How to Become a Power Connector

Power Connecting: The Art of Building Relationships - (Presentation)

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Martin: Hello everybody. I'm Martin Shervington and I'm joined today by Judy Robinett and we'll be talking about how to become a Power Connector. That's the toggle, but we've eased in to this. Judy joined me, we've just been in the green room and what we have been talking about is networking and the difference with how things are now. And I got so excited I said right, I'm just going to go live.

So welcome to Judy and welcome to Mary. Because I think it is fascinating because we're very much in an online community and what you're talking about is aligned to what we do but very much the same resource. So welcome Judy, and we'll say hi to Mary a little bit later on as well.

Judy: Thank you.

Mary: Thank you.

Martin: Great.

Judy: I'm surprised to be here.

Martin: Well it's great to have you here because you are talking about success. You were going to write a book about a network actually. Do you want to tell that quick story? Because, I mean, it's wonderful.

Judy: You know, I was a CEO of a public BioTech company for a number of years and I was asked to go help Skull Candy, when they were broke and needed funding. And I became very enamored with the start-up world. So I was asked to co-author a book with a Stanford professor on how to get funded, cause I'm really good at raising money for start-ups.

And I put in my proposal to my agent, fifty people I'd interviewed, Robert Abraham who I met in Deli, India, who raises all of George Sorrow's funds, several billionaires. And my agent called me and she said, 'gee, how do you know these people? I thought you only lived in Utah and Idaho? You must have gone to Stanford or Harvard'. And I said, 'no, no, no. I never went to those schools'. So I told her little bit about my philosophy and she's like, 'hold the press, we need to do a book on that networking'.

And I said, 'not me. Networking is a four letter word. I hate it, it's icky, manipulative, it's not what I do at all'. And she said, 'you know, trust me, we'll do a proposal', and the book got bids from five New York publishers in less than a week. And so I ended up authoring a book, and it really is about strategic networking that solves very tough problems like getting funded.

Martin: Perfect. And you also sit on boards that help people that help start-ups?

Judy: Yes, so I sit on Illuminate VC in Manilow Park, which is an early stage venture capital group. I sit on Parig in New York. I also am an advisor to Pipeline Foundation that teaches high net worth women how to invest. And I'm an advisor to Springboard, which was founded by Kay Koplovitz, Amy Millman, because women had so much trouble getting funded, getting in those open doors to the kind of male dominated VC world, and today we've raised 6.6 billion, have had eleven IPOs, and a hundred and forty five strategic sales.

So honestly, I love to make things happen. And I figured out nothing happens without people; they write the checks, they know the deals, they have the opportunities. And so it's just absolutely critical that you have, kind of a wide, deep, and robust network. And it doesn't take many people.

Martin: Awesome, now, this is great timing, I like this. So, what is the difference then between the old way of doing it, which is the oldie way, and what you're saying is the new way? And you were starting to touch it before, and what got my interest was it's about building yourself up so that people find you.

Judy: Yeah, you know, kind of the old school networking is you show up at one of these orchestrated events, and everybody knows it's orchestrated and people come running at you with a business card and you feel like you're in a room with a bunch of piranhas. You know, nobody really cares about you.

And it used to be old school networking was who you knew and what you knew. And really new school networking is who knows you and has to do with your reputation capital so this is why it is so critical to have a presence online and let people know who you are.

I often say; everything you do says who you are. So that piece is absolutely critical, and I think honestly, people are so burned by misbehaving bad actors like we've seen on Wall Street that now they're really careful who they have a relationship with. They only want people they know, like, and trust.

Marin:Absolutely.

Judy: So now, what I look at is networking today it is based on being authentic, being real, it's having somebody else's back and having their future. And pure research shows, on average, people know six hundred and thirty two people. But Dunford's Law says that at hundred and fifty groups fall apart. Even Roman armies were only put in groups of a hundred and fifty.

And so your first circle is five to fifteen, your friends and family, and they give you love and support capital. But that next layer out of twenty five to fifty people, if you write yours down, and I suggest every single person do this, they often find it's people just like them. And so when they hit the wall, they need a new job, they need to get funding, they don't have anybody to turn to that can help.

