The Independent Consultant's Guide To Preparation (15 Years of Lessons Condensed Into One Post)
You can't anticipate everything that will go wrong, but you can anticipate the vast majority of things which can trip you up and prepare for them like a professional. Here are fifteen years of lessons
Last weekend, Lana Del Rey turned up 30 minutes late to the biggest performance of her life.
She told her frustrated fans it was because her hair took a long time to do, then said she would rush through her set. She later became upset that her set was cut short.
And the fans are upset with the organisers?
If you can’t show up on time for the biggest performance of your career, that’s entirely a preparation problem which you need to fix early.
Pride and Professionalism
Being prepared is an act of pride and shows your professionalism. It shows you respect the audience and have the discipline required for the project.
A failure to prepare, sadly, always suggests an unprofessional approach.
Lana Del Rey’s act reminded me of a situation we faced many years ago. We had a well-known speaker at an event we hosted in London.
She turned up a few minutes before her talk, complained about the size of the room, and then began her 30-minute session by spending 15 minutes having attendees introduce themselves. to her
When a sign went up during her introduction saying she had 10 minutes remaining, she criticised the sign holder and said she would keep going until she was kicked out of the room.
10 minutes later we had to kick her out of the room. It was awkward and uncomfortable for everybody involved. She responded by criticising us (in front of attendees) for being disorganized and inflexible. It wasn’t a great look for anyone.
I can’t stress enough the value of being over-prepared. You can’t anticipate every situation, but you can anticipate the vast majority of situations.
We can break these down into three categories; technical, logistical, and misc.
1) Technical Preparations
It’s staggering how often technology can undermine a client or speaking engagement.
Until recently very recently, I brought two laptops with me on every client trip.
It added some extra weight and was slightly annoying at airports, but it ensured I was never looking unprepared before a client. I rarely needed the substitute, but I knew I could switch laptops without a minute of downtime if anything ever happened.
(I only stopped when I discovered Apple lets you return a Mac for any reason at any time. When my laptop suffered water damage in Boston last year, I went to the Apple store, bought another, and returned it at the end of the week. With everything accessible on the cloud (and with fast internet connections), I only suffered an hour of downtime.)
Technology is naturally complex, but we know the typical problems that tend to arise and can plan to tackle them if they do.
Here are some basic principles.
Everything is on the cloud. Make sure anything you need to do your work is accessible online. Where possible, do all your work online. The days of losing work when a laptop dies should be long behind us. If it’s on the cloud, you can access anything from any device anywhere in the world. It’s the ultimate failsafe.
Don’t rely on having internet access. Don’t assume you will have internet access when presenting or attending a client meeting. Download or screenshot everything you need. Sometimes getting access to a company’s wifi is simple, other times it is problematic and even requires a security check.
Bring your own laptop connectors. If you’re presenting, always bring your own connectors to connect your laptop to the presentation screen. If you’re not sure which connectors to bring, bring the most common. Get an all-in-one connector for VGA, DisplayPort, and DVI. Then bring a HDMI connector too.
Know how to project your laptop onto a projector screen. It’s staggering how few people (even consultants) have ever taken ten minutes to become an expert in how to project their laptop onto a projector screen (or any other type of monitor). There are plenty of explainer videos on this. Learn it once and use the knowledge forever.
Bring your own presentation remote(s). I sat through a painful presentation with a client a few years ago where a vendor had to tell a colleague to change each slide. It interrupted the entire flow of the talk. Bring your own presentation remote (and bring spare batteries too).
Bring a universal adaptor and chargers. This should be obvious, but bring a universal adaptor and your own chargers. You don’t want to be taking Taxis to a shopping mall to buy universal adaptors at the last minute.
Use PDFs where possible. If you’re presenting, always export the document as a PDF and use that format (unless you have videos). This saves you from having to install fonts on new computers and checking the client or conference has the right version of Keynote/PowerPoint you need. It also pretty much guarantees slides won’t be transformed outside of what you intended.
Get a local SIM at the airport. I haven’t tried digital sims yet (although I hear they’re great). But if I’m in any new country for more than a couple of days I pay the $20 to $30 to get a local sim for internet access. Having internet on my phone is a constant lifesaver (with Google Maps, Uber, and Uber Eats) you can solve the majority of problems quickly.
Try to make yourself as self-reliant as possible. The less you depend upon the client to provide you with things, the easier it is to predict the outcomes of an engagement.
Carefully consider where the technology failure points are and be prepared for them. I know when consulting online there was always a risk my internet connection might drop. So for a long time, I paid to have two separate Internet lines to my apartment. It saved me on at least three occasions in two years.
