Dan Martell - How To Build a Powerful Network

00:00:00.000 Hey there.

00:00:00.500 I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor,

00:00:02.380 and creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:03.840 In this episode, I'm going to share

00:00:05.840 with you how to invest in relationships

00:00:08.380 to achieve your biggest dreams and goals.

00:00:11.160 And be sure to stay at the end where

00:00:12.520 I'm going to share with you my Dream 100 framework,

00:00:15.360 how to identify the 100 people that I guarantee,

00:00:18.680 if you got into your world, would

00:00:20.640 allow you to achieve the most ambitious dreams

00:00:23.800 and goals possible for you in your life.

00:00:30.000 So the other day, I was doing a coaching call with my clients,

00:00:42.040 and a new client actually, it was right at the end of the call,

00:00:45.360 he actually asked a question that kind of took me

00:00:48.280 a little sideways.

00:00:49.180 And he said, hey, Dan, not really SaaS related,

00:00:52.560 because we were all SaaS founders on the call.

00:00:54.760 He goes, but if you could go over and start over again

00:00:58.440 in your business, because he was kind of starting off.

00:01:00.680 He was a little bit the ways, but he was a young guy.

00:01:02.960 He said, what would you do different?

00:01:05.380 And it made me think, because there's literally thousands

00:01:07.820 of things.

00:01:08.280 When people say, like, what's the secret to success?

00:01:10.500 Thousands of different things you could

00:01:12.200 do to be successful, from personal accountability,

00:01:14.860 to productivity, to team, to et cetera, et cetera.

00:01:17.700 But I said, what really struck to me when I say,

00:01:20.640 like, when did my life kind of go like this

00:01:22.720 and take a different trajectory was when I started investing

00:01:26.300 in relationships.

00:01:27.400 And I wish I would have done that a decade earlier.

00:01:30.500 And not really a decade, I was probably 25

00:01:33.580 when I started first outreaching and getting to know people.

00:01:38.020 And I started building companies when I was 17.

00:01:40.660 So what I want to share with you in this video

00:01:43.000 is how I went from literally more introverted, super nervous

00:01:47.200 about reaching out to people, scared that they would say no, 0.99

00:01:49.840 that they would judge me, that I would say something stupid 0.98

00:01:51.840 if I even had the chance to speak with them. 0.98

00:01:54.460 And really, the strategies I've implemented today

00:01:57.360 were now I've been privileged to get invited by guys

00:02:00.180 like Richard Branson to spend a week at his house

00:02:02.140 in Switzerland, to have Mark Cuban invest in my company,

00:02:05.320 to have Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO of Uber,

00:02:08.240 be an investor and mentor in my company, Flowtown.

00:02:11.420 And just really, when I look at my relationships

00:02:15.100 and the folks that I get to travel around the world with

00:02:18.680 and do incredible things like rally car racing and snowboard

00:02:22.280 and heli trips, kite boarding.

00:02:25.680 I'm not trying to brag, but in a week,

00:02:27.820 I'm jumping on a private jet and I'm

00:02:29.200 going to eight different cities all around Europe.

00:02:32.040 Those kind of things are 100% a byproduct

00:02:35.440 of relationships and people.

00:02:37.680 And this is how I would encourage you,

00:02:40.160 starting off potentially today, to really

00:02:42.320 get the most out of it.

00:02:43.380 Number one, go out.

00:02:45.120 So it's a pretty straightforward fundamental,

00:02:47.680 but if you don't leave your desk,

00:02:49.340 if you're just sitting there and typing on your keyboard

00:02:51.880 and getting what I call the keyboard cowboy tan,

00:02:54.520 you know, that like pale looking skin,

00:02:56.660 you're not gonna meet anybody, okay?

00:02:59.620 Like, I think, who was it?

00:03:01.660 Jared, who was it that said that, showing up?

00:03:03.860 80% of success is just showing up?

00:03:06.400 The director, no, he was the director.

00:03:07.900 Oh, it was Spielberg?

00:03:09.060 No, it was, it was, no, it was,

00:03:12.560 somebody in the comments let me know.

00:03:14.640 It was, oh man, Woody Harrelson, Woody.

00:03:18.900 Woody Allen.

00:03:19.540 Woody Allen, 80% of success

00:03:21.440 is just showing up.

00:03:22.580 Get out of your office.

00:03:24.500 Here's what that looks like, though,

00:03:26.300 is there are entrepreneurial events in your city.

