Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed! S1 E2 Networking with Frank Agin and Michael A Forman

Transcript

Networking Unleashed! S1 E2 Networking with Frank Agin and Michael A Forman · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Connections.
• 0:22
  I'm Michael Foreman.
• 0:23
  I am hosting and I just want to tell you personal.
• 0:27
  Okay, so we're going to delve into both of those, but I have an incredible guest.
• 0:34
  His name is Frank Agin, and let me just tell you a little bit about him.
• 0:39
  The science of networking, big misses in networking, referral best practices.
• 0:45
  Frank Agin is president of Amspirit Business Connections, which empowers entrepreneurs,
• 0:52
  health representatives, and professionals to become successful and get more referrals
• 0:58
  through networking.
• 1:00
  He also shares information and insights on professional relationships, business networking,
• 1:10
  and best practices for generating referrals on his networking Rx podcast through various
• 1:17
  professional programs.
• 1:19
  Finally, Frank is the author of several books, including foundational networking.
• 1:24
  Seal of his books through frankagin.com.
• 1:28
  So I just want to tell you, I want to welcome you, Frank.
• 1:32
  And I just, just tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 1:36
  Well, thank you for having me on Networking Unleashed.
• 1:38
  I really appreciate, appreciate the opportunity.
• 1:42
  I live in Columbus, Ohio.
• 1:43
  I came here 40 years ago to go to law school.
• 1:46
  I really had an intention on staying, but I got a law degree, got an MBA, met a girl,
• 1:51
  and started a job in public accounting.
• 1:53
  I was a tax consultant, which was a great job.
• 1:56
  It was great pay, just a great experience all in all.
• 2:00
  Michael, I didn't want to do taxes for the rest of my life.
• 2:02
  And most people understand that.
• 2:04
  I'll run into a chair where it's like, oh, why not?
• 2:08
  I didn't want to do it for the rest of my life.
• 2:10
  And so I decided to leave and go into private practice because I've always been very entrepreneurial.
• 2:16
  And a funny thing happened to me when I went into private practice, and the funny thing
• 2:19
  was that nothing happened.
• 2:20
  I had no idea how to get clients.
• 2:22
  They don't teach you that in school, high school, college, law school.
• 2:26
  They don't teach you that in the big firms because the work is already there.
• 2:30
  We just need you to come in as many days a week and stay as long as you can and just
• 2:34
  work.
• 2:35
  And so I'm out on my own trying to figure out how to make it happen.
• 2:38
  Most states have ethical requirements for attorneys and one of them, and certainly in
• 2:43
  the state of Ohio.
• 2:44
  I think most states have this.
• 2:46
  These really aren't supposed to call people.
• 2:48
  We're not allowed a cold call.
• 2:50
  Advertising is very restricted.
• 2:52
  And so I'm like, how am I going to get business?
• 2:54
  This is the mid 90s.
• 2:55
  There's no LinkedIn.
• 2:57
  There's no email.
• 2:58
  There's no websites.
• 2:59
  I don't even think I had a cell phone, Michael.
• 3:01
  I really don't.
• 3:02
  And so I was beside myself.
• 3:04
  What am I supposed to do?
• 3:06
  So I had lunch one day with a friend of mine and she took a different path out of law school.
• 3:10
  There's a saying in law school that A students become professors, B students become judges,
• 3:15
  and C students become millionaires.
• 3:17
  And that's because if you're a C student, you don't get the cushy opportunities, you
• 3:20
  got to figure it out.
• 3:21
  And that's what she did is she figured it out right from the start.
• 3:26
  But I asked her, I said, what do I need to do to become successful?
• 3:29
  And she said, why don't you get into a tips club or a leads group?
• 3:32
  I really had no idea what she was talking about, but there was an organization based
• 3:36
  out of Pittsburgh that was starting these networking groups, if you will.
• 3:41
  And through a couple of introductions, I got invited to a meeting.
• 3:44
  They didn't have an attorney.
• 3:45
  They were really changed everything, to be honest.
