Brandon Barnum

Check out more of Brandon

Website: hoa.com

Show Notes

Robert Peterson 0:30
Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today, we're so excited to have this conversation. And, and it's been such a blessing for us to have the chance to have met you at the last achieve conference. And just feel like, you know, we've become friends. And so I really appreciate you jumping on the show and sharing your wisdom and experience with our audience

Brandon Barnum 3:02
was my pleasure and honor. And I feel the same about both of you, Robert Noel, and just happy to be here and help however I can.

Noelle Peterson 3:10
If we can just have you start us off with telling us how you got started on your entrepreneurial journey. That'd be great.

Brandon Barnum 3:16
Yeah, so you know, I've been an entrepreneur since 1997. I was single dad, I got custody of my son when he was two years old. And I was only making $20,000 a year at the time working as a marketing director of an estate planning law firm out of out of college. And I realized very quickly that I couldn't pay my mortgage and his daycare. And the way I found that out is the bank kept sending me my mortgage payments back in the mail. And they had three little letters on it. And some of your viewers are too young to know what those letters are. But for those of us that are a little older, we know it was NSF insufficient funds because my mortgage check bounced, and so I had to make a change. I got in the mortgage business, and I fortunately had somebody mentor me in the art and science of raising referrals. And in 18 months, I had 10x My income from 20,000 to $200,000 a year, thanks to the power of referrals. So I've been self employed ever since with the exception of 110 month stint, I did take a position as CEO of codebreaker technologies to create an AI tool about four years ago. And so kind of on the early side of the AI wave that's now sweeping the world, which is awesome to see. But other than that, I've been self employed. And you know, like many of you guys listening, sometimes I've had to go to bed going, how am I making payroll tomorrow? So you know, I know what it's like to be an entrepreneur for sure.

Robert Peterson 4:48
Absolutely. Well, you mentioned you mentioned, obviously, raving referrals, and I know that you have a series of books in raving referrals, but your primary first reading referrals book really He is, is related to Hoa and so talk a little bit to us about HOA and and its intention and how it serves entrepreneurs.

Brandon Barnum 5:10
Oh yeah, you bet. So along my path I spent 12 years in the mortgage industry. And then I went back to building Tech, I had created a couple of tech platforms. hoa.com is my ninth tech platform, we built our last two was called referrer.com. We built that up to 5 million members, including 250,000 realtors, and exited that in 2019. And so it was kind of sitting there going, Okay, what's next? And I was mentoring somebody that had a local referral network. And we started talking about what if we could create a referral network exclusively for professionals who served homeowners and so that's what we set out to do. The, the site was originally the homeowner alliance.com. And I realized that was too long to fit on the side of a bus. And I'm a book big believer in manifestation and power of intention. And so I was meeting with my partner said, Okay, if we could wave our magic wand and have any domain on the planet, what would it be? And home owner Alliance HMO a, I just looked up the domain saw the site that was there reached out to the owner and said, Let me make you an offer you can't refuse. And so here we are. So that's kind of how we got to this point, because people are always curious how in the world that you get hoa.com. I'll tell you what we're building is like next door if people know the next door app meets Angie's List meets Zillow. So we're creating online community pages for every neighborhood in America, whether it's an HOA or not. And what most people don't realize is, over half of all Americans who own a home live in an HOA, but most people don't love that experience. So we're on a mission to re engineer the way homeowners associations to the homeowners they serve, and really to help those professionals who serve the homeowners create raving referrals and create powerful, profitable partnerships with other people that serve that same perfect prospect every day. So we've got a whole bunch of marketing tools and really automated comark. And we do three things. Number one, we licensed communities to those grows, so they become the exclusive mortgage lender, insurance agent, realtor, painter, plumber, whatever their specialty industry is they become the exclusive one in that neighborhood. So communities, co marketing. And then the third is concierge helping the homeowners find the professionals they need.

Robert Peterson 7:43
Nice. So you mentioned power of manifestation. And I love your story and your relationship with Mark, would you would you share our obviously how you met real quick and? And then how you manifested what happened next in your life?

