The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 066: Judy Robinett – Creating A Titanium Digital Rolodex: The 5+50+150 Rule

Episode Date: October 26, 2015

Episode 066: Judy Robinett – Creating A Titanium Digital Rolodex: The 5+50+150 Rule I would like to thank John Corcoran for introducing me to Judy Robinett.  Both John and Judy are such great givers… Always trying to help others and they’ve done so much for me.   I was fascinated with Judy.  She is incredibly intelligent and is a very deep thinker.  It was a joy to get her to put some of those thoughts on tape for this great podcast episode. Judy Robinett is the author of How to Be a Power Connector: The 5+50+150 Rule (McGraw-Hill, May 2014), a book that provides instant, effective strategies for meeting the people you need to know and bonding with them fast to further your goals and theirs. Robinett is a business thought leader who is known as “the woman with the titanium digital Rolodex.” She has been profiled in Fast Company, Forbes, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek as a sterling example of the new breed of “super connectors” who use their experience and networks to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. In her more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and corporate leader, Robinett has served as the CEO of both public and private companies and in management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She has been on the advisory boards of Illuminate Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California; Pereg Ventures, a venture capital firm based in New York; Springboard Enterprises based in Washington, DC; and Women Innovate Mobile (WIM) accelerators based in New York. Episode 066: Judy Robinett – Creating A Titanium Digital Rolodex: The 5+50+150 Rule Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show “Forget an MBA… Learn to network.” – Jack Welch Some Questions I Ask: What are common characteristics of high achievers? How have you learned how to create luck? What did the book “How To Win Friends and Influence People” help you? What is the 5 + 50 + 150 rule? How did you become known as the “woman with the titanium rolodex?” What are the 5 things to never do and say? What does being a “giver” mean to you? In This Episode, You Will Learn: The importance of “guts and luck” How being shy and bullied helped propel Judy to big things You are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with Keeping a “victory log” of achievements How to connect others and make important introductions Process to create a TED Talk The definition of a Learning Leader  “Creating value is how you create wealth.” – Judy Robinett Continue Learning Read this Forbes Article about Judy: Forbes: Judy Robinett Read her book: "How To Be A Power Connector" Follow Judy on Twitter @judyrobinett You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 002: How To Take Over And Set Bigger Goals With Chris Brogan Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion Episode 010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts Did you enjoy the podcast? I love discussing how we can all become at connecting people.  It’s a fascinating topic and Judy is one of the best at it!  I really enjoyed speaking with her.  Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio From JudyRobinett.com Judy Robinett is the author of How to Be a Power Connector: The 5+50+150 Rule (McGraw-Hill, May 2014), a book that provides instant, effective strategies for meeting the people you need to know and bonding with them fast to further your goals and theirs. Robinett is a business thought leader who is known as “the woman with the titanium digital Rolodex.” She has been profiled in Fast Company, Forbes, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek as a sterling example of the new breed of “super connectors” who use their experience and networks to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. In her more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and corporate leader, Robinett has served as the CEO of both public and private companies and in management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She has been on the advisory boards of Illuminate Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California; Pereg Ventures, a venture capital firm based in New York; Springboard Enterprises based in Washington, DC; and Women Innovate Mobile (WIM) accelerators based in New York.

Creating value is the way that you create wealth. And I like people to have wealth so they can have the freedom to do what they want in life. So I'm pretty passionate about that. I also love to give speeches. I'm flying to London next week to give a speech to a thousand people on the concepts of my book. And my whole thing is I want to change the world by people seeing that there is no lack of resources. There's 7 billion people on the planet. There's 369 trillion of private global.

wealth. Just in the United States and checking and banking counts as over 70 billion. So there's no lack of money. There's no lack of opportunities. There's no lack of anything. But most of them are connected to people. And so, you know, it is the most important skill, one of the most important skill I'd say that you need. Jack Welch said actually, forget an MBA learned network. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.

You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Quick note for those of you who have not already done, so please go to learningleader.com and sign up for my email newsletter. There's some really cool things we're about to do, and I want to make sure that everybody listening gets a chance to participate. So go to learning leader.com.

