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.