McKinsey Partner to Indie Freelancer - Adam Braff on writing online, the gig economy, consulting skills, consulting

Adam Braff grew up in a house where writing was always encouraged. His mother published a newsletter, and his father was a data analytics consultant. He started out as a lawyer, but after the dot-com boom led to a surge in demand for consultants, he decided to make the switch. He now runs his own consulting firm and writes regularly on a variety of topics.  Braff himself became interested in consulting during the first dot-com boom. He transferred from MIT to Brown in order to study linguistics, and eventually became a strategy consultant at McKinsey.

Relevant Links:

Adam's Website and McKinsey Essay

Tom Critchlow's Writing

Venkatesh Rao's The Art of Gig

Timestamps
0:00 Audio Intro
0:48 The scripts Adam grew up with
3:54 Shifting from MIT to Brown
5:33 Becoming interested in consulting
7:25 What was it like from 1999 to 2002?
9:08 Adam's path to becoming a partner at McKinsey
11:56 Leaving McKinsey
14:05 What kept Adam at McKinsey for 10 years?
16:06 What do people get wrong about McKinsey?
18:49 Decentralization and the emergent order
21:46 The new ideas in customer experience Adam helped shape
24:06 Going into the finance industry in 2009
25:23 Turning data into insights
27:20 How to influence other executives to embrace the "hypothesis first" framing?
28:44 The 2 skills from the consulting world that are missing elsewhere
30:28 Teaching the importance of feedback
33:22 Development Group Leaders
35:21 Lessons from working at a hedge fund
42:01 Did the world of billions inspire Adam to go solo?
42:56 Becoming a freelancer
46:52 Should you clearly define the services you're offering as a freelance consultant?
50:18 The role of Adam's writing
51:44 Did the nature of Adam's projects shift over time?
53:14 The best part of the self-employed life Adam didn't expect
54:15 AI & The Future
58:10 The forecasting contest

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