Breaking Free From Corporate & Thriving As An Entrepreneur | RR304

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Steve, Hello everyone, and welcome to this

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week's episode of relationships rule. Starting your own business

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after a corporate career is an exciting but often challenging

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transition. While some professionals can tap into their

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existing corporate network, others may need to build new

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connections from the ground up. Well, today, my guest David

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Schreiner Khan is not only the host of his own podcast, which I

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love, the name of smashing the plateau. He is a business

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confident community builder, as well as podcast host who helps

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corporate professionals, or, as he likes to say, corporate

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refugees, successfully move into entrepreneurship. So today,

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David and I are going to explore some ideas around what this new

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entrepreneur, entrepreneur needs for long term success. So first

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of all, welcome to the show. David

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David Shriner-Cahn: Janice, thank you so much. It's great to

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have great to be here, and thank you for inviting me

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My pleasure. And sometimes I get tongue tied over

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my own words, so I apologize. So let's start with your your own

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transition. You help professionals transform from

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corporate careers to business ownership. What inspired you to

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focus on this space?

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David Shriner-Cahn: Well, first of all, it's my story. I was an

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employee for the first 28 years of my career. I've been an

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entrepreneur for the last 19 and even though most of my

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experience as an employee was running organizations, so I was,

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I was really good at the sort of the operations management it,

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and I'm way better. I was way better at it then, and probably

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way better at it than many entrepreneurs now. It still

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didn't. It wasn't enough to be able to do everything that you

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need to do to run a successful business as an entrepreneur, it

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had some important pieces but, but it wasn't enough. So

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you started out corporate 28 years now, and when

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you went into business for yourself, it wasn't what it is

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now, then correct

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David Shriner-Cahn: it wasn't what it is now and and I had

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skills that that I think are beneficial to entrepreneurship,

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but it wasn't, but many people don't have right yet, I was

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still lacking. I was there were certain skills I was still

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lacking. So

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what stood out the most for you that was that

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you were lacking and you had to do something about

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David Shriner-Cahn: so when I started my business, I I told

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people in my network what I was doing and Why I was doing it,

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and and I started to get some leads for new business from kind

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of random places, which is what often happens, yes, and it was

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enough to kind of get things started, but I kind of had a

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wake up call. This was about nine months after I started my

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business a friend of mine who also had a long career like me

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as an employee and started her own business, when, in her case,

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she got pushed out. And anyway, she started her own business,

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and we were having dinner, and, you know, which is friend? And

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she said, Oh, you know, David, I'm, I'm part of this group that

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you might be interested in. Since you know, you're doing the

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same, same thing that I've done, maybe you'd like to come. So

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that was a business networking event, right? It was the first

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time I had gone to one of these kind of structured business

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networking events, and and it was, it, on the one hand, it was

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kind of exhilarating to see all these people in a room who were

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there primarily to help one another with word of mouth

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marketing, right? Really, the whole point was, you know, if I

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have know somebody who needs what you offer, I'm happy to

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make an introduction. If you have some, you know somebody

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else knows somebody who needs what I offer, they'll make an

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introduction, and everybody wins. So at the one hand, one

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hand, it was kind of exhilarating to see the energy

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in the room and see people really want to step up and help

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one another around entrepreneurship. It was a very,

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you know, different energy and different kinds of people than

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than I, for the most part, had in my network. And then. Um, but

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the thing that was kind of daunting was there was, there

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was pressure to get up and and give a pitch. And I had never

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done that right. Never done it where you have to do it in a

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very short amount of time before a whole room full of strangers.

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So that part was exceedingly but I ended up joining because I

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realized that this could be helpful. And you know, if you

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don't push yourself out of your comfort zone, you're not going

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to grow right, right?

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So if I could just then take what you just

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said and then back up to something else that you said,

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which was that, when you started out on your own, you told your

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corporate friends that you were doing this, what was their

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reaction? Were they helpful, or were they skeptical, or were

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they supportive?

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David Shriner-Cahn: I'm going to say skeptical is probably an

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understatement. They said, David, what are you doing? Are

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you crazy? What are you going to do for health insurance? Like

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that was the most common question I got. Yeah, health

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insurance in the US has changed for the worst since then. But,

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yes, but, but, you know, it was before there was the Affordable

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Care Act. You couldn't, you couldn't buy individual

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insurance that easily, right?

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I understand there, yes, so,

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David Shriner-Cahn: but, but as part of my role as an employee,

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I was, I was the group administrator, so I knew a lot

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about buying insurance. So it to me, it didn't seem daunting. You

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just had to figure out what the rules were and pay for

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it, right, exactly. But it's interesting,

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because that is one of the biggest questions that comes up

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even here it does, although the in Canada, the, you know, the

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government helped in, probably in a different way, but that's

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another whole podcast discussion, but it sure is but,

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but I totally understand what those people were saying to you.

