and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building
Profitable Connections, the show where we uncover
how powerful relationships shape powerful results.
I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and today's episode
is extra special because my guest isn't just
a business leader, he's also one of my very best
friends, someone I've known since middle school.
Over the years, he's built a career guided by
one simple daily activity, a passion for always
giving that extra 1 % and the ability to navigate
the calls no one wants to get, but that inevitably
come in business and in life. His journey is
a reminder that the same principles that build
lasting friendships also build lasting networks.
We'll talk about how passion, consistency, and
relationships carry you through the highs and
lows of business and why your network is often
the greatest investment you'll ever make. This
one is personal and powerful, so let's dive in.
I'd like to welcome Henry Kaplan. And as I said
in the beginning, this is special for me because
he's one of my very best friends. And I've known
him since middle school, maybe even a year or
two beforehand, but I'm really, I don't know,
but we have so much history, so much that went
on, but he has made a career. out of the real
estate market. So I'd like to introduce Henry
and let him tell you about his background. Henry,
welcome to the podcast. Good morning, Michael.
So before I start, I calculated this morning
to the best of my ability, and we are celebrating
plus or minus 50 years as friends, which is...
to me it's one of the most special things just
for that reason alone i couldn't wait to come
see you today and just spend an hour with you
because we don't live in the same state anymore
and the phone's great but it's even better to
see you in person so i really do treasure the
opportunity thank you so much henry l kaplan
i am the presently the sales manager for one
of the largest century 21 franchises in south
florida And I have about 150 agents that are
affiliated with my office, but I consult with
most of the agents in the company as well. So
it's about 300 plus agents. It's a wonderful
career and didn't all start that way. A little
bit about me. I think what's funny, we had a
session recently and a group session in the office
and somebody came up with the question, how,
what, at what point did you know what you wanted
to be? Or what was the first thing you wanted
to be when you grew up? And so I. I didn't do
it. I waited for my turn. And everybody was like,
I want to be a pilot. I wanted to be a fireman.
I want to be a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer. And
everybody joked about it. And nobody in the room
ended up being that person except for me. And
I thought to myself, now, that wasn't the very
first thing that I wanted to be like in kindergarten.
I'm talking about as, let's just say, eight or
nine or 10 years old, a little bit more mature.
And so I decided that I wanted to be in real
estate. impetus is that the right word to to
why that happened and it has to do with a piece
of mail that came i was always looking for mail
as a kid i wanted a piece of mail and i never
got mail and i would be the one to retrieve the
mail most of the time and i always look and it
was never for me until one day the mail said
hlk henry l kaplan realty And I'm thinking, finally,
a piece of mail for me. I don't know what this
realty thing is, a realty. I didn't know. So
I went to my dad. I think this is for me. He
said, no, son, that's your grandfather's company.
And I'm sorry, yeah, realty company that he owned,
but he's passed. And I manage the assets for
him. And I said, what is realty? What are assets?
And I started asking a lot of questions. And
he told me, we have a little apartment building
that I manage for the family. And that's the
grandfather's company name. He was Harry L. Kaplan,
Henry L. Kaplan. And as the more he talked about
it, the more I thought to myself, wow, wouldn't
it be cool not just have some type of connection
with a man I never knew, but something my father
knew something about. He was a CPA by trade.
And so I kept in the back of my mind, although
I did have other careers prior to real estate,
paper delivery boy and cutting lawns for many
years throughout college, high school and college,
and then right out of college. I actually, in
one of my... elective classes i took the real
estate course for new york and i passed i was
in the college boat it was easy and then i started
as a realtor and and i my career has been quite
amazing i'm not going to spend the next whatever
but i'll give you like maybe a three minute of
things that i've done so i started off with just
as a realtor and literally a week into training
we merged with a big company my company with
called weicker realtors and weicker was a great
foundation for training and understanding the
business and keeping it simple. And so from Weikert,
I, like I said, I just graduated. So I really
wanted to get involved in the business. And I
started like back then, most people don't realize
this, but we didn't even have the multiple listing
books or not. We had recipe cards in Rockland
County, New York for every house. And I had to
carry a metal recipe card bin with me until it
hit the frame of the door of the office one day
and 700 cards flew out. And I thought to myself,
they just installed something in the corner that
they tell me it's a computer and nobody used
it like for a month. So my decision is that's
it. I'm not going to reorganize this thing. I'm
going to figure it out. So I logged in with DOS
to the multiple listing to a coupler with AOL.
And, and I figured out the computer when other
people wouldn't do that. And a couple of guys
came along that my age, we used to go to home
for dinner. We all lived at home, 20 something
years old. And we did the master laster shift
after dinner, go back to the office till one
12, one o 'clock in the morning, learning real
estate, looking up properties online. And I learned
to actually the company, I said to the company,
I can do this. I can print these sheets out and,
and provide this to all the agents in our six
offices. In my mid twenties. weichert hired me
as like i didn't call me a director but they
said you're going to be the guy that prints these
out on spreadsheets or give gave me copy machine
the size of a small car and i delivered these
sheets to all six offices and that was the very
beginning of printed mls data 1984 1985. and
then books came along so i i got became antiquated
which i was totally fine with And my career just
navigated through real estate agent to, I guess,
the technology guy. And I realized I love technology.
I mean, it saved me so much time. I didn't have
to carry around. And everybody loved that the
industry kept moving forward. And long story
short, a few years later, I became a broker,
real estate broker in New York. I owned my own
company until I sold it to Century 21, the largest
franchisee in New York in 1991. I ran a rental
division for years for them. And then I ended
up in corporate headquarters for Century 21 Corporate.
It was a wonderful ride. And then I started a
franchise orientation department, traveled the
country meeting new franchisees. And lo and behold,
four bosses later in corporate America, I decided,
actually, I got a boss that said, Mr. Kaplan,
call me Henry, no? She was a West Point graduate.
And she said, I'm going to teach you how to march.
And the only thing that came to mind was, but
I've been doing serpentine my whole life. Was
that Animal House? So she didn't like that answer.
She didn't like that answer. And so it was either
her or me. She found a technicality to bring
me to HR. The president of the company was the
guy who hired me. So he came into the meeting.
And I knew that it was like my time was up at
corporate headquarters. And so I decided to.
transition. And basically I tried a brand outside
of Century 21, which I won't mention. 2005, it
wasn't the right fit because one of my responsibilities
was I had to babysit a guy that drank too much.
That wasn't always a good thing. And that was
the end for that. And I came back to Century
21 and I've stayed ever since. And the jobs I've
had with corporate were wonderful because they
moved me to Florida. Obviously, even before I
left. And I got to be with my family, which was
really important. President said, why are you
doing that? Why are you leaving? I said, because
I want to be with family. He said, that's not
the right answer. You want to move up in this
company. So the only thing I could think of,
I pointed at him and I said, but you were in
the field before you became president. So I guess
I have to be in the field to maybe make a move
up like that one day too. And he said, okay,
that's the right answer. I'll let you. And they're
going to chew you up and spit you out. in florida
so long story short they didn't and oh so i had
to divide and conquer because there was some
hostilities for a lack of service that our franchisees
were getting and and so one by one i chipped
away and i have some long -term relationships
from the time i came to florida over 25 years
ago and and then i navigated like prior to covid
actually let me think i covered way bit prior
to that it was it was back in 20 years ago. So
let's just say 2005, right? And the market was
okay. It was moving along. But one of my local
franchisees, I was working in a really small
Century 21 office near home. And he was one of
my best friends because I was consulting with
him and 95 other customers, brokers, with, I
don't know, maybe 1400 realtors total. And he
said, I'm ready. I'm ready for you to come join
me. And I was like, wow now like right now he
said yeah now so i had to quit of course gave
proper notice and i came to the office about
today and it's been an amazing ride it took all
those years of being a salesperson a broker customer
service rep for the national franchise all the
way down to the office level and and then 2008
hit and our market fell apart and long story
short that's pretty much when i came along and
we just rebuilt from the ground up. And it's
a place where I am done. I'm not done working.