Brandon Barnum 8:00
Yeah, and I've got an update at the end of the story that you're gonna love, Robert, because I haven't talked a few weeks. So yeah, so we were talking about us, Mark Victor Hansen. He's my mentor, let's see power of ask, I have to look here on the other side. So back in 2002, I have my own mortgage company. And I read this book called The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen. And this is one of my favorite books that I've ever read. And it's all about the enlightened way to wealth, right. And so, I was volunteering with a charity, a Christian charity in Portland, Oregon, called Northwest medical teams, and they were like Doctors Without Borders, except they sent Christian doctors around the world where there's famines, or floods or any kind of medical issue. And so I knew Mark needed to be the guy. So I have to back up a step and say that the reason that I'm friends with Mark Victor Hansen here 19 years later is because I said yes. I said yes, over and over and over again. And I just realized this recently, because somebody invited me to come to a lunch and learn about this charity. I said, Yes. They invited me to get involved and start volunteering with the charity. I said, Yes. They invited me to be part of their corporate industry council. I said, Yes. They said, Hey, we're looking for a featured speaker for this event. Would you be willing to help us find someone? I said, Yes. And then I reached out to one of Mark's best friends who I went to church with. And I said, Hey, would you be willing to ask Mark if he would come speak? He said, Yes. And then I talked to Mark's vice president, and she said yes. So all of these things came from Yes. So one of the secrets in life is say yes. When you think about all the breakthroughs in your life, they've come because you've said yes to some kind of opportunity. Okay, so just a little side lesson I've learned in this process. So may 18 2004. I had hired mark to come out and be the keynote speaker, the charity couldn't afford it, I paid for him personally, I paid a speaking fee. And because we already had the ballroom of the Benson hotel in Portland, Oregon rented, his VP said, you know, he'd be willing to do two events, if you've got the lunch, if you've already got the hotel once you do an evening event, too. And that's what we did. And we raised enough money in that one day to send $1.2 million in medical supplies around the world. So that was just freaking awesome. I know that charity is a massive part of your heart. So you can just imagine how good that felt?

Robert Peterson 10:35
Absolutely.

Brandon Barnum 10:37
Yeah. So then I went to Hawaii the next week, and I took all of Mark's CDs and his books, I bought everything he had to sell at the back of the room. And I just absolutely studied everything I could about this man and learned as much as I could. And the next week, I went to Hawaii. And what Mark talks about is creating at least 101 goals, and being hyper specific about what it is that you want to manifest. And so I went to that beach in Maui, my wife goes to bed at 9pm. I stayed up till 12, one in the morning, listening to my praise, music and my laptop and you know, under the stars, really reengineering what I wanted my life to look like at that point. And the big heavenly audacious goal that was felt like a download from God. And quite frankly, was to double global philanthropy to a trillion dollars a year by the year 2020, which has since come to pass. But my personal mission is to inspire, uplift and empower every person on the planet. And so that's the mission I've been on. That's the mission I'm going to be on until I take my my last breath. And I came back from that trip. And I asked Mark to be my mentor, I actually wrote him a check for a billion dollars a billion dollars in commissions, revenue sharing profits, and I think speaking fees. And so he said yes, to be my mentor, one of the things that I had on my list was that I wanted mark to write about me, by May 18, sorry, May 28 2005. So one year later, and this book was brilliant. And after a few months, Mark said, we're writing the sequel to that book, and it's going to be called cracking the millionaire code. Would it be okay, if we wrote about you? And of course, when I say, Robert, yes, yes, yes. And so I did. And, you know, on May 31 2005, this book came out. And there's three pages about me. And the book changed my life, not only because of the credibility of being written about in a book, but more importantly, the confirmation that anything you want to achieve is possible. You got to get specific, you got to write it down, it's got to be in writing, you got to have a date of victory date, as Mark has taught me. And then you got to put all your energy behind it to manifest it. And so so many things have happened as a result, but I think that's the the short version of this story.

Noelle Peterson 13:08
I love it. It just what sticks with me, every time I talk to you is the reiteration of being specific. You like put it you know, you mentioned every time put a date on it. So it's not just, I'm going to do this, I'm going to be a speaker, you want me to be specific, and say when how big the room is everything.

Brandon Barnum 13:29
These are my goals for the next 50 years. This column is the date of when I want to accomplish them by and of course, Brandon

Robert Peterson 13:37
has has to be an overachiever. 101 was 300. And how many?

Brandon Barnum 13:42
I think it was 338 If I remember correctly, and you know, I have some fun ones like crazy was like I wanted to meet Bondo, the singer from you, too. I met Bondo in six months like that never would have happened if I hadn't set my attention to it. And quite frankly, shared it with people because, again, you got to AFK to GE t you got to ask for what you want. Well, I shared some of these goals with other people. And all of a sudden, all these opportunities came to me and somebody said, Hey, I got I got back stage passes. Banos speaking about his charity here in Portland, Oregon. I've got backstage passes. I want to take you with me. What do you think? I said? Yes.

Robert Peterson 14:21
Yes. For us, for us. We I didn't get One Minute Millionaire until just a couple years ago. But I actually had the power of focus that Margaret with Jack Canfield and the power of focus they have us do 101 goals and oil and I have done 101 goals and and Noelle has a funny story about one of her goals.

