First Base Is Connect: How to Build Business Relationships That Last
Relationships · From Student of the Game
First Base Is Connect: How to Build Business Relationships That Last
Brad Noll grew up in the locker room, and basketball taught him to stay curious. That curiosity is what being a student of the game means to him: picking up on clues from coaches, teammates, and other industries. His real estate team borrows ideas from medical professionals, attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, and he points out that even Michael Jordan needed a Scottie Pippen.
In this episode of Student of the Game, Brad begins a series that walks through the Relationships Win framework one base at a time. He drew it first on a napkin over lunch with a friend in sales, and his team taught it at their business mixer earlier in the year. He built it to help his team, and himself, become better teachers of a relationship-based business.
This first part is all about first base: connect.
Why Connecting Comes First
Brad believes many good people struggle with the word sales because it feels like convincing someone of something. The best salespeople, he says, are not trying to convince anyone. "They're trying to help you get what you want." They guide people through a process and serve them along the way.
That service starts with connection. "The single greatest thing you can do as a human is to connect with other people," Brad says. He thinks the pandemic years showed that nothing great happens in isolation, and that it is easy to drift away from even our closest people.
He shares a phrase from his mentor: everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die to get there. People want a record sales year, but connecting can feel awkward. Some say they do not have time to go deep. Brad's answer is that a connection does not always need to go deep. A friend in the industry sends him encouraging texts out of the blue, often at just the right moment. "He made me feel seen and heard today," Brad says, and there were no strings attached.
“The best way to communicate with somebody today is whatever is the easiest for that recipient to respond to.”
Brad Noll
The Stacking Effect and Your Reticular Activator
Athletes and influencers talk about stacking days, and Brad points to Atomic Habits by James Clear as a great explanation of doing the right thing day after day. In business, his team calls it the stacking effect: how many different times and different ways can you connect with someone?
Then Brad coaches listeners on the reticular activator, the part of the brain that makes you notice more of whatever you are focused on. When someone is shopping for a house, they suddenly see real estate signs everywhere. Brad once kept a streak of writing down three things he was grateful for each day, and it trained him to find more to be grateful for.
For business, the lesson is simple. Connect with enough people, often enough, that you become top of mind. Then the people you know start noticing who around them needs your help.
How Often Brad Reaches Out
Brad keeps a group of people he connects with at least every 30 days. These are family, friends, and great clients who fill his tank. Others he reaches out to at least every 60 days, and the rhythm continues from there. Over a year, the connections stack one upon the other.
Some practical ways he and his team do it:
- Text messages, which are getting the best response right now.
- Phone calls, personal notes, emails, and postcards.
- Client events that bring people together.
- Sharing an article you know someone will care about.
- A quick FaceTime call, a habit Brad says kids do better than adults.
- A note to a team member's spouse saying how well their person is doing at work.
As for which method works best, his team runs it through its first core value, serve others. "The best way to communicate with somebody today is whatever is the easiest for that recipient to respond to," Brad says.
Think Like a Farmer
Brad records the show in Indiana, where farming is one of the main industries, and he has farmers in his life. The farmer, he says, does not know which seed will produce the biggest yield. He just knows that if he does not plant, nothing will grow. And he does not plant once. He waters, weeds, and shows up day after day.
That is where Brad sees the magic in business. He has tracked his numbers for years and knows how many connections it takes before someone introduces him to a friend who buys or sells a home. People often ask him what to say or which method is most effective. His answer is consistency. "You don't know which seeds are going to produce the biggest yield, but you trust the consistency."
He also tells people to stop worrying about whether they are calling with a business hat or a friend hat on. "Show up as a friend who does business," he says.
The Coach Who Rebounded
Basketball taught Brad that he could not get better alone. He made a habit of being the first to practice and the last to leave, and those extra minutes let him connect with the teammates who were there early too.
He still remembers an assistant coach in high school, probably a volunteer with a family of his own, who stayed after practice to rebound while Brad shot hundreds of three-pointers. The coach did not have to say anything. Rebounding was how he connected.
Brad is clear that his business needs sales. But that is not why he connects. He connects to build trust so he can serve the community in his own backyard. Through his network of agents across the country in Buffini & Company, he has found friends who keep him accountable. "Greatness does not happen in isolation," he says. One agent even asked Brad to sit on his board of directors because of what he saw in how Brad leads his family.
How Many People Should You Connect With Each Day?
Brad's challenge is three personal connections a day this week, which adds up to 21 people. They can be family, friends, coworkers, or clients, and a text is fine. Before you send it, ask what that person needs to hear from you right now, not what you want to tell them.
He gives a recent example. After layoffs at a local employer where some of his clients work, he sent a short note saying he was thinking about them and offering to help if he could. No pitch. No strings attached.
Brad admits he had been busy and away from the podcast for a stretch. "There's a pause," he says. "But nobody's quitting." The key is to keep one oar in the water and keep connecting, because it is the one part of the framework you can always control. Next up in the series: conversations.
▶ Listen to the full episode
Relationships Win Framework: Part 1: Connect, on Student of the Game.
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