by joe innace
business strategies for licensed professionals When an outside expert can help
The consulting industry in the United States generates more than $150 billion in revenue a year, according to the website Consulting.us. The number of independent operators is steadily rising and most consulting firms are solo enterprises.
Exploring Life One Poem at a Time, is available on Amazon
50 / ADVISORS MAGAZINE
MAR 2021
Stephen Mayer, PhD, PE
Among those more than 700,000 consultants in the U.S., Stephen Mayer, PhD, PE (professional engineer) — and owner/principal of SF Mayer LLC — is likely one of the few who use poems to help set him apart. Writing poetry is one of his creative outlets. And he says it enlightens his consultant work as a specialist with a niche serving design firms, construction and engineering companies, financial services firms and investment banking. “When I write poetry, it helps me have an empathetic look at businesses,” Mayer recently told Advisors Magazine. “There are plenty of Excel jockeys; you can get a teenager to run your numbers,” he explained. “But the numbers don’t deal with the emotional IQ and emotional intelligence. And I
work hard at blending that emotional intelligence side with the hard analytics side.” Mayer is also a college professor and leadership educator who relishes sharing his knowledge about winning more work. As a licensed engineer who was general manager for Buffalo, New York’s Peace Bridge for over 10 years, he recalled seeing so many business proposals and presentations that were numbers-heavy. “Such proposals might boast ‘we have 300 engineers,’ to which I would always say, ‘so what?’,” Mayer added, noting that in crowded, competitive markets there is always a firm somewhere that can top another’s numbers. “So, the question is how do we really capture that emotional, or the soft side of a client’s interest