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Relationship Accelerator Judy Robinett (image courtesy of JudyRobinett.com)
If you’re an entrepreneur, Judy Robinett is someone you ought to know. If you’re an entrepreneur with ties to the investment arena, chances are fair to strong you already do.
(Disclosure: Judy is a friend of mine from our collaborative work on entrepreneurial initiatives; however we have no direct business connection.)
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Judy Robinett exemplifies the new breed of executive Fast Company and LinkedIn are calling “Super Connectors”. Judy refers to herself as a “Relationship Accelerator.”
Regardless of what you call the position and whether it’s formally or informally held, the role Judy and others like her hold in the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem is worth gold.
Writer Shane Snow put it like this in a recent article for Fast Company: “Whereas some of us were born to be the guy [or gal] at the party who knows everyone, to make big things happen, the rest of us just need to know that guy [gal].”
She’s “that gal”.
Contributor Michael Simmons wrote last week about entrepreneurs who’ve built companies and entire careers on “super connecting”. He profiled two of them here.
Judy Robinett at Kingonomics 2013 (image courtesy of Kingonomics 2013)
In contrast, Robinett represents one of the first and strongest in a quorum of super connector superstars who don’t require a formal program or format for others to benefit from her networking skills. She speaks and keynotes frequently (last week she shared the stage with Mark Cuban in a panel at the Kingonomics Conference on Entrepreneurship in D.C.).
She is also writing a book, Strategic Relationship Mastery (working title), due out from McGraw-Hill next Spring.
Today I persuaded Judy to share her top power networking secrets with me for Forbes:
1. The Theory: “My network/superconnect theory begins with the idea that all the tough problems are solved with networking—lack of key critical resources; money, connections, knowledge all are attached to people orbiting specific ecosystems.”
2. If you’re not currently succeeding, you’re in the wrong room. “I smile at all the books on networking like, ‘How to Work a Room.’ Most people are in the wrong room! I call it looking for love in all the wrong places. Ninety percent of pitches to VC’s and angels are literally in the wrong room. With $47 trillion investment cash, 7B investors and countless opportunities there is no lack of resources. You need a combination of relationships plus capital for a targeted outcome.”
3. The Golden Questions: “After I make an introduction, I teach people to ask what I call my two golden questions: What other ideas do you have for me and who else do you know I should talk to? This is a simple but profound way to develop a deep, wide and robust network. This is how I have created direct connections to President Obama, Oprah, Bill Clinton and many of the other influencers I am closely connected to or have personally worked with and know.”
Discussing life and business with actress Geena Davis (Image courtesy of Dee Burgess)
4. Stranger=Danger is a fallacy. “One of the assumptions I have people rethink is stranger = danger. True, there are many sociopaths (estimates range up to 10% of folks with higher concentration in business owners) but learning, as Oprah says, to ‘feel the feather on the cheek or you get the brick to the head, and if you don’t get that, the wall falls on you ’ is a good process. For example, I’ve met many angel investors who are really devils. The number one tell-tale sign of a sociopath is the lack of empathy. Most are charming, charismatic and have a high level of communications skills. But watch out for the yellow flags–(the ‘feather to the cheek’). Fortunately, most folks have a good head, heart and gut.”
Another interesting note – Judy grew up in Preston, Idaho. (Go, Judy!) Now she’s in the process of co-authoring her book on funding with a Stanford professor. In her initial book proposal on the ways to secure funding she listed 50 highly influential executives and investors she would interview. Said the agent: “You know these people personally?” Of course. “But you’ve only lived in Idaho and Utah. You must have gone to Harvard or Stanford.” Nope.
As Judy explained her networking methods the agent was silent for a moment, then announced, “Okay, we’ve just discovered Book Two” (now Book One, as this is the book she will be publishing first.) Five publishers came to the table to bid on Strategic Relationship Mastery. The winning decision was, of course, McGraw-Hill.
In the meantime, you can catch Judy on LinkedIn, social media and her current panel and keynote events. With any luck, you can also see her present at SXSW: From Twitter – Join @judyrobinett @ for a #crowdfunding discussion at #SXSW. You can vote for that proposed panel here.
Any questions for Judy? You can reach out to her directly in comments below, or can send her a Tweet or a private note on LinkedIn.
