Starter Girlz Podcast

The 3 Levels of Networking That Changed Bill’s Life (with Bill Wallace, Founder of Success North Dallas)

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 96

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Networking isn’t just about exchanging business cards; it’s about building authentic connections that transform careers, businesses, and lives. In this episode, we explore the 3 Levels of Networking that reshaped Bill Wallace’s journey and can do the same for you.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business professional, or someone seeking personal growth, this conversation reveals powerful networking strategies, success stories, and practical tips you can start applying today.

What you’ll learn:
✅ The 3 Levels of Networking: from initial meetings, to net weaving, to servant leadership
✅ How building genuine relationships leads to career success and business opportunities
✅ Why accessibility, approachability, and accountability are the cornerstones of meaningful connections
✅ How to separate yourself from the crowd and stand out in any room
✅ The impact of networking on entrepreneurship, personal transformation, and long-term growth
✅ How mentorship from Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, shaped Bill’s journey and perspective on networking

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a powerful network that actually creates opportunities, this episode is your roadmap.

This episode isn’t just theory; it’s a masterclass in networking through the lens of Bill Wallace’s 35+ years of experience building authentic connections. From his early career to becoming a connector who has reshaped businesses and careers, Bill shares stories, strategies, and lessons you can apply to grow your own network and create opportunities that last.

🔗 Connect With Bill:
🌐 Website: https://www.successnorthdallas.com
📧 Contact: bill@successnorthdallas.com

🎧 Love this episode?
Subscribe to the Starter Girlz Podcast for more empowering conversations that will help you grow in business and life. Don’t forget to rate and review—your support helps us share more stories that inspire change.

Bill Wallace:

She said I only know people that do gymnastics, I don't know anyone else, so I have to build a network. And obviously she did. But that's just another good example, because a lot of us and older we're either in one job for a very long period of time or in one career path for a very long period of time and we wake up without that job or without that career path and we realize we don't know anybody else out there. We realize that we have no network and many times that's too late. So, like I said, start building your network at 12 or 13,. Yes, but always remember you're probably not going to have that job, You're probably not going to be on that same career path. And without a network, what are you going to do to get your next job?

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz Podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girls podcast. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and wherever you are tuning in today, we are so glad to have you.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, this is so exciting because I have not been in studio for a while, so I am so excited. We're over here at the Meeting Place in Farmer's Branch area of Dallas, texas, and we've got a fabulous guest coming on here today. But before I can get him on here, we've got to open this thing up. So when networking becomes more about relationships than transactions, something powerful happens. My guest today has spent more than three decades proving that genuine, purposeful connections are the foundation of long-term success, not just in business, but in life he's a mentor, a catalyst and a community builder whose mission is simple connect the right people for the right reasons at the right time. So I'm excited to get him on the show. But before we do that, I do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

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Jennifer Loehding:

And with that I do want to say to head on over to startergirlscom. Why do I say that? I say that every single week, on every episode, and that is for three reasons. One, because if you have missed an episode, it's a great place to catch up. Even the bad ones. They're all out there. If you want to keep up with what's happening, you can check it out over there. Sign up for our community newsletter, keep up with all of our episodes that are going out and then, last but not least, if you are an entrepreneur aspiring maybe you're in the middle of it creator, I have a fun two-minute quiz over there that you can take that will help you determine what your number one success block is that may be hindering your success. So head on over there and do whatever you need to do.

Jennifer Loehding:

All right, so it is time to get our guest on the show today. So with me today, bill Wallace, founder and longtime leader of Success North Dallas. For more than 35 years, bill has been helping business leaders make meaningful connections through a networking model rooted in trust, mentorship and servant leadership. His impact stretches far beyond business launching startups, inspiring leaders and creating a community grounded in service and authenticity. Whether he's guiding professionals through pivotal transactions or supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, bill is a true definition of a connector with purpose. So, mr Wallace, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here on the Starter Girlz.

Bill Wallace:

Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm really looking forward to this, because everybody's told me you're a great conversationalist and this is not going to be an interview but a conversation, and this is going to be fun.

Jennifer Loehding:

I know and.

Bill Wallace:

I just hope the audience feels the same way.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I'm excited. You know, I always tell people whenever I do my shows and you probably can resonate with this a little bit I always like my guests to have a great time. That's kind of one of my purposes and big goals, because I know that when they leave, if they're having a good time and they did they're going to go share it and they're going to talk about it and they're going to remember the experience. So I say the same I hope you have a great time on the show today and maybe I will earn that great conversationalist vote from you today.

Bill Wallace:

There you go. Well, let's get at it.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's right, all right. That's right, all right. So let's talk about you, because I you know who you are, but we've never had this conversation, so our listeners are like who is Mr Bill Wallace? So tell us a little bit about your story, kind of what brought you to where you are today.

