Annette Tabor, welcome to the Advisory Board Insider Podcast.
I'm glad you're
here.
my gosh.
Tom, thank you so much for inviting me.
I'm so looking forward to.
Yes, it's, it's great to have you.
So the first question is where, what are your geographic coordinates today?
Where are you located?
Well, I am a native of Florida and I am located between St.
Petersburg and Clearwater in a little town called Seminole,
right off the the beach area.
Nice.
So, as, as you're sitting there in uh, seminal Florida what's
your morning drink of choice?
When you start the day, what's your, your
Oh my goodness.
I have to, I have to have my coffee
and
so, so
coffee but
with, with coconut milk.
Creamer.
Coconut milk creamer.
Is there a special brand of coffee and coconut
creamer.
just uh, vanilla.
I know, so I forget the name of it, but
it's, it comes in a carton and I just
love it because it's got less sugar in it.
And sugar, sugar is my downfall.
Right.
And I, I'm a hundred percent on board with you there.
And coffee.
Are you snobby about coffee or is it just drip coffee?
Do you
it's my Keurig, it's my Keurig coffee and it's organic.
So I do use the organic.
And it's deep roast.
It's, it's a, it's, it's a deep
roast.
I like it.
Hardy.
Yeah.
it.
All right.
So, before coffee, give me a sense of how you start your day.
Like, when's the alarm go off?
What's your d what's the morning look like before you have your first
Well, I am an early riser,
so I usually get up between five 30 and 6:00 AM every morning.
I stumble out.
I, the first thing I do is get my coffee and then I have to feed my cats.
So while the coffee's brewing, I start getting the two cats fed.
And then after I get my cup of coffee, I go in and I start getting my face
on while I'm listening to my podcast.
Then I come into my office and I'm usually in here by seven 30.
Roughly and I just, I start my day and then I work till about four o'clock.
So
I try not to work too late into the evening which is a, which is a challenge
for my colleagues and, and business partners on the West Coast like yourself.
Yeah.
Right, right.
so you you've got your day unfolding, you've got your coffee in hand.
And, and do the cats join you with that?
Like are the cats
generally with
I have to tell you a little story about my cats.
I,
I got, I have two ballies cats, and
they're, they're absolutely beautiful.
They're about
$1,500 each.
The first one I got was a little lilac named, uh, well, Jasmine all white
with a little bit of gray touches on her, and she's very prissy and very
female and very, feminine, I would say.
She doesn't like to be petted a lot.
If you're a stranger, then enter jet.
Who is another ESE, but he is Alyx and Jet is full of energy
and he, that's why he's named Jet, j
e t t, and he doesn't understand that Jasmine is not prey.
And so he continues to attack her.
So I'm in this process of trying to get the two of 'em to like each other.
And they're getting better.
They're getting better, but I have had some massive broken home furnishings
through the process, but we're getting better.
God.
Wow.
Well,
what I'm dealing with.
Jet and Jasmine.
That's.
Jet and Jasmine.
All right.
So, thank you for giving us a little glimpse into your life, the
cats, the coffee early mornings.
So let's, let's go back into your own history.
Let's go back a actually to St.
Petersburg College, if you're open to that and into the fashion marketing program.
So tell me what's happening in your life back then.
What are you thinking about?
What's your future look like?
What are you dreaming about?
Why there, why
fashion
how funny that is.
Great.
So, when I was in high school, you know, I live here on the beaches.
Clearwater Beach was like our big beach that we would go to as kids.
And I was on the beach one day and this girl came up to me and asked me
if I would model swimwear for her.
And her name was Monica Wise, and she's now hugely successful in California
with a company called El Space Swimwear.
So this is where it all began.
So I decided I started working for her, not only just modeling for her, I
was actually working in the business.
She was designing swimwear.
So I decided I was gonna go into the fashion industry and I wanted to get my
fashion merchandising degree, which I did.
It was an associate's degree.
And I thought, you know, maybe I would either continue working with her or start
my own boutique, but I would love fashion.
I just loved it.
And.
I did that for many years and I was a professional model for a period of time.
