338 - How Mike Generated $208,000 from his BNI Networking Group in One Year

So that's a big jump and that's all I attributed to the referrals that I started getting from those who were in adjacent industries , and that continued through 2022 as well , stayed steady , and then I became president of that chapter and I was just in front of people more often . I was running the meetings , visitors were coming in .

I got a lot of referrals from visitors who came in . I started getting more referrals from our internal group and then that revenue jumped over $200,000 .

new and you just want to start getting clients , whether you want to get more web design clients or , perhaps most importantly , whether you want to start getting better web design clients , one of the best ways to get clients in any of those categories is by networking , referral groups , anything you can do in person .

There is a difference between referral and networking groups that we're going to cover here in this episode , but I'm a huge proponent of this . I grew over 50% of the revenue in my business came from my referral group , and the same has been true for so many web designers that I oversee , especially a lot of members of my community .

And in this episode , I'm so excited to bring to you Mike Albuquerque , who is a member of my community and last year get this within one year has tracked in his business because he is a multi six figure web design agency owner . He tracked that over $200,000 , 208,000 to be exact came from his networking group and referral group efforts .

Now that's awesome and that's big time and he is several years into a network like a networking group and being in his referral group . But the cool thing about Mike is that in this episode he is completely transparent and really opens up how he got started , because getting started and getting into this level there's a journey there .

But even , as you'll find out , as somebody who was like terribly introverted , like Mike is , he actually learned to get out of his comfort zone to get to a networking group and actually really learned to love it .

And , as you'll find out , he's developed a very sustainable , solid foundation web design business with his primary client acquisition strategy to be networking and , more specifically , his referral group , which is a BNI group . So in this episode we're covering exactly how he did it and how you can do it as well .

It is still today the top recommendation that I have for all of my web design community members . In my site and my community web designer pro , I always recommend networking , networking , networking , networking , networking . It is still the quickest ROI . You will be shocked at how far and fast you can get web design clients when you commit yourself to networking .

So in order to learn how to do that , how to feel comfortable , how to build more confidence , maybe you're doing some networking now and you want to be better at it and you want to achieve some results , like Mike has , with over $200,000 just this past year alone from networking , and this year he's actually on track to do way more .

Here is my conversation with the man , the not a myth in Atlanta , because he's a networking machine now , mike Albuquerque . Mike , what a pleasure to have you on the podcast man . I usually see you inside Web Designer Pro , but how ?

You have a healthy , stable business behind you with a really nice stream of clients , but you're not one of the hustle entrepreneurs who's killing yourself and working 90 hours a week , and you still have some time for passion projects . So for all those reasons , I'm so excited to dig in to what's worked for you , which primarily , is networking .

So I think that's what we're gonna dive into . So I can't wait to to dive into this man . I let's let's talk about networking with where that is for you right now . How much business whether you want to say numbers or percentage , it's totally up to you , man how much of your business is attributed to networking , would you say ?

I mean , it's grown right , but I think right now there's well into the six figures , where it's probably like two-thirds of my revenue , a little bit over , a little bit over two thirds of my revenue , is coming from , uh , networking , right , and , and that's , and it and it hasn't always been that way .

Of course it was a slow start , but it , you know or I shouldn't say slow , right , because when I look back I'm like that's better than I probably could have expected for it to be . Um , but yeah , I mean I caught , like last year , I , you know , didn't just cross a shattered , going through six figures in revenue attributed to networking .

And you know , I've been , I've been involved in networking now for local networking , for , let's see , when did I start ? I think it was 2019 .

So , right around five years I started after my third daughter was born , and that's actually a reason why I put a delay on things , because I was looking into joining networking from my past jobs , family , friends , you know people that I'd meet in my local community , but I didn't really have a pipeline to , you know , have access to business owners .

And you know , asking around and like Facebook groups and you know some hearing from from some other people . They , they said , look into , look into networking . And and I didn't even know what that was , you know , for me I was , I came from the agency world , I came from working in corporate America .

For me , networking was , you know , going to either industry award shows or you know the after hour things that you go with your colleagues there . You know , I never went to something like a chamber event or anything like that , where you're going there to kind of share your business and what you do .

It was always more or less to kind of see who else in the industry is working . And so when I came to networking , when I started hearing back in 2019 of networking as a way to get clients and get partners , I thought , well , that's worth exploring . Right , that sounds interesting . And so I went through . I think I explored a few different options .

Right , the first thing I did is I went to like a chamber event in my local area and I was trying to figure out what is the chamber of commerce . Right , is there ? I'm in the Atlanta area and the metro Atlanta area .

At the time I was living in a city just a little bit north of Atlanta called Sandy Springs , and you know , then I moved to Marietta , which is a city on the northwest , and I was looking like , wait , what are the ? What are the chamber ? Is there ? Do I go to the Atlanta chamber ? Man , that's in town , that's a long ways away .

Is there like a local one ? And I found , like the Cobb County one , and you know , I found all these different chambers that I could go and be a part of and it just I went in the room and I just it felt so foreign .

You know , going in and doing the elevator pitches and seeing who was in the room , it felt really , I was really intimidated by it , frankly , and I also looked across the room and just didn't get the sense that I could find a lot of clients there , right , just because of the mix of the people who were there .

They were more mainly people in sales and all that and I thought , well , that's a , okay , I don't think I'm going to get anything here .