Bill Wallace:

Well, you know, you just hit my favorite question because when I meet somebody, normally the first question thing I say to them is tell me who is Jennifer Right? So a little bit about Bill. I'm native Dallas. Tell me who is Jennifer Right? So a little bit about Bill. I'm native Dallas.

Bill Wallace:

I grew up in the Park Cities and I chose not to leave Dallas. So I've been a resident of North Texas for the past many, many, many years and started out with a graduate degree in computer science, got fired. I didn't want to program them, I wanted to sell them, and so they said, nah, you're not for us, because I didn't want to move to Florida. Then I went in the lumber business and I was there working with a gentleman who really this was my grad degree An immigrant Jewish gentleman from Israel who I learned more from, and this guy couldn't speak English and he got his MBA at Berkeley to learn English and then he ended up writing the Lumber Futures contract and I worked with him until for a long time. And in 1983, I went in the insurance business and really found my niche, started working with doctors. Actually, I started walking around in the guts of UT, Southwestern and Parkland at 4 o'clock in the morning, oh wow, with three boxes of donuts and they started. That was when the residents interns. They changed rounds and they referred to me as the donut man and I started by working with doctors. Then doctors who didn't have a business education started doing stupid things and I ended up working with their attorneys. And so then the young attorneys asked me to do some seminars for them, which we did for five or 600 people, and ended up with a bunch of attorneys, clients, and then the doctors and the attorneys got together and they started doing these crazy things called startups, and I absolutely fell in love with them. So over the years in the insurance space I worked with 164 startups and now in a piece of a pickleball paddle company of all things. But if you think about it, that was the business side. That was the business side.

Bill Wallace:

What really changed my life was a letter that I received in 1979. And it said would you help us build a house? And I took a sharpie and I wrote a note on it and I was in the lumber business. Then I wrote a note on it. If you're crazy enough to ask, I'm crazy enough to say, yes, you want to get together and tell me about it, to ask, I'm crazy enough to say, yes, you want to get together and tell me about it. And that was the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas and 20 of us came together. We opened it, debt-free, around Valentine's in 1981.

Bill Wallace:

And I got involved because I thought they couldn't do it without me. I was a smart aleck 29-year-old kid Can't do it without me. And about six months after the house opened, I was down there and doing my thing. I think I was vice president of community interaction. I was over the speaker's bureau or development, whatever you want to call it. But I was down there one Sunday afternoon playing with the kids and I was walking back to my car and I had tears rolling down my cheeks and I got to the car and I literally started crying and I came to the realization that that was the most self-serving thing I'd ever done in my life. That was truly the gas in my tank and that letter, to this day, I will say, changed my life.

Bill Wallace:

In fact, 15 years after that, I was listening to or speaking to a group and there was a lady in the group, dr Mara Schreier-Fleming, and Mara asked at the end during the Q&A, if you could change one thing in your life. What would that be? And almost like I was up on the seventh level of consciousness looking down at myself, I said if I could have received that letter one day, one month, one year, one lifetime earlier, in dead silence. That letter changed my life and thus, as a result of that letter, in the Ronald McDonald House I met my mentor, or one of three mentors. I had a rabbi I'm a good Baptist had a Cadillac guy, roger Meyer, and then I had an airline guy, herb Kelleher, who became one of my closest friends, and really that man changed my life. But that goes back to that letter that really changed my life and as a result of that, I ended up sitting on the National Board of Ronald McDonald House Charities. I was involved with that. It took me to Brian's house, which was, during the AIDS crisis, a home for HIV and AIDS-affected kids, and on to several foundations and so many other things. But it goes back to that letter and that letter being open and what that letter did was that letter created access and the access created opportunities, and the access created opportunities and the opportunities created results.

Bill Wallace:

Because I was sitting in Herb Kelleher's office in March of 1988. I was in the insurance business and I'll never forget Mr Kelleher. If you called him Mr, it upset him. Herb said Wallace, when you figure out why I should do business with you, come back Now, get out and figure it out. And as a result of that, I went to 48 different networking groups in North Texas because I decided I was going to start a group that was a highly elevated networking group, mentor group and formal board of directors for each other. And I looked for what people did not like. I looked to eliminate. I found a Buddhist word sadhana. It's a DNA. Yeah, it means a taboo against what makes one feel uncomfortable. I said I'm going to put a sadhana against all these things. I was talking to Herb and Roger Meyer and I went through this list yeah, card pushers selling of wares in the room, pitch books and on and on and on, but the last one on that list. Can you guess what it was?

Jennifer Loehding:

Last one on the list, women.

Bill Wallace:

Probably not enough women there, no women were not welcome in networking in 1988.

Jennifer Loehding:

Okay, I could see that. Yeah, they were not welcome. It was a different time.

Bill Wallace:

It was a different world, yeah, a different time. They were not welcome it was a different world, a different time. And Herbert always said, when asked how he created Southwest Airlines, he said I disrupted an industry.

