Sarena Diamond on Building a Thriving Consulting Business

In this episode of Female Fractionals, host Amanda Nizzere sits down with Sarena Diamond, CEO and founder of Diamond Solutions Group. 

After three decades in leadership roles at Accenture, Pepsi, and IBM, Sarena transitioned into the fractional world—where she now helps organizations navigate transformation and change management.

Sarena shares her journey from corporate executive to fractional consultant, including:

• How she grew her business over the past three and a half years
• Why talent sourcers like Catalent played a major role in her client pipeline
• The power of LinkedIn for authentic relationship-building and visibility
• Pricing strategies based on value and outcomes, not hours
• The differences between fractional vs. interim roles and how to explain them to clients
• Her biggest lessons learned as a solopreneur—and why she believes in giving back through “virtual coffees”

Whether you’re new to the fractional space or looking to refine your business development approach, Sarena’s insights on networking, client management, and pricing will help you grow with intention.

👉 Connect with Sarena on LinkedIn: Sarena Diamond

Transcript

[00:00:00] Amanda: Welcome to Female Fractionals, the biweekly podcast for successful female fractional executives and those ready to take the leap. In each episode, I'll bring you actionable lessons and inspiration through interviews with thriving fractional leaders and experts. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, and welcome to today's episode of Female Fractionals.

I'm your host and fractional CMO, Amanda Nizzere. Today's guest is Sarena Diamond, CEO, and founder of Diamond Solutions Group. Sarena is a global transformation executive and executive consultant who helps business leaders turn bold visions into reality. After three decades in corporate leadership roles at companies like Accenture, IBM, and Pepsi, she launched her own firm to empower others through change her story, the power of, and is featured in the international best.

Stellar becoming an unstoppable woman entrepreneur. Sarena is also a dynamic [00:01:00] speaker, devoted mom, and a passionate community leader. Without further ado, let's jump into our discussion with Sarena. Hi Sarena. Welcome to Female Fractionals. I'm so excited you're here. Thank you, Amanda. I'm really happy to be here.

Okay. So I love to start every episode because I think everyone's journey is so fascinating. Just learning a little bit about you and your journey, and what brought you to the fractional space. So could you just give us a brief overview? 

[00:01:26] Guest: Sure. so I was, like many, I, corporate transformation person.

I started my career at Accenture, did some time at Pepsi. Uh. And then, and my second half of my career was at IBM. So I had been doing business transformation for more than three decades. When, IBM and NDL spinoff, I decided that I was going to do transformation and change management exclusively. I did a very short stint at one more company and then went out on my own.

 [00:02:00] and I have never looked back. Three and a half years later, I am. I'll never go back to corporate at this point. I have just loved every minute of the goods and the bads, the, the bads being learning opportunities, the goods being opportunities to celebrate. So. 

[00:02:16] Amanda: That's great. I love it. Well, congratulations on the success.

 I know before we hit record, we started to have a really good conversation around how you've grown the business over the last three and a half years. So I'd love to have a discussion around that because obviously everybody wants business growth and everybody, it's a, it's a very hot topic in all of the fractional circles.

Right. And I feel like you've taken a very. Intentional approach to business development. So can you talk a little bit about the way that you have approached it? 

[00:02:49] Guest: Sure. so early on, I, I will admit I did not know what I was doing. I, people talked about networking. I, I was in. a bunch of [00:03:00] circles of people.

I joined the chief network and I, but I really didn't know. I thought that I was, you know, gonna find a job on, through my network of, of extensive IBM colleagues, and, and while everybody in my network cheered for me, they, I denounced, I was going on on my own and I got such support and love and confidence in my success.

Nobody was opening there. They still call it RO Rolodex. Right? Nobody was opening and saying, here's a client for you. They were saying way to go. You're gonna be great. I actually had a really impactful conversation with someone who now I refer to as a coach, although we have sort of a mutual admiration society going, and I was talking to her about all the different opportunities that I was trying to chase, and I kept saying, well, I could do this.

