Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed: An Interview with Matthew Fornaro and Michael A Forman, Professional Speaker

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Networking Unleashed: An Interview with Matthew Fornaro and Michael A Forman, Professional Speaker · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

0:15
Welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable
0:18
Connections, the show where smart conversations
0:21
protect your business and help it grow. I'm your
0:25
host, Michael Forman, and today we're tackling
0:27
a side of networking most people ignore until
0:31
it costs them. We all love making, we're all
0:35
talking about connections, collaborations, and
0:37
opportunities, but what happens after the handshake?
0:42
what's real, what's risky, and what actually
0:45
needs to be in place when relationships start
0:48
turning into revenue. My guest today lives at
0:52
the crossroads of law, business, and AI. He helps
0:56
entrepreneurs, startups, and growing companies
0:59
build relationships the right way without stepping
1:03
into legal landmines or misusing powerful tools
1:07
like AI. If you're building partnerships, Using
1:12
AI in your business or networking your way into
1:15
your next opportunity, this episode will help
1:18
you connect smarter, move faster, and protect
1:22
what you're building. I'd like to welcome to
1:25
the podcast, Matthew. Matthew, I really am excited
1:29
for this podcast because I'm very interested
1:31
in what you have to say. Would you mind introducing
1:34
yourself and how you got here today? Sure. Thank
1:38
you for having me, Michael. My name is Matthew
1:40
Finaro. I'm a business law attorney. I'm in Coral
1:43
Springs, Florida. I've been an attorney for 23
1:46
years. My practice focuses on helping small businesses,
1:52
entrepreneurs, and startups with their various
1:54
legal issues, whether it's litigation or transaction.
1:58
I got into this space by starting out when I
2:02
was practicing law. I started out working for
2:05
a boutique firm and then two Amla 200 law firms
2:09
and I focused on predominantly commercial litigation,
2:12
working for big companies, banks and insurance
2:15
companies. And then about 11 years ago, I had
2:18
the opportunity to work for an even bigger law
2:20
firm or pivot and do something else. So I went
2:25
through a lot of thought and internal soul searching,
2:29
spoke to my wife, spoke to my family. And I decided
2:32
that I wanted to go out and start my own law
2:35
firm. And then I figured out in what my mantra
2:39
or my focus would be helping the small businesses
2:42
that I felt were underserved by bigger law firms
2:47
and underserved by local law firms here out in
2:50
the suburbs and non -metro areas. So that's how
2:54
I decided to focus on helping small businesses,
2:57
entrepreneurs and startups. And that's what I've
3:00
been doing for the last 11 years. What I am here
3:05
today for. That sounds great. It sounds the typical
3:10
attorney. I worked for an attorney for about
3:13
four or five years. I was a director of sales
3:16
and marketing and brought them from a single.
3:19
Single shop to four states twice. I've seen the
3:23
growth, but I also saw how the small businesses.
3:30
The attorneys really didn't react to or really
3:32
didn't want. to go behind because I don't know
3:36
if there was enough money or whatever the case
3:39
may be, but these were left out in the loop.
3:41
So I'm very interested to have you on and see
3:45
what you're all about. From a legal standpoint,
3:50
what are the most common mistakes entrepreneurs
3:52
make when forming partnerships or collaborations
3:56
through networking? Sure, the common mistakes,
4:00
a pretty common mistake. The entrepreneurs or
4:04
the business people, the founders, whatever you
4:07
want to call them, are always very eager to get
4:10
into business and want to start their business
4:13
and do a good job and everything. So they overstep
4:18
and step past some very basic steps to just get
4:22
into business and start doing business. So what
4:25
they miss out on is they don't do a written business
4:28
plan. Before they even start their business which
4:31
is a necessity in the written business plan tells
4:34
you all about what your business is going to
4:37
be what kind of structure is going to be who
4:39
what when where why how about your business how
4:41
you gonna spend money make money hire people
4:43
fire people bring on people. Get rid of people
4:47
lease property habit website all that stuff is
4:50
in your business plan on people just skip over
4:52
that step then the next step they skip over.
