Part 2 - Secrets To Massive Growth In Networking

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Of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Now, when you got into, you have to get over, break the ice, get into the process of talking to people. So let's say that's not a problem. Now, how did you go about ramping up your activity? Because you got to talk to a lot of people, you got to see a lot of people to start your business. How did you ramp up your activity and work on your schedule, get yourself to be efficient in the use of your time? It was a learning experience.

I think in the beginning, like everything else, when you start out, you figure that, like everybody you talk to, and then suddenly you start getting people. You may talk to people, they don't show any interest. And you talk to some people and they show some interest, but then that interest doesn't last, they disappear. One of the things that what I did was I like any person in the beginning, I used to get, you feel bad about things. You sort of question, maybe what I'm doing is right and what I'm doing is right, or is it I need to talk to more people. So I came to the conclusion that, listen, what I'm doing is right. I just need to talk to more people. What I realized is that the more people I talked to and then what I also mastered was that everyone that I knew knew people. So if I was speaking to one person and I worked hard to create an impression and build a connection, and I figured that would open up an Avenue for 30, 40, 50 people. So I no longer saw my connection with one person as a one connection. I saw that as a pathway to multiple connections. And so once I got that one person who I built a relationship with and that was connected, I tapped into that market, I basically would ask them, who do you know? And use their connections that they know to increase the amount of people that I spoke to. So this in one way would eliminate me having to talk to whole tons of people. But the moment I got a connection, I was speaking to a lot of people, but we had something in common. And so that generated a lot more results for me. So I tapped into, like you would say, in our business, I learned the taproot.

Yeah. And that's like market. You learn what your market is. Like if you want to put together a basketball team for your church league or your recreational league or whatever, you want to get some people that are Athletic, but also you want to get them that have some size or tall. You don't want them to all be 5ft tall. You just kind of generally have things you look for and you make exceptions, of course, but the more you can get. I know that we know people that have been. Come out of like the plumbing business and they've started some kind of sales thing or some kind of. They come up with some new idea and our service type thing, and they'll go and recruit plumbers because it's easier for them to talk to plumbers. Or people have come out of coaching, they won't even try and get anybody except someone's got a coaching background because they know I can talk that language. I'll feel comfortable with those people who, right off the bat, I've got an edge. Because that's what you're looking for. You're looking for an edge. And again, the common ground. Let's talk about getting a picture in your mind. How early did you get a picture in your mind of how big you could be and how fast you, you know a role from a role model? An example, I don't know, from books, listening to tapes. How long did it take you to get a clear picture in your mind about doing your business in a big way?

I think we say in our business a lot of times that big decisions are made at big events. So when I came in, what I thought was big was actually small. And so when I got exposed, that's why it's so important to be around. Like in the early days when I came in, like people like yourself and Bill and Barnes and listening to Art and Francis and a whole bunch of other people who I look up to a lot today. But by getting exposure to people who had bigger vision than I had, I didn't have that. I had a big vision that I thought was big. But when I started listening to other people and see what could happen, it forced me to expand my vision. But I think one of the things that helped me a lot is that I will set a target that when I get to that target, it's like climbing a mountain. I get to one peak and then I look at it and it says, okay, it's nice here, but you, you know what? If I get to the next peak, maybe your view is a little bit better.

Yeah.

And then I will strive to get to the next peak. And when I get to the next peak, I said, that's so true. Because this peak, the view is a lot better than the previous one. And by doing That a gradual process. So for me, I would not say at the beginning I had the same vision of my business that I have at this time, but I think as time went by, it grew. And that exposure, being around environments that stretch, like they say, if you are the smartest guy in the room or you are the richest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room. Right. So I think that was really what helped me. I got myself in situations that at every time was bigger than where I was or whatever success I had. So it made me a couple of things. One, realize that there's a lot more to be accomplished. And it kind of also made me uncomfortable.

Now when you say it for forced you, how did being around people that were doing it bigger and had that kind of track record, it didn't really force you, but psychologically it created a pressure. And I think that's because. You know why I think that was because you were capable of it. You didn't know you were capable of it. But I think being exposed to it for you wind up being forced to do it because your inside says, no, we're not going to tolerate being sitting on the back of the bus while we could be sitting on the front of the bus type thing. But until you're exp. Exposed to it, that doesn't get woken up, does it?

No, it doesn't. And I think like a lot of times for most people, and unfortunately, most people born, live, die and take it with them, they have it inside them. Yeah. And you understand because they're not in the right environment. Like I will tell people, there are no ordinary people, they're ordinary systems. If you put someone into the right system, it's inside them, it bring out. So I agree what you're saying. Like deep inside me, I wanted to do something big. But when I got into these environments and I got around leaders who were doing things way greater than I could have envisioned at the time, it really stretched me and I was very fortunate in my business is that I was surrounded by people who just did not talk about what they were, their successes and what they were doing is that they were willing to get down and reach you and encourage you and pour hope and belief in you. That's a true testament that I was blessed to be part of an incredible system that is where people who are ahead of you, who have done what you want to do don't say, well, look at me and say, listen, I can do it, you can do it, I did it, and I am willing to help you to get to that level. And I thought that was huge.

