Why the leaders chasing a legacy are the hardest to work with

Nikolas, thank you so much for having the opportunity for me to join you. I'm looking forward to our time together.

Absolutely. Thank you for that question. So I have had a long history with the Association Resource Center here. And actually my time as president has only been over the course of the last seven years. However, I have a 20 plus year history with the organization because I, at one point in time, with a previous job position, was a client partner of the then ownership of the Association Resource Center. So here at ARC, we are a professional full service management company specialized in associations, trade organizations, nonprofits, and foundations, especially here in the US context. But we also do have international membership and relationships around the globe. And it was interesting in 2019, I was going through some shifts and changes in career. And as I mentioned, had previously had a relationship with the owners and came on board as a consulting staff member, a senior executive, and and through that process got to know the work of the organization here more substantively. And then interestingly enough, what else do we do during a pandemic but purchase a company? The the previous owner was retiring and she and I had a conversation and she said, Would you be interested in owning? The business. And I said, wow, you know, this the world is shifting and changing, but absolutely excited to to have that opportunity. So today we are working with approximately 25 client partner organizations in ranging all different scopes of of professions and careers. And I have a team of 27. staff based throughout California and the Western United States that we have the opportunity to provide full service management. So that's how I got to be here at ARC. Right prior to that, earlier on in 2019, I also started a boutique consultancy built off of previous iterations of my career in wine and caviar and travel and luxury food. And so I still do some boutique consulting work in in those spaces. here in California, but again around the globe. So it's exciting to to share these stories with you.

How does it Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. So starting early on during my education, I was going to school for my undergraduate degree in the central part of California on the coast, which was a an up and coming wine region at that point in time, and started drinking wine just because it was close and accessible, but really started to gain an appreciation and a love and liking for it. And I then moved to Sacramento, which is where I am based currently. So in Northern California, the capital of California, and had the good opportunity and the good fortune to become a team member with the California Association of Wine Grape Growers. ultimately my position evolved and led me to become the vice president of state government relations, and I was doing educational program work and I was doing lobbying and advocacy on the part of wine grape growers throughout the state and also fostering and developing a national and international network of folks. And it really afforded me the chance to learn more about wine, hone in my my love and like for it. And it opened up additional doors for me and and ultimately became an executive for one of California's largest wine producing regions, wine grape growing producing regions. And and I got to, again, further enhance my love and experience, not of just wine. And I became educated in in through the Society of Wine Educators and the American Wine Society and and others, took formal education and then had the chance to work with wine grape growers and wineries. To do marketing and brand building and serve as an ambassador and spokesperson throughout the country. And ultimately, I was invited to speak in such places as Colombia and Mexico City and in Vancouver and Toronto, in Seoul, Korea and Taiwan, Singapore, and in Vietnam, and in throughout Europe. And so it's been an exciting time that when that opportunity came for me to start a consultancy, I was able to pair that experience in wine, along with having been the president of the largest caviar company for a brief time here in the Western Hemisphere. And so we really became well spoken in terms of being able to to work with others in terms of how to expand reach, how to talk about luxury products like wine and caviar, how to do risk assessments on farms, how to do regional brand building and marketing. And so that really broad diversity gave me an opportunity to work with folks all over the world. And I couldn't be more honored to be able to do

Yes, sir. Absolutely. And thank you for that question. Because in the work that we do here at the Association Resource Center, there are other management companies like us. And it is a shared services model in that rather than an organization or a trade association having its own overhead, its own burden of staff and location and rent and technology, we here are able to support a number of our client. partners by having folks come into a space where they do not have to worry about that burden and they can focus on programs and services that meet the mission of their organizations in such a way that we handle that overall management and all of that overhead perspective. And it really evolved and developed in a very organic way. It became recognized that inherently Client partners and leaders of organization want to have deep connections with the folks who are running and advocating for them and developing programs and services that meet their benefits. And so for us at ARC, we have a team approach in that every organization that we have the fortune to work with has a dedicated team, an executive, a finance person, a management or conference planner. we have a graphic design team, event and meeting planners, membership directors. And so folks have the opportunity to foster and develop relationships. But those teams, each one of those individual teams within our broader context, have the opportunity to share resources and experiences and mind share with other colleagues for other client partners. And so that's where we get that hundreds of years of collective experience because. All of our team members work together and really can share ideas. And it's exciting. We could be sitting in our offices and people are saying, Hey Jude, have you experienced this? No, Bettina, have you seen this? Carl, have you done this? And we can share those ideas. So you're not isolated in your business operations, but you're gathering expertise and connections and relationships and knowledge. that makes your experience as a as an association or as a leader that much more rich and robust.

