PAMA Membership Meeting Keynote by Mike Dias

Full Transcrit

• We packed the house. Let’s put on a show, shall we!
• There will be time for questions at the end — but if anyone has anything they’d like to contribute. — any experiences to share. Please hop in. Audience participation is always encouraged especially for a talk about networking and community building
• I’d like to start off by thanking PAMA for hosting this talk
  
  • When you get a chance – please go through their archives Check out the past speaker series. Pure gold
    
    • Where else will you hear SW’s billion dollar formula
    • Or learn about focus and professionalism that it takes to put on the Grammys
• Since we have so many new faces — Please let me take a minute to tell you about PAMA and why I love this organization.
• It’s the Pro Audio Manufacturers Alliance and it exists to:
  
  • to give back to & support the community
    
    • Spearheads inclusion and diversity efforts for the industry
    • Sponsors educational seminars
    • Round table panels for students
    • Funnels money to those in need through partnerships with The Roadie Clinic and Crew Nations
    • Serves as a unified voice for the industry at large
  • If any of this sounds interesting and something that you wish to be part of, reach out to Jennifer or Chris anytime. I know they’d love to have you onboard.

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Intro Bit (Hit hard and go right into it. Don’t explain. Keep it showbiz 1.5 minute)

• About 10 months back – deep in the standstill – Clive Young and I were talking about the massive displacement of talent and how hard it is to reinvent yourself
  
  • How everyone went from their A-Game to being benched
• This brings up a lot
  
  • Loss of work
  • Loss of purpose
  • Loss of community
• So we thought about how we could help.
  
  • How we could send out some hope.
  • How we could send out the message that you’re not alone.
    
    • That you’re entwined in community
    • That you have a network to lean into
• So we started the Networking from Six Feet column that ran in Pro Sound News
  
  • It was our way to go over networking principles
  • Our way to teach some networking skills
  • But mostly it was our way to give permission to people to even talk about networking.
• Because here’s the deal:  
  
  • Your ability to authentically network is the single most important variable that you can control in your life. It dictates how happy and how successful you will be.
  • Because whether you like this statement or not. LIFE REALLY IS ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW.  
    
    • I’d argue that there’s a bit more to it. That besides for who you know, how you know them is equally critical. The degree of the relationship matters.
  • But here’s the rub. Even though we all innately understand how important networking is. We never talk about it. We never teach it. We certainly never treat it as a skill that anyone can develop. We actually run away from it any chance we get.
  • Why? Because NOBODY LIKES NETWORKING

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NOBODY LIKES NETWORKING BIT (2 Minutes)

• Networking is a dirty word.
  
  • It’s naughty.
• Be honest. It conjures up feelings of being cheap and sleezy.
• And that makes perfect sense. Almost everyone does it wrong. It deserves its bad reputation.
  
  • No one likes to feel used or tricked
  • And I truly believe that no one purposefully likes to take advantage of other people
• The whole concept of networking feels like speed dating
  
  • Or strip mining. Or clear cutting. Or any other resource exploitation
  • WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME!!!!
• This is why we never talk about it. This is why we don’t teach it. Why we fundamentally don’t value it as a skill. Who wants to get good at this?
• Why we make excuses like: Oh. Well. I’m an introvert. Or why we make comparisons like — you’re just naturally good at it. You must have been born with that skill.
• Right!@ Case in point. At is core – at the DNA Level —PAMA is a networking club. Right? But you’ll never say that.
  
  • You’ve got to dress it up
    
    • Heaven forbid I’m honest and admit that I paid my PAMA dues so that I could meet people.
• Ummmm. I just jumped a big taboo. And I totally get it.
• I talk about this for a living. I know how deep this runs.

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• I was on a plane flying down to New Orleans to deliver my first Keynote on Networking and admittedly, I was overly nervous and overly sensitive to the subject.

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• So I was reviewing my notes and practicing and rehearsing. And this buffoon next to me starts reading over my shoulder and says to me: Networking huh? I’m a networker.  
  
  • Then he proceeds to start to sell me on his vitamins or whatever MLM he was peddling.
  • I laughed so hard I had to jump up and run to the bathroom.
  • NEVER TRUST ANYONE WHO BRAGS ABOUT BEING A NETWORKER

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• See. The flaw in all of this is that Networking has nothing to do with sales.  
  
