Coffee & Closers

Last month I flew to New York to have coffee with Gary Vaynerchuk for 30 minutes at a hotel in Manhattan.  For those who do not know, Gary is a serial entrepreneur, seasoned investor, CEO and social media kingpin. It was an amazing experience that transpired from Twitter and it was yet another reminder of how important it is to get outside your comfort zone and expand your network. Some people may think it is crazy to fly across the country to meet somebody and have a half hour conversation that could potentially yield no benefit. I happen to disagree because like Malcolm Gladwell, I believe in the power of weak ties and in building a network. (And because I could not pass up an opportunity to meet one of my idols).  Networking is a continuous effort, whether you are working for a large corporation or trying to change careers or launch a business.

You never know when your network will come in handy. I have kept in touch with someone at a financial services company that I interned with 6 years ago through emails and occasional phone calls.  Not too long ago a friend reached out to me via LinkedIn to see if I knew anyone at the company and if could pass along a referral. I did pass along a referral, and my friend landed the job 4 years after I had left the company after only interning for a few months. I never would have been able to make that introduction had I not chosen to keep in touch.  You never know when or why you will need to tap your network, so it is important to continue to build and maintain it throughout your life. There are a few things to focus on as you go about reducing your 6 degrees of separation.

Address your goals: Everyone can benefit from growing their network. A funny thing happens when you begin to meet more and more people; you realize that most people actually want to help you succeed. Yes, someone you just met will often take a vested interest in your cause.  Thus, the more specific you can be in identifying what it is you are trying to accomplish 6 months, 2 years, and 10 years from now, the more able you will be to have focused and efficient interactions with people.

Be Accountable: If you tell somebody you will reach out to them to catch up, do it.  If you met with someone and told them you would follow up with a note or recommendation, be sure to do so in a timely fashion. It may seem menial and immaterial, but people will remember if you are true to your word and follow up as promised.

Be Fearless: Do not be afraid to go meet someone that you do not know for a cup of coffee or a beer after work. I could have shown up at The Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan last month and Gary could have been unavailable or simply unwilling to meet. Was it a little intimidating walking into the lobby prior to our conversation? Of course. But all good things should come with a bit of uneasiness or you are not pushing yourself as far as you could be. Reach out to people through mutual connections, friends, colleagues and alumni. And be sure to reciprocate when you are reached out to for a cup of coffee from a friend of a friend that wants to connect.

Networking is a crucial part of being successful in life and in business. Nobody is an expert in all of the challenges that life and business present, so the more people you know makes your knowledge network greater which makes you a more powerful person. I can not wait for the next time I get to hop on a plane to meet somebody I’ve been dieing to talk to.  What have your experiences been when getting outside your comfort zone and meeting new people?

The mobile app revolution has put personal assistants in our pockets. And while there are thousands of apps that focus on trying to simplify things, many of them end up taking up more of your time than the task itself. The below apps are my personal favorites and are the best in the field for their specific categories.

1.) Evernote  This is the last organizer that you will ever need. You can keep all of your notes in one place and they can be be packed with pictures, web clippings and audio files. It organizes all of your multimedia and then syncs the data across all of your devices. There is a powerful search tool within the app to help you find specific notes as well as words within notes that you have created.

2.) Flipboard This is still the prettiest app in the entire app store. It was designed by the team who built the first iPhone and this is evident by how seamlessly the app functions. Flipboard is your personalized digital magazine that is populated with  your social network data as well as any relevant publications that you like to read. Personalize it by filling it with the newspapers, blogs and magazines that you love and the app will push relevant stories to you. It is a single place to view all of the stories, feeds and photos that are important to you.

3.) Mint  Mint is the one stop shop for all of your finances. It aggregates your banking accounts and investment accounts as well as any credit card and loan data that you may have. It provides a snapshot of all of your finances and gives you real time balances. Mint also provides you with budgeting tools and analytics so that you can see if you’re spending too much money on late night tacos or are not saving as much as you should be.

4.) Hipmunk  Booking trips can be a painful process. And while I still do not think that there is a perfect app for searching and booking travel plans, Hipmunk is the best that I have found. It has a  simple, sleek design and it searches multiple travel sites and only provides you with the output data and best available flights. Hipmunk also has a proprietary “Agony” metric that they use to filter flights which combines price, flight duration and number of stops.

5.) Pocket   Pocket lets you bookmark webpages, articles and videos to view at a later time. I used to constantly email myself links to articles that I wanted to read but did not have time to read at that specific moment. Pocket is the solution to that problem and it syncs all of the content across all of your devices.