And I was getting a little discouraged and and I remember reaching out to someone , um , or making a post on , making a post on on facebook and um , you know , just sharing that , and someone said you know you need to check out one of these like hard networking groups where you have like one seat per position , right , it's not going to be , there's not going to

be like a dozen other digital agencies in there and you're there not to meet people but to make connections , right , and so that's when . That's when I , that's when it clicked right and I joined one of those groups and I went to visit and I saw that it was very different from the open networking kind of environment .

And the neat thing about the group that I joined was that they also provided a lot of education on networking and that was very valuable . So they had like an online portal where you took courses and you know some of that stuff .

It's like you know you don't want to do it , but it's kind of ends up being a little bit helpful , right , where you understand how to talk to people , how to explain what you do , how to break it down into pieces , and and that was back in 2019 . So that was my start with it .

I looked at a few of them and then I figured no , this one seems to have the best mix .

And the biggest thing that I have I learned this years ago , but I didn't really have a title or a phrase for it , but what I've , what's become so clear to me more recently , is that there is a stark difference between networking groups and referral groups and the act of networking . You could do like you said .

You , technically , if you go to a chamber , a chamber of commerce , whether it's local or like a big city one , that's networking . If you go to a meetup , that's networking . You guys , you're a member of World Presenter Pro pro .

you and some other pros are meeting up next week in atlanta having a pro that's right , that's actually a form of networking , although it's not about clients per se , is about , like , partnerships and relationship building with colleagues . If you go to networking events , obviously that's networking , but there is a referral group which you could network in .

But that is , like you said , for anyone who doesn't know you . These are much more . I mean , it's in the name . It is a referral based group , like that's why you're there . You're not there to drink coffee and eat some donuts and shake some hands and get a business card . You're there to give referrals to people and get referrals from people .

So I love that right away . We're hitting the difference there , because I didn't really understand that either when I got into the world . But my story is the same as you . Over 50% of my income came from my networking group . It wasn't necessarily the members in that group , some were clients , but it was who they knew . Can you speak to that , mike ?

Like , looking back five years later or so , did that dynamic play out for you too , where that group kind of became your sales force and it was about who they knew ? Is that fair to say ?

And it's interesting because when you do they , you know they do tell you don't expect drastic results for the first year , right , you kind of get started slowly and you know I , you know I ended our first year thinking do I want to come back here or not ? But that's where what you're mentioning about the referrals that are outside the group came in .

Because , yes , I did have some people in the group who hired me to create the website or do their branding or , you know , even for small tasks people were reaching out to me but that was not the kind of client I wanted .

Right , but working with people who are in the group does help build that trust with them , right , where they kind of understand your service a little bit more . And there's some validation that comes from working with other folks in the group .

But what made me stay in the group is that someone in there someone our painter actually had someone who did social media management for her come in and visit and you know I chatted with that person at the time . You know that was even one of the services I offered right , my , my agency originally was full service marketing .

Anything you need in the marketing realm we're happy to help you with Right . And so I'm talking to this social media manager thinking like , oh , I'm not going to get much from it , and she was focused solely on social media marketing . And she said , hey , I want to . I want to introduce you to my dad and his partner local real estate agency .

And I didn't think much of it , I thought she was just kind of being nice and saying that , but she made that introduction . I got them as clients they had . It was funny because they had actually just launched her website and they were really not happy with it .

And then from that , you know , for uh , her dad and um , uh , his partner , became clients of mine and the partner had another business , uh , and they became a client of mine . And then there was an agency that did work for them and then that agency didn't do the website of things .

So then I got connected with the agency and got several other clients out of that . So I could see the vision of that growth right and that growth coming not from doing work directly for people in the group but from that network that you're building outside of it , and that was really interesting because it's like I didn't foresee that coming Right .

I know you and I are both in really big cities in the States , so we're not in rural areas or a place where our IDO clients are not near us , so we do have an advantage there . So there's a ton of options for online too .

But , by golly , for most people , if you're in the United States or Canada or the UK or Australia , there's going to be some sort of BNI chapter or networking events near you . Or even if you have to drive 45 minutes or an hour once a week or once a month , it is so worth it because you can .

Just , I feel like you get a lot further faster when you're in person , especially nowadays . Can you have you found that to be true with in-person stuff now versus even when you got started ? Like I feel like there's started , I feel like people are amped up to be in person again .

I mean , I feel like we're long past COVID and lockdowns and stuff , but there was definitely a shift through that time where I feel like nowadays , even concerts , comedy shows , everything is in-person , stuff is just booming . That's what I'm trying to say .

You know , you get a chance to just flip that laptop around and show them your work and , you know , just share a cup of coffee and there , I think , more freedom to have casual conversation , which always helps build that personal relationship . Right , people do business with those who they know like and trust and like is a big part of it .

Yeah , right , and that's one of the things that when it comes to like you know , networking or meeting people in person , just , uh , sharing a little bit more of your story , right , sharing who you , who you are , what you do .

It doesn't mean that you know , you go in and you meet with people and you begin to like I don't know trauma dump or anything like that on them , but just be open , right , yeah .

If I show up with a blue jacket shirt in Columbus which I have done in meetings and they're like oh , I didn't know , you were fans , you go to the game . Last week I was like , I did the likability , you build likability . So all those things combined , yeah , I just feel . I feel like there's a .