And research shows your influence is limited to a friend of a friend of a friend. So it's critical that those twenty five to fifty people that are called weak l inks but they know of other opportunities, they know of other deals, they have access to the money.

Martin: Okay, I'm building a level. So what we've got is, we've got an inner circle of friends and family, handful of people. Then you've got this next arc circle, which you're saying is your weak links? Or?

Judy: Yeah, so everybody outside of the strong links are people that know you, but they know everybody else that you know. And research shows your weak links are the ones that have more access to opportunities and ideas so it's absolutely critical. And I talk about getting the vital fifty. And honestly you really can do anything with fifty people.

If it's diverse, robust, and deep, and by deep I mean across geographic, and across different business sectors, verticals, industries, whatever it is you're in. And robust meaning that people will return your call, they'll do a favor. You know, when I can send an email to someone and say, 'you need to talk to so and so', I don't even have to say any more than that and people will go, 'Judy said, so I'm going to connect'. Because I know how to create a value proposition for both people, but those twenty five to fifty people are critical.

And there's such a push today to get gazillions of people on Linked In or Facebook, and it doesn't matter. You know you can't manage all those people. I had a guy call me and he said he had forty thousand people on a Google doc and he was trying to develop relationships and send out Christmas cards. And I'm like, 'dude! how many of those people really ever helped you?' And it was less than fifteen people.

So, anyway, that's kind of the basis, and I'll tell you honestly, I was raised, I was very shy. I don't know if you saw the movie Napoleon Dynamite? I went to that same high school in Preston Idaho. I was raised in a town of three hundred, I was bullied in Junior High, it still kind of makes me feel bad when I think about it.

So I wasn't an extrovert, I worked in a Fortune 300 company and I had been taught the same thing that people of lower middle class have been taught; keep your head down, work hard, and don't ask for help. And this is particularly true with women. And that's what I taught, and I hit the wall.

And I found out that's a fairytale, people don't know this. And part of it is you have to get the word out about yourself, but you want to find not really a tribe, but people that know you, like you, and trust you, that will have your best interest at heart. So I used to say, I don't want to let people in my network who had a good head, a good heart, and a good gut.

And I finally boiled it down to, is this person an Oprah? Or a Martha Stewart? Now they're billionaires, they're both really really good at what they do. But on my values I'm going to pick Oprah. That's my values. And people can say to me, 'Judy, I want to get to X'. As a matter of fact, both you and Mary, when we get off the call, you can tell me what you want to get to and you just watch. I'll make a couple of key introductions and you just watch how quick you can make things happen.

Martin: Awesome. Wow. Looking forward to that. I've got so many questions. Okay, next one:In terms of the model, you say it's not so much a tribe, are these allies? I mean that would be the language I'm starting to apply into my model, is that essentially what they are? Or they are something else?

Judy: It's almost like circles or orbits of influence, covered what you talked about, your circle of influence. My community who has a wonderful app out for connections called Viper, talks about orbits, you know, the orbits of people.

Martin: Yeah, yeah.

Judy: You know, in my book I talk about exactly that, I have a little person in the middle. And I can send you some slides that you can make available to people.

Martin :Yeah, yeah, please.

Judy: And it shows you're in the middle, and then the five to fifteen, there's little people around you that are friends and family. And the next level is twenty five, and on that next level out it shows that it's on that edge is where the money, the deals, the opportunities, the ideas. So if you think about it, nothing happens without people, but there's seven billion people on the planet.

There's 369 trillion in global private wealth, predicted by Credit Swiss by 2019. Countless opportunities and information doubling every six months when we put it in the cloud. Those are all the building blocks. So there's everything here. There is no lack of scarcity, I mean honestly. Now people will call me and go, 'geez, there's no money, I can't get funded,' you know.

Several months ago I had a guy call me with a billion dollars looking to invest. There is money, but you've got to get in the right room. And most people are in the wrong room by going to these networking events or just not having the right people in their network.

