Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, Building
Profitable Connections, the podcast where we
strip away the fluff and get real about networking
fuels your business and your life. Today's episode
is going to challenge the way you think about
success. My guest believes that the four -hour
workday isn't some dream. It's the standard we
should all be aiming for. His philosophy flips
the script on the old hustle mentality. The goal
of business isn't a maximum growth at all costs.
It's a minimalist freedom, building the life
you want on your terms. And here's the kicker.
Networking is the key to making that freedom
possible, not by piling on more contacts, events,
or obligations, but by creating the right intentional
relationships that multiply your time and your
results. So buckle up, buttercup, because we're
about to dive into how you can design a network
that buys back your hours, boosts your profits,
and gives you the freedom you've been chasing.
So let's get started. That was a bit of a mouthful
for me, but I think I got it. I'd like to welcome
to the podcast, Jermaine Cheatham. And I would
like to ask you, first of all, welcome to the
podcast. And could you give us a little bit about
your background and how you got here today? Hey,
Michael. Thanks, man. I appreciate you having
me. I'm glad to be here. My background is, since
I was young, since I was five, six, seven, I
always wanted freedom. And that's financial freedom.
That's time freedom. That's location freedom.
I just wanted freedom in life in general. And
I didn't know how to get it until I ran into
business and sales. And that was the quickest,
most fastest, most efficient way for me to obtain
all those freedoms is through sales and entrepreneurship.
And to speak to your audience is the best way
to excel. in sales and entrepreneurship is not
trying to reinvent the wheel. It's simply to
connect with other people, AKA networking that
already have your ideal client in their network
and have their trust. And that is the ultimate
leverage. And so that's that one idea created
all the freedom I ever wanted in my life and
in my business. Wow. That's great. That's great.
So you, When did you obtain that freedom? Subjective.
Financial freedom is a different number for everybody.
Time freedom is a different number for everybody.
I didn't really gain this freedom until I made
the leap from employee. to entrepreneur because
then i started to own my time i started to own
all my income and i had autonomy of my life so
that was back in 2016 when i made that leap from
the corporate business structure working for
somebody else to i'm doing this on my own probably
scary also making that jump for sure but it's
not as scary as being a slave to the day you
die Yeah, that's so true. Listen, I'm a former
business owner myself. I had pizzerias, restaurants,
Ben & Jerry's. I had it all. I was in New York.
And the fast -paced, I was all into the fast
-paced. I moved down here to Georgia, and it
slowed down. And I got into my own thing without
the storefront. But that's a story for another
day. Most people think networking is about adding
more and more connections. more events, and more
time spent. How does a minimalist approach to
networking look different, and why might it actually
be more effective? From a minimalist lens, only
thing you're looking for is leverage. You're
looking to put in a little bit and get a lot
out. And so when you're thinking about leverage
from a business context, you want to make sure
whatever you're selling, your product or service,
is highly lucrative. And so what I decided to
do is get into probably the most lucrative space
you can find, and that's financial services.
Because it's an evergreen need for businesses.
They always need this thing. And it's something
that doesn't ever go out of style, regardless
of what's going on in the economy. It's always
in demand. That's one aspect of it, is picking
the right... actual product or service to sell.
That's number one. And then from that lens, once
you find something that's highly leverageable
and lucrative, then you figure out, I don't need
a hundred contacts because if I have a hundred
contacts sending me business or deals, I have
to manage those people. I have to manage their
protocols and their procedures and their personalities
versus let me find 10 that actually give me the
same amount of, say, income that the 100 would
give me without all the headache of dealing with
10x the amount of people, personalities, and
procedures. So it's really about finding the
right product or service with the right key strategic
partners that have your ideal customer in their
space and in their... sphere of influence and
then leverage that relationship because the psychology
of trust is always at play. If I. I'm friends
with Roger and Roger knows the client that I
ultimately want to be in touch with. Roger is
going to put me in touch with that client and
that client is going to trust Roger. Therefore,
they're going to trust me. It's just how psychology
works. This isn't rocket science. And so when
you have a lucrative product or service and you
have this type of flywheel where people are bringing
you into the deals that are pre -selling these
deals for you. The clients just sign. They don't
ask any questions. There's no back and forth.
