← The Digital Executive
The Digital Executive
Ken Rutkowski on Building Authentic Connections and the Power of Being Uncommon | Ep 1052
00:12:02
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Foreign.
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Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Ken Rutkowski. Ken Rutkowski, founder of Metal Men, is an exist and multifaceted business leader, entrepreneur and influencer, renowned for his unique ability to connect executives worldwide. A community builder and seasoned media host, he has been a featured speaker and moderator at tech media conferences including Milken Institute, CES, NAB, CTIA, NATPE, Digital Hollywood, Internet World, LA Games Conference, X Media Lab, Gadget, the Future of Television Conference, and many, many more. He has also spoken at many most prestigious US Universities, including Loyola, Northwestern Illinois, mit, Stanford, ucla, USC, and Berkeley. Well, good evening, Ken. Welcome to the show.
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Thanks, Brian. It's great to be here.
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Absolutely. You're in Cambodia at the moment, which is amazing. I do podcasts all over the world. I know you're not originally from Cambodia, but you are my first guest out of Cambodia, so 54 countries today. Thank you so much and I really, really appreciate it.
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Oh, it's great. Most people don't know this, but Cambodia, especially in the center, there's a place called Angkor Wat. You probably have seen, like Laura Croft. At one point in time, it was the biggest city in the world and no one ever talks about it. I think Rome or Constantinople. But Angkor Wat was the center of the world at one point in time, which I learned by being here.
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B
That's awesome. So much we can talk about, of course, and we spent some good time before we hit record, but I just really appreciate you making the time. So, Ken, let me jump into your first question. You've been described as a super connector with a unique ability to link executives worldwide. Can you share a memorable story where one of your connections led to an unexpected or transformative outcome?
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So I want to make sure we make sure the difference between a super connector or a connector or a networker. A networker, in my mind is someone that's a bit superficial. It's about getting the business card, name card, making sure that Rolodex is thick. We might call it a contact manager. It's thick and robust. Mine is about knowing that person, information about them that's important to them. And that could range from birthdays, their kids, anniversaries, milestones, things that they're working on and what really gets them excited. And also what they need. Meaning if they're working on a book, maybe they need to have a good publisher. Or if they're a family office and they're looking for certain types of investments. I could open up certain corridors for them. So I'm always in the know of what's going on, which means is I'm constantly reaching out to the people that I want to be connected with. And that's really important. So it's not about just having a whole bunch of people. It's people that I enjoy and I'm inspired by what they are now. Things that come out of it, well, it's constant. It's. It's every day there's a different win. I get really excited from making a documentary about regenerative farming or seeing a flying motorcycle, which a friend of mine's making right now that just got funded. Because of those are connections that I was able to give them. And I do, I give to them. I don't take percentages or equity or of any of those deals. But the goal is just to see all my friends benefit from the relationships that I have grown. Let me just tell you one quick step secret behind this. I use a contact management system and it's readily available called close C, L, O, Z, E. And the one thing about CLOSE is it asks me tons of questions about individuals and one thing is, is their birthday. So every day a huge list of people's birthdays pop up in my CLOSE application. And I tell it, hey, let's craft an email unique to them wishing them happy birthday. So every day I might send out 20 to 50 happy birthdays. And I would say of those 10 to 20% of those turn into opportunities just by wishing somebody happy birthday.
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B
That's amazing. I've done that for years for, you know, staff and folks that are in my CLOSE circle. The birthday thing is such a big touch point for relating to humans. So I appreciate you sharing that, but I'll have to check out the CLOSE CRM for sure. The one thing I'm going to highlight here is you basically differentiated the networker versus the connector. And, and to me, in my mind, Rolodex versus a Franklin planner for people. And I just, I just love that. I really do.
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And we're old school. We're old school. Yeah, we.
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We are. Ken Metal International has grown into a significant community for leaders in media, entertainment, technology and the arts. What inspired you to create this platform and how has its mission evolved over time?
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So in 2002, I moved to Los Angeles. I had a few exits. I was one of the guys that created Google Voice, which was one of my companies. I was also with mark cuban@broadcast.com. i created the podcast and actually sold that technology to Microsoft. Most people Think it was Adam. I forget Adam's name, but I actually was the very first podcaster in the 90s. So when I moved to Los Angeles, something that I was slapped with is something called $30,000 millionaires. And there are people that pretend to have all these assets, these relationships, and you find out they're imposters and they're parasites. So when I was in Los Angeles, not being from Los Angeles, being a Midwestern guy, I said, hey, I got to find a way to bring heart centered, authentic people together. So I created Metal as kind of like this resource to bring quality people together. And I realized that when you become an epicenter of opportunity, you theoretically have to really craft the message at a regular structure. So every Saturday. And by the way, I focused on men. It's not because I don't like women. I love women. Women do really well in communication. Men don't mention. So I focused on a men's group, which was really a challenge initially, but then all of a sudden the wives and girlfriends realized, wait a second, this is a place for my man to be in a safe area. Other women won't hit on him. And every Saturday, I would get three to 500 men together every single Saturday until Covid. And I want you to think about Ted for men. That's what I basically created. And metal is now it's a virtual community. I do it online. It's metal men. I think I'm the only one who has men. And what it is is it's literally a community of, of men that range from all of those different areas. You said media, entertainment, technology, the arts, and leaders that come together and help each other out. I always say it's about the we, not the I. And that's kind of what I do anywhere in the world. I'm always doing these metal events. Every Saturday, I bring three incredible speakers from let's say a Tim Ferriss to a Dave Asprey to a James Altucher. They come and speak to the community and we learn from them of what's next and how to utilize it to help us live longer, be happier, and actually change the planet.
