If You Want to Grow, Find Places to Network and Meet Other People in Your Field

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and Again, go to wydellonwinning.comwebinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode.

Of Million Dollar Mastermind. We're here with Jane Westman, and we're talking about business and we're talking about entrepreneurship, which for Jane and myself, when we were growing up, wasn't even a word. You know, they say that John Maxwell was the guy who created the leadership word. I don't know if that's true, but he's written like 80 books on it. And by the way, he lives up in Palm beach and he's a golfer, too. He's a riot to play with. A riot. And, you know, you get this idea, like he wrote on it so much, he turned leadership into a thing. Well, leadership is a thing now. Entrepreneurship is a thing. But people have always been in business for themselves. And I like when the country started, it was all small businesses, and then it turned into the big corporations and all over time. But how did you get the idea? Because, I mean, you have been on the board of these corporations. You served as the president of the Women's Entrepreneurship.

The National association of Women Business Owners. Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah. That sounds like a big deal to me. I'm not familiar with it because I'm not a woman, which signed on that, but it sounds like a big deal. And how big a deal is that thing? And how did you get into that, Jane?

Okay, what did you learn from it?

You know, what did you learn?

I think what's important about that organization is that one of the reasons I joined it was when I started my business, it was a place to go to not only network, but to meet other women who were running their own small businesses and to share ideas. And another thing about starting a business that I think is important, important is to get yourself out there and meet other people who are in your field or somehow connected to you so that you can share ideas and you're not alone. So I got involved with the organization as well as I'm involved in other business organizations, both in my field, specifically in publishing and. And business organizations that are just about growing businesses. And you learn a lot. You get to know whether your idea is going to work or not. But anyways, slowly but surely, I stepped up to become program director, a program chair of that organization. Somebody had to come up with great programs. And I did that for a couple of years and then I took over as president and I'm the longest serving president of the organization. Most people only serve for one or two years at the most. I think, Larry, it goes back to what you said about I'm extremely well organized. So I was able to keep running my business and doing that work. I think that if you want to grow your business, you need to be part of organizations in your field where you can share ideas, where you get to network, where you get to meet other people who can help you. And then you need to give back. It's always about paying it forward. You need to do things to help other people and you will get a lot in return.

Now, when you started in that, how long were you in business for yourself before you joined this association?

Okay, I probably joined it within the first year that I started my business. It was a very, very. Let me think, when did it start? And maybe the organization wasn't formed until I'd been in business a few years, but I was one of the original people who joined it. I then after a few years stopped being a member of that organization and I actually became active in another business organization and became program chair of another business organization and then another business organization. I became program chair and then I went back to the national association of Women Business Owners and worked my way up to a board position. Just. I don't know if this interesting or not, but just yesterday I committed to join the board of one of these organizations that I had been on the board of in the past. I'm just telling you the tip of the iceberg about what I do. Not only do I run my own business, but I give back in many, many ways to help other people succeed in business. And I learn a huge amount from doing that.

Yeah, it keeps number one. People ask me why I do a lot of things. I do because I'm like a master Jane at doing things you don't make money at. And for the thing is this podcast, you know, and I think you just don't make money doing this stuff. And I saw some girl on YouTube had a thing, she showed how much she made from a million views on some video she put up. And she was from England, it was like 0.87 pound. She showed the actual. She just like million views.

But I do make money from all these things because just think about this right now, my expertise in book marketing is I focus on business leadership, management books, personal growth books, self help books. In my career I've handled every kind of book you can imagine, including fiction and cookbooks, et cetera, et cetera. But it's a lot easier for me to pin down a new project because I've already written a book on business and entrepreneurship. I'm already an expert in that field. I already know all the media in that field that I need to reach. But just think about this. I'm on the board of an organization that has other leaders in book publishing on the board, or they're leaders in media. They work for magazines, they work for websites. I need a favor. I need something done, recommended. Guess what? I make money. I get business from doing this, but I don't make it the main purpose of what I'm doing.

Absolutely. And you know, the friendships and the relationships is really how you build your longevity and stability and future profitability. Because, you know, it's a, your, your outreach. And as you've gone, do you remember back when you first, right from the beginning, when you got in that association? And I think that's a great point. I don't know if people think about the idea of some of the people I've talked to, some of the guys who have and ladies who have been like success on Shark Tank or something like that, they've talked about they had a local entrepreneur group and they call them different things, but they found them in their communities. And it appears like they're all over the country. These idea banks where people sharing ideas. So it's not if once the switch gets switched, you know, goes on in your brain, that this can be a big thing for you because leaders tend to stay buried working around the clock in their own world. You know, I just got to work harder. You know, I know what to do. I just got to work harder. Yeah, but you might be one decent idea away from doubling and tripling, quadrupling your business, you know, and those exposures, those new challenges are life changing, business changing. And so when you got in right from the beginning and started going to these things, do you remember your first reaction, the first kind of effect that it had on you that was transformative to some extent because it had to be make a big income impact in a specific thing. You know, people listen to these podcasts and they're looking, what do I do? What do I do? Well, I'm telling you what to do. You know, Jane is telling you something she did, you know, foundational early in her life, and she did it with several different associations and she's still doing it. Yesterday she got on the board to be on the board so she can expand it even further. So this is something you do. Reach out, get with other people in your field of interest and make some friends, make some contacts. And so talk about how this impacted you right from the beginning.

