The Hidden Leadership Skill Every CEO Needs: How Vulnerability Builds Stronger Teams & More Revenue

What happens when leaders stop trying to do everything alone?

In this powerful episode of Unstoppable Success, Jaclyn Strominger sits down with entrepreneur, former banking executive, and Quade founder Mark McFatridge to discuss leadership, peer learning, relationship capital, and why the most successful CEOs surround themselves with trusted circles of growth-minded leaders.

Mark shares his remarkable journey from transforming one of the worst-performing banking regions in the country to building Quade, a fast-growing organization designed to help CEOs, founders, and executives grow through authentic connection, accountability, and peer support.

This conversation dives deep into:

• Why leadership can feel isolating
• The power of CEO peer groups
• How vulnerability creates trust
• Why authentic relationships matter in business
• The difference between networking and genuine connection
• Relationship capital and long-term business growth
• Why leaders need allies, advisors, and advocates
• The importance of growth-minded communities
• How trust accelerates business success
• Why great leaders don’t grow alone

Mark also shares how joining a CEO peer group completely transformed both his business and personal life — and why he believes every leader needs trusted people around them who challenge, support, and sharpen their thinking.

This episode is packed with leadership insights, networking wisdom, and practical strategies for entrepreneurs, CEOs, executives, and professionals who want to grow their business and their influence through stronger relationships.

If you are building a company, leading a team, growing a business, or looking to elevate your leadership through meaningful connection, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Mark McFatridge:
🌐 https://quadecircle.com/
💼 LinkedIn: Mark McFatridge

Transcript

– Introduction to Mark McFatridge & the Power of CEO Peer Groups

Jaclyn Strominger 0:02

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success, the podcast where we hear from amazing leaders, influential people out in the marketplace. We hear their insights, their tips, their tricks, and all the things that make them unstoppable. I'm your host, Jaclyn Strominger. I'm a leadership coach and success strategist, and I do help you leap to your greatest success. But today I also get to introduce you to Mark McFatridge. And let me tell you a little bit about Mark. He has a distinguished track record. He actually began his leadership journey when he was tasked with revitalizing the least performing banking region of a national bank and in a region positioned 500 miles away from where he was normally, I guess, familiar with, right, Mark? And against all odds, Mark not only succeeded in transforming this region, but also instilled a new spirit of achievement among his teams. This experience set the stage for further accomplishments, including including challenges, including these challenges. Mark actually founded Quade in October 2021. And Quade is a visionary assembly of high-performing CEOs united to redefine leadership through collaboration, wisdom, and mutual support. The organization is committed to fostering a culture where CEOs can be unapologetically authentic, leverage diverse perspectives, and drive personal and professional growth. So welcome, Mark.

Mark McFatridge 1:36

Jaclyn, thank you so much. That was quite a mouthful. We need to do that.

Jaclyn Strominger 1:39

It was, I was, I was like, there was so much good in there, but there's so many, like, I was like, oh my God, because I was reading it last night. I'm like, and I kept thinking, first of all, you know, moving to I could I was excited to talk about your banking transformation because that's huge. Going someplace where you don't know, and then obviously what you're doing obviously right now with with Quade, because that's just also really impressive.

Mark McFatridge 2:05

I love it. I love it. Man, I I've been blessed to to get a hangout with really, really cool people, really smart people, need opportunities uh all along the way. So this will

– Transforming a Struggling Banking Region Through Strategic Leadership

Mark McFatridge 2:15

be a blast. I'm looking forward to it.

Jaclyn Strominger 2:17

So I want to I want to go back to the the the banking, right? Because you you know you transformed a bank that or was it that wasn't doing well.

