Building and growing a business is not easy. It requires a lot of work, time, and money. So how can you fast-track your consulting business’ growth? Today, MaryBeth Maskovas, the Founder, Lead Analytics, and Optimization Consultant for Insight Lime Analytics, shares her journey from finding her passion for analytics to building her consulting agency amidst the pandemic. Find out how a business coach gave her the perspective she needed to take her business to the next level. Learn how hiring the right people, building relationships, and being open to feedback helped their company get 80% repeat clients and referrals with a 100 NPS score.
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I am very excited to have MaryBeth Maskovas join me. MaryBeth, welcome.
Thanks so much for having me.
You are an Analytics and Optimization Consultant. You work with clients in eCommerce, retail, SaaS, B2B, and food and beverage. It is a wide range. You are the Founder of Insight Lime Analytics. It is a data strategy consultancy. You started that in September of 2020. A fun note is that in your first year of business, you received a 100 NPS score from your top five clients, if I’m not mistaken. I want to get into that.
For those who are not familiar, NPS is the Net Promoter Score. It is a score of the satisfaction levels of your clients. That is a very high, almost unusually or a number that you never even hear. It is interesting. It is a small sample size but I want to get into some of the best practices that have led to that and how you have gone from getting started to building up a business with a team and a lot of good things happening.
Before we get into all that, let’s go back in time because I believe you were recruited into a custom software company or digital agency as a marketing analyst. That happened as you were doing an Evolutionary Biology degree. Take us from an Evolutionary Biology degree to getting into marketing analytics. What happened there? What was going on in your life at that time?
When you hear it by itself, it sounds like, “How are those two things related?” I was studying EBIO at the University of Colorado. The part where it starts to make sense is that the EBIO degree at the University of Colorado, at least when I took it, has a pretty heavy statistical background. You learn how to programming. There is a lot of focus on experimental design. I was the one who worked all the way through my college.
Some of the things were odd jobs like working at a doggy daycare but I kept going back to these marketing-related jobs. I got a horticulture internship, and then I started looking at their digital strategy. It kept happening. This software company was ahead of the game in identifying that like, “Marketing is going to go into a place where you need data skills.” They were like, “We want you to look at things like paid advertising from this hard science background.”
It is a funny story. My two options were I had that offer on the table and was looking at this job where I would move to Davis, and I would census dead bats for a living. It would be a night job and would be furthering my career, and then I would go and get a PhD in Biology. It was a hard decision, even though it sounds like some people would be like, “Gross.” I decided to go with marketing analytics. I was curious. I was interested in digital. That’s the long and short of how I ended up there. It was a great fit. I fell into the world of consulting right away. I started interacting with the clients directly a lot sooner than I thought I would. I ended up finding that that was a fulfilling career for me.
What will you say when you are at that point where you were going to either go off and census or do some research around bats? If you did that, you would have been the first person that I would have met that was doing that role. That would have been unique but what ultimately pulled you over to the direction of analytics and marketing? Was there something inside of you or was it more financially related? What was the real deciding factor that pulled you in that direction, as opposed to the other one?
You could be the best analyst in the world, but if you are not great at managing relationships and understanding the dynamics in a company, it is a lot harder to make things happen. Click To TweetThe money is definitely one part of it. You make a lot more money there but that is not the bottom line. When you are in a Specialized Biology degree and career, you have to get super-specialized. You start to get more granular. You are focusing on studying one animal at a time. I was always too interested in everything else to have that be my main focus. I acknowledged that in myself and realized that going on a path of digital, there were a lot of different areas you could explore. Even marketing in itself or data in itself has so many specializations. I knew that I would be a lot more fulfilled and entertained doing that than going to specialize in biology.
Let’s forward now to September of 2020. COVID is taking over the world. It is not what you would consider being the ideal time to launch your own consulting business but you did that. Walk us back, even from that time, how long were you thinking about starting your own consulting business before you pulled the trigger in September of 2020? What was going on to that point?
It is an interesting time and story. I had been thinking about starting my own business. I was not sure if it would be consulting for quite some time. It was always a curiosity of mine. Prior to 2020 and COVID, I lived in Copenhagen, where I had lived for about five and a half years. I was working for a consulting firm there, where I was starting to get quite senior. I was touching some large clients and driving what products we were offering. I had a lot of ideas like, “This is something.” The firm that I was at focused a lot more on implementation. I was much more interested in the inset side. I was like, “I could do this.” I was starting to see how an agency ran.
