Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed: S1E38 An Interview with Jake Setterlun and Michael A Forman

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Networking Unleashed: S1E38 An Interview with Jake Setterlun and Michael A Forman · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

• 0:16
  Hello, and welcome to Networking Unleashed, building
• 0:21
  profitable connections. Welcome back to the show,
• 0:24
  folks. I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and you're
• 0:27
  listening to the podcast where networking is
• 0:30
  more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee.
• 0:33
  It's an art and a talent. But here's the twist.
• 0:37
  It's an art and talent you can actually learn.
• 0:40
  Yes, even if you're the person hiding in the
• 0:43
  corner at every event. pretending to check emails.
• 0:47
  Networking isn't just a nice skill to have, it's
• 0:50
  a game changer. When you get good at it, you'll
• 0:53
  wonder why you didn't start sooner. More connections,
• 0:56
  more opportunities, more profits. It's like unlocking
• 1:00
  a cheat code for life. So whether you're the
• 1:03
  life of the party or the just let me stay at
• 1:06
  home and text type, we've got something for you.
• 1:09
  Stick around. Let's turn those awkward small
• 1:12
  talk moments into big wins. I've got an incredible
• 1:17
  guest today. His name is Jack Sederlund, and
• 1:21
  I hope I got the last name correct. Really, for
• 1:24
  such a young man, he has an extraordinary background.
• 1:28
  and he's a 28 -year -old entrepreneur from Milwaukee,
• 1:33
  Wisconsin, began his business journey at the
• 1:36
  age of 19 while navigating college and searching
• 1:40
  for his life's direction. Now, I can go more
• 1:43
  with his bio, but I'll probably butcher it. Let
• 1:46
  me introduce Jake, and he'll fill you in a little
• 1:49
  bit more. Jake, welcome to the podcast. Absolutely,
• 1:52
  Michael. Thank you so much for having me, and
• 1:54
  I'm super excited to be here. Good. Do you want
• 1:58
  to give us a little bit more of your background?
• 2:00
  Yeah, absolutely. I can talk all day about myself,
• 2:05
  but I've been doing the business entrepreneurship.
• 2:09
  I hate that word, but self -employment thing
• 2:11
  for about 10 years now. I started in college.
• 2:15
  A big part of my introduction into that world
• 2:17
  was networking and just seeing what was out there
• 2:21
  and getting into business, seeing different opportunities.
• 2:24
  And I made a lot of good partnerships, a lot
• 2:26
  of bad partnerships, and really has led to me
• 2:29
  starting a few different, say, successful companies.
• 2:33
  Some of them have definitely been failures, but
• 2:35
  it's been a journey. I'm still here. I'm still
• 2:37
  doing it and excited to share my experience.
• 2:40
  Good. That's great. Okay, that's great. Let me
• 2:43
  start off by asking you, how did networking influence
• 2:47
  your journey in developing business growth strategies?
• 2:52
  Absolutely. When I first got started, I don't
• 2:56
  come from like that business professional background.
• 2:59
  I didn't have parents that are out there being
• 3:01
  like salespeople or business professionals. My
• 3:05
  mom's side, they did have a small business, but
• 3:08
  my mom's an accountant and she likes numbers
• 3:10
  and everything like that. My dad's, you know,
• 3:12
  a normal, typical corporate job. So I didn't
• 3:15
  have a lot of role models in my day -to -day
• 3:18
  life where I was like going out, making connections
• 3:20
  and shaking hands. It was something that I had
• 3:23
  to learn. I got involved first and foremost in
• 3:26
  a club when I was in college called CEO, the
• 3:30
  Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization, and
• 3:34
  really started just like meeting people, shaking
• 3:37
  hands, seeing what everybody else was doing.
• 3:39
  And at the time I was doing prototyping because
• 3:42
  I had a background in engineering. So it was
• 3:44
  like, I want to see what everybody else is doing.
