In Memory of Jack Killion, a World-Class Networker

Pam Harper: This episode is dedicated to the memory of Jack Killion, a highly successful entrepreneur, global business pro, consultant, educator, and book author. He unexpectedly passed away on November 5th – just one month after we released our podcast conversation with him, titled: The Future of C-Suite and Board Networking. Although we only knew Jack for several months, we bonded over learning and a shared belief that creating genuine relationships is the way to “live your best life.”

Scott Harper: Jack was devoted to his family, and was as happy to speak about all them as he was about his many business ventures and plans for the future. In fact, his celebration of life, which we attended, was put together as a large networking group where people from all parts of his life came together to share their experiences of Jack and the impact he had on their lives.

Pam Harper: As Jack’s son Jonathan Killion shared: “Jack’s engine was fueled by others. He was relentlessly passionate about life – and life to him was meeting and learning about people. All of you, and thousands that will remain unknown, collectively provided fuel to a fire that burned so bright and so strong.”

Scott Harper: Jack’s encouragement to us to keep a dedicated focus on expanding our networks brought Pam and me to meet others in his sphere. Jack’s vision, optimism, and engagement with life were inspirational. We came away richer for having had a chance to know him.

Pam Harper:  So in celebration of Jack, we’re re-releasing episode 198 in its entirety. Even if you’ve listened to this episode before, please listen to this conversation again with “fresh ears,” and ask yourself, “what can I do to create a network of meaningful relationships that can make the world a better, kinder place?” Stay with us….

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Pam Harper: What is the future of C level and board networking in the post pandemic environment? The game has changed. Our guest today is a world-class networker who shares why and how you can transform networking from an activity to an essential strategy for developing not only your business, but your best life. Join us for episode 198 of Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper.

Chris Curran: This episode is brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated, enabling successful leaders and companies to accelerate to their next level of success. On the web at businessadvance.com. And now here's Pam and Scott.

Pam Harper: Thanks, Chris. I'm Pam Harper, founding partner and CEO of Business Advancement Incorporated. And sitting right across from me as always is my business partner and husband, Scott Harper. Hi, Scott.

Scott Harper: Hi, Pam. It's great to join you again for another episode of Growth Igniters Radio. And as always, our purpose is to spark new insights, inspiration, and immediately useful ideas that help visionary leaders accelerate themselves. And of course their companies to their next level of game-changing innovation, transformation and growth.

Scott Harper: Now, Pam, as we speak with CEOs and C-suite leaders and corporate directors these days, it becomes increasingly clear, increasingly clear that the new world of work that's evolving in the wake of global COVID-19 pandemic hinges upon developing relationships with a wider variety of people than ever before. This has become a real game changer.

Pam Harper: It certainly has. And now it's not only that. More top leaders are re-imagining what it now means to live their best life beyond work.

Pam Harper: We exist in more than one dimension, and we want to establish more meaning and a lasting positive legacy in many ways. And that's why we're glad to be speaking today with someone who is constantly creating and developing new relationships to do exactly that. He is world-class networker Jack Killion, a highly successful entrepreneur, global business pro, consultant, educator, and author of the book, Network: All The Time, Everywhere With Everybody. Jack earned degrees from Yale and MIT providing strategic consulting to fortune 500 organizations while with McKinsey and Company and during 40 entrepreneurial years of starting and selling a variety of companies. 10 to date.

Scott Harper: Wow.

Pam Harper: Yes. He's served as a publisher, horse breeder, fund manager and builder of a variety of programs designed to help businesses grow. His latest enterprise is Street Smart Entrepreneurs, which provides an abundance of resources for founders in all stages, as well as corporate leaders who want to channel an entrepreneurial spirit in their company. Jack, welcome to Growth Igniters Radio.

Jack Killion: Thank you very much, Pam and Scott. It's really great having an opportunity to share our thinking with your audience.

Pam Harper: We're so glad we can do this with you. We had a chance to read your book. And what's interesting is you have this whole background of how you came into networking. I mean, let's face it. Networking is something we've all been doing, it seems like forever. But you share in your book that you weren't always consciously aware of networking. So what happened to change that for you?

