Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed: S1E39 An Interview with Hank and Sharon and Michael A Forman, Public Speaker

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Networking Unleashed: S1E39 An Interview with Hank and Sharon and Michael A Forman, Public Speaker · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

• 0:16
  Hello, and welcome back to Networking Unleashed,
• 0:20
  Building Profitable Connections. Welcome back
• 0:23
  to the show, folks. I'm your host, Michael Foreman,
• 0:26
  and you're listening to the podcast where networking
• 0:29
  is more than just awkward handshakes and bad
• 0:31
  coffee. It's an art and a talent. But here's
• 0:35
  the twist. It's an art and talent you can actually
• 0:38
  learn. Yes, even if you're the person hiding
• 0:41
  in the corner at every event, pretending to check
• 0:44
  emails. Networking isn't just a nice skill to
• 0:48
  have. It's a game changer. And when you get good
• 0:51
  at it, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner.
• 0:54
  More connections, more opportunities, more profits.
• 0:58
  It's like unlocking a cheat code for life. So
• 1:01
  whether you're the life of the party or the just
• 1:04
  let me stay at home and text type, we've got
• 1:06
  something for you. So stick around. Let's turn
• 1:09
  those awkward small talk moments into big wins.
• 1:14
  Now, I have a guest. Well, I actually have a
• 1:17
  pair of guests today. They are a husband -wife
• 1:20
  team. They are small business coaches, Sharon
• 1:23
  and Hank Ulof. They're authors of eight best
• 1:28
  -selling books, whole small business breakthrough
• 1:31
  boot camps. several times a year, and have hosted
• 1:35
  almost 400 episodes of their podcast, the Marketing
• 1:38
  Checklist Viewcast. They focus on marketing,
• 1:42
  sales, public speaking, and human resources,
• 1:45
  the four areas where most business owners say
• 1:49
  they struggle. And this is near and dear to my
• 1:53
  heart, because this is what I talk about. Sorry,
• 1:58
  excuse me. I go on stages for, and I really like
• 2:02
  to talk about. So Sharon, Hank, why don't you
• 2:05
  just give us a quick backup of what you do? Our
• 2:11
  clients, they call us their easy button. When
• 2:14
  they have a challenge, yeah, the best $7 .99
• 2:17
  ever spent at Staples. When they have a question
• 2:19
  about sales or marketing, or I'm going to a networking
• 2:23
  meeting and what do I do? They press the easy
• 2:26
  button and we walk them through it in advance
• 2:29
  so they know what they're going to. Our background,
• 2:33
  our business started like most family businesses
• 2:36
  do over Thanksgiving. We were one of those families
• 2:40
  that went around the room and talked about how,
• 2:42
  what are you thankful for? And I was, it was
• 2:46
  my turn. Mom, everything's great. Sharon, me,
• 2:50
  married, and I'm passing it on to my sister.
• 2:53
  And my mom said, gee, Henry, oh, God, which is
• 2:56
  the formal name, how's work? And I got to tell
• 3:00
  her how work was going. And her comment was,
• 3:04
  what would it take instead of being a manager
• 3:05
  for this other company? What would it take to
• 3:08
  start your own? And I gave her a very flip answer
• 3:13
  that I would need to buy a new fax machine because
• 3:16
  it's, you know, because the one I own. had belonged
• 3:19
  to the company. Your audience does know what
• 3:22
  fact machines are. And she looked at my dad and
• 3:25
  said, write him a check. So two weeks later,
• 3:28
  the business was started. And fast forward 13
• 3:36
  years and ish and Sharon came on board. Yeah.
• 3:40
  He had a client that needed his marketing and
• 3:43
  sales background, but also needed the HR and
• 3:45
  office systems background that I had. So we agreed
• 3:48
  to team up and we really haven't looked back
• 3:50
  since. So it's good. So you two create a wonderful
• 3:53
  synergy between your two backgrounds, which is
• 3:57
  great for starting a business. Okay, so I'm going
• 4:00
  to move right into my questions. How has networking
• 4:04
  influenced your career in marketing, sales, and
• 4:08
  public speaking? You know, I'll be real blunt.
