How Much Can I Make? - Career Insights For Your Job Search

Be A Consultant: Turn Your Skills Into High-Paying Jobs.

• Mirav Ozeri - Career Insights Journalist • Season 1 • Episode 50

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Be a Consultant

Ever thought about ditching your 9-to-5 job and calling your own shots? Amy Rasdal did just that—and she’s here to tell us how. Amy went from a corporate job to living that sweet consultant life and building a great career. Now she helps other professionals do the same.

In this episode, she breaks down how to turn what you already know into a flexible, high-paying consulting jobs. We’re talking setting your rates, finding clients, and actually enjoying your work again.

Curious if the consulting life could be your next big career move? Head to BillableAtTheBeach.com or find Amy on LinkedIn to see if you’ve got what it takes to go solo—and get paid.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyrasdal/
Book - https://www.amazon.com/Land-Consulting-Project-NOW-flexibility/dp/B0B1B4Y7D8

Visit our website at https://www.howmuchcanimake.info/ to submit jobs suggestions for future episodes. Please FOLLOW us and/or WRITE a REVIEW and SHARE with anyone who's curious about their next career move - Thanks!

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Visit howmuchcanimake.info

Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Amy:

I never give any one client more than the equivalent of 10 or 15 hours a week. If you give them all your time and they really like you and they want to keep you, they're going to make you a job offer and nothing kills a good consulting relationship faster than a job offer.

Mirav:

Welcome back to how Much Can I Make. I'm your host, miravu Zeri. Ever wondered what consultants actually do or how can they go from nine to five job to running their own consulting business? Today, I'm talking to Amy Rasdall, who swapped corporate life for the freedom of consulting. She's here to share with us how it all works and how much can you actually make. So, amy, thank you very much for being here and sharing your time. Oh, thank you for having me. I have lots of questions and I want to start by what is a consultant? What does a consultant do?

Amy:

Yes, so there are many versions of it. For me, I like to call it a superhero with a superpower making super pay.

Mirav:

Okay.

Amy:

So for me it's not. There's a lot of talk these days about fractional, you know, which is kind of part time contract, you know higher level executive stuff. So for me it's going in doing the work that really is your expertise, making a big impact, getting well compensated for the impact and contribution that you're making, and then moving on to whatever the next thing might be. So I like to say again superheroes, superpower, super pay.

Mirav:

So who can become a consultant. I mean, it sounds really good, you make a great pay, but yeah yeah, but who can become one?

Amy:

Anyone can consult. If you can get paid for it, you can do it. But I'm kind of, in what I do, focused on more typically corporate folks, people who've been working corporate nine to five jobs, who then leave that nine to five job and do consulting. The work that they're doing is very similar to the work that they were doing in their corporate job, but they're doing it on a consulting basis, which gives them a lot more control over how they work, where they work, who they work with, how much money they make.

Mirav:

those kinds of things Right, but I would think that somebody needs to be an expert in something in order to consult.

Amy:

Yes, but expert has a broad range. You just need to be able to make a contribution. So expertise doesn't need to be, you know, a PhD thought leader type of person. It can be anybody who's really good at what it is. They do years or more experience in the area that they consult in. So it's not new college grads, it's not somebody that wants to do something completely different. But if you've been doing marketing or accounting or mechanical engineering or HR or whatever it might be, then you do it on a project basis.

Mirav:

So it's, in a way, it's like freelancing as a consultant, right.

Amy:

Yes, so it's very similar to freelancing. The term freelancing, in my experiences, is more typically used for creatives rather than corporate folks, and I think in my world there's an impression that consultants are making more money than freelancers.

Mirav:

What industries do you think or do you know that hire consultants usually?

Amy:

Almost all flavors of corporations hire it. My personal background is a lot of medical devices, life sciences, things like that, but I have people in my programs from every type of industry you can imagine. I can't think of any that categorically don't. It's the idea of a company having a special need or project that they don't need to hire a full-time employee to do. Occasionally it is an interim need, it's because somebody's left and they need to fill the gap until somebody else comes along. But more typically it's a special project. My expertise is product development programs that aren't going the way they should. They hire me to come in and figure out what's going wrong, get it back on track and then leave the team there to carry on and I go away.

Mirav:

What about AI? Do you see a lot of companies just using AI instead of hiring consultant?

