PICA Member Spotlights

Q&A with independent consultants who successfully “made the leap” and created the consulting career of their dreams

Tom Freestone spotlight image (2).png
 

Q:  Please tell us a little about your consulting business.

A: My consulting business is Freestone Enterprises, LLC. I focus on operations improvement, driving profit, and reducing costs for manufacturing companies.

Q: Why did you decide to make the leap to independent consulting?

A: It was really about work-life balance and being able to live where I wanted, and this was even pre-COVID. I worked for two very large companies before, and in my last job my colleague and I always ended up where things were the worst and it was our job to make them better. It felt like a lot of bouncing around and one of my options was to go to Riverside, California to turn around a manufacturing plant. That was not a place that I wanted to go for months at a time. About that time I was having conversations with a friend who worked at a private equity company and they were just building their bench of talent. I just jumped head first into that opportunity as an independent consultant. I think I may have approached it a little backwards than most people. 

Q: When you say you did it a little bit backwards, what do you wish you had known or done earlier?

A: Definitely more of the networking and building relationships, especially related to the business development side. My background is engineering and operations, which I guess can be seen as cut-and-dry and instructional, but you need the soft skills too to be an independent consultant. Feeling comfortable in expanding my network and making industry connections was something I was lacking.  There's definitely a lot of power in being able to “get out there” and talk to people about opportunities and what you know even if it's not directly applicable in the immediate or short-term.

Q: As a trained engineer, what have you had to overcome and or how did you do it?

A: Becoming a leader for a corporation (even on an interim basis) really forces you out of your shell. I did Toastmasters because at times I had to present and deal with problems in front of a 400 person factory. You can get over that nervousness pretty quickly. It's a little bit trial by fire.

I think what I really needed was the courage to break out of that shell and Toastmasters helped with that. But it's the less formal settings that I still need to work on, like the water-cooler talk. PICA’s business development workshop made me realize how important those types of interactions can be. It seems that often opportunities come up in casual conversations, so that's where I’d still like to improve my skills. 

You see, I'm definitely a team player. I work better in a team setting and being independent you kind of lose that a little bit, so I ended up kind of creating my own informal team by keeping in touch with some other independent consultants that I’ve met along the way. There are two in particular that I usually touch base with once a week. It’s kind of like a mini, informal pipeline type of discussion because we keep each other updated on opportunities that are brewing. Especially lately, I've had a lot of opportunities come my way so I’m passing those along to somebody else that's in my network. Hopefully I’m paying it forward. 

Q: Looking back on 18 months of being independent, what's been the biggest challenge? I know you mentioned business development, but what else have you had to figure out?

A: In consulting, it’s pretty easy to just put your head down and work on your current project but then it goes away and you’re caught flatfooted with no pipeline or leads. I’ve had to train myself to lift my head up from my client work and connect with my network on a more regular basis.  Right now I'm on a project with a startup company that originally hired me on a month-to-month basis so that forced me to think more about business development. The challenge is to keep that battle rhythm of networking and not lose myself in a project. I have to remember that I’m also running a business.

Q: Yes, you have to remember to work on your business and not just in it. What do you do to remind yourself to do that?

A: Part of it is that informal team I mentioned, just touching base with them helps a lot. It's about making that connection with the team and then talking about opportunities.

Q: What's next for you and Freestone Enterprises?

A: As far as the consulting business goes I just keep trying to look at total value. But the other thing that I've been exploring is trying to create other streams of income. That would relieve a lot of the pressure and would probably allow me to go find the projects that I'm the best fit for instead of a shotgun approach. There's just so much work out there that it’s sometimes overwhelming. But it was through one of PICA’s workshops that made me realize that focusing on a niche will help a lot. So that’s what I’m working on now – focusing more on winning projects that are in my niche or sweet spot, instead of when I jumped into consulting and applied for 50 projects via platforms like Catalant. That was just overwhelming, 

Q: If somebody wants to find out more about you or your consulting work, what's the best way to reach you?

A: My website, Freestone Enterprises is definitely the best way to learn about my skill set and projects I've worked on. There’s a contact page there. And of course I’m on LinkedIn.

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