Hello,

Todd Stanton and I just spent an hour on CMAP’s The Consulting Pulse basically roasting professional services founders (lovingly, of course) about the people strategy blindspot that’s quietly killing their growth plans.

Spoiler: it’s not warm and fuzzy stuff. It’s commercial. It’s operational.

And if you think you can scale without getting this right, we have some bad news for you.

Listen to Our Discussion on The Consulting Pulse

Here’s what we got into:

• Why most firms build a nice three-legged stool (sales, ops, finance) and then wonder why everything tips over. Hint: you forgot the fourth leg.
• The predictable leadership traps founders walk into at every growth stage—and why your first hire strategy absolutely cannot be your growth-stage strategy
• Performance problems that look like attitude problems but are actually “we never told you what good looks like” problems
• Why your next hires need adaptability more than expertise (yes, even if they have impressive letters after their name)
• Todd’s favorite soapbox moment: the “95% rule.” Stop burning all your energy on the 5% who are driving you mental and start investing in the 95% who are actually building your business. (Yes, he wrote an entire book about this—The 95% Rule—because apparently one rant wasn’t enough.)

If you’ve ever thought “we’re brilliant at client delivery but the people side is absolutely draining the life out of me,” this conversation will hit.

Thanks to Ben and CMAP for having us, and to Todd for making HR and legal sound less boring than we have any right to.

Sel Watts

–

P.S. Looking for more? Dive into the wattsnextpx website and blog to discover even more valuable content and updates.