Mark McFatridge 2:30

Yeah, you know, it's I I wanna I came out of school and I was I was in public accounting and then got into banking and and really had some interesting opportunities starting from really basically the teller line and then moving up through you know, where I was the chief administrative and chief financial officer for the Midwest region of a large national bank, and then had the first my first opportunity to become a bank president. And you'll appreciate this. The the way it happened, my boss, who was my mentor, came into my office one Friday afternoon and shut the door. And I'm looking at him like, what are you doing? He goes, Hey, are you know our community banks in Missouri and western Kentucky are are really struggling? I said, Yes. And he said, you know, it's it's I think it's because they're reporting into our guy in St. Louis. And the guy in St. Louis is awesome and he's he's you know does really well. He's a great leader, everybody respects him. But he had, you know, three or four billion dollars of assets that he was managing in St. Louis proper and didn't have time to get out to the community banks. And so they were kind of suffering. He goes, So I want to start a new uh community banking group called the community banks of Missouri and Western Kentucky. I go, Steve, that is a great idea. He said, Good, you're moving to Springfield, Missouri. I mean, Indianapolis, born and raised, you know, and I'm like, okay. So uh that night, I on my way home, I stopped and bought a bottle of wine and a map and took it home. And I said, Honey, guess what? And she's like, Oh, we get a move. We're gonna move to uh Birmingham, right? Like, because that was that was uh headquarters, and I'm like, Well, not exactly Birmingham, we're gonna move to Springfield, Missouri. And she's like, Cool, that is that near St. Louis? I'm like, no, not exactly. And so anyway, it yeah, it it turned out like it's it's a funny story and and awesome and all that stuff, but literally it was the worst performing banking group in the company, and you know, partially because uh that group tried to compete with a lot of community bank, like true community banks, you know, small 200, 400, 500 million dollar banks, and they tried to compete with those banks who could just run circles over, you know, kind of the bureaucracy that comes along with a national bank, right? And so we weren't we weren't proud of our heritage.

Jaclyn Strominger 4:47

You weren't really nimble, you were not nimble.

Mark McFatridge 4:49

We weren't nimble, but but we could do things that they couldn't do, and we and and uh my predecessors weren't taking advantage of those things. So I'm like, you guys, look, here's where we can be excellent. Let's go be excellent and handle, we can serve this group of clients, and that made all that mentality made all the difference in the world.

Jaclyn Strominger 5:10

Well, because you basically pulled out your strengths, you know, and instead of trying to compete with them with the other banks, you you focused on the strengths that you had that they didn't have.

Mark McFatridge 5:21

Yeah, that that's exactly right. There there was a certain a certain level of client that we could serve excellently, and we were ignoring them, trying to find

– Why Businesses Should Stop Trying to Serve Everyone

Mark McFatridge 5:30

because they were they were harder to get into, they you know, whatever, but there were fewer competitors in that in that streamline, so why not go there?

Jaclyn Strominger 5:37

Right. Okay. So I just want to kind of point something out. Listeners, this is a really key thing. No matter what you are doing in your business, you are not meant to serve everyone. Right? So you are not there to you know reach every single person. You have a certain group and and focus on a group, because that's really key. We don't want the masses, you want the you want to be focused. So I just kind of wanted to point that out because it really makes a difference.

Mark McFatridge 6:11

Well, and and I think uh it it simplifies everything too, right? Like if you can identify whom you can be excellent for, and you do that, you can you know who those people are, you can design everything about your deliveries, your delivery set to them, whether it's product, whether it's people, whether it's marketing, advertising, you know exactly where these people live. And if you can then gain market share and and substantial market share in that market, now you can go, okay, let's get outside of that. Who who who's like who's like attached to that group? Okay, cool. Now let's let's build up those things. We've got it, we've got a nice mass here, but now let's get out and serve the people that serve those people. And then you can then you can start to expand and and widen your audience a little bit more. But you know, the it the simplification of identifying who you can be excellent for is is it just really helps a lot in in in becoming excellent.

Jaclyn Strominger 7:10

You know, and I really love that because it's so it, you know, to me, that's one of the biggest things about unstoppable success. To have that unstoppable success, you really need to be, you know, you need to know a specific audience that you're serving. You're not there for everybody, and there's enough business for everybody. We took that's like more about the abundant side versus scarcity. But but you know, we when we really know that that person that we're serving, it's so again, we're not serving everybody, you know, we're serving the right people.

