The Art of Influential Networking for Career Advancement with Steve Ramona

Join Steve Ramona as he demystifies networking, focusing on creating meaningful connections that go beyond just swapping business cards. Through personal anecdotes and actionable tips, Steve highlights how everyday encounters and local events can spur professional growth. Learn to value quality over quantity in interactions, embracing open-mindedness and active listening to foster genuine relationships. This episode emphasizes building a network where each connection has the potential to boost your career and income.

In this masterclass, we explore how strategic networking can elevate your income, featuring real-life success stories of individuals who've boosted their earnings by leveraging their connections. Discover how combining financial management with community-building can streamline your workload and amplify your business potential. With Steve's insights, you'll gain the tools and mindset to enhance your networking skills, turning chance meetings into profitable opportunities.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"When you start an enterprise or project or have a philanthropic opportunity, you've got that network of hundreds or thousands of people that you can reach back to and communicate with because you've built a great relationship." – Steve
"One person can lead to hundreds of connections." – Steve
"It's always about the quality of the network. Find those people [who] are a fit. It's not everybody." – Steve
"When the opportunity door opens, you can walk through it and if it doesn't work, you open the door and walk back out. That's what networking is about." – Steve
“You've got to say no." – Steve
"Your mindset should be of value to people." – Steve
“It's okay to fail.” – Steve
“Shut up and listen.” – Steve
“I took notes so I can go back and learn about what and how I can help.” – Steve
“Think of value as you're listening to the person you're talking to.” – Steve
“People love to talk about themselves so the more that you can get them to open up and talk about themselves, we start to like that person a lot more.” – Philip
“On that initial connection call, if you can try and make it more them than you are talking, It allows you to get to know them, and learn how to support them, and connect them with the people.” – Philip
“No relationship is equal. There are times [when] my wife does so much more for me than I do for her, and [there are] times where I do way more for her than she does for me. And that's okay because that's a marriage, that's a true relationship.” – Philip
“Your number one asset is people. You need to build your network with people.” – Steve
“Practice serving or bringing value.” – Steve

RESOURCES
Steve
Website: https://www.servinginbusinesspodcast.com/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/ 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgN4ZO83lPjCJtuv0LeOJw 

Philip
Digital Course: https://www.speakingsessions.com/digital-course
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Speaking Sessions podcast. We've got a special guest with us today Steve Ramona. It's Ramona, right?

Speaker 2: 0:27

You're correct All right.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Just want to make sure there. I meant to ask beforehand. So this is part of communication. Somebody's name is super important to them, so that's why we want to make sure we get that right. But anyways, steve Ramona discovered networking was the real deal at a very young age. He is on a mission to teach the world how to network correctly. His passion for the law of increase is his secret sauce. Podcasting now is the new way to network and build an incredible inner circle. The ability to bring value, serving is a skill that will increase your networking. And today we are going to dive into the world of networking, connecting people, because, just like you, steve, I believe the more we can connect people, we can bring that value and serve other people and really support them as we talked, talked about offline, with their endeavors, and that does, in turn, come back to us in one way, shape or form to help us be able to create the impact that we're trying to create. But welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Glad to have you here. I'm excited. I love the Southern draw. I could talk to you all day with that.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Oh man, it's funny, I've definitely picked it up more. My wife had more of that Southern drawl accent and I've gotten it. My mom makes fun of me all the time. There's just different words that she'll say oh yeah, like bye, she's like bye. She'll start saying that to me now, because I draw that out a lot more. Instead of saying bye, I guess, I don't know, I'll say bye or whatever. So it's funny that I've definitely picked up more of that Southern drawl thanks to my wife.

Speaker 2: 2:04

And that's part of communication, which is what we're talking about in speaking sessions, is different ways that people talk and learning that and not judging. You know I love it. If I didn't love it, but it's the content more in the communication than how it's delivered to me, just so you can understand it.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, I agree. I mean there's definitely aspects that delivery is important, but you have to have the content there first. If you don't have the content, it doesn't matter how you deliver it, but if you do have the content, the way you deliver, it helps with that and everything for sure, but the content has to be there. Let's go ahead and dive in here to networking. You said in your bio is mentioned that like you learned that at a young age. So why in the world was networking so important for you, especially at a young age? Like, tell us about that, like how you stumbled upon this, if you will, of networking.

Speaker 2: 3:00

Yeah, it's interesting it's at 18 years old, just got out of high school. We all you know we're 18. You know you finish your high school, you want to go out that summer and beach and you know you want to make. You need money to do all that. You know your parents most of the time are not going to. Hey, here's $1,000 to have entertainment, so have entertainment.

