Black Girls Consult TOO!

Episode 118: 2024 Consulting Trends to Close the Year Strong [REBROADCAST]

• Dr. Angelina Davis • Season 3 • Episode 118

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Are you ready to transform your consulting practice and stay ahead in 2024? This episode of the Black Girls Consulting Podcast is packed with insights as we reflect on the major shifts within the industry. From the highs and lows in various types of consulting work, we discuss the importance of positioning and adaptability. Listen in as we revisit a previous fireside chat and explore how you can fine-tune your strategies to draw more clients as the year progresses.

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Speaker 1:

They say, the odds are stacked against us as women, especially women of color, trying to thrive in the consulting world. But rather than wait for a seat at the table that may never come, what if we build our own tables? What if we channeled our talents into guiding each other towards the success we deserve? Welcome to the Black Girls Consulting Podcast. I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, and I've walked the path from healthcare consultant to a mentor for women like you, ambitious, unstoppable and ready to make waves in the consulting world. This podcast is your go-to spot for all things entrepreneurial consulting. For us as women, especially women of color, think of it as your weekly coffee date with a friend who's here to dish out real talk on building a solid business, elevating your thought leadership and mastering that all important mindset. And let's not forget, we're doing all of this while balancing day jobs, family life and running teams. Yes, we can do it all. So if you're ready to dive into how you can grow a thriving consultancy or get strategies and insights that actually fit your busy lifestyle, then you're in the right place. Grab your coffee, tea or, hey, even a glass of wine, I won't judge and let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Black Girls Consult Tube podcast. Guess what guys? It is July already. I cannot believe that we are already halfway through 2024.

Speaker 1:

And I thought this would be a great time to revisit an earlier episode where we had a fireside chat about much of what we were seeing as being shifts in consulting during this year. And I thought it would be a wonderful time to revisit this episode, primarily because, first of all, we're going into the second half of the year, so that's one thing, but then also, I want to know whether or not you feel as if we were on the right track. I think that we were, and I do honestly believe that this episode will give you some ideas as to how you can continue to adjust, adapt and improve your services so that you're able to elevate your business and capture more clients as we go into the second half of the year. So this Fireside Chat is all about what's next in consulting, and if you haven't heard this yet, you're going to want to tune in. I want to start this by asking you what have you heard on the streets, behind the scenes, about consulting in general? What have you been experiencing?

Speaker 2:

Has anyone found themselves with business slowing down, or have you heard of any changes happening recently, good or bad, so I feel like this year took a weird turn where there was some downturn, depending on the type of consulting you did, but I still feel like it's a good time because, as far as corporate, there's this heavy influx of people still searching for jobs. I feel like they still corporations still find it more cost-effective in certain scenarios to hire a consultant. So I think it's still a great time.

Speaker 1:

I think it's just positioning, think it's just positioning Definitely that for sure, when you see how the industry has shifted, it really has gone from a really big high to, like you said, somewhat of not necessarily a low, but some changes have happened more recently that may have some people feeling a little bit, maybe unsure as to what lies ahead. I think we all get nervous when we're watching the news here lately, right, and so the question I wanted to answer tonight is where is the consulting industry headed? That's our biggest question. Where are we going? Where are we projected to end up? And I think that you hit the nail on the head when it came to how you were making your assessment, because, if we take a look at what has happened over the last few years, last five years, we've been on a rollercoaster ride within the industry. So back in 2019, the consulting industry was doing well. I would say we're going to just use that as our baseline.

Speaker 1:

That was before the pandemic and things were moving along. I believe at that time, the industry was worth I think they said something like 320 billion. So we definitely were in an industry that was growing and that's thriving. And then we got to the pandemic. Now, during the pandemic, unlike many other sectors and in many other industries, consulting took off, so you saw a huge increase in business during that time because people needed help. There was a lot of uncertainty as to how we're going to navigate through the pandemic, how businesses were going to stay open, how they were going to make it day to day in, how they were going to make it day to day. That led to a boom really in the consulting industry, so much so that a lot of your major consulting firms didn't have enough help and so they had to turn away a lot of work, which also led to a lot of smaller firms, solo consultants, et cetera being able to pick up a lot of that extra business. Because, number one, we all went online so it became more accessible, but then, two, there were a lot of clients that could not be served by these major firms and the business trickled over. We just shot out the roof in terms of opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Not long after that roughly about 20, between 2021 and 2022, we began to hear some grumblings of possible layoffs or downsizing within the tech sector, as well as with a number of the big fours. They were beginning to scale back because, like I said, within the tech world especially, they ran into a lot of difficulties. You saw a lot of those jobs being offloaded. Now, one thing I want to clarify is that this wasn't a scenario where they were laying off because business was bad. I want you to think about this whole time period as just a period of overhiring and not necessarily taking into account the fact that the amount of overhead that everyone took on during the pandemic because times were so good that rapidly changed as we began to come out of the pandemic and things begin to settle.

