Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Colin McIntosh and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Jul 25
- 29 min read
📍 📍 Welcome back to another episode of Networking Unleashed, where we explore the power of relationships to unlock the real business success. I'm your host, Michael Forman. Today. Today, I'm sorry, we are diving into one of the most essential, yet often overlooked aspects of the entrepreneurial and career journey networking as your launchpad.
My guest today has been in the trenches launching startups, navigating the job hunt, and building businesses from scratch. He knows what it takes to turn a handshake into a game changer, and how the right conversation can lead to your next big opportunity. Whether you're a job seeker trying to stand out, a new entrepreneur looking for traction, or someone deep in the startup grind, this episode is packed with powerful insights to help you build your profitable connections from day one.
So grab your notebook or favorite app and get ready to rethink how you approach every introduction. Let's unleash some next level networking. Welcome, Colin. Welcome to my podcast. Welcome. For my listeners, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background? Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for having me.
My background was interesting. I graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, close to where you're at in 2012. And then I got a job at the world's largest hedge fund, which I thought I had made it. I was at Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut. I promptly got fired in five months. I ended up having dinner with the guy who hired me there.
He was a recruiter. He said hey, I still like you. I appreciate you reaching out. Why don't you come be a recruiter for me? And so I ended up being a recruiter for the next year. I loved it, adored it, met amazing people. Taught myself all about different industries. Made a million connections. Then I ended up hiring myself at one of my open roles in Seattle at a startup out there.
And then about a year or so after that, maybe a year and a half, I got a phone call from one of my high school best friends who I had helped start her business. She had gotten into Techstars Boulder and she said, Hey, I want you to be on the fouling team. And I dropped everything in Seattle. I drove 20 hours down to Denver and I made 1600 bucks a month.
It was wonderful. Great summer. We we raised a few million dollars and then yada, yada, yada. We all got laid off at 1:00 PM on a Monday, three years later and three weeks after that I started my own company, which is what I'm mostly known for, which is sheets and giggles. And that is a sustainable bedding brand.
I've been doing that for seven years now. We make bedsheets, pillows, mattresses out of eucalyptus trees. And we were actually just on Good Morning America last month for sleep week. So it's been a wonderful ride. Wow. Congratulations. That sounds like a quite a bumpy road, but you finally got to it and and you're get, you're quite successful.
So that's really great. Let me start off by asking you a few questions. When you were first starting your business, what role did networking play in getting things off the ground? Oh, it was essential. Then that, when I started shooting giggles, I was 27 years old. I had just gotten laid off, right?
And I had three years of experience in consumer brands under my belt in a very different space and hardware, wearable technology. And I thought to myself, okay, at this point in my life, I've got two options. I can move back to Seattle. I can leverage my relationships there. I can maybe work at Microsoft or Amazon or Boeing or Starbucks somewhere interesting as based in Seattle and or I.
I can take all the experience of the last three years, all the people I've met, my CEO, my COO, my our investors, our board members the Techstars Network. And I can leverage those relationships and start my own company. And I decided that it was now or never, and it was the perfect time to start my own business with those relationships that I had built specifically and.
There, there's a bunch of different pieces that relationships helped me out with. The first and foremost, I knew nothing about fabrics. I had never done anything in fabric. I didn't know anything about textiles. And so the first connection I reached out to were actually the founders of a Boulder company called Shanay.
And they have a wonderful business. They make novelty ski clothing as well as amazing underwear. And I did not know the first thing about how to source fabrics. And so I had lunch with those guys. I had a beer with them. And they introduced me to somebody in California who I then flew out to meet.
I bought him lunch. His name was Mike. Mike ended up becoming my mentor, and he ended up becoming my director of product for six years at Sheets and Giggles. That's just one example of many. My former coworkers became investors in the business. My crowdfunding customers included friends, colleagues, people I had met over the course of my career at that point.
And I, everybody I worked with, I met through somebody else in the beginning and those relationships helped me get the company off the ground. That's great. That's, that is the true sense of networking and the building of relationships. And listen I'm the first person to say that the days of building a client list is really out the window.
It's the days of building relationships and you took relationship to the next level. You have them as investors, as COOs and things like that. So you really took it to the next level. Let me ask you a question. Can you share a moment when a single connection opened a major door for you, either in business or during a job search?
