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This is the Executive Connect Podcast - a show for the new generation of leaders. Join us as we discover unconventional leadership strategies not traditionally associated with executive roles. Our guests include upper-level C-Suite executives charting new ways to grow their organizations, successful entrepreneurs changing the way the world does business, and experts and thought leaders from fields outside of Corporate America that can bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth - all while connecting on a human level. No one has all the answers - but by building a community of open-minded and engaged leaders we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.
Melissa Aarskaug (00:00.754)
Welcome to the executive connect podcast. Today we have Lauren Wambold Patel here with us to talk about unlocking elite business strategies. Lauren is a former BCG consultant and founder of Keenan Reed strategies. We're going to talk today about fractional consulting model how it's transforming transforming business strategies and fortune 500 liters. We'll talk about her journey
her passion and her new venture, Consult CEO. Welcome, Lauren.
Lauren (00:36.052)
Hi, Melissa. Thank you so much for having
Melissa Aarskaug (00:39.644)
So excited to have you today and really talk a little bit about your your amazing background Can you share with our listeners a little bit about your transition from BCG? To Keenan Reed strategies and maybe share with us a little bit about consult co
Lauren (00:53.675)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, happy to. maybe, so those of you who are listening, I was a project leader post MBA at the Boston Consulting Group and the Dallas office. And it was, and this is back a long time ago. I was there from 2007 to 2010.
I always, I'll give you a little preamble to it, I always thought that I was going to be a doctor actually. And so I had anticipated this moment of life where I was going to go into a residency somewhere in my 20s. And I ended up taking various career paths but settled on an MBA. But I always had this idea that I was going to have this deep intense period of learning on the job. And that is what BCG served for me. It was an amazing experience. It accelerated my career. gave
skills that I use every day and I am a happy and proud alum. But what it didn't do was allow me to have a life, which I think you'll hear from most recovering consultants. I'm a person that needs nine hours of sleep. That is a job that requires five hours of sleep. So it was kind of incongruent with where I needed to be in my life. I actually left and spent four years in a couple of strategy roles at Dell Technologies.
and made a transition into industry. And what I realized was that I'm a better advisor and studier of problems than I am of let me build something. So I decided in 2014 to leave BCG and the, sorry, to leave Dell in the voluntary wave of...
Lauren (02:39.49)
of severance packages and got a check basically that allowed me to live for a year. And in that year, I spent a lot of time soul searching. And what I kind of realized was that I really loved solving hard problems. I really loved working with clients and that I was really self -motivated. Like I don't do well with a manager at all, but I will work 10 times harder than anybody else for myself and for a client.
And so at that point in 2014, I founded Keenan Reed Strategies. was first, I say founded, it was me. It was me for about three years working with various companies, people I had worked with in the past, new clients I had met through new connections. And eventually I started bringing in others like me. And if we fast forward 10 years, it is, I still do a little bit of day -to -day work, but we have a network of 40 odd consultants.
the majority of whom are ex top tier management consulting firms. our team is McKenzie, BCG, Bain. We've got a couple of ex -PWC people. Booze from Back in the Day Strategy and folks as well. And we work with Fortune 500 business leaders. We typically work at the kind of VPGM layer. So a little bit beneath in the organization where you would find McKenzie or BCG.
which is a great place because I feel like that's where things really happen. Like that's where change really happens. That's where you can really have an impact on business results and on people. And so we work there. But because those budgets are not, know, McKinsey BCG level budgets, and for other reasons which we can get into, most of our teams work fractionally. So they dedicate a portion of their time every month.
to a certain client or project. Some balance that with other things in their lives, others balance that with multiple projects. And it seems to work for everyone. They get the work done at a price point that really fits that budget layer and they make things happen.
Melissa Aarskaug (04:48.698)
I love what you mentioned. I absolutely echo what she said. I'm also a girl that needs her eight hours of sleep. Like on five, I'm, you know, you know, walking around with one leg, not two. and so I wanted to lean a little bit into talking about some of the lessons learned. know sleep's a huge thing. Any other lesson? Dell's a big company BCG. can you share a little bit about some of the lessons learned and those roles, with our listeners?
