In this episode of One Small Change, host Yvonne McCoy invites Phil Herrington, best known as "Phil the Connector," to discuss the transformative impact of networking and building genuine connections. Phil shares his journey from hardcore sales to founding the Connector Community, emphasizing the importance of putting people before profits. He offers invaluable insights into networking strategies, the power of reciprocity, and how connections can help businesses grow more efficiently than traditional sales tactics. Phil also provides listeners with a special opportunity to experience his networking tour and start making meaningful connections today.

Guest Bio:

Phil Herrington, famously referred to as "Phil the Connector," is the founder of the Connector Community. With a rich background in hardcore sales, Phil shifted his focus to helping people develop powerful networks and meaningful relationships to foster business growth and personal fulfillment. Through his innovative strategies and services, Phil continues to connect individuals and businesses, unlocking their potential and enabling them to thrive.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Transition from Hardcore Sales to Networking [00:01:32]

• Phil shares his journey and realization that led to taking ownership of his career and building his brand.

2. Differences Between Sales and Networking [00:02:35]

• Discussion of why networking is more effective and less intimidating than traditional sales strategies.

3. The Law of Reciprocity in Networking [00:06:23]

• Phil emphasizes the importance of giving and how it leads to rewards through the art of networking.

4. Creating Value in Networking Relationships [00:07:57]

• Strategies on how being a connector positions you as an expert and enhances your credibility.

5. Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs [00:13:25]

• Phil provides actionable advice for new entrepreneurs to make the most out of networking opportunities.

Main Quote:

"You're one connection away."

Links:

Free Gift: https://crm.theconnectorcommunity.com/widget/bookings/com-tour

Website: https://theconnectorcommunity.com/

To Join The Connector Community 

Use this link to join (Select the monthly price and use the code JoinToday to get 50% off your first month!!

https://www.philtheconnector.com/checkout/13

Welcome to the One Small Change. And I am thrilled

to be on this journey with you of exploration and discovery.

And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I've been an entrepreneur

for almost 30 years. And I have a passion for discovering

how you can grow with one small change. And I wanna thank you

for joining me and taking time out of your journey. And today

I have an amazing person that I met, Bill Harrington,

and he's gonna share. And I'm,

I'm I'm almost convinced that it actually isn't gonna be a small change

because I know it is huge. How unexpected

thing happened that sparked transformation

and really turned the way he does business. So, Phil,

thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. Thank you

for having me. Real quick, they call me, Phil the connector.

I took on that name in 2018,

so about 6 years ago, and I started putting on all my cards

because my brain would naturally when I meet with somebody, I would speed up people's

networking because I'd be like, oh, you need to meet this person. You need to

meet this person. And then it started to be like, you need to meet these

6 people or these 10 people. Right? And so,

so I I so I did that for years and, you know, I built 3

brands here in the, Boise, Idaho. And

each time we got to a certain point of the business,

they would decide we're not gonna work together anymore. And so I

I the change, if you're if you wanna ask what that change was

was I had to take ownership of my own career.

I've been a salesman my whole life, and I come from hardcore sales,

like MCI long distance service telemarketing, selling

cars, door to door merchant services. You know, I

was that, spam that showed up on your front door back

when we didn't have email or whatever. Right? We didn't have cell

phones. But anyways, so I come from old school sales. But,

I was building everybody else's brand and never building my own.

And so my wife said, the next thing you build, it has to

be ours. So then the connector community was created.

We're about 7 months old now, and, we're rocking and rolling, and

I'm living in my purpose, which is connecting people. Well, you

know what? You talked about, you know, you were in hardcore

sales. So what's the difference between,

let's say, the way you go about meeting people in hardcore sales

and connecting? Oh, great question. So,

if you don't have a network, then what do you do? What

do you do? You pick Main Street and you take a handful of

business cards. I mean, I used to say 30 a day keeps poverty

away, meaning I'd hand out 30 business cards every

day to strangers. And then out of that, I'd

probably get about 5 people that would talk to me, set appointments, and

sell about 2 to 3 of those, so 2a half sales. I I had my

numbers down. And I'm a I'm a firm believer in sales. If once you know

your numbers, it just becomes a game, so you don't have to be afraid

anymore. Right? But, but that's very scary for a

ton of people, and that's why there's very few salespeople out there.