Speaker 1:

So here we are with this big question mark right, what's next? We're doing well, things have gone up from that point in time, but where are we going? Are we going to begin to take another dip or are we going to grow from here? So that's really the question right now that we have to answer, and I wanted to start by talking about some different areas where consulting is beginning to take off into boom. So one is with remote consulting I mentioned this a moment ago about a lot of the jobs, of course moving online in a number of different industries.

Speaker 1:

So that's opened the door for a lot more remote work, hybrid work, and that has been beneficial because it has allowed businesses to save a lot of money. Now on the consulting side it's been helpful because, number one, it's a cost reduction. You don't have to travel and fly and be on site in person all the time like we used to, so it's going to cut that cost. You have global access, so now you can land business in the UK and other places and not just in the US or not just within your state or down the street. There's greater flexibility in doing that.

Speaker 1:

But I also want you to think about this whole concept of the future of work. If you look at a lot of the larger firms, in a lot of the strategic plans for a number of larger corporations right now, there's a lot of discussion at the leadership level about what the future of work is going to look like and as we're thinking about the offers that we're going to put out in this upcoming year or the services that we're going to provide, we want to also be able to speak to that. That's one opportunity. Right when you're talking about positioning, can we position ourselves to play a role in what the future of work will look like, creating strategy and systems and plans to help others in our industry navigate that challenge, because that's going to be a major challenge.

Speaker 1:

We're just starting in terms of our capabilities to work remotely and to maintain our larger work environment in the online space.

Speaker 1:

So this is one key area that I think we know about. We've seen that it exists, but I don't think people really tap into as much of the opportunity there in what can be accomplished with adding in some elements of remote consulting into your offer suite, and what that looks like is being more flexible, being able to offer more accessible and convenient options for the clients that you work with. I was actually talking to someone very recently and they were saying the last thing I want to do is sit in the office in a meeting with a consultant for an hour or two. People just want that time. So being able to create and structure your work with your clients in a way that gives them more flexibility and more freedom but still has that intimate feel, is something that I think that we all want to begin to lean into. Any thoughts about that or ideas as to how you may want to incorporate that? Does it seem like something that may be feasible for you as you move ahead?

Speaker 2:

I love that because I started remote. My business is remote. But what I realized, as you mentioned about flexibility, I've been targeting other local estate agencies and realizing that the flexibility for them is having a hybrid approach, because they still do some things in person and do offer virtual things, but more so for accessibility. So those are things that I'm thinking as I try to build out a program.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's the key is really thinking about what flexibility means for you and your industry. That's going to be different for all of us, right? Depending upon where we're practicing as a consultant I practice in healthcare consulting and that level of flexibility oh yes, you have to be on site for a certain period of time a number of meetings but then there is also the opportunity to do things off site that give a more intimate feel like you're still in that conference room or still in that boardroom or still meeting one-on-one. I think that we can get as creative as we want to when it comes to this whole element of adding that flexibility. And when you're thinking about being competitive in general in your market, then look at what other people are doing. So if others are solely online and they're not going in, creating that hybrid mix, like you mentioned, is going to be the thing that stands out. In other instances, maybe it's someone who doesn't like to be online. In the consulting world, you'll find that a lot of consultants I would say more traditional consultants they still believe no, we need to have a meeting in person, and in-person meetings are very important. But if you're the one that can do in-person meetings and have this flexibility in the online space, you are definitely going to have your share of clients to work with, because people are attracted to those things that save them time, save them money and make things a lot easier. That's one area that I think that we can really lean into. That's very different from where we have been in the past.

