Episode 214

full
Published on:

19th Nov 2023

7 - Why Not to Come to JV Connect

Welcome back to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast! In this episode, host Michael Whitehouse tackles common concerns about the upcoming JV Connect event, drawing from insights gathered in a recent survey. He dispels myths surrounding networking events, underscores the value of connections, and elucidates why JV Connect serves as a growth opportunity for businesses at any stage. If listeners are curious about networking or hesitant to attend, Michael offers valuable insights. Prospective attendees can register at JV-connect.com for a distinctive networking experience!

Mentioned in this episode:

JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023

Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com

Transcript
Michael Whitehouse:

Hello!

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Welcome once again to the

Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast.

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I am Michael Whitehouse, the

guy who knows a guy himself.

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And the other day, I sent out a survey

to my email community, asking them

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many things, but one of the things was,

Have you registered for JV Connect?

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And if you have, why?

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You know, thank you.

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And if you have not, why not?

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What's holding you back?

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And I wanted to address some of the

concerns people brought up, because

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this was a very valuable access for me.

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By the way, if you're ever wondering, Why

is your audience not buying something?

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Ask them, they'll tell you.

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In fact, you can do this on

a sales call face to face.

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You can actually say when you're done,

you know, the game's over, you're

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pitching your tent, you're putting

your stuff away, it's okay to say.

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So I'm not trying to sell you up.

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I, I get, you said no.

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And I completely respect

that for my education.

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So I can do better at

educating people going forward.

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Could you share with me what it

was that made you decide to say no.

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instead of yes.

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You can also do it the other way.

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What was it that made you

decide to say yes instead of no?

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And they'll generally tell you,

right, they want you to know this,

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and often, it will give you, almost

all the time, it will give you

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education, like, oh, I didn't realize,

oh, that's an interesting point.

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And sometimes, it will make you

realize, Wait, you thought that oh,

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oh, would you mind if I explain that?

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Cause I, I completely whiffed that one,

cause that's actually not how it works.

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Do you mind if I, if

we dive back into that?

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Cause they, if they're taking the

time to meet with you, they want

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the solution you have to offer.

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So if there is a misunderstanding,

they don't want to miss out on it.

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It's worth asking.

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So anyway, I asked, I got some answers.

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I'm going to address some

of those concerns for anyone

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who has similar concerns.

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So the first one that I want

to talk about is very simple.

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Not sure it would be a value add.

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Why should I go?

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What's the benefit?

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Why would I spend my money and

my time going to this event?

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Now, this is probably very common because

there's a lot of networking events out

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there and most of them suck, right?

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Let's be honest.

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Most of them just aren't very

good for various reasons.

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And I'm not going to go into

the issues of all of them.

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If you go to jv connect.

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com, look at the blog.

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I'm addressing a number of the

things I've seen in networking

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events that I don't like and how

I'm not going to do those things.

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So that thing, I can sit here and

tell you about the value runoff.

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Oh, you're going to meet a hundred

people and that's going to create

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this much value and blah, blah, blah.

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Everybody promises that stuff.

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So if I tell you the deliverables

I think you're going to get, you

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don't necessarily believe them.

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Even if you trust me, you don't

necessarily believe that you're going

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to get that value because you're

so used to hearing these made up,

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fanciful, fanciful, fantastic things.

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You're going, Oh, you got a

hundred thousand dollars in value.

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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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So, but let me try to share

how it would be a value add.

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So one of the things about networking

is that connections can solve.

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Any problem you might have,

whatever the problem is,

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connections can solve it, right?

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If you're trying to figure out if

you're, if you're stuck and you're

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just like not getting anything done,

you could meet someone who could

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teach you some organizational tips.

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If you need more leads, you could

meet someone who give you referrals.

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You can meet someone who could

teach you about social media.

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Meet someone who could get you on

their podcast, whatever it is you need.

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There's someone out there who can solve

it for you and not necessarily for money.

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They might just share advice.

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They might refer you to a podcast.