• 3:46
  How are they starting their business? We're all
• 3:48
  the same age, 19, 20, 21. And then from there,
• 3:52
  it really escalated into, okay, everybody's starting
• 3:55
  out. I need to talk to people that actually have
• 3:58
  real business experience. And I got really big
• 4:01
  into LinkedIn and just connecting with people
• 4:04
  in the Milwaukee area. That's where I'm from.
• 4:06
  And I ended up just, I would connect with somebody
• 4:09
  and be like, hey, could I buy you a coffee? I
• 4:11
  just want to sit down and learn from you. My
• 4:14
  first year in entrepreneurship business was just
• 4:18
  doing that, just really meeting people. How did
• 4:21
  you get started? How do you run your business?
• 4:24
  Looking back at it, I was reaching out to people
• 4:26
  that were just way above my level at the time,
• 4:28
  but it really started from there. And then I
• 4:31
  got into Facebook groups and I would network
• 4:34
  in there. That's how I found my business partner
• 4:36
  and really took off. So I could talk about that
• 4:38
  all day, but it really started with me on LinkedIn,
• 4:41
  just networking with individuals in my local
• 4:44
  area that were clearly at a much higher level
• 4:47
  than I was at the time. You always start off
• 4:50
  with what you don't know, you don't know, right?
• 4:53
  And you didn't know where these people were in
• 4:57
  the spectrum of entrepreneurship. So you just
• 5:00
  ask them. And I'm sure most of them said, sure,
• 5:04
  I'll meet you. And that's the way you learn.
• 5:08
  I love when people would ask me, when I had my
• 5:11
  businesses and things like that, I would always
• 5:13
  have somebody coming up and asking me, how did
• 5:17
  I begin? How did I start? How did I do this?
• 5:19
  I always gave them the answers. And I always
• 5:22
  had them buy me a cup of coffee. But besides
• 5:25
  that, everything was good. All right. So how
• 5:28
  has AI changed the way you network and build
• 5:31
  business connections? Yeah, that's a really good
• 5:34
  question. That's a big one for me because we
• 5:36
  do a lot with AI too in our businesses. But I
• 5:40
  think the biggest is it really automates a lot
• 5:43
  of the introductions. Before back in the day,
• 5:46
  I would be on LinkedIn. I would scroll through
• 5:48
  like search Milwaukee and then pick out the people
• 5:51
  that I wanted to connect with and just click
• 5:53
  connect. And then now with AI, I can just run
• 5:56
  an automation. AI will automatically find people
• 5:59
  that I'm interested in connecting with. And they
• 6:03
  automatically sends the first message saying,
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  Hey, this is me. This is what I do. Would you
• 6:07
  be interested in working together? And that's
• 6:09
  the flow now. So AI is really streamlined. I
• 6:13
  think a lot of the hands -on approach that we
• 6:16
  used to have to do. And then now it's just run
• 6:19
  this little software, run this program. And then
• 6:21
  when they respond, I can pick up and start engaging.
• 6:24
  Don't use AI to just have a one -on -one communication
• 6:27
  with somebody because I think AI is not there
• 6:31
  yet. But for the introduction and finding people,
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  it's definitely been a game changer for us. How
• 6:38
  do you feel about that in -person networking,
• 6:42
  going to networking events or networking with
• 6:45
  this person one -on -one? I think there, it's
• 6:50
  an absolute, I think there's a place in everybody's,
• 6:54
  just day to day life that they should be implementing
• 6:56
  that. I don't do it enough anymore. Unfortunately,
• 6:59
  it's something that I've lost a little bit of
• 7:01
  touch with. And I wish I still did. Because as
• 7:05
  much as you can have meetings online with people,
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  it's not the same as one on one networking and
• 7:11
  meeting somebody in your local community. So
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  I think there's a lot of power in it. I did it
• 7:15
  for a lot of years. And Unfortunately, I'm a
• 7:19
  little out of touch with it now, but I think
• 7:23
  it can get you a lot farther because definitely
• 7:25
  online too, people can put on a persona that
• 7:28
  it's, I'm this person and are they really? But
• 7:30
  when you're meeting with somebody one -on -one
• 7:33
  in your local community, it's definitely more
• 7:35
  genuine. And I think it can lead to more real
• 7:39
  business opportunities than somebody just trying
• 7:41
  to sell you something, which unfortunately you
• 7:43
  get that a lot online. I wholeheartedly agree
• 7:46
  with you. I believe in the in -person networking,
• 7:51
  go to networking events. Now, there's a place
• 7:53
  for AI and there's a place for online, but nothing
• 7:57
  takes the place of that one -on -one to feel
• 8:02
  the vibe of the person, to feel the vibe of the
• 8:04
  room. You don't get that energy through Zoom.