Mark McFatridge 7:41

Yes, yeah, no doubt. No doubt.

Jaclyn Strominger 7:43

So so you're you're in banking and you're and and you're here and you're expanding and you're obviously it's

– The Loneliness of Leadership & Why CEOs Need Community

Jaclyn Strominger 7:50

growing. How did you now get to where you are now, you know, serving and having this community, the CEO community?

Mark McFatridge 8:00

Yeah, it's a great question. So, you know, the the the part of that story that I didn't share was, you know, first of all, being being a bank president or being a president of a company or a CEO of a company or an owner of a company is is kind of a lonely space. And when we moved from Indy to Springfield, Missouri, I didn't know anybody. I didn't know anybody in the marketplace, I didn't know anybody on my management team. So, and I didn't have truly have any mentors. And I also grew up in a household where you didn't bring work home. And so I was on an island, like that proverbial island, right? Of you know, trying to do it all ourselves myself and and not lean on anybody. And it just so happened that I, because of the size of group that I was leading, I qualified to join Young Presidents Organization, YPO, worldwide CEO peer group, right? And joining that peer group changed my life because now I was surrounded by other like-situated people who I could talk to who understood the opportunities and challenges that come along with sitting in that seat. And so, you know, we turned this banking group around. The bank wanted to relocate us because that's what big companies do. We didn't like it, we didn't want to. We stayed in Springfield, and I turned out that I really like to take stuff that's broken and fix it, and I would do that with banks. And so we did that a handful of times and ultimately retired from banking in January of 17 and kind of petered around and did some consulting work and got back to Indianapolis and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And I kept coming back to the impact that joining a CEO of peer group had on not only me professionally, but me personally, my family, you know, all of it. And I wanted to have that same impact on others. And so I was looking around and trying to see if there was an organization that I could join, and I didn't find one that I loved that I could join as a leader of a peer groups, right? And so I said, screw it, I'm gonna start my own and serve the type of people that I want to serve in the way that I feel they need to be served. And and

– How Quaid Was Built to Help Leaders Grow Together

Mark McFatridge 10:10

that's kind of the that's how Quade came about. So yeah, that's kind of that or or j or an origination story, is the word I was looking for. Yeah. And so it started, you know, 19, 15 years before I launched Quade is when you know it the that seed was planted in my head.

Jaclyn Strominger 10:27

So I so I love that. So I'm I'm just kind of curious. So when you were looking around, what were some of the qualifications or things that you were looking for in a group? Because there are, you know, there's there's other groups out there, whether it's Vistage or what another YPO or EO. So what what's gonna make your yours different or what was what wasn't serving you?

Mark McFatridge 10:51

Yeah, I think, you know, I I for me being in a CEO peer group for 15 years, I'm I'm now on year 19, right? So I'm still in I'm still in YPO today, but you know, YPO in and of itself, uh, you know, there are qualifications to get in. You have to do $15 million in revenue, you have to be under the age of 45 when you join, you have to have a certain number of FTE and that type of stuff, which is great, but there are so many companies that will never make $15 million a year. There are a lot of people that don't get into the leadership role at the CEO seat or the entrepreneurial seat until after the age of 45. And so I wanted to serve those people, right? A lot of my banking career was was serving that small to mid-sized company, and that's those are people that I like to hang out with. So as I start to frame it, I I I never wanted to compete with YPO, right? Like, like YPO has been so good to me and my family. So then you start looking, and because of my at that point, 15 years of experience in a forum, I knew what I liked, and and the things that I like that different that you know are different from some or similar to others. I love the independent peer moderator, right? Like a lot of or some peer groups are member member moderated, right? So, you know, you you you've got a group of 10 and one person is the moderator for a year. I've seen that be really good and not so good, right? For whatever reason, Jaclyn. Some C CEOs have a hard time holding other CEOs accountable, which sounds like the weirdest thing in the world, but they do. So having an independent moderator was really important to me. I really love serving the whole person. So in at Quade, we talk a lot about you know, where are you mentally, physically, and spiritually, you know, right now and in this moment, and you you can talk about those things very freely, very openly, and so forth. I love I love diversity within our circles and and not only demographic diversity, but also you know, revenue size, industry, tenure in the seat, those types of things make for really interesting conversations and insights and and pushing each other. So, you know, being able to have those diverse members of our I call them allies, I call them circles, is really important. You know, I I like half day versus full day, and especially when you're talking about small to mid small to mid-sized businesses, it's hard to to take somebody out of the office for a full day, you know, on a monthly basis. So those are just some of the things that were really important to me as I started to cobble this thing together and and and make it work for the people that I wanted to serve and how I wanted to serve.

