Frank Agin with AmSpirit Business Connections

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with AmSpirit Business Connections, Mr. Frank Agin. How are you, man.

Frank Agin: [00:00:35] Stone I’m doing great. How about you?

Stone Payton: [00:00:37] I am doing well and I have so been looking forward to this conversation. I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think maybe a great place to start would be if you could articulate for me and our listening audience, mission, Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Frank Agin: [00:00:59] Man Connect people. Really what what it boils down to I’ll just give you a quick backstory for me. I live in Columbus, Ohio. I came here to go to law school, had a job, a really good job in a big firm, and but decided I wanted to do something a little more entrepreneurial. I left and went into private practice and a funny thing happened when I went into private practice. And the funny thing is that nothing happened. Like so many businesses, I had no idea how to get clients and it was a little complicated for an attorney, a little more complicated, I should say, because we’re really not allowed to be cold, cold calling people. So I struggled. Somebody said I should get into a leads group or a TIPS club. And I was invited to a group that was based out of Pittsburgh and they met every week, learned about each other and exchanged referrals. And it made total sense to me, Stone that I could lift up my whole world by helping other people become successful. And so I really doubled down on that and had an opportunity at one point to buy it out. And I’ve rebranded it as AMP Spirit Business Connection. So really the mission is, is to help the people out there who are like Frank Agan was 25 years ago really kind of wanting to make it on their own, um, not work for the man, but be the man, if you will, but not really maybe comfortable just doing hardcore sales, but really interested in getting networked with other entrepreneurs, sales reps and professionals.

Stone Payton: [00:02:34] So what’s the structure? How do you execute on this?

Frank Agin: [00:02:38] It’s a it’s a weekly meeting. People come together every week and these groups are made up. We call these groups chapters. They’re made up of one person in each professional category. So you have one realtor, you’ll have one mortgage lender, you’ll have one attorney, you’ll have one account and so on and so forth. And we do that just so people are comfortable talking about their businesses and people are comfortable sending work back and forth. But it meets these groups, meet every week and they go through a structured meeting format, runs about an hour to 75 minutes. And um, through that process, they certainly develop relationships. And that’s really the secret sauce. People do business with those they know, like and trust. Um, but through that process they work to help identify opportunities for one another, which ultimately turned into referrals.

Stone Payton: [00:03:32] Yeah. So the people who are facilitating these groups, I would think that one, I would think it would be incredibly rewarding work. But you need some, some education, some some expertise, some training to do that effectively, don’t you?

Frank Agin: [00:03:48] Yeah. And we have, you know, we have people out there that that we train in. It’s I mean, everything in life has a learning curve to it. Stone Yeah. Um, you know, and, but it’s not terribly, it’s not terribly difficult to put these together. And yeah, people who are leading up these groups or have some people out there leading up multiple groups, it’s it’s rewarding for them because they get to help other people. But most of the people out there running other groups or running groups are in those groups for their own purposes. And so they’re in there getting business as well. And many of the people who are out there, leading groups are what we’ll call area directors or franchisees. And so they’re also getting compensated based on what’s happening, the dues that people pay to belong to the organization.

Stone Payton: [00:04:41] Sounds marvelous to me. It’s financially lucrative and they’re enjoying the work. How about you? Now that you’ve been at this a moment, as the kids might say, what do you find the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Frank Agin: [00:04:55] You know, the most fun for me is just seeing somebody who is, you know, coming into that, being that self employed person and being scared. Um, you know, I’ll give you an example. This was years ago. I had a guy, he called me up. He was a member. He says, Frank, I am just deathly afraid. He said, I just put my notice in. He was. He was an accountant working for a firm. A small firm. I’ve just decided I want to do my own. I want to do my own thing. And I’m just so afraid. And then just seeing, you know, three years later, just being with that person and kind of chuckling about remember how afraid I was, you know, now I’ve got now he’s afraid because he’s got to pay this staff that he’s got. His business is just growing. Um, but he’s figured it out and you know, it’s kind of a rewarding thing to know that, you know, when the holidays hit that they’re going to have a wonderful holiday season, however they choose to celebrate it. And you kind of had a hand in giving them some business success and knowing that he’s not going to have to be working for somebody else.

