April 21-27, 2025 releases on StrategyTraining.com

The biggest reward of being a great team member is not just the immediate sense of fulfillment and a sense of success. It's that you'll always have a team that wants you. Someone will always want you in their corner, for the rest of your life.

And this is applicable both at work and in your personal life.

This fundamental truth drives our training releases this week.

Whether exploring 18-part series "The Real Reason You Are Not Being Promoted," listening to our new 14-part series "Why Am I Not Happy? How Can I Be Happy?", or examining how to balance work and health in "My Work is Destroying My Health," each program helps you become not just more successful, but a more valuable team member (at work and at home) who others seek out.

Most professionals don't have access to the kind of training that produces lasting, meaningful results. Instead, they focus on surface-level skills, chase tactics, and hope that success will eventually follow.

If quick tips, hacks, and shortcuts were sufficient, we would see far more people achieving extraordinary levels of personal health, financial wealth, professional success, and lifestyle freedom. But we do not, because these methods alone are inadequate.

Shortcuts and hacks may offer occasional, short-term gains. Relying on AI to do the thinking may produce results in isolated instances. However, neither approach builds the deep capabilities required for sustained, exceptional performance.

Standing out today requires structured, advanced training that develops rare and durable skills, skills that distinguish you from the many others reading the same books and using the same AI tools.

StrategyTraining.com offers the most powerful library of video and audio-based training available in strategy, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, executive presence, leadership, case interviews, and consulting business building.

This is not theory. It is practical, high-impact training designed for individuals who are serious about becoming exceptional at what they do. And it is not limited to management consultants: more than half of our members and clients are outside of consulting, with no plans to enter the field.

As you probably know, we refresh the library weekly. New content is now live and available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, and ROKU.

Insider membership is designed for long-term clients who want to deliver meaningful impact while accelerating their careers.

Legacy members receive everything in Insider, plus access to additional advanced programs and personalized guidance.

Strategy Control Room Advanced (SCRA) members gain access to our internal knowledge management system, including studies, proposals, Centers of Excellence, advanced books not available anywhere else, flip charts, slides from video programs, notes from The Consulting Offer, and more.

🔹For Insider Members

These powerful new episodes are being released this week.

Friday
The Real Reason You Are Not Being Promoted – Episode 8 of 18
This 18-part Insider program challenges the conventional wisdom of career growth, helping ambitious professionals rethink promotions, leadership roles, and long-term wealth creation.
Episode title: Action Next Step #5

Saturday
MasterPlan Advanced – Episode 26 of TBD
The MasterPlan Advanced builds on the most transformative career strategy work we’ve done to date. Based on Michael’s and Kris’s personal experiences and decades of coaching senior executives it covers how to move from well-off to wealthy, across career, relationships, investing, health, and more. This is the next step for members who are ready to build a richer, more fulfilling life, not only a career that looks successful to people around.
Episode title: Advisors, Who Often Implement

Sunday
(New) Why Am I Not Happy? How Can I Be Happy? – Episode 3 of 14
Practical insights to help you recognize the patterns that are draining your energy, and how to stop them. Members can submit questions for the next 3 weeks to shape future episodes/related programs.
Episode title: Your Love of X is Someone Else's Hatred

🔹 For Legacy Members

In addition to all Insider episodes, Legacy members receive these exclusive episodes:

Wednesday
Mid-Life Strategy Update – Episode 40 of TBD
What if your health, relationships, wealth, and life’s work all demanded urgent attention, at the same time? In this real-time program, Michael shares the exact strategies he’s using to rebuild every major area of his life. It’s rare to get this level of access. Even rarer to see it in real time. This is a critical episode to not miss.
Episode title: What is Your Identity Costing You?

Thursday
(New) My Work is Destroying My Health – Episode 3 of 4
There’s a point where stress stops being fuel and starts being poison, to the point that it impacts your health. Most people don’t act until the symptoms can’t be explained away. Yet, there is a way to recover your health and performance.
Episode title: This Plan Has a 0% ROI

Sunday
(New) Should I Invest in This New Business Episode 1 of TBD
This program addresses a challenge at the core of what many high-performing professionals face: how to know if the work they are doing is the work they should be doing. Drawing on real-world examples, including the early journey of Walt Disney, the program unpacks the subtle but critical signals that indicate whether you are forcing yourself to stay in a field or pursuing something you genuinely believe in. Rather than giving surface-level advice, the program walks through counterintuitive insights, helping participants map where their energy, momentum, and personal fulfillment align, and where they do not. It is about understanding how to know, not what to do.
Episode title: Part 1: The First Rule of Investing

Insiders can upgrade to Legacy at any time and back to Insider without losing Insider status. Just email us at team@firmsconsulting.com so we can manually restore your access.