Absolutely. And that's a great question. And I think it's one that continues to evolve and evolve on a faster and faster pace every day. AI is a tool and is a resource, not for not just for any of us as individuals or any of us as as businesses standalone, but it's in the work that we do in terms of being able to look at and and say there are efficiencies that we can gain in our planning. There's efficiencies that we can begin to draw upon in terms of of writing and connections and communication tools, of scheduling and creating workspaces that afford us to be able to free up to more quickly respond to the needs of the constituents or of our members' organizations. And we really are excited about continuing to learn and continuing to evolve. Now that doesn't mean that it's all simple and easy. There's always pitfalls or or hiccups and hurdles to overcome in the context of AI. But I think that's for the the case for any of us. And so we as a business, as an organization, working with multiple clients and multiple organizations and multiple individuals around the world have the opportunity to learn and collectively grow and experience AI and the richness that can come from creating space of efficiency and work to meet the needs of our organizations.

That is a really phenomenal question. And the the core of what it is, is that relationships and people matter. We are in a very people-oriented business and in a very people-oriented mindset. And fostering relationships, not only for the work that we're doing today, whether that be internal or in our collaborations and work with our volunteer leaders for the organizations. Or with the individual members that we work with, those relationships matter. And that collaboration between our individual expertise and the work that we do as association leaders and the work that the volunteer leaders of a respective organization do. Here's an example: folks who are working in municipal information systems. Or as floral designers or occupational therapists as an example, those are areas that we do not have expertise in because those are the fields that those folks that we have the good fortune to work with have the expertise in. But we have our experience and expertise in operating organizations, in leadership development, in governance, in liability mitigation, in event planning. So when we create that relationship where there's a symbiotic, Connection and collaborative perspective between the volunteer leaders and the staff management, that is where good things can happen. Now, relationships, as I said, matter, but there's also challenges inherent in that because sometimes volunteers ascend into leadership positions within an organization and have a false sense of entitlement or power or authority. That then steps into a space of either micromanagement or usurping their proper roles and trying to stake a claim in, for lack of a better term, legacy. Legacy should not be tied to an individual's ego. It should be tied in what the good work that is being done for the collective of the membership, which is working in collaboration and fostering that relationship. Between your peers as well as the management and staff team that you have the chance to work with. That's where true legacies are built, when good things happen, because relationships have been strong and egos have been set aside and everybody works collaboratively together. So to your question, and I know that was a really long answer, but relationships and the people connections matter.

Mikulos, that's a good point. And if I may, that that kind of relationship piece is also an interesting connection and tie into fostering a network in a broader community, both professionally and personally. I think the pandemic really taught us in so many ways that there are tools and technology that allow us to connect, much like podcasts or Zoom or Teams or or what have you. And yet at the same time, many people sit behind a screen or behind their phone or a text message, and they don't take the opportunity to have a face-to-face or even over Zoom or a connection like this in such a way that it takes that personality and it takes that relationship out of it, and it becomes so much more transactional without fostering community and connection. And so What you're doing is is creating platforms and is creating spaces for people to connect and grow and foster good things together. And I think that that definitely is something to be commended for.

