PICA Member Spotlights
Q&A with independent consultants who successfully “made the leap” and created the consulting career of their dreams
Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your area of expertise.
A: I'm Julie Hoffmeister, the CEO and principal consultant for Hoffmeister Consulting. I advise senior leaders at Fortune 500 companies who are undertaking a large digital transformation. My focus is helping leaders manage their organization, their department, and the project team through the transformation with an emphasis on the people side of the work.
Q: You’ve been independent for 13 years. Why did you make the leap to self-employment?
A: Actually, I totally fell into it. At the time was staying home with my kids, but I was starting to get antsy and wanted to get back to work. A friend of mine was doing consulting part-time at a client who was in need of additional help. So I met with the client, they brought me on to a project and it just went from there.
Q: So you fell into the first project (that's often how people get started), but sometimes getting the second project is harder. How did you get your second project?
A: My first project was a finance transformation for a large beverage company. My contract ended when the project ended. Two days later a senior leader in IT called me and said, "Hey, do you want to help me manage the change management on a joint venture that we're doing?" She had seen the work I had done on the first project. I ended up consulting at that client for 7 years, leading 11 different technology projects. I was referred to my next client by someone who left that company. In fact, I've found all of my clients through networking.
Q: Well, through networking and through establishing your reputation. What was your secret to success? Why did the IT person for the second project even think to reach out to you?
A: I think it's because I started my career in finance and financial systems are always getting upgraded. I was exposed early in my career to both the business and technical side of digital projects. I've always played that role of translator between the business and IT, that's where I really feel at home. That lends itself naturally to doing project management, change management, business process design, and most recently, business strategy. I'm able to have a technical understanding, but also a focus on the business value, business processes, and what those technical capabilities can do for the business.
Q: So for the first seven years, business development was not one of your bigger challenges, but what was?
A: I think my biggest challenge was to learn what I would call the discipline of consulting - establishing a framework and process to guide teams through a transformation. Fortunately, I had the privilege of working alongside large, well respected consulting firms throughout my career which enabled me to see how the practice of consulting was carried out. It certainly can be a challenge, but I like to put myself on that edge of what I know and try new things. I've approached it with the mentality of, ‘Well, I've seen someone else do it, I'll give it a try.’ This mindset has enabled me to grow in my skills as I challenge myself.
Q: When you say the discipline of consulting, can you give me an example of that? Maybe something you had to figure out?
A: For example, I had a client who wanted to develop a reporting and analytics roadmap. I told them, "We should follow your business roadmap so we can understand what data and insights your team will need." To which they responded, "We don't have a business roadmap." This discovery took my engagement in an entirely new direction. So we started with the development of a business strategy and I lead their team through the process of understanding their vision and how to create programs to improve their performance.
This situation demonstrates the discipline of consulting - Helping an organization figure out their goal. Then helping them define their strategy and how they are doing to get there. I think that approach really applies to almost everything I do, helping people understand where they're trying to go and how to get there. That to me is the discipline of consulting. I don't have to be an expert in what they do. I can apply that process to really any problem and help a leader think through how they're going to get to the result they're looking for.
Q: What's one of the things you've enjoyed the most about being self-employed?
A: I really love consulting and I love being independent because I can completely advocate for my client. I don't have an army of consultants that I'm trying to employ, so I don’t have to overinflate what the work needs to be. I can be very targeted for what my client needs and how I can best serve them. I enjoy that because I don't feel like there’s any conflict of interest. It's very easy to sell them the work because I believe this is what they need and they're buying into what I can offer them and my skills. I don't have to try to advocate for somebody else. It's just me. So good, bad, or otherwise, I'm what you get. I like betting on myself.
Q: What's next for Julie Hoffmeister Consulting?
A: I'm taking my 20 years of experience and writing it in a book. It's a guide for my typical client, a Fortune 500 business leader undertaking a digital transformation. It's for the business leader who wonders, “How do I manage my organization, my department, and the project through this transformation when I may have never done something like this before?” They might be very good at leading marketing or finance, but now all of a sudden they have to implement a new technology that's radically changing the way they do business. The book is a guide for that, which is really just the culmination of all my consulting services put into a book to say, "This book will explain exactly what I would tell you to do if you hired me as a consultant." So that is next and I'll be curious to see where that takes my business.
Q: If somebody wants to find out more about Julie Hoffmeister Consulting or talk to you about book writing, what would be the best way to get in touch with you?
A: I have a website, juliehoffmeister.com and of course LinkedIn as well. Feel free to reach out to talk about your transformation or book idea. I'm always here to help.
