E022: How To Network To Accelerate Your Success with Sam Tidswell-Norrish

20:40 is an “opportunity community” for rising decision-makers across all environments to build success, through authentically connecting with and harnessing the talent of others around you. 

How do you develop the type of network, that tribe of like-minded people going through the same challenges, which will accelerate your business or career, whilst contributing to others’ success too? 

We find out in this fascinating episode with 20:40 Founder Sam Tidswell-Norrish.

Before creating 20:40, Sam held roles such as CMO, Vice President & Group Chief of Staff prior to becoming a Managing Director at Motive Partners, and Investment Tech Firm.

Even at a relatively young age, Sam has managed to cultivate the most incredible network of relationships, from royalty and CEOs to sports stars and industry leaders. Sam puts this ability down to connecting authentically and approaches every relationship with the question ‘what value can I add to them? He has some absolute gems of advice for others looking to do the same in order to create the life they want.

20:40 are also the new sponsor of the show, so it’s an incredible insight as to why they’re such a great fit for the Performance Hackers Podcast, finding authentic and efficient ways to build your version of success. 

They’ve helped me build the environment required for success in my own endeavours, and they may be just what you need too. 

Apply HERE

Join 20:40 on LinkedIn HERE

And for more high-performance tools & insights, join me over on Instagram HERE

Transcript

Sam T-N  0:03  
I had to embrace it that way. Otherwise, I just constantly had this feeling of anxiety that I was gonna get a question with an acronym I didn't. And when I approached it like that, all of a sudden, I didn't feel like I was faking it. I didn't feel like an impostor. I was the first person to have a hand up and go, I am an impostor. And we're all gonna do a great job at this. So let's go. If you understand what, what's important to people, what their love language is what drives them, and you make it your mission to try and help them achieve that. You can't go wrong, and it comes over that that's applicable across the board. Okay, so we're about to have an exclusive an exclusive moment for Scott Radford on performance hackers. No one knows this at the moment, other than the team at 2014.

Unknown Speaker  0:57  
Guys, welcome. I'm Scott Radford. This is a performance hackers podcast. And today's a really exciting episode for me to share with you because we speak to the founder of the 2040 Society who have become our new sponsorship partners here at performance hackers, Sam Tidwell, Norris. And I thought before I just wax lyrical about how incredible 2040 are and the impact that it's had on my life and the trajectory of my business and my network. I thought I might as well just take the shortcut and get the founder on to speak about it. Now, before Sam built out 2040, he held some pretty lofty positions, including cmo vice president, Group Chief of Staff before becoming a managing director at his current role at motive partners. Alongside build in 2040. It's fair to say he's one of the most high performing but also well connected people I've ever met. I mean, the guy's phone book is a little bit like celebrity bingo, it's ridiculous. But how on earth did Sam build connections such as royalty sportstar, CEOs that have all helped contribute to 2040 and everything that he's managed to achieve? And how can we stop making excuses that others are more successful because of who they know? And actually start taking back a little bit more power and build the genuine powerful connections ourselves that are required to accelerate the success and fulfilment in our own endeavours? Well, this episode is absolutely full of nuggets and insights from Sam, I knew it was going to be great. And I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it. So without further ado, founder of the 2040 Sam tittle Nice.

Unknown Speaker  2:31  
Sam, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here, man.

Sam T-N  2:34  
Thank you for having me. I feel like we've we've just done a little pre brief chat. And we may have peaked too early. Hopefully, we've got something in the barrel for this

Unknown Speaker  2:44  
old habits die hard. And I always like to brief before stepping into the, into the pit like this. So, ya know, really appreciate having you on. First of all, how would you describe what it is that you do?

Sam T-N  2:53  
Well, there's, there's a day job, which is more than a day job, which is in the investment management world, at a company that I was privileged to be the founding founding team member of called motive partners. We're a private equity firm, focused on financial technology. And then the the passion side of things. Well, that is a passion. But the other side is 2040, which is a community of the next generation of leaders that I'm a co founder of, and the chair of. And I would summarise it, all of that stuff. Super simplistically, which is I love building relationships that are mutually beneficial, and not just my own, but communities of people. And I hope, still, I think quite young. I hope as I get older, that that becomes something I can try and become famous for building communities.

