Why invisibility is our chosen superpower.
The idea behind our name - Invisible Consulting - came up for me when I was reading a personality assessment from a few years ago (one of a few bouts of investing in a consulting package that ended up not feeling completely worth it.) On the Myers Briggs, I’m an INTJ.
If you’re familiar with Myers Briggs, or the MBTI as it is sometimes referred to, it’s a fairly popular personality assessment (the test is free on 16personalities.com). The INTJ is a bit of a cave dweller - their preferred working style is to collect all the work that needs to be accomplished, take it into a cave, and emerge only when it’s completed - and by completed, I mean completely completed.
The jobs and roles I’ve had that have been the most fulfilling to me have always been the behind-the-scenes ones. In high school theater, I took my job on the stage crew very seriously, bracing for the split second in between scenes where the lights would dim and an army of clad-in-black high school students would descend on the stage, whisking pieces of scenery and fake buildings around in the dark as a sort of ballet movement. When I was working for a restauranteur in Seattle, I loved helping her write speeches, building the corresponding slide decks, and sitting in the front row with a clicker watching her presentation unfold like magic to rooms of eager attendees. Even in my days as a performer, my favorite memories have always been in the moments I was a sidekick or a background musician - being able to focus on mastery of my own instrument while the audience generally paid attention to the lead singer.
This type of background support, the people who make the magic happen from sidestage or behind-the-scenes, is often not sought out. After all, we often measure and celebrate other’s success based on our own proximity to them at various points of life, or the supporting roles we played along their hero’s journey. It’s prevalent in the entertainment industry, and in different ways in most other industries. How many times have you heard (or said) “I knew that person when they were just starting out”, or “I was the one who encouraged them many years ago”, or “I was actually the one who told them to make that pivotal change”?
Seeking out this type of recognition for ourselves is natural, and it can also be a compelling reason for you to win others over. But for anyone seeking a role as a consultant or mentor, our wins come in the form of seeing others succeed. Ideas can remain dormant in someone’s mind for years or even decades before they find the right context under which to act on them. The nail-biting, exhilarating, and exhausting path to building a business is never-ending, and it necessitates putting yourself as the entrepreneur at the forefront of your own story.
None of the folks at Invisible Consulting have a secret formula for success, or a patented path for you to follow as you continue to level up and expand your business. What we do have is our own experiences and knowledge that we’ll be happy to share with you along the way, as well as tools and resources to help guide you. And as you grow and succeed, you have our word that we won’t be propping you up as a case study to try to win over other entrepreneurs with. You are the owner of your story - and we’re thrilled to be part of your behind-the-scenes.