Jaclyn Strominger 13:39

Yeah. So I I want to go back to this for a second because I wanted to actually just talk about how you know the success you had from the group, from like from being in a group. Because I I think this is something to really like listeners, I think this is really important, you know, to be in a group. And I would say, you know, I I would say more mastermind style in a sense versus referral, but that's a whole different, you know. I mean, so that's my personal opinion. I'd love your to hear what your thoughts are on that.

Mark McFatridge 14:13

Yeah, so uh if

– Peer Learning, Executive Growth & Shared Experience

Mark McFatridge 14:15

I'm being honest, I kind of cringe when I hear mastermind. Like, like I never wanted to be a mastermind. Like, I don't want the it when I lead a circle, I don't want the attention to be on me, right? I want I don't want to be the coach, I don't I don't want to be the all-knowing person, right? And that's what I view as a mastermind. Okay. What I love and what's been powerful for me is that group learning, right? Where you're learning from each other and especially you're learning from them in an experiential way, meaning that they're not saying you you should do this. They're saying when I was in that position, I did X, I did Y, and I did Z. And I screwed up X and I screwed up Y, but Z worked out really good for me. Well, what does that do for me? That does for me, that accelerates me because I don't have to screw up on X and Y. I can go straight to Z. And so that peer learning component has been really powerful because you're getting it from somebody who's been in that exact position. And that could be making an acquisition, that could be a personnel issue, that could be discovering that your daughter's an alcoholic and you don't know how to deal with that, right? Like, like all those things are real and you hear from people. And you know, executive coaches are awesome, but you it to to really benefit at that level, you've got to have an executive coach that has been through some stuff, right? And and and to where you can benefit at that level. So that's why I love that's why it's been so impactful for me. That's what we're trying to continue to build at Quade. And and so yeah, that that that's though those are my thoughts on the group dynamic of that.

Jaclyn Strominger 15:51

No, I really like that. And I like that differentiator because when I think of it's funny because when I think of mastermind, I think of more of the peer learning that you're getting people together. So it's almost like our interesting definitions of him, but I really love how you talked about peer learning because I think it is so crucial for anybody's success. And and I and I would tend to say whether you're a CEO, an EVP, a VP, director, find a, I think, find a group that you can associate with where you have that peer learning. Cause I think finding other people in that group, you you might find somebody that might be above you in in a little bit. So they could, you know, there's a little bit of mentorship going on too.

Mark McFatridge 16:42

For sure, for sure. Yeah, you know, it's I yeah, I I I've written probably like three books in my head. I've never put any to paper, but but one of one of my ideas in in my head, and I believe it, is I think people need three things. They need allies, they need advisors, and they need advocates.

