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

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

• 0:00
  Welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable
• 0:03
  Connections, the show where conversations don't
• 0:06
  just create contacts, they create capital. I'm
• 0:10
  your host, Michael Foreman. Most founders network
• 0:14
  hoping to meet the right investor. They attend
• 0:17
  events, shake hands, send follow -ups, and nothing
• 0:21
  happens. Not because investors aren't out there,
• 0:24
  but because credibility isn't built in the moment.
• 0:28
  It's built long before the conversation ever
• 0:30
  starts. My guest today helps founders shift from
• 0:35
  being just another entrepreneur to becoming an
• 0:38
  investor -ready operator. We're talking about
• 0:41
  how positioning yourself so capital starts leaning
• 0:44
  toward you, why most founders struggle to raise
• 0:48
  money, even when strong ideas, how structured
• 0:52
  systems instantly change how serious investors
• 0:55
  see you. So if you want networking to produce
• 0:59
  real deal flow instead of empty promises, this
• 1:03
  episode is for you. So I would like to introduce
• 1:07
  Tyrus to my podcast. Welcome, Tyrus. And I would
• 1:11
  really like for you to give us like the cliff
• 1:13
  notes of how you got where you are today. Absolutely.
• 1:17
  Thank you for having me, Michael. First and foremost,
• 1:19
  I appreciate you trusting me with your audience.
• 1:22
  I know that audiences are tough to build and
• 1:24
  even harder to maintain. So thank you for having
• 1:28
  me. I will give you a, you call it the cliff
• 1:30
  notes version. I call it the Campbell soup, the
• 1:33
  instant version, the microwave version of my
• 1:35
  background. I did what most do. I grew up, I
• 1:40
  would say not a, not a. I'm dirt poor life, but
• 1:45
  we didn't have much life. And I noticed at an
• 1:49
  early age that all of my family members worked
• 1:51
  very hard. I'm talking 12, 15 hour days and factories
• 1:55
  and wood yards. And we're from South Alabama.
• 1:59
  So there's not a lot of opportunity. And I noticed
• 2:02
  that even though they work hard, we didn't have
• 2:04
  much. At a very early age, I decided that I was
• 2:08
  going to not do that. I told my mom and she tells
• 2:11
  a story all the time. He came to me one day and
• 2:13
  said he wasn't going to work hard like us. So
• 2:16
  I did the traditional thing that everybody does.
• 2:19
  Did very well in school. My great grandfather
• 2:21
  used to tell me every day as we passed by his
• 2:24
  house, going to the bus stop, learn all you can
• 2:26
  because you're going to need it. I took that
• 2:28
  to heart. He was born in 1919. He didn't learn
• 2:31
  how to read until he joined the army. I'd listen
• 2:34
  to the stories. And so I did well in school,
• 2:38
  went to college on a full scholarship and lost
• 2:41
  it my second year in pledging and just doing
• 2:44
  all the other stuff, not doing what I'm supposed
• 2:46
  to do. And from there, I went to work hard, working
• 2:50
  two jobs. I was working an HVAC job in the daytime,
• 2:53
  eight hours a day, eight to nine hours. And then
• 2:55
  I was working at a UPS four hours overnight,
• 2:58
  the night shift. So I did the very thing that
• 3:00
  I said I wouldn't do. From there, I decided,
• 3:04
  you know what? I remembered I said I wasn't going
• 3:06
  to work hard. So what next step did I take? I
• 3:09
  joined the Air Force. I didn't go to be an entrepreneur.
• 3:13
  I joined the Air Force and I was going to make
• 3:15
  that a career. And this is important for everybody
• 3:18
  listening because you always have goals and plans
• 3:21
  and ideas and dreams, but life changes. I was
• 3:24
  going to go to OTS, officer training school,
• 3:27
  become an officer, do 20, 25 years and then retire.