Right at the top, you'll see where you can put in your email. Now on to tonight's episode. It's with Judy Robinette. She's known as the woman with the titanium rolodex. Really incredible. She's been profiled in Fast Company, Forbes and Huffington Post, among others. She's also the author of a great book called How to Be a Power Connector. On our conversation tonight, we discussed a number of topics.

Here are a few of them. how you can actually create luck. We got in a pretty deep on this topic. I think you guys are really going to enjoy that part of the conversation, as well as how each and every one of us can be a power connector like Judea. She's from a very small town, did not come from money, was able to rise up and become a power connector, who's somebody connected to people all over the world who have done really big things.

And she discusses on this episode how we all can do. those things. And then a funny story of when she was on a panel with Mark Cuban. I think you'll like that when it's near the end of the conversation, but I thought it was quite humorous and entertaining. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Judy Robinette. Okay, Judy, so excited to have you here on the Learning Leaders Show. I've read a lot about you. You've seen your TED Talks, seen you give a lot of keynotes. So I'm just excited to speak with you now one-on-one. But I have a question to get us kicked off. And that's around high achievers, people who have done big things in their lives, and you're obviously one of those people. But I'm curious to hear from your perspective,

what are our few common characteristics that these high achievers all seem to share? So thank you. I'm excited to be here, Ryan. And, you know, I just recently read a billionaire in India, and they ask him, you know, over your entire life, what are the keys to your success? And he said guts and luck. And that really resonates with me at a deep level because, you know, it often isn't the smartest people. There's lots of smart people. There's lots of brilliant ideas. But, but I like that. Guts and luck and persistence. Guts and luck. I don't think I've ever heard that answer. I asked it to a lot of people. I'm curious about that. Very curious about, in fact. And that's interesting to me. So talk to me a little bit more about that because once people hear the

phrase luck, sometimes for some, that can be not inspiring because they can say, oh, well, I need to find a way to get lucky. How can I get lucky? Well, you can get lucky. And, you know, one of the things I tell people is you can create luck by how you position yourself. And people will say, ah, I can't do that. And Ryan, I'll say, you know, go stand on a train track. Tell me if you get bad luck. So, you know, you can, you really can create luck. There's a great quote in it. It's Something like luck is by design. And the older I get, you know, and I'm getting up there now, I really see how truthful that is.

Because if you know you sit back on your couch and drink beer watch TV, you're not creating much luck. Whereas if you go to a powerful new group that you haven't been to before, your chances of hobnobbing with millionaires, billionaires, people of influence just goes up totally. Whereas, you know, your other opportunity, zilch in meeting someone. by luck. And so I've learned how to create luck and, you know, other people can. And I think most people do have the guts component.

I mean, if you're really motivated and you want to get somewhere in life, then you usually have that one. And you understand this from getting, you know, knocked over countless thousands of times in football, but you can create luck. And luck, I think a lot of people have seen this quote. It's where preparation meets opportunity. you know, I think preparation is everything. It's being prepared for those few moments in your life

or hopefully more than a few moments in your life where you have a chance to make something happen. For example, if you're a backup quarterback, I can relate it to me, a backup quarterback and the starting quarterback gets hurt. You may have that one opportunity. I think of Tom Brady, he's with the New England Patriots, the starting quarterback who was paid millions of dollars got hurt.

He had this one small opportunity to take that job and what did he do? He made the absolute most of it. Some would say that there's a little luck involved. However, I would say his preparation led him to that success because he was ready for his one opportunity. Absolutely. So I really like that. That's a good answer.

I appreciate that, Judy. So let's take a step back and let's get to you. And I'd love to dive into really who you are, where you come from. I know you're from a small town in Idaho, but I'll let you tell your story. But where you are, who you come from, and some of the things that you've accomplished that you're most proud of, as well as what you're working on today. So I do come from a very small town in Idaho, and if you watch the movie Napoleon Dynamite, I went to that high school. Really? Really?