Bill Wallace:

Yeah, that's what keeps coming to mind as you're talking to me. I disrupted an industry and as a result of that, we get down this list. And I said women. They both said yeah and I said except women. And Herb said you're going to have a problem. And I said no, sir, and sir made him mad, mr and sir. I said no, sir, I'm going to have a big problem. I said no, sir, I'm going to have a big problem. We're going to be 30% women from day one and they are going to be my disruptors that help me create transformational change in networking.

Bill Wallace:

What I didn't know and what the Wall Street Journal said 25 years later throughout the US. And Herb stood up and if you know Herb Kelleher, the history behind Southwest Airlines, the hot pants, the peanuts, the free alcohol, herb said, wallace, I gave them hot pants and booze. You give them women and networking. And I didn't realize the depth of that statement because it sounded very tongue-in-cheek, very chauvinistic, until we did our 25th anniversary and it was the only lunch we've ever done.

Bill Wallace:

We meet at 7 am the third Wednesday of every month. We've been at the same place Prestonwood Country Club for 31 of the 37 almost years 31 of the 37 almost years and Ambridge Hotels paid for the whole thing for 440 people, from piping to drapes. Ross Perot Sr welcomed, boone Pickens hosted, we had the CEOs of Fleur, usaa 7-Eleven and help me out BNSF, all in the same dais and we honored Nancy Lieberman. And when I turned to look at the audience, I understood what Herb really meant. The audience was 50% women, and women were truly and are truly the reason that Success North Dallas is here almost 37 years later and now under the leadership of a woman, which was one of my sage goals, because I thought this would last five years.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know what this networking is.

Bill Wallace:

I thought it'd last five years. I'd pay my dues, I'd separate myself from the herd oh, separating yourself from the herd, we'll come back to that but I'd separate myself from the herd and then I'd be done with it. And so we're in it five years and I'm thinking, okay, it's time to shut it down. Too much work.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's not going anywhere.

Bill Wallace:

And I'll never forget this voice, and I'm a spiritual person. But this voice came to me. It said be quiet, my son, go back to work, you're not done yet. And thus, through that room, 120 companies had been birthed, 1,300 jobs founder-created and now nine Ernst Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. And we worked harder than anything else to keep it a safe environment where relationships can be built. Because when you talk about networking and that was one of the things that you had asked about, but networking and I have the honor of speaking on this all over, I've spoken to law firms, companies, leagues but if you think about networking, networking has three A's, the three A's of networking. You have to be accessible. I've got to be able to find you.

Bill Wallace:

Once I find you, you've got to be approachable. You can't walk around with your head down this that You've got to be able to find you. Once I find you, you've got to be approachable. You can't walk around with your head down this. That You've got to welcome me in. You've got to love on me. You've got to make me feel like I'm the most important person there, not looking over your shoulder to see who else is here.

Jennifer Loehding:

I agree.

Bill Wallace:

And then you've got to be accountable. And that accountability is kind of weird because it's accountable dot dot dot to that relationship that begins at the first encounter. And rest assured, jennifer, you don't know when that first encounter could be. It's true, parking lot, walking in, driving into the parking lot. Yeah, I cut you off. I get out of the car. I don't even acknowledge you. Next time you see me, I'm walking on stage.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right, whoa yeah.

Bill Wallace:

I'm toast, but those are the things. So it's a 24-7. And I mentioned access some time ago. Access is truly the coin of the realm, because without access, I don't care how many PhDs you have, how many inventions, how many doctorates, how many, without access you have nothing. Because without a clientele, without a relational relationship and the other thing about access is learning how to speak the language of the market I've got to be able to speak your language to talk to you, and I'm not talking Spanish or English. I'm talking the way you speak, the way you feel, and the only way I'm going to learn that is through the building of a relationship, and the relationships are really what it's all about. I often say, when somebody asks me what I do, you know I connect people, build teams, fund companies, love startups, but what do I really do?

Bill Wallace:

I've got the greatest job in the world I get to put two people together, take a step back and watch the magic happen, and that's, to me, is the greatest thing absolutely in the world, much like the way you connect people.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, I'm listening to you and you have such a your stories. I mean, I didn't know all this. I'm finding out all of this today. I think it's impressive. But yes, I agree with all of those points you made about the networking, because I think so often you know, like I share and I just talked about this this morning and all the years that I was in Mary Kay, I was working with women but I was in an echo chamber because I was in with a group of the same people doing the same thing. We came from different walks of life but we were pretty much doing the same thing.