Lauren (04:54.817)
you
Lauren (05:18.88)
Yeah, sure. The lesson that always resonates with me, I got a great piece of advice. Work the people as hard as you work the problem. I'm a problem solver. I go towards the data, the research, the structuring of the answer, and then what we think are options to solve it. I had to learn that the people,
really, really matter. And I think for people working in large organizations, actually, I the people are more important now than the problem. think for those that have regular jobs in industry, I think your job is to manage a political system. And you must be, that is your first job because nothing happens in today's business unless everybody agrees.
Even if they say they agree, it's not going to get done unless they really agree. And agreement comes from relationships and it comes from conversation. And so I think investing in the people is the piece of advice I got. If I could go back 15 years and tell every 30 year old woman, work the people, at least as hard as you work the problem, I think that was the key lesson.
Melissa Aarskaug (06:34.694)
Yeah, that's great. I absolutely agree with work for people. think sometimes when you don't, other people will and then the situations flip and the outcomes may not be what you want and you can't control the narrative, right? I think that's another piece
you know, not just the narrative in the company, but your own personal brand. And that's not only with your clients, but with your staff and your peers and those around you. So I love that you said that, I absolutely agree. I wanna talk a little bit about the key milestones of Keenan Reed. I know we've had
Fortune one fortune 100 500 engagements you mentioned the consultant 60 % year over year growth Share with me some of that. Those are big numbers and great Can you share a little bit about those milestones?
Lauren (07:26.56)
Yeah, I kind of think about our growth. feel right now like we are on, we're starting to, we are looking at an S curve. So I don't know if you know the S curve of growth where, you know, things tend to compound slowly and then all of a sudden you shoot. Yeah, so it was never really my intention to do this. I didn't found the firm. I just started doing work. The first milestone came when clients wanted
more of me. And I talked to a lot of fractional, either executive leaders or consultants like myself, and they're in that period and they feel like I don't scale. How do I do more? Well, your first way you do more is that you do less of what doesn't matter, right? But that really just gets you a sliver. So that first milestone for me came when I started bringing on other people. At first, it was three, right? And it was three for a long period of time.
maybe three or four years. During that time, I had a child, you know, there was life things and there was a pandemic. don't know if you remember, there was reasons why.
Melissa Aarskaug (08:30.097)
Yep.
Lauren (08:32.714)
And then I started saying, you know what, really think I am, again, ready to take back the narrative about my career. I don't want to just be a consultant. I think that I have a space where I can serve our clients better by finding more people with either my skill set or something that's similar. So I started investing in building the network of consultants first. It was kind of chicken or egg. Do you go hunt for work?
Or do you find the people to do the work? I chose to find really great people to do the work first. So we built a network of consultants. At that point, maybe I had like 20 people on the roster. And then started to actively position what we're doing within our current client base and then within some other organizations. And from there, it's been pretty solid organic growth. I think it just took really talking about
to go from where we were to now. Now we'll have anywhere between, know, projects kind of ebb and flow, but anywhere between nine and 15 engagements happening at any given time. And that's with me doing.
I mean, I probably spend 60 to 70 percent of my time still doing client work. So this year has been about how do I really get a good team underneath me to transition them into that work? And so we are now activating that plan. And now it's about me going and going to business. And that's why I say, you know, I am looking at that S curve. I think we've got all the internal stuff we need. have amazing people ready to do work. We now just need to invest some time in talking to clients about
we can do and what kind of results that can deliver.
Melissa Aarskaug (10:13.318)
That's great. And let's talk a little bit about some of the problems you're solving for your clients. Is there like a common problem that you're solving for through Keenan or is it always different?
Lauren (10:22.048)
Yeah. Well, the problems are always different, but I think there's a through line. We tend to work on the top initiatives within an organization that don't have a clear owner.
that are tied to somewhere between 20 to $500 million of revenue growth or cost savings. So this is typically the new and different. It's not the, hey, I'm going to go innovate this great new big thing. Like, that's not what we do. What we do is we know we need a gap. We have a gap here. It is almost always within a channel partner model, a monetization strategy.
a process inefficiency that's driving cost, perhaps an organizational structure redesign, but something in there that says, don't have the problem, like this is a complex problem with a big impact. We don't have that day -to -day capability on our team because our team is busy doing their day job, right? It's a great product team or it's a great, you
insights team, but they need this different skill set. And so that's kind of our sweet spot of where we come in and do
Melissa Aarskaug (11:37.138)
Any maybe like key success stories that you can share about maybe, you know, mentioned too, uh, 20 to 500. Um, is there any key success stories that you can.
