Power of Community with Lloyed Lobo

eorge grombacher 0:02
Lobo is co founder at boost AI and traction. He’s a software engineer by education and a community builder by passion. His newest book is from grassroots to greatness 13 rules to build iconic brands with community led growth. Lloyd excited to have you on welcome.

Lloyed Lobo 0:19
Thank you for hosting me. I’m stoked. I love your energy. And thank you for that awesome introduction. All right, man,

george grombacher 0:26
thank you. Tell us a little about your personal lives more about your work and why you do

Lloyed Lobo 0:30
what you do. Definitely. So personal life can go as far back as as a kid, I was a refugee of the Gulf War. I was maybe eight or nine.

I am a serial procrastinator. That’s an entrepreneur. That’s why I have multiple balls juggling. So if I don’t like something, I want to procrastinate try the next thing. Anyway, I studied for a math exam going last minute end up being geography. Next thing you know, I’m thinking like all summer, I’m gonna fail not going to make fifth grade, my mom’s gonna kill me. My mom wakes me up one morning, she just yanks the covers on my sheets. And she’s like, wake up. And I’m like, oh my god, she found out that I failed. But actually, what she tells me was, you don’t have to ever go to school here. Kuwait has been hit with a war, right? Iraq has invaded us and the schools bombed or whatever. So you don’t think you can go to school? And my first reaction was, yes, my parents are never going to find out that I failed.

What it sank in, though, what I realized was worrying my parents face. There’s this time where there’s no cell phones, there’s no internet. Everyone, the currency is invalid. People are looting all this chaos ensued, right. And over that time, I saw a deep worry. But I also saw hope. I saw and experienced a phenomenon which is very rare. The security in the country had lapsed, and the community came together to evacuate the people to safety. What is community effectively, you have a problem or an aspiration, you put your hands up, you look around other people gravitate towards it, you get together and do something about it. Every building became a sub community. I remember as a kid going down the building with my dad and others are like pondering or what are we going to do what’s going to happen and my dad’s like, Hey, I work in a hotel. Maybe I’ll coordinate food and supplies and somebody else’s like, oh, I have a transportation company, maybe I’ll figure this out. And so different people were pulling together resources, word of mouth spread, because there were no phones. There was no internet and word of mouth spread, from building to building to building. Grassroots coordination, building to building the building to embassies to countries, and an evacuation effort came together. And months later, I found myself on a bus going from Kuwait, to Baghdad to Jordan, on this Highway of Death, where buses were bombed, and I’m thinking to myself, I think eight or nine year old again, there’s no certainty we’re going to live or die. But as I look to everyone on this bus adults, they’re smiling and laughing and singing and playing the guitar like something’s wrong here. And that day in formulated a very important value in me that as been a constant in my journey is it’s neither the destination nor the journey, but the companions that matter the most, you could be on a shitty journey on the way to hell, but great companions will make it memorable. And that learning fast for years, you know, we left Kuwait move to the West College everywhere, I found myself always drawing joy from bringing people together community was my thing. started our first company, and it was in a very unsexy space getting businesses money for research and development from the government. Right? You’re helping businesses that build products to access innovation, funding dollars, from the government unsexy and nobody wants to deal with it. Because it’s a frustrating process to compile all the technical work you’ve done into documentation. It’s a frustrating process to apply for it. It’s prone to audits and nobody wants to get audited by the government. And receiving the money takes a long time. But we built a successful business out of it bootstrapped to 10 millions in revenue, and raised a lot of money cashed out of that company. But when we started that company, nobody will talk to us because look at what you’re asking, give me your intellectual property, and I’ll get you money from the government or two guys out of an apartment who’s going to entertain you, when big four accounting firms like KPMG, etc, are doing it. So we said what’s the best way to break through this? What’s the best way to learn as new founders? We said we have access to A lot of smart people, we can bring smart people together to share their learnings and how they build successful companies. And rather than taking that mentorship for just ourselves, why don’t we open up that mentorship to other people as well. We’re not the only ones building companies there are so many others that also learn will learn. And while learning will help other people learn and will grow together. So that was our philosophy. And we started doing these pizza nights founder meetups. 