November 24, 2023 • 41 mins
Dive into the intricate world of networking with Michael Whitehouse and guest Bernie Franzgrote in this engaging episode of The Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast. The duo explores the art of making introductions, delving into scenarios where compensation may not align with traditional expectations. Bernie shares captivating anecdotes, including a unique connection involving clinical trials through a charity introduction. The conversation unfolds, emphasizing the unanticipated rewards of altruism and the value of keeping an open mind during networking endeavors. Don't miss the insightful tips and stories that unfold in this dynamic episode.
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Mentioned in this episode:
JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023
Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Whitehouse (00:00):
Welcome back to the guy who knows a guy podcast.
We're so excited to be back with you.
And this season we are countingdown to J V connect the first of its
kind, December 12th to 14th, 2023.
This is going to be an incrediblededicated networking event, and you
are going to want to be part of it.
And this podcast here to helpprepare you to get the most
out of this incredible event.
(00:21):
I'm Michael Whitehouse,the guy who knows a guy.
And over the next few weeks, you're goingto get to hear from some of the best
people in the industry about networking.
As well as some solo training from me.
So be sure to join us on December12th to 14th for JB Connect.
And now, let's get to the interview.
Hello and welcome once again tothe guy who knows a guy podcast.
(00:41):
The guy we are meetingtoday is Bernie Franz Grote.
Bernie is a synergy architectwith a robust entrepreneurial
networking capacity and 35 years ofinstitutional healthcare experience.
He collaboratively hosted several nationalbusiness development conferences within a
healthcare business development network.
He is the co founder of CreativeInsight Consultants, Knack for Business
(01:02):
podcast, co host on the Property Wizardpodcast, and an East Tradewinds chapter
host in the World Referral Network.
So Bernie does a little bit of networking.
Bernie is engaged in other areas PhoenixBusiness Exchange, World Referral
Network, and the Indus Entrepreneurs.
He helps businesses start afreshor launching new products.
Or services get creatively connectedto other companies globally.
(01:26):
So welcome to the show, Bernie.
Bernie Franzgrote: Michael, thank you so much. (01:28):
undefined
Appreciate being here.
Michael Whitehouse (01:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Great having you on here.
And as I was putting together theseason six, which is focused, laser
focused into the networking area andthe networking topic, I was like, I
got to get Bernie on because I thinkhe does a bit of this networking thing.
Bernie Franzgrote (01:45):
Just a wee bit, just a wee bit.
Get out there.
Michael Whitehouse (01:48):
Yep.
So, so tell us a bit about your, soit seems like network is kind of baked
in deeply to everything you're doing.
So tell me a little about your philosophyof networking and how, how it serves you
and how it serves the people you serve.
Bernie Franzgrote (02:01):
Well, the one thing I learned in the 36 or 35 years inside
the healthcare institution was inthe last one of it was the business
development was that you depended on otherresources because you can't know it all.
You can't be at all.
And you definitely can't deliver it all.
So it's teamwork or almost becomes likeyou're becoming a project management lead.
(02:24):
Which means you got to collaborate withpeople and you got to understand where
their wants, needs, desires, and you haveto relate your wants, needs, and desires.
That means you gotta, yougotta have a chat time.
Left the institution and thenin 2019 started networking, the
belly to belly iteration of life.
And then of course, you know,things happened in the 2020,
(02:44):
everybody got used to Zoom, Teams,you know, Google Meets, etc.
That actually was that was a boonbecause although always open to having
a chat with somebody it spread thewing so I could go further afield.
You know, I connect with agroup out in British Columbia.
And that was grand connection.
And then I connected with world referralnetwork and between the two of them,
(03:08):
I connected with people in the UK,Europe, South Africa, us, obviously,
you know, that's, that's becauseyou're not far from us and Australia.
So, you know, and I've had some reallygreat chats and what I find is that
when I'm engaging people it's, Idon't have, I don't have, you know,
(03:31):
please, please give me some money.
I don't have.
I need something for you now, asopposed to I want to hear their story.
I mean, I'll really in my story,obviously, but I want to hear their story.
And as they unfold the story,different parts come out.
And so for me, I'm a lateral thinker andI'll start doing cross connects going.
Well, listen, I'm really greatwith doing grant writing proposal.
(03:54):
Oh, that's handy, or, you know,here in the province of Ontario.
The grant writer said, listen,if you encounter a female
entrepreneur under the age of 30.
The province of Ontario at the timewould give you 15, 000 cash to help you
get up and going no strings attached andno one takes any commission off of it.
(04:16):
And so, you know, as you're talking tosomebody now, the hard part sometimes
is, you know, how do you ask somebody?
Are you under the age of 30?
You're the member of the opposite sexand you're trying to do it delicately.
So you're not coming across the wrong way.
You're like, you know,can I, how can I help you?
How can I serve you?
Michael Whitehouse (04:32):
I think if you lead with the, there's a grant, then yes.
That probably, probablysmooth it over a bit.
Bernie Franzgrote (04:38):
A little, a little bit.
It said, you know.
Yeah.
Anyhow, it, it's it.
But part of that is thehow can I serve you piece.
Mm-Hmm.
. And when I'm talking to other people that,you know, it doesn't matter what country
you're in, it, it's very country agnostic.
Mm-Hmm.
. So, you know, uk, SouthAfrica, US, Australia.
(05:00):
You know, how can I help you?
Let's get to know each other.
And then it revolves from there.
I've found that part of my businessand where it helps generate some more
traffic or more activity for me isthat these resources are around me
and then I'm talking to somebody andif I'm getting involved in a project
where I'm going to actually work as aconsultant, well, now I have a series
(05:23):
of people around me that can support it.
So if I'm dealing with someone in the U.
S.
that has I.
P., Related concerns, questions,or they're looking to start it.
I know three IP lawyers and you know what?
That really handy part isthe podcasting element.
So for the podcasting element,it serves a couple of it's a
vehicle of many conveniences.
(05:44):
Someone I just read an articletoday said when you're doing one
thing, see if you do several thingsthat come out of that one thing.
You know, it's almostlike doing a lean project.
And so when I have a podcast withsomebody, I haven't had a chat with them
for a while or it's a brand new chat.
I actually spent an hour with themtalking and then the unfold the story.
And as I'm going through there, I'mspending time going, well, hang on.
(06:07):
You don't know this person that I know.
And it's now I've become like,it's like a Venn diagram.
You have that circle aroundyou, people, you know, right.
And then there's a circlearound the person you got to
know, but you're not crossing.
Yeah.
You know, yourself, myself, we come alongand we kind of do that bridge connection
going, Oh, by the way, wait a minute.
(06:27):
I, you know, I know somebody and, and thatcan result in either you have a service,
you can provide a service to somebody,they can provide a service to you, or
you can possibly do some joint sort ofjoint exercise, whether it's a venture
or, you know, a short term hall event.
And so, yeah, so that's, that'swhat I've been finding out is so the
(06:49):
podcast itself helps generate traction.
Plus when I go to introducethis person to someone else,
like a, not a cold introduction,but you know, here's a podcast.
Now you can hear them talking.
You get a sense of what they're doing.
Cause I'm talking about whattheir business is about.
Yeah.
And so that, that can, that gets,it becomes a pushup point in there.
(07:11):
The third element that comesout of it is from the podcast is
now I have a library of people.
So season one for the knack for businessis done and we have 108 in the can and
the final one releases Mid October.
Season two is already in production andseason two falls right behind season one.
And so it just, you know, it'slessons learned, things get
(07:33):
better the more you do it.
I've enjoyed that.
Michael Whitehouse (07:38):
Yeah, that's one of the great things about podcast is, is
very few people actually take me up on it.
But I, I used to say, you know, Ihave a catalog of introductions.
It's at guyknowsaguy.
com slash podcast.
Go take a look.
See if there's anyonethere you want to meet.
I'll introduce you to them.
No, sometimes I'll talk to someoneon a podcast who I don't really know.
I interview them.
We have a good conversation and thenI don't connect with them again.
(07:59):
So I said, I tried to make introductionsto guests and, and they've been,
and they've not responded to me.
Cause you know, cause sometimes it'salmost like a recorded one to one.
I mean, obviously we've connected anumber of times and, and I'm sure we'll
continue to connect, but sometimesI'll have someone reach out to me and
say, Hey, can I be on your podcast?
And I basically say.
You know, do you fit?
(08:19):
If so, sounds interesting.
Sure.
Yeah.
Come on the podcast.
Let's meet on the air and,and, and people get to hear us
meeting, which can lead to things.
But very often for most of the peopleI've had on the show, if somebody says,
Hey, your, your episode number one 57, Idon't remember who that is, but you know,
could I, could you introduce me to them?
Then I'd be like, yeah, sure.
And the easiest introductionis to say, Hey, Bernie, someone
(08:41):
listened to the podcast.
They said they want to meet you.
So can I connect you?
And obviously all yourcontact info is in the.
show notes anyway.
So it's, it's not like youdon't want to meet them.
That's why you're here.
I meet the people who are on the show.
So it's an easy introduction tomake because somebody just said, I
heard you on the podcast and if Iwant to show and you say, Hey, one
of our listeners wants to meet you.
(09:01):
Do you want to talk?
Of course I do.
Bernie Franzgrote (09:04):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, the other thing I find isthat some people I'm hearing their
story as they unfold their story.
And I, you know, I take notes.
I build up a profile.
And quite literally, when I, whenI'm having a chat with somebody, I
consider it maybe a soft interview.
I'll have all three documentsopen in front of me.
One is, you know, people that I know.
(09:27):
And so in, in the, in the heat of themoment, I go, well, you know, you really
want to talk to this person and I'll,I'll search the the person's contact
details up like LinkedIn profile.
And it's really important to havea LinkedIn profile because if, you
know, There are some people say, I'mlooking at your LinkedIn profile.
