30 Second Success Podcast

Master Networking: Build Real Momentum with Michael Whitehouse

• Season 1 • Episode 30

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0:00 | 46:56

Summary

Michael Whitehouse joins the 30 Second Success Podcast to discuss how to build real momentum through effective networking. Learn how to focus on building strategic relationships rather than endless activity.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

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Key Takeaways

  • Begin with the end in mind: Know your goals to ensure your efforts align with desired outcomes.
  • Focus on the problem: Connect with people by addressing their pain points before offering solutions.
  • Ask questions: Control conversations by being genuinely interested in others' needs and challenges.
  • Avoid perfection: You don't need to be perfect; just be ahead of your clients to offer value.
  • Follow your calling: Align with your purpose to find success and fulfillment.

Resources

  • Brand Success Hub: https://30secondsuccess.com/hub
  • Inner Circle Membership: Two months free with Michael Whitehouse
  • The Divine Contract Book: Learn about purpose and provision

About the Guest

Michael Whitehouse — The Guy Who Knows a Guy

Michael Whitehouse is a connector, coach, author, and summit producer known as “The Guy Who Knows a Guy.” He helps entrepreneurs grow through relationships, collaborations, and clear communication rather than pushy sales tactics or complicated marketing systems. Through his events, coaching, and books, Michael teaches business owners how to clarify their message, build meaningful connections, and turn those connections into real opportunities.

Connect with Michael

  • Website: https://www.guywhoknowsaguy.com
  • Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvVV42ZSoL8f_mspC7Xl9KA
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitehouse/

    • Chapters:

    • 0:03 - If you're tired of networking without seeing results, check out Brand Success Hub
    • 1:33 - Michael Whitehouse is known for helping business owners focus on strategic relationships
    • 2:25 - You talk about problems and solutions. And absolutely that's one of the biggest things
    • 3:35 - Beginning with end in mind is key to turning activity into momentum
    • 6:31 - So you know, we, we talk about networking and I think that's one of
    • 7:26 - A lot of people are talking about being exhausted by networking
    • 11:45 - The one who asks questions controls the conversation, says AI expert
    • 16:37 - Michael Whitehouse offers advice on how to make introductions at networking events
    • 19:33 - One of my favorite questions is, who do you love to work with
    • 21:41 - Braden says people struggle to imagine a different reality than the one they currently live
    • 26:43 - Fear can hinder you before you make a phone call, Michael says
    • 31:14 - People underestimate themselves when they say it's a luxury to follow their calling
    • 35:56 - How does purpose shape the way that we communicate
    • 36:15 - One trap a lot of people fall into is thinking they need to learn things
    • 42:11 - Zoom founder describes himself as an extrovert for hire
    • 43:10 - The Inner Circle is a one on one coaching and a group setting
    • 45:16 - Michael says business growth is not about trying to impress people

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With clarity, confidence, and connection,
 Laura T.🧡💚💙
Host of the 30 Second Success Podcast

SPEAKER_00

Hi, welcome back to the 30 Second Success Podcast. If you've ever felt like you're doing all the things in your business, networking, posting, showing up, attending events, making connections, somehow it feels it still isn't turning into real momentum. This episode is for you. Because sometimes the issue isn't a lack of effort, sometimes it's a lack of clarity around who you need to connect with, what people actually need to hear from you, and how to build relationships that naturally lead to opportunities. But first, if you're someone who knows you have something valuable to offer, but you struggle to clearly communicate it, or you're tired of networking without seeing meaningful results, I'd love to invite you to check out the Brand Success Hub. The hub was created for entrepreneurs, professionals, speakers, coaches, and leaders who want to want practical support in building a stronger brand, clearer communication, better visibility, and more aligned opportunities without feeling fake, salesy, or overwhelmed. So inside you'll find live trainings, communication strategies, AI support, real world business insights, and expert mini trainings from incredible guests like the one joining us today. So you can learn more at 30secondsuccess.com slash hub. So now let's jump into today's conversation. So today's guest is Michael Whitehouse, a connector, coach, author, and some a producer. Michael is known for helping business owners stop spinning their wheels with endless activity and instead focus on building strategic relationships that lead to real opportunities and revenue. So what I especially love about Michael's approach is that he understands something many entrepreneurs miss. People don't connect with perfect solutions first. They connect with the problem they deeply recognize in themselves. And today we're unpacking exactly how that changes the way we communicate, we network, and we grow. So, Michael, welcome in. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Share a little bit about you, and we're gonna just jump right into this great conversation.

