fbpx

Strategic Networking, With Brian Trippe

Share This:

Episode Summary

Listen on iTunes
Listen on Spotify
Watch on YouTube

How important is networking for successful Thoughtful Real Estate Entrepreneurs? Very important in fact. Yet the word “networking” can conjure up certain negative connotations and mental images of awkward conversations and pointless business card exchanges…and can discourage people (including your host, Jeff) from doing it. In this episode, Jeff interviews Brian Trippe—a real estate investor, educator and connector—about the importance of developing strategic networking skills. Brian is the author of the books “Nothing’s For Sale” and “The ROI of Life,” and is an expert networker and connector. In this fun conversation, Brian explains what good networking really is, how valuable it can be, and provides several resources and book recommendations for mastering the art of networking.

Episode Transcript

I feel like if you’re interested in this topic, you should be reading these books. These are important books on this subject that are really going to help kind of frame you know how you can strategically network with folks to where you can help them get what they want, and you can get everything you want and it’s true true win wins.

Jeff Stephens 

Welcome to racking up rentals, a show about how regular people, those of us without huge war chest of capital or insider connections, can build lasting wealth acquiring a portfolio of buy and hold real estate. But we don’t just go mainstream looking at what’s on the market and asking banks for loans, nor are we posting We Buy Houses signs we’re just looking for quote, motivated sellers to make lowball offers to. You see, we are people oriented dealmakers, we sit down directly with sellers to work out Win Win deals without agents or any other obstacles, and buy properties nobody else even knows are for sale. I’m Jeff from a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur. If you’re the kind of real estate investor who wants long term wealth, not get rich quick gimmicks or pictures of yourself holding fat checks on social media. This show is for you. Join me and quietly become the wealthiest person on your block. Now let’s go rack up a rental portfolio. Thanks for joining me for another episode of racking up rentals. Show Notes for this episode can be found a thoughtful ar e.com slash e 120. Please do us a big favor by hitting that subscribe button and your podcast app or your follow button or whatever it says in your phone these days. It really does help other fellow thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs who are looking for show like this to find it. Thank you for doing that honor with today’s episode. And in today’s episode, I am really pleased to welcome back I guess this is the first person to make two appearances on the racking up rentals podcast and that is my friend, Mr. Brian Tripp. Brian is a real estate investor himself and an educator. But I might think of him mostly as a connector as someone who brings people together. So it was quite appropriate when I said something stupid on the internet recently, that the conversation that came as a result of it led Brian into that conversation and prompted us to get back together in the context of a podcast interview where he could share his expertise around the topic of networking and networking was the general topic that I was slandering online in a very sloppy, loose and poorly crafted statement that I made. So in this conversation, which I’m really pleased to share with you. Brian really talks a lot about what good networking is really what it’s not, gives us lots of tips to be very successful and sets me straight, and hopefully helps you on the idea that this type of activity this going out into the world. adding value and creating relationships with people is truly one of the most important things that we can be doing. So without further ado, let’s cue up my interview with Mr. Brian Tripp. Brian Tripp, welcome back, you have the distinct honor of being the first repeat guest on racking up rentals.

So I’m honored. I’m honored to be here. I’ve been you know, ever since we connected you know, a few years back just to watch your journey. And you know what you’ve done with the podcast what you’ve done with your Facebook group. I love it. I think it’s incredible. You are like one of the key. You’re one of the kings of networking and

Jeff Stephens 

good segue. good segue. I feel like I do need to just tell this quick story. The headline is Jeff said something stupid on the internet. But now look what’s good is coming out of it. So I kind of off the cuff the other day in my facebook group rental portfolio wealth builders. I just made a little short post that said it. In my opinion, maybe this is an unpopular perspective. Networking is overrated. So here’s what happened. I hit post. And I was like, oh, time to take a shower. So jump in the shower. I’m about like two minutes into the shower. Oh, that was a bad that was bad. Like, should I get out right now. So be you know, hair and all that and like, delete that post. Like, no, finish the shower. Get out a couple minutes later, walk straight to the phone, grab it with wet hands. I’m like, okay, nobody has comments on this thing. I’m just gonna delete it. It’s like it never happened. But sure enough, people that already comment there, like at least three posts. And when I had that realization, like I shouldn’t have said that. I swear, you came to my mind. I’m not saying I was thinking about you in the shower. I’m just saying that you literally came to my mind. And I was like, Oh no, man. I’ve got friends who like write books about this topic. And I just said, I don’t think networking is good. So I’ve since you know I’ve had a little bit of a Mia culpa. And I’ve realized I basically just used kind of sloppy language it was way too broad strokes describe what I was. Meaning specifically, but you come in and said, let’s have a conversation about this. And let me

