Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Dr Michael Ayalon and Michael A Forman

Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. Welcome back to the show, folks. I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and you're listening to the podcast where networking is more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee. It's an art and a talent, but here's the twist. It's an art and talent you can actually learn.

Yes. Even if you're the person hiding in the corner at every event, pretending to check emails, networking isn't just a nice skill to have. It's a game changer. When you get good at it, you wonder why you didn't start sooner. More connections, more opportunities, more profits. It's like unlocking a cheat code for life.

Now, I have a guest today. His name is Dr. Michael. I'm sorry, a alon. That's right. Is that correct? Alright. That's. And he is an award-winning speaker, author, social media figure, hazing prevention expert, host of the Fraternity footy podcast, and CEO of the GR of Greek University. That is a mouthful, but I have to tell you so Michael, instead of me butchering your background, why don't you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit more about it.

Happy to do it. Michael, thank you so much for having me on the show. Yes. I am Dr. Michael Alon and I am the CEO of Greek University. And I would say the path that got me to this point was pretty wild. I was a student at the university at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. I had a very good experience within my fraternity, became chapter president and that really contributed to all kinds of leadership skills and communication skills and even motivational skills for my team.

And I was an entrepreneur in the New York City and Long Island area for a number of years. I. Really enjoyed that. And all of a sudden I got an email from the fraternity that I joined in college. And they said they were looking for a new executive director of the entire national fraternity. And we have 120 chapters all throughout the country and 120,000 members.

And I looked at that job description, I said, wow, I can actually making a living. Just doing fraternity work. It sounds like a dream job. And sure enough, I applied for the job and I got it. And they were located in the Nashville, Tennessee area where I went a few times. Had a really good time. And I brought my wife out there to come and check it out.

She absolutely loved it. And we made the decision to move to the Nashville area. Bring our two children and start this journey in professional fraternity life. And I have to tell you, I really enjoyed every moment of it. I went to visit a majority of our chapters throughout the country, and when I went to go visit these chapters, I saw the same thing over and over again on just about every single college campus.

It was either hazing. Sexual assaults or alcohol and drugs. These are the three main problems that we see on just about every single college campus. And after seeing that on a loop for three years, eventually, I said, you know what? Enough, I have to stop worrying about just my own organization and I have to work with every fraternity, every sorority, every college campus, regardless if my fraternity is there or not.

Because if you're not a member of the Greek community, you don't really know the difference. Between these organizations anyway, you just see it as a Greek problem. And if I wanted my children and future generations to get that same leadership experience that I had in college, then I was gonna have to fight really hard to make some adjustments within fraternity and sorority life to make sure that we sustain ourselves for the next century.

And so I started just speaking on college campuses myself. Then some of the college campuses that I would work on, they'd say, Hey, Mike, this was a great presentation here, but next semester we want to talk about mental health, or next semester we want to talk about something else. And so I said that's great, but that's not really what I talk about.

So I have a whole bunch of friends that I could recommend to come and speak on your college campus. And before you know it, the team started getting larger and larger. And now we're up to 22 speakers that speak every week on college campuses across the country. Actually tomorrow I'm gonna be heading to High Point University in North Carolina.

That is very exciting. And then next week I'll be at Lockhaven University in Pennsylvania. It's just been a really fun adventure and it just, it really helps that every single day I get to go to work and make college campuses safer. It's just very meaningful and impactful work. Yep. I don't even know how to second everything that you just said, because I believe in that wholeheartedly, and I have such a passion for it.

I think I, I told you about the local. Group that we have reved up kids and what they're doing within Georgia, and I help them whenever possible. So it's a very important aspect of who I am and what I talk about, but it's very good. Okay, so let me just dive right into this. How did your background in fraternity and sorority life shape your approach to networking?

I think you basically covered this, but I'm gonna ask you again. Yeah, it's a great question and I think that because I am a member of the fraternity and sorority community, and because I do take that oath that I took when I joined the organization, very seriously, we commit. To certain values when we join the organization.

And so when we join the organization, we talk about things like scholarship, we talk about things like community service, we talk about things like academics. And so I live my life that same way today as I did when I joined the fraternity back in college in terms of those values. In the approach to networking.

Now I'm constantly thinking about things like community service, as an example, and how do we integrate that into our careers? Because ultimately, if you want to be a really good leader, you have to be a servant leader. You have to be giving back some way to society, even if you're just selling widgets, if you really want to have employees that are gonna go the extra mile for you.

