Networking That Actually Works: Simple Shifts to Grow Your Influence & Income

Welcome to Inside the Speakeasy Mastermind Podcast, the private room where today's sharpest founders, innovators, and renegade thinkers come to trade the ideas that move industries. This show is brought to you by HighLevel, the AI-driven business operating system trusted by over 2 million businesses to help automate, scale, and create real leverage. HighLevel isn't just a tool, it's the engine behind some of the most agile and high-performing teams on the planet. If you're ready to streamline everything, amplify your reach, and actually build a business that works for you, you're in the right place. Visit www.gohighlevel.com/speakeasy-mastermind-promo to get an exclusive 30-day trial for being a listener of the Inside the Speakeasy podcast. Enjoy the show. Welcome to Inside the Speakeasy podcast, and we're heading up to Reno, Nevada, one of my favorite places. Love it up there. And I'm bringing— I'm really excited to bring today Somebody being a community leader and manager like myself, I absolutely love talking to other people that know how to build community, that love the art of networking. And this guy has been teaching me some stuff like you wouldn't believe. And I'm stoked to talk about how to level up our whole connection networking game. Welcome, Devin Sizemore.

Eric, thanks for having me, man. I've been looking forward to this conversation.

Yeah, no, thank you. I mean, I mean, so we're going to get into some cool stuff today and I know One of the things you talk about is how you could build your business without targeting clients. And you're going to drop some magic, you know, suggestions and ideas you have. You have a full connection expansion system. And I love this because, you know, this is true to my heart. So many of us want to just go into the world of, hey, how do we go do paid media? How do we go do the, all the other things? And you're probably sitting there saying, oh my God, these people are missing opportunities that's right in front of their faces. Is that a feeling you get all the time?

100%, man. I did a webinar yesterday and I have a whole slide that says, let's eliminate the noise. Like, let's stop chasing the next funnel, paid ad, this, that, and all those things work in the right environment. And like, let's just get back to meeting people, building relationships, and generating opportunity.

So let's, I mean, let's dig in. I mean, you talk about, I mean, tell me your formula. Tell me like, what's the main things you teach? And, you know, I love everybody to walk away with, you know, a couple ideas of, man, I got to start doing this.

Yeah, 100%, man. So, The first thing I teach people is to shift their ask. And so what I mean by shift your ask is if I ask you, Eric, who do you want to connect with? Typically your default is some version of your ideal client profile, right? I want to meet this kind of person. In yours, you would give us qualifiers, right? They own this kind of business, they're B2B, they have this income because that's a good member for Speakeasy Mastermind. Great. What happens is you're educating me on who to refer you. Great. But when you're like, hey Devin, I really want you to open doors for me. Sometimes that's where the conversation ends. And usually it equals people that tell me one of these things. I'm meeting a lot of people and getting no results, or I'm making a lot of connections but not receiving connections back. In both of those situations, if we shift the ask, it's much easier for people to connect you. So what do I mean by shift the ask? What I mean is we have to shift to who has access to your clients. So we go from one-to-one to one-to-many. So the easy low-hanging fruit is who's your best referral partner? But beyond that, we can look at where does your client spend money? Where does your client gather? Where do they seek education? Who has influence over your client? Who do they trust? So that's deep, long-term established relationships, typically advisors, CPAs, attorneys, other coaches. And then who's a general connector that has access to everyone? All 6 of those buckets that have access to your clients have no friction if you ask for it. Hey, I want to meet mastermind hosts because we can collaborate and create content together. It's beneficial for me, it's beneficial for them. That's easy. Everyone's like, oh cool, Devin, I'll connect you for that. Again, there's no friction because I'm not trying to tee someone up to you right this second to sell them something and hope that they have the budget, the right mentality, the right time. This is how we start to unlock and so that we can win every meeting instead of our only win in a meeting is, did I get a qualified prospect or a direct referral? And that's it. Like, that's such a limited conversation.

