www.FrankAgin.com

Franks Book: Foundational Networking

Networking RX Podcast

Franks Linked IN

Franks Facebook

Franks Twitter

Host Your Podcast for Free with Buzz Sprout  

Our Show Sponsor Sutter and Nugent Real Estate – Real Estate Excellence 

Music Courtesy of: fight by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/58696 Ft: Stefan Kartenberg, Kara Square

Speech Transcript

 

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

Hey, this is Frank Kagan founder and president of and spirit distance connection. If you really want to learn how to level up your life, you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my friend Scott Ferguson.

Unknown Speaker  0:11  

Time to shine today. Marcy squatted is Scott Ferguson and this is episode 123. With my really good friend Frank Hagen, he’s the founder of am spirit business connections, a fantastic networking group that has a great sense of community. Frank just dropped some serious serious knowledge nuggets on us regarding lift up other people’s worlds and yours will automatically be lifted up. You know, a great networker is focused on other people. He goes on and on. So it’s fantastic. He’s a fellow Midwesterner a fellow patriots and I can’t wait to bring you into this episode and Have you listened to my really good Frank. Good friend Frank Hagen from am spirit business connections.

Unknown Speaker  1:03  

Hey, time to shine today Farsi squatted a Scott Ferguson and I’ve got my, I guess kind of a fellow Michigan friend here. He lives in Ohio now. But he kind of grew up as a upar. They’re in the Upper Peninsula. They’re in the mitten. And as you all know, me here, I have roots in the Detroit area, and it’s nice to talk to people from the Midwest. The conversation always flows, it always goes great. And today, we’ve got the ultimate connector. My friend Frank Hagen, and he is the founder of am spirit business connections. And he not only is the founder, he’s the president of am spirit business connections, which empowers entrepreneurs, sales representatives, and professionals to become successful through networking. He also hosts the networking RX podcast, which you have to check it out. I’ll throw that in the show notes, which has insights and interviews related to better business relationships. Finally, Frank is the author of several books. She Check the show notes he’s got books like foundational networking, the champion chase greatness they’re all fantastic read so you grab those in the show notes as well and he is made a carved out a little bit of time it’s been a long time coming he’s been patiently await on me and he’s just fantastic and so Frank Come on introduce yourself to the time to shine today squad in a minute but first What’s your favorite color? And why? Well, my favorite color is blue. My favorite color is blue because it’s on the American flag. There you go. I’m the ultimate patriot when I was growing up as a kid in Michigan, I my dad built out a room for me I had a choice of carpet. And I went with red white and blue right? Love it. I visited my childhood home and the carpets still there. I’m sorry. Even since you were a kid you and where you love the country. Thank you Thank you for love country is my listeners know as a veteran did a bunch of deployments back In the early to mid 90s. And to be able to talk to somebody that loves his country, as much as I do, is very, very refreshing. But although we love all points of view here and time to share today, but hey, Frank, give us a little bit of the origin so that you have from where you started to how you came up to launch am spirit. Well, as you alluded to, I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My father was a professor there, I went to college in Wisconsin, got a great education. And that led me to attending law school at The Ohio State University. I got a law degree in an MBA and never really planned on staying here. I ended up I got a job with a really a really big accounting firm as a tax consultants, and I’m really entrepreneurial. And so after about six and a half years, they said I want to do something on my own. I left I went into private practice. And I tell people, Scott that a funny thing happened when I went into private practice. And the funny thing was that nothing happened. I had no idea how to get clients. I was that I was that jerk at networking events, right? We all know who he is. Here’s your card. Here’s my card. Exactly. That’s me, right? And it doesn’t work. And so, after about a month of that I had lunch one day with a friend of mine who was an attorney, and she took a different path. She started her own firm. And I said, Well, what do I need to do to be successful? I don’t want to be begging for my job back. And she said, You need to get into the tips club or leads group. I really didn’t know what she was talking about. But through a couple introductions, Scott, she connected me with a group of people that we’re meeting once a week to learn about each other and exchange referrals. And they were starting a brand new chapter, they needed an attorney. And it made total sense to me. I could lift up my world by lifting up the world of people around me. It’s so easy for me. It’s so easy for me to go all day long and just brag on you right? And at the end of the day, feel great about it. And you do that for yourself. For 10 minutes and you’re exhausted, you know, so I just I really got involved in that became its first franchisee. And then back in 2003 I execute late 2003 I executed a buyout and then rebranded it as am spirit business connections, which is short for American spirit, again, back to the patriotic roots love. And so that at that point I just said, I’m all in on this I stopped the practice of law and I’ve just continued to help

