In this episode, we discuss the importance of interacting with other people.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista, where my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about why you shouldn’t live in isolation. If you think of a castle, you might think it’s a pretty safe place to be but in reality, it really isn’t the ideal place to stay safe.
For one thing, you’re an easy target and you can be easily surrounded by your enemies and then you will feel like you’re on an island and you will have nowhere to escape to.
The second thing is that you’re cut off from communication. Communication is a very thing to have. You can learn what is safe, what is dangerous, where the opportunities are, and where are the threats. If you live in a castle, you won’t know what is going outside your walls.
In the book the 50th Law, which was written by 50 Cent and Robert Greene, they talked about how 50 Cent didn’t isolate himself from his customers when he was a drug dealer. Other drug dealers would distance themselves from their buyers but 50 Cent wanted to know what they were thinking.
When 50 Cent was interacting with his buyers, he would learn what drugs were popular, what did his clients want, where there were opportunities, and where he should be cautious. Then he was able to become a much better drug dealer than his counterparts.
I don’t think we should go out and become drug dealers but the idea is that we shouldn’t live in isolation. We are social creatures and we benefit when we interact with other people.
Every day, well the majority of the days, I make it habit to reach out to at least five people in my network to see how they are doing. This will give me an opportunity to maintain the relationship because if no energy is put into maintaining the relationship, it will just die. This way I can see what they are up to as well and can provide assistance in helping them reach their goal. I might send them an article, give them a book recommendation, or introduce them to someone that can help them out.
It’s about giving and not expecting anything return. It will just make the world a better place. Then I could benefit from their giving as well. Don’t expect to get something out of every interaction. Just maintain the relationship if it’s a good one to have and just provide value when you can.
Plus, just reach out to folks and see how you can collaborate together. That’s what I’m doing right now to help promote Grow With Joe. I’m looking at other people’s Instagram accounts where they have under 5k in followers and I’m just requesting to do a Facebook Live together or to get on their podcast. This is going to increase my following and it will help the other person as well because I can give them content that they can use with their audience.
If I was to live in isolation, I can’t expect to get opportunities. If you go outside those castle walls, you will be vulnerable, you will get hurt from time to time, and there will be a lot of uncertainty. But you need to embrace those things in order to get bigger and better opportunities in life. When I reach out to people, some of them don’t respond back and some people say no to my request, but it’s a game of numbers. The more contact I can make with folks outside of my walls, the more allies I can have when my castle gets an attack.
Plus when people don’t respond, I don’t blame them. I just say they must be busy and were dealing with something more important. People can easily be distracted and will miss things. The best thing I can do is just follow-up. If you trying to set-up a meeting with someone, you have to reach out 8.4 times on average to do so. So don’t let the first message hold you back. Keep following up.
There is a concept in statistics called a black swan event. It’s a low probability event that if it happens, will generate a huge outcome. Most people thought there were only white swans until one day, someone saw a black swan and it changed people’s perception about life. For example, no one thought that a terrorist attack like 9/11 would ever happen until it did. It was a low probability event from our perspective but when it happened, it changed everything for the future in terms of security.
You can create your own black swan events as well by going outside of your castle walls. By going to a networking event or reaching out to someone, it could create a great opportunity for you. I remember I was at this one networking event and a speaker from a company was asking questions to the audience about leadership. I stepped outside my comfort zone and I provided an answer that the speaker liked. When it came to the networking portion of the event, I had an opportunity to talk to her and she offered me a job at her company.
I didn’t take it because I focused on creating my own company but those are the type of opportunities you can get by going outside of your comfort zone. I remember going to birthday parties and talking to people and telling them I was a financial advisor, and then they mentioned that they needed someone and then I was able to turn them into a client. It made them better because they got a financial plan that gave them more peace of mind with their finances and I generated revenue for my company. It was a win-win situation.
So go out to those networking events and give value, you don’t know who you might meet and help you out. I went out to meet new friends and was able to do some pretty cool stuff like get invited secret parties and get tickets to sporting events just because I knew someone.
Life can be pretty amazing if you step outside of your castle walls and see what the world can give you.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode, to summarize it, don’t live in isolation. It makes you an easy target and it cuts you off from valuable information. So get outside your comfort zone and start interacting with the outside world.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode.
Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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