Your Network Is Your Net Worth

In this episode, we discuss the world of networking with our guest, Charles Byrd. We explore how true relationships extend beyond mere business deals. Genuine interactions, rather than just transactions, forge deep and meaningful connections within the business community:
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• Authenticity is Key: True connections come from the heart, not just the mind.
• Leadership in Communities: Being an active voice makes you the trusted expert.
• Structured Conversations Win: A clear strategy in talks leads to better outcomes
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Join us as we reveal insights that are crucial for anyone aiming to enhance their business networks.

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Key Takeaways

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• Establishing Genuine Connections - Emphasize authenticity in conversations, avoid a purely utilitarian approach, and cultivate reciprocal relationships that consider both personal and mutual goals.

• Becoming a Community Leader - Position oneself as an authority by demonstrating expertise, offering valuable support and solutions, and consistently engaging in meaningful community interactions.

• Strategic Conversations for Win-Win Outcomes - Articulate clear success metrics, balance business intent with a personal touch, and use structured processes to guide mutually beneficial discussions.

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Top 3 Reasons to Listen

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Real World Applications: Hear real-world applications of networking strategies that have been successfully implemented by a seasoned expert in various business scenarios.

Insights From An Expert: Gain invaluable insights directly from Charles Byrd, an expert who seamlessly transitioned from Silicon Valley to becoming a leader in the networking landscape.

Avoid Common Pitfalls:  Learn about common networking pitfalls and gain insights into how to navigate around them to ensure your networking efforts are effective.
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More About Today's Guest, Charles Byrd

Human lead magnet. Value first relationships. JV / LeadFlow Close Engineer. Productivity / Integrated Systems expert.

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From the bustling corridors of Silicon Valley to the digital highways of the online world, Charles Byrd has left an indelible mark on the tech and business sectors. Formerly a director at a billion-dollar software conglomerate, Charles earned his nickname as "The Chaos Killer", mastering the arts of project development and product launch strategy. However, not one to be confined to the corporate maze, he embarked on a journey of independence, launching his inaugural online product - a ground-breaking productivity course.

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But Charles didn't stop there. Harnessing his in-depth knowledge of project management and systems, he pioneered a unique marketing strategy, propelling his course to new heights through joint ventures. With a staggering record of securing 2-6 Joint Venture promotions weekly, he transformed his expertise into a systematic blueprint. Today, entrepreneurs and companies from around the globe seek out Charles Byrd, eager to grasp the magic formula that turns chaos into systematized success.

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A Transcription of The Talk

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Mark Drager: So Charles, many of the business owners that I work with, many people in my network, including, and I will be honest, including myself, we are customers of yours because you have somehow, apparently come from nowhere over the last few years to be in every room, in every mastermind group, in every network. This isn't even hyperbole for me to say, like, I was gonna say every stage, not every stage, but on a lot of stages. Because what you teach us business owners, for those of us who are introverted like me, for those of us who are not systems or process-focused like me, you teach us how to make better connections, to get on other people's podcasts, to set up joint ventures and affiliates, to essentially turn these relationships with people we're meeting into really tactical and really strategic connections so we can all do more business together. And I don't know why other people don't teach us, but you are the man for it. So Charles, tell us, what are we getting wrong with affiliates? What are we getting wrong with joint ventures? How are you approaching networking wrong?

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Charles Byrd: Well, thank you for the kind words, thank you for having me on the show. So I think what a lot of people get wrong is they walk into a room, and they have no specific goal for being there. They don't know what their winning outcomes are or exactly what they're looking for. Frequently, they may come into a room with the "What's In It For Me" mindset, instead of a "how can I be of service to others" mindset. They may also bounce around a room thinking they're doing themselves a favor by meeting as many people as they can, while they connect with none of those people. And then even if they do find enough synergy, they may share their contact information, not realizing that it's pointless.

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Mark Drager: Like, look, here I am, you can follow up with me and do all of the work.

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Charles Byrd: That approach is a disservice. Because no one will follow up. It's not because you're not amazing. And don't think what you're doing is cool. It's just because everyone's life is really busy. So by having a goal for an event, knowing who you are looking to connect with, looking for ways to be of service to others systematically, taking 100% responsibility for following up with people, and then guiding those follow-ups into winning outcomes. And winning outcomes could mean different things to different people. For me, it means someone's an ideal client referral partner, they have events that would be ideal for me to speak at, maybe they have a podcast like Mark's, you know. And so just having a framework for those things, and a method, a systematic method that takes the guesswork out of the process. A lot of people just don't have that kind of exposure. So they do their best, but they let opportunities just float past them all day and walk right out the door. Because they don't have a framework for it. Having that kind of framework, understanding it's better to have a small handful of deep longer conversations than 20 short conversations. And then a systematic follow-up approach, it makes a massive difference in the outcomes people get.

