Challenges of the C-Suite: The Courage to Lead with Gina Bianchini, Episode 80

Hello everybody! Guess what? It's Tuesday, so you know on Tuesdays you can't do anything else but listen to CB Bowman Live, right? Because I always have the most fantastic guests. And you see, I did my hair up for today. Don't I look cute? And I've got the rocking red lips. It's becoming my signature, you know. My husband talked me into wearing this color. I always wore sort of like—

I like it. I think it looks great.

Thank you. So for him, now I wear the red lipstick. So listen, I have a guest beyond guest today. And you know, this is no secret, right? You know that we're moving towards not just discussing the challenges of the C-suite, but because I'm working with courage as a consultant in this space. I have to market myself a little bit, you know? So we're gonna— we are now talking about courage that it takes to get to where you are and courage in the workplace. How is that demonstrated? So we're rocking this year out about courage. And I couldn't think of a better person to have on the show than Gina. Thank you. By the way, I still have the sniffles. You know it's Colorado, so forgive me if I use the tissue. It's real, right? Gina has a product come out that's out called Mighty Networks. It's a new tech platform that allows groups, teams, associations to be united. I would call it Facebook meets LinkedIn. for the private group. And I have been looking for years for something like this because, you know, I'm the CEO of the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches, and I couldn't get my members on LinkedIn, you know, in one group because they didn't feel a sense of privacy. or as they say across the pond, privacy. And they just didn't want to disclose and talk real, because as corporate executive coaches, we need each other to talk about situations because we can't talk about it in real life. Everything we do is confidential. So when I saw Marshall Goldsmith, you know, I'm his honorary daughter. And the MG 100 team go to Mighty Networks. I said, "What the heck is this that I don't know about?" And of course, you know, I quickly purchased it for ACEC. So we have the founder and the CEO of Mighty Networks on. Let me introduce Gina. Gina, say hi to everybody.

Hello, thank you for having me.

My pleasure. Gina, how do you pronounce your last name?

It is Bianchini.

Bianchini.

So the CH is a K sound, 'cause it's Italian.

My husband is Italian, and he pronounced it different than you.

That?

Oh wait, he's saying in the background, no, he didn't. I think I just insulted him.

He's like, hold up, I know Italian.

Exactly. I love crossing that bridge. Okay, Bincini.

Bianchini.

Bianchini.

Yes.

You know, the way that you say it, it sounds like there should be an E instead of an A. Bianchini.

Bianchini. Maybe I pronounce my own name wrong. I wouldn't be surprised. You know what I do find though? That the— like, it's long, so it, it is a little bit longer than what the appropriate space is in introducing yourself. So it's— I have to basically slow down because otherwise I'll say Gina Bianchini and it will sound like I'm saying Jeannie Bikini. And I'm not, I'm not. I'm saying Gina Bianchini. But that is like one word when you say it together.

It sounds like it's a rhyming word. I love it.

I know, I know.

Now, Gina, tell us about you. You know, one of the reasons why I wanted you to come on, because even in this day and age, it takes an awful lot of courage for a woman to get to where you are. So I want to know the inside scoop. Tell me about your parents. Tell me about growing up. What gave you the chutzpah to do what you do?

Um, so I grew up about 25 minutes from where I am right now, um, in a place called Cupertino, California. It's today known because that's where Apple got started. Uh, my grandparents moved to Cupertino in the '50s to open a plant nursery. So, you know, when Cupertino was all orchards, they, um, they moved down from San Francisco and opened, opened a nursery. So my, my grandparents were small business owners, uh, and then my dad was a, um, uh, a left— was the first in his family to leave to go to college at UC Santa Barbara. came back with my mom, and, uh, and he became a history teacher and was a history teacher while I was, was growing up. And I grew up in a place that everyone had an interest, everybody had a passion that they were following or just curious about. Um, for my mom, it was raising guinea pigs And, um, for my dad, it was old cars. He restored, uh, Model A and Model T Fords and a Porsche and a Mercedes on a teacher's salary. Um, and everybody I knew and grew up with, they were tinkerers, whether it was my grandfather down the street, um, who again was running a nursery, or whether it was the engineers who had come to Silicon Valley. This was all Silicon Valley when it was still orchards. But the thing that people had in common was this desire to explore and follow their curiosity and follow their passion. And that was just, that was in the air where I grew up and at a time and a place that I grew up. And for me, my, like, the thing that really caught my attention was biographies and history and how the world changes. And today, I would sort of think about it and capture it as people systems. How do people systems, how do they show up? And how do they move from one culture to another culture? How do they change? And so, I followed that interest, that passion, that goal from playing team sports, you know, I played field hockey in college, to going to Washington, DC when I was in high school and working as a congressional page. The 16-year-olds that deliver packages and messages across the Capitol, also the youngest federal employees. Didn't think that you were gonna think a lot about the congressional page program.

No.

And so I, um, I, I came back from that experience Really fortunate to be recruited to play field hockey at Stanford. And—

Wait, timeout. Oh my God. Yeah. Your background is so out of control. I love it.

I mean, I was like, come from very humble beginnings, but at the same point in time, there was always a sense of possibility. I grew up in a place that, that had a sense of possibility. to it that was just in the air, and, and I would argue is still in the air. By the way, I have to turn my heater off because it was freezing and now it's not. Okay, again, in my little sunroom here, we, we have all sorts of— oh wait, I gotta move back to the right spot.