I'm not done managing, but I'm not moving. I
know where I'm supposed to be today. That's unbelievable.
And all I can think about, all I kept on thinking
about was HLK Realty. And that was, I think,
your first on your own real estate company. It
was my grandfather's name. I took it and I put
it on science. Absolutely. And I remember myself
being in an office and your mom came into me
and said, go talk to Henry about something that
happened. And that's what I remember. You remember
that office was my dad's CPA office. And I cleaned
out the storage room to have my little desk and
a chair to probably sit there with you. It's
great. It's great. Okay. All right. Let's dive
right into the questions. You ready? Go for it.
Hammer away. Okay. You and I go all the way back
to middle school. How has that early friendship
shaped the way you approach relationships and
networking in your business career? That relationship
started before we met. All right. And the really
neat thing about, I think it probably came. it
started with my dad and my mom a loving family
and whatnot and dad was a serial entrepreneur
had his own cpa practice and he specialized in
the funeral home industry and he'd say hey henry
this is a great business i'm like really dad
because yeah they're dying to get in they're
dying to get it but that's what he was telling
me and then finally i started laughing as a as
an older kid i thought it was oh that's silly
dad but and he was always hoping maybe i would
do that and actually interviewed as a sideline
to one of his best friends and clients, but it
just wasn't for me. But the relationships, the
families, my siblings, the closeness. And when
you're a family of three or four kids, like you've
been a communicator, you're not going to eat,
you're not going to survive. And then, and I
can remember as far back as kindergarten. So
what was I, six years old, something like that.
And I remember one by one making really, not
just talking peripherally to kids, but being
excited to be beyond my siblings to learn and
talk. create friendships with these children.
And it was just one by one. Brad Sherman, big
tall guy. He ended up being like my protector.
One of my best friends, like Michael. And he
was always six, four. I was like five, whatever.
Now, back then, he seemed really tall. But if
you look at the pictures, the crazy thing is
that Stewie Green and Mike Wilk and Richie Isaacs
and Merrill and I'm friends. What's the chance
that I'm friends with half the kids? in my original
kindergarten class. Ricky Mignotella, Larry Fox,
I could keep going. I realized that's really,
even young, that was when we went to junior high
school, we had new people like Michael, and our
elementary school was split, but we all came
back together except for Michael in high school.
Why is that, Michael? Why is that? Because I
moved away. I moved from one town to another
town. They weren't even close to each other.
I had a bike at least 13 miles. so did i i buy
it back and forth yeah exactly just to see you
just to see you back and forth yeah so basically
we came up we most of us came back together in
high school and we've been inseparable ever since
and and that's just facebook friends one one
of the guys i was part of the original group
we started a guy's thing the guys get together
being in new york we always go in atlantic city
a couple times a year and then as we adulted
We made the trip to Las Vegas once a year, and
we've had as many as, I don't know, 20, 25 guys.
I actually have a picture somewhere buried on
my credenza of one of the last shots we took
of, I would say, 18 or 20 of us. And when you
check in with people, especially in person, every
year for your whole life, it's pretty amazing,
and it keeps us together as a group. And the
cool thing is that group's coming together Thanksgiving
weekend for one of the guys' son's wedding. There'll
be 13 of us back together again. And it's funny
because it has to do, there's a side story. And
I know I'm probably taking too much time, but
I'm going to keep going because I need to share
this. It's not just my parents that helped me.
All right. I have to tell you a story. I was
staying over at a friend's house one night. We
just hung out with each other, whatever. And
I got up early, slept over. I got up early, just
went downstairs. I don't know, read or watch
TV. And mom showed up to the kitchen. And she
sat down with me and she said, I have to tell
you, I'm so happy that you and this person are
still friends for such a long time. She goes,
I have relationships, Henry, that span 30, 40
years. And you can make a conscious decision
to be friends with somebody forever. And jokingly,
she gave me permission too. She goes, and if
you don't like somebody, it's okay not to be
friends with them as well. But she says, I see
that you and Michael Foreman, because this conversation
was with your mom, Sandy Foreman, really resonated
deep with me that I can make a conscious decision
never to let go. And you were one of those people.
You are one of those people. You'll always be
one of those people. We admit to the day you
were gone. And I've taken her advice, plus my
family's advice, obviously, and the experience
I already had, and I've applied that. Not just
to my relationships and my family, but well beyond
that, to my realtors, to my friends, my extended
family, my pickleball friends, my poker friends.
I'm the guy that they love, they trust. They
call me, they ask me. I want to be that guy for
everybody. It's just my way to give back. I want
to be the guy. You have taken what you've learned,
okay, and you've made relationships. That is
the art of networking. at least after the pandemic,
right? Because before the pandemic, people, most
people, not you, but most people, it was mostly
transactional. After the pandemic, it became
more relational, relationship, but you have taken
it to the nth degree. You have taken it, since
you were five years old, you created relationships
when other people were just making friends. And
that's what I think sets you apart from just
about everybody else, because you've made those
relationships and you've worked at it to keep
up those relationships because you never know
where they come in, whether you can help them
or they can help you or what you're doing. But
you don't look at it from what they can do for
you. You look at what you can do for them. And
that is the beauty of the relationship. One more
thing my mom mentioned, I have to bring this
up. She said, even if you don't talk to somebody
for a long time, she said you could touch base
with them and pick up from where you left off.
And that's been not just Michael and our story
together, but it's been that story with me and
so many people and so many revived relationships
that it's exciting for me. Like to me, finding
somebody. I found a guy about seven years ago
that disappeared from high school. We've gone,
it's 40 years already. Where is he? And I found
him with the internet and we reestablished four
friends all over again. And it became a real
estate opportunity. So it's never about the real
estate opportunity. There's something in the
back of my door that says care first, commission
last. And that's what I do. And I think it's
a move a little bit further than that because
I believe that you went to high school with your
wife. Am I correct? That's true. So I have to
give Nancy a shout out. She was in junior high
school with us. So we were all friends with her
back in junior high school. And I made a huge
mistake in 1981. She was such a mature woman.
I was such a kid in junior high school and beautiful
and the body of a 25 year old at 13. And so I
was just not afraid, but I wasn't confident enough.
So we became. friends really close friends and
for six years between junior high school and
high school until i finally asked her to date
me and then i made the biggest mistake in my
life and i just made a story up in my head and
i wasn't honest enough or mature enough to tell
her i how could it be that i bet the person i'm
gonna end up marrying so i broke up with her
i made a little lie i'm sorry but my mom would
say it was a little white lie i wanted to date
other women it was never about that it was just
that her sister was getting married and I just
felt, my gosh, she's only a couple of years older.
Am I next? And so I spent the next 38 years,
not 38 years, but we lost touch over the years.
And long story short, I got married to somebody
else and have a great son, Ethan. And it just
didn't work out. And Nancy and I became friends
again. Back in 2015, she moved to Florida. She
likes to gamble. We played poker. I played poker
as a kid. And through her divorce and my divorce,
separated by some years, we just reconnected.
