Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Alan Lazaros and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Aug 14
- 22 min read
📍 Welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. The show we're turning where we turn handshakes into opportunities, conversations into clients, and your network into net worth. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and today we're diving into something that's often overlooked in the networking world.
Consistency. Because let's face it, one fleshy event won't build your business, but intentional repeated action will join. Joining me is Alan l Lazarus, an expert in habit formation, consistency, and the power of the compound effect. He helps professionals stay accountable to the small actions that lead to massive results.
And today we're talking about how those same principles apply to building and sustaining powerful professional relationships from daily networking habits to tracking progress, to breaking the cycle of random reach outs. This episode will give you the tools to make connection a habit, not a hustle. So if you're ready to stop networking at Burst and start building a consistent, profitable system, you're in the right place.
Alan, I welcome you to the podcast. I'm so thankful to have you here and hopefully we're gonna have a good time doing it. Thank you for having me, and thank you for that great intro. I actually just created something called The Next Level Sales System, and it's very much about how to build meaningful relationships with people on the internet.
It's very good timing as well, and I didn't actually plan on that. It just happens to be something I'm, I now have a four day streak of doing this every single day, so we can get into that as well. But thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. No problem. No problem. So listen, let's just start right out with with a few questions that focus on the habits and compound effect.
You teach people how to leverage consistency for long-term success, how does that apply specifically to building a powerful network? Yeah, so if you, I have this pinned on my Facebook. It's my favorite post that I've ever done, and it talks about the power of the compound effect. So if you go to a financial calculator, I know you have a lot of finance minds listening, $1 growing at 0.1% per day.
That's one 10th of 1% per day for 365 days. At the end of the year, you have $1.44, so you only grew by 44%. Still a big deal. At the end of 10 years, if you stay consistent for 3,650 days, you have $38.40, 20 years, you have $1,475. 30 years, you have 56 million. No, $56,643. This is where it starts to get wild.
And this is why older people have a lot more success statistically than younger people. It's this $1 growing at 0.1% per day. One 10th of 1% for 40 years is 14,000. 600 days is 2.17 million. This is the biggest number, and this is what I have written on my whiteboard. This is what I remind myself of. 0.1% per day.
$1. You start out with $1. And you grow it by one 10th of 1% per day for 50 years, and you have $84 million. That is the power of the compound effect. And I'm a math guy, I'm an engineer, I'm a computer engineer, and I've always been a big math guy. I was the obnoxious kid at high school who got all the math and science awards.
I just think in numbers, that's one of the four modalities of thinking. And for me, building relationships is the same thing. You have to water the plants. Consistently, if they're gonna grow and if they're gonna bear fruit, some of them will and some of them won't. But you can't. You have to treat and value people and lead people, as if that might bear fruit one day.
And I always say this, focus on the sale, the relationship will go focus on adding value and the relationship will come. So you can attract. And if the goal is to add value first and then to invite someone second, I. I think that's a big deal. You're absolutely right. And I found that as of the pandemic people really lost their minds.
They lost how the feeling of networking, communication, and everything else. So the art of building a client really is past the art of building a relationship. Is present. Yeah. And that's really what you're talking about. You build a relationship first. The sale will come afterwards. A hundred percent.
So it's a very good point you made. Thank you. In, in your experience, what daily or weekly networking habits make the biggest difference over time? So the next level sales system that I created it's five things a day. Five times a day. It's five posts. An Instagram post, a Facebook post, a LinkedIn post, a story post, anything.
I call it outbound compelling value. So five posts, five likes, meaning, and these need to be authentic, by the way. You don't just go through Instagram and start liking stuff. You have to like things that are actually things that you resonate with because attracts it's common core values. I think relationships are a byproduct of a common core value or a common goal.
So right now you and I have a common core value of personal development. We have a common core value of networking. We have a common core value of podcasting. We have a common goal of reaching more people and impacting more people. So this relationship we're building right now is a byproduct of common core values and core goals.
So the next level sales system is five things, five posts, five likes, five comments, five dms, and five invites. If you don't do the first four well. You don't get to do the fifth. That's very good. That's very good. I would like to add something to that, but you said it so eloquently that I don't have to.
