The Home Service Expert Podcast - Making Networking Your Most Powerful Business Tool

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

Zach is a masterful networker, and the author of the book, “Don’t Sleep on Planes”. Zach’s passion includes helping people get over their fear of networking so they can connect with other people and engage with their own local communities. In this episode, we talked about networking, productivity, customer service...

This is the Home Service Expert podcast with Tommy Mello. Let's talk about bringing in some more money for your home service business. Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields, like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership, to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello. Welcome back, home service experts. We've got Zachary Hall on the podcast.

Zach, I'm excited to have you on today. I read your book about three weeks ago. It's Don't Sleep on Planes. How's your day going? Great, man. Happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me as a guest. Absolutely. You know, I think it pretty much your title says everything. Don't Sleep on Planes because you're you became a huge networker. Tell me a little bit about what got you to write the book and really about how you became such a powerful networker. I'm a Phoenix, Arizona native. I grew up in a low economic area. And through that growth as a young man, I found my very first mentor. And this is a guy that was a

local business owner. And he took me under his wing and he taught me the value of carrying yourself with a big smile and confidence and the value of wearing a collared shirt and having a nice watch. And so it was through his traits or life lessons as a young man that led me to wanting to get into business and learn how to connect with people. And when you run a small business, your community is so valuable because they're your lifeblood. So as I've grown up and had different jobs in sports and family entertainment and all that, I've always maintained that same philosophy that the people around you closest to you are the most valuable.

And so getting involved in your community or going to the same coffee shop or getting to know waitresses or waiters or flight attendants, all of those things are really important because they're service providers. And in their service, you can find empathy, just incredible moments of life. And I've always wanted to meet just everywhere I go, just make moments better. And so Don't Sleep on Planes to me encompasses that entire mantra of love your neighbor, get to know a stranger and bet on your community. I love that. I mean, I've met incredible connections on planes and everybody's flying around these days. We're so busy. Is there a specific story that you remember? I mean, that you want to share that when you did meet some influential people on a plane? that luxury twice so far in my life. But that's a great example of fishing where the fish are. If you're in business and you find yourself in the business class,

or if you use that as an analogy, if you find yourself at a black tie event or a charitable dinner, remember that you're there for the same reason everyone else is, and you're trying to further your business. You're trying to grow your network. You're trying to expand on your impact. And when you can find a way to connect with people like that in those areas or those arenas, it creates synergy. So to answer your question, in the introduction of my book, I'll just jump right into it.

I was flying to Las Vegas for a conference. And on Southwest Airlines, they don't have a business class. But theoretically, their business class is kind of that first one through five rows where if you're in the A group or A list, you know, you want to sit in front of the plane to get off the plane. So I decided I'd sit in the front. I saw a guy wearing a Rolex. So I said, all right, like that guy's done something right in his life. Sat down next to him, was like, hey, we're going to go to Vegas. You work in plan, started chatting him up. Turns out he's hundreds of million dollars tied into commercial real

estate he got his rolex when he he sold his first commercial buildings where walmart was a tenant so on that 45 minute flight i met a man that found tremendous success in commercial real estate in southern nevada and in that 45 minutes a complete stranger turned into a mentor and uh right place right time and that was the the joke like hey don't sleep on planes and here we are but yeah i really respect the fact you know i've learned my general manager was talking earlier to another guy about marketing and he's like well we had to create a new class of advertising because we call it the tommy group because tommy books three to four calls a day just from people texting him from Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever because they know he does garage stores. Because we're in 10 states now, so it's pretty cool to build a huge network.

And I just don't think a lot of home service expert patrons take the time to learn the right techniques to networking. And I want to jump into a few different things, but let's really focus on when you're meeting somebody, you're a big sports guy, obviously. You stay away from politics and religion, typically when you just meet somebody. But what are some openings that you feel like are really good? And there's that book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

But let me hear your take on just the best way to meet people. You know, a lot of times it's about being present. And I think now in 2018, we're so quick to jump on our phones and be on social media. And when you're on social media, you're being present with everyone that's not present. You're liking photos of somebody traveling elsewhere. And so a lot of that comes back to self-awareness and knowing where you are, what you're doing. The fun part about don't sleep on planes is that's the quintessential cheerleading line. You're on a plane, you have a captive audience, there's somebody to your right

and to your left or whatever. You're going to the same destination on the same plane in the same row. You have three things in common already. And if this was a dating show, you're probably on a second date for having three things in common. So my challenge to you is understanding where you are. If you're golfing, if you're at a coffee shop, if you're at a juice place at a restaurant, it could be the server. If you're eating alone, and one of my favorite books is you never eat alone. And to that, I love the fact that if you're looking to network and grow and build relationships, try to create meal opportunities to meet with people. And if you are eating alone, try to strategize places in which you would fish where the fish are.

Maybe go to a nice restaurant or a great place with a great bar seating and sit at the bar and just chat up people at the bar. The best thing is just being present and understanding where you are and what you're doing. And that's kind of where I'm at with my approach. I love it. I love that. So I've worked really hard to build a business and several different businesses. I mean, my biggest challenge in life is definitely time.