And then I got to the point where it was like, look, I just really, I
just really wanna do something more.
And there was a company, a little company called Tech Data Corporation
here in Clearwater, and they had an open.
Cattle call is what we would say for new salespeople.
And I thought, you know what?
I need to get some structure in my life.
I want a career, not just a j o b.
And so I, I applied for the job and I got a sales rep position at this
company, and that was in 91, I think.
And I was in this sales environment.
And honestly, Tom, I mean I was in a call center
and you know, these calls were coming through and, and these were
people buying technology and they were asking me for scuzzy adapters,
and I had this catalog, like this thick, I'd have to like go through to
find
It was a book at that point.
I remember the, I remember the tech data catalog.
I remember
seeing
Oh my gosh.
And here I am, like trying to figure out, okay, a scuzzy adapter.
Like, okay, like which one does it, you know?
And, and they would be so particular.
And I, I hated it.
I absolutely hated my job.
So I, I left sales and I went, I took a demotion to get out of
sales and I went into operations.
And then from operations, I kind of moved my way up the
food chain and became an execut.
I ended up in multiple different jobs at Tech Data, both sales, product
management, marketing communities.
I even ran the systems engineering department for a period of time,
so I punched all the tickets.
I learned a lot.
I was there 15.
Okay.
So, so coming from a sales department into operations department, and then you
you know, your LinkedIn profile shows like this massive amount of things that
you did at Tech Data as you're making those moves in the corporation and it
looks like every couple of years you're making a move in that, that organization,
you said 14 years there, what were some.
Insights that you gained from the moves you were making.
Because a lot of times you see people who spend seven, 10 years in the
same job doing the same task, but you had this ability, it appeared to me
that you're making these jumps and moves and up the, like the ladder is
something that is talked about in a corporate environment, but you seem
to understand how to leverage that.
Well, I.
Probably it was more boredom.
After I
would be in a job for a period of time, I would get
kind of bored with it and
I'd want more of a challenge.
And so
I'd always kind of look for the next thing.
But I always wanted to make sure that I, I, I know this may, may or may not
come across the right way, but I always looked for the right person to work.
Mm.
in corporate America, you can really harm yourself if you, if you're
working for someone that doesn't have the same value system that you have.
And so there was that part of it as well.
Got it.
Okay.
So, as you got into those more senior roles you then I look at your resume and
then at a certain point, 14 years later, you've, you've stopped there and you moved
to Global Convergence, and then a few years later you moved to Network Dynamics.
Tell me about, What was happening through that period of time?
And what were some of the lessons you were learning after you moved?
Because once you're in a corporate environment for a while, you
learn that, that way of thinking, that way of being in the world.
But now you move to two other companies.
Tell me a little bit about the move and what you learned through that, those
moves and those particular career options
that
So well, when I left Tech Data I decided that I wanted to try
to work for a smaller company.
TechData was a Fortune 100 company at the time, and now
they're like 56 billion as
they've merged with TD Cynics.
But I wanted to try to work for a smaller company, so I actually
went to work for a company called Interlinked Communication Systems, and
they were basically a telecom agency.
And I was there for a period of time.
It was a very small family owned business, and I'll be honest with
you, I came in, it makes me laugh.
I came in and made some major changes for them.
Let me just put it that way.
And they loved it.
The salespeople loved it.
We were growing.
We ended up getting acquired by network dynamics.
And Network Dynamics was a very large global M S P.
They were a service provider.
They did very little product, but at the time, they were a Cisco Gold partner.
So you can imagine how much product they had to buy to get that.
Designation, but
even product was very, very limited for them.
They were a service company.
And so I went out on the road and I learned how to sell services
and I was pretty good at it.
I mean, I, I landed a, a couple of pretty big clients and then next thing you know,
they Rebranded as Global Convergence once they brought those two companies together.
And it was about that time that I was asked to be on the
board of directors at CompTIA.
And
so that's, I was still working at Global Convergence, but I was sitting on the
board of directors for CompTIA and at that point we were investigating, bringing in
the very first outside CEO to Comp Tia.
