Michael Foreman, tell me about your vision.
Tell me about my vision. My vision for business is a little different than my business personal life,
but my business for vision is really to get on more stages and tell the masses about how to
network and communicate with one another. Because I strongly feel that really as of the pandemic,
people lost their minds. They forgot how to properly network, communicate with one another,
and that can transcend between business and personal life. Because just walking to somebody
at the grocery store or somewhere else, they don't know how to converse without the use, here we go,
of the cell phone. And you take that away from them, they're like, oh no, what am I going to do
now? You speak, you talk, you be present. That's huge. You talked about in your form submission,
learning how to build rapport. And so I put it along the bottom here, part of that form submission,
because it goes back to the fundamentals. And if we look at the best sports stars of all time too,
they were all highly built around the basics, the boring, the fundamentals.
And you're talking about it. It's something that is completely overlooked in the business world.
I love what you said here. You said not only have we kind of forgotten the basic skills,
but you said if done properly, you will increase profits almost immediately. I mean, I would agree
it. In fact, I would say you can increase profits very much immediately, if that's one of the missing
components of what's going on. And I would agree, most people are missing that. So what does that
look like? How do we get people back to the basics? Well, it's really simple. It's fundamental. For
you and I, that may not be that difficult, because everything I talk about is common sense.
But the whole fact is, if you listen to the other person, now you brought up the rapport building,
and that I use an acronym form, F-O-R-M, and that is family, occupation, recreation,
and the message where everybody came on the same level. But if you remember that,
as you're speaking with somebody, you can get on the same level as them with just about anything.
Now, I was a baseball coach for 16 years. I was an umpire for three years. So when it comes to
youth sports, I could talk to anybody. So my first question to them is like, is that your son? Is
that your daughter? Do you have any children? Whatever. And they say yes. I will, is he involved
in sports? Or is she involved in sports? And he says, yes, I'm like, that's a home run, because
I'm there. And I get to talk with them. And the more you talk with them, the more you let them
talk, the more, the quicker their barrier comes down. Because people love to talk about themselves.
They love to talk about their families. And by all rights, you should let them. And you should
have the conversation go like that. And as you're asking questions, and you're making mental notes,
but rapport building is so important, because that goes into the follow up and the follow up
of the whole nother talk we're going to have. Because if you don't have the right follow up,
you might as well not even have met him in the first place.
But it's something that can be right. So we're going to we're going to tackle this from a couple
different angles. I'm going to play Angel's advocate. In fact, some people would say Devil's
advocate in that regard. And it depends on the context and your circumstances. So the one
thing I'll say is, for those of you visionary leaders listening in, Michael said you should.
I would say you could. It depends. Is that right for your scenario and setting? If you're an
attorney who's working in criminal defense, it's going to be different than if you're working on
a little league with with children, your your type of rapport is going to be different. And I know
that Michael, you know this too. And in that regard, what can happen is, if depending on the
type of context you're in, certain rapport questions may not be appropriate, because it puts
you in the position of the friend zone, where you no longer have a certain authority, my, my,
my doctor, my surgeon should not come in and be like, Hey, bro, what's up, man? You know, yeah,
we're going to kind of work on your back. But you know, I'm gonna let somebody else handle the
talking to you about it. Okay. Right. There's there's a context of how rapport can be built
in business and in life. And we can learn when we can learn to navigate those, we will be more
effective leaders in those communities with those opportunities. And that nuance is what often
separates profitability and productivity from being just busy, you know, and creating a whole
bunch of friendships that don't necessarily move somewhere. So I'm not saying don't be friendly,
but we got to dive deeper into this rapport aspect. So feel free to lead the way on that, Michael.
It depends on what you said, who you are and what you're doing. Yes, you're an attorney trying to
get to the bottom of things. And believe me, I used to work for a law firm. So I know that one
was talking about, okay, but if you're going to a networking event, and you're out there to meet
people and to see people, your first your first thought should always be, how can I give, how can
I give, not receive? How can I give? What goes around comes around. But it's all part of the
same process. And it's very important for you to know your place. You know, if you're that attorney,
you know, you don't want to get too friendly. Now, I work for an injury attorney. So the whole idea
was for me to get that friendly, because you want them to trust me. Yeah. If I was a divorce attorney
or some other criminal attorney, so much. You know, it's funny, I love this topic. It's something that
I want to make sure that we have the time to give you the respect to be able to build around the
process. I also want to give a shout out to Clay Hicks, Clayton Hicks, who came on the show. He has
the best framework and the easiest and simplest framework I've ever seen for building rapport.
I've never seen anything come close to just how well his his version of well, if we want to learn
to listen to people, what are the questions that we ask that support and build the rapport without
going out on a ledge and accidentally report ruining report before it even starts? I'll give you one
small example for the again for the audience on this. If my opening rapport line or question or
topic of interest in that individual is, hey, what's your favorite sports team? You know, or hey,
do you have a family? Well, what happens is if they don't have a family, the answer is no.
