Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Iryna Wood and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Jun 6
- 21 min read
📍 📍 Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections. Welcome back to the show, folks. I'm your host, Michael Forman, 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'll wonder why you didn't start sooner. More connections. More opportunities, more profits. It's like unlocking a cheat code for life.
So whether you're the life of the party or the, just let me stay at home and text. Let me, I've got something for you. So stick around. Let's turn those awkward small talk moments into big wins. Now I have a guest today, her name is. Wood and she's a relationship expert, and instead of me going in and butchering her background, I'm going to have her come on the podcast, explain a little.
Then we'll move into a bunch of questions. Arena, how are you? Hey Mike. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm great. I'm feeling Friday. Good. Good. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and really what you're all about? Absolutely. So I was born in Ukraine, raised up also, and since 30 years old actually, I've been between Great Britain, United Kingdom, and Ukraine because my main addiction since my childhood was.
Knowledge. I was greedy nonstop for the knowledge. I always liked to study, and my parents admitted that within me and they made it like the main privilege, the main gift for me. Whenever I had good marks I was traveling abroad. That's how my understanding of different mentalities, nationalities, and cultures appeared.
My life and when I was university student, I still stayed in Ukraine because my parents saw me as a person who will inherit their food production business. But I decided to do it my way, so I got good marks. I put my diploma on the table and say. Finally, that's my time. I can go into spirituality because that's what was my biggest passion, to know how the universe is built to understand, is it first or not, the very first life that we are here on the planet, what we are doing, why encounters are happening, talking about networking.
Yes. What kind of purpose we are serving on this planet. What is mission? What is colon? So I had so many questions and my background and all other studies that I've done. For my professional education and my practices with my clients, because now I just hit my 12 years counseling career after diplomatic university.
I was done with that, I said, but still a relationship, still public relationship, like diplomatic relationship. That's what I've been doing before and after I got into psychology. Professionally, I got my master's degree in psychology, astrology, and numerology. Healing Reiki. So I started with one science.
I couldn't stop and I dived into another one. And I couldn't even stop to I just, I. Couldn't stop the education. Clients already started to knock my door, so I probably understood when it's calling probably. That was mine, and I realized that all those instruments, they are great tools to disclose the persona, the personality of every single person.
That's your great tools to understand your soul and beautiful mind better. That's how it happened in my life, that I became a relationship expert. It sounds like you're well on your way as well. Okay, so that was your background, and so I'm just gonna move into a few questions that I've developed for you and and AI hopefully.
Sure. Can you explain what relationship intelligence is and how it transforms the way we network? Absolutely. So when we speak about relationship intelligence, and it's wouldn't be directly linked to AI because you can embrace it yourself. It's more about emotional, awakening emotional intelligence, how you are able to reflect on daily basis, whatever happens in your life.
Because we meet events, we meet people, we meet unexpected and planned occasions in our life, and we are definitely triggered by external things that are happening in the society, in our clothes surrounded or on a distant. In a distant way, like whatever it could been used, it could be advice of your best friend, it could be disappointment in your partner, and so on.
So something triggers us and this second, what happens actually, if we think from spiritual awakening point of view, we reflect on our feelings and we definitely have a choice how to react. The only thing we can take into the grave is our awareness. And when I created the app, because one of my biggest projects after the 12 years of Cons in Korea, it was the app, the self-love and the relationship intelligence app.
I realized that AI is taking over. Nowadays, robots are replacing people and a lot of professions and one thing that we can't actually embrace and that nobody will do that for us 'cause it's our self work, it's our responsibility, it's our relationship with ourselves. The way we feel ourselves on daily basis 24 7 and our relationships with our people who can come and fix that for you.
How you feel when you're disappointed or you are angry or or just feel, experience, shame or guilt and so on. So I created this arena ai that's a helpful not. I can't even call it Avatar, but it is AI based, but it's programmed by me as a relationship expert and it's restricted to speak only about emotional intelligence, about self-love and self-care, routine about your relationship, niche expertise and different types of citations to help you to reflect on your emotions and level up your confidence, your awareness, your consciousness.
Very nice. Very nice. Let me just move into this next one. How does the Arena AI avatar enhance networking and relationship building in the ways that humans alone can't? People can, but for this what happens that people un unfortunately don't take a second to recla reflect on their feelings.