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business that's accrued over $5 billion.

In assets under management and has done.

Well even during trying. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others.

Move up, let me just say this. Be selective in the organizations that you join so that you don't waste your time. Okay? So that goes back to being organized. Join every organization. Research the organizations that will benefit you. And in some cases, it's an organization that has a lot of great training and learning programs. In some cases, it's about networking. But I have found that networking alone doesn't do it. It's really about shared experiences of learning how to, like, a course on how to brand better, brand your business better, or course on sales, of course on presentations. You know, all these organizations bring experts in, so you learn a lot. So choose wisely. I would say that one of the most impactful things that I got when I first joined the national association of Women Business Owners was the woman who was actually leading the New York City chapter ended up going out of business. And by watching her over a year lose her business, I actually learned so much it was unbelievable. And what happened to her was that she had a very big corporate client and they were not paying her, and she kept working for them because she was afraid that if she stopped, then she would never get paid. Well, in the end, she never got paid, and she went so much into debt that she. She had to leave her business. So I really learned a lot about cash flow and collecting money and, you know, calling it quits early enough that. That you don't harm your own company.

And was this something that, like, how much time were these. Are these meetings weekly things you're involved with or whatever?

They would have meetings maybe once a month or every two weeks. When you're on the board of an organization like this, you have monthly meetings. And then you definitely have to spend time doing, you know, working on the board. But, for example, this board that I've just joined, again, I'm going to be in charge of programs, but I'm going to have a committee working for me. And so, again, so I know how to delegate. One of the biggest problems that leaders make or entrepreneurs make is they don't delegate. And you've got to delegate, Larry. You cannot be a big success by staying in your office and just like spinning your wheels and thinking you're brilliant. You have got to work with other people. You really do. Whether you've got a network, you've got to help people. You cannot go it alone.

Yeah, and that's a trap that too many have fallen into that. It's one of the traps that you can fall into. And you don't realize that you can get into a downward spiral and lose your freshness, lose your enthusiasm, because it happens by degrees, you know, and it. It's, you know, things like this I find invigorating, you know, because being around other motivated people, you just pick up not just the specific ideas, but the energy. Because it's not just what they say, it's how they say it. And how they say it comes from all of the activities that they've been involved in before they showed up in front of your face. And so when they say something, they're speaking from that platform and they don't even realize, you know, they're carrying that energy, that mojo, that. That vibe with them. And it is energizing to be around people. It's like electrical charge. You don't even realize it's happening, you know?

And, you know, even though I told the story that I learned from somebody else's problems, I learned a lot from all the people who were very successful. I learned a lot about how to present yourself. I learned. I learned a lot about self assurance. I learned a lot about being prepar. And one of the things that I do right now is one of the people who works for me. For some reason, she is always telling me how great I am. And her background is in psychology. I don't know how she always knows exactly what to say to me. That makes me go, yeah, okay, I'm good. I can do it. Because believe me, I doubt myself a lot. Or I think, what a loser. Look what that other person's doing. Why can't I do that? And then I'll have a conversation with my associate, Sarah, and she'll always. She'll just tell me stuff that makes me feel so good. She looks for the things that I do well. And she supports me and I help her. I support her. I've given her a lot of advice on how to be organized and how to work with clients. And I forced her to be disciplined because she often would lack self discipline. And I would just say, yeah, you know, you've got you. Yeah, you know, don't. You can't get on a call and talk like that. Let's get some discipline in here.

Yeah, get some boundaries. Come on. And because you have the relationship, you can have those kind of conversations, you know, but, you know, even. I mean, these are not. We're talking about ideas that people have always used been a part of success. And that's what's so powerful about these conversations. And I appreciate you taking the time because these. Fortunately, I heard this idea, I mean, this early in my career, that ideas are a dime a dozen, but the people who use them are priceless. And I also heard that good ideas don't care who use them. You know, you can, you know, the, you know, the ideas, they're sitting available to be used. But one thing you're talking about having people around you. I was. I don't know why this jumped in my mind. Probably because you're in Miami Beach. But Muhammad Ali had one of his big fights early in his career down in Miami Beach. You know, the Beatles were down there and this, that and the other. But his entire career, Muhammad Ali had, one of his entourage was this Bandini Brown. And he was, go, champ. You're the best champ. I mean, that was his job. Go get him, Jeff. Don't worry about that. You show him, champ. And that made a difference, you know, that made a difference for keeping him. And fortunately, by the grace of God, we've got some people helping me in my art. And, you know, that are encouraging. You know, you got to have people around you that are excited about what you're doing. You know, I would give up on the painting if I didn't have. If it was just me alone in a garage somewhere, you know, a studio working. There are artists that do that. I don't know how they do it, but to have people around you can kind of work things out with, and they're fired up about it, can't wait to see what comes next. And so priceless. And so thanks so much for sharing.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world. I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years. Put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.