And it is time to get solar powered. We welcome you back to another episode of the solar powered podcast. I'm Ryan Hall from loyal hearts media. Thank you so much for joining us here one one more time. And, as always, I'm thankful for each and every one of you who watch these videos, who listens to our podcast, and who joins us, each and every time we go, we, we do this. So thank you so much for joining us.
And as I think a lot of people who follow my personal story know that I'm really on an expanding quest on my business. And as somebody who is a dyed in the wool introvert, one of the more challenging things for me has been just making those connections, making those just growing my list. And I think it's perfect timing to welcome my guest in because he has a very similar story to mine. His name is Steve Sparrow. He is the master connector. He's got a great new book out.
He's, just a really fascinating guy, and he joins us now. Steve, welcome to the Solar Powered Podcast, man. Ryan, it is an honor and a pleasure to be on with you, sir. Fellow Stanfordite. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's the, you know, the craziest thing. When we were talking the very first time, I said, I'm in Stanford, Connecticut. Well, son of a gun, so are you. So Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We probably could have done this podcast on carrier pigeon today, actually.
Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully, we won't have too much noise because we're getting a big storm coming through here. So we're gonna hear it probably. Yeah. Yeah. No. It's, yeah. Kind of one of those late summer storms that I was kinda used to in Alabama, but not so much here in Connecticut. Mhmm. That's it. Yeah. So, Steve, what's your point on? You've got a really fascinating story that kinda led you to become the master connector. What is your story?
Well, you you know some of this, but, so, you know, background, born and raised in the Bronx. My dad was an entrepreneur. He owned a liquor store in New York City, dissuaded me from going into that. Wanna go into advertising marketing. High school and college for that. Got out, couldn't get a job, start a company, open a small advertising agency in New York City, and it was pretty wild being a 20 2 year old businessman.
And then parallel to that, started trained the martial arts since 83, hold a couple of black belts, my wife's a black belt. So we've had some incredible, conversations, you know, challenges in the household, both being black belts, if you know what I mean. But, you know, I was always, you know, I had to still have a chip on my shoulder. Right? I was, you know, picked on bullied, learning disabled, dyslexic, for a long, long time, had a very, very low self esteem.
I always had something to prove, always felt play for years, played the comparison game, always felt short, always lost, if you will. But but muddy muddled on through it with, you know, doing whatever I did professionally. Again, advertising career, one of getting getting to be introduced to a very successful entrepreneur when I was in the advertising industry. And he took me under his wing and took on a mentoring role.
He got me on a path of self development, you know, books and audios and networking. And he was a guy that challenged me to say he said to me, Steve, I know you're an introvert, but you need to meet 3 strangers every day. And as you know, you now live in New York. You understand if you talk to a stranger, they're gonna shoot you.
And it's not very, very normal and it's kind of really awkward and uncomfortable sometimes, but I did it and got me out of my comfort zone, definitely stretched me a lot, started growing in network, and eventually people started asking me to speak and eventually people wanted you know, I had all these things going on between, at one point, the real estate. I did some rent to property stuff in that.
I had, I've got you know, doing the advertising company and had the, the the the karate studio at one point, working a lot of hours. Always had a lot of stuff going on, always wanted to try to, you know, excel. And, yeah, kind of the name the Bastet Connector came about because people just like to put you in a box when you do a lot of networking like we have. Right? They wanna, you know, they wanna put you in a box and they ask you what you do.
He's an attorney, she's a CPA, he's a plumber, and I don't fit in that box. And so when people would ask me what I do and I would tell them, they would I would get this sort of baffled look, like, I don't get it. Like, you know, I wanna just be able to put you in this box. And I'm like, just call me the master connector, and that name just sort of stuck. So I didn't want to be called the master connector, the master networker, because networking today is kind of very transactional.
The younger generation looks at it as kind of like prostitution. It's just not not very attractive. And a big part of my my core being has become to learn how to connect, connect authentically, connect, through and, you know, helping connect dots and, you you know, being a martial arts black belt, there was some connecting going on there with the fist to a to a body part, if you know what I mean. So Showed you.