Speaker 2: 3:17

So we had launched, a year before, a health club. My family, my cousin, jeff Ramona, was the president and he reached out and said hey, you know you're not playing football Now. Football was done, sports were done, you're graduating. Hey, why don't you come work for us? And so I came and worked at the front desk and if everybody you look back, there's always those one or two or three moments that change your life and sometimes you don't realize it two years later. So when I started working the front desk, one thing we taught our front desk staff was customer service. Give them a towel, don't forget that. Remember names A simple thing that people think about. But our staff would say Philip would come in. I said I haven't seen Philip in months, I don't know his name. Then she'd look over at the computer screen, go, slide their card and go Philip, have a great workout, good to see you again, and keep doing that. And I did that and learned and, of course, working a lot more than a lot of our part-time staff.

Speaker 2: 4:08

I started to get to know people and these relationships were being built with 40, 50, 60, 70-year-olds, some of these very wealthy people that have done very well with themselves. So at 18, it's like you know, peers, and one of the great stories that came from it was the Italian guy, tony, and he's a financial advisor dealing with lots of money, and he came in and he used to call me kid. Hey, kid, I got some research tip for you. I said well, what's up, tony, and being both Italian, we tease each other. He go here here's a book. It's called the wealthy barber, I think that's the name. It's still out there. It's about 40, 50 pages. It was short. He says read that and I'll get back to you next week and tell me what you got from it. So he comes back and I said I did so. The basis was take my, my income that I'm making now, put 10% away and don't touch it. Got it, kid, Go do it.

Speaker 2: 4:56

So years go by, he had finally left the company, left the membership. He was probably in the late middle 70s, he wasn't working out anymore. But I looked at an account at 30, 12 years later. You know we're 60 000 in their account and I was like holy moly, I felt like I went away. Remember, this is back in 90. So 6 000 worth a lot more than it is today. Yeah, probably worth 600 000, right? So I called him and said thank you, hey, can I give you $1,000 for your advice? You were an advisor. He says no kid, here's what you did when you took my advice and ran with it somewhere.

Speaker 2: 5:31

In my journey after that I met somebody that probably made me a bunch of money and connected me with other people and connecting with other people. So what I learned was he was serving me without getting abundance or value or money, but knew it was going to come somewhere else and didn't think about it. He was just out serving. He used to help a lot of people you know in the club sit down, have coffee and things like that. I'm like holy mackerel two things are happening.

Speaker 2: 5:53

I'm building a network of very successful people who became let's go to lunch. You know we had a restaurant right next door hey, let's go to lunch, yeah, or go out to dinner sometimes, and the value of that in my network that grew from the health club. After 20 years I launched a restaurant with a friend of mine. Brought that to my network too. We became a very successful restaurant. I launched a recycling company, a brick and mortar Brought my network to that Became very successful. Brick and mortar brought my network to that became very successful. And this is the one of the powers of a network is that when you start an enterprise or project, the business, whatever it may be, or have a philanthropic opportunity, you've got that network of hundreds or thousands of people that you can reach back to and communicate with, because you've built a great relationship.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And that network is so important. And I've got a great example of where I thought that I had a great network and I want us to dive into this because your network sounds like it was in person and I had a great network online. I decided to do an in-person event one year. It flopped, I mean, it was good overall. The people that were there really enjoyed it. They got a lot out of it.

Speaker 1: 7:04

But having these thousands of people that I had networked with, I knew I've talked to I've probably talked to at least 100 of them on a regular basis. They were all over the country and they decided not to come in, understandably, because I'm not a big name. I didn't necessarily have like the biggest names coming in to speak and there was definitely other aspects that I could have done to be able to market it more. There were certainly things that I could have done better at that, but I had this online network that I thought was fairly strong and I still talk to several of them today. And even some of the speakers that came in were from out of state. They were online friends at first. That became, I guess, in-person, real friends if you will. But I found that because I didn't have my local in-person network.

Speaker 1: 7:55

My network wasn't near as strong, because there is a difference when you're networking online with somebody, when you have that person that you know online versus that person you know in person. There's definitely more buy-in. And then, of course, from an event perspective, traveling from 30 minutes away versus flying in for three hours, that's a huge difference. There's a lot more commitment. So there is that aspect. But I'd be curious to see what your thoughts are on networking, because obviously we met online. I feel like we've built up pretty good relationships so far and everything, and so there is that validity there. But what is the difference that you've seen between networking and meeting people in person versus networking and meeting people online? Great question.

