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the people that have the business have to know you in order to give you the business. Welcome back to the Art of Connecting podcast. This is your host here, Haydynn, back with another episode for you. And today I am so, so excited to have Joel Bash with me. Joel got introduced to me by a friend, mutual friend of ours, Michael, who I met through a mastermind that I'm in. I got on a call with Joel and I was really, really excited about what he does because Joel does what I've been doing for the last two years, but he's been doing it for decades. And so we have a seasoned professional connector here with us today. And I'm super excited just to get to hear Joel about how you built what you have and, you know, what kind of life it's built for you. So, so thankful that you're here today. Thank you for coming. Well, thank you for having me my pleasure. So why don't we go and get rolling and start with a little bit of an introduction, if you will. Sure. In 1985 started my own networking group and it would meet the the region, Beverly Wilshire and Beverly Hills. And it grew to a few thousand members. I knew so many good people. I realized everyone was going to my group to meet a certain target. So just being logical. If you get work from a B and C, just keep meeting a B and C. Well, if I go to a networking group or a function, I don't know where A, B, and C is, or I'm lucky if there's one or two there. And, you know, people come to my events and say, I need to meet attorneys. I need to meet accountants. I'd say, well, go meet them. Well, I don't know where they are. I don't have the time to find them. So I realize that people Weren't coming to my events to network. They were really there for introductions. It's like I'm from New York originally. And, you know, the New York mentality is, you know, let's cut to the chase. Why are you really here? Well, I'm really here to meet tax attorneys. Well. Why am I giving you a room full of tax? Well, why am I giving you a room full of people that aren't tax attorneys? Why don't I just introduce you to the tax attorneys I know, and that's really going to help you most. That was the impetus to start my company in 1994, where I do one on one business introductions. Amazing. So it all started out of starting your own event and realizing that people needed more than just like an open forum. They needed introductions to people. Yeah. I mean, imagine you want Chinese food and you go to a Mexican restaurant. I mean, the food, the food's great. The people are great, but it's not what you wanted. You, when you go to these networking events in groups, you're at the mercy of what they give you instead of I I'm here to meet. Tax attorneys and you're giving me CPAs and you're giving me real estate agents and wealth managers. I mean, that's all good But I need tax attorneys. Where are they, you know? So it's just a very simple logical art of replication. Keep meeting your target. You hit your target. I Introduce you to your target. That's amazing. So what, what were you doing before you started the networking event and what kind of led you to starting up that? I was in a family real estate business out of college. Family moved from New York to Newport Beach in 82 and then LA in 85 and that's when I started the, the networking group and, you know, didn't want to be in the family business anymore, searching for my niche and certainly found it. As I said, there was a real need and there still is a real need. You know, 31 years later for introductions. I mean, people aren't people, you know, generally have not heard of me and what I do, but there's such a need to connect the dots properly. Again, a, an area of efficiency that just doesn't exist in business development. It's always catch as catch can. I hope someone here can help me instead of knowing. And I, you know, just take a lot of pride in making these introductions. And most people, I feel like don't value it either. You know, I I've been in several positions where I was the person doing the introductions and it just wasn't valued right where they, they didn't realize how valuable it could be. And come to find out a few months later, after I left the place that I was working, they have 5. 8 million of listings from people that I've introduced them to that I didn't get paid for. Right? So it happens a lot to where you know, I talked to some people who are a little bit more cynical than I am and they, they say, Oh, well, what you do is not sustainable because. You know, you're not going to make any money off of it. And I've built a business and you've built a business where we actually do make money off of what we do. You just have to structure it the right way. And be really creative, I feel like, and, and figuring out how to put the pieces together. But yeah, it definitely, a lot of people give away what we do for free when it's super, super valuable. Well, see that, that's, that's the point. It's, it's, it, it, it is valuable, but people imagine if people in stores just gave away their products and didn't charge for anything, people would just, you know, wouldn't pay for those either. It has to be set up upfront. Like you're talking about, you know, this is what I'm going to give you. This is what it's, it's going to cost. And, but the, they can't refute the value because they need to meet these people. Your, your best clients, your best friends started with, hi, I'm Haydnn. You know, but it worked because those were the right people. If you keep meeting those, you're going to get more business. My, you know, my father was saying that, you know, my business with introductions is equated, you can equate it to the insurance industry when the insurance industry first came out. You know, people would say, I mean, you want me to pay a monthly premium for something that didn't happen. Are you crazy, you know, and they, they wouldn't value it until of course they