If they don't like sports and they say, well, I don't like sports, you've just created a negative
cycle by taking a stab at something that's more related to you than actually asking a universally
applicable question that gets at the heart of what Michael's talking about, which is again,
how can I help this person? How can I show up and serve this person really well? So
do you have in mind some basic rapport building questions that are kind of universal that you
typically lead with? And if not, is there another topic you want to go towards that we're also
overlooking? We got 10 minutes to talk about Aussie things. There's a whole lot to talk about.
Yes. And we'll stay on that form that I was talking about. Okay. You know, the family,
the occupation, the recreation, because when you approach a table, it's a networking table,
and you're getting feedback from one or two of the people, then you're asking them about themselves
and you're letting them talk to you. So if they have a family, they're going to tell you. If they
like skiing, they're going to tell you. They'd like their job, they're going to tell you. So you're
gathering all this information without you saying a word and putting yourself in that position.
Now, the most important thing is that you listen, not just hear them, but you listen to them. And
then after you listen, you pause. And how important is that pause? Right? Because what does that tell
them? It tells them, wow, Michael was listening to me. And I responded to something he said,
not the next thing I wanted to talk about, but responded to what he said or is saying.
And that gives you that credibility, that gives you everything that you need to your building that
rapport. And it goes on from there. So if you're doing everything correctly, and he's telling you
all of this information, then you can say, you know something, I like what you do. I like how
you're doing it. How can I be the best referral source for you? How can I make your life that much
more easier or simple? And that usually blows them away. Right. So, you know, if you did your job
right, then he's going to ask you what you do and your business card and everything else. But that's
secondary. Primary is to get all his, what he wants to talk about out. Yeah, absolutely. I love that.
Again, it aligns really well with those five topics. I had to look back and I was like, all
right, Clay, what would you grant us? Because it was, it began with, tell me about your story.
And I loved that that was that opening topic, because everybody has a story.
And everybody's story, you know, if you do what you said, right, if they tell me a story, and even
if they tell me a short story, if I'm able to, you know, be quiet and but be captivated, I'm engaging
with eye contact, right? I'm engaging with an emotion I sincerely care. And if the silence
doesn't lead to a bite, or if they're sales driven, they're, you know, I'm talking about leadership
sales, people who already have the acumen to know that they're supposed to turn the question and
ask you something right and take control over that situation. Then being ready to be able to ask, you
know, no, it's a great question. And like, I'm dying to know more about this, like, tell me more
about x, y, or z, right of what they just talked about. We've got a, we've got a couple of tricks,
right, that we can use their tactics, their tricks, what are those, their tools, what are tools,
things that resources assets that are at our disposal to be able to cultivate and build better
relationships. So I love that using silence, saying, tell me more about that taking sincere
interest in individuals. And again, that story will usually give you the safe nuggets of where
to then go from there and build a very powerful relationship. So they will give you the direction
to go in. Exactly. So networking and communication, I mean, those are both very powerful realities
with that. You asked two questions on here. Why? Why is it that we don't get results? And what's
wrong with follow up? We're not going to have time to answer both today, but people can follow up with
you regarding this too. They can, you can reach out to Michael Foreman on LinkedIn. I'm sure,
I'm sure you can find his website quite easily. In fact, I'll give it to you now. It's michaelforeman.com.
Michael A Foreman. Michael A Foreman.com. Ah, Michael A Foreman.com. Thank you for correcting
me on that. I missed that A. And we're going to dive in on the second one. What's wrong with
follow up today, Michael? What, because there's, I have my thoughts on it too. Let's crush this for
people. Okay. There are so many things wrong with follow up. It's incredible. First of all,
either people don't do it or they don't do it properly. Okay. So it's usually, you know,
I'm going to send them an email the next day or I'll send an email the next day and a week later
and see what happens. That's a hundred percent the wrong way. And I'm a huge, huge proponent
of the handwritten thank you card. So after you meet with somebody, let's say, because I,
there's a whole thing that I go through with a business card, you write down the date,
the name of the function and a little bit about them. So your follow up, the first email should
be that evening and just thanking them to meet them, just thanking them. That's all. No sales pitch.
No, do you want to meet? Nothing. Just thank them. Okay. The next morning you send out a handwritten
thank you card and just say, look, Hey, this is Mike. I met you on something, such dates of the place.
You know, I really thank you for meeting with me. We talked about your son. Sorry to hear about that.
Hope he feels better. And I'll sign it, Michael. And I'll wait about three days to send another
email saying, Hey, this is Michael. Remember me. I would sort of, so it's whatever. Look,
I just looked at my calendar and Tuesday and Wednesday of next week opened up. How's Tuesday?
