Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with April Davis and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Aug 4
- 14 min read
📍 📍 Welcome to another episode of Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. The podcast relationships aren't just built, they're engineered for success. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and today we're diving into a world where connection is everything, whether you're closing deals or finding the one.
My guest is no ordinary connector. There's a professional matchmaker who works with elite singles to help them find lasting love, and they do it with intention, strategy, and heart. But here's the twist. The same skills that bring two soulmates together could build powerful, profitable relationships in business too.
So whether you're looking to spark a new partnership, build your network with purpose, or simply connect on a deeper level, this conversation is for you. So get ready and rethink how you approach every connection in your life, because matchmaking might just be the ultimate networking strategy. April, how are you?
Welcome to the podcast and please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi, Michael. Thank you for having me. And yeah, my name is April Davis. I am the owner and founder of Luma Luxury Matchmaking. It's a high-end matchmaking firm, and we work with busy professionals and executives and people that are rather busy and very particular about the kind of person that they're looking to meet in a match.
And so they utilize our service to find that person. So essentially, we're like an executive recruiter, but for people's love lives. Good. Good. I like that. I like that a lot. Okay so let's delve right into this. What's your go-to conversation starter when networking with potential clients? I think, people's favorite thing to talk about is themselves, right? So I'll go into just, you can always start with any kind of basic level type thing, or just, it depends on what you know about them and. I always will tell people one of the best things that you can do is make an observation about someone and try to elaborate on that.
So if, you know somebody is, did say ballet for 20 years or something that tells you that they have a, they're very persistent, they're very dedicated type of personality. And it can give you just some insights into the kind of. Person that they are. 'cause what does it take to be that level of an athlete?
And then, so maybe making a comment about that and insinuating something about them and relaying that back to them. Because people love to hear and love, they love to talk about themselves and they love to hear other people insights on who they are too. That No that, that's very good because you have hit upon the intricacies of networking itself, so when you speak to somebody, you let them talk about themselves. And there's a mantra for networking. Know you you, trust you, they'll do business with you. And I think you hit all those. All those bits right in your first sentence. So that was outstanding. I passed. You. Passed.
You passed. Great. I got an A for the day. Perfect. But we still have a little bit to go and I'll let you know afterwards. Okay. Thanks. You, I said know you like you, trust you. They'll do business with you. Now, of course, yours is slightly different, but how do you quickly establish. Rapport and credibility in the matchmaking industry.
Credibility. It's based on, I've been doing this since I was 16 years old and, I've created this international company that is also part of the Inc 5,000 list. So fastest growing companies and so got a lot of credibility there. Been on a lot of been featured in on a lot of publications and TV shows and stuff like that.
So I think all of that lends to credibility as well as I have a page full of clients that are testimonials to what we do. And oh, also one more thing I. Am ordained. So I actually did one of our clients' weddings last year, so that's pretty cool. That's another credibility check mark. And so it's just going through all of those things, but I think too, just when people hear me talk about what I do and why, how I might put together a match and why, and I'm also married to a divorce attorney, so that kind of gives me some interesting insight into, what works and what doesn't work with couples.
And, I can see, I. Writing on the wall or something is probably not going to work out. Or you can pick up on different couples relationship challenges that they currently have or may have in the future. And base, call it out because this is something that I'm very focused on. This is my career, good. And in, in net I'm gonna bring it back to networking again because that's the crux of the podcast. But in networking, I use something called FORM. And that's family, occupation, recreation, and a message. And you have that. That word in your head before you speak with somebody.
So when you're getting them to try to speak about themselves, you pick any one of the four letters. And you can get them to talk about themselves. So just a little correlation between the two. Family, occupation. Recreation. Recreation and a message that you can get the same level of whatever you're talking about.
But if you go in thinking about, okay, either your son, your daughter, you can say about youth, sports their occupation, what do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do it? And they would just tell you recreation. You may find two things that you do together. Separately, of course, they can be snowboarding, could be boating, it could be skiing, it could be playing baseball, it could be anything, and they would just love to talk about those items.
So before you get to any business, so to speak, you can start talking about all that and have them talk. Yeah, for sure. I love that. I love, especially the recreation one, because people get sick of talking about it feels so superficial too when you talk about, oh, what do you do? What do you do? And, but people love talking about their family, and I think especially in a networking type situation, it's a little different to start by talking about the recreational stuff or the family stuff, because most people do always, they start with, oh, what do you do for a living?
And then go from there, right? And it's more fun when you talk about the recreation. Because yeah, that's something they just love it. Yeah. That's something that I often find, ask people like, what do you do for fun? And, hobbies, interests, what are you into? Outstanding. How has digital networking changed the landscape of matchmaking? So it's pretty, it's opened up so many more opportunities because everybody's online, right? And you can find people anywhere. So people can be more particular about who they're looking for, because I. Especially with like online, with all the apps and stuff, people, they feel like there's a huge amount of singles to be able to choose from when they're looking for someone.
