Young Successful Entrepreneur

When I was invited to attend the Governors’ Global Summit yesterday in Beverly Hills, I jumped at the chance to hear Governor Schwarzenegger speak and learn more about what’s happening globally in terms of sustainability.  Conveniently, the Summit ended at 7pm, which gave me more than enough time to make it to the Digital Drinks event later that night in Hollywood.   So this is not your usual recap-of-an-event blog post; instead, I thought I would share with you the stark differences of the people that I met at these two events.

Before attending the Global Summit, I of course did my research and found that politicians, CEOs, and leaders from all over the world were going to attend.  I was greatly intimidated before the event and felt nervous because I’m not a leader in sustainability; I’m just an entrepreneur looking to learn more about how I can personally help my world look greener.

I was expecting politicians and big CEOs of companies to be too busy to talk to a young person like me.  Plus, I don’t know much about sustainability myself, so I can’t really contribute much to a conversation.  The turning point of the summit was when I met a Senior Policy Advisor for Quebec in Canada.

I met Robert, the Senior Policy Advisor, at lunch when he sat down at my table.  I confidently introduced myself, showed that I was eager to learn about what he does, and even contributed to the conversation by talking about social media and how it can help company leaders to reach out to people online and brand themselves effectively.  When we finished eating lunch, I asked for his business card to keep in touch.  He replied, “Oh I’m sorry, I ran out of mine but I’ll take yours.”  I of course thought that this meant, “Oh, I’m too important to get emailed by you.  But to be polite, I’ll accept your business contact.”  I thought no big deal, but felt discourage because I thought I had made a good connection.

I walked by Robert later that day and he stopped me in my tracks.  To my surprise he said, “I ran up stairs to get some more business cards.  Loved your ideas about social media and would like to chat more about them.”  Wow, this totally came out of left field!  This very important guy actually went out of his way to find me and give me a business card so that we can stay in touch.  Needless to say, my confidence soared for the rest of the day and I was able to make some very good connections.

Later that night I went to the Digital Drink LA event at Les Deux in Hollywood.  People at this event are very similar to me in profession and interest; and yet, I noticed that I still felt a little nervous before going to the event.  It must have been because I was headed to event alone; Mr. Hardcore Entrepreneur, Yu-kai Chou, was busy hanging out with his girlfriend so he left me solo.  I didn’t want to be that guy in the corner sipping a drink all alone.  Jeez… so lame.

It’s all an attitude.  I get there and think to myself, “Ok, Jun.  Just pretend like you’re the ish, talk to absolutely everyone there no matter what they look like, and just talk your head off about things you’re an expert at so people will listen to what you have to say.  Man this worked like a charm!  I think I met more people that night and built better relationships than any other networking event I’ve been to.  I was like a beast going out and hunting my prey one-by-one.

Ok, so the Global Summit and Digital Drink are pretty different in terms of culture.  But I’ve come to realize that the principles to building relationships are the same for both:

1. Demonstrate that you’re eager to learn. Older people in important positions know that they’re important and know that they’ve earned it.  In order to win these people over, you need to demonstrate humble confidence and show that you’re eager to learn from them.  If you demonstrate that you’re confident in your abilities, but at the same time, want to learn from them, they’ll like you and take you under their wing.

2. Contribute to the conversation with your expertise. My expertise is PR and social media.  There are so many people out there that are absolutely clueless about how to utilize a blog or twitter for business.  Even the most powerful people may not know how to use them; therefore, I can win their respect by demonstrating how social media can help their company.  If you demonstrate value, then a person of importance will respect you and want to stay in contact.

3. It’s all an attitude. Showing up to an event alone can be nerve-wrecking.  I was there all by my lonesome, but you know what, I owned the room anyways.  I did it by leveraging connection I had made at previous events.  Most effectively, I spoke to everyone and was not picky to whom I talked to at the beginning.  By constantly meeting new people, you never look like a loser standing alone and one conversation could lead to another conversation with a person standing right next to you guys.  If you have the attitude that you’re going to meet everyone in the room, then you’re going to do it.