Or I could do that or I could do something else. And she asked me the question that has become sort of this resonating words to me. And I, she said to me, why do you keep saying or why [00:04:00] not? And, and what's so funny is that now we've, I've joked about the fact that that question changed me. Like on the spot, she doesn't even remember that.

She remembers the conversation, but it wasn't that impactful for her, which is kind of a. Awesome thing for when you don't realize the impact you're having on other people. But when she said it, all of a sudden I started thinking, this doesn't have to be linear. My career up until then had been very linear.

I had gotten one job, applied for the next job when it was time, got that job moved on. I never had three job offers that I was competing for. I was always very dedicated once I found what I wanted to do. That was it. All of a sudden it wasn't linear, it was whatever the different, you know, many, many directions.

So I did some wild things, like I started looking at permanent placement job opportunities at that were on LinkedIn and reaching out to the hiring manager and saying, Hey, [00:05:00] while you're hiring for that job and you really wanna make that COO hire important in your client and be thoughtful about it. How about interim leadership?

I haven't gotten one of those gigs done, done that way. But the other thing that I did that was really impactful and I, and I tell lots of people when they're first starting out, is that I stumbled upon talent sourcers. My favorite of those companies is Catalent. They are all about taking experts like me and helping connect those two clients that are looking for a different way of approaching consulting.

I say to people all the time, you know, if you don't like math, you're probably not doing your own taxes. You're hiring an accountant. So business development isn't your thing. Finding those people that are doing business development on behalf of you is hugely impactful. and Catalent was one of the first ones, and it's the one that I have had the most consistent success throughout about, at this point, [00:06:00] about 80% of the work that I have done in the three and a half years has come through Catalent.

Through talent sourcers. They, you know, I don't, I know everybody talks about get your SEO, right? So your website's found and your blog posts are found. And maybe, maybe people are Google searching for you, but realistically they're probably not. And making sure that your name and your offering and the, and the value that you can provide is readily available is, is more important every, every single day to get, you know, to get to be working.

[00:06:33] Amanda: That's great. Can you talk a little bit too about how you are leveraging LinkedIn? Because you also have a really great presence on LinkedIn. That's not only you putting your great brand and your thoughts out there, but you're, you really engaged with others in a meaningful way. And I think as we were talking again before we hit record, like LinkedIn has a really bad rap for some reason, for some [00:07:00] people, and I just.

I think that we need to kind of share a better perspective on LinkedIn and how it can help and is helping fractionals. So I, I will, and it's, 

[00:07:13] Guest: I'm so glad that you asked that because I, I joined LinkedIn in 2008, like most people, from 2008 until fall of 2024. That was primarily my. Resume repository. Yes.

And the place that I cheered for my friends when they got jobs, right? That was it. You can look at all of the posts from, for all those years. And that was it. And then I was inspired by, Melissa Cohen, who's, most people know on LinkedIn at this point, who turned her career trajectory completely, in, in COVID.

And she is a LinkedIn. Advocate and a promotional brand, personal branding expert. And she helps, helps a lot of fractionals and, [00:08:00] solopreneurs find their way on LinkedIn. She was actually speaking at a conference, the Success Champions Badass Business Summit, and she posted that she was speaking and I went and it changed everything.

All of a sudden I was in a room full of people that their entire existence is about promoting, being visible. Being authentically visible, not being that fake, the thing that everybody hates on LinkedIn with the fakeness or the ai or the pitch slapping, which is my least favorite thing on the planet, but they're very specific and intentional about how they show up to build relationships, to have conversations that could lead to business.

And that is not a, a sentence that you can cut up and, and pick and pick from, right? It is a whole thing. It is relationships that you're building. So I, I really got it. Got it. Like religion and I, I post every day 8:00 AM Eastern. I spend [00:09:00] 90 minutes, in every morning crafting a, you know, crafting what I'm gonna write.

Sometimes I read it ahead of time if I've had some inspiration and I will save it. I might have a whole, we were joking about your, your, my mosaic of post-its. I have a whole mosaic of Post-It ideas for LinkedIn when I get to it. and it's not all business most of the time. About 80% of what I post is business tips, hints, advice, guidance for leaders and leadership development.