Jack Killion: Up until about age 30 -- and this goes back a long time -- I had no real appreciation of networking. I didn't do it and I didn't know how to do it despite going to really great universities and having a really strong initial corporate business background. It wasn't until I decided to resign from McKinsey and go off on my own, then it suddenly hit me that nobody was going to call me. I had to start reaching out cold to people if I was going to want to survive.

Jack Killion: So the change in my philosophy and my energy that I devote to networking was really triggered by an urgent need. When I started my first new company, which was aimed at raising venture capital for other entrepreneurs, I had no background, no track record, no investor contacts, no money on my own to invest and no entrepreneur clients. So unless I really start reaching out to people and begin developing relationships, I would have no shot and that's a bad option. So it was necessity that drove me to start doing it, and I've been doing it ever since.

Scott Harper: The question here, Jack, is that people use the term networking all the time. "Oh, I have to network. I'm networking," but it seems that different people can mean very different things and can approach networking in really different ways. So let's clarify. When you're talking about networking, what do you mean, how do you approach it?

Jack Killion: Well, I approach it as a fundamental part of my daily life, my daily routine. It's way, way, way more than going to some events exchanging business cards, and maybe following up with a few people. I think it means meeting people every day, both randomly and by targeting them in all kinds of ways, in person, online. And after you meet people, you're looking every time you meet somebody new to find significant finger holds, which are the areas where you might have something in common that you can work on taking advantage of.

Jack Killion: And if you live to be 80, and if you meet 10 new people a day from the time you're born, and I think that's a pretty modest assumption, you're going to meet 300,000 people in your lifetime. So you can't stay in touch with all of them. You have to constantly be prioritizing your contacts. There are different stages in your life. You'll have different core contacts that you want to be working with.

Jack Killion: I think most people make the mistake of looking at networking from the point of view of what they can get out of it. I think you have to look at networking as what can I do that add value to what you're trying to accomplish either personally or professionally? So I think it's about adding value, being helpful, and you have to have a long-term strategy for networking because any valuable relationship is going to take time.

Jack Killion: I have my own Jack one-year role and I think anything significant starting a new business, really building a new relationship. When I was in the horse racing business, breeding a mare, getting the baby, anything significant takes usually at least a year. So this is not a short-term process. And a lot of people misconstrue, who benefits from your networking, for example. A lot of people think it has only to do with helping the organization they're with maybe build some sales or something.

Jack Killion: I think there are four beneficiaries to whatever networking you do. I think you'd benefit personally. I'd think you'd benefit from your career point of view. I think you certainly help the development of the organization that you're with. And the fourth one that very few people think about is your networking can have a powerful impact on your family members and on your friends.

Jack Killion: So when I coach people about networking, I tell them, "If you decide not to do this, that's up to you and you'll suffer whatever the consequences are." But the fact that you're not doing it really means you're shortchanging your family and your friends. And I've had an opportunity through my networking efforts to really impact my family and my friends big time. So I think this is a huge strategic way to spend time.

Pam Harper: It is. It's interesting, and we'll go into this more in the second segment for sure. But I'm curious, how did you come to this very different way of thinking about networking from that typical transaction with passing cards, to what you've just described? What was the thing that made you think of it so expansively?

Jack Killion: I think the more I do it, the more I think like that. I'm not sure what my thinking was 40 years ago, but I've been on my own for over 40 years now. And I've been in a lot of different situations, a lot of different companies, lots of different parts of the world. And every situation has its own unique circumstance.

Pam Harper: So it came to you over time?

Jack Killion: It came to me; it came to me. But one of the things I think that I'm pretty genuine about is I think I really have an interest in other people. And you can't really be successful at networking unless you do have a sense of curiosity and a sense of just being interested in what other people are doing. By asking questions, it's a great way to learn, but the more you start asking questions of a person, the more ideas come to you about how you could really add value to that person.