• 3:32
  However, at about two years, six months in, I
• 3:35
  was medically retired. And that changed the trajectory
• 3:38
  of my life once again. And from there, since
• 3:41
  the job, I was a signals intel analyst. So I
• 3:45
  had a clearance. I was able to come to Maryland
• 3:47
  and work in the cleared environment and GovContract
• 3:50
  and work. And I've done that since before becoming
• 3:54
  a full -fledged entrepreneur. So I went immediately
• 3:56
  into GovContract, started at the bottom. local
• 4:00
  PC support, material management, working hard
• 4:05
  yet again. And that was 2009. Around 2014, I
• 4:09
  realized that I was making a great salary, but
• 4:11
  that wasn't going to create generational wealth,
• 4:13
  nor could I pass that job down to my kids. So
• 4:17
  I got into real estate in 2014. And between 2014
• 4:20
  and about 2016, a little bit before, about 18
• 4:24
  months, I launched a property management company
• 4:26
  and grew it to 1 .2 million, about 250 units
• 4:30
  managed. And throughout that phase, I began to
• 4:34
  grow that business, property management, contracting,
• 4:38
  renovations, flips. I ran the gamut in the real
• 4:42
  estate world. And with that, I took my eyes off
• 4:46
  the ball, got really stressed out, started to
• 4:50
  lose a lot of money. And that's what they don't
• 4:52
  tell you. If you grow too fast without systems
• 4:54
  and processes and things like that, you begin
• 4:56
  to implode. So around 2019, I shut that business
• 5:00
  down. I didn't sell it. I didn't have anybody
• 5:02
  to tell me I could sell it until after the fact.
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  And that's one that got away where I could have
• 5:08
  exited properly and took away a couple of million
• 5:10
  dollars. But I just closed it. And that led me
• 5:14
  2019 to today of consulting. working with business
• 5:19
  owners every day, giving them stories and how
• 5:22
  to actually grow, scale the business. It led
• 5:25
  me into the capital space because while I didn't
• 5:28
  think about raising capital from the sense that
• 5:30
  I do now, I was. I was raising capital from investors
• 5:33
  to flip properties, to grow the business, to
• 5:36
  deploy it, marketing, hiring, all those great
• 5:39
  things. And so that puts me in the space today
• 5:42
  of working with business owners every day and
• 5:44
  teaching them how to raise capital. How do you
• 5:47
  deploy it properly in the business? And then
• 5:49
  how do you scale properly in the right way and
• 5:52
  keeping your exit options open? That is quite
• 5:57
  a journey. I'm just thinking as you're speaking,
• 6:00
  I grew up almost the same way. And I grew up
• 6:04
  with a single mom and we were not dirt poor,
• 6:08
  but we're living paycheck to paycheck. And I
• 6:11
  saw how hard she worked and she worked for the
• 6:13
  government. And I saw. We weren't going to get
• 6:16
  anywhere. So when I first started college, I
• 6:21
  then went to the Air Force. I spent nine years
• 6:24
  in the Air Force, came out as a master sergeant.
• 6:27
  And that began my journey. When I was working
• 6:30
  for myself, I said, okay, let me start a design
• 6:35
  studio. Then my brothers and I got a pizzeria
• 6:38
  and restaurants and things like that. We sold
• 6:41
  all that and we went to corporate. And then after
• 6:45
  I, that was all in New York. When we moved down
• 6:47
  to Georgia, I said enough with that. Everything's
• 6:50
  now going to be for me. So I started working
• 6:53
  for a law firm and I said, no, let me do this
• 6:56
  for myself. And about five, four years, five
• 6:59
  years, I started my own consulting, professional
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  speaking and everything else. So I understand
• 7:05
  your journey, how hard it must have been to walk
• 7:09
  away from the business. But I see that you are,
• 7:14
  You've taken everything you've learned, put it
• 7:17
  into what you're doing and you're making it grow.
• 7:20
  So that I think is kudos. And it takes a lot
• 7:23
  of resilience, a lot of resilience for you because
• 7:26
  you saw everything you did wrong. You went to
• 7:29
  the school of hard knocks. That's what I said
• 7:31
  all the time. I went to the school of hard knocks.
• 7:33
  I learned what not to do and it helps me on my
• 7:36
  journey. So I applaud you for that. Let me ask
• 7:39
  you a few questions. Yeah. Most founders network
• 7:43
  hoping to meet investors. What's the mindset
• 7:47
  shift that turns networking from hunting capital
• 7:50
  into attracting it? It has to be a mindset of
• 7:55
  adding value. And Jim Rohn used to always talk
• 8:00
  about, if you want to get something, you got
• 8:04
  to give. someone else something. So if I want
• 8:07
  to have money, I need to make sure that I'm giving
• 8:11
  enough value in another way to another person.
• 8:14
  That way they see that it's worth them investing
• 8:17
  in. And a lot of times what I see when business
• 8:20
  owners network is they're networking from scarcity.
• 8:24
  They're networking from I need to pay this next
• 8:26
  bill. They're networking from the fear of they
• 8:29
  won't be able to continue if I don't close this
• 8:31
  deal. So it's always a networking from a lack
• 8:34
  mindset versus from an abundance mindset. And
• 8:38
  so they're not going in a room to add value.
