Building a Network that Multiplies Your Net Worth with Zach Benson

0:02Who's ready to rock today Fire Nation JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we'll be breaking down the process of building a network that multiplies your net worth. To drop these value bombs, I brought Zach Benson into EO Fire Studios. Zach is the founder of Assistagram, a company that empowers influencers and Fortune 500 companies to connect with real followers and their target audience. Dubbed the Influencer's Secret Weapon by Entrepreneur Magazine, he has helped influencers such as Robert Kiyosaki, Russell Brunson, and John Lee Dumas cut through the noise to accrue millions of new followers on Instagram.

0:38And today, Fire Nation will talk about how to connect with anyone. We'll talk about growing our social media channel and reaching millions and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Zach and Auer. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like how to get out of your day-to-day operations without crashing your business. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts.

1:08Zach, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, what's up, Fire Nation? Zach Benson here. Hello from South Korea. It's 3 a.m. What I have to say is basically, I think a lot of people say like you should just simply outsource everything but I think that you should do the work first yourself like everything from you know A to Z so that you know how to do it and then you can outsource it I cannot agree more I mean everybody's like John how do you build such a great team I mean you're small you're mighty but your team is like so efficient they know what to do I'm like because I did all the flipping work for the first couple years and I learned every in and out so that when I hired people, I knew exactly how to train them, exactly what I was expecting of them.

1:59I knew exactly where and how and why they should be working on these different things. And that process was ingrained. So I love getting your hands dirty. I love knowing. And by the way, there are a lot of times when emergencies pop up and my team may not be rocking and rolling because they're in the Philippines and it's a different time zone. And I got to get stuff done. And I can just jump on my computer and do it because I know the work. I know how to do it because I've put in the reps. And today, Fire Nation, we're talking all about building a network that multiplies your net worth. This is Zach's fourth time on Entrepreneurs on Fire because he drops value bombs every single time he gets on here.

2:40And Zach, we all have people that we'd love to connect with. Tell us how we can connect with anyone. I think the first thing that you have to do like when you see somebody like maybe a star or celebrity or someone that you just really look up to like in your life like with them in person and you see them on stage maybe after their talk like you got to give them a compliment and know that like in the first 30 seconds you have to give them a compliment you have to like show them some love and respect and then you only have like maybe 20 more seconds so you have to be super quick um and straight to the point of how like you can add value and help them with something that they've talked about, whether it's live on stage or like a podcast or whatever, right?

3:25You have to give them a solution to what their biggest challenge is. Fire Nation, express a genuine interest in others because at the end of the day, everybody's favorite radio station is WIIFM. What's in it for me? I mean, as unselfish as we try to be sometimes, that's just a natural part of being a human. So if you can express interest in others, man, they're going to love that. Let's talk about complimenting somebody in the first 30 seconds of meeting them. What does that look like? I think you got to start off with a smile, right? Greet everyone with a smile and make them feel good and comfortable.

4:02So, you know, yeah, like communication, like Stephen Covey says, right? It's like maybe 10 % communication, like words that come out of your mouth, your body language, and then listening. So you have to greet them with a smile, make them feel good, and then simply ask them a question that piques their interest and just simply listen and make them feel understood. So, I mean, you know, these are basics, but I think it's, you know, it's what works. Give me an example of a time you did that where it really worked. Like, dig back into the memory banks. Like, I want a real example of this working, what that actually led to.

4:38basically it's like bringing up some stuff from the past so like i think if you do your research and your homework and you make them like feel that like whoa whoa like this kid like did his homework right he knows a lot about me and like what i'm working on and stuff um that makes them feel loved and respected so i guess like a time when i did that was like with um um, Roland Frazier, right? Like the, uh, co-founder of digital marketer and traffic and conversion. And at the end of, of his, uh, event, you know, he, he, prior to that, he interviewed Richard Branson, founder of Virgin. And then he was like, dude, who can connect me with the rock?

5:21And I came up to him and I was like, Hey, Roland, what's up? You know, he knows me. Cause I spoke at some of his events and I was like I can connect you to the rock and so I just simply like made that happen for him um you know it didn't happen because like the rock has some out clauses and stuff and movies and stuff but at least I made the connection to his team so I think when you're able to do something like super fast and you don't think about it too much and you just decide and do and make it happen just like that without asking anything in return, then good stuff happens later. What I want to talk about next is something that you're a big believer in, is finding out what people's biggest challenge is and then you finding a solution to it.

