He Built The BNI Buster… Why This Networking Group Is Taking Over The Nation | TDES Season 2 Ep 2 - The Dillon England Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
They were so cool. They're like, oh, that's so great,
good for you chasing your dream and all that. They're
like they were very nice because they're like, we don't
want you here with us in the island and miss toys.
You know, yeah, go pursue, go free, pursue. Yeah. Membership
committee has spoken, The membership committee has made their decisions.
Steve and I have to back the membership committee. I
mean you mean that the ad hoc membership committee you

(00:21):
threw together if you're out of the group. I loved
helping people. I was great at what I did, but
I am not a fan of rug pulls. I'm somebody
that wants to develop a skill set and build on
it and be rewarded for my experience and expertise and
to know that I could be one of the best
at this and then shrug pole, you know, going from

(00:41):
making multiple six figures to zero. Many things happened at
one time, and a file for bankruptcy turned seven homes
into foreclosure because I had rentals all sorts of stuff.
I had to hit the perubial reset button. What I
didn't expect from being in b and I was drama
in my life. Well, Honestly, I don't really think anything

(01:08):
is off the table because you know, to me, I
look at the way serious net handled the pandemic like
it was really funny. We were talking a little bit
about before we did this. We were talking about how
you were part of a group, and you know it
also happened during the pandemic and everybody's online doing it.

(01:29):
And if you don't have somebody that's truly leading that
and really doing a great job putting people in breakout
rooms getting people might have the way that they need,
it will fall apart. And I have a really awesome
electrician on my Wednesday ten o'clock Brighton team. His name's

(01:50):
Michael Noonan, and this guy is just phenomenal, just phenomenal,
phenomenal guy, witty as heck. People love him. He goes
the extra mile for his clients. And he was referred
to me from several different serous Net people, which happens
a lot of times sometimes, like you, you were told

(02:10):
about serious Net from Troy as well as pamel Bebber,
and sometimes people need to hear it from two or
three different people before they go all right. Now, two
or three people have told me about this check this
check it out exactly. So Michael was referred to me
by some of the better people in the Serous Net
Livingston County Network, and we had a great initial meeting

(02:31):
on zoom. He goes, okay, so where does the team meet?
And I go, just like you and I are right
now on zoom, and all of a sudden, like his
color kind of went white a little bit on his face.
And I don't. I think it's really important when you're
with people if you notice a shift, that you say

(02:53):
something that's not accuse, you know, accusing them of anything,
but just to say, hey, when I said that there's
a change, what's that about? Ok, yeah, what is that about?
And he goes, well, you know, I was in a
B and I group that had to go on to
zoom and like ninety five percent of everybody had a
black screen. Only the person talking was on video, and

(03:16):
it just lost its sense of connection. And when you
told me that this was on zoom, I've got to
tell you I'm a little skeptical. And anyways, you'll meet
him at the breakfast. He he he's a great guy,
does the meeting beautifully, and he came back to me
a couple months later, and says Steve, you've got this

(03:36):
going on. I mean, this is the way it should be.
You did a great you do a great job. And
I always I it's very interesting because in the environment
we live in today, you've you've been around long enough
that you've been with groups that were in person, and
when that's all anybody knows, that's the standard, and then

(03:58):
when you are thrown online, and then I make a
decision after sixty days of doing it online, I said,
I don't care if they wave a magic wand right
now and go up. Sorry, we screwed up a little bit.
The pandemic's not that bad. Everybody go about your business.
I told my teams, even if they waved that magic
wand and said no more COVID, I'd still want to

(04:20):
be online because what I saw was like for me,
I really really try to be efficient with my time,
very intentional. I'm not somebody that just has so many
hours available to me that I can just sit around
and schmooze and hope something out of a conversation turns
into something to mention. Drive time, drivetime exactly. So when

(04:42):
I saw what I saw happening was zoom number one.
I said, I've got to put it on me to
take as much of what people loved about this in
person and bring it here to this online space so
they feel the sense of familiarity. I got to tell everybody,
if you're in my meetings, please if you get to
I have to blank my screen every once in a while.

(05:03):
It's to blow my nose something I don't necessarily want
everybody to see me doing. But beyond that, you know,
people know that a lot of this is just being engaged, right,
It's being present. And so the other thing is that
every morning, when when I get out of bed in
the morning and before I go to sleep and night,
I ask God to give me whatever I need today,

(05:26):
to give the people I come in contact with what
they need for me that day. I have a bit
of a crazy life. I'm a little unconventional here and there,
and there's things that I do in life that most
people don't do that where I don't have a roadmap
to follow per se, and I have to just have
faith in those things that they're good. But I ask

(05:50):
for God to give me whatever I need for the
people I come in contact with the day, it'd be
there for them. And because of that, it's it's extremely
intentional and I don't miss very much and people can't
believe the stuff I remember that they have said and done.
And a large part of the COVID was living in fear.

(06:15):
A lot of people very much living in fear, very
real fear. I mean there's a lot of fear. You
could feel it.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I don't think we've still gotten over a lot
of it. And it was such a deep just push
to for division that now it's it's like pre COVID,
if you were on the left or the right, you
didn't like each other. Right post COVID, they make you

(06:42):
want to kill each other. Yeah, that's what they're trying
to get us to do. And it's sad because like
you know, pushing the vaxers or was anti vaxxers masks
versus no mask, Like there was just so many like
lines that were created during COVID that at the end
of the day, like as far as the actual people,
they're just opinions. Like I'm not gonna if someone wants
to say I'm going to still wear a mask in

(07:04):
twenty twenty five, Okay, go ahead, yep, Like I'm not, no,
but you can Yeah, like I might think it's not
the smart you know whatever. I might disagree with you,
I think you're dumb or whatever, but I'm gonna be like, Gus,
you're right, go ahead, like you can do that. And
we and just not the ability to like agree to disagree,
and we just don't have that. That's been a lost

(07:25):
art form. And we talked on the phone about this
a lot. Oh yeah, you know, yeah, just being okay
with saying I don't think the same way, but I'm
still going to have you around.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's okay. I think there's a difference between hearing somebody
and trying to change their mind or telling them that
what they're say is wrong. You know, Like you said, I,
I don't have anybody else's perspective but my own. Yea.
And you know with the COVID, I'm a big believer.