COVID happened, and I was already planning on repatriating to the US but we had to emergency move. My partner and I had to move several months sooner than we were thinking. We ended up getting rid of all of our stuff and moving in two weeks, coming to the US, and staying at my parent’s house. We were trying to figure out what to do then. I was still consulting with eCapacity, waking up at 5:00 in the morning and doing some work with them. That was when I got the completely wrong job at the wrong time. I was recruited into a company. It was not what they advertised. I was super unhappy.
That is when I was like, “This is a perfect time to start over.” I had been doing a side hustle for a while where I had one client that was quite large that I had been doing some digital advising for. I got a business coach and she said, “You have no business working for somebody else.” That was the kick in the butt that I needed. I said, “I am going to quit this job. I am going to give it my all instead of having it as a side thing.”
The timing, I was a little nervous about it being COVID, but luckily, since I was so specialized in the world of eCommerce, there was this discrepancy where some businesses were going ahead, and others were being held back. I was fortunate that a lot of my clients were looking for and had even more demand for my services during that time.
I want to get more into that and explore how you ran with that idea and what you did initially when you launched the business. Before we go there, let’s talk about your time in Copenhagen working for this larger and more established consulting firm. You mentioned that you moved up the ranks fairly quickly. What lessons did you take away from that, that you feel you have been able to apply most to your own consulting business? Is there anything in their approach to how they did work? How do they get clients or price projects? What would you say were the big lessons learned that you feel gave you me an advantage, an edge or confidence to start your own business?
If you are in Denmark and you are looking for a firm, I still would highly recommend them. One of the biggest takeaways that I had at that point was that even when you are consulting with something like data, what matters is the relationships with the people in the firm that you are working with. That’s what drives everything forward. You could be the best analyst in the world but if you are not great at managing those relationships and understanding the dynamics in a company, it is a lot harder to make things happen.
One of the ways that eCapacity focused on doing its work is that they were focused on what made sense for the stakeholders that they had in the company but on the consulting side as well, they were interested in bringing in people with a wide background. They would recruit somebody because of the specific interest that they had or specialization. They would build the packages around that. It would be like, “We know we have this person who is an expert in MarTech. We know they are perfect for this one client.” That was a valuable thing to be like, “You cannot cookie-cutter everything like that. You cannot cookie-cutter the projects either. It depends on the dynamics of the company.”
You talk about the relationship being so important, and most people recognize that that is a very true statement, yet it is not something that a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about, “What is the process to make a relationship a stronger one or one where there are higher levels of trust?” In your experience during that time, what were you doing or what did you see the firm do that you felt was a real best practice that helped to create those stronger, more trusting relationships?
The one thing is that in all of the ways that they talked about themselves, and even when we were talking internally as a group was all about how you can be an advisor or a trusted advisor, prioritizing that over the sale or the project that you want to sell next. How you do that is by developing some core coaching skills, which are around being a good listener and taking the time also to get to know a client beyond what their role is.
Sometimes we want to divide the professional and the personal but that is not how we work as humans. Those concepts help you get to the next level. If you are getting new into a project and you do not know the client that well, taking a few minutes to listen to them and wait until they are ready to move forward with talking business is a simple core step to getting to that next level and able to give advice that they will listen to.
Let’s come back to you launching your own business. It has only been a couple of years or so but you have a team already. I would like to better understand what is the structure of the team? Are they contractors? Are they full-time? How soon from the time you launched your business, did you start building a team around you?
We are four people counting myself. They are all full-time employees except for one who is a full-time contractor. It grew out of my scope of one person quickly as a business. I ended up landing a very big client sooner than I imagined that it would happen. That is when I made my first hire in September 2021. I hired my admin agency ops person, which was the key first hire for me.
We have 1 analytics consultant, 1 consumer insights branding consultant, myself, and then an admin. That structure is mostly based on demand. We are trying to grow sustainably while we put in place where we know we are going to have the next demand. First, we needed someone to do more of the hardcore analysis. That is when we hired our next analytics consultant, who is more specialized in data science than myself.
Bringing on the assistant or the VA can be powerful in unlocking potential. We wrote an article about this, breaking it down on the blog for those that want to check it out on the Consulting Success blog about hiring your first assistant and the steps to go through. For you, specifically, why did you make that your first hire? What were you aiming for or hoping for that that would allow you to do?
