1013: NETWORKING, meeting the RIGHT investors, and planting the right seeds for growth w/ Christian Durfee

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, Brian Lofermento, and if you've ever sat there and you've listened to podcast interviews or you've watched YouTube videos or you've heard radio interviews or you've read books and you've thought to yourself how the heck do founders and investors ever meet each other?

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How do they link up?

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How do they negotiate these deals?

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How do they negotiate these deals?

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How do they make this magic happen?

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Well, today we're gonna get so much behind the scenes, insights into this wonderful world of connections and networking and all those great things, and we're doing it with a founder that I love his energy.

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I love how much he loves business.

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I love how much he loves connections.

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Let me tell you all about him.

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His name is Christian Durfee.

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Christian is the co-founder and CEO of InvestLink Social, which is the social networking platform that connects founders and investors to assist in quality deal flow, Deal flow.

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If you've never heard that term before, Christian's going to reveal a lot of it to us here today.

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They help entrepreneurs grow their network and enhance their knowledge with their curated networking tools, social communities and educational resource library.

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Christian has been an entrepreneur throughout most of his life.

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He got his start in high school by hand sewing and selling bow ties.

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Yes, he is an entrepreneur down to his very DNA, which he scaled production and focused on a B2B approach During college at the University of Minnesota, where he finished with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Management focus.

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Christian was able to start up a health and wellness distribution company and have a successful exit.

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Christian brings a strong background in leadership, marketing and sales which can help InvestLink Social grow and scale into a company that will help entrepreneurs and investors worldwide.

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Of course, all of this is such a natural fit for all the things we care about here behind the scenes at the show, so I'm excited to talk with Christian today.

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I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Christian Durfee.

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All right, Christian, I am so very excited that you're here with us today.

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First things first, welcome to the show.

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Thank you so much, Brian.

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It's an honor and pleasure to be here.

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Heck.

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Yes, I love the fact that your entrepreneurial story goes way back.

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We're not just talking InvestLink Social here today.

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You started nice and young, so take us beyond the bio.

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Who's Christian?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things?

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Yeah, definitely so.

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I grew up in Minnesota in a small town of Duluth, so very community and local based centric.

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I grew up in a household of teachers so when I told them that I wanted to be an entrepreneur they looked at me crazy.

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I think I still am so kind of had the bug and the itch of entrepreneurship growing up, and the first one, as you kind of mentioned in the intro, was bow ties.

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There was a newscaster on the TV at the time.

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He wasn't originally from the Duluth area and he was wearing bow ties.

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So I got a pattern, sewed the first bowtie and then started networking while selling them and scaled it up on accident and really found the love and joy of entrepreneurship and started to gain experience of it and understand the fundamentals.

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So all through that I've always been a very hands-on and learning person as well as a way to find experiences within life and wear different hats, and that's where the love of entrepreneurship came to be.

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Yeah, I love that overview.

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Christian, I'm going to totally put you on the spot here very early on in the interview, because you said you learned the fundamentals, the foundations of business, and I feel like so many people when we study business, when we wait on the sidelines I'm going to call out every single entrepreneur who's listening here today is that we think we're learning, we think we're making forward progress, but I always argue it's just like riding a bike until you put that butt in the seat, you have no idea what balance actually feels like.

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So, christian, through all of those things what were those fundamentals, the foundational aspects of business that you found that these are the things that actually matter and these are the things that don't matter at all.

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Yeah, I think it's failing forward is the big thing.

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I work with a lot of entrepreneurs especially today, very fortunate for that and I see a lot of them have a lot of aspirations and dreams and goals.

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However, they're always scared to start and most of the time they're scared because of failing.

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And I think, in order to really hit those goals, start on your journey.

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It's all based on the mentality aspect of business.

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Business is not just a physical thing or being able to find a problem and a solution and selling it with traction and validation.

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It's about how are you going to get up each day, how are you going to roll with the punches, how are you going to get told no and continue on.

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And that really has to do with the mentality of it.

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I think failure is not an end all be all.

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Failure is about using it as a lesson and an experience and being able to figure out why you failed and move forward with that.

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So that was a really big thing with the bow ties, especially of just getting the right mentality of it, understanding too when something catches fire and how to hold onto that and continue forward, and just really diving into each problem and understanding that.

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Hey, I might not understand accounting, because I'm in high school, or understand how to form an LLC or taxes, but there's ways to learn and there's people who you can reach out to who are well experienced in that.