And re and replacing the founder who was obviously, you know, brought all this to
fruition with the certification business.
So it was, it was bringing in a new, you know, c e o and then after my two
year stint on the board I approached that c e o Todd Tido, who I just
absolutely admire, and I said I would love to come and work for the company.
You know, he had made some radical changes.
He really came in and really re refitted CompTIA for the future,
and I was so excited and so I asked him if I could come to work for him.
We decided initially because I had so many vendor contacts through tech
Data that I would help drive the vendor membership for the association.
And so that's what I did for the first couple of years.
Wow.
So you moved out of the industry side of it, into the association side of it.
But Compt is a massive organization as I understand it, and and really,
really serve to bring on new members in the vendor side of the equation.
So really doing.
Outreach to connect dots for, for those part, those kind of, I, what
are they called in comp TIA vendors
or,
Well, they're called vendors.
So the vendors
are gonna be your Microsofts, your hps, your Intels, you know,
the vendor community, and then you have the solution provider
community, which are the MSPs and the
bars and the systems integrators.
And then, You have the associate category, which would be your media companies,
your consulting firms, your other trade associations, things like that.
So they kind of bucket into three categories.
Got it.
All right.
So, in that role, tell me about a little bit of the growth of that role and then
I, I notice on your your resume and, and LinkedIn profile this connection now
into council advisory council members.
So gimme a sense of, of the move towards that and what that all entailed.
Well, there was a point where I was beginning to get bored again
you know, saying the same pitch and doing the same thing every day.
And so I went to Todd and I said, Hey.
You know, I really think we should have industry advisory boards because,
you know, I used to run advisory an advisory board for Tech Data when
I ran their tech select community.
And I loved it.
I just loved
it.
And so, I said to him, I said, you know, I really think we should develop
industry advisory boards and then.
You know, we started out with those that were associated with our membership.
We had a vendor advisory board, a distributor and an As a solution
provider, so vendor distributor, solution provider that made up the IT channel.
So I had three different boards, and what I found is, I'd go into one meeting and
their vendors are talking about how, you know, the distribution isn't doing this.
And then I'd go into the distribution meeting and they were
upset with the solution providers not understanding that and.
They were all pointing fingers at each other.
So I said, you know what?
This is ridiculous.
I just put them all together on one board and I said, we gotta figure this out.
We gotta solve these problems.
And the only way we could do it is if we are in the same room together
and we are working together.
So we created the it's you know, it, it was more of a kind of
channel development advisory board.
So it was, how do we help people enter the channel?
How did they learn?
Especially if they're emerging technology company and they
don't, and they're selling direct and they don't have a channel.
Many of them have no idea what's involved in playing in
the big, big leagues with some
of the big distributors and things like that.
So we started that group.
And then shortly thereafter we added business applications, which was
software, software as a service.
Then we went into internet of things and then at that point it was like,
you know, Todd, we really might wanna consider bringing emerging technologies.
Realm because now we can expand Comp T's, reach and relevance into
these new SEC sectors of technology.
Even though our members themselves were not quite ready for things like
AI and blockchain and drones and things like that, we felt it was important
as the trade association to be you.
Forward thinking and helping to drive the, a adoption of these emerging
technologies into mainstream business.
And so considering that most of our customers or members were s were
servicing you know, small medium to enterprise businesses across the
United States, it just made sense for us to start educating them on
these technologies.
Right.
So, so part of, part of it and then, then I'm gonna go ask the question
from a different perspective.
So part of it was you were building these councils or advisory boards of
sorts fr based on members in the various categories for the purpose of serving
other members within other categories.
That's how I'm
Well, what's interesting is when I started to recruit the emerging tech
companies, We didn't have them as members.
So what I would do, and personally I wasn't an expert in AI or
blockchain enough to have, you know, deep, intelligent, technical
conversations with these people.
So what I did is I I decided to start going to industry events
where these people were, and I would go through the agenda.
I would highlight the people I was interested in.
I would look them up on LinkedIn.
I would do all the research.
I would go to their sessions, and literally when they were done with
their keynote, I would rush the stage.
