By Lorendia Schmidt, Cohort 8
When you work as an independent consultant, the freedom is exhilarating – I make my own schedule and have no one to blame but myself when I’m overbooked. But the isolation can sometimes be intense, with no one to talk between meetings or over the proverbial water cooler. A few years ago, fellow Cohort 8 Bueller, Hanna Nichols, and I started meeting over coffee to connect, share challenges, and offer each other support. What began as informal conversations has blossomed into something we never quite expected: a vibrant community of consultants who gather, collaborate, and grow together.
With about 20 consultants in our network, our gathering is intentionally unstructured. We don’t have formal leadership, no hierarchy, no bylaws. We like to think of ourselves as a field of wildflowers—individually doing great work, and together blooming into something even more beautiful.
Our group includes consultants working across early childhood education, youth development, mental health, philanthropy, human services, democracy reform, and related fields. Most of us serve nonprofits and government agencies. We’re united by a belief that diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are foundational to building a better future. And we trust that the right people will connect with the right people at the right time.
How We Connect
Monthly Gatherings: Each month, a different person volunteers to host. They pick the date, location (someone’s house, a coffee shop, a library), and loose agenda. There’s always time for relationship-building over coffee or lunch, updates from anyone working on collaborative projects, and often a structured conversation on topics like exploring our strengths, pitching to clients, or tackling shared challenges.
Pop-Up Groups: When someone wants to dig deeper on a topic, they can host a pop-up conversation. These smaller gatherings allow consultants to explore specific interests—like how to pitch work to philanthropic organizations or hosting skill-building workshops for each other.
Slack Channel: For ongoing connection, questions, and sharing project opportunities between meetings.
The Beautiful Tension of Not Knowing
There’s a healthy tension in our group about how structured we should be. We recently developed a manifesto of sorts as our first attempt at creating some shared expectations while acknowledging that we’ll continue to evolve.
What’s next? We genuinely don’t know. We might become more formal or stay delightfully loose. We might explore profit-sharing or creative solutions for affordable health insurance. We might meet quarterly instead of monthly. Some of us might become formal coworkers while others stay independent. We’re okay with not knowing because we trust the group to adapt to what emerges.
One of our core principles is freedom. If you want to partner with another consultant on a project, wonderful! There’s no expectation to share every opportunity with the group or to only work with group members. Everyone is welcome to collaborate with consultants anywhere.
If you’re a consultant or on the path to becoming one in Colorado (or beyond—we have at least one international member!), and this resonates with you, we’d love to connect. Reach out to Lorendia Schmidt (lorendia@meaningful-collaboration.com) or Hanna Nichols (hanna@bigpictureimpact.com) to learn more.
Come bloom with us!