I cannot take the credit for this one. I work closely with a business coach. I wanted to hire another expert consultant as my first hire. She told me, “If you do that, you are going to spend all of your time managing this other consultant’s work instead of doing your own work. You need to hire an administrative assistant.” I was resistant at first but I followed her advice because every time that I have, it has gone well for me.
It frees up your core time to spend on the things that are going to make you the most money because then I am not worrying about things like, “What is the P&L like or do we have the right equipment?” All of that is handled for me. I was lucky enough to find someone who also has a lot of that logistics experience that can help him manage things and say, “This is what our capacity is like.” I cannot recommend highly enough that you should be one of your first hires before you start loading on more expert consultants.
Be honest with yourself about who you are and who you are going to be, because there are certain people that would not be a great admin for you, but are a great admin in general. Click To TweetIs there something you looked for a sign that you did in that hiring process to ensure that this was the right person and they would bring the right values, culture or skillset? Are there any lessons learned or any mistakes that you made looking back when like, “I wish I did not do that?” Is there anything you could share that might help people stay on track and not veer off on some random road?
I know that I say that I recommend working with a business coach but my business coach also specializes in this hiring process. I hired an administrative assistant expert to help me with this process. She helped craft the job description for me, did the initial screening calls, and then would recommend people based on that and guided me through the whole process. I recommend doing something like that if you have the budget for it because I did not know what to look for in an admin person. I did not know what skills it was because it was so different from my own.
The other part is that an administrative assistant is a very close-to-you role. You need to make sure it is somebody who will compliment your personality type and your ways of working and can work with that. Be honest with yourself about who you are and who you are going to be because there are certain people that wouldn’t be a great admin for you but they are a great admin in general.
Was there any test, an assessment, a small initial project or something that you did that helped you verify and validate like, “This person is the right one,” to get them to leap over that hurdle before you invested more? Was that like for you?
This is what I use for all of the consultants and not just the admins. I like behavioral style interviewing where you are asking for specific examples. This is, once again, not my process but I still recommend it. I also use a DISC assessment, which is a personality type assessment, to create more questions. It is not necessarily about what the DISC itself says. It is what questions you ask based on that because everybody has strengths and weaknesses that are the base part of the personality.
If you ask some guiding questions, you can understand how self-aware this person is. That is how I got a good feel for those pieces. I also made sure to ask questions about situations that an admin would get into with me based on my personality type. That helped be revealing like, “Will this person be offended by how direct I am or are they going to be fine?” To make sure that they are the right fit.
What would be a red flag for you or a big no-no that would pop up, and it would be like, “I am not going to move forward with this person?” Is there anything that you look for that would turn you off from hiring them?
Yes. Some of these are your personal triggers or however that goes but I did have a few people that when I asked a question about a situation where you gave somebody feedback. If somebody said something where they weren’t able to acknowledge their own position in a situation and how they contributed to a problem, that is always a red flag for me.
That same for if somebody does not want to admit that they made a mistake and explain how they corrected it. Those are two where if somebody says something like, “I never make a mistake.” I am looking for people who are super open and engaged, and ready for feedback. I am not saying that someone who is that way won’t be good at a job ever but at least for us, it would be a big barrier for us to getting to where we need to be.
We have used a similar question as part of our hiring process as well. It is interesting to see how some people will try and deflect it and say, “I did something,” and about another person will completely own it and say, “I felt so bad. Here is what I did. Here is what I made sure of that it would never happen again.” It can tell you a lot. That is a great one to make sure that people are including or thinking about. You have gone the team route in terms of building your firm and your business. Why do that?
You mentioned you had one big opportunity that came at you sooner than you expected but there are a lot of consultants out there that make the transition from being an executive, senior role, corporate or whatever it might be into consulting. They never want to manage a person again. They left that world because they didn’t want to manage others, yet there are a lot of ceilings that you can hit and issues that can come up. For you, even though you have that larger opportunity, why not remain a solo independent consultant? Why do you intentionally choose to build a team?
I have some strong feelings about this one. I have done some posts about it before. There are a few different pieces. One was even though I love consulting, I do not want to spend the rest of my career being a consultant at 75% billable. That is because I have also been in the consulting world this whole time. I have had a few internal roles, but mostly, I have been a consultant.
For me, I know hard it is to be that high of a billable percent and how there is a ceiling for how much you can make. Even if you keep moving your billable rate up, you are going to want to supplement with something, whether it is writing a book. I had a lot of dreams about building a team. I looked at other agencies that I was in. I saw how successful a model that could be and that I could transition into in the future or director role, and see other people grow into consulting.