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So it's just about getting the mentality right and moving forward and not being afraid of the unknown.

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Yeah, and also you're alluding to an important thing and it's one of my favorite entrepreneurial quotes which is the greatest resource is resourcefulness, and I think that you've made a career out of that all along the way, whether it's finding resources.

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You talk about accounting needs.

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These are things we need to learn and figure out along the way.

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Of course, there's people that can help us, but I also look at it from a networking perspective.

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Just, Christian, I will transparently tell you, while we're here together on the air, every single thing we found about you.

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People love crossing paths with you.

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I loved what I read.

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Someone had written about you on your LinkedIn.

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He wrote creative, energetic, passionate and cunning.

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And so people are just.

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They're effusive with their praise for you, and I really love that because it shows how much of a connector mindset you have.

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Talk to us about that.

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You bring up mentality when it comes to business.

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It seems like that togetherness in the community aspect is also so deeply ingrained in your mindset.

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Yeah, definitely.

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I think that was another thing that I learned very young, even before my entrepreneurial journey.

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I was always I came from a family of kind of introverts and I was always an extrovert, but I didn't understand the meaning or concept behind it.

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And being able to branch out, meet friends, have a bunch of different groups as well as live sometimes with a family down the street and then be a part of their big family as well as my family.

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It was always about community for me and understanding that when you're part of the right community, the people in that community are going to work for you if you work for them.

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And really growing up through the entrepreneurial journey, as well as what we're doing now I mean almost all of the success that I've ever had has been through strategic partnerships, and it's not necessarily a what can you do for me, but it's a what can I do for you, which is going to turn into a what can you do for me.

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So it's all about how can you give to the community and in turn, that's going to come back to old rather than just trying to take from the community, even even nowadays, traveling to different ecosystems, shaking hands, meeting so many incredible people.

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You see people in those ecosystems who are all about themselves and just what can you do for me?

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I'm interested in your network.

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How can I use you as a resource?

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And you see, a lot of those people ultimately fail within the ecosystems because it's almost kind of like a parasite, whereas if you approach an ecosystem or someone, even a personal or professional relationship as a I have value.

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How can I help you?

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That's where it kind of all kind of comes together.

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It's really just that whole giving mentality.

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Yeah, I love that mindset.

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Oh, we're going to go so deep into this Christian together.

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But I want to share this for listeners because obviously you and I have the chance to connect even before we hit record and I've always found that my deepest, closest relationships in business I'm going to specifically call out business because a lot of people think this is an exception For business my best relationships and connections connect on a personal level.

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It's because we don't talk about business.

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Christian before you and I hit record here today we didn't talk about business, even 1%.

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We talked about geography.

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We talked about a friend that we have in common.

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We talked about all of these things, and that's the important.

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When I think about the people who I most enjoy doing business with, it's because we talk about soccer together, we talk about basketball together, we talk about basketball together, we talk about family and and the really important and meaningful things.

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I'd love to hear your perspective on that, because it just seems to me like that's kind of you're a networking chameleon that you don't go in saying this is who I am, this is my business, this is what I want to get out of it.

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You go into it saying, hey, I want to find our similarities and I want to blend in based on where I am, so that I find those points that we can resonate with together.

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Talk to me about networking, because I feel like a lot of people get this wrong and it also, in turn, makes networking not fun, whereas it seems like your way is much more fun.

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Absolutely.

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No one likes a stuffy networking room where it's all just about my name's Christian.

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This is the business that I do.

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How can we work together?

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A lot of entrepreneurs and even some investors they look at it from that traditional thing and they think that they have to be very professional with when they're going into a business relationship.

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But at the end of the day and, brian, I'm sure you could agree, whether you have a B2B, a B2C, a D2C, a B2B2C, whatever it is, it's not that it's always human to human.

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When you look at traditional selling methods, it was always about just like a selling pipeline of hey, we offer this product, you have this problem, we have the solution.

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How can we service your needs?

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How can we fight through objections?

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And then how can we get you to sign a contract?

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But that that day has come and gone now, because there's a lot of saturation in the market.

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And what other people are noticing too is again, it's most businesses done on relationships and trust.

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You're not going to trust the person like, okay, for example, let's put yourself in somebody else's shoes and someone walks up to you, if all they do is start talking about business and they come off as very insincere and they don't necessarily care who you are, where you're from, who you know, who are you as a person?

