Authenticity and Trust: The Foundation of Symbiotic Business Relationships | RR268

Janice Porter: 00:00:01

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's

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episode of relationships rule. My guest this week is Brad

Janice Porter: 00:00:08

anglers. And he is an author, advisor and technologist with

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over 40 years experience in the private and public sectors. He

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was with Accenture for 22 years a very well known company, as I

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recall, including 10 years as a partner. And then with the

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University of Texas at Austin for eight years, including seven

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years as the chief information officer. His recent book, which

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we're going to talk about today, spheres of influence how to

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create and nurture authentic business relationships, offers a

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practical guide to help emerging and established leaders develop

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and perfect the critical hard skill of building effective and

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lasting professional relationships. So first of all,

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welcome to the show, Brad.

Brad Englert: 00:00:56

Thank you. I appreciate the invitation.

Brad Englert: 00:00:58

Absolutely.

Janice Porter: 00:00:59

And well, when I see anything to do with building

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relationships, spheres of influence, networking, all of

Janice Porter: 00:01:07

that good stuff, that's right up my alley, because I'm all about

Janice Porter: 00:01:10

relationships, not only building them, but nurturing them,

Janice Porter: 00:01:13

because that's the key, right?

Brad Englert: 00:01:15

That's correct.

Janice Porter: 00:01:16

So the first thing that that actually came to

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mind for me, when I think about your history, your background

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and in corporate and the, the, the experience that you've had,

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with lots of different age groups, I'm going to say,

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talking and studying and learning about the business

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relationships that have to take place properly for things for

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people to be able to move ahead properly. Tell me something from

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when you started getting involved in this to today. You

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know, there's like all these different ages, you know, the

Janice Porter: 00:01:57

different the Gen Xers the millennials, now we have Gen Z's

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were the baby boomers. How is it different? I mean, it changes

Janice Porter: 00:02:05

it's changed. People don't see things the same way. So you must

Janice Porter: 00:02:09

have to. It's different today, at least I think it is. So I

Janice Porter: 00:02:13

want to know what your take on that is?

Brad Englert: 00:02:16

Well, I came to conclude at the end of the book,

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that there are three principles that apply to all business

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relationships. And I think it applies to different

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generations. And the first principle is understanding their

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goals and aspirations. They can be wildly different between

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generations. But just asking and having that dialogue, the second

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principle is setting and managing expectations, what to

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expect at the boss, what does your boss expect of you, and had

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that dialogue. And then third, is genuinely caring about their

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success. And I'd find in all business relationships, if you

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really care enough to understand their goals and aspirations. You

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take the time to set manage expectations, which is an easy

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thing to do. But a lot of people don't do it. And then finally,

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genuinely caring. And I think that really is where you develop

Brad Englert: 00:03:15

relationships that lasts years and decades. Well,

Janice Porter: 00:03:19

when you say, you know, managing the wolves, the

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second one about your, your goals and aspirations, certain

Brad Englert: 00:03:28

manage expectations.

Janice Porter: 00:03:31

And you said, the one that you said to ask, just

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ask, that seems to be harder. I think for the younger

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generation, though. They expect but they don't dial

Brad Englert: 00:03:43

up. So I had this type A personality boss, and she

Brad Englert: 00:03:47

wanted everything read fast, fast, fast, fast, faster. And I

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got our call one night at five o'clock, I was trying to leave

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the office on a time to have dinner with my wife and cheap

Brad Englert: 00:03:59

bread. I did a white paper, a white paper. And it's like I

Brad Englert: 00:04:03

literally said, Well, I didn't say no, because that sets the

Brad Englert: 00:04:07

Type A personality off like a rocket. I said, Well, when do

Brad Englert: 00:04:12

you need this white paper? Because it sounded like

Brad Englert: 00:04:14

immediately. Yeah, yeah. Well, she checked her calendar. She

Brad Englert: 00:04:17

didn't need it for two weeks. Okay. How many pages is this

Brad Englert: 00:04:22

white paper? I was thinking 10. I wish she said three. Do you

Brad Englert: 00:04:27

have an example of the white paper that I could look at?

Brad Englert: 00:04:30

Yeah, yes, David. I did 110 years ago on XYZ Corporation.

