How to Network with Billionaires Ep 502

In this insightful episode, Alex Hormozi discusses the power of networking and skill exchange to accelerate career and business growth. Hormozi emphasizes the importance of providing immense value first without expectation, leveraging one's base skill to create opportunities for mentorship and learning. He shares personal experiences of offering significant pre-work to potential mentors, resulting in reciprocal relationships and skill-building. Hormozi also stresses the cost of ignorance in financial success and how learning from those ahead can reduce this 'tax.' He outlines two key strategies for connecting with influential individuals: building a valuable platform or bartering skills. Hormozi's approach focuses on over-delivering to establish goodwill, which can be later leveraged to gain new skills and create a network of givers that can propel one's professional journey.

• Use your base skill to give everything you can to people who know more than you before asking for anything.
• The right people will offer help in return without being prompted.

"If you want to get access to people who know more than you, use your base skill to give everything you can to them. Before you ask for anything. The right people will ask you if they can do anything back."

This quote emphasizes the importance of offering your skills and resources to others before expecting anything in return, which can lead to building reciprocal relationships.

• Alex Hormozi is working on building a billion-dollar business with acquisition.com.
• He expresses a wish that successful entrepreneurs like Bezos, Musk, and Buffett had documented their journeys.
• Alex is documenting his own journey to share with others.

"I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing with acquisition.com. I always wish bezos, musk, and Buffett had documented their journey. So I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy."

Alex Hormozi introduces his business goal and his intention to document his process for the benefit of others, highlighting the value of sharing knowledge and experiences.

• Networking is crucial for career advancement.
• Experienced individuals can help you avoid mistakes and accelerate your learning.
• Ignorance has a cost, which is the difference between your current earnings and potential earnings.
• People pay a "tax" for not knowing how to make more money.
• Identifying gaps in your skillset is essential but challenging without outside perspective.

"So, one of the most valuable things that you can do to move your career forward is to network, is to find people who are ahead of you, who can give you the steps and say, hey, watch out for that puddle. Hey, watch out for that brick. It's going to fall. And they can help you avoid. Because the number one cost that you have to pay down in your success is ignorance, is that you do not know what you do not know."

This quote discusses the importance of networking and learning from those more experienced to avoid common pitfalls and the high cost of ignorance in terms of missed income opportunities.

• Building skills is like constructing a bridge where every skill is a brick.
• Missing skills prevent you from reaching your income goals.
• People often reinforce existing skills instead of acquiring the missing ones.
• External guidance can help identify and fill these skill gaps quickly.

"You might have 20 of 28 bricks, and then you spend all your time reinforcing bricks, but there's still a gap app. And so you keep buying courses and watching YouTube videos about copywriting or building landing pages. But the thing that you don't know how to do is run ads, or the thing that you don't know how to do is sell."

The quote illustrates the metaphor of building a bridge with skills, where missing skills (bricks) prevent completion, and the need for external guidance to identify what's lacking.

• Lessons cost either time or money, and people pay with what they value less.
• Valuing time leads to seeking faster ways to learn and progress.

"You're always going to pay for the lessons, either time or money, and you always pay with the thing that you value least. And so if you don't value your time, you will pay a lot of it to learn the lessons."

This quote conveys the trade-off between time and money in the learning process, emphasizing the importance of valuing time to accelerate success.

• Provide value to connect with people who are ahead of you.
• Asking someone how you can provide value shows a lack of forethought.
• Successful people value time, convenience, and value first.

"The way that you connect with people ahead of you is that you have to provide them value."

Alex Hormozi explains that offering value is key to forming connections with successful individuals, rather than asking them how you can be of service.

• Offering low-value help like getting coffee is not appealing to successful people.
• It's important to empathize with successful individuals and understand what they value.
• You can either buy your way into their network or offer significant value if you can't afford it.

"So you have to be able to empathize with somebody who's not in your current circumstance and think, well, what does that person want? The thing that I want and the people who might be ahead of you want is time. They want convenience, and they want value first, the same way they probably tried to provide you value first in order to build goodwill."

This quote stresses the importance of understanding the needs and values of successful people, suggesting that empathy and value exchange are crucial for effective networking.

• High-net-worth individuals value their time greatly, often more than money.
• Offering substantial sums for their time is sometimes necessary but not always successful.
• Wealthier individuals have a clearer view of reality, particularly in making money.
• Networking options include building a valuable platform or bartering skills.

"The highest we've ever offered for an hour is 350 grand. The person said no."

This quote illustrates the high value wealthy individuals place on their time and the lengths to which one might go to access their insights.

"The people who make more money than you have a more accurate view of reality. If you are struggling to make money, it's because you do not see what they see."

