Networking Unleashed: Building Bridges to Success | MDIDS2E37

So welcome. Welcome everyone. This is Paul Fink, the Maverick Millionaire. And this is the Mavericks Do It Different podcast. In the maverick universe, we do it differently, we think different, be different, do different, act differently to create different results. And one of the key components that I know in our world that has changed so many different ways, so many different in donations of, of how this whole creation of our world got to this place over the last few years, we have needed to do things differently than ever before. And so for all of you that are out there, be clear time to really get dig deep and decide how you want to engage with the world in a different way. And that's what we're talking about every single day here in the maverick universe, and what this podcast is all about. So we're broadcast all around the world, absolutely link, share, invite others, especially to this live broadcast, because we want to be here for you and share and share this information all over the world. I want to introduce to you our special special guest. Michael White House is here. And yes, that's you. Now Michael is an and get this the guy who knows a guy can you imagine the guy who knows a guy. It's so amazing that he's created that expression, and created it at his as his brand. In 2014, he came to Connecticut, knowing no one at all. And a year later, after diving into networking with both feet and hands, he was a major connector in the local community. And so he's a he's a walking, talking broadcast of what he teaches. In 2020, went global and began connecting people, entrepreneurs, especially investors, speakers, and others all around the world, to people that they needed to know to really be the connection and the glue for everybody to make it happen. He offers his services and networking concierge as a networking concierge, making connections, building strategic alliances around the world. And he's the host of the daily morning motivation podcast. And the guy who knows a guy interview, podcast. And, of course, everything he has is the guy who knows a guy and is author of the guy who knows a guy, please. I am proud to be the guy who knows the guy who knows a guy. This is Michael Whitehouse. Pleasure to have you here, Michael.

Great to be here. Thank you.

So let's get let's get real in what it means to network what it means to make all these connections. And where do we start?

Well, I think the first I think the first thing is what networking is not I talked to a lot of people are like, Oh, networking. Yeah, I don't like networking, because and then they proceed to describe something that is not networking. So they'll say I don't like networking, because I don't like trying to approach people with an agenda and get something out of them. And I'm like, Yeah, that sounds terrible. You should try networking instead. Or I don't like networking. I don't like going to those events and just wasting time and eatin hors d'oeuvres and drinking wine and making small talk. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun. either. You should try networking instead. And so I found a lot of people have these ideas of what networking is that aren't real. Because the thing about networking is it's hard to sell. So anyone who's trying to sell you any other way to make money will poopoo networking. So they're selling a sales strategy to be like, you need to do this cold call strategy network is a waste of time. Oh, you need to do social media advertising? Because yeah, networking, yeah, what do you got to do is drink some wine and make some sales, that doesn't happen. So there's not a lot of people out there carrying the banner for what real network is. And what real networking is, is creating valuable relationships, creating a relationship in which people derive value from it. And the key to creating valuable relationships is making sure the other person gets value. You can't take value, you can only give value. So if you focus on giving value in every interaction, then you're creating valuable relationships. And ultimately, you know, just like when you put your money in the bank, they don't put that money in a vault and hide it. They share it around and it grows and supports everyone. And then some of it comes back to you. When you put energy positive energy into the universe and into connections and relationships. That goes out and it helps people and it comes back sometimes from people you've never met. You I help you and I help him and I help her and then she comes from over there and says, Oh, I've heard about you that you're a good guy. I'd love to connect. I'm like, Oh, great how? I don't know. I just heard it. So that's, that's the key to it is it's about putting that positive energy out, letting it circle back around and come back and not. As I say, you, you don't keep score, but you do keep track. But, but it's not about, it's not about just saying like, Oh, well, I made two introductions for you. So when when's that? Coming back? You know, I hooked you up, Paul. So So when's Michael gonna get some? It's about I'm going to help you, I'm going to help you. You know, as our friend in common Chris Salem says, Give without expectation and receive without resistance.