Because, because audience, I said to I don't wanna see the chair behind you. There's like, yeah. I drove her crazy before we started.

It's okay, I was into it. I felt like I was definitely like getting stage managed and I was into it.

It was awesome. So you know that expression, audience, well, the women will know this, you know, you've gotta buy makeup that looks like you don't have makeup on. This and that. So, okay, now wait a second, because yesterday I was interviewed by Howard Morgan, who I just— I'm so fortunate to have him as a mentor. He's gonna kill me for saying this on the air. Howard was a millionaire at age 16 and has never stopped. And he talked to me about courage, and we We actually came to that, the point that you just made, that it's a sense of possibilities. I mean, we as women, particularly in the United States, are raised with the sense of fear around possibilities. But your environment said, go for it. So at age 16, you went off?

Yeah. I mean, it was like a 6-month program. It was like basically a, uh, Um, yeah, you, you went for a semester, but yeah, I mean, I had never been to the East Coast, uh, and, um, moved into Southeast Washington, D.C. from Cupertino, California. Let me just say that Southeast Washington, D.C. and Cupertino, California, especially in 1989, very different places.

Oh yeah.

Different places. But it was an incredible experience. It was also an experience that I would say, uh, I had, and I, uh, realized that I wanted to go to college in California and that there was a lot about where I was from that was pretty special. And sometimes, you know, the best way to see how special a place is is to leave it and come back.

But do you realize how different and how lucky you are that your parents let you do this? At age 16?

Yes, yes.

I mean, I look at some 16-year-olds now and I would say, uh, yeah, not so much.

Yeah.

But they had the faith, courage, and I don't know, um, my favorite word today is chutzpah. To let you go at age 16 And that worry— well, they probably worried their sows, but didn't let you know.

Certainly.

Said it affected you.

Yeah. It was great. It was a great experience.

OK, so you did that. You met high-powered people, or who did you meet?

I mean, we were all 16-year-olds. So certainly, we were working on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. So we got to see all, you know, I worked in the Democratic cloakroom. So I was delivering messages to different members of Congress. And, you know, we saw the State of the Union, like had a front row seat to that. So it was just a really incredible experience, but it was also for me meeting people, meeting other 16-year-olds from across the country. And this is a really interesting program. So there's 60— there were 66 House pages, and essentially you, you're nominated, or your, your member of Congress based on their seniority got to pick who were the pages. Well, what that meant in practice was, you know, there was somebody like me from Cupertino, there was somebody from Alaska, there was somebody from Marblehead, Massachusetts, another person from Monterey. another person from Arkansas, like farms in Arkansas and Mississippi, and so downtown Chicago. And we lived in a dorm on Capitol Hill. And it was, again, it was just a really fascinating experience to see, to meet people from all over the country. And you just realize how amazing the United States is and how different, different, you know, areas of the country are, but also what we have in common. And it's, you know, somewhat challenging to remember that today. But that experience was really important. I did not like the food in D.C., though. Like, that was not my jam. And so, you know, I came back to California. And I was like, okay, I need to play field hockey, which is primarily an East Coast sport, in California and go to a university that I can meet the same kind of like national kind of— have the kind of national experience that I had. Now fortunately, I, you know, live in a place where you can go to school in California, play field hockey, and have a national experience at more than one college. So again, this is just a— I was incredibly fortunate to have these different possibilities and these different paths that would have been just as phenomenal if I had gone to Cal Berkeley as I was able to have at Stanford. But I went to Stanford.

Wait, I'm sorry.

Sure.

Parents that are listening or thinking, what can I do with my kid? Um, how did you find out about this program? How were you recognized? And most importantly, how did you learn how to behave appropriately?

Great question. Um, so number one, I had a family friend who had worked on Capitol Hill and said to me uh, probably when I was like 13 or 14, hey, did you know that they have this incredible program? It's like the page program. And then I just— I forget if she had prompted me or if I had done it myself, but I reached out to my member of Congress, um, named Norm Mineta, who went on to become the Secretary of Transportation. And, uh, I— for his pages you applied. And so I applied and I got it. And I found out 3 weeks before I had to be in Washington, D.C. Um, I got a, you know, I remember like madly going shopping, but also getting a really, um, ill-conceived haircut, uh, that I don't recommend. And in hindsight was not my, my best choice. But anyways, I, I got my haircut, very cute bob for 1989. And, and then I think your question was, how did I learn how to behave? That's a great question. So one, I think in general, you know, the same, you know, not only basic manners, but the discipline that I had and never remember not having as an athlete, as a, you know, high-achieving student. Um, again, I don't think I ever got asked by anybody else to do my homework. I think I, I always sort of knew how to do that. And then it was challenging though, because as a 16-year-old, I'd never, you know, we had to get up and, uh, school started at 6:45 AM, and then we went to school at the Library of Congress.

Oh, wait a second. I forgot that part. You were still in school.

Oh yeah, I was a junior in high school.

Okay.

