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

Transcript

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

0:16
Welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable
0:19
Connections, the show where conversations aren't
0:23
just social, they're strategic. I'm your host,
0:26
Michael Foreman. Most people walk into a room
0:29
thinking about what to say, but high -level professionals
0:33
think differently. They think about how decisions
0:36
are made, how value is perceived, and how to
0:40
guide a conversation in a way that actually leads
0:43
somewhere. My guest today brings that perspective.
0:46
He believes you should think like a marketer,
0:49
but talk like a CEO. That means moving away from
0:53
random conversations and towards clear, intentional
0:58
communication that reflects real business understanding.
1:03
We're diving into how biases shape first impressions,
1:07
why many professionals confuse activity with
1:10
strategy, and how decision science plays a role
1:16
in whether someone chooses to continue a relationship
1:19
or not. If you want to elevate how you're perceived,
1:23
communicate with more clarity, and turn conversations
1:27
into real opportunity, you're in the right place.
1:31
I'd like to welcome to the podcast, Rich. Rich
1:35
is an expert in everything that we just talked
1:38
about. And I would like to introduce Rich and
1:41
have him just give us a, like the cliff notes
1:44
of how you got where you are today. Hey, Michael,
1:48
good to see you. And thanks for having me on
1:50
the show. Yeah. So, I mean, my, I. I'll maybe
1:54
work backwards from where I am today. So I've
1:57
been the chief marketing officer of seven different
2:00
companies in roughly the last. 25 years, ranging
2:04
from Fortune 500, large financial institutions,
2:08
down to privately held data companies, and even
2:12
a management consulting firm. I came to marketing,
2:15
I wish I could say that I had a grand plan when
2:18
I was getting into it. But the truth of the matter
2:21
is, I was actually studying chemical engineering
2:24
in college. And I spent a summer kind of working
2:27
in the field at an engineering firm, realized
2:30
that was not what I wanted to do, didn't know
2:33
what I wanted to do. So I switched my major to
2:36
economics. And again, just because I like math
2:39
and science and numbers and those sorts of statistics,
2:42
that kind of stuff. And I did a one, again, I
2:44
didn't know what I wanted to do. I applied for
2:46
a one week internship during my junior year at
2:49
a small credit card company based in Newark,
2:53
Delaware called MBNA America. I spent a week
2:56
down there and they offered me a job as a summer
2:59
intern in the marketing department. And so I
3:02
came back there for the summer, worked in the
3:04
marketing department, loved it, ended up getting
3:07
a full time offer there. And so that's how it
3:09
all began for me. That's great. How you went
3:13
from chemical engineering to marketing, probably.
3:16
It's probably even more of a story than what
3:18
you just said. Yeah, I gave my parents a little
3:21
bit of whiplash, I'll be honest. A little bit,
3:24
a little bit, because that's quite a jump. Okay,
3:27
you say, think like a marketer, talk like a CEO.
3:32
How does that shift the way someone approaches
3:34
a networking conversation? Yeah. So I think this
3:39
is a really important concept and it's something,
3:41
again, I wish I had known when I was getting
3:44
started, but I learned it by default over time.
3:47
And that is most marketers speak in using certain
3:52
marketing terms and they talk about what I would
3:55
often consider second order KPIs, things like
3:58
likes, page views, followers, awareness measurements,
4:03
those sorts of things. CEOs, on the other hand,
4:06
think more in terms of first order KPIs, things
4:10
like revenue growth, ARR, churn, acquisition
4:13
costs, right? Profit margin. And so when you
4:18
as a marketer, and I see that I coached and seen
4:21
this mistake with a lot of junior marketers in
4:23
the past, is they'll walk into a high level meeting
4:27
with leadership and they'll start using marketing
4:29
terms. And you can almost see. everybody glaze
4:32
over. Because when you're talking about likes
4:35
and followers and awareness, the CEO's sitting
4:37
there thinking, is any of this making us any
4:39
money? In order to effectively rise up in your
4:44
career if this is the path that you're in. And
4:47
even more importantly, be effective when you
4:50
get there and be able to get your strategies
4:54
and the things that you think the company should
4:56
do and get buy -in and leadership team and board
5:00
of directors to make all that happen. You really
5:02
have to translate the marketing outcomes that
5:05
you're looking at into business outcomes that
5:08
the CEO is going to care about. And if you're
5:11
not making that connection in your discussions,
5:13
your presentation, you're probably not going
5:16
to be successful. And you certainly also run
5:19
the risk of losing the confidence of the rest
5:24
of the C -suite. Well, you have to know your
5:27
audience, first of all. Know who you're talking
5:29
to. Know whether you're talking to your peers,
5:32
whether you're talking up the chain, or you're
5:35
talking down the chain. Because your talk should
5:38
be different for all three. And knowing fully
5:42
well that you have to realize that you have to
5:45
talk about the money coming in and coming out
5:48
when you're talking up the ladder. Because their
5:51
thought process is different than those that
5:54
are below. Those are below you can talk about.