Okay. So thank you. Let's talk about the compound effect. How does it show up in relationships and professional connections? It's one of my favorite books ever written and. A lot of people say is it 'cause Darren Hardy? It's not. 'cause the author is so great. I don't, I, I do like Darren. But the compound effect is just, I think the principle is so powerful and the compound effect is what I articulated in the beginning, which is small seemingly insignificant choices compound over time.
10 years ago, I was out of shape. 10 years ago I started my business and it was crickets. You and I joked about that offline. I always say in the beginning, it's. People are very certainty driven. And in the beginning when you first start a company, no one knows you and you don't have credibility yet 'cause you don't have consistency yet.
And I always say Coca-Cola and Sam's Cola, everyone's gonna buy a Coca-Cola because no one knows who Sam is. And that's okay in the beginning. No one knows you. So you can't charge a ton. You have to learn how to build the compound effect over time. I started mentoring 10 years ago, coaching eight years ago, which basically means I started getting paid and I started for free.
And then I got paid a little bit and then I got paid a little bit more, and then I got paid a little bit more. Now I have 18 people that I coach. One of 'em is four times a week, which is insane. But in the beginning it was coaching for free. And then I built my practice and eventually you get referrals.
You get really good at what you do, you stay focused, and it does, it compounds. So the compound effect is the little things you're doing each day that stack up and add up and compound. Just like what we talked about with the math in the beginning. You can mathematically, if you work on something for 50 years and you are consistent every single day, you can get 84 million times better.
That's how Apple was built. Apple started in a garage. Absolutely. And now it's 50 years old and it's 84 million times better for sure. I was a systems engineer with Apple computer. Nice. I was around the time when they had the Mac, Lisa. The SE 30, whoa, se 80. Okay. So I remember those changes within Apple, what they were going through, the trials and tribulations.
So I know exactly what you're talking about. Very cool. But that's for a conver, that's a conversation for another time. Sounds good. Because I'm sure we can talk about it forever. Okay. Many people network in short, intense bursts. Why is that approach less effective than small, consistent actions?
It's unsustainable. Yeah. That's the main thing is it's not sustainable. So beautiful. Girlfriend and I have future wife, March 1st, 2022. We started I came to her and I said, I wanna beat my old best. She said, what do you mean? I said. I, the longest I've ever consistently exercised is three and a half months, and I wanna go for four months.
I wanna beat my old best. We did it. She said, I'll do it with you. And here's the key. This is the key. It was a half an hour a day. Jogging counts, walking counts, weight training counts, soccer counts, basketball. We set a timer for a half an hour a day, and all we have to move our body for a half an hour a day.
That's it. Sustainable. Sustainable. Sustainable. We crossed the four month mark and I go, I did it. That's awesome. She said, okay, let's see if we can do a year. We get past a year and we pull into the garage after a workout. I said now what? And she said, let's do this for the rest of our life. And I had a mini panic attack.
I said, sweetheart, I can't commit to this unless you're really serious. Are we actually gonna do this? That was 1,168 days ago. March 1st, 2022, we decided to exercise once per day for a half an hour. We bumped it to 35, then 40, then 45. We've been at 45 now this year in 2025, and we are 1,168 days in a row of consistent exercise.
Sometimes it's a walk with our dogs. Sometimes it's an intense weight training session that is beyond. Beyond painful, but we never miss. And the key to that, and my point to that is not to talk about us, it's to talk about the power of the small thing, the small things over time that compound because, and this is what I say in my speeches, I say I was a fitness coach for a long time fitness model, fitness competitor.
Last piece here. If we all go to the gym tomorrow, I was at a live event doing this for nine hours, that's not gonna change your life. But if we take that nine hours and split it into half hour increments and we do 18 days in a row together, we might build a habit and that can change everything. So to me, that's the best answer I've got, which is if it's not sustainable, you might as well not even start, they say that you have to do something 10,000 times before it becomes a habit.
10,000, my goodness. 10,000. That's a lot. That's from 20 or 30 years ago. When every time that I was being coached, that's what they would tell you when honestly, it's a mindset. If you make your mind up like you did with your girlfriend slash fiance and you say, okay, I just wanna do this for a half an hour.
