Ep287: Frank Agin – Get to Know Your Customers and Your Vendors

Andrew Stotz 00:03
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. This episode is sponsored by a Stotz Academy which offers online courses that help investors, aspiring professionals, business leaders, and even beginners improve the finances of their lives and of their businesses. Go to my worst investment ever.com right now to claim your discount on the course that suits you the most fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, and I'm here with featured guest, Frank Hagen, Frank, are you ready to rock,

Frank Agin 00:46
I am ready to rock.

Andrew Stotz 00:48
So Frank works to empower small businesses to achieve more by helping them create dynamic professional relationships. He does this by operating a membership based referral program called am spirit business connection and shares insightful content via his networking, our podcasts, articles, and books. You can learn more about Frank at Frank egan.com. So Frank, take a minute and filming for the tidbits about your life.

Frank Agin 01:18
I live in Columbus, Ohio, for people who are on the other side of the world. It is pretty much stuff in the central part of the United States a I have a law degree, I have an MBA and was an attorney for a while but then decided I was wanting to be more of an entrepreneur and ended up in the business that I'm in now. So it's life is good.

Andrew Stotz 01:44
And tell us more about I mean, like, when you think about networking, I mean, everybody talks about Oh, it's important your network is your net worth, but you've actually built a business around the helping people network. Tell us a little bit about that, that business and why networking is so important from your perspective. Well,

Frank Agin 02:02
I you know, I really stumbled into this, Andrew, I wasn't, I was a, I was a tax, consult a tax attorney with a international firm and decided I want to do taxes for the rest of my life. And then I left and went into private practice. I tell people, a funny thing happened to me, when I went into private practice. And the funny thing was that nothing happened. I had no idea how to get clients. And I think that's something that every entrepreneur on the planet probably goes through to a degree. Okay, I have a passion for what I do. How do I get clients? How do I sell it. And so it's, it's especially concerning for an attorney, at least in the United States, because we're not allowed to advertise, especially a business attorney. I mean, you just don't do it. And so I struggled. And from that, I stumbled upon an organization that brought together entrepreneur sales reps, professionals into a weekly meeting was membership based, people learned about each other, and they exchange referrals. And immediately it made total sense, right? Because I can brag about you all day and feel good about it. If you self promote, if you self promote for five minutes, you're exhausted. And so I just felt this is great I could, I can lift up my world by helping these people and trust that they'll return the favor. And so that's when I really kind of learned about networking, or stumbled on networking. Because Andrew up until that point, I just figured, you know what, accumulate accumulate credentials, undergrad, law school MBA, got a CPA,

Andrew Stotz 03:39
and he's all just come.

Frank Agin 03:41
Right, right. And it really comes down to relationships, and I joke about it, but I should have spent less time in the library and more time in the bar. But you don't know that when you're at that stage. And so that's how I stumbled upon it. And so we work with small business people around the country, they get into this program, and they, you know, we, we connect them with other people and they network. And through, it's really the relationships, there's nothing special there. We get people to develop relationships. And once there's that relationship in place, people really work hard to help one another. So then it's just a question of educating one another on Hey, if you see this, think about me, maybe say this, get me in the door. So it's really pretty simple. You know, I

Andrew Stotz 04:33
it's so fascinating talking about this topic, because for all my life, you know, I always felt like it's not polite, to ask someone else for help. To ask someone else for business or you know, like, it just, it's such a, you know, it's a hard thing. And, you know, and then I went to, you know, and I have my own businesses and I realized now you know, I I learned it over time, that it's not only about your performance, I tell young people that, you know, maybe 50%, you know, great performance, do your best or, you know, perform. But you know, the other 50% is building relationships. And I went into a, someone invited me to a networking event here in Bangkok. And I went to it, and you could see, you know, what was built into it was exactly this, of introducing, you know, getting to know each other, and then thinking, how could we do business together? or How could I help you get business? Now, in my case, I couldn't, I couldn't really connect my services with what most of the people were doing. So then I kind of left it, but I knew in my heart that I liked what they were doing. And I just, you know, Wonder for the person like me as an example. Do you have any thoughts or any suggestions on that?

