August 28, 2024 • 35 mins
Curious about how podcasting can revolutionize your business? Tune in to learn from Donnie Boivin, a B2B networking maestro, as he recounts his remarkable journey from a top sales trainer facing financial turmoil to a thriving podcaster and entrepreneur. Discover how podcasting became his lifeline, fostering genuine connections and community support that built influential networks and turned his fortunes around.
But that's not all—our conversation extends into the realm of B2B networking with the creation of Success Champions Networking (SCN). Learn how Donnie transitioned from daily podcasting to establishing SCN, a mastermind-style networking group tailored for B2B professionals. We'll explore the unique structure of SCN meetings, the rapid expansion across North America, and their ambitious goal to reach 10,000 members.
Connect with Donnie:
Website
http://www.donnieboivin.com/
Success Champions
https://successchampionnetworking.com/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnieboivin
Listen to Growth Mode Podcast
growth-mode.captivate.fm/listen
Got a question about something you heard today? Have a great suggestion for a topic or know someone who should be a guest? Reach out to us:
askcarl@carlspeaks.ca
If you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have joined the podcast space, we'd love to hear your idea and help you get started! Book your Podcast Strategy Session today:
https://podcastsolutionsmadesimple.com/get-started/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode.
I have to tell you that we dohave some great things coming up
, and I'd love to spill the tearight now and tell you exactly
what they are, but I think I'mgoing to wait a few weeks before
(00:45):
I do that, just so I can reallymake some plans and solidify
some events that we're workingon and we're talking some fairly
large events too, at least fromthe podcasting perspective.
There are podcasting meetupsand events all over the world,
but one place where we don't seea lot of activity is in Canada.
So we're talking to some folksabout putting together our very
(01:05):
own here in Canada, a Canadianrun, canadian event for
podcasters, for content creators.
That's one thing, but we alsohave some other great things
that are coming up, includingsome podcast co-ops.
We have to really break thatdown for you because I think
it'll be a game changer in thepodcasting world.
It'll certainly be a gamechanger when it comes to
(01:26):
networking.
So that's happening, but, again, like I said, I don't want to
spill the tea right away.
I want to make sure, before Ido, that we have everything set
up and ready, and I want to makesure that we've got all the
information, as opposed to justsome pipe dreams.
Right so?
But look for that information,probably in the next month or
two, and those will be eventsthat you'll be able to take part
(01:49):
in as well, especially if youare a podcaster or a podcast
guest or a content creator.
There will be some greatopportunities, not only to
attend the events that we'rethinking of, but then also maybe
even speak at those events.
So definitely stay tuned forthat.
Speaking of networking,networking is a huge way to
expand your podcast.
Are you networking?
(02:09):
Are you getting your face andyour name and your voice out
there?
It's also, of course, a greatway to build and grow your
business, right?
So who better than an expert innetworking, actually somebody
who hates networking, at leastin the contemporary sense, to
chat with us about us today?
And that is Donnie Boivin.
Donnie has over two decades insales and he's a pioneering
(02:33):
spirit in B2B networking, buthe's transformed his experiences
into success championnetworking.
We'll find out more about thatmomentarily.
He's here to empowerprofessionals to build
influential networks andbusinesses based on genuine
connections and communitysupport.
He is a podcaster, he is afantastic individual and we are
(02:53):
so thrilled he's joining ustoday.
Donnie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Hey, bud, good to hang out with you, man.
I knew this was going to be fun, so I'll try not to make fun of
you too much, but I'm lookingforward to this.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Some gentle poking and nudging is fine.
I feel this has been a longtime coming, though, because you
and I have been connected for acouple of years.
We'll reveal how Donnie and Imet.
It's the remember when we metand where it was, and we'll talk
about that on the show as well,but I want to dive into this
first piece here.
There was an article that wasposted recently on LinkedIn, and
(03:24):
I believe you posted it, butsomebody else in our network
shared it.
The first line really jumpedout at me, and I want you to
tell the story, because I thinkit's one that needs to be heard
around the world, which is whyyou're on the show.
Podcasting saved my business.
Podcasting saved my business.
Tell me the story here.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, I launched my company back in 2017.
And the day after I launched mycompany, I was slapped with a
non-compete that I don'tremember signing.
So now, luckily, as we'rerecording this, they've done
away with non-competes in the US, but back in 2017, they were a
real deal.
My last career.
(04:03):
I was supposedly one of the topsales trainers in the US.
I don't know what that means,other than I'm really good at
flapping my gums in front of aroom right, and I had full
intent on launching a salestraining company.
And now I have 24 hours intolaunching my company.
After living a very expensivelifestyle for me and my wife, I
went from making a lot of moneyto zero income.
(04:25):
I jumped out on my own to startmy own company, but at that
moment it felt like I'd beenfired because I had no money
coming in to take care of thefarm and everything that we had
going.
But I thought, as a sales guy,just because I couldn't talk
about sales, sales management,and like I'd be able to launch
business and have no problem, Ithought building a business was
going to be really easy, andanybody who knows or ever run a
(04:48):
business knows running abusiness is one of the hardest
damn things on the planet.
Right About six months intobuilding my business, my wife's
Jeep got repossessed.
We almost lost our farm toforeclosure.
Graciously, my wife cashed in aretirement plan the US we call
it a 401k but cashed in herretirement plan to get her Jeep
back and save the farm.
But even though she'd saved thefarm, I still had no idea what
(05:12):
the heck my business was goingto be.
So I started everything I couldthink of.
I was doing graphic design,this weird coaching.
You know, I was literally abusiness whore just saying yes
to anybody who would give memoney.
Right Right around April of 2018, a buddy of mine reached out
and asked if I come speak on astage, and I had to tell him.
(05:34):
I'm like look, I'm under anon-compete, they've already hit
me with a couple of cease anddesist and I can't talk about
sales because, no, I don't wantyou to talk about sales.
I want you to tell your story.
Not a lot of people know thejourney you've been through to
get where you are.
So it was about 200 people inthe audience and I got up there
and I'd never been a keynotespeaker, I'd been a trainer, so
(05:55):
I hadn't done a lot of speakingin front of large audiences.
I'd done speaking in front of alot of rooms of you know 30, 40
people, type things.
And now I'm standing in front of200 and I didn't know the rules
of keynoting.
Like, after your keynote you'resupposed to stand out by the
stage and greet people and shakehands.
And man, I got done.
I was so tired.
I walked to the back behind thecurtains and sat in a chair.
(06:15):
No mixing and mingling, nothing.
And literally this uh, all of asudden this guy comes through
the curtains back to me and saiddonnie, I love your energy, I
love your story.
Would you come tell it on mypodcast?
And I said what the hell's apodcast?
right, so this is april of 2018,right, and uh, he, he explained
(06:38):
to me that a podcast is like amorning talk radio show and I'm
like, oh, I kind of grew up onthose.
I could do that.
So I'm in Fort Worth, texas, Idrive out to Dallas, texas, and
go sit in his studio we're doinga live video type scenario and
recorded.
It was blast, had a lot of fun.
He aired it two days later andsomebody reached out and became
(07:00):
a client of mine.
Now, full disclosure, I couldn'tdo sales training, but I could
do motivational training forabout 40 of his salespeople,
which is what I ended up doing.
But the idea that I could go ona podcast and find clients,
that was like hold my beer andwatch this.
So I started going on a bunchof shows, but then what really
(07:26):
allowed me to save the businesswas I launched my first podcast
in 2018 and then that's whatreally fixed and changed a lot
of things for me.
But I'll pause because I wantto take over your show so you
can ask questions if you like,and then I'll dive into that don
Donnie.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That in itself is a phenomenal testament to getting
started in the podcasting space.
And, by the way, I also saidthe same thing when I first
heard what a podcast was.
It was again after I'd lost ajob and I was doing speaker
training part-time.
And somebody said, oh, you'redoing speaker training, you
should start a podcast.