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Some of them are probably wishing it was them being brave

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enough to do that, right to go out on their own, and others

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would never think of it at all, because they like the the safe

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environment, or supposed safe environment that they're in,

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right? Nothing in the US is safe today, it seems, but. But that

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was the case probably back then, right? So then in your case,

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would you say that your connections that you had when

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you went out into business for yourself were not really that

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useful to you for your new business? Or were they?

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David Shriner-Cahn: Well, they were useful enough because I was

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able to get new business through them. Yes, yeah, through them,

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okay, it really, you know, when I look back on it, first of all,

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it was also, it was 2006 the economy was really strong. It

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was a good time to start a business, okay, had I started

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the business two or three years later, would have been, would

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have been quite different, for sure, but my connections were

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enough to get to get enough business, okay? And I did find

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the first year, but it wasn't. It didn't really provide kind of

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a marketing engine or a pipeline of kind of consistent leads of

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the right kind, yeah, and honestly, I think, when it came

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to business challenges, the fact that I didn't have a network of

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entrepreneurs, I didn't really have enough people I could go to

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to talk about the challenges. Luckily, I didn't have that

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many. But when I think back on it that, like one of the biggest

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detriments would have been had I had a lot of trouble. I'm not

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sure who I would have gone to at that point. But

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when you were you were a director, as I recall

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when we spoke earlier, you were a director of a nonprofit,

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nonprofit, right for a couple of, a couple of different ones

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over time that. And if you're the director, aren't you running

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that business?

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David Shriner-Cahn: Yes, yes. And one of the Yeah, but one of

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the things I like to say about that is, even if you're in an

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executive role, and even, for example, if you're in a

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marketing or a sales role, so you're used to marketing and

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selling, which is one of the biggest challenges for

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professionals who go out on their own. It's very different

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when you when you're selling somebody else's stuff, yeah,

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versus getting up and trying to pitch yourself you're right.

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Very different feeling,

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yeah, absolutely, you're right. And when I went

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out on my own, I'd come from corporate as a trainer,

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corporate trainer, and it was very evident very quickly to me

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that I didn't know how to sell myself and my services, because

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I all I ever did was show up, right? They would book The

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company would make the sale and book the train. Training, and

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I'd go in and do the training of the for the equipment that they

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had sold to the client. So it's very different, the marketing,

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the selling, whatever, all of that. So, but I do feel that,

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and I've always felt this way, that it's it's not always what

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you know, it's who you know, and it's who they and who they know.

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And I bet you learned that very quickly, and in that networking

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organization that you joined,

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David Shriner-Cahn: yes, right? Very much who they know, yeah,

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it's

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who they know. And so you have to know how to

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how to build those relationships, make those new

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connections and turn them into trusting relationships. So would

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you say that now, when you are teaching or not, teaching might

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not be your term, coaching new people in transition. Are you

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having to still do that today? Teach people how to build

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relationship? Because I know I have to on LinkedIn,

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David Shriner-Cahn: yes. Yes. Well, yeah, LinkedIn. I mean

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LinkedIn is, it's perfect platform for building

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relationships, if you do it the right way. And you know, since,

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since you and I both generate a lot of content, and we're out

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there, we're very visible in spaces like LinkedIn, and you

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probably get the same kind of of request to connect that I get.

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And nine times out of 10 if I accept a connection request from

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somebody who I haven't already had an encounter with, the

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immediate thing that's going to happen is they're going to pitch

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themselves, yeah,

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well, I made the mistake of saying this on

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someone else's podcast last week. It's the pitch slap. I

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think he's probably going to name that episode pitch

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slapping, which I'm horrified that I said that, but that's

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what it is, that's really what it is, exactly

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David Shriner-Cahn: what it is, right? And it's like if you if

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you met somebody at a party or, or, you know, a networking

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event, or you get introduced by somebody. You know, most people

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are not going to immediately pitch themselves,

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although you surprised at how many do, yeah,

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I've

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David Shriner-Cahn: had that experience too, yes, right? And

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then I just want to run out of the room. Yeah? Me too.

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Me too. It's just, I think what one of the

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the best phrases that I ever heard was that you want to be

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interested, not interesting. Because if you are interested in

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what the other person has to say and who they are and what they

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do and and you're curious enough about it, then you get them

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talking about themselves, which, of course, they love to do.

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You've gone in Technicolor now that's really interesting. Yeah,

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it's okay. There you go. It says we're not on video. We're on

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video, but we're not going to be on video. So it's okay.