It's an extra special time and there's a bigger opportunity now to do things in person , especially in the wake of AI and so many people online Like you .

Really , as a web designer or a service provider , you've got to differentiate yourself and I think one of the best ways to do that and to stand out is to do things in person , because they're going to build that know , like and trust very quickly when you're meeting in person .

It's different , you know , like there's a lot of people who they want to like they like doing business with a small business , because they can reach you right , and I've had several clients who came to me from working in larger agencies and where you know they're onboarded by the , you know , by the director , by the VP , and whatnot , and then once they get

started there , you know they get handed off to the intern , right , and I think it's the so they want to have , they want to have that relationship where they can talk to you and be able to take meet with them in person . That just takes it to the next level , where they can talk to you and be able to take meet with them in person .

That just takes it to the next level , right , where it's like here's a person who I know hey , I can , you know , I can say please meet me for a cup of coffee and walk me through . How do we log into the backend of my website ? Right , I just , I just did that with the client .

I don't have a lot of clients who log into their websites or want to , but this one wanted to and he said can we just meet over coffee ? I'm like sure . So we went in a coffee shop . That was , you know , 10 minutes from the studio , 10 minutes from my house .

We met in there , we sat , we chatted and in about two and a half minutes I showed him how to log into the back end of his website .

I invited him to some things , invited me to other things , and it's just , it's part of building that stronger relationship and bond .

I really need to be an affiliate for BNI because , like , how many people have come into pro and thanks to you for a lot of the threads that you've jumped in on and you've like backed me up by saying like I promise it'll pay off very soon . So many people are joining BNI . But I did want to mention that price point .

Sell one website within a year at 1500 bucks and you've covered BNI for two years plus . So , my gosh , it's just , and already we're talking about the benefits of the group being referral-based and you're immediately exposed to everybody's personal and professional networks .

This is how , overnight , you go from I'm doing web design I need to tell somebody about it to there may be like two to three to four to 500 people . From I'm doing web design I need to tell somebody about it to there may be like two to three to four to 500 people . Now I'm I'm exposed to just by being in this group of 15 or 20 people .

I mean , you know it can be a big explosion , right , and in just the access that you have locally , right , your reach goes from being the reach of your network to the reach of , you know , 20 , 15 , 20 , 30 people , depending on the size of the group you're in , right , and it's interesting because when it comes to networking , it's almost like it's not this

idea of like , hey , I'm going to reach this person here , this person there , right , which is what you're doing individually . But if you're going in and being part of these referral groups and not only that , but joining other networking events , just getting your name out there , getting that branding out there , you start building this web of relationships .

I had an event that I went to a few years back and that was not a BNI event . That was part of another networking group that I'm part of , which is a local business association , and we had an after after hours event at this restaurant , and so we had the outdoor patios packed .

You know , maybe , like you know , 40 , some people there , or 50 people or whatnot , and there's this guy walks into me and he's like well , I finally made it to you and I'm like excuse me , hello , who are you . His name was also Michael Rightael right and he's like . So I was in the other side of the room having a conversation .

I mentioned something about websites , that I needed to get a website , and I started walking and they said , well , you need to talk to mike . He's over there and on the way here . I talked to a couple other people and so there's been three or four people who told me you need to talk to mike , right , and those are folks from bni . Those are .

Those are folks from the Eastcott Business Association .

I'm like , listen , I'm going to have a kid , I'm going to take paternity leave and I want to be home and all that , and so I'll start that afterwards . And then I started thinking like , wait a second , is this going to like ? You know , they ask a certain commitment . You can't miss too many meetings . It's 730 in the morning .

I'm not a morning person , right , I mean , that's just being real , keeping it real . I'm there yawning every morning , right . But then you start looking at the benefits from people who have been there and there's , you know there's first off .

You get your day started early , right , you're going there , you're meeting people , just the impact that it can have in your business and your revenue and your mindset , also in education . And you know , getting people who you know if you need to refer out .

Now you have a network of people who you trust , right , you're listening to them explain their successes and their victories and their process and all that . So there's a great value to that .

Every Friday most every Friday , 7.30 in the morning same thing , which I had , the exact same excuses that you did , and I delayed going into a group for over a year . So everyone should know both of us did not . We weren't like , oh , networking sounds cool , let's go . And it was like you had to drag us there .

It took me a year to be like , oh , every week , seven , 30 in the morning . But I , yeah , same same story . But I say that to say as I look back on it , every week , seven , 30 in the . Eventually I was pumped up for Friday mornings because that was one of my favorite times of the week and I would end the week hot , like kind of wish .

That was earlier in the week because I would generally get all these ideas and I would be ready to rock and roll when I got home from that meeting on Fridays , but it's so beneficial to have a weekly habit like a networking group .

But we always had like , there was always like a group of people who wanted to be in person and so they met in a group and then other people were in line and eventually we went to where everyone was in person and we had zoom still up on the tv behind us , for , you know , those couldn't be there .

And then eventually , um , about a year ago , we finally ended that . But the energy when you're , when you have , you know , 30 people , 20 people , even like when I started my group , we , we were under 15 , right , we're now , uh , you know we've gone like we've , we've always been around getting to 30 in the high twenties .

