August 19, 2025 • 22 mins
Be a Consultant
Ever thought about ditching your 9-to-5 job and calling your own shots? Amy Rasdal did just that—and she’s here to tell us how. Amy went from a corporate job to living that sweet consultant life and building a great career. Now she helps other professionals do the same.
In this episode, she breaks down how to turn what you already know into a flexible, high-paying consulting jobs. We’re talking setting your rates, finding clients, and actually enjoying your work again.
Curious if the consulting life could be your next big career move? Head to BillableAtTheBeach.com or find Amy on LinkedIn to see if you’ve got what it takes to go solo—and get paid.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyrasdal/
Book - https://www.amazon.com/Land-Consulting-Project-NOW-flexibility/dp/B0B1B4Y7D8
Visit our website at https://www.howmuchcanimake.info/ to submit jobs suggestions for future episodes. Please FOLLOW us and/or WRITE a REVIEW and SHARE with anyone who's curious about their next career move - Thanks!
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Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amy (00:04):
I never give any one client more than the equivalent of 10
or 15 hours a week.
If you give them all your timeand they really like you and
they want to keep you, they'regoing to make you a job offer
and nothing kills a goodconsulting relationship faster
than a job offer.
Mirav (00:20):
Welcome back to how Much Can I Make.
I'm your host, miravu Zeri.
Ever wondered what consultantsactually do or how can they go
from nine to five job to runningtheir own consulting business?
Today, I'm talking to AmyRasdall, who swapped corporate
life for the freedom ofconsulting.
She's here to share with us howit all works and how much can
(00:42):
you actually make.
So, amy, thank you very muchfor being here and sharing your
time.
Oh, thank you for having me.
I have lots of questions and Iwant to start by what is a
consultant?
What does a consultant do?
Amy (00:56):
Yes, so there are many versions of it.
For me, I like to call it asuperhero with a superpower
making super pay.
Mirav (01:06):
Okay.
Amy (01:06):
So for me it's not.
There's a lot of talk thesedays about fractional, you know,
which is kind of part timecontract, you know higher level
executive stuff.
So for me it's going in doingthe work that really is your
expertise, making a big impact,getting well compensated for the
impact and contribution thatyou're making, and then moving
on to whatever the next thingmight be.
(01:29):
So I like to say againsuperheroes, superpower, super
pay.
Mirav (01:32):
So who can become a consultant.
I mean, it sounds really good,you make a great pay, but yeah
yeah, but who can become one?
Amy (01:41):
Anyone can consult.
If you can get paid for it, youcan do it.
But I'm kind of, in what I do,focused on more typically
corporate folks, people who'vebeen working corporate nine to
five jobs, who then leave thatnine to five job and do
consulting.
The work that they're doing isvery similar to the work that
they were doing in theircorporate job, but they're doing
(02:03):
it on a consulting basis, whichgives them a lot more control
over how they work, where theywork, who they work with, how
much money they make.
Mirav (02:12):
those kinds of things Right, but I would think that
somebody needs to be an expertin something in order to consult
.
Amy (02:18):
Yes, but expert has a broad range.
You just need to be able tomake a contribution.
So expertise doesn't need to be, you know, a PhD thought leader
type of person.
It can be anybody who's reallygood at what it is.
They do years or moreexperience in the area that they
(02:44):
consult in.
So it's not new college grads,it's not somebody that wants to
do something completelydifferent.
But if you've been doingmarketing or accounting or
mechanical engineering or HR orwhatever it might be, then you
do it on a project basis.
Mirav (03:00):
So it's, in a way, it's like freelancing as a consultant
, right.
Amy (03:05):
Yes, so it's very similar to freelancing.
The term freelancing, in myexperiences, is more typically
used for creatives rather thancorporate folks, and I think in
my world there's an impressionthat consultants are making more
money than freelancers.
Mirav (03:21):
What industries do you think or do you know that hire
consultants usually?
Amy (03:33):
Almost all flavors of corporations hire it.
My personal background is a lotof medical devices, life
sciences, things like that, butI have people in my programs
from every type of industry youcan imagine.
I can't think of any thatcategorically don't.
It's the idea of a companyhaving a special need or project
that they don't need to hire afull-time employee to do.
Occasionally it is an interimneed, it's because somebody's
(03:57):
left and they need to fill thegap until somebody else comes
along.
But more typically it's aspecial project.
My expertise is productdevelopment programs that aren't
going the way they should.
They hire me to come in andfigure out what's going wrong,
get it back on track and thenleave the team there to carry on
and I go away.
Mirav (04:19):
What about AI?
Do you see a lot of companiesjust using AI instead of hiring
consultant?
Amy (04:26):
I don't know that.
I think that will beinteresting.
Right now, I don't see that AIfills the job of a real person.
Still Now, I do think there'sgoing to be a role for AI
consultants.
I don't know exactly what thatis, but for sure there's all
kinds of people and companieswondering what's it going to
(04:48):
mean, what's it going to do?
I know in my own work andpersonal life I'm using AI more
and more.