• 3:47
  I showed up and it made total sense that you could lift your whole world up, just helping
• 3:51
  other people.
• 3:53
  That's what you and I, that's what the whole essence of networking unleashed is, right?
• 3:57
  Your whole, everything you do is all about this, you know what, this mentality of just
• 4:02
  helping people and just trusting it's going to come back to you.
• 4:05
  And that's what these groups are about.
• 4:07
  And that really resonated with me because I'm good at talking about other people and
• 4:11
  talking other people up.
• 4:14
  If I start to talk about myself and self promote, I just, I lose steam right away.
• 4:21
  So I really doubled down on being successful in that group and I'll make a long story short.
• 4:26
  I had an opportunity to buy it at one point in the early 2000s and I did.
• 4:30
  I enjoyed practicing law, but I could build something here.
• 4:35
  I could, I could, the law is always changing.
• 4:37
  Law schools are always pooping out attorneys every year, right?
• 4:43
  What you and I do is really unique.
• 4:45
  It's really unique and you could really learn a craft and be unique.
• 4:50
  And so I stopped the practice of law.
• 4:52
  I started, I rebranded the business that I bought to Amspirit Business Connections.
• 4:57
  Started writing books, really becoming a student of networking.
• 5:01
  Why is it, why do some people, why are some people successful and other people not?
• 5:07
  That person there is really outgoing, but they're still living with mom, right?
• 5:12
  That doesn't make any sense.
• 5:14
  And that person's a total introvert and he's crushing it.
• 5:18
  It doesn't make any sense.
• 5:19
  You and I know the answers, right?
• 5:21
  There are answers.
• 5:22
  And so I just really started to lean in and learn these things.
• 5:25
  And then that led into me having a podcast, which I, that's how you and I met, got you
• 5:30
  on and lots of other things, all things networking.
• 5:35
  That's great.
• 5:36
  That's great information.
• 5:37
  The thing I've learned personally is when I go to a networking event or a networking
• 5:43
  meeting or something, I look to give, not receive.
• 5:48
  I look to give, I look to, I say to the person, you know what, I like you.
• 5:52
  I like what you do, how you do business.
• 5:55
  How can I make you more successful?
• 5:57
  How can I be a good referral source for you?
• 6:00
  And if I do that enough, well, you said what goes around comes around.
• 6:05
  So it definitely comes around.
• 6:08
  So with all that being said, what was one experience that drove you to open up your
• 6:19
  networking career?
• 6:20
  What was that one thing?
• 6:24
  I'll be honest.
• 6:25
  When I had an opportunity to buy this, I would go from attorney to doing this.
• 6:30
  And I remember having a conversation with my wife and saying, you know what, if I continue
• 6:34
  being an attorney 30 years from now, I know what I'll be doing.
• 6:41
  You know, I've seen the old codgers going into the law library.
• 6:45
  They don't have a law, they sure they still have law libraries, but much of it's online
• 6:49
  anymore.
• 6:50
  Yeah, I've seen it.
• 6:51
  I know the end of the story.
• 6:53
  But if I do this, it's something very unique.
• 6:56
  And so I really embarked upon it as a business opportunity.
• 7:00
  Like, this is something unique.
• 7:01
  This is something I can do.
• 7:02
  This is something I can build.
• 7:06
  But what really fascinated me about the whole networking thing is that it touches every
• 7:11
  aspect of life.
• 7:14
  I have friends of my kids who, you know, they're adults now who are graduating and needing
• 7:21
  to get jobs or have jobs and losing jobs and trying to find a next job.
• 7:26
  And I don't get paid for this, but I can lean into helping those people.
• 7:29
  And it's really applying the same sorts of principles to helping a small business person
• 7:35
  get business.
• 7:36
  It's, okay, this is what you need to do to find a job.
• 7:39
  It's just networking.
• 7:40
  It's just that you that we're never really taught, but we all have, we just don't know
• 7:45
  how to deploy them in the right way.
• 7:46
  And if you do, it's really powerful.
• 7:48
  So that was really neat for me.
• 7:51
  It's true.
