Kyle McQuighan, a high performing business development professional, makes an encore appearance on the podcast to talk about what he has learned since his January appearance.
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Guest - Kyle McQuighan
Host - Carl Grant
Producer - Seth Grant
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Carl Grant (00:08):
I'm here with Kyle McQuighan. Let's do that title
again, Kyle. It's a mouthful.
What is it? This strategicrelationship manager,
Kyle McQuighan (00:15):
Strategic relationship manager. Yeah, you
got that Right.
Carl Grant (00:18):
All right, I didn't want to say it wrong. So Kyle
was back was on back in January,and was, you know, probably the
youngest in his career person onthe podcast, and my son who
produces the podcast, SethGrant, who's going to be
listening to this, don't beembarrassed, I mentioned his
name. Listen, and he said, youreally should have Kyle back on,
(00:42):
you should track his career andhave him back on in six months
or so. So it's been about sixmonths, and figure out what he's
learned. Because, you know,you're on that steep learning
curve, where you're doing a lotof new stuff and innovating and,
and so we covered back inJanuary, the basics of
(01:04):
relationship building, and, andall of the stuff that we both
went back and listen to thepodcast. So if you want to hear
that old podcast, go back andlisten to the January podcast
with Kyle. But let's let's fastforward, it's been six months, a
lot has changed in six months,Kyle, we were completely locked
up in COVID mode six months ago,some of that is changing, not
(01:26):
100%. But you know, it'sdifferent in different parts of
the country. So So talk abouthow things are looking in this
new era, and how your whatyou've learned and what you're
doing.
Kyle McQuighan (01:40):
Sure. Thanks for having me back on Carl. And I
appreciate that Seth found atleast some of the content that I
put out to be helpful. It feltelementary at the time
recognizing I was preaching whatthe master IE you taught me to
do when I first got intobusiness development. But I am
glad I was able to add somevalue, at least to some folks
that listening to the podcast.
So yeah, getting to your pointabout what I learned what's
(02:02):
happened, I've got a few trendsthat I've picked up on over the
last six months that have reallydramatically impacted the way
that I'm operating in a businessdevelopment capacity for my
firm. And the first thing I'dlike to highlight, and I
apologize for the Microsoftbackground, background noise
there, try to mute my computer.
(02:24):
Anyway, I would like tohighlight that yeah, here at
least in the Greater WashingtonDC region, the world is reopen,
I went back to my first inperson networking event, or I
guess one of my first in personnetworking events last night.
And the VC community, theentrepreneur, community, service
providers, like myself andothers were back out in full
(02:44):
force, there had to have beenthree or 400 people out at this
event last night. And my thesiswas interesting in that I used
to be out at every in personevent before the pandemic. And
now what I realized is honestly,last night was great, because I
was able to see a lot offamiliar faces that I've
connected with over zoom in manycalls during the pandemic, but I
hadn't seen in person. However,in terms of net new
(03:07):
relationships, I didn't reallymeet anybody, and I lost, not
lost, it was still time wellspent. But it took about 10
hours out of my day to get outto Virginia have a meeting or to
go to the event, get home fromthe event spend time at it. And
I didn't have a lot to show forit. Historically, in the
pandemic, I always tried to setKPIs. In any event, I went to
(03:27):
that if I'm going to go, I wantto be at least two or three
people that are very qualifiedin the communities where I spent
time either as prospects or veryuniquely involved as advisors in
that community. And last night,I probably ran into at least 40
or 50 people that I knowincredibly well. But in terms of
net new relationships, I walkedaway with none. And it helped me
(03:48):
realize that wow, in thisenvironment, yes, I still need
to get out I need to show faceand see old friends and spend
time but I do anticipate I willdo a lot more from behind my
keyboard moving forward. Becausethe productivity is significant.
I can have a lot of calls andput out a lot of different
emails and points of contact inan eight hour day behind my
(04:08):
computer rather than a 10 hourday slogging around the Beltway,
which at least here in the DCarea tends to be pretty
congested and filled withtraffic.