• 8:07
  You say, oh. I love it. But through computers
• 8:10
  and everything. Yeah. But you don't have that
• 8:12
  feeling that and you have a feeling of success
• 8:15
  after you leave the event. Then, of course, you
• 8:19
  move on to the follow up. But it's such a bit
• 8:23
  more of a invigorating feeling when you're meeting
• 8:27
  with everybody one on one. But let's just move
• 8:31
  this on. So can you share an example of how networking
• 8:35
  led to creating a successful, irresistible, offer
• 8:39
  absolutely so the biggest like game changer in
• 8:46
  my business in my career was finding the right
• 8:49
  partner and for me i went into business always
• 8:53
  just really wanting to find a partner because
• 8:55
  i struggle with sales it's just not the type
• 8:58
  of person i am i can do support fulfillment operations
• 9:00
  systems all that stuff all day i just don't do
• 9:04
  sales so I was always trying to find the partner
• 9:07
  that could fill that role. And I was in Facebook
• 9:09
  groups. I ended up networking and finding a guy.
• 9:12
  We just chatted. We chatted eventually. We were
• 9:15
  like, hey, let's do business together. And that
• 9:18
  led us into the real estate space, specifically
• 9:21
  doing marketing for real estate agents. And that
• 9:23
  was our first big business together that we started.
• 9:26
  We've went on now and started a bunch of other
• 9:28
  really cool stuff. Him having that experience
• 9:33
  in real estate, me having the marketing experience
• 9:35
  and everything like that coming together and
• 9:38
  really putting our brains together. I know marketing,
• 9:42
  real estate, let's collaborate. And basically
• 9:45
  had all these conversations coming up with an
• 9:47
  offer of what are we going to offer to real estate
• 9:49
  agents? And from there, basically came up with
• 9:53
  our winning offer of at the time, which was just.
• 9:58
  I call it a purple ocean offer, which it stands
• 10:00
  out from what everybody else was doing in the
• 10:02
  market. And together again, came up with this
• 10:05
  winning offer that allowed us to have a lot of
• 10:07
  success because again, I took what I knew. He
• 10:11
  took what he knew about real estate, meshed it
• 10:13
  together. Again, created a winning offer that
• 10:16
  allowed us to scale. That's a great synergy between
• 10:21
  you and your partner. You always look for that
• 10:24
  partnership where you can compliment one another.
• 10:27
  Because if you're competing with one another,
• 10:29
  that's not a good recipe for success. I happen
• 10:33
  to be on the sales side of things. I've been
• 10:36
  doing sales for 100 years. So for me, it's everything.
• 10:40
  But when you get to a partner, I would partner
• 10:43
  with a marketing person or something else like
• 10:46
  that. So that's a great synergy. How would you
• 10:49
  use your networking to stay ahead of emerging
• 10:53
  trends in business? Absolutely. So from now,
• 10:58
  from where I'm at, the biggest way that we've
• 11:02
  used networking to stay ahead of trends and just
• 11:05
  everything going on in the market. Again, I still
• 11:08
  own marketing agencies, so we're very big into
• 11:10
  what's going on in marketing, what's new. One
• 11:14
  of our biggest things over the last two years
• 11:15
  was we implemented voice AI. into our offering
• 11:19
  for our clients, which has been a success. And
• 11:23
  that came from my partner was still in contact
• 11:27
  with another agency, another marketing agency.