SPEAKER_02

Sure. Yeah, yeah, it's great to be here. And and absolutely that's that's one of the biggest things, which you mentioned about the problems and solutions. You know, we get excited about our own solutions because we know all about them and they are the best and they are so great. And I just launched a new 30-minute thing, and I got this other thing, and I'm building you now, the AI is coming in. Oh, and people go, uh-huh, yeah, and so. But when you talk about their problem, they're like, I I know that problem. That's me, that's me, that's me. They don't know the solution. If they did, they'd be doing it, but they know the problem. And so we need to speak, we you need to meet people where they are and then bring them to where they want to go.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. Uh you know, and that and that's you know, you obviously understand that's the foundation of the work that I do as well, because I've seen so many people, I've seen that glazed look in people's eyes. And most of my clients have felt what it's like, you know, that panic inside when you're trying to explain to somebody what you do, and that glazed look appears in their their eyes, and all of a sudden you just want to keep talking.

SPEAKER_02

The more you talk, the worse it gets.

SPEAKER_00

It is rough, right? So you describe helping entrepreneurs turn activity into momentum. What's the missing piece for most people?

SPEAKER_02

Uh, begin with the end in mind. That's my favorite of the seven habits. I can't name any others. I could probably name a couple others, but begin with the end of mind is key. You know, uh they there's there's the old joke about uh I don't know where we're going, but we're making great time. I'm going 70 miles an hour down the highway. Where are you going? I don't know, but I'm going 70 and we're going great. No traffic. It's awesome. If you're going the wrong direction, it doesn't matter how fast you're driving. And that's what a lot of people end up doing in their business, is they don't know where they're going, but they're making great time. And so they're doing all these random acts of business. They're doing, you know, maybe they're they're launching a podcast or they're getting on podcasts, they're speaking on summits, they're building their giveaway, or they're, you know, all these different things. And, you know, they'll they'll make their perfect little PDF, but they'll never make the funnel to give it away with. They'll get on a bunch of summits, but they'll never do anything with the leads they get. Um, they'll create an offer, but then they won't actually show the offer to anyone. And you need all those different pieces to have a business. But the other thing is by beginning with the end in mind, you start with that end is usually, I want to make money. And when you start there, now you're looking for what makes money. Throughout most of the, so I started my business as it is in 2020. And when people ask what I did, I'd often try to pick a thing so that they weren't like, wow, you do a bunch of stuff. I try to zero in on something, but my revenue came from affiliate promotions, it came from one-off classes, it came from one-on-one coaching, it came from all these different things because I started from I want to bring in my money, I want to bring revenue. And so then when I'd see something could bring in revenue, I would do a bit of that. And it all added up to revenue. Whenever I hear someone, I I I've met people say, I've been in business six, twelve, eighteen months. I haven't made any money. You haven't made any money? You haven't sent out an email promoting a partner and gotten a $35 commission, you haven't done one $50 one-hour coaching session, you haven't, you know, sold something out of your garage, you haven't made any money? What are you doing? If you don't have revenue, now it's one thing if you if you know exactly what you're building, and you're like, I am building, you know, the next Facebook, and it's gonna take 14 million lines of code and it's gonna take me a year to code it, okay, sure, you're building something. But I don't think most of the people that I talk to or that you talk to, Laura, are building 14 million lines of code. I think most of them are looking to do one-on-one coaching calls or something like that. That doesn't take 18 months to build. That takes 18 minutes to build. And if you know where you're trying to go, then you get to the point.

SPEAKER_00

No, I love that. And I, you know, I think that's one of the things that a lot of people are feeling very exhausted by doing all the things, right? So, you know, we we talk about networking, and I think that's one of the places that you love, that playground that you really thrive on. And I know that's where one of the things is I don't know if anybody, um, one of the things that I've mentioned before, I don't know if I did mention it on here before, but one of the things I was struggling with, I was building a course and I was doing all this stuff, and I was kind of like permitting, you know, I kind of like pulled myself back from all the networking I was doing, and I found and I to my financial advisor said, I'm gonna I'm broke, I don't, I'm not making any money. Should I shut my business down? She and the first thing she said to me, she goes, How did you make money before? I'm like, from referrals from networking. She goes, Don't go do more of that.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And she was right, right? That's where when you are out there and you are talking to people and you are putting yourself out there and you're sharing what you do and how you help people, it changes everything and people start talking about you, and then your business will thrive. So, from a perspective of, you know, a lot of people are talking about being exhausted by networking. What are what's the biggest misconception that you see about relationship building in it when it comes to business or or or building your network?