Carl Grant (04:16):
Hmm. So do you think you're deepend into any of those
relationships by seeing them inperson?
Kyle McQuighan (04:21):
Yeah. And that's the thing that you just you
can't get away from that point,right? The quality and the depth
of relationship and therandomness of it. I ran into two
folks that I hadn't seen inquite a while and we just talked
about a few things and I wasable to getting back to my fire
podcast make two introductionsfor them that I do believe are
(04:42):
likely to be pretty helpful. Andhad we not seen each other and
just caught up about somethingcompletely off topic that
somehow related to a company Iknow, those introductions never
would have happened. So I'm notgoing to say I'm going to be
sitting in my basement all thetime. When I'm an extrovert. I
just like being around people,but also, it's there's things
that you can't take away fromthe randomness of the
(05:04):
conversation when it's, you haveno agenda, you're just running
into someone you haven't seen ina while, and you kind of
volleyball conversation andtopics back and forth to each
other. Instead of, again, theset, hey, let's connect for 30
minutes, boom, boom, in and outour business, no randomness, and
you kind of lose some of thatmagic that you do get in person.
Carl Grant (05:24):
Well, I had the opposite experience. When I went
to an event. On Monday night ofthis week, I was invited by one
of my new contacts in town, whowas actually introduced to me by
your old boss, Angie, Angie andhe invited me to an event. I
could I was I've been so busyKyle, that I couldn't even get
(05:46):
to the original invitation yousent me had to send it to me
again. But I gotten an Uber on aMonday night and went downtown
and, and he proceeded to startintroducing me to people at the
event, it was actually at anevent, downtown Austin
overlooking the state capitol,where they were welcoming a
group from Raytheon, who's goingto be moving here from the DC
(06:06):
area. And some, so many peopleare new here to Austin, that I
was meeting like the new head ofthe state Chamber of Commerce,
who has only been here for fourmonths. So he's new, right? The
some of the people I met hadjust moved here in the last week
or two. And so I was meetinglots of new people, lots of kind
(06:26):
of connectors in the community,these Chamber of Commerce types
are our major connectors. Andthey know a lot of business
leaders. So I think it was veryhelpful to meet all of these
folks, like the army futurescommand was there, I met some
top generals from that. So maybeit's because I don't know as
many people in this market, Ithought it was helpful, I would
(06:49):
have had a hard time getting toknow all of those people through
just email introductions, Imight not have been email
introduced to them. And I'm nottaking the time to go down
there.
Kyle McQuighan (06:57):
Yeah, that's it.
I Carl, I definitely agree withyou on that. I, I've been to
other events that have beenhighly worthwhile since the
world's reopened a bit. And Ithink it's more a matter of
going on unchartered territorywhere you aren't familiar, or
you're not as deeply connected,or it's not an industry where
you spend time, that way, youcan kind of find that new, open
world and new opportunity toactually meet and connect with
(07:19):
new people versus if you walkinto a room and you know, half
of it, it's very hard to get outand get in meet new
relationships, just becauseinevitably, you're going to go
from one person to another, andnot be able to work the room
like you otherwise wouldn'tnecessarily want to. So I agree,
I think getting out absolutelyis still a key part of what I'll
do. However, there will be a lotmore focus and strategy behind.
(07:42):
I phrase it this way, I'll bemore selective on which events I
go to looking for newer typerelationships where I don't have
as much of a network to continueto grow and expand on the people
that I know.
