ThinkBiz Podcast
ThinkBiz Podcast is your go-to show for real conversations about building and growing your business. Hosted by Garrett Hammonds of Hammonds Media and Nolan Rogers, we dive into the challenges, wins, and strategies that matter most to small and startup companies. Tune in for expert advice, inspiring stories, and actionable tips to take your business to the next level.
ThinkBiz Podcast
Networking King Secrets: Dirk Neitzel on Accessible Referrals & Entrepreneur Support
Join Garrett Hammonds and Nolan Rogers on the Think Biz Podcast as they sit down with Dirk Neitzel, the fearless leader of Think Biz Solutions. Dirk, an Oklahoma City local and OSU alum, dives deep into the motivation behind starting Think Biz Solutions – a response to the high costs and inaccessibility of support and networking for startups and small businesses. He explains how Think Biz breaks down barriers with an affordable, no-application-fee, month-to-month structure and prioritizes education, relationship-building, and collaborative problem-solving over pushy sales pitches.
Dirk, described as a "networking king", offers invaluable advice on effective networking, emphasizing genuine connections and diligent follow-up. He also reflects on the challenges he's faced as a business owner, particularly the ongoing effort to motivate and build a successful team, and the importance of knowing when to delegate tasks you're not good at. This episode highlights the powerful community aspect of Think Biz Solutions and its organic, shared-leadership approach to growth, demonstrating how helping people is the core mission.
Find out more at https://www.thinkbiz.solutions and learn about local meeting options in Oklahoma City and Norman.
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Check us out at:
- https://www.thinkbiz.solutions
- https://youtube.com/@thinkbiz.solutions
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/thinkbizsolutions
- https://www.facebook.com/thinkBiz.s
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Podcast is produced by Hammonds Media. For assistance with you digital marketing needs, visit https://www.hammondsmedia.com
Is this you?
SPEAKER_02:Excellent. Hello, hello. We are here once again, the ThinkBiz podcast crew. I am Garrett Hammons of Hammons Media. And I am Nolan Rogers right across from you, Garrett. It is good to be here as always. Did y'all hear him cut me off like that? I did. Just right in the middle of trying to say his name. We're horrible. We're horrible friends. We're bad for each other. Well, I'll tell you what is good for us. It's good for us to have... So many cool guests come on this podcast. And today, we have the one. The only. The Dirk Neitzel. Fearless leader of ThinkBee's Solutions.
SPEAKER_00:I like how it was cool guests and dark nights. Wow, guys. I do have a complaint. I thought I was going to get to hear you guys sing the jingle, but I guess you prerecorded. We did prerecord the jingle. Solutions.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know, you never know where the falsetto is going to be on one day to the next. Got to prerecord it. Got to prerecord it. But we have a man of many hats sitting with us today. the glorious founder, owner, and operator of ThinkBiz Solutions on top of all the other things that you do on a regular basis for yourself, for your girls, for our community and network. Man, Dirk, it's awesome to have you here, sir. I'm glad to be here. Tell us a little bit about Dirk. Who is he really?
SPEAKER_00:What does he do? Well, I was born at, no, I'm just kidding. I'm a local Oklahoma City guy. Went to Northwest class in high school here in Oklahoma City and then OSU and I've been around the United States teaching and doing solar and business and all the things I can do to help.
SPEAKER_02:And you're not really an OSU fan, right?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I like to say I'm an OSU alum.
SPEAKER_02:As not an OK, I love the OU-OSU rivalry thing. I'm just like, ah, free entertainment. This is great. I'm from Texas originally, and I don't even care about any of the Texas schools. So I'm just like... I am an instigator. That's what I am. And I'm going to instigate because I don't think Texas cares about the Texas schools, but moving on. So you have started ThinkBiz Solutions. Where did this originate? What got everything started there? For that, because you've done a lot of things, but this is one of your new babies, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is my new and my favorite. It is a long time coming of there's so many startups and small businesses that need certain things and a lot of the price points. Or the education is just not available to them. They're really good at their thing, but they're not necessarily versed in small business startup, which is different than small business running. And then the other piece of that is referral clubs. And I love networking. And some of the networking groups are out of price range or unavailable to the people that need them most. And so we try to make one that was... In line with our values and the people that we wanted to hang out with the most and serve the most and make it accessible to everyone. And so we put, then it just started, okay, what else can we do for people? And oh, what else can we do for people? And I think it's continuing to evolve and it's short five months of development. It is. It
SPEAKER_02:is coming along pretty well. And I think it's really interesting, too, that you've worn so many hats. You have this wonderful resume of all the things that you've done. But what specifically does the ThinkBiz solutions networking group solve that a lot of other things don't? for our listeners?
