There are many different directions you could take your business in. I’m curious about the long-term vision.
There’s a new generation of advisers and consultants that are coming up. I clearly don’t have the scale of [management consulting firm] MediaLink. But if you look at what MediaLink has their hands in—so many different areas, from talent recruitment to agency consulting to new business development to working with ad-tech companies and startup companies—my breadth of knowledge allows me to do something like that.
I’ve had a couple clients reach out to me—not to run their searches, [but] to be an expert adviser as part of their internal search team. They want to control the pitch. They want to control the narrative. They know their team better than anyone else. They had worked with a couple of the very large media consulting companies that are out there. They were very expensive, and [the client] thought, ‘Well, we just can’t sustain that, but we can work with experts and bring them in to advise us.’
This is as fewer clients are investing in using pitch consultants. For a large brand without knowledge of the agency space and partnership dynamics, there are numerous risks associated with foregoing advisory.
To me, it’s about not building a team of all sorts of consultants or advisers. It’s finding other people like me that could come in as partners. That then allows you to say, ‘We’re here as on-demand experts to help you with certain things.’ I made the conscious decision not to be a consultant or consultancy, but to be an adviser and advisory. Consultants tend to be brought in for a short period of time, go off, do the work, come back and present.
That can really be longer term, too. I have three clients right now that I’ve had since I launched this business. They just want me on a monthly retainer, where the CEOs can bounce things off of me [or] help them prepare for board meetings that they might be having.
What are some of the most interesting questions you’ve gotten from clients recently?
At the beginning, 50% (and now about a third) of my clients are diverse-owned companies. [One of these clients] really wanted to accelerate the growth of their business. They knew that digital was the way to do that, but they hadn’t really moved into the streaming space. I came on board to help them with their strategic vision and their business plan, and ultimately helped broker a relationship with a supply company that allowed them to uniquely create this new ad offering.
I’ve been working with Black-owned media companies, I’ve been working with Hispanic-owned media companies, and I’ve been in conversations with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) about some of the work they’re doing as well.
Another challenge that I’m working with is with an agency [that’s] looking to refresh their brand positioning and how they go to market in a very competitive marketplace. They’re so insular in thinking this through. They’ve got really smart people on their team, and they’ve got great assets.
