How I spend my day as a Change Consultant

I love money but the older I get, the more I realise there’s something way more precious: time. Because you can always make more money, but you can’t really get any more time. Time is the great equaliser - we all get 24 hours in a day. So how we spend that time is both a personal decision and a spiritual opportunity. For me, I want to live and lead a balanced life and moving from day rate contracting in Change Management to becoming an independent consultant in Change Leadership has helped me do this. My life and lifestyle have completely transformed, with the ability to own my own time and the flexibility and flow of my day in ways that I never thought possible. And also that I never knew I needed, since experiencing endometriosis for the last few years.

Here’s how I spend my day as a Change Consultant:

Morning

I’m an early bird so I tend to wake up fai between 6.00am-7.00am to exercise: to swim, do yoga, or go for a run or walk. Due to my endometriosis, some days I’m exhausted or in intense pain through the day and night. So I simply listen to my body - if it wants to sleep in and rest, I may sleep until 8am or even later. Other times, I’ll sit down to draft blog posts, workshops, capability sessions, or trainings and use the creativity and inspiration when it strikes and I need to give my body a physical rest. I’m also a guest on lots of international podcasts so if the host is based in the US it’s usually early morning in my local time so I’ll shower and get stage ready to record the episode with them, moving my exercise to the afternoon.

After working out, I’ll shower and have a cooked breakfast, watching something light and funny on Netflix while I eat. Occasionally I might attend a coaching call for a business course or spirituality course I’m on. Some Monday mornings I drive out to Parramatta for my physio appointment, and often do a peaceful and swift grocery shop at the almost-empty suburban supermarket before I head back home into the city. Some days my cleaner comes at 8.00am so I set her up with the laundry and cleaning tasks I’d like done that week.

I pretty much never start work before 10am unless I’m in the middle of a launch for my business or a client, have an international client meeting or an Australian podcast recording, or am super inspired and energised about something and I just want to get into it right away. Because I’m a morning person, most of my creative and innovative energy comes in the morning so sometimes I have to feel into what will be a better use of that time: exercising or creating? I’ll trade off depending on what feels right. Between 10am and 12pm, I’ll do tasks for my own business and courses and for consulting clients. I used to carve out specific days for specific tasks and client work but these days I just flex and flow on what priorities I have and what client meetings are scheduled. I batch and schedule blog posts and a daily social media post every quarter, and usually run a launch each quarter. Wednesdays I tend to keep for presenting - running workshops, webinars, new consulting client clarity calls, and my live events such as VIP Days and my Leading Successful Change course.

Afternoon

Depending on how late I had breakfast (which can sometimes be 9.30am or 10am!), I'll break for lunch and watch a Netflix show. Once a week I’ll meet with a friend, consulting client or business buddy for lunch, or take myself off for a leisurely solopreneur lunch. After lunch, I’ll do a bit more work or meetings. My morning burst of energy tends to wane in the afternoon but it’s a great time for client meetings or running client workshops or capability onsite or online because I have an external stimulant doing something I really love. As a trained presenter, I’m very good at switching on my energy instantly so I can use the time effectively, have amazing conversations, and get outcomes for my clients. If I don’t have any client-facing meetings, I’ll take a break, have a nap with a guided meditation, do a session with my business coach, or go to any health or dental appointments. In summer, once or twice a week I go for a swim at the beach.

Evening

My energy picks back up after 5pm so I might be jumping on a podcast recording with the UK, running a webinar, going to a networking event, or attending a business or spirituality course session in the evening. Every fortnight, my sports massage therapist comes to my apartment for a full-body massage. In summer I might go for a walk; in winter I might do a swim, spa and sauna as we have these facilities in our apartment building. And on Friday evenings I lead yoga on Zoom with my sisters who live in Perth, Melbourne and Austria and we get to catch up and release the stress of the week with stretching and poses. My partner cooks dinner and we chill out together watching Netflix. The evening is also when I jump on LinkedIn and post and scroll and see the news and achievements in my LinkedIn feed from the day. Then I unwind and get ready for bed so I can get a good night’s sleep for my early wake up.

So that’s a typical weekday. Saturdays are my social day when I go to the farmer’s market, thrift shop, out for lunch or dinner with friends, or to English Country Dancing twice a month. Sundays I do yoga under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, chill, cook, and sometimes write content for launches as it’s nice and quiet and I can focus. I also spend weekends away for Regency-themed festivals and balls and seeing my parents or in-laws as they are getting older and I want to spend as much time with them as possible. Every Sunday night I do weekly planning to reflect on the week that’s passed and set goals and intentions for the week coming up.

And the flexibility and flow doesn’t stop in my week - because I work for myself, I plan out my annual launch calendar and client services in line with major breaks in the year. As well as taking off 1-2 half-days per week, public holidays and long weekends, I usually take off December/January to hang at my parents’ beach house, enjoy Sydney in the summer, or head overseas for skiing, and a month or more mid-year to travel internationally for conferences and holidays. 

The best part is that I get to have both time and money. I charge triple what I earned as a day rate contractor, help a variety of clients and students from across the world, and work flexibly and fluidly through the week with my general hours 10am-4pm, in line with my health and my energy and my values of enjoying my life. It all started because I decided to shift to being an independent Change Consultant, working for myself in my own business. 

If you’d like to learn more about the skills, tools and mindset I use to be an independent Change Management Consultant, I’ve opened up the replay of my advanced-level Change Advisor Bootcamp for just a couple of weeks. You can request access to watch the free replay (but be quick as it won’t be available for very long!): request your free access to my Change Advisor Bootcamp replay here

And if you know you’re ready to find a life of luxury and abundance by choosing your own schedule, choosing your own clients and choosing your own rates as an independent Change Management Consultant yourself, my Instant Change Consultant Retreat is on 1-2 November in Sydney. Registrations close really soon so find out more and join the retreat here: 

>> Find out more and join my Instant Change Consultant Retreat here

Lata xx