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Are you likely to trust them?

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Are you willing to even do business with them, especially if it's your startup and it's your baby?

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Do you trust this person who, again, has no clue nor cares who you are?

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So, really, the secret to networking, in my opinion, and what I've been doing, is being not only curious but also, at the same time, like caring about the person next to me.

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You know, brian, as you mentioned, when we got on, I didn't see this as okay.

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This is a.

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You know, I'm a guest on a podcast.

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I got to get ready for it.

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It was more of like great Brian's interviewing me, but I'm so excited to learn more about Brian, I'm so excited to see who he is and also find similarities and common interests.

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As we mentioned, we already actually had a few, which then was able to create a better relationship for us down the road.

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So it really is a human to human interaction and it's also, again, as I mentioned, being curious.

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I think curiosity is a key that a lot of people don't have, and it's not necessarily being curious about what they do.

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It's about being curious about who they are.

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Yeah, really well said.

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One of the best pieces of advice that I've ever received in life not just business is find the awesome in people.

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I operate on the base level, understanding that everybody's awesome.

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It's a guarantee.

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Everybody truly is awesome.

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I need to find that awesome in them and uncover it.

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And if you just ask people, what is it that you do?

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Maybe they're awesome at kayaking, maybe they went on.

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I talked to somebody recently I was in Miami and she told me that she's run a marathon on all seven continents and I was like, wait, all seven.

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You ran a marathon in Antarctica and it was so cool to hear those stories and those are things that you would have never found if you just talked about work.

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So love the way you articulate that.

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Christian, I'm going to play devil's advocate here, because I know a lot of listeners are probably looking at what you do with InvestLink Social and they're thinking well when you're talking about networking between founders and investors, that networking is for a purpose of, of course, deal flow.

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Of course looking for an investment in a company Does it change there.

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Give us the behind the scenes of that type of networking and relationship?

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Absolutely not.

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So I think it is actually even stronger and amplified in the sense of a human connection.

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So take, for example you have a pre-revenue, pre-seed company of a founder who has a great idea.

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There's no guarantee, especially at the pre-seed stage and pre-revenue, that the company is going to take off.

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They might have some opportunities, it might be a fantastic idea, but again the investor has no idea if it's going to go or not.

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It literally is a crapshoot most cases.

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So that's why a lot of these pre-seed founders have so much trouble being able to raise even their first check is because there's nothing to show for it.

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When you look at a lot of investor trends and charts, a lot of money goes into seed and beyond because there is revenue, there is market traction, there's validation, there's fit, all of these different things.

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And when you look at a lot of successful pre-seed companies, a lot that are able to raise a ton of money are based on founders who had previous exits, who already have relationships and connections with these investors.

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So when you're a first-time entrepreneur with an idea and you believe that it could solve a problem, fit in the market, when you go to networking events, when you reach out on LinkedIn or when you reach out on investing, social and there's if you're not coming from it with a, let me introduce myself, let me learn about you and let's build the relationship.

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First, to these investors it's virtually impossible in order to raise money from them Because, again, a lot of investors act on a relationship basis.

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That's how we got our first checks in, kind of like a secret manner of when we were looking to raise.

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We started working with a lot of different VC firms and a lot of different established angels.

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But what we also did was we went to people who we were already very, very close with, who they trusted us.

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They've known us for years and years and years, and then they were able to make connections into the investors and that trust was there.

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Early stage is all about trust and relationship building.

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Again, put yourself as a pre-seed founder.

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Put yourself in the investor's shoes.

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You're getting, let's say, 200 to 500 cold emails a day of pitches of people who you have no idea about.

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Every idea is going to be the best idea, especially at the pre-seed stage.

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So how do you vet and how do you go through that.

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They're going to look at the founders and they're not necessarily going to look at the idea the idea has to fit their thesis and criteria but they're going to look at the founders and they're going to be.

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Is this someone who I would trust if I put money in?

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Is this someone who would be able to lead the ship even in rough waters?

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Is this someone I could go grab a beer with and just have a great relationship with and I get?

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At the end of the day, it's all about that human to human interaction and it's definitely amplified at an early stage.

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Yeah, and I think we even see that even in the mainstream is that it just turn on Shark Tank and you'll see how often the sharks talk about they're not investing in the company.

