TED Chief Program & Strategy Officer: Career Growth Secrets ‼️ GUEST!! Monique Ruff-Bell | Ep. 447

0:00Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast from marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. Do This Not That podcast, and we have an awesome guest, an awesome human being here. All right, who's here? Monique Ruff-Bell. She has a cool job. She is the chief program and strategy officer at TED. You know TED. TED's the thing where you watch the talks, you're like, oh my God, I'm going to change my life in the next 10 minutes. It's the most amazing thing on the planet, but Monique is amazing.

0:37She was just recently recognized by Biz Bash as one of the most influential leaders of the year. Okay, she just has this drive, this perspective about careers and the direction she's taking her own career. I can't wait to dig into it also. Monique, welcome to the show. Jay, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. All right, this is going to be fun. All right, before we get into what we're going to talk about, which is this idea of intentional career building, can you tell everybody how did Monique become Monique? What do you do? Like, what's your gig? Monique became Monique because of intentionality.

1:12So when we get into the full conversation, that'll be great. But I have been in the events conferences space for over 25 years now, working in every industry imaginable from association to media to nonprofits to for profits to trade shows to doing, you know, 15, 20 shows a year at, you know, Summit Business Media. And so I have a plethora of experience in various industries. And through that process, ended up at Money 2020 as the vice president of events, overseeing one of the largest fintech events in the USA, and then moving over to TED first as their head of conferences. and then I got promoted into the chief program and strategy role, which was created for me.

2:05So I'm the first to be in that particular position. But it was all about making sure I was seen as not only a keen operator, but a business strategist. You know, I think it's really interesting. We just talked about the fact that this position was created almost for you. and based on the fact of everything that you were doing and what they recognized in your abilities and all of it. And it almost speaks exactly to this idea of intentional career building. And you posted something that really resonated with me. That's how we wound up here, basically, which was that a few years ago, you made a deliberate choice that instead of specializing in one area, you were going to build a career out of these interconnected growth functions.

2:47And for everybody listening, a lot of people listening are like they're stuck in one lane. Right. So what does it mean? How can you be intentional about building your career? You have to take risks. And so people sometimes, you know, get really comfortable in one particular area and then they see their career as growing in that one particular area. And for me early on, I recognize that if I wanted to see myself as leading a business, I've seen leaders who never did the functions of those different areas to lead a business, and they always missed something or they didn't understand something or they didn't really look at the full picture of things.

3:28They were only coming from their very small purview of things. And I knew early on that I can be the best leader if I understood how everything worked. So I made choices that I was going to try something. And then even if I was good at it, I needed to move on to the next thing because I needed to build these certain skill sets that was going to make me an even stronger leader because I understood all of the parts that it took for, let's say, a conference to run at its optimal level. So yes, I might have started as a promotion manager and then I was doing meeting planning. So I was doing operations and then I moved over to marketing and then I moved over to content.

4:08I was making very specific choices to kind of, kind of start at the bottom a lot of times in these different functions so I can kind of learn and build those skill sets. And then it became a point where I was like, okay, I'm doing all of this. I need to now start getting into the leadership roles. And so what skill sets am I missing from that particular standpoint? And started making choices about the roles that I wanted to take. So maybe at first I was head of just content, and then I became head of the conference division and then I became head of the trade show and things like that so really being not taking anything that didn't fit into what I was trying to build for myself okay so now I'm curious about something I'm out there listening and I'm like the CRM manager and I've been doing this now for three years and I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel I'm just doing the same thing over and over again but I love what Monique's saying I feel inspired I want to do this is it a matter of you have to be intentional you raise your hand say hey I see there's this role in the company and you go to whoever you're reporting to, I want an opportunity.

5:11Do you wait for the opportunity to arise and you throw your hat in the ring? How do you kind of make sure that you're doing other stuff? I never waited. I never waited for something to arise for myself. But also, it's not just about asking for what you want. It is about listening and learning and having a curiosity to yourself to understand something. So before I said, I want to be the leader of this, what is it that leaders do? So a lot of it, it was more like, okay, I need to understand what is this function? How does my skill sets currently complement that function? Or how can I be seen as a helpmate to this team, even though they're not under me, but I'm going to get to learn a lot more about that.

6:00So one of the things with sponsorship was I remember always working with the sales team and them like making up their own packages. And I'm like, they don't, and I'm in this role and I know what works and what doesn't, what we can and can't deliver and things like that. And sometimes those conversations weren't happening between the people who are executing and the people who are selling. And so I was like, I need to become closer to the sales team. I need to be seen as someone that can help them create the packages that are gonna get the things over the line that's going to bring in the money.

6:32And so I started asking, can I join your sales calls on a monthly basis? Can we talk through kind of what your targets? I can help with what we can provide for you to make these packages even more stellar and more complimentary. Can I join some of these sales calls to hear what the client's needs are? So then I can help you come up with something. And if you're going to help somebody make money, most times they're going to say yes. And so they would gladly let me kind of come in and participate. And then they would see that I am, I had no ulterior motives other than to be helpful to them because helping them helped me and helped my team deliver things.

