WEBVTT - From Intern to President 0:00:06.630 --> 0:00:08.970 I want to share with you how to go from 0:00:08.970 --> 0:00:12.180 intern to the president of a company in less than 0:00:12.180 --> 0:00:15.960 five years. My name is Natalie Dawson, and I am, 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.259 in fact, the president of a company that did over 0:00:19.260 --> 0:00:23.550 $125 million in revenue last year, has over 220 employees 0:00:23.550 --> 0:00:27.990 in the parent company and hundreds of employees across our subsidiaries. 0:00:27.990 --> 0:00:32.820 And over my career, I have figured out how to 0:00:32.820 --> 0:00:35.790 invest in myself and develop myself in order to be 0:00:35.790 --> 0:00:39.390 ready for opportunities as they come and not just be 0:00:39.390 --> 0:00:42.210 ready for them know how to spot and create them. 0:00:42.210 --> 0:00:44.340 So I want to share with you what I would 0:00:44.340 --> 0:00:46.710 do if I could do it all over again, so 0:00:46.710 --> 0:00:49.530 that you can be successful in a shorter amount of 0:00:49.530 --> 0:00:51.810 time than I've been able to be successful. So let's 0:00:51.810 --> 0:00:54.210 dive in. The first thing that you want to do 0:00:54.450 --> 0:01:02.310 is take full accountability. You cannot blame anybody else for 0:01:02.310 --> 0:01:06.180 what you don't know, what you don't have, how you 0:01:06.180 --> 0:01:10.110 respond to things, the situation that you're in, anything that 0:01:10.110 --> 0:01:15.630 goes wrong. Take full accountability, even if it's mostly somebody 0:01:15.630 --> 0:01:19.020 else's fault. What could you have done differently? How could 0:01:19.020 --> 0:01:22.440 you have foreseen the opportunity differently? How could you have 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.130 looked at the problem differently? People talk about accountability as 0:01:26.130 --> 0:01:29.220 if like, oh, I'm just going to take accountability. Taking 0:01:29.220 --> 0:01:35.429 full accountability is entirely different than just assuming accountability. A 0:01:35.430 --> 0:01:37.649 good example of this is I had a team member 0:01:37.650 --> 0:01:40.770 very recently who said, oh, I wasn't able to hit 0:01:40.770 --> 0:01:43.740 my end of year metrics because I was given a 0:01:43.740 --> 0:01:47.279 bad set of clients. It wasn't the ideal list. I 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.370 had to make do with what I was responsible for. 0:01:50.370 --> 0:01:53.610 And so that's why I didn't hit my targets. Okay, 0:01:53.610 --> 0:01:58.080 hold the phone. If this person was taking full accountability, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.970 shouldn't they controlled what clients got to them? Couldn't they 0:02:02.970 --> 0:02:05.310 have figured out, oh, man. Well, I don't have any 0:02:05.310 --> 0:02:07.920 sales skills. And because I don't have any sales skills, 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.500 I let somebody else pick the clients that were going 0:02:10.500 --> 0:02:14.340 to be inside my group. And therefore I got sucky clients. 0:02:14.340 --> 0:02:18.150 So I actually, by taking full accountability, recognize moving forward, 0:02:18.150 --> 0:02:20.430 I'm going to pick the clients moving forward. I'm going 0:02:20.430 --> 0:02:24.030 to find those relationships, bring them in, have them understand 0:02:24.030 --> 0:02:25.890 it from my perspective so that I can get the 0:02:25.889 --> 0:02:29.130 right lot of clients see that person. That's the difference 0:02:29.130 --> 0:02:32.550 in that person's approach. One is taking full accountability for 0:02:32.550 --> 0:02:35.730 the outcome, and the other is saying, oh, well, I 0:02:35.730 --> 0:02:38.340 got handed this and I couldn't do anything with it 0:02:38.340 --> 0:02:41.700 because this is what I was handed. You don't allow 0:02:41.700 --> 0:02:47.010 somebody else's decisions, somebody else's outcomes, to impact yours. If 0:02:47.010 --> 0:02:51.210 you're taking true accountability for a situation, as you're figuring 0:02:51.210 --> 0:02:55.590 out how to take accountability, what you will find is 0:02:55.590 --> 0:02:58.019 there are a lot of things that you don't know. 0:02:58.139 --> 0:03:01.170 If you are really honest with yourself, you might not 0:03:01.169 --> 0:03:03.630 know how to sell. You might not know how to market. 0:03:03.630 --> 0:03:06.360 You might not know how to interview people, how to 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.170 read financials. There's just a whole variety of things moving 0:03:10.169 --> 0:03:13.230 from intern to president that you are not going to know. