Networking, Mentoring, and Education for Consultants and Solo Professionals
AI is in Everything Everywhere All the Time: How to Legally and Ethically Incorporate AI into Your Consulting Business
Artificial Intelligence is now baked into almost every tool you use—email, slides, search, CRMs—so the real question for consultants isn’t if you’ll use AI, but how to do it without risking your reputation or your business.
In this one-hour, plain-English workshop led by Erin Austin, you’ll learn how to fold AI into your everyday workflow in ways that are legally compliant and ethically solid.
We’ll cover what you need to know about protecting your intellectual property, ownership of AI-generated content, how to protect your clients’ confidential and proprietary information, and where the real legal and ethical red lines are.
You’ll leave with:
There’s no charge for this workshop but advance registration is required. A recording will be available for registered attendees and current SPC members.
About Our Speaker
Harvard-trained intellectual property lawyer and AI legal strategist Erin Austin empowers experts, consultants, and creators to protect what makes them irreplaceable in an AI-driven world. Drawing on deep legal expertise, behavioral research, and real-world examples, Erin exposes how unchecked AI adoption is reshaping authorship, eroding trust, and blurring the boundaries of ownership.
Her provocative keynotes challenge professionals to proactively claim their ideas, safeguard client relationships, and lead with integrity—even as lawmakers lag behind. Erin equips audiences with the tools to navigate legal uncertainty, resist commoditization, and set their own ethical standards for success in the age of AI.
Come to our virtual meetup on Friday, April 10th to network with your fellow consultants and solo professionals. You'll get a chance to make new connections and learn from your colleagues.
We'll be on a video call from 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time.
This meetup is sponsored by the Society of Professional Consultants (SPC) and is open to members and non-members.
There's no registration fee to attend. We're limiting the meetup to 25 people so please register and save your spot. We hope you can join us!
REGISTER
Stop Sounding Like Everyone Else: Messaging in a Saturated, AI-Flattened Market
Your work is strong and your reputation is solid. Yet in 2026, your marketing may be producing inconsistent leads, slower decisions, and more “good conversations” that don’t convert. Does your messaging sound the same as your competitors?
In this session, Sue Begent reveals what’s actually happening when buyers quietly place you in the “credible but not urgent” category, and how to correct the messaging signals causing the misread before it calcifies into your positioning.
Attend this workshop to learn how to:
After Sue’s session, you'll leave with:
Sue Begent is a messaging recalibration specialist for experienced coaches and expert practitioners whose work is exceptional, but whose message is no longer converting consistently in today’s AI-flattened, trust-recession market. With 20+ years as a Fortune 500 marketer, 8 years as a nurse, and 9 years as a mentor, she blends strategic precision with deep human insight.
Sue helps micro-business owners restore authority, pricing power, and decisional momentum by aligning their message with how premium buyers now decide. Her work is known for warmth without softness, urgency without pressure, and clarity without marketing theatre.
Come to our virtual meetup on Friday, May 8th to network with your fellow consultants and solo professionals. You'll get a chance to make new connections and learn from your colleagues.
Thriving as an Independent Consultant
This workshop is for consultants who are considering going independent, building a new practice, or evolving an established one.
Independent consulting isn’t a static career; it’s an evolving practice. From finding clients to managing projects and building relationships, thriving as a solo consultant requires more than just expertise in your field.
So, how do successful consultants build sustainable, rewarding practices?
On Wednesday, May 13, three experienced independent consultants, of varying tenures, will compare perspectives from building and running their own consulting businesses. They’ll talk candidly about why they chose the independent path, what has changed in their thinking over time, and the adjustments that helped their businesses grow and thrive.
Our panelists will discuss:
After attending this panel discussion, you’ll walk away with practical ideas you can apply immediately to your own consulting journey.
There’s no charge for this workshop, but advance registration is required. A recording will only be available on demand for registered attendees or current SPC members.
Reserve your spot today!
About Our Panelists:
Liz Steblay is an author, mentor, and nationally recognized expert on solopreneurship — helping mid- and late-career professionals create the independent careers of their dreams.