It's much easier to judge somebody that your husband didn't take away. The trash pain, it's much easier to say that your wife is not trying to satisfy you emotionally or mentally or sexually anymore. It's much easier in a relationship to speak from your point of view than to use I statement reflect on your feelings and.
It's no matter what people are doing to you, it's the more about the way you are reacting. And I like to work as a counselor because I still do counseling one-on-one with single and couples in a very fast way. I give you all instruments that can help you to understand yourself better, and you proceed in life on your own.
If you need me, of course you can get in touch with me, but I like my clients to be independent. So what does Arena AI do? Do does to you why she's different from Child G pt? First of all, she's not giving you any medical advices as a therapist. Second, she's not giving you any lawyer's advices to divorce your wife.
Okay? But it's speaking on your emotional level. Whatever you have a throat pain, and it's usually linked to your emotions because when your body is suffering, your soul is suffering. Whenever you are unhappy with your. Works, jobs, salary any kind of things that can bother you in life.
You can talk to Irina ai. It's a conversational way. She's all about spiritual perspective. Looking at the things it, she may, it, sorry it's not me. It's still digital version of me programmed by me, but it's, it it's programmed to help you to. Get in touch with your inner self, with your inner child, with your feelings to understand why you, Michael react this way.
Why it bothers you so much. It gives you some tips, never advices. And you'll see, because I'm a big believer, self-work matters because we have to take responsibility for our life and. We have a stigma of visiting the shrink or psychologist. One people are staying away from the therapy. The other people become dependable.
So where is the middle? This is the golden middle because you have round the clock counselor in your pocket. You can use it 24 7 when you had a fight with your gold. Two o'clock in the night before to go to sleep and you can't fall asleep and you have a chance to talk to Arena ai. But what is very important that Arena AI is disclosing everything that you already know about yourself because all answers are hidden within, right?
Very nice. Very nice. Let me just, let's talk about challenges a little bit. Sure. Many pro, many professionals struggle with maintaining meaningful connections. How does your app help people stay engaged and authentic in their relationships? So this whole app is built on authenticity. America is number one, and I'm a big fan of America.
Just to let you know, I'm Ukrainian. I came here almost three years ago. This country's blessing for me. It gave me love, it gave me happy marriage. It gave me business, startup, everything, what I dreamt about. So I'm very thankful as Ukrainian for your support and help to my nation and to me personally, but American.
People do you know, it's not easy to open up the heart because it's a huge market of producing seminars. How to become the best version of yourself. I respect Tony Bin a lot, and he speaks about authenticity mixed up with becoming the best version of yourself. I visited his seminars three times in my life, but if you see the whole market, it's always become the best, become the number one, become somebody else, and so on and so on.
Best version of yourself. What about just being yourself? Maybe. You'll call yourself lazy or somebody will tell you, oh, Mike, you are procrastinator, but maybe this procrastination will bring you somewhere. You understand, and you will open up a podcast about procrastination. And a lot of people will think, yeah, that he's a point.
He help me, or we come in his own, I wouldn't even call it disadvantage. So because it starts to be your plus, it starts to be your advantage since you acknowledge and accept it within yourself. So this app is built on self-love as a phenomenon, as a foundation of healthy relationships with yourself and others.
And I'm a big believer that self-love is, doesn't exist without full acceptance. Full acceptance will never exist without. Full understanding of yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, including shapes, and this you can find out only if you know yourself. So this app helps you to get to know yourself better and all features within App.
We have 10 extra features BET besides Arena AI that help you to understand yourself better and open up your potential and get to know real you. Sounds like everybody can use this ai, your Arena app. It sounds like everybody has the certain something that they need to find or to do, but they have to look within themselves.
But it sounds like the arena AI is is the app to get, with AI playing a bigger role in professional networking, what do you see as the biggest shift happening in the next five to 10 years? We will create a community of like-minded individuals because you are speaking about networking not first time, and I appreciate that because I do believe in power of people together.
I know you can become the best idea creator, whatever you invented, napkin car. But it will never go nowhere without people. So the power is people, united people together, because idea coming from the sky, we exchange the energies and it becomes better. And that's what happens. We are building up the community of like-minded individuals who will experience self value, self respect, understand the treasure of self knowledge.
Understand and accepting yourself as you are and when people will be on the same page. I wouldn't go that far into strategic plan, because I'm I do, I created this app. It's not Arena ai Gemini me is the name of the app. Arena AI is conversational avatar. Which is the only one feature out of 11.