The other part of that is that I have seen some firms that rely a lot on subcontractors to do work. That did not fundamentally fit with this ethos I have about the business and how to create a trusted advisor position. A lot of the pain points that I hear from my clients were like, “I cannot trust my marketing agency, and I cannot trust this.” The term I use is, “Nobody wants a piece of a piece.” A lot of times, consulting firms will subcontract out somebody and they will bill them at their regular rate but it is somebody who is more junior. I did not want to do that. I wanted to make sure that I was being super transparent about who it was that was going on or if I sold the project a certain way, that is who you were going to get. Those were the two aspects of why I ended up wanting to go with the team.
With your team, how do you ensure that your team does great work? A lot of consultants, as they make that transition, we work with many people who are doing that, from going from a solo consultant to building a team and starting to scale and grow their business. One of the initial concerns that many people have is, “How do I ensure that the delivery will still be at the level that I can do, and clients are hiring me because of my expertise? How do I bring in others and make sure that we are still delivering at that level, if not, even better?” What are your thoughts on that? How do you do that in your own company around delivery, consistency, and quality?
It is one of the hardest things when you are scaling a team. One of the keys is being able to take how you consult and make it tangible. Say, “What is it about the way I consult? What is my brand?” Writing that down and then making training out of it is one of the core pieces of that. It is like, “How do I run calls? How am I doing these things that clients like so much?” I do not take my new consultants and let them have full access to a client right away. It is a very long training process where we, in the beginning, are doing some mock projects together. They sit in on a lot of calls, and then I start to give them certain pieces of the calls.
It takes more patience to keep that level of quality but it is partially about the training then also about the vision of like, “Here is why we do this. Here is why it is so important.” The third aspect is that I also have everybody in my company go through a leadership course when they begin in the company. My plans are to continue with coaching courses as well for people who want to end up with a lead position. You are building this whole core of not only consulting excellence and the core excellence in whatever their specialization is but also how to be that trusted advisor in the way of being as a person.
Do you have a schedule for how you communicate this in terms of not just the onboarding process but even the ongoing leadership and mentoring? Are you having conversations with your team about the stuff daily? Is it a weekly basis, a quarterly? Take us through what the structure looks like.
Feedback needs to be continuous, not just when something is wrong. Click To TweetWe have a few different cadences. The leadership course that I have everyone go through is about four months. During that period, they are having a lot of feedback with the separate company that we use for this. We also do have a plan at the beginning that is a ramp-up period that has a lot of core consulting competencies. We check in on that on a weekly basis. Also, we do reviews and are going to do it bi-annually. Instead of an annual review where it is not just me reviewing each employee, everyone reviews each other. We will have a feedback survey so everyone has a say.
One thing that is important is that feedback needs to be continuous, not just when something is wrong. Every week, there is a dedicated time for every employee where we sit down and have one-on-one, and they give me feedback once they are comfortable. Sometimes it takes a little while. I am saying, “I saw how you did this project. Here is what we would do differently.” If there is an opportunity, we are also starting to coach instead of train or tell.
We also have weekly meetings with team members, which is so important. Some people do daily huddles to get things moving at the beginning of each day but at least having a weekly touchpoint with each key team member is so important. I want to go into now marketing and how you’ve got your first few clients. To start, you mentioned when you launched your business, you got one big client, bigger than you expected or sooner than you expected. Can you walk us through, especially for those that might be at the early stages of their marketing? What did you do to get your first couple of clients coming in the door?
There are a few different things. One was that I had been building this machine even before the firm had its own name and everything. There were a lot of funny little connections that built up to that first client that I had that was a side gig. I was open to doing things that weren’t necessarily my main skillset. I have always been a market intelligence insights person but based on other things I had done, for example, I had some expertise in SEO. I had some side clients where I was like, “I will help you out with that,” when I was trying to make something on the side, and then because I was coming to it with this open mind, then they would be like, “Do you do this or do you do that?”
It is built into what I do. The other part of it was with this first very big client. It was a bit of a lucky break. I was working through Upwork. I had a pretty strong profile. I have 5 out of 5 stars, top-rated. Building that reputation, no matter where it is, is one of the big first pieces because those little trust indicators are even if you are promoting yourself as a freelancer. I had another firm that was working with this big client come and say, “I am looking for someone who does this thing.” I started having conversations with this company, and it was clear that they were looking for exactly what I was.