SPEAKER_00:Number one is price point. No upfront application fee, which is just a turnoff. You don't have to pay the annual. It's month by month. We do a free month. The idea is if you're getting business out of the referral club, it's already paid for month two. And so easy accessibility. The other thing that we do is we try to do an educational piece and discuss concepts and less pitchy less selling to each other and more building relationships sharing experience helping each other solve problems a lot of which we all have in common or a couple of people have that problem but a couple other people on the other side of the room know the answer and so unless we can get in a safe space and discuss those then everybody has the solutions and they're not connected to the person with the problem and so solving each other's problems and then also passing referrals I think is and honestly just the fact that you get clapped for once a week when you say who you are and what business you do and just just loving on each other and a friendly phone call when, when you're not there. So I'm trying to, trying to provide the community and the love in addition to, you know, obviously giving people financial value for, for their attendance.
SPEAKER_02:I think, I think we sometimes undervalue the power of just a good clap once a week. You know, you may be having a hard week and somebody being like, you know what? You got this. It's I mean, it gets me through a tough day every now and again. And so that vibes, vibes, I'm doing air quotes right now. It makes a big difference. And I know that. You know, Dirk has been kind enough to let me work on some marketing things of the organization. And obviously Nolan and I are on a podcast called Think Biz Podcast. So we've never heard of this organization before. You know, I love that it's so community-based and it's focused on... helping people grow it. You don't have to have to get, um, you know, a hundred million dollars in being a part of the group. You may, you may be giving as a part of the group. You may be mentoring other people, you know, there's businesses of different sizes and that community piece, it really enriches, um, at least my life as a, as a business owner. Nolan, what's, what's kind of been, I know we're interviewing Dirk, but what's been your experience with, with ThinkBiz so far? Well, it's the same phenomenon that I've noted with a lot of my other friends on the East and West Coast that are doing spiritual consultations, are kind of weird, magical folks that do some weird, magical things. Most of our value hasn't necessarily come from people selling courses and selling us, hey, exchange money for this knowledge we're going to give you. And instead, most of the values come from us just talking to each other on a regular basis. And that's the same thing that ThinkBiz does. I really wish I had... a year and a half ago, whenever I started figuring this out for myself in really just getting to understand that I needed a network of business professionals that I could just talk to every week. That would have helped me save lots of money, save lots of money, get my head in a better direction around a number of things. And also just know that you're not, you're not crazy for wanting to work for yourself and want to live a better life. Because oftentimes when you are the only person in your current network or community that says, nope, I don't want to work for somebody else. Everybody looks at you like you're crazy and they tell you to not do it. Right. And just having this group, even on the back end, has been so helpful in reaffirming the intuitions and instincts for me to even start working for myself. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Dirk, to direct things back to you here for a second, can you share a moment with us where something maybe went sideways when it came to one of the businesses that you have helped grow and even said you sold three businesses over time? And what did that teach you that you want to be able to help others learn from throughout the process?
SPEAKER_00:Nothing at all. Nothing worth sharing. Now, I want to say that the hardest thing for me was finding other people to partner with inside of the business. Very good at referral networking with other business owners that do their thing. But as an owner, when you're talking to other owners, they're going to treat their business like they own it. And so my greatest struggle still to this day is finding non-owners to come in and work as hard. And so trying to find people that can be part owners and, you know, how can we take this and grow it together? And so that still continues to this day to be one of the things that I have to figure out better and better. And I was a coach and a teacher for a long time, but motivating others to get the most out of them and helping them be successful for their own self. How can I help this person make money for themselves and their family? Or add value and have a good, positive, successful company? to this day is the thing that keeps me up at night you know I get better and better at it and there's a lot of us that you know I take advice and read and listen to all the podcasts except for this one I would never listen to this one but finding how to motivate others and make others successful I think is always the thing that irks me the most because you want to see people be successful
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And if that's kind of the main thing that continues to be the crawl in your throat, what do you notice begins that process of turning a person into someone that either can't or doesn't want to put in the level of work or act like an owner of their own life, let alone business or business responsibilities?