I'm hearing people talkingabout.
Well, it's going to take jobs.
So it's funny because myhusband and I were just talking
about this.
It must have been like about1981.
I was a college student and Igot a temp job and I had like a
(05:10):
little airline stewardess outfit.
I guess we call them flightattendants now.
Right, I'm dating myself, and Iwas part of the team for Bank of
America, hired as a temp, thatworked on the rollout of the
first automated teller machine.
Wow, and we would stand infront of them in our little
uniforms and, instead ofspitting out money yet, we were
(05:32):
helping people get their ATMcards and it would spit out like
a free Big Mac or a freeSlurpee at 7-Eleven and stuff
like that to get them used to.
And at the time the big thingwas this is going to take
people's jobs.
People aren't going to be banktellers anymore.
You know all this big stuff.
You know where it's all goingto go out.
I'm a software engineer bybackground, so AI has been
(05:55):
around forever.
It's just code, right.
I don't believe at this momentAI is taking the job of any
consultant, if anything.
I don't know how you positionyourself, but I have a feeling
that there's a new opportunityfor AI consultants.
Mirav (06:11):
That's very possible.
How did you get your first job?
Amy (06:14):
Oddly enough, my first job.
I had been at a startup and wewent you know gangbusters way
into the sky and then we crashedand burned hard when we when we
when it stopped beingsuccessful.
So I was looking for a job andhad kind of put out word to
everyone that I know that I waslooking for a job.
A consulting project fell intomy lap because somebody that
(06:35):
knew me said you know, I don'thave a job for you, but we have
this project.
We need someone about 20 hoursa week for three months.
Would you be interested?
And I said yes, that soundsgreat and I'm thinking that's
perfect.
It brings in enough money topay the bills, gives me a little
time to look around withoutburning through savings while
I'm looking and waiting.
I got four or five weeks intothat and I said cancel the job
(06:59):
search.
I'm now a consultant.
So that's really how I gotstarted was somewhat
accidentally.
Mirav (07:04):
And did you become an expert in a certain field?
Amy (07:07):
Well, what's interesting is that my deepest experience and
expertise is medical devices,but if I look at my history of
billable work, it's probablyonly about half medical devices,
because I would get referred.
I did a project for AmericanIdol once in the early days of
American Idol.
It was so fun.
They were doing a sweepstakescontest.
One year it was four tickets,all expenses paid to the finale,
(07:31):
and this is when American Idolwas kind of like the only one of
those shows.
Now there's tons of them and soit was a huge deal.
Everyone knew American Idol andso they did a sweepstakes to
promote it.
And it turns out sweepstakeshave are highly regulated, so
there was a lot of details thatneeded to be done and they hired
me to to do the sweepstakecontest like the operational
(07:53):
part of it.
Mirav (07:54):
Because your knowledge was in IT?
Or why did they hire you?
Amy (07:58):
No, because somebody knew me and said if you just want
somebody who, no matter what,can get it done and will chase
every detail to the last degreeand it will be good, you call
Amy.
Mirav (08:11):
Give me an example.
You get a job.
You don't really know thecompany.
You're not in the company.
You get a consulting job.
We'll get to the pay in aminute, but what do you do?
How do you take it from there?
What's your first step when youget a consulting job?
Amy (08:24):
So first I just jump in.
Most new consultants aresurprised that the client
company doesn't know that muchabout what the consultant
actually needs to come in and dothey have a problem?
So the first thing coming in isto figure out okay, here's what
they told me, that's going on.
Gather all the information thatyou can and then start digging
into what really is going on.
(08:46):
How do we need to fix it?
How closely does it map to whatthey may have thought is going
on and needs to be done to fixit?
Because sometimes it's reallyclear and you just zoom right
through.
Sometimes there's a really biggap.
A lot of times it's either aproblem or a special project
that they're trying to do with,kind of a one-time thing that
(09:06):
they're not going to repeat overand over.
So really it's a matter of justkind of rolling up your sleeves
and digging in and figuring itout.
The ability to work with alllevels of the company so from
the executives to all the way tothe guys who are on the
shipping dock and kind ofeverything in between it's a
benefit to be able to work withdifferent functional areas to
(09:26):
build relationships.
There are some benefits,depending what it is you do to
having a versatile interpersonalstyle so that you can get along
with a lot of different people.
One of the interesting thingsis you come in to solve a
problem.
You had nothing to do withcreating the problem, but
sometimes you get blamed for it.
So that's kind of part of thejob is taking some of the hits
(09:50):
for the problems that are in theproject, even though you didn't
contribute to them.
Mirav (09:53):
How do you charge your clients?
How do you make this decision?
Amy (09:58):
You figure out what you want to charge and then the
market has to be willing to payit.
It's hard and there's manydifferent sort of philosophies
and emotions around it.
There's a sense forprofessional level people that
we don't bill hourly, likepeople at McDonald's, make
hourly rates, not high levelprofessional consultants, but I
(10:18):
think that's ridiculous, right?
I think that at the end of theday, you're selling hours and
you should know what you'remaking per hour.
