This video is a part of a series of short videos on consulting done as an interview between Rocco Luongo, founder and coach at GoRocco.Pro and Jason Bell, a seasoned leader with a long career. At the time of this interview, Jason was finishing up his Master’s degree in Organizational Development and exploring options for developing consulting as a next-stage career choice.
In this video Jason and I discuss what I find most satisfying as a consultant. There are many! The freedom the work offers, the variety of problems to solve, deep human interaction and full-brain utilization are among them. However, in this video I centered on learning opportunities. As I develop my clients, I develop myself. I read constantly, and I put that learning into effect in short order with clients. When I find a useful nugget in a book or online, I create a short template for it by re-purposing and modifying an existing template that I already have. I include the key questions and steps directly in the template so that I can implement it effectively. You must be disciplined while doing this. There is only so much new material you should try ‘live’ with a client at once. Too little new stuff and your clients will stagnate. Too much and you risk instability and potentially retrograde motion in your client.
Learn how I shorten my ‘Build it / Test it / Break it / Learn it’ cycle on a daily basis to generate stronger results for my clients as well as building valuable assets into my own company. A full transcript of the video follows:
Video Transcript:
Jason Bell: What do you what do you find most
satisfying about being a consultant?
Rocco Luongo: I learn something every time. It
challenges me to summon my energy and
get intensely present. It’s not like I
only have that to do in my day, meaning
having a session. So, just like everybody
else, I have normal aggravations in my
life. You know, Oh crap! I didn’t see that
bill now that’s overdue. GoDaddy’s
calling me about a domain that needs to
be redone. I mean I’ve got regular crap
in my life that I have to deal with and
then, Oh crap! I’ve got to get in for this
interview right now / I have to get in
for this session, and I can’t carry my
load in with them. So being able . . . this
has forced me to develop the skill to
summon my energy at will and to get
intensely present at will and I think
that’s them that’s one of the most
tactical and valuable things that I’ve
learned that I apply throughout my life
it’s really improved the relationship
with my wife.
RL: We’ll talk later about “don’t coach your
Wife.” [Laugh] That’s something that’s an
important thing to remember and there’s
also an asterisk on the end of it, you
can but it you can’t at first. This is
a long game.
RL: One of this the more practical things
I like best about it is that I get paid to
be me. I get to work on me all the time.
My job, Tyrion said,
“Brains need books like swords need
whetstones. So, my work is literally
constantly flowing information through
my brain and I love to do it. I love to
interact with people. My build it / test it /
break it / learn it cycle in this is very
fast. I read stuff, I put it into effect, I
see how it works with people, I bring it
back, I take a new book. So, I closed the
loop on my growth with direct and
tangible feedback from the from the real
market on a constant basis from many
different clients simultaneously so my
learning cycle has accelerated
dramatically because my iterations are
so tight now.
I’m not like reading a book and have a
month before I get to test it out.
I can read something new and try it out
with three people that day and see how
valuable it really is and adapt so just
just simply accelerating the path of my
own growth and then my clients grow.