Marylou:    Jorge Soto is a self proclaimed startup fanatic. He’s been on a journey from an employee of Twitter to a mission aimed at inspiring new entrepreneurs to community. Jorge is a consultant for Node.io and has also launched Soto Ventures Media as an educational hub and community for entrepreneurs.    In this podcast, Jorge reveals his fundamental truth for sales, thoughts on becoming a fantastic leader, tips for getting in the right sales mindset, and we end it with discussion of the new book that I’m releasing called Predictable Prospecting. Jorge:               Yes. Wow. Quite a few things, I left Twitter in February of last year. I went to start a company so that I’ve been working on this idea. The idea was trying to simplify the workflow inside of Sales Force for the STR, right? Marylou:          Yeah. Jorge:               The inside sales rep that’s getting a bunch of leads in and needs a better visual queue. I’d really like the user experience that you see, there’s a tool called Trello. Are you familiar with Trello? Marylou:          I use it. Jorge:               Got it. Yes. If you think about Trello, Pipe Drive’s another one, I always thought about the spreadsheet. Why do we always default to the spreadsheet for basically everything? I said what if we created the user experience inside of Sales Force that had columns that represented the steps. For me it was like, why I think spreadsheets are so great. One of the reasons is that you can visually see the world of things you’re working on. Anyways, we built this application called Dashtab. I’ve been trying to solve this problem for a long time. I started the company in 2011 through an incubator that didn’t quite work out. I was able to end up partnering with a great engineering team that was excited about solving this problem with me. Actually, it was shocking. I decided to quit Twitter and do that. We launched a product and it was great. It’s still out there. At one point, this was in the summer time of last year. I just burned out. The company, my partners at that time who I’m still very good friends with, they had a software consulting business that they really, really were monetizing well. We just said, what do we want? What do we want for our lives? They had spent a lot of time building this consulting business. We just decided, “Hey, let’s continue to offer the product as kind of a line item around services solution.” I decided to start traveling Europe. I left and started traveling Europe and China. I did eight countries over the course of a couple of months in 2015. It was the best year of my life. I would say one of the best years, certainly as an adult. I guess that’s what I call myself these days. That was just really, really eye opening. What was interesting was right before I left to travel, I met the founder, a woman by the name of Falon Fatemi, founder of a startup of called Node.io. I really loved what she was doing. She was really trying to personalize the web and doing some very interesting things. She has a very big IPO massive business idea. One of the biggest things she wanted to after use case was solving the SAAS sales use case. She wanted to be able to plug into Salesforce, automatically understand what accounts you should be going after, who are the contacts within those accounts, how, what you should say when you‘re about to prospect, about to pick up the phone. It fell in line with this whole account based sales and marketing world which is not a new concept, it’s not a new jargon or anything. I just really liked this approach that she was taking. As soon as I got back from Europe, I started consulting with her the rest of year. I fell in love with the team, a great engineering team. Fallon’s a great visionary. That’s what I’m doing now full time. But then I have this, I don’t know what it is. It’s a community called Soto Ventures. Soto Ventures community is very, very interesting. It’s my last name, right? It’s so tied to me in a very intimate way. It started with me buying this domain about 13 years ago. I had an LLC called Soto Ventures. I did a bunch of random stuff around the time that I left Twitter and started Dashtab. My instinct just told me, “Hey, you what? You want to make sure that you continue to build your personal brand.” I launched it. It was supposed to be my personal blog, something was fun. As I started to travel Europe, I started doing these like motivational speaking things in Spain. Marylou:          Wonderful. Jorge:               Yeah, it was insane. It ended up becoming this community. Now, again it’s not a non-profit, it’s not even a business. I like to call it a community or movement. We’re Soto Ventures. It’s a community that’s focused on inspiring and educating entrepreneurship around the world. There’s been some really interesting that have happened. Anyways, that’s a long winded, obviously a lot more there. That’s kind of what I’m up to now. Again, the focus is Node and building this community which again, it’s been a lot of fun. People are getting involved all over the world. These are individuals who care about building their personal brand, of course, but also care about their communities. I have a gentleman, I can’t pronounce his last name, but Brad. He’s based in Detroit. He came up to me. He’s going to be upset if he watches this video. I’m sorry Brad, but I don’t want to butcher your last name for everyone. He came up to me at Saastr. We were chatting, he was based in Detroit. He works for Level Eleven. They do leaderboards