It's just a seamless way to do business. And
so that's where the leverage really lies, where
you're not spending all day working on deals
or prospecting. You let your strategic partners
do all that work for you. And it's a win. Your
product or service has to make sure it helps
your referring partner win. It helps him sell
whatever he's selling. And it also helps their
clients. So you have to make sure everyone's
rowing in the right same direction. And then
business becomes... Simple, easy, and fun. I
understand all of that. So you had to work your
way through the cloud of just hit and miss clients
to get to your 10, let's say, of those clients
that will refer you, that will pay more attention
to you. But how did you get through that cloud,
that fact of you having to meet? a hundred people
to get to the 10. Yeah. So the easiest way I
went about doing this is number one, I checked
on who was already in my network, who do I already
know in my Rolodex, in my phone. And so I started
to strategically start reaching out to people
already new in the business, my business world
and saying, Hey, do you know X? Do you know people
work in X? And I wanted to get into the healthcare
space. I wanted to get into the medical space.
So I literally started just reaching out to people
I knew in the business world. And hey, do you
know people in the healthcare space? I'd like
to meet with you and see if I can get into that
arena. And so I met with a lady, she was a friend
of mine. She was a marketing person here in Arizona.
We had coffee and she's like, yeah, call Roger.
And then I talked to Roger and obviously it was
a warm introduction. This is networking 101,
just talking to people, that's it. We're not
selling anything. And so I talked to Roger and
he tells me, hey, we're having an event. I go
to the event and I meet all these people that
are in the medical space that sell medical software,
medical equipment, and all of their clients actually
needed my financial services to help him and
her sell their equipment and software to the
doctors. And so my point is this, is you're just
looking for a couple of contacts to leverage
because Once you get in with one of the contacts,
they have buddies. They have other sales reps
at their same organizations that now bring you
into the fold because, again, the psychology
of trust. If Roger uses Jermaine, then Tim will
feel comfortable using Jermaine, and so will
Sarah. And then next year, I'm doing the financing
for the entire organization. And so that's a
simple way of how I thought about, let me just...
try to knock over the lead domino. And usually
that's just one person. And that was the lady
that I met with in marketing that was already
in my phone. That sounds strangely equivalent
to what I go through as a speaker and as a coach
and a trainer. I go for that keynote, that workshop.
But when I get into the company, other people
find out about what I am speaking about. They
tell friends. So it sounds eerily close to the
same type of thing. Okay. You advocate the four
-hour workday as a standard. What role does networking
play in creating that freedom? And how can we
avoid letting networking itself become another
time drain? I have one key thing about business.
If you're working more than four hours a day,
you are working on the wrong thing, period. You're
not finding the leverage. And maybe that is what
you're selling. Maybe that is who you're selling
it to. And maybe that's how you're doing it.
From a networking lens, what you need to think
about is you don't want to be the expert in anything.
Because if you're the expert in anything, that
means you have to actually deliver the service
or goods. You have to actually do the work. I'm
an advocate of being just a connector, a middleman,
a person that sits in the middle of the person
that needs the thing and the person that sells
the thing. And I bring you together. I don't
do any work and I get paid for the connection.
And so when you think about networking from that
lens, you have to pick the right product or service
you want to connect people with and the right
customer you want to connect them with because
they got to have money. They got to be in pain.
They have to be able to afford your thing that
you're connecting them with. And same thing with
the service. It has to be a lucrative service
that is evergreen. So when you think about it
from that lens, of course, you're not working
more than a few hours a day because you're basically
trying to be a surgeon with a scalpel versus
just throw stuff against the wall and see if
it sticks. So it's about picking the right service
and finding the right people that need that service.
And then you're obviously flywheel is going to
be the connectors. all need this to make their
business work. And you're not doing the work.
You're not delivering it. You're not doing any
of the client work. You're just connecting people,
wiping your hands and everyone's happy. That
sounds, I used to be a print broker and I used
to have clients that needed printing. I developed
a relationship with printers and it flowed through
me, but I didn't have to do anything, but I was
getting paid. So it's like the same thing. Okay.
So many entrepreneurs chase maximum growth, which
often means constant expansion or contacts and
commitments. How does networking shift when the
goal is freedom instead of scale? If you want
to scale and you want to have a billion dollar
company, you're going to be working 16 hour days.
That's just the reality of it. And so at what
point are you going to be satisfied? At what
point is enough enough? And so I realized in
my early 20s when I started making, for me, very
good money, $20 ,000, $30 ,000 a month, I realized
I can't spend all this. What am I buying? What
do I really need that's going to fulfill me?