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Interesting. Yes, it is, anyway. So if you if you meet somebody

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at a networking event or online networking, you can get them

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talking. You can guide the questions, too, if you want to,

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and let them talk. And usually what happens in that situation

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is, by the time it's time to leave that situation, they say,

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hey, it was great talking to you. Had a super time. And you

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know, it's nice to meet you and learn all about you. They learn

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nothing about you because they did all the talking. But that's

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okay, because that's what you wanted to have happen. That's

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what I like to do, because then I can come back to them and have

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my opportunity, and by then they realize, you know what I talked

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to you all that time, I never learned anything about you. Tell

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me about yourself, and now you've got their one to one

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attention, so it's a great time to do that. There you are.

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You're back to normal now. So what do you tell your clients

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are the best ways for new entrepreneurs to start expanding

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their network in a strategic or meaningful way?

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David Shriner-Cahn: You need to find your community, and in most

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cases, it's communities. You'll need different groups of people

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for different things, okay, but But find find your place, where

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you are connecting with like minded people, and where you

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feel like you belong.

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So I think that's really good advice. I think that

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there's kind of like you said different things, for different

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communities, for different things. And one of the the

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things that I experienced with entrepreneurs, so is they'll say

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to me, Well, I'm just getting all my social done. I've got to

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get on my twitter done, and my my Instagram and my LinkedIn,

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and I'm like, Why do you need to be on all of them? Where are

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your prospects? Where is your community, for your terminology,

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where are your people? That's where you need to be. Don't try

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and be everything to everybody.

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David Shriner-Cahn: And you, honestly, you don't need any of

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that to get business. You. What you need, what you what you need

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is a sale. That's right, that's really true. When I started my

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business, I didn't have a business entity, didn't have a

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website. I had nothing. I'm not even sure that I had anything

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like social media. Then wasn't like what it is now, the only

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social media channel where I might have had anything related

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to my business would have been LinkedIn. And I'm not sure that

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I had anything up there initially, either. Mm, hmm.

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I discovered about six months ago that I was

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actually on LinkedIn in early 2004 I went What I didn't know I

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had a membership, or whatever you called it way back then

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because I didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't until later

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that I started to explore that possibility and found it to be a

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great home for me and my business. So no matter where

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they go to build their community, do you ever have do

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you have people that you they really don't know how to talk to

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people, how to build that trust, how to make those relationships.

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David Shriner-Cahn: I have to say that, luckily, at this point

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in my life, not so much. Okay, maybe 1520, years ago, I would

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have had more of those kinds of people meaning

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that they're meaning age wise, that you get

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more mature people now coming out of corporate or

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David Shriner-Cahn: no that, that the People that with whom I

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end up connecting, yeah, I um, tend to be a little better at

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the the give and take part of relationship building, so you

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don't find you have to teach that at all to

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people about how to build the right kind of relationships.

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Yeah,

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David Shriner-Cahn: not so much. Okay, that's good. That's good.

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You know, I've never really thought about it, to be honest

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with you, okay? And, you know, maybe I'm lucky, and maybe it's

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who I end up attracting. At this point, it could

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be That's right. What was I gonna say? I had to

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follow up to that, and I forgot what it was.

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I know that for me, when I'm talking about, when I'm training

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someone on LinkedIn, and I'm talking about, I believe that

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the mess, the money's in the mailbox. I believe you have to

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talk to people. It's not just about posting content. It's

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about, you know, strategically reaching out to the right kind

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of people that you want to be connected to. And I still find

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people that say, Well, what should I say? How? How should I

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fray? You know, frame the question, what should because

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they just, they think it has you. It is work. It's not

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working. It's not just making it happen because you said hello to

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somebody, you have to show that you're interested in them. So

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that's what, where that was coming from. What would you say

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are the biggest networking mistakes that you're that you

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can see entrepreneurs make, and how to avoid them? And how would

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you tell them to avoid them?

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David Shriner-Cahn: Oh, biggest mistake is, is asking, asking

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more than giving, particularly in the beginning, you know,

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there's, there's three kinds of networkers, there's takers,

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givers and exchangers. And that, right? And the best kind of of

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Networkers are exchangers, right? Obviously, if you're if

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all you want to do is take, nobody's going to want to give

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to you, right? That's pretty obvious. But if all you're going

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to do is give and you never feel comfortable receiving, then

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people are going to start to feel uncomfortable making

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introductions.

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Does that happen that people, oh, wow, yeah,

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yeah.

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David Shriner-Cahn: I know people that, yeah, they feel

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very uncomfortable receiving which also means they tend to do

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things like they have low self esteem and they they will often

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undercharge for their services or not ask for the sale, and

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things like, right or not ask for the sale, even when it's

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right in front of them. And, yeah, so, so, you know, just

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giving is not good either, but it's good to know when it's time

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to give and when it's time to take.

