David Nour 00:00
Hi everybody, David Nour, with my business partner Jenn Cordz. Hello, Jenn.
Jenn Cordz 00:06
Hi, Nour, how are you?
David Nour 00:07
I’m great, thanks. I want to welcome our audience to another episode of our Intelligent Growth live stream each week and Tuesdays at noon Eastern. We gather on let’s say, LinkedIn, and Facebook and YouTube and Twitter, and really share ideas and perspectives and our research on this customer lifecycle journey that you may have seen in a previous episode. And our approach to helping global clients really transformed their business from a highly transactional one today, to one of our recurring revenue or one of a, a subscription model, if you will, it is not just for consumers. We’re increasingly seeing a lot of businesses think about a more holistic approach to how they engage and influence and create awareness; Not just for their solution, but really the impact on their customers business with their solution.
So this idea of intelligent and profitable growth comes from our deeply rooted belief that growth at any cost is silly, and it’s expensive and myopic in many ways. So what does intelligent growth look like? What does, hopefully, profitable growth look like? And by the way, none of us have ever seen a company that can cut its way to growth. So you know, how do you build a sustainable business model that can grow, the individuals can grow, teams grow, the organization grow shareholder value, and really become a lasting entity. And the impact that it creates for its customers, for its ecosystem over time.
So today’s episode is focused on something that I’m really proud of, we’re really proud of, which is the next book. It’s, Relationship Economics is the name of it. And this is the third edition of this book. I wrote the first one in 2008, subsequent edition, the second one paperback came out in ‘12. And friends at Wiley were kind enough to ask me to completely rewrite this for the post-pandemic world. So Jenn and I are going to talk about and give the audience an overview of this new book, and happy to answer questions that you may have as we go as well. Jenn, over to you.
Jenn Cordz 02:24
Thanks, Nour. So as you mentioned, this is the third edition. Can you talk about the differences that you wanted to highlight in this book, and why you feel that strategic relationships have changed so much since your first edition?
David Nour 02:39
Sure. So I’ve always said I learned as much about my books after they come out. Because if you think about the book writing process, for most of us, we do extensive research we do, you know, I do executive interviews. And at some point, you’ve read enough, you’ve consulted enough, you’ve talked enough about a topic that you feel like you have something to say. So 2008 was very early in this journey. As you know, this is year 21, of our, of our business. And I wrote based on my previous experiences, based on interactions I’ve had with executives and companies and kind of my career up to that point. And what the fascinating thing about business relationships, and I know you’ve you’ve worked with enough digital teams and you know, revenue teams to see this: they’ve absolutely evolved our understanding of them, our intentionality with them, our investment in them, a return on those relationship investments over time.
So I’ve genuinely committed to being a student of business relationships. And I think most business professionals can relate to this comment that in the three plus years of this global pandemic, if you think about it a second, particularly when we’re all locked down, we didn’t spend more time with more people. We didn’t, you know, not a lot of people were very successful in reaching out to net new people that had never met or didn’t know anything about and really nurture real meaningful, a lot of transactions potentially, but no real or meaningful relationships. What we did was we spend more time with fewer people. And those were individuals we liked, we knew, we trusted, we respected. So I’ve I’ve become a really strong proponent of you don’t need more. Think about it a second: everybody you and I meet wants more customers, wants more prospects, we want more and let’s just add more.
And I’m like, Okay, what if, what if, again, hashtag crazy talk. We focused on fewer, but they were deeper. They were more meaningful. They were more strategic. Could you pay more tension to those fewer relationships and create bigger impact in their lives in their work, in the results or outcomes thereafter. So the pandemic was one reason to rewrite it, I think the evolution of business relationships. And if you think of role of AI and ML, more importantly, there’s been fabulous other research and studies, Wall Street Journal, McKinsey, that have come out and said, the value of relationships inside organizations, as well as external to them, become often an organization’s only sustainable differentiation. So all those led to this idea of let’s go back to the drawing board. And that’s exactly what I’ve done, completely rewritten this book. Let’s keep some of the nuggets that were battle tested over the last, you know, 18 years, 20 years, keep those but then enhance those with kind of the post-pandemic lens, if you will.
