Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Andi Shaughnessy / Danielle Carter and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- 6 days ago
- 16 min read
Welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections, the place where real people, real stories, and real relationships create real opportunity. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and today's episode is special. I'm joined by two sisters who bring personal growth, resilience, and practical wisdom straight to the entrepreneurial journey.
They've built together, grown together and faced challenges head on using connection, trust, and honest conversation as fuel. We're digging into how relationships shape resilience, how growth happens faster when you don't go it alone, and how entrepreneurs can build circles that support when things get tough, not just when things look good.
If you've ever felt stuck, isolated, or unsure. Who should be in your corner as you grow this conversation is for you. I'd like to welcome to the podcast Andy. And Danielle. Each of them will introduce themselves, but I want you guys to give me a little bit of a backstory, a little bit of a, how you got here, what I, you told me what you went through, but give me a general overview and then we can start.
Sure. Thank you for having us. As you mentioned, Annie and I are sisters, and so our dad owned a delivery same day delivery company. And we took over in 2012, about a year after he was diagnosed with cancer. So at the time I was home raising three young children and Andy was at her dream job in New York at the NHL.
And it's just us. There's no other siblings. And so we made the decision, okay we're gonna come back to the, or really go into the family business with little to zero experience. About a week, about a couple weeks after we, we buried our dad our, we had a long time employee take the top three customers.
And so at that point it was really. Is there even a business anymore? And so the decision we, kept going with the decision to come back, but really we were in for the fight of our lives. I'm sure. And Andy, you wanna add anything to that? No, that really sets the stage. I think the biggest thing was we, we had little jobs here and there throughout our early years, college years, stuff like that.
But nothing to do with running the business. At all. So we were coming in very green, bold. Yes. Okay. I'm sure. Okay, so your sisters and business partners, how has growing up together shaped the way you build trust and connection with others in business?
Wow, that's a good question. I think. It's all about trust and really it's just, I think we had to trust each other, first and foremost that it was going to be okay. And then we trickle that to our clients and our customers. They had, we learned early on that they needed to trust us and that we needed to say.
That we could do things that we knew we really could and that we were honest with them. And whether that meant, no, we can't take on that work right now 'cause we just don't think we could do a really good job at that. Just really about being honest, whether we were gonna be late on a delivery, all the things.
But I just think it trust was a big thing. I don't think, we really didn't trust, there wasn't a moment. We never trusted each other. Yeah, and I think as sisters growing up in a house that was encouraged, just honesty. We, it was just the four of us. It was our mom, our dad, and Danielle and I, and so communication was everything.
We weren't afraid to say how we felt. It was welcomed and it was expected. And so I think that's just who we are. So when we came to the business, it was like, we're not gonna pretend to be something we're not, and we're not gonna say things that we don't mean because that is not, it was, it's just not in our DNA.
And I think that carried a lot of weight and was very helpful too. Yeah I'm sure you know in the networking and communication world trust is such a major factor. And there's a mantra. If they know you, if they like you and they trust you, they'll do business with you. So now everybody knows you.
You're the daughters, so that everybody knew you, everybody likes you. But that narrow down the scope a little bit because everybody won't like you, but trust is such a major factor, and the fact that you two can trust one another puts you a step ahead of just another two people going into business.
I owned. Many businesses, brick and mortar, from pizzerias to restaurants to ice cream stores, to, it was, it's great, I was in it with my two brothers, so we had that immediate trust factor and that helped us along. Yeah. Okay. Entrepreneur entrepreneurship tests, resilience fast.
When setbacks hit, how did your relationships help you recover faster or see options you couldn't see alone?
I think our relationship was everything and I think we. That's how I think we got through all the obstacles was together. I don't think, one of us could have done this alone. I'll speak for myself. I, there's no shot in the world I would have or could have done this by myself or with even anybody else in business, anyone that even stayed.
I think it had to be Andy. It had to be the two of us. We had to figure this out from the beginning alone with each other. I just think that's. That's how we grew and that's how the business grew. Yeah. And we often say to each other my weaknesses are Danielle's strengths and vice versa. And so that that's huge.