00:03:29.000 You probably don't even know how it happened.

00:03:30.200 I don't care if you live in a small town.

00:03:32.100 They exist.

00:03:33.260 There are events that you can jump on a 45-minute flight

00:03:37.520 to get to the nearest bigger city around you

00:03:40.440 and join those events.

00:03:41.840 There are groups of people doing activities on,

00:03:46.440 and it could even be non-profits,

00:03:47.940 but you just got to get out and force yourself, 0.99

00:03:51.020 Even if you're like, damn, I'm an introvert. 0.99

00:03:53.120 That drains me. 0.99

00:03:54.380 Great.

00:03:55.020 Then don't tell me that you want to achieve

00:03:57.380 this level of success building companies

00:03:59.900 and then think that you're just going to sit in your office

00:04:02.580 and do nothing and it's going to happen.

00:04:04.760 Your ability to fast track and get access

00:04:08.900 to knowledge and information that's

00:04:10.260 going to help you accelerate your growth and even deals,

00:04:14.780 opportunities for customers is going

00:04:17.040 to be a byproduct of you communicating

00:04:19.460 with other human beings.

00:04:21.160 Don't think that you can sit behind a keyboard,

00:04:23.060 do Zoom sessions, Skype sessions, chat sessions, emails,

00:04:26.260 and accomplish the same thing.

00:04:27.360 There is something physiological that

00:04:29.460 happens when you sit in front of another human being

00:04:32.700 and have a conversation and look at them eye to eye

00:04:34.940 and break bread.

00:04:35.880 So highly recommend, get out of your office

00:04:38.580 and get out, make the commitment today.

00:04:40.880 Number two, host dinners.

00:04:43.020 Here's why I think, and I've done full videos

00:04:45.760 on founder dinners and the structure I use,

00:04:48.160 And you can even buy the book Mastermind Dinners

00:04:51.760 by my buddy Jason Gaynard.

00:04:53.840 It is the Bible for that.

00:04:55.620 I was inspired by a book called Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi.

00:04:59.060 But here's the reason, because a lot of people are like,

00:05:01.640 oh, I don't know if I could do this, da-da-da-da-da.

00:05:03.980 The easiest way, if you're going to go to an event,

00:05:06.580 you go and you go out, then just organize a dinner,

00:05:09.060 invite a few people you meet.

00:05:10.240 It can literally be that simple.

00:05:11.660 You're interacting, you sit next to somebody, hey, I'm John.

00:05:13.600 Hey, what are you doing for dinner?

00:05:14.720 Great, I'm organizing a group of people just like you

00:05:17.840 for dinner.

00:05:18.340 Are you free?

00:05:18.840 Yeah.

00:05:19.340 Then you go find two other people to organize that dinner.

00:05:21.460 You just told them that you're organizing

00:05:22.760 because it may not be true.

00:05:24.160 That's the way you do it.

00:05:25.420 You just start doing it.

00:05:26.960 Like, I don't know.

00:05:28.080 Like, there are other people that feel like you,

00:05:30.740 and they just need somebody to be the catalyst,

00:05:32.940 to be the connector in the center of it,

00:05:35.340 to pull them out of their office.

00:05:37.280 It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or an employee.

00:05:39.320 This strategy works.

00:05:40.340 It's incredible.

00:05:41.600 And it's through that, what the research has shown

00:05:43.940 is that the biggest opportunities don't

00:05:46.100 come from strong connections, they come from weak connections.

00:05:49.880 Meaning that all the opportunities you could extract

00:05:52.440 from somebody you know well, like your best friends

00:05:54.740 or your colleagues or your coworkers,

00:05:56.240 those have probably already been identified.

00:05:59.220 But the bigger opportunities, the new opportunities

00:06:01.920 are gonna come from your weakest connections.

00:06:03.520 So these are typically new people or friends of friends.

00:06:06.180 When you tell them what you're up to, they go,

00:06:07.420 oh, I know a guy, let me make an introduction.

00:06:10.520 That is crazy powerful.

00:06:12.500 And breaking bread, lunch, breakfast, keep it simple.

00:06:16.100 If you want to go, do dinners.

00:06:17.440 Those are fun too, but it's a bigger commitment

00:06:19.020 because if somebody has a family, it's a bigger ask.

00:06:21.480 I love when people invite me to lunches

00:06:23.220 because those are easy for me.