Speaker 1:

Another one that I wanted to share is industry specialization. So when we think about consulting, we often think about the general consultant, and this is where you see someone who's offering a lot of consulting services. There's a laundry list of services there. Right, I can help you with your taxes, your training, I can do workshops. They can do everything. And I always caution a lot of clients about this, because when you get into general projects, you're going to be competing against the big guys. Right, the larger firms, larger organizations, the larger companies that are out there, because that's typically what they do more general, higher level work.

Speaker 1:

And so where we often find our value, especially as solo consultants or smaller firms, are in niched engagements. And that's going to be true not just because we're smaller, but also because entry of a lot of smaller businesses into the consulting space that previously could not afford someone like a Deloitte or McKinsey and PwC. They couldn't afford that level of service for their small business. But guess what they can afford and pay nicely a solo consultant or a small firm. And what they typically need is very niche. And that's where having be more beneficial to be very niche in that space.

Speaker 1:

And when I say niche, you can get as specific as you want, as long as it's something that is in demand. Right, and I think that's the hardest part is figuring out what in your industry is in demand in the moment. But if you have that knowledge and you're able to focus on this one thing that needs to be done at such a deep level, it's going to resonate and it's going to sell. Another thing that a lot of organizations are looking for right now is for you to also be operationally involved with internal teams. So this is a major difference from before.

Speaker 1:

So often when you have a larger consulting group come in, for so often when you have a larger consulting group come in, you're talking about a lot of boardroom meetings, a lot of deep dives, a lot of higher level work.

Speaker 1:

Like I was mentioning before, you're not talking about people who are actually going out and working with the individuals that are doing the work day to day. Let's say, for me in healthcare, I can speak to. You're not talking about someone who's on the floor actually working with your physician or your nursing staff. If you're in education, you're not talking about someone who's going in the classroom and observing teachers that are actually working in their space or professors that are giving their lecture. If you are in IT, you're not talking about someone who's able to go in and evaluate what's happening in terms of the way that they are parsing out different projects that are being done and how those are actually being developed, et cetera. So the more we can get involved on that operational level, that is going to be a benefit and that is something that's very different than what was happening before. Was this something that you all were thinking about? Or you weren't necessarily even thinking on this level?

Speaker 3:

I think I was thinking on this level because in my area I wanted to work more with not just the principals or the district level people, but the teachers, because they're the ones that are actually working with the students. The teachers because they're the ones that are actually working with the students. So if they're working with the students, they need to know how to actually analyze that data, to identify where their weaknesses are, conduct those root cause analysis and then make that instruction specific and intentional to support the needs of the students. So I think I was getting down to wanting to be really working with the people that are doing the work and that's extremely valuable because I can tell you that has not traditionally been the norm.

Speaker 1:

Most often, people will go in and they may do a larger workshop training so you may work one-on-one, for instance, let's say, in the workshop setting. But we all know how people show up in a workshop or in a seminar or in a training is very different from how they show up day-to-day when they are working. Being able to step into that role, where you're able to make an impact on that everyday workflow, is going to be something that is extremely helpful, even when it comes to managing, for instance, if you're in project management or some other. Someone else told me their industry or their space. I can give a better example yeah, so back to the education sector. Yes, designing inclusive special education programs. So what does it look like to do that work one-on-one and be able to carry that back to leadership? There are just different ways that we can get a lot more in depth in terms of industry specializations. This is just a push that, if you're thinking on a more general, broad level, really focusing on niching down and when I say niching down, I think oftentimes when you hear people talk about niching down, they're talking about it from the business aspect of I want to make sure that I have my specific problem that I'm going to solve for a particular ideal client, et cetera. That's still true. But I want you to take it even further and think about when you're thinking about that problem. How specific can you get in terms of solving that problem? If you are in education, if there's a particular method or a particular training style that you found to be most effective, focusing in on that and that alone can actually be highly beneficial for you, especially if you can go into significant depth there. So I want you to think that granular about it. And the thing is, there are a lot of people doing the broad, general work. There are very few people doing that very niche, specialized work very few. But those individuals although there's a smaller percentage of people who are going to be in need of that service, they're going to command the market share in terms of pricing at a higher level because no one else is doing that work. That's one way that things have shifted and changed. Those are two things that we talked about, I think. Just to recap really quick, we talked about the remote consulting, leaning into that piece and offering more flexibility to the clients you serve, and then also the industry specialization. Now this next one is big and that's digital transformations. We're all online now.