In terms of how you positionthat with a potential client, I
think it depends on their needs.
So it may be hourly, it may bedaily, it may be a monthly
retainer, but at the end of theday, I'm always teaching my
(10:38):
people make sure you know whatyour hourly rate is.
If you have no idea where tostart, you start at $150 an hour
and you take it from there.
If you, if you're worth more,by all means I want you to
charge more.
People have a tendency toundercharge to not have the
courage to charge what they'rereally worth.
(10:58):
I don't like to be shy, I liketo just throw out.
Let's start talking at 150.
Mirav (11:04):
And what I tell the people who are in my programs I
say, if you think you should becharging less than that, then
I'm going to make you convinceme why you know, if you make a
deal with a client for threemonths and after two months the
job ends for whatever reasonthey sold the company or
whatever how does it work?
Do they still have to pay youfor the rest of the term?
Amy (11:25):
On the occasion that, for some reason, they don't need me
anymore.
I usually just make sure thatI'm paid for what I've worked
and then move on.
But I will also tell you that Inever give any one client all
of my time.
Mirav (11:40):
Oh, so you work on few projects at the same time?
Amy (11:44):
Yes, so I never give any one client more than the
equivalent of 10 or 15 hours aweek.
And again, this is what I teachmy people Because if you give
them all your time and theyreally like you and they want to
keep you, they're going to makeyou a job offer.
And nothing kills a goodconsulting relationship faster
than a job offer.
Superhero, superpower, superpay not day-to-day operational
(12:07):
employee.
I want to do what I'm reallygood at and then my job is to go
away and not stay there and belocked in.
And then my job is to go awayand not stay there and be locked
in.
So I give any one client 10 or15 hours a week and I have two
or three or four consultingprojects going at any one time.
So if somebody drops out beforewe expected it to, then I have
(12:27):
others going in and then I havepeople in my pipeline that I can
fill in with that.
Mirav (12:33):
How long have you been a consultant?
Amy (12:35):
Well, I say 15 years, but it's been more than 20.
Wow, over time I did justconsulting for a long time and
what I found is that I keptgetting more and more people
talking to me and asking me youknow like, hey, amy, you seem to
really like doing this.
You're making good money.
I see you, you know, havingthis great life, having
flexibility.
Can we have lunch and talkabout how do you do it?
(12:57):
So I started thinking you know,what do I love, what do I hate,
what do I do differently?
I started to accumulate a bodyof material.
I realized the market waslooking for it.
So I founded, a little morethan 10 years ago, billable at
the beach.
So at this point I'm only doingbillable at the beach.
It's a program, you know.
It has all the online stuff,group coaching kind of stuff
(13:20):
that helps lead people throughstarting their own consulting
business.
So I don't do hands-onconsulting anymore.
I'm completely focused on that.
What will your students learn?
What can they get?
What they'll get is theinspiration, the motivation and,
more importantly, the mechanicsfor how to get started.
And the big thing I am a verypractical person.
(13:43):
In my corporate world, mystrength is not strategy but
implementation and execution.
So my whole approach is Iassume that you want to start a
business consulting because youneed to generate revenue.
So my whole focus is land aproject, get a check in the bank
and then you do the other stuff.
You don't need a website, youdon't need a logo, you don't
(14:06):
need fancy photos, you don'teven need a fancy name.
You need brainpower, businessexperience, a computer and a
phone.
That's all you need to getstarted, start doing project
work.
Do you need those other thingsat some point?
Absolutely, but first let'sfigure out how to generate
revenue.
Mirav (14:25):
Interesting.
So what is the most common waypeople break into consulting?
Let's say they took your courseand all of that.
They know what to do.
How do they break in actually?
Amy (14:36):
So I have this love course, right, I have this free email
course on my website that I calla catchy three action steps to
generate revenue now.
So first you put together whatI call your value proposition,
or your elevator pitch.
It's just what are the servicesthat you're selling?
You know what do you do.
Are you a, an accountant, areyou a marketing person?
(14:58):
Are you PhD, toxicologist?
What are the services that youhave to offer?
And then I tell people, make alist of all the people that you
know, all the people that you'veworked with before, and then
don't underestimate the power ofthe rest of your community your
doctor, your dentist, yourlawyer, your car mechanic.
I've sometimes, like I've beenon field trips with the kids and
(15:21):
we live in San Diego, so theclosest mission is San Juan,
capistrano.
In fourth grade, everybody doesthis.
You load all the kids on thetrain, you take them up to the
mission.
So on the way up in the train,the parents are all like
mingling.
On the way back on the train,after everybody's tired, the
parents are all in the bar car.
So we're chatting and it's likewe're done with the kids.
It's like so what do you do?
(15:42):
So what do you do?
I mean?
I've gotten referrals fromother parents, from family
friends, from.
I went to an opera one time andI was by myself.
So some guy was out in front,said, you know, saw me
approaching the ticket window,said, hey, are you looking for a
ticket?
And I said yeah.
And he said, well, my wife'ssick today.
I have really great seats, I'llgive it to you at half price.