and gamification to help sales teams. Marylou:          Okay. Jorge:               You look at that whole sales productivity space. It’s one of the hot ones. I would say, I would actually call it like a first mover there, innovator in that space. They’ve been around for many years. They have a solid team. He’s a rep there. Somehow by the end of the night, we ended up deciding to launch Soto Ventures Detroit. It’s very interesting. Obviously, his day job is that, it’s not a huge time commitment but the thesis was let’s help him build his brand in Detroit as an enthusiast of start ups. The underlying energy or mission was really interesting because everyone knows Detroit had some issues economically, right, or that Michigan as a state. The idea was imagine if we can stimulate some growth there, some thoughtfulness around entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a very interesting movement that’s going on right now. I think it’s building the economy’s future. It was just really nice to be able to partner up with Brad. That’s a really good example of the types of stuff that are happening just everywhere. That’s something that’s really near my heart. Marylou:          The thesis was you said was getting communities together. Is it rallied around entrepreneurship? Also, is it rallied around SAAS or is it just people who feel that sense of community, want to extend their brand? Where are you now in exploring that? Jorge:               The community, it’s interesting that the overarching mission is entrepreneurship, educating and inspiring folks to even launch business start up and to offer business of courses of focus. But not necessarily only SAAS, right? But the funny thing there is that in my core competency, what I’m involve with her, most of my career, it’s been SAAS, web based products, B2B. I had never really gone that long. It’s a couple of experience that never really worked out. It’s not a complete focus on B2B SAAS but because I spend a lot of time in the folks in my immediate network, our typical B2B SAAS, there is a sort of correction towards that. I didn’t own that kind of business. I needed to focus somewhere and be able to have immediate value. We’re talking mostly about SAAS and B2B and that kind of stuff. I guess in the short term I would really put more focus on that. The important thing is I will going to be teach people how to launch an viable products, and how to launch application, that new sorts of things, and to understand how to build this software. I’m obviously not an engineer so I can’t go up there and teach them how to build an application. However, I can sit down and the community, the folks that we’re bringing on, they can talk about how do I as a non technical cofounder launch a business, right? How do I understand how to work with engineers? If I have an idea, how do I get really excited about the idea, recruit a technical cofounder and then build a product in following a process that’s actually intelligent? Those sorts of things. The life of a non technical cofounder is very painful. I would have to say someone trying to get to build software businesses who can’t actually write any code is nearly miserable, but it’s doable. Just trying to teach those processes from that perspective. I’ve been blessed to be able to have a ton of engineers in my network, real friends that were engineers who are also getting involved with this community, who can talk to how do you actually build these things. Marylou:          Are you thinking that it’s going to end up being an exchange of maybe matchmaking between engineering people and people who have a vision but don’t necessarily have teams that can carry out the vision? Or are you focusing on getting conversation started and starting to think through with the MVP emphasis, not only products but conversations in getting those products launched? Jorge:               Yeah. Marylou:          Where are you at? All of the above? Jorge:               All of the above. Its interesting because people ask me all the time, “What is that thing?” Literally everyday. I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know, actually. The beauty is that I don’t have to know cause we’re not monetizing it. There’s no focus and stress of I have a business now, we have investors, we have all the stuff. That’s what the day job’s about, right? I feel like you got to be able to have a creative outlet. This is my creative outlet. I literally love this stuff. This is what I’ve been doing my entire adult life. I’m going to be 35 this year. Not that I’m old, I’m still very young, still have a lot to learn. I’ve been focused on this very mission since I was 21 years old. 14 years of my life that I focused on trying to become an entrepreneur and trying to become a successful entrepreneur and trying to build businesses and the whole thing. For me, it’s important that I have a creative outlet that is not necessarily tied to revenue or tied to some sort of expectation, or have to answer to anybody. That’s probably one of the biggest things I love about being your own businesses owner, it’s just that you don’t have to answer to anyone. I think I was always a rebellious child. My mother tells me even as a little guy, I never wanted to listen to anyone. Marylou:          Beat your own drum, right? Jorge:               Yeah. However, I think at some point you got to say hey you know what, Rome was not built alone. Your team is probably the most important thing. If you think about an evolution in an