The LoCo Experience | Dancing Farmer becomes a Networking Expert! - Andrew Johnson

When Andrew Johnson was yet a preteen, his older sister started taking dance classes, and he'd be dragged along. Soon there was the inevitable odd-numbered class, and Andrew was volunteered to be partnered up. And it was quickly apparent to all that boy can dance. Soon after, Andrew was training with private tutors and entering pro-am competitions around the country and later around the world. He was farming with his family as his primary income source, also teaching dance classes and tutoring locally, and building an impressive semi-professional dance resume. And then he fell in love with one of his dance class students. Sarah tagged along for a while in dance circuit and then started having babies, which preceded a change in track. Farm Strong Coaching was born, combining Andrew's love of fitness, coaching, and technology, and he soon joined a local B&I chapter. Soon after, he became the chapter president, and they achieved incredible growth. Soon after that, he was offered a part-time job as a Colorado launch coordinator. and then full-time as regional launch director, and then an executive role as the national launch director with BNI all in the span of about two years and during the pandemic. I'll let you listen to the show to find out how that chapter ended, but born out of that high intensity education was business networking done right. Andrew shares abundantly from his bag of best practices when it comes to networking, In this conversation and transparently about his priorities in business and why they do what they do at BNDR. Andrew has also become a podcast host. Tune in to the Connections That Matter podcast in a few weeks to hear our conversation on his show, recorded only a week apart. He's an inspiring young man, and I'm proud to call him a Loco Think Tank member and a friend. So please tune in and enjoy my conversation with Andrew Johnson. Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, and through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Andrew Johnson. And Andrew is the owner and founder of Business Networking Done Right, which operates network and action groups across northern Colorado, which are super well done. He's a great host as well as a husband, father, farmer, and former professional dancer. What an intro. Look at that. All right. All right. I want to hear about the dance career first. Yes, we'll learn all about networking and best principles there because you are, frankly, probably the regional expert on how to do networking right. But I don't know how to dance either. So tell me first, what kind of dance? Well, so it was Latin ballroom country and swing. So stuff with a partner, stuff you would see and like dancing with the stars and that kind of stuff. Yeah. I got into it because my sister joined this super cheesy 4-H dance team when I was 11 years old or something like that. And I was a dude. She made you dance? Well, not with her, but I was not old enough to be left home alone. So I was always in the back while she was practicing, bored out of my mind. And then inevitably, one of the guys on the dance team would be absent, and they're like, Andrew, fill in for so-and-so. And realized that... It wasn't such a bad gig, that dancing stuff. And it got my competitive spirits going. I got to perform on stage, which was something I was into. And so the next year, I joined the team. And then... Got a private partner where we were little kids, and we would do our own solo kind of deal. Like people take piano lessons, we'd get outside lessons. Yeah, something like you would be on a talent show kind of deal. Yeah, yeah. And being a male dancer, there was not a lot of us. The competition wasn't as fierce. Exactly. And so I could stand out amongst my peers. And being a male, again, you were even more of a... Were you big already when you were young? I was not. Okay. So you're the squirmy little guy. I was just kind of a scrawny little kid, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, lots of energy and stuff like that. So do the Latin swing kind of stuff that fits right in with the country style? Or is it a whole different set of learnings? It feels... way different listening experience. Totally. Yeah, and there's different circuits. So I, from the 4-H team, my parents said, hey, this might be a thing. So they hired a super amazing coach that I danced pro-am with, where I was an amateur dancer with a professional teacher. Oh, wow. And she competed on the UCWDC Pro Circuit, so United Country Western Dance Council Pro Circuit, where they would do multiple different kinds of dancing, including... Cha-cha, polka, West Coast Swing, Two Step, Waltz. And so learned some of that and then would compete all around the world with her as a pro-ad. And it was awesome. And because you were such a youngster, probably made your team stand out in that circumstance a little more? Yeah, and so the circuit had a category for everything. So even as a brand new but aspiring dancer, there was a pro-am newcomer teen. And so I would dance against other teen male newcomers that are also dancing with their teachers, and they wouldn't judge the couple. They would judge my skills as well. Well, they would judge a teacher by... how much skills they built into you. Exactly, exactly, sure. And so, yeah, then just rose through the ranks. So as I got into my teenage years, went to Pro-Am Novice, Pro-Am Immediate, and then Pro-Am Advanced, where it's the top level of the amateur circuit, and then got to the point where I got to be around 18, so moved up to the adult category and started competing in the open divisions, which was more competitive that way. And were you, like, homeschooled or were you going to school and traveling the world and doing this be like your teacher or yeah how'd that go down so if it's a funny story because growing up we didn't have a lot of money so but it was uh private lessons were expensive and then uh the you had to compete at so many competitions around the united states to qualify for the world championships and so there was all these different places like having a kid trying to get a baseball scholarship Totally. And like having, you know, again, I'm not going off by myself. My parents are going, I have a sister. Hotel rooms. Right. And like, so we would do road trips. My dad actually bought a limo off of eBay for $7,000. And it was like not a nice, it was nice, I guess, but it was kind of a weird thing. You go in and that's how we would get to these competitions was in this limo. So it looked like we're all bougie, but really we're just like... We needed something to could haul all of us and let us sleep on the road. Yeah. But I, you know, distinct memories of like going to these competitions throughout the United States, uh, in the limo and then, you know, eating in the hotel rooms just with like our own food and stuff like that, really bootstrapping it to be able to fund the dream and, uh, you know, for, for a while, uh, That's what I thought I was going to do for a living, is be a professional dancer, compete, or teach dance lessons, and do all of those kind of things. And previous life, previous life. It's been a while since I've been on there. We'll come back around to that. Maybe it'll make more sense in the context of further development. But we'll take a trip in the time machine to even before 11 years old. okay um and one question i have to wonder is like did you ever make you made prize money when you won and stuff i assume in some of these competitions and stuff and you just throw that into the kitty to travel on to the next route kind of thing so the the pro-am part was a lot of paying money so okay uh not only do you pay your coach to give you lessons you also pay your coach to compete with you yes and so there's like a fee to to be in a competition it was a lot of a nice Yeah, some trophy and recognition, right? So you do it for the glory. And my parents, even to this day, I'm like, please take it down. They still have a whole wall full of plaques and different things that we've wanted from like 2000, 1998. And it's like, I'm like, you know, you can take those kind of down. That was 25 years ago. But it's pretty special season, though. Yeah. Here's one more business-related question. Do you think that your dance-related earnings over your professional career, and I know you gave lessons and found your wife that way, so that was worth, you could probably credit that for quite a bit. Invariable. But was that comparable? How did that compare with the investment on the AM side? Yeah, it's weird. Like, so if you're looking of like, did it equate to... Did you ever make any real money on the pro side? It was starting to get there, but again, when I graduated from Pro-Am, I found my own partner. She lived in Indiana. I would fly there every six weeks. She would fly here every six weeks. So teaching a bunch. And we started getting to a point where we're making our own money, giving private lessons. I could have got to the point where I go to all this. If it continues to do your passion. Yeah. I would say the big ROI was being fearless, like going out on a stage and competition. Oh, your stage presence at your networking events is amazing. I feel like I'm just a playing small ball guy when I host events. And I have charisma. I've got a big voice and stuff. But you're just so polished up there. Well, it comes from, you know, it's the childhood of being on stage and performing and trying to get the judges' attention and doing all those things. But, yeah, I mean, money into, like, what came out. Like, I got out of the game way before all that could have done. But you got a wife and some littles out of the whole scene. Totally. That's the other thing. When I was a teen or something, or even when I was a young married man with my wife, she would go with me to the competitions. And then when the kids were born, I wanted to be home with them. It wasn't nearly as fun to be out on the road and going out as it was when they were... They were home. So, but it, you know, it's a tough, especially the investment that my parents made in my dance career, um, getting to the point where, um, I was doing really well, starting to make it starting to get known, like events were considering hiring me to judge and stuff like that. Um, but realizing that my ceiling was not going to be as high as it needed to be. Like, meaning some people were just naturally gifted athletically. We're doing it as a full-time thing. Um, and I was doing as a part-time thing, uh, where it was like nights and weekends, I would be dancing and do all this stuff. So, and what were you doing? You had a day job. It was a full-time farmer. So dancing farmer, like, Like a big crop farmer or vegetable farmer? No. My dad and I, until I was in my mid-30s, farmed 1,000 acres together to all our own hay and corn and hay. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, it's a cool way to grow up and learn how to work hard. Well, a 1,000-acre farm isn't nearly big enough to support one family in today's world, much less two. Well, 1,000 acres, it felt like a lot of work. It is, yeah. You know, it's nothing compared to, like, Nebraska or something where they're doing all these, like, multiple things. But it felt like a pretty big operation in comparison to our neighbors. It is, but it is only a certain size, you know, it's... It was one of those things, too. It's like the land is incredibly valuable. So managing the land, being a steward of that or holding it, as far as an appreciation asset, was a good financial decision. If you could pay the taxes on the farm for another 20 years, that makes it worth. But, yeah, if you're just creating the money and the income from farming, there's limited upside. So my parents always told me, Do other things to be entrepreneurial, to create more income streams, and farm for a way of living, and maintain the asset. That's really cool. Being a farm kid as well, I'm sure... I remember when I got into banking early in my career, and people were like, wow, you work... so hard, you get a lot of stuff done and stuff, I'm like, dang, I haven't worked hard since I left the farm hardly. That kind of work ethic. In the season, right? There's seasons when it's raining, there's seasons where there isn't that much to do, but when there's something to do, when the farm needs attention... It's all hands on deck. Yeah. The resilient, the resiliency of like, you got to get the job done or if there's a deadline, you got to get the hay up, but there's a storm coming in and maybe you just need to pull an all nighter that way. Right. Like that way that formed you and shaped you as a human being is super valuable. Um, no matter what it turns into. Let's jump over to... Let's set the stage for me at the launch of Business Networking Done Right. I know you had some history with another... Are you allowed to say the previous... Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. That's another nationally known organization, BNI. Yeah. And so you were doing... What for them and then what spurred this launch? I want to hear that launch. Sorry. Got into networking to grow a business I had at the time called FarmStrong Coaching, where I help people stick with their goals. Joined a B&I group. And the FarmStrong Coaching was really not like being an income source. Exactly. It was accountability systems. So like people who joined a gym or a weight loss program, they didn't need somebody else telling them what to do or what to eat. They needed somebody that would create systems to help them stick to it, whether it's business goals, stop smoking kind of things. But again, community building and accountability systems. So I joined a networking group, BNI, to join that. And previously I was... creating a bunch of content from the seat of a tractor. I would mount the phone to there. I would hit the button. The GPS would drive itself. So as a way to prevent boredom, rather than just like have it drive itself back and forth. Andrew tuning in again today from Farmstruck Coaching. Exactly. We'd create all this content and lifestyle advice. And plus, like my background is like beautiful farmland and stuff, so it made me stand out a little bit. Sure. Well, there's not that many farmers. There's no. Like the real legit ones that drive tractors. No, yeah, yeah. They're young. Exactly. So the networking group was a sense of community of business owners that was like, my soul was thirsting for. Yeah, and it was like, these were the business-y business people. These were people, in my head, had all their stuff together, were very successful and growing. I was like, oh my gosh, if I could be in a room with these people building relationships, that seems like a no-brainer for my business. Yeah. And then, um, I think anybody who joins a networking group, especially when they're first starting to do that, they're, they're playing at level of like, man, I hope this would be something that's good for my business. I hope this is somewhere where I could generate business. I could, I could build relationships. Um, I could learn something, but it's kind of like a, what's in it for me thing. Sure. And then, uh, uh, as things grow and evolve, uh, you really fall in love with the people that you're networking with. And it's like, man, I want to level up the people that want to see me win. I want to help them. Yeah. And so in B&I, they have a volunteer army. So they will elect some of their member to be a chapter president or visitor host. You know, the members kind of run the group. Membership coordinator or stuff like that. I've been a member a couple different times. Sure. As a banker and as a caterer during my food trucking days. Yeah, there you go. And again, always been charismatic and high energy, so they nominated me to be the chapter president. We went from 20 members to 50 members during the term. And at the time, BNI was- This is like your second year in BNI or something? It was just over a year. So I jointly, right before the leadership team, spent a year as the growth coordinator and did not do a single thing with it. I was like, Yeah, really kind of lost it. And so as a growth coordinator, we did like zero growth. And that must have been good enough to get me the job. But I remember going into the training when they were teaching you how to do president. And the guy who was running the training was like, look me down in the eye. He was like, your chapter needs you to be great. And like, that was heavy to me. Like, there's a lot at stake, like people's businesses on the line and like with your leadership, there's like a responsibility to lead your community. And so- Great message to hear. Yeah, yeah, and it was like, kind of like a challenge, kind of like just saying what's so. And it flipped for me, like, yeah, I want to be great for my team. Yeah. And we went to work. And what were the things that really spurred that growth from a 20- because a 20-person chapter is effective, but a 50-person chapter can be highly effective. It was an economic juggernaut. I mean, it was so good. I mean, it was- And what were you doing? We made the main thing the main thing about being a connector, getting onto it, run the team, fixed our systems. But especially in a networking format, people want to be a part of a winning team. And so we... So when you start adding a couple, three members every month, that makes it easy to add five the next month. Exactly. And people were like, oh my gosh, this thing's a rocket ship. But early on... you know, I'm coming in with, again, a lot of energy. We've been kind of stagnant. We've been maintaining or declining. And now I'm like, all right, now we're going to work really hard, uh, to turn this around. And people are like, well, you know, I, I've been in this group and I haven't gotten much business in the last year. Like, why do I want to sign up for another year? So we lost some members. We actually went, uh, you know, down first and then, um, I remember one meeting we had four brand new members join in the same month and it felt like, okay, we got some traction now. And then B&I has some metrics where you can measure the strength of your group comparative to the other ones based on like attendance, referrals, visitors. Yep. I've just visited recently. So I've seen them reporting on all our stats. The best group was the Greeley Pacesetters, I think is what they're called. And I wanted to be like them when our chapter grew up. It was like they were passing millions of dollars. And I could tell, even though we weren't the large membership or passing the closed business yet, we were doing the lead measures. that as the bad months of our production on the score sheet would fall off and we would replace it with these more productive months, it was going to be about six weeks until we were going to pass them. Wow. And so then as the team, you can create buy-in, you can be like, Hey, here's where we're going. And it was so motivating to be like, This week we're in the whole region of Northern Colorado chapters. We're 17th place. And then we moved up. And then now we're on the podium. Now we're number one. And so when we got to number one, we held it for, I think, 18 months or something like that when we were there. But again, what made it magical was winning together. Yeah. You know, like the business owners who were thriving. Yeah. you know, the kind of tough conversations. Like who is this young guy to like, uh, tell me to do this. Cause entrepreneurs love to be told what to do. No, they don't, you know? So, um, but, but if you can create a culture where, um, everybody does their share and it was, it was powerful. So, um, had a lot of fun doing it. The other thing is like, you know, and, and kind of helped your showmanship a little bit. You're like, Hey, we're catching up, you know, we're doing this. Yeah. And again, as a volunteer, you know, I mean, I put a lot of time and effort into it, you know, I'm like, 10 hours a week of volunteer time. Yep. And having the tough conversations, but, um, you know, uh, they, they hadn't launched B and I hadn't launched a new chapter in, uh, five years. So it was like, uh, approaching March of 20. In like Northern Colorado or whatever. So I served a term as president and then vice president and then, uh, uh, I was like, okay, well, now I'm going to let somebody else take the reins. What am I going to do? And they reached out to me to become a launch coach, help launch new groups. Again, they haven't had much success doing that. And I got hired as an official employee for BNI in March of 2020. So right as the pandemic was heading. So I remember getting the job like March 1st was like my start date. And it was like... going to a meeting, we were kind of doing some interest, like, this is going to be awesome! And then all of a sudden like, oh yeah, that thing's over in China. And then the NBA shut down. And if they can shut the NBA down, they can shut all the networking. So I remember I remember Like, man, did I just lose my job after I just got it? It was like a sort of part-time thing. And I made my whole, like, coming out, I'm an official launch coach post, and we had some initial interest. And one of the first people, shout out to Dana Orton from Blooming Massage. She was one of the first people that, like, kind of responded positively when I'm like, we're going to build something new. And she was a massage therapist in Longmont, Colorado. Okay. And when the pandemic hit, she just had to, she furloughed her entire staff, was not able to see her clients. And she wasn't a victim about it at all. You know, like she was like, well, I'm gonna have some time on my hands. I'm gonna build my network. Wow. And then a roofer. Well, massage therapists and chiropractors and stuff were some of the first few people to kind of push back. Well, they were. Yeah, they were. They were. God bless them. But during the two weeks to slow the spread, I mean, everybody was pretty compliant, at least for a little bit. But... The roofer was like, man, Andrew, this is a lot. This is not the right time. And so they actually named themselves their group, the Triumph Group, and they wanted to do it anyway. And it almost became a rally cry of like, because the odds are so against us, we're going to win anyway. And then once we showed we could do it, we were actually nationwide for BNI, the first chapter that started the process while we were virtual, which was a complete disruption, to launch. We were the first one to successfully do it nationwide. And then that spread to doing it again. And then whereas BNI hadn't launched a chapter in five years, we launched eight chapters during the pandemic. Right, because people had a bunch of extra time on their hands. They had, even in some cases, some money yeah yeah sure some absolutely government and the ppp and stuff they had some free liquidity not free but whatever and they needed each other now more than ever for sure right and they were they really they were lonely already yep um because that's the nature of being in business kind of and then when you get way lonelier it looks like a nice little lifeboat And that like, you know, the zoom calls were a good job, obviously of spreading the message, putting it out there. Nobody hears about it. If you don't put it out there in the right way. It's true. And you know, and