ask you first before we kind of get going on with this, what did what were you trying to say? Like, what, like Mia culpa? You know? notwithstanding? Were you actually trying because you obviously felt something for summary, what were you actually trying to say?

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah, what I was really trying to say was, I think sometimes people and I’d say maybe people who are newer in real estate, feel like they have to collaborate on every deal. Like they feel like it’s not possible for them to do something basically by themselves. So like, Hey, man, let’s get some who’s looking for a partner who’s looking for a joint venture. And sometimes, you know, in other Facebook groups, I will see people post things like, Hey, man, looking to JV, who’s up for partner, and I’m just thinking, dude, you’re, these are strangers on the internet. And you’re like, to me, that’s the biggest red flag that says, I have no idea what I’m doing. Because I would never approach something that way. So I was kind of having this real narrow definition of like, first thought, try to see if you can find ways to get your deals done. You’re yourself. I mean, obviously, you’ve got team members and stuff like that, but stop trying to give away half the dang pie. When when you’ve never really given it a shot to do it all yourself. That’s what was on my mind. But that’s not networking. And that’s that the exactly is the problem. I use that word, which is way too broad to describe that one sentiment.

Yeah, that’s fear. Yeah. I mean, that’s a lot of things. That’s an experience, as you mentioned. Yeah. But But yeah, I think that it’s, I’m glad you did, though, because I think that networking, and I just said this to you before you hit record, I think that networking is that word, even it’s become a phrase, that idiom is it’s got a neg, it’s got a certain maybe not negative, it’s got a certain connotation associated with it. We, our minds, each individually, our minds go to a very specific place when you hear that word, and it’s probably different for everybody. But it does go to a very specific place. And I would suggest to you, Jeff, and for anyone who’s listening to this, that for most people, through my experience, their mind goes to a place that it’s that’s not what the word is. And I wonder if there’s like a way that we can come up with a new word, to come up with a new way to say, networking and say, Hey, hey, do you want to network? That’s just it just sounds sleazy to use with you. But uh, no, it doesn’t sound right.

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah, I was I was debriefing my own thoughts on my, my little miss misstep on the internet. I was like, you know, really, networking is this huge umbrella that there’s all these things, that sub bullets or whatever that kind of comprise it, I feel like those sub bullets individually are really, you know, really valuable. I mean, I’d never say to somebody, you should definitely not tried to find new, you know, professionals who might help you remodel your properties or fund your transit. I mean, obviously, that those types of things are good. But I was just picturing the like, sort of, you know, just back in the old days, when we could go see people face to face, like standing in a room with a beer. And the speaker is going to talk and like 30 minutes, you’re like, cool, how’s it going? Nice to meet you, you know, just the sort of awkward like, Oh, geez, what are we really doing here kind of thing.

It’s funny, you say that we just had one of those meetings last night. Where we had an open bar, and people are standing where there were the beer. And that, you know, I’ve I’ve taken it upon myself to cultivate community, really, and truly out of the phrase network, the word networking, how can we build a community of go givers? How can we build a community of collaborating, not to say that we should all be collaborating with everybody at all times. But there are multiple instances where I have a business, you have a business, and we there’s something that we can do here. And it makes logical sense, let’s talk and see if they’re, you know, what that might look like, versus I have a business, you have a business and I want to crush you. Doesn’t have to be that way. And when I got into real estate, that’s, I couldn’t find people outside of that mentality of like, I want to go crush you. And that’s why I started a meetup group in Birmingham, Alabama, is because what I was looking for, I didn’t fit in, I was looking for something else. I was looking for an inclusive environment where you would you would want to help me versus either leading me astray or just giving me some basic generalities that aren’t going to help me at all. Let’s actually try to help people in figure this thing out so that they can go either do on their own or partner up with some folks. And let’s go get some actual deals done.