Interesting. So to reiterate, I love what you're saying. And it's so obvious. You say it in my mind and is Not the direct, don't necessarily go to the direct, go to the person who has influenced, like you said, the community leader in the case versus the actual person, because the community leader then will be able to make that introduction. It's actually a better introduction when it comes from the community leader, as I found, or these other people that are connecting. So it's one extra step to get way more volume. It would be, I guess, a way to say that, right?

100%.

Yeah.

You go from one-to-one, which is I get one chance to close this one person to I get this chance to build this relationship that opens doors. A really good example of that is, you know, we partner with other super connectors that refer people to our community because we— how we host networking events. Some of those super connectors have integrated my meetings in their group calendars. Some of those super connectors have referred 100+ people to our group. That's so much more valuable to me than finding the one next member, right? I want to find the people where we can collaborate. And add value both directions, or they invite me to their stage, or they invite me to their podcast, or we create content together. All of those are other benefits from meeting people that are often left on the table.

Well, let's go deeper in that example because for twofold, A, I think it's really cool what you're doing. And I love for people listening to this podcast to understand it. But I think if we can get that, understand what you're doing and you said, all right, here's my approach to building that using the method you're talking about, you kind of just mentioned it, but let's just, let's use your example here. So talk more about that.

Yeah, for sure. So, right, I do exactly what we're doing now and we could break down our exact scenario, right? I was introduced to you because you're a community host and Mastermind host by someone who's a super connector. And then we were able to go, oh wait, I actually fit and I enjoy and love what you guys are doing. And now we're creating content. So that formula worked, but with the group, the way I do it, the free community's a great offer because for us there's no barrier to entry. And so the reason we built our business this way is when I'm collaborating with people, it's really easy to find paths to success. Hey, you can send your people to me and we'll network with them. And again, there's no barrier. They can come participate and get value. We could create content because I host a community with 560+ that need content. All of these are the ways that when I'm in a meeting, I'm thinking about how could I bring you in and add value to what you're doing? And then vice versa, I'm listening for, oh, you bring guest speakers in. Oh, you host events. Oh, you have a huge database or email list. Great. Would you be game for doing a promo to your list In exchange, I'll do this thing, or maybe my service is just a good value add so that we don't even need to balance it more than me just adding value to your clients. That's how I'm digging into conversations with people to figure out how do we both win while still having the impact we want in the world.

It's really like turning up the biz dev dial, the partnership dial to get the bigger groups in one-to-many versus the one-to-one, as you said earlier. Share with us more. What, tell me about your community and your network so we can learn.

Yeah, so our community is built on 3 pillars. So the first is our Connection Blitz meeting, which is kind of what we're known for. So 1-hour power networking. Today we just came off a blitz. We had 21 people or 22 people, 15 first-timers, 5 countries represented, all, every industry you could imagine. And if you've been burned on a virtual networking event, like you're just like tired of going and not getting results, not getting contact information, not meeting the host. Not having an ease to book calendar meetings. We solve all of that in 1 hour. The second pillar is all of my content is in there. So the whole Connection Expansion System, access to my book, our email templates, every webinar I create, it's all available for free. So you can access everything we teach and more. And then the third pillar is expert interviews. We've done more than 40 expert interviews from billionaires to styling consultants to family offices to really dig in deep. These are typically 40 minutes to an hour on what are they doing and how can you implement whatever their expertise is. And so that's the foundation of our community. And then the kind of follow-up question is, cool, great, that's all free. How do you make money? We do have access to unlimited meetings that is a subscription model. And then I do strategy sessions and partnerships with people if it's a right fit.

Got it. So you build a community around a, so connecting. So one of the meetings, it's not all doing the same meeting. You have one meeting where everybody's just connecting. And then you have a meeting where you can get content and education, some other meetings. So clearly I'm going to go back and reverse engineer what you talked about for the example piece for us to get is you're saying, hey, this is my business model. I'm going to win. It'd take you forever. And this is the key part. What you're saying is for me to add one at a time, people to go in there and join a blitz, you know, get exposure, that's going to take you forever. You can start, you know, doing cold email outreach. You can go one at a time. Great. If you could find other community leaders. Who might be interested in doing a co-op or, you know, introducing your blitzes to their networks, et cetera, et cetera. You're going to get way more people in there as long as it's collaborative kind of thing. Is that back to your example?