Unknown Speaker  3:48  
Yeah, I think we're gonna definitely delve into that, because it's definitely one of your superpowers, from my experience of knowing you over the last couple of years. taking you back to prior to 2040. What is your backstory? How did you build your career? And how did that lead in to 2014?

Sam T-N  4:04  
Well, I like to think I'm still at the very early chapters of my career. And I've just been really lucky actually. Some people say you you make your own life but and it's always been thanks to people I've met along the way. I started in banking, didn't love it wasn't made for that. And and then went into a slightly more entrepreneurial environment in financial technology and had the chance to meet some people that we started a business with, which has also had some success along the way. But I think it all comes down to mindset and generating as much goodwill as possible and always trying to do the right thing with the right people. business life, everything comes down to one consistent thing, which is people.

Unknown Speaker  4:50  
Where did you learn that from? Because it seems like quite a sort of self aware and emotionally intelligent thing to say, but a lot of people sort of grasp that when they get into their first Go up and try and figure out their way up the greasy pole, so to speak. But you were sort of making these decisions a lot earlier on than that, right?

Sam T-N  5:07  
It's, it's funny, you learn that I think when you don't actually have a real talent, I'm not particularly good at anything. And I've, you know, as a kid, you, you're self conscious about that. And you're worried like, why am I not super academic? Or why am I not really good at sport? Or what, what is my passion? And quite quickly, I think, as a generalist, you learn that actually, you can have a passion and other and other people and get to know them and therefore sometimes benefit from other people's talents by bringing them into a mutually beneficial ecosystem. So I think it was a sounds kind of weird saying it, but I think it was driven from not being particularly talented in any individual area, and wanting to learn from other people's talents.

Unknown Speaker  5:58  
Were you aware of that other time? Or were you just trying to sort of survive in a competitive environment?

Sam T-N  6:03  
No, I was hyper aware. I mean, everyone around me was super talented. Was not and I was, I was the fat dorky kid in the corner. So yeah, no, I, I've always been aware of that. I love being a generalist as well, I, you know, it's somebody who I've got a book somewhere around here, called range. And being a generalist, I think sometimes frowned upon, but but I actually, it's, it's my greatest skill is not being particularly deep on anything. But being across a few things.

Unknown Speaker  6:33  
And looking at a lot of people that listen to this podcast, and they're ambitious, they're striving for these sorts of leadership roles. You've previously been a CMO of Vice President, a group Chief of Staff, and now a managing director at motive partners. That's a lot of heavy leadership roles at such an early young age. But if we were to ask one of your bosses, one of your old bosses from one of those positions, why it was that they gave this sort of young guy coming up with no real specific skills, such a position of leadership or responsibility, what what do you think they would say,

Sam T-N  7:07  
and so glad we haven't got one of those moments where an old boss appears and discounts everything I've said, I had Dun and Bradstreet, I was the Chief Marketing Officer, I was probably under qualified for the job. But a chap colleague of mine, one of the cofounders, of motor partners, called Steven dhafra, on who is the most extraordinary man, I have so much respect for him. He's been a real mentor figure for me, gave me a chance. If you asked him, he would say it was because I operate well, when my hair's on fire. I'm running around doing lots of things. And that was kind of the task for the job, we had to do a transformation as quickly as possible. That doesn't Bradstreet. And that's, I think that's probably a fair reflection. Across the board. It's I like being under pressure. I enjoy it. I like spinning lots of plates. And we'll talk I think, today, we'll talk a little bit about some of those principles. But I'm someone who's always on, I'm not very good at relaxing. And in a fast paced environment that can be a real asset. It's terrible when you're on holiday with your wife, and she wants to chill by the beach. For her Anthony. There's it's a gift and a curse