needed it. And then, you know, everybody caught onto it and, and it's, it's extremely valued. It's the same thing here. An introduction is the conduit to, to any business transaction. So, but again, it has to be. Efficient and structured. It's like who who is my target? How have I historically been getting business in the past? Let me just keep meeting those people because they have the business It's like the chinese food has the chinese food that i'm looking for. I just have to go there and get it So it's like these people have the business that i'm looking for. They just need to meet me and like me but without An introduction, they're not going to, they don't know who I am. Yeah. Well, especially now in the world that we live in, it, when, before I talked with you, I was trying to think about like, cause you've been in this for so long, like with the advancements we've had with the advances we've had in technology. Is what we do to collectively, because we both kind of do a similar thing, is it becoming more or less valuable, right? With technology, and as I thought about it, I was like, what we do is becoming more and more valuable, because I think that what I've seen is the value of having your contact and someone's phone who's important. I'm using air quotes here. If you're listening, it's important. You know, what I'm saying is like someone who does a lot of business, right? You need to have your contact in their phone, because if you're just another person calling with a random number, the likelihood of them picking up is probably 80 percent lower than if you called in your contacts in their phone. But I would love to hear your opinion on it. Well, I mean, it's just, as I said, it's just, you know, people joke and they say, you know, Joel, you're, you're a dating service for business. And they literally laugh in my face. And I say, no, I'm in the knowledge business. I mean, what, what are we all looking for? We're all looking for knowledge. If I'm a. Again, if I'm a real estate attorney, I'm looking for people that need my knowledge, you know, the real estate developers, the real estate investors, you know, the, you know, anybody involved in real estate, they need that knowledge to make these deals. Come to fruition because the real estate attorney knows what to do when they're writing a contract to buy or sell a building. And I need that knowledge so I don't have slip ups and things that will hurt my deal. So it's the same thing here. Everybody needs knowledge. Of where they're getting their business from. Everybody needs knowledge to, to replicate their past successes. You can't do it without an introduction. So again, it is, it's always valuable and somebody has to want that knowledge and appreciate it like anything else. So I'm curious, how does your, how does your business model work? Right. And we talked about this. I'm familiar, but for the audience, like how does the, how does the professional connecting business model work for you? Well, the way I do it, it's basically 300 for each introduction. I tell everybody meet a minimum of five people. It's very, again, very much a system. The system says, if I keep meeting my target, I'm going to hit my target. I get one client. I'm way ahead of what Joel charges. It's really a no brainer for me, but. You have, you have to be in a business that obviously pays a lot, you know, per, per client, but with the people I'm dealing with, the attorneys, the accountants, the consultants and wealth managers, et cetera, they all are. So it's just believing it, believing in the system. No one can refute the system. Have you had people that you connected to one of your connections and maybe they were the problem, right? But they came to you and said, Joel, what the heck you connect me to this person and they're no good, but didn't you realize the way that the transaction went? Excuse me. Sorry. Then you realize the way that the transaction went was one sided. The person only wanted to get business out of it. Have you had like things like that happen where the person who's paying for the connection comes back and says, what the heck? This was not a good one. I mean, you know, rarely that the only time that would happen if there was a misunderstanding where the person said, no, you know, Haydnn, I can't refer work to you, you know, and I thought that they could, you know, and then I would replace them. You're not, you know, you're not taking a chance there, but it's really. You know, again, it's not there's no perfect system. You're dealing with people. Some are going to be, you know, I know them to be nice, friendly people, but again, very rarely, sometimes that that would happen. I would again, replace them, but it's just all about forming relationships. It's all about bonding. You think about your, your best clients, your best friends. How did I get to do business with them? We bonded, we, we got along, we started socializing, we started seeing each other where You know, it was just obvious that we were going to do business together. So again, it's my job to put you in front of people that I know for sure, for sure can refer business to you because you're telling me you're like ordering from a menu. You're telling me how you get business and I'm going to replicate that. So. You're going, you know, again, not a perfect system, but it's a very powerful system because there's so many good ones as compared to the ones that, that, that aren't so great. Yeah. That's awesome. And how do you manage all of this? Like, so you, you're on your, on your website, you know, you have 18, 000. Professionals, correct me if I've got the number wrong, you know, 18, 000 people in your network. How do you keep it straight in your head? Because I know when I was growing, I was going to networking events every day, sometimes twice a day, and it got overwhelming. I had to start like a CRM of some sort to keep everything straight. So how does that work for you? How