Brad Englert: 00:04:35

Well, guess what I went home. came in the next day found one

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of my staff. I said you have a week and a half to do the

Brad Englert: 00:04:44

research. Here's a model. It's three pages, and we'll get it to

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the boss ahead of her client meeting. Right. And before I

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learned the skill of saying, Whoa, I would have stayed up all

Brad Englert: 00:04:57

night, delivered a 10 page Paper got me all that procrastinator

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expectations. So it's kind of a lose, lose lose. Yes. So have

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the courage to say, Well,

Janice Porter: 00:05:09

yeah, that's a great, that's a great story

Janice Porter: 00:05:11

actually. Because I know I've had experiences with my daughter

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who has had bosses like that, and she doesn't know how to

Janice Porter: 00:05:22

stand up to them. And, and that can be worse as it goes on.

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Because you get bullied, you get bullied. So you have to learn

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how to how to speak to them in a language that they will accept

Janice Porter: 00:05:37

and understand. Well, that makes me think of another thing that

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makes me think of something you said, you said, she's a type A

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personality. So how, how important is it for? For any

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person in business, who wants to get ahead to understand say,

Janice Porter: 00:05:58

whether it's the disc or the, you know, the different

Janice Porter: 00:06:04

personality type tests that you can understand different

Janice Porter: 00:06:09

people's personalities? How important is that?

Brad Englert: 00:06:13

Very important with just give you a perfectly

Brad Englert: 00:06:16

simple example. Some people are morning people, and some people

Brad Englert: 00:06:20

are night people. So if your boss is a morning, people don't

Brad Englert: 00:06:24

come in late, work late, come in early, get a cup of coffee and

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work when and the same. Tightens, because there's a

Brad Englert: 00:06:35

really good Wall Street Journal article about this 13 years ago,

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the morning larks, think the night people are lazy, cuz they

Brad Englert: 00:06:44

come in late. And of course, the night people the night owls like

Brad Englert: 00:06:49

the larks are lazy because they leave early.

Janice Porter: 00:06:53

They put in three hours.

Brad Englert: 00:06:55

Observe your boss's behavior and match it.

Janice Porter: 00:06:58

Yeah, that's brilliant, of course. So you say

Janice Porter: 00:07:02

that you say that relationship building is a skill that you can

Janice Porter: 00:07:07

master. And you don't need to be born with this ability. Right.

Janice Porter: 00:07:13

And I always talk about, I like to ask, usually, towards the end

Janice Porter: 00:07:19

of a conversation with my guests, I like to ask about the

Janice Porter: 00:07:21

word curiosity. And I think that I don't know, I think maybe it

Janice Porter: 00:07:26

can be learned. But the I think my daughter again, who's very

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introverted and doesn't have that curiosity factor with some

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things. I mean, if it's something she's passionate

Janice Porter: 00:07:39

about, I think she does, but otherwise, I don't really care.

Janice Porter: 00:07:44

So what's your take on that? Is it about curiosity? Or is it

Janice Porter: 00:07:48

about just learning how to question and, you know, just go

Janice Porter: 00:07:53

through the motions, because I don't believe that you can just

Janice Porter: 00:07:55

go through the motions, but

Brad Englert: 00:07:58

Well, I think curiosity is certainly plays

Brad Englert: 00:08:02

into it. But if I want to know what the goals and aspiration of

Brad Englert: 00:08:06

my customer is, I mean, it's in my self interest to know what

Brad Englert: 00:08:10

they need. And so why wouldn't I want to learn that? Be curious

Brad Englert: 00:08:16

about it, because the only way I will sell them a service is

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aligning to their business needs. And by asking what the

Brad Englert: 00:08:25

Coulson aspirations are, that I can set and manage expectations,

Brad Englert: 00:08:30

so it's all in my self interest to have a symbiotic

Brad Englert: 00:08:33

relationship.

