Migena Agaraj's networking. Building Success & Strategic Partnerships: The Journey of Migena Agaraj.

0:01 Welcome everybody to another episode of Arthur's Round Table. Thanks for joining with us today. We're excited to have Megane Agarani in a multi part series. We talked last month and there's so much more to tell that we're super happy to have her back and I think this is going to be an ongoing thing. We'll see what happens if you're willing to do it. Oh, Arthur, thank you. You're so generous. Yeah, thank you for being here today. And so we went through your, you know, immigrating early years, figuring about helping your family, having a few jobs, working for other people, and then we jumped to where you are today.

0:47 Let's fill in the blank there, how that all happened, what you do today, how you help people, what what, what, what interests you and, and dig a little deeper in that if that's OK with you. Oh, I would love to and thank you again for having me back for the generosity and for the opportunity to share more about the journey. And as we were saying offline, this could turn into like ATV series where we name it, something like the latest and greatest with Magenna. And of course, it's always the greatest, right? We're always progressing and evolving. So staying positive there, Arthur.

1:29 It's a series of adjustments. A series of adjustments, correct? And ever since we had that first podcast, you and I and I subscribe to your channel and I recommend everyone to do that. I have made it a habit that no matter where I'm traveling, if I am putting makeup on, I play one of the author's podcast. And I was listening with a gentleman from Turkey just recently. I love the story how he says, yeah, he brings dad brings us over, me and mom, my siblings, and boom, he files bankruptcy.

2:11 And had we known or had he known that if he had the right mentors and advisors that could have been avoided. Our lives have looked completely different. But even that added a lot of value. So I love listening to your podcast because there is so much realness. So it makes me a lot more comfortable coming in and saying I am one of them versus Oh, my story is not as this as not that. So that comparison, right? They say it's the thief of joy. So I I appreciate that. And then, of course, I met your other friend Carol. Carol Pepper. Yeah, Pepper. He's the best, yeah.

2:53 And this is how it happens again, I'm listening in to one of your podcast. I I see Carol. Wow, what a lady. I said, let me Arthur did his part. He brought her to the virtual space. I need to take action now and meet Arthur, not necessarily halfway because again, she's a friend, but let me contribute 5%. Let me go and click follow on LinkedIn. Let me take it further. Let me send her a message on LinkedIn. I love your podcast. Great. No response. I end up in Beverly Hills, random, so we call it and I have a point. This story.

3:38 I'm sitting at a table with two gentlemen who's walking me through his business. And he says, here are some of my partners. And he takes out his phone. He says, do you know this person? And do you know this person? And boom, there's Carol's face. I'm like, I'm like, I know of her through my friend Arthur, but I have not yet met her. He's like, she's the best. Fast forward, check my LinkedIn. There's no response yet. I said OK, I'm not going to leave this Carol alone. I will manifest her like literally end up in Miami at a family offices summit three days ago, go to the after party and guess who's there? Carol Pepper.

4:28 Isn't that well? And I'm dressed in the most glamorous gala dress. I don't even feel comfortable in it, but it doesn't matter. It's dark. And there I spot her because I remember her from your podcast. And then I remember her from the picture that the other friend that he spoke so highly. And I worked that relationship in my head before I even brought myself in front of this woman. And then I'm staring at her. She's sitting, I'm standing. I'm like you and I need to talk. You've been ignoring me. This is Carol How and you are I said, well, Arthur's friend heard you on podcast, followed you on LinkedIn.

5:14 Tom Wilson loves you. I'm like really, lady? How many more names do I need to drop for you to follow me back? She's like, if it makes you feel any better, grab my number. I'm like, OK, now we're talking. So that's it all started because I heard one of the episodes and then I heard another episode of somebody else. So each and every time I hear an episode, I go the extra Step. 2 steps, 10 steps, 1000 steps, it doesn't matter. Super smart, Yeah, again, first of all, I appreciate it. But it's really smart of you because most people just, you know, forget to do the rest of the stuff because the whole idea is to bring things to people's attention that they can use, right?

5:57 And this is, this is, this is exact. Now we can end the podcast and we can talk offline because literally I just shared with you and, and your audience and my audience, our audiences. How is it that I do things? How is it that I build? And this is just one of so many different examples because depending on the dynamic, that also determines the outcome, the speed, the steps that are necessary. And sometimes it takes 2, sometimes it takes 1000. It can take a billion steps, but you have done, let's say, 950 steps.

6:39 Why can't I take just 50 steps to go and hang out with Carol? Because you've built with her. And Carol is just one of so many, so many examples out there. And that brings me to your very short question with a very long answer for me. But I love telling stories. That's why we have Part 2, Part 3 and a series, right? So I. Yeah, by the way, I may have. Mentioned this a little bit from the last podcast, yes. No, no, just a little delayed. My fault, you know. But Carol and I have known each other for 15 years, something like that. I mean, it's been a long time and I hadn't talked to her in a couple years maybe, and I just happened to see something that she published or posted or something and say, why don't you come on the pot?

