Episode 68! Today we’re taking a look at how to build valuable relationships with people who will help promote your business. My guest is serial entrepreneur Gregory Klein-Hertzel with ConnectivTech.  ConnectivTech is a Fractional CTO organization specializing in I.T. procurement & vendor selection. The Networking Journey Networking is a journey. If you’re doing it right you’ll find that after some time you don’t need to go to multiple events every week. You should be graduating from networking groups because you’ve met so many people and you’re spending your time fostering relationships and guiding people through the know, like and trust spectrum. Greg classifies himself as a serial networker. That’s how he started his first two businesses and how he’s currently starting his third business. Networking is not only important for your business but for personal reasons too. Why? Because a person can be defined by the people that they’re surrounded by. Many people start their journey by attending events at their local chamber of commerce or leads groups. Those events are usually decided upon based on which ones will feed you referrals. Then the question becomes HOW is the best way to get referrals? It’s by building relationships but many people want quick results, and they initially think that they’ll quickly get referrals by attending those events. Unfortunately, that’s not the best way to approach business development. Making the Most of 1-on-1 Meetings The right way to network is to set up one on one meetings to learn about the other person, tell them about your business, and then ask them who they need introductions to that would help their business. Make the conversation about them because it is VERY rare that you will get a referral for yourself during the first meeting with someone. Add value to the other person’s life through introductions and they will usually do the same for you because you took the time to help them first. In the long-term making introductions for people is a better way to stay top of mind than a newsletter or an email drip campaign. Think about it: Which would you rather have in your inbox – newsletters or quality introductions? In this episode we also discuss: Why Greg believes that your 1 on 1 meetings should be 45 minutes. How to get so busy with quality 1 on 1 meetings that you graduate from most networking events. How to build an army of advocates that want to share your products or services with their networks. …and other golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!         About the Guest               ConnectivTech is a Fractional CTO organization specializing in I.T. procurement & vendor selection. In other words, ConnectivTech is comprised of high-end business technology advisors that specialize in vetting companies and matching them with the businesses we help. At ConnectivTech, we believe that a business and an individual can be defined by the people they are surrounded by. With over 100 vetted and approved technology experts/companies, ConnectivTech takes pride in vetting their vendors. We look for good technology, good prices but most importantly, good people behind the technology Every business requires a unique solution. ConnectivTech carefully matches the best fit, approved vendor/s to the companies we help. Whether your organization wants one or multiple matches, you will only get technology experts that will fit your organization and it’s n...

Episode 67! Mentorship is one of my favorite topics for this show. My guest Hassan Akmal and I recently discussed how to create successful mentoring relationships. Hassan is an American career and life mastery consultant, author, professor, thought leader, philanthropist, and former professional tennis player and athlete ambassador to the United States. The purpose of mentoring is to change your life. This means that mentoring is a holistic transformation over time. Mentors help create that transformation – some in small ways, some in significant ways. The Need for Clarity Hassan believes that everyone has a career and life vision whether they realize it or not. There needs to be clarity, not just for yourself but for the mentors also. Mentoring experiences start with an intention to grow and the foresight about what you want and why. When you go into a mentorship session you need to be clear about what you want to get out of it and the mentor should have an idea of what wisdom they want to impart and why. When you sharpen your focus, it helps you to achieve meaningful mentoring experiences. Successful Mentoring Relationships One mentoring misconception that people often have is that because they’re learning from someone more experienced than them, they can’t help them. A great way to help your mentors is to make networking introductions for them. You can connect your mentors to each other. For an ongoing experience you have to focus on building a relationship. That requires a commitment on the part of both people to create successful mentoring experiences. This is where clarity comes in again. When you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it you have a structure to work within.  With regards to length of your mentoring relationships someone once said, “A great mentoring relationship is as long as it should be and no longer.” In this episode we also discuss: The concept of a personal advisory board and how to build one. How to pick the right mentors for the stage of life that you’re currently in. How to leave a mentoring relationship gracefully. The different types of mentoring experiences and how to create them. …and more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book "Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea" here! About the Guest               Hassan Akmal is an American career and life mastery consultant, author, professor, thought leader, philanthropist, and former professional tennis player and athlete ambassador to the United States. He is best known for his Amazon best-selling book—How to be a Career Mastermind™: Discover 7 “YOU Matter” Lenses for a Life of Purpose, Impact, and Meaningful Work and humanitarian work dedicated to Forced Migration and Health. After over a decade as a senior leader in career services, he became the inaugural executive director of industry relations and career strategies at Columbia University in 2017 and founded the Career Design Lab. In 2018, he served on the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) “Future of We” — Advisory Think Tank Committee and served as a senior advisor to Graduway, a prominent and top 10 global EdTech startup. In April 2019, he delivered the keynote address on the “Future of Career Services” at the Global Leaders Summit hosted by Graduway at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also serves on several other prominent boards internationally. In December of 2019, he was selected as a speaker for Columbia University’s TEDx RE-VISION, RE-FOCUS-themed event that took place on March 27, 2021. His TEDx Talk was released in May 2021 and has alread...