00:06:24.380 Everybody's got to eat.

00:06:25.700 Why not eat with a group of peers that might teach,

00:06:29.460 inspire, or that you can be helpful to somebody else?

00:06:31.800 So host dinners.

00:06:33.480 Number three, perfect your intro.

00:06:36.320 This is a huge shout out to my brother, Clay Hebert.

00:06:40.660 He is the creator of the perfect intro.

00:06:43.660 And I think that this is probably

00:06:45.480 one of the most fundamental things

00:06:48.260 you need to learn if you're really truly

00:06:49.840 going to connect and build relationships.

00:06:51.340 Here's why is too often, maybe it's

00:06:54.180 a belief mindset of I don't want to brag,

00:06:56.240 I don't want to be boastful, I'm humble, whatever it is you have.

00:06:59.660 When somebody genuinely leans in,

00:07:02.320 wants to know what you do, you downplay it.

00:07:05.900 Well, I do this.

00:07:09.140 You might own a $10 million a year software business,

00:07:11.860 and you go, I build a web app.

00:07:15.400 And that's just like, I've seen founders do that.

00:07:18.980 Somebody asked him, hey, yo, Mark, what do you do?

00:07:21.420 I build a web app.

00:07:23.380 OK, he's got 60 employees, does over $10 million in revenue,

00:07:27.220 and just got awarded fastest growing company

00:07:29.600 in the whole state.

00:07:30.820 That's who Mark is.

00:07:32.380 Dude, step up your game.

00:07:34.620 And I'm not saying you have to come out of the gate with that,

00:07:37.300 but understand how to introduce yourself,

00:07:39.760 and really just say who you serve.

00:07:41.260 So Clay's framework, the perfect intro,

00:07:43.360 you can Google it, go watch it.

00:07:45.020 He's taught it all over.

00:07:46.040 He's got a book coming.

00:07:47.440 It is so simple.

00:07:48.400 It's I help who your ideal customer is get,

00:07:51.500 and then result you help them get.

00:07:53.240 If you just start there, then what happens

00:07:55.340 is people lean in and go, oh, how do you do that?

00:07:59.080 One of my friends, Melanie, her perfect intro 0.97

00:08:01.020 is I help entrepreneurs create memorable experiences.

00:08:04.520 So all of a sudden, if I'm saying, hey, Melanie, what

00:08:06.360 do you do?

00:08:06.860 And she says that, I go, well, I'm an entrepreneur.

00:08:08.580 How do you do that?

00:08:09.380 What kind of events do you?

00:08:10.220 And then, boom, boom, boom, opportunity

00:08:12.700 to brag a little bit.

00:08:14.460 And it's not to brag to show off.

00:08:16.500 It's to give enough context for who the person is

00:08:19.140 so that we can identify opportunities together.

00:08:22.020 That is the reason why, especially as a Canadian,

00:08:24.980 so many people are so reserved and they don't want

00:08:28.120 to come off that way.

00:08:29.120 I'm telling you, you're hurting yourself.

00:08:30.760 You can pull back the onion layer by layer.

00:08:34.320 You don't have to come out with a big brag,

00:08:36.260 but you've got to be able to perfect your intro.

00:08:38.300 This is why I lived in San Francisco for five years.

00:08:41.400 And I believe that one of the benefits

00:08:43.420 of being in that environment is that on a daily basis,

00:08:46.620 you have the opportunity to iterate.

00:08:49.100 On a daily basis, I might be asked 20 to 50 times.

00:08:51.980 I'm not even joking, because you go to an event.

00:08:53.780 You go to lunch.

00:08:54.360 You meet people.

00:08:54.940 You're walking down the street.

00:08:55.820 You run into friends, et cetera.

00:08:57.080 What do you do?

00:08:58.200 That many times you get to iterate.

00:08:59.900 You get to see in somebody's eyes like, did he get it?

00:09:03.440 Oh, nope, didn't get it.

00:09:04.820 Totally confused.

00:09:05.620 All right, I'm going to try something different next time.

00:09:07.840 And it's that iteration that makes that city specifically

00:09:10.600 so powerful.

00:09:11.520 You might only get asked once or twice a month.

00:09:13.720 So do the work.

00:09:15.160 Perfect it.

00:09:15.840 I help ideal customer get result that you help them get.

00:09:20.360 Be specific.

00:09:21.480 And that'll open up the conversation

00:09:24.200 for your perfect intro.