(07:55):
Like when I start my meetings, what do we start
out with? Most of the time, as it focus focus,
it's positive to you And I knew that, well, it's
because everybody, you know, I don't know what people are
thinking before they get the meeting started. They could have
just got done cramming down a bunch of MSLSD or
whenever else and be totally hyped up about how the
world's going to end tomorrow. How's that going to help

(08:16):
them concentrate and focus in on the important tasks of
the day. And how many, how often throughout history has
somebody been standing there was a sign, a sign saying
that the end of times are tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, Like, wasn't it the times that there's a guy
that like seven times in nineteen hundred, it's the same guy.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
He's like, no, no, it's five years from now. I was wrong. Well,
and we can if you look back watching like old
TV forecasts about like how the world already right now
should be twenty feet underwater and Kevin Costner's doing Water
World right Yeah, I mean all of these things, the doom,
the doom, the doom. It's in my opinion, to lower

(08:58):
the vibration of people, to take people's feeling and understanding
that they actually do have power of how their own
life goes, versus I need somebody else to save me
or take care of me. And you know, while the
COVID thing is over right now in terms of you know,

(09:19):
you know, you still see something in the news about
raze or throw or COVID and all this other stuff,
and I'm like, oh my gosh, look, I live thirty
minutes away from Mexico. I can't tell you the number
of times I crossed the border and got people the
ivermectin and the hydroxychloroquine and went to the post office,

(09:40):
sent it overnight and they got the pills the next
day after being sick with COVID or something for five
days with high temperatures, and then like the next day
after starting to take their first ivermectin, oh my gosh,
I'm starting to feel better. I had COVID twice I was.
I had one hundred and two degree temperature for eight days.

(10:00):
I swept through three pairs of pajamas every night. It's
literally like you could ring water out of my pajamas.
I dropped about sixteen pounds. Wow. And we were just
I was that the time I was sick in bed
with That was the time I had on my calendar
to be packing for the move to Arizona. And a
good friend of mine said, Steve, you know, I've got

(10:20):
these ivermectin. I'm not sure if that's something that you
would like to try. And I'm like, hey, I'm halfway
between save me and God. Take me now, so awesome.
At this point, I've seen Heaven's gates. I think that's
what I'm seeing right now. We're right there, So whatever works. Yeah,
I'd never been in such misery. So I started taking
the ivermectin regiment according to the way that she described it,
you know, which was kind of a step down, you know,

(10:42):
like an antibiotic, and lo and behold, like next day
I fell fifty percent better. I'm like, oh my god,
I can't believe it. I actually have some strength. I
can need some food. The day after that, even stronger.
The third day I'm packing the house. No way. Yeah,
third day.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I think you're the first person that I've met that's
taking ever met. And I know Rogan is a big
did you do you remember that staying with MSNBC making
him look super sickly and like photo shopping talk all.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
The time, and again that's it's just dirty, it's misleading,
and it's because everybody's on the take. Yeah, everybody's on
the take.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Which is what you just said before. Like that that's
kind of the plug for podcasts of these size, Like
that's the plug for like the Dylan's England the World
other series and that I remember the Jason Tracy's of
the world and the other like just smaller people that
were real people you get because you know, you always
say like this is the people's network. It's like, no,
it's not. You're some big run You're not a people's network. Yeah,

(11:48):
but you when you listen to podcasts of these side,
you get real people talking about real things, what you're
really going through and so and I think that's why,
you know, the community has been able to be built
with small podcasts, and that's why it's vibrant thing.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
It's because and that's why a lot of I don't know,
if you knew this.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
This is a tangent side conversation, but like a lot
of with the Iran stuff right now, the people of
Iran don't like Hamas. Some of them they're like this
is bad, Like we don't like this. They made posts
about it. The Iranian government took down the posts, and
then a guy that I'm interviewing tomorrow, Eric sent Startlink

(12:28):
satellites over Iran and we gave them parlor.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Oh wow, and.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
So part like literally I have a picture on my
phone of someone from Iran holding up like Parlor's a
free speech platform. Like that's like you know whether or
not you agree with everything, disagree with whatever. But like
that's the point, though, is giving people a voice. And
then when you give people a voice, then you can
have your debates, Then you can have your disagreements, and
I could say I still think you're wrong, but like,
at least give them the voice, yes, and don't silence

(12:54):
the voice. And that's what podcasts like these exist, you know,
that's why we think got great conversations. Yes, And I've
had people that I disagree with across the table. I've
had people that I agree with, and I've as you know,
like I've run into real world consequences for saying certain
things and being open to learn. But I think that's

(13:14):
the trade off, right, Like there has to be someone
willing to say it's okay if this affects me a
little bit, but I'm willing to pursue the knowledge.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, and let's look at the power that can be
thrown at people. You know, I've listened to several of
your podcasts and really enjoy your work. And one of them,
I can't remember exactly who the guest was, but the
conversation was around being deep banked and you know, you
think about that, you know, getting on that n Audy

(13:45):
list where you know, the banks want to just send
you your money and say, guess what, your money is
no good here anymore, it's not money anyways. But anyway,
that's all the others happened. But the thing is you
do need the way that things have been done is
you you kind of have to find ways to navigate
in today's world, and sometimes that means having to these

(14:07):
conventional things, and you know, there's just so much that's
out there that's in my opinion, wrong. The two things
One of the things you talked about earlier was having,
you know, just talking with people openly about things, but
not you know, what we've lost is that ability to
truly debate. And I think it happened right in front