entrepreneur’s life, I can certainly speak for myself. I think the sales stuff is easy, in my opinion. It’s kind of like fundamental truth, it never changes. Okay, the technology changed, what you’re selling changed, the story changes, but the fundamental truths are always there. What I mean by that is I was actually doing an interview last night with a friend of mine, Andy Veneda Smith. She’s involved with Soto Ventures but she runs a recruiting firm. We’re talking about the fundamental truths in sales. If you think about it, there’s always going to be a point where there is a person or organization that you’re trying to sell to or getting contact with. Now, how that happens, I don’t know. Like in the past, you’d have to get a phonebook and dial up a thousand numbers trying to break in. That was the entry point. Marylou:          Or for you, knocking on doors. Jorge:               Exactly, we’re knocking on doors. The context behind the question she is asking me was what’s social selling thing and all that. What’s the future? I get the whole trend and marketing jargon and stuff like that. But in social selling, of course I’m going to do that. I’m going to do whatever I need to do to build my brand and allow people to understand who I am so I can, if I’m selling something, sell them something, right? Assuming there’s value and I’m doing it ethically, obviously. I think that’s what I mean fundamental truth. When the fundamental truth is again, I’m trying to get in contact with you, how I do that, how that happens, what channel I use, those are the things I think that vary. Sales, what I was saying earlier, sales for me I feel like it’s easy. It’s always been easy. It’s all about how much effort can I put forth. How much can I keep my attitude in check? How can I not get negative when the no’s are coming, I can’t get through, and all that sort of stuff, discipline and stuff. Assuming those variables are I’m fine with, I think it’s pretty easy. It’s always been easy. I think the thing that I’ve really been thinking about now is mindfulness and leadership and what leadership really is. I thought I was a leader at some point. For such a long time, I’m like yeah, I’m a leader, I can lead and build businesses and run groups and these sorts of things. I realized maybe my intention was there but like real true leadership is not even about you, it’s about others. It’s about inspiring others, making them better. Once you’re a leader, again, it’s not about you. That’s kind of a good interesting thought. So if it’s not about you, it’s about your team, motivating, inspiring, and growing, and making them better. How do you now do that at a high level and deal with you own shenanigans in your own head, your own ego, in your own insecurities, your own, all that sort of stuff. How do you keep calm when the stuff hit the fan? Those are things that I think a lot about now. How do you become a fantastic leader? That’s what’s hard right now. I don’t know that I’ll ever master that, I think that’s an ever evolving sort of mindset and skill set and experience. That’s one of the things that I’m super focused on now. How do you build influence? Do it in an appropriate way because the other things is I think with leadership comes tremendous responsibility. That’s not always easy, right? Marylou:          Yeah. Jorge:               I think leadership is also, there’s opportunities to lead by example. There’s opportunities to be an influencer for good. That’s my personal sort of opinion and decision is that I want to be a leader that doesn’t use intimidation and all these other silly tactics. I think if you look at leadership at its core, yeah sure. There were plenty of leaders out there and today that use these other negative tactics to lead and influence and get things done. I think that’s it, get things done. But for me, it’s beyond just getting things done. It’s getting things done in the right way, getting things done that makes me happy about how I’m living my life. I think that if you’re a true leader, then whatever it is that you’re leading, you got to be passionate about, you got to be hopefully be all in. When you put everything into something, you put your heart and soul into something, good things happen. If you’re leading that group of individuals, gosh, again you just have a very important responsibility to do the right thing and lead by example. That is not easy, right? Marylou:          No, no, no, no. Getting back to Detroit connection, you think this idea, this notion of enriching other’s lives under a leadership umbrella is what got Brad excited? What was the one thing you think that got him to say, “Oh my gosh, we should open up a branch in Detroit now.” Jorge:               Yeah. I don’t know if he had too many drinks. I don’t know necessarily, I’m actually looking something up because I wanted to read you a couple of quotes. I think that with Brad, he was a fan of videos. I put out tons of videos over the years,  content, and stuff. Since he was at a startup in sales, I think he was an audience consumer of the content and stuff. He appreciated it. He was a fan of the stuff that we were doing. I think that he was inspired by it and wanted to try to bring that or get involved. I think if I’m remembering the conversation accurately, he wanted to get involved within some capacity. Immediately, I said after he said some very kind things, okay well, your community needs you. Imagine if you’re able to help your community a little bit and stimulate some economic