do you keep everything straight in your Business in, in, in your head? Well, you know, everyone I meet, I take, you know, good notes, but it's just, you know, the, the basics, you know, what do you do? Where are you from? Hobbies, sports, you know, college you went to something that, again, that you can bond with somebody else. So, you know, when you know Tennessee comes up, you know, real estate, you know, networking, you know, connecting, you know your name is going to come up. But because I met you and I know that you're a nice person, I could vouch for you, and that's what people are. Mm-hmm depending on me for they don't depend on me. Like, is he a good attorney? Well, I don't know. I haven't used him, but is he a nice person? Is he friendly? Is he congenial? You know, can I talk to him that I can vouch for when, you know, when I meet you and I don't introduce anyone I haven't met face to face. I do that so often as well, because you can't do business with everybody, right? It would be impossible if I did business with every single person that I refer business to, you know, I'd be doing it forever. But. What I do say when I haven't done business with someone is I say, Hey, I haven't done business with this person yet, but I've had gotten the pleasure to meet them three, four times and they are consistent and they do what they say they're going to do to me. And so I can vouch for that. And sometimes it comes back and they're like, that person never even texted me back. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's good to know. And I don't, you know, refer them any more business. And then other times it comes back and it's like, that person was the perfect connection for me. Thank you so much. And that's what makes me happy. Like that's what gets me excited. This is the best text I can get. Yeah. So exactly what you said, they're not all going to be winners. But again, it's like baseball. If I give you pitches over the plate and you have any ability to hit, you're going to hit some. And those hits are going to be so much outweighing the ones that you miss that you're glad that you, you, that you, you paid for the pitches, so to speak. So it's really the system instead of Joel, you know, or Haydnn, I had no time to get to the ballpark. So I, I don't even, I'm not even getting these pitches, but the ones that do, yeah. Are so happy that they went because they got a lot of hits and that's what it's about. It's like you have to put yourself in a position to win. My best position to win is getting these quality at bats and getting these quality pitches that I know I'm going to hit. That's awesome. So what does your target customer look like for you? Like who is someone that you meet and you're like, wow, I'm excited. I have something that would be perfect for you. Well, it's really any service professional because service professionals give work to other service professionals. Anybody that has a target set of like, Joel, we make eyeglasses. Why are we meeting or Joel? I work at Nike or Google. Why are we meeting? Who are you going to introduce to me? They don't really have a target, at least one that I can. Can give them introduce them to so it's all the, as I say, the attorneys, the accountants, the brokers, the mortgage insurance, the wealth managers, financial planners, they all give work to each other. So it's just because they're so busy doing what they do. There's a whole world out there. There could be someone across the street for them. They just That fits them perfectly, but they never had the time to go meet them or they never knew that that person existed. So somebody needs to be their leverage. I mean, I'm their leverage to make these introductions because these introductions lead the business. They have to, because as I said, these people have the business that you're looking for. They just have to want to give it to you. Right. And, and you have to be known if you're not known, you're never going to get business. Right. If you, if you don't, so many people don't put anything out on social media because, Oh, I don't, I don't know how to, or I don't want to share about my personal life and, and so no one knows what they're doing except for the people who know, and you know, it's not really a sustainable way to grow a business. Right. Well, I mean, social media, again, it, to me, it's a, it's a cold call. It's it's, you know, it's like I'm putting myself on there, but they don't know who I am. They're not, we haven't met, you know, I'm talking, you know, it's all about one on one meetings because again, that's where you're going to bond. So they have to, the people that have the business have to know you in order to give you the business. So I wanted to ask you this, cause it's, it's really interesting. If you look up Joel's name on Google, you might found, you might find a old news article that was done about Joel a long time ago. I don't know, maybe in the early two thousands. And it's really, really funny to watch because Joel's in his Mercedes, like dialing people on his his column phone, going into offices in person and like introducing people. So I wanted to ask you, you know, from when you started to now, how has like the internet shifted what you do in your daily activities? And if maybe you can give me a little peek into what life used to look like before we had internet and everything, what your business looked like. Well, I mean, the only real change is, is zoom because zoom is, is presented the opportunity for everyone to meet people in that, on, on that platform where normally that before the pandemic, it didn't exist. It's like, well, we're not going to Skype and we're not going to, you know, I'm not going to meet you. And, you know, I, I, I'm only going to meet you face to face, or I'll have a phone call with you. Now it's become accepted to, to, to meet face to face on zoom, which makes the world. You know, a very small place now. You can meet