TL;DR: I stopped the "always be selling" in 2019. What replaced it wasn't a better strategy. It was presence. And presence, it turns out, compounds.

On Being All In

TSN 26.23

Hi there

I kinda can't help myself.

Given the opportunity, I am going to ask questions I believe are at the core of more.

• More connection. 
• More understanding. 
• More of what matters when the technical conversation has run its course.

Last week, I attended the Space Tech Expo here in Anaheim. 350+ companies – all in the space industry. Electronics, materials, testing, components. A dynamic and fast-changing industry, gathered under one roof to meet face-to-face.

However (and, you know this), my lane was NOT the supply chain. 

It is questioning – and answering – the human factor that runs that chain.

Before my turn on stage, I sat in on a morning panel dedicated to understanding partnerships and policy through the years ahead. As European and American space industry leaders discussed what collaboration might look like, I submitted an anonymous question to the moderator.

Mine was about trust. 

Understanding. 

Collaboration across different risk perspectives.

It’s true, I just can't help myself.

Later that afternoon I walked on stage with a colleague and friend. 

Ryan and I were there to explore the intersection of leadership and high-performance human-machine teaming in national security. Yes, the human domain. 

Digital transformation. 

The synergy between people and systems at the frontier of space. I kept finding myself more interested in what happens between people than between systems.

I work to stay present. I want the conversation to be what it is, without looking for an angle or an in. If something is there, I tend to feel it later. In the car. On a plane. While out for a ride…or a run…or a walk.

I often find something means something… later. In the quiet after a long day. A week out, when I sit down and think, “That one mattered.” (It’s a reason I sit down to The Sunday Note about each week…)

The backstory starts in August. A different conference, a different stage, somewhere across Los Angeles.

I had just finished speaking. I was packing up, already thinking about the drive across town to the next event, when the speaker going on after me walked in – Ryan! 

We had maybe five minutes. We talked. Something passed between us, though I couldn't have named it in the moment.

So, I ask the question I always ask.

"Would it be okay if I sent you a note and we see about scheduling time to chat?"

I don’t track it, but I'd guess my response rate is about 50/50.

Not enough that I expect it. 

But, enough that I keep doing it.

Back in August, Ryan said “yes.”

That email turned into monthly calendar events, 45 minutes on Zoom, now nearly a year running. We each bring a topic we don't get to think or talk about enough at work, but that we know our work will need within a year or so. 

I will tell you, it is one of the most useful hours in my month.

I did not always operate this way.

Before we closed our company in Ojai, CA, and moved to Montgomery, AL in January 2019, I was ALWAYS on (different than being all in… I was always looking for the sale). 

Not products, but myself, my services, our company. I worked to find the angle so I could make an ask. I positioned. I closed. I performed the dance that the professional world expects, the one where you establish value before you dare to take up someone's time.

It cost me effort. Continuous, expensive effort. And, stress. (I didn’t sleep. Was overweight. Was always on edge.)

Since 2019, I have been in a position to serve. 

Now, I walk into rooms where something is already happening and contribute to what I think of as emergent insight. The invitation comes first. The work follows.

What I want now is simpler than any strategy I ever built. 

I dream of meeting people who are all in on what they do. I want them to see that same thing in me. And when it works, when that recognition moves in both directions, we get to find out what we might build together.

I can't manufacture that. I aim to stay present long enough for it to surface.

And then I’ll ask, “Is it okay if I send a note?”

Much love from Pasadena,

JW

PS: Huge thank you to the entire team that made our time at Space Tech Expo possible... and, Ryan, was great to be up there with you!