Hey there.
I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor
and creator of SaaS Academy.
In this episode, I'm going to share with you how
to invest in relationships to achieve your biggest
dreams and goals.
And be sure to stay to the end where
I'm going to share with you my Dream 100 framework, how
to identify the 100 people that I guarantee if you got
into your world would allow you to achieve the most
ambitious dreams and goals possible for you in your life.
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So the other day I was doing a coaching call with my clients.
And a new client-- actually, it was
right at the end of the call, he actually
asked the question that took me a little sideways.
And he said, hey, Dan, not really SaaS related--
because we were all SaaS founders on the call-- he goes,
but if you could go over and start over
again in your business-- because he was starting off.
He was a little bit the ways, but he was a young guy.
He said, what would you do different?
And it made me think.
Because there's literally thousands of things.
When people say what's the secret to success, thousands
of different things you could do to be
successful from personal accountability
to productivity to team to et cetera, et cetera.
But I said what really struck to me
when I say when did my life go like this
and take a different trajectory, was when I started
investing in relationships.
And I wish I would have done that a decade earlier--
and not really a decade.
I was probably 25 when I started first outreaching and getting
to know people.
And I started building companies when I was 17.
So what I want to share with you in this video is
how I went from literally more introverted, super nervous
about reaching out to people, scared that they would say no,
that they would judge me, that I would say some stupid
if I even have the chance to speak with them.
And really the strategies I've implemented today
where now I've been privileged to get invited by guys
like Richard Branson to spend a week at his house
in Switzerland-- to have Mark Cuban invest in my company,
to have Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO of Uber,
be an investor and mentor in my company Flowtown.
And just really when I look at my relationships and the folks
that I get to travel around the world with and do
incredible things like rally car racing and snowboard and heli
trips, kite boarding--
I'm not trying to brag, but in a week,
I'm jumping on a private jet I'm going to eight different cities
all around Europe.
Those kind of things are 100% a byproduct
of relationships in people.
And this is how I would encourage you
starting off potentially today to really get
the most out of it.
Number one, go out.
So it's a pretty straight forward fundamental.
But if you don't leave your desk-- if you're just
sitting there and typing on your keyboard
and getting what I call the keyboard cowboy
tan, that pale looking skin, you're
not going to meet anybody.
I think who was it?
Jarrod, who was it that said that, that showing up--
80% of success is just showing up?
The director.
No.
He was the director.
Oh, [INAUDIBLE] Silver.
No.
It was-- no, it was--
somebody in the comments let me know.
It was-- man.
Woody, Woody Harrelson.
Woody Allen.
80% of success is just showing up.
Get out of your office.
Here's what that looks like though.
There are entrepreneurial events in your city
you probably don't even know happen.
I don't care if you live in a small town.
They exist.
There are events that you can jump on a 45 minute flight
to get to the nearest bigger city around you,
enjoying those events.
There are groups of people doing activities on--
it could even be non-profits.
But you just gotta get out and force yourself.
Even if you're like, Dan, I'm an introvert.
That drains me.
Great.
Then don't tell me that you want to achieve this level
of success building companies.
And then think that you're just going to sit in your office
and do nothing, and it's going to happen.
Your ability to fast-track and get
access to knowledge and information
that's going to help you accelerate your growth and even
deals, opportunities for customers
is going to be a byproduct of you communicating
with other human beings.
Don't think that you can sit behind a keyboard,
do Zoom session, Skype sessions, chat sessions, emails,
and accomplish the same thing.
There is something physiological that
happens when you sit in front of another human being
and have a conversation and look at them
eye to eye and break bread.
So highly recommend get out of your office
and get out, make the commitment today.
Number two, host dinners.
Here's why I think-- and I've done
full videos on founder dinners and the structure I use.
And you can even buy the book Mastermind Dinners
by my buddy Jayson Gaignard.
It is the Bible for that.
I was inspired by a book called Never
Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi.
But here's the reason-- because a lot of people are like,
oh, I don't know if I could do this, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
The easiest way if you're going to go to an event,
[INAUDIBLE] you go in, you go out, then
just organize a dinner and invite a few people you meet.
It can literally be that simple.
You're interacting.
You sit next somebody, hey, I'm John.
Hey, what are you doing for dinner?
Great.
I'm organizing a group of people just like you for dinner.
Are you free?
Yeah.
Then you go find two other people
to organize that dinner you just tell them
that you're organizing.
Because it may not be true.
That's the way you do it.
