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As a chef, I know flavor doesn't begin in the kitchen, it begins on the land. And West Home's Nature Led Australian Wagyu is a story written in the landscape of Northern Australia. Cooking is storytelling and West Home Wagyu carries a story of Northern Australia itself. Raw, powerful and deeply authentic. It's a testament to the passion and care raised in the rhythm of Northern Australia. I'm chef Meilin from 88 Club in Los Angeles and I invite you to visit WestHome.comMaitland to learn more and taste a story only West Home Nature Led Australian Wagyu can tell. That's W e s T H o l m e.comm e I L I
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n you're listening to the Travis Makes
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Money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com Travis Is networking dead? That is one of the questions that we received recently and what we're going to be talking about on this episode of the show. Welcome back. Thanks for tuning in to the podcast.
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This episode is just me, you and
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the mic talking about some of the things that I've learned recently over the years. This episode is about one of the things that I've spent a lot of time thinking about, which is networking. For those who don't know, the Travis Makes Money podcast used to be called Build your Network and basically the entire purpose of the show was try to help people network build better. We eventually ended up rebranding and then moving it to a different feed and that show now exists as Travis makes Friends. Because what I realized was that most people are quote unquote networking incorrectly and the people who I found were doing it the best were people who were actually just making friends. Just happening just happens to be in more of a professional context or a business environment. So we rebranded Travis Makes Friends is because the word networking started feeling slimy. It starts feels real. It's the, it's like the same, it's the same idea that you get when you think about the used car salesman. It just feels gross. And for good reason because if you ever ran into somebody who does networking incorrectly, it might be the reason why you gave up on networking as a whole concept in general because it's such a massive turnoff. In fact, when I first started the show back in the day, I wrote this, I guess like an ebook. It was sort of like just a long form article on why networking feels like that and I labeled this guy as networking Ned and basically was just like, this is the caricature of the person who everybody tries to avoid at the cocktail mixer. And what it looks like is sort of that 1980s vibe of networking. And they treat networking as if it is an in person, cold calling opportunity rather than an opportunity to build relationships with great quality people. So when they go to these events, they, in their mind, they're like, okay, more hands you shake, the more money you make. They treat it like they're knocking doors and trying to sell their product or service. So they basically they, they put on their name tag, they have their, you know, fitted suit, and then they make sure that they have a thousand hot off the press business cards in their back pocket. They obsess over memorizing this 30 to 60 second elevator pitch about what they're doing and how people can work with them. And then they go to as many people as they possibly during this cocktail mixer or chamber meeting or whatever it looks like, and see how many times they can regurgitate the same dumb pitch over and over again as though that's what is required in that context. So they go up to this group, they talk the whole time. They cannibalize the conversation there as what Brian Regan would lovingly refer to as the me monster, where they say something and then somebody else says something else. And then immediately that person cuts back in and turns the conversation back around to them. They out the elevator pitch. And then as soon as they realize that there's no utility in this connection for them, at least immediately, then they, they do the whole eye thing where they're like scanning, they're. They're talking to you, but they don't ever look you in the eyes because they're just scanning the room and trying to find another conversation that would be more important for them to go get into so that they can leave the, the meeting with some form of we're going to do business tomorrow. And it is the grossest thing. It makes you feel slimy when you leave. You got to go take a shower just to get all the networking nasty off of you. And then that's why people just decide that they're not going to do that. Because, like, man, I just don't want to be that person, so I'm just gonna not do it at all. And that's what I found, was that basically there was the two groups of people on opposite sides of the spectrum where you have this person who's doing it wildly incorrect and turning off everybody that they meet. Or contact. And then there's the person who sees that and it disgusts them so much. They just go that doesn't work. Therefore I will not spend any time focused on building new good quality relationships. And both of them are incorrect. So my the message that I've sort of been preaching is more like the person that you are when you're showing up to the bar with your friends
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and your this episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfair. It's Way Day at Wayfair. From April 25th through the 27th, you can score the best deals in home. Like up to 80% off with free shipping on everything. Way Wayfair makes it easy to find exactly what fits your style and needs, from furniture and decor to home improvement and outdoor essentials. And it's all on sale during weighday. Best part Everything ships fast and free during Wayday. Plus you can shop with Wayfair Verified, AKA your shortcut to the good stuff. So their team of product specialists vets everything by hand using a 10 point quality inspection so you know that you're actually getting a quality piece no matter what your budget is. Look, I We basically have redecorated our home with Wayfair in the last few months and at every time we use a site I'm always blown away by how easy it is to use the platform itself. Also to find like the craziest stuff. Like if you think for a second that there's something that's not on Wayfair that you could put inside of your home for something, just test me out on this. Go to Wayfair and search for it. I promise you you're going to find it. It's crazy whether regardless of your aesthetic, if it's mid century modern or farmhouse or contemporary or ecle, or you're looking for outdoor furniture or home upgrades or you want to upgrade the kids room or you need a new shoe rack. Whatever it is, Wayfair has it. They make it simple to narrow down to exactly what works for your style and for your budget. Plus they have great reviews, filters, visual tools to help you make sure that it's the right fit and then you know, installation and assembly could be available
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depending on what you buy.