Janice Porter: 00:08:34

So I think I think there's a fine line

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between having something being in your best interest and making

Janice Porter: 00:08:43

it seem as though it's in an IT needs to be in the customers

Janice Porter: 00:08:47

best interest. Right. Right. So I think that's, that's a, that's

Janice Porter: 00:08:53

an art, I think that needs to be a skill that needs to be

Janice Porter: 00:08:56

learned. I think it's a fine art, to be honest. But

Brad Englert: 00:09:00

one part of that is accountability. You need to

Brad Englert: 00:09:05

hold your customer as accountable as the customer hold

Brad Englert: 00:09:08

you accountable. Oh. So I had a customer who I was providing

Brad Englert: 00:09:15

services to his organization. And he wanted one of his people

Brad Englert: 00:09:19

to be in with my team, a hybrid solution, where every time a

Brad Englert: 00:09:24

problem happened, he was causing the problem and pointing the

Brad Englert: 00:09:28

finger at us. And it's like, we don't have to serve everybody in

Brad Englert: 00:09:33

our store. I had lunch with the executive Mike here. And I

Brad Englert: 00:09:36

explained this situation, he looked up and said, You're

Brad Englert: 00:09:39

firing me as a customer, aren't you? And I said, Yes, I am.

Brad Englert: 00:09:44

Plus, I'll buy you lunch. Because this arrangement didn't

Brad Englert: 00:09:48

work. I won't charge you anything. And we stayed friends,

Brad Englert: 00:09:53

but it wasn't working. And so so you can't force it. That's good

Brad Englert: 00:10:00

point. Customers knowledge, right?

Janice Porter: 00:10:03

Yes, that Yeah, exactly. So in your book, The

Janice Porter: 00:10:10

spheres of influence, you talk about that you talk about. I

Janice Porter: 00:10:18

didn't observe, wanted to see that you broke it into internal

Janice Porter: 00:10:23

and external. That's correct influence, okay, I kind of focus

Janice Porter: 00:10:27

on the external because I wasn't in and a lot of my, my audience

Janice Porter: 00:10:31

is not corporate, right. So I think about those external, but

Janice Porter: 00:10:35

I mean, it's all it all pretty much is people skills right and

Janice Porter: 00:10:40

so forth. So, but you also talked about that the

Janice Porter: 00:10:48

traditional type of networking is not what you're talking

Janice Porter: 00:10:51

about. So, building relationships goes much deeper,

Janice Porter: 00:10:55

I'd love you to, I'd love to get your take on on the difference.

Janice Porter: 00:10:59

Well,

Brad Englert: 00:10:59

I find traditional networking to be superficial.

Brad Englert: 00:11:03

And, you know, you're encouraged to go meet with people and trade

Brad Englert: 00:11:07

your business cards, people still do that. And in 40 years,

Brad Englert: 00:11:13

I've yet to have a authentic business relationship come out

Brad Englert: 00:11:17

of one of those events. And I had someone I was talking with,

Brad Englert: 00:11:22

who had read the book and said, Yeah, I went to an event, I got

Brad Englert: 00:11:25

someone's card, and they called me for a donation to their

Brad Englert: 00:11:28

nonprofit the next week, I didn't even know this person.

Brad Englert: 00:11:32

That's not networking. No, no. And so you know, I get a little

Brad Englert: 00:11:37

frustrated. And actually, one of the reviewers of the book said,

Brad Englert: 00:11:42

people say, to go network, but they don't show you how to go

Brad Englert: 00:11:45

network. And that's what he liked about the book or exam

Brad Englert: 00:11:49

examples of how to network. So when I was at the university, I

Brad Englert: 00:11:53

would meet every four to six weeks with my peers in the

Brad Englert: 00:11:57

university. And so they were assistant Dean's over all the

Brad Englert: 00:12:01

colleges, who had it responsibilities, it would have

Brad Englert: 00:12:06

reporting to them. And I would meet with them and just say, How

Brad Englert: 00:12:10

are our services? Anything we need to improve with any things

Brad Englert: 00:12:18

you need, that we're not providing? And then oh, by the

Brad Englert: 00:12:22

way, we have a big project coming that's gonna affect your

Brad Englert: 00:12:24

college, we're gonna replace all the telephones. But don't worry,

Brad Englert: 00:12:29

we have a contractor who's done this many times before, you'll

Brad Englert: 00:12:33

get plenty in warning, and instruction, and it'll be okay.

Brad Englert: 00:12:39

And then some of my peers would share rumors with me, Hey, I

Brad Englert: 00:12:44

heard a rumor that your system detract training isn't covering

Brad Englert: 00:12:51

students who need to have training and labs to meet

Brad Englert: 00:12:55

federal requirements. I said, Good rumor, I'll check. And so I

Brad Englert: 00:12:59

checked in. And no, we had to kind of hurt their students. But

Brad Englert: 00:13:04

it was good to know that if I didn't have that dialogue, that

Brad Englert: 00:13:09

could have festered into a big problem.

