The Intro Economy is Changing Sales Forever for Founders and Connectors with Mike Adams

Speaker A: You do not go to a network event to find customers or to sell a product or a service. You will fail miserably. I was very introverted, very shy. I ended up being a professional networker, going to literally 15 events a week, three events a day, every single day, talking to millions of random strangers.

Speaker B: But it's not the easiest thing to do. Should we give them some tips?

Speaker A: So if you go to a networking event, listen more than you talk. That's important. And then.

Speaker B: Mike Adams is a super connector with 30 years in tech. As the founder and CEO of IntroStars, he's helping people turn relationships into revenue with the platform that rewards every great connection.

Speaker A: People love introductions. So I realized, wow, I could bring so much value here. Maybe I could launch my own startup with introductions as a centerpiece of what I'm doing.

Speaker B: We had nine jobs.

Speaker A: There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a different path. But obviously, being your own founder, you've got full freedom. On the other hand,

Speaker B: guys, I would urge you to fasten your seatbelts for this one. We've got a fantastic episode of Founder Stories ready for you today. Without further ado, I'm just going to introduce the guest because I don't want to steal his airtime. We have a treat. We have Mike from Intro Stars with us today. Mike, welcome to Founder Stories.

Speaker A: Thanks so much, Donna. What a pleasure to be here.

Speaker B: I've been so excited about seeing you since we had our, uh, introduction call. Know, know each other before that. So a lot of the things that you talk about today will be news to me as well. So I apologize in advance if I get a little starstruck because you are quite the guy. So let's, before we go into this, let's just tell everyone what you do now. Your company is Intro Stars, so there's a little bit of a hint there on the intro piece. You are, Mike, what we call a super connector, right? Yeah. Tell us what that is and, and, and the why behind it. What are the problems that you're solving?

Speaker A: Yeah, so I've been to lots and lots of networking events in my life in London. Uh, I love to meet people, I love to connect people. And I realized everyone is looking for connection and introductions. And so based on that, talking to thousands, thousands of people at networking events, I realized if only there was a platform where people could describe their ideal introduction and reward introducers when they make those introductions for them and when a deal comes out of it. And so that's what I built. My startup is called Introstars because introducers are stars. They create opportunity for everyone around them. And so we just launched it as a new startup where people can sign up as an introducer, browse what people are looking for in terms of introductions, make those introductions happen, uh, to help people around them. And once, uh, that introduction leads to a business deal, the introducer gets rewarded. So everyone's a winner. The person received an introduction to their ideal customer, have a new business deal, and then the person who made the introduction gets rewarded and gets, uh, karma points as well. So everyone's a winner. Everyone's loving it. Uh, we just launched in London and New York. We've got 2,000 users now. It's growing every day. And so I'm very excited to inspire, uh, people to become great introducers and hopefully become super connectors as well.

Speaker B: What a fantastic idea. My mind's popping because I know so many people that I would refer to as, uh, super connectors. And you know, they do it for the love, right? They do it because they have a real passion, as I know you do, Mike, for bringing people together. It really is what gets you out of bed in the morning. It's the thing that you love more than anything. So I'm sure they're never doing it because they think they're going to get some sort kickback if, if it turns into a deal. But it's lovely now that you've actually created a platform where, as you say, everyone's a winner and they can get the best of both worlds.

Speaker A: I think it's in human nature we love to connect the dots, we love to solve puzzles, we love to bring things together to create order out of chaos. I think that's in our human nature. That's how the brain works. And so everyone loves to connect people because you're like solving a puzzle, connecting the dots, bringing people together. And hopefully that creates a new opportunity which wasn't there before. So for me, it's like one plus one equals three. You create something which wasn't there out of nothing. And so, yeah, I think it's in human nature. But some people do it more than others. Some people define themselves as super connectors and do it on a really regular basis, like literally introductions every single day. And for other people, it's just more opportunistic. When you meet someone, you think, oh, yeah, I could introduce them to that person. Uh, and so, yeah, I think it's, uh, it's an ancient art of matchmaking. Uh, and people love it, right?

Speaker B: And 2,000 users, yeah, we just started

Speaker A: all connectors, all super connectors. And some of them are also intro seekers, meaning they've put out there what they're looking for to receive introductions to their ideal customers. So, uh, it's typically startup founders looking for clients or service providers or consultants or agencies or real estate developers. They're all looking for clients, prospects, buyers. So just put it out there and are happy to just use the platform to receive introductions, really like a lead generation platform, but focus purely on warm introductions from trusted people. So no cold outreach, no spam emails, none of that. It's all warm referrals from real people.

Speaker B: Amazing. And we actually, I think we're going to come back at the end to talk about how people can get involved in this because most of the folks that listen to this show are, uh, in the founder community of some description or I'm sure they could find what you're doing super useful. So let's part that for a second and let's finish on that today because I want to make sure that we've got time to talk about you. This is founders stories, after all. And you spend so much time out there, traveling the world, connecting people. I very much doubt that anyone really takes the time to get to know who you are and what makes you tick. So I'd love to expose that today a little bit.