There's never enough time. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs feel the same way. So I started getting up earlier, working later. But more importantly, I have a personal assistant now, and I do a lot of things more organized, time management. And, you know, I was able to overcome that challenge, and it's still something that I face every day. But tell me a little bit about your biggest challenges that you faced

just growing as a person and what you're doing today. I love that you bring up time management. And one of the things that I'm kind of focusing on here in 2018 is in the book I talk about your life is like a garden. Everything in your life is a plant. And each day you're only given a certain amount of time or, through the analogy, a certain amount of water. And being organized with your time and realizing we are busier than ever. But I think a lot of that being busy is we're tying ourselves up into things that are wasteful or provide a no, they're not giving us anything in return. You know, you think you're sitting on the couch and you're next to your significant other and

you're scrolling Facebook. Like think about what you and your significant other could be doing in that same time. Or maybe you're at the coffee shop waiting and you're talking about how you're not networking, but then there are people behind you are waiting for a Starbucks together and you're over here checking Twitter. I love social media for learning and following the news, but now more than ever, I'm reflecting back on my garden and in my garden, I have plants and there, you know, my book is a plant. I want to make sure I I have plants and there you know my book is a plant I want to make sure I water that and part of watering my book is marketing it taking time out for podcasts and meetings and whatever but some days I get so tied up with my real job that I don't get

to water my book and I can see the lack of water on my book reflects those results so be as thoughtful and as connected as you can to what kind of time are you spending on things where you're getting no return? Yeah, that's absolutely correct. And what that brings me to a point, I have all these employees and a lot of them work really, really hard, but they don't get results. And me and my manager used to joke around all the time because we'd ask people at the end of the week, what did you get accomplished this week? Because they never had a goal and they'd be busy, but they never really accomplished and got results. And that's why I'm a big fan of the 80-20 rule, which basically says 20% of what you do creates 80% of the results.

What is your take on that? I mean, have you realized the Pareto rule in your life? Absolutely. When you talk about 20% of what you do, I love Gary Vaynerchuk, and he talks all the time on his podcast about the side hustle. And the side hustle only needs 20% time.

If you're working eight hours, take two hours in the morning before you go to work, or take two hours after work. Or if you've got two jobs and you want to start your own company, you're going to have to start making sacrifices. And so when you get that 80% of results, you're harvesting 20% of your time. And I think that's a great inspirational approach there where it doesn't take much to get results. You just have

to be intentional with what you're trying to, what you're trying to do. Yep. Yep. You talk about even the greatest baseball players fail 70% of the time, and you related that back to networking. Tell me a little bit about your advice of people that are afraid. There are a lot of people that are afraid of networking. They're afraid of talking. They're afraid of socializing. What are your thoughts on that? Networking sucks.

Like, people sometimes suck. And we're out here to say, like, I joke, it's like Carl the card collector. You go to these networking happy hour mixers and it's like, hey, I'm Carl. What do you do? Let me get a card. What do you do? Let me get a card.

Like, that guy, he exists in a girl or a male or whatever, and that gives a bad rap to networking. So to me, I say, like, you know, there are jerks in the world and there are people that are successful that have forgotten how they got there. But you know what? That's them. And they're going to have to harvest that at some point in time. So when you talk about, you know, baseball is a great sport and Hall of Famers hit 300. And in that 30 percent of success, there's 70 percent failures. And so in the book, I joke about some people that I've met where I think we could all relate where you met somebody you were really excited to meet or connect with, and you blow it. And you say the wrong thing or you do the wrong thing or whatever. But as long as you learn from those moments and you take them and you say, okay, this didn't go so well, but I'm going to keep trying, there's going to be failures in everything you do.

But I'm a glass two-thirds kind of guy. So, like, it's two-thirds full. Figure it out. It's fine. You made an effort. And just by making that effort, it's going to suck for a little bit if it fails, but you're going to grow from it. And you just have to remind yourself what that end result is. And maybe that person wasn't meant to be, but I promise you there are people that are so excited to meet you when you show your genuine energy for what you're trying to accomplish. Yeah, that's really powerful. I want to bring this back to the home service network with this.

The whole thing that a lot of us fail to do as home service business owners is we don't realize how much they're not competition. There are other home services like air conditioning. I went to an air conditioning company on Monday and watched how they did dispatching. It's a whole new concept. They don't give times. I we're just going into Florida right now. We're meeting with a roofing company, one of the most successful roofing companies in the industry. And we're going to be talking to them about what marketing is working for them. I also have approached a pest company because on GarageRez, there's what's called bottom rubber, and that's where all the bugs come in, and we're going to network for each other because by changing the bottom rubber, you keep the bugs out, and vice versa,

I can get him a lot of pest control because I'm in their garage and I see a lot of pests. So networking among different channels of the home service industry is huge. And I think I really makes a lot of sense to me is go where the fish are. How would you apply that in a way for home services if you had to? And I know this isn't really your specialty, but it's still about networking. So how would you approach that if you were, let's say, an air conditioning company looking to grow through networking? Well, I love what you said there about how you can help each other. That's why Synergy is so valuable.

I work in sports, but in my work in sports, I know a guy that runs a pizza joint. I know a guy that runs a coffee joint. I know a woman that does this, a guy that does that. I always say I've got a guy, a guy or a gal. It doesn't matter if they can't help you, but when you become a catalyst for synergy, then you become an igniter.