• 4:16
  Networking built my business. I joined a couple
• 4:21
  of different chambers of commerce. I joined a
• 4:24
  hard networking group. And it's really, that
• 4:29
  was the bedrock of it. Some folks might not know
• 4:32
  what a hard networking group is, right? It's
• 4:34
  like a BNI or a TIP. I say chamber of commerce
• 4:37
  is a soft, right? There could be multiples of
• 4:39
  you in there. But a hard networking, there's
• 4:42
  one business per category. One. one marketing
• 4:46
  firm, one banking, one, it's not one lawyer because
• 4:50
  there are different brands of lawyers, different
• 4:53
  specialties, but there'll be one for each specialty.
• 4:56
  Yeah, I believe that networking is the base of
• 5:00
  all businesses because no matter what business
• 5:03
  you're in, you have to network. And whether you
• 5:06
  do it through Zoom, through your cell phone or
• 5:09
  in person, I believe the in -person is the most
• 5:13
  important. because you pick up on all the vibe
• 5:15
  of the people, the room, and everything else.
• 5:17
  But that's neither here nor there. Tell me, what's
• 5:22
  your most successful networking strategy for
• 5:25
  HR professionals? Watch this, Sharon. It's not
• 5:33
  much different for HR than it is for anyone else.
• 5:35
  Who's your ideal client, customer, referral partner?
• 5:39
  Where are they hanging out? Go hang out. where
• 5:42
  they're hanging out so it depends on what you're
• 5:45
  right are you looking to network with other hr
• 5:47
  professionals are you looking because you're
• 5:49
  hiring and you need that next whatever that best
• 5:53
  employee is right it depends on what's the goal
• 5:55
  of that networking opportunity that's a but that's
• 5:58
  pretty standard no matter what right what's the
• 6:00
  goal Yeah, that's true. You always have to look
• 6:02
  at the end to see where you want to begin, because
• 6:06
  when people start to network, they say, OK, look,
• 6:08
  I'm in mortgages and where do I go for mortgages?
• 6:12
  But you have to look at where your customer really
• 6:15
  is networking and you go on from there. That
• 6:18
  was very good. Can you share a memorable connection
• 6:21
  that significantly impacted your career? Oh.
• 6:26
  Easily. There's actually several. I'll give you
• 6:30
  one that I share all the time. I was on the board
• 6:33
  of the Encino Chamber in Los Angeles, and it
• 6:37
  was a mixer. And being on the board, I felt it
• 6:42
  was my obligation, or in networking terms, it
• 6:47
  was a great excuse to walk up to any new person
• 6:52
  that came in and introduce myself, talk about
• 6:55
  the chamber. Not by myself, but welcome to the
• 6:58
  chamber. Let me get you involved. Who can I introduce
• 7:03
  you to? One particular mixer, woman walks in.
• 7:07
  Now, demographically, she fell into one of my
• 7:12
  target audiences. So, okay, age, you know, got
• 7:17
  it. And it turns out, occupationally, in that
• 7:22
  demographic that you go to a meeting, I want
• 7:24
  to meet this person. There she was. And turns
• 7:29
  out we ended up having a hour and a half conversation.
• 7:33
  Didn't talk to anyone else at the mixer that
• 7:35
  night, but I had been on her boss's TV show because
• 7:39
  she was working for Time Warner's table. And
• 7:42
  she was his, she ran the office, which in the
• 7:47
  promo business, this was like the perfect buyer.
• 7:50
  So we became very friendly. We rooted for different
• 7:55
  baseball teams. We got past that. Now, let's
• 7:59
  fast forward several years. She's been a client
• 8:03
  and a friend. But because of her job, she was
• 8:11
  in the San Fernando Valley in front of a lot
• 8:13
  of audiences, a lot of business audiences. The
• 8:17
  mayor of Los Angeles came to the Valley for a
• 8:20
  particular event. She was the emcee, et cetera.
• 8:24
  And quite often her story, as it turns out, I
• 8:30
  was the very first business person she met after
• 8:33
  she got her job when she walked into the mixer.
• 8:35
  And she will see me in an audience and she will
• 8:38
  see that guy right there. Thank you, Law. And
• 8:43
  she would edify my company and then talk about
• 8:49
  the importance of... being a business community.
• 8:53
  But it was that third -party validation that
• 8:58
  started being the very first person to be welcoming
• 9:02
  a new person into the chamber. At first, there's
• 9:06
  a feeling within networking that when you go
• 9:10
  to an event or anything such like an event, you
• 9:13
  look to give, not receive. Absolutely. So, you
• 9:17
  know, if you look to give, then you'll always
• 9:20
  get back because what goes around does come around.