4:57
is the next set of documents and papers that
5:01
you need are your governing documents for your
5:04
business organization. And this will also get
5:06
into step three of what a lot of people miss
5:08
out on is that people are so excited to get into
5:11
business and start up that they just go, for
5:14
instance, I'm here in Florida, you can go online
5:16
to our secretary of state website and just kind
5:20
of mess around and register your business like
5:22
within five minutes and then. It gets approved
5:25
like a couple of business days later and it's
5:26
official and they think that's all that's required.
5:29
So they don't really draft or have the operating
5:33
agreement. If it's an LLC, the partnership agreement,
5:36
if it's a partnership, the articles have been
5:38
corporation or the bylaws. If it's a corporation,
5:41
they just go online. They're like, Hey, the state
5:44
took it. I'm in business. And so that's the second
5:47
thing they miss is all those governing documents.
5:49
And the third thing they miss that kind of ties
5:51
back into. The first two is that. They miss collaborating
5:57
with professionals who are there to help their
6:00
business from before the start of the business
6:03
to the life of the residence and that includes
6:05
people like myself as a business law attorney
6:08
an accountant commercial banker. You know depending
6:12
on what your business is like a commercial real
6:15
estate agent or someone who's into SEO or internet
6:19
stuff or technology stuff. So they try to take
6:23
on the entrepreneur, the founder, whatever, tries
6:25
to take on too much responsibility to themselves
6:28
and don't understand that it's a necessity, not
6:30
a luxury to have your group of professionals
6:34
who call upon for their advice in their council
6:37
to help you out. And they just try to do everything
6:40
themselves and they do everything with whoever
6:42
they're in business with. And they try to do
6:45
their best, but sometimes they make mistakes.
6:47
And it starts even before they start up, they
6:50
pick the wrong business organization and they
6:53
pick the wrong, wrong contracts to enter into
6:55
or whatever, the wrong lease to enter into, the
6:58
wrong services agreement to enter into. And then
7:03
they have all the best intentions and everything,
7:05
but they're on the road to things not turning
7:07
out well because they took a few missteps at
7:11
the beginning. And that's probably the three
7:13
biggest areas in common. are the three most common
7:17
areas of mistakes that businesses make in their
7:21
startup cycle. It sounds, if you follow what
7:26
you just said and you don't be penny wise, dollar
7:29
foolish, you should really just, I've been in
7:33
multiple businesses. I've had brick and mortar
7:36
businesses. I've had virtual businesses. I've
7:39
been the employee while I've had businesses.
7:41
And I learned early on. get yourself a good attorney,
7:47
get yourself a good accountant, get a business
7:50
plan in place, and then start your business.
7:54
So you have to get all those. So you have to
7:56
pay a little bit to get in the right sphere,
8:01
but you'll be thankful for it every year afterwards.
8:06
Correct. And it's not just preventative maintenance.
8:09
It's necessary because Little things that you
8:12
can do at the inception are very preventative
8:15
and proactive that prevent catastrophic huge
8:19
issues from happening later on in your business,
8:22
whether your business is successful or it's unsuccessful.
8:26
You need all those steps and you need to interact
8:29
with those professionals and stuff to avoid future
8:31
issues, whether you're successful or not, because
8:34
issues are going to arise. As I have found out
8:39
multiple times, so I understand that completely.
8:43
When business relationships move fast, where
8:47
do you see handshake agreements quietly turning
8:50
into legal problems later on? The issue is that
8:55
any handshake agreement can turn into a legal
8:58
problem, not just fast, slow, medium. It just
9:02
happens over time. So everyone who goes into
9:05
business obviously has the best intentions and
9:07
wants to succeed. Everyone who goes into business
9:09
with someone or something else obviously wants
9:13
the best and wants to succeed. But sometimes
9:16
things happen, whether it's good things or bad
9:18
things, adversity hits your business and your
9:22
handshake isn't going to cut it when you're faced
9:25
with a lawsuit, when you're faced with like an
9:28
IRS investigation issue, whether you're faced
9:31
with some kind of EEOC employment claim or something
9:34
like that. All of a sudden, the person who you're
9:37
a buddy with or whatever in your business, all
9:39
of a sudden, there's cracks in the relationship,
9:42
there's issues that can happen. So you always
9:45
want to reduce your relationship with anyone
9:50
or anything in business into writing in the form
9:53
of a contract, no matter how In substantial you
9:58
think it is it has to be in writing because if
10:00
it's not in writing it doesn't exist and it's
10:03
he said she said at that point and Your memory
10:07
and their memory are going to be different particularly
10:10
when there's liability involved or when you're
10:12
apportioning fault So that's why you know, even
10:15
though you start out with the best of intentions.