Um , but even at you know , the 14 or however many we had when , when I started there , just the energy in the room of being with like-minded individual , we're all looking to learn to grow their business or looking to learn about , you know , each other's business and figure out ways that we can support .

I mean , you become invested , you know , people become invested in you and that's pretty cool , like it's . Just you know , entrepreneurship can be something that is very lonely , right , especially for us , cause we're , you know , as as a web designers , we're working from home in front of the computer .

You know we might go to a coffee shop occasionally or whatnot , but it's , it can be lonely , you know , if you don't have a community behind you , it's tough , and that's where things like pro and you know , these referral groups and everything else can come in to , just you know , lay a break on our mental health there .

I like literally my my real estate agent , my insurance guy , my financial advisor , my auto mechanic all through my networking group and I so learned the value of being a connector and when you connect people and you are connected with a lot of people , like you mentioned that web analogy . I think it's a great analogy for that .

It just it's almost like a , it's like a foundation for referrals that , like you're always in for as long as you stay top of mind , you're in with these people . So whenever my realtor runs into somebody who talks about a website , she's like oh , you got to talk to John . I still get leads , dude , from people I knew and I talked to from like 2013 .

I , just a couple of weeks ago , I got a lead from somebody on Facebook and they were like you still do websites and I was like I don't personally , but let me know what you need and it's going over to pro .

So , um , yeah , like that's , the really cool thing about that is it's almost like a uh , a different version of a community , like a professional community , a business community .

Uh , and I know we've we've talked a little bit about this on the on the community and all that . But , like to me , when I found out about this , it was kind of like an aha moment . Right , where it's this idea that you know , you create stronger relationships with the people who are serving the same clientele as you and who are in adjacent industries ?

So , like in my group , when I started , we , you know , we had a in in the business , the business team . It was myself and a business coach and that was it . We were the only two who were serving , like , the same clientele . The rest were , you know , your real estate agents , your painter , handyman , et cetera .

And when , when we started really diving into the idea of creating this network of individuals who can be working together , because the business coach and I , he'd bring me for a lot of clients right , he's touching the clients when they're getting started with idea conception or , you know , when they need some of those foundational elements like branding and websites and

all that . And so we said let's really build a team . What are the assets that we need here ? Well , a lot of the websites . They need photos , right ? So let's go and see if we can create a connection with the photographer .

Let's go and see if we need to create a connection with the videographer so that you can have that about video , explain the business's story , you know , or use something for a website hero image that is much more personal than you know stock videography , and and so we started creating this group of you know , our power team of individuals who are serving the same

kind of clients , and that's when things like took off . You know , because we've we've developed a pretty strong team . There's eight of us now and there's a lot of referrals going around because we're all working with the same clients .

Where do the the videos go ? On their website ? Their website sucks . Enter , josh . Same thing for me they would . We would do a website . They'd say do you know anyone does video ? I'm like I do . And back and forth and back and forth . We had like a referral off every month or so and it was awesome .

What's great about that too , like the reality is for folks who hate marketing or or hate , um , getting in front of the camera or doing social media or ads or like I don't like that type of marketing this is the best way to get clients in a way that suits you , even for introverts I don't know where you fall on that spectrum .

You're doing a lot , so I would imagine you're more extroverted . But even for introverts , if you're in a core group of 15 people , you get really comfortable really quick and you don't need to go to like huge groups which you mentioned the size of your group . I actually think groups over 30 struggle to maintain a good feel like in person .

I think anything under 30 is ideal . Same thing . My group is the exact same way . We fluctuated between 15 and 25 all the time . That was a really good size group for what we did .

But then when you go to some of these networking events , like I remember I got invited to the Columbus city chamber of commerce and I was like , oh yeah , that sounds cool , I'll go .

I was thinking it might be a hundred or 200 people and I was like 2000 people in the conference in the convention center , cause I was thinking it might be in a room in the convention center , not like one of the main halls , and I walk in there and there's lights and strobes . It was like like the stage is going on . I was like what ?

It's like nine in the morning , what is happening ? And there's literally like 2 000 people there . Um , so that's like even for me as an extrovert I was like no , thank you , but 30 person networking group , count me in .

What's the average amount of dollar that in referrals that someone who's in our chapter member gets ? Ok , right , so it's a lot higher than your average in other local chapters and I attribute that to the power team structure . I attribute that to the size of our chapter not being super big .

You know , there's another chapter by us that has 70 people , that just went across over 70 . And I've been there to visit and it is a I mean , it's a very different experience .

I mean I think it's a church actually now that they're in , even the way the tables are arranged and that you're sitting and all that and turnover , it's just , you know , it's a lot .

Because I know a lot of people go to a B&I group and they're like not a good fit and I felt that with a couple of groups that I went to , my , my main networking group that I was in , my referral group , was uh , kind of like . Uh , it's like the big lots version of BNI . It wasn't BNI , it was just it's in um , ohio and Indiana , but it's like BNI .

But yeah , I went to some groups that were like I would not come back here , but our group was freaking awesome and we just happened to get like a collection of a half dozen really great people and then it kind of stemmed from there . So yeah to you , mike , is your group the first one you went to ? Did you happen to strike gold on that first time ?

I just knew that I wanted to this group and I kind of liked it and I liked that I wasn't going to have competitors in there , because that was a big thing . There was any networking group that you go to .