Jenn Cordz 06:01
Nice, that sounds like all really good reasons to rewrite the book related to what you said about relationships evolve, and they grow just like businesses evolve and grow. Can you talk about like the six phases of strategic relationships that you touch on in the book?
David Nour 06:17
Sure. So as I mentioned, if, if you believe the assertion that beyond your products and services, let’s just, you know, you have fabulous products, you have fantastic service, those in many ways are tight table stakes. That’s kind of what’s expected of you, your team, your organization. So if you believe the assertion that relationships are your only sustainable differentiation, ideally, you’re developing those relationships in a continuum over time. So said another way, you and I initially meet, and then we kind of, through several interactions, and I talked about in person, virtual, increasingly global. So we have Zoom meetings where we have, we meet for a cup of coffee, we meet at a conference. And human nature, and particularly in a business context, is always seeking value.
What is it that you say? What is it that you share your perspective, your lens, the questions you bring up, that kind of have a light bulb go off in my head that this person is interesting, this person adds value. Oh, I want to know more. So with, as sociologists tell us, when we meet somebody we give, they take, they judge, they give back, we take, we judge, we give back, and it’s this natural exchange. Too much, too fast. You’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, we just met. Not enough. And you’re like, why is that person cold or distant or, or shady, or I will literally make up our first impressions in about seven to 10 seconds, we spend the next 10 minutes cementing that, Oh, I knew she was no good. Or oh, he sounds really intelligent. So that’s how we interact.
And what’s really critical is that each subsequent interaction is value-based. Because if you and I have a conversation, and I walk away with, well, that was a waste of time, you’re not giving me a reason to come back. Or if we have a meeting, and you didn’t ask great questions that made me think, and really challenged on my assumptions, you’re not really giving me a reason to want to meet with you again. So in each interaction, if there’s mutual exchange of value, the perception becomes I want to continue. And as long as there’s value exchange, doesn’t have to be monetary, could be ideas, could be perspectives, could be “Oh, that’s interesting. I haven’t thought about it that way.” You continue to nurture this relationship, and you go from awareness to now we’re, we’re, we’re collegial to, oh, this person is now of greater value. If that’s the natural exchange coming back full circle, your question we found, and we identified, and I wrote in the book, six unique phases, that really astute relationship developers go through from planning, like, “why am I building this relationship?”
Why is this relationship important to me? How will I nurture it? How will add value over time, all the way through that. The real engine which is about nurturing and sustaining, and really developing that relationship over some period of time. And ultimately, what you want to do is not just relationship creation, but relationship capitalization. And that is not it’s really important that I highlight that is not about using people. It’s about you’ve made this investment, you’ve nurtured that really over some period of time, through again, nurturing and sustaining. So now how do you capitalize that relationship to create real value in your efforts in the outcomes you’re after? Does that make sense? Does that resonate?
Jenn Cordz 10:13
That does make sense. And you and I’ve talked about in our customer lifecycle journey maturity model. A lot of organizations struggle in the engagement in the attraction phase, but then also showing their impact. How do you see that, that relationships and nurturing of those relationships can help businesses actually grow in their kind of go to market function?
David Nour 10:37
Sure. So I again, one of the things that, one that, one of the fascinating research points that we found in this journey is the quantifiable value of transparency, right? So, you know, for some reason, we’ve been taught in business over the years, you know, keep your cards close to the vest, and never tell anybody what you’re up to and what you’re doing. And I think increasingly, people are suspect of that level of secrecy, that level of just inability or unwilling to be transparent. So if I think about a sales organization, you know, what the client knows it, the partner knows it, everybody knows that you’re there to sell something. So I don’t think that’s a that’s a something to hide. Listen, we want to demonstrate the value that this product, this solution, this different approach, brings. And let’s just let’s just start with, is it viable? Is it viable for your environment? Does it in fact, do what we’re proposing that it does, if so, would love to work together. Would love to have you become a marquee client in us working together.