Yeah, it's so it's so fascinating, or, and I'm gonna step into some of what you said just a moment ago, as far as what people, whatever they are selling is what they're saying. Yeah, that's the thing. And the other thing, no, no, no. And it always amazes me, as someone who teaches all the different methodologies and had been in business for decades, I've used them all. And there's a certain place in time for all of them, it's not a matter of SHINee one thing or another, but really getting clear with and what our Facebook friend here says givers gain an understanding the value equation. And that's what true networking is all about is that value equation of and learning how to give learning how to feed into other people. And, and kit, and it's not about keeping the score, if you will, or going in with an agenda. And and that's so key. Was there a time when when you were that other guy? Because I know I was like I used to be that other guy that kept the score that with it with the agenda. And such a limiting play?

Yeah, I don't think I ever really want so there's there's two ways you can go wrong. On networking. Sorry, my, my monitor just shut off for a second. That was weird. Hopefully, we'll see you. Okay, good, as long as you can see me. So there's two ways you can go wrong with networking. One is the way you talked about, which is the the aggressive side, the like, I'm here to, you know, make a deal. And, and I'm here to make deals do bubble gum and wall and bubble gum. Right, right. And then the other way is to be to relationships, because I'm here to make friends I want to I want to connect, I want to get to know you, I don't want to be too pushy. And and I've gotten to that side, that side I tend to err on is like, well, I don't want to I don't want to push people, I don't want to be too aggressive. But if you're too far on that side, then one you go broke. But two, you also don't serve them the same way. Because there's so much you can serve for free. If money's not coming into your business, then you can't hire staff, you can't buy materials, you can't do anything. So you're not actually serving them. And if people don't invest, they don't engage. So that's what I discovered as well as I'm like, Okay, I've got an answer. I got some solutions. Let me just help you. And I try. And then we hit their limiting beliefs and we hit all the all the other challenges. So by I've I went I erred has to be on the other side of not pushing enough not selling enough and not realizing that people are willing to pay for value. And in fact, they expect to it's almost, you know, if I've got a program and I'm charging for it now don't offer it to you. You're thinking Oh, am I not good enough for it? Does he think I can't afford it? Does he think I can't? I can't make anything out of it. What? Why hasn't he offered me his program yet?

Yeah, the the value price equation I just talked about that the other day. And absolutely. Value is, is transmitted by the price tag that you put on it. And so oftentimes, we don't know the value of something until someone says a price. They're like, Oh, so that's the expensive one got it, or that's the cheap one. And so some people think that they're helping people by by giving a lower price. However, the challenge is, it's not really helping them because they look at it like oh, that's the cheap alternative. I'm better than that, don't you think? And and there's so then they won't engage with it because it's not who they want to identify as, yeah. A whole different equation. And so when you go in and, and that whole concept of of understanding networking, and understanding how to give value, and when in not a way to go broke, but understanding how to be in that space, so that it really works. And one of the big Just things that I like about what you do the concept of long term versus short term or more precisely, really short term gains versus long term abundance. And that's some of the definitions of networking that we're defining here is the others will network you, in the very short, very immediate, a very low level of engagement. The real connectivity that happens in real networking is long term, deep dive, sustainable success and abundance. That's the differential.

Yep. And one thing I mentioned on that my, especially my fellow ADHD ears out there, because as we hear that, and that's usually accompanied with, so you got to follow up and you got to keep track of people, you gotta get back to them, and this and that. And so, ADHD folks will despair and say, I can't keep track of even a dozen people, let alone you know, 100 or 200 people, that's, I need systems on systems, I need a system to take care of my assistant to manage that kind of system. And so a lot of people say, and I've heard people say, you know, the things you must do to network, you must follow up, you must send thank you notes, you must remember names, you must remember details. I don't do any of those things. I'm not saying you shouldn't say I don't I mean I decent with names, but not great. The internet makes it really easy. All I remember your name is right under your face, it makes life easy. So if I'm on a zoom call, I can't forget someone's name. I can take notes right there on the screen. I can do reminders. But what I found is that what trumps all that other stuff, is providing the value. So if I meet someone and 15 minutes in, I say, I've got two people you need to meet who I think can help you with that. And within 24 hours, they got an email saying, Paul, you need to meet Susie. Here's why. And it's a good introduction. It's not just like Paul, me and Susie, you're both awesome. Go for it. Because that's not a great introduction. But like, Paul, you need to meet Susie, because Susie does this thing that I think you're going to benefit and you should talk about, you know this and Susie, you might want to promote Paul's program. So guys, go talk about that. If I do that, and I don't send a thank you note, and I don't follow up. And I never remember to send Susie any emails after that. And I do nothing else. But I just made that introductions. Then Susie's thinking, Wow, what a great guy. Because she's got two introductions came out of a 25 minute call to this guy she'd never met before. And the result is I will run into people who, you know, sometimes they'll reach out to me, sometimes I'll bump into them at an event or online or something. And they will say, Michael, I just want to thank you so much that connection that you made it got me the job and and it really helped my husband and and our relationships better. And now we're making more money and this and that. And everything's so great. I'm like, great, that is so awesome. Could you remind me what your name is?