Yeah. And the thing is that you have people that could be listening to this and saying feeling sorry for themselves is like, I'm in a unique industry or unique side of a small niche situation, and there's no big events going on in my industry to plug into. But wrong, because you have these entrepreneurial groups, regional entrepreneurial groups all over the country, where people get in, they meet together, they share ideas, they spark each other to greatness, and they solve, you know, help each other solve each other's problems. You also have trade shows. Just about everything you have out there, there's a trade show you can go to. And if there's people I've interviewed on the podcast that had this great idea in some kind of industry they'd never been involved in, but what they did was they had some new slants, some new angle, they wanted to do something. So the first triggering event, they went to the national convention for whatever that industry was, and they went around and talked to everybody at every booth and saw the people, you know, made friends, ask questions, and then found the people that they could relate to the most. And then they walked out of that with some friends, some mentors, some possibly vendors that they could use and like, left that convention and just exploded with contacts and ideas that they had no idea of before they went to it. But they put themselves in position for those light bulbs to go off in those contacts to go off in their than their head. And so don't feel sorry for yourself. Like, well, where can I go? I don't have anybody I talk to this one thing to reach out and get information off YouTube and be listening in your car and reading books and things like that, which you should do because that accelerates your growth. But look for live events that you could plug into. Look for live groups that you could plug into. And if you ever luck up and get somebody who would take you seriously and spend some time mentoring you, take them seriously and follow through on what they show you and let them know that how it's working for you so they'll feel like it's worth their time to spend with you. And so then look for ways, as you move up the ladder, look for ways to give back yourself. Like, what we're doing here is, I think this is not doing us any good. We're talking about stuff we already know. We might be reminding ourselves of the things that are pretty much obvious to us are become obvious over the career. But this is a form of giving back. And the fun of that and the rewards of that are unlimited. And so we get compensated, just we. So you just don't charge for watching the podcast. But it's going to be fun to see and hear the stories down the road of people that have learned things and wound up getting ready to do great things because maybe we saved them some time now. And as you came up, who were you? Did mentors and role models help you get the picture of what you could do?

I still believe that, you know, and this is where go back to what we talked about earlier. When you're introverted and you want to do something, but you're scared to go out and seek what you need. And I think if I can tell people is that if you want something, go out and see. Don't be introverted. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help. There are so many people out there that you may think don't want to help, but they are delighted to help. They're happy to help. You just got to go out and ask. And so to answer your question, for me, huge mentorship was tremendous. I always tell people, I believe that a lot of times if you can find someone that you can connect with and go and ask people, ask for help, ask them and tell them that you want to be successful. These are the things that what you want you, if they would mind helping you seek your advice, whether you consult with them once a month or whatever. So I think mentorship is huge. I think for me, that was huge because I was fortunate that I had people around me that a big part of their life was providing that mentorship. So I tapped into it wherever it was possible. It made a huge, huge difference.

Yeah. And the thing is, it allows you to ask the specific questions that help you in the specific situation you're in. Because at all times, all we really need to know is what's going to help us move ahead from where we are. And we don't need to know the whole rest of our life. We just need to know what's holding us up now. And as you got going, it's hard to remember. I know it's going to be very hard for you to dig back in, but what was the toughest situation? Some of the, if I say tough situation, roadblocks, stalled out, bottlenecks, frustration, where you grew up to a certain point and expected to keep on going. Then all of a sudden, train wreck. Either it fell apart or it stalled out, or a bunch of key people left, or like John Addison, Used to say a meteor fell out of the sky on your head and destroyed your life. It just seemed to hit only you. If you look back in your life, that could be a financially, it could be relationship, it could be health, it could be inside your business. Key personnel. Where were some of the worst, toughest situations that the young, naive Bobby Gokul, that's feeling good about himself, got in a new industry, making money, developing new skills and friends, making progress, expects things to be able to continue to grow and then all of a sudden you run into a brick wall. What were some of those situations and how'd you deal with them?

When I came in the business, I worked really hard. I had something good going, but I didn't have the experience of dealing with people who had ulterior motives when they joined your business. So I was about maybe 27, 28 years old in the business. And part of my business, the real estate market in Toronto was going down. And so we had a couple of guys who were brokers, who were experienced and they joined my business.

Yeah.

And they were shrewd and they came in and they did a bunch of bad business and all this kind of stuff like that. And because they were desperate situation, but I didn't understand all this kind of stuff and it happened within such a short period of time. And then these guys left and then they left me with a whole book, a block of bad business that I hardly made any money from. They were promoted early. So I made, let's say if I made 4%, but then I'm liable for over 100% of it, this stuff. And I look back and I said, but at that point they look at and says, how do I deal with this? And then I sat down and I said, this is how you learn. And then you go and you study other people, successful people. Then I talked to other people in my company who were very successful and they said, there's a lot of people like you who are very successful today. They went through that learning curve, but it was very, very difficult because I couldn't understand. I was very nice to them. I provided what a service. But they didn't come with the intention of being building a business together. They came to capitalize on whatever little stuff I had going and to exploit it to their own advantage. Yeah, that was a major learning curve. But what that has done for me, I've told my guys who came into me business after I says, I am here, I have learned the hard way, no one can ever do that to you.

I'd like to thank you for listening to part two of this episode of of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. Timing is everything. You may feel that now is the time to get moving forward so you can do something even greater with your life. Now, if that sounds like you, I've got a free training video to show you how that transformation can take place. Getting introduced to how the Cycle of Success works has been a major trend transforming event for so many current million dollar earners. And that's exactly what this video is all about. And yes, it's completely free. Join us at the video@widelawnwinning.com and thanks for being part of our community.