6:09That's key because people are really struggling with a lot of things all the time. And if you're going to give them a solution to one of their biggest challenges, I mean, wow, what doors can that open? Talk to us about this and then a time you did that yeah so i travel all the time right it's like a you know normally like another country another culture so i'm always on the plane i always like i basically live in hotels so i guess like yeah one time on the plane in first class um i was on my way to costa rica and i just yeah strike up a stroke strike up a conversation with the people next to me and then they're like oh like cool you're going to costa rica and i was like you know yeah like for sure and then, you know, figured out, like, what they're passionate about, like, people that they love, they respect, they admire, and this guy next to me was, like, man, I really love, like, Grant Cardone, and I'm, like, cool, like, you know, actually, yeah, his team actually, you know, hired for me, hired my company for some stuff, and then because of that, like, quick conversation where, you know, I just started that.

7:16It was gold to him because he was loving and respects Grant. And then from there, I just figured out what he was really struggling with and all of his problems. And I was like, we could probably help you with that. So yeah, I made some deals on the plane. Something else that's pretty crazy that you've always been really good at doing is finding a creative way to stay in touch. You're really big on that. I mean, you can compliment somebody in the first 30 seconds of meeting them. You can express a genuine interest in them. You can provide solutions to their biggest problems, but then you can just forget about them, and they're going to forget about you, and that can just waste away over time.

7:56So you're not really building a long-lasting relationship, a connection, a network. You have found creative ways to stay in touch. So talk about this strategy, and then again, give an example or two of you doing this. yeah so I think the biggest thing is like you know people love to talk right and they love to talk about themselves like you said I mentioned earlier so you just simply have to like you know take mental notes or whatever and remember that and then the next time that you have a conversation or you hop on a call and be like hey we met here and here you know on the way to Costa Rica you said this and that and maybe it's like they mentioned their daughter's name and she was you know a volleyball player and you remembered her name right that makes them feel special because you really remembered that so i always try to remember like the little things because the small things matter most so i don't know like i i guess like yeah that that's helped me a lot just to remember the little details because i think a lot of people forget those things fire nation there's so many examples over the years where people have reached out to me because they wanted to connect for various reasons.

9:04And they've made an impression. They really did. And I was like, wow, this is cool. I'm going to kind of make a mental note of this. And then they just disappeared. I never thought about them or heard from them again. But then there's other people who made an impression and they find ways to keep making an impression. Like I remember I met this one person at a conference and I was telling him that I was just kind of getting into golf. He sent me these custom golf balls with entrepreneurs on fire on them. Every now and then he'd follow up with like, you know, how am I doing? Do I need any recommendations on swings?

9:33And like every now and then he just reached out, just a nice little ping, nice little reminder. And then kind of recently, he just had an awesome idea for what his business is doing and how it can make a great show on Entrepreneurs on Fire. And honestly, if I hadn't remembered him, I would have just thrown him to, you know, my application process, which I get over 400 applications per month. And who knows what that would have led. I mean, he may or may not have gone through that, you know, that crazy mess. but instead I said hey brother this is my direct email let's chat I want to hear more about this we chatted I'm like this is a great concept now he's coming on the show and I'm streamlining you know his release because he's got something going on and this has been a person that stayed in touch has continued to add value that's provided solutions to my problems over time and I remember him because of that and we have a lot more to talk about on this topic and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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11:36I mean, you've helped Robert Kiyosaki. You've helped Russell Brunson. You've helped myself and continue to help me grow my Instagram channel, make sure that it's getting out to the world and getting a lot of, you know, just eyeballs and ear balls and all the different things. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about growing our social media channel and reaching millions. Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is like, you know, you got to make a big impression in the first couple of seconds because like social media nowadays, like people are always clicking, you know, moving on to the next content, the next account, whatever.

12:12So you really, it starts with like your thumbnails and your cover photos and everything that you do on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, whatever it is, right? You have like maybe a few seconds to like peak the, peak their interest, get them to click, get them to comment, get them to, you know, heart it, love it, um, and then click follow. So I really think that nowadays, um, yeah, that that's the first thing. And the second thing is like, yeah, like the content, you gotta have other people and influencers and celebrities engage with it because then it gets seen on their walls and then other people follow you.