Today we’re discussing Tik Tok for business and my guest is Alex Hitt. How did Alex get involved with Tik Tok and get to where he is today? He embraced the latest trend. Most businesses don’t know what to do with Tik Tok. Alex moved to Hawaii in 2021 with no real estate experience and sold $3 million worth of real estate through social media with people he had never met before, much of that as a result of Tik Tok. He now coaches over 100 businesses about how to build your business on Tik Tok. Why Should Businesses Be on Tik Tok? One myth is that it’s only for teenagers and people looking for attention. While it may have started that way Tik Tok is much more than that now. Over 70% of people currently on Tik Tok are over the age of 20. Tik Tok is the most downloaded app in the last three years, and definitely the most downloaded app of 2022. People use it on an average of 60 minutes per day, which is higher than any other social media platform. Yet 99% of businesses are not advertising on Tik Tok. One barrier is that many businesses are used to advertising with images and text, which they can outsource at a reasonable rate. Tik Tok is short form video. Video can be expensive to outsource, which means companies should learn how to do it for themselves. The good news is that successful Tik Tok videos can, and probably should, be made on your phone. In this episode we also discuss: How to get started with posting on Tik Tok. How to find and target your ideal audience on Tik Tok. The ideal length of your videos for the platform. …and more golden nuggets of advice! About The Guest               Alex brings more attention and care to coaching businesses on online marketing. Alex is an international award-winning hotel manager, turned social media influencer, and coach. Alex brings hospitality to marketing giving clients unparalleled access to the top creators online. He demystifies social media growth and shows clients step-by-step, click-by-click, exactly what to do online. https://www.tiktok.com/@creator_networking https://www.alexhitt.com/

Episode 65! It seems that every entrepreneur is told to write a book at some point in their career. A book is a key that opens up doors for you that you wouldn’t have been able to open without one. My guest, Justin Breen has written two books and he shares his insights and journey to becoming a bestselling author. His newest book, Epic Life has sold more than 10,000 copies in its first 10 days since launch. It has been the No. 1 overall book for sales on Amazon Kindle and is on the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best sellers lists. He contributes much of his success to the people that he surrounds himself with. Justin shares a four-step process for building relationships. Get to get. There’s an end game of getting something from all of your actions. Get to give. You’re getting results and starting to give back to those around you. Give to get. You’ve giving first and foremost and expecting something in return. Give to give but only to the people who “get it”. This means that you’re constantly giving and not expecting anything in return. When you create value for the top people in your industry, they’ll create value for you if you “get it”. Justin built relationships that were key to his latest book launch long before he needed help with a book launch. That is a key point – build your relationships before you need them and add value to other peoples’ lives. Then when you ask for help, they’re willing to help you. “If you have the right mindset, it creates the right network and that creates the right opportunities” ~Justin Breen Listen in! Justin shares more advice and stories from his authorship journey including a deeper dive into business relationships, how to bring gratitude into your life on a daily basis and more golden nuggets of advice.               BrEpic Communications LLC is guided by Justin Breen, who has 20+ years in the media business, has won dozens of editing and writing awards, and is an author of countless viral stories. Justin is the Founder/CEO of the global PR firm BrEpic and exclusive connectivity platform BrEpic Network. His newest book, Epic Life, features a foreword from Dr. Peter Diamandis and has sold more than 10,000 copies in its first 10 days since launch. It has been the No. 1 overall book for sales on Amazon Kindle. BrEpic will write clicky stories that highlight you or your business, and find the right pitch for multiple media outlets. Let BrEpic build your brand with creative content and successful pitches to mainstream media today. Learn more about Justin: https://linktr.ee/justinbreen Connect with him on LinkedIn