Right? Networking is a completely different

beast. It's like, now I now I'm convinced that networking is

the fastest way to grow your business. Because in my 1st

year of networking, I was working with a company as a website

company, and I say we accidentally sold 70

websites that year, but because we did so many

one to ones. So if you're not doing your one to ones, you're

missing. You're believing money on the table. Well, I

I absolutely agree with you, and I shared earlier with you that, you

know, one of my things is doing models because I firmly believe if

you can't remember it, you can't use it. Right? And,

when I was in corporate, we had these great training. And when the

situation arose, it would be like, what binder is that in? You know? You

you know, you can get your hands on it. And when I was putting together

this model, I put connection and community as

the last step because in my head, you know, when I first started

it, I was thinking I have to have something to offer. I have

to be complete. I have to be, you know, I have nailed

it. And what I realized that connections and community, when

you do them early, help you grow faster. It

helps you to nail it faster. So but there's

still a difference in the kind of and and you're absolutely right. The first program

I was in that said you need to talk to 50 people a month. I

went and so the issue and I think what holds people back is, what do

you say?

I mean, sales is kind of is I got this thing and

it's perfect for you, whether it is or not. Right? I mean,

that's my impression of a salesperson. Yeah.

Connection to me is something totally different. Yep.

I agree. I agree. I think I think so the, maybe a good way to

put it is this. If you only had one thing to offer

and it's the only way you could make money, then you would

find all the reasons to shove that down someone's

throat. Yes. Right? So I got this widget, this

service, that whatever it is, merchant service will take for example,

I find any and every avenue to make sure

this customer sees how the value of this is is

good and they need to buy from me or I don't feed my family.

Right? So the difference between that and

building a network is now I have something

to offer to everybody that's a very light touch. Meaning,

hey, like, you and I were on a call the other day and I said,

oh, you need to meet women business owners? No problem.

Give you a list of those people to go meet. Now what I've done is

I put that value out into the universe, it's called the

law of reciprocity. You can't out give the

universe, and what happens is a flood

of good stuff is coming back to you. You just can't you can't out

give. So you just give, give, give, give, and I wrote a I actually

wrote a workshop on this. It's called give to grow, how to become a super

connector, and it's it's disin intuitive.

You know, it doesn't make any sense. I give before I get.

Mhmm. So you just give, give, give, give, give, give until

you release that tidal wave back to yourself.

Well, the thing I think that changed for me was,

in terms of networking was I stopped going first to look for

a client because that never happens. And second, I

went with the idea of let's collaborate.

There's something that we can do together that we can help each other.

And my goal always is that you leave

better because you talk to me, you know, that we both leave better because we

talk to each other than if we'd never talked to each other. And whether

that means, you know, you actually find something to collaborate on or whether we

just have a fun chat, you know, it takes all the pressure

off of you. It's like, it really is, I think about

introducing yourself and kind of how you work to somebody.

I mean, it's like, you would be surprised, of course you

wouldn't be surprised, but I think people are surprised

at how much of a feel you can get for somebody else in just a

short 15 or 20 minute conversation. Yep.

Yeah. I think the

other thing that I found about connections is

that they tend to make you an expert, and

they tend to take out that cold

call feeling. Mhmm. So could you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. Sure. So, you know, that's why that's why these

networking groups work really well if you if you do it correctly. And

what I mean by that, let's let's say I teach that you should have 3

deep on every single industry, you know, at your

disposal that are willing to take introductions from you.

Because let's say you tell me I need a lawyer or business lawyer, I can

introduce you to 3 business lawyers, then you get you pick the

one that matches perfect with your personality. Right?