6.) Checkmark  This is a location based reminder application that works better than Apple’s existing reminder function. You can set specific location and time reminders so that when you are walking past your dry cleaner it alerts you to grab your clothes. Or you can set an alert to go off 15 minutes after you arrive home. The app is $4.99 and worth every bit of that.

7.) Buffer – Buffer allows you to enter your social media updates into a queue to be released at specified times. If you have great content that you want to share on Twitter or Linkedin but you want to share it at different time intervals, Buffer lets you manage this process and edit your updates as you wish.

The value of having a good mentor cannot be quantified. Bill Gates had Ed Roberts, Warren Buffett had Benjamin Graham, and President Bill Clinton and Maya Angelou had wonderful teachers as their mentors. Many of the most successful people are quick to give credit to their mentors for the significant roles they played in their lives. An effective mentoring relationship takes time and effort. Your mentors will also change throughout your life. As you gain more responsibility in your career, it is vital to seek advice from those who have succeeded in similar roles. Below are some tips and resources for how to foster a successful mentor relationship and become a great protege so that you can one day be a great mentor yourself.

Find a Mentor: The best mentors are people that know you or are willing to get to know you personally and that can help you accomplish a certain set of goals. Within your organization, seek out an individual at least two levels higher than you that has a set of experiences that you can learn from and that can help achieve your objectives. Don’t evaluate a mentor solely based on their title and job rank. Do additional research to be sure they have the necessary qualifications that will help you succeed and that they will be interested in helping you achieve that success. Also, mentoring is not monogamous; you can have more than one mentor and you can gain from finding others outside of your current company.

Set Expectations: The best mentor/mentee relationships benefit both parties. Set expectations in the first meeting in regards to the objectives of the relationship. Clarify how often you will meet to accomplish these goals. As the mentee in the relationship, you may not feel that you have much to offer the mentor. Not true! You can provide a “boots on the ground” perspective of what is going on in the organization that senior level executives are not privy to on a daily basis. Often times mentors want to impart knowledge and wisdom on you for the simple satisfaction of knowing that they helped you succeed. Be sure to fully understand how you can deliver on that need.

Drive the Relationship: As the protege in the relationship it is your responsibility to drive the relationship forward. The burden is on you to find convenient times to meet. Be sure to have an agenda of what to accomplish at meetings while keeping the environment open and conversational. Do any appropriate pre-work and any additional follow up that needs to be done after the meetings. Reach out often with relevant pieces of information that can help deepen the relationship. Don’t wait to be tapped on the shoulder for a meeting invitation. This responsibility falls on you. Finally, remember to thank your mentor for their time. And if they help you accomplish something great, be creative in the way you show your gratitude.

Maximize the Time Spent: Be honest. Your mentor will not be able to help you achieve your goals if you are not honest with yourself and with him/her in regards to what you are trying to accomplish. Do your homework before bringing up a challenge that you want to tackle together and present the possible solution sets that you have already thought about. Finally, be positive. It is amazing how much more you will get of a relationship if you attack it with a positive attitude. Do your best never to complain, rather speak of how you think your current situation can be improved from its existing state.

If you don’t have a mentor, find one. Studies show that mentoring leads to faster career progression. Fostering a good mentor relationship at an early age can prepare you to be a successful mentor for a young professional later in your lifetime.

“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest“ – Albert Einstein

Put another way, the earlier you begin saving and investing has a direct and dramatic effect on the amount of wealth that you will have later in life. There are simple things that you can do that will have profound impacts on the amount of money and wealth you can accumulate over your lifetime. For example, if you put $5,000 a year into retirement accounts starting at age 22, and you earn an annual rate of return of 8%, you will have $1.5 Million at age 62. If you were to wait to begin investing until age 32, you would accumulate less than half that amount. And the more you contribute simply amplifies the compounding. The most advantageous financial decision you can make at a young age is to save and invest early. There are many ways to do this, and I have included some tips below along with some other important financial tenets to follow throughout your 20’s to help ensure financial freedom.

Utilize Your Employer’s 401K Plan: Most large companies offer matching programs for retirement contributions made by their employees up to certain thresholds. So if you contribute a certain percentage of your paycheck to your retirement plan, say 6%, your company will contribute that much as well. If you do not take advantage of this, you are literally leaving free money on the table. You are willingly forfeiting a free bonus, in this example a 6% annual bonus. To the extent that you are capable of contributing more – do it. While you’re not getting matched with company dollars beyond that specific threshold, you are still investing money on a pretax basis and reducing your annual taxable income.

