EP346: Elevate Your Career With The Right Connections With Dr. Crystal G. Morrison | Meerkat Village

Stacy Jones: Welcome to marking mistakes and how to avoid them. I’m Stacey Jones and I’m. So happy to be here with you all today, and I want to give a very warm welcome to Dr. Crystal Morrison.Crystal is the co-founder and CEO of Meerkat village, a software company focused on leveraging technology to promote social and emotional wellness for children and families. She is highly regarded as an executive adviser, strategist, leader, scientist, and tech entrepreneur across numerous industries. She’s also a speaker in Tedx as a mom of an artistic child and adopted children, who experienced extreme poverty and trauma. She spent almost years navigating the complex system of care and advocating for her children that frustration that millions of other parents and caregivers space inspired her to co-found her software company to improve outcome for children with social, emotional, behavioral and medical needs.

Today crystal and are going to be chatting about your ability to network and build relationships that will build your business, help, drive your career, and ensure you. Bring, like-minded partners who are able to actually deliverto help you achieve your goals. We’ll learn what works from Crystals perspective, what should be avoided, and how some businesses and individuals just miss the mark.

Welcome. So happy to have you here today.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Thank you, Stacey. So happy to be here.

Stacy Jones: Well, I always love starting off. How did you get here today? And I, in your introduction, provided a glimpse of what actually set you on this path of where you are today. But what truly did I mean? There was a lot to go from being a mother of an autistic children, a child to founding a software company to help millions of other parents.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Yeah, the this is a a journey that’s really interesting, and it’s it’s certainly not a traditional journey to entrepreneurship. As you saw from my background. I’m a scientist by training, and I was an R. And D. Leader for a really long time, and there was nothing that I enjoy more than bringing together a lot of smart people from different backgrounds to tackle really really tough problems. I mean that’s my jam. I love doing that.

And when it came to you know my professional life, I was doing that and and enjoyed it very much. It’s growing my family at the same time, and there was some very, very big challenges I was. I was facing as a mom and trying to parent my children, and all that have some very different but significant needs. And so it kind of became that.

Okay, who are the rock stars? I know that I need to bring together to help me solve this challenge in my personal life. And that’s what ultimately led to me creating and and founding. Meerkat village is bringing together people like myself who who wanted to address this challenge, but also had different skill. Sets that were necessary to you know, bring a product in a and a tech product, soft piece of software to market. So really. What you’re doing, you’re taking that, you know, phrase it takes a village to a whole new level, all new level. Yeah.

Stacy Jones: So how did you get started when you were doing this? I mean, did you just say, okay, i’m going to do it. You’ve already mentioned that you found other partners to come on board. But how did you go about networking and building those relationships to actually make that happen.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Yeah, so it’s it’s definitely been a journey, my co-founder, Dan Richardson, and I when we, when we, you know, have the idea for Meerkat village, You know, neither of us are software developers. Neither of us have any experience in product design or Ui ux. And so you know, I really started working my network asking around about people in my network who had this type of experience asking for referrals to different software development companies. And that’s kind of where I started is recognizing. Okay, there’s a tech product that I have here. You know who who are the people that have experience in LED tech software or software for social services, or have an understanding of the education system and the types of products that should be. You know, things that need to be taken into account when developing products. And so I started, you know, looking into my network at that time, trying to find people with that background to at least talk to first and get some direction.

Stacy Jones: And so here you do. You have all these people you’re like? Yes, we believe we’re going to help give you insight. How do you actually do the lift of getting this off the ground and going?

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Well, that has been a and a half year lift. And, it’s been a lift that has involved several starts and stops and figuring out that the team that I had really didn’t have the right skill set, after all, and I needed to, you know, find different people with it a slightly different type of skill set more depth in different areas. And so it’s not then a linear path by any means at all. It’s been a, you know, incredible learning process along the way, which I think is the case for many business owners and entrepreneurs. But it’s all been around. You know, really understanding what are the gaps in the team, maybe learning what the gaps in the team are. And and how do I find the right people with the right skill set that are going to, you know, ultimately help move this forward. So it’s been a lot about people. It’s been about people and skill set and knowledge, and also their alignment with the overall mission

Stacy Jones: made comments in here where some of the some of that village you brought on wasn’t the right fit. How did you then? So out, and how do you now? So out whether someone is a potentially good partner for you.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Yeah, I think it’s the it’s the alignment. What with the overall mission, you know, really understanding that our goal is to transform outcomes for millions of children and that the way that we’re going to do that is by building a really quality piece of technology with our customers at the forefront. But that that individual has to believe in the mission first and foremost, to be aligned with the mission, and and oftentimes has a really personal connection to the mission.