7:33 She goes absolutely. And we're going to do her again because she has a lot to say. She's incredible. I met her in person. What an energy that woman has. Outstanding. She's a classy lady. She truly is. So thank you for bringing her because we'll grab coffee in New York. She lives in New York, I live in New York. So it's it's a fantastic, I believe it's going to be a fantastic partnership between her and I because we know a lot of the same people and we are aligned in so many levels. And she's she's super approachable. But I also like to tease her and I love that she didn't follow me back on LinkedIn because you cannot be the way I connected with her because I like this better.

8:17 I like this version a lot better than the cold. Hey, nice to meet you. Yes, I'd. I'd love to accuse people of ignoring me because I'm going to make it so difficult for them not to be friends with me and force them. I'll be you better be a friend because you owe it to me because you haven't responded to me. And they're like, Jesus, fine, shut up. Let's do it. Mine is a shut up, of course. So last time we we spoke, I went through the journey of being an immigrant, having over a decade in the restaurant business, another decade in the Class A commercial real estate space where I built a very strong power base, very healthy power base of decision makers. And when I was a director of business development for a billion dollar company, I connected a lot more, not just in operations, but expansion of businesses, retention and having the ability now and the opportunity to travel the country to see more.

9:14 And a lot of those seeds were planted in my brain. And Fast forward three years into this new role, author, the company decides to sell. The owner didn't want to keep the three generation company any longer. And there's this massive exit. And I find myself now on a crossroad. Do I join the company they exited to? Which by the way, it's the company I started my career with 10 years prior. Been there, done that easy, comfortable, safe choice.

9:59 Know everybody Sure, smooth, seamless. Let's go. Let me just wear the thing. It's like from chair to chair right here or get out of the comfort zone, put myself out there and figure things out and do something different. Because doing the math, being a decade in the same industry for four different companies, it was very rare for the industry that I was working. Usually people retire there after 30-40 years. Once you're in, you don't really get out, you're just there.

10:41 But I worked for four different companies 10 years, been there, done that. Was grateful for the opportunity to join if I wanted to. And also was grateful for the support for my parents and my brother who said if you want to do something different, will support you knowing that there will be no paycheck coming in January 1st. So what I did instead, I went to a real estate summit in Miami in December and I said, let me just hang out with Grant Cardone. I've never met him in real life. I got to meet him on Clubhouse. We we spoke on Clubhouse. I learned a lot about what he was doing and he was very foreign to me prior to Clubhouse. But being in the social audio app called Clubhouse, where 10 million beta testers were hanging out throughout Corona, throughout COVID and connecting through voice and a bio in real time as if we had 10 million phone numbers only, we did and we just connect through this app. I made a lot of friendships.

11:51 I would take the subway and be on Clubhouse. I would iron clothes. Yep. I still iron clothes, people. I still do it. I'm Albanian. I would listen to Clubhouse. I would make bread and listen to Clubhouse it. Was so popular. Super and Grant is one of those connections. All of my friends or a lot of my friends would go in Miami in December. I said, you know what, I'll go check it out myself. We'll have the opportunity to meet people IRL, as I say in real life and see what's out there. I end up at the summit front center, hear all the success stories, author exits, multiple exits.

12:34 I had no idea what that even meant because I'm like OK if you're a billion dollar company like the one I worked for, I get it. But how Like how is it possible that this lady is operating 345 businesses at the same time, parallel or exited one building 2 more creating partnerships. How does she trust them? Like my mind was spinning and literally by day 2, I felt so unaccomplished. I was not happy with myself. I was not happy, happy with with with what I was doing with my life. Here is this company #4 that I exited from and it exited as a result. I had nothing to show but still had to go get another job being a manager at will.

13:20 Any day they could say today's your last day and it's completely legal. So I realized in that moment that I had given full permission to somebody or to some people or to an entity to direct dictate how my time is spend wasted, invested, invested. I didn't feel I was investing. Yes, knowledge no one can take away from you. Yes, the relationships. But you know when you get so mad at how little you feel you have done in a long period of time that your brain gets a little clouded and you're not fair to yourself. And not that I don't want to honor all the relationships along the way, but at that moment, my time, the non refundable and all these other things that I could be doing together with people, I didn't because I was wrapped up in this vertical space called New York City. And I hadn't given myself a chance to spread a little bit horizontally and and see what what's out there. So I'm in Florida, which feels a little bit flatter. So I'm like, all right, this is great. I gave my two weeks notice.