There's so many digital agencies in there and I just I'm , you know , I was just not into the whole like let me compete with people who are in the same room as me . I'm more of a kumbaya let's hold hands and , all you know , all boats rise kind of guy . I don't want to be there trying to like edge out the person next to me .

Um , so that environment really was appealing to me . Um , I had gone to other open networking groups , but when I went to this one I was just , you know , I was just kind of sold on the concept and then the .

You know I have joined other groups since and I continue to visit them and it's more of a supplement , if you will , because I think the idea of when you joined a closed networking group . It's not that , you know , hey , referral networking , done , check , I'm done with this part , I don't need to do anything else . Right ?

It becomes a lot more powerful when you do go to the local meetups and you do go to , you know , to the open networking groups . So , um , I go to the , you know , business associations nearby .

I join , uh , an open networking group , that that happens every Friday , but I go there , you know , maybe like once a month or so , to show up , you know , say hi to people , depending on the potential that the group has . I'll come in more often or less often , depending on how busy I am as well .

The BNI is a thing that's always consistent , but there's a lot of other groups around . I went to one , interestingly enough , there was a client of mine . That was a networking group just for people who work in the trades , and I had a client of mine who went there and she said , hey , uh , we , uh , you know , hey , I'm part of this group .

Now , she was a BNI member and she left and joined this group that was just for the trades , which is essentially that same idea of the power team , right ? Except that they turned that into a separate group and they're not having to pay the big BNI fees . But they , they joined that group and I went to group and the group itself became a client of mine .

And then I picked up another like three clients , three or four clients there for different websites projects and it was just you know , all from . Again they allowed me to come in . I presented the website that I built for their group , Because they're not part of that like BNI community , they don't have the tools and resources that BNI has .

So I built a directory site for them where they can each have their own page and all that . And then now I'm building their individual sites and because I got a chance to present that , they trusted me .

They know I was already vetted by a member , by their chapter and by another member and it's just like it's that snowball effect , right where you just like the work that you do with referrals just compounds over time .

And again , I'm not against online marketing channels , but I'm just saying for people who are like , oh my God , a thousand dollars , that is nothing , nothing compared to online advertising and marketing .

And , like you just said , and as this conversation has evolved , you see how starting small with a core group like you said the word you said right there is so important . It compounds and you build that relationship and that web gets bigger and bigger .

And the second part of what I wanted to mention here , which I think you're doing like the perfect example of , is you have your core networking group or referral group . That's your foundation , but you do have the opportunity to dip into other chambers , events , networking groups , like you just mentioned , even when you want .

That's what's cool about that is you can turn other options off . It's just like any form of marketing . Maybe for someone who's marketing online , maybe you have Instagram as your main thing , but every once in a while you dip into LinkedIn or TikTok or whatever it is , or you might do a workshop or a webinar .

It's the same thing in the physical world you have your main group and every once in a while , especially if you happen to be dry on projects or if you're in a season where maybe summertime is not the best for that . But you're gearing up for the fall .

So maybe in August and September I'm going to do much more networking , because fall is a big wave for web design typically . It's a beauty about that . So hats off to you , mike for for leading the charge on .

You know that didn't work for their business . They go to do something else so they don't have the time . They move to another part of the town or another city , whatever it is . Well , they still remember . You right , I've had .

One of my best clients right now is a client who left the group that I was , the bni group that I was part of shortly after I joined , left the group that I was , the BNI group that I was part of shortly after I joined . And you know he guess what .

Like six months after he left , he calls me and he's like I want to have a conversation and we're now we've been working together for , you know , almost five years at this point and he's you know , one client that turned into like his corporate client , became a client , and and a lot of their independent advisors , and so it's it's grown a lot right from that

one connection of someone who was in the same group as I was for a few months , over a while .

So we've seen this question a lot in pro Folks are getting ready to go to their first referral groups . So we've seen this question a lot in pro Folks are getting ready to go to their first networking group . Naturally , they're nervous , but , as you mentioned Jeremy before , we went live like he was a member of pro .

I know he's on a break right now , but his famous story , which I think is still on the pro sales page I think I finally you may have helped to finally convince him to go to a networking group . He was super nervous , the first person he sees .

It was her first time too and she was super nervous and then she ended up being a great client for him and that's an important note to remember . Like you're not the only one who's new at this or nervous going to networking , I'd venture to say a lot of people are probably . Maybe they're hiding it , but a lot of people probably feel that way too .

Anyway , what tips would you give to somebody who is like I want to go when I'm nervous , or maybe they're planning to go soon .

You know that no one's there to judge you , you're not getting graded . You know it's not school .

People are there because they , you know they're going to look at you and say , hey , I want this person to be part of my team and from that sense , they want you to succeed , because you can't be part of their sales team if you're not in business anymore , right or not as actively . So they want you to succeed .

So you know you go into the spots and you know . So you know you go into the spots and you know if you're nervous , guess what other people in the room are too and they'll be patient and help you through . And there's a lot of uh .

In my experience at least , there's a lot of uh , active listening , where people are giving you some of those social cues , you know , shaking their head and all that where you're speaking , kind of helping you feel a little bit more comfortable . Um , so don't , don't let that get in your head .

Take a little script If you're going to do your elevator pitch and you're not used to doing it . Write it on your phone , type it out . Bring a little piece of paper that's totally fine , or note cards or anything like that .

