Resilience & Networking: Unlocking Success with Myron Welik

Martin Rowinski (00:02.798)
Welcome to another episode of Leadership Talks. I’m your host, Martin Rowinski And today we have the pleasure of speaking with Myron Welick a business development expert known as the Jack Hammer. Myron has an impressive track record of building strategic relationships and securing high profile partnerships. He is currently the head of strategic partnerships at Evolve.

Myron Welik (00:09.066)
Zero.

Martin Rowinski (00:31.918)
telemedicine and has successfully facilitated over 40 million in real estate investments through his consulting work. Myron’s journey is a testament to resilience and reinvention, having bounced back from losing a multimillion dollar business to becoming a sought after consultant and author of The Jackhammer Effect. Join us as we delve into Myron’s unique approach to business development and his relentless drive to make deals.

happen. Welcome, Jack Hammer.

Myron Welik (01:05.281)
I had to look around, see who you were talking about for a moment there, you know? I had to say, who’s Martin talking about? Well, it’s an honor and pleasure to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Martin Rowinski (01:08.782)
Talking about D Jack Hammer

Martin Rowinski (01:17.992)
Absolutely. So happy to have you here and dive right into it. I know we’ll knock this out before your next big appointment for a partnership. So Myron, you’ve built a reputation for breaking down doors and building strategic partnerships. What are the key elements that make a strategic partnership successful and how do you identify and approach potential partners?

Myron Welik (01:22.325)
Yeah.

Myron Welik (01:43.573)
Great question, as the cliche goes. know, first and foremost, to use the cliche, it’s got to be a win -win. So you got to bring something to the table that that potential partner wants and vice versa. I’ll give you a very graphic example for you and your audience. When I created a partnership with Heidi Klum, you know, everybody’s heard of Heidi Klum, I’m sure, from America Got Talent and a quite well -known model, entrepreneur, brilliant woman, and the New Balance Running Shoe Company, which is a multi -billion dollar privately held

running shoe and apparel company in 2012, I think, or 2013, 2014. Well, at that point, this is an example that applies to across all industries, all products, all services, any potential strategic partnership. They wanted to go after the woman, the female customer. They were doing a lousy job in apparel. They do a brilliant job in running shoes, as we know, absolutely brilliant.

quality, absolutely right, but low key. But they were doing really nothing, not even, not much minimal in terms of creating a force that would attract and excite women, particularly to their power. And at that time, the big retail company, Lululemon was exploding. People sure have heard of them. Everybody and anybody who could.

Martin Rowinski (03:05.24)
Yeah.

Myron Welik (03:08.287)
imitated them, Nike, Adidas, all the big athletic companies correctly. So, and the explosion of fashionable, fashionable but practical women’s apparel for the gym, for every different athletic activity, literally exploded in the sky. And I knew that the people I was working with, Martin had the world rights, which helped to Heidi Klug.

She had just finished her pregnancy with, with CL. She was married to him at that time. She’s not, of course, now. And, and they were looking for another opportunity, obviously. And so I came up with the idea. I felt that she would be a perfect opportunity for a potential match, to put her name because she was well known even back then, but 12 years ago, not that far ago, long ago, for apparel and, for, running shoes and for apparel. And Dubal has had a tremendous quality. So I thought it could be a good match. So.

Martin Rowinski (03:37.443)
Nice.

Myron Welik (04:06.869)
I presented to Heidi and a few other people who were involved. They loved the idea. They said, go for it. Knowing me, they know I didn’t know anybody. I knew nobody there. Unfortunately, I do everything the hard way, literally. I mean, that’s easy if you do, right? So if you know Taylor Swift, you can get anywhere, right? I don’t know anything. So there’s no soft introduction to anything, unfortunately. So I said, how about New Balance? And of course, Heidi and others said, who is my… They just assumed I know somebody. I didn’t.

But anyways, so they said, okay, let’s go for it. And so I did my research, I did my homework. I saw that there was a need on New Balance’s part. I saw it was a great opportunity for Heidi Kuhl. I did approach people like Adidas and Nike because they were already doing a phenomenal job, Martin. And it was like talking to God. They were doing $33 billion and they were a public company. And I wouldn’t live that long if I would try to get in touch with some of them. Literally. So yes, you’re shooting in the dark.

