Dive into the intricate world of networking with Michael Whitehouse and guest Bernie Franzgrote in this engaging episode of The Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast. The duo explores the art of making introductions, delving into scenarios where compensation may not align with traditional expectations. Bernie shares captivating anecdotes, including a unique connection involving clinical trials through a charity introduction. The conversation unfolds, emphasizing the unanticipated rewards of altruism and the value of keeping an open mind during networking endeavors. Don’t miss the insightful tips and stories that unfold in this dynamic episode.
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Transcript
Welcome back to the guy who knows a guy podcast. We're so excited to be back with you. And this season we are counting down to J V connect the first of its kind, December 12th to 14th, 2023. This is going to be an incredible dedicated networking event, and you are going to want to be part of it. And this podcast here to help prepare you to get the most out of this incredible event. I'm Michael Whitehouse, the guy who knows a guy. And over the next few weeks, you're going to get to hear from some of the best people in the industry about networking. As well as some solo training from me. So be sure to join us on December 12th to 14th for JB Connect. And now, let's get to the interview. Hello and welcome once again to the guy who knows a guy podcast. The guy we are meeting today is Bernie Franz Grote. Bernie is a synergy architect with a robust entrepreneurial networking capacity and 35 years of institutional healthcare experience. He collaboratively hosted several national business development conferences within a healthcare business development network. He is the co founder of Creative Insight Consultants, Knack for Business podcast, co host on the Property Wizard podcast, and an East Tradewinds chapter host in the World Referral Network. So Bernie does a little bit of networking. Bernie is engaged in other areas Phoenix Business Exchange, World Referral Network, and the Indus Entrepreneurs. He helps businesses start afresh or launching new products. Or services get creatively connected to other companies globally. So welcome to the show, Bernie.
Bernie Franzgrote:Michael, thank you so much. Appreciate being here.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. Great having you on here. And as I was putting together the season six, which is focused, laser focused into the networking area and the networking topic, I was like, I got to get Bernie on because I think he does a bit of this networking thing.
Bernie Franzgrote:Just a wee bit, just a wee bit. Get out there.
Michael Whitehouse:Yep. So, so tell us a bit about your, so it seems like network is kind of baked in deeply to everything you're doing. So tell me a little about your philosophy of networking and how, how it serves you and how it serves the people you serve.
Bernie Franzgrote:Well, the one thing I learned in the 36 or 35 years inside the healthcare institution was in the last one of it was the business development was that you depended on other resources because you can't know it all. You can't be at all. And you definitely can't deliver it all. So it's teamwork or almost becomes like you're becoming a project management lead. Which means you got to collaborate with people and you got to understand where their wants, needs, desires, and you have to relate your wants, needs, and desires. That means you gotta, you gotta have a chat time. Left the institution and then in 2019 started networking, the belly to belly iteration of life. And then of course, you know, things happened in the 2020, everybody got used to Zoom, Teams, you know, Google Meets, etc. That actually was that was a boon because although always open to having a chat with somebody it spread the wing so I could go further afield. You know, I connect with a group out in British Columbia. And that was grand connection. And then I connected with world referral network and between the two of them, I connected with people in the UK, Europe, South Africa, us, obviously, you know, that's, that's because you're not far from us and Australia. So, you know, and I've had some really great chats and what I find is that when I'm engaging people it's, I don't have, I don't have, you know, please, please give me some money. I don't have. I need something for you now, as opposed to I want to hear their story. I mean, I'll really in my story, obviously, but I want to hear their story. And as they unfold the story, different parts come out. And so for me, I'm a lateral thinker and I'll start doing cross connects going. Well, listen, I'm really great with doing grant writing proposal. Oh, that's handy, or, you know, here in the province of Ontario. The grant writer said, listen, if you encounter a female entrepreneur under the age of 30. The province of Ontario at the time would give you 15, 000 cash to help you get up and going no strings attached and no one takes any commission off of it. And so, you know, as you're talking to somebody now, the hard part sometimes is, you know, how do you ask somebody? Are you under the age of 30? You're the member of the opposite sex and you're trying to do it delicately. So you're not coming across the wrong way. You're like, you know, can I, how can I help you? How can I serve you?
Michael Whitehouse:I think if you lead with the, there's a grant, then yes. That probably, probably smooth it over a bit.