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.609 And instead of having the urge to shy away, the 0:03:17.610 --> 0:03:21.960 urge to think, oh, somebody else knows better or worse yet, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.500 the thought that I'm not smart enough to figure this out. 0:03:25.500 --> 0:03:27.720 As soon as any of that happens, you just have 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:32.850 to nip that in the bud. You can figure it out. 0:03:32.850 --> 0:03:36.240 The things that you don't know only holds you back 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.820 to the extent that you don't know them. So why 0:03:38.820 --> 0:03:41.460 not take the approach of I'm going to learn these things, 0:03:41.460 --> 0:03:43.740 I'm going to figure these things out. I'm going to 0:03:43.740 --> 0:03:47.670 take it as my responsibility to identify what I don't 0:03:47.670 --> 0:03:52.770 know and figure out those things. Now, once you take 0:03:52.770 --> 0:03:55.560 on this new mindset of I don't know what I 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:57.540 don't know, but I'm going to figure it out as 0:03:57.540 --> 0:04:01.500 I go. My little tip on this is prioritize the 0:04:01.500 --> 0:04:06.690 things that make money that is so important. Prioritize the 0:04:06.690 --> 0:04:11.430 things that make money. You becoming the best at organizing 0:04:11.430 --> 0:04:15.330 something is going to pay you less than you figuring 0:04:15.330 --> 0:04:18.750 out how to sell something, or how to get attention, 0:04:18.750 --> 0:04:24.090 and how to promote and create awareness around a product 0:04:24.089 --> 0:04:27.540 or service. So you have to think strategically as you 0:04:27.540 --> 0:04:30.630 move along in steps of your career, like what is 0:04:30.630 --> 0:04:35.010 the most valuable use of my time? Project management. Although 0:04:35.010 --> 0:04:38.400 you can make a great living in project management, you 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.670 are not going to make the same as somebody in 0:04:41.820 --> 0:04:44.729 head of sales or head of marketing or head of 0:04:44.730 --> 0:04:48.390 product as you are as a project manager. And so 0:04:48.390 --> 0:04:52.770 if you're really keen on making money, follow the money, 0:04:52.770 --> 0:04:57.420 solve problems and gain skills. Identify what you don't know. 0:04:57.420 --> 0:05:03.180 That's in relation to money. Not just organizing or structuring 0:05:03.180 --> 0:05:06.460 or creating processes for. Things, those things you can make 0:05:06.460 --> 0:05:09.520 good money in. But if you're really looking for how 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.039 do I make the greatest jump in my income? How 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.770 do I make the greatest jump in my responsibility? At 0:05:14.770 --> 0:05:18.370 some point, those things tap out because your ability to 0:05:18.850 --> 0:05:23.470 find money, make money, attract money into an organization are 0:05:23.470 --> 0:05:25.750 the skill sets that pay most and are with the 0:05:25.750 --> 0:05:29.890 responsibilities of the highest level of an organization are responsible for. 0:05:29.890 --> 0:05:32.380 So why not just choose to learn those skills instead 0:05:32.380 --> 0:05:36.159 of prioritizing the others as you realize that you don't 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.679 know everything? I know it's hard to admit you don't 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.250 know everything. I love to think I know everything, especially 0:05:42.250 --> 0:05:45.700 in my early 20s. I just thought I had all 0:05:45.700 --> 0:05:48.339 of these courses under my belt and I was gonna 0:05:48.339 --> 0:05:52.420 leave college. I didn't finish college. I'm one semester, sure, 0:05:52.420 --> 0:05:54.849 but I was going to be one semester short of 0:05:54.850 --> 0:05:57.820 college and join my corporate career. And I just had 0:05:57.820 --> 0:06:01.570 everything figured out. And I had studied a handful of 0:06:01.570 --> 0:06:04.599 books but had no real experience. And it was a 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.020 huge wake up call around all the things that I 0:06:08.020 --> 0:06:11.200 didn't know. I'll never forget being in the office with 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.260 somebody that I respected so much. I watched this woman 0:06:14.260 --> 0:06:17.920 as the CTO of our company, just like kick ass 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.500 in meetings, and she was so efficient and effective, and 0:06:20.500 --> 0:06:22.839 she was just like, she figured it all out. She 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.110 was my idol. She was my mentor, and she was 0:06:26.110 --> 0:06:29.770 teaching me about project management, like the basics of project management. 