7:13things and so I wanted to make sure that I was always seen as that and then I became more embedded in it and then they wanted to include me in things and then I was participating and then I eventually started leading sales teams, right? So it's just like everything kind of started with a curious mind and everything started with not just extracting but helping and seeing how I can be a helper to that and then I would ask for the opportunities after I had those relationships, after they seen that I was helpful after they understood what my contributions and values were. It wasn't just automatically, hey, throw my hat in the ring for this.

7:50I had to build up to that. I think that what you're talking about is so simple and yet powerful. I almost feel guilty. I put out these memes sometimes about sales and marketing not getting along. And here you are saying, here's the secret to success for all the marketing people out there that are listening. lean in to what your sales team is doing participate with them in a really constructive way not hey these leads stink no they're great and argue about nonsense and that is a path to really to growth is that right that is exactly it was a path for growth for me and even in other areas like you know i started as an operations person but i love to read like i have a lot of books and things like that and so i wanted to get more into content and so i took you know i was at a role.

8:37And then I was like, you know, they needed help with content. They lost the content person or whatever. And I was like, you know, give me the chance to help program this session or like, let me showcase what I could. So I never always just went, give me this. I always showcase my value first. And then when, when they noticed like, okay, this person really does know what they're doing, then they would kind of bring me into the mix more. And then that was growing my skill sets in different areas. Also, you know, I am the biggest advocate for mentorship and sponsorship. I would build relationships with the right people who would open doors for me, who would give me access because I was intentional about building those relationships.

9:18And I built those relationships by being helpful, not just saying, can you be my mentor? Can you be my sponsor? But how can I help you? And in the end, they would help me. So I'm curious about that Because I think that's a really untapped thing, this idea of mentorship and stuff. And you can't just go to somebody, hey, you're really important. Would you mentor me? Like, that doesn't work. Like, how does it actually, how does it go down? Yeah, and there's companies that have structured mentorship programs. So sometimes it does happen like that. But it did not happen like that for me. And it doesn't happen like that for most people.

9:55Like I said, because I'm a curious person, I would watch. and see who are the people who are doing things. And then I would build relationships with them. And, you know, let's go to lunch. Let's grab a coffee. I would love to talk. I would love to learn from you. People love talking about themselves. I would love to learn from you and certain things or whatever. And then over time, it would morph into this type of mentorship or sponsorship relationship. And then I, like I said, how can I help you? How can I be more helpful to you? And even if they never took me up on it, they appreciated that I wasn't just trying to extract something from them, that I was stepping up to try to be helpful towards them.

10:35And that went a long way with people wanting to continue to build that relationship with me and being helpful towards me with my career. That is such a powerful sentence. It's just ridiculous how simple it is where how can I help you? Like if somebody in my company came to me and said, how can I help you? I think I would fall off my chair so excited and I would like stress would come off my body. And, you know, sometimes, you know, everyone out there, let's say you're a marketing manager or whatever, you'll hear people say, well, there's no growth in my job. I have no growth opportunity. But really what you've done in your career and what you're saying is you create your growth by kind of expanding out kind of the net of value that you're casting within your organization.

11:16So growth doesn't happen in the linear job role that you have, right? No. And it's in the post that you were referring to previously, it was that for where I wanted to get to, it was never going to be linear. It was that just I looked past myself. I really paid attention to what others were doing and the other skill sets that they had. And I knew I couldn't get there just by staying an operations person. Right. And so I really had to say, what was my back? Well, I know I bring three really good things to the table. I am a great listener. So I'm going to hear the things maybe they're not saying because I'm going to pay attention.

11:54I am locked in and I want to understand that. Number two, I want to learn. I want to understand what do I need to do to get access, to help build something, to provide more value to something. So I'm going to figure out how I'm going to learn and figure out those skill sets. And number three, I'm not just a visionary and I'm just not an executioner. I am a step builder. So I know to get to the vision, these are the 10 steps we need to be paying attention to. And some people are not good at that. Some people are like, I got the big strategy. I don't know how we're going to get there. Just get there.

12:27And then I know people who are, I don't, I'm in the weeds too much. I can't look beyond myself. I can do the big things, the weeds, and then the steps to get to the big things. And that's something you hone over years of experience and watching and learning and understand how to build something from scratch. I've had to build a lot of things from scratch. I had to build myself in my career from scratch. So I was never afraid of taking chances. And risk is the biggest thing. Like people get really, really comfortable. And for me, you know, I don't want to get too comfortable where I lose sight of my goals.