But so transparency goes a long way, in, really, when you create that awareness of what the goal is, it cannot be transactional. Increasingly, I think in a sales environment, if the clients sense that all you’re there is to close the deal. They’re going to treat it as such. And they’re going to go look for lesser expensive, more available products and services. And there’s little to no loyalty in that process. Conversely, if you build a nurturer real relationships that are going to be there through the good and the bad, and you can’t just say that, you have to demonstrate it. The other side has to feel it. Then there’s a very high likelihood that not only you’ll get the sale in that customer lifecycle journey, but if you stay with it, and you and I’ve talked about this organization is not investing enough in the customer success and in creating the outcomes and the impact the clients looking for, and giving them a reason, not just to renew, but to expand and to scale and to build a deeper, richer relationship with you. So this plays really nicely with our customer lifecycle maturity model.
Because I’ve always said to clients, and you’ve heard me say this, that the relationship starts, when somebody buys you, that’s when it really starts, because now I want to see you deliver on the promises you made early in this process. And will you be there when we need help with implementation integration, it isn’t working, it isn’t delivering the results. It’s causing conflict, that data is not bi directionally syncing, on and on and on. That you and I know comes in a lot of the post-sale environments. So it goes back to you can’t just say it, you have to demonstrate it. And if you double-down on the long tail value of the relationship, you will do a heck of a lot more than just mere transactions.
Jenn Cordz 13:58
Absolutely. The customer or the prospect needs to feel that you’re actually a partner with them versus just a vendor, to your point wanting to sell them something. So recently, I saw on LinkedIn you posted, like top 10 reasons why networking doesn’t work or why people struggle with networking as a Nour Noon Nugget. And it was really interesting to me. Because a lot of people may equate some of those networking tips as the building strategic relationships. Can you define for our audience the difference between networking and actually building a strategic relationships?
David Nour 14:34
You’re gonna love this. The title of the first chapter in the book is networking equals not working. If you think about it, just one letter away. And and unfortunately, again, in business, I think ever since we all left a room or even in any university and in business schools and in our first jobs we were taught that you got to network for for particularly, you know, very specific roles. If you think about sales or marketing or business development, investor relations, consulting any of those even, you know, increasing the more technical roles, if you think of an attorney, or engineering or accounting.
Jenn Cordz 15:15
And so many people hate networking. Like, they hate that word. They hate having to go to those mixers, because they think that there’s a set of rules, or they need to do something specific.
David Nour 15:27
And it feels sleazy. It feels like snake oil, it’s like, oh, I don’t want to go up and talk to somebody you said how you do and and, you know, get a card and give a card. And it’s just as cheesy as hell, and most people don’t really want to do that. So instead, I coach people to if you think of networking as highly transactional, right, just that get a card, give a card, try to sell something to somebody. Relationships are much more authentic. Relationships, or people describe them as, you know, you build and nurture trust and you have each other’s vested interest. Then you go out of your way to make sure they’re okay. They’re become, they become friends. That, the challenge is networking events, by definition of transactional. It’s professional speed dating, right? Whether it’s, you know, the goofy virtual versions, we we’ve done the last several years. Or more increasingly, now we’re getting back together in person.
It’s how many people can I talk to? And how many cards can I get? And it’s just it’s, it’s silly at best. So my approach to this idea of building and nurturing relationships, that said, earlier number one, fewer. So if you think about it, there’s a reason there are guardrails, against a 200 foot cliff on a road to keep you out of that ditch. So similarly, what are the guardrails for the types of relationships most conducive, most relevant to your world. And I often talk about not an ideal customer profile that you and I’ve seen, a lot of organizations create. But what’s an ideal relationship profile for you as an individual for your team, for your organization. And that is unequivocally not a one size fits all. It’s very relevant to where we are, where we’re going, how we plan to get there, and which relationships will be enablers of our success. So get a get crystal clear on that ideal relationship profile? Set another way, you cannot date everybody. Who are you trying to date? And and why? And what reasons are you giving them to want to date you back? This is genuinely professional dating to figure out.
We want to become customers or partners or investors or any of those reasons that we seek relationships for. So if you are intentional about it, and you’re focused on the right profile, then the next step becomes how do I become an object of interest? How do I pique their interest, get their attention? How do I whet their appetite with some unique lens perspective value that we can bring? And Jenn, here’s the key. The other thing that a lot of people have networking, do, you said that you’d be quiet? Let me tell you how great I am in 30 seconds or less. I mean, the whole notion of an elevator pitch makes me cringe. I don’t want to be pitch in an elevator, unless you’re a baseball player. Don’t pitch anybody. It’s “let’s have conversations, let’s have discussions, let’s have real exchange of ideas and value that makes this much more interesting.” Versus you know, some scripted, whatever. And, and so all the the mindset, the roadmap, in many ways, the tool sets are very different when you’re intentionally trying to build strategic relationships, versus when you’re trying to network.