anybody in the world, anytime, you know, and talk about anything. And it's just, again, just opened up doors. Other than that, there really hasn't been a change. It's always about the, the face to face. It's about the bonding. You always think to yourself, Who have I given business to and why? I like that person. I've gotten to know them. I'm comfortable with them. I trust them. It's the same thing from them to you, but that starts with an introduction. Yeah, I love that. And your your pricing model has stayed the same, right? The whole time you've been doing this. So inflation has not affected what you do apparently. So, you know, I, I asked you about this on our call, but like, can you, can you tell me a little bit about like, how you decided what to price this and, and how you decided what the value was when you said it? Cause that's something I always struggled with. Well, I mean, originally, you know, I was, the way I got my start. is I was in the insurance business for a year and I was doing introductions, free introductions for, you know, a well known family law attorney in L. A. And, you know, as goodwill. And then once one day the attorney said to me, you know, Joel, you've been giving me giving me introductions, you know, for nothing. And I've been giving paying someone 3, 000 a month for introductions and what you're giving me is just as good as what he's giving me. I said, well, then why don't you pay me, you know, tongue in cheek? And he said, I'd love to. And that, that's what started me in 1994. And Based on his 3000 introduction, I guess for, for the introduc amount of introductions he was getting, I came up with the 300 I and the reason I haven't changed it because there's nobody else doing what I do. So it, it felt comfortable then, and feels comfortable now. It just, it's just a, it, it's just a, it's a, it's a huge bargain for anyone that that partakes in it. Hmm. Yeah. And I mean, I was just really fascinated when I watched the news article, thinking about like, back in the nineties, what life must have been like when you were, you know, chugging through these introductions at$300 a piece. You know, I mean, that, that's a, I mean, there were people probably making$300 a week in the nineties. Hmm. I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but like that, that was a big payday, right. Well, I mean in LA, you know, people are making a lot of money and I and I started yeah in 94 so But no 300 introduction really was was was quite fair again for the attorneys the accountants the people that i'm dealing with they were making five figures per client so it made perfect sense again it's just a it's a huge bargain it's just People just didn't, didn't know, didn't appreciate the value. That was really the only issue. And, and of course, you know, a lot of people get impatient. You know, I met, they start out with five people. I didn't get any business yet, you know, so they stopped when, when number six could have been the You know, the huge client, all I can do is present it. I, you know, I obviously I can't guarantee business. I can't guarantee that anybody put in front of you can refer you business. That's why they're taking the time to meet you. They're not looking for, for, for work back. It is a one way street. Clients come to them saying, Hey, I need a real estate attorney. I need a tax attorney. I need an entertainment attorney, whatever it is. You know, I need to help my clients. I need to make sure they're being taken care of. And that stuff may come a year or two, five years later, right? Like I've had it before to where I met someone two years ago. And then someone comes to me and says, do you know anyone that does this weird random obscure thing? And I'm like, Oh yeah, I met that person one time and I saved him my phone. I remember their first name. I look it up and I'm like, Oh yeah, it's this person. Haven't talked to them in two years. Met him one time at a networking event, but you know, that's, that's valuable, right? I'm sure there's probably been people that. Did five introductions and didn't see any value out of it at that second. Right. And then years later, someone came up and it became a huge value for them. So yeah, it's just really, really fascinating because the, the business we're in is so, you know, undervalued. I feel like there's a massive, like shift between the riff between what the actual value of what we do is versus how people value it. And so I started building my system based off of profit that people make. They're doing a profit split because or like a referral payment per, per one customer. Because what I realized is a lot of these customers I'm bringing in, I know the power of what I'm doing, but the companies don't really know the power of what I'm doing. So if I can get them to agree to a referral payment in perpetuity, when I introduce someone, I'm a creating passive income for the lifetime of that customer. But B, I'm incentivized for the connections to be good connections, right? So that's my incentive is to connect them to the people who are going to do business. And, you know, I'm not rich yet. But it is really fun to like, have those. I have a check in my pocket right now for 130 bucks for someone that bought some floors for my flooring guy. And like, Sure, it's only 130 bucks, but if that guy goes and buys, he bought two pallets, if he goes and buys, you know, 20 pallets, that check's gonna be like a bigger check, right? And it's, if he goes on to do big business with them one day, you know, I'm gonna get a little piece of it in perpetuity. So that's the way I built my model for, for how I connect with people. But it's so, just so awesome to me to get to meet someone else that does something even similar to what I do, because no one really understands it. No, thank you. Look, I mean, it is what it is all week. You know, all I can do is present it. And, you know, anybody should be accepting what the model you just