The question is. How are you making the world a better place with those widgets? And even if you don't, with the widgets itself, perhaps once a month, you could take your entire team of workers and go and give back to the community in some way. Maybe you all go to work at a soup kitchen, or you all go to paint a fence at a local church that needs repainting.

Whatever it is, at least you're giving back in some way so that way your employees feel good about the work that they're doing. You have to really. It's more than just, getting their hands to do particular work. You have to essentially get and capture their minds and their hearts and how do you do that?

You do that through community service and so when I'm networking, I'm constantly thinking about, Hey, tell me something that's going on great at your company right now. Something you're really proud of, and I'm always listening about. Things like community service and giving back in some way, because that's ultimately how you capture your employees and you make them really just go the extra mile for you is to give back and make each other feel good in terms of the work that you're doing.

So those are the kind of the ways that I use. The fraternity and sorority experience within the networking atmosphere is to key in on, hey, what are you doing that's giving back to your community in some way? And that foundation all started in the fraternity and sorority experience. That's great.

'cause the foundation of networking, because this is what I go around and talk about, is how can I give, not receive. And whenever you sit down with somebody and explain, you're not explaining what you do, but you're listening to what they do and you say, how can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you?

And even Zig Ziglar says it the best, but what goes around comes around. Yeah. Okay. So if you do that. Often enough it's gonna come back around to you. But that is the foundation of true networking. So hats off to you, Michael. That's the best way to say it. Okay. How has your work in hazing prevention influenced your networking strategies?

That's also a really good question. I just recently completed my doctorate and it's over at MTSU and the degree is in assessment learning and Student Success in Higher Education. And I wrote my dissertation on the early warning signs of hazing in college fraternities and sororities. So now I actually have 173 pages published on that work.

And so when I'm networking many times, again, just like you said, it's always about being a giver and freely giving people other information that's going to help them. And ultimately, I agree with you. I think it's all about karma. If you just. Keep freely giving to other people. Eventually that's gonna come back around and it might not actually be the person that you're helping.

It might actually be somebody else. So I freely give information. So when I'm networking, I love to hear what are some of the issues that people in, let's say I'm at a higher ed conference, right? And I'm meeting a whole bunch of people that are in higher ed, administrators, staff, et cetera. I'm always asking them.

Hey, what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night right now? And you just sit and listen and you hear what their pain points are. I'm not necessarily telling them that, Hey, I'm a hazing prevention expert and I'm forcing it on them. I'm more about listening to what their problems are, and then I can make sure that I get them to the right person.

It may or may not be me. So if they have a problem with, let's say, mental health, that's not gonna be me. However, I have a bunch of people that I can refer them to. And so that's really the key in terms of networking and using all of that experience within hazing prevention is listening to what your customers want, what are their pain points, and then if you can help to solve that pain point, wonderful.

You have a match. If not, refer them to somebody else. So that way the next time they have a problem, they'll come back to you again. And that might be the time that ultimately you're gonna be able to help them and also think about the person you're referring them to. That person is gonna think that you know everybody because you're sending this lead over to that speaker.

And so they're gonna return the favor somewhere down the road when they have somebody that needs hazing prevention work. So I love to share, as an example, my dissertation because I think that if you're helping people and they get a lot of value out of it I freely do that. I don't charge people for access to all of that research.

I freely give it out. And ultimately if they like it, that's wonderful. If it helps them, that's wonderful. Sometimes they'll forward it to their friends that ultimately need this kind of help and support. And so I just, I really believe in what you said before, just freely giving and ultimately the world is gonna find a way to reward you for that.

And I've been able to build a career from that exact. Planned exactly. And you hit so many nails on the head just by what you said, but the crux of it is you are a problem solver. Yeah. Okay. You promote active listening and listening isn't hearing. Okay, here. Listening is listening, and you pause after you listen because that tells the other person that you were listening and you're going to respond to what he said, not the next thing that you have to say.

Okay. So you're responding to what, and you're a problem solver. Say, you know what, I may not be able to help you, but I know somebody who can. Yep. So the fact is that you get somebody. Within the same day and have that person call, you are the person that they can trust for just about any of their problems.

Yeah. And they come to me anytime they're having a problem, they're conditioned to coming to me. And that's a beautiful thing because now I have over 20 speakers that I can refer 'em to that are in-house, and I can get them to the expertise that they want. Or even if it's not even in my company, I'll send those leads over to my competitors at times because again.

