Going Solo

10 Episodes
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By: Smashing the Plateau

Going Solo shares stories, strategies and ideas to help consultants, coaches and small business owners build success as entrepreneurs following a late-career job loss. We believe you should be able to take control over your career destiny, do what you love, what you’re competent at doing, and get paid what you’re worth, consistently. We are committed to the success of expertise-based businesses. Ready to go even deeper? The Smashing the Plateau Community uses a structured, supportive process to implement the kinds of strategies we discuss in this podcast. It is a community that is built to be a safe...

Reflections on Going Solo
#150
06/17/2022

We have produced 150 episodes of Going Solo since we launched this show in 2019.

In today’s episode you will hear my reflections on what it takes to be successful when you leave your job and start your own consulting business.

We are pausing Going Solo. We are continuing to produce weekly episodes of Smashing the Plateau, sharing stories, strategies and resources to help you build your consulting business after a long career as an employed professional.


Laura Rotter and Rock Robinson: Building Businesses of Purpose and Value After a Long Corporate Career
#149
06/10/2022

After 30 years of successfully managing money for institutional investors including Citicorp and Para Advisors, Laura Rotter founded her own firm, True Abundance Advisors, a fiduciary, fee-only financial planning firm located in White Plains, NY with a satellite office in New York City.

Laura created a business that was in alignment with her own values and took advantage of her strengths.

Rock Robinson is an accomplished Sales Executive with 40 years of achievement growing revenue with the likes of McGraw-Hill, Sallie Mae, Stericycle & the Univ. of Phoenix.

Rock developed a framework for developing new relationships...


Think and Grow Rich – the $5 million SECRET Featuring John Mitchell
#148
06/03/2022

John Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur. John has created a 12-minute-a-day technique, related to the popular book, Think and Grow Rich.

In todays’ episode of Smashing the Plateau, you will learn how a 12-minute-a-day technique creates success.

John and I discuss:

What happened when John turned 50 [00:34]How to take control of your life and make money [06:28]Actions you can take that will produce your desired financial results [08:55]Focusing on the bottom line [13:04]

John’s technique caused his own income to go to $5 million a year, after 20 years of low six figures a year...


How Conversations Support Profitability Featuring Diane Tarshis
#147
05/27/2022

Diane is Founder and Principal of Startup Distillery — a global consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs launch successful businesses and secure funding. She focuses primarily on early-stage startups, regardless of industry. That means Diane gets to work with founders in a wide variety of fields, ranging from clean energy to cannabis, movie studios to life sciences, consulting, consumer products, design... and distilleries, of course. Her extensive background in finance, manufacturing, operations and retail informs all the work that she does as she helps entrepreneurs distill their ideas into growing businesses. We discuss: The words drive the business [03:51] How to avoid running in...


Freedom vs. Responsibility Featuring Jacquie Doucette
#146
05/20/2022

Jacquie Doucette has undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Pharmacy and has worked for Canada’s Defence Department, both in uniform and as a civilian, for 40 years. We discuss: There’s more to life than just a job and a desk [02:00] A podcast that’s beyond retirement [04:15] We can make more money but we can’t make more time [07:50] The challenges of creating your own structure [10:24] The thin line between freedom and responsibility [12:53] When you finally find out what you want to do with your time [15:20] What to do when income is not part of the equation [17:49]
She knows there's...


Should You Buy a Consulting Franchise Featuring Tom Scarda
#145
05/13/2022

Tom Scarda is a Certified Franchise Expert. He was the number one franchisee of the year with his first franchise concept and failed miserably in his second franchise. The lessons learned from failure are what make him such an expert. We discuss: A business with training wheels [02:09] If you can’t make a movie about it, then you don’t really have a life [05:51] A funny way of God humbling you after a great success [07:35] The pros and cons of the franchise business [10:34] The synergy of a franchise network [12:57] What makes a good franchise candidate [14:49] How to find a consulting fran...


Reinventing Yourself as a Writer in Your Own Business Featuring Kristi Meenan
#144
05/06/2022

Kristi is a Dallas native and at 50 years young, she reinvented herself and transitioned from a job she needed to creating the career she always dreamed of. Kristi is a certified resume writer, job search strategist and LinkedIn pro. In 2018, she launched her business We Write It Now and has never looked back. We discuss: When fear of success is stronger than fear of failure [02:00] The most important aspect of a resume [06:02] Transforming resumes while transforming personalities [10:43] How to better take the lows for what they are [13:12] Chipping away blocks bit by bit [15:50] You can’t be everything to everybody [17:28] Wh...


Designing a Business that will Enable You to Leave Your Job Featuring Jake Lang
#143
04/29/2022

Jake Lang is an author, entrepreneur, and founder of over eight online businesses. Jake now helps new entrepreneurs start and scale their first online business at TheEntrepreneurRideAlong.com where he shares his experiences along the entrepreneurial journey of starting and growing new businesses.

We discuss:

What keeps people stuck in their day job [02:09]How to know when it’s time to jump [03:43]Secrets to getting your online business work [08:04]Why it’s crucial to share content that shows your expertise [10:27]Reasons why people don’t share content before selling [12:58]How to get over the fear of talkin...


How Mick Spiers Launched The Leadership Project
#142
04/22/2022

Mick Spiers is the Founder and Principal of The Leadership Project and the host of The Leadership Project podcast. His vision is to inspire all leaders to challenge status and to have people stop, reflect and rethink what it means to be a leader. His mission is to empower leaders with all of the tools and skills they need to create amazing teams and workspaces. We discuss: Flipping the way leadership development is done [02:08] Starting your own business versus starting one for other people [06:30] Why your first client could be your last employer [09:18] A skillset to discover yourself as a...


The Power of a Sabbatical Featuring Cornelia Walther
#141
04/15/2022

Following two decades in the humanitarian sector, Cornelia Walther quit to focus on POZE, a paradigm for social change that begins with individual transformation. Over the past years, she published a couple of books. Now Cornelia is expanding the network of like-minded thinkers and doers, whilst making the POZE perspective and related mythologies accessible around the world. We discuss: A twiddling faith that makes you doubt yourself [02:05] Why a sabbatical rather than changing organizations as an employee [06:38] Four methodologies to bring social change [09:33] A training tailored to fit reality [11:15] How to support your lifestyle while going through a self-reflective process [15:48] ...