0:04

Hello and

0:04

welcome to a another exciting

0:07

episode of Bridge the Gap where

0:07

we're balancing life through

0:11

health, wealth, business and

0:11

relationships.

0:16

Alright, hello everyone and

0:16

welcome to the show. My name is

0:18

Colton Cockerell. And with me, I

0:18

have the Miss Trisha Stetzel.

0:23

Trisha, how you doing?

0:24

Colton? I'm

0:24

great. Hey everybody, Trisha

0:26

Stetzel Results, Xtreme Business

0:26

Solutions here. And as you

0:30

remember, the whole month of

0:30

April, we'll be talking about

0:34

business success. And today

0:34

we're gonna talk about how

0:38

networking is important to your

0:38

business success. And who better

0:42

to talk about networking, and

0:42

Mr. Mark Taylor BNI Houston East

0:46

Executive Director, Mark Taylor,

0:46

welcome to the show.

0:50

Good to be here.

0:51

Yeah, no, it's

0:51

It's good seeing ya. And before

0:53

we jump into questions, because

0:53

I'm dying to ask you some

0:56

questions in the hot seat today,

0:56

I want to go ahead and introduce

1:00

our sponsor, which is Sharer

1:00

McKinley Group LLC. So Mr.

1:04

Taylor, I guess, let's first

1:04

start the show. I know a lot of

1:07

people probably know what it is.

1:07

But for those that maybe don't

1:09

live in under a rock somewhere,

1:09

what is networking? Ah,

1:12

you know what? It's

1:12

a good question. Because I think

1:15

if you ask five different

1:15

people, you might get five

1:18

different answers. I'll give you

1:18

my my definition of networking.

1:22

Networking really is simply

1:22

interacting with other in a

1:26

business context with other

1:26

business people. Networking to

1:29

me, is people to people. And

1:29

there's ways to do it. But I'm

1:34

going to just be pretty generic.

1:34

There's, it's it's getting out

1:38

and interacting with other

1:38

people. I say getting out

1:41

because I guess you can

1:41

particularly these days, you can

1:44

network virtually, certainly I

1:44

do, and many people do. But

1:48

whether it is virtually or in

1:48

person, it is meeting other

1:52

people and hopefully discovering

1:52

common interests, and maybe

1:57

common goals and those types of things.

1:59

I think I know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask you anyway, why

2:01

is networking important to

2:05

business? If we can explain it

2:05

to our audience here, it might

2:10

open some eyes to we've got to

2:10

do more than just market on

2:14

Facebook and LinkedIn, etc, etc.

2:14

Right? We've got to get out, as

2:18

you said, Mark, and meet people.

2:18

So why is networking important

2:22

to the success of your business?

2:23

online networking

2:23

is important because businesses

2:28

need business, they need more

2:28

business. There's always

2:33

exceptions. When the overriding

2:33

majority of business, people

2:37

roll out of bed every day. And

2:37

one of the things that they are

2:42

driven by is I need more

2:42

business. We've had a great

2:45

quarter this first year so far

2:45

this year, how are we going to

2:48

maintain that or improve that

2:48

the next quarter? We had a

2:52

challenging year last year, what

2:52

are we going to do to get more

2:54

business, whatever it may be

2:54

that motivates them? I don't

2:57

care if you're a doctor, you're

2:57

a plumber, you're your banker,

3:02

whatever it is your profession.

3:02

Most businesses large and small,

3:06

whether they're entrepreneurs or

3:06

have hundreds, if not 1000s of

3:09

employees, they need more

3:09

business. And there's lots of

3:14

ways to do it. Certainly, but

3:14

we're talking about networking

3:18

today. And so in the context, I

3:18

don't think anybody argues with

3:22

the fact that the best way to

3:22

get business is by referred

3:25

business me introducing you to

3:25

somebody I know I have a

3:29

relationship with and who is has

3:29

an interest in talking to you

3:33

about your business. That is

3:33

what we call good old word of

3:36

mouth advertising. Absolutely

3:36

Nobody disputes it's the best

3:39

way to do it. And yet very few

3:39

companies effectively do that.

3:44

Or certainly they don't they

3:44

don't gain a large percentage of

3:48

their business through

3:48

networking, ie referrals.

3:51

There's the challenge.

3:52

Now you're a

3:52

big proponent of killing the

3:55

cold calling. You're just you

3:55

hate it and you're not a fan at

3:58

all. So how can you be affected

3:58

whenever you are going to a

4:02

networking event or net? Just

4:02

something where you're

4:04

connecting with people? Do you

4:04

have any tips or any ideas for

4:07

people to consider when they are

4:07

preparing? And then while

4:11

they're actually networking?

4:12

Yeah, absolutely.