It was definitely the one that I mentioned a second ago where, I had met my director of product through a connection with the founders of Shy Sty. That was incredibly helpful. I think there's definitely more examples in my life. I had mentioned earlier I got hired by my first two jobs.
I got hired by the same guy, so that was really, I, he hired me at Bridgewater and then after I got fired, we had dinner and he goes, I still really like you man and if you wanna work with me, I'd love to have you as a recruiter. He hired me, $40,000 a year, no commission.
As a recruiter, my second job out of college. And and then his name's Nate. We stayed in touch. We invited each other to our weddings. We became good friends and he since become a software engineer. And funny enough, now he and I operate on the side, a resume builder that you've seen called Sheets resume.com, that he and I started together last year on our nights and weekends.
And that's been tremendous. That's doing wonderful side revenue for both of us. And those connections. So funny to think about the guy that fired me at my first job out of college. Is now my, and my second chef is now my business partner, 13 years later in a business that I run that I'm enabled to do because of all the other relationships that I have and running sheets and giggles.
And so that's really cool. That's probably my strongest relationship over the course of my career and that's led to a lot. That's great. That's great. I think it's amazing that you developed that friendship from the guy who hired you or it's cra it's crazy. And from his perspective, he hired this kid out of college, in 2012 to go work for one of his clients and 13 years later he's got two kids.
He's married, I'm married. And we both have a business that generates six figures of side income for us. And just because he met me through recruiting and then stayed in touch with me as well, now he has this extra income stream that wouldn't have been possible without I. What I've built in terms of my reputation on the internet with helping people with their resumes.
And so from his perspective, it's pretty wild too, the way that life leads you and the way that relationships can twist and turn over time. That's true. You never close that door completely. You always leave it open a crack for, 'cause you don't know who or what is gonna walk through that crack.
That's providing that everything works out well, which apparently it did. What advice would you give someone trying to network during a career transition or a job hunt? Don't, there's two things. One is it is just dating. So don't come across as desperate. If you come across as I have to meet with you, I need help.
It's okay to be vulnerable and to say Hey, I can really use your advice. It's another thing to come across as desperate, because then people are like, oh, I, I don't know if I want to get involved with your situation or what you've got going on. The second piece of advice. Is to buy them lunch almost.
No, this is such a dumb piece of advice, but hopefully it's not, maybe not obvious to everyone. You, if you want somebody's mentorship, you just shoot 'em an email, give 'em a call, approach them at a, at an event and say, Hey, I'd love to pick your brain. Could I buy you lunch sometime and just pick up the tab?
It cost you 30 bucks, 40 bucks. Pick up the tab at lunch, sit down with them. You'll get two hours of their time, undivided attention. They won't be on their phone, they won't be thinking about other things. They'll be listening to you and then after that meeting, say, Hey, this was amazing. Would you mind getting together for breakfast sometime?
Maybe in the next week or two, I'd love to ask you a few more questions. And now you've built this. Now they like you hopefully, right? They've spent time with you and they want to help you out. And so there so many people ask me for my time. I'm fine with giving it to them. I try to subscribe to the theory of give first, which maybe I can talk about more later, but it is challenging when you have a very busy schedule to give everybody time who asks for it.
But I do eat lunch every day, and so if you ask me to grab lunch on a random Friday. I already had that time built in my calendar of I have to eat food, and so I might as well sit across from somebody and try to help them out. So that's a really good way to, to get somebody to give you the time of day.
It's, that's always good. I'm asked several times a week, usually through LinkedIn or something else where they're always asking me something about networking. And only one or two of them have offered to buy me lunch, which I took them up on. By the way. Always I'll say yes to a free lunch anytime.
And that doesn't matter how successful. I'm absolutely. But I'm always willing to give. My advice on different networking or communication challenges that they may have. So it really, that's such great advice, which I don't know if everybody would just think of, but it's a great thing to ask to offer, it seems to me.
But I get a lot of people wanna buy me a cup of coffee and that sort of thing, and I'm fine with that. I cup of coffee, Hey, let's throw out a cup of coffee. I wanna pick your brain, da. One, I'm trying to limit my caffeine intake, so like I can't always do a cup of coffee. And then two is it like limits you to an ear a morning or early afternoon meeting.
And mornings are usually really busy for people that are, busy people. And then three, is it a coffee could only take 15 minutes to drink. So it's like. I understand that you're trying to be cognizant of their time and you're like, Hey, it's very quick. Let's just grab a cup of coffee.
