Donnie Boivin didn’t launch his company until he was 40. Six months later, he nearly lost everything. His wife’s car was repossessed. Their farm almost went under. But Donnie didn’t quit. Instead, he built Success Champion Networking into a global business by rejecting transactional networking and teaching entrepreneurs how to build referral ecosystems.

In this candid conversation, Donnie explains why most B2B networking is broken—and how to fix it by focusing on who your customers buy from, not your customers themselves. He also shares his journey from Marine to sales trainer to CEO, and why he’s more interested in building something new than clinging to old identities.

Donnie’s leadership philosophy is grounded in resilience, authenticity, and radical candor. If you're tired of LinkedIn perfection and looking for real talk on building a business from the ground up, this is the episode for you.

Want to learn more about Donnie Boivin's work? Check out their website at https://www.Successchampionnetworking.com.

Connect with Donnie Boivin on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/donnieboivin.

Key Points with Time Stamps

• 00:01:04 — Donnie launches Success Champion Networking after age 40, losing almost everything in the process

• 00:06:00 — How baby goats in a cage became part of his brand and business life

• 00:09:04 — The fabricated non-compete that nearly killed his business before it began

• 00:10:59 — How Donnie turned rock bottom into a global B2B networking enterprise

• 00:11:25 — The myth of overnight success and the truth behind entrepreneurship

• 00:14:19 — Top 3 challenges Donnie sees in small business owners today

• 00:16:26 — Why most networking groups don’t work for B2B professionals

• 00:19:00 — The difference between a referral and an introduction—and why it matters

• 00:21:15 — How finding aligned referral partners can unlock enterprise-level clients

• 00:25:35 — Donnie’s take on fake referrals and forced introductions in traditional groups

• 00:26:55 — Who shouldn’t join Success Champion Networking

• 00:28:43 — Clear definition of what it actually means to be B2B

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;04;05
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Donnie Boivin. One of my favorite things about Donnie is he's a marine, Semper fi, Donnie and the. He's also the CEO of Success Champion networking.

00;01;04;05 - 00;01;19;06
Craig Andrews
He didn't start his company until he was 40, after losing almost everything. And so now Dion travels country teaching people how to build the life they want by building the right relationships.

00;01;19;08 - 00;01;37;18
Craig Andrews
And something just kind of stood out to me. It's just different and interesting. Is he he also has a farm where he races dwarf Nigerian goats, also raises ducks, chickens and a whole crew of barnyard animals. Donnie. Welcome.

00;01;37;20 - 00;01;39;04
Donnie Boivin
Craig. My honor, brother man.

00;01;39;04 - 00;01;52;05
Donnie Boivin
You know, it's so much funny for me that the farm life comes up so much. I never in a million years thought about putting out farm stuff. My goats and everything else would be a solid brand move, but it's worked really well. More,

00;01;52;05 - 00;01;53;22
Donnie Boivin
well than I thought it was actually going to be.

00;01;53;22 - 00;01;55;19
Donnie Boivin
But I'm excited to be here, bud.

00;01;55;21 - 00;02;05;21
Craig Andrews
Because what? What got you into that? Now you list that you're in the Dallas, you know, metroplex, which is generally not favorable to barnyard animals. Are you like,

00;02;06;07 - 00;02;09;22
Donnie Boivin
So one thing people forget about Texas is there's land.

00;02;09;22 - 00;02;16;05
Donnie Boivin
We have we're not Montana land by any means, but we have land. And so, so,

00;02;16;05 - 00;02;18;21
Donnie Boivin
you know, I'm really outside the Fort Worth, you know,

00;02;18;21 - 00;02;24;16
Donnie Boivin
side of things and even, you know, 45 minutes outside of that. So we're out on land and country,

00;02;24;16 - 00;02;26;10
Craig Andrews
Like your glimmers.

00;02;26;12 - 00;02;28;09
Donnie Boivin
Not that far out. Not that far out.

00;02;28;09 - 00;02;34;02
Donnie Boivin
So in between, you know, there in Fort Worth, you'll find us. So,

00;02;34;02 - 00;02;34;21
Donnie Boivin
But, yeah,

00;02;34;21 - 00;02;44;02
Donnie Boivin
we knew that I had a big dream and a big vision, and I wanted to be a big brand. And so one of the things I've always wanted to be is the most famous person in the town.

00;02;44;02 - 00;02;58;20
Donnie Boivin
Nobody knows. So we got out far in the country so we could have our kind of retreat, sanctuary, you know, our places to hang out. As I continue to build, you know, followers and brand and the like,

00;02;58;20 - 00;03;02;06
Donnie Boivin
alongside the company. So that was our reason to get out here.