Speaker 2: 8:44

This is why Philip is a great podcast host, because that's the questions are most important. I'm going to give you a very unusual answer. What you just described in that story, which is a fantastic story, your networking was a success. If you meet one person, or a thousand people, that one person can lead to hundreds of connections. So never grade your network in a sense of you know, steve has a thousand and Philip has 50. Well, I've got a better network.

Speaker 2: 9:12

It's always about the quality of the network and we talked in the green room before the show about some people and how they acted and probably were not a fit for us. Your network is growing by finding people that connect with you, that want to build that relationship, that want to go in the journey with you. That's what it is Me and you are going through a journey. I've given you some referrals. We're on this podcast. We're going to do different things together over the next years, which I'm excited about because I want to really help you.

Speaker 2: 9:42

But with your network, you want to point that out find those people that are a fit. It's not everybody. I get three to 10 referrals a day and I meet with most 99% of them, because I always tell people, when you walk in that door of opportunity, you never know what you're going to get. And some big things have happened in the last year when I met people for the first time because of a referral. And then here's the other thing the respect for the person that gave you the referral. You know I've had this happen. I'm not a big fan, but again, I'm not judging. Everybody has their own way. You know, I sent a referral and this person goes. I don't want that referral, that's not a good fit for me. I said well, you know, just meet with them for 15 minutes. Hey, this is not a fit. Be honest with them. And they never met with them. Who knows what could have happened. I've had people miss networking meetings and this guy lost a $10,000 deal. Okay, but keep in mind, especially virtually, because you can't get. You know, we can't get sick doing this. When the opportunity door opens, you can walk through it and if it doesn't work, you open the door and walk back out. That's what networking is about.

Speaker 2: 11:43

In a servant's heart my podcast Doing Business with a Servant's Heart I had to learn from very wealthy people, mentors of mine You've got to say no. Sometimes I say no a lot Doesn't mean they're bad or whatever. It's just not a fit like a circle, a circle in a square hole. That doesn't fit. It doesn't make you. You actually are a better servant when you say no, because you're not helping them and you're not helping yourself. Once you realize that, it's a game changer.

Speaker 1: 12:12

I want to dive into that, but you brought up the point that I didn't bring up in this story, which is really interesting. So I created this event here locally and there was a guy that he ended up moving here shortly before my event and he was looking around trying to network and I need to connect you with him. I don't know His name is John Vanderhoek, I don't think I've connected you with him yet, but an amazing networker and what's interesting is he came to the event. So he was really the only person outside of the speakers that came to the event and from that we actually have built a relationship. And just to give a little bit more backstory, like I had what I thought was a financial advisor at the time and he was a financial advisor. And it's funny because I'm like, oh no, no, I got a financial advisor. I'm good, but we still just kind of connected and he was still just there and he would connect me with other people and he's probably been my best source as far as connecting me with other people and I do my best to connect with him or connect him with others as well on the back end, but then over time now I work with him. He's my financial advisor now, but it was because of just having that conversation and just me doing that event and that one connection, like you were saying, and he's became an amazing connection for me and an amazing friend and obviously advisor as well there. So I was just thinking about that.

Speaker 1: 13:32

But you mentioned about saying no. Sometimes you do say no because people aren't a great fit. But you also mentioned that people like you shouldn't just not get with somebody because you might not think that you can do business with them. And that's what I've noticed a lot of times when I have went to networking events or talk with people about that. They like prejudge somebody. And I'm guilty with others that I prejudge somebody based on how they look or what business they have and I pre sell or don't sell them because they're like, oh, you know, they do this job, they probably can't afford me or whatever, and there's these different reasons. Or oh, they're like, oh, you know, they do this job, they probably can't afford me or whatever, and there's these different reasons. Or oh, they're in this industry, so yeah, they wouldn't want what I do and everything.

Speaker 2: 14:43

But you are basically saying you shouldn't do that because you that's an important aspect when it comes to networking that too many people, especially new people, to networking, they pass up so many opportunities because, oh, that person can't help me right now. Yeah, it's a, it's a great point. And then the lesson you just taught the audience with that one guy. One guy showed up to lessons still do your, your event. One guy, one guy showed up. Two lessons still do your, your, your event. I've done a workshops and nobody showed up and I still did it. I have coaches that do that because it's that universe. You keep doing it. And then to show up. And so that's the first thing. The second thing one guy. And how many years has it been? It's been about two, two years. You know two things. He's given you a network and increased your network. Second thing is you found a great financial advisor. So personally it's helped you, but it took a while.

