Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Amanda Catarzi Hengst and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- 11 minutes ago
- 15 min read
📍 📍 📍 Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. Welcome back to the show, folks. I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and you're listening to the podcast where networking is more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee. It's an art and a talent, but here's the twist. It's an art and talent you can actually learn.
Yes. Even if you're the person hiding in the corner at every event, pretending to check emails, networking isn't just a nice skill to have. It's a game changer. When you get good at it, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner. More connections. More opportunities, more pro profits. It's like unlocking a cheat code for life.
So whether you're the life of the party or the, just let me stay at home and text type, we've got something for you. So stick around. Let's turn those awkward small talk moments into big wins. I've got actually an incredible guest today. I. Her name is Amanda Hanks and she's got really a comprehensive background but I'm gonna let her go into it.
But I will just say that Amanda survived cult life and trafficking to become the Millionaire Muse. Her journey embodies resilience transformed into results. So without butchering that too much. Amanda, welcome to the podcast, and why don't you tell us a little bit more about your background. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
So yeah, as you said, I was raised in a very unconventional, ultra conservative cult. And then after we outgrew that and got out of the cult in my adult life, I was, ended up being sex and labor trafficked by my ex-boyfriend, but. All those things serve to teach me how to become a better communicator and writer.
So I am grateful for those opportunities that have now served me. And so now I write and I help people communicate and connect with impact and with a strategy. And yeah I'm super blessed. So that's fantastic. There is a local organization called Revved Up Kids, and they have a website revved up kids.org, which I think you might find very interesting.
And it's, they're actually a sponsor for the podcast, but I, it falls right along the lines of trafficking and protecting the young girls from. Their family basically, or anybody else, but just to take a look into that. Sure. How does effective copywriting contribute to building strong, profitable business relationships?
It's. The whole reason for strong, profitable businesses, because copywriting is a form of communication and it's a form that most of your leads or business partners or people interested in, you will encounter first before they actually get the opportunity to encounter you. They read something online.
They see content online they see words, online, ads, something. So copywriting is usually people's first and last impression of you. So it is the most important piece of business, I would dare say, because it's communication. And communication is what makes the world go round. Absolutely right. The networking and communication is the crux of, I would say every business, but it's every person as well.
So it's very important. What are customer pain points most businesses overlook when crafting their message? They often tend to try to speak with their own voice to the person they are right now. Instead of looking at who their ideal client is and speaking to that person, they get too caught up in their own brand voice or their own personal voice that they forget that they're not trying to sell themselves, they're trying to sell themselves.
Five years ago. And they want to go too deep, too quick, and they completely go over their prospect's heads completely, or the person they're looking to connect with. That. That's very good information and very good insights. How can professionals use networking insights to create more persuasive and conversation driven copy.
I love the test of seeing how people introduce me because how they introduce me is how they actually perceive me, and it tells me. How, what my communication and how they're interpreting either my copy or my communication, that's a telltale side. If they don't know how to explain who you are or what you do, that's a massive problem and a massive disconnect.
So I'm always curious in networking events or even situations like this how people end up introducing you to other people. Pay attention to that because that will give you insight into how people are interpreting your copy or your messaging. And then also. You get to practice new different lines.
You get to practice new different catch phrases. You get to practice new, different titles that you wanna try, and it's a really great instant feedback. People go, oh. That's usually a good sign. Or if they go, okay, then that means you're boring. So paying attention to how people interact with you, when you talk about what you do, how people introduce you, is almost instant marketing feedback and very valuable data.
Yeah you're touching on so many points, so many networking points, which are so on point that I can't, I don't know where to begin. As far as I'm concerned, doing everything correct when you give that 32nd, elevator pitch or speech that you're want to give. You're seeing the reaction.
So if the reaction isn't good from what you say, then you're like, all right, I'm gonna scrub that and I'm gonna try something else. So you're right. So you see by the actions and reactions of everybody concerned. Yeah. Can you share a framework or method for crafting Copy speaks directly to a customer's pain points.
That's a good one. What I normally do when I'm writing is I look at what I want the end result or emotion to be. I. I work backwards from that emotion. So if I want peace, then I start working backwards with how do I create the emotion of peace inside that? And what words am I using? And I start to curate the phrases, even the pattern, even the rhythm.
Of the sentence, the rhetoric around how do I create a nice and consistent pace so that it feels peaceful versus if I wanna create urgency, I'm gonna jumble a bunch of words together. I'm gonna use short sentences. I'm gonna use, all capital. I'm gonna create, structure it differently to create a different emotion.
So I start at the end of motion and work my way backwards. That's great. And I wanna touch upon something that. Is relevant to this, but also the question before is that you have to have active listening. You have to be able to listen to everybody, not hear them, but actually listen to them.
And of course then there is the pause after the listen because what does that tell the person that you were listening? So you might say, it's, I understand that you said. Blah, blah, blah. So that tells them that you are listening to what they have to say, and it really, it makes them feel better.