That the first couple times that happened to me I was caught completely off guard . My networking group really helped me with that . I imagine you probably feel the same , like it's a great professional building mechanism as a part of this .

Every , you know , every so many weeks depending on you know , you do the math based on how many members your chapter has , but also just the weekly presentations , which might range from 30 seconds to 60 seconds , getting a chance to stand up and speak .

You start repeating that and then you start paying attention to the people in the room and you see the ones who do it really well and the ones where you know maybe people even finish phrases for them , or you know people just react well to them .

And you start making some mental notes and if you are in a group that is something like a BNI , they provide educational what you should be including in that . So you're going to realize that guess what if , let's say , you offer you know you offer an accessibility package as part of your you know web care plan ?

You're going to go there and you're going to spend 60 seconds talking about the accessibility package and no one's going to understand what you're talking about . And then you learn that you need to talk about it again , but in a different way . And then maybe you break down accessibility in six different ways .

Just break it down six different parts of what you do , the impact that it has , who it can serve , tax advantages and all that . And now you're hitting people over the next six weeks . You're training them , right . You're piecemeal training that sales team to understand what you do , and that's part of that education that networking and consistency does .

And also , as you're doing that , you're becoming more and more comfortable in front of people , right . And then you go from accessibility to the next topic and maybe you're talking about branding , logo design and you know Google business profile or you know , you know websites or blogs , whatever it is right .

You break it into those topics and that just becomes part of that strategy that you follow over time . And that's one of the great things that you know . Networking really helped me . It helped me be more comfortable speaking in front of people .

I was not super comfortable when I started and at this point I've done it for so long and I've done another environments . You know I've done um longer speaking engagements as well , but , uh , you , you know , being in that environment just helps you get trained for it and just , you know , helps you feel much more comfortable with public speaking .

But also when I'm speaking , be it speaking with you right now or be it speaking in a networking event , there's also this idea of you know , hey , let me just take a deep breath and , almost , like you know , put myself in a spot where I think I want to be to , to do my best here and not get in over my head .

And , honestly , when you're preparing for a networking group , if you if you know I'm drained by meeting a bunch of people don't schedule something right after your networking event or your referral group , like , keep the rest of the day open For me . I'm kind of opposite , like I actually fills me up .

So I tend to like , after this , I'll probably be like all right , let's do something . So I think it is a great point for everyone to to remember to be really self-aware about your energy and whether you're extroverted or introverted , depending on where you are on that scale and , like you mentioned , that can kind of depend on what situation you're in .

You may be really introverted in a big group , but you may be really extroverted in a small group . Or you may be really introverted in a group that you don't know , but you may be really extroverted in a group that you do know really well .

Right , because there's going to be some groups where , naturally , just because of the energy in the room , you're going to feel more comfortable , and there's others where you might feel more intimidated . Right , and it's going to be a variety of factors there , from size to energy , to time of day and everything . So , um , yeah , I mean it all .

It affects us all differently , right , and so try , like , uh , bni has a policy that you can come in and visit twice before you have to decide if you want to join or not .

And and I think that's a that's a reason there's a reason why it's not once , right , because maybe you're on an off day or you know , maybe you had something happen , or you know , getting a chance to try it twice , see different people in the room be in two different mental states is is important .

Give you more exposure to visitors and members and others Right . Give you more exposure to visitors and members and others Right . But I think that can be a great benefit to helping you build that trust from people and just help them getting involved in in what you're doing .

It wasn't a lot week to week , but I think what you're hitting on , the true benefit to that , is if a guest would come , let's say a construction company representative comes , and they see that Mike is the president of this chapter and he does web design , that tells me that he's committed to being here , to being professional , to leveling up and to being a

resource for these people . In a way , that's a very untapped potential for a sales thing too . Is you just showed that you're legitimate ? And I'll tell you this I don't know . Let me ask you a question . Live here , mike . What do you think one of the number one fears of clients is for web designers ?

Nobody in web designer of the know , like and trust because they're like . Well , mike's obviously here week to week If he tries to bail on me . I know where he is . It really does . It adds a level of continuity and stability . So yet another little sales benefit of being in a referral group . Yeah , another little sales benefit of being in a referral group .

You know you're running the meeting right , which just means that you're there and you're talking for know an hour and a half every morning , which is fine , but you're also in front of the meeting , you're you're the one that everyone's looking up to , like you gain a certain level of like thrust and authority just by being there and doing that .

Um , and you know there's been , like I'm happy to walk through like a timeline of basically my involvement for those who have hung out till this part , this point right , a little a little , uh little nuggetget here of my experience with BNI . I'm happy to share that , josh , if you're comfortable with that as well .

It was the being there every week . It was the being there every morning and I said , okay , no , let me hang out here for a little bit more , right . And so my next year was a little bit higher uh , at 26, . Uh , for 2020 . Now , then , we started focusing on building that power team , right ?

And that's where the business coach and I started bringing in , you know , the videographer and started bringing in some other folks and talking to them through as we're going through that COVID year and 2021 and all that , and , as a result , the revenue that I got from BNI in 2021 was $77,000 .

So that's a big jump , and that's all I attributed to the referrals that I started getting from those who were in adjacent industries , and that continued through 2022 as well , stayed steady , and then I became president of that chapter and I was just in front of people more often . I was running the meetings . Visitors were coming in .