I, but that's not what you wanna do. You actually want to pick their brain and conversations don't really get cooking until about 30 minutes into the conversation. And I think that's a, getting them breakfast, getting them lunch that's my go-to. Don't do dinner's too.
Intimate breakfast or lunch. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Good. Good advice. Good advice. Okay. How do you approach building relationships with investors mentors, or co-founders in the startup world? I follow a really simple rule. I just treat people the way that I wanna be treated. Some guy said that, I can't remember his name.
It's, it's a simple rule. It's golden, if you will. And and so for investors, mentors, business partners. I always just do the best I can to treat them exactly the way I would wanna be treated in any situation. And so investors, that means being cognizant of their time, understanding that they are extremely busy.
They're talking to a bunch of different companies at once. They have to say no 99% of the time. And to not be upset or, take it personally if they say no, always be courteous when they give you their time. And talk to 'em like human beings. I think that founders I was guilty of this early in my career for sure, like in my early twenties, mid twenties when we were raising money for my last company.
Where I wasn't the founder, but I was on the founding team and I was in these meetings. I looked at these investors as like they were so far above me. Like I clicked like I was intimidated, right? Like I didn't want to say the wrong thing, but my friend Jackie, who was the founder of the Glass company that I was at, I actually loved her perspective on this.
She would just say, these people just want to be treated like people. They just wanna be treated like everyday people, like your friend dah. And that's what I've always taken with me. That's been really successful is like just talking to them like normal human beings. And then when it comes to mentors, again, you've gotta ask people if they're willing to mentor you.
It's gotta be a double opt-in relationship that cannot be, I need your mentorship, I want your mentorship. Give it to me. Can I please have it? You, it has to be a two-way relationship where they opt in and they are committed to giving you their time. If they do that, I do like to ask for regular time, so I don't like to, I do like sporadic stuff where it's like, Hey, can I call you if I have a question?
But I also like if it's some Hey, can we meet every Friday at 4:00 PM and we'll get a beer, or again, my treat, something like that. And it's a good way to end the week and you get their advice. And the last thing I'll say is. Come to them with a ton of questions ready to go. Don't waste their time.
'cause if they spend an hour with you and they feel like they're not giving you any help or advice, they're probably gonna come back to you and say, Hey, I don't think this is a good use of my time. I don't know if this is a good use of your time. And that's the last thing you want. So make sure that you come ready with questions and advice that you need.
That's very good. You have to remember that your mentor is also a person in business. I'm a mentor to five or six people. Probably now three or four people. But I have a mentor myself. So it's like a chain that you're growing up. I coach students and I have a class with them every week, but I have my mentor.
Hour, hour with each of them on a specific day. And I ask for an hour on a specific day for my mentor. Yeah. And you're right, it's gotta be a give and take and both sides really have to get something out of it. Being a mentor, you're getting. The ability to help somebody else. That's what I, it's the best I get it right.
And I'm answering questions and everything else. So yes that's very important for being a mentor. Now just gimme this in your opinion, what's the difference between networking and relationship building? Oh, that's a tough one. Just because I, so I've always been one, and this is funny 'cause you probably see differently on this.
Or maybe we just don't define terms the same. I have always had a healthy dislike of networking. And the reason is because I don't like feeling like someone is talking to me just because they want or need something and, I don't like feeling like I am only talking to somebody because I want or need something.
To me that feels very inhuman and it feels very like Machiavellian. And so I really like thinking about networking and relationship building as really one and the same. And this kind of goes back to what I said a second ago is treat people the way you want to be treated. I just go to events and I will talk to people about.
Anything doesn't have to do with business, can be, family, current events, topical stuff, sports I like I and if I establish a relationship with someone, then I've networked with them. Does that make sense? So I don't see them as distinct. Actually I actually would prefer if networking was not really a thing.
People didn't go to these things with the expectation of meeting someone who could help them climb. But rather if they just went to these things, looking for friends and looking for people that, became part of. Of who they are. And I think friends are the pieces of you that you carry wi around and that you get to share with the world.
And so the more friends you have, the more of these pieces that you get to share with the world. And so I've got a lot of friends. I love my friends. I have very deep relationships with them. I don't have few. I have many. And I consider most of my business contacts friends as well. Like I.