• 8:41
  They're not going in a room to deliver something.
• 8:44
  They're going in a room to extract. And investors
• 8:47
  and everybody else around them can feel that.
• 8:50
  You can feel when someone's desperate, the desperation.
• 8:53
  It's like, I got to get this done. And it causes
• 8:56
  them to over talk. Meaning, I got to tell you,
• 9:00
  I just met you, Michael. I got to tell you my
• 9:02
  whole life story in this three minutes so I can
• 9:06
  hope you see something in me. And it's not it.
• 9:10
  You got to go in, be confident in what you have,
• 9:13
  networking to add value, just to share your experience,
• 9:17
  your expertise, your journey. And then people
• 9:20
  will pick up and believe in that story. Another
• 9:23
  thing that I notice is people don't know how
• 9:25
  to concisely tell what they do, who they are
• 9:28
  and how they make impact fast enough. They got
• 9:31
  to tell a story and then you leave confused.
• 9:34
  I don't know if I support this person. I have
• 9:36
  no clue what they were talking about. So that's
• 9:39
  a part where a business owner really needs to,
• 9:42
  they say you need to know how to sell. I recently
• 9:45
  saw another podcast that says you also need to
• 9:48
  know how to communicate and speak. And all entrepreneurs,
• 9:51
  business owners should take speaking lessons
• 9:53
  and courses so they know the right words to say.
• 9:56
  how to approach a situation and how to deliver
• 9:59
  enough value and impact without dragging a conversation
• 10:02
  down. And you're absolutely right. You hit on
• 10:07
  so many points that are so true, but I can't
• 10:11
  begin to comment on them because what I teach,
• 10:15
  what I help business professionals with is exactly
• 10:19
  what you just said. And once they figure out
• 10:24
  what they're going to say, everybody talks about
• 10:27
  their 30 -second elevator pitch, and everybody
• 10:29
  knows that it's your 30 -second elevator pitch.
• 10:33
  So when I go through and I teach them, say, look,
• 10:35
  let's hone in on that 30 -second elevator pitch.
• 10:39
  Okay, great. Okay, we have it down. Isn't that
• 10:41
  great? Yeah. Now let's bring it down to 10 seconds.
• 10:45
  And they're like, it flips them out. What are
• 10:47
  you talking about? We work on it. We bring it
• 10:49
  down to 10 seconds. And I said, okay, you got
• 10:51
  it down to 10 seconds. That's great. Now throw
• 10:53
  it out. Because now you can focus in on what
• 10:57
  you can talk about and you be yourself. I don't
• 11:00
  want to say be authentic because that word gets
• 11:02
  thrown around like it's like every day. But you
• 11:06
  have to be yourself and just talk about it. But
• 11:09
  the most important thing that you have to do
• 11:11
  is listen. Listen to the other person. And I
• 11:15
  can sit here and talk to you all day about that,
• 11:17
  but I'm not going to because it's for you. Okay.
• 11:21
  You talk about being an investor -ready operator
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  instead of just an entrepreneur. What does that
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  look like in a first conversation? Yeah. An investor
• 11:33
  -ready operator. And it's also you can consider
• 11:36
  it being an exitable business or fundable, bankable
• 11:39
  business. It's all the same premise. You have
• 11:42
  to be thinking and building with the end in mind,
• 11:45
  with the exit. Most business owners don't ever
• 11:47
  think about the exit. The only thing they think
• 11:50
  about is getting the next check. I want to take
• 11:52
  extra vacation. I want to be on my own and I
• 11:55
  don't work for anybody else. What does that look
• 11:57
  like 20 years from now? And when you don't have
• 12:00
  that, because what is an investor looking for?
• 12:02
  They're looking for how are they going to get
• 12:05
  their return on the money that you're seeking
• 12:07
  from them? And it's not just. at the base level
• 12:10
  of the return, we have to think a little bit
• 12:12
  deeper. How do they get the return by the impact
• 12:15
  that the business makes through sales? And so
• 12:19
  if you can figure out how do I create a business
• 12:22
  that isn't dependent on me, that has systems
• 12:27
  and processes, that has a marketing engine, that
• 12:30
  has a sales system, that has a delivery mechanism,
• 12:34
  and that has a customer success feedback loop,
• 12:37
  those are all the components. of a business.
• 12:40
  And when you can talk about that in a succinct
• 12:43
  way, that is what triggers an investor to say,
• 12:47
  okay, they have it going together. This is an
• 12:49
  investable business. It's not investable when
• 12:52
  it's just, oh, I'm going to change the world.
