Mastering the Game of Networking and Connections with Rob Sperry - Episode 11

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Welcome to the Journey To Win Podcast. Today's episode we dive deep into the art and science of networking to help you unlock your full potential.

Rob Sperry, a renowned networking professional and author of the bestselling book "The Game of Networking," has been instrumental in helping countless individuals elevate their networking game and achieve extraordinary results. Through his expertise and guidance, he has empowered individuals to build valuable relationships, open doors to new opportunities, and skyrocket their success.

In "Mastering The Game of Networking and Connections," we'll draw upon Rob Sperry's wealth of knowledge and experience, along with insights from other networking experts and industry leaders, to provide you with practical tips, proven strategies, and actionable advice. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a business professional, or anyone looking to harness the power of networking, this podcast will equip you with the skills to master the game of connections.

Join us as we delve into topics such as cultivating a powerful network, effective networking techniques, leveraging social platforms, and nurturing authentic relationships.

Are you ready to take your networking skills to the next level? Tune in to embark on a transformative journey that will unlock new possibilities and propel you towards unprecedented success. Get ready to become a networking professional and make your mark in the world of connections!

@robsperry
https://www.robsperry.com

Transcript

Thebrandonthornhill (00:05.394)
Hey, welcome everybody to the journey to win. I'm your host Brandon Thornhill. As you guys know, we go through the ups and downs of what it takes to win in every area of your life. You know, the wins, the losses, because winning is a process, as you guys know. And I'm so excited to have our guest on today. You know, he's a good friend of mine. He's out here in Salt Lake City, Utah. And you know, his name is Rob Sperry. He's been recognized by top publication, you know, Business for Home as the number one trainer in the network marketing industry. And his first year in the industry.

Thebrandonthornhill (00:34.926)
He literally reached the highest level in a multi-billion dollar company and a multi-billion dollar company. Um, he's a co-creator of mint. That was a spinoff from a $3 billion company in total sales and launched with a million dollars in sales in just his first month. So, you know, he's no stranger to taking things from ground to a massive, a massive amount of volume. So, uh, Rob, welcome to the podcast.

Rob Sperry (01:00.386)
Thanks, my man, for having me on. And it's been so fun getting to know you and hanging out. I know we're local, so it's nice we get to do lunch and go to different events together. And glad you're finally getting this podcast going because you have some of the most insane just contacts and content. And I love podcasts because it's like your hyper focus. You get to just binge listen. So to all those binge listeners that are new, you guys are gonna have some of the best, best, best.

Rob Sperry (01:29.014)
contacts because Brandon is such a great network.

Thebrandonthornhill (01:32.126)
Yeah, I appreciate that man. And I'll tell you guys, you know, I met my first time actually meeting Rob in person, I believe Rob, it was at your, well, we went to an event, but it was at your mastermind when we first got some time together. And so whether you are a network marketer, if you're a network marketer, you should definitely be listening to Rob Sperry and on his podcast because he's bringing so much value. He's wrote, you know, books that you can buy on Amazon. He's got all the content out there to help you get from where you are to where you want to go. But you know, our, at our first event, you know, I just remember

Thebrandonthornhill (02:01.81)
Rob, whether you are an entrepreneur, or you are a state home mom, or you are building a business, no matter where you are on your journey to try to get to where you're trying to go, he is the guy that I believe can help you get there. And not only can he do it, he's already doing it to a lot of people. He's one of the top mentors in the game. So Rob, before we start off, I usually ask everybody one question, and that is what is winning to you? What is winning to Rob Sperry?

Rob Sperry (02:30.838)
Yeah, really good question. I look at it, the first thing that comes to my mind is one word, it's progress. And I remember hearing a long time ago, some people told me that it was Tony, Tony Robbins was the one that said it initially. I don't know, but the definition of happiness is progress. And so for me, winning is always about progress. And you think about that even from a sports standpoint, I played semi-professional tennis, played college tennis.

Rob Sperry (02:57.09)
And if you're playing someone that you're supposed to lose to, 6-0, 6-0, but you lose 6-3, 6-3, of course it sucks that you lost. But in reality, in some ways you feel like you actually won because you're progressing. And so I think the key after that with winning is just being very clear on what that progress is that you want for winning in your life. And so for me, you've seen it before I do this whole castle training that just keeps

Rob Sperry (03:24.73)
It just keeps evolving and changing. I've got a whiteboard behind me literally probably I mean, it's as big of a whiteboard as it gets it's eight feet and the whole thing is just full of this whole castle strategy they call and the castle strategy is where I List in the castle the most important priorities to me and usually I tell everyone, you know, don't really have you know Five six sevens fine. There's no set number but you get too many. It's it's really tough. These are like the main part so

Rob Sperry (03:53.326)
If I look right here, right, and I kind of keep challenging and evolving, and I've got God, I've got wife, I've got kids, which encompasses, with kids I put family and friends, so we'll put family and friends. Obviously kids are higher priority than that. And then I have health, business, church, and hobbies. And those kind of, I always challenge those, because sometimes they actually switch a little bit on what's most important. So for me, winning is progress.

Rob Sperry (04:21.094)
in those areas that matter the most. And those are actually in order. So God, number one, wife, right after that, number two, and then of course family, number three, because I just know that all those things take care of me. That's when I'm happiest. And so that's winning for me is progressing in the areas that actually matter the most. They help keep me focused.

Thebrandonthornhill (04:46.23)
I love that man. So I got to ask then. So you have, you know, you have that's, that's awesome. So one question I have for you is you're one of the best networkers that I've ever met. Really, truly. Like your network is massive. You say my network is big, like your network is huge. And so, you know, I would like, because I think that you, you know, you, you, you propelled to the top of the game in the network marketing industry. Now you're at the top of the coaching industry, but you're always

Thebrandonthornhill (05:15.754)
You know, that wasn't the story. You know, as soon as you got started, obviously you had to go through the journey. So when you first got started, how did you build your network? And you even wrote a book on networking. So talk to us about that.

