23/40 - Profiling

You never know where or when the opportunity to learn a skill that will change the way you think about the world will present itself, but you have to keep your eyes open. That was the case for me when I moved into 1302 Todd Trail my Senior Year at Texas A&M University.  

Looking back on that move now, I am not sure exactly why my roommate and I decided to move out of our two-bedroom apartment and into a four-bedroom house with three guys we didn't know. But I am really glad we did. The Men of 1302 became the stuff of legends in our extended college social circles and some of us are still building things together in 2022.

The house at 1302 Todd Trail was owned by the Korem family and their two sons, Erik and Luke, "managed" it. When I moved in at the beginning of my Senior year, Luke was a wedding videographer in his Junior year and Erik was coming back for his final season of eligibility for the Texas A&M Football team. Erik was up early and home late every day with football and was finally getting the attention of the coaches after 5 years on the team (think Rudy.)

The unexpected turn happened when I met Erik and Luke's parents, Dan and Sandy. They came down most home game weekends to watch to see if Erik got some playing time.  They were incredibly nice and always brought the best food to stock the fridge (Sandy owns the best catering company in Dallas.)

After a couple of times of meeting them, I'd realized that the big poster on our dining room wall was of a book that Dan had written.  I found a copy laying around and started to read it. It was really interesting and something that I'd never thought about before. After I finished it, I was really intrigued and I asked him about it the next time that they came down.  

I learned that Dan had been a magician in his early career and then an investigative journalist. He told me how he'd broken a huge case and caught the attention of a worldwide leadership group for corporate executives who wanted to know how he knew the subject of his case was lying.  Dan explained the things he'd picked up on when interviewing the guy and said he noticed a pattern that he was able to uncover and get the guy to play into. The executives were intrigued, could that same kind of pattern recognition be used in interviewing potential hires or working with outside partners? When people do a Myers Briggs test, they know they are being evaluated - could a profiling system be created to make decisive reads on people without their participation? And so the Korem Profiling System was created.

Over the course of the next few months, whenever Dan and Sandy came down to watch Erik play football, I would end up chatting about profiling with Dan. I got so into it that I would practice on people in my classes and at my internship and run my reads past Dan for his feedback. He helped me think through better framing and better reads and then I went back out and tried it again.

After graduation, I actually started traveling with Dan and doing profiling workshops and seminars with him explaining how I was using it in my career as a young sales guy and having outsized results. Dan had helped me break down my sales process into different moments where I could take a read on people and how to use specific reads to maneuver myself and my selling process into a more successful outcome. My mentors at my office couldn't understand how I was getting the results that I was, but they were happy and that was enough for me.

Learning how to profile people on the fly and make snap decisions about who I am speaking with, how they like to communicate, and how they are likely to make decisions is a skill that has unlocked so many new opportunities and allowed me to deepen connections quickly to a mutually exciting outcome. It all started by skipping a few Saturday nights out in college and staying home with my roommates' dad, but it has been one of the most important skills that I've learned along the way.