STOP WAITING For Your Promotion ‼️ GUEST!! TED Monique Ruff-Bell | Ep. 447

Jay Schwedelson: Do this, not that podcast. And we have an awesome guest, an awesome human being here. Alright, who's here? Monique Ruff Bell. She has a cool job. She's the chief Program and Strategy Officer at Ted. You know, Ted Ted's the thing where you watch the talk, you're like, oh my God, I'm gonna change my life in the next 10 minutes.

Jay Schwedelson: It's the most amazing thing on the planet. But Monique is amazing. She 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, and, and the direction she's taken her own career. I can't wait to dig into it.

Jay Schwedelson: Also. Monique, welcome to the show.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Jay, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Jay Schwedelson: Alright. This is gonna be fun. All right. Before we get into what I wanna, what we're gonna 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 Ruff-Bell: Monique became Monique because of intentionality. So when we get into the full conversation, that'll be great. Um, but I have been in the. Events, conferences, space for over 25 years now. Um, working in every industry imaginable, from association to media to nonprofits to for-profits, to trade shows, um, to doing, you know, 15, 20 shows a year, um, at, you know, summit Business Media.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Created, um, for me. So 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. Mm-hmm.

Jay Schwedelson: You know, I think it's really interesting when you 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 that, and it almost speaks exactly to this idea of intentional career building and you.

Jay Schwedelson: 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 gonna build a career out, out of these interconnected, uh, you know, growth functions. And for everybody listening, a lot of people listening are like, they're stuck in one lane, right?

Jay Schwedelson: So what does it mean? How can you be intentional about building your career?

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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 recognized that if I wanted to see myself as leading a business, um, I've seen leaders who never did the functions of those.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Different areas to 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. They 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: So I made choices that I was gonna 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 gonna make me an even stronger leader because I understood all of the parts that it took for, let's say a conference to run, um, at its optimal level.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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. I was making very specific choices to kind of. You know, kind of start at the bottom a lot of times in these different functions so I can kind of learn and build those skillset.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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 skillset 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: So really being, not taking anything that didn't fit into what I was trying to build for myself.

Jay Schwedelson: 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, and, but I love what Monique's saying. I feel inspired, I wanna do this. Is it a matter of you have to be intentional, you raise your hand and say, Hey.

Jay Schwedelson: I see there's this role in the company and you go to whoever you're reporting to. I want an opportunity. Do 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?

Monique Ruff-Bell: I never waited, so I never waited for something to arise for myself. But, um, 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?

Monique Ruff-Bell: How does my skill sets currently complement that function? Or how can I be seen as a help me to this team, even though they're not under me? But I'm going to get to learn a lot more about that. So 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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, the people who are executing and the people who are selling. And so I was like, I need to become closer to this sales team. I need to be seen as someone that can help them create the packages that are going to get the things over the line that's gonna bring in the money.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And so I started asking, you know, can I join your sales calls, um, on a monthly basis? Can we talk through kind of what your targets I can help with, what we can pro 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 everybody, if you're gonna help somebody make money, most times they're gonna say yes.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Um, 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, um, and helped my team deliver things. Um, and so I wanted to make sure that I was always seen as, as that, and then I became more embedded.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And then they wanted to include me in things, and then I was, you know, 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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. I had to build up to that.

Jay Schwedelson: I think that, um, what you're talking about is so simple and yet powerful. Like I almost feel guilty. I put out these memes sometimes about sales and marketing. Not getting along right, 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.

Jay Schwedelson: Participate with them in a really constructive way. Not, Hey, these leads stink. Know they're great, and argue about nonsense. And that is a path to really, to growth. Is that right?

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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 and then I was like, you know, they needed help with content.

Monique Ruff-Bell: They lost the content person or whatever. And I was like, you know, gimme 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And then that was growing my skillsets. In different areas. Also, you know, I, I'm, 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And 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.

Jay Schwedelson: so I, I'm curious about that. 'cause that, I think that's a really untapped thing, this idea of mentorship and stuff, and. Is it, do you just, 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?

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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. Like 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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. And that went a long way with people wanting to continue to build that relationship with me and being helpful to towards me with my career.

Jay Schwedelson: That is such a powerful sentence. I, 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, you know, everyone out there, let's say you're a marketing manager, whatever, you'll hear people say, well.

Jay Schwedelson: 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, that you're casting within your organization. So growth doesn't happen in the linear job role that you have, right?

Monique Ruff-Bell: No, and it's, it's, and the post that you were referring to previously, it, it was that I, for where I wanted to get to it was never gonna be linear. It was that just, I looked past myself. I really paid attention to what others were doing in the others. Skillsets, they, they had. And I knew I couldn't get there just by staying an operations person, right?