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They might, who knows, there's all

kinds of ways they can help you.

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So what, I want you to think about

what is the challenge you're facing,

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and then I want you to think about who

could help you solve that challenge.

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Now there's a guarantee on JVConnect

that you may or may not be aware of,

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and the guarantee is that you will get

valuable connections At least, I it's

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five, that's what I put on the website.

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But you will get valuable connections.

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And if you don't, I, the guy who knows

a guy, will personally introduce you to

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three people that you need to know who can

help you move forward towards your goals.

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So here's the question.

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Is it worth fifty bucks to get

three introductions from me?

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I would think so, since my regular

networking concierge program is

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1, 000 a month plus commission.

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50 bucks.

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Even if you think this event is

worthless, you spend 50 bucks.

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It's gonna be more when the

price goes up after Thanksgiving.

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But you spend 50 bucks on your ticket,

you show up for at least half the event.

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You have to attend for, I think

at least half, might be more.

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But you, you know, you play, you play

full out the event, you participate.

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And if you don't get those

connections, I'll make them for you.

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Because I am absolutely confident,

I don't expect to make a single

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connection on this guarantee.

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Because if you attend and participate...

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Then you'll be, you'll,

you'll get those connections.

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It's just no question.

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There's going to be

hundreds of people there.

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Over a hundred of them

are handpicked people.

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I personally invited because of the

quality they bring to the room, right?

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This isn't some event where it's like I'm

selling Facebook ads to bring people in.

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I have no Facebook ads,

no paid advertising.

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It is entirely me inviting people.

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My own community, and people who are

coming, inviting their communities.

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That's, that's who we're getting here.

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So, if you have a challenge that can be

solved by another human, which is almost

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every challenge you might have, then,

you're going to find find those people.

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So let's bring up the

next, the next concern.

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Is not sure if it's a place for

me, as I focus on in person events.

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This is a person who plans live

events, plans in person events.

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But, this applies to anyone who,

Who's thinking, I'm not sure if it's

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me because I focus on blank, right?

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Now you hear the JV and JV connect.

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You think, well, it's just

coaches, promoting coaches,

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just other people's networks.

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There is that, but

there's also other things.

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So according to my surveys, at least 97

percent of the people attending JV connect

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are humans who live in the real world.

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It is possible as many as 3 percent

of them are just really well presented

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AIs who don't have human bodies.

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But at least 97 percent are humans with

physical bodies who live in physical

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space and attend physical events.

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So just because they're connecting

online doesn't mean they're not.

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Live humans who do live things.

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There's also a lot of people now

who are doing virtual events who

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want to do more in person events

but it's a bit of a leap to do so.

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If you're used to bringing people together

on Zoom or some virtual platform and you

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don't know how to you know, you don't

know How to do in person stuff which

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involves hotels and food and travel and

printing brochures and printing booklets

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and all these different things Then you

might want to hire someone to do that

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or you might not even thought about

that you meet someone You know, you meet

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someone who does these kinds of things

and you say oh, oh, that's interesting.

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Yeah.

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What do you charge?

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Oh, really?

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You only charge that much?

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Yeah, let's do this.

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Absolutely Okay, so whatever it

is you do it's entirely possible.

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This is not just a place for

for virtual joint ventures.

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This is not just a place for promoting

launches and giveaways and summits.

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This is a place for any kind of, when I

say joint venture, I mean the broadest

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possible version of joint venture.

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Anytime two people come together

to create greater value.

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Anything.

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Podcast interviews, live

events you know, Whatever.

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If you're a massage therapist who travels

around the country, I mean, that's a bit,

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if you're locally focused, then you're not

going to find as many clients necessarily,

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but you can still find knowledge.

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Which brings me to the next

objection, next concern.

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Currently building my business.

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So I hear this often.

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I don't want to go, I'm not ready.

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I don't have my offer.

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I don't have a list.

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I don't have anything

to bring to the table.

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Yes, you do.