• 7:52
  And those personal skills, listen, like anything else, you have to practice, practice, practice,
• 7:59
  practice.
• 8:00
  And the more you practice, the better you get, the more networking meetings you go to,
• 8:05
  the better you get, you know, but in your travels, in your experience, what's your number
• 8:12
  one challenge?
• 8:14
  What really challenged you throughout your career?
• 8:20
  I think this is something that challenges everybody.
• 8:24
  Is this ever going to come back to me?
• 8:27
  Yeah.
• 8:28
  Right?
• 8:29
  Because it is a real leap of faith.
• 8:31
  You go work for a company, you work all week, and there's a paycheck at the end of the week.
• 8:37
  Maybe it's two weeks, but it's the same thing.
• 8:38
  I'm working, I'm going to get paid.
• 8:40
  The government's going to step in and help me if I don't get paid or society.
• 8:43
  There's this faith that the turnaround between what you're doing and what you're getting
• 8:47
  happens quickly.
• 8:50
  And with respect to networking, as you well know, that that's not always the case.
• 8:57
  Sometimes it's pretty immediate.
• 8:59
  And you and I have just met, when I say just met in the last three months, you've been
• 9:05
  on my podcast, I've been on your podcast, and that's relatively immediate.
• 9:09
  And thank you for having me on.
• 9:10
  This is truly an honor, but it's also an asset for me because I'm out there on another platform.
• 9:16
  So it is a gift.
• 9:17
  And so there is a somewhat of an immediate return there.
• 9:20
  So sometimes it's relatively immediate.
• 9:23
  Sometimes it might be years where somebody will come back and say, you know what, I heard
• 9:26
  you 10 years ago talk and I need help now.
• 9:31
  Or even with respect to friends of my kids, I run this networking organization and I have
• 9:39
  these kids, they're not kids, they're grown adults with spouses and houses and mortgage
• 9:43
  payments coming into the organization and being clients of my organization.
• 9:49
  And it's literally been decades in the making.
• 9:51
  Hey, you need to go and get in Mr. Reagan's program.
• 9:55
  So that's the biggest challenge has been just having the faith that things will come back
• 10:00
  to you and you might not even recognize that it's come back to you, but it's coming back
• 10:04
  to you.
• 10:05
  Yeah.
• 10:06
  Whenever you go into a networking event or meetings, that's what I've been saying all
• 10:11
  along, really people lost sight of what they have to do and they lost sight of how they're
• 10:18
  supposed to do it.
• 10:19
  You know, this is going to sound very sexist.
• 10:22
  I apologize to everybody who's listening, but usually it's the woman that walks in and
• 10:27
  starts talking a mile a minute.
• 10:30
  And you know, everybody's like, whoa, you know, stop, you know, what you have to remember
• 10:35
  to do is when you first, let's say, walk up to a table, you don't talk, you listen, you
• 10:44
  listen for the conversation, you listen to what is this a conversation that I want to
• 10:49
  be a part of?
• 10:50
  Then right.
• 10:51
  Well, or no, it's not you politely back out, you go to another table.
• 10:56
  But if it is, you wait for the opportunity for you to say something.
• 11:01
  Now you've gone somewhere and you are supposedly the expert in your field.
• 11:08
  So what you say, I really hope is something intelligent where at least one or two of the
• 11:15
  people will turn around and respond back to you.
• 11:20
  And that gives you the, opens up your opportunity to ask them what they do, how they do it and
• 11:26
  everything else.
• 11:27
  And remember form.
• 11:28
  I don't know if you remember on our podcast, but form is family, occupation, recreation,
• 11:35
  and a message you get to the same level.
• 11:37
  Keep all that in mind and you let them talk, speak.
• 11:42
  And after a while, you say, no, that's when you come back with the, I'd like what you're
• 11:47
  doing, I'd like you, how can I make you more successful?
• 11:52
  And before you realize it, they're giving you all their information.
• 11:57
  And the best thing to do is to find a referral for them.
• 12:02
  Best thing to do.
• 12:03
  Yeah.