Speaker A: Thanks, Donald.

Speaker B: So, so, first and foremost, Mike, tell us about you. Tell us about your background, um, and the type of guy that you are and how you kind of, um, got being a founder.

Speaker A: You know, my journey was quite, uh, atypical. I started off as a super nerd as a kid. I was a really, a, uh, super geek in front of my computer all day. I love video games. I thought when, when I was going to grow up, I would be a software developer building video games so I would never have to talk to anyone. I could just talk to my computer all day. And so I was very introverted, very shy. And so that was really my, my path as a kid. I thought that would be my future to be a software developer. And then somehow my life changed and took me, uh, in a very different direction. One of my friends got me into theater when I was 15 years old and I just, even though I was super shy, I loved the energy of the crowd. Somehow it fed my ego and fed my energy. And then when I started my career, I, uh, worked in a bunch of tech companies. I was thrown in front of an audience to do big presentations, product launches, as a product manager, literally talking to hundreds of people and journalists. And I was on TV shows. So I ended up being a public speaker and professional presenter. And literally my whole career was about talking to people all day long, every day and not doing any software development. So I became more of a talker than a doer. Right. Uh, I still love tech. I'm a super nerd at heart. Uh, I love technology, but really I realized my whole career has taken me into sales, marketing and partnerships. So all about bringing people together to create opportunities. And so about 10 years ago, someone introduced me to my first ever business networking event. It was the London Chamber of Commerce. And I didn't know what to expect. I just was in a room full of strangers, went to the bar to order, uh, water, and I started talking to the person next to me and I really enjoyed that conversation. And I spoke to another person, another person. And very quickly I worked the whole room and spoke to everyone in the room and always asked them about them, like, how can I help them, what are they looking for, what are the issues they're facing? And I just enjoyed that experience so much that I started going to more and more networking events. And very quickly I ended up being a professional networker, going to literally 15 events a week, three events a day, every single day, talking to millions of random strangers. And I absolutely loved it. I had so much fun and I got energy by meeting new people. And over two, three years, I ended up going to a thousand natural working events in London, which is insane, right? Which is completely crazy. But what I really enjoyed is meeting all these people and realizing again, they're all looking for introductions. Everyone's looking for introductions, whether it's a potential client, a potential investor, someone they want to hire, a, ah, business partner. And so I realized there's so much value in making introductions for others. But most importantly, many networkers and connectors love to send introductions to each other. And I discovered in London there's like a mafia of professional networkers who do this for a living. And on their business card it literally says networker. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, wow, what is this? Like I was discovering a whole new world which I didn't know existed. And I got really excited by this and I became one of them. I built trust, sufficient trust with them. They would trust me to be part of their circle. And I was literally part of that circle of professional networkers and connectors and introducers. And we're sending introductions to each other, referrals to each other, sharing information with each other. And I ended up building, you know, massive, uh, leads like Literally millions of pounds and dollars of business just by networking. Like zero cold calls, zero cold emails. Just meeting people day in, day out and figuring out what are the best introductions I could make for them and vice versa, what introductions they could make for me. And so I really understood that's kind of a, uh, another way of doing business. Whereas when you speak to most B2B salespeople or startup founders, they think it's all about cold outreach. Sending a million cold emails, a million cold calls, and hopefully with a tiny response rate, you might get one or two new clients. That's the old way of thinking. I think it's all about relationships and all about trust.

Speaker B: Agreed. I mean, you know, in my role, when I go into a new company, um, I can pinpoint the problem quite quickly. And 99% of the time, it's the amount of conversations that they're having in and out of their networks that is there that's causing them to have a pipeline issue, as opposed to how many dials they're smashing out a day or how many cold emails they're sending or whether they've got clay. You know, all of these non issues, um, could be solved if they were just talking to more people. But I really want to unpack some stuff that you just said there because you took me all the way back to my first ever networking event then, and I had a little bit of a goosebump moment, um, because I actually spent most of the time in the toilet. I didn't do what you did and just go, okay, I'm here now. Just better start introducing myself to people. I did have a little bit of an internal nightmare. I'm also an introvert.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And it's taken me a lot longer than you to fix it now. I actually really enjoy networking events, so I totally am on board with what you're saying. It's definitely my poison of choice when it comes to how I do sales. I love being out there talking to people. I don't think I did a thousand in three years or in a year. But, um, that is some going. So let's think for a moment. Let's assume, assume that people in their early sales career are leaning more towards where I was than where you are. I think, I don't think it's an option. If you want to be a seller and you want to be in a growth environment, I don't think you don't you have a choice as to whether you network and talk to people. If you want to do that job, I think you have to get over it. And you have to have an element of that, uh, unless you want to have a horrible time and just do a thousand dials a day. But it's not the easiest thing to do. It's quite a difficult thing to get over that kind of fear of going into a room full of people. And it almost seems like they've already made their little cohorts. When you go in as well, they already seem to be in small groups. It's very hard to find somebody who's just by themselves that you can kind of go, go over to. Yep. Should we give them some tips?