And I'm going to be celebrating our four -year
anniversary. It's a beautiful story. It's a beautiful
story. And me, I feel, because I was friends
with both of you. And it just, it feels extra
special for me. But okay. Can I mention one thing
about how we reconnected? Technology. social
media in my defense i didn't know that facebook
had a second button the second app called messenger
so 2015 i discovered it and there were messages
back some years at least at least a year or more
and nancy was one of those messages hey i moved
to florida i'm in lake i'm in lake birth florida
it seems like you might be close by maybe we
can connect whatever talk And so a year later,
I said, yeah, it's never too late because I just
discovered her old message. And so we reconnected
through Messenger in 2015. So that's great. It
was meant to be. That's all it was meant to be.
And you two were meant to be together. OK, so
you've mentioned one simple daily activity that
has guided you through your career. What is it
and how has it impacted the way you build and
maintain your network? Great. So, again, I think
everything I know, I don't know if I've ever
had an original idea, all right? I beg, borrow,
steal everything that I know, and I give credit
to whoever. I can't even remember who told me
because it's become part of my DNA. But I did
read a small real estate article in a magazine
or a newsletter or something like that in the
early, I'm sorry, mid -1980s. and i got two really
good pieces of advice one of them i still use
the first one that i don't use any longer in
the formal way is i don't place ads in the newspaper
any longer i stopped that but that was a big
part of my success as a new broker owner of a
real estate company in the mid late 80s I was
killing it in the Journal News, the Rockwood
County Journal News newspaper with three or four
line ads. And I took a contract and I spent as
much as I could and just getting that type of
exposure. And that's the main word for me today
with real estate, I'm sorry, with business is
exposure. If you don't, doesn't it stand to reason,
Mike, the more people exposed to you, the better
chance you have of getting your services, your
friendship. Absolutely, get your word out. And
so I say that with sellers too. It doesn't stand
to reason the more people that know about your
property, the more I syndicate and set a better
chance that we have of getting it sold. So I
apply the word exposure in everything I do. And
I keep trying to uncover new areas of exposure.
Now, coming back to your question, the one thing
that I still do, and Mike, if you had a calculator
in front of you, which you don't have to, because
I've already figured this out this morning, because
I want them to be prepared for anything you might
throw at me. So just randomly. 1984, so it's
2025, that's 41 years, times 365 days is 14 ,965
days. I started in the beginning of my career
with adding one person to my database or my phone.
Let's just say my phone. And back then, it was,
if you remember, it was like pagers still. So
I had to keep a... a hard copy of, I carried
a date timer around. Nobody knows what a date
timer is. I know what a date timer is. And inside
that date timer had a little beige address book.
And I jam packed that address book with names,
addresses, phone numbers, and emails. And if
you miss one of those, actually back then it
wasn't emails, but name, mailing address, phone
number. And then when cell phone came around
and then emails came around, I transitioned to
that too. So I am a little short. And I took
your mom's advice. So technically, I would have
had almost 15 ,000. But I decided to remove some
people that I didn't want to do business with
any longer. I didn't feel that they were ethical
or they were manageable. I've given my permission
to do that over the years. It was hard for me
to let people go, especially if I could have
made money. But I'm at the point in my career
where I really want to work with people that
want to work with me and that are delightful
and fun and engaging. And it's more than a franchise
business, of course, but many of these people
I've become friends with. So every day for the
last, let's just say 40 plus years, I've added
one person to my database, just one. And that
to me, and maintaining it is not easy. I'm not
perfect and I could probably delete a few thousand
from my phone, but I don't. Oh, and if somebody
passes. i delete that that person as well of
course it's so simple but a lot of people say
i don't have that kind of time that's why you
should start now don't wait one a day one per
day it's amazing back from the convention i'm
sorry for the weekend and so i picked up a bunch
of business cards so i'm transitioning now not
just for the phone but now i'm using linkedin
to find them and connect with them on linkedin
not just my phone because linkedin may not easily
have their mailing address Because little things
we do in my office is we write a personal note
and that's one of my greatest weaknesses. But
without a mailing address, it's not easy to do.
I'll tell you. And one of my secrets to success
is the follow -up factor. When I go in, I do
a workshop with a business or a company. I always
give them a series of things to do for the follow
-up because I feel that the follow -up. is more
important than actually meeting the person. And
the main part of that follow -up, A, do an email
that night. But the following morning, you write
a personal, handwritten thank you note to that
person. No business, no anything else, just thanking
them for their time. You put your card in, you
put that envelope, and you mail it out. And you
wait about three or four days. So that has the
biggest impact on somebody. Because imagine being
the person that you receive that thank you note.
It's not a bill. It's not anything else. It's
just a thank you. Oh, this person met me the
other night and he wants to thank me. So this
is what we send from the office. It's C21. It
has nothing but our logo and a handwritten note
which somebody left on my desk. yesterday and
she i was away for the convention a little convention
i didn't tell anybody where i'm going i said
i'm taking off so she was checking to make sure
i'm okay and she's so grateful for the relationship
yeah i responded to her and a little help from
my cousin chat and because i really it's just
i didn't want to have to i knew what i felt but
i really wanted to come out and find words and
so we pay mike listen to this we pay for every
one of our agents for five cards a day the card
the envelope and the stamp to connect with somebody
that they've either spoken to or have met in
person. Not for prospecting, like in the neighbors,
talk to or met. Guess how many out of 140 agents,
guess how many agents use their maximum allocation
every day? And that's $10 a day, $50 a week.
Ten. Ten? Ten agents. One. One. I was being generous
when I said ten. I really thought five. Okay,
but I was being generous when I said 10. But
listen, you're not telling me that something
that I don't know because people don't take the
time and you don't realize the impact that you
have on a personal thank you note. Right. So
if you can tell your agents the impact that it
would have on somebody's day, not just that you
send them a card, but the impact that they would
have on somebody's whole day, just for them receiving
that card, maybe they'll send a few more. Think
about it. You go to the mailbox every day. I
still book the mail every day. There's hardly
anything in the mailbox. A card is not going
to, a handwritten card, a handwritten envelope,
a handwritten card inside. Don't be using technology.
I'm just going to pray to this company to do
it for me. You know what? To me, it takes, what,
about two minutes? And I know time is our enemy.
Time is, we have to, we can't, we have to take
advantage of those little moments, like Mike
said, to connect. And I think to myself, and
I know some people that do a really good job,
and especially one of my lenders. and he always
puts a scratcher dollar scratcher and you know
what people want to talk to me all the time what
can i spend my money i said stop spending money
spend time and a little bit of money on people
that know you like you and trust you write the
note mail it you give them a scratcher what if
they win good for them they're going to thank
you even more maybe buy a property from you don't
think of that i call it stinking thinking from
a floyd wickman one of my mentors Real estate
mentors. But those little things go such a low.
There's 1%. Do one contact and 1 % extra, Mike,
every day. 1%. Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't
add anything to that because that was said perfectly.
That is exactly what everybody should do. But
nobody does. Or just about nobody does. Okay.
Let me do the third question. In business, we
all get that call that you never want to get.
How important is having a strong network in helping
you navigate through those moments? It happens
to me a lot as the manager of a busy real estate
office because the call that I never want to
get is that we put somebody's money at risk.
When you lose money on typically the buyer's
behalf, you slay the dragon. The dragon could
be your best friend. You slay the golden goose
is an even better example. What's the chance
if you lose money for somebody, they're ever
going to come back to you? And in this day and
age, when that happens too, even if it's not
your fault, which I think many times we could
have prevented it, most of the times we could
have prevented it, is that you'll never, what's
a lead worth? What's a contact? What's a person
worth? We say real estate's a contact sport,
so start with contacts, not leads. And then leads
become contacts. Sorry, contacts become leads.