I would wait to speak to them in line cuz there was a bunch of
people that wanted to talk to.
I would then say, look, I just need 30 minutes.
I would like to set up a call with you.
I'm with CompTIA.
We would like to have your expertise on an industry advisory board.
It's volunteer, but we are gonna give you a complimentary one year
membership just so you can see what we're all about, what we're doing.
But the term is for two years, and if you stay the second year, then you'll
have to pay for your membership.
And I had literally 84% of those members sign up for their second
year and become members of CompTIA.
So we recruited hundreds and hundreds of new vendors into Comp Tia, just
through the advisory board program.
But what's in, what's interesting there to me is not only were you
recruiting people to be on the advisory boards, it's, it's a membership play
as well to get them into membership.
And yet the value proposition is they were delivering value to the
organization and to others, presumably at the same time, they became members.
Of the organization.
So there was a lot of really lot of really cool
Yeah, it was a, it was a very strategic play.
And what my, my goal was, was to bring these subject matter experts in, and
there were 20 of 'em on each council.
So we had ai, blockchain, drones, iott, cybersecurity, business applications,
telecom, and channel development.
And over the course of time, and they were all running s.
But over the course of time, you know, we needed to develop content to he help
educate.
So the idea was to get these subject matter experts and, and
you know, they're sitting together.
They're kind of like, it's almost like a peer group because you've got like
the, the, the young lady that was the She developed the inter, she was part
of the team at IBM M that developed the international languages for IBM M Watson.
And here she was sitting across from the gentleman at Oracle, you know, and I mean,
we had some big names on these boards.
So these guys were loving the fact that they were engaging
with each other on something.
Outside of their personal realm,
and that was giving goodness back to the industry and building educational
content that would allow just general technology people to understand
and adopt these techno technology.
So once we would develop a piece of content, we'd put the CompTIA brand on it,
and then CompTIA's, unbelievable marketing team would push that out to the industry.
People would click on it, they'd have to give us their contact
info, they would come back in.
Now we're collecting thousands and thousands of names, so we
didn't know where to put them because they weren't members.
So we developed these virtual communities that we
basically were, you know, Kind of called technology interest groups.
And then we keep them warm by pushing content and having my advisory board
members speak to them doing podcasts and webinars and educating them
and, you know, things like that.
And so it just got bigger and bigger.
And so yeah, I mean, it was just the, it was the, the strategy worked.
I mean,
it really worked.
Yeah, that's fascinating.
So, let me jump then back behind the scenes cuz I, I like sort of figuring
out how you make this operate.
So I got the, I got the gist of what you were doing in the world through
CompTIA in your specific role in it, but then how are you putting.
When you had these board, these advisory boards, give me, gimme a sense of
how they were working, how they were operating, how they were being led,
what, what was the process, what was the actual nuts and bolts of what was
happening once you had them in the
Right.
Well, I had to build everything from scratch
because there was no industry advisory board program at CompTIA in, in Pryor.
So I had to build the bylaws.
I
had to determine how I wanted to govern this to be governed,
and I determined that.
After having one or two of these boards, and then next thing you
know, there's three and four, and now there's five and six and
seven.
I wasn't able to manage them and and facilitate them all myself,
so what I decided to do was, Have them become self-governed.
So we had the members elect their own leadership and we had
two co-chairs and a vice-chair.
And the reason we had two co-chairs and a vice-chair is because these are very busy
executives at very, very large companies.
And there were always conflict with a meeting or I can't be there
or whatever.
So we had to have that.
So we had two co-chairs and a vice-chair, and they were staggered terms.
So
once that first co-chair stepped down, after his term, the
vice-chair automatically moved up to co-chair with the other, with
the other co-chair, and then we would elect a new vice-chair.
And were they, were these meeting people meeting quarterly?
Were they meeting monthly?
What was the structure
of
we had well, I had 21, what I called you know, the executive, the,
the leaders of all the councils.
So there were seven councils.
There were three on each, so there were 21.
Of these people that I would meet with on a fairly regular basis, like once a month.
