How to Build a Professional Services Firm Around Your Expertise With Jeff Gothelf

Want to solve Branding and Lead-Gen for good for your B2B Business? Download our Completed Playbook for FREE: https://ghapodcast.com/b2b-podcasting... ********************************************************** Jeff Gothelf is the co-founder of Sense & Respond Learning and the author or co-author of five business books, including Lean UX, Sense & Respond, and Who Does What by How Much? He has built a professional services business around a clear body of expertise, combining training, advisory work, speaking, content, and intellectual property. In this episode of The Principal Podcast, we’ll explore how Jeff built that business, how Sense & Respond Learning wins and retains clients, and how he sees AI changing both his clients’ needs and the future of expertise-driven professional services firms. ********************* Know more about Jeff Gothelf Website Link: https://www.senseandrespond.co/ Connect with Jeff Gothelf on LinkedIn LinkedIn Link:   / gothelf   Apply to be a guest on The Principal Podcast: https://ghapodcast.com/application-to... ********************* Jeff's Bio: Jeff Gothelf is the co-founder of Sense & Respond Learning, a training and advisory business focused on product management, customer discovery, OKRs, strategy, and building successful products in the AI era. He is the author or co-author of five business books, including Lean UX, Sense & Respond, Forever Employable, and Who Does What by How Much? Across his consulting, training, speaking, and coaching work, Jeff has worked with dozens of organizations, hundreds of teams, and thousands of practitioners. His work has delivered measurable client outcomes. One product team reduced a roadmap of more than 465 requested features to 185 features tied to customer outcomes and launched a major product update on time. At a global financial services organization, teams applying these methods used customer research to stop a planned initiative before development, avoiding an estimated $1 million in costs. ********************* Show Notes: Jeff Gothelf has spent years turning his expertise in product management, customer discovery, OKRs, and organizational agility into a professional services business. As co-founder of Sense & Respond Learning, he works with product, design, innovation, and transformation teams to help them make better decisions and connect the work they do to measurable customer and business outcomes. Jeff has also built a strong platform around that expertise. Across books, speaking, training, coaching, content, and proprietary frameworks, he has created multiple ways for clients to discover, engage with, and buy from his business. His experience provides an interesting case study in how professional services leaders can turn what they know into a recognizable market position. Today, AI is creating another shift. As execution becomes faster and cheaper, Jeff argues that judgment, understanding customers, choosing the right problems, testing assumptions, and measuring outcomes, becomes even more important. We’ll explore what that means for Sense & Respond Learning, how Jeff is adapting his firm, and what other professional services leaders can learn from the way he has built and evolved the business. ********************* Proposed Interview Structure: 1. You’ve built a career across consulting, training, speaking, writing, and product leadership. What originally led you into professional services, and how did that eventually become Sense & Respond Learning? 2. What specific problem are you helping clients solve through Sense & Respond Learning today, and why does solving that problem matter so much to you personally? 3. Who are your ideal clients today, and within those organizations, who typically holds the decision to bring you in or hire Sense & Respond Learning? 4. You’ve built a significant audience around your books, speaking, frameworks, and content. How does that translate into new business for the firm, and which channels are actually driving the best client opportunities today? Current Acquisition Channels: Inbound Leads Sub Question: You’ve appeared on a lot of podcasts yourself. How do you think about podcasts as a marketing and trust-building tool for professional services firms? 5. Once a potential client enters your world, what does the sales process look like for Sense & Respond Learning? How do you go from initial interest to getting a significant engagement signed? 6. Once you’ve delivered for a client, what do you do to keep that relationship going, bring clients back, and turn an initial engagement into a long-term relationship? 7. Where do you find yourself most challenged right now as you grow and lead Sense & Respond Learning, if at all? 8. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for Sense & Respond Learning and your work with product teams over the next few years?