Journey of a Seasoned Consultant and Serial Entrepreneur with Michael Beddows

AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview with Michael Beddows, a seasoned consultant, serial entrepreneur, and founder of the IT Consulting Group & Enterprising Group.

“Good consultants deliver value, but great consultants teach their clients how to deliver value for themselves.”

Michael shares his career journey going in and out of consulting and serial entrepreneurship as the founder of multiple start-ups.  He discusses four types of consultants – contractors, advisors, freelancers, and coaches- and how he did work in data mining, customer relationship management, content management, knowledge management, and enterprise collaboration. Michael now advises clients on customer experience and user experience.

Christie and Michael discuss the importance for consultants to have coaches as part of their career support system to go from good to great.  Michael shares his new venture, Enterprising Group, a peer to peer learning network for enterprise practitioners on various topics.   The first component of the Enterprising Group is called the IT Consulting Group, which focuses on providing coaching services to teach professionals how to be an IT Consultant.

“How can you achieve your 5-year plan in the next 6 months?”

Michael provides additional advice for younger consultants

* Do not be intimidated by older, more experienced professionals

* Begin working on your long term career plans now instead of later

* Keep an eye on the impacts of artificial intelligence

* Don’t underestimate the value of taking notes

Listen to the Episode Here:

On this episode, we’ll be doing a segment that I call AMA, Ask Me Anything. If this is your first time tuning in, AMAs are when I have the utmost pleasure of connecting with either a season or former consultant. They share their career journey and give you advice. We’ve got Michael Beddows. He is a consultant, seasoned consultant, entrepreneur, as well as the Founder of the IT Consulting Group. Super cool coaching services that he can provide. I want you to take heed to some of the things Michael shares. I’ve known Michael for many years. He’s been a high performing consultant. He’s always on the cutting edge. I love talking to him and brainstorming. He’s always got some great perspectives. I think you’ll enjoy his conversation.

If you want to be a great consultant, I highly recommend you attend TEDx Talks. I had the utmost pleasure of attending the TEDx Beacon Street talks here in Boston. I actually was part of the team. I volunteer, got behind the scenes. I was able to connect with speakers. It was so fabulous. I want to highlight some of my favorite talks. I’m adding that to my mental map of a great consultant. Great consultants should really consider attending this TED Talks. The one I attended was a completely free for someone to register and the amazing thing that they talk about and the ideas had shared, I think anyone that really want to be on a cutting edge of any particular industry, those are the places to be or even to do your own TED Talks. TEDx Beacon Street team, they’re working really hard to get the recordings up and running or the various different talk that took place.

Interview with Michael Beddows

Michael, thank you for taking time to join us on The MECE Muse Unplugged. How are you doing?

I’m doing great, Christie. Thanks for inviting me.

It’s going to be a cool conversation and you’ve just got such a colorful background as a consultant and an entrepreneur. Maybe before we get started, if you can take a moment to introduce yourself to the go-getters of The MECE Muse Unplugged.

I’ve been working in a variety of enterprise technology fields for about twenty years now.