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah, absolutely. There’s that expression, that your net work is your net worth. And I actually, that does resonate strongly with me. What do you think? And what what is your sort of definition of that when you share that? Why does that resonate with you? It’s a good question. I do feel like, if you are trying to exist in a vacuum, then things are going to be a lot, a lot harder. And it is very valuable to whenever a problem comes up, no, maybe the top three people you might call to either either directly solve that problem or brainstorm a solution or who could shed light on it. And so I do think that that kind of stuff is is valuable, I think, also tying into this is, is you have to use like another sort of idiom, but you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And that part also really resonates with me. And I do think that sort of, quote, networking leads to surrounding yourself with people who inspire and challenge you. And I think that’s like dynamite. You know, Jeff, you’re describing all really good things here. Yeah. So I do love networking.

So what you’re describing everything that like networking is supposed to be that’s the way it’s supposed to look like. But there’s this negative connotation associated with it. I’ll tell you this quick story. A coaching student, this is many years ago, I said to her something like, Hey, are you coming to our meeting tonight? And I’ve been hosting meetings here in Birmingham since 2016. Are you are you come to our meeting tonight? She’s like, Yeah, probably. But I really don’t like to network.

And I was like, Well, what

do you mean by that? I was curious what she got. She said, I don’t like asking people for things. That was her definition, based on her experiences of what networking is another very well known real estate investor, I was on his podcast, probably a year or so ago. And he said, he said something that’s called network, not net sit, when you go to a meeting, you should be working and work in the room. And if some people think that some people feel that way and out, and then again, everybody has kind of their own, you know, something comes to mind. And usually based on my experience, it’s something a little bit negative, when they think of the word networking or so when we talk about networking, or there’s, it’s boring, I don’t want to talk about this at all. But when you start talking about some of the stuff that you just said, Jeff, your net work is your net worth. We hear that phrase, almost so many times that it’s like you know, your spouse, you say, I love you to your spouse, you just do it subconsciously. Are you really feeling it in that moment? Do we really truly know what that phrase means? your network? Is your net worth? How can it actually equal is is an equal sign, right? Is is an equal sign your network it is your net worth? So how can we put that into practice? What are some practical application oval type of things that we can do to let us associate money actual like monetization of our network without taking advantage of people without making it seem like I’m only in it for me selfishly. So I’ll just say a couple of things. Based on that point, you know, one of my name drops some books that I feel like if you’re interested in this topic, you should be reading these books, these are important books on this subject that are really going to help kind of frame you know, how you can strategically network with folks to where you can help them get what they want. And you can get everything you want. And it’s true, true win wins. So Adam Grant wrote a book called give and take. And the most interesting thing, to me the most interesting thing about this book, give and take, he talks about there’s givers out there, and there’s takers out there, and there’s some people that might do a little bit of both. But the most interesting thing that I found in that book is the people you you would think that’s just because it’s because I’m talking about it. The givers are the ones that

have

are the most successful people, not the takers. Right? You would you would think that, but how to how to how do we actually do that? Because if you’re constantly giving and you’re not receiving anything, how to. The interesting thing about the book is he there was a study done that prove that people who give are the most financially successful and the people who give the givers are also the most financially unsuccessful

both the poorest In the richest are both givers. And you know what differentiates the two?

No, but I’m fascinated by this. This is a studies like this, the book is full of just studies. The difference is patience, and time. And doing it with the right intentions. It’s really time is what he said, time patience, if you if you’re a giver, and you do it over time, and any ends up, you know, defining success by a lot of different ways we can all define success by a lot of different ways. That is a fascinating thing to think about. I remember I spoke in Arizona one time, a couple years ago, and your mentor, our friend, our mutual friend, Greg penneo, was in the audience. And I said this, and I was talking about this topic, and a lady at the end, I was doing q&a, she raised her hand, and she was sobbing. And she’s like, I feel like I’ve been a giver. And I do and I don’t have anything to show for it. And I’m like losing money, because I’m getting walked all over, because I am such a giver. And I said this to her, you know, what, how long have you been doing this? Like, I’ve been in real estate for by like four or five months. Like the big differentiator. And I’ve seen this in my own life, Jeff, I’ve seen this amount, like my own real estate business. The difference is time. Yeah. Do this over time, your consistent actions over time to be a consistent giver. And this really, I think, what it really in my opinion, I think what it really is saying here is if you only do it for a short period of time, you’re probably doing it for selfish reasons. Yeah. But if you’re doing it for a long period of time, it’s probably who you are. Yeah. So that’s a great book, Adam Grant given take it was it’s it’s really just a whole bunch of studies done. And you just comments on them.

