Tag Archive for: leadership

Christopher Kolenda
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In an AI-informed company, the one who knows Why will replace the ones who know How. Here are 5 things you need to know.

Chris Kolenda: In an AI-informed company, the one who knows Why will replace the ones who know How. Here are 5 Things you need to know.

Have you experimented with AI chatbots like ChatGPT? If you are like me, you probably were awed by their ability to crank out information, produce analyses, and generate content. After further use, you likely perceived some implicit biases, basic errors, and odd phrases. 

AI isn’t perfect, but it’s here to stay. The question for leaders is how to make the most of AI’s extraordinary capacity and limit the downside while inspiring people to contribute their best.

Here are five ways the best leaders will adapt to AI:

  1. Why Leaders trump How Leaders. To date, subject-matter-expert leaders, what I call How Leaders, dominate most companies. How Leaders have the plans and the expert knowledge to solve problems and direct people what to do. The downside is the dependency they create as employees wait to be told what to do and how to do it.

AI makes How Leaders less relevant, because anyone can tap into generative models for expert answers on any technical skill. Need code for a new program? No problem for AI. Need a manufacturing design? Presto! You get in seconds what might take weeks for an expert to produce. 

Why Leaders, on the other hand, provide the questions and guidance that bring out the best in their employees – including their artificial intelligence teammates. Why Leaders become more critical to your organization because of their ability to tap into expertise and direct it toward your company’s common good. 

  1. Strengthening personal interactions. Remote work, powered by AI, makes face-to-face contact more rare and important. AI’s ability to produce deep fakes (AI can replicate your voice in three seconds) can undermine trust between you and your employees. Was I talking to a real person or AI? AI can handle data, my Chatbot writes, but it cannot establish trust. 

The most effective leaders make every face-to-face interaction count to build trust and strengthen relationships. Gone are the days when you had so many interactions that a few bad ones got less attention. Now, the stakes for each interaction are higher. 

Bring people together for quality personal interactions in extraordinary venues and you will reap the benefits of high trust and increase the capacity of their subordinate leaders to inspire the best contributions of their human and AI employees.

  1. Fighting Bigotry and Unfairness. AI can expose as well as perpetuate biases and unfairness. My Chatbot writes: According to a 2021 report by the Economic Policy Institute, some companies with significant pay disparities between the CEO and average workers included: 

Employees will increasingly see when people are promoted or punished based on their chromosomes, and when CEOs lavish pay on themselves and do little or nothing to support their employees’ livelihoods and professional futures. 

The best leaders will exemplify their company’s standards and hire only those likely to buy-in; the hypocrites are at higher risk of exposure and damaging your company. 

  1. Reducing surveillance anxiety. Weak leaders and autocrats will use AI as a surveillance tool to monitor employee compliance. As my Chatbot notes, When employees feel watched, they watch their backs—not their work. The AI-as-Big-Brother kills morale and innovation.

The most effective leaders will use AI to improve future performance. For example, AI can identify skill gaps and address them, offer advice, create systems for setting up your employees for success, and suggest the most productive career pathways. 

  1. Enhancing decision-making. AI can process data, my chatbot tells me, but can’t understand its impact on people. As I’ve found in my time with ChatGPT, the bot is only as good as the guidance I give it. Even the most thoughtful prompts get, at best, a 70 percent solution.

I appreciate the time I save moving from a 50 or 70 percent solution to 80 percent, and not having to start from scratch. At the same time, it’s the critical thinking skills that allow me to provide the quality guidance the chatbot needs to crank out meaningful answers. 

The best leaders will develop their subordinates’ critical thinking skills so they can bring out the best in their human and AI teammates. You’ll get better outputs from them and you’ll make better decisions as a result.

What ways do you expect AI to affect your leadership? I would love to hear about it! Email me and let me know. 

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Christopher Kolenda

21 Days until Expert Consulting Mastery Begins: Price Goes Up Next Week

Chris Kolenda: 21 Days until Expert Consulting Mastery Begins

Would you like a 10x return? One mid-size client pays for your investment ten times over.