And we don't necessarily use the apps to find matches for our clients, but we have other tools of finding people and you can figure out if they're single and then and connect with them that way. So it just has opened up a lot of different avenues and which is great for what we do. Do you ever, I'm gonna say make a mistake, but I'm sure I'm using the wrong word, but did you ever find somebody and then find out they were married but they were.
As a single person. Yeah. I ne network with tons of people and some, and I will ask 'em if they're married or not. And so yeah, I'll definitely connect with them. But we've had people that reach out to us, then we find out, oh, you are married, so you're actually not eligible. We can't work with you.
No, we don't do that kind of arrangement, so how important is it to specialize in a particular demographic when building a matchmaking network? Yeah, I think it was really important. That's what we started, when I first started the company, I was just meeting with people every day. I would have five meetings in a day.
So in my corporate job and my background is in process improvement and I just. And I've always been a connector. And then I realized that this matchmaking is an industry, so I'm like, oh, I'm gonna just start doing it and for fun. And so the first year I was doing it for free and just would meet with people building up my network.
And then eventually it grew and I and then I left my corporate job and just did this full time. And I was eventually, then I started going to Chicago almost every other week and then Denver almost every other week and just kept. Building it from there. Wow. That's good. Okay, so let's go on to referrals a little bit.
What strategies do you use to encourage client referrals and grow your network organically? I. This naturally does it. We do, we get naturally a lot of referrals from people. But also it's it's in our signature line asking people. And we also will send out, I. An email to our network. So we have our own proprietary database of individuals and we'll say like we're, we have a client that we're looking for a match to, and we'll blast that client's information to our, the people that are in that client's area and say, do is this you or someone you know?
And then that way we're able to get feedback from people. Get some, find some matches that way as well. So we're, I think the, it's when you go to BNI, they tell you to be very specific if in who you're asking for. So that's what I'm, that's the strategy that I'm utilizing there. Yeah. I think the more focused you can be, the better off your end result.
Yeah. Because if you say, oh, we send me all your single friends, like sure. But if we say, okay, do you know anyone that is this age, and blah, blah blah. So then that helps people to narrow it down and they're more likely then to reach out instead of just in general terms. And isn't referrals. Really the basis of seeing how well you're doing. Because the more referrals you get, I think the better off you're doing, aren't you? Yeah. Word of mouth is huge, and especially in this industry. Yeah. Word of mouth is really the best of any industry. Any network you can do it's gold.
It's gold. Okay, let's switch over to industry events. Which networking event or conferences have you found most valuable for matchmakers? For me, I think I go to any kind of business or marketing type events I really like because it's all about learning how you can grow and improve and just running your business in general.
We, there are matchmaker. With ma other matchmaker type events, those can be really beneficial too. 'cause people share, best practices and you can, network with other matchmakers. So we, we have alliances with other matchmakers. So if we're looking for a match to a client, we can reach out to other matchmakers and see, okay, does anyone have a match for this person?
And we help each other that way. Good. Good. Okay so let's change this a little round to partnerships. And how do you cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with other professionals in adjacent industries? Yeah, so we have a partnership with wardrobe consultants, and so we will basic, we will offer a complimentary wardrobe stylist session with these wardrobe consultants.
And they're third, they're outside parties, and so we introduce 'em, they get, and the client gets. Either they help them to pick out their first date outfits or maybe if they're gonna do a photo shoot, they'll help them figure out a photo shoot, help them put together outfits so the, they can do like a closet edit where they go through and say, okay, what do you have for dates?
Maybe, you need to go and get a jacket like this, or shirt like that. And and then go from there. That way then the word wardrobe consultant is meeting someone, the client is getting something out of it and as part of the, their membership with us. But then we're, they're getting the introduction to the consultant, the wardrobe consultant, so they can take it from there.
If they want to do more with that, them. That's good. 'cause you're offering more of a well-rounded service. And you're not saying, all right, you have to go here or you have to go there. You're like, no, I have somebody who'll come to you. He'll call you. And it's on us. That type of thing.
Yeah. And it's needed, I think it's really beneficial, especially in this industry, you wanna have, appearance is so important and whether it's your photo. On your profile or even your LinkedIn profile, 'cause people will do research on you afterwards and they will, they'll be able to see your picture online.
So you wanna make sure you have a good image out there. You really have to be careful with social media. Now that's part of my next question, but with social media, you have to realize that, LinkedIn is for business. That's what I always do for business. But you have all the social I. Media also, which is, Facebook, Instagram, even TikTok.
And you have to be aware who's on it, who's not, and how do you dress, so you don't become like over anxious, yeah. It's interesting, it's, social media has become such a status symbol, especially for younger people. It's not about how much money. That you have or anything.