And when you're an igniter, you're over here just amplifying people's life with energy, like, hey, let me help you here because I got somebody that can help you there. That's why Yelp does so well. All we're looking for is feedback on good people. What if you were the person that gave feedback on good people? Because then not only are people always thinking about you because they're like, man, like last time I hit up this guy, I was able to get this. Like I'm going to give him a call again

and see what he can help me with. But that's where your business will succeed because now they're not just thinking of you for what you can do for them're not just thinking of you for what you can do for them they're thinking of you of what you can do for so many others and what you have done for others so get to know people in other industries get to know what their strengths and their weaknesses are maybe find out what their goals are because then if you have somebody that's like-minded in the same industry as you not only can you provide or build a great support network, but then you can help each other. And whether it's referrals, whether it's word of mouth,

or whether it's just a little bit of support. I think as a small business owner myself, the one thing that I struggle with is understanding when it's okay to get an attaboy or getting a moral victory. And that's where I think so many times you can beat yourself up by not realizing that, you know what, today did stink a little bit, but it's still a step forward. But when you have people that you surround yourself with that can understand the struggle you're with, kind of where I'm at now with small business owners in digital marketplace, small business owners in creative photography, we're all in this together. And I'm a content creator and a speaker and writer and

really just like a guy that's willing to do anything. But I have other people that have small businesses that just need help and we can help each other every single day, which makes the best days even better and the worst days still great. Very, very good. Yeah, that's deep stuff, man. I really enjoy this. There's a guy that you made me think of just now, Joe Polish. He started out in the carpet cleaning industry and now he's got a 20K group, but you got to pay $20,000 a year. And then he's also got a 100,000K group. And he hangs out on Nectar Island with Richard Branson. I mean, the guy is connected. He actually lives in Scottsdale. Just a powerful, powerful marketer. I'm a member of Young Entrepreneur Council and all these different young, I got to think, what is this, 3,535 for the Republic. You know, there's all kinds of institutions out there. And I think the best thing you could do is get in a mastermind group. Tell me a little bit about what a mastermind group means to you and how does that relate a little bit to the home service industry?

Well, as you're talking about a mastermind, to me that's just another circle, a group of individuals that are coming together for a common interest to support one another. Much like yourself, I've joined a variety of community impact groups, whether it's volunteering at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the East Valley here in the East Valley of Phoenix, Arizona. I've been a board member and a wish grantor for Make-A-Wish. I sit on the board for the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals. But in each and every one of these service positions, I'm not only willing to give more than I take, I'm giving everything away for free. My energy, my ideas,

and getting connected and impacting my community. I think for anyone out there, if you're in the home services industry, if you're in any industry, getting plugged into something that ignites you because you're giving back and everyone feels great when you're able to help a stranger or help a peer. But there are incredible causes and connectors out there in these different service industries where you can get plugged in and you can watch your business grow. And that's where you talk about the 80-20 principle.

Like I'm like a 90-10. I give 90% of everything I have to anyone, not expecting anything in return. And then if I do get a 10% return, guess what? That's awesome because somebody is just finding me because I'm giving so much of my energy away. And they're saying, wow, like, I've always wanted to do business or I wasn't thinking about that. But you were so willing to give, give, give. I now want to be able to help you back. Yeah, no, that's what happens. It really does. And I don't think people understand it comes back tenfold.

It really does. And it's huge. You know, some of the times you don't realize that you're not even networking in places you should. I mean, for technicians out there that are listening, you know, really getting to know your dispatcher. You know, you might not think they play favoritism, but they do. I can assure you that. And I spent so much time with my vendors and vendors are huge for me because look, my vendors see who the big dogs are. They know who the big accounts are. They know for garage stores, they might know of, of another guy, another company that's doing a ton of work, but they keep dropping the ball. They know this client's going to be looking for somebody else and they'll throw them your way. And the you can give i think you really do get back 10 times more tell me a little bit about

what you've encountered personally that that that's happened to you you know you didn't really intend on it but you got a lot in return you know and that's where when you're traveling it's a perfect example there are people that work in this industry, whether they're your gate attendants or when you check in. All I'm just trying them with kindness. And whether it's the airline industry, the hospitality, hotels, whenever somebody comes to you, I love when you have a little bit of empathy and you can realize, like, this person probably encounters people mad and pissed off every single day. I'm mad, and this sucks. But, hey, you know, Pam or Roger, likeger like thank you so much this is what's happening

you can laugh about it because whenever you're stressed out and you're freaking out and you got 10 million things going on and this isn't going well this isn't going well but then you find yourself interacting with a complete stranger i love to have a little bit of empathy and realize like you know what this does suck can you please tell yourself like they have all the power in the world to expedite a process or discount something or man last summer, I was flying back from Rochester, New York. Little did I know that there are two Rochester airports. I had the wrong flight out of the wrong airport and it sucked. And by going to the flight attendant there at the desk, I was able to say, okay, I laughed about it. I told them how frustrated I was, and they changed everything.

But if I would have come in there negatively, what would they have done? Sorry, sir, this mental error is on you. So that's unfortunate. You'll have to figure this out. Just a great example there when it comes back to customer service. And just remind yourself, whether you're in the home services industry, what you would do if it happened with your home or the expectations you had for quality for all those things absolutely that's great advice and there's a book it's called ginsuism it was by uh the guy that invented the ginsu knife i've done a lot of work with with the ginsu there's a group

of guys and uh he used to ask the flight attendant real politely, is there any upgrades? When you walk into a hotel, is there any any suites available? And if you're polite, you'll find that a lot of times there are. And I think the mentality of going, seeing friends, colleagues, employees, whatever it might be, and saying, what can I do for you today? It just throws people off. And, you know, there's that old saying, there's no such thing as a free lunch. But and I remember, I think about the Godfather a lot when he says, one day I'm going to call some call on you for something. But it is true. It's the law of reciprocation by Robert Cialdini, who talks

about influence. And when you do something for somebody they kind of feel like they have to return the favor but that's not what I'm ever going for and that's not how I recommend going about this but tell me a little bit about that doesn't that seem like it gets it just comes back to you in tenfold it's just the way things work it's karma it is and and everybody could call it the secret you can call call it karma, whatever. But when you're willing to give more than you take, the one thing I talk about all the time is you just don't keep score. Because what if I gave you nine, and I'm like, yo, I already gave you nine. You owe me one.

