Importance of Networking for One’s Success

Mark Frentz

 

Daniel: Tonight we have one of the best networkers and best coaches for networking with us, Mark Frentz. His greatest strength is his ability to authentically connect with others the way he approaches all things with grace, compassion and deep curiosity. And I think those are three really good qualities to have when you want to build a network and work with a network. 

Over the past 17 years, Mark has lived in Sweden. You look like you would be somebody from Scandinavia and then in China, not so much. And then you studied multiple languages and you connected folks from all around the world. 

So, Mark tell us why networking is so important to one's success.

Mark: Thank you so much, Daniel. And I'm going to share my screen and the presentation that we just saw from Natasha and Ryan was fantastic because we learned so quickly that networking really is everything.

If you know a real estate agent like Natasha in a city that you want to invest in, that gives you a massive advantage. A massive advantage and same with Ryan. There is no comparison to knowing the right people in an area. 

So I just want to speak really quickly, and this will be a very quick talk about the power of connecting with and helping others because helping others is absolutely essential. Now Daniel said, I'm a master. I would say that he's the master. 

But I'm going to share a couple of relationships that I have right now. I don't know how many people know Dolf de Roos, somebody who wrote books for rich dad, poor or for Robert Kiyosaki is one of his advisors.

He's worked with Donald Trump. He's worked with doing real estate deals, he's from New Zealand. He has worked on stage often with Tony Robbins. He knows everyone. He's invested in many different countries. He is a commercial real estate expert. And he's a friend of mine.

How did I get to know this guy or Brian Sidorsky who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Calgary here or Ken Beaton who has done hundreds of multi-family deals out in Eastern Ontario or Judy Robinett, who is in the US. She is a master networker. She wrote the book in front of you there and is connected with everyone, whether it's Hollywood or she's a venture capitalist or politicians, whoever she's connected with.

How is it that I can pick up the phone right now and call any of these people? And they would pick it up? How does that work? Because I'm not the super famous person or this crazy well-known person. Really what it's about is building relationships with people. There are very few ways to grow your network.

One is to go to the right clubs, schools or events. Okay. So if you go to Harvard. You are more likely to meet people and connect with people who are high-end people and are going to do really interesting things in life, or you can donate to the right cause. If you have hundreds or thousands or millions of dollars to spend, if you're going to those $1,000 plate dinners, you can now rub shoulders with the right people.

But both of those first two typically cost a lot of money starting off, and most people aren't there. I know that I was not there starting off in real estate or in business. You need to know the right people. So this is another way. So, if I was born into a family where my mum and dad were connected with everyone, I could connect through those people.

And really, this is how I met Daniel. This is how I met other people, was through my network, knowing the right people, but I had to start somewhere and really where that started and where I recommend anyone starting is bringing value and building trust over time. Be consistent, be reliable. Bring value.

Don't think about yourself, think about others. And this is why I would say Daniel is such a great network himself over and over again. When I have conversations with him, he's talking about what he can offer me and how I can help you. Mark that's the very typical sign of a master networker because they're looking to help.

They don't talk about what they want. They talk about how I can help? How can I listen? So, why network really quickly? Again, you will find more deals. I've got four deals I'm working on right now. Okay. Four accepted offers ranged from $2 million to $17 million. One is commercial three or multi-residential.

How did I find these deals? They're all off market. How did I find these deals? It's through network or find more money for your deals. How am I buying a $17 million building? I'm going to be very transparent here. I do not have the down payment for the $17 million building. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on.

I don't have the money for it, but I know people with money and I know people who know others with money and through my network, I'm able to build a real estate portfolio for myself, as well as bringing great returns for others. Build fantastic friendships. My friends, when I was growing up were the people that I went to school with, that I've worked with now, my friends are spread out all over the place.

I've got friends in Germany and China in Sweden, in Australia and New Zealand in the US and even my best friends in Canada, all over Canada, living in Ontario or further east. So, for Calgarians that's fairly far east Ontario, but yeah great friendships, long lasting friendships, and you receive help in fascinating ways.

