BT: Hi and welcome to Business Today, brought to you by Cerius Executive Solutions. Today we are joined by Kristen McAlister and Matt Sauer from Cerius Executives. How are you guys doing today?

Kristen: I’m great, thank you.

Matthew: Great, thank you.

BT: Great. So today we just want to kind of get right into it. Today’s conversation is about contract executives, interim executive and consultants who were once CEO’s, C-level executives that are either trying to make the transition, have made the transition or are looking for ways to find more consistent work and some tips that may help them. So the first question I have for both of you is what 3 things would you consider a consultant/ contract-based executive needs to know to be successful as an executive that is no longer part of an organization full time? Kristen?

Kristen: You sure I can’t list more than 3?

BT: You can go 14 if you want to.

Kristen: [laughs] Obviously there’s a big difference from when you’re going, from when you’ve had a very successful career as a long-term full-time employee inside of an organization, to being someone who has more of a characteristic for you parachuting into an organization for a shorter, medium term time and you’ve got specific objectives to do. It’s far more focused as one person thinks of making that transition as one, you’re always out there marketing, you’re always doing business development. Because you need find a situation. One of the best ways to find a situation is you no longer have a title, you’re no longer AVP of sales. You’re a problems solver. So start looking at your history and in your communications, in your conversation be clear on here’s the type of problems I solve. Most companies don’t say I’m looking for part-time VP of sales. They say I have a sales problem, I can’t sort my problem is. Let me find someone who can solve it. One of those specifics. And the third thing is making yourself memorable. Nothing does that better than numbers. You want someone to be able to meet you today and tomorrow and still remember the types of situations you have solved and what kind of impact you had on them. And those are really the 3 biggest things in making a shift. And I know those are all focused on that marketing and business development, but until you can do that just to get yourself inside an organization, you’re not able to in an area that make an impact. Matt?

Matthew: So, you know one of the best, one of the things that I tell every new executive, new interim that I talk to, they all ask very similar questions of me is you know, how can I be productive? And how much work am I going to get from Cerius? And one of the things that I always tell them is that, you know, the most productive and the best interims are those that use Cerius as only one of the resources. That they constantly need to work at their business. You know they’re used to being under a corporate umbrella, they’re used to having business come at them as opposed to having to go after business. So one of the biggest transitions for them, and one of the best pieces of advice I give is, you know, you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to market yourself. You’ve got to go after friends, family, you go after past acquaintances, you go after past assignments, you talk to everybody that you know about taking an assignment. And don’t necessarily think about an assignment as you know a 6-month assignment or a 9-month assignment which is usually what we provide, but go after a week assignment, a day assignment. Get your name out there so that people know that you are now no longer Mr. or Mrs. Corporate America. But that you are John Smith. And that you are John Smith LLC. And that this is the business you’re in. And you go after that business aggressively and for us, if we have an opportunity for you we will bring it to you. But also for you to be looking for as many opportunities as you can.

BT: Well Kristen and Matt, I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for listening to all my questions and answering them. And for everybody else that is listening you can find Business Today on iTunes, the Play Store and off of the Cerius Executives website as well as Podbean. Please visit us at www.ceriusexecutives.com. Thank you!