Stone Payton: [00:05:56] I’ll bet. So do you find that members of these groups learn to become better, more productive, more effective at this whole thing that we often just call networking, that they’re better at it as they continue to to participate in these groups and make these these connections?

Frank Agin: [00:06:17] Oh, absolutely. I think the biggest the biggest gain that people come away with is they learn to become more effective in talking about their businesses. I’ll give you a quick example. You know, realtor excuse me, a realtor will tell you, hey, I help people buy and sell houses, which is nice. It tells us what they do. But what we like to talk about in the organization is just don’t tell me what you do. Tell me when you do it, because that’s more powerful. So if a realtor is just saying, Hey, I help people buy and sell houses, I call that Teflon, it just kind of slips in the ear and out the other ear. But what we want them to do or have statements that are more Velcro in nature. So if the realtor says, you know, listen, if you know that family that’s moving mom into a home, that could be a good referral for me because they’re needing to do something with mom’s house. And so rather than talking about what they do, just, you know, speaking about the when that helps people frame that in their mind, frame that in their mind it kind of it seeds their reticular activation system, if you will. In fact, I had this very situation happen, you know, the realtors going on and on and on talking about, you know, just help people buy and sell houses. I can’t say it any other way. And we just said, well, tell us somebody you’re working with. And the moment she said, well, got this couple and they’re moving mom into a home, somebody said, Oh, I’ve got a referral for you. I never really thought about this, but I’ve got a client. They’re moving mom into a home. And I didn’t realize that they would have I didn’t, you know, didn’t think through that. They would have a house to sell. So just trying to help people become more effective in talking about who they are and what they do that carries over, you know, certainly while they’re in the organization. But beyond it.

Stone Payton: [00:08:08] Well, I’m going to try to remember to credit you at least the first couple of times that I use this phrase, but that is gold right there. Velcro statements and yeah. And then after that, I’m just going to say, as I always say, but that’s okay.

Frank Agin: [00:08:24] That’s okay. As long as people, you know, I mean, nothing breaks my heart more stone than to see somebody out there in business and not really. Needlessly struggle because their messaging is off. And it’s a simple thing to fix. People in business, what they you know, we’ll keep picking on realtors. Realtors can can take it. You know, the realtor works 16 hours a day. They work really hard and they know real estate inside and out. They don’t realize that you and I don’t think about it for 16 seconds a day, usually. And so the jargon they have around the water cooler, if you will, or wherever, you know, wherever with the other realtors and the mortgage lenders we’re not privy to. So we don’t you know, they need to help us with, you know, again, your thing, Velcro statements.

Stone Payton: [00:09:16] Well, one of the things that I’ve observed here in little old Woodstock, Georgia, I never was a very networking kind of person. And then we moved to this little town and I just got immersed in this community. So there are a couple of things that I go to here locally, and I think some of the most well respected people in those groups and probably the ones who are getting the most out of it, also seem to invest quite a bit of energy in connecting other people, like making sure Bob gets connected with Sue. Is that consistent with your experience? Do you see a lot of that too, as they mature?

Frank Agin: [00:09:49] Oh, absolutely. You know, stone it’s human nature that we are we are hardwired to look for people and want to help people who are contributing to the world around us. And this goes back to, you know, back to the Stone Age. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you stop and think about it, it’s like, who do you want in your life? You want the people who are contributing to the greater good. And so subconsciously we’re looking for those people. So when you have individuals who really kind of lean in to helping others or helping the group or helping connect people, people want to help them to be in their good graces.

Stone Payton: [00:10:32] Yeah. So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you kind of at the at the at the helm of the mother ship? And how does it work for these individual folks running these groups? Like how do they yeah, how do they get the new business?

