The Principal Podcast

GHA Marketing
  • 5.0 (18)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

The Principal Podcast is where founders, Managing Partners, and CEOs of professional services firms share how they build, grow, and lead businesses that last. Each episode goes deep on the real strategies behind firm growth, from winning clients and building trust, to scaling teams and staying ahead in a competitive market. Hosted by a team of seasoned professionals with backgrounds across consulting, marketing, and business growth, The Principal Podcast brings diverse perspectives to every conversation. Guests come from across the professional services world: management consulting, financial services, investment banking, IT services, marketing, PR, staffing, and accounting. If you run or lead a professional services firm and you're serious about growth, this is your show.

  1. 2d ago

    How to Grow a Firm Through Customer Adoption With Beth Ann Mejia

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Beth has built her career at the intersection of professional services, education, customer insight, and market strategy. Before becoming a Partner at EdSolutions, she spent more than six years running EyeLevel Educational Consulting, helping organizations with customer-centric product development, pilots, launches, and go-to-market strategy. Her work centers on a challenge many professional services leaders will recognize: creating value is only part of building a sustainable business. You also need customers who understand that value, trust you enough to invest, and continue choosing you over time. In this conversation, we’ll get into how Beth approaches that challenge inside EdSolutions: how the firm attracts and wins clients, how Beth thinks about sales and decision-makers, what creates lasting client relationships, where she sees challenges in growing the business, and what the future looks like for firms operating in the education market. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You’ve worked across publishing, education, market development, and eventually built your own consulting practice before becoming a Partner at EdSolutions. What originally pulled you into professional services, and what made you want to build your career around it? 2. What specific problem are you and the team at EdSolutions helping clients solve today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients at EdSolutions today, and within those organizations, who usually holds the decision to bring your firm in and hire you? 4. How do the right clients typically find EdSolutions, and what has worked best for you when it comes to building trust and generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Referral, Content, Speaking engagements Sub Question: What do you think about podcasts as a marketing and trust-building tool for professional services firms like yours? 5. Your work involves organizations making fairly complex strategic decisions. When a prospective client recognizes the problem but isn’t ready to engage your firm yet, how do you typically move that relationship forward and ultimately win the work? 6. Once you’ve delivered results for a client, what do you do to keep that relationship strong, keep clients coming back, and turn an initial project into a long-term partnership? 7. As a Partner at EdSolutions, where do you find yourself most challenged right now when it comes to growing and leading the firm, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Beth Ann Mejia Website Link: https://edsolutions.com/ Connect with Beth Ann Mejia on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethannmejia/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Grow a Firm Through Customer Adoption With Beth Ann Mejia

  2. 3d ago

    How to Build a Professional Services Firm on Trust and Relationships With Cassie Rosengren

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Cassie Rosengren has spent more than a decade building DK Recruiting, an executive search and GTM recruiting firm that partners with companies at pivotal moments of growth, transformation, and reinvention. Her work puts her alongside founders and leadership teams when the stakes are high and the right hire can materially shape what happens next. Building that kind of firm requires more than being good at recruiting. Cassie has had to earn trust, develop lasting client relationships, build a reputation in the market, and create a business clients are comfortable turning to for critical decisions. On The Principal Podcast, we’ll get into the business behind that expertise: how Cassie has built DK Recruiting since 2014, how the firm wins and retains clients, how she thinks about growth, and where she sees the executive search and staffing market heading next. It’s a conversation about what it takes to build a professional services firm that clients trust and come back to. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You came from a marketing background before getting into recruiting and eventually co-founding DK Recruiting. What got you into executive search, and what made you want to build your own firm around it? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through DK Recruiting, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients today, and within those companies, who typically holds the decision to bring DK Recruiting in? 4. You’ve been building DK Recruiting for more than a decade. How do your best clients find you today, and what has been most effective for consistently generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Cold outreach Sub Question: In a relationship-driven industry like executive search, what do you think about podcasting as a tool for building authority, relationships, and ultimately generating business? 5. Executive search is a high-trust service, especially when you’re working with founders on hires that can materially affect the company. What does your sales process look like, and how do you turn that initial conversation into a client engagement? 6. Once you’ve delivered successfully for a client, how do you stay valuable beyond that individual search, keep clients coming back, and turn those engagements into long-term relationships? 7. After more than a decade building DK Recruiting, where do you find yourself most challenged right now as a firm owner, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Cassie Rosengren Website Link: https://dkrecruiting.com/ Connect with Cassie Rosengren on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassierosengren/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Build a Professional Services Firm on Trust and Relationships With Cassie Rosengren