5:57
getting likes, dislikes, and all that kind of
5:59
stuff. But when I go in and I do a workshop,
6:02
I have to see whether I'm talking to C -suite
6:06
executives or I'm talking to the masses. Yeah,
6:10
that's totally right. And that's true with most
6:14
everything that we do, right? Just from our marketing,
6:17
sales, communications perspective, always need
6:19
to know your audience. I think the... In this
6:24
particular case example, it really requires some
6:29
ability to think about the projects and the things
6:33
that you are recommending that the company take
6:36
on almost as an investment portfolio. So imagine
6:41
that you have this new campaign that you want
6:43
to launch. Great. Imagine that instead of going
6:47
to... the CEO and asking for approval or going
6:50
to your management team and asking for approval.
6:53
Imagine if you had to find investors to fund
6:56
that project, right? How would you talk to an
7:00
investor about funding that project? That's how
7:05
the CEO wants to hear it, right? That's the language
7:07
that the CFO speaks. to the CEO, right? And that's
7:11
usually one of the strongest relationships in
7:13
the C -suite is the CEO -CFO relationship. So
7:17
if you can start talking in terms of investment,
7:20
in terms of how that ties to the company's objectives,
7:24
you're singing the same song that the CFO sings.
7:28
And you have a much better chance of building
7:32
confidence within your leadership team and getting
7:35
the things that you want to get done accomplished.
7:38
That's a very good line to draw. I never really
7:41
thought about that, but you're right. If you're
7:44
trying to speak to somebody that's going to give
7:49
you money, then you're talking the language of
7:52
the CEO, the CFO, and everything else. That's
7:54
a very good line. What's the difference between
7:57
someone who sounds busy and someone who sounds
8:00
like they understand how business actually works?
8:05
Again, I think it really comes back to tying
8:07
your activity to the outcomes that are important
8:10
to the organization. You're just saying we, I
8:15
often tell my teams when we get into a staff
8:19
meeting, just by way of example, that I don't
8:22
want a weather report. I don't want you to sit
8:25
there and tell me about all the things that you
8:27
did last week. That's not a fruitful conversation,
8:31
right? What I want to hear is, are our objectives
8:34
on track or not on track? And if they're not
8:37
on track, what do you need? What resources do
8:42
you need? What changes do we need to make? Who
8:44
do I need to talk to? If they are on track or
8:47
ahead of track, great. Anything that we can do
8:50
to even make it better and capitalize on that
8:52
and get something done faster. So really, the
8:56
weather report about what you did last week is
8:58
not really... useful or important. And the same
9:01
is true when you walk into your CEO's office
9:03
or you walk into the boardroom. They don't want
9:05
a weather report about all of the great things
9:08
that you've done. It's not of interest to them.
9:11
What they want to know is how are the things
9:13
that you're doing affecting the objectives that
9:16
the company cares about. How are they affecting
9:19
revenue? How are they affecting churn? How are
9:21
they lowering acquisition costs? Those are the
9:23
things that they want to hear, not all the activity
9:27
that you did, because they can't make that connection.
9:29
You're making them do too much work, quite honestly.
9:32
They're not going to make that connection between
9:34
all of your activity and the outcomes. So you
9:36
have to talk just in terms of outcomes. Absolutely.
