Nichole Harmon Talks The Master Connector Agency: Connections, Networking Tips, + More
What's up this way up at Angela Yee And it's a special Wealth Wednesday.
I'm here with my partners Stacey Tisdale.
Happy Wealth Wednesday everybody, and today we are going to get you connected because we have the Master Connector herself, Nicole Harmon Pond. Yes, she is the founder and CEO of the Master Connector Agency. She's a Wall Street executive, and we are so excited we're going to learn all about connecting.
Yes, And I want to start off with how you even conceived of this because when I first met Nicole, she was always connecting people. Like we said, she's a Wall Street executive, so she has a lot of corporate people that she works with, but she also has a lot of talent that she works with, a lot of creators, and so for a lot of times you've been bringing people together.
And I'm like, this is a whole agency.
Yeah, And she's right like as and I met and I you know, connected you with her connected everybody.
That was my life.
I always connecting the Master Connector. So I've been at Wall Street for twenty years and through my whole career, I was always connecting people. If you say, hey, I want to be on the radio, I'm like, oh, I know, can you put my friend out here? Or if you say you're in the food business, I know a couple of restaurant owners. So I would always connect people all the time, but I never knew what I should do with that and my whole life, people always said you need to start a business because you know so many powerful people, not just like you said in the industry on Wall Street and corporate.
But I said, well, what does that mean? How do I start a business?
And I don't have a product because most people have products, right like they'll have they're selling shirts, or they have makeup lines. I was like, what does that mean to start a business without having a tangible product?
And God gave me a vision.
He said, You're going to curate a room that you're going to bring together your network. Your network is filled of corporate executives, industry leaders, influencers, CEOs. So thirty days after you gave me the vision, I was like, Okay, I'm going to curate a room.
It's called in the room where the deals are made.
So I create a space where I bring together corporate executives, industry leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, everybody that's doing their thing in their field, and I feel like we each need each other because when I would go to corporate events, I wouldn't see my industry friends there, and when I would industry event, I wouldn't see my corporate watree friends there. So I wanted to bring us all together because I felt like business could be done in these rooms, and we need each other to get deals.
Done, and it all complement each other a lot of the different things that we do. It's like, Okay, well, Angela's looking for you know, this investor for one of her businesses.
Let me see if I could connect it with this person.
Or this person's trying to get a guest speaker to do X, Y and Z, Well, let me see if I can help them find the right person, because you also know everybody's bios.
Yeah, And also what I noticed is, like corporate executives, we need industry leaders. We need people that are out on the community to help push our products, to get the information out there, to say how wonderful we are. Because every brand wants to be the brand of choice.
Talk more about that, because when you hear about these rooms, you think, oh, that's just for big shots. The corporate America needs community people as much as community people need that opening.
Yeah, exactly, You're spot on the corporate executives.
We need industry leaders, influencers, people out in the community to talk about how good our products are. Every every corporation wants to be the corporation of choice. So if you have somebody out there and you're doing a business and they're coming to your events, they're like, oh, I went to way Up, I had a beautiful experience and greeting me with water.
They took care of me, right, So we all want people.
To don't get we don't get water water. Don't be putting that out there.
But I'm just saying, like when you when you have a good company and people are out talking about your business, it helps you helps business succeed.
It's all about word of.
Mouth as well as influencers and industry people need corporations because we can help with funding, we can help with sponsorship, we can help with broaden your connections, we can help with business acumens.
So both entities need each other.
You know what's interesting too, is monetizing something like this because I feel like sometimes we don't realize the connections that we have that we bring to the table is something that can be monetized. Sometimes we do things just as a favor, like let me introduce you to this person and hook it up.
And then now they go on and do a deal.
But maybe you're not benefiting from that at all, But you made the initial introduction that made it happen.
Can you talk about that?
Yeah?
And and Andy, who you just had up here or she was one of the first people to show me my worth in connecting people. So somebody reached out to me that had a conference and they said, Nicole, can you help me with some powerful women.
To speak at my conference.
