And welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Connections.
Welcome to the show, folks.
I'm your host, Michael Forman, and you're listening to the podcast where networking
is more than just an awkward handshake and bad coffee.
It's an art and a talent.
But here's the twist.
It's an art and talent you can actually learn.
Yes, even if you're the person hiding in the corner at every event pretending to check
emails.
Networking isn't just a nice skill to have, it's a game changer.
When you get good at it, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner.
More connections, more opportunities, more profits.
It's like unlocking a cheat code for life.
So whether you're the life of the party or the let me just stay at home and text type,
we've got something for you.
Stick around.
Let's turn those awkward and small talk moments into big talks, big wins.
So here I want to introduce you to Jackson.
He's become a friend of mine, and we've exchanged podcasts and everything.
That's all on the outset of things.
But when it comes to networking, I put Jackson at the top of the list because he believes
in true networking.
Jackson teaches a visionary entrepreneur's how to unlock sustainable revenue growth
and expand their legacy by becoming a power brand in their market.
Jackson teaches businesses.
And I would go into it a great, because I can sit here for three hours and tell you
all about Jackson, but I might as well have Jackson talk about Jackson.
So here, Jackson, how are you?
And welcome to my show.
No great Michael, and it's an honor to be here.
I really, really appreciate the genuine nature with what you show up.
And my friends, my new friends via podcasting, those who are listening in, I have no reason
to pull awkward or random or disingenuine compliments for anybody that I meet in life.
You can always compliment somebody there.
You can always compliment somebody's logo on their shirt or the quality of their podcast
studio, but when it comes to genuine nature, like Michael, you represent the best of them.
And it was such an honor to have you on our show.
We had 2000 episodes in less than two years.
And you're again, you're somebody that I keep going back to thinking about and being grateful
for people who are often hard to remember.
That's great.
Thank you.
Thank you for that as well.
Let's just pull you and give me an example of how strategic networking significantly
impacted your business.
It's huge.
I've been a networker since I was a kid, like since I was super, super little.
Part of that is coming from a divided family, right?
Living in mom's home, living in dad's home, meeting step siblings, being left at cousin's
houses.
My mom's a single mom of six, right?
So she had a lot of people in church that would help too.
So I lived in a lot of homes, which meant I was constantly telling my story to people,
talking to new people.
She was very active in her church community as well.
So I grew up and when you grew up in a divided home and you've got one, you got a name Jackson,
no kids had the name Jackson growing up, right?
I would go look for the little license plate you could put in your bike.
They did not make one for Jackson and my day.
I was so frustrated about that.
Now it's the top name for kids.
So different story, but people say, oh, wow, that's interesting.
Where does your name come from?
And then, well, my five sisters named me.
You got five sisters?
Yeah, in fact, I have 15 half and step brothers.
You have 15 half of the whole day of class, like of introductions every year for school
was, who's this Jackson kid?
Does his story ever end?
But in a positive way, people were just constantly curious.
So that gave me an upper hand in terms of valuing, connecting with others and getting
to know people's stories and then asking people questions to get the light off of me.
I had to learn how to get the light off and they're like, your eyes, your eyes, are you
blind?
I mean, I get that from the guys and the girls are like, your eyes are so pretty.
I mean, all the guys are like, your eyes are scary.
Maryland man said, but watch your eyes.
I mean, there's all sorts of weird things about how I grew up.
And so you could say I grew up with a very silver spoon in my mouth from a networking
standpoint and coming from a mom with a single mom of six kids, we knew what hard economic
times looked like as well.
So I also think we're diligent, we learn how to hustle, we learn how to talk to people.
When I say hustle, not the kind where you're snake oiling people, but the kind where you're
getting after it and you're perhaps trying a bit too hard in business.
So the sweet spot that I'll settle in on with this Michael and pass the mic back to you
is there's the get after it and hustle way that's kind of like professional begging
that most people do.
And there's the being a leader and sitting back and being a lighthouse, I call it, shining
the light, not at people, but on others and the paths that people may want to go down
and just existing.