9:40
It's not a social event that you're going in
9:43
and you have to sit down. You're being called
9:46
in for a reason. And the reason is, tell me what's
9:50
going on. Tell me how all of this is going to
9:53
make us money. He's not saying, how's it going
9:56
to make me money? How's it going to make us more
9:58
profitable? And you have to be not robotic. You
10:03
have to get all that ancillary stuff out of the
10:06
way, the weather report, everything else out
10:09
of the way, and just give him all the facts and
10:11
figures, and then see where the conversation
10:13
leads you. And there's another just important
10:19
thing, aspect to this, and that is that there's
10:24
the board of directors and the CEO, they tend
10:29
to be very loss averse, like all of us. Loss
10:32
aversion is a common cognitive bias that we all
10:36
have. One good way to position the things that
10:40
you're doing or the things that you want to do
10:43
is instead of, and a lot of marketers will go
10:45
in and talk about, we're going to inquire all
10:47
these new customers and all the gains that you're
10:50
going to make by doing a project. It's sometimes
10:53
more effective to go in and reframe those as
10:58
risk avoidance as opposed to gain seeking. If
11:04
you walk in and you say, hey, here's an investment
11:07
opportunity that will help us capture, help us
11:11
not lose revenue that's already in our system.
11:14
If you're talking about, let's say, a nurturing
11:16
campaign to existing leads, right? Hey, here's
11:19
an investment opportunity that we're going to
11:20
do that's going to. help us capture revenue,
11:24
help us not lose revenue that's already in our
11:26
process, right? Oh, that's probably going to
11:28
get a lot more attention than, hey, here's something
11:30
that we can do to try to get a few more customers
11:33
out of the leads that we already have. Good point.
11:36
Good point. Many professionals take a spray and
11:41
pray approach to networking. What does more intentional,
11:45
scalable approach look like in real conversations?
11:50
Yeah, again, it comes back to Knowing your audience
11:53
and being really crystal clear on whether it's
11:57
from a networking perspective or even from a
12:00
marketing sales and communications perspective,
12:03
but just to focus on networking for a moment.
12:06
You can walk into, let's say you're going to
12:09
a trade show. You can walk into the trade show
12:11
and you can randomly meet lots of people and
12:14
you have. 48 hours, 72 hours that you're going
12:18
to be there. You have everybody from a particular
12:20
industry coming together in one place at one
12:23
time. And if you just walk in and just randomly
12:27
go through, you might get lucky and meet some
12:30
people that will actually help you, your career,
12:33
your business. But if instead you take a look
12:37
at the companies that are going to be there,
12:38
you go on LinkedIn, sometimes people even...
12:42
post attendees, depending on if you're sponsoring
12:45
the con, you can get a attendee list, but really
12:47
get into, okay, who's going to be there and make
12:50
yourself a target list of the people that you
12:55
would really like to meet when you go there and
12:58
make a point of meeting as many of them as you
13:00
can seek them out, find them and meet them. That's
13:03
going to be a much more effective way to network
13:05
than just, oh, I'm going to the conference. There's
13:07
going to be a lot of great people there. And
13:09
I'm just going to randomly walk around and meet
13:11
folks. Absolutely. That's called strategic networking.
13:15
And I went to the school of hard knocks. I learned
13:18
how to do everything wrong before I did it correctly.
13:22
And one very important fact that I remind myself
13:26
every time I go to a networking event, and my
13:29
suggestion is find two networking meetings a
13:31
week and go and just network your heart out.
