Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Ann Carden and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Apr 7
- 14 min read
My guest today, Ann Carden really has an extensive background and I'm just going to give you a taste of her background, but I'm going to introduce her and let her finish.
Ann is a top business growth expert, marketing and sales strategist. and consultant. She's the CEO of A. Carden Inc. and the expert in attraction marketing, media agency, and the brand. So before I butcher that, that background even more, okay Anne, first of all, welcome to the show. And why don't you just introduce yourself?
Thank you, Michael. Yes, I so I am the CEO of expert in you marketing and media agency, and it is really around helping people build solid personal brand step into the expert spotlight and get more. from what they are out there doing. So if they're out there networking really help them build up that powerful brand to be seen as the go to person that people want to connect with.
People want to be in their presence and yeah, that is what I do. That's great. That great. That falls right in line with the whole feeling of this podcast. What's your top strategy for turning casual connections into valuable business relationships? Yeah. So it really starts with understanding what the other person like making it about the other person.
So one of the things that people I, I networked for years and years building multiple businesses. And one of the things that a mistake that people make is when they meet someone, they instantly hand their business card or they want to make it all about them. And they want to start talking about what they do instead.
My favorite thing is tell me about yourself, tell me what you're all about, tell me what you do, and making that connection with people everybody likes to talk about themselves, right? The other thing is it really opens up opportunities. If you're a better listener, then you do more talking, you will hear opportunities where you can help people in multiple ways.
You, you hit on about eight different points that I always talk about regarding networking because, networking is something that you don't receive something every time you go to a networking event or you meet somebody, you look to give, how can I give, how can I be a good referral source for the people, and as long as you have that in mind, you'll succeed, but being that active listener, you're That is such an important part of things.
How has networking contributed to success as a business growth expert? First of all, I built all of my businesses through networking and building partnerships, relationships. It got me on stages, it gave me speaking opportunities. So it was the foundation for practically every business I started.
You have to get out there and let people hear about you and see about you. And I've been doing this for about 34 years in business. I've been an entrepreneur for about 34 years, so we have other opportunities. Now we can network online. We can network offline. I love to merge those two worlds.
I love to teach people how to do that, a hybrid model where they are doing both, but. Before really the internet or before it was mainstream for all of us, we didn't have any options except to get out there and meet and greet and, get connected with people in that way. I, yeah, I always say that you, when you meet the person, you feel the vibe of the person.
Oh, yeah, the vibe of the room. And it's so telling, I've been in networking situations where I've walked out of the room, because I didn't like the vibe of the room. I didn't like the direction where they were going. You can't really do that on zoom. You can't just I guess you can shut it all down.
Oops, we're having technical problems. Sorry about that. Okay, can you share a memorable story of how networking led to a significant breakthrough in your career? Oh my goodness. I just think about so many stages that I got on came from networking opportunities where I would just let people know, Hey, I'm looking for more speaking engagements.
I'm looking for this or building relationships with people, but also strategic partnerships. I've been able to build amazing partnerships and teams. Even hired employees as a result of networking. I could go on and on, really it was the foundation for starting again for starting businesses and getting those businesses going now.
Most of my networking is online. I don't do much offline anymore, but even when I go out and speak, I'm still networking with people that are in the audience. I'm one of those speakers that I'll show up and I'll hang out and I visit with people and I still love that person to person connection. Yeah, that's the way to go.
I speak on stages as well. I do workshops and breakout sessions and everything, but there's nothing like the before and after the talk, you get to see the people you get to see the way they're responding to you, but you get to really see what they're feeling. And I think that is so much better than zoom.
Okay, so on that, let's what's a common networking mistake professionals make and how could they avoid? How could you avoid them? I think one of the mistakes I see is people are not strategic in their networking. And if you don't have a strategy really with any kind of marketing, and really that's what networking is, right?
You're marketing your business. You're out there. Yes, you're building relationships, but it's all to grow your business or to build your business. And so if you're not strategic with what you're doing, you can burn up a lot of time. And before I really learned that. I would network and network and it wouldn't go anywhere.
And part of the problem with that is because I didn't really have a great strategy behind I was doing. So I was in the wrong rooms with the wrong people who didn't either know people that could become part of my business or they weren't my people. And having a strategy behind what you're doing can save you a lot of time and energy.
And at the end of the day, we still only have so much time and time's our most valuable resource. So I feel like that's the biggest mistake people make. And when I work with my clients. I'm helping them develop that strategy for their networking so that they're getting the most really bang for their buck, so to speak, and the most out of their time, the most return on their investment.
