Sep 4, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
Five lessons pulled from a junior high dance floor, a Wall Street Journal firing, and a weekend in Battle Creek learning to code. Chuck Yates, co-founder of Collide, takes the Ion stage and argues…
The elders at St. John's United Methodist Church decided that the way to protect the kids, the junior high kids of Richmond, Texas, from the gritty streets was to sponsor a dance.
I know the rules, right? You go up during a slow song and you ask a girl to dance, right? So the greatest slow build, slow song on the planet, in the air tonight, Phil Collins comes on, and I strode confidently across the dance floor to Bobbie Jo.
Bobbie Jo was blonde, blue eyes, and let's just say she hit puberty way before anybody else did, right? Looked her in the eyes and said, would you like to dance? And she looked back at me and said, I need to talk to my friends.
And y'all all know the moment of that song, right? Three minutes and 40 seconds in.
in the middle of the dance floor by myself, do I air drum it like I normally would, or do I sit there and look pathetic? I went with pathetic.
And so I'm sitting there, and the song's slowly getting over, and Bobby Joe walks back, and she looks me in the eyes and says, I can't dance with you.
So I went back, I hung out on the wall with two other losers and watched the events unfold for the rest of the night.
If not one junior high girl will dance with you, none of them will dance with you.
The obvious one is you got to do anything to get your first client, right? Customer, whatever it is.
What I did was I went up and I asked Bobbie Jo to dance, right? And she went and talked to her friends.
The elders at St. John's United Methodist Church decided that the way to protect the kids, the junior high kids of Richmond, Texas, from the gritty streets was to sponsor a dance.
I know the rules, right? You go up during a slow song and you ask a girl to dance, right? So the greatest slow build, slow song on the planet, in the air tonight, Phil Collins comes on, and I strode confidently across the dance floor to Bobbie Jo.
Bobbie Jo was blonde, blue eyes, and let's just say she hit puberty way before anybody else did, right? Looked her in the eyes and said, would you like to dance? And she looked back at me and said, I need to talk to my friends.
And y'all all know the moment of that song, right? Three minutes and 40 seconds in.
in the middle of the dance floor by myself, do I air drum it like I normally would, or do I sit there and look pathetic? I went with pathetic.
And so I'm sitting there, and the song's slowly getting over, and Bobby Joe walks back, and she looks me in the eyes and says, I can't dance with you.
So I went back, I hung out on the wall with two other losers and watched the events unfold for the rest of the night.
If not one junior high girl will dance with you, none of them will dance with you.
The obvious one is you got to do anything to get your first client, right? Customer, whatever it is.
What I did was I went up and I asked Bobbie Jo to dance, right? And she went and talked to her friends.
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