13:34
But you go and you don't go thinking you're going
13:38
to sell something. whether it's yourself or a
13:41
company or something else. You're going there
13:43
with what's called a servant's heart. You're
13:46
going there to see whenever you find that person
13:50
and you sit down with them, how can I make you
13:53
more successful? How can I be a good referral
13:57
source for you? And by doing so, it takes all
14:00
the pressure off you and it puts... your conversation
14:05
right at the top of the list. And as that person
14:08
is talking, because you know, as well as I do,
14:10
everybody loves to talk about themselves. So
14:13
they're talking, talk and talk, and you're getting
14:16
all the information you can by asking questions
14:19
and everything else. But that's how you strategically
14:21
network and do that with confidence and everything
14:25
else. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I
14:28
like the way that you position that as a servant's
14:31
heart. I always call it helper mentality, which
14:34
is getting at the same thing. You go into it
14:36
not thinking about what can they do for you,
14:38
but think about what can you do for them. And
14:41
what they do for you will just come naturally
14:44
from that conversation. I think the same is true
14:48
in sales conversations as well, too, even outside
14:51
of the realm of networking. Oftentimes, salespeople
14:55
view themselves as here and the potential buyer
14:59
as here from a status and power perspective.
15:03
So they go in with that mentality of almost like
15:06
you're getting an audience with the king. And
15:09
really, what's far more effective from a sales
15:12
perspective is to go in with a helper mentality
15:14
as well and think about, hey, we're two business
15:17
people. We're here and we're trying to figure
15:20
out together whether. What we have is going to
15:24
advance what you need. Right. And so it's like
15:27
business person to business person. And it's
15:29
not about sales. It's about helping. It's about
15:31
helping them be successful. And if you're able
15:35
to figure out a way to help them be successful,
15:37
that's going to translate into revenue for your
15:40
organization and success for yourself. Absolutely.
15:43
And I talk about this all the time. When you
15:46
go in and you meet with somebody in their office,
15:49
you have about 30 seconds. You look on the walls,
15:53
on their desk. You see what they have. What type
15:55
of pictures do they have? Do they have music,
15:58
art, a picture of their son, their grandson?
16:01
And you take all of that in because I developed
16:04
something called, I didn't develop it. I stole
16:06
this, by the way. F -O -R -M, family, occupation,
16:10
recreation, and a certain message, and take any
16:14
one of the above and get them to talk about something
16:17
about their family or occupation, recreation.
16:21
You don't want to immediately walk in and start
16:24
talking business, right? You want them to get
16:27
easy, that trust, that know you, like you, trust
16:31
you, they're going to do business with you. And
16:33
the only way to get to that trust... It's to
16:36
start the conversation like that. Yeah, again,
16:41
completely agree with that approach. There's
16:44
a tendency, a cognitive tendency that we all
16:47
have is that we tend to like people who are like
16:49
us. And you're more likely to buy from someone
16:55
who you like and you feel some rapport with.
16:58
People buy from people, not companies. Exactly.
17:03
Big misnomer, right? People buy from people.
17:06
So it's really, even in the sales environment,
17:09
it is almost the same as networking in a networking
17:11
environment, very similar. And that's really
17:15
the key to being successful there. Absolutely.
17:20
I agree 100%. How do biases and first impressions
17:25
influence whether someone takes you seriously
17:28
within the first few minutes? Yeah, I think we
17:32
just talked about a really good example. If people
17:35
buy from people who are like themselves, so doing
17:39
things that can help you build rapport and you
17:42
can't be inauthentic, you can't be someone who
17:44
you're not, but showing an interest in them as
17:47
a person, right? I think that your form framework
17:51
is great and that would be a good one to follow.
17:55
That is definitely one of the clear cognitive
17:59
biases. We talked about loss aversion as well.
18:03
And this is another one that you really need
18:05
to keep in mind as a salesperson. We as human
18:09
beings experience the pain of a loss at about
18:13
two times greater than the pleasure from an equivalent
18:18
gain. If you lose $100, it hurts twice as bad
18:23
as if you found $100 on the street. What that
18:27
means for a salesperson is that your price, the
18:31
value that you're providing has to exceed the
18:36
cost of implementation by at least two to one.
18:41
And the cost of implementation is not just the
18:43
price of your product. It's also what other investments
18:47
did they need to make? to get the value out of
18:50
your product how much effort and political capital
18:53
does your champion have to expand to get the
18:56
contract through procurement legal compliance
19:00
right finance all of those steps all of that
19:05
is part of the cost so you really need to keep
19:08
in mind hey what are all of the costs that my
19:10
buyer is going to incur and how do i demonstrate
19:13
value that's at least twice as good as all of
19:18
that cost Absolutely. And one thing that you're
19:21
always trying to do as you connect with people
19:25
is to bring value to the conversation. You're
19:29
always trying to because because you don't want
19:31
to just walk up to somebody or see somebody or
19:34
meet with somebody, hand them your business card
19:36
and say, this is what I do, you know, because
19:39
that will immediately turn you off. But if you.
