Interview with Angie Collier, VP at Dupont Circle Solutions

Learn the concept of a "business development date," from Angie Collier, a true partner in business development.

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Guest - Angie Collier
Host - Carl Grant
Producer - Seth Grant

Transcript

Carl Grant: 0:01

Welcome to rainmakers. I'm here with Angie Collier, Vice President at DuPont Circle solutions. Welcome, Angie.

Angie Collier: 0:21

Hi, Carl. Thanks for having me.

Carl Grant: 0:23

So Angie and I met about eight years ago when she was Angie Jusino. And she was a sales salesperson. Right. You were coming out of a sales role at what was the name of that was it was? Yeah, you were director of sales, selling to small business. And then you had taken on a business development role at Aronson, an accounting firm. And I think I was introduced to you almost on day one was my

Angie Collier: 0:50

very true I actually think it was my first day at Aronson and I went to an event that evening and had the pleasure of meeting you.

Carl Grant: 0:57

And so a partner from Aronson introduces me to you. And, and so an interesting dynamic here like you, you did not have any contacts in our space yet, right? Zero, right. And so, but I saw you and I said, this person has potential she is bubbly, is that a good adjective? Lovely.

Unknown: 1:18

I hear that a lot. Yep.

Carl Grant: 1:21

But that you talk so fast, I, my brain doesn't process Angie, I have to say slow down. And she I can't comprehend what you're saying. Because you have so much to say so fast. So he and I have become good friends if you can't tell. And we've done a lot together over the past eight years. And so I saw this, this vivacious bubbly personality. You're 18 years younger than me, we figured that out when we talked yesterday. And and You're a lot cuter than I am. For sure. And so I and I said, you know, she's going to be good at this, like she's going to be good at this people are going to be drawn to her. She just has that personality that look that that that draw, I'm going to invest some time in this person, because because she's gonna be really good at this, and then she's gonna be able to help me one day. I didn't know you're gonna become my friend. But, but I introduced you to a whole boatload of people that night. Do you remember that?

Angie Collier: 2:17

I do. I absolutely do. Because I was my first night and the Aronson partners took me to I think it was actually like an industry bank holiday party early. And everyone knew each other. And I didn't know anyone. I didn't even really know the people I went with. And they introduced me to you. You took me around and introduced me to everyone. And then you I think we even sat down at a table and you kind of just ran me through kind of the industry really quickly and how you spend your time and I and I was immediately like, wow, this guy's this guy's awesome. really willing to spend time with me and help me. And quite honestly, like, we all know, when you started a new job, you don't really know what you're getting into. And I had yet to figure out exactly what my role was going to be. I knew that I was going to be helping us grow in a certain market in the tech space. But you know, other than that, I was I was a total newbie. So I definitely remember that evening, because it was very helpful.

Carl Grant: 3:09

Yeah, I remember too, because I knew you were going to be good. And and so it blossomed into a great friendship. We've done so much together over the years, we've served on the board of a nonprofit organization, we've referred business we've so So Angie, I, we talked about this yesterday, we're going to introduce a whole new concept in business development, right. And this is going to be foreign to a lot of people. And we never, we never really called it this. But this is the this is the concept of the business development date. Right? I don't get the wrong impression people who are listening, this is not like a real date. This is this is purely business, right? Like, and she's married, I'm married. I'm friends with her husband, she's friends with my wife and our spouses actually do do things together business wise have, and so and so. But Angie, and I have strategically worked many events together. And, and so Angie, I want you to talk about how some of those have played out and how they've benefited you. And I know that they've benefited me, but I want to I want to hear from you.

Angie Collier: 4:10

Yeah. So Carl brought this concept. We were talking yesterday and I laughed because it's spot on. And I think of us as like kind of wing men for each other. But in business development, it's all about relationships and helping people and who you know, and one of the things that Carl does really well is he connects people. I think everybody would agree with that. And over the last eight years, Carl and I have hosted, sponsored, attended many different events together and kind of as this payoff duo together. And it's been extremely valuable because because of his tenure in in this space versus mine and age and all of the other things we just have totally different networks. And kind of a pairing up allows us to introduce each other to other people we didn't know and kind of attract new crowds that You've probably wondered on your on your own. Plus, it just adds this element of kind of having fun like going to a work event after you've been in the office all day. doesn't suck as much because you've got a friend there with you who you can chat with. Or like, if you're not meeting other people go back and circle up with or just get introduced. We've done some really fun things. One of the first events Carl and I hosted together was on Carl's boat, which was a really fun happy hour with maybe like 15 like tech executives and people in the tech space. It it was it was really well done. fun afternoon out on I think the Potomac if I remember correctly, we had perfect weather.