And I remember again keep inmind I'm in radio broadcasting,
(08:03):
right and I said what's apodcast?
And even after they explainedit, I'm like, okay, so why would
I, as a speaker trainer, tryingto get people on live stages,
why would I host a radio typething?
That's how clearly they weredescribing it why would I do
that?
No, no, I don't want to do that.
It took me seven years until Iwas at an event in Toronto, a
(08:25):
real estate investor expo, andthe main stage speaker was Tony
Robbins, but they had breakoutrooms as well, and one of the
breakout rooms when I saybreakout rooms, the breakout
rooms probably still held about500 people, right, so fairly
large breakout rooms.
In the breakout room that I wasin, it was a guy by the name of
Sam Crowley who's started inpodcasts when podcasts were in
(08:48):
diapers, right, he's been aroundthat long.
And if you've heard a show, youknow it's a very simple show.
Every day is Saturday,phenomenal show.
Anyways.
He's basically on stage for 90minutes saying you should start
a podcast.
Anyone can have a podcast.
What's your show going to beabout?
And then he pitches you intohis program.
From that point I was convincedthat okay, yes, this is a great
fit for me.
But I still had no idea what Iwas doing, even though I had a
(09:10):
little bit of background.
And I think that's one of thechallenges when people do get
into the space is they isthey're not sure what they're
doing.
They just know that they needto find out more about this.
They, they do need a podcast.
But I definitely want to askyou some, some questions,
because you said that hold mybeer, I got to do a dive into
(09:31):
this.
Here it is at the recording ofthis interview, we're spring of
2024.
So here it is what, six yearslater and this is something that
you've embraced full on youhave your own show, but you've
also been on other podcasts as aguest.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A hundred percent.
Yeah, I've guested on over 500podcasts.
I believe I went in one day toListenNotes and just put in
Donnie Bovine and episodes andjust started counting because I
was curious about how manyinterviews.
So if you ever wonder how manyepisodes you're on, go to
ListenNotes, type in your name,click on episode and just start
counting how many interviewsyou've done.
No-transcript of that out there.
(10:34):
So I just went to Google cause Ididn't know what else to do
typed in whatever I could thinkof and followed by the word
podcast.
So it was sales podcast,business podcast, you know,
networking podcast, entrepreneurpodcast, money podcast, mindset
podcast, and I just startedmaking a master Excel
spreadsheet of every podcast Icould find and then putting out
(10:58):
you know, an email to each oneof those.
And if I could get a phonenumber, it was even better.
For me.
It was a sales guy.
I'm like I'm going to callthese people up number.
It was even better.
For me.
It was a sales guy.
I'm like I'm going to callthese people up and literally
over the next 30 days after thatfirst interview, I was on 50
podcasts in 30 days because Iwas just cranking.
I'm like this is how I'm goingto build the business is just by
guesting on shows, and so I goton a ton of shows.
(11:22):
It was halfway through that kindof journey of how many podcasts
that I can get on that I wenton this gentleman's show and to
this day it's still the worstinterview I've ever had in my
life.
The guy before the show sent mea list of 20 questions and I'm
like, oh, that's interesting.
I've never had anybody send mequestions before and you know.
(11:43):
So I read through them.
They were the same questionsevery other show I asked, right,
because you know just that sameboring generic.
You know things a lot of peoplewho don't know how to interview
do.
And I get on this gentleman'sshow and he goes question number
one and he reads questionnumber one.
I answer the question and hegoes question two.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh God.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
He gets to question three.
And he's question three and I'mlike I'm going to help this
dude out.
I'm like, hey, so why did youget into podcasting?
You know, tell me a little bitabout your world.
And he goes question four.
(12:25):
I'm can have any success doingpodcasting.
I'm launching my own show and Iwent out to YouTube University
and started figuring out what Ineeded to do to launch a show.
And my first podcast I launchedin the bedroom of my parents'
log cabin, in their sparebedroom cabin.
(12:49):
In their spare bedroom.
I literally had a bed sheetwith a group to make a green
screen behind me.
That I bet green bed sheet thatI bought from walmart to make a
green screen behind me.
Uh and zoom and I I launched myfirst show.
Uh, and it was absolute thebiggest pile of turd of a
podcast you could imagine.
It was so bad, it so bad.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Do you ever go back to it and listen and watch it
and go oh my goodness, man, I'veevolved.
Or do you not go back into your?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
catalog.
You know I never go back,mainly because I know how bad it
is.
I don't want to go back and seeit.
You know, I will point to itthat it really ultimately is
probably the biggest catalyst,for it really ultimately is
probably the biggest catalystfor pushing my business forward.
And the reason being is I had ayoung guy by the name of Fergus
(13:34):
out of the UK who was listeningto my show.
He was in my Facebook groupthat I was running at the time
and he reached out and we haddone a Zoom prior to him
reaching out the second time andhe said man, I just love how
you talk to people.
He goes do you care if I reachout and get some people on your
show?
And I'm like sure, you know,finding guests has never been a
(13:55):
problem for me.
You know I didn't understandwhat he meant when he said
people on your show within aweek he goes.
So patrick, bet, david,charlene johnson, neil patel,
and he keeps name dropping.
All would love to be a guest onyour show.
Right, my butthole puckeredbecause I knew all these people
(14:16):
and I'm like crap, I don't knowwhat the hell I'm doing from a
podcast standpoint.
And now you know he's got allthese known names wanting to
come on my show and and I said,fergus, give me a minute to get
all my ducks in a row, he goes.
Well, they're coming, he goes,so you figure it out.
So I said, okay, I can't have aI don't know a better way to
(14:39):
say it without cussing.
So a crap show, crap show,that's what we're looking for.
A crap show of a process.
I told Carl that I would cleanit up for him.
A crap show of a process.
You know, as far as a podcast.
And you know, at that point Iwas just using an Outlook
calendar to schedule.
I was.
You know, there was no systems.
I didn't have an editor, I wasdoing it all myself.
(15:00):
There was no marketing therewas, it was it was me doing
everything.
So I'm like, okay, if I wasgoing to turn this into
something that actually lookedprofessional, what do I need to
do?
So I went ahead and invested inan editor.
That was the number one thing Idid.
And then I said, okay, what'smy process?
(15:21):
From somebody being a guest onthe show to then marketing and
leveraging that and turning itinto something?
So we then created, like thisoperational process and sequence
on a backend.
So podcasting taught me a lot ofthings.
One it taught me operations howto put a team together, how to
put systems in flow in place.
(15:41):
It taught me also how to firepeople, because I hired a lot of
the wrong people and usuallythat was always my fault.
But it taught me marketing howto fire people, because I hired
a lot of the wrong people andusually that was always my fault
.
But it taught me marketing,because guests suck right.
Guests come on your show, theynever promote, they never market
, they never anything.
So I'm like crap.
So we've got to do all that foryou.
We learned that having big nameson your show don't mean a damn
thing.
Right, their audience alreadyknows their story, you know.
(16:12):
So you might get a one pop fortheir episode, but very rarely
are they going to stay.
Um, so we're like okay.
So how do we leverage the smallpeople?
Don't mean small people in arude way, but being somebody's
first podcast, second podcast isusually a pretty good thing,
because they're excited, theywant to share it with everybody.
So it taught me sales.
It taught me marketing.
It taught me you know, equalbusiness, stature and some
phenomenal conversations.
We ended up launching a podcastproduction company on the back
end of that, with all thesesystems and me marketing.
It taught me, you know equalbusiness, stature and some
phenomenal conversations.
We ended up launching a podcastproduction company on the back
(16:33):
end of that, with all thesesystems and processes, and
within about nine months ofrunning that company, we were
running a half a million dollarpodcast production company and
we'd launched internal podcastinside of some fortune 500
companies where we were doingemployee podcast.
But it all stemmed becauseFergus came up to me and he was
like hey, can I see if I can geta couple of people on your show
?