Carl Grant (07:56):
So I agree on all that I think about some of the
zoom relationships I'vedeveloped. So I've I've
developed some some friendships,you know, with in geography
doesn't really matter. Becausebecause there could be a New
Jersey that can be in the CzechRepublic, right? It's it really,
technology breaks down all thosebarriers. But but will those
relationships ever grow as deepas they would if I spend time
(08:19):
doing something fun with thesepeople. And I use an example of
the networking events I've beendoing here in Austin. As you
know, I live on Lake Travis. Sohaving access to a boat on my
travels is huge. And so I bringpeople out on a boat, and I do a
nautical networking event. AndI've noticed as I've gone to
other on on the land eventswhere I've had a group of people
(08:42):
out on the boat, I will go intothat event. And I'll see that
group of people that met on theboat, even though they know
other people in that room. Theythey're standing there talking
to those people that they bondedwith on the boat, because it was
a fun time. They were listeningto music, they were having
drinks and enjoying, likeTravis. And so I think there's
some magic in in doing thesetypes of fun activities with
(09:03):
people to deepen relationships.
And people want to do businesswith people they like, and they
know and they trust. thoughts.
Kyle McQuighan (09:11):
That's right.
And Carl, I completely agreewith that as well. And it's
funny that you're doing a boatthing, I too am actually doing a
boat thing in September, I havea boat ride with a friend of
mine, john Agra, the unicorngroup.
Carl Grant (09:25):
I know, Joe well.
Kyle McQuighan (09:26):
Yeah. So we decided to put together a group
of people that should all get toknow each other. And there's no
agenda. There's no purpose otherthan this is a group of highly
curated people, many of whichI've met in the pandemic and I
also have not met in person butget out get 40 people together,
drinks entertainment, talk, talkshop, get to know each other
personally and just helped toreally curate getting great
(09:49):
people together that couldpotentially do business together
or just have similar personalconnections and the like, and
that's where I'm also trying tobe more strategic of taking that
personal relationship. That I'vemet via zoom or on a phone call.
And again, focus on if it'sconveniently hobbies that I
enjoy which Carl, I believe youshare that that guidance with
Seth on the beauty of businessdevelopment. If you like
(10:11):
paddleboarding, golfing, skiing,boating, you name it fishing,
I've done all of these thingswith people, if you like doing
that, and you can enjoy spendingtime with people and building a
relationship around that, thenyou can get out and do that for
your career. And you can do itwith people that also enjoy it
and you build that deeper bondbecause you do have the
commonality of, for example, Itook two CEOs out fishing on the
(10:33):
bay for rockfish here inMaryland, about a month ago. And
then we determined Hey, weshould all go skiing somewhere
in Colorado, this winter withour significant others. And
again, maybe there's a businessrelationship there, maybe not.
But the important thing is it'sa very deep quality
relationship. And by chance, I'mable to build it doing things
that I personally enjoy doing inmy spare time outside of work.
Carl Grant (10:56):
I'm even doing something that I don't
particularly enjoy to develop arelationship. I had lunch with
the CEO, I think he's the CEOand founder of this, this
company here in Austin that Ithink they just raised some
outside money anyways, goodprospects, people I want to get
to know better. And, and there'sso many people that are new to
(11:18):
Texas that don't don't knowabout things that are kind of
native to Texas, ie, likeshooting guns and things of that
nature. And, and so he's havingan event out on some property
where he's going to teach someof his his new new friends how
to how to shoot, and they'regoing to do a dove hunting
afternoon, and I don't, youknow, I I learned how to shoot
(11:42):
when I was in the military, forobvious reasons. And then I
raised a son who is a big timeHunter. And so being the good
dad, I learned how to do allthat stuff and did it with him.
I didn't particularly enjoydoing that it wasn't my thing.
But I did it for him. And Ienjoyed being with him. And and
now you know, he's moved on andI but I still do have all those
(12:03):
skills and have, you know, thenecessary equipment for an event
such as this. And I've, I'veagreed to do it, like, I'm gonna
go, I'm gonna go do this.
Because I want to develop adeeper relationship with these
guys, I can help some of theseguys that don't know how to
shoot a shotgun, do it notlooking forward to killing dogs,
but you know, I'll, I'll shootup their their way. And I'll you
know, enjoy that time with them.
(12:26):
Because it'll be a bondingactivity, they'll remember it
forever, right? People havenever done that. And and those
guys will appreciate me comingout. So what are your thoughts
about doing stuff you don'tlike?