• 12:54
  How? I didn't get that far yet. I'm going to
• 12:59
  make impact to millions of people. How? By doing
• 13:03
  X, Y, and Z, but I don't have any of the infrastructure
• 13:05
  because I don't like numbers. And so We have
• 13:09
  to move from just a passion about what we think
• 13:12
  we want to do in the business to actually starting
• 13:16
  to put systems and processes in place to do those
• 13:19
  things and bring them to fruition. Investors
• 13:23
  are looking for track record. They're looking
• 13:26
  for momentum. They're looking for, have you done
• 13:29
  this before in a previous business or underneath
• 13:32
  a corporate umbrella or in the military? Have
• 13:35
  you done what you said that you're going to do
• 13:37
  with my money today? And that creates an investable
• 13:41
  business at the end of the day, I think. And
• 13:44
  I understand the place for pitch competitions.
• 13:47
  However, I think pitch competitions have done
• 13:49
  a disservice to small businesses because they
• 13:52
  give you this slide deck basis and say, just
• 13:58
  follow the deck. No business follows the deck.
• 14:02
  It just it doesn't happen in the real world.
• 14:05
  And what I've noticed is out of working with.
• 14:08
  Thousands of small businesses. They all follow
• 14:11
  this deck. But if you take the deck away, I'll
• 14:13
  give you a quick story, Michael. I was at an
• 14:16
  entrepreneur accelerator at one of the universities.
• 14:19
  I won't call the university out. And they had
• 14:23
  the MBA students paired with businesses to help
• 14:26
  them build and they put the pitch. The PowerPoint
• 14:29
  presentation, for whatever reason, went out.
• 14:32
  The screen went out. They could not continue
• 14:35
  the pitch. Because they couldn't look back and
• 14:39
  read it off the slides. And I have sat in many
• 14:43
  pitch competitions where they're literally just
• 14:45
  going slide by slide. They're not telling the
• 14:48
  story. You don't hear how they're going to actually
• 14:51
  execute it. It's just curated bullet points.
• 14:54
  And I tell every business the same thing. You
• 14:58
  are supposed to know your business so well. that
• 15:02
  you don't need a slide. The slides are just there
• 15:04
  for us not to just go. We're just following you.
• 15:08
  But if you can't talk about your business in
• 15:12
  depth without a slide deck, you're not going
• 15:15
  to be investable. An investor is not going to
• 15:17
  give you money because you don't know your own
• 15:20
  business. And so when I think about what makes
• 15:23
  the conversation change, it's just how you show
• 15:26
  up and how you communicate what you're doing
• 15:28
  and how you can. talk through my very first investor.
• 15:33
  I used to talk about what I would do, what I
• 15:35
  would do, what the plan was in real estate. And
• 15:37
  he asked me, why aren't you doing it? And I said,
• 15:40
  I don't have the money. And he asked me, if you
• 15:43
  had the money, what would you do? It wasn't an
• 15:46
  elevator pitch. It wasn't a pitch deck. It was
• 15:48
  a systematic approach to this is how I would
• 15:50
  flip the first house. Here's the resources that
• 15:53
  I have. Here's the research that I've done. And
• 15:55
  he gave me a check for $150 ,000 on the spot.
• 15:59
  That's an investable business. That's an investable
• 16:03
  business. There are people that they know their
• 16:06
  business. They know the sales cycle. They know
• 16:09
  all about it, but they don't know how to communicate
• 16:13
  it to either investors or to clients or somebody
• 16:17
  else. And that's really the important. Part is,
• 16:21
  that's what I meant by when we took the 30 -second
• 16:24
  elevator speech and put it down to nothing. Because
• 16:28
  you need to convey your passion without your
• 16:32
  passion. You have to convey it through a system
• 16:34
  and everything else to make the other person
• 16:37
  say, you know something? You're absolutely right.
• 16:40
  Here's the check. Exactly. All right. So how
• 16:45
  do you structure in your business or systems,
• 16:47
  reporting, clarity? Change the way people perceive
• 16:52
  you in networking environments. It shows that
• 16:57
  it's real. It shows that you've done some level
• 17:01
  of research and that you know what you're talking
• 17:03
  about. Many business owners come to me and they
• 17:07
  tell me my marketing isn't working. And I just
• 17:10
  ask a simple question, what's not working? And
• 17:12
  they can't tell me. They have no clue. They don't,
• 17:16
  oh, I ran paid ads and they didn't work. Okay,
• 17:19
  what didn't work? Of course, you didn't make
• 17:21
  any money, but why? Was it the creative? Was
• 17:25
  it the headline? Was it video versus static?