And I really thought he wastalking about like some regular
(16:53):
coaches you know, not, not, nothousehold names.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
That's the amazing story, man.
There's so much we can unbundlethere.
It's just knowing what piecesto start with.
Yay, fergus, for getting sometop names on your show.
But also kudos to you, donnie,for figuring out through trial
and error that the big namesdon't necessarily bring you the
big numbers.
And I think that's one of thethings I find.
When people are looking atpodcasting for the first time,
they say, yeah, I'd love to havea show, but I need to have big
(17:19):
numbers.
I'm like, no, you don't need tohave big numbers, you just need
consistency and resilience andbe able to do all those things
that that Donnie is talkingabout.
The big thing, I think is to isto do it, and to do it whether
you don't want to do it or not.
In days that you don't want toprobably record an episode,
donnie, that you probably andyou probably have a better
layout than than the you know,the old bed sheet that you had
before but, maybe you still haveit, though, just as a symbolism
(17:44):
of.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I have the bedsheets still.
I I that that I do have.
But you know, when I moved thestudio to my farm, I literally
took a bedroom and converted itcompletely into a studio, cause
I'm like I don't want to goanywhere.
So I run my whole company fromthe studio.
Uh, and it's a lot of fun, uh,to do that, but, yeah, it's,
it's been one hell of anevolution.
(18:05):
I will tell you, though, I wasalso insane when I launched that
first podcast.
This is before I even everheard the name, john Lee Dumas.
I didn't know who he was.
I launched a daily podcast, for147 episodes Went straight.
So every Friday I would sitdown and record seven to nine
episodes back-to-back one-hourshows.
(18:27):
Oh, wow, and record seven tonine episodes back to back one
hour shows and just grindthrough it every friday and then
release those for the nextseven days, and then 147
episodes in.
I was like all right, and I wasdoing most of my own editing
everything too.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It was brutal did you ever see your wife when you
were recording the daily?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
yeah, no, no.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I have a colleague out of Eastern Canada and his
name is Mark Mawinney and heactually learned a lot about do
you know Mark?
Okay, fantastic guy.
He learned a lot from John LeeDumas as well, and tells a story
how he did a daily podcast whenhe started his in 2014, 16,
something like that and he saidyou know what, the reason why he
(19:08):
stopped doing a daily podcastwas because he realized he also
was doing his batch recordingProbably, I think he said, on a
Saturday and all of his editing.
He says I lost a girlfrienddoing that so.
I realized that if I want tohave a relationship, I need to
firstly go to a weekly show butthen also outsource, which you
already did.
Actually, you didn't justoutsource you, you created your
(19:31):
own production company in theprocess.
So so you've gone from.
You didn't have a podcast, youhave a podcast, you're guesting
on shows, you're building an, anempire, basically, and and
everything is still in place.
Right, you have this massiveproduction company now and
you're doing all these greatthings and nothing has changed
since then, right?
(19:51):
Yeah, that was facetious,because I know that there's been
some changes since then 100%.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And what's funny is when I hit it right around my
100th episode, somebody said, oh, you're running a show like
John Lee Dumas and I said whothe hell is John Lee Dumas?
I had no idea Somebody else, Ithought I was like the
originator of the 100 dailyepisodes.
And then I look up John LeeDumas and at that point he's
like a thousand episodes indoing daily.
I'm like that guy's insane.
That's beast mode.
(20:17):
After we got the podcastproduction company up and going,
my non-compete ended up goingaway in September of that same
year and I had a chip on myshoulder and I was pissed
because you know I couldn't dosales training which I'd set out
to do.
So I decided to see how much Icould really confuse the
marketplace by going from allright, I have a cool podcast
(20:38):
production company, but now I'mgoing to launch a sales training
company too because I'm pissedthat I couldn't do it before.
So now I'm running at the timeit was about a quarter of a
million dollar, you know podcastproduction company and then I
launched a sales trainingcompany.
I take the podcast productioncompany to a half a million
dollars and then the salestraining company.
(20:58):
I took it almost to sevenfigures and we were doing well,
all virtually, because I alwayswanted to build a business where
I could just work from home andnot have to go anywhere.
We were doing that all the wayup and then, two and a half
years into building all this,covid hits.
(21:19):
And you know, luckily for me,my businesses were online and we
were going to be okay.
I mean, we lost a few dealshere and there, but it wasn't
going to be the massive hit thatyou know people who are working
in offices and then having togo home were doing.
At that moment I started lookingat crap.
How do I help as many peoplebuild, you know, get into the
online space as possible Becausethey don't have the two and a
half years it took me to reallybuild what I felt like I was
(21:39):
finally successful in it.
They've got 30 days if they'relucky.
So in my previous careers I'drun a lot of networking groups
and build a lot of networks.
So it was at that moment that Ilaunched Success Champions
Networking, and that was Marchof 20.
And I didn't launch it to be abusiness.
I launched it 100% just to helppeople.
It wasn't a revenue play for mewe were doing fine with the
(22:02):
companies and so I launched.
And, man, I had no idea for thejourney I was fixing to take,
launching these networkinggroups.
Long story short, I since soldthe sales training company.
I gave the podcast productioncompany to a friend and now
solely run B2B networking groupsall throughout North America.
(22:23):
Never in a million years wouldI have guessed networking was
going to be my business, changedeverything and we just continue
to take market share.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And that's where we met, because I'm part of the SCN
family, the chapter in Canada.
And full disclosure and correctme if I'm wrong, but you hate
networking groups.
I do, I do, but SCN is not.
I mean, it's networking.
But how is SCN different from alot of the other networking
(22:51):
groups that are out there?
What makes it?
What makes it different?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
One thing we didn't know is how massive the gap was
for anybody who sells businessto business.
Anybody who sells businessconsumer, like a real estate,
your mortgage, your, your title,your financial advisors right,
those people can go networkanywhere.
They can go to your chambers,they can go in your B&Is, they
can go in all those places andit's great.
(23:14):
But if you sell telecom, phonesystems, IT MSPs, you sell
commercial printing right, yousell anything that's business to
business.
You can't go network anywhereIf you sell commercial printing,
Podcasting services.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, podcasting services right.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You go into places and you get a room full of
people who sell business toconsumer.
Sure, you can sell them, likelyIt'd be a one-off type deal,
but most times those people arenot talking to decision makers
and companies.
So, like back when I soldcommercial printing before I
launched all my companies, myaverage deal was $25,000.
(23:58):
And going into a chamber ofcommerce hanging out with a
bunch of people who sell B2Cwhich are all great people but
if you ask a real estate agentthe last five homes they sold,
what would the people do?
And they're going to be like anengineer, a doctor, you know, a
lawyer, right?
Not decision makers andcompanies who can make purchases
of $25,000 worth of printing.
When we launched SEN, we decidedto make it and go to business
(24:21):
to business and wow, it was sucha great move.
You know, if you go B2C, BNI isthere, it's a great move.
You know, if you go B2C, bni isthere, it's a great
organization to do B2C.
The chambers are there, it's agreat organization to do that.
But if you go B2B, there's justnot many places to network.
And so we found the niche ofgoing B2B networking groups.
And let's be honest, nobodywants to go to a networking
(24:42):
group and sit around for 45minutes, listen to people.
Do these stupid.
I caught myself.
I almost said a dirty word.
Do these stupid jingles rightthat nobody cares about?
And run a boring meeting thatnobody's into, right?
You got to get in and you gotto really open doors.
So we set out to create anexperience that not only added
(25:03):
education but allowed people tonetwork and open real doors for
other.
Let's get beyond referrals Inthe B2B game.
It's a long sale.
You're not going to close adeal right then and there.
So let's get into introductions.
A referral is an introductionwith a sales call attached.
An introduction is just twogood people together.
Let's get as many introductionsas we can and let's watch how
(25:26):
doors really get opened.
We're the fastest growingnetworking organization on the
planet.
Right now we continue to takemarket share.
It's been a blast.