Well, if I start saying, like, you owe me one because I gave you nine, what if that one that you pay me back is tenfold of my nine? And that's kind of the prime example of sports is in the game of baseball, there's nine innings, and you're like, every inning you owe me, you pay me back is tenfold of my nine. And that's kind of the prime example of sports is in the game of baseball, there's nine innings and you're like every inning you're doing this, you're doing that. But at the end of the day, it's the sum of the whole is greater than what you do in one individual inning. It takes nine attempts to find a victory.

And so at the end of the day, when you're a service professional, I think back about the people that work on commission. And you've got to go out there and you've got to do a job bid and another job bid and another job bid. And none of them turn into jobs. Is that going to affect the way you write your next bid? And you shouldn't let that happen because the next person, you could be out there giving a bid and having great service and a big smile. And little does that person know, you've missed nine of your last sales. But then all of a sudden, you're still going at it with 100% effort.

And that one person, when you talk about keeping score, like you've taken nine L this one person can be like, awesome. I'm going to, you are so kind and courteous and you had so much energy that not only am I going to accept this bid, but now I got five friends that I'm referring to. You just took nine losses to get that one victory. That's now going to come back tenfold. That's so true. I mean, that's a big problem in the home service industry is we get really burnt out. One of the things that we recommend is never, ever, ever start a guy out on a warranty call. To start your day,

it's not recommended to start with a negative experience. So that's just little tips for the guys out there or women that are doing the dispatching or men or whoever it might be is start the guy out with a win. It really helps. And there's something we always talk about that you reminded me of. It's called REF, R-E-F. It's build rapport, educate the customer, and the most important one is follow-up. So even if you didn't get nine sales, if you follow up, I think you'll finally close over 50% of them. But very rarely do we follow up in the home service industry. But I want to do a little shift here because I read in your book

that you're very generous with your network. And one of your friends got $100,000 in new business as a result of giving him a spreadsheet. So I want to hear that story from you. Yeah, you know, it's funny. I have this Excel spreadsheet of anyone I've ever met, business cards, email, I just put into a spreadsheet just to have. And a friend of mine was working in sales, and he was doing events. And so he's over here in the Phoenix area, putting on a Lemonade Days Festival, a Taco Festival, a Salsa Festival, a Western Days Festival. Like, I don't even know how you come up with all these festivals. But he's like, hey, I'm looking for some title sponsors.

Can I see that Universal contact list? I said, yeah, man, sure. And I could have said no because I don't want him hitting up friends of mine that, like, somebody at Dodge that I'm hoping that they help me out with my next car purchase or maybe somebody at Papa John's when I'm looking for my next donation. But I said, you know what? I'm not the one that should be in charge of if you should ask my contacts for new business. So he goes into my Excel spreadsheet and he reaches out to the guy at the Valley Ram dealer.

And then Ram was looking to get involved in local festivals to showcase their vehicle. This guy signed on to 10 festivals at $10,000 each because he was like, you know what? I'm in. If I would have not introduced the two of them, both of their businesses could have failed, not failed, but they would have been lacking one another, but it turned into be perfect synergy because I was willing to give and now like the ram guy that i could have been selfish with he now probably loves me even more or my friend at the festivals like he gave me free tickets to

the festivals but it's cool that i was just saying hey you two don't know each other one of you is looking for the other and vice versa and i get to be the catalyst it all comes back to being that igniter. Somebody that, Scott, is connected, is plugged in, has a good pulse of what's happening in your community. It's a pretty valuable resource. Oh, absolutely. I just, I think it's so powerful to network.

And I really do recommend reading that Carnegie book about how to win friends and influence people because people like to talk about themselves. And that's the number one lesson is asking questions. And I think a great question is just diving in. And a lot of people say when you meet somebody, and I'm sure you're familiar with this, Zach, you know, how are you today? I'm good. Tell me a little bit about your day, but you've got to be able to dig and you got to ask questions because nine times out of 10, you got to ask three questions in a different way to

get the real answer, even when you're interviewing people. So do you find that when you're talking to people, if they might not be very talkative, but you want to get to know them, what are some of your lessons that you might use to really dig in? Well, one of the things I did a lot of research on while writing my book was in marketing, they talk about reach and frequency. How often are you reaching out? And to that, when you ask closed-ended questions like, how are you doing today? 99.999% out of whatever are always going to say good. Because as a society, we're just programmed like, hey, how are you doing today?

Good. And you just keep walking. So one of the things I live my life by is a acronym. It's called Ford F O R D. And it's, it's four things that people love talking about. F is their family. O is their occupation. R is their recreation and D is their dreams. So whenever you're starting a conversation, you kind of want to get to some point where you're going to get into those four. Because naturally you're going to be like, hey, how are you today?

Good. Oh, cool. And if you're meeting a stranger, well, what do you do for a living? Or what brought you here? They're going to say, oh, I work in the food industry. Well, great. Well, what do you do in the food industry? So now you're on the O.