• 17:29
  Was it the specific demographics, the keywords
• 17:33
  that you used? Or did it drop off at the funnel?
• 17:37
  Was it your website? Or did it drop off at the
• 17:40
  cart or the book of call? They can't tell you
• 17:43
  their KPIs, key performance indicators. That,
• 17:47
  if you know that. That shows up differently in
• 17:51
  the space because that's what investors are looking
• 17:53
  for. How are you going to get this return? I
• 17:56
  know if I do X, Y, Z is going to return this.
• 17:59
  If I know I drop 40 ,000 into a marketing budget
• 18:03
  that I'm asking you for, I'm going to get a 4X
• 18:06
  return. And here's why. Because my numbers say
• 18:09
  that I'm getting this and this based on the metrics
• 18:13
  that I track. And so knowing the numbers in the
• 18:16
  business. creates an atmosphere of this person
• 18:21
  knows what they're doing they're actually able
• 18:24
  to track and measure the data and they're able
• 18:26
  to give me some sort of reporting so it's not
• 18:29
  just in the air and fluff and that's what we
• 18:32
  got to get away from we love to talk about the
• 18:34
  possibilities but Have you measured what you've
• 18:38
  done in the past on the way to reaching that
• 18:41
  possibility? Yes. I won't even say everybody
• 18:43
  wants to be a billion dollar company because
• 18:44
  I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs. That's not
• 18:46
  even in their mind. But if you do want to be
• 18:49
  a billion dollar company, how are you going to
• 18:51
  get there? And how are you going to track every
• 18:53
  part of that business to know what's working
• 18:56
  and what's not working? How are you going to
• 18:58
  make efficient what's effective? A lot of people
• 19:01
  talk about efficiency, especially in the age
• 19:03
  of AI. You got to be effective first. What you're
• 19:07
  doing has to work first. I had a friend of mine
• 19:10
  reach out to me recently about Zapier. Have you
• 19:12
  ever used Zapier? I was using Zapier five, 10
• 19:16
  years ago when they came out. And he was like,
• 19:19
  I'm looking to do these things with Zapier. I
• 19:21
  said, have you mapped this out yet on paper?
• 19:24
  Before you automate something, you got to put
• 19:27
  it on paper. So from a reporting, a KPI, a data
• 19:32
  perspective. You have to know those numbers before
• 19:35
  you start dropping things. Now, if you're a startup
• 19:38
  and you brand new, of course, you don't have
• 19:41
  the previous data. Now you start testing. Your
• 19:45
  first year or two is optimization of what you're
• 19:48
  trying to do. This is why most businesses stay
• 19:50
  in the red for the first three to five years,
• 19:52
  because you're optimizing that business. You're
• 19:56
  putting money in that is not working. You're
• 20:00
  figuring out what's working. Then you go into
• 20:03
  the black and become profitable. But too many
• 20:05
  businesses want to drop some money in and be
• 20:07
  profitable in 30 days. But you don't know. You
• 20:10
  don't have the track record. You can't take.
• 20:13
  And even if you did it in corporate for 30 years,
• 20:16
  you can't take what your company did and translate
• 20:19
  it to your business because there are many different
• 20:22
  components that are different. And you just have
• 20:25
  to figure that out for yourself. Very good. Very
• 20:29
  good. And again, you hit on so many points that
• 20:32
  were so real and so accurate that I don't want
• 20:35
  to even discuss it because everything you said
• 20:39
  was so on point. In investor conversations, where
• 20:44
  do founders unintentionally lose credibility
• 20:47
  without even realizing it? Big picture, big dreams,
• 20:55
  big idea. I'm going to cure cancer. That's a
• 21:00
  very novel thing that we should be working towards.
• 21:03
  And a lot of businesses are working towards doing
• 21:05
  that. But how? Or this is the one that gets me.
• 21:12
  Nobody else is doing it in the world. I'm the
• 21:15
  first. I don't know about that. You being the
• 21:20
  first today, it's a lot of people that you just
• 21:23
  don't know. And that's the issue. You don't know
• 21:26
  that somebody else is doing it. They don't know
• 21:28
  that you're doing it. And the end clients don't
• 21:30
  know that you're doing it. Or the end user, the
• 21:32
  end customer. And so that's another thing. Or
• 21:35
  they underestimate the amount of money that it
• 21:38
  takes. I just need $100 ,000. I had an investor
• 21:41
  tell me that before. I went to him and I think,
• 21:45
  what did I ask for? I think I asked for $120
• 21:47
  ,000. Because it was for three months of what
• 21:51
  I've tracked. And he said, no. And I said, what?