Unknown Speaker  5:31  

help people in small business America become more successful through the relationships around them. And so I just believe that small but you know, I call a small business, the new American Revolution. Absolutely. It really is. So what was the It sounds like you made a transition? Frank was there during one of maybe your leads groups or one of them you said that you had an aha moment that you said you’re going to launch am spirit. Um, well, you know, as I was in the group, I just I looked at was just a member, I was just an attorney. I’m like, wow, this is really neat. You can help a lot of people. And I was good at it. I was good at. I’m good at connecting people. You know, I’m good at helping people with referrals. I’m good at explaining it. When I had an opportunity to be a franchisee, I’m like, Okay, this makes sense. And I told my wife, I said, you know, 40 years from now, if I stay being an attorney, it’s not a bad life. I know what it looks like, it’s a decent life. But if I take this other path, I, I can really impact a lot of people and good about myself. So that’s, you know, that was really kind of the the jumping off point. It was a risk, right? It’s all Yes. So what is the difference between you and that three letter word? the DNI like, Yeah, when you guys, you know, I get that question a lot. And my, my answer is, I really don’t know because I’ve never been in DNI. I mean, I hear things that I could say things, but people were telling me about DNI there are people who’ve had bad experiences for the most part. And I don’t think that’s fair to be and I know what I, what I really like to talk about are the things that I’m passionate about what we’re passionate about all my franchisees. One, we’re very passionate about members exchanging quality referrals. We call them qualified. When you’re giving the name of somebody to contact they will be expecting the call, but we’re not sending one another wild goose chases. Hey, call my name or don’t let them know I call that doesn’t work. Right.

Unknown Speaker  7:30  

The second thing it does happen, though.

Unknown Speaker  7:35  

You know, but it’s awkward. It’s a joke. I if I want to refer you, Scott, I want to set you up. Sure, right. Yeah. Hey, Bob Scott’s gonna call you He is amazing. She took care of me took care of friends. And so when you call my neighbor, whoever, wow, I’m so happy you call. You may not get to business but put you in the right place at the right time. The second thing is education. I see So many people who, who run into problems because they do a poor job of explaining what it is they do. And they talk about what they do your realtor, that really being a realtor is a what? Right. Right now. Hey, good referral for me as somebody needs a realtor. Okay, so what? Right?