It invokes a bit of confidence and it tells them, what you're doing. A hundred percent. What strategies do you recommend for quickly identifying a potential client's true needs during a conversation or networking event? I let them tell me. So a lot of times I'll lead with what's going on in your world?
What's something good, what's something bad going on in your world? And if they immediately go to business, then I know that's where their focus is. If they go to something outside of business, whether it's family or my kid's been sick, or, something like that, then I can get a grip on where.
Their priorities are at, not to say like one's better than the other, it's just where their mind frame is. And then I start navigating that and connecting with them on that level. So I ask a lot of open-ended questions that will let them tell on themselves. So I don't go in and say, you need copywriting, and I'm pitching email sequences to you.
Where's your bottleneck in your business? What do you hate about entrepreneurship? What's the one thing that drives you crazy about running your business? And then whether or not I'm the direct solution or I give a referral, I'm gonna be a solution no matter what to them. I'm gonna bring value no matter what to them.
So I let them lead the way. Very good. Very good. Because you have to remember that everyone's got a problem. And you're there to solve their problem. Whether you can do it or not, it's up to you. But if you can refer them, because you're not gonna leave it open-ended, you're there to help them.
And if they help, if you help them by referring them to somebody who can help them, that's great. But that they will always remember you for that. So you're striking it rich every time. Or even they might not ha be in a place to where they need me yet. They might not have their LLC set up, they might not have, even their business formatted or their system.
So it might be a train wreck if I try to get in and help them right now. So if I can set them up for success to where I can get them to a place to where they'll actually need me and my services, that's a win as well. Absolutely. And if you're, you put all their information into your CRM or whatever you use, and you may deal with them six months down the road.
Just touching them like once a month or something. Say, Hey, look, I'm here. How's this? Or how's that? How's it going? And you're keeping in their mind. So again that's very good. Okay, so what are some real world examples of what great copy turned a casual business connection into a long-term client?
Goodness, o. My mind is running a million different directions. When you, good job, when you walk, when you talk about nurturing a lead for more than six months, this is probably when I teach younger. Kids, I'm gonna call them kids, but they're in their twenties younger kids how to write and how to sell.
They're like I haven't heard from 'em in a week. So I moved on and I'm like, are you crazy? So all that to say, I had one person and I really, I felt something in my gut about her. And I pursued this lead for four years, four years. Then finally, and there were so many moments where we almost closed the deal.
There were so many moments where we almost did things time and time again, three or four times. Finally, we were there, the deal closed and I'm like, this is when she normally walks. So I did not have a lot of hope tied to it. But then the wire came through and she's spent over. $150,000 with me within a couple months.
So it was well worth that nurture and it was well worth, a casual conversation of I would love to do this for you, and just offering value, offering support. Offering, a script or an email or just favors now and then. And again to get her to a point to where she was ready to, I had so much trust and history built with her that she was more than willing once she finally got to that point to spend a lot of money.
And so we just finished her book is one of the things we've done for her, and it's in editing right now, so it's going to come out pretty soon. Good. That falls along the lines of 'cause in networking, the networking world, if they know you, if they like you, if they trust you, they'll do business with you and you built that trust.
'cause your whole thing, when you're meeting somebody, whatever, is to break down that wall, is to build up your trust. And that's what you did. That's what you did over the four years, of course. But then when it came time to her signing on the dolled line. There was no problem. 'cause she trusted you. Yep. And that was, that's the whole thing.
Very good. Okay, so get ready for this questions. Okay. What are the biggest mistakes people make when trying to write persuasive copy for their business? They are too focused on selling and forget that they're talking to a human and they need to connect with a human first. So they go straight into this weird, like when you go to Starbucks and that there's that customer service voice, and they're like, hi, welcome to Starbucks, da.
They do not talk that way in normal life, and people slip into this customer service voice when they start writing copy and they forget that there's a human that they're interacting with. They don't have to put on that weird customer service, robotic voice, just talk like a normal person and it's gonna go over so much better.
So I talk people out of, I'm like, stop it. Stop selling, start connecting. You don't need more leads. You need more conversations. Very good. Very good. Very good. Because really, and I say this because it's as of the pandemic, because the days of. You're building your customer base that's really out the window.
This is now a time of building relationships, and those relationships will become fruitful, of course, but it's all about you and your follow up to the people that you just met, and everything comes together. Yep. The money is always in the follow up and value based follow up. Not just Hey, what do you think?
Hey, you ready to sign? Hey, you ready to get to work? No. It's oh, I saw this article about pickleball and I know you mentioned you love pickleball and I thought of you or saw that you posted, you were having a rough day. Here's a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Doesn't take much. No, it doesn't take much.
Just knowing that you cared that much about me. And I'll always keep you top of mind and that's the way to do it. Yes, sir. How can someone who isn't a natural writer improve their ability to craft compelling messages for networking follow-ups? Chat, GPT, and okay, I say this with great power comes great responsibility.