Martin Rowinski (04:59.906)
You

Myron Welik (05:04.043)
But you got to shoot intelligently, smartly, strategically, because a lot of it’s perseverance, redundancy, and not taking it personally. So I only say this to answer your question along with it is that I have to do my research, have to do your homework and come up with a reason why both people might want to get together. So they address the same customer, but with different products and services that would radically enhance both opportunity, ultimately, in many different ways.

but ultimately to do more profitable business. That can come many different ways. It can come online, offline. It can come exposures. It can come new territory, new customers. It comes in many different ways, the byproduct, but ultimately that’s the goal. Otherwise, why do it? Even nonprofit needs to find partners because they need to raise money or they can’t survive. So that’s the basis of it. When I reached out to people like…

Madison Square Gardens in New York and Radio City Music. I brought a young startup from New York that was in the travel business. Why they were interested? Because they obviously wanted to help them. And it was in Manhattan, it was in New York. So there was a basis of a conversation. And then the other thing is, the hardest part often is not the concept of the idea, it’s connecting to the right person. mean, it’s almost impossible, not quite. So you gotta be relentless, persevere.

But most important of all, you have to have something that makes sense if you believe in what you have makes sense, because you ultimately could make their business better. You’re not asking them to go for coffee or tea. You’re asking how you could, you you’re giving an opportunity. And they saw that eventually, New Balance. And within a year or so, he made the deal, they sold to New Balance, and the rest, as the cliche says, is history.

Martin Rowinski (06:49.442)
Done. Just a little bit of perseverance and relentlessness.

Myron Welik (06:50.901)
Done.

Yeah, a lot of Yeah, a lot of perseverance where you can jump out, you feel like jumping out the Empire State Building. a little. You know, it’s like the man who was successful after 35 years in the business, as you know, what a great overnight success. Well, unfortunately or fortunately, it’s true. know, often the difference, as you know, what separates people who are tremendously successful and others who are not good business in anything in life is everybody suffers from, they start from zero and you’re not endowed with millions of dollars.

Martin Rowinski (06:59.416)
Ha ha ha!

Myron Welik (07:22.389)
You got to suffer as a human being unless you’re an AI product from the same insecurities and fears and doubts until you get confirmation. It’s only unfortunately normal. But the difference is they keep going. For whatever the reason, they don’t even know the reason, but they keep going. They don’t surrender. They don’t give up. That’s the challenge, not to surrender.

Martin Rowinski (07:45.934)
Absolutely. 100 % back that. Speaking of challenges, your story of losing a multi -million dollar business and reinventing yourself at 67 is incredibly inspiring. What key lessons did you learn during the period of reinvention and how can leaders apply these lessons to overcome their own challenges? Because we all got them.

Myron Welik (07:53.429)
Yeah.

Myron Welik (07:58.965)
Right.

Myron Welik (08:11.543)
Yeah, in two words, don’t die. You know, basically it was 16 years to become so I would get, I believe very much in routines. I hate them are boring, but they keep you going. Whether you like it or not, whether it’s, you know, for physical fitness or mental fitness or to make you better and whatever you do, you know, I mean, if you want to write, for example, you got to write every day a little bit or something. You want to play music, whatever it is you want to do, you got to do it. There’s no excuse. You either do it or you don’t do it.

And you got to do it consistently, consistently. So one of the things I’d get up every morning and I’d put a tie on or a shirt or whatever, as if I was going to a work, I had nowhere to go. But I mentally did that. I didn’t sleep in till noon. Okay. I did get caught up, unfortunately. I was extremely depressed and it was very difficult, 16 years. And it was in a tough age. So I’d started in 50, not at 20, and ended, like you said, at 67.

Martin Rowinski (08:50.626)
You

Myron Welik (09:09.495)
16 years, 17 years, whatever. And so I did that every day and I kept going, number one, till at some point near the end, I really didn’t think there was any chance, but I kept going, number one. Number two, the other thing I did, which is important, is I would go off as often as I could, which was quite often, to these meetup groups. And they’re in every city, Montreal, where I am, New York, Toronto, everybody has them, where there was a gathering of younger people in their 20s and 30s, primarily on the agenda was technology.

And don’t forget, people like that are filled with the future. They’re just beginning their lives. So it’s tremendous optimism. So that would radiate a lot of me. And one of the meetings I went to, I met somebody in the real estate business who shouldn’t have been there, but he was there and we struck up a relationship and that’s how that started. And then the other thing is called a stupid thing called love. You know, was lucky that I have a lady that had been a woman. My wife had been married 37 years, I know her for 40, maybe because she’s from Brooklyn. Maybe that helps.