Amy:

I don't know that. I think that will be interesting. Right now, I don't see that AI fills the job of a real person. Still Now, I do think there's going to be a role for AI consultants. I don't know exactly what that is, but for sure there's all kinds of people and companies wondering what's it going to mean, what's it going to do? I know in my own work and personal life I'm using AI more and more. I'm hearing people talking about. Well, it's going to take jobs. So it's funny because my husband and I were just talking about this. It must have been like about 1981. I was a college student and I got a temp job and I had like a little airline stewardess outfit. I guess we call them flight attendants now.

Amy:

Right, I'm dating myself, and I was part of the team for Bank of America, hired as a temp, that worked on the rollout of the first automated teller machine. Wow, and we would stand in front of them in our little uniforms and, instead of spitting out money yet, we were helping people get their ATM cards and it would spit out like a free Big Mac or a free Slurpee at 7-Eleven and stuff like that to get them used to. And at the time the big thing was this is going to take people's jobs. People aren't going to be bank tellers anymore. You know all this big stuff. You know where it's all going to go out. I'm a software engineer by background, so AI has been around forever. It's just code, right. I don't believe at this moment AI is taking the job of any consultant, if anything. I don't know how you position yourself, but I have a feeling that there's a new opportunity for AI consultants.

Mirav:

That's very possible. How did you get your first job?

Amy:

Oddly enough, my first job. I had been at a startup and we went you know gangbusters way into the sky and then we crashed and burned hard when we when we when it stopped being successful. So I was looking for a job and had kind of put out word to everyone that I know that I was looking for a job. A consulting project fell into my lap because somebody that knew me said you know, I don't have a job for you, but we have this project. We need someone about 20 hours a week for three months. Would you be interested? And I said yes, that sounds great and I'm thinking that's perfect. It brings in enough money to pay the bills, gives me a little time to look around without burning through savings while I'm looking and waiting. I got four or five weeks into that and I said cancel the job search. I'm now a consultant. So that's really how I got started was somewhat accidentally.

Mirav:

And did you become an expert in a certain field?

Amy:

Well, what's interesting is that my deepest experience and expertise is medical devices, but if I look at my history of billable work, it's probably only about half medical devices, because I would get referred. I did a project for American Idol once in the early days of American Idol. It was so fun. They were doing a sweepstakes contest. One year it was four tickets, all expenses paid to the finale, and this is when American Idol was kind of like the only one of those shows. Now there's tons of them and so it was a huge deal. Everyone knew American Idol and so they did a sweepstakes to promote it. And it turns out sweepstakes have are highly regulated, so there was a lot of details that needed to be done and they hired me to to do the sweepstake contest like the operational part of it.

Mirav:

Because your knowledge was in IT? Or why did they hire you?

Amy:

No, because somebody knew me and said if you just want somebody who, no matter what, can get it done and will chase every detail to the last degree and it will be good, you call Amy.

Mirav:

Give me an example. You get a job. You don't really know the company. You're not in the company. You get a consulting job. We'll get to the pay in a minute, but what do you do? How do you take it from there? What's your first step when you get a consulting job?

Amy:

So first I just jump in. Most new consultants are surprised that the client company doesn't know that much about what the consultant actually needs to come in and do they have a problem? So the first thing coming in is to figure out okay, here's what they told me, that's going on. Gather all the information that you can and then start digging into what really is going on. How do we need to fix it? How closely does it map to what they may have thought is going on and needs to be done to fix it? Because sometimes it's really clear and you just zoom right through.

Amy:

Sometimes there's a really big gap. A lot of times it's either a problem or a special project that they're trying to do with, kind of a one-time thing that they're not going to repeat over and over. So really it's a matter of just kind of rolling up your sleeves and digging in and figuring it out. The ability to work with all levels of the company so from the executives to all the way to the guys who are on the shipping dock and kind of everything in between it's a benefit to be able to work with different functional areas to build relationships. There are some benefits, depending what it is you do to having a versatile interpersonal style so that you can get along with a lot of different people. One of the interesting things is you come in to solve a problem. You had nothing to do with creating the problem, but sometimes you get blamed for it. So that's kind of part of the job is taking some of the hits for the problems that are in the project, even though you didn't contribute to them.

Mirav:

How do you charge your clients? How do you make this decision?