Janice Porter: 00:19:40

Yeah, for sure. I think, I think it's time to give

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at the beginning. I think it's always good to give value to

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people before, before you, you know, work with them, because if

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you're going to or if there's an opportunity there that you might

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then they can see that you are trying to build trust with them

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and that you. That you you're not thinking like, you know how

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they always say, give your best stuff away. Well, don't be

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afraid to do that, because it works, right? Yeah,

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David Shriner-Cahn: yeah. Just simple things like, how can I

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help you? Exactly? Who are you trying to meet? Maybe I know

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somebody I can introduce you to. Yeah, those are not hard things

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to offer.

Janice Porter: 00:20:20

No, exactly. However, I do believe that

Janice Porter: 00:20:24

building relationships is a long game and in order, so I know

Janice Porter: 00:20:28

what I was going to ask you, and this is sort of fits in with

Janice Porter: 00:20:30

this. So do you believe in an or, how do you teach your

Janice Porter: 00:20:37

clients to to to build a business of referrals without

Janice Porter: 00:20:44

asking. Do you mean, do you say you got to ask for the referral,

Janice Porter: 00:20:48

or do you believe the referrals will come based on the work that

Janice Porter: 00:20:51

you do?

Janice Porter: 00:20:51

David Shriner-Cahn: Oh, what depends? Sometimes I think it's

Janice Porter: 00:20:54

important to ask for the referral. Okay, yeah, you need

Janice Porter: 00:20:58

to let people know who your ideal client is and what some of

Janice Porter: 00:21:04

the triggers are that might lead them to want your services. Fair

Janice Porter: 00:21:09

enough. Okay, so one of my past guests wrote a

Janice Porter: 00:21:17

book called the long game, Dory Clark out of New York. Do you

Janice Porter: 00:21:20

know Dory Clark,

Janice Porter: 00:21:21

David Shriner-Cahn: yeah, yeah. Had her on my show too.

Janice Porter: 00:21:23

Oh, fantastic. So she says, relationships, you

Janice Porter: 00:21:27

know, take time. So what would you say to your entrepreneurs

Janice Porter: 00:21:31

about staying consistent and building and maintaining their

Janice Porter: 00:21:35

network? How do you tell them? Pete, how do you teach people to

Janice Porter: 00:21:38

do that? How do you do that over the

Janice Porter: 00:21:41

David Shriner-Cahn: well, there's always room for

Janice Porter: 00:21:42

improvement. I think, right? I think consistency is the most

Janice Porter: 00:21:47

important thing, and being consistent, I'm sorry, being

Janice Porter: 00:21:52

having a system to help you with your consistency. So for

Janice Porter: 00:21:58

example, you know, for most people, there's a relatively

Janice Porter: 00:22:03

small number of people that are, like, the key people that really

Janice Porter: 00:22:08

drive the best business, right, especially if you're in a small

Janice Porter: 00:22:14

service based business, yeah. I mean, like solopreneur business

Janice Porter: 00:22:18

or or a small team, you know, it might be 15 or 20 people that I

Janice Porter: 00:22:25

call those the hubs. Yeah, exactly. So you need to make

Janice Porter: 00:22:29

sure that you stay in touch with them regularly. So just, you

Janice Porter: 00:22:32

know, have a calendar where you put their names on different

Janice Porter: 00:22:35

dates, right? So let's say, let's say it's 24 people, for

Janice Porter: 00:22:41

example, okay, right? And you want to make sure that you stay

Janice Porter: 00:22:48

in touch with with these people at least twice a year, right? So

Janice Porter: 00:23:00

that means you're going to have four touch points a month,

Janice Porter: 00:23:03

right, which isn't a big deal, right? Which isn't a big deal,

Janice Porter: 00:23:06

and touch point could be. And I do like different things with

Janice Porter: 00:23:10

different people, like, I have certain people that I'll send. I

Janice Porter: 00:23:13

have a send a text once a week, okay, right? And I may not speak

Janice Porter: 00:23:17

to them for a month or two. Okay, you know, either I text

Janice Porter: 00:23:20

them, or they text me. It's always the same day,

Janice Porter: 00:23:24

really. So is it? Is it because, like, you follow

Janice Porter: 00:23:27

the same team or, or you have something, no, so it could be,

Janice Porter: 00:23:31

it's random, okay, totally

Janice Porter: 00:23:32

David Shriner-Cahn: random. Like, I have one friend who I

Janice Porter: 00:23:37

actually met through a networking colleague. Many, many

Janice Porter: 00:23:42

years ago, we became friends and we stayed in touch. We've done

Janice Porter: 00:23:45

some business together, but not a lot. But every Friday we send

Janice Porter: 00:23:50

a text to each other. One of us does it, and by the end of

Janice Porter: 00:23:53

Friday, I know like there are three or four people that I'll

Janice Porter: 00:23:56

either text or send an email to on Fridays. And if I haven't

Janice Porter: 00:23:59

done it, by the end of the day, oops, I forgot to do it. I got

Janice Porter: 00:24:02

to send them out. And, you know, usually, like, maybe the other

Janice Porter: 00:24:06

person initiates it, but, yeah, right. So just kind of have some

Janice Porter: 00:24:11

kind of system so that you make sure you stay in touch with

Janice Porter: 00:24:13

those 24 people on a regular basis.