Speaker A: I've got a million tips. So I've actually done quite, uh, a few networking masterclasses to help people overcome that fear of networking and actually enjoy it and have fun and passion for it. And so I think whatever you do in your life, networking is always useful. Building a network of people who trust you and that builds up your reputation and your personal brand. And so I think it is definitely an essential skill. I wish they would teach that in school. Universities like how to network, uh, because it is really a social skill. Right. It's about, uh, being able to speak to people and build relationship and trust and rapport with people you meet. Uh, so, yeah, a bunch of tips, number one, I think, is mindset. If you go to a networking event with the mindset that you need to meet a potential client or close a deal or sell your product or service, and every time you meet someone at a networking event in your head, you think, oh, this could be a potential client for my product. If you go with that mindset, you will fail miserably. Do not do that under any circumstance. You do not go to a network event to find customers or to sell a product or service. Again, people will smell that a million miles away and they will think you're trying to sell them something. And that will put you off on the wrong foot, both for you and for them. And also, you won't enjoy it. You won't have fun because you're in sales mode. That's not fun because you're stressed, because you need to focus on the outcome. I need to close a deal. So with that, uh, stress, you're just not going to have fun. It's not going to work.

Speaker B: CROs need to listen to that. Like managers, sales managers, leadership. That's who needs to learn that first tip, because there is this. I'm going to send you to this networking event. We're going to invest in this event. We want you to report Back on how many sales conversations you had, how many leads you brought back, all of these metrics that all of these things you're expected to bring back. I think that's what drives that misconception that we're there to sell. To sell, absolutely.

Speaker A: So the opposite is really what you should be doing. What is the opposite? So the opposite of that mindset is that you're going to a networking event to build relationships and rapport and be likable by helping other people. So if you go to a networking event, listen more than you talk, that's important, and then ask the person you've just met, what are they looking for, how you could help them? And typically that ends up being an introduction. People are looking for introductions, and so try to think who you could introduce to that person, whether it's a customer, an investor, a business partner. So when I meet people at networking events, I always ask them, who could I introduce to you? What would be the best introduction I could make for you? And by opening with that, you're creating a much more positive relationship where they don't see you as a salesperson, they see you as a helper. And that will obviously go a long way to be likable, and they will try to help you as well, and they will ask you the same question, but then they can help you. So really, the mindset is that everyone you meet at a networking event is not a potential client, but is a potential introducer to a client. And that's a fundamental mindset shift. So everyone you talk to could introduce you to a potential client, partner, et cetera. And so if you go with that mindset, you understand that you're not trying to sell, you're trying to build a relationship, you're trying to build a rapport. And for them to trust you so they can make that introduction for you. And to do that, of course, it's for you to help them and make an introduction for them. And so that's really the mindset you should have. You're there to help people. You're there to have fun. You're there to be likable and to build relationships. So I think that's the number one tip mindset. So, number two tip, you mentioned your typical scenario. You walk in a room full of strangers, and they're all bunched up in small groups. How do you start a conversation with someone there? So my advice is go early, go at the beginning of the event or a few minutes before it starts so you're the first person in the room or One of the first. So when people arrive at the event, they will come and talk to you. Right. So you don't have to make that extra effort. They will actually come to you. So that's an easy way to get out of that. Uh, the second thing I do, I usually go to the bar, if there's a bar, and talk to the person next to you at the bar waiting for a drink. That's a great person, uh, to talk to. Number uh, three. If there is someone by themselves, that's the obvious person you want to go and talk to. Uh, if there is no one by themselves, they're all in small groups. Uh, you have to join one of these groups and don't sneak in a weird way because that's a bit creepy.

Speaker B: Creepy.