  • NETWORKING IS NOT SELLING

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THE NETWORKING IS NOT SELLING BIT (1.30)

• Networking is the furthest thing from selling. Although stellar sales records are USUALLY a natural outcome of being a skilled networker. The factors are correlated. Not related.
• And as we’ll talk about later, A CRM system is a tool for networking, not for tracking deal flow. Lead Gen and Customer management are 2 totally different bags that are also often confused. MUCH TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION AND THE SALES TEAM.

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• No one likes being sold to!

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• This is why whenever you hear the term Networking you instantly think of used car salesmen.  
  
  • Be honest. Some of you probably even think of me as a schramy used car salesman just for peddling this bit. Why else would I be giving this talk?

• You know what else pops into your head when I say Networking?
  
  • You think of those god-awful mixers.
  • Of having to walk around the room with your silly name tag with nothing to say
  • Or of a mind-numbing work dinner that you can’t get out of.
• Here’s some good news at least.  
  
  • EVERYONE HATES THOSE. Its not just you. That’s NOT NETOWKRING It’s a cruel torture
  • No one is wired for that. No one is bolted that way.
  • Humans crave attention and community but there is nothing natural about facing a gauntlet of strangers.
• YES. SOME PEOPLE CAN DO IT BETTER THAN OTHERS. But that’s just because they’ve had the practice.  
  
  • NETWORKING —LIKE EVERYHGING ELSE – IS A LERNED SKILL THAT ANYONE CAN MASTER.  
    
    • There are sets of rules to follow.
• The FIRST RULE — and really the only one that matters — is that networking is about what you give. Not what you take.
  
  • You follow that one and everything else sort of works itself out.

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BY now — we’re 6 (7) minutes in and we’ve established a fast paced flow. We’ve got attention. But am I giving anything or just titalating? Am I bringing the show? And if I am. What comes next for the next bit. 40 minutes worth of material is a lot. Do I have 5 more of these?

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NETWORKING IS ABOUT WHAT YOU GIVE BIT

• Networking is about what you give.
  
  • But you all already know this intuitively.
    
    • Collectively this group is is responsible for creating well over a billion dollars. And I don’t mean your company valuations or top lines. I’m talking about what you directly generate through your individual efforts and through the teams that you manage.
  • YOU COULD NOT DO THAT IF YOUR NATURAL TENDENCY WASN’T TO CREATE VALUE
  • You would not have risen to the positions that you hold if you DIDN”T FUNDAMENTALLY UNDERSTAND THAT NETWORKING IS ABOUT GIVING AND SERVICE

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• NETOWORKING IS ABOUT CREATING OPPORTIUNITIES
• It is about turning the impossible to the everyday
  
  • Follow me for a minute as we unpack this. We’re all in entertainment so let’s use an example close to home.
  • OUR EVERYDAY IS SOMEONE ELSE'S IMPOSSIBLE
    
    • Everyday we’re on the phone with some of the most famous people on the planet. That’s our world.
    • We are not having the same conversations as say an Insurance Broker.
    • For them, landing an endorsement deal with a pop star is an impossible.
  • SO HOW DO YOU CONNECT THE DOTS & BE THE BRIDGE that links the entertainer to the insurance broker?
• THAT’S GIVING.
  
  • THAT’s CREATING OPPORTUNITY.
• And it is possible to make this core value of giving —of creating opportunity — central to your entire organization. Not just your sales or marketing department. To your entire organization .
• And I would argue that this is the key differentiation that creates success & value for your customers. That this is how you grow and thrive as an organization.

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Why? Because PEOPLE ARE AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING.

Nisa is the best !

PEOPLE ARE THE CENTER OF EVERYTHINZG BIT

• It’s funny that with all this tech — with everything that we do and surround ourselves with — that we sometimes forget that no matter what,  
  
  • IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO PEOPLE
• PEOPLE MAKE UP YOUR COMPANIES
  
  • Or another way to say this is that your company doesn’t really exist. It’s just a large collection of people who are ideally all going the12 same direction bought into the same goals and motivations.
• PEOPLE MAKE YOUR PRODUCTS
• PEOPLE PROVIDE YOUR VENDOR SERVICES
• And most importantly — your customers – the PEOPLE YOU SERVE – buy what you are selling
• ALL PLACES AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE SIMPLY COLLECTIONS OF PEOPLE.  
  
  • Real people.
  • Unique and complex individuals
• And yet -as we’ve already established – as a a culture we both crave and shy away from meaningful and real human interactions.

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• So this is how I think about networking and how I try to approach it

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• Because I realize that EVERYTHING IS BASED on people — I also realize that for me to perform my job – for me to be effective — THEN I NEED TO BE ABLE TO INTERACT AND COLABORATE.