10:17
You don't want to have adversity You don't want
10:20
to fail. You don't want things for everyone's
10:22
protection, for your protection, for the other
10:24
person's protection, and then most of it only
10:26
for the business's protection, you want to have
10:28
a contract that's in writing, that's clear, that
10:32
says what the relationships between the parties
10:34
are, how everything happens, and if there's a
10:38
dispute, what happens. Yeah, I usually, when
10:42
I went into a contract with a friend of mine,
10:46
we wrote the contract out, we put it in the safe,
10:49
and we left it there. until there's a problem.
10:52
Then we can always refer back to it. But I always
10:55
felt that the best thing was to put everything
10:58
on paper and we can put it away, put it to safe.
11:02
We don't have to look at it again, but put it
11:05
all on paper in case anything should happen.
11:08
So that's the way that I always thought about
11:10
it. How should entrepreneurs think differently
11:13
about trust in networking while protecting themselves
11:18
legally? But it goes back to a little bit of
11:21
what I just said. You want to make sure everything's
11:24
in writing. So when you're networking with people
11:26
and they want to either build business relationships
11:30
with them or referral relationships or whatever,
11:33
you want to make sure that if it's a official
11:35
legal relationship, you have it in writing. So
11:37
if you're networking with someone and you want
11:39
to use them as a vendor or you want them to use
11:41
your services or your products, if it's... Official
11:45
relationships you want to make sure you have
11:47
a contract with just a networking kind of relationship
11:50
or relationship. You're fine just doing course
11:53
of business but make sure that if you're. Doing
11:57
something where it's like you get a referral
11:59
fee or your co fees is like a co party or whatever
12:05
that needs to be in writing because. Again, if
12:09
it's not in writing, it doesn't exist. So it's,
12:11
he said, she said, so you just want to make sure
12:13
when you're networking or you're developing your
12:15
business that it goes back. If you're in a business
12:18
relationship, you want to make sure it's in writing
12:20
so that there's no discrepancies and there's
12:23
no dispute as to what people are supposed to
12:27
do or what businesses are supposed to do, not
12:30
do, and then how things are resolved if there
12:32
is an issue. Absolutely. Absolutely. What legal
12:37
conversation should happen early in a relationship,
12:41
even when everyone feels aligned and optimistic?
12:46
Sure. You got to talk about what, you know, you
12:49
got to talk about the foundation of your business,
12:52
the direction of your business, how it's going
12:54
to run. It's all the things that go, that start
12:56
out in your written business plan. You need to
12:59
have discussions about everything that's in there
13:02
so that you have a cohesive written business
13:04
plan and then when you go to the next step. Make
13:07
sure that you have a cohesive set of governing
13:10
documents for your business once it started and
13:13
then make sure when you go to the next step,
13:15
you have your open and very transparent and honest
13:19
conversations. with your professionals who help
13:22
you to figure out what the best legal structure
13:25
is, what contracts you need, what agreements
13:27
you need. And then on the tax side, what business
13:30
organization you should be from a tax perspective,
13:33
because if you're one kind of organization, you
13:35
should have been another, you're going to get
13:36
killed on your taxes. And then from a banking
13:39
perspective, what kind, do you need to borrow
13:42
money? Do you have money? Who's contributing
13:44
money? How are they going to contribute money?
13:46
Are you going to have a checking account? Are
13:48
you going to have a merchant services account?
13:51
What are you going to do with it? So those are
13:53
all conversations that need to take place even
13:56
before the foundation of your business, but especially
13:59
during the foundation of your business, because
14:01
it's going to dictate how things turn out afterwards.
