Forte Consulting co-founder Hope Timberlake discusses preserving autonomy and why her firm plans to reject another buyout approach from a peer consulting firm.
Insight
Timberlake: Audio-only training removes visual bias during internal messaging critiques
“We have such a visible bias that I might be like, oh, I really like Sean. So I like what he's saying, even though I'm not actually truly fully listening to what he's saying. So if we're trying to make sure that all of us are consistent with our messaging, we'r…”
Insight
Timberlake: Founders should intentionally omit pitch details to spark investor dialogue
“How can I intentionally leave out some information That they will immediately jump out and be like, well, wait a minute, what about this? Or wait a minute, I know some other company's doing this. Those types of obvious questions that might arise, sometimes it'…”
Insight
Timberlake: Consulting clients don't care if the founder delivers the work
“The good news and the bad news is clients don't seem to care. They're totally happy. So we could say, okay I trained these people well, or I picked them well, But also more on a realistic term, they just want someone to help them. And as long as the person can…”
Insight
Timberlake: Career advancement often shifts people away from their core skill sets
“As you move up the ladder, you do less of what you do well, and you wind up people managing or project managing, and those aren't necessarily people's skill sets.”
Insight
Timberlake: Test new messaging on trusted contacts, not top prospects
“Ideally what you do is you find the low hanging fruit, you find the people who are the safest bets, you try to find, you don't want to go with your highest potential Customer and let's be like, let's try on some new messaging with you. Let's find somebody who …”
Insight
Timberlake: Inconsistent messaging stems from complexity, abstraction, or poor onboarding
“And one is, I would question if everybody's saying it differently, that either the messaging is too complex or too abstract, or they're just not being indoctrinated into it.”