I'm like great Well, offers arelong, so we're chatting during
(16:05):
intermission and he goes oh mygosh, I'm.
You know, I'm the COO at amedical device company in San
Diego and we traded cards.
I did a project.
So once you start kind ofopening your eyes to the
possibilities.
So what I teach first is reallymine, your existing
relationships and LinkedIn isperfect, right, you dig into
(16:27):
LinkedIn.
You worked for Hewlett Packard25 years ago.
You could look up and find thepeople.
Right, you were at CBS.
You could go onto LinkedIn and,if you've lost touch with
people, find out where they allare and reach back out on
LinkedIn, right?
Mirav (16:43):
So a lot of it is the right connection and luck, luck.
Amy (16:46):
I find out that in almost every industry serendipity right
which is kind of theconvergence of luck and being
willing to take advantage of it.
So there's a correct quote fromRoss Perot of all people, you
never get the chance to be luckyunless you take risks.
Mirav (17:05):
That's so true.
I never heard that.
That is so true.
Yeah, what is the biggestchallenge of becoming a
consultant?
Amy (17:13):
Oh for sure, the hardest thing for everybody doing the
work is the easy part.
The hard part is finding thework and keeping your pipeline
full of high quality projects.
Mirav (17:25):
So is there any kind of organization or any kinds of app
?
Amy (17:29):
You have to hunt what you eat.
It's up to you.
But you don't have to be agreat networker or a salesperson
or an extrovert when you getstarted.
So I'm an engineer bybackground.
I attract a lot of people whoare engineers and I start
talking about networking andthey think, ah, you can learn,
People can learn how to do that.
And what's funny is thatsometimes the people who come to
(17:52):
me who are professionalsalespeople they have more
trouble selling themselves.
They've always sold otherthings selling themselves than
an introverted IT guy.
So it's very interesting to see.
But it's a skill that can belearned.
It's not something that youhave to start out with, but you
(18:14):
have to be willing to do thework and it is going to take you
out of your comfort zone.
Mirav (18:18):
Do you train your people how to sell themselves?
Amy (18:22):
Yes, I give a lot of ideas, a lot of methods and ideas that
are very practical.
There's no magic to it.
There's no magic app or service.
It's really you're responsiblefor selling yourself.
At the end of the day.
It's up to you and there's noway around it.
(18:42):
And I still get people who'vegone through my program.
Is it's actually to you andthere's no way around it?
And I still get people who havegone through my program.
Is it's actually very cute?
I have one woman that I'mthinking of.
She's a PhD scientist and she'slovely, and about every six
months she still reaches out tome and she says are you sure you
don't know of some magic way tosell, like an app or a company
(19:04):
or someone who can just bring meall those leads?
And I would just do the work.
And I say I'm so sorry, but Idon't.
Mirav (19:11):
Some people are not fit to be independent.
They're better off with a job.
Amy (19:15):
For sure, and I do a lot of speaking, and when I do talk
about some of these things, Iwill have people who will come
up and say thank you so muchbecause I've been thinking about
this for so long.
You made me understand veryclearly.
It's not for me.
Mirav (19:32):
Very good, so it's good.
What is the biggest reward ofbecoming a consultant?
Amy (19:38):
For me, it's having control over your life and what you
want to choose.
So it's being able to choosewho you work with, what type of
projects, how you want to makeyour contribution.
Now you don't have full controlover your get paid, because I
have a house that's worth amillion dollars.
(19:58):
I'd really like to sell it for10 million.
Well guess what?
No one's going to buy it right.
So there has to be the markethas to be willing to buy what
you.
10 million?
Well guess what?
No one's going to buy it right.
So there has to be the markethas to be willing to buy what
you're selling.
At the end of the day, you sortof haven't sold your soul.
Nobody is responsible fordetermining my performance
review, my paycheck, mypromotion.
Those are all up to me now.
(20:20):
I just spoke to somebodyrecently who called it having
options instead of obligations.
Mirav (20:28):
When you work on a project as a consultant in a
company, you finished your joband three, four months down the
line there is a problem withsomething that you did, or it
doesn't fit or needs to do.
They contact you.
Did it happen?
Amy (20:41):
Yes, for sure, but usually it's not in the spirit of oh,
you did something wrong.
It's in the spirit of we need alittle bit more help.
Mirav (20:51):
Oh, okay, well, that's good.
Amy (20:52):
Yes.
Mirav (20:53):
Yes, I agree.
Before we go, can you tell usthe website?
How can people reach you?
Amy (20:59):
Sure, it's Billable at the Beach.
If you that and in any way,you'll find my website.
My main social media isLinkedIn.
I don't do a ton of othersocial media places.
So, amy Rousdal or billable atthe beach and and you'll, you'll
find me and my information andthings.
Thank you so much, maybe I'llbe a consultant one day.
Mirav (21:26):
Yes, well, I always hear about consultants yeah right,
well, I do it for free.
I give a lot of advice forpeople for free.
That's a problem too.
You have to learn to charge foryour advice.