Unknown Speaker  8:22  

Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  8:23  

but you’re much more powerful when you start talking about the wins. If you know somebody who’s living in that 400 square foot apartment that just had a baby. Sure that’s a win. That’s when I swing into action and find them their first home. Love it. Right? Sure, absolutely. When and so we do a lot of educating people to talk about their wins. And then there’s a whole series of education we do to get them good at not just getting referrals, but teaching them how to give referrals as well. That’s really the lifeblood of the organization. And the third thing that that we’re real passionate about is creating a sense of community. You know, Have franchisees, you know, a growing core of franchisees across the country, and they’re all in contact with each other. And the chapters are in contact with one another. You did a leadership program last week, and I had people from Boston, on the phone with people in Arizona. So we’re in I don’t know what I don’t know what DNI does, but that’s what we do. And that’s what we really are passionate about. I belong to be an AIS before and I don’t have anything bad to say about him, but other people do. So I just thought I’d kind of throw that out there. So what do you think makes someone a great networker and if you’re watching on video, or if you’re listening, I put that in quotes, air quotes, but what do you think makes a great networker Frank? Well, you know what I think it’s I think it’s really simple. And someone who is a great networker is somebody who’s focused on other people love it. I know we come You know, we come to networking because we want to get things. I call it the ultimate bait and switch right Come on down, we’ll sell you this conversion van for 20,000. It’s fully load and you get down there like, oh, we’re sorry, it’s gone. You know, we have a $60,000 model and networking, the same way people come to it, they’re attracted to because they want to get things. But the people who are the most successful are the people who give things. You’re successful because you’ve had this, you know, the blog and you’re doing this podcast. You may not look at it this way, but you’re giving to other people. So the way we look at it, right? The go giver, right, Bob Berg kind of thing if you ever read absolutely, Bob, there’s my neighbor over here. So yeah, but but tell us about a bad referral you’ve ever made that came back almost by you. Oh, I listeners love to hear kind of a you know, a fail forward, if you will. Yeah. You know, a bad referral. It’s I mean, it’s been so

Unknown Speaker  10:55  

that’s why he’s a pro peeps. That’s why he’s on here. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  10:59  

Yes, that’s all Question. You know, I mean, I think there are referrals that I have given that just haven’t worked out. Sure. Because I don’t know the situation. Has anybody ever came back to you and said, You’re crazy for referring this person? Yeah, I’ve had that. I’ve had that I’ve, how did you bounce back from being the face of a big organization like you are? Well, you know, my thing is, is that you only can know, you only know so much about people. Like for example, there was one guy referred. And the person I referred him to call me and say, you know, that guy you sent me? Yeah, you know, I’m waiting for this glowing review, because I was totally enamored with the person. Well, you can tell that son of a bitch, but like, you’re fine. You’re gonna tell him never to call again. I’m like, excuse me. And I went on to describe are we talking about the same person right now wears a suit, you know, hair like this? Yeah, him. And the guy just had a different persona dealing with clients and he did dealing with me, clients and he was, you know, hey, I’m going to I’m going to tell you what you need to do is to pray. How can I serve you? Right? He turned off his Labrador Retriever and turned on his Pitbull and right and I have a pitbull, so no offense stitch my dudes right here next to my feet. But all right, well, thanks for sharing that because people like to hear it. And it’s real. You know, Frank so. So if you see this usually I like to have a good networking question. But are you guys nationwide? Or or what’s what’s your what’s your story with areas where we’re at? Right at this point, we’re in eight different states we just wanted in Chicago. We are looking for. We’re expanding across the country. We are actively looking for people, we’re looking for people who want to become part of this. And the question I always ask and you’ll appreciate this being a realtor. Would you rather

Unknown Speaker  12:51  

rent an apartment or be the landlord?

