Today we’d like to introduce you to Yoram Solomon.
Hi Yoram, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
If you told me, 30 years ago, when I worked as an engineer, that 30 years later I will be writing books, have my own podcast, and deliver keynotes and workshops on trust, I would have thought you were crazy. Several turning points in my life caused this. Over time, I transitioned from developing products and writing software to managing teams of developers and even companies I started. This was a natural transition for me from doing the work to leading how work was done. However, it was always associated with innovation.
In 2005, I started my company, Innovation Culture Institute LLC, but didn’t do much with it for the following ten years, as I was working in executive and strategic positions for several public technology companies. Every now and then, I was asked by companies to help them innovate. I did, and the most frustrating thing was that those innovations, as brilliant as they might have been, never stuck. So, when it was time for me to come up with a topic for my PhD dissertation in organization and management in 2008, I decided to tackle the question, “why are people more creative when they work in startups than when they work in large, mature companies?” I spent the next two years researching the answer to this question. I interviewed people all over the U.S., Canada, China, Europe, and Israel. If you forced me to give you a one-word answer, the answer is Innovation Culture. OK, two words… Some companies (most startups) have it, and other companies (most large companies) don’t. I then wrote my fourth book, Un-Kill Creativity: How Corporate America can out-innovate startups. But a book wasn’t enough. I started advising companies not on how to innovate but how to build a sustainable culture of innovation.
That led to writing my seventh book, Culture Starts with YOU, not your Boss! In one meeting with a potential client, I started asking about the existence of the three components of a successful culture of innovation in their company: autonomy, accountability, and the ability to hold constructive disagreement. None of those existed, and as I started peeling the onion, I came to a realization that there was something foundational missing that prevented those components from existing: there was no trust. I immediately started researching trust. As the book came back from the editors, I added an epilogue chapter: building trust. For the first time, I described a new model for trust, with six components that still exist in my model today.
Since then (2017), I began intensely researching trust through reading almost every book and every research article written about it and conducting my own primary research. Over the years, I observed the 8 Laws of Trust, the 6 Components of Trustworthiness and developed my proprietary 7-step process to become more trusted. These days, I spend a large portion of my time continuing to develop the content but also deliver it to current and new clients.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Is there ever a smooth road to success?… The road to where I and my business are today was full of struggles and turning points. One of the first turning points was when my PhD dissertation mentor asked me, “what pisses you off?” which led me to the research question that ended up defining the rest of my professional life. Another was when I attended a week-long workshop in 2004 at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs and decided to focus on the question “am I a leader or an individual contributor?” in my last day interview. That’s when I realized that I am much better and enjoy more being an individual contributor than leading the $100 million business unit and its 89 employees I was leading at the time. But nothing compares to the struggle of 2017. Two years after leaving an executive position in Corporate America, I found that my business was not growing and started tapping into my retirement savings. That was devastating to me. But it was the maniacal focus on trust and the persistence on doing the right things even when you don’t see the immediate results that got me through it, and to the point that the business is successful and growing. More on that below.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Innovation Culture Institute, LLC?
My mission (and therefore that of my organization) is to help people and organizations build trust, be trusted, and know who to trust in any relationship, professional and personal. I truly believe that trust is the foundation for every relationship and that the answer to these two questions will have the biggest impact on your personal and professional success or failure: can I trust you? and can you trust me? I researched that for the past 13 years since I started my work on my PhD dissertation. Except that in the first seven years, I didn’t know that this was what I was researching… Since then, I published 15 books (currently writing the 16th), including The Book of Trust (now in 2nd edition), and a growing series of mini books (currently five) Can I TRUST You? with specific tips for people in different roles (leader, team member, salesperson, project manager, consultant, advisor, coach, with more to come) on how to be trusted by those who care the most.
I engage with my clients in multiple ways, as fits them best. I delivered keynotes for major events (with more than 2,000 attendees), explaining what trust is and the eight laws of trust, delivered workshops (that’s the sweet spot of my business), explaining what makes you trusted, and guiding you through how to be more trusted using my model (in-person and virtually) and offer online courses (trusted at work), books, The Trust Show Podcast and YouTube channel, and much, much more.
I’m not the first person to research, speak, and deliver workshops on trust. However, my model is the newest and most unique and considers two things that were never considered by others: that trust is relative and dynamic (instead of the common wisdom that claims that trust is absolute and static). I also offer a very actionable 7-step process for you to be more trusted in any relationship that is important to you.
Five years ago, if you would ask my friends and fellow members of the North Texas chapter of the National Speakers Association or others who know me, what do I do? they would say, “innovation, or technology, or something like that…” I’m proud of the fact that if you ask them today, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who would not know that my focus is on trust. Period. I’m also proud of the growth in my business and how it turned the corner from me chasing opportunities to opportunities chasing me.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I have four pieces of advice that worked for me and that I religiously follow every day: The first is, be you. Don’t try to be anyone else. Be what makes you excited, what makes you unique. Learn from others. See what they do. Adopt what you like, and reject what you don’t. When someone tells you there is only one way to do things (their way), ignore them. What works for them may not work for you, and what works for you may not work for them.
The second is focus. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Be one thing, but be better than anyone else on that topic. You can call me a business advisor. You can call me a leadership coach, but really, I’m an expert in trust. I decline opportunities that are “generic.” I only accept opportunities from organizations that want to build trust, be trusted, or know who to trust. Period. By being “generic,” you make yourself a commodity, and there are thousands (or millions) like you. Being unique, expert, one-in-a-million, you are special. Be a thought leader.
The third is, put the work. Often, people think that becoming an expert is something you can do “on the side” while keeping a full-time job, and you will only make the transition once the income from your “side business” is high enough to quit your day job. When someone shares with me that this is what they think, I ask them if they are willing to allocate one hour every weeknight, after work, to build the business, plus five hours every weekend, and commit to doing that 50 weeks every year. People find this too much effort. Well, if you did that, you would have spent 500 hours every year to build the business. I did the math and found that my “overnight success”, when my business started growing and clients started calling me (instead of me cold-calling them) happened after I spent some 12,000 hours building the business. I worked 80 hours a week (I still work more than 60) for three years before that turning point occurred. Other successful thought leaders I interviewed reached that turning point after anywhere from 7,000 to 40,000 hours. At a rate of 500 hours a week, it will take you between 14 and 80 years to get there. Being a thought leader is not something you can do “on the side.” You must put the work.
Finally, be consistent and persistent. You will not see results to anything immediately. Make the plan, know what actions will help, and keep doing them. Often, we stop doing the right things because we don’t see immediate results. It took me years of not seeing any results before I started seeing them. It takes time to be a thought leader, but more than that, it takes consistency and persistence of doing the right things and having people seeing you over and over again.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@yoramsolomon.com
- Website: https://www.yoramsolomon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoramsolomon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBookofTrust/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yoramsolomon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTrustShow
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trust-show/id1569249060
Image Credits
Credit: Yoram Solomon