Rob Sperry (05:28.35)
Yeah, for me I always grew up as the little guy, like really, really just small, soft-spoken. When I was 14 years old, my brother was 12, he was taller than me, and my sister was 10 years old, she was taller than me. Now I grew later, but I wasn't like just small, like as far as short, I was like just beyond scrawny and very timid. And so for me, the way I always won was I just was gonna make really good friends with everybody. I made everybody feel important.

Rob Sperry (05:58.07)
And by doing that, you know, I became just, you know, I'd win, like, I think I won in like fourth or fifth grade for friendliest, right? And stuff like that. So that was just my way of, of winning in everything that I did. So when I started coaching tennis prior to network marketing, I literally just networked. I would go and I'd make friends and then I'd start coaching some of these kids tennis. And then I would go to the moms after, tell them how good their kids did

Rob Sperry (06:27.862)
The kid didn't show up. I'd shoot him a text to the mom and the kid and say, is everything okay? Like just next level stuff for networking. And then my program grew. You don't know this, but my program, my first year started out with five kids in my early, early 20s. And it grew from five kids to 50 kids, from 50 kids to 120 or two. And then I had 280 kids. Of course I had a lot of other instructors I had to end up hiring. I'm teaching at a local high school. And it was all through net.

Rob Sperry (06:57.99)
working. And the same thing when I transitioned to network marketing, when I first started, because I was like, I hate network marketing. I'm never going to do that. That's like the, that's what you do when you're, when you're broke and you have zero credibility. That was my perception for years and years and years. Said no to 11 different network marketing companies. And then someone approached me really the right way. It was the right time of my life. And when I started with that new career, I literally just took the same concepts and principles.

Rob Sperry (07:27.934)
as far as just networking. So one of those would be this, and this applies to all professions and industries. Because you look at the number one car salesman of all time looking against Book of World Records, guess what he did? And I talked about this in my book, The Game of Networking. This is all he did, super simple. He stayed in contact with people. So anytime someone bought a car, all he did is he would literally shoot them at that time, right? He'd send out letters, right? Because he didn't have like texting or any of that.

Rob Sperry (07:57.022)
And he'd shoot them out once, whether it's their anniversary for getting the car or birthdays or stuff like that. That's it. And he would outsell 90% of car dealerships himself. And that's the type of stuff that I would do. So someone said no to me in network marketing. For me, I didn't try to be the person that was the spammy-pammy, just reach out every second. I stayed in contact with those people. And so my goal was to message.

Rob Sperry (08:26.086)
over 300 people a month, non-business related. Not fake chit chat, just quick simple voice messages or texts or you see someone post that they just got married, right? I'm not gonna go comment just on their posts. I'm gonna shoot them a text like, hey congrats, that's awesome. I'm so happy for you. Sounds like you found like the perfect person, you know, stuff like that. And so they weren't long messages. They don't take that long.

Rob Sperry (08:53.602)
But I've consistently done that now for over the last probably 15 years, just shot out to, I mean, now it's probably over 400 people a month, just non-business related, just be a good human being, conversations, messages to people. And so the network expands as you go. And it's so simple, stupid texts like that, as you stay consistently in touch with people, I'm not even asking for things, but then when they need something,

Rob Sperry (09:22.022)
I become front of mine and they come to me and then there's something I feel like is a fit for them. Then I come to them and I think some of you may be thinking right now, well, that's just what you were doing for network marketing. That's not true. Brandon's seen some of the people I brought to different events that have come and the vast majority of them actually aren't in network marketing. I mean, the event that you were at, the leaders mastermind, I think all the speakers that came, I don't know if any of them were and there were eight top notch.

Rob Sperry (09:52.666)
speakers that came to that event.

Thebrandonthornhill (09:56.338)
Yeah, you know, I love that because you got approached the right way. And I think that unfortunately, a lot of people get approached the wrong way. And, but it's not just a network marketing. I mean, we're talking about sales in general, you know, and then you're talking about reaching out to 300 people. A lot of people could look at that and be like, Whoa, that's a lot of people, but it's really only 10 people a day. Times 30 days every day. You're just sending 10 messages. It's so easy. If you're just consistent, like shooting out birthday messages and things like that, I know you go super into detail and tactics of like

Thebrandonthornhill (10:26.27)
you know, the things that they can do to keep in touch with people and inside your book. But, um, I love that man. And so, you know, I think when I first got started, Rob, like that was one thing we had in common is that I was really good at keeping in touch with people, even though I, so I was in the military, we moved to Germany for a couple of years. We were living out in Stuttgart area. And you know, we didn't have, we just had our small network out there, but I was always texting people, keeping in touch with them.

Thebrandonthornhill (10:52.454)
And then I went out to San Diego and as soon as I got out there, I got to introduce the industry. And so it was a very easy transition just to reach out to people and reconnect and see if it's something that they're interested in. And so, you know, that was why I think, I think that's one, and maybe you can let me know if you, you agree, especially in network marketing industry, that's going to be one key factor when they first get started is their contacts. Are they, you know, have they actually kept in contact with them or are they completely

Thebrandonthornhill (11:20.374)
turned a warm market person into a cold market person because they haven't talked to them in years and years.

Rob Sperry (11:27.55)
Yeah, it happens all the time where another example with exactly what you're saying right there is, is someone reaches out to someone, let's say just an example about their network marketing business and that person says no.