Yeah. The the connector be kind of became something a little bit more than just, networking. It's it's, you know, authentic connecting and being others focused, being that go giver, helping connect the dots, I have been amassing this very large network today, you know, 18,000 contacts on my phone and 25,000 LinkedIn connections when this is being recorded. So, you know, I just I I just love the ability to sometimes open up that network to people, whenever I feel pro it's appropriate.
So, yeah, and I recently, like you said, wrote the book, so I do speaking today. I'd still do consulting in the business automation space. I do speaking. I I, I'm an inspirational speaker. I love, you know, getting in getting, into to companies and organizations and and events where I could speak and inspire people. And then obviously wrote the book, The DAO of a Master Connector. So, got my hands in a bunch of pots. Loving it. Life's an adventure. Every day's different.
Yeah. Not easy to put me in a box, but there I am. There you go. There you go. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. I find it very fascinating how a lot of the, I guess, a lot of the baskets that you have your hands in really all come together because so much of being an entrepreneur is about getting people to know you, to like you, and to trust you. And my dad, who was also an entrepreneur, had a saying that has just stuck to me like glue.
And that saying is to be a success in anything, you've got to see and you've got to be seen. And I feel like so much of what you have really built your brand and really built your life around has been kind of built around that or at least a variation of that saying. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I I agree with you. And, you know, there's a debate. My my LinkedIn I didn't say this, but we have a LinkedIn live broadcast Wednesdays at 1 PM EST, called the master connector show.
And and, you know, one of our last episode, kind of funny story, was quality versus quantity. And the the guest that we were supposed to have on the show, I hadn't heard from him for a week. And usually, you know, I'm posting every day, tagging them. There's usually some dialogue, and he was ghost. And I'm like to my cohost, I'm like, Rob, I think it might be us and we're gonna have to pivot.
And he's he's a rev op rev ops guy and I'm like, this is way outside of my comfort zone because I had questions prepared and, you know, so it was like, let's pivot and let's pivot to quality over quantity in terms of networking and your connections and so forth. And, you know, Rob, he's more of those, you know, curating his connections and, you know, no disrespect. He's probably at a 1000 or 1500. I'm at 25,000. Right? So different perspective.
And so I think the the question comes up a lot of times, you know, you don't know how most of these people, why a big connection list. Right? And to your point, back to that, it's, you know, one and a half exposure. Right? I mean, I come from the advertising world. So, you know, if you want your message seen, you want it seen to 3 people or 300,000 people or 3,000,000 people? What what's better, right, if you have a message? And so what I've learned in in the quantity, you could find quality.
Right? And so that's kinda my perspective. So building that network, building the brand, now having a brand, you know, and I love LinkedIn. It's my go to in terms of social media, but what what I'm able to do is I feel like my 25,000 connections, they've opted in to wanna know me and know, you know, hear and see what I'm about. And I've had some people disconnect from connecting with me. Okay. Alright. That's fine. You know?
A lot more come on than disconnected, but that's okay because I guess they're not appreciating what I'm about. So that's okay. And, more power to them. But but, yeah, I I believe it's about exposure and, you know, you know, it's funny. I make a lot of referrals. I I connect people and people to people I I don't even I haven't had a chance to talk to. Everybody that I connect with, and you you know this, Ryan, I I opt to try to get on a call with them because I really do wanna know them.
Not everybody says yes to that. But when I do make referrals to people I've never had a chance to speak to before, they're very appreciative of me and they're very complimentary as if they're they know me because they're seeing my content, they're seeing what I'm doing, they're seeing what I'm about.
So, again, if you're if you use LinkedIn, and, again, this shouldn't be just about LinkedIn, but if you're using social media in particular for me, LinkedIn, as just a place to put your resume and you're not gonna be active on it. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. You know, you wanna have only 50 people that you know personally on there.
Sure. Yeah. But if you're doing if you're doing what what I believe, you know, you could you could do effectively and that is using it as a platform to really inspire people and you really be a blessing to the world, which that's my mission to be the light, uplift, inspire, and encourage people, then it's a real opportunity to touch a lot of lives. I love it. I love it. And to to kinda piggyback on that as, you know, myself, I kind of gravitate more towards the the quality over quantity.
