Jeff Dudan recounts attending a White House Historical Association event (at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue), including a lunch in the Diplomatic Room, and meeting political/business figure Bob Comet. From that chance meeting came a chain of connections (a Charlotte keynote, meeting a young German-importing family business, and potential business discussions). Dudan’s central message is that showing up to events creates meaningful opportunities; he urges listeners to make a Ben Franklin list of events they can access and events they need access to, then prioritize and commit to the top three. The episode stresses authenticity, consistency, and patience when networking.
Questions this episode answers
1700 Pennsylvania Avenue (White House event, Diplomatic Room lunch).
The White House Historical Association.
Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961.
Make a Ben Franklin list: left column = events you have access to (rank and keep top three); right column = events you need access to (identify who you need to know).
Chapters
So recently I showed up at the White House. Now look, this is not a political post. I don't want to hear it. Look, if you want to get in the comments and say, why are you at the White House? That's fine. But I was invited by the White House Historical association, which was an association that was founded by Jacqueline Kennedy back in 1961 to protect the artifacts of the White House. Did you know that a new President gets to pick from one of five different desks of former president? Do you want to sit at George Washington's desk? You want to sit at Abe Lincoln's desk? Pretty cool stuff actually. So I'm there at this event. It's at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue. They're doing this massive four story exhibit with replicas of the Oval Office so that people from all over the world can come and get that full White House experience without having to wait in line. Or maybe the White House is closed when they're here. So it's going to really expand the education and give lots of kids and tourists and people opportunity to understand, like the history of our democracy in this country now. So I go there and then we go over to the White House and in the diplomatic Room where FDR did the fireside chats from. We had a nice lunch. Very, very cool. All right, so I'm on the bus on the way over there and I meet a guy. There was two buses, there was a van and there was a bus. The bus was full, so I get on the overflow and which is two other gentlemen, one of which was a guy named Bob Comet. Now Bob Comet, if you're a political person, you would know he's been very well known in politics over the last 30 or 40 years. He was an ambassador to Germany, the US ambassador to Germany. He is also the lead independent board director of Meta. So he advises Zuckerberg and the entire Meta team, Facebook, all of that stuff. So pretty cool guy. Got to spend 30 minutes with him. We hit it off swimmingly. My wife, she did make the bus. So she was back on the bus. She comes over, we both wait for her to get off the bus. Cause we got through first and we're all taking pictures together there in the Rose Garden and all that. Very cool. Now he was very kind, he was very interested. So we swapped connections and then he was coming to Charlotte to give a keynote address to the Zegheist foundation, which is a transatlantic business German US Business Association. I don't know what they really do. All I know is like 80% of them were from Germany. So you know, I had some great schnitzen grubin and it was awesome. I mean we had. It was actually the white asparagus dinner. Look it up. If you've been to Germany, you know that white asparagus and during a certain time of year. Fascinating stuff. But I digress. So I show up there. So I meet Bob Komet. Bob Komet invites me to go to a dinner with him to watch him speak. I go to this event in Charlotte and there I meet a young man who just joined his family business. It's a 23 year old family business and lo and behold, they're importing these European windows and doors from Germany and they're a small family business here. But guess what? I've been looking to be in the window and door business. End up meeting this young man who graduated from my Alma material. We end up having a call and now we're in discussions with that company and you know, it might go somewhere, it might not. But look at the thread of that connection. Now. When I looked at going to the White House to support the White House Historical Association, I said, well, look, it's going to be two plane tickets, it's going to be hotel, it's going to be a couple of days out of our schedule. Sure, I would like to go and have that experience. Certainly my wife would like to go and have that experience. But just going and making the effort to show up. I've never regretted showing up. Every breakthrough that I've ever had, every meaningful connection that I ever had, was not sitting in front of my computer figuring out like the next accounting thing or something that we needed to do. It was always when I got up out of my chair, I got in a plane, I got in a train, I got in an automobile and I showed up somewhere to meet people. And, and that's when all the great things happen. That's when you're outside and you're. And you're out there in the world. So when you show up, you can take a couple approaches and it has to be who you really are. Some people are a wallflower. Probably not great because you got to meet people and you got to connect with people. But that doesn't mean that you need to be the life of the party either. You don't need to be running around, you don't need to be a loudmouth. Like be you three things. Be consistent when you show up. Be authentic and be patient. Because when you show up somewhere, you show up at a conference, you show up at an event. Look, it's not about 100 people that you shake their hand. It's about the four to six people that you connect with. You know, out of that whole White House thing, there was three to four people, Bob being one of them, that I really connected with. And I just. When you look at this, at the impact that this person's had for this country and in his career, he's an international lawyer and all that kind of stuff, I was just like, wow, what a great connection. What a great opportunity to learn from this person, to hear their stories. And sure enough, he reaches out to me and then I'm like, well, what do I know about transatlantic trade with Germany? Absolutely nothing, right? Or I didn't, but now I actually do. I know a lot about it because I learned a lot about it that night. And I came out of that with some great connections. Who knows, it might turn into a new business for home front brands and it might not. But either way, none of it would have happened if I hadn't shown up. So here's what I'm going to tell you to do. Here's the action item coming out of this. If you choose to accept the mission, this is what it is. Make a Ben Franklin list. If you don't know what that is, write a line across the top of a piece of paper and a line right down the middle on the left side. I want you to make a list of all of the events and opportunities that you currently have access to. You could pay a fee to get there. You could just be invited. It could be something local. It could be a business network. It could be at the Chamber, it could be an event that you've seen online. It could be this big Dave Ramp Ramsey thing that they're doing. Entre leadership. It could be home service, it could be any of these events out there. You have access to those. You got to write a check, you got to pay for your ticket, you got to get a hotel and you got to do all that. And then on the. And those are things. And you've got to decide, go back after you make that list on the left side of the paper, the things that you know that you already have access for, that you qualify for, that you've been invited to. And rank those things in order of importance, one through however many you've got. Cross off everything but the top three. And those are the top three that you need to go through this year. You need to make a commitment to go to those things because they're going to make a difference one way or another in your life. And if you don't start today, you're never going to get started. Showing up on the right side of that page. That is your things. You make a list of things that you need access to. On the left of it is you have access or you are invited. Down on the right is you need access. Those are things that you currently can't get into. Like maybe your eo, an EO event, entrepreneurs organization, maybe a vistage event, maybe a YPO event, maybe some exclusive thing that's invite only. But you know, people that have gone and the people that you. That you will find your future self in, those people are in that room and you need to get in there. So who do you know or who do you need to know to be able to get access to the. To these rooms and to these places that you need access to? Places that you have access to. There's no excuse that you're not there. Places that you need access to. That's going to take a little bit of work. But if you take a combination of those lists and you show up at as many of those places as you can, I guarantee it's going to change your life. Because half of life is showing up and the other half doesn't matter.