19:43
go in and bring value to the conversation, you're
19:46
bringing value and he'll be much more receptive.
19:48
She'll be more receptive to what you have to
19:51
say. Absolutely. What language or framing immediately
19:57
signals strategic thinking rather than tactical
20:00
thinking? Yeah, we've talked about this a bunch
20:04
already, but it really is translating tactics
20:09
into strategic outcomes. Very similar to what
20:12
we talked about earlier about how would you go
20:15
into your CEO's office and talk about your results
20:19
last quarter. You wouldn't go in and talk about
20:22
all of the things that you did. You would talk
20:24
about the outcomes of those things. So if you
20:28
want to be taken seriously at the executive level,
20:32
you really have to talk in business terms, not
20:36
in the terms of your own function. translate
20:38
what you're doing into how it affects the business,
20:42
how it ties to the business's outcomes and the
20:44
objectives that the company cares about. Yeah,
20:47
I remember 100 years ago when I was younger,
20:50
whenever I was starting a job or position, I
20:55
was being interviewed, I would always say something
20:57
like, what are you looking for? And I would say,
21:01
I'm looking for your job. or I'm looking above
21:03
your job or something like that. Whenever I got
21:06
in, I wouldn't look at my boss, but I would look
21:09
at my boss's boss and that would be the level
21:12
I would always try to achieve. And most of the
21:16
time I achieved it. Once in a while I didn't,
21:18
but that's all right. That's a story for another
21:20
time. Okay, where do professionals unintentionally
21:25
create confusion when explaining what they do
21:28
and how does that affect opportunity? Yeah. So
21:32
this is something that's a little bit counterintuitive,
21:34
right? When someone asks you what you do, you're
21:37
likely to answer very literally, right? I am
21:42
a blank at blank company, right? This is my job
21:47
title, right? This is my like functional title.
21:50
And that doesn't really help who you're talking
21:54
to understand anything about what you do. Right.
21:58
OK. It might give them a little inkling. OK.
22:00
He's a bank executive or she's a health care
22:04
professional. But that's not really that's your
22:07
title of your job. That's not what you do. Right.
22:11
So what you do is should be framed in terms of
22:16
the value that you're creating in the world.
22:19
I help sick people get better. If I'm a doctor.
22:22
Right. If I'm in the mortgage business. I help
22:26
people get the home that they want at a cost
22:30
that they can afford now and pay for it over
22:32
time. Put your occupation in terms of how it
22:38
affects the rest of the world. And that's going
22:40
to be, one, it's going to be a lot more memorable.
22:43
Because everybody says the title, it goes in
22:45
one ear and out the other. This is going to be
22:47
a lot more memorable. So they're going to tie
22:49
it to you. And it's going to give them an idea
22:54
of the value. Why would I want to know this person?
22:58
Okay. It's all about the value that you're creating
23:00
in the world, not your title or the organization
23:03
that you work for. Absolutely. And I teach this
23:07
with all of my clients. I tell them not to. Don't
23:12
tell me what you do. Don't give me your title.
23:15
Give me the results of what you do. And if once
23:19
you give me the results, we'll put it into some
23:21
sort of a little two -sentence story, and that'll
23:25
make the person you're talking to feel much better
23:29
rather than giving them some title. Yeah, and
23:33
you're employing another technique there. Storytelling
23:37
is super powerful. And I like that a lot. Actually,
23:41
I might steal it from you. But yeah, telling
23:44
stories as human beings. Think about a recorded
23:48
history. Writing has only been around for, what,
23:52
five, six thousand years, something like that.
23:54
Most of our evolution, the way information and
23:58
learning and knowledge was passed on from one
24:00
person, one generation to the next was by telling
24:04
stories. So we are hardwired to love stories.