And it is intentional to be giving away what I know. I, I cannot serve everyone. Yep. And I know that I can help more people than when they're listening. and then the other 20%, usually on Thursdays is a more personal reflection. Something that's going on either in my life, I post it about. Moving to the almost beach house that, that we built.

 which shockingly, those are the posts that get the most interaction. 

[00:09:53] Amanda: They do. But '

[00:09:54] Guest: cause people like to see people and when, when you're in a fractional position. [00:10:00] People are hiring you, they're buying you. And so if you are constantly just posting your business acumen or, or an article or reposting articles, is that's their exclusive presence that you have in the one place where over a billion people are doing business.

Now you can say whatever you want, and they're not all showing up and they're not all active. But even if 10% of a billion people. That's a million people. Like people. That's a lot of people. And I, I joke about the fact, and I posted a couple of times at this point that if you spell my name right, I am the only Sarena Diamond on LinkedIn.

Mm-hmm. Gotta love that. Right. I, the thing that was a lesson for me, I had a client, CEO had reached out to me and said to me, I have a friend from a colleague who is looking for A CFO in Europe. Any chance you know anybody. I said I actually do, and so I connected them and I sent [00:11:00] him, he sent it to me on email.

I sent him back an email and I referenced her LinkedIn account and I sent her email address and he came back to me almost immediately and said she's not very active on LinkedIn. Now, there is so much that I hear about people saying CEOs aren't on LinkedIn, CEOs COOs aren't on LinkedIn. Think again, they may not be actively posting every day.

They may have internal communications people posting for them, but they're there doing business, or at least in that business lens. And it, this was a perfect example. Now, of course, I, I said, well, you know, she's, she's German and she's an introvert, so maybe that's why she's not very good. But what was really funny, he didn't, he didn't share her contact information, or if he did, he, she never got contacted from the client.

And then I, and I think about the lost opportunity for not having a solid presence. Something [00:12:00] that you don't have to post every day, but you have to be consistent. You have to be actively there because that's where business is being done. 

[00:12:07] Amanda: Mm-hmm. It really is an extension of your brand. It truly is. 

[00:12:12] Guest: A hundred percent.

[00:12:13] Amanda: Yeah. I, I have seen it, I have seen it work time and time again for fractionals and beyond, so I'm, I'm a huge proponent of LinkedIn and, as we discussed the, the backlash, I, I do not agree with. A lot has changed, I think in the business landscape in the last, you know, three and a half years, or even five years.

Right. Since before you made the, the shift into this new world. can you just share a little bit of your perspective on like the fractional movement and just the difference between like fractional and it always used to be interim and, when you're selling, are you having to make that. very distinct.

 You [00:13:00] know, you're gonna have, you have to define it when you are selling, like, I am coming in as a fractional, not an interim, or How does that work when you're talking to people? Do you find that people are understanding it now more than when you first 

[00:13:12] Guest: started? I don't know that they're understanding it.

I, I always look at it as they don't need to be burdened by the term or the terminology. Mm-hmm. But I will say to them when they're asking for part-time. Something that is a fraction of the week. And it may be that they don't have more time to give as a stakeholder in an engagement than a couple of days a week, or they only anticipate, or their budget only anticipates a couple of days a week.

So what, I do see an enormous amount of client engagement interest in less than a full-time hire. Hmm. And I, I say to people all the time when, because I have done an interim engagement twice where I was the interim leader for a COO position, [00:14:00] and that meaning in between a full-time hire or on the way to growing to a full-time hire for both of those, right?

I, I often say to people, fractional is part-time for as long as you need me. Interim is full-time for a short time. Now, I don't necessarily distinguish between those when I tell people what I am, other than if they are specifically looking at fractionals. when I first started and I joined Fractional United, I think it was, I, I was like number 2 37 or something crazy when the first set it started, I was, it was that low, and I think they're up over a hundred thousand people at this point.