• 9:23
  But it puts you in such a better place if you
• 9:27
  look to give. And so it looks like you hit that
• 9:29
  nail right on the head. You probably teach this.
• 9:32
  Look, if there's a new person and you say, so
• 9:37
  you're here at this meeting, who would you like
• 9:39
  to meet? If you can connect them. What's the
• 9:43
  first thing they have in common is you. They're
• 9:45
  going to talk about you a little bit, but you've
• 9:48
  now you've banked some karma points or business
• 9:51
  points. Even if you get no business from either
• 9:55
  of them, you've done a good thing. And in business,
• 9:58
  our businesses are built on continuously doing
• 10:01
  good things and being of service. And that's
• 10:04
  vital in networking. Yeah, and that's exactly
• 10:08
  what I teach to my students and when I go on
• 10:11
  stages and everything else, because I say it
• 10:14
  in such a way that because I bring everything
• 10:17
  down to a chamber event, a chamber of commerce
• 10:21
  event. If you see somebody new coming in, you
• 10:24
  say, who are you? What do you do? And everything
• 10:26
  else. I think, look, that table over there has
• 10:30
  a table full of marketers. I think you would.
• 10:33
  fit in very well. Let me go over, introduce you.
• 10:36
  You go over, introduce, and then you step away,
• 10:40
  but you've built yourself up in their eyes. Can
• 10:44
  I take that one step further? Sure. All right,
• 10:48
  folks, let's say you're going to introduce that
• 10:51
  person to one person. What I've done is I've
• 10:53
  said, you know what? You two have a conversation
• 10:55
  and I'll tell the new person, tell you what,
• 10:57
  when you two are done, come find me and I'll
• 11:00
  introduce you to somebody else. It's even better.
• 11:04
  That's even better. So that's very good. And
• 11:07
  I'm going to have to steal that. He's now going
• 11:10
  to steal. Yeah. Okay. So the first time, give
• 11:11
  me attribution. After that, it's all yours. Okay.
• 11:14
  You got it. You got it. Okay. So how do you balance
• 11:19
  online and in -person networking in today's digital
• 11:23
  age? I think of trying in whatever it is, trying
• 11:30
  to find balance. It's a fleeting attempt. It's
• 11:36
  not, it doesn't happen. It's not the same as
• 11:39
  balance. It's what do you need today, right?
• 11:43
  Today you might be out of balance in the in -person,
• 11:46
  right? Oh my goodness, we have three events we
• 11:48
  have to go to today or we get to go to today,
• 11:51
  right? So today we're out of balance because
• 11:54
  we're not doing anything online or tomorrow we
• 11:57
  might be doing. a webinar and a podcast and something
• 12:01
  else. And it's all, Oh, today we get to be online.
• 12:04
  We actually can be jeans and a t -shirt or whatever,
• 12:07
  right? That day is out of balance in the other
• 12:09
  way. Overall, the balance will even out in whatever
• 12:14
  way is brings you the fastest path to cash. No,
• 12:18
  that's true. That's true. But keeping that in
• 12:21
  balance, as you said, is really, it's very important
• 12:25
  because you can't have the scale go all one way
• 12:28
  or all the other. In today's business, you need
• 12:30
  both. And you said it perfectly because one day
• 12:34
  you might be doing everything online. And the
• 12:36
  second day you might be doing everything in person.
• 12:39
  And also you're very fortunate. You have two
• 12:42
  people. So you can actually. do both at the same
• 12:45
  time. We, this is just our personal, this is
• 12:48
  our brand. We tend to do most things together.
• 12:51
  Occasionally we do have to be in two places at
• 12:54
  once. Yes, we're fortunate there's two of us
• 12:56
  we can split, but we do try to do everything
• 12:59
  together because that's our brand, right? If
• 13:02
  you're going to hire a coach and you only see
• 13:04
  me out and we resonate and you're interested
• 13:07
  in hiring us, but you haven't met Hank or vice
• 13:09
  versa, right? It's hard to make that buying decision
• 13:12
  because there's a piece of the puzzle missing.
• 13:15
  So we try to do those things together. But yes,
• 13:18
  occasionally, especially if it's some, if we're
• 13:20
  meeting with folks we've already met before,
• 13:22
  if there's two different chamber events, those
• 13:24
  people already know us. They know we're a team.
• 13:26
  If they're going to make a buying decision, they
• 13:28
  already know what they're getting. It's totally
• 13:29
  fine. But if we're going someplace new, we're
• 13:31
  always going to go together. Yeah. Although if
• 13:33
  we spill it up, we almost have to wear a badge.