They so so and I want I actually want you to go through that process just just a tad slower. So they get really get it. Because this is an I've, I've utilized this technique. And it is such a powerful one. As far as how to properly do that introduction. I do it. I love tax emails works great as well. Same thing, but what should you what? Give me the layout of the format?

So there's, there's two main things if someone's looking for an introduction, why do I want to talk to this person? And what should I do? So why are we here? And where are we going? Basically are the two questions. So the first thing is give me some context, so I can evaluate it. And so now if you're if you're a known introducer, and people know the quality of introductions, you don't need to layer that on as much. Because for the most part, if I send someone an introduction, I'm like, here's Paul, he's great. You should talk to him, then people will take that and be like, All right, let me go meet with Paul, because Michael said so. Right. But that's because I built a reputation as as a connector because that's what I do. If you haven't built a reputation, you need to sell it. So you can't just say, hey, here's Paul. He's great. It's here's Paul, he's really great. He offers great advice to coaches to build their business, and this is what the value is, and this is why he's worth 20 3060 minutes of your time. And then why am I introducing him? So, you know, like one of my networking concierge is one of my clients, most of them what they hire me for us to connect them to affiliate partners. So one of my partners I have promoted myself. It's been a very successful partner for me to promote. And so when I send an introduction I say this is one of my best partners to promote, you should also promote them because I think their program is great for your audience. So in addition to the other thing I mentioned, you should talk about promoting their upcoming program in December. So that way, they're not getting in the copy like this. So hey, how are we doing? Yeah, what do you do? It's okay. So tell me about your program in December, and why Michael thinks I should promote it. And now we're getting right to the point and not getting 27 minutes into a 30 minute call me like, okay, yes. So So what's that?

Right, and it's, so what you're saying is to, to be more directive with your introductions, because it helps the people that you're introducing, one of the biggest struggles that people have is figuring out what the connection is. And if you're good at figuring out, oh, well, that piece of what you do fits with that piece of what they do really well, you guys need to talk, tell them, it'll it'll jumpstart their relationship tenfold.

As a contra example, this is the worst form of cold outreach that I get is the opposite of this. So now, people call that reach all the time. A lot of times, it's you know, Filipino VA is following a script. And so not even worth talking to. But sometimes it's people who mean, well, they just don't know how to approach or they're very direct. So I'll get a message from someone that says, you know, hey, I do this thing. I'm looking for people who need this, are you open to a conversation? If they're direct, and I know what we're talking about, then I'm open to having that conversation, because it's not going to waste my time. And it's not going to take a lot of my mental effort. Whereas if I need if somebody sends me a message, like, Hey, what's up? Hey, how you doing? Like, oh, my God, there's gonna be six exchanged for you get to the point. If somebody sends me sort of a nebulous, like, I saw your post, I really like it. And it feels like they've got an agenda. I'll just go straight to it. I'm like, Listen, tell me what your point is. If you're trying to sell me something, I'll, I'll hear you out. But you know, are you trying to sell me or what's going on here? What's, what's the agenda? And let's have the conversation and not beat around the bush for a day and a half. Because that's the feedback on a on a chat could be, could be hours. So you know, I get the message on Monday by Thursday, I still don't know what we're talking about. I'm not going to waste time on that. But if they come straight to and they say, hey, yeah, we're looking for partners, actually, the email service, I use the mail sending client, because they sent me a cold email and said, Hey, we're this up and coming company. We're looking for affiliate partners to promote us. Would you be open to that? I was very direct. And I said, Well, let me take a look. And I looked at I said, Oh, you're cheaper than anyone else. You're just as good. And you seem to be up and coming and pretty cool. And you got a cute little cat logo? Sure, yeah, I'll promote you. But it's because they were right to the point about, here's why we're doing this, here's what's in it for you. Are you open to it because I know, it's, it's not just money as a cost time as a cost. So don't and not just time, but mental energy. If I've got to spend the mental energy to, you know, if I'm reaching out to you, I'm gonna dig in and investigate and try to get information. If you're contacting me, I expect you to be driving the ship. Using the engineer the train, I'm just riding in the passenger compartment, we're going where you're going, you know.