Frank Agin: [00:10:50] Well, you know, it’s interesting. It’s really the same way that we coach our members is networking. Um, you know, I’m out introducing people all the time and people are introducing me all the time to people. And no, not everyone works out. I look at networking much like golf. Golf is not about hitting a tiny white ball 400 yards into a cup. Golf’s about hitting a tiny white ball of 400 yards away in a series of shots. Right. It’s not one shot. It’s a series of shots. You know, for me, it might be 12. For other people, it might be four, but you know what I’m saying? And so, you know, one introduction will lead to the next will lead to the next. I have a franchisee in Pensacola, Florida. Um. I backtracked how I was connected to him. And there’s seven different steps along the way. You know, being on this podcast, being introduced to this person, so on and so forth, and eventually, you know, you’re standing in front of the person who you don’t really have to. You don’t really don’t have to close on in the sales sense. I don’t have to convince him that he needs what I have. He knows he wants what I have. It’s just coming to terms on price. And that’s really where that’s really where networking needs to be, is where people are sending you individuals that absolutely need a great financial advisor. They absolutely need a great insurance person or absolutely need a great realtor, but they just don’t know who to turn to.

Stone Payton: [00:12:23] My business partner Lee would say that you’re eating your own cooking. What’s your counseling other people to do? You’re doing it. You’re the model for it. And I think that’s marvelous. I’m almost certain I know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Okay. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way that kind of helped you navigate not only the domain of helping people make connections, but just running a business and scaling it like you have?

Frank Agin: [00:12:56] Oh, I mean, I’ve, you know, I’ve had countless mentors, informal mentors, formal people. Um, just, you know, helping with helping with my own, uh, my own mind trash, if you will. I mean, for example, I’ve worked with a coach, and she said, you know, you ought to network with people who are in band. I. I’m like, why would I want to network with them? Or why would they want to network with me? We’re competitors. And she’s like, You just don’t know. You know what? Some of the best contacts, some of the best friends I have out there are with a competing organization. They’re great people. We’re just, you know, we’re all trying to do the same thing. We’re all on this, you know, this this third rock from the sun, if you will. Just trying to help people become successful. And there’s enough there’s enough business out there for all of us. Um, but yeah, you know, I certainly work with mentors and there’s always a problem to solve. And I just, you know, depending upon what I’m trying to solve, I’ll reach out. You know, again, it’s networking. We network for business, but we also network for information, for opportunities network to be encouraged, all sorts of things that we can derive from our network.

Stone Payton: [00:14:09] Now you’re an author and you have written multiple books. You’re a professional speaker. You’ve got so many irons in the fire, but I’d love to hear a little bit about the books you wrote. What compelled you to write them? And then I probably have some questions about process, too, but tell us a little bit about what compelled you to actually sit down, commit these ideas to to paper and what chose you to to go in the direction with those works that you did.

Frank Agin: [00:14:37] Well, you know, when I first started, you know, I was an attorney in a group and I ended up buying the organization. And to be honest, when I first bought it, it was just an investment. Hey, this is a neat investment. It’s a membership organization. There were a couple hundred members, you know, now it’s in the thousands. But I noticed early on I certainly had read books on networking, and there’s a lot of good books out there and many are very tactical. Go to the networking event, do this, you know, hand your business card out, you know, follow up. Very, very tactical. And what I noticed is that there were people out there that were really great tactically, but they struggled to make their networks work. And then I noticed that there were other people who tactically they were a train wreck. You know, they didn’t have a good 32nd commercial. You know, if they went to an event at all, they just, you know, they didn’t look the part. But they had they had wonderful networks. They were very productive. And I was like, okay, what is the what am I missing here? And what I came to find was, is that the people who were successful, no matter, you know, no matter what they did tactically, had a following of people that knew them, liked them and trusted them. And I realized that what was most important of all is having this foundation, these these attitudes and habits of having a strong presence, of being what I’ll call altruistic, generous to the world around you.

