Mindset for Consultants: Put Your Personal Lives First

PUT YOUR PERSONAL LIVES FIRST!

Years ago, I was beyond frustrated. Nobody would hire me, and I wasn’t

confident enough to go out on my own.

My dad asked me: “Max, what do you WANT to do?”

Young Max: “I want to be a consultant.”

Dad: “Congratulations, you’re a consultant . . . all that means is you charge

whatever you want.”

The truth is that everyone is a consultant, and some charge more than others.

The breakdown:

• Consultants sell their knowledge.

• Everyone has knowledge.

• Everyone’s knowledge comes from their experiences.

• Unique experiences mean everyone’s product is unique.

Unique means difficult to replace, so everyone can charge a premium.

What separates the best consultants from the rest is not a superior store

of knowledge but a superior understanding of their knowledge, the ability

to articulate it, and the relentless pursuit of those who need it the most.

HOW DO YOU MAKE THE MONEY?

We could all use more money. But what does money do for you? Will it

buy you more peace? More free time? More happiness and fulfillment?

I remember being five years old and walking into my dad’s home office.

I asked:

“Dad, where do you make the money?”

I thought he was printing money. He didn’t go to work like the rest of the

dads. My friends rarely saw their fathers. Our family was different. We were

spontaneous. We went to Disney World a lot.

Sadly, my dad wasn’t printing money. He told me that was illegal. What he

did have was a business model that produced residual income.

“Digital, scalable, residual,” he would say.

That was my lullaby.

A lot of people say that’s a fairy tale. It’s not real life. We can’t have our cake

and eat it too. They tell us success is built on sacrifice. We have to settle.

We have to work long hours for the man if we want a nice house, car, and

comfortable retirement.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve seen it and lived it firsthand. We can have

our cake and eat it too.

If we put our personal life first, starting with what makes us happy, everything else will fall into place.

The reverse is also true. If we put work first, everything else falls apart.

Why suffer so that one day we can retire from suffering? This has always

seemed backward to me.

These dynamics won’t change until we change our priorities.

Here’s an idea: prioritize your health and personal life.

Decide what you really want and what’s most important to you FIRST.

Then build your money tree.

DIGITAL: SO YOU CAN TAKE YOUR KIDS TO DISNEY!

When unsold products sit on a shelf, or when employees sit around

with no client work, it costs money. Every moment of rest eats away at

profit margins.

Don’t sell something that eats while you sleep. For my father’s generation

this meant that you shouldn’t put products on a shelf.

If you choose to do nothing . . .

If you choose to go skiing . . .

If you choose to take your kids to Disney . . .

Make sure your business doesn’t eat while you’re away.

The traditional consulting model says to buy people and put labor hours

on a shelf. When those hours aren’t sold, they collect dust, costing money.

The business eats while we sleep.

If the model were a Sesame Street character, it would be the Cashflow

Monster, gobbling up dollar bills while everyone looks on in horror.

The stuff of nightmares.

SCALABLE: A NEGATIVE “PAIN IN THE ASS” FACTOR

In professional services we know that the next dollar we make is more

painful than the last.

Every client has different wants and needs, and thus our work is different for

every client. As we experience “success,” we also experience the limitations

of complexity. Our administrative overhead grows faster than revenue.

For a business to be enjoyed at scale, it must have a negative “pain in the

ass” factor: the more you make, the easier it is to enjoy life and provide

value to the next client.

The next dollar must be easier than the last.

RESIDUAL: DO IT ONCE, GET PAID FOREVER

My personal favorite.

We have three relationships with money:

1. Project = do it once, get paid once.

2. Recurring (or retainers) = keep doing it, keep getting paid.

3. Residual = do it once, keep getting paid.

As consultants we all celebrate the shift from project to recurring revenues

because it reminds us of a steady paycheck: a safer, more civilized era.

Then we experience the limitations of complexity: the “pain in the ass” factor

of putting unstructured and variable services into a long-term contract.

The question we all need to answer for ourselves: “How do I achieve a

digital, scalable, and residual business model?”

THE MINDSET

Digital, Scalable, Residual is a mindset, a business mantra. The end result

is not important; it’s the mindset and the journey that leads us to better

decisions.

If our goal is to “grow,” or “double our business,” we can get away with doing

what we do today, just working twice as hard.

But when we put our personal life first, it forces us to do things differently.

The most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is to define PERSONAL

success. The business model should support our personal goals, not the

other way around.

MOTIVATION

My father wanted to be there for his son. He wanted to live, contribute

to the world, and be healthy.

When he put life first, the only option was residual income: do something

once and get paid forever. Detach time from income: negative “pain in the

ass” factor.

The truth is: you owe it to yourself.