14:05
Absolutely. Absolutely. As you're speaking, I'm
14:08
just thinking back of all the businesses and
14:11
the partners and all the documents that I had,
14:15
I was safe. filled with documents, and each one
14:19
was from a different business, from a different
14:20
year. I understand everything that you're saying.
14:24
AI is changing how professionals connect. What
14:28
new legal risks are emerging from AI -driven
14:33
outreach, contracts, and communication? Sure.
14:39
So, you know, one of the things with AI is I'm
14:42
very into AI, both in the practice of law and
14:45
the actual running and development of my business.
14:48
But the first thing I always say is that I'm
14:52
in charge. The buck stops with me. I'm at the
14:56
top of the pyramid, whatever metaphor you want
14:57
to use. I make sure that I review that and approve
15:03
every single AI created thing. that is attributed
15:07
to my business. And that's what the main issue
15:12
is with AI is that people just take it for face
15:15
value and put it out there without properly vetting
15:18
it or properly researching it or properly making
15:23
sure that it's correct because they just think
15:25
that AI is probably correct. And then that's
15:27
where people in businesses get into huge issues.
15:32
And I can tell you from a legal standpoint, from
15:35
an attorney standpoint, there's a lot of attorneys
15:39
who just go with the flow and use AI for legal
15:43
research or legal drafting. And they don't do
15:46
it responsibly. They don't review the work product.
15:49
They don't confirm the case in a rule of citations
15:52
and law citations. They just take it and throw
15:56
it out there. And they get in major trouble in
16:00
litigation, they can trouble with courts, with
16:02
bar associations and things like that. And then
16:05
with other parties or other clients or whatever,
16:09
the work products, if it's like from a transactional
16:11
standpoint, may not be correct. And they're going
16:13
to get major issues from that point. For lay
16:17
people, let's say, just the average business
16:19
person or whatever, it's just like the same issues
16:23
when you for the last 25, 26 now plus years of
16:29
just using Google, doing a Google search, looking
16:31
for a document. You're gonna find a document,
16:34
but you don't know if it's right or wrong or
16:36
if it's correct or incorrect or if it applies
16:38
or not, because you're not the subject matter
16:41
expert. You're just the lay person who's taking
16:43
what you found on the internet. And all AI does
16:47
is takes that to another level and another crescendo
16:50
of A much more refined cohesive product that
16:54
you pull off of the internet that you don't know
16:56
if it's right or wrong or if it applies or not
16:59
or what the consequences are. And business people
17:03
just throw around contracts that they get off
17:05
AI business people throw out research that they
17:07
get off of AI because I guess. They're trying
17:10
to do it yourself and save money or save time
17:13
and the issue is is just like with everything
17:15
else you get what you pay for. and you're putting
17:18
out material that could be right or could be
17:21
wrong. And if it's right, great, you dodged a
17:24
bullet, but if it's wrong, it's gonna be catastrophic
17:27
because there's major consequences if you're
17:29
putting out a contract there that, you know,
17:32
doesn't have what it needs in it or actually
17:34
has the wrong stuff in it, or material like soliciting
17:38
material, whatever, just you don't know what's
17:40
right or wrong because you don't know what you
17:42
don't know. So obviously AI is probably the most
17:46
significant technological change to come along,
17:49
maybe ever, who knows at this point, because
17:51
it's limitless potential, limitless productivity,
17:56
limitless time saving, limitless force multiplier.