Yeah, your photo.
You, you want to work that out a bit more.
It's just, just saying, you know, just,you know, just, just, you know, you
(09:50):
know, just, it's kind of like, it's likeyour business card, you know, you're not
going to show up with a piece of toiletpaper and going, Hi, my name's on here.
Right.
It's yeah.
The, the other, the other pieces that,you know, that information that I have
my second sheet I have, Doc links toother other things that people might
want to go to either networking groupsinformation resources, you know, try this.
(10:14):
Like, you and I both use a descriptfor editing for a software.
I have a link for that.
I'm, I'm filing it.
Extremely useful.
It reduces my editing time, et cetera.
Then I have a third document where Ihave software links, like, you know,
someone will say, you know, if anything,and then just, you know, I'll drill in.
And right now I'm on the huntfor AI software, you know,
(10:38):
to help the podcast out.
How can I, how can I make it stand outand not, but not be garish, but, you know,
make it stand out like the audiograms.
Right.
So right now I'm buildingthe audiograms into script.
But I'm looking for things where Ican have the talking head, right?
And, and just if I animate it alittle bit, so I'm not anyhow, I'm
(10:59):
looking for ways to spice it up.
This is what I'm trying to say, right?
That's the marketing element.
But anything I'm encountering nowis a shareable piece of information.
So that, that's the other part, youknow, the LinkedIn piece, the, the
Descript piece, you know, someonesays, well, how do you use that?
Well, let me show you, letme just walk you through it.
And, you know, if it goes well,but you're, you're developing
(11:20):
a rapport with somebody.
So inside the inside my Phoenix businessexchange here in Ottawa, which is
it's, it's, it's online, but it usuallytargets the local Ottawa area, the
Ottawa Valley area, you know, you runinto people going, how do you use that?
Or how do we do this?
And I said, yeah, you know, you getyour LinkedIn profile up and then
(11:40):
set up your company profile up.
So it's easier to refer people to you.
Stories in behind there.
The other other beautifulthing is that I found that the.
You're never going torun out of stuff to do.
And always, there's always someinteraction you're going to have.
So there's a high value, high utility.
Yeah.
Michael Whitehouse (12:01):
Yeah.
And, and it's funny causeyou're talking about LinkedIn.
An introduction popped into myhead and I'll talk to you about
it when we get off the air.
Do, do you help people build outtheir LinkedIn profile or is it
more just kind of like, here aresome quick tips so it's not a mess?
Bernie Franzgrote (12:14):
Some quick tips.
Like there's a couple of peoplethat I know and that you might you
might know one of them Don Ollert.
So if you're, let's sayyou're leaving, you're, you're
changing your job, for example.
Don, he'll work on your LinkedIn profile,but he works just that's one leg of
the journey, but if you're looking foranother job, he'll find your profile.
And then, you know, it goes from there.
(12:36):
That's where you find that subject matterexpert that lives and breathes the area.
For example, accounting, right?
And it's the same in the U.
S.
as it is in Canada, you, if you'regoing to say you're an accountant,
you know, you got to have some someletters behind you and that designation
meant you meant you went to school tounderstand GAP, you know, which, which
is a whole nother story, but, you know,you come across something and if someone
(12:59):
lives and breathes a certain specialty.
You direct the person there.
Like, for example, I could take mycomputer apart, but that'd be a mistake
because I'll probably have spareparts putting it back together again.
And that means, you know, I won'thave a functional device anymore.
So, yeah.
Michael Whitehouse (13:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that that's great.
And it's one thing I alwaysteach is the, there's three,
three ways you can serve someone.
You can give them an introductionadvice or, or offer something.
And the third one is the leastfrequent and, you know, you
touched on, on two of those.
The third one's obvious peopleknow how to make the offer.
That's yeah.
People who don't know how tonetwork are doing that all the time.
But the first two are the ones Ithink people often overthink it.
(13:34):
They're like, well, who would I introduce?
Or how would I know them?
Or what can I share?
And just little things like, oh,do you know about the script?
Do you know about, you know,software that you may use every day?
That somebody else hasnever heard of before.
And once they learn about it, likewhat descript 20 bucks a month,
I can drop any video into it.
It'll, it'll make a transcript.
That's pretty high quality.
I didn't know that existed or, you know,or an introduction where it's it's,
(13:57):
Oh, yeah, I know a great accountant whoexplains things well and doesn't treat
you like an idiot, or I know a LinkedInguy who can help you you know, help you
work out your, your profile, or I know a.
Whatever because oftentimespeople have a problem.
They're happy to pay for a solution.
They just want to pay someonewho's actually going to do it.
Bernie Franzgrote (14:15):
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Well, again, the sharing of informationas it's learned is a handy piece.
I've found that even now, example, worldreferral network, we've, we started
something called East trade wins.
It's a chapter here in Ontario.
So we meet every Tuesdayfrom eight to nine a.
(14:35):
m.
Eastern standard time.
Anybody's welcome to space.
I mean, I just, I'm not trying to plugthe, the whole WRN space, but you know,
It has, he has utility for referrals,but kind of the key thing when we had our
first meeting last week with someone says,is this just gonna be another typical
meeting like, you know, are we just goingto sit here and trade business cards?
(14:58):
No, it's, it's, it's meant tohelp build your connections.
Help, help, you know, if you have apearl of wisdom to share that, by the
way, the, the the podcast, at leastfrom the knack for business, I'm
equating it to like a mini MBA thing youknow, cause I ended up learning about
little, little nuggets of information.
(15:18):
I didn't know that I knew some ofthat, but I don't know the whole,
you know, the the complete part,like there was the IP lawyer out of
the U S last one I was interviewing.
Nancy Delane was saying, did youknow, and then she says in the U.
S.
Constitution, not as an amendment,but right into the Constitution, if
you have intellectual property rights,you develop something, it's yours.
(15:43):
Because I guess back in the day, itbelonged to the crown or the king or
the queen, whoever was there, right?
So, and so the ownership, whichis, it makes perfectly good sense
considering, you know, all the entireshift in how business was happening.
Right.
It was handy.
You know, it was reallygood to understand that.
And it's just, you know, it's notgonna, it's not going to change my life,
(16:04):
but it's, it's kind of a cool fact.
So if I have a trivia question, youknow, I might be able to answer,
you know, quickly and accurately.
Michael Whitehouse (16:13):
Yeah, I've learned so much from meeting people.
Bernie Franzgrote (16:15):
So the other, the other part is sometimes when I've gone
to meetings, even on a person to personIndus entrepreneurs ties, it's called the
acronym in every major every major city.
And they do tech and hardware.
So they're in that space could be alittle bit of firm up, but you meet
interesting people and just eventhe stories that they'll tell you.
(16:38):
It's like, you know, it's one thingto go, you know, I make a widget.
Well, you know, there mightbe a story about the widget.
There might be a storyhow the widget progressed.
Or they're just fascinating people.
So it's just You know, it's likehaving a Rubik's cube of, you know,
information is always changing upand you never know what's going to
look like you hope for the finishedproduct, but you get there slowly.
(16:59):
But it's entertaining.
It's keeps you alive.
Michael Whitehouse (17:04):
Yeah, well, and that's totally one thing that I found.
I'm.
I read some books I listened to someaudio books, but most of what I know
is just from talking to lots of people.
I've talked to, I don't know,1, 500, 2, 000 entrepreneurs
over the last three years.
And I went from knowing nothing about theonline business space other than, I think
there's some coaches or something who dosomething on the internet, to like being
(17:28):
versed enough that people are coming tome and saying, how's this stuff work?
And pretty much, cause there'sno, there's no books on this.
The industry is so rapidlyevolving anyway that.
You know, people are coming tome and saying, How's this work?
And I was like, Well, andpeople ask me questions.
The answers just come out of my mouth.
I'm like, Where did that come from?
But I've just talked to somany people, whether it's on
podcasts or summits or whatever.
And it's a really cool way to learn.
(17:49):
Just talking to people.
And of course, the cool thing isthe people who teach you like it
because they get to feel smartwhile they talk and you listen.
And then you get to feel smart whileyou pass that information along.
Bernie Franzgrote (18:01):
Absolutely.
And I, the other element thatI've found is a credit source.
Mm hmm.
The fact the fact you're you'rebringing up the information that
you credit the source and It's soif I was at a conference, it was a
they were selling cleaning products.
It's an industrial trade show inToronto and the person is going up and
(18:23):
he says, listen, if you're utilizingAI to generate content to say, this
part was generated by AI, make sure therest of you is involved in that space.
But the important part is if you'recrediting the source of the live source,
it reinforces several different things.
One that you're giving themrecognition for their work.
(18:45):
Two, it shows you'rea collaborator, right?
And that's super key.
And you're not, you're not tryingto steal their thunder, so to speak.
And, and then three, you know, it showsyou can, you can thread it, you know,
something useful into a conversation thathas, has relevance and bearing, which
then says, Hey, you're a contributor.
Michael Whitehouse (19:07):
Yeah.
And that's what I found.
It's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you share the source of whereyou learned something from, then it's,
it's a way to name drop the right way,especially if you learned it from someone,
you know, someone somewhat known that.
You can name drop that like, Oh yeah,so I was talking to this person,
name you've known, and I learned thistechnique that I'd like to share with you.
(19:29):
And they're like, Wow, you'resharing technique with me.
That's nice.
And you know that person.
That's pretty cool.
And then if word gets back around that youtaught them something and their name is
attached to it, they're like, Oh, thanksfor, thanks for giving me that shout out.
Cause you're, you know,most people don't credit.
Most people like, Oh, I have thisamazing way of doing things that
I came up with all by myself.
(19:51):
After reading this person's book.
. Bernie Franzgrote: Yeah, . The, the other part I found about networking, and I found
this in, in the in the 2020 year I endedup connecting with a group in the uk.
