Friends of Dave #174: wisdom of the crowds
And now, back to our regular programming....
Quick thanks to all of you who tuned in to this week's special midweek edition of the FoD. I appreciated all of your feedback and support. As I said, I do not expect to be doing too many of those -- I know you get enough midweek email as it is....
On a recent podcast, I spoke with Joe Meyer, founder and CEO of crowdsourced executive job opportunity marketplace ExecThread. Given our current state of affairs, I thought it would make sense to put a spotlight on Joe and his company in this week's preamble.
Many of you may already be familiar with ExecThread (but probably not Joe, so read on) -- for those that aren't, it's a network of executives who may be actively or passively considering their career options. Members share job opportunities (almost always unpublished elsewhere) that may come their way through executive recruiters, head hunters and their own networks but are not a good fit for them.
As Joe said on our podcast, it is sort of like the concept of "one person's trash being another person's treasure."
Previously, if an opportunity like this came your way, you may be able to refer only a few people that were top of mind in your immediate circle. With ExecThread, you can anonymously submit these "hidden" opportunities to be curated and matched with over 50k other senior people (it is invitation only) -- AND in return have access to the thousands of other opportunities created by the group that may be relevant to you.
To be clear, ExecThread is not a job board -- it's more robust and value added than that. It is a marketplace for extremely high quality, under the radar opportunities that are crowdsourced by a vetted network of senior level executives.
Joe's team and their technology curate relevant new opportunities based on each member's profile and preferences and send them weekly to each member via an email newsletter (like this space, it is complete with his own intro of weekly original thought/insights/content).
I happened to get invited to ExecThread over 5 years ago by Friend of Dave Ed McDonnell (btw, more on Ed in the coming weeks). Through this network, I subsequently was able to land an opportunity for myself at a small FinTech company in the alternative lending space that I otherwise would not have known.
I thought the whole concept was pretty cool, so after my own success, I decided to reach out to Joe (even though we didn't know each other). A few years ago we met in person in his office in NYC and have remained in touch ever since. His company and platform have gained a tremendous amount of traction in the years since our initial discussion.
Not to be overshadowed, when you hear it, Joe's backstory is probably more impressive and notable. He is a serial entrepreneur with a winning track record of leading teams to successful exits throughout his career. His journey has included key executive roles at eBay, Quigo Technologies (acquired by AOL), and HopStop (acquired by Apple).
During our podcast a few weeks back, we spent a good part of our time exploring what drove him to where he is today. Joe dropped just a fraction of the knowledge he gained along the way that compelled him to take a risk and solve a practical problem that he was facing himself as an executive considering a career change. He also offered his thoughts on how executive job search has evolved and will be affected in the near future by a slowing economy.
Through it all, Joe highlighted the importance of grit, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation as well as a little bit of well timed good fortune as keys to leading a successful effort. As he said towards the end of our discussion, "Luck is the residue of hard work."
I had fun reconnecting with Joe a few weeks back, learning from the details of his career journey and getting the update on ExecThread -- and whether you are currently looking for a new role or not, I think many of you will enjoy being a fly on the wall during our chat. You may also learn something too.
If you don't have the time to tune into the entire discussion, I invite you to check out a few, very short teasers on the Friends of Dave YouTube channel.
And if you have not yet been invited to ExecThread, you can go >here< to learn more and setup an account (it is free to join).
I've got a whole bunch more of these podcasts to edit and publish (and record), and I have to say, each is unique, insightful and enjoyable. I'll try to cut them up into digestible morsels -- keep on the look out on social media as I probably won't be able to promote them all in depth here.
Stay safe and be well everyone. And if you are suffering from a bad case of quarantine hair like me, I have THE article for you below....
XOXO
Dave
Think on This...
Perfectionism Will Slow You Down in a Crisis Instead, develop the agility to toggle between the big picture and the details.
A Few For Your Day Job...
Case Study: Increase LinkedIn Engagement by 86% in 2 Weeks — www.saleshacker.com
90 million senior-level professionals and 63 million decision makers now use LinkedIn, yet only 1% of LinkedIn users share content on a regular basis.
The right LinkedIn engagement strategy is key to standing out -- for both corporate brands and personal. If you check nothing else out this week, read this in-depth look at a 5-step process on how to get more engagement on LinkedIn. Some knowledge to be gained for everyone.
How to Hire Enterprise Salespeople — openviewpartners.com Building an effective (and committed) enterprise sales team for the long haul starts with the people you hire. This is a great time to reflect and strategize so you can hire the very best people when the time is right.
Special Report: COVID-19 in the Corn Belt — www.indigoag.com
Including this for TWO REASONS: 1) there are some of you that have an interest in agtech, and thought you would find it useful and 2) this is such a cool use of alternative data and data viz that those of you who are into that sort of thing will find this interactive map fascinating. Thanks to Friend of Dave Jean Donnelly for sharing on social media this week.
Your Weekly Dose of Randomness...
27 Of The Most Important Jheri Curls In History
My Google search history would reflect that I am having serious issues with how to handle my currently very big quarantine hair......at this point no option is out of bounds.....
A history of the TV remote control as told through its advertising
FACT: I do not believe we had a remote control in our house when I was growing up until we got a cable box....we had a choice between a dog and a remote.....Dad won....
Something tells me this guy is going to need a "Relax Day" after that......
And The Last Word....
Time Is Meaningless Now — www.vice.com
“Ultimately, what does it matter if it’s Friday at five if it might as well be Tuesday at nine? But that type of thinking gives rise to the loss of meaning. Being able to keep some rhythm, some routine, can help us at least stay connected to what life was like prior to this.”
Is it Tuesday, or Saturday?
WARNING: This is a bit of a longer read, but hey, you have plenty of time, right?