Ask Us a Question — Get Tailored Feedback

Legacy members are invited to submit one personal or professional question twice per month. We’ll respond with a custom answer recorded by a partner.

Deadlines: Submit by the 15th and 30th of each month
Format: One paragraph emailed to team@firmsconsulting.com
Include: Context and details so we can provide tailored guidance for your unique situation
Subject line: Legacy Question

🔹 For Strategy Control Room Advanced Members

You’ll receive this exclusive update:

Sunday
New IT, Digital, AI, and Cloud Center-of-Excellence – Update 4 of TBD

We also released these free resources:

Strategy Skills Podcast (top 5-10 for careers in many countries)

Monday
Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review on the Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift – with Kevin Evers

What can a $2B concert tour teach us about business strategy? Quite a lot.

We often speak about innovation and reinvention in the corporate world. Yet, few embody it as consistently and successfully as the artist and strategist Taylor Swift.

In this episode, I spoke with Kevin Evers, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review and author of There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift.

Kevin brings a rare perspective, someone who has quietly shaped the voices of influential business thinkers over nearly two decades, now stepping into authorship himself.

Kevin shares insights from his new book on Taylor Swift, noting her strategic decision-making and marketing tactics that led her to where she is today. He stresses the value of trust and consistency in building a brand, citing Taylor Swift's $2 billion Eras Tour and her 2% market share in 2024. Kevin also underscores how Taylor treats her fans, leveraging fan engagement for marketing success, and how we can adopt it in the business world.

Listen to the episode here (you can also watch or read the transcript).

Wednesday
CIA Hacker to Tech Entrepreneur: How Cybersecurity Can Make or Break Your Business – with Dr. Eric Cole

From CIA hacker to cybersecurity advisor to a U.S. President.

Now trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international banks, and leaders like Bill Gates.

(And he almost missed the CIA meeting... because it was raining.)

"Something told me, it was a Thursday afternoon. ... and something told me, you have to go to the co-op office today. You have to go today. ... I believe there’s this inner voice and ... this thing came over me, and I get out of class at 3:30. It’s raining. It’s a 10-minute walk... So the universe is testing me."

In this episode of the Strategy Skills podcast, Dr. Eric Cole — former CIA hacker, Cyber Wingman for the U.S. Air Force, and Commissioner on Cybersecurity for the 44th President of the United States — shares lessons from a career built on discipline, pattern recognition, trusting your instincts, and letting data — not emotions — drive decisions.

Today, his expertise is trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international banks, and some of the world’s most influential leaders, including Bill Gates.

If you're serious about operating at the highest levels, you’ll want to study this episode carefully.

We cover:

- Why cybersecurity is a competitive advantage when used properly
- How to build $7M companies that sell for 9–10x revenue
- Why protecting your intellectual property early can create millions in extra value
- Why minimizing exposure — in business and in security — is key to surviving long term
- How real entrepreneurs use data, not emotions, to make decisions
- Why building businesses in "Blue Oceans" (no competitors) is critical
- Why ethical sales beat high-pressure tactics every time

Plus:

→ The simple morning routine he uses to stay sharp
→ How he protects his personal AI to avoid being replaced by it
→ How to build companies designed for high-value exits — not 30 years of exhaustion

If you’re thinking long-term about leading, building, and protecting real value, you will find this episode helpful.

Listen to the episode here (you can also watch or read the transcript).

Additionally, here are the recent releases on FIRMSconsulting / StrategyTraining.com YouTube Channel:

IT Strategy vs. Corporate Strategy: Microsoft - with Kris Safarova
Access here.

How to Build Consulting Storyboards in 3 Weeks (This is How McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte Do It) - with Kris Safarova
Access here.

How to Feel Comfortable on Camera - with Kris Safarova
Access here.

Management Consulting Storyboard | Storyboarding used by McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC et al. - with Kris Safarova
Access here.

McKinsey’s Rise to Prominence Under Marvin Bower - with Kris Safarova
Access here.

Ready to begin?