Amy (21:36):
If you ever want me to convince you, feel free to reach
out.
Mirav (21:41):
I will Thank you so much.
Thank will Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Amy (21:45):
Thank you very much.
Mirav (21:48):
Okay, that's a wrap for today.
If you have a comment orquestion or would like us to
cover a certain job, please letus know.
Visit our website athowmuchcanimakeinfo.
We would love to hear from you.
And, on your way out, don'tforget to subscribe and share
this episode with anyone who iscurious about their next job.
See you next time.
I never give any one client more than the equivalent of 10
or 15 hours a week.
If you give them all your timeand they really like you and
they want to keep you, they'regoing to make you a job offer
and nothing kills a goodconsulting relationship faster
than a job offer.
Mirav (00:20):
Welcome back to how Much Can I Make.
I'm your host, miravu Zeri.
Ever wondered what consultantsactually do or how can they go
from nine to five job to runningtheir own consulting business?
Today, I'm talking to AmyRasdall, who swapped corporate
life for the freedom ofconsulting.
She's here to share with us howit all works and how much can
(00:42):
you actually make.
So, amy, thank you very muchfor being here and sharing your
time.
Oh, thank you for having me.
I have lots of questions and Iwant to start by what is a
consultant?
What does a consultant do?
Amy (00:56):
Yes, so there are many versions of it.
For me, I like to call it asuperhero with a superpower
making super pay.
Mirav (01:06):
Okay.
Amy (01:06):
So for me it's not.
There's a lot of talk thesedays about fractional, you know,
which is kind of part timecontract, you know higher level
executive stuff.
So for me it's going in doingthe work that really is your
expertise, making a big impact,getting well compensated for the
impact and contribution thatyou're making, and then moving
on to whatever the next thingmight be.
(01:29):
So I like to say againsuperheroes, superpower, super
pay.
Mirav (01:32):
So who can become a consultant.
I mean, it sounds really good,you make a great pay, but yeah
yeah, but who can become one?
Amy (01:41):
Anyone can consult.
If you can get paid for it, youcan do it.
But I'm kind of, in what I do,focused on more typically
corporate folks, people who'vebeen working corporate nine to
five jobs, who then leave thatnine to five job and do
consulting.
The work that they're doing isvery similar to the work that
they were doing in theircorporate job, but they're doing
(02:03):
it on a consulting basis, whichgives them a lot more control
over how they work, where theywork, who they work with, how
much money they make.
Mirav (02:12):
those kinds of things Right, but I would think that
somebody needs to be an expertin something in order to consult
.
Amy (02:18):
Yes, but expert has a broad range.
You just need to be able tomake a contribution.
So expertise doesn't need to be, you know, a PhD thought leader
type of person.
It can be anybody who's reallygood at what it is.
They do years or moreexperience in the area that they
(02:44):
consult in.
So it's not new college grads,it's not somebody that wants to
do something completelydifferent.
But if you've been doingmarketing or accounting or
mechanical engineering or HR orwhatever it might be, then you
do it on a project basis.
Mirav (03:00):
So it's, in a way, it's like freelancing as a consultant
, right.
Amy (03:05):
Yes, so it's very similar to freelancing.
The term freelancing, in myexperiences, is more typically
used for creatives rather thancorporate folks, and I think in
my world there's an impressionthat consultants are making more
money than freelancers.
Mirav (03:21):
What industries do you think or do you know that hire
consultants usually?
Amy (03:33):
Almost all flavors of corporations hire it.
My personal background is a lotof medical devices, life
sciences, things like that, butI have people in my programs
from every type of industry youcan imagine.
I can't think of any thatcategorically don't.
It's the idea of a companyhaving a special need or project
that they don't need to hire afull-time employee to do.
Occasionally it is an interimneed, it's because somebody's
(03:57):
left and they need to fill thegap until somebody else comes
along.
But more typically it's aspecial project.
My expertise is productdevelopment programs that aren't
going the way they should.
They hire me to come in andfigure out what's going wrong,
get it back on track and thenleave the team there to carry on
and I go away.
Mirav (04:19):
What about AI?
Do you see a lot of companiesjust using AI instead of hiring
consultant?
Amy (04:26):
I don't know that.
I think that will beinteresting.
Right now, I don't see that AIfills the job of a real person.
Still Now, I do think there'sgoing to be a role for AI
consultants.
I don't know exactly what thatis, but for sure there's all
kinds of people and companieswondering what's it going to
(04:48):
mean, what's it going to do?
I know in my own work andpersonal life I'm using AI more
and more.
I'm hearing people talkingabout.
Well, it's going to take jobs.
So it's funny because myhusband and I were just talking
about this.
It must have been like about1981.
I was a college student and Igot a temp job and I had like a
(05:10):
little airline stewardess outfit.
I guess we call them flightattendants now.
Right, I'm dating myself, and Iwas part of the team for Bank of
America, hired as a temp, thatworked on the rollout of the
first automated teller machine.