00;03;02;09 - 00;03;22;20
Craig Andrews
Wow. Yeah. I drive through that region every now and then. My brother in law lives in Glen Rose. My sister or my wife grew up in Arlington. And so we, you know, we cut through there, Cleburne and all that. Arlington. But it's it's gorgeous. It's it's like a little taste of the Hill country, you know, because it just starts getting a little bit flatter.

00;03;22;20 - 00;03;27;11
Donnie Boivin
But, yes, you know, Hill Country is gorgeous. That's one of my favorite areas in Texas.

00;03;27;13 - 00;03;40;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah. But, you know, just going west of where you are, you know, you just start getting into the hills. There's this one drive, you know, one place on 67. Yep. And you just kind of crest the hill and you got this massive view.

00;03;41;00 - 00;03;44;08
Donnie Boivin
Yeah. It's gorgeous. You can see where they cut through the freeways and everything.

00;03;44;08 - 00;04;01;18
Donnie Boivin
And you start seeing the windmills and everything out there. It's it's it's gorgeous country. That's what they say. You know, DFW is going to be the largest metropolitan area in, you know, America for too long because New York's landlocked LA is landlocked Texas. We only have land.

00;04;01;20 - 00;04;12;21
Donnie Boivin
So if you think between Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, there's massive gaps in between us. So as that triangle continues to build out, eventually it's all going to touch,

00;04;12;21 - 00;04;16;01
Donnie Boivin
and when that happens, we'll take over New York and LA,

00;04;16;01 - 00;04;20;23
Donnie Boivin
and all that because we have the infrastructure. It's why everybody's coming here. We wish they'd go away.

00;04;20;23 - 00;04;23;14
Donnie Boivin
But that's why I was coming here.

00;04;23;17 - 00;04;30;04
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So, so we can get you into the farming or, you know, the, you know, the maybe not farming, but,

00;04;30;04 - 00;04;32;00
Craig Andrews
having the animals.

00;04;32;02 - 00;04;34;26
Donnie Boivin
Well, I grew up on a farm in Kansas.

00;04;34;26 - 00;04;38;06
Donnie Boivin
You know, we grew up in a very, very poor household.

00;04;38;06 - 00;04;41;12
Donnie Boivin
And we rented a house on a 500 acre farm.

00;04;41;12 - 00;04;48;20
Donnie Boivin
And so we helped take care of the land, the farm and the animals and everything. But we were so damn poor. My family wanted to get away from that.

00;04;48;20 - 00;04;55;11
Donnie Boivin
So we ended up moving to Texas to get closer to other family. And we did the suburb life for,

00;04;55;11 - 00;05;03;03
Donnie Boivin
you know, a number of years from like, age 11 to, 18 or so. You know, I went to school here, graduated here in Texas,

00;05;03;03 - 00;05;06;24
Donnie Boivin
before I went off to the Marine Corps and so I did this whole suburban life.

00;05;06;28 - 00;05;09;20
Donnie Boivin
And it was interesting when I met my wife,

00;05;09;20 - 00;05;13;10
Donnie Boivin
we met while I was bartending and stuff. She was a hostess.

00;05;13;10 - 00;05;26;24
Donnie Boivin
But after we got married, she got a job working for a vet clinic, and I didn't realize how much I missed being around the animals and stuff. As such, when I was a kid. As a kid, you do for age, you do, you know, all the farm stuff.

00;05;26;26 - 00;05;33;25
Donnie Boivin
So we decided we're going to get a farm. And the animals really kind of became a happenstance. We went to a dam,

00;05;33;25 - 00;05;34;07
Donnie Boivin
called,

00;05;34;07 - 00;05;44;13
Donnie Boivin
First Monday out in canton, Texas, and we were walking through the animal area and lo and behold, there's two baby goats sitting in a dam cage. And I'm like, those are going home with us.

00;05;44;13 - 00;06;00;20
Donnie Boivin
We didn't have a barn. We didn't have a pen, we didn't have anything. So we literally had these baby goats and a dog crate carry them back home. And, you know, my brother had his farm going. So they watched the baby goat for the first couple of days as we spent a weekend building a barn, putting a fence up.

00;06;00;23 - 00;06;04;05
Donnie Boivin
And that's how we got everything started. We still have one of the original goats.

00;06;04;05 - 00;06;05;08
Donnie Boivin
But otherwise,

00;06;05;08 - 00;06;10;27
Donnie Boivin
it's grown from there. Farm animals are like Pringles. You can't just have one. Yeah.

00;06;10;29 - 00;06;26;05
Craig Andrews
You know, when I was stationed in the Philippines, one of the things they told us about the goats, they said that they're great. They're effectively guard dogs. Not that they're going to bite em by his leg off, but if anybody comes into the perimeter, they just start sounding off like mad. So they're like an alarm system.