And that we know in real estate that, that a
solid contact a great we call whale a really
great contact somebody who knows a lot of people
could be worth 30 40 50 000 in your career if
it's something that as they make recommendations
they use you personally and then now with social
media i can't tell you how many times we get
playing for something we weren't even involved
in so can you imagine what we are so to me the
call i never want to get is i tell my realtors
i want to know two weeks before rather than one
second late Because in Florida, our contracts
are timers of the essence, which means at 1159
PM on any business day, we can really be in default
of a legal agreement. So that's the hardest thing
as a manager is to make sure people understand
those timeframes and those obligations. But the
second, or maybe even the first worst call you
can ever get, Mike, has to do with you or your
family. And so my worst call was... About three
years ago, three and a half years ago, when I
got a call from my doctor's office and they said,
Henry, something's off with your blood work.
We'd like you to see a nephrologist. And I'm
like, what kind of ist is that? And it's the
kidney doctor. Oh, it's kidney doctor. What's
up? He goes, I don't like what I see. And so
I went to see a nephrologist and Dr. Silverstein,
she was a seasoned pro and I'm waiting for the
room. And after my blood test came back, she
said, Actually, she got them from the other doctor.
She goes, Mr. Kaplan, you have advanced kidney
disease. Have you thought about a transplant
yet? I'm thinking, the only thing that came out
of my mind was, you got the wrong Mr. Kaplan.
Because I feel fine. She goes, oh no, I got the
right Mr. Kaplan. Apparently, I had a combination
of, it wasn't cancer, but a combination of ailments
that, actually ailments, I said factors that
created a permanent ailment in both my kidneys
were going, oop, can you still see me? i can
see you all right both of my kidneys were still
going they were going dead and i was really concerned
so i i went out and by the way it was like three
months after i got married to nancy so yeah a
little three between three or four years ago
and so long story short we did a biopsy to determine
that certain factors they said i was obese i
never felt obese but i'm not skinny either meat
consumption diabetes and high blood pressure
contributed to my kidneys and and i decided and
i thought my god i just got married and if you
live by like i do expect the unexpected and you'll
never be surprised i said okay at first i had
to go see nancy right away i waited till she
got home she was like why are you doing what
are you why are you home early usually working
late and i told her she goes we'll work through
it we'll figure it out this is not the end this
is and so fast forward to july 26 of 2023 i was
able to find a donor and and she didn't have
a blood type match but i went social with youtube
and facebook and had 13 000 views and many recommendations
and i said shouldn't say recommendations many
people offering to help me and including my two
sisters And many were disqualified except for
Rebecca. And Rebecca was my cousin's wife's sister.
Didn't know me. I didn't know her. But she stepped
up and through an exchange program, the National
Kidney Registry, nkr .org, I was able to get
a live donor. She gave hers. who gives a kidney
selflessly doesn't even know you to a stranger
a woman in california and a month later i received
one from a man in rochester minnesota within
24 hours it was in my body and he gave his because
his wife needed one when she got one somebody
else got one such chain reaction but it starts
with one selfless individual that was rebecca
that's outstanding outstanding and I knew, of
course, I knew the whole story and you left a
few parts out, but that was the gist of the story.
And listen, nobody is happier than I am to see
you on this podcast and to see you working. So
let me give you a side story because you're right.
You do know more. I don't know if you know this
side story, but there will be adversity in your
life and your business every step of the way.
I'm not a negative person. The glass is half
full for me. But I've learned that when even
I had nine people offering one of those people
before Rebecca, even Rebecca told me early on,
but I was looking for a match. And if you're
a kidney, if you need a kidney, don't look for
a match, look for a healthy person. And so one
of these people said a woman, she said to me,
and it's going to sound weird. I'm not going
to stop Henry till my kidney is in your body.
Now that's a pretty darn big commitment. And
I put my, my. my trust and faith and by the way
michael knows this i went on dialysis peritoneal
through the abdomen at home while i slept for
seven months on dialysis it wasn't a hop skipping
a jump getting a kidney but i waited for the
wrong person and i guess many of you probably
read who moved my cheese was not happening mike
that cheese corner that kidney corner was empty
with this woman it ends up that she didn't pass
the mental part of the exam and and so she bowed
out gracefully two people didn't of the nine
so even when you think you've got this you've
got this you don't until i'll say until your
doctors tell you your blood test came out well
or until you're off medications though to the
best of your ability which i'll never be off
because of anti -rejection or until the deal
closes and it funds and even beyond you have
to have proper insurance because people always
find a way to try to point a finger at you, even
though three fingers are pointing back at them,
because you never know what's going to rear its
ugly head one day. So do the right thing, even
when nobody's watching. That was one of my side
stories. No, it's perfect. Listen, back in New
York, I was in the mortgage industry. So I feel
exactly what you're saying. I can talk about
this for another two hours, but let's go ahead.
You talk about the extra 1 % rule. How can that
principle be applied to networking so people
stand out and create deeper connections? I try
to give before I get. To me, it's just, I don't
know, something, it's definitely not been my
whole career, but it's been some years. And so
when I meet somebody at a networking event, I
first of all, I pick out usually the loner to
start with. That's just me. One, I can approach
anybody and say, hey, I'm Henry. What's your
name? Hey, I'm John. what type of work do you
do like normally it's a business networking group
and and so he starts explaining i'm an audiologist
and and so i've got a pretty busy pretty practice
either studying i'm trying to grow my business
and just change locations and and so occasionally
i'm like great you know what i got a hearing
aid now oh i've got a bluetooth device which
it is so people think i'm like i'm crazy sometimes
i'm talking like you're talking to me that guy
michael on the street that you would see talking
we thought he was crazy growing up he probably
just had advanced technology or what we have
But seriously, so I love to meet somebody. I
love to figure out. I love to get their information.
And then I'll add them to a list. I always try
to give two or three names. I'm like, yeah, I
met this guy. He seemed really nice. You might
want to look him up on Google and see his reviews.
But I always like to try to connect people to
connect. Because not that they owe me, but I
always think that they appreciate the referral.
And I've never been a part of BNI. but I know
people that have, and that's really good. But
there was a second thing I wanted to share with
you about, about, oh yeah. So when I meet somebody
who says, um, I am an endoscopic specialist,
I'm thinking, okay, so I'll let him talk. And
then I'll be like, all right. So how would I
know if the next person I'm talking to would
be a good prospect for you? I don't want to say,
can you explain that in plain English or dumb
it down for me? How enough the next person I'm
going to talk to today or any other day would
be a good prospect for you. Oh, if they ever
have like knee pain or ankle, I'll go in with
scopes and cameras. And sometimes they don't
even tell you what they really do. Or I'm a doctor.
What type of doctor? I'm a psychologist. Oh,
great. You're not animizing me now, are you?
I try to break the ice. An icebreaker, a quick
question or two. I love to just connect and don't
feel obligated to, especially like when I go
out to some of these events, I try to get away
from real estate events because the realtor is
never going to give me business, right? Another
realtor. But I try to move too and say, hey,
I'm so nice to meet you. And then we move on.
So once you've got it, you build it, there's
no reason to spend another 40 minutes and really
not have the opportunity to meet more people.
Absolutely right. And you touched on this just
a little bit, but when you go to a networking
event, you have what's called a servant's heart.