– Allies, Advisors & Advocates: The 3 Relationships Every Leader Needs

Mark McFatridge 17:00

And so allies are basically like situated people. They're they're in the exact seat as you are. You can talk to them, they're gonna be cheerleaders for you, right? Oh, that's a brilliant idea, Jaclyn. I I love that. You should do that, you should do that, you should do that. But that's cool. They don't necessarily take you to the next level, but they make you feel good, right? The advisors are those mentors, right? They're they've achieved some things, they've taken you under your wing, under their wing. They are they're kind of saying, Oh, yeah, that's that's an okay idea. I think you can take it to another level and they push you a little bit. They still don't get you all the way over, but those advocates are the people that see something in you and they talk about you in rooms that you're not in, and they bring you opportunities and push you to get to where you want to be. Those that to me, those are the things that everybody should seek out. And it doesn't matter if you're first year out of out of out of high school or college or you've been a CEO for 20 years, everybody needs those three types of people or groups in in your life.

Jaclyn Strominger 18:04

You know, I think that's such a so how so right now, how many groups or you know, of of Quade do you have? Like, is it just just in your area or yeah, good question.

Mark McFatridge 18:17

So, you know, this funny, this thing started as a lifestyle business. I was just gonna have a couple of groups and and I had two groups in like my first three months, and then I had then I was managing five myself, and I was like, okay, you know, a the need is there, which I knew, B, how we're doing it, our model works really well. And so I I wanted to scale it and have a bigger impact on people, so much for my lifestyle business, right? And and so so what what we've done is we've now moved into a licensee model. And so I launched that in November of 25. And since that time, we've licensed nine people. I think uh five are in Indiana, but we've got somebody in Nashville, we've got somebody in New Jersey, we're getting ready to add Chicago, and and so yeah, so those folks are now out building their own, their own, I call them circles as as we speak. So yeah, I think we've got two, four, six up and running, and then you know, continuing to build from there.

Jaclyn Strominger 19:22

So curious. So when somebody's running a circle, is it a singular circle, or is it, or you know, if you're talking like New Jersey, is the but the person in New Jersey gonna have multiple circles?

Mark McFatridge 19:34

Yeah, look likely they'll have multiple circles, right? So, so people that that that do really well with this are executive coaches, right? They're already calling on CEOs. So this is now a way to add another layer into their practice, right? And it it actually becomes a little bit more efficient because you're coaching 10 people at a time versus 10 one-on-ones, right? So it could be additive and brings in recurring revenue and that type of stuff. Recently retired C-suite folks do really well, and they may be doing it as a way to just stay engaged with really smart people. So they may have one, they may have two. We're also working with CPA firms to have them install Quade

– Growth Mindset, Contrarian Thinking & Leadership Diversity

Mark McFatridge 20:15

circles within their practice, and that's what's happening in New Jersey, and then a CPA firm here in Indianapolis as well. So they're they're deepening their relationships with their existing clients, they're adding a revenue line and and having an impact on on a lot more people.

Jaclyn Strominger 20:32

Wow, I love that. I love that. So, what's the ultimate goal? You know, is there a but what's the long range goal? Like how many, how many do you dream to have?

Mark McFatridge 20:41

You know, I I dreamt to I dreamt of your lifestyle business, right? I dreamt to have two, right? And so now, so I've screwed that all up. I you know, I I I don't know, right? Like sexy numbers sound great. Like, you know, could we have a thousand allies across the United States who then come together and build this network where they can rely upon each other? That sounds really cool. I don't know, like you know, today it's just like I just want to comp continue to build and have an impact on people and associate with the right people that that kind of live who Quade is and represent us really well and have the same belief system that I do of you know the abundance mentality that that you that you shared earlier. And you know, how do we continue to grow and do and and serve the right people? And you know, if that's if that's a hundred people, that's great. If it's a thousand people, that's great. But you know, I want to serve the people that that that that fit who we are and and what we want to do and who believe. I don't want I don't that's not fair. I I stopped using the phrase like minded because that's boring, right? I I don't want to hang around with people who think like me. I want to I want to hang around with people who are are are contrarians, right? Who want to push the envelope, who and not argue just for argument's sake, but come from different backgrounds and you know have good discussion and and are okay to disagree with. Each other, but are curious about you know their mindset and that type of stuff. So those are the type of people that we uh that I like to hang out with and and hope to serve.