00;06;26;07 - 00;06;38;16
Donnie Boivin
I think it may depend on the breed. I mean, ours are loud, but only when they're hungry. But we have 400 pounds of Great Pyrenees between two dogs that watch them on a regular basis. They keep the farm pretty clear for us.

00;06;38;16 - 00;06;43;14
Donnie Boivin
Yeah. I'm not saying I'm going to do the guard dog thing, you know, but we have dwarf Nigerian, so they're a little bitty things.

00;06;43;16 - 00;06;43;21
Donnie Boivin
Yeah.

00;06;43;21 - 00;06;52;21
Donnie Boivin
You know, but but, you know, the bigger goats, I wouldn't want to go for toe to toe with them because even the little ones can headbutt the hell out of you.

00;06;52;23 - 00;07;00;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. That's wild. So. So you go in the Marine Corps. What? What led you to go in the Marines?

00;07;00;17 - 00;07;02;17
Donnie Boivin
I was following Big Brother's footsteps.

00;07;02;17 - 00;07;08;10
Donnie Boivin
And I'll be honest, I knew I screwed up the day I stood in the yellow footprints in San Diego. You know,

00;07;08;10 - 00;07;16;20
Donnie Boivin
I realized when I stood there that son of a gun. I just signed up for four years of somebody yelling at me and tell me what to do. And I'm not an authority guy.

00;07;16;20 - 00;07;19;24
Donnie Boivin
I don't like being told what to do, so I

00;07;19;24 - 00;07;20;19
Donnie Boivin
e-4

00;07;20;19 - 00;07;23;06
Donnie Boivin
you know, four years later,

00;07;23;06 - 00;07;28;00
Donnie Boivin
but, you know, I was happy to be out. I don't regret going through the Marine Corps.

00;07;28;00 - 00;07;31;16
Donnie Boivin
But you'll never see that be the thing that I hang my hat on.

00;07;31;16 - 00;07;37;25
Donnie Boivin
I've just I've done too many cool things after the Marine Corps that are more fun to celebrate than just those four years.

00;07;37;25 - 00;07;57;22
Donnie Boivin
And I always struggle with the guys that, you know, are late in the years, and they're still talking about the glory days, about being in the military. It's like that high school football past might have you not done anything great, since if that's the highlight of your life with those few years now, if you did 25 years, talk about it all day long, all day long.

00;07;57;27 - 00;08;16;23
Donnie Boivin
But these four year guys that, you know, get out and they're like their vehicles are covered in stickers and, you know, bumpers and like coats and hats and jackets. I've been there, been guilty of wearing all that crap as well. Right. Until I realized that that was just a moment in time. A great moment, right? But just a moment in time.

00;08;16;25 - 00;08;23;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, I was I was in what I would say was I call it the country club side, the Marine Corps. I was in the air wing here.

00;08;23;20 - 00;08;25;24
Donnie Boivin
My brother was in a winger for 24 years.

00;08;25;26 - 00;08;34;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And and not only that was in the classified shop. So to get in, to get in, you had to ring the doorbell and get escorted and.

00;08;35;18 - 00;08;35;29
Craig Andrews
You know.

00;08;35;29 - 00;08;39;12
Donnie Boivin
You hold your pinky up when you drink your coffee. I mean.

00;08;39;15 - 00;08;46;14
Craig Andrews
We, you know, who don't ring doorbells to be escorted? Who? Officers and sergeant majors.

00;08;46;17 - 00;08;47;13
Donnie Boivin
Fair enough.

00;08;47;16 - 00;08;51;17
Craig Andrews
So, you know, we were in there. We're doing our own thing. They left us alone. We,

00;08;52;19 - 00;08;55;26
Craig Andrews
You know, it was, you know, for me, it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

00;08;55;26 - 00;08;57;12
Craig Andrews
But the,

00;08;57;12 - 00;09;01;03
Craig Andrews
So anyway, let's, you know, kind of let's fast forward you,

00;09;01;03 - 00;09;04;21
Craig Andrews
you said that you lost almost everything,

00;09;04;21 - 00;09;05;27
Craig Andrews
before starting your business.

00;09;05;27 - 00;09;06;28
Craig Andrews
What happened?

00;09;07;00 - 00;09;10;10
Donnie Boivin
So. Well, I actually did it while building the company.

00;09;10;10 - 00;09;23;13
Donnie Boivin
I turned 40, and I had heard for the first time that you could start your own business. I didn't really didn't even know that was a thing. You know, just a blue collar kid raised in a world where you work, you get a job, you retire. And,

00;09;23;13 - 00;09;28;00
Donnie Boivin
I've been really cool, successful career, done some really cool things.