again, it comes back to like, people want to be a part of a winning team. So these people like this gal, Dana, Dana. Yeah. Yeah. So she becomes like the president and part of the launch crew of a new chapter. And you're there to help her with the comms and the stuff? Exactly. So I'm like a leader that helps them get off the ground. So she's got a business that she's trying to grow. In Longmont, the massage therapist seats were taken, so she was locked out previously. And so there's an opportunity to launch a new one. She was a part of that initial forming team. Find a mortgage lender or something that also is locked out of the other chapter. Yeah, financial advisor, real estate agents, insurance agents. Those kind of main ones, right? Yeah. So you get, you know, the trick to it is you get people who are in those very competitive seats. So you're like, I have two people in this group committed so far, like, you know, but I do have an opening and I have a vision of it's going to be here. You know, if the first eight to 10 categories are pretty easy, it's pretty easy to get a banker, a real estate agent. But the kind of the challenge is getting from like that eight to the 20 because, you know, do people want to be in a room with that original? Because just because you're an open spot doesn't mean you want to- Well, and bankers and insurance agents spend enough time around each other all the time annually. Yeah, this has got to be different. They need some more volume. Yeah, exactly. So we, you know, speed wins, momentum wins. And so we, and again, we created some momentum. Now Colorado's- Yeah, these all around Northern Colorado, these eight chapters? They were, yeah. So from Northern Colorado, yeah. We actually, the year that I did that, like with the launch, they finished in the top five regions nationwide for net growth. I'm sure. Even though some of the fill and retain was not doing a thing. Right. Well, and frankly, Northern Colorado in general wasn't as business friendly as a lot of places. Totally. But maybe that was more beneficial for your situation. I don't know. But when you do something at an elite level, a lot of people do things that get to a comfortable level, right? And then they can maintain it. And the competitive people will do something to be better than average or a good level. But if you can do it at the top level, it's not actually that much work to go from good to do an elite. To really darn good. But the rewards are exponentially when you're top of your class. And so again, it's worth going for the thing that nobody's ever done before, or to do it at a higher level. And then I just parlayed those wins to get bigger wins. So BNI was like, what's this guy doing in Colorado? Is this just because he's this? charismatic guy or like would his system duplicate right and i wanted to ask that actually your your farmer training coaching thing didn't did you set that down at some point during this journey or were you that guy too along this way and how much of that dna trickled into what you were doing um good question so like uh when I was a launch coach, I was a part-time deal. So I was doing, I was a member for my coaching business. I was launching chapters on the side. But as I quickly like found a true gift where I was, you know, a top player at this, again, the coaching thing was helping people do the things they say they wanna do. But having trouble. So like in this business, it was such a great, like, you know, instead of helping health and fitness, it was helping with business goals and networking goals. And so, you know, I was able to tone that down and take less clients and then transition more fully into the launch stuff. So I figured it seemed likely that would have to consume most of your time quickly. And, you know, in a lot of ways. But those principles were baked into how you did your thing. too, right? It was. Yeah, and the farming taught you how to be resilient and taught you how to overcome your own challenges. You don't just go to the thing. It's like, here's something in front of you. How do you figure it out? Yeah, yeah. Well, one of the interesting things about farming is... Like a good farmer can stay in business. A very good farmer can make a little money in it. And an excellent farmer can actually make a lot of money. Like my dad's family farm is actually that story. There's no opportunity for, I mean, there's appreciation just because it makes more crops. But it's the revenue from the farm that makes the money. And he raises crops that are usually 20% above the county average. His average is way higher than the average. Cool. And he spends more on fertilizer to do so. Sure. But that margin above the break-even line is really where all the profit is. Well, so he's not a commodity. He's something that sets apart from... Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so you're saying about the same thing. It does really require excellence to really stand apart sometimes. I think it feels like a good time because we're getting... Well, actually, let's not turn it yet. We're going to jump into the purpose-driven questions, but only after we've launched. Because right now, B&I, they're shaking some sugar at you, and they want you to do even more for them. Yes, they assigned me four major markets. I got assigned Minnesota, Washington, And then the Heartland. So I had like super like liberal blue areas like downtown Seattle. Right. And then like the reddest of like rural Wyoming. And it was still a home of the nation? And it was awesome because like whether you're urban, suburban, rural, everybody needs a network. Right. Right. And it was cool to watch them come together. The stuff we did duplicated the best. So the big head honcho of BNI, the national launch manager, got a different job than I got his job. So I went from this farm kid to BNI's national launch manager in two years. Yeah. And, you know, run and launch for all of the company-owned regions in the United States, which was like 37 major markets. Oh, so some of them are franchisees. Some franchisees. And then there's others that are company-owned. The company-owned. So I was in charge of all the company-owned launch. And what's that mix, if I may? I probably couldn't quote it exactly, but it was like 40% company-owned, 60% at the time. B&I has been trying to sell more franchises. They want to have less company-owned. Yeah, I think the model, I don't know. You'd have to ask that. Well, it's hard to pay attention to 37 different things and stuff. I don't know. At Loco Think Tank, we're loco for local. And so I would, frankly, rather be a part of a B&I chapter if I knew there was a local franchisee that had a vested interest for feeding their family to make it work, rather than it being one more corporate store that I can pay my money to. Totally. And in Northern Colorado, they were franchise-owned, Margie and Emmer Cowan. A lot of people remember them if they're really super OG B&I people. And it was. It was one of those... Somebody had a heart for their community, giving in. And then they retired and the company bought it. Gotcha. Kind of deal. And it definitely affected the morale of the region. Right, right. So the B&I representatives I've met at different meetings in the last 10 years or so are company men. Okay. Right? I mean, because it's a company-owned region. Yeah, yeah, yep. So if they're a part of the corporate ecosystem. They have a job, but they don't rely on the success of the region as much for their paycheck in the same way that a franchisee would. Totally. So you're the national launch manager now. This is, I guess, circa 2002? no 2003 I guess yeah 22 23 sorry 23 yep and and now are you traveling all over the world you got little's already you got kids oh yeah we'll come back to the full life story but nobody wanted to be on a zoom call at that point you know so one of my essentially like rise to the top was like I'm helping launch it was zero budget But just getting my team to create Zoom calls and stuff. But as the world opened up, nobody wanted to be on Zoom anymore. So it became significant headwinds. I'm lobbying to get an event budget and those kind of things. And it just became some friction of like, what got us here is not going to get us there. And I wasn't very successful at navigating the boardroom and getting resources for my department. Can you peek us behind the curtain of BNI? Is it like Harvard Suits kind of thing? Private equity owned kind of thing? At the time, it is private equity owned, yeah. But they're cool, kind of? Yeah, great people. I think the best part about that was really amazing people who They have a heart for the business, kind of. Yeah, I will say I did miss, as I got up there and would go to all these different regions, I was removed from the member, whereas when I really fell in love with it, I was interfacing with the member. Dana, the massage therapist that wanted to get something going. Those kind of stories over and over. And in some way, when you're up at the top, that stuff scales. Maybe you don't have the direct relationship of it, but it's like you're teamed at something that inspired a community. So that felt really... really awesome. Got to meet some great people. But again, nobody wanted to do zoom calls, it was hard to keep lobbying and trying to put on a good face of like, that's what we need to do. And you know, in a fateful day, despite having record ascension, Brian Smith Me and my team were all let go at the end of the year. And they pivoted into putting it back into their managing directors and stuff. Doing Zoom calls isn't helping Chapters launch anymore. You're like, well, yeah, I've been saying it. Exactly. And so, you know, I'm 40 years old. I'm like, and I just gave up a job at the farming. You had a rocket ship of a ride. Yeah. Had to have a tough conversation with my dad about, like, Hey, I have an opportunity here. And then two weeks later, really extended career, and then I'm let go. Yeah. It's definitely a big hit to the ego. I'm telling my wife and my kids, hey. Yeah. And so, yeah. Not to talk money, but this is probably like a $200,000 a year job or something. It was a little bit of, yeah. I mean, especially when we were doing good. Yeah, yeah. When you're incentivized, too. So when you're launching all these things, you're getting a pop for each one. Yeah. Yeah. And it felt like a, you know, a really big impact in the world, like in playing instead of level of personal business or group or even state now I'm playing at level of like the United States and, you know, collaborating with other people that are in the different major markets around the globe. And I tell you, I learned, I learned a lot about like how to do it, how to scale, how to run an organization. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. But again, what I missed was that local kind of – Interacting with people. Yep. Like the real people. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, so here you are. Set the stage. What month, year is this? So January 1st, 2024, was let go from B&I. I'm like, did I sign a non-compete? Like, is it enforceable? And so talked to some lawyers, made sure it was safe to do so. started started you really didn't or it wasn't i did sign it but i signed it in uh 2019 where in colorado law you have to be a highly compensated employee for them to uh enforce a um a non-computer non-solicitation job for basically yeah i mean it was like literally a part-time thing so anyway the lawyers came after me with a letter and we just said hey are you do you want to enforce this? We're in Colorado. And then they, they backed off that way. So, but it paved the way to being like, and again, I'm not trying to, I think being what BNI is doing is great. There's some great people. I have a lot of friends who are still in the local chapters, but I'm not trying to build a better widget. I'm trying to do something different. So, you know, when you're in something, you thinking about like, if I could do something there and I would do something there, what would I really do? And so now, uh, well, which is what you were doing, which is why you were successful. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah. Uh, which is why they kept advancing you because you kept doing something different a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, um, I'm like, well, I'm going to, I'm going to go for it and I'm going to do it in my backyard where I grew up and I'm Colorado native and, and I'm going to do it how I know to do best, and I'm going to play to win. And so I filed the Articles of Incorporation in July of 2024. So probably the time this airs, I'm two years old now. Awesome. And then we accepted our first application September 26, 2024, I finished that year, I bought a Network in Action franchise to facilitate some of my groups. That's like the, is that, like you're a franchisee for them, but it seems like you run your own kind of thing a lot more, or it's got your own brand? Yeah, under the Business Networking Unright, I run the Network in Action groups, which is an awesome product. The technology is really good. So it's kind of access to the business. the background, the member portals and stuff like that. Yeah, and then methodology, which is something I believe in. And then also host the Connections That Matter podcast, which was inspired by local experience. And then we do some coaching and stuff that is under that umbrella. Oh, so that's kind of where the business networking done right is, like some of your Anything else that Andrew does can also be baked into that business. Yeah. But your memberships, they all pay through this thing. Through the Network in Action. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And so yeah, bought a Network in Action franchise. Things that attracted me that is- Was there not one here? There was a couple that were doing it down in Denver, but nothing in northern Colorado. And so things that attracted me to like professional leadership. So I would be a professional running the groups long term, which really excited me coming from the launch world with the other guys. They're all volunteers. I would launch it. We would have all this amazing growth. And then I would turn it over to somebody who's like just trying to figure it out. And, uh, you know, it's like, man, you're like flying away from the nest, you know, and I'm moving on to the next launch. But in this, not only can I launch it, but now I can cultivate it. And we can take the similar leap, like back in when I was in my chapter about like, from 750,000 to 2 million and like what that, what that did for people's like business and their life. So really excited to continue to cultivate the per, the, the level of results that came in through referrals. Um, start with three groups. We launched in a Loveland, uh, Windsor and Longmont. Awesome. And then finished 2024 as rookie of the year. We were the best, fastest, even though we started in September. We had most new members for Network in Action and then carried that momentum into 2025 where we finished as the Top Gun Award that most adds in global for Network in Action. Right here in Northern Colorado, we expanded to Fort Collins. We expanded to Thornton as well, which is cool. And talk about the experience of being a member of these groups. And I don't know if it's necessary to contrast it with a B&I necessarily, but like if I'm a member of one of your groups, I know you have certain free events here and there. I've been to some of them. I've been to like a visitor event before. If I had more time, I'd be a member now because I love the culture and the community. And I, I know I will be at some point. and, and, Part of it is because the experience to me has been so much more kind of high vibe than what I've experienced at a lot of BNI meetings. So talk to me about that. Well, BNI is a proven agenda over 40 years where they do one thing really well, and they do it over and over and over again every week. Yeah, same script almost. Our meetings are dynamic. It's a different agenda every month. It's a monthly meeting instead of a weekly meeting. But there's different legs of the table that make up a – networking results pie. So one is the monthly meetings. That's really focusing on deep work between members. How do you install joint marketing systems? How do you get from know, like, and trust into true referrals, like the infrastructure of that? Like they're ready. Yeah. And so those are people who have made a commitment, but they need some help guiding into that next step to drive revenue. And there's like a couple hour meeting or something? It's an hour and a half meeting. Yeah. And then last week of the month, we do these things called next level networking, which facilitates more new connections. So a member can come, they can say, Hey, Andrew, I would love to meet people in these professions. I work all month long to recruit them. They come to an event. And so people have, during speed networking, people ready to go to meet them based on who they've told me. And you're doing some behind-the-scenes work on making sure those things happen. Yeah, so that concierge level connecting, a lot of what people pay for is like, They know they need to network, but it's an exhausting process for a lot of people. Yeah, and calling people. Yeah, if they can just know that they're going to attend a meeting, and I'm going to help recruit people that are excited to meet them, and I've had some conversations talking them up when they're not in the room, it really speeds up that, hey, let's do a one-to-one. Let's see if there's opportunities to collaborate. Yep, yep. And then auxiliary to that, we do social events. I'm a big believer if our families get together, we bond quicker or more differently. So we've done everything from goat yoga as a community to renting out an arcade, watching a Broncos game as just a watch party at a venue or something like that. So this is really kind of, I hate to say it this way, but it's almost like moving. I have a membership at Direct Family Care. It's my doctor. Yeah. So I can go see the doctor whenever. But it's almost like that kind of feels like being item-y. And then if I had like a concierge doctor, that would be like business networking done right, where there's a lot more individualized attention on my membership. Yeah. And the intentionality behind kind of the community building. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I dig it. I'm having a lot of fun, girl. I mean, it's really fun to be in like, you know, build something that you get to craft it. It's like a, it's like a potter with clay, right? Like, and you've been thinking about these concepts and what makes strong communities probably going back to your dancing days, right? That was your first real community partnership right there. Yeah. Thank you to purpose driven wealth of thriving for sponsoring our purpose driven questions segment. At Purpose Driven Wealth, they believe financial clarity leads to a life of contentment and purpose. Their mission is to help guide clients using a values-driven, stewardship-based approach focused on provision, contentment, and enjoyment. With more than a century of experience, Thriven helps individuals and families navigate life and business transitions and prepare for the future while creating space to live generously and give back in meaningful ways. To learn more about Purpose Driven Wealth, please call 970-330-7411 for a complimentary initial consultation. And now, on to the questions. Let's jump into the Purpose Driven questions. Okay, let's do it. Thank you to Clint Jasperson and his team at Purpose Driven Wealth for sponsoring the Local Experience Podcast and providing some purpose-driven questions. Let's talk about this. What's the source of your internal compass when it comes to ethical decision-making? I think those farmer values, like being raised to do the right thing all the time, I you know, was, I feel perfectly parented. My dad taught me how to work hard, how to persevere. And my mom was there to cheer for me and get me, uh, you know, to create like a sense of fearlessness and to go there. Um, but I remember my dad, one thing that really as a kid, like, uh, stood out to me is we, we had a We had a bunch of like oil and gas prospectors coming after our oil rights, wanting to like buy our oil rights and like offering big numbers. And, uh, and, and as they found the Neobrides share shale, they, uh, all of a sudden they knew where the oil was. It was under the farm. They wanted to go get it. And we just, we never wanted a pad on there. And so it was always just like, no, no, no, thank you. Not interested, not interested. And it got to the point where not only would they give you a massive number, but they're like, yeah, and we'll just, we'll buy all the crops are on there. That's no big deal. And I was like, my dad's like, it's not that. It's like, we've committed to grow these crops for the dairy. If we just pull it out and because you're going to plow it up, he's got to go looking for something else. So it's not just as simple as like, oh, well, we're taking care of, but we're not going to screw our neighbors because guess what? We need that relationship next year. And I was like, you know, that's right. The relationship wins overall, and you're going to treat those people right. And, you know, it all worked out great in the end. But it was a really good thing to be like, you know, principle beyond, you know, some of those other kind of things because you don't want to screw your neighbor. That's fair. Dig it. You don't mind another question? Yeah, sure. All right, I might even give you a third one. Let's do this one. How would you differentiate theology, philosophy, and ideology, and how do you describe your relationship with them? I don't know if I'm smart enough for that. Theology, ideology, and then... Philosophy. Philosophy. Um, you know, theology, I would say, is like a belief, belief in a higher being, belief in God. Yeah. You know, ideology... just kind of like how you're wired to operate. You have a little bit of an ideology that you think networks and relationships are really valuable, I suppose, right? And then I would suppose philosophy is where your mind wonders, what your belief of the systems and those kind of things. I dig it. I don't know, somebody smarter than me would probably have a better answer to that, How is your relationship with any or each of those? Yeah. Yeah, I'm somebody who has, I believe, authentically seen miracles in my life. I believe God has been there for a lot of things. We're members of City Point Church and Christian, and I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at. That's your primary is the theology one, I suppose. Theology. Yeah. Fair. Let's do this. What are your thoughts on legacy at this stage in your life, and how has that changed maybe over the last couple of seasons, especially as this is a two-year-old venture a little more? I'll think about that a lot. My kids are 15 and 12, and I like to think about like – the childhood that I was given and like who that shaped me to be and like the job my parents did to parent me and to do that. And now I'm at a place where you know, I get to be the dad and do all that kind of thing. And I, you know, I feel like I'm in this like dad moment right now where I'm like, yesterday they were in diapers and like today