Mm-hmm. The movement in the last three and a half years. It's, it's really exciting to me because what that says is there's enough of us that have a level of expertise that we are willing to go out on our own. And, and it's hard to be a solopreneur no matter what you're doing, that we're willing to go out on our own to help other people and other clients without [00:15:00] the stipulations on the walls of a, you know, corporate W2 job.

So I say to people all the time, I'm a consultant expert, right? I am an organizational change expert. I'm not really a coach. I'm not a coach. I emphatically say that I'm not patient enough to be a coach. 'cause coaches let them figure it out. Yeah, I would never have been a good therapist. I would be the, let's do it this way.

Okay, how about we do this right? But when you are willing to, to come to a leadership team or an organization and offer your expertise in whatever form they need or can afford, that's really what fractional has meant to me. and I know. I, I correct people a lot, right? Because people, well, I don't correct them.

I will say, you know, there's a third way, 'cause lots of times people think consultant or fractional. And I said there's also this other way where it's an interim for, it's a, it's a defined period of time. Fractional could be for as long as they need, they need two days a week [00:16:00] for a fractional COO. And I've done that and it's really an awesome arrangement because what you're saying is.

I can help you with part of my expertise, primarily because I've got 30 plus years of doing it that I'm bringing to the table. A new hire might need to do it for five days, but it's so much more economical for the client to get two days a week of my time than to have a full-time hire. So, and they get at least, at at least as much, if not more outcome.

And I know from a, from Amanda, what you do from A-A-C-M-O perspective, it's phenomenal to, for you to just, you can drop in, provide all the insights they need in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost Yeah. That other organizations would need. 

[00:16:45] Amanda: Let's talk a little bit about how you do manage clients, because I think as I got into it and I was managing multiple clients, that was one thing that I think I was personally [00:17:00] learning, and I have heard from others around how do you.

Time block. How do you just literally manage your clients? So I guess the question is like, how many clients have you learned is your max if you have learned that? and how, how do you manage your time with them if you, I know we're not like working on an hourly basis, ideally, right? If we're in a, in a fractional engagement, but like we do have to manage time.

So how have you figured that out? 

[00:17:29] Guest: So for me, I, I have learned the hard way. I mean, I first started my very first engagement. It was a daily rate, and they wanted me full time. And the hard part was then while I was, I landed that, or I got approval for that and the contract started, but I, it wasn't the only proposal I had.

So a few months later, a proposal that I had put out initially that I really wanted to do, it was very interesting work for me. They wanted me on a retainer. No more than 50 hours [00:18:00] a month. So I was like, well, I guess I could do that on the weekends. But I literally was juggling too and said, I need to figure out a different way to do this.

Hmm. So one of the things, actually Catalent was the one of the ones that helped me to figure out that when you were pricing your value based on the outcomes that you are delivering. It is not, and it's better for the client when you say, this is the scope of work you need and these are the deliverables that you're looking for, the outcomes that you're hoping for.

This is the price. Yep. It shouldn't matter to them. There are things that I don't know and I will have to investigate and research and I, I did a whole piece of work in the industry I'd never worked in before. I spent way too many hours 'cause it was interesting to me, way more hours than the price point should have been.

Luckily it was on a fixed price account, so they weren't paying the price for me to learn all of those things. But the other thing that is really important, fractionals need to not [00:19:00] underestimate the value of the, in my case, 30 years of experience. Because I can look at something and instantly know these are the 16 things we're gonna do.

Like it doesn't take me long to write a proposal anymore. When I first started it did, but I can write a proposal in a couple of hours. Mm-hmm. That is because I know what goes into that work, but I try very hard to say the outcome that you're going to get, the value to the company of that outcome is X dollars.

That's what I'm gonna be providing. So I don't like to do hourly. I really don't like to do hourly. Every now and then, someone would be like, well, I want it to be hourly. And I can estimate how much time we're gonna spend together. Mm-hmm. But hourly is a very corporate time-based. We're gonna be meeting and then we're gonna have this.

And it's never a good use of anybody's time to say, let's be eight hours a day for five days a week. Okay. [00:20:00] Are you gonna be sitting with me? We're gonna be collaborating and co-creating every one of those eight hours because. I have lots of insights that will come to me at, you know, 10 o'clock at night and I'll jump up and I'll go, wait, lemme write this down.

