The first time I got introduced to workshops was when I was doing networking in commercial printing.

And if you know any of my stories about first getting into networking, you know it wasn’t very pretty. However, as I eventually figured a lot of things out, I had a fascinating thing happen to me.

I got asked to speak about networking.

So, one of the Presidents over several chapters of a group I was in came up to me and said “Man, you really seem to have this networking thing figured out. Would you ever consider teaching this in front of a room?”

At that point, I really had no problem speaking in front of a room, but I most certainly was not a teacher or trainer. Not to mention the fact that I really had no idea what I was doing anyway.

She asked me to write a few things down and come back to teach in a couple of weeks.

I put about five or six things down that I discovered as I was networking that worked for me and shared them with the group when the time came.

To my surprise, afterwards, people walked up to me and told me it was the greatest thing they’d ever heard.

I was shocked. I thought what I shared was so simple but yet so many people were fascinated by it.

Even more surprisingly, I landed two commercial printing clients after that workshop.

After that experience, I’ve always found that being able to be the person in front of the camera, on stage, or in front of a room is one of the best sales strategies you’ll ever find.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Success Champion Networking

Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/

When starting a business, you have to have some confidence that you can actually build it, and I was proud I had that confidence.

But feeling confident while going into being a first time business owner is like feeling confident and being dropped off in the jungle with no map. 

The confidence can help, but the journey is not something you can really prepare for. 

When I launched my company, Success Champions, I was not prepared for the mental game that I was getting ready to get into.

Coming from working as an employee in a business, I thought that I outworked most people, I thought I understood how businesses functioned and how they were ran, and I thought there were going to be some easy going times.

Boy, was I wrong.

To go deeper, I thought I had a pretty good idea of who I was regarding my character prior to building a business, but I’m here to tell you, you haven’t even met the person you’re going to become. 

If you’re getting after it, doing the right things, putting yourself out there, you’re going to meet yourself.

For me, the biggest mental hurdle I had to overcome was when I ran out of excuses.

I didn’t realize how many excuses I had used in my life until I got to the place where there was nobody left to blame.

Yes, a lot of building a business is skill, but most of it is the mental game.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champion Networking

Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

I was brought up in a world where referrals were the golden egg of networking.

The end all, be all.

Because I thought referrals were the most cherished thing, I got really good at them.

At giving them, receiving them, making the referrals better and better, getting better at being more referable and so on.

Heck, I even wrote a book called “Endless Stream of Referrals” to get more referrals in your business.

But as I have evolved more in my business and watching others do the same, I have realized there is something way more powerful, provides way more lifetime value, and way more of a powerhouse than a referral…

That’s an introduction.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Success Champion Networking

Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/

People think that networking is all about impressing the person you’re talking to, so they would a) buy what you are selling and/or b) refer you. 

And by people, I mean me.

Well, not anymore, but that was definitely me at the beginning of my sales game.

I thought my first sales meeting was basically a business AA meeting. And in my conversations, I would really sell how good I was at “AA.”

I got really good at telling these elaborate stories about my journey, who I was, and all the things I’d done and accomplished.

And that worked with a lot of people, but just to the point where they would say “Wow you’ve done a lot for a young guy,” a stroke of my ego, which seemed to be what I was going for.

What I realized very quickly, though, was the more I made the conversation about myself, the less referrals and introductions I got.

I even had one person tell me “Donnie, I can’t introduce you because I don’t think my clientele is the caliber of business you need to be working with.”

So all of those techniques I was using would have worked if I was looking to make zero profits and have zero sales.

So if you’re going into networking and making it all about you, all you’re doing is making yourself non referable.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champion Networking

Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

We did it, guys. We made it to 100 episodes!

Thanks so much for being here on this ride with us and for this episode, we put out a call to our listeners to know what they wanted to hear.

So we’re going to talk about our top 5 episodes, our least favorite episodes, any memories we have from recording the podcast and any phrases we’ve picked up along the way.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Success Champion Networking

Success Champion Networking isn't for the beginning networker. Success Champion Networking is for business people that understand building successful relationships is a two-way street requiring commitment from both people involved. Stop wasting time networking with people that don't understand how to leverage their network to generate quality referrals for you. If you are ready to network with business people that are tired of doing all the heavy lifting and want to build real partnerships that generate high-revenue referrals visit one of our Chapters today. https://successchampionnetworking.com/

So…you suck at sales.

I’ll start off by saying that there’s good news.