It's giver's game, right? So if you go to a networking
event and all you think about was serving other
people, not you're there to sell a widget or
you have a service or something else like that,
forget all that, right? You're there to make
everyone else or everybody that you come in contact
with more successful. So my line that I teach
in workshops and everything else is after you
have that one or two people down and you have
them talking about their business, you say, you
know something, how can I make you more successful?
How can I be a good referral source for you?
And most of the time, if I've done my job correctly,
they say, Mike, I don't even know what you do
yet. So, they tell me how I can be a good referral
source for them. And I make myself, in this area,
I'm known as a super connector. Because every
week, and I have been doing this for the last
two, two and a half years, every week I find
two people with a need and I put them together.
And I walk away. Fantastic. So that's all that
I do. That's all that I do. We have something
in our Johns Creek Chamber of Commerce called
having an ambassador. And once a week, myself
and three or four other people, we go out around
the town just saying what we can do for them.
So if you do that, make your life, make a habit
of giving. Because most people think, wait a
second. I'm in business. I want the business.
I want to sell two or three widgets for X amount
of dollars. Take that off your, take that out
of your head. Take it off your shoulders and
just get, because what goes around does come
around. Bob Burke was a big speaker in the networking
world. He's where I got the line from. Okay.
Let me tell you. And he does exactly. He's a
Floridian. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. And he does.
I do exactly what he has been doing for 20 years.
So when I speak to places, I'm speaking almost
a mirror image of Bob Berg. Wow. Awesome. I forgot
to mention when I go somewhere. I think we're
a big Easterseals contributor for the corporate
offices. We've been doing it for 50 years. We're
doing it for 45 years. So when I get invited
to an Easterseals event, because last year we
donated almost $28 ,000, they'll comp me a table.
So I'll bring some of the top agents too, but
I'll also bring some of my business partners.
When I say partners, I don't mean... let's just
say affiliate, not even affiliate, somebody,
people I trust. So I'll bring my mortgage broker
with me, sorry, my mortgage banker with me, not
a broker. And so when I'm talking to the waiter,
because that's maybe one of the loaners out there,
and I'm like, have you thought about it? Do you
own it already? Because I'm in real estate. No,
I don't know yet. Have you think about buying?
He goes, yeah. I said, you know what? You got
to speak to this right there at the meeting.
I'll be Sean or Rick or Shane, come over. Talk
to this guy. Let's get him pre -approved. He
wants to buy. His lease is coming up in six months.
And I bring the connection together right then
and there. I don't wait. So I'll bring an inspector.
Sometimes I'll bring a handyman. I'll bring my
insurance guy. I rotate them. And you never know
who you're going to find right then and there.
So don't wait. If you have the opportunity to,
even like you said, Michael, you met somebody
across the room. Wait, I just met somebody. You
two need to talk. I'm sure you've done that many
times. Many times, many times. And when you said
you approach that loner, that person by themselves,
they're probably an introvert, right? They're
afraid to go out to the room. So the first thing
you do is you go to that other person. And again,
you're giving, right? So you're saying, hey,
what's your name? Oh, you know something? That's
a really nice blazer you have on. Or you know
what? I like your shoes. And that breaks the
ice immediately. Pay them a compliment. Pay them
a compliment. Absolutely. And then they start
talking. OK, so what's the biggest networking
lesson you've learned from your own business
journey that you wish you had known earlier?
The data most just don't be applied to real estate,
but applies to any business. How many people
have I given my card to but never collected anything
from? If you don't control the data or retrieve
the data, you're like waiting for a phone that's
never going to ring. And that's like a strategy
for 50%. 49 % of the realtors, Michael, in this
country did one deal or no deals last year. 49%.
Half of our industry, more than half is failing
because some do two or three deals. It doesn't
pay the bills. So they're waiting for something
to happen. For something to happen, some movement
has to occur. And to me, I really believe that.
You have to not just get the business card, not
just create the relationship first or get the
business card, but maybe right then and there.
You know what I just learned from this conference?
I went away on Monday, Tuesday to the Realtors
Association. I went because. i needed to get
away and sharpen my pencil up here sharpen my
brain and i took a linkedin actually a technology
class and he focused on linkedin and the next
door app the one who navigates us with our neighbors
and boy in linkedin in the first five minutes
it was worth the week it was worth the two days
i spent there because he just showed me that
you just walk up to somebody and how many people
have linkedin profiles so many And you just click
on search in this little upper right corner where
it gives your QR code and you scan it and you
connect right to each other right then and there.
Now you've got them. Of course, I had a little
word like Auburndale, Florida, because I need
to refer this person, like to this person in
the future. Oh, what's their name? But as you
maybe, especially with Florida Realtors, I've
met people from every county, every city. But
taking the time, and it does take time to, Either
if you have this game, how many people couldn't
log in during that speaker? They couldn't even
log into their LinkedIn account. Two ladies to
the left and right of me, it took them half the
class to figure out how to do that, which was
a waste of time. So you need to be up on the
networking tool available to you, at least the
best ones. I discovered today for the first time,
I have 2020 LinkedIn connections, which I had
no idea. It just says 500 plus, but you know
what? Get with technology even a little bit and
save it appropriately so you can find them again.
Use anything you want. blingstone hat lady i'll
never forget that one from this weekend rhinestone
hat lady yeah and works it just because you have
the electronic business cards you have regular
business cards you have the linkedin so there
are a number of ways that you can stay connected
and if you receive that that physical business
card. Here's a note. Here's a little trick that
I learned a hundred years ago. And that I tell
every workshop, every client that I coach, take
that business card, write down the date. What,
when the date, let's say you're in an event,
the date of the event, write down the name of
the event, and then something you talked about.
So you have all that information on the back
of the card so that in two weeks, you're going
to look at that card and say, I don't know who
this is. You turn it over and say, that's who
it is. But if you follow up, again, I have a
whole follow -up sequence. If you use the sequence,
you'll remember it right away. It's funny you
say follow -up in the office, although the boss
doesn't like it. We say, F you, follow -up. If
you don't follow -up, you're not going to get
anywhere with it. And Mike, you're right. because
the office gave me one of my cards and I used
it over the weekend. Just put it under the phone
and it gives you the link and you download my
contact. I don't know how they did it. It's not
magic, it's technology. But every one of our
realtors gets one. So in case they're out, they
could just walk up to somebody and talk, hey,
here's my information. But again, as important
as it is to get information, if you're not getting
information, I don't want to have a card on me
right now. Let them write on the back of your
card. Or some agents keep little pads. We give
these teeny little pads that fit in a purse or
a back pocket. It's just recycled paper. And
you know what? They take them with them. Do you
have a pen for your pocketbook? Yeah, I have
a pen. Okay, good. It sets the basics. But you
know what? I can't tell you how many people say,
oh, one guy, he was so proud. He gave 20 business
cards out a day, every day. He was like the worst
producer ever. He was busy giving cards out.
I have to tell you, and this is a little note
you can tell all of your agents. It's not as
important. You say, how big is your network?
My network is X amount of thousands of people.
Okay. How many people, how many networks are
you in? It's a mindset shift. Exactly. And you
have to think about, wait a second, I can reach
out to anybody. No. How many people can reach
out to you? Exactly. And that's where you have
to think about it. I had a gentleman, real quick,
I had a gentleman that joined my office, and
he was like, at the interview, he says, I have
a list. I said, okay. And he says, it's 100 ,000
names. And I said, okay. And he says, so what's
it worth to the company? I said, to the company?