I had no, no clue that we weregoing to do as well in this
business as we are.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And the proof is in the pudding, as you said,
because it's growingexponentially.
We've got the loan chapterright now in Canada, which I
think is still going to growbeyond being one chapter.
Number two, loan chapter rightnow in Canada, which I think is
still going to grow beyond beingone chapter.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Number two is launching right now.
Ooh okay, Jerry Lalonde islaunching over in the Vancouver
area.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Okay, see, there's things I don't know unless.
I get the grand poobah on theon the podcast but but you've
got chapters all over the U?
S and like you said that, andand even the meetings themselves
.
They don't run as networkingmeetings, they run more like I
guess the best way to describeit would be masterminds.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Mastermind, peer group, board meeting, type of
things, where it's it's let'sgrow together, right, like.
I mean, at the end of the day,if you're in a networking group
and you've been there for anycouple of months, I don't need
you to constantly say, hey, I'ma realtor, hey, I do this, like
we know right.
(26:36):
So, so let's let's get in andlearn something.
Let's teach each othersomething.
Let's let's brainstorm off ofpeople.
Let's let's get education aspart of it, and it's very
structured run meeting, but it'sdesigned around.
Let's grow your business.
Let's get education as part ofit, and it's a very structured
run meeting, but it's designedaround let's grow your business,
let's grow you, which is anenvironment that I hadn't seen
in networking.
You know, there's a huge onlinecommunity that's active as hell,
(26:57):
a ton of additional trainingthat people can be a part of.
Yeah, it's.
We fixed what everybody hatedabout networking, especially if
you sell B2B, and we added a lotof things that people wanted in
networking and so, and, and wekept the price point extremely
low.
So that's, it makes it fun.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And, of course, as you're growing, as you're
getting all of these chapters,you also, as you say, you have
the online community, but you'realso you.
You host live events.
You encourage the chapters toget together in person, at least
now that we can do that.
You encourage the chapters toget together at least once a
month.
And where do you see this going?
(27:34):
If you can gaze into yourcrystal ball, because I know you
have one, where do you see thisgoing in the next, let's say,
two to five years?
Where do you see SEM going?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
We're guesstimating right now at about three years
we'll be at 10,000 membersacross North America.
We're going to stay focused onNorth America for a while and
continue to take market sharethere.
We already have the BadassBusiness Summit, which is our
big annual summit down here inTexas we will have so that one's
open to the public.
We'll start, probably next yearor the year after, a SCN only
(28:05):
conference as well to bringpeople from all over to together
and really showcase our membersand what they can do.
So the Badass Business Summitis really centered around, you
know, showcasing your personalbrand, because you don't build a
personal brand, you alreadyhave it but you do need to
showcase it.
You know and let people knowyou're there, because you know,
in every B&I chapter I'm notbashing, it's a great
(28:26):
organization, but every B&Ichapter there's two B2B people
in there that are going man,there's got to be a better way
to do this, and that's where wecome into play.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And through all of this, through not even knowing
you were going to be running abusiness that was in the
networking space, really, youstill have the podcast.
Talk about the podcast and howit's evolved and the shift
that's that's happened with it,as you've also built out SCN,
yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It's crazy.
So this is really my second bigshow that I run.
So the first one was calledSuccess Champions and it went to
the stratosphere with downloads.
It was.
It was a lot of fun, but myheart wasn't into it at the end
of the day.
So we launched Growth Mode, andGrowth Mode really started off
as how can we help as manypeople as possible, and it's
(29:11):
evolved a couple of times intothis final iteration where it is
now, and so now it's a liveshow that we air on YouTube,
linkedin, facebook, and we bringone of the members of Success
Champions Networking in and weput them in a hot seat, which is
also one of the style ofmeetings we run.
And you know they come with abusiness issue and they get
(29:33):
myself Dr Stevie Dawn Carter,who's one of the top keynote
speakers in the world.
She'll do 90 stages this yearalone, all paid and making
ridiculous money from it.
My brother, keith, who runs abackground screening and drug
testing company, also is one ofour behind the scene guys for a
lot of things in SCM.
And Bernie DeSantis, who runs alarge learning management
(29:57):
company out of Michigan, andwe'll sit across from our
members, put them in a hot seatand help them work on their
business live.
So people can come in and watch, get advice, give advice in the
chats and likes, and thatentire idea has taken off.
It's really, really funwatching the light bulbs going
off of the people in the hotseat, but it's also fun getting
(30:18):
the DMs from the people that arelistening and watching, from
the things they've learned fromthat.
So so that's been a lot of funas well.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I love it, I love it and I've been told that you want
me in the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Of course I want to see you cry, so I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
That's like making a good Canadian boy cry Right,
just take a tablespoon of maplesyrup.
Everything will be fine AfterI've been in the hot seat with
Donnie and company.
So I feel like I could talk toyou forever, donnie, or there's
something for another episodedown the line.
But before I turn you loose onthe world, I give the
opportunity to just just sharewith folks.
(30:54):
How can they get a hold of you?
What?
What would go to social media?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
post it say what you got out of this you know episode
and tag me and Carl in it.
If I see that tag, I promiseyou I will come comment on it,
I'll come love on it, I willgive you as much exposure as
(31:18):
possible.
If Carl sees it, I guaranteehe'll comment on it.
But if you take that screenshotand put it out there, it lets
Carl know that he's putting outthe episodes and content that
you want to hear and there'svalue there.
So, whether it's this episode,future episodes, past episodes,
taking that screenshot means theworld to him.
For me.
Find me on LinkedIn DonnieBovine.
So B as in boy O-I, b as inVictor I-N.
(31:41):
Go visit one of the groups.
If you sell B2B, just go tosuccesschampionnetworkingcom,
the live podcast.
You can find me on YouTube,linkedin and Facebook.
They're all broadcast there.
But the biggest thing is takethat screenshot, show Carl some
love.
Building an audience is one ofthe toughest things in the world
, so if you show him a littlebit of that love, it'll mean
everything to him.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Donnie, thank you.
I need to carry you around inmy back pocket everywhere I go
for sure as a marketing agent tosay Donnie and Church are now
to help the audience.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Let me tell you about Carl.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We'll make sure all of the information is in the
show notes for you to connect toSCN.
And you know what?
Donnie?
He didn't say many swear words,I think he only said one.
I did good.
He didn't say many swear words,I think he only said one Only
because he had to say badassbusiness summit because that's
what it's called which is aphenomenal, phenomenal event.
So, Donnie, we'll make sure allof that is in the show notes,
(32:37):
of course, Before I turn youloose, though, I'll give you the
final thought.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
So here's the thing, guys.
Everybody seems to get so closeto finding success and then
they go start over somewhereelse.
It's the funniest thing in theworld to watch somebody go.
You know what?
I'm going to start a blog.
I think a blog is going to be athing that moves my company
forward.
They get in, they start writing.
They're like man, this is a lotof work.
Oh, I got to write anotherarticle.
I got to do another one.
(33:01):
You know what?
It's not a blog.
Let me do a book.
I think a book is going to bethe thing that takes my company
to the next level.
They start writing a book andthey're like holy cow, this is a
lot of content.
I've got to do chapters.
Oh wait, now I'm going to haveto market this thing.
Nah, I'm not going to do that.
You know what?
I'm going to be a speaker.
I think a speaker is going tobe the thing.
So they decide I'm going to goget on stages.
They my own stage.
(33:31):
Oh crap, this is too much work.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to start a podcast,because the podcast is going to
be an answer.
They start a podcast, they putout a few episodes and they're
like oh my God, I got to editthis, I got to get guests, I got
to market it.
This is why you need a companylike Carl's.
But then they go.
Man, this is too much work,holy cow, I'm not going to start
(33:55):
learning.
And in that learning they applythat learning and take another
step forward.
So quit starting over and whenthe going gets hard, realize
you're in a video game and youjust leveled up.
And that level up.