Each day, and you think it's what's that gonna do? It's so small, but if you do it consistently, it will pay off. Let me ask you a question. Now. You do that Monday to Friday or Monday through Sunday? Oh, always. Always. Every day. Okay. Yeah. I'm just checking. Haven't missed. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't missed a day in 1,168 days.
I have it downstairs on the whiteboard. I track it first thing in the morning every single day. Yeah. Yeah. Good good. I'm glad. I, I can't say that I do it every day, but I'm good for three or four days outta the week. Nice. Where I do some sort and I do it for an hour, so some sort of physical activity for an hour, three or four times a week.
Nice. And I'm saying this being almost 63, so I can, tell you that it helps me. Definitely I feel better, stay better. Mentally I'm better and everything is better. Through that consistent workout training program, the way I see it is, what's the one, what's the one decision you can make now that solves a thousand future problems?
Absolutely. And to me, exercise, it's one of the most, it's a pillar. It's a pillar, and so why not just make that decision, keep the streak once you get a streak going. You want to keep the streak, and I don't know if 10,000 hours is necessarily what you need to build to habit. I think it's 67 days is the latest research, but I do know 10,000 hours is famous by Malcolm Gladwell of the 10,000 hour rule.
And I just surpassed my coaching, training and podcasting 10,000 hours of coaching, training and podcasting. Like I said, I was an engineer, so everything's metrics and numbers for me. Yeah. And so I track everything and honestly, the only way to stay on track, in my opinion, is to track. That's a very good way to do things, and I try to do that most of the time, but I fall short.
I'll tell you right now, I fall short. I do on certain things too. No stress. I, there's a couple things I've tracked consistently over the years and certain things that have fallen off. Okay. Okay. What are three micro habits somebody can build right now to start creating more meaningful and profitable connections?
The first one is tracking metrics. Okay, I figured that. Yeah, that's by far the most important in my opinion. When you track and you get a streak going you are. It's such a powerful thing. Such a powerful thing. Number two would be tracking habits. So there's a lot of habit tracking apps. I use Google Sheets.
One means you did it, zero means you didn't. 0.5 means you did it. I call it green, yellow, red. Green means yes, yellow means sort of red means no. All my clients, all my team, we all track metrics and habits. Everybody, big numbers guy, and then chat. PT can analyze where you're putting your time, all this kind of stuff.
The third micro habit would be probably exercise. Yeah. 'cause if you're not exercising, and I didn't in the past 10 years ago, I got in a tough car accident and. It was my wake up call and I started exercising consistently. I quit drinking. All that exercise will keep your physical state in a positive place and it helps your mindset.
I have one client actually and team members. His name's Brandon. He just started coaching with me. He's done a mile a day every day for more than a thousand days, and he calls it Miles for Mindset and he used to be a football player, but it keeps his head right. It keeps his head right. I'm talking in the middle of the winter.
Like he's big on grit and if you're not exercising consistently, you will feel the negative detriments over time. The science is there. Your brain health is predicated on great sleep and great exercise. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. I went through a health scare myself when I was 50 years old.
It paralyzed half my body. Wow. And it took me three months to get back in shape, and that was my wake up call. That was like no. I was never really a heavy drinker. I never smoked. I was playing sports. I did everything right and I still got this problem. I found out what the problem was.
I got through it and it changed me. And this was right after my wife had just been through a cancer scare. Wow. So between the two of us was like okay, it's time for us to get right. And we changed. We changed completely after those, after that happened. So I know exactly what you're saying.
Sometimes you need that wake up call to, to, to. To make that decision for you or put you in a position where you make that decision? I think it's the humble pie we need. It's the humble pie we need sometimes to commit. And my car accident was humble pie for me, and it changed my whole life. And I just decided to spend my whole life trying to reach my potential and help others do the same.
And that's actually why I'm here now. Yeah just trying to help people reach their potential. It sounds like you're well on your way to doing that. Thank you. How can professionals stay accountable to their networking goals, especially when results aren't immediate? The first ones get a streak going.