growth there. Just embed some seeds in two people’s’ minds. That ends up building a business that’s meaningful to that economy. At the same time, I think it’s totally fair to say he wants to build his brand too within the tech startup community. As long as you’re doing the right things, you’re impacting people’s lives in positive ways, that’s perfectly fine. My agenda’s very clear too. I want to build my personal brand, I think that’s fine. Kinen. Do you know Kinen? He wrote this book, he talks about doing business, how do you do business, how do you become successful these days. Building a digital presence and building a brand is super powerful. In terms of Brad, I think that’s what he was, what his intention is. We’re doing our first event in Detroit. I unfortunately can’t go out there cause I have no time to breathe but that’s why we’re chatting. Marylou:          Really? Jorge:               We’re doing our event, our first event in April next month. Super exciting, with Level Eleven and Detroit Venture partners. It’s at some really fantastic venue there. I think that’s what it was. He was trying to help his community, build his personal brand, and just do something that can also be a creative outlet for him that doesn’t have to be tied to any revenue goal or something. Marylou:          Or any outcome, yeah. Jorge:               Or any outcome, yeah. Exactly. It’s just fun. The analogy that I like to use is I’m an artist. I painted that back there. I don’t know what it is. I play guitar and I love creative stuff. The analogy is during the day. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, depending on my mood and my mindset. I might say working, for someone else it’s ban but I’m blessed right now that I’m in a good situation. You could almost think about playing guitar, painting. During the daytime, you’re getting a paycheck from someone else to paint and play guitar. You’re receiving feedback around how they want that painting to look or how that song should be, the words to the song. That’s fine. You can make money, gotta pay your bills, etc. At some point, you’re an artist. You want to paint your own picture, you want to sing your own song. For me. there needs to be that outlet where I can come home and sing my own song, and play my own guitar, and paint my own picture. For me, that’s the core, that was how Soto Ventures started. That I think is what I loved about entrepreneurship in general, is that kind of being able to apply that concept. Marylou:          Yeah, that’s great. I can totally relate to that. I’ve been a solo entrepreneur since 1985 before it was fashionable. I was in sales so I could afford to do that. But I’m with you 100% on the creative outlet. I’m an engineer, I’m a software engineer. What I do with my spare fun time is I still create code, I still write code. To me, that’s my creative outlet. I love it. But because I’ve been in sales and marketing for so long now, the expectation is I continue along that path. But if there’s an opportunity to pick up a programming job here or there, I will definitely do that. Jorge:               I won’t argue that that probably makes you super, super thoughtful around sales and marketing too because of the way you might approach the problems in sales and marketing has a very thinking as an engineer which I totally appreciate. Marylou:          Well, that process. Anything process oriented. That’s why the way I teach even clients, that’s the reason why I have a new book coming out. I’ve put it into a process that’s easy to follow, that’s step by step, that they don’t have to freak out or worry about. Okay, what are you to think about? It’s all laid out. Like you said, the channels change, some of the methodologies change, some of the way we approach people changes but the underlying foundational framework is there for them to follow. Jorge:               Can we talk about the book for a second or is it too early? Marylou:          Yeah, we can talk about it. Jorge:               Just talk about the book. I want to hear about it. Marylou:          It’s funny how it all started. I was working with a client in New York. I did a two day immersion class for them. I walked them through the normal, I have a table of elements, it’s 28 steps now. It evolved from Predictable Revenue which I think was five. Jorge:               Kudos, by the way. Marylou:          Thank you. Jorge:               You like basically changed the world. Marylou:          Oh Aaron is just, yeah he’s great. Jorge:               Shout out to Aaron Ross. Marylou:          Shout out to Aaron. And your 12 children. Jorge:               I know. I literally love that guy. Marylou:          I know, he’s just great. We kind of moved on from there because people were getting stuck in certain areas of the pipeline. I saw that as I started working with accounts. I decided, I’m going to create an extension of Predictable Revenue and really look at the conversational elements, kind of bolt on my process knowledge. Then, I was teaching this class and I finished, it was a two day. Finished it and the Executive VP of Sales and Marketing came up to me after and he said, “I have never been taught the way you just taught us. You need to put this in a book.” I was like, “I don’t know.” He says I’ll tell you what, “I’ll write the book for you.” Turns out he’s an author that has done ten books already on various topics. What we did is we got together over the summer. I outlined everything that I wanted to talk about. He recorded me for