Yeah. But even I am starting to go more towards the quantity, kinda gravitate more towards that and kinda having a balance on that. And being able to have that personal connection, to be able to refer to to be able to make a referral with somebody. You know, if you've got a if you've got a mechanic friend of yours that, you know, does work, you know, reasonably priced, are you gonna refer refer somebody to him, somebody that you know?
Or are you gonna refer somebody who, you know, one of these nameless, faceless mechanics that works at no offense to Midas, but, like, at a Midas or, you know, one of those big box kind of mechanics places. Sure. Yeah. No. It's a good point. And and so in reality, for me, the well, first of all, when I say referral, you know, I I often and they don't don't do this with everyone, but I do this with some people while I say, listen.
I want you to look at my connections and come up with a short list of people that you'd like an introduction to, and I'll make an introduction. I'm not endorsing them. I'm not saying, you know, you this person's awesome. I'm just saying, don't you you'd be good to connect with each other. That's it. So I'm not really it's I'm not on the hook to you know, I'm not risking anything because it's unless the person's a jerk. And, hopefully, they're not in my network if that's the case. Right?
And and That defeats the purpose. So. Right. Regarding quality and quantity, another thing that I I do to to kind of hopefully curate quality in the quantity is I don't just accept anyone's connect request. You know? And when somebody connects with me, first of all, if they're from another country, most of the time, I'm not accepting it. Because because just I've not had good success with that is often some kind of scammy thing going on a lot of times, unfortunately.
And a few bad apples, unfortunately, spoil spoil the whole bunch, unfortunately. But, so, you know, that's one thing. And also, if I look at, you know, somebody's profile, they don't look legit, there's a chance I'm not gonna accept a connect request as well. And then the response in which they respond back to me when I asked to get on a call, that could also affect the quality, side of things.
I could always choose to unconnect with them and or block them if I don't like the response or what I'm getting. So so there is some curating going on, but, ultimately, yeah, I'm more on the quantity side versus quality. I hear that. I hear that. Well, let's rewind a little bit because Yeah.
One of the, like, one of the one of the things that you said during our very first call that just really stood out to me, and you mentioned it briefly in earlier in our conversation here, was this mentor of yours who who challenged you to make 3 new connections every day. And can you speak a little bit about just to just how how that kind of got you out of your shell and just kinda get that ball rolling. Can you speak a little to that? Yeah. I mean, it was it was really awkward in the beginning.
I mean, literally, you know, like, I could be at a diner. And if you're from the New York area, you know what that is. I don't know if there's a lot of diners around the country. Right? Well, we call them waffle houses back home, but Lot of waffle houses or if you guy guy Pharrell, I guess. Right? Diners and Dives. Right? Right. He he promotes that. But, yeah, you know, I would I would be at a diner and I might just walk up to a table and talk to a couple that's having food.
And my my mentor witnessed me doing this once or twice, and he he kinda made fun a little bit, in a good way. And he he he said he said, I felt so awkward when I saw you doing that. Right? So I did some really in the early stages, some really awkward things. I remember, you know, one time, I I I I I started talking to a guy, and we're in the urinals next to each other. Started talking to a guy. Now I I don't do that at home. Okay? I you know?
But but those are the kinds of things that I start, you know, like, just awkward stuff. Like, he said to me, he said, Steve, common sense. I'm like, I said, Ed, that's not common sense for me. He's like, okay, well, I guess common sense is not so common, you know? So there was a lot of learning. And one of those conversations, it might have been the one in the bathroom, some guy called me up in the middle of the night and left a message. He was hitting on me.
I mean so, you know, it's just just weird, crazy stuff that in the beginning stages because I was growing my net networking connecting muscles. I was learning to grow them. I was learning how to connect with people and not just be transactional. The goal was to to, you know, not just make a friend, but trade trade connection, you know, contact information. Right? So that it was just it was crazy. So I learned I'll give a little instructional, how to, alright, for, for, for those who care.
And, and I break, I break down making new friends into a 4, 4 step process, you know, a big process guy. So first is break the ice. Right? Whatever that is. Right? Hey. Nice glasses. Who makes those glasses? Or, you know, whatever. I mean, if, you know, if it's raining out here, like, man, cats and dogs. Did you expect the storm coming? Whatever. Break the ice. Based on the response, right, you it's people are like, in a way like dogs. Right?