I'm only one person and I speak about hazing prevention, but I can't be on every single college campus every single day. And so there are times when I'm booked and I can't do, I can't be in two places at the same time, so I really do have to rely on some of my competitors and I'll send some of those leads over to them so they can fill it.

Then vice versa, the labor, they're able to send me over some leads when I'm looking for work. So I really believe in that. I think that there's enough business out there for everybody and ultimately I just freely give. And I tell you what, we're now in September, we're gonna celebrate our 10th year of being in business at Greek University.

And. That is really I think the key to our success is not really just promoting our own speaking services, but really just being a problem solver and getting our clients to the right person, whether that's with us or somebody else. That's great because that just goes with the fact that you have a servant's heart.

Okay. You're there to assess and you're there to figure out what their problem is and you're gonna solve it, whether you're the answer or not. Even, like you said, the competition. And you don't think of it as competition. No. You just think of it as helping the person. Correct. I look at just helping my client first and foremost.

It's all about serving the client and making sure that they're happy. Sometimes that's with us and obviously that's a wonderful thing. We want our company to grow. We want to add new employees, but sometimes it's not. You also have to be realistic about what their needs are and who would be the best person to help them expertly.

And I think our clients remember that they. They know that I'm gonna help them and I'm gonna get them to the right place, whether that's with me or not. They appreciate that, they appreciate the honesty. And then that way they come to me for every single opportunity. And that's a really good thing long term, over 10 year period.

That's a really good thing. That's what I try to tell people, that if you do this enough, it's going to come around. It's gonna come back to you, but don't think of it as part of your. The thing that you say, you know, you have to truly believe it. And if you do it and you believe it, that's when it'll come around to you.

Yep. Yes. Okay. So what role has networking played into your entrepreneurial ventures? Oh boy. It's a huge part of being a successful entrepreneur. It's funny because in college they don't really teach you how to be an entrepreneur. I was an accounting major in the business school, and you would think that they would be teaching networking, but they really don't.

Ultimately the key to business, and I learned this. In being an accountant for my first job, it was a networking company on Long Island, and immediately he showed us a CRM and I'm like A CRM, what the heck is A-C-R-M-I-I, nobody in college ever taught me once what A CRM was, and it's really this customer relationship management database.

And it's just a database essentially of all of your clients. And in there, we're able to put in all of our contacts. And you're old, you're able to keep notes on all of the conversations that you have with your clients, and the system will actually remind you when it's time to send them an email or it's time to give them a call.

Or it's time to go and visit their office as an example. And so every single day when I wake up, it actually tells me what are the things that I need to work on today? And it's a wonderful thing to say organized and to actually reach your customer when they actually need you. So I would say that, ultimately that's one of the biggest lessons that I learned in being an entrepreneur is if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you better have some CRM package, some database that you're able to track these hundreds or thousands of clients that you have and be able to reach out to them.

At the right time. Ultimately, it's a big sales funnel. You have all of these clients that are out there, and they're all gonna close deals for you at various points throughout the year. Some might be in January, some might be in February, some might be in March, et cetera. So you have to know exactly when they are needing your service and reach out to them at exactly the right time.

The only way to do that in a way that stays organized without your head exploding from. Just, too many clients and too much to remember is having that CRM package. So that's really the key to my success is having that CRM package and ultimately going and networking at the various conferences where my clients are at.

So that way I'm always staying on top of my clients in terms of what's going on in their world. I'll take notes on the back of their business card when I see them. That way it tells me, okay, this is what's going on. This is what they're looking to to get over the next year. This is when they're planning on executing a contract.

All of those things. And then I'll go back home and then update my database with everything that I found out in that networking session, at that conference. And also sometimes it alerts you to new people in the industry sometimes. People leave the industry and they leave one of your clients and a new person comes in.

So networking allows you to meet them in person and have that handshake so that way the next time you call on them, we can talk about when I saw them at the conference and we ended up bumping into each other at the. Bar downstairs after the sessions let out. So when you remember all of those things and you remember those conversations, of course I'm typing all of that into my CRM package.

Then immediately it brings that customer to life. And they remember that networking meeting that you had, what you talked about. And then we start getting right into. What their needs are going forward over the next year. So that's a little bit of a synopsis in terms of how I network with my clients and the tools that I need a CRM package to make all of that happen.

Michael, it's like I kept on feeding you cards to touch on certain points of networking, and you hit 'em all. You hit 'em all, and it, everything that you said, including the follow up and that writing on the back of the card is something that I. Strongly suggest I, I suggest putting the date, the name of the function, and something you spoke about.

