The Talent Forge: Shaping the Future of Training and Development with Jay Johnson

Designing Events for All Personality Types with Rob Giardinelli

• Jay Johnson • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Join us as we welcome Rob Giardinelli, a seasoned professional who has made the fascinating transition from the tech sphere to becoming a master of social dynamics through his initiative, Event Mindset. Rob, a self-proclaimed introvert, shares his compelling journey and offers fresh perspectives on how introverts can shine at business and social events, balancing the atmosphere with their extroverted counterparts. With his rich experience from attending countless fundraisers and galas, Rob unravels the art of maximizing interactions at events to foster meaningful relationships and drive growth.

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

Jay Johnson:

Welcome to this episode of the Talent Forge, where we are shaping the future of talent development. I am joined by special guest Rob Giordinelli. Welcome to the show, rob.

Rob Giardinelli:

Jay, I'm excited to be here and have a conversation with your listeners. It's a pleasure.

Jay Johnson:

Rob, I see some amazing books in your background and I know that that's probably contributed to your success. So talk to me, tell us and the audience a little bit about yourself and what your kind of focal interest is.

Rob Giardinelli:

So my focal interest is basically allowing anyone to realize that they can be successful at any business, networking or social event. And I take it from my background. You know, in my career, you know we'll flashback a bit. You know in my career, you know we'll flashback a bit. But I had begun my career and I spent about 15 years in the tech industry and I did a varying array of client facing roles. So I at one point was a sales manager, at one point I was a merchandising manager. At one point I was kind of a global product evangelist. So I had lots of experience with, you know, with client facing roles.

Rob Giardinelli:

And about a decade into that I met my now husband, who runs a luxury lifestyle magazine, and right after we began dating he asked me if and I live in Austin he asked if I would be interested in writing about all the Austin social events that we were going to on a regular basis. And for about five years I was traveling kind of all over regionally or sometimes globally, all during the week, getting on a plane, coming home, throwing on a tux and then going to galas, not just in Austin, but sometimes I'd have to get in the car or drive to Houston or Dallas or San Antonio. So I had a really wide scope of all different types of events and the more I got into the world of going to million dollar fundraisers, the more I realized how for lack of a better term ineffective lots of business events were, whether they were business meals, whether they were networking events, whether they were industry events, and a lot of them were really painful. To get through to the point where, in the last year but I was in the tech industry before I transitioned out If I had a meeting in New York where I knew that there was going to be a dinner and I knew it wasn't going to be a good dinner, I'd stay in Philadelphia or Boston and say sorry, I got to take the train because I got a meeting in that other city the next morning.

Rob Giardinelli:

Like I was literally doing what I could to get out of them and I transitioned, you know, out of that in 2015 and, you know, devoted my services to the luxury space full time, coming out of COVID. What I realized in going back to events after everyone took anywhere from one year to two years off, depending on where you lived was everyone was a little bit rusty and really what I decided at that point was to create event mindset, to really allow people to make the most of business, networking and social events so that they could grow their sales, improve their relationships and just create really good, positive transformations for themselves create really good, positive transformations for themselves.

Jay Johnson:

That's incredible and there is a ton to unpack there, rob. So I really love this and I think that it's something that you know. When we're thinking about talent development and when we're thinking about like a business running, some kind of social, some kind of training, some kind of team building, some kind of, there is a lot that is left on the table and a lot to be desired there, so I want to dig into that, but I want to. I want to kind of key in on something from your profile, cause I found this to be really interesting as well. You are a self-proclaimed introvert and you've been going to all of these different events, these huge fundraisers, these massive things. How has that experience been for you?

Rob Giardinelli:

It's been an incredible experience and it completely flipped my perception of kind of what a gala is or what a fundraiser is, but also for what makes for a good event or a good party, and that is is that you need introverts at them, and I always say a party is like earth. Is that you need introverts at home, and I always say a party is like earth in that you need to have the right amount of oxygen, and I think all of us have walked into rooms before where there's a hundred introverts. If there's a hundred introverts, there's not enough oxygen and things can't have life without that oxygen. I've been to things where there's a hundred extroverts in the room and there's too much oxygen, and everyone knows what happens when there's too much oxygen in a confined space. Not good things can happen. And for the folks who have an HR background, I think they know what I mean and I'm sure that they probably have painful stories. So for that I apologize in advance, because I only want you to have good feelings today and I know that that may not be one. But I really realized, because my husband is the literally the textbook definition of an extrovert, and what I realized was I should not try to compete with him to be that, because I think all of us have been to things where there's two extroverts. It's just too much when two extroverts kind of are doing this dog and pony show and two extroverts kind of are doing this dog and pony show.