(14:29):
of us as presidential debates over the last forty years
have just become nothing but sound bites and worthless, worthless,
no real vision, you know, to unify people. It's just
sound bite, sound bite, sound bite. And I've and I've
seen the mainstream media newscasts where it's like, this is

(14:53):
a threat to our democracy, and I'm like, you see
the other newscasters saying it in another market, and it's
like hundreds of of them all saying the exact same
thing as though, and they're trying to say it like
they mean it and with authority and all that other stuff,
and it's like, Wow, you know, I didn't realize how
the world really worked until the financial collapse happened. I

(15:17):
don't know. I think you knew that I used to
own a mortgage company. No, I was going to ask you.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's well, this is a perfect say welcome to
the England Show. And so I guess Steve and I
don't want to butcher your last name Sayiskowski and uh.
He is the owner and leader of a group called
sears net. It's an amazing networking group where basically it's

(15:42):
it's a I, S, A B and I to give people,
to give people an idea of what it is. Structure
Industry Exclusive Structure networking group. Yes, and it's incredible, and
I mean there are there are thousands and thousands of
thousands of people's lives that have been touched by Steve.
And you have hundreds of members here in mission and
it's a great group. I'm a member of one of
the groups. And you are the founder of sears net.

(16:05):
You are the facilitator of multiple groups, and we can
talk about that in a second. We could talk about
we can keep going down the pursuit really quick. Do
you want headphones or no headphones today?

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Do you think it's better with or with off? It
doesn't matter to me. I'm fine, Okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
And then so you were about to say that you
started a mortgage you used to own a mortgage mortgage company.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
So the medium version of the story is, because I
can never go long or short, the medium version is
when I graduated Western Michigan University, my brother had an
idea for comic book Superhero. We were both major comic
book superhero fans, and I loved this idea for the character.

(16:47):
And I was getting ready to go to Keymer headquarters
working in the corporate offices doing public relations, which you know,
I was in public relations, so that was the path
I had chosen. But I said to him, I'm not
starting this position for a few months, uh, and I
would like to help you make this successful. So I

(17:09):
was helping him get the character on Entertainment Tonight and
CNN and so many things talked about this comic book
that our first comic book sold like fifty thousand copies,
and then we introduced more characters, and I said to
I said to Kmart Corporation, when they were ready to

(17:29):
bring me on, I'm like, hey, I really appreciate the opportunity. However,
I've been helping my brother get a business started and
it's looking like I'm going to be needed for that.
And they were so cool. They're like, oh, that's so great,
good for you chasing your dream and all that out.
They're like, they were very nice because they're like, we
don't want you here with us in the island and
miss of toys.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
You know, yeah, go pursue, go free, pursue, yes, yes,
And that was an amazing business.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
We we did so much. I mean we made toys,
you know, action figures, We licensed stuff with Walt Disney
TV animation. We did so many things. It was really cool.
And then the comic book industry collapsed just when I
was a kid, at comic book cost twenty five cents.
When we were doing comic books, the average cover price
was three dollars, so it wasn't the same way like

(18:15):
when I was a kid. I got a five dollars allowance.
I came home with the back of comic books of
this thick and I was like, HI, Like, oh my god,
this is so great, but it's you know, the world's
not the same anymore. It's not the same. Everything went
to the video games, and I don't disagree with that.
I mean, if you could be the character playing the adventure,
why would you want to sit and read about it?

(18:35):
So we had to close that, and then I went
to work for a bank in the ann Arbor area.
My wife had just delivered our first child. We just
moved into a brand new house, build a brand new build,
and then we're closing the comic company. So I'm like,
all right, I go from making money to no money,
and I need to find something that would allow me
to at least tread water until I can find the

(18:59):
next thing. I'm sure you've been there. So I went
to work for the bank and I called that my
shash anchored emption years where I did some things at
the bank really well, which was working with small business people.
But every week I was there, I was thinking what
else could I be doing? What kind of business could
I start? A fraternity brother of mine had been in

(19:21):
the mortgage industry. He was also working at the bank
and wanting to get out, and he goes, you know, Steve,
I always wanted to start a mortgage company. I've got
to know how. You've got the credentials, you can get
the licensing with the state. I'm like, let's do it.
Let's get out of here. And we helped a ton
of people, helped a ton of people, made a boatload
of money, and helped a ton of people doing the

(19:42):
mortgage business until the day that I started noticing interest
rates really jacking up. And then the next thing I
noticed was that files I was working on the homes
weren't appraising the way that people thought that they would. Hey,
my house is worth three hundred and fifty thous the
appraiser says it's worth three hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
So you were seeing rates go up and asset values
go down, which is a very good hoxis time for
a business problem. So I said to my partner at
the time, I said, this isn't looking good, and I
think it's going to be just a matter of time
before this blows up. And then about a month later,
get a phone call from GMAC Bank and they go Steve,

(20:27):
these twenty loans that you've got cleared to close in
the pipeline. None of them are going to fund. All
of our investors just pulled out. We're done, We're out
of business. After today, you won't be able to get
hold anybody. Good luck. And that happened with every deal
in my pipeline. GMAC wasn't the only bank we worked with.
We worked many, but it was just Okay, who's going

(20:48):
to call today, who's going to call the next day?
And I loved helping people. I was great at what
I did, but I am not a fan of rug polls.
Like I'm somebody that wants to develop a skill set
and build on it and be rewarded for my experience
and expertise and to know that I could be one

(21:09):
of the best at this and then shrug pole going
from making multiple six figures to zero again the second
time it happened in my life, and at that time,
the wife didn't want to be in a marriage with
me anymore, and closing the mortgage company and the guy
that I started the business with and I also lost

(21:31):
our friendship. Many things happened at one time, and a
file for bankruptcy turned seven homes into foreclosure because I
had rentals, all sorts of stuff. I had to hit
the proverbial reset button. There was one thing that I
loved when I did the mortgage business, which was networking
and helping my customers. My customers came in and they

(21:52):
all saw me by referral, and I would sit down
with each one of them, Go, Dylan, I'm really glad
you're here today. But before we move any further, let's
talk about Smith, the person that told you about me,
and the person that got you here. Awesome, awesome person.
And you know, I've had people that have referred people
to other people and they did not have a good outcome.
So I will take care of you. I gave them

(22:13):
a copy of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad to
every one of my clients to help them understand cash
flow and how real estate can be good investments. Right.
People referred the pants off of me. I It was
just a great experience, and in my B and I groups,
I was like the number one referral passer because I
would sit there. I had their four to one case statements.