14:31 I said to the new company, I am not joining you guys. I gave the notice in Florida while I was at that conference, not knowing what January 1st of the following year would bring, where the money would come from, which company would hire me. Like I I knew nothing. But there's one thing that I knew. I knew that I wasn't going back to what I was doing. That was not happening. You were trading your time for somebody that wanted it for a finite amount of money. Correct. And that finite amount of money could grow slowly over time, and it could persuade some security in knowing that you have paycheck. But unless you're you know #2 or 30 employee at Facebook, Google, then you know the equity, no, there's no equity reward is just not there, right?

15:28 So it's not, there's a, there's a great movie that really distills it down and it's, and it's kind of an indie movie called Cash Back. And it's basically a story about how you trade your time for money. And there's a lot more to the story than that. But it really distills it down to say, OK, once you realize that your most valuable asset is your time, then you have to think about what you're trading, right? It is mind blowing. They don't teach us. They don't teach us this in college and God forbid there is no way this should be discovered in the corporate world because there is that other quote that goes something like people who recognize your value hope that you don't.

16:24 That's. Right, yeah. And I'm like, well, and look part of it. We also have. Not all people, though. Not all. People, that's not true. That's true. But part of The thing is we as a society, we need the people to do the jobs that trade their time for money, like we need that as a society. And so you just have to decide whether how long you're going to do that. And then what's the next evolution of that, right? And Are you ready? Is it time? You know, you, you, you only can get rich a couple ways. You inherit it, you build equity and exit a company. You buy a bunch of real estate and it increases in value or it decreases in value.

17:11 You go bust, you start all over again. But you don't get rich on, I shouldn't say that there's people in Silicon Valley, they got rich on Facebook, you know, making, you know, $1,000,000 a year as a developer and then getting, you know, $20 million a share. How many Facebooks are out there? How? Many that's. Right. That's right. So I, I literally author decide, make this decision. And I remember a friend of mine who is very successful in New York asks me, what are you going to do? Like what kind of job are you going to do now? Because you just said no to this other opportunity. I said, I don't know. And I quite frankly, I don't need to know right now. I, I really don't need to know right now. And I was so happy.

17:58 I remember smiling. It's liberating. Right. It is liberating. It's like you're halfway there. And he says to me, I'll never forget. He says, you are the only person I know that is this happy knowing they're not going to get a paycheck January 1st. He says, you are so much braver than me, so much courageous than me because I'm here to tell you I would freak out not knowing where that money is coming from. I said, well, let me tell you something. I said watch me where I take live because live is no longer going to take me. I'm done. Do you understand how done I am? Like I'm done? So now we're in January 1st and a few weeks.

18:41 Within a few weeks, a lot of my friends who own businesses in New York found out that I was up for grabs because I had not accepted this offer. So they started reaching out work for us be our director of business development introduces to the authors of the world because you work in Arthur's building. So it's always easier. And I said I have made a decision. I am no longer working for a company. I will work with companies either one or many. So it's no longer going to be employee, employer relationship is going to be a partnership. And that's what started my strategic partnership company, which I formed that same year that I had no job. I called it eagles because I am from the land of the eagles, Albania, our double headed eagle. So it has to be plural.

19:37 And of course eagle is this like the bird of America. So honoring where I come from and honoring where I am today for the country that has gifted me and blessed me with so many opportunities. So double honoring in that sense. And of course, I placed my initials MA, which confused a lot of people because they thought I was in the mergers and acquisitions space. And I said, let me find out what that is. Oh, that's fancy. Just to share how unknowledgeable or like naive I was at SO at so many things about business. But I knew that if someone else had done it before, so could I. And if I could bring multi $1,000,000 contracts to to in in in in bids to an actual businesses, to the companies I work for over the years, if I just made 1% of that, then it wouldn't be a bad day or a bad life. And of course, having my family support was everything because everyone can wake up every day wanting to conquer the world, but we still have to live with the reality, having bills to pay, responsibilities.

20:49 So it's a combination when you make a decision of how realistic you are and how bad you want it so you don't end up homeless, which a lot of the successful people nowadays were at that phase, at that state for a long period of time. So I am grateful that I didn't end up being homeless in the process of building dreams and making my already existing dreams come true and being a more honoring daughter to my parents and sister to my brother for all of the sacrifices.

21:29 Because if God has blessed us and gifted us with with capabilities and then you have so many brilliant minds out there who are creating on a daily basis through AI, the technology, automations, podcasts, connecting with the carols of the world. Like what's what's what's a persons excuse now to take it to the next level, to take one step because you took 99 and complete that hundred step. And I felt that support was necessary, but I also had to to do it scared, right? So that's what led to Eagles, MA, which started as a local like only New York strategic partnership rather than the tri-state area, where I formed my first strategic partnership that same year with a friend from from the industry. And he said, I would love to work with you. I understand you don't want to work with us. We can probably not afford you to match where you come from, but how can we make this work?