I know I keep saying that. I sound like a broken record here. I have a four day streak of my next level sales system. I just created this, I actually created it for a client and then I was like, wait. I need this. That's how coaching works. And I'm four days in a row and once I get a streak going, I'll do anything to keep it.
And that's just a human mindset thing. There's a lot of studies on that. And so I would say try to create some sort of a system that is sustainable. Mine is pretty hefty. Five times a day. Five. Five posts. Five likes, five comments, five dms, and five invites. That's hard to do, especially if you're new.
It is challenging to sustain that. Kevin and I, my business partner and I are both doing that, but I would say get a streak going and create it into something that becomes a part of your identity. Because at the end of the day, we're trying to help people. We're trying to, we're trying to have an impact.
And your company can't help people if no one knows about you. That's right. And you do your best to spreading the word such as this podcast. Exactly. Doing, if you do your work well and you are truly authentic and you believe in yourself, that belief that goes out to your clients. And your clients believe in you and your clients then begin to multiply.
Yep. I have my clients that are through all the stages of networking. I have the beginning stages of the people, which I don't even know where to begin with them, but I'm starting the people who know what they're doing, but need a push. And I have the mid-level to senior leaders who are teaching their.
Juniors had to do what to do and everything else. So I have all the different levels. And you treat each of them differently, of course. But you I'm authentic. I'm myself. I, and I tell 'em right off, I said, look, I'll make mistakes because you don't want perfection. You want somebody who's real.
And we make mistakes together and we, solve them together. But I always say. Yeah. If you have a pro in management or not management, if you have a problem with somebody in your company or else, and you want to bring the problem to their eyes, you better bring a solution with it. Don't just complain. Don't be a complainer. Go there with a solution with the complaint. Nice. And then you'll be heard a lot better. But that I digress. Okay. So you work with people on tracking progress. What does a simple system for tracking relationship building look like? Yeah, so a prospect list.
Okay. There's a lot of people in my space. So the personal development industry, I don't, so I came from a sales background. I was a sales engineer for a company called Cognex. You might know Cognex. They sell industrial automation equipment, machine vision. The eyes of robotics. Okay. I managed a territory of Vermont, Connecticut, and Western Massachusetts.
So I came from business to business, sales engineering. And then I came into the personal development space after my car accident and I realized, oh, I'm not good at selling to consumers. 'cause I think like an engineer, I'm going from selling to engineers and automation engineers and continuous improvement managers, similar to at places like Apple and actually in some cases Apple.
And then I went into the consumer space. The mindset's completely different. Completely not different. Yeah, completely different. Whoa. I realized I actually suck at business to consumer sales because I'm an engineer and I have to learn how to do this. So prospect. What I realized is no one has a prospect list and no one has a system.
I'm a big systems guy. I'm a systems thinker, systems engineer, computer engineer. I have a system for everything. And I don't think a lot of people in this space necessarily do. I think in your space, maybe they do. But you need to have a prospect list. So I have 15 departments and when someone comments on our YouTube channel asking a question, they go on a prospect list and we add them on social media and we connect and it can be Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever, right?
But I realized that not a lot of people have a system and not a lot of people have a prospect list. So I keep it simple. Green, yellow, red. We have cold leads. They don't know you like you or trust you, yet. Warm leads is they know you like you and trust you a bit. Sorry, by the way if the audio is, my landscapers are outside, can you hear it?
Yeah, I could hear a little bit. It's, sorry. Okay. I'm sorry about that. Yeah, so listeners, I apologize. I'm very grateful for the landscapers because I get to be here while they're doing that, but still. Okay, so cold leads, people don't know you don't like, you don't trust you. Warm leads are, they do.
And then hot leads are people who trust you a lot. And then there's dead leads, which are people who are never gonna work with you and who you never wanna work with. But you have to have a prospect list and there has to be categories, and then there has to be ratings that help you identify what is cold, warm, and hot.
And then there's converted clients, which is people who are customers and or clients. And by the way, I don't think a lot of people, and again, maybe some people know this, I'm sure you do, but I made this connection. I thought it was fascinating. Customers are, when you buy a product. Clients are when you have a service.