Like, you you you go pet a dog and you're either gonna get one of 3 reactions. You're gonna get, like, the the wag the tail, like it's a do like it's a, golden retriever and it's, you know, tongues out, wanna lick you, and they wanna be petted. And then the other one is they kinda act like a cat. They just don't care. They walk away. Or the third reaction is it's like a Doberman Pinscher or or angry pitbull. They just, you know, And, you know, you you know and people have those reactions.
So I learned break the ice, see what happens, start a conversation. So my first go to is is is often where you're from. And I love saying that and that that I could go 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 layers on that. We okay. You're from the south. Why did you move up here to Stanford? And, you know, get into that. Right? And, you know, you're married, kids, you know, all that, you know. And then, what do you do?
And, you know, I know people don't like younger people don't like when they get asked that question, but I didn't say, what do you do for work? I said, what do you do? You could tell me you you ski, you snowboard, you go fishing. I didn't say, what do you do for work? I said, what do you do? Just so you know. So don't get offended by that question. But, what do you do? And and that can go 6, 7, 8, 10 layers deep, and I'll ask questions. And then, hey, we should stay in touch.
Because my feeling is if you've gone through all that information and it's probably 3, 4, 5, 6 minutes long, sometimes 8 or 10 minutes, made a little mini friendship. And by the way, when we did that as kids, that's how we made friends as kids. Right? We had conversations and we, you know, it's it's it's kinda normal. Right? So, that that's really it. And I take out my phone, I'm like, hey.
Let me shoot you my contact information, and they give me theirs, and I text them my contact, and we connect on LinkedIn afterwards many times.
And and I and I that's that's that's my that's my connection, but but it took some time for me to understand to go out with that with a no agenda mindset, with an others focused, you know, perspective, and and really learning how to connect authentically and sharing the the you the authentic self of me, not not some facade, you know, helped up version of me. So there's a lot of there's a lot of growth in that experience, but it's been amazing.
And just one last thing I'll say is LinkedIn, for me, was an extension, like, of of that idea when when the lockdown happened, and I still had the objective of making 3 new friends every day, I couldn't go out. I mean, the masks were on, and it was hard. Right? And, you know, I just didn't even feel comfortable talking to people and then had masks on their face. Well, I was able to, you know, connect with people on LinkedIn.
And I it's so bizarre to me when people say to me, I I don't know you, why would I get a call get on a call with you? What? Like, isn't that the whole idea behind social media is to connect? Like, I don't get it, but but, hey, to each his own and and that's that's it. But to me, that's another extension of making new friends. And that's why growing the connections is a big part of what I do because that's all part of making new friends. I love it. I love it. So many people transactional.
It's such a great word. So many people, I think, treat social media almost like a place to get on and, you know, complain about politics or sports or whatever that's on their mind instead of actually making those connections and building those relationships. And real relationships can build through social media. That's one thing that I think a lot of, like, really old school people can't wrap their head around is that real relationships can build through social media. No doubt.
And and I think what the miss is and what the the younger generation may not quite grasp some of them, or some of them are. Kudos to the ones that are. But are not understanding that you gotta take it off of social media and have a real conversation, a real connection. And like we did, Ryan, is, you know, when we got on a call, you know, my my opening line, you know, other than how's your day, how's everything going, is, hey, I'd love to hear your story, you know, tell me your backstory, right?
Not just what you do. And I have to stop people because many times when you get on a call, they're like, so tell me about what tell me what you do for work again, you know? Like, I'm like, would you mind if we just kind of shift here? I'd rather not do the what do you do dance, and I'd love to talk about, you know, our stories. To me, it's a better way to connect. It's it allows the kids inside of us to to get on the playground and play. Right?
Versus this sort of, you know, adult, you know, you know, dance, if you will, that that you play when you you play the what do you do dance. So, anyway, that's my perspective. The the what do you do dance. Yeah. That's, that can be that, you know, I'm I'm getting a lot of flashbacks on some of the, some of the incredibly awkward first dates that I've had on my life. That what do you do debts will go on forever. And until you can get past that, you know that relationship's not gonna go anywhere.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. You you you you need to really and, you know, and share. And sometimes people need to hear your story and you be opened and vulnerable a little bit without getting too crazy. Right? Because then you can share too much. I'm not saying that. Not a TMI thing. Right? But but just share a little bit, especially things you've overcome. Like I could say, shy and introverted because even though it's part of my being, I'm not that really. I don't manifest that really much anymore.