Jack Killion: And you tend to lose a perspective of, "I'm only doing this to get something out of it." This is not something you should do to get something out of it.

Pam Harper: So it's a discovery process, for sure. So thinking about networking in the scope of all these years that have gone by since you started, what would you say is the biggest change that you've seen in sea level and board networking?

Jack Killion: I think there are many more opportunities for C-level and board members to network. There are a lot more organizations they can join that'll help them network more. I'd say the digital era has opened up the globe for opportunities to network. I network all the time on the internet, through LinkedIn and email. I think everything is moving faster. So opportunities are coming to me and they should be coming to your audience almost on a daily basis through your networking efforts globally.

Scott Harper: Now Jack, as Pam and I discussed at the beginning, obviously the pandemic has opened up a whole stream of working in new ways. Companies are becoming hybrid. There's remote work. There are more and more partnerships and alliances going all over the world. This has to put pressure on leadership to create relationships and use networking philosophy in a new way. What do you see as the future of networking at the board level on the C-suite level?

Jack Killion: I think at that level, networking has to be viewed as a real strategic tool and it's a tool that can be used to create and leverage opportunities and alliances. So I think it should be part of a leader's strategic approach to growing his or her business. I think it's a fundamental strategy.

Pam Harper: So what you're describing is over the years, networking, going from almost an intuitive thing that people do to being very consciously aware of the opportunities and thinking about transforming this activity into a real strategy, would that be what you would say?

Jack Killion: That's correct. I coach a lot of corporate people on networking and building relationships. And one of the things I tell them is you can network randomly, which means talking to everybody all the time, everywhere, which is where the title of my book came from, or you can target your networking. And I recommend that you spend your networking effort 90% focused on accomplishing very specific business and/or personal goals.

Jack Killion: So I think you really spend the bulk of your time targeting your networking efforts and that results in just a constant stream of new opportunities coming to you. And I can quote case after case of that happening.

Pam Harper: Yes. And we're going to talk more about some of the things that you need to think about in order to do what you're talking about in our next section. Right now, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk more with world-class networker, Jack Killion. Stay with us.

Scott Harper: This is Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. We're brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated. And as always, we focus at BAI on enabling visionary CEOs and C-suite leaders to accelerate the momentum it takes to bring about game-changing innovation, transformation, and growth.

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Pam Harper: Welcome back to Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. Today, Scott and I are speaking with Jack Killion, master networker and author of the book, Network: All The Time, Everywhere With Everybody about the future of networking, especially at the board and C-suite level. Jack, how can people find out more about you and about your work?

Jack Killion: They could go to our website, which is www.street-smartentrepreneurs.com with a hyphen between street and smart, or they can email me at jack@street-smartentrepreneurs.com again with a hyphen between street and smart, or my phone number is 908-507-9879. I live and work in New Jersey.

Pam Harper: Okay. And you can also find out more information and links for this episode, by going to growthignitersradio.com, episode 198 and scrolling down to resources. So Jack, you've spoken in the first segment about the fact that there are some different kinds of thinking that we have to do in order to be most successful in transforming networking from this activity that people just don't enjoy doing to truly a transformational strategy for not just business, but for living your best life.

Pam Harper: You and I spoke before this episode about all the myths that there are about networking. So let's have a little fun with that. Let's start with talking about some of the myths around these limiting beliefs that are so common. How about one that goes at my level? I just don't have time to network. It's a waste of time. You've probably heard that a lot, right?

Jack Killion: I hear it all the time. And of all the reasons not to network, I think that's about the world's worst. My philosophy is if you don't have time to invest in building relationships that will help your organization and your personal family, and your own life, what better way do you have to spend your time? I think it's essential. And I think that working can actually save you massive amounts of time.

Jack Killion: For example, we lived on a 50-acre farm in New Jersey that we bought 35 years ago, and it was on the market as an estate sale. My wife and I were able to get a 30-day window to match the highest offer that the executors would receive on the property. Once I received an offer, we had 30 days to raise 100% of the money to buy a 50-acre farm in New Jersey. And we accomplished that by very targeted networking.