And you carry that with you until you put it into your CRM. Using A CRM is something that I go around to the high schools and the colleges and I tell them saying that you need to start this now because if you start it once you graduate and you're looking, you know what, it's a little too late.

Yeah. So you have to do it now. And it's the follow up that it's so important what you said with the follow up, because I think it's more important than meeting the person directly. Yeah. Because the follow up and I have a secret sauce for follow up so that it really works, but it does.

And what you, everything that you said is so on point that you know anybody that's listening, you have to listen to ma to Michael because he knows what he's talking about. Okay, so what is your top tip for building meaningful connections in professional settings? Oh boy. Again, if you want to have meaningful connections with clients in professional settings, it goes way beyond just a business card.

Okay? Most business cards, I gotta tell you, they end up in the trash. I. Okay. That is the God's honest truth. And I hate to say that, especially to college students because they think that just handing out a bunch of business cards is networking. It's really not. The key to getting results is building relationships.

That is the key. And that's gotta, you can't microwave a relationship. You can't, have a relationship and fully develop that in 30 seconds over, let's say a meeting at a conference. It's just not going to happen. You have to. Really nurture that relationship over time. And so what does that mean?

That means that you need to be regularly checking in and providing value to those potential new customers. And that means reaching out to them on a regular basis. And that could mean a whole bunch of various things. For example, I send out a newsletter to all of the contacts in my CRM. Why am I sending out a monthly newsletter?

By the way, the, if you look at how often that newsletter is opened up, typically out of all of the newsletters that I send out, about 70%, seven zero, 70% of those email newsletters get opened up. That is a ridiculously high number high. Rate open rate for emails today. And why is that? Because I'm always providing value in those newsletters.

You really have to look at that newsletter and figure out what is the value to the customer for opening this up and reading it. There has to be some content I. That is of value to them in some way. And so make sure you're delivering that value and make sure that you're sending out this newsletter on a regular basis.

It can't be like once a year because then they're forgetting about you. It's gotta be on a regular basis. I send it out once a month. I know others in business that are very successful, they'll send out their newsletters once a week. You really have to figure out what works for your clients. However, I would say that make sure you're, really giving a lot of value and make sure that you're staying consistent in terms of sending that out.

Why is that consistency so important? Because I want to create top of the mind awareness in the minds of all of my potential customers. So that means that if an opportunity opens up, and let's say they just received the newsletter from me, I. Three days ago. Then immediately when that opportunity comes up and they say, wow, we need a speaker on our college campus.

I want them to instantly think of Dr. Mike Eon at Greek University. I'm building that top of the mind awareness, so that way when the opportunity comes up, they say to themselves, I have to send this lead to Mike. That's what I'm trying to build. And so that's why it's important for you to stay consistent and always be delivering value, and you have to nurture that relationship over time.

Again, you can't microwave relationships. This is something that you build long term over a long period of time and really start talking to your clients about little things. As an example, I, I found out one of my potential clients loves the New York Yankees, and I happen to be a big Yankees fan.

Aaron Judge is having a phenomenal start to the season. The Yanks are rolling at six and three. They're looking really good this season. So immediately I'm sending an email to my potential client saying, Hey, did you see the Yankee game last night? Aaron Judge is just on fire. And it's these little things, and I put that all into the CRM package.

Of course, that he's a Yankee fan. So immediately when I'm reaching out to him, we're talking about Yankees and things that we can instantly bind on. Bond on, and then we can start talking about whatever opportunities exist. But those are the types of things that really take you to the next level is when you know their favorite sports team, when you call them to wish them a happy birthday, when you know their wife's name and and what's going on with her.

All of these little things add up. And the key is really having that CRM database fully populated with all this information so that way when you're calling them, you're reviewing okay. They have. A Siberian cat named Klondike. Their birthday is coming up in a month. They love Italian food.

They're a big New York Yankees fan. So you're running through this list and you know exactly what to hit on. And they're saying, my God, Michael, how do you remember all of this stuff? Your memory is insane. And I'm like I just have a really good CRM package and I took great notes. So that's a little bit how it's done.

Yeah. It's so important in what you hit upon was the difference really between the relationships and just a customer. Okay. And really ever since the pandemic, I. Kids today, they forgot how to communicate with one another. They lost networking completely. 'cause they think everything is through Zoom or the cell phone.

So you have to take that outta their minds. And I have to tell you something I was in the mortgage industry a hundred years ago. And I used to go to the networking events. I used to come home with a shoebox filled with business cards because that was the way that everybody did it. And that was 100% wrong.