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  And they just stay in contact. They, Hey, how's
• 11:32
  everything going? What are you seeing? What are
• 11:35
  the trends? How are your show rates? Are you
• 11:37
  closing people? Are you struggling? And they
• 11:40
  just constantly in communication, not every day,
• 11:42
  but every month, just checking in on each other.
• 11:44
  And He actually mentioned, he sent it over to
• 11:47
  us and was like, hey, check this voice AI thing
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  out. And at the time, it was very expensive to
• 11:53
  get into. So he was like, hey, if you guys want
• 11:56
  to hop in on this, that would be really cool.
• 11:58
  We can do something together. And we ended up
• 12:00
  buying a license together. And again, it's been
• 12:04
  impactful, not only for our business being able
• 12:07
  to offer it, but for our clients and able to
• 12:10
  actually implement voice AI to their businesses.
• 12:13
  Again, really supplementing. what assistant or
• 12:16
  some kind of receptionist would be doing for
• 12:19
  their business. So that's really been the biggest
• 12:21
  thing is that we're able to stay in touch with,
• 12:24
  you could say that there are competitors. At
• 12:27
  the end of the day, there are peers in this industry
• 12:29
  and networking with them, staying in touch with
• 12:32
  them. And again, we wouldn't have adopted voice
• 12:35
  AI so quickly if we wouldn't have had those connections
• 12:38
  and we're in constant communication with them.
• 12:41
  That's all right. That's all right. So tell me,
• 12:44
  as your business scaled, how did you maintain
• 12:48
  and grow your professional network? Absolutely.
• 12:54
  So I feel like it's something that it comes with
• 12:58
  scaling because as you scale, you look for different
• 13:02
  businesses that you might want to plug in as
• 13:04
  far as contractors or hiring different employees.
• 13:09
  And as we grew, we ended up just connecting with
• 13:12
  higher level individuals. We ended up one of
• 13:15
  the biggest turning points in our business was
• 13:17
  hiring out a sales team. And we ended up finding
• 13:21
  somebody to build it out and implement it for
• 13:23
  us. But that connection with that person that
• 13:27
  provided that initial salesperson was and has
• 13:31
  now become like one of the leading industry experts
• 13:34
  in sales. And that was all from hiring him as
• 13:37
  part of scaling, being a client of his. And then
• 13:40
  now he's a peer. We have one -on -one communication
• 13:43
  with him. Everything that comes from scaling
• 13:46
  and in a network aspect of people I can reach
• 13:49
  out to, different resources, have just been from
• 13:52
  having different conversations about, hey, would
• 13:54
  you be interested in doing a little bit of work
• 13:56
  for us? Would you want to collaborate on this
• 13:59
  project? Hey, this is a cool offer you might
• 14:01
  be interested in. this specific thing so it's
• 14:04
  really again come from just the natural progression
• 14:07
  of growing meeting new people and entertaining
• 14:10
  different aspects in the business even if you
• 14:12
  end up working with them or not it's still somebody
• 14:15
  that i feel like at a certain level you have
• 14:18
  a mutual respect for people and you know i'm
• 14:21
  big on not burning bridges and you know just
• 14:24
  having open communication with everybody that
• 14:26
  i meet and referring other people like you know
• 14:29
  connecting individuals And it's that reciprocation
• 14:31
  that eventually it'll come back to you. But yeah,
• 14:34
  as far as networking goes with scaling, it's
• 14:36
  really just been meeting new people and staying
• 14:39
  in touch with them and trying to connect individuals
• 14:41
  and not burning bridges as well. Yeah, no, I
• 14:44
  understand completely. That's as a corporate
• 14:46
  speaker and I do workshops and things like that.