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Yeah, I did what you said, uh Dave Durand has this great line, it worked so well, I stopped doing it. So, um, but his other great line when he was CEO of Best Version Media was I will bore you to success. Um, it's you find something that works and you do it over and over again until money appears, and long past when it gets boring. But in terms of networking, I think the biggest reason people find it exhausting is they think that they are supposed to say magic words that make someone whip out their credit card and start throwing bills. And there's no magic words to do that. There is nothing you can say, there's no intro you can use that will turn the person in front of you into a prospect. Uh, because they're probably not a prospect, depending on what you do, just statistically. And even if they are a prospect, they're not in a buying mode in a networking space. They are looking to be helped. They have a problem, they want to solve it. The problem could be anything from they need more clients to their back hurts, but they have a problem they want to solve. And so your job at the networking event is to make yourself the kind of person they want to hire, work with, refer, ask advice of. And all of those are served by focusing on helping them. So if you go into every networking encounter and you start from, I want this person to receive value from having met me. I don't know how because I don't know what their problem is. So I need to identify their problem and then do something that helps, help is a keyword, helps them solve it. And then maybe they'll do something for me, maybe they won't. It doesn't matter if they do or not, because what will happen is if you just do that, a few things happen. One, you're not worried about did I say the right thing because you're not talking about yourself anymore. You're 15 minutes into the conversation when they finally say, So, so what about you? It's been all about me. What about you? What do you do? You can't say anything wrong at that point. They are desperate to reciprocate. But besides which, every person you meet will remember how good that experience was. And you, when we help people, often it's no effort at all. It's, you know, they're looking for someone like, oh, yeah, Laura can help you with that. Let me connect you with Laura. I shoot off an email, I forget it as soon as I hit send. And so, but when you do that, you're gonna end up running into people six, 12, 24 months later, 24 years later, who say, Oh, I never got the chance to tell you. I got the job with the guy introduced me to, it changed everything for me. That then led to another one. Now I'm a VP and like I I can't thank you enough. And you're like, awesome. What was your name again? Forget what company I introduced you.

SPEAKER_00

Where do we meet?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, where do we meet? Uh that's great. Like it is that awkward thing of I apparently changed your life and I don't remember who you are. But you know, imagine having, you know, if you can meet 20 people a week, that's a thousand people a year. Imagine having a thousand people out there in the world who think you're pretty cool who you don't even remember.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. I love that. And you know, that's that's where that problem first communication comes in, right? You know, you want to address the problem, you know, it's people don't buy they don't buy you, they're buying the fact that you can solve their problem.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And when you can communicate that well by having a deep understanding of what they're struggling with, a lot of that starts with listening, right? So it really starts with listening. So asking the right questions, connecting, you know, listening to what people are sharing, what they're saying, you know, be be a great listener. I think that makes such a huge impression on the people around you. Because when you start to listen, I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to do is ask people what they love about their work because nine times out of ten, they'll start telling you what they don't love about their work.

unknown

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that's where the solution, the problem solving comes in. So what happens when we start a conversation by talking too much about ourselves?

SPEAKER_02

Uh, like what should we do when we discover we're doing that?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um exactly. We're like, what do you do when you realize that you're like running on and on and on and you still haven't figured out what it is that that they need to hear from you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, so the the the key thing to remember, a key strategy here is that the one who asks questions controls the conversation. So if you're talking, you're controlling the conversation in a bad way, but you can always take control the right way by asking a question. Um, so you know, if they're starting to go blank, then you can go with a question. And now to me, I don't even start by talking about myself because they're not ready to receive any information I'm giving them until they tell me they're ready to receive it. Um in another context, this is why I don't like long bios for speaking. If I haven't heard you speak, I don't care what your bio says. I don't care what school you went to, I don't care what degrees you have, that you're on Fox and ABC, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The longer the intro talks, the less I listen. Until you start talking, and then I'm picking up the program and saying, hey, who's this person again? Oh, this is interesting. She got something to say. Same thing in the networking context. I don't care about anything you're telling me until I'm ready to hear it, especially if I think I'm supposed to introduce myself to you. So I don't start with what I do. I start with a question if I'm in a networking space, you know, question like, what were you hoping to find when you came here? Hoping that perhaps they are obeying the second habit of highly successful people. I think it's second. Um, now most of them aren't. So most of them are like, I don't know, I'm just looking to meet some people. So then I need to dig a little further. But sometimes they actually have an answer. And now we're off to the races. So, you know, if you find you started rambling, no problem. Just pivot to a question about them. So, you know, what what do you and even the the ones like this question is so cliche? What do you do? If you can't think of another question, it's fine. It starts, it's about them. Now, you may say, What do you do? And they'll be like, I'm a financial advisor. Okay, not we're not much place to go with that. But with that, I will often then say, what makes you unique among, you know, there's a lot of financial advisors. What makes you different from every other financial advisor? Which they also usually can't answer. But it at least gives them an opening to lean into what's important to them. And then you could go with things like, why is that important to you? Um, or what were you hoping to find here, or something like that. So there's there's no one right question as long as you're asking questions, they're right questions. Um, as long as they are questions that that aren't too heavy or invasive. Um, that's the thing to watch out for. Sometimes the question you think is easier fun, they think is obnoxious. You know, if you ask me like, what was your favorite vacation? That brings up all kinds of stuff for me. I don't go on a lot of vacations and I feel kind of some kind of way about it. So I don't want to talk about vacations. I'm here to work. I want to talk about business, I want to talk about the thing I was doing in AI. I don't want to talk about freaking vacations and dogs and cats and kids. Um, but so you know, pay attention to how they respond to those questions. And if they don't, if they if they're like, oh, I don't really know, be like, all right, not a vacation person, no problem. What do you like to do with your time? Be ready to let go of that question, pivot off to the next question. Don't be attached to your questions, but you know, let them lead you and then keep asking questions so they know they have permission to keep talking until you find the problem you can help them with.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And you know, and it's so funny that you said that because I have a quick story. I had somebody that I asked one time, so so tell me what you do. What do you do? And she said, I'm an accountant. And I'm like, okay, what do I do with that one? And so I said, So what kind of accountant? Yeah, and she goes, Oh, I'm a forensic accountant. I said, Here's something we can work with. Like, tell me that I've never heard of forensic accountant. So we like dove into it. It was a great conversation, but at first I was like, Oh my gosh, what do I do with that?