• 21:55
  I always ask for feedback. What could I have
• 21:57
  done better in the presentation, the conversation
• 21:59
  that would have made you say yes? He said, no,
• 22:01
  the presentation was flawless. I believe in what
• 22:03
  you're doing. You didn't ask me for enough money.
• 22:06
  Number one, if I give you 120 grand, that's going
• 22:11
  to get you through three, six months and you'll
• 22:13
  be right back asking me for more money. He told
• 22:17
  me to take my operating expenses that I can estimate
• 22:20
  for three years and ask for that. Red flags for
• 22:24
  business owners that I see when they're asking,
• 22:27
  they're just asking for a number, but they haven't
• 22:29
  put that number. They don't know how to deploy
• 22:31
  it. And so when you start to ask, how are you
• 22:35
  going to deploy the capital? They've never even
• 22:37
  thought about that. Not knowing that when you're
• 22:39
  raising capital, you have to use the legal exemptions
• 22:43
  to raise it and you have to detail your use of
• 22:46
  proceeds. And so that's a red flag. When I talk
• 22:49
  to owners who are raising, I'm like, okay, what?
• 22:52
  regulation are you using to raise? No clue. Oh,
• 22:56
  so you're just taking people's money. You're
• 22:59
  not even legal. And so those are the things that
• 23:03
  I think about. Too big of an idea. They're the
• 23:06
  only one that ever, I'm the brand new, you never
• 23:08
  heard of before. I'm the only one that's doing
• 23:10
  it. They don't know how to deploy the capital
• 23:13
  or where it's going. They just want the money.
• 23:15
  And then they're not using a legal exemption
• 23:18
  to do. They're just going around asking for money,
• 23:21
  which you can't do. Okay. What's the difference
• 23:25
  between pitching and positioning in the network
• 23:29
  setting? I feel like pitching is making that
• 23:35
  direct ask, but I also feel like it comes from
• 23:38
  that spirit of desperation. You have to pitch
• 23:42
  it right now because you need it. Positioning
• 23:46
  is going into a situation and showing and adding
• 23:50
  value to a room. But from a psychological perspective,
• 23:55
  you are pitching, you are selling, but that's
• 23:59
  not the push and that's not the feel. It's wow.
• 24:04
  This person is just talking about what they're
• 24:06
  doing, how they add value and how it connects
• 24:09
  and what it creates, what the return is on that.
• 24:12
  That's positioning. That's a that really person
• 24:15
  knows what they're talking about. I want to learn
• 24:18
  more. I want to follow up with them. I've noticed.
• 24:21
  people and i've started to do this as well they
• 24:24
  go into a room and they don't pitch anything
• 24:25
  they're just talking and you'll start to see
• 24:27
  more people gravitate around that conversation
• 24:30
  that's a person who's positioning they're selling
• 24:33
  they're always selling but they're not selling
• 24:36
  from a spirit of desperation they don't necessarily
• 24:39
  need it but it's always great to have you know
• 24:43
  that falls along the lines of whenever i help
• 24:49
  somebody, teach somebody, show somebody about
• 24:52
  networking events, networking meetings, I tell
• 24:55
  them to go in with a servant's heart. I tell
• 24:58
  them to go in there and just see what you can
• 25:00
  do for somebody else. Because once you're talking,
• 25:04
  forget all about business, right? Because that
• 25:07
  will in turn come back to you. But you have to
• 25:11
  first add value. You have to see what you can
• 25:14
  do for somebody else. And I have a system in
• 25:17
  place. And if you follow the system, but I always
• 25:21
  have a certain point in time where I do everything.
• 25:26
  I have something called form, F -O -R -M. And
• 25:29
  I utilize that. And they turn around. I say,
• 25:32
  look, you know something, Tyrus, I like you.
• 25:35
  I like how you do business. can I make you more
• 25:39
  successful? How can I be a good referral source
• 25:42
  for you? And if I did my job correctly, you say,
• 25:46
  Michael, I don't know what the hell you do yet.
• 25:48
  And you're already trying to make me more successful.
• 25:51
  Yes. And that's the beginning of the road that
• 25:56
  you're going to take. So it's very important
• 25:58
  that you bring value, as you said in the beginning
• 26:02
  of this podcast, to the relationship without
• 26:05
  you even thinking of how they can help you. 100%.