After stumbling into self-employment in 2004, she quickly discovered the rewards: more income, less stress, a lower tax rate, and more quality time with her daughter. In 2009, she founded the ProKo Agency, a multi-million-dollar business that matches world-class independent consultants with Fortune 500 clients.
Committed to paying it forward, in 2016, Liz created the Professional Independent Consultants of America (PICA) — an educational organization that helped over a thousand solopreneurs launch and grow their own thriving businesses.
Today, Liz shares her expertise through speaking engagements and her best-selling book, Succeeding as a Solopreneur: Six Keys to Taking the Leap, Winning Clients and Building Wealth, a practical roadmap for anyone looking to build a thriving career on their own.
Dave Seaton is an independent consultant, entrepreneur, and founder of Chicken Dinner Club — the online learning community for ex‑corporate consultants who want to build a steady stream of clients. He created the Club to share the repeatable systems he has used for years to consistently attract and onboard consulting clients.
After leaving a 21‑year corporate career, Dave established his independent consulting practice, Seaton CX, serving organizations across industries that include healthcare, cybersecurity, telecom, and education. He helps his clients strengthen customer experiences and operational performance. His work with both corporate leaders and independent professionals gives him a distinctive perspective on what today’s consultants need to confidently win client engagements.
He launched Chicken Dinner Club in 2024 to empower independent consultants with a modern, disciplined methodology for business development. By leveraging social media, artificial intelligence, and authentic communication, he equips consultants to navigate the transition out of corporate life and build independent practices with confidence.
David Norman, CMC®, FIMC, CMC-AF, is a seasoned business consultant with over five decades of management consulting experience. He's spent fifteen years as executive coach, and seven years as Certified EOS Implementer® supporting organizations striving to build enduring cultures and sustainable growth. He has consulted with public and private enterprises of all sizes, including nonprofits and government agencies.
For over twenty-five years, David has also taught at the McColl School of Business at Queens University and at Pfeiffer University. He writes extensively on leadership, strategy, and organizational growth and is the author of the book Supercharge: A New Playbook for Leadership.
Today, he serves as Secretary of IMCUSA and as Chair of the Board at the IMCUSA Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization that fosters ethics education. David chairs The Consultants Peer Group, and in his spare time operates a lavender farm with his wife Louise near Lansing, North Carolina.
About Our Moderator:
Becky Frayer is the Founder and CEO of Behavioral Fusion, LLC, and a brand strategist with more than 25 years’ experience driving growth inside Fortune 100 organizations (Procter & Gamble and Allstate). She integrates Behavioral Science with business strategy to influence consumer decision-making and accelerate brand performance for marketers, insights professionals, sales leaders, designers, and product developers.
Becky has worked across consumer-packaged goods, retail, technology, and healthcare, strengthening some of the largest brands in the world. Her applied expertise has unlocked hundreds of millions of dollars in business growth and cost savings by translating behavioral insights into actionable strategy. She has been an independent consultant since 2023, offering training and workshops, project-based expert assessments, and advisory services, all in service of understanding and impacting human behavior.
Come to our virtual meetup on Friday, June 12th to network with your fellow consultants and solo professionals. You'll get a chance to make new connections and learn from your colleagues.
The Secret Ingredients for Creating Relationships That Last
Your success in business depends on getting new clients … and keeping them. That seems obvious. But what’s not so obvious is what it takes to create relationships that are so strong your clients want to continue working with you for years. In this workshop, Meredith Bell will talk about:
Meredith Bell is the co-founder and president of Grow Strong Leaders, a company that publishes online tools to help leaders strengthen their character and communication skills so they can build strong relationships and inspire others to perform at their best.
She’s the author of the books Connect with Your Team, and Peer Coaching Made Simple, co-authored with her business partner, Dr. Dennis Coates. Together, they’ve created practical guides for mastering communication skills and learning how to coach and support colleagues in meaningful ways.
Meredith is also the host of the Grow Strong Leaders Podcast, where she’s interviewed hundreds of business and leadership experts. Her passion is equipping leaders with the skills that make the biggest difference — so they can create positive, lasting impact in their organizations and in the lives of the people they lead.
