Networking, The Life Changing Magic Of

(00:13):

The Second Mix podcast where we reflect, revise, and remix our lives. My name is Matthew Bennett. Let's get right to it today and talk about the life changing magic of networking. Networking is something that I learned that can actually only be traced backwards. So it's really interesting. You can't guess what networking is going to do for you going forward. All you know is that you need to network, but you can't say exactly why or exactly what it's going to do for you. I recently began working with a client and getting paid more money from one client than I ever have in reflecting and analyzing exactly what happens to lead me to that point. I realized that there is nothing that I could have done exactly to plan this out the way that it happened. The whole thing started with music. I was in a jam band who we never planned on playing out anywhere.

(01:14):

We would just get together and have some fun playing some reggae music. And one time we had a singer come in and his name was Miguel Rodriguez. And I learned that he was a motivational speaker. So that got me interested. And we started speaking a little bit and he is who I mentioned in the last podcast. He's the guy I said, I need a list of names of more speakers that I can listen to. And he gave me the list of names. Well, I called him up a couple of months after I had been listening to all this motivational material to let him know how much he helped me and to let him know all of these changes that I made in my life based on all of the personal development teachings that I was listening to. He said, Matt, we're having an event. We're having a conference.

(02:03):

And I would really like you to speak at it. The event was called Excel. I said, yes, I would love to speak at it. That sounds really good. So I spoke at this event and through that speaking engagement, I met another guy that was there at the event. His name is Kyle demand and he owns a business called growth factor, which is a small business accelerator. And he does more than that now. But back then, he was just doing courses on how to start your online business. So we spoke a few times and I decided I'm going to go ahead and take this course at the time I was creating an intermediate blues course for my business, real clear keyboards. I went through his course to learn how to do all of that. I put my course up on teachable, which will come up later.

(02:51):

So I'm going through this course with Kyle and I absolutely loved it. And this leads me to a third change that I never expected from networking. I loved learning how to put this business together more than I loved teaching blues keyboards. I realized that I was so intrigued by everything that it took to create a landing page and an email sequence and everything else that needs to go into what you create and everything else that needs to go into building this online business presence. So I decided that's what I wanted to do. And I chose copywriting is my tip of the spear. I figured that kind of bleeds into all areas. So I started learning how to copyright and that led me to a fascination with marketing and online marketing and running a business in general. So, so far we've gone from Miguel to Excel, to Kyle demand and growth factor to teachable, which I mentioned in there to a new decision that I'm going to have more fun.

(03:53):

Helping people build businesses than I am teaching people how to play blues keyboards. So I started learning what it took to go from there. And then a friend of mine pointed out one day last summer that someone had posted in, in a Facebook group that they needed help with a teachable course. So my friend pointed it out. I called the guy, started working with them. We got his mastermind up and running and he said that he wanted to continue with this. And he said that he wanted to continue with me doing it. He, he wanted to keep doing it with my help. So in the end, that is that added some nice thousands of dollars to my bottom line. And all of that happened because I decided to go to this jam band reggae thing, but it, it wasn't just one step led to another.

(04:49):

This was step led to step led to step led to step led to step. I could never have done that. I can only trace it backwards in reflection on why this worked. It's important to know that number one, I was working on myself. I was already trying to become better. I was already reading the books. I was already expanding my knowledge and looking for opportunities. Number two, if I had not had the courage to reach out and talk to these people that I did not know, I would not have gotten anywhere. I could have spoken to Miguel and then ignored the fact that I got Kyle's number and never called him, never interacted with him. I might've never asked him what he did. And then I wouldn't have found out about growth factor and I wouldn't have found out about how he could help me.

(05:40):

I wouldn't have found out about growth factor and I wouldn't have learned how to get my course online. And that leads to number three. My eyes were open for opportunities, but they were also open to what do I want to do with my life? I had that thought in my head, what are my goals? What am I pursuing? And I thought it was to create a blues keyboard course, which you know, I'm still interested in blues keyboard. I didn't just ditch that project. However, I realized that I could align myself more with helping other people with their businesses and doing what I was learning to do right there. Then I was going to get more out of that than I would out of the blues keyboard course. I'm going to say this isn't a number four, but it is a three B. When I met my current client, he was asking for help on Facebook with teachable.

(06:33):

I am not a teachable designer. I've just designed a course on teachable. However, I just called him to see if he needed help with anything. I did see him reach out for help. And I decided, okay, I'm going to meet somebody new. I'm going to give them the information that I can. And you know, he, he could have known way more about teachable than me and he needed some specific questions answered that I couldn't answer. And at that point I would've said, well, I cannot answer your questions, but let's see if we can find somebody who can, but I overstepped all of that imposter syndrome stuff that kicks into your head and gives you reasons for not reaching out, gives you reasons for not networking. And I said, I'm just going to do this. And if I can't help him, then I can't help him.

(07:19):

Which makes number four, maybe the most important part of networking, you are going to attract some people and you are going to not attract some people and you have to be okay with that. You have to be okay with the fact that there are people who aren't going to like you, or aren't going to want to have anything to do with you. You just have to live with that because you're not out there looking for those people who are pushing you away. You're looking for the people that want to network with you. That is who you're looking for. You kind of have to spread the seeds everywhere and see which one grows. If you try to pick and choose, you're not, you're not going to get all these pleasant surprises that I got on that little journey. And that little journey was just one example of the many times that networking has helped me in my life.

(08:12):

So the thing about those four things, I'm going to put those four points in the blog post for this. So check out the blog, the second mix.com. There'll be a blog post with the same title as this podcast. And I'll read the points out neatly so that you can copy them and keep them in your notes until next time, start reaching out, start connecting with people, see what's going on in your community. See what's going on on your online communities become part of it. Add to the conversation. Remember not to be scared. There's going to be some people that think you're a dork. There are some people that think I'm a dork. I am not doing this for them. I'm doing this for the people who think I'm pretty cool. When the people who think of that, I have helpful information for them. So keep that in mind and just get out there and do your thing. If this helped you, you can help me out by subscribing to the blog going wherever you can review it and giving it five stars and maybe even sharing it with some friends. Thanks a lot. This is Matthew Bennett. Keep on reflecting, revising, and remixing your life

(09:17):

Thursday. [inaudible].