And now if I go to a three or four hour networking event, I come back with about 20 business cards because those are people that I created that relationship with. They're not just. They might be a customer, they may not be. They're nice to look at, talk, talk to, anything like that. But the relationship building is so very important.

And for anybody listening, please, that's what you should take away from this, is that you need to build those relationships, not just customer, back and forth. Yep. Okay. So can you share a challenge you faced and how you overcame it? Oh boy. Business as an entrepreneur, there's challenges all over the place.

I don't even know where to start, but there's constantly challenges. And the question is, are you able to overcome them? And my suggestion is that if you wanna overcome challenges, find somebody that you can network with that has been there and has done that is really the key to success is.

There's a whole bunch of people out there on LinkedIn, et cetera, that you can reach out to that are in your dream position or maybe even a competitor or somebody who's just in your business who's encountered that problem that you've encountered before. Call them up and ask for advice. That's another really good networking tip is ask people for advice.

They love to be put in that situation because. You're coming to them and now you're viewing them as an authority in that industry. And they love that. They love to show off what their skills are, and especially if you're a college student, I. People love to talk about themselves and they love to talk about how successful they are.

So get 15 minutes with somebody who works at the company that you wanna work at, or holds the dream position that you're angling for, and ask 'em for 15 minutes to figure out how they got there. So the key is really just to find other people in your niche that have been there, that have done that, that can advise you and they can steer you in the right direction.

And I, the problems. They're inevitable. Every entrepreneur out there is going to have problems along the way. I remember when I first got started as a speaker and new in business at Greek University, and it was just me. We didn't have dozens of speakers that were standing behind me ready to help, and the first six months were absolutely brutal.

Because typically there's a six month lead time before you can actually start getting speaking engagements because a lot of people plan six months in advance. So here I am needing to have immediate revenue and there was none because nobody was gonna hire me to. Speak next week. They just didn't operate that way.

Everyone had a six to a year, six months to a year in terms of when they're planning out their next big event. And so I remember just struggling. And the problem was there was absolutely no revenue. That was the number one problem. And so I remember just reaching out to another speaker in the industry explaining the situation.

And immediately they ended up helping me with a whole bunch of just, local engagements. Probably not the best in terms of return on investment. However, it did get me a whole bunch of things. Like it got me photos that I could put onto the website. It got me video reels so that way I can start building up my portfolio of videos.

It started getting me testimonials. So now if you looked on my LinkedIn account, I have over 80 testimonials on LinkedIn right now, and all of that started in that first six month phase when I had absolutely no revenue coming in. So you can take a problem. Such as no revenue. I have no money to put food on the table.

That's a big problem. However, you can use that constructively to start getting photos and video for your website, testimonials from others who have heard you speak. So that way when the revenue does come pouring in six months from now, then you have all of those assets that you need in order to keep this engine going.

And that started in that first six month period. So was it tight the first six months? Absolutely it was really tight. But luckily I did all of those little things and got some great advice from another speaker in the industry to help me to get going and to at least get all those assets in place so that way when the speaking engagements did start rolling in six months, seven months, eight months in, then I was prepared and ready to hit the ground running.

Problems will happen all the time. I would just encourage you to reach out to others in your industry. They will help you. Most people want to be helpful to others. Absolutely. People love to talk about themselves. Yep. They love to give you the advice that they've been through, so you're absolutely right.

Reach out to them because they'll be more than happy to give you what they know, to talk about it. And the fact of. Speaking without getting paid for it. I have I must have talked spoken at 50 different venues, before I started charging. But that helped me get my repetition in, hone in my skill, my craft, and it also taught me.

Things about networking that I didn't even know. So all of that comes into play, so it's very good. But listen, the people that you reach out to, they're willing to give. Only. Very rarely will you find somebody like, no, I'm not interested. They'll always give you 15, 20 minutes at a time, which will turn out to be a half an hour, because the first 15 minutes they're gonna talk about themselves.

So that's all right. But but either way that's exactly what you have to do. Yep. Okay, so how did you balance how, I'm sorry. How do you balance online and offline networking in today's digital age? Oh boy. You have to do a little bit of both. I think there are conferences that are happening in your niche.

You have to look at that as a calendar and figure out which ones are you're gonna get some good return on, investment on, and then plan out your year. So I usually look at it every summer just because I'm usually going by the academic calendar for colleges and every summer I'll look at that and say, okay.