Unknown Speaker  8:25  
going about that. How do you know that about yourself? What was the first experience you had, that you knew that you were good at operating under pressure, because I think this is a really, really key point. A lot of people fail to transition in my experience when I speak to people from having the knowledge about something to just truly knowing it. And I think that when you're in a position where you have to perform, and you perform well, you learn so much more about yourself, don't you about truly knowing that when shit hits the fan, you've got it. And I know that I only learned this when I started flying. And I got exposed to some really big emergencies quite early on in my career. That was the first time that I thought, yeah, I've done all of the Sims. And I've done all of the training. And I'm as qualified as anyone else and I'm flying on the frontline. But until you have one of those big emergencies, you just don't know how you're going to perform and how you're going to react. But knowing that afterwards gives you so much confidence to sort almost sit in, you're setting yourself setting your own self worth in that environment. I'm just wondering, what was that moment for you?

Sam T-N  9:27  
I think confidence is a massive thing. I was at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting last week and I was talking with a lady called Zahra whose extraordinary she's the UK CEO of Salesforce. And we're talking about the importance of confidence going into a role because at the end of the day, we're all making life up as we go along. No one's done it before. And one had this this moment in a Dun and Bradstreet in fact, where I've been appointed as to lead the marketing activities in the The organisation and I must be my second day, I had a town hall that was sort of pre organised before I came and did the town hall with all these people all around the world and in the marketing teams. And I introduced myself and explained how excited I was. And I did a q&a and the first question, this lady actually remember her name, but I spared the blushes said, what are we going to do with our ABM campaigns in the UK, and I panicked, it was on Zoom, and I totally freaked out. I wanted that as an ABM campaign. This is the sort of basic stuff that someone like me should know, in this position. And I said to her, I'm so sorry, what's an ABM campaign? And she said, she looked at me like I had foreheads and she said, Account Based Marketing. You know, like, like, Thai career trajectory, just plummeted at the appointment of this idiot. And I said, Thank you. What is CMOS? She said, chief marketing officer, and I said, No, I'm afraid you guys are the marketers. It's chief momentum officer. All I can bring to the table is some discipline, some pace, momentum, optimism, and hopefully to create an environment to let you guys thrive. But you guys are the marketers. And you're going to have to teach me every step of the way. And I had to embrace it that way. Otherwise, I just constantly would have this feeling of anxiety that I was gonna get a question with an acronym I didn't understand. And when I approached it like that, all of a sudden, I didn't feel like I was faking it. I didn't feel like an imposter. I was the first person to put my hand up and go, I am an impostor. And we're all gonna do a great job at this. So let's, let's go,

Unknown Speaker  11:46  
I sometimes think that you have to be able to build credibility first, before you can have that confidence before you can actually sit in that confidence. So you must have known at the time that you were in a very good position, and you were actually capable credible at your job, right?

Sam T-N  11:59  
No, no, I really didn't. I knew I knew I'd make it work. And I apply the same rationale to everything, which is, it's all about relationships and people and understanding what people want and what drives them. And then trying to help them achieve that. And it doesn't matter if you're thinking about that in the context of your wife, or husband or friend or colleague, or potential business acquaintance. If you understand what, what's important to people, what their love language is what drives them. And you make it your mission to try and help them achieve that. You can't go wrong. And it comes out that that's applicable across the board.

Unknown Speaker  12:43  
You're obviously extremely self aware, you've been asking yourself some pretty deep questions. It sounds like from quite an early age, do you think that that awareness was key to spotting the opportunities that aligned with you along the way?