You know, in in times where maybe people haven’t been the right fit, it’s been that they really understand the technology piece. But, they’re just. They’re not as committed because they don’t quite buy with the mission or it doesn’t mean as much to them personally. And so I think you know the way that we really look for partners and and people that are going to join our team is, you know, are they first and foremost aligned with the mission, in addition to having the right skill set that are necessary to move the business forward.
And with this, you know, you’re building something that a lot of people have a lot of personal feelings about and to support.

Stacy Jones: and a lot of times in relationships, in business or personal life when you share your story. I’m assuming, because I know this for me, that and someone buys into it, and they buy into the big picture of what you’re painting, right? Not necessarily actually buying into the doing that he was an entrepreneur are very solution oriented and progress oriented. So what I’ve seen happen with a lot of nonprofits and a lot of businesses that kind of are a self scrapper there if you get a lot of good intent. But you don’t necessarily get the follow through always that you need. And then, all of a sudden, you have a ton of people who are hanging on and needing your attention.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: but they’re not actually driving results. Is that what you’ve experienced? You’re right. You’re right. There’s a lot of people that identify with the mission, and they may have great skill. Sets that are are very much what we need, but they’re not the best at executing. They’re not the best at following through and you know when it when it comes to creating a business and a start up. Especially when you’re small. To begin with, it becomes painfully obvious. You know who’s not pulling their end of the deal early on, and so that becomes a little easier to us out when you’re smaller, because you’re either getting it done, or you’re not, or you’re getting it done, and the quality of your work is is rather mediocre and so that becomes painfully obvious early on. And when you have such a small team, if someone’s not. You know performing, then it it impacts the the rest of the team really, really significantly.

Stacy Jones: that becomes pretty obvious because you still have to hit certain goals, and some of them do the work. So now you’re just putting a lot more on the plates of those who are willing to step up and take the work while someone else might not be.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: That’s right, that’s right, and you know I am fortunate, though, that that with the team we have we’ve we definitely been able to quickly identify. You know, who who’s not executing, and it has meant that additional work has fallen on to some other folks. But we’ve been able to make changes, especially changes over the past year to to remedy that pretty quickly, so we certainly don’t allow that to continue for an extensive period of time.

Stacy Jones: Well, I would say that this little bump that you’re experiencing. So I’ve been in business for years as an agencies, you know. Small business it still exists Every I have of every size. It still exists. It’s just more when you’re growing in your entry that you’re trying to stabilize. So you know kudos to you. It’ll keep on. It will improve always. It always improves for everyone, for our as well. And so how have you tackled the ability to continue building relationships as you have started expanding and found yourself working on lots of different projects, because networking is not easy to make time to do.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: You’re absolutely correct. It’s not. It’s not easy, and you know, I think I think a lot of people believe that networking is is going to the you know local networking hour and and spending an hour glad handing and exchanging business cards. And yes, that’s absolutely part of it. It’s absolutely part of of what networking is. But a lot of people feel like networking. Is somehow this like uncomfortable, sleazy sort of thing, and I would just encourage everybody to sort of ban that perspective from from their mentality, because networking is a way street. You know you you give, and you also receive. And networking has to come from a place of really being genuine and desiring. You know, people in your life that are going to enrich your life, and you likewise are going to be able to enrich their life.

So it’s not. It’s not a rolodex. It’s not a stack of business cards. It’s building and cultivating people in your life that are resources to you, and you can be resources to them, and networking can be, you know, can look like asking a friend for specific references for people that have Xyz experience or saying, hey, do you know anyone that might have a connection to this, or it gets a very. It can be a very natural sort of thing as opposed to a specific hour. Long Event

Stacy Jones: is also about just finding something of value that you can serve with someone else versus just being a taker in general. I think that’s the big thing with networking.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Exactly. And it’s also about being a connector. You know. Once you really build your network of people, you provide a tremendous amount of value by being a connector, a broker, you know, is by simply saying, oh, that’s a great idea. I think I know someone I can connect you with that has tremendous value. And so again, it’s not just about being a taker. It’s about giving also. And as you grow in your career and you grow your network, it becomes a little bit easier to give, but it’s certainly something that you need to expect to spend time and effort on as part of cultivating your network.

