Networking Foundations for Entrepreneurial Success with Phil Herrington

In this episode of the Creative Collaboration Show, host Chuck Anderson sits down with Phil Herrington, renowned as "Phil the Connector," who shares his journey from traditional sales roles to a focus on relationship-driven networking. Phil emphasizes the significance of building business foundations through networks rather than jumping directly to marketing. Through his Connector Community, he champions collaboration, offering entrepreneurs and service providers a platform to foster meaningful connections. Phil shares insights on networking strategies, highlights the importance of personal development, and discusses overcoming personal challenges like dyslexia through tools like Audible.
Guest Bio:
Phil Herrington, widely known as "Phil the Connector," has an expansive sales background, with experiences ranging from door-to-door sales to telemarketing, and car sales. He leveraged these skills into networking by orchestrating over 5,000 one-on-one meetings. Since moving to Boise, Idaho in 2017, Phil has been dedicated to creating impactful business networks. His Connector Community focuses on collaboration, helping businesses grow through meaningful and strategic connections. Phil is passionately involved in networking education, promoting the philosophy of "Give to Grow," and is a proponent of relationship-focused business practices.
5 Key Points Discussed:
1. Networking Philosophy and Success - [10:15]
- Phil discusses his unique approach to networking that led to selling 70 websites in a year without initial marketing costs.
2. The Connector Community - [18:30]
- Insight into Phil's community that simplifies networking, offers scheduled introductions and promotes collaborative growth.
3. Networking Tips and Strategies - [25:45]
- Phil shares specific strategies like the FORD method and the importance of letting others speak first during meetings.
4. The Role of Virtual Events - [32:10]
- Discussion on the rise of virtual networking opportunities post-pandemic and their effectiveness in connecting globally.
5. Books and Personal Development - [40:22]
- Phil recommends books by Dan Sullivan and discusses leveraging Audible for continued personal growth despite dyslexia.
Main Quote:
"Building genuine relationships is the cornerstone of sustainable business growth; it's not just who you know but how well you know them."
Links:
- Phil Herrington's Website: https://thepaymentexperts.com/
- LinkedIn Profile of Phil Herrington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philtheconnector/
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Until next time, keep moving forward!
Chuck Anderson,
00:00 - Recording Started
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Creative Collaboration Show.
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Chuck Anderson here, and we have another great episode for you here
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today. Now this show is all about, business
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and entrepreneurship, and, I would say entrepreneurship
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with a heart. And the majority of our, listeners and
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our clients are heart centered entrepreneurs who are
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on a big mission, not only to make money
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and to promote their products and services, but products and
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services that make an impact, a positive impact
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into other people's lives. Now, obviously, in that
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journey, we have to make connections. We have to meet
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people. We need partnerships. We need clients. We need vendors. We need
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all of the things that we need. And there is no better
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way to get those things than through a
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personal, introduction or through a super connector.
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So today, I'm very privileged to have a super connector here, with
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me today. I have Phil the connector Herrington with me.
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And what's special about Phil is that, he can
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connect you with nearly anyone. He's connected over
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5,000 one on one meetings. And if you don't
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know if that's a lot, let me just tell you as someone who's also probably
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had that I'd stopped counting after a while. It's a lot.
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But so, Phil, it's great to have you on the show, and, we're we've got
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some great information here for everybody today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm
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super excited to share. Yeah. Awesome. Well, yeah, I think,
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Phil, you know, from a, you know, 50,000 foot view, that is that
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is my introduction, of you. But, why don't you go ahead and just
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share with everybody, your story and a little bit more about
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yourself and what you do, and, we'll we'll take it from there.
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Yeah. I'll give a little background on where I come from so you can understand
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when when I finally found business networking, why I crashed into it so
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hardly. Heart that's probably not the right way to say it, but, anyway, it doesn't
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matter. I make up words too, man. It's all good. You're in good company.
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My wife anytime I make up a word, my wife says, let's just put that
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in the, the fictionary. So Yeah. With the p
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h. So, I come
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from sales. Door to door, I did, MCI long distance
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service, so telemarketing. I just dated myself. Yes. You used to have to pay for
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long distance service. It wasn't more data on your phone.
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Yeah. I did car sales.