The first conference we have is gonna be in December. Then we have a bunch that are going on in February. So those are gonna be my in-person networking attempts, and I'll map that out every single year. And I will allocate how much money that I need in order to be an exhibitor at those in-person conferences and be a speaker at those in-person conferences, and also sponsor some of those in-person conferences.

So I'm basically, when I do those in. Person networking events. I'm hitting them from all different directions. Yes, they're gonna see me and meet me and shake my hand at the exhibit hall and at the various sessions, maybe they sit in on one of my sessions where I'm speaking and they get a chance to see me in action, which is wonderful.

But I'm also hitting them at a whole bunch of different ways. They're also seeing my logo being advertised all over. The conference. So that might mean in the app that they're using for the conference they'll actually see my logo there. They might see my logo in a banner that's actually up on the wall.

They might see me all different ways throughout that conference where I'm sponsoring, et cetera. And that really helps to kind of drive home that message. And really sink in the brand. So that way, again, building that top of the mind awareness about my company. So now I have all my in-person, in-person networking events all scheduled for the entire year.

And then it just becomes okay. For the rest of the time. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna network online? And so that networking online looks, it can take all different forms and shapes. Yes, I am constantly emailing my clients. I am constantly sending videos to my clients. I'm constantly calling my clients.

I'm constantly sending them email newsletters once a month to my clients. I also have written six books, so the books act as a brochure, so that way they actually learn. About our services and our various speakers. I have a published dissertation, so in my signature on my email, I'm actually including a link to my published dissertation.

So they see me as an authority within fraternity and sorority life, specifically around hazing prevention. So there's all kinds of online networking going on. Also we do all kinds of webinars that we offer for free to our clients on Zoom. So that way they can actually network with us, see our various speakers, and engage with us even when those physical conferences are not happening.

So you really have to figure out, how can I provide value? And providing value looks a whole bunch of different ways. The other key to my success is also social media. So we have a huge social media following on TikTok and on Instagram. Instagram reels is very hot. TikTok is very hot for our tar target clients, which are college students.

So I've been able to build out a huge following on those social media platforms, and I'd highly encourage it, especially if you have a younger client demographic like college students. That's exactly where they're hanging out. I. So you have to figure out for your business, where are my ideal clients hanging out.

So that way I can build a following in that area. And I tell you what, that TikTok algorithm, it's gonna be very interesting to see what happens in terms of the sale of TikTok and if they're able to pull that off. But the algorithm is so good that whatever topic you are engaged in as a business.

You can create a TikTok account and have a ton of targeted followers within a week if you are doing the videos, right? I would highly suggest looking into some of that online networking that happens on social media because that's a great place to engage your target customers. Absolutely a absolutely I would say I couldn't have said it better myself, but you did.

So thank you. Again, you hit so many points that I wanted to go over with you, but you said them so well. But especially going over the social media and seeing where your target market is. You should really, anybody listening, listen to Michael because he knows what he's talking about.

Also, I, I love to say for the kids that are listening about social media, here's my thing, I always say it, don't put, don't post anything on social media. You wouldn't show your grandmother. Yep. So that's just because all the employers, everything that I talk about is the employers and how they are looking and searching social media for their employees.

And if they don't like something, they're gonna call you in and say what about this? What about that? So rather than go through all that, just don't post that or delete off the things you don't want people to see. But just adhere to those. Okay. So how do you ensure ethical practices in networking, especially given your background in hazing prevention?

Wow. Ethical practices. I think it's really about just getting to know your clients. We want to make sure that everybody that we work with, whether it be our clients or our employees, we obviously, ethics are incredibly important because. We're all fraternity and sorority members for the most part. And that means that there are certain values that we treasure and things like giving back to our community and truth and honesty and all of those things are incredibly important to us.

And before I get involved with, it could be a client, it could be an employee. I really do wanna make sure that they share our values and. The one way that I do that is a lot of times through an interview on the Fraternity Foodie podcast, to be honest with you we end up getting a ton of clients through that podcast.

We end up getting a ton of speakers through that podcast. That's really the way that I figure out is this somebody that I want to do business with. And through a 30 minute conversation, I can very quickly find out. What are the values of this particular person? And is it a match? Because not everybody's gonna be a match for your corporate culture.

So I think everybody who's listening right now, I really want you to think about what is your corporate culture? If you're just a person, an individual, what are your values? What's important to you? And then before you do business with anybody, make sure that person shares those common beliefs, because if not.

This could be really a disaster. Imagine if we brought in a speaker that, didn't share our values. That would be very problematic. You can instantly tear down a, an entire company that's been around for 10 years based on social media, really bad social media posts. That goes around the world in about 10 seconds.

