The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com 

#312: Zvi Band

Zvi Band is the co-founder & CEO of Contactually, the top CRM which empowers professionals in real estate, consulting, and other professional industries to build authentic relationships. Having founded Contactually in 2011, Zvi has led Contactually to $12M in venture backing, 75 employees, and tens of thousands of customers, including 8 of the top 20 real estate brokerages in the country. An engineer, a seasoned entrepreneur, developer, strategist and startup advisor, with unique both technical and non-technical operations. Thrice named a Washingtonian Tech Titan, featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Washington City Paper, Zvi was also a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Zvi is a passionate speaker and author whose writing has appeared in Forbes, Inc, Inman News, and many other outlets. He's the author of the newly released book, Success Is In Your Sphere.  Published by McGraw-Hill (Zvi and I share the same agent, publisher, and editor).

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • They have a level of introspection
    • This creates self-awareness and mindfulness
    • Take a step back... Analyze, pick apart.  Understand why something happened based on the decisions you made
  • They are tactical
    • 5x7 notepad -- Take blank sheet and write the exact things you need to do each day
    • Weekly wrap up -- Capture what happened
    • Use a daily journal to understand how you felt at that moment
• "It's way too easy to be reactionary."  It's not productive.  Be thoughtful and intentional
• Zvi at 25 years old:
  • Quit his job
  • His dad's cancer came back and he died
  • The same day was officially declared a recession in 2008
• How to respond?
  • Zvi was interested in a startup
    • "I emailed my network, and the CTO of an enterprise software company helped me out"
    • "Relationships are our most important asset"
  • Zvi realized he wasn't good at managing his relationships.  He was using Evernote.
  • He wanted a proactive CRM (customer relationship management) tool to proactively work for the relationship driven professional
  • That was how Contactually was created
    • "It's not about staying in touch.  It's about being of value."
• How to make the right hiring decisions:
  • It's values based:
    • Be user first - solve problems for others
    • Ownership - entrepreneur types
    • Learn & innovate - embrace failure and learn
      • Demonstrate the ability to learn
    • Be excellent with each other -- "If a company has a named 'No Asshole' rules then that usually means they have a lot of assholes there."  It's a red flag.
    • Keep it simple
    • Be real -- Transparent
• How does someone demonstrate the ability to learn?
  • Run a mock call, give feedback.  They must be coachable.  How do they respond to the coaching?
  • Ask, 'what are you learning?
  • We want readers
  • We want people who are intellectually curious
  • We want people who have a "general dissatisfaction with their current skill set."
• Mentor advice:
  • Leverage your experience to know the right questions to ask.
  • Teach them how to navigate the issues, don't just give them the answers.
  • "Relay experience.  Don't give advice."  Don't give a prescription.
• Mentee advice:
  • Establish a feedback loop
  • Establish what to do -- follow up
  • "Must show that you took their insights to heart and acted on them."
• The 'icky' feeling of relationship marketing:
  • Avoid this.  Don't just exchange business cards.
  • "Relationships are our most important asset."
  • Collect intelligence on those people important to you.  Listen for the little details they share.  Pay attention.  Take notes after you talk with them so you can ask about them later.
• Consistency - Play the long game:
  • Create habits:  what are your relationship goals?
  • "We're wired to think short term."  Zag when others zig.  Think long term.
• Build genuine, real relationships:
  • When we look back at success, we realize it's because of relationships
  • Invest in them long term
• Contactually got acquired by Compass
• Zvi and his investors have been rewarded for their work

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#311: Adam Savage

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com 

Adam Savage was the co-host and Executive Producer of the hit show, MythBusters on the Discovery Channel.  Fourteen years, 1,015 myths, 2,950 experiments, eight Emmy nominations and 83 miles of duct tape later, the series ended in March 2016.

 He is the author of Every Tool's a Hammer - Life Is What You Make It.

Be part of "Mindful Monday" -- Text LEARNERS to 44222

Notes

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#310: David Epstein

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

David Epstein is the author of the forthcoming Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , and of the top 10 New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. David has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism, and is reasonably sure he’s the only person to have co-authored a paper in the journal of Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research while a writer at Sports Illustrated.  David has given talks about performance science and the uses (and misuses) of data on five continents; his TED Talk has been viewed 7 million times, and was shared by Bill Gates.