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• I need to socially navigate

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• TO ME – and for you —KNOWING HOW TO NETOWROK IS UNDERSTANDING HOW TO GET THINGS DONE

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• This is why I’m so passionate about this topic. This is why I’m here giving this talk.

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• I AM NOT SAYING: HEY. You should network to make more friends and cum by yada yada yada. No. I’m telling you FOR YOU TO TACKLE AND SOLVE AMAZINGLY COMPLEX PROBLEMS – YOU NEED A HUGE TEAM OF PEOPLE WHO ARE THERE TO HELP

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NO ONE PRODUCES IN A VACUM BIT

• No one produces in a vacuum
• No body produces alone
• You are always part of a team.
• You are always part of an ecosystem
• The HARD PART – the work – is to understand your role on your team and your place in your ecosystem.
  
  • Then you have clear guidelines of what success looks like.
  • Then you know what it takes to perform at your top level
• If you want to get GREAT at Networking — ask yourself “what is the team objective and how do you contribute.
  
  • What does the team need from you
  • What do you need to GIVE to Create Success

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NOW WE’RE GETTING INTO THE ESSENCE OF IT ALL

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What entertainers can teach executives bit

• This is why I love working in our industry
  
  • Nowhere else have I encountered such a clear delineation of TEAM and TEAM WORK
• To put on a show requires the work  & efforts of hundreds of individuals – yet the audience rarely sees more than 5 people.
  
  • In fact. The full TEAM helps create and perpetuate the illusion that THE SHOW is only what you see on stage
• But we know better.
  
  • We know that the REAL show is the seamless coordination of everyone nailing their roles.
• Whenever I give a talk, all the eyeballs are on me. Never on the sound and lighting team.
  
  • But they’re the ones doing the real work to make me look good so that I can deliver the message. I’m just the puppet. I’m just the vehicle for the team.
• I think we miss a lot of this in our daily jobs. For some reason, when it’s not a show, it’s harder to see all the interconnections. All the roles that everyone plays to enable the people on stage.  
  
  • Sometimes its easy to get stuck on Org charts and hierarchies rather than to notice who the true connectors and enablers are.

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SO WITH THAT. LET’S SHIFT OVER TO THE PRACTICAL.

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THE PRACTICAL BITS

• I’m a real nuts and bolts operator. So rather than just talk about Netowrking theory and strategy. Let’s start digging into the logistics.
• HOW CAN YOU TAKE SOME OF THIS BACK TO YOUR ORGANIZATIONS?

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• It’s pretty simple really. It all starts with you

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• To NOT be that used car salesman Networker _ you have to be 100% authentically you.

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• One of the WORST pieces of advice (besides for The Customer is Always Right) goes something like this: To strike up a conversation — talk about things that you know the other person likes.

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• Oh my god. That’s just sheer and utter garbage. The worst.

• I TRY VERY HARD TO NEVER TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT I DON”T GENUINLY AND PASSIONALTLY CARE ABOUT  
  
  • I also try very hard to not do things or go places that I don’t really enjoy
• This doesn’t mean that I’m disinterested or that I’m not curious.
  
  • Quite the opposite really.
  • I like to joke that I know as much about my Sweetwater Sales Engineer and he knows about me —
  • It’s just that I’m only interested in the OVERLAP
• I know what I like. I know who I am. And what I care about. SO I work to find the commonality so the the conversations can be engaging and fulling for both of us.

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• UNDERSTANDING THIS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR ME

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• I had a prominent YouTube influencer in the office one day and once he left, my partner turned to me and said: “I’m confused. Before he came in here, you told me that you had never met him before and you admitted to not even knowing who he was. Why did you lie to me?  Clearly you were old friends the way you got on”
• Man!!! I couldn’t have been happier. All the hard work I had been putting in was finally paying off. I was getting noticed. I was upping my skill level.  
  
  • So I thanked her and sat down and started to deconstruct how I approached my job.
• I GO INTO EVERY INTERACTION ALREADY OPERATING AS IF WE’RE OLD FRIENDS rapping about what really matters. And this changes everything.
  
  • Like I said before. No one likes talking to strangers. I certainly don’t. So I simply skip all the intro bits and just jump right in.  
    
    • This little trick of mine helps puts me at ease.
    • And when I’m feeling comfortable, I set the tone for the room and help make everyone else feel at ease.  
      
      • I treat it as if I’m a consummate host at a Mrs. Manners dinner party.
      • I diffuse the social anxiety on both ends.
• The second part that equally matters is that I know myself really well.  
  