At first I was like, I know a lot of powerful but that I had to figu out the right people to be a part of.
This conference is a huge conference.
And I reached out to three people and I asked them all their fee, and I got everybody their fee.
Okay, what's your speaking fee? What's this?
What's just charges? Doing all these deal transactions and helping just my friends. I didn't even think about me getting paid. So Yandy said, well what's your fee? And I said, what do you mean? She said, how much are you charging? I mean, what's your fee for getting me booked to do this, and I said, oh, I don't charge fee. He's like, I'm connecting, you're my friend, Like I'm putting you in this room. I'm giving you this opportunity. I've always led with how I can help people, how I can get them opportunities. I never thought about little old me. And so she said what's your fee? And I said what does that mean? And I said what do people charge? She said, you can do anywhere between ten to twenty percent. I would say ten, because you're new at this. I said, okay, so you're gonna give me ten percent, I'll take it right. So and so she gave me ten percent, and every deal that I got her from more she always gives me ten percent of her deal and it's just from getting her in the rooms. And then I said, oh, so people get paid for this. So she opened my mind up to that, you know, getting paid for my connections.
Right, it's like a booking fee.
It's a booking fee, and if a deal is made, then I get ten percent of that too, because I'm putting I'm giving you opportunities. And that's the important of being in the right room, because you can meet somebody that can grow your network, your net worth, your business just by being in the right room and being introduced.
So if I'm listening to this, it's like, this sounds like it's for you know people at a certain level. One it's not. And two they can actually work with you when you have a service that people can actually subscribe to. Yes.
So one, I created the in the room, so it's it's an event that I host in person.
But people wanted more. They're like, well, how did I get in contact with you?
You've been on wallhet twenty years, you have so much business acumen, you know so many people. So I created a membership. So the membership is ninety nine dollars a month. And people are telling me the.
Price is too cheap. But that's where I wanted to start.
And wait, wait, wait, wait, where is it? Where do people go to get it?
So ww dot the maasterconnector agency dot com.
Okay, back to ninety nine dollars back Yeah, So.
On my website you can book a ticket to the person events and then you can also book the membership. With the membership, you meet with me monthly on zoom and I have experts in their field come on to talk to you about every area of business. I have someone talking about trademark, of someone talking about personal branding, elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch is so important when you meet people getting to the point of what they need to know. I talk to people about the keys of networking, the art of networking. I have a huge network. People always ask me how I know so many people, like everybody knows everywhere I know.
They're like, oh, yeah, you know my homegirl Nicole yea.
All the time, Thank you so.
And I think that comes from like doing good business right, Like you don't want people to say your name.
You're like, oh yeah, I know Nicole.
Like no, I've always level integrity, do good business, and leave with how I can help people.
But the membership.
Every month I have experts coming on talking about their field and how they can help you increase your business.
I always say your network, your network, and your business.
Wow. A lot of people when they hear things like this, you're gonna introduce them to partners, potential mentors, and they go into these rooms and they think about, Okay, what am I going to get? What am I going to get? But You're like, flip that script a little bit and think about what you're gonna bring ring.
Yes, that's one of the top keys to networking. I tell people all the time, lead with how you can help. These rooms are powerful rooms. I had CEOs in this room. I had venture capitalists, people that had multi mayion dollars willing to invest. I had executive c suite and above decision makers, meaning that you want a job, you can go straight to them. I call it the cheat code, meaning that you're talking to the person that you don't have to go through the PR the admin, the behind the scenes people, through the red tape. But I tell people lead with how you can offer help to someone, because a lot of times, I want to say, ninety percent of the time, if I meet Angela, I'm like, oh my god, I want to be on your radio show? Versus what are you working on? What are your GOALRO twenty twenty five? How can I add value?
Is?
What is your plan?
I always leave with value with people. Anybody I met. Everybody can say that when they've met me, Yeah, like how can I help you?
Right, It's like, what are you working on?
Oh?
