Become a High-Performing Consultant
The coaching program for MBB consultants will transform you from struggling, stressed, and lost to high-performing, confident, and fulfilled.
Learn to work smart. Boost your productivity. Work on exciting projects. Solve the toughest problems. Build strong sponsorships. Create a sustainable lifestyle.
Finally, enjoy yourself working in consulting.
Sounds impossible?
You can achieve that.
But first, let me tell you that I feel your pain.
I experienced it myself.
No one talks about it, so let me spell it out.
The consulting industry faces an unprecedented crisis.
Overhiring led to a massive imbalance in supply and demand, radically reducing client work for consultants.
As a result, they can't learn fast enough and fall behind in their development.
In this situation,
Lateral hires have become the most vulnerable group.
They lack strong networks, struggle with work, and cost a lot.
They don't have time to ramp up and learn the ropes.
They must compete with younger, more tenured colleagues.
It’s an unfair situation.
As a result, they become the first victims of continuous layoffs.
It's nearly impossible for lateral hires to survive in their first year.
Embarking on this coaching program has been an absolute game-changer for me. From day one, I've felt supported, motivated, and equipped with the tools necessary to navigate my MBB journey towards personal and professional growth. The program's tailored approach has helped me uncover my strengths, confront my challenges, and set clear, achievable goals.
Maxime Vreven, Engagement Manager @ McKinsey, Bangkok
But, even if they do survive and overcome these impossible obstacles,
They fall into the trap of average performance.
In MBB firms, being average is extremely uncomfortable.
These firms are inherently competitive, rewarding high performers disproportionately.
Average performers feel like second-class citizens scrapping for leftovers.
As a result, they get stuck in their firms’ basements, missing out on great opportunities and experiences.
Breaking out from being average is extremely hard.
Consultants work at full capacity, yet the expectations grow much faster.
Where can they find additional capacity? Certainly not from more hours in the day.
It's like running in a hamster wheel of never-ending mistakes and iterations. No matter how hard they work, the wheel spins faster, generating more useless work.
Consultants can't score any meaningful wins for months and years. For insecure overachievers, depriving the 'overachieving' part is devastating.
Rustem became my confidant, mentor, and friend who I could use as a sparring partner through mental blocks and difficult project situations. I would highly recommend Rustem’s content, as well as Rustem as a coach and a friend, as you take this journey.
Parth Reddy, Project Leader @ BCG, Malaysia
The stakes for lateral hires are much higher.
Lateral hires join consulting at 30-35 years old.
They already carry significant obligations such as student loans, visa requirements, and family duties.
That applies tremendous pressure that younger folks have yet to experience.
Being fired would have a devastating impact on their career and lives.
You combine all these problems, and you get
A perfect storm of stress, pain, and anxiety.
Their self-confidence is the first thing that gets destroyed.
People who were always the 'smartest in the room' now doubt their intelligence and worth.
Insecurities take over.
They can’t stop thinking about work.
That’s when,
Negative feelings creep into personal lives and poison relationships.
This inevitably takes a toll on their physical and mental health.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have Rustem as both a mentor and friend, particularly during the early stages of my career with the firm. His invaluable tips and tricks have saved me significant time that I would have otherwise spent learning or discovering on my own.
Wanmongkol (Earn) Tangdenchai, Consultant @ McKinsey, Bangkok
Over time, the consultants start realizing an unspoken truth.
You can't win in consulting by brute force.
You must work smarter.
But, when they decide to learn, they discover unpleasant surprises.
Great coaches, mentors, and sponsors are not readily available.
Most leaders are busy fighting for their survival.
They don’t prioritize coaching and mentoring.
On top of that, the competition for limited leadership attention is fierce.
High performers get priority access because the best leaders like to work with the best consultants.
Unfortunately,
The standard firm learning falls too short.
Existing training programs teach useful skills but don't teach how to become successful.
They are often fragmented and far from practical realities.
There is no single source of truth or manual.
Consultants must piece it together, working with many resources.
They try to reinvent the wheel all over again.
But given limited time, it’s not effective.
Rustem helped me improve my performance across all aspects of my consulting work at McKinsey. He is the mentor and coach every professional needs no matter the starting point, and will help you get to the next level of productivity and fulfillment.
Aizat Orazaliyeva, Consultant @ McKinsey, New York
It's confusing to be in the middle of the storm.
