What's it like to be a consulting CIO?

Once you build up a diverse portfolio of clients it becomes really rewarding as you start to see the common pain points across industries/orgs. As these become obvious, it's easy to start to build response kits to them.

The main piece of advice I have to give is to make sure you have plenty of models and frameworks you can draw upon to solve problems. 

Been a long-time CIO all my career. I have enjoyed the role especially since it involves the walk-the-talk part. This makes you more cautious about your consulting job as you need to execute what you advise.
Over a period we tend to get bored of the operational execution especially when it is repetitive. I have done 3 ERP implementations and do not enjoy it anymore. However, would love to consult on the same.
The role of a full-time CIO prepares you to be a good consulting CIO.

Consulting CIO provides more and a better exposure in terms better outlook from outside in view.Consulting CIO can support business from being exposed to certain strategic risks specially on digital transformations. Consulting CIO's role should specialist in areas where typically CIO's lack on like industry technology implementations and benchmarking locally and globally. Roadmap building and Change Management.

It’s a different experience that is both challenging and rewarding. Challenging in the sense that as a consultant you are considered as one who is external to the organization and may not truly understand the politics and culture within. There is a potential “autoimmune” resistance from long time insiders. On the flip side, being an external resource gives the organization a different insight and fresher outlook on what needs to be changed, improved, or sustained in the organization.

I have found being a consulting CIO to be very different from that of an operational CIO. It is a sliding scale and serving as a fractional CIO or interim CIO can provide some of the aspects you may have as an operational CIO. The tradeoff is finding the balance what drives/ interests you and the demand to tap into. Personally, I never planned to serve as an advisor or consultant but found that companies greatly value the advise I have been able to provide.