Monique Ruff-Bell: And so I really had to say, what was my back? Well, I know I bring three really good things to the table. I'm a great listener, so I'm gonna hear the things maybe they're not saying, 'cause I'm gonna pay attention. I am locked in. Um, and I wanna understand that. Number two, I, I wanna learn, I wanna understand.

Monique Ruff-Bell: What do I need to do to get access to help build something to provide more value to something. So I'm gonna figure out how I'm gonna 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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 gonna get there. Just get there. And then I know people who are, I, 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And that's, 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've had to build myself and my career from scratch, so I was never afraid of taking chances. And risk is the biggest thing.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Like people get really, really comfortable. And for me, if, you know, I don't wanna get too comfortable where I lose sight of my goals. I'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 wanna belong somewhere else. In the end, I'm gonna do what's necessary to get there.

Jay Schwedelson: I think it's so true that if you're not a little bit uncomfortable, then you're not probably pushing hard enough. Uh, in general, and let me ask you, think about an an, 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. And you try to say, Hey, I wanna help, or can I sit in on this sales call?

Jay Schwedelson: Or can I do this, whatever, and you're raising your hand and they're like, no, 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 gonna be able to grow as a human being. Like, is that an instant red flag for.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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, uh. Likes to hear things or does things based off of a, a, a particular personality trait. Like they're very creative and if you're going where, and you're talking only numbers and structures, like they're shutting down, they're not hearing you or whatever.

Monique Ruff-Bell: So it's just like you have to, number one, am I approaching this the right way? Um, with, 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 was like, I'm great. I've done all of these things. Why am I not leading this or whatever.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And then. They didn't gimme 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. Yeah, it was bad because I skipped some steps to understand, oh, I should have asked them if they wanted to start this. Events, pro, you know, events, uh, department.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Do you have the money? Do you have the funding? Do you have the sales team? They just, yeah. And as someone who's been in the leadership, you would know that if you just gave yourself a little bit ti more time to experience something. So sometimes you're skipping steps that are very valuable to the learning experience.

Monique Ruff-Bell: So I had to take a couple of steps back. To take my steps forward again. Um, and I learned never to do that again. So I, I lo I saw that as a great learning experience for myself. I'm not mad at it. Um, but I definitely had to learn from it. Um, and then once you kind of wait all the options, you did all of the things and it's really not working for you, then you gotta move on.

Monique Ruff-Bell: You gotta go to the next thing. And you know, I know sometimes there 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.

Jay Schwedelson: I mean, uh, the Paula Abdul of your career, sometimes you have to take two steps back. Um, it it's, it's a reality. All right. I love all of this. I wanna go off script for a second and be like, oh no, what's he gonna say? So if I was giving a speech anywhere, like, you know, at, at a conference, whatever, and I saw you walk in the room, I would throw up because I was like, oh, no.

Jay Schwedelson: 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 going to look at me and be 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 dos, like you must have a few things.

Jay Schwedelson: You're like, all right, this is just what everybody should know.

Monique Ruff-Bell: I am not the content head at Ted. I, I we have a wonderful yes. Content team and content leader for that, but yes. Do I know some of the, the, the secret sauce to that? Absolutely. Um, I think what, even when people submit for Ted and or I, my inbox is always flooded with people who, who was like, I should be giving a TED Talk.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Everybody keeps telling me I should give me a TED Talk. 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: As well, and that's great. What is the idea that they're taking away that is gonna 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 and 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.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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 in speaker coaches, um, for all of our, our TED talks.

Monique Ruff-Bell: And so it's not just you come here, you show us your script and you go about your business. It's. Of training and memorizing and stuff. It's, it 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 are a trusted source of content, and so we have to invest in making sure that.

Monique Ruff-Bell: 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, but in, if you go down to the basics, it's about the idea.

Monique Ruff-Bell: How are, what are you sharing that anyone who wouldn't normally care about your story can take away and use it in their everyday lives?

Jay Schwedelson: Well, now I'm gonna be even more nervous if I see you when I 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. Uh, but I'll give it a shot. Well,

Monique Ruff-Bell: be fine.

Jay Schwedelson: you're amazing. Everybody out there. We're gonna put Monique's information, uh, in the show notes, but connect with her on LinkedIn.

Jay Schwedelson: Monique Ruff Bell, RUFF dash BELL. She is amazing. She shares the best stuff. She, I mo I get motivated every time I see her post. You're awesome. Thanks for doing the show.

Monique Ruff-Bell: Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. It was fun. Mm-hmm.