And we would lay out, you know, what our goal was cuz they were
all working on different projects.
And then we would have meetings at least once a quarter.
We had face-to-face meetings at CompTIA's Channel Con
event, which was in the summer.
And then we had the spring C C F event, which was the
Communities and Councils forum.
Those were the two face-to-face meetings.
But then I'd also have one-off face-to-face
meetings that were at some airport hotel, right?
Because they wanted to get in and get out and we would, it was no frills, you
know, it's a conference room and we would have them working on their projects.
So
we would literally lay out an agenda.
That said, okay, we need to do this.
You know, this matrix for determining whether blockchain
makes sense for this company.
We wanted to have, you know, if you say yes, then it goes this direction.
If you say no, it goes this direction.
So we would
build these products and it
was all different and they would have to get it done.
Like, you know how hard it is to get 20 people in a room to agree on
anything.
Well, and then they were taking it offline.
They started working independently.
And then next thing you know, I, I thought we need to do something together.
So we built it was awesome.
We actually had the i o T drone Blockchain and AI councils come
together and develop a video.
Solving and, and we wanted, it was called tech together.
You could find it out there, but it was on solving a societal
problem, and in this case it
was food contamination.
And we developed this amazing video that used all the different
technologies to, to help prevent food contamination from out in the field.
With the drones to the refrigerated trucks and the sensors to
it was just unbelievable.
So,
That's, that's so interesting because, you know, we, we think about boards
as a, as a way of advising each other.
But what was real, what's really cool here, what you're talking about is you
were using boards to actually create.
Output to create content that now has a residual value in
the
Right.
And they were project-based boards, but you
know, we, we, I do also do business focused boards too, which I
happen to have a, a, a, new client right now that I'm working with.
But yeah, it's, it was, it was probably the funnest job I've ever had.
I, I
I have to say,
Yeah.
That's really interesting.
Well, you kind of hinted at it there, but recently you left CompTIA, as I understand
it, and have started a new company and.
But before we get into what you're doing, cause I want to ask you about that.
Why the switch and what were you seeing in the world that caused you to go, there's,
there's a place, there's more opportunity for me to do this out in the world.
There's more opportunity for me to, to engage this kind of environment.
So before we talk about what you're doing what were you seeing, what
was your unique insight, your perspective of the landscape, your
radar showing you essentially?
Well, I would say really I wanted more.
I
wanted to
have
you get bored easily, I
I do.
And I, I wanted, I wanted to have more flexibility to, to do things
kind of the way I wanted to do them.
And you know, I had spent 14 years at CompTIA with my time on
the board and you know, it was time, it was time to move on and.
One thing I did notice too is the industry is aging.
You know, a lot of people that were on my boards were very senior
executives at their companies.
A lot of them retiring now some of them looking for, you
know, what's next, but they
don't wanna sign back up for that corporate environment.
And that was
honestly how I felt.
Mm.
so one thing that I want to do as part of my new business uh, once we
get into that conversation is give back to all those people that gave
so much to the industry at
no charge.
I mean, like, they were volunteering their time.
They were very, very busy people and I wanna have a way to give back to them too.
So part of what my.
Role is going to be with Board Swap, is to give them a venue to do that.
God, really interesting.
So what, as, as you think about where you're going, give, give me a a a sense
of you sort of touched on it there, but a sense of what you're trying to
do with board swap your new company.
What are, what are some of the tools and, and approaches and services
you plan on offering related to this new entity that you've, you've,
Right.
well, first and foremost as a certified chair through the
advisory Board Center, which I.
Of that organization, and I know you do too.
I love the structure.
I love
the formality and I wanted to take that knowledge that I learned and put it to
practice with my previous background.
And so I wanted to get more into business focused advisory boards.
I have a business degree.
And I wanted to take all the experience that I had personally in my career as
well as all the knowledge I learned from all these amazing executives
through the tech industry and build something that would be unique.
And there are a lot of companies that do advisory boards, a lot of
companies that do customer advisory boards and things like that in the tech industry.
I didn't see anyone doing the formalized advisory boards, and there's
a big difference there.
so.