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And and that's a great lesson because I think sometimes we we have a tendency to really shorten our answers when we're in that conversation. So think about when somebody is asking you a question, they are trying to draw you into a deeper conversation. They want to get to know you. And I think that's where a lot of people miss the opportunity, especially at a networking event or when you're having those sidebar conversations at an event or a social or something like that. Give people your attention, right? So talk about that. What that's how is it that that we can kind of really help people feel heard when we are having when we are having those conversations?

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah, so answer that in a second. Before that, I actually want to say something that I do, and this is probably not something you can copy, but something I do when I talk to accountants, financial advisors, real estate, you know, the generic, you're like, I'm a real estate agent. You're like, oh great, let me just leave. Um, so this is if you are a networking coach, you can do this too. But so often you will you'll see them get uncomfortable. Uh, I'm a real estate agent. Like they know they can't say what they do because people will be turned off, but they also don't know what to say. And so sometimes I will ask, um, do you kind of hate that question? Like you don't know how to answer. And they're like, Yeah, I kind of do. Would you be interested in two sentences that'll hold everyone's attention? Did that answer the question? And they were like, uh yes. Laura, would you like me to share what those two sentences are that'll grab someone's attention in a networking event?

SPEAKER_00

Sure, why don't you do that for us, Michael?

SPEAKER_02

So they're what I call the eight-second intro. And the first one is you know how and some kind of problem or problem first communication. So, financial advisor, for example. Um, you know how many people are worried they won't have enough for retirement and don't even know where they stand. What I do is provide them clarity and peace of mind and a strategy to get there. Um, so that's a financial advisor. But a financial advisor could also say, you know how people want to get the best returns on their investment and find those top stocks moving in the market. What I do is help them find those opportunities. Also, a financial advisor, very different audience, wants very different introductions. But they're both financial advisors. One is for the person who knows enough to know what a good stock is, but not enough to recognize it. And the other one is like, I don't know, the difference between an IRA and an IPA, you know. And so that's that's a key difference. Same thing with with a real estate agent. The difference between, you know, how for some people, buying a house the most stressful thing they ever do in their life, what I do is make it as easy as sitting on the beach, versus you know how in a tough market it's hard to get top dollar when selling your house. What I do is squeeze every penny of value out of that property. Those are very different audiences that solve very different problems. They're both real estate agents. So if you answer that way, I know what a real estate agent is. As soon as you mention the problem, I figured out your real estate agent. Your name tag that says Remax might also give it away too. Um now I know what kind of real estate agent you are, what kind of introductions you can make. And now we have a conversation because I might have opinions on that. Be like, oh man, yeah, when I bought my house, I was so stressful. Wow, I couldn't believe it. Um, you know, now we've got something to talk about. But in terms of um, the question you asked was how to make people feel heard before I interjected my little mini lesson there.