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah. Interesting. That’s, that’s very cool. You know, a word that I was I just wrote down on my paper right before you told us about that book. But then you kind of brought this word up yourself a little bit his intention, or I wrote down intention out, oh, I’m getting I’m getting to that, Jeff. He’s okay. Okay, awesome. Go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, you know, if I’m thinking about walking into that room, you know, at a meetup or something, if I have no clue, really, why I’m there, what I can contribute to somebody else, or what I’m maybe wanting to find there myself. It just feels really lame and pointless. Like, I’m just kind of logging hours. But if I did show up and say, you know, what I’m looking for, you know, I don’t know, I’m looking for the best plumber in my city, because I need to strengthen that, that that member of my team, or I’m looking for somebody who I’d love to mentor and I want to see a spark in their eye to see that they’re serious, whatever it is, then you have like a lens, you’ve got a you got a scope, you’ve got a site that you’re looking through, and you’re like, I’m looking for this particular thing, rather than just sort of wandering around aimlessly, which is kind of how I end up feeling sometimes.

So Jeff, do you want to you want the steps here the steps? Let’s do it, man, I got my notes out process. Here’s the process is how you network. This is the process. It’s in a book I’ve got coming out here in just a couple months, called the ROI of life. How you can cash flow relate how you can build relationships, that will cash flow for a lifetime. That’s my book is coming out here in just a couple months. Awesome. Here are the steps Jeff to networking. Number one is you have to have a vision. You have to know what you want. You can’t just be you just mentioned this aimlessly saying to me, I get this. I think you said this, I get this all the time. It’s i don’t i don’t even understand people’s thought processes when they say this to me, but they’re just like, Hey, I just I just wanted to network with you. What does that mean? What do you have? No, there’s no intentionality to that whatsoever. How can What can I do for you? Well, I don’t know. Well,

Jeff Stephens 

I get a gag reflex. When people say stuff like that, like, bro, do you want to jump on a call? We can network? I’m like, that’s the last thing in the world I want to do. No. It’s a terrible opener.

And I made this Facebook post many years ago as a networking group, a real estate networking Facebook group. And I made this post a couple of years ago about Here are the top five things that you say to someone in a DM to get their attention. Not you don’t say here’s what you don’t say you don’t say Hey, bro, let’s call it a network. That doesn’t get anybody’s attention and it gets you probably blocked. But but here are the steps in network. Let’s do this first. I gotta have a vision. Okay, I have to understand what I obviously I either have a business or I’m starting a business. I’m interested in real estate. There’s something going on in my life where I’m going to I’m starting something, I’m building something growing something, I have a vision. Okay. Number two, I have to identify within that vision, what what do I need? What do I need to get me to the next level? What is in my way right now? What are my challenges? What is blocking me from getting to that next step? And then I love the book, the books pretty simple, but I’ll just say it in a phrase, once you’ve identified what, once you’ve identified the what you now need to don’t identify the how you don’t need to identify the how you need to identify Next, the who, who not how, right, who can get me over that barrier, who can help me. And so once you’ve identified this exercise, we do write down five people that you think can help you, I don’t care if you know them or not help them write down five people that you think can help you. And if it’s someone that you don’t know, then you need to try to figure out who you know, that knows that person. I mean, this is literally just yesterday, where I call it a great friend of mine. And he said, you know, who could help you? This person could help you. And I’m like, I know, I know the name. I don’t know who that is, can you connect me? Have you answered the question who not how? And it happens to be someone that’s not in your network? Figure out who does know that person? And then ask them this is so important. Jeff asked them to make a warm introduction for you don’t just give me their phone number. If someone just says if someone ever does this, and they do this a lot, hey, here’s their number column. Yeah,

