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[Music] hey Mike welcome thanks Mike it's good to be here there we go two mics um yeah I've been looking forward to this let's start off I want to go back a little bit because you are known uh in our world at least in the kind of the Consulting success Community I think now beyond that as the fry guy and I have to say that for those checking this out on on YouTube behind you there on your desk you actually have some french fries so where where does the fry guy come from explain a little bit more of of what you do and how you got into the business of being the fry guy well it's a bit of a process and it certainly wasn't uh deliberate so I went to school for mechanical engineering in Canada and I thought I'd become a race car engineer or a vehicle engineer when I was studying and after graduation I worked at a consulting firm a engineering consulting firm and a client happened to be McCain Foods a global french fry processor I quickly got involved in that project and realized I wasn't a very good designer and I wanted to focus on project management and that's where I entered the French fry industry accidentally and uh I spent three years working as a consultant for mcain Foods um helping build french fry factories in India um and South Africa and um and then later on became a McCain Foods employee managing capital projects as they you know expand their existing factories and build new factories and I was in charge of some really interesting projects for over a decade with McCain in North America I live in the US now in Idaho I came here with mcken foods and then yes I I started uh projects Consultants about two years ago when I left mckain foods and project Consultants is a project Capital project management consulting firm and we focus primarily on the potato processing industry so I was reluctantly uh I guess I was anointed the fry guy during actually a Consulting success event and it kind of caused me to embrace that Persona if you will and it's becoming a bit of a personal brand and it's been really fun and uh yeah I'm Mike the fry guy now there we go I have to tell you Mike that you are one of the people that I use as an example when someone says you know what kind of Consultants do you work with a Consulting success and I said well there's all kinds but even people like this and I also use you as the example of how you can be in what some people um you know can't even imagine exists as buil building a business around right like a a real very narrow in some people's minds Niche uh but as you and I have talked about and recently had this conversation the market is actually much bigger than people think when you look not only at french fries but then you start thinking about um you know potato chips or crisps as they call them in some countries uh right the market really does does expand I was going to say just in terms of the market size it it it's very much a niche target market for me as a consultant but you know the global french fry Market is a$ 21 billion Market as a 2022 um it's growing to 30 or 32 billion by 2030 we also serve as the potato chip industry and it's a$ 30 billion Market globally and growing to 40 or 45 billion do by 2030 so it's an incredibly huge Market that really nobody thinks about especially the French fry Market think french fries come from McDonald's or our other favorite fast food joints right but they're made somewhere there we go uh all right so you came in and I remember uh or if I remember correctly it didn't it didn't take you long you know pretty quickly I think within first eight weeks or so of of being in the program you landed like a six-figure contract I think then after you had uh a couple or a few more five fig kind of deals that that you landed take us back to the the early days of of your business because I'm I'm really interested in having you share uh you know what were you doing what do you think led to you having such a strong start in in your business in the early days when um I started my business I really thought it would be I would be like an independent consultant a team of one perhaps and offer these consulting services to french fry processors um I wasn't super clear on how I was going to do that um and what I was clear on is that I wanted to get to that point quickly where I had the clarity so you know I I sought out your group and the clarity coaching program and got involved and within those eight weeks as you say I was able to um work with my coach to develop some pricing strategies and proposal strategies and the timing was really good cuz really you know clarified who my client ideal clients were and I kind of got my messaging dialed in and at the same time I was working on letting everybody know hey I'm an independent consultant you know I reached out to my network but the key was just having the confidence in what I was proposing and the way I proposed it um that I could help this client with their problem and um I got from you know knowing nothing about being a consultant to that point in a really short time that was where the confidence really kicked in you know I had kind of some proof that what I was doing was valuable to somebody and um you know I worked on my own for a while after that for um several months then I started working with some some contractors I met through networking to provide additional services like design work and stuff and at this point I'm still thinking hey I'll uh continue my business by myself there are Consultants out there Landing dream clients charging premium fees and building the kind of business and life that you want and here's the thing they're not smarter or more talented than you they've just got the right strategy if you're tired of guessing your way through the next steps wondering if you should raise your fees change your marketing strategy or find better clients it's time to stop spinning your wheels at Consulting success we've helped thousands of Consultants just like you cut through the noise get crystal clear on their goals and build businesses that Thrive and the best part it all starts with a free Consulting success growth session this is your chance to get personalized guidance on how to break through your challenges and build the business you deserve no fluff no gimmicks just real strategies that work so why not you why not today go to Consulting success.com sgrow and book your free session now let's take the guess work out of growing your Consulting business again visit Consulting success.com SLG today before we actually get into kind of the next step of you scaling hiring thinking about that I just want to point to one thing that that you just talked about because I think it's such an important one and that is you know uh confidence right so you put in the work early you you established the foundation right you got some help obviously with that but you you knew that it was important for you to