Martin: It's interesting. I mean I was talking with Mary before and we do a lot online. We do a lot within Google Plus, I mean we've got reach, and they're lots of people who've got reach, and it's actually what you just said; having the right people, but also then having intent and having that conversation.

Because we know it's not about the numbers. We've got to that point, we know it's not about the numbers, but actually, the next question is, firstly, how do you know who is the right person, how do you start the relationship with that person, that's the first bit. Is that a Power Connector is somebody who is able to... I'll ask you a question: what is a Power Connector?

Judy: You know, the reason it's power, honestly is because you have the power to make things happen for yourself and for other people. It isn't like you're out wielding a sword or a hammer, something like that. And, you know, I watch very closely to how people come across, because there are bad actors. I mean there're psychopaths out there and narcissistic, me, me, me, got you. And so part of that is you just listen to your gut and who you are attracted to.

Now, Charlie Munger says that out a hundred people he meets, five are keepers, twenty he doesn't care to see again as long as he lives, and the remainder are kind of opt in. And that's, let's see do they keep their promises, do they keep their word, do they follow up? And I'm telling you, it is so simple to put yourself in that upper crust if you just read an email saying; thank you, great to meet you, I'd like to stay in touch. And then you find a piece of information, a report or something that can help them, you're golden.

You're literally golden, because so few people do that. And a good example, when I signed the book contract with McGraw Hill I learned I had to do a platform and I was so naive, I had to ask, 'what is a platform?' And I struggled trying to get people to interview me. And the first lady, bless her heart, who interviewed me for a blog I was so thrilled I made a batch of homemade fudge.

You know, the kind that you cook, the hard ball and then you let it cool and then you beat it for an hour. And I sent it to her and she called me on the phone and she said, 'ninety-five percent of the people don't even say thank you, let alone doing something nice'. So guess what? Now I have the candy list, so two of you will have to send me your address, So, you know, just be kind.

So research shows when you meet a stranger, there's two things you look for immediately. Number one is warmth, and that's good because the number one thing a sociopath lacks is empathy. The second one is some level of confidence. Now I add generosity to that because just because someone will help you doesn't mean they will. So I'm looking for givers, I'm looking for people who have a certain level of gravitas or confidence, but certainly warmth.

And we connect first personally. So I hate elevator pitches. Somebody walks up to me and goes, 'oh I've to this VC fund, I'm looking for LPs, I've got fifty million', blah blah blah blah blah, you know I just instantly tune them out.

Martin: Yeah.

Judy: If they come up to me like, yesterday I flew home from DC, I was on the Gaithersburg book festival tour and sat by a charming PhD researcher from the National Institute of Health, and I notice he had a picture of his cat on his computer and I said, 'oh is that your pet? Well I've got a cat named Henry that probably will be up here on the table in a minute', we talked for fifteen minutes about our cats. I found out he's at a conference in Park City today. I hooked him up with three of my friends who can help him meet his goal. So, you know, it almost always starts on a personal connection.

Martin: You know, I know that what you are saying is really resonating. We've got Jim Banks who couldn't watch any longer. That's just great. So welcome Jim. So, we've got a lot of to do's as in being naturally warm, find things that you relate to, you mentioned about the cats. What are the absolute no no's?

Judy: You know, I just start with the simple things. And like I said, I was so shy, even in the corporate world. I mean we'd have corporate events and I would show up late and leave early. And I would hang out in the corners. And I knew my career wasn't going anywhere and I didn't dare ask anybody, so guess what? I read that old standard How to Win Friends and Influence People.

And I just started smiling, saying hello, asking people how they were, and I found out other people liked me, and that most people were friendly. And that's kind of how you start. You don't have to have some great agenda, I just tell people be you and people say, 'well, what if they won't like me? Or there's taboo subjects?

And I often start, honestly, by telling people, who say 'you're from Utah, Idaho', I go, 'yes, I'm a cross between Utah Mormons and West Virginia Southern Barbus Hillbillies who just found out my real last name is Kline so I'm probably German Jew on top of it'. And people just laugh hysterically, and you know, it like opens you up. So you allow yourself to show some vulnerability, you're a real person. I think humor helps as well.