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You bring something to the table and even

if you have nothing even if you're saying

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you know what I don't even know what my

Business is I'm thinking about starting

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a business haven't even started it yet.

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I've got Absolutely nothing then

you should be at JV Connect.

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You should absolutely be at JV Connect

because it's the most Affordable education

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you will find anywhere Let me tell you why

you are going to be in a room with dozens

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or hundreds of experienced established

ethical Entrepreneurs good people who

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know what they're talking about and are

open to serving open to helping and so

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you can get on a one to one With someone

like this, you know get 30 minutes their

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time potentially and they will share some

knowledge with you Okay, if you tried this

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here's a platform I try someone else to

talk to you Let me connect you some people

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I know because that was me In 2021, when I

attended the event that I, I took a lot of

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the cues for this event from, I had this

vague concept of like, I'm the guy who

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knows a guy, I do maybe some coaching or

something, or maybe I do a couple events,

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I guess, I don't know, I do some stuff.

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I got on calls with

DOZENS, DOZENS of people.

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Who were, you know, six, seven,

eight figure business owners,

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experts in sales, experts in

mindset, experts in joint ventures.

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The networking concierge program

came out of connections I made from

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there, as did the initial clients.

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If you go back to season three of

this podcast, you will find a lot of

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interviews I did with people I met

at that event and learned from them.

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I brought very little to the table.

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when I arrived at that event.

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But, these people were willing

to meet with me because what

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they saw was, I'm growing.

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If you have an attitude of I'm here

to give, I'm here to serve, even if

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I don't have anything, but whatever

I've got I'm here to serve with it.

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If you've got that attitude,

they're happy to help you.

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Why?

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Because that tends to return.

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At worst, you're going to leave and say,

Wow, that was such a nice guy I met.

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I'm so glad I met him.

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I'm going to tell a couple

friends how cool he is.

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Right?

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You improve their brand a bit.

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At best, one of the people who I

met who was very very generous with

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his time and his knowledge with me,

I ended up making I think a dozen

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introductions, if I'm not mistaken about

six or seven of them became clients.

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So, you know, there's paybacks.

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So don't worry about where you are

in business, what you've got ready.

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It's fine.

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So the first two days

are open to everyone.

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Now day three is invitation only.

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Day three you can't go to.

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If you don't have your business

ready, your offers, your list, your

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programs, your systems in place.

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But that's fine.

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Day 3 exists so that the established

folks on day 1 and 2, they understand

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they're meeting with people who don't

necessarily have all their ducks in a row.

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And that's fine for them.

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They know what they're going to meet.

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They're also going to

meet a lot of each other.

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But day 3 is where they're going to

make all the big deals with each other.

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But if you're not there, you

still get to hang out with them.

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It's not going to be a bunch of newbies

hanging out with a bunch of newbies.

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Which is what you find in a lot of other

events, because they're enrollment events.

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This is why JV Connect is

not an enrollment event.

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With an enrollment event, you

need to target your audience

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who are going to buy from you.

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And that tends to be more the newbies.

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The people missing something

in their business, that's why

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they need to buy from you.

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You make that a networking event,

that ends up being who's networking.

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And then you end up with the blind leading

the blind, groping around in the dark,

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and probably trying to grab your wallet.

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And that's not what I want to have here,

that's not what we're going to have here.

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We're going to have something much

more valuable, where it is a mix of

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more experienced and newer people.

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And as it's currently breaking down,

mostly more experienced people, but don't

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worry, they're not going to judge you.

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They were, you know, the

online industry as it is...

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Only existed for the last few years or so.

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So no one's that experience.

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Everyone remembers when they were new.

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And even if they, they've been in business

a long time, they're not there to judge.

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That's not the kind of people I invite.

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That's not the kind of

people that I'm attracting.

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We're, we're attracting people who are

abundance mindset, growth oriented and

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thinking about constant improvement.

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So wherever you are, that's

just your step in the journey.

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And they all recognize that.