to get that foundation in place and we see this a lot with with Consultants who you know like they're going to the market Mar they're trying to have conversations But ultimately they're not getting the results that they want and and very often it's because they're not actually clear on what they're offering they're not clear on who their ideal client is and so it's hard for them to go to the market in a compelling way or an effective way because they're not actually communicating anything with with confidence and there's a real lack of of clarity there so I think for those of you who are listening right now and thinking you know I'm I think I'm doing the right things but I'm kind of spinning my wheels ask yourself how confident are you in who you're ideal client is how confident are you that you're solving a real problem how confident are you that you can really deliver you know a very tangible um valuable result and outcome for these people and you know what do your service offerings look like are are you very clear on all that and if you're not that's probably where you want to spend some some time okay so you got some initial projects Mike uh and I I would be remiss if I didn't ask this because I just I know our our audience loves details uh you mentioned that you kind of you know activ activated your your network you you kind of went to people you let them know what you're doing is there anything in that process of how you went to the market talked about what you're now doing as a consultant um that landed meetings or kind of created that initial momentum for you that that you feel is really important to to highlight yes in my industry there's um all the processors bu equipment from companies and I recognize that if I made those companies aware of what I did um that when their C when their processing clients called them they would be able to refer me to them if they needed help thinking through capital projects so and that I've that's happened time and time again over the course of the two years I've been in business so I paid close attention to the equipment supplier Network the service supplier Network that Services these French FR processors and build relationships with those people because um it helps me help them help the ultimate client that's such a great example of Leverage right and um this exists for for every business right so for those you join us right now think about where do your ideal clients go right who has access to them right so for in your case Mike by accessing uh these organizations or or these companies you you access or connect with one of them but they have access to to many of your potential ideal clients right and so that's the leverage piece and so whether it's you're targeting a software company that you know is really entrenched in your industry or it's law firms or accountants or other types of service providers or you know um technology providers really look at think about where to your ideal clients go who has access to them and if you can establish the kind of relationship uh that you have Mike with these with these companies um it can you know really deliver some great results so uh thanks for for highlighting that anything else that stands out for you you know once the connections are made um I've I've recognized that I I need to continue to nurture that Network and engage with that network over time and um you know it's it's important that you stay top of mind with um not only these you know I'll call them referral Partners even though there's no formal partnership but to just stay stay in touch with these people because you never know when something comes up that somebody needs help with and want to be the first person they think of that can help them solve that problem so being deliberate about um nurturing that network is a focus of mine um and I would recommend anybody that uh has that Network that leverage to really be genuinely intentional about nurturing that Network really really good point all right so let's come back then to the team and you kind of now at a point where you're scaling and growing right so you you recognize it's not going to be um a oneperson show anymore not just the fry guy anymore yeah there's there's be the the fry guys or gals or whatever it end ends up being uh so who's the first hire um what did that look like and why did you bring them on my first hire was an executive assistant I I I needed to unload the tasks that weren't where I added the most value to our clients so administrative tasks travel booking things like that I was almost getting swamped with some of that stuff hours and hours a week having a VA onboarded over the course of a couple months to take a bunch of that work off my plate has been tremendous in terms of my mental freedom and my mental capacity and my energy levels but also allowing me to do more work for the clients that was an incredibly valuable um first hire like in hindsight should you have made that hire sooner or do you think it was at the right time for you how did you kind of how do you think about that first of all I don't think it would have been a lot sooner but may maybe the course you know I was in it took me about a year to hire somebody and maybe I was ready at 10 months or 11 months but I had to think about it and research it a little bit so I'd say by the time I recognized it until the time I made a hire was about two months before that I I was head down grinding you know just trying to find my footing and figure things out and and how do you today view the you know cost SL investment of of having a VA um because a lot of people hesitate to make that kind of higher because they're viewing it as that's money out of my pocket um and maybe I should just push a little bit longer wait till I land one more client or wait till my Revenue gets a little bit excuse me a little bit higher what would you say to those people in terms of the kind of you know investment return that you've experienced from that hire I'll start with noting that my company is completely remote so we're we don't have a brick and mortar office um and because of that it allowed me to investigate like an overseas virtual assistant right so that can be achieved or obtained at a much lower price point than an assistant in person in the US you're not having to pay $3 $40,000 a year or whatever the going rate is I don't even know because I didn't look at it but I could tell you it's much more affordable um going with a service um any VA service Wing others um sure you could spend like a thousand or 2,000 let's say 2,000 a month right and if you're if you're if you're a consultant who's billing out at 150 or 250 or $350 per hour you can easily justify freeing up five hours a week of your time you know to to to unload some of those tasks and you know focus on higher level tasks higher value higher impact so to me it's an investment and now I don't at all sweat that investment um my great assistant