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My bit my the longest period, I was in merchant services credit card
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processing, but I didn't know anybody. So I was a door to
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door salesperson, you know, handing out 30 cards
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a day to keep poverty away. Right? So, and I loved
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it. I loved the the cold call and all that type of stuff.
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So but what I did lack in that is there was no
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relationships. I was always very good at what I did, made lots of
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sales, but I didn't make any, real connections, deeper relationships.
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So, in 2000 I'm here in Boise, Idaho. So the end
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of 2017, I got divorced, and then so I'm here. I'm in a
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new town. I don't know a soul, and I'm like, okay. So who do
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I you know, what's my next product? What I'm gonna start going door to door.
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Right? So I actually went to the Chamber of Commerce, and I'm like, so where's
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the busiest area? How do I where do I go? That type of thing.
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And a buddy of mine owned a website company, and
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he said, hey, if I put you in BNI, will you go every week? And
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I'm all, sure, what's BNI? And so I get in there, and I'm like, everyone
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do this one to one thing? This is stupid. Right? Like, the hardest thing for
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a salesperson is to get someone just to listen to what they have to say.
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Right? So it's a lot of numbers. So I just went at it. I did
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I did about 40 to 51 to ones on average a month,
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and I was had them coming in, you know, on the hour at the coffee
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shops, you know. I had somebody already booking my appointments for me.
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I didn't know at the time, but my brain was working in power teams or
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collaborations. How do I have this person in health and wellness meet all these
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people in health and wellness? So I was doing text introductions, and,
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I say I accidentally sold 70 websites that year, but
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simply because the numbers never lie. Right? You just keep
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doing the numbers. And so, so anyways, that's why I
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did so many one to ones because I I didn't know anything else to do.
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Right? So so I'm a huge
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believer now in, nothing gets in any marketing people out
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there, but I don't think when you start your business that you should start by
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giving your money away to marketing companies or market at all, because you
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need to build your base, and that's through networking. Right? As you said, the
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fastest way to a sales and introduction to somebody, and so
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you need to get your name out there. You need to build your brand, all
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that stuff, but that all takes work. So and that's why it's called
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networking. Right?
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It definitely is. I mean, we all love it when, you know, a client
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just comes in and and and it felt effortless, and, you
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know, it's it's like order taking. And, any business that
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I've been part of in the last 30 years, that gets to that
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point was years in the making. Right? Like, there's all you know,
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you're you're you're kinda, like, reaping the harvest of all the
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the seeds that you planted, years ago, and,
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and that that foundation is the network. And I wish that I
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could dial the clock back to my 20 year old self and give him
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a little slap and say, hey. That's the most important
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thing. It's not the technology. Technology always
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changes. It's not your pricing. It's not the
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cute name of your product, and,
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and and all of that. But but it is the key to relationships. And
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I think one of the things that we see all
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the time in our business, because as you know, we do affiliate
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management and, you know, recruiting affiliates is all about building relationships.
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It tends to be so transactional. It's like, if you pay
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me, I'll do this. Or or,
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or, you know, when the money runs out, then, bye bye.
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And, also, when within when it comes to partnerships, we see
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it's like, hello. Nice to meet you. Would you like to
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partner with me? There's absolutely no,
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relationship building in that. So, you know, I know you and I
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share that that value for relationships today. It wasn't
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always like that for me. What are you noticing out there with the people
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that you're working with in terms of, you know, their
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approach to transaction? And I I just wanted to also maybe mention
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too, do they also have to do 5,000 calls? Right?
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Because I know that will scare a few people. Yeah. That would scare a few
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people. So, what we've kind of done here at the connector community is
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we're, now inviting people to our
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network that have put people before profits
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and want to collaborate and wanna help you grow. So the people in
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in our network, when you reach out to do a one to 1, you're
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gonna you're gonna get to do that one to 1, and they're gonna be helpful.
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They're not going to what what a friend of mine says pitch slap you. Right?
