IAM926- CEO Helps Teams Manage Their Professional Networks

Ablorde is the CEO of 4Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company, that applies machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity – their professional networks. When he's not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books, or eating BBQ.

• CEO Hack: Time blocking
• CEO Nugget: Over-invest in the quality of the people you work with and value your business relationships
• CEO Defined: Being in service to those around you

Website: https://4degrees.ai/

https://4degrees.ai/use-cases/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ablordeashigbi/

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Transcription

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[00:00:24.89] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:52.70] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. Ab Ablordae Ashigbe of Four Degrees. Ablordae, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:01:02.70] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Oh, excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:05.20] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Ablourde so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Ablorede is the CEO of Four Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity, their professional networks. When he's not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books, or eating barbecue. Upload air, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:32.70] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. I'm ready to go.

[00:01:34.00] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you guys started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you

[00:01:41.79] – Ablorde Ashigbi

get started with your business. Absolutely. So this business came for myself and my co-founder from really two places. The first is that we spent our careers in heavily relationship-driven industries, So directly before this, we both worked at a family office in Chicago that did a lot of private investing, so think private equity, and venture capital, and then before then, we both worked in consulting, so management consulting, a large portion of hundred corporations.

And across both of those worlds, the commonality was just how incredibly relationship-driven they were. So in the world of consulting, the partner's capability to maintain these relationships with these portion of a hundred executives ultimately would result in multimillion-dollar deals were a function of how well they maintained that connectivity to to those executives and ultimately how they use the network of the firm to get in the door in the first place. And then in investing, our ability to fund, you should companies to invest in, to diligence those deals and then ultimately make the investments and help the company succeed were again predicated on the relationship network that the investors could bring to bear.

And the challenge in each one of those worlds was that there weren't products that understood that to be true about how we operated. And so it ended up happening in a combination of Excel spreadsheets and Airtable bases and Google Sheets. We would try to jam them into a sales-based CRM like Salesforce, which is weighted a lot of things, but long-term relationship management isn't one of them.

And so we saw the opportunity to build upon what we wish we had. And then the second angle that this comes from for us is that and my cofounder both come from what we would describe to be under-network backgrounds. So in my case, I'm the son of two West African immigrants who came to the US, and didn't have a ton of relationships or networks to be able to lean on. And so kind of directly seen firsthand how you know having a lack of relationship connectivity can directly result in opportunities not coming your way. And so we think there's an opportunity to fundamentally shift the way people manage and work with that in the long run as well.

[00:03:41.09] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that and appreciate that, you know, as you said and as I read in the bio, the opportunity within the opportunity to be able to leverage that and in true entrepreneurial form rather than, you know, just saying, hey, somebody should create x y z. You saw firsthand, you know, within the background that you had, but then decided to create, that better mouth shop, I guess you can say, so that people can be able to leverage that those, their networks and that opportunity to be able to be successful. Yep. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you take us through, exactly how four degrees works and how you serve the clients you work with?

[00:04:16.19] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Absolutely. So what we provide to our customers is a product that they can use to collaboratively understand, manage, and leverage their relationship network. What that looks like in practice is a product that plugs into communication channels. So, like, email, calendar, as well as several third-party systems. We use that to get an understanding of who a team is connected to and communicating with.

Then we apply a bunch of technology we've built on top of that to essentially give them back three things. The first is an enriched view of the team's relationships. It helps them best understand their best path to a given person or company. So to do that, we built some relationship strength detection that helps you figure out which person is your best path in the door.

We've also built some categorization that helps you slice that network by different characteristics to identify people who are whose areas of focus may help you solve a specific problem. The second is that we go and search the world for information about the people in those companies. If they show up in the news, if they publish content, change jobs, or if you're flying to their city, using all of those as opportunities to help you stay engaged, then ultimately best understand how to work with those people to move opportunities forward. And then the last is a bunch of flexible tools and looks that they can use to structure organize and manage that information in one consolidated place.

[00:05:30.60] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that. And I think so many times, you know, we have goals as, you know, professionals. And we understand that a lot of times our networks are a great way for us to be able to get to those goals and reach those goals. But I think it as you said, you know, in the very beginning of your story, just trying to understand exactly how to leverage and in what way to do that and being methodical and as far as, like, efficient and effective with it, sounds like it's it can be a lot more difficult than being able to use your tool to be able to kinda plug into what you have and then give you that data and information and also the kind of tools of the trade to get there.

[00:06:04.00] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. No. Absolutely. You got you got it a hundred percent right.

[00:06:07.50] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And so what would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce? Sauce? This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:06:17.10] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. No. I certainly think it's the technology that underpins us. So one element that I described before was our capability of understanding the strength of the relationship. And so that's certainly an area that we think both leads to better outcomes for our outcomes for our customers as well as kind of a differentiation for us. A similar one is the capability of doing some automatic categorization of the people and companies, which again allows a customer to come in on day one and not need to spend hours doing categorization and data entry. I'm able to answer really important questions about their network that, our product helps enable for them. And so, you know, I think it's the technology first, technology forward approach we've taken to the problem that enables a lot of really good outcomes for our customers.