17:59
But with anything, you have to take responsibility
18:01
and ownership of it. And a lot of entrepreneurs,
18:04
a lot of business owners, whenever, like I said,
18:06
are just throwing stuff out there that they get
18:08
from various AI platforms, not just general platforms
18:12
like ChatGBT or something like that, but specialized
18:16
platforms too, that they don't know what they're
18:19
putting out there. So obviously I encourage people
18:23
to use AI. It's a godsend as far as running your
18:27
business and doing things. They can do things
18:30
that are just revolutionary, that are time saving,
18:32
that are resource optimizing and force multiplying
18:36
and all those cliches or metaphors you want to
18:39
use. But you have to make sure that you take
18:41
responsibility and ownership over it. because
18:45
you're responsible for what you're putting out
18:47
there. Whether the AI made it or not, it's your
18:49
name on it and it's your thing and it applies
18:51
to all industries. I encourage people to use
18:54
AI. I just encourage people to use it responsibly,
18:57
which is what the issue is that people aren't
18:58
using it responsibly. They just take it for face
19:00
value and put it out there. They always said
19:04
that everything that's online, if it's online,
19:08
it must be true. Right? Because everything online
19:11
is factual. It's 100 % correct. Now you and I
19:14
both know that's not true and that you really
19:17
have to be careful what you read online. But
19:22
chat GPT takes all of its information from online.
19:27
Right? So it brings all this information together
19:30
for you, but it may be putting together something
19:34
that is erroneous. So it may save you time in
19:39
collecting all this information, but you have
19:41
to do your due diligence and you have to trust
19:45
it, but verify everything that's in there. So
19:47
you're not back to square one because you got
19:50
all the information, but you have to verify everything
19:54
that you get. Correct. And then also another
19:57
thing with the AI is that it's biased because
20:00
it wants to get you the right answer. It wants
20:03
to get you what you're looking for. So it's going
20:05
to try to engineer the data and the information
20:09
it gets to make it appear like it's what you
20:11
want. And there's a big, not just misinformation
20:15
issue, but there's a big bias issue because if
20:17
you frame your prompts in a certain way, you
20:21
can essentially get whatever answer you're looking
20:23
for because it'll find exceptions or it'll find
20:26
whatever, and then it'll frame it as something
20:28
that stands for something that's not the actual
20:31
proposition. So another big thing about AI that
20:34
I should have mentioned is that the prompts that
20:37
you generate are probably the most important
20:39
thing that you can do because it establishes
20:42
your guardrails and establishes what goes on
20:44
with the AI. Absolutely. I was going to bring
20:48
it up because you didn't bring it up until the
20:50
very end. I was going to say garbage in is garbage
20:54
out. You have to really put your prompts together
20:57
properly. What it takes to put the prompts together,
21:01
you may ask a question. depending on the answer,
21:05
you'll have to revise that prompt like two, three,
21:09
four times until you get to the, what you're
21:13
actually after. So you have to really have to
21:17
drill down and figure out, you can't just talk
21:20
about emails. He has a make my email better.
21:23
That's everything you have to really, when you're
21:26
trying to create a slide, you have to tell him
21:29
act as a. whatever, an event planner or a design
21:34
manager for 15 years and that you want to create
21:38
a slide for X, we have to really get down into
21:42
it. I've done a lot with AI, if you can tell,
21:45
but I trust, but I verify. No, I do too. And
21:49
so should everyone. Everybody should. That's
21:52
first and foremost. How can business owners use
21:57
AI to strengthen relationships and operations
22:01
without crossing ethical or legal lines? Sure,
22:07
you can be much more productive and proactive
22:10
doing things with AI and it becomes easier every
22:14
day because there's more and more specific AI
22:18
tools out there to help you strengthen your business
22:21
relationships and things like that, and he just
22:24
pointed out there's so many AI programs, apps,
22:30
bots, whatever you want to call them, websites
22:32
that help you do things like help your social
22:37
media, help your internet marketing, help your
22:41
email campaigns, help your visibility, help you
22:46
do business planning and execution. So those
22:50
are all out there to help you. And it's the same
22:52
adage. You can use them. I use some of them.
22:55
Like I said, on the business side of my business,
22:57
but like I said, the buck stops with me and I
23:01
need to take ultimate responsibility for that
23:03
stuff. And it's a very time saving. It's very
23:07
resource rich and it helps a lot of things, but
23:10
you got to make sure that you're in charge of
23:12
it and don't be afraid to use it, but don't cavalierly
23:15
use it and just, I'll just see what happens or
23:17
you got to make sure you're in charge of it.
23:19
But It can totally revolutionize your interactivity
23:23
with other people and other businesses because
23:25
you can just put in your whatever your thoughts
23:28
or whatever and then it'll send out social media.