two hours every week for I think eight or nine weeks. We took those notes and put it into the new book. It’s all about that little slice of the pipeline that cold working and qualified in nurture is still where I focus my efforts. It really gives them a good blueprint of how to go about it. We actually include emails in there cause email’s just always a big kind of like, “Why can’t we see the emails for Predictable Revenue?” I just threw them in there to the book that we’re launching in August. It’s been fun. It’s great getting feedback. That book is written by my clients. They’re the ones who helped extend where we were with Predictable Revenue in 2011 to where we are now. Whatever you see in those pages is the work that we did together since 2011. Jorge:               That’s awesome. Marylou:          Yeah. Jorge:               When is it? Marylou:          August. I know it’s a long time away. It’s getting published by a publisher, so it’s kind of out of my hand as to when things get released. Jorge:               Yeah. Marylou:          Now what we’re doing is looking for opportunities for people to review the book and give me the brutally honest feedback. What’s boring, what I don’t understand. Also give me some idea of the bonuses that they would like to see as part of the launch of the book. Part of this is to reach out to people who I know, love and respect and say, “Hey, tell me what would make you like just transform if you have the book, and whatever else you need in order to get going on this whole idea of qualified opportunities in the pipeline?” Jorge:               Awesome. Marylou:          Yeah. Jorge:               I’m excited. I’d love to help out of any way possible. Marylou:          Yeah. I know, it’s really funny because I live in Des Moines, Iowa. There’s this concept called Lunch and Learn here where you walk in and you teach. It’s just been great. There’s a couple startups, not a lot here, see rapid test of pretty big start up communities. I went up there and ended my spiel, it’s been great. I don’t usually work a lot with startups but I’m gravitated towards them because of the fact that I too am them. I worked either selling, creating, or peddling disruptive products way back when. I can totally understand and relate to where they are in that life span. The work that you’re doing is just incredible leadership, much needed for sure. Jorge:               I’m excited about your book. I forgot a lot the first time we met. I remember meeting you in Seattle. We’re doing that event with the Outreach.io folks that we worked. I remember having such a pleasant conversation with you there. Marylou:          Yeah. I remember your talk was about the phone. I immediately connected with you because one of the things that I recognize with the younger crowd is that we tend to want to rely on email a lot. Having that conversation as you mentioned in the early part of this broadcast, the conversation on the phone, or just one on one with your person whoever that is, is so important. It’s still all about relationships. I’m not saying you can’t have a relationship with email but getting on the phone with that person and really hearing the tonality of their voice and listening to the stress if they’re in a situation where they’re under stuff to do. You can’t get that in an email. Jorge:               Yeah. Marylou:          I loved your talk about the cold scripting. You don’t have to re-permit but you practice it. I thought that was the greatest thing ever. Jorge:               Thank you, I appreciate it. In terms of phones, I always thought about the phone is the most direct, well not the most direct but we know what we’re looking at email versus phone. Email for me is just a method of getting contact with you assuming that that’s the only way I can do it, to get you on the phone, to hop on the phone, to be able to, as you mentioned here the human behind the email. It drives me a bit nuts whenever I see folks who are just only on email and they’re trying to sell on email. Unless it’s some sort of low price point transactional thing where you’re selling 200 of those things a day or something like that, you got to hop on the phone and connect with the human and have that conversation and really be able to walk them through what’s going on. Obviously, it’s tough. People are rude because it’s not personal but they’re getting those kind of calls, or they don’t know how to actually have that conversation or receive that call. There’s a variety of things. As I was mentioning earlier, the mindfulness and discipline of detaching yourself from how that call might go, negative or positive and just doing your job and following the process, following those steps in the conversation. That’s what’s important, right? But it is hard, right? It is much easier just send an email and get a, “Hey, don’t email me back or unsubscribe,” or all the other responses that you get. That’s much easier to just and someone saying, “Hey buddy, stop calling me. This is my cellphone. Hit the road.” Marylou:          Great. Jorge:               That’s much harder, right? Marylou:          Right, but I think your concept of I’m finding the buyer, I think there is one video you did on that topic. That just really hit home with me because you are locating the person with whom you could have an enriching conversation and to see if you’re a fit or not. Going back to Predictable Revenue at the AWAF call, Aaron and I invented that acronym in New York City. You’re really genuinely