So chat absolutely GT is a tool. It is not an end all be all, but what you can do is compose your first draft. Throw it into chat GPT and ask it, Hey, I need you to be my copywriter. Where would you improve this? This is a follow-up email. I want it to be casual. I want it to be warm conversation, whatever adjectives you want to use.
And it'll generate. And my favorite thing to do with chat GPT right now, I go, is that the best you can do? Is what I ask it. And it like snaps to attention and gives me some great results after I challenge it. That's super funny. But I, I. I think people are under utilizing chat, GBT 'cause they're afraid and there maybe they don't understand how to use it in a way that will maximize their skill.
They're relying on it for skill completely. And no, use it like a tutor. Use it like a tool. Use it as something that can train you to be better because it most definitely can. And what you said was so correct. I don't know if you could put a thing on correct. But chat, GPT is a tool for them to use.
And if they're just starting out, it's a great tool for them to start, but they have to put their own personality into it, their own spin and everything. So just use it as a tool. Don't use it as an end all. No. No, you should always good at the last. Human touch on it. You should never let BT have the last touch on your copy ever.
Absolutely. Absolutely. With the rise of AI and automation, how can professionals ensure their messaging still feels personal and authentic? This leads right into that. Hire a copywriter. Yes because I talk with copywriters all the time and I use. Chat, GBTI use Claude. I use AI tools constantly.
If you're not, you're going to fall behind, but again, it's using it in the right way. So chat, GPT is not a creator. It is a condenser and clarifier. Sam Altman actually gave an interview on this and he said people are using it completely wrong. They're using chat GBT to create and expand when it was built to condense and clarify.
So what you need to do is word vomit onto chat GPT and ask it to clarify condense. Cut it down instead of asking it to create. We as humans, we're one of the few creatures that can actually create brand new organic things. And I have a whole weird spiritual theory about this, but I won't bore you with that.
And when we create. There's a soul to it. There's al, there's some soul to it, right? Some grips, some human el element to it that we can't quite put our finger on. When we see art, when we experience music, when we experience anything that's been created and we often recognize. That there's a soullessness to the AI copy.
So again, use it, but then sprinkle your special sauce onto it after you've used it for the first draft. Put that human element. Use the psychology. I started a series called Things Chat, GPT Can't Do on LinkedIn. I'm diving into the different psychology approaches that chat GBT won't think to do. I'm diving into the different rhythms of rhetoric that are used from great writers, from great speech givers.
And it's stuff that chat GBT doesn't think to do because it doesn't think, it just copies. So I'm all for using ai. I love automation. It's maximized my business, 10 x my business for sure. But again, using it responsibly, I. That, that's terrific. You sound like you've been so successful, but along the way you had to make mistakes.
Oh, yeah. So what mistake, give me a, the biggest mistake you've made and how you overcame it.
Goodness. So what? I failed fast, and hard. I think the biggest mistake was letting other people dictate my worth and try to make me write, I. In a different way. I let, and I made the wrong people successful with my copy, so now I know the power I have as a copywriter and that I will make you successful if you bring me into your team there.
That's a not negotiable. It's straight up going to happen. So now I'm in a space to where I can choose who I work with. And I do that by not really caring about how much money you make, not really caring about where your brand is. All I care about is your character and your integrity. Are you someone that if I help elevate you, will you operate in integrity?
And if that's a yes, then I wanna work with you. If that's questionable, I will not work with you. Because, yeah, I mean it works and to not doubt my own worth, then there's also been things where I've had, I know my lane and I know my niche and I know who I write for my ideal client. And anytime I move outside that lane, I end up regretting it.
Anytime I compromise on my systems or my process, I instantly regret it. So do not do it. Stick with your systems and processes. Gotcha, gotcha. And in being a, a public speaker and. Coach and trainer, I learned that. Pick a lane. Stick to the lane. Pick one idea, one thought, and just stay in that lane.
Now, of course, when you, unless you're a Tony Robbins and you can talk about anything, but pick a lane and you're talking about doing the same thing. Okay. Let's bring this full circle. What's one immediate change listeners can make to their networking follow ups or marketing copy to improve engagement and conversations?
I think people get discouraged after three or five follow-ups. It takes seven to 10 points of contact for a sale, and that's true also for social work. It takes seven to 10 points of contact that I found as a social worker to bring someone into recovery or out of their toxic system into a better one.
So don't get discouraged and don't quit. So early on, and then also be focused on impact and value not the sale. And if you're focused on creating a positive impact and bringing value, your sales and profits are gonna be a happy consequence of that focus. Yep. I always, I truly believe whenever you go to a networking event or meet somebody or anything else, you always look to give, not receive.
So if you looked Zig Ziglar came out with, looking to give and not receive and it'll come back to you. But it's a great philosophy. Yeah. Because then you don't have to worry about it 'cause it will come back to you. Amanda, this was fantastic. I can probably talk to you for another hour.
But if somebody wanted to get hold of you the best way, what's the best way to get hold of you? Honestly Instagram, I live on Instagram and it's Amanda Zi, which is my maiden name, is my handle. Okay. Very good. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me.
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.
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