It's part of me and I have to push myself. But so when you're vulnerable, people appreciate that. And I found that when I was vulnerable and led with those weaknesses, the connections became powerful. You know, the you know, my confidence was powerfully confident because of being vulnerable. And people opened up and I have had many people on connect calls, Zoom calls, phone calls, typically on Zoom calls, get emotional, eyes well up, sometimes even cry.
And they say to me, I haven't done this with anyone, let alone a stranger just meeting for the first time. And that's because true connection is happening, and it happens by us being vulnerable first. So so the barriers get broken down so people can now open up a little bit. I'm not trying to get their gory, ugly secrets from them. That's not the point. I just wanna connect as people, as humans. Absolutely. Absolutely.
And in a situation like that, if you really wanted to read the the deep dark secrets of your story, or in my case, you can just read my book. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Now when it comes to building a business when it comes to building a business, how, two parts to this question. How important is this whole connection process?
And second, do you ever go into a, potential connection call or, you know, making a connection with somebody with that mindset of this could be a potential customer for me or this could be a potential client for me. Can you talk a little bit about those two things? Sure. So first first is, you know, to me as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, the most important thing to always be growing is your connections, your network. Absolutely 100%. Extremely important. Right?
It's it's kinda what we've touched on before. It's a way to show exposure, but I think it's really growing it as as a person versus your business. Right? So so growing those connections, because number 1, you're gonna have resources that you could potentially hire or people that know people that could hire, you know, you could hire them or bring them onto your team. Number 2, potential clients can come from that. Number 3, you know, you resources. Right?
If you if you need resources to support your business, it's all part of that network. So so so important to grow your community, grow your connections. One of the best referral sources are, or the best ways to promote who you are is somebody else being a raving fan.
So having, you know, taking you and again, I'm using LinkedIn because that's where I live, but but having, you know, those, endorsements, right, on the bottom, wherever it's shown on LinkedIn, where, you know, getting as many of those as you can. Right? And the more bigger your network, right, the bigger the more the more you're gonna have of those. Right? So that's that's extremely important in my opinion, in my perspective. Your your second question was what again? Sorry.
What was my second question? Oh, do you ever go into a, do you ever go into one of these connections with the, like, with the express mindset of this could be a potential client or this can be a potential customer of mine? So I I try really hard to distance myself from that. Do I have a fleeting thought sometimes? Yes, sometimes, right? You know, I'm growing a speaking career, right?
So when I get on a call with somebody who has a podcast or is it event planner, or or heads up, you know, courses where they bring on speakers. Is that something in my mind for a moment? It is for a moment, but I'm real I really try to distance myself from that and come into the call with purely just, hey. Let's connect. And I am always looking every call that I get on, minimally, 1 or 2 or 3 add values from me go to that person, and it has nothing to do with what I do professionally.
Maybe one of the ad values are invite them to my networking group. One of the ad values is maybe in you know, offer up them to come up with a list of people that want me to introduce them to. Maybe an add value is come come watch my show live or maybe even have them on my show as a guest. You know, I I have some, you know, podcasts that I did that I come across where, you know, they, you know, give them special access to that.
Whatever it is, I'm always looking for ways to add value, and and that's always what I'm doing. So I'm trying to get in, you know, get into the conversation with the mindset of, I'll be I'm gonna be others focused. I'm gonna connect authentically. I'm I'm gonna, you know, hopefully grow and build a community here. That's really my my thought.
And in my having the grit to overcome obstacles story, because those are my 4 pillars of my show, 4 pillars of my what I talk about in the 4 pillars of my book, by the way. But but through that overcoming story, allow them to see, you know, kind of my my struggles and my victories, and hopefully allow them to open up too. So so yeah. The the but the more I am others focused and listen, the more I could find out their needs, their challenges, and hopefully help them.
Now if that means one piece of it is they could be a client, great. But I wanna hear those needs. I'm not trying to move and push them into that direction. Yeah. Because that could really be a square peg kind of situation if you're trying to, yeah, if you're trying to just kinda force that. You know, one thing that came up for me as you were sharing that was just the idea of being of service. Just being of service to people, be you know, providing value to people.