Martin: I agree, generally somebody once told me, 'it's very hard to hate somebody if you've had a good laugh with them'. And I know it's an extreme end of it, but actually it's a way of diffusing. I do standup comedy Judy, not that anyone knows these days, but it's true.

So, social, online, Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, let's go for those, where are you at, what do you think the value is, how do you think people should any of that?

Judy: Research shows that forty one percent of people, they're looking to build their business or to reach goals have had success on Linked In. I mean if you think about it, it's three hundred and fifty million people who are all on there because they're professionals, they want to network.

The second one I love is Twitter. I love Twitter. I've gotten opportunities to speak in London, all kinds of things just from being on Twitter, So I like that.

Martin: Hm, Okay.

Judy: Those are my two favorites. I take a lot of pictures and post on Instagram when I'm out, you know, figuring out how to get on the train to through Gettysburg to DC.

Martin: You're putting yourself out there. That's the thing. You're doing what everybody needs to do these days. What about blogging?

Judy: Oh yes, blogging. I mean it's absolutely critical if you're somebody like me who needs to have a platform. And I love to teach. The whole reason I did the book was so that I could show people how simple it was to put together this little network of twenty five to fifty people and go after your dreams.

And so I blog for Health Co, I'm going to be starting for Entrepreneur.com, because I love to teach. And so I think it's important for most people, and even if you're just micro blogging on Twitter, you just start, because you show people who you are. And the access is just phenomenal. There's virtually nobody that you can't get in touch with these days.

Martin: So how do I know who to get in touch with? If I'm looking to build up this twenty to twenty five specifically. And what does the CRIS call criteria? You mentioned almost an emotional connection to a style. Do you like the person? Do you like what they do?

Judy: Yeah, so the secret really is, I am looking for good human beings with a good head, a good heart, and a good gut. But my secret formula really is quality relationships, plus strategy, equals an outcome. So, for instance, if I'm looking to fund a company, the room I need to get into, the right room is very different than I'm trying to figure out how to get interviews for media for my book.

So I think most people make the mistake in networking they just show up at events and kind of hope magic will happen. And so you have to figure out who you need to know and how you can meet them. And the good news is, we're like chickens, we flock. There's like ninety thousand meet up groups. I tell people to dig a little deeper beyond the surface of BNI or chamber meetings. For instance the Association of Corporate Growth has existed since the 1950's. It is CXL level people across all industries, they're very friendly, they have a networking component at lunch.

Also if you don't live in the city of New York, you can join the Yale, the Harvard, many of these private clubs that have fifteen year waiting lists, three hundred dollars a year to access their hotel. Now the last one I stayed in I ran into Timothy Gytner in the lobby.

And another secret is you think about joining a powerful organization, and power and money are pretty well related. So I was asked to sit on the finance committee for a governor race in Utah, and that's where I met my first two billionaires from Park City. But there's a gentleman in Salt Lake that was recruited to Salt Late to be a wealth manager and he's black and he's gay.

And he comes to town and in two years he's built this huge book of business, he's got great clients. And I said to him, 'Byron, you've come to town, you're a little different than the conservative folks around and you don't know anybody. What did you do?' And he said, 'I joined the Symphony. I paid a little extra for the tickets so I could hob knob with all the wealthy, the leaders in town, that's where my clients were'. So he knew where his group hung out, that he needs.

So, you need to think about, what is the goal you are trying to achieve? You can look for Linked In, groups on Twitter, you can search and find people who are the influencers in whatever area that you need and you can follow them and write to them.

Martin: I'm writing things, I'm writing things. Okay, so how should somebody go about finding their goal? Do you think.

Judy: Well, you know, most people know. I mean when you are in your twenties it's, I've got to get a job and maybe find a mate. Some people they're stuck in their careers., They're very very good at what they do but they're kind of burned out thinking, I need to change. And those people I just tell, you need to go to some other groups, whether it's like the Association of Corporate Growth, of the Symphony.