So you have to be really careful that anybody that you either bring into your company or even potentially a client, you wanna make sure that there's a match in terms of those values. And that usually starts with a conversation that could be on a podcast. That's an example. That's a really good place.

That's where we get all of our new speakers, is on the podcast. We invite 'em on and. We have a conversation to see if this is a good fit or if it's with a client, just, have a phone call or a Zoom session with them to make sure say, Hey listen, this is what my company is all about. This is what our values are.

Is that something that's important to you as well? I. And if the answer is yes, great, then we can move forward. If not, that's okay too. Again, maybe I can send them to someplace else, maybe a competitor or somebody else that can service them a little bit better. But for me, I'm really into relationships.

I'm not into just doing, a one time. Speaking engagement and then never seeing them again. I'm into building relationships with people that share my values, and so in order to do that, you really have to have that conversation on the front end, make sure that there's a match, and then continue, that relationship over a long period of time.

But it, it really does start with that front end work to make sure that there's a match before it's too late. Very good. I learned being a restaurant owner, I learned something very fast. If you have really good food there they will go out and tell a friend, Hey, you have to go try. If you have really bad food, they'll go out and 10 tell 10 people, right?

Oh yeah. Not to go. So you really have to be careful. So what you say is so accurate and so true. Okay. So what's your approach to creating mutual value in networking relationships? You really, I think you're, the question is really great. You're setting it up really well because the key to great relationships is that mutual value.

And so you constantly want to think about when you're talking to a potential client. It's hard asking them, Hey, what does the perfect presentation look like? What are, as a speaker, what do you, what message do you want the audience to leave with in order to say that this was successful? And so once you really understand that, then you can deliver on that.

And then show them, let's say, survey results that proves that you actually got that result. So every time I go out and speak, I instantly make sure that the last slide is a QR code that all of the people in the audience can actually scan and give me feedback to say, did I hit the mark? Did I meet the client's needs?

And if the answer is yes, wonderful, then you know, let me share that with my clients so that way they can see that I actually met. Their needs. And then I need something in return, right? What do I need in return? I need a testimonial from that client in order to attract more clients. And they're more than happy to do that if I can prove to them that I met their needs.

So really the key is making sure that you're meeting all of their needs, getting very clear on what success looks like, and then if you hit it. Then wonderful. Now is your time to be able to get something in return, which could be a testimonial. It could be a referral to another client, but you have to make sure that you're hitting their needs first, so that way their needs are satisfied.

And then you can ask for something in return. You don't want to be thinking about just your needs initially. It's always about the client. It's always about what do they need? And I will tell you nine times outta 10 if their needs are met. And they're happy with the service that you provided. I promise you they will come and deliver whatever it is that you need in order to get to the next level for your business.

Whether that be a testimonial, a referral, or what have you. They'll be more than happy to do it nine times outta 10. That's really the way that I. Am able to make sure that everybody's needs are met, is just going all out to make sure I understand what their needs are. I deliver on that, show them proof that I've actually reached their goal, and then they're more than happy to help me and my business in return.

Absolutely. Absolutely. There is a company called Talk do. And they have a QR code and they have all those analytics for you. I've. I started with Talka Dot, but I created my own on a Google worksheet. Sure. So I have my own QR code that goes right to my own Google worksheet, and it tells me almost the same as the Talka dot information.

And from there I can talk to my customer, my client, about how much they liked it. How much they liked it, how much they didn't like it, everything like that to serve them that much better. Okay? So I'm doing everything to serve my customer better, my client better. But you gotta ask. You gotta get that proof.

That's really the key. You have to ask for those surveys and for those results to make sure that you're actually hitting the mark. I think that's one area that, if I had a do over in terms of my business, I would've started that practice of the QR codes and getting surveys from all the students much earlier, because I think it would've helped the business grow at a faster rate.

In the beginning. As a speaker, you're like, man, I killed it. And you know that you did because you're getting good feedback when you get off stage, but how does the client know that? You can't just say I killed it. Okay, but that's subjective, right? That's one person's opinion.

How do you prove that? So you really want to collect data on your product or service that proves that you're actually hitting the mark. And that's something that I wish I would've implemented earlier, but I tell you what, now that it's implemented, we've just grown by leaps and bounds. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Let's go, listen, you've proven you are a success and I'm sure you had a lot of bumps in the roads getting there. Sure. So let's concentrate a little bit on the mistakes. What's a common networking mistake that you've observed and how can my listeners avoid it? Yeah, don't always try to sell, sometimes I overhear some of these networking interactions and it's just painfully obvious to me that one person is trying to sell a particular solution.

