📍 So I want to introduce you to Jackson. He's become a friend of mine and, we've exchanged podcasts and everything.
That's all on the outset of things, but. When it comes to networking, I put Jackson at the top of the list because he believes in true networking. Jackson teaches a visionary entrepreneurs how to unlock sustainable revenue growth and expand their legacy by becoming a power brand in their market. Jackson teaches Businesses and I would go into it a great cause I can sit here for three hours and tell you all about Jackson, but I might as well have Jackson talk about Jackson.
So here, Jackson, how are you? And welcome to my show.
No, great, Michael, and it's an honor to be here. I really, really appreciate the genuine nature with which you show up my, my friends, my new friends via podcasting, those who are listening in, I have no reason to pull awkward or random or disingenuine. Compliments for anybody that I meet in life.
You can always compliment somebody. You can always compliment somebody's logo on their shirt or the quality of their podcast studio. But when it comes to genuine nature, like Michael, you represent the best of the best of them. And it was such an honor to have you on our show. We had 2000 episodes in less than two years., and you're again, you're somebody that I keep going back to thinking about and being grateful for people who are. Often hard to remember.
Great, thank you. Thank you for that. That as well. , let's just pull you and give me an example of how strategic networking significantly impacted your business.
It's huge. , I've been a networker since I was a kid., like since I was super, super little. Part of that is coming from a divided family. Right. Living in mom's home, living in dad's home, , meeting step siblings, , you know, being left at cousins houses. , my mom's a single mom of six. , right. So she had a lot of people in church that would help too.
So I lived in a lot of homes, meant I was constantly telling my story to people, talking to new people. She was very active in her church community as well. So, , I grew up. And when you grew up in a divided home and you've got one, you got to name Jackson. No kids had the name Jackson growing up, right?
I would go look for the little license plate you could put in your bike. They did not make one for Jackson in my day. I was, I was so frustrated about that. Now it's the top name for kids. , you know, so, different story, but people say, Oh, wow, that's interesting. Where does your name come from? Right. And then, well, you know, my five sisters named me, you got five sisters, you know?
Yeah, I have five. In fact, I have 15 half and step brothers. You have 15 half of the whole day of
very much.
every year for school was, who's this Jackson kid? Like, does his story ever end? I mean, but like in a Positive way. People were just constantly curious. So that that gave me an upper hand in terms of valuing connecting with others and getting to know people's stories and then asking people questions to get the light off of me. I had to learn how to get the light off. And they're like your eyes, your eyes. Are you blind? I mean, like I get that from the guys and the girls are like, your eyes are so pretty. You know, like I was like, your eyes are scary. Marilyn Manson would watch your eyes. You know, like there's all sorts of weird things about I grew up.
And so you could say I grew up. With a very silver spoon in my mouth from a networking standpoint coming from a mom with, you know, the single mom of six kids, you know, we knew what hard economic times looked like as well. So I also, and we're diligent, learn how to hustle. We learn how to talk to people. When I say hustle, you know, not the kind where you're snake oiling people, but the kind where you're getting after it and you're perhaps. Trying a bit too hard in business. So the sweet spot that I'll settle in on with this, Michael, and pass the mic back to you is there's, there's the get after it and hustle way.
That's kind of like professional begging that most people do. And there's the being a leader and sitting back and being a lighthouse. I call it shining the light. Not at people, on others and the paths that people may want to go down and just existing. And if people want to come up to you as a lighthouse, that's totally fine.
But I'd rather be a lighthouse that serves and helps others than make the whole thing about me.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And just from what you were telling me, , first of all, if you have to be consistent with anything you do, you have to be authentic. With anything and everything that you do, once you get those two things down, then you're well on your way. Networking is a skill, so you have to practice.
And one great thing about networking is when you're going to a networking event. You don't say very much. Everybody thinks that you talk and you're trying to sell something. The opposite is true because when you go somewhere, you're listening to people. You're a problem solver and you have the answer to their problems.
So if you can hear what they're saying, actually listen, and then you pause after you listen, because that shows. That you're listening to them and then you respond with what you have to say about what they said, not the next thing that you wanted to say. So it's very true in everything. So let me ask you a question.
So what are the key elements to effective networking?