And, like a producer told Debbie Reynolds, when she asked him, 'should I stay in TV? Should I stay in theatre? What should I do?' He said, 'listen to your heart. The answer will be perfect'.

And I find often we have to say yes to the universe, and we we're required to do the effort . There is a quote I love and it is; you must shake the apple tree hard to get the apples to fall, but it's never the tree you shake they fall from. But you know, it's almost like you're required to be out there and making things happen, and then suddenly these things happen. And you can think about it in your own life.

There's usually two ways that grand things happen. And one of them indeed is working very hard, But the second one is luck, and you can position yourself for luck. By who you go visit, or hang out, or go to a top tier conference. That's how you create it.

Martin: This is great. That's really great. Mary and Jim, do you have questions or thoughts or comments? Jimmy I've never seen you come so quick to a hangout before. Welcome.

Jim: Well this is the first opportunity I had cause you started late. Like for me I always have this trouble where I'm traveling on the train. But no, It's been very, very good so far. Very, very impressed.

Martin: Do you want to say to Judy what you do Jim? Cause you've got an interesting story.

Jim: Yeah, I mean I started online in 1999 and I sold a couple of businesses. Mostly in digital marketing. I mean funny enough, I actually know the part of the world that you live in quite well. A lot of my good friends are in Park City and Salt Lake City.

Judy: Oh.

Jim: Yeah, very entrepreneurial part of the world.

Judy: Yeah, Yeah, well great

Martin: And there's a lot of ad words, He's actually the, what do I call you?

Jim: Call me the Add Words Ninja yeah.

Martin: Cause he runs large corporate accounts for adwords.

Jim: See, the thing is I probably make more mistakes that anyone else. It's a bit like if you cast your mind back to Michael Jordan when he was playing basketball. As much as he held these great records of successes, he also held all these great records of most number of missed shots, most number of foul outs, and lots of other stuff just by virtue of playing the game for as long as he did.

Judy: Well that just means you're really really smart. Because if you don't see failure you get better and better and better at it.

Jim: Yeah, and for me it's like I get as much enjoyment today as I did when I started. And I think the day I stop getting the enjoyment is the day I should move on to something else.

Judy: Yeah.

Martin: Awesome. good, I don't know if you had a question for Judy as well. Otherwise we can come across and say hello to Mary. Who also has an interesting story. She staying in San Diego. So I've met both of them, I've met lots in real life now. We've all been together for about three years.

Judy: Nice.

Martin: Good.

Judy: So Mary, have you ever been to the Big Kitchen?

Mary: No, I have not been to Big Kitchen, it is on my list to go to.

Judy: It's really good. And I love the Broken Yolk on Garnet Street.

Mary: Oh yeah, that's an awesome one.

Judy: I usually stay at Pacific Beach and go back Pearl Street, and I go to La Hoya to el Pescadores. It's got the best seafood salads, fresh fish, this is over the wall.

Mary: Yeah, that's a great one too. Awesome. It's nice to hear you've been to San Diego and it's lovely to meet you. I love your philosophy on the not networking thing and the building power connections. I think it's awesome.

Judy: Oh thank you.

Martin: And people are trying to tag you on Google Plus right now. I'll help you get your Google Plus together.

Judy: Okay.

Martin: So, what you are talking about is timely, and I keep saying it's timely because we have models that we run on. Very often we talk about evangelism/ I talked, probably for two years, about finding your evangelist, and that's a way of spreading the information. And what we do very often Judy, we will leverage content into Google search through building communities. It's a great way for social search engine optimization.

What, however, is happening on social is, very often, there's lots and lots of connections, loose connections, without necessarily the intent, which is why I was asking about the why. And I think that people are still very often trying to find their voice, find their vehicle, and we're in transition plus your business right now. And I'm looking and I'm reflecting, and I know a lot of people would watch this, will go, when do I know I'm ready for that movement?