• 26:09
  So you emphasize systems that create instant
• 26:14
  credibility. What specific elements should every
• 26:18
  founder have ready before stepping into a capital
• 26:23
  conversation? That's a great question. And before
• 26:28
  I answer it fully, my partner always says, nobody
• 26:32
  cares about your widget, your gadget, any of
• 26:36
  that. And most founders go in talking about their
• 26:38
  widget, their gadget, what it'll do. I was just
• 26:40
  reviewing a pitch deck for someone and it was
• 26:44
  a medical breakthrough that they found with DNA
• 26:48
  and genomes and things like that. And the whole
• 26:51
  pitch deck was about that. I'm like, this is
• 26:53
  written towards scientists, not investors. Investors
• 26:57
  are going to read this and not understand any
• 26:59
  of it. So nobody cares about that. When you think
• 27:05
  about. the system, you think about delivery.
• 27:09
  How do I take this thing that I'm telling you
• 27:13
  is great and get it to market? And then how do
• 27:17
  I know that it's working through feedback? And
• 27:21
  so to be prepared when you're talking to an investor
• 27:23
  is I know you want your money back. Here's exactly
• 27:27
  how we're going to do it. And here are the and
• 27:30
  keep it simple. And this is another thing that
• 27:33
  business owners. And most people do. We overcomplicate
• 27:36
  things. The mechanics of business is simple.
• 27:40
  You create a product or service. You market it.
• 27:45
  You sell it. You deliver it. And then you follow
• 27:51
  up to see if it either eased the pain or added
• 27:54
  value or whatever the end result is. And then
• 27:57
  you iterate over it. That's it. That's all you
• 28:01
  have to explain. That's a pitch deck. I am doing
• 28:04
  X, Y and Z. These are the steps that I take.
• 28:09
  Here's the impact that is going to make. Here's
• 28:11
  how you get your return on your investment based
• 28:14
  on that. Do you need more details? And if you
• 28:17
  can convey just that simple information very
• 28:20
  clearly, most investors don't need more details
• 28:23
  because they don't care about how you're going
• 28:25
  to execute it. They just want to know that you
• 28:27
  can execute it. And that you have a plan to execute
• 28:31
  it. And that's what most business owners lack.
• 28:34
  They don't know how to do marketing. And they
• 28:36
  say that. Don't say that. I'm going to bring
• 28:38
  in the right experts needed to market this effectively.
• 28:42
  Oh, I'm not a great salesperson. Oh, how are
• 28:45
  you ever going to make money? I'm going to hire
• 28:48
  the right salespeople. And when you take and
• 28:51
  go from operator thinking to ownership thinking.
• 28:54
  And investor thinking of more businesses thought
• 28:56
  like investors, they would do much better. They're
• 28:59
  too busy thinking about this being my baby. I
• 29:04
  got to nurture it versus thinking that this is
• 29:06
  an asset because that's what the investors. This
• 29:09
  is an asset. This is a part of the portfolio.
• 29:11
  So if an owner flip that mindset from being an
• 29:16
  operator in the day to day to being an investor,
• 29:20
  and this is an asset, a part of their portfolio.
• 29:23
  then they would know exactly what an investor
• 29:25
  is looking for and they can show up to a conversation
• 29:28
  just sharing those things. That was such good
• 29:32
  advice. I can't begin to tell you because as
• 29:36
  you're speaking, I'm thinking about all the businesses
• 29:39
  that I've come in contact with that I'm helping
• 29:41
  the owners and everything else. Keep it simple,
• 29:44
  stupid. Kiss the kiss method. That's all you
• 29:47
  have to do because they're so passionate about
• 29:50
  it. It's their baby. And they want to explain
• 29:52
  to you every little detail because they need
• 29:55
  to show you how invested you are in your product.
• 29:59
  When in turn, the investors really don't want
• 30:02
  to hear that. They just want to hear how they're
• 30:05
  going to get their money back. You know, really
• 30:07
  very simple. It's a very simple, but you said
• 30:10
  it very well. All right. Let's bring this podcast
• 30:13
  full circle. If someone wants to turn their networking
• 30:17
  into consistent deal flow within the next year,
• 30:21
  what's one habit, what one habit would make the
• 30:26
  biggest difference? Mindset training. They should
• 30:30
  be reading, listening to podcasts, watching to
• 30:37
  train their mind to be able to enter an environment.
• 30:42
  And add massive value. That's the habit they
• 30:46
  should do. Every single day, figure out a way
• 30:49
  to continue growing and increasing. Because with
• 30:54
  that comes all the other sub layers of I'm sharper.