100%. Yeah. So this week alone, we're up 70 new connections this week. So we're 4 days into the week, 70 inbound connections. And the formula works no matter what your offer is. And so I want people to really understand that by approaching the network different and looking for these bigger opportunities, As you do it more and more over time, it doesn't matter what your offer is. I've used the same formula when launching my cat cafe.

Let's go through examples of that. Sorry to cut you off because you got me interested. Cause I mean, I mean, we did home examples easy. So just something that, that might be relatable to the people watching it. So what was something else you did?

Yeah. So let's use, I did a stint in corporate America, right? And so I ran a PEO, so workers' comp payroll business, and the formula there is all referrals. So here's how most branch managers do it. They go in the market as a biz dev person. They meet people, qualify them. Great. Occasionally they go get strategic partners in that industry. It's usually commercial insurance agents. So they build a few commercial insurance agents that refer because the workers' commission payback's great. It's easier to close, blah, blah, blah. What I did when I took the market over is I just went out and met everybody because one of our core principles is there's value in every relationship. So I went out and met every single person I had contact with and I just had these meetings recalibrating. Here's what I'm doing. Here's what we're looking for. Here's a good strategic opportunity. And I started to find my way into these really interesting referral partner relationships. So B2B sponsorship salespeople, account managers in different sectors, accounting firms, CPA firms, other payroll companies that wanted to generate revenue, but we're at capacity constraints. I found in over 2 and a half years, built 200 referral relationships where our branch literally grew on autopilot. Like every month we would get 12 to 15 inbound leads. We would close 5 to 6 of them. With no additional marketing. Sure, we'd host some events, we'd do some speaking, but no paid ads, no lead gen, just building a network that generates results. If you fast forward to the cat cafe, which is a physical business, we built it the same way.

What's a cat cafe?

Yeah, so cat cafe, the front's a coffee shop, the back, you pay by hour to hang out with cats. You could adopt them if you want, but really you pay by hour to hang out with them. So it's great for senior citizens, people whose spouses have allergies, or your living situation doesn't allow animals.

Okay, got it. So that, that helps me in that context. Okay, so you got this cat cafe and now how are you building members to that? Not going traditional.

Yeah. So again, yeah, we did social content, we did news media, we did that. All of that was actually formed from meeting everybody. So we just met everyone and said, this is what we're doing. Here's a good strategic relationship. And so we started looking for the BNI groups that wanted to host meetings. We started looking for the women's groups and group events that wanted to host people in a unique environment. We started going after party planners. Where they had clients that were looking for unique birthday or party hosting opportunities or intimate settings. And so again, instead of the one client that's going to come and spend whatever the $12 per hour, we started looking for these people who had access to these group environments. And because we did that, when we launched, we were profitable in month one and we ended up doing more than most coffee shops make in our very first month of business because we had so many raving fans and advocates. But the only reason we figured out who could be a raving fan was we just turned volume and we got creative. One of our best was we had two properties down the street, hotel properties where they're like, oh my God, this is amazing for our guests. They can go there, they could do their work. They have a different environment. It's something totally unique to talk to 'em about. Hey, could we promote your business and have flyers? You're sitting here like, yes. At what point am I gonna say no? But again, it, you Yeah. In that business, we did do a little more direct-to-consumer stuff because you have to, but the big money hits that came out of that business is because we looked for these strategic connections. We were open to meeting everyone, and then we got creative on how do we go one-to-many or many-to-many where they're referring a lot of referral partners.