Oh, that's great. Well, is your family here in the Valley or in the city? Or what's your wife do, your husband do? Now you're on the F. So now you're already talking about what they do and, well, man, you've got four kids. Like, what do you do for fun? Oh, now you're at the R. Well, that's great. You've been here in the Valley and Phoenix for so long. Like, any dreams or what's next on your agenda. When you hit all four of those components, it's awesome because people love talking about what they love the most. We all have to work and hopefully we love our jobs. We all love our family. We all love being able to unplug and do something for fun. And when you can find out what somebody's dreams are, you're gonna connect on a different level

to where when you stay in touch and you can continue to support somebody on their dream. Be interesting to see what you can what you can do is connecting or as supporters in the same network. Yeah, that makes sense. I like that family occupation, recreation and dreams. So there's another book that I just thought of. It's called Power Questions. It's about building relationships, winning new business and influencing people. And I took a lot of good questions. It's been about eight years, I'd say, since I read that book. But very, very good book on questions that get people to elaborate on things. And I think you're absolutely right. Don't ask closed ended questions that are yes or no or sometimes or maybe or really dig in and instead of saying, are you having a good day? Say, tell me about your day-to-day. How did it go? And really being able to dig in and probe. And I think that you get a lot of results by digging in, especially

with customers. You know, when we walk up to a new home, the first question we ask is, this is a beautiful home. How long have you lived here? We want to gather that data. The next question we ask is, tell me the last time you had your garage door looked at. The next question we ask is, tell me exactly what's going on with the garage. Because they might have a perception of a whole different thing. Like they want to replace it. You know, you don't just walk in there and tell them this is exactly what you need, even though you are the doctor in there. You're trying to acquire more and more data by asking questions. And I think questions are the power of networking. Would you agree with that? Yeah. And I think one of the

things that you brought up there is the value of having a motive. And some people don't want to be probate. They don't want to get beyond good. And that's fine. And you have to have a good filter there because I'm sure we could all relate to that one time where you really don't want to get beyond good, and that's fine. You have to have a good filter there because I'm sure we could all relate to that one time where you really don't want to talk to somebody and they just keep going. We can all relate. Don't be the guy that you have to know when to turn it on, when to turn it off. To that same point, what you brought up about the garage doors, if you're there to help somebody with their garage doors, you're asking questions that are going to get you closer to your end goal. When you're networking and getting to know people, your end goal should just be connecting

and figuring out how you can support them. If you said, hey, I run a business and it's a restaurant. Awesome. Where is your restaurant? Where is it at? What's your favorite thing on the menu? Awesome. I can't wait to come try it in sometime. Because now I'm already going to tell them that we just met. I would love to figure out how we can support each other, but I'm going to support you on day one, and that's the best way to get to your end result of finding that connection. I love that. It's interesting because you talk about getting VIP access in some situations,

and that reminds me of this book called Blue Fishing, where there's there's the guy that uh he makes he can make anything happen if you want to go walk the red carpet or go sit next to dan marino and watch a football game if you got the money he can make anything happen and uh you talk about vip access what's some of the ways that you could really start to network with you know i'm a big fan of hanging out with people that you want to be like. But unfortunately for some people out here, you know, maybe we don't have access to those people. So what's a good way?

What's a stepping stone for that? Well, a couple of things is in the book I say you should live your life like Vegas. If you go to Las Vegas, it's an expensive city, but it's full of glitz and glamour. There's casino hosts, hotel hosts, shows, bars, nightlife. A lot of times, if you get connected and you find a host, your life is expedited. And it's like anything. It's like having a travel agent. But when you talk about living this lavish life or getting exclusive access, a lot of that comes with just being a good person. And if you're a regular to someplace, get to know your server,

get to know your manager. And then as you start opening up the onion, it's like, hey, this is my birthday, this is our anniversary. You're getting connected at a place you love so much. So if you love your city, figure out best places to get connected in your city because you love that. And then, again, in order to get, in your city because you love that. And then again, it's in order to get, you got to give. And if you want to have these opportunities, get out, you got to get out there and you got to start going. And you could Google, and I kid you not, I applied for a

local leadership year long program. I did not get in because somebody profiled me because of my job so i was frustrated i didn't apply again but instead i google searched the best leadership programs in my city and i saw the first one come up and it wasn't the one i applied for so i applied for it and i got in and it's awesome because now i'm on a board for my local chamber of commerce and now i'm meeting business leaders people that are from other cities and states that want to come and bring their business here. And if you want to get that access, you got to put yourself out there.

Yeah, and that's tough for people. What do you suggest to get over that stump? So if it's tough, start small. Like maybe start going to your local coffee shop if you like coffee and just sit down there and have a cup of coffee and smile or get to know your barista or tell them about yourself. Or if you have a passion, if it's art, if it's music, start there. Because the best thing about communities is it takes a village.

It takes service professionals. It takes hospitality professionals. It takes leaders. It takes businesses and bankers. So whatever your R is, your recreation, maybe start there. want to get involved in your community, maybe speak up at work and ask your boss, hey, what local philanthropic, like, are we supporting here at our organization? How do I get involved?

Or if you don't have a mentor, figure out, you know, what you want to do, where you want to go, and use social media. Find somebody that you're connected with or go on LinkedIn. The value of LinkedIn now is greater than ever because if you want to do something or attain a job title, you can search somebody that has that job title and you can look up their online resume of sorts on LinkedIn, figure out how they got there, where they got to school, and you can even shoot them a message and say, hey, I'm really interested in the aeronautical industry. I'd love to learn more about how you got involved.

I also went to Arizona State as a fellow Sun Devil. I'd love to buy you a cup of coffee. Because at the end of the day, people love talking about what they do and how they got there. And when you're somebody that's saying, hey, I really respect and I admire your success, sometimes people haven't heard that in a while. And when you can take time out of your day to say, hey, I really respect what you've done in your career. I'd love to just buy you a cup of coffee.