10 people show up 15 people show up word of mouth, like the Gulf War spreads. One day 200 people show up to a co working space and the co working spaces like guys, this is not a pizza sort of era. You’re doing full blown conferences now with multiple speakers. And that community evolved into traction today. It’s got 120,000 subscribers, everyone from C suite of Atlassian. Twilio, Uber Shopify have been to our events, we do podcasts, meetups, retreats, conferences, etc. But if you look at that journey of building that community, which was the best way to learn and grow is also to help other people while you’re going through that journey was bootstrapping our company boasts AI when we got to 10 million in revenue, we had no marketing, we had like 30 ish people. It’s very rare that happens. But you know, you never have the attribution of data of how community helps because you don’t track these things like you know, or it’s not trackable how people come together and meet and congregate and word of mouth spreads, right? You can’t AB test and analyze everything to the nth degree. But the one chart like you know, and routed 10 million, we have this chart that goes like this in revenue, it also shows a secondary chart where the number of events we hosted also went up. So like a direct correlation. After that, sold about 50% of the company to growth equity firm. And because we had Bootstrap, which is very rare, me and my co founders still own, a good chunk of the company, nearly 40% of the company. And transition out of the company moved to the board made room for new leadership. Despite having a win and a good outcome. I ended up depressed. No matter how good the financial outcome, leaving a company who co founded or founded is fraught with mental health issues, because it’s your tribe, it’s your people. It’s your vision. Right. And now, you’re not in it, right? You did something for 10 years, every single day and you’re not doing that. So I ended up depressed, miserable, became insufferable. And started drinking and became a return party and all this stuff. And my wife’s a physician and she let me be she’s like, you know, you got to grieve. This is your way of grieving. One day she looks at me. And she’s like, if had the time degree now. But if something happens to you, the only people left holding the bag are gonna be me and the kids. So I suggest you wake up and smell the coffee here you like do something if you want to play the long game. And that afternoon, I was having lunch with Atlassian president and she told me that, you know, years ago she felt really burnt out after 15 years of working in tech. She went to quit the CEO of Atlassian said not quick take the time off. And so she took a sabbatical and she went stargazing into coma desert and she rehabilitated penguins and whatnot, and came back fully energized and decided, you know, to go on this journey again, which eventually led her to being the president of Atlassian which is worth $40 billion. And she said to me self care is never selfish. It’s good stewardship towards the only way you can create value in the world. Put your oxygen mask first take care of yourself. Because if you don’t you won’t be able to take care of your family or your business. So that night now laying in bed with these two thoughts here self care is never selfish. If something happens to you, your kids your family is going to be left holding the bag nobody else and I look across the room and my peloton bike is sitting there you know became a makeshift towel rack for years. So I look at it I spot it. I hop on the bike and I pick it instructor coincidence has it Robin or zone is her name. This instructor was coming off maternity leave, so she wasn’t feeling as strong and she was talking about you know how she didn’t feel as strong her postpartum lows she was going through emotions and hormonal changes. And then she gave me a jolt she’s like screw that self pity is toxic.