Jack Killion: There was no other way I could have done that without having a goal, without targeting who can help me accomplish that goal and then making the connection, building the relationship based on trust and get the money within the 30-day limit. So it's a huge time saver, not a consumer of time.

Pam Harper: So this was very conscious on your part. I mean, you mapped out how you were going to reach people. What if somebody says, "But I don't know these people. What am I supposed to do? Pick up the phone? Are they going to take my call?" What's going to happen here? What's your thought?

Jack Killion: I think many of the major things that I've accomplished both personally and in business, I've accomplished with cold calls. I hate cold calling. Everybody hates cold calling. I procrastinate like everybody else, but if you have a goal that is super important to you and it's urgent, so you have to do something about it, that will force you to make cold calls. And if you make the cold connection correctly, I think you get that 100%. I think you can get through virtually anybody you want to get through to if you're creative about it. And if you're not trying to sell something, if you're looking for help or you're trying to share information, or you want to talk about a win-win opportunity that might be worth pursuing jointly, you can get to anybody in. And I mean really anybody.

Jack Killion: I've used cold calling, for example, to get to three presidents of the United States. President Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Obama. I've used cold calling to raise money to buy our farm. I cold called the secretary of agriculture in Washington, DC. But I really thought through what the call was. I was looking for help, guidance and how do you raise money to buy a farm.

Jack Killion: I try always when I'm cold calling to make it a win-win situation. So the win-win on that call was we both had the same objective of preserving a farm as farm land, as opposed to having it turned into another housing development.

Scott Harper: Okay. So you look for the mutual benefit and when you have that, it's no longer...

Jack Killion: You're not selling,.

Scott Harper: Yes. You're not selling.

Pam Harper: Well, you have to have some research behind you to do that too. So it's not a spur of the moment thing for sure.

Jack Killion: Yeah. But all your listeners are smart, savvy, creative people.

Pam Harper: Of course.

Jack Killion: They can say through in any situation what the win-win is.

Scott Harper: Right. That's correct.

Jack Killion: Absolutely.

Scott Harper: Now, let's go into another set of myths and they fall into a family of, "It's not worth it. I don't benefit. There's no advantage of this. I don't have to. I don't go to events to network. I don't network. People don't have to." What do you say about that?

Jack Killion: I think you're shortchanging your career and your life, and your company substantially by not doing this. I mean, just the simple fact of helping somebody else gives you the benefit of some psychological income that you're doing a good thing, but I've benefit. For example, personally, I saved my wife's life by networking her to the right doctor when she had an illness that was not being diagnosed correctly.

Jack Killion: Our son has only had 14 jobs out of going to Georgetown University. I networked the only two jobs he's ever had. I networked his wife to the only job she had after graduating from Ohio State, which is with the world's largest PR firm. I've raised money to buy a manufacturing company with a 45-day window by cold calling and networking with the right Wall Street firm. So I see benefits all the time and big benefits, not little things.

Pam Harper: And so again, I just want to emphasize that you did all this by creating mutual value and consciously thinking about what the mutual value was for all of this. Because I get approached all the time people saying, "You should do this. You should do that." And they don't know me. They don't think about why I would want to do this. It's a different kind of mindset. You do it very naturally.

Jack Killion: I think it's the only viable way to do this. I mean, one of the keys to this is you have to be authentic and you have to be genuine. You can't fake your way around things. And that comes across. People will perceive any phoniness in a person. So I recently joined a group in Florida called the Venture Mentoring Team, and there's about 165 people like me, men and women, pretty semi-successful experience business leaders who are volunteering their time to mentor other startups in early stage companies.

Jack Killion: I get enormous benefit out of doing that building great relationships with 165 other successful people. By looking at these new ventures on almost a daily basis, I'm getting exposed to what's coming, what's on the horizon, what new things people are trying to do. So there are benefits of all kinds when you do this the right way.

Pam Harper: So let's take another family of myths. Somebody else say, "Well, my network is already robust. My organization is already doing great. Others in my organization can do that. Why do I have to do that? What do you say to that?"