(22:34):
I had their retirement statements, their insurance statements, their tax returns,
and with each one of them I say, hey, tell
me about you know, Matt Smith, your accountant. Do you
love Matt? Is Matt somebody that gets timely answers back
to you helps you save on what your bill is
going to be for you know? Do you love this
person or is this somebody that if somebody better came along,

(22:56):
you would be interested in meeting that person. So if
they would say, Steve, we love our accountant, I would say, great,
would you mind if I called and introduced myself as
taking care of you? Because most of my clients do
not love their accountant. I'm always looking for good ones
to meet that I can refer to. And then if
they said I hate my accountant, I would go, I

(23:17):
have an accountant that my clients rave about that I
would love to refer you to. So it didn't matter
which way it went with it was tell me about
your financial advisor, right, didn't matter which way it went.
I had a referral for them or one for me.
You just going to do this naturally like this. It's
a natural language, you know. And I think that the

(23:38):
people that are really good in the financial industry are
ones that are very focused and they have an action
plan with their clients. There's bullet points you want to cover,
and you don't want to leave the table with them
until you've covered these points. And most people are just lazy.
They just want to do the transaction, get their commission check,
go to the bar, celebrate, and get the next one.

(24:00):
And so anyways, I loved BE and I because of
I had never heard of it before. A friend of
mine that was a financial advisor I was looking to
build a relationship, goes, hey, Steve, we're starting to be
and I have you ever heard of that before? And
I'm like, bm, I what's that? He goes, well, no,
it's business networking. And we've had a couple of mortgage

(24:20):
people visit the small group that we're starting right now
that we thought we're going to be good fits, but
they flaked out. But the way you want to build
your business by relationship and referral, I think you could
be the right one. But do you want to check
it out? I'm like, sure, where is it? It's like
at this place at seven in the morning. Oh, seven
in the morning. What it is? But I was at
that point n because it's before everything, before everything, Yeah, exactly,

(24:41):
And and also too, you know, I was really driven
to grow and to I'm like, how how you know,
how could this hurt me being a part of this.
So I went and met the initial like five or
six people that were on board. They did the B
and I song and dance as to how it worked,
and I'm like, I'm in. I don't see how this
can hurt me. So I'm in, you know, And then
I ended up, you know, end up becoming the president

(25:05):
of that chapter and so many other things, and we
grew to be one of B and I's largest chapters
in Michigan, like sixty five people, and uh, well it
got so big it got unhealthy. And we had somebody
in the group that was in the technology business and

(25:28):
was repairing somebody's laptop and was also a very curious
person would like to peek around and see what else
might be on there. And there was some stuff that
was on there that when when they would find things
that they think other people in their office would find humors,
they would project it on a big screen and everybody

(25:49):
that's working out will get their laughs. And this person
had Swinger pictures of them on their on their laptop
and I got a call from her and she told
me what had happened, and how upset she was. She
actually moved out of the area. She was so humiliated.
Well yeah, and I'm like, oh my.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Gosh, isn't that like a felon like Cagan, Like is
there long? Maybe this is just so messed up.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
It seems really messed up. And I was on Membership Committee.
My term as president was done, but I did have
a very kind of protections feel over my B and
I group. I wanted to protect it. I wanted to
protect what I had worked hard to try to build
something and something that was honest and true and good.
And so you know, other people in the group started

(26:36):
complaining about the same persons, and I said, well, look,
I don't want any more verbal complaints. For this to
be something that's going to be taken seriously. You need
to write it out, give it to me, and I
will bring it to them. I'll bring it to the
party in question, the corporate in question, and say, look
what we're dealing with this membership committee, I want you

(26:56):
to guide us on how to handle this. Right, So
they they guided us on how to handle it, and
we go to our next B and I meeting, and
we thought that this person was going to be gone. Well,
it turns out this person that was the offender must
have called the corporate headquarters and says, you know, I'm
being unfairly this and unfairly that, and if this happens,

(27:19):
I'm probably going to sue the pants off of you guys.
He probably made some threats and they're like, oh, this
isn't good over there. So we get to the meeting
and myself and the two other people on membership committee
are asked to stay after the meeting and somebody, one
of the directors, is there and they said that hey, today,
for today, we are erecting an ad hoc membership committee.

(27:43):
Like we were the people that the chapter trusted to
do the job of approving memberships and blackballing people if
they needed it. And unlike what happened to you, if
there was an issue with somebody, we would always say, hey,
here's the issue. Can you make it better? You know,
if you can make it better, please stay in the group.
We want to keep you, you know. But this particular case,
they erected an ad hoc group, and all three of us,

(28:05):
myself and the other two people that were all a
part of trying to help make groupractice issue. We got
all thrown out, all of us, all three of us
got thrown out. We didn't know it that day, but
when we left the meeting after the group meeting, were like,
that felt like we were kind of being interrogated. Yeah,
I suppose there was really no mention about this other

(28:27):
person anymore. Was like, well, why did you act that way?
Why did you do that? As though I'm like sitting
around with nefarious ideas in my mind, just cooking stuff up.
I got other things to do. So I got thrown out.
The financial advisor that invited me into the group. One
of the other ones also thrown out. The accountant in
the group also thrown out. And it was a power play.