Speaker A: It's a bit creepy if you creep into a group without introducing yourself. So instead of that, I would literally be super blunt about it. Join a small group of two or three people and just say, hi, this is Mike. Can I join you guys? And say that. And of course you're going to interrupt them, interrupt their flow. And that's fine. Be comfortable with interrupting people because you're obviously at an event to meet other people. So it's expected that people will interrupt you. So instead of sneaking in, just interrupt the conversation, say, hey, can I join you guys? Is that okay? And most people will be fine with it, right? Usually, uh, because again, they're all there to meet people. And so that's the way to do it. Uh, it takes a bit of nerve, sure. But you know, just go for it. Uh, overcome your fear, be a bit American, over the top about it, which is fine.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And you get away with murder. It's all good. Just do that. Um, so there are my top tips. But to, to go back to where it came from though. Where am I today? I want to go back to my, my early childhood and teenage years. My parents were actually entrepreneurs, so I grew up in a family business. My parents were doing licensing. Licensing like uh, designs from artists onto products, uh, like bed sheets, uh, stationery, games, et cetera. So I was quite involved in my parents business as a kid, which was great. So I always had this entrepreneurial spirit that. No, I understand what it is to run a business that you're. Sometimes you don't close any deals for weeks and weeks and then you close a big deal and it kind of goes up and down. So that uncertainty, but also the excitement of bringing back a massive deal or closing a signing a contract has gotten a massive rush of adrenaline, which you don't get if you're just an employee. So I understood that as a kid that one day in the future I might become an entrepreneur. And I always had this kind of entrepreneurial spirit. However, you know, I started my career working for a bunch of companies. I worked for nine different companies, but I always had in that the back of my mind one day I might want to launch a startup. I wasn't sure what it was, but I had that in the back of my mind. And then when I went to all these networking events, uh, about 10 years ago, I ended up going to quite a few events where everyone there was a startup founder, was an entrepreneur. And I really enjoyed the vibe because all these startup founders are so ambitious, so optimistic, so full of positive energy. They all want to change the world, they're all very purpose driven. And it just really motivated me to spend more time in that environment to surround myself with such ambitious people. And I quickly realized in that startup world people love introductions, of course. And so I realized, wow, I could bring so much value here. And I started doing lots of introductions in all these, uh, startup circles, uh, and became friends with quite a few founders and really enjoyed it. And so that's when I realized maybe I could launch my own startup with introductions as a centerpiece of what I'm doing. And so it really all came together organically by just meeting people, going to more and more startup events. And that kind of pulled me up, you know, thinking if they can do it, I can do it. And that kind of really pushed me in that direction so that one day I could launch my own startup. And so that's, that's what it really happened.

Speaker B: Uh, so the foundations are always there, uh, the wiring was there. It seems like your whole kind of DNA, your background was leading towards something, but then it's what you've done later on in life where the, the dots have then begun, begun to join and you've realized actually this is an opportunity for me to now have my own business. Really like super interesting. You've touched on. You had nine jobs prior to that. Anything interesting we should know about you?

Speaker A: Yeah, I'm a tech companies. I worked for Apple which is amazing work for hp, big tech company. Uh, but the most exciting one more m recently was Zoom. So I was employee number six in Europe at Zoom and built a whole partner program of Zoom across Europe in 35 countries. And I was there pre IPO and I was there post IPO. Then Covid happened. So it was insane working seven days a week at midnight Every day just because of hypergrowth. And the hypergrowth mode at Zoom was really incredible. And I went from a tiny team of six people in London in a tiny office to literally 900 people across Europe and 9,000 people globally. And so we saw this growth, which was so crazy, where you had 10 more employees joining the team every two, three weeks. And the team just grows so fast. So to move offices many, many, many times, which is super exciting. And being in this hyper growth company, you learn so many lessons about know, how do you scale company culture, how do you bring so many people in, but stay really close to all of them and understand how, you know, you distribute roles and responsibilities. At first you have to do everything, you're wearing 25 hats. But over time you start to delegate and share responsibilities with other people and start to build a process, build a program. Uh, whereas at first there is no process, there is no program. You start from scratch. And so that's really interesting. That was a super interesting experience. And my job at Zoom was of course, building partnerships, and a big chunk of those partnerships were referral partners. So companies sending customers to Zoom and Zoom would pay them a referral commission on success. Which is, of course the exact model I'm using for my startup today was introstars. So I really learned a lot of lessons there as well. How do you track introductions? How do you reward introducers? How do you avoid conflicts of interest? How do you manage uncertainty in gray areas when multiple partners bring you the same introduction, like, there's so much uncertainty there, you have to deal with and make, figure out a process to make it all work. So that was really incredible. What a great experience.

Speaker B: I love how you've, um, managed to make the leap from corporate into having your own startup, but I've actually not just gone, right, okay, I'm just going to leave that part of my life behind me. You've actually replicated one of the models from a much, much larger business that's growing exponentially. And I can only imagine what it was like at Zoom through Covid. Oh my goodness, it was insane.

Speaker A: It went from 10 million daily active users to 300 million daily active users literally overnight. 30x overnight. It was insane. So super exciting. Uh, and you know what, I had so many good experiences there. I know lots of startup founders are kind of, you know, don't never want to go back to a corporate company, are kind of poo, pooing the corporate world. I don't. I think I had great experiences. I loved it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just a different path. So, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with being working for a big corporate company if you're enjoying it and you're surrounded by really smart, friendly people. I think it's great, too. Um, actually, one of my friends from Zoom, one of our colleagues from Zoom, James, left Zoom to launch his own startup, pretty much like me. And two years later, he folded his startup and now went back to work for Zoom, so obviously at a more senior position, but still. And, uh, he's super happy. Right. So, again, I think that's a perfectly fine path as well. Learn the startup world and if it doesn't work for you, can always go back. Uh, there's nothing wrong with that. So I think both paths are equally valid. But obviously, being your own founder, you've got full, you know, freedom. You can do whatever you want. You don't have a boss, which is great. You've got so much freedom and independence. On the other hand, it puts a lot of pressure on you, a lot of stress, because you have to make a million micro decisions per day, and everyone's relying on you like there's no one else. It's all you. And so I know lots of founders, uh, you know, are talking about burnout, are talking about being stressed about having so much on their plate. Uh, and I, for me, personally, I kind of found a balance where, yes, I have all this stress on me. I have to wear 25 hats, I have to do a million things. I have to do a million micro. Take a million micro decisions per day. But on the other hand, I enjoy life. You know, I go to the spa, I go to the gym, I travel the world. And so I think I love my life. I don't have any, zero, uh, regrets. And I'm really fine where I am. I don't think there's any risk of me burning out, even though I'm wearing 25 hats and have to work so hard.