You know, when do I go to these things? What is the first thing? Am I in the situation where I'm happy, day to day, like Jim Banks, or should I start doing this? Is it a transitionary time for me to then start acting? Or should I be doing this as a philosophy all of my life? That's the key thing, even if I'm in a job, should I just be looking at building my network anyway?

Judy: You don't want to wait to have these quality relationships until you hit the wall because then it takes a long time, it takes longer. And I tell people that it's just so important to keep your antennae up, your radar on. Now the big trigger for me in the corporate world was on Sunday night I'd start getting nauseous thinking about going to work on Monday morning so I knew I was going to have to change something.

But certainly I think they say we switch careers now seven to twelve times? So I think it is good that you stay on top of trends. You anticipate what's going on particularly in your world where things change so fast. And you want to be aware of business models that you may want to jump on that you can leverage all of the knowledge and the communities that you have.

Jim: But I think it's important to build up your communities probably in advance of needing them so I build up a connection of six and half thousand people on Linked In. Not because I had any kind of ulterior motive or anything like that, I just wanted to connect with people I knew. And at some point in time in the future there may be an opportunity for us to do things together. Right? Or it may not. And for me it's just nice to know these people but if there's an opportunity for us to collaborate and do something together then so much the better.

Judy: Yeah, I was at USA Today and the Gettysburg festival in DC a couple of weeks ago and I became friends with Jack Canfield and he has sold five hundred million books. Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

And when I got home he sent me just this most gracious email saying, meeting you was the highlight of my trip, and I'm going to post something on Facebook, and oh by the way I have a list of seven hundred and eighty thousand people. And so I really began to understand the power of those communities and having those lists.

Jim: Most people with money are very very unassuming aren't they? They just come across in an arrogant way, or egotistical or something like that.

Judy: Absolutely. So Mark Burnette endorsed my book and I didn't know him and I figured out how to add value to him. But people would say to me, what would I have to say to a millionaire or a billionaire? And the reality is everybody in the world has problems, and everybody has solutions. So you can just do a little bit of work to find out what somebody needs.

Now in Mark's case, he and his wife, Roma Downing, had just filmed Son of God movie and spent sixteen million of their own money and were trying to figure out the best marketing strategy they could, realizing they didn't have kind of like MGM's five hundred million budget and I did a little research and found out, you know, the Catholics are behind it, the Baptists are behind it, And you know, I live in Salt Lake and I didn't see anything about the Mormons.

And the Mormons certainly do believe about Jesus. So I made some connections at Deserate News, ABC, several different places, and called a friend and said, I know Mark's coming to Park City, to Sundance. I'd like to just meet with him, for fifteen minutes and this is a problem I can solve.

And next thing I knew I was having dinner with Mark Burnette and I just launched into, this is what I would recommend that you do given where you're at. And at one point he said, 'who are you?' And then later he said, 'what are you doing? Is there anything I can help you with?' And that's how he endorsed my book. But every single person that's alive, if they're not just sitting on the couch, drinking beer, watching TV, they have goals, and there's always obstacles. As soon as get a vision Goliath shows up. And I kind of think it's God's way to get us to work together honestly.

Martin: I don't know what to think of that but yes, right, excellent, fantastic. Well I think it's being a different exploration of a territory that we talked about a lot. And I loved it, and I can see from people on the other end, what you're talking about you've got practical advice. Let's let everyone know where they can find that more. That's what we need.

Judy: So, you can reach out to me on Linked In. I have a website w w w judy robinet, no e on the end. Certainly reach out on Linked In. Twitter, I answer emails. It's just judy at judy robinet dot com. And I love to hear from people and help. And I get so excited, I got to tell you I get emails from people all over the world. Last month I got one from a young man in Nigeria and he said by the time he got through chapter three he'd funded his company.

And I went, 'Yes!' and did the Happy dance. I mean my goal for doing the book was just change the world. Because, you know, it's like all the resources are out there but people don't have the dots, they don't connect the dots they have, or they don't leverage for the good of everybody. I don't like the manipulative, icky, old stuff but it's amazing how much good you can do.

So I challenge people on this call. Make two introductions between people you know this week. And say hello. to a couple of strangers. So research shows we only talk to strangers two to three percent of the time.