gave their foolish if, if they don't. But you know, as years go on, as more people do what we're doing, it will become more accepted. But you know, it's just something that, That I've strongly believed in and that's why I continue to do it. Do you think that what we do is going to catch on one day? That there's going to be several of us out there that are purposeful, paid, professional connectors? Or do you feel like it's going to remain like an obscure kind of random little thing that some, some kind of kooky, crazy people do like us? That's a great question. I really don't, I really don't know. I, I, I, I don't know. That's just an honest answer. Yeah part of the efforts of what I'm doing with the art of connecting is to create a knowledge about the fact that You don't have to just do free intros, right? Like you can create agreements with people and come up with a way to get paid on one business, because one client, like you said, for one of your attorneys, one client can be worth five figures, right? Like sometimes six figures, especially when you take into account a lifetime value of a customer that comes back for repeat business, like why, like. And I don't want to be greedy ever, you know, I don't want to, I, not every, I don't charge for every introduction that I ever do. Right? Like I'll introduce plenty of people for free, but if I'm introducing someone to another person and I know that they're going to make thousands and thousands of dollars, if that introduction is successful, I feel like it's only fair and right that I get paid a little bit on that. Right? Because Absolutely. Yeah. And people are always like, Oh, I'll hit you back. Right. And like, yeah, I'll, I'll send someone back. And it's like, you don't even know who to send back to me. You never asked. So how are you going to send anyone back? Right. No, it has to be structured and has to be, you know, set forth in, in, in agreement, you know, it, but again, the, the, the buyer. Is saying to himself, I'd be foolish not to do this. If this person's introducing me to my target, if I keep meeting my target, I have to hit my target back to the, to the batting cage example, right? Everybody needs that even, you know, the, the, the most successful person needs that. And, and again, a, a, you know, miss miss concept about, you know, people say, well, should I refer you, you know, I'll refer you to people just starting out because you know, they, they, they need that said, no, the people would. My clients are mostly people that are very established because they love the system and they understand the system and, and they want to pay for that system. People just starting out, you know, don't have the money to, you know, to pay for that system even though, you know, they want it. Again, the smartest person in the world cannot refute the, the, the art of meeting their target over and over. It just makes so much sense. Something that I've seen that's been really interesting recently is I've been meeting several people that aren't interested in growing. Like, I don't know if you've encountered this too. I've seen that people that are established, they just seem to be completely uninterested in growing. And it's really fascinating to me because as someone who's an entrepreneur myself, I always want to be growing, right? I always am trying to think about ways that I could be, you know, Making a better business or making more opportunity for others. Have you come across that with your years of connecting with people and how, you know, obviously you can't change people, but like, how do you, how do you look at that in your business? Like, are you at a point to where you don't really want to grow anymore? Are you still growing? No, I mean, I'm always growing as many people's. I know I want to meet that anymore. I'm in monsoon every day, meeting people all over the country, but you know, there's nobody in business that really, you know, I, I'm not interested in growing. That means they just. You know, aren't interested in what you're talking to them about. But then, you know, again, it's just, you know, foolish statement. Everybody's interested in growing. I mean, we, we grow in all aspects of our life and in our business and in our ways of thinking and our education, you know in every aspect of what we do, we always should want to grow that's how we improve, you know, so. But, you know, people say all sorts of things that you have to just take with a, you know, grain of salt. Yeah. It's just fascinating because there's, there's some people that are content, which maybe one day I'll be there. I don't know. I don't, I hope not. I don't like being content. I feel like when you're, when you're content is when you start, so I was just reading buy back your time. You know, when you're, when you stop growing is when you start dying, right? The second you stop progressing is the second you start shrinking. Because naturally your competition is going to continue to grow. So even if you remain the same size, you're shrinking. So it's just a fascinating thought because, you know, there's certain people where I'm not ever going to convince them otherwise. You meet with them and they're like, you know, I'm just not really interested in more business right now. I'm busy enough. And I feel like that's just kind of it really is a statement that I don't have the right connections when someone says that. Because what it means is they don't have the right people in place to be able to grow. Oh, that's just, they don't have to grow. Yeah. They just don't have the right attitude. It's like, I don't sell it to anyone. I, I tell people I'm an umbrella salesman in a rainstorm. It's raining outside. You see, I have, I have an umbrella stand. If you want to get wet, get wet. I'm not going to convince you otherwise. If you don't want to get wet, you know, I have an umbrella. It's like, if you want business, you know, I can introduce you to people that you