Special edition of The MECE Muse Unplugged celebrating the podcast’s 9 month journey.
This episode includes a replay of an interview with Michelle Florendo, a former consultant, a decisions analysis expert & career coach for Type A professionals.   A Stanford University graduate with a degree in decision engineering & analysis, Michelle shares her career journey in consulting and some of her lessons learned.
Michelle unpacks the concept of decision making for those that may be feeling stuck in their career or at a crossroads. She breaks down the components of strategic decision making, providing simple yet actionable steps, best practices, and recommendations on how you can make decisions to live a happier, healthier life.

Listen to the Episode Here:
We’re going to be doing a little bit of a different type of episode. I’m going to dub this one On the Bench. This is another Bench edition. We did a Bench episode back then where we took a break, bench or some firms call it the beach. On the Bench is a consulting lingo or taking a break. Any downtime in between projects that individuals have as a consultant is termed being on the bench. I want us to take a moment and celebrate how far the podcast has come. I wanted to thank you all for being such gracious listeners. I wanted to share some stats. The podcast, MECE Muse Unplugged turned nine months old. I want to take a pause and thank you all.
We’ve been able to produce over 40 episodes with that many guests on the show. Great conversations. We’ve had over 22,000 episode downloads of the show since it started. Over 1,000 plus subscribers and we now have go-getters listening to the show in 70 countries. I remember the last time I did a Bench episode, we had go-getters in about 38 country that that time. We’ve definitely increased our presence in 70 countries across six continents, which is fantastic. In the US alone, MECE Muse Unplugged’s biggest market for podcast listeners. We have listeners in 44 of the 50 states. The podcast has grown, expanded, and it’s been much more than I ever thought it would be.
I remember when I started the show, I was just thinking, “I’m going to put together a podcast. I’m going to dub it a pop up,” because I didn’t know how long I was going to be doing it. I didn’t know if anyone was going to tune in, if anyone was going to care to tune in. I dubbed it a pop up and say, “Let’s see what happens and if it works, it works. It doesn’t, it doesn’t.” I started bare bones. I started this thing and it’s taken a life on its own. It added a lot of dimension to my life and the wonderful relationships I’ve been able to build through the podcast. Most importantly, I continue to hear from you, go-getters. I remember I used to say that a lot on the show is, “I’m only going to keep doing this if I hear from people. If it seems like no one cares, I’m going to move on.”
As consultants, we want to always add value. To me, it was like, “If this was not valuable, we’re not doing this anymore,” and that’s okay. I was going to be perfectly okay if I tried it out and a couple months in, no one tuned in, I’d say, “I tried.” That has not been the case. I’ve continued to get emails, continue to hear people giving me feedback, things they like to hear on the show, introducing me to guests. I’ve even had people been able to make career decisions. That’s been amazingly important for me. For me to hear that this show has helped people make career decisions, help people pick projects, help people decide even what firm they’re going to go to, help people land consulting jobs. That impact is exactly what this is all about.
I’m grateful to be in this space that I am in doing what we’re doing here. Nothing brings me more joy than to be living and being the mentor that I wish I had. In the beginning,