Overview
On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers – where entrepreneurs start and grow their business.
Topics Discussed:
- Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important and why?
- When you know more, you can meet more people.
- If you know everyone, but you have nothing to offer them, is that really a good connection?
- You need a happy balance between having some skill and value and you need to meet the right people.
- You need both.
- Are you trying to meet people to just meet people, or are you trying to meet people who can become partners?
- If you want to explode your network, you need some kind of value or skill to offer.
- Pick one skill, become really great at it, and then when you network with people you have one thing you can offer.
- Commas = comas, don’t have a massive list of things that you do.
- If you’re willing to work for free for someone, they’ll introduce you to other people at their level.
- Naturally, Derek is an introvert.
- You need to go through learning implementation loops.
- You should be reading a book a week.
- He prefers to read biographies and memoirs – it lets you get motivated and know that you’re not alone.
- You know that when something bad happens to you, someone else has it worse.
- Read the first half of the John D. Rockefeller biography, Titan.
- As I See It, by J. Paul Getty – another great read.
- Reading books give you something to talk about.
- If you bring a skill to the table, people know how to use you when the time is right.
- Another way to bring value to the table is to just be fun to hang out with.
- He’s made a lot of good friends by not leading with value and just having fun.
- Building relationships will ultimately lead to creating value in people’s lives.
- Dan Pink’s Drive talks about how when you pay your kids to do something, you cause them to lose interest later in life.
- Derek didn’t read anything at all until he was 22 years old.
- He ready Winning by Jack Welch where he learned that he read things to learn.
- In Warren Buffets biography he says he read the biographies of the people who came before him and that’s what inspired him.
- What shifted your mind into entrepreneurship?
- He wrote a couple of full-length plays in college and then realized that you don’t make any money doing that.
- He made money trying to write advertisements instead.
- He also took his writing skills and turned them into writing a blog making fun of celebrities.
- Had almost 100 million visits on his celebrity gossip blog.
- His monetization was mainly just ad networks.
- Nobody like writing – “I hate writing, but I love having written.” Quote by Hemingway.
- He writes a lot of the main parts of his content himself.
- He likes to tell a good story, entertain people.
- The second most important part of networking is having something to talk about.
- The number one problem people had was what they should talk about with people is how they should start.
- If you don’t have anything to say, you’re better off asking questions, however there are two problems with this approach:
- It’s like you’re interrogating them.
- You’re not giving them anything to remember you by.
- Derek believes every human on earth needs a personal story bank.
- He keeps his in a note app on his phone.
- He has hundreds of stories to tell.
- Put one story in the story bank every day.
- Storytelling Tip #1
- Get to the conflict fast, get to the interesting part.
- Start in the middle of the story to get to the interesting part.
- He tries to publish at least one story every couple of days on his Facebook profile.
The Random Round
- What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
- Stand-up comedian.
- If you could sit on a park bench for any hour with anyone past or present, who would it be?
- John D. Rockefeller, he grew up poor and built one of the largest companies in the world.
- How do you like to learn best, books, blogs, podcasts or video?
- Books
- One of your favorite books.
- As I See It by J. Paul Getty
- Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
- Give us a glimpse of your morning routine:
- Wake up and hope he gets to shower
- What is your go-to pump up song:
- Not really that guy, if he needs an energy boost he goes outside and starts harassing people.
- If he’s writing he listens to a song called Clarity by Zed
- What are you not very good at?
- Not very observant, bad at everything except business.
- Go to socialtriggers.com and get on his email list.
- He’s obsessed with Instagram
Tweetable Quotes:
- If you bring a skill to the table, people know how to use you when the time is right.
- If you know everyone, but you have nothing to offer them, is that really a good connection?
Resources Mentioned:
Buildyournetwork.com – Podcast website
Socialtriggers.com – Derek’s website
Derek’s Favorite Books:
Titan, John D. Rockefeller Biography
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