Michael and Nathalia: Getting Straight to the Business

[00:00:02] Welcome back to Formative, the podcast where today's leaders are interviewed by the leaders of tomorrow. Today we're joined by Michael Weber. Michael is the Regional Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at Seavent. Over his long career in event technology and hospitality, Michael has built and led teams that have helped some of the world's largest brands use events to grow their businesses and connect with customers.

[00:00:30] In our conversation today, Michael talks about building a career without having every step mapped out. He also tells us about what an early failure taught him about staying humble and why listening deeply is one of a leader's most important skills. Hello and welcome. My name is Rachel Gazdick and I'm your host and CEO of New York Edge.

[00:00:54] On every episode of Formative, a student from our after-school program joins me as co-host. And today that's Natalia from AECI2. Natalia, can you tell our audience a little bit about yourself? Hello everybody. My name is Natalia. I am from the Bronx, New York. I am a very dedicated, curious student who hopefully in the future will be a journalist.

[00:01:23] Wow. So today's going to be great practice. Are you excited to go talk to our guest? Yes, I am. All right. Let's get to it then. My first question for you is, would you be able to explain your job in a way that a 17 year old or a teenager would be able to understand it?

[00:01:44] So I've worked for Cvent for the last 14 years and my job is to sell our products and services to some of the largest companies in the world. I'm sure Natalia, you're familiar with like Coca-Cola or Chick-fil-A or the New York City public school system, right? As an example.

[00:02:10] And so our products and services help those companies connect to audiences most frequently by helping them register for meetings or events that they're hosting, right? So very similar to the way you might buy tickets to go to the zoo in the Bronx or to the Museum of Natural History or anything like that. It's the same exact process, but for these big companies to meet with their customers and prospects. So that's basically it.

[00:02:36] Wow. That's amazing. Wait, where are you from? Let me know. Where are you from? I'm from New Jersey. New Jersey. Okay. New Jersey. Right over the river. New Jersey. So growing up in New Jersey, how were you able to know like this was your career path and you stuck by it and became successful? What was it that led you to that point? I had no idea. Like truly.

[00:03:00] There are some very lucky people in the world who know exactly what they want to do from the moment that they know that, whatever that is. And I am happy for them. I wouldn't say I'm jealous of them because I think for me, like something that's been so magical in my life is that I've tried to stay open to what the world serves up to me and how I interact with the world.

[00:03:26] I've worked at Cvent for the last 14 years, but I've done seven or eight different jobs in that time, maybe more. And the reason why I've done that is partially because of my personality. I really like new challenges. Right? And so I often raise my hand for those things, but also because it's been this self-fulfilling prophecy. Because I am that way and I'm open to it, people come to me with things and they say, hey, this is a unique problem.

[00:03:54] We don't know anybody else that A wants to take this on or B could take it on or whatever, crazy enough to take it on, whatever it is. And that's allowed me to try lots of different things. Right? So I try and meet fear at the door and go experience the world as best as I can. Now, that said, there are a couple of things that I think are really important for me and that I did formulate pretty early on, which was one, I wanted to work in a social environment.

[00:04:22] Right? So sales fit really perfectly for me for that. I also was a, I ran restaurants for a while. It's probably something you didn't even know about me. Right? So I ran an Italian restaurant for the beginning of my career and it was great. I was with people all day and it was fast-paced and crazy and stunk like food at the end of the day. It was great. Right? So something social was really critical for me. Something also where I could use my brain, my mind, use critical thinking skills and think outside of the box and overcome challenges.

[00:04:51] That was really critical for me too. And then finally, I wanted something that gave me some flexibility to have a life also. There are a lot of friends of mine who took jobs in finance. They're working like 18, 19 hours a day, something like that at the beginning of their career, which was just insane to me. I mean, you can't even be a human, a person when you're working that much. It just never made sense to me. So maybe could I have earned more money doing a job like that?

[00:05:20] Probably. Definitely. But what's the point of it? Right? I like to be outside. I like to spend time with my family and read books and listen to music and do all sorts of things that I think are what make me me. So that's... Life and work balance. Life and work balance. What skills have been most critical to your success in the Enterprise Solutions leadership? Ooh.

[00:05:47] That's a tough question, but I think a very important question. So my job is in humans, right? Is in people. I have to manage people. And so people come in all shapes and sizes and experiences and backgrounds and communication styles.

[00:06:09] And so the most challenging part of my job is ensuring that I'm clear and have communicated effectively to everybody that relies on me. And then most importantly, I've listened to them and really heard what they were saying and given them guidance so that they can be successful. Right?

[00:06:29] The worst thing that you can do as a leader is be the choke point or the thing that stops somebody from being effective in their job. Right? Yeah. So having an ability to listen to interpret and extract the way that somebody is feeling or what challenges they might have is really critical. And I think I'm always learning.