SPEAKER_00:I think there's a lot of initiative is easy, right? Oh, I have this good idea. It's the determination and the fall through to finish it no matter what that I think is It's also like there's other options. Like, oh, this got difficult. Let me find an easier path. And it's like, well, the difficult path led to a much greater reward. And so, you know, selling the vision, I think, but also if you can make the path easier for people, that's great. But then everybody would do it. Yeah. calendar blocking and how to take a to-do list and turn it into a schedule of things. And so just trying to find better tools. And the other thing is everybody's different. And so you have to learn that the tools that work, I have to learn that the tools that work for me aren't necessarily what's going to work for other people. And so always trying something new is okay.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Well, I mean... That goes to show your head's in the right space with just, there's so much, there's so much changing out there when it comes to tools and technologies and things to that nature. But, you know, there's also those constant, those pieces of drive and where you want to be a hard worker. There's elements of that that will, you know, that can be taught, but are also just a part of life. almost feels like our genetic structure in a lot of ways. There's this effect in kind of behavioral marketing studies that's called the IKEA effect. And, you know, I love IKEA just as much as the next person. Because you take this piece of furniture home and it has a set of instructions and you build it. And then you look at it and you're like, oh my goodness, I made this. But it's a whole phenomenon because when we... put hard work into something, or if we perceive that hard work was put into something, we value it more. And, you know, the best things in life are worth working at and often don't come easy. And so I think all that stuff makes a lot of sense to me. Most definitely. And it's one of those things that we tend to ask everybody on the podcast so far, something around the advice they would give to new entrepreneurs. But I would argue, well, you should come on Tuesdays at 9.30 to Think Biz Networking Group and get some of those pieces. But I think you're really well positioned to also help solve that beginning portion of the initiative and the discipline portion of, can you kind of walk a new entrepreneur through the math of risk?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. I think... Most people don't become entrepreneurs if they don't already have a little bit of either risk tolerance or just incredible belief in yourself, right? And so they already come with something. And so you're building on it. You're watering a seed that's already there because people that don't believe in themselves or don't have that risk tolerance, they're not going to become self-employed. We see a lot of... The other side of that coin is it's a gig economy, right? And so a lot of people... You're helping them start a small business and figuring out how to make that work with the other business that they do. right or helping them grow into something but they don't necessarily have the full schedule that you do and so again finding it's really about listening to everyone's individual story their specific business their target market's different than mine their schedule is different than mine and just playing like hey I don't have a tool that's going to help you but I will listen and I will get all the creative people problem solver minds that I know to come listen to you too and let's see if we can figure this out together
SPEAKER_02:yeah yeah I think that's one of the power powerful things about networking in general and I would almost classify you as like a networking king you are so good at it what's advice that you would give to somebody who's trying to get better at networking in general
SPEAKER_00:so I always say this like a it's okay to be bad at your 60 second pitch it's more endearing than the guy that is polished it's more approachable the other thing is Follow up. I will only go to networking events where I'm going to get a list of everyone that was there. You can literally go to half of them, check in on the QR code, and leave. Because nothing actually happens at the networking events other than it's a new lead. It's a new set of people. And so I want to go. I physically make contact with everyone I know. That's just a hard, fast rule. That's just who I am as a person. Somebody pointed out that I did it, and so now I guess I do it intentionally. And then I try not to talk to them because they're there to meet new people too. And if you run into the wrong person you know, they're going to take up all your time. And I'm sorry, but I'm working right now. It's just like having a closed door. I'm here at a networking event. I'm working. I try to feed a family, trying to bolster a team. And so I'm working. I'm going to say hi to everyone I know, but I'm trying to make a deep, genuine connection with everyone I don't. But more importantly, I'm going to call, text, and email people And connect with them on LinkedIn and probably Facebook. Because to me, I don't separate my personal connections from my business connections. I can look everyone I've ever done business with in the eye and a lot of us still hang out. And so... We don't separate that, but I want to be on their social media, on their phone as a text message or call in an email and try to get a Zoom call with them one-on-one where I can actually learn about them. One of the things that people say about me, though, is in a 30-minute phone call or Zoom, you're going to get 30 minutes to talk to me. And I try not to just tell my life story or say much about me. I really want to learn about the person, which is important. A, better for them, they're going to like it, but also B, that gives me a better angle if I do want to do business with the person I know more about them and how to help with the problems they have. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, and it all comes back to that relationship piece. You know, we, we often try in and pretend like it's, it's possible to fully separate, you know, here's work and here's your personal life. And it's like, we, I mean, I don't stop being the same human person when I go home versus when I'm at work. Now there are different boundaries in different places. Right. But it's like the fact that you, you do genuinely care. care about getting to know other people and and then if it's a good fit for them to to have something that you know can help them and that they can recognize that will help them it's like why wouldn't you why wouldn't you do that you know but it's all built on that relationship relationship piece which i think is awesome
SPEAKER_00:yeah and i even even on my companies and my jobs I do insurance. I do investments. I do solar. I do small business coaching and all the different marketing. And if I don't do it myself, I know the person to refer them to. I'm going to change my job to mold to fit the people that need things rather than try to say, hey, I do this thing and let me push on everybody. And so finding out people is like, hey, I don't help with that, but maybe I should. Maybe I should learn how to help people with that because it seems like multiple people need help with that. And so if you really just say, I want to help people, And my job is just to do that rather than the other way around. I think warm networking fits.