I don't really have that alienation that some people have that, that hard de alienation between business and personal. When you go to a networking event, first of all, you have to go with a servant's heart. Okay? You have to look to give and not to receive. Yeah, that's the fir should have that in your mind before you even go.
And I, I didn't develop this, of course, I stole it from somebody else, but FORM, family, occupation, recreation, and a message. I have all that so that I can build up a rapport with somebody, and when I walk up to them and I speak to them, I'm asking them about themselves, about what they do. If family comes into it, recreation comes into it, whatever.
But I have them talking about themselves and then really what I wind up with is I say, okay, how can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you? And with a three or four hour event, you come back with about 15 or 20 business cards. I used to listen, I was in a mortgage field.
I went to a networking event. I came home with a shoebox filled with business cards. Yeah. And it was worthless. Yeah. But if I come back with that 15 or 20, I can follow up properly. I personally, IM personally right and you're right. And so that's the difference. I feel that ever since the pandemic, people lost their minds.
They forgot how to network, they forgot how to communicate, they forgot everything. Yep. So I'm going around teaching them how to get back in touch. I'm trying to make them a better version of themselves. Okay. That's my whole shtick, so to speak. I guess I for me, one of the, and I agree with you one of the rules that I will, that I followed my whole career that I, I learned early on when I was a recruiter is that people will do business with people they like and they will not do business with people they don't like.
And in fact, they will then trust and they will inconvenience themselves to avoid doing business with people they don't like or trust. And so that I think is really important as well as, you've gotta, you've gotta be likable and a good way to be likable is not to always be asking for something like I was at an event the other day.
It was definitely like a networking event, but it was also like, it was like for startup founders in Miami. We were, we had probably 40 people there and we were talking and laughing and we had breakout sessions and stuff and everything was great and it was like a very fun event.
And I was actually very surprised at how like organic and nice it felt. And it was also for people like find co-founders and build their next thing. And at the very end this guy came up to me. I'm not trying to crush him, but he just was like, Hey, like I heard you have an e-commerce company, sheets and giggles.
And I was like, yeah. And then he was like how do you do your marketing? And I was like. All the usual suspects like Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, like radio, podcasts, and he'd like cool. I have a marketing agency. I do all that. Like I help with all that. And I was like, alright.
I was like, thanks. I'm not I'm not gonna hire you in 45 seconds. He could have cared less. About like me, my company, who I wa he just wanted to let me know that he could sell something to me. And I was like, great, what a, what an awful aftertaste to have after a really fun night getting to know people.
Yep. There, there is a mantra for networking. If they know you, if they like you and trust you, they'll do business with you. So to know you, look, you went to that that, that get together of 40 people or so. Everybody knew you 'cause you're a nice guy. You're a good looking guy. Hey, everything's frighten right?
But like you, then that narrows the field down because you may have said something to somebody or somebody that it didn't go very well, but like you bring, brings it down a little bit. But trust factor that brings it down even more because they don't know you. You don't know them. So that trust factor is an intricate part of the mantra, but know you, like you and trust you, and then people will start to do business with you.
Yep, yep. It's heart and horse and I think people will very often screw up that order. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. How can somebody just starting out maybe with no title or traction, create a valuable connection? Oh, I, I see this a lot with college students and with new grads that are trying to become entrepreneurs, it's so hard for them.
First off, I think it's really hard to make connections over LinkedIn. So I really don't recommend that, that's where you spend your time. People, humans are social creatures. So I would very much advise people to spend time at in-person events. Events hosted by university, events hosted on Meetup.
There's now there's tons and tons of event apps and pages and stuff like that. So look for networking apps. Look for meet meetup apps. Go to them. Look, you're gonna have to wade through a lot of waste high sand to find people that are worth meeting. And when you do find people that are work meeting, that's when you have to be ready to make that connection, be personable buy them lunch.
I think that's probably the best advice that I mentioned earlier, is I'll take lunch from anybody anytime, right? As long as they're not completely awful to spend an hour with. And that's gonna be your best bet is like those in-person connections. And don't be afraid to like, I said earlier, don't come off as desperate, but don't be afraid to humble yourself a little bit and to say, Hey, look, I'm a new grad. I'm early in my career. I don't have a lot of connections. I'm super interested in the space that you're in. I'm really excited to learn more about X, Y, Z. Do you think that you maybe have time to grab lunch with me and tell me a little bit more about your journey and I'd love to understand more about where you're coming from, like that I think that's a good way to, to ask people and to get mentorship.