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Mark Drager: I can speak now. I often wonder when will the listeners get tired of me raving about the people I have on? But there's a reason why I specifically asked you to be here because I was at an event last week. And just before we hit record, I was like, You know what, I have a few connections I've actually made with you because, you know, we've all, if you've been in personal development or thought leadership, you've heard of the reticular activating system, you've heard of the RAS, you know, if you buy a new Jeep, suddenly you see Jeeps everywhere, if you suddenly, you know, you're looking for something, it's out there. And when I came to this event last week, for the first time, I didn't even realize you helped me with this. But I actually had a specific reason to be there. I had a list of people that I wanted to connect with. And halfway through the event, I realized I was never going to complete my list and I had to refocus my time to go like, I need to get in front of these people. And I structured the conversations, especially one in a much more Ford way than I ever would, which is they were there for business. I was there for business. We were both there for business, we only had 15 minutes. How do we make the most of our time, like as cool as it is to make friends? How do we make the most of our time and there's 320 people at this event. I couldn't possibly meet everyone even though I've been going there for years. And so I just focused on fewer deeper connections than trying to hit everyone and as you just went through the summer, I must have learned all of that from you.

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Charles Byrd: Fantastic, then it always feels good to support people and help them get results and give them a framework for getting way more out of those kinds of events and giving away more because that's a whole part of the process. Good for you for concentrating, like slowing down and focusing on a few deeper conversations and relationships from that. Last weekend I was in Utah, spending some time with Russell Brunson and a few other folks, David Goggins was there and several other authors that the next day were speaking at a big event. In this party, three hours, there was only so much time to talk to people, I could have, of course, spent six or nine hours in a room like that, but I only had three hours. So there were probably only four or five follow-ups that I had coming out of that which I would have loved to have more. But if I tried to get more, I would have gotten less. So connecting with folks, hearing what they're up to, in those 15 minutes you have, learning more about them, who they serve, and you're determining, is there a meaningful reason to connect and follow up and have a deeper conversation? At any event like that, I'm generalizing a little bit, you'll never land a deal, you will never land a client in that moment, you're not even trying to, you shouldn't try to, it should be about connecting enough to figure out if there's enough synergy for a follow-up conversation post-event and getting that scheduled as quickly as possible. Because there's a halflife to the warm and fuzzy feelings coming out of an event like that. So if you and I met at an event, had a great conversation, we'd be feeling really good about each other and the interaction, and excited for the follow-up. But if neither one of us follows up for a day, two days, that warm and fuzzy feeling gets a little smaller.

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Mark Drager: I got back on Thursday, it's now Monday, and I haven't done all my follow-ups yet. Is it like it's over? It's over for me.

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Charles Byrd: It's not over. Each day that goes by means there are fewer people who will actually engage in follow-up. So it's not to say no, if it's Thursday, and it's Monday, you're fine. Get those out today, and tomorrow, you'll be doing great.

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Mark Drager: So I know a big part of what I took away from this, and a big part of your training is really, I think, two key areas. First of all, you mentioned this, what are your winning outcomes? Can you help us understand how to think about this, and what this looks like? And then, follow up to that is how to structure really great conversation so that way, if you know what your winning outcomes are, and again, what those look like, how do we get people there without making them feel used? Or, like we're just cutting to the chase? Or that this is just business? How do we manage that? Sure. Well,

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Charles Byrd: As you know, because you've gone through it, I have a very specific process that guides those conversations. And so a lovely way to make people feel not used is to not use them.

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Mark Drager: Of course, of course.