Speaker 1:

So when you're thinking about digital transformation, I want you to consider things such as digital technology integration. If you're working in the IT, we don't have anyone, I don't think, necessarily deep in the IT space, but if you were working on integrating certain platforms in an organization or in a company, helping them select and determine what they need to bring on, I think, for you ability to improve operational efficiencies and streamlining processes, all through aspects of in the digital world, focusing on that business value and specifically focusing on customer journey processes or functions, this is literally where the money is flowing. As a matter of fact, you have a number of larger consulting firms that have created their own specialty divisions in digital transformation, so this is not going anywhere. When you look at the fact that everything with artificial intelligence because I have that next and we're going to talk about AI integration but when you think about how many apps, how many tools, how many platforms are now available to us just today and that's just the start. They're going to get better and things are going to continue to change Digital transformation is, for the foreseeable future, going to be something that is always in the upswing, and how can we tie that into the work that we do is going to be key.

Speaker 1:

So, if there are certain tools that you work with in your space with regards to their workflow, education, healthcare, whatever it may be that improves the customer journey or improves the outcome and the processes for the clients that you desire to work with, adding that into the work that you do is going to be another feature and something else that truly is going to sell and it's going to align with what, more than likely, they have slated for the upcoming year in some shape, form or fashion. Can any of you think about like digital tools or platforms or anything that's been new in your industry, in your space, that you found helpful, even in your practice or your work every day?

Speaker 2:

And we can always even talk about chat, gpt yeah, I would say that is a main one, but I think, in general, you said something very important. That is a main one, but I think, in general, you said something very important. It's the way we work has changed and, prime example, like even last week it's a Black Friday Cyber Monday has taken a total new approach since having the business, because now I feel like it's Christmas for the business, because you go and you start looking at all these tools about how they can be helpful. Like I was even looking on one site and there was a tool to be able to build a whole site through AI and no code and be able to put it still on WordPress and I'm like, wow, what a time we're in. It is crazy.

Speaker 1:

Crazy. What a time we're in. It is crazy and the thing about it. I can just go ahead to the next slide talking about the AI integration, because I wanted to separate that out a bit because of this, because there's a lot that falls under AI integration. I see in the chat just using chat GPT to analyze feedback data, so not just using it right, but it's actually everything that's tied to its use. Sorry, I have to move this over here so I can see.

Speaker 1:

When we're thinking about AI integration, we have to think about not just the use, right, what comes with the use, because the things that you can consider and the things that your clients are unaware of that they're going to begin to know and be exposed to as they move forward. This is only going to grow because AI is here. It's something that is going to be a part of any industry that you're in, and you have to start thinking about what are the legal issues associated with the use, because it's pulling data, of course, from different sources online and you don't know whether or not that information number one is accurate. There's a whole thing online now about what is it called like AI hallucinations, so you have the question as to whether or not it's accurate, and then also being able to build your own tool. I do that right now, and you may, too, within ChatGPT. Like creating your own avatar in ChatGPT and being able to do searches and queries based upon the information that you're feeding it, as well as what it's pulling out. And not just ChatGPT, but all artificial intelligence that we have been using and that are coming out now are going to also be attached to various ethical concerns. And also think about it like this Even if you are using AI technology, most people think, oh, it's going to be a cost saver, because it's going to get rid of workers.

Speaker 1:

Actually, to be honest with you implementation. I was looking at a study and I wish I would have saved it so I could show it, but it was talking about the increased costs associated with bringing on artificial intelligence or AI integration, because you have to have people who actually know how to run it. They need to know how to query. They need to know how to utilize it. You have to know how to query, they need to know how to utilize it. You have to train others to be able to do the same. You have to worry about the legal issues Another thing that comes up often with AI integration. That's going to be an issue too.

Speaker 1:

Businesses have invested a lot of money, time and energy into SEO when it comes to Google as a search engine. Now you're in a situation where ChatGPT or other AI tools are creating a scenario where it's searching and finding that information and then the SEO that they have invested in, at least at this moment, is somewhat at risk because it's not gonna follow the same rules, if that makes sense, right? So if you cause, you're not gonna go to Google and put it in, you're going to go to ChatGPT and just ask the question. So that's something else to consider, and those are all things that can be built into every aspect of what we do, like you don't have to be an AI consultant in order to have some element of the work that you do. Take these things into consideration, because that's when you're going to pitch your services.

