Tell me about your vision.
So my vision is that I found an event mindset
to allow people to realize that anyone,
whether you're an introvert or an extrovert,
can be comfortable and confident at business networking
and social events.
And my vision is that an event is like Earth.
And by that, I mean you need the right amount of oxygen
in the room for any event to be successful.
And that requires a mix of introverts and extroverts.
And if you want to take the Earth metaphor a little bit
further, if you have a party or you have a business
or a networking event and there's 100 introverts
in the room, there's not enough oxygen in the room
and it can appear lifeless and there's not
enough room for oxygen for things to grow
and for life to happen.
If you have 100 extroverts in a room,
you wind up with too much oxygen in the air
and everyone knows what happens when there's too much oxygen
in a space.
Things tend to explode.
So I really, my whole vision for this
is to really empower everybody to bring their best
selves into an event and realize that there
is a place for them no matter how outgoing or not outgoing
you are.
Wow, that is a very unique way to put it.
That's very intriguing for me to know more about.
Rob, where did you think this vision come from?
So my vision came from two different tracks.
And I know I have a very different professional path
than most people.
So I spent my first 15 years in my professional journey
as a technology sales and brand ambassador.
So I was in client facing situations pretty much
all the time on a regular basis.
I handled stuff on a national level,
on a regional level for the Americas, and a global level.
And about 15 years ago, I started moonlighting writing
as a social columnist for top philanthropic and nonprofit
fundraising events throughout the state of Texas.
And not just in Austin, where I live, but also Houston, Dallas,
and San Antonio.
And for about five years, I was doing both.
And I realized along the way that I
was going to a lot of really, really bad business meals
and a lot of really bad industry conferences
when I was in the tech industry.
To the point where in the last year
I was in the tech industry before I transitioned out
of it, I would often, if I had a meeting, say, in New York,
I would actually deliberately stay in Philadelphia or Boston
so I could take the train and literally not
have to go to that business meal.
So they really became that difficult for me.
So I transitioned out and I basically
became a writer full time going to all these different business
networking, social events, and galas.
Coming out of COVID, what I realized
was that so many people, even people
who were really good at events, were really rusty.
And I also realized along the way
that there needs to be a mix, like I said earlier,
of introverts and extroverts to really optimize an event
and really it's the fusion of those two worlds
that have me create this vision of event mindset
so that me, as an introvert myself, I found
and I wouldn't have gotten invited
to 2,000 different events if there wasn't a place for me
as an introvert.
And that's where my vision came from.
Thank you for sharing that, Rob.
My next question for you goes around the same way.
What is your why of what you do?
What gets you out of bed every morning
that you are on the show and you do your writing
and all those things together?
Why do you do that?
I do my why because I want everyone
to realize that there is a place for them at any type of event.
And so often people have the misconception,
a lot of companies are very guilty of doing this.
There is an industry conference.
They will send the most extroverted person.
But if you're going to an industry conference,
the goal might be to gather intelligence
about your competitors or information about your clients.
If you send an extrovert, they're
going to be much less skilled or not have as many tools
as an introvert to obtain that really valuable information.
So my why is realizing that not the biggest
personality in the room is not always the best
person to be at an event.
And it really takes all different types
of personality types for an event to be successful.
And there are places in both a professional
and a personal context for people to private events.
It's just understanding who you are,
what you bring to the table.
And my why is really helping people understand and uncover
what makes them uniquely them so that they feel comfortable
at any event they're at.
Wow.
But it takes a lot from a company,
I'm assuming, to actually focus on these things
when sending people to events.
And I'm sure you face a lot of these challenges
or when you talk to CEOs or COOs or even people
in charge of these events.
What challenges do you face?
What holds you back in those cases?
Or what holds them back in those cases?
I think what holds people back is
that the biggest personality attracts the most attention
and that's what's necessary in an event.
And my biggest challenge is telling people
and telling corporate leaders that being noticed
is not always a good thing.
Sometimes it's a bad thing.
And yes, there is such thing, having a media background,
there is no such thing as bad publicity.
But if you're spending a lot of money
to send your employees to an event,
you want to get the most ROI out of it possible.
So you really have to stop and think.
And what I really do, especially with CEOs
and C-level people is, there have been studies done.
70% of C-level executives are introverts.
They're not extroverts.
So it's really kind of realizing,
well, you got to where you are as an introvert.
So you don't have to send the biggest personality
to get ahead.
As a matter of fact, at the end of the day,
a lot of times the introverts ultimately win at the end.
If you look at the data with the amount of CEOs
that are introverted versus extroverted.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.