Jaclyn Strominger 22:09

So is it when you think about it, instead of I'm just thinking, as you said, it's not like-minded, but maybe similar values in a sense of you know, in a sense of they wanna they want to help. They want at the you know, or value or they want to help.

Mark McFatridge 22:23

Yeah, or or a growth mindset, right? And and that's both personal and professional. So having a growth mindset. And again, you and I may be completely opposite on different viewpoints, but A, I want to have the con I want to be able to have the conversation with you and understand where you're coming from, you understand where I'm coming from, and that's that's where it ends, right? We're like, okay, cool. I still don't believe what you believe, but let's go have a beer, right? I mean, like, like as opposed to just battling each other for days, it's like, okay, I at least respect your opinion, but you know, I'm I'm gonna stick with how I go.

unknown 22:59

Right.

Jaclyn Strominger 23:00

Right. You know, I I think I've said this to my daughter a thousand and one times because she's she's at university in St. Louis, and she's she made some comment to me about some of the people that you know different political views and don't want to talk to other people for different political views. And I said, we have to get back to agreeing to disagree. Yeah. You can agree, as you just said, agree, disagree, go have a drink. Yeah. Shakes hands, you know, and everybody had can have a different view. Your view and my view can be completely different, and I don't need to impose it on you, and you don't need to impose it on me, but we can still live happily in the same way. Right.

Mark McFatridge 23:39

Yeah, yeah. It's yeah, I I I wholeheartedly agree. And and that makes it makes for interesting conversation, right? I like at a minimum.

Jaclyn Strominger 23:48

Right. It does, it does make for an interesting conversation. So I'm kind of curious. So you as you have you been building this, when you think back to, you know, when you started out in that first, you know, group to what you're doing now, is there one instance that that was really paramount, like in changing that you can think of like, wow, that was like a huge pivotal moment. Like in your for you.

Mark McFatridge 24:14

Yeah, you know, uh so it happened. The the the very

– The Moment Mark Realized Quaid Was Different

Mark McFatridge 24:20

my very first recruit, right, who who signed up was is a guy by the name of John Lofton. And John is the president of a uh a large uh independent insurance company here in Indianapolis. He's somebody that I've known and I respected. And so I went into John to tell him what I was doing. My hope was that he would refer me some people of their clients, right? And so I'm walking and I'm talking through Quade, and and here's my idea, and here's what it's gonna look like, and all that kind of stuff. And he's like, Can I join? Like, yes, like in my head, we weren't built for somebody that uh that led a company of John's company size, right? And so I'm like, Yes, and he he and so that just it just validated it, right? Like, like what we were building is is something that is unique and powerful and useful, and that so like that was the very first one was uh you know, they it just validated it. And then like I said, in you know, in my first 60 or 90 days, I had the second group, and so you know, the the first time that somebody referred somebody for the next group, like you know, okay, they're having a good experience with this, and it's like, damn, it's it's for real now. And then you know, that continued to go. And you know, like I said, I I got up to where I was running five myself, and I've I've obviously since dialed that back. But but yeah, those those two things. I mean, John saying, Can I be involved? When my literally I was there to ask him for referrals, and he's like, No, this is for real. Let me in.

Jaclyn Strominger 26:00

Right, right. And so how many people are in each group?

Mark McFatridge 26:03

Uh no more than 10. I like the intimacy of that, right? Like it's it, it's you're there for four hours, you want to give people enough time. That's that's enough time for people to get to know each other intimately, and so that's that's really important to me.

Jaclyn Strominger 26:18

Yeah. You know, it's something that I that I think is is really important. And I and I want to, you know, what something that you just said, it's get to know them personally, intimately. And I talk about relationship capital, it's like one of the things that I I feel like I stress, talk about so I'm blue in the face. And so I also want listeners to understand like building those true relationships really matter. So I'm curious, like, you know, how do you see those relationships expanding and what's the what's the impact of those relationships?

