Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed: S1E15 An Interview with Josh Krafchick and Michael A Forman

Transcript

Networking Unleashed: S1E15 An Interview with Josh Krafchick and Michael A Forman · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Collections.
• 0:23
  Yes, welcome to the show folks.
• 0:25
  I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and you're listening to the podcast where networking
• 0:31
  is more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee.
• 0:35
  It's an art and a talent.
• 0:37
  Yes, but here's the twist.
• 0:40
  It's an art and a talent you can actually learn.
• 0:44
  Yes, even if you're the person hiding in the corner at every event pretending to check
• 0:49
  his emails.
• 0:51
  Work isn't just a nice play nice skill to have.
• 0:54
  It's a game changer.
• 0:56
  When you get good at it, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner.
• 1:00
  More connections, more opportunities, more profits.
• 1:04
  It's like unlocking a cheat code for life.
• 1:07
  So whether you're the life of the party or the let me just stay home and text type, we've
• 1:13
  got something for you.
• 1:15
  Stick around.
• 1:16
  Let's turn those awkward small talk moments into big wins.
• 1:21
  Now I've got a great guest today.
• 1:24
  His name is Josh.
• 1:25
  I'm going to let him introduce himself, but let me give you a little bit beforehand.
• 1:32
  He grew up in a divorce family.
• 1:35
  Money was always a negative topic.
• 1:38
  He received a degree in actuarial science, and then he discovered that financial advisors
• 1:45
  are in sales and really don't know the ins and outs of investing.
• 1:50
  That's when he made it his mission to educate Americans on the best ways to grow their wealth.
• 1:56
  Josh, welcome.
• 1:57
  Yeah.
• 1:58
  Thanks for having me, Michael.
• 1:59
  Happy to be on the show.
• 2:01
  Great.
• 2:02
  Great.
• 2:03
  Listen, I'm very glad to have you here.
• 2:04
  I see that we both come from divorce families and we both made our way to better ourselves.
• 2:12
  Let's say talking about networking, how would you approach building genuine relationships,
• 2:22
  genuine connections with a world that's increasingly digital?
• 2:27
  Yeah, that's the tough part.
• 2:29
  Most people don't want to leave their house nowadays to go to events.
• 2:33
  I'm actually one of those folks.
• 2:34
  I'd rather stay home than go to events rather than focusing on putting myself in positions
• 2:40
  that I don't thrive in.
• 2:43
  I have figured out ways to put myself into environments where I could be my best self.
• 2:52
  When you are your best self, that's when you shine, when you meet people, you're in a better
• 2:56
  mood, you're more open to meeting new people.
• 3:01
  It definitely opens things up.
• 3:03
  Such as I started a podcast and I invite people that I think are going to be cool on the podcast,
• 3:08
  such as yourself.
• 3:10
  That's one way I can meet people.
• 3:11
  I like to play golf, so I'll sign up as a single and I'll get paired with a random person
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  and we'll be stuck out on the golf course for a few hours.
• 3:19
  That's another way to meet people.
• 3:21
  As well as I've been working really hard to figure out how do you share your message with
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  the world, which is scary, hopping on a camera, being vulnerable, and figuring out how to
• 3:32
  attract the right people rather than doing what a lot of people do is just bang the phones,
• 3:38
  getting LinkedIn messages, bang social media messages and see who responds.
• 3:45
  I see.
• 3:47
  And you're really talking about being an introvert as opposed to an extrovert.
• 3:53
  You know, an extrovert really, such as myself, I love going out to the places to network,
• 3:58
  to meet the people.
• 4:00
  The more people I meet, the better.
• 4:03
  And there's a way to handle that.
• 4:04
  If you're an introvert, I call that a wingman, but I'll go into that later on.
• 4:10
  What do you think is the key element for effective professional network?
• 4:19
  The key is not to expect anything from anyone, meaning you need to reach out to people like
• 4:25
  genuinely, like people who you genuinely want to meet.
• 4:29
  And it doesn't have to be just for business.
• 4:31
  It could be in other facets of your life because if you just focus on business for 10 years
• 4:37
  and you're like, I don't want to make any new friends.
• 4:39
  I don't want to focus on anything else.
• 4:41
  I'm going to be straight business for 10 years.