Kyle McQuighan (12:35):
Yeah, I mean, I'm one of those people that
I'll try anything once. So ifit's something that morally goes
against my values, probably not.
But something like going out andshooting I was I'm actually an
Eagle Scout. So like you Ilearned how to shoot a gun. But
I didn't actually spend muchtime doing it. After I kind of
got out of the scouts. However,I have been invited out, not
(12:57):
dove hunting, but just sportingclays shooting which bad I
thoroughly enjoy doing. And I'mnot saying I'm morally against
hunting or dove hunting at all.
But moreover, I'll try anythingonce if it's racquetball, which
I'm not great at, or somethinglike that, actually, I was
invited out on a fox hunt on NewYear's Day, like two or three
(13:17):
years ago.
Carl Grant (13:18):
And on horseback.
Kyle McQuighan (13:20):
Yeah, so I can't ride a horse. But they, they had
invited me to ride around and intheir land rover or whatever it
was on this Fox hunt. And youknow, I enjoyed it. It was very
different. I mean, you know, thewhole were Scarlet and that
whole culture around that. It'sjust fun for someone like me.
I'm open to try anything oncebecause I'm going to learn
(13:40):
something. I'm just a verycurious person. And I think
that's a personality trait thatmakes anybody much like you,
Carl, great and businessdevelopment because you're
willing to get out, put yourselfout there, put yourself in a new
place. And be curious, no one'sexpecting you to go out and be
an absolute Rockstar atsomething you don't even know
what it is or how to do it. ButI think when you put yourself
(14:00):
into trying something thatsomeone else is personally very
passionate about, it justcreates an openness and a
goodwill and a certain air thathey, this is a safe zone. This
is a good guy we can trust thisguy he's willing to try
something out and we'll do itagain. As long as it's legal and
on good ground. I do I do. Butyou're not violate my moral
compass. I'm
Carl Grant (14:21):
speaking of safe zone. I'm such a bad shot the
oves are pretty safe around e.
Kyle McQuighan (14:27):
Exactly.
Carl Grant (14:29):
I'm just going out there for the thing, you know,
just to be be with those guys.
So look, as we as we wrap uphere this one so quick. any
parting advice for listenersbased on your learnings over the
past six months?
Yeah, actually, I do have a fewthoughts on it, Carl and one I
met so many more people becauseI wasn't going around the
Beltway and getting to and fromevents. Inevitably I spent more
(14:50):
time on the phone and workingand what I learned is it's
really hard to do at all andkeep it all up in the air. So
I'm not as good as I once was.
As I used to be able to meetsomeone, I remember just about
everything about them. Now inthe zoom world, it's hard to
remember everything plus youmeet a ton more people. So I've
learned the importance ofkeeping my CRM intact and
updating it regularly. I've alsolearned the importance of using
(15:13):
and developing tools that giveyou leverage and help you manage
more relationships because it ishard to keep, keep growing, you
know, more than a linear pathwhen you are just one person
doing one call at a time. SoI've tried out new tools
platform called venture raisemost recently, which has been an
outstanding platform, it'shelped me get in front of new
companies, it's also helped meput my VC network together and
(15:36):
help connect new entrepreneursto capital sources and the like,
and do it very quickly, whichhas helped leverage the ability
for me to get out and make evenmore relationships and deepen
them very quickly. So I thinkthat's the key thing is just as
you continue to grow, if you'reJunior like me and your BD
career, at some point, therewill be a point when, at least
at this point, I take a day off,and I've got more emails that I
(15:59):
can catch up on in two days. Sofiguring out what tools you can
put in place and how to leverageyour time and leverage it really
well. To maximize the impact youhave on everyone in your network
be keeping a clean CRM, lookingat tools like venture raise,
etc. It's very important to dothat and figure out how to scale
efficiently and effectively asyou grow.