Speaker 1:

You want to touch on a lot of the key areas that they are going to be focused on for the upcoming year, and if you're able to talk about some aspect of how you can help them with digital transformation, or how you can utilize some aspect of AI integration to simplify the process within education, within whatever service that you're offering that's going to sell right. Just really think about this on a much broader scale and I put this here because this is actually from Ernest and Young and I definitely recommend that. If you can just take a look at their website when it comes to AI integration, they had a wonderful breakdown that I've got this diagram from, but I feel like it was a great summary of a lot of the concerns that I felt like people don't often really even consider or talk about, but these are all things that we can add in. Have you thought about how you can add any of the AI tools for any work that you're currently doing with clients or that you plan to do?

Speaker 2:

I think for me, I'm always looking at them because it's the mission or vision behind. What I do is really revolved around working smarter, not harder, so we're always looking for tools that will help to really make the day-to-day operations smoother. It could be something with Google Workspace that is helpful to a company, or just even like you were talking about earlier about the customer journey, like looking at different tools. Now, some of these schedulers have AI inside of them that's able to assist in smooth that booking process. So I think I'm constantly looking at it, sometimes probably too much.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's the thing we can use it within our business. When it comes to the basic workflow helping clients use it in their businesses with the basic workflow, definitely yeah, 30 day posts for Instagram the beauty of it is that, okay, we can do these things quickly. But how can we take that same tool or information and create a tool that is going to help us actually do the work even better and be able to sell that to a client where it makes sense to make that investment? Because another thing that people don't often think about is the feasibility that goes into implementation, and so we can suggest bringing something on board. But if it's extremely costly, of course that's not going to be ideal for them, especially if they're invested in your services too. So the more we can actually provide and utilize for them through the work that we do will make a huge difference, and I think that tapping into a lot of that can be extremely helpful. Like I said, not just in use, but it also it can just be in your consultation. So maybe part of your consultation is around some of the legal issues associated with use, or maybe it has to do with some of the ethical standards that need to be in the classroom with regards to use, just really thinking about all of those various elements on a different level, but definitely AI integration is a big one.

Speaker 1:

And then I would say really the last one I wanted to touch on, and this goes to the education piece. I say the best for last right. So under education, I put anything with regards to learning, so to speak, under the education tab, because there were a number of different things and they somewhat fit together, but a little bit don't. So the first is internal upskilling. This, right here, is really big, because what's happening right now is you have, of course, with quiet, quitting and a lot of people leaving their jobs and moving into entrepreneurship or whatever it may be, people not deciding to pursue many of the traditional, I would say, corporate, climbing the ladder routes. It's led to the need to make sure that you're able to take people who are already working in your business or your organization and upscale them so they can be able to perform other duties. If we are able to offer various training, that is not just continuing education but is truly upskilling staff to work at a higher level or in a different capacity. That is something that is very, very much in demand right now in some industries more than others. So that's definitely one component. I give the example of like in healthcare, for instance. I can tell you that within healthcare, let's say in microbiology in the lab, that is a dying field almost. So you have a component that we can always focus on when it comes to training and education, especially in the B2B space.

Speaker 1:

Another is bolstering enrollment, especially in universities and private education. So with the economy, with the pandemic and just all of the things that are happening around us, they have taken a nosedive in terms of enrollment. If you work in a university or college setting, then I'm sure you've been part of those conversations. I have a dear friend of mine who is a dean and she was just telling me about just all their struggles in terms of trying to get the enrollment up. So this is something that is huge. And finding ways to bolster that enrollment, thinking about new, innovative ways to provide the education so you have more people enrolled and so that's more flexible, those are all ways that you can provide additional services, especially under the education umbrella, and that's also true for private education, private schools as well. So just thinking about that piece.

Speaker 1:

The next is bolstering college acceptance. It has become super hard to get in college right. It's always been hard, but now it's definitely at a new level and what you're finding is that there is more and more investment in trying to navigate that role. You have universities that are no longer requiring testing. You have others that you know I'm living in Georgia and just our state school, like at UGA, the I can't remember the percent, but you know the majority, or a large majority, are coming out of high school with 4.0 GPAs and, as we know, there's a lot that goes into all of those changes and, yeah, definitely it's getting crazy. I'm looking at a chat about how that's not news I want to hear with a son about to be a senior, exactly, and that's why that the need for consultants working in that space to help families, especially because I always talk about in the B2B, business to business consulting space, but also in the business consumer space I wanted to tap on that as well this aspect of helping students get into college, helping athletes get recruited. There's just so much competition. It is very difficult to navigate those waters and people are paying extremely well to get that type of work done. Look, I've been guilty of doing some of it definitely with the sports piece. So those are just things that most people don't think of and somewhat overlook. But that is huge and it's hard, and people have consultants, they have people working on their behalf to help them navigate that space.