There's levels for this. So I'm going to, I'm going to dive in on this one because Tony Robbins does
not have time to write handwritten thank you notes for every single person that he meets,
nor does Richard Branson. All right. And so it doesn't mean though that Richard Branson does not
care about the 8 billion people. I think he's done a good job of emulating how much he cares
about people. So it's not a bad call, but I also don't think unless the handwritten notice from my
mom, I really don't care too much about the handwritten notes that come my way. But let me
put some context on this, Michael, because there's some, there's other important opportunities here.
One is when Frank J. Picaro, who's also really good friends with and associates with JP Sears,
when I met him at a conference and I started to work my way home, he sent me a voice clip.
He sent me an audio clip via Facebook and it was one of the most sincerest and endearing. And I was
like, Holy crap. He probably did that for at least 60 people at this event. And at the same time,
the tone, the cadence, the genuine nature, the connection of friendship, but the authority that
still existed there was completely maintained. So I'm not saying don't write your thank you cards
at all. If you love thank you cards, do that. I'm saying that there's other ways that could be more
powerful at scale for those of you who are serving a whole lot more individuals. So that's
something to be aware of. The other opportunity that exists there that goes hand in hand with this
follow-up opportunity is I never follow up without providing more value, ever. I will always, as I
call it the golden rule of follow-up, I'm going to drop this too as part of this episode. Let me pull
my screen up for you guys. This is the infrastructure for the golden rule of follow-up. Michael,
you're welcome to have this, adapt it, use it as you want. It talks about the kid in the car
who's asking dad, are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Versus being able to say
something like, hey dad, isn't your favorite restaurant coming up? And dad goes, we'll be
there in 10 minutes. Like, ah, see, we can learn to do tricks for people of different mindsets,
the time warrior, the gifter, the o-snap, the nerdy sidekick. There's ways we can actually follow up
that provides new value and never puts us in that position with the individual of them saying like,
ah, he's just calling. He's just going to call and ask me where we're at with this again.
And so knowing how to respect the individual enough to always bring new value in hand is a
critical component. I'm a huge fan of making sure you follow up because if you're not following up,
they're out of sight and out of mind and it shows you do not care about them. You've got to care
about people if they're going to do business with you. I agree. A thousand business. Let's say you
wrap this up. So go ahead, Michael. What else do you have? Well, I was just going to say, because
you know, the thank you cards is one facet. Facebook, that Facebook clip or even with the
email, they now have the clip to go along with the emails. You can do the very same thing.
That's for a much bigger audience. Okay. I'm talking about if you met 10 or 15 people.
I do it at small events too. Okay. So, you know, it just it varies and it depends on you as the
person on what you're comfortable with. That's why we're giving both. It's like this audience,
they're going to take things from you. They're going to take things from me, right? They're
going to decide, man, do I play the saxophone? Do I play the trumpet? Do I play the guitar?
You know, so we just serve the audience with an incredible amount of different types of values.
And they know we're both mathematicians drawing in the chalkboard as fast as we can to serve them.
Right. And that's really what we gained out of this. So is there any final principle you'd like
to share before we wrap up today? Well, no, it's just really the whole thing about when you start,
when you meet somebody, give them the respect, be polite. And if you are respectful, polite and
everything else, you'll go 10 times further. And if you build that rapport, having them speak and
talk and do that follow up properly, because so many people do it improperly. But if you do it
properly, you'll might say you'll gain profits, you'll see an increase in profits the next month.
By the next month, you will see an increase because you're paying so much attention
to your client or prospective client that there's no ways but to handle and get more profits.
Very good. And I will almost second everything about that. Well, here's what I love about Michael.
You guys know listening to the show that Michael's teaching the exact same stuff that we do. And
that's exactly what we want. We want people who come on the show can validate, reinforce principles
and help people understand if you gravitate more towards the way he teaches stuff by all means,
reach out to Michael and work with him to we see him as a friend, as a strategic partner in the
process of helping people understand these principles that are overlooked. What I will say
is none of us control the outcome. The only person who controls your results is God. And that's what
I believe. So you might do all those principles. But if you're a farmer and you follow the law of
the harvest and a hurricane comes and wipes out your crops and you do not yield to return,
that's not Michael's fault. That's not my fault. That's not your fault. That may be what is best
for you at the time. So stick to the principles regardless of what the outcome is. Be the person
who does the right thing, knowing that doing the right thing yields the best results for you.
And yes, the profits are highly likely to come. And here's the other kicker on this. When you
treat people with respect, when you are polite, when you overcome stranger danger by showing them
that they are safe to work with you, you won't get as fast of commitments, but you will get far more
authentic commitments. You will have people who very much value what it is that you can provide
and they will want to stick with you. And loyalty is something that is very hard to come by in a
culture of swipe right, swipe right, always look for the next best thing because we've got worldwide
access. So sticking to the principles of loyalty can create phenomenal relationships that will
absolutely turn up your profitability. And we look forward to seeing all of you on the next episode
of Vision Pros Live. Take care everybody. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that
you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.