• 13:37
  Sharon is not, yeah. Sharon's doing this or Hank's
• 13:42
  not here because he's doing, because that's the
• 13:44
  question. Where's Hank? Where's Sharon? That's
• 13:46
  good. Because if you go to places predominantly
• 13:49
  together, then they're always going to ask where
• 13:52
  the other one is. Always. So it's good. So listen,
• 13:55
  you've told me how successful you've become,
• 13:58
  but I'm sure you've made a plethora of mistakes.
• 14:02
  Give me the biggest mistake and how you avoided
• 14:07
  it. I would say my biggest mistake is I am an
• 14:11
  introvert. Why is that a mistake? I'm a shy introvert,
• 14:14
  right? So for me to go out in public to network,
• 14:20
  I have to channel my inner Hank. So left on my
• 14:26
  own, I would do it online. I'm just really, you
• 14:31
  want me to go out there? Like COVID for me was
• 14:34
  awesome. We can't go out. Oh, that's just too
• 14:40
  bad. So, right. But in the business world, that
• 14:44
  is a mistake. So to lean on those initial, I
• 14:49
  don't want to, that's the mistake. The learning
• 14:52
  process was, well, how badly do you want it?
• 14:55
  Right. I want our business to succeed more than
• 14:58
  I want to embrace being a shy introvert. So I'm
• 15:02
  going to channel my inner Hank and go out there.
• 15:05
  I'm not as good as Hank is out there, but I can.
• 15:09
  She has her steps. She does wonderful. They always
• 15:13
  say the introverts always, or the second half
• 15:16
  of the team always say, I'm really not good at
• 15:19
  this. I'm not. And you're still saying, wait
• 15:21
  a minute. You are very good at this. You are
• 15:24
  sensational at this, but you don't realize it.
• 15:27
  The secret weapon in our couple. Yeah. Ever since
• 15:30
  the pandemic, when people were staying inside.
• 15:34
  People now, one other thing that I speak about
• 15:37
  is when I go to high schools and colleges, I
• 15:41
  speak about how people don't know how to communicate
• 15:44
  with one another. They lost the feeling of all
• 15:49
  they're doing is Zoom or through texting. They
• 15:52
  lost the one -on -one feeling. And as well as
• 15:55
  I do, when you meet somebody, you're feeling
• 15:58
  the vibe of the person. You're feeling the vibe
• 16:01
  of the room. Whether or not you're going to do
• 16:04
  business with that person. So can I turn your
• 16:07
  podcast around for a second and ask you a question?
• 16:10
  Sure. All right. Okay, go ahead. Welcome back.
• 16:13
  This is Aaron and Hank. Thank you. Okay. We have
• 16:15
  our guest, Michael Foreman. He's an expert at
• 16:17
  networking. Michael, you speak to a lot of Gen
• 16:22
  X, Gen Y, a younger generation. This is a topic
• 16:26
  that's important to me. Have you noticed a difference
• 16:29
  in how they network compared to... millennial
• 16:33
  and moving toward baby boomers sure it's huge
• 16:38
  it's huge because the younger adults as i said
• 16:43
  before they never were taught how to communicate
• 16:47
  they were just because they don't know about
• 16:50
  it so that was that's what my job is when I go
• 16:54
  into high school, I have to tell them, look,
• 16:57
  you may think everything's on Zoom, or you may
• 16:59
  think everything by text, but you must do it
• 17:02
  in person. When you go to meet with somebody,
• 17:05
  when you go to meet them in a company or corporation,
• 17:09
  you're not going to do it through Zoom. And you
• 17:12
  have to learn etiquette. You have to learn, be
• 17:15
  confident. You have to learn eye contact, handshakes.
• 17:18
  You have to learn politeness, respectfulness,
• 17:21
  and all of that is gone and they don't know how
• 17:25
  to do it. So yes, the answer to your question
• 17:27
  is yes, there's a big difference. And that's
• 17:30
  one of the reasons why I go out and try to tell
• 17:33
  everybody. Awesome. I've noticed when it comes
• 17:38
  to things like all of the service groups, chambers,
• 17:43
  et cetera, the silent generation did a marvelous
• 17:46
  job bringing baby boomers along. And baby boomers,
• 17:51
  we did not do as good a job bringing millennials
• 17:54
  and teaching them the same thing. So your public
• 17:57
  service is important and please continue doing
• 18:01
  it. Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly because
• 18:05
  I do feel that is a missing link. And I think
• 18:10
  that the businesses of today, without that, they're
• 18:15
  going to lose out on a lot. So that's why I do
• 18:18
  it. But going back to introverts, how can introverts
• 18:23
  excel at networking in sales and marketing? Sharon.