Speaker 2: 15:17

You shouldn't think in your mindset. You can sell right away behind you as mindset over motivation, and that is so true. Your mindset should be being in value to people, every person you meet. And he mentioned law of increase. In my bio from think and grow rich, chapter four, I'll never forget, he says bring a law of increase to where you, you meet and that's value or resources, tips, referrals, or, you know, at church I use this story all the time. I told a lady her daughter looked beautiful in that bow. Well, I just brought her value. Is it making me money? No, is it making it making her money? No, but it changed the universe yeah I gave something, she got joy.

Speaker 2: 15:56

She smiled and thanked me and said you're such a kind person. So we want to be careful in our mindset, or our mindset with networking, the motivation of money, of fear, of missing out that hey, I just met philip, he's got this great financial value. Hey, I need to meet this guy. Oh, my god God, I can make millions off here. Yeah, that's where you say no and I want to kind of change the direction on that.

Speaker 2: 16:19

There are times you're not going to say no, especially if somebody gives you a parameter to work with. Like a coach has a $25,000 program which I'm part of. Well, you know somebody that sells Mary Kay. My wife sells Mary Kay, nothing wrong with that, but usually a parking they couldn't afford that. Yeah, so it may not be a good connection because we only have so much time in the day, but if somebody refers somebody to you and you just feel it's a good connection, make it 15 minutes, so that's four meetings a day. An hour. You take three hours of that, so you've met 12 people. Well, if that one person gives you something like this gentleman that's the financial advisor it's time well spent.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. So you mentioned the timeframe there. That's something here recently I had to change because I thought, man, okay, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, is a pretty solid amount of time. I can definitely meet with somebody, really get to know them. 15, depending on the person, it seems like a good amount of time and then other people are like, oh man, this was so short. And then other people are like it's still. Wow, this was a really long time. So it definitely depends on the person there.

Speaker 1: 17:24

But I'm curious your thoughts on it because you mentioned about 15 minutes. I think that's a good like very intro call, very brief, get to know each other and not waste each other's time too much, because you may think you're the greatest thing on earth but for somebody else you're just not a great fit, and that's okay because we don't get along with each other because of our backgrounds, whatever's going on, and that's okay. There's somebody else that needs you, that wants to get to know you and everything. So when it comes to doing these, obviously we're talking about virtual. That'd be kind of awkward to meet for 15 minutes in person. But when we're talking about virtual connections, what do you feel like is that kind of sweet spot and how you know. Let's just go with that first, as far as time goes.

Speaker 2: 18:06

We teach in our Mastermind Alliance me and Josh Tapp, my partner. We talk about, and he's taught me this a 30 minute. But here's what happens If you're feeling it's not happening they may be a taker, they're not a fit, whatever it may be Then you'd close it out at, you know, 15 minutes. You've given somebody some time and you figure out. I'm not good at this because I tend to go on and on and it's not good because we're only a certain amount of time during the day and I have more than others. That's why I do that. But you know, at the 10, 15 minute mark they know it and you know it it's good. Hey, it's great to meet you, philip. You know it's. There's not really much we can do here. I didn't want to take too much of your time. You know, I appreciate it, and if you find anybody that fits for me, or if I find somebody that fits for you, for example, let's do that, do the 30-minute and when it hits 30 minutes, you can always meet again. Yeah, and maybe the next one's an hour, yeah, but now you delve into here's how we can help each other and do all that. So it's a great question, phillip, and I love that you asked that because and that's not setting stone If you want to do all hour again, this is your business. You run it the way you want. You know you're different. You have a full-time job so you're limiting your hours. You got to be. It's going to be different than me, but I used to meet 12 people a day. I've cut that back because then I, you know, I can't, you know, in a half hour like that. I'm not a rock star like you, no, I'm half kidding. You got a VA, but again, always everybody out there, listen, do it the way you want. I'll give you ideas, philip, will give you ideas, but there's never anything set in stone. And another piece of advice I learned this week on my TV show.

Speaker 2: 19:49

My guest, uh, gary V Vanderchuk if most of you know who, he is very successful talks about his story of working. We forget about working. We want to send one email, make a million dollars. It ain't going to usually happen, especially if you're doing network marketing. You know your offer is a thousand dollars. You know you can run those numbers and figure that it just doesn't happen. But what, gary V? Because we're all going to make mistakes. And I want to go back to your event that you had. It wasn't a mistake, it was a risk. You took a step, a decision to make, and it didn't work out.