Episode 64! The big idea in this episode is the power of gratitude. That’s what I discuss with my guest, David George Brooke. David AKA That Gratitude Guy, has been a speaker, coach, and best-selling author for over 25 years.  He is a former Nordstrom store manager and has managed in the corporate world for over 30 years. After going through losses of loved ones and chasing the dream of becoming a motivational speaker, David struck out on his own at 62 years of age. He started writing in a gratitude journal every day.  Gratitude helped him so much that he decided that would be the niche he would speak about. In 10 years of being a motivational speaker David has done around 800 talks about gratitude. His story exemplifies that it’s never too late to do what you love. How can people bring gratitude into their lives on a consistent basis? The overarching theme is what David refers to as a gratitude practice. It starts with believing that you’re going to see the glass half full instead of half empty. This includes thinking positively, the gratitude mindset, meditation and more. Each morning David makes time for what he calls the “power hour”. He gets up, gets ready for the day, and then heads to his office. He first writes in his gratitude journal, then he heads into the living room for meditation and stretching. The happy parts of the brain light up when you’re writing about things that you’re grateful for. It helps to focus on what you have instead of what you don’t have. For a bigger picture of gratitude in your life you need to be aware of who you’re hanging out with. To do this David keeps track of what he calls the association evaluator. About once a year you should stop and consider the relationships you have in your life. Then you write down zero, one or two people that you should disassociate with. The same for people that you should limit your association with, people that you should enhance your association with and people that you could mentor or that could mentor you. In this episode we also discuss: How to end toxic relationships. More benefits of writing in a gratitude journal and how to get started. How to increase your gratitude every day. …and more golden nuggets of advice! About The Guest               David George Brooke - That Gratitude Guy, has been a speaker, coach, and best-selling author for over 25 years.  He is a former Nordstrom store manager and has managed in the corporate world for over 30 years.   His published works include “That Gratitude Guy’s Daily Gratitude Journal”, “Monday Morning Minutes: 100 Messages of Gratitude”, “Six-Word Lessons to Embrace Gratitude” and a number of other books on gratitude.   As a result of his passion for gratitude he has presented over 850 speeches & workshops in the past 9 years, including over 100 Zoom presentations in the last 18 months during the pandemic. He travels nationally and internationally to deliver this important message.   He has over 1700 gratitude videos on YouTube, and over 1500 subscribers. Thousands have seen his message, and he is now considered a leading authority on how living a life of gratitude can enhance and improve your life both personally and professionally. He resides in Seattle, Washington. "Gratitude Turns What You Have Into Enough" Website:  www.thatgratitudeguy.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-george-brooke-9311138/ "A gratitude practice can help you to navigate the sometimes choppy-waters of life by focusing on all of your blessings and abundance"

Episode 63! Finding or starting your own professional group of advisors can be a daunting task, but a great investment of your time if you know how to go about it. That’s what I discuss with Electra Govoni in this episode. Electra is a business coach who helps owners of small and medium sized companies go from barely surviving to thriving in their businesses.   In addition, she facilitates bringing business owners together in peer advisory groups to leverage real world advice from people who know exactly what it means to run a business. Get Involved with Professional Organizations If you need help growing your business the good news is there are more people out there that can help you than you may even realize. When you get involved with professional groups and get out of your same industry, talk to people you don’t normally talk to and then talk about your business you might encounter some personal skepticism. That means that you’re thinking “How can someone that doesn’t deeply understand my business help me?” That’s where the group dynamic is important. You overcome that skepticism when the group gives you feedback that resonates with you. You need to go into those situations with an open mind. How to Create a Circle of Trusted Advisors One of the first places to look for advisors is in the segments of business that you’re not strong in. Find the people that love to do what you hate to do and bring them on board. The second dynamic to look at is finding people go approach problem solving in different ways than you do. That type of person can help you mitigate risk and move in directions that you haven’t even thought of. When you engage with those people plan of choosing at the most 10 that will meet monthly. From there you create a safe space, where nothing leaves the room, and you share your plans with the group. In this episode we also discuss: How to embrace vulnerability to move your business forward. How to get out of your own way with the support of your group. Why people want to be included in your circle of trusted advisors. …and more golden nuggets of advice! If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice About the Guest               Electra is the CEO of Finding Parity, Inc. and owner of TAB Boston NW.  With over 30+ years’ experience in the FinTech industry, she is a skilled executive and coach who specializes in leading transformative changes in companies and empowering a diverse and engaged workforce to achieve their personal and professional vision. Electra holds a BS in Computer Science from Merrimack College and a Masters Certificate from Boston College’s Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics – Leadership for Change.  She is also a certified partner of Predictive Index working with companies to develop talent strategies that align with their business strategies. Email:  [email protected] Phone: 781-365-9778 LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/electra-govoni/ Website:  Electra Govoni Top Business Coach | TAB Boston Northwest (thealternativeboard.com)

