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Being a consultant can feel like you're on an island by yourself, especially when you're on project with a client.  Having a community you can collaborate with can give you the tools to not just survive your next project but finish it with a masters grace.  

This is the reason Square-1 started the Consulting n' Coffee networking group - to build community for those of you who need it most.  Learn more about the free meet-up networking group at Consulting n' Coffee HERE.

For the past 13 years I’ve worked exclusively supporting Orange County, CA ecosystem of growing gigs (aka consultants, freelancers, etc).  It’s been a while ride to say the least with endless learning opportunities along the way!

During my time working with gigs and professionals alike I seem to find myself engaged in a variety of conversations having to do with professional guidance.  I’m certainly no career counselor but have witnessed enough over the years to have noticed more than a few trends with the path and decision making an average career takes.

One of the most consistent questions I get from people I’m interacting with is…
“How can I become a consultant [gig]?”

This question is interesting in of itself because the very statement overlooks a very important consideration: do we understand what the life of a full-time consultant is like?  And just as important, can I keep my full-time job and do consulting (aka freelancing, moonlighting, etc) on the side?  Lastly, why are you considering being a consultant in the first place? 

Before you start considering leaving your comfy desk job for the wild ride of becoming a career consultant spend time thinking about how you feel and perform with the following:

1. SALES – every consultant that is successful understands this #1 fact – if you are going to be a consultant working on your own, or even freelancing for that matter, you’ll need to be able to sell yourself, doing so consistently. 
2. NETWORKING – similar to sales, getting your name and service out there is paramount to customers finding out who you are and what you’re all about.  Networking is crucial because it helps builds trust among new relationships while building a wider circle of influence.
3. RIDING the ROLLER COASTER – The life of a consultant if full of ambiguity, ups and downs.  One minute you’re deployed doing well with more work than you can handle, then next you’ve worked yourself out of a job and are scrambling to find the next project.  It’s common for projects to not be fully scoped out as the customer expects the consultant to come in and tell them what to do.  This inevitably leads to a certain amount of ambiguity and risk taking which furthers the roller coaster experience.

Key Take Away: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.  (thanks Ice Cube for that insightful lyrical melody)  Ice Cube was on to something here – before you jump into [consulting] spend time to learn about the life of a consultant and the realities that come with it. 

Action Item: Rather than leaving your day job, start your consulting experience by picking up a couple small jobs you can do on the side in the evenings or weekends.  This will give you a chance to learn how to interact with clients, manage projects and your time.  Do 3-4 projects then reassess those experiences, what you learned, how you performed and things to change for the future.  Once you’ve done that you’ll have a better perspective of the life of a consultant and whether or not its right for you.
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​The biggest fallacy in business: if I work hard I’ll eventually get to where I want to be.

​While hard work and a myriad of other competency-based characteristics are certainly important in growing ones career, they play second fiddle to the #1 most important thing that drives our careers.

Recently I found myself engaged in a discussion I hear all too often:

“I’ve been trying to land a job doing (insert job title) but I’m not getting any responses from my job applications online.”

This was coupled with:

“I’m trying to break into (insert industry) but I have no direct industry experience and am having a hard time with people taking my capabilities serious without industry experience.”

​Both of these situations and the people involved are experiencing the same thing – they haven’t built or leaned on the appropriate people to help them with their career quest.

Enter in the #1 career advancement driver: RELATIONSHIPS

The people which make up your professional ecosystem are ultimately the ones who will make the difference in your career, not just hard work.

Back to our scenario above.  Applying to jobs on the internet, or the black hole of death as I commonly refer to it, does have its merits, yet by no means are online job boards the best place to land your dream job.  Online job boards are built to do one thing and one thing well – weed people like you out.  According to Robert Meier, President of Job Market Experts, only 2% of candidates applying for jobs online actually get an interview.

My personal experiences have shown that many people find the online job board process frustrating, cumbersome and verging on a galactic time suck.

If we can’t rely on online job boards, what options do we have?  Enter back to the stage our good ole friend ‘Relationships’, our #1 suitor for career advancement.

Your education, hard work and perhaps charm will only take you so far.  Relationships, the people above you, below you and your peers, are the ones that stand to make the biggest impact in your career.  When we are in school, soon to graduate and looking for our first opportunity, it’s people that give us the chance, not necessarily our stellar academic performance.  Our grades may assist in getting us to the conversation however the driver behind making the decision is someone who wants to give you a shot. 

Same can be said in corporate America.  I remember the first time I was going for a management promotion.  My boss at the time told me, “it’s not the people above you that will promote you, it’s your peers and people who report to you.”  That really struck home because if my boss were to ask my peers and employees what they thought of me and the response he got was less than stellar the likelihood that feedback would impact my forward progress in my career is likely to be substantial.
When you’re neck deep in your career often times it’s who you know, not what you know.  The ‘who you know’ opens doors, ‘what you know’ helps you facilitate the work at hand, not landing the job itself.