00;09;28;03 - 00;09;30;15
Donnie Boivin
And I'd worked myself all the way up to,

00;09;30;15 - 00;09;47;03
Donnie Boivin
partner in a sales training firm. But then I started hearing this idea that you could go out and start your own company. So I thought starting my own company would be like the thing to do. So I launched the company, and 24 hours after I launched the company, I was slapped with a non-compete that I never signed.

00;09;47;05 - 00;09;48;26
Donnie Boivin
They completely fabricated. And,

00;09;48;26 - 00;10;02;10
Donnie Boivin
supposedly I was one of the top sales trainers in the country. I don't know what that means, other than I'm good at flapping my gums in front of a room, and I was going to launch my own sales training company. I had contract signs, checks ready to cash, you know, clients ready to move forward.

00;10;02;10 - 00;10;20;08
Donnie Boivin
And now I found myself having to go get a damn attorney and take on my prior employer heads on. So I lawyered up. They lawyered up. I lost, they weren't going to beat me on the non-compete. They were going to bury me in paperwork until the non-compete went away. So I figured, man, I'm a sales guy. Running a business should be easy.

00;10;20;08 - 00;10;38;27
Donnie Boivin
You just go sell shit and figure it out. And so I, you know, did this really smart thing. I cashed in all of my investments, stocks, options, bonds, 401 K's, everything with this farm to take care of and the lifestyle to maintain. And I effectively had no income coming in. So I cashed all that in launch the company.

00;10;39;00 - 00;10;45;29
Donnie Boivin
Six months into launching the company, my wife's Jeep was repossessed. We almost lost a farm to foreclosure.

00;10;45;29 - 00;10;49;22
Donnie Boivin
Graciously, at that point, my wife cashed in her 401 K,

00;10;49;22 - 00;10;59;02
Donnie Boivin
got to get back and save the farm. And we went from there to seven and a half years later, I'm now the CEO of Success Champions Networking, and we're running these networking groups all over the world.

00;10;59;04 - 00;11;25;03
Donnie Boivin
And I don't tell that story to brag. I love sharing it because all we get to see out there in social media and life and everything is this Instagram story. Like if you go look at social media, it looks like everybody else is fricking crushing it. And they had this cakewalk journey when the truth of the matter is, anybody who's crazy enough to leave corporate America and go out and start their own company, they're getting punched in the face every frickin day.

00;11;25;06 - 00;11;39;27
Donnie Boivin
I mean, we're idiots to stay in business because every day we wake up and go, oh, I'm going to get punched in the face today. Let's put a smile on it. And we continue to go. So I really try and share the, the, the I won't say the dark side, but the real side of business more often than not.

00;11;39;27 - 00;11;40;24
Donnie Boivin
So,

00;11;40;24 - 00;11;50;12
Donnie Boivin
that's where more people lean in on my journey is, you know, how do you go from frickin losing everything almost to here? So it's been a wild ride.

00;11;50;14 - 00;12;15;17
Craig Andrews
You know, it's it's funny you mentioned that this past weekend. I was doing some research for my own business. You know, the question I was asking, what are the pains that people have that I can solve? And so I thought, well, let me go through some of the social networks. And probably the worst one was LinkedIn, because I just start reading post after post and not that was a surprise.

00;12;15;17 - 00;12;26;18
Craig Andrews
It just when went in with that, questions like. Except for a few emotionally unstable people, nobody on LinkedIn talks about where life is hard. Oh, you're.

00;12;26;18 - 00;12;30;02
Donnie Boivin
Looking in the wrong areas because I can I can point you to a ton of people that do.

00;12;30;05 - 00;12;30;24
Craig Andrews
Really?

00;12;30;25 - 00;12;35;02
Donnie Boivin
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Go follow someone like Liam Dermody.

00;12;35;02 - 00;12;37;00
Donnie Boivin
Go follow someone like Leah Turner.

00;12;37;00 - 00;12;52;04
Donnie Boivin
Ashley Beck, Claire Gold, Melissa Cohen. They're all sharing the real side of of the tough side of of business. So go talk to Paul McCarthy, who's just a sales guy, not even an entrepreneur, and him talking about the struggles with his life and with his kids and everything.

00;12;52;06 - 00;13;23;25
Donnie Boivin
So, so when you finally build a community on LinkedIn of real, genuine people, man, you're going to hear just some amazing, powerful, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, you know, type of stories. I think because people don't spend enough time on the LinkedIn platform, they're algorithm. The things they're seeing haven't been curated enough to bring them just amazing, amazing people and amazing content.

00;13;23;28 - 00;13;44;15
Donnie Boivin
It's it's for me, LinkedIn is the most fascinating platform because it's the only self-regulated platform in the world. Right? You don't see as many jerks and assholes on there because you don't want your employer, your clients. You know, you can't come up with a fake name and pull a LinkedIn profile and hide behind, you know, 86 blue smiley faces.