Sam T-N  12:55  
Therapists as we do questions? I try not to I try not to go to the yeah, in a way. Yes, to some extent, maybe. But I just feel like I've been pretty fortunate, I met a guy called Rob Haber. In September, we're actually early on in 2015, through cell process in a previous company. And it's right, Rob's our true founder of motor partners. And it was him that kind of brought me on the journey. That was fortunate that that was written in the stars and had nothing to do with it. And I feel very lucky for it, I think the key is taking that fortune and actually making something of it and investing everything you've got to capitalise on it and to not throw it throw it to waste. And I try and give 110% to everything I've got, because I do feel very fortunate. And not everyone is that fortunate. And it's also part of the reason why I started 2040 Not everyone has the benefit of a good network. Not everyone has the benefit of learning and development opportunities. And I wanted to try with my colleagues and co founders create an environment to level the playing field, the convening power so that everyone could have that, that luxury, which is what we're doing is how I met you. And I consider that one of the greatest privileges in life, you and 2040 and all the people we get to meet

Unknown Speaker  14:22  
Absolutely, and 2040 that I think realistically without sort of blowing smoke up your ass 2040 was definitely the thing that changed the trajectory of how I went about what I was trying to build. At the beginning. I was always trying to find clarity of what I wanted to do and build, like my purpose almost. But I completely forgot that. There's so many people out there that are very, very like minded, but they're on very different paths, but going through the same journey. And that's such a powerful thing that I learned when joining 2040 that there's a network of other people out there that can expand what you think it is. It's possible. So thank you very much for setting up. I'd love to get your input on too. What your vision what your initial vision was at the beginning in creating 2040?

Sam T-N  15:04  
Firstly, thank you for that on record testimonial 2014 marketing team are cutting it up as we speak. And you'll see you'll see it everywhere. So that the original premise of 2014 is exactly what you've just said. Okay, so we would go to Davos and the World Economic Forum's meeting or other areas like it, and see people in their 60s and 70s, coming together to create magic, but at the end of their career, and I thought, could you imagine getting these people together early on in their career and their 20s and 30s. And compounding that trust and collaboration and passion, from an early age, without without trust, I mean, anything can happen. So much magic can be created. I don't want to sit there and have ridiculous KPIs and expectations, I just want to put amazing people in a room, which is what we 2040, myself and the team do every day, we're convening force. And the whole value proposition of 2040 is really there. To facilitate more engagement, we have a partnership with we work, not because we're deeply concerned that people don't have an office to work in. But because it gives people a physical space to spend time together, all of our events bring people together. But the magic happens between the members. And in that respect. And members really are kind of the product. So we've got to have super high quality people. And then there was a incredibly selfish motivation for starting 2014, which was, I wanted to make sure that in 10 years time, in 20 years time, I have the best network going the best and the best in the world. And I want to make sure that everyone who is a part of 2014, for my colleagues and co founders and team members, to the members of 2014 have that same opportunity to have an incredible network. And it's yes, career strategies go, it's making me sound a little bit like the world's greatest planner. I'm not. It's all it's all by mistake. But laying the foundations now is going to pay dividends in a decade or twos time. I think.

Unknown Speaker  17:15  
With that in mind, because you're obviously bringing in a tonne of energy to this project, you've got this massive vision, that with your network, you can start to make happen. Before we go into how you start to do that. Were there some big challenges that you faced sort of really early doors that almost made you want to quit and burn it off,

Sam T-N  17:33  
we've had lots of challenges. It's 2014, we're close to being breakeven at the moment. But funding is one of them is a nonprofit, we been self funded. We as as co founders, we we financed the whole thing ourselves, we have 12 people on a payroll, which is a lot of people a big responsibility. So so that that part's been pretty daunting, you know, one day, your salary comes in from one company and it goes out the door. The other side, it's been like that for two years, the fear I've had is that this thing doesn't progress at pace. So it ends up being something that is just very expensive. The ambition now is for scale. So what you'll see over the coming weeks and months is us creating a product that we can truly scale so that we don't just have 300 members in the UK. But we have 1000s of members around the world. And in turn, we won't just scale and be able to build a balance sheet so we can invest more in the product will create a richer proposition because when Scott, as a long haul pilot ends up landing in Sydney, or Singapore, or South Africa, you're going to have an incredible group of people to meet with. And nothing is going to give me more pleasure than tuning in to the next episode of Performance hackers and hearing Scott Radford in interviewing the most extraordinary entrepreneur or sports person in emerging market around the world.

