INBOUND Bold Talks: Rick Turoczy "The Power of Humility"

So I'm from Portland, Oregon, and Portland is a town that I like to call aggressively humble. We can't even merge on the freeway correctly without letting people go ahead of us. And when it comes to four way stops, you might as well pack a lunch because everybody's waving everybody else through. It's really, really difficult for folks in Portland to promote themselves. It's just something cultural that we have there. And that makes writing a blog about the startup scene in Portland, Oregon even more difficult because I'm having to constantly draw out information from these folks. In fact, we're so humble, the only time we'll brag about our town is when somebody's making fun of it. But I'm not here to talk about Portland. I'm here to talk to you about humility and how embracing humility can really help your daily lives in your job. Now, I come from 20 years of marketing. I've been a marcom guy the whole time I've been in the startup space and pie. The Portland Incubator Experiment is a startup accelerator run in collaboration with Wyden and Kennedy, who you guys may know as the Coca Cola polar bears, the Old Spice guy, and the agency of record for Facebook. So these are people who are interested in being promotional. And startups are no different. Every startup is kind of pushed to be killing it or crushing it or doing these amazing things, and we're constantly pushed in that direction. But in a lot of ways that can be corrosive. Sometimes it can just be you lying to yourselves. And so I often focus on helping people embrace this more humble stance. Now, I want to make a point. I don't know if you've read this book. It's a great book. It's if you haven't, it talks about introverts. Now, being humble doesn't necessarily make you introverted. An introvert or an extrovert is a personality trait. It's really something that you can't change. It's inherent. It's innate to you and who you are. Being humble can be learned. You can figure it out. So I'm going to take you through a few simple things that are really going to help you embrace humility and figure out how to use it in your daily life. There's this great line in Fight Club. Actually, there are any number of great lines in Fight Club. I could sit here and quote it all day and honestly, I just wanted to work Brad Pitt into my presentation. So there's a line in Fight Club where the narrator says, when people think you're dying, they really listen. And Marla, to whom he's speaking, says instead of just waiting for their turn to talk. And that line always struck me, and to Chris's point, that being present, that putting yourself in a position that is secondary to another human, to actually listen to what they're saying and take it in. So many times we're sitting in meetings where we're waiting for that chance to talk, or we're networking with somebody where we're anxiously awaiting to tell them what it is we do instead of just taking the opportunity to listen, to take kind of second chair and let somebody else share what it is that they do and how amazing they are. I literally just had this problem listening to these two amazing speakers where I had to constantly remind don't practice your talk, don't practice your talk and listen to what they were saying. It's not easy and I'm not very good at it, but I keep practicing. And that line always resonates with me. We work in a world where we try and optimize our performance around things like Personas or user experience or workflow, but those are just excuses for making assumptions. What you really need to do is listen to people, because they're not consumers, they're not users, they're people who want to be heard. And all the UX work in the world, all the Personas you build out, aren't going to get beyond that. They're just people. So listen, be there. And I don't have my slides in front of me, so I'm like, getting ahead of myself. We were worried about this. So really you just have to listen to what folks are saying and take that in. And it's not scalable and it's difficult to optimize, but you have to do it, and that's where you'll truly learn what your consumers want. The second point, in addition to listening, the same way entrepreneurs are driven to, like, talk about how amazing their business is, many of us have been driven to talk about how amazing our products are. They've got the best new features or it's the coolest new thing. I realize plants and zombies 2 is really, really cool, but when it comes right down to it, you need to focus on the most humble aspects of your product, because that's where you're engaging with another person. That's where the humanity lies. When it comes right down to it, no matter how cool your iPhone app is, you're really just trying to convince a person to take their warm little finger and place it on a Cold piece of glass. And if you don't improve that experience, if you don't give them the reason to do that, you're never going to succeed. So think of those most humble elements of what you're doing and why you're trying to accomplish it. My final point. I have someone I've worked with for a long time who's become a good friend. She is one of those instigators within a large corporation. And because of that, she gets into a lot of heated discussions with people arguing about why they should do things or why they shouldn't do things. And she carries a little piece of paper around in her pocket that has this phrase on it, he might be right. And anytime things get really heated, she kind of reaches down into her pocket and feels that piece of paper just to remind herself that you should listen to that other person's position. Now, I take it a little further. This is the phrase I use to anchor my I could be wrong. I think so often we get in a position where we feel like we have to defend ourselves or feel like we have to promote ourselves, when you might actually not be right. The person you're talking to might have a better point. And just an easy phrase like I could be wrong can change everything from a conversation you're having about work to that person who ran into you at the airport and ran over your toe with the luggage. Your initial response is, well, that jerk. Why'd they do that? Well, maybe they're late. Maybe they have to. Maybe this is the last flight out to go see a loved one. Maybe you're just wrong. So think about it. I could be wrong. So listen, think about the most humble elements of your product and really be willing to admit that you. That someone else may be right and you could be wrong. And I'm confident that these elements will help you, not only in business, but in life. Because what this does is instead of killing it by being humble, you're now killing assumptions. And by crushing it, you're now crushing miscommunication by actually listening, participating, and being present. I, for one, think all of us could use a lot more humility in our lives. Then again, I could be wrong. Thank you.