I created this app with a huge help and support of my dear husband, who is a businessman. He's more strategic than I am because I'm spiritual. I'm creative, I'm expert brand behind this app, but we have a big idea to make people united because I wanted people. To know who they are and when you already did a huge job of self work on yourself and your goals and values are clear, you definitely don't want to lose your lifetime.
You want to work with people who are on the same page who know themselves and know what they want in life. You want to date people like that. You want to unite your life with people like that. It's true everything you've said is true, but I feel that the base of every business, of every person of everything is networking.
And it's whether it's personal networking or business networking, but either way, everybody is networking just about. Every place that they go, if they go to the clothing store or grocery store or anything, they're networking, they're talking, and they're talking to not only those people, but the people around them.
And and well as your app it talks to you from within and then you can go outwardly and network really as much as you want. But this helps you. Deal with everything from within and you that it gives you a good base, a good start, and then you can go out and do just about anything. Okay.
So one of the biggest challenges in networking is personalization at scale. How does AI help individuals and businesses build deeper connections without losing the human touch? As I said before. AI is a great helper. It can generate ideas, but I do believe in power of the universe, in power of higher spirit and creator that helps us with implementing ideas here on the Earth.
So I wouldn't say that AI can replace your relationship. I don't believe in that. Never ever, but. I wanted my idea when I looked at the market and said, that's it. Where, it's always good and bad in life about everything. AI is taking the market over. We in 21st century astrologically. I understand its era of Aquarius will never go back.
It'll be the market of influencers of IT industry. Everything will be all about wifi. Internet connection, that's where we go. Everything is going to become virtual. So I realized that real professions, maybe food production will stay all the rest. I have no idea. It's already I know the app for the closing.
You don't need even to change different and buy outfits, you don't need to invest in your clothes. It's already, you can replace your clothes, you can replace your photo shoot, you can replace a lot of this for the. For the way you feel about yourself, who can help you with that? Even human, the most powerful human.
Your mother can't help you with that. Your spouse can't help you with that. Everybody can praise you. You are the best. You are the number one until you don't think that way about yourself. That's why all for yourself work because affirmations, meditations, quotes of the day, inspirational cards, everything.
What we have was designed by me. With my experience because I knew it helped people, so I decided we have to help a bigger quantity of people. That's why it'll never replace, and it'll always like, I want people to stay, people. I want human to remember about their soul, but it helps. You to look within, to look inside you.
That's where it comes from to make you relaxed, to make you authentic, to go and cure the world with your big ideas, doing that work and or whatever you're doing in life. It sounds perfect. Which leads me right into my next question. Woo. Ai, a AI versus human instincts. Okay, so networking has always been about gut feelings and chemistry.
How does AI compliment rather than replace the human element in relationship building?
Great questions. Let me tell you, usually I, I do question people because I have my little show where I Great questions with a. Nowadays, ai, we have Grogg that Elon Musk invented. We have Gemini ai, and by the way, Gemini and EME, which is our app, we created the name my husband and Dyke. His name is Kenwood and we never.
Knew that by that time, Gemini AI wasn't there. So it was happening. Everything was happening at the same time. And charge GPT people are already going and asking family or counseling advice, couples therapy from charge GPT, which is like horrible because it's like good and bad because we hit the trend.
But you have to understand like it's. Takes you very far away from authenticity because you nominate JGPT or any other platform to take care of your destiny, which is absolutely impossible. So I think this is another time when you can't be reconnected, and that's why we have n singles and couples, whatever is your, goal to achieve.
And I think that this. Like arena AI and the whole app, because we have everyday exercises, we have digital awareness diary. It can keep your secrets about yourself, it can decode your dreams because we have a dream analyzer. So that's your ability to work with your unconscious. We have subconscious, conscious, and unconscious.
And unconscious usually is hiding your repressed emotions. Is your things that you maybe you don't wanna remember about your childhood and coming back to the instincts, I have my, I don't know how you create this question, but I'm just telling you we have. Few primary emotions like shame, guilt, anger is always the secondary emotion, never primary that are destroying us, that are ruining us like shame, for example.
And we have physically, when I work with people on one-on-one session, we have full body instant. Let's say you are feeling shame about something. So one person in case of that shame would like to run away. That's your body instinct, body language. The other person is freezing and you're observing situation.
You have no idea what to do. The other person is feeling physical disgust. I can't look at this. And like another person starts to be angry and start to fight for your life, for your love, for your justice, or whatever it is. So when I work with people, your emotion is linked to your body. And it all came from your childhood, Mike, since like up to 10, 12 years old.