I got a lot of referrals from visitors who came in . I started getting more referrals from our internal group and then that revenue jumped over $200,000 .

And I went through an exercise as well where I started productizing my offerings , just making things a lot simpler because of BNI , right , because I was seeing that the businesses that were there I was not having the Fortune 500 clients in the room , right , it was more the small businesses , the solopreneurs , the you know , smbs , and so I figured how can I make

it easy for them to where it's a no brainer to work with me ? Right ? And , and part of that has to do with pricing , part of that has to do with structure .

Um , and you know , offering just a good bang for the buck doesn't mean going , uh , super cheap with the services , but it means , uh , just demonstrating the quality and the success and making it so that they want to work with you .

Even without the big projects , it'll be well over six figures in bni revenue key gosh man .

Are you doing other forms of marketing along with this , or is this your bread and butter ?

Um , it's , it's nice because , like , as you develop those relationships , you start working a lot with people in the chapter on projects . So I have a lot of projects that I work on .

Where you know , I'll work with the business coaches in my chapter , I work with the videographer , the promotional products person , and so we all , like , instead of I mentioned at the beginning of the call that when I joined BNI , my , you know , I was full service agency , offering any marketing services that were necessary , and as the years went by , I discovered

there was a lot more powerful just to really focus in and zero in and say , no , I'm not going to offer social media management , no , I'm not going to offer , you know , photography or videography or Google ads or anything like that . I'm going to focus on websites and branding . Right , that's the bread and butter , that's what I'm going to do .

And then that means that now there's all these different projects that you know I can work with the social media manager , who is in my chapter right , because we're not competing anymore that you know other people in the chapter just feel comfortable bringing me in for , and and that's been really powerful as well .

So what's cool to wrap this up here , man , I know like you've really built up a large network locally , um , and you're doing kind of like some passion projects with this . Do you want to tell us about kind of what you're up to ?

This may be applicable for folks in the Atlanta area , um , but yeah , how has this led to some of your passion projects that you're up to ?

So the business coaches in my chapter and I , you know , in 2022 , we filed for a federal grant that was given to counties all over the country and to create a program that supported small and minority-owned businesses in , specifically in Cobb County , georgia , where we are right , so this is federal money . It's given to counties all over the country .

Cobb County decided that they were going to open it up for businesses to , you know , create ideas for programs for several different things , and part of that was workforce development right , supporting entrepreneurs . So we decided to create a proposal for a program that would help these small , minority owned businesses through a variety of things .

So we offer a free what we call a free scholarship right , which allows membership to our online community which , yes , is hosted by circle in in uh , you know where we have online courses that uh For sales , marketing , operations , in the areas of legal , finance , hr and entrepreneurial mindset . So we're trying to give that whole support for the entrepreneur .

What is some of that ? And we actually have a networking course that's going to be launching soon as well . Oh , nice , we do . And then we just launched this March , and so we got the community and we got the courses going . We're going to continue to launch more courses as we go . We have a lot of different experts uh creating their own courses .

I just created one that uh went live just a couple weeks ago about finding your audience . But we're also offering , you know , uh live workshops where members get a chance to go through you know things that they have questions on .

When it comes to the courses and the workshops , we have peer-to-peer roundtables , which is what we call our mastermind type groups , where you got a chance of being with other entrepreneurs in a safe space and just sharing some of your challenges .

And then we also have done with you services which are , you know , consulting services to help these entrepreneurs with some of the challenges that they might have , where they just need a consultant or a mentor to come in and walk them through one of these challenges and help them solve it .

So we're trying to offer that full support and build a community , a strong community of entrepreneurship here in Cobb County , georgia , and this is one of the things that came out of networking .

I imagine this contributes to your business too If you are a a leader in something like this that's either a nonprofit or a business leadership group especially for something like this that has such a worthwhile cause . Man , that's got to . I imagine that for a long time is going to continue to elevate .

Not that you're doing it for this reason , but it just shows another sign that you are reputable , dependable and you have passion and a heart for business too . You're just going to attract more and more awesome clients over the years ago . I imagine like you're going to scale like crazy here pretty soon to keep up with all this .

So I get a chance to share with them some of my knowledge and expertise , and my involvement with the program is very much from that coach perspective . Right when I'm doing , you know , I'm giving them the tools for them to essentially kind of understand a little bit of marketing .

This is not a you know , it's not a hey , you're going to become an expert in how to build a website . We don't even have a course on building sites or anything like that .

It's more an understanding what marketing is , why it's important to you know create those personas for your business , why it's important to you know create a strategy , define which channels you're going to be marketing in , how branding works From the marketing perspective .

Those are some of the things that we're communicating , and so I will do things like website reviews and branding reviews and live with them on our community as well . But it is so fun to be able to sit back from that perspective and share some knowledge and just help them grow and move forward .

And because that's always been something that I've told people , I'm so comfortable way before this . If you just want to sit down with me and just pick my brain over coffee , I'm fine with that , I'm happy to do it .

You know , I'm happy to share knowledge , I'm happy to just sit down and meet people and make conversations , and I've been , you know , because I had a lot of people who did that for me when I was starting my business . I had people who took time to walk me through certain things that I should have done .