Stacy Jones: And so where you think people go wrong, you know we’ve touched a little bit on it. But what are the big, you know, red glaring flags that you typically notice when networking is not done in the right way.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: I think where people go wrong is assuming that it’s. Networking is all about taking. That is always where where people go wrong. They they assume that they’re going to network, and they are going to get value out of it, and they are going to have specific conversations that benefit them, and that’s where they go wrong, because, you know, people start to figure out if you are only a taker. And the people that you’re talking to may need references or a referrals, or may need to build their own contacts as well. So you have to go into it with a way street, and that’s where people go wrong. Over and over again.

Stacy Jones: I think another add on to that is, you never know when you’re networking and how it’s going, how you’re going to network in the future. And when i’m saying, this is. You’re at a job and you’re leaving a job. Well, you’ve just left a network of people that you’ve been very plugged into. And so, however, you leave that job and and forget about the company you’re leaving like, whether they’re heinous or not. You know how you leave with Grace is really important, because again, the companies heinous companies, heinous, but your coworkers that you were working with weren’t necessarily, and you’re departing, is going to dump a lot of stuff onto their lapse, and I see this at businesses frequently where someone, you know pulls the plug and leaves, and even if they were the glowing, shiny, awesome employee beforehand, they’re out that door, and then everyone let is left with like a bad taste, because they’re all trying to like hustle and figure things out

So, that’s part of like it’s a weird way of when i’m saying networking. But think about the network you have throughout your life. If the decisions you’re making, and how you can best support. Make yourself available Plug in again. Not necessarily for the company, but maybe for those employees you used to work With that you could answer questions and provide lift for, even if you’re gone from that company.

And it’s looking at that right. And and you know, Stacy, one of the things you were talking about is you’re leaving a company, but you know so many times people leave a company, but they’re still staying in the same industry. They’re still staying in the same industry. And so.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: even if you’re departing a company, or maybe you haven’t been happy at. You might be staying in the same industry, and you need to continue to, you know, maintain your relationships at that company, continue to cultivate them and and create new relationships in the broader industry. It doesn’t mean that you know you’re you’re setting on fire all your relationships that came before.

Stacy Jones: And so what else? Where are other areas that people make mistakes with networking?

Dr. Crystal Morrison: I think other areas that that people really make mistakes with networking is is not following up. And you know, being a % transparent. This is something I diligently try to do, and sometimes I I don’t do as well as I should, but it’s that follow up. It’s making you know, meeting that person at an event, or meeting that person through a mutual connection, and, you know, agreeing to have a follow on phone call, or to meet for coffee or to introduce them to someone else. And you know, % of the time I am on it, and I I follow through. Sometimes things slip through the cracks. But I think that big mistake is never following through on on what you committed to when you met that person or were introduced.

Stacy Jones: Yeah. And then, and that is something that you even brought up before where the issue is. A lot of people have great vision, great interest. They they want to do the big thing, and they they’re very good, and it’s very easy to commit yourself and say, oh, I can do this and this and this, or I’ll introduce you to this and this and this. But will you?

Dr. Crystal Morrison: That’s always the question that that is always the question, and I I know I have been frustrated by you know people who I I’ve met, who committed to do all sorts of things, and I I never hear from them again, and you know, and then then you realize that that’s sort of their pattern, and that’s just. You know their mo, but that’s not the person that I want to be, and it’s certainly when you’re you’re building your network and your you know, really building that two-way street of give and take. You have to follow through. You have to follow through.

Stacy Jones: And then so where are other areas that people make mistakes? I think that one area that that people do make mistakes in is a is also, you know we we tend to use links and a lot I I I love linkedin I’ve used linkedin for years.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: One of the things that I actually miss about Linkedin is that like really quality of personal connections, you know, nowadays you get lots and lots of really cold inquiries and linkedin, and there’s a time and a place for that. I don’t. I don’t discount that at all. But I think that one of the things that people make the mistake of is doing really, really cold, uneducated, outbound on platforms like linkedin, and then really missing the mark altogether.

