Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Empire: The Art of Networking - 138

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

How valuable is your network? Craig and I talk about ways to expand your network and how to do it right! We tell you how to leverage your network while being of service to everyone else! People ALWAYS ask us what the secret to success and life is. Listen and find out...   “You have to respect people’s time more than ever.” “Build a position of strength.” - Craig Ballantyne   Here’s what you’ll discover: 01:07 - How your network can save your ass 05:04 - Why you should compare yourself to others 09:55 - How you are going to kill your network 11:47 - Don’t ask to pick my brain 17:13 - The right way to introduce two people.   “A strong network gives you resources.” “Come with a giving hand.” - Bedros Keuilian   --   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @realcraigballantyne   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’ High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Listen on iTunes and leave us a review: http://bedrosmedia.com/itunes138   Subscribe to My Channel for weekly videos: http://www.youtube.com/bedroskeuilian/?sub_confirmation=1 Youtube: https://youtu.be/P1zIiy9cvrw

Everybody's busy. And as you get higher and higher up, you have to respect people's time more than ever. Hey, Beidros, do people ever ask you what the secret to success in life is? You know what? People ask me that all the time. Well, all right. We're going to reveal that on this show. And it comes down to what I call making money with friends and what you call the art of networking. So it's all about how anybody, and I mean anybody from anywhere in the world, with any type of personality, you don't have to be an extrovert, can become a power networker. And when you have a power network, as your network is your net worth,

man, everything in life gets better, but it also gets easier. So, B, why don't we just start off with a story about how, just by knowing someone, something, a major problem in your life was easier to overcome. Sure. Well, actually, a really great example.

So our friend Jason Capital introduced us to our now friend, Sharon Stravatsa. And ironically, we met him on a private jet. We were all flying to Arizona for an event. And I think it was Sharon. He rented a private jet. Here's a great move. Here's a great move, everyone.

You ready for this? If you want to meet someone and you know they're going to the same destination that you are, if you rent a private jet and go, hey, why don't you come on the jet with me? We'll fly you out to wherever you're going. Just a little life hack for everybody. Yeah. Now, listen, I know you're thinking, well, wait a minute, asshole. I can't afford a private jet.

You don't have to. But there's so many variations of this that you're going to be able to do that is very cost effective and even cheap. But we met Sharon Stravats on that private jet. And ironically, I was able to help Sharon create his mastermind, right? We really coached him up on the mastermind. He got what he wanted. What a great way to network. He came with a giving hand by saying, look, we're all going to Arizona at a Joe Polish's event.

I got a private jet. There's seats available. Why don't you guys come with us? Perfect. Whether that was a calculated move on his part or not, it doesn't matter. And I know it was, but it was such a generous gift that, It was a really great opportunity to network in private for about an hour on the plane. As I helped him, I realized what he did.

He took a company that was doing $300 million in sales. And in five years, he took it to $3.5 billion. 10x literally. 10x in five years. So I'm like, wow, Sharon, I've got this franchise, Fit Body Boot Camp. We're hockey sticking. We're growing quickly. What else can I do to 10X like you are?

And so he gave me that. So there's a great example of meeting one person who I was able to think. He added value to my life and your life with the private. jet. We added value to his life by teaching, telling him, hey, man, you ought to start coaching and consulting in the real estate space, which he is. And then he added value back to my life. And I know he's added value to your life. Incredible now. Speaking at our events, at our masterminds, et cetera. And there's a great example of friends making money with friends. Yeah. So for example, with Sharon, he and I love doing these dinners. So we're doing a dinner

next Monday. Hey, Sharon, we're going to meet at the Crystal Cove, Mastro's, amazing place. You're going to bring two friends. I'm going to bring two friends. All six. people like a lot of these guys don't know each other there's going to be there's going to be six figure deals made at that table i know for sure and we can we could do that literally every week yeah and one of the things is like you think oh well you know nobody knows me blah blah blah listen you you have to cultivate the network you don't have to go to a tony robins or lewis house event to try and meet strangers there where everybody else is out hustling to try and meet strangers why don't you make the fame why don't you have the event one of the one of the

the things I've been teaching a lot to my coaching clients who are trying to get that traction is, hey, listen, instead of you going to the event and just being, you know, there's another person there, build the position of strength. Think about this. POS, write that down. POS, unless you're driving, write it down if you're driving a Tesla, but not if you're driving anything else, but POS, position of strength. You always want to have a position of strength. And the reason why I know how you're so funny, man. How do you become so funny? Because, lesson. I wasn't funny. You weren't.