I had folks who helped me understand when I moved from Brazil to the US . I had folks to help me understand , you know , local culture and how to navigate it and all that . So I I want to be able to do that as well for other folks , and that's where the Cobb County business bootcamp comes in , because now we have an avenue to do that .

Yes , look me up on LinkedIn and we'll have all the links in the show notes , of course .

Uh , but you know , I wanted something that was really unique and it came from , um , my , like my kids , we'd play superheroes during covid when I was home with them and I had this uh mask that I'd pull over . It was a . Uh , it was aanie . It was a daredevil beanie because they had their costumes and I just had this beanie right .

So we'd wrestle around the couch and I had this beanie and I'd pull it down over my face and say I'm daredevil . And one day my oldest comes to me and she's like Daddy , daddy , let's go play . I'm like OK , what do you want to go play ? She's like let's go play bear double . I go bear double .

She's like yeah , when you pull the mask and you're , you say I'm bear double . Oh , so it became a family joke and when you know I went to rebrand , I decided you know what I want ? Something that is truly unique and that's rooted on the reason why I do what I do , which is my family .

That's awesome and the kids light up whenever they hear the name , whenever they see see , the bear right .

We're both Divi guys , so I'm totally going to rip it off . Oh dude , absolutely I'm totally going to rip a couple of things off this site .

uh , I'm very excited about it and you're right , I think one of the main things I love about Divi is the community . There's still um , such a . There's just folks like you and myself and others who are , and there's great communities for all builders , but there's something still really special about the divi community .

So , um , I love hearing that you're sticking with it and you're still really enjoying , oh yeah absolutely listen .

You know challenges . I don't want to hate on any particular tool , but I've had a lot of people who they reach out to me and say I want to build my own site but , uh , you know I can't afford to hire you . I want to build my own site but I tried this one builder and it's not as quick as they make it .

Look in their you know 15 second YouTube ad and I tell them look up Divi , because you can go to YouTube and type Divi and whatever question you have , and everything comes up and then I usually I refer them to check you out . Right , I'm like just Google Divi Blank statement . Josh Hall .

I had no idea about what you're up to behind the scenes with some of this stuff . You are a true web designer . Pro . I want to say publicly it's an honor to have you in pro you are .

You know you're busy , you're doing a lot of things , but you pop in quite a bit and anytime you do comment on something , I'm always keeping an eye out because I know it's going to be thoughtful and good , like really good . You know advice based off of what's working for you . Good , you know advice based off of what's working for you .

So thanks so much , man , for being in my world and being a huge part of pro , and I'm thrilled about what the next level , uh , next few years , are going to look like for you , and I think you're just going to continue to kill it and have more time for the three littles man .

You know I make sure I make a point to be there to go back and listen to the replays and anything like that , because I find so much value on just hearing the struggles that other people are having and them coming to you and you helping them walk through that process and come up with solutions right , be it a website review or be it just helping them think

through the business model of how to organize things , and then seeing that evolution week after week . I think to me that's one of the most helpful parts , right , and it's doing that , and then also just the fact that you have this community of you know what are we at now pro like little over 200 , 220 , 223 today . Goodness . So it's like you .

The neat thing , and what I do a lot , is you hear someone talking about a topic that you're struggling with or that you're interested in Guess what . You contact them directly in the community , right , and everyone who I've contacted has always answered back and has always been so gracious .

You've really fostered a really engaging and positive community , which I love , so thank you .

Till next time , man , I think we can probably have a few other conversations come out of this one , but uh , really appreciate hearing your thoughts on networking referrals . So Paul already pumped for another one , for round two someday , man .

It's such a mirrored and paralleled story to mine , um , that I just could not agree more with what Mike had to say in this one about why you should consider networking , how to get started and , yes , the investment . It is an investment to join a referral group , but do you want to put that in ads ? Do you want to put it in reels ?

And hiring somebody when you could go to a networking group and immediately be in front of hundreds of people Sounds like a no brainer to me .

It was a no brainer when I built my business for over a decade through networking , so I encourage it Now if you would like to connect with me and Mike and you want to share some results that you get from your networking efforts .

As you come back to this , head over to the show notes for this episode , which will be found at joshhallco slash three , three , eight . Make sure you check out Mike's site as well at joshhallco slash three , three , eight . We'll have a link there to his site , which is bear doublecom . It's got a really cool Divi site in the works .

Well , it's actually live now , so check that out . And , as we talked about , this is just one member of 200 plus of amazing web designer pros in my community called web designer pro .

If you want to surround yourself with people like Mike and get the support and encouragement and even just additional inspiration from people who are doing it and building six and multi six figure businesses , come on into Web Designer Pro , join us . You go to Josh Hall dot co . Slash pro to join us .

Mike is more of a top tier member with a multi six figure web design business but , as you've seen here , he's so open and so willing to share what has worked for him . It's one of the main reasons I just absolutely love our little corner of the internet in Web Designer Pro .

So if you're wanting to get similar results and you want to see what's working , you want proven paths head on over to Web Designer Pro . Come join us . Joshhallco slash pro . And for the show notes for this episode , all the links we mentioned , a full transcription and to connect with Mike , go over to joshhallco , slash 338 .

Until next time , friends , go over right now and join a networking group or join BNI referral group . Get on it and get some leads and get some web design clients . Cheers .