You don’t need that shit. It’s one crank one shift one walk around the block. I am I can repeat after me I am I can. And when she was saying that I have the tiger from rock Key movie was playing in the background then that that and, and so I got energized I felt instantly connected to her right? One, those 20 minutes flew by one right turn into two to turn into four. Next thing you know, I’m like on a couple of weeks streak here feel connected to the riders on the side of the bike. And overtime, I fixed my diet, I started adding weights to the routine. My wife’s words rang in my head a lot that the glass is half full. It’s not what you don’t have meaning you’re not in the company. But once you have that, now you’re financially independent, where you can live anywhere in the world. And so I wake up now with this morning ritual of being thankful for something good in my life, specifically, an activity or event or person that made me happy the previous day, then play I have the tiger bang out as many pushups as I can, and then work out I don’t do start my day without working out. And that changed my mental health made me happier made me positive. Because we live in this world. If you don’t realize that pessimism perpetuates pessimistic people come across smarter than optimistic people. pessimism, and misery just loves company and it spreads and spreads. Good news just has a short lifespan. That’s why big companies like social platforms that perpetuate bad news. And because it drives engagement on the platform, think about it. If Warren Buffett came to you and said invest in VR, VR KB, which is his ETF, and you’ll make 5x return every year, for the next 10 years, you’re gonna be like, This guy’s crazy. But he’s Warren Buffett, and you won’t listen to him. But somebody, if you barely know comes in and says your entire 401 K is gonna go down to zero in the next 24 hours. Because I have this inside information on XYZ happening in the market. You’re gonna call your banker, right? pessimistic people come across Sparta, and misery loves company. And and so you know, surrounding yourself by positive people. And you talked about the companions that matter the most, your companions can put you, in a positive state of mind make you feel like a rockstar, or who you surround yourself with, can make you feel like a peasant. Have you ever been around people where there is so much negative energy or like energy vampires that will after a conversation, you just don’t want to hang out with it? Right, for sure. And so So rejecting out of that environment has been has been key and fixed my mental health and all of those things. And so as I as I look back then, on my journey, and I came on this fix my mental health, of course, sold out the company became financially independent. And now I had a lot of free time. And I looked back and I said, Hey, what do I do now? And I said, there’s one thing that’s been constant in my journey, it’s the community. My grandparents grew up in the slums of India, they had nothing that their 10 Kids, anytime I’d go to their house, there was a stranger than and asked my grandfather. Why do you have this person you barely have the place for your kids. And he’d be like, the only way to create abundance in life is to help other people without expecting anything in return. Today, none of his kids are in India, they’re all overseas are all well off. I feel like the I’m inheriting the karma he generated. Then the Gulf War happened where the community came together to rescue people to safety when security elapsed, then we build traction. And that traction community helped us bootstrap boasts 10 million. And the funny thing is our investors actually came to our traction event we hosted and they’re like, who runs this? We had a conversation. And basically, their question was, can you pass us deal flow and we’ll give you a percentage carry. And I’m like, I have a business to run. This is not what I do. And they inquired what the business was and how it was growing. And we said, hey, we’re great with zero marketing, because we do community events. And they expressed interest in in buying off the company right in liquidating us in investing in the company. We a number of years ago, in 2018, my wife and I were expecting identical twins, and one of the twins passed in the womb and the other twin had to come out four months early. And we were scared because we’re sitting in this hospital with the incubator and all kids next to us passing right and having a child born now four months early, with like less than a pound less than a foot like, you know, it’s hard. And my wife relied on the physicians mom community, which is community of 100,000 plus physician mothers around the world, and they were sharing stories of their premature kids, how they, how they grew, and they’re thriving and all the stories and my wife would keep scrolling and getting advice. And then what I ended up depressing, you know, hit rock bottom, the community again saved me and brought me to good mental health. And so I said to myself, I have all this free time I Oh, it to write a book about community. And so the book is called from grassroots to greatness 13 rules to build iconic brands, with community led growth, not only my stories, but a lot of everyone’s stories of Harley Davidson almost went bankrupt. In the 80s, rebuilt the company’s strategy around community, today, you can recognize a Harley fan person, anywhere in the world by just what they’re wearing. Or Nike, right, they don’t sell shoes, they sell an aspiration to become a better athlete, you can join a Nike Running Club no matter where you are in the world. And so I said, Hey, we’re in a world where marketing is turning into spam. Right? It cost twice as much to generate the same results. CPMs are going up. Consumers are frustrated by seeing the same thing by getting bombarded. In a world where we live a thriving community can be your biggest asset brands have yesterday were built on what they told the world about themselves, brands of the future will be built on what the community says about them. If you look at it, ultimately, yesterday’s innovation always becomes tomorrow’s commodity like GPS, you couldn’t get your hands on it, then it became an option today, you got CarPlay. But if you build a community, you won’t become a commodity. The perfect example is none better than Apple, right? If you build a community, you won’t become a commodity. Apple may not have the latest features, all their competitors bash Apple, because they have better features. Apple never bashes anyone. They just talk about what the outcome it is the community can achieve how you can become a better version of themselves. And so the book is all about that. It’s my give back to the community. It’s my give back on my learnings in in terms of what shaped my journey to tell people that everything from your mental health, to your business growth can be fixed by just surrounding yourself by the right energy. It’s the people that matter. It’s not the money in your bank. It’s the people around your tombstone that matters the most.