I say, Man, thank

you so much for Give me that number. Do you mind either hopping on a three way call with us, or doing like a text thread with us or an email thread with us and give me a warm introduction or better if you’re at a live event? I do this because I’m so busy. I’m the organizer. And I say, hey, you should go talk to so and so. And if I’m not super busy, I’ll walk them over. And I’ll say, Hey, this is so and so and meet him. He’s looking for this. I know you do a lot of this, do you think that you might you might be able to help them? So that’s a warm introduction, and what the reason a warm introduction is important is because obviously if say I’m the person making the introduction, Jeff, I already know this person, and I know them well. And you have instant credibility now, because you’re getting introduced by someone who already knows them really well. So it’s instant. It’s a credibility marker. Oh, you know, so and so I’m automatically going to help you. And now you start talking about, you know, going back to Robert Cialdini with influence, which is a super important book that most everybody should be reading that book, just just if you’re in sales, if you got up this morning, you took a shower, you’re in sales. So congratulations, you need to read that book. Okay, because you’re presenting yourself. Okay, so you’re in sales. Robert Cialdini has some incredible experiments. He cites some experiments and some studies. And this there’s, there’s so much stuff, so much gold and stuff in that book. And one of my favorite things in a book is the law of reciprocity. And the Law of Reciprocity is an unbelievable law. And it doesn’t, it’s unbelievable, because it doesn’t work, one for one. So reciprocity, real quick, as I do something for you, you’re going to want to do something back. For me, that’s basically what reciprocity. reciprocity is, if you have ever gone to a restaurant, and you know, there’s usually like a set of doors, and sometimes there’s another set of doors, you open the door open for somebody, what was that next person do for you? They always open the next door for you. Why do they do that? There’s studies done on that one phenomenon. Why did they do that? Jeff?

Jeff Stephens 

returning the favor. But why what what’s going on? And finally makes them do that? Yeah, they feel like it’s little tiny sense of indebtedness, they will give

Yeah, it’s guilt. reciprocity, you can be led back to a one word, guilt.

And here’s, again, so many studies have been done on this. And this is what’s fascinating about reciprocity. Just if I do something for you, or let’s say you do something for me.

I’m gonna feel so indebted. I’m gonna have that feeling of like, oh, man,

it’s gonna be so strong within most people. It’s gonna be so strong, that I’m not going to pay you back. One for One. You did this for me. I’m going to do something back in return for you. Studies have shown that it’s between two and three times greater what I repay you. Wow. So you start adding all this stuff up that we just got done talking about, give and take, I’m a giver. If you’re not a giver, by the way, you need to practice giving. No Just do it for selfish reasons. Practice giving, so that it becomes Just innate, he just do it, become a giver, you’re going to give and you’re going to give and you’re going to give and what happens automatically over time, is you start getting repaid two times, and three times What You gave.

Jeff Stephens 

Oh, man, I love that working. Jeff, that is networking. I told you, I love networking. Brian, jeez, come on. Now this that is great. That feels, it feels so good. And as is you were kind of talking about the, you know, the warm introduction. In that case, it’s it’s great to be the one who’s being warmly introduced. And it’s also great to be the one who’s making the warm introduction, like that’s kind of like this. There’s a whole lot of goodness going on there. Like everybody’s, I mean, everybody’s benefiting. But everybody’s also just, yeah, it’s just good to be either role,

