2023 SAC Annual Meeting – November 14, 2023 – Live in San Diego & Hybrid Event

This year’s annual meeting will be held virtually and in person in San Diego on November 14, 2023 at the Westgate Hotel.

Our theme this year is “Growing Stronger Together.” See Event Agenda

This year’s annual meeting is focusing on helping you growing with intention and building through collaboration!

We’re building on what we’ve learned from hosting this event virtually the past two years, and also looking forward to gathering again in-person. Here’s what you can expect:

• A day packed with consulting professionals and expertise (with both hybrid and in-person options)
• Networking time between each sessions
• Alan Weiss, founder of SAC, returns as our Keynote speaker!

Click here for highlights of previous conferences.

Presentations include:

• Keynote Alan Weiss, SAC Founder
• Presentation of Advancing Consulting Awards Vanessa Khan, Committee Chair
• The Bing Panel: Who’s Your Buyer…Identifying & Appealing To Multiple Buyers Lisa Bing and Nneka Onuorah
• Unleash Your Primal Brain: Helping Clients Overcome Polarization Tim Ash
• Getting Down to Business:
  • More Clients with Less Marketing – Mary Cravets
  • How to Leverage AI in Your Writing – Dan Janal
  • Authority Marketing: 7 Secrets to Market Like an Expert – Henry DeVries
• Path Forward: What’s Next? Lisa Anderson and Linda Popky

Bought your virtual registration for our 2023 Annual Meeting, but want to attend in person now? You can upgrade at our registration link.

About the Presenters

Keynote

Speaker: Alan Weiss – SAC Founder and Million Dollar Consulting Guru

Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting, has been called the “rock star of consulting.” He’s published over 500 articles and 60 books on consulting, is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence. He has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, one of only two people in history holding both those designations. The founder of SAC, Alan has developed the premiere global community for solo consultants.

Award Presentation of the 5th Annual Corrie Shanahan Memorial Advancing Consulting Awards

Presenter: Vanessa Khan

Vanessa Khan has a passion for entrepreneurship and inventing and reinventing oneself and one’s business. As an IT Consultant, she plays a critical role in a variety of implementation projects to drive digital transformation and adoption, and help enterprises streamline processes across multiple industries. A passionate mentor and coach, Vanessa has also expanded her business to include coaching young professionals, solopreneurs, and entrepreneurs. She helps small business owners more rapidly meet their goals by helping them address the overwhelm and competing priorities that hold them back. Vanessa takes a pragmatic and empathic approach to help others build strong and marketable brands, powerful networks and develop a personalized career roadmap.

The Bing Panel: Who’s Your Buyer…Identifying & Appealing To Multiple Buyers

Some of the greatest innovations have been inspired by influences from outside one’s primary profession or industry. Together we will explore potential lessons offered from the perspective of a successful film and TV producer and director. Long time SAC member Lisa A. Bing will interview Emmy award winning director and producer, Nneka Onuorah, who will share insights on navigating multiple buyers necessary to not only make a film but get it seen. Come with your questions to dialog with Nneka on these topics.

1. Identifying and working with multiple buyers.
2. Sussing buyers’ needs.
3. Overcoming objections.
4. Lessons learned.

Interviewer: Lisa Bing 

As an experienced organizational development practitioner, executive coach and skilled leadership team builder, Lisa Bing works with leaders and organizations of all kinds. The Brooklyn born entrepreneur boasts over 25 years experience and is known as an engaging speaker and pragmatic problem solver. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and spent years holding various management positions for industry giant Prudential Financial prior to Bing Consulting. Lisa has won numerous awards for business and service, has been profiled in the media, and is currently a regular panelist on TV talk show Brooklyn Savvy.

Interviewee: Nneka Onuorah

Nneka Onuorah is a trailblazing, Emmy Award-winning Nigerian-American  filmmaker, producer, and activist committed to telling narratively- and formally-daring stories that re-examine and lift up underrepresented communities.

In September 2022, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program’ for Amazon’s Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls. The series—which also won the Emmy for ‘Outstanding Competition Program’—follows superstar Lizzo on the hunt for confident, badass women to join her world tour. This marked Nneka’s first nomination and win, and a historic moment for queer women of color directors at the Emmys.

She recently wrapped a documentary with Megan Thee Stallion which chronicles the Grammy-winning rapper’s meteoric rise in the music industry and beyond, produced in collaboration with Time Studios & Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

Nneka’s recent directorial work has twice been nominated for ‘Outstanding Documentary’ at the GLAAD Media Awards: in 2017, for The Same Difference, about internalized homophobia within the black lesbian community; and in 2022, for The Legend of the Underground, which premiered at Tribeca before debuting on HBO in June 2021, produced by John Legend and focused on Nigerian youth challenging their country’s discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws. Her other credits include Netflix’s prison-themed First and Last; Viceland’s black queer-focused My House; Burn Down The House, which premiered at NewFest; and The G Word, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.

Unleash Your Primal Brain: Helping Clients Overcome Polarization

Speaker: Tim Ash

Getting Down to Business – More Clients with Less Marketing

Speaker: Mary Cravets

Client generation is the lifeblood of your business. But with so many marketing options, how do you cut through the noise and find your best strategy for growth?

The good news is that by strategically doing LESS, your marketing can be MORE effective.

Referred to as “a coach approach to marketing,” Mary’s engaging presentation quickly shows audiences how to get better results from their client-generation efforts while feeling more authentic and actually having fun!

In a no-hype environment, participants get immediately implementable tools, including:

• The 6 key elements that keep you out of the feast-or-famine cycle of client generation
• How to stop wasting time and money on marketing that doesn’t work so you can attract clients consistently and get your nights and weekends back
• A client generation system that has a proven track record of helping both new and experienced business owners quickly generate more clients and increase their income by 50% or more.