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A lot of times they abundantly make it clear I'm investing in the person behind this company Because, christian, you and I, we've both been entrepreneurs for quite some time.

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We both know whatever it is that we're working on today, it's probably gonna take a different shape six months from now, 12 months from now.

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There's so many twists and turns along the way.

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Twists and turns along the way.

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The consistent factor there is us as our founders.

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So take us behind the scenes into those types of relationships, because I feel like within the mainstream media, for example, we only ever hear about such and such company is valued at a billion dollars.

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They've become a unicorn and we don't quite understand the incentives, the motivations, the discussions that go on behind the scenes when a company raises money.

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What are those value adds?

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What is it that both sides are looking for and how does a deal, a quality deal, actually come about?

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Yeah.

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So two sides to it, because it's a marketplace, right?

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So on the entrepreneur and founder side, there's a thing called smart money and there's a thing called dumb money.

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Smart money is working with the right investor.

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Dumb money is just taking a check from the first person who offers it.

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So, as a founder, if you decide to raise first, I would highly recommend you look at the situation you're in.

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You look at what your product category is.

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You look at roadmap.

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What do you want to be?

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Are you trying to exit in three to five years, or do you want this to be cash flowing?

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You need to make all those decisions first before you go out and try and raise Because, again, it's not necessarily a you don't have to raise in order to be successful.

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There's a lot of cash flowing businesses that have never taken a dime from investors and they're very successful.

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And there's a lot of companies that have taken a lot of funding from investors, even in the mainstream, that have become bust.

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So it's not this once you raise, you're not going to be the next unicorn or multi-billion dollar company.

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You could be, but again, that's not the key to success with it.

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So first you have to understand are you in the right position?

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Does it make the right sense?

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And then, once you decide if you are ready to go, you need to start looking at the different types of investors right.

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There's angel investors, there's angel syndicates, there's venture capital firms, there's family offices, corporate venture arms.

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There's so many different types of investors where you need to understand what the risk tolerance is.

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Who is your target audience for those investors?

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Do you have connections to them?

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Would they make sense?

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At what stage you're at?

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A lot of times, too, you see a lot of pre-seed companies go for large venture capital firms that most of the time, they're investing via a scout or they're not coming on to a later stage and likely they already have their investments picked out.

00:19:09.173 --> 00:19:14.614
So, with that being in mind, should you start looking for angel investors?

00:19:14.614 --> 00:19:15.961
How are you able to find them?

00:19:15.961 --> 00:19:18.330
Should they be angel investors or high net worth individuals?

00:19:18.330 --> 00:19:24.922
So you need to mark down your ICP ideal customer profile for what types of investors?

00:19:24.922 --> 00:19:44.541
And then, after you have those two things understanding if and when and how much you're going to raise, on what terms and who you're going to go after then you need to start making these connections, and what I mean by connections is don't just straight up, message them on a, don't send them a cold message and pitch them on the first thing.

00:19:44.541 --> 00:19:47.031
Again, this is where you start building relationships.

00:19:48.275 --> 00:19:54.233
I also think there's a lot of flaws within the founder idea of raising money with about.

00:19:54.233 --> 00:19:55.798
You know, it has to be really fast.

00:19:55.798 --> 00:20:08.804
Most of the time the news that you're seeing on mainstream media for these like large funds and these founders who raise a ton of money, these have been conversations over a year.

00:20:08.804 --> 00:20:11.896
They've been in the making, they've been in the pipeline for a long time.

00:20:11.896 --> 00:20:24.575
So, when you start reaching out to your ICP, start building that relationship, start building those connections, start building a personal relationship with them so that you can bring trust into it.

00:20:25.336 --> 00:20:34.371
And I think on the investor side, especially at the early stage, again, most of the time they're looking for who the founder is not necessarily the product idea.

00:20:34.371 --> 00:20:39.339
Again, the product has to be somewhat disruptive.

00:20:39.339 --> 00:20:42.904
It has to be a way to generate revenue.

00:20:42.904 --> 00:20:46.096
The investor is in it to make money and have an exit.

00:20:46.096 --> 00:20:48.480
But again, ideas are cheap.

00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:50.574
There's trillions of ideas.

00:20:50.574 --> 00:20:58.140
There's only so many good founders and what they look for is if you're not an ex-stead founder, if you don't have previous relationships with investors.

00:20:58.569 --> 00:20:59.573
What's your personality?