Rob Sperry (11:41.214)
and then there's zero communication in between. And eight months to a year later, they hit them up again. And they say no. And eight months to a year, they hit them up again. And they say no. And this is the reason why people get so annoyed. And I get it from the network marketers perspective, they're like, hey, I've got something that's really, really good. Good product, good service, great company. I can help you make extra money. So from their perspective, their limited perspective is,

Rob Sperry (12:08.99)
Of course I want to help myself if you join helps me, but I'm trying to help you as well. And from the other person's perspective, it's like you're just trying to make money off of me and you could care less. You reach out to me only when you need something. And what's crazy is, is what I started doing like when you talk about technique is I would put a message or put a note, I would put an event in my calendar where two weeks later I would reach out to the person that said no.

Rob Sperry (12:38.826)
and I would reach out to non-business related, say, hey, Brandon, thanks so much for taking a look. I know it wasn't a fit right now, but really appreciate it. If I can ever help you out with anything else, just let me know. Guarantee Brandon's gonna list that message. Whoa, that's a little bit different. I like this guy, like that's pretty cool. Put another reminder in my phone for two months later. And that time I'm gonna try to find some point of reference, maybe something in common that we have, maybe something I see on social media, and I'm gonna message again.

Rob Sperry (13:07.694)
And of course, you know, there's more to it, but those are two simple things that you can do. Now, if I were to reach out to Brandon six months later and I had those two just simple conversations in between, the likelihood of him being interested or saying yes, go up dramatically just from me being a good human being. And people misinterpret it where they feel like they got to become besties with everybody. We're not telling you to do like fake rapport.

Rob Sperry (13:36.226)
We're not, I'm not telling anyone to do where, oh my goodness, I've spoken to Brandon every day for a year now, can I approach him? No, I just gave you a very simple formula that it's just be a good human being. That's all, and it doesn't take that long. And guess what? You'll find that a lot of those people, you're gonna be able to help them with something other than network marketing, and they're gonna be able to help you with something other than the network marketing. An example, we moved in to our house eight years ago.

Rob Sperry (14:05.386)
The school was full. Well, through networking and people we had taken care of, they got our kids into the school we wanted them to get into. The tennis club, completely full. People had been on the waiting list five years. I stay in touch with people, have contacts in the tennis community, got us in day one. At that time, I wanted to get a Mercedes. I reach out to the guy that's the regional rep over a couple of states and said, Hey, Jim.

Rob Sperry (14:30.434)
Can you hook me up? Like who's the best person to talk to? I wasn't even asking for a deal. I just said, who's the best person to talk to? And he says, actually, I get two friends and family discounts at the end of the year. I'm not using one of the two. So I'm gonna give you the cost of what it is. He's like, this is what employees get. And so I went and got, you know, it was like $10,000 under market value, all from networking and just being a good human being. And those were all non-business related that I didn't know. You just never know where it's gonna lead,

Rob Sperry (15:01.126)
your skills that you develop and your network that you create are the two best insurance policies that you can have.

Thebrandonthornhill (15:09.182)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, Grant Cardone says, uh, con contacts equal contracts. Right. And you know, the, the simple saying of your network is your net worth. And so tell me though, like if someone's first getting started in the, in the industry, so like for you, when you first got started in the industry, what was your kind of daily method of operations? Like how many people did you reach out to when you first got started? Because you know, this business loves speed. And I think there's two different types of momentum. Momentum in general is just

Thebrandonthornhill (15:39.25)
speed of exposures and a very condensed period of time. But when you can sustain momentum, it's a lot of new and excited people who are getting results. Like you said earlier, you said, sometimes people think that when I reach out to you, that you're doing me a favor by getting started on my business because I'm gonna make a little bit of money on a signup bonus, cool bro. Like that's not that big of a deal. The big deal becomes when we help you win because one hand down, one hand up, the more we help you win and the more we're able to gain momentum.

Thebrandonthornhill (16:08.498)
and help a lot of other people winning, because that's what network marketing is about, it's a lot of people who are getting results, duplicating a very simple system, right? So tell me, what can people do, and what did you do when you first got started, and how did you be able to create the success that you were able to create?

Rob Sperry (16:25.278)
Yeah, I was running a tennis club at the time. No one was focused on social media at the time. In fact, it was taboo to do social media in 2008. So I was doing this business very part time. And of course I was beyond scared. I was beyond terrified. At that time there was no texting. No one really texted. It was all just, the teachings were 100, there was no voice messaging. At that time it was 100% call people. So it made it even scarier.

Rob Sperry (16:55.378)
Sure, maybe you could say the effectiveness is a little bit higher, but calling people? I mean, that's like, that's like scary. So I didn't call anyone in my first two days and my mentors made over $30 million reaches out to me, Rob, who are you getting on the phone with me? And oh, I got people coming to your house tomorrow. It was a white lie. I didn't have anyone yet, but in my mind, I was planning on getting some people. And he said something I'll never forget. He said, Rob, urgency is synonymous with wealth.

Rob Sperry (17:22.506)
And I told him I worked till 2 p.m. that day. And he said, you get someone on the phone with me at 2 p.m. today or I'm done with you. I'm never working with you again. A little bit harsh, but for me, I needed that. For a lot of people, most people actually would have quit. But for me, had I not done anything for two more days, I would have never done anything at all and I would have quit. And I would have probably always made fun of this industry and said it's awful and it didn't work and made all these blame, you know, blamed and made these excuses.

Rob Sperry (17:50.538)
So I got into action at 2 p.m. It was August 8th, 2008, and I was on the phone from 2 p.m. till 10 p.m. straight. And I was so scared of failing that I legit, once I got started, I went crazy. And my whole focus was I didn't know how to present. I didn't know how to close anyone, right? In closing, it's not like hard closing, right? You're just trying to find a win-win scenario. But I didn't understand that.