Lauren (11:51.019)
Yeah, we got a great one. So one of our clients had an opportunity to expand their channel partner program to new countries where they couldn't transact directly for regulatory reasons, primarily. And it required a lot of thinking different on how do we actually get this done and how do we work with partners and contracts in Korea, in Vietnam,
the long kind of tale of countries. And the challenge was that the compliance elements of this program were really important. So it was really complex. And the team we went and worked with, the client team, was chronically understaffed. They just simply didn't have the manpower, person power, to go and sit with compliance, to sit with the field teams, to sit with the legal teams, and really understand the puts and takes and what these different stakeholder teams felt were blockers.
So we put an excellent consultant who not only was kind of a principal level consultant at a top tier firm, but she had also spent time running $500 million businesses post consulting. She's like an operations fix it person. And put her in role. She went and just ran the track with each of those teams and figured out, what is the core problem that we need to fix? They isolated
they put in fixes in place and now that program has been up. The program was actually stopped by the compliance department. And so she came in to fix it and get it restarted. The program's now been up and running consistently, I want to say for about 18 months, and they're north of $200 million. So big impact. And this was a program where she was in and out in five months. wasn't like a long time. A lot of our engagements are long term where people kind of get a taste and then they
They keep us on for governance or for continuous pricing adjustments or whatnot. But this is one where it was like, have a hard punch and come and land it, and then go on to the next thing.
Melissa Aarskaug (13:51.92)
Yeah, I've noticed just I guess with my network, a lot of people left, like the C -suite role started doing more fractional roles during the pandemic, they could see more clients and people. And now it almost feels like maybe it's just my network, you tell me. Now I see them actually exactly what you said earlier, the companies they work for love them and want to put them kind of in these full time roles. And so they kind of pivot back to
a C -suite role. Are you seeing that a lot in your space?
Lauren (14:27.162)
see it a fair amount. I think good work gets good results. But not everyone can deliver it. But if you can, it's like they want to keep you so badly.
that they will find ways. I think it's really interesting. I actually see another trend, maybe it's kind of related to this, which is people who are, I would say, like in the mid trailing end of their mid career. So the first part of like kind of the lower gen Xers are looking for really interesting, great work that allows them to have some balance in their life. And so when you can take those people and then put them in the roles you're describing,
Like what a great combination that is because it's meaningful to them. And I think they're also not, they're willing, they can do the thinking and they have the leadership capabilities, but I think they kind of also enjoy doing. And these roles require you to do both. Like it's a mix of, yeah, sure, I can come in and lead a team and structure the work, but you're also gonna have to do stuff that maybe you haven't done for 10 years. But I think.
The magic is when you get someone that's like, I would like to do that. I can see the efforts of my work then. I'm not spending my whole day just managing that political landscape. It's a really great combination.
Melissa Aarskaug (15:50.084)
I love it. Yeah, it's there's so much new. mean, you almost rather have like the best possible person for the role at the best possible, right? I think a lot of time it's like you were kind of talking a little bit about is it's
you know, startup companies don't have the big budgets that you know, the fortune 100 companies have, but they need like really good talent right away to get their business going and becoming profitable. So I think the fractional work is is the way to go right a startup has a lot of overhead costs out of the gate before they're making money. But they also at the same time need really smart people to get the work done as fast as possible. So I'm like, I love fractional work. I think it's a great
way for startups to get going quicker. I know you have a new passion these days, consult .co. Can you share a little bit about its mission?
Lauren (16:43.298)
Yeah. Yeah, so the consult .co is a platform and we'll say emerging community, but it's really a platform right now for fractional executives and executive level independent consultants. And it is right now, it's entirely free. It is my way of sharing. We talk about the 10 years and the milestones. That happened because I had to Google things. I had to Google.
How do you do your taxes? What's the contract? How do I think about, I don't have a 401k. All of these questions I think are common in this group of people. So I established a platform. We've published, I don't know, 50 resources or so. We've got a team that's slowly developing them. We are incubating some ideas about how to infuse the, as I mentioned,
work the people harder than the problem. I work the problem, right? So now I gotta bring in the people. We're thinking of some partnerships and ideas to bring the people elements into the platform, but we published a newsletter weekly. That's kind of my learnings and thoughts on what's worked for me. We've got the free resources for folks. So anyone can go and sign up and see what we have.