Unknown Speaker  19:07  
I'm looking forward to those free beers around the world as well to be fair,

Sam T-N  19:11  
quite right. Yeah, exactly. I'm looking forward to my free flights as well.

Unknown Speaker  19:16  
Absolutely. We did say it was a partnership, didn't we? So who is 2040 for that, like who listening to this should be starting to Google 2040 And look at applications and look at getting involved? Who is the ideal person for 2040 that you're looking to help?

Sam T-N  19:32  
Okay, so we're about to have an exclusive an exclusive moment for Scott Radford on performance hackers. No one knows this at the moment, other than the team at 2040. But we're about to be rebranded. And we're having a slight strategy tweak at the moment we consider ourselves for the next generation of business leader. It's pretty broad. We're actually going to be honing that in and to Bing for raising decision makers. So that's people who are currently in a decision making role between the ages of 20 to 40, in whatever environment they're in, Scott Radford flying an aeroplane decision maker, just Butler, number one, England batsmen decision maker, entrepreneur running a CBD company, or an electric vehicle company, or a chief of staff or a clo decision makers. For those that aren't in a decision making role, it's aspirational, once they get into decision making role apply. But that's, that's what it's for. And what should people expect from it, people should expect to come and help unlock their untapped potential through the power of their peers through each other. And I believe that peer to peer learning is, in fact, potentially the most potent of all, and it's, I think it's the next vector of development to, for people to really unpack and explore. And if you Google, an extraordinary academic called Richard, where case, he talks about it, he's a professor. And he talks about peer to peer learning as being the next unexplored uncharted territory for corporations in education as well.

Unknown Speaker  21:25  
It's certainly sort of a rocket up my vision of what I was trying to build at the time. So it is absolutely incredible in that respect, but I also think that those people that are sort of in mid middle management roles that feel like, I'm not really a key decision maker, but are looking to transition out and to start something different, or even just to start thinking outside the box on how they build a vision of success for themselves. It also is such a powerful environment for them to be in at the earliest possible stage as well.

Sam T-N  21:53  
Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, being being a decision maker is it's a gift and a curse, it comes with a lot of responsibilities and leadership, it can be really lonely. You know, it's it can be isolating, being the CEO of a business with a chair, so where the buck stops with you, and knowing that you're going to have this community of similar people, unlike minded individuals who are there to support, it's going to be very powerful. You know, Scott, you and I are in a collective together, where we with other 2040 members, where we meet on a Thursday morning, virtually, and hearing each other talk and lend support, and counselling each other just as pairs as friends. It's so powerful, I leave those calls in the morning, and I'm like, jazz, I'm ready to go. I'm like bursting with energy, knowing that I'm not doing it on my own. And all these people are here to chat, chat through things. And you do a superb job of sharing this.

Unknown Speaker  22:55  
Absolutely. I think the biggest thing for me, as well as like, I'm an entertainer archetype, in a way. So I'm a bit like you, I get energy from people from actual proper relationships. And so when I started to move outside of just flying planes, because that's quite a brutal environment, where you're working with different people every single time you go to work, so you're not able to build these really deep relationships. And I kind of suffered from the fact that how I was built was to build really strong, lasting, meaningful relationships coming into 2040. And being in an environment where you have people now that are all going, like I said before, very different paths, for instance, but all very similar journeys. There's always somebody that can chip in and give you a perspective, having gone through it themselves, which is very incredibly powerful.

Sam T-N  23:43  
I've got a question for you, Scott. Actually, on that topic, I've often wondered it How often do you fly with the same pilot?

Unknown Speaker  23:49  
Almost never. I mean, there's probably 10 captains, I'd say that I've flown with more than once one in the lot in the last three years of long haul flight.

Sam T-N  24:00  
Do you think that's a breakdown in management within airlines? Do you think it would be impactful having that camaraderie and to have collegial opportunity to build relationships with a fellow pilot?