[00:06:59] That's another thing that I think has helped me be really successful in my job is curiosity. Every time I think I know something or think I know everything, I usually get a pretty rude awakening. That in fact, I don't know anything. Right? How about you? What do you think is special to you that makes you you and makes you successful as you? That's a great question. And I was also going to bounce back of what you said.

[00:07:26] What we have in common is just understanding what sociology is. Just understanding people and how to express things in a more neutral way without it being backed with emotion, without it being coming off too harsh, personal, or nothing like that. Just straight to the business. Legitimately, that's one of my top skills.

[00:07:50] I really learn how to understand somebody just by three minutes of meeting them. Not understand them totally, personally, but just of a way of how should I communicate to them and how to navigate a conversation with them. I'm going to take a quote from you, which I love. I'm going to try and figure out how to weave this into my day. But you said straight to the business, which I love. Yeah. It's a great way to live your life. It is.

[00:08:18] You know, you got to speed it up. People got to go straight to the business. We're not trying to hear all that. That's how I know you're a New Yorker, right? It's about speed. It is. It is. Keep it moving. So, another question that I have for you. Early on in your career as a salesperson, how were you able to navigate rejection? I think a little psychological trick helps in a big way. We often put positive and negative on yes and no. Yes is positive.

[00:08:48] No is negative. Right? And I think that that's a bit of a dangerous or nefarious association because they're not inherently positive or negative. They're just information. So, I'll give you an example. If I said, hey, do you want a slice of pizza? And you said no. I could just, okay, well, then I guess we're just not going to eat and that's it. And we're just done. I'm going to walk away from that. I'm going to be like, oh, crap. Like, she doesn't like me. She doesn't want to be friends with me.

[00:09:17] You know, she said no to the pizza. Whereas, in reality, it's just maybe you just don't want pizza. So, I can ask a next question. What would you like? Or what would be more interesting to you? Or do you want to eat something else? Or whatever it is. Or what could I do differently to get you interested in pizza? That's kind of a silly, simple example. But I think if you can remove the positive or negative from no and recognize that no is just a data point. And it now allows you to ask the next question or do the next thing. So, I'll put it in school terms, right?

[00:09:47] You know, hey, I want to apply to this school and I get a no on that application, right? That door closing doesn't mean that my opportunity to go to school is over or whatever it is. A couple of things. Number one, you're going to get in somewhere eventually, whatever that looks like. And you might find that that's exactly where you were meant to be at that place, which is great. That's amazing, right? Now you're there and you get to go do something with it.

[00:10:15] Maybe you find out that that place that you got the no on really was where you are supposed to be. So, now you can transfer. You get good grades at whatever school you're at and say, you know what? I really want to go to that other place that I didn't get into before. I'm going to apply as a transfer. And all I'm saying is that no is motivation to do something else. It shouldn't be a negative. It might feel like a minor setback in that moment. I'm not saying that it doesn't.

[00:10:41] It's about what you do with it that really matters and sets us apart as, you know, as somebody who achieves all that we can achieve and somebody who doesn't, right? And that's really it. That is something my mom told me after during the summer. You will not believe what job I got rejected from. McDonald's. McDonald's. I got rejected from McDonald's.

[00:11:06] And I came to McDonald's literally dressed professionally, blouse tucked in my trousers and everything. Okay? I came there very professional because I wanted a new job, you know? And they told me, absolutely not. Like three minutes into the interview because of my age. And I was upset. I walked out. I called my dad. I'm like, you set me up. You got me this job. You set me up. Why did you make me come here like this? Like, you just set me up. I was very frustrated.

[00:11:36] But then when I came home, my dad was very helpful. But my mom, she was like, listen, child, I promise you your life is not over and you will eventually find a job. And guess what? But school started the next month and I got a job in New York Edge. And look at the position I'm in, being able to speak to you and interview you and being able to network and get paid more. Okay?

[00:12:05] And that's just a valuable lesson for me that my mom really tried instilling in me. I love that story. And I'm thankful that she did that. So you got a great dad. You got a great mom. You got a really good group of people around you. That's a great thing. Do you have any experiences where you've made a mistake and you've then learned from it? Yeah, it's a great question. I'll give you a couple.

[00:12:32] So, number one, when I was not much older than you, Natalia, I was about 20 or so, I wanted to do anything other than what my dad did in his career. I'll fast forward a little bit. My dad does or did the same exact thing that I do. So that didn't work out for me. But I thought that it meant more if I went out and plotted my own path, right?

[00:12:58] So kind of the Robert Frost poem of Two Roads Diverged in the Wood and I Chose the One Less Traveled. I took a very literal interpretation of that and thought that I had to go do it on my own because it meant more. Which is so silly in retrospect, right? Because I've got this great group of people who were all there in a lot of ways just to help see me be successful, right? And so I was so foolish to think that I needed to ignore that or not tap into that and go do it on my own.