Noelle Peterson 14:43
So in 2018 I wrote down that I want to be a stay at home grandma. And like you said be specific, right? 2020 when COVID hit my job sent me home, so I was a stay at home grandma with a job. Oh, wasn't specific enough.

Brandon Barnum 15:00
You know, it's so interesting that you say that Noelle, because in in Hollywood we see these movies all the time where somebody gets the the magic lamp, right and they rub the lamp. And then the genie appears ask them what they want for or what they want. And if they're not specific enough, they're a stay at home grandma with a job.

Noelle Peterson 15:21
Robert did the same thing. He wanted a million dollars. But Tommy was 30 No, he wanted a million by the time he was 30 We became missionaries and he got a million pesos.

Robert Peterson 15:30
A million pesos wasn't a millionaire in dollars.

Brandon Barnum 15:37
Well, the the update to this story is I had breakfast with Mark last Tuesday marks become a dear friend we met 19 years ago. And I just saw him at a mastermind that he was speaking at that I was attending last month with his stepson who is leading at Preston weeks. He's an amazing guy. And you should have him on your show, too. And so Mark, and I had breakfast last Tuesday, I asked him to be our Chief Visionary Officer for hoa.com. And he said, Yes, yes. And part of that ask because I told him, I said Mark, you've trained me to get really specific and when I'm asking for, and so I pulled up a Word document with with exactly what I wanted, and what I was offering in exchange and value in compensation. And what I was asking for was number one for him to be our chief visionary officer number two, for us to have monthly vision conversations. So in essence, he's coaching me and expanding my vision, which he's done for the last 19 years. And then number three, that he invited me anytime he's speaking or attending an event, because I want to be there as his sidekick, right? Because he just knows amazing people. And if I can just help him, help them and help everyone win together, that would be a thrill and a delight. And then there are some other things like I, he's he's agreed to write the forwards of all of our future raving referrals, books, and to help promote those and guiding me and mentor me and so much more. So, Robert, I thought you'd get a kick out of that?

Robert Peterson 17:11
Absolutely. Well, just the idea of, you know, writing the foreword, obviously, Mark is the most published author in the history of the world. And, and he intends to double that before he's done. And so just incredible what he's doing and of course, incredible that you can continue to have this Win Win relationship. And I think so many entrepreneurs and especially podcasters, right, in this podcast space, they're afraid to ask they're afraid to, to reach out to people that seem like they're superhuman. But the truth is, they're human, they there's, they still do a lot of the same way, they still eat three meals a day, they still put on their pants the same way. And, you know, we reached out to Mark and Mark was on our podcast, and Mark and Crystal have been on the show. And I met Robert Allen at another event and talk to him about, I had just listened to One Minute Millionaire on the airplane to that event. And Robert Allen was in the room and I said, that book just blew my mind. And I need to have a relationship with you. And, and then, you know, he came on the podcast and had conversations about, you know, no money down. And it just incredible that the influence these men have had in the entrepreneurial space. And so much of it has to do with belief.

Brandon Barnum 18:34
And huge. I'm so glad you brought that up. It's it's mindset. I mean, the greatest gift that Mark gave me was freeing my mind and opening it up to all that as possible, because all is possible, but you have to be able to see it, and believe it to receive it right. And you gotta go ask for what you want. And guys, don't if you're listening right now, don't be afraid to ask for what you want. Now figure out a way where you're going to offer enough value to the other person where it doesn't feel like a one sided exchange. Robert, what you just said is it's win win. And I would take it another beyond that it's Win Win, win, win, win, win win, like everything I do has to serve the whole, it has to be beneficial for every single person in the value chain, or I'm not playing that game. Right. And so I'm always looking at how do we help everyone win together. And that's really what we're doing with hoa.com is we've created a system where the homeowners when the pros when and quite frankly the pros when they build their businesses with others. One of the biggest challenges that I see is that most people try and build their business by themselves like they're the Lone Ranger, or a lone wolf. And it feels so heavy and hard because they wake up on Monday and they're like, they're not sure what to do. Right. But when you create referral partnerships when you build your business with people that you love hanging out with like I think you guys are amazing. like hearing your story about your selfless service and giving up everything you had here in the US to go serve others, is just inspiring and empowering. And so now with the mission that you're on of really helping entrepreneurs, become that future CEO and be empowered and inspired and feel confident, knowing that they've got you in their corner, helping them make wise decisions is brilliant and really important. But if you're listening right now, I want you to answer this question. If somebody comes to you and asks you for a favor, what's your natural inclination? mean? No, well, what do you say?

Noelle Peterson 20:42
And I, if I can, there's 100% chance of Yes. Because that's, that's who we are.