00:20:59.573 --> 00:21:10.692
Are you the type, again, that's going to be in the trenches on, let's say, christmas Day, when everyone's off of work and you're trying to figure out why the app is broken and how am I going to fix it?

00:21:10.692 --> 00:21:17.122
Or are you the one that's just going to give up after a few months where maybe things aren't going well?

00:21:17.122 --> 00:21:21.057
It really is about the founder.

00:21:21.057 --> 00:21:26.214
As I always tell our founders, you can always pivot an idea.

00:21:26.214 --> 00:21:28.097
You can never pivot a founder.

00:21:28.097 --> 00:21:36.162
So it's a lot of self-discipline and self-growth and motivation and really you have to be passionate about that project.

00:21:36.162 --> 00:21:56.979
I'm sure we'll get into it a little bit, brian, but I'd like to bring up the four P's, and these four P's are fundamentals that I've used myself, that I've kind of come up with and that I've seen in a lot of founders who are very successful versus are not, and they go in the order of the first P is passion.

00:21:57.500 --> 00:22:11.346
If you're not passionate about the problem you're solving or the solution that you're building, if this is just trying to be like a quick cash grab or something where you know it's an overnight trend, you're likely always going to fail.

00:22:11.346 --> 00:22:19.635
There might be some success stories, but the reason that you're likely going to fail is going into the next P, which is persistence.

00:22:19.635 --> 00:22:24.317
In the world of entrepreneurship, you're going to get told no so many times.

00:22:24.317 --> 00:22:28.855
You're going to get kicked and punched down hundreds and hundreds of times.

00:22:28.855 --> 00:22:33.413
How can you continue to be persistent and get back up and just brush it off?

00:22:33.413 --> 00:22:39.096
Take it as a learning experience and continue forward on that, which then brings it into the third P of patience.

00:22:39.959 --> 00:23:00.535
Using patience and understanding that Rome wasn't built in a day and also realizing that a lot of the media news that you see about fundraising and how this founder is very successful or how this firm put this much money into a founder, Again, those have taken a lot of time and there's probably a previous relationships with trust and you don't know the terms or deals of it.

00:23:00.915 --> 00:23:32.577
So, being able to have passion in your project, be persistent about it and know that it's going to work and that you're going to do everything possible to make it work, and then also be patient in the sense of continuing to move forward, but understanding that there's not going to be an overnight success Again saying that there's some skew that might be, and hopefully it is you, but regardless, you know a lot of overnight successes took 10 years or more, and the fourth being from Minnesota and living in Utah.

00:23:32.718 --> 00:23:54.717
We're very passive, aggressive up here, but passive aggressiveness and being in the sense of being passive on the end goal, understanding that it will happen and you're going to do everything possible to make it happen, but then not worrying about it in the day to day so you still have a calm mentality and can move forward with other three Ps grow and build.

00:23:55.117 --> 00:24:01.419
So let's say my goal is in five years I want to exit my startup and I want it to be a unicorn.

00:24:01.419 --> 00:24:16.021
I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and start stressing and give myself a heart attack of being like, okay, I need to be a unicorn right now, I need to look at exit partners right now, but be aggressive in the day to day of I'm going to put five tasks for the day.

00:24:16.021 --> 00:24:22.002
I'm going to do some market research, I'm going to buy the domain, I'm going to start seeing.

00:24:22.002 --> 00:24:22.813
You know, can I?

00:24:22.813 --> 00:24:24.138
Can I build this with code?

00:24:24.138 --> 00:24:25.566
Can I build this without code?

00:24:25.566 --> 00:24:28.173
Should I purchase software, whatever it may be?

00:24:28.173 --> 00:24:35.397
But like taking those baby steps each day to where, as you continue to do that and you're still passive, knowing that in five years it will happen.

00:24:35.397 --> 00:24:37.271
It's like a self fulfilling prophecy.

00:24:37.271 --> 00:24:40.480
So I think it really is in the long sense.

00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:46.060
In a short answer, it's about you as a founder who the investors are looking for.

00:24:47.049 --> 00:24:48.477
Yeah, gosh, I love those insights.

00:24:48.477 --> 00:24:50.698
So many nuggets of knowledge just in that one answer.

00:24:50.698 --> 00:25:11.143
Christian, I want to pick on that third P for a second of patience, because I would argue that most entrepreneurs, myself included, christian I imagine I could lump you in here we're naturally impatient, because we are so driven, we are so action oriented that when we have an idea, we don't sit on it, we chase it, we get after it, and we're just an impatient society in general.