Bernie Franzgrote:A little, a little bit. It said, you know. Yeah. Anyhow, it, it's it. But part of that is the how can I serve you piece. Mm-Hmm. And when I'm talking to other people that, you know, it doesn't matter what country you're in, it, it's very country agnostic. Mm-Hmm. So, you know, uk, South Africa, US, Australia. You know, how can I help you? Let's get to know each other. And then it revolves from there. I've found that part of my business and where it helps generate some more traffic or more activity for me is that these resources are around me and then I'm talking to somebody and if I'm getting involved in a project where I'm going to actually work as a consultant, well, now I have a series of people around me that can support it. So if I'm dealing with someone in the U. S. that has I. P., Related concerns, questions, or they're looking to start it. I know three IP lawyers and you know what? That really handy part is the podcasting element. So for the podcasting element, it serves a couple of it's a vehicle of many conveniences. Someone I just read an article today said when you're doing one thing, see if you do several things that come out of that one thing. You know, it's almost like doing a lean project. And so when I have a podcast with somebody, I haven't had a chat with them for a while or it's a brand new chat. I actually spent an hour with them talking and then the unfold the story. And as I'm going through there, I'm spending time going, well, hang on. You don't know this person that I know. And it's now I've become like, it's like a Venn diagram. You have that circle around you, people, you know, right. And then there's a circle around the person you got to know, but you're not crossing. Yeah. You know, yourself, myself, we come along and we kind of do that bridge connection going, Oh, by the way, wait a minute. I, you know, I know somebody and, and that can result in either you have a service, you can provide a service to somebody, they can provide a service to you, or you can possibly do some joint sort of joint exercise, whether it's a venture or, you know, a short term hall event. And so, yeah, so that's, that's what I've been finding out is so the podcast itself helps generate traction. Plus when I go to introduce this person to someone else, like a, not a cold introduction, but you know, here's a podcast. Now you can hear them talking. You get a sense of what they're doing. Cause I'm talking about what their business is about. Yeah. And so that, that can, that gets, it becomes a pushup point in there. The third element that comes out of it is from the podcast is now I have a library of people. So season one for the knack for business is done and we have 108 in the can and the final one releases Mid October. Season two is already in production and season two falls right behind season one. And so it just, you know, it's lessons learned, things get better the more you do it. I've enjoyed that.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, that's one of the great things about podcast is, is very few people actually take me up on it. But I, I used to say, you know, I have a catalog of introductions. It's at guyknowsaguy. com slash podcast. Go take a look. See if there's anyone there you want to meet. I'll introduce you to them. No, sometimes I'll talk to someone on a podcast who I don't really know. I interview them. We have a good conversation and then I don't connect with them again. So I said, I tried to make introductions to guests and, and they've been, and they've not responded to me. Cause you know, cause sometimes it's almost like a recorded one to one. I mean, obviously we've connected a number of times and, and I'm sure we'll continue to connect, but sometimes I'll have someone reach out to me and say, Hey, can I be on your podcast? And I basically say. You know, do you fit? If so, sounds interesting. Sure. Yeah. Come on the podcast. Let's meet on the air and, and, and people get to hear us meeting, which can lead to things. But very often for most of the people I've had on the show, if somebody says, Hey, your, your episode number one 57, I don't remember who that is, but you know, could I, could you introduce me to them? Then I'd be like, yeah, sure. And the easiest introduction is to say, Hey, Bernie, someone listened to the podcast. They said they want to meet you. So can I connect you? And obviously all your contact info is in the. show notes anyway. So it's, it's not like you don't want to meet them. That's why you're here. I meet the people who are on the show. So it's an easy introduction to make because somebody just said, I heard you on the podcast and if I want to show and you say, Hey, one of our listeners wants to meet you. Do you want to talk? Of course I do.