Speaker 2: 20:22

Business owners run into this all the time. I want to be 3-0. I want three things I do and it's going to be successful. Five things I want to be 5-0. You don't have to be Gary. Van Der Schuk says 172 and 30 and 81, 172 wins and 81 losses. 81 losses, yeah, and not only losses in money, but things that maybe it was an ad he did, maybe it was an event. You are gonna have things that don't work Once you have that mindset over motivation and keep bringing that book up. Things that I'll work. Once you have that mindset over motivation, we'll keep bringing that book up. It's so great that that's going to happen. You learn you're not going to do that event Now. You're going to change it If you do it again or just never do it again. We fail all the time. It's okay to fail.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Yeah, and I found the most successful people fail more often and really, if you want to go down to a lot of people talk about failures only when you quit, so let's just throw that out the window. I mean, I get that that's definitely a great positive spin to put on it, but they have, you know, failures, losses more often, things that don't go the way that they expected them to or they wanted them to. And I want to point out something, because we talked about this offline and you mentioned about how can I help you at the end of the call Remember it's how can I support you. Changing that word will help out there. But let's actually talk about the call itself a little bit.

Speaker 1: 21:41

I know, as you get more familiar with this, it gets a lot easier and you're very good at conversation. I'm very good at conversation, but I bet there's somebody listening right now and I've been on those calls too where I'm like, even though I can pull out conversation, there are some people that it's just. I mean I'd rather watch paint dry than have this conversation with them, because they just don't know how to have a conversation and everything is. You know, what do you do for business? Business coaching, all right, and you're trying to. You're like trying to pull stuff out and then it becomes an interrogation. So is there a structure or a method to your badness of how you create an engaging conversation that gets both parties to be able to know each other and then have a good conversation and feel good coming out of that conversation? Because every conversation we've had I know I've left with a smile on my face because you're always good about saying something funny, but we also get into business and life and everything. So what's your method behind that to connect with people?

Speaker 2: 22:47

Yeah, and you're right, madness is definitely a good description for me, but in a good way. Yeah, there's a number of things I do and it becomes natural for me. I believe this is a skill, like gratitude, like building a podcast, you know, whatever. Personal development, reading, those are all skills. This is a skill and it's really simple. You meet somebody for the first time. You're an extrovert. Well, you know you're going to talk, but shut up and listen. And I'll say that again Shut up and listen. I don't say just listen, because I could just listen to you but not take it in. So when you shut up and then cross the bridge of listening, like we did on our first meet, I learned that, hey, you worked at BMW. I believe it was a factory BMW. We talked about how long it takes. I couldn't believe how many cars went. I mean, how long ago was that? And I still remember it. Yeah, and you don't have maybe it's, it's a superpower of mine. I don't like that word, but maybe it is. But because I listened.

Speaker 1: 23:48

I know you've got notes over there You're reading through.

Speaker 2: 23:51

I do have. Yeah, that's, and that's another actually skill is. I didn't do that before but I took notes so I can go back and learn about what, how I can help this person. The other thing is think of value. As you're listening to the person you're talking, to think of value. And then for the introvert and extrovert too, you know, shut up and listen for the introvert and you mentioned it, there's a lot of people I talk to like I'm a little shy Questions why did you start your business coaching program?

Speaker 2: 24:19

How long have you been doing your business coaching program? What are your challenges? And I hope you're writing these down audience, because this is a powerful. I'm not special. I'm special because I take action and do this, and so does Philip, and I appreciate this platform to do that. But you start asking those questions and as you get a question, like I've been doing it for two years so what's your goals? What are you desires? You're wise. What's your hobbies? What do you do for fun, and those questions to engage a conversation. And then you get to learn. I mean, I had a podcast and if you're a podcast host, questions don't. Don't pick up.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Before I met Roy Firestone, who's a ESPN sports journalist. He's done 5,000 interviews with celebrities and pro athletes. He said I never had a question. When I written down, I'm going to have this paper roll. He says I asked a question and led to another question as I listened, so it made me excited because that's what I was doing when he's on the show. He was thumbs up, thumbing up it, saying this is good.

Speaker 2: 25:21

The other thing is energy. If you need to do something before your meeting to meditate, watch something funny, bring energy. Like you said, we laughed my podcast the first 10 minutes. We did that. We laughed. We talked about things. We built an energy to walk into this.

Speaker 2: 25:39

The same thing, a one-on-one is. Build that energy and think of value. Try to go first. I don't always go first. Somebody go.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Hey, tell me about you, be prepared of what you do and make it short. I don't want to hear 10 minutes of what somebody does. Yeah, your eyes are wrong. We've both run into that. It's like, oh, come on.

Speaker 2: 26:00

Even podcast guests sometimes can ramble like I'm doing now, but at least giving value. So be you know, be prepared when people ask you. So what do you do? I'm a podcast host, tv host. I love to bring energy and dah, dah, dah, and I have it all down. It may be different for every person. And also be prepared, because when you give value to somebody, 99% of the time they're going to go. How can I support you? See, I changed the word again. There you go. And what a powerful tool because audience.