It's called Ree, R-E-C-R-E-Eeight, the number eight.
And the gentleman running his Dr.
(20:12):
Keith Keith, Dr.
Keith Dietz.
And so you're talking about diversity.
He's an ex South African, had been amilitary medic during, back in the day.
He helped post post military, helpedIndigenous folks in South Africa
you know, set up social enterprises.
(20:33):
He is, he's gone to the University ofCork, and he's located in, in Scotland.
He runs, he runs a a session once aweek for about five to eight weeks.
And there's like, it's a two hour session,so it's not going to be for everybody.
But if you're interested in understanding,I'll say about management and the current
management trends, like, you know, and.
(20:53):
What are the most appropriate ways tounderstand things like he's talked about
Ray Dalio that name's come up a lot.
I've seen that in a lot of differentplaces as well as in conversation.
There's a group of us that are there.
A couple of folks out of the US, a coupleof folks from the far west of Canada.
So we're meeting at 9 a.
m.
Eastern Standard Time.
A couple other folks aremeeting in their three hours the
(21:14):
other way, so that's like 6 a.
m.
You know, and the lights are off inthe background, but we're all, we're
all collaborating in that session.
So they'll have a thought processwhere you're at with this, right?
And then you know, and then he'll,he'll take it from the academia
side and have a conversation.
But you know, the takeaway of that isThere are two elements coming out of that.
(21:36):
So, Dr.
Deet says, listen, Bernie, if youfind someone that is in need of
the service, of his services, hehelps companies scale up, right?
I'm not trying to do the plug here.
He says, listen, there's some coinin the realm that comes back to you.
Which is fine.
You know, it's not like, you know, Imake the connection and I'm expecting,
you know, there's not a meter running.
Sitting there.
If it works out, it works out.
(21:57):
If it doesn't, you know, carry on.
Life's beautiful.
You met a new person, but thereare other people in that space that
I've, I've, I've cross pollinated.
And they, 1 of them is a coachthat deals with people that are you
know, if you're highly stressed.
So, yeah, I can, I can with a guyin Toronto has, he has a coaching
cluster for people that are dealingwith mental stresses in life.
(22:19):
Right?
So you just, you just thread that through.
So there there's kind of that groupthat's kind of come in very handy.
Yeah, I want to get back to something you mentioned, speaking
of groups so you're talking about howyour group is not like any others.
And I think one thing that throwspeople off is, you know, BNI is sort
of the 800 pound gorilla of networking.
And I've often described BNI as being likean engine, you know, like a car engine.
(22:40):
It's got all these different parts.
And if you go to your car and you'relike, I don't know what this alternator
thing is for, car runs fine without it.
Until it doesn't, you know, a lotof people try that would be and
they'll take a BNI group and they'llbe like, I'll make my own, but
we're not gonna require attendance.
We're not gonna do this.
Not gonna do that.
And what they don't realizeis the way BNI works is.
It works the way it works becauseevery piece of it goes together.
(23:01):
And part of that is the referralconfidence curve and taking
six to 12 months of seeing thesame people week after week to
be able to refer them business.
And without that, you can't walk intoa cold group and be like, so my ideal
client is please send them to me.
And so the groups that have tried tobe BNI knockoffs have not worked well.
The ones that have actually triedto optimize the BI system have,
(23:22):
there's some like AmpSpirit is a, is.
Follows that same basic concept ofthe same people week after week.
Success champions network alsodoes it and that can work.
But again, same, you gotta be there everysingle week to build those relationships.
But, but the groups that are the more,the drop in groups and more casual groups
have to use a different format becausethere's no referral confidence curve if
(23:43):
you're just dropping in, dropping out.
So what are some things you've seenwork well for the non BNI style groups
that are not the typical, my idealclient is please send me a prospect.
Bernie Franzgrote (23:54):
So part of it is the phoenix business exchange was my 1st 1 of
my 1st groups that I encountered in 2019.
The in person group prior to thatinside inside the health care area.
We never left the mother ship.
You know, everything cameeverything came to the mountain.
Right?
So now now the mountain has togo up because, you know, my only
(24:17):
regret in that space was notnetworking 3 years prior to exit.
And so what I've seen that it canhelp, let's say, for example, the
recreate group, it's, it's, it'snot about the referrals referrals
might be the second or third wave.
And if there's something, if thereis a referral, that makes sense.
(24:37):
And the other key thing is, you know,when you make a referral, if you're going
to do that piece, you try to match it.
So it works for the person.
So the both parties, no point nopoint sharing or selling a baby
carrier to someone who's 80 years old,unless of course their grandparent.
And even that you know for example,here in Ottawa, I ran into an AI
(24:58):
client and, and then I ran intoanother one they hadn't met.
And then they both responded to afederal government RFP together.
So that was kind of the end result.
So what can work what I'veseen work inside the even in
the world referral network.
I'm getting used to that space.
But when we do the East trade winds, partof it is I'm trying to get people to open
(25:21):
up and tell certain parts of the story.
So it's you know, their storyand or what they're looking for.
Or do they much like in the podcast,tell me about your industry,
tell me something, you know, oneunique thing about your industry.
It's almost like when you do a tick tock.
You know, you, you don't get,you don't get the the epic of
Gilgamesh coming out at you.
(25:42):
You know, it's like not, or, orthe Lord of the Rings, right?
Or, or the Harry Potter series.
You don't get, like, you know,there's a ton of stuff here.
You just fire hose me andI, you know, I'm lost.
You know, you give, you giveone slice of the pie, you.
And you try to make sure thatslice of the pie is relevant.
And so you try to share that information.
So as a group, what we're trying todo is tease that out of people, right?
(26:03):
And not, not alwayshave same old, same old.
You have some form to it.
So, you know, there's astart time, the intro sweep.
You add some, you add some some questionsthat are not standard, but they're not
the same one from last week, for example.
And you build off of that.
If the group you're looking at thegroup that's sitting there and they've,
(26:24):
you know, they've answered all thequestions, then you change the task.
But if the lineup changes whocomes, then you adapt for that.
The other part that I've seen happening,and this is with the Grand Connection, if
I, and also the World Referral Network,and actually, this is the part I really
like about the World Referral Network,they have access to go high level.
So, you know, my membership in that space.
(26:48):
Is less than the old street price for ago high level, and if you don't understand
what go high level is, and it took mea while, and then I realized, you know,
it was kind of the hidden gem behind thedoor so you can host a website on there.
You can do all your clickfunnels through there.
You can do trigger events.
So if someone clicks a button,you know, so, you know, it.
(27:10):
It can be very complicated as much asyou want to make it complicated as long
as you have, you know, good structureand you're, you're kind of track
things, but you can have the whole,you know, click funnels happening.
You can remind people to push out.
It can replace Calendly.
If you're into MailChimp, it canreplace that, you know, it can replace
other software and coalesce it inone spot and that's kind of handy.
(27:32):
So if that's the other value add,if, if the, the agency or the
entity that you're networking with.
It provides you another, another layerof service that you, you know, it's,
you know, more for less cost, right?
There's, there's, there's,there's a, there's a a little
bit of love coming back at you.
It's sort of like, you know, if you're,if you're working for an employer and
they have employee benefits, there you go.
(27:54):
There's a bit more, you know, itjust gives you a bit of a hug.
That's the other, that's the other part.
Michael Whitehouse (27:58):
Well, and one benefit I could see.
Also to people to attach and gohigh level to a networking group is
one challenge at a certain level ofnetworking is running into people
like, oh, I don't have an email list.
Oh, I don't have a website.
I don't have this.
If they go high level, then if theydon't have an email, it's just because
they're not putting people in there.
If they don't have a website or.
A landing page or whatever it wasbecause they're not using it yet.
(28:21):
But they have it.
So at least they have that tool that nowthey may then decide, Oh, I have going
out of level, but I prefer this otherthing instead, that's a more advanced
level, but at least it gives a baselinelevel of what technology they have access
to because they've got it in that group.
Cause that's always a challenge.
You know, you go to a joint ventureevent and somebody says, Oh yeah.
As soon as I launched mycourse, we should collaborate.
(28:43):
You're like, yeah, I'm going to just sithere and hold my breath till that happens.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As soon as I write my book, any minutenow, about to write my book, about to
publish it, any minute, any minute.
Bernie Franzgrote (28:53):
You know, at the, at the end of the day, it's like, if someone
says this, I'm going to, you know, what'sthe, there's a saying about the intentions
of mice and men, you know best laid plans.
Plans of mice and men.
Yeah.
So, you know, things will detractyou, but if, if you're caught
on, on a, on a, On a project.
And, you know, part of that project is,you know, core of your business, you know,
(29:17):
you look for people that can support it.
If you're, if you're paying Brendaunder Caesar, what's old to Caesar,
if so, you know, if you pay for thingsone guy, for example, he says, listen,
Bernie, you introduce me to people.
I'm going to pay you money.
And looked at him andsaid, Michael, it's okay.
I'm not starving.
(29:37):
Physically.
I'm not starving.
Cause I looked down and I realized,you know, I gotta, I gotta lose
some weight, but I appreciate it.
Right.
He says, no, listen.
You're doing the marketing.
You're introducing me to somebody, right?
And you're saying, and you can vouch,you know, A, you're going to find
somebody that is, it's a good connection.
(29:58):
And, you know, I can, Ican provide the service.
If, if everything yields, thenyou have, you have a you have
some income coming back to you.
So fine.
I mean, I deal with a commercial realtorand we have a marketing agreement.
And well, here's the otherthing by a podcast and other
electronic social media pieces.
Some people, when you go to do a podcast,they go, Oh, I've done one before.
(30:21):
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, no.
I said, You just chattedwith me for 40 minutes.
What do you think a podcast is?