And we knew what they we know what they are. We're sisters. But in business you learn it too, and you can see it pretty clearly. It's a beautiful thing to have as well. That's a major step. Yeah. If you know your weaknesses, your strengths are very valuable, but your weaknesses, that's where the business can fall apart.
And if you two can pick up one another, then that again, that your step ahead now put your two steps ahead. Okay, so you went into it with that. I don't know about the financial aspect or anything else like that, but as person a personnel goes, you're already have a a symbiance a togetherness that no other two people can have other than sisters.
Okay. So many entrepreneurs focus on skills before people. At what point did you realize relationships were the real accelerant for growth? Day one. There was no skills that, there was that. Wasn't even, yeah. We didn't, we did not have the skills to do what we did. But we knew how to treat people and we knew how to be vulnerable and ask for help with the team that was there.
And we knew we couldn't come in and say this is what we wanna do. Not that we really had an idea, but we knew that we had to earn the trust of the team and learn. So from day one, we knew that people and how we treated people was the foundation of that company. So I realized that, and that's true in any business, that is the way you treat your customers or other personnel is how you're, you start your business.
What was your learning curve for your business? It was ev it was, couldn't be more steep. It was everything. Like we joke, I, we didn't know what a p and l was. I didn't even know what it stood for, the bus, e everything. The only thing that we knew how to do, we had people skills. That's it.
And so two people had stayed on when our dad passed and I didn't even feel like we're still learning their trust. It's been 13 years. But it was just relying on them and learning as you go and making mistakes. And it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to not know anything. We didn't know anything.
Just getting comfortable with that and knowing you can learn as you go. I suppose those two employees had to be that trustworthy in order for them for you to, because it would've been very easy for them to lead you astray. Oh. Or leave, or secure their own future and say, this is unstable and I need to and we wouldn't have faulted them for that.
The, it was such rocky times that I would've understood that decision too. But for some reason, they really. I think because of our dad and the history of the company, they stayed and they learned to trust us. It, it took a while, but our faith was in them really from day one.
A hundred percent. And I think they might have just, they trusted the company. Yeah. What we were doing. And it had been, it's been around since 81 and they had been there for a long time. So I, maybe they, yeah. I thank God they stayed. 'cause we wouldn't be here. They felt a little, they felt loyalty to you because of your dad?
I think. To the company. Yeah. Yeah, to the company. The company and our dad. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What's one hard moment in your journey where a single conversation or connection changed to the direction of your business?
I don't know if it was a hard, and we might have different answers, a hard conversation, but we needed a line of credit desperately, and we had. Many banks turn us down. And that wasn't easy hearing. No and no we actually can't extend you a line of credit right now for X, Y, Z, but the turning point in the company was when a bank said yes.
Boston Private at the time, and we're still with them. They're now for citizens, but. That moment changed the course of the company. That allowed us some breathing room and that allowed us to scale. And without that line of credit, we wouldn't have grown the way that we are we still continue to do.
So that was a pivotal moment for expressive. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. Great. That's exactly what I was looking for. As sisters, you bring different strengths to the table. How do those differences show up in a way of that you network and build opportunity?
I
I don't know. I think.
I don't know how to answer that. To build network and opportunity. I I think we're a good, I think we're a good duo in networking. Yes. In networking environments. Yes. So if we could be, that's where our strengths and weaknesses come out. So we could talk about business or maybe I'm a little shy, Janelle gets her going.
So I think it's more of the personalities come out and we're very different. So I think that helps. Is that how are you networking right now? We could be better at it. Yeah, we talk about this all the time. We, we could be a lot better. I would rate us a c, like maybe a B minus a C.
We go in with really high hopes and then we go in, we get in there and sometimes we freeze. Sometimes we're not assertive to go over to a group of people and say, oh, I'm Danielle, this is Andy. We don't express it like, we'll never do. We just can't do that. That's just not in our DNA.