I guess. So Jeff, let’s put, let’s start equating money to our network. Like, like, like, let’s complete the equal sign. Let’s say I put a deal together. Okay. Let’s say I, you know, I’m not involved in the deal. But I know this guy has the money. And this guy has the deal, right? I’m gonna put those two pieces together, some people want to partake, and some people want to a cut of it. I don’t typically do I did that a little bit. I don’t, I don’t really like doing that. I’m connected. I’m a connector, I connect people. What ends up happening is now when you connect people with with, again, and this networking, I forgot to add this part to it. You cannot have expectations of return. By the way, it does end up happening over time. But when you start to expect it, you’re there’s resentment, there’s a lot of negative feelings, they’re going to go on inside of you. And it’s going to negate the whole process. So you have to you have to do this goodwill without the expectation of receiving. But here’s what’s going to happen, Jeff, this it’s this unbelievable. Again, reciprocity, you know, reciprocal reciprocating type of phenomenon that’s going on. Say I connected these two people, and they did a deal. Guess who both of those people are going to come to the next time they have a deal? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That’s where they’re coming to you. I did. And I would tell you, I’m the first person to admit in the year 2020, in 2020, I would, I would tell you, I didn’t even work. I didn’t work in 2020. I didn’t work at all, at the same time. And the same on the other side of my mouth. I’ll sit here and tell you I did six figures wholesaling in 2020 by people bringing me deals that I didn’t have time for, and I sent some text messages, and I got referral fees, and not even trying to do it. And I made six figures in referral fees, just by connecting stuff. And I wasn’t I didn’t want anything. It just ended up that people. Hey, you, I want to pay you this. I want to give you this. Yeah. And that is the power of networking. That’s the power of and I just happen to have this next to me because of a previous podcast. But a book I wrote a couple years ago called nothing’s for sale, and how to become the local real estate authority how to become the local authority in your local market.

Yeah.

How do you become the local authority? By having a meetup group I haven’t a local podcast by doing all these strategic things. But what it does, Jeff, is it gives you this almost celebrity status, not by I mean you have a podcast and you obviously Jeff, you’ve done a lot of real estate, you have a lot of knowledge. I don’t have anywhere near the knowledge you have when it comes to real estate, but I host a podcast, and people see me as an authority figure, because I’m associated with other authority figures, I’m sure you’ve had people on your podcasts that you’ve interviewed who are doing way bigger and better things than you are, but you are seen as an as a real estate authority you’re seeing on their level, right? Yes, because of the association. And again, all this stuff comes back to authority celebrity, doing goodwill, being a giver, putting all this out into the universe, and you end up being the source or a lot of the deals that come through that town that city that market area you end up being the source for if you do coaching or coaching students come through that stuff, and it ends up being just like this endless cycle of deals and that’s how we actually put a definition or how we define that little equal sign that your network now it really and truly becomes your net worth. Yeah, wow.

Jeff Stephens 

This I mean, I’m really enjoying this I’m feeling increasingly stupid about my original original post but this is awesome and I had no idea you were writing the ROI of life I I thought that most of you your thoughts here today would be pulling from kind of the ideas of nothing’s for sale so I was just curious are these does are the ROI of lifelike pickup where nothing’s for sale left off? are they related? Are they sequels or what’s the connection there?

Yeah, nothing’s for sale is more about like, how to how Become the authority figure in your in your local market. Yeah, the ROI of life is really kind of maybe digs a little bit deeper. And it’s not just putting out content and just starting a podcast and having a meetup. It’s really a book about relationships is what it comes down to, and how to be. I mean, I pull from the five love languages, I think that’s a really important sales book. I pull from, Oh, my gosh, Jeff, there’s a book that nobody talks about, because it’s not, it’s not a, it’s not a business book. It’s a relationship book. So nobody in our industry is talking about it. But it really puts the Five Love Languages on steroids. It’s a book called how we love. And I’m telling you, you want to be better at sales, you want to be better at relationships, because sales is relationships. You’ve got to start writing relationship books, and not typical business books and sales books. So you want to be better at your marriage, you want to be better with your kids, you want to be better just relationships in general. These are books because listen, people do business with people that they like, I took the know, like and trust thing. And that’s fine. It comes down to like, me need to like you, people. And it’s proven fact they will pay more for your service, because they like you. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, this can Yeah, this obviously translates to, they’re going to, they’re going to accept your lower offer over someone else’s higher offer, just because they like you. You’ve told the story about that building. That the story that you were on my podcast talking about that? where it was just over time. Yeah, building, you know, we call it rapport, but it was years building relationship. Yeah. And and you end up getting this deal. And so like it’s happened happens over and over and over, that people tell me, you know, if if you spend more if you spend less than an hour at that appointment, then you didn’t, you didn’t build enough rapport, you’re not going to get the deal. So you know, there’s, there’s a lot to be said about that. Because it’s it comes back to relationships, people want to know that they’re heard. They want to know that they’re that they’re light. And they we all have like, we all have these deep desires to want to be needed and loved and all these things. And when you start really pulling that stuff out. It really is sales, but it has to come from a genuine place to

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah. So let me ask you a question that just kind of came to my mind that I’m not even sure how eloquent this question is. But I was like fast forwarding to hearing other people’s pushback. Maybe you’d say on even if they’re feeling better about networking, they might say, Yeah, but I’m an introvert. I think probably a lot of the people listening to me. I feel like they’re more, you know, probably a little bit more on the introvert side. So how I mean, where do those two ideas intersect?