Except, you know, we have a bitof a script, a little bit of
structure, but, you know, it'sit's a free floating conversation.
It's not like, you know, at 205, you,you shall now turn left, you know, and
squint, you know, if it's a video podcast.
(30:42):
Anyhow, you know, a lot of peopleare also inhibited by that.
So anyhow, I kind of swung out backto our top of our conversation,
back, back to networking andutility out of those events.
You're going to come across people,they're going to realize the value.
And if, if it bodes wellyou're, you're off to the races.
(31:03):
You'll, you'll, you'll, you'll,you reward those that help you.
Someone asked me, he said, Bernie, howdo you know you're going to get paid?
And I said guy's name was Terry.
I said, this was in 2019.
I said, Terry, the grass doesn't grow.
If it's, you know, if it'snot watered, it's not great.
So, you know, that involves continuoustraction, continuous communication.
Michael Whitehouse (31:25):
Yeah.
And one thing I found along those linesis that they're very often when I'll.
I'll make a referral.
I don't know if it's goingto turn into anything.
It's one of those, you know,it's a 5 percent referral.
It's, it's not, not, not wasting time,but I'm like, well, this person seems
somewhat interested in what you do.
You do what you do.
I'm going to have you talk to each other.
And, and you say, oh, that's a prospect.
You know, it's up to me to do somethingwith him and maybe something happens
(31:46):
and maybe it doesn't and maybe there'sa commission and maybe there's not.
And I have found that it is much easierfor me as a distractible individual to
just make connections and trust thatsome people say, Oh, I made some money
here, Michael, have some money than to.
Make an agreement with every person.
Okay.
I need to sign the contract andknow what's the form and what's
(32:06):
the percentage is going to beand blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I would rather justsend introductions.
No, it was explicitly,you have this service.
Okay.
What's going to happen if Isend you someone, oh, you're
going to pay commission.
Okay, great.
But I often don't even writedown what the commission is.
They tell me, or it's in my notessomewhere, but I'm not keeping track.
I just want to make sure that atsome point we said, okay, I'm going
(32:28):
to send you people, you're goingto send me money of some amount.
Cool.
I trust you.
I'll send them an introduction.
If that turns out and turns intosomething and they pay me, then I might
go back and say, who else do I know?
And if they don't, well,I just don't remember.
I say money holds my attention.
It's not a matter of, of you give memoney or else I'm not going to give
you the, you know, make introductions.
It's more a matter of, Iknow thousands of people.
(32:49):
So who catches my attention?
Well, the one that I've got aPayPal receipt from, from yesterday.
Might be a little more top of mindthan the one that I don't, but it's
not a quid pro quo, you know, Oh,well, you, you gotta, you gotta
have put some silver across my palm.
If you want some of my services,it's, it's more a matter of, yep.
I help enough people.
Something comes back.
(33:09):
How hard is it to make an introductioncompared to the value that returns?
Bernie Franzgrote (33:14):
And sometimes some of the introductions, there is no way that
the entities are structured to give you.
Compensation.
If they're a charity or not forprofit they might have elements
within that that says, no, I can't.
I can't.
I actually had one, you know, like thisone top of 2019, but he says to me, he
says, my company does clinical trials.
(33:35):
I look at buddy.
I said.
I don't know anybody playing Frankensteinand the health care institution did have
a research wing, but that was not me andthere's money to be made in that space.
But it's, it's you know, no, I didn'tplay that in that ballpark bottom of
2019 and there was a charity that I wasdealing with and I was doing intros and
they said, listen, we can't pay anything.
(33:55):
So that's fine.
You're helping people.
I'm more than glad todo the cross connect.
They introduced me to a physicianin a bottom of 2019 who was
looking for clinical trials and on.
Well, oddly enough, I could pull that cardoff the deck and go, here, here you go.
And, you know, just started, startedthe business relationship from there.
Michael Whitehouse (34:16):
Yeah.
You never know what you might comeacross or, or, you know, you, you
help out the, as you said, you helpout someone who can't, can't pay you.
And sometimes, especially if they,if they recognize like, I, I, you're
so valuable, but I can't pay you.
And I'm sorry about that.
Now they know that thereis, there is an imbalance.
And so they may be on the lookout for,you know, Oh, Bernie really helped us out.
(34:37):
I wonder, okay.
I wonder, will this person help Bernie?
Will this person help Bernie?
Will this person help Bernie?
And now they're on the lookout for someway to repay what your kindness with
probably an introduction or some sortof heads up, or, you know, I heard about
this, this new grant just came out or.
or whatever.
You never know what kindof value they can return.
And especially because you,you said, Oh, no problem.
(34:59):
Don't worry about it.
I just want to help.
And it wasn't like a, well, Iguess just this once I'll help you.
It's you just give freelyand people feel that.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:09):
Absolutely.
Well, the nice thing from the UK, Iget a bottle of scotch from Scotland.
So that's that worked out.
Well, that's, that's my Christmas moments.
That don't last long.
I don't understand why.
Michael Whitehouse (35:22):
Well, maybe it's just a UK thing.
Maybe it's doesn't have the resilienceof like North American scotch.
Or North American whiskey.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:30):
There's some that taste pretty good from
from this side of the continent.
But yeah, just, yeah yeah.
The bottle only lasts solong, it's not endless.
Michael Whitehouse (35:38):
Yes, yeah.
My bottle is broken.
I leak in it, or I don'tknow what happened.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:42):
There's a leak in it, yeah.
I think I'm the leak.
Michael Whitehouse (35:45):
Yeah, there's a leak in the top, and someone
keeps turning it upside down.
I don't know how that happens.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse (35:51):
Yep.
So, so people want to connect with you.
What is the best way for them to do that?
Bernie Franzgrote (35:56):
They can reach me at info@creativeinsight.com.
It's I nfo atK-R-E-A-T-I-V-I-N-S-I-G-H-T .com.
And that's usually the reason I canramble that off is 'cause that's
what I do on my kn for business.
But you can also reach me atkreativinsight.com or B Franzgrote,
so B-F-R-A-N-Z-G-R-O-T-E at.
(36:18):
K R E A T I V I N S I G H T dot com.
That's kind of easy.
You'll have a link in there that'll havea kind of, you know, give you a full kind
of list of, you know, seven differentways from Sunday to get ahold of me
or know about me or figure things out.
And looking open to chat with podcastthat have interesting business stories.
(36:40):
And again, that's part ofthe networking joy, right?
I have some people reaching out to me kindof cold call going and they're, they're,
they're doing the podcast matching.
Listen, do you want totalk to this person?
We'll have a chat with themand then go from there.
And they're going, that'san interesting story.
Yes.
Let's have a chat or, you know, other,other people doing intros if you're in
the manufacturing sector or, you know,clothing apparel, just did one on that.
(37:05):
So I'm just starting herclothing line here in Canada,
you know, out of Smith falls.
And yeah, I keep going.
That's that's that's my other that's theother thing you have to be able to chat
and then realize keep tabs of your time.
Otherwise, someone might fallasleep while you're talking to them.
Michael Whitehouse (37:22):
Yeah, that's why the second monitor
that has Google Calendar on it.
So yeah, because there'sADHD time blindness concept.
But I have a clock in thecorner of my computer.
I have google calendar the redline marching down through the day.
I have a clock up there So I am constantlyaware at my command center of what the
time is Which is kind of valuable whenyou run appointments back to back but
(37:42):
yes, so all those links are going to be inthe chat including Creative insight which
is spelled with a k and no e on the end.
So not exactly the commonspelling But it's fine.
You can find it down there in the notesif you Didn't listen to it's K R E A
T I V, which is creative, but with aK and no E on the end creativeinsight.
com and other links,the knack for business.
(38:03):
And that's numeral four.
And there's a link for these trade winsand a link for some of the other cool
stuff is there in the show notes as well.
So any final thoughts you would liketo leave our audience with Michael?
Bernie Franzgrote (38:16):
I, first off, thank you.
I appreciate the timeto be on the podcast.
You know, if you're going out to ameeting to network, ask a few questions,
you might find people that might notjive with you right off the bat, but,
you know, just open the door and havea chat and just don't go in with a set
(38:37):
set goals, keep an open mind and just,you know, get to know them and you,
you never know what's going to happen.
You'll end up talking, you thinkit's one thing and next thing you
find out about five other thingswhere you have things in common and
where you can also do introductions.
Michael Whitehouse (38:52):
I love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, we're conversation.
I have to start and just seemto be rambling on to nothing.
And then at the end, they're like,wait, so you publish a magazine, right?
How much does it costto advertise in there?
500 a month.
Yeah.
How do I sign up for that?
And like, I didn't say anything aboutit and they just sell themselves
or, you know, how do I get ticketsto one of your events or what's
your, you know, what's your program.
And we were talkingnothing about business.
(39:14):
We were talking about, you know,traveling and networking and whatever.
And, and at the end,they're like, All right.
So here's my credit card.
Sign me up for that thing.
Never know what that will happen.
So that's great advice.
Never keep an open mindand just see where it goes.
So thank you so much for coming on here.
This has been a great conversation.
(39:35):
You know, quite a bit aboutthis networking thing.
So I, I brought in the right guy,
Bernie Franzgrote (39:43):
the guy that knows a guy.
Michael Whitehouse (39:44):
That's me.
Yep.
And you that's us.
We're both guys whoknows guys with pro quo.
Bernie Franzgrote (39:50):
Thank you, sir.
Michael Whitehouse: Thank you for joining us. (39:52):
undefined
For the guy who knows The Guy Podcast,I'm Michael Whitehouse, the guy who
knows the guy, and I hope you'll join usin December from the 12th to the 14th.
For JV Connect, go to Guy whoknows a guy.com for more details.
Now, if it's after December, 2023and you're listening to this,
it's okay because we're gonna bedoing this event every quarter,
so go to Guy knows a guy.com.