You just start doing it like--
I don't know-- there are other people that feel like you.
And they just need somebody to be the catalyst,
to be the connector in the center of it
to pull them out of their office.
It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur, an employee,
this strategy works.
It's incredible.
And it's through that-- what the research has shown
is that the biggest opportunities don't
come from strong connections.
They come from weak connections, meaning
that all the opportunities you could extract from somebody
you know well like your best friends or your colleagues
or your co-workers, those have probably already
been identified.
But the bigger opportunities, the new opportunities
are going to come from your weakest connection.
So these are typically new people or friends of friends.
When you tell them what you're up to they go, oh.
I know a guy.
Let me make an introduction.
That is crazy powerful.
And breaking bread-- lunch, breakfast, keep it simple.
If you want to go do dinners, those are fun too.
But it's a bigger commitment.
Because if somebody has a family, it's a bigger ask.
I love when people invite me to lunches.
Because those are easy for me.
Everybody's gotta eat.
Why not eat with a group of peers
that might teach, inspire or that you can
be helpful to somebody else?
So host dinners.
Number three, perfect your intro.
This is a huge shout out to my brother Clay Herbert.
He is the creator of The Perfect Intro.
And I think that this is probably
one of the most fundamental things you
need to learn if you're really truly going to connect
and build relationships.
Here's why-- is too often--
maybe it's a belief mindset of I don't want to brag.
I don't want to be boastful.
I'm humble-- whatever it is you have.
When somebody genuinely leans in, wants to know what you do,
you downplay it.
Well, I do this.
You might own a $10 million a year software business,
and you go I build a web app.
I've seen founders do that.
Somebody asks them, hey, Mark, what do you do?
I build a web app.
He's got 60 employees, does over $10 million in revenue,
and just got awarded fastest growing company
in the whole state.
That's who Mark is.
Dude, step up your game.
And I'm not saying you have to come out of the gate with that.
But understand how to introduce yourself
and really just say who you serve.
So Clay's framework, The Perfect Intro, you can Google it.
Go watch it.
He's taught it all over.
He's got a book coming.
It is so simple.
It's I help who your ideal customer is get and then
result you help them get.
If you just start there then what happens
is people lean in and go, oh.
How do you do that?
One of my friends, Melanie, her perfect intro
is I help entrepreneurs create memorable experiences.
So all of the sudden if I'm saying, hey, Melanie,
what do you do?
And she says that, I go, well, I'm an entrepreneur.
How do you do that?
What kind of events?
And then boom, boom, boom, opportunity
to brag a little bit.
And it's not to brag to show off.
It's to give enough context for who
the person is so that we can identify opportunities
together.
That is the reason why-- especially as a Canadian,
so many people are so reserved.
And they don't want to come off that way.
I'm telling you, you're hurting yourself.
You can pull back the onion layer by layer.
You don't have to come out with a big brag.
But you got to be able to perfect your intro.
I lived in San Francisco for five years.
And I believe that one of the benefits of being
in that environment is that on a daily basis
you have the opportunity to iterate.
On a daily basis, I might be asked 20 to 50 times.
I'm not even joking.
Because you go to an event.
You go to lunch.
You meet people.
You're walking down the street.
You run into friends, et cetera.
What do you do?
That many times you get to iterate.
You get to see in somebody's eyes like, did he get it?
Oh, no.
Didn't get it.
Totally confused.
All right, I'm going to try something different next time.
And it's that iteration that makes that city specifically
so powerful.
You might only get asked once or twice a month.
So do the work, perfect it.
I help ideal customer get results that you help them get.
Be specific.
And that will open up the conversation
for your perfect intro.
Number four, add value.
Now, here is the biggest thing.
I literally met a guy.
And I said, so what do you do?
And he says to me--
I can't even make this up--
I am one of the most connected people,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Literally, once he started saying connected people
I was like, ah.
That was his spiel.
He was selling himself to me that he
was a well-connected person.
And here's the deal is he sounded like he
knew people, knew of people.
But what I'm more interested is how well do they know you?
And how much do they trust you?
Because here's what I've learned is
that if we can add value to people, if we
can help other people, if we can go out of our way
and create connections for people, then
that creates a level of trust, a level of reciprocity,
a level of invested currency in that relationship
where that person isn't just somebody you know.
I don't know why some people think
it is almost like collecting baseball cards.
That's not what I'm talking about here.
It's not because, oh, that person knows my name.
That's the craziest thing in the world.
What I want to know is if I call that person,
they're going to pick up.