Yep. Yep. No, I, I love it. At the end of the day, to me, the seems like, I mean, a lot of what your connection expansion system is, spend that time. I'm just reiterating what you're saying here because I love it and I tend to do this, you know, as well, because I think I'm naturally a biz dev guy, community biz dev guy. So you and I are probably, uh, you know, molded very similarly is find those partners. And I'll add to that who, you know, you're not competing and you're almost providing them an additional, call it service or add-on, which makes them better in the eyes of their customers because they're able to add their customers, answer the needs of their own customers. Like, hey, they're doing this thing, but they don't have this. Item, but they're gonna bring in their friend here, Devin's company, to fulfill that need that their customers have. You're fulfilling, you're filling a void and you're making them look good as you're able to provide a good service ultimately. So they go back to their partner and say, hey, thank you for referring me to Devin. He's got great stuff.

And the thing I would tell you too, at the core, what we teach is make 3 connections for everyone you meet. And so that scares a lot of people cuz they're like, well, how do I make 3 connections for this person I just met? Well, you make strategic connections, right? So you help them play the game because they're probably coming into the meeting with you either trying to qualify you as a prospect or get a referral from you and a referral to a prospect. So I take both those off the table pretty quick unless I need your thing. Great. Nice to meet you. Yes. Let me buy your product or get engaged. But otherwise I tell people like, let me introduce you to these 3 or 4 people that have access to the same clients you're chasing and you guys can form strategic conversations. And so what happens is even the person I'm meeting, if we can't go deep, I can still open doors for them, which teaches them how to do the same thing. So they may go, look, your offer's not perfect for my audience. I don't need what you have. I see you made 3 introductions. You know what? I know these 1 or 2 people you should meet that are those strategic connections. So even if the person you're talking with isn't that strategic connection, it is highly likely they can open a door in one direction that is hyper impactful. But again, most people lose the whole conversation because it's either, is there a transaction one direction? Can we refer each other one direction? Maybe if we have a podcast, we default to creating some content, which is a win. But otherwise the conversation's kind of over. You don't really know where to nurture. You're kind of lost on the client journey. Right.

I want to dig in a little bit more. I just want to make sure, because I'm still trying to get my head around. So you're saying either way, I get what you're saying. Most people just walk into a conversation, you know, it's black or white. Can we do business? Not, you know, transactional. So you're saying in the case that we don't find an immediate way we could play together, or maybe it's just a timing thing or a money thing or whatever, you'll take that conversation and do what? Walk me through that again. You'll say, hey, look, not me now, but I can introduce you to 2, 3 others that could work with you.

Yeah, I'll give you a real, real live root today example, right? I met this guy Justin a few weeks ago. We had a phenomenal first meeting. I can refer Justin at some point, but his service offering is so specific. And so how do I add value to Justin? Because I don't need what he offers. I'm very set with the service provider, but I love his offering. I can't tee him up to anyone right now. What I can do is I open doors. He plays in the ultra high net worth space. I open doors to a few other people that play in that space. And Justin's like, dang, those are amazing connections because they are serving my client in different ways. Now he, from our meeting, right?

So in that example, you're introducing them through your game, your teaching, but you introduced them to strategic partners because you don't know actual people that could use the services, but the partners you're introducing them might. Is that right?

100%. Yeah. And I do have people, but it's such a right time introduction that I'm like, look, I'll listen. And when my Family office clients go, hey, Devin, I need this. Great. I got someone, but you know, I can't just tee him up to a family office and he takes a meeting.

And those are more valuable introductions anyway, at the end of the day, if he's based on what you're teaching. Okay. So you introduce him to those partners and then you said in return that, and then keep going.

Yeah. So what happened is he's like, look, I'm traveling for a few weeks. I'll make some intros for you. Cause he had some people in mind, but you could tell he was trying to figure out the relationship. Well, 24 hours later, I delivered. I made my connections. I sent him a 3-week check-in. He replied and said, oh my God, those conversations have been great. Literally following the check-in email, which was today, I now have 2 introductions in my inbox, both to very high-level mastermind and community hosts that we have perfect alignment from a strategy standpoint. And again, him and I, we didn't transact and we didn't direct refer clients to each other. What we did is we both strategically opened doors for each other, but the only reason he knew how to play that way is I led. Right? I showed up at the meeting going, Justin, let me open some doors for you strategically. And then when he goes, well, wait, what doors can I open for you? Now I can answer strategically because my ask is not just stuck on the client. And now we're both winning.