00:25:11.143 --> 00:25:24.798
And so when I look at someone like you, christian, I want to publicly praise you because it seems to me and I want to hear your insights on this it seems to me like you are willing to plant seeds, and that's one concept that always reminds me to be patient.

00:25:24.798 --> 00:25:36.367
As I say, these connections that I'm making today, these seeds that I'm planting today, I may not get to reap the rewards from them for six months, maybe for six years, maybe never, but one thing leads to another.

00:25:36.367 --> 00:25:38.874
It's just something that I've learned throughout my entrepreneurial career.

00:25:39.294 --> 00:25:51.758
Christian, I'd love to hear your insights here, because I would imagine, picking on that P of patience, that a lot of people get to the point where they say, oh, I'd like to raise money for my business and they start networking that day.

00:25:51.758 --> 00:25:57.438
They start the relationships that day, as opposed to what it seems to me like you've done your entire life is.

00:25:57.438 --> 00:26:01.553
I'm just going to start networking today and one day it's all going to make sense.

00:26:01.553 --> 00:26:03.359
Why the heck I made these connections?

00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:14.317
Talk to me about that life cycle of a deal, or it feels silly even putting it in that container, because it's really just the life cycle of expanding your network, the life cycle of being of service.

00:26:14.317 --> 00:26:17.191
When we start it, how do we start it?

00:26:17.191 --> 00:26:19.056
I want to hear your perspectives in that regard.

00:26:20.298 --> 00:26:23.838
Yeah, it's, and you hit it right on the head.

00:26:23.838 --> 00:26:26.198
I've struggled with patience all of my life.

00:26:26.198 --> 00:26:32.098
I'm a very I hate sitting down, I hate doing nothing.

00:26:32.098 --> 00:26:36.055
I can't relax because I always feel like I should be doing something.

00:26:36.055 --> 00:26:45.086
Hence I hate the weekends because people aren't responding or answering to me, because they're off with a really good work-life balance and I'm not.

00:26:45.209 --> 00:27:02.204
But I think patience is definitely a virtue, but it's one of the most important things, especially with networking and growing your business or even investing the most important things, especially with networking and growing your business or even investing, because, again, to like investments, if you're investing in a company, they're likely not going to exit for five to seven years.

00:27:02.204 --> 00:27:08.962
The same way of any type of investing works if it's in the public or private sector.

00:27:08.962 --> 00:27:28.461
And on the entrepreneur side, again, it all comes back to trust and building those relationships, and you can think of it as like dating, right, like you go on a first date, you're not asking them to marry you right away, or even if you were to, you probably scared them off even saying I love you, right?

00:27:28.461 --> 00:27:41.503
That's the same sense with all of these relationships and networking and even just growing a business, Because at the end of the day, you need to trust who you're doing business with, and trust takes time.

00:27:41.503 --> 00:27:50.246
When you look back to all the metaphors in life, whether it be business or professional, whatever it may be good things take time.

00:27:50.246 --> 00:27:52.387
Good wines take time.

00:27:52.387 --> 00:27:55.792
Relationship building takes time.

00:27:55.792 --> 00:28:02.673
It's all about time and it's understanding that even slow motion is good motion forward.

00:28:02.673 --> 00:28:08.047
Just so you know that you're doing what you can do in the time being of the present.

00:28:08.047 --> 00:28:09.830
You don't need to go for that home run.

00:28:09.830 --> 00:28:32.515
But, as you mentioned, brian and I think it's great is planting those seeds, planting the little things, doing follow up messages, checking in on people, wishing them happy holidays or happy birthdays, or just showing that you care about them personally, because then, as time goes by, they're going to realize that you're not just this anxious founder who is all or nothing and that you're stable, that they trust you.

00:28:32.515 --> 00:28:34.241
Things are going to start happening.

00:28:34.241 --> 00:28:36.029
They're going to start opening up their network.

00:28:36.029 --> 00:28:42.531
They're going to start giving you opportunities, because now they've kind of sat on the sidelines, see how you work and function and go from there.

00:28:43.340 --> 00:28:48.542
I even just had a post the other day kind of thinking back to the whole lifecycle of investing social.

00:28:48.542 --> 00:28:50.766
We started this in 2021.