• 12:04
  And it's really human nature.
• 12:06
  Share a story.
• 12:07
  This has happened a few months ago, but I retold it this morning, introducing two people.
• 12:11
  I had met a woman down in Jacksonville, Florida, and it was very impressed with what she did
• 12:16
  with AI.
• 12:17
  I reached out to her and I said, Hey, would you please show me how I could be using AI
• 12:23
  to do the things you're doing for your clients?
• 12:26
  And I'm happy to pay you.
• 12:28
  She said, don't worry about paying me.
• 12:29
  You don't need to worry about paying me.
• 12:30
  I'll give you an hour of my time.
• 12:32
  You're out there doing this stuff and let's only an hour of my time and you're smart enough
• 12:36
  to figure this stuff out.
• 12:37
  If you need help beyond that, sure.
• 12:39
  Just let's just sit and talk about it.
• 12:41
  And I spent an hour with her and I was just blown away by the things she was showing
• 12:46
  me.
• 12:47
  And at the same time, we're talking.
• 12:49
  I'm certainly listening to what she's saying and taking notes, but just intermittently,
• 12:53
  it's okay.
• 12:54
  Who do I know that could use this person?
• 12:57
  Who do I know that I can introduce this person to?
• 13:00
  When it's just, these are things that are just barking in the background in my head.
• 13:04
  We are hardwired.
• 13:05
  She gave me an hour of her time.
• 13:07
  We are hardwired to reciprocate.
• 13:10
  And so when we do these things, good things are going to come back to us.
• 13:14
  Absolutely.
• 13:15
  And I know being in business, it really doesn't matter what business you're in, but your referral,
• 13:22
  your referral is gold.
• 13:24
  It does nothing better than a personal referral.
• 13:27
  So what does that tell you?
• 13:29
  That you have to do right by whomever that you're helping and give them more and under
• 13:36
  pay.
• 13:37
  And so it's just, you give them more than what they're paying for.
• 13:40
  And they should be so elated that you're helping them in such a way that they can't do anything,
• 13:48
  but refer you.
• 13:50
  And that referral say, oh, you know, so and so referred me and called you, oh, I love
• 13:54
  her, you know, because they, because you're putting their name on the line as well on
• 14:01
  how you treat them.
• 14:02
  Yeah.
• 14:03
  I think a lot of times people run into, they have this hang up that if I do something for
• 14:08
  someone else, I am going to be depleted.
• 14:12
  I'm out something.
• 14:14
  And what I share with people, I always have to preface, okay, I'm not being, I'm not getting
• 14:18
  crazy here.
• 14:20
  Just follow my logic.
• 14:21
  I say, I tell them, I don't like coconut.
• 14:25
  I just don't.
• 14:26
  From as being a young as a kid, I just didn't like coconut.
• 14:29
  It's, I have a gag reflex.
• 14:31
  If I have coconuts, but if you hand me an almond joy bar, that's all coconut.
• 14:35
  Even though I will not eat that.
• 14:37
  I will not.
• 14:38
  I'll probably die before I eat it.
• 14:40
  I will take it because I know there are people in my life that love coconut and could benefit
• 14:45
  from coconut.
• 14:47
  And so I'm going to take, I'm going to collect all the almond joy bars out there and give
• 14:50
  them to the people I knew who love almond joy bars.
• 14:53
  It's certainly not depleting me because I've already said, I don't like coconut.
• 14:58
  And the reason I'm doing that is because I'm giving these almond joy bars out and hopefully
• 15:02
  they're asking what kind of candy do you like, Frank?
• 15:05
  Because I'll keep a look out for you because they're so thankful that I've given them
• 15:09
  their favorite candy.
• 15:12
  And I look at that same thing with respect to other opportunities.
• 15:16
  A lot of things come my way that don't really fit for me.
• 15:22
  Somebody might have a fitness podcast.
• 15:25
  That's not for me, but it's for somebody I know.
• 15:28
  And so I'm going to take that in that I'm in joy bar and I'm going to hand it out to
• 15:32
  somebody else.
