Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Mike Hayes and Michael A Forman

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  Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections, the podcast where we dive deep into the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts that turn conversations into real opportunities. Now, today's episode is a game changer. We're tackling a hot topic, AI networking versus local networking.

Can chat GPT really help you build stronger connections or does something replace the power of a handshake and face-to-face conversation? My guest is the perfect person to unpack this with. Hi. With a background in both AI driven networking and boots on the ground, local relationship building. We're going to explore how technology can amplify your reach without sacrificing authenticity.

Why connections, why local connections still matter more than ever, and how the smartest professionals are blending the two into multiple results. So if you've ever wondered whether to learn in, learn into automation or double down on community, this is a conversation you can't afford to miss. So let's jump in.

I'd like to welcome Mike Hayes. Mike and I actually have become friends over the past few months, and it's really, this is going to be an engaging podcast, which I'm really looking forward to. So if you would, Michael, welcome to the podcast and tell us a little about your background. I think Thank you, Michael.

It's great to be here. I'm really excited. I was at a network event last night and I really had a real eye-opening experience happen and I'm super stoked about sharing it. So this the perfect time to unleash my energy about it right here with you. So let me get back to my background now. Okay.

I, I had. I've had a blessed life fortunate, stepped into my life many times, and through networking and asking questions, I was raised by my mom, a teacher to, it never hurts to ask. And everything that I have gotten in my life and I've really attracted everything, I really, my heart and soul really wanted in my life.

Love, happiness, family et cetera by asking questions. I'm good at that. And I had a fairly average upbringing and education up to a certain point. I graduated from Eastern Michigan University. I was living in my parents' basement, walking a mile down to the university in the middle of the snow working in a factory to work my way through and to pay for college.

I was also working at my friend's Ford dealership. And so we were friends from third grade, and so I, it's just something that I was fascinated with the automobile business. Long story short, after I graduated, there was no work in broadcasting. And while I was working on the assembly line, Michael, doing the same thing 1600 times a day, I fantasized about working for Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show to go from the most boring job in the world to going to the most exciting job I could visualize.

Okay. That, that, that was my vision in my mind. And did I attract that into my life? I think I did. Here's what happened. One day after school, I was sitting there in my parents' living room reading a book, and I thought, I literally thought there's gotta be more to life than this. And so I set the book down.

I asked my sister to drive me out to the freeway so that I could hitchhike to New York City and ask NBC to let me to go to work for them. It the way I wanted to. Now this was in the sixties. All I had was a. Literally a plastic garbage bag. I threw all of my stuff into the garbage bag 'cause it was raining.

I put on my Navy P coat and I went out to the freeway and I started to hitchhike. And the first guy that picked me up was an all night truck driver. Who let me sleep in the back of his truck. And I slept all the way to New York and tomorrow, the next morning he bought me breakfast. And it was just like, okay, that was a good start.

So then I went to go into NBC. I'm standing outside, building up courage and right then a pigeon, you know what? On my shoulder of my jacket. Okay. So I thought, okay, that's a good start. So I walked into NBC in New York and asked where I could go to apply for a job. So they sent me, I believe it was the sixth floor.

Can't remember exactly. And I walked in. And I asked the question, can I apply for the job? And the gal behind the counter plexiglass said we don't have any jobs. I said I hitchhiked all the way here from the from Michigan. Could I at least apply for the job? She slides the application through the little window and I fill it in and I slide it back thinking, okay, I'll head off to.

CBS or a b, c, my second or third choices. And I'm walking out of the reception area and all, but my heel is out of the room and I hear, Hey, come back in here. And I turned around, I went back and she goes, you graduated from Eastern Michigan? I said, yeah. She said, I graduated from Eastern Michigan and talk about.

Asking questions and the law of attraction. So she sent me this, angel sent me off on these job interviews until I got hired in the apprentice program at NBC at 22. And it's actually statistically harder to get into that program than it is to get into Harvard. The rest of it is just literally a miracle.

One after the next it. That was like a $5 million education world class. I couldn't have gotten anywhere else, and that completely changed. Everything in my life. So do I believe in networking? Do I believe in asking questions? Absolutely. It's such a game changer now. That was the start.