want to know. You know, I don't have to sell that to you. If I do, I'm not going to convince you. So I just put it out there. I love that. Yeah. I I'm very similar in the way I do business is, you know, really, I kind of choose the people that I work with because if, if what I, with what I do, if I refer a customer to a bad, to someone who convinced me to be on their platform, it's not a great look when it goes wrong, right? When, when. We're kind of held accountable, right? In the connections we make to make it to the best of our ability, because if we don't, it makes us look bad, even though it's not even us that did the wrong thing. Right. Joel, Joel, if I introduce you to a CPA that I know, you know, that's getting sued for malpractice and, you know, something goes wrong with, with someone else, it's like, that was someone that Haydnn introduced me to, and I can't ever be a perfect judge of character. You know, it's not our job is to judge other's character, but we got to do the best we can, you know, as we introduce people, because even though it's not you doing it. When you're in an introducing business, things can go sideways. Even if it's just you that did the introduction, it kind of reflects back onto you, you know? Yeah. As like back to the example, you said fourth below, it's like, if you made an introduction and the other person didn't get back to you, you know, for whatever reason, I, you know, I'm in their face, you know, it's like, You know, they're trying to reach you. I need to know that you're going to get back to them. If you don't want to get back to them, I need that. I need to know that too. So I, I, there's no flakiness with the people that I'm dealing with. I won't, I won't tolerate it. Yeah. And so how does that work with people who are, you know, not necessarily getting value from the call? So like, say they're the one that, you know, someone's paying you 300 and you're introducing them. We'll call them the introductee, right? The people who are getting introduced to. And so like, how. Did they receive value? If, if you're receiving the 300 for this person to talk to them, wouldn't the, wouldn't the person who paid the 300 be, you know, kind of like, you know, they're, they want to harvest their value out. So how does the value come for the people who are getting? You know, introduced to the people who are, yeah, so let's say that the client is a real estate attorney and the real estate attorney says, look, I want to meet real estate agents because those agents have clients coming to them saying we're buying or selling a building, you know, we need an attorney who, you know, so The real estate agent does get value because they want to meet a good real estate attorney. That's going to take care of their clients. So the client would say, boy, I'm glad, you know, you helped me with this referral to the attorney because now I feel comfortable in buying this building. So they definitely, otherwise they'll say, Joel, there's no reason to meet Haydnn because. You know, I, I, I can't help'em or I have no interest in, in, in, in helping them. I don't make those types of referrals, but when they do, they want their clients taken care of, and they want to know good people and, and they're happy when I come to them be, be because many of the times they're, they're referring people to someone that they're not really that happy with, but they don't know anyone else and they don't have the time to find someone else. So when I come to them, they want another, they want another introduction. Absolutely. And, you know, in that example of a realtor and a real estate attorney, how often is a real estate attorney going to get on a 15 to 30 minute intro call with you? Right? That's an immediate value add for the agent, because if they're on a call with that attorney, they'd be like, by the way, I have this deal that I'm kind of working on. I know you can't advise me on law because I'm not your client, but, What should I do in this situation and attorneys are always like, well, remember this isn't legal advice, but you know this is the legal standing of how you would do it and that's so valuable and if an attorney does that you have a client for life, you know, because right Even like and you can say if you want me to look into it more we can get a you know We can get a retainer set up and so like that's such an easy win of 15 to 30 minutes their time Especially if you can do it for a group of people, but even if you can just do it for one person, because you can add immense value with your knowledge and you just can get clients that are going to be your return clients for eternity. Right. But imagine doing that 20 times, you know, in a month or in two months, that's the power because all it takes is one person to hire you. And then, you know, then, then, you know, you've made so much more than what you've paid, but that puts you in a position to win as opposed to not doing it. Now you have a 0 percent chance. Right. Because you're not meeting your target. Right. you have to go and, you have to go and figure it out for yourself. Go to those random networking events where you may meet one person who actually matches what you're looking to do. Right. But again, why would anybody want to do that? It doesn't make any sense, but you know, as I said, I put it out there. Could you see there being some form of like, social media network, or application, or like, what do you think the future of what we do is going to look like? I know I kind of asked this form of a question earlier, but something that I wonder as we have these conversations is like, How can I help advance what we do and maybe be a pioneer or something because we know what we do is valuable. And I know I have several connectors that listen to this podcast as well because it's art of connecting, right? So I'm curious as to like what you could see as maybe would be some good tools that could be created to. Help aid in what