And if people want to come up to you as a lighthouse, that's totally fine, but I'd rather
be a lighthouse that serves and helps others than make the whole thing about me.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And just from what you were telling me, first of all, if you have to be consistent with
anything you do, you have to be authentic with anything and everything that you do.
Once you get those two things down, then you're well on your way.
Networking is a skill, so you have to practice.
And one great thing about networking is when you're going to a networking event, you don't
say very much.
Everybody thinks that you talk and you're trying to sell something.
The opposite is true because when you go somewhere, you're listening to people.
You're a problem solver and you have the answer to their problems.
So if you can hear what they're saying, actually listen and then you pause after you listen
because that shows that you're listening to them.
And then you respond with what you have to say about what they said, not the next thing
that you wanted to say.
So it's very true in everything.
So let me ask you a question.
So what are the key elements to effective networking?
Intentionality.
I'll go with that one first.
You said we have to be authentic.
I intentionally choose to see it as we get to be authentic, the get to, the opportunity
to.
And so it changes the perspective and dynamic when we begin to realize that it's such a
blessing and gift to be able to be authentic in a world that often is trying to show up
to promote themselves.
The other opportunity that exists there for me is I don't really see myself as a problem
solver anymore.
I used to.
I'm not there showing up to solve problems.
I show up to do it as best for the people that I serve.
I do help.
I'm willing to help.
But I don't know if you have problems I can solve.
I'm not God.
I might not be able to.
And it's not even about being able to.
I'm a solutions oriented individual.
So I don't really see.
We talked about blessings.
My God, I said I'm blessed, man.
And I re-corrected myself.
I said, you know what?
I'm blessed when it's good.
I'm blessed when the life's bad.
I'm blessed when it's ugly.
But I'm grateful that the good blessings are in store right now.
Because at all times there are solutions for all situations.
And I may not be that vessel to provide solutions to people.
But I can listen to people.
I can get to know their stories.
I can see what they're up to.
And if what they're up to and what they need or what they want or what they're trying to
accomplish aligns with the resources or the assets or my abilities.
And I'm being very sincere about this.
If they truly want to work with me.
If they are chasing or pursuing in a healthy fashion, an engagement and a connection with
me, then I will reciprocate on that.
But if they are not coming towards me, I will not go towards them.
A lighthouse doesn't move.
A lighthouse stays right where it's at.
And by doing that, again, by shining the light and by helping people connect with each other.
A great book on this is Tribal Leadership.
It's one of the hardest books to read, which is why nobody reads it.
And it's one of those books that's recommended by extremely great leaders in the world.
Not all leaders in the world.
It's not Rich Dad, poor Dad level.
This is some really legitimate, like amazingly deep stuff.
And chapter 10 talks about triad relationships.
And triad relationships is when I take Michael Foreman and I say, Hey, Michael, your virtues
and values of networking align very well with Clay Hicks and how he goes about networking
as well.
I would love to see the two of you guys connect because I think you share the same virtues
and principles.
There's eight billion people to help in the world.
And the two of you combining forces could lead to a one plus one equals 11.
I'm going to let you guys to didn't know I was following some framework.
In the book, they highlight that when you do that, the irony of it is usually the two
people that connect, they end up talking about you.
They end up connecting based on the value you provide.
And then they can build something to go ahead.
You're the commonality of the two of them.
So that's a good basis for them to begin speaking.
Yep.
So you really become a broker outside of it.
And I say, Michael, how to go with Clay?
I follow up with Clay.
Clay, how to go with Michael, right?
And it gives them an opportunity to what I would call testify, right?
Report back to me like, man, that was so great.
And by the way, thank you for that.
Or like, man, that guy was such a prick.
You know, what it would ever happens, I can learn, refine and reevaluate who might the
next connection be.
If we're constantly connecting people, it solves the lead generation challenge 100%.
I have no lead generation problems.
We have to turn off our pipelines all the time.
And people have to marinate and wait to talk to us.