00:28:50.766 --> 00:28:55.471
And we really didn't get much traction for the first few years.

00:28:55.471 --> 00:28:56.294
And that was.

00:28:56.294 --> 00:29:25.701
It was on purpose, because, rather than being this anxious founder and trying to reach out as fast as possible and fill up the pipeline, we started looking at, you know, people who had large communities, who were experts, who knew what they were doing and again, even just out of curiosity of them because I love to always know how these successful people got in the position they did build those relationships, because then, after a year or so, they're like oh yeah, I like Christian, you know what?

00:29:25.701 --> 00:29:33.912
I'm gonna introduce him to this person, or I'm going to give them this opportunity, rather than the founder that they met last week, who's spamming their phone for connections.

00:29:40.460 --> 00:29:44.186
And really, at the end of the day, it sucks to wait that long and patience is a very hard thing to do.

00:29:44.207 --> 00:30:11.190
But once you realize that, once you realize and understand and know that things will come in due time, whether the way you think they're going to or not, come and do time, whether the way you think they're going to or not, that's where the comfort is, and that again falls into that fourth P of being passive, knowing that things will happen in time, but being aggressive in the day to day of stuff that you can control, because most of business, especially with networking and fundraising, is out of control for you.

00:30:12.071 --> 00:30:20.092
If you're fundraising, the best thing that you can do is continue to build, continue to find validation and traction and keep the potential investors up to date.

00:30:20.092 --> 00:30:26.203
But at the end of the day, the investor has to say yes or no and that's not in your ball court, so you have to be patient with it.

00:30:26.203 --> 00:30:31.807
And if you're way too overbearing, they're going to see that as a red flag and they're not going to go with you.

00:30:31.807 --> 00:30:37.748
So you work on what you can work on and that aggressiveness and what you can control and what's out of your control.

00:30:37.748 --> 00:30:42.369
Just be patient with it, but then again, continue to build that connection and trust.

00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:44.884
Yeah, so well said, christian.

00:30:44.884 --> 00:30:46.249
So much of our conversation today.

00:30:46.249 --> 00:30:48.663
It takes me back to my favorite Chinese proverb.

00:30:48.663 --> 00:30:51.291
Which is the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

00:30:51.291 --> 00:30:53.830
The second best time is right now.

00:30:54.153 --> 00:30:56.644
Listeners, christian is pushing all of us here today.

00:30:56.644 --> 00:31:01.058
Start building and maintaining those relationships today.

00:31:01.058 --> 00:31:06.112
Whether you identify an immediate need or not, it's always great to have good people in your corner.

00:31:06.112 --> 00:31:16.212
Trust me, I don't take it for granted, as the host of this show, the fact that I know thousands of entrepreneurs at all different levels that I can text and say hey, christian, I really don't understand fundraising in any way.

00:31:16.212 --> 00:31:18.929
Can we actually just have a virtual coffee and chat about that?

00:31:18.929 --> 00:31:23.872
It's so valuable to have smart and amazing and generous people in your network.

00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:27.631
So, listeners, take this call to action from Christian here today.

00:31:27.631 --> 00:31:35.508
And, christian, I'm excited to open the floor for you for this super broad question that I always love asking at the end of these sessions, and that is your one best piece of advice.

00:31:35.508 --> 00:31:45.384
And I ask you this not only with your hat on as the CEO of InvestLink Social, because you bring a whole ton of subject matter expertise in that regard, but you're also one of us.

00:31:45.384 --> 00:31:47.429
You're also a fellow entrepreneur, and you have been.

00:31:47.429 --> 00:31:48.311
It's in your DNA.

00:31:48.311 --> 00:31:56.438
So that question is what's that one best piece of advice, knowing that we're being listened to by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs at all different levels of their own growth cycles?

00:31:56.438 --> 00:31:58.742
What's that one thing that you want to leave them with today?

00:32:00.367 --> 00:32:12.728
I'm going to sound like a broken record and repetitive, but I think, at the end of the day, the biggest thing not only professional but personal is how can you give rather than receive.

00:32:12.728 --> 00:32:20.689
I know that's something that we grow up with the golden rule as well, as it's a pretty obvious thing.

00:32:20.689 --> 00:32:30.509
But again, a lot of times and I've been guilty of this too we look at a relationship and they're like well, what am I getting out of it rather than what can I give to it.