I started, well, I was, but not in front of other people. True. And because when I was funny, I couldn't say that in front of other people. Right. So hang around you and it's like modeling. Oh, how does, so truly, how do you enter the room? You enter the room, hey, everybody, hey, I'm Badros, blah, blah, you know, just cool. You enter the room late, but you enter the room well.

Well, that's specifically positioned as well. Right. So all the attention is on me. I require a lot of attention. Right. So, okay, all right, I got it. I see how he did that. Oh, I see how he responded to a question where I knew you didn't want to answer the question,

but here's how you responded to it in the right way. Here's how, you know, you make funny yourself. Here's how you're able to tell good jokes. Here's how great of a storyteller you are. Okay, I'm watching. See, I believe that you should compare yourself to others when it is about something that you want to acquire in terms of attention. talent. So when you're around these people, oh, look at how he does that. I, you know, I took a lot

from Alan Cosgrove, our friend, just about the way that he is and the way that he, you know, what I needed is when people ask me a question, I need to think about the answer a little bit. So he goes, yeah, yeah, all the time. Like, I don't know if you ever seen that. I have. And I picked that up from him. Like so, hey, Craig, how you doing it? Yeah, yeah, pretty good. You know, just stuff like that. So I just learned that. Then I watched a ton of speakers. You know, I watched Sharon do his speaking. Man, that guy's high energy. I watch Jason do his speaking.

You know, I watched everybody do their speaking. Joel do his speaking and figure out, all right, what's the best way for me to go and do my stuff? And I modeled it over time. And when you have a network who are of great people, you can do that. So back to the building the position of strength thing is let's say that you want to help, let's say you want to be the next Bayteros school in. You want to help personal trainers build their business. But you know what, right now you just have 500 people on your Instagram and you have a successful gym. You know that you can do it.

You know that you can help people, but you don't have an audience. Well, here's the thing. If you simply get six people in a room at $97, all you need is six people. And you know, you get another four people for free. They're going to take all the social media for you. They're, you know, they're going to record all this stuff. You'll be able to sell a couple of those people into coaching. But now, just because you're the person at the front of the room, or any chance you get to speak on a stage,

even if you have to drive three hours and you're not paid a single thing, you're going to be on stage. And as soon as you step on stage, everybody gives you that position of strength. You've got to do that. And then it's just, okay, slowly builds up and up and up and up. And the next thing you know, you have an audience and people are paying you to speak and paying you to go here, there, and everywhere and hiring you. But you've got to create the fame yourself. and it's easier than ever. And that's one of the things

that I want you to do. Yeah, and that's a great lesson. And for everyone watching and listening to this, if you're thinking, well, wait a minute, like Sharon, I don't have a private jet. I can't go just rent a private jet and get four, five, six people on it so that I can meet and network with them.

Well, I got an idea. What about dinner? And if you don't know the people, like, you're like, well, no one on social media who's a thought leader, an influencer or whatever is going to even talk to me.

They don't respond to my DMs. Great. Is there a bank in your town? That bank probably has a manager. Is there a car dealership? there's probably general manager of that car dealership. Is there a supermarket? There's probably a manager or owner of a market.

Is there a high-end restaurant? Who's the owner? In other words, get the top people, get the mayor, the people from the Chamber of Commerce, the business owners and managers of the top businesses there in your community. Invite them for a dinner. That private jet is just a dinner, right? So if you're willing to spend $2,300 on a dinner with the top people in your city, you're going to strike up some kind of relationship,

and you're going to be able to leverage their social media. Maybe each of them have 500 people following them. But at the end of the day, you got 10 people with 500 people. Well, there's 5,000 now. There's 5,000 eyeballs that were exposed to you. So you start there and you just keep growing out until all of a sudden you're maybe talking to some C-level influencers, sea-level thought leaders. And then before you know it, you're showing up to events. Because if you are going to the Lewis House event, if you are going to the Tony Robbins event,

if you're going to the Perfect Life Retreat, you're going to Empire Business Summit, show up. And instead of saying, hey, what can you do for me? Show up and say, hey, man, I really like X about what you posted or I got you this. If there's someone you want to meet, show up with a T-shirt. It doesn't have to be a private jet. A T-shirt, a hat. If you know somebody likes something, like my friend, Andy Fersilla, wears Chucks. And when we first met a couple years ago, he looked at my feet.