You need to have that strategy because if you go in there willy nilly, you're just not going to say you're going to flounder and you're not going to know a direction for you to go and it'll hurt you more than help you. And yes, you're right. Time is The only thing you can't get back.
That's right. Once you've spent it, you spent it. If you spent it wrong, then you don't know what you're doing. You're confused, but that's very good. How can you balance? The online networking and the non online networking. Yeah. I think one of the things that I used to teach when I was doing a lot of networking and I was the education person in our group, in the networking group that I was in.
One of the things that I would teach is that you want to bring really the offline world into the online world. So for example, you go out and you meet people offline and you get their business card. And what. Typically happens, you put their business card aside, you might call them, you might not. But one way to speed the know, and trust and really build that relationship even faster is to bring that into the online world.
So for example, reach out to them on LinkedIn, reach out to them on Facebook, ask people when you're talking to them, Hey, are you on social media? What platforms are you on? And then connect with them on those platforms and start conversations there. So one of the things that I see. That we have available now that we didn't always have is the online resources and tools like zoom and some of the the social media platforms that we have so you can really carry that Conversation on without having to go out and meet people face to face you and I are doing it right now I have a podcast I do the same thing And so utilizing those tools, we don't have to be running around anymore the way we used to have to do that.
So it's great to have that one to one face to face or have that opportunity, but speed that up and save your time, really leverage your time. In the meantime, and it used to be they would say, okay, stack one to one. So you go out, you network and you stack block time and stack those one to ones. That's one way to do it.
But another way to do it is you can actually bring those conversations and those meetings online now, once you meet that person face to face. So I think a lot of people aren't doing that enough. And I think, again, we don't get time back. We can always make more money. We will never make more time. And so I guard my time and I'm very, and I don't.
Like for me, I didn't live close to a lot of the networking things that I went to. So there was an hour drive there, an hour drive back. All of that is time you'll never get back. So I'm so thankful for the resources we have now that, but merge those two worlds. So take that meeting. Or that relationship that you've started to build and build on it online, so that was probably a long winded answer, but no, but it was very, you explained it perfectly where you can meld the two together, but you just touched on a fact of the follow up.
And to me, the follow up is almost, if not more important than the actual meeting of the person themselves. So what do you what system do you have in place for a follow up? And how do you do it? Yeah, so 1 of the things that 1 of the things you have to realize, too, is that you can't follow up with.
Everyone may not be someone to follow up with. So again, really having that strategy. So if you meet people in networking, because you'll probably meet a variety of people, really pick and choose the people that you see, okay, I need, we want to further this relationship. We want to build on this. It doesn't mean you discard the others, but you don't maybe necessarily Set up meetings with them, or you don't necessarily really build on that relationship.
It becomes more of an acquaintance at that point. Because let's say you go to a networking event, Michael, and there's 40 or 50 people in the room, and maybe you meet 30, maybe you get 30 or 40 of those business cards. You still, everyone's not going to be the right person. And so again, just really understanding who you're looking for.
Whether that's someone to partner with, someone that could become a client someone that you see a connection there where you can build on that and help each other out, refer to each other. So just really know what you're trying to do and leverage your time that way. Yeah, as far as systems just have a database, have a CRM system.
If you're talking about an actual tool that you can keep stay top of mind with people, you can continue to email them, check with them again. I love to use social media to connect with people and I like to follow up that way. Yeah I use the CRM. But those business cards that you collect, I figure a networking event, it's three or four hours.
And if you get 15 or 20 relationship type, those business cards from those people. then you can start with that. The other people, they're ancillary and you can put them into your drip campaigns and just keep your name in front of them. But you follow up with those 15 or 20. And I have a secret sauce.
There's a way to follow up in which they're bound to answer you positively or negatively either way, but you have an answer. So that's very good. How do you measure ROI when it comes to networking efforts results, it's actually pretty easy. Did I get, do I get business from it?
Is it growing my business? Am I getting referrals? Am I able to give back to other people? It's great to give, but you're still there at some point to get back, right? You still have to get an ROI or you're not going to do it for very long. And so it's. To me, it's just really easy to see where, how your business is growing.
And if it's not growing, you might have to make a shift in your strategy. You might have to make a shift in where you're networking. Michael, one of the, as I work with clients and I'm helping them build their business, One of the things I see is often people will stay in the same networking group for years and I don't find that to be valuable, because once you've really built those relationships with people you can stay with those people you can be connected to them, you can still follow up with them.