23:31
It'll send out email contacts. It'll send out
23:35
virtually anything you need to maintain business
23:37
relationships and further develop those. Correct.
23:41
Very good. Should entrepreneurs know about ownership?
23:45
data and confidentiality when AI tools are involved
23:51
in collaborations? Sure. And the easiest thing
23:56
to remember is that anything, unless it's unequivocally
24:00
specified in your particular AI program, and
24:04
it will be the first thing that it tells you
24:08
about itself, that your data is secure, which
24:11
is very few AI platforms and very few AI apps
24:16
and very few AI bots, most of it's unsecured.
24:20
So you need to act as if you're handing your
24:23
confidential data and your personal information
24:27
or whatever, you're handing it to a third party.
24:30
And it's just as if you were to hand it to someone
24:32
off the street and ask them to put it together
24:35
and hand it back to you. You've lost confidentiality,
24:38
you've lost exclusivity, you've lost everything.
24:41
So the rule of thumb is don't put that Into the
24:45
a i keep that confidential information people's
24:49
personal contact information or sales figures
24:52
or information that you want to keep secret that
24:55
you don't want out there so i'm not gonna get
24:57
leaked if you put it in a but legally speaking
25:01
you've given it to a non confidential third party
25:04
so now it's out there so don't put it out there
25:08
don't. use the AI to do things with confidential
25:10
information. Use it for non -confidential information
25:13
and then take it. And then if you want, put the
25:15
confidential information in it yourself if you
25:18
need to have that in there. If not, just don't
25:20
do it. And that's probably the easiest way to
25:23
avoid dealing with confidential information issues
25:25
or confidential data or business processes or
25:29
trade secrets or whatever it is you want to characterize
25:32
it as. Absolutely. Absolutely. You've seen both
25:37
startups and established businesses grow through
25:41
networks? What legal foundation must be in place
25:45
before growth accelerates? It goes back to the
25:49
first thing we're talking about, making sure
25:51
you have all your documents in place and your
25:54
governing documents and your business processes
25:56
and everything, but you want to also make sure
25:58
that you have a culture to your business or a
26:03
mantra to your business that you uniformly and
26:06
objectively conduct your business in a straightforward
26:10
and transparent manner and that you follow all
26:14
the laws and rules and that you uniformly do
26:17
that because if you don't do that, you're gonna
26:20
maybe run into issues later on down the road
26:23
because if you don't always comply with business
26:27
formalities then you're going to run into a problem
26:30
when you didn't do your annual report or you
26:33
didn't have an annual corporate meeting or you
26:38
didn't do something with your taxes or whatever.
26:40
So you always want to make sure that in addition
26:42
to all your basic documents and everything that
26:45
you're comporting yourself in compliance with
26:49
rules and laws and just norms regarding business
26:54
and don't vary or don't swerve off of that, that
27:00
platform. Because if you do, you're going to
27:02
run into problems because if you don't uniformly
27:03
do things, you don't objectively do things. Then,
27:07
you know, the time that you didn't do it or whatever
27:09
is going to become an issue because it could
27:11
be a major hurdle down the road or it could explode
27:14
into a very bad situation. Okay. So how can professionals
27:21
Spot red flags during networking conversations
27:24
that signal future legal or financial trouble
27:28
Sure, so when you're networking with someone
27:33
or a business organization or whatever Obviously
27:36
if they make specific outcome guarantees or promise
27:41
things or whatever It needs to be in writing
27:44
and it needs to be substantiated. And not only
27:46
does it need to be in writing substantiated,
27:48
but you need to independently verify that it's
27:50
actually feasible and not just take their word
27:53
for it. So you need to do your own due diligence.
27:56
And that's always a red flag when you're networking
27:59
is if someone's legit and, you know, they're
28:01
promising you a lot of stuff that they can substantiate
28:04
it and show you in an objective format. They
28:07
can show you the data or the metrics that support
28:10
what it is they're referencing to you. And that
28:13
they're not afraid to have it committed to writing
28:15
in the form of a contract if they're promising
28:18
you something that they're going to deliver and
28:20
if they don't promise you then there's consequences.