You want to speak on JP? Okay, you want to speak on a platform. I'm gonna see who I know on that platform. So I always have with value and I think that comes back to your fold because always leaved with how you can help versus what can I get from you?
And it's so important for our community to get into these rooms. We don't have access to this route these.
Ass and we do make such a big splast when we are in these rooms.
I think people are really excited.
You know, Nicole's had me out of some of her networking events also, and it's always been like I walk away with a whole bunch of different new connections. I even meet people who are like, oh, I reached out to you on LinkedIn, I didn't hear back, but here you are in person. Yeah, And so it's like a real life LinkedIn vibe in the rooms. I mean, it's amazing, it's you know, it's just incredible because it's all people who I think when you go into rooms like this, it's also important because these are all people who are very ambitious. Because it's one thing to want to do something, it's another thing to get out and do it. And so all these people are there for the purpose of trying to grow whatever it is that they want to do. But also there's people in the room that want to help you grow whatever it is that you're trying to do, so that's equally important. And it's interesting because I know Yandy and you, like you said, have work together closely. And I was with her earlier and she was talking about just the feeling that people are having right now who are business owners, who are entrepreneurs, who are creators, how right now they're feeling like, Ooh, what's the government about to do for us?
We have to figure out how to.
Make things happen more on our own because they're not going to be looking out for us. What do you feel like is the sentiment around that right now?
Yeah?
I always say work with people that celebrate you. Focus on people that focus on you. Don't like, look for your tribe, look for people that light up when they see look for people that want to help you. And I tell everybody that go where you're celebrated, not where you're tolerated. And I think right now even more so, like I'm building this community of powerful people that have seats at the table to help us all grow our network, our network, and our business. And I stand on that because everybody that's in these rooms. I want to say, ninety percent of these rooms haven't seen the table, which is important and a lot of us don't have access to that. I always tell people the last event, the first event I did, I had the mayor come up talk to take thanking me for lunch of my business in Atlanta and Land. I had the old mayor of Atlanta in the room as well. I had CEOs in the room. I had executive from Fortune five hundred companies. I had influencers, I had famous people, I had real estate.
Like the room had a caveat of people that you just don't.
Normally want to entrepreneurs.
And entrepreneurs, yes, successful business owners and new business owners, and you just don't walk into a room that has that caliber of people of different backgrounds. Usually if you go to a certain function, it's always you know, sports, entertainment or music or finance or law.
Like this room had everybody in there.
And playing off what Angela was saying about how people are feeling like it's we really got to come together. You had an event right after the election November seventh that kind of lived that home for you.
Yeah, and so what's interesting because I had the event November seventh. The election was the number fifth, and so many people were like, they don't know if they're gonna come because their mood was just not.
Where they wanted to need them. I need a moment, right.
I had the chairwoman of Black Lives Matter come to my event, and she's in that space right like you're fighting for us on the front lines every day. And she said, nicoll I wasn't going to come to this event, but when I tell you, I thank you for coming to this event because it was the room was so warm and welcoming. Everybody was there to help. Everybody knew they were there the network, so the guard was down. And she said it was just so powerful and pactful being around all this black excellence all at once.
I needed this.
She needed that room's public first spirits and she made some dynamic connections for what she's doing.
So I think one havn't even I know.
November seven was a gamble, right, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be celebrating and I was like, okay, well, I'm sorry, but the energy in the room, the power of the room, all the black excellence in the room, everybody loved it.
Yeah, because I feel like we can be discouraged right now. I know it was a big story about Walmart and how they're getting rid of their whole many companies, yes, so many companies are and obviously Walmart's a huge one, right, and a lot of people who have initiatives or they had funding set aside and now everybody's like, oh, ain't got I do that nowhere, right, And they're also even trying to make it illegal for you to even you know, give grant money yea to you know, people of color, to black owned businesses.
To one penalized colleges and universities, right.
And so it's a different world.
Yeah, there's a lot of that going on, and I know it can feel like a discouraging time, but I think it's even more important that we have things like this and things like the Master Connector who can actually still help navigate through a system that even if you're trying to make us not able to do things or put obstacles in our way, we're still able to get it done with community.