But to keep yourself in the same circle isn't going to grow or expand you. And I think a lot of people make that mistake and they do it because it's comfortable. Oh, I built friends here and I like it here, but yet they don't get business there. They're not, nothing's growing. And so it becomes to me, it becomes more social than it does as a business growth strategy.
And networking is a, it's a business growth strategy. You have to treat it that way. And again, you have to leverage your time, but it's easy to see if you're paying attention to your business, it's easy to see what kind of an ROI you get. What, how do you feel about like a BNI group? I was in BNI for years and it's a great strategy for, I think certain industries it's really great for.
I think for other industries, it's a great starting strategy and it really just comes down to, is it the right place for you? Are you going to be in front of the right people? And then having a strategy going in. So if you're in a room full of people that really couldn't refer you business or wouldn't become, they couldn't become a client, which a BNI is more versatile.
So you have a wider variety of people in there. But really, again, be strategic about what you're doing. But yeah, I think BNI is a fantastic. Opportunity. There are so many good networks out there and it's really finding the right ones for you. But I, the thing I love about BNI is things are tracked that you do have to pay attention to what's going on and you're easy.
It's really easy to track numbers and things like that because those things have to be recorded, but no it's a great strategy. I recommend it to a lot of people, especially if they're just getting started in business. Yeah I've been part of BNI. I've also created my own networking groups, one in New York, one in Jersey, about 30 businesses in each.
And it has, it grew to a, it was a great thing. We met every week. I then moved and I had to stop it. But there's nothing like the networking, the feeling of networking. And. The attitude of the people that you're networking with to give you that, that good feeling. And I love that you created your own, because that would be one of the strategies I now teach people is, build your own stage.
Yeah. Then you get to pull in who you want. That's true. But I felt that, the more, cause I talked, in the beginning we went around the table, of course, and everybody gave their little But I felt that because I brought something to the table each week, something new about networking.
I was teaching them about networking, but I was teaching myself as well. So I was always learning. And that's my key to success is I'm constantly learning. Can you share some tips for introverts who struggle with networking? Get over it. No, I'm sorry. No, here's the thing. If you're going to build a business, you have to put yourself out there and you just really have to do it.
You have to start, you have to do it. It really is hard for introverts to do that, but it's a skill set. Just like anything else, just like sales or anything else, you can learn to do it and you just have to start. It's like starting a business. You just have to start. You're going to learn as you go.
You're going to learn once you start doing it and you it's not something you can sit there and you can give people tips and ideas, but until they actually step in and do it, they're not going to get comfortable with it. You can't talk to somebody about how to ride a bicycle, right?
You can give them tips on how to do it, but until they actually get on the bike and pedal and try to keep it up and all of that they're not going to really be able to ride the bicycle. And so it's the same thing. That's great. That's a good analogy, by the way. How has your approach to networking evolved?
Your career as a consultant. I again, I think when I first started, I don't think I know when I first started, I didn't have a strategy behind what I was doing. So I was just out there trying to meet people. And I didn't really have a great pitch, so to speak, or a great, an elevator pitch, whatever you want to call it.
I didn't really a There wasn't that clarity around how to do it and really make it as effective as I could. And so I just had to learn those things along the way. And when I realized, wow, once you actually put a really great strategy behind networking, it's super powerful because then you're looking at, okay, what rooms do I need to be in?
Where are my people? Where are the people that I can help them, they can help me. And you start thinking differently about what you're doing and you really quit wasting time. You become more efficient with the time that you are spending. So over time that all evolved and. It just became where I'm, it was just much more of a growth strategy than more of a time killer.
I think when you're first starting, if you don't have that strategy, it's more of a time killer. And you're just getting your feet wet and you're getting out there and you're meeting people. And that's great, but you don't often see an ROI for that as you get better and more efficient, then you start to see ways that you can really leverage it and be more strategic.
And then it really does start growing your business. That's great. And I can tell that we can probably go on for about another three hours and talk about strategies and consulting and everything else. But if somebody wants you to get hold of you, either to be coached or to get some insights on business or consulting or anything, what's the best way for them to get hold of you?
Yes, you can go to my website at annalcardin. com and I have free resources on there. You can book a call if you want some help in your business or in your marketing. I work in both of those areas. And I, you can find me anywhere on social and I've got a big YouTube channel as well, where I talk about a lot of these things.
That's great. And I want to thank you again for coming on. You're a great guest. Thank you. Thank you. It was my pleasure.
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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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