• 14:50
  So I'm always referring. somebody to somebody
• 14:55
  else. I'm always the bridge that connects the
• 14:58
  other two people. And I do that almost for a
• 15:02
  living, because I feel what goes around comes
• 15:05
  around. But I too never burn any bridges. And
• 15:08
  you never know who you're going to collaborate
• 15:10
  with. So I'm always out there when I coach one
• 15:14
  of my students. I'm always emphasizing how important
• 15:19
  that is for a relationship. And you hit the nail
• 15:22
  right on the head. Okay, so what strategies do
• 15:27
  you use for effective virtual networking? Figured
• 15:30
  this is right in your cup of tea here. What strategies
• 15:34
  do you use for effective virtual networking in
• 15:38
  today's digital age? Absolutely. As of right
• 15:43
  now, it's been all about value. and giving value
• 15:46
  and being active as well. As an example, I'm
• 15:49
  still active in a lot of Facebook groups just
• 15:52
  because that was just naturally where I was drawn
• 15:55
  towards when I was first starting. And people
• 15:59
  are always asking for help, referrals, things
• 16:01
  like that. And with where I'm at in business,
• 16:04
  I can, for the most part, say, hey, like check
• 16:07
  this person out if you're having issues with
• 16:09
  your email setup or if you're having issues with
• 16:12
  Facebook ads. Hey, talk to Andrew because Andrew
• 16:15
  is a Facebook ads genius. And it's really been
• 16:18
  staying active. And again, like taking that whole
• 16:20
  aspect of giving back, giving value, sharing
• 16:25
  wins, sharing strategies, and just implementing
• 16:28
  that online. Not asking, not expecting anything
• 16:31
  in return. If I go out there and say, hey. This
• 16:34
  helped us improve our show rates for our clients
• 16:36
  by 20%. If people are, I'm just giving away value
• 16:40
  and I'm giving away the strategy. I'm not saying
• 16:43
  DM me and then trying to sell them something
• 16:45
  or it's $100 and I'll tell you what it is. Not
• 16:48
  doing that by any means. It's literally just
• 16:51
  sharing wins. Again, and taking that whole networking
• 16:54
  approach that's more one -on -one and just applying
• 16:56
  it to groups and trying to be as value as possible.
• 16:59
  Now, I'm not in there every single day, every
• 17:02
  hour of the day, but just checking in, seeing
• 17:05
  what's going on. And again, we talked about how
• 17:08
  do you stay at the peak of your industry and
• 17:10
  seeing like what's going on in your industry.
• 17:12
  That's also another way is as much as I'm giving
• 17:15
  value and I'm networking and sharing with those
• 17:17
  people. I also get to see what everybody else
• 17:21
  is doing and what's going on in our industry
• 17:23
  so that we can improve as well. That's good.
• 17:26
  And you hit something right on the head because
• 17:29
  whenever I go to a networking event or I'm speaking
• 17:34
  at a networking event or I'm coaching somebody,
• 17:37
  I always tell them that you have to go in with
• 17:40
  the mindset to give, not to receive. If you go
• 17:44
  with the mind, because some people have said
• 17:46
  to me, oh, that's crazy because you're going
• 17:48
  to a networking event. And what are you going
• 17:50
  there for? Because you're going there to get
• 17:52
  business. Yes, you are. But if you look to give
• 17:56
  rather than receive, you will get a whole lot
• 17:59
  more than when you started. It's a mindset. And
• 18:03
  that goes along with there's a mantra. There's
• 18:06
  a mantra for networking. If they know you, if
• 18:10
  they like you and trust you. they'll do business
• 18:13
  with you and know you. Listen, you're very well
• 18:16
  known, okay? So everybody knows you and likes
• 18:20
  you. Well, that narrows it down just a little
• 18:23
  bit because everybody doesn't like you, but trust
• 18:27
  you. That's such a crucial factor. And if you
• 18:31
  can gain their trust and you're looking to give,
• 18:35
  not receive, you'll go light years ahead of just
• 18:38
  about everyone else. Absolutely. OK, so let me
• 18:43
  ask you a question. How do you leverage your
• 18:46
  network when implementing new business scaling
• 18:49
  strategies? That's a really good question. So
• 18:53
  for me and what we've been able to do, it's two
• 18:57
  sided. So on one side of it is actually partnering
• 19:02
  with those individuals. So I'll give you an example.