00;13;44;15 - 00;13;55;21
Donnie Boivin
Your is your name. It's you, your resumé. So it follows your corporate career. So it's if you spend enough time on it. It's just a beautiful platform.

00;13;55;23 - 00;13;56;20
Craig Andrews
Interesting.

00;13;56;20 - 00;14;19;19
Craig Andrews
Well, and, you know, obviously you run, you know, this network of networking groups. What are the pains that you're hearing? What what would you say if you had to say the top three pains that people in, in your visibility are expressing right now where their top three challenges.

00;14;19;22 - 00;14;21;20
Donnie Boivin
They don't know how to find clients.

00;14;21;20 - 00;14;43;28
Donnie Boivin
They don't know how to sell. Right? And they don't know literally how to even take the conversations that they're having on a regular basis on the virtual coffees and in-person coffees and get them to a place of introductions, referrals, potentially doing business together. Everything's a social club.

00;14;43;28 - 00;14;57;05
Donnie Boivin
And most people in our world find us because they sell their small business, but they sell B2B in, which means they're selling into these multi-million dollar companies oftentimes.

00;14;57;07 - 00;15;17;17
Donnie Boivin
And they're selling everything from technology to equipment to the likes. When you sell business to business and you go to most networking, it sucks. And the reason it sucks is because you'll go to a chamber event. I'm not bashing on a chamber, right? Or you'll go to a networking group and I'm not bashing on any other networking organizations.

00;15;17;19 - 00;15;49;27
Donnie Boivin
But when you sell on a multimillion dollar companies and you go to traditional networking, you walk in a room and you run into realtors, mortgage titles, financial advisors are all great people, but it's a one sided conversation. You can help them, but they can't help you back. They're not talking to CEOs and decision makers of major companies. And so when you're constantly around people that aren't speaking to people that are at that level, it gets really, really frustrating quickly because like when I sold commercial printing, I needed six figure, seven figure deals.

00;15;49;29 - 00;16;10;09
Donnie Boivin
And when I'd go networking, people were like, could you print my business cards? No, that's $50, right? So so when I had to figure out is, how do I bring together people who all sell at the same level that I sell at or need to be selling at, and we start networking from there, and that just starts dramatically changing everything.

00;16;10;12 - 00;16;26;23
Craig Andrews
So I attended one of your networking events, and I think the thing I found most shocking was and they said, we're not here to connect you with with customers. We're here to connect you with people who can refer you to customers.

00;16;27;01 - 00;16;49;00
Donnie Boivin
Yep. And here's why. So I want you to think about the largest company you've ever worked with. Got them in your head. And I'm not going to call you out and say, tell us who they are. Yeah, okay. Picture the CEO of that company. Okay? Most times when I ask people this next question, they're like, oh hell no.

00;16;49;02 - 00;16;54;03
Donnie Boivin
The CEO of that largest client you've ever worked with, are you going to see them at a chamber after hours?

00;16;54;05 - 00;16;55;15
Craig Andrews
No. Absolutely not.

00;16;55;17 - 00;16;58;17
Donnie Boivin
You're going to see them in a even a networking group like CNN.

00;16;58;19 - 00;16;59;09
Craig Andrews
No, no.

00;16;59;10 - 00;17;23;16
Donnie Boivin
Right. You're going to see them at a BNI or any sort of networking event whatsoever. Right. You're not going to see them. So the first thing we have to understand is if we're selling into mid-market companies, multimillion dollar companies, they're not networking. And so if we look at networking as a whole, networking has been taught over the years by transactional people.

00;17;23;18 - 00;17;28;12
Donnie Boivin
And what I mean by transactional people is they've been taught by realtors, bankers,

00;17;28;12 - 00;17;43;12
Donnie Boivin
financial advisors, all great people. But that's a transactional game. So if I sell you a house, I won't need to talk to you. I mean, I may send you a postcard and things. I may see you. Not bad, but I don't need to talk to you for another ten, 20 years because you're not going to buy another house in ten, 20 years, right?

00;17;43;12 - 00;18;11;25
Donnie Boivin
So, so what we have to understand is that style of networking business to consumer. Everybody's your prospect. And so they say don't sell your network. But what happens is in B2C networking, everybody ends up just selling each other, right. Their products and services. So if your clientele is mid-market, multi-million dollar clientele, you're not going to be networking with people that can likely buy your stuff.

00;18;11;28 - 00;18;36;26
Donnie Boivin
So. So like when I sold commercial printing, networking with an executive coach may or may not have any value because they're never going to make a purchase off of me. That's a large enough for me to go down the path of should I sell you my things? So if we understand this fundamental for skin, the foundation of it all is we're not networking for referrals.