Like, I've got a friend of mine. She was a previous she was a previous guest on this podcast. Her name is Rachel. But Rachel has a speaking career where she speaks to, where she speaks to organizations, but she really got her start in speaking to college sports teams because that's where her passion really lied really began.
And it's, you know, it's all about mental health and, you know, being of service and being, you know, just being of service to people outside of what you may or may not do on the field. But she always goes into that mindset because, you know, because sometimes I'll ask her if there's a, like, if there's a story that breaks or something like that from a, you know, from a team. Have you been in contact with this athletic director? Have you been in contact with this coach?
It might not it it might not land anything, but you always know that you're gonna be there if that invitation gets, gets extended. And I I really got a lot of that just service based mentality based off of what you shared, just then. Yeah. Great. No. I I I I'm with you a 100%. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, let's talk about the DAO of the master connector of a master connector. How did how did this book come about?
How did how did such a, and and I've started reading it, and it is really good, by the way. I definitely I'm definitely gonna be leaving a good review on Amazon once I'm finished reading it. But once, just how did that come about? How did such a unique concept for a book come about? Well, I I I appreciate that. And and, one thing I'll say is I'm working on getting the audible book and I just hired a narrator, to get it, you know, narrated.
I'm gonna do the beginning and the end so my voice will be on there, but, but I'm excited to get that because I know people if you written books, it's harder to get to. Right? And I don't know if that's what the slowdown on you getting through the book. So I'm I'm excited to get more people the ability to to hear the message. So that's that's, that's gonna happen. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we'll have it hopefully completed. But to to back to answer your question, right?
So, couple of components. Number 1, you know, my mission is to be the light. I mentioned it, right? To uplift, inspire, encourage. I've had incredible mentors in my life. I've had amazing experiences. The martial arts were a big part of my, you know, kind of coming up the ranks, so to speak. A lot of, a lot of overcoming obstacles was cultivated through that experience.
And in the martial arts, you know, there's a something called, do, d o. It's, it's in Japanese, the Japanese language, it means the way or path. Right? So bushi is well is warrior. Bushido means the way of the warrior. The, karate do actually is the way of, karate means empty hand. So dough is the way. And, you know, so so yeah. I'm I'm sorry. That actually just blew my mind. That that's, that actually just blew my mind. I had no idea that's what that meant. Yeah. I yeah.
It's and I've done a lot of studying on on the martial arts and and the and the the culture of the the Japanese and the samurai. And, if you watch the movie, The Last Samurai, it does a really good job of depicting the culture and the mindset. You know, the samurai were, you know, back in the 1800s, unfortunately, there was demise of what was going on there. There was a, they were looked at as evil, but they were actually really, really good.
And there was similar to the knights of the round table and the western culture, right? There's a sort of, you know, might as, you know, right as might and, you know, all these things, you know, women and children first and just doing the right thing, chivalry and all that. I was always attracted to that type of mindset and I saw that in the martial arts. I saw the kind of that, you know, gentle warrior spirit, you know?
And, you know, in my studies, Bruce Lee did a book called The Tao of Jeet Kune Do. And, you know, I know there's Dow is I mean, that's the I'm not a Dowist or anything like that. That's it's just I if I wrote the dough or do of a master connector, people would have been like, what? So at least people know, like, there's a book called the Tao of poo. Right? So people would would, you know, they kinda understand it a little bit. It's a little bit more mainstream than doe, d o or do.
People definitely would not get it. But I wanted it I wanted the way. And the sequel to this book, eventually, will be the how to become a master connector. But right now, this is the way. The the mindset, the path. Right? I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, although I like it. I appreciate it. I I do like some of the the the series that they put out on, on the Disney Channel. Some of these others, like, blanking on the name of it. But, yeah, I'm blanking.
But, there's a quote in, it'll come to me, but there's a quote where it says, this is the way, and I'm sure you're listening to somebody saying to them, hey, hey, hey, guy, hey, it's this, right? But I'm not thinking, I'm not remembering. But so the way or path was always in my mind. And so as I've had this journey, the way, the path, right, whatever. And so I knew I needed to write a book. At some point, it was inevitable, but I had no bandwidth.