22:27 I said, How about we form a strategic partnership? He says, let's go. I said, but I have one condition. What is that? I I want a contract. I want ink on paper. My grandfather told me that Mom always ensures that I don't forget that yes, handshakes are very important, but ink on paper, it's very important as well. Not because you don't trust the person, but to have it as a point of reference. Because there's so much volume of work that we do over time, and we don't want to risk the relationship with someone simply because we forgot half the things that Arthur said or half the things that Megano said. So it keeps you honest and keeps you accountable. Good business practice. And it's good business practice.

23:08 And my friend says I usually never do this but if it makes you happy I will. So what is that going to be? X Perfect. We had to go to a golf outing raising for Saint Jude's Children's Hospital where I was even the volunteer of the year during Corona during COVID in 2020 when no one was going out, I was out there raising and learning how to play golf and and entertaining all of our clients and learning with the ladies how to play golf in the field. So there is this one golf outing and I remember my friend saying, oh, I'm not going to e-mail it to you. I'll bring it to you in person so you can take it home. Look it over.

23:53 And then we start from there. Meet him. He hands me the paper. I'm like, do you have a pen? And he's like, sure. He's like, what do you mean? I said, let me sign it. He's like, well, you haven't read it. I said, I don't want to read it. He's like, what do you mean? I said I wanted a contract delivered. You said you would do this, I trust you and if something else isn't there then there goes our friendship. I said I don't need to read this, give me. And I just signed it without reading it because he honored that one non negotiable I had at the time because that was the only non negotiable for me. I then of course learned later on that you don't always want to do that. No, but that's OK You made a statement. But I made a statement and that's what started my strategic partnership journey and I'm grateful for that first, first contract being within the first year and started to open some doors.

24:50 And you never know how much value bring to a person or a company, but it's irrelevant. I started, I did what was uncomfortable for me, being solo, only to realize that if you have work ethics and you stay true to yourself and you stay authentic to yourself, doors will open equally. Now the success rate may look very different in comparison because a company may trust a billion dollar company with a lot of backing before they would trust a startup, which it was me. But at the end of the day, even that billion dollar company relied on me to bring the majority of the accounts for that specific region.

25:38 But again, we need to remind ourselves. So literally, Arthur, that's what started my entrepreneurship officially being in strategic partnerships, opening doors to 3rd party service providers and connecting them with decision makers in New York. And to make things even better, someone from the industry, a woman that I worked with where she was the client and I was in operations at the time and her account was one of my many accounts in New York. She had also moved on and she said, again, I, you know, everyone in New York, I don't live in New York anymore. Let's do an event with women in property management.

26:22 I'm like event space. My goodness, that's pretty challenging. She's like, well, let's not take this women to lunch every week, but let's put them together in my room. Great, great idea. Sure. I'm in 5050. Last minute, we can find the money to pay for the venue. Like I got it, give me two minutes, make one phone call. Hey, we're doing this, how much is needed? So shout out to United Brothers for saying yes to me four years ago. I said, don't give me any money. Work directly with the vendors, whatever that amount is, that amount is and we're going to do the bags.

27:02 This is 100% for the women. This we're not in the event space, we are in the connecting space. So now here I am with this other lady of hosting women in property management, creating the space for them to, to, to connect, collaborate and create opportunities to hire within to be in this business matchmaking space where oh, you exist or we're looking for an assistant property manager. So bring in a lot of value and of course, sharing more about what it is that I do in the business. So that led to a few events with this with this lady and eventually she went her own way. I decided to take the event in a different direction. Similar idea, but more general versus just property management. And I started hosting this Women in Real Estate Diversified because I wanted to bring in the finance, financial, a component of it, some HR, some from facility and not keep it just in the property management.

27:59 So I've hosted three of those hundreds of women. And again, the invite was for my strategic partners to have access to the room. So they would be the sponsors and not necessarily we have everyone to have access to it, but bring a lot of value. And the women didn't feel that there were a bunch of people dropping business cards and wanting business for them. So a very curated. This is all in New York. All in New York, somewhat controlled space. So I've done three of those, but as I am hosting first with in collaboration with another woman, then completely 100% by myself parallel, I am invited again that first year that I had no paycheck to be a co-author of a book collaboration called Powerful Female Immigrants Inspiring Greatness. I thought I thought they had the wrong number. This is a publisher I met on Clubhouse who I had met in person many times at different gatherings. I'm on a red eye from California to New York. Hey would would love to have you contribute a chapter for powerful female immigrants.