Unknown Speaker  12:56  

And that’s, you know, that’s a rhetorical question for most part right? Most people are going to say I’d rather be the landlord. And so what I ask people is you do just want to be in a networking organization, or you want to own a networking organization, because that’s what we do with, you know, with our franchisees or managers or leaders, teach them how to get these things started. In Chicago, I’m just teaching them what I know. And they’re, they’re working with their contacts. So there’s probably people listening out there who are in groups, you know, if they have an interest at all in owning groups, not one group, but several groups and being kind of the kingpin of all of a network and not just making more money from their connections, but making money connecting people. Those are the types of people we’re looking for. Love it. Okay, okay. Keep that out there, folks. And at the end, I’ll tell everybody how to get in front with get in touch with me to get in touch with Frank. So I got to like backtrack a little bit. What did your family think about you? Leaving a law practice to start this where they are never they like what the hell are you doing, Frank? Or what was their take? Well, you know, it all kind of dated back to 95 when I left the big firm to go into private practice, and it was, you know, I feel bad for my father who he’s still alive at six years old. I’m doing well. But in the span of a month, my brother had left the Air Force to start his own consulting business. My sister had started her own law practice up in Minneapolis. And I went into private practice. And here’s my father who, you know, he was a professor, and that was the world he knew, you know, he knew that very secure world. And so he was like, Oh, my gosh, you know what’s going on? But when I you know, I don’t think so at that point. They were, the whole family was kind of, they were, they were acclimated to Hey, this there’s there’s an entrepreneurial Spirit within this family. But there were a lot of friends who were they were just really concerned, you’re walking away from a law practice to do this, right. And I think everybody kind of not that there’s nothing wrong with practicing law. But everybody thinks like, you know, you live up on the hill and the Million Dollar Man. And that’s not it. What I would tell people is, you know, practicing law to a certain extent is, is like being that if you’re a glorified plumber, just solve the problem, you get paid, and that’s done and you’re done. Right? Um, you know, doing what I’m doing. I am building a brand. I came up with a word am spirit, you know, love it. Yeah. Well, and, you know, it’s got value to it. And that’s something I’ve created. And now what happens with that I’m, you know, I’m not a I’m not a greedy person. I’m not worried about that. But I just have the ability to really kind of help lots of people all across the country. Sure. And so Any company’s ever tried to come after you because your name you know because it seemed American spirit it could seem like almost an airline’s or like another company. Anybody ever try to come after you regarding that just so that’s about it out there because I love the name, but I just had to ask it. No, you know, part of the reason I chose the name you know when I was in the consulting business I knew I was looking for a way out and Scott I I had this notion of creating a brand of sports where there was all American made everything shifted overseas and to be honest, I really didn’t know anything about the business so it never went anywhere. Right when I was looking for a unique name for this, I came up with the name am spirit, but I already had it trademarked. So I could have been done for years. appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, I did have a group when I first renamed it leave. They said it sounds too much like Amway, okay, and my financial planner called my advisor who’s still my financial advisor, and he said, I got to tell you People are really nervous about the name. Okay, what are your plans? I’m like, Eric, I don’t have any plans. I have burned my boat. This is what I’m doing. Hey, God, go ahead. But six months later he called back and he was like, You know what? people really love this. They love the name. Love it. No, I love it. I love the name and, and you know, being a patriot myself. absolutely absolutely love it. So let’s get in our DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the 23 year old Frank Hagen Yep, look at it knowledge nuggets. You drop in on that Frank with an wisdom and experience you have now to help them shortness learning curve and level up.