trying to find if you’re a good fit or not. That’s it. Jorge:               Yeah, right. For me, it’s so important to have that mindset. When we were doing door to door sales, I was in graduate school and I was selling, I talk about this all the time. I literally say what I just said a million times because it was such an impactful experience for me. It taught me everything that I believe that I know in sales. One of the things that my manager, who by the way I’m so excited. We’re doing a video series called Leadership by Bryan Ross. I have one video. We’re both all super busy but we’re getting these things recorded. What he used to always tell me was, “You got to get your mind right. You gotta have this story and this mission that you’re focused on everyday as you’re doing these calls.” We were doing door to door. That was the most— Marylou:          Most difficult. Jorge:               Most difficult, yeah. Because it’s so personal. Because you’re in front of the person and there’s this moment where they’re like, “Who’s the stranger in front of me and my door?” You have those instinctual defense things that you got to deal with too. Breaking through that is really interesting. I think that after knocking on thousands of doors, you start to understand there are five ways that this could turn out, there aren’t a thousand. As long as I prepare myself for each of those things, those outcomes, that’s fine. I should have that expectation that that’s how it could go. One of those could be they curse at you and say, “Hey, I’m going to call the cops, get off my doorstep.” After that’s happened to you a couple of times, that’s part of it. For me that’s ego, its thickening your skin. Those sorts of things which, if you think about, do we talk about that as leaders and managers at work? No. So many of us, we’re not even aware that that kind of stuff even exists. Our mindfulness, or self-awareness, or awareness of how we operate within that sales scenario. That’s a life thing, human thing, but we don’t talk about it. We don’t arm our people with the right information that’s going to get them through those challenging moments. Anyone can sell when it’s easy, when everyone’s saying yes. That’s why inbound, working at Google, and I love Google as a company and this and that. But there’s no way that working at Facebook, Google or one of this established businesses. I worked at Twitter for a little bit, it was a piece of cake prospecting, it was a joke. It’s like, “Hey, I’m calling you from Twitter.” “Oh, yeah.” “Can we talk now?” It’s a joke, right? That experience is quite different than you’re an early stage startup or you’re a company that’s maybe not well known which is most of the planet. You’re going to get people who are not going to want to talk to you or are not going to communicate in the nicest way all of the time. So, again, I think that the point here for me is how do we arm our people to have their mind right to be able to understand the possible outcomes and be able to have an often kind of awareness to be able to effectively deal with that throughout their day and not let it mess with the resolve, and not let it mess with their attitude. Once your attitude’s gone, you’re in trouble, right? Marylou:          Right. Jorge:               Then it’s like, oh man. Then you’re going oh my god, I hate this. Maybe I should’ve gone to law school, maybe I should’ve whatever, right. Why am I a salesperson? My dad was right. Especially as an entrepreneur, you got to deal with that forever. You’re constantly just dealing with the most negative things at times but you gotta build that result. Marylou:          Right, right. As we tie this up, what advice would you give for someone who’s listening now and thinking, “Wow. I do want to be a really good leader, I want to be able to move my charges whether they’re virtual or they’re actual employees, or 1099 contracts,” or whatever the team looks like. What advice would you give and how can people learn more about what you’re doing? Jorge:               I think the first thing, I want to read off a couple quotes here. I think it’s developing a tremendous level of self-awareness. Start to look at us as humans. How do we as humans deal with things? How do I deal with a negative thought, or a negative situation? How am I going to deal with my own ego when my rep or my employee or my partner has a bad day? Or I’m having a bad day and I need to deal with these other things, right? How do I make my people better? How do I now become selfless, because that is now what happens. If you’re in a leadership decision, wake up. It’s not about you, right? Marylou:          Right. Jorge:               Period. If you want to be an individual contributor, that’s fine. You should not be leading anyone because it’s not about you. I think it’s okay to say, “Hey look, I got an ego and I feel like I can do all these great things and I’m super strong and can do all these great whatever.” That’s okay to have that confidence and trip on your shoulder but I think you have to be able to say, “Okay well, now how do I transfer that energy to be able to make my people better?” This is what really really aggravates me when I see people in leadership or manager positions. First of all, I hate the whole manager concept but because in my opinion they don’t do it right. I hate to see those folks in there and they’re just freaking out scared not to get fired. You ever see this where you see these managers or leaders who are just freaking out because everything’s