29:04 I'm like you have the wrong number lol this is me Ghana literally he says no I don't have the wrong number I know it's you. I said do you want me to ruin your first project? I'm not an author. Like I don't know how to write. I don't even know half the grammar. He says don't be silly it's about storytelling. Well, in that case, when do I sign up? So I invested time, money, energy, resources to be in this book collaboration. I mean, it was, it was fun. Last minute thing. I learned how to write a chapter in 20 minutes because being a procrastinator sometimes comes with some good positive things.

29:47 So I learned the future tricks under pressure. And here I am at a book launch in Dallas brought my mother. I honor my mother in that first chapter telling the story how and how I came to America and what that journey was like. And I was one of the 24 and I remember knowing one person there, one lady this this publisher says, oh, we're going to do another book because it's popular by demand. All of you women who participated on book 1 go out there, bring us some women and nominate and you also have the first stride of refusal to be on volume to who raised her hand 1st. I believe it was me. I couldn't see the other hands, of course, but I know it was me because not only did I join on the second volume, but I actually brought all 23 women on the second volume.

30:37 So there's 24 on the 1st. I'm one of them. Second volume 24. So all 24 of us had the opportunity to say yes, and no one could nominate anybody or they could nominate someone else. I said no, no, no, no, I got this. And literally we end up in Dallas Book 2. The publisher starts asking questions on the interview. How did you hear about the book Megana? Who told you about the book Megana? He's like, everybody is. And then and then it's my turn to get interviewed. And he says, how do you get to have all these women, business women, very successful women? You're not even a publisher. You're not even like 10X best selling author. You're not, you don't even have a full book. It's a chapter in a book.

31:20 How do you get to have all these women say yes to you? I said, well, let me correct you, there's no way I'm taking this responsibility. I don't have a single one of these women say yes to me. They said yes to themselves, not to me. I'm a messenger because I spoke to 1000 women throughout all my WhatsApp communities, but only 23 said yes. So am I to be blamed that 900 plus said no to Megana? You don't say no to Megana and you don't say yes to Megana both times. It's on you, 100. Percent gave themselves permission to do it right. 1000% but of course, the phone calls at 2:00 in the morning. How did you get the first one?

32:08 I don't even know where to begin. And as I'm doing laundry, I'm like, well this is how you do it. I'm in Albania and it's 6 hour difference. I'm like, and that's how you do it. Oh, let me tell you. Oh, and this would be perfect title for you. And I'm just so excited because I really was very excited about these books. Literally, I get all these women out being first time authors, being in books with me. We invest in each other's deals. Book 3 comes and then the publisher says let's on your mom. She's going to have a complimentary chapter being the mom of all the authors because she's always with you. And although women love mom and she adopted them all. So I have like 50 sisters at this point. I can't afford birthday gifts. It's just insane.

32:48 So in parallel, I'm doing this and I'm hosting these events and that led me to creating real Women in Real Estate book collaboration, also called Rewire, where we have 27 women in book one, about 27 more, and 30 in book 2. And on the final, the trilogy, I believe another 30, so a combination of like about 70 women in total. And I was inspired by powerful female immigrants. I hired a publisher, but now myself and another lady I partnered with for this book collaboration, we together created this early wire because she's like, how do you do all these books? Powerful female immigrants.

33:30 I'm like, I wish you could participate lol. You're not an immigrant. I said, but we can do something different together. About what? Real estate. That's what we do. Oh, where do we find the women? I'm like, we have the women, we just have to select the ones that actually fit the the profile. So here I am now being this project manager of my own creations, opening many more doors and having access to another 60 plus phenomenal women. Been there, done that. Being an author first helped me guide them through the process a lot easier than like someone who is simply the connector without living it like without being the the consumer of the product.

34:16 So that helped me tremendously. Plus being in management for over a decade plus loving people and sharing opportunities. So that would expanded Arthur my my, my network in in the global and national scale because I LED with value. I created these opportunities for people to actually learn a little bit more about who they are. And then when I would have the real women in real estate events, I would buy the books in bulk and I would handwrite the message and I would have this rewire books. It's a real estate event with women in real estate. And here is a gift, which is Megana, Megana LED and in parallel now I am building my company, building that global credibility, investing in a lot of family offices, events, memberships, collaborations, raising my hand when it came to to learning. In the process, I get to meet at a family office, these founders who wanted to have ATV show that's a business competition TV show.

35:24 So here I am now not knowing what it is that these founders do to me, expressing my love for TV. But I also love the investment world, the capital world, the bringing the founders a lot of value as a strategic partner as an extension of these companies. But of course, I have to kiss my dreams and lock them on these shelf of dreams, as I call it. And here I am in the space and they're like, hey, would you like to interview our business owners and icons on the red carpet in LA? I'm like, are you guys a scam? Like this can't be real. Like, I've been in this country for 19 years at this point. There's no way it happens like this. Like, no, it happens like this.