You don't need a title or anything like that. It's definitely, at some point everybody wants to meet with you. I and that transition happens fast, man. I, I remember, I'll never forget, it was 2018 and I was launching. My crowdfunding campaign for shoots and giggles, and I was just this random dude in Denver that had been through Techstars, but like nobody really knew me and I was running a crowdfunding campaign and it was gonna do really well.
I knew it was gonna do really well, and I had done a lot of preparation for it. I had done, the videos, the photos, the email gathering. I had set up the pages, I had my agency ready to go. I had all these different things. And I reached out in February or March, I think it was like March of 2018 to Denver Startup Week, and I was like, Hey, I would love to do a panel or a session on crowdfunding.
I think a lot of people would need help. Crowdfunding need to be great for early entrepreneurs to understand how to run a successful crowdfund and Denver startup, we emailed you back very politely and they said, Hey, Colin, with all due respect. That's great that you're launching this company, you should actually launch it and do something before you want to give advice to other people.
And I said, okay, like that's fair. And I ended up doing the crowdfund. We raised about $300,000 in pre-orders for our bedsheets biggest bedsheet campaign of all time on Indigogo. And then six months after that in September, 2018. I won first place at a Denver Startup Week pitch competition, and I was the number one startup in Denver and everybody saw me on stage and I blew this, blew the house down.
And then the next year in 2019, they invited me to judge the pitch competition for Denver, seven of week. And then, and I hosted a panel every year, Denver Startup week after that. And so it's so funny that, they asked me to do, and it's so funny, like the thing about how fast I can change, same guy, same knowledge.
Six months later everybody wanted to know me. It's credibility. It's credibility for sure, but like I find it interesting that people aren't able to differentiate between people who like have it and people who don't. That always blows my mind, whether it's with like startup founders or employees or politicians, people seem to be really unable to talk to someone and just immediately know this guy has it, this woman has it, like this person has it.
So I, they always look for that indicator. They always look for that traction in order to have that credibility. So I would also say that a corollary to this that's really unfortunate is that in America, oftentimes for people, wealth equals wisdom. Because wealth is that like tangible credibility.
And God, I have seen in my career that is not true. Is not equal wisdom. And so that's the unfortunate side effect of this is people will gravitate towards the wrong people because they think that they know something, they don't. When in reality they either, they inherited their money, maybe they got lucky, maybe they're very unethical.
There's a bunch of different reasons why that is. That's and maybe, and a lot of people, and a lot of people were charged for their money. So I'm not trying to, I'm just saying, it's not the great barometer that people think it is. Yeah. No it's not I have found very wealthy people that really are dumber than a box of rocks.
They just, they're just what, how did you possibly get this wealthy? Because you don't know anything. And sometimes, sorry, I don't mean to cut you off. I, the it sometimes I think it's because they're actually too dumb. Sorry, this is really uns charitable and this is not everyone I want to explain, but some people are too dumb to ever introspect and they never stop and think, am I good?
Do I deserve this? Am I good enough? What am I doing wrong? They don't have that imposter syndrome, and sometimes it's like a superpower because they literally can just go for it and they think that their God's gift, the mankind, and they will just. And get it and grab everything they can and have no second thoughts about it.
And I can't do that. I don't I, I always have second thoughts about am I doing things the right way? Am I deserving of this? Am I giving back enough? All, all those things. And anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but Yeah. No. It's I'm always looking.
I myself, after I do a speaking engagement or workshop or something else like that, I'm looking like what? What can I do better? What did I screw up on? Oh my God I was so bad. I shouldn't have said that, but, and I have all the tools, I have the QR code leading to my Google Doc sheet.
Did I do this? This, this and gimme a couple of stars. I have everything okay, but I have to look within myself to see how well I did. And that's not so easy to do. Have you ever made a networking mistake that taught you something important? A mistake or faux Paul? Oh, yeah.
Oh yeah. I've got a good one. When I was 25, I was going through Techstars Boulder, and you can hear me now. I'm honest, and I'm, I'm not mean. I'm, I really try to. Always be charitable to people as best I can and try not to be an asshole. But I definitely speak my mind and especially when my friends are hurting, I will speak my mind.