I have a couple of thoughts based on what you just said. But I want to hear what you what you think, you know, introverts are the most are more empathetic. Which means they’re, they’re automatically kind of naturally better with people. And just because something happens one on one, I would I would encourage you if you’re if you are an introvert, I would go deep with one or two people. If you’re at like a big networking event, you don’t know anybody. A great question as you need to be there with intention. First and foremost, we know that and this is how and Keith ferrazzi said this in never eat alone, which is the yellow book. And it’s not though it’s down here. Keep here I have my whole I’m writing this book. So I can I can literally go to like 10 books right now I can show you. I’m writing my book and pulling from some of these. Keep for us. He said in never eat alone. There’s some great things that you can do. You’re an introvert, go straight to the organizer. Like say I’m putting on an event Jeff, you’re putting on an event. And I know I have this one need. I’m gonna go straight to you. Hey, Jeff, I’m Brian, good to meet you. I’m looking for this one particular thing. Could you connect me with? Do you know anyone who asked when you present? Don’t ever ask somebody? Like if they are the one to do it? Would you lend me money? Never. I never frame it like that. You always frame it. Like do you know anyone who you’re almost like asking for advice? Yeah. And so so you go straight to the organizer. And you I’m looking for this one specific thing Can you can you point someone out? Or can you make a warm introduction to one or two people that fit what it is I’m looking for? And when they do that, go deep with that one person, you’re typically going to be more empathetic, you’re typically going to be asking more of the questions like hey, I want to get to know you type of questions or they’re going to be asking that of you. So I would just make it one on one. introverts are better one on one, make it one on one and make it go deep.

Jeff Stephens 

Yeah, great tips. Great, great tips. Yeah, I can I think about myself, like, picturing myself in that type of situation and all of those things feel. They do feel very comfortable and natural. And yeah, I think, you know, introverts it’s not that they never want to talk to people, they just right. They don’t want to go a mile wide and an inch deep. They want to go like a mile deep. Right and Exactly. So fewer people, more depth conversations and

some intentionality, I think is awesome. And the in depth conversation is what leads the business because that leads to the trust the like, and the trust. You know, and who was it was Carnegie. I’m telling you, I got them all right here. It was the only guy who said, who said, here, here are the ways it literally there’s a whole chapter on how to be likable. Yeah, like, like we kid. You. I’m sure there’s some naturally likable people out there. But for some of us, we may not be so likable smile. That’s one of the things that Carnegie said about how to be likeable. Just smile. Yeah, it’s amazing to see when you’re like looking at people’s like profiles and profile pictures on Facebook or whatever Instagram or even Instagram photos. We’re naturally drawn to the photos were some where people are smiling versus like a kind of a stoic or a harder look. Yeah, mile. Remember people’s names? Jeff, this is like 1930s Dale Carnegie stuff that is so applicable today. Just remember somebody’s name. Smile, remember somebody’s name and you’ve won 90% of the battle? Yeah. In do more listening than talking empathetic. Like these are just like one on one relationship, building types of skills, that if you don’t do these things naturally, which I kind of don’t. I know you’re interviewing me about dominated this entire conversation. I feel like I have to think about I have to think about these things.