It's been a wild adventure ever since. But I wanna turn the ball, hand the ball back to you, Michael. Mike, I gotta tell you that story just tells me everything about you that I have to know, and that's where your heart is in networking. My heart is in networking. Networking is the base of all businesses, and as soon as you believe that, then you'll understand what we are talking about.

So here, so let me jump into my first question. How do you see AI tools like Chat, GPT, reshaping the way professionals approach networking compared to traditional face-to-face methods? Okay. I wanna broaden the market a little bit from professionals to everybody, and let me explain what I mean. And it really, the example came up last night.

Now I, my premise is this, it's real simple. AI is media, period. And I actually bought the domain. AI is media. That's, I absolutely know it and love it and think about it as communication Now. In the car business, I learned more about human to human communication, one-to-one than I actually did in broadcasting, because that's really where the rubber meets the road in business.

Last night I was at a an event and people were complaining about their inability to get heard and to communicate. And saying, gosh, one, one lady stood up and said, I really feel like I need a 12-year-old to teach me how to use AI because I just don't have the skills. And that's when I realized, stop. Wait.

You've got. That 12-year-old right in your hand, in your laptop or in your phone, if you can take one hour and learn how to use chat, GPT, that is the 12-year-old that you need to teach you. Everything else about chat, GPT and about ai, that's what I realized is that chat, GPT, if you can, and what I said is if you can order a book on Amazon, on your phone or on your computer.

You can order chat GPT to give you information on demand that you need to reach out to people for networking. So that, does it fit in? Yeah. And lifelong learning is really what it's going to require. And I've been preparing. With all of my background and all of my training of human to human communication and media communication to help people understand that you can learn to communicate in any part of your life.

So I don't think networking at this stage in the AI frontier is only for business anymore. I think it's for everybody. Honestly, I can't tell you how many people teachers divorcees people going through a divorce. That I have helped to communicate better in all parts of their life. And by learning Chad GPT networking to communicate with their spouse's attorney with their school system as a teacher, with anybody and everybody.

Does it work better to make money in the frontier of AI in business networking? Absolutely. So as you can see right over my shoulder. I still love the broadcasting of the Tonight Show, so I created the Spotlight Tonight Show to spotlight people like yourself on my podcast to help people understand who is Michael Foreman and how do you unleash networking.

Of course, I do it through love local networking, and that's where my passion is. Michael. And you said, who is Michael Foreman? And that is such a thing with my networking and I have to tell a little story about. Our friend Abe in California. Yeah. Who has a partner in Las Vegas and once he was talking with him, his partner was saying, Abe, stop for a second.

Who is Michael Foreman? And he is like, why? Because his name is all over the place. So this person in Las Vegas was talking to this person in California about me in Georgia. And the only thing that I'm using that level of AI is I'm writing some articles about it, and I'm using to brand myself, but AI is a tool that we all use, but it has to be one of the tools and the love.

Local networking is the mainstay. Michael, you and I were talking briefly about GEO versus SEO. Correct. And that is one of the reasons that our friend Abe Nasser has boosted your name up to the top of search. By understanding that as one of the three main platforms for amplifying your voice and really getting the story out there.

So I just wanna give a props for his success. And you and I both network with him. And that's what it's all about. It's about a team. Nobody can do it by themselves today. It's a frontier. It's a kind of wild west frontier, and that's why. I love checking in with Michael Foreman to find out, take your pulse about what's going on in networking.

You love checking in with me. We learn from each other, we help each other, we share with each other and we wanna help everybody. And this is great. And this is only the beginning. This is only the beginning of the ai technology. 'Cause it changes, I think every week it changes. Okay. Lemme go on to question number two.

What are the biggest opportunities and risks when people learn too? Lean too heavily on AI driven networking instead of building authentic local relationships. I don't think I don't think it's one or the other. I think it's a two-sided coin and that you really need a blend of both. A fusion of both.

It's, think of it like creating nitroglycerin. When you take two different components, they're just components. But when you put 'em together. They create an explosive element to it. And that, that really to me is the key to business networking. AI is the blend, the fusion of the two.