Jack Killion: I think as the leader of an organization, I think you should be the role model. I coached in a lot of organizations where the policies or the culture of the organization actually discourages networking. I have a networking survey that I have people take and one of the questions I ask is, "Do you feel comfortable submitting T&E expenses for your networking efforts? And 75% of the people say, "No, they don't feel comfortable submitting a tamp for breakfast or lunch when they're out meeting people. So I think the leader of an organization has got to set the example. I think networking should be considered in the hiring process.

Pam Harper: Absolutely.

Jack Killion: I think if all candidates are equally good, they've got good education, good work backgrounds, I think a factor that could separate them is their ability to meet people, create opportunities and create relationships that will benefit the organization. So I think the leader should be finding ways to help his people sharpen their skills.

Scott Harper: Absolutely. And let's emphasize that this is not just going outside of the organization, but networking skills inside an organization between groups between functional areas is such an incredibly important function and leaders who encourage that and mentor that are going to get so much more out of their entire company.

Jack Killion: Totally. I think everybody needs to be focusing some of their energy on internally networking. That's the way to break down the silos that exist in almost all organizations. It's a way to learn how to cross refer opportunities to different organizations within the same. For example, a law firm. I don't think they maximize the amount of cross referral they could be doing between the different practice areas.

Jack Killion: I think it really improves the culture of the organization. And if you have a better culture, you have a better performing team of people. So definitely have to network internally.

Pam Harper: Yes. There's one more myth that I want to quickly touch on and we can talk about this more in the next segment, which is I don't ask for help. I don't ask for help. I have heard CEOs say that more to me lately than anything else is I don't ask for help. I should not ask for help. They feel that they would be perceived as weak. It's a different kind of thing.

Jack Killion: It comes back to being authentic and genuine and having a legitimate something that you're looking for help on. None of us are smart enough to be able to solve all the problems we run into and asking for help is I think a very powerful tool that smart people should use. Nothing wrong with that. I don't think I put you in a defensive, weakened position at all. I think it emphasizes that you're really prepared to do whatever you have to do to be successful and build something of value.

Pam Harper: And in fact, that's pretty much what I also say to people because some of the best things that I've ever been able to accomplish have come when I've been able to say, "I can't do it alone. I need to reach out to others and connect." I've found that more people respond to that, that we all have our better parts where we want to help each other to learn to grow, to live our best lives. And it's a good thing. So we're going to take another quick break. And when we come back, Scott and I will speak more with Jack Killion, master networker and author of the book Network: All The Time, Everywhere With Everybody about immediately useful ideas for strengthening C level and board networking in the future. Stay with us.

Scott Harper: You are listening to Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. We're brought to you by Business Advancement Incorporated, and we're on the web at businessadvance.com. We're talking about the ways in which the most successful business leaders are transforming networking from an activity to a strategy for growth. For a related conversation, be sure to download and listen to episode 93 of Growth Igniters Radio. Need to pivot? Tap into your organization's intelligence.

Pam Harper: We discussed three keys for developing an internal network that can pick up on the early signals of relevant changes in the business environment. This can help position your organization to be able to adapt and respond as quickly and effectively as possible. It can also help you take full advantage of emerging opportunities ahead of the pack.

Scott Harper: To download and listen to this conversation, go to growthignitersradio.com, select episode 198 and click on the link under resources. And to learn more about how we've helped others, go to businessadvance.com/clientsresults.

Pam Harper: Welcome back to Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper. That's me and Scott Harper. Over the last two segments, Scott and I have been speaking with Jack Killion, master networker and author of the book, Network: All The Time Everywhere With Everybody about the future of networking, especially at the board and C suite level. Jack, remind us again, how people can find out more about you and your work.

Jack Killion: My website is street-smartentrepreneurs.com with a hyphen between the street and smart. My email is jack@street-smartentrepreneurs.com, again with a hyphen. My phone number is 908-507-9879. And I'd love to hear from anybody listening to this great podcast and seeing if there's any way I can add value and be helpful.