But we try, we, we try we go to the events, we're invited, we go, yeah, we're go. We say Yes. Yeah. Okay. I asked you that it wasn't even on my list of questions. Just because that's what I do. I coach people such as yourselves on how to do that. So I'm always interested to find out how somebody who has been in business for such a long time, how they're networking right now to secure their future.
So I'm just trying to ga gauge that just a little bit. Is there a chamber of commerce where you are? Yeah. Yeah. So we're based, Danielle and I are based out of Boston, just south of it. And so that is something, we've been members of different things such as that before. We haven't really taken advantage of it.
I think now being 13 years in. I think we'd probably be more confident joining a group like that. We could be able to speak to it. I think in the early days we didn't know what to say. We didn't even know what we were selling, so it was like, what? We're gonna go to these events. It was scary. I've done BNI groups.
That was networking, but that was more like professional kind of growth, just being able to talk in front of people. I think at this point we're just leveraging our network, right? Our bank introduces us to people they think, so we'll go to lunch and just like the basics of the basics.
That's where we're at. Okay. Okay. For entrepreneurs feeling isolated, what's the first step to reconnecting without feeling awkward, needy, or out of sync? I think. I think find someone else you can help or find someone that you wanna learn from. Because I think either way, if you can help someone, you feel good and I think you feel less isolated and people love to share their knowledge and find a mentor or become a mentor, that would be, I don't know, that's just my.
Yeah I was gonna say, find people in your industry too. Some of the best conversations we have are people like us, founders of, same day delivery that we get to have conversations with, and what's your pain point? It's insurance. What's yours? Things like that. So maybe find people that are doing the same sort of job.
People wanna help each other. It's not like cutthroat, competitive. Most people are good and wanna help each other. That's very true. When you go into a networking event, you go in with what's called a servant's heart, you go in looking to give instead of receive, right? So if you go into a networking event.
With a servant's heart, you can really, you get the best out of people because you're looking to help them. The same way as I connect people on LinkedIn, if you want, you reach out to, you're looking for somebody within your industry, somebody that you really want to connect with, you connect with them and ask them, say, do you have 15 minutes?
Can I bounce some things off of you? They'll be more than happy to so Sure. Care how busy they are, because they love to talk about a, they love to talk about themselves and what they've accomplished, but they love to pass on the information to somebody else. And you get the information, but it makes them feel so good.
Yep. Okay, so resilience isn't just a mindset, it's community. How do you intentionally build relationships that support you during pressure, not just wins?
For us it's family. I think that our number one support is during the most. Difficult times, and we've had many, has been the family. Our mother, our significant others just our extended family. But the people that are, they're there for you in the tough times, even more than the wins.
That, that's it for us. Me, anyways, I would say our family has been, you just need one person who believes in you, but can also be there for you. It's, yeah, and I think our partnerships, like with the bank and with our accounting team, things that we outsource that, we've been, we're pretty loyal.
So like these partnerships are really, are have been around for, since we took over. So I think that's important too. Someone that understands your business, understands how you work and they're the ones that you're calling when you do need support in the business and things are going sideways.
Yeah. If you can, even when you go to these networking events, you look for that support. So if you have somebody that is a little bit more of an extrovert than an introvert, okay? Who's a little bit more gregarious. Now the two of you are very are great to speak with because it's just the three of us right now.
Put you into a large room with a lot of people. Yeah. It's ooh, no. So you have that one person who is very supportive, who knows you inside and out, knows your business inside and out, and take them with you. Yeah. Yeah. When you walk up to that table of people that's talking. The first thing you do is you're listening.
You listen for the conversation. Is this a conversation that you wanna be a part of? If it is, that's great, and, but you're still not going to blurt out what you wanna say. But that person that you brought with, you can say, oh, wait a second. You know what? Danielle knows a lot about that. Danielle, why don't you tell us a bit about that?
And that kind of gives you an in for that. So that just a little tidbit as we're going along. Cool. Okay. What practical habit helped you turn inspiration into action when it came to staying visible and connected?
Do you have one?
No, I. I don't know. That's a tricky one. Yeah.
You don't have one. Can you repeat it again? What practical habit helped you turn inspiration into action? When it came to staying visible and connected?