Now you're going to learn allthe tools, the tricks and
everything it takes to play atthis level and just know when
the next time it gets hard.
(34:16):
You just hit the next level ofthe video game and the people
who find success are those crazyenough to not throw in the
towel when everybody elsestarted over.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I love it, donnie, fantastic.
Thank you so much for being myguest today, my honor brother,
thanks for having me on, carl,and thank you for joining us
today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, dom
Coriglio, our music guru, nathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
stephanie Gaffour.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
(34:53):
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
enemies.
Oh, and if you have a suggestionof someone who you think would
make an amazing guest on theshow, let us know about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(35:15):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space because, after all, we'repodcast solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Thank you.
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode.
I have to tell you that we dohave some great things coming up
, and I'd love to spill the tearight now and tell you exactly
what they are, but I think I'mgoing to wait a few weeks before
(00:45):
I do that, just so I can reallymake some plans and solidify
some events that we're workingon and we're talking some fairly
large events too, at least fromthe podcasting perspective.
There are podcasting meetupsand events all over the world,
but one place where we don't seea lot of activity is in Canada.
So we're talking to some folksabout putting together our very
(01:05):
own here in Canada, a Canadianrun, canadian event for
podcasters, for content creators.
That's one thing, but we alsohave some other great things
that are coming up, includingsome podcast co-ops.
We have to really break thatdown for you because I think
it'll be a game changer in thepodcasting world.
It'll certainly be a gamechanger when it comes to
(01:26):
networking.
So that's happening, but, again, like I said, I don't want to
spill the tea right away.
I want to make sure, before Ido, that we have everything set
up and ready, and I want to makesure that we've got all the
information, as opposed to justsome pipe dreams.
Right so?
But look for that information,probably in the next month or
two, and those will be eventsthat you'll be able to take part
(01:49):
in as well, especially if youare a podcaster or a podcast
guest or a content creator.
There will be some greatopportunities, not only to
attend the events that we'rethinking of, but then also maybe
even speak at those events.
So definitely stay tuned forthat.
Speaking of networking,networking is a huge way to
expand your podcast.
Are you networking?
(02:09):
Are you getting your face andyour name and your voice out
there?
It's also, of course, a greatway to build and grow your
business, right?
So who better than an expert innetworking, actually somebody
who hates networking, at leastin the contemporary sense, to
chat with us about us today?
And that is Donnie Boivin.
Donnie has over two decades insales and he's a pioneering
(02:33):
spirit in B2B networking, buthe's transformed his experiences
into success championnetworking.
We'll find out more about thatmomentarily.
He's here to empowerprofessionals to build
influential networks andbusinesses based on genuine
connections and communitysupport.
He is a podcaster, he is afantastic individual and we are
(02:53):
so thrilled he's joining ustoday.
Donnie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Hey, bud, good to hang out with you, man.
I knew this was going to be fun, so I'll try not to make fun of
you too much, but I'm lookingforward to this.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Some gentle poking and nudging is fine.
I feel this has been a longtime coming, though, because you
and I have been connected for acouple of years.
We'll reveal how Donnie and Imet.
It's the remember when we metand where it was, and we'll talk
about that on the show as well,but I want to dive into this
first piece here.
There was an article that wasposted recently on LinkedIn, and
(03:24):
I believe you posted it, butsomebody else in our network
shared it.
The first line really jumpedout at me, and I want you to
tell the story, because I thinkit's one that needs to be heard
around the world, which is whyyou're on the show.
Podcasting saved my business.
Podcasting saved my business.
Tell me the story here.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, I launched my company back in 2017.
And the day after I launched mycompany, I was slapped with a
non-compete that I don'tremember signing.
So now, luckily, as we'rerecording this, they've done
away with non-competes in the US, but back in 2017, they were a
real deal.
My last career.
(04:03):
I was supposedly one of the topsales trainers in the US.
I don't know what that means,other than I'm really good at
flapping my gums in front of aroom right, and I had full
intent on launching a salestraining company.
And now I have 24 hours intolaunching my company.
After living a very expensivelifestyle for me and my wife, I
went from making a lot of moneyto zero income.
(04:25):
I jumped out on my own to startmy own company, but at that
moment it felt like I'd beenfired because I had no money
coming in to take care of thefarm and everything that we had
going.
But I thought, as a sales guy,just because I couldn't talk
about sales, sales management,and like I'd be able to launch
business and have no problem, Ithought building a business was
going to be really easy, andanybody who knows or ever run a
(04:48):
business knows running abusiness is one of the hardest
damn things on the planet.
Right About six months intobuilding my business, my wife's
Jeep got repossessed.
We almost lost our farm toforeclosure.
Graciously, my wife cashed in aretirement plan the US we call
it a 401k but cashed in herretirement plan to get her Jeep
back and save the farm.
But even though she'd saved thefarm, I still had no idea what
(05:12):
the heck my business was goingto be.
So I started everything I couldthink of.
I was doing graphic design,this weird coaching.
You know, I was literally abusiness whore just saying yes
to anybody who would give memoney.
Right Right around April of 2018, a buddy of mine reached out
and asked if I come speak on astage, and I had to tell him.
(05:34):
I'm like look, I'm under anon-compete, they've already hit
me with a couple of cease anddesist and I can't talk about
sales because, no, I don't wantyou to talk about sales.
I want you to tell your story.
Not a lot of people know thejourney you've been through to
get where you are.
So it was about 200 people inthe audience and I got up there
and I'd never been a keynotespeaker, I'd been a trainer, so
(05:55):
I hadn't done a lot of speakingin front of large audiences.
I'd done speaking in front of alot of rooms of you know 30, 40
people, type things.
And now I'm standing in front of200 and I didn't know the rules
of keynoting.
Like, after your keynote you'resupposed to stand out by the
stage and greet people and shakehands.
And man, I got done.
I was so tired.
I walked to the back behind thecurtains and sat in a chair.
(06:15):
No mixing and mingling, nothing.
And literally this uh, all of asudden this guy comes through
the curtains back to me and saiddonnie, I love your energy, I
love your story.
Would you come tell it on mypodcast?
And I said what the hell's apodcast?
right, so this is april of 2018,right, and uh, he, he explained
(06:38):
to me that a podcast is like amorning talk radio show and I'm
like, oh, I kind of grew up onthose.
I could do that.
So I'm in Fort Worth, texas, Idrive out to Dallas, texas, and
go sit in his studio we're doinga live video type scenario and
recorded.
It was blast, had a lot of fun.
He aired it two days later andsomebody reached out and became
(07:00):
a client of mine.
Now, full disclosure, I couldn'tdo sales training, but I could
do motivational training forabout 40 of his salespeople,
which is what I ended up doing.
But the idea that I could go ona podcast and find clients,
that was like hold my beer andwatch this.
So I started going on a bunchof shows, but then what really
(07:26):
allowed me to save the businesswas I launched my first podcast
in 2018 and then that's whatreally fixed and changed a lot
of things for me.
But I'll pause because I wantto take over your show so you
can ask questions if you like,and then I'll dive into that don
Donnie.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That in itself is a phenomenal testament to getting
started in the podcasting space.
And, by the way, I also saidthe same thing when I first
heard what a podcast was.
It was again after I'd lost ajob and I was doing speaker
training part-time.
And somebody said, oh, you'redoing speaker training, you
should start a podcast.
And I remember again keep inmind I'm in radio broadcasting,
(08:03):
right and I said what's apodcast?
And even after they explainedit, I'm like, okay, so why would
I, as a speaker trainer, tryingto get people on live stages,
why would I host a radio typething?
That's how clearly they weredescribing it why would I do
that?
No, no, I don't want to do that.
It took me seven years until Iwas at an event in Toronto, a
(08:25):
real estate investor expo, andthe main stage speaker was Tony
Robbins, but they had breakoutrooms as well, and one of the
breakout rooms when I saybreakout rooms, the breakout
rooms probably still held about500 people, right, so fairly
large breakout rooms.