Rob Sperry (18:20.014)
The only thing I knew how to do was get people to take a look. And so that's what I did. I was, as we hear the cliche, be the preview of the movie, not the movie. I was the preview of the movie. That was the only thing I knew how to do. And I was going to become great at it. I reached out to 250 people in three weeks doing this business part time. So when people say they don't have time at the time I had two kids, right. My wife and two kids and working full time at the tennis club 40 or I.

Rob Sperry (18:47.974)
a week, but every spare second I had was focused on this business to get it launched. That month I ended up doing $45,000 in sales. I mean, my closing ratio, even though that sounds like a lot in sales, I think it was something like we figured out it was like 13%. So it's not that it was high. I just reached out to more people. I just did the cliche of failed forward faster than most people. I did what most people do in a year in three weeks. From that,

Rob Sperry (19:17.326)
I created a little bit of credibility. I didn't know this till later on in the year, but I sponsored more people that month than anybody else did in a billion dollar company in any month. And that was my first month. And that was August, which is typically a slower month, one of the slowest months for most, to the first or second slowest. And so that's all I did. It's like, well, what did you do? I reached out to new people. I kept it short and sweet.

Rob Sperry (19:45.354)
and I did third party validations. Didn't understand fully what I was saying, right? But I was passionate, I was excited, and people would be like, well, tell me more about it. Look, I don't know. I'm really excited. Here's the gist. This is the company I'm working with. These are the people, but I promise you, I wouldn't waste your time, and it's worth taking a look at. Like, well, can you give me more information? I wasn't trying to like hide stuff. I just legit was honest with them. I'm like, no. But like I said, I wouldn't waste your time. Take a look at it. If you're not interested, great. Point me in the right direction. I'll never bother you again.

Rob Sperry (20:14.762)
And if it is something that's a fit, we're gonna crush this thing together. And it was legit that simple over and over and over again. If my pasturing was on taking a look, it wasn't on joining, it wasn't on throwing up on them with too much information, anything like that. Cause I didn't know anything else, right? I kept it simple with passion and energy.

Thebrandonthornhill (20:37.874)
Yeah, you know, and I love that because you're saying it so casual, but let's, let's break down some numbers real quick. And because you reached out to 250 people in 14 days. Now that's not normal. Right? Like most people you try to get them to reach out to five.

Rob Sperry (20:53.194)
21 days, because it was August 8th, but you know, still. Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (20:56.946)
So 21, it's a 21 days. I did the math on 14, so we'll keep it 14, but because I'm not good at math, but anyways, 250 people in two weeks, 14 days, that's 18 people a day, 13% conversion. That's 32 conversions essentially, right? Now, now that's great, but also that's not gonna do you any good if you can't duplicate, you don't have the proper system to be able to, to make sure they can get results too. Now, but you got 87 nos for every 100 people that you reached out to.

Rob Sperry (21:09.954)
Yep, it's great.

Thebrandonthornhill (21:27.354)
So, you know, that could have knocked you out of the box. How did that not knock you out of the box by getting 87 nos and only 13 yeses?

Rob Sperry (21:36.91)
I think the fact that I had so many people I contacted that I had some yeses that gave me hope, right? Now, I know there's some people that could say, my first hundred people said no, I get that would be hard, but usually your first hundred people don't just say no right away, usually your first hundred people, you're gonna have at least 15 interested, that gives you hope and excitement. And so for me, I had some that were interested, I had some that said no, and I had some that said yes.

Rob Sperry (22:04.834)
And my brain instantly went to, oh my goodness, these people that said, yes, like I got a team here, even when I only had two or three people. And I'm like, if I got two or three people now and, you know, we all start working together and I keep building, you know, my teams and help them build their teams, we could create a big distribution channel, right? If product users, consumers, people that want to focus on the business. And so my brain really focused on.

Rob Sperry (22:33.434)
what was possible with that. And that just came excited. And really going back to your first question you asked, there's progress, right? And that's what I looked at. And even though sometimes progress isn't as fast as you would have liked, right? Let's say your goal is to make $5,000 a month in six months and six months later you're only making a thousand. Well, if you were making $100 a month, you're like, oh, that sucks. But I'm on my way there because there's progress. Whereas think about this.

Rob Sperry (23:02.998)
If someone's making 10 grand a month, and all of a sudden a year later, they're making seven grand a month, they're pretty discouraged and distraught. You say, well, why? Initially their goal was five, now they're already at 10, because of the lack of progress. Our brains think in a directional way. We're drama kings and queens. We exaggerate the current moment to what our future's gonna be. So if it's going a little bit backwards, or like projecting, where am I going? Oh, I'm gonna start freaking out.

Rob Sperry (23:32.514)
we're just going a little bit forward, like, yeah, it's taking a little longer than I thought, but I'm there, I'm headed there, I'm gonna make it. And so, you know, for me at that time, it worked to my advantage because I could see the progress. Of course, it's a lot harder. I went through a lot of those dark times where I wasn't going through the progress, right? And I had to challenge and re-challenge that commitment. But at that time, I was seeing progress at least.

Thebrandonthornhill (23:57.534)
Yeah, you know, I think it's important that people understand that you gotta, there is power and having a little bit of, you know, naivety or however you say that word, like being a little bit naive and just trusting in the process. But you have to marry your work ethic with it. You know, I guess some people started and they're like, I want to make 10 grand a month within the next five months. I'm like, bro, you're not even making, you're making four grand a month in your full-time job working 40 hours a week. And you want to get to 10 grand a month. We can try to do it. But if you're going to show up,

Rob Sperry (24:06.604)
Oh yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (24:24.002)
once a week, like it's not going to happen. You got to treat this like it's your full-time deal. You know, you work part-time, Jim Rohn says, you work full-time on your job, part-time on your part-time system. It's eventually one day you're going to be able to take over your full-time job and to get you out of that, right? That's what happened for me. And so I think there's power in that. I think that, you know, with you, you had a lot of ammo. It's like, instead of just being a sniper and only having five or 10 bullets that you're shooting at and getting discouraged every time you got a no, like whatever, next person, let's move on.