I said, we don't work your list. you don't understand
henry these are just every person with such a
such a group and there's nuggets in there i said
you need to be the gold miner i told him you
need to get through that list and bring it down
to 200 plus or minus people that know you like
you trust you enough to use to recommend you
he was like the list is i agree a list is nothing
unless you would do something with it i told
him and you know what he soon thereafter quit
He said, you don't see my value. I said, oh,
no, you don't see your value. And you don't want
to do the work that it requires to bring it down
to quality, not quantity. Absolutely. Absolutely.
And what you said, know you like you and trust
you, then they'll do business with you. And that
list, everybody knew you because you were on
the list or whatever. But then you have to narrow
it down a little bit to you like you. That narrowed
your list down. Trust you. Now, you brought that
list from 100 ,000 down to 200. And that's the
list that you need. So you're right. He's got
to be the person to be the gold miner and to
break that list down to 200. And then that's
something you can work with. But until then,
it's not really worth anything. Passion seems
to be a driving force in your success. How can
professionals use their passion as a tool to
attract the right connections? So passion is,
first of all, you have to be in a position. You
have to be in a career that you can be passionate
about. Because one thing my dad taught me. He
said, look son, always do your best. And I added,
never give up. And also, you need to like what
you do. And you need to feel you bring value
to people's lives. And I know that passion. People
always don't find their passion in what to do.
Michael, you do. I do. We know what we're passionate
about. And if I tell people every day, mostly
when I'm interviewing new realtors, I'm not the
recruiter. We have a director of career development
that does that for me. But I come into the interview
to meet them. And I'll say, look, I don't know
what I want to be when I grow up. But I'm still
having a lot of fun after 41 years. So I still
have time to think about that. And everybody
laughs. But you know what? i'm doing what i was
meant to do i know that i've never i didn't waver
six months my first six months of my career i
wavered on on that because my first three deals
in contract once you have a real estate contract
statistically more than half the time you're
gonna close my first three deals in contract
fell apart so i went to my dad it was living
at home in the basement or whatever and i said
dad i don't know if real estate's for me he goes
son you just started you need to add you to keep
learning you need to you know you need to get
out there you need to follow what your bosses
tell you and apply what you're learning and he
said don't i'm not gonna you're not gonna start
i didn't even say i'm not gonna he goes don't
stop and i just took that was that became my
driving force that when things go sideways when
it seems like it's half full things happen for
a reason and sometimes we can't figure out why
don't even look back try to figure out why just
strive forward continue to do your best work
harder than everybody else. There's so many things
that guide me that I've learned over the years.
But the biggest challenge I see is people jumping
around from career to career and looking for,
and some people never find what they're looking
for. And it's not always about the money. As
a matter of fact, I've had opportunity to make
more money from other opportunities that have
come since I'm here almost 20 years at this office.
And I think there's a price, but I guarantee
you, it's going to be seven digits. So nobody's
offered that yet. It's so true. It's so true.
And a lot of what you just said, I learned from
the military about keeping it forward, keeping
straight, keeping consistent, never give up,
all that kind of stuff. And it's just, it's true,
but I have to put my own spin on it and I have
to feel it inside. I can't just hear somebody
telling me. I have to feel it from the inside.
And when I found my passion, now I found this
back in New York when I was doing mortgages and
everything, I felt that I was the person out
there talking and explaining, doing the first
time homebuyer seminars and things like that
with the realtors. I was doing all that. So back
then I found the passion. I worked through different
career paths before that, before where I am now.
Now is where I found my passion, but I was 60
years old before I was actually able to take
it and run with it. So I know what you're talking
about. I hear you. Okay. So networking often
comes down to consistency. I just spoke about
that. How do you keep showing up and staying
top of mind in relationships, even when life
gets busy? Okay, so. some basic things right
and i can't remember who told me this it was
a woman basketball coach for a college team i
apologize it was a long time ago so i just took
some i always try to take one thing away or two
things she gave me a few things all right first
of all make your bed every day make your bed
every day nothing worse than coming home to a
messy bed right nancy and i make it she makes
it we make it together this morning we made the
bed together we're out we're out up 5 45 we're
out of bed by six bed is made we're having breakfast
she's on the road by seven o 'clock and so i'm
in the office by 7 0 5 because i live 1 .7 miles
as a crow flies to the office and so you got
to get up i tell everybody you got to dress up
and you got to show up today i thought i'd walk
the mall to see if i can meet people you know
what it's that's not i have strategy sessions
with my agents goals and strategies i do everyone
gets a one -on -one once a year and then we can
tweak it during the year but it's not just getting
up dressing up showing up but doing productive
activities so the biggest joke with nancy and
i is we're so busy on weekends with our grandson
and ethan and nancy's mom and our friends and
with pickleball and poker that i go to work monday
morning just to relax seriously i'm like the
only guy that thinks that way they're like really
i'm like yes like monday morning to me is and
i know it's going to get busy so i don't even
have to schedule something i typically will i
have appointments of course I block this out.
Oh, I time block. And I'm really good at time
blocking. Again, Floyd Wickman, a wonderful master
trainer for realtors. And I don't have two schedules.
I'm one person, all right? So I color code my
time blocking. And the only bad thing about time
blocking is you need to leave time for the unexpected.
Like me, I have an open door policy, except I
never put a note on my door unless I'm doing
a recording like today. I have an open door policy.
Nothing going on here but the work. And so people
could just knock and come in. And I leave my
door open most of the time anyway. But the unexpected,
the people like, oh, you got a minute? Like yesterday,
I just did it early this morning. A guy hands
me, after our sales meeting, a packet. And he
said, hey, you got some time? I'd like you to
go over my packet for me as a realtor and the
services I'm going to offer. I'm like, yeah.
I look, it's 11 pages. I said, no, I don't have
time to do that because I already had somebody
waiting for me. But make a time with me. In the
meantime, give it to me. And so early this morning,
because like I said, it was here at 7 .05 or
so. I edited, I said to him, it's going to be
red or blue pen. You're fine. He goes, yeah,
man, whatever pen you like. All right, no problem.
I said, don't think I'm grading you. I'm just
going to give you my opinion. So apparently he
used ChatGPT because it had a lot of great points,
but he hadn't made a change yet. And so I suggested,
I love using the who, what, where, when, why,
how. You just don't state something without giving
a feature, without showing them or telling them
what the benefit is and asking questions or telling
people why. I didn't rip it apart, but I spent
a lot of ink, maybe 15 minutes running through
it. It's going to be a multiple draft situation,
but it's like being there for people even when
you don't even have the time sometimes. transition
to calendly like you have i'm afraid of people
booking up my whole day because it's an open
door policy and so i and i you know the only
thing unequal is taking equal unequal people
treating unequal people equally meaning that
if i've got like a top producer in my office
that needs a minute and i look and i realize
it's not going to be a minute i'm going to give
them an hour if i have somebody that's been with
me for a while and that consistently doesn't
show up or doesn't do our training or doesn't
come to me with questions doesn't light up the
production board and they need say they say i
need an hour i'm gonna tell me what's going on
and then they'll tell me yeah i just need to
know how to get started they're not getting an
hour from me all right they're getting less time
for me because i need them it needs to be a two
-way community not only communication but action
plan all right so we'll have the conversation
15 20 minutes max and they'll walk away with
an activity and i expect them to that they chose
not me that they chose and so come back to me
hey let's reschedule our next appointment as
soon as you're done people try to book me in
advance a week or two in advance for something
that we don't even know what the topic is yet
they don't get that with me do you do what you've
got to do and come back and let's debrief let's
tweak and it's got to be that you have to know
who your customer is and for me my internal customer
my realtors are and my staff are really my customers
and i put myself at the bottom of the pyramid
i'm the support system do you know do you know
what oh my god limonis marcus limonis the prophet
on tv he fixes this fixes but he was the guest
speaker and he was literally six feet at the
convention this week. He was six feet from my
aisle. And he said, draw a mountain. Every one
of you should draw a mountain right now. And
then place yourself on the mountain. Where do
you see yourself in your career on that mountain?