  • I’m an old dog who aint learning new tricks,
  • I’m really comfortable in my skin and I’m comfortable with people not liking me for who I am.
  • I know what I like.
  • In fact. I even took the time to write down all the things that make me ME.
• HAVING THIS GIVES ME A FRAMEWORK — A STARTING POINT FOR MY MAP TO WORK WITH.
  
  • This piece of paper is critical to developing your networking skills.
• AND I’m SO BIG ON DOING THIS EXERCISE THAT I’m BEGGING YOU ALL TO DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  
  
  • Think about the things that make you uniquely you. What are the things that you love? The things that you always come back to throughout your life?
  • Write them all down. But get a big piece of paper. You’re complicated and you’ve got a lot of facets.

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• If anyone wants a little help or practice with this, give me a call and try to talk to me about cars. I could care less about cars. Mine is black. I promise that this will be one of the most boring and awkward conversations that you’ll ever have.  
  
  • On the other hand, if anyone wants to talk about cactus or getting whooped at Dominoes. We can go on for days.

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• Now Once you’ve got your mindmap — your DNA fingerprint — just sit on it for a bit and try to find the overlap in your interactions.  
  
  • Ease into it.

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• When you run across an article or an object that you like — think about who you can share it with.

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• THAT’S A GREAT WAY TO INCREASE ENERGETIC BONDS

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ENERGETIC BOND BIT

• Energetic bonds are the next thing that we need to talk about if you’re going to implement this within your organization.
• An energetic bond is the degree of shared overlaps and experiences.  
  
  • The number of touches
  • Or MORE BROADLY speaking — the DEGREE OF THE RELATIONSHIP
• Like we said before: Life is about who you know. But it’s also about how well you know them.  
  
  • Well. The energetic BOND QUANTIFIES the HOW WELL part of the equation.
• IT’S A SCALE. Complete strangers are a ZERO while close friends and family are at a FIVE
  
  • People who you read about in a trade magazine and want to meet someday. ZERO
  • People who you casually met once or twice — people who you’ve traded business cards with — That ONE. *** You don’t call on your ones for favors unless your off
  • People who know your name and know a little about you. 2 Twos are casual. We’ve got a lot of 2’s.
  • To bump up to a 3. You need familiarity. You have to have a lot of interactions. A lot of touches. The thing is, the touches don’t even need to be positive. Just familiar. Like NEWMANN. That dude you bump into every morning might just be your 3.
  • 4’s are people who’s company you truly enjoy. People you really like.
  • And 5’s. That’s your inner circle.
• Think of it like a game. The goal is to turn contacts into friendships and then friendships into relationships.
  
  • Invest in this strategy and what’s the worst that can happen? You broaden your horizons and deepen your relationships? Life’s easier with a lot of friends. Friends are the key to your success!
• But why am I bringing this up in the business portion of the talk?
  
  • BECAUSE IF YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW WEEK RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR PARTNERS OR CUSTOMERS — Those will be your competitors partners and customers down the road.  
    
    • This is a given and if your organization doesn’t put value or understand this — then you deserve to lose those relationships.
• NOTHING IS STATIC
  
  • People move on
  • People die.
  • Decision makers go to different companies.
  • AND WEEK RELATIONSHIPS or RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONLY ONE POINT OF CONTACT DISINTEGRATE

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• Which leads us to our last exercise — Mapping your Contacts.

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MAPPING YOUR CONTACTS BIT

• Your brains are amazing. The way they hold spatial relationships. The way they see combinations — recall details. It’s all up there.
• But if you’re anything like me, you’ve got 1000 things to juggle and manage and thinking of the dude who covers Eurovision via Podcast is not always top of mind. At least – not until you need it.
• So the trick is to try and get everything that’s up there into an easy system that you or others can access.
• THIS IS WHERE A CRM comes into play
  
  • They are amazing for tracking complex relations and for playing 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.
  • But not for tracking your sales funnel. You see the difference yet?
• THIS IS WHY ‘MOST’ CRM systems fail and why your sales team doesn’t use them.  
  
  • And if you force a bunk system on your sales team, there are only 2 inevitable outcomes.
    
    • Someone will lie to you and will tell you that they’re moving the deal forward
    • Or they won’t even care enough to bother to  lie to you.
• A CRM system — if properly set up and used — will allow you visualize WHO KNOWS WHO AND HOW EVERYONE IS INTER-CONNECTED.  
  
  • It’s a Social Map that helps you get from where you are now to wherever you want to be.
  • It’s a guidebook for getting EVERYTHING done.
    