Jennifer Loehding:

And when I came out and I started doing my podcasting is really I did the networking and the podcasting kind of simultaneously. I've interviewed over 600 people. In the process of that, I have talked to some amazing people that I probably would never have come in contact with had I not had a reason to do this, and so there's so many invaluable lessons that come from those dialogues. Like you talk about connecting the right people but learning different things, I get tech people on my show. I know nothing about tech. Those are interesting conversations, you know, and so you just they're.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think it's a beautiful thing when you get to go out and have those conversations and connect people and put them in the right places. And so often I'll be in the middle of an episode, like today, and I'm listening to somebody and right in the middle of the episode I'm like I'm thinking of people in my head at that moment that I need to arrange, you know, dialogues, I need to get them connected. So you and I share that, that love for connecting people, in whatever sphere. That is, you know, and it's a fun thing.

Bill Wallace:

One of the things about connecting people is a person I helped connect named Sheila Rondeau, and Sheila owns a company called MOGXP, m-o-g-x-p, and this woman has done Olympics, she does major events. The Clydesdales simultaneous balloon launches actually got them to put up beer literally beer banners in Salt Lake City where they don't have them and has created the toilets in Times Square for Charmin the tide vans that go around the US. And as a result of some of these relationships, when I stepped down from the insurance business and then put in a new CEO at Success North Dallas, she walked up to me one day and said you're coming to work with me and I said, well, whoa, no, she were coming to work with me and there was no discussion. And you know we create events, but what we do more than anything else is we create an experience that marries your brand to the market.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah. Marries your brand to the market.

Bill Wallace:

Yeah, Through an experience, something that's you talk about VR virtual reality. Well, it's not virtual reality in the sense that she put on a pair of goggles.

Bill Wallace:

It's virtual reality in the sense that that product is now being corrected. Some of you have watched Twilight, and when the wolf imprinted, well, it's imprinting into the marketplace and that's what we do. And all of that again came out of Success North Dallas. The Pickleball came out of Success North Dallas and all of that came out of Herb Kelleher. And all of that came out of a letter that I got in 1979. That I got because I was president of that time of the Lumberman's Fraternal Organization and they couldn't find anybody else in the lumber business. So some perfect stranger sent me a letter, said would you help us build a house? Man I'd never met before in my life, but even though I grew up in Dallas. That letter took me into a different sphere of Dallas, a different level of influence, a different grouping of people. And those people took me to the next grouping of people. Because when you think about networking you don't come to the realization. But there's three levels of networking. The first one is where you meet each other.

Bill Wallace:

Bam 80% chance both of those cards are going in the trash. Can 95% chance at least one of them?

Jennifer Loehding:

is.

Bill Wallace:

So what do you do to make a difference? Well, one of them is my card. When I hand you my card, my card tells a story. I hand it like this I point out the logo success, and it has two interlocking Cs. Success is what we all aspire to. The interlocking Cs are how we do it, and on the back of the card it says connecting the right people for the right reasons at the right time. Mogxp says marrying your brand to the market through experiences, and these cards tell stories that are memorable. But the other thing that I love to do is, as I did earlier, well, who's Jennifer? And talking about you. It makes it memorable, and so then you can carry it to the next level. So we got the boom level, that's level one Level two of networking is net weaving.

Bill Wallace:

And net weaving is when that relationship has built to the point that you are now weaving your networks together and that's exponential growth, Because I now am being woven with everybody Jennifer knows and through that I'm being woven to her clients or her connections and who they know. And it's the interesting part is, because of that, our trickle down on the Success North Dallas email is a quarter of a million people. And then the final level of networking is servant leadership. So we've got the boom, we've got the net weaving and now we have the servant leadership. Servant leadership is when the first thing I think about when I meet Jennifer is who I might connect Jennifer with that would help Jennifer or that she could help, and that's the servant leadership which is the ultimate of networking. So you've got boom, you've got net weaving and you've got servant leadership.

Bill Wallace:

And then back to the three A's. You've got accessible. I've got to be able to find you to do this Approachable. When I find you, I've got to be able to find you to do this Approachable when I find you, I've got to love on you. I've got to make you feel like you're the most important person in the world, Because how do you get people to love you? You love on them. And then the final is accountability, Because this networking, it's a 24-7 job. This networking, it's a 24-7 job because you never know when that first encounter is going to occur. But be rest assured, it's going to happen, and more often than not, when you did not expect it. So just a little bit about networking, a little bit about Success. North Dallas.

Bill Wallace:

I love it and I want to know more about what you're doing.

Jennifer Loehding:

I know, yeah, I love all this and I think it's great and I think the whole thing with the networking, because I have this conversation, I feel like with so many people, because, especially in the networking, I think a lot of times people get hung up and thinking, well, these are the people I should be talking to. But I think a lot of great conversations happen with people that you don't think you're supposed to be talking to, like the people you don't plan to meet, like you're talking in the parking lot or wherever, because you know crazy story, I will tell you this my middle child. I maybe have said this on an episode before. I've interviewed this guy, but my middle child flew in to at this time with her boyfriend. They went into Denver. They were going to see an Alice in Chains concert, believe it or not, and an Uber driver picked him up in the car and this Uber driver was impressionable enough at the time that the then boyfriend tells me this.