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We've all been on those ones that they immediately go to selling their product, and
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they're just they're just doing it wrong, you know. And, so we're all
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about, educating people over here how to properly network. Like,
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I have a series called give to grow. It's my story about how I came
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how I moved from a transactional person to a relationship
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building. One, if you do it correctly, it'll feed you for a
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lifetime. So, no, they don't have to do the 5,001 to ones. We're
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basically this fractional word is, kinda going viral
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for the last few years. You know, I'm a fractional CFO or a fractional
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emmit, whatever, see see something. Right? Mhmm. So think of me
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as your fractional professional networker. So I'm in all
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the places that you don't have time to be, and I'm going to all these
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events, and I'm inviting back the people that are awesome to our
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community. And so, again, when you come in, we're all about eliminating steps.
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So one, we don't have any meetings. We let everyone else do their
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meetings. We even have people joining us putting all their
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meetings on our platform, so other networking deals.
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And then we like to have everybody put their calendar link right on their
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profile, so again, speeding up the process of connecting.
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But when you do get that connection, treat
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it right. Right? Nurture that relationship. You know, if you if you
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hit it off with somebody and you're just finishing each other's sentences, that's when you
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need to set that next one to one before you get off, and then never
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let that cycle stop, But you'll only find that with about 10
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to 15 people probably, but that's your core group, and that will
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feed you for a lifetime as long as you take care of that core. So
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I don't know if you agree with that or not. Oh, I 100% agree with
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that. And then, you know, I just met, a company not that
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long ago, a few weeks ago, where they had over 10 or 2,000
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affiliates, and they were complaining because less than 20 of
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them were promoting them. And my the
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first thing I do whenever I'm consulting with a company is is find
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out what their relationship building strategy is. And they looked at
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me like, what do you mean relationship building strategy? Like, we gave them
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everything, you know, they need. Why aren't they doing anything? And it's
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like, because they don't want to, and they don't trust you
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yet. And so 100% agree with all of
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that. And I still see it even in, you know, the hearts
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heart centered, you know, business circles where
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there's still a degree of impatience that happens. It's
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like, well, I went to this one networking event, and I
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didn't meet anybody. Okay. What did you say? How
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did you do it? Or or I did meet somebody. I got on a 1
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on 1 call with them. Yeah. They're nice, but there's really nothing for
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us there. So Mhmm. So, again,
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impatience and maybe even a little bit transactional.
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So I I I just thought maybe we'll get you to weigh in on that
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a little bit. And, you know, like, what should they be
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doing to build relationship before
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expecting a result or a transaction to occur?
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Oh, great question. I love this question. So I even have it in my
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series, how to properly do a 1 to 1. So Mhmm. If you go to
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do a 1 to 1, let's say you request that 1 to 1,
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it doesn't matter actually. If you request it or they request it, I always have
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the theory. I let the other person talk first. So if you allow the
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other person to talk first, even if they talk the entire half an
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hour or an hour, whatever you have time set for that meeting, that's good.
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The more they talk, just think of it like, I would say in sales, think
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of pennies falling out of their mouth. Right? The more they talk, the more their
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more information they're giving you, the more comfortable they feel with you. Let
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them talk first. That allows you also to gather your
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thoughts and ask them very, very simple questions. You can follow the
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Ford method, f o r d. Ask about their
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family, their occupation, their recreation, and their
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dreams. You get people talking about their dreams and where they're going with their
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company or what they're doing with their life, then they feel like
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you are totally invested in them. Plus it gives you great,
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you know, things to talk about on your next one. Say that was the one
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of those ones that you really hit it off. But I would say that number
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one thing is, yes, set your one to ones, and if you're if you
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if you don't if you don't have money right now, and you're
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not co you're not spending at least 50% of your time
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on one to ones, then you're missing out. So you need to have your
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calendar filled at least 50% with one to ones, to begin
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with, and what I did the very beginning was 80%. And I like, I didn't
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know I didn't know anybody. I gotta do one to ones. I still today look
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at my calendar, and I I meet with 60 to 80 people a month, if
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not more. And so, so anyways,
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always have it full because, one to 1, if you do it properly
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and build those relationship, is sales activity. And if you're not doing sales
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activity, you can't ever get the message out about what you do. So anyways but
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in the one to 1, they always go first, ask them questions,
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get them excited about talking to you, and then you can
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tell them about what you do. And never ever ever pitch them on the first
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call ever. Even if they want your
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service, you set a second meaning because you gotta put a
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block between this was a relationship building
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activity. If you wanna buy for me, great. Let's set up
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another meeting or go to my website or whatever, but don't be like, oh, cool.