Rob Giardinelli:

And what I realized and I realized this probably within the first six months of going to events we would you know there were many times where we would go to two or three or sometimes even four things in an evening and when we do that, you know we'll be in the car and we'll be talking about you know what we learned at each event and you know Lance would turn to me and say, well, what did you learn at this and what we learned at each event. And you know Lance would turn to me and say, well, what did you learn at this? And I'd be like I learned this and I learned this, and I learned this, this, this and this. And he'd be like you learned all those things from six different people in 45 minutes. How did you do that?

Rob Giardinelli:

And I'm like I just did what came most naturally to me and for most introverts is I just ask questions, because what I realized, and I realized that this is a universal thing. I can be at a business meal in the tech industry and I can be next to a socialite at a gala. People love to talk about themselves. That is a completely universal thing and so long as you ask questions and act engaged, you don't have to be an extrovert to be effective at those things.

Rob Giardinelli:

And really what I get joy with particularly is working with extroverts within an organization to allow them to find their power, and 70% of CEOs are introverts, so there are a lot of leaders who are introverts out there and I've really grown to believe that the reason for that is that introverts listen. They don't dominate the conversation and because they listen, they're able to take in all this really valuable information and create really good things and do leadership things that an extrovert may miss, because they're taking in the information or they're putting out the information. They're not taking in the information. They're putting out the information, they're not taking in the information.

Jay Johnson:

I love that, rob, and that's a surprising statistic. We all think the extroverted person's going to be that CEO or that leader that's jumping out there. And here's a really funny thing, and I love that you're sharing this because I'm going to have a follow-up question regarding okay, so when we're working with introverts, maybe as part of our attendees or part of our participants, what are some things that you would suggest that we do to make sure that we keep a good balance of that oxygen inside of the room and be able to navigate that? So that's the question that's coming. I'm giving you a little foreshadowing, but I want to share because this is actually one of the areas that I study in the behavioral science is personality as well as behavior. So one of the things that I found about myself and every assessment that I ever took and I'm certified and I've taken pretty much everything out there DISC and Myers-Briggs and the NEO-PIR and the Minnesota Multiphysic, and you name it and Myers-Briggs and the Neo-PIR and the Minnesota Multiphysic, and you name it I end up showing very, very high levels of extroversion. But here is the interesting thing, and I think it probably took me.

Jay Johnson:

Let's see, I'm 42 years old, I think it took me 41 and a half years to really figure out. I'm not as extroverted as I actually thought I was and when I'm on stage, when I'm presenting, when I'm performing, when I'm doing a keynote or when I'm doing a training, I have so much energy and I draw an energy from the crowd and we have this great exchange and I can go for eight hours straight in that space and then any other time that I'm not necessarily in that performance mentality. My actual energy comes from being out here in the woods in Battle Creek with nobody around, with meditation, with self-reflection, with all of these other highly generally considered introverted qualities, and I have found that my balance is literally almost like going to each extreme rather than remaining in the middle. So I don't know if I'm per se an ambivert or if I'm really one day that I am very much extroverted and draw my energy from other people, but I think for me it's a lot of context. So I find it super fascinating when I do find somebody that's, you know, maybe on that introverted side.

Jay Johnson:

That's like no, I actually really enjoy these events and I enjoy the questions and I use these particular skills in order to draw that in, because we know that a big majority of people really are introverted and struggle at places like networking or social events because they're not exactly sure how to do that.

Jay Johnson:

So kudos to you for finding that space that's really allowed you to thrive in an industry that I think a lot of people would be surprised to say an introvert's running an event mindset organization, which is pretty cool. So let me go back to my question here, and what I want to know is, when we're looking at an audience, when we're looking at the person sitting across the table that we're trying to help develop, train, empower, half of that group minimally half of that group is going to be introverted in, amongst another half which are extroverted. The extroverts are going to oftentimes be the first ones that are going to jump out and answer the questions. They're going to be the first ones that are going to volunteer for something. How could I, as a trainer or a coach or an HR person, how can I better adapt my training style, my approach, to really kind of get the best out of both of those worlds inside of a space?