Jenn Cordz 19:04
That makes perfect sense. And that’s one of the approaches that I actually use when going to those events, like who is actually going to be there that I want to know genuinely more about what they do. And if there’s no one there that I can identify before going, then just find someone interesting in the room and have a conversation and just find out more about them, ask really good questions. We’ve talked about it before. If you want better answers, ask better questions. And so just go with some really interesting questions and don’t keep it to the how’s the weather? What’s your job, those sorts of things.
David Nour 19:37
On that note, I gotta tell you, I there’s been several incidents where, in follow up conversations, follow up interactions, the particularly the executives that I’ve met, remember you by the questions you asked, not necessarily the solutions or the great comments or the elevator pitch that you had. So I’ve literally have met subsequent, with an executive and they remember “Oh, you, you asked about that topic or that perspective, that was really interesting.” And it really sparks and it’s much more memorable than somebody who just kind of tosses out a comment or an idea over the wall.
Jenn Cordz 20:20
Absolutely. Um, and so this book is actually one of three, you call them your Star Wars trilogy. Can you talk about how the three intersect, because they all do share ideas and reading the three of them in a specific order, or even just reading the three of them in general, and applying what you learn in all of them can really help you grow professionally and personally. So can you kind of talk about why the three makes sense together, and then maybe the best order in which somebody should read them?
David Nour 20:54
Well, the audience will be delighted to hear that I’m not writing Harry Potter. Never gonna get wealthy writing bugs, the books are really an outlet to capture, share, and hopefully discuss ideas and perspectives. So as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been a student of business relationships for 20 plus years now. And one thing that I’ve learned is relationships don’t make sense by themselves. It’s not a standalone concept. So when I initially wrote relationship economics, it was all about how to be more intentional, as an individual about the relationships you choose to invest in. The second book, Co-Create, was this premise that none of us have all the answers. So what if you co-create a unique solution, a unique perspective, a unique lens, a unique potential answer through a few strategic relationships.
Curve Benders, the third in the Star Wars trilogy is all about the future of work. All about the evolution of our learning and growth. And this idea of nonlinear growth, that that I believe, is the only way for all of us to remain relevant, again, through a few really impactful, perhaps lifelong strategic relationships. So the common thread between these ideas are all about relationships. And you’re exactly right. And that the Star Wars trilogy, if you watch, you know, Episode, four, five, and six, you’ll get to know Luke Skywalker. You know, if you watch each one individually, if you watch them all, you get to know Luke Skywalker a lot better, because the story makes a lot more sense. So I would encourage the audience in that order, Relationship Economics is about you, you as an individual, and to a greater, you know, as you expand a team and an organization, really focusing on what I believe is your single biggest asset beyond your educational foundation.
Beyond your professional pedigree. The breadth and depth of the relationships you build, are going to create, you know, open new doors, create opportunities, create access, and set you apart from your peers. So that’s a really good starting place. Co-creation is then very scenario-specific. So I’m faced with this challenge. I’m faced with this opportunity. We don’t have all the answers. Whether it’s a customer or partner or an investor or media, or how do we co-create a solution. By the way, could also be two or more parties that come together and create or co-create the solution. And then ultimately, Curve Benders is about the future of work. It’s about forces that are going to continue to disrupt the way we work, live, play and give to others. So how do we take a few of these relationships and really develop a lasting impact in our lives, in our growth, and by the way, in the lives and growth of others. So that’s the stair step that I’ve written about and excited about. It’s also shaping in many ways, the next several books of how I think about relationships and their impact in our work on our lives.
Jenn Cordz 24:14
Nice, that seems like a really great roadmap for everyone. And you and I in all of our episodes, we like to leave people with tactical tips or tricks on what they can do as next steps and something that they can apply what we’ve just talked about. So in your in what you’ve talked about today, you talked about being intentional, and planning your relationships and things like that. So can you talk about just a quick framework, if you will, on how people can approach addressing how they manage their relationships today and then how they can improve on them in the future?