Wow. And so I grew up in a small town. My dad had retired from the military, you know, moved to Franklin, Idaho, population 300. I was in shock, actually. but I was really shy and bullied in junior high. But when I hit the corporate world, you know, I looked around and I could see other people were getting ahead and I wasn't and they didn't appear to be smarter or working harder. And what I discovered is they were tied into networks of influential people that weren't relevant

or weren't so obvious on a corporate org chart. And so I picked up how to win friends and influence people. And I determined early on that, you know, other people give you job, opportunities, they write the checks that will help you get funded for your startup. Everything happens with other people. And so I determined I was going to learn this skill, started saying hello to people, and geez, I found out people like me. It was kind of startling, actually.

So that was kind of my beginning. I then started my first company in my 30s, almost went bankrupt, turned it around and sold it. I've worked with several well-known high-profile companies like Skull Candy, and now I sit on VC boards. I'm an angel investor. One of the projects that's kind of near and dear to my heart, I'm just launching as a group coaching program that is pretty exclusive, and it's called Crack the Funding Cone, and it's to teach people how to get funded. And I was always saddened when I was CEO of a public company for a number of years that I'd go all over the world, and I'd meet doctors who arguably

may have had a cure for cancer, and they could not figure out how to connect the dots to get funded. So, you know, one thing I'm really proud of is that I finally, finally did a book, hopefully that will help people get access to what they need to get ahead. I'm really proud of that. I'm, you know, proud of things like I know how to fly a helicopter and I've got pet chickens in the backyard and ride horses in the mountains. So those are just a few kind of insights. And so your book's called How to Be a Power Connector. Yes. The 550 by 150 rule. So talk to me a little bit about why you wrote that book, and if you had to distill it down to, you know, a couple minutes, what's the thing that listeners can get out of it?

Well, you know, the title Power Connector means the ability to make things happen for you and for other people. And the 150 is done for its law that says groups fall apart at 150. So, you know, you need to focus on quality, high value relationships, not quantity, like on LinkedIn or Facebook. You want people who have your back and have your future. The five is based on research that shows five is the typical number of our close friends and family. That's the first circle around us. And I discovered at 50 that you can make anything happen in your life that you want to have happen. So that's the 550-150 rule.

Yeah. And you are, I think a lot of people have repeated this quote, the five people you surround yourself with. That's what you're going to become. So you have to be very careful as to who you do. decide and choose that those five people are. Yeah, and that's correct, Ryan. And, you know, when you first get out of college, you know, everything is new, but about the first time you get a job, then it's really important that you start getting

what I call a robust, deep and wide network. You want to make sure that you have go-to people for your future, for what resources you need, and what people usually do if I have them write down, you know, who are those 25 to 50 people outside your friends and family? it's people just like you. You know, I would guess you have a lot of football buddies. But, you know, by doing the podcasts, you're meeting people of power and influence. So if, you know, you need to find funding, you can pick up the phone and call five people.

Yeah, absolutely. That's part of the reason to do this. In addition to the learning, it's to meet and speak with and develop great relationships with people all over the world who have, who are big achievers. like you, Judy. And so that's why it's so exciting. It's one of the great aspects of doing it is hard. And there's a lot of work, but it's certainly worth it. So there's so many things I wanted to get into is I'm going to try to keep us on track here. But I, yesterday I did a speech at on a college campus. And, you know, usually at the end of those talks, you do a Q&A. I'm sure you've done things like that before. And I got an interesting question that I wrote down. I thought,

well, maybe I could ask Judy that question because I want to see how you'd answer it. one of the students raised their hands and they said you know Ryan this is you know this is all great I appreciate it and I stressed them about you know from a networking perspective about being a giver about focusing on the other person don't be the person who's just looking to get get get but think give give give give and help others connect people be the person to to facilitate connections and they said to me they said well it seems like yeah you can do that but I'm 21 I don't know what skills I possess yet truly you know I'm going to graduate college in a year and I don't know a ton of people not this person wasn't in a fraternity or sorority didn't play a sport so what value can I give to people I feel

like if I ask these questions I'm just in this get get get mode what can I do to give and help others like some other people I've read about when I feel like I don't have that in me right now so so the big one Ryan and this is a question I get also is you know what value would I have to offer and And that's what I used to think. You know, it didn't matter. I didn't go to Harvard. I wasn't born into a well-to-do family. I was shy.

What on earth could I offer? And what I explained to people is everybody that's alive has problems. Everybody. Billionaires, millionaires, as long as you're alive and you're striving for a goal, you have problems. You need help. You're going to need a favor. But just at the beginning of your career, one of the biggest skills you can learn is listening.