(16:21):
Great advice, Kyle Mc Quighan Ad thanks for joining us today.
f you like what you heard toda, please subscribe. Please ra
e the podcast and share it wih your friends on social medi
I'm here with Kyle McQuighan. Let's do that title
again, Kyle. It's a mouthful.
What is it? This strategicrelationship manager,
Kyle McQuighan (00:15):
Strategic relationship manager. Yeah, you
got that Right.
Carl Grant (00:18):
All right, I didn't want to say it wrong. So Kyle
was back was on back in January,and was, you know, probably the
youngest in his career person onthe podcast, and my son who
produces the podcast, SethGrant, who's going to be
listening to this, don't beembarrassed, I mentioned his
name. Listen, and he said, youreally should have Kyle back on,
(00:42):
you should track his career andhave him back on in six months
or so. So it's been about sixmonths, and figure out what he's
learned. Because, you know,you're on that steep learning
curve, where you're doing a lotof new stuff and innovating and,
and so we covered back inJanuary, the basics of
(01:04):
relationship building, and, andall of the stuff that we both
went back and listen to thepodcast. So if you want to hear
that old podcast, go back andlisten to the January podcast
with Kyle. But let's let's fastforward, it's been six months, a
lot has changed in six months,Kyle, we were completely locked
up in COVID mode six months ago,some of that is changing, not
(01:26):
100%. But you know, it'sdifferent in different parts of
the country. So So talk abouthow things are looking in this
new era, and how your whatyou've learned and what you're
doing.
Kyle McQuighan (01:40):
Sure. Thanks for having me back on Carl. And I
appreciate that Seth found atleast some of the content that I
put out to be helpful. It feltelementary at the time
recognizing I was preaching whatthe master IE you taught me to
do when I first got intobusiness development. But I am
glad I was able to add somevalue, at least to some folks
that listening to the podcast.
So yeah, getting to your pointabout what I learned what's
(02:02):
happened, I've got a few trendsthat I've picked up on over the
last six months that have reallydramatically impacted the way
that I'm operating in a businessdevelopment capacity for my
firm. And the first thing I'dlike to highlight, and I
apologize for the Microsoftbackground, background noise
there, try to mute my computer.
(02:24):
Anyway, I would like tohighlight that yeah, here at
least in the Greater WashingtonDC region, the world is reopen,
I went back to my first inperson networking event, or I
guess one of my first in personnetworking events last night.
And the VC community, theentrepreneur, community, service
providers, like myself andothers were back out in full
(02:44):
force, there had to have beenthree or 400 people out at this
event last night. And my thesiswas interesting in that I used
to be out at every in personevent before the pandemic. And
now what I realized is honestly,last night was great, because I
was able to see a lot offamiliar faces that I've
connected with over zoom in manycalls during the pandemic, but I
hadn't seen in person. However,in terms of net new
(03:07):
relationships, I didn't reallymeet anybody, and I lost, not
lost, it was still time wellspent. But it took about 10
hours out of my day to get outto Virginia have a meeting or to
go to the event, get home fromthe event spend time at it. And
I didn't have a lot to show forit. Historically, in the
pandemic, I always tried to setKPIs. In any event, I went to
(03:27):
that if I'm going to go, I wantto be at least two or three
people that are very qualifiedin the communities where I spent
time either as prospects or veryuniquely involved as advisors in
that community. And last night,I probably ran into at least 40
or 50 people that I knowincredibly well. But in terms of
net new relationships, I walkedaway with none. And it helped me
(03:48):
realize that wow, in thisenvironment, yes, I still need
to get out I need to show faceand see old friends and spend
time but I do anticipate I willdo a lot more from behind my
keyboard moving forward. Becausethe productivity is significant.
I can have a lot of calls andput out a lot of different
emails and points of contact inan eight hour day behind my
(04:08):
computer rather than a 10 hourday slogging around the Beltway,
which at least here in the DCarea tends to be pretty
congested and filled withtraffic.
Carl Grant (04:16):
Hmm. So do you think you're deepend into any of those
relationships by seeing them inperson?