Mhmm. I also am looking at personality going, well,

they're not gonna match up, so I'm not even gonna make the introduction. Right? That's

where you get to next level of connection. When you first

start, and don't worry about messing it up. When you first start, you're just gonna

start connecting everybody, and then people are gonna go, why did you send me that

person? You know? So a great book I'll insert real

quick is called The Super Connector. It's a book. Look it

up. It teaches you how to do these connections in a

very strategic way and even follow-up and make sure that

was a good connection so you can continue to build that deeper

relationship. But yeah. So just imagine it's like this like, we

take Batman as utility belt. Let's say you had all those connections in

your belt and you're able to pull those out and hand them. Now

you become that center. I still have people call me all the time

saying, do you know somebody that does blank? And what you really wanna

create is you being the center of all the

conversations, Because what happens, you now become top

of mind awareness for what you do. Now even if they don't fully understand

what you do sometimes, they'll go, so what is it you do? How do I

send you something? Because it's just this part of the a person a

people's personality, that if you give,

they feel like they owe you. You're not asking for

it, but it's just there. Well, I think I think

that's a good question to have regardless is how do

I how do I tell people about what you do? And

then in return, you can tell people about what you do, you know,

how you would like a referral. And I had a funny situation where

I was I was talking with somebody, and,

it was and it wasn't in a networking situation. It was kind of in

a, you know, a a a coaching situation, a class situation. And they said to

me I said to him I said, now you can tell people what

I do. And he goes, but I haven't worked with you. And I said, we

just worked 10 minutes together. And you just told me how amazed you

were at what a change it made and what, you know, what you were doing,

the way you thought about it. And you can honestly say I've never been

in her program, but the 10 minutes that I spent with

her. Right? So that you've got an experience

of you can tell somebody about stuff. I think the

the other thing is, that to me is

so important, is taking

some time to get to know somebody. I mean, get to know their story.

So for me, part of that I may not remember your name,

but when I see you, I remember. Oh, she told me the story. I

mean, that's the way I kinda remember people. Do you have any tips on

that? You

know, not that come not that come to mind right right this second. I'm not

I know I have lots of stories, but not that come to mind right now.

Well, I think I I mean, I just think that, you know, if you're not

used to meeting people, you have to kinda come up with a a system

so that you can kinda, you know, trigger them in your mind so

that they do come to top of mind when somebody says something and, you know,

and we all learn and remember things in different ways. But I was just wondering

if you had any any particular, you know, tips, you

know, about that. I guess, to me, it's

just intuitive that, like, when you said you wanna meet women

business owners, I'm listening to what everyone else is saying and

and then work with women business owners, and I and then immediately, 3 or 4

people came to mind that had said the same thing. So I guess when you

do so many one to ones, you start to see patterns.

Yeah. And then what you're doing is connecting those patterns together

or the likeness. Right? I definitely believe

in patterns. I say patterns are kind of like when you go to the

shore and you can time the waves. You

may not jump at the right time in every wave. You may get knocked down,

but you're still better off most of the time, and you know you have to

get back up real fast. I think, you know, the reason I'm asking the

question is because one of the things that I experienced

was, like, the floodgates opened, and

I didn't have a system. You know, I didn't have a,

you know, and so I'm sure at the very beginning, I left a lot of

good contacts on the table just because it was, I forgot where I

wrote down their information or I didn't, you know? And your head

is, you know, you should use your brain for more important things than just pure

storage. Yes. Yes. Yes. And if you wanna

connect in a big way, you need to think about a system a system

that works for you. So let me ask you,

if somebody were starting out networking as an

entrepreneur Yep. What

would be 3 ideas that you could give them that they could

put to work right away? 3 ideas.

Perfect. 1, build a

persona. So I don't know if this is the video podcast or not, but

It is. You also have a beer okay. You also have the beer and the

Carhartt shirt. That came about that came about by

accident, but I know people that do it on purpose.

They find a character or something. Maybe they always

wear red or they always wear their orange sneakers,

something that's gonna help you stick out. That's really the number one

thing because you're gonna get lost in that sea of faces. Right?

But if even better if you can take that and tie it into

what you do, maybe give yourself a moniker, a name,

or something like that. So that's that's that part. Go to lots

of meetings, never say no to a meeting, and always

be looking for how you can help the person across the

table from you. You're not there to sell your services.