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Sign you up. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because
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that's not relationship building. That's that's
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transaction. And, you know, in the in the JV world
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and the affiliate world, occasionally, you'll get
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2 people together who, you know, they're just they're just ready to
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go, but it is rare. And, you know, there there's
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there's times where we can do it, but most of the time, it
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does take a few, a few calls
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to get to where we wanna go. I mean, I've heard
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I heard on another podcast where they referred to it as, like, dating.
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And it's like you would never propose marriage on the first date
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because it's kinda creepy. So
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so I I love how you share and you may have answered this already, but
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I just really want people to hear this is because you said,
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you know, don't try to, you know, pitch your offer on the on the
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first call. How many calls would you
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recommend that the average person has, with
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with a contact? Oh, maybe before they pitch. You know,
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that's a it's a it depends on the people.
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Think of them as I like to think of people as my a, b's, and
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c's. Mhmm. So my a is gonna be my core group, and I'm gonna continue
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to meet with them. Like, every month, I'm gonna, like, get on a call with
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them, and we're gonna continue to build out that relationship. You know, my my my
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b's might be every quarter, my c's once a year,
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that type of thing. Right? Or then some people just are on your newsletter, if
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you will. If you didn't you don't necessarily have a
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super synergy, but, you know, hey, let's stay on each other's email list.
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Right? Mhmm. But, I would say
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let's say it this way. You never wanna actually pitch to the person
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in front of you. You wanna pitch over their head. So what I
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mean by that is the average person knows 200 people. Just living on this
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planet, they know a 100 to 200 people. If if
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they're a networker, they know about a 1000 people. If they're
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a super connector, they know 5,000 or more people.
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Right? So what you never wanna try to sell the one person, you
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wanna say, the people I'm looking for is and describe that. Right?
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So describe, like, you know, like you're selling your affiliate program.
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Right? The people I'm looking to connect with are think, and you shoot over
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their head, and then they'll every once in a while raise their hand. That's what
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we call low hanging fruit. Those are the people who go, oh, well, yeah.
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I know people, but I'm interested too. Oh, okay. Cool. Well, I'd love for you
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to get involved, you know. Then you direct them on how to get involved. But
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if you always shoot over their head, then they never feel like you're pitching them
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directly, but you still can share what you're doing.
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Mhmm. Well, it's a great way of testing the waters too to just see where
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their interest level is. Right? It's like, oh, wait a minute. That that's me.
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I I I need that. And, you know, I remember one of my
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early mentors saying just say, do you do you know anybody who needs
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help with x, or do you know anybody who works
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with with these? And and then you and
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so you're not saying, do you know? You're just saying, do you know anyone?
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They might put their hand up and say, oh, that's me. Or Right.
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Or they can, introduce you to to someone else. And that
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is one thing that we've we've noticed, and I would love to get you
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to weigh in on this is because with our group, we've been
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coaching people to say, okay. Well, when you have that introduction call and you get
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to know them and they get to know you and you ask that, hey. Do
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you know anybody? And
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and they can get, get some introductions to additional
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people there on the spot. Is that something that you would do on the first
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call, or would you not even do that? Oh, no. I think that's those are
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great on the first call. You're you're collaborating immediately. Soft. Right? Like, it's
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not a big ask. And if you wanted to, even I know a buddy
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that goes on LinkedIn and finds out who they're connected to, and he actually will
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come and ask for particular people to be introduced to.
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So that's another that's another thing you can do. But, yes, I think that if
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and I like to do it, by industry. So I'll be like, so what's an
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what's an industry that would feed you leads on a regular basis? And they're
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say they're a financial adviser. Like, I like to meet bookkeepers, CPAs,
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that that that great. I would love I'd love to make some introductions for you.