Jennifer Loehding:

We meet him, you know, in Denver. We're driving up to Montana. We pick him up and we get in the car and he starts telling me about this Uber driver and I'm like this is so interesting, like he remembers his Uber driver. Well, this guy had come from like some, like some place in Africa, some small community where they like a third world, you know country. But he came here and he was doing Uber and donating like a good portion of his proceeds to this charitable foundation that he created to send money back home to build schools, but also to help women entrepreneurs back there. So he tells me this guy's name.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm like, I'm impressed. He even got the Uber driver's name right. So I go look him up and I reached out to him through LinkedIn. I said, hey, my daughter and her boyfriend were in your car and they were impressed by you. And so, long story short, I interviewed this guy. So my point is you never know where these opportunities are going to arrive or come from, because I would have never even known about this guy had he not created this lasting impact on my daughter and her boyfriend at that time. It's just, it's amazing to me when you think like that you know what can happen, what can come from these conversations?

Bill Wallace:

you know it's a wow moment. You know, I've mentored 35 juniors to doctoral candidates, about half of women, from seven different countries, and I've always told, I've told every one of them the same thing Never miss meeting a stranger.

Jennifer Loehding:

Never miss meeting a stranger.

Bill Wallace:

Never miss meeting a stranger. Worst case scenario. At least you'll know who you don't like. Exactly A little tongue-in-cheek, but it is so important that you're open. I used to go back and forth to 501 Boylston Street in Boston, massachusetts, and that was the headquarters of New England Mutual Life, and I would speak to the career schools and my talk, tongue-in-cheek as it may be, would be the elevator pitch.

Jennifer Loehding:

That was it.

Bill Wallace:

You got 30 seconds to 90 seconds of uninterrupted time. Do you know what the elevator ride is in New York City? Average 180 seconds, interesting, I'm sorry, 120 seconds. So you have five seconds to tell them who you are and 115 seconds to listen to them. So, when you have a captive audience, why in the world are you looking down to see how polished your shoes are, instead of looking those other people in the eye and creating the not the conversation, but creating the opportunity for a conversation, letting them create the conversation.

Bill Wallace:

And letting them create the conversation, because one of my favorite things to do when I was in the business, I would ride the elevators in buildings. If I was in a 20 30-story building, I'd ride the elevator after an appointment. Say oh hi, do you office in this building? Yeah Well, I'm here meeting with Sam or whatever the CEO of some company is, and so what do you do? Oh well, that's interesting. I'd love to get together with you and hear more about that. Could I buy you a cup of coffee? And about half the time that worked and created an environment.

Bill Wallace:

Because I was loving on them, they started loving on me back and just going back to that, you know, accessible, I let them find me Approachable, I made it so easy to approach and accountable, yeah, and accountable, yeah. I was on an elevator and I was still living my same 24-7 life and that life was the life of a networker, A builder of bridges, a builder of access.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's good, bill. Thank you for all that. I like all the acronyms in there. It's so good to remember it. It's kind of like I remember my frog, you know, when I went to, when I first started going to Master Network, and this is when I just kind of came out of Mary Kay and I was learning to do all those one-on-ones and I'm like what am I supposed to tell these people? Like, am I supposed to talk about my business? No, that's it. I learned that frog acronym, which for our audience it's the family, recreation, occupation goals. So you could ask good questions. You know, and that's what I think even you know you're a lot of. What you're talking about here is when you're talking about like loving on people. It's really just asking those questions right, like good questions, to get them talking, because people love to talk about themselves, right, and so if you ask good questions, they remember, right, they remember how you make them feel.

Bill Wallace:

And when you walk into somebody's office you look around the office. There's a hundred clues in that office about what they like.

Bill Wallace:

But I'll never forget a story about that. You know the Dallas Arts District. The most million dollar gifts was ever given to a public-private arts type partnership and the gentleman that ran that then ended up running the Super Bowl. His name was Bill Lively and Bill and I had become friends. He had spoken for me, in fact. He called up when he was leaving Dallas, said I want to give my last talk in Dallas at Success North Dallas, which was an honor. Back to Bill Lively. Bill Lively I asked him what his batting average was in raising this money like that and he said somewhere between 8 and 850. And I said what he said yeah, over 800, under 900. And I said so, tell me more. And he said well, what I do is I understand that this is not a three-pitch inning and a nine-inning game, this is a one-pitch inning and a one-inning game.