Bernie Franzgrote:Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, the other thing I find is that some people I'm hearing their story as they unfold their story. And I, you know, I take notes. I build up a profile. And quite literally, when I, when I'm having a chat with somebody, I consider it maybe a soft interview. I'll have all three documents open in front of me. One is, you know, people that I know. And so in, in the, in the heat of the moment, I go, well, you know, you really want to talk to this person and I'll, I'll search the the person's contact details up like LinkedIn profile. And it's really important to have a LinkedIn profile because if, you know, There are some people say, I'm looking at your LinkedIn profile. Yeah, your photo. You, you want to work that out a bit more. It's just, just saying, you know, just, you know, just, just, you know, you know, just, it's kind of like, it's like your business card, you know, you're not going to show up with a piece of toilet paper and going, Hi, my name's on here. Right. It's yeah. The, the other, the other pieces that, you know, that information that I have my second sheet I have, Doc links to other other things that people might want to go to either networking groups information resources, you know, try this. Like, you and I both use a descript for editing for a software. I have a link for that. I'm, I'm filing it. Extremely useful. It reduces my editing time, et cetera. Then I have a third document where I have software links, like, you know, someone will say, you know, if anything, and then just, you know, I'll drill in. And right now I'm on the hunt for AI software, you know, to help the podcast out. How can I, how can I make it stand out and not, but not be garish, but, you know, make it stand out like the audiograms. Right. So right now I'm building the audiograms into script. But I'm looking for things where I can have the talking head, right? And, and just if I animate it a little bit, so I'm not anyhow, I'm looking for ways to spice it up. This is what I'm trying to say, right? That's the marketing element. But anything I'm encountering now is a shareable piece of information. So that, that's the other part, you know, the LinkedIn piece, the, the Descript piece, you know, someone says, well, how do you use that? Well, let me show you, let me just walk you through it. And, you know, if it goes well, but you're, you're developing a rapport with somebody. So inside the inside my Phoenix business exchange here in Ottawa, which is it's, it's, it's online, but it usually targets the local Ottawa area, the Ottawa Valley area, you know, you run into people going, how do you use that? Or how do we do this? And I said, yeah, you know, you get your LinkedIn profile up and then set up your company profile up. So it's easier to refer people to you. Stories in behind there. The other other beautiful thing is that I found that the. You're never going to run out of stuff to do. And always, there's always some interaction you're going to have. So there's a high value, high utility. Yeah.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. And, and it's funny cause you're talking about LinkedIn. An introduction popped into my head and I'll talk to you about it when we get off the air. Do, do you help people build out their LinkedIn profile or is it more just kind of like, here are some quick tips so it's not a mess?
Bernie Franzgrote:Some quick tips. Like there's a couple of people that I know and that you might you might know one of them Don Ollert. So if you're, let's say you're leaving, you're, you're changing your job, for example. Don, he'll work on your LinkedIn profile, but he works just that's one leg of the journey, but if you're looking for another job, he'll find your profile. And then, you know, it goes from there. That's where you find that subject matter expert that lives and breathes the area. For example, accounting, right? And it's the same in the U. S. as it is in Canada, you, if you're going to say you're an accountant, you know, you got to have some some letters behind you and that designation meant you meant you went to school to understand GAP, you know, which, which is a whole nother story, but, you know, you come across something and if someone lives and breathes a certain specialty. You direct the person there. Like, for example, I could take my computer apart, but that'd be a mistake because I'll probably have spare parts putting it back together again. And that means, you know, I won't have a functional device anymore. So, yeah.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. Yeah. And that that's great. And it's one thing I always teach is the, there's three, three ways you can serve someone. You can give them an introduction advice or, or offer something. And the third one is the least frequent and, you know, you touched on, on two of those. The third one's obvious people know how to make the offer. That's yeah. People who don't know how to network are doing that all the time. But the first two are the ones I think people often overthink it. They're like, well, who would I introduce? Or how would I know them? Or what can I share? And just little things like, oh, do you know about the script? Do you know about, you know, software that you may use every day? That somebody else has never heard of before. And once they learn about it, like what descript 20 bucks a month, I can drop any video into it. It'll, it'll make a transcript. That's pretty high quality. I didn't know that existed or, you know, or an introduction where it's it's, Oh, yeah, I know a great accountant who explains things well and doesn't treat you like an idiot, or I know a LinkedIn guy who can help you you know, help you work out your, your profile, or I know a. Whatever because oftentimes people have a problem. They're happy to pay for a solution. They just want to pay someone who's actually going to do it.