00;18;36;28 - 00;19;00;08
Donnie Boivin
We're networking to be introduced to people who are our best referral partners. So you have to define a referral and an introduction. An introduction is two people go meet. So Craig meet Bob. Thank you guys. We'll have some cool synergy. Go figure it out a referral is Craig. Meet Bob. I've told Bob all about your services Craig. He's stoked to meet with you.

00;19;00;10 - 00;19;27;09
Donnie Boivin
And there's an expected sales call attached to that or sales discovery call, like both parties know while you're meeting. And one is interested in potentially purchasing the services of the other. That's a referral. And if we understand that alignment, those two distinct differences, if you are selling B2B and you're networking straight for the referral, you're going to lose, because most times in B2B it's an elongated sales process, right?

00;19;27;09 - 00;19;28;19
Donnie Boivin
We're not,

00;19;28;19 - 00;19;50;23
Donnie Boivin
going to walk up to a B2B deal most times. And close it in one call. We're going to have to nurture it, build trust over time, right, and make the thing happen. It's the same thing to B2B networking. So if I sell printing services, just stay that path, right? And I need somebody who can purchase, 100,000 direct mail pieces, then that person is going to make the purchase.

00;19;50;23 - 00;19;58;07
Donnie Boivin
They're never going to be out networking. So there's no point of me ever coming at the network from a perspective of anybody here can buy off me or,

00;19;58;07 - 00;20;10;07
Donnie Boivin
the likes. What they can do is all these people can get me introduced to my best referral sources. So and if jump in anytime I don't want to bogart your entire.

00;20;10;08 - 00;20;20;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And just. Yeah. And there's just one thing I want to make sure people are tracking. When you say ECN, you're talking about success champion networking. Correct? I just want to make sure people are connecting those dots.

00;20;20;18 - 00;20;47;20
Donnie Boivin
Perfect perfect, perfect. Yeah. Thank you. So, so take that same printer. And what I figured out when I sold printing is everywhere I networked. Nobody was going to be able to purchase stuff at my level. So I went to my largest client at the time, and I asked them what else they purchase besides printing. And they purchase promotional products, and I asked them to introduce me to their favorite rep that sold promotional products.

00;20;47;22 - 00;21;02;11
Donnie Boivin
And so they did. We went out to dinner. Me and that rep hit it off really, really well. And what we found is we weren't competition for each other, but we sold at a very, very high level. So literally that your guy that I got introduced to, you know,

00;21;02;11 - 00;21;03;28
Donnie Boivin
I took him into,

00;21;03;28 - 00;21;06;01
Donnie Boivin
Nokia, he took me into Motorola.

00;21;06;01 - 00;21;15;16
Donnie Boivin
I took him into Home Depot. He took me into Lowe's. Right. We were able to walk each other into our bigger clients and do a crap ton of business because we were so complimentary and service.

00;21;15;16 - 00;21;29;16
Donnie Boivin
So what we tell everybody is quit asking for the end user client, start asking for the people that also sell to your end user client, but are complementary services to you or adjacent services to you.

00;21;29;19 - 00;21;54;23
Donnie Boivin
And watch how much more business gets done when people are going deep and wide into each other's actual clientele. It's a monumental shift in how networking is supposed to be, because it's it's B2C. Networking says to do this, but they all end up selling the room, not thinking about the bigger picture going way deep into relation ships to the point of even collaborating and going after clients together.

00;21;54;25 - 00;22;12;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah, you know, the picture jumped in my head when you were talking about that. I used to market semiconductors for mobile phones, which there's very, very few people that do that because to be a viable business, you know, 95% mobile phone production by five manufacturers and you have to have three out of the five to be a viable business.

00;22;12;26 - 00;22;15;00
Craig Andrews
Yep. And so I remember,

00;22;15;00 - 00;22;18;06
Craig Andrews
this always happened at Samsung. You go in the lobby,

00;22;18;06 - 00;22;25;13
Craig Andrews
and you're waiting for your meeting, and you see your competitor over there, and we knew each other, and we go over and we'd jazz each other and like, hey, guys, you can go home. We got it covered.

00;22;25;13 - 00;22;33;17
Craig Andrews
But it's kind the same concept of, you know, if you picture the days of waiting in the lobby,

00;22;33;17 - 00;22;34;14
Craig Andrews
for meeting.

00;22;34;14 - 00;22;42;11
Craig Andrews
Who are the other guys in the lobby? Yeah, figure out who they are. They're probably their next sales call. Is probably an ideal client for you.

00;22;42;13 - 00;23;02;15
Donnie Boivin
Yeah, 100%. And, you know, even go so far to go through your current client base, you know, your current clients and all that. Just ask the question, what else do they buy? And you're going to be amazed when they say, oh, we buy maybe employee benefits or we're buying, you know, printers and copiers or buying whatever all those industries they list off.

