Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
OhHello - Rob Wilk (part 2)
35 Plays1 year ago
OhHello! It's episode 72
Rob Wilk is filled with joy and provides so much practical advice during our OhHello.io 🌞☕️ chat ---> part 2 of our chat
There are 3 major takeaways-
1️⃣ Authenticity is key: Rob emphasized the importance of being real and transparent, both personally and professionally. No ego. What you see is what you get (I can relate). A big shout to his mentors- Althea, Todd Anderman, Rik van der Kooi
2️⃣ Find your values: Knowing what you truly value evolves over time. From financial stability to global experiences, Rob's journey highlights the importance of staying in tune with your evolving priorities
3️⃣ Joy at work: Work should bring joy. Rob's passion for making work meaningful resonates deeply, reminding us to seek fulfillment in what we do
Did you enjoy this two-parter? Go follow OhHello.io 🌞☕️ on LI, subscribe to our pod (https://lnkd.in/d6SK7pjB) to get more advice/learnings, and (it goes without saying) go book time with Rob at OhHello.io!
Recommended
Transcript
Influential Mentors and Career Impact
00:00:00
Speaker
help our audience understand who are some of the mentors or friend tours that have made a profound impact on you and your career thus far. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to give three shout outs. I've had many more people, you know, help me in my career and be gracious. I just don't want to take up, you know, hours and hours, but I sort of looked at my, my career as like early stage, mid stage, late stage, if you will. And my first job in advertising,
00:00:30
Speaker
was 1996, young and Rubicam. If anyone out there knows Y&R, I think it's now VML Y&R and it's gone through a bunch of iterations, but it was the most New York job. I was on Madison Ave, literally 40th and Madison, actually 285 Madison, and I was an assistant media planner with this much experience. I was an entry-level guy and I just got
00:00:54
Speaker
connected to this woman who was my first manager. Her name is Althea Beaton. She's now Althea Beaton Ducard. So fun story, Malik Ducard is the chief product officer at Pinterest. That's his wife. Yeah, so she was my first boss. And the biggest thing I learned from her is she was the hardest working person I ever met. And I'm a pretty damn hard worker. I'm not scared to work hard. She left me in the dust. And she took the time when I was young,
00:01:24
Speaker
to sit down and teach me the business when she had a hundred things to do. I mean, I saw her to do lists. People still wrote them down in those days. And she was so gracious with her time. And she was a huge fan of mine and was an advocate. And she was the one who sat me down, you know, two years into the job and said, I think you're on the wrong side of the table.
00:01:45
Speaker
Because I was a media buyer. I love this. Keep on going. Keep on going. Yeah, I was a media buyer. And she was like, you shouldn't be buying. You should be selling. Like, that's where you belong, which leads to person number two.
Mid-Career Influences and Sales Opportunity
00:01:56
Speaker
So the person who gave me my first shot in sales was a guy named Todd Anderman. He actually was at tunes.com.
00:02:06
Speaker
He was working at Ziff Davis at the time, which was a, before it was digital, it was a magazine publishing company, monster, you know, PC Magazine, PC World. I worked for a magazine called Family PC. And he was the first one that gave me my break in sales as an account executive when I didn't have any sales experience. But the same thread.
00:02:26
Speaker
He took me under his wing, taught me so much. He's such a good human being, cares about people, so smart. You know, we actually did a bunch of work together at different companies, but I just always found him to be like the perfect combination of super smart, but also just a great human, like a great person. We're still very close friends to this day.
00:02:49
Speaker
you know, 20 plus years later. So he really helped me, I would say mid-career.
Leadership Lessons at Microsoft
00:02:53
Speaker
And then when I joined Microsoft, I worked for what I would argue is probably one of the best leaders in our industry, which is a gentleman named Rick Vanderkoi, who he was, he's been at Microsoft for 25 years. He was the former CFO of Europe.
00:03:08
Speaker
moved to the US to run the ads business. And he was chairman of the IAB for a while. He's incredible. So he really helped me sort of scale.