Frank Agin 05:53
Yeah, you know, the one thing I always tell people is that every contact has opportunity. People say, Well, I'm going out to a networking event, who should I connect with? And I said, it doesn't matter. Because everybody's connected. And you never know who that person might connect, who might be connected they might be connected to. And it's, you know, it's I don't it's not a crapshoot. I mean, it's not it's not it's not a gamble or, you know, an investment use the term of your show. But it's just kind of it's, well, here's, here's a, here's a metaphor, golfing, like when you walk up to tee off from a 415 yard par four dogleg, right, a lot of people golf, they get the game, you're not standing on the tee saying, geez, I hope I drop it in the cup from that far away, the best golfers in the world don't do that. What they do is they say, you know what, I want to hit it far enough, it's straight enough that I can see the green on my next shot, and then get on the green. And then to put all the best golfers anywhere in the world. That's what they're trying to do. They might get it in three, you know, me, it might take 12. But nevertheless, that's a whole nother conversation. And what that has to do with networking is this is when you meet somebody, it's the shot off the tee. They're, they're not setting you up for a six inch pot. And that's how I when I meet people, that's how I look at it, I tell them what I'm about. I'm not pitching you. But this is what I'm looking for. If there's somebody else you could connect me to, that would be wonderful. And so they connect me to somebody else and connect me to somebody else. And then ultimately, what ends up happening is someone will connect you or me to the person that is the equivalent of that six inch putt. Meaning you just have to you have to show up, you have to be a decent person, because they're the person who needs what you have. There's very little selling at that point. Because they need whatever they need legal services need accounting services or investment advice. You don't have to convince them of it.

Andrew Stotz 07:56
I like it. I like the idea of you know, I guess a lot of times we think that we're we're swinging for the for the green or for the hole and reality is that there's a lot of steps up to that. So great, great advice. Great points. All right, well, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one ever goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it then tell us your story. Well, I

Frank Agin 08:20
started my career in a public accounting firm, was a big six accounting firm in the United States, Coopers and Lybrand, now PricewaterhouseCoopers, and I was a tax consultant, very prestigious job, good pay good everything and was getting ready to leave. And there were people that I had met at the firm, certainly people within the firm, but there were people associated with the firm. And there was one guy who was a financial advisor. And he was on the board of some of the clients that I dealt with. And, you know, I got to know him. And I figured, okay, I've got these 401k monies. And then at the time, they had a pension. And so I walked out of there with some pension monies. It wasn't enough to retire on because I've continued to work, obviously. But it was a decent amount of money. And it was really all I had. And so I went to him and said, Hey, just thinking, if he's associated with the firm, then it's got to be good for me, right. And so, I didn't really know what to expect, because it was kind of my first, it was my first investment investing relationship. And just didn't know, I figured, okay, he's big time, and I just need to kind of go with the flow. And he would call me up every six months and just say, hey, I want to let you know what happened in the last six months. And he go through, you know, this worked out this didn't work quite as well, you know, he just kind of it was a historical rendition of what the weather was yesterday, right? Not Hey, what we think is going to happen. And this we went round and round with things and there were a couple there were a couple investments that didn't work out. I remember we had some at&t stock. It's split And there was it was a another company that went really way up. This is in the early before the tech burst in the early 2000s or 99. I remember calling him and saying, Hey, we should probably sell this, you know, there's a we had a lot in this position, let's diversify. Oh, no, no, no, let's just hold hold, he didn't really have any time for me. And so I'm just figuring this the way it is. And so I just kind of went with it. But coincidentally, I had a I ended up with a small position with a smaller investment firm, Edward Jones, I don't believe there anywhere, but in the United States. Yeah, really kind of a kind of a grassroots neighborhood type investor. And it was just a little bit of money. And, but he was, right away, he took an interest in us, he said, I really want to sit down. And if I'm going to help you with this little bit of money, I would really like to understand all the money you have and what your hopes and dreams are. I was married by that point. I was married, my wife had investments, and she had 401k monies. And we're kind of going through this whole thing. And he said, Okay, great. And we would talk every once in a while. And he would, you know, say, Hey, you know, why don't we do this? Why don't we do that with the monies that he had? Well, one day, it was near the end of the year, and he called me up and he said, Frank, I want to give you some advice, you ought to take this position, and I can't remember all the details. But you had to do this, you have to do this show to do this. And that'll save you, you know, all these tax dollars. It was. And I was just totally dumbfounded. And you're just sitting there. I'm like, I don't even have that money invested with you. And you're giving me this advice. He said, Yeah, I'm just trying to look out for you. Why I appreciate that. You know, I'm like, Where's my investment guy? He says, I don't know. I don't you know, and he wasn't pushy or anything, I don't know. But you'd really need to take advantage of this. It'll save you money. And the money we're saving was like, more than we had invested with this guy. So at home, I told my wife, you know, called the broker and this is what we're doing. Of course, when I called the broker, he was like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's a good idea. You know, I was probably gonna call you on that anyways, which he wasn't right. Of course, and, and you wonder all the other things that you probably missed over the years. And so my wife and I are sitting there looking at each other. It's like, why are we, with this guy? The big firm guy, why are we with the big firm guy? I don't know. I don't know. And so we pretty quickly decided, right after year end, we're going to make the switch. And to this day, we are still the guy we went with Eric, we're still with Eric. And I always joke I tell people, there are two things that will ruin my marriage, another woman and another financial advisor. Because, you know, my, my wife just thinks he's the greatest. And you know, so it's, you know, the worst investment was a relationship, or lack of a relationship is the better way to characterize it.