Kyle McQuighan (04:21):
Yeah. And that's the thing that you just you
can't get away from that point,right? The quality and the depth
of relationship and therandomness of it. I ran into two
folks that I hadn't seen inquite a while and we just talked
about a few things and I wasable to getting back to my fire
podcast make two introductionsfor them that I do believe are
(04:42):
likely to be pretty helpful. Andhad we not seen each other and
just caught up about somethingcompletely off topic that
somehow related to a company Iknow, those introductions never
would have happened. So I'm notgoing to say I'm going to be
sitting in my basement all thetime. When I'm an extrovert. I
just like being around people,but also, it's there's things
that you can't take away fromthe randomness of the
(05:04):
conversation when it's, you haveno agenda, you're just running
into someone you haven't seen ina while, and you kind of
volleyball conversation andtopics back and forth to each
other. Instead of, again, theset, hey, let's connect for 30
minutes, boom, boom, in and outour business, no randomness, and
you kind of lose some of thatmagic that you do get in person.
Carl Grant (05:24):
Well, I had the opposite experience. When I went
to an event. On Monday night ofthis week, I was invited by one
of my new contacts in town, whowas actually introduced to me by
your old boss, Angie, Angie andhe invited me to an event. I
could I was I've been so busyKyle, that I couldn't even get
(05:46):
to the original invitation yousent me had to send it to me
again. But I gotten an Uber on aMonday night and went downtown
and, and he proceeded to startintroducing me to people at the
event, it was actually at anevent, downtown Austin
overlooking the state capitol,where they were welcoming a
group from Raytheon, who's goingto be moving here from the DC
(06:06):
area. And some, so many peopleare new here to Austin, that I
was meeting like the new head ofthe state Chamber of Commerce,
who has only been here for fourmonths. So he's new, right? The
some of the people I met hadjust moved here in the last week
or two. And so I was meetinglots of new people, lots of kind
(06:26):
of connectors in the community,these Chamber of Commerce types
are our major connectors. Andthey know a lot of business
leaders. So I think it was veryhelpful to meet all of these
folks, like the army futurescommand was there, I met some
top generals from that. So maybeit's because I don't know as
many people in this market, Ithought it was helpful, I would
(06:49):
have had a hard time getting toknow all of those people through
just email introductions, Imight not have been email
introduced to them. And I'm nottaking the time to go down
there.
Kyle McQuighan (06:57):
Yeah, that's it.
I Carl, I definitely agree withyou on that. I, I've been to
other events that have beenhighly worthwhile since the
world's reopened a bit. And Ithink it's more a matter of
going on unchartered territorywhere you aren't familiar, or
you're not as deeply connected,or it's not an industry where
you spend time, that way, youcan kind of find that new, open
world and new opportunity toactually meet and connect with
(07:19):
new people versus if you walkinto a room and you know, half
of it, it's very hard to get outand get in meet new
relationships, just becauseinevitably, you're going to go
from one person to another, andnot be able to work the room
like you otherwise wouldn'tnecessarily want to. So I agree,
I think getting out absolutelyis still a key part of what I'll
do. However, there will be a lotmore focus and strategy behind.
(07:42):
I phrase it this way, I'll bemore selective on which events I
go to looking for newer typerelationships where I don't have
as much of a network to continueto grow and expand on the people
that I know.
Carl Grant (07:56):
So I agree on all that I think about some of the
zoom relationships I'vedeveloped. So I've I've
developed some some friendships,you know, with in geography
doesn't really matter. Becausebecause there could be a New
Jersey that can be in the CzechRepublic, right? It's it really,
technology breaks down all thosebarriers. But but will those
relationships ever grow as deepas they would if I spend time
(08:19):
doing something fun with thesepeople. And I use an example of
the networking events I've beendoing here in Austin. As you
know, I live on Lake Travis. Sohaving access to a boat on my
travels is huge. And so I bringpeople out on a boat, and I do a
nautical networking event. AndI've noticed as I've gone to
other on on the land eventswhere I've had a group of people
(08:42):
out on the boat, I will go intothat event. And I'll see that
group of people that met on theboat, even though they know
other people in that room. Theythey're standing there talking
to those people that they bondedwith on the boat, because it was
a fun time. They were listeningto music, they were having
drinks and enjoying, likeTravis. And so I think there's
some magic in in doing thesetypes of fun activities with
(09:03):
people to deepen relationships.