george grombacher 17:05
Amen. I love it. What a story.

Lloyed Lobo 17:09
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

george grombacher 17:11
Do you not consider yourself a writer? So we expect more?

Lloyed Lobo 17:15
Definitely, I’ve been writing a fair bit on LinkedIn, but I need to turn it more into a cadence. Right? I think I think that is more important because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all success in life is just compound interest on a few things done consistently over time. You start by doing it crappy. With experience, you improve. And then you eventually someday become a rockstar. But if you don’t try, and you don’t keep doing it, you won’t get better. So I think I think you know, it’s a start for me, I’m getting good engagement on my LinkedIn. And and we’ll see we’ll we’ll write it, I’d love to write on mental health awhile. But ultimately, you know, for me, it’s about my passion in life is bringing people together to create impact. Right? Can I, you know, there’s this this quote, I believe and live by a lot. If you focus on money, if you chase money, you make short term decisions. If you chase control, you destroy relationships, the only way to live a fulfilling life to build something lasting is to focus on impact. Because the outcome then takes care of itself, right? Even with a business, right? People build companies, not the other way around, because your first communities, your family, your second communities, your company, your business, right? If you treat people with love, and help them grow, they’ll treat your business with love, and your business will grow. And that’s the reality, right culture is the leading indicator of growth. You want to see some of the non performing companies and how they crater is looking at their culture. Right? When when there’s an absence of trust in the leadership, when people don’t bring their vulnerable selves, then things start to go downhill people don’t commit fully right? People are passive people, you know, have you ever been in a company where you don’t agree with the leadership decisions? And you passively commit? And in the background, you keep saying, oh, you know what, this is going to fail, this is going to fail, and then one day the train wreck happens. And you’re like, Oh, I always knew that’s going to happen. Happens a lot. Right? But why does that happen? It’s because there is no there is no culture like there’s no camaraderie. There is no trust, right? Trust is the cornerstone of all relationships. There’s this absence of trust. There’s a fear of conflict when there’s an absence of trust. There’s a fear of conflict. healthy conflict is really important. If there’s something wrong in the business, you want the leaders telling you that there’s something wrong in the business. You don’t want to like just say my baby’s the cutest and nothing’s wrong in the business because then people they’ll be afraid to bring the truth, then they’re going to have a lack of commitment. They’re going to avoid accountability. There’s going to be an inattention to results and things are going to fall downhill, right? And so, so that’s why like, for me, people, community matter the most. One of the other things I’ve learned, actually, in talking to hundreds of companies as a function of writing this book was what is the framework what is the thing that drives all businesses, all communities like the most successful businesses, cultures, communities, there are like six common traits. And what that is, is it’s cheesy, but I call it the camper framework. If you have camper in your company in your culture and your family you’ll build surrounding the community of happy campers people are happy campers to be in your company, your culture, your surrounding, in your company. And the first one of that is C is connection. What it is is the best companies they foster genuine brands, they build bridges they nurture relationships, because when people feel connected, it empowers them to support one another and grow. I give peloton as an example, right? They engineer connection virtually through immersive experiences and turn solo riders into a community. sweating and working out together even virtually leads to camaraderie, or Harley Davidson, you know, the camaraderie of riders, riding together enjoying a weekend ride together with no other agenda in mind is camaraderie. People want connection. The other is autonomy. When people have the space to make their own decisions, they take ownership and drive innovation. Basecamp is a perfect example. They have a culture of remote work and self management. And that’s helped them achieve 10s of millions and profit when their competitors have 1000s of employees and a hundreds of million in funding. But Basecamp what has 80 employees working 40 hours a week, not 1000 People with hundreds of millions in funding working around the clock. But autonomy. So connection, autonomy. The third thing is mastery. When you help individuals become experts in their field, they not only drive growth, but also inspire others to reach their full potential. So Adobe has this awesome kickbox program where they provide employees with resources, mentorship and funding to explore new ideas and projects. So you see now Adobe is exploding all of a sudden, right? Like they have this new Photoshop with AI where you can recreate backgrounds and it’s gone viral. But it’s a function of things like that giving employees the ability to master their craft, and giving them the autonomy, their kickbox program, you can launch any project you have some funding. So you’re not left alone, you have the resources, and you have the know how the fourth one is purpose. Right? Great companies are united by a shared purpose which fuels motivation and provides meaning. When people feel they’re making a difference. They find fulfillment in their work. Think about it, everyone wants to make a difference. Ultimately, we’re in a world where massive layoffs have happened is the recession. But at the same time services are still needed. A lot. There’s a record number of people doing consulting, you can drive an Uber, you can do DoorDash, and you put yourself on Fiverr or Upwork, or do some consulting and say, You know what? My living expenses $100,000 Here, there’s many ways to make $100,000 a year Why should I go and trade my time for money in a company? Its purpose, right? When you have this great sense of purpose. You feel you’re making a difference. You find fulfillment in your work. It’s like, oh, I’m not just supporting capitalism here. I’m just not filling somebody’s bank account. I’m making money. They’re making money, but we’re also creating impact, right? So Patagonia is a perfect example. They actively promote environmental stewardship, by encouraging employees to volunteer for sustainable initiatives. But it’s not lip service, because they take the lead on that too. They donate a percent of their revenues to saving the environment. Right. Harley Davidson community was not a marketing strategy was a company strategy was top down the community reported community insight oversight was directly with the president employees or asked to go and give time in the community. Employees became writers, writers became employees, right. That’s how you drive change from the top down. If you want the bottom up to take it right purpose is really important. Another example. I mean, I think this is an urban legend. But apparently it was President Kennedy walked into NASA’s office and he saw a janitor cleaning. I don’t know if you’ve heard this one. Sure. And he asked the janitor What are you doing so late at night? I think it was past midnight and he’s like Sir, I’m putting a man on the moon. And how powerful that is. That is because your purpose your vision, and has hit so hard that even the lowest

