Are You Networking Wrong? Here's How To Fix It.

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Episode Transcript

Stuart (00:00):
And welcome to winning without college, the podcast helps you develop

(00:02):
your mindset, habits, and skills you needto get ahead in business and in life.
And if you enjoy these episodes andyou get value from them, if you could
do me a huge favor and just give us areview and hit that subscribe button,
that way you'll never miss an episode.
And it tells the algorithmthat you're really enjoying the
content that we're producing.
My name is Stuart Takehara yourtransformational career coach dedicated
to helping you unstuck your life.

(00:25):
Now, do you ever feel likeyou're stuck in the shadows?
No matter how hard you work,it seems like nobody notices.
It's super frustrating whenyou're doing your best, but you
just feel like you're invisible.
And opportunities keep passing you by?
Well today I'm going to sharewith you my secret sauce.
It's not just about the grind.
It's about making sure the right peopleremember you when it matters the most.

(00:50):
How can you turn your hard workinto a spotlight that shines on you?
Let's dive into making you someoneeveryone knows and wants on their team.
And as we get into this episode,we're going to talk about networking.
But not the way that you might think.
So let me set the scenefor you for a second.
I've lived the high life.
I lived the low life and Ilived everything in between.

(01:11):
I've been head of marketing for casino.
I've worked in corporate marketingoverseen more than 20 different family
entertainment centers around the country.
I've been part of startup teams.
I've launched new casinos.
I've launched new athletic clubs and spas.
I've launched new restaurants andso many other businesses, both
big and small, and I've bought.
I built, I grew, I sold businesses of alltypes, brick and mortar ones, online ones

(01:33):
and all of this as a college dropout.
And even more interesting, many times,my previous job was in a completely
different industry than my new job.
See, I started in radio andmoved into family entertainment.
Then I moved to, in to swap meets anddrive in theaters and then to athletic
clubs and spas, then back to familyentertainment, then the casinos, it sounds
like I was all over the board, but eachgig opened up an opportunity to the next.

(01:57):
And the first opportunity is one wetalked about in episode one of this
podcast, simply put it was results.
And if you haven't listened to thatpodcast episode, it's really the
foundation of our entire strategy.
And I encourage you togo back and listen to it.
Another big, importantfoundational strategy to winning
without college is networking.
When you're killing it and yourjob people will take notice.

(02:21):
And when you're considerate,kind and compassionate to your
coworkers, People will take notice.
And when you get things done,especially things with other people
that have tried and failed at.
People will notice.
And these people are the startof your professional network.
You see you move on to another job.
And so while your coworkers.

(02:42):
Their own circle.
Their own professionalnetwork will expand..
And so will yours.
But just because you moved onto another job or they moved on
to another job doesn't mean youshould pretend they don't exist.
It's easy to lose touch with people.
You have to make a conscious effortto stay in touch, and top of mind.
You see, when I worked in LosAngeles, before I started traveling

(03:03):
full-time I made a list of peopleI wanted to keep in touch with.
These were movers and shakers.
People I had a great time with.
People that like me were going places.
I specifically made it a point to gothrough this list regularly once every
two or three months and just drop atext and say, Hey, how are you doing?
Hope all is well.
It doesn't have to be long,complicated noteworthy.

(03:24):
Just a quick, Hey, thinking about you.
Hope you're doing good.
And why is this important?
Well, I'm sure.
You've heard the phrase.
It's not what you know,it's who, you know.
Right?
Everyone's heard that.
It's not what you know,it's who, you know.
Well, I've got another variation of thisterm and it caught me kind of caught me
off guard, but I picked it up and one ofmy very first radio jobs in Sacramento.

(03:45):
And if you're looking for a PC familyfriendly version of this strategy,
my recommendation is to maybe hitthat skip button 30 seconds ahead,
because this is not exactly themost, um, PC family-friendly thing.
This was back in the nineties.
So just not that it didn't happentoday, but I'm just kind of
setting the stage here for you.
If you're highly offended, justsit that 30 second, skip ahead.

(04:09):
So I was working my professionalnetwork and I was desperate
to get out of my current job.
I was talking to pretty much, everyone.
I knew looking for an opportunity.
It was literally no secret that Iwanted out of my current situation.
And I want out of it badly.
So.
I was talking with someonein a PR agency that I knew.
They mostly handle releases ofnew movie launches and stuff.
You know, when a movie comes out andyou see the billboards or radio ads.

(04:31):
Uh, there are stars are doing the PRtour, the late night shows and films,
movie premiers, stuff like that, you know?
So I've worked with this person forthree or four years at this point.
He knew that I was a creative out ofthe box thinker because of some of the
promotions that I developed for thefilm that were the best in the market.
See, we had to compete withother radio stations to get the
movie premiere the exclusive.
So the movie comes out on Friday,but 10 days before the movie comes

(04:53):
out, we can have our own screening.
So we had to come up with specialpromotions to be the best, to promote
the film in the most creative aspect.
And then whoever had thebest promotion got the film.
So he knew that I had some reallygreat out of the box ideas.
He knew that I was able to really developon a level that my competitors weren't.
So I told them I was looking forsomething else and I asked him if he

(05:15):
had any opportunities at his agencyor if he knew of anything that was
in the market, that I might be good.
I might be a good fit for.
And we were on the phone and youknow what his responses, he said,
well, you know, Stuart, it's not,who you know is who you B L O you
can guess the last letter, right?
You know what I'm talking about?
Anyways.
It was funny.