24:09
And if you can give somebody a story about what
24:12
they're doing, and really, I like to try to tie
24:16
that to the purpose of the organization, right?
24:18
Purpose or mission, vision, different companies
24:21
use different terms for that. But like, how is
24:24
what you're doing? Tell a story about how is
24:27
what you're doing is driving the purpose of the
24:30
organization. Absolutely. I employ that whenever
24:33
I speak, whether I'm doing a workshop or I go
24:36
across the country and I speak about this exactly.
24:39
And I always bring humor into my stories. Because
24:44
once you have a story, you bring humor into it,
24:47
but they won't forget it. They'll forget my name.
24:50
They'll forget what I look like, but they won't
24:52
forget the story with the humor. And I start
24:55
with that and I usually end up with that. So
24:59
it's a very good mix. But that's a great way
25:01
to have the person remember who you are. Right.
25:06
And if you can make it rhyme, even better. There
25:10
is actually a cognitive bias called rhyme as
25:13
a reason. So we tend to believe that things that
25:16
rhyme are true. even if they're not right and
25:20
they're just think about all the i'm sure my
25:22
grandmother told them to me you're everybody's
25:24
probably did phrases like i'm from philadelphia
25:28
and so ben franklin it's widely attributed to
25:31
be said early to bed early to rise makes a man
25:35
healthy wealthy and rich prosperous no we all
25:43
know how to finish it and it sounds true because
25:45
it rhymes. So if you can tell a story and make
25:48
it rhyme, you're like masterclass. One step above.
25:51
I'm going to have to use, try to put that into
25:54
my talks. So I'm going to use that. What role
25:58
does clarity play in becoming referable and memorable
26:02
in a crowded professional environment? Yeah,
26:06
look, it is everything. And I think it's not
26:10
just from a personal perspective, but it's also
26:13
a... corporate or company perspective. We all
26:18
want to work with specialists, not generalists.
26:22
So if you're trying to be something for everybody,
26:26
you're going to end up being nothing for anyone,
26:29
right? People need to understand that what you
26:33
do is for them, and you're the specialist at
26:36
solving the problem that they need to solve.
26:39
If you need knee surgery, you're not in, what
26:44
are you going to do? Okay. You could start to
26:46
look at some, call the local hospital, right?
26:49
Start to look at some surgeons in your area.
26:51
You're probably also likely to talk to your golf
26:54
buddy and or friends that you have, someone that
26:56
you know who had similar surgery recently, who
26:59
did they go to, right? You're looking for not
27:02
the doctor that does shoulders, elbows, wrists,
27:07
and knees. You're looking for the doctor that
27:09
does knees. Right? You want the knee guy in your
27:15
city, right? Or the knee lady in your city. You
27:19
don't want to just go to... You might find a
27:21
great doctor who does lots of things, but you're
27:24
still looking for a specialist. And the same
27:26
is true when you're promoting yourself, trying
27:29
to grow your career or land a job with a new
27:32
organization, or you're trying to build and launch
27:36
a company or launch a product. It really comes
27:39
down to... Be really specific. And the more specific
27:42
you can be about who it's for and what you're
27:45
doing, it just makes it consumable to your buyer.
27:50
It's a lot easier for them to understand whether
27:53
what you do is for them or not for them. I often
27:56
say, look, I'm not trying to be everybody's cup
27:59
of tea. I want to be a few people's glass of
28:01
champagne. Very good. I tell my clients all the
28:06
time, clarity is key. You know, you need to be
28:10
clear, but here's the big thing, especially with
28:14
my clients, enunciate. You have to be able to
28:18
enunciate where the other person understands
28:21
you and then become clear. Because if you're
28:25
clear your message, but you're not enunciating,
28:28
you're mixing everything up and really they'll
28:31
just turn you right off. They'll say, okay, thank
28:32
you very much. And they'll go on to the next
28:34
person. So those are two very important things.
28:37
Okay, let's bring this podcast full circle. If
28:41
a listener wanted to elevate how they are perceived
28:44
in conversations over the next 90 days, what's
28:48
one communication habit would you tell them to
28:52
start immediately? Yeah, I'd say immediately
28:56
stop talking about exactly what you do and start
29:01
translating what you do into the value that it
29:04
creates and talk about the value that you create.