And people want to do businesswith people they like, and they
know and they trust. thoughts.
Kyle McQuighan (09:11):
That's right.
And Carl, I completely agreewith that as well. And it's
funny that you're doing a boatthing, I too am actually doing a
boat thing in September, I havea boat ride with a friend of
mine, john Agra, the unicorngroup.
Carl Grant (09:25):
I know, Joe well.
Kyle McQuighan (09:26):
Yeah. So we decided to put together a group
of people that should all get toknow each other. And there's no
agenda. There's no purpose otherthan this is a group of highly
curated people, many of whichI've met in the pandemic and I
also have not met in person butget out get 40 people together,
drinks entertainment, talk, talkshop, get to know each other
personally and just helped toreally curate getting great
(09:49):
people together that couldpotentially do business together
or just have similar personalconnections and the like, and
that's where I'm also trying tobe more strategic of taking that
personal relationship. That I'vemet via zoom or on a phone call.
And again, focus on if it'sconveniently hobbies that I
enjoy which Carl, I believe youshare that that guidance with
Seth on the beauty of businessdevelopment. If you like
(10:11):
paddleboarding, golfing, skiing,boating, you name it fishing,
I've done all of these thingswith people, if you like doing
that, and you can enjoy spendingtime with people and building a
relationship around that, thenyou can get out and do that for
your career. And you can do itwith people that also enjoy it
and you build that deeper bondbecause you do have the
commonality of, for example, Itook two CEOs out fishing on the
(10:33):
bay for rockfish here inMaryland, about a month ago. And
then we determined Hey, weshould all go skiing somewhere
in Colorado, this winter withour significant others. And
again, maybe there's a businessrelationship there, maybe not.
But the important thing is it'sa very deep quality
relationship. And by chance, I'mable to build it doing things
that I personally enjoy doing inmy spare time outside of work.
Carl Grant (10:56):
I'm even doing something that I don't
particularly enjoy to develop arelationship. I had lunch with
the CEO, I think he's the CEOand founder of this, this
company here in Austin that Ithink they just raised some
outside money anyways, goodprospects, people I want to get
to know better. And, and there'sso many people that are new to
(11:18):
Texas that don't don't knowabout things that are kind of
native to Texas, ie, likeshooting guns and things of that
nature. And, and so he's havingan event out on some property
where he's going to teach someof his his new new friends how
to how to shoot, and they'regoing to do a dove hunting
afternoon, and I don't, youknow, I I learned how to shoot
(11:42):
when I was in the military, forobvious reasons. And then I
raised a son who is a big timeHunter. And so being the good
dad, I learned how to do allthat stuff and did it with him.
I didn't particularly enjoydoing that it wasn't my thing.
But I did it for him. And Ienjoyed being with him. And and
now you know, he's moved on andI but I still do have all those
(12:03):
skills and have, you know, thenecessary equipment for an event
such as this. And I've, I'veagreed to do it, like, I'm gonna
go, I'm gonna go do this.
Because I want to develop adeeper relationship with these
guys, I can help some of theseguys that don't know how to
shoot a shotgun, do it notlooking forward to killing dogs,
but you know, I'll, I'll shootup their their way. And I'll you
know, enjoy that time with them.
(12:26):
Because it'll be a bondingactivity, they'll remember it
forever, right? People havenever done that. And and those
guys will appreciate me comingout. So what are your thoughts
about doing stuff you don'tlike?