It's not one or the other, but the caution is. The era of ai, AI is putting out content, Michael, like a kid's soap bubble machine. Little bubbles. They're floating all over. They're emptied, they're light, and they're just floating. They don't mean anything really. They're even literally empty, and they're not human beings.

They can't hire you. They can't, buy what you want. They can't really do much, but they fool you and they create an illusion of content, but. Local networking. When you walk into a room and shake hands with somebody, and you've met them as I have met Abe in person, I've driven down to the Rumi Awards that he puts on, has a million followers on Facebook.

He was, he invited me into the red carpet for the Roomie Awards. I got to meet him, see his multi-camera shoot. It was amazing. It was really impressive. But I also shook his hand. Then when I'm in a networking event and I've met someone. Now I can tell you if you've never met Abe, I can tell you Abe is real.

He is a physical human being. He is a friend of mine, and I can give a testimonial for Abe online because I've met him. The only thing you need to be a testimonial for somebody is somebody talking about you. Who's not you? And so when I talk about Abe Nassar, this is me talking about Abe. It's not Abe talking about Abe.

But I've met him. So that's why the blend of those two things is vital and it's gonna become more and more important what people really start to get lost and confused by AI get grounded. Like you say, you put it yesterday. Get feet boots on the ground, and that's what you need is get grounded, get boots on the ground, and blend those two things together.

Then you've got the best of both worlds. I agree. I agree. And when you meet somebody face to face, you pick up the vibe of the person, the vibe of the room. I've walked into networking events where IPI said, whoa, you know what I don't like the vibe in here. And everything that I was listening to was wrong, and I walked out.

So I can, you could do the same thing with a person saying you know what, excuse yourself politely from that one conversation and go to the next. But it's very important that you pick up the vibe of the person in a room. You brought up something vitally important. Let's talk about this for a second.

You talked about the vibe in the room. You talked about politely leaving. I know you, Michael, to be a master of hospitality and that word means everything to me. And even the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. When Johnny, and this is not, this an ai, this is not Johnny, but when Johnny had a guest on the show, he treated them like a guest in his living room and that he, for 25 years, treating guests.

With hospitality now. I recently bought a car. I walked into one dealership like, like you were saying, the vibe was just. Transactional in my face dah. I wanna get outta here. I said to my wife, so we drove down, we drove an hour way to the same brand dealership because we wanted to buy a 2-year-old car.

I'd like to get cars that are slightly, over the curb, and we got one for only 2000 miles on it. But when I walked in, the hospitality was. Over the charts. I couldn't wait. I said to my, and I've been in car sales for a long time. I understand that's how I, one of the ways I worked through college, and I know they've got a reputation, but I said to this kid, I wanna adopt you.

I felt 20 years old. He had an amazing story and true grit. He heard a podcast. That's why I love podcasts, listening. Michael, he heard the idea. He was a waiter. Didn't go to college yet, and heard a idea of selling cars on a podcast. He went down to Auto Row in San Jose and walked into one dealership after the next, getting a no, after a no, after, no.

And did I fall in love with him? Because that's what happened to me. Me walking into NBC and asking for a job. That's what happened when he walked into one car dealership, the one we went to, and they said Yes. He said, I don't know anything about cars, but I'm energetic and I'm willing to learn. He was, and they love him at the dealership.

That's hospitality and that's what I wanna focus on is the power of hospitality is the ultimate game changer in networking. You walked into an event you didn't like the vibe. No hospitality. That's the key. That's that. That's the game changer. It's the two sides of the coin. When you have hospitality, that changes everything when you offer it.

You do. And you go into some dealerships, I'll use dealerships since we're talking about the auto industry. And if they have that type of hospitality, they think everybody's got it. That every dealership has the same thing and that's what they're striving for. But when you go into that dealership where they don't have it they, it's like they don't care.

Okay, walk out. 'cause somebody else is gonna walk in. They don't know. They don't know. You don't know what you don't know. Exactly. And we can talk about, one of the other businesses that you and I both have a passion for are workout areas. Orange what is it? Orange Fitness.