• 4:44
  You're going to limit the amount of opportunities that you'll have in the future because you're
• 4:48
  not nurturing relationships.
• 4:50
  You're not creating other connections outside the business world, which you never know when
• 4:56
  someone's going to call you up one day that you weren't even, you haven't even really talked
• 5:01
  about business other than they know what you do.
• 5:03
  They like you.
• 5:04
  And then eventually you get that phone call.
• 5:05
  Hey, I have a friend.
• 5:06
  Hey, I need help with this.
• 5:07
  I know you've been doing this for a while.
• 5:09
  And it is in the short run, it could help someone get better results.
• 5:15
  However, this is a marathon game and doing short term activities that have short term
• 5:21
  results is a recipe for a calamity in the future.
• 5:28
  So if I understand it correctly, which I usually do, first of all, you have to be yourself.
• 5:34
  Don't try to be somebody else, but don't limit yourself to business activities because you
• 5:41
  don't know because a friend of yours, you're not just talking to a friend.
• 5:45
  You're talking to your friends network of people.
• 5:49
  So even though you may not do business with your friend, you're doing business with his
• 5:57
  friends and so on.
• 5:59
  So you can't really cut yourself short.
• 6:01
  You want to just, you want to make as many friends business or otherwise as possible.
• 6:07
  Okay, so the biggest question.
• 6:10
  Listen, you've been around the horn quite a bit.
• 6:14
  What mistakes have you made and how did you overcome them?
• 6:20
  In terms of networking?
• 6:22
  In terms of networking, but this is precise.
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  Probably the biggest one was not believing in myself because when I left corporate America
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  and I didn't have a big company name behind me, I felt that my age would deter people
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  from working with me.
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  So I attempted to partner with people who were older.
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  So that way, if I ever got the objection, well, how long have you been doing this for?
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  I could say, listen, I've been doing this for X amount of years.
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  I partner with this person.
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  They've been doing it for X plus years.
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  So we have a whole team here.
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  I felt that was a good, a good cheat code.
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  Hey, like, I know what my downfall is.
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  People are going to ask how old I am.
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  How long have you been doing this for?
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  What are your credentials?
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  So I wanted to eliminate that.
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  Now I realize that no one really cared.
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  It was just something that I created in my head.
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  There are people who have those check marks that they want when they work with someone,
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  especially in the financial industry.
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  And I've learned that those are the sort of folks that are not my person that I want to
• 7:35
  work with.
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  So I would say that was probably the biggest mistake, was just not having the confidence
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  and not believing I could do it on my own because I wanted to be part of a team.
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  And unfortunately, I struck out on all three partnerships I attempted to do.
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  That's all right, but you really proved yourself by having confidence in yourself.
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  And that's really the number one thing you have to remember when it comes to networking.
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  You have to be confident.
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  If you're confident in yourself, then you go out and you conquer the world.
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  But it starts with that confidence.
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  Trust is crucial, especially when you're dealing with finances.
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  But how would you establish and maintain a relationship with your fellow professionals?
• 8:33
  Like the people that I used to work with?
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  Or like people in the financial industry?
• 8:39
  People you work with, yeah.
• 8:40
  Oh, like current clients or prospects?
• 8:43
  Is that what you're talking about?
• 8:44
  Exactly.
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  How would you stay in contact, stay top of mind?
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  But how do you maintain that relationship?
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  How can you create that authentic relationship and keep top of mind within your clients?
• 9:02
  So what I feel like nowadays, and I've been told I'm stupid for doing a lot of the things
• 9:09
  that I'm currently doing, and whenever someone tells me I can't do something, I just say
• 9:13
  to myself, I've been hearing this for a long time.
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  So I'm just going to continue on this road and see what happens.
• 9:18
  I would rather bet on myself and be wrong than take the advice from someone else and
• 9:24
  be wrong.
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  That way I can hold myself accountable.
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  So what I feel like now in 2025 is if you are in business, the new cold call is social
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  media, posting a video, making a post, doing a picture.
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  You never know who's going to see it.
• 9:40
  And even if you're getting no likes and no comments, when I went out for lunch with a
• 9:44
  friend that I hadn't seen in a few years, he actually brought up, he's, I see all of
• 9:47
  your posts, and I've never seen this person like it or comment it one time.
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  And you just never know who's watching.