Am I ch punching a time clock for that? Like, this isn't a lawyer, attorney kind of arrangement. and no shade on, on attorneys, but you know, there is if, if I'm gonna answer an email right, well that's six minutes like this, it becomes really, really ridiculous. And I don't know anybody that loves the attorney relationship.

When you're getting billed, you know, three 50 an hour and every fraction thereof, it's the same kind of thing from this. My expertise is not an hourly moment because I never stop thinking about the client challenge. I went for a run this morning and solved the question that a client had asked me yesterday, and I'm like, oh, if I was hourly, I would be trying to bill them for that.

And that to me just, it [00:21:00] sort of cheapens the experiences that I'm bringing to the table. So I. Prefer that. Now, I also, you asked about the number I have right now, probably the most that I've had in, in a while. because, because I didn't have some, you know, I wasn't working, I didn't work. I moved earlier in the year and I, I allowed it to not be the first priority.

 so I was doing a lot with speaking and podcasting, but I wasn't driving for an, I was still. Pitching intermittently, but it wasn't an everyday, oh my gosh, I need to find more work, days it, so now I do, I have, I have more than, I've had in the past and so I've got four clients actively. but they are, because they're outcome-based, I can time box that.

I can say all of the deliverables for this one client I'm gonna work on on Saturday. And then get it done. Mm-hmm. and I, it allowed me, yesterday, I went and spent the morning at a Vistage group and, and delivered a [00:22:00] workshop. Mm. If I'm billing a client for hourly, I would feel guilty about doing that, and that's not fair to them.

So. Yep. I think people have to balance it out themselves, but don't Absolutely. Don't underestimate the value of the outcomes that you're delivering. 'cause that's a crucially important part. 

[00:22:17] Amanda: Yeah. I love to talk about pricing strategy on this podcast because I think it's one of the trickiest things to figure out when you're first starting is figuring out how to price exactly what you said, pricing for your value, not pricing to a win.

The work, which everybody always wants to win their first project, right? So you're. Always, I feel like gonna underbid on your first project and have that like first like, ugh, I totally underbid myself and now I'm kind of stuck in this situation. I've heard it time and time again and it's just a huge lesson learned.

But then ultimately over time, you definitely learn to price for value and it's such, it's just so important and [00:23:00] so freeing and opens up. So much. I think just for, for you and your business and so many like important learnings. For sure. I guess one more question before we go into rapid fires, which is just three and a half years in, what would you say are like some of your key lessons that you've learned that somebody that's maybe listening to the podcast that's just starting out, you would say you'd love to share?

[00:23:31] Guest: Yeah, probably the most significant lesson, which, you know, if you're a solopreneur, I don't, I have yet to meet a solopreneur that is not, does not have heavy D-I-Y-D-N-A, right? They're, they're gonna bootstrap it. They're figuring it out on their own. I, I try and tell those people, I do not learn the lessons from the people that have come before you.

The hard way. Learn them the hard, the easy way. Get on, get on people's calendar, have a [00:24:00] virtual coffee. There is nothing I like more than having somebody say, Hey, can I pick your brain for 30 minutes? I, I will. I I average about 10 virtual coffees a week and intentionally helping those, you know, there's that image about, you know, helping the, when you get to where you're going, turn around and help the person behind you.

It is so important to all of us, but it's really important to solopreneurs to say, okay. Who could be my, who's the best person that I know on pricing. If I don't know somebody, do a little quick search on LinkedIn. Who's talking about pricing for solopreneurs? Spoiler alert, it's Aaron Halper, but, but who, who can tell me about business development?

Let's talk about that. Get on calls and take advantage of the book, the free time to talk with people. Not be just taking, but, but there is some value. Even in my day, I learned something by, by sharing with others. But I love, and it's the best part of my day when I can help [00:25:00] a solopreneur that is looking to go out on their own.

 and I, I really do believe that that is our superpower. We are going to create this network of fractional power that is gonna change the world. One engagement at a time. It's not all gonna, all the intelligence in the world isn't gonna be locked in the walls of a corporate, you know, entity. It is really gonna be permeating throughout.