And you try, you experiment, you buy stuff and
you realize that wasn't it. about making more
money. and just working all day. Life for me
is about personal fulfillment. And a lot of that
means getting my time back. I like to work, but
I don't want to work all day because there's
so much more to explore in life. I love to exercise.
I love to go on hikes. I love to go on vacation.
I love to travel. I love to read. I love to explore.
I'm okay working from eight till noon, but after
that, I want to do other stuff. And so for me,
I'm not looking for maximal scale. I'm looking
for maximal personal fulfillment. From a networking
lens, that's where I realized when I was doing
financial services, I was like, okay, I have
a very lucrative thing here. I don't need to
do a hundred deals a month to make a very good
income. I could do a handful, which will take
a few hours. And obviously I'll have some prospecting
and stuff and staying in touch with my clients,
but it's not. It's a few hours a day. And so
when I realized this thing is very valuable and
I found out, okay, these guys that have the ultrasound
equipment or the MRI equipment or any of the
medical devices, they need my lending services
to help their doctors get their devices. Plus,
it's a tax benefit for the doctors because it's
100 % tax deductible. The banks and the underwriters,
they want to lend out the money. So all I was
simply doing is staying in the middle. I'm not
the expert. The banks are the experts. The medical
device sales guys, they're the experts in the
equipment. The doctors are the expert in ophthalmology
or whatever it is, right? So I'm simply just
bringing the bank that wants to lend out money,
the doctor that needs the money to buy, the equipment
seller that needs to sell the equipment. All
together, I wipe my hands in a few hours a day.
Then I can go to the gym, go on a walk, go on
vacation, do this from anywhere because it's
a digital business. It's about leverage again,
the right product, selling to the right person,
the right way through strategic partners. Wow,
that's good. Okay, so what are some signs that
someone is over networking, collecting contacts,
but losing focus? And how can they reverse that
into meaningful, minimalist connections? Okay,
so number one is if you're talking to people,
if you're chasing anybody, that's a number one
sign. Never chase anybody. You'll know after
the first encounter if this person is real, if
it makes sense, if it feels right. You're going
to have instant feedback that this is a real
thing. That's number one. Number two is if you
always have people trying to waste your time.
Let's get a coffee. Let's do this. Sure, I'd
love to have a coffee with you. But specifically,
what do you do? How do you do it? And how does
it align with what I do? So we're both rowing
in the same direction. But more importantly,
we're both getting paid sufficiently. Because
life is short. We all die. I want to make money
on my connections. And I want to also help my
connections make money too. It's a two -way street.
I want us both. to get paid. And if I don't see
a throughput where we can get paid, there's absolutely
no reason for us to meet unless you know somebody
that can help me get paid and help them get paid.
And I'm happy to pay you a commission for making
that happen. So I think a lot of it comes down
to you have to be direct with people. The director
you are, the clearer and the more lucrative.
the relationship's going to be. If you notice
a lot of people will hem and haw and they're
just happy and they're just, they want to be
friendly and they're people pleasers. People
pleasers are usually some of the worst entrepreneurs
and salespeople. So if you see a people pleaser
or you get that kind of vibe, run for the hills
because they're just going to waste your time
and they're not doing any business. People that
are busy are doing stuff. So those are my two
main things is focus on ignoring people pleasers
and staying focused on who's really going to
be able to send you business. Okay, sure. And
those salesy type people, the people who really
aren't doing business, they're going to your
networking events more for social reasons rather
than making money. And if you're a type priority,
I have a slightly different take on a networking
event. I go with what's called a servant's heart.
I see what I can do for them. not what they can
do for me. So I'm not looking for a sale. I'm
not looking how I can strategically align with
them. I'm just looking to put two people together
and I walk away. I have them because in turn,
they look at me, they say, look, Mike gave me
a referral. So I'm going to have to give him
one. And so it's a slightly different take on
what you are saying, but it's along the same
lines. Okay. In your view. What's the biggest
myth about networking that keeps business owners
stuck in long hours and unnecessary busyness?
I think that they need to talk to everybody.
You don't need to talk to anybody except for
your ideal avatar or ideal customer. And in order
to know who your ideal customer is or client
or partner is. You need to know where the leverage
is based on whatever you're selling. It's surprising.
Sometimes you'll talk to people and you don't
even think that they know what they even offer
because they're not even quite sure about it.