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  Not all of the analytics online are going to tell you the full story.
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  So I mean, if you don't like cold calling, whip out your phone and just start talking
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  and post it and based on people's likes, interests, you know, you'll show up in the right people's
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  feed and you'll be top of mind in that sort of capacity.
• 10:13
  So I mean, that's sort of my new age cold call strategy, just because cold calling for
• 10:19
  me is something that is, I don't really enjoy doing it.
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  I can do it.
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  I'm pretty good at it.
• 10:28
  However, right now I feel like if you create a video, you post the video, that video's
• 10:33
  out there.
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  So when you get on a call with someone, they're like, Hey, like, I have a question about this.
• 10:38
  Now you can send them a video.
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  You don't have to say the same thing a thousand times when you get the same question.
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  So you can start to make videos based on your questions.
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  You send, now you're working asynchronously to help you focus on working on the business
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  versus consistently in the business.
• 10:57
  That's you bring up a very good point.
• 11:00
  You're brought up a few very good points.
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  I'm just going to try to dissect this a little bit.
• 11:04
  Yeah, let's break it down.
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  So really what you're talking about is an, again, is an introvert versus an extrovert.
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  First of all, nobody likes to do sales calls.
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  Nobody likes to do cold calls, let alone sales calls.
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  But in lieu of doing the cold calls by putting out those videos, you're not having to talk
• 11:27
  to those people by putting a post through LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook.
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  You don't have to do those cold calls.
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  You're letting them, everybody see them.
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  And if they want, they're going to contact you.
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  So you're cutting out the middleman.
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  You're just allowing them to reach out to you and you can answer an introvert extrovert
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  doesn't make a difference.
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  When somebody approaches you, then it's 100% difference than if you just reached your hand
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  out to them.
• 12:00
  So it works out very well.
• 12:02
  So you know, and that's what you try to do with videos with email marketing.
• 12:07
  There's a way that you attach a video in that email and you can send that email out.
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  There's a thousand different ways of you to market yourself.
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  But with social media, it's that much more, it's the easier.
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  Yet it's difficult because there are so many people out there doing social media.
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  But let's revert back to the networking event.
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  Okay.
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  A large scale gathering and it can really be overwhelming.
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  Do you have any tips for somebody if they went to a conference or a seminar like that?
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  What I like to do is typically find the person that no one's talking to first.
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  I find the person standing by themselves.
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  Probably that person who's a little shy.
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  I'm not shy.
• 13:02
  I've actually read, I mean, there's like people who are like extroverted of the life of the
• 13:07
  party, the class clown, and there's people who are a little bit more quiet.
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  I'm introverted in the sense where I recharge, I don't just talk for the sake of talking,
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  but I'm like extroverted, meaning I can sit in a coffee shop, not talk to anyone.
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  I feel energized.
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  So typically I like to start off by finding the person no one's talking to.
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  I was like, let me just go talk to this person and be like, hey, no one's talking to you.
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  Is there any, any reason why?
• 13:32
  No, just haven't been, haven't started talking to anyone yet.
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  You're the first person.
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  And then boom, break the ice and see where it goes.
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  And that way you can get your lips and your tongue and all the mouth muscles moving and
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  working a little bit.
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  You know, there's a way I always suggest people join their Chamber of Commerce and go to that
• 13:54
  meeting every week because it will help you tailor your message.
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  And they have their after hours meetings and usually the same people plus maybe five go
• 14:08
  to those meetings.
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  And if you're going to those meetings and you see a wolf flower as you put it and you
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  walk up to them, don't just start talking to them.
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  But when you walk up to them and say, you know, what do you do?
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  How are you whenever?
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  Say, well, you know, I do graphic design or I do marketing.
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  Say you know something that table over there is filled with marketing people or graphic
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  designers or people that use graphic design.
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  Let me introduce you to them.
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  So you walk over, you walk them over, you introduce them and you back away.
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  You let them talk.
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  So you've done your part.
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  You've now elevated your process because our follow much more in that person's world.
• 15:01
  Every event that they go to, they're going to remember you for doing that.
• 15:04
  And it's very important.
• 15:07
  Okay.
• 15:09
  So what would you say is an essential skill?
• 15:16
  What's an essential tip you would give for somebody looking to improve their networking
• 15:22
  or sales skills?