Janice Porter: 00:24:16

That's nice. That's nice. I think there used

Janice Porter: 00:24:21

to be a, um, an insurance guy that I met networking years ago.

Janice Porter: 00:24:26

And, I mean, I didn't need his services. I already was taken

Janice Porter: 00:24:29

care of with, you know, my family and whatever. But um,

Janice Porter: 00:24:32

every three months he would call me and leave a message if I

Janice Porter: 00:24:35

wasn't there just to say hi, just to see because it wasn't

Janice Porter: 00:24:38

just about me, it was maybe I knew somebody, and it keeps him

Janice Porter: 00:24:41

top of mind. And eventually he came on my card sending service

Janice Porter: 00:24:45

and did that as well with people, which was fun, but, but,

Janice Porter: 00:24:49

yeah, I agree. I think that's important to stay connected and

Janice Porter: 00:24:52

to because the especially if you're in a business that

Janice Porter: 00:24:59

you're. Really going to have a transaction with your client

Janice Porter: 00:25:05

once a year, or maybe less, like a realtor, right? Or a mortgage

Janice Porter: 00:25:09

broker, you have to stay in front of them, because they're

Janice Porter: 00:25:13

the people that are going to have referrals for you or you

Janice Porter: 00:25:15

may have for them, so it's to their advantage to stay in touch

Janice Porter: 00:25:18

too.

Unknown: 00:25:19

Yeah. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:25:24

Do you tell me how? Okay, I'm a new client. I'm

Janice Porter: 00:25:27

I'm, I'm transitioning from my corporate job, and I have an

Janice Porter: 00:25:33

idea. When they come to you, do they have an idea for a

Janice Porter: 00:25:36

business, or have they already started their businesses? And

Janice Porter: 00:25:39

where do you start with them?

Janice Porter: 00:25:42

David Shriner-Cahn: Well, for the most part, I invite them to

Janice Porter: 00:25:46

join our community,

Janice Porter: 00:25:48

because you have an online community or an in

Janice Porter: 00:25:50

person.

Janice Porter: 00:25:51

David Shriner-Cahn: Well, it's interesting. We started three

Janice Porter: 00:25:54

years ago as an online community, which actually was a

Janice Porter: 00:25:59

pivot on two groups, one of which had been in person, and

Janice Porter: 00:26:07

one of which was was only online. Okay, right. So I sort

Janice Porter: 00:26:10

of combined the concepts and invited more people to join,

Janice Porter: 00:26:17

yeah. So primarily, I invite people to join the community.

Janice Porter: 00:26:20

Because what I find, especially for solopreneurs, you know, yes,

Janice Porter: 00:26:29

I can help them, but I find that there's more magic that happens

Janice Porter: 00:26:33

when they're in a room full of peers. And it's not just me

Janice Porter: 00:26:38

having that problem exactly, you know, I've been around the block

Janice Porter: 00:26:43

a bit, and, and, and I've been working with this, this

Janice Porter: 00:26:48

audience, for a long time. So, you know, I have a pretty good

Janice Porter: 00:26:55

sense of where all the pitfalls are. So, you know, I can ask

Janice Porter: 00:27:00

good, targeted questions, which is my preferred method of trying

Janice Porter: 00:27:05

to be helpful, but facilitating a conversation that I think

Janice Porter: 00:27:12

really can impact where somebody's challenged, I find Is

Janice Porter: 00:27:18

it can be really kind of like the golden nugget and and that's

Janice Porter: 00:27:25

where the magic happens. I try to encourage people just to join

Janice Porter: 00:27:28

the community, and honestly, it's way more affordable than

Janice Porter: 00:27:32

working one on one with me anyway, but I think it's

Janice Porter: 00:27:34

honestly, I think it's better

Janice Porter: 00:27:36

Well, I think that there's definitely

Janice Porter: 00:27:39

something to be said around magic or the power of numbers,

Janice Porter: 00:27:45

and people seeing that they're not the only one having this

Janice Porter: 00:27:48

problem. They see that they can connect with somebody who's

Janice Porter: 00:27:52

going through what they're going through, maybe to become

Janice Porter: 00:27:55

accountability partners. Maybe they're able to practice things

Janice Porter: 00:28:00

with each other. So I think that's, that's probably a great

Janice Porter: 00:28:02

idea. Do you also, I imagine, though, that there's, there's a

Janice Porter: 00:28:10

percentage of those people that they want to work with you

Janice Porter: 00:28:12

individually, right?