Rob Giardinelli:

Well, I'm really glad that first it will lead into my answer. But I'm really glad that you talked about how you're an extrovert and all those tests. But yet at the same time you you know you love spending the time in the woods in battle Creek. And what I have learned is for anyone who watched Oprah back in the day, where she talked about sexuality being a spectrum, I view introversion and extroversion the same way, because I can't tell you how many clients I've had over the years that are like I'm literally called the mayor, but I need time to recharge. That means you don't have a full tank all the time. So it's a spectrum.

Rob Giardinelli:

So for anyone training, you know the thing about, you know corporate structure in the corporate world is it's easy to group and put in buckets, but when you're dealing with personalities that's really hard to do because when you do that you're not recognizing the entire potential. So for anyone who's sitting across the table, realize that it's a spectrum and just because they're an introvert, they could be a really interesting person and they're just a master at getting information from other people and that is probably, frankly, more valuable than the extrovert who's holding court in the room. So a lot of it is just recognizing that people have individual and unique strengths and with those individual and unique strengths, a good organization is going to tap into those and realize that certain things are going to be good for certain personality types. And, if I can, I'd love to give an example of that. So, for example, let's say there's an industry conference. The default may be I'm going to send the most extroverted person to that because they're going to be charismatic and command the room. But the thing is, at an industry conference, there's going to be lots of customers there, there's going to be some competitors there. There's going to be all these things that I will work with organizations to be like. Well, who's the best person, who's going to get the most information? Most times that's going to be an introvert who knows how to interact, who knows how to actively listen, who can engage when they need to and get that valuable information.

Rob Giardinelli:

So the the one thing is is that you know when you're sending people to events in particular. Not all events are created equal and certain events are going to require certain personality types, and I'm of the school and I know this may be controversial, but I'm of the school and I know this may be controversial, but I'm of the school that no person should be on another. Every single invite list it should always vary, not even your spouse, because do you really want to take your spouse to your college reunion weekend? Not really. So you know, remember. There are instances, instances where some not every event is going to be for everybody, because it's not going to be optimal for them, their personality type, or for whatever the goals are for that particular conference event, business meal, whatever it may be.

Jay Johnson:

I love that because I mean, there's so much application in that idea too of hey, we could set up particular spaces inside of our organizations for X, Y or Z.

Jay Johnson:

I know, as a trainer, one of the things that I like to do and I learned this over the course of time was when I'm asking questions. Yeah, sometimes that sort of iterative group discussion that's fantastic, of iterative group discussion, that's fantastic. But other times what I've learned is, if I just take a moment and say, hey, I'm going to give you three minutes to really reflect on this question, and then afterwards we're going to do a little bit of a round robin and have everybody kind of contribute, giving that little bit of space, oftentimes the most profound answers that I get are from the people that generally are not the first, not the second, not the third person to come up. But it's like, wow, give them a moment, let them collect their thoughts, give them this opportunity to really kind of engage in a little bit of silent reflection and boom, we hit this. Powerful, powerful insights. So I really, really appreciate what you're saying here. I think that I could probably talk to you about this topic alone forever at this point in time.

Jay Johnson:

But I want to move us into. Let's talk about events, right? So, as in the corporate world, whether you're running an internalized event, so I'm just hosting for my internal people, or whether you're hosting for external and bringing in outside clients, or anything like that let's talk about what are some of the mechanics that we need to be thinking about, because, as a trainer, I might hold my own event, right, like I'm actually looking at running a behavior-based conference here coming up in about three months. So, help me, let's talk about this. What are some things that either I should be thinking about, as somebody who's going to be hosting event, or that leader that's out there, that HR person that's out there that's like, hey, I'm going to be putting together an event for my team. What are some of those things that we should be thinking about?

Rob Giardinelli:

So the first principle that I have is is that every single good host knows how to be a good guest, and every you know. So that is the first principle. So I always you know, and the good fortune that I have is I write things from the guest's lens. So the thing that I have learned about good hosts good hosts some of them can be really extroverted and command the room, but they also realize that the reason people want to come to their events is they're going to get something out of it. A lot of times and people would be amazed at how much business is transacted at galas so a lot of it is if you're hosting something, connect people, especially clients, especially different people within your organization, or even if it's kind of a broader industry event that you're hosting, they could be two clients of yours that may need that, may benefit from working together. Make sure to connect them. If people think they're getting value out of going to an event, they're going to want to come back year after year. But that value really has to be there.