00:09:25.900 Number four, add value.

00:09:28.600 Now, here is the biggest thing.

00:09:31.800 I literally met a guy, and I said, so what do you do?

00:09:34.760 And he says to me, I can't make this up,

00:09:37.000 I am one of the most connected people, blah, blah, blah,

00:09:39.980 blah, blah.

00:09:40.400 Literally, once he started saying connected people,

00:09:42.880 I was like, uh.

00:09:46.380 That was his spiel.

00:09:47.740 He was selling himself to me that he

00:09:50.200 was a well-connected person.

00:09:51.440 And here's the deal is he sounded like he knew people,

00:09:55.260 knew of people.

00:09:56.880 But what I'm more interested is how well do they know you

00:10:01.100 and how much do they trust you?

00:10:03.260 Because here's what I've learned is

00:10:05.440 that if we can add value to people,

00:10:07.820 if we can help other people, if we can go out of our way

00:10:10.800 and create connections for people,

00:10:13.000 then that creates a level of trust,

00:10:16.200 a level of reciprocity, a level of invested currency

00:10:21.980 in that relationship where that person isn't just somebody

00:10:25.560 you know.

00:10:26.220 I don't know why some people think of it as almost

00:10:28.060 like collecting baseball cards.

00:10:29.480 That's not what I'm talking about here.

00:10:31.720 It's not because, oh, that person knows my name.

00:10:34.120 That's the craziest thing in the world.

00:10:36.120 What I want to know is, if I call that person,

00:10:38.420 they're going to pick up.

00:10:39.320 If I email that person for a favor, they're going to respond.

00:10:42.300 If there's a situation where I'm in trouble,

00:10:46.540 that I can get some support.

00:10:47.900 Like, to me, that is why we add value,

00:10:51.100 to be able to give first without any expectation whatsoever,

00:10:55.240 so that at some point, maybe they

00:10:56.880 feel the need to reciprocate.

00:10:58.280 Or if you need a favor, you can call it in, OK?

00:11:01.140 Now, I know a lot of people that just give, give, give,

00:11:03.380 and they never ask, that's not good either,

00:11:04.920 because you don't allow the other person

00:11:06.620 to reciprocate, which creates some tension.

00:11:09.140 Most people don't know this.

00:11:10.040 I have a very good friend who always gives.

00:11:12.300 He never asks.

00:11:13.100 And then all these people are like, hey, man, it's not cool.

00:11:15.640 You never ask me for favor.

00:11:16.780 It's almost they take it as an insult.

00:11:18.960 So you want to add value.

00:11:20.380 How do you do that?

00:11:21.540 Offer introductions to specific people

00:11:23.480 that can solve that person's problem.

00:11:25.180 Don't do it blind.

00:11:26.440 Ask them first.

00:11:28.020 The worst, I had this happen the other day.

00:11:30.260 Hey, Dan, meet ex.

00:11:32.320 You guys should talk.

00:11:33.980 No context, no understanding why.

00:11:36.600 I knew the person well enough.

00:11:37.800 I feel like I trusted them.

00:11:38.980 I scheduled a 15-minute conversation.

00:11:41.480 And literally, it was two guys on a call,

00:11:44.180 trying to figure out why we got connected in the first place.

00:11:46.820 It was awkward.

00:11:47.840 Don't do that.

00:11:48.980 If you know somebody that can be helpful, offer it.

00:11:52.300 If you know that there's a potential client that

00:11:54.300 would be perfect, offer the introduction.

00:11:56.720 But add value first without any expectation whatsoever.

00:12:00.020 Number five, stay connected.

00:12:02.280 One of the things, if somebody asks me like,

00:12:04.100 what do you do really well?

00:12:05.800 I don't feel like I continue to add to the top of my network.

00:12:10.560 I feel like I've really thought thoughtfully

00:12:13.440 about my Dream 100, which I'm going

00:12:14.740 to share with you guys in a second how to learn more about.

00:12:17.180 And what I've done really well is just stay connected,

00:12:19.840 meaning that what I do, it's simple.

00:12:21.300 I don't have a CRM.

00:12:22.340 I don't make it super scientific.

00:12:24.320 I literally have a list of people in each city.

00:12:27.440 And sometimes I'll even use Facebook.

00:12:28.980 So if you go on Facebook and say, who lives in San Francisco,

00:12:32.340 or my friends who live in San Francisco,

00:12:34.580 my friends who live in New York, it'll actually

00:12:36.780 show you all your friends that are in those cities.