When I decided to build board swap, there were several key elements.
I wanted to do formalized advisory boards for not only the business
sector, but I wanted project based.
And I also wanted to do peer groups, which again, are different.
They're
more of six to eight executives from non-competing companies that kind of
come together and use each other as their own personal board of director.
Right.
then I wanted to give back, as I mentioned, to all these people that
I had worked with over the year, and I would say there's three to 400 of
'em out there that I've worked with.
And so I wanted to create an advisor concierge service.
So that when my customers came to me and said, Hey, you know, we would like
to create an advisory board that I had a place to point them to, to say,
well, here, you can look for advisors if they fit the need for your board.
So there was that part.
And then there's the board swapping idea, which is the name of the company.
And the board swap idea is that as businesses evolve, things change very
rapidly.
And when you create a board charter for your board, you
have a specific thing in mind.
So whether we're doing assessments in advance to figure out what that board
charter needs to be, which is what we do.
Or they just have a, a need that they don't need assessments and they just
know, Hey, we need to put this together because we have to solve this problem.
You, you want to be able to bring structure and discipline.
To that process.
And what I've found is so many people fail at advisory boards
because they don't have that.
And you know, in these big companies, They'll have, oh, well, the
advisory board's sitting under the marketing department and then, you
know, they start managing it and then, you know, they all have full-time jobs
and then they, they realize, well, so-and-so isn't showing up to meetings
and this person stopped coming and
you know, next thing you know, oh yeah, we forgot to have our Q2 meeting.
And it's like not even serious, you know?
Yeah.
By outsourcing your advisory board to a certified chair who has a very
structured and disciplined approach to managing and facilitating these types of
things, it just makes more sense because it's cheaper, it's got more focus and
the fact that it's independent allows.
Outside com you know, chair, to really see the bigger picture of what's going on
between the company and their advisors.
And so, I really wanted to enact that type of a program.
And so that's, that's exactly what I've done.
Got it.
So you're, you're essentially bringing bringing a number of approaches to bear
using advisory boards, your, your history, your experience using and leveraging,
obviously what you said with the advisory board center, some of the, the framework
and the, and the process pieces from that.
To, to come at it from a number of different ways.
It sounds like it's, it's not like you're taking one approach.
It's not like you're taking the old compt approach.
Only you're using that as history and, and you know, and perspective and insight, but
you're doing a whole bunch of different things, which sounds really kind of
Well, and, and what's so funny is you know, you, you, you go through your
training, you get your certification and you have this mentality of,
okay, this is how the process works.
And then you go out into the real world and you go to try to implement
that, and you find that it doesn't work like that.
right.
like you have to listen to the needs of your client.
And so I was fortunate enough before I launched to be
introduced to a telecom carrier.
Out on the west coast, and I went in with this thought that I'm gonna kind
of try this methodology that I learned.
And it was so funny because they were like, yeah, no, we already have 14 people
on our advisory board and we really just want a customer advisory board,
and we're not interested in having all those assessments done on our company.
We already know we have a problem and we had a little breakdown in
our service level, and some of our customers were pretty upset about it
because they had their name on it.
And you know what we'd really like you to do, Annette,
is we'd really like you to interview all five of our senior executives that run
our ops department sales and marketing.
You know, product management, customer service and tech support.
We, we really want you to interview these executives and then we want you
to interview each of our board members, and we want you to facilitate a meeting
in June that is going to help us solve the problem that we had last fall.
And I'm like, okay, let's do it.
And so that's, that's
what we're in the process of doing.
So it's a completely different
methodology.
And, and
part of what we did is we actually took and asked each of these executives to
come up with questions for a survey.
And now we're presenting that survey to the board members so that before
we even get to the meeting, I have enough information on what's going
on in the dynamics and the people and to be able to facilitate this
very interesting meeting that's gonna happen in June as it relates to, you
know, a crisis situation basically.
So, so interesting and so cool.
So, one thing that that interests me always is what's
the superpower that you bring?
So, like you've told your story and you've, you've told how you how
you're coming at things, how your new business is, is well, the services
you're planning on delivering.
