Several years ago, we had a major snow storm. We were snowbound for a few days. I even blogged on it, telling how I listened to all (ALL) of David's archived podcasts while we were all stuck at home. You can read that blog from 2016 for the backstory, but I'm going to bounce around a little here, from the past to present day.
Because of the snow storm, I met David. First virtually, and I met David one day for dinner in NYC (he paid - nice guy). David made his way to the "talent" page of NYDLA.org - as did many of his "friends" from his podcast archive - his friends who then became MY friends. Ah yes, a friend of a friend in action.
What the heck is NYDLA "pronounced NEIGH-DLAH" you ask?
OK, major bounce #1
Many (many) years ago, I ran MTP - MaritimeTechnologyPartners.com and we sold telecommunications and technology to the Maritime industry. After 9/11 this was a very hot business.
As a good salesman should, I attended a DHS.gov event at NJIT, and there I met Michael Chumer who was presenting about Port Security.
I must have asked good questions from the audience, because I got invited by my new friend Michael to attend a DHS.gov event at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey the very next day.
While at the Picatinny Arsenal event I met Mitchell Erickson of DHS.gov and we became friends. I told Mitch about my plans to reboot and "give some oxygen" to NYDLA.org which (at the time) was going (already was?) bankrupt. The website was 90 days past due on its hosting fees. I had an opportunity to "take it over" and run the show, and I was giving it serious thought. At the time, NYDLA was a 501(c3) Non-Profit and it was on life support. Great idea - terrible leadership.
OK, well, for now, I'm simply going to stay focused on running MTP.
I owned many "MTP" companies (Medical, Media, Marketing, et.al.) but Maritime was our biggest and most successful. A few years later, Mitch asked me (as the CEO of MTP) to do a keynote at Rutgers, speaking to the students who were graduating from Rutgers with Homeland Security Degrees. Students who were at the time struggling to get jobs in the real world. I knew all about the real world, so I went and I presented. I think it was supposed to be a pep talk, as no one was getting jobs at that time.
[ I almost did not go - I came close to saying no - I'm not getting paid for my time - or my gas - why am I doing this? ]
They said "What you covered just now, is what we want to teach here at Rutgers!" I said sure, I can do a double header. So I hung around for a few hours, and gave my talk again, this time - to all of the Department Heads of the School of Business. They even sent a car for me, they worried I would get lost on campus. They changed their planned meeting agenda to accommodate my talk - my topic. Hmmmm.
That evening (over adult beverages) I told the folks at Rutgers School of Business of my plans of possibly "rebooting" and restarting the currently dormant (and dying) NYDLA. Rutgers offered to be our first Host University. I accepted their sponsorship and their assistance.
I also accepted having direct access to the 500,000+ living alumni of Rutgers.
When other schools saw what we were doing, they wanted in on the action. Our next big home run was Harvard. Then Quinnipiac, UCONN, PURDUE. After that we got all 8 Ivy League Schools to play ball with us. [ One day I'll blog about www.IvyLeagueCoders.com ]
Bouncing forward to 2019:
Now the only business card I carry is my NYDLA card. Now (today) we have 300+ of the Fortune 1000 and 46% of the Schools of Business (with access to their alumni). We do business with the businesses - who do business with the students - and the graduates of major colleges and universities. Graduates who are now leading and running major corporations. People who are now - our friends.
Mitch Erickson became the Chairman of the NYDLA Leadership Committee. Mega companies like Wells Fargo, First Data, Zoom, et.al. all sponsor us, and they also give NYDLA members "special pricing" as a value-added member benefit. It has now become "fiscally irresponsible" to NOT be a member of NYDLA.
[ Example: people love, love LOVE using Zoom for videoconferencing and meetings. Well - you will love using Zoom and creating Zoom Rooms even more - with an NYDLA member discount! ]
There are 55M+ people living in "The New York Megalopolis" from Maine to Virginia. I like to say that "people read the New York Times in LA, but no one reads the LA Times in New York".
Tom, how did you go from ZERO to 5 MILLION???
With a little help from my friends.
Networking. Friends. Tribes. Communities. Collaboration. Teamwork. Living, learning, working, playing - in the clouds.
If I never went to that event at NJIT in Newark, New Jersey I would have never met Michael Chumer. And I would have never met Mitchell Erickson. Or spoke at Rutgers. Or landed Harvard. Or landed Wells Fargo or First Data or......
And, if it never snowed really hard in 2015, I would have never met David Burkus. Or would I????
Read David's book and find out! If you are not an Amazon Prime member, you can www.JoinNYDLA.org and I'll send you a copy of David's new book for free.
After all, what are friends for - and we are friends now, right?
My Friend Bart Oates landed us the NFL Alumni Association.
His brother Barry Oates used to work for me in the 90's
"A friend of a friend" in action for sure.
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