So then, so we went to school from 6:45 to 10 AM, and then at 10 AM we walked across the street to the Capitol and we started our workday, which ended then at like 5, 5:30. But then if Congress was in session, we would stay later for votes and things like that. So It— I mean, it was definitely more intense in many respects, but then, you know, normal public high school in California. But in other respects, it was kind of like I got it. Like, it wasn't, it wasn't a foreign experience. Um, I mean, the things that I remember are things like, you know, in California, when you wash your hair, you don't— you leave the house with wet hair because your hair's not going to freeze. In Washington, D.C., your hair freezes. Like, stuff like that. Like, I, you know, I learned those the hard way.

Um, but in terms of communication with the— yeah, like Washington.

Yeah, but like, I did debate in high school. I did speeches.

Oh, okay.

Like, I, like, like, I was your classic overachieving student and person that was like, going to do all the things. And I did, you know, I did all the things.

Okay. Now, now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of it all. Okay. There was a firm background of prep and you're moving over to D.C. Okay. Now we can move on to Feel Happy.

Great. Great. Uh, so yeah, so I, you know, so I went to Stanford, played field hockey, tried very hard to not be a political science major, and then decided to be a political science major because it, it was the thing I cared about. Because to me, political science was about people systems.

Mm-hmm.

And how people make decisions and how we, you know, what we expect of ourselves and each other. How we think about what we want out of, out of our, our lives, our societies, what matters, what doesn't matter, and, and what, what's important to us. What is the kind of society that we want to build? And so I majored in political science, and I went back to DC when I was a junior— between my junior and— no, my sophomore and junior year in college. So this is like 3 or 4 years later, and I was standing outside the White House with a sign, like for, for like a protest. And I remember looking around and saying to myself, I think I would like to be inside and not outside. And so I was like, how do you get inside the building? And it was at that point Also sleeping like on a mattress on a floor, eating like Lerner's bagels for every meal because I was, I was very like, I was, it was an unpaid internship and I was, I didn't have any money, um, that I would like to go into business. And I thought business would be better for me because I could take what I loved about, you know, again, people systems, political science, and apply it to business then was interesting to me and intriguing to me in terms of, again, how does a group of people come together to do something and do something different? And I grew up in a world of entrepreneurship and small business ownership. So that was a very natural move from sort of interest in politics to interest in business. Um, and when I graduated from Stanford, I, uh, you know, there was all this on-campus recruiting, you know, people coming to recruit Stanford graduates for their, you know, their, their businesses. And the main— in the main recruiters coming to campus were investment banks and management consulting firms. And I interviewed with both and decided That I, I did. I had no idea what investment banking actually was. Um, and one of my friends told me like how to answer the question. So I was like, okay, like walked into the interview and somebody was like, so what do you know about investment banking? And I was like, well, as a matter of fact, it's how companies raise capital, whether in the form of equity stocks or debt, which are bonds. And I'm really interested. And I, like, I learned what it was in the waiting room going into that interview. And yet, what the reason I took the job in investment banking, and specifically technology investment banking, was I looked at the people that I was interviewing with and I was like, they know something I don't know yet. They know something I don't know yet. And I want to learn from them. I want to learn how to be a business person. I want to learn how to present myself. I want to learn what this all is. I want to be, you know, a part of these deals. And so that's what I did.

Didn't you have a fear of failure because you knew nothing about this?

No.

I love your response.

No, no, I, you know, not— Well, because I was curious. Like, one of the things I think is so, um, helpful to me at least is when I am curious about something, when I want the answer to something, I don't think— like, my fear kind of goes out the window. So, it like, I'm a big fan of how do you frame something and how I frame something. And so, when I'm able to frame something as being driven by curiosity, it's what is there to be afraid of? Like, you got to get the answer and you got to sort of bust down walls to get the answer. And for me, at that point in my life and my, you know, my first job out of college, it was I want the answer to how do these people work? Like, what are they doing? Like, like, and the fact that I had to learn finance in the process, it was like, okay, fine, I'll learn. I was not very good at it either, but I got better at it. And, and I learned what I wanted to learn, which was which was how can, you know, how, how do you, how do you be an excellent professional? How, how do you, you know, I think about it today in, in, in the words that I have now, you know, how do you participate on excellent teams and how do you contribute excellently? Uh, what does that look like? I, I spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, what, what is that What does that experience look like that's over and above? What's that product look like? What's that service look like?

What is that?

What does excellence manifest itself into? And I think when that question is motivating me or I want to learn something, I'm not stuck by my fear. I may get stuck. I may get stuck by Wait, there's more to learn. Like, I'm not quite ready yet, but I'm not stuck by, I'm not good enough, I can't do this, um, you know, you know, I don't have the right background, I don't have the right skills, you know, people won't like me. Like, very few of those things, um, get in my head.

I love your definitions. And so my question to you is— I will blow my nose.

Great, you blow your nose. I'll see if that helps. Yeah, um, it did actually.

Yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll tell the audience that Gina is in California and the light is fierce today.

It is fierce.

Yes. Okay, my question to you is What did you find out about being excellent, an excellent professional? What are the top 3 things that make you an excellent professional?

Well, again, I don't know that I am every day an excellent professional, but here, here would be some of the things.

Well, first of all, just by saying that makes you an excellent professional. Yeah.

Like, it's fun to think about how, how you level up. Like, how— like, what does the best mean? What does it look like? One, I would say that, that is, you know, I could, I could say the big things or the small things, or there's sort of a mix of the two. But let me, let me, I'll share a couple of small things that I notice.

Okay.