This quote suggests that financial success correlates with a clearer understanding of reality and implies that learning from wealthier individuals can provide valuable insights.

"So the way that you network with these people is you have two options."

This quote introduces the two methods of networking with wealthier individuals - building a platform or bartering skills.

• Building a platform can attract high-net-worth individuals if it offers them something they lack, such as media attention or audience distribution.
• Platforms provide a form of currency in attention, which can be as valuable as money to some.
• Examples include podcasts like Joe Rogan's, which can attract high-profile guests due to its massive reach.

"Joe Rogan can get presidents, he can get prime ministers, he can get the richest people in the world to drop at the bottom of a hat to come to be on his podcast."

This quote exemplifies the power of a platform with wide distribution, as it can incentivize even the most influential individuals to participate due to the promise of attention and reach.

• Bartering involves offering a skill or service in exchange for networking opportunities.
• The approach involves doing significant work upfront as if the recipient were a paying client, thereby creating a sense of obligation and gratitude.
• This method builds goodwill and establishes a reputation of generosity and value within a community.

"I would offer to hop on a call and have done a ton of work. I'm not saying, like, ten minutes of pre work. I'm saying a day of pre work before I hop on and not only identify problems, but already create the solutions that I think would help them."

This quote emphasizes the strategy of doing extensive preparatory work before networking to demonstrate value and create a positive impression.

"And when I got into my first little mastermind group, that's what I did."

This quote reflects the speaker's personal experience with using the bartering method to gain entry into an influential group by providing value upfront.

• Goodwill is accumulated by consistently providing value without immediate expectation of return.
• This approach can lead to a reservoir of goodwill that may be called upon when needed.
• The strategy is to give more than expected and downplay the effort involved to enhance the perceived value of the contribution.

"And Layla, I said, she used to joke about it. She's like, oh, he's on another favor call. He's like, you do favors for everybody."

This quote shows that consistently doing favors can become a known and respected trait within a community, contributing to one's reputation and the accumulation of goodwill.

"I don't know when I'll need something back, and I would like to have a bunch of goodwill, so if I can call on, it's there for most of those, I never called to them."

This quote explains the long-term strategy of building goodwill as a form of social capital that can be utilized in the future, highlighting the importance of giving without the immediate expectation of receiving.

• Alex Hormozi discusses the concept of leveraging one's skills to build goodwill and create professional relationships.
• He emphasizes using a base skill to provide value to others without expecting immediate returns.
• Alex highlights the importance of giving more than what is expected to establish a reputation as a giver, which can lead to over-delivery from others who recognize this trait.
• The strategy involves trading a skill for another, gradually accumulating more skills and increasing one's value in professional networks.
• He notes that most people will not reciprocate with the same level of effort, but the few who do will make the exchange worthwhile.
• Alex advises that when calling in a favor, it should be done subtly, without explicitly reminding the person of their debt.

"I probably still haven't called to them, and I still have goodwill with those people."

This quote shows that Alex has built up goodwill with his contacts by providing value without immediately asking for something in return.

"Because if you think about the amount of work that you're doing, wouldn't you want that level of work back?"

Alex points out that while one might hope for an equal exchange of effort, it's often unrealistic to expect others to reciprocate to the same extent.

"They don't want to owe anyone anything. And so the givers will over deliver, and you'll get it back in spades."

This quote explains that people who are also givers will tend to overcompensate when reciprocating to avoid feeling indebted.

"But if the skill they have is the link you need, it'll be worth far more than the fact that they only gave you 20% of the effort."

Alex argues that even a small amount of effort from someone with the right skill set can be extremely valuable.

"You leverage the small skill you have to give as much that skill you can to somebody else for free."

He advocates for initially providing skills for free to create a foundation for future exchanges.

"Then what happens is that you trade your skill for another skill."

Alex describes the process of skill trading as a method for professional growth and networking.

"So go deep with the few that is worth doing."

The advice here is to focus on building deep, meaningful relationships with a select few rather than spreading oneself too thin.

"You know that. They know that it's not acknowledged."

When discussing IOUs, Alex stresses the importance of subtlety and not making the other party feel explicitly indebted.

• Alex Hormozi emphasizes the importance of genuine contribution over superficial networking tactics like exchanging business cards.
• He suggests that real work and effort are what create valuable connections and opportunities for learning new skills.
• By providing significant value to a few key individuals, one can develop relationships that lead to professional advancement.
• Alex advises against openly acknowledging IOUs, as it can imply the wrong motivation for the initial help offered.

"The way I learned was by going and networking with people, but not just meeting and getting business cards. Like, that's bullshit."