they're my daughter, my daughter, my daughter, she got her learner's permit. And it's like, man, how many summers do we have left before you're going there? And it's like, you know, part of like why I work so hard is like wanting my family to have a phenomenal life. But as far as leaving a legacy, I mean, if you did good to people, whether it's through the network, through your family, what you're building, the ideas being known, life's bigger than just you. And so I want my kids to be given at least the gifts that I've been given, if not more, and be able to pass that down. Yeah. No professional dancers within this? You know, my son's quite a bit. the dancer, I will tell you. My daughter, she's actually going back to dance, but my son is just like me at that age, a performer. He comes alive on stage and he works at Lighthouse Dance. He does acro and hip hop. He does cooler stuff than back to me when I was doing the two-step when I was 12. Before we take a break, because I do think we should take a break soon, but let's talk about family a little bit. Cool. Can we dip back to dance lessons with Sarah? Yeah. So I met my wife. She took my dance class. I was at the point where I was farming, would quit, and would go teach classes and stuff like that. So I was in college. Sarah came with another partner. So she came with a date. They were going to do dance lessons on a date. Not really a boyfriend yet? No, no. It was early spring. stage something like her friends set her up hey dance with them and then we're all gonna do this together so it was her and her friends and they were all gonna do it as like you know like a couple or like a hangout kind of stuff yeah and then her partner like quit like a week or two into the class and so she was like the 15th wheel of the class right there was like seven other couples and then sarah so she would always just dance with me as like when we were showing different things yeah yeah uh Graduated from college. Did she have a crush on you already? I don't know. Or vice versa. But I invited the whole class to my college graduation. And it came up and we hit it off. And it just turned into magic. It was like a teacher's pet kind of deal. Were you evolving your dance aspirations already at this point? Or what was your situation in life at the time? Yeah, so in college… Oh, you said she traveled with you, actually, to go to dance competitions and stuff. So even when we were dating and stuff, she actually joined Pro-Am. She was a Pro-Am Open newcomer. Oh, okay. We compete. So she got some skills, too. So we would go to the competition. She would be Pro-Am. I would be, at the time, considered double-A baseball, right? Like two levels below the super, super good people. The real pros, but yeah. And we would do it together. And yeah, so early on in our marriage and stuff like that, we were traveling a lot and doing it together. Fun. But yeah. The dance wasn't why she fell in love with you, though. No. She wasn't crushed when you gave it up. No, I mean, and again, our times change and seasons change. Like it, it was something that kept us together and then it was something that kept us apart when we had the kids and stuff like that. And so, again, like my compass being a good husband and father being connected to that, like while it in some ways a tough decision, it was the right decision to, you know, to pivot and be a good husband and father. And how many years were you together before the first kiddos started arriving? Let's see. We were married in 2007, and then our daughter was born in 2011. So a couple years. A few years there. And one of the things I've enjoyed doing over the years is, can I ask for a one-word description of each child? And then you can expand after that. Okay, good. Let me think about this. I don't want to say it. So for my daughter... Her name is? Her name is Dahlia. Hi, Dahlia. You'll probably listen to this, I hope. She, I would say... One word to describe Dahlia would be... sweet. She's just got such a genuine heart. She's a baker, so she likes to make sweet things. She's always been super well-behaved and good girl. I love that word. It reminds me of your favorite aunt. It's like a Southern living kind of style magazine kind of thing where she's just always kind, always sweet, gentle. Yeah. And with the baking stuff, that's a good kind of double-unton. I dig it alright and my son Calvin Calvin he would be exuberant would be a good way. Enthusiastic about all things. Enthusiastic, he's got some elements of chaos, but just has a lot of energy to do a lot of things, for sure. Dig it. Yeah. Is there any family members, you've talked a little bit about your parents, obviously setting a good example, and you can shower them with a little bit of glow, if you like, but anybody beyond that as well, any grandparents or uncles that really... changed your reflections on family yeah uh definitely my my grandparents on my uh my dad's side i mean my my son calvin was named after uh my grandpa calvin and uh uh a lot of that was a tribute to my grandma who is the biggest just stand for family coming together and I like hosted every Christmas, had a lot of love, was at every sporting event and those kinds of things. And, uh, again, I think the teaching and the way that they were able to raise my dad and then, uh, My dad and my mom were married when my mom was 18, and the first Saturday after that, they got married. So literally the first Saturday after that, she was engaged when she was 15, which is super awkward to me that I have a 15-year-old. I'm like, wow, my mom was like engaged at 15. But, you know, so the way that they shaped them, and then again, multi-generational, like going out to Sunday breakfasts together and coming over together, yeah. um seeing how important was that and then being able to be the kid in this right to the the parent and then you know one one day be the the grandparent but i want to parent my kids that i have the same impact on my grandkids that my grandparents had on on me that's a neat way of thinking for sure i think it's a good time for a break let's do it all right sounds good This episode is sponsored by Loco Think Tank. Loco Think Tank provides peer collaboration for business owners. We build smart, safe places to help business leaders navigate every stage of the business journey, and we love what we do and who we do it with. Our model features gift-back-minded business veterans in the role of Loco facilitators, And we're always looking for abundance-minded individuals to add to our membership, facilitator team, local community, or to feature on this podcast. Listeners of this podcast who go on to become members of Loco Think Tank get their sixth month of membership for free. Just mention the Loco Experience podcast on your application. To learn more, visit our website at locothinktank.com. That's L-O-C-O thinktank.com. And we're back. Refreshing break. We're back. Got a fresh cocktail. Thank you. Thank you to Seed and Spirit Distilling for providing the amazing high rye bourbon that I'm sampling today with a little bit of tangerine bubble water. It's a little bit like a... Very summery. It was a little bit like a I'm on a diet old-fashioned. Oh, okay. Yeah. There you go. It just doesn't have any sweetness in it, but it's got the little orange kick with the bourbon. There you go. Yeah. And when we came back, I said we were going to talk about kind of where BNDR, Business Networking Done Right, goes from here. Like, you've got four chapters now? We... Or five chapters now? We've got five groups. Five groups? And then we have another kind of part of the business that includes affiliate marketing in addition to the networking. So it's just super cool. So we actually just launched that. It's called NIAX Trust Share. And business owners can share revenue and only pay for closed deals. And then building a big affiliate army to import referrals into the community. Oh, fascinating. Something that, you know. That's from the franchise, the Network in Action kind of group is rolling this out kind of thing? Yeah, yeah. So we're moving into the space where, you know, if we didn't bring this model and somebody else was going to, we'd rather lead the disruption of that. But we're one of the first markets nationwide to be able to introduce that. Exciting. Super, super exciting. Tell me how that works, like, in practice. Yep. So business owners, I mean, some can't legally share revenue, right? There's like laws in there. Yeah, like insurance people, you have to be a licensed insurance agent or whatever. Exactly. But a lot of them are already doing it. Like they have their own kind of referral programs. You know, they get somebody who has a great experience and they say, hey, send me people. But a lot of them don't work very good. I've had a marketing agency approach me and say, hey, we should be like Loco's automatic referral marketing agency. And we'll give you a kickback of like 10%. I'm like, well, but I don't know if you're going to give good service or you might not be the right one. And I've got four marketing agencies that are members right now. And the ethical conflict, I couldn't handle it. Sure. But that's different for Loco. But for a lot of businesses, it actually would work pretty nicely. Well, this is something we're betting on, but I'm so excited about it. you know, some business owners, everybody has got a cost of acquiring new business, right? So whether wherever you're advertising or usually upwards of 25%. Totally. So we some business owners have chosen to take what they would normally spend on acquiring a new client and put that incentive structure in the people that would be affiliates or their advocates or, you know, a lot of times the influencer things is like, you know, big brands and like Instagram influencers. And we're trying to bring it with like Northern Colorado businesses, um, with local Northern Colorado affiliates that support local, not Northern Colorado nonprofits. Wow. So the, um, People agree to share revenue. Somebody goes into an app they put in, and when the deal closes, they put it at a close one. They fund the deal. Whatever, 2%, 5% something. If I get this referral and it closes. And again, they're being brought a ready-to-close referral. So somebody who's advocating for them. So let's say somebody goes and the HOA is sending letters out to the entire neighborhood that we all need to paint the exterior of our houses, right? Like it was a new build. So you get your house painted and the guy that you hire is on the NIAX app. It does a really good job. I would never expect somebody to recommend somebody that they didn't have any personal experience or something. But they go on the neighborhood Facebook page and says, hey, if you want those letters to stop, this is my guy that I use. And so for every referral that he gets, that person, somebody like my wife who's non-entrepreneurial, somebody like my mother-in-law who's non-entrepreneurial, now all of a sudden it opens up referrals coming into the community from people who are… Even I saw your name on word of mouth for Collins. Totally, exactly. People are doing that on Nextdoor all the time. And some people who are really good at that, they're always in those Nextdoor pages. They're recommending those people. You want to have those people as your advocates anyway. And now we're doing it as... actually putting some structure in it to create some co-marketing. But where it gets super exciting is non, uh, for the affiliates as they earn commissions on the closed deal. So for a business owner, they only pay for deals that are going to close. Um, but for an affiliate, they can also, some people are not motivated at all by like getting the