Consultants have so many problems they don't know where to start.
They often confuse symptoms over root causes.
As a result, they work so hard but can't see any meaningful progress.
They don't know what to do.
But let me open an obvious secret you already know.
The root cause of all problems is poor performance.
Well, average performance also doesn't cut it.
Consultants simply can't stand out from the crowd.
They struggle to access the most scarce and valuable resource - leadership support.
To advance in consulting requires finding new projects and getting positive reviews.
Having friendly partners is not enough.
You need leaders who pound the table for you.
The ones who will go the extra mile to support you.
They will become your advocates and ambassadors, recommend you to other partners, and create new opportunities.
Only then can you feel better in consulting.
Super high-impact and actionable advice and guidance turn chaos and randomness into a clear process, both on micro and macro levels: “How to make good slides—follow steps 1, 2, 3,” “How to earn trust and autonomy—focus on A, B, C,” all with a deep understanding of the underlying reasons and how it all fits together. This guidance helped me stop engaging in practices that made the work unnecessarily difficult and painful.
Ramazan Yeltay, Junior Engagement Manager @ McKinsey, Kazakshtan
In contrast,
Achieving high performance resolves many issues.
The staffing problems disappear for good.
Partners chase you and offer many projects. You get to choose topics you are passionate about.
You get to work with inspirational leaders and great mentors. They invest more time in coaching you, and you become even better.
You feel confident and get addicted to the feeling of constant winning. You become a more ambitious and inventive problem solver.
It’s easier to work with supporting people and great projects.
Over time, it all results in a better career path and future career options.
Finally, you can enjoy yourself working in consulting.
I’ve spoken to more than 100 consultants.
They all had one main question.
How to become a high-performing consultant?
None had a clear answer except to work hard and hope for the best.
But consulting is complex and ambiguous, with endless skills to learn.
There are lots of unspoken rules and expectations.
You can spend years learning and still feel not enough.
It's overwhelming for new consultants.
They don't know where to start or invest their limited time.
The path to high performance looks obscure and random.
I used to believe that high performers are exceptionally lucky or uniquely gifted.
But this is a huge misconception!
People attribute mysterious nature to things they don't understand.
Working with Rustem during my time as an Engagement Manager was pivotal for my growth, helping me succeed in that role and later as an Associate Partner. His mentorship and guidance were instrumental, equipping me with skills that continue to drive my professional journey.
Nikita Lavrentiev, Associate Partner @ McKinsey, New York
Achieving high performance is doable.
It's a solvable problem and a teachable skill.
Yes, it's a complex issue with too many variables.
But we are consultants. We should be able to figure it out.
The fastest way to achieve that is to get help from people who have gone through this journey.
Even better from someone who has trained dozens and learned from their experience.
Consultants are smart. They can learn fast if provided with proper guidance.
But how do you learn high performance?
What is the secret recipe?
The recipe is to learn how to kickstart, sustain, and amplify momentum.
Momentum is like a powerful wave, making your work much easier and more impactful.
It starts with a strong impulse - an impressive win.
With every new win, your confidence and motivation increase.
Leaders start trusting you more, and clients respect and cooperate more willingly.
All these favorable factors create more opportunities to win.
Then, you can repeat it again and again.
These strong momentum waves carry you to unimaginable places and unbelievable achievements.
But, learning how to start and sustain momentum is not easy.
A good analogy is surfing.
It looks effortless when professionals do it.
But learning it from scratch is not easy, especially if you are old like me.
Standing on the board is tricky. Keeping the balance even tricker.
The same goes for consulting.
Rus not only gave me very actionable feedback on my core consulting toolkit (client handling, making slides etc), he taught me a series of soft skills on navigating the firm - to name a few, how to manage leadership expectations, how to manage a team, how to set myself up for designation - all things that are not written down anywhere in black-and-white but very crucial to know in the pressure cooker that is the consulting industry.
Vania Stephanie, Engagement Manager @ McKinsey, Singapore
Talking to more than 100 MBB consultants inspired me to develop a solution.
Introducing...
The Hero Journey! 🦸🏻♀️🦸🏻♂️
The Coaching Program for MBB Consultants to Transform
from Struggling, Stressed, and Lost
to High-Performing, Confident, and Fulfilled
The main goal of this program is to make you a high performer.
It's designed for busy consultants—a zero-fluff, self-paced, and actionable program.