Unknown Speaker  17:44  

You know it’s it. I have kids about that age. And it’s the same thing I tell them. It’s all about your relationships, start building relationships. I’ve got a daughter who just graduated from college, and she is over connected on LinkedIn. She has more connections on LinkedIn than most people who’d been on LinkedIn for years. And it’s just, you know, start building relationships don’t look at, you know, don’t look at people as transactions, look at them as relationships and what you can do to help them and they’ll naturally want to help you in return. You know, when I was at age, and I was just in law school, my whole mindset my whole world was focused on get smart, get smart, be as smart as you can learn as much as you can. And in reality, that’s important, but the relationships are a whole lot more important. Absolutely. So you it’s more about who you know than what you know, a lot of the times because a lot of times if you don’t know something you can ask. We call get your asking gear here at time to shine today. Yeah, but no, I hundred percent agree with you. And I got to get to another podcast with Travis chapel, who Travis is phenomenal. I built a lot of my foundation of this. He has a podcast called build your network. Fantastic. We got to get you on that when I’ll reach out to Travis and he dwarfs my podcasts and he’s fantastic. So we talked a lot about the dash Here at time to shine today, I want to know how you want your desk remembered, you know from the dash between the life date and death date, how do you want people to remember Frank Hagen? I want people to remember me as somebody who was a community builder. Certainly am spirit is a community. But I’m building other communities informally. I have a network of not for profits that I bring together monthly. Just to talk about their challenges. It’s it’s a networking group, it’s totally free. Come on in. You guys all have challenges. But you all have solutions to one another’s challenges. So let’s come in and let’s share and I’ve recently started building a network of people across the country of people who are like me, or like Josh tap, that are really well connected and just kind of sharing information. Right? You know, I want to, you know, years ago I wrote goals for myself and I have goals for myself with Respect to you know, retiring and wealth and things like that. But three goals, or one goal I have is to help three people get to a million dollar net worth, you know, um, you know, certainly my kids but just other people. I just want to help other people. Yeah. You know, it’s almost like you’re almost putting out a mentoring hat there. My mentor, you know, said that the more you mentor, the more immortal you become. You know, so yeah, absolutely. Frank, what’s the one thing you know for sure. Wow, I mean, all keeps going back to it all keeps coming back to networking. The one thing I do know for sure is that we are built. We are we are hardwired to help each other. I read an article, an article that was talking about Margaret Mead, Margaret Meads, an anthropologist, big name anthropologists and one of the students in her class asked, what was the first sign of human civilization thinking they would get an answer? Like, you know, spear tips or clay pots or something. And what Margaret came back with what she thought about it, she came back. She said, A healed femur. She says in the animal kingdom femurs don’t heal because of an animal breaks its femur. That’s the that’s the bone that connects the knee to the hip. Right? And that’s bones broken and you’re done. Sure, but when to find a being, it takes six weeks to heal. But to find a being that survived, that means that somebody cared enough to stay behind. Wow. And so we are hardwired. we’re hardwired to help each other. That’s amazing, Frank, that that is absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing that. So let’s take our computer let’s take our tablet or cell phones all out of this next question. What’s what’s three things Frank can’t live without

Unknown Speaker  21:50  

three things I can’t live without.

Unknown Speaker  21:56  

No tablets. I do love to read. I love to read Good. You wrote a plethora of

Unknown Speaker  22:04  

read. Yeah, like, um, you know what, three things I can’t live without, you know certainly books having access to books you know certainly having the ability to, to go to church I like going after love it. It’s for me it’s like rebooting the computer. And I put some religion on anybody. Yeah, but, you know, just kind of have that moment of quiet reflection. And I you know, I do enjoy

Unknown Speaker  22:38  

going for walks with my wife and loving,

Unknown Speaker  22:41  

beautiful. No chicken wings or any food or nothing. So I’m a chicken wingstop Yes. My chicken legs brother. I could go all day about food. I’m a pizza guy, but I love all food too. Very cool. Very cool. So Frank, what’s your definition of life wallet. You know, a definition of a life well lived is being able to, to call your own shots to be able to say, Oh, this is you know, I had impact, doing something that I was passionate about and inspiring other people to kind of carry that on.

Unknown Speaker  23:17  

Love it.

Unknown Speaker  23:20  

Well, your past, I’m taking some notes, people. I’m writing this down. So that’s fantastic. So Frank, how can we find you?

Unknown Speaker  23:27  

You know that everybody likes to communicate all sorts of different ways. What I have done is I’ve set up a website Frank Hagen calm. It’s an easy way to get to my email to get to my LinkedIn to get to my Facebook, you can see all the books I’ve written. You have links to my podcasts on there. I actually have two podcasts. I’ve one that you know that you had mentioned the short form podcast, and then I have a minute daily podcast that’s just inspiration, insight, networking tips, one minute every day, but all that stuff is in one place at Frank Hagen dot com. Beautiful, beautiful. Also, what is the charitable roundtable? The charitable roundtable is this? I’ll give you some backstory. Sure. Five, six years ago, I was sitting and looking at my network. And I said, Wow, I’ve helped a lot of small businesses. But I know these small not for profits, and I want to try and help them to without having to say, Okay, I want to get into a cancer charity, or homelessness or whatever I want to try and help them to. So what I did was I brought a handful of them together. And I said, Listen, I know what everybody’s number one challenge is here. It’s money. We’re not going to talk about mareel, you’re we’re not going to talk about it. Because if we talk about money, everyone’s going to clam up. But let’s talk about all our other problems. And so they started sharing. And I said, Well, you guys like to continue to do that. And that’s that other community I alluded to, it’s a group of not for profits. Every month. You come in, it’s totally free. Share, you know, what are the challenges, what are the successes you’ve had, you know, you’ve had challenges, how can we help you through it? You’ve had successes. How can those successes help other people? Beautiful, beautiful. Love that and I’ll be in the show notes as well people. As we wind things down here Frank I got kind of a leveling up lightning round five or six questions you and I could talk for 1520 minutes on each but you got five seconds no explanations. You’re ready. Awesome. What’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Unknown Speaker  25:24  