kickbacks, but they have the option on a sliding scale from zero to a hundred percent that that money that they would have earned could go to a nonprofit. Yeah. Oh, wow. And so, um, things like child safe, hearts and horses, health for heroes, they're all on board. They're actually using it as a fundraising tool, um, where they're volunteers, they're members, the people that they supported, they're always looking for a different way to support the nonprofit. Now they can download an app and, and as they shop locally, which a lot of people want to shop locally, all of a sudden now they can support a cause that they care about. And, uh, But again, it's truly a win-win-win. The nonprofits win. The affiliates win. The business owners win. And I think it's going to change the game in northern Colorado as far as networking. And again, if you like the traditional networking building relationship, I still have that. We're still doing that at a high level. But this gives you another wrinkle. for a lot of referrals to come in. And so I have a vision of hundreds of thousands of Northern Colorado affiliates. How many people have DoorDash on their phone? It becomes part of the normal things you have on your phone. And when you go to shop in Northern Colorado, you shop here. Do you have to be a local business to be on there, or you can be anybody really? No. Um, local business. Yeah. I mean, that's my, my territory is like Northern Colorado, but there, there are other regions with network and action that are doing it across the nation. So I just, I, this is really vibing with me. I think I want to have a one-on-one because like one of my struggles is Kurt's the really only salesperson for local think tank, you know, and I've, I've tried to arm ambassadors to be able to refer and, you know, talk to bankers It just doesn't really work very good. And I can't be a member of every organization that I think is awesome. So if I could actually have some affiliates that I could train them, I can help them know who looks like a good local think tank member and who isn't, what our values are, what we care about. Well, and I know you're involved with Realities for Children, their business community. And so again, anything that you have some influence over, it's like, hey, when you refer me, I'll give you the incentive that I would normally, my normal cost to acquire a lead, or I'll donate to this charity on your behalf. Totally. Yeah, like for me as a Realities for Children ambassador, I could be like, hey, I pay this for a good referral, or I donate to Realities for Children for you. Exactly. Exactly. Yep. And so... You know, and that you can just opt into the program and all of a sudden train an affiliate army to one, learn about local think tank. You know, and then those members who are, you know, they would probably already advocate for you. just because they get so much value from your experience. But now it actually provides a structure and some training, and there's some AIs that prompt them to, hey, recommend this. It just gives them that little nudge to make a Facebook post talking about what they learned at the latest meeting. And every time somebody's like, oh, man, I would love to come check out a Freethink or whatever, then they send it to you. You could do your normal sales process. But again, they had a conversation about you in a room that you were not a part of, To bring somebody who's curious to you saves you a bunch of time. And again, put the incentives into that thing. So yeah, absolutely. We're super excited about it for sure. It seems really great. Any interest of, it seems, this is my guessing here, but it seems like maybe part of why the national type job didn't work is because your heart's in Northern Colorado, as is your family. So my guess is that growth for you for business networking done right is northern Colorado is filled with 500 of your members or whatever. You're not spreading out to other places or coaching people on the coast about doing this necessarily. Yeah, I mean, I at one point could build an organization and expand, but, you know, there's a lot of still growth to happen in Northern Colorado. Like, I want it to be as normal of joining what I'm doing as it is to join the Chamber of Commerce. When business owners are talking, my hope is that they say, hey, one of the reasons I'm having success is because I'm working in this group. And so, yeah, medium term goals. I want to have, you know, over 500 members in Northern Colorado. uh, build the affiliate army over 50, a hundred thousand, uh, you know, and supporting, and that's all electronically tracked and stuff. Do you have to do logistics behind that? No, it's all, it all works. So yeah, it works. Affiliates can, you know, connect their Venmo, their, their, uh, um, their Zelle or their, uh, uh, their cash app and and again um it all is tracked through a crm you can let them know hey this thing's pending this thing i didn't get the business did get the business here's what the business was worth it funds the money all happens like 1099s and stuff automatically too yeah yeah you gotta keep uncle sam in the mix Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's not like if you're in Venmo, like, you know, if you say, okay, I made $3,000 in my Venmo, then Venmo will give you all that stuff. Um, you know, it's not up to necessarily me to, to make sure you're not the tax advisor. I'm not, yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to be the IRS for sure. Dig it. But I think that's like, if you can truly accomplish that of making it, normal to get compensated for telling people about awesome things. Like, I think that's pretty neat. Yeah. And then we can, frankly, we can get rid of the influence of some of these Instagrams and Facebooks and networky things and gross content. Not that that's all gross. Some of it's great content, but it's not the real world. We want real relationships to drive, not fancy Facebook videos. Totally. Yeah. In my opinion. Well, and like I toured Hearts and Horses. They said like, you know, we actually get, you know, measurable money from like Amazon gives back or Kroger gives back where people come in, highlight their charity and then their people shop. But... Again, when you're shopping locally, there's something about supporting a local mom-and-pop business, somebody that is making it to do that. And so now we actually have a way to just bring that and connect and do it in Northern Colorado. And make it easy for everybody. For sure. I dig it. Yeah. Do you want to do the chip sample now? Let's do it. Oh, I'm so excited about the chip sample. I want the spiciest version of that salsa. Okay, all right. I'm so excited about this. You're almost a ginger. Yeah, I got some red in my beard. Yeah, you just kind of got that kind of Irish kind of complexion style. You're a Johnson. Is that... john's swedish swedish yeah okay but largely anyway so sometimes my experience has been like the people from northern europe find this a little bit uh a little punchy a little spicy i love ultra spicy foods okay i'll give you some heavy stuff there i'll keep the light stuff on my side right on so go ahead and grab any of those chips that finds your fancy And then have a little taste-a-roo and then share some. This is available. Thank you to Matador Mexican Grill for making our crazy ginger hot sauce. Listeners can get yourself a bottle or restaurateurs can grab a case if you want to. It's actually a good price. I love the habanero base. There's a little kick there, too. So you got something else in it beyond the habanero. Kick a ghost pepper. Okay. There you go. This wasn't quite enough with a ton of habanero. I like it. And then I like it with the vinegar from the chips, too. So that's kind of a cool combo right there. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Back in my – when I had that Farmstrong coaching business, one of the things I tried to do to get – views was this thing called hot pepper fitness. So I would eat like a habanero or scotch bonnet or something like a super spicy thing and then do a wall sit and try to talk about motivation. And it did not get the views that I was hoping I was going to get. This is good. This is a man. I would put that on a lot of things. Yeah. That was super good. Thank you. Would you like one more? I will take it. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. That's a big fatty right there. I like it. I like your style, Andrew Johnson. Mm-hmm. So. We're going to talk about your local experience here shortly, which is a crazy story. But is there anything that... Actually, one thing we haven't done in this episode is give free samples of networking done right. Can we do like a three or five top tips for how to do networking right for... Absolutely. Everybody from those startup businesses like you and I both were at one day. But also the... 20-year veterans that haven't really networked in a long time because they're just kind of satisfied operating an average business and it's fine. And it could be better if they networked right. Totally could be better. And the other thing, Kurt, not a lot of people are actually teaching how to become a more effective networker. They're providing different spaces to network, but there's not – Connections is what they offer, but not skills. Not skills. And I will tell you absolutely 100%, networking is a skill you can learn and something you can master. And in fact, it's worth taking some time if you're investing in networking to become actually a good networker. And it's not just charisma. It's not just like who's got the snazziest business card or pitch or, you know, so many people think about their pitch but not how they're lifting. But if I had any advice to give, most people think to get referrals, you got to be known, like, and trusted. I think a lot of people have shown that you got to be known, like, and trusted. Yep. build relationships, it's going to lead to referral. And in fact, why that's super important, you're not going to get a referral if you're not known, you're not going to get referral if you're not liked, you're not going to get a referral if you're not trusted. But if you just do that, it's not enough. You're still not going to get referrals. So what do we teach people? is you need to do two additional steps to get results from that. So the first one is you've got to build a relationship with another business owner to the point where they've mentally decided they want to help you. So like for a financial advisor, that bar might be a little higher than like a plumber. But again, you have to, at some point, if I need to hire a plumber. That's really where those one-on-ones come in. It is. In the B&I structure or in your introduction structure, you've got to have more relationship there than I've heard Plumber Joe is okay. Totally. So like if you're an insurance agent, very competitive market, hopefully everybody's driving around with insurance on their vehicles. But can you outwork their current situation to where when they're going to get another quote or reevaluate, they choose you to actually run the quote and not your competition? Yeah, right. Have you won the relation? Imagine, imagine like you have, you're recruiting a varsity squad and you have your varsity plumber and your varsity real estate agent and your varsity financial advisor, your varsity, all these things. You're looking for a point guard. You're looking for a shooting guard. You're looking for a center. You got your main, right? These persons on your varsity, and then you have your, like, specialist, maybe. Like, they go out to the side. So a lot of networking is getting on someone else's varsity list and then cultivating your