about how do they not look bad within the organization. They just completely totally forget about the fact that they have to lead some folks, and inspire some folks, and make these other folks better. It’s almost like plugging holes or following process. That’s just absolutely not the case in my opinion. It’s not the objective there. Again, how do you make your people better? How do you serve your team? How do you make them great? How do you develop leaders if you’re an STR manager? If you’re an STR manager and you’re dealing with young guys and girls. Some of them coming out of college, some of them are early in their career. How do you make them rock stars? How do you make them leaders? How do you teach them the things that maybe you’re slightly out of the scope of what their day to day is but you know it’s in their best interest because you are there, you’ve been there. Those are the things that I would encourage folks to think about. It’s not about you, it’s about others. I did this blog post at sotoventures.com. Basically, I spoke, I literally texted and sent emails about 36 of my friends, business associates and I asked them one question. Marylou I’m sorry, I should’ve pinned you on this. I ask them one question, I asked them what is leadership. The intention was for them to send back a text message length response but I pinned Mark Cuban, who’s a Dallas Maverick’s owner, he’s also one of the investors in Node. He says, “Having a vision for success that everyone takes ownership of,” which I love. My father who’s an organizational psychologist says, “Leadership requires the ability to take the initiative to get things done.” I appreciate that. Actually, Aaron Ross, our mutual friend says, “Leadership is tuning out all of the freaking noise to listen to yourself and feel out what’s most important, needs to be done, or just plain right even when others think you’re crazy. If you’re not crazy or called crazy once in awhile, you’re managing, not leading.” I love that. A couple other ones, Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group, “Leadership is when you don’t have to ask your team to get motivated because you are what motivates them.” The list goes on and on here. As you read through these things, you start to go wow. It’s not even about me. Kyle Porter at Salesloft, “Leadership is serving others through influence and love to accomplish more than they believe possible.” I like to think of that as the breaking belief barriers. The concept that I held dear to my heart. A couple other ones here, Tomasz Tunguz, he’s the venture capitalist of Redpoint. His blog is super crazy right now. It’s super popular. He says, “Great leadership begins with great compassion.” Anyways, the common theme here is it’s not about you, it’s about them, it’s about your team, about your employees, about others. Anyways, there’s a ton more there. I just noticed a typo of that’s driving me crazy. I’m the typo king, I don’t know why I can’t get over not making typos but anyways. Marylou:          That’s okay. That’s alright. Editor, get a VA that’s a great editor. Jorge:               I know. Marylou:          That’s one thing great about the book with the publisher involved. There’s a whole staff of people that edit, and make things sound better, and humanize it a little bit better because you don’t want the whole thing to sound like a big engineering book. It’s cool. Jorge:               Totally. Marylou:          How do people get a hold of you? How do people get a hold of you to help you with your Soto Ventures? Jorge:               Yeah. Email j@sotoventures.com. Twitter @sotoventures. LinkedIn, I just signed up to Snapchat and I’m trying to figure out how to use this Snapchat thing which is going to be something. These things, whether it’s Snapchat, or Periscope, or some other streaming thing that comes out. I think that media, there’s something about that. Just email me if anyone wants to get involved. We’re looking for ambassadors all over the world. We have regional Twitter handles that are compiling information about the sort of influencers in the startup community in those cities. We follow their handles and automatically post their tweets to our Soto Ventures, let’s say Austine Handle. We’re looking for folks to volunteer to be part of that community or those efforts. Marylou:          Just so you know, the crowd that I serve, if you’re working at a larger company and you’re a business developer or you’re a sales manager, it applies to you too. It’s not just a startup company venture. It’s for anyone who is in an organization where there is a team aspect and you’re responsible for livelihood, the enrichment, the transformation of your team. Jorge, that you so much for your time. It’s been great catching up. Jorge:               Absolutely. Marylou:          Keep me posted of what’s going on. We’re very anxious to hear how things went. If this crowd can help in any way, we will certainly do that. Jorge:               Thank you so much. I’d love to take a look at the book when it’s available and spread the love. Marylou:          Okay, great. Thank you so much. You can critique it, a really honest critique is where I’m at right now. I’m looking for those wonderful people. Aaron actually did the forward of the book. He’s already looked at it and given it the Aaron stamp of approval. Jorge:               Nice. Marylou:          Thanks again. Jorge:               Thank you. Have a great day. Marylou:          You too. Bye. Jorge:               Bye.