That's humbling. Yeah, you're really going right to the source. And you got to not be afraid. And I like how you explain that. Because, you know, I remember one time I was in this house, mega mansion, and I asked the owner, I said, hey, owner to owner, I'm a really small company. But I want to know your secret on how you've done all this. And he said, well, I own car dealerships. And he said, my secret is, Tommy, and he talked to me for like

a half hour, but he said, my secret is I pay people more money. I pay 10% more than the industry average. And I don't have any turnover and things are great. But by asking questions, by speaking to people, and there's a lot of things I don't mold myself to people's, I find something in common and I could talk about it, but I'm not going to pretend I'm somebody else. So sometimes you might not be able to network with every single person. I think what you were talking about earlier is there's some people that will pretend. And they're those guys that give networking a bad name because they,

they just can't wait to collect your business card. And some of the times nobody does anything with a business card, but you know, those people out there that I'm talking about, Zach, it's just, they act interested and they're like, Oh really?

You can just tell they're not. And that's, that's the frustrating part is they give the rest of us a bad name. I would hate to be the person that blows somebody off. I mean, right now, when I publish my book, on the back of my book, I put my social media and my email. And I'm like, all right, I want to just tell people I'm here for them. And I've got four or five people that have emailed me that want to grab lunch or coffee. And I'm finding a hard time to get in touch with them but instead of like blowing them off i just keep

telling them the truth like hey kind of rough week this came up here this came up there but i'm finding different ways to encourage them where a lot of times there are people that i reach out to and they're saying hey right now is not a good time period well you told me to call you and you said you can go to lunch like right now it's not a good time is not encouraging and so if you are trying to connect or if you're somebody that people want to connect with my only challenge to you is just have a little bit of empathy and if you can't tell somebody you can't but give them an outlet to let them know you still will and and that's a part of my mental instagram filter of sorts whenever I'm connecting.

So I think a common theme about the people I usually get on these podcasts with and the people that I really see successful in the home service industry. And it really is powerful when you talk is passion. And when I'm networking, people always say to me, you can just tell that you're so passionate about what you do and when you talk. How important is passion when it comes to networking? Because I can just tell you've got a lot of passion and you care a lot. So that's amazing. But you choose to do it. If you're going to choose to go to a mixer or you're going to choose to go to an after work event, don't suck.

You made the choice to go there. And I can't tell you enough that whatever it was, whenever you RSVP, yes, that day that you said, wow, this is really cool. I wanted to go to this, get back to that. And passion is so, I don't know how or what my end goal is with my passion for people, but there are some incredible people in our society doing amazing things. And if I'm the one person that can just give them a knuckle or give them a high five or be like, yo, what you're doing is so cool. That's all I can do for somebody. But I'm just ignited by this,

just a variety of talents of people that not only I surround myself with, but everyone I meet that's doing something amazing. And I joked earlier about the side hustle and how in 2018, more people are betting on themselves, whether it's entrepreneurship, whether it's with their talents or just getting connected. That's the greatest thing I can be passionate about is supporting one another.

And as a community, like I said, it takes a village. And so whatever your passion is and you're forward or whatever, just remember that at the end of the day, it it might be long you might have a lack of sleep maybe you i've talked a lot about coffee maybe you don't like coffee but you've had sodas or there's those things you're doing to get me a pick-me-up look yourself in the mirror as often as you can and just give yourself an attaboy because you're working towards that goal that maybe you forgot that you wrote down or maybe you've forgotten that goal you're working towards because you're living in the mud a little bit or you're eating

crap like things are gonna suck but look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself like hey it's gonna be okay because we've been through worse or we're making positive steps forward yeah yeah it's important to really take that self-realization and look back at your day your month your week your year whatever it might be and not get down on yourself i always like to set two goals zach i set a realistic goal then i set a stretch goal my stretch goals are ridiculous but i like it because if you shoot for the uh stars and you land on the moon you're still doing good i'm such a busy guy and I'm sure you're just as busy. And we always say we're busy, but I don't believe for a second I'm too busy to work out or have meaningful relationships or anything else.

But I know that a lot of listeners are probably saying that'd be great if I had time. I don't even have time to hang out with my wife. What's the best, most immediate fix for that when it comes to networking for somebody that consistently just feels like they're overwhelmed? So one of the things you talked about was just how you're always busy. You have a lot going on and you might be overwhelmed. Start writing things down. I start every day with a three by five note card and I write down what I have to get done today on the left and what I want to get done today on the right because if I realize through my day I've been crushing the right

side but the left side is pretty heavy I know my afternoon is gonna suck and so I've been even writing down simple things like every day I like to start my three by five note card with make the bed because then I'm already scratching one thing off my list and I'm like all right like I had to, I had to do that today. I kind of wanted to, but I put it on the have to. And that just kind of gives me that extra credit point. So I see the left side take on. But when you talk about being busy, again, you should write a three by five note card at the end of your day and write down everything you did. And then you'll realize like, well, I didn't have to do this. I wasted time here. But your own inventory manager, you inventory that pitcher of water that I talked about in your garden. And if you realize you didn't want to water your personal going to the gym, guess what's going to happen to you? We all know you're going to get unhealthy.

So you're the one that manages that water. And I just challenge you to find the best way to organize. If you're a lister, great you use your phone awesome like whatever it is that you do just realize that there's a lot of time in the day and you're probably wasting it but it's up to you to manage that inventory yeah interestingly enough a month ago I'm looking at him right now I have 10 separate notebooks that are in my office and I have my traveling notebook. My traveling notebook gets put into the smaller notebooks and it's super organized. So what I was going to tell you is there's a lot of tools out there that people take advantage of.