So if you really hear someone, rather than you really hear someone, rather than you're going to need a favor. than just listening, that's a great gift. I mean, often you can just start a conversation by asking a question of someone, and it's like literally pulling a cork out of a bottle. It's difficult then to get them to be quiet. But, you know, everyone on this planet has just amazing value, and the best thing to understand that is often ask three or four of your friends, what are the top three things about me that are great.

And, you know, I have people do this all the time, Ryan, and I'd suggest you do it, people will often call me and go, geez, I didn't know that. And, you know, this is what happened to me. People started saying, you're the best networker in the world. And I'm like, you know, I thought they were nuts. I really did. And if I would have been more open to see what other people could see, I would have been a head further. And, you know, it really required kicking fear to the curb.

So, you know, everybody has value. Just being authentic. Relationships always start from a personal level. You can talk about your pets, your friends, your family, whatever. It isn't so much on your skills. You know, you have worth as a human being first. And then learn some communication skills. And if you don't know a lot of people, one of the things I suggest is you volunteer.

You can volunteer anywhere, you know, the Humane Society, the United Way. Political groups are a great thing to do and meet people that you can click with, have a chemistry with, and then start building out your network. Yeah, one of the exercises I did prior to this podcast starting, Judy was, and I learned it from others. I listened to it and heard it on another podcast. And I've said this before, but it's just a simple exercise where you take a sheet of paper and you put a line down the middle of it. In the left side of it, you write down things that you love, things that you are passionate about doing. Really, whatever, it can make it broad, write a lot, write more. And then on the right side, you ask people who are extremely close to you and who will be very honest with you.

and you say, what am I great at? You know, what would you say, if I'm an expert at anything, what would you say that is? And so for people, it could be very close friends, even parents, spouse, whatever it may be, and see what intersects, see what's on both sides of that list. And maybe it'll surprise you. I've since added an extra sheet of paper to it, actually, asking now people to say, what areas do I need to improve upon? And again, you've got to meet.

with people who are willing to be honest with you, and they know that it's not going to hurt your feelings. But I've learned a great deal from doing that exercise, and it seems extremely simple, but most things in life that can be powerful usually are pretty simple. You just have to do it. You have to actually take the time to do it. And I can promise people, if you do that exercise,

and I would add the extra sheet on it, where you ask for some help for people to be hard on you, it's had an immense effect on my life in a great way. That's wonderful. And, you know, I'd add one more. So I read research that said if you've got low self-esteem, the number one way to increase it is to take out a piece of paper and write victory log on the top. And you just number from one to 50. And you put down things you're really proud you've accomplished, like, you know, all of your touchdowns, your current job, anything, little things and big things.

And, you know, I have mine from years and years ago when I made 30,000 a year up to when I made, you know, 350,000 year. and it's amazing to see and it gives you comfort and it also gives you courage. And if you review it, then you can go, wow, you know, I like the trend here and it's getting better. And you can, you know, when you're, I think fear holds the majority of us back, which is really sad. And that's why I always mentioned kick fear to the curb. And I wish I would have learned that when I was much younger. I recently found there's two words in Hebrew for fear. And one means, you know, that gut-wrenching, it's when I go to my cave, I say with dark child.

But the other one is when you're stepping kind of into your greatness. And instead of fear, you could feel excitement. That victory law, I think, is a great idea for anybody, let alone what your self-esteem is. I think that's those things, I don't know. To me, I know there's science that backs it up. When you write things down, whether it's goals, whether it's in a five-minute journal, which is something I've again spoken about that I do every morning and every night, which you write out some things that you're grateful for, and you write out what would make today

great and you have to they have to be measurable you can't just say you know i want to you know i want to have a great day it's it's it's a measurable for me something i write down that are specific are you know i want to i want to send three cold emails today to potential a great guest that i want to have my podcast it's very simple it's it's measurable and at the end of the day i know whether i did it or not and when you when you're able to accomplish those things even though they're small it's like the compound effect it builds up day after day after day you have the these little mini goals, you'd be amazed what would happen after 200 days of accomplishing little mini goals. It's incredible. Yeah, I think that's a philosophy that Darren Hardy writes about

