Bagels & Biz: Organizational Tribes – Building Your Network of Truth Tellers with Jerry Beerman

People At Your Service was pleased to have Jerry Beerman for this month’s episode of Bagels & Biz to discuss the ins and outs of what it means to be a good connector and how the best connectors seek to bring people together.

Jerry began his journey teaching tennis for the first 14 years of his career before realizing the opportunity in front of him with Alluring Glass. Even though he wasn’t a craftsman by trade, he was able to connect with and hire the right talent at the right time to make his vision a reality. As he forged ahead with his new business model, he retained his unique ability to connect with like-minded professionals and to help connect others together. This natural ability later helped him found Conduit.

Conduit has become a network of business professionals designed to lift each other up with an air of generosity, sincerity, and openness. In a sense, Conduit is an open-source wealth of information from professionals in various fields willing to share their information even if it is sometimes with a friendly competitor. As Jerry mentions, if you think your company has a “secret sauce” and are unwilling to help others by sharing that recipe, you aren’t going to find a warm welcome with Conduit. It truly is a place for unfettered support.

In this world of spam bots, mass email campaigns, and insincerity how do you reach out to make a genuine connection? Jerry argues the best way is to be introduced by a mutual connection or acquaintance. He continues to say that any generic invitation to connect to him is nearly always declined. Being a busy businessman, he simply doesn’t have time for anything less than genuine interest.

The conversation then transitioned to “the best way to make a good friend is to be a good friend” and how important it is to develop good, wholesome connections with others. A good friend is someone that not only treats you with respect but also follows through on promises made, usually with the understanding that this commitment to one another will be reciprocated when needed. Ultimately, this idea is the fundamental building block of mutual respect.

Utilizing this philosophy is how Jerry has been able to retain and build upon the talent that he has attracted to Alluring Glass. This oxymoronic phrase “selfish generosity”, as Jerry phrased it, is the cornerstone behind his ability to build such a successful business. Why does Mr. Beerman want to create such a robust and captivating culture for his employees? So he can find and retain the best talent in the industry.

The conversation closed with a discussion around the importance of surrounding yourself with truth tellers. You may not always like what you hear but it is vitally important to have people you know who will speak what you need to, not just what you want to, hear. This is another foundational piece of having mutual trust and respect with those around you.

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