0:06:29.770 --> 0:06:31.779 As I ran into her in the hallway and she 0:06:31.779 --> 0:06:34.540 spent 15 minutes talking me through how to look at 0:06:34.540 --> 0:06:37.929 statuses and how to proactively measure and judge if a 0:06:37.930 --> 0:06:39.969 project is going to be off track, or if it's 0:06:39.970 --> 0:06:43.270 going to hit its timeline and milestones and all of 0:06:43.270 --> 0:06:50.979 this stuff. As she was saying, things like milestones, KPIs, tracking, reporting, like, 0:06:50.980 --> 0:06:53.710 I had a basic definition of these things, but I 0:06:53.710 --> 0:06:56.200 didn't have a full understanding of how I was going 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.200 to roll out a project and actually utilize all of 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.700 those components. So what I did was I took courses 0:07:03.700 --> 0:07:07.210 and I read books, and you're going to have to 0:07:07.210 --> 0:07:08.620 do this too as soon as you figure out what 0:07:08.620 --> 0:07:10.240 you don't know, the first thing that you do, instead 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:11.650 of being a victim of, I don't know how to 0:07:11.650 --> 0:07:14.530 do this, look it up on YouTube. Watch some videos 0:07:14.530 --> 0:07:17.739 about how to figure these things out. You have to 0:07:17.740 --> 0:07:21.070 take the mindset that you can learn anything. And as 0:07:21.070 --> 0:07:25.510 you identify these things by books, by courses, don't spend 0:07:25.510 --> 0:07:29.200 money on stupid stuff. I made this mistake. I spent 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.230 my money the very first time that I had like 0:07:32.230 --> 0:07:34.660 a real paycheck. I thought I was like living large. 0:07:34.660 --> 0:07:37.600 I was 20 years old. I had just gotten my 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.190 first big paycheck. And what did I do? I went 0:07:42.190 --> 0:07:45.400 to the Louis Vuitton store and I bought a duffle 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:51.910 bag for travel. Ridiculous. Now, luckily, I had enough income 0:07:51.910 --> 0:07:54.970 at the time to not have to sacrifice buying the 0:07:54.970 --> 0:07:59.230 bag with courses and self-development, but I should have been 0:07:59.230 --> 0:08:03.460 spending so much more money on courses and self-development and 0:08:03.460 --> 0:08:06.820 no money, and no time and no energy on a 0:08:06.820 --> 0:08:09.460 dumb bag. I would never recommend somebody to do that today, 0:08:09.460 --> 0:08:13.480 go all in on the courses and oftentimes they don't 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.960 have to be that expensive. You can research things on YouTube. 0:08:16.990 --> 0:08:20.470 You can buy really basic books. One of my favorite 0:08:20.470 --> 0:08:23.440 series of books is the For Dummies books. I've at 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.250 least read 20 for dummies books. Accounting for dummies. Finance 0:08:27.250 --> 0:08:31.780 for dummies. Marketing for dummies. Taxes for dummies. Because I 0:08:31.780 --> 0:08:34.450 want to learn these things and you have to recognize 0:08:34.450 --> 0:08:36.969 that you need to learn things. That's what you're doing 0:08:36.970 --> 0:08:39.640 right now. You're watching YouTube videos. So you've already you're 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.400 already way ahead of where I was. But you have 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.380 to learn these things and add these skill sets in 0:08:44.380 --> 0:08:46.630 order for you to be more valuable. One hack that 0:08:46.630 --> 0:08:51.580 I used to impress people early on, and still serves 0:08:51.580 --> 0:08:54.970 me today, is as soon as I was done with 0:08:54.970 --> 0:08:58.750 a meeting, I would take notes on that meeting and 0:08:58.750 --> 0:09:01.870 I would send a recap as quickly as possible. I 0:09:01.870 --> 0:09:04.600 didn't care what the meeting was. It could be an 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.679 onboarding training. It could be an orientation, it could be 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.710 an actual meeting that required notes. And I wasn't the 0:09:11.710 --> 0:09:15.460 person responsible, but I still did that anyway, because prompt 0:09:15.460 --> 0:09:19.510 follow up impresses people. Most people do not follow up. 0:09:19.510 --> 0:09:24.189 Most people receive things and sit in meetings and our participants, 0:09:24.190 --> 0:09:28.690 but they don't actually show up and follow up afterwards. 0:09:28.690 --> 0:09:30.700 And so you don't know what they took away from 0:09:30.700 --> 0:09:33.430 the meeting. You don't know what their thoughts were. I 0:09:33.429 --> 0:09:38.800 was amazing at always taking notes, taking those opportunities to learn, 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.250 but more importantly, setting the expectation with everybody around me 0:09:42.250 --> 0:09:44.350 that I'm on it. Because I was the first to 0:09:44.350 --> 0:09:47.440 follow up. I had a two hour follow up rule. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.719 As soon as the meeting was over. Within two hours 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.000 I was responding with, this is everything that happened. These 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.370 are the questions. This is what I took away. These 0:09:54.370 --> 0:09:56.559 are the next steps. Am I on track with this? 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.250 And that really impressed people because it gave transparency into 0:10:00.250 --> 0:10:01.900 what I was thinking, what I took away, and if 0:10:01.900 --> 0:10:03.820 I was wrong, I was willing to be wrong so 0:10:03.820 --> 0:10:06.760 that somebody could correct me and give me actual feedback. 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.240 My notes, strategy and that follow up strategy really served 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.329 me when it came to my mentors, because even that 0:10:13.330 --> 0:10:16.420 conversation I was mentioning earlier with the CTO, as soon 0:10:16.420 --> 0:10:19.030 as she spent that 15 minutes with me telling me 0:10:19.030 --> 0:10:23.050 about project management, I followed up with her instantly saying, hey, 0:10:23.050 --> 0:10:24.670 this is what I took away. Hey, this is what 0:10:24.670 --> 0:10:27.790 I learned is this is this the right direction that 0:10:27.790 --> 0:10:30.880 I'm going down? Because when you have mentors and you 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.760 look at people in an organization, you look at people 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.189 around you that you want to spend time with, the 0:10:36.190 --> 0:10:38.260 only way that they know that their time is being 0:10:38.260 --> 0:10:42.790 spent well with you is through your implementation. So how 0:10:42.790 --> 0:10:46.930 can you take massive action? But first you have to 0:10:46.929 --> 0:10:50.679 recap it right? Like first recap and then take massive 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.770 action to be able to demonstrate to them that the 0:10:53.770 --> 0:10:56.680 time that they spent with you actually produced something. That's 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.709 what every mentor wants out of somebody that they're mentoring, 0:10:59.740 --> 0:11:02.200 to not just have it go in one ear and 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.010 out the other, it actually becomes fruitful. And so not 0:11:06.010 --> 0:11:08.410 only what I take those notes as soon as that 0:11:08.410 --> 0:11:11.020 meeting was happening or as soon as that feedback was given. 0:11:11.020 --> 0:11:13.510 But I'd remind myself every month, hey, I should give 0:11:13.510 --> 0:11:17.020 progress on these initiatives, and that would hold me accountable 0:11:17.020 --> 0:11:19.720 to actually ensuring that I was following up on the 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.850 things that they were telling me to do, not just 0:11:21.850 --> 0:11:25.150 taking it for, oh, I'm getting mentored and not doing 0:11:25.150 --> 0:11:28.060 anything with what they actually told me to do. Speaking 0:11:28.059 --> 0:11:34.000 of mentors, my husband is my greatest mentor. I've had 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.640 the unique opportunity to work with my husband for over 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.600 a decade, and he wrote this book. It's called nine 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.329 Figure Mindset How to Go from zero to Over $100 0:11:44.330 --> 0:11:48.850 million in Net Worth. And this book is filled with 0:11:48.850 --> 0:11:52.690 his life lessons and experiences of what he had to 0:11:52.690 --> 0:11:55.750 do to go from having nothing in his bank account 0:11:55.750 --> 0:11:58.720 to having over $100 million net worth. This would be 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.180 an excellent example of a book that you should read 0:12:01.179 --> 0:12:05.230 on your path. And if you're really following my advice, 0:12:05.230 --> 0:12:07.810 maybe even write a summary email and you shoot it 0:12:07.809 --> 0:12:10.450 to info at Carton ventures.com. Because I have a feeling 0:12:10.450 --> 0:12:12.610 that if you do a really great job summarizing it, 0:12:12.610 --> 0:12:15.400 it will get to my husband and he'll probably give 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.310 you some feedback because you did your part, and actually 0:12:18.309 --> 0:12:24.160 reading and taking notes on something that was important to him. Oh.