One takeaway that people could have from that is being clear about what you are great at and what your specialization is. Identifying that in potential clients is a big part of it because there are plenty of people I said no to before this big client. When I am looking at someone I am evaluating, “Are they going to like my style of consulting?” There are some people who will and some people who won’t. “Do they need my services or am I going to try and get into something where they need something that is different?” Doing that helps you get that first client. From there, it is a slow build. Once you have that first client, as long as you are starting to build those relationships everywhere else, that is going to help as well.
You started with initial clients coming through Upwork. Is that still part of the marketing strategy to get clients from Upwork or is that no longer?
We try not to. I have a love-hate relationship with this platform. Anyone who wants to supplement that with an actual agency model does need to be careful. It costs a bit more for you from a fee perspective. There are a lot of people on there that have the wrong expectations if they are looking for a consultant. They are much more looking for freelancers, but now, we still have it as a minor supplement. The majority of our new clients are either repeat clients, we have an 80% repeat rate with our clients or referral.
I want to get into the 80% repeat rate because that is a powerful metric and says that you are doing a great job for your clients but what are you doing? If we put the Upwork platform leads aside, where else are you getting leads from? What are you doing from a marketing perspective to generate a pipeline of business?
It is going to be a sad thing for me to say for all the people who are reading for the marketing tips but we don’t do a lot with marketing. We are starting to get that engine built up. It is repeat clients and referrals. One thing is that we make the direct ask of previous clients, “Do you know another company that you could put us in contact with that would be a good fit?” About 70% through a project, we are already talking to the client about the next project that we see for them, and/or it is something where we know it is an annual survey and it is going to be a little while. We are already planting that seed of like, “We have this availability. This is what we want to do next.”
We are always talking like the relationship is going to continue. The other part is that I had a strong network before starting this company, which makes it a lot easier. If you are starting from scratch and wanting to consult and had not had all of that time where you were working with other companies and had that network, it is more of a push to get to that next level.
With your network, what are you doing to leverage it or to make sure that it is active or beneficial to you and your company?
I stay in touch with people without a motive. Previous employees, bosses, and other people when I was consulting at some of these other firms, I built some strong friendships even with some of these past clients. Nurturing that without the intention of selling to them immediately is a huge part of it because you have a good relationship with them. They will think of you when they have a project or have someone who asks them about something.
You mentioned referrals and that you are active, which is fantastic because most people sit back and are passive. If a referral comes their way, they are happy but they do not do anything to go out and get them. You mentioned that you actively go to your clients and say, “Who else do you know that we might be able to work with or who could benefit from our services or expertise that you can put us in touch with?” When do you do that? Does that happen at the beginning of the relationship, halfway through a project when a project is complete or some other time?
We usually do it when a project is complete. One funny note is that a lot of time, companies will not refer us to someone instead, the way they respond to that ask is, “I do not know anyone but I want to do another project with you.” It can have a powerful effect even if you are not getting that referral. After the project, we usually make sure that everything is wrapped up. If it is something where they did not already ask for another project, then we reach out and give them that ask.
The referrals are asking the further referrals, you said that sometimes that, in itself, can create another project with that client because they go, “I do not know anybody but we have something else that we want to work with you on.” You also mentioned that you are always talking to clients as if you are going to continue working with them in the future. You are always talking about other ways that you can serve and help them. It sounds like that is leading to that 80% repeat rate with clients. Is there anything else that you do that you feel is the best practice or is part of your process to generate more repeat business from your clients?
Asking for feedback is one of the pieces that, especially if you think a project doesn’t go well, is a key part of that because it opens up the dialogue both ways. Sometimes consultants aren’t as open to feedback. We give a lot of feedback as consultants but sometimes we are not as good as they are receiving. That is one part. The other core part is to always set your expectations and reset them. If you think that there is not alignment, you get on the phone immediately with that client, and you talk to them about it. It is clear once you are practiced as a consultant when that slip is starting to happen. A lot of times, we let it go or try and do something that is not necessarily going to solve the problem.
For me, I see that someone in an email seems short with me. I am like, “We are getting on the phone now.” I have had clients where it could have gone a completely different way and have been dissatisfied but because I was so committed to doing what was right for them and the relationship, even if it was uncomfortable for me at the time. That is a core piece of consulting. When you are a bigger company, it is the same thing. If you start to see that slip or the consultants that are on that project, see that it is time to realign.