(28:49):
It was some.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
People in like you were thrown out of the leadership
position or you were the group.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Wow. I had just got done recruiting more people to
join that B and I group than anybody in the
state of Michigan. And I want a cruise, a B
and I cruise, which I was excited about. And you
know that was that was taken away of course right
away too. So I did the Jerry McGuire thing, you know, like, ah,
who's with me? Type thing? Yeah, because there were a

(29:15):
large number of people in the group are like, oh
my god, you were thrown out. That's not right, that's
not right. So like nine other people just quit. I
can't be a part of something that's like this. I
can't do that. So we all quietly networked in the background,
you know, unorganized in terms of trying to be something.
We were all on B and I's little list waiting

(29:37):
until the quiet period goes away, and we started something
called net Shue, which was positive Energy's networking and it
was fun again. I had gone from owning a mortgage
company and making a tremendous living to zero, like I

(29:57):
didn't have anything. So with the net shwe it felt
like too many chiefs, not enough Indians, And it was
just I was coming up with a lot of the ideas,
but also being kind of edited a lot too. And
I'm like, look, if you guys have other ways you
want to do this, I'll give you my shares. I
want you to be successful, but I've got to do

(30:18):
something else. Steve needs to start producing a business that
actually makes profit and does things. Yes, And fortunately, at
the same time, I just met what year this is,
in the two thousand and seven and eight area during
the financial collapse. I had also been just extremely blessed
that my neighbor introduced me to Gino Wickman from EOS

(30:44):
and I got to mentor with him for a year.
That's why I left net Shue was because I had
an opportunity to learn EOS, and I really kind of
had my eyes on even being an EOS implementer, but
my heart was really with the small, small, small business people.
I love those people from B and I. That's who

(31:04):
I identify with the most. I'm not the corporatety guy,
you know, it's just not me. So, but what I
learned from Geno watching him implement EOS straight into businesses,
and wow, I'm like every time I left a session,
I'm like, that's what I'm going to use in my
networking business. And that's what I'm going to use. So
I just had to create serious net But I didn't

(31:26):
want it to be just like B and I. You know,
B and I is extremely successful, there's no doubt about it,
massive massive, They're on every developed continent. I had a
lot of reward in B and I also a lot
of problems, you know, so it just a lot of
times people were like, gosh, we pay all this money
to be in B and I, but where's B and

(31:47):
I in this? We just get handed a little book
and so go off to officer training and we have
to do the whole thing. And so they'll let the
chapters grow as big as they can. That was the
other thing that happened. We are tightest we were in
the group, and the most powerful referrals we passed was
when we were around thirty ish members, thirty to thirty five,
and we kept thinking, the bigger we get, the bigger

(32:08):
we get, the more referrals. We had meetings where it
took over half an hour to pass all the referrals
around the room, somebody running them around counting them. But hey, everybody,
we passed one hundred and forty referrals today, I kid
you not, though I say half of them had to
be people writing a selfie referral for buying a slice
of pizza from the pizza company that was on the team.

(32:29):
Not really meaningful business, but you know, being nicies, we
got to say that's for the whole pizza. Or if
somebody sells a house for half a million dollars, it's
not their commission. That they're supposed to be counting towards
the referral. It's the total sound pray. So, yeah, we
passed a million dollars or two houses. Yeah, exactly, So
I said, one thing I will never do is put

(32:51):
a dollar amount the average chair in serious net is
worth fifteen thousand dollars? Are you kidding me? No, never
doing that because it's worth way more than I'm getting. Well,
it could be worth way more. But the thing is is,
you know, if I have uh, you know, six of
state attorneys, let's say, depending on who they are and

(33:12):
how they approach the network and who's on their team
with them, one might be doing sixty thousand a year.
One might not have a referral yet. But as soon
as you put a value on something, you're setting an expectation. Exactly. Yeah.
Oh so I have to only have to pay you
six hundred to get fifteen thousand. That's a steal. Well,
I'm not even smarter than I can figure this one out. Yeah.

(33:34):
So the other thing, too, is I don't lock people
into like long term commitments, you know. To me, I
learned that long term planning in EOS was ninety days.
That we live in a ninety day world, and of
course you got a one year picture, three year plan
on five year tars, all these different things, but really

(33:56):
it's that ninety days that's the most important. And so
you know when I did serrus Net, I didn't. I
wanted it to be like B and I from the
standpoint of having structure and understanding the education is important
to everybody comes to any referral group wanting referrals, But
have you developed the skill set to help people refer
to you? Have you developed the skill set to help

(34:18):
make it so you're a rain maker for other people,
give people lots of reasons to take notice of you, right,
But if you're just going there and you think, oh,
I'm just going to go to this meeting, say something
for sixty seconds and leave, and everyone's going to hurt
hear me and want to send me business good luck,
It'll never happen just like that. So you know the
major difference between B and I and serrus Net is

(34:41):
that serrus Net's a facilitated model. You mentioned that when
you introduce me to facilitate six teams, you know that
means I'm the leader of six different teams. I run
a meeting for great people. I include great people in
the meeting multiple times all throughout it. I deliver education.
I set the meeting on positive note, I finish on

(35:01):
a positive note. And I've never had anybody go God,
that was a total waste of time today, I should
have never done that. I don't know if I can
do another one of those, right. No, people are always
like I go to my It's like my going to
the office. It gives me the motivation, it makes me
feel good. And in today's day and age, having something that,

(35:21):
even during during the pandemic, when there's so much fear
and negativity out there, people could always count on going
to their serrus NET and their leaders not allowing any
talk about politics. I'm not talking about I'm not talking
about the pharmaceutical industry. We're not talking about any of that,
right because you can talk about that with anybody. Yeah,
what we need to do as a team here is

(35:43):
focus on positivity and focus on supporting each other. Yeah,
that's it, Yep, that's it, super simple. So you've mentioned
you've met some of the other serious NET facilitators, and
that's the other thing that's different. So we facilitate these
team meetings, but the people lead these groups because I
just lead six of them. But there are other groups. Oh,