Brandon Barnum 20:48
That's how we're wired. That's how God made us, right? We want to help people that want help. Now, it's not everybody is going to be that way. But most people are. And so if you can ask people to help you in a way that is helping everyone, everyone wins together.

Robert Peterson 21:04
So let's, let's dig into this belief a little bit a little bit deeper, because it's, it's hard to believe in yourself in the beginning, right, it's hard to believe that some of these things can can really happen. So share with me the power of power of belief. Oh, somebody in your corner.

Brandon Barnum 21:21
You know, for me, I got turned on a Tony Robbins at 15 years old. And so just like you're saying, Robert, I didn't really believe in myself, I was raised by lesbians, quite frankly, I was gonna say a single mom, but my mom hooked up with other moms. And so I usually had multiple moms raising me and, and because of that, you know, back in the, in the late 70s, it wasn't cool to be gay. And so you know, I got bullied and all that was insecure. We moved all the time. And so I grew up with a lot of insecurity. And fortunately, I found Tony Robbins, and the whole, Unleash the Power Within, I just got magnetized and attracted to that information and, you know, bought into it. So if you don't believe in yourself, go read inspiring books, or get a coach like Robert Norwell, that that will believe in you enough for you. Right? So that was one of the things about Mark like he edified me and built me up, when we would go to events, he would introduce me in a way that I'm like, he saw me is my future self, just like you see your clients, right? They may see themselves here. And you know, they're capable of this. And so as you're just describing the future entrepreneur, they'll be they rise up into that. And I think that's one of the things we have to do as entrepreneurs is find people that lift us up and empower us to be the leaders of the future.

Noelle Peterson 22:53
Absolutely, yeah. That's just all the mentorship that you've talked about, and just being around people. And sometimes it's you're able to purchase the program and be with the person. But sometimes you need to just depend on the books. And there's plenty of them out there. You said Tony Robbins way back when there's so much value in reading and following the leaders and learning from them. In the little bit, you can

Brandon Barnum 23:18
well, yeah, and you think about Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich, right? What did he teach? And this is way back when I think it's almost 100 years old now. Not quite, but close. Right? Well, that board of advisors concept and that mastermind that even if you're not there in the room, Now, ideally, you want to create a mastermind of people that can lift you up and help you see what what I love what Les Brown says he says you can't see the picture when you're inside the frame. Right? And that's what happens to us. We're so inside the frame. That's why people need a great coach and consultant like you guys, because you guys can see from the outside in, and you can help them see their blind spots. And we all have blind spots. I have blind spots. I have a coach. I've always had coaches guiding me helping me make wiser decisions to accelerate the growth process, right? Because it's, it's like a shortcut and who doesn't want a shortcut? But in Napoleon Hill's book Thinking grow rich, he talks about, he would imagine what that person would say, even if they weren't there with him in person, and you can kind of channel those people. I mean, I'm a big Christian. I'm a believer. So I pray for guidance all the time. And normally when I go to bed Bran God wakes me up with the answer.

Robert Peterson 24:38
Well, and I think that's where Mark kind of stole his idea for asked because really, it's a biblical concept. Jesus says, Ask and you shall receive. It's not Mark doesn't claim to have owned it either. And as a person of faith, it can be challenging because so many people in the faith community have feel like they've asked But ultimately, they're begging and not doing the work. Right? Because Jesus said, or Bible says faith without works is dead. We have this whole asking idea, like, I'm gonna sit on the couch and ask for a job, but never go out and fill out job applications.

Brandon Barnum 25:18
Right? Yeah, exactly. That's hope. That's hope without action, I'm looking to see here because, and I don't remember it off the top of my head. But Mark, talk mark and crystal, talk about the four ways that you ask and one of them is to ask God, right? It's ask yourself, ask others ask on and I'm missing the fourth. So anyway, you get

Noelle Peterson 26:36
You've talked about starting this when your son was two and in working through and changing things. Talk to us a little bit about how you designed your life around your your business around your life to support the lifestyle that you wanted your son to come up? And