Bill Wallace:

And he said I know I've got one chance at hitting that ball, so I know everything I possibly can about that opposing pitcher. I know what he likes, I know what he loves, I know where he or she likes to eat, I know what charities, I know everything I can possibly find out. And when I go see them and a good example is if they love football I take Emmett Smith and Roger Staubach and we talk about football for 55 minutes and we talk about the arts district for five minutes of our hour meeting. And I said so, bill, what kind of responses do you get? He said I get three. When do you need it, need it being the money? How do I get it to you? Or tell me more. And the chances of a full close on the first two are about 98%. The chances of a close on the third one tell me more is somewhere around 75% to 80%, because I make it all about them and the arts project was simply an afterthought in our conversations. So put that into perspective of him loving on them. So are you loving on your clients? Are you loving on your prospects? Do they know you're loving on them? And what are you doing to separate yourself from the herd.

Bill Wallace:

Because when Herb Kelleher said, when you figure out what I should do, why I should do business with you. Now get out and come back. When you haven't figured out, he also said there's 4,553 of you, meaning insurance agents, out there right now, and this was 1983. And he said, so, why should I do business with you? So I'll give you an example. We're in Texas, right? Yeah, well, texas, there's a lot of cows, yes, okay, a cow herd looks like this it's a big oval, right A big oval, and in the front of that oval there's a trail boss. On the sides of the oval there are two outriders to hold the herd in, and at the bottom of the trail there's the drag to pick up the steer, to pick up the ones that get out of line, the steers that are easing themselves out of the herd for whatever the reason. Now take all of those cattle, okay, and change them into your competition.

Bill Wallace:

That's a lot of gals, or thinking about that. So why would I ever go into the herd to find somebody to do business with, to find somebody to date, to find somebody to marry, when four people, four individuals, have already set themselves apart from the herd? Would you go into the herd and find somebody when four have already set themselves out? So my question to you is what are you doing to separate yourselves from the herd? Mine was very simple connecting the right people for the right reasons at the right time, and Success North Dallas. And when I retired from insurance, 90 plus percent of my business was coming out of Success North Dallas because I took people there to meet other people and, for some odd reason, they started bringing people there to meet me and it was just that Wow, and it was just that simple. Wow, it was just that simple.

Bill Wallace:

I took people for them to meet and they started bringing people for me to meet. So what are you doing to create that back and forth, that give and take, that relationship, that relationship that's grounded in love?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, these are good points. Bill, you're talking a lot about, you know, building the relationship, but also I like that, this conversation on being a disruptor, because I feel like you know, like when I get the titles of these, it's like what is our title for these shows? And I'm thinking we're talking like relationships and being a disruptor because really they're both important components of setting you apart from everybody else. Right, you got to be able to connect people and you got to be different. You got to have a reason that people remember you, and so I was telling someone this the other day kind of funny story, because, like you, I come up with all these crazy stories. But I was well kind of when I was in my transition, when I was leaving Mary Kay and I was going into doing my own thing before the podcast.

Jennifer Loehding:

I had partnered up with a company that was doing remember the skinny coffee? Oh, yeah, okay, so I was doing.

Bill Wallace:

I partnered up.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, well, yeah, I didn't use it, either Believe it or not, I used the green tea. I didn't even drink coffee. But, funny story, they they had the patent. They came to Texas and they were trying to market here. And so one of my friends, we partnered up and we decided we were going to go through and sell this coffee. And so I go into this networking event and I'm telling this guy about the coffee and he's like, well, why should I? Why should I buy coffee from you? And I said, well, you get me Like I was like you're, you're buying it from me, You're going to have to go buy from somebody you probably don't even like her at the store.

Jennifer Loehding:

And you're going to get me. And I tell you what. I ran into that guy again and it was so funny because I saw him somewhere again and he was like, yeah, I remember that time you told me that and I see it to me that it's all about being different, right, like being just a little bit different than everybody else. And so I think, yeah, it goes into whatever. I think, finding your gift, being really good at connecting, and there's a lot to this, the marketing, I mean there's a lot to this being different, but you have definitely paved the way of that, and I think that that's kind of your legacy is that you've been a really good networker, a great connector, but also great at disrupting things too right, and we need disruptors.

Bill Wallace:

Somebody said in an intro one time. They said Bill Bill has a Rolodex. That would put the irs to shame. No, it would disrupt the irs. See, there you go and I thought, when they said no, it would disrupt the ir. Well, what better thing would you like to? Exactly yes, exactly right, no but it's been fun, it's been a it's been a great career. Career, uh, it's been a great life and it's becoming even greater every day. There's a a new page in that book that turns over yeah, and it's a blank page.

Bill Wallace:

So how do you want the writing on that page to read?

Bill Wallace:

right, I love it and if you don't tell your story, somebody else will tell it for you and it won't be the story you want told. So get out there and tell your story. Get out there and separate yourself from the herd. Get out there and make a difference. You know, success North Dallas gave a whole bunch of people a hat hanger something to hang their hat on. Yeah, I'm involved with Success North Dallas because we do this, this and this Same thing with the Addison Rotary.