Jim: I mean it's funny, I've got a friend who is a very big, kind of like Linked In person. He said the best way to connect with somebody is go to go Linked In and click on their profile so they will see that you have clicked on their profile. And if there's a connection they'll kind of come back to you and almost like do the same thing in reverse.

Judy: Yeah, and people will invite me to Linked In, I'll go look at their profile and I always find something kind and gracious, you know, wow what a great profile, congratulations on your success. I see you like pets like I do or that you like hiking, and people write back. I mean Mary Kay said that she knew what people wanted more than money and sex, and it was to be acknowledged.

I mean so at our core, just adding value to people is, I mean, a smile. There's a new book out by a gentleman in New York who is the tops sales guy in the world. And he had some research in it. I think it's called The Cell, Mark Ackland, And he said a study at Princeton had showed you increase, tenfold, the trust level by just smiling at people. I mean there are some really fascinating things and it really isn't that hard.

So I made it a game that I figure out how to talk to anybody. And once I drove up to a restaurant, and the next people that drove up, I got out, I looked at the car and I saw they had Idaho plates. And when they got out and I said to this, it looked like a mom and a son, 'jeez you're from Idaho, I used to live there, where do you live?'

And I ended up in a ten minute conversation, so I made it a game and then I watched for the pattern. And my pattern was I either gave an authentic compliment or I asked a question. I've yet had anybody be nasty, rude, anything. And you'll be amazed who you are sitting by on a plane.

I'm at the point now I even interrupt people, like at Barnes and Noble if I think I can add value. Once when I was actually working on my book I heard these two young guys behind me and they're talking about their startup and they're doing really well, they pivoted a couple times, they figured out how to get revenue. But when they started talking about how to find investors they had it all wrong.

And I thought for a minute, 'it will take me five minutes to help them', I turned around and said, 'excuse me, I'm an investor, can I just give you a little advice?' They said, 'pull up a chair', they took notes for twenty minutes and then when we were done, one guy said, what do you do, and I said I'm here writing a book, it's going to come out pretty soon. And he said, 'I'm one of the VPs at Overstock.com. Our website gets fifteen million hits, how would you like to have your book there?' Then I called McGraw Hill, they couldn't believe it, and they're like, 'how did you do that?' I said, 'you know, I just tried to help somebody, they're strangers, total strangers'.

And same thing, my dream is to kind of get on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah. And two weeks ago a young man wrote to me from DC and said, 'your book changed my life', I said 'let's get on the phone, you tell me exactly where you're trying to go, if I can answer any questions', and what I teach in the book, and let me tell you two things; write down your network equals your net worth, and the other thing is my two golden questions so you meet someone, you tell them your story, even the good people that are in your network now, question number one.

So you say this is where I'm going I'm thinking about changing the trajectory of my company, question number one; what other ideas do you have for me? Question number two: who else do you know that I should talk to? And this is how I know people like Mark Burnette and Mark Chuber, and Barbara Corcoran. And I was a nobody from Podunk, Idaho. And that was my whole point, if I can be raised shy and bullied, and I can do this, other people can do it pretty simply. And I've taught enough people now I know it works, honestly.

Martin: I am scribbling notes. Thank you so much Judy.

Judy: You're welcome. And I'm happy to be on the phone with you guys.

Martin: I hope that everybody else, I can say they enjoyed it. And I'm going to make sure that we have a transcript and I'm going to draw some key facts out as well and thanks very much for watching.

Nikki I think we got your question part way through and I hope you're feeling better. There's a bug been going around. And let's see, and we've got Sheila, I know who's going to be watching later, and Heidi. And thanks to Mary, and thanks to Jim, and thanks to everybody else for watching and Judy thanks so much you've opened my mind a little, which is great.

Judy: Thank you and happy to help. I'm happy to help, just let me know if I can help.

Martin: Superb. Thank you, I'm going to click 'end Google Plus' and catch you all soon.

Judy: Bye Mary. Bye Jim.

[end of transcript]

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