  3. 3d ago

    How to Scale Without Losing Client Trust With Matt Massucci

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Matt Massucci started his career at Deloitte Consulting before moving into technology recruiting and founding Hirewell in 2001. Twenty-five years later, Hirewell has grown into a global talent solutions provider with more than 100 recruiting experts serving companies across technology, go-to-market, corporate functions, and industrial roles. Along the way, Hirewell has expanded from recruiting into a broader portfolio of professional services, including talent and HR advisory, RPO, executive search, interim talent, and recruiting technology. The firm has worked with thousands of companies, including more than 150 SaaS clients, 115 manufacturing companies, 80 private equity firms, and 75 professional services firms. Matt's journey gets to the heart of what The Principal Podcast is about: building a professional services firm that lasts. We’ll get into how he attracts and wins clients, turns engagements into long-term relationships, builds a team that can deliver without everything depending on the founder, and continues adapting the business as the talent market changes. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You started your career at Deloitte, moved into recruiting, and then founded Hirewell in 2001. What led you to start your own professional services firm, and what did you originally set out to build? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through Hirewell today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients at Hirewell today, and within those organizations, who usually holds the decision to bring your firm in? 4. After 25 years in business, how do clients typically find Hirewell today, and what has worked best for you when it comes to consistently generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Referral, Content, Cold outreach Sub Question: You’ve built Hirewell Talent Insights and regularly share your perspective on the hiring market. What role do you think podcasting can play as a marketing and trust-building channel for professional services firms? 5. Once you have the attention of the right client, what does the sales process look like at Hirewell? How do you build enough trust to move from an initial conversation into a larger recruiting, RPO, search, or advisory engagement? 6. Once you've delivered for a client, how do you make sure they keep coming back to Hirewell? What have you learned about turning individual engagements into long-term client relationships? 7. After 25 years of building and leading Hirewell, where do you find yourself most challenged right now as the founder of a professional services firm, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Matt Massucci Website Link: http://www.hirewell.com Connect with Matt Massucci on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmassucci/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Scale Without Losing Client Trust With Matt Massucci

  4. 4d ago

    What Steven Tibbetts Learned About Leadership, Clients and AI During 30 Years at Accenture

    In this episode of The Principal Podcast, Guillaume Jouvencel sits down with Steven Tibbetts, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, with 30 years of experience in professional services. Steven shares how he built a long career in consulting, why he nearly left Accenture while preparing to become a father, and how changing his approach to leadership helped him stay and grow. They also discuss winning large consulting deals, building trust with senior executives, staying relevant to clients, and preparing people for an AI-powered future. Steven Tibbetts spent his career working directly with clients. Today, he leads one of Accenture's largest accounts, with hundreds of projects across the account and industry. His experience includes building long-term client relationships, leading major sales, developing teams, and helping organisations respond to changing technology and customer needs. He believes the strongest professional services relationships are built through trust, accountability, relevance, and the ability to solve difficult problems together. Expect to Learn: How Steven changed the way he worked after becoming a father and learned to focus on what got done because of him, rather than what he completed himself.Why strong client relationships are built by delivering value, staying accountable, and continuing to bring useful ideas even when the timing is not right.What it takes to win very large consulting deals, including access to senior decision-makers, patience, strong relationships, and relevant ideas.How Steven studies a client's business and uses that knowledge to build trust with leaders across the C-suite.Why Steven believes the future of professional services depends on combining the power of AI with human creativity, critical thinking, and wisdom. Episode Breakdown with Timestamps: [00:00] – Teaser[01:29] – Welcome & Introduction to The Principal Podcast with Steven Tibbetts[05:29] – Is the 30-Year Career Still Possible? The New Generation of Talent[12:29] – Defining Relevance: Customers, Employees, and Shareholders[18:59] – The "Biggest Sale in Accenture's History" Story: Persistence and Patience[23:59] – Reaching All C-Suite Members: The Power of a Strong Team[27:29] – Humility and Collaboration: Why No One Does It Alone[31:51] – Podcasts as a Business Channel: Reaching the Right Audience[37:29] – The AI Challenge: Human Ingenuity and Creative Thinking[39:59] – Closing Remarks and How to Connect Follow Steven Tibbetts: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-tibbetts-5034261/Accenture: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accenture/ Follow Hussam & Guillaume: Hussam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hussam-ali-6bb69186/Guillaume on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-jouvencel/GHA Marketing Website: https://ghapodcast.com/ Follow us on our Social Media: LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/gha-marketing-ltdTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gha_marketingTwitter: https://twitter.com/GHAMarketing_Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/GHA-Marketing/61552528799376/

    What Steven Tibbetts Learned About Leadership, Clients and AI During 30 Years at Accenture

  5. 4d ago

    How to Build a Firm That Grows Through Talent, Trust, and Differentiation With Chris Burkhard