Jay Johnson:

I want to jump in there because you know it's really funny and events are not my forte, but it's so much aligned with everything that I'm teaching to trainers and to coaches, Like you need to be a good participant as well as being the good trainer. In order to be a good trainer, you have to be a good participant. That means you're doing particular things. That means that you're seeing it from the good participant. That means you're doing particular things. That means that you're seeing it from the lens of a participant when you're actually developing, designing and putting your training out, Because it may be interesting to you as the purveyor of information, but that doesn't mean that it's going to be interesting to your participants. So I love that you bring that into that space. It's something, honestly, I've never even thought of when it came to running events, Like, oh yeah, I should be a good participant.

Jay Johnson:

The second part in there, and I want to dig into this a little bit even deeper, because I think it's so powerful for not only just event planning or event running, but for networking Anytime that I've had the opportunity to say hey, let me introduce you to my friend, Rob. Rob does these events. He's amazing at it Come over here because I know you're running an event and I know you're freaked out about it. Let me put the two of you together and just see what kind of magic happens. And I have found that if I go into a networking space with the mentality of not who do I want to connect with, but who do I know in here that I can connect with each other, Magic seems to happen. And I'm not going to call myself a master networker of any stretch. That's definitely not my forte. What's going on there psychologically? What's going on there from a business perspective? Can you help us break that down a little bit, Rob?

Rob Giardinelli:

Well, with networking events in particular, there's a universal thing that everyone just wants to be seen. And the thing about a networking event if it's all you coming in, I want, instead of we, or what about you, people are just going to be turned off by that and they're not going to want to work with you. So, jay, you're spot on in that you really do have to. The tide lifts all boats, for lack of a better term. You know, it's not just about you connecting, but it's also about connecting others, because they're going to see that you're a good person and that you think about things more than just yourself. And you know, at the end of the day, people buy from people, people have relationships with people, and that is a really incredibly valuable thing. And I found, you know, some people can be it's rare, but some people can be very, very charming in public and tyrants in private. But most people I have found 99% of them what they are in public is some variation of what they are, if you're going to transact with, business with them, or if you're going to have a personal relationship with them, or whatever it is. So you know, it's kind of like what Maya Angelou says you know whatever they show you or tell you, believe them, believe in that. And if it's I, I, I. That's not going to be a good two-way relationship for you.

Rob Giardinelli:

And I always end with any sort of thing. I never say can I get your? I say can we exchange? Because one you're saying that you know you want to engage with them as much as you know they want to engage with you. You're making it a two-way relationship as opposed to a one-way relationship and that's really powerful. And you know, I've had people where I've said can we exchange? Where they'll give me theirs and they're like just call me. And there's other times where they're like I'll take your information, they may call me or they may not, and other times it may be we switch, but you're giving that other person the power to choose and when you're doing that, you're showing a level of respect for that person that they're going to remember after the event because you're probably going to be one of the few people that wasn't. Can I get yours? It was. Can we exchange? Because it's about us and our relationship, not my relationship with you.

Jay Johnson:

I love that incorporation of inclusive language. The us we let's together. What you're essentially doing is, psychologically speaking, you're helping to connect the tribe and if you ever watch any of those types of movies out there where aliens from outer space come down, start zapping Earth all of a sudden, like everybody who is an enemy before has come together to fight off this one thing and I think that you kind of do that with that inclusive language concept is the world out. There is very, very difficult, but why don't we work together to find a solution that's going to be the best for us, this tribe that's built here inside of that training area, inside of that networking space. So for our audience trainers, coaches how can you leverage inclusive language to create that space of it's not trainer versus participant, it's us together. We're learning as an opportunity to grow together in that space. It's going to bring people together. Is that what I'm hearing you say, rob?