Orange Fitness. Orange. Orange Theory. Yeah. Orange Theory. Orange Theory. Or 24 Hour Fitness, CrossFit Fitness. Yeah. Yeah CrossFit. Those are places where you can get it, because I believe in. Staying in shape and, helping people get in shape. And that's why, another reason I love podcasts, listening.

'cause you can listen to podcasts while you're working out, staying in shape, going for a nice, healthy walk. And it's just a great way to help people with lifelong learning. And that's what we're doing right now. We're doing podcast listening so people can listen to this podcast.

Otherwise, you and I are just two faces on the screen. But, there's no difference. Take it out for a walk. Yeah, no, absolutely. I plus I give everybody two versions. I, I'm on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, that's all for the, your listening pleasure. But if you actually wanna see your bright, young face, then you go to YouTube or my website.

So I give you the best of both worlds. But the what's inside the podcast is so useful. Let me go on to the next question. Local networking is rooted in community and trust. How can AI actually strengthen rather than replace those kinds of personal connections? Let me give you a very dramatic one, and you might think this is off topic about personal connections.

Hospitality is the way to really build the personal connections when you have, kindness in your heart and you greet people and they know that you care about them. But the other thing about local networking is right there in this picture of Brian Reynolds and how he used AI to really there's a.

I hate to use this term because people might not understand it, but there's a radical abundance of things in the era of AI there. There's so much media, there's just an overabundance of media. There's an overabundance of almost everything. People don't know how to channel it. They don't know how to harness it.

But what Ryan Reynolds did is he harnessed the power of AI to harness the overabundance of hyper-local television. He has used it so you can buy tv. Think of getting the cost down dramatically by going into just one zip code. You don't have to be all over the place. You can just be in Walnut Creek, California one zip code or Lafayette, California one zip code.

But then I thought, okay, now how can we even help break that down even smaller. Create Love local networking magazine. Where anybody in a local community can be in the magazine, but then we can advertise that on television. So we have, cooperative advertising, cooperative reach with tv. So these are, when you work with the best, you can ignore the rest.

And that's important because there's such an overabundance of everybody saying, oh, I'm the expert. I'm the expert, I'm the expert. But when you really learn from the best people I've interviewed, Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, then you can really go, okay let's get into a focus. Now, all the people that I could work with, 'cause I was known as the networking in the direct response industry, I chose.

Michael Foreman to partner with in networking, because I wanna work with the best and I wanna explain to people, you don't have to do everything. If you find the best people to work with, stick with them, support them, learn from them, get mentored by them and mentor them. We all have to have, both our mentor and our protege hats on all the time.

So I want to give Michael Foreman. A testimonial. He invited me on the podcast because one of the things that hospitality creates is reciprocity. So Michael has had me on his program. I feel indebted to him for this gift of having me as a gift. A guest on his show. So let me return the favor, Michael and tell people how much I respect you as a networker and as somebody that offers hospitality.

We're in a safe place for them to be and to learn and be in good hands with you, Michael. I truly appreciate that. I know that we're, it's a little off topic, but I absolutely appreciate everything that you said. Thank you, Michael. Okay. So do you want me to get back to the topic? Yeah no.

We'll move on to the next one. We'll go to the next one. What would you say to someone who argues that online networking through AI and automation feels less real than shaking hands and sharing a conversation over coffee? It is less real because, media's less real. It's not being in person.

They're two, they each have a strength and they each have a weakness. But when you take the strength of one, you overcome the inherent weakness of the other. So that's why it's not one of the other, it's the fusion It. The blend, and that's when you have the ideal situation. So yeah, absolutely.

AI and any online communication, tv, email, I'm not right there. It's not real. It's a reflection of me. I'm there at the networking event. But you know what Michael? I put on big networking events. I've had as many as 200 people in one evening at the Cap one cafe in Walnut Creek, 200 people and I, and that was before COVID.

When COVID hit, I had 150 people online. So I would poll them and I'd ask them are you following up after these networking events? Because. Going to networking is just a ritual. It's not marketing, it's not really doing business. It's just something fun to do. And you can meet people, but if you're not checking in and following up after the event, don't even bother going to be candid with you because you know you're not gonna do, nobody's gonna write you a check right there.