as a book out. And, you know, one that I've done for years and years, and I learned this, I read an interview by Mary Kay, and she said that all the success that she'd achieved in life was that every day she got up and she wrote down, prioritized the sixth thing she needed to do today that would help her reach her goals and she did them just six things six things exactly then you you hold yourself accountable because it's written down and i don't know about you but like when i write something down and i go look at it at the end of the day it really bothers me obviously there are days i fail and it really bothers me though on those days where it's not i don't accomplish what i set out to do and because they're never crazy goals they're there are things that are doable but but you know

how it goes. Some days, things get in the way and you're not able to accomplish them, but it's still, it holds you accountable. And you're saying, you know what, that's not going to happen tomorrow. I'm not going to, I'm not going to let that happen. Yes. So you, you are called the woman with the titanium rollodex. And I know you hear you laughing. And that's, but I obviously, I do a lot of research prior to these. And that's one of the things that popped out. It's in bold here on my notes. And I'm like, interesting. I also haven't heard that term. So, that, you know, let's unpack that a little bit. The woman with the titanium

rolodex, talk to me about that. You know, somebody started saying that, and it just kind of took off. And, you know, I don't even remember who it was, but I get called out a lot now, and usually with people that I make a couple of powerful connections for. And, you know, having been raised shy and bullied, I now have just an amazing rolodex.

and with people in every industry. Mark Burnett endorsed my book. I know billionaires around the world. And I love to help people. I took it for a challenge as a while. Like, how could I do the best thing for this person, given their gifts, and where they want to go? How could I help accelerate that for them?

So I will just randomly make introductions for people that will just kind of knock them off their feet. I mean, recently I set up a luncheon with Roma Downey and the vice president of Meredith Publishing who has Moore Magazine because I knew Mark Burnett and his wife Roma are doing a remake of Ben Hur and that it would be a terrific value ad if I could help him get some marketing. Well, Moore Magazine has the highest net worth women in the world, a huge subscriber base. And they were, you know, I called the magazine.

I said, do you want to interview Roma Downey? They're like, oh, yes. And I call Roma Downey and say, do you want to get in this? Yes. I called her PR people. And so I love doing that. I absolutely love doing that, and I do it day in and day out for people. And many people are really surprised the level of the people that I know.

And the book helped with that, I must be honest. So, you know, I got a call from the United Nations saying, come and talk to us. And so that's helped build that Rolodex even bigger. But I make it a point of adding value to people's lives, because I know what I have is somewhat of a gift, and I should help the best I can. And I agree with you. I always say give twice before you ask.

So generosity is important. Research shows when you meet a stranger, the first thing you look for is warmth, and that's really good because there are some bad actors out there and sociopaths lack empathy, and the narcissistic, you know, me, me, me got you. But the second one is a level of competence, but I always add generosity

because just because someone, you know, can help you, doesn't mean they will. That makes a lot of sense. And so I think the natural question that people by listening are saying is, okay, so you seem to do a fantastic job connecting extremely powerful people, the people who have done big things in their lives. But how did that, how did you get to this point? I mean, what was it? Was there a specific moment or an inflection point in your life that changed things

for you? Or have you always been this type to just want to make introductions, to get yourself out there, to go to the proper events to meet the people? Because I think a lot of people want to be connectors. I think a lot of people say, oh, yeah, I would love to know Mark Burnett. I would love to be able to connect all these people. But they're like, I don't really know that many people. I mean, what are the specific keys that the everyday, I mean, you're from a very small town. You didn't come from money. So it's not like you started your life on third base. I mean, had to work for it. So what are some of those things that others could potentially implement? So, you know, the pivot point for me that was really an eye-opener is I worked for a Fortune 300

company. I was just, you know, just a manager, nothing really incredibly important. But the local newspaper had asked me to write a little column once a week on business ethics and leadership. And I did that. And my neighbor was a Senate majority leader. And then I was appointed on a hospital board of directors. And I found myself in this perfect spot that I had access to media, to money, to people of influence, to people in the government. And I could, you know, get answers. I could make things happen faster than I ever had before. And so I kind of used that as a model, and it's in my book. And so when I moved to Salt Lake, I kind of replicated the same thing. but then I took it global.