David Nour 24:50
Absolutely. Again, I talk a lot about beyond the sixth phase of strategic relationships that you need to mention. I talk about this idea of a relationship currency roadmap. And, you know, Covey says the same thing: start with the end in mind. So the end result is a set of kind of relationship centric goals or outcomes. What are you trying to get done, then I talk a lot about and this is, you know, right now, beginning of the year is always or, you know, beginning of an initiative is always a good time to do this. Paint for me what success looks like, paint for me the desired outcomes you’re after? What does that success look like? Six months, 12 months, 18 months from now? Get very, and again, I’m a huge believer that specificity conveys credibility. So if you give me the desired outcomes you’re after, the next question I want to ask you is who do you need?
And, you know, Jim Collins in Good to Great wrote about, you know, we don’t ask enough who questions when we’re faced with a challenge or opportunity, we often ask, you know, talk about what we should do or how we should do it. We don’t ask enough who questions? So the who are called pivotal contacts. So make a list of again, ideally, of individuals, I need, you know, Steve Hardy, who is the Chief Marketing Officer at this company to achieve this goal. Ideally, it’s that level of specificity. If it isn’t, if it’s not an individual, then then profile them, I need Chief Marketing Officers of, you know, at least 100 million in revenue, SAS, you know, software companies, so come up against specificity, you can’t just tell me, I need somebody in marketing. So get very granular of the pivotal contacts you need to achieve that outcome. Next is who do you know, you know, a lot more people than you think you do? The challenge is, Jenn, we’re, most of us are really bad at keeping up with them. So I call that your relationship bank. So literally make a list of, you know, who are the most relevant people in my network and people that I know today, that would know that CMO, or could get help me get access to a CMO.
And the whole process is predicated on the first step, which is what I call your relationship currency deposits. What can I invest in an existing relationship that I already have somebody who I know, knows me, likes me, trust me, will will literally reply to my emails or calls within 24 hours. That’s another litmus test for you of the quality of that relationship, that I can add value to. It’s a lot easier if you give a hand versus if you have your hand out. What can I do to invest in an existing relationship? And what we’ve measured over the years is this idea of reciprocity, we found that that if you invest in professional relationship, something like eight out of 10 times, the other two, I’ll come back to in a second, but in 10 times the responses, that’s very kind of you, you know, what can I do to help you? How can I be an asset to you? That’s not the time to fumble with blah, blah, blah, that glad you asked, I would love to meet, you know, a CMO of at least $100 million software company or SAS company. And by the way, I was on LinkedIn, and I saw that you’re connected to these four, would you be kind enough to introduce me to those four individuals, that approach that process is more intentional? It’s more disciplined, it’s more focused.
Some naysayers would say, Well, that’s very calculating. Tell me what investments do you make in your life blindly. Tell me what investments you make. And you treated like the George Foreman grill, set it and forget it. We all any investment of time, effort, resource, we make it anything, we want to ensure a return on that investment. And one of my suppositions is you have to start believing that relationships are an investment of time, effort, resources. So on any given day, you can invest in a lot of people, which ones? And how do you know, and and why those people versus others? So the relationship currency roadmap in the book, I think, and again, you live this world, there’s a lot of technology that will accelerate the success of this. But those are, that process is what’s going to create the greatest outcome. And if you’re looking for a practical tip, that’s the one I would focus on.
Jenn Cordz 29:40
Nice, I think it, I think it makes complete sense and, and yeah, achieving any goal needs a plan doesn’t matter if it’s business, weight loss, money, whatever, you need a goal and you need a plan to get there and asking those who questions really will help accelerate that.
David Nour 29:57
On that note, let me ask you a question. You spent a lot of time around processes and and related to technology for our clients around this idea of kind of integrating tightly marketing sales, customer success. What are some of the great processes or tech stacks you use, you’ve seen, you’ve been around that help clients, identify the right relationships, nurture the right relationships, ultimately, you know, deliver value and sustain that over time.