So what you really have to do is you have to add the blend. You know how many people I found out actually follow up. One. One, alright. One in 100. So if you actually wanna stand out and be one in 100, think about this. If you simply follow up. You're one of 100, you are just the standout networker just by following up that simple thing, and that's what chat TPT does.

It makes it so easy to follow up and you stand up because you're the guys that follow up Reversely. Let's have, let's look at it for a second. If you don't follow up. Okay, so who do you follow up with? Your mom, your dad, your friends, your brothers, your sisters. Those are people you follow up with, you love, you care about them.

So when you go to a networking event and you don't follow up, you're sending a message? Absolutely. Absolutely. I listen I don't care about you. That's the message you're sending. I teach. The follow up is actually more important than actually meeting the person. And I have a, what's called a secret sauce for follow up.

It's a system that if you follow it up, you go from that 3% receiving rate to about 70%. So it's definitely more important. And if you just go to an event and you don't follow up or don't follow up correctly, you might as well not even have gone. You might as well not even gone unless you wanted to go off for the social aspect of it.

There's no reason to go. And that's true. One thing that and part of the polling, I ask him why don't you follow up? Why don't you follow up? You're not following up. Why not? I wanted to know why I wanted to confront that face. Your challenge is you cut 'em in half, turn your back in 'em, and they double.

So I looked at it and they go, I don't. Know what I'm gonna say? I think I'm gonna talk too much. And you know what? I'm so afraid of rejection that you know, I'm already down my, I'm struggling and I'm afraid people are gonna reject me. Okay, get it. Put it on Chad, GPT. Let ask it. Then it's getting rejected.

Not you personally. Hey Chad, GPT. You just got rejected babe. Let's go back to the drawing board. That's it. I find that people are actually lazy in the follow up. They're like all the, they went to the event and now they're looking for the next event the next time where they can show their wares, but they're not doing the follow up because they're actually lazy and wi with my system, it's probably six different touches in two weeks, if you have to be serious about the follow up, if you want your business to increase, if you want to scale your business. But even if you're just starting out and just a single entrepreneur or they call solopreneur you have to start somewhere. But start with going to those events and following up.

It's a very easy thing to do. Michael I refer to networkers as CEOs because we are all the CEO of our own life. We are the chief executive officer of our life. We make the decisions. It's our life. We can either grow it, we can improve it, we can do the things to polish it. And, but yeah, I understand.

We all, we're all human beings. We all, every human being on the planet Earth has special needs. Every single one of us, we're all vulnerable. We all have our weaknesses. Guess what? So does chat, GPT. It's got its own weaknesses, and when you treat everybody like they have special needs with hospitality, don't assume that there's some arrogant jerk, assume that maybe they're a little fearful, maybe they need a little.

Tender, loving, tender care, and a little, hugging even virtually just to care for them. That if you treat Chad GPT that way too, guess what? It will treat you in kind. It will love, give. Love back and it will communicate in a very hospitable way. And it's a way that everybody can come together.

I don't care if you are in the far right or far left chat, GPT can neutralize communication and take a lot of the sting out of it to keep the door open for better communication between everybody. And it takes the fear of communication out because it's done so professionally, so well. And fast.

Absolutely. A absolutely. But one thing you have to remember is that you have to train, chat, GPT. You have to ask the right questions, and sometimes it'll take three or four different variations of the question for you to get that response. But chat, GPT remembers those responses so you get better and better.

So there's no looking back. You just look forward. And it'll become easier and easier so that everybody can get into the follow-up game. Yeah, that's true. But let me explain one thing about chat, GPT it really does. No marketing it, it knows what an advertorial is. If you don't know what an advertorial is, it does and go, okay, put this into the tone of an advertorial.

Now, an advertorials editorial content, that's an ad or a promotion. If you ask Chad, TPT, what's an advertorial? It knows what it is. So you can just, and even if you don't know the words to what to ask for, I think maybe that's what you're addressing is what is the terminology. Or you can actually ask chat GPT, what questions should I be asking you to get the response that I want.

That's why I'm saying it's like the 15-year-old that really is savvy about technology. If you treat it like that's what it is, it will help you that way. And then you go, what should I ask? Okay I'm asking that now. Give me the response now. Use now cut and paste. That's the only skill you need, cut and paste so that you can then put it into an email, a post, or wherever you want, and we can teach you how to do that.