(05:35):
It made me laugh.
Remember, this was the nineties.
Not so PC anymore.
I'm sure.
But there was more to it than that.
It got me thinking aboutthe original phrase.
It's not what you know, it's who you know.
And that's when I realized thatphrase is just complete crap.
And let me explain.
When I was working in radio, there was aTV show on the air called The West Wing.

(05:58):
And to this day it's still oneof my favorite TV shows, but
I didn't watch it back then.
Back then I wasn't reallyinterested in politics.
I was working way too much anyways,to even have time to watch TV, but
there was a character on the show.
His name is Danny Concannon andhe was played by Timothy Busfield.
Now at the time, Tim Busfield andhis brother Buck owned and operated
the B Street Theater in Sacramento,which is where I was working.

(06:19):
So while he was a big TV star, hewould just randomly show up in the
hallways of the radio station and docameo drop into the DJs and pretty
much walk around the building like heowned the place and he stopped by my
office and we'd chat for a few minutes,nothing specific or anything you.
Just general, you know,Hey, what's up and talk.
You know, just small talk.
And he was a nice guy is fun, friendly,but to me at the time, he was a

(06:43):
distraction because I had work to do.
And I didn't have timeto chit chat all day.
And because I didn't know really whohe was, except for some guy on TV that
I never watched, I didn't really care.
And I didn't really give it muchthought, but I did enjoy our talks.
Now, remember the saying.
It's not what you know, It's who you know,

(07:03):
Well, I knew him.
And he knew me.
But does that make me any more special?
Will, knowing him helped me at all?
Of course not .Just knowing himwas not gonna do me any good.
It's not going to advance my career.
Just knowing him will nothelp me reach my goals.
But what could help me?
What could open the doors for me?

(07:24):
Is that he knew me.
So now if Emmy award-winning actor,Timothy Busfield is in a meeting and
some producer says we have a scenewhere we need to know what it's
like to work in the radio business.
Tim Busfield can say, I know someonewho works in the promotions department
on a radio station in Sacramento,and I've chatted with him a bunch.
I'll give him a call.
See that opened thedoor because he knew me.

(07:47):
So, how can you be known?
How can you be top of mind?
Here's how you can do that.
You have to give something a value.
To be remembered.
And it has to be selfless.
With pure motives and intentions.
Giving to give.
Not giving to receive.

(08:08):
And that's why I think that theproper phrase of this quote should be
it's not who, you know,
It's who knows you.
It's not who, you know, it's who knows you
Now think about it.
When you're in your own company meetings,and someone might say, we need someone
who knows social media, or does anyonehave a good insurance broker or do you

(08:29):
have a carpet cleaner you recommend?
They aren't asking for your referrals.
What they're actually doing is asking ifyou have someone in your network that you
know, that can help solve their problems.
Being known it's key to winning the game.
There've been times when I would get acall from out of the blue, from someone
that they would say something like, hey,this is Steve, we met at that business

(08:51):
mixer at zagato is a couple of monthsago and I'd say, oh yeah, of course.
Hey Steve, how's it going?
And I may not remember who they were.
But then they go on and they say,Hey, I remember how you mentioned
something about that new productyou were getting ready to launch.
Well, I didn't think much of it then,but we just had a meeting at our
company and we're looking to exploreexactly what you were talking about.

(09:12):
So I thought I'd give you acall because you seem to know
what you're talking about.
See, being known is the key.
And it's one of the five hard truthsthat I'm talking about if you're not
networking, you're never going to win.
You see, there are five hard truths andgoing through life without a college
degree and not a accepting these fiveare truths is going to get you nowhere.
You can have great accomplishments.

(09:33):
You can have big and small wins,but if you are ignoring these hard
truths, or if you choose to notaccept them, unfortunately you
may not have the life you want.
And that's why I'm going to giveyou these hard truths and tell you
exactly why you need to accept them.
Just log into my website,winningwithoutcollege.com/ hardtruth
and sign up and I'll send you thesehard truths, one a day for the
next five days, absolutely freewinningwithoutcollege.com/ hardtruth.

(09:57):
Or use the link in the descriptionwinningwithoutcollege.com/ hardtruth.
Networking is key.
Being known is key.
It's not who, you know,it's who knows you.
So, what can you do inyour life to be known?
What kind of positive impactcan you make on somebody's life?
Maybe it's a coworker or a neighbor,or even a complete stranger.

(10:19):
What small act of kindness can you do forsomeone that will make them remember you?
Who from your past, haveyou lost contact with?
Who helped you in the past thatyou haven't heard from in awhile?
Start putting these principlesinto action and give it time.
This isn't a checklist item where you justdo it once and you cross it off your list.
No, this is a way of life.

(10:40):
This is something you need to be doingday in and day out with everyone you meet.
Being known is key to winning.
And when you combine this with theother hard truths that we talked about,
you're going to be in a much betterposition for that next job, that next
promotion, or starting your new business.
If you haven't done so already besure to sign up for the hard truths,
if you got something out of thisepisode, can you do me a favor, leave

(11:02):
a review and hit that subscribe button.
It will help spread the word and get thisinformation out to all those who need it.
Until next time, remember your successdoesn't come with the syllabus,
forge your own path, break the moldand keep winning without college.
Thanks for listening.
We will see you in the next episode.