How Veterans Can Master Networking with a Servant’s Heart

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Veteran Business Radio, brought to you by ATL vets, providing the tools and support that help veteran owned businesses thrive. For more information, go to ATL. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Veteran Business Radio and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize ATL vets, inspiring veterans to build their foundation success and empowering them to become the backbone of society after the uniform. For more information, go to ATL vets.org. Today on the show we have Michael A. Forman who is a corporate speaker with the Forman Group. Welcome.

Michael Forman: Thank you. Lee. I’m glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the Forman Group. How are you serving folks?

Michael Forman: Well, we are basically involved with networking and communication. And the biggest thing that I can think of. Networking itself is the basis of all business. But if you go into networking with what’s called a servant’s heart, you’re looking to give instead of just receiving. If you go in thinking of giving, then that releases all the pressures off of you and everything else and you can have a good time.

Lee Kantor: So in your work, are you primarily just speaking on this topic? Are you coaching folks like what? What is the scope of the work you’re doing?

Michael Forman: All the above. I am a keynote speaker. Breakout sessions I do workshops, I go in companies and do A23 hour workshop. And I hold basically hold their hand and teach them the art of networking. And really the important part of networking is the follow up, because most people don’t know how to do it, or they’re not doing it correctly or not doing it at all. So I teach them how to follow up correctly, and I’ve had a number of great successes.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is the ideal client for you? What type of organization typically hires you?

Michael Forman: Well, actually all businesses, all major companies. I just did a print shop. I did a roofing company. But I’m going after really mortgage companies, real estate companies, financial services and insurance because they all understand the art of networking and they really needed to survive.

Lee Kantor: So from an organizational standpoint, their leadership says, you know what? Our team has to get better at this. And so we got to hire an expert to come in to explain how to do this in a more elegant, more effective manner. Because like you mentioned, this is kind of a core skill that every business person should have. But a lot of folks are out there doing this as a blunt instrument. That is really, I don’t think, serving anybody.

Michael Forman: You’re absolutely right. You know, when I go, when I start speaking, either my keynotes or breakout sessions, even though the workshops, my first thing is I asked them, how many 20 somethings are there here? How many 30 somethings? And they raised their hands. I said, look, what I’m about to tell you is totally Greek to you because nobody showed you the proper way. Ever since the pandemic, you know, people just just were let out and they lost the feeling of how to approach somebody, how to make that conversation, how to make a relationship not just a customer, but a relationship. And I think if you use my I have a secret sauce if you want to call it a follow up. And if you follow it up properly, I think you can increase your sales by the next month within 30 days. You’ll see that type of improvement.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you see this? Um, do you have to communicate differently for different generations, like you mentioned, younger people, uh, versus maybe more senior leadership where maybe they grew up more comfortable in, in real life conversations, you know, kind of schmoozing and going to chamber events or those kind of events versus the younger crowd that does a lot of their communication online.

Michael Forman: Well, yeah. You know, I said 20 somethings and 30 somethings, but if you’re older than that, because really what I do is common sense, and it’s common sense. In the 40s, 50s, 60s. But it’s not common sense to the 20s or 30 somethings. So yes, you have to approach them differently, but you ultimately doing the same thing. You’re you’re asking them about themselves. Now, if you’re asking a 40 or 50 something, a husband, wife, a son, daughter, maybe youth baseball or the NFL or anything like that. Um, but to the younger generation, they’re not really going to have that. So you’re trying to find out a little bit more about them what their interests are, and you talk about that.

Lee Kantor: So do you help with LinkedIn? Because a lot of folks use LinkedIn a lot. But I just get I don’t even I couldn’t even tell you how many people want to connect with me. And then literally 30s later I get a note telling me to buy their stuff. Like they don’t even pretend to want to get to know me. They just want to transactionally interact with me like that.

Michael Forman: That is, uh, either a newbie with with LinkedIn or somebody who really doesn’t know what they’re doing. So if you want to reach out to somebody and connect with them on LinkedIn, hey, it’s great connecting with you. I just saw you at the chamber event or whatever event. Hope to see you soon. And that’s it. Right. And the next time that you post something or something else, you like it and you say a little blurb about whatever you posted. You don’t want to ask for them to actually buy anything for like the fifth or sixth or seventh time that you actually connect with them because you’re making a relationship. You don’t just want customers, you don’t just sell widgets. And I’ll give you three for a dollar. You know, whatever you’re selling, it has to come. It has to come from the heart. And everybody’s out there to sell you something. People love to buy things, but they hate to be sold to. Right. So you keep that in mind. So, yeah, they want to buy, but I have to create some sort of a relationship with this person, and then we’ll get into it. But you’re finding out about what that person does. And you know, I always suggest when you connect with somebody on LinkedIn, you know, you have an article or something. Let’s say they’re a roofing company and they do metal roofs. And you find an article about metal roofs. You just attach that article to your little comment and you say, hey, look, I found this. I thought you might be interested and leave it at that and see if they respond. But don’t go off trying to sell something, just, you know, try to add value. Give them something.

Lee Kantor: So you use kind of adding value as your, um, way to communicate rather than pitching. And then you find that if you’re adding enough value over enough time, then you’re going to get a better chance of getting kind of a sales conversation that way, rather than just buy my stuff by my stuff. By my stuff.