Very good. Very good. Okay. Where do you think the balance lies between efficiency? AI helping us scale connections and authenticity, the human touch that local networking brings. It, it's interesting. I did a podcast this morning with my two ai co-hosts and I create them and they talk. So I did an input from the networking event last night, and then I put it into.

My program and I get these two AI co-hosts actually speaking, a male and a female, and they're going back and forth and blah, blah, blah. But that's all ai. But you know what? It's now interactive. So right in the middle of this chat and this dialogue. I can go wait guys. Let me interrupt for a sec.

Oh, welcome. It's Mike, blah, blah, blah. What do you have in mind, Mike? You guys are saying this and you're saying that, but now here I am. I'm the human being in the middle of this dialogue with my AI Co. I insert myself into it, and then they help expand upon it, and they bring me ideas all day. Long and it's like amazing.

It's amazing. Teachers and teachers it's amazing and I'm having an absolute blast. It is my five hour energy drink. It energizes me when I don't feel up for it. I don't feel like you mentioned the word lazy. Okay let's use that. Let's use energy. Let Chad GPT provide the energy drag. Chad, GPT, I'm exhausted.

I don't have the energy to follow up. I need your energy. Here's the response. But really make it energized and really sound up like I'm Tony Robbins. I just don't feel like it. Sure. Boom. It gives you this response. Hey, let's go conquer the world. And it is all chat, GPT energy. It's not even your own.

Absolutely. Great. That's great. Great. Okay, so what lessons from local face-to-face networking do you think people are at risk of for getting it, forgetting as digital tools become more dominant? Re over reliance on it and thinking that they can kinda lazy their way out and put it on ai, if you don't bring your heart, your love, and I love using the word love when you bring emotion into networking the motto of my city, Lafayette, California, for the past 25 years has been the word love.

Lafayette. So Lafayette, California is a model of using the word love in business, in community, in family, but most importantly Michael in ai because if we don't infuse love, in fact they're talking about how they need to program motherly love into ai, literally so that it will love human beings and not want to.

Take over because yeah, there, there are dangers. Mike Congressman said, Mike working on AI is like working on the atomic bomb project. So I knew that he wasn't underestimating, how things could go off the rails and go wrong. That's why I love Deep Mind from Google's deep Mind. Demis Ctri the CEO of Google DeepMind, which is committed to keeping ai safe and ethical and honest and avoiding an over abundance of scarcity, where the super rich get everything and we get.

Whatever's left and really focusing on radical abundance instead of radical scarcity. And it's gonna be one path. And guess what, folks? If you're neutral and you do nothing, you're gonna end up in radical scarcity. And I don't want that to happen. I want you to find the path. Radical abundance.

We're not there yet by a long shot, but if we're on the right trail to the top of the mountain. We can get there and we can get there together. Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay, so let me ask you, in your experience, how can small business owners use both chat, GPT and local networking together to build visibility and trust faster?

Go to networking events and, I hate to say it, collect cards or you can take a card like I created and call it a quantum reach card that I have QR codes built right into the card. And we're in the digital age, so I tell 'em, scan this QR code. Go to podcast listening and learn more.

Go to love local networking. 100%. Michael. Honestly, the last networking event I was at. 100% of the people scanned the QR code to get ready to love local networking, which connects them to chat, GPT, networking and everything else we're talking about. So you go there and that's the best way to get it from the in-person to the digital 'cause we're in the digital age and Bill Gates has the biggest opportunities in the, is finding digital substitutes in the digital edge.

We wanna have the blend of real world networking, so we know we're talking to real people, real human beings, warm blooded, shake hands, and avoid loneliness, which is an epidemic levels right now. And then blend that with the digital, make the QR code, I call it quantum reach connection. Just to play off the QR and then get people into the digital and then follow up with digital communication through chat GPT.

So it's just a bridge from one to the other, from, back and forth. And then at the next, now you take the bridge back 'cause I'm gonna see it the. Live networking event. We're gonna become friends by then. That's hospitality. So when I walk in, then next time you and I aren't strangers anymore. We've connected.