Janice Porter: 00:13:12

So you have to be on top of it with with your

Janice Porter: 00:13:15

people all the time and keep those avenues of conversation

Janice Porter: 00:13:21

open. And

Brad Englert: 00:13:22

I expect my direct reports to do the same. So I

Brad Englert: 00:13:25

have seven direct reports. They had seven to 10 peers and

Brad Englert: 00:13:29

influencers throughout the organization. So every week

Brad Englert: 00:13:32

someone report back in our meet weekly meeting management

Brad Englert: 00:13:37

meeting, what did you hear what's going on out there? It

Brad Englert: 00:13:40

was almost like our nervous system. And the university is

Brad Englert: 00:13:44

52,000 students, 21,000 staff, 40,000 faculty, what could

Brad Englert: 00:13:48

possibly go wrong? And we changed the learning management

Brad Englert: 00:13:53

system. We changed student email, we moved faculty and

Brad Englert: 00:13:57

staff to teams, you know, these are all to your projects that

Brad Englert: 00:14:01

affect 1000s of people. Sure. And so having that nervous

Brad Englert: 00:14:05

system was very important.

Janice Porter: 00:14:08

I remember I don't know if I think I told you

Janice Porter: 00:14:11

this I went to university here in Vancouver University of

Janice Porter: 00:14:15

British Columbia, which was a big school. We went but now it's

Janice Porter: 00:14:19

like double or triple the size that it was then and it's like a

Janice Porter: 00:14:22

city on unto itself and I think it's 60 or 70,000 students on

Janice Porter: 00:14:27

campus there. And then when I was in corporate and I worked

Janice Porter: 00:14:31

for the telephone company, we would go out and do the reminded

Janice Porter: 00:14:36

me of this because you said you'd put new phone systems and

Janice Porter: 00:14:38

so we would go and put new phone systems into the and it was like

Janice Porter: 00:14:42

a huge project because they were like standalone city kind they

Janice Porter: 00:14:48

have their own elect. They had their own telecom setup. So lots

Janice Porter: 00:14:54

of people and lots of moving parts. It's kind of interesting.

Janice Porter: 00:14:57

Okay, you I was reading I love this because it reminded me you

Janice Porter: 00:15:04

were talking about. If you want to have a positive impact as a

Janice Porter: 00:15:11

change maker in an organization, you need to identify the most

Janice Porter: 00:15:14

powerful people. Now this with, you know, if you're going to do

Janice Porter: 00:15:19

work in a company, and you need to know who you need to talk to,

Janice Porter: 00:15:23

right, that's one reason to do it and also within the company.

Janice Porter: 00:15:26

But what struck me with this piece in your book, you talked

Janice Porter: 00:15:30

about Michael Boyles writing about power mapping, what it is

Janice Porter: 00:15:34

and how that how to use it. And he did that in the Harvard

Janice Porter: 00:15:37

Business School's Business Insights blog. But you say, once

Janice Porter: 00:15:43

you identify the central people, you need to understand what they

Janice Porter: 00:15:47

value. And you talk about an example here that made me think

Janice Porter: 00:15:53

of something that is, is I think, at the heart of building

Janice Porter: 00:16:00

and nurturing relationships, which is, you know, finding that

Janice Porter: 00:16:03

right person and that right person to help you move through

Janice Porter: 00:16:08

an organization. It could be the top of the chart, or it could be

Janice Porter: 00:16:13

the receptionist that has, right, and you talked about

Janice Porter: 00:16:19

this, the person that was the Chief of Staff for the CFO, do

Janice Porter: 00:16:22

you remember that story? Yes,

Brad Englert: 00:16:23

of course. I

Janice Porter: 00:16:24

love that story. Can you share that with us?

Janice Porter: 00:16:27

Sure.

Brad Englert: 00:16:27

I'm a big, huge research one university, the CFO

Brad Englert: 00:16:32

had this trusted Lieutenant. And she had worked with him for 25

Brad Englert: 00:16:37

years and put out fires help colleges and schools and press

Brad Englert: 00:16:41

resource needs, and was really a trusted the tenant. And so she

Brad Englert: 00:16:46

helped me guide me as we transformed all their accounting

Brad Englert: 00:16:51

and payroll systems to a new technology, which was a multi

Brad Englert: 00:16:56

year effort. I went to another research one university, same

Brad Englert: 00:17:00

size, same scale, great reputation. The chief of staff

Brad Englert: 00:17:04

said, the CFO, I don't think you should meet with me. I've only

Brad Englert: 00:17:08

been here for two years, and I'm just doing special projects.