So, so interesting. And I think there's a place for all those things. And sometimes you truly don't know, you truly don't know you just no interesting person. I want to connect only the challenges that that use so often now that it ends up becoming nebulous, and, and ends up us just running around in the dark for way too long. It's so absolutely driving the ship. Exactly that that metaphor, that analogy, drive the conversation, so that you know where you're heading with it. And, and in that case, especially when you're connecting to people helping them go, here's where the connection is taken from here. And like you said, once you do that, to getting back to where we were talking, once you make that connection, you can step out of the way they will, and this is really key. They will remember that for years. And that's some of the real difference. That connections like that take I was just talking to someone who was talking about a a third party that I connected the two of them. And I connected the two of them has to be four years ago now. And he was just coming back to me saying oh yeah, We were just talking about it the other day, how great it was they they really used my assistance and use my help. And they're off and running now and having great life, we came back to me after all that time to say, oh is great that you connected us, they still remember it, it was four years ago. That's, that's really key. And that's where that kind of connection and ongoing connection of people really pays off. Because they keep you in their mind's eye all the time. Because what a great connection you made for them.

Yep, the other. The nebulous. The biggest red flag for me is when someone says, You should meet Michael, he knows a lot of people. Because this usually tells me one of two things, they have some sort of multi level opportunity. Oh, that's interesting. Or they're looking for investors, and they assume you're a networker, you connect investors to investments. And that's not where my network is strong. So now, now, if they said, You should talk now, they said, This person looking for investors, this is Michael, he knows a lot of people, we're not gonna have a meeting, I saw this with an email, I say, oh, okay, great. I'm gonna connect you to this guy and this guy, because they are the people who do this stuff, they get paid to do this stuff, they've got these connections. We don't need, we don't need to spend 30 minutes for me to make these introductions to you. I don't need to know anything about you, other than you're looking for this, the introduction will be I got this introduction. It's not mine, this message is for you, I pass it right on. But they've got to be direct for that to happen. And, and so that's why I'm, I'm often very leery of those nebulous ones. And so actually, so there's, there's two ways I treat introductions, it's either go to one to one, or I haven't opened virtual coffee. Because I'm very selective. I only do about four to six, one to ones a week. Now, I used to do 20 plus. And now I like you know, like to run a business. And I can't do that if I'm spending almost all my time meeting with anyone who wanders by the Open virtual coffee is this kind of first here, if I'm not sure why we're meeting, come on by Friday, 1pm. Anyone can come on in. And sometimes it's a great connection. For me, sometimes it's great connection for each other. Like, I don't need to meet either them, but they meet each other. And so they is introduction, that domain is great. As it back, I'm checking my email, they're meeting you challenge. Amazing. But if if somebody sends me a nebulous introduction, I'm gonna say, awesome, I'd love for you to come to my open virtual coffee. And, you know, this is a chance to you can get closer than an email, but not as close as a one to one and a chance to explain what is this about? Because I don't want to get to the point of sending an email, like, what's this for? What is the value to me in this call, but I need to figure that out, because I only have so many hours a week that I can work especially because I have family obligations. And I have other challenges that you know, I can't work 80 hours a week. So I love