I get it completely. And I'm gonna expand on what you're saying. And I think selfishly, I should say secretly behind the scenes, what people don't know listening is Devin and I are in that game. We're playing it indirectly where he's ahead of me right now and I don't like it. Meaning he's given me some referrals and I haven't really done poo poo yet for him, but this is actually playing out in real time. It's bothering me because that's just the way I roll that I haven't. And in my mind, I'm already like, okay, I got to dig in and spend some more time with Devin to understand what he's doing. Like I kind of heard it the first time, probably went into 10 million other things like we all do. I'm like, okay, this is a good referral part for me. I better take this guy seriously because at some point. You know, Devin's only going to do so much. At some point, he's got a million other people he can refer to and do other things. And I know you don't do that with that intention, but that's just the law of at some point, you know, that well will run dry if somebody else is just taking. That's just human nature at some point. But that being said, you also understand the way the law of reciprocity and others works. Or you're saying, I've learned enough to say, I'm going to go out there and do it first. You said, take the initiative, show them, make killer intros. Which your name is attached to those intros. And when you've proven yourself, you are invoking the law of reciprocity. And I have a feeling there's a lot of people out there that owe you favor cards than you owe them.

So yeah, I love the pull the curtain back moment.

Right?

And so if we pull the curtain back on why we teach what we teach and why we do what we do, it's this exact conversation, right? I want to add so much value as quick in a relationship as I can. So that at some point when I need to cash in, people will respond. And cashing in could be like right now, hey, I've got a strategy session deal going till tomorrow night. If you know anyone, refer them. Or, hey, I'm looking for this specific intro. And now you're like, yeah, I got you. Let me go grab that outta my index and, you know, give it to you. If you do that more and more, you create this huge network that is responsive, not reactive. Because typically your network's only reacting right when the ask is perfect or the time is perfect. Whereas in my network, most of the time I could reach out right now, drop an email blast and action will happen on an introduction standpoint instantly because so many people are like, oh yeah, you know what? I do owe you, Devin. Thanks for clarifying who you need to know. I got you. Great. Great. We both win.

I love it. And it's funny because we're on opposite sides. I'm usually sitting on your side and you got ahead of me on this one. So it does bother me. I literally had this conversation last week with somebody. I'm like, you know, my, you know, it was like, God, Eric, you're always referring and helping introducing, you know, what can I do? I'm like, I like to be the guy that does the intros first. I want to have somebody owing me if I ever need that favor, I can ask them it. Exactly what you said. You know, try to make the introductions, try to connect people where I can. And I hope people are following along as you're listening to this. Again, it's, we tend to be transactional and I'm just adding what you said. And I think if we go beyond that and think about these strategic intros, and I know there's a few really good players in our community and others that I know that understand this game, don't ignore it. I mean, I think it's fantastic for people to really, really understand what you're talking about. And I mean, you go from cold lead to warm, hot lead, you know, people taking phone calls in this example because of what you're saying, which is brilliant. And I love that you're teaching this.

Yeah. I mean, you also mentioned something there I want people to understand is when you're referred to someone, they take the meeting like 99% of the time if it's not a transactional referral. And so that's the other part of this is we've gotten rid of the pro— like if you're struggling to book meetings, even if you're getting referrals, It's probably because it's always anchored on a sale. When I make introductions, the majority of people take the meetings. When I get introduced to people, I'm on calendars with the majority of people because it's so strategic in nature. Everyone's like, oh, there is something in it for me. Why would I not show up to this? Why would I not participate in this introduction? And the other person teed it up like they're edified. I make them look bad if I don't follow through.

That's right. That was the last point you just said. I was going to nail it exactly. When you do this correctly, it's almost always the case because nobody wants to be the person that makes the other person look bad or screw it up or, you know, oh, community leader Devin's making an intro. And it's funny before in the quote green room, I was even talking to Devin earlier and saying, you know, it's interesting because you're making referrals and they're from you. I want to take them. I want to, last thing I want to do is ignore a poo poo referral from a guy who's giving me lots of referrals and that get back to you because then you're done giving me referrals. So I got to take that, you know, I got to take those seriously. And Devin's given me a lot of referrals. I'm like, ah, I don't know if I can handle all these, you know, he's such a great guy. So you definitely want to know him and his community and all that. But yeah, so I get it. I love what you're saying. These are the main bits. Any other little kind of like tips or secrets or things that you've taught a lot of, or you notice from the average person that could be doing more of?