Always let them go first because then they get out all their

stuff, and then you're thinking, how do I turn around

and help them? Never always go always

go last. It's it's kind of an old sales trick too

is, always be the last one to speak. So anytime

I would go in just real quick, go into, like, a merchant service deal and

I knew they were gonna meet with another merchant service person, I would wanna go

last. So I said, oh, you're meeting with them on Tuesday? I'm gonna come back

on Thursday. Just promise me not to make a decision until you hear what I

have to say. Because then I'm last one I'm last one in,

you know, so I'm probably gonna close the deal. So The other thing I

think is, building on what you just said is, I think,

I always liked to to promote other people's stuff. I

mean, in the sense that, you know, I have some groups that I

belong to, and so I, you know, I usually say to somebody, I have a

free, you know, I know a free resource that you can use.

Right? Or you might wanna go to because that way, you know,

people feel like, I think that you're generous. Mhmm. Right? And

that you're not all into it, you know, just just for yourself.

So you have a free gift or a free experience, actually.

Yes. Yes. So, we do we've been growing very quickly over here,

and it's been kinda fun to see. We've received a

180 referrals in the last 90 days.

And, so we started doing these tours where, like, 6 or 7

people will come on to the call at the same time. So I'm gonna offer

that offer that as the free gift, but here's the other part of the gift.

You come on, you're gonna meet some people, but if you hang

on at the end of that call, I will make I'll give

you the name and the, calendar

link of the people that you need to meet. So you come

to that meeting thinking what industries are gonna feed me the the

best, and, I'm gonna find those industries for

you and put and give you their calendar links. That's gonna speed up the

process of you connecting. And and I have to tell everybody,

I actually did this. And so here's my

experience. First of all, I have to tell you that this is a priceless

gift, I think. First of all, I showed

up and I didn't realize that it wasn't gonna be a 1 on 1. So

my first was like, there are other people here. Am I in the wrong place?

But that's not true. So it so the first thing is you're gonna meet the

people who showed up at the call. So it's your own mini

networking kind of thing. And then when you

listen to, part of your, connection community

is it well, you should explain it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm

listening because I'm gonna go around the room. Everyone's gonna talk for 2 or 3

minutes and tell me who how they help people in the world. We'll have a

fun question, get to know each other, but they're also also, I'm asking for what

are the 2 or 3 industries that feed you on a regular basis. And so

my brain is then writing down who I should connect you to,

and then I will go into my community and find their

calendar links and give them to you, like I did with you. I gave

you think I gave you 4 or 5, people, and they all work with yeah.

Okay. They all work with business women business owners, and

that's what she oh, and by the way, I wanna say, Yvonne, everyone should do

this too. The that there's a 4th thing. Identify who you

wanna work with. Don't say you work with everybody. You do such a great

job of saying I work with women business. It's right here on your thing. Women

business owner strategist. Will you get some men? Of course, you

will. Yes. But when you specialize

and people are so afraid to niche down that they think they're

gonna miss people, but they lose people by not niching down.

So so the other part the other part to that, you know, we're kinda going

off, but the other part to that is that you are an

expert in your it's easier to be an expert in your

niche than it is to be an expert in everything.

And so, you know, if those of you that listen to me know that I

want you to use your unique power to attract better clients so that

you can charge more. If you just do everything for

everybody, then you're never gonna stand out in a crowd

because nobody knows what it is that you're doing. So, you

know, knowing what it is that you're looking for, look you know?

And here's the thing that I find interesting, I think, is as

you grow, you can actually say no to somebody. I mean, I know that

we tend to come from that scarcity mindset where you're like, I

gotta take everybody, anything that walks in the door. But you

spend more time with the wrong client and get

the least amount of results and have the most unhappy

person than if you actually

focus what you're doing on the people that are the best clients

for you. So Yeah. There are a couple other things

that I definitely wanna talk to you about. I no. I

gotta finish talking about my experience first because that would be so

unfair if I didn't. So I did meet a couple of

people in that first call, and

Phil did give me people that I am currently following up with.

So that's amazing. I mean, I probably got more done in that 20

minute, 30 minute phone call than I did in a whole hour and a half

networking thing. But your platform does more than

just that. Correct. And and, you know, it it houses,

if you will. Think of us as a private invite only LinkedIn.