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Chris Burkhard has spent more than 25 years building businesses and advising entrepreneurial leaders. As President of Placers, he leads the firm’s strategy, market growth, and Total Talent Solutions, helping organizations solve workforce challenges through temporary staffing, direct placement, and strategic workforce management. Chris also founded CBI Group, which today serves as an executive advisory platform for entrepreneurial leaders looking to scale profitably, strengthen execution, and build high-performance cultures. His experience gives him a useful perspective for professional services leaders: he has been both the advisor helping other businesses grow and the entrepreneur responsible for growing his own. Beyond client work, Chris has built a platform around his ideas. He is the author of Opposite the Crowd and host of the Outside Insights podcast, using content to explore leadership, culture, entrepreneurship, and decision-making. We’ll dig into what he has learned about differentiation, winning and retaining clients, scaling a team, and building a professional services business with staying power. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You’ve spent more than 25 years building businesses, from CBI Group to Placers and your advisory work today. What originally got you into the professional services business, and what has kept you in it? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through Placers and your advisory work today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients today, and within those organizations, who usually holds the decision to bring Placers or you in? 4. In a business like staffing and advisory, where trust and reputation matter so much, how are clients typically finding you today, and what has worked best for consistently generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Cold outreach Sub Question: You’ve built Outside Insights alongside your business. What role has podcasting played in building your reputation and relationships, and how do you think about it as a marketing tool for professional services firms? 5. When a prospective client enters your world, how do you take them from an initial conversation to enough trust and confidence to hire you? What have you learned about selling a service where the relationship matters as much as the solution? 6. Once you’ve won a client, how do you make sure they keep coming back? What do you do at Placers to keep delivering value, deepen the relationship, and turn an initial engagement into a long-term partnership? 7. You’ve been building and leading professional services businesses for more than 25 years. Where do you find yourself most challenged right now as a firm leader, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Chris Burkhard Website Link: https://myplacers.com Connect with Chris Burkhard on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisburkhard/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Build a Firm That Grows Through Talent, Trust, and Differentiation With Chris Burkhard

  6. 4d ago

    How to Win High-Trust Clients Through Relationships With Jean Marie Callahan

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Jean Marie Callahan has spent more than two decades building businesses where trust is central to the sale. Today, she serves as Senior Client Partner at Discovery Search Partners and leads Latin America Executive Search Consultants (LAESC), working with organizations across the Americas on C-suite, board, and senior leadership searches. Her track record goes beyond delivering executive search engagements. At A.T. Kearney Executive Search, Jean helped build the Latin American business to approximately $1.2 million in annual revenue, exceeded sales quotas by 140% and 200% in consecutive years, and helped turn around an operation from a 14% annual loss to 20% EBITDA growth. Earlier in her career, she also founded and scaled a mortgage business to approximately $200 million in mortgages before selling it. For founders and leaders of professional services firms, Jean’s experience raises an important question: how do you build a business when clients are ultimately buying your judgment and trusting you with decisions that carry significant consequences? Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You’ve built businesses from scratch and spent more than 20 years in executive search. How did you first get into executive search, and what made you decide this was a business you wanted to build around? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through executive search today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients today, and within those organizations, who usually holds the decision to bring you in and hire your firm? 4. Executive search is a high-trust, relationship-driven business. How do clients typically find you today, and what has worked best for you when it comes to consistently generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Referral, Podcast (guesting) Sub Question: You’ve built a significant audience on LinkedIn. What do you think about podcasting as a marketing and trust-building tool for executive search and other professional services firms? 5. You’re asking clients to trust you with some of the most consequential hires they’ll make. How do you typically take a relationship from the first conversation through to a signed search engagement? 6. You’ve worked with clients across the Americas for many years. What do you do to make sure clients keep coming back, and how do you turn a successful engagement into a long-term relationship? 7. You’ve been building and leading an executive search business for more than two decades. Where do you find yourself most challenged right now as a professional services firm leader, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Jean Marie Callahan Website Link: http://www.laexecutivesearch.com Connect with Jean Marie Callahan on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeancallahan-latinamericaexecutivesearch/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Win High-Trust Clients Through Relationships With Jean Marie Callahan

  7. 6d ago

    How to Build a Professional Services Firm That Clients Keep Coming Back To With Torgeir Vierdal