Frank Agin: [00:16:11] And I don’t mean just generous and giving money, but you’re generous of your time, generous of giving you introductions, things like that, and having a degree of integrity, doing absolutely what they say they were going to do, sharing the credit, all those things. Those were the ones that were successful. So my first book, Foundational Networking, really talked about those aspects. Here are the attitudes you need to have about yourself, because our, you know, we are our, you know, we’re the most important cog in our network, how we behave and how we show up in the world. Um, and so, you know, just kind of reduced to writing those, you know, the attitudes and, and habits that people need to have to have that strong foundation. And once you have that strong foundation, then having a great 32nd commercial and, you know, knowing how to work a room is so much more powerful. So that’s, you know, that’s where that first book came from. And really the other books are just kind of spinoffs of that. I’ve had people say, Hey, I’d like to I’d like to coauthor a book. Um, you know, and just, just continuing on those themes.

Stone Payton: [00:17:21] So many of our listeners and many people that I run into in the marketplace feel like they have a book in them. Talk a little bit about the the process. What was it like to try to get what was in in your head and on your heart into a medium like that that you could share effectively with other people? It must have been one heck of a growth experience just getting that done.

Frank Agin: [00:17:45] Yeah, well, it is. But I will tell let me just say this to your listeners. If you have a book in your heart, you owe it to the world to get it out there. And there’s you know, people will look at me, Wow, you wrote a book. You’ve written all these books. I’ve written a couple of novels, you know, and I tell people, don’t. You know, don’t look at me in awe, because all a book is is taking words, creating sentences that form paragraphs that work into chapters. And it’s just a matter of having the discipline to do it over, you know. You know, to do that. And so when I wrote that first book, what I would do is I would come into the office and Monday mornings I would turn everything off, email, phone, everything. And I would sit there for four hours and I would just I would write Now, I would think about it during the week and I would have notes and stuff like that so I could hit the ground running. But in four hours I might come away with 4 or 5 pages of material. Not all of it good, but, you know, some days, some days I might get eight.

Frank Agin: [00:18:44] Some days I might get one right. But you just kind of continue that process. And what I found is that then after 18 months, I had 360 pages and I ended up actually dumping 120, not dumping, pulling it out of the book. I worked with a coach to help me kind of finalize it, and there’s some wonderful people out there and they just suggested that, you know, they gave me some suggestions. Part of it was, hey, let’s let’s get rid of some of this. You can use it for other things. And I have. But it’s you know, it’s no great mystery. They’re not you know, you know, there are there are superheroes out there, but people writing books aren’t necessarily superheroes. They’re just people who have had an idea and committed the time. And, you know, you don’t need to get a million people to read what you have to say. I’m you know, I’m fulfilled when somebody comes up to me. And it’s just one thing in my book that has, has helped them. Um, you know, that’s, that’s the influence I’ve put on the world.

Stone Payton: [00:19:49] Yeah. So when you did write these books, do you find that when you do? Put those ideas to paper and publish it, that it helps you solidify your own thinking and make you that much more effective in communicating ideas going forward, whether it’s speaking, networking, casual conversation. Does it help kind of crystallize your own thinking?

Frank Agin: [00:20:11] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you you know, again, those days when you’re laboring for four hours and and have one page to show for it, but you know, that one page is, um, you know, it becomes a masterpiece and that stuff, you know, you when you write it, it kind of gets it gets etched into your mind. So when somebody is asking you something, you’re kind of just drawing on those, on those on those thoughts. Yeah. Just, you know, trying to think about, you know, what am I going to write? I need to, you know, like the golf analogy, you know, I just gave you. I mean, it’s just that was just something that, you know, I was talking to somebody else they talked about they used in terms of like putting. And I just kind of expanded on it. And that has allowed me to write entire speeches about just that one little metaphor of, you know, networking is much like golf. And, you know, here are the misses with respect to networking. So yeah, it’s just it really expands things.

Stone Payton: [00:21:07] I love it. Okay. What about the speaking at this point in your career and maybe you maybe you never did. But I was going to say, do you still get a little bit nervous when you’re getting on stage and you’re and you’re speaking to a large group of people? Do you get the the butterflies? Well, what is the life of a speaker like?