(36:05):
I think in Michigan there's around twenty ish something. And
you know Doug Moffatt, he's my longest tenured serious net
client who's a member for nine years and now he
runs three serrus net teams as a leadership coach. The
difference is like if he was just trying to start
BE and I groups as a leadership coach and just
get people to pay B and I and do that

(36:28):
miss two meetings Doug in a six month period, you
could be out of here and you don't have the facilitator.
Well he could. I mean, but you're not a facilitator
and a B and I group. You're a president, your
membership committee, your educational coordinator, all those things, but you
don't have equity. You have no authority to do anything.
B and I will determine whether or not you get

(36:49):
to keep your spot or not, and that's it. So
like in serrus net, the facilitator also has complete equity
on their team, Like they get to make the decisions
who gets on their team, who doesn't, what prices to set,
what's the toolbox they're going to pick that day all
these things, and I'm a consultant. I'm the guy that

(37:11):
runs one hundred and eighty of these meetings a year.
I've got great experience doing this. I've seen a lot
of stuff. And so the the serious net facilitators, I
become like their consultant, best practice coach, and they're off
doing their things, running their teams the way that they
feel the way there are people want it like my
people like it one way, and they like Steve's way,
and other people like it Doug's way or Wendy's way

(37:33):
or Steve Bebber's way, And I think that's a beautiful
thing that I don't you know. They all get the
same recipe for how to make the big Mac. But
if they think they're big Mac needs three slices of
cheese on it, put three slices of cheese on that
big Mac, and that's your big Mac to sell in
your store. Right, So they get that feeling of personalization
that's going in to their serious net operation too well,
and they're getting more.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
What you alluded to earlier with being I was the
fact that you had to pay to be part of
being I.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
But then you also saw to be a leadership. You
also thought to run the thing.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
The beauty of the facilitator model is that if I
pay my dues, I really just need to show up,
show up, and.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Then obviously there's work to do.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
There's can networking one on one all this stuff, yes,
for sure, but at minimum, like I'm not going to
have to go be in leadership on another board, another
thing with more time, with more time, with more time,
and the fact that it's virtual keeps things lean, and
then you can just show up to be like, I
know my facility is going to have the medium planned.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yep. I don't have to worry about that.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
I just need to make sure I'm worry about the
relationships I'm making in this cross and I'm just carrying
making sure I'm giving referrals, meeting people trying to help.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
That's all you have to worry about. And I'm so
glad you identify that because that was the other complaint.
I would just when I was in B and I,
all of my loan originers originators, if there wasn't a
BE and I group that had an opening, I helped
them start to be an I group. So I mean
I helped you and I grow like five groups. And
way back in the day when I was doing this,
Brighton had eight B and I groups, I think, uh.

(39:01):
And today so the owner of the franchise at the
time when I got thrown out of being I trust me.
We reached out to him and and there are some
parts of the story that will probably always go untold,
and that's okay. But this guy just the membership committee
has spoken, the membership committee has made their decisions. Steve,

(39:23):
and I have to back the membership committee. I mean,
you mean that the ad hoc membership committee you threw
together throw me out of the group. So so you
know what I didn't expect from being in B and
I was drama in my life. Drama, you know. And

(39:43):
the other thing that's interesting is to try to like
anytime somebody would join it, Hey you'd make a good president,
Hey you'd make a good this or that. Always recruiting,
always yeah, And let's face it, I mean, what what
what happens when somebody is not a good leader in
leadership position? Yeah? People start talking, right, So a lot

(40:05):
of people would say sometimes like it felt like they
had a second unpaid job having to be in a
group like that. Yeah, a lot of time consumption, not
a lot of gain. And so anyways, there are really
great ones. So I again my goal here is not
to slam them at all, because I'll already say it.
I'll actually say it. They've helped more people that I

(40:26):
know I ever will.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Yeah, it's just the origin story. It's how did you
get here. I got here because there was a problem
and then I created a solution. And that's every business,
every good business. There's a problem you're solving. The problem
you're solving could be a multitude of them that people
have ran into.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It could be cost, it could be time. It could
be consistent, like every week there's a meeting. People don't
have time for that.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
It could be rules that people the amount of solutions
that you're coming to with, the common complaints coming from
other networking groups, and the fact that yours is facility led.
That to me is one of the most unique things
about series.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Now.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yes, as a fact, it's facilitator led. And then you
have accountability and breaks.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
We have breaks, like it's thirty meetings a year, but
you know we hardly ever meet ever more than twice
in a row. Yeah, because there I also learned, like
in the B and I model where there every single week.
It just felt like such a huge regiment. You know,
it's like basic training. Didn't I just see you, wasn't
it just like yes, yeah, don't you just get on talking? Yeah,

(41:28):
So you know, I'm also a big believer in the
importance of breaks and stepping away from something, right, anything
that you do for an entire year, if you do
it constantly the entire year without ever stepping back from
it a little bit and getting a clarity break, take
catching your breath a little bit, then when you come
back to the people you haven't seen in two or three,
it's like, see you guys.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Is why I tell a podcaster to make seasons, give
seasons like season one two because you And that's the
mistake I made my first two years, like all right,
every week every you know, I need to do a podcast,
and then my buddy this is a side star. And
then everybody's like, have you considered doing seasons. It's like, no,
seasons are for like, you know, I just like to
talk to people, you know, I just talk to people
like and he's like, well, seasons allow you to have

(42:11):
a break, yeah, And I was like, oh, talk.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
To me more, you know, you knew how to sell it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
And if when you don't have something, your listeners crave
it again. Yeah, and then it just instead of you
know it is if you have a show every week
for eventually, you're probably going to tune out of that
show eventually. But if that show, you know, if you
breaks the same with Serious Net, you have your meetings,
you have a break. People are actually like, man, I
kind of miss these people. When's there next weeking?