Louise has become part of the team and um I couldn't live without her yeah at all let's so okay Luis is now in place so you got your your virtual assistant uh that's now freeing you up to folus on kind of higher value areas and opportunities inside of the business uh let's fast forward though to kind of the next hire or the next decision that you made for the team what what role was that what were you solving for and kind of how' you go about uh finding that person the next hire was an opportunity to um you know I I sought him out um it was you know an expert in in the industry well respected within the industry amongst equipment suppliers and things so I I I basically recruited had a lot of value to the work we were doing and I saw an opportunity to um to win more work with having his expertise on on board so and what's what's his role he's a project manager and designer so he works with the clients and actually you know does design work related to their capital projects and then you know overseas portions of the projects that are in progress on behalf of the clients and was he working at when you reach out to him like he he had a job already at that time yeah he had a job at a major processor so he left a large corporation to join a startup consulting firm because he believed in what we were doing and he was looking for something interesting see that's why I want to highlight that because very often people have this uh this belief which is incorrect that somebody working at a more established larger higher paying company uh is not in the realm of possibility to you know join your your smaller company uh but time and time again when you look at what actually happens it's what you just said is that you know if your values if your mission if your story if what you're working towards if the the freedom the lifestyle um you know if all of that aligns with the person you're reaching out to it's rarely that that money is the biggest draw or that you know the size of the company is the biggest draw it's more about you know how will I be feeling and and how does this align with the kind of again lifestyle that that I want to have and and the mission and what I want to be kind of you know doing and then not to mention a lot of these large organizations are filled with with politics non-stop meetings all kinds of things that people don't enjoy um so that that's great that you were proactive and you you saw the the bigger opportunity um and and went after it yep so he's been a tremendous addition to the team um he was a first full-time hire in 2024 you know full-time salaried employee in 2024 in March and then um in September I added another project engineer that came from another processor that had a similar story he was uh you know finding um his work not as fulfilling as it once was and uh he really um he was you know he found our vision very compelling which is to be the number one consulting firm for um for the potato processing industry when it comes to project management process optimization and now we're we're working on um I'm working on recruiting a a third um resource a third full-time individual to join us and to assist a client full time yeah so you're four today uh five soon um when you think about so going back in time right you know but you before you had made that first hire it was you you're doing all the work you're building everything for the clients what was it like for you how did you think about how did you figure out the model that would make sense to start building your team um as it relates to kind of you know to compensation so making sure that you're paying what you want to be paying um to to attract the kind of talent and people that you want have uh at the same time making sure that it's still going to be profitable for you to bring these people on um in terms of how much you're getting paid from from clients can you just explain and just share whatever you're able to in terms of how you kind of thought through that and arrived at um an approach that you feel good about so it's evolving and it's a work in progress um but I recognize you know to recruit somebody that um is coming from a corporate role a large corporation that has benefits such as you know 401K here in the US or health insurance uh paid vacation benefits like that I'm not as a small business I'm not in position to offer those so I thought about paying a really competitive wage in fact it's not even competitive it's above that so um you know I want to pay well for expertise um I don't want myself or my team to worry about money but the non-monetary aspects um were really attractive to the people that that I want to attract to the company which is flexibility to work remotely um I have an unlimited PTO policy that means we're all all adults and we can Flex our time ingly as long as we're meeting our client's commitments so we have clients all across North America one in South America you know we're working on India and Europe as uh markets as well developing some relationships there if our guys or our team members I should say um want to travel and they can travel and continue to service clients across different time zones I promote that in fact it's allowed me to do the same thing we spent 90 days um traveling across the country in an RV with my family this summer um and working remotely and making client visits along the way so it's that flexibility that people find um valuable in addition to just cash you know so is it the right model I don't know but it's working for me now we talked about a niche market I would say one um thing that I'm recognizing now or a lesson learned is that a niche is great because it provides a lot of opportunity when you position yourself as an expert and really are an expert however it's difficult to recruit within a niche where people have that specialized expertise and for me to offer a compelling package it has to be some of the fringe benefits like the flexibility and so on what's been the biggest challenge you've faced so far or maybe some of you're still working through as it relates to you know growing the business to that million dooll Mark I'd say one of the bigger challenges is more of a personal challenge it's about mindset of you know how if I look back maybe a year ago it was about do I want to grow this business so there was the mindset there and then when I decided yes my clients are asking for it I will grow the business to support them um and then learning how to do it in a responsible way um I'm a small business I don't have a huge bank account to go out and hire a bunch of high-priced Consultants or you know consultants and pay full-time wages without having secured some work so it's been thinking about the cart and the horse kind of dynamic or dichotomy and you know I've just recently arrived at I'm willing to go out and ask clients how we can help learn about their Sol uh problems and how we can help them solve their problems