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And if they don't let me know.

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Because if someone's giving you issues,

if someone's making fun of you or

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putting you down because you're not

in a good place, I want to know about

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that because I'm going to have a

conversation with them and let them know

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that's not how we do this here, right?

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Because this is a supportive

environment where we're all helping

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each other move ahead as we can.

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The next concern was that see this

person is concerned about you know, why

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no, there's going to be a, a next level

networking event because a lot of the

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events this person's gone to what they

find is that the people they meet, they

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don't want to share what they have.

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They don't want to

share their information.

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They don't want to share connections.

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They don't want to share introductions.

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They're not there to give.

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Now that tends to be a matter

of being a newbie networker.

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People who don't know how to network.

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Hoard their networking connections, right?

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Oh, no, I don't want to

introduce you to that person.

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That's one of my special

networking contacts.

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I can't share them with just anyone.

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So, I'm not gonna, I'm not

gonna share that with you.

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A great networker comes to

give and comes to share.

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And I very often make connections.

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Yeah, I'll meet someone for the first

time and then I'll say, Hey, you

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know, you should meet this person.

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Let me connect you.

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And does that go bad sometimes?

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Do I sometimes hear back, Hey,

that person introduces you?

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Yeah, kind of a, you know, Kind of a

stinky fish not a great introduction.

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It happens, sometimes, but not often.

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The worst case scenario generally

is that they meet and they say, Meh,

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that was nice, thanks, moving along.

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You know, didn't really get much from it.

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But there, there's, there's

nothing to be lost from making

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a well intentioned introduction.

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And anyone who's a good

networker understands that.

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Anyone who's successful in

business understands that.

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Truly successful, not

struggling at a high level.

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Anyone who's...

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You know, we're successful business

abundance minded understands that and

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that again, that's who I'm attracting to

this event That's who I'm bringing to JV

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connect those kinds of people who want

to give who want to share The kind of

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people you meet them They're gonna want

to connect you to people they know and

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provide that value and support you as

they can now I can't guarantee that every

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single person you meet is gonna be like

that and I don't know how you network.

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So, you know, it's possible that

you might give off a vibe that

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makes people be like, I don't really

want to connect you with anyone.

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So I can't speak to that.

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But if you are giving and open and

abundance minded and charismatic

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and you make people like you, then

the people you meet at JVConnect

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will be receptive to that.

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And, if everyone you meet ends up

being a dud and like, no one will

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introduce me to anyone, this event

was crap, well, we've got a guarantee.

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That if you're not satisfied with

the people you meet, I'll make

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three introductions for you myself.

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So, once again, is it worth 50 in

two days to get three introductions

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from the guy who knows a guy himself?

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I think so.

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And the final concern that I have

here is, Just need to make it the

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right priority at the right time.

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Now obviously that's up to you.

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Right?

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As I'm recording this, as the moment

I'm recording this, there was a

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networking event I was going to attend.

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I decided not to go to it because

I looked at it and said, yeah,

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this actually, could it be good?

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Could it be valuable?

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Yes, but it's an hour away and

I got to pay for parking and

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I've got a bunch of stuff to do.

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I need to record my podcast and

you record these other things.

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This is not the priority for me.

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So it could absolutely be that this is

not a priority for you at this time.

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You don't want to spend two days.

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First off, let me make this clear,

you don't have to spend two days.

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You could come for four hours, five hours.

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If you come for half a day, a

little over half a day, you're

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going to get your money's worth.

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Alright, if you come for three

hours, you will probably end up in

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at least five breakout sessions.

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And you're going to make some powerful

connections because these sessions are

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built to create connections for you.

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The primary objective is that

you get valuable connections.

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That's what this is around.

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I'm not trying to teach you anything.

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I'm not trying to sell you anything.

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I'm trying to get you great

connections because if you get great

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connections, you're going to register

for the next event in March and

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you're going to bring some friends.

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That's the business model.

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give you a great experience with

great results so that you want

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to keep coming back forever.