Intentionality. go with that one first. , you said we have to be authentic. I intentionally choose to see it as we get to To be authentic, right? The, the get to the opportunity to, and so it changes the perspective and dynamic when we begin to realize that it's such a blessing and gift to be able to be authentic in a world that often is trying to showboat, to, to promote themselves. The other opportunity that exists there for me is I don't really, I don't really see myself as a problem solver anymore. I used to. I'm not there showing up to solve problems. I show up to do what is best for the people that I serve. I do help. I'm willing to help, right? But I don't know if you have problems I can solve.
I'm not God. , you know, I might not be able to. And, and, two, it's not even about being able to. I'm a solutions oriented individual, you know, so I don't really see, we talked about blessings when God and I said, I'm, I'm blessed man. And I, I recorrected myself. I said, you know what, blessed when it's good.
I'm blessed when that life's bad. I'm blessed when it's ugly. , you know, but I'm grateful that the good blessings are in store right now. Right? Because at all times, are solutions for all situations. And I may not be that vessel to provide solutions to people, but I can list, I can, as you said, I can listen to people, can get to know their stories. I can see what they're up to. And if what they're up to and what they need or what they want or what they're trying to accomplish aligns with the resources or the assets or my abilities. And I am being very sincere about this. If they truly want to work with me, like if they are, chasing or pursuing in a healthy fashion engagement and a connection with me, then I will reciprocate on that. But if they are not coming towards me, I will not go towards them. A lighthouse doesn't move. A lighthouse stays right where it's at. by doing that again, by shining the light and by helping people connect with each other, great book on this. It's one of the hardest books to read, which is why nobody reads it. , and it's one of those books that's recommended by extremely great leaders in the world. Not all leaders in the world. It's not rich dad, poor dad level. This is some really legitimate, like amazingly deep stuff. chapter 10 talks about triad relationships and triad relationships is when I take, Foreman. I say, Hey, Michael, your virtues and values of networking, , aligned very well with Hicks. , and how he goes about networking as well. I would love to see the two you guys connect because I think you share the same virtues and principles. There's 8 billion people to help in the world and the two of you combining forces could lead to a one plus one equals 11.
I'll let you guys
Didn't know I was following some framework. the book, they highlight that when you do
Okay.
And, and then they
The common
together. Go ahead.
You're the commonality of the two of them. So that's a good basis for them to begin speaking. So you really become a broker.
outside of it. And I say, Michael, how'd it go with clay? I follow up with clay clay, how'd it go with Michael? Right. And it gives them an opportunity to what I would call testify, right. Report back to me like, man, that was so great. And by the way, thank you for that. And, or like, man, that guy was such a prick. you know, whatever happens, I can learn, refine and reevaluate who might the next connection be. If we're constantly connecting people, it solves the lead generation challenge 100%. I have no lead generation problems. We have to turn off our pipelines all the time and people have to marinate and wait to talk to us.
Our show is booked for months in advance. You know, we've, I just turned off Fridays as well. I'm no longer doing that. My Friday 2 p. m. shows because there's so many people to support already in our network. That we, I just try to be present with those who are here. And again, I don't need to chase anybody.
There's, there's no reason to go about chasing people. When you create relationships that want to exist around, if you're chasing people, it's because people don't want to be around you. What are you going to do to fix that?
Absolutely right. Absolutely right. And just to circle back and what that would mean for networking is I was in the mortgage industry and I would go to events. I come home with a shoe box filled with business cards and think how well I did. And then you realize that I didn't do well at all. I was horrible at it.
But you know, now when I'm teaching or we're doing a workshop or something else like that, I'm saying you shouldn't walk away with more than 15 or 20 business cards because that meant that you. Had a relationship with that person. You really don't have time, as you said, to talk to everybody. You know, if you're picking the people that you want and that you truly desire to create that relationship with, and that takes time.
Yeah.
And that takes time. So a three or four hour event, you should only be walking away with 15 or 20 business cards. And that's really it. Because if you walked away with more than that, then you really didn't give the time to those people.
I don't agree with that at all. But it's okay. It's a different
Okay. So tell me, well,
my
tell me your perspective.
goal used to be 60 per day. , right. And I would and I watched investors do this. , that's how I learned to do this. They would go very fast, very fast, very fast, very fast.