Janice Porter: 00:28:16

David Shriner-Cahn: Or not a whole lot, they get most of what

Janice Porter: 00:28:18

they need from the community. Okay,

Janice Porter: 00:28:20

so, okay, so your podcast is also a place that

Janice Porter: 00:28:25

people can learn from, right? Yes, and so your audience for

Janice Porter: 00:28:30

your podcast smashing the you've got more than one podcast,

Janice Porter: 00:28:33

though, right? Well,

Janice Porter: 00:28:35

David Shriner-Cahn: I was learning, I was running a second

Janice Porter: 00:28:37

podcast for about three years called going solo. I found over

Janice Porter: 00:28:44

time, initially, I've been podcasting for a long time, I

Janice Porter: 00:28:47

started smashing the plateau in 2014 when long before you could

Janice Porter: 00:28:51

do zoom. So we didn't do it. We didn't do anything on video. We

Janice Porter: 00:28:54

were lucky if we could get a decent audio to do a podcast.

Janice Porter: 00:29:00

But anyway, so I started smashing the plateau. It was

Janice Porter: 00:29:04

more of a general business success podcast, and the theme

Janice Porter: 00:29:12

was, what does it take to generate long term success? It

Janice Porter: 00:29:15

was really about not the quick wins. It wasn't about startups,

Janice Porter: 00:29:20

because there were a lot of podcasts in those days about

Janice Porter: 00:29:23

startups that were very popular. And I'm like, most people don't

Janice Porter: 00:29:27

spend much time in a startup. Most people spend time running

Janice Porter: 00:29:30

the business, doing sort of the non sexy part of it, and that's

Janice Porter: 00:29:34

what that's what's hard, yes. So that was the focus, and then

Janice Porter: 00:29:41

going solo was specifically about the transition from

Janice Porter: 00:29:44

corporate to entrepreneurship, and over time, the two podcasts

Janice Porter: 00:29:49

became very similar. Okay, so I decided, yeah, I don't really

Janice Porter: 00:29:53

need to let me sunset going solo and continue smashing the

Janice Porter: 00:29:58

plateau. And we'll actually, we'll. Talk about going solo, un

Janice Porter: 00:30:01

smashing the plateau,

Janice Porter: 00:30:03

sounds good. So when you're not working, what

Janice Porter: 00:30:08

are you doing?

Janice Porter: 00:30:10

David Shriner-Cahn: Try to spend time with family. I'm in New

Janice Porter: 00:30:14

York, so we have, we have a lot of culture here. So yes, you do.

Janice Porter: 00:30:17

Yeah, we go to the Philharmonic and the theater.

Janice Porter: 00:30:21

Yeah, I wish I could. I love the New York

Janice Porter: 00:30:24

theater. It's fantastic. Do you read? And when you read, do you

Janice Porter: 00:30:30

read a real book, or do you read online or audible? Or how do you

Janice Porter: 00:30:35

read? And do you read business books or books for pleasure?

Janice Porter: 00:30:39

David Shriner-Cahn: So I my preferred method of reading is

Janice Porter: 00:30:42

paper. Okay, yeah, you know, maybe it's because that's when I

Janice Porter: 00:30:45

grew up, that's how you learned how to read. Was on paper. And I

Janice Porter: 00:30:49

can read. I can read much faster and get a better sense of, like,

Janice Porter: 00:30:53

of a book, if I can hold it and sort of, you know, skim through

Janice Porter: 00:30:56

it. And, yeah, anyway, so I like paper. I prefer non fiction. I

Janice Porter: 00:31:01

do read a lot of business books, but I also like, I like

Janice Porter: 00:31:07

biographies. I like, I like things also that involve

Janice Porter: 00:31:13

politics.

Janice Porter: 00:31:14

Oh, okay, something I try not to talk

Janice Porter: 00:31:17

about on podcasts. But, yeah, I

Janice Porter: 00:31:19

David Shriner-Cahn: try not to talk about it either. And I knew

Janice Porter: 00:31:21

you were going to ask about books, I was thinking, do I want

Janice Porter: 00:31:23

to mention, do I want to mention something political or not? But

Janice Porter: 00:31:26

no, listen, I mean, we've all become junkies

Janice Porter: 00:31:29

of CNN and MSNBC or Fox, if that's our our leaning. I had to

Janice Porter: 00:31:36

put them all out there in here, just to see what's going on down

Janice Porter: 00:31:41

there all the time, right? So, so I get it, it's everywhere

Janice Porter: 00:31:45

today and every day, yeah?