And I, I've noticed a lot of people never made that connection before. So people go, oh, that's the difference between a customer and a client. A client is a service, a customer is a product that you buy maybe once, and that's the only difference between a customer and a client. It's very true, but I feel that ever since the pandemic, as I said before.
People lost their minds. They don't know how to network. They don't, they think that building a client list is what they have to do when realist, realistically, they have to build relationships. A client list is a byproduct of building meaningful relationships toward common goals and dreams. Yeah, that's right.
But that's after the relationship building. Exactly, and that's really where the switch has happened. I think that switch happened during the pandemic. I, because it used to be when I was selling, build that client list, build it up and up and up. But now it's more relationships. When I used to go to a networking event, a three or four hour networking event, I would come home with a shoebox filled with business cards.
I. Yeah, nice. And thinking I did a great job. Look at all these cards that I got wrong. Now, with a three or four hour event, what I tell people is you should have about 15 or 20 cards. Yeah. Because those are people that you built that relationship with. Exactly. We have clients that we work with. We work with 106 podcasters and business owners.
We have clients that we met at events. I call it the triangle. I went to a Brendan Burchard event. Do you know who Brendan Burchard is? No he had something called High Performance Habits. It's a book and he created something called High Performance Academy. We went to an event, and it's a triangle, so me and the other person are both there for growth.
We're there for learning and growth, and then we happen to meet each other. When you're there to sell, it doesn't work as well. It's a triangulation. So you and I are here to add value first and to serve first, and to sell second. So the primary intention for you and I is to connect and add value to each other and add value to your listeners.
The secondary intention is to network and to sell, and I think that a lot of people get that wrong. I think you're right. I think a are a hundred percent correct. Have you seen a real world example where consistent, intentional networking led to an unexpected breakthrough or opportunity? There's a woman, her name's Dr.
Tn. I'll keep first names only. And she and I met at a Brendan Burchard event. We were there for growth. We were there to learn. We weren't there to necessarily network Networking was a byproduct of mutual growth and development. She, years later, she's been working with us for, we've been producing her podcast for four years now.
Four or five years now. And, but when we first met, it was just a conversation about becoming a podcaster. She was in, she was a dentist, an orthodontist, and she wanted to start a podcast. And we had already had a podcast with 300 plus episodes. And so we were just teaching her how to do it and the to dos and to don'ts.
'cause we had learned the hard way on what to do and what not to do. And eventually she became a client. I coached her for a while. Kevin coached her for a while and we've been producing her show for Almo, probably four plus years now. That's really great. That's really great. Okay, let's flip it. What bad networking habits should people break if they wanna build better and more authentic connections?
A bad networking habit, going into things with service. Second, it's passion, purpose and profit in that order. Passion is. You and I both love podcasting and we both love networking and we both love learning and growing. That's passion. Purpose is we are serving the world with those things. Profit is third.
Profit's important. It can't be 10th, it has to be third, but it can't be first. If you're going in with profit first and you're only at the event to try to get clients, you'll repel people. 'cause they'll feel the neediness, they'll feel the intentions aren't pure. Whereas if I'm here to serve first and share first profit might come as a byproduct.
But it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to. That's so true. I go around all over and I talk about networking, communication, but I always tell everybody, no matter who I talk to, you go in with a servant's heart. Yeah, exactly. You go in looking to give and not receive. Yep. And when you sit down with somebody and you're talking with them, you say, I like what you do.
I like how you're doing it. How can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral partner for you? And that usually blows 'em away. You're not trying to sell me something. You're not trying, you're trying to make me better. What? What's going on? How can I make you more successful?
I feel like people can, he feel your intentions and you can always tell when there's another shoe about to drop. And I think that intentions, if your intentions are pure, I think this primary, secondary and tertiary intention. My primary intention, 96% of me is right here with you. To add value first, secondary intention is I really have to go to the bathroom.
Third intention, tertiary intention is, who knows, maybe one day something comes of this, but if it doesn't, that's okay. I agree a hundred percent. Let's bring this full circle. If you could give our listeners one piece of advice to build a networking habit that compounds over time, what would it be?
Find your people and you're absolutely not people. So I have two, I have my absolutely people and my absolutely not people. And I'll give you mine, it took me 30 freaking years to figure this out. Yeah. And again, I know that sounds early to some people, but to me that, the amount of time and effort I wasted on the wrong people.