So my, my first piece of advice, and, and it's the strongest piece of advice, is do not try and go it alone. Figure out where you can learn things and make a point, pick. I'm gonna do, you know, five coffees a week, virtual coffee a week with people that have done this before me. 

[00:25:40] Amanda: I also find that one of the things that I found in the fractional community when I started was everyone is so generous with their time and so willing to help even within a competing situation.

I mean, I have talked to so many fractional CMOs in the beginning where. I was literally could have been [00:26:00] competing with somebody for the same project and they would look at the proposal with me, right. And help me. It's, it is such a refreshing perspective having come from the corporate space that so many, I think it's because we all came from maybe a not so great corporate environment that we're just so happy to be here and we wanna help each other and see everyone succeed.

It's a very. Open, group of people that are just willing to help and share and really lift each other up. Okay. Let's jump into our rapid fire round of questions. So these are meant to be answered in one word or one sentence or less, although I have to say it's either me or the guest that doesn't ever follow through because they're, I just always am so interested in people's answers.

So we'll give it a shot. Okay. Oh, most unusual place you've taken a client call. 

[00:26:51] Guest: tree swing in the Florida keeps 

[00:26:56] Amanda: best investment you've made in yourself. [00:27:00] 

[00:27:00] Guest: Oh, hands down the LLC incorporating as a business. 

[00:27:06] Amanda: Okay. Early bird or night owl. Oh, early bird. All day. I had a different guest for that one. Favorite way to celebrate a win.

[00:27:17] Guest: Buying something for my house that I will see every day. 

[00:27:24] Amanda: If your career was a movie title, what would it be? 

[00:27:29] Guest: Becoming Unstoppable.

[00:27:34] Amanda: Maybe you could like make that movie or write that book. I feel like that's a really good one. okay. Most embarrassing song on your playlist. Oh gosh. 

[00:27:43] Guest: Tony Bennett. It's not really just one song, it's the whole playlist. It's Tony Bennett's playground CD from my kid's childhood. He sings with Kermit The Frog.

Come on. 

[00:27:56] Amanda: Okay. And finally, if you could master any skill, what [00:28:00] would it be? 

[00:28:01] Guest: I would pay real money for somebody that could teach me to whistle like this. I, I can't do it. I would really, and I've been trying my entire life, I've wanted to do that. I can whistle, great whistle with my fingers. 

[00:28:14] Amanda: Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm gonna steal that.

'cause I would love to, you could just really draw any crowd at any time if you could 

[00:28:21] Guest: do that. 

[00:28:21] Amanda: Yeah. That I just, 

[00:28:22] Guest: and I, it, it makes me this way. Yeah, any, any place where you put your fingers in your mouth and make that really loud whistle, that would be my skill. I know. Oh my gosh. Like, oh, superpowers flying.

Nope, nope. I just wanna whistle. 

[00:28:35] Amanda: That might be my favorite answer to date. That is fantastic. Okay. Thank you. if people do wanna reach out to you, how can they do it? And I will make sure I, link to it in the notes. 

[00:28:47] Guest: I mean, like everybody, I have a website, I have emails, but the best way is spell my name right.

I'm the only Sarena Diamond on LinkedIn. It's S-A-R-E-E-N-A. And when I say, right, that's how my mom intended it. [00:29:00] So that's how it was. Right. 

[00:29:01] Amanda: That is fantastic. Thank you so much. This has been such a great discussion. I know it's been a while, since we had first scheduled it, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Thank you so much. Thank you for being such a wonderful part of the fractional community. and I look forward to talking to you again in another three and a half or five years when Diamond Solutions Group is still thriving. So thank you for being such a great guest. 

[00:29:29] Guest: Thanks so much.

[00:29:34] Amanda: As always, please remember to follow, like, comment, and share. And don't forget to head over to female fractionals.com for a full transcript of the show and links to everything we talked about during our conversation. Thanks for listening.