Pam Harper: Yes. And remember that you can also find links and other information by going to growthignitersradio.com, episode 198, scroll down to resources, and you can see that Jack really lives... He walks the talk when it comes to networking. Let's talk about some immediately useful ideas for strengthening, networking, C-level and board networking for the future. What's your first idea?

Jack Killion: Well, it's tough to narrow it down to three or four, but not in any order of priority. I would say idea number one is to get really much closer to your key clients and really get to know them and understand them personally and professionally, and then be constantly looking for ways to add value to them and keep asking, how can I help? Sometimes when I coach at like a major accounting firms or law firms or other types of organizations, one of the little exercises I do is I give them a sheet of paper, listing a half a dozen of their partners on the sheet of paper and then different columns or ask them to write down to the partner's wife's name, how many kids they have, what are the names of the kids? What kind of dog they have? Where did they go to college? What clubs do they belong to?

Jack Killion: And almost very few people can fill that out, even for their partners in the same firm. I had been starting and running businesses for over 40 years. I've dealt with some of the major professional services firms in the world and I've never yet up until today had anybody from any of those organizations, great organizations, pick up the phone and call me and say, "Jack, how can we help you grow your business?" But if I'm a little bit late on paying an invoice, they'll call me. "How come the check is not in the mail."

Jack Killion: So get close to your clients and find ways to add value. And if you're on a board of another organization, get close to your board members. They're likely to be able to really leverage your own efforts and get to know them and find ways that you could create mutual opportunity together. So that's one idea. Second idea-

Pam Harper: Wait, wait, wait. Let's just hold onto this idea for a moment. I just want to emphasize some things you said that were very valuable here, which is we have to go beyond just simply working with people, to getting to know others as people. I mean, that's what your... Relationship. This is something that in our busy, busy, busy, busy world, and especially when people are on Zoom or they're dispersed all over the world, even in the smallest companies, people are not right on top of each other.

Pam Harper: We need to take the time to be more relationship oriented and not just saying, "Okay, task done. I got that out of the way." It's something that is a game-changing mindset and people need to be willing to do that.

Scott Harper: And it's cultivating a term I heard years ago that I really like. It's a service heart. So it is finding it within yourself to serve others. And one, it feels good. And two, it creates a strong bond, so that there's a reciprocity that grows. And reciprocity, whether you're dealing within your business, your organization with other partners outside, that's the thing that really creates value for everybody.

Pam Harper: Now, let's hear about this idea number two.

Jack Killion: Idea number two, we've already touched on, which is the importance of networking internally at all levels. I think the leaders of fortune 500 companies should be networking with people at the lowest level in the organization. And there are ways to do that. Just riding the elevator or something down or walking out to the parking lot. I learned a really valuable lesson many years ago when I was at my business, I was running four different companies. Two magazines, a manufacturing company, and my horse racing business.

Jack Killion: I went into Country Music magazine one day and I went to my office, shut the door and start working. My partner came in and he opened the door and he said, "Jack, who the heck do you think you are?" I said, "Spencer, what do you mean?" He said, "You come in here every day acting like you're the busiest person in the world. You walk in, you go right in your office and you start doing whatever you're doing there. And you never take time to say hello to anybody in the company."

Jack Killion: I said, "Spencer, give me five. That's the most important lesson I may ever learn." So since then in any organization I'm in, I walk around the place saying hello to people. When I owned my manufacturing company, every Friday afternoon, I randomly picked four or five people from any part of the organization. We all go out to lunch at a local diner. You have to foster relationships and trust internally. And that's how you drive a good culture and build a great environment where people want to work.

Pam Harper: Yes, absolutely. The question I have is let's say you're a corporate director and more and more, there's advice that people should be reaching beyond just the C suite and getting to know people further into the organization. Is that something you do as well?