• 15:33
  And what are they going to say?
• 15:34
  What kind of podcast are you looking to get on?
• 15:36
  I'm looking to get on ones that deal with professional relationships, business networking,
• 15:41
  referral best practices.
• 15:42
  Oh, okay.
• 15:44
  I'll keep a look out for you.
• 15:46
  And it's the same thing with respect to other opportunities too.
• 15:48
  We're all encountering things and people, somebody looking to hire a, somebody to work
• 15:55
  in their I.T.
• 15:56
  department, but I'm in marketing.
• 15:58
  That's an opportunity.
• 15:59
  What type of person are you looking for?
• 16:01
  Entry level, how many years?
• 16:02
  I don't know if I know somebody, but I know people and maybe I can help you.
• 16:06
  And so you're not depleted at all by doing those sorts of things.
• 16:10
  You're not because even though, you know, I go on stages and I do breakout sessions and
• 16:16
  workshops and people ask me all the time, whatever I give them an hour of my time, you're
• 16:22
  giving me all of your information.
• 16:25
  There's nothing left.
• 16:26
  You know, what else could you possibly show me?
• 16:29
  Well, there's an infinite amount of things that you can still learn.
• 16:33
  Yeah.
• 16:34
  But, you know, on my, on my website, I have my book, but right next to it, I have a little
• 16:40
  thing called an abridged version and that's free.
• 16:43
  It's a PDF and it gives you to the basics of my book and everything out, but it's free.
• 16:50
  People say, well, why are you doing that?
• 16:53
  Because whoever downloads it, obviously needs it.
• 16:57
  You know?
• 16:58
  But what goes around comes around.
• 17:00
  I feel that if you give out as much as you can, it will come back.
• 17:06
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  It's like you have books and people say, what's the best way to sell a book?
• 17:12
  I say, give it away for free.
• 17:14
  I'm saying just get out there and just tweet little tidbits of it out there.
• 17:17
  Right?
• 17:18
  That's what I've done.
• 17:19
  Here's this little reference to show the book, maybe a link to the book.
• 17:23
  That's how I'll buy books.
• 17:24
  Right?
• 17:25
  I'll look at, oh, that really sounds interesting.
• 17:26
  Perfect.
• 17:27
  I'm going to buy that book.
• 17:29
  And I joke and I say, if somebody was really enterprising enough, they could scour my LinkedIn
• 17:35
  and my social channels and they could find the entire book, little bits and pieces and
• 17:42
  plug it all together.
• 17:43
  Yeah.
• 17:44
  Absolutely.
• 17:45
  Because you are giving away enough for somebody to really put together if they want to take
• 17:51
  the time to put it all together.
• 17:53
  But you might as well just go out and buy the book.
• 17:56
  That's what people end up doing.
• 17:58
  What one marketing or networking tip that you feel the most strongly about?
• 18:05
  That's a great question and I have a consistent answer.
• 18:09
  Find something that you're passionate about and go volunteer.
• 18:12
  I need to get out.
• 18:13
  I need to network.
• 18:14
  I need to do something.
• 18:15
  I don't know where to do.
• 18:16
  You should go find something.
• 18:18
  Don't be calculating these big people are here or whatever.
• 18:22
  If it's pet charities, then head in that direction homelessness, maybe it's youth sports, just
• 18:27
  get out there and give to the world.
• 18:31
  You don't have to wear a t-shirt that has your business name on it.
• 18:34
  You'd probably better off not doing that.
• 18:36
  Don't be calculating like that.
• 18:38
  People will find out.
• 18:39
  I see it all the time.
• 18:41
  What do you do?
• 18:42
  You run for an insurance agent.
• 18:44
  Yeah.
• 18:45
  Well, you have to remember that you're not just speaking with the people that are there,
• 18:51
  speaking with their entire network, each individual people.
• 18:55
  I always recommend exactly what you just said.
• 18:57
  I always recommend just go and do.
• 19:00
  When you start doing and you start giving, the conversation is going to turn around to
• 19:05
  say, what do you do for a living?