we do. And maybe even if it just has to remain being that human to human connection. What are your thoughts on that? I feel it has to be that human to human connection. There's really no shortcut to it because again, you always put yourself in the client's shoes. People are going to want to, I mean, you, you're obviously very open to, to, to connecting, but people are going to be reaching out to all sorts of people saying, you know, please give me a half an hour of your time or 20 minutes of your time. And it, you know, you're not gonna do it unless somebody, you know, calls you and says, you know, you know, Hey, I know this person. I can vouch for this person. You know, can you help this person? Someone has to ask you those questions in advance. There's really no shortcut where you're gonna just gonna be clicking, clicking, clicking. I wanna meet this person. You know? Right. If, if, if, if it, if it's not your target. Well, everyone wants to meet the high value people, right? Like. You know, my goal is to talk with doctors, attorneys, and dentists, you know, so that's a high, you know, they're all high income earning. They're all very busy individuals. Everyone wants to talk to those people, right? So what separates me as Haydnn at Acadia Capital, who's looking for investors from people who are looking for passive income. What separates me from every other person that has the same idea? You know, me, the, the, the warm introduction is all that really can separate you and maybe a clever way of marketing, like a video rather than a, you know, a cold video instead of a cold DM. But it's not the same, you know, as having that warm introduction, it's just priceless. So that's what I'm saying. You're answering the question. There's really no shortcut to it. And, and, and nor should there be, I mean, introductions, you know, is the human touch and that that shouldn't go away. We, we should always have that. I mean, coming from a, from a, a parent to the human touch to a, to a friend, I mean, there's, that's, it's all great and it's all, it's all warm, like you said, and it's all valuable and it, it shouldn't be replaced with something else. Yeah, so how does someone expand to get to the level that you have? Obviously, it's taken a lot of time, how, you know, if someone is an aspiring connector and they want to start learning about the ways to monetize what they do, what are the steps that you would take if you were starting over to get started in our industry? Well, I mean, it's, it's very simple again. Know who your target is. Let's just say it was attorneys and accountants. And then obviously there's, there's the, the networking groups and the events that you can go to. But, but let's say, you know, 500 people in the world and I'm just using a random number. And you just ask those 500 people. Can you refer me to your attorney? Can you refer me to your accountant? And, oh, Hey, and I didn't know you needed that. Yeah. Here's two here. Here's five here. It was 10 and you built up a list and you just keep meeting them. You just, you know, you can't replace that. You have to just keep, you meet them one by one, and then you, you know, you build up over time. Yeah. And I think also it's a biblical principle, asking you shall receive, right? Right. It's so, so funny how in our world, so many people are afraid to ask. Everyone wants to receive, right? We all love to receive, but how often do we ask? We're afraid to ask and, you know, say, Hey, you know, could you refer me to your attorney for this specific thing? And they go, Oh yeah, here's their contact info. You could say, Hey, any chance you could do a warm introduction for me? I just would much rather, you know, I feel like they're going to, it's going to go better if you do a warm introduction, right? And they're like, Oh yeah, absolutely. Of course. Put it in a group message, you know, Haydnn, this is Joel. He's my real estate attorney. He's the best in the world. Love him to death, you know? And, and a lot of times they're going to compliment the person who they're introducing, which is going to help them automatically feel better. About getting that message rather than just being like, Hey, this is Haydnn. Ashley spoke very highly of you. Wanted to see if I could, you know, talk to you about a legal issue. It's just a totally different mental thing. When you pick up your phone and you see that it's the person who you've already done business with. Bring you someone who you haven't done business with. There's an automatic hierarchy that is created. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's kind of like the scene that you've seen on TV that there's a dance and then you see the guys on one side of the room and the girls on the other side of the room and no one's dancing because no one asked. You know, and then one person asks and then the other oh he asked and oh, so now I can ask, you know It's like someone has to ask you don't know until you ask and if you're too shy to ask then you lose, right? You know It's like anything that you've gotten in this world a lot of it is because either you asked or somebody else asked for you So you have to have the mindset to ask as long as you're polite It's, it's, you know, people are not going to be rude to you. Yeah. It's just be polite. I think that's a great point as well that of what you said is create your target. If you don't know what your target is, how are you going to hit it? Yeah. You can't, you're never going to hit it because you don't even know what it is. You don't know what you're looking for. You have to know your target. Ask yourself, whatever business you're in, whatever business you're starting, who is my target customer? Like, if I could throw a dart and every time I hit the red and it's the bullseye, what are the two or three professions or what do those two or three people look like? And when you ask yourself that question of, you know, maybe you're in wholesaling