Wow, and we would stand infront of them in our little
uniforms and, instead ofspitting out money yet, we were
(05:32):
helping people get their ATMcards and it would spit out like
a free Big Mac or a freeSlurpee at 7-Eleven and stuff
like that to get them used to.
And at the time the big thingwas this is going to take
people's jobs.
People aren't going to be banktellers anymore.
You know all this big stuff.
You know where it's all goingto go out.
I'm a software engineer bybackground, so AI has been
(05:55):
around forever.
It's just code, right.
I don't believe at this momentAI is taking the job of any
consultant, if anything.
I don't know how you positionyourself, but I have a feeling
that there's a new opportunityfor AI consultants.
Mirav (06:11):
That's very possible.
How did you get your first job?
Amy (06:14):
Oddly enough, my first job.
I had been at a startup and wewent you know gangbusters way
into the sky and then we crashedand burned hard when we when we
when it stopped beingsuccessful.
So I was looking for a job andhad kind of put out word to
everyone that I know that I waslooking for a job.
A consulting project fell intomy lap because somebody that
(06:35):
knew me said you know, I don'thave a job for you, but we have
this project.
We need someone about 20 hoursa week for three months.
Would you be interested?
And I said yes, that soundsgreat and I'm thinking that's
perfect.
It brings in enough money topay the bills, gives me a little
time to look around withoutburning through savings while
I'm looking and waiting.
I got four or five weeks intothat and I said cancel the job
(06:59):
search.
I'm now a consultant.
So that's really how I gotstarted was somewhat
accidentally.
Mirav (07:04):
And did you become an expert in a certain field?
Amy (07:07):
Well, what's interesting is that my deepest experience and
expertise is medical devices,but if I look at my history of
billable work, it's probablyonly about half medical devices,
because I would get referred.
I did a project for AmericanIdol once in the early days of
American Idol.
It was so fun.
They were doing a sweepstakescontest.
One year it was four tickets,all expenses paid to the finale,
(07:31):
and this is when American Idolwas kind of like the only one of
those shows.
Now there's tons of them and soit was a huge deal.
Everyone knew American Idol andso they did a sweepstakes to
promote it.
And it turns out sweepstakeshave are highly regulated, so
there was a lot of details thatneeded to be done and they hired
me to to do the sweepstakecontest like the operational
(07:53):
part of it.
Mirav (07:54):
Because your knowledge was in IT?
Or why did they hire you?
Amy (07:58):
No, because somebody knew me and said if you just want
somebody who, no matter what,can get it done and will chase
every detail to the last degreeand it will be good, you call
Amy.
Mirav (08:11):
Give me an example.
You get a job.
You don't really know thecompany.
You're not in the company.
You get a consulting job.
We'll get to the pay in aminute, but what do you do?
How do you take it from there?
What's your first step when youget a consulting job?
Amy (08:24):
So first I just jump in.
Most new consultants aresurprised that the client
company doesn't know that muchabout what the consultant
actually needs to come in and dothey have a problem?
So the first thing coming in isto figure out okay, here's what
they told me, that's going on.
Gather all the information thatyou can and then start digging
into what really is going on.
(08:46):
How do we need to fix it?
How closely does it map to whatthey may have thought is going
on and needs to be done to fixit?
Because sometimes it's reallyclear and you just zoom right
through.
Sometimes there's a really biggap.
A lot of times it's either aproblem or a special project
that they're trying to do with,kind of a one-time thing that
(09:06):
they're not going to repeat overand over.
So really it's a matter of justkind of rolling up your sleeves
and digging in and figuring itout.
The ability to work with alllevels of the company so from
the executives to all the way tothe guys who are on the
shipping dock and kind ofeverything in between it's a
benefit to be able to work withdifferent functional areas to
(09:26):
build relationships.
There are some benefits,depending what it is you do to
having a versatile interpersonalstyle so that you can get along
with a lot of different people.
One of the interesting thingsis you come in to solve a
problem.
You had nothing to do withcreating the problem, but
sometimes you get blamed for it.
So that's kind of part of thejob is taking some of the hits
(09:50):
for the problems that are in theproject, even though you didn't
contribute to them.
Mirav (09:53):
How do you charge your clients?
How do you make this decision?
Amy (09:58):
You figure out what you want to charge and then the
market has to be willing to payit.
It's hard and there's manydifferent sort of philosophies
and emotions around it.
There's a sense forprofessional level people that
we don't bill hourly, likepeople at McDonald's, make
hourly rates, not high levelprofessional consultants, but I
(10:18):
think that's ridiculous, right?
I think that at the end of theday, you're selling hours and
you should know what you'remaking per hour.
In terms of how you positionthat with a potential client, I
think it depends on their needs.
So it may be hourly, it may bedaily, it may be a monthly
retainer, but at the end of theday, I'm always teaching my
(10:38):
people make sure you know whatyour hourly rate is.
If you have no idea where tostart, you start at $150 an hour
and you take it from there.
If you, if you're worth more,by all means I want you to
charge more.
People have a tendency toundercharge to not have the
courage to charge what they'rereally worth.
(10:58):
I don't like to be shy, I liketo just throw out.