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Charles Byrd: So, but what I mean, too, is if people legitimately know that you're in their corner, and you care about them and their goals and their clients, it changes how that whole interaction feels. If they know upfront that you're looking out for them, regardless of the outcomes for you, it changes the energy of a call faster than anything. And the way you do that is by building actual rapport with them. Listen, listen to what they have going on, ask them, like, I think a typical 30-minute follow-up call, the amount of that call that should be about you is about 6% of the call, the rest of the call should be about them. 10 at most. So that if I'm jumping on with you, I'm like, Mark, tell me what you have going on? What are you working on that has you excited? Who's your ideal client? And what are you working on? Do you need any input or support or connections? If you know upfront that I'm in it for you, it immediately changes the whole feeling of the conversation. Once they realize you're on their team, they're like, oh my goodness, okay, you can feel the conversation shift when it's not about you. And then legitimately see ways of serving and supporting them. I call it leveraging your superpowers. Each of us may have a different one. But mine happens to be in my network. I can talk to almost anyone and I'll have a few good connections for them that meet a need they have. So let's dig into that for a second. Maybe they're redoing their website or branding, and they need a connection. Send them to Mark is what I would do. I agree. Or maybe as they describe their ideal client maybe like, Hey, I've got the perfect referral for you. Are you up for referrals? Like you offer someone a connection like that, and they're immediately on Team Mark. Like, they're like, What? All right, I like where this is. And then as you're asking about what they're up to, you're also kind of making a mental list of ways you could work together. And there's a whole range of ways you could work together. You could become clients of each other one way or another, or both. Maybe their client base is perfect for your offer. Maybe they have an audience or an event that you could contribute value to. So by asking all about what they have going on, you can start making out a mental list of ways you could work together. And then you choose internally, where's the biggest winning outcome between us, our audiences, our clients, each other? What's the best winning outcome for everybody, and then you guide the call straight into that particular winning outcome? Because without a framework like this, people will get on follow-up calls that lead absolutely nowhere. I've teed up intros that easily could have been worth hundreds of thousands or millions. But because neither one knew how to guide a call or get to a winning outcome they didn't. It's like sleepwalking right past each other.

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Mark Drager: Yeah, ships passing in the night kind of thing.

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Charles Byrd: Yeah. So that's why having these frameworks makes any type of business that involves relationships go a lot further, a lot faster.

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Mark Drager: And so depending on the type of business you may have, as you mentioned, you know, there's contributing to other people's events. So if you have a speech, or Keynote, this makes total sense to have a podcast. This makes sense. If you have a blog or do content marketing, you can interview the other people and bring them on board. Walk me through, though embedded partnerships, because this is one of the things that I think most people overlook. Some people may be familiar with affiliate marketing, where you have someone else sell your product for you, and you're gonna give them a commission, maybe some of us sell through direct channels, or wholesale or what have you if you're listening to this. But embedded partnerships is a really interesting area that I don't think people are tapping into. Sure. So

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Charles Byrd: I'll briefly list out four partnership types, including embedded partnerships, and we'll dive into it. So a few examples of partnership types would be presenting to other people's groups, whether high-level groups or broad lists, referral partnerships, where you're sending a warm connection to each other, or, you know, to whoever's receiving it, embedded partnerships, which I'll go into in a second. And then social jayvees, things like this podcast, by inviting me to be a guest, it's your audience, and we're partnering, where you're sharing value through what we're talking about, and I'm getting exposure to your audience, that's a partnership itself,

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Mark Drager: and potentially, because you're gonna be so blown away by being on my podcast, you know, we're gonna give you the assets, we're gonna give you the swipe files, you're gonna want to email this out to everyone, right?

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Charles Byrd: Definitely. And that grows your following and exposure as well to a street there are. So embedded partnerships. There's several different flavors of this, but I'll give a few examples. One is when your product or service is inside of another person's offer. I'll give you an example of that. I had three clients on stage with Tony Robbins last month. And not only were they onstage with Tony, their offers are inside of Tony's because I taught them how to create embedded partnerships. So every time Tony sells a business mastery offer my clients' offers are inside it. So they're not doing the sales. They're not doing the lead gen. It's Tony's audience, Tony makes a sale, they get a client. So that's one type. Another would be to be an expert in a community can the joint venture expert in John Astor after winning the game of business and Eben pagans virtual coach program in the Genius Network in founders board doing joint venture workshops in a mastermind that you're in, I'm coming in next year as the joint venture expert in that group. So not only is the founder coming on as a client, I'll be booked to speak three times next year teaching that whole community how to think about joint ventures how to execute joint ventures, ways to connect and provide value first. So by being a leader within the community itself, you automatically get a lot more exposure authority, you end up getting clients because you are the expert in that community and you know how to serve and support so any one of us with our particular expertise can do that. You can do that as a branding expert and like each of us can come in to a community and become the go-to expert in that area. So it takes a little bit of time it takes some work it takes some learning but it's very doable.