Speaker B: It's such a good point. I don't really think there's the link between burnout and the amount of hours that you're working. I don't think that's the right link. I think it's about how much purpose you have m. How fulfilled you are. Um, you can work in a role where you work 25 hours a week, but if you hate every hour, then you're much more likely to burn out than if you work in 100 hours doing something that you absolutely love. And the time thing actually is a good segue. I Think it's, um, something that I was interested to talk to you about because one thing about founders, they are wearing lots of hats. They, you know, at the moment, I don't feel like I've got any free time. I'm constantly juggling things. It's very, very difficult. We know we need to network. We get invited to breakfasts and networking events all of the time. And I think I'm definitely guilty of not having them high on the, as high as they should be on the priority list. What advice would you give to founders who are, uh, trying to just make things work, keep their head above water, build their business, but they have this chip on their shoulder because they know they're not out networking. How have you managed to get such an amount of networking into your, into your daily life?

Speaker A: So I think networking is not so much about meeting people you could do business with. It's more about elevating your energy and your mood. So if you go to a networking event in a room full of startup founders, they all have similar struggles to you. They all have to wear 25 hats. They all have to have all this stress put on them. And so by sharing that, those stories with them, learning from their struggles, no, it puts your own struggles in perspective and actually motivates you and adds your, again, mental power. So I think I spend a lot of time with other founders, first of all, because I enjoy it. I think they're all smart, intelligent, much smarter than me and more ambitious than me as well. And I love that. I love to be surrounded people smarter than me and more ambitious than me. That elevates me. And so surrounding myself with those people, I think is very positive for your, for mental health and for your motivation and for your ambition. And so that's really what I get out of networking. It's not so much, oh, I need to close business with those people, et cetera. Uh, I don't even think about that. It's just having fun. And it's, uh, kind of for me, it's a way to decompress, to meet other startup founders, sharing their struggles and their stories and what they're working on. I think it's a great thing again, to elevate your, your mental health and your mood and your, your energy. And so that's really what I think. That's the way I look at networking with other founders. And so my advice to other founders is go to a website like Luma, which is a list all the startup events in London or New York, and joined at least one or two events a week, uh, and just chit chat with founders. Don't expect anything out of it. Just have it, have fun. Being surrounded by other ambitious founders and hopefully make friends. But most importantly, again, elevates your mood and your mental energy for uh, the

Speaker B: next day, I think. Is that part of just looking after yourself as a nerd and self care and allowing yourself to do these things without any sense of guilt, you know, oh, uh, I should be in the office, I should be closing this deal, I should be doing this presentation, all of these. There's always a million and one things to do. And sometimes leaving the office for uh, a few hours and going out to an event might seem like a little bit of a luxury because it's fun and it's for you, it's a selfish thing to do, but super important in the success journey. And something that you're saying you think founders should put up quite high on the priority list.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Like anything which is good for their mental health. So walking in nature, going to the park, going to the gym, doing yoga, meditation, going to a spa, getting a massage, traveling the world. Now all these things you think are luxuries startup founders shouldn't focus on, but they should because otherwise, again, there's a risk of burnout and losing all that motivation because they're working so hard. They're putting themselves to an extreme level of stress by having to make all these decisions that they don't take time to reset their, their energy and their mind. And so, so again, it's a balance. I'm not saying you should spend all your days, uh, not working and relaxing, but I think many founders don't relax enough. Right. And again, it's find that balance.

Speaker B: So you've inspired me, Mike. I'm, I've canceled my last three massages, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna rebook as soon as we've, as soon as we finish this chat. Let's go back to you for a second. You said that, um, so you started off your career or your life thinking that you were going to be a techie and, and now, uh, ah, a super connector. And also throughout this journey just listening to founders, the things that they've needed, that's also sparked a side of you that's um, very commercial. So you do a lot of kind of go to market. You're actually an investor as well. Is that just kind of being at networking events and a founder is building something that you're like. That sounds super interesting. How has that worked?