Unknown Speaker  24:15  
Yeah, it's an interesting one, isn't it because when you have built a relationship with someone in any world, I think that you can almost skip some of the guessing games and some of the game playing that you have at the beginning on how they operate, how you then have to mould how you do things to operate in an environment that works for them. And that does take up a little bit of capacity. But also, on the other side of that, when you go to work you're very, very standardised in how you operate. And I think that means that you're there not just guessing or assuming. And so it is quite a powerful environment in terms of the fact that if if I do things very, very standard, then there's no real guest game anyway. So yeah, So you don't really have in a big emergency situation, how is this person going to react? I have no idea. Like, I only know that in emergency situations that I've been in, I know how I react. But you just have to basically place faith in the fact that you're, you have the same qualifications, you've been trained and exposed to such a high level that you kind of just have to have that trust. Right?

Sam T-N  25:23  
Yeah. Wow. It's, it's an extraordinary concept got to work with different people every day. But I guess there's, there's, there's some beauty in that as well. No one really knows what Scott's like, if they don't like you doesn't matter.

Unknown Speaker  25:36  
Exactly. freshstart. Next time, it's excellent. Speaking about that connection, I know one of your pillars at 2040 is connection and being able to build that meaningful network. And I said before about like minded people being brought together on different paths, but very similar journeys are for that a couple of times now. And being able to network, and also being able to build that tribe of supporters and friends around themselves, like we were talking about before. What's your take on the importance of the connection at the earliest possible stage?

Sam T-N  26:08  
Connection is a big one. I have four principles that I think about a lot, personal ones, and we will talk about that later. The first one is connection. And it does, it always comes back the same thing, what's important to someone? What is important to Scott, what's it, what drives and we'll get some out of bed? What is a good podcast look like? And I think it plays plays a critical role in everything. I think about when we started 2014, we had a team of volunteers, people who weren't being paid to build a business pretty, pretty hard to motivate people like that. With that kind of business model, you're asking for a lot. And connection was the most important thing it was sitting down and going right? Today, we can't pay you. But the intent is here, they have to feel that authenticity. And also asking the question, why do you want to do this? Well, what can I give you, that can be useful to you in lieu of a salary. And that's that, I mean, that's how we built this business. And actually, it's how you build any business. You think about brand building, it all comes back to authenticity and trust. And connectivity is predicated on that. The other enormously important part of it is communication. All too often you hear people talk about you read their CV, and I've seen a CV that doesn't say, I'm a great communicator. We're born with two ears and one mouth for a reason. It's all about listening and absorbing and thinking about what's important to someone. Versus talking, which is what I'm not doing to you.

Unknown Speaker  27:57  
And I'm trying just to listen and not interrupt, going back to that connection point. I know that a lot of people might say, okay, having those connections building that network, that's almost a privilege that some people have, you know, they have a good network, they have good connections that they can reach out to, but how does someone that doesn't have that get themselves in an environment where they can start to build those meaningful work? How do you authentically go about connecting?

Sam T-N  28:21  
Yeah, it's a great question. I think not many people in life are born with a good network, I mean, that that's a rare provision, a lot of time those that are squander it or take it for granted. And I think unless you went to a very well to do school or education system, it's it's rare. Building a network. Again, it comes from consistency and always being always being authentic, but it takes huge energy. If you think about WhatsApp, your whatsapp, I'm sure is out of control. When was the last time your whatsapp was at zero messages? It's really hard nurturing relationships, it takes a huge amount of energy, there's no space for laziness. Good communication is time consuming. And it requires you to think 360 All the time. With networks, it's exactly the same. You've got to think about what you want your network to look like. If you're if you're doing a building project, you think about what you want your house to look like. And I think you need to do the same with your network before you invest the time. What area do you want to build it in? What is the purpose of your network, but equally kind of counterintuitive to that is don't build relationships trying to extract value. The thing that I've tried to do to varying degrees of success is build networks where you just you just focused on giving knowing that if you are a giver, at some point If you do need to take to borrow and Adam Grant phrase, who I met last week, who's an incredible person, it's it's not such a transactional thing. But give give, give, give, give and build that goodwill all the time, I think gives you that optionality and also creates really strong trusting relationships.