SPEAKER_02:What we see happen from that, too, is a phrase I hear you say all the time is, well, I know a guy. And that's part of the ThinkBiz referral groups. Maybe there's something that you come across. You meet all kinds of people, and our goal for everybody in the group is to Hey, when you meet somebody who asked about something you don't do, you can say, Hey, I know a guy.
SPEAKER_00:And if they're in referral club, I get to say, Hey, I know this guy and I have coffee with him every week. And that's that one little thing. It seals the deal before you've even had to go talk to him.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and it also speaks to kind of the thing that I have to do for some of my clients in session that are looking for their career path or something to do. And they're either thinking about going to college or they're not happy with the degree they're in. And I tell them, go to the 10 people you think are successful or have a version of happiness that you like to see in the world. And then have them make them two lists, 10 things each. First list is 10 things you can't live without. And the second list is 10 things you hate doing for yourself. And it came up in conversation today during networking. It's like, hey, so what happens when this network grows itself? And you didn't really have any issue there because you know how to just grow and change and shift. And so I think it would be interesting to see, like, what are a few of those things that you can't live without that either you don't already do for yourself or you're willing to learn? And then what are a few of those things that you hate doing for yourself and would love to pay someone to do for you? Put them in the hot seat. I'll be
SPEAKER_00:honest. I have a short attention span. Okay. And so reading a long document or listening to someone's long story, it makes me, I took, you know, I worked a long time in corporate job and then I, I don't know. I got to be the self-employed. Even though I work longer hours now, the thought of driving to an office and sitting in front of a cubicle, the last time I accepted a job and I was driving to do that, I was in tears. I just had to call them. I don't know why I used to, but I can't anymore. I can't sit still. I don't think I could ever go back to just working one job. I love working multiple and being able to help people with multiple things. But yeah, if it comes down to like nitty gritty, the bookkeeping, accounting stuff, I think I have to hand that off because I hate it. And then there's other things I hand off because I know there's better people. Like if I need a digital marketer, I'm going to use Garrett with Hammonds Media because I could do it, but it's not going to get me It would take me longer, and it would not give me any return on my time. Just so
SPEAKER_02:everyone knows, I did pay him to say that.
SPEAKER_00:No, but seriously, there are certain things you could do, but it's not that I hate them, but I'm just like, I know I'm not going to be good at this. And so I need to find somebody. This needs to be done right. And so just knowing when to hand it off. Absolutely. So I hate doing things that I know I'm not doing well.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's so funny, too, that bookkeeping is one of the things that you hate. Because... Dirk was a math teacher for many
SPEAKER_00:years. I still am. That's what financial advising is. He's
SPEAKER_02:presently a financial advisor. He can't talk about it. We really wanted him to give us all the financial advice, but he said it was illegal.