Yes, exactly, get it done with the community. It's called the Connectors community. And like I just said, I know a ton of people. So if you're working on something, do you feel subscourverage you reach out to me, especially if you're a part of my membership, because we also have Slack channel where you can communicate or I put in exclusive events that are happening, or I say, how's everybody's day going? If I found out opportunities and so it's good to have someone that a I have a seat at the table, but also have the networks to.
Help you in your business or whatever you have going on.
So you got me. I know everybody out there right now is listening and they're going to go to the Master Connectoragency dot com. It's the Masterconnector Agency dot com. Subscribe ninety ninety nine dollars a month and just take me through. So I subscribed. I don't know what I'm doing. What do I get for my ninety nine dollars a month?
Sure, exactly.
So our first class is on December ninth, so you want to subscribe before December ninth. Right now, we're giving out free credit repair to the first five members that sign up. So if you sign up in their first five, you get the free current repair, which is one thousand dollars service. So we're giving that away for free as part of the membership and being on the way up and then with the service. So the first meeting, we're gonna do goal setting for twenty twenty six. So I'm gonna meet with all of my members and write down what your goals are. And that helps me understand who you are as my key member in my community, what you're working on, and then I start to go through my role indecks in my network to figure out how to get you from point A to point B.
Each month, I have people coming on to.
Talk about different areas of business and how to be successful in your business, whether like I said, that's marketing. I have a good girlfriend that does marketing, and she said, when people start their businesses, they don't think about a marketing budget. But if you don't have a marketing budget, how do people know.
What your business is exactly?
And so like little things like that, so so many is being dropped in so many aha moments that you would get from being in this community. It's access to information that we just don't know that we don't know.
I have been you're marketing for people too.
And marketing for people. Yeah, and then you're a part of a community, so we're all in this together. And it's like, I have this going on. We promote each other's businesses, which I think is important, but it's just having those experts come on every every month to talk about different areas of business.
Trademarking.
You had somebody up here talking about trademarking, talking about personal branding. There's also what a lady coming on talking about the five areas of business. Shout out to my girlfriend Candae. She's talking about the five area business that you need to succeed. So every month you'll be on and then you also get access free access to the in person events. So the in person events are ticketed, but if you're a member, you get free access to the free general mission access to the in person events.
You have a big one coming up in markets.
Huge ones et so Eric Thomas.
He is the highest paid, number one motivational speaker in the world. This man changes lives. Anytime I mention his name, someone's like, he saved my life. He changed my life. He is like the amazing profit. He charges a lot of money to show up anywhere he goes, and they pay it because he's valuable the gyms that he drops. He's going to be our guest on March fourteenth in Atlanta. The tickets are on the website right now. There's a twenty five percent off code if you use Wealth Wednesdays. I'll put that up for twenty four hours.
Okay, yeah, look at us saving people money, saving people.
Money, Wealthnesday, saving people money. But Eric Thomas is a big deal. So you want to be in this room to hear. I'll be interviewing him here, interviewing him to figure out how he became the most highest paid person to speak, right, Like, everybody wants to get paid their value, So how do you get that? So he'll be dropping gyms on that. He'll be dropping gyms on just changing your life.
So that's our that's exciting. That's really because he's going to be coming up after.
Oh so we got another surprise. Guess you might know. We might know where' stay. Your name is Angelia?
You know?
Yeah, if he have the famous Angela Yee coming in November, that's gonna be just do that. Well because it's her show, right know, I'm gonna be there, you know what I'm saying.
Yes, loving Angela is so people.
She's the sweetest person and she's on the ready, but she's like a mini mogul, right, and not to put her business out there, but every time I'm talking to her, she's working on so many investments that are getting her money.
And I'm so proud of you.
Not all of them yet, but we're working on it.
But you but you're still but you're still.