Carl Grant: 5:41

Yeah, so I could get a boat and I could get beer, but I couldn't do I couldn't do the rest. And so, you know, don't want to sound sexist here, but I said, I really need a business development woman who knows how to do food. And Angie, you played that role perfectly like you. Like I brought the drinks and you brought I don't know what you brought, but it looked good. I would have brought chips,

Angie Collier: 6:02

right? So that wasn't gonna fly chips. Chips wasn't gonna cut it. But yeah, I like I love planning events, even in like my personal life. I'm just a planner. So it was it was a really good collaboration and, and then we were both able to invite people that we thought would enjoy each other, which I think is like, you know, bizdev part of it but everyone and everyone had a good time. And I'll tell you some of those people who were on the boat for like my, you know, my tenure there. And still in this space. We remember each other from the boat, the boat party on the boat event.

Carl Grant: 6:32

Let's talk about the range of activities. So another one that's very memorable in my mind is is South by Southwest we spent like several days together in Austin, Texas.

Angie Collier: 6:43

And that's more than once because we've done South by Think twice together now. But yeah, you know traveling across the country to go to this really fun conference. That's that's work work focused for us. And there are a lot of

Carl Grant: 6:56

work focus to you with your giant Margarita. Come on now. It was it was fun to write. It's

Angie Collier: 7:02

called networking. Yeah.

Carl Grant: 7:04

I always love and you would put post these pictures you did hashtag working and you had a giant Margarita.

Angie Collier: 7:11

And Carl's downplaying the size of the margarita. So I appreciate that Carl giants kind of another statement for this week, had to do with like their signature thing. But yeah, we travel across the country. And there's so much going on itself by it can almost be paralyzing. If you don't know where to spend your time where to go. There's just 1000s and 1000s of people and events going on all day, every day. So Carl and I both went out there twice, and were able to attend so many fun events together. And actually, we actually went to events that some of our competitors would be hosting at the time and kind of be like, Oh, he's my plus one, or I'm his plus one to get into. Maybe that's a secret we shouldn't be sharing. But it was

Carl Grant: 7:53

fun. But it helps but it helps he like when when you're when you're having that conversation with somebody at an event. And then the conversation ends and then you're all by yourself and you're feeling awkward because you have nobody to talk to, you always got your your plus one to go back to talk to you. So I've always got Angie to come back to alright Angie, who we're going to talk to you next. Right? So it worked. I mean, it worked great, because if I don't have anyone to talk to, and I'm standing there, and I'm looking around, and eventually, I feel insecure and I want to leave, right. I mean, I don't know if you know, my

Angie Collier: 8:24

totally, you're also kind of like, Alright, I think I've maxed out my, my time here I'm gonna go. And especially at a place like South by there's a ton more people to meet. So you kind of give each other like a boost, or I'll be like, Alright, let's go talk to these people. They look interesting. And I actually remember we did that at one of the barbecue places. I remember we met some people from Chicago just by going up and talking, you know, sharing a bar table with them. And just chit chatting because there were two of us it was easier to easier to introduce ourselves.

Carl Grant: 8:51

Absolutely. It's so much easier to work in an event when you're not by yourself. And you have a friendly person that you know, like you and I knew each other, and we could joke around with each other and we could play off of each other. And it just made it it makes it so much more pleasant, right? Because so many so many of these events are drudgery, right? It's like a pain to go to these event. Well South by is not not drudgery. But but if you're all by yourself, it could be because because you're you know, you're alone in a crowd. But if you're there with a friend, and you're gonna attract people different than I'm going to attract just because we're different genders or different ages where we have different personalities, and it just works really well. And so I think the secret sauce of this whole interview that we're doing is really developing a friendship like this and being able to work together. And then we did a CEO, we've done several of these, but it's I remember the CEO launch that we did, right where you invited people I invited people, our firms co hosted it together. Not everybody who's listening is going to know these things intuitively. So let's talk about you plan that thing. I just invited people so let's talk about how that went.