In the meantime, maybe we went and had coffee, now we're two together and we can talk to other people about connecting with the two of us, four of us, six of us. Going like that. Absolutely. A Absolutely. That's a nice marriage of the two technologies that you're talking about. No, I am a simple person.

I, on the back of my card, I have two QR codes. One goes to my website and one goes to all my digital courses. So I feel that if you wanted to know me, those two places, a place to, to go and find out what I'm all about. As you can see right here, Michael, there's a QR code right there.

Absolutely. And it's, I've been using QR codes. For about 10 years, almost 15 years. And back then it was just like, what are you doing that for? What? But everything I did I'm going back to my mortgage days when I had business cards and I had flyers and everything. I had QR codes. They're like, that's a waste of, what are you doing?

I'm like. It's an easier way and it's become easier and easier so that now people just whip out their phones and go, oh, lemme see it. Click, and they can get right to your site, to your whatever else. So it's a great marriage of the two technologies as long as you know what to do with it and where to do it, where it's from.

Okay. It's, you just commented on a number of things. Let me just jump in there. They all come down to two things. You used the word marriage, so let's focus on that of two things. Okay? Networking and technology. Phone and computer, Chad, GPT and network. It. It's always a one-two punch. If you wanna simplify things like Michael has just said, that's the way to do it.

Concentrate on just those two things. If you try to accomplish everything, you'll accomplish nothing. So when you work with the best, you can ignore the rest. So get a focus. A magnifying glass creates heat when it gets a focus, right? So that's what you wanna do. You wanna get a focus on two things, networking and follow up.

And if you concentrate on those things and the one, the phone and those two things work together in digital phone and computer. And your computer, your laptop, they work together beautifully. When you use 'em together you get exponential content creation. Absolutely. And when I teach a workshop or go to a conference or something else, I have an array of eight or 10 different things at points that I want to put across to my audience.

But I tell them, concentrate on two items, just two, and I want you to walk away and implement just two items out of the eight or 10. And they're going, why? Just take my word for it. And it's true because there's a sequence of, if you give them everything you know they're gonna, by the end of the week, they're gonna forget 90% of them.

By the end of the second week, they're gonna forget one of the two things, and they'll implement maybe one thing in about three weeks. So why not just have them concentrate on those two things and have them start? Okay. So do you think AI will ever be able to replace. I'm sorry. Do you think AI will ever be able to replicate the emotional intelligence that comes with local human networking, or is it uniquely human advantage and will always have it?

In the next 10 years, there's going to be, and it may well be sooner the, there's gonna be a quantum leap in artificial intelligence. What will happen now, the CEO. Of Google's deep mind. It was a chess prodigy, and he won a Nobel Prize. He's a Nobel laureate, and he says, look, nobody knows.

Nobody knows. And if one of the smartest people in the world says, folks, we don't know, we're, and he's one of the creators, one of the architects of ai. That's why I really love his brain and his thinking and the Dean of Oxford University where I've been blessed to go to speak to Oxford University said I to the teachers and the students, I can't protect you from ai.

He got his. PhD in AI from Cal, just over the hill from me in quantum computing 30 years ago. He knows that AI is like a quicksand field. You're gonna walk out into it, you're gonna see companies just disappear into the quicksand, but then you're gonna see new things pop up immediately.

That's why I look at it as dynamic. I think of myself and I spent 10 years with NBC sports in New York on the road, and I've interviewed, I was written up in Sports Illustrated, and I say that 'cause I've interviewed the top coaches in the world the smartest coaching minds in the world.

I understand audibles. Audibles. A coach calls in an audible when he sees something wait. This is happening. You go, wait, switch up. You call in an audible. So I created AI audibles like a coach Michael. 'cause that's how fast things are gonna be able to change or they're going to change if we like it or not.

So I wanna be able to say stop. Don't do that anymore. Now do this because it's changed. We've seen what happens and that's why I wanna stay current, use my background AT NBC News 'cause I move at the speed of TV news. That's how I was trained. I was practically raised in newsrooms every day we'd walk into a blank slate, and every day we'd put on 30 minutes of programming all new information every single day. So I understand news, I understand how to handle the movement of information very quickly and break it down for the viewer to be able to digest it quickly too. Okay. Okay, so let's bring this podcast full circle for listeners trying to decide where to put their energy building AI powered systems, or doubling down on local, in-person networking.