[00:13:27] And so that kind of forced me to really not know what I wanted to do and walk kind of a serpentine path to my present career. I think the second mistake that I made was, and I talked about kind of staying humble and being curious. And there was a point, I had a lot of success right out of the gate when I first started at Cvent and was top rep and was getting recruited to go do a bunch of different things in the company.

[00:13:55] And I thought very highly of myself at that time and took a next promotion and failed. Heavy failed, like to a point where I thought I was going to get fired. Uh-oh. And it was because I didn't have discipline and the fundamentals in the way that I needed.

[00:14:15] It was a great lesson for me in recognizing that to do the next job, you have to already be doing that job and the job that you're in. Be really good at it, right? That's what I try and do now is whatever my aspirational next thing is. Don't wait for somebody to come forward and say, hey, you're now doing it. Like, good luck. Go make it happen.

[00:14:42] Learn the skills that you need in order to do that and ensure that those skill sets that you're learning are repeatable, transferable, and as efficient and effective as possible. How do you approach decision making when the stakes are high and data is incomplete? Wow. I think a few things. Number one, I try to not make decisions in a vacuum.

[00:15:07] That kind of group of peers and mentors and all those folks, and they try and bounce ideas off of them. It's a great sounding board for me. It's people that I trust, people that I know really well, and they're not going to get offended if I don't choose the path that they recommend. So that's really critical. Two, my ultimate peer and sounding board is my wife. Pretty much every decision goes through her at some level, right? She's never failed me.

[00:15:34] Every time I think I've got to figure it out, she's going to tell me, like, dude, you're an idiot. Like, that's not the answer. Like, be smart, right? Definitely. She is always, what did you say? It's like down to the business or get down to business? Yeah, straight to the business. Straight to the business. She is always straight to the business. But I think lastly is you have to trust yourself, too.

[00:15:59] Often, when I am waffling on something, when I finally make that decision and I'm confident that it was the right one, I try and look back. It was usually the first thing that I thought, too. Right. Which is, I think, for me, proven to me time and time again that that doubt voice that comes into our minds is often just fear.

[00:16:23] And the reason why you feel that way is probably because you're in the right place and you have to make that kind of a decision, which is good. You're stretching yourself. Having a healthy sense of fear is good, but not giving into it, not acquiescing to fear is really important. What's one question you wish more people asked you, but they rarely ask you, especially people who are up and coming in your industry? Do you want to go get a drink, man? Or do you want to go get some dinner?

[00:16:52] No, I'm kidding. I think a really important question for me that I ask folks that report into me is, how can I make you successful? And that's a really important grounding question for that relationship. I try and coach people who are in my organization to give back as much as possible. How can they invest in somebody else who's a part of the ecosystem or the system that they're a part of?

[00:17:22] And if they do that, often they can dislodge challenges, right? There's a lot of people that I'm sure you go to school with who are like, you know, you have to work with them, but you don't like them that much or you got a problem with them on something, right? And how liberating would it be if they were like, what can I do differently? Right? Or how can I serve this relationship differently? Then you would say like, yeah, dude, stop asking me for my snacks at lunch.

[00:17:50] That's my, I love those things. And I'm a nice person, so I'm going to give it to you at a time or whatever. Or, hey, you know, we were working on a project together and you never did your part of the project that like really bugged me, right? Yeah. So giving somebody the space to improve themselves by asking somebody else how they can do their job differently is a really valuable gift that you can give to somebody else. Yeah, definitely. I had to deal with a lot of people.

[00:18:19] Yeah, and like you said earlier, Natalia, knowing how to communicate with different types of people, it's really going to help you with that. Now, Michael, we have one last question for you. If you could go back and talk to yourself at 17, which is the age Natalia is now, what would you tell yourself? Great question. I think I would remind myself a few things.

[00:18:49] Number one, you're not that cool, dude. I would remind myself that. It's an important lesson to remember. Two, I would, I do this a lot already, but I would remind myself to tell the people in my life that I love them all the time. Because I think that's really critical. And then three, I would say just rely on curiosity, man. Keep doing that, right?

[00:19:17] Like learn as much as you can. And you never know what kind of connection you can make with somebody else. I kind of get made fun of in my family for being the guy who knows a lot about everything, but it's also just like meaningless crap all the time.

[00:19:39] But like that's helped me in so many ways connect with people, friends, colleagues, customers of mine, whatever it is. Because we'll find some common thing that I know a little bit about and then can ask a couple of questions and hear them talk about it, right? So I think that that is something that's a part of me that allows me to be curious about other people.

[00:20:08] Thanks for listening to Formative, a production of New York Edge. I'm your host, Rachel Gazdick. Our production partner for this series is Citizen Racecar. This episode was produced by Hajar Adas, post-production by Alex Brower, original music by Garrett Tiedemann. Thanks to the whole team at New York Edge for making this series possible.

[00:20:30] Never miss an episode by subscribing to the series at newyorkedge.org slash formative or wherever you get your podcasts.