You don't have something that you do every day. You mean personally or in the business? I generally say business because that's what this is all about. But it could be personal. But because if it helped you personally, it's gonna help you in business.
Yeah I'm not sure other than gratitude, I'm not sure. Yeah. Okay. Alright, we'll move on to the next question. How do you spot relationships that help you grow versus ones that quietly drain energy and momentum? Oh, it's instantaneous. I, it's almost like it's for me, we're very good at reading that whether someone is our energy.
The energy that we live in. And I think that's probably easier for us, I think, anyways, to spot. Now we've had a couple hard lessons learned, but Yeah. Yeah. And I think even the challenging ones yeah. Help you grow because then so I think that those are just as important.
Actually, those are much more important than the easier people to work with. Just like your failures, you learn more about your failures than your successes. So I you learn I, I've been in business for 40 years and I can tell when somebody is just trying to yes me to death or they're actually giving me input.
And the people that yes me to death, listen, I'll yes 'em back and I'll move on. I won't be, I won't, be bad to them or anything else. I'll be nice, but I'll move on. And the people that I feel that would really give me that, that information that I'm looking for, then I'll stay until speak with.
Okay. So let's bring this full circle. If an entrepreneur listening today. Wants stronger confidence, better connections, and more opportunity in the next 90 days. What's one move they could make this week?
More confidence, stronger connections. And what was the third Visibility It. Better, more stronger confidence, better co connections, and more opportunity in the next 90 days. This is your words of wisdom. Yeah. I don't, like I said before, we need work in this area, so I think what I, my goal for the next 90 days, maybe I'll commit to it as I give this advice, reach out to one person a week on LinkedIn.
This is what I wanna do, people that I want to connect with, ask for a meeting, like a 20 minute whatever. 'Cause I think that's scary for some people. And I think it used to be very scary for me and still is, but I think the more I do it, the more confidence I'm gonna get from doing that. And the more connections people are always looking to connect.
People ask to connect with us all the time. And so it's like I'm just gonna connect with them and then have a conversation. And so I think that would build momentum and that's just from me personally, looking at how I can be better at it. That would be my one piece. When you connect with somebody, with anybody over LinkedIn, you connect with them.
If they try to sell you almost immediately, then it's a bad connection. And you don't try to sell them. But what you can do is bring value to the connection. My last, when I did a workshop for somebody in Ohio it was a roofing company. And the way I started to speak with them, I didn't just come out and say, oh, look, I want to come and do a workshop.
But I said, okay, look, here's an article, metal roofs and against asphalt roofs. I, IEI linked it to him and I said, you know what? I think you may find this. Information useful. And I did that two or three times and I let him see the value of our connection, and then I started to ask him. So you break into it slowly.
Yeah. That's what you do. Okay. This is what meaningful networking really looks like. Growth through connection, strength through community and progress built one honest conversation at a time. If today's episode sparks something for you, don't let it stop here. Think about who's in your circle, who supports your growth, and who you need to reach out to.
Next, share this episode with an entrepreneur who could use encouragement and direction right now. Subscribe to networking unleashed, building prop, profitable connections so you don't miss conversations that make you smarter. Now, before we go, Andy, Danielle, how can somebody, if they're interested in your service or interested in talking to you or coaching you or be coached by you, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you?
Yeah, I think LinkedIn for sure. Both of us individually on there, and then express it on there too. But reach out to us directly and then express@delivery.com. That's our business name, our contact info's there too. But LinkedIn's your best bet, and like I said I'm gonna be on a connecting goal for the next 90 days.
Okay, great. Danielle, Andy, this was great. I thank you very much for coming on my podcast. Thank you. I'm sure that all of my listeners will get a whole lot out of this, and if they call you even better. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. So much.
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a huge thank you to our guests for sharing such incredible insights today, and of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending your time with us. If you're interested in my digital courses being coached or having me come and talk to your company, just go to MichaelAForman.com and fill out the request form.
Remember, networking isn't about being perfect. It's about being present. So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review. Share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
Let's keep the conversation going. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my website michaelaforman.com/podcast.
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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