And when I was 25, almost 10 years ago now I was, I had just moved to Colorado from Seattle for Techstars Boulder 2015. And I, my, one of my friends who was the CEO of the company that I moved my whole life to Colorado for was basically in tears because an investor had told her no and had told her no in a very, I think, aggressive really unprofessional way.
And I was in a coffee shop with her and I had just moved there like a week before, two weeks before. I remember saying very vividly look, if that guy said that and he passed on you, then that guy's a fucking idiot. And that said, that's what I said I was like, I was trying comfort my friend, and also, like I am sure there was a kernel of truth in there. And then I'll never forget I got called into the Techstars main office like two hours later and they were like, Hey you're new to Colorado, huh? I was like, yeah. I just got here like a week and a half ago, and they were like yeah.
So it's a really small world out here. And you were at a coffee shop that everyone goes to in this town and somebody heard you call so and a fucking idiot. And I like, and that immediately got back to me before you left the coffee shop. And I was like oh my God. I was like, and then I remember literally trying to mount a fence in the office and I was like he the reason he passed, he was X, Y, and Z and went da.
And they were like, ta. Whatever the case, you cannot say that about people like in this community like you will build a bad reputation very rapidly. And I, I don't know if it's because I'm, I don't know. I don't know why I did that, aside from just trying to comfort my friend, but that was such an important moment for me because I was like.
And that's unlocked. This thing that I tell people as a lesson is speak well about people behind their back. That is like one of my, maybe a superpower is I will sing somebody's praises often when they're not around. And that I think also gets back to people. And so that was, I think, a big moment for me of I don't think I've ever spoken poorly about somebody behind their back in the last decade since that moment.
Because it's not worth it. And, it's really not, I. It's not, and it taught you a valuable lesson and you learned from that lesson. So I think it worked out pretty well. I think it was funny when it happened. It was embarrassing. It was a little embarrassing. Okay. But I think it was good that it happened and it, Lord, listen, I went to the school of hard knocks.
Okay? Yeah. I did everything wrong before I did it right. So I, had to learn things on the fly just as you did. But that was very good. In today's digital first world, how can professionals make meaningful connections without always being face-to-face? Yeah. If he, if you're asking specifically how to do it when you're not face to face, that is a toughie.
I would say going through existing warm introduction is obviously the best way to do it. Don't force a warm introduction. Don't go to somebody that you barely know and be like, Hey, can you introduce me to this other person that you barely know? Because then it's just like a, it's not a warm introduction.
It's kinda like a, an annoying hey hey Colin. I met you one time at this event like four years ago, and this other person who I've met one time asked me, they saw I was connect with you on LinkedIn and they asked me to introduce you. It's that's not a good way to go about it. So I would say like actual warm introductions where you connect with people, you get to know them, and then organically could be months or years later, like having known these people.
If you then ask them, Hey, do you know anyone in this field or this space? That's a really good way to do it. So I would reach out to your personal connection, your really strong ones right now, and I would ask them, do you know anyone? If that can help me with this, and then they will, somebody will come to their mind that they have a connection with and they may not even be connected to that person on LinkedIn, right?
Because you're best. Am I connected to my best friend in the world on LinkedIn? No, actually, like most of them, not at all. And so like most of my strongest connections are actually offline, or at least they're off LinkedIn. And so you may miss the forest for the trees completely. If you look at my Rolodex on LinkedIn and you want to know who I know it's very much my strongest connections are not on that platform.
Yeah it reminds me of my time when I was sitting behind a desk. I had two Rolodexes. They were filled. And now with digital and everything else, it's a little bit less and I don't have that. I have my home desk. But the digital world, 'cause you can have your thousands and thousands of connections on LinkedIn, but they're not relationships.
They're not relationships. That's the key. What is your go-to networking move? Something you do consistently that brings results?
I don't, it's so funny. The, it's the best advice for all and it's totally different for different people. Depends on your skills and your natural charisma and your extemporaneous speaking ability and dah. First off, taking extemporaneous speaking class. That may be a good tip is that's one of the best things I've ever done.
When I was 13 years old, I took it extemporaneous speaking the summer before high school, and you had to get, you had five minutes to memorize a, to write and memorize a, sorry, you had 30 minutes to write and memorize a five minute speech on a random topic that you pulled out of a hat. And that was something like, that was so educational for me in terms of how to actually come up with something on the fly and speak to people organically without sounding like it's prepared.