I love that concept. And it I will say I used to use to use that concept all the time only I did it live. When I was in a much more localized now I work on a national and international basis. But when my business was much more localized, I would go to the local either Starbucks or Panera. And I would spend my morning there at least once or twice a week. Yep. And people got to know that I would be there and they would come by and I would meet and then I would also meet the other people that did a lot of the same things and all the business owners in the local area. Sometime in that morning were stopping by that Starbucks or that Panera in town and it was such a great like center hub of connectivity and now you've created that in a virtual way and what a smart what a powerhouse thing.

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny I did it it's actually someone in another Connecticut business person who gave me the idea saying what you said that he'll stack them you know, all the contractors let me on Friday afternoon at the bar and you know, get drinks so you talk to everyone once and I thought why can't do that because my my audience International, but I could just set up a single Zoom Room. And so I did it. I got to you know a few people showed up and then Janine Bolin, who I met this way she was on my email list. I wrote about it like this is working really well for me. And she took it and ran with it. And now hers gets like 15 people a week. The first time she did it she said I just saved eight hours and made $600 Like you're covered on my podcast telling me how you did it because I've never seen results like that. And it turned out this the key thing was it's now her go to everyone she meets unless they they pass a high threshold for like there's immediate need. One to One everyone goes to the the open the open Virtual coffee. And that's what I was doing wrong. He's ever like, well, if they're kind of like below this bar, I'll do that. But otherwise, I want to do one to one because I don't want to, you know, I don't want them feel disrespected, then arise, oh, my time is kind of important. Yeah, no, I'm gonna raise the bar. Up to if I want to know, if there's a clear reason, then let's meet. And if not, then let's go to the OPC and save my time and you're gonna get more value out or you meet people. And sometimes I get there with one person. And it's an hour long. So they get an hour long meeting with me instead of a 30 minute meeting with me which my usual one to one. But it's it means that we that our one to two on Friday is always blocked out. And whether one person or 20 people show up, it takes one hour a week. So I won't sprawl into the entire week and gobble up all the time. It's right there that much time. So I can actually, you know, run a business, that's the key thing I discovered is, if you don't have a product to sell, you can network all day long, and you'll never make any money. People want to give you money. People are saying to me, okay, how do I refer you? What do you sell? What can I send you? Ah. And it wasn't I didn't have clarity on what it is I don't have a product that's kind of like I coach or, you know, something. And so I finally said, Okay, I need to develop programs. So I developed this six figure networker, it's a program where people come and I transmit my knowledge them and I give them coaching and accountability and, and all that kind of stuff. But now I know who's I know who should be in it. I know how they join it. There's a landing page, it's very clear, like, here's what I do. So if someone says, How can I help you, I say, Oh, I've got a masterclass coming up, that leads into my program, I've got a summit coming up, that leads into my program, I've got a program, maybe you know, someone who needs it. So I have that, like, this is how my business works. So now I can actually leverage the 1000s of connections I've made. But I think that's the other mistake a lot of people make, because you can feel really busy networking. And it's like running on a treadmill.

Here, here. Yeah, it's so fascinating. That whole equation between your list contact list either real in your CRM, or in social media, and your profitability. And the two don't necessarily meet unless you are deliberate about meeting the two, however, you need both. And most of the time I find people that have one or the other, you know, they'll have this great connection. Opportunity, they connect really well. They do that? Well. They've built a great, a great group of people around them that constantly like oh, man, Michael's the best. Or they'll have a great product, and there'll be it'll be a ghost town around them. And so oftentimes, you end up with this dichotomy of, you need both, you need to have that product. And that's something that I focus our clientele in on, what's your product, what's your price, describe it, make sure it's fine tuned, make sure it's specific. And then you bring the that product, through your connections, and by both driving the people to your product, as well as driving them to all your network, and everybody that you connect with and helping everyone else do the same.