Kyle McQuighan (12:35):
Yeah, I mean, I'm one of those people that
I'll try anything once. So ifit's something that morally goes
against my values, probably not.
But something like going out andshooting I was I'm actually an
Eagle Scout. So like you Ilearned how to shoot a gun. But
I didn't actually spend muchtime doing it. After I kind of
got out of the scouts. However,I have been invited out, not
(12:57):
dove hunting, but just sportingclays shooting which bad I
thoroughly enjoy doing. And I'mnot saying I'm morally against
hunting or dove hunting at all.
But moreover, I'll try anythingonce if it's racquetball, which
I'm not great at, or somethinglike that, actually, I was
invited out on a fox hunt on NewYear's Day, like two or three
(13:17):
years ago.
Carl Grant (13:18):
And on horseback.
Kyle McQuighan (13:20):
Yeah, so I can't ride a horse. But they, they had
invited me to ride around and intheir land rover or whatever it
was on this Fox hunt. And youknow, I enjoyed it. It was very
different. I mean, you know, thewhole were Scarlet and that
whole culture around that. It'sjust fun for someone like me.
I'm open to try anything oncebecause I'm going to learn
(13:40):
something. I'm just a verycurious person. And I think
that's a personality trait thatmakes anybody much like you,
Carl, great and businessdevelopment because you're
willing to get out, put yourselfout there, put yourself in a new
place. And be curious, no one'sexpecting you to go out and be
an absolute Rockstar atsomething you don't even know
what it is or how to do it. ButI think when you put yourself
(14:00):
into trying something thatsomeone else is personally very
passionate about, it justcreates an openness and a
goodwill and a certain air thathey, this is a safe zone. This
is a good guy we can trust thisguy he's willing to try
something out and we'll do itagain. As long as it's legal and
on good ground. I do I do. Butyou're not violate my moral
compass. I'm
Carl Grant (14:21):
speaking of safe zone. I'm such a bad shot the
oves are pretty safe around e.
Kyle McQuighan (14:27):
Exactly.
Carl Grant (14:29):
I'm just going out there for the thing, you know,
just to be be with those guys.
So look, as we as we wrap uphere this one so quick. any
parting advice for listenersbased on your learnings over the
past six months?
Yeah, actually, I do have a fewthoughts on it, Carl and one I
met so many more people becauseI wasn't going around the
Beltway and getting to and fromevents. Inevitably I spent more
(14:50):
time on the phone and workingand what I learned is it's
really hard to do at all andkeep it all up in the air. So
I'm not as good as I once was.
As I used to be able to meetsomeone, I remember just about
everything about them. Now inthe zoom world, it's hard to
remember everything plus youmeet a ton more people. So I've
learned the importance ofkeeping my CRM intact and
updating it regularly. I've alsolearned the importance of using
(15:13):
and developing tools that giveyou leverage and help you manage
more relationships because it ishard to keep, keep growing, you
know, more than a linear pathwhen you are just one person
doing one call at a time. SoI've tried out new tools
platform called venture raisemost recently, which has been an
outstanding platform, it'shelped me get in front of new
companies, it's also helped meput my VC network together and
(15:36):
help connect new entrepreneursto capital sources and the like,
and do it very quickly, whichhas helped leverage the ability
for me to get out and make evenmore relationships and deepen
them very quickly. So I thinkthat's the key thing is just as
you continue to grow, if you'reJunior like me and your BD
career, at some point, therewill be a point when, at least
at this point, I take a day off,and I've got more emails that I
(15:59):
can catch up on in two days. Sofiguring out what tools you can
put in place and how to leverageyour time and leverage it really
well. To maximize the impact youhave on everyone in your network
be keeping a clean CRM, lookingat tools like venture raise,
etc. It's very important to dothat and figure out how to scale
efficiently and effectively asyou grow.
(16:21):
Great advice, Kyle Mc Quighan Ad thanks for joining us today.
f you like what you heard toda, please subscribe. Please ra
e the podcast and share it wih your friends on social medi
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