Thebrandonthornhill (24:54.368)
You know?

Rob Sperry (24:55.818)
Yeah, it was, and it created this little bit of momentum, which was amazing. Now I will say this. The second part of the story is after that, I hoped everybody would do what I did, or at least a couple. And so I went for about four, let's see, September, October, and four months of management mode where I stopped reaching out to new people. And of course, part of my intent was good because I wanted to help other people. But the other part was I didn't want to keep going through that rejection.

Rob Sperry (25:24.53)
And so I hoped that I had done my part and that I could just support everyone else and get a couple of people to do what I did. And my business went down, down, down, down to the point where I made four, less than $400 in my fifth month in the business, which is crazy when I had an organization that big. And so I had to basically restart and say, you know what? I got to become the person I would want to recruit. Like I keep hearing. And I'm not, you know, I was month one.

Rob Sperry (25:54.262)
but you can't build a big business from one month. That's like a lottery ticket mentality. And so I knew that, but sometimes you don't really know it till you live it and learn it. So I went back in January and crushed it. I think I tripled my business, never went below that mark. And it really got back to focusing on become the leader you would want to recruit. And it just made all the difference in my career. It was a do or die moment, right? When your wife looks at your check and.

Rob Sperry (26:22.134)
She laughs and you're laughing but kind of crying. And you're like, she's like, is this gonna work? And you're like, uh-huh. And you have no freaking clue, right? I was like, okay, right. Are you going to or not? You said you are. And so it was, I went through those dark times and moments and they were definitely challenging, but I'm grateful now for them.

Thebrandonthornhill (26:41.97)
Yeah, you know, Rob, the one thing that I've always trained my team on is, um, you know, like when somebody joins your business and it could also be, it could be a real estate broker, an insurance broker. I mean, this is anything team building doesn't matter. And it's also I'm about to relate it to sports. I mean, you're in pickleball. So, you know, if, if you're putting together a travel pickleball team and you, you can only, there's 50 people who come in, who want to travel with you, but you can only take 20, what are you going to do? You're going to take the people who show up. You're going to take the people who

Thebrandonthornhill (27:12.094)
have a little bit of the skills already to get to that next level that can actually play. And so my point that is, as people come to the pipeline and they join, their belief is high enough to swipe out their credit card to say, all right, let's go, I'm ready to join, but is it high enough to actually show up? Are they consistent? Do they have work ethic, right? And so I have a quadrant, and I don't know if you've ever seen this before, but it's the first one's impoms, newest possibility of momentum. What that means is people are showing up, they're on the calls, they come with a big list of contacts.

Thebrandonthornhill (27:41.406)
You know, they're willing to reach out to them. You don't have to like convince them to reach out to them. They're willing to set up their first meetings. And then that person can graduate into what we would call potential leader. Potential leader is a person that's going to go out there and do the presentations. Maybe they hit the first two, one or two ranks, you know, without much of your help. Right. And then from there, they could potentially turn into a project if they have the right influence level. And that's the person I'm going hip to hip with. I'm trying to turn me into them, right? Or them and to me, whatever, like I'm trying to duplicate my one of them.

Rob Sperry (28:09.526)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (28:10.954)
to get them into the next last quadrant, which is a leader, self-sustainable, six-figure, seven-figure earner, somebody that's out there duplicating other leaders and putting people through that same process. Have you ever heard of that before?

Rob Sperry (28:21.771)
No, I like that.

Thebrandonthornhill (28:24.038)
Yeah, you know, I actually, I actually.

Rob Sperry (28:25.89)
I want to see the next time we see you, I want to see the visual and go through the whole thing. I love when there's like a process like that because when people can visually see it, I think it helps them just understand. It's like I always give the analogy. I mean, as hard as it is to become a doctor, people will go do it, right? Of course you got to be passionate about it, but they'll go do it because there's a process. They know what they need to do. And a lot of times in network marketing, right, they're just not sure what they need to do. It's like they just hear, well, just, you know.

Rob Sperry (28:54.026)
invite a lot, which is what I just talked about. That's the most important. They also want to know like a little bit more of the process that we go through.

Thebrandonthornhill (29:02.502)
Yeah, you know, you got to think like even at SEAL Team 6, for example, like there's guys who the screening process for that Rob is very intense. Right. And so just to get into that team, like there's like 200 team guys that will apply and go through the process. They'll only let 60 guys go into what's known as green team. And then the 60 guys that go into green team out of that, there's probably only like 20 to 25, maybe 30 dudes that make it through. And then once they get through that, there's still guys that will get to the squadrons and.

Thebrandonthornhill (29:30.438)
get removed. Think of like any type of professional sport out there. And then people think that, you know, once you just, you, you've all of a sudden made it in the network marketing arena that you don't have to continue to show up. You don't have to continue to do things that got you there. You can just sit back and rest on your laurels. And so talk about that a little bit, like, cause you coach a lot of high level entrepreneurs, network marketers, all of that, but how do you, you know, I think it's great to see people win short term, but you know, the reality is, is that I see very few win longterm.

Thebrandonthornhill (29:59.254)
and it's because of things like this. So how do you help them win long-term?