With the widespread availability of 5G I no longer need to do this, but the point is to build some slack and redundancy into the system.
2) Don’t Get Tripped Up By Logistics
Nearly a decade ago, I spoke at Google in Mountain View.
I decided it would be more convenient, given other commitments on my trip, to stay in San Francisco.
Google Maps said the trip would take 45 minutes. I gave myself an hour. An hour and a half later, I was only halfway there. My over-reliance on Google Maps (ironically) caused me to be late. Or, to be more precise, I put myself in a situation where there was a single failure point that could cause me to be late.
I’ve seen speakers, partners, and other consultants show up late saying:
“Sorry, traffic was crazy!”
The problem with this statement should be obvious.
Everyone you’re telling this story to made it to the meeting on time!
Yes, traffic might be unpredictable on any given day - but we know traffic can be unpredictable on any given day. If you plan for the worst to happen, you should be fine.
As a general rule, if anyone else made it to a location on time, there shouldn’t be any reason why you didn’t.
Some useful principles here to help with logistics:
Stay in a hotel close to the venue. As much as possible, stay close to the venue. If it’s walkable, that’s perfect. If it’s not, make sure you have at least two options for getting to where you’re going. I care far less about the quality of the hotel than the location of the hotel.
Have a backup plan if regular transport fails. If you can’t stay within walking distance, have a backup plan. What happens if there is a traffic accident or if you call an Uber and it doesn’t arrive? You should always have a backup plan and give yourself enough time to use that backup plan. That might be public transport or other taxis.
Don’t have close connecting flights. My suggestion is to never book flights with a connection time of less than two hours. We know how notoriously unreliable flights can be so why put that stress on yourself?
Show up to every flight three hours early. I’ve been on over a thousand flights and never missed one. The secret is showing up at least three hours early. Aside from a handful of airports in the USA (Boston!), there are usually places where you can work or pay a small amount to access an airport lounge. I’ve lost count of the times when I turned up at an airport to find an unexpectedly long line of an hour or more to navigate through (or in Tel Aviv’s case 2+ hours).
Give yourself an extra day. To save money, most people book a flight to arrive a day before (or on the day of!) their engagement. I’d suggest not doing that - especially if it’s an international trip. Consider the extra night in a hotel room a cost of doing business and travelling a day earlier. Give yourself some time to relax and prepare.
Clarify the location details. Last year, I made the painful mistake of flying to the wrong airport (Los Angeles) because I didn’t clarify the client’s precise location (San Bernardino). $250 in Uber fees each way later, I’ve learned the importance of checking and clarifying every detail of any engagement.
Check hotels and flights are actually booked. If someone says they’ve booked flights and hotels in your name, check they are actually booked. Use the details provided to log in to the airline and check your flight (and check the details match what you’ve been given). Likewise, phone up the hotel and check if they do have a booking in your name. I can recall a couple of occasions when something wasn’t booked or wasn’t booked for the right date. It’s usually best if you can book trips yourself and claim the money later.
Budget for private transport. As a general rule, I avoid public transport on most work trips. Work trips can be stressful enough without trying to navigate through an unfamiliar public transportation system.
Show up early, but wait. Aim to arrive 15 to 20 minutes early to any meeting. This takes the stress off. Obviously, if you’re meeting a client in person don’t demand they collect you at this time. But just wait in the lobby until it’s time and then sign in. Check your email, watch videos on your phone, whatever you need to do. Showing up early saves a lot of time.
Give yourself an additional day. For almost any trip (especially international trips), give yourself an extra day. Life is so much easier when you can relax for an additional day, adapt to any time difference, and feel comfortable the next day.
People get into trouble with logistics when they try to save money. A better approach is to simply accept that the cheapest options are simply the riskiest options. Factor in the cost of staying a few extra nights in a hotel, a few dozen Ubers, and spending a few hundred dollars more on flights than what you need. Consider it a cost of doing business.
3) Practice, Practice, Practice
Always, always, always practice before any consultancy or speaking engagement.
There are so many times when you identify potential issues in practice which help you deliver a better engagement on the day. Sometimes when you’re saying the words out loud you discover a better way to say what you wanted to say.
Practice your talk a LOT. Make sure you can make it match the time you have available. Practice it without and without a timer. I can usually predict to the nearest 10 seconds when a 30-minute talk will end. Running overtime in a speaking event is unprofessional and puts the organizers in the difficult spot of either cutting you off or cutting down the time of a subsequent speaker. Also, be prepared to cut out five minutes if the organisers decide to spend five minutes on announcements or introducing you at the beginning of the talk (which happens frustratingly often).