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That's my primary KPI.

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How many people at one event

register for the next event?

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That's my KPI.

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So if your challenge, whatever you're

doing could be solved by meeting more

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people, Whoever those people might be,

then JB Connection can do that for you.

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If you're in a place where you're

like, I'm meeting people left,

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right, and sideways all day long.

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They're great people, but I

don't have my landing page.

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I don't have my course created.

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I don't have, you know, there's all these

technical things I need to get done and

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I'm not getting done some networking

too much, then yeah, you might want to

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skip this one and join us in March when

you've got everything together, but,

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but that is, if you have a clear list

of things you need to be getting done.

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If instead of going to JV Connect,

you're going to wander around worrying

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about what you haven't gotten done

for another day and remain unclear

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and unfocused and not sure what you're

doing, come to JV Connect, because

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you'll meet people who will inspire you.

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You'll meet people who will

set you on the right track.

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You'll meet people who

will hold you accountable.

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You know, you'll meet the people

who will give you the information

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and become more productive.

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So, some people, absolutely.

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Maybe it's not the right

priority right now.

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But if you're not sure why it's not,

this will be the most valuable two day

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networking event you've ever attended.

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I am confident of that for most

people for a virtual networking event.

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I'm not sure I'd hold this up against any

live multi day networking event, because

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if you're going to a live multi day

networking event, you're probably dealing

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with some really, really high level

people, and you're doing it face to face.

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Real powerful.

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So if you have a choice

between, like, JBConnect and...

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Going to the folks, hanging out

with the folks who go to Davos,

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hang out with the Davos folks.

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But if it's a choice between JV Connect

and, you know, I don't know, writing

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some emails, come to JV Connect.

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I think you're, I think you're

gonna get something out of it.

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And if not, worst case, hey Michael,

you owe me three introductions.

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We'll get on a call.

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We'll hook you up.

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I'll make sure it's worth

your time, worth your money.

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So if you are not yet registered

for JV connect, you should

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:

go to J V dash connect.

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:

com JV connect.

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:

com hit the purple button, go to the,

go through that second page there

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and register at this very moment, as

you listen to this, it is 50 after

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:

Thanksgiving, it's going to 70.

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:

So, you know, we don't have any

kind of black Friday discount, but

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the black Friday deal is the price

is lower than it'll be afterwards.

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So don't wait, unless you want to give

me more money, but don't wait, if you

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:

want to give me more money, just send

me more money, totally cool, buy two

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:

tickets, whatever, buy a ticket for a

friend you can do that by the way you

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:

can buy a ticket and just, you know,

you can only buy one ticket at a time,

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:

but you buy a ticket, you then buy a

second ticket, put in your friend's name

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:

that you want to, your friend's name

and email address that you want to buy

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:

a ticket for, you have to put in your

own address, because it compares the zip

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:

code to your credit card number, but put

in your friend's name and email address,

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:

and thus you can buy them a ticket.

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:

So, there you go.

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If you do decide to do that and you want

confirmation, because of course, they'll

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get the confirmation and you won't, then

just email me, michael at guyknowsaguy.

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com.

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Fuck yeah.

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Alright, I look forward to seeing

more and more of you in December.

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We have over 140 people registered

as of this recording, and it

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just keeps getting better.

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I think we've had three

registered this morning.

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So it just keeps cooking along.

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Thank you so much for listening,

and I'll see you in December.

Listen for free

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About the Podcast

The Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast
They say it's not what you know, it's who you know, and it's true that a network is one of your most important assets. A network is not something you're born with. It's something you build. Every week, Michael Whitehouse, the author of The Guy Who Knows A Guy, and established connector in Southeast Connecticut will interview experts and entrepreneurs from Southeast Connecticut to share their expertise and experience with you.

He'll also answer your questions directly on topics of networking, sales, marketing, entrepreneurship and more. Email in your questions in text or audio format. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/guywhoknowsaguy/support

About your host

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Michael Whitehouse