(40:13):
See what's new, see what's happening,and of course check the show notes
to learn about our guests and howyou can get in touch with them.
Check out our next episode formore great training, information,
and networking tips from MichaelWhitehouse, the guy who knows a guy.
Welcome back to the guy who knows a guy podcast.
We're so excited to be back with you.
And this season we are countingdown to J V connect the first of its
kind, December 12th to 14th, 2023.
This is going to be an incrediblededicated networking event, and you
are going to want to be part of it.
And this podcast here to helpprepare you to get the most
out of this incredible event.
(00:21):
I'm Michael Whitehouse,the guy who knows a guy.
And over the next few weeks, you're goingto get to hear from some of the best
people in the industry about networking.
As well as some solo training from me.
So be sure to join us on December12th to 14th for JB Connect.
And now, let's get to the interview.
Hello and welcome once again tothe guy who knows a guy podcast.
(00:41):
The guy we are meetingtoday is Bernie Franz Grote.
Bernie is a synergy architectwith a robust entrepreneurial
networking capacity and 35 years ofinstitutional healthcare experience.
He collaboratively hosted several nationalbusiness development conferences within a
healthcare business development network.
He is the co founder of CreativeInsight Consultants, Knack for Business
(01:02):
podcast, co host on the Property Wizardpodcast, and an East Tradewinds chapter
host in the World Referral Network.
So Bernie does a little bit of networking.
Bernie is engaged in other areas PhoenixBusiness Exchange, World Referral
Network, and the Indus Entrepreneurs.
He helps businesses start afreshor launching new products.
Or services get creatively connectedto other companies globally.
(01:26):
So welcome to the show, Bernie.
Bernie Franzgrote: Michael, thank you so much. (01:28):
undefined
Appreciate being here.
Michael Whitehouse (01:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Great having you on here.
And as I was putting together theseason six, which is focused, laser
focused into the networking area andthe networking topic, I was like, I
got to get Bernie on because I thinkhe does a bit of this networking thing.
Bernie Franzgrote (01:45):
Just a wee bit, just a wee bit.
Get out there.
Michael Whitehouse (01:48):
Yep.
So, so tell us a bit about your, soit seems like network is kind of baked
in deeply to everything you're doing.
So tell me a little about your philosophyof networking and how, how it serves you
and how it serves the people you serve.
Bernie Franzgrote (02:01):
Well, the one thing I learned in the 36 or 35 years inside
the healthcare institution was inthe last one of it was the business
development was that you depended on otherresources because you can't know it all.
You can't be at all.
And you definitely can't deliver it all.
So it's teamwork or almost becomes likeyou're becoming a project management lead.
(02:24):
Which means you got to collaborate withpeople and you got to understand where
their wants, needs, desires, and you haveto relate your wants, needs, and desires.
That means you gotta, yougotta have a chat time.
Left the institution and thenin 2019 started networking, the
belly to belly iteration of life.
And then of course, you know,things happened in the 2020,
(02:44):
everybody got used to Zoom, Teams,you know, Google Meets, etc.
That actually was that was a boonbecause although always open to having
a chat with somebody it spread thewing so I could go further afield.
You know, I connect with agroup out in British Columbia.
And that was grand connection.
And then I connected with world referralnetwork and between the two of them,
(03:08):
I connected with people in the UK,Europe, South Africa, us, obviously,
you know, that's, that's becauseyou're not far from us and Australia.
So, you know, and I've had some reallygreat chats and what I find is that
when I'm engaging people it's, Idon't have, I don't have, you know,
(03:31):
please, please give me some money.
I don't have.
I need something for you now, asopposed to I want to hear their story.
I mean, I'll really in my story,obviously, but I want to hear their story.
And as they unfold the story,different parts come out.
And so for me, I'm a lateral thinker andI'll start doing cross connects going.
Well, listen, I'm really greatwith doing grant writing proposal.
(03:54):
Oh, that's handy, or, you know,here in the province of Ontario.
The grant writer said, listen,if you encounter a female
entrepreneur under the age of 30.
The province of Ontario at the timewould give you 15, 000 cash to help you
get up and going no strings attached andno one takes any commission off of it.
(04:16):
And so, you know, as you're talking tosomebody now, the hard part sometimes
is, you know, how do you ask somebody?
Are you under the age of 30?
You're the member of the opposite sexand you're trying to do it delicately.
So you're not coming across the wrong way.
You're like, you know,can I, how can I help you?
How can I serve you?
Michael Whitehouse (04:32):
I think if you lead with the, there's a grant, then yes.
That probably, probablysmooth it over a bit.
Bernie Franzgrote (04:38):
A little, a little bit.
It said, you know.
Yeah.
Anyhow, it, it's it.
But part of that is thehow can I serve you piece.
Mm-Hmm.
. And when I'm talking to other people that,you know, it doesn't matter what country
you're in, it, it's very country agnostic.
Mm-Hmm.
. So, you know, uk, SouthAfrica, US, Australia.
(05:00):
You know, how can I help you?
Let's get to know each other.
And then it revolves from there.
I've found that part of my businessand where it helps generate some more
traffic or more activity for me isthat these resources are around me
and then I'm talking to somebody andif I'm getting involved in a project
where I'm going to actually work as aconsultant, well, now I have a series
(05:23):
of people around me that can support it.
So if I'm dealing with someone in the U.
S.
that has I.
P., Related concerns, questions,or they're looking to start it.
I know three IP lawyers and you know what?
That really handy part isthe podcasting element.
So for the podcasting element,it serves a couple of it's a
vehicle of many conveniences.
(05:44):
Someone I just read an articletoday said when you're doing one
thing, see if you do several thingsthat come out of that one thing.
You know, it's almostlike doing a lean project.
And so when I have a podcast withsomebody, I haven't had a chat with them
for a while or it's a brand new chat.
I actually spent an hour with themtalking and then the unfold the story.
And as I'm going through there, I'mspending time going, well, hang on.
(06:07):
You don't know this person that I know.
And it's now I've become like,it's like a Venn diagram.
You have that circle aroundyou, people, you know, right.
And then there's a circlearound the person you got to
know, but you're not crossing.
Yeah.
You know, yourself, myself, we come alongand we kind of do that bridge connection
going, Oh, by the way, wait a minute.
(06:27):
I, you know, I know somebody and, and thatcan result in either you have a service,
you can provide a service to somebody,they can provide a service to you, or
you can possibly do some joint sort ofjoint exercise, whether it's a venture
or, you know, a short term hall event.
And so, yeah, so that's, that'swhat I've been finding out is so the
(06:49):
podcast itself helps generate traction.
Plus when I go to introducethis person to someone else,
like a, not a cold introduction,but you know, here's a podcast.
Now you can hear them talking.
You get a sense of what they're doing.
Cause I'm talking about whattheir business is about.
Yeah.
And so that, that can, that gets,it becomes a pushup point in there.
(07:11):
The third element that comesout of it is from the podcast is
now I have a library of people.
So season one for the knack for businessis done and we have 108 in the can and
the final one releases Mid October.
Season two is already in production andseason two falls right behind season one.
And so it just, you know, it'slessons learned, things get
(07:33):
better the more you do it.
I've enjoyed that.
Michael Whitehouse (07:38):
Yeah, that's one of the great things about podcast is, is
very few people actually take me up on it.
But I, I used to say, you know, Ihave a catalog of introductions.
It's at guyknowsaguy.
com slash podcast.
Go take a look.
See if there's anyonethere you want to meet.
I'll introduce you to them.
No, sometimes I'll talk to someoneon a podcast who I don't really know.
I interview them.
We have a good conversation and thenI don't connect with them again.
(07:59):
So I said, I tried to make introductionsto guests and, and they've been,
and they've not responded to me.
Cause you know, cause sometimes it'salmost like a recorded one to one.
I mean, obviously we've connected anumber of times and, and I'm sure we'll
continue to connect, but sometimesI'll have someone reach out to me and
say, Hey, can I be on your podcast?
And I basically say.
You know, do you fit?
(08:19):
If so, sounds interesting.
Sure.
Yeah.
Come on the podcast.
Let's meet on the air and,and, and people get to hear us
meeting, which can lead to things.
But very often for most of the peopleI've had on the show, if somebody says,
Hey, your, your episode number one 57, Idon't remember who that is, but you know,
could I, could you introduce me to them?
Then I'd be like, yeah, sure.
And the easiest introductionis to say, Hey, Bernie, someone
(08:41):
listened to the podcast.
They said they want to meet you.
So can I connect you?
And obviously all yourcontact info is in the.
show notes anyway.
So it's, it's not like youdon't want to meet them.
That's why you're here.
I meet the people who are on the show.
So it's an easy introduction tomake because somebody just said, I
heard you on the podcast and if Iwant to show and you say, Hey, one
of our listeners wants to meet you.
(09:01):
Do you want to talk?
Of course I do.
Bernie Franzgrote (09:04):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, the other thing I find isthat some people I'm hearing their
story as they unfold their story.
And I, you know, I take notes.
I build up a profile.
And quite literally, when I, whenI'm having a chat with somebody, I
consider it maybe a soft interview.
I'll have all three documentsopen in front of me.
One is, you know, people that I know.
(09:27):
And so in, in the, in the heat of themoment, I go, well, you know, you really
want to talk to this person and I'll,I'll search the the person's contact
details up like LinkedIn profile.
And it's really important to havea LinkedIn profile because if, you
know, There are some people say, I'mlooking at your LinkedIn profile.
Yeah, your photo.
You, you want to work that out a bit more.
It's just, just saying, you know, just,you know, just, just, you know, you
(09:50):
know, just, it's kind of like, it's likeyour business card, you know, you're not
going to show up with a piece of toiletpaper and going, Hi, my name's on here.