But they knew how to prequalify and filter who it was they were looking for. And so my left butt cheek pocket. the, I don't need to talk to you again, pocket the right butt cheek pocket. That's the, that's the great pocket, right? That's the one that I'm going to follow up with that person for something very genuine and specific on. And at the same time, I've got a massive team a massive team. I say massive, we're about 15 strong. And some of those team members, right? We're going to podfest in a week from now. the cool thing is this podfest, , process, right? There's three co hosts on my show. They're all going with me now.
So we've got a little bit of an entourage going on. And there's these really cool apps for Vince these days, like, like the Whova app or PodFest community is there's 1500 people on there. assistants are in every single one of our Whova apps filtering and looking at who are the best connections to get involved with. Pre events. Can we set up virtually to interact with people? , and we're creating a massive catalog of individuals that could connect with every single one of our clients as well. Who's in the baby boomer interest? Who's in the health interest? Who's in the family interest? And my, my goal is again, if I can get in front of 1500 people in a classy way as a lighthouse, The right ones are going to end up gravitating towards me, but it is a very good idea to know again, how to, to filter.
I've got a guide. I'm happy to give your audience. Actually. It's, it's called the 12 step checklist to recognizing market leaders and how to sort them. It's a 25 page book, basically on all things, emotional intelligence, which words turn on legacy builders and which words turn them off. Easy, simple, quick. automated, , autopilot, like no alcohol legacy builders don't have time for stuff like that. On the flip side, hobbyists, and I do connect with both, they have almost the exact opposite desires in terms of what they want to hear. you know, I need to see the list, but I don't do the hobbyist thing.
Like I do my best to focus on my legacy builders, the casual, another word that they like, you know, they don't want to hear things like metrics, global scale, you know, diligence, tenacity, hustle, rich. And I, I totally get that, but I need to know how to speak to people. Some people call it two face. But if I'm going to speak to a Latino, I better speak Spanish.
If I'm going to speak to somebody in Chinese, I better learn how to speak Chinese. I don't know your love languages, I can't relate with you. If I don't know your tribal languages. can't relate with you too well. opportunity and networking to get to know different perspectives, talk to people from different walks of lives, and be able to, be, be able to fulfill my purpose at least in life, which is to help people.
It's a constant, ever growing opportunity, not so much as a challenge. opportunity that enriches my ability to, enjoy this life
You know, seeing your point of view, I can see that that's you've come to this after 20 years of experience and you've got to this point. Now I'm talking about. Really the beginning of that, that, that climb. So I agree with you that that would be a good way of doing it. So
where I
if you either start,
I was still aggressive with it. Even in the beginning, I didn't say that I'm
yeah,
So that may not behave like Richard Branson. I said, I'm going to behave at that level now. And trust me, it was painful. I didn't get to everybody and I had to learn the lessons, but what I'm trying to help you see Michael and the audience too, is actually when I limited myself, it led to less results. when I chose to be aggressive with following up to the worst thing that can happen to all of you listening is that you get really great at the 15 or the 60 but you get great at influencing people and you accidentally convince people to work with you even though they're not fully convicted on wanting to work with you. And I'm telling you, that was part of my journey. That was painful was convincing people to work with me and showboating a little bit too much or getting them excited about things. Not realizing that they were eventually going to turn around and play victim blame me for things because they didn't make their choice of their own accord. And so I'm just, I just kind of want to bridge those gaps because I have a feeling nobody else will probably ever talk about it on the podcast.
well, it may be not, maybe not, you know, you, you, you've been successful. What mistakes have you made and how did you overcome?
So many one, , and maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it's just is what it is. , I used to be a lot like Grant Cardone. And in that realm, this is a man who tells people what to do. , you know, where to look, , you have to do this. You should do this. learned through some painful relationship losses that that's a controlling demeanor, I'm literally making people subordinate to me based on a superior posture. , and I eventually learned, I don't, I don't feel that way. I, we're all equals, , in this world. , you know, there's a time and a place for a doctor to tell me what prescription to take, right. But in general, We are all in the same playing field. We're all perfectly freaking awesome individuals, every single one of us. And so the shift of being able to not feel like I used to also feel like I had to be better than others to be appreciated in the world. And so the big shift of, you know what I don't, I want, I don't need to be better than the others because I'm not better than anybody else. But two, That doesn't mean I can't be my best self. And ironically trying to be better than others when I was in a room where I was better at something than others, I was good enough. , you know, like that, that was enough for me, that was completely ignoring my ability to be my best self and the opportunity to actually just say, you know what, it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing. want to enjoy my best life possible. And in order to do that,
Okay.