Andrew Stotz 13:15
So how would you describe the lessons that you learn from this? Well, the last time it was asked you when you sign up with that first guy, how old were you at the time?

Frank Agin 13:27
2830 years old,

Andrew Stotz 13:29
okay, so you're young guy starting to make money, and you're thinking this is the way to do it.

Frank Agin 13:34
And he was about my age, he wasn't like he was this 50 year old guy. Um, of course, he was put out then when we were moving our money's like, like, don't understand it. I've done all these great things for you. And it's like, I, I don't understand what the great things are. You know, but whatever. But you know, what was?

13:52
Yeah, the lesson, I

Frank Agin 13:53
think the lesson is simply this, it, you got to have a relationship, you need to have a relationship with your clients, and you need to have a relationship with your vendors, too. And I try to have a great relationship with all the people I do business with. I switched doctors, because I didn't have enough of a relationship with my doctor. And I realized people like, Oh, geez, how do you get a relationship with your doctor? Listen, I met the guy out at, you know, kids soccer game or whatever. I'm like, You know what? I want him to be my doctor. Because when I go in, and whenever they're fiddling with you, I want to feel comfortably comfortable being able to ask a question, I want a doctor to come in and spend 10 extra minutes with me just seeing how I'm doing really care about me. I just think you get better service that way. You end up paying more. Now maybe not for the doctor because it's covered by health insurance. But you know, you know the saying is we do business with those we know like and trust and all things being equal. We do business with those we know like and trust. I say All things being unequal. We do business with those we know like and trust. Because I'm sure I could get less expensive financial advice. I know it, right. I know, I could get less expensive car insurance or home insurance, I know it. Why do I stay where I'm staying because of that relationship. And I know when there's a situation, I can make the call, and it's going to be worth that little bit of extra money.

Andrew Stotz 15:23
It's a great, great lesson. And I think, let me summarize what I took away. I mean, the first thing I want to come back to is what you said, You know, I know I could pay less. But I would challenge you to say, actually, you know, the total cost of decisions is what we need to think about. And this is one of my favorite, favorite men in the world is Dr. W. Edwards Deming. And I got a chance to study with him when I was 24. And He always talks about, you know, going with the lowest cost supplier is probably the most expensive thing you can do. So I challenge, you know, all the listeners out there where you think you're cutting corners, and you're getting something cheap, chances are, you're probably getting something super expensive. In fact, you know, you may never find something so cheap, being so expensive. So that's the first lesson. And that is think of the whole picture. A great example in one of my businesses in my coffee business, is that if if we charge the the, let's say the accounting department says we want to reduce costs, and they go out and find lower quality and lower price, coffee beans, it even if the quality was the same. So you know that it wasn't like it was a bad quality. But the inconsistency that we bring into the business is one of the lessons that I've learned over the years is it staying with a single supplier as best you can, and staying with something that works, brings all the way down through the whole production and delivery chain, because if something goes wrong, all the way to the customer, you've damaged the customer relationship, you got to go back and fix it. And so cheap, is usually expensive. The second thing I just tell you a quick story. When I bought my first vehicle in Thailand, I bought a Toyota car truck at the time many years ago. And the guy His name is su t that was my salesman. And I mean, that guy was amazing. And even, you know me, he did everything. And then after, you know, a few months of having the truck, he called me and said it's time for your you know, regular maintenance. And he said, if you'd like I'll come pick it up and bring it to the shop, do it. And then I'll have it back at your office. You know, by the end of the day, I was like, please. And he just always did that. And so when it came time to get my next car, I immediately called him. And then I told my best friend You know, you know, Dale, you if you're gonna buy a car, get it from su T. And then he buys from him. And then when my mom came to Thailand, and I said, we want to buy a car that suitable that my mom can get in and out of easily. Su T the salesman brought a Toyota they thought was interesting he brought to the house so my mom could get into it, you know, out of her wheelchair and into it and see if it could work. And you know, that kind of stuff is means I never buy a car from anybody else.

