The Impact Consulting Podcast Impact Consulting Hub

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Impact Consulting Podcast with me your host, Loksan Harley.

 

We're delighted to welcome Simone Anzböck to the show to share with us her impact consulting story.



About Simone

Simone coaches international professionals who navigate the trade-offs in pursuing a non-linear life and career in a cross-cultural context. Her gift is to help others trust and follow their convictions to navigate uncertainty. She coaches individuals to find clarity, professional alignment, and purpose via bespoke 1:1 coaching and corporate training. 



Simone has lived and worked in 15+ countries, including Myanmar, during the military coup. Before becoming a coach, she worked for a Fortune 500 company, leading social impact projects valued up to US$25m. Simone holds an MBA and is a qualified, accredited coach with the International Coaching Federation. To date, she has coached individuals from 25+ nationalities. You'll find her learning Spanish, writing stories, or walking the British countryside in her free time. 



What we talk about

In our wide-ranging conversation, Simone and I talk about both the ups and downs of her impact consulting journey, including how she launched her consulting business while navigating her move to Myanmar, how she experienced and dealt with mental health challenges, and how her experiences led her to pivot to coaching other international development professionals.



I appreciated Simone for coming onto the show to speak so candidly about some of the real challenges that we face when navigating big life changes, and there are fewer more disruptive changes than moving country and starting a consulting business.



This aligns with what we're all about at the IC-Hub, which is not only helping people grasp the incredible opportunities that independent consulting in the social impact space offers, but also discussing the very real challenges that we have to deal with, and how to navigate them. And if you need some coaching yourself, you can get in touch with Simone directly (see below).



Want to learn more about Simone's coaching?

Simone offers free 45-minute coaching discovery sessions. During your discovery session, you'll talk about your biggest challenge, what overcoming this might look like, and whether Simone's coaching is a good fit for you. Connect with Simone on LinkedIn to book a call or follow her work.

Hello, and welcome to a new episode of the Impact Consulting Podcast! Today, we're delighted to present Cyndi Mayer, a passionate consultant who supports nonprofits and social enterprises to strategically accelerate social impact, grantsmanship, and capacity building. Cyndi shares the story of her consulting journey, including the challenges, wins, and advice for other consultants.

What we talk about


The advantages and disadvantages of working with different types of clients
How to establish criteria for choosing the right clients to work with (and how/why to turn away clients)
How to go beyond being solely a contractor or service provider to work collaboratively with clients
And much more!

Links


Website: www.camayerconsulting.com
Email: info@camayerconsulting.com

Today, we've got quite a unique but highly useful episode for you. Roland Pearson, a director at one of the world's top international development consulting firms, Palladium, is on the show to talk us through how you can access consulting opportunities working with Palladium and firms like Palladium on large projects funded by the US, UK, Australian aid systems, as well as the other clients that Palladium works with worldwide.

Introducing Roland

Roland is an internationally recognised senior executive, who over 30 years has built national and international, private and public institutions that deliver sustained social and economic impact and commercial value. He is the Director leading strategy, business development and business execution of the Finance and Investment portfolio at Palladium, which he joined in November 2018 with the merger of Palladium and Enclude.

What we talk about

Today's conversation is a little longer than the usual impact consulting journeys that we profile, but I highly recommend sticking with it because we cover so much ground. We start with a bit of an overview of Roland and Palladium's work and the types of donors and projects that they work with. We then move onto share Roland's insights into how Palladium works with consultants, including what types of skills they look for, how to apply, what kinds of fees they can expect working on USAID-funded projects, and what the whole process looks like.

We'd like to thank Roland for sharing his wisdom and our main call to action to you is to head on over to Palladium's website and submit your CV. And Roland even explains the type of CV that you should be submitting.

Links


Connect with Roland
Opportunities at Palladium
Submit your CV to Palladium
IC-Hub's article on consulting fees
The LinkedIn Challenge and how social impact consultants should use LinkedIn
IC-Hub Live followup: Getting EU-funded development consultancy work
Find the podcast on other platforms (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts)!

Hello and welcome to the Impact Consulting Podcast! In this episode, Molly sits down with fellow fundraiser, Abena Lauber, who is the founder and director of A.CommUnity.

About Abena:

Abena has 20 years of professional experience and knowledge in fundraising, strategic partnerships and large-scale private events. For 6 years she worked for Human Rights Watch as Associate Director of Development and Outreach, organising their annual gala dinner which saw an impressive increase in funds raised over the years reaching CHF 2 million in 2014. She also managed donor relations, planned donor acquisition and implemented stewardship plans. Abena contributed to the creation of the Dr. Mukwege Foundation in Geneva and secured institutional funds for the foundation.  She also helped organise an event in Geneva for women survivors of rape as a weapon of war in June 2017.