• 15:24
  What I'm working on now is figuring out how to remain present as possible with every activity
• 15:36
  that I'm doing.
• 15:37
  So like right now we're on this podcast, we're on Michael's podcast.
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  Nothing else matters.
• 15:42
  There are no problems.
• 15:44
  We're just here.
• 15:45
  So whenever you're with someone, you have to work on and it's hard like focusing and
• 15:51
  really engaging with each person because you never know when that person may come back
• 15:57
  up.
• 15:58
  You never know what it may or may not lead to.
• 16:02
  However, if you are a jerk or if you rub someone the wrong way, you're guaranteed it to be
• 16:08
  a shut door, a shut opportunity within the first, what is it, a couple seconds, you could
• 16:14
  just basically boom.
• 16:15
  The person's like, yeah, I don't, I'm never going to talk to that person ever again.
• 16:19
  So that's what I'm working on is remaining present.
• 16:22
  And what's really helped me is to make sure you're asking very thoughtful, open-ended
• 16:31
  questions that help lead the conversation to where someone like walks away as well.
• 16:41
  That was the best conversation I had at this event.
• 16:46
  So that's what I'm working on.
• 16:48
  It's a consistent journey.
• 16:51
  You could always be working on it.
• 16:52
  You could always refine your skills in it.
• 16:54
  It's something that you don't just get good at.
• 17:00
  That's it.
• 17:01
  You've established what you have to work on.
• 17:04
  So but let's change it around a little bit.
• 17:07
  What's your favorite marketing tactic?
• 17:12
  My favorite marketing tactic is actually, I've recently started just spending more money
• 17:18
  on marketing.
• 17:20
  So getting more paid leads, doing more, I'll do like a post on social media.
• 17:25
  And if it hits a certain amount of reach, I'll then put some money behind it to see if it
• 17:30
  can gain some traction.
• 17:32
  And then from there, if anyone follows, send them a message like, hey, Michael, thanks
• 17:37
  for the follow.
• 17:38
  I do XYZ.
• 17:39
  If there's any sort of content you want to see, just let me know and I'll make a video
• 17:43
  for you.
• 17:45
  And then I just see what they say.
• 17:46
  Some people just hard it.
• 17:48
  Some people you see, they read it.
• 17:49
  They didn't respond.
• 17:50
  Some people are like, hey, like I found your page.
• 17:52
  Like it really resonated with me.
• 17:54
  And then you see where the conversation goes and you put them in a little folder and say,
• 18:00
  hey, like lead or opportunity.
• 18:02
  And then you just start filling out the pipeline.
• 18:07
  But that sounds fair.
• 18:10
  Okay.
• 18:11
  So let's round this whole thing out.
• 18:13
  And I want you to give me one takeaway that my audience can use today to further their
• 18:20
  networking skills.
• 18:22
  I would say the one of the highest value skills anyone can have is public speaking.
• 18:33
  So being able to speak and not stutter, not get so nervous that you pause and then you
• 18:43
  freak out and then you forget everything you're going to say.
• 18:46
  And by just talking to a camera by yourself, watching the recordings, you don't even have
• 18:52
  to post the video if you're too scared and just watching yourself back and taking notes,
• 18:57
  like actually writing it down.
• 18:58
  Like I have a notepad that I like actually write down because if you write it down and
• 19:03
  you're taking notes, now you're like instilling it into your mind.
• 19:08
  So reach out to someone, get on a podcast or just five minutes a day, talk to a camera
• 19:14
  and you could literally read a book or read anything.
• 19:18
  And one of the things of becoming a new parent is every time at bedtime, I'm reading the
• 19:24
  same books over and over.
• 19:25
  And if you ask someone, hey, Michael, how do you feel about reading Jack and the Beanstalk
• 19:30
  again for the 12th night in a row?
• 19:32
  It could be like, oh, I'm tired of this book.
• 19:34
  Well, I look at it as I'm practicing, talking out loud.
• 19:37
  I'm practicing having the same positive energy every time I read the book.
• 19:45
  And I think to myself, now I know why some famous musicians freak out on people when they've
• 19:50
  sang the same song a bit Julian Times because they're just like sick of it.
• 19:54
  However, when you're a performer or you're in business for yourself, you always have
• 19:59
  to be on your game.
• 20:01
  There's no minutes off.