What many professionals miss out on is the importance of building lasting professional relationships.
Not every relationship has the capacity to turn into something that is special and will impact your career however if carefully practiced and made a priority it is certainly possible several of your professional relationships overtime can produce fruitful results for both parties involved.

Why is it then people don’t spend more time and energy in building their ecosystem of professional relationships?

Answer: because it isn’t easy nor is it quick in producing results.

Relationships take time and investment.  The best relationships have a ‘pay-it-forward’ mentality where both people see the bigger opportunity to help one another without quid pro quo.  If you’ve ever read the book ‘Go Giver’ by Bob Burg, it also happens to be my favorite all time book on life and business, you know that relationships and the power of doing for others often times sets the stage for incredible life experience to come.  This of course is true in business.

Relationships are hard to foster over long periods of time.  It takes trust, consistency and energy.  Yet when done genuinely relationships have the power to open doors that may not have been available without it.

​If you’re read this and feel like it’s time for you to step up and grow your ecosystem of professional relationships follow these steps to get on the glory road of professional relationships.
1. Understand what your WHY is for building relationships? (most importantly, what can you offer to others in the process?)
2. Identify 2-3 professionals within your circle of influence, take each of them out to coffee for the purpose of building a better, tighter and more collaborative relationship
3. Go to industry networking events
4. Rinse and repeat (a couple in-person meetings or events is only the start; build into your schedule 2-3 times a month where you make it a priority to meet with people)

It’s a vital part of any professionals’ career.  Networking!  The people we surround ourselves with, the relationships we build and the connections we make are the secret sauce to a long term successful career.  In fact, networking is one of the best things we can do to advance our careers.  If networking is so important why is it so many of us go about it all wrong?

​For the better part of the last six years I’ve had the great opportunity to be a part of a non-profit professionals association called DeviceAlliance.  It’s focus is simple - help people elevate their game professionally through impactful connections and education in Southern California.  Needless to say we do a lot of networking.  The time I’ve spent with this organization has opened my eyes to a lot of learning opportunities which I wouldn’t have been exposed to in a typical corporate setting. 

One of the biggest learning lessons has been why networking is so important.

Over time I began to also learn that so many of us, including myself, went about networking all wrong.
Networking professionally is a fine art, one that takes practice and consistency.  In order to be an effective networker we need to keep top of mind these two important considerations:

1. Timing
When we are in a time of need this is the exact wrong time to start a networking.  There seems to be a common misconception that networking should only be done when we’ve ‘hit the skids’ professionally.  We’ve lost our job, hate our boss or company for that matter and finally make the decision we need to get out in the world.  We’re going to give it the old college try, shake some hands and kiss some babies, to hopefully wrestle up a new opportunity and get ourselves out of the mess we’re in presently.
 
Sound familiar?
 
Professional networking is most effective when we do it proactively, not in the moment of need.  On more occasions than I can count I’ve heard people say, “I’m in transition so I’m networking to find my next gig.”  Often times these people go to one event and then stop networking altogether once they land themselves a new opportunity.  They’re failing to see the bigger picture which is networking is not something to do just when you need it in the moment.
 
Long term career impact comes from a steady stream of professional networking.  It becomes a constant part of your to-dos just like that morning cup of coffee you have every day.  Be proactive and be consistent in your approach.
 
2. Quid Pro Quo
I’ll do this if you give me that.  When our focus is to help ourselves people can smell us from a mile away.  It’s uncanny how quickly people pick up on this when they meet someone at a networking event.  It’s like they’re wearing cheap perfume bought from the Dollar Store.  As your unflattering fragrance permeates the air we know all too well that your intent for networking is entirely self-serving.  What’s worse is that people, without realizing, can build a reputation for being self-serving which produces counterproductive results.
 
The best approach to effective networking is to take the approach of ‘The Go-Giver’.  This book has impacted my life more so than any other book I’ve read.  It talks about how a genuine interest in helping others can lead to a life of fulfillment and prosperity.  Essentially, if we put other people’s interests before our own what we find is that through helping others we actually benefit in the long run.
 
Using this approach to networking helps build trust quickly which then leads to fostering new relationships and friendships.  Think about it this way – the more deposits we make into the professional lives of others the wealthier we’ll be in our own careers.
 
When it comes to professional networking timing and intent play a huge role in our success.  Now that we know how to be a successful networking the next thing we need to do is get involved.
 
Action Item: find an association, peer group or industry event you can get involved with.  You’ll be glad you did.  (If you are a part of the life sciences industry check here for events in Southern California)