Jack Killion: Totally. I want to know to the extent possible everybody who's working in my company. And I really want to know. When I had the manufacturing company, we had a fair number of Hispanic people working for us. So I created a product. First of all, I went to a county college and learned how to speak Spanish so that we could feel closer to each other. And then after work, I start running classes for the family members of our workers to teach them English as a second language.

Scott Harper: Oh my goodness.

Jack Killion: If you really want to get a high performing organization where you have everybody pulling in the same direction, you've got to put a fair amount of effort into building those relationships.

Pam Harper: So you're talking about whether you're CEO, C-suite, and especially on the board as well, going beyond this is just a thing I do to really getting to know people.

Jack Killion: Totally. I've been on some major boards of public companies and I went out of my way to build alliances with the other board members. And if I went to visit them in their company, I'd ask them to take me for a walk around their organization, so I could get the sense of the culture and how they deal with their people. It's all about constantly helping each other, educating each other, offering ideas.

Scott Harper: It builds momentum. Okay, Jack, let's have a third practical idea for how top executives can build a future of networking.

Jack Killion: I'll lump two things together. One is to spend 90% of your networking time strategically focused on accomplishing very specific goals. And then a satellite to that is I think everybody in your audience should get in the habit of making at least three connections of people they know, people in their network. I think you should connect at least three sets of people together every week and get in the habit of putting people together. That's one of the single best ways you can help other people.

Pam Harper: And this is going to be something that even in this hybrid workforce, widely dispersed kind of world that we could still do?

Jack Killion: Absolutely.

Pam Harper: Is it because of Zoom?

Jack Killion: Zoom is a big part of that. Yeah. I connect people all the time on Zoom. For example, this morning, before I got on this call, I connected a friend of mine who's in the video business with a law firm because I take the law firm instead of having these terrible written profiles about their partners on their website, they should have videos. And my friend would be a very good guy to do that.

Jack Killion: So I suggested to my friend that he focused on the law practice as a niche target audience, and offer to do one law firm for free to demonstrate the impact. So I very happily connected them together. I'm not going to get anything out of it other than I'm helping two friends that I think they'll benefit significantly from the idea.

Pam Harper: Creating that mutual value. And of course, we don't have time to go into it now, but just to touch on this, you are a world-class networker here and you have relationships all over the world. So to the people who talk about growing globally and the increasing need for us to be able to connect the way in which you are talking about networking, transforming it into a relationship and not an activity is going to be more and more important, it sounds like.

Jack Killion: For sure. This is not about doing transactions. This is about building long-term, win-win hopefully relationships.

Pam Harper: Okay. Well, this is a fascinating topic. It's one that is only going to become more important, and we really appreciate your time. Any last thoughts about this that you'd like to leave us with?

Jack Killion: I'll give you one last example of global networking. About 10 years ago, I got approached to connect on LinkedIn by a guy who said he was with the UN. And I couldn't really tell whether he was legitimate or not. So I shot him back to the email and I said, "Next time I'm in the city, let's have lunch." So he got back to me. He said, "Let's have lunch at the UN delegates' room." So I knew he was with the UN and we'd been developing relationship for 10 years. That hasn't really bore any specific fruit.

Jack Killion: He called me this week and he said would I be interested in creating programs for young entrepreneurs in Pakistan based on my new company Street Smart Entrepreneurs? So 10 years later, after putting in a few hours of building trust and confidence, and relationship, I now have an opportunity to create a whole new business, helping grow entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

Pam Harper: That's a great story. Wow. We'll look forward to hearing more about that. Jack, thank you again for being our guest on Growth Igniters Radio.

Jack Killion: Thank you. This was awesome.

Scott Harper: That's terrific. And Jack, again, thanks. And thanks to you out there for listening to Growth Igniters Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. To get show notes for today's conversation and resource links, go to growthignitersradio.com. Select episode 198.

Pam Harper: Until next time, this is Pam Harper...

Scott Harper: And Scott Harper...

Pam Harper: Wishing you continued success and leaving you with this question to consider.

Scott Harper: What are your top priorities now and projecting into the future? How can you transform your networking from an activity into a central strategy for finding new opportunities for your business and for living your best life?

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