• 18:31
  In networking, here's my secret sauce. When you
• 18:37
  walk into a room of networkers, you're not the
• 18:40
  only shy one there. I promise you, you're not.
• 18:44
  Look around. There are other people hanging out.
• 18:47
  At the wall. Like your high school dances. Okay.
• 18:51
  Go introduce yourself to one of those that are
• 18:54
  saying, hey, I see you're here by yourself. That's
• 18:57
  my inclination too. My name is Sharon. Just be
• 19:00
  willing to be first. With our clients, when we
• 19:05
  are sending them out to a networking group, they
• 19:10
  all know, I'm not going to tell them I'm going
• 19:13
  to a networking group because I'm going to get
• 19:15
  the assignment. And the assignment is, all right,
• 19:18
  is it one, two, or three? And they have to pick
• 19:21
  a number. Are you going to meet one, two, or
• 19:24
  three brand new people and come back to the coaching
• 19:26
  call and give us your book report? Show the card.
• 19:33
  Yep. You have to put them on the spot. You have
• 19:35
  to make them accountable. For their own good.
• 19:42
  That's what I try to do. Yeah, that's what I
• 19:45
  try to do with all my coaching students. I make
• 19:47
  them accountable. If I'm sitting there just preaching
• 19:49
  to them, they're not going to get anything out
• 19:51
  of it. If I make them accountable, then they
• 19:54
  really will pay attention and do a little bit
• 19:57
  more and get their money's worth, so to speak.
• 20:00
  What role does public speaking play in effective
• 20:04
  networking? Tremendous. Yeah, you can meet one
• 20:09
  -on -one, but you could also meet one. To many.
• 20:15
  And the other thing I tend to stress a lot is
• 20:19
  you're not just looking for your next client
• 20:21
  or customer. Like if you're only working on client,
• 20:24
  customer, you're missing out the referral partners.
• 20:27
  Don't forget about those referral partners. Sometimes
• 20:29
  you're not going to meet your next client or
• 20:32
  customer. But what you might meet is someone
• 20:34
  who has a tribe of people. that also want to
• 20:36
  meet you that they could introduce you to. If
• 20:38
  you ignore the referral partners because you're
• 20:40
  so focused on the next client or customer, you're
• 20:42
  missing out. I always say that referrals are
• 20:46
  gold. That's golden, right? Because you're not
• 20:50
  speaking to that audience, but you're speaking
• 20:54
  to the network of that audience. So you're not
• 20:57
  speaking to... 50, 100, 200 people. You're speaking
• 21:01
  to a thousand people because if you're good enough
• 21:04
  and you resonate with them enough, they're going
• 21:07
  to say, oh, you know what? I saw this guy speak.
• 21:10
  You have to hear him. And so on and so forth.
• 21:14
  So yeah, I think it's very important. How do
• 21:16
  you maintain and nurture professional relationships
• 21:18
  long -term? We have several tools. Okay. You
• 21:26
  mentioned our books. We've given away way more
• 21:32
  books than we've sold, but that's the tool. We
• 21:36
  are huge believers in direct mail. We have an
• 21:40
  entire greeting card system that we use that
• 21:43
  puts things into their mailbox. We don't believe
• 21:46
  in using our email to sell without delivering
• 21:50
  knowledge. Our social media is part of it. remembering
• 21:58
  little birthdays on social media. There are a
• 22:01
  lot of different parts of the puzzle. What did
• 22:05
  I miss? It really comes down to follow up. If
• 22:07
  you just met someone and then that's it, you're
• 22:10
  just leaving it to them, hoping that they're
• 22:12
  going to reach out. Hope is not a marketing plan,
• 22:15
  right? Yeah, but it's a short one. So follow
• 22:18
  up, whether it's greeting cards or social media
• 22:21
  or texting or sending an email. Heck, we had
• 22:25
  a one -to -one call. We give away 30 -minute
• 22:27
  calls, strategy sessions for business owners
• 22:30
  that are stuck. We had a call with two women
• 22:33
  that they were in entertainment. It doesn't matter,
• 22:35
  but they were part of the, in the LA fires that
• 22:39
  happened. So we sent an email. It wasn't, hey,
• 22:42
  let's continue the conversation about coaching.