Bill Wallace:

We started a golf tournament it was called the Brian's House Open and 20 men and a couple of women took on AIDS when AIDS wasn't cool. And we started this golf tournament and our goal was to get up to $100,000 in five years. We were up to $200,000 net in five years and we realized it wasn't our money, it wasn't the money, it was our mouths. It was telling the money. It was our mouths, it was telling the story. But other people couldn't tell the story until we first told it and when we changed from just trying to raise money to the secondary goal to become a top placement in the top three of junior league in five years. That's where they give big bucks.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Bill Wallace:

And we wanted to be in the top 10. Well, we were number three in five years and that had become a goal. That and the fact of getting other people to tell our story. But we first had to tell it. So for Jennifer to talk about me, she's got to know my story, and who better else to talk about you than somebody else?

Jennifer Loehding:

This is true. This is true, right? So I have a fun question. I do want to ask you in all of this, because you've done such I mean, your career spanned for a while and it's an awesome, and you've been privileged, I think and not I wouldn't say given because you've done the work, you've put yourself out there, you created the opportunities. They come to you because you put yourself out there and make yourself available. But I would love to know, you know, knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would say to your younger self? Maybe?

Bill Wallace:

You don't know where you're going with this, but anything you would say I wish I would have known then, or maybe just something you would tell yourself at your younger self.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, start building your network when you're 12 or 13.

Bill Wallace:

Ooh yes, Good Access. Our speaker, one of our speakers on Success North Dallas. Well, first of all, the title was Can you Outsell a Fifth Grader?

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, this was great. I saw yeah.

Bill Wallace:

Can you Outsell a Fifth Grader and it was a 12-year-old speaking. She's now spoken in two colleges because of this and she's 12. Speaking to a group of adults Can you outsell a fifth grader? At eight years old she started a popcorn company. She's now 12. She has it down to science. Every person that comes to her booth speaks to her is worth 50 cents At the end of the day. She can calculate her profit by the number of people that have come to the booth, whether they bought or not. She's already been offered in the millions for this company, this popcorn company, and go look at it. It's called Audrey's popcorn. But she set herself apart by being there, by interacting. Oh, 12 year olds don't do this. Oh, she does. Yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Bill Wallace:

And she's is. She has a network that would probably rival 30% of the people listening to this podcast right now at 12. So start building it early. Realize that in a lot of cases, yes, it's who you know, but it's really what you know about who you know, and you can't learn that without taking an interest in them and building a relationship.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's good, Bill I like it.

Jennifer Loehding:

All right. One other thing you said a lot today. It's been great. I love these stories because sometimes I don't know, I just have to sit back and listen. Sometimes I'm doing all the talking and sometimes I have somebody that comes on and just does it, and I love it because I get to relax. Great story. I had another question. I wanted to ask you If we were to sum, because I asked you early on who's Bill Wallace? Right, so you gave me your story, but I want to know if you had to say one or two words about who you are as a person, like the character of who you are, what would you say about yourself?

Bill Wallace:

I'm a spiritual person who loves other people.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's good, I like it. I don't ask that question often. Every now and then I bring it out because it's a personal question, right? It's like. You know, I remember bringing this girl on my show and she was an elite runner. She tried out for the Olympic trials Great runner here in Dallas. You might know her. I love this girl on my show and she was an elite runner. She tried out for the Olympic trials great runner here in Dallas. You might know her. I love this girl, but I remember asking her this question, like you know, what would you say about yourself? And she was like I don't know. I feel kind of weird doing that because I feel like I'm bragging or something. But you think about it when you go, who really am? I Like, what do I stand for? Right, because that's what this is really about is what you stand for as a human being, you know, and so I love that question.

Bill Wallace:

That brings an interesting question because I asked that question of a young lady who had just come back from winning. Literally she's been back a month winning most of the gold at the Olympics Her name's Carly Patterson.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yep.

Bill Wallace:

And Carly came to speak at Success North Dallas. How we got her, how we get.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's the mojo magic.

Bill Wallace:

People say how do you get your speakers? I say the old-fashioned way they ask us.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's so awesome.

Bill Wallace:

But anyway, carly. And so Carly Patterson not only comes to speak, but she brings her coach, and this was when we were presenting. We presented the Dallas Police Officer of the Year for 29 years, but this was the time when we were presenting the Dallas Police Officer of the Year award meeting. This was the time when we were presenting the Dallas Police Officer of the Year award meeting and Coach Ganey, when Carly was asked that same question, she said well, I'm going to let my coach answer that for you. And he came up and obviously he answered it, and then he threw it back at her.

Jennifer Loehding:

He said now, carly, you answer it.