Yeah. So I think winning every meeting is the theme I like to really pound home to people is you probably can get in meetings, right? You're probably getting something on your calendar. If you're not, there's a bunch of strategies we could talk about. But I'm gonna assume that the people listening to this probably have people on their calendar. You've gotta win every meeting and your team needs to win every meeting. So if you have a sales team, if you have biz dev people out there, you've gotta equip them to hunt for the podcast, hunt for the event opportunities, the sponsorship opportunities, the partnership opportunities, the integrated offers, the part like direct integrated partnership, the JVs, the whatever. You've gotta equip them to think about, look, how do I talk to this person in front of me differently so that one, I can add value to them even if it's not our product or service. And two, how can I find value for our company? Again, even if it's not their product or service or mine, we've gotta win every meeting. And so it really changes the way you approach these 15, 30-minute meetings you guys are doing. You've gotta show up, you've gotta take control of the meeting. You have to be the one asking all the questions and getting all the information so that when it's time, you can add value and make connections. You can open doors and you can put ideas on the table. And so I really want people to. Think through, you know, if you go back and look at your last 20 meetings, how many of them generated results that you're happy with? And if it's not the majority or all of them, then you've gotta really think through what's the script and what am I missing?

Well, can we dig in deeper? You said win a meeting. How do you define winning a meeting?

Yeah, so for me, so winning a meeting, I want to be able to edify, endorse, and explain. So I want to be able to edify the person I'm meeting, meaning I know enough about them to go, yeah, Eric's a rockstar. I want to be able to endorse what they do, so their product or service offering. So I need to know enough about what they do, some testimonials in case they just be like, Yeah, rockstar. Love it. And I need to be able to explain why I'm going to make the connections I make. Because when I approach every meeting, I use one of our core principles, control what you can control. So I want to go into the meeting and I want to ask all the questions so I can do the 3 E's. Following the meeting, I'm going to make the 3 connections and send a follow-up email. And then I'm going to nurture over time because I know that the law of reciprocity kicks in and it will generate what's needed. I'm also looking for the other wins. Can we create content? Can you add value to my network? Can I add value to your network? Are you hosting events? Are you attending and sponsoring events? Which ones? Maybe I want to go. Like, can I get a piece of information that I didn't have before we got on the meeting? So beyond just controlling and the ability to follow up and add connections, I'm looking for all of these other places and pieces that allow me to win. Great example, I'm speaking at an event in November. It came from another mastermind host. He's like, oh, I'm speaking at this event. Matter of fact, I don't know why I didn't click. You should be at that event. Great. Cause you introduced me to the host. Met the host on the stage. Great. Is your biz dev team missing that? Are you missing that in meetings? Cause again, you're so focused on qualifying and prospecting that you're missing, oh, you, you forgot to hear that they're part of this other group. Well, how do you participate with that group? Or you forget to hear that they're attending these events. Great. Could they introduce you to the person who hosts the event? Could you be there? Could you sponsor? Could you speak? Oh, I was just on a podcast. I do a lot of podcasting. Great. Me too. Which podcast were you on? Could we swap podcasts with each other and help open door? Like, what else could you be listening for?

Yeah, there's a bunch of things I want to peel there. Number one, you said, and I think this is part of your system. Yes, you want to of course walk away and see if you can get a partnership or a content or something else. But you said something before that, which is like, if nothing else, can you reiterate and understand them and their product well enough that you could refer 3 people? And that's your sort of your job and mission after. Oh, it's almost walking into the meeting. Knowing if nothing else, you're going to refer 3 people to this, you know, unless they're a total idiot and person you just don't want anything to do with, but assuming you want them kind of in your sphere at some point, then what 3 people can you introduce to them afterwards? You're already winning as you define it, if you could just do that alone, because ultimately that'll come back in many cases. You can't go into things assuming that it's always going to happen, but in many cases it will.