Brad Englert: 00:17:12

Don't waste your time. Thank you so much for saying that.

Janice Porter: 00:17:17

Yeah. And were you able to ask her who it might

Janice Porter: 00:17:20

be that you should talk to? Did she? Oh, yeah.

Brad Englert: 00:17:23

She just said, work with a CFO.

Janice Porter: 00:17:26

Yeah. So that's brilliant. And then the, that

Janice Porter: 00:17:29

also reminded me of the old days when, you know, the receptionist

Janice Porter: 00:17:34

in a big law firm or a big accounting firm. She was, and it

Janice Porter: 00:17:40

was always a she back then was always, you know, the hub and

Janice Porter: 00:17:44

the gatekeeper for everything. But she wasn't respected in the

Janice Porter: 00:17:49

organization the same way she should have been as,

Brad Englert: 00:17:53

as a customer.

Janice Porter: 00:17:54

I would respect her. Yes. But internally, it was

Janice Porter: 00:17:57

never quite sure. Yeah. Do you think that's changed? We don't

Janice Porter: 00:18:01

even have receptionist anymore. Mail true. Yeah.

Brad Englert: 00:18:08

It's probably gotten better. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:18:10

I mean, I remember teaching receptionists

Janice Porter: 00:18:12

and I remember teaching them and getting them to understand that

Janice Porter: 00:18:18

they were the key person, because they were the first

Janice Porter: 00:18:22

person that people heard when they called into the company.

Janice Porter: 00:18:25

They were the first impression. And it had to be a good one.

Janice Porter: 00:18:29

Right? That's right. Yeah. But

Brad Englert: 00:18:32

your gatekeeper comment is something I want to

Brad Englert: 00:18:37

highlight. Because if you're trying to meet with the

Brad Englert: 00:18:40

executive, you have a relationship with the

Brad Englert: 00:18:44

gatekeeper. Yeah. You know, and having that respectful

Brad Englert: 00:18:48

relationship and caring relationship. Yes. Ask about

Brad Englert: 00:18:52

her, her family. While you're waiting, you're waiting. And

Brad Englert: 00:18:57

just trying to establish some sort of connection.

Janice Porter: 00:19:02

So tell me with your book, has it taken you to

Janice Porter: 00:19:05

some interesting places? Have you noticed any? Like I did ask

Janice Porter: 00:19:12

at the beginning, but I still think there's got to be a

Janice Porter: 00:19:14

difference between the young leaders of today and the ones

Janice Porter: 00:19:19

from the back in the day, and how they I mean, I think the

Janice Porter: 00:19:24

good ones probably get this really well. But you do you get

Janice Porter: 00:19:28

any pushback.

Brad Englert: 00:19:32

I've been pleased that people have been very

Brad Englert: 00:19:36

receptive. People my age are giving it to their adult

Brad Englert: 00:19:42

children. Oh, great. So they can consider in their first five to

Brad Englert: 00:19:47

10 years of their career, and they don't teach this in

Brad Englert: 00:19:50

business school now. And so I had at the book signing here in

Brad Englert: 00:19:55

Austin. I had several people who I've known for years buy two or

Brad Englert: 00:20:01

three copies for their children. That's fine. I thought that was

Brad Englert: 00:20:05

great. And then on Amazon, it's a best seller and leadership

Brad Englert: 00:20:09

training, mentoring and coaching and customer relations, which

Brad Englert: 00:20:13

were the three areas I really was focused on. That's

Brad Englert: 00:20:16

brilliant. And I've always enjoyed mentoring. And so a lot

Brad Englert: 00:20:21

of these stories, I would share with my mentors, but that's only

Brad Englert: 00:20:26

two or three people a year that doesn't scale. And so that's why

Brad Englert: 00:20:29

I wanted to put these ideas into the book.