Jenn Cordz 30:33
Great question. I’m probably, one of my favorites I’ve seen since its infancy is outreach.io. It’s a communication tool that really has grown and expanded beyond just allowing sales reps to have a sequence or a cadence of communications, it actually has the ability now to pause communications, when somebody gets out of office, it has the ability to listen in those emails to keywords and prompt you with appropriate responses, or maybe suggest content that you could then send to this person based on their response. It also ties into your analytics of your website. So if they’re consuming content that you’ve sent them, and then they click on something else, that tool actually listens to all of that. So that’s one one really awesome tool. Another one is PathFactory. It, again, is a, it’s a content consumption tool. And basically, it allows companies to put all their content out into the world without gating all of it, nobody likes filling out a ton of forms, because everybody knows that, that’s just lead gen, and they’re gonna get a million phone calls, once they fill out that form.
And so by allowing anybody to consume your content, and still be able to track that engagement, gives the people the value that they’re looking for, without the fear, if you will, of being bombarded with a whole bunch of sales calls. So lessening the friction in there. But really all the technologies and tools that any company has within their tech stack, it comes back to the people and the process, and what they’re trying to do. So to your point, get really specific about your end goal, what is, what is it you’re wanting people who come to your website to do? And how are you going to get them there? Or they’ve engaged with one piece of content. Okay, well, what’s next? Give them a journey, give them a path for in which you’re going to lead them down. Yeah, they may weave off of it and go in tangents and things like that. But really, it’s it’s getting them to that end goal in a way that makes sense for who that person is and meeting them where they are, because they’re not going to necessarily follow your breadcrumbs. But getting them to your end goal with value is really what every business relationship starts with.
David Nour 32:59
And for our audience, just just a clarification, this this, this episode is not sponsored by Outreach, or any of these companies. This is this is Jenn’s, your favorite, candid, candid perspective on if you don’t invest in building a nurturing relationships with individuals end of the day, there’s no relationship between logos or buildings, it’s individuals. So if you don’t invest the time and effort resources, to get to know them, and what they’re interested in. So I’m fascinated by Jenn by the user journey that you guys create for our clients, you and your team, or the the, again, that whole idea of what content, which profile of a buyer is consuming at which stage of their buying process, end of the day, that’s exactly what relationships are. How do I, how do I become an object of interest? How do I add value? How do I leave them wanting more? And if you do that, now, you’re creating this reciprocal value. And I’ve always said, you’ve heard me say this, a sale. And I think we all learn this ever since we were teenagers. And we started dating, right? A sale is a series of yes’s. So what’s the next “yes”? How do we get to the next “yes,” of interacting, of and respecting people’s bandwidth, their time, and ensuring that you don’t waste it.
Jenn Cordz 34:26
And I would also go a step further. I mean, we talked about what technologies that I like best. Relationships are not only external facing, like you need relationships inside your business as well. And so right now, there is a move in the in the ops function to transition everything to RevOps, which is this methodology that everything’s under one umbrella, if you will, but there are many organizations that aren’t ready to make that transition. And so they still do have marketing ops, sales ops, customer success ops and their individual teams. They’re all all playing within the same tech stack. And so each one of those teams needs to have a counterpart on the other team, or have a very open and transparent relationship with those other teams. Because any change that like marketing makes, that sends ripple effects across any technology that sales and customer success may be making, and vice versa. So those relationships, you really need to have that reciprocal relationship within the organization itself. And as you’re developing these processes, ask the end user, the sales rep, who’s inputting the information, or the support rep who’s needing to help a client with a problem that they’re having? Ask them the questions of what do you need to do your job most successfully, and then try and remove as many barriers as possible, to help them get their job done.
David Nour 35:49
You bring up a great point. One of the myths and misperceptions of of relationships is that is purely external, right? Customers, vendors, partners, investors, everybody outside this place. I’m and you brought it up, I’m a huge proponent of your intra company relationships, because if and you and I’ve seen this, we’re gonna in a company, and you hear us in them, or you know, that New York office or the people on LA couldn’t be more, right, you fill in the blank, right? And anytime you want to hear us and them versus we, right? It’s a “is that a we challenge?” Is that a “we opportunity”, you realize that this organization is not clicking on all cylinders, this is they’re not, they’re not rowing with the same velocity and veracity in the same direction. So really critical for every leader, to become a champion of the internal relationships, and to really go out of the way to ensure communicate consistent.