    • You want to coordinate a private meet-and-greet for your top buyers backstage with Kelly Clarkson. Check your CRM for directions.
    • You want to put together a video shoot with Manny Maroquin. Lean into your CRM.
    • You want to gum up your whole system and loose visibility into your Everyday impossible? Force your team to track their dealflow.
• Regardless of what you are already using as an organization — I strongly advocate for always keeping a personal CRM that grows and evolves with you throughout your lifetime & career.
  
  • I use — and swear by — solve360. It’s made me more money and given me more unfettered access than any other investment I’ve ever made.
  • And I will continue to use it until I die.  
    
    • Think about that for a second. This is what I do so I’ve got a pretty sweet rolodex. I know a few people. But can you imagine what it will look like 30 years from now?  
      
      • Not too shabby. But even then. Recognize just how small and insignificant it will be. The world is so astronomically huge and diverse and while I might know a few people in the entertainment industry, I don’t know anyone in politics. Or medicine. Or education. Or any of the other myriad bubbles that we all inhabit.
      • I love thinking about this stuff. I can go on and on.
• Anyways: HERE’S A QUICK WAY TO START — AND THIS IS AN EXERCISE THAT YOU SHOULD DO WITH EVERYONE ON YOUR TEAM
  
  • I promise that this will give you more insight into your organizational strengths and weaknesses than any other 60 minute exercise that you can think of:
• GO OVER EXERCISE — keep this at the personal level.

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ANALYZING YOUR DATA

• Cool. Once you’ve got your MAP and your team’s MAPS – you can begin to visualize your Organizational Network
• You can see who is connected to who
  
  • You can see strong relationships
    
    • Weak relationships
    • Who works cross matrix
    • And WHO MAKES MOVES AND WHO GETS THINGS DONE
    • And who needs improvement.

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This is what you want to focus on.

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Just talking about these concepts with your team gives them permission to build opportunities.

• Build is the wrong word really. Spot is a better phrase. There are NO SHORTAGE of OPPRTUNITIES. There is just often a failure of connecting the dots and being able to pick out the gems from the noise.
• Don’t believe me. Try this out.  
  
  • Go back through your team’s customer service emails for the last 60 days and scan for company email addresses and email signatures. I guarantee you will find huge wins sitting right there that no one capitalized on. I guarantee that you will find emails attached to organztons that you want to work with. That there were signutres of people whom you’ve wanted to know.
• So why’d they get missed? Because your team is focusing on tasks and projects without full context of how those tasks and projects fit into the full ecosystem.  
  
  • Nor do they know the landscape of Who’s Who and how everyone is inter-related.
• In a sense. It’s like you’re trying to build a puzzle but you’ve just got the pieces. You don’t have the photo on the box.
  
  • Each piece is without context or relation.
  • Knowing how all the pieces fit together is what this is all about.
    
    • And I get it. We like to call that tribal knowledge. But why would you ever let one or 2 people be the gatekeepers when this should be fundamental to everyone?  
• And I know that I’ve used a lot of Sales & Marketing terms, But everything that I’ve just talked about applies to the supply side of things. To all your vendor relationships. To all your partnerships and contractors.
• When you begin to make Networking a company value. You are committing to clarity. To following established trade routes through known mapped territories. And that’s so much easier and more profitable than just hoping to get lucky.

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OK. Last thing before I sign off — that I’m hoping you can take back to your teams in terms of valuing the art of building a network.

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I’m at the nice age now where I’ve got enough grey hair that people ask me for advice about their careers. They always want to know how to get there faster. How to succeed MORE.

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They never like the advice that I give them. But maybe they’ll listen if it’s coming from you.

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There’s nothing that you can do to speed it up. It’s just a function of time. The best thing that you can do to boost your career is to leave the office early. To focus on your hobbies, your extracurricular activities and to dive deep into the things that make you uniquely you.

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Because that’s where you’re going to end up meeting people and that’s what’s going to give you the foundation for all your future interactions.

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Look. The team that I call on when I need to get things done. There’s NO WAY I’d ever have access to any of them if I were just starting out now. I wouldn’t even get access to their assistants. But because my inner circle consists of the friends I made when we were all coming up together, titles, status and position don’t matter. They’re all still the same dudes who used to crash on my couch. It’s just that as a function of time, they’ve now risen to the tops of their game.

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That’s how it works. Life is about who you know. And how well you know them.

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I’ll get off my soapbox now before Jennifer gongs me. If I don’t stop, I’ll go on all day. Let’s open it up for some questions.

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