36:09 Let's meet this evening. I was like, I'm going to Albania this evening. I have a flight to catch. I wasn't even going to show up at this event in the morning. But what made me change my mind? I am a member of a family office club. I pay money and trade time to go to Florida, to Beverly Hills, to wherever they are in Dallas. Every time they have events there in my backyard. And what's my excuse? That I have a midnight flight to New York, to Albania. It's 8:00 AM, so literally I'm facing myself in the mirror. I remember it vividly negotiating with myself going or not to go to the event in my own city where I would have saved $5000 that I usually invest to be across the country with hotels, Ubers, meals and the whole combined. It adds up.

37:10 But no, God forbid it's in your own city, but you have a flight to catch. Literally grab my heels, put them on the bag, put my flip flops, take the subway and I show up and I said usually I close this networking events, but I have to go back home and go to the airport. A month later, not even I am in LA interviewing on the red carpet. I was like, pinch me. Like I've always wanted to do that. And then I end up being an associate producer for this business competition TV show, which eventually became a private equity fund where I am one of the general partners because I brought so much value bringing a lot of people to the table from the business side as well as the investor side.

37:53 A lot of contributions for I would say almost three years. And finally we had a film season one last November, which makes me very happy. Can you share the name of that or is it private? Yeah, it's called America's Real Deal. The reason why I'm from. Utah and there from Utah. To one that I'm invested in, but it's not that one. Is OK, so this is America's real deal. So yes, Arthur, I am now realizing that time it's not refundable. It's the most precious. People read it in the books. Your parents tell you, your grandparents tell you, but you have to leave it in order for you to really.

38:38 You really appreciate listen, and when you're younger, you don't realize how valuable it is and take it from me, when you're a little bit older, right? And I've got kids, grandkids, and I'm looking at, you know, the end is near, right? It's not so far away. You know, I'll be healthy and ambulatory and all that kind of stuff to enjoy it. But when I really chuckle, not chuckle, get annoyed when you get a LinkedIn request and say, hey, let's have a phone call that'll only take 15 minutes and I'm going, you just asked for a valuable thing that I could possibly do, right?

39:26 Fact. Think twice, think twice. And I learned the hard way. I was the person who would book Zoom calls with prospect investors and it's a record-breaking with one group. We were on Zoom for seven hours and unheard of, unheard of. And imagine all the cancellations I had to do. And grateful for all the lessons. Let me just say, just so I'm don't sound like I'm criticizing you there, I spent a lot of time going to cocktail parties in New York City that I would never go to. Now, it's not because they were beneath me or anything like that.

40:16 I don't make it, but it's it. But the I didn't know which ones were going to pay off. So I just, you don't, yeah, so you don't. So in, in that respect, when you're building your Rolodex, when you're building your connectivity, when you're building all that, that is time well spent. But at some point you have to be more discerning, right? And say, OK, what's how's this going to end up right? Very true. So yeah. So in a nutshell, since I left the corporate world, then became an entrepreneur, I continued to build my strategic partnership business, being a liaison for family offices, venture capital, private equity, the Angel investors, founders from different stages.

41:09 And the rules are very simple. I have to have direct access to the decision makers on all fronts. I am the bridge. I am not representing one group or the other. I am literally bridging the gap of access and proximity to the companies that are always in need of what's being created out there. Because and, and author you, you know this better than I do and you can correct me if I'm wrong. But when people ask me if there is capital, my my answer is always no because I know that I don't raise capital. But what I do on a daily basis, I bring value, I contribute opportunities and I let people know that because I am in the human lab on a daily basis, virtual or physical, connecting, vetting, filtering, observing, being consistent, nurturing. Now how is it that I'm raising capital when in fact I'm saying I would love for you to meet this company there built this. How is it that I'm raising capital when in fact I'm going to the family office that I represent? It could be one single family or multi family or a lot of them parallel and saying, look, because I'm constantly in this human lab, I got to meet this one technology or this one opportunity.

42:35 And I'd love for you to know that they exist because if it makes sense for you now, you get to continue to build the legacy or, or meet the criterias or close the year the way you want to close the year. But unless I brought it to your attention, chances are you would or would not have known about it. But even if you know about it, guess what? Now more people are telling you about it. And maybe it helps you make a decision. And it doesn't matter what that decision comes from. But what matters is how is it that it sounds very transactional when in fact I'm out there like this working bee and you don't even know. And I'm building this parallel world of opportunities and, and I'm just merging everybody. And that's why I fight everybody. I never raise capital.