00;23;02;15 - 00;23;26;21
Donnie Boivin
Those are the people you should be using your network to get introduced to, because now you can go to the chamber. Now you can go to BNI, you can go anywhere and say, hey, I sell commercial printing, but I work best as referral partners with people who sell promotional products. Right? So. So if I look at you right now and say, hey, do you know anybody who needs to order 100,000, you know, direct mail pieces, you're not likely going to know that person.

00;23;26;23 - 00;23;44;15
Donnie Boivin
But if I say, hey, do you know anybody who sells promotional products because they're a really good referral partner for me, odds are you may know somebody who sells promotional products, right? And it's a really easy introduction because I'm not trying to sell them anything. Right. I don't want them as my client. I want them as a referral partner.

00;23;44;17 - 00;23;55;19
Donnie Boivin
So I'm going into that relationship going how many doors can I open for them? Because just because I got introduced their promotional product doesn't mean they're going to refer me business. I got to earn that.

00;23;55;21 - 00;24;01;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah. I mean, that's a genius concept I've never once attended to be. And I,

00;24;01;13 - 00;24;19;07
Craig Andrews
thing phenomenal organization. But the the reason, the reason is what you kind of talked about earlier is the thing I know about being is when you show up, you got to show up. You have to bring referrals. You know, there's like certain minimal things or they'll kick your butt out.

00;24;19;09 - 00;24;19;17
Donnie Boivin
Yeah.

00;24;19;25 - 00;24;31;28
Craig Andrews
And my challenge has always been, it's not that I don't want to give referrals, it's that the people that are at these networking events often I'm not talking to their clients, I don't yeah, you know, I don't know who to refer them to.

00;24;32;01 - 00;24;39;27
Donnie Boivin
Yeah. Well and taking it to anytime you force people to do something, they're going to fabricate it to keep the space.

00;24;39;27 - 00;24;47;09
Donnie Boivin
And this isn't a bash on B, and I just was my experience with them. You know, when I did B and I early on and I sold commercial printing,

00;24;47;09 - 00;24;49;06
Donnie Boivin
a guy referred me to a,

00;24;49;06 - 00;24;53;20
Donnie Boivin
political candidate locally running for council or something.

00;24;53;22 - 00;25;13;10
Donnie Boivin
And I was really excited because political candidates were a ton of printing. You know, they did all the signs, they did all billboards. Right? So there's a lot of cool things there. And when I went and sat down expecting a referral or sales conversation, all that political candidate wanted to do was get me to vote for him. And I didn't even live in his damn city where I could vote for him, you know?

00;25;13;12 - 00;25;33;06
Donnie Boivin
So so, you know, when you force people to, to give referrals and stuff, everything becomes a referral. Yeah. You'll see the realtor in the group and somebody like, hey, I saw a yard sign for sale by owner. You should call that one. There's your referral link. That's not a referral. That's not even an introduction.

00;25;33;06 - 00;25;35;20
Donnie Boivin
That's a lead at best, you know?

00;25;35;20 - 00;25;57;05
Donnie Boivin
So I want an environment where people are having real conversations, you know, introductions. You can make a ton of those, but if they understand, it's an introduction. There's no sales call with that. Right. It leads to cool. I just get introduced to Craig. Craig, let's sit down and figure out how can we open doors for each other. There's there's no transaction there.

00;25;57;05 - 00;26;16;29
Donnie Boivin
It's it's a mutual conversation. And I look I always look at it from the perspective. If I can understand who your best referral partners are, and I can get you introduced to those guys who have your ideal clients, man, if I make the right introduction, that could lead to thousands of referrals over a lifetime of the relationship. The to your build.

00;26;17;01 - 00;26;31;05
Donnie Boivin
That's what I'm looking for. And if I'm the guy that can make that right introduction for you and open up that right door, you're never going to forget about me, right? And you're always going to keep me top of mind because of the value I bring into your world.

00;26;31;08 - 00;26;55;07
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So, who? So that makes a ton of sense. I don't think I've ever heard anybody explain it so clearly. Thank you for the success, champion networking group. Who's not a good fit? Who are the people that come in and they come in, they're a little bit awkward and they quickly leave or they're asked to leave.

00;26;55;10 - 00;26;59;29
Donnie Boivin
But one MLM is first on the list. We do not allow MLM in the network whatsoever.

00;27;01;07 - 00;27;05;09
Craig Andrews
And just for those that don't know what MLM multi-level marketing.

00;27;05;11 - 00;27;08;02
Donnie Boivin
Yep. So your lotions and potions and everything,

00;27;08;02 - 00;27;17;07
Donnie Boivin
and the reason being, and I have no problem telling you this one type in any multi-level marketing company in the world. Rico charges. And see how many have been busted. Yeah.