00:32:30.509 --> 00:32:46.390
But I promise you, if you approach it from a standpoint again, professional or personal, if you approach it as what can I give to you and the relationship, things are going to come back tenfold and things and opportunities are going to happen because of that.

00:32:46.790 --> 00:32:55.813
So, be generous, understand that each person has their own needs and they're in a community, and even to give isn't a massive thing.

00:32:55.813 --> 00:33:06.405
It could just be, for example, brian, you could mention like hey, I'm looking for an entrepreneur like this with an incredible story, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:33:06.405 --> 00:33:12.224
To me, that give or that ask might be very minimal, because I'm like oh yeah, I know this person.

00:33:12.224 --> 00:33:13.630
Let me just make that introduction right there.

00:33:13.630 --> 00:33:19.244
But that could have saved you a bunch of headache where you weren't able to find that.

00:33:19.244 --> 00:33:20.026
So you never know what you're like.

00:33:20.026 --> 00:33:21.509
When you give something to someone.

00:33:21.509 --> 00:33:31.487
If it's small in your eyes, you never know how much of an impact that makes on that person and how much of you made an impact on them and how much they're going to make an impact on you.

00:33:31.487 --> 00:33:38.681
So give rather than receive and then it'll all come.

00:33:38.701 --> 00:33:45.730
Yes, christian, you say it's repetitive, but the truth is, these repetitive things are the things that we need constant reminders of in life, so I love the fact that that's the way that you went with that question.

00:33:45.730 --> 00:33:47.619
I'm so appreciative of all these insights.

00:33:47.619 --> 00:33:59.164
I know that this is just the absolute tip of the iceberg on all the wonderful things that you're doing with InvestLink Social, of course, your expertise, your knowledge, your experiences and, of course, your network that you bring to the world.

00:33:59.164 --> 00:34:04.307
So, christian, with that in mind, for listeners who want to go deeper into all these great things, drop those links on us.

00:34:04.307 --> 00:34:05.671
Where should listeners go from here?

00:34:07.420 --> 00:34:11.347
Yeah, feel free to sign up for free at InvestLinkSocialcom.

00:34:11.347 --> 00:34:12.449
Investlinklinksocialcom.

00:34:12.449 --> 00:34:14.554
Investlinksocialcom.

00:34:14.554 --> 00:34:19.565
Entrepreneurs, investors we have a large community in there.

00:34:19.565 --> 00:34:20.588
They're vetted.

00:34:20.588 --> 00:34:37.387
There's a lot of great founders and investors multi-accident founders, yc companies, investors who are very active, doing a lot of deals and excited to see everyone on the platform and, as well, being able to give back to the platform and having the platform give back to them.

00:34:37.387 --> 00:34:39.025
So feel free to do that.

00:34:39.099 --> 00:34:44.108
You can connect with me on there and yeah, yes, from start to finish, bringing the value.

00:34:44.108 --> 00:34:46.382
Christian, I so appreciate that about you Listeners.

00:34:46.382 --> 00:34:47.206
You already know the drill.

00:34:47.206 --> 00:34:51.844
We're dropping that link down below in the show notes, no matter where it is that you're tuning into today's episode.

00:34:51.844 --> 00:34:56.231
It's super easy to remember investlinksocialcom.

00:34:56.231 --> 00:34:57.793
Click right on through from the show notes.

00:34:57.793 --> 00:35:03.340
Otherwise, christian, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:35:04.543 --> 00:35:06.146
Thank you so much for having me, brian.

00:35:06.146 --> 00:35:11.405
It was a pleasure and I'm so excited to speak to the audience, and again, this goes out to the entire audience.

00:35:11.405 --> 00:35:17.748
If there's anything I can ever do for you, feel free to connect with me on the platform and we'll go from there.

00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:23.708
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:35:23.708 --> 00:35:27.726
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:35:27.726 --> 00:35:36.989
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:35:36.989 --> 00:35:45.748
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:47.807
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:35:47.807 --> 00:35:49.385
These are not infomercials.

00:35:49.385 --> 00:35:52.891
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:35:52.891 --> 00:36:03.847
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:36:03.847 --> 00:36:12.347
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just wanna invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:36:12.347 --> 00:36:13.664
We also have live chat.

00:36:13.664 --> 00:36:18.309
If you wanna interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:36:18.309 --> 00:36:19.713
Initiate a live chat.

00:36:19.713 --> 00:36:29.132
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.