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It makes the process easier. Their shipping always blows my mind because
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you can get some like a literal
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Our dining room table that we just got came from Wayfair and they shipped it to our house fast and completely for free. So they have thousands and thousands of five star reviews to help you shop with confidence and find things that fit perfectly into your home and lifestyle. Wayday is the sale to shop the best deals in home. We're talking up to 80% off with fast and free shipping on everything. So head to Wayfair.com April 25th through the 27th to shop Wayday. That's Wayfair.com w a Y-F-A-I r.com Wayfair Every style, every Home this episode of the show is brought to you by Shopify. Starting something new isn't just hard, it is terrifying.
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So much work goes into this thing
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that you're just not entirely sure that's going to work out and be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know when I started this podcast, when I've started several of my businesses, I just wasn't even sure what I was doing. Like what if nobody listens to the show? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I embarrass myself? Nobody buys my stuff. Now I know that I was right in believing in myself and launching my podcast and several of my businesses despite all the fears and hesitations. But it also helps when you have an amazing partner like Shopify on your side to help. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US is using Shopify. Like this is the place that hosts all of your favorite products and services. So if you are considering this, then Shopify is a must. Especially, especially, especially if you're going to launch some sort of an E. Com product. So get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that actually matches your brand's style. But Travis, what if I get stuck? Well, Shopify is always around to share advice with their award winning 247 customer support. Which is very very important to people like me who are still some for some reason like caught in the 1980s and I want to talk to somebody when I actually have a problem and instead of just relying on an AI system. And did I mention that the iconic purple shop pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world, that's from Shopify. It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Helps boost conversions, meaning less carts going abandoned and more sales for you. So it's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com TMM go to shopify.com TMM that's shopify.com TMM
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and brought in two new friends of theirs. But they're not your friends yet. The way you would interact with them is the same sort of vibe that you want to have when you're in these quote unquote networking convers. It's the same stuff. It's just connecting with people on a human level and then departing from the immediate potential result. So you cannot go into it thinking about like, man, if I don't get three people to do business with me tonight, then I can't make payroll tomorrow. It's like, this is not the opportunity to make that happen. You should be doing this somewhere else somehow else. You should be focusing on marketing efforts. But relationship building is not about marketing. It's about reciprocity. It's about giving value, and it's about being in the game for the long term instead of thinking with short term glasses on. So you want to think more relational instead of transactional. You want to think more long term instead of short term. You want to switch the mindset to how can I add more value to the people that are here? Rather than how can I extract value from this person? And if I cannot extract value from this person, they are no longer worth my time to continue talking to them or to continue engaging in this conversation. So you want to think about how do I connect people at the bar? Because that's probably the way that I'm going to connect with people here as well. It's just that the nice thing about, about it is that you know that you have some form of commonality already. So if you're connecting with a random stranger somewhere in a Starbucks line or something, it's like you're. You don't know exactly. You, you have no idea if you're going to have anything in common at all. And that doesn't mean you shouldn't talk to that person, of course. It just means that when you go to these sort of, you know, mixers or these cocktail events or meetups or whatever that are around a certain topic, if you go to a real estate investing meetup, you can probably bet on the fact that the majority of the people there are doing deals or are at least wanting to do deals, and they're all thinking about the same thing, they're educating themselves around this topic. They're all trying to learn more about this world. So when you go to those types of places, you know that there's already a line of commonality there that you share. And that's all we're really looking for as human beings is just connecting with people, finding commonality, and then continuing to engage from there. So networking just feels fake. It feels slimy, smarmy. It just doesn't feel like a good thing. And your, your job is not to just collect contacts. Getting a phone number does not mean that that person is somebody that will connect with you. And I'll give you a good example of this. When I was first jumping into this space, I felt like I was, I was a door to door sales guy. That was the context that I was coming into this world with. So I was guilty of some of the things that I'm talking about right now. And I'm trying to tell you guys, I learned this the hard way. Please don't do what I did. So I was at this event one time and there was a guy there who I really wanted to connect with. And we had, we had hung around a couple of times and I think he'd even been in my podcast one time before. But we weren't like buddies, we weren't friends. We just kind of were running in the same circles. And we had, you know, done a couple of things together. And at this event they had this like photo booth area. You know, they set up those professional photo booths and you can grab the little prop and put, you know, some glasses up to your face or something, or a funny hat. And so I was in this group of maybe, I don't know, six or eight people somewhere in there. Six to eight people. And we were, we took some pictures of the group thing. And then at the end, you basically like one person goes to the booth and then types in the phone number. And then the system sends all of the pictures to the person's phone. So I was like, I'll be the person who does this. So I go over and I put my phone number in and text me all the pictures. And then I go to everybody that was there. I was like, hey, let me, let me send you the pictures. And so I, in my door to door salesperson mind, because I was all