Amy:

You figure out what you want to charge and then the market has to be willing to pay it. It's hard and there's many different sort of philosophies and emotions around it. There's a sense for professional level people that we don't bill hourly, like people at McDonald's, make hourly rates, not high level professional consultants, but I think that's ridiculous, right? I think that at the end of the day, you're selling hours and you should know what you're making per hour. In terms of how you position that with a potential client, I think it depends on their needs. So it may be hourly, it may be daily, it may be a monthly retainer, but at the end of the day, I'm always teaching my people make sure you know what your hourly rate is. If you have no idea where to start, you start at $150 an hour and you take it from there. If you, if you're worth more, by all means I want you to charge more.

Amy:

People have a tendency to undercharge to not have the courage to charge what they're really worth. I don't like to be shy, I like to just throw out. Let's start talking at 150.

Mirav:

And what I tell the people who are in my programs I say, if you think you should be charging less than that, then I'm going to make you convince me why you know, if you make a deal with a client for three months and after two months the job ends for whatever reason they sold the company or whatever how does it work? Do they still have to pay you for the rest of the term?

Amy:

On the occasion that, for some reason, they don't need me anymore. I usually just make sure that I'm paid for what I've worked and then move on. But I will also tell you that I never give any one client all of my time.

Mirav:

Oh, so you work on few projects at the same time?

Amy:

Yes, so I never give any one client more than the equivalent of 10 or 15 hours a week. And again, this is what I teach my people Because if you give them all your time and they really like you and they want to keep you, they're going to make you a job offer. And nothing kills a good consulting relationship faster than a job offer. Superhero, superpower, super pay not day-to-day operational employee. I want to do what I'm really good at and then my job is to go away and not stay there and be locked in. And then my job is to go away and not stay there and be locked in. So I give any one client 10 or 15 hours a week and I have two or three or four consulting projects going at any one time. So if somebody drops out before we expected it to, then I have others going in and then I have people in my pipeline that I can fill in with that.

Mirav:

How long have you been a consultant?

Amy:

Well, I say 15 years, but it's been more than 20. Wow, over time I did just consulting for a long time and what I found is that I kept getting more and more people talking to me and asking me you know like, hey, amy, you seem to really like doing this. You're making good money. I see you, you know, having this great life, having flexibility. Can we have lunch and talk about how do you do it? So I started thinking you know, what do I love, what do I hate, what do I do differently? I started to accumulate a body of material. I realized the market was looking for it. So I founded, a little more than 10 years ago, billable at the beach. So at this point I'm only doing billable at the beach. It's a program, you know. It has all the online stuff, group coaching kind of stuff that helps lead people through starting their own consulting business. So I don't do hands-on consulting anymore. I'm completely focused on that.

Amy:

What will your students learn? What can they get? What they'll get is the inspiration, the motivation and, more importantly, the mechanics for how to get started. And the big thing I am a very practical person. In my corporate world, my strength is not strategy but implementation and execution. So my whole approach is I assume that you want to start a business consulting because you need to generate revenue. So my whole focus is land a project, get a check in the bank and then you do the other stuff. You don't need a website, you don't need a logo, you don't need fancy photos, you don't even need a fancy name. You need brainpower, business experience, a computer and a phone. That's all you need to get started, start doing project work. Do you need those other things at some point? Absolutely, but first let's figure out how to generate revenue.

Mirav:

Interesting. So what is the most common way people break into consulting? Let's say they took your course and all of that. They know what to do. How do they break in actually?

Amy:

So I have this love course, right, I have this free email course on my website that I call a catchy three action steps to generate revenue now. So first you put together what I call your value proposition, or your elevator pitch. It's just what are the services that you're selling? You know what do you do. Are you a, an accountant, are you a marketing person? Are you PhD, toxicologist? What are the services that you have to offer? And then I tell people, make a list of all the people that you know, all the people that you've worked with before, and then don't underestimate the power of the rest of your community your doctor, your dentist, your lawyer, your car mechanic.

Amy:

I've sometimes, like I've been on field trips with the kids and we live in San Diego, so the closest mission is San Juan, capistrano. In fourth grade, everybody does this. You load all the kids on the train, you take them up to the mission. So on the way up in the train, the parents are all like mingling. On the way back on the train, after everybody's tired, the parents are all in the bar car. So we're chatting and it's like we're done with the kids. It's like so what do you do? So what do you do? I mean? I've gotten referrals from other parents, from family friends, from.