They're not even crystal clear about like, where's
their value and their proposition. And so the
clearer you are in exactly what you sell, then
you can get laser focused on finding those type
of partners that have. your ideal client already
in their network and their influence. And so
those are the only people you should focus on.
Like for me in my financial services, I only
focused on medical device salespeople. That is
it. So any event, any person I talk to, that
is the specific type of person I want to talk
to. And that's it because they can bring me deal
after deal that are pre -sold and pre -closed.
Don't talk to everybody. Talk to the person that
is your key ideal avatar. Exactly right. That's
exactly right. Okay. How do you personally decide
which relationships to invest in deeply and which
to let go without feeling like you're missing
out on opportunities? This kind of is what we
just talked about, but not really. Number one
is I'm a capitalist. So if it's a lucrative relationship
and I like the person, then that's what I'm going
to invest all my time and effort in. If it's
a lucrative relationship and I don't really like
the person, I'm going to try to mitigate my personal
contact with that person and make it more transactional.
And so I'm not really going to invest as heavily
if we're just not seeing eye to eye on whatever
it might be. And typically 90 % of all the relationships
you actually have that are really good. and really
long lasting, they're lucrative and you like
the person. And usually the ones that those 10
% where you really don't like the person, but
it is lucrative, they typically fizzle out sooner
or later because they're going to find someone
they actually do vibe with and that's okay. But
before you write someone off, here's one thing
I always try to do is give the person a chance.
Like really try to connect with them, really
have a conversation with them, ask them about
their family, what they're up to, and try to
connect with them on a human level. And for whatever
reason, if it still doesn't work, then c 'est
la vie. It is what it is. But you have to at
least give people an opportunity because I believe
in every human, there's a good heart there. It's
just sometimes maybe it's a worldview or who
knows what it might be, a personality clash.
I don't know. And sometimes you just don't see
eye to eye, but you have to give it an opportunity.
Good. Absolutely right. If someone only had four
hours a day to run their business, what specific
networking strategies would you tell them to
focus on for maximum leverage? It depends on
what they sell. I'm assuming it's going to be
something lucrative. So if it's very lucrative,
the only thing I'm going to find is. where is
that client located? Who's the client? Who's
this ideal client that would buy this thing or
utilize this thing? And then I'm going to find
out, okay, who already has this person in their
network? So for example, for mine, it was medical
device. People had all the doctors that I wanted
to offer my financial services to buy their equipment,
right? But here's kind of an abstract idea. What
if I sold weight loss services or fitness services?
How do I find... the person that wants to lose
weight? How do I find the person that wants to
get in shape? I have no idea. You can't even
tell. You would have no idea who wants to do
that. But you can make inferences based on psychology.
Who would have people that might want to get
in shape, might want to get stronger and look
better physically? Probably like high -end corporate
dating coaches because all their CEOs that are
maybe freshly off of a divorce or they're now
back in the dating market, they're going to want
to look. their best, feel their best, lose 10
pounds, put on 10 pounds of muscle. So I would
just go to the corporate dating coaches instead
of trying to find this needle in the haystack
and say, hey, corporate dating coach, let me
offer all your clients 60 days of free training
online. And then at the end of the 60 days, they
can decide if they want to sign up for my package.
This is a way, it's a win for all three parties.
That's what I would spend my four hours a day
on is finding corporate dating coaches, or in
my case, finding medical device salespeople to
talk to. Or whatever you're doing, find the leverage.
You never sell to the customer directly. You
find the people that have their customer in their
network, and then you leverage that psychology
of trust. Good. Very good. You've said the goal
of business is freedom, not growth. How do you
build a network that actually supports your lifestyle
goals instead of pulling you further away from
them? Again, it starts with the product you pick.
So you don't want to have to do 100 deals a month.
You want to be able to do a couple. That's number
one. Number two is you want to make sure you
align yourself with partners and clients that
do not waste your time. They're not messaging
you all day long. They're not emailing you all
day long. They're not calling you all day long.
You want low maintenance partnerships. Because
the truth is, the people that are making the
most money, that are the most successful, they're
always low maintenance for the most part. It's
always the headaches are the quote unquote losers,
the brokies, the people that aren't selling anything,
the people that are stressed out, and they're
going to take it out on you. It's always a litmus
test. Is this person calling me three times in
one day? Is this person emailing me four times
with a bunch of question marks? Are they texting
me? Are they bothering me? Because again, that
disrupts my peace. It disrupts my freedom, really.