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, uh, there's Obviously lots of personal passion in there. So I love wellness and biohacking and life extension and anything to improve uh, our mental and physical well being. And so when I meet a founder who's built something interesting in that space, I'm always happy to help them. And helping them could be just a mentorship session, it could be investments or a mix. And so I like to meet founders every single week and try to help them in any way I can. So I usually try to do a walk and talk in the park with one or two founders a week and uh, just spend an hour chit chatting. And sometimes it's about investment, sometimes about just introductions, sometimes it's just advice or a mix of all these things. Some of the last apps I invested is called Lululite. It's an app for your phone which helps you fall asleep by flashing the flashlight of your phone. So it's quite an interesting one. You put it on your bedside table, you close your eyes and the flashlight flashing super fast puts you in a kind of trance and helps you fall asleep. That's a really cool app. I just invested in it. The founder is amazing. Ross here in London is incredible.

Speaker B: I'm really interested.

Speaker A: It's amazing, really incredible to get told

Speaker B: that you should never have any your phone anywhere near you when you're.

Speaker A: Well that's really the exception. That's the way to use your phone to help you sleep. I'm about to invest in a cool startup in Canary Wharf doing lab grown meats. They're literally growing burgers in a bio bio tube like in a bioreactor. And it's cheaper than a real cow, but as healthy with real animal protein. So no animal cruelty, no cow suffering, but amazing protein for the human body. So again, super interesting. So all these things are so interesting. I uh, meet new founders every week and sometimes, you know, I want to invest and help.

Speaker B: Yeah. And this has all come from just networking, just networking and connecting all people

Speaker A: I've met in networking events.

Speaker B: 100% absolutely inspirational. I always like to get. I think we've found a lot of interesting stuff about you already. But I always try and find one fun fact about my guests that you just wouldn't know from their LinkedIn. And I know there's something that we spoke about that you do for fun outside of work.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Let's talk about travel hacking.

Speaker A: Sure, sure. I mean you talk about lots of things so travel hacking is really interesting. It's a, it's a hobby I started a couple of years ago, maybe seven, eight years ago. And it's really a fine, uh, a way to find loopholes as credit cards in the UK or the US to get loads of miles and points from those credit cards and then spending those points on travel to travel in business or first class all around the world for free. And so by having done this for years and years and years, I signed up to lots and lots of credit cards and find ways to always get the welcome bonus, the referral bonus, the transfer bonus. And uh, there's all these ways you can manipulate all of that to end up literally with millions of points and then you convert those points into airline miles with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic or other airlines, and then you use that to travel around the world. And so I was lucky enough in the last seven years, uh, I've been doing around 20, 40 to 45 flights per year every year. This year I'm doing 43 flights all uh, over the world in business and first class, which is incredible. It's like you, you feel like you live like a movie star, right. And it doesn't cost you anything or very little. And so it's really an incredible experience. And I've had a chance to meet other travel hackers who do this all over the world. There's literally a community of travel hackers, uh, who send each other, you know, tips and tricks on travel hacking, exchange pictures of each other. You know, traveling in first class. Uh, it's like a fun hobby. Um, everyone loves to travel, of course, but traveling in luxury is a completely different level of experience. And it's also very aspirational. Like you would never spend $20,000 or pounds to travel in first class to Japan. But if you can do that for free with a bunch of points, why not? Uh, so I've been three times to Japan in first class. Like a movie star, 14 hour flight. It was a 19 course dinner. I mean it was incredible. Like a level of luxury I never thought I could achieve if I just spend it with money, but with points, it becomes nearly free. And so it's really incredible and it's opened my eyes to a different way to travel. And I've met another, other incredible travel hackers. And there are some networking events for travel hackers in London, uh, where other travel hackers meet with each other and again talk about their incredible travel stories, which is amazing. Uh, so it's a really fun hobby for sure. Yeah.

Speaker B: You mentioned, um, the Ilima M, which is the, um, the, the networking site.

Speaker A: Yeah. So Luma is like an app for your phone and a website. Oh, what's the, which lists all the events for Stars.

Speaker B: All the events, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: So it's a free app and you can sign up, uh, and you can use it to list your own events. I've done 12 events, my own events, intra Stars events in London, New York. Uh, but you can of course use it to find other people's events. Um, and it's really great, uh, very easy to find other startup events. Uh, it's a really easy app to use. I love it. It's really cool.

Speaker B: So these kind of um, niche events, you know, who would have known that there's a networking event for travel hackers? Like if people are kind of interested in the things that we didn't know there were networking events for, what are the kind of crazy other things that you've seen? Like what people just wouldn't know that there's groups of people because they might actually really want to go, but didn't think that they maybe thought they were the only person.