And one of the secrets, and I'll ask people to write down your network equals your net worth, but one of them is, you know, you share your story, you be authentic and say, this is where I'm headed, I could use some help here, here, and here. So you share that story, and then you ask people, what other ideas do you have for me and who else do you know that I should talk to? And that literally is how I have networked up and out. And when I've met people that are higher level than I am on any level, I really seek to add value to them quickly. Get back, keep your promises.

And it can be simple things. You know, you can keep your eye out for a specific article, piece of information, certainly make introductions to people. And so that's how I did it. The other way was I joined, I attended some of these. curated networking events. So most of the networking events people go to, I would guess 90% of them are a waste of time. You may see your friends, but there needs to be people smarter than you in the room and people who have access to resources you need for your goal. So my simple formula is really

quality relationships plus strategy to meet a goal. And, you know, I volunteered to be on a finance committee in Utah for a governor's race, and that's how I met my first three billionaires. And, you know, the first time I met a millionaire, I was like awestruck. And no big deal now, you know, I send emails to Mark Cuban and numerous other people. And you find out everybody's just like you, really. You know, everybody has to get up in the morning and eat. Everybody's got problems. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on once in a while.

So it was adding value, joining some groups, educating people. and I've really taken that to heart. And, you know, when I did the book, I didn't even, you know, my publisher McGraw-Hill said, Judy, you've got to do a platform. And I'm like, what's a platform? I had no clue. I didn't have any contacts in the media. And I just carefully used what I had by asking those questions of people.

And you'll be astounded in the network that exists. So everyone knows about 600 people. And I find most of the answers you need are already with the people you know. You just haven't educated people and you haven't asked. Yeah, I mean, Adam Grant does an interesting exercise with his classes at Wharton. Adams, the youngest tenured professor at Wharton, author of Give and Take, one of my all-time favorite books. And what he'll do is he'll ask each student to write down a company or a person they want to be connected with. So is there a certain person or a company, maybe you want to work there someday?

And so they all do it, and then they get them all together. And then everyone looks at each other's list to say, wow, maybe I know somebody that can help someone out. And so by the end of the exercise, literally you have all these people helping one another get introduced to people as well as companies. And so everyone becomes kind of a super connector for each other. And it's really powerful. There's one example of the story where a kid said, well, I really want to work at an amusement park. kind of an odd request, but he couldn't get into this specific amusement park. And one of the people after doing this exercise in the class was able to connect him with

like the owner of an amusement park, easily got him a job quickly. It was he did it as a summer internship prior to graduation. And he gets back from it. And he's like, wow, that was, you know, thank you very much. And Adam's like, so what did you learn? And he said, I learned that I never want to work at an amusement park. So I mean, those types of, they're good exercise. exercises and it forces, it helps young people become connectors. And there's things like that

that I think we all can do and implement in our small group of friends. So I love your story. So one of the other things you do, Judy, is give keynote speeches. And whether as a TEDx talk or a speech to a company, and I'm curious to learn about your process, your preparation as you're going to give a talk because this is a really interesting topic for me and I think for a lot of people. Everyone wants to be better at this. People have a lot of fear, a lot of nerves around getting up in front of any number of people and giving a talk. What are some of what's your process to prepare to get ready and then to deliver a keynote?

Well, the most recent important lessons I've learned is going through the process of doing a TEDx talk and I did mine in Sacramento. It's the largest venue in the United States. It was a sold-out crowd of 2000. And they gave me this team, and I had to do dry runs, you know, twice a week. And listen to about five people say, you know, I'm not clear on this point or that point. But the biggest lesson I learned, and I probably put in over 100 hours for that 15-minute talk, but the lesson that I learned is how important it is to share stories.