Right.
It's yeah.
The, the other, the other pieces that,you know, that information that I have
my second sheet I have, Doc links toother other things that people might
want to go to either networking groupsinformation resources, you know, try this.
(10:14):
Like, you and I both use a descriptfor editing for a software.
I have a link for that.
I'm, I'm filing it.
Extremely useful.
It reduces my editing time, et cetera.
Then I have a third document where Ihave software links, like, you know,
someone will say, you know, if anything,and then just, you know, I'll drill in.
And right now I'm on the huntfor AI software, you know,
(10:38):
to help the podcast out.
How can I, how can I make it stand outand not, but not be garish, but, you know,
make it stand out like the audiograms.
Right.
So right now I'm buildingthe audiograms into script.
But I'm looking for things where Ican have the talking head, right?
And, and just if I animate it alittle bit, so I'm not anyhow, I'm
(10:59):
looking for ways to spice it up.
This is what I'm trying to say, right?
That's the marketing element.
But anything I'm encountering nowis a shareable piece of information.
So that, that's the other part, youknow, the LinkedIn piece, the, the
Descript piece, you know, someonesays, well, how do you use that?
Well, let me show you, letme just walk you through it.
And, you know, if it goes well,but you're, you're developing
(11:20):
a rapport with somebody.
So inside the inside my Phoenix businessexchange here in Ottawa, which is
it's, it's, it's online, but it usuallytargets the local Ottawa area, the
Ottawa Valley area, you know, you runinto people going, how do you use that?
Or how do we do this?
And I said, yeah, you know, you getyour LinkedIn profile up and then
(11:40):
set up your company profile up.
So it's easier to refer people to you.
Stories in behind there.
The other other beautifulthing is that I found that the.
You're never going torun out of stuff to do.
And always, there's always someinteraction you're going to have.
So there's a high value, high utility.
Yeah.
Michael Whitehouse (12:01):
Yeah.
And, and it's funny causeyou're talking about LinkedIn.
An introduction popped into myhead and I'll talk to you about
it when we get off the air.
Do, do you help people build outtheir LinkedIn profile or is it
more just kind of like, here aresome quick tips so it's not a mess?
Bernie Franzgrote (12:14):
Some quick tips.
Like there's a couple of peoplethat I know and that you might you
might know one of them Don Ollert.
So if you're, let's sayyou're leaving, you're, you're
changing your job, for example.
Don, he'll work on your LinkedIn profile,but he works just that's one leg of
the journey, but if you're looking foranother job, he'll find your profile.
And then, you know, it goes from there.
(12:36):
That's where you find that subject matterexpert that lives and breathes the area.
For example, accounting, right?
And it's the same in the U.
S.
as it is in Canada, you, if you'regoing to say you're an accountant,
you know, you got to have some someletters behind you and that designation
meant you meant you went to school tounderstand GAP, you know, which, which
is a whole nother story, but, you know,you come across something and if someone
(12:59):
lives and breathes a certain specialty.
You direct the person there.
Like, for example, I could take mycomputer apart, but that'd be a mistake
because I'll probably have spareparts putting it back together again.
And that means, you know, I won'thave a functional device anymore.
So, yeah.
Michael Whitehouse (13:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that that's great.
And it's one thing I alwaysteach is the, there's three,
three ways you can serve someone.
You can give them an introductionadvice or, or offer something.
And the third one is the leastfrequent and, you know, you
touched on, on two of those.
The third one's obvious peopleknow how to make the offer.
That's yeah.
People who don't know how tonetwork are doing that all the time.
But the first two are the ones Ithink people often overthink it.
(13:34):
They're like, well, who would I introduce?
Or how would I know them?
Or what can I share?
And just little things like, oh,do you know about the script?
Do you know about, you know,software that you may use every day?
That somebody else hasnever heard of before.
And once they learn about it, likewhat descript 20 bucks a month,
I can drop any video into it.
It'll, it'll make a transcript.
That's pretty high quality.
I didn't know that existed or, you know,or an introduction where it's it's,
(13:57):
Oh, yeah, I know a great accountant whoexplains things well and doesn't treat
you like an idiot, or I know a LinkedInguy who can help you you know, help you
work out your, your profile, or I know a.
Whatever because oftentimespeople have a problem.
They're happy to pay for a solution.
They just want to pay someonewho's actually going to do it.
Bernie Franzgrote (14:15):
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Well, again, the sharing of informationas it's learned is a handy piece.
I've found that even now, example, worldreferral network, we've, we started
something called East trade wins.
It's a chapter here in Ontario.
So we meet every Tuesdayfrom eight to nine a.
(14:35):
m.
Eastern standard time.
Anybody's welcome to space.
I mean, I just, I'm not trying to plugthe, the whole WRN space, but you know,
It has, he has utility for referrals,but kind of the key thing when we had our
first meeting last week with someone says,is this just gonna be another typical
meeting like, you know, are we just goingto sit here and trade business cards?
(14:58):
No, it's, it's, it's meant tohelp build your connections.
Help, help, you know, if you have apearl of wisdom to share that, by the
way, the, the the podcast, at leastfrom the knack for business, I'm
equating it to like a mini MBA thing youknow, cause I ended up learning about
little, little nuggets of information.
(15:18):
I didn't know that I knew some ofthat, but I don't know the whole,
you know, the the complete part,like there was the IP lawyer out of
the U S last one I was interviewing.
Nancy Delane was saying, did youknow, and then she says in the U.
S.
Constitution, not as an amendment,but right into the Constitution, if
you have intellectual property rights,you develop something, it's yours.
(15:43):
Because I guess back in the day, itbelonged to the crown or the king or
the queen, whoever was there, right?
So, and so the ownership, whichis, it makes perfectly good sense
considering, you know, all the entireshift in how business was happening.
Right.
It was handy.
You know, it was reallygood to understand that.
And it's just, you know, it's notgonna, it's not going to change my life,
(16:04):
but it's, it's kind of a cool fact.
So if I have a trivia question, youknow, I might be able to answer,
you know, quickly and accurately.
Michael Whitehouse (16:13):
Yeah, I've learned so much from meeting people.
Bernie Franzgrote (16:15):
So the other, the other part is sometimes when I've gone
to meetings, even on a person to personIndus entrepreneurs ties, it's called the
acronym in every major every major city.
And they do tech and hardware.
So they're in that space could be alittle bit of firm up, but you meet
interesting people and just eventhe stories that they'll tell you.
(16:38):
It's like, you know, it's one thingto go, you know, I make a widget.
Well, you know, there mightbe a story about the widget.
There might be a storyhow the widget progressed.
Or they're just fascinating people.
So it's just You know, it's likehaving a Rubik's cube of, you know,
information is always changing upand you never know what's going to
look like you hope for the finishedproduct, but you get there slowly.
(16:59):
But it's entertaining.
It's keeps you alive.
Michael Whitehouse (17:04):
Yeah, well, and that's totally one thing that I found.
I'm.
I read some books I listened to someaudio books, but most of what I know
is just from talking to lots of people.
I've talked to, I don't know,1, 500, 2, 000 entrepreneurs
over the last three years.
And I went from knowing nothing about theonline business space other than, I think
there's some coaches or something who dosomething on the internet, to like being
(17:28):
versed enough that people are coming tome and saying, how's this stuff work?
And pretty much, cause there'sno, there's no books on this.
The industry is so rapidlyevolving anyway that.
You know, people are coming tome and saying, How's this work?
And I was like, Well, andpeople ask me questions.
The answers just come out of my mouth.
I'm like, Where did that come from?
But I've just talked to somany people, whether it's on
podcasts or summits or whatever.
And it's a really cool way to learn.
(17:49):
Just talking to people.
And of course, the cool thing isthe people who teach you like it
because they get to feel smartwhile they talk and you listen.
And then you get to feel smart whileyou pass that information along.
Bernie Franzgrote (18:01):
Absolutely.
And I, the other element thatI've found is a credit source.
Mm hmm.
The fact the fact you're you'rebringing up the information that
you credit the source and It's soif I was at a conference, it was a
they were selling cleaning products.
It's an industrial trade show inToronto and the person is going up and
(18:23):
he says, listen, if you're utilizingAI to generate content to say, this
part was generated by AI, make sure therest of you is involved in that space.
But the important part is if you'recrediting the source of the live source,
it reinforces several different things.
One that you're giving themrecognition for their work.
(18:45):
Two, it shows you'rea collaborator, right?
And that's super key.
And you're not, you're not tryingto steal their thunder, so to speak.
And, and then three, you know, it showsyou can, you can thread it, you know,
something useful into a conversation thathas, has relevance and bearing, which
then says, Hey, you're a contributor.
Michael Whitehouse (19:07):
Yeah.
And that's what I found.
It's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you share the source of whereyou learned something from, then it's,
it's a way to name drop the right way,especially if you learned it from someone,
you know, someone somewhat known that.
You can name drop that like, Oh yeah,so I was talking to this person,
name you've known, and I learned thistechnique that I'd like to share with you.
(19:29):
And they're like, Wow, you'resharing technique with me.
That's nice.
And you know that person.
That's pretty cool.
And then if word gets back around that youtaught them something and their name is
attached to it, they're like, Oh, thanksfor, thanks for giving me that shout out.
Cause you're, you know,most people don't credit.
Most people like, Oh, I have thisamazing way of doing things that
I came up with all by myself.
(19:51):
After reading this person's book.
. Bernie Franzgrote: Yeah, . The, the other part I found about networking, and I found
this in, in the in the 2020 year I endedup connecting with a group in the uk.
It's called Ree, R-E-C-R-E-Eeight, the number eight.
And the gentleman running his Dr.
(20:12):
Keith Keith, Dr.
Keith Dietz.
And so you're talking about diversity.
He's an ex South African, had been amilitary medic during, back in the day.