Speaker A: Yeah. So there is a really cool website called meetup, meetup.com. it's been around for more than 10 years. They're bought by WeWork. And so Meetup, uh, is in every major city in London, New York, San Francisco, et cetera. And on Meetup you can meet people with similar interests and they usually meet up in person. It's not all virtual, it's in person events. And so if you sign up to meetup, it's free to sign up. You can type what you're looking for. Let's say people like board games in London or people like to go to the theater in London or people like to play tennis or football or any sport really. Uh, and then you find a bunch of groups in your city with people with a similar interest. You sign up to the group, again, it's free. And then they invite you to all their in person events where you meet people with a similar passion and you end up meeting them doing that sport or board games or theater or whatever activity it is. And obviously you make friends with similar interests. So meetup is really a great resource for that. Uh, and then there's a new trend which I've seen a lot in London, New York, which is pickleball. So pickleball is taking over the world by storm. Uh, millions of people are playing pickleball and there's a big community of tech people, people work in technology and startups who do pickleball. So there's a tech pickleball group in London and uh, they've got hundreds of members. I went There two weeks ago. It was incredible. My first time ever and I just met the organizer of Tech Pickleball in New York, Skyler, who's amazing and he's got 2,000 people on his mailing list of tech people, startup founders and senior people playing pickleball every single week. So pickleball has become this new networking thing that's great. People play pickleball and then talk about their startup. And then the latest trend I've seen is, another latest trend I've seen recently is people are really into wellness. There's like a new movement of saunas and ice cold bath where people go in their bathing suit and network going to the sauna and the uh, ice cold bath. So there's one in New York called Other Ship, there's one in London called arc. Arc. And you sign up there you go, there's like 50 people in your bathing suits. It's like a guided group, uh, in the sauna and ice cold immersion. And then they have a lounge where people network and chit chat and they do social events with DJs. And lots of people who go there are typically ambitious startup founders. So I've been there quite a bunch of times and met incredible founders uh, at these literally networking in your bathing suit events.

Speaker B: That is so very cool and a completely different dimension. Do you see this evolving? So that I suppose the question is, do you see the whole, we mentioned earlier, the kind of, you know, the poser tables with the small groups, do you see that now being diluted by like just different ways of networking? Are we all a bit tired of those kind of, you know, top of the football club kind of rooms with uh, the poser tables? And how, how do you see the world of networking evolving into things that are just a little bit different and interesting?

Speaker A: I think back in the day when people thought about networking they had quite a negative aversion to it because you always imagine people just giving out business cards and they're all trying to sell to each other. So you go into a room full of people selling sales people really, uh, and then you meet with them, say hey, what do you do? And then they start blabbering for like three minutes about what they're selling, whatever their product or services and then they give you a business card and that's the end of the conversation. And uh, that's really the old way of networking and I think people hate that. And lots of people have a negative aversion even to the word networking because that's what they imagine. It's A bunch of salespeople trying to sell to you.

Speaker B: That's what I want people to get out of listening to this. I want them to erase that from their mind and start again.

Speaker A: So that's the old style. So the new style is having fun playing pickleball, going to the sauna and ice cold bath meeting, uh, for, you know, uh, social, uh, events. And then everyone you meet, you just try to be their friends and be a nice person and ask them what they're about, uh, and ask them about their personal passion, what their mission is, what their purpose is, the bigger picture. So instead of asking them, hey, what do you do? You say, what do you like to do in life? Or how do you like to help people? And so it's kind of that bigger mission statement. It's not so much about the stuff you're selling, not the product you're selling. It's more about what is your bigger picture, your bigger purpose. When you wake up in the morning every day, what is on your mind? How are you going to make the world a better place? And I think more and more people are really focusing on their purpose and mission in life. Uh, so when I meet a founder, I always ask them, I don't care about your business model. Tell me about the bigger picture. Where do you want this to be in 5 years? How are you going to help the world make the world a better place? And my personal purpose and mission in life when I wake up every day is about connecting people. I want to create a world where everyone is a connector, everyone's an introducer, and we create millions of connections for each other. That is the world I want to live in. And I want to, uh, inspire young people to go out of their way to become introducers. I think really we're building the intro economy where everyone becomes an introducer, helping each other and obviously earning money from it. Like, you need to pay your bills and pay your mortgage so you can earn millions of pounds or dollars just helping people with introductions. So there is a real business there. But the purpose about connecting and helping people and bringing people together, I think that will make the world a better place. And that's what I'm very passionate about.

Speaker B: Yeah, you've kind of started to answer my. One of my final questions, which is, Mike, where are you going with this? But, um, I think you've kind of answered that perfectly. I think, um, just to kind of recap, you are, uh, so you've started the business now, you've launched the business. You've got 2,000 members, you're still doing all the things that you love to do. You're still traveling, you're still finding the time somehow to have so much networking and so many. You're connecting people and you're connecting yourself as well. You're obviously doing it in lots of different ways. You've got your own podcast, which is much more evolved than mine, actually. Tell people about the podcast, actually, because they might want to have a listen to that.