I saw that there's, so there are platforms like this, nobody was targeting this particular group of people. You have platforms that are targeting, you know, freelancers.
You have new platforms, which one is great by the way, it's called Pollen, but it's targeting a slightly different audience. It's more of the kind of program manager level, you would a manager within an organization, maybe even a junior director level. And then you have organizations like Chief that are really reaching out to executive level, but not independent consultants. So I'm trying to find a place for like, where can the people like us go? You know, cause they're just, there wasn't, it seems to be one.
Lauren (18:40.918)
So yeah, I just encourage anyone to check it out if it's helpful.
Melissa Aarskaug (18:43.748)
I love it. It's like I think of it like matchmaking, right? You're just matchmaking people to write with different problems back to the problems, right? You're just matchmaking. I need this and here's a you know, kind of a Rolodex as well of an information and I love that you mentioned that because I think that was my original intent with launching the executive connect podcast was to connect
all the brilliant people that I know and friends and family with and bring them out in the world and Several of my friends who have never spoke in front of people I forced them to be on so I could yeah, I continued I love it I think it's such an invaluable piece to pay it forward and have those assets up there for people
Lauren (19:23.936)
How did they do?
Melissa Aarskaug (19:33.838)
and just to cut down their learning curve too. Like you said, it's like in the startup world, it's not new, everybody's just, all the new startups are making the same mistakes, the older startups, they're just more mature in their learning curve than the newer startups. And so having assets and content and things to pull from really shortens your learning curve and gets you moving faster to whatever your goal
If it's money or whatever, solving problems, if it's building better software, whatever your thing is, it gets you there faster. So I'm anxious to hear how it goes.
Lauren (20:06.38)
Yeah.
Lauren (20:11.136)
Yeah, well, mean, look, it's it's an experiment. mean, our, commercial efforts are on the consulting business with Keenan Reed. I just felt like these things needed a home. So there's the home.
Melissa Aarskaug (20:24.026)
I love it. think I want to switch gears to talk a little bit. I know you started talking about the people development side of things now. I want to talk a little bit about your philosophy on the people development and just about how you're building communities, you know, all around, right? And, you know, how does that look and maybe some insights on how to do that? I think a lot of times
You know, it's normal for us and it's just like, you
washing our hair before we condition it's normal for us. think, you know, building community and developing people is not always like a known skill. think during the pandemic, I saw a lot of companies turn people into managers because they had been at companies for 10 years. But maybe those people didn't want to be managers and maybe they didn't have that people community skill set. So I want to just kind of talk a little bit about your philosophy about building communities and the people management.
Lauren (21:25.218)
So it's a great question. I think there's a couple of tenets to it. The first is you just hit it. Not everybody is a manager. And I think the people in the organization who are really experienced ICs add a tremendous amount of value to any major initiative. Those are my favorite people to work with. And I think.
There is this notion that you have to be a manager to be meaningful or to advance your career. And I don't agree with that at all. So I think it starts with understanding, is that what you really enjoy doing? Do you truly enjoy bringing the team up with you? Because if you are a manager, your job is not to tell people what to do. Your job is to enable and develop a team. That is how great things happen.
I think the second tenant of my philosophy is the idea of power teams. So in my career, I mentioned I thought I was going to be a doctor, right? I had this notion that I would be an apprentice. I would learn while doing and I would learn from some situations and that is what happened. And that is how learning works in consulting. There's minor training, but everything you do is on the job. I find now that
We, like our firm plays a really unique role because we're putting these incredible experts and they almost always are partnered with a senior manager who's a high performer, right? Someone in this organization has been tasked with this really important problem. That person working with a seasoned, like structured person who knows how to work a political system is a power team.
And anytime you can form a power team of a senior person that knows something paired with a more junior person who has a lot of talent and a lot of grit, it doesn't have to be a consultant. It can be within an organization. That is amazing. And the more you can do that, the more you can advance your team's real practical development on the job.