SPEAKER_00

Um, one of my favorite questions is who do you love to work with?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes, that's a great one. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And that really helps change the conversation when it's when it is somebody that's very in an industry that's oversaturated.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. And so what I find helps my ADHD brain pay attention to people I'm talking to is to have a goal. Because it's just like, I'm gonna let you talk, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if I have a goal, my goal is to find your problem. I'm a detective, I need to find your problem, and then I need to fix or help fix your problem. Now, I'm not gonna fix your problem, probably. But if I recommend a book, a YouTube channel, a TED talk, an introduction, then I have done more for you than anyone else at this networking event did because everyone else is focused on shoving your business card in their hand and trying to sell you something you don't want. And I'm focused on how can I help you in even the smallest way with this problem? Sometimes a big way. Sometimes it's I can introduce you to someone you really want to meet, and you're like, wow, you know them? Awesome. But so it's about being the detective, and that makes it interesting. Now I'm exploring. Now I'm detecting. So I'm gonna be asking, and the questions become obvious when it's what is what problem might this person have? Now you're seeking around for, based on the problems many people have, let's start pulling back the layers. You know, what did you come here hoping to find? What are what are some of the challenges you're facing in your business? Um, what are some of the opportunities you're seeing right now? Questions like that that will may or may not reveal an opportunity is kind of pull the thread, pull the thread, pull the thread until you get there. And again, even if you never get there, they have no problems, their life is perfect. You just spent however long, five, 10, 15 minutes interviewing them as if they were the most interesting person in the world, which still makes you the best networker in the room by their by their perspective.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And you know, that's the biggest thing is again diving in and really paying attention, listening for the answers instead of thinking of what you're going to say next. And I think that's so important. One of the things I love that you had shared with me is that you said people struggle to imagine a different reality than the one they currently live in. Um, and that's such a powerful insight. I think that it especially when it comes to people that are kind of stuck in their businesses. So, how do we? Help people move from where they are to what's possible without them feeling overwhelmed or like we're trying to sell them something.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. And and this this is a crucial point with many things. But if if you're approaching your audience of people who are making $400 a month and you're like, imagine yourself making a million dollars a year, their brain's like, no. What do you no? It's like imagine yourself being a fish. Like, what are you what are we even talking about here? That doesn't make any sense. They can't imagine that totally different thing, but you can approach them with it's the end of the month, the bills are there and the money's not. You know what I'm talking about, right? What if next month the money was there to pay those bills? It's not a dramatic lifestyle shift. Same computer, same bills, same bank account, slightly bigger number in it. They're not living on a yacht, they're paying their bills from not paying their bills. They can perceive that because you met them where they are. And so you need to approach them in their current location. This is also why I think affirmations don't work. They work for some people, and if they do work for you, great. Um got nice neurohack. If you set your affirmations to music, it bypasses the rational brain. So AI lets us do that now. So set your affirmations to music, then they work. That's a whole different thing. But uh, you know, affirmations don't tend to work because they they try to put us in this false state. I am a millionaire. Brain's like, what the heck are you talking about? You're not a millionaire. Have you seen your bank account? Maybe a million dollars in debt. What are you talking about? But so you need to find them where they already are and then ease them to that next place where they are. But also, there's usually something which is holding them back. Um, it's funny, it's actually what I was writing my my email that's going out to my list tomorrow, is about this. That, you know, it's usually not procrastination, it's fear. So if you're not doing it, it's not not lack of willpower, it's not laziness, it is fear, and our brain doesn't know the difference between being chased by a lion and about to be eaten on the savannah and getting getting rejected on a phone call. Fear is fear. We only have one fear mechanism. And so that our subconscious job is to keep us alive. And thus, if it's causing fear, it could kill us. So we need to avoid it. Um, phone call might cause fear, might kill us. I don't know. Unless you look closely at it and then you realize, oh, no, no, what am I afraid of? I'm afraid of a phone call. Can I die on a phone call? Probably not. All right. Can I die of starvation if I don't make a phone call? Maybe. So it's about looking at what it is that's actually stopping and really digging into it and admitting I am afraid of rejection. I am afraid of judgment, I am afraid of um being caught short and someone asking a question, I don't have an answer to, whatever it might be, and really diving into what is it you're afraid of that's stopping you. And then once you can say, wait, that doesn't make any sense. I should do something else. And you know, and then you can then you can move forward. Because that's the issue, is when the thing you're trying to get someone to a vision is on the other side of their fear, and their subconscious is telling them that thing will kill you, which is literally what we're hardwired to think. It's like you're gonna die, then you can't just say plow through it, because there's many easy ways to avoid this fear. Not showing up to the next meeting will solve the problem. Not listening will solve the problem. Not do losing the homework that your coach gave you will solve the problem. Your subconscious is not direct, it's subtle. It won't take you head on to avoid it. It'll just say, oh my, look how messy your office is. You don't want to do this before you clean your office, do you? Look at all those emails in your inbox. You'll be so distracted if you try to make these calls now. Why don't you take care of the messages in your inbox first? Then we can do this scary thing. And so, you know, your subconscious is really good at deflecting if you don't understand why it's doing that. Uh and unfortunately, a lot of coaches don't understand that. So the coach is just like, my clients are lazy. I don't know why. I'm sorry, you call yourself a coach? Yeah. If you think your clients are lazy and you don't know why you're a consultant, you're not a coach, because coaches understand this stuff.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of it does. It comes, you know, the fear really is it's real. And a lot of people don't realize that it can hinder you no matter how prepared you are before you get in front of a person, before you get on a phone call. That fear can hinder you. And you, and a lot of times you need to make sure that you understand that about yourself. Um, one of my favorite things to do is I actually have somebody, you know, I keep uh people that I work with, you know, like a lot of times if I see that one of my clients is struggling in moving forward, like if we've had the same conversation more than once, it's like, okay, there's something holding you back. We need to dive into this, we need to uncover what it is. And if there is fear there, I have a couple different people that I send, I actually will connect them with to work with to over to get that fear cleared for them. And it is it's imperative to help them move forward because if they're stuck and you don't know how to help them get unstuck, it it just it just snowballs it and it really creates more of a problem.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and another thing with the fear thing, you know, there is that expression feel the fear and do it anyway. I would like to offer a different strategy for some cases. Sometimes you do need to feel the fear and do it anyway, right? When I worked for Best Version Media and I had to make 45 calls a day, there was another strategy, like it was make 45 calls a day and it worked. You just had to do it. So I blocked out the time, I had a rhythm, and it worked. But I would like to also posit, feel the fear and do something else. I don't like cold calling a direct outreach. I haven't cold called in six years. Um, I do direct outreach sometimes, mostly to like invite speakers to be on summits, but even that, just finding the time for it, and I don't love it. So I for the most part don't do it. And that's the thing about being an entrepreneur. There's you know more than one way to get to Pittsburgh. So if you really hate being on camera, cold calling, writing, now, if you hate nine different things, then maybe you shouldn't be a business. Um, or you need to get over one of those. But if you really hate direct outreach, but you like writing and you like video and you like groups, well, is there a way with the things you do like you can get the thing you want and not have to do the thing you don't like? So, you know, I don't, I'm not good at keeping track of follow-up, you know, keeping that notes and be like, oh, I gotta call this person back in six weeks and check back in in six months and whatnot. So I got really good at writing an email list that is high value. So when I meet someone and they get on that list, they're like, oh, I'm glad I'm here. This is really interesting stuff that I don't feel sold to. And then six months later, they respond to an email I sent out to 60 to 3,600 people and say, Hey, I like this email. And by the way, I want to talk to you about this other thing. I don't like doing that kind of active, structured follow-up. It seems like a lot of work, it seems exhausting to me. I'd rather and I was meeting at one point 20, 25 people a week, so I couldn't do that kind of follow-up. So I found another way that fit better with how I work instead of trying to bend myself to fit in the box. That's why we're entrepreneurs, we can do things the way that works for us.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. That's really great advice. So thank you for sharing that. And you're right, people, we can find a way to do something different that and if we're struggling with something, you don't have to do it the way everybody else does it. Yep, yeah, you're gonna go to the beginning with the end in mind. Yes, again, back to the beginning, keeping the beginning, the end, yeah, the end in mind. I love it. So, and real quick, if this conversation is resonating with you, make sure you like, subscribe, and share the podcast with someone who needs this reminder today, because so many people are trying to try harder when what they really need is clearer conversations, better connections, and more intentional approach to communication. That's exactly why we have these conversations here on the podcast. So, Michael, thank you so much. I appreciate everything that you're sharing with us, and and I think there's so much goodness we could keep going. And I and I know I just I love having this conversation with you, and we've already even had a little, you know, maybe we have to have another conversation around AI and how that is affecting, you know, people's approach to networking and people's approach to communication. So we'll definitely have to have that conversation. Um, but I would love to dive in a little bit about consistency. Um, you can certainly help people realize more is possible than they think. Um, why do you think people underestimate themselves?