But what's intriguing to me in listening to you is you've got all
these story parts and pieces that.
Make me believe that you have this, this really interesting superpower that
a lot of times a superpower to me is something that you just do naturally
and efficiently and, and you, you don't think it's that hard, but everybody else
around you goes, wow, that's amazing.
So what, what superpower do you bring to like a facilitation, a sitting in a
board, if you're a, an advisory board member just being in the room, what's
the thing that you are always thinking about that nobody else is thinking about?
What's the perspective that you're taking?
A lot of the.
you know, I think as women sometimes we, we want everybody to get along,
you know, when we're young and we're growing up, you know, we always.
Want everybody to get along.
You know, the
girls always kind of get together and they're always, you know,
they're always sweet and friendly and I think what it is, it's being
a galvanizer galvanizer of people.
You
know?
do you mean by that?
What's a
galvanizer?
It's
is
trying to make everyone feel part of something that we can all identify.
You know,
making sure that everyone feels comfortable that, that there's
proper expectations that are set you know, that you motivate and energize
people to do what needs to be done
and execute on what you say you're gonna do.
And by doing that, you know, People trust you.
You know,
when, when they start to see that, when you say something and you do it there's,
there's a lot to be said for that, you know, and I think listening is so key.
You know, I, I, I just was appointed to an advisory board for the University
of South Florida, and it's regarding their digital marketing program.
And I told the girl, I said, let me just say this right up front.
I am not a digital marketing person, okay?
I actually had to hire somebody to build my
website and do all this stuff for me cuz I don't know this.
I said, but I bring knowledge from business.
And she goes, that's exactly why we wanted you in that
we don't care about you.
So I have to listen to learn.
And I would say I'm probably one of the people that speaks last.
I like to
hear what everyone else has to say.
And then develop my own.
That's great.
So a let, let's assume, and because you are a, you have this rich tech
background let's say a tech, c e o a, young tech, c e o, comes to you and says,
I'm, I'm interested in advisory board.
What's the first three pieces of advice you're gonna give them?
They're, they're interested in it, they're uncertain, they're kind of on the fence.
But you've, you've, you've got a chance to give.
Real clear, crisp advice.
What?
What's the first few things you're gonna tell them?
them?
Well, I would probably tell them that we're gonna need to spend a
little time together so that I could understand what's going on in their
business, because sometimes it doesn't make sense to have an advisory board.
You
know, like if they're.
Having an issue with cash flow or something like that, as many
brand new startups do, that's not the time to go invest money in
having an advisory board, Right.
So I would need to spend some time with them.
I would need to understand what's going on, and then we
would have to identify priority,
you know, what is the priority?
You know, because so many things are happening, and if you don't target
in on something, then you don't.
Clarity of scope,
right.
And when you don't have clarity of scope and you start an advisory
board, it goes all over the place and you don't accomplish anything.
So if
you have to have clarity of scope and and you have to have discipline, you
have to have structure and discipline.
And so I would say, you know, spending time understanding what
their needs are, identifying their priorities, and developing clarity of.
Or probably before you even have an advisory,
before you even have an advisory board.
Those are the first three things that you really have to do to
assess if it even makes sense.
Yeah, that's beautiful.
And, and from there and, and I think that leads back into maybe mistakes that people
make, that you've seen is is failure to do that upfront work, like you said.
And this is, I I see it a lot in terms of advisory boards that
are put together without that discipline that you're speaking of.
And what, what starts happening is, They, they put the people on the board before
they understand where they're going.
Is that, is
that
yes.
I mean, because once you determine what the scope is, then you have
to assess the company's current executive team and say, you know,
do we have the skillset needed to
achieve this scope?
Right?
And nine times outta 10 they don't, which is why they're
in the situation they're in.
So then you have to go find the right advisors that are fit for purpose.
To, to achieve that scope.
And that's when it all kind of comes together.
You know, I just feel like there are so many things that can go wrong when
you don't do the homework upfront,
and part of that is ensuring that you've got the right people involved
and you know, as a certified chair.