Janice Porter: 00:20:32

That's awesome. Do you find any difference in

Janice Porter: 00:20:37

terms of females versus males? In their response, and in how

Janice Porter: 00:20:44

they maybe would use the information,

Brad Englert: 00:20:49

I think the feedback from people who I

Brad Englert: 00:20:54

worked with in the past when they reviewed the manuscript was

Brad Englert: 00:20:58

when I talked about apologizing, and every you're gonna screw up,

Brad Englert: 00:21:03

your people are gonna screw up. Yeah. And I, I emphasized the

Brad Englert: 00:21:07

need to apologize. But one person of color said, Well, I

Brad Englert: 00:21:12

don't want to over apologize, because then it looks weak. And

Brad Englert: 00:21:17

I said, You're absolutely right. And I put that in the book.

Brad Englert: 00:21:22

Yeah, you need to say you're sorry, you need to say what

Brad Englert: 00:21:28

you'll do to keep it from happening again. You might need

Brad Englert: 00:21:31

restitution. But you genuinely say, you know, I work to make

Brad Englert: 00:21:36

this never happen again. And people are forgiving, forgiving.

Brad Englert: 00:21:43

I guess don't over apologize is what popped out?

Janice Porter: 00:21:46

Sure. Of course, I see that in your notes here,

Janice Porter: 00:21:48

too. Okay, so what would you say? The three most important

Janice Porter: 00:21:56

things are to keep a relationship going? A business

Janice Porter: 00:22:00

relationship where you don't see people all the time. So how do

Janice Porter: 00:22:06

you keep it? How do you keep it going?

Brad Englert: 00:22:09

If you hang on a second? Yes. Well, I would

Brad Englert: 00:22:19

definitely keep in touch over the years. So, you know, with

Brad Englert: 00:22:25

people I've worked with in the past, you know, once a year,

Brad Englert: 00:22:29

twice a year, I might reach out and just say hi, doesn't have to

Brad Englert: 00:22:35

be in person. You know, many of my people, all clients I worked

Brad Englert: 00:22:41

with are all over the country. But I think just not forgetting

Brad Englert: 00:22:49

about them. And, and then often what I find is, I often get

Brad Englert: 00:22:57

contacted by them when they need something. And sometimes I need

Brad Englert: 00:23:01

something from them. So a good example is a woman who were was

Brad Englert: 00:23:06

my client, we had two or three really good projects very

Brad Englert: 00:23:11

successful. And I got to meet her side who's five. And here's

Brad Englert: 00:23:16

a cute little chi. And literally 20 years later, she calls me,

Brad Englert: 00:23:22

her son is just graduated from law school. He wants to get a

Brad Englert: 00:23:29

job as an attorney at my university. Would I talk to him?

Brad Englert: 00:23:34

It's like, well, of course, I'd be happy to talk to him, or talk

Brad Englert: 00:23:38

to him when he was five. I said to him that in the universities,

Brad Englert: 00:23:47

people have different professions talk to each other.

Brad Englert: 00:23:51

So autonomy is having an association across all the major

Brad Englert: 00:23:56

universities and they share contracts, they share ideas. And

Brad Englert: 00:24:00

so when we started a large contract with a global vendor, I

Brad Englert: 00:24:04

got the contract from Berkeley. I didn't start from scratch,

Brad Englert: 00:24:09

work with my attorney to update it for us. So I think being open

Brad Englert: 00:24:17

to helping people, especially when you've had a history of

Brad Englert: 00:24:21

success, I think is is the way to go.

Janice Porter: 00:24:26

Yeah, and I think just probably being authentic

Janice Porter: 00:24:29

and being sincere because it's those relationships, that like

Janice Porter: 00:24:36

you say, symbiotic relationships, it keeps going

Janice Porter: 00:24:39

back and forth over the years it becomes, you know, like you feel

Janice Porter: 00:24:43

like your friends, right, because you'll do things for

Janice Porter: 00:24:46

each other. And I know for me, one of the things that I'm going

Janice Porter: 00:24:52

to take us back to networking a little bit, one of the things

Janice Porter: 00:24:54

that I think makes a difference is being a true connector. are

Janice Porter: 00:25:00

not just a networker, but really looking at your connections. And

Janice Porter: 00:25:06

if you meet somebody new, maybe you can support them with

Janice Porter: 00:25:11

somebody in your network, but you have to feel that that

Janice Porter: 00:25:15

person is worthy to open your network to them.