29:08
Because again, that's what people care about.
29:10
And when I say people, friends, family, employer,
29:14
everybody around you. That's what they care about,
29:18
right? They don't care about your activity. They
29:21
care about the value that activity generates.
29:23
So as you want to think about being more effective
29:26
in communicating, if it's about yourself, it's
29:30
about the value that you're creating. If it's
29:31
about your organization, it's about the value
29:33
that the organization is creating. That's going
29:36
to be much more effective in capturing the attention
29:40
and reaching and getting. people to remember
29:43
who you are and know what you do and care about
29:46
what you do. Absolutely. Rich, this was absolutely
29:51
spectacular. And I can see why you went from
29:54
the chemical engineering to marketing because
29:57
you know your stuff. If somebody wanted to get
30:00
hold of you and they wanted either to hire you,
30:03
to say hi to you or whatever, what's the best
30:06
way for them to get hold of you? Yeah, the easiest
30:09
way to find me is my website. It's richmsmith
30:12
.com. You can also, you can book time with me
30:15
there. You can learn more about what we do with
30:17
our growth studio. We work with organizations
30:19
to help them get unstuck and scale and get to
30:23
the successful outcomes that many CEOs and founders
30:26
want. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn
30:29
and I have a podcast as well. It's on all the
30:31
channels. So I'm out there. Okay, great. This
30:35
conversation is a reminder that strong networking
30:38
isn't about saying more. It's about saying what
30:42
matters. When you communicate with clarity and
30:46
understand how people think and make decisions,
30:48
your conversations naturally carry more weight.
30:52
Take one step this week. Simplify how you can
30:56
explain what you do to somebody. I'm sorry. Simplify
31:01
how you can explain what you do so someone can
31:05
immediately understand the value. Clarity is
31:08
what makes you memorable, and being memorable
31:11
is what leads to opportunity. If you found value
31:15
in today's episode, please make sure you like,
31:18
follow, and subscribe to Networking Unleashed,
31:20
Building Profitable Connections, so you keep
31:23
getting the best insights on networking and communication.
31:26
And share this episode with someone ready to
31:29
move from casual conversations to strategic connections.
31:33
If you'd like to help strengthen how you communicate
31:36
and position yourself, in conversations, visit
31:40
Foreman to learn how I work with professionals,
31:43
teams, and organizations. So until next time,
31:46
think strategically, communicate clearly, and
31:50
build connections that move business forward.
31:52
Rich, you were a great guest, and I can't wait.
31:56
I'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much, Michael.
31:59
I really enjoyed the conversation this morning.
32:01
Appreciate you having me on. Hold on, folks.
32:09
Don't go anywhere. Let's hear from our sponsors.
32:12
David Neal, co -founder Revved Up Kids. Revved
32:16
Up Kids is on a mission to protect children and
32:19
teens from sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.
32:23
They provide prevention training programs for
32:26
children, teens, and adults. To learn more, go
32:30
to revvedupkids .org. Henry Kaplan, Century 21.
32:35
When it comes to making the biggest financial
32:37
decision of your life, leave it in the hands
32:40
of a proven professional, Henry Kaplan. Henry
32:43
is a global real estate agent with Century 21,
32:47
celebrating his 41st year in business. No matter
32:51
where you're moving, Henry has the right connections
32:53
for you. You can contact Henry at 561 -427 -4888.
33:01
A huge thank you to our guests for sharing such...
33:04
insights today. And of course, a big shout out
33:08
to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in
33:11
and spending your time with us. If you're interested
33:14
in my digital courses, being coached or having
33:17
me come and talk to your company, just go to
33:20
Michael and fill out the request form. Remember,
33:24
networking isn't about being perfect. It's about
33:27
being present. So take what you've learned today,
33:30
get out there and make some meaningful connections.
33:34
If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't
33:37
forget to subscribe. Leave us a review and share
33:40
it with someone who could use a little networking
33:42
inspiration. Let's keep the conversation going.
33:45
You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube,
33:50
or my website, foreman .com slash podcasts.