Speaker 2: 26:31

I get three to 10 referrals a day, monday through Saturday. I just got two as we're talking today. I get two emails as they pop up on my site and my screen for referrals because I bring value, I bring energy and I bring fun. But ask those questions, shut up and listen and you're going to have great one-on-ones and you're going to learn right away if they're going to be a fit. Yeah, you know. Somebody says amory, you know, or I sell, I suggest you know network marketing company, love it, that's great. But they're not going to be fit for my mastermind. Maybe they're fit for another community. If you have multiple businesses, it's such a cool way to figure out where they fit. What's their pain point, what's their desires desires, what's their passions? I want to make $100,000 next year because I want to take my wife to Italy. Where are you at now? I make $10,000 a year on their side. Well, now I know right away where I can. That's the power of questions and shutting up and listening.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Yeah, and the one thing that you didn't bring out here is that people love to talk about themselves. So the more that you can get them to open up and talk about themselves, it's funny, as humans we start to like that person a lot more because, hey, I get to talk about myself around them, I get to really be selfish and self-absorbed and talk about me, which makes me like you even more, even if you don't tell me that much Like, oh yeah, steve's a great guy and we always talk and have a good time, have a great conversation. That's like 90% of the conversation is always about me. So you probably don't want to be around somebody all the time. That's like that. But on that initial connection call, if you can try and make it more them than you talking, I think that's a great way to really build up good rapport. But it allows you to get to know them and learn how to support them and connect them with the people. And so to kind of add on what you said and you kind of brought this into podcasting, and that was the other thing I was going to bring up too is I don't go in with a list of questions.

Speaker 1: 28:32

Yeah, I might ask about same things business life, hobbies, what are their goals, things like that. But based on what they say, I'll ask a question to dive in deeper about that. So if they tell me, oh yeah, I'm doing business coaching. Oh, how long have you been doing business coaching for? Oh, three years, maybe it's like what's one of the coolest transformations you've had with a client or something, and they'll tell me, oh man, that's so cool. And then we might go somewhere else and similar with the podcast.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Because people ask me how do you do so good at having a conversation or having an interview on a podcast? What notes do you have written down? What questions do you ask? I don't. I mean, I have the notes of, like, what the person is, what they do, their bio, stuff, like that. But I don't have a list of questions. And some people want to say well, what happens if the conversation isn't good?

Speaker 1: 29:26

Well, like you mentioned, if the conversation is not good, you can end it early. What's to say, you always have to have a 30 minute podcast or an hour long podcast. It can be shorter than that and if it is so bad, it's your podcast. You don't have to put the podcast episode out there. So there's all these things, but just go in and, as they answer something, dive into it a little bit deeper, and we've been doing this this whole time on this podcast. You mentioned about doing 15 minutes or 30 minutes for a networking time slot, and so I asked what do you think is the best time slot? That wasn't a scripted question, but it was based on what you had just said. So, oh, that's a good question to ask as a follow up to what you just said. As an example, we've been doing that this whole time and going back and forth and everything.

Speaker 2: 30:15

So audience, I'm going to tell you this is an edification is big and I'm going to do it right now and this is coming from my heart. What Philip just said is 5% of podcasts. So let's say 15%, 85% are not like that. If you can learn just that, your podcast will grow. I've got two sponsors and I'm not. I do it just because of doing a great job with. I have two sponsors because of guests like you, philip, and other people my audience likes and it's built. The podcast. That's your goal. It's not Joe Rogan podcast. He got a hundred million. That's a, that's a TV show. He just calls it a podcast. So the power of that is great.

Speaker 2: 30:55

And I'm going to tell you a real time story, philip and I told you in the green room about a gentleman from Africa today. Great call. But it started out with a LinkedIn message this morning and he said so I've never, I'd never got a list of questions from you. You know where are the questions said. You know I'll just roll with it. He goes okay, uh, all right, I all right, you know, I'll join. He wasn't happy. I mean, I could tell by how he's typing it, the people. How do you do that? Virtually well, you could tell what words people are typing. You kind of get a feel for that. So I was a little bit nervous, to be honest, because, like I want every podcast, because I'm promoting them, I want it to be great because it's about philip, it's about how to join or whoever. We got done with that podcast.

Speaker 2: 31:34

And I said, ed Oin, how'd that go? He goes, oh my God, so much better than I thought it would be. I was a little little concerned, coming in, how this, this was so great, it was conversational, I got my points across and you interject. That just happened an hour and a half ago and it happens all the time with me and the same thing. When I do a one-on-one, I get so many comments after. This has been one of the best one-on-ones I had this week, this month, whatever, because it was engagement of positivity, of how can we bring value to each other.