Excellent professionals, no matter how busy you are, get back to you immediately. Like within seconds. And what I've observed is there's a whole set of people that I think want to be excellent that don't know that thing. So the speed of— and again, that will trigger all sorts of things like, well, there's too much, too high of expectation of people to respond all the time. But here's the thing I've observed is speed matters. Speed of response, speed of getting things done. Speed matters.

I have to stop you. Sure. So Jar is responsible for programming for this show. And I said to her today, we had an early morning meeting because she's in the Philippines. And I said, oh, Gina's on the show today. And she said, I like her. And I said, you've never talked to her, you— what do you mean you like her? Because I was curious.

Right, right.

She said, she's responsive. She gets back to you right away. I said, don't most people? And she said, No, and she is CEO of her company. And I just felt like you made her day.

That's really nice to hear.

And I, I wanted to share that with you because oftentimes people dismiss people. And I know when I started my business, I dismissed people. Not out of the want to make them feel bad.

Right.

It was out of the focus of, I've got to get this done. I need to do this right now. And I need to get to the top brass and don't get in my way. Mm-hmm. Now it's about not dismissing people and paying attention to their needs. Yeah.

Well, and look, there's always going to be a balance.

Yeah.

But I think that kind of responsiveness, like something as simple as agendas before meetings, clarity about what any of us want to get out of the meeting. And then I think this is, again, another, another action or activity or practice, I should say, of excellent professionals is there's a follow-up within minutes. And here's why. Here's why. So even planning for 15 minutes, like some kind of slack between your meetings, and, and this is why. So one, it, it just helps clarify. So if there was any room for miscommunication, you flag it right after a meeting, right? And then the second thing is that the best way for any of us to get smarter and organize our, our thinking and our ideas is to write. You know, the power of writing isn't necessarily the, the, the communication out. It's actually the way that we organize our ideas. And, and so what did we remember from that time we just invested in together? So again, it's like, am I perfect about, you know, this?

No.

But have I watched over years, like, what are some of the, the behaviors of Excellent professionals. Yes, and I would just observe that the fancier and busier somebody is, the faster they get back to you. It's it is a it is an an odd an odd thing.

Um, so yesterday I wrote a colleague an email, and this colleague is. Extremely well known. He is the business advisor and coach to some big names in sports.

Okay.

And I didn't think I would hear back from him. Within an hour, I heard back. It was only two words, and then I followed it up, and then he got back to me with four words. And so what you're saying is so important because I felt good that he took it. Because when I wrote it, I thought, okay, I might hear from him next week.

It is a— it's a bit of a binary thing.

So, all right, let's stop. I would like to be coached by you, Gina. Um, what shall I do following this interview?

Oh, that's a good question. So I hadn't thought about it in the context of interviews. I hadn't thought about in the context of interviews. Um, so I will think about that, please. And by the end of this interview, I will see if I've got anything to offer. I'll share though, another thing that— another experience that I just had along the lines of like, Again, excellent professionals. I found myself on a call that one of my friends had asked me to do with an up-and-coming entrepreneur. So this is somebody sort of early in their career. They had a startup. They wanted to do a partnership with Mighty Networks and with us. And I got on the call and it was all about their business, like what they needed from me. And this is the other thing that, that is, you know, you see where I'm gonna go.

I know where you're going.

And it was fascinating. And I'm hoping that it's not just because, you know, she was early in her career. But clearly, no one had sort of coached her or honestly had coached me when I was earlier on in my career as well, which is it's all about what you can do for somebody else. It's not about what they can do for you. And I think that one of the challenges of a generation in an environment where parents have done so much for their kids They come into the real world and they're like, well, if I just ask you to do it for me, aren't you going to do it for me? Like, don't you understand that you should do this for me? And, and I, I found myself, you know, one, trying to explain to her, like, actually some of this is just out of my control. Like, like, you're not answering sort of the key questions that I would need to have answered to move this forward, which then made this a waste of your time and my time.

But that's, that's only second to the fact of, you know, ask me out on a date before you want to go jump in the bed. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I, you know, I'm on LinkedIn. I don't have as many followers as you do.

Yeah.

I'd like to, but I say to myself, people who send me notes, um, I saw you on LinkedIn, will you endorse me? Who are you? I don't even— I know nothing about you. Yeah, I don't even know your name.

Right, right. And this is where, you know, I think, I think we are in a day and an age and a moment where the following is true. One, we need our lanes, you know, like, like understanding the value that you want to provide to people And being able to get to that very quickly, I think, is really important. And one of those things that you can do, I think, increasingly is pick your lane. Like, what is it that if somebody reaches out to you that you want to talk about, that you want to understand and want to discuss and go deep on? So for me, at this point in my career, it's I want to talk about designing amazing communities. Where people, both the hosts of those communities and members of those communities, can learn together and get results and transformation in their lives that they cannot get on their own. And I am obsessed with this topic. So if, if the only thing that you think about when you think about me is Gina equals community, wonderful.

Wonderful.