own varsity list. So you actually have a resource for everything. Like, you know, you don't want me singing choir lessons or something like that, but, like, I have some good connections. Right. People ask me all the time, like, hey, who do you know who does X? And that's such a valuable thing as a business owner. So the first additional step beyond being know, like, and trusted is winning the relationship where someone's mentally decided they want to help you. And nobody actually declares you're my guy. Right. It's like people have all these vat vibes, right? Like they're like, oh, we like each other. We hang out. But we actually haven't had a direct conversation that you would be my real estate agent when I sell my house. And so I tell people like vibes are not vows. You know, you actually pop the question, hey, like, I would love to be your networking place. Your go-to real estate guy. Totally. And like actually verbalize that conversation because then the next additional step is once we've gotten that out of the way that I would refer you if getting the chance, the next step is training each other exactly what to look for and becoming more effective at bringing you business. So if you're going to a next thing, like a lot of people are waiting for a referral to hit them in the head. Like if a garage door company is trying to network, they're like, hey, if you ever hear anybody talking about their broken garage door. Totally. Like somebody's just going to be talking about their broken garage door. You know, like my neighbor's got a broken garage door and you're like, okay. I found it, right? And then they go in like, I know a guy who does garage doors, right? No skill really involved. You're just in the right place in the right time, okay? But where we teach is like, you want to look for the key situation. So I say the who, how, what. So for example, a roofer, there are a lot of roofers out there, they're all trying to chase the same homes. And so a roofer, instead of telling me about how awesome the shingles are or how awesome his customer service is, that it's not actually effective at helping me see opportunities for him. So what a roofer needs to do is teach me to look at a ceiling tile in a commercial building and see like a water stain where there might be a roof See like an ice dam on a roof where maybe they don't have the felt the right way and it's not draining. And so who is like, look for granulars in the shingle or look for, for example, a tree that has got limbs brushing on the house, right? And so, and then... How do I find it? You look at her as someone says, you're walking into somebody's house, look to see if there's a tree with a branch on the house. And then what do you say? Cause again, I'm not a roofer, so I'm not gonna pretend to be a roofer. Like- It's two referrals actually. It's the tree service and the roofing company. Exactly. And so what I say is like, oh my God, has that been like that for a while? Like if the ice dam is there and the, you know, they've got ice melt all over because the gutters aren't actually doing. So what I say is like just a normal human being who's not a roofer, are we gonna just point at it and be like, Hey, does that always get like that? I don't know if this is helpful, but I network really closely with a great roofer who can come look to see if maybe there's a repair. Would that be a valuable connection for you? If they say yes, all of a sudden now they've trained me to see ice dam, ceiling tile, tree branch on the shingles, and they just get me to notice it. And so... I had this girl, Barb, shout out to Barb Freeman Science. So I was launching a group. She says, like, hey, if you ever see a burnt out neon sign, text me the address, I'll cold call them. So, like, if you had a Pep Boys, all of a sudden the neon sounds burnt out. It's pee-pee boys, right, or something like that. But in, like, a referral, it's like, yeah, I could just text Barb the address. That's really more of a lead. But if I take... my car in for an oil change and be like, Hey, I don't know if you know this, but like your sign says, right? Like, you know, and they're like, Oh my God, my client's been making fun of me. But like, you actually just have a conversation. Right. If I actually do a sign company to have come fix it, then I would totally call them. You can just say, well, I do network closely with a sign company. They could probably fix that today. Would that be a valuable connection for you? So it just goes a step beyond. But again, to sum that all up, two additional steps, build the relationship, win the relationship. Build the relationship where people mentally decide and actually have a conversation that you're going to be the guy or girl in there. And then once you're doing that, you can actually scale that relationship because it's not a question of if I'm going to refer. It's like, how do I do it at a higher level? I was able to send you two deals this year. Could we make it five next year? Could we maybe meet more consistently and then go through our calendars of who we're gonna meet? Can we actually coach each other on the approach so it sounds more natural? And so once you've actually won the relationship, now you can actually scale it to be at higher level. And then like more advanced stuff is like, building each other into the intake forms, like creating actual systems that as I get business, there's a decision tree that happens that might be able to get you business. Like for a chiropractor, if they're, you know, one of the reasons they're back out is because they're carrying too much weight. It just automatically potentially generates a referral to a gym or a massage therapist. And that's just part of the intake of the weight class. Yeah. It's something right. GLP is all the hormone people. Right. Yeah. But, uh, you know, it, it just becomes like, you want to win those relationships because now there's actually systems involved. That's a, that's a natural pipeline. It's a more intentional kind of activity that I think that's a big part of life. Totally, yeah. Mixing more intention into your days, your daily activities, each of those routine conversations. Well, so much of networking is go to an event, meet a bunch of new people, maybe do a one-to-one and follow up and try to build rapport and then rinse and repeat. And nobody actually takes it to... creating some experience where you actually can refer them or do from like a foundation of personal experience or a testimonial of somebody you've sent to them. And so, so much of networking is all this time spent and not actual true results. And it's like, it just takes a little bit more steps to get to the, to the milk and honey end of those relationships. Yeah. I want to ask about scaling your business a little bit. Because we just talked about an intermediate term goal, 500 members. One of the benefits of being a facilitator for a local think tank, compared to some, is you've got 12 relationships to manage in the room, potentially up to that many. And when you get up to 500 members, I think you're awesome, but I'm not sure Andrew can have one-on-one monthly relationships with 500 people. They can. What's that look like to scale for you? Do you have chapter leaders in place for each of these as well? And what's the scaling function look like? Right now, I mean, it's still something I can manage because we meet monthly, not weekly. So the second week of the month, I'm running my meetings. And, you know, once I get into meeting mode, it's just like running the same system over and over again. And your brain is probably super amazing compared to a lot of people who are just data gathering and... I don't know about that, but I do enjoy the work, right? Yes, yes. You know, it's like the meeting days, there's the results coming in. It's good to see everybody in the same room. But you're right, to get to 500, that's too much. And maybe somebody who's more experienced could give me some advice, but in the same way that I fell in love with networking, where I had a business, I came in and then just found a knack. So what I'm looking for is who are my stars in the community? Do they have actually some passion, not just for their business, but also for networking? Are they taking the coaching? Are they getting results? Would they be somebody I would feel comfortable like mentoring another new member. And so I think that's probably what I'm waiting for, Kurt, is like watching some stars to emerge and go. And then, hey, do it as a part-time thing, run a group, and you're the community builder of that group. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of the notion anyway. Eventually, even have a community builder, almost of each one, that keeps it healthy. Yeah. And you're kind of more the launch director again. Or it's like I got my original OG groups and it's the testing ground. And then as I expanded to like Commerce City, North Glen, I have a community builder down there. You have kind of everything north of I-70 or something as your territory? All the way west and east too? If I wanted it, I'm sure I could get it just because we've been performing really well. So the franchisor is definitely excited about us. expanding. But again, it's, you know, when you put your brand and put that into somebody else who's, they're never going to be as good at being me as I am. And I got to know that I'm never going to be as good at being them as they are. So, and like from my experience where we were launching in super rural Republican areas and liberal, you can actually get along with a whole spectrum of types of people. I've had so many friends that I didn't know that they were... crazy liberals until five years into our relationship, or vice versa. And it's like, that's not the main thing is like your ideology. It's like the main thing is like, can you bring people together? Yeah. And so, and you do good work and you do what you say when you, when you Can you foster community? Do you have the heart of a teacher? Because, again, like in this model, it's really more of a cultivation of a group and letting relationships get deep roots that way. So it's not just a sales role. You're not just trying to get members. You've got to build a cohesive team. And so somebody that might have... experience teaching sports or leading high-level teams, but love the networking things. Like, you got anybody? Email Andrew at VNF-BR with your resume. I was just thinking to myself that... One of the neat things about building it that way is that, like, I know you're kind of Longmont, Berthed region is kind of your epicenter, and Fort Collins, too, kind of all that whole stretch is kind of where you spend a lot of time. And then probably east farther is you're less concentrated, kind of like me. I'm Fort Collins famous. But Commerce City is going to be a different thing altogether. And I don't have the experience in Commerce City. Right, right. I know how to build a group, but it's not my backyard. You don't love Commerce City as much as somebody from down there would. Or somebody from Thornton, or somebody from Golden, or something. And having those community builders in those communities, I could see how that could be a blessing to those communities and to you. Sure. And I want to meet people who have a heart for their community. You can develop them. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm hearing is if you've got a real heart for community and business, and network, you might be the right kind of person to launch a group down there. We'll start with a launch thing. For sure. I'm a good coach. I'm a good coach. I believe that. I believe that. We're going to transition to a sampling of our spirit sponsor. The WizCal and the Seed and Spirit Distilling opening soon. Hard to say, a few weeks, a month away. Yeah, the first batch, huh? In the form of Funkworks. No, well, they've been producing forever, but their tasting room is opening over. in the old funk works oh neat so they've been brewing in the back of that building for years um but they're gonna have an oyster bar pizza oven it's gonna be uh the bee's knees over there right on and this is their signature spirit i would say the whiz cal so we'll do tasting notes on the whiz cal before we get into your do you sip it you shoot it i sip it okay i feel like it's too nice to shoot That's good. With the smokiness. Yeah. Oh, the mezcal, too. Yeah, that's the whiskey and the mezcal kind of together. So good. I like these little aluminum shot glasses, too. Well, this is from, these are, it's a local whiskey, too. Okay. That makes these. But we've got a spirit sponsor now, so we don't buy that. All right. You get the good stuff. Yeah. Would you care to share any tasting notes with listeners? Oh, man. I'm not, do you call them sommeliers? Your connoisseur? No, I don't think so. Easy drinking, a little spicy. For some of you, you barely ever take straight. No. Yeah. That you can sip this and enjoy it is actually a compliment to the spirit. For sure. Yeah. So the local experience is our craziest story that you're willing to share with our listeners. Craziest story. You know, I teased it earlier, but it was like... actually witnessing a miracle. So I want to tell the story of, um, my wife's car accident and like how God's protection was around us and stuff like that. So, um, kids were young, uh, Calvin, my son, uh, not old enough to go to school. My daughter died. I was going to kindergarten. We had a, uh, uh, three mile drive down to the charter school and then back. So, um, The day that my wife got hit, Calvin, my son, is almost 100% in the car seat behind her. But for whatever that day, I was having kind of a royal fit. My wife was running late. She was like, fine. She's just like, I'm going to be right back left in my home. Oh, okay. So never, never, never has done that before. But that day, Calvin was at home. Again, my wife was going to go. She's going to be right back. Right, right. And where the farm was, there's a two-way stop. And this is where? This is a county road 34 and 13. So a road that goes between Johnstown and Firestone. Okay. Yeah. And, uh, came out and she had a, it was two way stop. So the other people were supposed to stop. And so she was going through and the lady just never stopped. And so hit her, uh, right behind the driver's seat, T-boned her, right where my son, Calvin should have been. Yeah. And, uh, uh, she drove a Ford flex at the time. It was one of those big, like swagger. Yeah. The low rider. Most people like thought it was a crazy weird looking car, but, uh, uh, I get it. I get a call. I was plowing a field farming and I was gone early in the morning and I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. And it was like. Hey, Andrew, your wife's been in a car accident, but she's okay. And so she got hit so hard that this big SUV hit a fire hydrant and rolled on its side significantly on the road. So we roll up on this. My wife's car's on its side. Every airbag, which I didn't even know was in that vehicle, was deployed in the side curtains. And... The car's so damaged. She got whacked. She got, she got launched. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this car, the car was going like 50 or something. Yep. Yep. Or whatever. A lot. And she, uh, um, you know, I'm like, Oh my God, like, there's no way my wife is okay. And, uh, She was in the ambulance, you know, strapped to a headboard. And had she dropped off your daughter? She had. So the daughter was also not. Okay, so it was just your wife. It was just my wife. Okay. Yep, yep. So praise God for that. And I get in there, and she's like, hey, babes. Like, what's up? She's like, you know, a little embarrassed, right? Like, she's kind of got some, like, you know, not her, like, going out pants. It was just to run the kid to school real quick pants and, like, yeah. you know, they, she doesn't have a jacket. I don't know. So she's a little like, you know, not, not obviously in her best, but lucid, like she's in looks fine. Right. So we, we, she goes by ambulance to the hospital just because there's like, You're not going to drive yourself. Look at this car. Yeah. Yeah. And we get there, they put her in this like super bright emergency room. Um, and they're like, well, good job for wearing your seatbelt. And like within two or three hours we were discharged. Okay. And, uh, buying car seats again. I'm like, well, that was pretty awesome. Like you were okay. She wasn't, she didn't quite get unscathed because a couple of days later, um, she was rapidly deteriorating. So what happened is she had a sidural hematoma, her brain was bleeding. So they should have caught it in the ER, but they didn't. And so she just wasn't quite herself, started getting to the point where she would lose memory, like we'd walk into our kitchen and forget which career or silverware we're in. Wow, good on you for recognizing that as being important. Well, I wanna give myself two credit because she couldn't figure out how, it was like a foggy day and she was out driving and then she couldn't figure out how to get home. And I was like, you should probably go to the hospital. And so she drove herself there. I was, so I was in a super great husband to do that. Uh, but then they're like, you know, did the MRI and they're like, oh my gosh, you're, you know, we gotta do that. But where, uh, you know, the day of the accident, and if you see my wife today, like you would hardly notice anything that happened. Like she drew a miraculous level of recovery last week. Yeah. Yeah. And she was awesome. But the day after the accident, she saw sunlight, she would get a migraine for three days. Um, if she, uh, she would forget like sentences, mid sentence, she would, uh, um, she was going to nine doctor's appointments a week. Oh, so for quite a while after this. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, But with the networking, what was powerful is like nobody's ever really prepared to go through something like that. But, you know, my business had been doing well thanks to the networking group. I had a emergency fund in place, the right insurances in place, the relationship with the acupuncturist. What you need is actually an acupuncturist. So the day of the accident, even though we got home, they actually opened their business and treated my wife at like 8 p.m. to help take her body out of shock. And it was... you know, above and beyond what a normal business would do, but they cared about me. I had a relationship with them. The chiropractor of the group would actually drive to my house and treat her at our house. So she wouldn't have to get in the car and do all of that. She couldn't be trusted to find her way. Well, I mean, I would drive her and stuff. I'm sure I'm teasing you a little bit. But, uh, it was like, but they went above and beyond to serve your family. Yeah. And it was like having all of those resources when I, that I didn't know I was going to need to be able to, actually provide care and resources and everything was God sent. I mean, it was, it was true miracle kind of stuff to be there. And I'm a big believer. One of the reasons she had the recovery that she had is because we had, a lot of things in place and so many people don't have that. They just, you know, get discouraged from the hospital. They don't get to go to the therapies or all the complimentary kind of things. And because I had a network, I had a lot of resources and then also means to do so. I like to say that In financial capital, when I left banking 12 years ago, and my salary is still lower than what it was when I left banking 12 years ago, I'm not a rich man. But in social capital, I'm really happy. Like even just today, shout out to Chelsea Wisdom. Oh, yeah, Wisdom Tree Gear. There you go. Reality for Children, remember. And a week ago, or two weeks ago, She hooked me up with three skid steers full of wood chips. OK. Because they've always got a little wood chips. But it saved me $150 at the landscape yard. And so today, we volunteered together at the golf tournament for Realities for Children, and I brought her in. my first zucchini, as well as a bunch of fresh herbs. Oh, there you go. And she's like, I have no green thumb. Thank you. This is so sweet. I was like, well, I wanted to do something nice. You know, you've got a, and that's Loco's motto that ask of your needs and share of your abundance. I had needs. I needed some mulch. I have some abundance. It's my garden produce. In your case, when you showed up with needs, which was, for a lot of those people, the first time that you really showed up with needs, they shared their abundance with you. Absolutely. I bet a bunch of them didn't even bill you full price. They would give you the half price discount or shit like that. Incredible. Because you had an hour of need, and they appreciated what you had. You had a bank... You had a savings deposit of social capital with that community. You know, I even think back to that time, that training where it's like, your chapter needs you to be great. You know, and it's like, man, if I wouldn't, if I would have just half-assed it or something, and then we didn't grow or what, and then I wasn't as equipped as I was for that moment. You know, it's like, I don't know. It was bigger than me of why we got there. Yeah, and it feels pretty cool to, be able to look back and think about all those hours that you spent working on stuff and building these networks and building these people and like and it's not about you but it was a kind of a tangible chance for you to realize that yeah for sure dig it anything else uh if people want to find you or your organization they want to get more information yeah i mean i would say websites or anything definitely become an affiliate like even if you're just checking it out download that refer anybody for anything start to shop there and you can get paid how do you do that Yeah, go to networkandaction.com. There's a tab right on the top, and it says become an affiliate. Put in your zip code, and then you can start shopping locally to do that. But if you're a business owner, I'd love to have you come to one of our events. Go to businessnetworkingdoneright.com slash events. to come do that, especially our next level networking events. The last week of the month, they're always free, open to the public. And let me know you're coming because then I can make sure that I'm making some connections for you who are exactly who you want to meet. Love that, dude. Yeah. You are a pro. A pro is pro. Thanks, Kurt. And I'm really thankful to have you as a member of Local Things. Absolutely. You're a fresh member. I'm a newbie. Only a month or two in, a newbie. But I hope in eight months or so, you look back and you call me and you say, Dude, the things that this group helped me learn were the secret to my going from 200 members to 500. I think it's going to be huge. Yeah. And the resources within that room, like, are exactly the right time for me now. So I appreciate it for that. They'll be blessed by your brain in the room, too. So know that. Cool. For sure. Godspeed, good, man. All right. Thanks, Kurt. Cheers. All right, mate. Hi, this is Kurt Baer, host of the Loco Experience podcast and founder of Loco Think Tank. Every week, I explore intimate conversations with business founders and leaders. And so I hope you'll join us this week and every week for the new episode of the Loco Experience.