Michael, where do you see yourself in your career
on the mountain? Where do I see myself? If you
drew a mountain right now. If I drew a mountain
right now, I'd see myself about halfway up. That's
good. That's Marcus. He was standing like 10
feet away. That's Marcus Lomonas. Yep. I felt
I was closer to the top. And as markets met realtors,
he started explaining some things. And he said,
who's at the bottom now? And people came from
the bottom. He'd come up to the stage, come up
to the stage. And it was really interesting.
And the best thing about what he talked about
was that some people at the bottom of the mountain
maybe need to change careers. If they're not
prepared to keep moving. This woman was 20 years
in the business, a realtor, Mike, on stage with
2 ,000 people to say, I'm thinking about becoming
a mortgage lender, broker. I'm thinking about
it. She's at the bottom of the real estate mountain.
So the idea for him was he moved on from her.
If she's there and she thinks she's there, not
everybody can be helped. You have to be true
to yourself. It wasn't her passion. She feels
like she's being taken advantage by customers.
She may be in the wrong business at this point
in her career, right? And I have people starting
now at the bottom. My job is, now I learned,
I'm not at the top anymore for me. My job is
to hang out at the bottom and push those people
up to the top with my guidance. and my help and
my leadership and my coaching now once they're
stuck once they're stuck and they don't want
to take my advice any longer or they're taking
other people's advice that and then they said
what did they say or how did oh and i said you
just spoke to a guy that has never done a deal
in my office and he gave you advice like you
should be talking to me not the guy next to you
you just don't know i hope that answers your
question but i feel like it's appropriate to
what we're talking about today It is. And when
you said, where am I on the mountain? I pictured
myself because I reached down the mountain because
I'm helping other people succeed. I'm helping
them come up to your level. Right. And I'm also
reaching up because I have a mentor and things
because I need to get further in my. what I do.
So I feel I'm right in the middle because I'm
a mentor to others, but I need a mentor to get
further ahead. So that's why I put myself. I
love managing the mountain. That's my job. Yeah.
Okay, good. So can you share a time when networking
directly led to a breakthrough opportunity or
saved you from a major setback? Let's talk about,
let's not talk about setbacks because I want
to think the positive. Yeah. Let me tell you
a quick story that happened over the last 14
months. One of my best friend's in -laws, I met
them at a wedding, and it ends up that the wife
went to Randall -Paul High School and graduated,
actually, sorry, Kakia with us. I don't remember
her name, but I asked her about you and she didn't
remember you. We had big classes. Her name is
Cindy. It's funny because I felt bad because
I didn't really remember her. I wish you remembered
her last name. I'm going to figure it out and
let you get back to you on that. Basically, she's
a long -term spouse, I think 20 something years
with Larry. And Larry started talking to me and
he said, yeah, I'm in a lumber business and in
this place in New York, this and that. And he
says, I'm in contract to sell it. I'm retiring
after 30 years of being employed and running
it, then owning it. And now I'm going to be selling
the business and the land. And it was more than
$10 million. And I said, wow, if there's anything
I can do to help you. Yeah, you could. He says,
I want to relocate my staff. I'm a mother and
her child to Florida. I think I owe that to them.
And I was like, yeah, I can help in any which
way you like. So he was thinking about maybe
a small business. And I kept following up from
that perspective, thinking that he would think
of Mount Me when it came to the buying opportunity.
For whatever reason, people pivot sometimes and
never tell you. He ended up going and spending
this amount of money with a commercial broker
because I've been known for. residential and
I'd done some commercial in my life. But so he
had spent 9 million on commercial properties
of the 11 million that he ended up selling a
property for. And he had to do it on a 1031 exchange
because he wanted to defer the taxes. And then
I heard from my buddy, yeah, Larry closed on
$11 million in real estate. And I was like, wow,
I'm surprised I didn't get the call. Long story
short, I get a call from Larry about seven or
eight months after. He closed on the property.
Oh, and $2 million was left over. So the commercial
realtor sold him a residential house in my marketplace.
And so Larry called me. Hey, Henry, so -and -so
says you're really a good guy and you can help
me with a rental. And I'm thinking. F you Larry.
Now I'm thinking, follow up. No, I thought all
these things in my head. And my answer was, of
course, what do you need? And I went to the property
and it was 2 .1. I think he paid one, almost
2 million and it needed some work. And he said,
what do you mean? And I went through the property
with him, very detailed. And I got a guy, one
of my handymen coming out for a couple of weeks
and doing what he had to do. And we finally got
it rented and he hated being a residential landlord.
Just hated it. He really degraded buying it.
There's timeframes involved. So long story short.
he he said i want to get out of now that we have
it rented as soon as the lease comes up would
you list it for me for sale yes larry of course
and so the first weekend had at the market nine
showings and full price offer 2 .1 million and
we closed about by the way i never did a million
dollar deal in my career 41 years till there
you go till what about closed four weeks ago
yeah then He says, hey, what about helping me
with a 1031 exchange to buy a commercial property?
And now we're closing that commercial property
for multi -millions also. Well, you know what?
Sometimes you just, like you said, you put yourself
out there, bite your tongue occasionally, people
make decisions and make yourself available. I
got the call. That's when you get the call one
day, that's the really good call. You're like,
yeah, whatever it takes. Don't think about, yeah,
but what about the 300 ,000 you lost? And you
know what? Stop. You can't fix what happened
in the past. You got to start today and what's
going to happen tomorrow. And that's all I focused
on. And it's been a banner year for me. Hey,
you don't know what the other person is going
through. And you don't know what made him decide
to go with this other person. But you kept your
head about it. And the guy just said, look, I
have a rental or this or that. And it's small
potatoes. But you did it to such a degree. that
he said oh he must really know what he's talking
about let me give him something else and that
led into something even bigger you have to really
take what's given to you but think about what
the other person is going through and just take
it and just you never know because you don't
know what you don't know the big fish he was
the one of the big fish he knew more than me
and he knew it and i and i admitted hey i'm going
to need to look into that you know what i mean
so i had to brush up pretty quickly but he never
held it against me so if you ever think there's
a somebody you really want to do business with
and maybe have a personal relationship with become
a resource for just become a resource for them
absolutely eventually the offer you can say don't
be afraid don't be afraid to try me i'm like
i'm going to give them i always tell people if
you recommend me they're going to get friends
and family They're going to get friends and family.
White glove treatment. I'm going to I'm going
to you're going to make you proud of the service
I provide to them. OK, good. All right. So what
advice do you have for people who struggle with
networking because they feel it's forced or uncomfortable?
So I was one of those people for a long time.
And so one of my director of career development,
Connie, she said, come on, let's go out to one
of those networking events. And we had a little
game. We said she said, let's just actually.