Brad Englert: 00:25:19

And a word that popped into my head as you're

Brad Englert: 00:25:23

talking is trust. Yes, you need to build trust trust over time.

Brad Englert: 00:25:28

Because if you have that trust, then you'll be very comfortable

Brad Englert: 00:25:33

reaching out. Exactly. So I did a little project after I retired

Brad Englert: 00:25:40

from the university for Texas based liquor retail, which I

Brad Englert: 00:25:47

didn't know much about,

Janice Porter: 00:25:49

not your not your normal baileywick, right.

Brad Englert: 00:25:51

But they said, you know, we've grown from 40 stores

Brad Englert: 00:25:54

to 100 stores. We need an IT strategy, you know how to do

Brad Englert: 00:25:58

that. And it's not that hard. It's point of sale inventory. So

Brad Englert: 00:26:02

you'll figure it out. And so we came up with a strategy where we

Brad Englert: 00:26:08

outsource as much as we could to the cloud. And so they were

Brad Englert: 00:26:11

trying to run things. And then they needed a mobile app with

Brad Englert: 00:26:15

delivery and a new website. Well, then they wanted me to be

Brad Englert: 00:26:19

their IT guy. And it's like, I'd love to do it. I love you guys.

Brad Englert: 00:26:24

But I have to write this book. If I help you, I will never

Brad Englert: 00:26:28

write this book. I said, I'll find somebody. And there was a

Brad Englert: 00:26:32

woman who worked with me at The Ohio State University brilliant.

Brad Englert: 00:26:37

And at Accenture, but she didn't want to travel anymore. So she

Brad Englert: 00:26:41

came back to Austin got a job@dell.com in the mid 90s, and

Brad Englert: 00:26:45

actually created the e commerce website for Dell computer. So

Brad Englert: 00:26:52

she's brilliant, new e commerce at scale. And after 15 years at

Brad Englert: 00:26:57

Dell, she went to a private equity firm and did a medical

Brad Englert: 00:27:02

marijuana website for a Canadian firm on Vancouver Island. So she

Brad Englert: 00:27:10

knew controlled substance over the web. So about three months

Brad Englert: 00:27:16

into her tenure, she located white label, mobile app and

Brad Englert: 00:27:22

website for the liquor industry. Are there 25,000 items in a

Brad Englert: 00:27:27

store, you can't physically take pictures, and you have to have

Brad Englert: 00:27:31

feeds from the distributors. And so within a month or two, she

Brad Englert: 00:27:36

had 1020 stores. Then she had 40 stores and the pandemic hit. And

Brad Englert: 00:27:44

they said all 100 stores. So she and her team were bad night and

Brad Englert: 00:27:50

got off 100 stores up. And the customers love it. Because it's

Brad Englert: 00:27:55

just so easy to use. And I would test it every two weeks to make

Brad Englert: 00:27:58

sure it worked. Had my

Janice Porter: 00:28:03

well and you would test it because you were

Janice Porter: 00:28:06

also curious because you would trusted this person. That's

Janice Porter: 00:28:10

right. That's

Brad Englert: 00:28:11

right. So I even found a date timestamp error.

Brad Englert: 00:28:17

Show at the book reading. She was there. And I mentioned that

Brad Englert: 00:28:21

story. She says you still call it about

Janice Porter: 00:28:26

but that's so cool. That's really cool.

Janice Porter: 00:28:27

Because yeah, it's important. Like my, my, my contacts in my

Janice Porter: 00:28:34

phone, they're, they're important to me and I would not

Janice Porter: 00:28:37

want to waste their time or use my connection unwisely. Right.

Janice Porter: 00:28:45

You have to be careful who you do it for. So I think that's the

Janice Porter: 00:28:47

key to relationships. And, and keeping them keeping them going

Janice Porter: 00:28:55

right and being remembered and being known as the person who

Janice Porter: 00:28:59

connects people. When it counts, right when it comes. Right. So

Janice Porter: 00:29:07

So where is this gonna take you? Where is this book gonna take

Janice Porter: 00:29:10

you now?