Well, one other thing, there's a book called Make Your Bed. You made me think about it. It's little things that can change your life and maybe the world. And it's a military guy that wrote it. But anyways, it's a great book as well. But tell me some of these tools. You said you use Excel for your list. I use a lot of different tools. I mean, I'm a fiend when it comes to software.

I've got skip tracing tools. I got email marketing tools, text message, voicemail drops. I do send out cards. I mean, you name it. I'm all about technology. What would you recommend for a guy like me that maybe something I've never heard about or a way to manage things easier? Like I use a cam card. No, no. So I love like whatever you're talking about and everything that you use, evidently you've been successful. And I think that that says a lot about the way you organize and how you're intentional about organizing. So for myself, it's little things like sometimes I'm on Instagram or I'm on Twitter or Facebook.

And maybe I see somebody like I probably am on social media and I burn an hour and a half or two hours a day checking social media. But a part of that checking social media is I'm not over here looking to see what the hot girl from high school is doing or the guy that beat me up in second grade. Like, you know, everyone can like look back on those people that you still are friends with on Facebook. But I go through and I realize like, wow, this person's doing something great. I try to find as many touch points as I can to just let somebody know I'm here for them. And a part of that is I love Instagram. It's like liking a photo or commenting on a photo or on Twitter.

It's favoriting a tweet or replying to a tweet. And so I'm a millennial, and I love the fact that social media is bigger than ever because a couple years ago in the book I talk about this, I planned a high school reunion. I can't imagine how people did it in the 80s and 90s and 2000s even before you were able to just log on to a website that everybody's already on. Looking through the yellow pages or, gosh, looking through an old yearbook and hoping everybody's phone numbers stayed the same. But people still found a way to get together to celebrate life. There are people that in high school helped shape who I am today, both good and bad. I don't know why I like being faced with friends with the bad ones. Maybe it's a little bit of a competitive spirit. Like, yeah, you thought you were so cool junior year, but look at you now. Like there are people out there like that and you have to bury

the hatchet. But plenty of the thing here is just find as many ways as you can to touch. If that's shooting an email or snail mail, everyone loves Christmas because you get to open up packages. So I made it intentional to start writing some more handwritten notes. And if I meet you and get your card, I'll send you a note. It'll be a baseball card and maybe like an upcoming baseball schedule or something we talked about or whatever. But the greatest form to find success is just find as many touch points as you can and then figure out the ones you're the best at. I love that. There's this software that I'm digging into called, I believe it's called Bold.

And it actually writes handwritten cards. But you can, like I said, I'm all about ease of use and I like to write handwritten cards, but honestly, I'm not a fast writer. I'm a faster typer. So what you can do is type in your message. And then if you do a handwritten summary, they'll have you write, like copy a paragraph. And then what it does is it writes in your handwriting. Like I said, I'm not, it's not that I don't have the time to do it. It's just, I'm always thinking about, is there a more efficient way to do it? But people love handwritten cards. I mean, one of my mentors has told me, Hey, don't leave text message to these people. Don't do this.

Depending on your age group, you know, a lot of people like at Facebook or LinkedIn, but other people want a handwritten card and they respect it a lot more that you took the time to do it. So those are little things that I try to use. And it's not because I'm not a genuine person. It's because I'm efficient. So I don't know what your thought on that is, but it's just, I love it. Everyone is different. Like I'm not writing handwritten notes to maybe my peer group or kids in college, like no offense to them, but I know that that's probably not what's going to get them excited. Like if I drop them a Facebook message or I like a photo on Instagram or send them a meme, there's certain types of communication for all walks of life. And to that same point, like you just mentioned, you have to be cognizant because I'd hate for you to waste all

this time saying, I'm going to write everyone a handwritten note. It's not going to be effective to probably a majority of the population you're writing them to. But it's understanding that there's a certain group in this population, maybe the more experienced professionals, and you write them like executives or leadership, and you have to send a note to their assistant, and you write a note to the executive. It's being thoughtful enough to understand the gatekeepers and the people you're trying to get to in the first place. Walked in with one of my buddies. He used to sell medical equipment. So it was medical equipment that keeps track of each item. So it was for inventory purposes. And he walked in and he knew he was in his 50s back then.

This is 10 years ago. And he goes, Darlene. And he brought her a flower and he commented on her hair. And she just said, oh, my gosh. And she was just blushing and smiling. And boom, it was amazing. And he genuinely cared, though. I always recommend to people do what you genuinely care about. Don't pretend you like baseball if you don't even have a clue about anything to do with baseball. Be a genuine person, first and foremost. But I couldn't agree more with you on that gatekeeper comments. So tell me a little bit about, you know, a few principles of great customer service based on what you know. Yeah, so when it comes to customer service,

the one thing I always try to remind people is empathy. Remember what it's like on the other side. So if you're talking about home service and, you know, you're there to service the most important investment anyone's ever going to make in their lives. And to that same process, like you want them to be comfortable.

You want them to be confident. You want them to find value. And most importantly, you want them to feel secure. So in that same example, if you work in a restaurant, you want people to find value. You want them to feel secure and you want them to be comfortable. So whether it's like in the book, I talk about not all tacos are made equally. There's a taco shop in Scottsdale, Arizona called Diego Pops. Every day I can, I try to invite people to grab tacos with me at Diego's.

