Tag Archive

Mind in the Marketplace

Mind in the marketplace (Part 5): Defining success

, , , , ,

fireworksWhat does it mean to be “successful” as an independent consultant? There are, in fact, many ways to succeed in this undertaking.  The answer depends on how you define “success.”

The simplest measure of all is survival.  Lots of people who try consulting aren’t able to make a go of it in the long run.   Read More

Mind in the marketplace (Part 3): A practical primer

, , , , , , ,

What kind of knowledge and skills do you need in order to create a viable historical consulting practice?

Becoming a consultant requires more than simply deciding to work for yourself.  It requires the shift to a new mindset, because as an independent consultant you become a creature of the marketplace Read More

Mind in the marketplace (Part 2): Encouragement for independent consultants?

, , , ,

When I started graduate school in the now-distant year of 1979, public history was still in its infancy. Within view of the spot that I habitually occupied in the basement of the university library, two or three loose issues (the entire run to date) of The Public Historian perched precariously on an otherwise empty stack shelf. Read More

Mind in the marketplace (Part 1): Taking the leap into historical consulting

, , , , ,

1997 was the hardest year of my adult life.  During that year my marriage of 15 years ended in divorce; during that same year, my employer, a nationally prominent museum of American cultural history, began to transform itself into a children’s museum, and eliminated the position of “senior historian” that I had held for the previous seven years. Read More