Allyship: The Critical Building Block (Transmission #87)
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If you’re to succeed as a founder, advocates and supporters are not only desired, but required.
You need people to pull you through the rut, commiserate with you, and share war stories. You need people to help you fight off the depressing thought that what you’re attempting to do isn’t worth it.
I never would have gotten Horizon off the ground without the support of Eric Marcoullier and Seann Birkelund.
Success is easier with the help of someone pulling you up the ladder. From my vantage point, no one does it alone, though there are certainly increasing levels of difficulty to overcome.
For most, support starts with family. A domestic partner. The neighbor next door. Perhaps a manager or a colleague. A C-level executive if you’re lucky.
Where do you turn beyond that? How do you find those who will go to bat for you?
We need to do a better job of supporting each other within the Geek Estate Mastermind. Our mission, collectively, is to facilitate connections between the brightest and boldest people in the industry -- we need to champion for each other. Given the importance of being supported and supporting others, I am astounded that the topic doesn’t receive more airtime. That needs to change.
ALLYSHIP’S ROLE
On Tuesday, I attended Tech Inclusion Seattle Summit at Zillow Group HQ, curated by Change Catalyst. One topic that their CEO Melinda Briana Epler dove deep into was allyship (TEDx talk on the subject).
Melinda believes “allyship is understanding the imbalance of opportunity and using your privilege to change it.” Put another way, it’s politely, maybe not discreetly, putting your thumb on that scale to balance things out a little.
Sheree Atcheson, a Forbes contributor, defines allyship as “a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.” She goes on to argue that it is the key to unlocking diversity.
One example of allyship that Jessica Eggert, LegUp founder and panelist at the event, mentioned was Rand Fishkin, a well respected and connected entrepreneur here in Seattle. Upon hearing about her company’s work, he was a huge advocate and proceeded to introduce her to 30 investors.
When Terry Dwyer was a kid responsible for winning a huge technology contract, he went to a high up executive to support his all-or-nothing approach to win a contract. The executive had no reason to back him other than the desire to put his own thumb on the scale to give the kid a chance. The vendor backed down, Terry’s company won the contract, and software-based disk caching became an industry standard within a year.
While the term’s roots are in diversity, it is not dissimilar to mentorship and professional coaching. While minorities need allies more than most, everyone can benefit from unwavering support from an unlikely source.
MOVING THE NEEDLE FORWARD TOGETHER
In order to see true change on a grand scale, we all need to work together.
I think that’s one of the reasons the real estate industry is so slow to innovate. It’s very hard to get anyone to work together. Each of the larger MLS’s has a decently large umbrella, but they have their own set of parochial interests - individually and collectively - like getting as many members as possible to pay them dues.
No one has an incentive to get the entire industry to move forward. This acts as a barrier to innovation and progress.
Who is playing ally to others, in completely different corners of the landscape? Who is helping founders get to the table with the right stakeholders?
The answer: not enough individuals or companies.
GEEK ESTATE’S ROLE
At the core of the Geek Estate Mastermind is community. We are a support group for each other. Therapy for some. Motivation for others.
As such, we need to be allies for each other if we’re to succeed.
Paying it forward isn’t something to discount lightly. It is the cost of admission to being involved with this network of individuals.
Geek Estate Mastermind is comprised of members from all walks of life, and we will continue to make that a focus in terms of new member recruitment (❇️your help is welcome❇️). We have some of the most successful tech executives in the biz, with a unique opportunity to pull the next generation up through the ranks.
Ask yourself: “Who can I be an ally to?”
When you come across a founder or company whose idea resonates in some way, take the next step. Foster allyship.