Looking to be an Independent Consultant?

The best advice I can give would-be independent consultants is this...

Make an effort to draw out others and learn about them as human beings, not just as clients, potential clients, or participants.

In my early consulting days (the late twentieth/early twenty-first century) I worked with a regional training center affiliated with a major southern university to provide training for healthcare providers and other health professionals.

I traveled the southeast region of the US facilitating sessions with groups big and small on topics ranging from dealing with difficult people/patients to improving patient self-esteem in order to improve healthcare outcomes to strengthening the interpersonal skills needed when treating folks with HIV/AIDS and everything in between. It was great, rewarding, challenging work.

Here are some techniques I used to draw out training participants, learn about them as human beings, and connect with them.

• Prior to arrival onsite I would research clinics, offices, and participants to get an idea of who I would be working with. I always received a list of attendees before the training.
• Prepared my materials thoroughly and customized them to each individual group as much as possible based on what I found during research.
• Upon arrival in the city where the training took place, I would buy a local newspaper (yes, those were still a thing back then) and read it front to back. I'd also watch the local news the night before the training session.
• The first 15 to 20 minutes of each session were devoted to discussing some of the most interesting items that came from my pre-session research and information gathering.

This type of prep led to four basic outcomes. It:

• Let the audience know I was interested in them and that I cared enough to learn about them before the session.
• Since I was so young, training folks twice my age or more with way more experience, it disarmed any skeptics in the crowd.
• Set a relaxed tone to the session.
• Created an open atmosphere where folks felt they could ask questions and make comments.
• Gave me an idea of how active a group would be. Translation...would I be talking the whole time or could I rely on the group to share session-related real-life experiences that would help others.
• Established trust and goodwill with the group right from the start.

Preparation for speaking, presenting, training, and other types of consulting engagements is about customizing your materials and getting to know the room before you ever set foot in it.