Making Introductions
Host: Isaac Mashman · February 18, 2022 · Episode 92 · 12 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited to read cleanly: names and terms corrected, grammar fixed, filler words and false starts removed, punctuation added. Words in [brackets] could not be made out with certainty. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Hey, what is going on, everybody? Isaac Mashman here, and welcome back to another episode of your favorite podcast, Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, the show that at the end of the day is here to help you become a more capable individual through me sharing my experiences and knowledge in business, life and personal growth. Today I want to talk about introductions. I want to talk about making introductions and introducing yourself, so there are a couple different subjects that are going to be discussed in this episode. But prior to jumping into the subject matter, I would like to remind you guys of the fee for listening to my show.
It's not monetary, and I'm not running advertisements. However, I would greatly appreciate it if, when you get value out of my episodes, you share those episodes with somebody you know that you feel will also get that same amount of value: a business partner, a family member, a friend, whoever it might be in your life. I have some really exciting things to be able to say.
It's like, for the past month, practically all of January, it seems like I was charting in Gambia. I was charting in Uganda, in the education podcast space, in the self-improvement space. If I'm not mistaken, I actually hit like the number one or number two self-improvement podcast for a time in regions that I've never actively, purposefully promoted in. That's just the power of searchability. That's the power of algorithms. And now I want to really tap into word of mouth. So I want to start off with a story. So I'm on a client call today, and it's with a client based out of Canada that I recently began working with.
She's an author of a book. She's an exceptional businesswoman. She's been in the HR space for 20 years, and now she's stepping into the realm of starting a business.
She wants to deliver a TED talk, and she has all these different things that she has going on right about now. I'm talking to her, and I'm like (let's just go ahead and call her Melissa), Melissa, don't feel overwhelmed about what you've got going on. You're going to be able to absolutely crush anything that you put your mind to. I want to make an introduction. This is towards the end of the call, and we've already gone over the basics of her personal brand and covered the introductory things that we cover on a call with Mashman Ventures. Then at the end, I'm thinking to myself, who could I introduce her to? Who do I know that would be able to provide value to her, and who could she provide value to as well?
Somebody came up in my mind. The funny thing is, the person that came up in my mind is also a client of Mashman Ventures. How crazy is that? So I'm on a call with a client, and the person who I know I should introduce her to is also a client. Now, he is a client of Eric Chow, Chief Consultant of Mashman Ventures. Later on in the evening, literally about an hour ago, I made the introduction. I said, hey, Melissa, meet Richard. This is going to be a fantastic relationship. Richard's already delivered a TED talk before. He's already done XYZ. He has a podcast. This would be a great relationship to start building. It would be a relationship that behooves both parties. Needless to say, it's funny that a client can benefit another client.
Now, in other cases, in other situations, a business owner or a business person might refrain from making that similar introduction for fear of another person stealing that business. A lot of people are living in this mentality of scarcity, this mentality that everybody is out to screw them over in business, and there are always going to be people that are like that. But the fact of the matter is, the more introductions you make, the more it shows that you care about people. The more introductions you make, the more it shows that you have a network. The more introductions you make, the more it shows that you are actually living the things that you are preaching.
It doesn't matter if it's a business introduction or a personal introduction. Let's say you're introducing two people that you think would make a great couple to go out on a date, or introducing a friend that you think would be another great friend to another friend, or maybe you're introducing a client or a prospect to somebody who is a service provider, or, in this case, one person who really isn't going to be a client of that person, but is just a great person to be connected with.
There are so many different kinds of introductions and different parties that can get involved here, by really opening yourself up and understanding that there are going to be benefits to making these introductions. There's not only the perception that the person is going to have of you now that you thought enough of them to introduce somebody to them, but also the person that you are introducing is going to be like, wow, Isaac is going above and beyond for me, or Isaac is wanting to see me win. This applies to you who are listening: Johnny thinks enough of me to make this introduction, right? Cheryl thinks enough of me to make this introduction.
That has unlimited ROI. You don't know what the return on that investment could be, because down the line, your client or that person you're introducing could very well come back to you and say, hey, I want to introduce you to somebody.
I want to make this referral your way, especially when you are building a referral-based business. I'm not saying that you're making introductions expecting a return or expecting anything back. However, at the end of the day, chances are you're going to get that ROI in the long term. It might take a couple of years, or it might be immediate, within the next couple of days or a couple of hours or even a couple of minutes. But whenever you're building out your business, it's always going to be beneficial to have a referral program. Hey, you refer us a client, and we're going to give you a 20% commission off the first deal.
We do it [so] that you break it down in the numbers and say, hey, we do a $10,000 deal, you get 20%, and that's $2,000 back in your pocket.