Brandon Barnum 26:51
that's a great question. Well, I'm a huge fan of life by design. And most people live life by default. They don't really have a plan and a vision for the life they want to live live. And so they get whatever comes out them. And a lot of them sit on the couch and they live their lives through somebody else. They just fantasize by watching somebody else live their lives out on TV. And typically that's a fantasy. So they they fantasize about fantasy, right. And I believe the richness of this life is is doing amazing things. And I get to benefit from that. Because I bought into that year early on. I knew at a very young age as an entrepreneur, the reason I wanted to be self employed and be an entrepreneur is I wanted freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted with whom I wanted. And for me, as a young dad, I was always committed to my family. So every night, I was home by 6pm from work. And then from six to nine. That was family time. You know, oftentimes I'd be coaching youth sport, so I'd be on the field by four or five. Whether it was football, basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, and joysticks. I've been and I love that experience, right of being out there on the field with my kids on the court with my kids. So number one, I'm about faith, family and fun, right? So the business is important. But you've got to live to work and instead of working to live, maybe I got that wrong anyway, you know what I mean? Yeah, that. Yeah. And so anyway, that was first and foremost is that family came first always now. I'm very blessed. And so as a result of these decades of doing the work, working on myself, the being more than the doing, like I'm a doer, don't get me wrong, I get stuff done every single day. But it's more important the being who you're really at the core and what your mind is thinking every single second. And then from your mind comes the words that you speak. So I am diligent with every word that comes out of my mouth. Anyone who knows me knows them. I believe words create worlds. So live life by design, get clear what life you want to live, who is it that you want to be? Who do you want to be famous for being right? Not famous for doing a famous for being? How do you want people to talk about you? Ultimately, that's more important than what your bank account says?

Robert Peterson 29:29
Absolutely. And we have tools to help entrepreneurs take the first steps into owning their own life it enjoy biz life.com You get our free report, and just gives you three quick steps to take responsibility for your life to set some boundaries and really start putting your family first because that's what we're all about. Right? You and I both know we can help you start a new business we can help you fix your business, but it's super hard to fix a family and so let's take care of the family and and build the business surrounded,

Brandon Barnum 30:01
and your family's going to be gone in an instant I'm empty nest now my kids are grown and gone. My my 30 year old actually works for [email protected] I was on the phone with him right before we got on this call. So that's so cool. Like I wake up every morning, we have an 8:30am team call on Zoom. And so literally every single morning, I'm with my kid or five days a week anyway, with my kid and we're building this business together because I said, Look, all of this is going to go to my heirs. You're one of my three kids. Guess where that where that's going. So I have a lot of fun together. And then I have a 22 year old down at ASU and I have my 19 year old is down at Texas a&m. So you know my wife and I are here in this big old house by ourselves. And I'll tell you that that season of family. See it seems so frantic at the time. But it's precious and you're gonna look back at it as the most important, most enjoyable season of your life until you get some better so. Right.

Robert Peterson 31:01
Well and I know your children are are manifesting things in their own lives because your son was on an island with Robert Kiyosaki just a few months ago, I think, right?

Brandon Barnum 31:12
Yeah, that was in Phoenix. He wasn't on an island. But you're right. He was taught by he, he was on islands to separate things. Yes. So my 22 year old son decided last summer that he was going to go do door to door sales. And I encouraged him. I said, you're gonna learn so much about sales. And you are going to grow as an individual and as an entrepreneur, and he's got a great company that's really teaching him how to be a young entrepreneur. And so they brought in Kiyosaki and did some training, which he just thought was fantastic. And because of his performance, he wants a trip. He want a trip to the Caribbean, he wanted a trip to put it on a yacht, he wanted a trip to Rocky Point, Mexico. So he's been on three trips so far, and they're getting ready to go to Colombia in another month. Now he's got seven guys that he's taking with him to Indianapolis to go knock for the summer. And over those three and a half months, he made about $35,000, his first year, and they teach him the first year you learn the second year you earn. So now he's got seven other people that he's inspired, that he's coaching up, and they're coming with them. And they're going to spend the summer knocking doors talking about pest control. And his goal is to make $100,000 at 22.

Robert Peterson 32:37
Wow, in three months.

Brandon Barnum 32:39
In three months. Three and a half. Yeah. That's great. And 100 days I think it is.

Robert Peterson 32:45
There you go. Love it.

Noelle Peterson 32:47
Brandon, you're you're a lot of business you do so much. And I know that you are very productive and just doing a lot of stuff going on. What do you do for fun?

Brandon Barnum 32:57
Oh, great question. I used to love to sing. God took my voice. So that's a downer. But I love playing volleyball. I love scuba diving. But we have a community here, right? Like we have events. I love to get together with people. I took out one of my my business partners last night for dinner and the two of us just went out and had a meal and had fun together. So I go to I have an older mom, I usually take her to a couple movies a month. I'm a big brother. So the Big Brothers Big Sisters, I mentor a 15 year old so I go hang out with him. And that's really fun for me. But you know, it's about this. This is fun. I have fun every single day. I don't do anything I don't want to do

Noelle Peterson 33:43
now and you do a lot.

Robert Peterson 33:45
Alright, so on that, on that personal side. What's your most memorable date with your wife?