And we met standing in line at LaGuardia. So if you’re lucky enough, and that’s going to be lucky, I mean, if you don’t, you don’t, to have someone that loves you and sticks with you, literally through second thin, because that’s what it is, which is rare and hard to find. That’s a big emotional booster. But at the end of the day, you have to take care of you. So the biggest thing is never surrender, because there’s many primes I would, which I know is easier said than done. But don’t do it. I’ve been there. So I know that. And the choices don’t.

Keep going that one day, if you keep going and keep looking and keep talking and look and see if you can find mentors, whatever you do, don’t be alone. Don’t lock yourself up. Don’t go out. I’m not saying go to a bar and get drunk. Just go out and talk to people, meet people, learn from people, read. Because sooner or later, just the fact that your action is out there, it’s a very soothing effect. And sooner or later, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Look, I met you.

mean, you answered, you sent me an email. That’s how things happen in life. There is no rhyme or reason sometimes. And the best thing is the most successful things happen for serendipity, strange reasons. So those are a couple of things. And I think I could talk with some authority, Martin, because it took me almost 16, 17 years to reinvent myself.

Martin Rowinski (11:28.056)
Well, you definitely don’t get lucky if you don’t go out and try. You got to keep going.

Myron Welik (11:31.637)
That’s right. That’s right. You know, like Babe Ruth, the famous spanner, you know, the genius that said, you know, he was a home run king, but he also said he struck out more than anybody else. So it’s obvious, but it’s not obvious. It’s exactly the truth.

Martin Rowinski (11:42.209)
Absolutely.

Martin Rowinski (11:46.574)
Yep, no, it’s 100 % true. So you’re known as the jackhammer. Can you explain what being a jackhammer means to you and how this mindset has contributed to your success in business development?

Myron Welik (11:56.235)
Yeah.

Yeah, my pleasure. So for those who don’t know, a jackhammer is an actual real machine and it’s used in the construction industry. It’s an idiom. mean, people don’t know it’s used all over the world. That’s what it’s called. People who invented it. And it was created to bore holes in hard concrete and cement where traditional conventional machines were not successful. So you can see the metaphor. It keeps going until it’s successful. It doesn’t give up if you want to extrapolate the metaphor. OK, and it’s used. It’s used every day all over the world. And it’s called the jackhammer.

Why? I don’t know, but that’s what the inventor did. So the metaphor is clear, a very close friend knows me well, said, looked at me and stared at me and faced five, six, seven years ago. So you know what the hell you are? You’re a goddamn jackhammer, by the way. And it’s stuck because you just, you just don’t, don’t stop. keep going. So it means very simply, like the metaphor, be relentless, persevering, not to give up until you get what you want to get.

Martin Rowinski (12:55.878)
Awesome. The jackhammer. Love it. So you already mentioned networking, but you know, just in case people don’t know networking is crucial aspect of business development. What strategies do you use to build and maintain a strong professional network and how can leaders leverage networking to create new opportunities?

Myron Welik (12:58.135)
That’s right. Yeah.

Myron Welik (13:07.649)
Bye.

Myron Welik (13:18.165)
Yeah. So when you go to events, you want to, you want to not just talk about specifically what you do, but how what you do helps people or how can they benefit? know, like, you know, if you had a podcast about, for example, people, you know, let’s say you write a podcast about people reaching a midlife crisis or people looking for new, new jobs and all that. So if I would meet you or you would meet me and you’d say, what do you do, Myron?

I wouldn’t say that I do the podcast midlife crisis. I would say, Martin, do you know anybody who’s not happy in what they do? Do know anybody who wants to change their job opportunities? Do know anybody who’s reached a midlife crisis professionally? And you may say to me, yeah, I do, Byron. My brother actually has just been fired and he doesn’t know where the hell or what to do. I said, well, I can see the… Well, it’s funny. I run a podcast. This is what it’s called. It’s exactly what it does.

something like that, how it really then it becomes meaningful to you. Or if I’m a doctor of a certain area, know, the theology or gynecology or whatever it may be area, skin doctor, whatever, I could talk about things that I think there’s a commonality when you ask me who I am or what I do, which is the common question. I talk about not just saying and that’s end of the conversation, it’s dead.

But in a way that could be relatable so that you could say, okay, you’re a skin disease doctor, for example. And I would talk about, well, I would say, do you know people who, you know, who go through, who’ve had these tropical diseases, et cetera, whatever. And you say, yeah, actually my wife and I were traveling a year ago, two years ago, something happened. Or you may say no, but it becomes relatable. So the point is what you’re doing. So in your networking, see if you can find things how what you do could benefit, people could benefit, share.