• 20:03
  You never know where that opportunity may be.
• 20:05
  You could be in a line in the grocery store, you got your shirt on with your logo and
• 20:09
  someone's, oh, what is that?
• 20:10
  Boom.
• 20:11
  You're in a sales call and you didn't even say anything.
• 20:14
  And it's true because no matter where you are, you can always, you're marketing yourself,
• 20:20
  but it's very interesting because when my boys were younger and my wife and I would tag team
• 20:27
  reading to them.
• 20:28
  And of course, I read the same books 150 times.
• 20:32
  It didn't make a difference, but they loved it.
• 20:35
  But what I would do is I would change the way that I spoke of each of the characters
• 20:42
  and I would create a different voice for those characters.
• 20:46
  And I would get better and better.
• 20:48
  My first started, I was hard.
• 20:50
  I, you know, but they didn't know it.
• 20:51
  They thought it was great.
• 20:52
  The kids don't care.
• 20:53
  They don't know.
• 20:54
  They don't care.
• 20:55
  They don't.
• 20:56
  What I knew and I got better.
• 20:58
  So I know exactly what you're talking about.
• 21:00
  That's the greatest way to practice is just to, I always say, start doing it regardless.
• 21:08
  Listen, the first time you go out to a networking event or network or market, you're going to
• 21:13
  suck.
• 21:14
  There's no two ways about it.
• 21:16
  But the next time you go out, then the next time you get better and better.
• 21:20
  Like I said in the beginning, networking is a skill and you have to practice, practice,
• 21:26
  practice in order to get better.
• 21:30
  And I'm sure you'll do it.
• 21:31
  You'll get better.
• 21:32
  You're getting better already.
• 21:33
  I can see that I read.
• 21:35
  I'll tell you, Josh, if somebody wanted to get hold of you, wanted your services or learn
• 21:41
  more about you, how would they do it?
• 21:44
  Just Google Joshua Kraftjic and find my website, find LinkedIn, Instagram, whichever is your
• 21:50
  preferred way of learning your website.
• 21:53
  What's your website?
• 21:54
  369financial.com.
• 21:55
  Okay.
• 21:56
  That's better.
• 21:57
  Okay.
• 21:58
  So that's the way once you articulate exactly where you want them to go, they will go.
• 22:05
  So that's great.
• 22:06
  Do you want to add anything else?
• 22:10
  The key to anything is just showing up.
• 22:11
  So if you're scared of networking, just show up to the event.
• 22:16
  Don't even talk to anyone.
• 22:17
  Be like, all right, I went.
• 22:18
  Now the next time you go be like, all right, I'm going to talk to one person.
• 22:20
  Okay.
• 22:21
  That wasn't so bad.
• 22:22
  And then just build it up from there.
• 22:23
  You don't have to pay thousands of dollars, go to a huge conference and then become overwhelmed
• 22:29
  like the first time you walk into Costco.
• 22:31
  You're like, this place is huge.
• 22:34
  Where do I start?
• 22:35
  That's what I said.
• 22:37
  Join a Chamber of Commerce or go as a guest because they are very small meetings and you
• 22:42
  don't have to say much.
• 22:44
  But each week you practice it and you get better and you go to after hours of it, you
• 22:49
  get better.
• 22:51
  And before you know it, you're a networker.
• 22:54
  You're networking.
• 22:55
  Josh, this has been great.
• 22:58
  I thank you so much for coming on the podcast and we'll talk soon.
• 23:02
  Awesome.
• 23:03
  Thanks everyone.
• 23:04
  We'll see you next time.
• 23:05
  Thanks, Michael.
• 23:06
  Well, that's a wrap, folks.
• 23:10
  A huge thank you to our special guests for sharing such incredible insights today.
• 23:16
  And of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners for tuning in and spending
• 23:22
  your time with us.
• 23:24
  Remember, networking isn't about being perfect.
• 23:27
  It's about being present.
• 23:29
  So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections.
• 23:34
  If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and share
• 23:39
  it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
• 23:43
  Let's keep the conversation going.
• 23:46
  You can find me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or my website, MichaelAformand.com.
• 23:53
  Remember, until next time, keep practicing, keep connecting and keep building those relationships.
• 23:59
  This is Michael A. Formand signing off.
• 24:02
  Take care and happy networking.