Bernie Franzgrote:Yes, yes, absolutely. Well, again, the sharing of information as it's learned is a handy piece. I've found that even now, example, world referral network, we've, we started something called East trade wins. It's a chapter here in Ontario. So we meet every Tuesday from eight to nine a. m. Eastern standard time. Anybody's welcome to space. I mean, I just, I'm not trying to plug the, the whole WRN space, but you know, It has, he has utility for referrals, but kind of the key thing when we had our first meeting last week with someone says, is this just gonna be another typical meeting like, you know, are we just going to sit here and trade business cards? No, it's, it's, it's meant to help build your connections. Help, help, you know, if you have a pearl of wisdom to share that, by the way, the, the the podcast, at least from the knack for business, I'm equating it to like a mini MBA thing you know, cause I ended up learning about little, little nuggets of information. I didn't know that I knew some of that, but I don't know the whole, you know, the the complete part, like there was the IP lawyer out of the U S last one I was interviewing. Nancy Delane was saying, did you know, and then she says in the U. S. Constitution, not as an amendment, but right into the Constitution, if you have intellectual property rights, you develop something, it's yours. Because I guess back in the day, it belonged to the crown or the king or the queen, whoever was there, right? So, and so the ownership, which is, it makes perfectly good sense considering, you know, all the entire shift in how business was happening. Right. It was handy. You know, it was really good to understand that. And it's just, you know, it's not gonna, it's not going to change my life, but it's, it's kind of a cool fact. So if I have a trivia question, you know, I might be able to answer, you know, quickly and accurately.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, I've learned so much from meeting people.
Bernie Franzgrote:So the other, the other part is sometimes when I've gone to meetings, even on a person to person Indus entrepreneurs ties, it's called the acronym in every major every major city. And they do tech and hardware. So they're in that space could be a little bit of firm up, but you meet interesting people and just even the stories that they'll tell you. It's like, you know, it's one thing to go, you know, I make a widget. Well, you know, there might be a story about the widget. There might be a story how the widget progressed. Or they're just fascinating people. So it's just You know, it's like having a Rubik's cube of, you know, information is always changing up and you never know what's going to look like you hope for the finished product, but you get there slowly. But it's entertaining. It's keeps you alive.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, well, and that's totally one thing that I found. I'm. I read some books I listened to some audio books, but most of what I know is just from talking to lots of people. I've talked to, I don't know, 1, 500, 2, 000 entrepreneurs over the last three years. And I went from knowing nothing about the online business space other than, I think there's some coaches or something who do something on the internet, to like being versed enough that people are coming to me and saying, how's this stuff work? And pretty much, cause there's no, there's no books on this. The industry is so rapidly evolving anyway that. You know, people are coming to me and saying, How's this work? And I was like, Well, and people ask me questions. The answers just come out of my mouth. I'm like, Where did that come from? But I've just talked to so many people, whether it's on podcasts or summits or whatever. And it's a really cool way to learn. Just talking to people. And of course, the cool thing is the people who teach you like it because they get to feel smart while they talk and you listen. And then you get to feel smart while you pass that information along.
Bernie Franzgrote:Absolutely. And I, the other element that I've found is a credit source. Mm hmm. The fact the fact you're you're bringing up the information that you credit the source and It's so if I was at a conference, it was a they were selling cleaning products. It's an industrial trade show in Toronto and the person is going up and he says, listen, if you're utilizing AI to generate content to say, this part was generated by AI, make sure the rest of you is involved in that space. But the important part is if you're crediting the source of the live source, it reinforces several different things. One that you're giving them recognition for their work. Two, it shows you're a collaborator, right? And that's super key. And you're not, you're not trying to steal their thunder, so to speak. And, and then three, you know, it shows you can, you can thread it, you know, something useful into a conversation that has, has relevance and bearing, which then says, Hey, you're a contributor.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. And that's what I found. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. When you share the source of where you learned something from, then it's, it's a way to name drop the right way, especially if you learned it from someone, you know, someone somewhat known that. You can name drop that like, Oh yeah, so I was talking to this person, name you've known, and I learned this technique that I'd like to share with you. And they're like, Wow, you're sharing technique with me. That's nice. And you know that person. That's pretty cool. And then if word gets back around that you taught them something and their name is attached to it, they're like, Oh, thanks for, thanks for giving me that shout out. Cause you're, you know, most people don't credit. Most people like, Oh, I have this amazing way of doing things that I came up with all by myself. After reading this person's book.