Episode 62! When it comes to building relationships in the business world there is a relational model and a transactional model, I discuss which one is better with my guest Jonathan Rosen. Jonathan founded Collaberex 6 years ago with the sole mission of helping executives, small business owners and professional service providers build meaningful, impactful, purposeful, relationships with others who will help you achieve your goals. Jonathan believes that there aren’t professional relationships and personal relationships, there are just relationships. For instance, if you ask business owners “Can you describe your relationships with your best customers?”, they probably won’t respond with the ones that buy the most. They’ll describe the ones that have been with them the longest, the relationships that have the most trust, the ones that invite them to family and social events and so on. It becomes a competitive advantage to build meaningful relationships. When it comes to “there’s just relationships” how do you know when it’s mostly personal or mostly professional? Jonathan explains that if you meet someone at a professional networking event, you both know that the primary driver of the relationship is business even if you become friends afterwards. The caveat is that you should take time to get to know someone and develop a relationship (relational model) and not discard people that don’t express an interest to buy during your first conversation (transactional model). During those initial conversations start by discovering what you have in common, personally and professionally, and let the conversation grow from there. Jonathan believes that the point of a meeting is to have another meeting which can lead to a meaningful relationship. In this episode we also discuss: How to build trusted relationships that result in both people wanting to help each other. How to start your own peer group that will help you grow your business. Why accountability will help you achieve goals faster. …and more golden nuggets of advice! If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice About the Guest               Jonathan Rosen founded Collaberex 6 years ago with the sole mission of helping executives, small business owners and professional service providers build meaningful, impactful, purposeful, relationships with others who will help you achieve your goals. With a dozen virtual groups in New York, Philadelphia & Boston (and growing) we are on our way to making an impact on more people's lives through our 100% relationship focused, peer advisory / professional development model. Jonathan brings more than 30 years’ experience in strategic planning, operations management, organizational restructuring and start-up formation.  Having held positions as CEO, COO and Founder of several small to mid-market businesses in the NY Metro area over the past 35 years, he has a detailed knowledge of many business sectors including, manufacturing, distribution, importing, retail and e-commerce. Additionally, his law degree and BBA and Masters in Finance, all from The George Washington University, provide his clients with an advisor with the expertise and experience who can professionally guide them step by step through whatever challenges they face. When he’s not helping others build relationships you can find him spending time with his wife, kids and grandkids, playing tennis and holding his breath hoping the Mets will keep winning. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancollaberex/ https://collaberex.com/beliefs/

Episode 61! More referrals are the holy grail for entrepreneurs and sales professionals. But how do you get more? That’s what I discuss with Matt Ward in this episode. Matt is an author, speaker and referral coach that teaches service-based small business owners by showing them how easy getting more word-of-mouth referrals can be if you just have the right mindset. The first thing Matt shared is the more we care, the more referrals we get. Check in with your network frequently, care about their success and what they’re doing. When you do that, you’ll build mutually beneficial and valuable relationships that will result in referrals. If you’re not getting referrals, it’s because you don’t have close relationships with the right people in your network. How do you build those relationships without being “salesy”? One way is to check in with them regularly just to see how they’re doing. This is something as simple as and email simply saying “Hello! How are you? I just want to check in.” You can also send the same message in a handwritten card. Not many people do that these days and you’ll stay top of mind with whomever you send the card to. Why don’t people do that? They’re often too busy chasing the next sales instead of investing time to build relationships. A common quote is “People do business with people they know, like and trust.” Matt believes that people do business with people they know, like, trust, and care about. That only happens when you develop deep relationships with people and forget about the transactional mindset. Taking it a step further, Matt believes that people should give without the expectation of getting anything in return. That can be a tough habit to create. When you give like that people are going to want to be around you. They’re going to care about you because you’re brightening up their lives. With time, they will be happy to send referrals to you. In this episode we also discuss: More ways to develop meaningful relationships. What NOT to do while networking and developing relationships. Why it’s better to ask for introductions to referral sources than potential clients. How to stand out from your competitors …and more golden nuggets of advice! If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice About the Guest               In 2002 Matt began working with business owners through his digital marketing agency, inConcert Web Solutions, to improve their bottom line, gain more clients, and grow their respective businesses. He then sold his agency in 2018 so that he could focus on helping businesses get more word of mouth referrals! He's the author of "MORE...Word of Mouth Referrals, Lifelong Customers & Raving Fans and, “The High-Five Effect: How To Do Business With People Who Bring You Joy”. Matt believes that creating deeper and more meaningful connections will result in more word of mouth referrals. He personally uses this philosophy in his own business. Matt is a professional member of the National Speakers Association and he and his companies have received numerous awards, including: 40 Under 40 Chamber Small Business Owner of the Year Top Web Firm 7 Years in a Row Better Business Bureau Torch Award Finalist Connect with Matt! Website - Professional Speaker - Matt Ward - Get More Word Of Mouth Referrals Free Download - Fire Up Referrals Engine Kit - Breakthrough Champion LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwardspeaks/