Grow, learn, if it’s possible. Then that begins, that’s the nucleus that starts the catalyst for our conversation, hopefully. If there’s a sweet swap in the two, fine. If there’s not, you move on. And then you keep contact. You can’t keep contact with everybody. It’s got to make sense both ways. Everybody’s busy. So again, it’s got to be win -win. So if I kept in contact with you and like that, eventually, because we’re not friends, we don’t know each other, but you would say, okay, maybe.

Myron Welik (15:40.299)
You would like either the intellectual exercise or he’s bringing something to the table that I could benefit, vice versa. So there’s gotta be mutual opportunity or even better, if there’s something that you know can help that person and it’s doable, then do it because it’ll pay you back a million times if you can. Absolutely, because it’ll pay you back. If it doesn’t pay you back, it’s the right thing to do. Anyways, you can do whatever you want.

But if you measure every goddamn thing you do in life in terms of the dollar return, you’re a pathetic state. You’re a pathetic situation. You can. You can do whatever you want. It’s a free world. I don’t care. But it’s a much bigger situation because you know what I know, all that comes as a byproduct. It’ll come or not come. It comes or not come. You don’t have to tell me that you’re looking for money. I know that. OK, so mean, most people are. We’re not in the communist capitalist country. Most people kind of earn a living some way, somehow to get on.

Martin Rowinski (16:32.482)
Thank

Myron Welik (16:35.935)
I understand that, okay, that’s clear. So those are a couple of things and then, you know, and then be polite, be friendly. And if somebody is in any way you feel not appropriate for you, they just slightly move on. That’s gonna happen too.

Martin Rowinski (16:52.5)
Absolutely. And as an entrepreneur, you know, you’ve had long and successful career. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs about challenges and rewards of starting and growing a business?

Myron Welik (17:08.095)
Again, I hate to go bad, you know, one of the biggest reasons why people continue versus others who don’t is they don’t surrender. They don’t die. They keep going. You know, the other thing is don’t run out of money. Okay. Like that. Then you’re screwed. Okay. As you know that. So as a very close mentor of mindset, don’t die. You got to keep going. You know, if it doesn’t work, then you do it again. Doesn’t work. You do it again. If you’re really committed to it.

There’s no magic there. You know that and I know that. There’s no magic. Yes, obviously you have to come up with something that people want. Obviously you have to come up with something that there’s an opportunity, that’s in need, that’s commercial. We know all that. But very often the first road you go down, the second, third, or fourth is a dead end. And if you give up, you can, then you’ll never know. But if you don’t, it could be the 10th or 12th try. And all you need is one success. That’s the great thing about it, you know.

The only good thing about it, you have to ask a thousand times, try a thousand or two thousand or four thousand attempts, but all you generally need is one or two that work and then that could take you through the roof. So that’s the upside, but you have to often try a thousand times before.

Martin Rowinski (18:23.124)
Absolutely. mean, failure, like I always say, failure is just a stepping stone to success. And me and myself, I would hate to live with what if and keep dying in the back of your mind.

Myron Welik (18:33.759)
Yeah, yeah. You have to have that attitude because it’s a bit of a, you know, you can’t be risk adverse. It’s a bit of a risk. It’s a gamble. It’s a calculated risk, strategic risk, you know that. But it’s not working for the real world, know what I mean? And even that’s not stable today. So there’s no job that’s stable. So it’s a calculated risk and not everybody can handle that. lot of people can’t. And I understand.

Martin Rowinski (18:59.244)
Yeah, no, that’s true. Let’s talk about delegation. It is often a challenge for many leaders. How have you learned to delegate effectively and what tips can you share for leaders who struggle with letting go of control?

Myron Welik (19:13.675)
You know, that took a very long time. I was not good at it. It really was bad. But I think the big deal now that I know is I only focus on very high level stuff. I really try to get to free me any clerical work, paperwork, technical stuff, a lot of small things. I can oversee it, approve it, review it, but minimal because the most important thing I look at is I prioritize. try to prioritize what I need to get involved in.

I have to have some confidence whoever I’m working with, otherwise they shouldn’t be working with me. I’m wasting my time and I can’t do it all alone. So that’s a hit and miss sometimes. A trial and error, as they say sometimes, till you find someone that makes some sense, the consistency is important. And then again, if it’s a minor error, a minor mistakes, you don’t jump all over them, right? You move on. They learn from it because you want to build them up.