When you participate in this program, you will scale your business in ways you never imagined because you become someone new – an expert consultant who is significantly better at being an expert consultant.

I don’t mean a little better. 

You become significantly better because you approach business development with confidence. 

You let go of the low-fee, high-maintenance clients that consume your time and energy. 

You attract high-fee, highly engaged clients, who respect and value your time and energy. It’s like deep sea fishing where the marlins are biting.  These clients are a joy to work with and happily pay your fee because they recognize the value you provide them.

Let’s contrast the significant differences between wrong-fit and right-fit clients, and how making this one change can help make your business more meaningful, joyful, and profitable.

For example, if you charge hourly rates for wrong-fit clients, you are most likely:

  • In a lower-fee race to the bottom with people who provide a fraction of your value;
  • Working long hours with high-maintenance clients to gain the income you want, which robs you of time for other priorities;
  • Leaving your client wondering if you are bilking them.

When you find the right fit clients, you will:

  • Charge higher fees based on the value you provide – your clients appreciate a partner who gives them a massive return on investment.
  • Solve problems more quickly, which delights your clients and reduces your workload.
  • Strengthen your relationships because your clients know you want what is best for them, instead of what increases your billable hours. 

If you’re interested in doing this work together, I want to remind you that the extra early bird pricing is only available until September 30th.  You’ll save $1000 when you act now.  Email me, fill out a brief application, and let’s discuss how this program will benefit you and your business.

If this program helps you gain one additional mid-sized client, you will gain a ten-fold return on your investment.

If some part of the process is not working for you, here’s my promise and guarantee: I’ll work with you until it does – at no additional charge.

P.S. Want to read all the details about Expert Consulting Mastery?

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Christopher Kolenda
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Constructive Criticism Often Isn’t: Do This Instead

Chris Kolenda: Constructive Criticism Often Isn’t: Do This Instead

Providing and receiving feedback ranks among the workplace’s most anxiety-producing conversations. Here’s how to avoid awkwardness while helping people improve.

According to a Harris poll, sixty-nine percent of managers fear communicating with their employees. Providing feedback is the #1 most dreaded conversation.

A Gallup poll suggests that most people want feedback but only 26 percent report that the feedback they receive is helpful. 

People want feedback to ensure their jobs are safe and improves their performance. Nobody likes criticism, and few people enjoy criticizing.

Criticism tends to invite defensiveness and resentment, neither of which improves performance or strengthens relationships. 

Hence the dilemma: how do you help people perform better when both parties fear criticism? Here are six steps that improve future performance.

  1. Caring. People have to know that you care about them as people before they trust your feedback. Unless your employees believe you care, they’ll view even the most constructive criticism as evidence that you don’t like them. “Joan’s busting my chops because she hates me.”

Show you care by getting to know people as human beings rather than as human resources. Get to know their goals and aspirations, hobbies, families, and other matters vital to them. Ask them periodically about these parts of their lives, provide articles or posts they might find interesting, and ensure they have the time to engage in essential activities.

  1. Let them talk first. Start with their self-assessment. Ask your employee, “How did that go? What points do you want to sustain, and where do you want to improve?” They’ll most likely identify the most critical areas. If they miss something, ask, “Tell me more about ___.”
  1. Feedforward. Dwelling on the past doesn’t do much good and invites harm. Trying to get your employee to admit to failing is a power trip. 

Focus instead on improving future performance. People tend to know when they are falling short and are often their own worst critics (see above). Ask, “How will you do it better next time?” 

  1. Avoid unsolicited advice. When you give unsolicited advice, the other party tends to identify ways it won’t work. 

When asked, offer advice and action steps because the employee is now open-minded. Avoid “here’s how I do it,” and use “Here are some ways you could do that; what will work best for you?” 

  1. Ask for specific ways you can help. You need to let your employees know you’ve got their back and will support their efforts to improve. 

Avoid vague questions like, “What can I do to help,” because you’ll mostly get noncommital answers or “Nothing I can think of right now.”