• 19:05
  A little bit ago, probably like a year. ish we
• 19:08
  started a new marketing agency and we were in
• 19:12
  need of an operations manager for that agency
• 19:15
  And we had done a little bit of work with an
• 19:17
  individual in the past, again, never burned the
• 19:19
  bridge, never always kept in contact with him.
• 19:22
  And we offered him like, hey, do you want to
• 19:24
  come on as a partner and be the operations manager
• 19:27
  and help us build this thing? They're directly
• 19:30
  that somebody and he obviously said yes, and
• 19:32
  we're working together. And that was a way that
• 19:35
  we were able to leverage our network of individuals
• 19:38
  to be able to scale because we're only a couple
• 19:42
  people. If we can bring somebody else on that
• 19:44
  we know and we trust to help us scale that business,
• 19:48
  it allows us to do less work. Obviously, we're
• 19:51
  giving up less profit. But at the end of the
• 19:53
  day, we're able to have another successful business.
• 19:56
  So that's definitely one of the ways. It's like
• 19:59
  that direct impact of having that network of
• 20:02
  individuals. But then also the other way has
• 20:05
  really been. with individuals that we're able
• 20:08
  to have conversations with before we actually
• 20:11
  even start. So I'll give you another example.
• 20:13
  We were playing around with starting a LinkedIn
• 20:16
  advertising agency. And it's something we obviously
• 20:19
  know we do on a day to day. But we didn't really
• 20:22
  know if that specific, because that's very specific.
• 20:25
  We didn't know if that would work. Andrew, our
• 20:27
  media buyer, we ended up having a conversation
• 20:30
  with him and really hashing it out and being
• 20:32
  like, what does this industry look like? What's
• 20:34
  our upside? What's our downside? What issues
• 20:37
  are we going to run into? So we were almost able
• 20:40
  to have like a consulting session with him in
• 20:43
  a sense. Obviously, again. We didn't have to
• 20:46
  pay him. We didn't have to just find some random
• 20:48
  person. We knew who he was. We've worked with
• 20:50
  him. We trusted him. So we were able to go to
• 20:52
  him as an advisor and just be like, hey, what's
• 20:55
  your thoughts on this? Is this valid? Is this
• 20:57
  not valid? Because when you start a business
• 21:00
  or when you're doing anything just with your
• 21:02
  job, you can get blinders that it's, I'm so focused
• 21:05
  in. This is going to work. This is going to be
• 21:07
  great. But it's hard to sometimes to really look
• 21:10
  at the big picture and allowing us to bounce
• 21:13
  ideas off of just our network. work in general
• 21:15
  can help us sometimes look at things from a different
• 21:18
  lens. And again, that's obviously going to impact
• 21:21
  your ability to scale. That's right. That's you,
• 21:25
  you, again, you hit on so many different points
• 21:28
  that is spot on. But you told me how successful
• 21:33
  you've become, yet you've had a series of challenges.
• 21:38
  What's a significant networking challenge you
• 21:42
  faced while growing your business and how did
• 21:45
  you overcome it? Yeah, so I think it was, you
• 21:49
  know, I touched on this a little bit before where
• 21:51
  I've gotten out of touch a little bit with networking.
• 21:55
  You know, now it's something that I really try
• 21:57
  to actually structure into my day to day and
• 22:00
  just reaching out to people and, you know, saying
• 22:02
  hi. Thankfully, we have an online group now where
• 22:05
  we're able to do that. But for a long time, I
• 22:08
  fell into just and again, it's not a physical
• 22:12
  hole, but it's a mental hole where you're in
• 22:14
  this room with all these walls around you and
• 22:18
  you're just looking everywhere and it's just
• 22:20
  me and I'm just building this business. kind
• 22:23
  of interacting with everybody inside of our business,
• 22:26
  but I'm not looking at what's outside that room.
• 22:28
  I'm not opening the door and seeing what is everybody
• 22:30
  else doing? How's it going out in the real world?