He helped post post military, helpedIndigenous folks in South Africa
you know, set up social enterprises.
(20:33):
He is, he's gone to the University ofCork, and he's located in, in Scotland.
He runs, he runs a a session once aweek for about five to eight weeks.
And there's like, it's a two hour session,so it's not going to be for everybody.
But if you're interested in understanding,I'll say about management and the current
management trends, like, you know, and.
(20:53):
What are the most appropriate ways tounderstand things like he's talked about
Ray Dalio that name's come up a lot.
I've seen that in a lot of differentplaces as well as in conversation.
There's a group of us that are there.
A couple of folks out of the US, a coupleof folks from the far west of Canada.
So we're meeting at 9 a.
m.
Eastern Standard Time.
A couple other folks aremeeting in their three hours the
(21:14):
other way, so that's like 6 a.
m.
You know, and the lights are off inthe background, but we're all, we're
all collaborating in that session.
So they'll have a thought processwhere you're at with this, right?
And then you know, and then he'll,he'll take it from the academia
side and have a conversation.
But you know, the takeaway of that isThere are two elements coming out of that.
(21:36):
So, Dr.
Deet says, listen, Bernie, if youfind someone that is in need of
the service, of his services, hehelps companies scale up, right?
I'm not trying to do the plug here.
He says, listen, there's some coinin the realm that comes back to you.
Which is fine.
You know, it's not like, you know, Imake the connection and I'm expecting,
you know, there's not a meter running.
Sitting there.
If it works out, it works out.
(21:57):
If it doesn't, you know, carry on.
Life's beautiful.
You met a new person, but thereare other people in that space that
I've, I've, I've cross pollinated.
And they, 1 of them is a coachthat deals with people that are you
know, if you're highly stressed.
So, yeah, I can, I can with a guyin Toronto has, he has a coaching
cluster for people that are dealingwith mental stresses in life.
(22:19):
Right?
So you just, you just thread that through.
So there there's kind of that groupthat's kind of come in very handy.
Yeah, I want to get back to something you mentioned, speaking
of groups so you're talking about howyour group is not like any others.
And I think one thing that throwspeople off is, you know, BNI is sort
of the 800 pound gorilla of networking.
And I've often described BNI as being likean engine, you know, like a car engine.
(22:40):
It's got all these different parts.
And if you go to your car and you'relike, I don't know what this alternator
thing is for, car runs fine without it.
Until it doesn't, you know, a lotof people try that would be and
they'll take a BNI group and they'llbe like, I'll make my own, but
we're not gonna require attendance.
We're not gonna do this.
Not gonna do that.
And what they don't realizeis the way BNI works is.
It works the way it works becauseevery piece of it goes together.
(23:01):
And part of that is the referralconfidence curve and taking
six to 12 months of seeing thesame people week after week to
be able to refer them business.
And without that, you can't walk intoa cold group and be like, so my ideal
client is please send them to me.
And so the groups that have tried tobe BNI knockoffs have not worked well.
The ones that have actually triedto optimize the BI system have,
(23:22):
there's some like AmpSpirit is a, is.
Follows that same basic concept ofthe same people week after week.
Success champions network alsodoes it and that can work.
But again, same, you gotta be there everysingle week to build those relationships.
But, but the groups that are the more,the drop in groups and more casual groups
have to use a different format becausethere's no referral confidence curve if
(23:43):
you're just dropping in, dropping out.
So what are some things you've seenwork well for the non BNI style groups
that are not the typical, my idealclient is please send me a prospect.
Bernie Franzgrote (23:54):
So part of it is the phoenix business exchange was my 1st 1 of
my 1st groups that I encountered in 2019.
The in person group prior to thatinside inside the health care area.
We never left the mother ship.
You know, everything cameeverything came to the mountain.
Right?
So now now the mountain has togo up because, you know, my only
(24:17):
regret in that space was notnetworking 3 years prior to exit.
And so what I've seen that it canhelp, let's say, for example, the
recreate group, it's, it's, it'snot about the referrals referrals
might be the second or third wave.
And if there's something, if thereis a referral, that makes sense.
(24:37):
And the other key thing is, you know,when you make a referral, if you're going
to do that piece, you try to match it.
So it works for the person.
So the both parties, no point nopoint sharing or selling a baby
carrier to someone who's 80 years old,unless of course their grandparent.
And even that you know for example,here in Ottawa, I ran into an AI
(24:58):
client and, and then I ran intoanother one they hadn't met.
And then they both responded to afederal government RFP together.
So that was kind of the end result.
So what can work what I'veseen work inside the even in
the world referral network.
I'm getting used to that space.
But when we do the East trade winds, partof it is I'm trying to get people to open
(25:21):
up and tell certain parts of the story.
So it's you know, their storyand or what they're looking for.
Or do they much like in the podcast,tell me about your industry,
tell me something, you know, oneunique thing about your industry.
It's almost like when you do a tick tock.
You know, you, you don't get,you don't get the the epic of
Gilgamesh coming out at you.
(25:42):
You know, it's like not, or, orthe Lord of the Rings, right?
Or, or the Harry Potter series.
You don't get, like, you know,there's a ton of stuff here.
You just fire hose me andI, you know, I'm lost.
You know, you give, you giveone slice of the pie, you.
And you try to make sure thatslice of the pie is relevant.
And so you try to share that information.
So as a group, what we're trying todo is tease that out of people, right?
(26:03):
And not, not alwayshave same old, same old.
You have some form to it.
So, you know, there's astart time, the intro sweep.
You add some, you add some some questionsthat are not standard, but they're not
the same one from last week, for example.
And you build off of that.
If the group you're looking at thegroup that's sitting there and they've,
(26:24):
you know, they've answered all thequestions, then you change the task.
But if the lineup changes whocomes, then you adapt for that.
The other part that I've seen happening,and this is with the Grand Connection, if
I, and also the World Referral Network,and actually, this is the part I really
like about the World Referral Network,they have access to go high level.
So, you know, my membership in that space.
(26:48):
Is less than the old street price for ago high level, and if you don't understand
what go high level is, and it took mea while, and then I realized, you know,
it was kind of the hidden gem behind thedoor so you can host a website on there.
You can do all your clickfunnels through there.
You can do trigger events.
So if someone clicks a button,you know, so, you know, it.
(27:10):
It can be very complicated as much asyou want to make it complicated as long
as you have, you know, good structureand you're, you're kind of track
things, but you can have the whole,you know, click funnels happening.
You can remind people to push out.
It can replace Calendly.
If you're into MailChimp, it canreplace that, you know, it can replace
other software and coalesce it inone spot and that's kind of handy.
(27:32):
So if that's the other value add,if, if the, the agency or the
entity that you're networking with.
It provides you another, another layerof service that you, you know, it's,
you know, more for less cost, right?
There's, there's, there's,there's a, there's a a little
bit of love coming back at you.
It's sort of like, you know, if you're,if you're working for an employer and
they have employee benefits, there you go.
(27:54):
There's a bit more, you know, itjust gives you a bit of a hug.
That's the other, that's the other part.
Michael Whitehouse (27:58):
Well, and one benefit I could see.
Also to people to attach and gohigh level to a networking group is
one challenge at a certain level ofnetworking is running into people
like, oh, I don't have an email list.
Oh, I don't have a website.
I don't have this.
If they go high level, then if theydon't have an email, it's just because
they're not putting people in there.
If they don't have a website or.
A landing page or whatever it wasbecause they're not using it yet.
(28:21):
But they have it.
So at least they have that tool that nowthey may then decide, Oh, I have going
out of level, but I prefer this otherthing instead, that's a more advanced
level, but at least it gives a baselinelevel of what technology they have access
to because they've got it in that group.
Cause that's always a challenge.
You know, you go to a joint ventureevent and somebody says, Oh yeah.
As soon as I launched mycourse, we should collaborate.
(28:43):
You're like, yeah, I'm going to just sithere and hold my breath till that happens.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As soon as I write my book, any minutenow, about to write my book, about to
publish it, any minute, any minute.
Bernie Franzgrote (28:53):
You know, at the, at the end of the day, it's like, if someone
says this, I'm going to, you know, what'sthe, there's a saying about the intentions
of mice and men, you know best laid plans.
Plans of mice and men.
Yeah.
So, you know, things will detractyou, but if, if you're caught
on, on a, on a, On a project.
And, you know, part of that project is,you know, core of your business, you know,
(29:17):
you look for people that can support it.
If you're, if you're paying Brendaunder Caesar, what's old to Caesar,
if so, you know, if you pay for thingsone guy, for example, he says, listen,
Bernie, you introduce me to people.
I'm going to pay you money.
And looked at him andsaid, Michael, it's okay.
I'm not starving.
(29:37):
Physically.
I'm not starving.
Cause I looked down and I realized,you know, I gotta, I gotta lose
some weight, but I appreciate it.
Right.
He says, no, listen.
You're doing the marketing.
You're introducing me to somebody, right?
And you're saying, and you can vouch,you know, A, you're going to find
somebody that is, it's a good connection.
(29:58):
And, you know, I can, Ican provide the service.
If, if everything yields, thenyou have, you have a you have
some income coming back to you.
So fine.
I mean, I deal with a commercial realtorand we have a marketing agreement.
And well, here's the otherthing by a podcast and other
electronic social media pieces.
Some people, when you go to do a podcast,they go, Oh, I've done one before.
(30:21):
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, no.
I said, You just chattedwith me for 40 minutes.
What do you think a podcast is?
Except, you know, we have a bitof a script, a little bit of
structure, but, you know, it'sit's a free floating conversation.
It's not like, you know, at 205, you,you shall now turn left, you know, and
squint, you know, if it's a video podcast.
(30:42):
Anyhow, you know, a lot of peopleare also inhibited by that.