The program consists of 4 key components.
1. Consulting playbook
A comprehensive guide of proven techniques and practices delivered via video lectures.
2. Practical exercises
Practice is required to cement the theoretical knowledge.
You will complete 10 practical exercises designed to test different aspects of the toolkit. These exercises will help us diagnose your toolkit and provide practical feedback.
Then, your productivity improves, freeing time to focus on other important things.
3. Community learning.
Consultants work in isolation. They don't know what others are doing. They don't know if their work is on par, below or above expectations. They learn only from their own mistakes, which is very ineffective.
In the program, you will learn with others, seeing their mistakes and best practices. You will increase your data points from one to many. That will give you a powerful boost in learning.
4. Individual mentorship
You will face different problems throughout your journey, and their complexity will grow. Some generic wisdom from random people will not be effective.
You will need support from someone who knows you well. We will have regular checkpoints to discuss your career progression and required interventions.
The Consulting Playbook consists of 4 main chapters, covering:
Stop the productivity bleeding (basic consulting toolkit, slide-creation, prioritization, accepting tasks well)
Manage your journey (career management, staffing, performance reviews)
Build Leadership Trust (sponsorship, networking, workstream management, speaking up in leadership meetings)
Solve problems effectively (structuring, insights discovery, storylining, making compelling documents)
You combine these components and get the fastest way to learn and perform.
What do consultants say?
I trained my teams and mentees using this playbook.
As a result, they have become extremely successful. Most importantly, they have achieved their career goals, freed themselves from stress, and become confident.
Here is what consultants say about the playbook and the results they achieved.
Click the link to see more testimonials.
Who are the Best Candidates?
I specifically target this program to MBB consultants. Not because I am arrogant. But because that's the experience I had.
I found that my experience in McKinsey is transferrable to BCG and Bain. And I don't know what it's like to be successful in other firms.
Two distinct profiles have the highest chances of success.
First, consultants who experience unbearable pain and stress. They understand that they need help. And they are ready to do real work and invest in themselves to eliminate that pain.
Second, extremely ambitious consultants. They are unsatisfied with just surviving. They want to grow faster and achieve better results. They understand that even if they do well, they want to increase their chances of an upside as much as possible.
Often, these two profiles are combined in the same people.
Although I help first-year consultants, their specific tenure plays an important role.
Here are key differences and perspectives.
6-12 months tenure.
This is the ideal time to join the program.
Consultants have experienced enough pain to appreciate the complexity and need for help. But they haven't done irreversible damage to their reputation just yet.
Below 6 months tenure.
Paradoxically, they don't believe they need help, but it can be the most impactful for them.
They are not problem-aware yet. These are the most optimistic people. They believe they can figure it out. How hard can it be?
But if they join early enough, they can have much better experience and performance than if they did it alone.
But most people need to experience the pain first to understand this.
Above 12 months tenure.
It is easy to help them. If they have survived for so long, then with structured help, they improve performance almost immediately.
But often, they already have run out of time to execute a meaningful turnaround.
Although I focus on first-year consultants, sometimes I help consultants at pre-manager tenure. Going to a Manager role without fixing basic gaps can be extremely damaging for them.
Time is of the Essence.
Every day of average performance makes it harder to turn around.
It's better to have zero reputation than an average one. Reputations are sticky and hard to change once they settle.
The ideal time to start the program was when you joined consulting. The second best time is now. Early adoption can significantly enhance your performance and career trajectory.
Hero Journey is an invitation-only program.
I accept people who I can truly help. I am quite protective of my product. My ambition is to impact people's lives so they can't stop telling others about it.
That is why I conduct discovery sessions.
In this session, we discuss your current situation, challenges, and aspirations. Then, we mutually determine whether this program fits you well.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a 1-1 Discovery Call.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time does the program require?
The program is fully self-paced.
All consultants are busy—this is a given. But they also understand that to become better, they need to invest time in learning.
All lessons can be accessed via video, and all practical exercises can be completed when they have time, such as on the beach.
How long is the program?
Active learning lasts 6-8 weeks.
During this period, students receive playbook lectures and execute the practical exercises. Then, they attend coaching sessions to discuss their questions and progress on their journey.
Consultants have lifetime access to the program. All future updates and improvements will be available for all members. The program will grow with consultants and adapt to their new challenges.
What is the chargeback?