and then build our team to support that so if there's an opportunity to help somebody then I can go out and either find a full-time employee or a strategic partner or a subcontract resource that can help us you talked about mindset being one of the the challenges or at least just something you have to overcome in the early days right thinking about how do you want to build this business Do you want to build it Beyond just yourself um and that we've had some conversations about you know as the business has become more successful uh and in some ways busier right it's you can get into uh situations where you kind of look around go like wow you know I'm I'm more successful financially than I was before but I also have a lot more going on than I I did before can you share any of those thoughts that that you've been having or kind of how you're viewing that that situation right now kind of you know from somebody who maybe a couple steps behind where you are right I know we have people who are many steps ahead and they're you know they're running or involved in multi-million dollar Consulting businesses uh but others are are earlier stage and they might be you know 1002 200 $300,000 or something like that and they're asking themselves the same question of is it is it worth me putting in that additional you know not necessarily work or or effort but is but trying to grow this business just beyond myself or taking on on more work what would you kind of tell them to look out for or to think about to try and maybe maintain that balance or to to uh get the most out of that Journey one thing that's top of mind right now I guess is you know ask yourself and I asked myself why did you become a consultant what did you value or what you what were you thinking about were your values when you decided to become a consultant for me it was you know the flexibility that that um that I could enjoy to spend time my family to work in different locations and things like that and then so a little story about my journey with that particular value is that I decided um I shared this earlier I decided to do this 90-day road trip in a motor home with my wife two kids and two dogs and so it was a very nice looking motor home I got to say because I saw some photos and it was it was pretty nice looking we were pretty comfortable for being in in inside that motor home for 90 days um and nobody was injured um but um you know that came with a I actually found it to be quite strenuous mentally on me because I you know I was driving the motor home to different locations and spending time with my family and spending time away from my family is they went and did excursions at different locations and stuff but I had my clients to attend to my employees to intend to attend to and to support through the summer and it was an extremely demanding period on on my personal schedule and my energy but I had to you know I would find myself being critical of how I spending my time you know uh like maybe I'm not getting enough work in today oh man like I'm maybe I'm not doing as much as I could be revenues taking a dip in the summer because I'm not as busy seeking opportunities and I felt like that through the summer reflecting on that now after having been home for a couple months is I chose to do that I got to do that the money is not the only thing I wanted the flexibility that's what I value I still do and although I set Revenue targets for the year and I may not meet them because of the time we spent on the road and lighted attention it doesn't matter I was living what I wanted and what I valued through the summer and that was 90 fantastic days traveling the country with my family there you go yeah well said man I appreciate you sharing that uh one thing I want to hit on as well you kind of you touched a little bit on talking to your clients finding out what they want like spending time with them but I've also seen that you know you have clients that have uh and correct me if I'm wrong here but have pretty much been with you since you landed like you have long-term clients you don't have clients for you know a short period of time and they they continue to be with you even now two years in what what do you do or what do you think is contributing to your clients um wanting to stay with you continuing to be with you um like are you just doing I mean and let's say Beyond doing good work because I know obviously you do good good work and let's just we'll call that table Stakes it's important obviously but is there anything that that you feel that you do or focus on that contrib to those longer term relationships you know I genuinely care about my clients being successful and as um I guess as a course of as a business owner and being in this industry I stay connected to the industry I attend industry trade shows and events I'm consuming content about industry topics and I've made a lot of connections through that uh effort when something crosses my desk or I become aware of a certain item or topic that I think a client will find interesting or valuable I'll share it with them and not only is that you know do they appreciate that it it also keeps it gives me a reason to stay in contact if we're not actively working on something together and um maintaining that relationship is so important because especially as a consultant where we're not offering a product we're offering our expertise uh to help them solve a problem it's like the clients are not buying from projects Consultants they're buying from Fernando my employee or Clark my employee or myself because we help them we partner with them to help them through realizing their Vision well Mike you've uh been doing a great job in building this business I'm excited to continue seeing how you take it to the next levels and I want to make sure that people can learn more about the fry guy and uh his consultants and and everything else that you got going on so uh where should people go to to learn more about you and your company so I'm on LinkedIn uh so you can search me up Mike Delong on LinkedIn and also our company website projects consultants.com p r o j EX consultants.com and um we'll have a new podcast launching within the next uh couple months it's called the Tater Talk podcast you can find that on our website and I'll have some stuff posted on LinkedIn as we get that kicked off so I'm really excited about the Tater Talk podcast because it's going to bring people from the global industry uh talking about their Journeys and their stories and their impact that they're having on the total potato industry go all right Mike well thank you again so much for for coming on here today we'll make sure to link all that up in the show notes uh and so if anyone wants to go deeper into those resources just head over to Consulting success.com click on podcast and you'll find Mike's episode right there Mike thanks again thank you so much for having me this is a good time [Music]