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Welcome to this week's Mentor Moment. Some of the most valuable lessons in business won't come from a book, a course, or even your own experience. They'll come from people who are just a few steps ahead of you. In this clip, Azure Communications founder, Jenny Johnston, shares how building genuine relationships

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Asking for help and learning from generous founders accelerated her growth far more than trying to figure everything out alone. If you're building a business, your network might be the biggest asset you'll ever have. Enjoy this week's episode with Jenny. But where did you pick up all this?

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I listened to one of your podcast episodes with Nick Keegan from Mailmetrics. That's a while back now. Yeah. Great guy. And he started out with a very similar business to us and sort of pivoted and has a really amazing tech company. And he has actually been phenomenally open with me in terms of how he did. His scale is, I mean, off the charts. Yeah.

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phenomenal business and I really respect and admire what he's done. So I had a call with him and he was a complete open book and Ireland is great for that. You know, you can reach out to someone and ask for help and he was like on a Teams call or something with me and then he said, you know, you need to talk to my CFO, Shane is his name, super guy as well and then I had a call with Shane and they were like, here's how we've done it.

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And I said very openly, like, why are you doing this? Why are you giving me your playbook? You know, because it was so ridiculously generous. But like, you know, he was saying, well, other people helped us when we were on the way up and so on. So he was kind of paying it forward. And like that was just music to my ears because I'd already done the Azure deal at that point. But we were looking at other things and I was just asking them about, you know, how did you structure it and what did you do? And I mean, Shane literally sent me templates, you know, here you go.

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phenomenal like. So I learned from them a lot and I'm so unbelievably grateful to them for that. And then I have a couple of advisors who, again, have done this like day in, day out. They kind of do it for their career. And similarly, like they're not getting paid to do it. I think this is a really uniquely Irish thing. They're just happy to help.

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So I obviously don't abuse that situation and don't overuse it. But, you know, if you're in a bit of a bind or if you have a question about how should I approach whatever, I suppose I learned from them and I just use them. So I've seen your growth in the last couple of years and you seem very good at building a really strong network around you.

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So we move in kind of similar-ish circles, but you seem to have been really, really good at building a good, good network of people around you. Like we kind of, we know the same people and you can, people who hold themselves to a good standard, like Nick, a perfect example. Just a good egg, but an absolute savage business person. And I love that, like you heard the podcast and you chatted to him and there's this pay it forward. We've a mutual friend, Barry, that's his thing. Pay it forward, pay it forward, pay it forward. And the good ones do. It's the people, and I referenced this in a podcast with Ryan Casey,

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the people I really have an issue with is people who pull the ladder behind them. They get over the wall and then they pull the ladder with them. I'm like, there's no need because they're insecure about how they've got there. Maybe they got there through different ways and they're kind of insecure about it. Whereas like the good ones, how do you find them? How do you find those people to surround yourself with? Because I get this question quite a lot and I can't have one answer for it, but I'd love to hear yours.

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It's funny, a lot of people actually say this to me, like, you've got this unbelievable network and how do you do that? It's not a strategic thing at all. And I think maybe that's the whole point. Jenny, we need a silver bullet. Come on, give us a standbite. You know when you're in a room and...

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You kind of know in your gut if people are good and if they're kind of going to be beneficial to you or your business or just, you know, from a peer point of view, if they've got like insights or learnings that you can learn from or whatever. Honestly, I kind of go with my gut on a lot of this. I remember meeting someone, you know him as well, Fawad, and I met him out in Abu Dhabi. And I just, I hadn't even spoke to him, didn't know what he did, didn't know his history. I mean, he's a phenomenal business guy.

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phenomenal. But I just, I just was like, he is a good guy. I didn't have any history on him, didn't know. And I just said, can you help me? Can you be part of my advisory board? And that sounds so stupid when I think about that now, because he could have been absolutely the wrong fit. But it turns out he was the best, probably the best supporter I've ever met for the business that I have now. He's phenomenal. I've never met an individual who can talk about pretty much anything.

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Absolutely anything. Genius finance guy. But also me and him will go into the nerdiest details about podcasts. Like the stuff that I would obsess about. But to 99.9999% of people wouldn't care. They're like, don't care. Don't even know what you're talking about. Whereas like he's just his breath of knowledge and his willingness to help and be open. Yeah, he's phenomenal. And like things like that and having him in my network has been so, so, so valuable. Yeah.

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But I kind of probably, I suppose I trust my intuition on a lot of this stuff. Okay, so gut with good people. Yeah. And how do you maintain that relationship then? Because that's something I think people struggle with is that you meet someone, you click with them, and then life is busy and they're like, ah, the Irish think, ah, I don't want to be bothering Jenny. I won't ask her. And they kind of sit in silence and get lost. So how have you managed to like surround yourself with such high level people and kind of maintain that relationship with them?

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Like, I just think you kind of get out what you put in. And for the most part, I mean, I can't offer most of these really anything, but I try and add value. I try and bring a bit of fun. I, yeah, like, you know, you just organize meeting up and it might only be twice a year sometimes, but...

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You know, you still do that meet up twice a year. And, you know, I'm very grateful to anyone who will give me time. So I'll buy a dinner or buy a lunch or, you know, try and just do something to to sort of say thank you, I guess. And I do try and nurture the relationships I build. I kind of it's hard because life is busy, but I do try and make time for them, whether it's a coffee, a lunch, a dinner, whatever it might be. And I often, you know, if something has gone a long time and maybe I haven't managed to do that, I'll just.

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you know, texting and so on is great. And it's just like, I'm thinking of you. We must catch up soon. You know, it's very simple, you know, basic kind of things. But I do make a big concerted effort to keep my network strong then because, you know, pays back in spades.

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It's so valuable because like obviously you can't be friends with everybody, but when you get that kind of core group around you, it's so valuable. Like the ripple effect that has. We talked downstairs and you mentioned a couple of things that have happened since we were together last. That's amazing that that ripple effect you have now on other people because people have helped you and now you're helping people along the chain. Like that comes back to you tenfold.

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I'm such a believer in that. And like, that's kind of my, a lot of the relationships I've built, like there's no expectation to get anything from them. Do you know, it's just, how can I help you? And actually, I do think when you go into it with that mindset, how can I actually help you? You know, excluding those mega, you know, business people for the most part, you know, kind of peer to peer stuff. How can I help you? And it always comes back in spades. Mm-hmm.

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And that was Jenny, the founder of Azure Communications. If you want to listen to the full episode, go back and listen to episode 458 of The Entrepreneur Experiment. You'll get that wherever you get your podcasts. If you're enjoying these mentor moments, make sure to follow and subscribe so you never miss a single episode. I'll see you back here in a couple of days.