Speaker 1 (42:34):
That's and it builds that excitement for the next one.
The other thing, too, is you know, I've got an
eighty percent rule of Like, it's not even a rule,
it's a guideline for members success. Hey, if you want
to get what you want out of Serious Net, I
just already know be there eighty percent of the time,
because then people are going to be drawn to you.
They'll have heard enough of you to start trusting you

(42:56):
and hearing what's going on. You'll also start getting acclimated
to who are all these other people in their little
boxes on zoom? Who are all these people? It takes
a while for that stuff to happen, and I think
that you know, the people that are able to stick
with it, it's I don't. I don't know how it
could ever be easier to find success if you can't

(43:17):
find it in serious net. I just don't know. But
then again, think about it. Some people need like with
a personal trainer. Like me, I do isometrics on my own.
I'm disciplined. I will do it. I will rate when
I bet I got to do my isometrics, and I
love it. I absolutely love it. Are you a routine guy?

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (43:36):
I mean yeah, absolutely absolutely. But the getting the hell
routine and all of that other stuff, to me, it's
uh all about just trying to stay as healthy as
possible being and you don't present exactly. But some people

(43:58):
admittedly will say I have to have a trainer in
front of me telling me to give them ten push ups,
telling me to do this, driving me, driving me. Hey
know thyself, If that's what you need to I don't.
And some people need to be and I model of
threats to stay in their lane and to do their
stuff right. But that's not me. Yeah, I don't like

(44:22):
threatening people. I'm not interested in confrontations. If I notice
something's not right, I'll call somebody and say, hey, I
noticed something's not right. What can I help you? With Yeah,
and it's just it's a different.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Approach trainer, and it's less drama that way, and that's
the beauty of that facilitator that thing. And I think
if anyone is in Michigan that listens to this, definitely
reach out to me and I'll put you in contact
with Steve.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
I mean, I think people don't know this, but we
got connected because I was interested in becoming a facilitator
because I like the model so much. Yeah, and I
truly believe in what you're doing. We have like ten
minutes left because you have two heartstop at two, Yes, sir,
so what I wanted to do. And we'll have to
come back on to talk more about this. Everyone that
is going to listen to this kind of knows who

(45:11):
Steve is. But what don't people know about Steve? What
are some hobbies that Steve has? What do you enjoy
doing when you're not doing sears Net?

Speaker 1 (45:20):
What are some you know?

Speaker 2 (45:22):
I think you mentioned you enjoy going to hikes? Are
you what are some maybe some fascinating things you're learning? Like,
what are some of the hobbies that you are outside
of sears Net?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Who are you? Well? I love nature, so I love
being in the mountains. I just love being in the mountains.
I never knew how much I would love being in
the mountains until I was actually up in them. From
my office window at my house, I get to look
at the Wichuka Mountains. The highest peak is about eleven
and a half thousand feet and I'm at four and
a half thousand feet looking up at the mountains. And

(45:54):
you know, one of the things I love about where
I live is, like Michigan, there are seasons in Sierra
Vista too. We get you can see snowcapped mountains in
the winter time and watch this. I've been up there
in a white out. You know, it's very very cool.
So I love quiet time hiking, you know, just feeling
close to God, just hearing the grass underneath my feet

(46:15):
and the birds and everything. I just I just time
disappears when I am there. I am also an incredibly
curious person. There isn't a rabbit hole I haven't been down.
There's not I'm not afraid of information. I'm very curious
about it. And that doesn't mean that, you know, I'm

(46:39):
how do I want to put it, I'm not naive.
I'm a big skeptic of information all the time, wherever
it comes from. So when I hear learn about something
that I didn't know about, I will dive into that
hole and I'll do as much research. I'll do my
own research. I'll do all of that. And yeah, so

(47:00):
a lot of people don't know about me is that
I've I've got quite a tinfoil hat.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, do you do you have a favorite appropriate that
won't get you in trouble? Tinfoil? Like there was Is
there a favorite one that you rabbit hole that you
found yourself being like I did not think this was true,
but now that I've done some research, Like, I'll give
you an example that might help us queue this part up,
Like a Titanic. I don't know if you had any

(47:26):
research in that is Titanic, but like.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Who is on it? And who went? Who caused? JP?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Morgan right, like all this kind of stuff. Maybe it was,
but that was one that was like in an iceberg,
like what are we doing here? And then all of
a sudden we did some research like there's there's a chance.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
So so what I will say is this, because I'm
not going to pick a specific topic that's fair that
I believe it is true that I couldn't believe it
was true, but I believe it's true, you know, yeah,
seeing seeing enough evidence that it's true. What you'll find
is that the reason a lot of people think that

(48:03):
something is true is because they can't find things in
case law that disprove it that. I can't find anything
in law that says this person one using this argument, Okay,
why why do you think that is right? You know,
so if you're waiting for case law to tell you

(48:28):
what the laws are, there are many cases that never
make it to court that are dismissed because to have
something on the record would open a floodgate and you
can't have that. So you know, again, to me, it's
not because you know, I love this country. I love

(48:52):
this country, I love the principles of the founding of
this country. I just love that. I love the people
of this country. But it's a very complex thing to navigate.
And you know, we have this idea of what it is,
what we're sold, and then we start living life, living life,
and you spend the first thirty five years forty years

(49:15):
of your life just like this hamster on a wheel,
running and running and doing and running and doing and
running and doing and then eventually one day, damn, you
hit the wall like what happened to me? And it
was the hitting the wall of the financial collapse and
losing everything that made me question everything am I? What
am I doing? You know all these things? And you

(49:36):
know there is a lot of real bad information that's
out there. You know, we're in a glood of information. So,
but there are a lot of things that are out
there that are going on right now that are absolutely insane. Yeah,
how do you keep yourself from getting overwhelmed? I live
day to day. I live in a twenty four hour world.