Rob Giardinelli:

absolutely, absolutely, I mean and I had never thought of it as inclusive language, but that's exactly what it is um is, you know. You just want everyone to feel seen and in a, in a, in a corporate and an HR structure. That is the ultimate goal at all times, and when you do that, you're giving other people power. At the same time and this can be difficult for a lot of trainers, especially ones with an HR background you can't treat everybody the same. You've got to treat everyone with dignity, kindness and respect. But some people are going to be email people, some people are going to be text people. Some people are going to be text people, some people are going to be phone people, some people are going to be large group people, some people are going to be small group people. So you want to create opportunities for each of them, because the goal should not be every single employee goes to every single thing. That will be burnout. But being strategic in your choosing of that will allow for a more inclusive culture and higher morale overall.

Jay Johnson:

Yeah, I think that sometimes the concept of fairness, equity, equality and all of those things get blurred so bad that it's like, okay, well, from an HR perspective, we just got to lay this blanket out and everybody has to get under that blanket and everybody has to get under that blanket. But in reality, you know, some of us we don't need a blanket right now. You know, in Texas probably don't need the blanket. In Michigan, here where I'm at, let me tell you need the blanket. So you know, everybody's going to have different sets of needs and I really do love what you're saying here is kind of approaching it and bringing the people in for where they need to be brought in and really making it that inclusive space.

Jay Johnson:

So fairness is not necessarily something of you got three and I got three, but hey, we're able to, I'm able to get the two that I needed and you're able to get the three that you needed and we're able to move forward collectively together, us let's, you know. So I really appreciate that. So that was kind of that concept, one of being a good participant. And where do we take that? How do we help? How do we help somebody to be a good participant, like, if I'm attending an event and I'm thinking about it from my personal stake as a participant. What are some of the things outside of you know, maybe making some connections? What can I be doing to really be thoughtful and considerate in being that good participant, being that good attendee?

Rob Giardinelli:

So set goals is first and foremost. Most people don't with events, and that always that confounds me, because that was something I tried to do in the tech industry. It didn't happen all the time and that's where a lot of my frustrations lied. But have goals. What I teach with the folks that I work with is we're going to set three and they're going to be one each in three buckets. One is going to be confidence. It's going to stretch you to say yes, I can do it.

Rob Giardinelli:

One's purpose because if it's a business event, have something tangible. And the other one is joy. And by that is you've got to add an element of fun, even though it's a work event. You've got to make it fun in some way. It doesn't need to be rip roaring you know HR is involved. The next day fun. But there have to be fun elements in there to get so that people don't roll their eyes at having to attend and they actually want to attend or they look forward to attend or at the very least, they don't mind attending. And I think that's something a lot of companies struggle with is how do we create fun?

Jay Johnson:

that's you know, that's you know that's actually fun, yeah, and you know there's all kinds of things. It's not mandatory fun.

Rob Giardinelli:

Yeah, and they're real little things. Get a photo booth so that people can take fun photos of themselves. You know there's this, there's a sketch artist that I see at a lot of events and they'll do kind of like caricatures of you. Those are really fun little things that people kind of look forward to. And a joy goal could be something as simple.

Rob Giardinelli:

As I remember when I was in the corporate world, we used to give away these chocolate covered Oreos like to salespeople as kind of like a reward, and people really look forward to those.

Rob Giardinelli:

So like if there's like a killer signature cocktail or a signature food at an office holiday party, you may want to get there early just so that you can grab that cookie before they run out.

Rob Giardinelli:

Like you need to incorporate a level of fun in that, and especially for the introverts, that will make it less intimidating for them. That's one of the reasons why I do something that's a little bit lighter hearted, so that they get more comfortable. And you know in the beginning you may not hit all three of those goals, but if you can hit one and you at least start with joy, you're going to take that feeling of happiness that you had and that experience Cause people. At the end of the day my friend, heidi Marquez Smith once told me this you won't necessarily remember what you had or the conversations, but you will remember how the event made you feel and if you can create that good feeling as you leave, that's what's going to carry positively going forward. And I think, as trainers, that's what everyone wants at the end of the day. They want people leaving with a positive feeling so that they can incorporate those things more organically in their everyday lives, whether it's professional or personal things more organically in their everyday lives, whether it's professional or personal.

Jay Johnson:

You know, I really like that, rob, and part of the reason is we as human beings, when something is fun, we want to do it again. When it's not fun, we don't ever want to do it. When it's easy, we'll do it. If it's hard, maybe not so much today, and that's a lot of what we train in terms of like behavioral habits and habit, you know adaptation. So the idea of incorporating joy and purpose into sort of that goals for the event, I really appreciate that, simply because we get a dopamine hit. I mean, let's think about even something like social media. It is designed to keep us there and keep coming back again and again and again.