Janice Porter: 00:31:48

David Shriner-Cahn: So I don't, I don't watch any of those

Janice Porter: 00:31:49

things. We actually, we don't have broadcast television

Janice Porter: 00:31:53

anymore. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, we cut the cord a while ago

Janice Porter: 00:31:57

realizing we didn't really watch it very much, yeah? And we

Janice Porter: 00:32:01

thought we and it got to be super expensive, and it's just,

Janice Porter: 00:32:03

it's 25% commercials. So we cut that. Didn't miss it. And I also

Janice Porter: 00:32:10

started going on a news diet around 2017 because I found it

Janice Porter: 00:32:17

was just causing too much stress. Yeah, I do read The New

Janice Porter: 00:32:21

York Times. So I,

Janice Porter: 00:32:23

once in a while, treat myself to the New York

Janice Porter: 00:32:25

Times, which cost me $12 here on a Sunday, the weekend edition,

Janice Porter: 00:32:30

and then I just savor it for the next two or three days.

Janice Porter: 00:32:33

David Shriner-Cahn: Yeah, these two times I read online. I read

Janice Porter: 00:32:36

that. I see I don't

Janice Porter: 00:32:37

like that. I want to read the paper, so and I like

Janice Porter: 00:32:39

to do the crossword puzzles. So that's

Janice Porter: 00:32:41

David Shriner-Cahn: Yeah, I used to read. I used to read the New

Janice Porter: 00:32:43

York Times religiously. When I had a job as an employee, I

Janice Porter: 00:32:48

commuted on the subway. Yeah, I had an hour commute each way, so

Janice Porter: 00:32:53

it was enough to read it. Oh yeah, hire new york times every

Janice Porter: 00:32:55

single

Janice Porter: 00:32:56

day. Oh my goodness, yeah. I just whenever

Janice Porter: 00:32:58

I go out in the car, I have a podcast in my on in my car. So

Janice Porter: 00:33:02

that's what I do now. One last piece of business advice. If

Janice Porter: 00:33:05

someone is making the leap from corporate to business for

Janice Porter: 00:33:09

themselves today, what's one relationship building tip that

Janice Porter: 00:33:12

you would focus have them focus on first,

Janice Porter: 00:33:19

David Shriner-Cahn: get to know some people that are good at

Janice Porter: 00:33:21

selling, good at selling in a way that you don't find icky,

Janice Porter: 00:33:26

right,

Janice Porter: 00:33:27

right relationship. What like?

Janice Porter: 00:33:29

Relationships, selling, social selling. That's good advice. I

Janice Porter: 00:33:36

actually think so. Yeah, it's interesting, because some people

Janice Porter: 00:33:40

say, Oh, I don't sell. I'm just sharing this with you, right?

Janice Porter: 00:33:43

No, we're all selling. We're all selling if we're interested.

Janice Porter: 00:33:47

Although,

Janice Porter: 00:33:47

David Shriner-Cahn: I mean, I think about, like, the main

Janice Porter: 00:33:49

thing that I'm selling right now is, is community membership. I

Janice Porter: 00:33:54

try to think about it like I'm inviting you to participate if

Janice Porter: 00:33:58

you think it would be a fit.

Janice Porter: 00:34:00

I like that, yeah. And you don't know, unless

Janice Porter: 00:34:02

you come and check

Janice Porter: 00:34:04

David Shriner-Cahn: it out, you don't know, right? So, yeah. So

Janice Porter: 00:34:05

we invite people to come and visit a session or two to get a

Janice Porter: 00:34:09

sense of who some of the other members are. And, you know, do

Janice Porter: 00:34:12

they think it would be helpful for them? And how often do you

Janice Porter: 00:34:15

meet? We have live sessions every week. Okay, it's a week,

Janice Porter: 00:34:19

okay. Do you record them, like the people who

Janice Porter: 00:34:23

who then pay for the community, or do they pay for the

Janice Porter: 00:34:26

community?

Janice Porter: 00:34:28

David Shriner-Cahn: So visitors who, you know don't, don't need

Janice Porter: 00:34:31

to pay for a session or two, but Right? Yeah, it is members. It's

Janice Porter: 00:34:35

paid membership, and we do record the session. So if

Janice Porter: 00:34:39

they're right, if there's a topic that you you want, you

Janice Porter: 00:34:45

want to learn about, and you couldn't attend the session, you

Janice Porter: 00:34:47

could watch the recording. That's cool.

Janice Porter: 00:34:49

Yeah, interesting. Do you also network

Janice Porter: 00:34:52

in those sessions? Do you get people to introduce themselves

Janice Porter: 00:34:55

or not?