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B
That is amazing. And I really appreciate that, you know, focusing on making the world a better place through your channel, which is Metal Men. And I know, as you mentioned, it's not just about the men, but there are some things that men could do better. And I think you're doing the right thing, building that tribe and again, making men, they're more respectable, especially in the nowadays in. In the women community. We want to make sure that we are obviously allying with the women there. But I, I really like what you're doing here with this. I just like making the world a better place and that's what we do here on the podcast. Ken, as a futurist, you've been ahead of many technological trends. Looking ahead, what emerging technologies or societal shifts do you believe will significantly impact the way we connect and do business?
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Okay, so I quickly want to just kind of correct something. I don't call myself a futurist. I call myself a nexus, which I trademarked that and explain the difference. A futurist kind of pontificates of what's going to happen 20, 30, 50 years in the future. And let's face it, they may not even be in that type of career position when those predictions either do or don't come true. A nextus is somebody that looks at six months to a year in the future. So I'm really held accountable to what I see is going to happen. So my goal is to make sure I have all these input modes. So I do a daily newsletter. It goes out to about 25,000 people every single day. I have to research what's going on. I talk to tons of people in different governments. I'm very connected to a lot of governments around the world. And then of course of my metal members per se are leaders in the industry. So I'm using all those data points to kind of see what's next, where the opportunities are or what to avoid. And that's the big one I actually think is what to avoid. Because people might say, hey, I should throw all my money into Ethereum. But wait a second, is there something out that's better than Ethereum or I'm going to do Solana. No, wait a second, there's something better. Through what I learn is from Blockchain Web3, whatever it is, I'm able to at least understand the six month to one year horizon as opposed to something that's 20 years out.
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B
That's awesome. Thank you. And thank you for clarifying that you're a nexus, not a futurist. And I think that does make sense. It's more relative, looking at the next six to 12 months. But you're leveraging data points from a large circle of connections, whether it's local or international leaders. And I just think that's awesome. So thank you again for the clarification. And Ken, last question of the day. Hosting business rock stars allowed you to interview over 20,000 entrepreneurs. What common traits or mindsets did you Observe among the most successful individuals you've spoken with.
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Oh, this is easy. And I love this question, actually. So I saw five specific traits when it came to the most successful people. They all had this consistency amongst all of them. And I'll give you the five traits. And they're, they're fascinating. The first one is they all practice some type of health. And what I mean by that is it could be from the way they, they ate to the way they exercise. They may have done breathing or meditation, but some type of health. Number two, they all practice morning and evening routines, meaning they may have woken up and they've done meditation at night. They may have done a to do list or a gratitude list, but all of them had morning and evening routines. So first is health. Next is routine. The next one was they were all able to push off gratification. I don't need this today. I could wait till later on so I could focus on whatever that is. Think about all the credit card debt that happens today is because it's instantaneous gratification. They were able to push off gratification. Number four is they all were able to educate over entertain themselves. So instead of binge watching something on Netflix, they would watch a documentary. Instead of playing video games, they would read a book. So they were educating over entertaining themselves in the last. And it's the most important one. And actually interviewing Elon Musk three times. Elon said, this one, my second interview. And I asked Elon, so are you different? And Elon said, and this goes to all of these successful people? Elon said, no, I'm uncommon. Uncommon. That's a fascinating position. Meaning he doesn't settle for what is common. And common is the, the vices that are around us, the things that make us lethargic and slow, the things that control us. Being uncommon, it doesn't necessarily elevate. It just means you do not go for what the usual wants. But those were the five traits that I saw similar to all of the high performers.
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B
That's amazing. And I see a lot of that and I follow a lot of entrepreneurs as well. Ken, I appreciate that. But just to highlight real quick, again, one is health. Two routines, right? Morning or evening, delayed gratification, right? Push that off to get the work in. Get, get that, you know, eat that frog first thing in the morning. Of course, over educate instead of entertain yourself. We all do that on social media. Even if you got five minutes before bed. It's a temptation. And of course, the last one is be uncommon. I know when you interviewed Elon, are you different? No, I'm uncommon. I think that's pretty cool. Thank you for sharing those five tidbits. It's going to be amazing for my audience. And Ken, it was such a pleasure having you on today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
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Thanks a lot, Brian. Appreciate being here.
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Bye for now.