Ask, instead, “What’s one specific way I can help you improve __,” and follow through. 

  1. Celebrate wins. After the next event or during your following 90-day review, ask, “What achievements make you the proudest?” and “In what ways have you improved?” before asking, “If doing even better were possible, what would you want to improve and how would you do that?”

These six steps will remove the anxiety from feedback sessions, strengthen your relationships, and improve your organization’s performance. 

How are these steps working for you? I love celebrating your wins. Send me an email and let me know, or schedule a call.

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Christopher Kolenda
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Save $2000 – Don’t miss out!

Chris Kolenda: Save $2000

Friday, September 15th is the day! It’s your last chance to register for Expert Consulting Mastery and save $2000. Are you ready?

This program is for you if you:

  • Earn $100,000 in revenue and want to grow beyond $250k without increasing your workload;
  • Are coachable and have an open mind;
  • Have an abundance mentality and like to share ideas with others;
  • Are willing to try new things.

If some part of the process is not working for you, here’s my promise and guarantee: I’ll work with you until it does – at no additional charge.

This program is exclusively for veterans and immediate family members who want to grow their already successful coaching or consulting business.

Schedule a call if that sounds like you, so we can decide if Expert Consulting Mastery is right for you.

You will only be accepted into the program if I am 100% certain you will succeed.  Let’s talk, there’s no downside to this conversation.

P.S. 100 percent of the people who have previously participated in this program and who have implemented each step of the process have been successful. Most find the program pays for itself in the first few weeks.

Interested in learning more about Expert Consulting Mastery? Register for my “Profitable Practice” webinar on September 20, 2023.

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Christopher Kolenda

What Oppenheimer and Civil War artillery tell us about agency

Chris Kolenda: What Oppenheimer and Civil War artillery tell us about agency pexels-yan-krukau-7792832.jpg

Oppenheimer, the movie, was riveting, and I highly recommend it.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist in charge of America’s Manhattan Project during World War Two, had qualms about creating the atomic bomb.

It was a weapon of mass destruction that would incinerate tens of thousands instantly and condemn more to slow, agonizing deaths.

The movie shows him expressing these qualms to President Truman after the war. Truman said that he deployed the bombs, so the responsibility was his. 

Oppenheimer should stop whining.

Truman was half-right. He, not Oppenheimer, was responsible for dropping the bombs, but the latter had agency, too. Oppenheimer could have slow-rolled or sabotaged the project. Instead, he did everything he could to make the bomb operational as quickly as possible because he believed in the mission.

Confederate artillery provides a similar insight. Enslaved people worked in the factories that made Confederate fuses and shells and routinely sabotaged them, making the munitions unreliable. 

Commanders refused to fire shells over the heads of their troops because so many fell short. Fratricide was common. At the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, General Robert E. Lee placed the fate of his army in the hands of his artillery and came up short. 

Union fuses had no such problems.

People crave agency. They want to have control over the quality and impact of their work. When they believe in what they are doing and the people alongside them, they’ll use their discretionary effort to make things go as well as possible.

They’ll use their agency to undermine progress when they don’t trust the organization or its leaders. 

When people feel they have little agency, they will find ways to assert control over their work, often by creating bureaucratic hurdles and other obstacles they can raise or lower.

When your employees are impeding your business, it’s your fault. You haven’t given them something to buy into, so they use their agency for self-preservation.

Gaining buy-in from your employees is less about change-the-world romanticism than behaviors that align your company’s common good with employee self-interest and confidence.

Are you a veteran looking to build a career as a consultant or advisor? The next 9-week program of Expert Consulting Mastery begins on October 11, 2023. Register for my September 20, 2023 webinar to learn more.

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Christopher Kolenda
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Why you have to apply for Expert Consulting Mastery

Chris Kolenda: Why you have to apply for Expert Consulting Mastery.

You likely have never been asked to apply for a coaching program before. Allow me to explain why I do this FOR you. 