Brad Englert: 00:29:11

Well, I enjoyed the podcasting world have really

Brad Englert: 00:29:18

enjoyed the different perspectives that hosts bring,

Brad Englert: 00:29:22

like yours. I mean, relationship rule, it's perfect. I am working

Brad Englert: 00:29:29

on a TED Talk. Woman who worked for me at the university

Brad Englert: 00:29:35

branched off and started her own creative consulting firm. So I

Brad Englert: 00:29:39

hired her and she's also working on a half day workshop, where we

Brad Englert: 00:29:44

will take the three principles, you know, yeah. What are their

Brad Englert: 00:29:48

goals and aspirations set manage expectations and and genuinely

Brad Englert: 00:29:52

care and have role playing different exercises. People can

Brad Englert: 00:29:59

actually Practice the question in the listening. Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:30:04

good. That's great. So you're really going

Janice Porter: 00:30:06

into this whole new world of entrepreneurship and, and, and

Janice Porter: 00:30:10

taking it on the road, so to speak. That's awesome. That's

Janice Porter: 00:30:13

great. This has been really good. And really interesting,

Janice Porter: 00:30:17

because it is something that I I'm all about relationships. And

Janice Porter: 00:30:22

so it's very important to me to get other perspectives on it.

Janice Porter: 00:30:28

And yeah, you say, right, in your somebody said about your

Janice Porter: 00:30:31

book spheres of influence brilliantly illustrates that in

Janice Porter: 00:30:34

the game of life, the strongest moves are made through the power

Janice Porter: 00:30:38

of genuine connections, which is exactly what we were just

Janice Porter: 00:30:40

talking about. Right? That was Liz.

Brad Englert: 00:30:44

It's more rewarding to it's more fun.

Brad Englert: 00:30:47

Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:30:47

exactly. It really is. So how can my

Janice Porter: 00:30:52

audience find you and find your book, I think you have something

Janice Porter: 00:30:55

a special place that they can go, which I will put in the show

Janice Porter: 00:30:58

notes. So please share with us. Well,

Brad Englert: 00:31:00

my website is branding like.com. And I have

Brad Englert: 00:31:05

all sorts of information about the book and the workshop, but

Brad Englert: 00:31:11

it's available. And there's going to be a special link with

Brad Englert: 00:31:15

relationships rule. So I shared that link with you. So Friday,

Brad Englert: 00:31:20

like that comm backslash relationship rules. And they can

Brad Englert: 00:31:26

go in there and they can get a sample the book for free. They

Brad Englert: 00:31:30

can certainly find the link to Amazon, if they're interested in

Brad Englert: 00:31:35

ebook or audible or book book. And then third, they could sign

Brad Englert: 00:31:42

up for a free consultation with me. Oh, fantastic.

Janice Porter: 00:31:45

Okay. That's amazing. Well, thank you for

Janice Porter: 00:31:48

that generosity. And thank you for being here today. And I wish

Janice Porter: 00:31:54

you well on your retirement career, because that's really

Janice Porter: 00:31:58

what it is. And a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. And

Janice Porter: 00:32:01

you're still mentoring. Are you still mentoring people?

Brad Englert: 00:32:04

Yes, sir. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:32:05

That's fun, right? That's really rewarding,

Janice Porter: 00:32:07

I think. And so you've got this wealth of knowledge, you've got

Janice Porter: 00:32:11

your book, which really says it all. It's about relationships

Janice Porter: 00:32:17

with all the different people in your business world. And yeah, I

Janice Porter: 00:32:23

think it's really, I wish you well with all of that. And one

Janice Porter: 00:32:28

last thing I would like to ask you to leave with my audience,

Janice Porter: 00:32:33

maybe your favorite or best or most go to piece of business

Janice Porter: 00:32:38

advice.

Brad Englert: 00:32:41

genuinely care about people, let them know you

Brad Englert: 00:32:46

give a damn. Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:32:48

that's so good. Because I totally agree. And I

Janice Porter: 00:32:50

love that. Thank you so much. And I'm just going to end with

Janice Porter: 00:32:56

that because I think, show people you care is what it's all

Janice Porter: 00:33:00

about and genuinely care. So thank you, Brad. Thanks for

Janice Porter: 00:33:04

being here. Thank you to my audience again for being here.

Janice Porter: 00:33:07

If you like what you heard, please go and check out Brad's

Janice Porter: 00:33:11

special page for us at Brad Brad angler.com/relationships rule

Janice Porter: 00:33:17

and check out his book. Appreciate you. Thanks again.

Janice Porter: 00:33:21

Remember to stay connected and be remembered.

Unknown: 00:33:24

Thank you