Angie Collier: 9:57

So we did a series At least I think we did maybe three over like two years where we just invited leaders and CEOs of like local tech companies to have a nice lunch with us. And I remember from the beginning, we were like, well, how do we get people to go? So so we both tapped into kind of our networks that people like these executives that we already have relationships with. And then you just plan a nice event where people want to go right to be picked a good restaurant that might people would happily leave their office for. I leave a really clear on our agenda, which was, we have no agenda, we just want you to meet each other and have a good lunch, like, we're not going to do a long presentation, we're just going to feed you. And we want you to meet other like minded people who are leading businesses in this community as well. And I remember, I was really excited the first one because we didn't actually have to send like, round two of invites out everyone was excited to come. And I think it was back to this whole relationship building. Most of the people who were invited and attended already knew Carl or myself or firm's really well. So it's not like a cold call email inviting them to a nice lunch. It's kind of a friend or someone you've networked with coming together and the value for Carl and I was tremendous. We got to meet each other's networks. And then this goes back to helping our executives got to have conversations with other executives who had similar challenges and like phases they were working through in their business. So for them, it was like invaluable hour where they got to go and sit there and talk to another executive about raising money or like, developing their product, whatever it might be. Hey, and for us, it was as simple as kind of planning a really nice lunch. And based on the feedback, we did it again. And then I think we did it again. And look, we've done some events in the past that we don't repeat. But if you do something and people like it, especially if it's kind of easy to do, just do it again. So that was a really interesting series that we did. I liked it.

Carl Grant: 11:50

Absolutely. So. So I don't think either of us were looking for this type of, of relationship. When we found each other it we just kind of happened upon each other. But now in hindsight, we've been, you know, collaborating for, you know, a long time. What advice would you have for somebody who, who might be listening and say, I need a wing man, I need somebody, you know, what would you what would you say to look for? And what what are some of the pitfalls out there that they might run into?

Angie Collier: 12:18

Yeah, that's a great question. So Carl's right was like, I didn't even know what I was looking for I was I was new in the world. I think it comes down to a simple philosophy that people like working and doing business with people they like, with Carl and I, it was never forced, like I met Carl Carl met me randomly at an event and we kind of instantly became friends. And we have a friendship outside of work stuff now. And it's really because we just enjoyed each other's company and good conversation. And I think that when people think work, they're like, immediately of like, who's going to benefit me the most. And look, Carl met me I had, I had no network, and I immediately probably couldn't benefit him the most. But he knew there was potential. And we also kind of made this friendship. So I think for people out there looking, I would really encourage you to kind of go with your gut of like, Who do you like spending time with, it's not always instantly like who has the biggest Rolodex, or who can do what for me today, I think you have to open your eyes a little bit more to it. And for me, I didn't even know I needed a wing man, because like I had done nothing yet. And then as soon as you start going to these events, anyone in business development, like you're out a lot in a pre COVID world, you're you were out at events almost every night, every few nights. And if you can't find a way to somewhat enjoy them, you will probably stop going therefore you will probably be less effective at your job over time, because you do need a physical presence. So I think just like you got to find what invigorates you and and realize that having that that duo is a huge plus. And that person may not again, they may not fit this picture of who you think your wing your wing man might be. But it's really helpful to have that network and then to build those personal relationships because I think we all know that work blends into home home blends into work. So it's just it's just nice to actually take relationship building to the next level as a business development professional. Right. Not just connecting executives. It's like building your network. Yeah. And

Carl Grant: 14:16

then on the flip side, if you're somebody who's been doing this a long time and young a young person like Angie comes along, give this some thought. Right You know, because while she didn't have anything, you know, to benefit me at the time. I can tell you over the past eight years, she has she has benefited me immensely like I have actually had a richer experience. But yeah, business has come out of it but I've enjoyed what i've what I've done. And in in my life has been better knowing Angie Collier because because I took some time and I sewed into her career and as she's sewn back in and a true friendship has developed and and I've seen her get married and have kids and And your husband has gotten to know my wife and she's come out to speak at events with him. And it's just like a full circle. So it's been. It's been a really rich experience. And Angie, I'm better off for knowing you. And thank you for being here, Carl.

Angie Collier: 15:11

Yeah, thank you for everything. And it's been, it has been a wild and fun eight years with like, lots to come in the future, you know, and since then to Carl's point, like our worlds have melded, I've actually started a new role elsewhere. We still have synergies and we still stay in touch. So it just shows that like the power of building a network is so important for your own personal professional development, not just the company you work for.

Carl Grant: 15:36

And like he thank you for joining. Yeah, we're still friends. We still his best weekend. So thanks for joining us on rainmakers.

Angie Collier: 15:44

Thanks for having me. Have a good day. You too.