Like, and yes, and I think there, you know, for more and more of us to, you know, to exist in a global network, um, having that thing— and again, you can change that thing as you go, you can morph, you can evolve it— but knowing, like, I had, I had somebody reach out to me on LinkedIn that I did respond to today because he's like Hey, I love what you're doing with community. I love what is happening with Mighty Networks. And here's what I do. I basically do paid Facebook ads for really large YouTube creators. So it was really clear to me he understood what, what he wanted to understand from me. And I knew, and, and he told me what was the value that communication and being able to sit down and talk would have. And it doesn't have to be transactional. I'm not expecting anything to come from it. But I know going into the conversation what we're going to talk about.

What your role is.

What my role is and what his role is. So I think that the— what I think increasingly excellent professionals do is they make it very clear what is it that that we're gonna do together. And I think that this plays itself out in, you know, so many different areas of our lives, um, as we spend more and more time with just a more vol— you know, a volume of potential people to spend time with. And, um, and having, having, you know, so much of our time in, you know, in a virtual sense. So, so You have to get clearer. But also what it unlocks is like beautiful collaborations.

You know, I want to interrupt you here because I'm thinking about 2 situations recently. One is, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dory Clark. She is a powerhouse.

I just read her book.

Which one? The Long Game?

Is that the latest one? Is The Long Game, I think?

Yes, The Long Game.

Yeah.

Um, there is the other one that has a yellow cover. I think it's called—

It's an earlier one. Yeah, I was thinking I was gonna get that.

Yeah, I have both. And so I've interviewed Dori on this show, and Dori and I are both part of MG100. And I remember when I first met her in London in 2019 when she won the Thinkers50 Award. Because I— my table was right next to hers.

Oh, wow.

And she— I said, Dori— we didn't know each other then. I said, Dori, I'm so proud of you. Um, and she just embraced me, right? Um, I just received her latest blog post.

Okay.

And it's about creating a community of mentors. How about that? A board of directors of mentors. And I said, oh, I don't have to read this one, Dori. I, you know, I got it. But something drove my fingers to the original post, right? And I am telling you, I learned so much from the time I spent to read that article.

Oh, wow.

What she talked about is exactly what we just talked about— being clear in the ask and being clear on what you can do. Now, that leads me to another thing. I've recently, about 3 months ago, started something called WPP, Women's Power Pack.

Okay.

Because it occurred to me in all of the groups that I belong to, MG100, Tasha 10, etc., Thinkers 50 now, women need support successful women need support in how to communicate.

Mm-hmm.

And so I said, what if I put together a group of women and we support each other on how to communicate? And I'm talking about, um, Isabella Lundberg, who was just voted number 1 in LinkedIn. She's in the group. Libby Pinchot, who's known for starting a university on sustainability in California. So we all got together and now— and it was only going to be a 5-week program. Now we've decided that it needs to be a year because the things that came out of that second session is, what the hell? Why are we not asking?

Right.

And I said, what do you mean we're not asking? And they said, I mean, when is the last time you asked for a review on LinkedIn? And I thought, yeah, it's gotta be at least 10 years, right? She said, CB, everything that you're doing out there, you have not asked for a LinkedIn reference review in 10 years? And I said, well, I haven't thought about it. And she said, men do.

Yep.

And all of us realized that. And I said, okay, I'll throw one back at you. How many in the group have recommended another woman to receive an award like Thinkers50?

Okay. Oh, really? Oh, interesting.

Men do.

I was not expecting that answer.

Yeah, it's—

I was not— and the reason I wasn't expecting that answer is because, you know, I've been a part of multiple groups, small groups of women, where that very quickly became the culture. And, and once it becomes the culture, um, and, and the sort of explicit set of agreements, then It, it gets real easy to do. So like, this is probably like 10 years ago, and now today I'm like, really? People don't do that? Like, no.

Because as you just said, it's small groups of women who get together. We have a rule in this group: you can take 1 minute of the first meeting to talk about family, boyfriends, husbands, girlfriends, whatever. After that, you're banned from talking about it. It has to be only business. But as you said, it's groups of women that are coming to that realization. It's not the female business population. And in fact, I, I'm going to be interviewing somebody soon, and in Thinkers50 this year, where I was nominated—

Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. I said to one of the other women who was nominated, who has a book that was just released, I said, how did you reach the CEOs to interview them? This is my test question. And she said, it was a lot of hard work.

Hmm.

Not the answer to give another woman. The answer is, I did A, B, C, and D. And if you're interested, I could support you, right? So we have a long road to go, a long road of networking together.

Well, and, and here's the thing that I think you just really put a, put a finer point on, is how, like, the, the women and the people who are sharing specifics.

Yeah.

Step by step, like, here are my numbers here. Like, and I think, you know, it— and I think sort of the whole, the whole context of building in public or even just building in a small group is so powerful. But I will also say that, um, I think, I think it is as important In those asks to also know what we are giving and validating that that is valuable to someone. Meaning, meaning leading with a give and then being clear in your ask.

Absolutely.