• 22:33
  And I fell into that trap for about two to three
• 22:36
  years where we were just so focused on what we
• 22:39
  were doing. And we weren't really, again, taking
• 22:42
  a look up from our desk and looking what everybody
• 22:44
  else was doing. And I think that can be definitely
• 22:46
  one of the biggest challenges that you can face
• 22:49
  as you get into business is. Just being so absorbed
• 22:53
  in what you're doing and not really taking a
• 22:56
  step back and looking at what is everybody else
• 22:59
  doing? How's everybody else growing their business?
• 23:01
  Are there any other strategies that we could
• 23:03
  be implementing? And unfortunately, the repercussion
• 23:06
  of that is we scaled our business, but then it
• 23:09
  actually, I don't want to say failed. We had
• 23:12
  a time period of probably six to eight months
• 23:15
  where we were losing money every month because
• 23:17
  we weren't actually looking at. What was the
• 23:20
  market doing? What was the marketing industry
• 23:23
  like? And we really had to open the door of the
• 23:26
  room we were in, look around and see, okay, like
• 23:28
  we need to change things up because the marketing
• 23:31
  industry moved so fast that we had become like
• 23:34
  old in a sense. Like we were doing, an example
• 23:38
  would be like doing advertisements in the newspaper.
• 23:40
  Over those two years, we had fallen so behind
• 23:43
  in what was relevant. that, again, it impacted
• 23:47
  our business. So that's probably one of the biggest
• 23:49
  examples, I would have to say. That's good. That
• 23:53
  also showed how you pulled the blinders off and
• 23:57
  you got yourself able to open the door and actually
• 24:01
  see that light that says, you know what? There's
• 24:03
  other things out there and it's working better
• 24:07
  than ours. So we have to change it, but still
• 24:10
  keep our... our name speak. But yeah, but it's
• 24:15
  very good that you were able to do that because
• 24:17
  there's a lot, face it, there's a lot of companies
• 24:20
  that just have those blinders and then before
• 24:23
  they realize it, they're out of business. So
• 24:26
  that's very good. Okay. So working on the AI
• 24:30
  tools, which AI powered networking tool or platforms
• 24:36
  do you find most valuable for your business growth?
• 24:41
  That's a good question. So as of right now, I
• 24:45
  would say, and I mentioned it before, but LinkedIn.
• 24:48
  And it's funny because LinkedIn back in the day
• 24:51
  was like very popular and it went away for a
• 24:54
  little bit. And now it's almost become, again,
• 24:57
  Instagram is super big for like these personal
• 25:00
  brands, but LinkedIn has almost become that.
• 25:03
  But from a professional sense, you see a lot
• 25:06
  of people starting to give value. I actually
• 25:07
  saw somebody. from college that I networked with
• 25:11
  in that CEO group back in the day. She's starting
• 25:14
  to post on LinkedIn as just giving value. This
• 25:17
  is why I bought a business instead of starting
• 25:19
  one, et cetera, et cetera. So it's really cool
• 25:21
  to see LinkedIn starting to have this comeback.
• 25:24
  So that would be my number one as of right now.
• 25:27
  And again, I, and how does that relate? It has
• 25:31
  to 100 % be. Again, automating the connection
• 25:34
  process and the conversation starting process
• 25:36
  with AI. And then obviously you pick it up after
• 25:40
  they respond or something like that. But LinkedIn
• 25:43
  has been really the biggest and the coolest platform
• 25:46
  that I've definitely been using the last year.