Yeah, actually, I share a little bit about that. I've discovered recently that I think it's one of the things that everyone around me was also confused the same way and suddenly like the light shined. So we talked about clarity, you want to know who is your target audience and solution you offer. And so it's difficult to narrow that in who you want to help you and help everybody because you know, we're good, honest, abundant people, we want to make the world a better place. But the the thing is, what I realized was that it's not necessarily the product that has to focus, it's the marketing that has to focus. And if you take 100 coaches, their programs, especially if they're live interactive programs, their programs are probably 94% Similar, because what works works, and coaching strategies or coaching strategies, and when you, you know, you go to a coach and ask them a question, and they and they come back to you with questions like what does that mean to you? And what are you trying to achieve? And what are your goals? Every coach does it the same way? Because it's the way that works. So what you're then doing is saying I got a toolbox? Yeah. And the the carpenter who who builds shelves, and the carpenter who installs molding and the carpenter who installs doors probably have mostly the same tools in their toolbox, but they have different specialties because they say, moldings specialist, shelf specialist, doors specialist, because they shift the marketing and that's what I realized is I don't have to change the program to figure out where the niche is. I have to change In the marketing, so I'm doing a series of master classes that focus on specific solutions, and say, Okay, are you looking for this? Are you looking for more leads? Are you looking for more friends? Are you looking for easier follow up, it's all in there. Because if I teach you everything I know about networking, it's all in there, you're gonna learn all these things. But what is the problem on your mind that's waking up in the morning, that the thing I have solves it's all 20 things. And it's got us on 20 things I'm gonna I'm not gonna be like, Oh, you didn't want email? Well, we're not going to talk about email, but I'm still going to teach it. That's the, the leverage follow up system. I'm not gonna like, Oh, you didn't mention leverage follow up, I'm just gonna leave you calling people on the phone. It's fine. But, but yeah, when I sell it, I need to focus. So it's kind of it's the difference between if you got a sniper, the sniper moves the barrel of the gun, they don't move their whole body. Yeah, I think so many eyes are trying to move our whole body, instead of just aiming. You know, aiming to hit the target.

Definitely aiming to to serve specific people. And when you niche down, that's why they say the the riches are in the niches. And it's still a matter of, you can serve multiple different verticals, as long as you have multiple different marketing, what I would call marketing funnels in that equation. And, you know, it's so interesting, when you start analyzing the largest companies out there, you know, that they all have, you know, Coca Cola doesn't just sell coke. And, and so it's a it's a matter of and every one of their bottled beverages just to take that division in and of itself. Every one of them has a specific branding, marketing funnel, directive marketing approach that they bring to market to drive people to that particular beverage. They don't care which one you buy, they make the same on all of it, it's just a matter of their know that different branding will get activated with different people.

And I'm actually the video McDonald's, who has the smallest menu of any of the fast food chains. Like they have burgers, chicken sandwiches, and nuggets. I think that's basically their whole menu, like burger chicken sandwiches.

Don't leave the salad division out. Well, they just

wander around here don't have salads anymore.

They don't have it anymore. No. Yeah, how often? I go,

Yeah, you Yeah, my daughter's nine. So she always wants to McDonald's. And I get so bored with it. Because the same things. But so it's like their menu is basically 10 items. And there's a couple of dessert things. They've added some coffee things, but the core menu is chicken sandwich burger nuggets.

And that's it. What's the takeaway lesson in that?

Yeah, but they advertise, you know, they advertise to parents and say, bring your kids it's fun to advertise to busy people and say, Oh, you're in a hurry, just come on by and grab a burger. They advertise to sophisticated people who want to have a meeting place it, they advertise to all these different audiences. The same for item menu. And it's they changed the messaging with the exact same Dean dining menu and everyone says, oh, that must be for me.

And and recognize that we're talking about what if they're not number one, they're one of the top fast food companies still over decades and decades, the number one fast food company in the world. And when you recognize that, and you start looking at the business model, that's a really as a call to clue. And so number one, the business model is they don't differentiate their product. They differentiate their marketing. Yep. And in network, and although we're we've gotten off topic, man, it's all about and I love this conversation, because it's all about how do you build business? How do you really get engaged and create something amazing. And then from the marketing to the messaging to then of course, what we started with here and and that's connections and nothing happens without actually connecting. One of the biggest things that I talked about also is is who do you connect to? And I would love for you to to delve in so we talked about connecting and you want to connect the right people and you want to bring in the fact that people for you and for others who is the right person to connect to.