That is a fantastic question. And I don't know if it's just one thing, but I do think it is is a combination of of many. And and it is really kind of something that I just touched on. And that is is to address the space of ego in in folks' work on both sides of the coin. Whether it's the client, partner that we're working with, or an individual leader, as well as on the staff side, we all have to remember that we are people and there's a shared humanity and a shared commonality behind what we're all trying to do. And that is that nobody is out to harm another person directly. We're all trying to work collectively, and we're all trying to to build momentum and progress. And we need to respect each other's roles in doing so. And if I could change one thing, it would be to set aside people's egos and recognize and respect that we are all looking and trying to get to the same peak in the mountain. We're all trying to get to the same point of the top of the pinnacle of success, but we're just potentially looking at how do we get around it together. And oftentimes the pathway up the mountain requires a team approach. Not any one person can do it alone. And so for me, it's about ensuring that there's mutual respect and mutual collaboration in the work that we do and ensuring that that is shared across everybody. And I think that gives us an opportunity potentially to be successful, not only with the folks that we're working with today, but with the prospective folks that we have the opportunity to work with into the future.

10 years ago. That's a good question because I definitely would not have thought that I would be sitting in this seat ten years ago. At that point in time, I had the good fortune of running Sterling Caviar, which was the largest, as I mentioned, caviar company in the Western hemisphere. We farm raised all of our own sturgeon and we were moving quickly in terms of. opportunities for growth and development. And if I if I had anything, I would have, I would have shared in that moment something that I have learned over the course of the last decade. And that is be open, be open to experiences, be open to conversations, be open to meeting more new people than you ever expect, because you never ever know where the world is going to take you. And you never ever know what the relationships are going to develop and how they're going to come together. Not to mention the fact that there are folks that you are meeting today, that you may not, or you may have briefly met 10, 15, 20 years ago, or that you may not meet again for another 10, 15, 20 years. But be open to making new connections, be opening to having new experiences and those growth. opportunities, whether they be professional or personal, enrich your life. And so if I had I given myself that space more substantively 10 years ago, I probably would have learned even more over the course of the last 10 years than I already had the opportunity to do.

And you know, the world is a small place. And and I believe that this connection, these kinds of connections, connections via Zoom and Teams or on our phones, it shrinks the world to an even smaller space and an even smaller place that gives us the chance to really recognize that we have shared humanity and shared work and shared experiences. And when we can foster those and grow those together, the world becomes even smaller and we are even more connected and we have opportunities to do even more together. And so, you know, connect with people, connect with people all over the world, connect with people wherever they may be, and your work gets to be enhanced and developed even further. And so it's a good thing. I I so appreciate what you're doing because you are bringing the world together.

That's a good that's a really good question as well. You're asking some phenomenal questions, Mukulas. I I think that the future is constantly evolving and it's constantly developing in front of us. And and so do I make plans? Of course I do. Do I see growth opportunity and potential in in the work that we do? Absolutely. There are societal pressures. There are inter national and global and political pressures that that may shift and change the work that we do or how we approach things and how we look at things. Those seem to happen on a more instantaneous basis. But truthfully, the future is unfolding. And for me, I like to approach the future as not necessarily a hard and fast plan, but again to what I was sharing. I'm open to the conversations. I'm open to meeting new people. I'm open for the business to explore new avenues and new spaces of how can we work together, of how can we make new connections and how can we bring a stronger possibility of collaboration, because that is truly the essence of where good things happen. And so for me, I can't give you a specific answer of what the future holds, but I'm really excited for the opportunities that it does.

Appreciate you asking. and and I think the the easiest ways to connect with me are through any of of some of the social media platforms, such as LinkedIn. I my profile is on there as Cameron King. please feel free to reach out, connect through me, or with me through that platform. You can also connect with me through our websites. our the Association Resource Center is www. for the number four arc.com. So again, for arc.com or Oakwood Strategic, my consultancy, which is www.oakwoodstrategic.net. Again, that one's oakwoodstrategic.net. I would gladly connect with anyone at any point in time through any of those channels and and explore ways that we can collaborate and work together.

Mikulas, thank you so much again for the opportunity. It's been a pleasure to be with you here today and look forward to great things to come.