Brandon Barnum 33:52
Ooh, most I mean, I think about when you ask that question. It was when I proposed to her. Besides the night the day I proposed to her, we went and saw you too in Hawaii. And our kids were young. And my mom came and watched the kids and for five nights, we went over to a wahoo he got away. We went and saw the final YouTube concert on the vertigo tour. And it was Pearl Jam who opened and then the guy from Green Day was there as well. And it was under the stars in the low level. And it was the most incredible five days because we got time to just be with each other away from the kids, which is so important. So that was an amazing experience. We're heading to France in two months, my wife's turning 50 So we're gonna go be in Paris for her birthday and then we're going to nice Monte Carlo and Monaco and then Madrid Spain where our daughter is going to be doing a study abroad in Spain this Summer.

Robert Peterson 35:00
Oh, nice, what a wonderful place to go. Should be fun. Yeah, absolutely. So, obviously, you've written the raving referrals book, you've written other books, what's been the impact of of being a published author?

Brandon Barnum 35:16
It's huge. It's huge. I mean, number one, when this book came out, because this is the first book I was in, I wasn't the author, but it was written about me. And what happened was, just like, I have it right here, I have my business card on the page that I'm in, I used to travel the world, I had a commercial finance company at the time. And I would give them a copy of the book as a gift if they were up clients or somebody that I was working with. And what it does is it elevates your credibility and your authority. And it separates you from anybody else that's in your same line of work. And now, in marketing, we call there's different types of marketing, push marketing, or pull marketing, a lot of your people listening, do a lot of push marketing, they're pushing emails, they're pushing text messages out, you know, they're trying to disrupt and disturb people. And I believe in pull marketing, attracting people that want to do business with you. And being a published author is one of the best ways to do that. So, you know, I typically do about three of these podcast interviews per week. And it's awesome, because I get to hang out with amazing people like you, and have fun conversations. And again, my mission in life is to inspire, uplift and empower every person on the planet. And what better way than to do that through either a book, or through a podcast. And so this was the second one, as you know, this came out earlier this year. And we have five more titles coming out this year, Mark, Victor Hansen said, don't write a book, build a brand. And so much like he did with Chicken Soup for the Soul, where he had 57 Number one bestsellers. In the back of my first book, I said, here's the next 20 titles, if you'd like to be a co author, reach out to me. And one of my friends, Julianne O'Connor said, Hey, I'd like to be a co author of raving referrals for dentists. And there it is. And the reality is, she took my first book, and then customized it for the dental industry. So it was a pretty light lift for me, which is how I designed it.

Robert Peterson 37:24
Rice button, and now it's creating a brand. And obviously, they will continue to have raving referral opportunities in a large variety of industries, where you can be influenced. So so let's talk about and

Brandon Barnum 37:38
I want to touch on that, Robert, before we move on, because I should have said one more thing, which is, now I have people hiring me paying me to come speak to audiences full of my perfect prospects.

Robert Peterson 37:51
What a problem. Yeah, it's so so let's talk about raving referrals. And just that idea of creating a network of partners, power partners, who are not thinking of themselves not walking into a room saying, Oh, I can get this job, oh, I can get that job or Oh, him hand in my business card, and they'll hire me. They walk into a room thinking of their network, and meeting people and saying, Oh, you need to meet so and so Oh, you need to meet so and so and, and creating this mental network, but also, obviously now with raving referrals and hoa.com You're creating an online community that becomes this powerful Network of Entrepreneurs serving each other helping each other. And, you know, when the tide rises, all ships rise.

Brandon Barnum 38:49
Absolutely help everyone win together. And I don't know, let me see, Robert, if I am able to. Can I share my screen and show you guys something?

Robert Peterson 39:00
I think so. It says present, I believe?

Brandon Barnum 39:03
Yeah, cool. Let me show you one of the things that we're doing. I'm gonna get the right window here. And I'll show you one of the things I'm most excited about [email protected] So we're creating these community pages for every neighborhood in America. And then we've created this automated co marketing engine. Okay, so one of the things that we teach is, you want to partner with other people who serve your perfect prospects. If you sell to homeowners, partner with people that serve homeowners, if you serve business owners partner with people that serve business owners, one of the things we've created [email protected] we call a home safe report, and this is a valuation report. So this has will be automatically emailed out to homeowners through Stacy's network, and it's got the net worth of the home it shows what the homeowners paid for principal and interest. And here's the most important part when Stacey sends this to Let's say she's got 1000 people in her database, right? Normally, most people are only marketing to the people in their database. What we've built is automated co marketing, you set it up once, and it goes out month after month after month. And the beauty is, as Stacey promotes herself. She's also promoting her trusted team, her financial advisor, insurance agent, real estate agent restoration company, HVAC, all the people that she knows, likes and trusts and recommends to her clients. Instead of Angie's List. It's Stacy's list. And the beauty is as she's promoting them, they're doing the same thing. They are promoting Stacey to their homeowners. And so, you know, she may have 10 different partners, each promoting her to 1000 people. So now this is what Mark teaches. Mark teaches one plus one equals 11. Right, nice. And so now Stacy's out there in front of 11,000 homeowners in that example, right? And it's a really powerful platform that we're building. We're super excited and want to show you one other thing, because you guys are just so cool. And I haven't really shared this publicly.