00;27;17;07 - 00;27;18;15
Donnie Boivin
Two.

00;27;18;15 - 00;27;25;29
Donnie Boivin
In at the end of the day, a MLM job is to sell the people they network with because they need them in their downline.

00;27;25;29 - 00;27;44;21
Donnie Boivin
They need. Right? So it's a direct pitch. So nobody in our world is a direct pitch, right? Most of the times the people that are networking are not going to be your ideal clients because they're selling to the level you want to be working with. So so anybody that's B2C not a fit, right. So,

00;27;44;21 - 00;27;48;13
Donnie Boivin
the closest thing we'll get to it is we'll get wealth management guys.

00;27;48;15 - 00;27;52;12
Donnie Boivin
Right? But they're selling to CEOs of major companies.

00;27;52;12 - 00;27;55;24
Donnie Boivin
A lot of your financial advisors and whatnot, they won't fit in our world.

00;27;55;24 - 00;28;10;22
Donnie Boivin
You know, and then anybody who's transactional in nature, like, if you're coming to CNN to just find clients, you're going to play a hard, hard climb, right? The end goal, the outcome of CNN is likely clients.

00;28;10;24 - 00;28;24;05
Donnie Boivin
But if that's the reason you're coming in, and instead of trying to build a phenomenal network of people that could legitimately grow your business through the right introductions and referrals, DeSean will never work for you.

00;28;24;07 - 00;28;40;26
Craig Andrews
Well, okay, so for B2B folks that get what you're saying, that realize they need to figure out they need to meet more of those people. They're in the lobby waiting for the, you know, and figure out who their next sales call is. How do they,

00;28;40;26 - 00;28;43;23
Craig Andrews
how did they find you guys? How did they find you?

00;28;43;25 - 00;28;49;02
Donnie Boivin
So then go to success champion networking.com. Go visit any of our groups are all virtual.

00;28;49;02 - 00;28;56;13
Donnie Boivin
And feel free to to visit any one of them. But I also let me define B2B because I don't think a lot of people understand this.

00;28;56;13 - 00;29;01;07
Donnie Boivin
And life insurance guys what? Not harping on them, but they're the worst at understanding this.

00;29;01;10 - 00;29;21;23
Donnie Boivin
So when I say business to business, I mean you sell the company, not the individuals in it. So I had a life insurance guy come up to me once upon a time and he's like, hey, I'm B2B, I sell to companies all the time. I said, it's great. Let me ask you a question. He goes, okay, I said, if I introduce you to a company that has 50 employees and you're able to write life insurance policies for all 50, those employees, it's a good day, right?

00;29;21;25 - 00;29;40;16
Donnie Boivin
It's oh my God, that'd be amazing. I said, cool, how would you return the favor and introduce me to a company that has 50 employees that might need networking, you know, training. Like so he goes, well, I don't have any of those clients there. And rest my point. You're not coming in to break into B2B. You're already in B2B.

00;29;40;17 - 00;29;43;21
Donnie Boivin
Have the clientele that you could introduce to others.

00;29;43;24 - 00;29;47;26
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well that's awesome. Well, Danny, this has been amazing.

00;29;47;26 - 00;29;48;10
Craig Andrews
I,

00;29;48;10 - 00;29;59;24
Craig Andrews
I can tell folks that are listening. If somebody attends, you're there. Then I attended was the most fun networking event I've ever attended. It was wild and

00;29;59;24 - 00;30;05;11
Craig Andrews
it was fun. So, I hope people reach out to you. And thanks for sharing this one.

00;30;05;11 - 00;30;22;19
Donnie Boivin
Yeah, for sure. And let me do this for you really quick, guys. If you're still listening to this and you get any value out of this or any other Craig shows, do us a favor. Take a screenshot wherever you're listening to and go out to social media. LinkedIn's my best platform. Post it and say, hey, this is one of my takeaways I got from this show.

00;30;22;19 - 00;30;37;19
Donnie Boivin
If you tag me in, if you, Craig, Craig and I promise you we will come comment on the damn thing. But knowing having my own shows over the years, building an audience is one of the toughest things in the world. But by you sharing out this content or any of his other episodes, it literally knows he's headed down the right path.

00;30;37;19 - 00;30;48;27
Donnie Boivin
He's sharing the kind of content you guys are into, and it's literally like giving him a virtual hug. So take a screenshot, share it out, targets in it. If I see it, I promise you I'll come comment on it. Craig, thanks for having me on brother.

00;30;49;00 - 00;30;52;18
Craig Andrews
Thank you Danny.

00;30;52;18 - 00;31;19;14
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;31;19;14 - 00;31;21;09
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;31;21;11 - 00;31;44;21
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest. Tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;31;44;23 - 00;31;52;28
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;31;52;28 - 00;33;55;03
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.