Let's start talking at 150.
Mirav (11:04):
And what I tell the people who are in my programs I
say, if you think you should becharging less than that, then
I'm going to make you convinceme why you know, if you make a
deal with a client for threemonths and after two months the
job ends for whatever reasonthey sold the company or
whatever how does it work?
Do they still have to pay youfor the rest of the term?
Amy (11:25):
On the occasion that, for some reason, they don't need me
anymore.
I usually just make sure thatI'm paid for what I've worked
and then move on.
But I will also tell you that Inever give any one client all
of my time.
Mirav (11:40):
Oh, so you work on few projects at the same time?
Amy (11:44):
Yes, so I never give any one client more than the
equivalent of 10 or 15 hours aweek.
And again, this is what I teachmy people Because if you give
them all your time and theyreally like you and they want to
keep you, they're going to makeyou a job offer.
And nothing kills a goodconsulting relationship faster
than a job offer.
Superhero, superpower, superpay not day-to-day operational
(12:07):
employee.
I want to do what I'm reallygood at and then my job is to go
away and not stay there and belocked in.
And then my job is to go awayand not stay there and be locked
in.
So I give any one client 10 or15 hours a week and I have two
or three or four consultingprojects going at any one time.
So if somebody drops out beforewe expected it to, then I have
(12:27):
others going in and then I havepeople in my pipeline that I can
fill in with that.
Mirav (12:33):
How long have you been a consultant?
Amy (12:35):
Well, I say 15 years, but it's been more than 20.
Wow, over time I did justconsulting for a long time and
what I found is that I keptgetting more and more people
talking to me and asking me youknow like, hey, amy, you seem to
really like doing this.
You're making good money.
I see you, you know, havingthis great life, having
flexibility.
Can we have lunch and talkabout how do you do it?
(12:57):
So I started thinking you know,what do I love, what do I hate,
what do I do differently?
I started to accumulate a bodyof material.
I realized the market waslooking for it.
So I founded, a little morethan 10 years ago, billable at
the beach.
So at this point I'm only doingbillable at the beach.
It's a program, you know.
It has all the online stuff,group coaching kind of stuff
(13:20):
that helps lead people throughstarting their own consulting
business.
So I don't do hands-onconsulting anymore.
I'm completely focused on that.
What will your students learn?
What can they get?
What they'll get is theinspiration, the motivation and,
more importantly, the mechanicsfor how to get started.
And the big thing I am a verypractical person.
(13:43):
In my corporate world, mystrength is not strategy but
implementation and execution.
So my whole approach is Iassume that you want to start a
business consulting because youneed to generate revenue.
So my whole focus is land aproject, get a check in the bank
and then you do the other stuff.
You don't need a website, youdon't need a logo, you don't
(14:06):
need fancy photos, you don'teven need a fancy name.
You need brainpower, businessexperience, a computer and a
phone.
That's all you need to getstarted, start doing project
work.
Do you need those other thingsat some point?
Absolutely, but first let'sfigure out how to generate
revenue.
Mirav (14:25):
Interesting.
So what is the most common waypeople break into consulting?
Let's say they took your courseand all of that.
They know what to do.
How do they break in actually?
Amy (14:36):
So I have this love course, right, I have this free email
course on my website that I calla catchy three action steps to
generate revenue now.
So first you put together whatI call your value proposition,
or your elevator pitch.
It's just what are the servicesthat you're selling?
You know what do you do.
Are you a, an accountant, areyou a marketing person?
(14:58):
Are you PhD, toxicologist?
What are the services that youhave to offer?
And then I tell people, make alist of all the people that you
know, all the people that you'veworked with before, and then
don't underestimate the power ofthe rest of your community your
doctor, your dentist, yourlawyer, your car mechanic.
I've sometimes, like I've beenon field trips with the kids and
(15:21):
we live in San Diego, so theclosest mission is San Juan,
capistrano.
In fourth grade, everybody doesthis.
You load all the kids on thetrain, you take them up to the
mission.
So on the way up in the train,the parents are all like
mingling.
On the way back on the train,after everybody's tired, the
parents are all in the bar car.
So we're chatting and it's likewe're done with the kids.
It's like so what do you do?
(15:42):
So what do you do?
I mean?
I've gotten referrals fromother parents, from family
friends, from.
I went to an opera one time andI was by myself.
So some guy was out in front,said, you know, saw me
approaching the ticket window,said, hey, are you looking for a
ticket?
And I said yeah.
And he said, well, my wife'ssick today.
I have really great seats, I'llgive it to you at half price.
I'm like great Well, offers arelong, so we're chatting during
(16:05):
intermission and he goes oh mygosh, I'm.
You know, I'm the COO at amedical device company in San
Diego and we traded cards.
I did a project.
So once you start kind ofopening your eyes to the
possibilities.
So what I teach first is reallymine, your existing
relationships and LinkedIn isperfect, right, you dig into
(16:27):
LinkedIn.
You worked for Hewlett Packard25 years ago.
You could look up and find thepeople.