My friend is an owner at Diego's, but it's great because every time we come in, he treats everyone like a rock star, asks a couple things about them, and at the very end of their very first time, he gives them free tacos to come back. He says, you know what? Since Zach brought you for your first time, bring somebody else for their first time. But it's just his way of being a small business owner saying, hey, I hope you had a great time. I wanted to get to know you. I can't wait for you to come back. Ask for me next time. But he's delivering the comfort first because he's confident in the product. So if you can, which it's all up

to you, deliver that security and the confidence and the comfort. Because as a salesperson, as a provider, you can do all of that. And I'm sure you are confident in your product as well. So just think a little bit of empathy, put yourself in their shoes. You're inviting someone in your house to solve a problem. And that problem has been stressful. It's probably been scary. And it's impacting your investment. Great advice. My buddy Jason Valsek goes to Diego Pops every day, I think. It's funny.

I've been there a couple dozen times. I love it. So if you had to tell somebody outside of your book, what are some of the really powerful books that you would recommend? If you had to pick three good books that influenced your life and your business sense or maybe for persuasion or customer service, what would those three books be? Well, I love John Maxwell and I've read a bunch of his and, you know, there's the seven traits of leadership and there's leadership 101. One book I got my freshman year in college, it's called how to add zing to your life and leadership. And I love that because it's all

about you and your energies. I talked already about never eat alone. The same author wrote a book called who's got your back, but those are books that I love because it's just asking you or challenging you to find the right people to surround yourself with. And you mentioned something earlier, like if you want to be something, look at who's around you. Cause challenging you to find the right people to surround yourself with. And you mentioned something earlier, like if you want to be something, look at who's around you, because if you're going somewhere, are they coming with you or are they holding you back? So in the new year, I look forward to reading a couple more books. And right now there's the book, How Not to Give an F About Life or How Not to Give an F About Certain Things. And it's got an orange cover. I read it last June and I set it down.

It's now the number one book in North America. I mentioned earlier, I'm a glass two-thirds full kind of guy. And while I don't like to not give a care about some things, maybe I care about too many things. So I'm looking forward to opening that one up next. Well, listen, I want to implore anybody out there to get this book because marketing and networking is what it's all about. You know, Zachary Hall wrote the book. Here he is.

It's Don't Sleep on Planes. And I always like to close out the podcast, Zach, about maybe something we didn't hit on, maybe something that's important to you, maybe something that is very deep, maybe not, or just a tip for the listeners. So we'll let you take it away with a final thought here. Well, at the end of the day, I'm an extrovert. And the one thing I really worked on in writing the book was there are a lot of people that aren't. And I want to challenge you if you're extroverted or introverted. My goal in writing the book was you don't have to be as outgoing as me. You don't have to be outgoing as the most outgoing person you know. There are just very simple things that you can do to just get a little bit better.

And I just challenge you to want to get a little bit better. And maybe you become a little stagnant and, yeah, I don't need to network. I don't need to get connected. Or I used to volunteer and I don't volunteer anymore. Like, remember that when you're giving and you're servicing others, like think about what you get in return. So my challenge to you is just find a renewed energy and connecting with others in this new year and,

and maybe dig deep and find out some of those D's like on the D side of Ford, what are some of your dreams? Cause you're never too old to dream. And the best thing about Facebook and social media now is you can put your dream out there and ask for help. And you can be blown away by the people that you, you know, and talk to every single day that once you put your dreams out there, they speak up and say,

awesome. How can I help and support you? Or, Hey, that's an awesome dream. I know somebody else doing the same thing. You guys should go grab lunch. Social media is an incredible power. If you're doing the same thing. You guys should go grab lunch. Social media is an incredible power if it's used the right way.

And I think now more than ever as dreamers and people that are trying to create a whole new year, a whole new you, whatever it is, that's my challenge to you. And I support you as best I can in any way that I can. So let me ask you this. How could they get more of you? They got your book. Is there some different things that we could put resources on our site for you? So what's your LinkedIn and your email, or what's the best way to get a hold of you if they want more of you?

Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. It's Zachary Hall, MBA. You can find me there. Instagram and Twitter, it's at Zachary Hall. And my website is at ZacharyHall.com, A-T, Zachary Hall. But you can find me anywhere. The book's available on Amazon and paperback and Kindle.

And like I said, I'm on social media and LinkedIn and Twitter. And I'm always accessible. So in this part of my career, I look forward one day to looking back like, wow, I gave all my social media out to anybody and nobody hit me up. But as I continue to grow, I've heard from some incredible people going through some tough times, some people that are trying to start their own business that, hey, you said you knew a couple of people that did this. Would you mind introducing me? The last thing I'll share is when you buy my book or read my book or are gifted my

book, at the end of every chapter, I put three of my contacts in. So you're going to have 18 new contacts just by picking up my book. And you can reach out to any one of them. And if they don't reach out to you, you can reach out to me and I'll reach out to them for you. But that's a big part of who I am. And I wanted to make sure that when I published this book, anyone that got it found value. I love that. Well, I got a lot of value out of it and I'd love to take you out to lunch here in the next couple of weeks. So I'm going to be having somebody reaching out to you or myself. Like I said, I delegate a little bit, but I'll definitely be reaching out here in the next week. And I really appreciate you doing this today, Zach. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for

everybody listening. I really appreciate you as well and look forward to hearing from any of you. All right. Thanks, buddy. Take it easy. Have a great weekend. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. You too. This was the Home Service Expert podcast. Now listen up. Do you want to dominate your market, triple the profit you make without working those long 12-hour days, seven days a week? If the answer is yes, my team and I are opening up some new time slots to help you solve your biggest business challenge. Just go to homeserviceexpert.com forward slash discovery and book a free 30-minute call with our team today. I will repeat that.

Homeserviceexpert.com forward slash discovery and book your free call today.