Speaker 1:

And then the last is immersive learning. This can be true for any area, but definitely within health care there is more of a push to, instead of training staff by working with patients, to first train them in an artificial environment. It makes sense, right? You don't want the first time someone is managing a code to be on a real person. You'd rather it be in a setting where they can make mistakes. And so for a lot of industries, and especially in healthcare, on different levels, immersive learning is becoming extremely big. So being able to create those types of environments strategically, plan that education, that training, is huge, even if it's not immersive in terms of just creating or recreating the environment of the set physically, they are also getting into like virtual reality.

Speaker 1:

Just know that all of these things are areas that are trending right now and that people are pouring a lot of money and resources into, because a lot of the work that has been done in the past has led to errors, have led to mistakes, have led to negative outcomes, and they're trying to avoid a lot of that from happening in the past has led to errors, have led to mistakes, have led to negative outcomes, and they're trying to avoid a lot of that from happening.

Speaker 1:

When we're thinking about these main areas that are trending for the most part, if you are locked in to focus on remote consulting, being very specialized in your space, focusing on digital transformation, that can mean a lot of different things, everything from productivity to efficiency, customer journey, et cetera, and then knowing how to best utilize AI integration to your advantage, and thinking about a lot of the opportunities around education, just in general, those elements added to your service suite.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't mean that this has to be a separate service, but building that into the work that you do in some capacity is going to help you stand out and it's gonna help your services to be more marketable Because, like I said, this is literally where a lot of the money flow is going. That's a little bit different. Yes, everything else is still doing well and it's still the same, but if you're able to walk in and what you offer and be able to touch on any of these things, it's going to help you elevate yourself and your business in terms of that conversation as to who they want to work with next. Before we wrap up, does anyone have questions? Want to brainstorm how you can incorporate any of this into what you're doing now or what you want to do as you move forward?

Speaker 2:

Since you opened up the floor. Yeah, it's so interesting that you touched on not just the niche part that you were talking about, but also digital transformation, because it's so interesting that one of the points inside of this Rutgers program that I'm in they are. They had us talk about digital transformation and how we were like how do we see ourselves positioning ourselves for growth, including that. So I just wanted to say that hit home. So, yeah, so when I think about my business, I'm that one who needs to work on the niching, to work on the niching, and I struggle with it a bit, because and you might've heard me talk about this before, but it's not I don't always wanna be tool-based, I wanna be concept-based, because the tools can always change, but understanding the concept is more of the point that I like to get home, because it's not about the tool.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. It's not about the tool at all, and I think that a way of looking at that is determining whether or not you want to focus on, let's say, for instance, customer journey, or if you want to focus on some aspect of the overall workflow or processes and creating your framework for how to best accomplish a particular goal. So then you have more of a decision tree approach to the work that you're doing right, and I'm thinking as you move along, you become more of a productized service. You're then, instead of focusing on the tool, you have a number of tools that they can use and what your value is, helping them determine how do they do that most effectively for their organization, based upon the type of workers or staff they may have, how much they have in terms of their finances or their budget. All of those things will help you provide a better solution for them. Is there anything in particular that you can think of that stands out to you as a need that most people have when it comes to either operational efficiency or processes, or any of that.

Speaker 2:

There are a few areas, but one in particular is there's always overwhelm with their day-to-day operations. It does stem from the customer journey, because it's do they have a easeful way for people to find them, to book with them, to flow through that process, and most of the time it's pieced together. That's a part of the problem.

Speaker 1:

Right yeah, if you're determining, for instance, how much business they're losing because these processes are inefficient, every tool has this plus or minus. It's like I'm big on using project management tools and I tell everybody all the time just pick one, because none of them are perfect. You're just going to find that works for you. But most people don't know how to do that and what happens is that people buy something, they use it for a period of time, they say it doesn't work and they throw it out and they go to the next one, and they're constantly on this cycle because, number one, they never really learned how to use the tool and maximize it and they didn't use it long enough. And that happens both at the consumer level and at even a large corporate level. How many times have you been part of an organization where every I would say every six months or so they got some new something that's popping up and now you have to use this and we cancel this contract. And now we're doing this.