Stacy Jones: I think that’s a major mistake that people make by not doing, you know, really educated, thoughtful, outbound in in building their network and building their presence for their companies is just, you know, Flood, and really terrible cold, outbound to all sorts of different connections that are really not interested in in knowing anything about them. That’s another huge mistake that I think people are making time and time again.

And then are there any other things that you see with the relationship building that people are just off the rockers about.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Let’s see other things. I see, you know again, are are, I think, related to this idea of cold outbound, and I know everybody has an opinion, but I think that some people are pretty off the rockers about sending. You know these these corny pictures with a a whiteboard of hey Crystal. I’d love to chat with you, and like I’ve never met a person a time in my life, you know. I think that’s a very, very, very corny example of not doing your research and being educated and and really failing to develop a network and cultivate a network as opposed to just sending out a lot of garbage. I mean, I I think that’s a a huge mistake.

Stacy Jones: It’s it’s hard, I think, when you’re in it when you’re like. I have such a valuable message. If I can just let so many people know I can help them so much. I’ll make money in the meantime, from doing. That is a very different position to be coming from versus oh, I actually think I have a solution for this person. Maybe i’m just going to reach out check in. See how they’re doing. And go from there. But I will tell you from someone who has. I think I have over , followers are on linkedin. It’s a lot. I get a lot of linkedin just solicited. Sure. It is like the garbage that comes through. You’re right like that is so, spammy.

And it takes something that is really actually relevant to me to stand out for me. I want to, respond

Dr. Crystal Morrison: agreed agreed. And I do kind of miss those those early days of Linkedin, because I still like to message people on linkedin people that I know people that you know I want to stay in contact with even new connections or people that I’m reaching out to that like legitimately. I I would like to build a relationship with, and I know because I experience it on the other side, that they’re either not seeing my message or it’s diluted by a lot of garbage. And so that that actually makes me kind of had, because I know, like I I just want to touch base with you. I just want to see how things are going, and you know so many times you may not have the most up to date email address for someone. And so linkedin’s a perfect way to to reach out. But then you know that they’re also getting a lot of spammy stuff, and they may just naturally not not see see your message.

Stacy Jones: and I think Linkedin is what they’re trying to promote is, instead of all the scaming messages, especially now that you can, you know, get duck soup, or you can get all these different platforms, or you can hire any of the , people who are now filling my linkedin in box, asking if they can solicit other people on Linkedin, on my behalf.

And all I’m sitting here is going. Oh, my God! Linkedin is just going to become like the haven of spammers. But if you actually respond to what people post and make comments to what people post, that is actually an easier way of networking. And if you did that a little bit with some targeted potential clients or people that you’re trying to partner with, and then you sent an email or a linked into them. It’s gonna be a lot more receptive because you can say, hey, I’ve been following. I really think that what you’ve been saying about this is smart. I see a couple of alignments, and I have a thought would love to chat with you, and You’ve now kind of built up that person like people don’t sit there and like, and comment all that much on linkedin it’s not like You’re a brilliant all over the place. so you will stand out and you’ll get noticed, and that people will have maybe a little either guilt that. Oh, well, this person’s invested in all of the things that I’ve commented on and supporting me. Maybe I can invest in at least responding to their linkedin message.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Exactly. And that’s a fantastic suggestion, because it is it is back to that element of some sort of like genuine time taken to be thoughtful and understand what that person’s talking about, understand what their message is. Understand, if they really may have a connection to what you’re offering, or the reason behind why you want to chat with them, it’s back to that sort of like genuine relationship building. You know, and and I you know, I firmly, you know I totally agree, you know, if people have been following me, and in providing feedback on what I’m doing or sharing it with other people. I’m much more likely to respond in in their name, to kind of resonate with me than if it’s just, you know. Emails or linkedin messages to message box.

Stacy Jones: and then. So you know you’ve worked now with all these different people. You know. How do you, when and this is going back to an earlier conversation that we were having?

How do you move people along when, especially if you’re a startup, and maybe you’re hopeful, or people feel that they’re investing some of their time and more value than the dollars that you’re paying them in exchange.