Mark McFatridge 26:53

Yeah, it's huge. You know, one of the things that that I think we do really well that's been super powerful for me is the first time I bring a group together, there so there a lot of them are meeting for the very first time. We do a couple things. One, we do a personality assessment and we bring in an expert to come in and and share, you know, everybody's personal.

– Vulnerability, Trust & Authentic Relationship Capital

Mark McFatridge 27:15

We use MPO, we've used predictive index, we've used disk, whatever. But we'll have an expert come in and talk about who's in the room, right? And you know, whatever. Jaclyn, you know, has a tendency to be a wallflower. So how how are we gonna draw her out? That's not true, right? But uh, but but how are we gonna draw her out? And you know, and and so-and-so is really boisterous and is gonna have their opinions. And so how how do how do we all communicate with each other? And so, you know, that's about an hour of that first meeting. And then what we do is we take the rest of the time together, the next three hours, and we have people tell their life story without talking about anything business, and we don't tell that, we don't we don't share that up front that that's on the agenda. It does a bunch of things, Jaclyn. So as you would guess, most of us start out and say, Oh, you know, hey, I'm Mark McFatchers, I'm the CEO of Quade. Okay, well, you can't do that in this situation. So so now and so now they start to panic. They don't know how to introduce themselves now, right? So they're like, Well, I grew up in small town Indiana, and you know, my my dad did this, my mom did this, and they were raised, but they got divorced, and so all of a sudden they start to get vulnerable, and which is the key to trust and everything about this this deal. So we build we build vulnerability and trust from day one in in these groups, and that carries forward because now you can talk about anything. If you've already talked about you know the rough childhood that you had, or you got divorced when you were 22, or whatever, you know, that opens everything up to build this trust and and and create a feeling of of vulnerability, is okay, of intimacy, of getting to know each other, and those relationships bond immediately versus if we were just talking about our companies and you know, I got this degree and that degree and whatever, and and got promoted at 24 and blah, you know, that's that's that's surface level stuff that that isn't gonna get you where you want to go and and have the same impact.

Jaclyn Strominger 29:24

Right. I I you know I couldn't I couldn't agree more. I I feel like that's actually one of the things that I think is really important, and I I feel like I've stressed this with a lot of people, is when you go into any networking event to catch yourself, do not ask a question about business until you've had five questions that you've asked about the person. Right? Like get to like talk about yourself and or like you know, ask people to bring out the things about them so that you can share knowledge about each other, so that's you're getting to know them. You know, when you sit down and if you're sitting next to somebody at a restaurant, or you know, when you're thinking about you know, sitting around a circle when you were kids, right? You have to say, like, what do you like? You know, and you have to go around the room and everybody's gonna try to remember everybody's name. And you could say, you know, what's your share your favorite food and your animal, whatever it is.

Mark McFatridge 30:24

Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger 30:24

Ask those questions. Like those are so perfect, right? But we forget.

Mark McFatridge 30:30

Yeah, yeah. No, that's exactly right. I think, well, I I mean, you know this, right? People do business with people they like, right? So to like somebody, you got to find something out about them, right? Is there something that we share common traits with or commonalities with? And and that's that's way more fun. And then it's it doesn't even matter what you do, right? If I know you and I trust you, I know that whatever you're doing, I want to be a part of because we've already built that trust and relationship. So

– Why People Do Business With People They Like

Mark McFatridge 31:00

duh. Like like we try to make this stuff so hard, and it's just like it's like, oh well, that makes sense.

Jaclyn Strominger 31:07

Well, it's almost like once you get to know people, there's certain people like, oh, I want to figure out a way that I can do something with Mark. I want to know how I can we can work together. I've got to figure that out because I enjoy we enjoy each other's company, and you do like to do business with people that you know you know, like, and trust. I you know, I I've I've I don't know how often I share this, but I when I had my bot mitzvah, God, just a few years ago. Right. I was, you know, I I still remember this. I remember looking around, you know, the room that the people that were there, and they were friends of my parents, but they were also my parents' business associates. My parents did make were manufacturers up. And I remember thinking, wow. Like, you know, granted, obviously they probably wrote off the whole thing, but but but they were but the whole point was is that they were people that might that they all enjoyed each other's company, right? And that was the key thing, that they had become friends, they did business, but they became friends. And then and I think it's really, you know, there is a you know church and state, but you do need to do business with people that you like.