Invest: If you have already maxed out your 401k contributions, or your employer does not offer such a plan, or you simply want more robust investment options, a Roth IRA is a very powerful tool. This allows you to invest and have your earnings grow tax free until retirement. While you can only contribute $5,500 per year to this vehicle, this is another fantastic way to begin accumulating financial assets. Another benefit of a Roth IRA in comparison to a traditional IRA is that you may withdraw your contributions penalty-free at any time for any reason. This is yet another reason to begin investing today.

Automate Your Savings and Investments: Set up your paychecks so that the money you intend to save and invest gets automatically deposited into your savings and investment accounts. This will help you establish a routine and budget your expenses. Even in this is only 5-10 percent of your paycheck and it seems insignificant to you, it will compound over time. I would encourage you to save and invest as much of your income as you can, and many investment professionals stress the 80/20 rule; Live on 80 percent of your income, save and invest the rest.

Build Credit: Good credit is essential for achieving favorable financing throughout your life. Your credit rating helps determine rates on auto insurance, credit card interest rates and mortgage rates. Credit cards are good ways to establish credit. Never carry a monthly balance and pay the amount in full each month to help ensure a good credit rating. Having no credit is not as damaging as having bad credit, but it can still severely hinder your ability to secure a large home or auto loan.

There are many ways to achieve significant wealth. In my day job I manage money for some very wealthy people, and many of them can attribute much of their wealth to being diligent and savvy champions of their own finances and investments. Wealth is not the same thing as income. Wealth is built by accumulating assets, not by spending them. A fantastic, best-selling book that hammers home these principles is The Millionaire Next Door. If you can employ these principles you will begin to feel empowered and you will take control of your financial future.

It was 1998, and President Bill Clinton was at the helm of a roaring economy and the most robust job market in decades. He was also being tried for perjury and was up for impeachment in the House of Representatives for an alleged intimate relationship with infamous White House intern Monica Lewinsky. I was 10 years old and for some reason I was quite into poetry. I had a collection of poems that I shared at local writing competitions and school events. And while I did not understand the intricacies of what Mr. Clinton was being charged with, I was old enough to know that our president was having a rough year. So I took to the pen and wrote a poem about Bill and sent it to him at the White House with a hand-written note that said “It seems like you have had a rough stretch, I wrote a poem that I thought may cheer you up.” It was roughly 4 weeks later that I received a note back from the White House (pictured above) signed by Bill Clinton with some kind words. The White House receives thousands of letters and fan mail addressed to the President daily, a handful of which can be responded to. When you reach out to influential people, to power-players, and to CEO’s, you can do several things to increase your probability of garnering a response; one of which is to be unique. Throughout my life I have had interactions with people far superior to me in social, economic, and intellectual influence. These include Forbes 400 members, journalists and numerous Fortune 500 CEO’s. Beyond a unique form of outreach, there are several strategies you can employ to increase your hit rate. Below I have included four key techniques that will drastically enhance your chances of grabbing the attention of influential people and getting a response to your outreach.

Nail the Subject Line: Professional marketers often evaluate the success of an email marketing campaign by the open rate of the emails sent. If the recipient does not even open the email to view the content within it, you have already lost. Be direct, be intriguing, and be professional in your subject line. Be careful not to use all caps, as this can be deemed spam and deleted immediately. Finally, make it sound personal so that it sounds like it came from you, not from a computer or ad campaign.

Be an Expert: When I was e-mailing Mark Cuban a business plan and financial projections, I watched every single YouTube interview available that featured Mark Cuban. I went back and re-read his blog posts, and I reviewed any relevant information he had shared on Twitter. From that research I learned a ton about what he looked for in people and businesses and I was able to deduce the type of language that would get him excited. The subject of my e-mail to him was simply “Sweat Equity Business Plan.” If you follow Mark Cuban’s business endeavors you know that hard work and brute force mean a hell of a lot more to him that flashy credentials and lofty promises. Along with understanding your audience, it is equally important that you have a sound understanding of the subject that you are addressing in the email. As bestselling author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris writes, “it is amazing how many would-be mentees or beneficiaries ask busier people for answers that Google could provide in 20 seconds.” Make sure that you express that you have done your homework and have a clear reason for why you are reaching out.