The right fit matters when it comes to doing deep work. In Expert Consulting Mastery, I want your experience to be as joyful and meaningful as possible and for you to be surrounded by like-minded people. When you’re part of our community, you’ll be surrounded by other veterans who are serious about growing just like you are.

The application process ensures that each participant is able to extract and contribute the maximum value from this program.

Wondering if you should apply? Here’s some of what I’m looking for from you:

  • You earn $100,000 in revenue and want to grow beyond $250k without increasing your workload;
  • You are coachable and have an open mind;
  • You have an abundance mentality and like to share ideas with others;
  • You are willing to try new things.

As you experienced in the military, standards are vital for success. You need to have standards for your clients so that you attract people who you believe will succeed, that you cheer for, and who are a joy to work with. 

You’ll find we have standards you can get behind in this program too.

Here’s why you should apply:

  • You gain a proven process that accelerates and simplifies your business so you get better revenues at less work and zero frustration.
  • You get an accountability partner who wants what’s best for you and is willing to tell you the truth.
  • You have lifetime access to the materials.
  • You create relationships with like-minded peers who share insights and support.
  • You get my promise and guarantee: if something is not working for you, I’ll work with you until it does – at no additional charge.

Participants in my programs build strong connections quickly and support each other long after the program finishes. 

Having the right people around you shortens your path to success.

If this program sounds like a good fit for you, schedule a call with me. There’s no downside and a massive potential upside.

Are you interested in learning more about Expert Consulting Mastery? Register for my September 20, 2023 webinar.

P.S. 100 percent of the people who have previously participated in this program and who have implemented each step of the process have been successful. Most find the program pays for itself in the first few weeks.

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Christopher Kolenda
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AI is Getting Dumber. How You Can Avoid Cognitive Drift.

Chris Kolenda: AI is Getting Dumber. How You Can Avoid Cognitive Drift.

According to the Wall Street Journal, AI platform ChatGPT 4 has significantly higher errors in basic math and other subjects than its predecessor, 3.5. What’s going on?

Algorithmic drift is one of the primary culprits. AI learns from inputs, so it is subject to the garbage-in, garbage-out phenomenon. The more garbage enters the system, the more the chatbot’s accuracy drifts. 

Algorithmic drift can also result from manipulation, where people seek to sabotage the Chatbot by feeding it lousy information or coaxing it to say something outrageous or offensive. 

Artificial life is not all that far from real life when it comes to cognitive drift. We, too, drift when we privilege information that confirms our beliefs (confirmation bias) and super-empower those who speak it. Cognitive drift is part of the reason leaders can get worse even as they have more experience on the job. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is a high-profile example.

You avoid cognitive drift when you gain diverse inputs, resist sycophancy, and breathe fresh air. Here are some action steps to do so.

  1. Promote cognitive diversity in your inner circle. Just because someone looks different from you does not mean they think differently. You need people around you who are committed to your success and see issues from different angles. My PROM Archetypes® assessment helps you do so.
  1. Seek out differing perspectives. I read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post because I know that each has a unique point of view, and I can normally triangulate them to come up with a reasonable degree of ground truth. You put cognitive drift into overdrive when you only read, watch, or listen to news and ideas from a single perspective.. 
  1. Increase your company’s psychological confidence. Psychological confidence occurs when leaders encourage disagreement, and employees are comfortable disagreeing agreeably. People with psychological confidence will identify problems, offer fresh ideas, and take risks to advance the common good. If everything is always awesome in your Legoland, you should brace for impact.

I can help you assess your company’s psychological confidence using a questionnaire. Here’s the general version that I customize for organizations. 

  1. Get an outside perspective. Bring on a trusted advisor who 1) wants what’s best for you, 2) builds your capacity, and 3) tells you the truth. Your typical certificate-waving coaches fall short on 2 and 3; they usually just help you inhale your own gas. 

It’s hard to see the label from inside the jar, and even your most objective subordinates will have difficulty telling you what you need to hear. A trusted advisor will save you time, improve your decisions, and increase your peace of mind.

If you would like to explore ways a trusted advisor can support you, schedule a call. 