Lauren (23:38.922)
I think as a manager, it is your job to enable that high level of talent and foster the culture that allows for that and really be proactive in identifying those matches and then helping them foster and develop and just encouraging it. I've seen that work really, really well many times.
Melissa Aarskaug (24:02.62)
I love that. know, like I hear a lot, know, jobs are really hard, high pressure, high pressured environments, startups or bigger companies. And a lot of times I hear from, you know, friends or peers that they're like, I can never do it right. Either I'm too tough or I'm too soft. If I'm too soft, I'm in trouble for not being tough enough. And if I'm too tough, I'm either a bully or, or whatever other word, you know, put another word. So how do you kind of balance
Like get stuff done while we're driving, you know, software deadlines.
Lauren (24:34.602)
yeah.
Well, I don't. think if you're, I think you can't listen to that. Like, I don't think you should listen to the narratives being told about you. Like, if someone was saying you're being, you're hearing you're this or you're that, did you do it right? Like, who cares? Like, what matters is you delivered the result that you were asked to deliver and you have your perception of how you're going to do it. And if that situation doesn't work, you know,
Find a new situation. If you really care about what the people think, I think that's gonna get in the way of your growth. I think you have to manage that dialogue in your own head and have confidence in your actions. And if you don't have confidence in your actions, you need to go a level deeper and figure out, is it a confidence issue or do I really have a skill gap? Like, I really not do something? But be honest with yourself about.
what could and should have been done and have, you know, this is where these power teams matter, right? Like it's have a trusted advisor that can give you some objective perspective so that you can kind of quiet the idea of those, you know, of the other opinions that are going to cloud your own perspective on your performance.
Melissa Aarskaug (25:46.374)
Yeah, I think you nailed it. think driving anything, you know, there was what the recent TD Ameritrade Charles Schwab merger. I have to imagine that project was high stress, you know, intense driving these big transitions and, you know, converting, you know, a lot of companies are converting, you know, on -prem environments to the cloud and what that takes and how long and how to get everything over. I think I love what you said is, is controlling, you know, really.
Lauren (25:57.15)
yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (26:15.814)
You know, somebody tells you something you decide right if you're getting the job done keep going right because People that get things done other people tend to get irritated with them doers problem solvers Tend to all not have the easiest rockiest There are two neither roads always kind of rocky and not the easiest smoothest road possible. So I absolutely agree
Lauren (26:38.422)
Yeah, I think most people either want to be led or they're resistant to change by nature. think evolution has programmed us that way that keeps us safe. That keeps, you know, like when we were living in the woods that kept us safe, you wouldn't go. But there were, there are some people who are programmed to take those novel experiences, right? And that's what pushes us all forward. But those people, if you're one of those people, you, you, you have to recognize your role. And if you're not one of those people, then you
Melissa Aarskaug (26:48.433)
Yep.
Lauren (27:07.17)
Find the situation that works for you. You should not be working. I've worked on, at BCG, I've worked on, I don't know, like a $70 billion merger. And I ran the finance PMO. Do you know what I know about finance? Nothing. At least at that point in my career, I knew nothing. So you just gotta manage it, right? Am I doing the right things? Am I structured? Am I thinking ahead? Do I have the people involved? Are we bringing the right people to the table? Yes. Okay, great. This dialogue is good. It's not easy. Keep moving.
Melissa Aarskaug (27:35.504)
Yeah, I love that. Keep moving. That is so key. Keep moving. That's a great nugget. And on that note, any tips for people that have not been an entrepreneur, they've been a W2 employee for a while, they've been in really senior elite roles for a long time. And they're like, man, I could do this better. I could start my own thing. But they're, they're not
kind of that tipping point, right? They're not able to kind of execute becoming an entrepreneur or any advice for them.
Lauren (28:10.284)
I think you have to listen to, I think you're waiting for the moment. That moment I've seen, it looks different for everybody, but your gut tells you that that's your moment. My moment was I was sitting in Toronto in the middle of winter in a hotel room.
It was 10 o 'clock at night. I was trying to plan my wedding from, you know, 2000 miles away. And I got an email with a number on it and said, this is what we will pay you to leave. And I said, wait, let me, yeah, that's my moment. Okay. And I was scared to death. I tried, I tried to get people, tried to talk me out of it. And I said, you know what? I just, I got to trust that I'm capable. I think.