Both of us came up with it. Let's go opposite
directions and meet in the middle and then go
reverse. And so it was really fun. We also had
this thing, how many, who can get the most business
cards? I'm very competitive. I don't know if
you could tell that. So business, so I was on
a mission. I had to collect business cards because
she's very competitive too. And I think we're
pretty close. I think we were off by one when
we met in the middle, we talked, we went back
out. It was a great, it was a, it wasn't, it
was, and so go with an accountability partner.
you need to have an accountability partner if
you really especially if you're uncomfortable
if you're now that i'm comfortable i can go by
myself but it's not as fun as when i go with
other people and they clump you know what clumping
is when these realtors stick together i'm like
are you kidding me there's 30 other tables and
who could you meet out there i want you to walk
around and you know what they have fear right
false evidence appearing real fear which is crazy
nothing's going to kill them by saying hi I'm
Henry. Hi, I'm Michael. Hi, Michael. Where are
you from? What do you do? What type of work?
Anything. Open up an open -ended question. Who,
what, where, when, why, how? You can't answer
yes or no. Are you having a good time? No, I
go through, there's a large part of what I teach
about introverts and extroverts. And that goes
along with a networking event because I always
tell extroverts to go alone. You don't want to
share. your time or share a meeting or anything
else. You don't want that type of backing. You
want to go out and you want to talk with as many
people, build as many relationships as you can.
If you're slightly introverted, then you can
bring somebody with you, somebody that really
knows you, knows about you and everything else.
So there's two different ways to look at it,
but that's exactly right. So let's bring this
podcast full circle. Okay. If you could leave
our listeners with one networking principle that
has carried you from middle school friendships
to a successful career, what would it be? It's
a long play. This is a long play. There's no
quick fix to anything you're doing. I think you
need to start. And if you're not happy with your
making, you need to hit the reset button. All
right. And you need to look at. Not only what
you're doing and if you like where you're working,
your career, what's it going to take you to get
to the next level and emulate people that are.
I joined a group of managers and now I've been
invited to a bigger group now. So swimming with
them. I'm the little guy in the big pool. So
you always have to, if you want to improve your
tennis game or your pickleball game, I play all
the pickleball. You got to play with better players.
And figure out a way to meet these people. It
could be on the golf course. It could be on pickleball.
It could be on a bowling league. I don't care.
But network with other people that are successful.
I don't know if I mentioned my, occasionally
I call upon SCORE. Familiar with SCORE? Business
professionals that are retired, but occasionally
that's really good to me. I think that you need
to just decide. And I'll end with this. One of
my senior realtors, West Point graduate in his
80s, shows up every day. And, and he's a military
guy. He thinks that way, but he has two things
he does. And I'm not following one of them today,
but he, just for him to remember the day or people
say, how's it going? Today is Thursday, right?
No, it's what day is today? Yeah. Today's Thursday.
Okay. Just terrific. Today. Hey, how you doing?
Terrific. I'm terrific. How about you? Be positive.
Right? So Monday's marvelous. Tuesday's terrific.
Sorry. Tremendous. Wednesday's wonderful. Terrific
and fantastic. Monday, Tuesday, come up with
a positive word. How's it going? How's it going?
And come up with the answer. He also does a second
thing. He dresses. He doesn't want to have to
think about what he's going to wear for the day.
So I'm wearing Monday's shirt, white. It gets
a little darker, beige on Tuesday. Wednesday,
we wear red or blue, depending upon who's in
office. Thursday, gray, and Friday's black. That's
it. And brand yourself. Every day, I'm branded.
And I get, I'm walking into Publix and people
say, excuse me, where's the milk? I'm like, come
on, I'll sell you a house on the way to the milk.
You have to have some key line. Oh no, I'm so
sorry. No, come on. I know the store like in
the back of my hand. Be public, be social, be
a walking billboard and always have the, when
somebody just even looks at my badge, I wear
it every day. I always have a line. Can I sell
you a house today? Oh no, I already own something.
I'm like, what about an investment property?
If you have maybe a friend or relative that might
be looking, the grant money out there is unbelievable.
It's like, am I robotic? I try not to be. But
do I follow some regimen with regarding words
like terrific, tremendous, wonderful, marvelous,
fantastic? Yeah. Because it just helps me realize
some people can't even find the word sometimes.
You know what I mean? Even explaining what we
do as a real estate, what makes you different?
It's exposure. That's the word I use. Because
where Century 20 was the biggest global brand
with 83 countries and 25 % of the buyers in Florida
are foreign nationals, that's why you need somebody
like me. Your elevator speech, right? Yeah, yeah,
absolutely. And there's something to be said
for branding yourself, okay? By you wearing those
different colors, the same colors on the same
day during the week, people recognize that. When
you see that accident attorney up on a billboard,
you just see his picture and his name. No contact
information, no anything. That's called branding.
And I've tried to brand myself. So I have to,
if you have a few minutes, I'd love to tell you
a short story about branding. So I got involved
with AI. Right. AI is like the buzzword. And
I write three or four articles a week on three
or four different platforms about networking,
leadership, things like that, all with AI generated
text. But it gets my word out. Now, I've been
doing this for three or four months. So I got
to tell you a funny story. The person who I'm
working with has a partner in California. That
person in California has a partner in Las Vegas.
Because they do shows, right? So one day, his
partner, the partner in California, Abe, was
talking to this person in Las Vegas. And they
were talking about something with AI and everything
else. He goes, wait, I have to stop you for a
second. Who's Michael Foreman? He said, why?
He goes, because his name. for credentials it's
all over the place he is the go -to person for
networking and he goes how do you know it goes
i see it all over the place he goes all right
so this guy in las vegas was talking to a person
in california about me in georgia crazy so it's
absolutely crazy so this is what i did i made
up a t -shirt on the front is my logo on the
back it says Who is Michael Foreman with the
QR code? That's cute. And I'll send you one.
I'm still a large. That's all right. That's where
I'll send you a large. I love it. Who's Michael
Foreman? I love it. But it's great. But you never
know who is going to see it and what they're
going to say. So, Henry, I got to tell you. This
was absolutely fantastic. And I think we can
make this podcast go another two or three hours
just by giving us stories back and forth. Oh,
my God. Okay. But if somebody were to contact
you, what would be the best way that they would
contact you? Even Superman had kryptonite, right?
My kryptonite is my inbox. That's kryptonite
to me. So I'm a texter and I'm a caller. All
right. So 561427. 4 -8 -8 -8. South Florida,
Boynton Beach, 5 -6 -1 -4 -2 -7 -48 -88. That's
it. Direct. And I pick up everybody, except for
this call. I'm the guy that picks up and says,
hey, can I call you back? But not today. I turned
it off. Okay, good. All right. I'm on my Gmail,
henrylcaplin at gmail .com. Henry L, the Hulk.
H -L -K, henrylcaplin with a K at gmail .com.
Thanks. Okay, Henry, this was great, and I will
talk to you. Well, hold on, folks. Don't go anywhere.
Let's hear from our sponsors. David Neal, co
-founder, Revved Up Kids. Revved Up Kids is on
a mission to protect children and teens from
sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.
They provide prevention training programs for
children, teens, and adults. To learn more, go
to revvedupkids .org. Henry Kaplan, Century 21.
When it comes to making the biggest financial
decision of your life, leave it in the hands
of a proven professional, Henry Kaplan. Henry
is a global real estate agent with Century 21,
celebrating his 41st year in business. No matter
where you're moving, Henry has the right connections
for you. You can contact Henry at 561 -427 -4888.
A huge thank you to our guests for sharing such...
insights today. And of course, a big shout out
to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in
and spending your time with us. If you're interested
in my digital courses, being coached or having
me come and talk to your company, just go to
Michael and fill out the request form. 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've enjoyed this episode, please don't
forget to subscribe. Leave us a review and share
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