In November 2024, we held the first TEDx Third Ward organizing meeting in the common area of my apartment building. Most of the people in that room never made it to the part everybody saw.
I keep attendance records for every meeting I hold. Whether you sign in or not, either I’m taking attendance or somebody on my team is. I want to know who came, who I need to follow up with, and who said they were going to do what. If you’ve ever tried to get a group of people to finish something, you understand.
I’d estimate about 90 percent of the people at that first meeting eventually stopped participating. A much smaller group kept building.
We held our first event in March 2025. By June 2026, we had put 82 people on the red dot TEDx stage. Our June event sold roughly 600 tickets and grossed about $48,000.
But while we were putting together those events, we were also finding out who we could build the next thing with.
People brought time, resources, relationships and expertise. Some put their names behind the work before there was much to show for it. We learned who could take responsibility for something and handle it. Whose judgment we trusted. Who would follow through.
Eventually, another idea comes along and you already know who to call.
That saves a whole lot of explaining.
I asked Marcus Davis if we could use Kulture to host our Houston Power Breakfast. He said yes.
Now, I can’t tell you every reason he said yes. But we’ve worked together before, and I suspect that helped. He knows I’m going to come correct. I’m going to do what I said I was going to do. He has some experience with me to go on.
That’s a different conversation from introducing yourself and asking somebody to take your word for it.
Then, while planning our get-out-the-vote postcards, we held a listening session and brainstormed recognizable people who might reach voters who don’t regularly participate. Marcus came up. So we asked if we could use his face on a postcard.
Same relationship. Another way to work together.
This is what I mean when I talk about building your deck.
Who do you know who will put their name behind something you’re doing? Who will make the introduction, knowing their credibility goes with it? Who trusts you to show up on time and carry the ball down the field?
And what have you done to give them that confidence?
You can have some very impressive names in your phone and still have to introduce yourself every time you call.
The people who kept building with me developed more influence because we had actual experience together. They helped make the decisions that got us here.
Sometimes people see that and think somebody is getting special treatment. They didn’t see everything that made that person the first call.
You’re allowed to pass on an opportunity. But the people who accept it are allowed to keep moving. You can return with something valuable to contribute. You cannot expect the relationship to pick up as though you were there for all the work.
Trust takes time. Somebody else has been putting in that time.
And before we spend the whole conversation evaluating everybody else, what is it like to work with you?
When you take responsibility for something, can the other person stop worrying about it? Do you make introductions when you don’t need anything? When you say, “Let me know how I can help,” are you hoping they actually will?
I have to ask myself those questions, too.
After years of bringing people together, I’m starting to think the most valuable thing I’ve built may be the relationships that make the next idea possible. People who know what they can call one another for.
Start building your deck. Think about what you want to do and which abilities you’re missing. Reach out to somebody you could build with. Find out what they’re working on. Offer to handle something specific, and then handle it.
Give somebody an experience with you that makes calling you again an easy decision.
Because while you’re deciding who belongs in your deck, somebody else is deciding whether you belong in theirs.