So anyhow, I kind of swung out backto our top of our conversation,
back, back to networking andutility out of those events.
You're going to come across people,they're going to realize the value.
And if, if it bodes wellyou're, you're off to the races.
(31:03):
You'll, you'll, you'll, you'll,you reward those that help you.
Someone asked me, he said, Bernie, howdo you know you're going to get paid?
And I said guy's name was Terry.
I said, this was in 2019.
I said, Terry, the grass doesn't grow.
If it's, you know, if it'snot watered, it's not great.
So, you know, that involves continuoustraction, continuous communication.
Michael Whitehouse (31:25):
Yeah.
And one thing I found along those linesis that they're very often when I'll.
I'll make a referral.
I don't know if it's goingto turn into anything.
It's one of those, you know,it's a 5 percent referral.
It's, it's not, not, not wasting time,but I'm like, well, this person seems
somewhat interested in what you do.
You do what you do.
I'm going to have you talk to each other.
And, and you say, oh, that's a prospect.
You know, it's up to me to do somethingwith him and maybe something happens
(31:46):
and maybe it doesn't and maybe there'sa commission and maybe there's not.
And I have found that it is much easierfor me as a distractible individual to
just make connections and trust thatsome people say, Oh, I made some money
here, Michael, have some money than to.
Make an agreement with every person.
Okay.
I need to sign the contract andknow what's the form and what's
(32:06):
the percentage is going to beand blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I would rather justsend introductions.
No, it was explicitly,you have this service.
Okay.
What's going to happen if Isend you someone, oh, you're
going to pay commission.
Okay, great.
But I often don't even writedown what the commission is.
They tell me, or it's in my notessomewhere, but I'm not keeping track.
I just want to make sure that atsome point we said, okay, I'm going
(32:28):
to send you people, you're goingto send me money of some amount.
Cool.
I trust you.
I'll send them an introduction.
If that turns out and turns intosomething and they pay me, then I might
go back and say, who else do I know?
And if they don't, well,I just don't remember.
I say money holds my attention.
It's not a matter of, of you give memoney or else I'm not going to give
you the, you know, make introductions.
It's more a matter of, Iknow thousands of people.
(32:49):
So who catches my attention?
Well, the one that I've got aPayPal receipt from, from yesterday.
Might be a little more top of mindthan the one that I don't, but it's
not a quid pro quo, you know, Oh,well, you, you gotta, you gotta
have put some silver across my palm.
If you want some of my services,it's, it's more a matter of, yep.
I help enough people.
Something comes back.
(33:09):
How hard is it to make an introductioncompared to the value that returns?
Bernie Franzgrote (33:14):
And sometimes some of the introductions, there is no way that
the entities are structured to give you.
Compensation.
If they're a charity or not forprofit they might have elements
within that that says, no, I can't.
I can't.
I actually had one, you know, like thisone top of 2019, but he says to me, he
says, my company does clinical trials.
(33:35):
I look at buddy.
I said.
I don't know anybody playing Frankensteinand the health care institution did have
a research wing, but that was not me andthere's money to be made in that space.
But it's, it's you know, no, I didn'tplay that in that ballpark bottom of
2019 and there was a charity that I wasdealing with and I was doing intros and
they said, listen, we can't pay anything.
(33:55):
So that's fine.
You're helping people.
I'm more than glad todo the cross connect.
They introduced me to a physicianin a bottom of 2019 who was
looking for clinical trials and on.
Well, oddly enough, I could pull that cardoff the deck and go, here, here you go.
And, you know, just started, startedthe business relationship from there.
Michael Whitehouse (34:16):
Yeah.
You never know what you might comeacross or, or, you know, you, you
help out the, as you said, you helpout someone who can't, can't pay you.
And sometimes, especially if they,if they recognize like, I, I, you're
so valuable, but I can't pay you.
And I'm sorry about that.
Now they know that thereis, there is an imbalance.
And so they may be on the lookout for,you know, Oh, Bernie really helped us out.
(34:37):
I wonder, okay.
I wonder, will this person help Bernie?
Will this person help Bernie?
Will this person help Bernie?
And now they're on the lookout for someway to repay what your kindness with
probably an introduction or some sortof heads up, or, you know, I heard about
this, this new grant just came out or.
or whatever.
You never know what kindof value they can return.
And especially because you,you said, Oh, no problem.
(34:59):
Don't worry about it.
I just want to help.
And it wasn't like a, well, Iguess just this once I'll help you.
It's you just give freelyand people feel that.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:09):
Absolutely.
Well, the nice thing from the UK, Iget a bottle of scotch from Scotland.
So that's that worked out.
Well, that's, that's my Christmas moments.
That don't last long.
I don't understand why.
Michael Whitehouse (35:22):
Well, maybe it's just a UK thing.
Maybe it's doesn't have the resilienceof like North American scotch.
Or North American whiskey.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:30):
There's some that taste pretty good from
from this side of the continent.
But yeah, just, yeah yeah.
The bottle only lasts solong, it's not endless.
Michael Whitehouse (35:38):
Yes, yeah.
My bottle is broken.
I leak in it, or I don'tknow what happened.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:42):
There's a leak in it, yeah.
I think I'm the leak.
Michael Whitehouse (35:45):
Yeah, there's a leak in the top, and someone
keeps turning it upside down.
I don't know how that happens.
Bernie Franzgrote (35:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse (35:51):
Yep.
So, so people want to connect with you.
What is the best way for them to do that?
Bernie Franzgrote (35:56):
They can reach me at info@creativeinsight.com.
It's I nfo atK-R-E-A-T-I-V-I-N-S-I-G-H-T .com.
And that's usually the reason I canramble that off is 'cause that's
what I do on my kn for business.
But you can also reach me atkreativinsight.com or B Franzgrote,
so B-F-R-A-N-Z-G-R-O-T-E at.
(36:18):
K R E A T I V I N S I G H T dot com.
That's kind of easy.
You'll have a link in there that'll havea kind of, you know, give you a full kind
of list of, you know, seven differentways from Sunday to get ahold of me
or know about me or figure things out.
And looking open to chat with podcastthat have interesting business stories.
(36:40):
And again, that's part ofthe networking joy, right?
I have some people reaching out to me kindof cold call going and they're, they're,
they're doing the podcast matching.
Listen, do you want totalk to this person?
We'll have a chat with themand then go from there.
And they're going, that'san interesting story.
Yes.
Let's have a chat or, you know, other,other people doing intros if you're in
the manufacturing sector or, you know,clothing apparel, just did one on that.
(37:05):
So I'm just starting herclothing line here in Canada,
you know, out of Smith falls.
And yeah, I keep going.
That's that's that's my other that's theother thing you have to be able to chat
and then realize keep tabs of your time.
Otherwise, someone might fallasleep while you're talking to them.
Michael Whitehouse (37:22):
Yeah, that's why the second monitor
that has Google Calendar on it.
So yeah, because there'sADHD time blindness concept.
But I have a clock in thecorner of my computer.
I have google calendar the redline marching down through the day.
I have a clock up there So I am constantlyaware at my command center of what the
time is Which is kind of valuable whenyou run appointments back to back but
(37:42):
yes, so all those links are going to be inthe chat including Creative insight which
is spelled with a k and no e on the end.
So not exactly the commonspelling But it's fine.
You can find it down there in the notesif you Didn't listen to it's K R E A
T I V, which is creative, but with aK and no E on the end creativeinsight.
com and other links,the knack for business.
(38:03):
And that's numeral four.
And there's a link for these trade winsand a link for some of the other cool
stuff is there in the show notes as well.
So any final thoughts you would liketo leave our audience with Michael?
Bernie Franzgrote (38:16):
I, first off, thank you.
I appreciate the timeto be on the podcast.
You know, if you're going out to ameeting to network, ask a few questions,
you might find people that might notjive with you right off the bat, but,
you know, just open the door and havea chat and just don't go in with a set
(38:37):
set goals, keep an open mind and just,you know, get to know them and you,
you never know what's going to happen.
You'll end up talking, you thinkit's one thing and next thing you
find out about five other thingswhere you have things in common and
where you can also do introductions.
Michael Whitehouse (38:52):
I love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, we're conversation.
I have to start and just seemto be rambling on to nothing.
And then at the end, they're like,wait, so you publish a magazine, right?
How much does it costto advertise in there?
500 a month.
Yeah.
How do I sign up for that?
And like, I didn't say anything aboutit and they just sell themselves
or, you know, how do I get ticketsto one of your events or what's
your, you know, what's your program.
And we were talkingnothing about business.
(39:14):
We were talking about, you know,traveling and networking and whatever.
And, and at the end,they're like, All right.
So here's my credit card.
Sign me up for that thing.
Never know what that will happen.
So that's great advice.
Never keep an open mindand just see where it goes.
So thank you so much for coming on here.
This has been a great conversation.
(39:35):
You know, quite a bit aboutthis networking thing.
So I, I brought in the right guy,
Bernie Franzgrote (39:43):
the guy that knows a guy.
Michael Whitehouse (39:44):
That's me.
Yep.
And you that's us.
We're both guys whoknows guys with pro quo.
Bernie Franzgrote (39:50):
Thank you, sir.
Michael Whitehouse: Thank you for joining us. (39:52):
undefined
For the guy who knows The Guy Podcast,I'm Michael Whitehouse, the guy who
knows the guy, and I hope you'll join usin December from the 12th to the 14th.
For JV Connect, go to Guy whoknows a guy.com for more details.
Now, if it's after December, 2023and you're listening to this,
it's okay because we're gonna bedoing this event every quarter,
so go to Guy knows a guy.com.
(40:13):
See what's new, see what's happening,and of course check the show notes
to learn about our guests and howyou can get in touch with them.
Check out our next episode formore great training, information,
and networking tips from MichaelWhitehouse, the guy who knows a guy.
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