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Is that you know, boom. And then make those introductions. If you can always walk
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away giving before you get and then, you know,
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go ahead and set that next meeting, they're gonna be, you know,
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very grateful. Right? And so you wanna put yourself in a position to be very
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grateful. We've we were just talking about this on the last call is, the law
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of reciprocity. Sometimes you give give give give give, and it feels like nothing's
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coming back, but then it'll come back in a tidal wave. So
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just just keep giving, and it'll it'll eventually come back to
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you. You know, that is, we're so on the same
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page with all of that because and and and I would say to add
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to that, you don't give to get. When you give
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with the expectation of receiving, it's like, okay. I'm giving this gift, and I
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can't wait for them to give back to me. You've just blown it right
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there. Mhmm. Because that's not giving.
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That's, again, making it transactional. Can
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you give in an unconditional way? Maybe you
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receive back from that person, but maybe you don't. Maybe you receive back from another
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source, and it doesn't matter. And that that's where we we can start to go
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very, you know, very, spiritual with that very, very
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quickly. But, again, one of
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the toughest lessons, you know, in in my 30
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year career of being a business owner was
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that is to give without expectations
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of receiving back. Yeah. And it and it is tough, you know, when
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you when you need to make the money to pay the bills. Right. You're looking
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for that sale. But, no, you're right. If you if you can
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move that and that's why it's smart to get these people that are young in
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their business to get them in networking immediately. Well, you
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know, that's why we kind of bridge that gap. That's what the connector community
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is all about is most businesses go out of business simply because not enough
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people know what they do fast enough, and so we wanna bridge that
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gap. So if I can introduce you to some awesome people ahead of, you
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know, all, you know, quickly, then your the word about your business
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gets out faster. So the reason people are doing the
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pitch slapping is because they're desperate for money. Right?
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And you have to get to a place where you're not no longer desperate for
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money, you're just there to help. Right? And so you
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wanna build your network too. Like a guy told me, I'll take any introduction because
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it's sometimes a tool somebody in my tool belt that I can hand out to
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somebody else whether it benefits me or not. You know? Mhmm. And
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so you wanna start to, create
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your own network. You know? And I always tell people, you need to go
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3 deep on every industry because I need to go I
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have 3 financial advisers for you. I have 3 bookkeepers for you. I have
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3 whatever. You know? So, I think that's how you do it
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with the super connector. Well and with the risk of
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turning this into sales training, because we could definitely do that,
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you can't get out of a sales slump or get out of, you know,
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that desperation to make money today while you're in that
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desperation mindset. And I I know. I I can say
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it today because I'm not there, and I have been there more times than I
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care to share. And, it in the moment, it's tough.
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But when you can get to the point of going, okay.
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Here's what I'm gonna do. Right? And then you get out there and you hit
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the networking. And I'll tell you, you know, decade ago, this
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it was harder. And you had to go and do this in person, or you
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had to go to industry events. Today in this so called,
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post pandemic world, we have virtual events.
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We Everywhere I know. Every single day, there's an opportunity
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to meet someone virtual. You literally do not have to leave your
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chair. I was at an event, about 2, 3
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weeks ago, and I met, 22 contacts,
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just just from just from being there on a
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2 hour networking event. And so,
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if you don't have anyone to talk to, you can get someone to talk to
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very, very, very quickly. So I wanted to, you know,
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tell us a little bit more about the, the community because,
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I think this is a great resource for
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anyone who is looking to make those connections.
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And, you know, maybe start with a little bit of, like, who it's
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for and and who it's ideal for, and then, a little bit
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about how it works. Okay. Great. So, we're here in Boise,
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Idaho, so we do have some local businesses here in Boise because that's where I
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started my networking. And then now what the real, who
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really benefits is anybody that can sell worldwide. So if you're a if
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you're a coach, a bookkeeper, it every it seems like a lot
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of businesses have figured out a way to pivot, even financial
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advisors and home, mortgage
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lenders and all that stuff. Now a lot of these businesses can do business nationwide.