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, I had run teams before, but now I was running teams that were, you know, starting in the hundreds and eventually thousands of people, not only in the US, but then globally, like, there's just no way I would not, I wouldn't have had any success there without him by my side. And he has two sayings that I repeat constantly. Number one is, he always talks about no heartbeat wasted. And it's funny, because people who don't know him think he's impatient, like he has sort of a reputation of being quick and like,
00:03:48
Speaker
get to your point. He's not. He's a firm, firm believer in no heartbeat wasted, whether that's at work or in his personal life with his family, with his wife, with his kids.
00:04:01
Speaker
He's all about no heartbeat wasted, which I just love being deliberate. I'm sorry, being deliberate. That's how I, and when it was time to have fun, he could do that too. Right. Because he didn't want to waste that moment to enjoy that moment either. It just, you just had to understand that like, he's just, he's built in such a way where he just believes that, you know, to his, to his core. He was also always the smartest person in the room.
00:04:28
Speaker
but never made anybody feel like that. You know what I mean? Just like subtly brilliant, but like wasn't gonna rub it in your face. And when I took the job with Microsoft, he took me to lunch on my first day and I asked him a very simple question. I said, what do you want our relationship to be like?
00:04:45
Speaker
And it was just my way of saying like, some people want to updates every day. Some people like, I don't care what you do. Like I wanted to understand that. And he said, you're here for a reason and I'll never sit in your chair. And I worked for him for seven years and he never once sat in my chair, not once.
00:05:04
Speaker
Amazing leader. That is absolutely a leader. He is incredible. That's amazing. Rob, you've done a lot throughout your career.
Emphasizing Authenticity and Personal Values
00:05:15
Speaker
When you think through just being a commercial operator, a global leader, what are some characteristics that just define you both professionally and personally that you're going to be bringing to the O'Halo tribe and to the mentees that are booking time with you?
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, I hate the word but I love the definition. I just think authenticity has been like stretched too thin at this point. It's been standardized recently. Yeah, recently. Everyone's like authentic this authentic that but like
00:05:44
Speaker
I'll just use a different term, which is like, if you want my real opinion, my real thoughts, my real help, that's what you're going to get. I don't, I always joke like I'm the worst poker player in the world because I'm a terrible liar. So I just don't bother trying. You know, like I just, I'd rather just tell you the truth. So I've learned a lot over the years. And again, I've run companies that were.
00:06:06
Speaker
pre-revenue to, you know, Microsoft was $18 billion a year globally. So I think I've got pretty good experience sort of across the different sizes, different types of companies. But also, you know, Jeremy, we've talked enough, like, I'm always smiling. It's not bullshit. I want people
00:06:26
Speaker
to find what they value and go like, get that. I know it sounds sort of silly and simple, but a lot of people can't answer the question, especially folks younger in their, you know, earlier in their career, what do you value? Just talk about that. And they struggle with answering that. And my view is like, if you can't answer that, you're gonna have a difficult time finding
00:06:48
Speaker
meaning in the work that you do because you don't know what you're sort of going after in terms of the values that are most important to you. Sure. You know what I mean? Sure, I do. Absolutely. Absolutely. Being real, being authentic, no fluff, no bullshit, and just being able to help people find the value. I think a unique skill set that I've picked up on over the past few months has also just been
00:07:15
Speaker
approachable and no ego, like you've had giant roles. And when I talk to you as someone who's a little bit further ahead in your career than mine, but relatively similar footing, you handle it with a just like, Oh, yeah, sure. But just being able to be approachable to I can picture you talking to a 25 year old a 35 year old a 45 year old or
00:07:37
Speaker
an 85-year-old and having the exact same demeanor, which is a really important trait for people that they seem to overlook. Many seem to overlook. First of all, I'm grateful that you say that. It's like the thing I'm most proud of is I am who I am no matter who I'm with. Doesn't matter. I do think right now there are a lot of people who think to be a leader. They need to sort of hold back on who they are. Right. And like nobody
00:08:17
Speaker
You know, if you look at the way that our world has evolved since you and I got into the work world, you know, I'll go back to the young and Rubicam story. Like all the executives sat on a different floor and they had massive wooden doors and somebody sitting in front. So you can't get in, you know, that's the way the world was 30 years ago, social media and, you know, putting yourself out there as a leader on Instagram or, or, you know, wherever broke down those walls. And now there's an expectation for people who work for you. They want to know you.