real estate and you're looking for, you know, undervalued properties. What type of professionals are going to be dealing with people that are going through that, you know, bankruptcy attorneys, probate attorneys, and so like you automatically know, like, okay, so maybe I need to meet some bankruptcy and probate attorneys and tell them that, hey, I'm an investor. And I can buy properties if you ever have anyone who's in probate and they don't want to deal with having to put it on the market because it's outdated. You know, give me a call. There are people that do that. I'm sure every probate attorney has an investor or two in their pocket. You know, maybe they want a third one. Maybe they have a deal right then and there where it's going to be done in two weeks. He sent it to his other two investors that he knows and neither one of them really wanted it because they're both busy. And he goes, Oh, go look at this house. I've got it ready right now. You know, it's finished up in two weeks. They want to sell it. They want a hundred thousand dollars. Yep. I'll go look at it right now. Yeah. And then if you perform every single time, rather than going to the other two guys, they're going to come to you first because you perform, you were the last one to perform. So if you can keep performing, they're going to keep bringing it to you. That's a beautiful part. And it doesn't matter what industry it is. In my opinion, we all have complimenting. Yeah. You know, people that can bring us business. So again, it's just, it's there for the taking. That's what I tell everyone. It's there for the taking, man. Yeah. So if anyone is, you know, we'll have probably about 150 people listen to this, hopefully more in the future. But I know for me, it just spurred a whole bunch of ideas of things that I need to do after this podcast, the people I need to reach out to and ask for introductions to. So if you're listening to this and that didn't happen to you right now, take a Think about where you want to go. Like what's your target? What's your bullseye? What direction are you heading and who are the two or three professions? You know, what what are those people that can help you hit your target and then go and ask, you know The hundred contact even if you have a hundred contacts in your phone ask every single one of those people you can send the text Even copy and paste and say hey, I'm looking for a blank a real estate attorney Do you have a good one you'd recommend? Oh, yeah, I recommend this person. Okay, great. Would you do a warm introduction for me? If you just did that and got five introductions, you just created five opportunities to double, triple, quadruple your business. Just right there. Yep. Yeah. So as I said, there for the taking. Amazing. Well, Joel, we are coming up on our time. It's been so amazing to have you and have your insights. So I want to ask you our final question that we have here, and that is what is a connection to a person or maybe a group of people that really changed the trajectory of your life or business? Well, I mean, it was really that, that first person that the, the attorney that I told you about because that, that gave me my start because I never knew. That people would pay for introductions either. I mean, I was doing it in my networking group, you know, thousands of introductions. I ran that, that networking group for 10 years, and there was a few thousand members and I had all sorts of celebrity speakers and they really loved the group. And I, you know, wanted to transition into this business, but I never thought that anybody. You know, would, would pay for it. But I, I heard about this other person who was doing events, you know, corporate events and, and charging people, you know, to meet other people. So then I had the confidence. I knew that, that, that it existed. And so that really did change my life to the fact that I knew that the people would pay for introductions. And as I said, I, I saw there was such a need for it. There was such a I could really help people because I really wanted to help people and I wasn't helping them. I said in the networking group, just giving them that smorgasbord of people. I want to give the one on one introductions and have them bond. I'd love, you know, someone says, you know you know, I'm a Titans fan. Oh, so am I, you know, or I'm a Predators fan. Oh, so am I, let's go to a game together. And if you go to a game together, you're in. You know, so that, that's what I took the pride in is the replication of, of giving them their target over and over. But that, that, that's an answer to your question. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and be on the show today. If people liked what they heard and maybe they would like to purchase some introductions from you or just, you know, connect and maybe be on the receiving end of those introductions, what is the best way for people to reach out to you? Oh, thank you. My, my website or my email, joeljoelbash. com is the best way to reach me. Happy to meet anyone just to say hello. If nothing else, we'll be a referral source for each other. But everyone I meet makes me stronger. And that's what I take pride in is strength of knowledge of good people. Absolutely. Well, guys, thank you so much for listening to the Art of Connecting podcast. It's such a pleasure to get to have you here and such a blessing to get to do this show. I believe we're on episode like 54, 55, every single episode I do. It just makes me so happy to see the podcast growing and getting to do what I do. So. If you got value out of the show, if you can please leave a five star review, if you're on Apple, you scroll down to the bottom, click that five star. If you're on Spotify, you go up to the top and click on the five star and share it with one or two, maybe even three people. That's the best way for a podcast to grow. So we'll catch you guys on the next show. Thanks for listening to our connecting.