Bernie Franzgrote:Yeah, The, the other part I found about networking, and I found this in, in the in the 2020 year I ended up connecting with a group in the uk. It's called Ree, R-E-C-R-E-E eight, the number eight. And the gentleman running his Dr. Keith Keith, Dr. Keith Dietz. And so you're talking about diversity. He's an ex South African, had been a military medic during, back in the day. He helped post post military, helped Indigenous folks in South Africa you know, set up social enterprises. He is, he's gone to the University of Cork, and he's located in, in Scotland. He runs, he runs a a session once a week for about five to eight weeks. And there's like, it's a two hour session, so it's not going to be for everybody. But if you're interested in understanding, I'll say about management and the current management trends, like, you know, and. What are the most appropriate ways to understand things like he's talked about Ray Dalio that name's come up a lot. I've seen that in a lot of different places as well as in conversation. There's a group of us that are there. A couple of folks out of the US, a couple of folks from the far west of Canada. So we're meeting at 9 a. m. Eastern Standard Time. A couple other folks are meeting in their three hours the other way, so that's like 6 a. m. You know, and the lights are off in the background, but we're all, we're all collaborating in that session. So they'll have a thought process where you're at with this, right? And then you know, and then he'll, he'll take it from the academia side and have a conversation. But you know, the takeaway of that is There are two elements coming out of that. So, Dr. Deet says, listen, Bernie, if you find someone that is in need of the service, of his services, he helps companies scale up, right? I'm not trying to do the plug here. He says, listen, there's some coin in the realm that comes back to you. Which is fine. You know, it's not like, you know, I make the connection and I'm expecting, you know, there's not a meter running. Sitting there. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, you know, carry on. Life's beautiful. You met a new person, but there are other people in that space that I've, I've, I've cross pollinated. And they, 1 of them is a coach that deals with people that are you know, if you're highly stressed. So, yeah, I can, I can with a guy in Toronto has, he has a coaching cluster for people that are dealing with mental stresses in life. Right? So you just, you just thread that through. So there there's kind of that group that's kind of come in very handy.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, I want to get back to something you mentioned, speaking of groups so you're talking about how your group is not like any others. And I think one thing that throws people off is, you know, BNI is sort of the 800 pound gorilla of networking. And I've often described BNI as being like an engine, you know, like a car engine. It's got all these different parts. And if you go to your car and you're like, I don't know what this alternator thing is for, car runs fine without it. Until it doesn't, you know, a lot of people try that would be and they'll take a BNI group and they'll be like, I'll make my own, but we're not gonna require attendance. We're not gonna do this. Not gonna do that. And what they don't realize is the way BNI works is. It works the way it works because every piece of it goes together. And part of that is the referral confidence curve and taking six to 12 months of seeing the same people week after week to be able to refer them business. And without that, you can't walk into a cold group and be like, so my ideal client is please send them to me. And so the groups that have tried to be BNI knockoffs have not worked well. The ones that have actually tried to optimize the BI system have, there's some like AmpSpirit is a, is. Follows that same basic concept of the same people week after week. Success champions network also does it and that can work. But again, same, you gotta be there every single week to build those relationships. But, but the groups that are the more, the drop in groups and more casual groups have to use a different format because there's no referral confidence curve if you're just dropping in, dropping out. So what are some things you've seen work well for the non BNI style groups that are not the typical, my ideal client is please send me a prospect.