13:02I'm a very goal-oriented person. And so no matter if I'm having the best time at the best job, if I know I belong and I want to belong somewhere else in the end, I'm going to do what's necessary to get there. I think it's so true that if you're not a little bit uncomfortable, then you're not probably pushing hard enough in general. And let me ask you a thing about an organization in general, not the one you're at, but in general, if you're at a company or an organization or whatever, and you try to say, hey, I want help or can i sit in on this sales call or can i do this whatever and you're raising your hand and they're like no no no stay in your lane that you know so to speak is that a is that a giant red flag like wait a minute this is not a place probably i'm going to be able to grow as a human being like is that an instant red flag for you it's not an instant red flag for me it is am i going about it the right way like understand your audience right so if you're going and you know that this person likes to hear things or does things based off of a particular personality trait.

14:07They're very creative. And if you're going where you're talking only numbers and structures, like they're shutting down, they're not hearing you or whatever. So it's just like, you have to number one, am I approaching this the right way with the people that I'm trying to get to give me access or to understand what I'm doing? Am I moving too fast? So I've been there where I I was like, I'm great. I've done all of these things. Why am I not leading this or whatever? And then they didn't give me the opportunity. I left and went to another opportunity. And it was one of the worst decisions I've ever made in my career to do that.

14:38Yeah. It was bad because I skipped some steps to understand, oh, I should have asked them if they wanted to start this events department. Do you have the money? Do you have the funding? Do you have the sales team? Right, right. That's important. Yeah. And as someone who's been in a leadership, you would know that if you just gave yourself a little bit more time to experience something. So sometimes you're skipping steps that are very valuable to the learning experience. So I had to take a couple of steps back to take my steps forward again. And I learned never to do that again. So I saw that as a great learning experience for myself.

15:16I'm not mad at it, but I definitely had to learn from it. And then once you kind of weighed all the options, you did all of the things and it's really not working for you, then you got to move on. You got to go to the next thing. And, you know, I know sometimes your environments that are extremely comfortable for you. But if you are serious about your career growth, you have to sometimes make make those jumps and go to other companies in order for the money to grow for yourself and the opportunity. Yeah. I mean, the Paula Abdul of your career, sometimes you have to take two steps back. um it's a reality all right I love all of this I want to go off script for a second like oh no what's he gonna say so if I was giving a speech anywhere like you know at a conference whatever and I saw you walk in the room I would throw up because I was like oh no oh no she's here she runs all content for Ted and she's seen every great speaker in the history of the world speak and she's gonna look at me like he's the worst speaker of all time so when you walk into a session not one that you've planned, of course, like, is there any like, okay, this is some secrets to being a great speaker or some never do's like, you must have a few things.

16:29You're like, this is just what everybody should know. I am not the content head at 10. I know. Maybe we have a wonderful yes, content team and content leader for that. But yes, do i know some of the the secret sauce to that absolutely yeah um i think what even when people submit for ted and or i my inbox is always flooded with people who who's like i should be giving the ted talk everybody keeps coming and the thing is people really feel strongly about their story but they don't know how to extract an idea from it so you know you can have someone who's been through a whole lot in their life and that is a powerful story for them but i'm sure there's others who have been through that as well and that's great what is the idea that they're taking away that is going to help elevate them as a human being help them to think things differently give them hope and optimism give them a source of to build from they need to take away something that they can even if they have no connection to your story whatsoever they can take away something from their idea.

17:37And it's very hard for people to kind of condense their story down to the idea of it, because they're so engulfed in the story. And so as you can see, like even with the TED format, you do start with a very relatable, personable story, but it always ends with the idea that it's trying to tell. And that is really hard. And even, you know, people who've been speaking for years and years who come to TED, they have to go through our speaker coaches. We invest and speaker coaches for all of our TED Talks. And so it's not just you come here, you show us your script and you go about your business. It's months of training and memorizing.

18:15It is an investment. It is an investment on TED's part to hire a full-time staff to be that. And some people don't do that in their organizations because they don't see that as something they should invest in. But we do because we're a trusted source of content. And so we have to invest in making sure that our talks are factual. So we have actual fact checkers that go through those scripts and make sure that those things are right. We make sure we get sign offs for images and things like that before they even come to the TED stage. There is a lot of investment in making sure that content is sharp.

18:51But if you go down to the basics, it's about the idea. What are you sharing that anyone who wouldn't normally care about your story can take away and use it in their everyday life? Well, now I'm going to be even more nervous about you. I'm going to walk in the room like, oh my God, I did none of those things. I don't have a coach. I'm a giant nerd, but I'll give it a shot. Well, listen, you're amazing. Everybody out there, we're going to put Monique's information in the show notes, but connect with her on LinkedIn. Monique Ruff Bell, R U F F dash B E L L. She is amazing. She shares the best stuff.

19:24She I get motivated every time I see her post. You're awesome. Thanks for doing the show. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. was fun. You did it. You made it to the end. But wait, the party is not over. Listen, I want to keep hanging out. Subscribe to this podcast. And if it wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, give it a five-star review. Why not? But you know what? I want to do even more with you. Go to gurumediahub.com and we can partner there. You could find out about all of our free events, all of our stuff. And if you're epically bored, go to jschwedelson.com and we could stay connected.

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