Our show is booked for months in advance.
You know, I just turned off Fridays as well.
I'm no longer doing my Friday 2 PM shows because there's so many people to support already
in our network that we, I just try to be present with those who are here.
And again, I don't need to chase anybody.
There's no reason to go about chasing people when you create relationships that want to
exist to ref.
You're chasing people.
It's because people don't want to be around you.
What are you going to do to fix that?
Absolutely right.
And just to circle back and what that would mean for networking is I was in a mortgage
industry and I would go to events.
I'd come home with a shoebox filled with business cards and think how well I did.
Then you realize that I didn't do well at all.
I was horrible at it.
But you know, now when I'm teaching or doing a workshop or something else like that, I'm
saying you shouldn't walk away with more than 15 or 20 business cards because that
meant that you had a relationship with that person.
You really don't have time, as you said, to talk to everybody.
You're picking the people that you want and that you truly desire to create that relationship
with and that takes time.
And that takes time.
A three or four hour event, you should only be walking away with 15 or 20 business cards
and that's really it.
Because if you walked away with more than that, then you really didn't give the time
to agree.
I don't agree with that.
I don't agree with that at all.
But it's okay.
It's a different perspective.
Tell me.
Well, my goal used to be 60 per day.
And I watched investors do this.
That's how I learned to do this.
They would go very fast, very fast, very fast, very fast, but they knew how to prequalify
and filter who it was they were looking for.
And so my left butt cheek pocket, that's the, I don't need to talk to you again, pocket.
The right butt cheek pocket, that's the great pocket.
That's the one that I'm going to follow up with that person for something very genuine
and specific on.
And at the same time, I've got a massive team.
And a massive team, I say massive, we're about 15 strong.
And some of those team members, we're going to pod fest in a week from now.
And the cool thing is this pod fest process, right?
There's three co hosts on my show.
They're all going with me now.
So we've got a little bit of an entourage going on.
And there's these really cool apps for Vince these days, like, like the Hoover app or pod
fest community is there's 1500 people in there.
My assistants are in every single one of our Hoover apps, filtering and looking at who are
the best connections to get involved with.
What pre events can we set up virtually to interact with people?
And we're creating a massive catalog of individuals that could connect with every single one of
our clients as well.
Who's in the baby boomer interests?
Who's in the health interests?
Who's in the family interests?
And my goal is again, if I can get in front of 1500 people in a classy way as a lighthouse,
the right ones are going to end up gravitating towards me.
But it is a very good idea to know again how to filter.
I've got a guide.
I'm happy to give your audience.
Actually, it's called the 12 step checklist to recognizing market leaders and how to sort
them.
It's a 25 page book basically on all things emotional intelligence, which words turn on
legacy builders and which words turn them off?
Easy, simple, automated, autopilot, like, no, alcohol, legacy builders don't have time for
stuff like that.
On the flip side, hobbyists, and I do connect with both.
They have almost the exact opposite desires in terms of what they want to hear.
Passive, I need to see the list, but I don't do the hobbyist thing.
I do my best to focus on my legacy builders.
The casual, another word that they like, they don't want to hear things like metrics, global
scale, diligence, tenacity, hustle, rich.
And I totally get that.
But I need to know how to speak to people.
Some people call it two face, but if I'm going to speak to a Latino, I better speak Spanish.
If I'm going to speak to somebody in Chinese, I better learn how to speak Chinese.
If I don't know your love languages, I can't relate with you.
If I don't know your tribal languages, I can't relate with you too well.
The opportunity and networking to get to know different perspectives, talk to people from
different walks of lives, and be able to be, be able to fulfill my purpose at least in
life, which is to help people, but it's a constant, ever growing opportunity, not so
much as a challenge, but an opportunity that enriches my ability to enjoy this life.
Seeing your point of view, I can see that that's, that you've come to this after 20
years of experience and you've got to this point.
Now I'm talking about really the beginning of that, that, that climb.
So I agree with you that that would be a good way of doing it.