Be Direct: Have you ever sent an email to an executive that took you 45 minutes to craft and was at least half a page long, only to receive an abrupt, one sentence reply from the individual? Don’t be offended. These are high functioning, exceptionally busy people who do not have time for literary foreplay. Respect their time by being concise and direct. Introduce yourself, explain why you are e-mailing and why you deserve to be responded to, then provide explicit details for how you can be reached. I typically close such emails with multiple options to prevent further unnecessary emails. For example, “I am avaiable for the next two weeks in the afternoon, and early evening. However, if there is a time more convenient for you please let me know and I will make myself available at your convenience.”

Leverage Your Network: Equally important to the subject line is the person sending it. If you can have an introduction facilitated by a mutual connection, leverage it! And if you think you don’t have a network, you’re wrong. Visit your alma mater’s alumni page and find influential people in similar industries that may be able to introduce you. Heck, the individual might be an alumnus himself/herself. LinkedIn is great for this same function as well. If you can title an email “Referred by X”, your note gains credibility immediately that you would otherwise have to earn in the body of your message. If you are asking for a third party to facilitate an introduction, make it as easy as possible for that individual to do so by doing your homework and providing them with an email that they can forward along on your behalf. Chris Fralic, venture partner at First Round Capital has a great short video on the most efficient way to ask for an introduction.

If you have cool story about getting through to a influencer, share it in the comments section below. Similarly, if you want to bounce some outside-the-box ideas off one another to get in touch with someone that you have been unable to reach, leave a comment by clicking the comment box above and we can strategize.

Sleep seems to be more of a luxury than a commodity these days. With corporations demanding heightened levels of productivity from their employees, and the lines between our personal and professional lives intersecting more than ever, it is vital to have an intentional focus on how you budget your time. I have a demanding finance job, I am developing a mobile wellness application, I have a wonderful girlfriend, a focused fitness routine and an active social life. This requires deliberate planning around how I budget the time in each day, down to 30 minute intervals. Below I include five tips that help me manage the daily chaos and prioritize my life in a way that allows me to be mentally present at all times.

The 2 Minute Rule: If something that I need done can be completed in 2 minutes or less, I do it immediately. Whether its dishes, an email response, a Thank You card, or a dinner reservation, if it can be done it 2 minutes and I need it done, I do it immediately. Procrastinating menial tasks is a corrosive habit. Apply this rule and you will find yourself with a clearer mind and a clearer schedule. This tactic alone will help strengthen your personal will power and discipline.

Say No: Everyone loves a people-pleaser and we are all naturally conditioned to avoid conflict. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Learn to say no to events, to banquets, to catch-up dinners and to innocuous meetings. This will free up immense amounts of capacity. Always be polite when rejecting invitations, but reject them often. This will free your schedule and your mental capacity to be present in situations that you actually want to be in. Sometimes it is good to be missed.

Rise Early: Begin waking up earlier. If you typically wake up at 6, get up at 5. If you wake up at 7, get up at 6. The morning is the point in the day in which you have zero demands on your time, and the earlier that you rise the truer this is. Use this time to catch up on your thoughts, on your emails and correspondence, and to have a healthy breakfast to prepare you for your day. Sleep is important, so do not sacrifice hours of sleep in order to wake up earlier. However, I challenge you to evaluate how you are spending the minutes in your day after the hours of 10:00 pm. You will find that going to bed earlier and waking up earlier will lead to more focused, quality time with yourself that allows you to plan and evaluate the day ahead.

Make Use of Your In-Between Time: If your commute is over 15 minutes in the morning, make use of this valuable time. There are dozens of great podcasts offered for free each morning that can help prepare you for the day without having to watch the morning news or CNBC. My favorite business podcasts are Wall Street Journal This Morning and Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing. Other great options that cover broader subjects are Freakonomics Radio from the authors of the bestselling books Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, and Point of Inquiry which examines topics in science, religion, philosophy and politics. Another great service is Audible, which has over 100,000 titles of digitally downloaded books on tape. Subscriptions are $15 per month for unlimited usage.

Live Healthy: The studies speak for themselves. Eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle leads to higher levels of happiness and productivity. Whether its running in the morning or doing night time Tai Chi at your local gym, find a fitness routine that works for you and stick to it. The benefits of eating healthy cannot be overlooked either. For me, carving out 45 minutes to an hour each night to cook a healthy meal is not always realistic. A solution to this is buying food for the entire week on Sundays and preparing a variety of protein-based meals that can be refrigerated and eaten for the next five days. My go-to option is Trader Joe’s frozen chicken with marinade sauce and varied vegetables. Finally, drink lots of water. Try to drink at least 60 ounces of water every day and monitor this by keeping a 12 or 16 ounce water bottle with you throughout the day that you can refill.