In the breakout room that I wasin, it was a guy by the name of
Sam Crowley who's started inpodcasts when podcasts were in
(08:48):
diapers, right, he's been aroundthat long.
And if you've heard a show, youknow it's a very simple show.
Every day is Saturday,phenomenal show.
Anyways.
He's basically on stage for 90minutes saying you should start
a podcast.
Anyone can have a podcast.
What's your show going to beabout?
And then he pitches you intohis program.
From that point I was convincedthat okay, yes, this is a great
fit for me.
But I still had no idea what Iwas doing, even though I had a
(09:10):
little bit of background.
And I think that's one of thechallenges when people do get
into the space is they isthey're not sure what they're
doing.
They just know that they needto find out more about this.
They, they do need a podcast.
But I definitely want to askyou some, some questions,
because you said that hold mybeer, I got to do a dive into
(09:31):
this.
Here it is at the recording ofthis interview, we're spring of
2024.
So here it is what, six yearslater and this is something that
you've embraced full on youhave your own show, but you've
also been on other podcasts as aguest.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
A hundred percent.
Yeah, I've guested on over 500podcasts.
I believe I went in one day toListenNotes and just put in
Donnie Bovine and episodes andjust started counting because I
was curious about how manyinterviews.
So if you ever wonder how manyepisodes you're on, go to
ListenNotes, type in your name,click on episode and just start
counting how many interviewsyou've done.
No-transcript of that out there.
(10:34):
So I just went to Google cause Ididn't know what else to do
typed in whatever I could thinkof and followed by the word
podcast.
So it was sales podcast,business podcast, you know,
networking podcast, entrepreneurpodcast, money podcast, mindset
podcast, and I just startedmaking a master Excel
spreadsheet of every podcast Icould find and then putting out
(10:58):
you know, an email to each oneof those.
And if I could get a phonenumber, it was even better.
For me.
It was a sales guy.
I'm like I'm going to callthese people up number.
It was even better.
For me.
It was a sales guy.
I'm like I'm going to callthese people up and literally
over the next 30 days after thatfirst interview, I was on 50
podcasts in 30 days because Iwas just cranking.
I'm like this is how I'm goingto build the business is just by
guesting on shows, and so I goton a ton of shows.
(11:22):
It was halfway through that kindof journey of how many podcasts
that I can get on that I wenton this gentleman's show and to
this day it's still the worstinterview I've ever had in my
life.
The guy before the show sent mea list of 20 questions and I'm
like, oh, that's interesting.
I've never had anybody send mequestions before and you know.
(11:43):
So I read through them.
They were the same questionsevery other show I asked, right,
because you know just that sameboring generic.
You know things a lot of peoplewho don't know how to interview
do.
And I get on this gentleman'sshow and he goes question number
one and he reads questionnumber one.
I answer the question and hegoes question two.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh God.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
He gets to question three.
And he's question three and I'mlike I'm going to help this
dude out.
I'm like, hey, so why did youget into podcasting?
You know, tell me a little bitabout your world.
And he goes question four.
(12:25):
I'm can have any success doingpodcasting.
I'm launching my own show and Iwent out to YouTube University
and started figuring out what Ineeded to do to launch a show.
And my first podcast I launchedin the bedroom of my parents'
log cabin, in their sparebedroom cabin.
(12:49):
In their spare bedroom.
I literally had a bed sheetwith a group to make a green
screen behind me.
That I bet green bed sheet thatI bought from walmart to make a
green screen behind me.
Uh and zoom and I I launched myfirst show.
Uh, and it was absolute thebiggest pile of turd of a
podcast you could imagine.
It was so bad, it so bad.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Do you ever go back to it and listen and watch it
and go oh my goodness, man, I'veevolved.
Or do you not go back into your?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
catalog.
You know I never go back,mainly because I know how bad it
is.
I don't want to go back and seeit.
You know, I will point to itthat it really ultimately is
probably the biggest catalyst,for it really ultimately is
probably the biggest catalystfor pushing my business forward.
And the reason being is I had ayoung guy by the name of Fergus
(13:34):
out of the UK who was listeningto my show.
He was in my Facebook groupthat I was running at the time
and he reached out and we haddone a Zoom prior to him
reaching out the second time andhe said man, I just love how
you talk to people.
He goes do you care if I reachout and get some people on your
show?
And I'm like sure, you know,finding guests has never been a
(13:55):
problem for me.
You know I didn't understandwhat he meant when he said
people on your show within aweek he goes.
So patrick, bet, david,charlene johnson, neil patel,
and he keeps name dropping.
All would love to be a guest onyour show.
Right, my butthole puckeredbecause I knew all these people
(14:16):
and I'm like crap, I don't knowwhat the hell I'm doing from a
podcast standpoint.
And now you know he's got allthese known names wanting to
come on my show and and I said,fergus, give me a minute to get
all my ducks in a row, he goes.
Well, they're coming, he goes,so you figure it out.
So I said, okay, I can't have aI don't know a better way to
(14:39):
say it without cussing.
So a crap show, crap show,that's what we're looking for.
A crap show of a process.
I told Carl that I would cleanit up for him.
A crap show of a process.
You know, as far as a podcast.
And you know, at that point Iwas just using an Outlook
calendar to schedule.
I was.
You know, there was no systems.
I didn't have an editor, I wasdoing it all myself.
(15:00):
There was no marketing therewas, it was it was me doing
everything.
So I'm like, okay, if I wasgoing to turn this into
something that actually lookedprofessional, what do I need to
do?
So I went ahead and invested inan editor.
That was the number one thing Idid.
And then I said, okay, what'smy process?
(15:21):
From somebody being a guest onthe show to then marketing and
leveraging that and turning itinto something?
So we then created, like thisoperational process and sequence
on a backend.
So podcasting taught me a lot ofthings.
One it taught me operations howto put a team together, how to
put systems in flow in place.
(15:41):
It taught me also how to firepeople, because I hired a lot of
the wrong people and usuallythat was always my fault.
But it taught me marketing howto fire people, because I hired
a lot of the wrong people andusually that was always my fault
.
But it taught me marketing,because guests suck right.
Guests come on your show, theynever promote, they never market
, they never anything.
So I'm like crap.
So we've got to do all that foryou.
We learned that having big nameson your show don't mean a damn
thing.
Right, their audience alreadyknows their story, you know.
(16:12):
So you might get a one pop fortheir episode, but very rarely
are they going to stay.
Um, so we're like okay.
So how do we leverage the smallpeople?
Don't mean small people in arude way, but being somebody's
first podcast, second podcast isusually a pretty good thing,
because they're excited, theywant to share it with everybody.
So it taught me sales.
It taught me marketing.
It taught me you know, equalbusiness, stature and some
phenomenal conversations.
We ended up launching a podcastproduction company on the back
end of that, with all thesesystems and me marketing.
It taught me, you know equalbusiness, stature and some
phenomenal conversations.
We ended up launching a podcastproduction company on the back
(16:33):
end of that, with all thesesystems and processes, and
within about nine months ofrunning that company, we were
running a half a million dollarpodcast production company and
we'd launched internal podcastinside of some fortune 500
companies where we were doingemployee podcast.
But it all stemmed becauseFergus came up to me and he was
like hey, can I see if I can geta couple of people on your show
?
And I really thought he wastalking about like some regular
(16:53):
coaches you know, not, not, nothousehold names.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
That's the amazing story, man.
There's so much we can unbundlethere.
It's just knowing what piecesto start with.
Yay, fergus, for getting sometop names on your show.
But also kudos to you, donnie,for figuring out through trial
and error that the big namesdon't necessarily bring you the
big numbers.
And I think that's one of thethings I find.
When people are looking atpodcasting for the first time,
they say, yeah, I'd love to havea show, but I need to have big
(17:19):
numbers.
I'm like, no, you don't need tohave big numbers, you just need
consistency and resilience andbe able to do all those things
that that Donnie is talkingabout.