Michael Forman: Absolutely. You always add value. No matter what you do. You know, you have the saying of over delivering under promise. And it’s, you know, there’s a lot to go along with that. But if you add the value, if you add it enough times and then you can put in, uh, you know, we have a little put your website or something else, a soft landing. So if that person was interested, then they’ll go to your website and they’ll look at it and say, hey, you know what? I would be interested in something like this. It’s always best if they make the first move. Not you.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about the transition that you made as a veteran of Desert Storm and how you kind of got into the business world and came up with this, uh, kind of area of expertise?

Michael Forman: Well, I went to the school of hard knocks, right? I did everything wrong before I did it. Right. I spent nine years with the Air Force. Uh, did very well with them. But when I got out, I went into my own business, owned businesses. I had a graphic design studio. I got involved with a pizzeria, a restaurant and everything for about 15 years. And then I went into corporate. I went to mortgages, I went. Uh, I was involved with a law firm as a sales director. Marketing director. And every time I made a move like this, I realized that I was the face of the company. I did the presentations. I did all, you know, the workshops and everything else. So I said, you know what? I want to do this for myself. And I went through the school of hard knocks. I did everything wrong before I learned how to do it correctly, so I did it correctly. I developed this follow up system. And when you put the two of them together, you have some very real results.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the aha moment for you, where you realized that you were on the right track now?

Michael Forman: The aha moment was when I found the servant’s heart. I found that when I gave in, not expecting anything in return, that I found I was getting more business by giving instead of receiving. And that was my aha moment.

Lee Kantor: Was that kind of counter-intuitive to you at the time?

Michael Forman: Uh, no. No, because my way of thinking was it developed slowly. It didn’t just happen overnight. I didn’t just, like, go from. Oh, let me just sell, sell, sell, sell. And the next morning I said, oh, no, no, I have to give, give, give, give. It happened over, um, let’s say a year or so. And I slowly but surely realized that the more I did for others, the more that the others appreciated it, and they would in turn refer me out.

Lee Kantor: Now, where did the ebook networking Unleash come from?

Michael Forman: Well, through all the years of me doing things wrong and then all of a sudden I’m doing things right, and I had all of this knowledge. All of us had a network, how to communicate, how to follow up, uh, stories here and there. So I said, you know what? I’m just going to brain dump. I’m going to put it all into a book and sell it. Um, but I don’t really look for the sales of the book because on my website, I have a little abridged version of the book, which is free. Right. Because I just want people to understand and to know how to properly network. I have a digital course, um, so, so that if they want to take it a little bit further. So I have all these different things that you can do to get on the right track and network. And of course, I coach, uh, one on one, uh, going to offices, uh, a group of five. But more importantly, I’m teaching how to network through the various things that I have out of the book, the digital course or whatnot.

Lee Kantor: So any advice for someone? What’s the kind of the low hanging fruit that anybody listening right now could do in the next five, ten minutes? That, um. To network more elegantly and more efficiently.

Michael Forman: Well, first of all, go to networking events. Go to networking events. Don’t be afraid. Oh, I’m going to mess up. I’m not going to say something right or whatever. And I’m telling you right now, you’re going to screw up. You’re going to mess up. Okay? The first time you go out, you’re going to say, oh, I really shouldn’t have said that. Maybe I’ll say it this way next time, go out, start doing it. And my biggest piece of advice is that when you go out and you go with a servant’s heart, when you go out, you don’t automatically start talking, right? You have to what’s called active listening. You listen for the conversation when it comes around to you. You say, this is a conversation I want to be a part of. Yes it is. Okay. I’ll stay here and talk with them. Uh, no it’s not. I’m going to move to the next table, so start that way.

Lee Kantor: So start by listening and start by. Instead of trying to look for an opening to sell somebody something. Just look for a way to connect and be kind of a human to another human.

Michael Forman: Absolutely. That’s the correct way.

Lee Kantor: So now what about advice for that veteran? Maybe they just come out of the service and they’re looking for that next chapter. Is there anything you can suggest to them to kind of ease into the business world from the world of service?

Michael Forman: Yeah. You know, it’s really it’s really simple. If you go to your local chamber of commerce, because that’s usually small business people who go at least to the meetings, the people who belong to the chamber, obviously are bigger, bigger companies. But the people who go to the meetings are smaller businesses. You can go there and you can see what you really want to do hone your craft, hone your what they call is the 32nd elevator speech, which I don’t agree with, but you can hone in what you want to talk about and talk with other people and see what you want to do. So if you have the idea of what you want to do, go to the chamber event. Go to the chamber meet every week. The more times you go, the more times you practice what you’re talking about, the better you’re going to be.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your book, about hiring you for speaking, uh, to get on your calendar in any way, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Michael Forman: The best way to connect with me is go to my website. Michael a Forman.com on there. You’re going to see the plethora of podcasts that I’ve been on. Um, but you’ll see a place for my digital book. My my my my my book, my digital course. All the different magazines were. I was written up in about five different magazines. That will give you a little background of what I do. But on the bottom there is a contact form. You just fill in the contact form. I’ll get in touch with you with within 24 hours. Um, but you’ll see what I’ve done and what I can do and really how I can help and more importantly, how I can help your bottom line.

Lee Kantor: And that’s Michael, a Forman for man. Com.

Michael Forman: That’s correct. Michael. A Forman. No. E Michael a Forman. Com.

Lee Kantor: Well, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Michael Forman: My pleasure. Leigh. My pleasure.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Veterans Business Radio.