This episode’s big idea is business planning for a recession: Four critical steps for CEOs. My guest, Glenn Gow believes that any company can find a pathway to success regardless of what’s happening in their economic environment. Glenn was a CEO for 25 years. Now, he's a CEO Coach. He's going to make you more successful. But it's not only about being successful, it's about being happy while achieving success. If you want both, listen to this episode! When a problem like a recession hits you need to step back, take a breath, and then take action. When you take a step back you need to acknowledge that there are things in this world that you can control, and those things are what you should focus on. Accepting that there are things that you cannot control is key here; sometimes the situation at hand simply is what it is. The stock market is what it is. The buying behavior of our prospects and customers is what it is, and so on. Those are the things that you have to accept and face reality. Once you accept that you choose the places that you want to focus on where you can make change happen. After you step back and take a deep breath it’s time to get focused. After you’re focused on the right things you need to create a new action plan for your new situation. One of the first things to do within your plan is reduce your burn, what you’re spending money on. Unfortunately, this might mean you have to lay people off. When that happens, you need to be in the mindset that good people will get hired by somebody else. In this episode we also discuss: How to find new ways to cut expenses. How to become a great communicator with the people that you work with. How to execute your new plan. …and more golden nuggets of advice! If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice About the Guest               After graduating from Harvard Business School, Glenn came to Silicon Valley and worked for a start-up that failed. Then he worked in sales and marketing at Oracle. He then founded Crimson Consulting Group — a highly successful strategy consulting firm, while serving as CEO for 25 years. Crimson helped Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, and many start-ups become even more successful through strategic consultation. After his stint as a CEO, he worked in venture capital for five years. During that time, he coached the CEOs of his portfolio companies. Now, Glenn coaches CEOs to success and happiness. He can be found at glenngow.com.

Today’s big idea is the subject of beating yourself up and how to stop it. That’s what I discuss with Brian Reinbold, who is The Voice of BraveHearts Radio and The Host of BraveHearts Adventures. Brian is a Master Storyteller and loves to do Voice Work and EmCee Events. Many people do this about the things that they set out to do but didn’t accomplish on time. Brian found himself in a bad place thinking about that and came up with an idea. He took out a sheet of paper and wrote down what he did accomplish. Brian gave himself the grace to get a “B” for the day instead of a failing grade. The next step was to figure out what he needed to do for an “A” or even an “A+”. It’s a simple system that you might find valuable the next time you find yourself in a bad space mentally. How do you differentiate a good idea that you might want to bring to life and a great idea that you should definitely focus on? A good idea is any idea that is well intentioned. That being said there are a limited number of things that you can successfully put your time, talent, energy and love into. Trying to do too many things with those limited resources is one road to beating yourself up because you can’t do everything. When you want to bring an idea to life leveraging those four things you know that you have a great idea. Only put great ideas on your to-do list and you’ll experience much less frustration because you’re being much more strategic. In this episode we also discuss: The concepts of love and appreciation in the business world. Why gratitude is the beginning of all good things and how to practice it. How to combine purpose and passion to lead a happier life. …and more golden nuggets of advice! If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice About the Guest               BRIAN REINBOLD is at his best when he is helping others to become their best. He is the eternal optimist, an enlightening and uplifting speaker, and a community builder who inspires people in all walks of life to rise and meet their challenges through the service of others. With his innovative approach to leadership development, soothing voice, engaging sense of humor, passion for mentoring, and ability to harness the power of analogy to create the aha moment, Brian invites you to dream bigger, accomplish more, and have more fun than you ever thought possible. Brian is the architect of a successful career that spans business ownership, consulting, coaching, sales management, sales training, philanthropy, professional speaking, and broadcasting, As the host of the BraveHearts Radio Show he is taking the thought leadership conversation to the next level, providing an outlet for experts to broaden their reach and find a target audience. Promoting not just his own coaching and content, but that of other Speakers Authors and Coaches as well. As the Mission Specialist, he is elevating the profile of BraveHearts for Kids, a charity organization that supports the needs of pediatric cancer patients and their families. Through his corporate board experience, broadcasting platform, writings, and instructional methods, Brian is crystallizing the concept of mission-building behavior and helping mission-driven organizations connect with their employees and/or constituents. He is known as a design thinker and a dot connector who can align people with ideas, course a path, and generate a best-fit solution. His vision is to create an environment that supports open communication, increases employee and customer retention, and drives profitability. Connect with Brian on LinkedIn here!