Sucking at sales is not a permanent thing and we’re going to help you right now. 

There are a lot of misconceptions about sales - people think they need to do the hard closes, use the sales techniques that were popular in the 80s and 90s, and jump in to try and solve someone’s problem right away.

If you’re doing any of those things, stop them now.

They may have worked in the past for others or for yourself, but I could probably count on one hand how many deals were closed and relationships were formed through those techniques.

So…less than 5. Not many.

And believe me, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, especially starting out in sales. And Kevin has made even more. So we know what it’s like to suck as sales!

But we were able to suck long enough, keep going, and are here now to tell you what to stop doing and what to keep doing in order to become a good and effective salesperson.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

I didn’t get into the self-help world until I was 22 and after that, I was pretty much hooked.

My dad gave me the book “Success Through Positive Mental Attitude” by Napoleon Hill because it practically changed his life.

That book didn’t hit as hard for me, but I picked up Think and Grow Rich and that just clicked.

It brought to me the concepts of being positive, affirmations, and the idea that I could Mary Poppins my way to success - think happy thoughts, fly up to the ceiling and life would be good and, on the contrary, think sad thoughts, you come down off the ceiling, and now you have to go home. 

I really thought I could affirm myself to success. Say “I’m a badass. I’m awesome. I’m amazing” 10 times in the mirror and success would magically pop out of thin air, and I’d be off to the promised land.

I mean, that’s how it was literally taught to me.

You know, like Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live?

He would sit in front of a mirror and say to himself, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And gosh darn it, people like me!”

That ain’t it, folks. 

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

So this past weekend I did something really crazy with my brother.

We have a hobby and business on the side with blacksmithing and woodworking, and we had planned to go to this trade day to sell our stuff.

I knew just from knowledge and personal experience that in order to stand out and make sales, we were going to have to do something crazy.

So what did we do?

We dressed up like pirates.

We hung pirate flags, our Marine Corps flags, and played sea shanty music to make us the overall pirate package.

But we didn’t just stand there in the booth and wait for people to come over.

My brother worked the booth as I stood out in the middle of the crowd, holding one of the mugs we were selling and yelled things like “Come this way, you’ll get mugged!” or “Always trust a pirate and walk down this path!”

My brother and I had a blast interacting with people and drawing them to the booth. And we sold out of almost everything and had some custom orders as well.

And while, yes, it was fun and a pretty “out there” marketing technique, what this really solidified for me was the whole idea that people truly buy based on emotions.

People were already out there at the fair with money to buy food or trinkets or whatever else they were going to leave with. We knew they had money. 

So for us, we knew that if we could get their attention while they’re emotionally charged to buy, we could get them to buy our stuff.

We really created an environment where people were having fun with us and I truly believe that if you can allow people to geek out and get emotionally charged with your stuff, they’re going to make good decisions and buy.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Last week we talked about how to find the right clientele and this week we dive even deeper.

You know by now that not everyone is a potential client, right?

Don’t be like the chiropractor that says “Anyone who's a good referral for me is anyone with a spine.”

That’s not how you build a business. 

I gotta be honest though, I used to do this back in my commercial printing days. I started asking for anybody who needed printing. And no surprise there, I didn’t get many referrals or clients.

As I practiced selling, I got better and asked for anyone who needed business cards printed. These orders typically cost $50-$100, but I wanted to get into the $50,000 order range.

It was a move in the right direction, but not quite there.

Eventually, however, I got those clients. Home Depot, for example, became my client because I started getting clearer on who I wanted to sell to. 

So now that we’ve got who to sell to, let’s talk about how to pick up on cues people are giving you, or cues to tell other people who would refer you, and how they can help get you business.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

My first ever sale in commercial printing was to my mom. 

Yep, that’s right. She worked at a dentist's office and bought business cards for the office from me.

Turns out, my mom was not my ideal customer.

Not because she was a bad customer by any means, but mostly because she was safe.

And for the six months of doing commercial printing, those are the clients I went after. The ones I felt were easy to get into a conversation were the ones I went after.

However, most of them ended up being overly demanding, not really knowing what they wanted, and I was on the backend fixing a lot of orders.

It wasn’t until I had a more senior coworker take me under his wing and push me to go after some bigger clientele. He said the bigger clientele knew what they wanted, and I wouldn’t have to go through so much work after the order was finally put in.

Thank god for this guy because who knows how much longer I would have been banging my head against the wall taking care of the little fish.

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!