He's like, dude, you wear Chucks? I wear Chucks. By the way, y'all watch it on live. Do me a favor. Tag Andy right now. Give me a favor. Tag Andy. And so I saw that he was wearing Chucks.

I wore Chucks with black laces. Right? Jason Frusier taught me that and I thought black laces look cool. So I saw that he's wearing white chucks or white laces on his chucks very simple. I got back home I reached out to Emily his wife, what size shoes does Andy wear got black laces had Chloe lace him up my daughter and sent him a pair of chucks with black laces He thought that was thoughtful. He thought it was thoughtful enough where he did a little social media story on it and tagged me So we were able to deepen our friendship our network by the way just to that simple act of what a 40-50 dollar pair of shoes and three dollar pair of laces right it's those little things that you could do by being thoughtful by either showing up with a gift but if you come with the giving hand first and come with the

mindset of what can I do for you instead of what can you do for me the person you're trying to network is much more likely to come in and help you yes let me tell you how you're going to kill your networking you're going to kill your networking by asking one of two questions the first one is can I pick your brain can I pick your brain Don't ever ask that question. I don't need my brain to be picked. I got other things to do. The second question is, can I take you out to coffee or lunch?

I can afford my own coffee and lunch. I don't need, like, people want to go out coffee and lunch in Toronto. Well, now it's going to take me half an hour to get there. We're going to sit there for an hour and a half. It's going to get back. No, that's not going to work. Here's what you're going to do. Craig, I see you're speaking at, you know, I'm going to, I'm speaking at this real estate agent thing next week,

the week after my event. It's called Hyperfast Summit in Washington. DC. You would go to that event. You would say, hey, I see you're speaking at that event. I would love to take your social media content for you. I'll take it all on my iPhone, you know, just tell me what pictures to do. That's how you're going and adding value, right? So you think like, oh, hey, hey, I see Baderos is speaking at this event. You know, it's not really in my industry, but I'll show up and I'll do that. I'll go to the, I'll buy my ticket to this thing and I'll say, Beidros, I'll come in and you would probably say, hey, listen, don't worry, I'll get you a free ticket.

you just come in do my thing that is what you do don't go picking people's brains and taking them out to lunch because they don't need lunch and they don't need their brains picked what they do need is somebody to solve their little pain points and if you do that like don't go rummaging through their trash to find their pain points but do it in a way do it in a way that is oh that's thoughtful you're clearly adding value because i know you get people contacting you all the time can you think of like a couple of good ideas where people like showed up different and found their way into your world. Yeah, in fact, I'll give a couple of examples real quick. But before I do that, let me just reiterate what you said. It's such a valuable point. We've got to say this point again.

And the point is this. If you're offering, hey, Bezos, I'm in Southern California. Can I take you out to lunch? Can I take you out for coffee? Now, I can read between the lines and so can everybody else. Guess what you're really saying? You want inconvenience me, take me away from my work and my coaching clients. I could already afford coffee and lunch. I don't know who you are, so it might be the worst 30 or 60 minutes of my life. And I do know that really what you want to do is pick my brain, which is get free coaching, which is what people are paying us $50,000 a year for, right? That's actually insulting.

And I want to share that with you. And I'm not saying because, like, hey, man, I'm on a high horse. I'm on a pedestal and that's why. That's how you are coming off. Instead, if you show up like Craig said, hey, man, you want to get to know Craig? If you know Craig speaking in Washington, D.C. at a real estate conference and you know nothing about real estate, well, you sure know how to take stories and pictures and all that with your iPhone? Say, Craig, can I show up? I happen to be in the

area, even if you're not, just fly across the, I know a guy who was like, hey, Grant Cardone, I'm going to be in the same area as you are and I see you're going to be eating at that steakhouse. Can I just have a couple of words with you on my podcast because we get so many thousand eyeballs? Like immediately, he told Grant Cardone, I'm already going to be where you are, so I'm going to make it convenient for you. Yep. By the way, this is the passionate view. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Omar. Omar. Omar. And that was when Omar was nothing. Right, right.

And he goes, I've got a lot of eyeballs who are going to be exposed to your show, which in Cardone says, wow, look, free marketing. And it's convenient, right? So, but guess what? Omar was nowhere near that steakhouse. He just found his way to that steakhouse so that he could do that with Grant Cardone. And so great example of this is JC, JC of the finest from Philadelphia, right? I don't even know his last name.

