The Guest
Ryan Paugh has been at the forefront of building highly curated, technology-enabled communities for ambitious professionals. He first co-founded Brazen Careerist, a career-management site for high-achieving young professionals and ambitious college students, where he led the company’s community development efforts. Brazen Careerist was recognized as one of the top social networks for Gen Y entrepreneurs by Mashable.
Ryan then went on to co-found Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) in 2010 with Scott Gerber, an invite-only organization for top entrepreneurs 40 and under that Entrepreneur noted “has quickly become one of the most elite organizations of its kind.” He saw YEC as a unique opportunity to apply the expertise he developed at Brazen Careerist to help fellow entrepreneurs access the resources, technology and most important, people they need to succeed. YEC’s members now generate billions of dollars in revenue and have created tens of thousands of jobs.
Today, Ryan and his team are building on their vision of the future of professional organizations with The Community Company, a company poised to launch dozens of vetted communities engineered to help ambitious professionals grow their network and expand business opportunities. It’s a mission Ryan identifies with; after graduating from Penn State University and launching his own entrepreneurial career, he knows firsthand the value of a trusted community.
Called “a cult legend in the online-community building world” by Mashable, Ryan is now focused on creating a strong membership experience and positive business outcomes for thousands of successful executives, thought leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs across the country.
The Episode
Our episode today is all about super connectors, creating meaningful beneficial relationships and habitual generosity.
Ryan shares advice on networking, relationship building, and helping others. Ryan offers questions you can ask yourself to figure out where you thrive and where you don’t, so that you can invest your time where you thrive.
He leaves listeners with the advice, ““If you want to meet great people, build new relationships. Share your ideas. Make sure all that good stuff you are thinking about makes its way out into the public eye.”
Topics Covered
- All about Ryan’s new book Superconnector
- Ways to approach networking events and make real connections
- The intricacies of habitual generosity
- How to build relationships with famous people through their pyramid of influence
- Advice on reaching out to someone you admire
- What it means to be a superconnector
- On saying no and setting proper boundaries
- Getting over imposter syndrome and reaching out to someone rich and powerful
- Questions to ask to best understand how you can potentially help someone
- How to be a better listener
- Tips to understand introverts
- Systematizing superconnecting
- Man and Superconnector wedding
Quotes from the Episode
Find ways to make people happy, and create those surprise and delight moments.
Superconnectors are not afraid to say no. They know that one bad introduction could break down years and years of built up trust for someone who is very important to you.
If you need someone’s help you better make it easy for them to help you.
My favorite question to ask- What are you working on right now that is exciting for you?
Introverts are the best listeners because they are in the peripheral of conversations extracting information. Find your best introvert friends and learn from them.
Before you can build systems for yourself, know who you are and figure out where you thrive. We all need to have a lot of self awareness. Being a great connector starts with understanding yourself.
People will always be our most important asset in life. We owe it to ourselves to get better at cultivating those relationship and maintaining them over the years.
Resources
“Superconnector” by Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh
Learn about The Community Company
Book Recommendations
Think Straight by Darius Foroux