(50:00):
I've prayed on that for years, to live in the
day God gave me to be present. If I'm just
present with the people I'm with, present with what I'm doing,
and I'm not thinking about what could have been in
the past, or I'm not anxious about a possible myriad
of different futures that could happen. If I'm really present,

(50:22):
then I'm enjoying the only gift that I have, which
is today. And I'm not going to allow my present
to be stolen from me, which is.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Its defense, which leads us into the last question. Yeah,
what do you want your legacy to be with all this.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
I want sirrus Net to be living on beyond me.
So whether that means at some point or another somebody goes,
holy boy, Steve, you've built something great here and we've
got everything right here that we know that this can
be everywhere in the country. We'd like to pay you
to do that, or we would like to buy you
out and do it ourselves. So long as serious Net

(50:59):
can be helping people, whether it's me running it or
if I die and my kids running, I want to
have a legacy of help. I want to be somebody
that created something that is still helping people even though
he's not here. That's what I want.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
And then what do you want your personal impact to be?
So you this year's not this is the brain you
want that to move on. But if someone runs into you,
if someone like, what do you want to just like
rub off on people? As as if I think of
when people say, hey, who's this year's Nestve guy, what
do you what do you want them to say?

Speaker 1 (51:34):
You know, it's interesting because it doesn't take long normally
when I'm talking to somebody to find something interesting or
unique to talk about with them about, right, And so
most people don't have standard conversations with me. I'm not
the one like, Hey, how's the weather, what do you
think of the Lions game. I just don't do the
small talk. I'm naturally curious and I've got an amazing

(51:58):
recording brain that I'll remember them most trivial stuff and
the most detailed stuff. I just don't forget things. All
of people call me that I met sixteen years ago. Hey, Steve,
I don't know if you remember me, but we met him.
I stop right there. Yes, I know exactly who you are. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
you know. But that comes also too from intention. You

(52:18):
know the classic book Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friend
and Influence People. I know you know Tom Rivers. Yes,
I love Tom. Jason loves Tom, and we've all laughed
about this, so it's out there. But Jason's first podcast
with Tom at the recording studio. Tom was calling him
Steve during the podcast, many times, Dilln calling him Steve.

(52:42):
And I'm in the car listening to this with my
wife because I listened to everyone of Jason's podcast because
I love him a lot of times they're serious netters,
and I'm learning more about my own people. Yeah, it's great.
It is, and so I'm like, did he just call
him Steve? I love it when my name is mentioned
on the podcast, but not what is like Jason name.
That's great. Tom's coming on the show soon. I'm gonna

(53:04):
have to bring sure you have a name bad John
that says Dylan, and it's gonna make it Steve. And
if he calls you Steve, you call him Jason, And yeah,
that's great. But yeah, just h I love people, uh,
and I think that God put me in a position where,
you know, I don't ever ask for people to say

(53:26):
nice things for me or whatever. So when somebody, like yesterday,
Angela put Kella she's a real estate agent on my
Wednesday ten o'clock group, great gal. She's leaving the Brighton
Coffee House yesterday and she's going, Steve, I just I
wanted to tell you something before I left. So she
kind of pulls me to the side, she looks at me,
she goes, I just want to tell you. When you're
at the breakfast on Wednesday and you're standing there and

(53:48):
you're talking in front of one hundred and twenty five people,
I want you to know that it's because of you
that they're all there, and I'm like, it's because of
him that I'm here, and thank you, thank you, because
that does mean a lot. But again for me, I
really I'm not doing this for me. We talked about it.

(54:09):
The ideal situation to be, Yeah, I'm a best practice
partner to one hundred facilitators, right and maybe I run
one or two serious net meetings, which.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Is the perfect opportunity for you to give any final
plus anything you want to do.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
List that where can we find you all that stuff?
Serious Net? So I'm the food Fighters of referral teams.
I picked the worst name in the world to name
something because most people when they heard food fighters will
go food fighters? What's that about? So I would you know,
people go, oh, is it serious Net? Is it caesar net?
It's cerrus c A r U s ET or serious net.

(54:46):
If you can or just type in facilitated referral group
or referral Group Michigan, I'll be in the top page.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
You know, if you're somebody who's got listening to this
and you've got leadership skills and you've got a nice
little network, and you know that you need to network
probably for your business for as long as you're doing it,
let me help you, you know, let me help you
build something that you can have equity in. I've got
the facilities, all get paid to network. Yeah, it's a
beautiful thing. It's great, So thank you for having me.

(55:16):
Of course, we met about two and a half years ago,
three years something like that. That blurs together, and I
know we were going to try to have me here
maybe last year, but I just don't think that things
lined up right now. I think I was gone or
so I think so. Yeah, but this time a lot
of fun. And I love your podcast, your your show,

(55:37):
and proud of you in terms of what you've been
able to attract with Parlor and interviewing Donica Patrick and
some of the trumps I think i've seen you with
and what a beautiful life of adventure. And I'm excited
for you. Man. It's the same thing that you told her.
It's because of him. But thank you, and.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Hopefully the dream doesn't die. Hopefully you at the hundred facilitators.
Hopefully I get to be doing this for a living
one day, and let's support each other making that way
that happened.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Brother.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
All right, Well, hey guys, thank you for listening. To
this episode of The Dylan England Show. Please go support Steve.
I'm telling you, guys, if you are a business here
in Michigan, you will want to join this referral group.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
I'm part of one.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
There are multiple you could choose from Steve's amazing facility,
but it's other great facilitators too, So in the description
of this video will be a link where you can
check out that information. Please do that and we'll see
you guys in the next episode. Be sure you mentioned
the Dylan England Show and I hear from you. There
you go, maybe get like a one percent disco.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Thank you. I appreciate you, all right, See you guys.
Thanks

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He Built The BNI Buster… Why This Networking Group Is Taking Over The Nation | TDES Season 2 Ep 2

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}He Built The BNI Buster… Why This Networking Group Is Taking Over The Nation | TDES Season 2 Ep 2