And I'm fine with a phone call and an email,
but I'll get back to you in 24 hours. I'll dictate
what our engagement will look like. And so you
have to sometimes fire clients, even if they're
a lucrative client, because they're causing you
trouble. and they're causing you problems in
your life, and life's too short to deal with
people you don't like and that are a pain. I
learned that a long time ago, to fire clients.
And people who aren't used to that say, what
are you, out of your mind? I'm like, it's a lot
easier just to fire them, find somebody else,
and move on with your life. Okay, minimalism
often means cutting the clutter. What does clutter...
in networking look like and how can listeners
do a clean sweep of their connections while keeping
doors open? Here's the deal. Everyone's heard
of the 80 -20 rule, the Pareto principle. I believe
in the 95 -5 principle. You get almost all of
your outcomes from five people. It's just the
way it works. And so I would look at my Rolodex
and be like, if this person isn't get me in touch
with money, like actual revenue. If I've been
talking to this person for a year or whatever
it is, stop talking to them, quit following up
with them because life is short and there's something
called opportunity costs and they're big. And
so if you're wasting your time on these 95 people,
when you could be trying to find these five people.
That's where all your energy and effort is. And
what you'll notice, if you've been around the
block enough, you've done enough deals, you'll
start to notice the best relationships, the best
partners, the best clients were the ones that
were effortless. It just happened naturally.
There was no chasing. There wasn't all this,
let me stay in touch, let me stay in touch. No,
you actually stayed in touch because deals were
coming in every week, every month. That's how
you stayed in touch. You stayed in touch at dinner,
at lunch, at happy hour, whatever. it was almost
like an effortless relationship. And so if you
find yourself like scratching and clawing and
trying and let it go, it will never, it's like
any relationship. I don't care if it's friendships,
romantic, whatever. If you're trying too hard,
it isn't meant to be. And you're losing the opportunity
cost to find something that will work out without
any effort and it's enjoyable. All right, good.
Okay, so let's bring this podcast full circle.
and look a little bit into the future. If you
had to give one piece of advice to someone who's
currently overwhelmed by both their work hours
and their networking efforts, what's the first
most freeing step they should take today? The
first thing I would examine is what are you selling?
Like really, what are you selling? Because usually
the time suck is either explaining what you're
selling. doing demos on what you're saying, trying
to convince people about what you're selling.
If you re -examine exactly what you sell, typically,
and you pick a better vehicle to get you where
you want to go, that will free up 80 % of your
time. It's usually you're just chasing your tail,
trying to sell something that's hard to sell
just because you've always sold it. So that would
be the one thing I would think about is re -examine
what you're selling. and find a better, more
lucrative, more seamless, simple thing. Okay.
Listen, Jermaine, this was great. It really showed
somebody or my listeners exactly how to, not
exactly, but almost exactly, how to trim their
day down from 16 to 14 to 10 to 8, and hopefully
at about four hours a day. Myself, I am not...
I work at least 10 hours a day on one thing or
another. I have a few hands in a few pots, so
it's not just one business, but I understand
what you're saying because I can't go on this
forever. So I have to focus a little bit more.
If somebody wanted to get hold of you, either
to learn about the system, your hours, or to
be coached by you, what's the best way that they
can get hold of you? Yeah, they should go to
my website. It's creatorslearn .com, just like
creators of the universe, learn .com. And I have
a mini course on there where it goes over like
how to rethink what you sell and who you sell
it to. And so I talk about these five characteristics
of the ideal product or service and the four
characteristics of your ideal client. And then
once you figure out that, we can figure out,
okay, where do you find your strategic partners
to do all the selling for you, what we talked
about here. I also have a cool dream income lifestyle
calculator because a lot of people think I need
to have a million dollars a year to be financially
free. And you actually put pen to paper and actually
have an Excel calculator that shows you that
you can live like a king on half a million dollars
a year, which is only 50 grand a month, which
is not crazy. Yeah, they can check that out at
Creators Learn. I'm very active on LinkedIn as
well. So looking forward to connecting with people.
Okay, great. Jermaine, thank you so much for
coming on the podcast, and I look forward to
speaking with you soon. Great. Thanks, Michael.
Well, hold on, folks. Don't go anywhere. Let's
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at 561 -427 -4888. All right, folks. A huge thank
you to our 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. 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
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