are sending the lowest position can feel that they’re creating that impact. Right. And that is that is purpose that is lasting purpose. The fourth, the fifth one is energy, right? When your culture is full of this lively vibe, it sparks inspiration and cultivates an environment for endless possibilities to flourish, right? Think about it, you may you may have connection, you may have autonomy, you may have mastery, you may have purpose. But if there’s no energy, you’re like, it’s dead air, like you get drained, right. And energy is so important. Positive Energy pushes you up, like look at Redbull, they not only produce energy boosting products, but they also organize like extreme sports events, festivals and things that promote a high energy lifestyle, both internally and externally. Right, that’s very, very important that, you know, sometimes you might have like, go to an event and see a speaker. And like, they’re saying something for 10 minutes, and you’re like, Ah, I just wanted to leave. But there are some speakers, they’ll talk for an hour. And you don’t know the time has passed, even with movies, right? They don’t bring out that energy. So energy is so important. Especially it starts at the top, like leaders, like what is the job of a leader to build, inspire and motivate a team to deliver deliver is the lagging indicator, right? If you don’t build, inspire and motivate the team, they’re not going to deliver. So your job as a leader is to communicate the vision mission, the purpose to excite, inspire and energize people. If you want to just inform people then write an email, who cares. But your job is to excite, inspire and energize people because people were excited, inspired and energized, they can move mountains, otherwise, just send a memo, right? And so that that is really, really important as a function to create energy is like, you’re in that environment, you create the communication and collaboration, music, just everything you do, has a function of being there. evoking different senses beyond just sight and sound, taste, touch, smell, feel. And the last one is recognition. They proactively acknowledge and appreciate the efforts and contributions of others. So when you celebrate achievements, big or small, and value, unique strengths each individual brings to the table. People keep coming back for more. Now, you may have connection, autonomy, mastery, purpose, energy, but if you’re trading your time, day in, day out to drive all of this and nobody’s saying, Hey, man, good job. How you gonna feel right. But what if somebody woke up and said, Hey, you look really good. Today. You look happy what’s going on? Or, or just complimented your thank you, like, thank you for all that you do. Thank you, you feel good. You keep coming back for more like, look at my journey with peloton. If I just did the ride and it went off, it’d be different, right. But after each ride, they kept sending me badges and rewards and like high fives and across the ride as I’m riding high five good job, like, you know, keep going keep pushing harder. And then after I complete a badge, and I complete a streak, and next thing you know, you don’t want to break your streak because you’re being recognized, you’re being rewarded. And so that’s why I say connection, autonomy, mastery, purpose, energy recognition. Camper as a framework is a great way to build great cultures, great communities, great companies, even if you instituted with your family, right? With your kids, you want to feel a connection. You don’t want to micromanage your kid and via satellite parent, you want to help them get better and better at what they do. So mastery, great purpose around values, right? energize them, so they’re like bouncing off the walls, they just they just they’re excited, right? And then recognize them if you don’t reward and recognize your kids and don’t appreciate them or you, your spouse, your siblings. They don’t care right and these things build stronger bonds and connections.

george grombacher 28:46
I love it man. super powerful. Thank you so much for coming on. Man. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage? Where can they get their copy of from grassroots to greatness 13 rules to build iconic brands with community led growth.

Lloyed Lobo 29:01
Awesome. They can go to from grassroots to greatness.com or grassroots to greatness.com or Lloyd lobo.com Double L O ye de lobo.com. I’m also active on LinkedIn Double L O Y Ed Lobo on LinkedIn. My DMS are open I accept all connections.

george grombacher 29:20
If you enjoyed as much as I did show, load your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to Lloyd lobo.com It’s LOYED LLB o.com Get your copy of from grassroots to greatness at from grassroots to greatness.com or grassroots to greatness.com and then find Lloyd on LinkedIn and connect with him there as well. Thanks again. I

Lloyed Lobo 29:44
thank you so much. Love it. Love it. Love the energy you bring man. Thanks for making me look good. Hopefully I wasn’t too boring.

george grombacher 29:49
Not a lot. And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

Lloyed Lobo 29:55
definite