You know, we try to distance ourselves from selection of advisory board
members because it's their advisory board and they have to be the ones
to select who the advisors are.
You know, I don't have any problem helping to interview or provide a
data point as to, you know, where, which direction they wanna go.
But ultimately, the client has to decide who the advisors.
Right.
That, that fit them, that feel like they, they work with them and, and
there's a, a level of alignment.
Yeah.
That's really good.
this has been really, really helpful and I feel like it, it
gives a lot of perspective on, on your role, what you're doing, how
you think about it, your history.
So much perspective.
So I really appreciate you sharing all that.
So, you've told us a little bit about board swap tell.
Is there anything more you wanna say about Board Swap before we
bring this conversation to a close?
Anything more you're doing?
Anything you more you wanna say about how you can help people?
Just, just, this is
your
yes.
So, I would just say if you really want to move your organization forward and you
really want to prepare for the future, Advisory boards, in my opinion,
provide so much insight and guidance.
And if you do go forward with an advisory board, it's critical that
you engage with organizations that know what they're doing and that can
assist you throughout the process.
So check us out@boardswap.com.
Give us a call.
Let's just, you know, we could set up a call just to have
an exploratory discussion.
You know, we don't have to move forward, but let's just talk about it
and see if it makes sense, you know?
Wonderful.
I always like to end our conversation with some sort of rapid fire questions
just to get to know you a little bit more, cuz you know, anytime we work
together with people, it's always
fun to, you know you know where, where you live in the world, what coffee you
drink, and what your morning looks like.
But these are just some rapid fire questions.
So I'm gonna throw them at you quickly and you just answer at will Mac or pc.
Pc.
Is there a reason for
I haven't learned anything else.
Got it.
Best book you've read in the last six months.
I'm not reading anything right now.
I have, I have several books.
On my Kindle.
But I'm not reading anything right now.
I'm more into podcasts right now,
and
So best co podcast you're listening to right now.
What's the best, besides this
one,
yes, yes, yes, No.
Well, it's, it's probably better.
I don't go there because it's political.
Oh dear.
Okay, we'll stay outta that one.
Then.
Favorite web or phone app that gives you the best ROI right now?
Like I, is there a phone app or a web app that you use that just
gives you incredibly good roi?
Well, I gotta be honest with you, I love Calendly.
I love being able to shoot somebody a link and have them book with me when it's,
it's going back and forth all the time.
Was a nightmare.
I love that app.
I also, you know, I love Zoom.
I use that enormously.
And you know, personally I love apps that make my life easier.
So like, my pool is all on my phone.
You know, my, I have all these apps that run all my, my it in my house,
so,
Sort of the internet of
things kind of app.
Right.
Okay.
What was the first question you asked?
Chat, g p t.
Do you
I have not asked chat, g p t, anything.
However,
I have a colleague of mine who has a, a torn meniscus and I asked
her, I said, what the heck is that?
And she goes, well, I asked the chat G P T, and this is what it said.
And she sent me the text of what it was, and I was like, wow, that's amazing.
It was like in normal layman's terms.
Yes, I know.
If you could have coffee with a famous historical figure who's
no longer alive, who would it be?
Hmm.
Andrew Jackson
Why Andrew Jackson.
because I feel he really galvanized the American people to
overcome adversity in his career.
Wow, that's really cool.
And then how would your closest family members describe what it is you do?
Well, I have two boys 26 and 29.
And they would probably just say she's on the phone all the time.
I know she's in technology, but I don't know that I really understand exactly
what she does, but she talks to a lot of different people all day and that,
that'd probably be about all they'd know.
Right, right.
Uh, That's, that's delightful.
Annette, it's been an absolute joy to talk to you.
I am wishing you great success because I know you have the chops to do really
cool things with other companies.
You've, you've had a great experience in life and, and I, I wish you well in
your new board swap role your new board swap company, and all the cool things
that are gonna ha come from that role.
And I really appreciate you being here and uh, look forward to seeing all
the cool things that'll happen going
Well, thank you, Tom.
It's been a pleasure.
I've really enjoyed the time with you.