They, people look at status now as like how many followers, how many likes, or whatever you have that is about, it's almost as valuable as actually having money in the bank, if you will. People will try to find, I've had people with this like mindset where they're looking for somebody that has at least so many followers because that says something about their status.
Society. They could be broke, but they have, millions of followers. So that is a status symbol. Okay. Okay. Let's just stick on the social media level here. And what role does social media play in networking and client acquisition efforts? I think it can be really beneficial where, because especially say if I'm reaching out to someone and seeing if, say on behalf of a client and I'm reaching out to a woman to see if she's pro, if she is single, then.
It's going because I am, say the owner of this company, and if I have a blue check mark by my name or something like that, they're gonna see this is a real person. This is not just like some sleazy bot, and that, and then they're probably gonna be more. Apt to listen, to meet my suggestion for them to meet with my client because I'm vouching for my client.
I'm a legit person. I'm, and I own this company. And, and I it's not just some like random, person from a foreign country saying, Hey, will you beat. Meet somebody for a date. It's right. It is right. It's so important to have a, presence. And I also, I've heard people say yeah, I checked out so and so online.
They haven't posted. And so then they think that it's just, it doesn't exist anymore. That it's, maybe it's fake or it's gone out of business or whatever, because they haven't been keeping it up to date. So I think it's really important to maintain. It di you know, depending on what you're doing.
Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. Or at least have the right have the right job. If you're a business owner, make sure your LinkedIn is updated. So always make sure it's updated. Yeah, that's one thing I absolutely say. You have gone through the corporate world. And you've come into your own, into having this business.
I'm sure you've made mistakes along the way, so why don't you give us a mistake you've made and how you overcame it. How do you know Michael? 'cause you're a business owner and every business owner has mistakes. I think the mistake I keep making, and I have to, I keep kicking myself and like, why do you keep doing this?
It's the definition of insanity, right? Is you have to trust your gut. Like usually, something's not gonna be right. Something's not gonna work. And you just have to, you definitely have to lean into that. But at the same time, I also, I think I'm very optimistic, obviously to be a business owner.
I think you have to be an eternal optimist. And I was also like naive when I started this business. I'm like, oh, I'll just put people in front of each other and they'll fall in love. It's, it'll be easy. 'cause I love everybody. Everybody else should love, love each other. But I so I think, with hiring, it's really important to like, I think you, it, you have to give people a chance. 'cause you never know, but also you have to pay attention to those things that are like, yeah, I don't, this is a bit of a red flag because usually those things will come at back and be the final strong why you end up that person won't work out.
And, I also, I keep, I have a big, I have a strong role with don't hire friends or family. So that's my role. My, my friends and family do not wanna work for me or I should. I don't want them to work for me because I wanna keep them as friends and family. And I have really high standards of the people, from the people that work for me and expect a lot.
My clients expect a lot, so it's, you don't wanna blur that relationship. It can be really a challenge to blur those those lines and those relationships. And as a business owner, you have to learn not to deal from your heart. You have to deal from your head. And it, that's a rough thing to, to get used to.
Because usually everything's from the heart. You're like, you're a good person, so you think everybody's a good person. But you have to put everything in check by things that are right in your head, all right. In your heart. And as you said, it's that gut feeling. And being a business owner, you have to rely on that gut feeling more times than not.
All right, so I already asked that of the biggest obstacle. So how do you measure success of your networking efforts in terms of business growth and client satisfaction? We can see, I have reports for everything, so I can see 'cause I have recruiters on my team, right? So their job is just to network and to find, find matches for clients.
So we track it, we track every person that they bring in. They get paid based on their, commissions of what they're doing. And so it's really important to us. It's front and center of what we do. Constantly. It's, that's outstanding. I have to tell you, I can probably ask you another 20 questions because I have them already in my head, but I don't have the time for it.
So April, if somebody wanted to get hold of you, whether they wanted to use your matchmaking services or just to be coached by you or something, how would they get hold of you? So anyone can join our database and be considered as a match. We have over 50,000 members in our proprietary database, and it's just for us matchmakers to see it's private.
It's not for clients or other random people online to see. And, that, so that's free or that you can be, you can become a client where we are working on proactively on your behalf. And to get started with that, you just go to our website, luma search.com, and Luma stands for luxury matchmaking, LUMA, search.com, and fill out the profile form, then meet with one of our matchmakers and go from there, April.
That sounds great. And I have to tell you, I love your name because that's my wife's name. She sounds pretty cool. Yeah, she's definitely a pretty cool person. I bet. So April I'd loved have you on a podcast. I hope all of my listeners got something out of it. I hope they contact you if they need you.
But either way, I hope to speak with you soon. Thank you for having me. Take care. You're welcome.
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. Dot 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