If I email that person for a favor,
they're going to respond.
If there's a situation where I'm in trouble,
that I can get some support.
To me, that is why we add value--
to be able to give first without any expectation
whatsoever so that at some point maybe
they feel the need to reciprocate.
Or if you need a favor, you can call it in.
Now, I know a lot of people that just give, give, give.
And they never ask.
That's not good either.
Because you don't allow the other person to reciprocate,
which creates some tension.
Most people don't know this.
I have a very good friend who always gives.
He never asks.
And then all these people are like, hey, man.
It's not cool.
You never asked me for favor.
Almost they take it as an insult.
So you want to add value.
How do you do that?
Offer introductions to specific people
that can solve that person's problem.
Don't do it blind.
Ask them first.
The worst-- I had this happened the other day.
Hey, Dan, meet X. You guys should talk.
No context, no understanding why.
I knew the person well enough.
I feel like I trusted them.
I scheduled a 15 minute conversation.
And literally, it was two guys on a call,
trying to figure out why we got connected in the first place.
It was awkward.
Don't do that.
If you know somebody that can be helpful, offer it.
If you know that there's a potential client that
would be perfect, offer the introduction.
But add value first without any expectation whatsoever.
Number five, stay connected.
One of the things-- if somebody asks me
like what do you do really well?
I don't feel like I continue to add to the top of my network.
I feel like I really thought thoughtfully
about my Dream 100-- which I will
share with you guys in a second how to learn more about.
And what I've done really well is just stay connected,
meaning that what I do, it's simple.
I don't have a CRM.
I don't make it super scientific.
I literally have a list of people in each city.
And sometimes I'll even use Facebook.
So if you go on Facebook and say,
who lives in San Francisco-- or my friends who
live in San Francisco, my friends who live in New York,
it'll actually show you all your friends
that are in those cities.
And then what I do when I travel,
I organize lunches, dinners, or breakfasts.
And I invite them to it.
Or I'll create an event.
I do a trip every year--
48 incredible entrepreneurs.
We jump on a helicopter.
We go skiing, incredible powder.
And it's something I get to curate.
And really, as I meet new people,
as I want to stay connected with old friends,
I invite them on that trip.
And it's just a really great way to do that.
But to me, it's just being somewhat
thoughtful to write their name down, stay connected, see
how you can help.
And just invest.
What I love, and, again, my buddy Jayson Gaignard said this
is if you do things right, if you manage your integrity,
and you deliver on what you say, and you do all these things--
the most valuable thing of all of this is, yes,
opportunities to grow, opportunities to learn,
be around people that inspire you--
all incredible things.
The most powerful thing for me is
knowing that no matter what happens
to me in my life, bad decision, lose
everything, whatever it is--
I won't even say the word [INAUDIBLE],,
because I don't bring that into my world.
But bad things happen.
That if you are a good person that always invests
in your relationships that you'll
be able to call in the favor.
And that was one thing Jayson shared in his story
is just that you can take everything from them.
But you can't take my relationships.
And it is in that foundation that we as entrepreneurs
get to dream bigger, focus on crazy,
ambitious goals knowing that we have
the foundation of those people to support us to achieve that.
I think that is probably the most exciting part
about going out, investing in relationships,
connecting with people, adding value
is that this is something that will pay dividends for decades.
And it takes so little time that will have such a huge impact
on your mindset, on your confidence, on your ability
to learn really fast, solve big problems.
That is just the best ROI on your time.
It's why wished I could've went back and started sooner.
So quick recap on how you invest in relationships.
Number one, go out.
Number two, host dinners.
Number three, perfect your intro.
Number four, add value.
Number five, stay connected.
So I mentioned at the beginning of this episode
I want to share with you a framework I
created called The Dream 100 that I teach my coaching
clients.
The way this works is really simple.
And you can click the link below to get access to that training.
But it's understanding that there's three core types
of groups of people that you need to connect with--
the peers, these are people on the journey--
the advisors-- the folks that have the missing information
that really round out your expertise-- and the mentors--
the people who have already been where you want to go that
can give you perspective on vision.
Sometimes I joke that mentors are
people you turn to instead of your parents.
I dive way deeper on that topic in the training.
So you can click the link below to get access to that.
If you like this video, be sure to click the Like button.
Leave a comment.
I would love to hear from you.
And also share it with anybody that you
think it could add value to.
And as per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger
life and a bigger business.
And I'll see you next Monday.
This is a good one.