I. To the other person and it's almost painful. Just be present. Just be in the moment and listen, instead of constantly selling, I need you to develop your listening skills. That is incredibly important. If you want to be successful, you gotta listen to what the client needs. One particular occasion.

I remember going to a conference. And this one particular speaker that worked for a competitor was really trying to push their services, but you could, it was painful because you could almost hear the client on the other end saying, that's not one of my needs. We don't have a need for that particular type of speaking engagement.

That's not an issue on our campus. You have to understand all of your clients are gonna be different. They have different needs. They don't all have the same exact need. So you gotta ask the question like, how are things going? Talk to me about a problem that you're encountering that you don't know how to solve.

I. And really just, be a listening board as opposed to trying to sell your particular solution. It's a really big turnoff when somebody is, feels that somebody is forcing themselves on you when meanwhile they're not listening to the fact that's not a problem for you. So I would say, be a better listener and that's how you can avoid those types of situations.

That's right. That's right. Don't try that's what we both said. From the beginning look to give, not receive. Yep. They shouldn't even know what you do until three quarters of the way through the conversation. So that should alleviate all of those problems. But listen, you can't tell them, you can't tell everybody, look, don't sell, because they feel that's what they're there for.

But you know that you can get more with honey than vinegar, yeah. So that's where you can look at it. So bring in this first full circle. About the future of networking. How do you see networking evolving in the next five to 10 years, particularly in your fields of expertise? I. Yeah. I do think that while I absolutely love the in-person networking, there's really no substitute for it, and I love going, I do think that because of the various economics of in-person networking and some of these conferences, I do think that the size of some of these conferences are gonna start to go down slightly.

We're seeing a lot of economic troubles right now in, in politics, and I think ultimately that's gonna mean that there's gonna be lower budgets within the next couple of years to send people to these physical networking events. I think budgets are gonna be caught at least in higher ed. I'll tell you that.

There's gonna be some budgets that are gonna be cut over the next couple of years. So what does that mean for you? If you have a business that, let's say, caters to higher ed, that means that you really need to focus on that online networking piece that we talked about earlier. How are you going to network online so that way your customers are regularly seeing your content?

And that could be on social media. So as an example, I publish a piece of social media every single day, and you can publish that same video on various. Platforms, you can publish that on on TikTok, you can publish that on Instagram reels, you can publish that on YouTube, you can publish that on LinkedIn as a video.

So you can use that same piece of content, but just put it out on every single social media platform out there. So that way, again, you're building that top of the mind awareness with your clients. The email newsletter I think is gonna be really good. I think that more and more people are now going to texts in terms of their messages.

So at least with the college students, a lot of them are not even opening their emails and they really are focusing on the phone, on their smartphone. So the question is how can we get messages on texts to our clients because they're actually reading that. Much faster than their reading emails. So I think that in terms of networking, it's gonna really over the next couple years, especially within the higher ed niche, I do think that we're gonna go a lot more to online networking opportunities.

So really start thinking about where your networking online, where your customers are hanging out online. So that way you can build your business there because I think over the next couple years I see a lot of problems ahead in terms of budgets within higher ed that are just not going to allow as much of the in-person networking as much as we would like.

And so that might be a little bit of a longer term play. I don't think that online network or in-person networking is gonna go away. I still think it's gonna be a thing. However, just keep in mind that budgets are gonna be cut, and that might mean that there's gonna be lower numbers of clients at some of the regular places that you go in order to network in person.

Oh, that's great. I can probably talk to you for another two hours about all of this. But unfortunately we're even a little past our time. So if somebody wants to get hold of you for any number of reasons how can they do it? They can get ahold of me just about anywhere. So anywhere on social media, it's at Greek University, so feel free to check us out there.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Dr. Michael, and the last name is Alon. That's spelled A-Y-A-L-O-N. I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn, so please follow us there. If you wanna send me an email. The email address is bookings, B-O-O-K-I-N-G-S. At greek university.org and I'm also an author as well, so we've published the From Letters to Leaders book series for college students.

So you can also see those on Amazon as well. So there's a whole bunch of different ways, but of course the website is always the perfect place. That's just greek university.org and I appreciate the time, Michael. No problem. Michael, thank you very much for coming on the podcast and I hope to talk with you soon.

Sounds good. Thanks for having me.

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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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