Frank Agin: [00:21:25] Well, I’m not your hardcore speaker. Like, I’m trying to think of some of the people out there like Bob Berg, who’s, you know, they just do a lot of it. But to answer your questions, of course, you know, we’re. I, you know. Well, let’s just back up. I get nervous walking into a room full of people and, you know, people kind of chuckle at that. You did. But the reality is, is that as humans, we we developed in tribes, clans, whatever you want to call it, of groups of about 150 people. And your whole life, that’s all you saw were those 150 people. And if you saw a stranger, it wasn’t generally a good thing. And so we’re really kind of you know, we kind of have this natural aversion to being with people that we don’t necessarily know. And so when I walk into a room, I’m nervous. Certainly standing before a group of people, it’s, you know, you’re nervous, but in a way that, you know, being nervous, that being on edge really kind of helps. The performance works for athletes. It certainly works for speakers. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:22:30] And I can only imagine the the energy that you must draw from people in the group as you begin to see them connect with some of your ideas and take them in. That’s that’s got to be incredibly fulfilling.

Frank Agin: [00:22:43] Well, it is. And that’s the that’s the downside of talking on Zoom. I’ve had lots of opportunities to speak on Zoom, you know, as we move through the pandemic and, you know, the jokes don’t land the same. You really can’t see people. So like when I get out there and speak, there’s always a handful of people that, you know, I can see are really engaged. And I play to them. I talk to them. But yeah, when you’re on Zoom, it doesn’t really work.

Stone Payton: [00:23:12] I don’t know. You’re on Zoom now for this virtual interview, and I think you’re doing a fantastic job. And I certainly know your passion comes through. I know our listeners can feel it over the airwaves. I certainly feel it in the in the conversation. But I do absolutely get what you’re saying. I don’t have any idea when, where or how you would find the time to pursue them. But I’m going to ask other passions outside the scope of the core work that we’re talking about. For me, it’s hunting and fishing. I like to be in the woods. I like to be on the on the water. Do you have other passions that you that you pursue outside the scope of this work?

Frank Agin: [00:23:52] Yeah. Yeah, I do. I mean, it’s I love what I do and I don’t mind, you know, sitting at home and tinkering on, you know, whatever, you know, for hours at a time or on the weekend. But I do break away from it. I enjoy sports, go to a lot of sporting events. My kids played soccer all the way through college. So that really kept me busy chasing them around. But I’ll watch sports on TV with the family or, you know, go to go to games and matches. Um, as I indicated, I’ve written novels. I’m working on a third one now, which is just kind of fun. I love going to the movies. Um, you know, working around the house, you know, we’re talking about remodeling a kitchen and I’ll probably have my hand in some of that, although I’ll probably hire, you know, a kitchen is different than, you know, that third bathroom that nobody sees, right? My wife will let me work on that one. But when it comes to the kitchen, it’s like, no, we’re going to get a professional in here.

Stone Payton: [00:24:58] But as much as you enjoy your core work and as much as you get from it, I don’t know. I do find that it is helpful sometimes to create the space to kind of break away from it periodically and do some other things and then come back to it refreshed. Is is that true for you?

Frank Agin: [00:25:16] Oh, absolutely. Last week before last, I went to see my father. He lives 12 hours away. And I mean, the only way to really get there is drive. And I just, you know, just being in the car, being alone, you know, it’s just I was just raring to go, you know, because you just your mind just kind of shuts down. Well, it doesn’t shut down. It just gives it a chance to kind of catch up, if you will. Um, and so, yeah, it is good. It’s good to get out in the yard and, and, you know, or just something that’s pretty mindless. Um, that’s healthy.

Stone Payton: [00:25:54] Yeah. All right, before we wrap, I want to I’d love to leave our listeners with a few pro tips for getting the most out of communicating with other people, networking, trying to help them connect and make those connections. Just anything that might look, gang. The number one pro tip is reach out to Frank and his his team, see if you can latch on to any spirit business connections meeting or just have a conversation with Frank. But short of that or prior to that, maybe some things they could be we could be reading or doing or not doing just a couple of actionable items. We can we can begin to to take some movement on.