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Torgeir Vierdal has spent more than 20 years across consulting, marketing and creative communications. In 2011, he co-founded Anorak and helped grow the firm from four people to more than 50. Anorak joined NoA in 2014, and Torgeir spent more than a decade as its CEO before leaving Anorak and NoA in 2022. Today, Torgeir is a Founding Partner at Nourish Global, a growth strategy, innovation and culture change consultancy. Nourish works at the intersection of strategy, culture, organisation and innovation, helping businesses rethink where their next phase of growth will come from. On The Principal Podcast, we explore the business behind Torgeir's work: how he attracts and wins clients, builds trust with senior decision-makers, creates client relationships that keep generating work over many years, and builds teams capable of doing differentiated work. We also get into where he sees the professional services market heading as AI changes the value of knowledge, creativity and human judgment. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You describe yourself as an "accidental co-founder." How did you first find your way into the professional services world, and what eventually made you want to build firms of your own? 2. At Nourish Global, what specific problem are you helping clients solve today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are the ideal clients for Nourish today, and within those organisations, who usually holds the decision to bring you in and hire the firm? 4. When it comes to growing Nourish and getting in front of the right clients, how are clients typically finding you today, and what has worked best for you in generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Referral Sub Question: Given your background in communications and brand building, what do you think about podcasts as a marketing and trust-building tool for professional services firms? 5. Strategy, innovation and culture work can involve a lot of trust and multiple stakeholders. Once a potential client is interested, how do you typically take that relationship from an initial conversation to a signed engagement? 6. You've had client relationships that have lasted more than a decade. What do you do to make sure clients keep coming back, continue seeing value in the relationship, and ultimately see you as a long-term partner rather than a one-off provider? 7. As you build Nourish and enter another chapter as a professional services founder, where do you find yourself most challenged right now, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Torgeir Vierdal Website Link: https://www.nourish.global/ Connect with Torgeir Vierdal on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torgeir-vierdal-a2011687/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Build a Professional Services Firm That Clients Keep Coming Back To With Torgeir Vierdal

  8. 6d ago

    How to Build Authority and Win B2B Clients Through Industry Content With Winn Hardin

    Look into the "3 Ways to Generate Leads With Your Podcast" E-book for free here on our website! (https://ghapodcast.com) Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting-secrets-pod ********************************************************************** Winn Hardin has spent his career at the intersection of journalism, publishing, and B2B marketing. Since 1998, he has led TECH B2B Marketing, working across industrial automation, machine vision, photonics, aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, manufacturing, and other highly technical markets. Over that time, TECH B2B Marketing has worked with organizations including HP, Microsoft, IBM, FedEx, Cognex, Datalogic, Güdel, Grant Thornton, and SAIC, as well as major trade associations and publishers. Winn's experience offers a useful perspective for professional services leaders on what it takes to build credibility, translate expertise into demand, and compete in markets where trust and subject-matter knowledge matter. We’ll dig into the business behind that work: how Winn finds and wins clients, how TECH B2B positions itself in specialized markets, what keeps clients coming back, how podcasting and content fit into the firm's growth strategy, and where Winn sees the next opportunities for his business. Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You came from journalism and publishing before building TECH B2B Marketing. What led you to start the firm, and how has the business evolved since then? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through TECH B2B Marketing today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients today, and within those organizations, who usually holds the decision to bring you in and hire the firm? 4. After more than 25 years in business, how are new clients finding TECH B2B Marketing today, and what has worked best for you when it comes to consistently generating new business? Current Acquisition Channels: Referral, Content, Google Ads, Webinars, Podcast (guesting), Podcast (hosting), Speaking engagements Sub Question: You also have firsthand experience with Manufacturing Matters. What role has podcasting played in building relationships and authority for the business, and how do you see podcasts fitting into the marketing strategy of other professional services firms? 5. When you have the right prospect in front of you, how do you take them from initial interest to becoming a client, particularly when you're selling specialized expertise rather than a standardized product? 6. Once you've won a client, what do you do to keep delivering enough value that they come back, expand the relationship, and ultimately become a long-term client of the firm? 7. After leading TECH B2B Marketing for more than 25 years, where do you find yourself most challenged right now as a firm leader, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for your work over the next few years? ********************************************************** Know more about Winn Hardin Website Link: https://techb2b.com/ Connect with Winn Hardin on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winn-hardin-techb2b/ Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to-be-a-guest-on-consulting-leaders/

    How to Build Authority and Win B2B Clients Through Industry Content With Winn Hardin
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5
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

The Principal Podcast is where founders, Managing Partners, and CEOs of professional services firms share how they build, grow, and lead businesses that last. Each episode goes deep on the real strategies behind firm growth, from winning clients and building trust, to scaling teams and staying ahead in a competitive market. Hosted by a team of seasoned professionals with backgrounds across consulting, marketing, and business growth, The Principal Podcast brings diverse perspectives to every conversation. Guests come from across the professional services world: management consulting, financial services, investment banking, IT services, marketing, PR, staffing, and accounting. If you run or lead a professional services firm and you're serious about growth, this is your show.

Information

  • Creator
    GHA Marketing
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    563
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 GHA Marketing
  • Show Website
    The Principal Podcast