Jeff Stephens 

That’s great. I love that. That actually, yesterday, just yesterday, I had been kicking around an idea. And I made a post and I put the cover of that photo or the cover of that book as an image in a post and said, I’ve been thinking about doing like a point by point takedown of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Yeah, I saw that correlated. Yeah, like with let me let me break down each one and say this is how we use this principle to be thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs. And so far, it’s gotten a good reaction. And to me, it seems like just, it’s really kind of the perfect, in some ways, maybe even the most obvious but like that is just the foundation upon which we base everything else. We’re doing those principles of human relations and

everything. Everything. Yeah, that is like that’s what sales books should some of them do mention a lot of that, but that’s what sales books should be. Yeah, relationship books. You know, the go giver is a good one. I have it on audio. I don’t have the two. This is a great one. A Michael Mayer, seven levels of communication. I’m just naming some great just in case your audience or readers. I’m a reader. I love john Maxwell. Anything by john Maxwell is incredible. But like everyone communicates few Connect. Oh, yeah. awesome book. I mentioned how we love earlier. This is phenomenal. It’s probably my favorite book. Over the past like two or three years. Henry cloud the power of the other, like other people relationship, another relationship book. And then here’s the book I mentioned earlier, Adam, Grant, give and take. And then this is probably the the this is probably the Bible when it comes to networking. And it’s key for Ozzy net, never eat alone. This is probably the single best networking book that’s out there that I would recommend over anything else. Strategic networking. Yeah.

I love it a

Jeff Stephens 

lot of sense. Awesome. I have seen that on the shelves a million times. And I just I never I never picked it up. So that’s good to know that you would you would rate that one so I only

Oh, and it here’s the thing. This is the expanded version. It’s like 400 and something pages. Yeah. He expanded because he wrote this a while ago, he expanded it to in wrote like a whole new section on social media, and how to be thoughtful and how to be you know, strategic when it comes to social media. I cannot recommend that book enough. For sure.

Jeff Stephens  

Man, that’s great.

And hopefully, ROI of life will hopefully that one will stack up.

Jeff Stephens 

It’ll be at the top 10 So when is that book going to be up? We’re shooting for the end of October. You know, we’re about a about two months away. Yeah. Awesome, man. I’m excited for that one. and can’t wait to help get that into some more people’s hands as well. And I was just thinking about you know, hey, this awesome conversation started with a half baked and sloppy post. I made it seem like a big turd vomit for about 20 minutes and then as and then you commented and next thing you know, we’ve got this conversation scheduled and that’s awesome. So look how how we work perfectly. Yeah. Just as just as you plan I was totally giving to you with the anticipation of taking from this conversation. So, No, I’m just kidding, if only it premeditate. But anyway, thanks for this excellent conversation. So when people want to learn more about you there, they know what book to look out for soon. But what’s the best way to reach you follow everything that you’re up to? Yeah, you

know, right now Instagram. Facebook is fine. You just look me up. Brian Tripp Brian j trip on Instagram, you’ll find me I’m out there it. Again, this, this comes straight from Keith barozzi. What I’m about to say it never eat alone. But I’ve made this a personal rule. If it takes me less than a couple minutes to do it, and you have a true need. You need to have a connection that you need. You’ve asked a question who not how? And I have always prided myself on the fact that I may not I probably don’t have all the answers, but I probably do know someone who who does not answer. So if you need a connection, if you need if there’s any contracts, whatever you need, I’m sure Jeff shares a lot of that, too. If it takes me less than a minute or two to do it, I answer every one of them and make sure that you that we make sure that you’re connected to the community. So that’s the best way to reach out to me. Thanks, Jeff.

Jeff Stephens 

Wonderful, very, very generous. Well, thank you so much for spending time with me today. Great to have you back on the show. Awesome, honored as always def. Well, I hope you enjoyed that interview. I hope you took a bunch of notes. I think we all know that you have about six months worth of reading to do now with all those amazing book recommendations. And I do too. So that wraps up another episode of racking up rental. So again, shownotes for this one, including a full transcript of this interview can be found at thoughtful ar e comm slash e 120. Please do us a big favor by hitting that subscribe button in the podcast app you’re using and take a moment to rate and review the show. Did you know that we have a Facebook group for thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs as well as called rental portfolio wealth builders. We’d love to have you join us over there. Just got a group thoughtful are calm and the magic of the internet will take you right there. If you like this episode, and I sure hope you did, please take a screenshot of the episode post that to Instagram and tag us We are at thoughtful real estate. So I’ll see in the next episode. Until then, this is Jeff from a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur signing off. Thanks for listening to racking up rentals where we build long term wealth by being a win win deal makers. Remember solve the person to unlock the deal and solve the financing to unlock the profits.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *