374 – Giant Virtual Business Networking Event: Tom interviews David Riklan

Episode 374 - David Riklan
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody it's Tom here with episode three hundred and seventy four of Screw the commute podcast. I'm here with David Riklan. Oh, man, this guy has been around so long on the Internet, he could be my grandfather. He's been around so long and he is the founder of the famous website SelfGrowth.com and millions and millions of visitors, I don't know per month or but I mean just enormous ungodly amounts of visitors. He went a route to put everything in this massive site. And boy, he's done a great job with it over the years. Now, today, though, he's branched out into something else. That's really great. We're going to talk about business networking and how I used to hate it, but now I love it. All right. The way we do it now. So we'll get to that in a moment. I hope you didn't miss Episode 373. I was talking about offering consultations and most people are too lazy to do it, but it's one of the best lead generation mechanisms available. So I give you all the details of why you should do it. How are you handling all that in episode three? Seventy three. And of course, any time you want to visit a prior episode, you go to screwthecommute.com and then put the episode number. That one was 373. This one is 374.

[00:01:47] All right. If you'd like to hear your own voice here on screw the commute, well, we got a way for you to do it. If the show's helped you out at all in your business or given your ideas to help you start a business, we want to hear about it, visit, screwthecommute.com and look for a little blue sidebar that says send a voicemail. Click on it. Talk into your phone or computer and tell me how the shows helped you or if it helped you start a business or save money or make money. Tell us all about it in your own voice and you'll get a big shout out on a future episode of Screw the Commute. While you're over there, pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app and also a copy of our Automation eBook. This book has saved me. We figured it out. This is no B.S. One of the tips has saved seven and a half million keystrokes over the years. Save me carpal tunnel for sure and helps me steal customers from other lazy slugs that are too slow to get back to people. It just automates my whole business. So we sell this book for 27 bucks, but you get it for free for listening to the show at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And I'm not going to hit too hard on it now because I really want to get to David. But 12 years ago I decided to put myself through living hell and get a license for a school.

[00:03:13] I'll tell you what, it's way different than straight entrepreneurship. It took me three years to get the license. After teaching this for 20 some years, they just put me through the ringer, background checks, criminal checks, financial checks and everything.

[00:03:29] But I got the only license dedicated Internet marketing school in the country, probably the world. It's at IMTCVA.org and it's a great legacy gift for any young person in your family. So they're not going to a traditional school and learning how to protest and then getting, you know, compete for jobs at Starbucks with their MBAs, you know, so so it's really hard core skills that I've been living for twenty six years straight and David's been just about that long.

[00:03:58] But let's get to the main event. David Riklan, he's the founder of SelfGrowth.com, but he says that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about the thing that he created, which is a comprehensive, searchable directory of businesses. And it's in the broadly defined self-improvement industry. We're all and helping people improve, that's for sure. But it enables you to search and contact a wide variety of businesses to help you expand and grow your business. The directory has five types of contacts, contacts or businesses in the industry, and David is going to tell you about it. So, David, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:04:41] I'm ready to screw the commute.

[00:04:44] How are you doing man?

[00:04:45] Ok, but first, I want to take issue and figure out who's a grandfather and who the grandson. I started my Internet business. I bought my first domain in ninety five. Nineteen ninety five. I think you're you're even further back than me.

[00:04:58] I would. Yeah I was. But that doesn't mean you couldn't be my grandfather.

[00:05:03] So yeah.

[00:05:07] I started in 94 back before even the Wayback Machine was there. There's no record of my original website because of the Wayback Machine for those or you don't know is that it keeps like an archive. I think that's what it's called. Archive.org websites looked over many, many years. But I preceded that.

[00:05:27] That's how old I am. I'm so over the hill, David. I can't remember going up the hill.

[00:05:33] All right. I like it. Hopefully you can still go up the hill if you need to.

[00:05:38] Well, I'll tell you what, what you have created means. It's it's kind of downhill to find people to work with. It has been uphill for many, many years. I hate networking.

[00:05:50] I would never in a million years ago stand at a place and give out business cards. In fact, I never had a business card other than some funny ones over years. And but I hated the thought of that where you go and you try to tell people what you do and they're trying to tell you what they do and nobody listens to anybody. And you spend the whole evening there and it's just I want nothing to do with it.

[00:06:14] Until you contacted me last month, sometime I called you and invented this new thing.

[00:06:22] And I'm like, you know, I'm all over this because I remember in 1994 when the commercial Internet came along, that was my whole thing. I was traveling the world speaking. And I'm thinking I can, you know, sit on my rear end in front of my computer and sell my stuff around the world. I'm going to figure this out. So now, a month ago, you tell me I can sit on my rear end my computer and network around the world. Tell us about it.

[00:06:48] All right. So it's a very simple concept. And whether you like, you want. His people didn't like handing out cards, networking and personal contacts is how you build your business. You really need to work with other folks to build a business. And it doesn't really matter what kind of business you're in, you can't do it completely isolated. And one of the things you always did for years is you spoke a lot. So, yeah, you can wash your way of getting in front of people. But for a lot of people, especially right now, there's not a lot of stages. You can physically go to a lot of speaking events. So what we built is basically two things. One is a directory where you can find potential people to partner with. And I'll explain what I mean by that and a little bit. And the other thing that we're doing is we're doing this live virtual business networking meetings. And I'll tell you a little bit about the concept and then I think you can give a link, we're going to invite everybody who's listening today to join for free.

[00:07:48] But it's a it's a in this by the way, by the way, this is today, folks, that the David holding one of these. So don't wait around.

[00:07:57] So we're holding. Right. We're holding one today. And here's a very simple concept. We're inviting a lot of business owners, mostly small business owners of that are looking to make connections with people to help build their business. And when I say connections, people who want to share potentially share leads with each other or people who might want to cross promote you, help them, they help you or people who want to brainstorm with you or mastermind with you, or perhaps someone who wants to put you on a podcast. If you want to get the word out on a podcast or be interviewed or someone who can help you with it with your business. So we're bringing together literally we have some 300 plus people signed up to get together and we have an opportunity for you to join the group very simply. And Tom will give you a link for that in a minute. And when you join, we have a call. Our next one is today. It's Wednesday, five p.m. But we do this. We're going to have ones in the future. But this is the only one we have scheduled right now.

[00:08:59] Will you join us for the call? And we give you a quick overview of what we're going to do, and then we give you an opportunity to break out into groups, small groups that almost function like many mastermind groups where we connect you with seven other people and everybody in the group gets an opportunity to talk about their business, what they're doing, to talk about what they need and what kind of people they want to work with. And then you get an opportunity that can match with seven other people to see if your businesses can work together. You can support each other in one way or another. And this is a we call this our virtual business networking. We do it through Zoom. And it's a it's a lot of fun. It's a great opportunity to really find people to work with both short and long term relationships. I want to say I want to invite everybody to join us. And if you can just take a minute, Tom, you want to give out the link.

[00:09:53] Yeah, the link is screwthecommute.com/networking. But I do want you to get into some more specifics of the kind of things that are in the future of this beautiful new thing you're building.

[00:10:07] Absolutely. So we're going to be talking a little bit about this on the network and call as well. But the concepts are very, very simple and we'll be talking about it kind of a stepping stone as join our network and see what we're doing. But we'll be introducing we call it the JV or joint venture directory. And for us, we use the word joint venture very, very broadly.

[00:10:30] And the concept simple. What we're looking to do is we're creating a resource of potential joint venture partners and for us, a joint venture partners, anybody that you can work with that will help you grow your business.

[00:10:46] So it could be people that we consider traditional joint venture partners, for example, you might find another company in a similar but non-competitive niche where you agree I'll promote your business, your products in exchange for you promoting my business or my products. Or you might find someone you want to create a product with. So that's a piece of this joint venture directory. But we're really looking at it broadly. Another group of people who can help you build your business are people who have a large community to get you in front of. So one of the things that's very popular and obviously Tom knows about this, right? We're doing one right now is a podcast and there are literally tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of podcasts. So what we do is provide you the opportunity within a directory to find people who have podcasts so you can be a guest or get the work so you can get the word out on what you're doing.

[00:11:40] Another area that we broadly consider under joint ventures is a lot of times you just need to find someone to help you with your business. And that person might be someone like Tom who has a wide range of training programs or can do work for you or help you build something. Or you might be looking for someone to help with email marketing, for example.

[00:12:03] Or you might be looking for someone who has software to do funnels or something like a group funnel or click funnel. So what we've done in this joint venture directory is we pulled together a wide range of people who could be traditional joint venture partners. They can provide you a place to play in a podcast. They're what we call business business-to-business business service providers. They might have some service that that makes sense for you or they might be an industry leader that you want to work with or find out about. And what we've done is we've taken all this together and put it into this joint venture directory, and that's the core concept. So it's it's really networking where we do it virtually on this virtual business networking. But then we have a tool, our joint venture directory, that enables you to continue to do this on a regular basis, kind of 24/7.

[00:12:55] Yeah, you can just go in and check on something. There's there's something I'm not sure you you have thought of.

[00:13:01] But I know from my training that I do on crowdfunding, there's people that are called angel investors that are looking for projects, but they don't announce themselves as such because they don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry and Sally to be hitting them up with every idea under the sun. A lot of times they lurk in places like this. I highly suggest with the big numbers that David's got in this thing, that there will be angel investors in there watching for people, how you interact, what kind of deal you got going. And I can't guarantee it, of course, but I'm sure someone that with good ideas will get approached by these people offline after they see you in this in this directory.

[00:13:48] It's a good place to start, but the first step is join our networking, see what we're doing there, and then you'll have an opportunity from there.

[00:13:56] And you want to give out. You want to just give out that link one more chance.

[00:14:00] Screwthecommute.com/networking. And it's 5:00 p.m. today, which is Wednesday, December 16th. That's five p.m. Eastern Time.

[00:14:16] And this this isn't really one of the things where you can, like, say, OK, well, I can't make it. I got something else to do. Watch the replay. No, this is live where you got your chance to be in front of a bunch of people. And then didn't you say at the end, there's going to be a section where you can possibly be in front of everybody?

[00:14:39] So what we're going to do, I started talking about it with the group. We break out into groups of eight to begin with and then we bring everybody back in. So it's literally going to be a group of two hundred people that all have businesses. And we give everybody it's almost a lightning round where we give you literally 60 seconds to give your pitch about who you are and who you want to speak with. And then we have some chat technology where you can share information about who you are, your website, how to contact you, and people can get in touch. You hear directly through that.

[00:15:10] So in addition to this core group that would give you an opportunity to spend some time with you get to know these eight people.

[00:15:17] You also have an opportunity to pitch in front of a much larger group.

[00:15:21] And one thing I want to put out there for you, Tom, so I know some folks, ideally you want to come on this call, make it join us if at all possible. Come on. The call today literally at five p.m. But for some reason you're listening or you're interested in it if you sign up. And Tom will go through Tom link over here, if you sign up, will still be able to invite you to our next one.

[00:15:46] Of course, yeah. Yeah, yep.

[00:15:49] If you absolutely can't make it register anyway so that you're know, on the notification list when it comes up again. Absolutely.

[00:15:58] But I know Tom, one of the ways we both build our business is, you know, you're not building your business in an isolated in a cave. You need to find potential people to work with whether those people are helping you find customers or helping you learn technology or you need to be out there. You can't do it alone. And one of the interesting things that's happened through this pandemic is with the isolation. Zoom has become a phenomenal tool for networking. And we're going to be using Zoom, but we're doing it in such a way.

