Who Is Mike Dias?

For over 20 years, I have worked for pro audio manufacturers and I’ve dealt directly with the world’s top sound engineers and managers. I’ve been responsible for leading global sales teams, managing retail channel partners, coordinating press activations, orchestrating product launches, and for taking the gear used on stage and making it desirable and available to the general public. 

I started off back when the price for top-shelf headphones was $79.99. I was hired to help Ultimate Ears launch their first consumer in-ear headphone at a price point of $249 and it was my job to take all the rock and pop assets and to leverage those and build a brand around the entire category. And I did a pretty good job of it. (Those original Super.fi 5 Pro headphones still fetch top dollar on eBay and that Triple.fi 10 will always be a cult classic!) 

I secured early press coverage in WIRED, CNET, RollingStone, IGN, The Cool Hunter, Digital Trends, Stereophile, and Inc. Magazine. I’d spend my days training big box retailers while spending my nights taking buyers from Apple, Best Buy and Guitar Center backstage to shows to meet their favorite pop stars and to listen to the concert from Front of House or Monitor World — while plugging into the artists' personal monitor mixes. 

The night that Google bought YouTube, I had taken many of their teammates out to an Incubus concert to celebrate. And I distinctly remember Steve Aoki’s guy telling me that I needed to give him free stuff because that’s the future of marketing. I thought that was the dumbest thing I ever heard of and I clearly missed that boat. I’m certainly not claiming to be batting 100%. 

Granted, I was spending a lot more time net-drinking back then than networking but after a while, I started to understand that I was making the impossible possible and that I was the bridge that was merging retail with rock. And as I started to pay attention to the impact and effect that I was having by bringing people together, I started thinking more and more about the principles at play and how I was able to achieve consistent results. 

I realized that the skills I developed were teachable and as my teams grew and as my areas of responsibilities expanded, I started to show my direct reports how to adopt a networking mindset for success in career and in life. And the more that I paid attention to the art and the craft of authentic networking, the more effective I became at my job. Sales were growing and I was getting product consistently placed with surgical precision — from  America’s Got Talent to Disney and from Apple to Saturday Night Live. From there on speaking offers kept coming in.

I didn’t set out to become a public speaker. I love operating behind the scenes and making one plus one equal three. But I do have something special to share and I’ve had people come back year after year to my talks just to tell me how they're applying my insights and lessons to create success and happiness in their own careers and throughout their personal networks. I could easily and happily just keep selling microphones and headphones but I’d rather help people laugh a lot more and make deeper and more meaningful connections in work and in life.