Speaker A: There's no comparison. It's a very different type of podcast. So it's called the Super Connectors. And so the idea is I meet other Super Connectors who love to introduce people to each other. Some of them define themselves as Super Connectors and some of them are more humble, don't like that term. But other people call them Super Connectors. Right. And so we're kind of building this community of Super Connectors. So on the podcast the Super Connectors, I interviews other Super Connectors and I asked them about what was their journey for them to become a Super Connector, how did they start introducing people, how did that become a thing? And uh, became a regular occurrence in their day to day life. And the idea behind the podcast is hopefully to inspire other people to become Super Connectors, to create that path for them to understand how you can actually make the world a better place. Helping people introduce people, but also monetize. How do you actually make money from this? How do you build a community? So it's all about community building, bringing people together, sharing that message of connection. And so that's what the podcast is about. Uh, we're nearly reaching 50 episodes, we're going to do many more. And I usually do it in person in a studio like this one. I love to bring the Super Connectors together. We usually interview five or six of them back to back and then we all go for drinks somewhere on a rooftop. So it creates kind of a mini social event of bringing those other Super Connectors together. And we've done a bunch of dinners for Super Connectors and they absolutely love it. We bring two Super Connectors, uh, with each other, connect them and they love it. Creates like explosions, creates sparkles of all the potential introductions and collaborations we could do together. So it's all about community building, uh, and then really, uh, bringing different community leaders together so their community members can start sending introductions to each other. So it's kind of that uh, cross pollination of different communities sending referrals to introductions to each other. And that's really exciting.

Speaker B: Yeah, I know quite a few people who, if they're listening to this or watching this will be like, that's me. I just absolutely love the, the adrenaline buzz that I get from introducing two or three people. And then something happens and that relationship evolves in some way and something good happens from it and they genuinely don't do it to get any kickbacks or anything like that. They just absolutely love it, probably in the same way as you do. So what would your advice be to them? How can they get either a slot in your podcast or get to talk to you? Would it be to sign up to the platform? What would be the best route for them, do you think?

Speaker A: Yeah, so the best thing for them would be, uh, to reach out to me on LinkedIn. So my LinkedIn handle is super Mike. So for you to remember. So LinkedIn.comim/supermike. You can follow my adventures there. Check out our podcast, the super connectors. It's on YouTube, on podcast, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And then sign, uh, up to the website introstars.com it's free to sign up as an introducer. Just sign up for free. See what other people are looking for in terms of introductions and start making introductions for them. Because every time you make an introduction on introstars, you get points, introstars points. And with these points you get a badge. And with these badges you can publish them to your LinkedIn profile to officially certify you as a Super Connector. So that adds social contact proof. It has obviously elevates your personal brand. And that means many more people are going to come to you to ask for help, or you can help them and you can again make the world a better place by making more introductions. So really, uh, I want as many people as possible to join the movement.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And it is, it is very much a movement. It's a completely different way of thinking about the word networking. It's almost like you say, let's get rid of the word and just think about connections. It's such a cooler way of thinking about what you do.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's also going to be a side gig for millions of people. You know, right now, lots of people are trying to figure out what to do with their life, how to, you know, reimagine their career. For the next 10, 15 years, when AI will have replaced all of our jobs, the only job that remains is human relationships, human trust. In the age of AI, this becomes even more important. To focus all your time and efforts on relationship building, on connecting people, on trust building. And so really the ultimate side gig of the future is being an introducer. Right. And so really ushering in the era of the intro economy. And that's what we want to promote as a message.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's such a cool way and I think a great way for us to finish the session as well. Mike, this has just been an absolute education and eye opener for me. I could talk to you for hours and hours. It's such an interesting topic. Um, I'm sure that lots of people will want to reach out to you after listening to this. I'm sure that you'll have people wanting to sign up to the platform, but because you are so interesting, I'm just going to hand the floor to you just to kind of talk us out. I'd like you just to, to kind of give any words, final words of wisdom to the listeners. Um, and anything that you, you think might be valuable to them and it can be around connections or whatever you pick. I just know you've got so much wisdom. So, yeah, I will, I will hand over to you to, to kind of play us out.

Speaker A: Well, thank you so much, Donna. So I think my advice for anyone listening to this or watching us is to go out of your comfort zone to as many network events as you can. So as a young person, if you're still in, uh, university or school and you don't really know what to do with your life, go to a few networking events. Even if you don't know anyone yet, you have to start somewhere building your network. And if you just go to two or three networking events with zero connections, you don't know anyone there. Every person you meet there, try to remember what they're doing, what you're working on, what introductions you're looking for. And I'm sure after two or three events, you'll already start connecting the dots in your brain as, uh, who you could introduce to whom. And that's going to feel so great and you're going to enjoy it, you're going to have fun. And that starts elevating your personal brand and your social proof as an introducer. So I think start somewhere, get, uh, off your phone, go to in person networking. And I think that's the best thing you could do. Having fun and helping others. I think that's the best thing anyone could do.

Speaker B: Yeah. Great way to spend your life. Mike, thank you so much for joining us and look forward to staying connected.

Speaker A: Thanks so much, Donna. Um, thank you. Take care of.