How do you shuffle through that so that you can keep the runway clear for you to be making success versus growing yourself and things that don’t actually move.

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Yeah. So what are the things that there are different things that I find that that work pretty well? I find when i’m transparent with the team about what i’m working on it. It helps a lot, because i’m demonstrating to them that i’m being transparent to them about the different types of things that i’m working on this week.

That I am being transparent about that. But i’m putting it out there so that I am accountable to them for what I say that i’m going to do, and I find by doing that and sort of leading by example, it makes them feel obligated to be a bit more transparent on what their commitments are for that week, and staying accountable to following through on those commitments. I find that modeling, that sort of transparency and accountability is really effective for moving things forward, keeping people accountable, and also showing them what good looks like, what good leadership looks like. So I find that to be really helpful. And then I also, you know, when we’re encountering road blocks, or maybe things are not moving as fast as they need to, or one teams inability to move something forward is having an impact on another team’s ability to move some something forward.

I like to. I like to illustrate very clearly how that is impacting something else. And so by simply saying, because we can’t address this challenge in a timely manner, it’s having this impact on our ability to market and sell the products to this group of people, so that sometimes, as obvious as that is. It’s not always obvious right to people. They just see in front of them that they have a roadblock, and they don’t understand how to get around it. And the other team just sees in front of them that they can’t meet their deliverable, not really understanding how one is really impacting the other. And so sometimes, while I might think it’s obvious while other people may think it’s obvious. You need to very clearly state that so that everyone understands the impact of of not following through, and how that impacts other operations, and I find that to also be a really good way to demonstrate, You know, leadership also transparency and accountability, and and then move the team forward.

Stacy Jones: And then how can people find more out about Meerkat?

Dr. Crystal Morrison: Yeah. So everyone can check out our [email protected]. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. So that’s the best way to find out basic information about our platform. And yeah, welcome anyone who’s interested to also reach out to me directly.

Stacy Jones: And do you have any other, as you know, a a business founder? And I always like, you know, diving into this. Okay? What do you think are a couple of the most important lessons you have learned along the way on your path?

Dr. Crystal Morrison: I think Lesson number One is again the power of of finding the right people, and with that comes also the knowledge that you, me and most founders are not experts, and everything that’s required to make a business successful. I know what i’m good at, and I also know what i’m really really bad at. And it’s part part of that self awareness is understanding the people that you need to to seek out, and so finding the right people, I think. is number one number . Some of the you know one of the other mistakes that I’ve made is let me take this back. I’m not there with i’m not sure if this is a mistake or not, but I have been painfully naive at times painfully naive at time, and i’m going to just say that I think the entrepreneurial mindset requires naivete because you’re not.

Stacy Jones: Then there’s no way in hell that you’re going to embark on this uphill battle. You’re so boulder on your rat rock back that keeps on not just ruling down, but rolling your body down with it over and over again. I agree that’s why it started to say it was a a a mistake. But at the same time that naivete has been

Dr. Crystal Morrison: probably what’s kept me, you know, pushing that boulder uphill longer.

And so that’s why I corrected myself absolutely that you like self punishment. I mean, you know. Let’s just say that you’re more into naivete than you know the other. Yeah, I think I think i’m more into like I love a challenge. It’s true. I love a really tough challenge back to where we started. I love finding people to help tackle that challenge with me. That’s my jam. That’s what I enjoy.

and and it goes back to that mistake, you know, not finding those people is one of the mistakes I’ve I’ve made, and one of the reasons it’s taken me. Probably a little bit longer, but it’s also taught me a lot of lessons along the way as well.

Stacy Jones: Well, I would just wanna say, Crystal, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights and wisdom about relationships and networking, and I wanted to say congratulations on finding your success in establishing not so easy a software platform that is actually answering the needs of millions of parents

Dr. Crystal Morrison: everywhere. That’s correct. Yes, thank you.

Stacy Jones: of course. And to all of our listeners. Thank you again for tuning in to another episode of marketing mistakes, and how to avoid them. I look forward to chatting with you this next week, and until then, if you have any questions about how you can better leverage your own brand in other people’s content. Say through what my agency offers, that Hollywood branded with product, placement, and influencer marketing or celebrity endorsements reach out. My team is happy to have a chat. Have a great one. and well.