Rob Sperry (30:03.382)
Whew, that's such a good question. Um, it was probably one of the hardest, I wrote your rank advancement blueprint. And it goes over leadership in, it was probably one of the hardest sections in that book. It's all in leadership. And the reason is, is because what happens is, is you just alluded to it. Network marketers make a lot of money because they're sold the dream on the lifestyle, they get the lifestyle, which is important and to each their own. Um, they forget about some of the basics and the core.

Rob Sperry (30:32.746)
And then all of a sudden they wonder what happened to their business. And usually whatever you do now shows up, you know, sometimes it takes a year to show up, right, from a leader standpoint, because it's such a big, um, even your small little changes have big impacts, but they take time to show up for good or for bad. So I always teach successful people just do the basics better. And as you transition into what I call the legacy type phase,

Rob Sperry (31:03.282)
You need to still stay plugged into your group. But even if you're like, okay, let's give an example. Let's say like, hey, I've shifted a different phase. I've earned this. And now you're like, I just want to work seven or eight hours a week. That's fine. You're entitled to that. You've done it. But most of the time, those people aren't really working seven, eight hours. And they aren't doing the basics. So some of the basics are I would always, if I were, let's say I was right at Coach

Rob Sperry (31:32.018)
astronomical amounts, like five million bucks a year. I would keep investing into the new leaders and the old leaders. So whether that's doing, and you guys are phenomenal doing this, I would be doing leadership retreats because it's all about relationships, bringing up, and that would be the best use of my time right on those people that have gone through the systems that everyone's part of. And then also I wanna continue to maintain

Rob Sperry (31:59.99)
those relationships with the people that got me to where I'm at right now. And so high level things like that, I would still show up and do trainings. Now maybe I'm now, you know, it's like the wizard, Wizard of Oz, maybe I'm Oz now behind the curtains. So it's a little bit more exclusive. It's a little bit more special. Maybe one month people have to earn being on and then the next month I'm on for everybody, but I'm still showing up, right?

Rob Sperry (32:28.53)
so that I'm still creating that impact and leverage. Maybe I'm transitioning to doing a podcast because my group's so big that it's just hard to stay in contact as much, but now they've got content they can listen to forever. Right? Like Brandon's got her. My podcast almost has 300 episodes now. So I have people, someone that just asked to, you know, do coaching with me and stuff and where they were at, I was like, look, right now, honestly, just go listen to all my podcasts.

Rob Sperry (32:56.266)
And then when you're ready, you'll know, and you can reach out to me. And they're like, you don't want my money? I'm like, it's just right now. I can just tell for you. You need to go through this first. And so all these high level type things are so important. You go to your convention, make sure you spend extra time with dinners and lunches. And maybe a day earlier, a day late, you create something. Cause again, these are high impact, high leverage type things to help. And then the last thing is, is you gotta always be growing.

Rob Sperry (33:25.986)
So whether you're investing in yourself in personal coaching or masterminds or different programs or things like it's so important to keep investing in yourself. There's a reason why most billionaires do not retire. And it has nothing to do with the money. They realize eventually they're not worried about money anymore. Their happiness comes from progress and they know this little secret. So for them, the money they make is just a representation.

Rob Sperry (33:54.99)
of the progress they're making, which is representation on the impact they're making on other people, which represents their happiness. And so, I mean, you think Elon Musk needs more money? No, the guy wants to like create civilizations on other planets. For him, it's just pure purpose. He takes all his money and keeps reinvesting into new companies, right? New programs, because he's just trying to make a difference, because he knows where his happiness comes from, because, I mean.

Rob Sperry (34:23.218)
One point recently was the richest man in the world. I know it changes constantly, but that's where I look at those people and say, okay, they got something. What can I learn from them?

Thebrandonthornhill (34:32.734)
Yeah. And I would just, you know, we could do a whole podcast, Rob on money and network marketers and how they're really good at making money, but they might not be the best at investing it. You know, some of them are, but you know, we've seen some, a lot of people when they make more money, they just spend more money. And that's the same in any industry, by the way, it's not just network marketers. Like the NBA, there was a, there was a statistic I saw in the news. It's like four out of 10 NBA players living paycheck to paycheck is cause they don't have a money mindset, right? They were growing up.

Rob Sperry (34:53.111)
Yep.

Rob Sperry (35:01.288)
Yeah, NFL's the same.

Thebrandonthornhill (35:03.098)
Yeah. And so one thing that I've seen, and maybe you can talk about this a little bit, is one thing that's going to differentiate a leader from winning short-term versus someone who can actually win long-term and continue to win year after year, is somebody who has emotional maturity. You know, so talk about that a little bit.

Rob Sperry (35:19.566)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Sperry (35:23.082)
Yeah. So having the emotional fortitude is really, you know, I learned this in sports and it applies to business and everything is typically your lows aren't as low as you think they are. And your highs aren't as high as you think they really are. So when things are going bad, we think they're worse than they really are. When things are going good, we think they're better than they really are. And unfortunately we, we react based on that emotion. And because of that.

Rob Sperry (35:52.266)
you know, if things are going really well, we get, we can get lazy or overconfident or go spend money. We don't really have. I see in network marketing, someone's making 15 grand a month. They assume the way they're going that, you know, they're going to be making 30 grand by the end of the month, by the end of the year, a month. So they just start investing that money too soon because they're, they're looking at the moment. And so learning to, to truly be present, but also have perspective.

Rob Sperry (36:20.57)
is such a huge thing. And in network marketing, I thought I was one of the most emotionally stable people on the face of the planet. Like I'm so just chill, even kill. Like there's been some big things that have my life emergencies and things that I thought were gonna happen. And you'd be shocked the way that I reacted. It was just very little. And network marketing really challenged that. And so I felt like my highs and lows weren't as high or low as most people, but even still for me, it was like, wow, what is this?