[00:07:00.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that makes so much sense. Correct me if I'm wrong. I almost feel like, and I say this a lot, you know, from a marketing standpoint, especially when you're able to use dating, you're able to make those decisions. It allows you to be more present in terms of building that relationship, it sounds like. So you don't have to figure out those things because that data is, you know, there for you, and you're able to spend more time kind of engaging, it sounds like.

[00:07:22.69] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. Well, right. We think about the role of technology as it stands in the relationship management and development space. It is not replacing the work you would do to engage with somebody, but rather getting rid of a lot of manual work and effort one would have to do to be able to get to that point. And so exactly as you described, enables more time and energy to be spent doing the things that humans are uniquely capable of, which is truly engaging and connecting.

[00:07:48.80] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. You can, you know, throw away or virtually, I guess, throw away those, you know, Airtables and Excel spreadsheets that you talked about in the beginning that a lot of people listening might be using and leveraging right now. Absolutely. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:13.10] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. For me, the biggest habit that makes me more effective is time blocking. So I'm a big believer that if something isn't on your calendar, then it doesn't get done, and so I schedule essentially everything, whether it's my workouts or, time to tackle specific high-priority tasks or, of course, external meetings. All of it lives on my calendar, and I find that it allows me to easily understand, like, what can fit into a day and there and thereby, like, manage expectations. But also it ensures that I know what it is I need to spend my time on at any given point. And so it removes almost a little bit of that decision-making overhead of needing to decide, should I be doing this right now or this or this other thing? And so for me, I find that to be pretty effective for being more efficient.

[00:09:00.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Love that. I'm a big, you know, time blocker, as well. And I think, as you said so well, it allows you to see everything that you can do. And I think as we talked about with the technology, aspect that you provide through four degrees, it allows you to, I think, be present in each of those slots because you don't have to worry about, did I do x, y, and z? Do I have time to do x, y, and z? Because you have everything planned out which allows you to be present and be more effective and efficient.

[00:09:26.29] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yep. Exactly right. And, like, spoken by a true, time blocker, I can tell you.

[00:09:31.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. And so, I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget, and this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:09:44.70] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. I think my biggest nugget or piece of wisdom is to over-index the quality of the people that you work with. I think particularly when you're building something from scratch or from nothing as is an early-stage startup, the quality of the people is the the driver of all other forms of success. The market you go after may change. The product you may build may change. How you market and go to market with that may change. But it's all going to be enabled by having a bunch of very talented, very smart, flexible people around you. You also have the right values and integrity. And so long as you index heavily on that, the rest will essentially see itself to fruition.

[00:10:28.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So I appreciate that nugget. And I think, you know, we see it, you know, during a time like this where, being able to kind of invest and, as you said, index in into, the people and to quality people allows you to to be successful, obviously, in a time that you know and you know everything that's going to happen. But I think if you have those people that are flexible, which is a strong word that you use, it allows you to also make sure that you have the people that can be flexible, able to come up with the solutions and the changes, and won't be kinda caught off guard by all the unexpected things that might happen, you know, at any given time within the business.

[00:11:04.29] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. No. That's, very much aligned with how I think about it.

[00:11:07.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping now different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So I'll I'll I'll blow it a. What does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:11:20.70] – Ablorde Ashigbi

I think being a CEO is being in service of all the others around you. You're trying to build something that's in service of society and of service to your customers. You're, as a leader, trying to be of service to your team and enabling them to not only execute to advance their own professional and personal ambitions through the lens of the company and the role that they hold with you. And so I see the CEO position as fundamentally a service role, and being a CEO means being in service.

[00:11:52.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that makes so much sense. And I'm glad, you know, you you broke down those different levels of service as well too. Because I think so many times we think about our our clients and the people that we serve, and, of course, that's important, but we also have to, you know, keep in mind those, that are around us on our teams and those that, maybe even depend on those people that are on the team as well too. And I think when we start to kinda look at that holistically, we start to see with every, you know, decision or every decision

[00:12:21.20] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Awesome.

[00:12:22.60] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I appreciate that, and I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

[00:12:37.39] – Ablorde Ashigbi

Yeah. I mean, probably the second thing I would have said around the CEO nugget would have been the importance of relationships and business and not to top my book too much. But I do fundamentally believe that the most important events or transactions are similar or underpinned by relationships and by how all those relationships have been managed over time. And so, if I had to take a second, it would certainly be that. In terms of how to best get in touch with me or the team, so first, the company website, four degrees dot ai. The second, I am at Ablorda, so my first name at fourdegrees dot ai, or I'm fairly active on Twitter at AblordaCS.

[00:13:19.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we'll have those links and information in the show notes, and I love that second nugget. And I think it falls right in line with everything that you do. And I think so many times we forget, how important the network is and how that human aspect of business, which we often can kinda zoom over, is entirely important. And when we have tools like the ones that you have all been working on, it allows us to optimize that even more and to be even more present and more effective. So definitely appreciate all the awesome work you're doing. Appreciate your time, of course, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:13:50.20] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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