43:21 I never ask. I'm always providing value. And that's how I lead my businesses. And of course, there has to be alignment and I have to know that, as I said, the founders and decision makers, because when I connect them to the family offices who are also decision makers, they need to know that this is their baby, that they're the creators. And it's not ten people in the middle. Because again, time is non refundable. And my, my job, my responsibility is to make sure that I give back 90% of the time to all my friends. And they feel like they only invested 10%, which feels amazing because I'm doing the investing of my time to bring it to their table.

44:06 And it works beautifully for me because I love meeting new people and I love vetting and I love testing because I also know I'm being tested myself. And in parallel, because I've done 6 books and I like to have that creative side always activated because when you work remote and when you travel, sometimes you feel like you're doing too much work and not a lot of creativity or fun. I said, you know what? Because time is also something that is so precious, the most precious of all. I want to control even when a book comes out, who it comes out with the rules, the regulations, the the time frame. How about I open a publishing company? Because if I've done 99% of the work, mine as well, if my women or my my guy friends, my entrepreneur colleagues want to have a book Q2 or Q3, I'm going to make it happen. I will work 24/7 because I learned what to do and what not to do.

45:03 So that's what led me to also opening a publishing company which only focuses on book collaborations. Like it's not like a one off 11 author that will be New Yorktown bestseller. I'm not that business yet, but I love hanging out with a lot of contributors in one book because again, it's not about the book. It's not about selling books. It's about connecting in the process and learning and filtering who the people are. How are they showing up for the call when we are talking about the chapter? You learn a lot about people access, proximity, and you are in this book forever. And as I tell everybody before you enter this book world with us, remember, divorce is not an option. Once you're in, you're in for life. You can never get yourself out.

45:52 You cannot call and say, hey, can you remove my chapter? No, sorry, you can't. So you can't divorce these people. Is that an ongoing effort? Yes. And it's very new in comparison to my other business, but it's something that has gained a lot of traction because people see my books and they see how I interview the women on, on this physical office like TV setting and we have our dinners. We truly bond. And the main reason, Arthur, why I did that is because I'm in this networking space all the time. And people always ask me, how is it that you not only that you connect because we're all there, we are all connectors, but how do you stay connected? What do you do?

46:39 What's the answer? Well, the answer is there's. It's a lot of work. Yeah, exactly. It's a lot of work. And then I and again and I walked him through the steps before and I'm actually coming up with a book which is going to launch very soon called The Art of Networking that I'm publishing under my home publishing company, which is going to be very cool. And I think people would love it, but it's not ready yet, but I'm working on it. The thing is, I love the word guarantee author. When you go to a networking event, there's a lot of things that take place and I'm not going to get into it right now, but you may be lucky to get away with three solid contacts that you actually stay in touch with long term and that's a win. You have 50 business cards.

47:23 I have this book. I'll show you one other times like this big with business card, it's I probably have thousands and I go through them from time to time. But I said you are investing, hypothetically speaking, $2500 for a 2 day summit or an evening summit or mastermind. Not everything is in your city. So now you're going, you're taking a plane. Travel Hotels. Meals. Uber. So you're 5K, you're 5K in to go to the networking event, hopefully to shake a few hands. Hopefully you feel good and you look forward to the next day. Or maybe you cut your trip short and you go back home and then Monday comes and you are so disappointed at the results because you didn't fully connect, you didn't truly connect and you didn't stay connected to more than. Three people.

48:13 And now guess what, you, you just, you just wasted all that time and money. And I, I challenge, I challenge people. And I said, look, if you have decided that for a full year you are attending 12 networking events, attend 11, take that 2500 just for the ticket price and invest in a book chapter. And I say that because I was that person because what that did is it forces you because you have no choice. You have to meet in a group zone to talk next steps. You will have many opportunities to meet these people. And guess what?

48:56 You are connected in a book forever. And I keep pointing because my books are there. You are connected to these people forever and ever and ever. So that exact same amount of money minus the trip, you gain back a lot of time. You do this on the comfort of your own zone. Now you are networking in a book. And I guarantee you that yes, you are not going to meet the 300 people or the 500 people in the book, but guess what? 100% return on investment. Because every single person that's contributing in the book, if they're hanging out with you and guess what? Everywhere they travel in the world and they carry that book with themselves, they have no choice but to highlight you because they can't tell the person. Skip chapter 5.

49:40 Don't get to know me, Ghana, you can't. So you create this 21 or 27 X ambassadors. So it's a no brainer. And I said, you know what, give it a shot. Not because you will sell 2000 books or because your story is better than everybody else. I promise you it's not. Mine isn't. There's incredible stories out there. The difference is in the art of networking. If you want to not Only Connect but stay connected, book collaborations are one of the most efficient, best ways practical. You can always go back and reference and and learn something more about the person. Great calling card too. It's a great calling card, global credibility, business card icebreaker when you speak on stages. So, yeah, so nowadays that's.