I've heard other moments of, know what, I had all these RSUs and they finally invested and my number was there. so I think the financial component of this is critical for people.
or my partner got this other job and now I don't have to contribute this, you know, like now I have a little bit of release. That's been a moment for people. Family moments, you know, my children or my parents or my partner went through this situation or an own health moment. Everybody's moment is different, but everyone I know that has done this has had that moment. So if you haven't had that moment yet, you're not ready because it will be clear when you're like, yeah, it's time
Melissa Aarskaug (29:29.114)
Yeah, think that's that's, you know, listening to your gut, right? Your gut says, you know, if it's scary, it's supposed to be scary, right? Anything worth doing is scary. And so listening to your gut and pushing through and realizing it's going to take hard work. But you're building something for yourself and you're making a difference and calling the shots the way you want to call the shots. And so I love that you said
I want to talk a little bit, because you're really good with the community, building communities. I want to talk a little bit about leveraging professional networks. I know tonight I have an event locally. I'm very plugged into the tech community in Austin. I feel like some of these events feed my soul. It's not so much what I'm learning at the event. It's just going and connecting with people.
Lauren (30:09.0)
Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (30:26.614)
and bringing opportunities to meet people like -minded. So can you share a little bit about your opinions on community and how to network?
Lauren (30:36.61)
Yeah, no, this is great, because you and I are yin and yang. Because you're saying, I love, you're like the Austin tech community. That is my nightmare. So like I've been in those rooms, it is my nightmare, it's not me. everybody, but, but I have spent working with people harder than the problem. I took that to heart. I have been doing this in a different way that makes sense for me over the last 18 months. And it has paid off tremendously.
in terms of like it being fun, you know? Sure, commercially it's paid off, but it's been a great experience for me. The way I do it is I have some like -minded communities in which I feel really comfortable. I think we're both members of CHIEF. CHIEF has been great for me. I know it gets a lot of flack sometimes, but I have met so many women that I never would have met.
It's just been a great opener for people who just were on the same wave.
The other one is going into the BCG alumni community and reconnecting with a lot of folks there and with new people that I never met. Again, just like kind of people on my wavelength. I do go to some events, but I'd like to do one -on -one. You know, I love reconnecting with someone on phone or a quick call. If I'm in town, if I'm traveling, I try and reach out to one or two people that either I haven't seen or that I want to get connected to and just ask for a meeting or, you know, try and get, I don't really go out at night. So just ask for
store lunch or a coffee. I'm not a happy hour person. But I try and really forge few but deep relationships. And for me, that one on one connection, I find really inspiring. And it's led to just so many wonderful ideas and connections. I think that maybe the takeaway between our two approaches is like, find the approach that's comfortable for you. But make the time.
Melissa Aarskaug (32:31.654)
Yeah, absolutely. I love what you said. think it's, we are yin and yang. I love it. I love it. But the tech community was not my community before. I've kind of, it's interesting now, but kind of in closing, I wanted to get a little bit into kind of maybe your top three skills for people that are,
Lauren (32:37.79)
Thank
Melissa Aarskaug (32:59.106)
deciding on the consulting industry. Any key takeaways that we didn't touch on you want to share or things that we may have missed.
Lauren (33:06.28)
Yeah, think, well, I'll recap. Maybe we talked about these. But one is, no, you're going into a learning experience, and that it's probably not forever. So take advantage of every minute that you have there. I think two is, it's really important to be structured as a consultant. Our job, at the end of the day, regardless of what our functional or industry specialization is, our job is to bring structure to chaos.
Period. So you can't do that if you're not structured. I think you gotta be honest with yourself from the beginning. And I think the interview process tests for that, but that's what it's looking for. And then, yeah, I mean, back to the people, like, as long as you're there and with those people, invest the time in the network. Being on those rooms, in my opinion, has been the most interesting people.
I've ever met. No, I've met a lot of, know, my clients are super smart. So I will never say like consultants, that's not true, but they are quirky. And I like being a part of that quirky bunch. So they're really great folks and just know that you should be yourself going into those situations because they're looking for other people who have their own thing.
Melissa Aarskaug (34:19.462)
Lauren, thank you so much for being here today and sharing your insights and nuggets for our listeners. That's the Executive Connect podcast.