00:08:37
Speaker
wants to follow a plastic leader.
00:08:48
Speaker
And not just in a meeting and not just what you are at work. They want to know the full you. And I think folks are making a mistake. If you don't allow for that, like I let people see who I am warts and all the good, the bad, you know, and anything in between, I don't hide anything.
00:09:04
Speaker
And listen, I think for the most part that works. And there might be some people out there who would say, that's not for me. And that's fine. I think the world has evolved to a place now where there is a certain expectation of wanting to know who they work for in a deeper way.
Supporting Memorial Sloan Kettering: A Personal Journey
00:09:21
Speaker
Well said, Rob. What are different causes that are near and dear to you as you continue to mentor and help people that are booking time with you? When you think through the philanthropic causes that are important to you, your family, what are some of them?
00:09:39
Speaker
I mean, the biggest one, it's sort of hard to even compete is, and thank you for, for making sure that they were available to me is Memorial Sloan Kettering. So for those that don't live in New York or don't know, this is, you know, one of the best cancer treatment hospitals, arguably in the world, but certainly on the East coast. And my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.
00:10:00
Speaker
during the peak of COVID and to watch the care that they took care of my wife. And again, let me finish by saying she's doing great. Everything's all good. But we spent a lot of time at Sloan Kettering and they just took care of her in a way that I've never seen before and just grateful for their help and grateful for every person who works there.
00:10:22
Speaker
Just glad to be able to give back in some way to MSK, so. It's a wonderful cause. Yep, they're amazing. They are amazing.
Evolving Personal Values Over Time
00:10:31
Speaker
So Rob, before we part, we'd love to hear just any other guidance that you would tell your younger self and just parting words of wisdom. Yeah, I think we covered some of it. I love to keep pushing people on getting crisp on what they value. And I think maybe what I'll, so I don't repeat myself, what I'll add is,
00:10:52
Speaker
be aware that what you value will likely change over time, right? So if I, if I go back to the Rob of the late nineties, early two thousands, I had, I paid for school myself. I had student loan debt. I lived on my brother's couch when I worked at YNR. So what was my value then money and you know, like working 24 seven, like that, that was like the, I needed to get out of my financial situation. I wanted money.
00:11:22
Speaker
And that's why I liked being in sales because you have some control over your own income, right? As time moves on, you're like, okay, I settled myself, like got myself out of that scenario. And then what I cared more about was like, how do I become a manager?
00:11:35
Speaker
And I spent a long time trying to figure that out. And then there's the manager of, of managers and, you know, all of that. And then as you get, as I got into even the forties, it was, it was more like, I have so much us experience. I want global experience optimized for global experience. The long and short of it is we're like four days away from me turning 51, which is insane. And now I know what I value, what's so different. I value.
00:12:04
Speaker
People over everything. So when I think about what I want to keep doing, where I want to go next, people is number one. Number two would be, you know, is it a great product or the potential to be a great product? And number three is like, what's the problem that needs to be solved? I like the hard stuff.
00:12:20
Speaker
You and I talked about that earlier. Yeah, that stuff really matters to me and you know time like listen I think I think you're the same way. I'm a million myler. I'm a Delta diamond for 15 years straight. I could care less about my status on Delta. I just don't care anymore. I want to
00:12:41
Speaker
Optimize my time for things that I love with people that I enjoy and spend as much time with my kids. I've already got one out of the house. My second one will be out in a year. And you know, like I just think it's okay for people to be honest with themselves that what you value today at 25 will likely not be the same at 45. And that's great. But staying in tune with what you value, even as it changes, leads to more joy at work and more joy in life.
00:13:11
Speaker
amazing parting words of wisdom. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, everybody, for watching. Thank you for listening. This was fantastic. Appreciate you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, everybody. The next one, go book time with Rob.