Rob Sperry (36:49.102)
because they were all over the place, right, for me. And I had to get to the point where I truly did marry the process. And I say date the results. I know a lot of people I've heard say divorce the results, but the results do have some sort of importance. So I say, marry the process, date the results. And I had to learn to obsess in the process. And then I date the results of that's feedback for me on how can I become more deliberate. And so I always say, and this is a quote that I came up with is, rich people think long-term, poor people think short-term.

Rob Sperry (37:17.55)
that spiritually, financially, physically, mentally, and in all aspects of life. Now, don't misinterpret that thinking long-term means that you don't have urgency, because urgency is synonymous with wealth, but there's a difference between urgency and panic, right? Big difference. And so we can't have what I called so much long-term perspective that, or at least people's perception of it, that they have no short-term urgency. It's like a network marketing, oh, someday, and 10 years later, they're still going to events not making you money.

Rob Sperry (37:47.574)
But true long-term perspective, if it's really true and clear, will get you into short-term action right now. And so it's just such a balance. So I even started doing things where, once I'd been in the industry for the same company for a while, I would start looking at my results last year's quarter over quarter, last year's year over year, right? And start measuring in more macro views, because sometimes I didn't feel like I was progressing.

Rob Sperry (38:18.474)
but in reality I was. And so you're trying to find ways, because people say don't compare, it's impossible not to compare, you're always gonna compare. So if you're going to compare, find ways to compare in a way that gives you more, not delusional optimism, but real optimism, but also gives you that perspective, both short and long term.

Thebrandonthornhill (38:38.578)
And when I compare, I just compete. I'm like, man, if this person didn't like it's game time, you know, it's funny talking about emotional maturity. So baseball players, right? They go into a batter slump. I've seen top earners go into a batter slump, whether it's in real estate, whether it's in business, whether it's in, it doesn't matter network marketing, because maybe the market was booming and they were a six or a seven in their skillset. And it was very easy for them to win during that time. And then as Warren Baba says, when the tide goes out, we see you swim and naked,

Rob Sperry (38:41.427)
Let's go.

Rob Sperry (38:53.325)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (39:08.612)
has the skills to be where they're at. You know, we're moving into that area right now, right? Like where I just talked to Dan Young, like just just launched his podcast literally today, and we're talking about how we're how we're getting deeper and deeper into this recession. And so, you know, I have a question for you on where do you think

Rob Sperry (39:16.503)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (39:29.962)
people right now because they have a decision to make. They can live in fear, they can live in faith. They can understand that a lot of leaders like yourself were born in this industry during a recession. And there's a lot of people who are looking right now versus people who might not have been just a little bit ago. And so they need to get out of their own way, they need to get out of their batter slump, they need to get out of their current results and live in the potential of where they know they can be. So maybe talk to us a little bit about that.

Rob Sperry (39:56.802)
Yeah, it's all perspective. I mean, at one point there were more millionaires credited during the depression than any other time until obviously, you know, during the dot com era. Um, I look again at oh wait, I mean, isn't that when Bitcoin came out, right? Like look at some of the opportunities that came out and even look in the last like 13 years of companies like, you know, Airbnb and Uber and, you know, all of these companies. And so, you know, when you look at it, anytime there's great tragedy, there's also great opportunity.

Rob Sperry (40:25.682)
So my analogy I like to give is, is look at Forrest Gump, you know, just great movie. He's out there with Bubba. Bubba can't stop talking, right? They're out there fishing, they're on the boat. And they literally have like, they aren't catching anything. But they kept staying at it, kept staying at it, kept staying at it. In the end, they ended up being one of, if not the only boat that survived.

Rob Sperry (40:51.942)
And what happened after that? Because they survived, right? That bear market, all of a sudden now there's very little competition when the bull market starts and they became multi, multi, multi, multi millionaires and it's a simple analogy, but it's the same right now. Now is the time where, you know, like you just said, let's say your skill sets a six and during momentum, it would show as a nine. Well, right now, if your skill sets at a six.

Rob Sperry (41:20.042)
it may be a little harder. It may actually show it a four. Well, guess what that's going to force you to do? Work harder and harder and harder. And it's going to weed out a lot of your competition because they quit. And all of a sudden now, if you, if you get from a six to an eight, you're still only showing it a six. But what happens when momentum comes? Now all of a sudden you go from an eight showing as a six, being an eight showing as a 10. And you're like, Oh my goodness, this is absolutely incredible. So,

Rob Sperry (41:49.53)
I love recessions. I don't love seeing other people suffer in a negative way. I love them because it gets rid of a lot of the scams in the world. It forces us to buckle down and it forces us to stop being lazy and to continue to develop our skill set. And so for me, you know.

Rob Sperry (42:14.058)
I'm excited about it, but that's how I look at everything. I'm excited when there's a bull market. I'm excited when there's a bear market in all industries, because I think there's opportunities in every single one of them.

Thebrandonthornhill (42:24.082)
Yeah, and we were just talking right before this that, you know, the networkers right now, not even just networkers, but everybody there, it's been so easy over the past 10 years, people are distracted.

Rob Sperry (42:31.778)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (42:35.658)
And the people like me, the people like you, the people like that, that are out there, that the hunters that are continuing to just hunt and, you know, take new lands during times of, you know, struggle are going to be the ones who come out of this and really dominate. And I'm not trying to be cocky. I'm just trying to be honest and say, listen, guys, like if you, my advice, and I want to hear your advice, my advice to every single person listening to this is like, get off the benches, like get on the field,

Rob Sperry (42:54.35)
True.