And, and what are those things that you like to give? What gives you energy, uh, in those gives versus— I think that there is a, there is a pretty destructive undercurrent and thread as it relates to women professionals that, again, is a little bit of like the way that the quote by Madeleine Albright has been weaponized. That if you basically are like, hey, look, I don't think I'm the right person to help you with this, or I can't help you with this because Uh, you know, it's, it's not a fit for my business or my focus or whatever, then you, you know, there's a risk of, of somebody, especially another woman, coming back and being like, you know, there's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women. And like, you know, and it's just been weaponized in a way that, that one of the things that I think we can, we can be so much more, uh, productive but also supportive and have more joy and more energy and more fun is being really clear in like, hey, this is what I bring to the table. Like, it might be a fit for you, it might not. Here's what I'm looking for, if that's a fit for you or not. But just being a little bit kinder and more gentle with, with not just each other, but ourselves as well. And living in a world where it's about, hey, where's there a fit for a collaboration right now? Versus this— and I really think that, that, that sort of sense of like, oh my gosh, what if another woman tells me no, comes from that fear you were talking about earlier. And, and going to a place where it becomes personal, it becomes, you know, oh, Gina's mean, or, or she doesn't like me because she's like, I don't, I don't know that I have anything to really give you right now. You know, and so I think that there's some nuance there that, um, is so important and that actually gets worked out in the kind of small private groups of women or, or similar professionals that is so powerful. And what makes coaching so powerful and what makes masterminds so powerful and what makes You know, what makes communities so powerful.

I think you're right. And I'm going to add to that, that 2 things. And one is going to sound really horrible, which is we as women have to own the power of cut and delete. In other words, if you're in a relationship with somebody in the business world and you're not getting what you need out of it, after a conversation with the person, right, cut and delete. Now you can do that without harming the relationship. Yeah. You know, you can do that without cutting off somebody's legs. We in this culture in the United States have not learned that art. Right. The same as we have not learned the art of when do you go to the next level in a relationship.

Yeah.

Now I'm going to throw something out that's a bit contrary but works with that concept.

Sure.

Is in our WPP meeting last week, we had one of the women speak about how she does sales. Very powerful. Um, And she is superb in sales. Superb. And so we said to her, what's your secret sauce? And she said, I never end a relationship.

Oh, I love that.

And I said, what about the cut and deletes? She said, that's not a relationship. It never developed into a relationship.

Interesting.

So she said, and so I am the great connector. If I can't help you now, let me spend time to think of who can. Or I could say to you, I can't do it this time, but call on me again.

Yeah.

We haven't learned that art.

Yeah.

And this goes for men too.

Yes.

It's where I learned is from my first boyfriend from Italy.

I feel like there might be, uh, like a type.

A type? European.

It kind of feels like there's a type.

Yeah, yeah, I go for the European guys, you know.

I love it.

They know how to deal with my BS, you know. I'm gonna get in so much trouble on this show. Um, but I remember the conversation actually, and I was a young kid, um, because my boyfriend at the time asked me if I was gonna fix dinner. And I'm thinking, I don't do dinner. And I said, no, let's order something. Why would I be the one to cook? You know how to cook. And his Italian accent said, I guess you don't love me enough to cook me dinner. And I'm like, master manipulation, bang!

Wow.

Oh my God, I've got to fix this guy. Yeah, that art is so European, but it takes time to develop, right? And we just move on such a fast track that we don't think about the times that we said yes, that we may not have wanted to say yes, but we're okay with saying yes.

Right, right. Well, but I— the, the flip side is, or, or the thing that I think is important is that we are doing things from a place of wanting to do them or that we know it brings us energy.

Yeah.

So, for example, there's a set of things I used to do that are exhausting and that don't— like, I can't— like, I have a whole set of people on my team who rely on me to be 100% focused on Mighty, bring my best you know, my best, most excellent self to work. And, and I love saying to work when it's literally like walking into a different room in my house, as so many of us. But, you know, there's this, there's this sense of like, again, this fear and this weaponization of this idea that if you don't help other women, then you, you know, you're literally evil. You should literally be in a special place in hell. And what I had to get comfortable with is, is first of all, fast nos are, are gracious. You know, fast nos are gracious. And you can be a fast no. Like, it's okay. And that the thing that I'm really clear on is who is relying on me to do my very best work and how am I delivering on that agreement. that we've made. When somebody bets their career on coming to Mighty, making sure that, you know, my priorities and the way that I spend my time and being very careful with my time. Like one of the things that I do is I keep a time diary. Like where did I spend my time this week? Was it productive? What would I like to do differently the next week? And the faster that you review things, it's not just about keeping track. It's about also reviewing it. That the real power comes from.

I love what you're saying because when I started ACEC, the best advice that I got was stay the course. And he came after me and said, why don't, why don't we write a book together? And I love that idea. And then that statement flipped in my mind, stay the course.

Yeah.

Because it's going to take time away from what you really want to do.

Yep.

I think we could do it. But we just have to be careful in the selection of—

Well, and I'll take that one step further. We were having this conversation internally yesterday, which is the opportunity cost for considering a different path, making all the changes in terms of that separate path, when you actually also know That the things that you agreed to and all the work that went into the current path and defining the current path has not changed.

Yeah.

All you're doing is ensuring that you're actually moving slower than if you basically are like, stay the course, get this thing done, reflect on what we learned from it.

Lessons learned.

And figure out what we want to go do next. And, you know, this is, this is one of the, the, you know, the things about, about balancing. You know, so many people, you know, when they, when they come to, to Mighty and they're building a community or their courses or their programs and workshops, you know, it's like, I have to make it perfect day one. The power is actually in building a system. And, and, and again, been a theme today, but also building on top of a system that is built for for evolution, that's built for experimentation, that's built for how do you have, you know, a program and a place to start, but then as people go in different directions and, and in different ways, that you can evolve. So I actually believe, coming back to your point about staying the course, yes, you stay the course because staying the course is going to be the way that you learn the fastest with focus. And that you can evolve in ways that, that are possible, that unlock new opportunity only when you stay the course, only when you focus.