Speaker 2: 32:08

Again, I might do five referrals and Philip you go. Hey, I'm going to meet this financial advisor. This is not a score, but it's not basketball, baseball or football. There's no scoreboard up there going. Oh man, steve did 12. And you know, philip gave one resource. It's probably not going to help them. The how, the when and the where, when. These when values given to people we will never know, at least in our lifetime. We just don't. It's the universe talking to us, or ether, or whatever you want to say. You live your life that way, not caring about that. You'll have abundance, like I do.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Yes, and when we care about you know, tit for tat, going back and forth, and I give you one referral, so you give me one, I give you one connection, you give me one. Well, first of all, that's not a healthy relationship. Well, first of all, that's not a healthy relationship. No relationship is equal. I'm married to my wife and there are times that she is on the ball and she does so much more for me than I do for her, and there's times where I do way more for her than she does for me. And that's okay, because that's a marriage, that's a true relationship. We don't meet in the middle to make it happen. We come over to each other's sides, if you will, to make it work, to make things happen. And a good example would be when we're sick, we go and do a little bit extra to take care. Or, like the other day, I was just really tired from work and typically, when I get home, I start to take care of our daughter, because then it's about time she gets home before me. So she's been taking care of our daughter, so she might rest a little bit, and then she's got to start cooking supper. So there, I was supposed to do that. But I got home I was tired and I'm like, hey, I'm gonna take a nap. So she kept taking care of our daughter and I got up in time for her to start cooking supper and everything, and so we go back and forth with this, and this is the same thing with networking.

Speaker 1: 33:56

Now, if it's literally 100 to zero, more than likely, what's going to happen the very strong networker is just going to stop connecting with people. You've got to give at least something. So that's the only expectation that should be there when it comes to networking is that you're trying to give back, and it may take a while, it may be hard, you may have a super specialty or special thing that you do and it's hard to connect. And I know that happens to me all the time because I help people with speech prep, to get ready for stage, and that's very niche and so not every day is somebody trying to get on a stage. So I don't get a lot of connections to come to me or a lot of referrals come to me. But sometimes what happens is people know I have a good network as well and they'll connect me because they know I can connect that person with the next person, and so that's the power behind networking to me as well, is that, and this is what we've kind of been talking about. It's not necessarily about if you connect me with somebody, something happens. Now, no, it could be connection to connection to connection. It could be three connections down the lineage, if you will, so to speak, before something really happens from that. But it's just about giving without expectation.

Speaker 1: 35:13

Bob Berg, the Go-Giver his book the Go-Giver is what this is all about. You give without expectation, you connect people without expectation. You get on these calls without expectation because it's a lot like commission breath. We were to get on a networking call and you could tell the whole time I was just like I wonder, let's see, is Steve wanting some speaking coaching? And then I could tell, and then I'm like, oh, steve's not a speaker, all right, well, yeah, steve, man, this is pretty cool, I've been enjoying our time together, and like you can just tell, like I'm ready to get off the call, you're not going to want to connect me with people, and then we're both going to feel miserable after the call too. So don't go into that networking call, networking event or whatever, with that commission breath, with the thought of closing somebody there because it's just not going to work out.

Speaker 1: 36:06

And this entrepreneur world, this self-development world, is a very small world. I meet people not all the time, but I would say probably at least once a month where it's like they happen to know somebody that I know, and it's people from all across the country and it just blows my mind. I actually just met a guy this week. He's in San Antonio and he knew somebody that I know from North Carolina. I was like this is crazy, but that's a part of the self-development world. It is a small world and there's not many of us kind of like to talk about with the podcasting, the ones that do a podcast unscripted. I would say it's probably more like 5%. I really don't think a lot of people go unscripted, because I've had people on the podcast too that will sit there and they get worried.

Speaker 1: 36:58

They're like oh, what do I need to be prepared? I'm like, just come, you've given me your bio, you've given me everything I need. We're going to talk about this. I'll give them that. I get a little bit. You know, you want something to be able to kind of be prepared. Like, hey, we're going to talk about this topic, all right, and then what are the questions? I'm like I, I don't have any, and then some of them they get bad enough. I'm like, all right, we'll probably be talking about this, this and this within it, but but this is the, this is the theme.