Mark McFatridge 32:20

Yeah, and you know, bringing it back to Quite a little bit is one of the things that and you had asked about mastermind, and and I gave you my opinion there. The other thing is we're not a networking group, like you, this is not a biz dev opportunity for you, right? As a matter of fact, it's prohibited for you to solicit business from one of your allies. Now, if they come into you and they know what you do and they they've they built this trust, they built this relationship, and they like, I need your services, that's okay, right? But what happens is because of that intimate knowledge that you have of each other, that relationship that you've built, my network becomes your network, your network

– Final Leadership Lessons & How to Connect With Mark

Mark McFatridge 33:00

becomes his network, and so forth. And you're referring people because you're like, Mark's a good dude, you need to talk to him, and you need whatever he's selling, you know, do that. And people love that, right? Because there's so much out there today, and you're getting hit on LinkedIn and and you know, direct solicitation, and you don't know who's good or bad. And so you're like, I think that person's pretty good. But if it's coming as a referral from somebody that you know and trust, you're gonna sign up for that every day.

Jaclyn Strominger 33:30

Right. Yep. So there's I actually came up with this formula, it's relationship capital, right? So it's the person times the network times to the nth degree of their network, right? So, and that relationship capital is exactly what you just said. It's it's building, you know, you who do you know that you it's you I always say like you're the you're one conversation away from something great, or you're one person away from an amazing connection. And you know, and so we we look at that relationship capital equation and we think about how you know we we have to remind ourselves, right? It's not about me selling you, it's about me getting to know you. So how can we then serve each other?

Mark McFatridge 34:23

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger 34:25

And and I love that you're not a it's not a referral, it's not a referral, you know.

Mark McFatridge 34:30

Yeah, yeah. No, it it just it takes all the pressure off. And again, you like you're not sitting there thinking, oh my god, he's selling to me, like in in the thing. So you you can eliminate that as a thought because you just know it's not happening, and so everything there becomes very genuine, authentic, all those things. So yeah, that's yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger 34:51

That's really that's really fantastic. So, Mark, I could talk to you for hours about this because I think what you're doing is absolutely fantastic. But so tell our listeners how they can learn more about Quade, more about you, and all the great things that you were doing, because I think it's really, really spectacular.

Mark McFatridge 35:07

Yeah, thank you for that. You know, certainly our website does a really nice job, and it's QuadeCircle.com. And then you can find me on LinkedIn, Mark McFatridge, Quade's on LinkedIn and Instagram and I think Facebook. I don't know. I don't get on that stuff, but but uh no, uh uh that that's by far the easiest way, is QuadeCircle.com or or our LinkedIn socials for sure.

Jaclyn Strominger 35:33

Yeah. So listeners, please do me a favor. Mark is truly amazing, and I want you to make sure that you connect with him. I will make sure all of those links are in the show notes. And then additionally, please do me the favor and share this episode with people that you know, business associates and friends, because it's really important to hear this and hear how circles really are important to your success and the people that you surround yourself with. So please share this episode. And then speaking of communities, unstoppable success. Uh, we have a brand new school community. So we would love for you to jump in there right now. I will put that into the show notes. And we do some fun things in there every single week. And you never know, we might even have Mark come back and be one of our guests for one of our run our monthly roundtables. So I'm Jaclyn Strauminger. This is unstoppable success. Thank you, Mark, for being an amazing guest.

Mark McFatridge 36:25

Jaclyn, this has been a blast. Thank you so much.

Jaclyn Strominger 36:28

I'm so glad. I'm so glad. And listeners, I hope you keep l leaping to your greatest success. Thank you.