Bernie Franzgrote:So part of it is the phoenix business exchange was my 1st 1 of my 1st groups that I encountered in 2019. The in person group prior to that inside inside the health care area. We never left the mother ship. You know, everything came everything came to the mountain. Right? So now now the mountain has to go up because, you know, my only regret in that space was not networking 3 years prior to exit. And so what I've seen that it can help, let's say, for example, the recreate group, it's, it's, it's not about the referrals referrals might be the second or third wave. And if there's something, if there is a referral, that makes sense. And the other key thing is, you know, when you make a referral, if you're going to do that piece, you try to match it. So it works for the person. So the both parties, no point no point sharing or selling a baby carrier to someone who's 80 years old, unless of course their grandparent. And even that you know for example, here in Ottawa, I ran into an AI client and, and then I ran into another one they hadn't met. And then they both responded to a federal government RFP together. So that was kind of the end result. So what can work what I've seen work inside the even in the world referral network. I'm getting used to that space. But when we do the East trade winds, part of it is I'm trying to get people to open up and tell certain parts of the story. So it's you know, their story and or what they're looking for. Or do they much like in the podcast, tell me about your industry, tell me something, you know, one unique thing about your industry. It's almost like when you do a tick tock. You know, you, you don't get, you don't get the the epic of Gilgamesh coming out at you. You know, it's like not, or, or the Lord of the Rings, right? Or, or the Harry Potter series. You don't get, like, you know, there's a ton of stuff here. You just fire hose me and I, you know, I'm lost. You know, you give, you give one slice of the pie, you. And you try to make sure that slice of the pie is relevant. And so you try to share that information. So as a group, what we're trying to do is tease that out of people, right? And not, not always have same old, same old. You have some form to it. So, you know, there's a start time, the intro sweep. You add some, you add some some questions that are not standard, but they're not the same one from last week, for example. And you build off of that. If the group you're looking at the group that's sitting there and they've, you know, they've answered all the questions, then you change the task. But if the lineup changes who comes, then you adapt for that. The other part that I've seen happening, and this is with the Grand Connection, if I, and also the World Referral Network, and actually, this is the part I really like about the World Referral Network, they have access to go high level. So, you know, my membership in that space. Is less than the old street price for a go high level, and if you don't understand what go high level is, and it took me a while, and then I realized, you know, it was kind of the hidden gem behind the door so you can host a website on there. You can do all your click funnels through there. You can do trigger events. So if someone clicks a button, you know, so, you know, it. It can be very complicated as much as you want to make it complicated as long as you have, you know, good structure and you're, you're kind of track things, but you can have the whole, you know, click funnels happening. You can remind people to push out. It can replace Calendly. If you're into MailChimp, it can replace that, you know, it can replace other software and coalesce it in one spot and that's kind of handy. So if that's the other value add, if, if the, the agency or the entity that you're networking with. It provides you another, another layer of service that you, you know, it's, you know, more for less cost, right? There's, there's, there's, there's a, there's a a little bit of love coming back at you. It's sort of like, you know, if you're, if you're working for an employer and they have employee benefits, there you go. There's a bit more, you know, it just gives you a bit of a hug. That's the other, that's the other part.
Michael Whitehouse:Well, and one benefit I could see. Also to people to attach and go high level to a networking group is one challenge at a certain level of networking is running into people like, oh, I don't have an email list. Oh, I don't have a website. I don't have this. If they go high level, then if they don't have an email, it's just because they're not putting people in there. If they don't have a website or. A landing page or whatever it was because they're not using it yet. But they have it. So at least they have that tool that now they may then decide, Oh, I have going out of level, but I prefer this other thing instead, that's a more advanced level, but at least it gives a baseline level of what technology they have access to because they've got it in that group. Cause that's always a challenge. You know, you go to a joint venture event and somebody says, Oh yeah. As soon as I launched my course, we should collaborate. You're like, yeah, I'm going to just sit here and hold my breath till that happens. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as I write my book, any minute now, about to write my book, about to publish it, any minute, any minute.
Bernie Franzgrote:You know, at the, at the end of the day, it's like, if someone says this, I'm going to, you know, what's the, there's a saying about the intentions of mice and men, you know best laid plans. Plans of mice and men. Yeah. So, you know, things will detract you, but if, if you're caught on, on a, on a, On a project. And, you know, part of that project is, you know, core of your business, you know, you look for people that can support it. If you're, if you're paying Brenda under Caesar, what's old to Caesar, if so, you know, if you pay for things one guy, for example, he says, listen, Bernie, you introduce me to people. I'm going to pay you money. And looked at him and said, Michael, it's okay. I'm not starving. Physically. I'm not starving. Cause I looked down and I realized, you know, I gotta, I gotta lose some weight, but I appreciate it. Right. He says, no, listen. You're doing the marketing. You're introducing me to somebody, right? And you're saying, and you can vouch, you know, A, you're going to find somebody that is, it's a good connection. And, you know, I can, I can provide the service. If, if everything yields, then you have, you have a you have some income coming back to you. So fine. I mean, I deal with a commercial realtor and we have a marketing agreement. And well, here's the other thing by a podcast and other electronic social media pieces. Some people, when you go to do a podcast, they go, Oh, I've done one before. Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. I said, You just chatted with me for 40 minutes. What do you think a podcast is? Except, you know, we have a bit of a script, a little bit of structure, but, you know, it's it's a free floating conversation. It's not like, you know, at 205, you, you shall now turn left, you know, and squint, you know, if it's a video podcast. Anyhow, you know, a lot of people are also inhibited by that. So anyhow, I kind of swung out back to our top of our conversation, back, back to networking and utility out of those events. You're going to come across people, they're going to realize the value. And if, if it bodes well you're, you're off to the races. You'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you reward those that help you. Someone asked me, he said, Bernie, how do you know you're going to get paid? And I said guy's name was Terry. I said, this was in 2019. I said, Terry, the grass doesn't grow. If it's, you know, if it's not watered, it's not great. So, you know, that involves continuous traction, continuous communication.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. And one thing I found along those lines is that they're very often when I'll. I'll make a referral. I don't know if it's going to turn into anything. It's one of those, you know, it's a 5 percent referral. It's, it's not, not, not wasting time, but I'm like, well, this person seems somewhat interested in what you do. You do what you do. I'm going to have you talk to each other. And, and you say, oh, that's a prospect. You know, it's up to me to do something with him and maybe something happens and maybe it doesn't and maybe there's a commission and maybe there's not. And I have found that it is much easier for me as a distractible individual to just make connections and trust that some people say, Oh, I made some money here, Michael, have some money than to. Make an agreement with every person. Okay. I need to sign the contract and know what's the form and what's the percentage is going to be and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I would rather just send introductions. No, it was explicitly, you have this service. Okay. What's going to happen if I send you someone, oh, you're going to pay commission. Okay, great. But I often don't even write down what the commission is. They tell me, or it's in my notes somewhere, but I'm not keeping track. I just want to make sure that at some point we said, okay, I'm going to send you people, you're going to send me money of some amount. Cool. I trust you. I'll send them an introduction. If that turns out and turns into something and they pay me, then I might go back and say, who else do I know? And if they don't, well, I just don't remember. I say money holds my attention. It's not a matter of, of you give me money or else I'm not going to give you the, you know, make introductions. It's more a matter of, I know thousands of people. So who catches my attention? Well, the one that I've got a PayPal receipt from, from yesterday. Might be a little more top of mind than the one that I don't, but it's not a quid pro quo, you know, Oh, well, you, you gotta, you gotta have put some silver across my palm. If you want some of my services, it's, it's more a matter of, yep. I help enough people. Something comes back. How hard is it to make an introduction compared to the value that returns?
Bernie Franzgrote:And sometimes some of the introductions, there is no way that the entities are structured to give you. Compensation. If they're a charity or not for profit they might have elements within that that says, no, I can't. I can't. I actually had one, you know, like this one top of 2019, but he says to me, he says, my company does clinical trials. I look at buddy. I said. I don't know anybody playing Frankenstein and the health care institution did have a research wing, but that was not me and there's money to be made in that space. But it's, it's you know, no, I didn't play that in that ballpark bottom of 2019 and there was a charity that I was dealing with and I was doing intros and they said, listen, we can't pay anything. So that's fine. You're helping people. I'm more than glad to do the cross connect. They introduced me to a physician in a bottom of 2019 who was looking for clinical trials and on. Well, oddly enough, I could pull that card off the deck and go, here, here you go. And, you know, just started, started the business relationship from there.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah. You never know what you might come across or, or, you know, you, you help out the, as you said, you help out someone who can't, can't pay you. And sometimes, especially if they, if they recognize like, I, I, you're so valuable, but I can't pay you. And I'm sorry about that. Now they know that there is, there is an imbalance. And so they may be on the lookout for, you know, Oh, Bernie really helped us out. I wonder, okay. I wonder, will this person help Bernie? Will this person help Bernie? Will this person help Bernie? And now they're on the lookout for some way to repay what your kindness with probably an introduction or some sort of heads up, or, you know, I heard about this, this new grant just came out or. or whatever. You never know what kind of value they can return. And especially because you, you said, Oh, no problem. Don't worry about it. I just want to help. And it wasn't like a, well, I guess just this once I'll help you. It's you just give freely and people feel that.
Bernie Franzgrote:Absolutely. Well, the nice thing from the UK, I get a bottle of scotch from Scotland. So that's that worked out. Well, that's, that's my Christmas moments. That don't last long. I don't understand why.
Michael Whitehouse:Well, maybe it's just a UK thing. Maybe it's doesn't have the resilience of like North American scotch. Or North American whiskey.
Bernie Franzgrote:There's some that taste pretty good from from this side of the continent. But yeah, just, yeah yeah. The bottle only lasts so long, it's not endless.