Thebrandonthornhill (43:05.512)
in your craft right now is a time to go and take down, you know, take more land, take down, you know, get more aggressive than you've ever been. Because if you don't, someone else is going to. And even if right now, Rob, like my opinion is like some of these guys in real estate or girls in real estate, or even whatever network marketing, whatever, if they're not getting the results they want to get, even if they're out there doing what you're teaching the networking game and building new contacts and going hard on that game, once the economy starts to shift back to where

Thebrandonthornhill (43:34.726)
we know it'll eventually be back to dude, they're going to 10 X like the tide comes up. So what's your opinion on that?

Rob Sperry (43:38.942)
Yeah. Yeah. I just look at it. Champions are made in the off season. So, you know, everyone always likes to see the result in the moment, but champions made the off season. How was able to crush it my first month of network marketing? Because I was networking before reaching out to 300 plus people a month, non-business related. So 250 people, warm circle of influence, like warm, like you could even say hot, then warm, right? Then maybe mild and cold and freezing cold. These are like hot.

Rob Sperry (44:08.97)
Right? Because, you know, there was that great Michael Phelps commercial, right? It's what you do in the dark that matters and it shows in like training early mornings and like, it's like pitch black and, you know, the things nobody sees and like the pain and the throwing up and all of that. And then all of a sudden everybody just sees like the victory lapse and like the crushing and standing on the podium. So you want to stand on the podium? Well, great. You know, this is the time. And when you get your butt kicked for a month, celebrate it. And you're like, what?

Rob Sperry (44:37.43)
Yeah, just say, you know what? Someday I'm gonna be able to connect and resonate with other people. Someday I'm gonna be able to share this story. The word is parlay. Everything that happens to you, you find a way to parlay that, right? You got a big leader on your team that quits, great. Of course it sucks in the moment, but you know what, someday I'm gonna be able to connect with it. How can I make my systems better? How can I make people feel more important so this doesn't happen again? Everything you parlay, parlay, parlay into become bigger and better. May not happen right away, but over the course of the time you continue to parlay, it will become bigger.

Thebrandonthornhill (45:07.742)
That's great. I was gonna finish the podcast, but actually you just made me want to ask one more question. So that's great because a lot of people they become victims when somebody leaves them in their business. And it's like, hold on. A lot of times there's signs to this and maybe you stopped reaching out to them. Maybe you weren't connecting with your leaders every day. Maybe you weren't, you know, calling them and saying happy birthday and like taking care of them, right? Investing your time into that relationship. It's just like a marriage.

Thebrandonthornhill (45:35.634)
Like if you're not investing time with your wife or your significant other, they're probably going to eventually get bored of you. It's like Sean Whalen made a post the other day. He said, bro, you're boring to all the guys, right? That's hilarious. Um, so what, what's your opinion on, on that aspect?

Rob Sperry (45:44.956)
I saw that.

Rob Sperry (45:50.078)
Yeah, that's why I was saying like legacy leadership, highest form of leverage, right? Maintain old relationships and foster the new relationships as far as leaders go. And so, you know, honestly, I would create a system for it. I would create a system, like you said, birthdays, anniversaries, conventions, you make time for dinner, make sure at the very least you've got, you know, whether it's a call or zoom once a month, make sure that you've got voice messages every single, you know, say four days.

Rob Sperry (46:17.174)
Like create your own system. I'm throwing out random stuff for you, which gives me an idea of I should do a whole training on how to keep leaders and just create my ideas for system on it. Cause you know, that's something I'd love to put even more thought into, but those are just basic things that I just did. And most people don't do and they look down the road and it's like the frequency becomes less and less and less. And you know, there's different things for networking, you know, there's proximity, there's frequency, right?

Rob Sperry (46:44.03)
and there's the quality of all of it. And there's different aspects to it, but are you doing it? So just make sure that, again, successful people just do the basics better. Don't forget about the basics.

Thebrandonthornhill (46:56.318)
Yeah, that'd be a powerful book. You know, one of my up, one of my former up lines, still one of my really close friends. He, he actually used to call every Sunday. You could count on a call from him guaranteed. Just, just checking in by the way, not saying, Hey, you know, where's your volume at? Just, he just checking in and seeing how you're doing. But then you have the other leaders who call in like, Hey man, where's the book? Like, like checking in on your, yeah.

Rob Sperry (47:07.01)
That's awesome.

Rob Sperry (47:11.352)
Yeah.

Rob Sperry (47:19.11)
What you doing end of the month?

Thebrandonthornhill (47:22.186)
So that'd be a great book. I'd love to have that. So, all right, Rob, how do they find you? First off, thanks for your time for being on the podcast. How do they find you? Can you just, do you have a website?

Rob Sperry (47:27.799)
Yeah.

Rob Sperry (47:31.902)
Yeah, for sure. Uh, best place is actually social media, Facebook or Instagram. Just my name, Rob Sperry. Think of the shoes, Sperry shoes that I'm not related to, but I hope someday there's some inheritance that I don't know about, right? Um, but, uh, you can find me there or network marketing breakthroughs with Rob Sperry, uh, it's on all podcast platforms and, uh, lots of just good content, great guests on there and just keep learning the ability to learn how to learn the greatest ability one can have. I love doing these. I'm always learning.

Rob Sperry (48:01.846)
I appreciate you Brandon and keep crushing it my man.

Thebrandonthornhill (48:04.604)
What's your podcast called?

Rob Sperry (48:06.334)
Network Marketing Breakthroughs with Rob Sparey.

Thebrandonthornhill (48:08.598)
I go there guys. It's powerful. I listen to it all the time subscribe to a subscribe to this podcast I'm gonna keep bringing value to you guys. I got so many new people I'm bringing on every single week Monday every Monday. I've dropped a new podcast for you guys so hit the like button hit the subscribe button send me a review and Appreciate you guys being on be blessed