Practice your consultancy presentations. If you’re presenting slides to a client or facilitating a workshop, practice it yourself. Consider what kinds of questions the client may have and prepare for them. Make sure you can quickly load up the slides and how to share them on Zoom. Make sure you have closed down every other tab on your home screen! It still blows my mind when someone isn’t ready to go the moment the client joins the call. Everything should be set up and prepared.
Prepare for interruptions. Prepare to be interrupted during any engagement and how you will handle it. Will you take all questions at the end? Make exceptions for senior stakeholders? Or take it on a case-by-case basis? The danger if you’re on a tight schedule is you might get distracted by questions about minor aspects of your presentation and never get around to the critical aspects.
Walk the stage and check your slides. For almost any speaking engagement, always try to have a couple of minutes to walk the stage in advance and check your slides using the clicker. Check where you can and can’t stand (due to feedback). Run through your entire deck on stage. Make sure everything is perfect - while giving yourself enough time to change it.
I’ll probably write a longer post about this topic in the future, but this covers the basics. The more you practice, the better your performance will be. Schedule time in your calendar specifically for practising.
You should never run out of time if you practice well. You should be prepared for interruptions and objections. You should be prepared to handle most unforeseen circumstances.
3) Misc
Some bonus tips from bitter experience.
Check if the hotel has an iron and ironing board. The first thing I do in a hotel room is check if the hotel has an iron or ironing board. If it doesn’t, call reception and request it straight away. I went to a wedding a few years ago where we needed to iron our clothes. Alas, the hotel only had 10 irons and they were all in use. Yes, you can smooth our wrinkles in the shower. I’ve tried that, but it takes hanging them next to the shower for up to an hour with the shower on full heat. It’s the least environmentally friendly approach imaginable.
Organise breakfast in advance. This isn’t always the given you think it might be. The breakfast might be of terrible quality or unavailable at a convenient time. Or, worse yet, might have long lines. I hate being hungry, so I always try to figure out where I can have breakfast in advance. You don’t want to try and figure it out on the day.
Bring snacks everywhere. You never know what the food situation will be, so bring your own snacks (I recommend almonds) that can hold you over in any emergency. If you need coffee (like I do) bring some caffeine pills too. And naturally, bring your own water bottle. Almost every airport offers water filling stations now.
Buy Bose sleep buds. If you never want to be woken up by noise again, buy Bose Sleep Buds 2 (or 3 when they come out). They fit snugly in your ears and play white noise which drowns out everything. It’s an absolute game-changer for sleeping when you’re next to a busy road or club. Nothing has come close to this for helping me sleep.
Sunlight and exercise always helps overcome jetlag. If you’re travelling internationally, the best way to overcome jetlag is to get lots of sunlight and exercise. You need to be outside as much as possible. Melatonin can help, but people treat it like a sleeping pill. Exercise is also really useful. Book hotels with gyms if you can, but not if they’re far away from the location.
Go easy on yourself mentally. In my younger years, I would often struggle to sleep due to stress or nerves about the following night. I can recall being awake until 3 or 4 in the morning before a major speaking engagement or client engagement because I couldn’t get myself to sleep. The fear of not getting enough sleep ultimately became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ultimately, I realised I was suffering far more in my head than in reality. I want to do well in each engagement, but my ego or success isn’t tied to the success of any single activity.
Bonus: Use The Noah’s Ark Rule To Make Preparation Easy
Here’s a simple recommendation which has saved me a tonne of stress.
Simply get two of everything you need for work and travel. Then keep one of those items in your travel bag and the other for home use. This makes packing so much easier.
See a work shirt you like that fits you well? Buy two of them. One for home trips and one for travel trips.
Have two of all your toiletries. Keep one set in your travel bag and the other in your home.
Have two laptops. A cheaper travel laptop (which can afford to get a little banged up) and a better one for home.
Have two chargers, adaptors, etc…
When you get home after a work trip, unpack the electronics and toiletries, take the entire travel bag down to dry cleaners, and collect it a few days later. Your clothes are cleaned, irons, and pre-packed for you. That’s $30 well spent.
When you next need to travel for a work trip, add your toiletries, passport, wallet, and shoes (I don’t buy two sets of shoes), and you’re ready to go. If you do this well, you can pack in about five minutes and be very sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
Preparing well is a sign of professionalism.
Doing the basics well is a serious statement of intent. It reflects the kind of care and pride you take in the work. It shows your level of respect towards others. It shows you’re the kind of person who has their act together.
Every investment you make in time and money in preparation will pay off several times over down the line. I’ve found it’s not always to outcompete people on the day, but you can always out-prepare people in advance.
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but perhaps it’s a good place to start thinking about how you can prepare for your next engagement and avoid the common mishaps.