Michael Whitehouse:Yes, yeah. My bottle is broken. I leak in it, or I don't know what happened.
Bernie Franzgrote:There's a leak in it, yeah. I think I'm the leak.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, there's a leak in the top, and someone keeps turning it upside down. I don't know how that happens.
Bernie Franzgrote:Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Michael Whitehouse:Yep. So, so people want to connect with you. What is the best way for them to do that?
Bernie Franzgrote:They can reach me at info@creativeinsight.com. It's I nfo at K-R-E-A-T-I-V-I-N-S-I-G-H-T .com. And that's usually the reason I can ramble that off is 'cause that's what I do on my kn for business. But you can also reach me at kreativinsight.com or B Franzgrote, so B-F-R-A-N-Z-G-R-O-T-E at. K R E A T I V I N S I G H T dot com. That's kind of easy. You'll have a link in there that'll have a kind of, you know, give you a full kind of list of, you know, seven different ways from Sunday to get ahold of me or know about me or figure things out. And looking open to chat with podcast that have interesting business stories. And again, that's part of the networking joy, right? I have some people reaching out to me kind of cold call going and they're, they're, they're doing the podcast matching. Listen, do you want to talk to this person? We'll have a chat with them and then go from there. And they're going, that's an interesting story. Yes. Let's have a chat or, you know, other, other people doing intros if you're in the manufacturing sector or, you know, clothing apparel, just did one on that. So I'm just starting her clothing line here in Canada, you know, out of Smith falls. And yeah, I keep going. That's that's that's my other that's the other thing you have to be able to chat and then realize keep tabs of your time. Otherwise, someone might fall asleep while you're talking to them.
Michael Whitehouse:Yeah, that's why the second monitor that has Google Calendar on it. So yeah, because there's ADHD time blindness concept. But I have a clock in the corner of my computer. I have google calendar the red line marching down through the day. I have a clock up there So I am constantly aware at my command center of what the time is Which is kind of valuable when you run appointments back to back but yes, so all those links are going to be in the chat including Creative insight which is spelled with a k and no e on the end. So not exactly the common spelling But it's fine. You can find it down there in the notes if you Didn't listen to it's K R E A T I V, which is creative, but with a K and no E on the end creativeinsight. com and other links, the knack for business. And that's numeral four. And there's a link for these trade wins and a link for some of the other cool stuff is there in the show notes as well. So any final thoughts you would like to leave our audience with Michael?
Bernie Franzgrote:I, first off, thank you. I appreciate the time to be on the podcast. You know, if you're going out to a meeting to network, ask a few questions, you might find people that might not jive with you right off the bat, but, you know, just open the door and have a chat and just don't go in with a set set goals, keep an open mind and just, you know, get to know them and you, you never know what's going to happen. You'll end up talking, you think it's one thing and next thing you find out about five other things where you have things in common and where you can also do introductions.
Michael Whitehouse:I love that. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're conversation. I have to start and just seem to be rambling on to nothing. And then at the end, they're like, wait, so you publish a magazine, right? How much does it cost to advertise in there? 500 a month. Yeah. How do I sign up for that? And like, I didn't say anything about it and they just sell themselves or, you know, how do I get tickets to one of your events or what's your, you know, what's your program. And we were talking nothing about business. We were talking about, you know, traveling and networking and whatever. And, and at the end, they're like, All right. So here's my credit card. Sign me up for that thing. Never know what that will happen. So that's great advice. Never keep an open mind and just see where it goes. So thank you so much for coming on here. This has been a great conversation. You know, quite a bit about this networking thing. So I, I brought in the right guy,
Bernie Franzgrote:the guy that knows a guy.
Michael Whitehouse:That's me. Yep. And you that's us. We're both guys who knows guys with pro quo.
Bernie Franzgrote:Thank you, sir.
Michael Whitehouse:Thank you for joining us. For the guy who knows The Guy Podcast, I'm Michael Whitehouse, the guy who knows the guy, and I hope you'll join us in December from the 12th to the 14th. For JV Connect, go to Guy who knows a guy.com for more details. Now, if it's after December, 2023 and you're listening to this, it's okay because we're gonna be doing this event every quarter, so go to Guy knows a guy.com. See what's new, see what's happening, and of course check the show notes to learn about our guests and how you can get in touch with them. Check out our next episode for more great training, information, and networking tips from Michael Whitehouse, the guy who knows a guy.