Mark Anthony Bates is a solopreneur you have a hard time pinpointing.  What does he do?  He doesn’t really promote himself. He doesn’t call himself anything but a “connector”.  But there he is rubbing elbows with the likes of Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and U.S. Presidents.  He is the coaches’ coach, the mensches’ mensch, and the friends’ friend.

Join us for this fascinating show with Mark, an international man of mystery! We discuss his favorite travel hacks, what he was like growing up and how to authentically connect with anyone on episode 271 of The Solopreneur Hour Podcast.

More About The Man of Mystery

Mark Anthony Bates is probably the best-connected man you’ve never heard of; he travels the globe speaking with elite coaching clients, diplomatic organizations, and world leaders, that’s why I call him the international man of mystery!

You won’t find him on social media or on his own web site, he doesn’t promote himself yet his name carries tremendous weight in highly influential circles. So how did he come to be who he is and what was he like growing up?

Mark says as a child he was a serious troublemaker, and not a class-clown type but a break-the-law type troublemaker. He was expelled from the 8th grade, the only reason they passed him on to high school was because they couldn’t put up his antics any longer. His freshman year of high school he had all Ds, Fs and Incompletes. Mark wasn’t dumb, he was bored because he learned in a different way then he was being taught. And he was incredibly curious.

But that curiosity led to more trouble. By 16 he was forcibly removed from high school by the police and was sent to a continuation school. Within 3 weeks he was kicked out of that school and eventually ended up at an honor camp. An honor camp is a step beyond juvenile hall, but a step before prison. It’s not a good place to be. His parole officer there gave him a book called I’m Okay, You’re Okay which shifted Mark’s verbal and emotional communication. He began to change and was eventually released from the camp.

In This Episode, You’ll Also Hear:

* How to make someone feel like they’re the only person in the room.

* He has hasn’t had a traditional home in how many years?

* Why was he chosen to be a flight attendant out of 3500 applicants?

* Why does he take gum to Singapore?

* How he became a malt distributor, and what it’ll teach you.

And so much more!

Skip ahead to age 30 and Mark wants to work for Pan-Am, an international airline carrier. They’re the best in the business, and he wants to be in marketing for them. But he has no airline experience, so he approaches the situation uniquely and eventually lands a flight attendant position with them!

On this episode he gives the full story on how he did so (you’ll definitely want to hear it, it’s a GREAT lesson in positioning) and we also talk about how different he is today then that young man he was growing up. He has taken that innate curiosity and applied it to people and opportunities. We talk about how he’s learned to genuinely connect with others and a few examples of opportunities he’s spotted and acted on, without knowing how he was going to execute.

As someone who coaches other coaches as well as professional speakers, Mark knows what it takes to make people feel at ease and how to create a connection. When he attends an event he goes in with the intention of genuinely connecting with the people there, not to get anything for himself but to know them and see if an organic relationship develops.

He says you can do the same thing but getting centered before you go in,