And that has really helped me. I'll do what I was taught in school, and I've given speeches since I was in my 20s, and that's, you know, come down to just three major points. People can't remember any more than three major points. And so I start with that. I try to come up with a great story, with some of those points that I'm trying to make, and really be authentic with people. And I find that that really helps. And I do a fair amount of research. I'm a voracious reader.

but the more I found that I'm vulnerable. I mean, it took me, it wasn't until I did the TED talk that I admitted I had been bullied in junior high. And I was amazed that when I opened myself up to being more vulnerable, how much more connected I was to the audience. So I had lines out the door of people wanting to talk to me and virtually every one of them said, you know, the same thing happened to me or I was like you, I was sure. I was shy. And so that's how you connect and get people to engage. One of the things that I read as I was preparing for our time is some of the things that the audience will learn after you give a talk. And something that caught my eye you mentioned is the five things to never do or say when first meeting someone.

Whenever you see like a list or, I mean, a headline like that, it's like, wait, what are those five things? So I'm curious, what are those five things? So, you know, one of the most important is, I don't know about you, Ryan, have you ever been to a network event? Someone comes running at you with a business card? Of course. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's like. You want to run the other way.

Yeah, that's the number one turnoff. And, you know, another one right up there on that list is, you know, people who come directly at you with a sales pitch. You know, I'm so-and-so with this insurance company. You know, you need life insurance. and that's another mistake. You really need to focus on being relationships start personal first. So Michael Milken actually said everything that people really care about deep in their heart is first their family, their pets, their health, and their money.

And then, you know, try to focus on the other person. So for people that are shy, and I had to do this, I would pretend. the person across from me was my best friend, you know, to get rid of the anxiety and the worry about talking to them. So those are my favorite ones. Yeah, and act as I think it was Michael Port and I forget who said, act like you're the host. That's one way to try to go around. And the host is usually the one who's not talking about themselves. They're trying to make sure other people are having a good time. They're asking them about themselves. They're, you know, making sure that if they need anything that they take care of it. And they're like,

I like that. I like that person. Yeah, that's really smart. It's really smart. So when I was in the corporate world and I had to go to events, I would go late and leave early. And I would hang out in the corners because I felt so uncomfortable. So, you know, I started just doing some simple things like going, getting some food and talking to the person next to me who was eating. You know, just and after you just practice a few of those things, you find out, you know, there's other people there. They're just delighted to talk to you and want to. And another thing you can do is follow a connector around. You'd be the wingman.

That works really well. I often haul several friends to some of these events just to teach them how. And it's easier to have someone introduce you and say, hey, this is Ryan. This is what he's great at. You know, you two ought to talk. Much easier, yeah, as opposed to you having to do that yourself. Another thing you've mentioned before is how do you, how to identify target and get next to the top people?

in your industry. What's a way to do that? You know, so with LinkedIn and Twitter, you can almost have access to anybody. I mean, it's incredible. And with Quora, so, you know, I tell people are looking for funding, the top VCs in the world, take questions and answers. So you can almost reach anybody that way. And the second way is figure out a conference or where a person is going to be, you know, whether they're giving a speech or whatever and do your background on them and then just make sure that you have something you can you can say and just to give you an example I was asked to be on a panel in I think it was DC or Boston and the the organizer said you know I don't know for sure

but I think we're going to have Mark Cuban on your panel and I'm like oh yeah right and you know may show me not so I really didn't expect he would show up so you know I walk in the room and there's Mark Cuban so I'm thinking wow you know I'd like to know this dude and what could I say. So I paid really close attention on the panel to what he was saying. At one point he was talking about being on Shark Tank and how he just throws his hands in the air and says, I'm out of here, you know, after listening closely. And I looked down and I said, Mark, what about that movie thing with the motorcycles?

And you just said instantly, I'm out of there. And he looked down the table and he goes, well, Judy, you know, that was a scam. And then I took out my business card and I wrote on the back. Mark, you know, what a pleasure to meet you, looking forward to talking to you again. And, oh, by the way, I've been working, helping with one of your companies out of Salt Lake City, Utah. And I did that just very quick thinking on my feet. And by the time I got home, Mark had got a hold of that entrepreneur and said, and I thought this was really telling, who is Judy and how can she help me?

Really? And so, you know, you can think about, you know, how you can spark someone's interest, be strategic and you know that was a first for me i actually asked him if he'd consider endorsing my book and he said he was too busy and i instantly thought to myself well i'll go to your boss i'll go to mark burnett i didn't know a soul that knew mark and i used kind of another thing to do that so again you start with those quality relationships and quality meetings where you can meet the person and then you you formulate some strategy and and part of that is around how you can help that person And you can find that out by, you know, Mark's doing startups.