• 19:08
  That's when you can say, well, I do this or I do that.
• 19:13
  People say, oh, that's very interesting or that's all right, but it will advance you
• 19:19
  not only personally, but it will advance you professionally as well as long as you learn
• 19:25
  how to communicate with them.
• 19:29
  When you're doing those things, you're not doing them alone.
• 19:32
  You're doing them with other people who care about the same, whatever it is, charity or
• 19:37
  initiative, and they'll ask about you and you'll develop a relationship with them.
• 19:41
  Something's going to happen from that, but that gets you off of the dime, so to speak,
• 19:46
  and just doing something.
• 19:47
  Yeah.
• 19:48
  It's true.
• 19:49
  That falls into the category of giving or receiving.
• 19:54
  When you're there, you're going to give, give, give until somebody turns around and says,
• 20:00
  what do you do?
• 20:01
  Something like that.
• 20:03
  That is great for your networking tactic.
• 20:06
  Do you have a specific way that you market, a marketing tactic?
• 20:12
  I know you run networking groups.
• 20:15
  You actually have a separate networking next week, I think at four o'clock or so.
• 20:22
  I have a couple of things that I do.
• 20:24
  Again, it goes back to the whole notion of the best way to sell something is to give
• 20:27
  it away for free.
• 20:29
  In the early days of the pandemic, we were all a little bit, what does this mean?
• 20:36
  What does this mean for the world?
• 20:38
  We're all a little bit lonely and I discovered that you could use Zoom for something more
• 20:42
  than talking to one person at a time.
• 20:44
  I invited 12 people onto a Zoom call and we just had a conversation.
• 20:48
  I said, I know none of you, people know each other.
• 20:50
  You're all very well connected.
• 20:52
  We each other, let's all talk about ourselves one by one.
• 20:56
  That was born the networking hub, which is the second Wednesday of every month.
• 21:01
  It's 7 p.m. Eastern.
• 21:03
  You can get the link to it.
• 21:04
  It's free to attend.
• 21:05
  There's no commitment.
• 21:07
  Networking-hub.com.
• 21:10
  Then I've also started doing a referrals strategy workshop at 4 o'clock on that same day.
• 21:17
  What I'll do on the workshop is I will bring up just... The workshop is more about hands-on
• 21:23
  sorts of things with respect to referrals.
• 21:26
  The next one, I'm going to be talking about the whole notion of what I call wholesale
• 21:32
  referrals.
• 21:33
  Basically, looking for people that will lead you to multiple referrals.
• 21:39
  I'll talk on that briefly and then put people in breakout rooms and they can have a conversation
• 21:44
  around that concept.
• 21:45
  Again, free to attend.
• 21:48
  It's interesting.
• 21:49
  I see the people who are registering and certainly people from my organization, lots of people
• 21:55
  not from my organization.
• 21:56
  It's going to be a great opportunity.
• 21:58
  Sprinting the good word about networking.
• 22:00
  I love it.
• 22:01
  Frank, if somebody wants to get hold of you, what's the best way that they can hold of
• 22:05
  you?
• 22:07
  Everybody communicates in their own style.
• 22:08
  Some people love LinkedIn.
• 22:10
  If you go to frankagan.com, you can find my email address.
• 22:14
  You can get to my LinkedIn profile, my Facebook and communicate any of those ways.
• 22:18
  However, works best for you.
• 22:19
  For me, email is the best.
• 22:21
  It's just easy for me to catalog and color code and put reminders and things like that.
• 22:26
  That's just me.
• 22:27
  Frank, I have to tell you, this was a great, great experience.
• 22:33
  Everybody wanted to know about networking or referrals or anything else, please contact
• 22:39
  Frank and he will set you free, so to speak.
• 22:43
  I personally will be sitting along that networking event, both at four o'clock and seven o'clock
• 22:50
  because I'm very interested in networking because you haven't realized that yet.
• 22:54
  I want to thank you and good luck with everything.
• 22:57
  Thank you.
• 22:58
  Appreciate the opportunity.
• 22:59
  Thank you.