The big thing, I think is to isto do it, and to do it whether
you don't want to do it or not.
In days that you don't want toprobably record an episode,
donnie, that you probably andyou probably have a better
layout than than the you know,the old bed sheet that you had
before but, maybe you still haveit, though, just as a symbolism
(17:44):
of.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I have the bedsheets still.
I I that that I do have.
But you know, when I moved thestudio to my farm, I literally
took a bedroom and converted itcompletely into a studio, cause
I'm like I don't want to goanywhere.
So I run my whole company fromthe studio.
Uh, and it's a lot of fun, uh,to do that, but, yeah, it's,
it's been one hell of anevolution.
(18:05):
I will tell you, though, I wasalso insane when I launched that
first podcast.
This is before I even everheard the name, john Lee Dumas.
I didn't know who he was.
I launched a daily podcast, for147 episodes Went straight.
So every Friday I would sitdown and record seven to nine
episodes back-to-back one-hourshows.
(18:27):
Oh, wow, and record seven tonine episodes back to back one
hour shows and just grindthrough it every friday and then
release those for the nextseven days, and then 147
episodes in.
I was like all right, and I wasdoing most of my own editing
everything too.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It was brutal did you ever see your wife when you
were recording the daily?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
yeah, no, no.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I have a colleague out of Eastern Canada and his
name is Mark Mawinney and heactually learned a lot about do
you know Mark?
Okay, fantastic guy.
He learned a lot from John LeeDumas as well, and tells a story
how he did a daily podcast whenhe started his in 2014, 16,
something like that and he saidyou know what, the reason why he
(19:08):
stopped doing a daily podcastwas because he realized he also
was doing his batch recordingProbably, I think he said, on a
Saturday and all of his editing.
He says I lost a girlfrienddoing that so.
I realized that if I want tohave a relationship, I need to
firstly go to a weekly show butthen also outsource, which you
already did.
Actually, you didn't justoutsource you, you created your
(19:31):
own production company in theprocess.
So so you've gone from.
You didn't have a podcast, youhave a podcast, you're guesting
on shows, you're building an, anempire, basically, and and
everything is still in place.
Right, you have this massiveproduction company now and
you're doing all these greatthings and nothing has changed
since then, right?
(19:51):
Yeah, that was facetious,because I know that there's been
some changes since then 100%.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And what's funny is when I hit it right around my
100th episode, somebody said, oh, you're running a show like
John Lee Dumas and I said whothe hell is John Lee Dumas?
I had no idea Somebody else, Ithought I was like the
originator of the 100 dailyepisodes.
And then I look up John LeeDumas and at that point he's
like a thousand episodes indoing daily.
I'm like that guy's insane.
That's beast mode.
(20:17):
After we got the podcastproduction company up and going,
my non-compete ended up goingaway in September of that same
year and I had a chip on myshoulder and I was pissed
because you know I couldn't dosales training which I'd set out
to do.
So I decided to see how much Icould really confuse the
marketplace by going from allright, I have a cool podcast
(20:38):
production company, but now I'mgoing to launch a sales training
company too because I'm pissedthat I couldn't do it before.
So now I'm running at the timeit was about a quarter of a
million dollar, you know podcastproduction company and then I
launched a sales trainingcompany.
I take the podcast productioncompany to a half a million
dollars and then the salestraining company.
(20:58):
I took it almost to sevenfigures and we were doing well,
all virtually, because I alwayswanted to build a business where
I could just work from home andnot have to go anywhere.
We were doing that all the wayup and then, two and a half
years into building all this,covid hits.
(21:19):
And you know, luckily for me,my businesses were online and we
were going to be okay.
I mean, we lost a few dealshere and there, but it wasn't
going to be the massive hit thatyou know people who are working
in offices and then having togo home were doing.
At that moment I started lookingat crap.
How do I help as many peoplebuild, you know, get into the
online space as possible Becausethey don't have the two and a
half years it took me to reallybuild what I felt like I was
(21:39):
finally successful in it.
They've got 30 days if they'relucky.
So in my previous careers I'drun a lot of networking groups
and build a lot of networks.
So it was at that moment that Ilaunched Success Champions
Networking, and that was Marchof 20.
And I didn't launch it to be abusiness.
I launched it 100% just to helppeople.
It wasn't a revenue play for mewe were doing fine with the
(22:02):
companies and so I launched.
And, man, I had no idea for thejourney I was fixing to take,
launching these networkinggroups.
Long story short, I since soldthe sales training company.
I gave the podcast productioncompany to a friend and now
solely run B2B networking groupsall throughout North America.
(22:23):
Never in a million years wouldI have guessed networking was
going to be my business, changedeverything and we just continue
to take market share.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And that's where we met, because I'm part of the SCN
family, the chapter in Canada.
And full disclosure and correctme if I'm wrong, but you hate
networking groups.
I do, I do, but SCN is not.
I mean, it's networking.
But how is SCN different from alot of the other networking
(22:51):
groups that are out there?
What makes it?
What makes it different?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
One thing we didn't know is how massive the gap was
for anybody who sells businessto business.
Anybody who sells businessconsumer, like a real estate,
your mortgage, your, your title,your financial advisors right,
those people can go networkanywhere.
They can go to your chambers,they can go in your B&Is, they
can go in all those places andit's great.
(23:14):
But if you sell telecom, phonesystems, IT MSPs, you sell
commercial printing right, yousell anything that's business to
business.
You can't go network anywhereIf you sell commercial printing,
Podcasting services.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, podcasting services right.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You go into places and you get a room full of
people who sell business toconsumer.
Sure, you can sell them, likelyIt'd be a one-off type deal,
but most times those people arenot talking to decision makers
and companies.
So, like back when I soldcommercial printing before I
launched all my companies, myaverage deal was $25,000.
(23:58):
And going into a chamber ofcommerce hanging out with a
bunch of people who sell B2Cwhich are all great people but
if you ask a real estate agentthe last five homes they sold,
what would the people do?
And they're going to be like anengineer, a doctor, you know, a
lawyer, right?
Not decision makers andcompanies who can make purchases
of $25,000 worth of printing.
When we launched SEN, we decidedto make it and go to business
(24:21):
to business and wow, it was sucha great move.
You know, if you go B2C, BNI isthere, it's a great move.
You know, if you go B2C, bni isthere, it's a great
organization to do B2C.
The chambers are there, it's agreat organization to do that.
But if you go B2B, there's justnot many places to network.
And so we found the niche ofgoing B2B networking groups.
And let's be honest, nobodywants to go to a networking
(24:42):
group and sit around for 45minutes, listen to people.
Do these stupid.
I caught myself.
I almost said a dirty word.
Do these stupid jingles rightthat nobody cares about?
And run a boring meeting thatnobody's into, right?
You got to get in and you gotto really open doors.
So we set out to create anexperience that not only added
(25:03):
education but allowed people tonetwork and open real doors for
other.
Let's get beyond referrals Inthe B2B game.
It's a long sale.
You're not going to close adeal right then and there.
So let's get into introductions.
A referral is an introductionwith a sales call attached.
An introduction is just twogood people together.
Let's get as many introductionsas we can and let's watch how
(25:26):
doors really get opened.
We're the fastest growingnetworking organization on the
planet.
Right now we continue to takemarket share.
It's been a blast.
I had no, no clue that we weregoing to do as well in this
business as we are.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And the proof is in the pudding, as you said,
because it's growingexponentially.
We've got the loan chapterright now in Canada, which I
think is still going to growbeyond being one chapter.
Number two, loan chapter rightnow in Canada, which I think is
still going to grow beyond beingone chapter.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Number two is launching right now.
Ooh okay, Jerry Lalonde islaunching over in the Vancouver
area.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Okay, see, there's things I don't know unless.
I get the grand poobah on theon the podcast but but you've
got chapters all over the U?
S and like you said that, andand even the meetings themselves
.