• 22:44
  It was, hey, we just heard about this. We know
• 22:47
  that you're in that area. Are you okay? Like
• 22:50
  be a person. Well, that's true. But what you
• 22:54
  said was key is the follow -up to your whatever,
• 22:59
  right? Now, I personally feel that the follow
• 23:02
  -up is almost more important than the actual
• 23:05
  meeting of the person themselves. That's right.
• 23:07
  And I went to a networking event and I just,
• 23:11
  I asked, I was talking with somebody and I said,
• 23:13
  hey, how do you follow up with all of the people
• 23:17
  that you meet? He goes, I'll send them an email.
• 23:20
  And I'll thank them and I'll send them an email
• 23:22
  next week and I'll follow up with them again.
• 23:25
  And probably the week after that, I said, OK,
• 23:27
  thank you very much. And I'm thinking, OK, if
• 23:30
  I go up against him, he lost because I have a
• 23:35
  secret sauce. It involves writing a handwritten
• 23:39
  thank you note, you know, to that person. So
• 23:43
  I follow up in such a way. It's about six times
• 23:47
  in two weeks. So you think, oh, no, that's an
• 23:51
  overkill. No, you'll find that it takes between
• 23:54
  eight and 12 touches before a person will respond.
• 23:58
  And I can guarantee you that with the way that
• 24:02
  I follow up is you go from about a 3 % chance
• 24:07
  to about a 70 % chance. And both of you work
• 24:11
  corporate America. And if you were told somebody.
• 24:15
  That, okay, I have a 70 % chance of my emails,
• 24:18
  somebody responding to my email, that's gold,
• 24:22
  right? But then you'll know, positive or negative
• 24:26
  response, if they respond to you, where to place
• 24:29
  them. Either in the no -go file or the follow
• 24:32
  -up again file or something else, but you have
• 24:35
  what to do with them. So follow -up is the key.
• 24:39
  In our greeting card system, we use several different
• 24:42
  greeting cards. And we do have them by list.
• 24:47
  Clients get a card every month, past clients
• 24:51
  get a card. We have prospect, which is a very
• 24:55
  broad category. But yeah, and we change the message
• 25:00
  to make sure that they understand, look, you
• 25:04
  may never, ever need coaching, but here's just
• 25:07
  a little positivity for the month. You don't
• 25:11
  know who they know. You have that message, that
• 25:14
  positivity message. And as long as you are uplifting
• 25:19
  and positive and everything, then everybody would
• 25:23
  just love to either open it or just say, oh,
• 25:26
  that's right. That was Hank and Sharon. And that's
• 25:29
  it. Look, we send those, since we're talking
• 25:32
  about greeting cards, we send the greeting cards
• 25:33
  out to our chamber of commerce. And quite often
• 25:37
  it'll be, we'll meet them at a mixer. Oh, you're
• 25:39
  the ones that send those cards every month. Yes,
• 25:43
  we are. Yes, that's us. We've already met them.
• 25:46
  So we've already met them, Michael. Now we're
• 25:48
  just continuing the conversation at the mixer.
• 25:51
  And it's a lot nicer when it happens that way.
• 25:54
  So you don't have that cold, what do you do?
• 25:57
  It takes all of that out of the mix. All right.
• 26:01
  Can you share tips for turning casual connections
• 26:04
  into a profitable business relationship? Sure.
• 26:10
  Tell you what, I'm going to use your audience.
• 26:12
  All right, audience, careful. You're about to
• 26:15
  get sold here. We have several books. One of
• 26:21
  them is called The Marketing Checklist, Your
• 26:23
  Guide for Overwhelmed and Overthinking Entrepreneurs.
• 26:25
  If you would like this book, all you have to
• 26:27
  do is send us an email. But wait, would you like
• 26:32
  The Marketing Checklist for sale? Here's where
• 26:34
  it gets fun. You have to listen to another episode
• 26:37
  of Networking Unleashed. and give us like a two
• 26:41
  -sentence book report on what you learned from
• 26:43
  Michael. A pod report. Yes. If you'd like the
• 26:46
  marketing checklist too, listen to another episode
• 26:50
  and tell us what Michael taught you. If you want
• 26:54
  our human resources book, yep, one more podcast
• 26:58
  of Networking Unleashed. Tell us what Michael
• 27:00
  taught you, and you can have each of those books.