12:49So let's give an actual example of that. Like what is a real world example of somebody who you actually think does this really well? Maybe it's you, maybe it's Russell, maybe it's Robert, maybe it's one of your other clients. Talk about this in action. Devon Rodriguez, Art. We met like in 2017, he had like 10 ,000 followers. Now he has 40 million followers on yeah tiktok ig youtube collectively over 40 million followers so like he basically draws people like on the subway in new york and all over the world and then hands them their portraits and pictures so you know you have to figure out a way to um yeah like like create like a viral strategy like that that that that can go viral and that everyone can share.

13:36And essentially what he's doing is just drawing people's portraits, surprising them, and then giving it to them for free. So he's hitting all the points. Let's talk about engagement groups and how they can explode your growth, how they can increase your reach. First off, what are engagement groups and how do they work? Yeah. So engagement groups is basically like you and like 14 other friends, like inside a group, And you're all like liking and commenting on each other's posts several times throughout the day. So think of this as just like your engagement family. So you're all helping each other just get more reach because nowadays, like all platforms just want you to spend a bunch of money to, you know, get more reach.

14:22Or like, yeah, I mean, nowadays it's like, you know, even Meta is like, hey, you can pay this amount of money. and Australia and some of these other countries, we gave them a benefit to get more reach, but now they're taking it back for the US, right? Like you can basically pay to get verified, but you don't get any more reach. So it doesn't really help. But engagement groups really work. And basically what you're doing is you're reaching out to people that are in the same niche and industry and post the same content as you and basically getting them to join your group in the DMs, right? So it all goes down in the DMs and you just support each other with likes and comments.

15:03But with the more followers you have, the bigger groups that you can get into. So if you have like, you know, 50 ,000 followers or 100 ,000 followers, you can get other accounts that are similar size or bigger to engage with your content. And when you get enough likes and comments in a short window of time and throughout the day, it hits the algorithms and boosts you to the top and more people see your content. Fire Nation, powerful things when you look at what's working and apply it to your business. And something that hasn't been working for a while, and this is something that you always preach and something that I've gotten really good at because of that, is using the right hashtags to get seen and known everywhere.

15:43Talk about what that looks like and really the success that evolves from this. Yeah, so hashtags still work. you know 2023 like what you want to do like what we find um works best is to use like between like five and 15 hashtags on a post so after you post up your piece of content you're creative then in the comment section um add your hashtags so we want to mix it up with like big medium and small hashtags so let's say that you're into real estate or e-commerce like if you look at those hashtags, keywords, they probably have millions and millions of posts on them. So you want to narrow down and find, I would consider a big hashtag, you know, with like maybe 100 ,000 to a million posts per keyword, and then medium hashtags, like 100 ,000 to, you know, 250 ,000 posts per keyword, and then small ones, like 25 ,000 to 50 ,000 posts per keyword.

16:42So you want to mix them up and use five to 15 hashtags per post. That's what's working best right now. So we've talked about how to connect with anyone, you know, expressing a genuine interest, complimenting in the first 30 seconds, ask them what their biggest challenges, get a solution to it, find creative ways of staying in touch. We've talked about engagement groups. We've talked about hashtags. What is the final thing that you want to talk about now, Zach? What's the one thing you want Fire Nation to get from our conversation today? Yeah, I launched a new book. It's called Reach. So basically how to connect with anyone and reach the next level.

17:19So that's exciting. Tell us more about this book. Yeah, so it's called Reach. So basically, yeah, I talk about how to connect with anyone, grow your influence and build a lifestyle business. Because I think a lot of people now want to figure out a way to work from anywhere, just work from their laptop, and then also figure out a way to create passive income that pays for their ideal lifestyle, their dream life. I just wrote a book called Reach and it's out now and it talks all about that stuff. So where does Fire Nation go? Yeah, so you can simply go to buyzacksbook.com and then you can go. either grab the kindle version or you know the print copy buyzacksbook.com and fire nation you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with you've been hanging out with zb and jld today so keep up that heat for everything that we talked about today with the links to all that jazz go to eofire.com type zach z-a-c-h in the search bar the show notes page will pop right up and And Zach, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

18:38For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Zach for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. business made simple hosted by donald miller is brought to you by the hubspot podcast network the audio destination for business professionals business made simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like how to get out of your day-to-day operations without crashing your business listen to business made simple wherever you get your podcasts