Speaker 1:

It's a constant cycle and it's constant change because it's inefficiently managed and I think, being able to not just provide the strategy but also on the backend, maybe having something built into your packaging and your services where you have that level of follow-up so that when they run into problems they have help, because that's where people fall off Most often. They come in, they get the advice, they have a consultant that lays everything out, gets them started, but then once that engagement ends, then they have absolutely no, you know, they don't know what to do and that starts spinning their wheels again. People start complaining and then they move on to the next thing. It's like this constant cycle versus if they had someone there who came in periodically, like Starbucks. So think about it like Starbucks periodically, if they have a location that's in another setting, like a mall or a hospital or some other shop, they come in at certain intervals to do retraining, to make sure that the quality or the standard of the drink doesn't change, being able to offer some level of continuity.

Speaker 1:

Number one it's helpful for you because it helps you to retain that relationship and retain that business over an extended period of time, but then also it keeps them from walking away from the work that you've initially done and you can continue to grow that way, because they're going to need change. With digital transformation, there are going to be updates that are going to be needed and there are going to be changes that need to be made. And guess who are going to be updates that are going to be needed, and there are going to be changes that need to be made. And guess who's going to be there to do it? It's going to be you, right. So I do think that being able to find whatever that gap is and niching down into it and leaning into it hard, and then focusing on how you can improve the efficiency so that they feel it, it's going to be the win there, instead of tying yourself to a tool that's only going to be limited because the next one's going to come out.

Speaker 2:

So you make me feel like I'm not so crazy. So I appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

Not at all, and I see in the chat let's see my services focus on the internal upskilling. I coach school leaders, grade level teams and special education teachers to first shift their mindsets around inclusion and then how to design instructional practices and school-wide systems to support inclusion. Yeah, when it comes to internal upskilling, that is something that can be extremely I wouldn't necessarily say easy to sell, but it's definitely needed. And the more you can tie that level of internal upskilling excuse me into their cost savings more directly and make that upskilling something that happens quickly and efficiently is going to be the win right, because the key is not to have the employee down for a long period of time. Good example if someone is doing some type of internal upskilling, at least right now, they often have to do a lot of different trainings, they're having to go places, and so it's just taking a lot of time away from them. Often it's going to take away from their work hours that they're currently scheduled for and that creates a headache, in all honesty, and that's often why management and administration doesn't want to move forward with it, because it is really disruptive in terms of the day-to-day workflow. But if you're able to create something that utilizes some of these other tools that we were talking about, such as maybe some aspects of online learning or other unique training modules, their digital assets and things like that that you can use to help them do this work more seamlessly, where they can still work in their current position and provide the service that they have been, or at least accomplished most of what they've been doing before.

Speaker 1:

That's a sale. That's something that's gonna definitely move the needle. I just wanna thank you so much for tuning in and listening. If you don't mind, I'd love for you to leave a review on either Apple Podcast or Spotify. I will pitch that. If you could just mind, I'd love for you to leave a review on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I will pitch that. If you could just leave me a review, then I would love that.

Speaker 2:

That's where we wrap up. I just wanted to say congratulations, Like I want to honor you in this moment. That's why I really came on tonight, because it's no small feat to get to 100 episodes and I just want to celebrate you in this moment because you're doing an awesome job and just spreading such an awesome message to a lot of women who are consulting. So just super proud of you and just wanted to honor you in this moment, Yay 100.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm actually excited about that, and that's not including before Black Girls Consult 2, it was Accela Consulting Podcast and that was early years. I archived all those and I was like, oh no, those are not going to see the light of day. But yeah, I do that because I'm just really hoping that it is helpful. It's definitely near and dear to my heart. So stay tuned because next year I plan to move into the YouTube world, so we'll see how that goes. But I'm excited about that and the fact that I said it here. That holds me accountable to actually make it happen Exactly.

Speaker 1:

I just want to thank you all so much for sharing with me tonight. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe and share it with a friend. We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting, and you can help us do just that. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn, and don't forget to visit excelatconsultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey. Until next time, keep breaking glass ceiling. All right, take care.

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Dr. Angelina Davis

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