• 27:04
  So what we're doing is we're getting somebody
• 27:07
  to get some free stuff. and we're building a
• 27:11
  relationship with you because we want them to
• 27:12
  listen to more of you, and maybe that you'll
• 27:15
  get some coaching out of it because they listen
• 27:17
  to more networking unleashed, you might meet
• 27:20
  somebody that needs coaching that doesn't do
• 27:22
  what you do, and then we refer. So it's not a
• 27:24
  fastest path to cash, but it's doing enough things
• 27:27
  in your business that spinning all those plates,
• 27:32
  they start to come back to you. It's layering.
• 27:35
  Yeah. So the thing is, give of yourself. And
• 27:38
  if you haven't written a book, all right, some
• 27:40
  special report in your industry. I pride myself
• 27:45
  on being able to put two people together. And
• 27:49
  I am really known for it in my circles. If Michael
• 27:54
  doesn't do it, then he knows people who do, and
• 27:58
  he'll put them together. And I do that almost
• 28:01
  every day. And it's really, it's as much of a
• 28:05
  good feeling as... not doing it's just really
• 28:09
  a good feeling why wouldn't you do it yeah it's
• 28:12
  being a good person it's being a good person
• 28:15
  a good neighbor a good whatever isn't that what
• 28:17
  mr rogers told us taught us to do oh wait most
• 28:21
  of your audience has no idea who mr rogers is
• 28:23
  that's right that's right but they probably still
• 28:30
  don't even know who cookie monster is it's good
• 28:34
  to be nice to people Okay, last question. All
• 28:39
  right. How has networking evolved the HR industry
• 28:42
  and what trends do you foresee? I'll start with
• 28:50
  one. Go ahead. Before we worked together or as
• 28:53
  we were starting to work together, Sharon would
• 28:55
  hear me talking to clients about marketing. And
• 29:01
  she realized real fast that she was doing the
• 29:05
  same thing internally. So I used to think that
• 29:08
  he was the marketing guy. I didn't know anything
• 29:09
  about marketing. I was HR and office management.
• 29:12
  What do I know about marketing? Right. But as
• 29:14
  he said, I was overhearing the conversations
• 29:16
  he was having with his small business client.
• 29:20
  Knowing that when I was doing HR, I was only
• 29:23
  working with small business. I didn't work with
• 29:24
  large companies. It was small business owners.
• 29:26
  So the same conversations that he was having
• 29:30
  with his clients, I would have in my HR office.
• 29:34
  Right. Employees would come to me and say, I
• 29:36
  have this great idea, but my coworker or my supervisor
• 29:40
  won't listen to me. How do I get them to listen
• 29:42
  to me? It's messaging. Or the bosses would come
• 29:45
  to me and say, we have this great idea, but we
• 29:47
  want the employees to buy in so they feel like
• 29:50
  they have some ownership and it actually works.
• 29:52
  It's messaging. HR is just internal messaging.
• 29:57
  Unless I'm putting an ad out looking for a new
• 29:59
  employee, right, then it's external. But again,
• 30:01
  most of my career was. small business we didn't
• 30:04
  do that much hiring it was a small business so
• 30:07
  it's all you saw that i'm gonna use that word
• 30:11
  again synergy for what you're doing for both
• 30:15
  of you can do together and that's what makes
• 30:18
  it work that's what makes your team work because
• 30:22
  you are powerful in some areas hank is powerful
• 30:25
  in other areas and when you combine that you
• 30:29
  make such a good team and it's if Let me ask
• 30:33
  you a question. If somebody wants either your
• 30:37
  coaching or buy a book or just to see what you're
• 30:41
  all about, or even just to talk to you, how would
• 30:44
  they go about doing it? Okay. Don't go to Amazon
• 30:47
  and buy the book. Reach out to us. We'll give
• 30:48
  it to you for free. All right. That's the first
• 30:51
  part. Our calendar link is howtogettherefaster
• 30:55
  .com. Grab a 30 minutes with us. If you only
• 30:59
  want a book. Send us an email. You can track
• 31:02
  us down. Our email addresses are on our website,
• 31:05
  ulofcreative .com. But if you want some time,
• 31:08
  that's how to get there faster is the easiest
• 31:10
  way. It'll ask you a couple of questions. So
• 31:12
  we're ready for you. And here's our entire sales
• 31:14
  pitch. You ready? If you want to talk about coaching,
• 31:17
  go to companymarketingplan .com. So that's five
• 31:20
  seconds of the 30 minutes. So the other 29 minutes,
• 31:23
  53 seconds is yours. That's good. That's good.