28:23
So someone wants networking with you and promises
28:26
you a lot of stuff that's great can they substantiate
28:29
what they're promising and are they willing to
28:31
reduce it to writing and stand by and if the
28:34
answer is no then that's a red flag. Usually
28:38
with, when it comes down to networking with any
28:43
industry, that's really not the place for those
28:47
exact numbers, those guarantees. And if you're
28:51
networking with somebody and they are guaranteeing
28:55
a certain number, you don't have the time to
28:59
challenge that. I just, as a rule, I dismiss
29:05
that person. Because during a networking event
29:08
for him to come out and say, Oh, I can guarantee
29:11
you X amount. I don't put a lot of credence behind
29:14
what he's saying. I think he's full of castor
29:16
oil would think that. So that's what I try to
29:19
do. Okay. Let's bring this podcast full circle.
29:24
If you could give one rule for building profitable
29:27
relationships that stay clean, compliant, and
29:31
drama -free, what would it be? Sure. Just going
29:36
back to what I've been talking about, reduce
29:38
it to writing and make sure that the relationship
29:41
is clearly expressed in objective terms, that
29:46
everyone understands what is supposed to be done,
29:49
how it's supposed to be done, and if it's not
29:51
done, what the consequences or remedies are for,
29:55
and make sure that you apply that to every opportunity
29:58
or business relationship that you have. And then
30:01
in doing that, make sure that you do it in a
30:06
cohesive objective fashion every time and you're
30:11
going to avoid a lot of problems that you could
30:13
have had if you do things that way. Absolutely.
30:16
That's great, great advice. Matthew, I'm so glad
30:20
you came on my podcast. You gave me a lot to
30:24
think about, but I hope all of my listeners have
30:27
something to think about. But if they want to
30:30
contact you, even just to speak with you, get
30:33
advice, or to hire you, what's the best way to
30:36
get hold of you? Sure, Michael. The best way
30:38
to get a hold of me is just go to my website,
30:40
which is fornarolegal .com. Just my last thing,
30:44
legal .com. And it has all my contact information.
30:48
It has all my social media. It has all my blogs.
30:51
It has all my white papers. It has all my podcasts.
30:54
It has all my videos. It has all my free guides.
30:58
So it's a really good resource for people with
31:01
questions, because a lot of the answers are right
31:03
there. And then if not, Feel free to email me
31:06
or call me. That's great. This conversation is
31:11
a reminder that great networking isn't just about
31:14
who you meet. It's about how you protect relationships
31:18
that matter. The strongest connections are built
31:22
on clarity, smart conversations, and knowing
31:25
when to move fast and when to slow down. Add
31:28
AI into the mix, and the stakes get even higher.
31:32
If today's episode changed how you think about
31:35
partnerships, agreements, or AI in your business,
31:39
share with somebody who is building something
31:41
real right now. Make sure you're subscribed to
31:45
Networking Unleashed, building profitable connections
31:48
so you don't miss conversations that help you
31:50
build opportunity without unnecessary risk. And
31:54
if you want to sharpen your communication, strengthen
31:57
your relationships or business connections that
32:00
actually pay off, head to Foreman .com to learn
32:04
how I work with professionals. teams, and organizations.
32:08
So until next time, connect with intention, protect
32:11
what you build, and keep your relations profitable.
32:15
Matthew, thank you again for coming on the podcast.
32:17
I hope to talk to you soon. Thank you, Michael.
32:20
Thank you for having me. Well, hold on, folks.
32:27
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for you. You can contact Henry at 561 -427 -4888.
33:23
insights today. And of course, a big shout out
33:26
to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in
33:29
and spending your time with us. If you're interested
33:32
in my digital courses, being coached, or having
33:35
me come and talk to your company, just go to
33:39
Michael and fill out the request form. Remember,
33:43
networking isn't about being perfect. It's about
33:46
being present. So take what you've learned today,
33:49
get out there, and make some meaningful connections.
33:52
If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't
33:55
forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share
33:58
it with someone who could use a little networking
34:00
inspiration. Let's keep the conversation going.
34:04
You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube,
34:09
or my website, foreman .com slash podcasts.