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Mark Drager: not only can you do this sometimes your superpower and and I don't know how you feel about this, I'd be interested in getting your advice. Sometimes your superpower or your gift or your skill set is even slightly outside of maybe what your business is. And so I've been you talked about Matt Andrews, the private mastermind group have been a part of for a few years and I've gone down now for five years. Conferences and I help them direct the entire three day event. Now, I don't sell that service that's like not a service I sell. But I do know that I care a lot about them. I'm connected directly with leadership. I'm running stuff behind the stage last week, and we were hanging out with Hulk Hogan, which was cool. But I had certain access, because I'm directing the show for the events, even though it's not a service that we do. And people would come up to me and say, like, you know, they know me now. And they can see me on stage and they see my face. And if you're emceeing events, or doing whatever it is in support, they see that I'm involved somehow. And they go like, Oh, can can you do this for us? And I go, No, I do this other thing. Now, let me introduce you to this other thing, but I kind of equate it to the church I used to go to you know, the person playing the guitar or drumming is like a lawyer or an accountant, but they're part of a community and they happen to have this other gift or skill set, and they can still pour into the community in some way to provide some leadership. And so I've even tried to find ways like one or two degrees removed from maybe even what my business does just to get active, get involved, get connected with leadership, get exposure, all of those things. Is that something that? What are your thoughts on that?

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Charles Byrd: it's very smart to do that. Now, I say, ideally, you're able to come in and provide your core expertise as that value add. But on the path to relationship building, what you're doing is absolutely perfect. So a lot of different communities like I have a photography and film and music, background, different creative, things like that. So like once Eben Pagan invited me to a mastermind, and I noticed there was no photographer. So I came up to him and his wife, Annie, and like, want some pictures taken. And then we're like, definitely, we never have pictures from these events, that would be awesome. So snap off some shots. And he's thrilled because there's all these great shots of her on stage, then I share it with them, it brings our relationship closer, I saw something that wasn't being there was a need, that I had a skill set to fill, just like you have the skill set to fill. And this is what providing value first looks like you're there providing value first, and that builds and strengthens a relationship. And then as you get closer with folks because you're legitimately care about them and what they're up to and their success, then the opportunities start coming from all all directions. Like that Eben Pagan example from from there, he invited me into high level peer mastermind group that we met every month or every week for three plus years. In fact, I was hanging out with Evan, week before last in in Austin, and in that group was Jeff Walker, Stu McLaren, Marie Forleo, Jay Abraham, like 70 people deep of the best marketers in the world. So by going out of your way to build a relationship provide value first. That's what actually creates real long lasting partnerships, opportunities and really strong relationships.

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Mark Drager: Well, I can't just say, you know, if you're listening to this right now, and you're like, it's never been a strength of mine, it hasn't been a strength of mine. If you feel introverted, if you're not not quite sure how to handle conversations, or when you go to a large event, private event, a networking event, gosh, I used to hate, you know, private dinners, because because not only do you have to pick your seat for the whole night, but you're kind of you kind of talk to the person your left or right across from you the whole night. But now you know what, it doesn't even bother me. I even invited a few people to join me at breakfast because I realized like I could talk to anyone about anything like this isn't so hard or intimidating. And so if you're struggling with this, then I would I would recommend definitely following up with Charles and all of his details will be in the show notes. Check out pure JV. This isn't an ad I'm not even an affiliate or anything like that. It's just something that I believe in, because I have worked through it and seen a lot of value out of it over the last nine months. And so that's my little that's my little soapbox. Now. I do want to wrap up the conversation with the question that I asked everyone who's on which is what is your number one tip or strategy to help us sell?

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Charles Byrd: My number one strategy to sell more is to connect more connection equals opportunity. Connection equals conversion. My friend Richard Linder, who runs the founders board mastermind with Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss, he and I were prepping for me to do a JV workshop to that whole community. And he came up with that go as

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I was going through my overview is like connection equals conversion. And it is true by taking a little extra time to connect with people and build relationships with them. It opens the floodgates to not only work with them, but work with their client base to work with their community to get referrals. There's so many ways to win by just actually building better relationships. So ping someone in your phone, ping a friend on LinkedIn or Facebook share something you think they'll find interesting. Or just reach out and say it's been a while I'd love to jump on and hear what you're working on that has you excited and then listen for ways to serve and support. align those winning outcomes and you absolutely will sell more.