So we're currently at 200 members, and we have a big crazy goal to get

to a 1000000 members inside of 5 years. But if we

bring the best the people that put People Before Profits

into one place, good hearted people, only

good things can happen. So I encourage all of my people to have

their calendar link there and their phone number so you

can quickly get get to them,

read their profile, watch their little video, and then click and

get it right on their calendar. You you may, and I'm

not saying you will, you may, in the future, not even have to go to

other networking events. Because if you can watch a little video about

who they are, that's what you're going to the events for anyways, unless

you need a social outlet. And so that would probably be the one

thing I would encourage you to still do because people still need to

meet with people. And so, you know, use then you can

use your meeting for that. Yeah. I said there are other things

to do for that if you need to do that. That's true. That's true. That's

true. I belong to I I belong to a thing called the All For One

Academy, and I call it an entrepreneurial learning community. And we,

you know, we meet once a month and people have ideas and stuff like that.

So there are other places for that. So, we

are actually getting ready to run out of time, but there still are things that

I wanna talk to you about. Alright. So you can

make it you know, have this free wonderful gift to meet you and

meet, you know, get some connections. We talked about

why connections are better than, you know, cold calling

or just, you know, whatever, credibility, and

somebody thought about you and thought you'd make a good match.

We didn't talk about your membership though. You didn't you told us what to do,

but you didn't tell us about the membership. I knew we were missing something. Yeah.

No worries. So the and the reason we charge is, 1, so you can

so I'm still out here networking for you. So think of me as, like,

a fractional professional networker for your business. We're in all the places

that you can't be because you're doing your business. So, yes,

we are a paid membership. We have 2 models. 1 is a

done with you model, and then one is a done for you model.

We'll take it one step further, learn all about your business,

and put those power partners directly on your calendar for

you. And the prices fluctuate, depending on how many

members we have, so I won't mention the price here. But, come to the tour,

and you'll see what what what the current price is,

for those, programs.

So, I mean, I got a lot more than I had

expected when I came, so I'm highly recommending. This

is a really valuable gift, and you'll find it in the notes below. You'll

also find a link to the website.

I have to say I'm really happy that I met you, Phil, and I'm really

happy that you took the time to come to the you know, to do this

and share it with the audience. And so I you know, here's the commercial for

me. So everybody that's listening to this, I hope

you'll subscribe, you'll share, and you'll engage in the podcast on social

media. And wherever you, make your business

connection. This is kind of my way of giving back to my community.

And if you join me for the one small change,

I hope that this is gonna help you in your entrepreneurial journey so

that even the smallest shifts that you make can yield

an incredible amount of transformation. And if you haven't listened to

the first episode, be sure you do that and you can see what

other possibilities and innovative possibilities are

there. So before we run out of time, when was

the last time you did something new for the first time?

Okay. So about 4 months ago, I got

a dog, and I always said that I wouldn't have a dog,

just because, I don't know. I I never wanted to to worry about

taking care of something else, but I'm in a place in my life where my

kids are grown. And I wanted I wanted to, take on

that, that responsibility. And we got ourselves a full full

bread, Corgi, and he's awesome.

So So so so you miss being a parent in other

words. I guess so. I guess so.

So if you were gonna leave us with, you know,

your last words, what would it be?

Oh, yeah. I would say, you're one

connection away. So always do a one to one even if it doesn't

look like it's gonna be your client, because a lot of people

pick doing one to ones based on if they're gonna get a sale out of

it. That's just the way the brain works. But always

do your one to ones because you never know what's gonna lead. You're you're just

one connection away. That is fantastic.

So I'm sorry, but our time is

up. And I know that I could have talked to you for so

much longer. You were like

an unexpected thing that happened in my week last week with networking.

So I am so happy that we got to connect.

You know? And I know that we're gonna be doing other things in the future.

So with that, we have to we have to call it

quits. But I want you to remember, change is simple, but it's not always

easy. And it does require some resilience and

courage and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone.

So join me for the one small change as you try to do

that and get some tools to do it with and see what other

possibilities are out there. And so until the next time,

thank you for joining us for One Small Change. So you're gonna say goodbye,

Phil? See everybody, at the tour.

You should do that.