• 31:27
  And I try to get to the person behind the business.
• 31:32
  And if you get to the person, then you really
• 31:35
  know what their business is about. And the people
• 31:37
  who give you that fake front, I don't want to
• 31:40
  deal with. We had a business coach that we were
• 31:46
  with him for two years. And I'll say this up
• 31:48
  front. Every penny we invested, totally worth
• 31:52
  it. We didn't. Because toward the end of the
• 31:58
  second year, I said, look, I've got a marketing
• 31:59
  question for us how we should do it. And his
• 32:02
  answer was, I don't know your clients well enough
• 32:04
  to answer that. And I was like, okay, wait a
• 32:07
  second. In the first, when a client starts with
• 32:11
  us, we start with a two -hour onboarding session.
• 32:15
  We know about their clients like that. And during
• 32:20
  the course of our contract of a year with somebody,
• 32:23
  we really know their business. So it was an oh
• 32:27
  my goodness moment. And again, I feel fine about
• 32:34
  every penny we invested. It was worth it. But
• 32:39
  it also, that last thing taught us to create
• 32:44
  the coaching program that we wish we could have
• 32:46
  found out in the wild. But we also felt and still
• 32:49
  feel like we don't really know him. We know his
• 32:51
  persona, but we don't really know him. And we
• 32:55
  don't know how to do that. We don't want to learn
• 32:57
  how to do that. What you see here with us and
• 32:59
  talking to Michael is what you're going to hear
• 33:01
  on the phone or in our mastermind. When you meet
• 33:03
  Michael in person, you're probably going to get
• 33:05
  the exact same thing as you see here. There's
• 33:07
  no persona. That's it. I hate. people that put
• 33:11
  that front on. And that's why I really don't
• 33:13
  do business. It's hard because you know what?
• 33:16
  They don't remember what they said a month ago
• 33:20
  because it was all fake. If I can just be me,
• 33:23
  then I don't have to worry about that. You just
• 33:26
  be you. And that's why you're successful. I'm
• 33:29
  successful. And it makes the world go around
• 33:32
  that much better. So I want Hank, Sharon, I got
• 33:36
  to tell you, this was a great podcast. learned
• 33:40
  so much because I your background and my background
• 33:45
  are so much alike and we're teaching almost the
• 33:48
  same things so it was like a breath of fresh
• 33:51
  air thank you okay so yeah I have a feeling we
• 33:55
  could uh chat for another hour or so and in fact
• 33:58
  we might do that folks so y 'all have a great
• 34:01
  day Michael's gonna do the ending we're gonna
• 34:03
  chat for another hour but you're gonna wish you
• 34:06
  had heard it all But make sure you keep listening
• 34:09
  to Networking Unleashed because I have a feeling
• 34:11
  there's a whole lot more you can learn from Michael.
• 34:14
  Thank you, and I'll talk with you soon. Well,
• 34:18
  hold on, folks. Don't go anywhere. Let me just
• 34:21
  read a few of our sponsors that we have. Struggling
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  today. So Quit Your Way to Success by Rodney
• 35:01
  Davis, available now on Amazon. And this is a
• 35:05
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• 35:25
  to revvedupkids .org. That's R -E -V -V -E -D
• 35:30
  -U -P -K -I -D -S .org. Well, that's a wrap,
• 35:37
  folks. A huge thank you to our special guests
• 35:40
  for sharing such incredible insights today. And
• 35:44
  of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing
• 35:47
  listeners, for tuning in and spending your time
• 35:50
  with us. Remember, networking isn't about being
• 35:54
  perfect. It's about being present. So take what
• 35:57
  you've learned today, get out there and make
• 36:00
  some meaningful connections. If you enjoyed this
• 36:03
  episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave us
• 36:06
  a review and share it with someone who could
• 36:08
  use a little networking inspiration. Let's keep
• 36:12
  the conversation going. You can find me on Apple,
• 36:16
  Spotify, YouTube or my website. Michael A. Foreman,
• 36:20
  remember, until next time, keep practicing, keep
• 36:24
  connecting, and keep building those relationships.
• 36:27
  This is Michael A. Foreman signing off. Take
• 36:30
  care and happy networking.