Right, you were at CBS.
You could go onto LinkedIn and,if you've lost touch with
people, find out where they allare and reach back out on
LinkedIn, right?
Mirav (16:43):
So a lot of it is the right connection and luck, luck.
Amy (16:46):
I find out that in almost every industry serendipity right
which is kind of theconvergence of luck and being
willing to take advantage of it.
So there's a correct quote fromRoss Perot of all people, you
never get the chance to be luckyunless you take risks.
Mirav (17:05):
That's so true.
I never heard that.
That is so true.
Yeah, what is the biggestchallenge of becoming a
consultant?
Amy (17:13):
Oh for sure, the hardest thing for everybody doing the
work is the easy part.
The hard part is finding thework and keeping your pipeline
full of high quality projects.
Mirav (17:25):
So is there any kind of organization or any kinds of app
?
Amy (17:29):
You have to hunt what you eat.
It's up to you.
But you don't have to be agreat networker or a salesperson
or an extrovert when you getstarted.
So I'm an engineer bybackground.
I attract a lot of people whoare engineers and I start
talking about networking andthey think, ah, you can learn,
People can learn how to do that.
And what's funny is thatsometimes the people who come to
(17:52):
me who are professionalsalespeople they have more
trouble selling themselves.
They've always sold otherthings selling themselves than
an introverted IT guy.
So it's very interesting to see.
But it's a skill that can belearned.
It's not something that youhave to start out with, but you
(18:14):
have to be willing to do thework and it is going to take you
out of your comfort zone.
Mirav (18:18):
Do you train your people how to sell themselves?
Amy (18:22):
Yes, I give a lot of ideas, a lot of methods and ideas that
are very practical.
There's no magic to it.
There's no magic app or service.
It's really you're responsiblefor selling yourself.
At the end of the day.
It's up to you and there's noway around it.
(18:42):
And I still get people who'vegone through my program.
Is it's actually to you andthere's no way around it?
And I still get people who havegone through my program.
Is it's actually very cute?
I have one woman that I'mthinking of.
She's a PhD scientist and she'slovely, and about every six
months she still reaches out tome and she says are you sure you
don't know of some magic way tosell, like an app or a company
(19:04):
or someone who can just bring meall those leads?
And I would just do the work.
And I say I'm so sorry, but Idon't.
Mirav (19:11):
Some people are not fit to be independent.
They're better off with a job.
Amy (19:15):
For sure, and I do a lot of speaking, and when I do talk
about some of these things, Iwill have people who will come
up and say thank you so muchbecause I've been thinking about
this for so long.
You made me understand veryclearly.
It's not for me.
Mirav (19:32):
Very good, so it's good.
What is the biggest reward ofbecoming a consultant?
Amy (19:38):
For me, it's having control over your life and what you
want to choose.
So it's being able to choosewho you work with, what type of
projects, how you want to makeyour contribution.
Now you don't have full controlover your get paid, because I
have a house that's worth amillion dollars.
(19:58):
I'd really like to sell it for10 million.
Well guess what?
No one's going to buy it right.
So there has to be the markethas to be willing to buy what
you.
10 million?
Well guess what?
No one's going to buy it right.
So there has to be the markethas to be willing to buy what
you're selling.
At the end of the day, you sortof haven't sold your soul.
Nobody is responsible fordetermining my performance
review, my paycheck, mypromotion.
Those are all up to me now.
(20:20):
I just spoke to somebodyrecently who called it having
options instead of obligations.
Mirav (20:28):
When you work on a project as a consultant in a
company, you finished your joband three, four months down the
line there is a problem withsomething that you did, or it
doesn't fit or needs to do.
They contact you.
Did it happen?
Amy (20:41):
Yes, for sure, but usually it's not in the spirit of oh,
you did something wrong.
It's in the spirit of we need alittle bit more help.
Mirav (20:51):
Oh, okay, well, that's good.
Amy (20:52):
Yes.
Mirav (20:53):
Yes, I agree.
Before we go, can you tell usthe website?
How can people reach you?
Amy (20:59):
Sure, it's Billable at the Beach.
If you that and in any way,you'll find my website.
My main social media isLinkedIn.
I don't do a ton of othersocial media places.
So, amy Rousdal or billable atthe beach and and you'll, you'll
find me and my information andthings.
Thank you so much, maybe I'llbe a consultant one day.
Mirav (21:26):
Yes, well, I always hear about consultants yeah right,
well, I do it for free.
I give a lot of advice forpeople for free.
That's a problem too.
You have to learn to charge foryour advice.
Amy (21:36):
If you ever want me to convince you, feel free to reach
out.
Mirav (21:41):
I will Thank you so much.
Thank will Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Amy (21:45):
Thank you very much.
Mirav (21:48):
Okay, that's a wrap for today.
If you have a comment orquestion or would like us to
cover a certain job, please letus know.
Visit our website athowmuchcanimakeinfo.
We would love to hear from you.
And, on your way out, don'tforget to subscribe and share
this episode with anyone who iscurious about their next job.
See you next time.
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