You know, Mark Burnett's doing movies. You know, what is it that people, like you said on your sheet, Ryan, you write down what you love. Everybody else has stuff they love. And it's of interest to them. And if you give it some thought, you can be creative and strategic. That's great. I love it. So a couple more questions.

What is, so day to day, what are you actively most passionate about that you're doing as of right now? So I end up with so many people that contact me about how to get their company funded. A friend of mine told me I needed to consider putting together a program, and I've done that. It just launched. It's called Crack the Funding Code. I've got top VCs, angels, people we will get on the phone with weekly, will help people develop their pitch decks. And it's all virtual, and I'll also make key introductions to investors. And I'm really excited about that because I know that that's creating value.

is the way that you create wealth. And I like people to have wealth so they can have the freedom to do what they want in life. So I'm pretty passionate about that. I also love to give speeches. I'm flying to London next week to give a speech to a thousand people on the concepts of my book. And, you know, my whole thing is I want to change the world by people seeing that there is no lack of resources. You know, there's 7 billion people on the planet. There's 369 trillion of private global wealth. just in the United States and checking and banking counts as over $70 billion. So there's no lack of money. There's no lack of opportunities.

There's no lack of anything. But most of them are connected to people. And so, you know, it is the most important skill, one of the most important skill I'd say that you need. Jack Welch said actually, forget an MBA learned network. Man, that's great stuff. I love it. And good luck on that talk. I think it's pretty neat.

That's exciting to hear about, especially going to London. in and I just think that sounds fascinating. So I have one more question, Judy, it's around the whole purpose behind why this show exists. It's titled The Learning Leader Show. And so if you go back to that exercise that I did, some of the things that I wrote down that I love to do, I do love learning. I actually did go and get my MBA in addition to some of the, after I got done with my MBA, I kind of started studying the stuff that I really wanted to learn about. And that's leadership, the art and science behind the fact that it can be a learn,

skill or trait even for introverts. And I love those two things. And it's kind of a duplicative term. You know, most great leaders are constantly learning. But that's what I went with because I truly love it. If there's one brand, that's the one I would want. And I was fortunate to get some of that same response on the right side of that sheet from people who are close to me.

And so I'm curious to get your thoughts. When you hear the phrase learning leader, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? Success. So, you know, they've done studies of billionaires, and one of the top things that they do is learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, pivot. And so I think learning is absolutely critical. There's also studies that has been done at West Point on leadership, and 20 to 30 percent of it

is genetic, but the rest can be learned. And some of the greatest leaders, indeed, are introverts. So, you know, learning has probably the thing that has propelled. me to where I am. So it's absolutely critical. I'm always asking people for recommendations of books so that I can just pick up one or two new ideas and then try to implement them, like you were saying, Ryan, about how important it is to write things down or just take some action because if you don't, it didn't do you any good to read the book or learn a new insight. The execution portion, the taking action part is so critical. It's easy to not do it. The hard thing

is to continue to implement. But that's why I think that daily practice of setting many goals or daily goals can help when it comes to the execution aspect. Because we all go to seminars. We listen to inspirational speeches. We read books. We listen to podcasts. We do all these things.

But if you're not consciously being intentional with your action, then it's very easy to get caught up in the crush of stuff, as my dad likes to tell me. And when everyone's got the crush of stuff, there's a lot of stuff happening. But you have to be intentional with it in order to make sure that you're actually executing and making it happen. But, Judy, this has been fantastic. I really have appreciated the fact that you're willing to share your great knowledge with me as well as all the listeners here at the Learning Leader Show. So thank you very much for being here with us. Thank you, Ryan.

It's a pleasure. Where can everyone go to find you online? LinkedIn, Twitter at Judy Robinette. You can write me, Judy at judyrobinet.com with no e. And I have a website and, you know, anyone's welcome to reach out. Perfect. Sounds great. Again, I look forward to continue our dialogue as we both progress on our journey, Judy.

So thank you very much again for being here. Thank you. All right. Talk soon. Bye. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information. and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you.

You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.