Best leveling up. Work hard.

Unknown Speaker  25:28  

Yes, share one of your personal habits contributes to your success. I get up early every day. Love it, love it. What? out not the books you’ve wrote, not what you’re reading now. Not the flavor of the month that’s out there. But name one book that if someone’s in the doldrums, they really need to level up like mine’s the travelers gift by Andy Andrews or the go giver by Bob Berg. What’s the book he kind of had somebody you know, this is the book that was the kind of the launching point for all my reading all my writing, how to bring out bringing out the best in people by Alan law. Again, so I don’t even know if it’s in print anymore. Lawson I’ll find out if it is, folks. I’ll put it in the show notes. So what is your most commonly used emoji?

Unknown Speaker  26:10  

The smiley face.

Unknown Speaker  26:12  

So either face mom and so if you could be in those, say your age now because that’s the cliche Well, it can be one age the rest of your life, what would it be?

Unknown Speaker  26:21  

for the rest of your life for the rest of my life? I would say it would be early 40s

Unknown Speaker  26:26  

Love it. Love it. It’s great time. Last question, what is the best decade of music 6070s 80s or 90s?

Unknown Speaker  26:36  

I would say at

Unknown Speaker  26:38  

big hair, don’t care. Love it. So leave us frank with one last Knowledge Nugget you want us to take with us internalized and put into action. Okay, very simply. If you’re looking to get yourself network, this is a simple thing to do. And I’m very passionate about this. Find something you’re passionate about. Maybe it’s cancer. Maybe it’s dogs or pets, and then find a find an organization to volunteer with. Wow, that’ll be the number one thing you can do for yourself. You’re giving back and you’re giving back with people who love what you love. And you don’t ever have to talk about yourself or what you do. They will find out if you’re committed to that. I love it. I love it in squad we just had basically a free masterclass with my good friend Frank Hagen from AMZ spirit business connections in he told us that a great networkers focused on other people. Yeah, if you’re out there and you’re kind of sick of being the renter and you want to be the landlord, reach out to me, I’d be happy to put you in touch with Frank or just go to his website, then everything will be in the show notes. He says, you know, everything is about relationships. That’s what he would tell them tell his younger self. You know, he wants to be remembered as a massive community builder with a heart he puts the right people with the right With the right situation, you know, call your own shots make an impact with what you’re passionate about. And if you find a passion that you like and you want to level up that passion go out Get your ass out there and volunteer at something and that really will connect you with the right people and also fill your heart with what’s your passion even more so Frank, you’re you’re so humble yet you’re hungry. You leveling up your health, you level up your wealth, you love your country. Thank you for doing that. And thank you for coming on the time to shine today podcast. You’re part of our squad now. You can’t go anywhere. And thank you so much, brother.

Unknown Speaker  28:35  

Thank you. Good day. Bye. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast, proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence, who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit Time to shine today.com slash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see our recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating until your friends have subscribed while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time to shine.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products and resources  that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. In fact, I often times am able to negotiate a lower rate (or bonuses) not available elsewhere.

Plus, when you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff.  Thank you in advance for your support