And I, you know, also being a speaker, they also say you wanna have a book because it's gonna help you give you credibility. So for speaking, so I I knew I needed to write a book, but I didn't have the bandwidth. So I I actually, somebody came to me and they suggested, they knew I did a lot of videos. I did a for a while, I did a a 2 year series of what I call fire to Friday master connector tips. There were videos, unscripted 2, 3 minute videos. She literally took all the videos.
She didn't use an app. She used a her name is Val. She's amazing. She did she she literally read watched the videos, wrote them out. I said, don't don't you want to use an app? She's like, I wanna get I really got get more out of listening to them and typing and, okay, so so she wrote she wrote all them out. We just we figured out the order which we we we put it into, like, buckets, the the 4 pillars we talked about, you know, when I mentioned before. And the book was written.
And so but master connector obviously has a lot of meaning to it, not just about connecting in a big network. It's it's a lot of connections there. So so the book was the book has been just a way to, again, get the word out, inspire people. Right? If you look at the book. Right? You know, inspiring you to kick start your success journey on the other side. Right? It says inspiring you to get out of your comfort zone.
Because those are all things that I felt like I needed to have happened for me, and I'm hoping that my prayer is that that happens for everybody who gets to watch and listen listen to the book and eventually read the book and eventually listen to the book. Because it it really it it's these concepts, and I didn't make 99% of it up.
It's just a culmination of what I've learned through life, through experience, through lots of trial and error, lots of, you know, stumbling and getting back up and trying again, and it's all there in the book. So it's pretty amazing. And I I I think it's great. I I will I'll say one thing and then I'll shut up.
But I had a there was a stalling point for me because I had the book and somebody I respect a lot, I won't mention his name, but he he wrote a book and it was it was also a connection book. I've I'm not gonna say the name because I'll give away who he is. I don't wanna give credit there. But he he basically, I gave him access because I I there are, I think, 5 really well known people that wrote sections in my book for me. I'm very honored they did. Right?
And I was, I was gonna ask him to do a section. I felt really good about him. And he came back with some really, really bad feedback about the book. And it really discouraged me. In fact, it it stalled me for quite a while. But really what I realized was, it just the book needed a little professionalism in the way it was kind of organized. And when I did hire an editor finally, who I was recommended, Nikki Gengemi, she recommended a lady, to tell me write the book, a lady named Heather Mays.
Incredible job, made life super simple for me. And so she she helped, and and now I'm very proud of the product, but I was I was really there was a part where I was really like, man, I don't know. So but I'm really blessed that I got it got out. Yeah. Absolutely. I think as as somebody who has a few books under his belt, we all have that just what the hell am I doing with this? Why am I doing this? Why am I sharing this? Why am I getting this vulnerable?
It's all it it it's just like, it's just like I I heard a great, heard heard a great analogy for the just last week. It's like a vulnerability hangover. You just it's just like, imposter syndrome on steroids in a way. Sure. No doubt. Yeah. Oh, yeah. For sure. I was I was there. I was like, there was a point. And there was a lot of stops and stalls with the book.
And I didn't get into all of it because we got limited time, but there was definitely some and there was parts where I'm just like, maybe it's just not in in the cards for me to have a book. Yeah. But it's out, and it's good. Yeah. Thank you. My pleasure. And you've mentioned it a few times, but talk a little bit about your, your LinkedIn live show. I appreciate that. Yeah. So the LinkedIn live show is interesting because for a 128 episodes, I had my cohost, Cameron, on with me.
Cameron, was he was he is a, he has a very successful event planning biz event staffing business. And he, you know, in the middle of COVID, he was dead. I mean, it was nobody doing anything. And so he had to pivot and start doing broadcast, and he, I had gotten approved by I just put in for kicks and giggles my application for LinkedIn live because I was starting to do more video and I'm like, just put let me just see what happens.
It was, like, coveted, like, nobody was getting approved and I got approved within 5 weeks. So I was, like, overwhelmed by it. So I reached out to Cameron. I had been on his show. I was very impressed. He's, like, network TV production quality show he was putting on. And I was like, hey, dude. You know, this is what's going on. He's like, yeah, man. Dude, I've been trying to get on LinkedIn live for 2 years. We should collaborate. I was like, hold this up. I was hoping you should say that.