Building your reputation is one of the big first pieces because you have those little trust indicators even if you are promoting yourself as a freelancer. Click To TweetI am glad that you mentioned picking up the phone and not just sending an email or responding by email. The phone is so powerful, and unfortunately, people are afraid to use it at times. As part of this process that you have, you mentioned that you solicit feedback. There is one point where you think something might be going wrong. Is there any other time that you are intentionally soliciting feedback or as part of the project process?
I am very interested in how you approach getting feedback from clients because you are right. Consultants are consistently providing feedback, recommendations, and their opinion and ideas but they are not proactive and engaging in getting feedback from the client unless it is at the beginning of the project. When do you do that? When do you find that it is best to do that?
It depends a bit on the type of project, typical consulting answer but some of the project’s feedback is part of the process. When we are designing a survey, there are a few points that we already have scheduled where we sit down on the phone and we go, “Does this align? We said this was your goal.” For projects that are like that, then it is built-in. If there is ever a point where I see there is feedback coming back where I did not expect it or they are asking a lot of questions that make me think that there is a misalignment, that is when we will ask for feedback again.
Also, at the end of a project, when we send out our NPS survey, there are also a lot of opportunities there for them to give feedback. Depending on what they say there, if there is anything that is surprising to me, for example, we had a client say something, and this was minor feedback, saying, “We were struggling with your document sharing practices.” I got on a call and asked them to elaborate. I also sat down with our team, and we had a strategy discussion about, “How could we make this process better? Is there anything we are missing?”
I love those ideas as ways to bring continuous improvement into the business. That is what makes business exciting in my mind is that I can always find ways to improve. How do you approach pricing? What is a typical range of projects in terms of dollar value you take on? Are they 5-figure, 6 -figure or 7-figure projects? Give us a sense of the range and scope of the projects that you take on?
It has been the most chaotic part of our business, with the most learnings so far. I try and go on a project basis more than an hourly basis. This blends into the rest of some of the strategies that I have talked about, where the sticker shock of a highly expert insights consultant can scare away a lot of people. Unless it is a big company that is used to working with some of those bigger firms.
That is what we are worth and what we should be charging but it is a lot easier to pitch some of those projects with a flat rate. With the pricing, we have gone all over the place. That is something that we have experimented with a lot since the start of the company. At first, we were trying to serve some smaller businesses as well as larger businesses because they are very underserved when it comes to analytics and marketing.
We had some smaller projects that were about $1,000. That is very much not the case. We do some smaller projects that would be above $8,000 but our big money is starting into the six-figure range or lower. We still have some very competitive prices compared to a lot of other consulting firms with the same level but we also keep budding up against this, “It is too easy to sell projects.”
This is something that my business coach pushes back on, “If there is no objection about your price, then you are not charging enough.” We sold quite a few where they are like, “Let’s do it.” There is a lot of learning there, and that is a trial and error process for us. Some of the projects that we have been selling have been about six figures, either in a year-long engagement retainer situation or a very big project.
Regarding data and analytics, is there anything that you feel the small boutique consulting firm or even solo consultant could leverage or benefit from when it comes to data and analytics? In your mind, is it more for a more established business with more moving parts and they are doing eCommerce? Is there any benefit that a small firm or independent consultants could get from data and analytics for their own business?
Yes and no. That is always an interesting one. It is when you start to look at data. One of the types of projects that we have started to offer is in the world of forecasting, what is possible with your business. We are running those numbers for you and saying, “Theoreticals. Based on your goals. What can you do?” In that regard, if you can find a firm that can do that is super helpful.
We have worked with a few startups that had some funding. They had their goals and ideas of how much they were going to make, and we went and validated that. That is super powerful. As far as looking at your web data, I do think it is something where, pragmatically, we do not even look at our own. We have analytics implemented on our website because it is one of the projects that I put the consultants through.
When you are small, there is better time spent optimizing what will make a bit more of an impact, which is, if I am good at calculating my capacity,” which you might not think of as data and analytics, I am going to be way more successful. If I am good at forecasting how much I can make and then breaking down how much I can invest in equipment and marketing. That is where you are using data to be clever as a small firm or an independent consultant. Those are the things that you can tweak and make a big impact but you are going to focus on like, “My twenty visitors to my website is less than last week. It is not enough data yet.”