And that's not to say that you don't examine other possibilities. Yes, because I want to be real clear about that with the audience, because when you do that, that's not experiencing courage. You've got to open that door and know what you're saying no to and know what you're saying yes to and have to be clear about it.

Yeah.

And when you say no to something, don't say no forever. Put it in a diary.

I'm so glad that you're clarifying that because I think that so many people think that when you say no, it's no forever. On both sides, like, you know, oh my gosh, am I saying no to this idea forever? Or, you know, we see it, for example, at Mighty where it's like, oh, you know, I want to teach this course in, in a community, but like, it's so narrow. Like, what if I get bored of it? It's like, just start with something narrow, and then you can build on it. That's the power of this moment.

Hey, we only have a few minutes left. What's your time schedule for today?

I will have to go in roughly 10 minutes.

Darn it. Okay. Because I was going to suggest we break and then continue. But, um, because I want to spend more time now talking about Mighty Networks. Sure. So will you come back if we don't get everything covered?

Absolutely.

I am more than happy to do that, you know, but I feel like we're BFFs by now. Right.

I know. I like, like, and I, and as we just talked about, if I didn't think that it would be fun and the time was not flying by, I would find a way to say that's not a fit. Uh, but it is a fit because obviously I like to talk about not just Mighty Networks, but community building and the community design in general is something that gives me energy to talk about. So yes, a resounding yes.

about that. I want to talk about it in relationship to my WPP group. Okay, great. All right, Mighty Networks, guys, if you don't know what it is, it's like saying I don't know what a Christmas tree is like with that, with presents underneath, right? You know, or Hanukkah bush or Hanukkah candle, whatever, right? It is a gift to to any group of people. You know, I started it and I thought, okay, I, I can get this. This is easy. And I did. But then I saw a hidden value. And now, so the way it's designed is that you invite a group of people and they can communicate with each other. And number one, it takes all that stuff out of your email system. so that you could see things that relate to your business on email and things that relate to socializing business. Notice I said socializing business.

Right.

Lighting networks. So you create this community that is— she does what she says she wanted to do. She created systems that are community-driven, right? So now I go in and I see, wait a second, I can organize things by topics and events. I can now tell people because people in ACEC are saying, CB, we don't know what's going on. You know, we've got so many opportunities in here. We can't keep track of all the events and all the things that we're supposed to look at. And, you know, and my email is getting cluttered and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they were right with their blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I couldn't find an answer.

Right.

So now we have different pockets in Mighty Networks. They could go to one pocket to share an event that they're doing, a webinar, a seminar. They can burst it out. They can say whether or not they're charging other members. We have a research topic where we drop in information that we've researched. We have communities for our committees and they can have private discussion. Oh my God, it's— oh, some of the topics we have, we have now, we have a blog section. So if you— Oh, awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shoot out to your clients and you share it with other ACEC folks, it's there. Here's the value, because ACEC has the mindset of we are a professional family, we are one. We learn, we share, we explore, and we're not afraid of competition. So if in your blog one of the members sees something that their clients would be interested in, they have permission to pick it up and shoot it out to their clients. And if they don't have— Coach 1 doesn't have the expertise that Coach 2 has because Coach 2 put in their blog, they're not afraid to pick up the phone and say to Coach 2, my client's interested in what you're offering. Let's team up.

Yeah, it's—

I want to tell you, it's exploded.

Yes, this is, this is great to hear, you know. And, and look, the, the thing that I have so much fun with is obviously hearing this because I've been working on Mighty for for years now, for 4 years now. And the power of this model was to basically say, look, for a community to grow in scale, you need to have sort of the main street, which is that sort of primary home and activity feed. But also you need to be able to go into different places and have different groups and courses. So we actually have the ability in one place under your brand to have multiple groups, multiple courses with course communities in them. So it's all in one place to the point where I've been, I've been exploring online courses and Facebook groups and how newsletters work. And it's like I sit there and I'm like, This is how people are doing this. This is so crazy because the power of being able to bring people together in one place. And one of the other things that, that is very different about a Mighty Network from, say, Slack or even, even a Facebook group is everything in your home feed. It is your home base for all the groups that you're belonging to, all of the courses that you would belong to if you're using courses. And so what that means is that you have one place to go.

Yes.

One place to go. You can see everything as opposed to, you know, what, what the, what is sort of emerged with Slack and other, other community platforms that get used is I have to go from channel to channel to channel to channel and it's overwhelming. And then by the way, like not only the channels, but then private messages and, and we have DMs as well as, you know, groups and courses. But just, it's so obvious at this point, again, as somebody who studies systems, that you need one place to go. And it doesn't mean you can't navigate into the nooks and crannies, but you need one place to go.

And one of the other time savers that it has, you can decide how often you want the messages.

Yes.

And for people like me who are— who own the system, what's nice is if I think I'm sending out too many announcements, I can group them together on announcement day.

Yeah.

The other thing that we did is because we were sending out our newsletters to using a direct mail system.

Yep.

That people know, but people are saying, Well, I'm not getting it. And I would go into the backend and I would see that they opened it. We now put it into Mighty Networks.