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And so, the if you can do business nationwide, then this is a
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fantastic platform for you. Because I want you to think of it as, like,
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you we're we're say we're going by 20, 25 a month. Right? That's
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just new opportunities coming in for you all the time. When I say
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opportunity, I don't mean a lead, like, 4¢, but it's a new opportunity
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for you to meet people. Right? And so, so there so
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there's that. And then we're kinda, like I said, staying out of the way. We
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don't have the meetings, so we want everyone else to put their events on our
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event calendar. So, eventually, what we wanna become is that connection
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platform where you'll come to our stuff to see
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what all those networking events that you and I are talking about are. Where are
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they happening? What's going on? And eventually, I'll get, you know, somebody to put all
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that stuff up on our on our platform. So it'll be we'll be the
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hub if you will. And then you go read about people's profiles, and
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we're really big on skipping all the steps. So their
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calendar link is we we like to just say, oh, this guy looks awesome. I
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wanna meet with him. Let's do a calendar link, and I'm starting to encourage all
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my mem my members to put a video up. Video is so
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powerful. Right? A 30 second video about how awesome you are and what
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you do, can make a difference because that makes them choose
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you to do a one to one with was over somebody else. Right? Mhmm.
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And so, we try to keep it we try to eliminate steps. Right? We've
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eliminated 1 going to a meeting. We wanna just be the place where you can
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find all the meetings and then go right there, read about their profile,
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and get right on their calendar. So Any particular
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industries that you find this is particularly, effective for?
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Yeah. So I, like I said, I have anybody in the coaching world,
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anybody in the so a lot of business coaches,
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if you think of any, certain website designers, I got a lot of marketing
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people, but all marketing people do it a little bit different. Right? I got,
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people are actually CMOs. I got, people that
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do CRMs. I
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got, oh, actually, I have some, VA services in there. So when you're
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the the usually, your very first hire is a VA when
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you're ready to scale your business. Yeah.
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A lot of home service businesses are in there. We'll be looking to
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break into other cities later, but, that'll happen. But, yeah, if you if you
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can think of if it's a business service that you that
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your business you think about your business, what you need, that's probably who's in there.
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So, you know, fractional, HR people,
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fractional CMOs, those type of things.
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Fantastic. Well, it's got some good variety there. And, you know, a a lot
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of the people that we work with tend to be service
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providers who work with other, you know, coaches or
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service providers or entrepreneurs or whatever. So it would definitely be a
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great, connection for them.
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And, it's it's one that we recommend that if you're
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listening into this and you need connections,
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this this would be a great thing, for you to check out. So,
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Phil, I know that you offer a, a free tour
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of the community. You wanna tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah. And
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right before this call, I just came off a tour, so I'll explain that. So
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we had 6 people on the call, and so we do these tours anywhere from,
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you know, if one person shows up, great. We'll do that. But if as much
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as 10 people show up, we'll, and when I when I the reason I called
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it a tour, I wanted to be kinda fun. I have a fun personality,
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and so, we call it the tour because everyone comes on. We'll, have
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them go around and introduce themselves. I want them to connect if they if they
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can, right, if it makes sense for them to connect so they can put their
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contact information in on there. And if you stay on the call, you know, we'll
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do that for the first, you know, 20 minutes or so. But if you stay
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on the call, I will make sure that you get connections. So because
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I just have to go through my phone. I just have to think for a
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second. If you tell me an industry that you need to connect with, I'm
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going to connect you. So, just plan on staying on that call,
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call, and I'll make sure you get introductions. Wow. So they don't only have to
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be a member of the community. All they have to do is come to your
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free tour, and they're gonna get some connections right there on the spot. It's like
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sampling. Right? Yeah. You got you gotta taste it first. Right? You gotta know that
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my connections are good. And I figure again, the law
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reciprocity is about I'm just giving giving giving giving giving.
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They're going want more and to be a part of that family and then
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come back and join, or they don't join. That's fine. But it also benefits my
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members for them to get connected. So it's that cross pollination that
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is super beneficial. So I'm happy to do that.
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Awesome. Well, that sounds like an absolute no brainer. So if
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you are not actually looking beneath this video for the link right
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now, then, then then we failed.
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But, you know, go and go and meet Phil,
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get the tour of the platform, and get a couple of free introductions.
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I mean, you know, especially if you're in a position in your business where you
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really, really need those, now is, certainly the time to do that. So if you're
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listening in be, on video,
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just look right beneath this video. All the links of the 2 connect with Phil
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are there. If you're listening to this on podcast, just look
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into, the player that you are listening to this
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on, and the links are right there in the show notes. You can't
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miss them. And while you're there, check out the
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link of, how to join the
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community as well. And, Phil, do you wanna take just a couple of minutes to
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talk about, you know, the community? Like, who are you looking for? Who's
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ideal for the community, etcetera. Yeah.