And people that are not just rewarded, if you tell, you mention often to people, just like your kids, you’ve done a phenomenal job and you’re good and great. need you. People will step up to the plate. It’s important. They need to hear that. And it’s important. It’s true because you can’t do it all alone. mean, you want to be alone or fine, but you’re not going to do much. Chop one and that’s it. So, you know, that’s fine. That’s what you want to do. But you may need one person. You may need two. You may need 20. You may need a thousand. I don’t know.

But you can’t run anything or do anything if you can’t learn to have some kind of trust and some kind of confidence and mutual respect.

Martin Rowinski (20:49.036)
No, that’s true. You have to, right?

Myron Welik (20:52.395)
Well, I don’t know any other way. Maybe eventually AI will replace all that. I don’t know. I’m not going to go into that. That will radically change the game. It’s a game changer. So you may not need all those people anymore. You may just need AI, which is not going to screw up for sure. Eventually it may tell you, it’ll probably tell you what to do. You’ll screw up, not AI. so, but that’s a whole nother conversation, not for today.

Martin Rowinski (20:56.901)
Ha

Martin Rowinski (21:15.616)
Yeah, no, I don’t think AI is going to bring any empathy though. And I think that’s needed from a leader. Wouldn’t you agree?

Myron Welik (21:21.431)
Well, no, it’s a machine. But you never know. I think eventually 20, 30, 40, 50 years, it may be taught and learn empathy. I don’t think there’s any limit because quite bluntly, you think of it logically. I always believed and I still do. And if you look at throughout history, Martin, that every problem and every issue, even the security catch is solvable. It’s just a question of time.

If you look at this, it’s just a question of time and where we get to it. If you look at our technology, if you look at it, just medicine is the best example. What we’re able to do today versus 10 years ago, 100 years ago, if you look at what most people died in the civil war, not from gut shot, they died from wounds, okay? From dysuria, tuberculosis, all that. It’s unheard of, okay? And that’s 150 years ago. So I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do. There’s no question. If you look at human history, just a question of when. We haven’t learned how to do it yet. Some things, that’s true.

But we will, just like we didn’t learn stuff 20, 40, 50 years ago until we did learn it, if you know what I mean. So there’s nothing we can’t do, okay? It’s just a question of when.

Martin Rowinski (22:26.21)
That is a good point. Any last thoughts before I wrap it up?

Myron Welik (22:31.061)
Yeah, just most important of all, don’t fool yourself. Don’t BS yourself. Okay. You want to do something, you go out and do it. Make a plan for a year, two years, three years, and whatever the case may be, action speaks louder. When you act, things happen. When you’re in silence, it’s like being in a funeral parlor. Okay. So that’s the difference. If that’s what you want, that’s what you’re to get, but you don’t want to be dead before your time. Okay. You want to be alive. And the other thing is, you know, the thing is,

Do whatever you gotta do and do it today because one day you wake up and you’re gonna run out of time, whether you’re 20 years old or you’re 80 years old, trust me.

Martin Rowinski (23:09.92)
Absolutely. And you said if people want to find you, you’re easiest to communicate on LinkedIn.

Myron Welik (23:15.243)
Yes, yes, please.

Martin Rowinski (23:16.768)
And that’s my run I am I’m sorry, Y R O N well like W E L I K and you also have a website, don’t you? No website. Okay.

Myron Welik (23:19.253)
the FYRN

Myron Welik (23:25.313)
Correct.

No. Well, no website, not active. I have a book on Amazon, the Jack Hammer effect and all that, but LinkedIn is easy. It’s all there.

Martin Rowinski (23:36.802)
Yep, perfect. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of Leadership Talks. It has been an absolute pleasure to have Myron Welick, the Jack Hammer, with us today sharing his invaluable insights on strategic partnerships, reinvention, and the power of networking. Myron’s relentless drive and passion for making deals happen truly shine through. And we hope

You found this discussion as enlightening and inspiring as I did. For more information, you can connect with the Jack Hammer on LinkedIn, like he said, and find his book, The Jack Hammer Effect. Thank you again, Myron, for being with us today. And to our listeners, stay tuned for more episodes of Leadership Talks, where we continue to bring you conversations with some of the most influential voices in leadership. Until next time, keep leading with purpose and passion.

Myron Welik (24:19.403)
My pleasure.

Martin Rowinski (24:33.08)
Thank you, Byron.

Myron Welik (24:34.209)
Well said, thank you.