Is that correct?

That was one of your big definitions of winning there?

Yeah, 100%. That is the minimum standard and that's my guarantee. So if you show up to a Blitz and it's your first one, I'm going to open doors for you. If we meet one-to-one, I'm going to open doors for you. Every person who then refers me can do it with confidence because every person you refer me to is going to get a few connections and I'm going to add value to them in the very first meeting. And now all of a sudden everyone refers everyone to Devin. This is my example, right? Because it's me. But you could be Devin too. Like you could build a network. Over time where we are flipping the script and teaching people like, oh, you gotta know Eric. Cause not only is Eric a badass, he has an amazing product. They're crushing it. Eric's going to take care of the person I'm sending them to by adding value, providing resources and helping them move their network forward. Man, I've sent everyone to Eric.

That's amazing. I think of nothing else. That's such a good tip that we talked about a lot is you're winning if you could learn enough about them to refer. 3 people and all the other things you just said. I mean, that's amazing to think like that. I love that. I'm going to start thinking through that, that one. I think also embedded in what you said, and I'm going to pull this out because again, you and I are so similar and you said it kind of quickly, is I do this. You probably talk about it too. I mean, try to get the other person talking first as much as you can, because you're going to be able to understand how to then ask the questions, make sure you understand, and ultimately be able to tailor your conversations around more listening versus talking. And we tend, everybody, a lot of people want to just talk about themselves and what they do. Is that kind of your strategy?

Yeah. In every meeting, whether it's networking, whether it's a one-to-one, whether it's group meeting, like I want to always take control. But people had to hear me when I say take control. That doesn't mean I'm getting ready to pitch and position and present ego and drop stats. Take control means Eric, where do you live? Great. You answer. And as soon as you answer, I'm starting the conversation. You're probably going to go, where do you live too? I live in Reno. That's great. Hey Eric, tell me what you're up to, man. Who do you serve? Right. And then the flow is we go backwards. How'd you get here? We go forwards, cast a vision, what's your dream. We talk about challenges. We look for ways to connect you. And after all that's done, then you can ask me questions, but I really will push people to go, look, I'll definitely tell you about myself. Let me ask a few more questions just to make sure I can really add value to you and make the right connections.

People are like, okay, last thing that you didn't talk about, but it's one of my biggest pet peeves. And I know you're going to, you're all about this is I feel so many entrepreneurs fail because they absolutely suck ass. Excuse my French on follow through and follow up. And they're horrible at it. And most are. And it just absolutely astonishes me the lack of systems people have. That's my personal tip. Like I tell everybody, I'm like, if you could just figure out how to fix your follow through on stuff, you're light years ahead. Step one is if you suck at it and you know that you suck at it, then the first hire you're going to have is a VA or somebody that's going to be on every call and everything you need to do to make sure what you said on the call and what you promised you can actually do. Because if you're not good at follow through, you probably are not going to put yourself in the situation to do your system. Knowing you're not even gonna be able to follow through on the thing you talked about. So you wanna dig in that a little bit? Can you resonate with me on that? Yeah.

The short of the short is yes. Like the whole system is built on following up because if we know the stats, right, to get deals done, it's enough touches to build relationships. It takes touches. And so if the whole world sucks at following up and the whole world is trying to pitch, close, and sell, then let's do it different, right? Let's be the ones that follow up. Let's be the ones that add value without counting to see who's keeping score. And then let's build a system where we're architecting in a way where we win, right? Over time, the numbers and volume all pan out. But yes, in order to do that, you have to follow up. One secret I'll tell you about follow-up is people try to make follow-up way too custom. So in my group, all my emails are in there. So you can go in and literally copy and paste them. We use the exact same email to book a meeting, the exact same email to follow up from meeting, the exact same email template when introducing two parties, the exact same email to check in in 3 weeks. The exact same nurture template with everyone long-term. Why is that critical? It's critical because then you can automate it or you can outsource it, right? So you can either bring in your virtual assistant or you can build an automation sequence because you're not having to go, Eric, I really saw that you went to XYZ school and, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know what? I've actually never seen an increased response rate if I customize it, personalize it, or just give you the email that I know works. The response rate's identical. So I might as well just use the template that my VA or my system can just produce, and then we're done. It's the same with intros. When I do intros, it's an intro template and an intro template in a sentence that explains why. My VA can do that. So it still feels like Devin's crushing it and opening doors, but guess what? We can automate that too. So yes, make it easy. Stop trying to customize everything. You don't need to. You need to follow up because that's where you're gonna win. That's right.