Abena is a leader with proven experience in project and team management.  Her experience in fundraising with various types of donors: large and small, institutional donors, foundations and private companies gives her the ability to plan and implement diversified and sustainable fundraising actions. Based on this experience, Abena founded A.CommUnity in 2017 to offer services to non-profit organisations in Switzerland and abroad.

One of A.CommUnity's priorities is to build the fundraising capacity of non-profit organisations. In 2019, Abena co-created Fundraising Bootcamp, a series of innovative and practical workshops. The first edition took place in spring 2019 in Geneva and since then A.CommUnity was commissioned by the City of Geneva (2019 and 2020) and the Capas network. These modules have since been adapted and customised to build the capacity of various NGOs in Switzerland and around the world. In addition, Abena is a lecturer at the Haute Ecole de Gestion in Geneva in their CAS Fundraising programme since 2020.

In 2021, A.CommUnity and Alveo.design co-created a training course - Comm' To Fund - providing fundraising and communication skills for more efficient fundraising actions.

What we talk about:


The power of genuine connections and networking for acquiring new clients
Abena's strategy for dealing with the loneliness of independent working
Why Abena started A.CommUnity and tips for building a brand

Connect with Abena:


Abena's LinkedIn profile
A.CommUnity's website
A.CommUnity's LinkedIn community page

Welcome to another episode of the Impact Consulting Podcast! This time, Molly sits down with Rebekah, communications activist and founder of Right + Good and co-founder of The P2Club – two mission-driven organisations working to build authentic community between businesses and the people they serve.

About Rebekah:

Rebekah Grmela (she/her) is the founder of Right + Good Consulting, an agency focused on strategic communications for the ethical organization.  Rebekah is a communications activist supporting justice, equity and sustainability through access to excellent public participation strategies for womxn, queer and/or BIPOC founders and nonprofits.  She knows that impact-driven organizations and brands require dedicated relationship-building and compelling messages that drive people to action. As a community engagement expert with more than a decade of experience communicating value for government agencies and private companies alike, she lets data and outreach drive creative solutions.  Minding specific goals and budgets, Rebekah builds highly effective messages and campaigns that resonate in target communities and generate a tangible return on investment. Through partnerships, programming and a bulletproof communications strategy, Rebekah will curate an energized community and develop your mission so you can do more good in the world.

About Right + Good:

Right + Good's mission is to connect people with your cause through intentional and strategic communications. We focus on building authentic relationships while you're doing the work.   By laying a solid foundation and moving intentionally, we nurture the long-term partnerships, community and authentic engagement necessary to keep your mission-driven business going

What we talk about:


The benefits of building a brand for your consulting work.
How to design a meaningful role for yourself and do the work you’re passionate about.
How Rebekah finds new clients!

Useful links


Rebekah's LinkedIn profile
Right + Good

Hello, and you're listening once again to the Impact Consulting Podcast, where we profile people - just like you - who are independent consultants in the international development and social impact spaces.

This week, we present to you a lovely conversation with the lovely Mara Tissera Luna about her lessons learned from her first year of consulting full-time.

About Mara

Mara is an Argentine and Italian child protection specialist with 10+ years of qualitative research, policy analysis, and programme evaluation experience, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Her research and policy analysis in Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia have produced 20+ publications. She has lived in Hungary since 2015, but she will soon move to California.

Mara has performed qualitative analysis on the protection of migrant and refugee children, institutional care, child suicide prevention, violence against children, and early childhood policies, among other child protection topics.

What we talk about

Mara has done so well to establish herself as an expert in child protection. I was therefore keen for her to share what she'd learned from her first year consulting full time. We touch on a number of great learnings in relation to both how to get clients and how to work with them once you've got them, including:


How to clarify the terms of reference for a consultancy early on.
Experiences with short/long-term consultancies.
How to know how long a consultancy actually takes (in working days).
Differences in networking/business development for thematic specialists and skills-based specialists
How to communicate what you do (and sell yourself) to clients!

If you're interested in independent consulting in the child protection space, you may want to check out Mara's new International Child Protection Consultants Facebook Group.

Useful links


International Child Protection Consultants Facebook Group (coordinated by Mara)
Connect with Mara on LinkedIn
Toggl: Time Tracking
Pomodoro technique