Amy:

I went to an opera one time and I was by myself. So some guy was out in front, said, you know, saw me approaching the ticket window, said, hey, are you looking for a ticket? And I said yeah. And he said, well, my wife's sick today. I have really great seats, I'll give it to you at half price. I'm like great Well, offers are long, so we're chatting during intermission and he goes oh my gosh, I'm. You know, I'm the COO at a medical device company in San Diego and we traded cards. I did a project. So once you start kind of opening your eyes to the possibilities. So what I teach first is really mine, your existing relationships and LinkedIn is perfect, right, you dig into LinkedIn. You worked for Hewlett Packard 25 years ago. You could look up and find the people. Right, you were at CBS. You could go onto LinkedIn and, if you've lost touch with people, find out where they all are and reach back out on LinkedIn, right?

Mirav:

So a lot of it is the right connection and luck, luck.

Amy:

I find out that in almost every industry serendipity right which is kind of the convergence of luck and being willing to take advantage of it. So there's a correct quote from Ross Perot of all people, you never get the chance to be lucky unless you take risks.

Mirav:

That's so true. I never heard that. That is so true. Yeah, what is the biggest challenge of becoming a consultant?

Amy:

Oh for sure, the hardest thing for everybody doing the work is the easy part. The hard part is finding the work and keeping your pipeline full of high quality projects.

Mirav:

So is there any kind of organization or any kinds of app?

Amy:

You have to hunt what you eat. It's up to you. But you don't have to be a great networker or a salesperson or an extrovert when you get started. So I'm an engineer by background. I attract a lot of people who are engineers and I start talking about networking and they think, ah, you can learn, People can learn how to do that. And what's funny is that sometimes the people who come to me who are professional salespeople they have more trouble selling themselves. They've always sold other things selling themselves than an introverted IT guy. So it's very interesting to see. But it's a skill that can be learned. It's not something that you have to start out with, but you have to be willing to do the work and it is going to take you out of your comfort zone.

Mirav:

Do you train your people how to sell themselves?

Amy:

Yes, I give a lot of ideas, a lot of methods and ideas that are very practical. There's no magic to it. There's no magic app or service. It's really you're responsible for selling yourself. At the end of the day. It's up to you and there's no way around it. And I still get people who've gone through my program. Is it's actually to you and there's no way around it? And I still get people who have gone through my program. Is it's actually very cute? I have one woman that I'm thinking of. She's a PhD scientist and she's lovely, and about every six months she still reaches out to me and she says are you sure you don't know of some magic way to sell, like an app or a company or someone who can just bring me all those leads? And I would just do the work. And I say I'm so sorry, but I don't.

Mirav:

Some people are not fit to be independent. They're better off with a job.

Amy:

For sure, and I do a lot of speaking, and when I do talk about some of these things, I will have people who will come up and say thank you so much because I've been thinking about this for so long. You made me understand very clearly. It's not for me.

Mirav:

Very good, so it's good. What is the biggest reward of becoming a consultant?

Amy:

For me, it's having control over your life and what you want to choose. So it's being able to choose who you work with, what type of projects, how you want to make your contribution. Now you don't have full control over your get paid, because I have a house that's worth a million dollars. I'd really like to sell it for 10 million. Well guess what? No one's going to buy it right. So there has to be the market has to be willing to buy what you. 10 million? Well guess what? No one's going to buy it right. So there has to be the market has to be willing to buy what you're selling. At the end of the day, you sort of haven't sold your soul. Nobody is responsible for determining my performance review, my paycheck, my promotion. Those are all up to me now. I just spoke to somebody recently who called it having options instead of obligations.

Mirav:

When you work on a project as a consultant in a company, you finished your job and three, four months down the line there is a problem with something that you did, or it doesn't fit or needs to do. They contact you. Did it happen?

Amy:

Yes, for sure, but usually it's not in the spirit of oh, you did something wrong. It's in the spirit of we need a little bit more help.

Mirav:

Oh, okay, well, that's good.

Amy:

Yes.

Mirav:

Yes, I agree. Before we go, can you tell us the website? How can people reach you?

Amy:

Sure, it's Billable at the Beach. If you that and in any way, you'll find my website. My main social media is LinkedIn. I don't do a ton of other social media places. So, amy Rousdal or billable at the beach and and you'll, you'll find me and my information and things. Thank you so much, maybe I'll be a consultant one day.

Mirav:

Yes, well, I always hear about consultants yeah right, well, I do it for free. I give a lot of advice for people for free. That's a problem too. You have to learn to charge for your advice.

Amy:

If you ever want me to convince you, feel free to reach out.

Mirav:

I will Thank you so much. Thank will Thank you so much. Thank you.

Amy:

Thank you very much.

Mirav:

Okay, that's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo. We would love to hear from you. And, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time.

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