That's a way to show that you want to take care of the people that are working with you. I recently actually sent out a referral bonus. I sent out a referral bonus to somebody who made the introduction to one of my clients. I was like, hey, here's 600 bucks. Here's a thank you. Thank you for making this connection and introducing this person to my book, and then by nature to my business and what I have going on professionally. It's all about relationship building. It's relationship building one on one, one on one, and relationships are meant to be nurtured. Whenever you're planting a seed and whenever you're growing something (I personally love gardening), whenever you plant a seed, it doesn't show immediately.
So I could talk about a bonsai tree that takes years to grow, or I could talk about the avocado seedling I'm growing right now.
I've had the avocado in water for the past three or four weeks, actually more than that, and it's just now starting to sprout a little root. But the thing is, I kept it watered, I kept it in the sun, I kept it healthy, and now I'm starting to see the fruits of the labor. But even then, it's going to take years for that avocado tree to produce an avocado of its own, if it ever does. But regardless, that's the same thing with relationships. You have to continue nurturing these relationships and building them out, and making introductions for them or to them is a great way to expedite the growth process.
It is a catalyst for your relationship. Then afterwards, you see that person get on that other individual's podcast, or do business with that person, or start dating them or hanging out with them.
As friends, you're able to really start to see the long-term benefits, not for you, but for them. I think seeing that benefit, and seeing that you were able to make an impact in a positive way without even having to be there 24/7, is worth it. This isn't in some feel-good way. It's very simply knowing that you had a part in that process. You had a part in their lives that is going to remain the same for however long they stay friends, or however long that podcast is going to be around and online on the internet. So the equivalent, in my opinion, is naming a client's company.
I've had the opportunity of naming like a dozen companies over the past year, and it's cool, because whenever I see the post or whenever I see it, I'm like, man, I had a part in that. It's not to boost my ego. It's very simply to say, hey, that's pretty freaking cool. The other thing, when it comes to introductions, is you have to be comfortable introducing yourself to people or asking other people to introduce you, making an introduction to somebody that's within their network. I remember a couple months ago, somebody gave me a call who I hadn't heard from in a long while, and she called me up and she's like, hey, Isaac, I see that you're connected on LinkedIn with Mayor Suarez of Miami. And I'm like, I completely forgot that I was.
Now the thing is, I wasn't building a relationship with the Mayor of Miami. However, the fact that I was connected on LinkedIn meant that I could potentially make the introduction, and she hit me up and she's like, could you possibly introduce us? I was like, hey, I don't know [him], unfortunately, so I don't feel comfortable making that introduction. But I was thinking to myself, imagine if I did have that relationship. I could make and connect that, right? I can think back to when I was younger and there was a lady at the church who introduced me to the council members, and I was able to go in and attend council meetings in Jacksonville, the 904, Duval County. I was able to meet some of the councilmen, some of the representatives of the city.
I was able to meet the mayor, not necessarily shake his hand. It was a very busy meeting, but I was able to see him. And even then, this was around the time I was considering going to college, and one of the council members was like, hey, if you want to go to the Naval Academy, I can write you a letter. Right there is third-party edification. It's the same thing as having a video testimonial. They lie within the same field of third-party validation. Then I can talk briefly about making introductions for yourself, being comfortable going up to somebody and saying, hey, what's going on, building rapport and feeling comfortable with an elevator pitch.
If you are not comfortable talking about yourself, how do you expect other people to feel comfortable about you. So a couple big takeaways here. Number one, don't be in a scarcity mindset thinking that everybody that you want to introduce is going to try to siphon your prospects. If anything, it's going to result in the opposite, to where now they're bringing you prospects of their own to help you grow your business. So don't be in that scarcity mindset. Number two, make sure that you are introducing people without expecting a return. You're doing things, and the ROI can either be immediate, there might not be an ROI in the long term that can directly be measured, or maybe there will be a fantastic ROI in the long term.
But don't go into it thinking, hey, if I introduce this person, I can get good with this person. If you really want to be that strategic, I'd say go for it. But don't go and act like you're trying to do this expecting a return. It's like giving 20 bucks to a homeless man and expecting the universe to rain pots of gold down into your hands. That's not how this works. That's not how this works. There's a difference between being strategic and abusing your influence and abusing psychology. I talk about that briefly in my book, Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence. This concept of personal branding is so powerful that you really need to be aware of how you're using said influence.
So keep those things in mind, and then also feel comfortable introducing yourself to strangers and to other people. With that being said, that wraps up and covers pretty much everything that I wanted to talk about today. If you got any value from this episode of Chase the Vision, please go ahead and share this with a friend, with a business partner, with a family member, somebody that you know that will get benefit from this podcast. Be sure to look out for another episode Monday and Friday each and every week, with the goal of helping you become a more capable individual. Much love.