And so that may be a good tip is go take an extemporaneous speaking class and learn how to actually speak without thinking. And then the second thing I would say is again. There's an old adage, if you want money, ask for advice. And if you want advice, ask for money. And I think that's really true in networking.
If you want network connections, try to build like ships, I think and destroy. And it's so don't approach it. If you want professional connections, be personal. And I think that's like what you were saying earlier with the form. Is and I don't think about it in those terms, but if I can get to know somebody on a personal level, what they do, why they do it, why it speaks to them why they've dedicated their lives to this what their major challenges are, like, all these things are a good question to ask people, but not in an inter interrogatory way. That's the other thing is like people, sometimes people interrogate me. They're like, what are your biggest challenges right now? And I'm like, oh dude, I have so much anxiety. Don't make me list out my biggest challenges right now.
I'm I go to sleep thinking about these business problems. I don't ask me if I'm excited if the Panthers are just adding a Stanley Cup or ask me, if I have any kids or if I have any nieces and nephews, or ask me where I'm from and like where I went to school. And all that's what I like to do with people.
And then once I get to know them, like it's just an organic conversation. So that's my best advice to people. As much as you possibly can, just talk to people like in normal conversations. That's great advice. Great advice. That's where form comes in just to, that's just to help you bring in different ideas of different people, different things, whatever.
But that is great sound advice. Anybody that listening should really listen to that. Now, let's bring this full circle. What mindset should people adopt if they want to build a network that leads to real opportunity? Not just business cards. Oh, you should be the person that everyone leaves the room thinking about.
I guess that's maybe the best way to put it. And part of this is knowing your audience, right? So this is, this also goes back to pitching in front of a crowd. If you know your audience and you understand the feeling you want to leave them with, like, when I pitch in front of a crowd, when I get off the stage, I want every investor, first off, you have to know your audience.
Are they investors? Are they buyers or are they lay people? Are they just there to be entertained? What? Who is your audience? And then once you understand who they are and you can understand how you want to make them feel. So if you go to a networking event and your audience is other professionals who are busy, who are working on their own problems, who are consumed with their own things, okay, great.
They don't really give a fuck about my problems or like the things that I am I'm working on necessarily. Maybe they care more about people who have a common empathy and understanding. For the challenges that they're going through, and maybe they want a friend who they can talk to openly without fear of being judged or fear of being too vulnerable because startup CEOs are never allowed to take off their rose colored optimism glasses.
They're never allowed to speak freely about the challenges that face their company. And so if I go to a networking event and I understand that these people are people like me and I can empathize with them. I can make them feel like when they leave the room, like that guy Colin, I can be open with him, I can be myself with him, I can be vulnerable with him.
And I feel like he's being honest with me. So I will be honest with him. That is I think, the best feeling that I like to leave people with. And so I think that's probably the best rule I can give you is know your audience, understand the feeling you want to leave them with. Then go out and achieve that.
And there's multiple ways to achieve your goal. And you'll get a lot of clarity in thinking about, when I leave the room, how are they going to feel? Are they gonna feel like I was selling them something? Are they gonna feel like I only gave a shit about their credit card number? Are they gonna feel like I'm desperate?
Are they gonna feel like I'm a entrepreneur? Are they gonna feel like I have no valuable experience to share that I can't empathize with them that I was self-absorbed? I. Those are all things that people do feel about people when they leave networking events. Like I, every single time you go to one, you will meet people that make you feel exactly like that.
And so that's a disaster. You never want that. Think hard and decide before you go in how they're gonna feel about you when you leave. That's great advice. That's a great advice for anybody. Even I'm thinking about how I leave the room, how I leave people because I want them to have the lasting impression of my talk and everything else.
That's great advice. Colin, I can't begin to tell you how I enjoyed this podcast because you spoke about everything that I truly believe in. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you how would they get a hold of you? I am very easy to find. I am on LinkedIn, but I do not post, I do not I do not subscribe to the LinkedIn lunatic theory of networking.
Although there are some valuable posts on there sometimes. But Colin Macintosh, I. You can find me my two main companies, sheets and giggles. And then if you are a job hunter and you need some resume help sheets resume.com is my passion project that I do on the side. And my emails, I think for both of those sites are public on the website and you can reach me pretty easily.
That's great. Colin, thank you for coming on the podcast. I hope everybody enjoyed what you had to say. Thanks, Michael. I appreciate you having me. It's a really fun conversation.
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