So I started to though, where I started, I was still aggressive with it, even in the
beginning, I didn't say that I'm not Richard Branson, so that may not behave like Richard
Branson.
I said, I'm going to behave at that level now.
And trust me, it was painful.
I didn't get to everybody and I had to learn the lessons, but what I'm trying to help you
see, Michael, and the audience too is actually when I limited myself, it led to less results.
And when I chose to be aggressive with following up to the worst thing that can happen to all
of you listening is that you get really great at the 15 or the 60, but you get great at
influencing people and you accidentally convince people to work with you, even though they're
not fully convicted on wanting to work with you.
And I'm telling you, that was part of my journey that was painful was convincing people to
work with me and showboating a little bit too much or getting them excited about things,
not realizing that they were eventually going to turn around and play victim and blame me
for things because they didn't make their choice of their own accord.
And so I'm just, I just kind of want to bridge those gaps because I have a feeling nobody
else will probably ever talk about it on the podcast.
Well, it may be not, maybe not.
Well, you know, you've been successful.
What mistakes have you made and how did you overcome?
So many.
One, maybe it's not a mistake.
Maybe it's just as what it is.
I used to be a lot like Grant Cardone.
And in that realm, this is a man who tells people what to do, you know, where to look.
You have to do this.
You should do this.
I learned through some painful relationship losses that that's a controlling demeanor,
that I'm literally making people subordinate to me based on a superior posture.
And I eventually learned, I don't, I don't feel that way.
We're all equals in this world.
You know, there's a time and a place for a doctor to tell me what prescription to take.
Right.
But in general, we are all in the same playing field.
We're all perfectly freaking awesome individuals.
We're all doing one of us.
And so the shift of being able to not feel like, I used to also feel like I had to be
better than others to be appreciated in the world.
And so the big shift of, you know what, I don't, I want, I don't need to be better than
the others because I'm not better than anybody else.
But two, that doesn't mean that I can't be my best self.
And ironically, trying to be better than others when I was in a room where I was better at
something than others, I was good enough.
I know like that, that was enough for me.
But that was completely ignoring my ability to be my best self and the opportunity to
actually just say, you know what, it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing.
I want to enjoy my best life possible.
And in order to do that, I've got to be willing to do, and I've got to accept the opportunity
to say, I'm going to do this to the maximum of my capabilities because I deserve it.
I want it.
I love myself enough to be able to pursue and do that.
And as I've lived by that principle of just trying to be the best that I can, even at
forgiveness with myself when I make mistakes, because I make plenty of mistakes as I go,
right?
If I can forgive myself instantly and say, no, I'm going to shift.
I don't care if other people think that that's not how forgiveness works.
Or if they think I need some type of pen, what do they call that?
The process of six months?
No, that's not how, that's not how it works.
I can forgive myself instantly.
Why?
So that I can get right back into being my best immediately and moving forward and serving.
So the, as you mentioned, I love that you said it, Michael, the networking process, it's
an art and it's something that we will always have the opportunity to continue to learn
from.
And it's just amazing how you can meet one new person today and they can completely blow
your mind and like change your perspective.
And you're like, oh my gosh, I was, I'm still, yeah, you get into your thirties and you're
like, wow, I don't really know anything about life.
Cool.
I'm just going to keep that in mind because in my forties, I'm probably going to feel
the same way doubled down.
So right.
Right.
And when you believe me, when you get into your sixties, you really understand it.
Okay.
So you, you're, you're the lighthouse, you become this, this central focal point and
you are introduced or, or you introduce yourself to so many people.
I always say that the follow up is so important.
It's so, it's probably more important than actually meeting the people.
So give me your favorite way of following up.
I don't anymore.
I used to.
I agree with you that, that now here's the key though.
Those you listen in, honor the relationships, honor them.
Right.
That, that's a big thing.
Honor the relationships that honor you.
Right.
So if I'm reaching out to somebody and remember to there's, there's technology.
I have, I have automation systems that do this stuff for me.
