Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Finerty.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I moved to downtown Chicago (Lakeview) from a dirt road in Michigan in June 1990, with my best friend and $35 in my pocket. My parents thought I was crazy. I didn’t give it a second thought, I just packed up and went — I knew I’d figure it out. My first job was for a super-prestigious company. And I hated it — I was a square peg in a round hole. I quit after 3 months, again, everyone thought I was crazy. From there, I worked in pharmaceuticals and medical devices–with the bulk of my “first” career at Baxter (headquartered in Deerfield). I held a variety of HR positions–it was good, but I felt constrained. In 2004, I decided I would venture out on my own — I was looking for flexibility (I had three young kids). Everyone thought I was crazy — who starts a business with three kids under the age of 4? For the first six years of my consulting career, I was a jack of all HR trades — a hired gun furiously reading to stay one chapter ahead of my clients on any given topic. But I had this idea in the back of my mind for a book — about how you get things done in big complex corporations (because I had experienced that pain and was consulting others asking similar questions). For years, I procrastinated. But in 2010, a number of things conspired to get me started: my business finally started feeling the hit from the 2008 financial crisis and my consulting opportunities were drying up; I met a woman (another Chicago suburbanite and mom) who was introduced to me as “someone who’s written more books than most people have read;” and the final straw, my computer crashed — without any back-up. I lost all of my consulting collateral. I had to start over. So, I decided the time was right to write — people thought I was crazy, kept asking why I didn’t stick with what I was good at. I did research, I wrote and I self-published and in 14 months I had books in hand. The first book came out in January 2012 and within six months, my business was transformed. I went from a suburban mom doing consulting on the side to traveling around the world (literally — one client sent me to 4 countries in seven days, I circled the globe). Book 2 came out in May 2016. Along the way, I’ve taught at Northwestern and UW-Madison, I’ve consulted with some of the biggest companies on the globe, shared the stage with Tom Brokaw and Bud Sellig, stood in front of 750 people a cried, jumped up and down on top of a table imploring a senior leadership team to play nice, built cool products that failed and decent products that soared. I’m not sure it’s exactly what I had in mind when I left that dirt road but sure has been fun.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not smooth, not linear, often not even a road. More like a deep forest, with a machete. I think the biggest struggle has been the ambiguity. Because I didn’t have a career path, let alone know where the next project was coming from, it’s been hard to look ahead. And I am a planner, so that can get to me. The ambiguity presents a risk, but in a way, I love the freedom it provides and the surprises. As much as I don’t relish not knowing what projects/clients I will be involved in six months, I love opening up an email from someone I don’t know who read the book, loved it and wants to bring me into their company. When I really think about it, something I made is in the hands of tens of thousands of people and they track me down and away we go. Yes, the surprise is cool. And, of course, I have the whole working mom thing. As I look back on it (my kids are college and high school aged now) I realized I put a lot of pressure on myself to look/act/do/accomplish everything a stay-at-home mom did AND to look/act/do/accomplish everything a full time working mom did. As a result, I am in this weird space where my clients are shocked that I have three kids with whom I am fully engaged and my neighbors are shocked that I have this business and books and products. It’s weird and very divided, which I wouldn’t advise anyone to imitate.
Finerty Consulting – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business specializes in helping people navigate large corporations — how to get traction when you have to work through a web of people to get anything done. We offer online learning, assessments, in-person workshops, keynote addresses and coaching that are based on my two books — “Master the Matrix: 7 Essentials for Getting Things Done in Complex Organizations” and “The Cross-Functional Influence Playbook.” Our clients are mainly Fortune 500 companies with employees around the globe. My affiliates and I pride ourselves on practical, action-oriented and fun learning. We avoid corporate-speak, for fear of becoming a Dilbert cartoon.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I have mini-proud moments a lot, when people tell me that the book has made a difference in their ability to get things done; when I see someone’s copy of one of my books that is covered in post-it notes, highlighter and notations. Being awarded the Notable Indie for Master the Matrix was cool too. But I think the proudest moment was when my Dad took a stack of signed books to his buddies at his favorite breakfast spot back in Michigan. I’m from a small town — I’m not sure my Dad or I ever imagined we’d be handing out autographed copies of a book I wrote! [A very humbling Side note: I sent a press release to my hometown newspaper when the first book came out. They didn’t pick up the story. Yes, the paper that had me on the front cover for a coloring contest I won when I was 7 didn’t pick up a story about me publishing a book! I love small towns!]
Pricing:
- Master the Matrix, $18.95 on Amazon
- Cross-Functional Influence Playbook, $34.95 on Amazon
Contact Info:
- Website: www.finertyconsulting.com
- Email: info@finertyconsulting.com
- Twitter: @finertyconsult
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