Frank Agin 18:18
Yeah, no, it's powerful.

Andrew Stotz 18:19
Yeah. So it's such a great lesson. All right. So let's go back in time and think about this, based upon what you learned from this story and what you continue to learn. What one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

18:36
Well,

Frank Agin 18:36
I think I think a simple thing that people need to do is they need to get to know whoever is in their world. You know, and when I say, you know, small talk is so powerful. Just to have a conversation with somebody and thinking back, I don't really know anything about the guy who is my first investor. You know, he was just as investor, he wear nice suits. I don't know if he was married, I didn't know anything about him. And I don't think he really knew anything about me. Otherwise, I got married. I mean, he had to know that, but I don't think he ever had an interest. So that should have been the first tip off. But you know what I try to do when I connect with people? Well, you and I talked before we hit record, you know, you have this little bit of chitchat, where are you from? What do we have in common? And that just warms thing up, warms things up. And it's To be honest, it's very biological, that people have a more connected relationship. When you have these little chit chat, so engage in that. Engaging that whenever you have the opportunity when you're, you know, when you're vetting vendors or you're looking to hire somebody or even it being interviewed, you know, they're gonna come in and, okay, they're gonna have all these questions for me. How about this? Start out by just finding out about them. Instead of picture your son on the mantel, you play baseball. You know what The Curious George doll, you know, people that resonates with people.

Andrew Stotz 20:07
That's great. And it reminds me when I went to China, and I was going back and forth working on my PhD, and I didn't know much about Chinese culture, I knew more about Thai culture. But one of the lessons that I learned there was that every time that you got to know someone, they said, Let's go out for dinner. And what I learned is that you never going to seal a business deal without having dinner together. It's an important step. And that's a to have a relaxed environment, see how things go? And so there's a good lesson in on all of this. Yeah, so So last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Frank Agin 20:44
You know, my number one goal for the next 12 months? That's, that's a great question number one goal. You know, it, it really is to meet people. You know, we're, I'm not sure when this is coming up. But recording this, we're in the midst of COVID. United States, for sure. Probably worldwide. And it's really, it's been an inconvenience, but it's been a blessing as well, because it's allowed me to meet people that I probably wouldn't have other otherwise met. You know, I don't know that we would have met maybe. And, you know, so I want to continue to meet people, and I want to continue to allow those help those people meet other people, I have this saying, everybody I know, can benefit by somebody else I know. So I, I always have just a whole reservoir of people that, you know, I can connect to one another and do things for, and I just want to continue to continue to do that. And I just know, and trust that if I do that enough that the things I need to grow my business will happen.

Andrew Stotz 22:02
So this is just you know, it's so simple, but it's so profound. And for all the listeners out there, you know, what can you give? Who can you help? Who can you help connect, you never know how that comes back to you. So listeners, there you have it another story of laws to keep you winning. Remember to go to my worst investment ever.com to claim your discount on the course that excites you the most. Now as we conclude, Frank, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a stocks Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Frank Agin 22:52
Thanks for tuning in. And I guess my parting advice to you is find something you're passionate about and volunteer. It's a wonderful thing that will make you feel good and connect you to people that you didn't even know existed.

Andrew Stotz 23:08
Beautiful advice, and I did that with CFA, Chartered Financial Analysts got involved in the society here in Thailand and over time, continued to volunteer was voted as Vice President and then was a two term president. And the people that I met the connections that I made, the quality of the relationships that I created. were fantastic. And they last so great advice from Frank and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and most importantly, protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying I'll see you on the upside.