Bill Wallace:

And then he started talking about policing where he had come from, as opposed to the way it's over here and the freedoms that we had, and the fact that a lot of Carly's stardom came from the opportunity she had here that she probably would not have had someplace else. But yet this young teenager was smart enough to bring her coach because she knew what the meeting was, and asked her coach to also speak with her.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Bill Wallace:

And I'll never forget that as long as I live. Now Carly's a professional speaker, got kids married. Just a wonderful person, yeah. But what was she going to do? As she got back, she said I have to build a network. She said I only know people that do gymnastics. I don't know anyone else.

Bill Wallace:

So I have to build a network and obviously she did. But that's just another good example, because a lot of us and older, maybe not a lot of you younger people, but it's becoming more prevalent. You know, we're either in one job for a very long period of time or in one career path for a very long period of time and we wake up without that job or without that career path and we realize we don't know anybody else out there. We realize that we have no network and many times that's too late. So, like I said, start building your network at 12 or 13,. Yes, but always remember you're probably not going to have that job, you're probably not going to be on that same career path. And without a network, what are you going to do to get your next job? Be thinking about that, because there's always tomorrow and the things that we do today build tomorrow.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's true, bill. Thank you for that. I agree. I would say the same thing you do, because, even like when I left you know, mary Kay, after being in the company 22 years, I, you know, one of the hardest things I had to do is and I'm thankful, I will say this let me backpedal. I will say I'm thankful that I started networking before I officially left, because that would have been all I had known. It was an echo chamber, right, that's all I knew. So thankful that I had already started making connections, because it made that transition much easier than me being okay, this was my world for 22 years, and now I've got to meet, you know, all these new people we're going from here to here, you know. So I agree, I think that you're I. What's that saying? They say, like your network, is your net worth right, and it's not even just about the finances, it's just about knowing the people that can lead you to opportunities. So, bill, this has been great. I know we could chat forever. I can let you just keep going forever.

Jennifer Loehding:

I know, we got a lot.

Bill Wallace:

Is that?

Jennifer Loehding:

your book there. That is my book. We need to have a part, a part. Do we need a part two on this so we can talk some more? Yes, we need a redo. I know when did your book go, cause he's got. This show is about you. They already know my book, so, yeah, beat the Toughest Obstacles. I actually wrote that in 2019, when I was fresh out of surviving from a four-year nerve condition called trigeminal neuralgia. It was in my face and it was a very devastating blow in my life, and I was on six different medications in the midst of that.

Bill Wallace:

Praise God.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and I basically I talk about it in there how I because I had already been exercising, I started making connections that it wasn't just about exercising, it was a lot more, it was about the people I was hanging around, the things I was consuming, and not just my mouth but in my head. And so I talk about really just my journey, what I learned in the aftermath. Here's what I will tell you. Since I wrote this, I've learned so much more. It needs a part two as well. So, but it was a good, you know, it was a cathartic release at the time and it gave me a great place to kind of document all that that I went through.

Bill Wallace:

My second book and the most recent is being a catalyst for success and the subtitles. Recent is being a catalyst for success and the subtitles, the fulfilling life of a servant leader, but being a catalyst for success, and I think I'm honored and I don't think I know that I'm honored to be sitting here with a catalyst and very much a like kind person.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, thank you. I say the same about you.

Bill Wallace:

I'm so glad.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I'm so glad, so I said we need to do another part, another one sometime. Why not have some more of this conversation. So, bill, it's been great If our audience maybe they want to find Success North Dallas they want to find you. Where do we want to send them so they know where to connect.

Bill Wallace:

Well, it's Success North Dallas. It's real simple SuccessNorthDallascom, real simple, successnorthdallascom. My email is bill at successnorthdallascom. Bill at successnorthdallascom. And if you really want to get a hold on me, 214-686-7778. Again 214-686-7778. Again 214-686-7778. And I promise if I don't answer I will get back to you and if I don't like what you say when you call me, I'll still get back to you. But this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you to our producer over here, andy. He's been kind of cool, yeah, he has.

Jennifer Loehding:

Andy, did you learn a few things over there listening? I always love doing these episodes. You always pick up some takeaway nuggets when you get done with it. So, yeah, it's been great, bill, and I appreciate your time and I wish you continued success. You're still being a disruptor and it's good.

Bill Wallace:

We need disruptors in the world, Otherwise it's just boring To your success. My friend, and as we close the way I've closed every meeting and every talk I've given all over the US, may you do what you love to do with people you love to do it with on purpose. God bless and Godspeed.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's good. That's good, all right, and I'll finish up with one last thing here to our audience. Of course, we hope you love this episode, right Cause it's, it's one of the good ones here. Um, but do all the things hit the like, the subscribe, the share, all the fun stuff that we tell you to do, so we can keep sharing all this fabulous content, and I'm going to end with what I always say in order to We'll see you next time.

Head Shot

Jennifer Loehding

Host
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Bill Wallace

Guest