SPEAKER_00:It's not that it's illegal. Compliance is such a big thing in our industry. I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about and what I'm not. That's not the story I'm going
SPEAKER_02:to tell. Different headlines. Dirk Dietzel tells you the one trick to save all of your money. financial worries that's right 10 billion zeros in the bank
SPEAKER_00:no math for me is about relationships and not just with the people I'm working with like yes build rapport with your students but really how things flow and the relationship I'm terrible with numbers but I love math I think calculus is the most beautiful art form in the world but Yeah, I couldn't memorize a 10-digit number if you gave it to me right now. I
SPEAKER_02:still don't buy for a second that you're terrible with numbers. I just don't buy it. No, but I think that kind of leads us into, you know... What's the equation for ThinkBiz going from here? What do you see the future of the company looking
SPEAKER_00:like? So I'm down with the ZenFlow. I think we've got really good partners and advisors and people in place. For instance, there's this guy Garrett and this guy Nolan. And they said, hey, we want to start a podcast. And it was like, yes. I don't know anything about it, but I'm just like, yes, y'all do that. Right. I used to have a preacher at a church that I attended and she was always like she got really good at. Yes, you're now you're in charge of like if you gave her a suggestion like, hey, the church should do this. Great. You're in charge of that now. Right. And so that's like that's the mentality I took is, again, instead of trying to push people to do what I want is just support people in what they want to do. And again, if you have good people. So I don't know where it's going to go. I'm not going to try to direct it in a place. That's the thing is even in our clubs, like it's shared leadership. We try to make sure we share the speaking time. I want to make sure everybody gets clapped for multiple times every meeting, but people are doing multiple things to get more face time, more follow up with the visitors and the member. And so we're really trying to use that. But also, you know, people are making suggestions to me daily on how we could change things. I'm like. Yep, you implement that and let's go, right? And I'm fine with that. And then if somebody else says, hey, no, okay, then let's get together and let's talk about that and let's compromise. But I don't think it has to go to a certain place. I think there's all sorts of potential, but that potential only gets achieved if the people that are doing it believe in it. And so it's better if they came up with that belief themselves rather than I gave it to them.
SPEAKER_02:And that's really important too, because relationality, how I have to talk about it to a lot of my clients is to make it easier for people to relate to one another is responsibility versus authority. If you are crying on your way to your nine to five grind, it means that you have all this responsibility to execute something, but you have no authority on the how, when, why it gets done. And vice versa, we're upset when tyranny occurs, when someone has all the authority, but they're not responsible for getting it done. So you really have this good position and understanding that, you know what, you want to have a say in how it gets done, you do it. Right. And that's really cool to just be in an environment that encourages that, that I don't think a lot of people experience, even in their own day to day. Right. Well, and we see such powerful things happen from grassroots types of organizations, because You know, I don't know how many times I've seen a company do a rebrand and they're like, the company means this and this and this. And they have like 2000 employees and they didn't talk to a single one of them during the rebrand. And they were like, our company means this. And they're like, we don't care. And so having a group where people are invested and they're making suggestions and they are saying, Hey, I want to be a part of X leadership position. It's really encouraging to me because it shows that there, there really is something here. Um, and I can't wait to see where it ends up going. Um, so Dirk, How can people find you and support what you do in all the different ways that it comes around, whether that's an email or a website or a phone number? Where can people find you at?
SPEAKER_00:I think the best place to start is thinkbiz.solutions. They've got a cool website, and that's the name of our referral clubs and where we're showing the small business and startup support programs. ThinkBiz.Solutions is on Facebook and all the social medias. But starting there, but honestly, just Project 3810, if you're local in Oklahoma City and listening to this, if you're a small business or startup owner, you know, Project 3810 is where we meet Tuesdays at 930 and just show up and we'll take it from there. Thursdays at 9.30 there's a club and Fridays at 9.30 there's a coffee group. To really see what we do is come connect with the people, the whole group. Thinkbiz.solutions is not me. It's not just the website. It's literally the community and everybody that's pouring into it.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And I'll, I'll make a plug for, uh, we're getting a Norman group going too, and it's in the works and, uh, uh, styles on gray is going to be where we meet for that one. So I live in Norman and that's a, so that one's, that one's exciting for me. Um, eight o'clock AM on Wednesdays. Yep. You might've said that. No, no, I didn't. Definitely do. Well, it's been such a good time getting to be able to have you on the podcast and be able to chat about your experience as well as the organization. Nolan, anything else big that we need to just... I mean, the biggest thing is just to quiz him on if he knows his own tagline for his own business. So let's stay sharp.
SPEAKER_00:Think biz.