Janice Porter: 00:34:56

David Shriner-Cahn: Yeah, and it depends also how many people we

Janice Porter: 00:34:59

have, right? Um, it depends on kind of the the style of the

Janice Porter: 00:35:04

session. So some sessions, for example, we have members or

Janice Porter: 00:35:08

sometimes guests that will lead, lead something that's a learning

Janice Porter: 00:35:11

session, and it might be almost like a class where there, there

Janice Porter: 00:35:15

isn't a lot of it's a lot of teaching and and not really so

Janice Porter: 00:35:20

much opportunity for people to introduce themselves. So that

Janice Porter: 00:35:23

happens with some of them. I would say the relationship

Janice Porter: 00:35:27

building is a big part of what happens. And then, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:35:30

people on their own will meet one on one online. And then you

Janice Porter: 00:35:35

know, I mentioned that it was intended to be an online

Janice Porter: 00:35:38

community, but you never know what members are going to want

Janice Porter: 00:35:42

to do. So we're based in New York. My Network is more New

Janice Porter: 00:35:48

York kind of centric than other places. Just because I'm here,

Janice Porter: 00:35:56

time zones make and

Janice Porter: 00:35:57

David Shriner-Cahn: time zones make a difference. One of our

Janice Porter: 00:36:00

members, who's in Atlanta, was going to be coming to New York

Janice Porter: 00:36:03

to speak at a conference. Got in touch with a New York member,

Janice Porter: 00:36:07

and they talked about getting together for lunch, and they

Janice Porter: 00:36:10

said, Oh, maybe we should reach out to some other people in the

Janice Porter: 00:36:13

community, see who might want to come. It kind of snowballed, and

Janice Porter: 00:36:17

it turned into a like, three quarter day session, fantastic.

Janice Porter: 00:36:22

And then, and the member, who was in Atlanta, ended up having

Janice Porter: 00:36:25

to cancel coming to the conference, so, right? He was

Janice Porter: 00:36:29

bummed that he didn't get to meet all these people, so that

Janice Porter: 00:36:32

all the rest of them were, like, from, like, New York, New

Janice Porter: 00:36:34

Jersey, they were all local and and they really liked what? And

Janice Porter: 00:36:38

the members led the whole thing, like I had very little to do

Janice Porter: 00:36:42

with it, yeah, and it worked so well, they all wanted to do it

Janice Porter: 00:36:47

again, so we did another one in January, and now we're playing

Janice Porter: 00:36:51

another one from late spring. So that's very cool. Not, not what

Janice Porter: 00:36:55

I had intended when part of this community. But you never know

Janice Porter: 00:36:59

that's

Janice Porter: 00:37:00

right, that's a good lesson in itself. Well,

Janice Porter: 00:37:02

this has been great. Thank you so much. I think that, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:37:05

we align so much in in our thoughts around being business

Janice Porter: 00:37:10

owners and the importance of relationships. I believe that

Janice Porter: 00:37:13

relationships are at the heart of every successful business,

Janice Porter: 00:37:16

whether you're leveraging old ones or creating new ones. So I

Janice Porter: 00:37:20

thank you for sharing your insights on how corporate

Janice Porter: 00:37:22

professionals can use their connections or build fresh ones

Janice Porter: 00:37:25

to find success as entrepreneurs. If people want to

Janice Porter: 00:37:29

learn more, where can they find you? David, I'm going to put it

Janice Porter: 00:37:32

in the show notes, of course,

Janice Porter: 00:37:34

David Shriner-Cahn: smashing the plateau.com and on LinkedIn. I'm

Janice Porter: 00:37:39

the only David Shriner con in the world. Mm, hmm.

Janice Porter: 00:37:41

Okay. And smashing the Plateau has a tab

Janice Porter: 00:37:45

for your your podcast as well, and I encourage my guest, my

Janice Porter: 00:37:50

audience, to go listen to your podcast if they're at all

Janice Porter: 00:37:54

interested in that transition piece and and what you do there,

Janice Porter: 00:37:58

I'm going to be looking into your community and checking that

Janice Porter: 00:38:01

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

Janice Porter: 00:38:05

for being here and for being a loyal audience, who, of whom I

Janice Porter: 00:38:10

appreciate my I've just completed my 300th episode, and

Janice Porter: 00:38:14

I'm kind of in awe of myself this week, because it just got I

Janice Porter: 00:38:18

just recorded. It comes out. It'll be out by the time this

Janice Porter: 00:38:21

comes out, but this is just after So again, remember to

Janice Porter: 00:38:25

always sorry. Remember to stay connected and be remembered. And

Janice Porter: 00:38:31

I would just add that I think relationships rule in business.

Janice Porter: 00:38:35

Thank you, Janice. My pleasure.