Me generally,

yeah. I was there right person?

Well, you want to connect to the right kind of people. You want to connect to abundance minded people not scarcely remind the people you want to catch on and people who keep track, they don't keep score. You know, the kind of people who get it that there's a value and think it's pretty easy to select with this. Because when you reach out to someone and say, Hey, I'd love to get on a, you know, one to one call, and they say what trying to pitch me? And you say, no, no, it's a networking call. And they say I don't do those well, and sometimes the trash takes itself out. So it's it's easy, but but people who are people who get it, get it. So when you say Now they may say, what are we going to talk about? Or what's the purpose of it? Or I've actually the the open virtual coffee came out when I reached out to someone and said, Hey, I want a call, see how we can help each other. And he very politely said, I would love to. But at this point in my career, I'm so busy. I don't have time for these get to know you calls I really need, you know, we need to have a reason for it. Right? And that made me realize, Oh, I'm not there yet. But I looked at like, look forward to being there soon. So let me have a release valve. So I don't have to say no. But he didn't say no, I don't want to network. He just said, my time is so scarce, I need to be careful with it. Do you have a specific reason? I was like, Ah, no, I don't. But it wasn't I don't get networking.

That's really that's really key. And I've used that technique a lot as I got busier is to, I'm always asking when people reach out to me and I get introductions, what is the agenda for the meeting? Yep. What is our focal purpose? It doesn't mean that's the only thing we do. But why is it that you're calling for this meeting in the first place where the virtual are live? And if they don't have an answer, I do move them into more of our group settings and everything else. So that will listen, here's probably the best thing to do. Why don't you get to know me a little bit, we'd love to get to know you a little bit older, we can do it in a in a setting that would give you a broader scope of what's happening.

Yep. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to share before I forget, I mentioned the the follow up side of it. And one of the challenges is you're gonna meet a lot of people. And then what do you do with it? So if you just push good in the universe and do nothing else, you're still doing well, because people are going to remember you. And they're going to eventually come back and whatever, but, but he's kind of out there. And they're like, yeah, yeah, some guy Michael White TED or something. He was great. He really helped me. I think I don't remember where it came from, or how to find them again. But yeah, he was cool. So you want to create some way to stay connected? And so what I realized, because I know I'm bad at individual follow up, no matter what systems I tried to use, not gonna do it. So I came up with the idea of, well, why don't I just create a email, I didn't want to call it a newsletter, because that sounds very businesslike, but email, thing, email list, but the kind of email list that I'd want to add every person I meet to, so if I'm going to be offering my products, and I'm selling this and come by that, but no, the worst thing is you you meet with someone, you do a nice one to one meeting, you get along well, and then suddenly, you're on their pitch list. And they it's just that, you know, they're promoting their self, they're promoting their friend stuff. And that's it, no value, no teaching, no stories, just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I didn't want to do that. But I thought, well, what if I use email? like social media, you're on social media, share my stories, you know, this funny thing happened my daughter the other day, or, or, you know, I just learned something. I watched this really cool video, and it was interesting, or, or whatever. And so I started just using email that way. And everyone who I meet with, they go through my Calendly. There's a series of questions. So I know what we're talking about. Because it's like, who is your ideal introduction? Who introduced us? Give me a bio. Tell me about yourself. So that way, it's not that we don't spend six minutes going, Who are you have we meet? We're why we're here. What's going on? First, if people don't know, sometimes he will skip over those questions. But if they don't skip over the questions, we have a great meeting. And then the last question is, can I add you to this list where you'll get valuable content? And you know, you can leave anytime? And almost everyone says yes, in fact, it's a, I'll say, yellow flag, not red flag. It's a yellow flag. If they say no, if, yeah, if they say no, I don't want to be because they can always unsubscribe, right? They can sign up and describe the next day, but it's the courtesy of like, Yes, I will look at two of your emails and see if it's any good, right?