Frank Agin: [00:26:35] Yeah. You know, the first thing I will tell people is. Get involved. Get involved in your community. Volunteer. If you’re in a chamber, find ways that you can contribute because those things will really elevate how? Elevate certainly how people see you or that they see you at all. I always tell people if you’re if you’re at a meeting and if if you didn’t show to a meeting and nobody knew you weren’t there, you’re probably not involved enough. But as far as, you know, getting your message out, you know what in this this takes work. It absolutely takes work. You need to step back and think about all the clients that you work with and the different situations. You know, for example, let’s pick on mortgage lenders. You know, I know mortgage lenders help people, you know, use equity in their home to get a loan, but people use that money for lots of things. And so when you’re out there and talking about it, you know, you want to you’re going to want to talk about those things, not all at once, but, you know, hey, I help somebody tap into the equity in their home to pay for a college education. You know what that does is it you know, again, it becomes it becomes pieces of Velcro in other people’s minds. So when they’re talking to somebody and saying, yeah, we’re just struggling trying to figure out how to pay for Johnny’s college, you know, you can say, oh, geez, you know, I’m talking to a mortgage lender. You own your house outright.

Frank Agin: [00:27:57] Have you thought about maybe using that? Um, and so that really takes work. It takes, you know, just sitting and thinking about all the different types of things that in this example the mortgage lender is doing or all the different ways, the reasons why somebody’s buying a house. Yeah, they want a house. But you know, all those different things. I used to be an attorney and I learned the hard way. My pitch was, you know, Frank A and anybody who needs an attorney send them my way. And I was a business attorney. People that didn’t help people. I just assumed everybody knew what I did. Well, they didn’t. And I started to become effective when I really looked at my business and said, okay, you know what? I just helped somebody with a commercial lease. It’s a document. It’s an inch thick. Nobody understands what it says but me and the person who wrote it, you know, and I would explain that to people. And right away it’s like, Oh, I get it. I can see how I can help, how you can help people and how I can refer people to you. But it takes time to really kind of think through those things. And what I see people doing, stone is just being lazy about it. I don’t mean that in a in a, you know, not that they’re lazy, but they’re just, um, they’re not taking the time to invest and just changing their messaging just a little bit and it can make a huge difference.

Stone Payton: [00:29:16] I am so glad I asked what marvelous counsel and you got to know this is going to go down in the Business RadioX records as the Velcro episode. Okay.

Frank Agin: [00:29:27] That’s awesome.

Stone Payton: [00:29:28] Yeah. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to to reach out, learn more about your work, tap into some of this great content, maybe have a conversation with you or someone on your team, whatever you think is appropriate. Website, email, LinkedIn. I just want to make sure they can tap in.

Frank Agin: [00:29:45] Man Yeah, you know. Stone The easiest way is I have a website out there. Frank Aegon.com. Frank a g i n.com. I’m sure you’ll get that in the show notes or but that is kind of all things frank and lists my books, has my LinkedIn, my Facebook. I communicate with people. I meet people where they want to be met. Some people just want to communicate on LinkedIn, Fine, I’m happy to do it, but my email is on there. I believe there’s a phone number as well. Um, you know, reach out. I’m, you know, certainly happy to talk to people. You know, if somebody is looking to try and get a group started would have happy to talk to them about that happy to talk to people who might be interested in getting on our leadership team. There’s lots of opportunities and, you know, just happy to share resources. You know, Frank, I’m looking to meet I’ve got a book can you know, uh, you know, who do I need to talk to? I have 2 or 3 people that can help them take that and get it published. So lots of lots of opportunities, but yeah. Frank Aegon.com.

Stone Payton: [00:30:51] Well, Frank, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. You’re doing important work. Please keep up the good work. Don’t be a stranger. Maybe we’ll swing back around periodically and get caught up on on your growth as you continue to to scale and get out there and touch so many lives. But thank you so much for joining us today. Man.

Frank Agin: [00:31:14] Thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:31:16] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Frank Agan with Spirit Business Connections and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.