Jay Johnson:

If social media was an event, it'd be the perfectly planned, curated event because it creates the conditions of joy and stress and fun. And ooh, what's this person doing here? So I'm getting those dopaminergic hits every single time that I'm scrolling through looking for that next piece of fun or whatever that might be. How do we take fun? Because this is something I think a lot of trainers actually struggle with. So how do we take fun and sort of take? Let me, I guess, give me a second here to kind of contextualize this. Okay, a lot of trainers feel I'm going to say awkward doing something like a dance-off or doing something, and I'm not saying that that's a good form of fun.

Jay Johnson:

Generally, when I'm incorporating fun into my trainings, there's a purpose and an intent behind it, like it's doing something that's adding value. So that way the people that are like they're really locked up, I'm never going to have fun, I don't want to dance or anything else. I'm not going to make them dance, so that way they have the bad experience, while 50 other people in there have the good experience, right. So I really try to incorporate either some kind of games, challenges, some kind of fun get to know each other, those types of things into the trainings, some kind of fun, get to know each other, those types of things into the trainings. How can we be more intentional, I'll say, of creating fun opportunities that are going to appeal to both extroverts and introverts, or going to appeal to the people who you know maybe I love the idea of going getting my photo taken, maybe, maybe I don't like. How do we create that sense of balance where everybody does feel like there's something there for them? I did like the cocktails and food.

Rob Giardinelli:

By the way, that's one that most of them have. Now. Are you talking about, like within a corporate training, or are you talking about an event?

Jay Johnson:

Let's play with both concepts. You know, whether it's in a corporate training let's, let's start with the event space. You know, if we're running an event, if we're hosting an event maybe, how do we create some kind of multi-layered fun, joy experience that they're going to have, and then we'll transition that into the corporate event.

Rob Giardinelli:

Well, like I said earlier, I would definitely incorporate some fun elements. Whether it's a photo booth, whether it's, you know, a sketch artist, whether it's someone who designs poems, whatever would work for your space. Do something that's fun, that gets people in there and wants to do that. What I will say for anything that is seated I am a big fan of place cards, and not only place cards, but switching seats at some point during it. And for a training in particular, especially an internal one. We've all seen this. I've been to way way too many, even though it's probably been 10 years since I've done a corporate training. I've been to so many of them. I know how it works. You go in with the person you know the best and you sit next to them the whole time and they roll eyes at each other and there is nothing better than and you know, and then there's even that well, I wanted to sit next to that Like, like, like all that seventh grade pass a note in gym stuff kind of does come back to people, whether whether we want to admit that or not.

Rob Giardinelli:

A lot of that stuff does come into play. At those things that I am a fan of, let's switch seats, switch seats. You can either plan it specifically and say I want to make sure that these two people are paired off. If it's a 30-person training and you know these two people don't really know each other but should apply those host principles for an event within a training, there's absolutely no problem with that. And then if you're seated at something like a business meal, especially with introverts, never put an introvert with the person that they know the best, because that's all that they'll talk to. You want someone on one side of them that they're comfortable with and one person that they may not know, but you don't want to ever put the introvert with you know with with the person they know the best, because that's all they'll latch onto all night At the same time. Like I remember early in my career, I remember one time I went to a business meal. I was not a good guest and me and this coworker of mine sat next to each other. We were just raucous the entire evening and then, like six months later, it was the same group of people again for dinner and literally my boss walked literally in between the two of us and said you two are not sitting together and sat us down.

Rob Giardinelli:

So it is a learned process to do along the way, and the thing is is that there's no such thing as a perfect event. So I think that's one thing because I think in the corporate structure is how do we get this perfect, or how do we get to perfect? How do we do Six Sigma Events, aren't that? Because people are just too dynamic, fluid, there's too many intangibles in the world to make it an event. Even the most fun parties like I went to something a couple of years ago that was I mean, it was this really lavish, wonderful thing and the cocktail party went on for an hour longer than it should have because everyone was having such a good time and people's immediate thoughts was wow, that's so much fun, but they're not thinking the catering, the food, it's not going to be like. There's always something, even in the best of events. So you know, make sure that whatever you're planning, take out the perfection angle. That will actually make it a lot more fun and it also will allow you to be more forgiving of unexpected things that come up.