It is vanity metrics. People get so caught up in looking at how many followers they have on Twitter or Facebook, or their website visitors. None of that moves the needle. It is all about having conversations and these other areas that are going to create a lot more value in your business. I liked that you talked about this idea of modeling what is possible. That is something we have done with a lot of clients as they are getting more established and seeing more success. If they want to reach, let’s say they have a goal of reaching a million dollars a year. That is great. What would your business look like or need to look like if you want to reach $1.5 million or $2 million? That exploration and creative thinking can get you to start seeing all kinds of things about your business that you did not see before, whether it is how many team members you need, what service offerings or what price points.
That is a great reminder exercise for people to go through. Before we wrap up, MaryBeth, I want to ask you a few additional questions here. The first is when you look at everything that you do on a daily basis, you are doing thought leadership on LinkedIn and other places, you are managing your team, and you are doing client work. Is there a habit, a ritual, or something that you do regularly that you feel leads to the higher levels of performance, and productivity or has a big impact on the success that you are able to create?
There are a lot of habits, and that is a smart way to say it. Your environment leads to excellence. There are a lot of things that I do in my off-time. I try and do all of those things that you mentioned within a regular workweek. I do not work more than 40 hours a week on a standard week. It is going to sound boring but if you can do these basics correctly, that is what leads to being able to balance all of this work. I work out five days a week. I schedule that in my calendar. I rely on my calendar to book out when I am doing not only meetings but also tasks. I am looking at everything that I need to do. There is a block and time for designing LinkedIn posts and my consulting work so that I am making sure I can realistically fit things in.
That also goes to taking care of myself as a person as a whole and creating that balance. It is hard to be 70% to 80% billable and run a team, and do all of that if you are not eating healthy and sleeping enough. I sacrifice some things that I do not consider a sacrifice anymore that you may have to do if you want to work at that level. I do not go out to bars on the weekend, and I do not stay up too late. Everyone is going to be like, “Have you tried to do that?” That is what it comes down to. It is taking care of yourself so that you can take care of your team and your company.
Sounds like you are very clear on your priorities. If it always starts with that, if you are clear on what is important to you and why you are doing what you are doing, then it is much easier to have your actions follow along with that. What is the best book that you have read or listened to? It can be fiction or nonfiction, just anything that you would recommend.
If there is no objection to your price, then you are not charging enough. Click To TweetThere is a book that is very short called, Great Leaders Make Sure Monday Mornings Doesn’t Suck. I would recommend that as one of the main leadership books. It fits for consulting as well to understand how your abilities as a strategic leader go beyond your area of expertise and being a good person. Focusing on making a good experience for people is going to make a lot bigger difference than coming from your expertise.
Is that Eric Harkins?
I think so but do not quote me that. I do not remember exactly who it was.
MaryBeth, thank you so much for coming on here. I want to make sure that people can learn more about you, your company, and your work. Where is the one place that we should send people?
Send them to my LinkedIn profile, @MaryBethMaskovas or InsightLimeAnalytics.com. That is another place to learn more about our company.
MaryBeth, thanks so much.
Thank you. It was great.
Important Links
- Insight Lime Analytics
- Consulting Success – Article
- Great Leaders Make Sure Monday Mornings Doesn’t Suck
- @MaryBethMaskovas – LinkedIn
About MaryBeth Maskovas
I was recruited into a custom software company/digital agency as a marketing analyst fresh out of my evolutionary biology degree. I quickly discovered that while I had a knack for delivering insights to businesses, there was something else that I was even better at…
Deeply understanding the complicated flows and systems of large organizations going through digital transformation, and coaching them to the next level of excellence in digital.
After serving orgs and creating a major impact both in-house and in agencies in both Europe and the US, I decided it was time to take my skills and make them available to even more organizations. So, Insight Lime Analytics was born. Where data coaching is the core of our analytics and data strategy services.
As a game-changer, forward thinker, and eager collaborator, my goal is to elevate data from reporting to actions that help companies leap to new performance levels.
In-House and Agency Industry Experience in:
– SaaS
– eCommerce
– Mobile Apps and Games
– Video Games
My Martech stack: Appsflyer, Adjust, Hotjar, Content Square, Facebook Power Editor (Facebook Ads), Google Ads, Jira, Apptweak, App Annie, Google Analytics, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Google BigQuery, Monetate, Adobe Analytics, Contentsquare, Salesforce, R Studio
My language stack: R, SQL
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