4:12

In fact, we teach a lot of

4:16

classes on on effective

4:16

networking skills. One of my

4:19

favorite one of a crowd favorite

4:19

is the 10 commandments of a

4:23

networking mixer. How to turn a

4:23

networking mixer into the most

4:28

profitable event of your of your

4:28

business week. Now that's

4:32

compelling because many of us

4:32

have via our experience has been

4:37

that networking events can be

4:37

exhausting that can be time

4:41

consuming and ultimately non

4:41

productive. We end up spending a

4:44

lot of time maybe even some

4:44

money doing that as a passing a

4:49

lot of business cards make a lot

4:49

of contacts with little or no

4:52

results. That's that's a

4:52

frustration but what I would say

4:56

is this first decide to do

4:56

something about it yet Out of

5:00

your cave, your office, your

5:00

house, your wherever it is, and

5:04

decide you are going to solve

5:04

this problem that you are going

5:09

to learn how to effectively

5:09

network, I will just give you a

5:12

couple of points that I learned

5:12

early on because I got that

5:16

friend and a friend of mine and

5:16

I learned from other business

5:19

people that we needed to go to

5:19

networking events we did. And we

5:22

didn't know what to do. So we

5:22

just watched others, I think

5:26

this is a pretty common experience. When you go to networking events you're gonna

5:27

observe like we did, others have

5:31

a stack of business cards, a

5:31

stack of their brochures about

5:34

their product or service. And it

5:34

seems to be the unwritten agenda

5:39

is fan out and try to contact as

5:39

many people as you can and give

5:43

them your elevator pitch, which

5:43

is designed to interest them and

5:47

your product or service,

5:47

hopefully schedule an

5:50

appointment or a lay a meeting

5:50

later on so that you can sell

5:54

your product or service to them.

5:54

And that's largely what goes on

5:57

at a lot of networking events.

5:57

And nobody goes to a networking

6:01

event to buy a home to look for

6:01

an insurance agent so they can

6:04

buy a policy. No one goes to a

6:04

networking event to buy

6:07

anything. Virtually everybody

6:07

goes to sell something. So in

6:12

answer to your question, first

6:12

thing I'd recommend is leave

6:14

your stuff in your vehicle,

6:14

which sounds preposterous. What

6:18

do you mean? What a waste of

6:18

time leave my stuff? That's why

6:21

I'm here. Yeah. Well, that's why

6:21

it's probably not working for

6:25

you. Well, if you leave your

6:25

stuff in your vehicle, maybe

6:28

accepting your business cards,

6:28

what am I supposed to do? Relax,

6:31

go with a group of people, by

6:31

the way, and I'm not going to

6:34

give you all the 10

6:34

commandments, but one is go,

6:36

don't ever go alone. Usually, I

6:36

recommend you go with a group go

6:40

with a mob, go with half a dozen

6:40

or more people that you know, so

6:44

that you're not don't fall

6:44

victim to what most of us fear

6:47

and that is walking into a

6:47

roomful of strangers and not

6:49

knowing what to do, where to go,

6:49

where to say what to say. But

6:53

the in general, I would say go

6:53

to a networking group with

6:57

others in mind, which is

6:57

completely at odds with what the

7:01

business world would tell you to

7:01

do. Sales Managers will not tell

7:05

you to do that. They'll say,

7:05

Mark, if you're going to go to a

7:07

networking event, you need to

7:07

come back with 1520 30 business

7:10

cards so you can get on the

7:10

phone and pound the phone the

7:12

rest of the day, and see if you

7:12

can't get business appointments

7:15

with them, ie cold calling.

7:17

But yeah, and that's the that's your philosophy of net hunting versus

7:19

net farming.

7:22

Yeah, and it's actually not even mine, it's it. But it's a simple, it's a

7:24

fundamental difference mindset

7:27

of how you approach networking

7:27

events. There's not a moral

7:31

issue between hunters and

7:31

farmers in this context, but

7:34

they are different in nature, a

7:34

hunter is, the idea is it's in

7:38

the field this morning, it's in

7:38

the oven tonight, it's

7:41

transactional, it's literally

7:41

shoot to kill hook and eat.

7:45

Alright, well, in contrast, a

7:45

farmer course is all about

7:49

planning and planting and

7:49

cultivating and working toward a

7:53

harvest in the future, which is

7:53

something we do not want to hear

7:57

these days. We live in a world

7:57

of instant everything. And we

8:00

actually would like it faster

8:00

than that if at all possible. So

8:04

it it's a different mindset. If

8:04

anyone can actually ever grasp

8:09

that and determine or decide to

8:09

adopt that philosophy, then and

8:15

only then will they begin to see

8:15

what a farmer sees in time, not

8:20

a great deal of time. But in

8:20

time, your relationships begin

8:23

to blossom, they begin to bloom

8:23

and bear fruit. And any farmer

8:28

will outstrip any hunter when it

8:28

comes to producing stuff for the

8:32

table, I guess you could say.