What's the smartest way to combine the two for long-term success? You don't have to build a system to begin with. Don't even worry about that. The biggest skill according to Deep Mind is going to be learning to learn. So get into the mindset of just learning to learn. Don't try and create a whole.

System yet. 'cause it could be outdated in a month and you put all this time and effort and energy in. So go to networking events, period. So start there. Meet people, shake hands, and network. Now what happens in networking, you start to share and you ask people questions about your concerns.

What are you doing? What are you doing? What do you think of this? Or what do you think of that? Just do that. Start there. Then the second thing is go to chat GPT and say, I want you to act like a 15-year-old digital expert, and I want you chat GPT to teach me how to use chat GPT, and we can show people how.

Just start there. I keep it, I call it kiss. Keep it senior. Simple. Yeah. Okay. So when we can do that, and we can help anybody that could buy a book on Amazon to get free advice from Chad GPT and ask it to help them. Learn chat gp. Just start there. Start your educational process, then come back and network with you and me and we'll help 'em and we'll teach 'em, as we go and keep learning and keep them current and keep them up to speed.

'cause in marketing. If you're not current, you might as well be trying to be in a market in ancient Rome. It's over. You can't make money in the past. You've gotta make money in the present and build for the future. Absolutely. Absolutely. I couldn't agree a hundred percent. Mike, this was great.

I can talk to you for another two hours just about everything. AI driven and love local networking. So if somebody wanted to get hold of you, whether they wanted to be coached by you, wanted to ask questions about ai, anything they want, how, what's the best way they can get hold of you? The best way to get ahold of me is podcast listening.com, and I'll tell you why, Michael, because we are so busy today.

That I wanted to look at what is the best way to get educated when we're busy? Maybe you're taking care of kids, you're a grandparent or a busy parent, or you're commuting and you're spending all your time in the car. So I wanted to be able to reach people with podcast listening.com, which is the most effective way to learn and to stay current.

And and I love to interview people and put them in a podcast podcast listening.com has my email right at the top, mike@podcastlistening.com. And just send me an email with your questions, because we want this to be dynamic. We wanna know, what do you wanna know? We wanna bring those answers. To you to help you, and I wanna interview you about what are you doing in local networking.

Are you struggling? Are you struggling with ai? Are you confused? Are you feeling lost or left behind? I wanna know that, just like I pulled people at networking events. Were they following up? This is my way of polling them. Now, before this interview, you sent me a questionnaire and I put, I filled it in to talk about what we wanted to talk about so you could prepare your questions.

Likewise. That's what we need to do with our audience. Polling's. Great. It's really helpful and you and I both know it. We wanna get the audience engaged in polling. Get on your show, fill in the questions for you so you can help tell their story. I can help tell their story and we wanna put 'em on the Spotlight Tonight Show.

This is exciting. This is fun stuff. Absolutely. Listen, at the end of every talk that I give, every workshop that I hold, every keynote, I have a QR code and they jump on that QR code, it brings 'em right to a Google Docs form. They fill it out. What do they like, what they not like, what they want to see, what they don't wanna see anymore.

Everything all about it. That's all the polling. And then I, that's all feedback that I get and I change it up the next time I go out. Beautiful. That's engaged and we make it interactive. We keep it human. It's not Michael's not ai. I'm not ai. You are not ai. We want your feedback so we can keep it human.

Put our hearts into loving local networking. Thank you so much, Michael. It was really a pleasure. It always is a pleasure when I network with you. Thank you, Mike. I'll talk to you soon.

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 Folks. A huge thank you to our guests for sharing such incredible insights today, and of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending your time with us. If you're interested in my digital courses being coached or having me come and talk to your company, just go to MichaelAForman.com and fill out the request form.

Remember, networking isn't about being perfect. It's about being present. So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a review. Share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.

Let's keep the conversation going. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my website michaelaforman.com/podcast.

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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