Why?
Because if I'm the one, if I'm manually chasing everybody, then I'm not going to be able to
build the dynasty that I'm building.
I'm not going to be able to scale.
It's not possible.
I need teams.
It's so sad.
How many people think the solarpreneur path leads to victory?
Guys, I failed miserably at solarpreneurship.
Oh, I tried.
And that's why I'm so outspoken about it.
There, I don't, I've never met a solarpreneur who's successful.
I met solarpreneurs who step on other people's heads and hearts and say they're alone.
And they say, oh, I just have a VA.
What the, like that's called virtual abuse.
I mean, I like, they're going to acknowledge that person who helps you.
And then I've met people who lie about their success.
They've got 500,000 followers on Instagram or whatever.
And they come on as clients for me and I find out they're making less than a janitor salary
and they're lying to people to get attention.
And they didn't actually go to that event over time.
They did all their photos at once at a conference where they teach them to do photos like that
for the entire year.
What the heck?
It's, it's so frustrating sometimes.
But to get out of that and back onto the virtuous side of it, and when it comes to follow up,
I guess I'm a bigger fan of follow through.
If I promise I'm going to do something for somebody that I'm going to do it.
And if I don't, then I have an opportunity to apologize or have an opportunity to own
that and not apologize and say, you know, we have so much other success that's going
on that we didn't reengage and that's okay.
You know, and if people are looking at me to be their savior, they're looking in the
wrong place.
They already have a savior.
It's not me.
All right.
I'm just here to do my best in all of this.
But my systems take care of all of the necessary harmonious follow up to prevent technical mishaps.
And what do I mean by that?
Just because I texted you, Michael, hey, it was great to meet you.
I'd love to connect with you again.
That text message might not go through.
Right?
But there's literally a chance that it doesn't send.
And so if I care about the relationship enough, which is where my heart should be, it shouldn't
be on the mechanics.
It should be on that.
And I decided to call you one day.
I'm not going to call you and say, hey, I texted you.
Why didn't you text me back?
You know, like, or, you know, I'm just, I'm just following up to see if you like that
proposal or not.
You know, if they liked the proposal, what would they have done?
They would have bought.
They probably would have never asked for the proposal.
So we have these really strange shortcomings as businesses where we, where we are inviting,
offering and supporting people, even though stranger danger prevents people from ever
wanting that from you.
Right?
If we don't first intrigue, attract and inspire.
And I mean, really, you can't check about, oh, Michael's inspired now.
You know, it doesn't work that way.
Right?
But what you have to be able to recognize is this person truly, and you have the opportunity
to recognize, if they're truly attracted, if they're truly inspired, then when they
send a tweet to Taylor Swift and 10 years later, she happens to respond, you know, how
excited that fan's going to be.
They're not going to be like, well, why did you come 10 years later, Taylor Swift?
You know, no, but if you show up 10 years later and they act like that to you, the person
who's listening, they act like that to me, well, it's because they don't love me as much
as that fan loves Taylor Swift.
I haven't earned that because I have not attracted and inspired to that magnitude.
And we can all learn how to intrigue, how to attract and how to inspire, but we never
talk about this in the business realm.
True.
That's very, very true.
And you hit on something.
Because, you know, I say follow up, but what you're talking about is following through.
So if you make a promise that you're going to do something, say something, whatever it
is, you're going to do it.
You're going to do it to the best of your ability.
And that is one of the key points of a true business person, because you can be in business,
you can make promises and say things, never follow up with them.
And then how does that make you look?
So just by the mere fact of you following through these items, you make good on your promises
or you're making a connection or buying them all over bread, it doesn't make a difference.
You're following through and that is, I think, very, very important.
No, I'll reveal this too.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other leaders like that.
So one of the best skill sets you can learn as somebody who is leading at scale is you've
got to learn to use the word no.
And to be able to say no, I had a client the other day, a client, right?
Not some prospect.
This is somebody who pays me.
Say Jackson, I really want to send you this book.
I'm so excited.