8:34

And Colton, I

8:34

are both in businesses or

8:37

industries, if you will, where

8:37

we're building relationships.

8:39

And I think that's important.

8:39

And I think in any business, it

8:42

really is about building

8:42

relationships, the customer, the

8:45

client, the prospect wants to

8:45

buy a relationship with you,

8:49

they don't necessarily want to

8:49

buy your service without you.

8:53

Right. That's why we're out

8:53

there building relationships

8:56

with people. And I think the

8:56

whole idea of building those

8:59

relationships so that people can

8:59

be on the lookout to help you

9:02

market your business. Gosh, who

9:02

wouldn't want to do that? So

9:06

Mark, can you talk about the

9:06

idea of building relationships

9:08

with people so that they can

9:08

actually help market you not

9:12

necessarily sell anything for

9:12

you but be thinking about you

9:15

while they're out? Networking is

9:15

a

9:17

powerful, powerful

9:17

concept. Again, it's so doggone

9:21

obvious most people overlook it.

9:21

And it's we're really talking

9:24

about this Tricia, friends like

9:24

to refer friends, you don't have

9:30

to compel them to do it. You

9:30

don't have to tell them to do

9:33

it. They just do it because

9:33

friends help friends out. So

9:38

yes, while I'm meeting you in a

9:38

maybe a networking environment.

9:42

I want to know don't have like

9:42

this gal. If she fun. She could

9:47

do we click? I mean, or is she

9:47

is she got me pinned against the

9:51

wall with their presentation.

9:51

We're already down to handling

9:53

the third objection. I mean, you

9:53

know what I'm talking we've

9:56

already already all run into

9:56

those kind of people. You You

10:00

know who you like and who you

10:00

kind of hit it off with. And as

10:03

you develop that relationship,

10:03

here's how you have someone help

10:08

you. It's called helping them

10:08

first look, Trisha, if I learn

10:12

about your business, and I'm

10:12

curious about Well, I wonder,

10:16

you know, what is the client for

10:16

you? Can you describe that for

10:19

me, because I work becoming

10:19

friends here, I'm willing to

10:22

help you, it is very difficult

10:22

for you to not want to help me

10:27

back when I am tucking dollars

10:27

into your purse, when I am

10:32

actually opening doors that you

10:32

would never, and I mean, ever

10:37

open on your own. Oh, you might,

10:37

if you want to get in the line,

10:41

that extend from the guy's desk

10:41

all the way through his office

10:44

and out the door and around the

10:44

block. If you want to get in

10:46

that line of people who just

10:46

want 15 minutes to talk to him.

10:49

Good luck. But if you'd like to

10:49

meet him, he's a friend of mine.

10:53

He's my brother in law, we play

10:53

golf ball, or whatever our kid

10:56

is, you know, we're in sports

10:56

together, get that going and say

11:01

goodbye to cold calls.

11:03

Yeah. And I think a lot of people in their minds like, market so much work,

11:05

I got a bit of extra time. So

11:10

can you tell? How do you crush

11:10

all that? How do people get out

11:13

of the mindset of the hunting

11:13

mentality and actually moving

11:16

over into the farming mentality?

11:18

You know, let's say

11:18

a farmer goes, Man, I love the

11:21

idea of a bountiful harvest. But

11:21

it's just too much work. I'm

11:25

like, well, give up your hoe and

11:25

your tractor and go get a gun,

11:30

you ain't changing the nature of

11:30

farming. You're asking for me

11:35

for a pill that will help you

11:35

lose 50 pounds by this time next

11:38

week. There's not one, now

11:38

there's somebody out there,

11:41

that'll sell you one. But

11:41

there's not one. So when someone

11:45

asked for that, heck, I want

11:45

that. I've just said I want

11:49

instant everything. If I can

11:49

have that, it just doesn't work.

11:54

So just accept that as one of

11:54

the realities of life that you

11:59

accept every day anyway. And if

11:59

you just decide not to accept

12:03

that, then go be a hunter go

12:03

cold call, go knock doors, it

12:06

works. It's horrifically non

12:06

productive. I mean, anyone who

12:11

knows cold calls knows that it's

12:11

the lowest rung on the

12:14

prospecting ladder. But it is a

12:14

rung on the ladder and it does

12:17

work. And if you don't want to

12:17

wait for the harvest, go knock

12:21

50 doors tomorrow, go pick up

12:21

the 1000 pound phone and make 50

12:25

phone calls and do it again the

12:25

next day, and the next day and

12:29

the next day, and then come back

12:29

and talk to me about wanting to

12:31

be in that farmer.