• 30:58
  I know how to communicate better. I'm understanding
• 31:01
  human psychology and behavior better. I know
• 31:04
  how to get what I want by giving other people
• 31:07
  what they want. And I'm knowing. how to show
• 31:10
  up in the room, not just being in a room. Most
• 31:12
  people are just happy with getting in the room.
• 31:14
  Why are you in that room? What is the purpose
• 31:17
  of you being there? And if you can just continue
• 31:20
  to train your mind, constant training, all high
• 31:24
  performing teams, if we study across different
• 31:27
  industries, they hyper focus and they train.
• 31:32
  So when they show up in the environment, they're
• 31:35
  ready to go. They're not training on the job.
• 31:40
  Outstanding. It's outstanding. Tyrus, you are
• 31:42
  such a good guest because you filled us with
• 31:48
  so much information that, listen, how would somebody
• 31:52
  get hold of you if they wanted to be mentored
• 31:56
  by you, wanted to buy your services or products,
• 31:59
  or just call you to say hi? How would they get
• 32:01
  hold of you? Yeah, we have two websites, LegacyWealthCapitalGroup
• 32:07
  .com. and capitalraisingacademy .com. Those are
• 32:11
  the entry points to everything that we do. And
• 32:14
  we keep it simple. We want you to go to the site,
• 32:17
  figure out where you belong in our ecosystem.
• 32:20
  It's laid out for you to just review and browse.
• 32:24
  And when you figure out where you belong in our
• 32:27
  ecosystem, then you make the next step. And that'll
• 32:30
  either be from the Capital Raising Academy side,
• 32:33
  or that'll be from Legacy Wealth Capital Group
• 32:35
  advisory side as a whole. And we go from there.
• 32:40
  Outstanding. Very good. This conversation is
• 32:43
  a reminder that high -level networking isn't
• 32:46
  about chasing capital. It's about becoming the
• 32:49
  kind of operator capital wants to back. When
• 32:53
  your structure is clear, your systems are tight,
• 32:56
  your communication reflects discipline, people
• 33:00
  take you seriously. And serious people create
• 33:04
  serious opportunities. Here's your action step.
• 33:08
  Before your next big conversation, ask yourself,
• 33:11
  do I sound like someone asking for money or someone
• 33:15
  prepared to manage it? If you got value from
• 33:19
  today's episode, make sure that you like, follow,
• 33:21
  and subscribe to Networking Unleashed, building
• 33:23
  profitable connections so you keep getting practical
• 33:27
  insight on networking and communication at every
• 33:30
  level. From first introductions to serious deal
• 33:34
  flow. and share this episode with a founder who's
• 33:38
  ready to elevate how they showed up. If you want
• 33:41
  to strengthen your positioning, sharpen your
• 33:44
  communication, or build relationships that open
• 33:47
  real financial doors, visit michaelaforman .com
• 33:51
  to learn how I work with professionals, teams,
• 33:54
  and organizations. So until next time, raise
• 33:57
  your standard, build your credibility, and turn
• 34:00
  connections into capital. Tyrus, I want to thank
• 34:04
  you again for coming on. You were great. Thank
• 34:08
  you for having me, Michael. I greatly appreciate
• 34:10
  it. Well, hold on, folks. Don't go anywhere.
• 34:17
  Let's hear from our sponsors. David Neal, co
• 34:21
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  to revvedupkids .org. Henry Kaplan, Century 21.
• 34:42
  When it comes to making the biggest financial
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  decision of your life, leave it in the hands
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  of a proven professional, Henry Kaplan. Henry
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  is a global real estate agent with Century 21,
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  celebrating his 41st year in business. No matter
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  where you're moving, Henry has the right connections
• 35:01
  for you. You can contact Henry at 561 -427 -4888.
• 35:10
  All right, folks. A huge thank you to our guests
• 35:13
  for sharing such incredible insights today. And
• 35:16
  of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing
• 35:19
  listeners, for tuning in and spending your time
• 35:22
  with us. If you're interested in my digital courses,
• 35:25
  being coached, or having me come and talk to
• 35:28
  your company, just go to Michael and fill out
• 35:32
  the request form. Remember, networking isn't
• 35:35
  about being perfect. It's about being present.
• 35:38
  So take what you've learned today. get out there,
• 35:41
  and make some meaningful connections. If you've
• 35:44
  enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to
• 35:47
  subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with
• 35:50
  someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
• 35:53
  Let's keep the conversation going. You can find
• 35:56
  me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my
• 36:01
  website, foreman .com slash podcasts.