I just know his Instagram handle. JC, big shout out to you, man. JC of the finest. The dude is always leaving like full paragraph comments on our stuff, number one. He has yet to ask me for anything, right? And I know like he's just building value, but I appreciate him leaving those comments. Then he shows up to Empire Business Summit and just comes with a giving hand, has still asked us for nothing. Now I'm at a point where I feel like, man, this guy is such a supporter with his comments that he leaves, the feedback that he gives, shows up to the Empire Business Summit, right?

Got a ticket, shows up to an Empire Business Summit, and just adds more value. when he is ready to ask for something, I'm ready to deliver. Yeah, we're going to deliver now. I mean, we're talking about him. Exactly. Like, we just literally, like, probably added some audience to him. And that's what you want to do is you want to show up in the coolest, awesomest, most giving way possible.

It doesn't have to be a private jet. It could simply be valued by way of taking social media pictures and saying, look, man, I did this for you. There's anything else I can do, let me know. And Craig's going to go, hey, you know what? So what could I do for you? Now I will give you a piece of my time. Yeah, absolutely.

And so if you go all the way back to 2008, when a broke high school teacher named Joel Marion sent me an email. This is before he became the $100 million man, before he got coaching from me before anything, is I was selling a book on Amazon and he sent me an email. And I show this email all the time because I'm like, this is exactly how you network with somebody who you've never met before. Because right now, there's two big lessons here. First of all, you can do this without knowing anybody. Second of all, if you're an introvert like I used to be, I did all of my networking. a massive network through email only. So yes, you can do it that way. Eventually, you have to expand into person, but don't say, well, I'm an introvert. I can't go out there in network. Yes, you can.

So he sent me this email, and it was all about me. It wasn't about him. It was a, hey, Craig, congrats on your launch of your book. So you're doing amazing. I would love to help spread the word. I write articles for this website that has a reach of, you know, 1.5 million people. I would love to just send you a couple of questions, do a little interview. We'll get that story up and help promote your book. No ask about helping him. And so it's like, whoa, where's the punchline here? There is no punchline. That was just him going adding value, which is one of the reasons he's become so successful. He's just so generous and has that outward approach. So that's how you can get another way you can get the foot in the door is by thinking about what assets do I have the

leverage, whether it's somebody that you know that Baderos needs to know, like you might be a minnow, but you might know somebody who's helpful to Baderos, and you can make that little introduction. Dude, dude, dude, you literally, I just sent you those thought leaves. Here's why. Fellas, you guys remember Adam was here last week? A 21-year-old kid was here interviewing me last week, and there was no way we would have allowed him to come and interview, just not because of any other reason I'm just so pressed for time. Right.

But months before that, Adam reaches out, and he's like, on, He's like, hey man, there's this YouTube guy who you got to meet that I know. He's got 10 million subscribers and you guys would be a great fit. Do you mind if I make that introduction? Hmm, right? Do you mind if I make that introduction? I'm like, young man, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Feel free to make that introduction. And guess what I did after he made that introduction? I was like, hey Adam, what could I do for you? He's like, you know what? I've got the show and I would love to come out to you, not can we get on a Zoom, can you come out to me when it's coming from me? I would love my mom's basement. Right. I would love to come out to you and interview on my show. Now, how am I going to say no? And why would I say no? I want to bend over backwards for that young man because he introduced me to someone who can get me 10 million eyeballs on their YouTube channel.

Absolutely a very important thing is what he did there is he did ask to make that. So there's this guy, I can't remember his name, but he used this great phrase. It's the double opt-in introduction, double opt-in. If somebody wants to introduce me to Bedros and they have to go to Bedros and say, hey, Baydard, Can I introduce you to Craig because Craig X, Y, Z? Hey, Craig, can I introduce you to Bezos because Bezos will A, B, and C? Yeah, sure. And he'll say, yeah, sure. Great. Now the introduction can be made because the networking mistake that so many beginners make is, hey, Badros, you need to meet Craig.

And Craig, you need to meet Bedros. You guys are both great guys. I'll let you take it from here. Thank you for the awkwardness. Right. And then I've, because I've learned now, but I've gotten on a phone call with people before, and I'm like, so what do you do? And they're like, and first of all, hey, getting on the phone.

And the second of all, like, in this awkwardness, and it turns out we weren't, we shouldn't have known each other, really. And so you need to set it up. I'll usually do about a 250-word introduction message, just so that everybody's on the same page, here's the context, so that when these two busy people can do jump on the phone, the phone call can be five minutes and not 25 minutes of, oh, so you live in Southern California? Right. Yeah, like, let's get to the point.