50:26 The thing that you've done, when you go to these events, you've got yourself to be in a position where you're hosting some sort of panel or so you're in front of the audience and they're going to go, what's up with her, right? That's right. And thank you for saying that. How are we with time? It says 50 minutes here. Are we good? No, we got to go, but that's OK. Yeah, Yeah. Well, thanks for the teaser because again in April we get to speak about how I network from the front of the stage. Do they invite me? Do I ask is it a combination? How do you get there? But one thing is for sure that nothing beats networking from the front of the room because we need just one more person to highlight you and support you and just carry you just a little bit higher and then you can shine.

51:18 And even if you're networking from the back of the room, one more advice in this one minute seat as in front of the stage as possible. I know people sit in the back because they want to control the audience. I'm front and center and each and every time there's panels, I'm sitting there, I'm taking notes, I'm learning about these people. I am sending them messages on LinkedIn and I'm repeating exactly what it is that they said. And I promise you, and you can verify this for yourself. Those are some of the best friends I have today and some of the people I do the most business with. And it all started because I LED with value and I actually respected their time by being in the stage and of course respected my time and my money.

52:02 So don't just show up at events, truly show up. Check to the left, check to the right. Go a little backwards and take a few notes, go to work and and that's, that's how you, you succeed. Not because of a few books that you will read or or because you're going to tag along author. There's so far that author can can take you. You also have to do your part and and that's what author. Gets a. Lot better. So yeah. So that's that's what I'm doing nowadays. So isn't it true that no matter how smart the audience is and how accomplished the audience is, everybody tends to think that if you're hosting a panel or on the panel, that you're at least worth listening to a.

52:56 100%. And you could have the the entire audience be smarter than you. But you're up there right it. Doesn't matter. It doesn't. Matter. It matters. It matters. It matters that whoever is putting these events together have placed 100% trust in you, have trusted with their audience, with their investment, with their credibility, and you have no choice but to perform. But at the same time, it sends the message to the audience that yes, I am qualified to be in this stage. I am qualified enough to ask a few questions and keep a panel engaged for half an hour, for an hour a few times a week. It doesn't make me smarter than the rest of the people. I am probably the least experienced person in most events that I attend because I always like to position myself in rooms where it's so unknown to me. Because that's where I want to be. I want to learn more so I can be a stronger source. But at the end of the day, my hard work, work ethics and also the courage cause a lot of those people who sit in the audience who are extremely successful, one, maybe they don't wanna do what I do.

54:12 I recognize something in me that is I liked to be on a stage because I love to engage and I love to ask questions and I want people to to feel good about themselves and smile. And not everybody wants to do that. It's not that they cannot do that, and maybe not, but people, people don't want to. And guess what? I've identified it in me that I want to. Now, whose responsibility is to bring me on that stage if I'm the person that's identifying that about me, not Arthur. Arthur is not going to call me and say, hey, can we Co host this next panel together? Because I saw you on LinkedIn and you're friends with Paul. No one.

54:53 I would never say yes to that because you haven't even done the homework on me, which means you don't have respect for your audience. Like it doesn't work like that. It works with someone, gives me the first shot, trusts me from the get go because they know me a little bit longer and then the rest follows. But it starts with me. I cannot blame you, Arthur, for anything. I told Brian the other day, we were in the family office. I was in the podcast in person and I said, look, you are responsible 100% of the time for the place you have in a person's life. It's not their decision, it's your decision. You decide how involved you want to be in Arthur's life, in Paul's life, Carol's life, by your actions, by how intentional you are, how respectful you are, and how much you understand the person in front of you.

55:45 Because I don't want to hear one more person saying, well, I'm not friends with these people. Because Because what? Because you don't want to. Yeah. It's not because you don't want to. People go hard. Plus, people tend to not want to fail, and that keeps them from engaging because the fear of failure is more powerful than the fear of success. It's really interesting. All right, well, so everybody, I'm. Grateful. Yeah, we we're going to get into in the next episode with McKenna about the magic. Well, we're going to get to the magic of networking. Right. It is so much fun. I I can talk all day about it.

56:26 The art of networking. The book is going to come out. It's terrifying you guys because it's with my own publishing company. I mean, it's nerve wracking. Like, I'm just going to stamp my name in this book that I'm going to write about networking. And I'm from Albania and I could barely speak English even nowadays. But I will do it because I believe in it, because it's what I live every day. And I believe one person will find some value. But Arthur, I am so grateful for us hanging out today. Yeah, looking forward to putting it again and thank you for doing this. Yes, I'm looking forward to hugging you in person very soon. Whenever that is, Yes. Oh, and if you need a panelist?

57:09 Yeah, yeah. You see how you do it guys? You just ask. Now you ask here. The answer is yes. See, I got a yes, Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Bye. Bye.