I'm always amazed that people say no, no, no, when we're actually meeting either face to face or in a virtual meeting. Yep. And people any follow up they go no, no, no, not not. Not really.

I'm investing 30 minutes of my time, but I can't have an email in my inbox,

right. I'm quick to make sure that I never engage with them again. Hmm. But that's just me. Yeah. So if you're gonna put up such a brick wall, yeah. And That that is that there's no follow up proper follow up engagement or any way that we can stay easily connected. You're you're you have a limited space for anything in your life and not have abundance.

Yep. Yeah. And so I've done is I, you know, at first I was thinking people would resist, you know that they want to get off. Now people certainly unsubscribe, but they're always there. They always say yes, I was happy to get on and and so I share and I'm actually at this point and you know, firstly like two days weeks I didn't overwhelm them and I stepped up limit to three days and then had a bit more to share. And then one day I noticed I was sending seven emails a week. And people are replying because you don't have to email them. It's not like it shows up at your door is like email for you. There's an email, you need to read it. It's one of the emails in your mailbox, you read it or you don't. And so then what happens is, I can now passively maintain connection, just like social media. And so you're seeing what's going on with me, and you're following my story. And there's people who some people get on my list, I don't know how. And they're just kind of there in the background. And then they pop up one day, and they're like, Hey, let's talk. Some of my best partners have been that but also, you know, meet with someone, they'll get on my list, they'll be there for 18 months, they'll reply to an email one day and say, Hey, I love what you're doing. It's been fascinating watch your journey, because they can actually follow my journey through the email list. Because it's not just here's my latest webinar, here's my latest program, here's someone else's program, like they can I'm sharing, hey, I'm trying this now, I'm gonna do this. Here's the experiment I'm doing. Yeah, I'm documenting my journey.

For all of you that absolutely know, you'd like to connect with the guy who knows the guy and actually can help you with other connections, go to guy who knows a guy.com. And, and absolutely reach out. Michael Whitehouse is the connector of all connectors, he's got multiple different ways to not only connect you but also to teach you how to connect. And both of those are well worth the introduction of reaching out of making sure that you're on either in virtual coffee or one on one or other can ways that he's going to connect you and bring you into his world. Absolutely do that, Michael, and I know you also have the powerful five networking tips, which they can get from you as well. And the same link, so that's a condensed book on networking and your five tips. There's so much more guys, we've only scratched the surface here on this on this podcast and on this live. Michael, any other last bits of advice that you would share with all the people that are listening to us around the world.

That one thing I'll say is you can be a connector, when you decide to be a connector. It doesn't take a lot of study, it doesn't take a lot of research. It's saying I want to connect and help people. And once you make that decision, the path becomes clear. The rest is everything I teach this technique. Once you have the mindset and the decision, you can also make people's lives better by bringing them connections, other good people.

That is so true. And that intentionality and awareness of that you want to serve people really goes a long way. And incredible, Michael, thank you so much. I'm want to make sure that everyone has the link. It's right there guy who knows the guy.com. And that people reach out to say hi to you. It's absolutely this is how we do it if you say and thank you so much for being here. And I'm willing to just let everyone know this is the Mavericks do a different podcast you absolutely want to share to like to friends subscribe, because we're looking to and continue to get this message out all around the world. And so important for people to be engaging in their world at a next level engagement, connecting with people all around the world and creating a better place for all. How do we do that by sharing, liking, subscribing, and getting the message out so that we can all get into this huge connection and really make a difference in the world by one person at a time. Thank you so much. I am Paul Finck The Maverick Millionaire and this is the Mavericks Do It Different podcast. And I've got a couple of announcements that I'm going to close out right now. I want to thank Michael for being here. It's been such a pleasure. And as always, we continue to connect and build and I've been on your your shows and spotlighted as a keynote on your shows as well and what a great experience and and all of you that want to connect more deeply connect with Michael is the guy who knows a guy thank you so much thank you