Everybody's busy. And as you get higher and higher up, you have to respect people's time more than ever. So that's a huge networking tip. But again, you can connect these dots. You know somebody who needs to know somebody. And then from there, that person will need to know another person. And you can just keep on going and adding value that way. And you get into that circle.

Yeah. So let's talk about this for a moment. Why are we so hot and heavy about networking? Well, it's simple. Like, two very powerful people can move the needle faster than just one powerful person. And so oftentimes you may not have the resources. And so you've got to get resourceful. We talk about that all the time.

A strong network gives you resources. Like, I may have an amazing ability to communicate a message, but I've got no audience. You have a massive audience and you need a great communicator. Oh my gosh, if we just connect, it's going to be a win-win for both, right? And so you've got to understand the power of networking, because if you're thinking, well, hey, guys, all this is great, but I could do it on my own. I could do it. Yes, you can, but it's going to take you significantly longer, and someone who is willing to network, like the Joel Marion, like the Craig, like to myself,

is going to blow past you and eat your lunch. And so here's one quick thing that Craig and I did years ago to get to know each other. You would send me a book in the mail. I would send you a book. I read a book. I like it. I'm like Craig would like this. Now, I followed you.

This wasn't on social media. This was by email. It was by email, yeah, because you had a blog, and I think I was just starting my blog. So I followed you on your blog and I was like, wow, I'm going to send him this book and you would send me a book. Now today, guys, here's what you can do. Instead of going to Amazon and then sending someone a book directly from Amazon, here's a little hack that I do. I have Jonah order a book. The book comes to me. Like if I want to send you a book, the book would come to me and I don't know you yet, right? The book comes to me. I write a message to you. Hey, Craig,

I read this book. It's an awesome book. It's by Joseph Campbell. I think you're really going to enjoy it. Bedros Kulian. By the way, thank you for the content that you put out. I get so much value from it and I sign it and then I put my Instagram handle. Oh, got it. Put your Instagram handle inside the book and then ship it out to whoever it is that you want to meet. It's very likely that whether they read the book or not, they're going to see the message, they're going to feel grateful about the book.

They have your Instagram handle. They're going to story it and tag you. And when they do, you're going to go, hey, I'm glad. One, you got a little bit of their audience. Number two, you got your foot in the door for communication. And number three, you just respond to that DM and go, hey, man, I hope you read the book and enjoy it. Thank you for your content. And now you've got some dialogue going and you showed up with the giving hand. Yeah, one of the best success stories of

networking I've seen in the last year was this kid named Richard. Maybe you've met him. I think he might have been at our Empire Business Summit. So he started watching Joel's podcast and he would make these podcast reviews on Instagram, tag Joel, and Joel would repost them. And then Vinny must have told Joel that he was looking for some guy to work for him. So Joel said, hey, you should contact this Richard guy. He's a young up-and-comer. He's still in college in, like, UCLA or something. And so Vinny hired him for the summer.

And then from there... He brought him to Empire Business Summit. Yeah, brought him to Empire Business Summit. And now Joel hired Richard to come to the $100 million mastermind. So this is a room where I'm paying $100,000 to be in, this mastermind this weekend. Richard gets to go for free and be in that room with everybody because he's the professional note-taker. There you go. Yeah. Like that kid, you know, if he was a stock, I would put a ton of money into that stock because you know it's going to be a big one.

He keeps showing up at the giving hand. He was reviewing podcasts. Then he got introduced to Vince Del Monte and then back to Joel as a professional note taker so that the guys in the mastermind can have the notes taken from the three days. Yeah. Talk about convenience. And adding value. Adding value, doing the work, not like, you know, he shows up at noon at the Empire Business Summit because he's on a free ticket or something. Right. Right. There's always that guy as well. Yeah. Yeah. So you've got to go, go, go and give. All right, guys. So you know the value of networking, obviously. It is to buy you speed and time collapse the results that you want. You know this podcast episode has been massively valuable to you. We are selling you nothing other than the idea of becoming the best version of yourself and building an empire so that you can have greater significance, impact, income, and influence. So if you like this episode, and I know you did, I want you to tag someone, take a screenshot,

tag someone who should be listening to it, leave us a five-star review, a comment. And as always, don't forget to tell your mama. We'll see you later.