[00:16:28] We make it kind of a seamless opportunity to really first delve in deeply with a smaller group and then get get your word out in front of a much larger group.

[00:16:38] Yeah, and this is a perfect example, folks of us entrepreneurs being flexible and making something good out of something bad, which is the pandemic. I mean, they forced us into this, but entrepreneurs say, OK, here's our set of circumstances. Let's do something great with it. And that's what entrepreneurs do.

[00:16:59] And so, like you said, it converted me. I never in a million years go to a networking event. But as soon as he said I said, I'm there. I'm there for the whole thing. I'll do whatever you want because it's it's a new way of doing things, but it's extremely powerful. So screwthecommute.com/networking gives you a whole bunch more details and then you can sign up, register right there and 5pm, be ready. Get your resume, sedate the kids, you know, muzzle the dog and be ready to get on the Zoom.

[00:17:37] And it's as simple as clicking a link, right, for those, David, for for those people that haven't done it before.

[00:17:44] Absolutely. And it's a good opportunity. We'll start with your job issues. And relative to using Zoom that you haven't done, if you haven't, you zoom before. There's really several ways you can do it from your computer and just click on the link. If you have a video on your computer, a camcorder, a camera, a video camera, you can do it with video of you don't have a video, you can just do it with audio.

[00:18:08] Do with your phone if you want.

[00:18:11] Yeah, my dog is saying, yeah, I want to be there to dogs.

[00:18:15] You can have your dog in the background a little bit too noisy. We asked you to mute out the background pets, but that's so you can do it from your your phone. If you want to just do audio, you can always do it from your phone networks.

[00:18:27] Also tablets, phones. Yeah.

[00:18:30] Any kind of device where you can either come in on a video or call in is an effective approach. And it's literally you're going to have an opportunity to network with some people who can help you build your business. And there's two different pieces of the puzzle. So a lot of times we find people connect with someone directly who can help them and they immediately go off. And I know people have developed long term business relationships with like their primary one of their primary new relationships they found through these networking. But frequently you'll also find where someone might not be the one for you. But they're like, have you gotten in touch with Jennifer Aniston?

[00:19:08] You know, Miss Aniston has this great program I got to connect you to. So a lot of times it might not even be the primary connection, but they'll get in touch with someone who can then help you.

[00:19:18] Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's very powerful. It's just that, like I said, it's the way that they used to be done.

[00:19:25] I just didn't have the personality for it.

[00:19:27] I mean, to just hang out and everybody's just wanting to say what they want to say and they don't listen to you. But this will be a whole different thing. You'll get the floor yourself with total concentration on you and your business and then you'll reciprocate for other people. That's that's how it works. So I'm really thrilled about it that she came up with this. David, you got a partner in this to understand what's what's his name.

[00:19:52] So it's Mark Porteous. He'll be there too, right?

[00:19:55] Mark will be there, too. And Tom is going to be helping with facilitating. And our goal is very simple through this, to make sure you find potential contacts to help you grow your business. That's it. Regardless of what you need right now.

[00:20:08] That's the point. All right. Well, great having you on. I know we've got to get ready for the show, so thanks for coming on and enlightening us about this thing. And it's a brilliant, brilliant idea. And, you know, it's it's I believe it's the first time it's been done because, you know, there's affiliates and other big networks and JVZoo and ClickBank, but you can't really talk to them and get in touch and and work back and forth with them. They're just there. But in this case, you have a lot of personal touch. And and I think you'll you'll love, love the thing and probably want to be in it permanently.

[00:20:45] So thanks, David, for coming on. We'll talk a little later today.

[00:20:49] Well, sounds good.

[00:20:50] All right, everybody. Go to screwthecommute.com/networking and get registered right now. Catch ya later.

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