I love myself enough to be able to pursue and do that.
Okay.
instantly and say, no, I'm going to shift. I don't care if other people think that that's not how forgiveness works or if they think I need some type of But what do they call that?
The process of six months or no, that's not how, that's works. can forget myself instantly. Why? So that I can get right back into being my best immediately and moving forward and serving. So the, as you mentioned, I love that you said it, Michael, the networking process, it's an art and it's something that we will always have the opportunity to continue to learn from. And it's just amazing how you can meet one new person today. can
Okay.
You get into your thirties and you're like, I don't really know anything about life. , cool. I'm just going to, I'm going to keep that in mind because of my forties, I'm probably going to feel the same way doubled down.
Right, right. And when, believe me, when you get into your 60s, you really understand it. ,
okay. So, so, you, you're, you're the lighthouse. You become this, this central focal point. And you are introduced or, or you introduce yourself to so many people. I always say that the follow up is so important. It's so, it's probably more important than actually meeting the people. Give me your favorite way of following up.
I don't anymore. I used to, I agree with you that that now here's the key though. you listen in. Honor the relationships. Honor them, right? That's a big thing. Honor the relationships that honor you. Right. So if I'm reaching out to somebody and remember to, there's, there's technology. I have, I have automation systems that do this stuff for me. Why? Because if I'm the one, if I'm manually chasing everybody, then I'm not going to be able to build the dynasty that I'm building. I'm not going to be able to scale. It's not possible. I need teams. so sad how many people think the solopreneur path leads to victory. Guys, I failed miserably at solopreneurship.
Oh, I tried. why I'm so outspoken about it there. I don't, I've never met a solopreneur who's successful. met solopreneurs who step on other people's heads and hearts and say they're alone. They, they say, Oh, I just have a VA like that's called virtual abuse. You know, like they're going to acknowledge that person who helps you.
And then I've met people who lie about their success. I got 500, 000 followers on Instagram or whatever, and they come on as clients for me. And I find out they're making less than a janitor salary and they're lying to people to get attention. And they didn't actually go to that event over time. They did all their photos at once. at a conference where they teach them to do photos like that for the entire year. the heck? It's, it's so frustrating sometimes, but to get out of that and back onto the virtuous side of it. And when it comes to follow up, I guess I'm a bigger fan of follow through. I promise I'm going to do something for somebody that I'm going to do it. And if I don't, then I have an opportunity to apologize or have an opportunity to own that and not apologize and say, you know, we have so much other success that's going on that we didn't reengage and that's okay, you know, and if people are looking at me to be their savior. They're looking in the wrong place.
They already have a savior. It's not me. Right? I'm just here to do my best in all of this, my systems take care of all of the necessary harmonious followup to prevent technical mishaps. And what do I mean by that? because I texted you, Michael, Hey, it was great to meet you. I'd love to connect with you again. that text message might not go through. Right? There's literally a chance that it doesn't send. And so if I care about the relationship enough, which is where my heart should be, it shouldn't be on the mechanics, it should be on that. And I decide to call you one day, I'm not going to call you and say, Hey, I, I texted you.
Why didn't you text me back? , you know, like, or, you know, I'm just, I'm just following up to, to see if you like that proposal or not. , you know, if they liked the proposal, what would they have done? They would have bought. They probably would have never asked for the proposal. So we have these really strange shortcomings as businesses where we, where we are inviting, and supporting people, even though stranger danger prevents people from ever wanting that from you, right?
If we don't first intrigue, attract and inspire. And I mean, really, you can't check about, Oh, Michael's inspired now. , you know, it doesn't work that way. , right. You have to be able to recognize is this person truly, and you have the opportunity to recognize if they're truly intracted, if they're truly inspired, then when they send a tweet to Taylor Swift, 10 years later, she happens to respond, you know, how excited that fan's going to be. They're not going to be like, well, why did you come 10 years later, Taylor Swift? You know, no, but if you show up 10 years later and they act like that to you, the person who's listening, they act like that to me. Well, it's because they don't love me as much as that fan loves Taylor Swift. I haven't earned that because I have not attracted and inspired to that magnitude. we can all learn how to intrigue. How to attract and how to inspire, but we never talk about this in the business realm.