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Christopher Kolenda
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Why Expert Consulting Mastery could be a good fit for you

Why Expert Consulting Mastery could be a good fit for you

If you read my last email about Expert Consulting Mastery, you might wonder if this program is right for you.  Let me share a few things that might help you decide.

Expert Consulting Mastery is for you if you are a veteran who:

  • Wants to use your experiences to help people 
  • Values autonomy over being in a structure
  • Takes prudent risks
  • Desires to control your time, talent, and energy
  • Is willing to bet on your own success

This program is not for you if you:

  • Don’t care about helping others
  • Want to be a salaried employee in a company
  • Are highly risk-averse
  • Don’t mind being told how to use your time, talent, and energy
  • Lack the confidence to invest in your own success

Many former senior military leaders make terrific solo consultants and coaches. You’ve been coaching, teaching, and mentoring leaders, providing counsel, and offering trusted advice for many years. 

Those same skills are invaluable in the private sector.

Turning those skills into a meaningful, joyful, and profitable business is a matter of combining passion, market need, and competence.

You need all three to succeed.

If you have Passion and Competence without Market Need, you have a hobby, not a business.

If you have Passion and there is Market Need, but you lack Competence, you’ll have no impact.

Finally, if you have the Competence to meet a Market Need but lack Passion, your work will feel like drudgery, and you’ll lose interest.

You have a meaningful, joyful, and profitable business when you have all three.

The good news is that the market needs your wisdom, and you have the experience to be a competent consultant or coach. 

You wouldn’t have had a career in service if you didn’t have the passion to help people.

You have all of the ingredients to be a good consultant. What you need is a simple process that helps you be good at being a good consultant. 

Being a competent solo entrepreneur has three components: business development, internal management, and execution. 

You see the three elements in the prominent circles. Around the circles are some of the critical competencies you need to be good at being a good consultant. 

The good news is that all of these are skill-based, which means you can learn to master them. 

Most former military leaders find that they pick up quickly the behaviors around Management and Execution because they are pivoting their skills from the military into business.

Business Development scares many retired military veterans because you most likely haven’t developed these skills. You fear you cannot do marketing or sales without violating your values.

Rest assured, you can excel at these skills, too, and without being a pushy self-promoter. ECM shows you exactly how to convey the value you provide to others (marketing) and how to help people make informed buying decisions (sales). 

Being a good solo consultant or coach is skill-based, which means with the right materials and support, you can learn it, practice it, and get better at it.

That’s what Expert Consulting Mastery does for you.

This 9-week program gives you the process, guidance, and support you need to accelerate your business and create durable success.

100 percent of the people who have previously participated in this program and who have implemented each step of the process have been successful. Most find the program pays for itself in the first few weeks.

Each week you will watch videos (totalling about 30 minutes) and complete an assignment. You will meet with your group and me via Zoom to discuss your progress, answer any questions, and give you action steps that get results.

By the end of the program, you will have everything you need to move your consulting business from striving to thriving. 

If some part of the process is not working for you, here’s my promise and guarantee: I’ll work with you until it does – at no additional charge.

I’m very selective about who joins the program, so admission is by application only. 

If this program resonates with you and you’d like to know more, fill out this simple application, and let’s talk.

We’ll discuss your business and see if Expert Consulting Mastery is right for you. I’ll give you action steps to move your business forward, whether or not you decide to take the next step.

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Christopher Kolenda
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The disasters in Afghanistan and Hawaii have something in common that you need to know

The disasters in Afghanistan and Hawaii have something in common that you need to know

General Douglas MacArthur explained that nearly every military disaster can be summed up in two words: Too late. 

As I write this, the Hawaiian wildfire’s confirmed death toll is 111 and may rise to over 1,000. Faulty, spark-emitting powerlines likely caused the blaze, in which strong winds fanned into an inferno that swept across the Maui town of Lahaina.

According to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, Hawaiian Electric officials have known for at least four years that the power lines needed repair but invested a paltry $245,000 in preventative measures. The company waited until last year to request the State’s approval to increase fees to pay for badly needed maintenance – Hawaiian officials have yet to act on the request.