Robert Peterson 41:18
A secret?

Brandon Barnum 41:19
Yeah, yeah, we're doing a concierge program, which is super cool and somebody is moving, we will see I don't have it in this one off. To get it another one, what we'll do is we will handle changing their address, setting up their utilities, setting up their internet, their cable, setting up all the things that they need, when they move into a new community. We're super proud of that. But here's what I want to share with you. Let me share with you this. I was recently brainstorming all the different companies that we want to have in partnership with us, right. And so what I did was created Come on now created a that's not what I want, oh, that a I really did a vision cast have all the different Here we go. All the different companies that we want to partner with. Okay. And so I have my designer, put all the logos on one slide, wow. And I've got this printed out right by my desk. And my whole team has this printed out on their desks. I'll tell you, we just did a partnership with Thumbtack. So we're incorporating in their 200,000 Home Service Pros, which means instantly, before we even launched, this network, at the end of q2 will already have pros, top rated pros in every service category in every neighborhood in America. Right. Now, in addition to that we have 12 of these companies that were already in partner in partnership conversations with and four of them, were going to docs. Sorry, we're creating contracts with right now. And one of those contracts is worth five and a half million dollars. Hello, right. Another one of those is with a car company. And I just told my partnerships guy said, you know, I'm ready for a new car. So here's what I want to ask. I want to ask them to give me their top of the line car. It's about $120,000 car, they can lease it to me, but I want it the least to be free. Right? So I want to be able, when I do these podcasts, I want to be able to talk about the fact that I did this partnership with this global brand that everybody knows. And now I'm driving around their car all the time. And I said if when they do that deal, and they're going to do it, they're going to say yes, then I'll be talking about their car all the time, because it'll be an example of the partnership that we created. How cool is that?

Robert Peterson 43:54
Man, it's so powerful. One of the things we talked about the power of the ask and encourage our clients to ask for free dessert. And you've taken it to a whole nother level.

Noelle Peterson 44:07
But if you think about Yes, somebody asked for a free dessert, it seems like a very small insignificant ask does. How many people can do that? It just seems so unrealistic. A free

Brandon Barnum 44:19
dessert a free upgrade, right? For a hotel room or a an airline seat. There's so many things that you can ask for and what if you went through life? Expecting the best every second of every day? What if you went through why? If you knew the answer was always yes. What would you ask?

Robert Peterson 44:40
So good. Yeah, we do it with rental cars all every time like we we get past the counter get down to where the cars are and say so can we take that one and the guy's like, sure. drive off in the Mustang instead of instead of the little you know, Ford Focus.

Brandon Barnum 44:57
I did that recently had a convertible Mercedes For three days, I'm like, Well, that was a nice ask.

Noelle Peterson 45:03
Yeah, you gotta ask.

Robert Peterson 45:05
Absolutely. So we thank Mark for reminding us all to ask.

Noelle Peterson 45:09
Amen. Brandon, you've had a lot of success, what has been your biggest challenge?

Brandon Barnum 45:16
Teams, grown teams. People are interesting, not everybody thinks the same way I do. And that often shows up, you know, I've got an issue right now with one of my team members where I get to go have a crucial conversation. And I just bought the book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I read it like 15 years ago, but anybody who's listening, that's an entrepreneur knows, it's never perfect, and you're always dealing with something. So you know, it's really in these days, you've got to inspire people into action, you've got to cast the vision, and hope that they buy into it, right. And that's where you guys I know are doing the vision, the mission, the values work. And, you know, if you're listening right now, and you haven't yet done that, get with Robert Noel, take the time to get crystal clear on exactly what your organization is a stand for. And then make sure that you communicate that throughout the organization, so that you attract the right people, people that are bought in and that are totally committed to helping you achieve that. And so, you know, people, I've got to have a crucial conversation tonight. As a matter of fact, it's already scheduled. And it'll be interested helping people in

Robert Peterson 46:31
valuing and making vision based hires instead of task based hires. And it's too easy to hire people based on the tasks that they can do, versus the things that they believe. And if their beliefs are in alignment with yours, and their core values are in alignment, you can it elevates the trust, right? It elevates your ability to give them responsibilities, because you understand they'll make decisions in a similar way that you would based on their values and based on their beliefs. And so it's so important, especially solopreneurs, who don't think they're hiring anybody anytime soon. Get those values down. So you know, what's guiding your decisions. And then when you're hiring, use those values in your hiring conversation, because it's so important to establish relationships based on values and not just based on somebody's skill set. So good. Well said.