Remember we were like, Okay, I can't go to Shanelle this because I got to buy our property. I'm like, that's dope, right, because that's that's that's the part of where you're putting your money into things that are gonna make you more money versus things that are gonna appreciate.
Right.
So all of them chel bags, they wear something later, they don't do that.
They do said, I get he.
Coming give the gift the gifts right right.
Someone was like, this is investment.
But it does make you realize when you're investing in things and you're looking long term, it does make you think like, Okay, I can stop buying all these other things because you see the bigger picture for what it is. And it feels exciting when you're able to like do those things and spend money on these investments and you know, little fun things like yeah myself, yeah, But it also makes you realize when you have to sacrifice all of that, how unnecessary it can be, you know.
And so that's something that I've learned, or I tell myself.
Anyway, now you're learning it because you tell me, you're like, okay'm I gonna do this, I'm gonna get this.
I'm like, that is so relist.
And I've been on no vacations.
Financial securities, freedom. Yeah.
And I want to ask you, Nicole, because you know a lot of people have wanted you to start this business. It's been something you've been why did you decide finally like now is the time?
How did you know?
Yeah?
It was God. I give all glory to God. It was God. And literally they say God talks to you in your dreams.
Yes, since man was waking me up every day at three o'clock in the morning, like you can't talk to me during the day.
Like everything, I'm.
Tired, and you would say, like you're gonna create this room. My whole life, everybody's been telling me to start this business. But again, I didn't know what that looked like, what that meant, because I didn't have a tangible product. So I'm like, Okay, how do I start a business because I know Edge, Yee or ye, and you're all these phenomenal people. And so he said, you're gonna create this room to charge you be in this room. This room's gonna add value. The sole mission of this room. What I want to happen is they came to the Master Connector Agency and it changed your life. It impacted your life. I always say, meeting the right person could change your life. Be in the right room could change your life. So this whole thing is to help my community build their network and help them grow their business, their network and their net worth. And I give networking tips at the event so that people that are shy, like you know, stand office.
I'm like, okay, Well with the.
Com people, I always say, that's really tough for them to go into a room full of people that they don't know.
Or you may feel a little uncomfortable. You may feel like do I belong here?
And so even being able to approach someone is not an easy thing.
We have at Ashley and Nicole who said that she's shy. You never guess it, but she's shy. So she every time she goes to an event, she's like, you're gonna talk to three people?
That's smart.
Yeah, picking a number.
People also even call me and said with the confidence thing. They're saying, Nicole, you're around all these powerful people, or you're on the wall street. I don't belong in that room. I'm like, you belong in any room that you go. And when you get in there, you leave with a compliment. Everybody loves the compliment.
That's the first icebreaker. Oh I love your hair, I love your shoes, I love your bag.
And then if they say okay, thanks, and it's like, okay, are you from around this area?
Then you figure out where they're from.
You try to find a common piece to keep the conversation going, and then leave with that value. You can add, oh what field are you in? Oh I'm in I'm in let's say restaurant business.
Oh well, I love to cook this.
Or I know somebody that will love to try your food, or I know somebody that could be a food critic.
Right, figure out how you can find those coffee company. I love to have my coffee in your restaurant.
Exactly right, exactly in case everybody.
Angela has a coffee company and she's gonna be at the conferences Connected.
Agency November and November, Angela will be there. But yeah, it's just finding those finding those common pieces. But I want to create a room that I'm impacting and helping my community. That's the best thing that I could do. Now we do networking bingo, which is fun. My girlfriend Bass puts it on, so you walk around and try to fill your bingo cut out and you win a prize. So that's another way to encourage people to network because I tell people when they come in these rooms, I have executs is that are vice presidents and above in this room, but you don't know what they look like, right, so people will run to the Angela ye'es or the y andes or the etis because they know what they look like. But I'm like the person, get offer your job and a success story from my last event, I had a CEO of a major company there and they didn't know who they were, but they were a CEO and they talked to them and now they have an interview next week. So yeah, they have an interview next week to potentially have a job that's going to change your life, make an impact in their financial you know, stability.