They don't run as networkingmeetings, they run more like I
guess the best way to describeit would be masterminds.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Mastermind, peer group, board meeting, type of
things, where it's it's let'sgrow together, right, like.
I mean, at the end of the day,if you're in a networking group
and you've been there for anycouple of months, I don't need
you to constantly say, hey, I'ma realtor, hey, I do this, like
we know right.
(26:36):
So, so let's let's get in andlearn something.
Let's teach each othersomething.
Let's let's brainstorm off ofpeople.
Let's let's get education aspart of it, and it's very
structured run meeting, but it'sdesigned around.
Let's grow your business.
Let's get education as part ofit, and it's a very structured
run meeting, but it's designedaround let's grow your business,
let's grow you, which is anenvironment that I hadn't seen
in networking.
You know, there's a huge onlinecommunity that's active as hell,
(26:57):
a ton of additional trainingthat people can be a part of.
Yeah, it's.
We fixed what everybody hatedabout networking, especially if
you sell B2B, and we added a lotof things that people wanted in
networking and so, and, and wekept the price point extremely
low.
So that's, it makes it fun.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And, of course, as you're growing, as you're
getting all of these chapters,you also, as you say, you have
the online community, but you'realso you.
You host live events.
You encourage the chapters toget together in person, at least
now that we can do that.
You encourage the chapters toget together at least once a
month.
And where do you see this going?
(27:34):
If you can gaze into yourcrystal ball, because I know you
have one, where do you see thisgoing in the next, let's say,
two to five years?
Where do you see SEM going?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
We're guesstimating right now at about three years
we'll be at 10,000 membersacross North America.
We're going to stay focused onNorth America for a while and
continue to take market sharethere.
We already have the BadassBusiness Summit, which is our
big annual summit down here inTexas we will have so that one's
open to the public.
We'll start, probably next yearor the year after, a SCN only
(28:05):
conference as well to bringpeople from all over to together
and really showcase our membersand what they can do.
So the Badass Business Summitis really centered around, you
know, showcasing your personalbrand, because you don't build a
personal brand, you alreadyhave it but you do need to
showcase it.
You know and let people knowyou're there, because you know,
in every B&I chapter I'm notbashing, it's a great
(28:26):
organization, but every B&Ichapter there's two B2B people
in there that are going man,there's got to be a better way
to do this, and that's where wecome into play.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And through all of this, through not even knowing
you were going to be running abusiness that was in the
networking space, really, youstill have the podcast.
Talk about the podcast and howit's evolved and the shift
that's that's happened with it,as you've also built out SCN,
yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It's crazy.
So this is really my second bigshow that I run.
So the first one was calledSuccess Champions and it went to
the stratosphere with downloads.
It was.
It was a lot of fun, but myheart wasn't into it at the end
of the day.
So we launched Growth Mode, andGrowth Mode really started off
as how can we help as manypeople as possible, and it's
(29:11):
evolved a couple of times intothis final iteration where it is
now, and so now it's a liveshow that we air on YouTube,
linkedin, facebook, and we bringone of the members of Success
Champions Networking in and weput them in a hot seat, which is
also one of the style ofmeetings we run.
And you know they come with abusiness issue and they get
(29:33):
myself Dr Stevie Dawn Carter,who's one of the top keynote
speakers in the world.
She'll do 90 stages this yearalone, all paid and making
ridiculous money from it.
My brother, keith, who runs abackground screening and drug
testing company, also is one ofour behind the scene guys for a
lot of things in SCM.
And Bernie DeSantis, who runs alarge learning management
(29:57):
company out of Michigan, andwe'll sit across from our
members, put them in a hot seatand help them work on their
business live.
So people can come in and watch, get advice, give advice in the
chats and likes, and thatentire idea has taken off.
It's really, really funwatching the light bulbs going
off of the people in the hotseat, but it's also fun getting
(30:18):
the DMs from the people that arelistening and watching, from
the things they've learned fromthat.
So so that's been a lot of funas well.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I love it, I love it and I've been told that you want
me in the hot seat.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Of course I want to see you cry, so I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
That's like making a good Canadian boy cry Right,
just take a tablespoon of maplesyrup.
Everything will be fine AfterI've been in the hot seat with
Donnie and company.
So I feel like I could talk toyou forever, donnie, or there's
something for another episodedown the line.
But before I turn you loose onthe world, I give the
opportunity to just just sharewith folks.
(30:54):
How can they get a hold of you?
What?
What would go to social media?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
post it say what you got out of this you know episode
and tag me and Carl in it.
If I see that tag, I promiseyou I will come comment on it,
I'll come love on it, I willgive you as much exposure as
(31:18):
possible.
If Carl sees it, I guaranteehe'll comment on it.
But if you take that screenshotand put it out there, it lets
Carl know that he's putting outthe episodes and content that
you want to hear and there'svalue there.
So, whether it's this episode,future episodes, past episodes,
taking that screenshot means theworld to him.
For me.
Find me on LinkedIn DonnieBovine.
So B as in boy O-I, b as inVictor I-N.
(31:41):
Go visit one of the groups.
If you sell B2B, just go tosuccesschampionnetworkingcom,
the live podcast.
You can find me on YouTube,linkedin and Facebook.
They're all broadcast there.
But the biggest thing is takethat screenshot, show Carl some
love.
Building an audience is one ofthe toughest things in the world
, so if you show him a littlebit of that love, it'll mean
everything to him.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Donnie, thank you.
I need to carry you around inmy back pocket everywhere I go
for sure as a marketing agent tosay Donnie and Church are now
to help the audience.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Let me tell you about Carl.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We'll make sure all of the information is in the
show notes for you to connect toSCN.
And you know what?
Donnie?
He didn't say many swear words,I think he only said one.
I did good.
He didn't say many swear words,I think he only said one Only
because he had to say badassbusiness summit because that's
what it's called which is aphenomenal, phenomenal event.
So, Donnie, we'll make sure allof that is in the show notes,
(32:37):
of course, Before I turn youloose, though, I'll give you the
final thought.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
So here's the thing, guys.
Everybody seems to get so closeto finding success and then
they go start over somewhereelse.
It's the funniest thing in theworld to watch somebody go.
You know what?
I'm going to start a blog.
I think a blog is going to be athing that moves my company
forward.
They get in, they start writing.
They're like man, this is a lotof work.
Oh, I got to write anotherarticle.
I got to do another one.
(33:01):
You know what?
It's not a blog.
Let me do a book.
I think a book is going to bethe thing that takes my company
to the next level.
They start writing a book andthey're like holy cow, this is a
lot of content.
I've got to do chapters.
Oh wait, now I'm going to haveto market this thing.
Nah, I'm not going to do that.
You know what?
I'm going to be a speaker.
I think a speaker is going tobe the thing.
So they decide I'm going to goget on stages.
They my own stage.
(33:31):
Oh crap, this is too much work.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to start a podcast,because the podcast is going to
be an answer.
They start a podcast, they putout a few episodes and they're
like oh my God, I got to editthis, I got to get guests, I got
to market it.
This is why you need a companylike Carl's.
But then they go.
Man, this is too much work,holy cow, I'm not going to start
(33:55):
learning.
And in that learning they applythat learning and take another
step forward.
So quit starting over and whenthe going gets hard, realize
you're in a video game and youjust leveled up.
And that level up.
Now you're going to learn allthe tools, the tricks and
everything it takes to play atthis level and just know when
the next time it gets hard.
(34:16):
You just hit the next level ofthe video game and the people
who find success are those crazyenough to not throw in the
towel when everybody elsestarted over.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I love it, donnie, fantastic.
Thank you so much for being myguest today, my honor brother,
thanks for having me on, carl,and thank you for joining us
today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, dom
Coriglio, our music guru, nathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
stephanie Gaffour.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
(34:53):
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
enemies.
Oh, and if you have a suggestionof someone who you think would
make an amazing guest on theshow, let us know about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(35:15):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space because, after all, we'repodcast solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Thank you.
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