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Voracious learners
  • Voracious readers
  • They attack obstacles
  • Extremely interested in people and about themselves
• The Sports Gene
  • Having great reflexes is a trained skill -- Pro baseball players cannot hit a pro softball pitcher because they have not trained their reflexes to understand the arm angle (Albert Puhols could not hit Jenny Finch even though she throws slower than the average MLB pitcher)
  • "Chunking" is what world class athletes or chess-masters do.  They pick up on cues from the person's body (or the board) and that helps them make quicker decisions -- Ex:  A baseball player understands/learns the cues of a pitcher and what pitch is coming and at what velocity
• Sports is a "kind learning environment."  It is more black and white than the business world.  In order to translate this to the business world, try to create a kinder learning environment.  Need as much information available as possible.
  • Create an environment where feedback is happening on a regular basis
  • The business world is not as kind of a learning environment
  • The "annual review" is a horrible way to run a business.  Feedback should be happening on a regular basis... Daily.
  • Bill Campbell would go to the meetings of the leaders he coached and gave immediate feedback.
  • Create a feedback loop for yourself from mentors/people you trust
  • "Everyone needs a coach" -- David regularly takes writing courses to stay sharp and learn
• David's writing process:
  • The first year = Read 10 scientific papers per day.  He reads a TON
  • Advantage David has created = An expansive search function
  • Have a "master thought list" -- Storyboard, shift scenes around
  • He did film editing as a form of cross training for writing a book and becoming a great storyteller
  • 29 of 32 NFL first round draft picks in the 2017 draft played multiple sports.  Cross training is critical for long term success
• David debated Malcolm Gladwell on stage in front of a huge audience and changed Malcolm's mind.  Watch here.
• Athletes that delay specialization excel more than those that specializes (golf is the only exception to the rule)
• The most effective leaders are constantly updating their mental models
  • It should be celebrated when someone changes their mind because better evidence has surfaced
  • Darwin changed his mind
  • Lincoln changed his mind
• A 'deliberate amateur' = Someone who loves an activity.  "I don't do research, I do search." It's a constant experimentation to learn
• In a LinkedIn study, the results of a review of all profiles of people who made it to the C-Suite =
  • Went to a Top 5 Business School
  • "The single most important factor is they worked in different functions within a company."  They were generalists.
• The people who make the most impact with number of patents filed work across classes.  They are wide ranging generalists.
• Sales is a great entry point for any business -- Learning marketing and sales will benefit you in every job you will ever have
• "Take your skills and apply them to a problem where those skills aren't being used."
• People underestimate how much the world will change -- Must be able to adapt and learn
  • "We learn who we are in practice, not in theory."  -- Take action.  Do the work.
  • Work to accumulate experiences
  • Try something, go all in on the thing you are doing in that moment.  100% focus.  Invest everything you have in it.
    • Then reflect on it -- "We learn in moments of reflection."
• "When you're 23, don't worry about getting ahead, get information about yourself.  Focus on learning."
• Use the "Get To Know You Document"
• Why joining The Learning Leader Circle is a good idea

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Episode #309: Verne Harnish - 

Verne Harnish is the founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 14,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale up.

He along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. His book Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious International Book Award for Best General Business book.

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com 

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Ability to persevere
  • Willingness to hire a coach and listen -- All of the greats had coaches to help them (Rockefeller, Steve Jobs)
  • Be part of a "mastermind group" -- Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
• Cannot be afraid to make the cold-call.  You must be willing to ask
  • Verne cold-called Steve Jobs leadership coach
• Ask yourself:  Who are the top 25 influencers in the space where I want to play?  Write their names down... Then call them, email, writer letters.  Find a way to get in contact with them
  • Earn the support of influencers and it will put you in warp speed -- "I was the first person to get President Ronald Reagan to say 'entrepreneur' in the White House"
• Two rules:
  • Give before you ask for anything -- Sometimes you can only give your time and attention.  Go to their speeches in person, sit in the front row, nod your head, take notes, then follow up with them afterwards and ask questions.
  • Understand your pitch, what you do, why you do it, and be able to share it concisely
• "What a great mentor wants is a great student"
• Verne realized there was not a curriculum for gazelles -- mid range companies that wanted to scale-up
• Titan -- Rockefeller was so successful because of his discipline
• Disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action
• Build a functional accountability chart... 4 criteria:
  • Will - Have to hire will to learn, succeed, persevere
  • Values -- Mars mission values
  • Results -- Track record of success
  • Skill - Fungible 
• Strategy
  • One idea must be different, don't be just like your competition
  • Michael Porter advice -- Article in HBR, "What Is Strategy"
  • Strategy is rooted in... "What word or two do you own in the market-place?"
• Execution -- Must act or it's just hot air.  Failure happens at this phase as you add people
• Communication rhythm - "If you want to move faster, you need to pulse faster."  -- Have a daily huddle, agile meetings
  • There should be equal talk time of each person in the meeting.  Don't have one drone on for the entire meeting
  • "Want heated debate, conversation"
  • Run forums so each person speaks
  • Generalities versus Specifics -- It MUST be specific
  • Average 1 minute per person
  • 3 agenda items, to to each person
    • What's up the next 24 hours?  #1 priority -- Get the headlines
    • Updated daily metrics that drive the business -- Stat of attracting and keeping talent.  What's the data say?
    • Where are you stuck?  What's in your way?  Get them verbalized
• The 3 Barriers to scaling up
  • Leadership
    • Awareness-- "What got you here won't get you there" -- Must learn to say no.  Have to let early clients go.  You can't have all the answers
    • Constraint between your ears -- Bill Gates does "think weeks"
    • Marcus Buckingham -- Understand your strengths and weaknesses.  Strengths give you energy, weaknesses take your energy.  "Focus on doing what you like, that gives you energy."  If you love working to solve client issues, then become the head of customer support and hire a manager to be the CEO
  • Scalable Infrastructure
    • Bloomberg office space -- Everything goes through the six floor so that people collide... To talk, learn, interact
    • Human brain -- Nobody wants a manager.  Set it up so all can be a leader and have autonomy.  Team of Teams.
    • November 2018 HBR Issue - The end of bureaucracy 
  • Marketing
    • Hi tech fast growth companies scale rapidly... Must have great marketing
    • Marketing is the single most important function -- Attract talent, investors, attention, customers
    • It takes a village of gurus -- Curate people
• Advice:  "Make a list of who you need to hang out with... Write it down.  You are who you hang out with.  Move in with a mentor if you have to."

• Use the "Get To Know You Document"
• Why joining The Learning Leader Circle is a good idea

"Strengths give you energy.  Weaknesses takes your energy."

Social Media:

• Read: Scaling Up
• Follow Verne on Twitter: @agilescaleup
• Be part of "Mindful Monday" -- Text LEARNERS to 44222
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12