Summary
Joe outlines four ways that cultivating connection drives business success: product development, intuition in meetings, team performance, and sales. Connection starts internally—a deep breath, paying attention to your body, being grateful—and doesn’t require anyone else to participate.
He shares the story of a CEO with five $100M+ exits who attributed his success to deeply connecting with customers before building anything, essentially letting the product be designed by the connection rather than by his own ideas. Joe extends the principle to meetings (feeling when something’s off), teams (the best teams always feel connected), and sales (which is really just listening to find problems you can solve).
Key Concepts
- Connection starts within, not between people
- Products designed by connection, not ideas
- Disconnection precedes company decline
- Sales is connecting, not convincing
Key Quotes
“Connection is something that you can find right now in this moment. It doesn’t require anybody else.”
“He would refine all these questions through a deep sense of connection with the different people that would potentially buy his product, and when he did he had this perfect product already designed because it wasn’t designed by him—it was designed by the connection he had with the customer.”
“I have never ever worked with a team and asked them what do you want from a team and somebody said disconnection.”
“You don’t have to convince anybody of anything. If you have to convince people to buy, well then you have something that they don’t want.”
Transcript
in this video we’re going to talk about how cultivating connection can make you very successful and we’re going to talk about four different ways it can do that my name is Joe Hudson I’m a former venture capitalist and now I’m an executive coach to some of the most notable people in Silicon Valley connection is something that you can find right now in this moment it doesn’t require anybody else you can just feel deeply connected with yourself a deep breath makes you feel more connected paying attention to your body makes you feel more connected being grateful makes you feel more connected and I can feel connected to you even if you don’t feel connected to me so connection isn’t dependent on anybody else it’s really just the way that you stand towards the world the way that you participate in the world so now that we know what connection is let’s talk about four examples of how connection can totally change your business and your life so first let’s talk about product there was a CEO that I met successful many many many times over I think it was like five successful companies all of them were exits for over $100 million and I said how do you do it he said oh what I do is I really connect with a group of customers and I find exactly the problem that they have that nobody is solving and then I build that product so I don’t even go out and think about building a product until I know I can sell it so he would ask them all these questions about what their problems are what are they facing what’s wrong what do they hate about their jobs and then he would ask questions like oh if I had a solution like this what would be required what how would you assess it how would you know it was a good solution and he would refine all these questions through a deep sense of connection with the different people that would potentially buy his product and when he did he had like this perfect product already designed cuz it wasn’t designed by him it was designed by the connection he had with the customer and so by the time he built it he already had a sales pitch that he knew would work he already knew what he needed to say how he needed to say it so that people could buy the product he felt like I am solving a problem that they have and it’s making them happier so it makes me feel good that this is what I’m doing for a living so here’s something that everybody in management really knows about it’s when they’re in a meeting and something doesn’t feel quite right now do you say something about it do you recognize it after you leave the meeting do you recognize it right in the moment what do you do when you recognize it all those questions revolve around your sense of connection if you feel deeply connected with yourself you’re going to feel that problem right away if you feel deeply connected with yourself you’re going to make sure that you bring that up hey this doesn’t feel right what am I missing now if your whole team does it and everybody feels connected enough with each other that they can say those hard things oh this doesn’t feel quite right what happens is that you solve the problems before they actually get to the market you solve the problems before you actually execute and that dub Tails really nicely into number three how connection helps teams and this one’s really easy to understand think about the best team experience you’ve ever had ever here’s something I can tell you if you’ve had a good team experience you felt connected you felt connected with the team you felt connected with the coach or at least the team or at least the coach there’s a feeling of connection that great teams have they feel like they are working with each other for each other they feel like they can depend on each other I have never ever worked with a team and asked them what do you want from a team and somebody said disconnection and when you feel connected You’re motivated you show up for each other you do things that you wouldn’t normally do for somebody that you hate or somebody that you feel disconnected from if teams do not feel connected they will not be Peak performers at best they will be subpar and if you go into companies that are on the decline right if you look at a company and for the last five six years they’re kind of slowly going like this here’s the one thing you can tell is that the teams aren’t happy they don’t feel connected and you might think that’s because the company’s going down so who likes being in a company that goes down my noticing is that it’s always that disconnection that precedes the decline of a company not the other way around so the last one is the most obvious one it’s sales how does connection help us sell so first of all when I say sell I might mean fundraising I might be selling a product it might be selling a service but what sales actually is is that I am listening to you I am connecting with you and I’m finding a problem that you have that I can solve that’s what sales is you don’t have to convince anybody of anything if you have to convince people to buy well then you have something that they don’t want that it’s not good for them and no great business came out of what people don’t want so all sales is is really helping people solve the problem get to where they want to go and if you can do that then you’re connecting with them then you’re really connecting with them and if you really connect with somebody they’re going to want to work with you and there is a tremendous amount of data on this if you look at the top performers of almost any company and every company I’ve ever been in the top sales performers always treat the relationship first all right so if you like the video feel free to subscribe tell us what else you want to hear about and always you can watch the next video