Speaker 2: 37:24

If you will for the podcast, then that's it yeah, when you go on podcast and if you don't know what you do, then you can't, then you're worried. You're gonna worry about yeah, but if you know what you do you've asked me questions I don't have an answer because one I practice it. So if you, you know, be guests on podcasts, don't expect the outcome, just practice that, cause that's what I did as a host. I just started recording. They were sucked. I mean, I was clapping like this in the middle of my podcast because I forgot I turned on the recording. I left it there. I laugh at it every time I see it. Jr Smith still laughs at it when we talk about it. Let me give your audience two tips that will increase your income. I had a lady go from $100,000 to $1 million last year in her income doing this.

Speaker 2: 38:08

We're in the people asset business. Your asset, number one asset, is people. Phillip, you don't have people. Steve doesn't have people. You out there, if you don't have people, you can't sell your service or product, just that. But it's that simple. So you need to build your network with people, like we've been talking about.

Speaker 2: 38:26

Here's two ways to do it. One practice serving or bringing value. Start on Monday and, if you want to go on Amazon. I have a serving journal you can write in it. But, starting Monday, start tracking every person and every person you meet. Bring them value and write it down.

Speaker 2: 38:43

I met a lady. I helped her put her groceries in her car. She was really happy. I gave two referrals to Joe Smith and he was very excited and asked for you know, my whatever. Just kind of jot down how you felt, how they felt At the end of the week. Look back at all those interactions, engagements and go Write down how did all those people feel? Hey, they were all happy, which they probably will be or they were so excited. How did you feel? Oh, man, it made me feel good. A bad day turned into a good one, whatever that is. But the most important thing is write down how your week changed and I challenge everybody on this audience reach out to me, or reach out to Phillip, and tell me if it, if it was a negative response, I want to hear what happened, and rarely, but it might be the way that you're serving, that might be the way you're presenting. The second thing and this is the thing I tell people two things meet 10 to 15 new people a week. Oh, I'm brand new, I don't you know, I work full time and I'm only online a few times. That's okay. Build up to it 10 to 15 new people and that could be people on your contact list. Here's the other tip. I had a guy make a million dollars a month, 27 years old, make a million dollars a month with a program, a flipping house program. He just marketed through his contact list of a thousand people. That's all he reached out to and said you know, I have a way you send an email.

Speaker 2: 40:06

Quick question you know if your business uses plumbers? Do you know a good plumber? I'd love an intro. Again, I'm going to say that again, audience, and it can be a text or a Facebook message. Linkedin Quick question Do you know a plumber?

Speaker 2: 40:19

I'd love an intro. Figure out who that persona or bucket is that you work with, and maybe a struggling plumber. If you're a business coach or a financial advisor, do you know parents of special needs, which I have an advisor that does that? I'd love an intro. Do that. And guess what? You're going to start meeting people because they're going to give you referrals or go yeah, my child's special needs or my cousins. Now you're building the 10 to 15,.

Speaker 2: 40:46

You're building your network and two things happen. One, now you have more opportunity to sell. I hate you know we are selling, selling your product to somebody or service. But two, you're building your network. So when people come in and go I don't have a big network then go out. You're a hunter and gatherer mode. You need to build your network. I have.

Speaker 2: 41:06

I did 1800 referrals last year One. So that was 500 a month. Maybe it was about, but it was like four or 500 a month. Now I work some money through Saturday. I do more. It's not the number, but people are astonished when they hear that Cause. My goal is to build my network. Even though it's big, I never know who I meet. That's going to open that door, to lead to the two sponsors in my podcast, lead to some partnerships of billion dollar companies that I'm part of that are paying me.

Speaker 2: 41:38

And then the last thing if you're struggling in your business and I talk to people all the times and I haven't a sale in two months, go out and partner up with somebody that has an affiliate program, a coach. Find out whoever that may be that does pay a commission for you to share it. Spend an hour or two a week. Put it in your calendar and go. I'm going to reach through my network and see who's going to fit with Philip. You know five speakers.

Speaker 2: 42:02

Hey, you need to talk to Philip. He helps you with your speech. I know you get nervous here. I'd love the intro. Yeah, I'd love that. Philip has an affiliate program we have to give you, do or don't? You know? I just got paid $932 on Thursday. I got a Zell sent to me for a coach that I shared. He keeps paying me monthly because I shared five clients for him. Now the money, take that money, pay your bills and grow your business. Take that money, pay your bills, grow your and then, if your business is growing, it's busier than you do less of that. But when people say, especially virtually and online, I need to make money, there are so many opportunities out there to do that. If you need help, reach out to me and I'll help you as well.

Speaker 1: 42:41

Love it, man. Steve, that is the perfect way for us to end this podcast here and, as always, you're always bringing value and finding ways to support other people and, steve, we appreciate all that you've shared with us today, so thank you for coming on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 42:57

God bless you, philip. You're doing great job, great stuff, thank you.