• 25:49
  It sounds like LinkedIn did what you did. They
• 25:53
  got so involved in what they were doing. They
• 25:56
  didn't see everybody else and they were losing
• 25:58
  traction. But then somebody. opened the door
• 26:02
  and said, look out there because they're making
• 26:05
  it and we're not. So they changed. And I was
• 26:08
  aware of the change also because I'm a very big
• 26:11
  LinkedIn user. So they saw it and now they're
• 26:15
  expanding. So it was a very good thing. And rightfully
• 26:18
  that you picked up on it. How do you envision
• 26:21
  networking evolving for entrepreneurs in the
• 26:25
  next five years, especially with the advanced
• 26:28
  AI? That's a good question. I think it'll be
• 26:34
  good for the people that use it properly. And
• 26:36
  I think there will be some bad eggs or maybe
• 26:41
  it's not bad eggs, but I think there will definitely
• 26:43
  be some ingenuine networking and connections
• 26:47
  and things like that. And where I'm going with
• 26:50
  the ingenuine part is just allowing AI to completely
• 26:53
  automate your introduction, your conversation,
• 26:57
  and there's no real meaning behind it at all.
• 27:01
  I definitely see, again, I mentioned LinkedIn,
• 27:04
  but even just on all platforms, being able to
• 27:07
  use AI to find like -minded individuals that
• 27:10
  are in the same industry that you're in and being
• 27:13
  able to use AI to, again, identify them, connect
• 27:15
  with them, interact with them, which I think
• 27:17
  is great. But when AI comes to that conversation
• 27:21
  part and starts to take over the one -on -one
• 27:23
  conversation you're supposed to be having, I
• 27:27
  think that's where we can get down that road
• 27:30
  of, It not being the best option for us as a
• 27:34
  society, especially from a networking perspective.
• 27:37
  So that's where I see it. Again, I see a lot
• 27:40
  of benefits of it, but I also definitely see
• 27:43
  some potential issues. Yeah, you have to train
• 27:47
  AI to speak like you do. You can't just say,
• 27:52
  oh, look, I want to send an email out and just
• 27:54
  fix it. You have to give it very exact directions.
• 27:59
  And then you can't just post it the way it is.
• 28:02
  You have to change it a little bit so it thinks
• 28:04
  the way you do. And AI isn't there yet. They
• 28:08
  haven't. But it's a tool to help you write something.
• 28:12
  And it'll give you the gist of it. But you still
• 28:15
  have to do that writing, that main writing. Jake,
• 28:20
  I'm telling you, this was fabulous. I loved listening
• 28:24
  to everything that you went through, what you're
• 28:27
  going through. If somebody wanted to get hold
• 28:30
  of you, either to buy a service or talk to you
• 28:33
  about entrepreneurship or just to call you and
• 28:37
  talk to you and say, hey, I need help with something.
• 28:40
  How would they do it? Absolutely. So just my
• 28:43
  name dot com. So Jake Sutterlin dot com. We have
• 28:46
  all of our offerings, all of my social medias
• 28:48
  on there. And then. phone number and email that
• 28:52
  if you want to get in contact with me, you absolutely
• 28:54
  can message in. Would love to talk to anybody.
• 28:56
  Again, always interested in growing my network.
• 28:59
  Yeah. If you want to reach out, definitely do.
• 29:01
  It's just jakesetterlin .com. That's great, Jake.
• 29:04
  Thank you so much for coming on. And I hope every
• 29:06
  one of my listeners listened to what you had
• 29:09
  to say because it was very interesting. Thank
• 29:12
  you so much, Michael. Well, hold on, folks. Don't
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  -E -V -V -E -D -U -P -K -I -D -S dot org. Well,
• 30:33
  that's a wrap, folks. A huge thank you to our
• 30:36
  special guests for sharing such incredible insights
• 30:39
  today. And of course, a big shout out to you,
• 30:43
  our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending
• 30:46
  your time with us. Remember, networking isn't
• 30:50
  about being perfect. It's about being present.
• 30:53
  So take what you've learned today, get out there
• 30:56
  and make some meaningful connections. If you
• 30:59
  enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe,
• 31:02
  leave us a review, and share it with someone
• 31:04
  who could use a little networking inspiration.
• 31:07
  Let's keep the conversation going. You can find
• 31:11
  me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or my website,
• 31:16
  michaelaforman. Remember, until next time, keep
• 31:20
  practicing, keep connecting, and keep building
• 31:23
  those relationships. This is Michael A. Foreman
• 31:25
  signing off. Take care and happy networking.