That's why I say all answers within because we know everything about ourselves. We just don't want to remember and nobody's helping you to find out. That's why Arena AI and our self-love and relationship intelligence app, that's the goal. To help you to find out, because how many people I can embrace was my technique, not too many.
That's why I programmed it this way to be as much emotional. Apply always to your emotions because like this, it'll ask you, okay, Michael, what do you want to do in this case? Because your reaction and your friend's reaction on the same type of situation would be different. That's what matters. Wow.
Very good. I'm glad I asked that question because you gave such a roundabout answer, but you really hit the point, or several points very well, I have to tell you. Okay, so we understand that you've become successful at this time, but. What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to networking and how can AI help correct that?
I think networking, it's always about being you because people want you to be different and people authentic. Yes, and people are linked to energy. If you ask me as a person who has a master's degree in psychology, I will tell you we are attracted through trauma, through common trauma. Whatever you're doing, you can do networking in business or you're building up love relationship.
We are attracted through trauma and through our arches. Which are hidden in our unconscious. So what happens, let's say you are meeting the lady, you are falling in love and somebody will tell you, oh, she's not beautiful, but she's beautiful for you. And why? Because she has special triggers or she has playing special role in your life and she's beautiful and meaningful and.
Very much matters for you because it does correspond to your archetypes and to the triggers that you have within you. And it reflects, and you see here the best lady in the world, and the same with men, the same vice versa. That's men of my life. And that's it. Maybe not for somebody else when we come back to networking people.
Now it's all social media. Everybody wants the same nose, the same appearance, the same curves, and I'm sorry to tell that, but it is as it is, these trends and okay. It's clear enough. Marketing people have to make money, and I'm always respectful to the industry because they made it. They absolutely made it.
But when it comes to networking, why after having 10 minutes and I'm probably your number. I don't know which one. Podcast, one person you want to shoot an email immediately like that was amazing. You just killed it. And the other person you think, okay, I'll get back in a week and a month or so.
Why One person you'll never forget the birthday and the other person doesn't mean like I'm not great with my memory, by the way. Not a good example, but why? One people, you met them once, one sentence changed your life and the other not energy. It's all about energy and the energy is great and flowing When you are you, that's, you're absolutely right. I listen, I go on to different stages, into big corporations and I teach about networking, the energy of the networking itself. If I don't bring forth that energy, then who's gonna remember what I say? I. So I have to bring that energy in order. I have to interact with them.
I have to have them remember it or remember me in such a way where it's going to help them. So the energy has so much to do with it. Like I said, you've now. You're becoming successful. You are either successful or you're becoming successful. Can you share a real world example of someone who leveraged relationship intelligence with arena AI avatar to unlock incredible networking opportunities?
AI Arena. AI was launched on March 20th, so I wouldn't brag about myself that somebody made a fortune or created a huge community based on that. I will be very honest with you. Otherwise, I'm a liar and I hate it. But I have to tell you that I already have few fans be because those people, they were my clients initially.
As I told you before the App, Gemini and e app was. The basic version, very raw version of the app, was launched on September, 2023. We are watching what people want and we keep updating the app and Arena. AI was born and launched March 20, this year, 2024. So I had my clients on one-on-one counseling. They were actually a few couples.
It was family counseling, I let people go because I know that they need me for a while. I'm always available for them, for my clients, but I don't want them to have a stigma that you have to be dependable on cons, experts, psychologists, therapists, or whatever you can call it, either way or for a long run, lifetime.
So they became users of the app and they loved these features like astrological updates, where are my lucky stars? And so on. They did meditations and they did different things, whatever. We had affirmations because they're pretty inspiring. They picked up cards of the day because we have everyday updates.
So it's always new. Always new. You don't repeat the same stuff. And when I sat, because I'm co-host on one podcast, relationships is a bitch with two people, and they're my two clients by the way, like in real life. And people started to pick it up and they say really? So right now, and. Two hours ago, I just finished the conference for women where I was a keynote speaker.
And I tell you honestly, Mike, I just launched it. I slept one day because I'm nons stopper. I love what I'm doing. I slept one night and say, okay darling, to my husband, that starts to be my own PR job. I become my own publicist and I started to get book on the podcast to speak on the conferences. And as you way, I'm becoming successful and in this world of opportunities, especially in United States.