Sure, that's very, very true. And you, you hit on something. It's, you know, I say follow up. , but what you're talking about is following through. So if you make a promise that you're going to do something, say something, whatever it is, you're going to do it, you're going to do it to the best of your ability.
And That is one of the key points of a true business person, because you can be in business, you can make promises and say things, never follow up with them. And then how does that make you look so just by the mere fact of you following through these items, , you make good on your promises or you're making a connection or buying them all over bread.
It doesn't make a difference. You're following through. And that is, I think. Very, very important.
I'll reveal this to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other leaders like that. So one of the best skill sets you can learn as somebody who is leading at scale is you've got to learn to use the word no. to be able to say no, I had a client the other day client. Right? Not, not some prospect. This is somebody who pays me. Say, Jackson, I really want to send you this book. I'm so excited. He pitched the heck out of me about this book. And you know, it was a good pitch. He really saw how it's going to be dynamic and valuable for me. yet I already know where I'm at with certain levels. And so I said, you know, really, really appreciate that you want to send me that book, and I've got a very long list of amazing books, and let's do this instead.
I have a proposed alternative for you. Get to know my team members that are helping and supporting you. Let's send that book to one of them. So they can learn for themselves since they probably have, you'll find who needs this, who really needs this basic concept and they can report back to us and we can train them based on the concepts of that book.
They will read the book for me and they will teach me what is necessary out of that book based on how they know me because they know me far better than you know me as well. And so I didn't say, you know, but I'm not going to accept. Opportunities. And I think that's the thing that kills most businesses is they don't, you don't have a preferred vendors program. We just built them on stars it is the coolest thing because now all the collaborators, you want to do a webinar, you want to do LinkedIn, you want me on a podcast, you want me on all this. It's not a bad thing, but there's a filtration process. Where these preferred vendors need to go through in order to pre qualify to show they actually care about us.
And they're not just trying to bait and switch us into some program without ever taking consideration for who we really are. And I know that takes a long time to build, but Michael, why I spent the last 14 years designing systems at scale that I can then give to my clients for them to be able to benefit from and use.
Because we have the restriction, the limiting belief that well, I'm just a beginner, I can't. Well, Henry Ford said it, I think it was him, he said, or Abraham Lincoln, if you think you can, or you think you can't, you are 100 percent right. Doesn't matter if you're new or not, you can practice the principles of scale.
Jackson. That was great. That's great. Listen, I want to thank you for everything that you had to offer. And I'm sure that we're just nipping the tip of the iceberg of all of your knowledge. So let me ask you a question. If somebody wanted to get hold of you, if anybody wanted to get your services, get you to Consult with them or just to know about you.
Where would they go?
Well, the nice thing is my SEO is so good that Jackson Callum pops it. Now I'm the only Jackson Callum in the world. So you can find me real fast on Google. I have the advantage, John Smith. I feel bad for you. The, on the flip side, hope is that you take a sincere interest in who we are, who I am and what we're doing.
If you're a Latino, If you are a visionary or you're a leader who wants to share your vision, visionproslive. com. Come hang out with my team on our shows. I have co hosts for those shows. I would love to get to know who you are. Take the time. Again, we, we don't, we don't work with everybody. We got to find people who are loving, patient, persistent, consistent, and reliable. Consistency and reliability. They take steps, milestones, and you've got to be able to see that over, over time or over a concerted amount of different efforts and a track path of success. , if you don't have that, I'm happy to be your friend. I'm happy to get to know you, right? I'm not going to turn anybody away.
I'm here to help and serve, but if you're looking for like the business support and help, then you got to go through our combine. We need to be able to see what type of leader you are and see if we're truly bought in because I don't build visions. I'm not bought into. I don't work with leaders who aren't great leaders.
The ones who breathe down your neck and want the scope of works and blah, blah, blah. And just put in a box and don't call to get rich quick, but let's sure make it look like, let's call it a receive wealth fast. It's like, come on guys. You know, why are we not recognizing? We've got an opportunity to be more abundant. So if you're, if you're drawn to that, come and say, hi,
Sounds great. Sounds great Jackson This has been an absolute pleasure and I thank you again for coming on the podcast.
love your podcast, Michael, keep it up, dude. The world needs this.
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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