My goodness. So my absolutely. People have high humility, inward humility, they have high work ethic, and they are into growth. They have a growth mindset. They love personal development. Okay? Those are my absolutely people, and I can size them up quick. More importantly, my absolutely not. People are the opposite.
They're arrogant, they're entitled, they, and they want big rewards for minimal effort. Those are my absolutely not people. I'm someone who is came from very little, very humble beginnings. Lost my birth father at two, stepfather, left at 14, bootstrapped my way and I have created where I've gotten to out of just brute force work ethic.
And I didn't realize that 'cause until my thirties and I realized, okay, this is very different. And anyone who wants big rewards with minimal effort and has any level of laziness, we're just not gonna work well together because I'm very tenacious, I guess is what I would say. That's very true.
I grew up with a single mom my whole life and I went to the school of hard knocks. Same. I went to the school of learning my mistakes and I've made plenty of them, but I, there not really a mistake if you've learned from them. So I built my entire business. Around that. I've been a business owner.
I've owned different businesses. I was in the military. I learned how leadership from many different ways, and I learned networking in many different ways, and it was a culmination of all of that for me to get where I am today. So I know exactly. What you're saying to a certain point I don't know your heartaches and things like that, but I see what you've become.
You overcame all of that, and you are a good person. That, that came out of it. And so you are, you're thumbing your nose to all the bad things that have happened to you and said, see, I can do this anyway. And you did. And you are, you're right on the right path. And you've, you're so good in this section, in, in this place where you are, you're building your business.
It's all great. It's all great. It's it's a growth journey. It's been a challenge but it's also been really meaningful and I appreciate it. At the end of the day, all of us have certain people that we work really well with and certain people that we do not work well with, and I think that it's really important to identify who you work really well with and who you don't.
That way you can be a little bit more strategic in the way in which you build relationships. Absolutely. Alan, this was a fantastic you are a fantastic guest. I really appreciate you coming on. I really appreciate the knowledge that you've shared with my listeners. If somebody wanted to contact you for coaching or otherwise, how would they do it?
Yeah. Thank you, Michael, for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you are out there and you are humble and have high work ethic and a growth mindset, and you really are committed to reaching your potential, you're gonna love what we do at Next Level University. You're gonna love everything we do.
We have a book club. We do monthly meetups, so next level universe.com has everything on there. Like I said, we have 15 departments. Next Level University is a place where you go to learn how to reach your own unique potential. I also have something called Podcast Growth University. I just started something called Business Growth University, so everything's at next level universe.com.
The podcast Next Level University has 2068 episodes, as of That's yesterday. Yeah, as of yesterday. As of today, actually, as of today. We recorded two of them yesterday, and it's 1% improvement in your pocket from anyone on the planet completely free. What I opened with the 84 million, the 0.1% improvement, that's what the podcast is built around.
It's built around. If you get 0.1% better each day over the long term, it is unbelievable what you can become and what you can achieve. And that's what our podcast is about. So if you're interested in that, reach out. Perfect. Thank you Alan. Thank you for coming on to my podcast and I hope all of my listeners got something out of it.
Thank you, Michael. I appreciate it.
Well, hold on folks. Don't go anywhere. Lemme just read a few of our sponsors that we have. Struggling to read success. Maybe. Time to quit in Quit Your Way to Success by Rodney Davis. This reveals 27 steps to Breaking Bad Habits that hold you back. This powerful book helps you rewire your mindset, take control of your actions, and turn setbacks into stepping stones with real life examples.
Motivational quotes and actionable lessons, especially for sales professional, you'll gain the tools to quit what's stopping you and start winning. Transform your future today. So quit Your Way to Success by Rodney Davis. Available now on Amazon. And this is a nonprofit called Revved Up Kids. This is something I believe in Wholeheartedly Revved Up Kids is on a mission to protect children and teens from sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.
They provide prevention, training programs for children, teens, and adults. To learn more, go to rev up kids.org. That's R-E-V-V-E-D-U-P-K-I-D-S. Org.
Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.
Digital Courses
Comments