A Day in the Life of a Consultant: How to Really Enjoy Work Life Balance
When many people hear the term "consultant," they often imagine the images of those working for the Big Six firms living in New York and maintaining an incredibly luxurious lifestyle. Those lifestyles, though, can come at the expense of 10 to 12 hour days. But what about the consultants who have families and live in the suburbs? What do our days look like?
I'm here to give you a glimpse of how an in-demand consultant can help businesses solve their most pressing issues, and also enjoy a great work-life balance. Here's what a typical day in the life of a consultant looks like.
A Day In the Life of an In-Demand Consultant from a Lifestyle Perspective
I've owned multiple businesses in the last 20 years, both offline and online and retail and franchising, and I love consulting, because it gives you the most amount of freedom, it's incredibly profitable, and so rewarding. Doing something different every day is one of the best parts about being a consultant. And while no two days are ever the same, there is some structure and routine which makes me more effective at the work that I do.
Morning routine
Starting off the day with a good morning routine can make a world of difference. It's like taking a few moments to compose your thoughts and set the tone for the day ahead. I love to start my mornings with a hot cup of bullet proof coffee loaded with different bullet proof elements, collagen protein, and MCT oil. This helps to get my brain firing in the right way and gives me a jumpstart to my day. I find this really, really helps.
I have three kids under ten, so as they start waking up for the day, the morning does turn a little chaotic. Everyone seems to be going in different directions!
Exercise to help creativity
Exercise is an amazing way to help improve creativity, not just physically but mentally as well. It can give us a much-needed boost in imagination and open the mind to new ways of thinking. For example, some mornings my older children participate in a tennis camp at our local country club. This helps to get some of their energy out for the day.
While they are participating in that, I'm able to connect with a friend and play a tennis match with them. I absolutely love tennis! During nicer weather I try to play five to seven days a week. I love that it's both strategy and an incredible workout. I am also very much an extrovert, and if you're an agency owner or service professional, you know it's really helpful to get a little bit of a break from your client work and not do it all day long.
Creating that space in my schedule actually makes me so much of a better or consultant, because when we're exercising and we're moving rather than sitting behind our computers, is actually when we are inspired by some of our best ideas and our most creative solutions. If you're feeling stuck with a project, take a break for some physical activity - get outside for a while or even just do some stretching. The whitespace created by making room for physical activity in my day allows me to serve my clients at a really high level.
Transition to work mode
Once we are back home mid-morning, I'm ready to transition into work mode for the day. I personally really like dressing up for my clients. I think that it provides that high level premium presentation and elevates the way in which I show up for my clients, as well as for myself. I find that getting water and coffee and food and everything together just helps me stay really focused once I get to my desk.
I usually take about 60 to 90 minutes before I begin my client meetings and spend that time responding to Slack messages and just getting ahead of any of the appointments that I have coming up that day.
Structure helps me stay focused and motivated throughout the day. Carving out specific moments for productivity and ensuring my workspace is distraction-free also allows me to handle my workload with ease.
Working on client projects
Working on client projects can be a challenge, but that's why it's fun! You get to learn something new every time you dive into the project. Of course what consultants do specifically may be unique to the niche you are in, but my favorite part of client work is getting creative with different solutions and approaches. Client projects often help me build my skills and become a better professional which is why I always look forward to finding new opportunities to collaborate with others.
What I try to do with my work is just look for patterns. For example, let's say that I have one client that's deploying a particular type of sales process that I've had other clients deploy recently, I'm looking for some of the trends and some of the insight in pattern recognition that I can bring to that particular client and create extra value for them above and beyond whatever it was that they were expecting from me that day. So that's something that I really try to do as much as possible, I'll start taking notes, I'll take a look at the results that I might have on file from the last client who deployed something that's really similar to what we'll be discussing that day, and intentionally seeking out ways to create more value for my clients.
If you’re worrying, “That sounds like so much? Is consulting stressful?” Really, it isn’t. One of the most important questions that we can ask ourselves is where am I over delivering not in work hours, not in trading time for money, but in giving value by providing results that they could have never gotten on their own. And this is what makes consulting so wonderful, so profitable, so freedom-oriented, because ultimately, that's what the client is paying for unlike some other professions where they are paying for deliverables or a project completed on a particular deadline. They're investing in you as a consultant for your thinking, your genius, your experience, and your skills on being able to create a better result than if they were just trying to do all of this on their own.
If I had to estimate how many hours consultants work, I’d say for me, roughly between 16 to 20 hours per week - which is certainly a lot different from those big firm 10-12 hour days!. I try to wrap up my work-day before 4pm, but sometimes it goes a little over if I am meeting with my team to delegate anything that's not client-facing. The nice thing about consulting is that it's so profitable that you have the ability to invest in really good quality team members, whether it's an executive assistant or a client success manager or an operations manager, just having people on your team that can handle all of the backend. This allows you to focus on showing up really well for your clients.
Family Time
At the end of the day I'm wrapping up and it's time to start getting back into mom mode. Evenings are pretty crazy in our household, especially during the fall, and spring seasons, when sports are starting, my boys are in soccer and Little League and I'm usually running around all over the place, my husband and I are going in two different directions most nights those times of year. Summer is a nice break just because the more leisurely schedule allows us to have dinner together as a family, take part in some local activities, get out a little bit and take advantage of the beautiful weather.
Maintain Consultant Work Life Balance
While it's tempting to blur the boundaries sometimes and allow client work and meetings to trickle into your personal time, being a great consultant comes as a result of maintaining firm, healthy boundaries. It's so important to have set aside times where you're client facing and meeting with your clients and then other dedicated times where you are either taking care of yourself or your health or wellness, or well being as well as your family. Trying to do too many things within that same time block can be overwhelming and ineffective because you're using different parts of your brain for different types of activities. Sectioning them together and batching them in a way is what I find to be the most rewarding and the most efficient way to grow my consulting business.
If you enjoyed this day in the life of a consultant and are wondering how you can become an in-demand thought partner who produces their best work for clients while also taking care of themselves and their loved ones, be sure to join the waitlist for my cohort of Fractional Freedom. You deserve to have it all – and with a little bit of planning (and some bullet-proof coffee), you absolutely can.
And if you’be been wondering what type of packages you can offer in your consulting business to create this type of flexibility, click on the box below for immediate access to the progression of my exact pricing structure over the years.
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