Brandon Barnum 47:22
And I'd also say, Don't be in a hurry to hire. Yeah, the mistake that I've made too often is I've got a gap on my team. Right. And so other team members are carrying the burden. And a few times, I've hired someone because I was in a hurry to fill the gap, rather than finding the right person that share the values Robert, just like you were talking about.

Noelle Peterson 47:50
I'll bring up another phrase, you mentioned codebreaker earlier. It's not personal, it's personality.

Brandon Barnum 47:55
There you go. You know, it's so true. And I use it all the time. I'm actually teaching this I have a chapter on my raving referrals book that says, We know why they buy. And I was just speaking at dental conference in Las Vegas. And I did 90 minutes of raving referrals. And I had about 10 minutes there of personality science. And I saw three dentists after that, that have my book. And so I went and sat down with each of them and said, I just want to understand what was the most impactful part of what I just shared? All three said bank, because it was so new, right? They had heard about building their business by referrals. That wasn't mind blowing to them. And they have used personality science tools, but only with their teams. Most of them use disk, some use Colby, but they've only thought about it from creating the right team and getting the right people in the right seats on the bus to use the Jim Collins analogy, right? And I said, Okay, what if you use that in your prospecting? And how you serve patients? What if you use that in the demo? They call it case acceptance, right? So as you're presenting a case treatment to a patient, what if you use that to really help present it in a way that gave them the information they needed to say yes, and it was illuminating for them. And now we're doing a pilot study at two universities. I'm actually going to speak at a dental school here in Arizona, and then we're working with a huge university of dentistry out in Mississippi. So there you go.

Robert Peterson 49:33
We've incorporated bank into not only working with our own clients, but obviously our sales process. But we're encouraging pretty much almost everyone we meet, you know, Hey, check this out. Look how easy this is and, and how fun it is to sort out the cards. We even got the picture cards to us with our seven year old grandson. He put the cards in order and it was like, Oh yeah, look at that.

Brandon Barnum 49:56
Robert, you want to see a magic trick?

Robert Peterson 50:00
You're absolutely right.

Brandon Barnum 50:02
And that's what I've learned to say, when bringing this to somebody before I give them the cards I say, Do you want to see a magic trick? Who doesn't want to see a magic trick? Right? I've never had one person say no to that. And now they're totally intrigued. So when I hand them the cards and say, do me a favor, sort these Norther what's most likely to least like you, it'll save us but help me serve you better and save us full time. They're just so fascinated by it, that they do it. 100% of the time, our friends,

Robert Peterson 50:30
our friends in the green category gets stuck occasionally, because they don't want to pick out which ones.

Brandon Barnum 50:37
overthink it. And so here's what I do is I'll hand them the cards. And if it seems like they're getting a little stuck, I'll say, if you could only choose one card, what would it be?

Robert Peterson 50:50
Nice to get away? Put it help them get that first one. Yep.

Brandon Barnum 50:53
And then when they give me the first card, then I go okay, now you've got three, what's the next one?

Robert Peterson 50:57
Nice.

Brandon Barnum 50:58
And it makes it real easy and fun. Well, Brandon, here's what's powerful about that. And then just I'll wrap with this. I've never seen something that builds rapport faster than the bank system, right? Because in 3060 90 seconds, they tell me who they are. And in 6090 120 seconds, I tell them, who they just told me they are. And usually within three minutes, they know that I know who they are. And they feel like he gets me. So it builds trust, and it builds rapport faster than anything I've ever seen.

Robert Peterson 51:33
So quick. Absolutely. All right, Brandon, we end every episode with our guests sharing their words of wisdom, what would you share with our entrepreneurs listening?

Brandon Barnum 51:41
Yeah, three keys to success. Number one, have your vision number two, ask for what you want. And number three, take action number four, take action number five, take action number six, take action. Be specific about it and go do it. Do the thing that you fear the most, and you'll be happy you did.

Robert Peterson 51:59
Brandon, thank you so much. This has been fantastic. Really enjoy hanging out with you.

Brandon Barnum 52:04
I can't wait to see you. We're gonna be in I'll be out there in Denver in June at the achieve biz conference. I'll be speaking there and can't wait to see you guys again. And, and so

Noelle Peterson 52:16
yeah, June 8 through the 10th. And if anybody wants tickets, let us know.

Robert Peterson 52:19
We can get some VIP tickets for folks. So absolutely.

Brandon Barnum 52:23
We'll see you there. Come say hi.