I bet about 80% of my income. 80% of my income has come directly from my network, not from the separate marketing that I've been doing, not from other things, not from the work that I do for my own business. But from my network. Fantastic. How many people are willing to help me? And that comes through networking.

So, this is the why. Now, if you know me at all, the action steps or any central part of everything that I do, if I'm not giving you an action step you're not really hearing Mark talk because it is so important. It doesn't matter. Who cares what I've just said. If there are no actions that you can take.

So number one, I'm going to recommend you become excellent at asking great questions. The better you get to know people, the better you get to know their needs, the better deals you're going to find in real estate. Talk to a vendor, see how many vendors you can talk to. And again, really quick I've got a deal that I'm working on in moose jaw right now.

And the guy is willing to find a new tenant for me, I've got a building that is a crazy cap. It's a very high cap rate and the vendor is finding a tenant. That's a government tenant free. They're willing to sign a 20 year lease and pay us an extreme amount of money over the next 20 years.

Again, this is coming from questions. There's also a second deal that he has another government tenant that nobody else knows. I know about it because of questions, ask great questions of people, then learn to shut up to be willing to ask a great question and then listen, thirdly, practice smiling. Yeah, there's an incredible power to an authentic smile where you connect with somebody, you listen to somebody and you connect with them.

It builds trust incredibly fast. If you've ever read how to win friends and influence people. This is one thing that Carnegie talked about and then developed a pleasing personality. And this actually comes from Napoleon Hill. And think and grow rich. He talked about developing a pleasing personality.

And if you are somebody that people want to be with, you will develop far better connections around you. Lastly, make it a habit. And I talked about this before, making it a habit of providing value. Now, sometimes this is a really important point. Sometimes what you believe is valuable is not valuable. This is why it's so important to ask questions, understand what other people value and then bring value to them.

So I mentioned some of these people that I know I'm not giving them value in what most people would think is valuable. I'm not bringing them more money. None of them I guess there's one of them that I'm bringing more money but most of them are not bringing money. Most of them, I'm just a friend.

Honestly somebody they can confide in somebody they can connect with. I, of course I'm helping them in other ways, but it's not about money for them. Sometimes there's value in, in just the relationship itself. And that's it for me.

Daniel: Yeah. You and your experience and what you do in networking and neat. Having written a book on networking, we could be spending the next hour here talking about the importance of networking. And I completely understand what you're talking about when you said that off-market deals and if we have more time, I'll tell you about the 330, actually $335,000.

I have found. Today for a mortgage for a commercial building and buying. And 200,000 of that came from somebody who I don't know, but they know somebody I know. So, now we're talking about second level and it's cool when you have to have a network, to build a network and to use a network.

And you mentioned Napoleon Hill. I would like to think that one of the reasons why Napoleon Hill is so famous and why you was such a great book, he must have been really good at networking. What do you think?

Mark: Absolutely. He was a master of it. He was interviewing the 500 wealthiest individuals in the US at the time. The only way you connect with 500 of the wealthiest individuals is through networking. Absolutely, I agree completely.

Daniel: Yeah. And at that time it was not like he could just go on the internet and connect to zoom. There was enough, a lot of connecting and driving and going and meeting people and whatever. So, it must be much more difficult, but one person leads you to the next person and leads you to the next person. And it's networking, you've heard the expression. It's not what, it's who you know.

Now, hold on because if you're a newcomer and you don't know what you're doing, who you know will not help you make money. But in real estate, I'll give you two examples. I could not explain to somebody what cap rate means, how you calculate cap rate. I would not be able to do that. I know about vendor take-back, but I've never done it because I don't quite understand how you approach people and do that and et cetera.

So, in other words, people might say I don't know about real estate and some parts of real estate investing. That has not kept me from buying 73 properties for 35 million so far, but I have a really good network and all of it was done with OPM, "Other People's Money". That means networking.