00:12:38.820 And then what I do when I travel, I organize lunches,

00:12:41.580 dinners, or breakfasts.

00:12:43.920 And I invite them to it.

00:12:44.920 Or I'll create an event.

00:12:46.500 I do a trip every year, 48 incredible entrepreneurs.

00:12:49.860 We jump on a helicopter.

00:12:51.300 We go skiing, incredible powder.

00:12:53.840 And it's something I get to curate.

00:12:55.220 And really, as I meet new people,

00:12:57.100 as I want to stay connected with old friends,

00:12:59.140 I invite them on that trip.

00:13:00.420 And it's just a really great way to do that.

00:13:02.280 But to me, it's just being somewhat

00:13:04.980 thoughtful to write their name down, stay connected,

00:13:07.600 see how you can help, and just invest.

00:13:10.760 I think that too often, what I love, and again,

00:13:13.360 my buddy Jason Gaynard said this, is if you do things right,

00:13:18.220 if you manage your integrity, and you deliver on what you say,

00:13:21.060 and you do all these things, the most valuable thing of all

00:13:23.940 of this is, yes, opportunities to grow,

00:13:25.760 opportunities to learn, be around people that inspire you,

00:13:28.820 all incredible things.

00:13:30.300 The most powerful thing for me is

00:13:32.600 knowing that no matter what happens to me in my life,

00:13:36.160 bad decision, lose everything, whatever it is.

00:13:40.100 I wouldn't even say the word be because I don't bring that

00:13:41.760 into my world, but bad things happen

00:13:44.680 that if you are a good person that always

00:13:47.060 invests in your relationship, that you'll

00:13:48.500 be able to call in the favor.

00:13:50.740 And that was one thing Jason shares in his story

00:13:52.740 is just that you can take everything from them,

00:13:55.440 but you can't take my relationships.

00:13:58.140 And it is in that foundation that we, as entrepreneurs,

00:14:02.580 get to dream bigger, focus on crazy ambitious goals,

00:14:07.980 knowing that we have the foundation of those people

00:14:10.600 to support us to achieve that.

00:14:12.680 I think that is probably the most exciting part

00:14:15.900 about going out, investing in relationships,

00:14:18.560 connecting with people, adding value,

00:14:20.160 is that this is something that will pay dividends for decades,

00:14:24.600 And it takes so little time.

00:14:26.320 They will have such a huge impact on your mindset,

00:14:28.560 on your confidence, on your ability

00:14:30.300 to learn really fast, solve big problems.

00:14:32.580 That is just the best ROI on your time.

00:14:35.100 It's why I wished I could have went back and started sooner.

00:14:38.780 So quick recap on how you invest in relationships.

00:14:41.440 Number one, go out.

00:14:43.380 Number two, host dinners.

00:14:44.980 Number three, perfect your intro.

00:14:47.780 Number four, add value.

00:14:50.000 Number five, stay connected.

00:14:52.320 So I mentioned at the beginning of this episode,

00:14:53.940 I want to share with you a framework

00:14:55.920 I created called the Dream 100 that I teach my coaching

00:14:58.320 clients.

00:14:58.820 The way this works is really simple.

00:15:01.020 You can click the link below to get access to that training.

00:15:03.380 But it's understanding that there's

00:15:04.620 three core types of groups of people

00:15:08.000 that you need to connect with.

00:15:09.000 The peers, these are people on the journey.

00:15:11.040 The advisors, the folks that have the missing information

00:15:13.540 that really round out your expertise.

00:15:15.320 And the mentors, the people have already

00:15:16.980 been where you want to go that can give you

00:15:18.860 perspective on vision.

00:15:20.440 Sometimes I joke that mentors are people you turn to instead

00:15:23.700 of your parents.

00:15:25.300 I dive way deeper on that topic in the training.

00:15:28.140 So you can click the link below to get access to that.

00:15:30.380 If you like this video, be sure to click the like button.

00:15:32.680 Leave a comment.

00:15:33.780 I would love to hear from you and also share it with anybody

00:15:36.480 that you think it could add value to.

00:15:38.640 And as per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger

00:15:40.860 life and a bigger business and I'll see you next Monday.

00:15:44.760 Ooh, this is a good one.

00:15:47.320 This is a good one.

Dan Martell - August 26, 2019

How To Build a Powerful Network

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