So and I love this one as you're talking it doesn't. It always matters what's going on in the external world, but it doesn't matter as much when you're in these communities and getting it done together in the world. The world is going to change all the time around you. But I love how you're just bringing people together in a safe.
Space and a safe space.
Yeah, and I know this ET event and Angela event is going to sell out. This space only fits two hundred people. To get your tickets fast.
Not only can you see Angela, but you can get a twenty percent Yes this county who see Angelo by putting in way up.
It's aren't still Yeah.
Yeah, it's eased first and then will et.
Yeah, well okay, we'll be starting to waitless it be.
I'm telling you, everybody's like you on some special this thing is gonna blow up. I'm like, I'm here to help.
So that's awesome.
Master connector is the master Connector.
It kind of reminds me of you know, just like I said, monetizing these connections. I think Steve Stout was one of the people who really was great at doing things like that because he would he would kind of match up different people with different corporations and help them understand the value of you know, because understanding the value of who certain people are. Also, sometimes people try to not give you your value of what you're worth, and the co will fight for that for you and be like, well, this person gets this, but this person deserves to have X, Y and Z. Well, I don't know if you know their number. It's like, it's nice to have people speak for you even when you're not in the room that can really advocate for you.
And that think how much time we spend as entrepreneurs trying to meet that person or trying to get to that person the phone calls, the emails.
Yeah, that's why people like your tickets are so cheap one hundred dollars to meet a CEO.
And I'm like, I'm keeping it that way. They're going up the right, they're going up. But it's the facult you said, it's cutting off the red tape. It's I call it the cheek call.
You're in the room with the decision makers that offer you opportunities, and Angel's right, I do fight for my people, like I say, like, well, this is her value.
I'm yes, fighting for stagey too.
But pay people there will pay people their value because people work hard, right, and don't try to discount somebody or because they're my friend.
No, this is what she charges, this is what her prices, this is what she deserves.
So just like the budget needs to says, she was talking about that and working with different corporations and saying, this is what my price is, because a lot of times people do try to low boil you or do try to say, oh, everybody's line is that, well, we don't really have a budget right now, but we don't have X, Y and Z right now. If you know somebody's price is their price, you know she's not.
And she always really leans in, don't be afraid to say no.
Yep, yep, cheese prices.
And when I tell you this is the highest pace mere, his prices is like seven figure.
It's high, and I'm.
Like, whoa, okay, but it's worth it, Like I know it's his work. He's literally changing impacting lives. So I think that's the well congratulation.
The Master connector the Master connector agency dot com. When you go to that site, you can sign up for the subscription, you can sign up for the event, use the discount code way up.
And everybody's Wednesdays. Oh I take that way back. Yeah, the discount code is Wealth Wednesdays.
And how do people find you on social media?
I'm the masterconnector dot com so th h e master underscore connector not dot com so the master connector.
Yes, she's she's had this in her mind for a while a while.
Yeah, right right, I connect.
Well, thank you so much. We appreciate you and we honor you.
You know, anytime you call me, it may take me a moment, but when I get back, it's always a yes, and it's always I.
Have can track my friend down. I'm like, yeah, you.
Calling me, like ten oh two. I'm like, girl, I'm on the air.
Call her opportunity. I'll call her opportunity. I'll call it. Was like, how could I help you?
Yeah, it's always good.
It's a beautiful thing.
Happy Wealth Wednesdays Wednesday. Thank you guys for having me.
Blessed for the friendship Angela and Stacy a person my new friend.
And shout out to my girl Ebney.
She's in the corner over there, but she flew in to support me and she's a part of my team.
Thank you, Ebony. Yes, I have an amazing to get around.
I feel good.
Yes, she comes with she works. She comes just like yeah, you walk and you see Ebne, you like, I feel like.
I could do anything. Like she's the best energy person to have around you.
And I would say gold people that celebrate you, and she celebrates me in the company.
So thank you for celebrating our community and doing what you do.
Thank you.
It's way up. It's a wealth Wednesday.