Mary Cravets is an award-winning Client Generation Expert and International Speaker who helps people grow their businesses without working nights and weekends. She’s heard ALL the confusing and conflicting advice out there – so she isn’t surprised that most business owners struggle to establish a sustainable business. But she’s here to change that. Using her methods, the majority of Mary’s clients quickly increase their income 50% or more. Clients range from the former CFO of Microsoft North America, to coaches in their first few years of business, to thought-leaders in a variety of service professions. Mary is also a huge fan of roller coasters, obsessed with otters and proud Mom to her cat Inneego Montoya.

Getting Down to Business – How to Leverage AI in Your Writing

Speaker: Dan Janal

Consultants can leverage their time and productivity by using artificial intelligence (AI) tools and techniques to enhance their writing skills. Through this engaging and informative session, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how AI can revolutionize various aspects of the writing process. From generating content ideas to improving grammar and style, this webinar will equip consultants with practical knowledge and actionable strategies to harness the power of AI and produce high-quality written material.

You will discover:

1. Content Generation and Ideation: Participants will discover how AI can assist in generating fresh and engaging content ideas for articles, podcasts, and books.
2. Marketing: See how AI tools can create compelling marketing materials that appeal to different buyer modalities.
3. Ethics and Limitations of AI in Writing: The webinar will discuss the ethical considerations surrounding AI-generated content and the potential pitfalls. Consultants will gain insights into the limitations of AI tools and how to balance their use with human creativity and judgment.

Dan Janal helps leaders build their brands with books. He has written more than a dozen books. His latest book is called “Write Your Book in a Flash with Artificial Intelligence — Ethically”. When Dan helps thought leaders and business executives write their books, he helps them take their businesses to the next level and exert greater influence.

Dan has spoken everywhere from Beijing to Budapest, from Brazil to Boston. He taught classes at Berkeley and Stanford. He was president of his National Speakers Association chapter in Minnesota. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University. Dan was an award-winning daily newspaper reporter and business newspaper editor who interviewed President Gerald Ford and First Lady Barbara Bush. For information about his book coaching, developmental editing or ghostwriting, go to www.WriteYourBookInAFlash.com

Getting Down to Business – Authority Marketing: 7 Secrets to Market Like an Expert

Speaker: Henry DeVries

Authority marketing solves a consultant’s biggest challenge: Not enough qualified prospects in your sales pipeline

Today is the era of authority marketing, the business approach of being an expert. If you or your company is seen as an expert, you get high degrees of trust.

Some marketing experts say marketing content is king; actually, insightful content is the secret weapon to establish a true authority position for a consultant. But the effort must be regular, not random.

Learn how to own – and monetize – your authority position in your markets and future-proof your marketing!

Henry DeVries, a monthly marketing columnist with Forbesdotcom and CEO of Indie Books International, will dive into the seven secrets for authority marketing:

1. Don’t Podcast, Start Your Own TV Show
2. Think Small-Scale Zoominars
3. Get Published: You Can’t Spell Authority Without The Word “Author”
4. LinkedIn, The World’s Perfect Prospect Database That’s Free
5. Find Your Target-Rich Watering Holes
6. Volunteer to Offer Help, Not Hype
7. Workshops with Research, Not Rehash

Learn how to own the authority position and future-proof your marketing.

BONUS: Attendees will receive a free copy of Henry’s recent book, Trusted Advisor Confidential

Henry DeVries, MBA, is the weekly business development columnist with Forbes.com and the CEO of Indie Books International, a company he co-founded in 2014 to work with strategic consultants, executive coaches, and agency owners who want to attract right-fit clients by marketing with a book and speech (www.indiebooksintl.com) by publishing a book they are proud of. The brand promise is generosity, family, and fun. One of Henry’s mottoes is: “The world does not need another crappy business book.”

Henry is the author of 18 books, including Build Your Consulting Practice and Client Attraction Chain Reaction. Since 2010, he has ghostwritten, coauthored, and published more than 300 business books, including his McGraw Hill bestseller How to Close a Deal like Warren Buffett. Henry writes a weekly column for Forbes.com. He can be reached at henry@indiebooksintl.com. Learn more about Henry at his LinkedIn page or by visiting the website for Indie Books International.

Henry’s career began at the age of six on the family dairy farm; when his parents learned of Henry’s plans for the farm when he inherited it, they promptly sold. Forced out of the agriculture industry as a teenager, he turned to journalism and then marketing.

Path Forward: What’s Next?

Speakers: Lisa Anderson & Linda Popky – SAC Executive Directors

Award-winning business performance expert Lisa Anderson, the founder and president of LMA Consulting Group Inc., specializes in manufacturing strategy and end-to-end supply chain transformation that maximizes the customer experience and enables profitable, scalable, dramatic business growth. Lisa is President of the Inland Empire Chapter of APICS (national trade organization supply chain), one of the most active and innovative chapters in the United States. She has been instrumental in engaging students and has fostered the environment that has earned national recognition for the students from Harvey Mudd College and Cal Poly Pomona.

Award-winning marketing expert Linda J. Popky, the founder and president of Leverage2Market Associates, transforms organizations through powerful marketing performance. Her clients range from small businesses and consultants to mid-sized companies and large Fortune 500 enterprises. Named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women of Influence and a member of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® Hall of Fame, Linda J. Popky has extensive experience in marketing – in industry, agencies, and consulting. She is the former president of Women in Consulting and certified as a master mentor in the Private Roster Mentoring Program. Linda is the author of Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage With Marketing That Matters.