And it's funny because We'll say it. I know it crushes. It's not that hard, but so many people won't do it. I understand people. A lot of our zones of genius of most entrepreneurs do not lie in the world of follow-up. I get that. Please get help for yourself. And I'm just saying, this is just what I've seen and I've witnessed. I don't mean to offend anybody out there, but mostly it's just the entrepreneur mindset. It just doesn't have that skillset as well as others might have. Well, that's fantastic. I know as we wrap, any other final thoughts at all that you think of that Maybe we didn't cover today that you wish you might have?

The thing I'll tell everyone is the nurture process. This is something we do that pisses a lot of people off and a lot of people disagree. I use the same nurture email and I'm actually going to give a template right now because I want people to hear the language. Checking in, how are you doing? That's the subject line. Hey Eric, I hope you're doing well and having a great day. It's been a while since we last connected. Anything new and exciting in your world? Any new challenges? I look forward to hearing back from you. That's it. That's the check-in. We have such a high response rate to our check-in because it's sent one-to-one, even though it is automated, it's a one-to-one email. And it's all about the other person because what we're trying to do is create a conversation. I want people to respond and go, this is what I'm stoked on. This is my challenge. This is what's great. And then you're like, fantastic. How can I either support what you're so stoked about or, hey, I can make a connection to solve that problem. And then typically in the response email, they're going to say, hey, Devin, what are you excited about? How are you? And then I can reply and go, I'm super excited because ACEs is over 560 members. Here's a link. We just launched a bunch of connection blitz meetings. There's more of them. Here's a link. And I'm fired up because I'm booking more strategy sessions. None of those are selling or pitching. They're all true statements, but I actually invited you to engage in my world 3 times in a follow-up email where I'm adding value to you.

I love it. I love it. Genius. Well, cool. Well, all of Devin's stuff is going to be listed on the show notes and all that fun stuff. So I know you're probably eager to learn more about what he's doing, maybe get some of these notes and templates, check out all the great stuff he's doing. Devon, I know you've been in Speakeasy for, you know, a few months as a global member. We talked, maybe we'll get Reno off out there one of these days and we'll get a local chapter out there. But, uh, what have you enjoyed so far about the, the community?

Man, the people without a doubt. And I do a lot of networking. I'm in other masterminds. I go to a lot of high-end events. The people you've attracted are all amazing. Every meeting I have, that's a one-to-one meeting with someone that's in Speakeasy. They take a meeting. We have such a value-driven conversation that's not sales. And we're collaborating, like the list of people I'm collaborating with in Speakeasy Mastermind is getting longer and longer every day because the members are all crushing it and they're all creative thinkers about how do we play big. So if you're looking for a home in the B2B space, particularly with top level absolute rock stars that are good humans, it's a no-brainer. Wow.

Well, I appreciate that, especially coming from another, uh, somebody as smart as you building networks and communities. That's an honor to hear that. And I'm actually stoked that you're having all these amazing conversations and collisions as I like to call 'em already.

And.

That's really what gets me excited is hearing success stories of people and I don't even know what's going on and I just hear people connecting and doing business and good things. That's my win. So thank you so much for coming in today and that was so great to chat and mostly learn more from you. You know, even you and I are playing in a similar game and you already taught me a bunch of things. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Eric. Appreciate it.

And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Mastermind Podcast. If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the real mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room.