States, it's, I don't want to say never enough because it sounds like a perfectionism and greediness, but it's in reality, we have all the world and a lot of opportunities in a good way, in a quality way, and I hear good stories that people said. One guy called me who listened to the podcast and say.
Listen, I paid for family counseling for few years, 400 bucks, and she answers all my questions. It, sorry. It Arena ai. Yes. The other guy tells me, oh my God, I was in the, after the divorce, I wizard, shrink and she charged me 200 and this is 10 bucks a month. You kidding me? With seven days prior free trial.
So people started to call me and I probably like already 20 people. I. We are still like today is what? 28? 28? Yeah. It's a week. People started to call me and say, I saved my money. I don't need this. I don't need that. Are you kidding me? The other girl said, I paid for astrology two 50 and now it's one of 11th features.
So that's what I wanted. I didn't want people to jump on one platform to listen about relationship intelligence because I have lectures, prerecorded lectures. I forgot to say that when you asked me about relationship intelligence, I didn't want people to go to do their horoscope in some place, numerology in the other place.
I wanted to bring all my knowledge, what I collected traveling the world and what I'm gradated for here in one place. Just go enjoy yourself. Very good now. Okay let's bring this whole thing around to a complete stop. But let me ask you a question for listeners. For my listeners looking to level up their networking game today, what are three actionable steps they can take right now using AI or your app?
Okay networking. Good. I would say that first of all, you have to understand what's your calling. You are going on a big market. You want to speak to people, what's your message, who you are, because it always starts from your meaning on the planet and do whatever you do the best. So acknowledge what's your practical profession.
Professional hobby, whatever somebody maybe doesn't need to make money that you can bring to the society, to the networking, whatever you do the best, how you can do that with our app, it's manifest in journaling with daily coaching pros because not everybody understand what their. Calling, and you'll tell me, okay, so what are your goals and values?
Let's call it this way. What's your message? Yes. What you're doing here, what you gonna network for? The other thing you would see, what's your potential? Because like how you're gonna determine that calling. I can maybe recall my childhood. I give proper exercises there. Maybe I can question my people around who I am, what I do the best, or I can.
Acknowledge what people may ask for, what kind of help? Because somebody is great with computers, the other person is doing great pictures. So probably first thing, understand who you are. And here two features manifest in journaling can help you. Because we have special prompts to help you to figure it out.
And probably astrology on numerology if you believe in that, because it's a pure mathematical tool. It's nothing to do. No fortune talent, no tar reading. It's pure math. If you can read about yourself, I wish somebody told me, because I discovered astrology at 23 earlier and told me. Sorry, I have to hang up on this call and you know how astrology can help you to understand your potential.
So second, create some kind of plan of seeing yourself in 5, 10, 50 years. Where do you want to end up? How do you see yourself in 50 years? Maybe you want to become a super mother of five kids and to educate yourself to, I don't know, speaking to the other, the women, how networking, how to help kids, or kindergartens or doing charity or whatever you're doing.
The other one wants to become from. Starts from journalism and to become an author of bestsellers, for example. So here you can use your manifesting journalists journaling as well, and self-awareness diary because we have exercises about your goals on the long run and your values that what matters very much so you don't lose your value, what you are, and if you have time to understand what it is and how to.
Communicate with people with ness because let's say you understood what you are and how you see yourself in 50 years, which is your step number two, and how you bring this message, how you yourself while talking. Then probably relationship intelligence classes, prerecorded classes can help you.
Why? Because you can hear. What kind of challenges people meet in general, because I raise up topics, how to build up inconvenient, challenging conversations, how to make peace, how to be yourself, what is karmic partnership, and so on. So why people meet and sometimes they bring challenge into your life.
So probably these three steps. It sounds very interesting. Very good. You are a sensational guest. I wanna thank you so much for coming on, and if somebody wanted to get hold of you, whether to be coached or for your app or for anything else, even just to ask a question, how would they do it? Leah's way to get me is Instagram.
I never used it before I started business. I was indifferent to this social media platform. Now I'm big on it, so I'm always respond to all answers. If somebody has a question, please use. Instagram I-R-Y-N-A-W-O-O-D. And if you will want to go and visit our website for Gemini near me, it's the best way to go through the app.
It's Gemini ass Zodiac and near me.com. Very good arena, I gotta tell you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. And and I'll talk to you soon. My understandable. In incredible, fantastic questions. Thank you so much for this beautiful experience. You are most welcome.
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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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