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Yeah. Like I said before, anybody that can service businesses nationwide
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are fantastic. I I need some more financial advisors.
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I need some people maybe that sell life insurance, any of the insurances,
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that they can do it if they can do it nationwide.
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Those those would be fantastic, but no limited to that. You
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know? Also, any service whatsoever. What
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else? Oh, and then we we do have 3 plans,
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and I won't I won't go into any pricing. I'll just let you know we
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have the the traditional DIY. You do it all yourself. We
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have the done with you, and we have the done for you. So we'll even
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go as far as learn all about your business. So don't if you
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think you're too busy, still come because, if
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you are too busy, we'll just put those power partners directly on your calendar for
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it for you. You'll give us your calendar link, and we'll put them on your
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calendar for you. So, of course, that's gonna cost more, but we have all three
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models for you so you can benefit from the network. Yeah.
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Fantastic resource, especially when it when you're too busy
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to go out there and and find the new connections yourself.
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Nothing better than just having them on your calendar, and then you
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show up to those, 1 on 1 meetings and and go from there. And
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they're prevented because, of course, you already know you've done that deep
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dive into the business. And so, so there we go.
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Well, certainly, when we do some of our larger campaigns, we just might have to
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get you, to do that for us. So, because we do a lot of
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recruitment for, affiliates and partners and whatnot. So
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Fantastic. Yeah. Well, that sounds great. Now before I let you
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go, because I know we've covered a lot of ground, and, this
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has been this has been really great so far.
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One of the things that has been huge for us, and it's a bit of
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a theme here on the show, is, you know, personal development and self
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growth. And I always say that, you know, your grow business never really
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grows beyond the point that you grow yourself. And
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for that reason, you know, books have been such a big part of it. You
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can see just a few of them back here.
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And so but I have thousands of them,
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and I have my favorites. So just out of my
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own interest, I started asking this question, and I'm curious to see what you'd say.
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If you had a favorite book or one that was really
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impactful for you or one that you would recommend is just a must
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read for anyone, what what what comes to mind for
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you? Yeah. So, first off, I'm gonna say, I'm not a big reader because I
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have dyslexia. Yeah. So, again, don't let that stand your way because I I use
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Audible. Yeah. I'll give you Audible is the way I consume them too. I
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cannot stare at a page, but Audible, I you just consume it
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so quickly. Good. Yeah. And I always I actually always listen at 2 times
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speed, because what I'm looking for in each book, because I'll read
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about I'll read 2 or 3 books a month, listening to
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them. But what I'm looking for is the nuggets. Right? Yeah. Every every business
Speaker:
owner says it a little bit different. Now what I did, the one I would
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suggest if people haven't read yet is there's a 3
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book series, by Dan Sullivan and doctor
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Benjamin Hart Harding. Yeah. And it goes in this
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order, who not how, the gain in the gap, and
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then 10 times as faster than 2 times. Mhmm. I
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would listen to all three of those in that order. There's
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some great stuff in there. Dan Sullivan has been a business coach for over
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gosh, I think over 30 years now. Probably longer than that. Yeah. You
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think it's longer than that? Could be. Could be. Yeah. And this guy
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is his 70. Like, early eighties, late seventies when he started
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his first coaching business in Toronto. Mhmm. Yeah. And
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so, he he's on there, and it's really good. So he he really,
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what I love about the who not how is it teaches you how as
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soon as you, procrastinate
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on something, you're supposed to hire it out.
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And when you hire it out, the money will come in because you're living in
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your genius. Right? You're doing the thing you're so anyways, it's a
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fantastic book, and he he he he does it on this book because
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he has Benjamin Harding write the entire book. He's not even
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involved. It's so crazy that he gives them the vision, and then he goes and
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writes the whole thing. You gotta you gotta read it. And then the other thing
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I'll just give you a tip about Audible. A lot of people don't know this.
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If you've had that title for less than 12 months and there's any reason you
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didn't like it, they'll give you the give you your credit back. Oh, wow. So
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you can just re listen to that as many times as you can, and then
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go get another I if you didn't get any value.