SPEAKER_02

So I think that people consider it a luxury to follow their calling. Um, so one of my or my most recent book is is The Divine Contract. And the concept of that book is that God gave us all a calling. And if God is not the term used for the divine, replace that with your own word. I'm gonna say God because it's an easy word to say. Um, God gave us each a mission, a contract. You know, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to educate people, uh, you know, help people discover their potential, or heal people, or make people feel good, or end AIDS in Africa. You know, whatever your calling is, um, you know, make the best cheeseburgers in Milwaukee. Whatever that calling is, the contract that's offered is if you follow that contract, I will give you everything you need to fulfill the contract. It needs a broad term, needs whatever you think you need, because what's a million dollars to God? So if you follow that contract, you get what you need. And I I discovered this from my own life. The more I tried to settle down and follow the right path and get a job and do what I was supposed to do, the broker I was. The more I tried to do whatever the heck I was called to do. You know, when I look at how much money I made in 2021, 22, 23, when I really had no idea what my business was. Like I did some stuff. I made more money in 2022 than I did in 2019 when I was following a very clear, concise, laid-out, proven strategy. And it's because I believe I was aligned with my calling. But most people had this idea of I need to stay on the safe path. And so if I'm struggling on the safe path, then following my calling, oh my goodness, I'm gonna starve to death. Not realizing that they are struggling because they're out of alignment, because they're not doing what they're meant to do. And so once they realize that their calling is not a is is not a luxury to follow it, it's a not requirement. My philosophy is that God will let you do whatever you want. You won't be punished, you'll just be on your own, um, which is a pretty bad place to be. So, you know, you follow that calling, you follow what you're meant to do, suddenly you find the universe aligns for you, things start working out, money starts appearing, uh, opportunities start to come. But that requires getting out of this mindset of who am I to do this? Who am I to write a book? Who am I to teach? Who am I to help people? Who you are is the person that the divine put there with these skills and talents and calling on your heart to do it. Who are you to be working in a dead-end job at an office, putting numbers and TPS reports when you're called to heal and help and do all those other things? So it's switching it from who am I to follow my calling to who am I to ignore it.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. I love that. I love talking about being on purpose, right? And I think that's one of the things that we bring our purpose to our opportunity, you know, the entrepreneurial spirit is really about finding our purpose. And I think that's where a lot of people miss the opportunity when you start to really tap into what you're called to do and following your own lead. You know, that intuition within us is that voice that's really helping us. It's that guiding voice that takes us where we're supposed to go. And a lot of times people ignore that because they're listening to everybody else telling them you should do this and you should do this, and you should find that, and you should find this, and here's this program, and here, and I think that's it can be overwhelming for people, especially when we first start out in business. And I think that's when you start to really tap in and listen, and you know what your purpose is, and you know what your calling is, and you know what your mission is. And and I truly believe that God has a purpose for all of us and He gives us exactly what we need to move forward, and when we start ignoring that inner knowing, we get sidetracked. Um, somebody once shared with me, God gave you an idea, and if you don't act on it, you'll find someone else who will. That was like a slap upside the head when I heard that one. I'm like, man, I had tons of ideas that I never acted on, and other people are doing them now. So that's one of the things that I think is so beautiful about your message and your book. I'm excited about your book. I'm I'm definitely gonna go buy it. I'm like, um, so yes, the divine contract. I love it. Beautiful cover, by the way. Thank you. So, how does purpose shape the way that we communicate? What how do you how do you encourage people to really step into tapping into their purpose to be able to communicate what they're trying to to do for others?

