Your Network Is Your Net Worth

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What’s shaking? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. All right, have you ever heard the phrase, It’s not what you know, it’s who you know? I’ve heard that so many freaking times. Today we’re going to talk about networking and the power of it. All right, this might be a tag on to an episode that just published a few weeks ago about, you know, how I was talking about certifications and education and all that; they actually don’t get the deals done. It’s actually if you can do what you say you’re going to do, and it’s more so dependent upon marketing, right? Because nobody actually knows if you can really do what you say you’re going to do until they actually hire you to begin with; before then, it’s all about getting them to trust you and building their confidence level in you, your company, and the product or service that you’re offering. And that’s why they actually sign for real. It has nothing to do with the certifications or the education, because there’s no way for them to know if that even matters, right, if that even allows you to do what you say you’re going to do. 

So today, how do you get those people in front of you in the first place? Okay? And that comes down to networking. That comes down to who you decide to know. And I say that with purpose, the way that I just said that about who you decide to know, because you’ve got general things. And this—I’m talking to small businesses here, right? Small and mid-sized businesses, and plus there are big ones that this obviously applies to. I mean, legitimately, like, reach out. My public cybersecurity company, a publicly traded cybersecurity company, would not be that way if I did not have the network that I’ve built, because it allowed people to be put into place, people external to the company, external to the company that allowed its ascension to a publicly traded company from being just me, literally me, one person, an IT guy, 14 freaking years ago, and building the network and finding people to fill these gaps, and even more so, mentors. Oh my gosh, mentors. 

I’ve had so many along the way, and that’s the reason I am where I am right now: finding people within my network and building that when they’ve done it before, they’ve done exactly what I’ve been doing before. It’s a little difficult. And I’ve said this in the past: it’s a little difficult for somebody to show you the way on something when they haven’t been there before. Absolutely, you know. And I’m grateful because, I mean, now we’ve got almost 100 employees. 100 employees, a little under 100 employees within the company. And it’s like, I can’t. I’ve said before, it’s like, this is my first public company. It’s my first one. And at the same time, I already did it; I already brought it public. I’m one of the few that has been able to accomplish this, you know, because there are not many public companies that exist. I think there are like 3500 on the NASDAQ. That’s it, you know. And in my industry, like, in total, all industries in my industry alone, there are like over 200,000 managed service providers. 

And this doesn’t include literally any other industry in the figures that I’m giving you. It’s crazy, because there are millions of businesses in the United States, and there are not many that can say, “I took a company public, and I got there. I’m listed, you know, I can.” I’ve been there before, which means I could actually help somebody else do it. There’s no way I could have been able to do that if I didn’t do it already. And that’s why I built a network, because I built a network with people and put them on my team and showed mentors of those who have done this already. I learned a long time ago, and this is how it is, right? Your network can continue to grow. Your network needs to continue to grow, but when it comes to mentors, I hope that at some point you actually outgrow some of yours, because that means that you have now gone beyond their knowledge. And then you can find another one. This is exactly how it happened for me. 

Then you can find me. Then you can find another one that can take you through the next season, and then the next season is a different mentor, or mentors at the same time, depending on what competencies you might need help with. It’s amazing. But the only way to do this—and I see this in my industry a lot, which I do because it’s so interesting, and I used to not think this way—is because there’s this way, because there’s this thing called the channel in my industry, and it consists of events. You know, there are vendors there, like software companies, that are trying to sell their tool sets, their utilities, to companies like mine and others. And these events, you know, the biggest ones, the biggest ones might have 4000 people at them. You know, from what I’ve been to, you know, generally speaking, though, the events will have a couple of hundred, you know, two or three hundred on average. 

And most of these events, and it’s called the channel, and in my experience now, over the last two years, acquiring other businesses within my industry to grow my own, to bring them underneath my umbrella, underneath Reach Out Technology, I have found that so many don’t even know that this channel exists, that there’s this like subculture that exists, that this community exists. It’s crazy to me, and I look at some of these, you know, which are the majority. I would say 90% of the companies in my industry have them. No idea that that community, the channel, actually even exists. You know, now some of them, some business owners in my industry, which is—I’m assuming this is the same in a lot, right? Because I know a lot of business owners, I’m assuming it’s the same. You know, lawyers will have groups that they go to and hang out with other lawyers, right? And so it guys will maybe go to the Chamber of Commerce or something, and that’s a community that’s an example of networking and being able to build your network. 

But the problem is, here’s the issue, and this is it: if you want to build your network and get to anywhere that I’m at beyond where I’m at, anywhere that one of your friends has gotten to that’s beyond where you’re at right now, you need to have a network, and you need to understand the value of that network and be able to pull the value out. But before you can do that, the way to build the network and attend, even if it’s a chamber of commerce event, is tonot go there to find business. You are not going there to find business. You are going there to bring value. You are going there to teach. You are going there to offer yourself, to see what you can do to provide to other people that might end up being business at some point. But even more than that, you are there to ask for help. You are there to ask for help with whatever you may be working on right now, your top priority right at this moment, and it’s not to ask that person to be like, Hey, you want to talk about business? You know, I can sit down with you. Let’s go see how I can, you know, fix your servers and all that stuff. No, that’s not what you’re doing. Be like, Hey, you know what? This is what I do. Here’s what I’m looking for. I need help with clients right now. 

Do you know anybody that I might be able to help see how you’re putting that outside, or, you know what? You know? What’s it? You can ask this question: what’s your biggest priority right now? Because I want to know how I can help you, and it probably has nothing to do with your product or service that you’re offering. It could be like, oh, you know what? You know, we just—we just had our internal accountant, you know, our bookkeeper, just quit and go somewhere else. We’re like, three months behind, you know. Do you know anybody who’s like, “Hey, you know, I actually use an outsourced bookkeeper, and they’ve done a great job for me”? You know, this is what you can say: “I’m going to connect you with them, and that’s it. That’s it. Then you can follow up two weeks later. It’s like, Hey, how’d that connection go? How’d that interaction go? What else can I do to help you? Hey, by the way, can I ask you for help? Because here’s something that I’m working on right now. This is one of my big priorities, or here’s my top two priorities. 

This is how you build the network. And the value of this is absolutely incredible. This is the same way how Kevin Harrington ended up on my board. The original shark from Shark Tank is building the network with them. You know what? Long before we did business like he before he was on the board. I’ve told this story before, but there’s a part of it I don’t tell too often. We had breakfast every single quarter at an entrepreneurial event. We were both there to network right with everybody else, and it was just him and I for breakfast. It just happened that way. When breakfast said, We’re gonna keep doing this right? I asked him right away. I’m like, Dude, this is what I’m doing. I want to roll up companies. Roll up it. Companies want to go public at some point. You know, you know, what about that? What about jumping on? And I didn’t say roll up right away, because he understood that guy. He’s like, I don’t understand cybersecurity. I don’t get involved in things that I that I don’t help with. So first I asked him for help, right? Would you? Would you help me? And he’s like, you know, I don’t know anything about that, so I’m not going to do that. 

I’m like, okay, cool. How about we have breakfast again? We did the second breakfast for real. It’s like, dude, what can I do to help you? And he’s like, man, Rick, I got this, and he knew that I was building a personal brand, I had some influence. And he’s like, I’ve got this, I’ve got this book that I’m releasing, you know, mentor to millions. And I’m like, Dude, that’s awesome. That’s so cool. And he’s like, Yeah, I’m trying to build up the sales, because I want to, I want to make the Wall Street Journal best sell of this and possibly the New York Times Best Seller list. I’m like, Well, I know, I can I help you with this? He’s like, Yeah, how do you think? I was like, What about a book buy? You know, how many books do you need me to buy? Because I’ve got, you know, I will, I will keep them around the office. And anybody who joins a coaching program of mine at some point, or somebody who I just want to be grateful to, you know, because you’ve helped me. You’ve given me advice at our breakfast that we’ve been having for the last several times through these several quarters. You know, I can give this book out and say, Hey, this is from my mentor. 

How’s that for a story? You know, here’s from my mentor, Kevin Harrington. He’s a great book for you, and it’s going to drive your business forward. He’s like, man, it’d be great if you could do a book buy. I think was like 300 bucks, right? That I committed to buying that helped him. And I can do this all the live long day, like, I just connected someone from a band with someone else, because they’re trying to build up their social media presence, someone who has a recording deal, yeah, it’s awesome. You can do this and bring value. And then people are like, Man, this guy, you know, Rick, he just wants to help me. Like, that’s actually very true. I just want to help you. If it ends up, the way that I help you is doing business like, meaning you become a customer. Awesome. That’s great. That’s cool. But that. Not what I’m after, because you probably know I can gain you as a customer, or maybe I can gain 10 of your friends as a customer. Or maybe I can just do the right thing, and I can connect you with an outsourced accountant, or I can do a book buy for you to help you launch your book and get you exposure. Or maybe I can bring you on my show right here, because it’s a top 2% podcast, and then they think of you too. It’s like, oh, I want to help this guy. 

How can I help him? And it becomes this amazing community. And literally, this is why I’m so passionate about this. Literally, this is the reason why we were put here on this planet, is to help each other and serve each other and build communities. That’s the entire reason for human existence, not to be antisocial, but to build communities where we all have a role, we all have a play, and we all have the ability to help somebody else with whatever they might be working on and through that, you know, the old, another cliche phrase for you. I started this whole episode out with that, like the rising tide lifts all boats. That is so freaking true, because then all of a sudden, stuff just pops up, like it did with me four years ago, when they see a photo of me on the internet somewhere, and they’re like, We saw you speak of the NASDAQ boardroom? Have you ever thought about going public? I’m like, I don’t know. And it so happened that we knew some of the same people, so it immediately gave me credibility because of the network that I have that I continuously and intentionally build. And I’m going to encourage you to put time on your calendar every single week after you go to these events, and then you start to just work your network. 

And the question that you need to lead with always is, Hey, how can I help you? I really enjoyed meeting you last week. How can I help you? What can I do for you? Tell me what your biggest priority is right now in your business or in your life. And maybe I got some if it’s not me, I probably have somebody in my network that I can connect you with in order to help you with that and help you resolve that issue that’s in your business and that’s in your life. How can I help you? And then you also ask, you know, can I ask you for help? Please. Asking for help is doing somebody the biggest service that you ever possibly can. A good friend of mine, David Meltzer, says it all the time: if you don’t ask somebody for help, you’re actually doing them a disservice, and you’re robbing them of that opportunity to be able to fulfill their purpose and their connection with you in that community that you guys are in, that network that you guys are both part of. It’s incredible. This is the value of networking, period. You need to put time aside and be intentional about this, to have that network of your own, to be part of a community, and to continue to grow other people, and then, by default, you grow as well.