He pitched the heck out of me about this book.
And it was a good pitch.
He really saw how it's going to be dynamic and valuable for me.
And yet I already know where I'm at with certain levels.
And so I said, you know, I really, really appreciate that you want to send me that book.
And I've got a very long list of amazing books.
And let's do this instead, I have a proposed alternative for you.
Get to know my team members that are helping and supporting you.
Let's send that book to one of them so that they can learn for themselves.
Since they probably have, you'll find who needs this, who really needs this basic concept.
And they can report back to us and we can train them based on the concepts of that book.
They will read the book for me and they will teach me what is necessary out of that book
based on how they know me because they know me far better than you know me as well.
And so I didn't say, you know, but I'm not going to accept opportunities.
And I think that's the thing that kills most businesses is they don't, you don't have
a preferred vendors program.
We just built them launch stars, by the way.
And it is the coolest thing because now all the collaborators, you want to do a webinar,
you want to do LinkedIn, you want me on a podcast, you want me on all this.
It's not a bad thing, but there's a filtration process where these preferred vendors need
to go through in order to pre qualify to show they actually care about us and they're not
just trying to bait and switch us into some program without ever taking consideration
for who we really are.
And I know that takes a long time to build, but Michael, that's why I spent the last 14
years designing systems at scale that I can then give to my clients for them to be able
to benefit from and use because if we have the restriction, the limiting belief that
while I'm just a beginner, I can't.
Well, Henry Ford said it, I think it's him.
He said, or Abraham Lincoln, if you think you can, or you think you can't, you are 100%
right.
Doesn't matter if you're new or not, you can practice the principles of scale.
Jackson, that was great.
That's great.
Listen, I want to thank you for everything that you had to offer.
And I'm sure that we're just nipping the tip of the iceberg of all of your knowledge.
So let me ask you a question.
If somebody wanted to get hold of you, if anybody wanted to get your services, get you
to consult with them, or just to know about you, where would they go?
Well, the nice thing is my SEO is so good that Jackson Callum pops it.
I'm not only Jackson Callum in the world, so you can find me real fast on Google.
I have the advantage, John Smith.
I feel bad for you.
On the flip side, my hope is that you take a sincere interest in who we are, who I am
and what we're doing.
If you're a Latino, operadas latinas.com.
If you are a visionary or you're a leader who wants to share your vision, visionproselive.com,
come hang out with my team on our shows.
I have co-hosts for those shows.
I would love to get to know who you are, take the time again.
We don't work with everybody.
We got to find people who are loving, patient, persistent, consistent, and reliable.
Consistency and reliability, they take steps, milestones.
You've got to be able to see that over time or over a concerted amount of different efforts
and a track path of success.
If you don't have that, I'm happy to be your friend.
I'm happy to get to know you.
I'm not going to turn anybody away.
I'm here to help and serve.
But if you're looking for the business support and help, then you got to go through our
combine.
We need to be able to see what type of leader you are and see if we're truly bought in because
I don't build visions I'm not bought into.
I don't work with leaders who aren't great leaders.
The ones who breathe down your neck and want the scope of works and blah, blah, blah.
Just put in a box and don't call to get rich quick, but let's sure make it look.
Let's call it a receive wealth fast.
It's like, come on guys, you know, why are we not recognizing?
We've got an opportunity to be more abundant.
So if you're if you're drawn to that, come and say hi.
Sounds great.
Jackson, this has been an absolute pleasure.
And I thank you again for coming on the podcast.
Love your podcast, Michael.
Keep it up dude.
The world needs this.
That's a wrap folks.
A huge thank you to our special guests for sharing such incredible insights today.
And of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners for tuning in and spending
your time with us.
Remember, networking isn't about being perfect.
It's about being present.
So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and share
it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
Let's keep the conversation going.
You can find me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or my website, Michael A. Foreman.
Remember, until next time, keep practicing, keep connecting and keep building those relationships.
This is Michael A. Foreman, signing off, take care and happy networking.