SPEAKER_02

Uh so I want to touch on something else you said earlier too, is about um I don't remember what you said, but I remember what I want to say to it. So I'm just gonna say it. Uh, which is I think one one trap a lot of people fall into is um thinking they need to spend a lot of money to learn things. You don't need to spend a lot of money to learn anything. It's 2026. You can go on Gemini or Chat GPT or Claude and say, how do I? And it will tell you step by step. And if you're like, I don't understand, simplify it. It'll simplify it. You know, I I I was doing a demonstration. I said, explain this to me like explain this to me like I'm a kindergartner, explain this to me to PhD level. Same concept. Explain both of them, metaphors and everything. So, you know, and most of the things that we need to do, email marketing, um, yeah, social media, master classes, podcasting, whatever. It's not rocket science, right? Podcasting is you find a place to host, and and um, whatever anchor is called now that Spotify bought is free. You can get a podcast, you need a microphone, you need some free software, you need to start talking to your computer, and you need to hit go. Right? It's not gonna be the best podcast, you're not gonna be Joe Rogan, but you can do it and you'll learn more doing that than in any $10,000 how to start your podcast class. Um, so, but a lot of that comes from insecurity. You got people, I I met people who spent ridiculous $50,000, $100,000 when their business has made nothing on program after program because they're waiting for permission. They're hoping if they give someone enough money, that person will say, you are now qualified to go do this. Well, if you weren't qualified before that program, you're still not going to be afterwards. But the good news is if it's your purpose, I remember your question, if it's your purpose, you are already qualified to start. Now, here's the other place people get confused is they see all these gurus who look like they got it all together. They got the clothes and the car and the entourage and the money, and they got this. They just casually mention their second home, not showing off, just casually dropping that in there so you know they've got a second home down in you know Puerto Rico or whatever. And and you don't have that, you're not successful. But one of the most brilliant things, brilliant piece of advice I ever got, um, when I was making not much money. And I was concerned, like, can I really sell networking coaching? Because I'm not making that much money. And he said, What's your promise? If someone hires you, you said, I'm gonna teach them how to network, make good connections. He says, You're gonna are you promising them they're gonna make money? And I said, No, I'm gonna make good connections for them. He said, Well, if you're selling money, you better be making money. If you're selling networking, do you have a lot of connections? Yeah, I got lots of connections. Well, that's what are you selling? You know, if you've got a a personal trainer and they looked apart and they're they're you know buff and jacked and whatever personal trainers do, and they're broke, you still hire them. Because you're not hiring them financial advice, you're hiring them to look like them. Whereas if you hire a financial advisor or financial coach and they got a 15-year-old car with mismatched hubcaps, uh I might go somewhere else and skip that meeting because don't, you know, don't take ad bright, don't take advice from a broke financial advisor. Um, so that's saying you don't need to be perfect, you don't need to have the yacht and the second house and the perfect family. And surprise, surprise, spoiler alert, many of those people don't have it either. Many of those people with the perfect lifestyle, they don't. They argue with their spouse, they have problems with their kids. Um, so all you need is to have to be ahead of your clients. So if it's a hundred-step process and you're on step eight, anyone from step six back can hire you because they don't know how to get to step seven and eight. Yeah, you don't know nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Maybe you'll get to nine while you're working with them. But they don't know seven and eight, and you do. So plus, that person who's on step ninety-two, that person who's, you know, Tony Robbins or Les Brown or the multimillionaire, they don't remember what it's like to wonder if they can pay for groceries this week. That is not an experience in their awareness. And it's been so long that they have drunk so much of their own Kool-Aid that they think that mindset and manifestation can overcome all of this. Because it has for the last 40 years for them. But the coach who discovered how to get from pinching pennies and clipping coupons because they needed to make their money last to the end of the week, to now making decent money and having a nice house in the last five years, that is much more useful to the client than the multimillionaire, because they can remember where you're at. So wherever, you know, so if you know something and you're ahead of your clients, you're in that place, and so don't keep dumping money into all these programs you don't need. Now, there's some programs, it's some you meet the right person, you're like, Yep, this is the one that I'm gonna, you're like, I want to marry this person now than taking where they're going. But make sure the programs which you actually need, make sure it's gonna actually deliver. And if you're excited about working with that person, make sure you're gonna be working with them because a lot of these programs you pay ten thousand dollars and you never see them again.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, yep. Where you see them on video on camera, on on on recordings. So the coach of the week, and you get get a zoom call with the coach of the week.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So, Michael, thank you so much. I appreciate all of your insight. You've been amazing. I I I truly am blessed to know you and hang out with you. Before we go, help people understand that beautiful heading that you have above you because some people will be listening and not looking. So, in your background here on Zoom, it says The Guy Who Knows a Guy, extrovert for hire. So, share with us exactly what that means.