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There you go. There you go. Yeah. But I'll listen to it sometimes. Yeah. I
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have a growing library in my audible. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. But all those ones that, you know, they're less than 12 months old,
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but you didn't get anything out of it. You didn't connect with the author. Whatever
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the reason is, call them. They'll they'll actually give you all those credits back. They
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want you to buy more books. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because they're not
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every book has been wonderful, but anything by Dan
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Sullivan is is time well
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spent. And, I remember meeting him in person back
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in 2010. So I attended one of
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his workshops. And, and so, yeah, I've read all 3 of
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the or listened to, because I'm also an audible listener,
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all 3 of those books multiple times. Love and Not How
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is amazing. And when you adopt the mindset
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of who can help me with this, who could do this for me so
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that I I I love how you said it. Live in your genius.
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Right? And then, gap in the gain, I mean, you just have to listen
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to that book. You just have to because it's
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it will change the way you think. And then 10
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x is easier than 2 x
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is game changing. Absolutely game changing.
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And, if you are someone who does not like to waste
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time, that's your buck. Mhmm.
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Or especially waste time on things that will not work
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or only move the needle gradually. You know,
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and you know what? I'll say on that 10 times, 2 times, that's where I
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came up with the tour idea to put as much as a 100 people in
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a me eventually, it'll be a 100 people in the meeting because we have big
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vision. But, because the guy said
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at the beginning of the year, Dan Sullivan, he takes a 180
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days off. Babs is his wife goes and
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plans out their trips, and their their team is not allowed to contact
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them at all when they're gone. So he takes half the year off and
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gets more done than other people do. Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. And, you know, early stage entrepreneurs are always
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grinding. They're working 12, 14 hours days and
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and and that and then there be and he did too. And
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but he learned that the secret is not to
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work harder or to work longer hours.
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Sorry, all you Alex Hermozzi fans, but, you know, this is
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there there is a smarter and easier way to do this.
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And Dan Sullivan has a a tremendous amount of
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wisdom, when it comes to that. Bob Proctor was another one
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who, again, learned learned
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that the secret is not to work harder. Mhmm.
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It's it it is through connections ultimately. Who not
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how and 10 x is better than 2 x, it comes
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down to connections. It comes down to partnerships. It comes
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down to hiring the right people, like and you need connections, and you
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need good network and the foundation of that. And that's what we've been talking
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about here today. So, Phil, this has been amazing, and
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I know that I could probably talk to you for another hour, but, we don't
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wanna lose our audience. We wanna make sure that they're still on the edge of
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their seats. Go connect with Phil. Go attend,
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his tour. Go check that out. Get a couple of free connections,
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and, and then, you know, leverage those connections into something.
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Build and nurture some relationships. That is what Phil and I both
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want you to take away from this episode.
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So, Phil, thank you. This has been amazing. And before I let you
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go, any final words of wisdom or or advice for our
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listeners? Yes. So my favorite saying is you have not
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because you asked not. So if you don't ask, you're not gonna get, and
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that really goes into the whole one to one thing as we're talking now. So
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go ask for those one to ones and get them done.
Speaker:
That is brilliant, and I think that's gonna be the the quote of
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this episode, and beautiful words to end this episode by.
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So, Phil, thank you so much for being an amazing guest. To our
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audience, thank you for being here as well. I want this
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time to mean something for you. So if there was something that Phil
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said or I said or something that we prompted you to
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remember or be inspired to do, I would like you to take
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one action today towards
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that thing that you desire and, yes, solving
Speaker:
problems, whatever. But, you know, something that you desire, I'd like you to
Speaker:
go take one action towards that today. And,
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maybe it's something that we reminded you of. Maybe it's a new idea that you
Speaker:
got here, or maybe it's just to go and schedule yourself
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in to do the tour with Phil. That would be a great step as well
Speaker:
and get some, free connections. So go ahead and do that. And
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remember, never ever give up on your big dream. Keep moving
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forward because, that next breakthrough, you
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could just be one relationship or one connection or one collaboration
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away from that big breakthrough you're looking for in your business. And
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so until next time, this has been the Creative Collaboration Show with Chuck
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Anderson, and I'll see you on the next one, everybody. Thank you.