12:33

People just don't they don't want to wait once they start in their first

12:34

few referrals mean this works

12:37

and they get fired up. But until

12:37

that they just have to waste the

12:40

time. Yeah, I'm with you. Just

12:40

again, instant instantaneous

12:43

gratification. It's just not,

12:45

don't have that for

12:45

you. It's like when you go

12:47

people go to their doctor, and

12:47

they they want to hear what they

12:50

want to hear when the doctor

12:50

says something that amounts to a

12:54

lifestyle change. They're like,

12:54

yeah, I need a new doctor need a

12:57

second, I need a 14th opinion,

12:57

the previous 13 Doctors said the

13:02

same thing. And I don't like to

13:02

hear that, well, I don't have an

13:06

antidote for that I can actually

13:06

help you. If you'd prefer to

13:09

have instant business, then my

13:09

recommendation is go cold call

13:13

and do a ton of it forever,

13:16

forever. Well,

13:16

and that relationship building

13:18

is so important. I tell people

13:18

all the time, you know, the

13:22

success of your business is

13:22

dependent on that relationship

13:24

building. Because if you're just

13:24

cold calling, then you're not

13:27

really building credibility with

13:27

people, right, you still have to

13:30

do that at some point before

13:30

they're going to buy from you.

13:33

And that credibility can come

13:33

through that referral marketing.

13:37

So real quick, Mark, I you know,

13:37

in the realm of referral

13:41

marketing, there's this whole

13:41

idea of being visible credible,

13:45

before you can actually start

13:45

making that money. What does

13:47

that look like? Well, we kind of

13:49

touched on it a

13:49

little while ago, you actually

13:52

have to, again, you it's a

13:52

mindset, you have to decide as a

13:56

business person, how are you

13:56

going to get more business? And

14:02

if you choose to do as we're

14:02

talking about to say, Okay, I'm

14:06

going to give this networking a

14:06

fair shot. Well, then, don't be

14:10

that first semester freshman who

14:10

goes to college and comes back

14:13

after three grueling months and

14:13

says, This is tough. I don't

14:17

know if I've got it in me. Just

14:17

decide that it's going to take a

14:22

look, it took a while for you to

14:22

learn your own profession,

14:25

right? It took a while and you

14:25

you know, but you stuck with it.

14:29

And you've now mastered it to

14:29

the point where you can call it

14:32

a profession. This is where it's

14:32

really going to require the same

14:35

mindset. So and then apply

14:35

yourself to learning how to do

14:42

it. And once you get your going,

14:42

though, then it sustains itself

14:48

as but you have to you have to

14:48

be you know, it's kind of like a

14:52

team sport. If I want to be on

14:52

the team. I can't just show up

14:56

on Friday nights or Saturday

14:56

afternoons, whatever the game

14:58

is. There's Most of the work

14:58

goes on that the public doesn't

15:03

see. And it's that commitment to

15:03

the team in this case. And so if

15:08

you're going to commit to change

15:08

in how you get business and you

15:12

want referred business, then

15:12

you're going to have to do what

15:17

referral athletes do. And they

15:17

they do the things that it takes

15:22

to make that to cause that to

15:22

happen.

15:25

And then we got

15:25

you so yeah,

15:30

I'm here real

15:30

quick. Is there any big

15:32

networking events that you would

15:32

recommend to people that are

15:35

looking for those networking

15:35

opportunities? Yeah,

15:39

I was a frustrated

15:39

networker years ago and I

15:41

learned of an organization

15:41

called BNI. Business Network

15:44

International, became a member

15:44

I've that's where I actually

15:47

learned how to do this. Many

15:47

others 1000s of have done

15:50

learned the same as I have for

15:50

those for whom this model fits.

15:54

It's a great way to develop the

15:54

skill sets we're talking about.

15:58

I escaped the cold calling world

15:58

and it is my passion to help as

16:02

many others do that as I

16:02

possibly can.

16:05

Mark, thanks for being on the show touching and take us out.

16:08

Absolutely. Mark

16:08

Taylor, thank you so much for

16:10

being on the show with us today.

16:10

We appreciate all of the

16:14

knowledge that you bring around

16:14

networking and success in

16:17

business. guys tune in next week

16:17

for another exciting episode of

16:21

Bridge the Gap will be focused

16:21

again on business success,

16:25

finishing out in the month of

16:25

April. And next week's guest is

16:28

a surprise guest but you're

16:28

gonna learn even more about

16:32

business success.

16:33

Thanks again for tuning into this week's podcast. Don't forget to

16:34

subscribe and share this podcast

16:38

with the most important people

16:38

in your life. Colton Cockerell

16:41

with Sharer McKinley Group, LLC

16:41

is located at 820 South

16:43

Friendswood Drive Suite 207

16:43

Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone

16:46

number to 281-992-5698.

16:46

Securities and investment

16:49

advisory services offered

16:49

through NEXT Financial Group,

16:51

Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer McKinley Group is not an affiliate of NEXT Financial

16:53

Group, Inc.