about like tactics and strategies and tips and tricks and stuff like that. I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get this guy's number so that I have his number. And my in is going to be that I want to send you these pictures that we all just took together. And it immediately backfired because as soon as I went up to him and I was like, hey man, let me grab your number so I can send these pictures, the first thing out of his mouth was just Calling out the act. He literally just goes like, oh, is this your way of trying to get my number? And I was just like, ha, ha ha. You know, like trying to brush it off like it was nothing, when in reality we both knew, like, he's not a dummy. It's like high quality people, like, they, they know that this, these are the things, these are the strategies that you're employing. They're not just duped by your, you know, persuasion tactics. So even if he didn't call, have known anyway. And I'm happy that he called it out because again, it was a lesson to me to say that like, this person is not willingly giving me their phone number because we are close in contact with each other. And in fact the contact is essentially meaningless if they did not willingly give it to me. Because if I text the number and they don't text back or I call the number and they don't answer the phone, then it's completely useless. There is no value there. And in fact, it might even be worse because now you're just going to hit them up and text them and call them and then they might end up blocking your number or just, or just remembering their interaction with you as a terrible, terrible experience. So it was even just in that context where I was, I was thinking I was going to get one over on him and then, and then it was just immediately called out and then I never ended up texting him. The only way I actually ended up texting him was that we continued hanging out in the same circles and over the next couple of years we got a little bit closer and then he actually offered to give me his number. And then I went to go type it in my phone like I didn't have it. And apparently he didn't remember this, this interaction, which I was grateful for. But then I got his number from his permission because he offered to give me his number. And then now when I text the number, he responds and says something back to me because it was with his express permission to do so. So it's not about just collecting contacts. You can have, you can have a hundred thousand contacts in your phone. Doesn't. Doesn't matter. What matters is who are the people that are actually going to text you back? Who are the people that are going to hop on a quick FaceTime and offer you some helpers?
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Some advice or who are the people that you can actually offer real value to so that they see value in the connection actually taking place versus you just being like, okay, got this person's number next, move on to the next person. And then you basically just send out a pitch to every 90 days and hope that they eventually take the bait and do some business with you. Just not how it works at all. So you gotta, you gotta go to the places and meet the people. But once you go to the places and meet the people, you can't just treat them like it's a number on a spreadsheet, you know, because numbers aren't people and people aren't numbers. And like, we're all in the numbers business and we're all in the people business. The problem is you can't compartmentalize, is a lot of people can't compartmentalize to say that like, okay, in my business I'm focusing on the numbers, but when I'm talking to people, I'm focusing on the people. I'm focusing on the relationship here and that there's going to be more value to this relationship in the future if I think about it from a long term relational perspective rather than a short term transactional perspective. So stop networking and start making friends is really the big takeaway here. And the same activities that you would do in that regular setting at the bar with your buddies is the same thing that you should be doing when you're at a cocktail mixer at a professional networking event. It's this. It's just the questions of like, who are you and how do you spend most of your time? And tell me about the area you live in. Why did you live there? Oh, have you been there long? What made you move? Oh, oh, you, oh, you mentioned you have kids. How old are they? Oh, what are they interested in doing? It's all the same stuff that you would do in even like a dating relationship or friend making relationship. It's just that when people get put into this business context and they have the tools, the weapons of the business card in their hand, they just start turning into a completely different version of themselves. And ironically, that version is the version that performs worse in the scenario. And if they would just be themselves and be the authentic version of themselves, it would actually work out better. For them in the long run. So stop networking. Networking's not dead. But I will say that you should stop looking at it as networking just because that term comes with so much baggage that it's easier just to not use that word anymore and just say, like, I'm making friends in business. You know, I'm making friends in my professional life. I'm. I'm making professional friends instead of personal friends or whatever. But, you know, a lot of times what's happened is a lot of people that I've met in professional settings have become personal friends of mine. Like, I'm going to a lake house this summer with a friend of mine that I met off of a back end of a podcast interview that I did on somebody else's show. And I mentioned, like, hey, book a call with me if you want to talk. And this person booked a call with me. We did a little bit of business together. I hired her marketing agency. She was in a couple of my mastermind groups and did a couple trips with us. And so we engaged professionally for two, three years. But now we haven't done anything professionally together in quite some time. But she's still one of my really great friends. And now we're just gonna go with my kids to go spend a week at a lake house with her and a couple of her friends this summer, because we're actually friends. And that. That professional network thing led to a personal friendship that has now added a ton of value to both of our lives because we actually love each other and we get to hang out together. But we initially connected because of a professional, a shared interest, something that was. That was professional, that drew us closer together at the start. So that type of stuff never happens if you only ever treat people transactionally, especially in that type of a context. So it's not necessarily dead, but I would just replace the terminology in your mind so that it doesn't tempt you to be the networking Ned at the event that everybody's trying to avoid, though. That's it for this episode of the show. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Catch you on the next one. Peace.