So we partnered up November 2020. As of this recording, this coming Wednesday will be a 100 and 30th episode up until, you know, the the the 127th episode. He and I were partnered on this, and now he's kinda moved on to focus back on his event staffing business, which I have respect that we left on great terms. He's still a fan of the show and he's got a major mark on the show for sure. Never will give that'll never change. But it's been great.
And, we've we've had incredible guests on the show, Doctor. Dre, the author of the book, The Go Giver Bob Burg, obviously him and his co author John David Mann, who has not been on the show yet. But we've had incredible guests on the show. It's been amazing. And it's, Wednesdays, 1 PM Eastern 30 minutes show. We go a little longer sometimes, but it's been fun. It's been a lot of fun and it's fun doing a show with a co host. So my man, Rob Genovese, is now co hosting for now. We'll see.
We're both trying to feel it out and see if it's gonna be a a match made in heaven, but, but but definitely it's, it's been fun doing a show with a co host because it allows us to just look at it at different angles. Right? When you're a single host, it's kind of somewhat myopic. Right? Whereas you have 2 people, you know, he could sometimes see stuff or hear stuff that I might miss and vice versa. Absolutely.
Absolutely. And I have had a chance to listen to a couple of episodes and, definitely an energy to it. There's definitely an energy to it. I and I and that I really appreciate. Thank you. Yeah. We we, I give Cameron a lot of credit to that. He's definitely, brought brought the energy. I'm a little more of a low key guy, so he brought the energy. So we'll we'll see if we could remanufacture that now that he's moved on. So I gotcha. I gotcha. Well, listen, Steve.
This has been a real thrill getting to know you. My audience getting to know you a little bit.
Before we go, I guess, what when you're when you're when somebody is looking to kinda get started in this whole, you know, entrepreneurial thing and looking to make more connections, looking to make more of an impact in their community, when they're looking to make to get that start, what's a good, you know, what's a good tidbit or piece of advice that you can leave somebody who's looking to really get started in that?
Well, I heard a great I was on a podcast last night and I heard a great quote. And, in I'd like to say I could try to paraphrase what they said, but the difference between, the beginning and and, how did they say it? Basically, they said, just do it. That was that was the point of what they said. Right?
Most people that get hung up in the in the analysis paralysis, they they get hung up in trying to find the right time to do something and the the perfect time and just do it, just do it, get in there, get your knees a little scratched up, it doesn't matter. Yeah, go for it, don't worry about it, and you're going to figure it out along the way, right? Having a mentor is always incredible.
If you can find someone who has the fruit on the tree that they've been there, they've done it, that it can help a lot. That's been incredible for me over the years. Thank God for that, and, thank God for for the mentors in my life. But, yeah, I would say just do it right. Don't don't, you know, just don't don't. Yeah. Yeah. You know, don't sit don't sit on the fence. Just take the leap. That would be my my my suggestion. And yeah, just start building a network.
Don't, don't, overthink it too much. I love it. I love it. And on that note, I think we'll wrap up here. Steve Spero, how can people find you? Yeah. Best and easiest is, is my, personal website, which is a digital business card, thanks to my friend, Sean Lashley, but it's stevespiro.com. So stevespir0.com. From that card, you'll see all the links. It's kinda like a link tree, but it's not exactly that, but you can get on to my LinkedIn, find me on LinkedIn, it's easy.
You can, also, if you wanna hire me as a speaker, it's spirohyphenglobal.com. And, yeah, if you want to check out the show, go to masterconnector.showmasterconnector.show. But I look forward to seeing you. Definitely connect with me. And, again, I'm, I'm pretty open to, to connecting with people unless I feel like there's something suspect going on. So I hope to connect with you as well. Absolutely. Well, Steve, it's been a real pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for joining us here on the solar powered podcast, a presentation of Royal Hearts Media. For more information about Royal Hearts Media, just go to royal hearts media dot com. Follow me on social media machine at Ryan Hall writes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or shoot me a good old fashioned email at ryan@royalheartscoaching atgmail.com. But that'll do it today. Until we meet again, this is Ryan Hall saying thanks for listening.
So long for now, and go get solar powered. Take care.