The State government, meanwhile, reportedly knew about the heightened wildfire risk for years but provided no resources or plan for preventing or responding to one.

The tragedy unfolded slowly, then all at once, to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities. 

The same was true for the Afghanistan disaster. U.S. and Afghan officials had well over a year to plan for the withdrawal of American forces, but both parties seemed to bury their hands in the sand that the United States would reconsider. 

The intelligence community reportedly warned that tens of thousands of Afghans would seek evacuation, but there was little planning or preparation for such a massive endeavour. The military planned to withdraw, aiming for the lowest possible risk to its forces. The State Department seemed to dither and then abruptly evacuate the U.S. Embassy one night. Panic and tragedy ensued.

Both heartbreaking episodes show that preventive action is always cheaper than corrective and remedial actions, and leaders ignore them at peril.

Most business and other failures occur slowly and then all at once.

Inadequate leadership, decision-making biases, deficient cultures, and unrealistic strategies accumulate rocks in your company’s rucksack. The weight hinders progress and innovation, drains your resources, and increases fatigue and stress. The burden seems manageable until you plunge into a crisis, and it’s too late.

The best companies invest in preventive actions, particularly in their leadership and culture. Joyful employees create cheerful workplaces and happy customers who bring in more business. The virtuous cycle keeps unnecessary weight from your rucksack and buoys you in difficult times. 

Are you ready to invest in your leaders and culture? Let’s discuss two of my programs: Becoming a WHY? Leader® and Building an Inspiring Culture®.

An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.   

Are you a veteran looking to build a career as a consultant or advisor? The next 9-week program of Expert Consulting Mastery begins on October 11, 2023. Register for my August 29, 2023 webinar to learn more.

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Christopher Kolenda

Becoming a Better Consultant  – What You Need to Know

Becoming a Better Consultant – What You Need to Know

If you are a military veteran who wants to build a meaningful, joyful, and profitable consulting business, then I have something you might be interested in to take your career to the next level.

You’ve already had a military career full of extraordinary experiences, superb exemplars, and exceptional education and training.

You’ve coached, taught, and mentored your subordinates, and got good at telling your bosses things they needed to hear. You tell the truth with simplicity and compassion to get things done.

You have everything it takes to start, build and grow a thriving coaching or consulting business.

You probably value autonomy and want to govern your personal and professional priorities.

A solo or boutique coaching or consulting business is the perfect way to do this if you’re willing to bet on yourself.

Of course, as we both know, there’s a difference between taking a calculated risk versus gambling on the unknown.

Simply hanging out your shingle and hoping for business is a gamble. You might be a good consultant, but you need a game plan that makes you good at being a good consultant.

You turn a gamble into a manageable risk by doing these three things:

  1. Having a step-by-step process you can follow that leads to success,
  2. A guide to help you implement the process in ways that work for you,
  3. A peer group that cheers you on, shares ideas, and helps you stay accountable.

Join me in Expert Consulting Mastery and eliminate the gamble on your future success. You get a simple, repeatable process, implementation support and an accountability group. Let me tell you more.

Expert Consulting Mastery program is a 9-week program starting on October 11th, 2023 that will give you the process, guidance, and support to accelerate your business and create durable success.

100 percent of the people who have previously participated in this program and who’ve implemented each step of the program have been successful. Most find the program pays for itself in the first few weeks.

Each week you will watch videos (totalling about 30 minutes) and complete an assignment. You will meet with your group and me via Zoom to discuss your progress, answer any questions, and give you action steps that get results.

By the end of the program, you will have everything you need to move your consulting business from striving to thriving.

If some part of the process is not working for you, here’s my guarantee and promise: I’ll work with you until it does – at no additional charge.

I’m very selective about who joins the program which is why admission is by-application-only.

If this program resonates with you and you’d like to know more, schedule a call with me, and let’s talk.

We’ll discuss your business and see if Expert Consulting Mastery is right for you. I’ll give you action steps to move your business forward, whether or not you decide to take the next step.

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