Alex dismisses the superficial aspects of networking, advocating for more meaningful interactions.

"It would be better for you to give five people that are valuable a significant amount of your time to get something back with the hopes that you can learn a skill from them than to give 100 people ten minutes."

He suggests that quality interactions with a few individuals are more beneficial than brief interactions with many.

"And those are where you make these huge leaps in your professional career."

Alex indicates that deep connections with knowledgeable individuals can lead to significant advancements in one's career.

• Alex Hormozi outlines a strategy for redeeming IOUs without making the other person feel explicitly indebted.
• He suggests framing the request as a casual question and using a subtle reminder of the previous help provided.
• The approach involves following up on the favor given, providing additional value, and then making an ask during the follow-up.
• If the person is unwilling to reciprocate, Alex recommends reevaluating the relationship and potentially ceasing to give further.

"You got to ask. And the thing is, if that person's not willing to give you anything back, then cool, you probably stop giving to them."

Alex acknowledges that not everyone will reciprocate, and in such cases, it's okay to stop providing value to them.

"You can be like, hey, man, you owe me one. You just lost it. It's done."

This quote illustrates the wrong way to call in a favor, which can damage the relationship and the goodwill built up.

"Do you know anything about this question mark? And they're going to say yes, and you're like, awesome. Do you have time later today?"

Here, Alex provides a script for how to subtly ask for help without making the other person feel like they are repaying a debt.

• Game theory categorizes people into givers, matchers, and takers.
• Givers progress faster in life due to receiving opportunities that matchers and takers do not.
• Matchers and takers represent the majority, making givers more susceptible to being taken advantage of.
• Despite this, givers benefit more from the few instances when they invest in other givers.
• Givers form strong, lifelong connections and strive to outgive each other, leading to mutual growth.
• Building a valuable network of givers takes time, while interactions with matchers can be transactional.

"Givers move faster in life because they get opportunities that matchers and takers don't."

This quote explains that givers are more likely to advance because their generosity opens doors that are not available to matchers or takers.

"And that also means that the majority of people are matchers and takers, which means that if you are a giver, it means you will be taken advantage of more times than you will get anything back, but you will still make more from the few times that you do invest in another giver."

This quote highlights the risk and reward associated with being a giver: although they may be exploited, the returns from genuine giving relationships outweigh the losses.

• A network of valuable connections takes time to build but can be started by engaging with matchers in a tit-for-tat manner.
• Every interaction, even if not equally reciprocated, adds to one's "stack" of skills and value.
• Being a "skeleton key of value" allows for providing targeted value, leading to receiving more targeted assistance in return.
• Initially, skills may be industry-specific but can be bartered to gain broader business skills.

"So it's like you're a treasure collector of skills, and then you can start wheeling and dealing with anyone because you're a skeleton key of value."

This quote metaphorically describes the process of accumulating skills and value, enabling one to become versatile and valuable in various situations.

• Initially, the speaker offered extensive help in their area of expertise (fitness and nutrition) as if the recipient were a full client.
• Offering high-value assistance without immediate expectation of return sets the stage for strong reciprocal relationships.
• The speaker transitioned from industry-specific skills (gym management) to broader skills (local ads and sales) to connect with a wider audience.
• Providing in-depth, practical help in sales and marketing establishes credibility and invites reciprocal assistance.

"I would make them an entire meal plan, grocery list, food preparation instructions. I would give them everything I did as though they were a full client."

This quote exemplifies the speaker's approach to providing comprehensive, unsolicited help, which exceeds expectations and fosters goodwill.

"I could walk into a company, already went through your entire funnel, already saw your follow up sequences. I hopped on the phone with one of your guys. I recorded to hear, did you know they were saying that?"

The speaker demonstrates proactive value provision by thoroughly analyzing a company's sales funnel and follow-up sequences, offering actionable feedback, and volunteering to train their team.

• Acquiring a skill is the first step in providing value to others.
• Skills can be traded, and as one acquires more skills, they can offer more valuable services to those in need.
• The ultimate goal is to match one's skills with the needs of influential individuals, leading to significant opportunities.

"Which means that step one, get a skill and then you keep trading that skill until have more skills."

This quote emphasizes the importance of skill acquisition as the foundation for trading value and building a network.

"If Joe Rogan for whatever reason wanted to reach out to me because he was like, I really want to know how you target low MiG market companies for minority investments in how you run your portfolio, I would jump because at that point I have a perfectly matched skill for the thing that he needs."

The speaker illustrates the concept of trading skills by presenting a hypothetical scenario where they could offer specialized knowledge to a high-profile individual like Joe Rogan, showcasing the potential impact of skill matching.