SPEAKER_02

So, The Guy Who Knows a Guy was named my first book because back when I was still trying to do mundane things like cell printing, um, nobody cared about what I knew because I was just a salesman. So I wrote a book called The Guy Knows a Guy because I was pretty good at meeting people, because I was an extrovert. I didn't have technique, I had endurance, um, which allowed me to discover what works and what doesn't work, so I could then teach introverts how to just do the stuff that works. Extrovert for hire came back because I was doing so many things, and people are like, What do you do? And I was like, Well, I do this and this and this and this and this and this. I realized what they all come down to is there are some variation of me being an extrovert, running summits, running events, networking concierge, networking training, teaching things I've learned from all the people I've met, podcasting. It's all extrovert stuff. And you can hire me for it. Thus, extrovert for hire.

SPEAKER_00

Love it. Love it. Oh, and can you share with us? Um, you have a special offer that you're making for our guests about to the inner circle?

SPEAKER_02

Yep. So speaking of the things that I have learned from meeting with thousands of people, I created something called the inner circle because of what I was talking about. People join these $10,000 programs and they are one size fits all straight line curricula. That's not what they need. Most people, what they need is a series of 10 to 15 minute answers. How do I do this thing with my email? I'm thinking about starting a podcast. Should I? Um, should I have a should I keep doing my YouTube channel? Stuff like that. So I created the inner circle. The inner circle is quite simply a one on one coaching and a group setting, weekly one hour call. And then I added a second call called AI Vanguard, all start all part of the same program. That's the same thing, but just for AI stuff, because that Sort of deserves its own call. So it's two hours a week, live with me, the man himself, not some coach I hired, just me. Um, and normally I charge a hundred dollars a month for it, which is ridiculously cheap given that it's direct access to me. But uh, I the special offer for your listeners is that they can try it out for two months for free. So they get to come to eight calls, sixteen calls, maybe seventeen, depending how many days there are that month. Sixteen or seventeen calls, they can come to some, all, none, whatever they want. But it gives them a chance to experience what it's like. And if they want to stay afterwards, they can. If they want to leave afterwards, they can. But as you may have noticed, you give me a short question, I'll give a long answer. I love doing it. So I created the inner circle so I could help people with those uh in a live setting to help them with their specific challenges. And we we deal with everything from the fear thing, which is what came up recently, um, twice, uh, to tech stuff, AI stuff, um, and also a lot of strategy stuff. Should I buy this? Should I do this? Should I invest here? And uh, I bet you know the first question I ask most people what's your goal in this? What are you trying to do? Begin with the end in mind.

SPEAKER_00

Begin with the end in mind. Thank you, Michael. Michael, one thing I really appreciate about this conversation is the reminder that business growth isn't about trying to impress people, it's about understanding people, meeting them where they are, helping them feel seen, and guiding them toward what's possible. So thank you so much for being here with me. I truly appreciate you jumping on and being our guest here on the 30 Second Success Podcast. And for those of you who are listening, if today's conversation reminded you that clarity and connection matter far more than sounding perfect, then I hope you'll find that into that into your next conversation, your next networking event, and your next opportunity to show up. Because meaningful conversations truly do create momentum. And if you're ready to strengthen your communication, clarity, clarify your message, build deeper connections, and grow your brand in a more authentic and aligned way, I'd love to invite you to join the brand success hub. Remember, the hub is designed for people who are done overthinking their message and ready to communicate with more clarity, confidence, and compassion while learning practical strategies that actually work in today's business world. And before we go, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs the reminder that relationships, not rehearsed pitches, are still the foundation of lasting success. Until next time, stand in your brand, trust your voice, and remember success is just 30 seconds away.