Rob Giardinelli:

And the one thing that I have learned along the way is you know, and I know, in a corporate environment it's a little different. People say inappropriate stuff, or people say stuff out of turn. I won't say inappropriate, but people say stuff out of turn. That may have been people you know in some way. Frequently I have found the things. The ones that I remember are the ones who make something of it instead of just apologizing and move on. Some people will harp and dwell, and when you harp and dwell you're going to be much more likely to remember it than I'm. So sorry. I said that let's chat about this now. You know, so just make sure that you're. You know you're when you're doing that. Just keep those things in mind.

Jay Johnson:

Well, and I'm going to dig into that seating concept because I think that that is such an important aspect and you know, you're absolutely right we naturally are going to gravitate. Very rarely do two people come in and go all right, you go to that side of the room and I'll go to this side of the room and let's just work. I have seen it. It's usually two extroverts, two highly competitive type A's that will do that from the same business, that are going to walk in and go you take that side of the room, I'll take this side of the room, carve it down the middle and I'm going to own it.

Jay Johnson:

But for the most part, when we are sitting, we do want that level of comfortability and especially within the corporate training or even in a different opportunity, we are limited in our growth and our learning and our knowledge by the networks that we keep. And that can be great. I've heard it said network is your net worth and et cetera. But at the same time, expanding that really kind of can bring a new level of thinking, a new, you know, a diversity of it. So getting some kind of shift or some kind of movement can even have an impact.

Jay Johnson:

It's so fascinating to me, this is one of the things that I've really been pushing is changing your perspective. If you're facing a problem and you're looking at a problem, you know, change your perspective. Take two steps back, see what the problem looks like from there. Take two steps to the side, see what the problem looks like from there and really kind of take a 360. So I love this seating concept because you can literally physically induce some of that different piece that's going into those different events or those different trainings, et cetera. So beautifully, beautifully said, rob. Now I've realized that we are probably talking longer than we should be, because I do try to keep it 25 to 35 minutes, but this is an amazing conversation. So I'm gonna ask you can you give us maybe two or three just quick zinger tips, things to think about, things to continue forward, and really kind of bring us together here at the end of our conversation? Rob.

Rob Giardinelli:

So thing number one if you're an introvert, scan the room when you arrive.

Rob Giardinelli:

That way, you're looking to see if either there's someone you know and if there is no one you know, find the bar with the longest line.

Rob Giardinelli:

Stand in that line and the thing is is that you can talk to the person in front of you or behind you. And I've done that countless times over the years and more often than not, the goal is not to even get exchange contact information, it's to get yourself comfortable, it's dipping your toe in the pool before you go in the pool. And again, the second thing is everyone should create those three goals of confidence, purpose and joy. And then the third thing for anyone hosting an event, there's three essential elements to any good event that I have found over the years there has to be fun, there has to be wow and there has to be hard. Doesn't mean all three are equal, but make sure you incorporate all three of those elements into an event and you'll have an event that your employees are talking about or your team is talking about for weeks, months or sometimes even years to come, when they're really, really special.

Jay Johnson:

Awesome, rob, I am more than likely going to be asking you to come back to dig even deeper on events. This is actually I have learned so much just having this conversation with you. I'm like I'm thinking about my event coming up in a couple of months and I'm going okay, how am I going to incorporate this? How am I going to help set the you know, set the joy? How am I going to help make sure that people can find the line so that way they can have these conversations? This is all quite brilliant. If my audience wanted to get ahold of you, rob, how would they do so?

Rob Giardinelli:

So you can go to my site eventmindsetcom. I have a cheat sheet called Six Graceful Ways to Exit Any Conversation. Also, you can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Rob Giardinelli, which is G-I-A-R-D-I-N-E-L-L-I.

Jay Johnson:

Love it. Rob, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a really fruitful conversation and I appreciate all the tips and tactics that I'm gonna walk away with, so thank you for being here, Jay.

Rob Giardinelli:

it was an absolute pleasure. I loved every second of this conversation.

Jay Johnson:

And to our audience. Thank you for listening into this episode of the Talent Forge, where we are shaping the future of training and development.

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Jay Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements

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