Media to Enact Positive Change
Document what you lived through; nobody can call you out on your own story.
Importance of Mental Health as a Professional
Leaving the profession is a false choice. Reshape the job instead.
Human Bandwidth: Expanding Your Life
Time management is a fiction. Cut the noise and fix the bad trades.
Relationships & Responsiveness Matter
Responsiveness is the cheapest differentiator in private equity, and most firms skip it.
Investing in Your Growth & Development
Business development is problem solving, so buy leadership training instead of sales training.
Getting Comfortable in Uncomfortable Situations
The room where you do not belong is the room that grows you.
Leadership is a Behavior, Not a Title
Finishing your team's work feels like leadership. It is an accidental diminisher.
Building Your Internal & External Network
For a firm specialist, the internal network is the revenue engine.
Keeping Your Relationship Equity in the Black
A fast, honest no builds more relationship equity than a hundred more calls.
Intentionality and a Positive Mental Attitude
Your response to the event, not the event, decides the outcome.
Building Connections & Taking Ownership
Networking is a team sport played for twenty years out, not today.