Hey there, Independent Consultant. Nice headshot!

And who is cooking this chicken dinner? 

Hi, I’m Dave!

I’m an independent consultant, entrepreneur, and founder of Chicken Dinner Club. I started this community to serve new independent consultants who are leaving their corporate careers to enjoy the benefits of an “independent work-lifestyle”—having lunch with their spouse, working from that Airbnb in Aspen (totally tax deductible), and spending less time burning fossil fuels to commute to a scuffy office building and silently nurture an existential crisis.

I meet new consultants every week. They’re fueled with ambition and masters of their specialty—digital marketing, project management, leadership, operational efficiency—but no one has taught them how to market themselves.

Or how to write a LinkedIn post that gets more than 27 views and doesn’t sound like a desperate plea for charity.

Or how to ask a future client for the budget.

Or how to sniff out a bad deal before they spent 7 hours on a Sunday night writing a proposal for some brain-picker who never intended to hire them in the first place.

If it sounds like I’ve been there, I have.

In 2021, I quit my job, walking away from my own 21-year corporate career after they exploited a contract loophole to avoid paying my Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP). I was a certified, international award-winning, conference-speaking Customer Experience (CX) expert.

And no one hired me.

I scraped by that first year, sub-contracting for larger firms and picking up hours where I could. I got lucky with a 2-month project that extended to 11. But when the client was acquired by a private equity firm, the project came to an abrupt end. I had nothing on the horizon.

I was running out of money, burning through savings in the months between projects. It was a fork in the road: give up and get another corporate job, or double-down on myself.

I chose myself.

I hired a sales trainer, a business coach, and a marketing expert. I took online courses in branding, copywriting, social media, and AI. I learned all that I could, and I put it in to practice. Trial and error, day after day, month after month.

And I built my own independent work-lifestyle. Over the last 4 years:

• I've worked with brilliant clients spanning diverse industries—healthcare, cybersecurity, energy, utilities, B2B software, insurance, telecom, nonprofit, and early childhood education
• I've saved 59,094+ miles of commuting by working virtually.
• I realized my 30-year dream of moving to the mountains.
• I took my first 2-week vacation in over a decade.
• I have lunch with my wife almost every day.

With Chicken Dinner Club, I want to empower other independent consultants to accelerate their growth, and avoid the mistakes I made along the way.

Through this journey, I've had three revelations about the future of work:

1. Independent Consulting provides unparalleled value. It’s good for you, and it’s good for your clients. You get to live and work on your own terms. Your clients get access to world-class talent for projects, without making a long-term hire. Companies can fill interim or fractional roles, only paying for what they need. And they save money compared to the big consulting firms—working with the expert (that's you!), not a team of new grads filling out a template while the partner disappears to sell more work.
2. Virtual Work is good for the planet. Working from home offices reduces the environmental impact of commuting. Remember how the smog departed and the skies cleared during 2020 lockdown, as carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4%? We can reduce unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions by shifting to virtual work, when possible. And for companies who are worried about “quiet quitting” or “lazy girl jobs,” independent consulting is the answer—we are proud small-business owners and our reputation for quality and efficiency is our very livelihood.
3. Alternative Work-lifestyles create healthier, happier lives. Want to pick your kids up from school every day at 2:50? Take that Pilates class with Jessica at 10:30 on Wednesday? Take Friday off to snowshoe through Rocky Mountain National Park? Break the shackles of the 40-hour workweek, soul-crushing commute, and dash to the daycare that charges $10/minute if you’re late. Spend more time with the people you love, balancing your family, work, and personal passions. You get one life—live it.

At Chicken Dinner Club, our mission is to empower independent consultants to build thriving work-lifestyles.

I hope you'll join us and discover what's possible.

Dave