Oh, that's smart.

So if you think you've missed an issue because it comes out quarterly, yeah, right there as a member, you have the right to see it. We don't have to worry about searching our files, going back through, you know, the direct messaging system to find it. It's like, oh, you missed that issue? It's here.

Right, right.

So it, it's so exciting and it's easy to use.

That's the goal. We are always looking for ways to make it easier and easier, in part because, you know, we're essentially trying to offer coaches and creators and brands their own— not their own Facebook group, but their own Facebook.

Yes.

The ability— but by the way, where they get to control, you know, the entire thing, meaning you have email addresses for everybody. Like, if you want to understand, if you want to go somewhere else, you can. Um, we would miss you, but you can still— the point is we want to make sure that our interests are aligned with every what we call host of, of every Mighty Network. And, um, we're bringing things together that haven't been brought together before, like the ability to have courses and community together in one place, the ability to sell courses in, in community, and then by the way have a free network for people to come in. So you essentially can create a premium model. So there's all of these things, and we're just seeing tremendous success. So for example, I'll share this one stat because I think it's, it, it's fun, but also it speaks to, you know, what our mission is, which is to allow and unlock unique, vibrant communities that are mastering something interesting or important together, led by brands or creators or entrepreneurs or coaches. And the, the stat I'll share is that 77% of people who offer paid plans on a Mighty Network sell paid plans on a Mighty Network.

Wow. Wow.

So what that means is that we are building a platform and working very hard behind the scenes to do it. I always think about us as hopefully like ducks. You know, we want people who are creating communities to be successful at 10 members, at 30 members, and at 300,000 plus. And right now, you know, we are certainly leading a new era of community innovation where that's possible to pull all of these things together in one place.

So I have an ask now that I have an in. There's a feature I would like, and maybe it's there and I don't know.

That would be even better. But in all cases, I want to hear it.

I would like our members to be able to search for each other by location. Yes.

So you can do that today, sort of. So I would describe it as, as a, as a beta feature. So what you can see is members near you.

Yeah.

And by the way, if you go to a new location and you pull up your app, it'll show you all the members in that area.

Wait, that's on there and I didn't know?

Yeah, that's on the apps, you know. So if you're on—

I have to do it by phone?

You— in that case, yes. Um, although it might not— like, you could change your location on the web, so you can do it on the web too, but you just You would change it by, you know, putting in Colorado or Chicago if you're on a trip to Chicago, for example. So anyways, so that is all there. And then in terms of searching by location, if you put in the location at the top, um, to the top search bar, which is a universal search, you'll see the people and the content by that location.

I have to send out an announcement.

Sounds like this is an announcement. Sounds like there's— there is an alert here.

Okay.

We can do a better job of formalizing, uh, making that easier. So I'm gonna write that note down.

Okay, then I have another one then.

Right.

Priority on this one. I would like for— because our members are literally the top in the executive coaching space. Yes. Their master levels. I would like if there was a way that people who are looking for coaches could search. Yeah, just have that search feature along with what their equity is. What are they bringing? What are they specializing in? So I would like to be able to sell that feature. Yeah, various companies.

So it's interesting, you could do that today through a feature we have called member categories, um, which— but it's like everybody would sort of have to agree to like the way you would use it. Um, for example, you know, opting into the category, you know, coach for hire versus opting into the category looking for a coach. Yes, you have that. You would actually be able to filter today in your Mighty Network by one of those 2 And then reach out to people.

But can people, like, for example, suppose Pepsi, okay, wants to hire a coach, can I charge them to make that search in Mighty Networks?

No. What you could do, what you could do is charge them for access to the main Mighty Network and, or wherever that sort of set of people are. And they would access them that way or access this this way. But there isn't an ability to charge just for that search.

It can if we—

But I'm taking that as a note, CB. I'm taking that as—

If we do that, will they be able to see the private conversations that are taking place throughout?

Well, so this is, this is the thing. If, if they would not be able to see conversations in groups or courses that they're not a member of.

Hmm.

So you can set this up such that at the main Mighty Network level, you'd have those member categories of, of coaches versus looking, you know, coaches looking for coaches. And then you could essentially charge them for access to that main Mighty Network, but they wouldn't be able to see into the conversations in any individual group or course in which they are not a member.

Drop the mic. I love it. I love it. I, I think I need a coach for my Mighty Networks to step up.

Well, it's funny that you say that because the project I am working on right now, uh, is all around how do we, you know, how do we really expand, um, not just, you know, do it yourself, but, you know, do it with other hosts As well as do it for you. So stay tuned.

If you need me on my— on your team as a subscriber to test things.

Love it. You guys absolutely love it.

I love it. Hey guys, I know we ran over by 11 minutes, but what could I say? This was a fun night.

I appreciate, I appreciate the time. I am. One of the benefits of California is I'm gonna go get some lunch. I'm going to— my, my room that I'm in went from being super cold to really hot, so I'm like ready, ready to get off.

I get it. Awesome. Hey, you're ready to jump into that bikini, right?

Exactly. I'm like one step away from, you know, a winter, a winter bikini, which By the way, yes, it's not really a thing for me right now. Like, not really a thing for me. All right, but anyways, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Tina. I love it. And now we got each other. We're connected. I love it.

All right, take care. Bye.

Bye, everybody. See you next Tuesday.