Professional communication, collaboration, I couldn’t disagree with you more. But you know what, let’s find a way to work together for that common good, for that common mission, common vision, or even a common enemy like a competitor or overregulation. So, again, it’s an investment that I don’t see enough organizations make and whether in a slow economy or down economy or post-pandemic economy or inflationary economy, those relationships will unequivocally set individual leaders, individuals in general teams organizations apart. More importantly, it really sets you up nicely. For when the cycle does come back. Those people really did behave in a very collaborative way to have each other’s back and it shows the customer see it, the prospects see it, the investors see it, the market sees it that. Wow. They really are supportive of each other in how they show up in how they deliver results and how they set themselves apart from others.
Jenn Cordz 38:11
Absolutely. So Nour, any final thoughts on well, actually, first before final thoughts tell us when the book comes out, and where people can buy this book.
David Nour 38:22
Yeah, very kind of you to ask again, for our audience. The book is Relationship Economics, the third edition. Interestingly enough, by, through friends at Wiley, it does get released on Valentine’s Day on February 14, for our audience that don’t, don’t be afraid. I’m not about to leave my full time job and become a dating expert. But it is intended to highlight not just our personal or romantic relationships, but as I said, our professional ones. So it will be released on February 14, I want to invite any of our listeners that are in the metro Atlanta area, we’re having a an in person, a book launch party at the Atlanta Tech Village the day before, I’m not about to take up romantic time with you and your significant others on that. So that’d be Monday night on Tuesday, the 14th we’re going to do a virtual book launch where I’m interviewing a group of executives from nine in the morning till four in the afternoon, on the hour, every hour, about their perspectives, on strategic relationships, in their careers in their roles and their functions.
And you can certainly learn more about that in our community that I’ll share in a second. And and I would encourage folks again, this is one this is an investment in yourself as an investment that no one can ever take away from you. So it’s about all about how do you transform again as the book title says, you know, how do you transform every day contacts into business contacts into really lasting into, impactful into, I would dare to say transformational kind of professional success into long term related relationships. And that’s the goal is, is really elevate yourself, your career, your results with breadth and depth of these relationships. So February 14 is the release date. And the best place to learn more, the best place to see our latest thinking is our community, which is the Nour Forum. If you just go to nourgroup.com/forum. I’m there every day, Jenn, I think you are there every day. And we post ideas and tips and techniques and tidbits from the book. And so I hope our audience will come join us and learn more there. Thanks.
Jenn Cordz 40:39
Thanks, Nour. So final thoughts on what you’d like people to take away or apply from today’s episode about the book other than coming and joining us on the 14th?
David Nour 40:52
Sure. So I would submit to you that in the post-pandemic world, the breadth, the depth, the quality of relationships you build, and that is in person, like some of us old schoolers are used to virtual what we’ve had to do in these Hollywood square boxes. And as I said, in earlier, increasingly global relationships will absolutely set you apart. And the end, if you don’t hear anything else from me, ideally, you hear the investments you choose to make. And it’s a choice every single day, it’s a choice, the investments you choose to make, will pay not only dividends, for years to come, but it will absolutely make your job more fulfilling will make your life more fulfilling, because you have not just contacts but real relationships in your life that you interact with on a daily basis. It is not a platter of fruits and vegetables that somebody’s going to hand you, you’re going to go have to plant your own seeds and grow your own garden.
And if you’ve ever tried to grow anything, you’ll realize that it catches every disease imaginable. And it does need nurturing and it needs care. And it needs feeding and it needs. And don’t tell me, give a brown thumb we all can nurture things if we choose to, if we invest in them, and real relationships are your single biggest asset. That again, I’m teaching my kids this I’m mentoring, you know, those in the spring of their careers, and you know, talking to executives about their relationships. It is the common thread between jobs, industries, careers. So what I hope you’ll take away is that if you choose to invest, that return on those relationships becomes invaluable.
Jenn Cordz 42:46
Thank you, Nour. So for our audience, I on behalf of my business partner, David, we’d like to thank you for joining us. We are live every Tuesday on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, at noon Eastern for intelligent and profitable growth. Please join us in the Nour Forum nourgroup.com/forum and we hope you’ll join us again in the future.
David Nour 43:11
Thanks everybody. Bye bye.
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash