Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Mike Litton and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- May 20
- 28 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. And 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 type, we've got something for you. So stick around. And let's turn those awkward small talk moments into big wins. Now, I've got a guest today who I really feel a kinship with. I was on his podcast recently, but I feel like I've known Mike for years.
I'd like to introduce to you Mike Lytton. And Mike has over 31 years of experience in real estate, finance, and investing. He's passionate about being a father, a teacher, a realtor, an investor, and a leader. And I want to tell you that with my mortgage background and his mortgage background, we can talk for three hours.
But let me just introduce Mike Linton and let him give you a little bit more. Mike, how are you? Good buddy, how are you? Not bad. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background? So i've been in real estate for 33 years now. That's actually an old That's some old material anyway but yeah 33 years as of a couple weeks ago And I got started in the business because I got turned down for a home loan.
So be careful saying no to me, right? So I get I get going in real estate in 1992, in the mortgage business and I became Really successful in it. I became one of the, one of the nation's top producers and, year after year did really well and I worked really hard and I earned a lot of the success that I had.
But I also learned a ton about people and about specifically how to work with people, and how to work with them better, because not everybody that we come across, and this in this industry. Not everybody that we come across is necessarily a match for our behavioral style.
And so we have to adapt and overcome, right? So So 33 years and I also in 2000 went to a an annual event that, that the building industry in San Diego puts on called the bull and bear. And it's January of every year. And it's a dinner that everybody goes to. And the bull gets up and talks about wonderful.
Everything's going to be in the bear gets up and talks about how terrible everything's going to be for that year. And this year, this one time in 2000, January, 2000, these two Hanyaks actually agreed on something. They couldn't agree on the color of the sky. Okay. But they agreed on one thing, and that was that we were running out of permittable land in San Diego County.
And I was 100 percent builder purchase loans. So I, all of my loans, I was a builder rep and all of my loans were purchase loans and they were all builder. And I had close to 300 loans in my pipeline at the time. And I had a baby at home and I had another one on the way and I got a chill from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet and I just went, okay, I'm a big fish in an ever smaller pond.
Right? And I need to diversify. So by the time the fall, by the time that year 2000 was over, I had been pre approved and had been in application to buy a And start a Keller Williams reality franchise. And so that was my way of diversifying. And so I ended up starting that in January of 2020 or 2001.
And we started, we were supposed to have 22 agents. We started with four. Partly because somebody that started the company with me didn't know what truth meant. And we ended up with four and everybody went, oh, you're going to fail. You'll never succeed, dah.
And we ended up owning that office for 18 years. And we had one of the largest real estate offices in North America. And it was a, it was an amazing experience. I loved every second of it. The thing that I learned was I learned how to deal with a whole lot of people with a whole lot of different personalities and different agendas.
And, a lot of those agendas didn't match, right? And so it was a real learning experience. During that time in 2011, 2008 we had the Great Recession, 2011 it seemed like everybody was losing their homes to foreclosure. I was an REO broker, I was going out and knocking on people's doors and telling them that they didn't own the house anymore and that they needed to move and they would tell me, oh no that's not possible because I just gave a law firm 9, 000 yesterday and they guaranteed me in writing that I'd never lose my house to foreclosure.
That was the kind of thing we were dealing with. I got so frustrated that I started a radio show called The Real Estate Zone on 760KFMB. We took the least listened to hour they had, their entire weekend lineup, and turned it into number one on all of AM radio in eight weeks. And they told me that hadn't happened in 34 years.
So we did it because we were telling the truth, Michael, we were literally saving thousands and thousands of homes from foreclosure. And so what ended up from what came from all that was, I ended up on television started my radio career, so to speak, in San Diego and television, right?
I've been on ever since 2011. And one of the things that I dearly loved was I dearly. Loved getting people's stories. I dearly loved meeting people for the first time. I just I dig people You know that I think I hide it well, but you've figured it out, right? So I one of the things I promised myself was I knew when I had a podcast that I would get I would go deep I wouldn't have You know, commercial breaks.
I wouldn't have network breaks. I wouldn't have all the stuff that you have in commercial radio because I literally would just have time. And so what we do with the Mike Linton experience is just like we did with you. We get people's life stories. We start with where they were born, go all the way up to today.
We've done 322 episodes in less than 19 months. And it's been amazing. It's been absolutely amazing. We're heard in 60 countries worldwide, six, zero 60. We, which is still hard for me to imagine when I say that we've been listened to over 2. 35 million times. Over two million downloads. Crazy, just crazy, but it's been a riot.
It's been a great amount of fun and I really thoroughly enjoyed it. It sounds like you have the personality to do everything that you're doing. That's why I think you don't. Really think you're doing well that well, but you are, but you're enjoying it so much that you're just, you're having fun and you're doing well.
So it's an absolute combination to have. It's an absolute riot, man. It's just fun. Okay. So let me ask you, how did you first discover the power of asking questions in your personal and professional life? Oh god, great. Great question. So So i'll tell you the i'll tell you the personal one. And this is a little embarrassing Actually, I love those actually it's humiliating.
It's humiliating, but i'm going to tell you anyway, so so we so I met a girl in 1992 and I fell in love with her And I decided I was going to marry her and we were going to have kids and right that was 32 years ago So we just celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary a couple months ago, January 5th And we were in premarital counseling and I went to our pastor and I said listen By the way, he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life And I said, you need to consider me a blank slate.
And he goes, what does that mean? And I said I haven't had a relationship with a girl that's lasted more than 60 days. And I said, so I don't know how to be in a relationship with a woman and I don't ever want to, I don't ever want to get divorced. So I need you to help me be a husband, teach me how to be a husband.
And so we're going through the process as we're going through the process. At one point, my fiance at the time is now my wife gets up and runs out of his office. Crying and this man who is the sweetest heart of just about anybody you've ever met other than my son
Looks at me with the most exasperated look on his face and he says mike you have to ask yourself a question I said, okay. What's that? He goes. Do you want to be married or do you want to be right?
Okay. Yeah, and it was like Oh, great question. So I've asked myself that question. Now. I don't know how many millions of times over the last 31 years, but that's the, that's where I learned the power of questions in my personal life. Okay. And I start and it, what it did was it started this wildfire of, okay if that question works, let's ask some more.
Let's ask, okay. Questions that actually help us to bond as a couple. Let's ask questions about, that help us plan for the future, all that kind of thing. Yeah, so that was the power of questions of the personal life and the professional life. I took the personal life experience and started using it in my professional life.
I became a better loan officer. I became a better manager. I became a better leader because I started asking questions because ultimately I asked myself a different question than I had personally, but it was, do I want to be right or do I want to be in business with this person? Do I want to be right or do I want to have the opportunity to lead this person?
Okay. And what it did was it started me down this road. Then in 2000, we bought this Keller Williams franchise. One of the things that Keller Williams requires is they require that you go through a series of training in order to qualify, to be the owner of a, an operating principal of a market center.
And so I went through that training. The biggest part of that training is how to ask effective questions, like how to sit with people and how to actually have a conversation with them when you're recruiting them, when you're getting to know them, when you have people that are in your charge that work for you and right when you're interviewing.
Potential employees the whole thing and so I'm conflict resolution the whole deal And so I learned basically from that one question in premarital counseling Which by the way, he said was the most excruciating experience of his life. It wasn't because of my wife man Yeah, i'm a lot michael. I'm I mean I know i'm sure you are.
I know you've met me, but i'm a lot man. Yeah, so it basically grew from there. And then several years after we bought the franchise and started with Keller Williams, they taught us, they taught a class called the consulting clinic. And Bev Steiner, who's still with Keller Williams, she's a regional owner and operating principal and all that.
She's just an amazing woman. She taught this class at the La Costa resort, and I'll never forget this. And she had all of us get up and she had a standup and we were to ask each other questions. Okay, and the person who and the first person who answered a question had to sit down. Okay, so there's a room if you can imagine 150 200 people okay, and all of them get up and they start asking each other questions and very quickly the 200 group of 200 Shrunk down to about 10.
Okay, and she's like, all all right. All right, those of you that are still standing sit down. You're just showing off
By the way, that group that was still standing, right? So it was something where questions were encouraged, but they were encouraged as a way to communicate and a way to deepen your relationship with each other. And that was the thing, something that really resonated with me. Very good. Very. And I have to give, some acclaim to your pastor. I've been married going to be 36 years Come May and he is so right. Yeah He's so right. And I take that to heart. I really do they've gone on since our premarital counseling, they've gone on to write and publish over 40 books on marriage and family.
There's some of the foremost experts in the world on the subject. And we were very fortunate. They hadn't written a single book when they. When they did our premarital counseling. But when they talk about Mike and Mimi in their books, mike and Mimi, and I'm like, are you sure you're not talking about a cautionary tale, what not to do, and they're like no. We use you as an example of what to do. It's a while, let me ask you a question. How long was it before Mimi came back into the room? You said she stormed off crying. That's a good question. It was probably 30 minutes. It was probably close to 30 minutes.
Cause one of the things that happened was he looked at me with the most exasperated look on his face. He asked me that question and then he goes, stay here. And he leaves. I was in his office with, at the time there were three of us. Right now, all of a sudden I'm sitting there with my thoughts, right?
I'm only one there. And he went to go find her and he talked with her outside for 30 minutes. And then she calmed down and she came back in and, I think he was afraid she wasn't coming back. I really do. He's probably there convincing her to come back. Do you like, come on back. I'll show you. All right. You're my pocket, right? Okay. What's one question every leader should ask their team regularly. Oh, wow. Great question. Great question. I believe and again, this is my opinion. Okay. But I believe that every leader should ask their team on a regular basis.
How are we doing? How are we doing as a company in supporting you? Is there anything that we're missing that you need? Is there anything in particular that you would need us to provide so that you can succeed at a higher level? Do you feel fulfilled? Okay, because ultimately, it's not about the leader.
It's about who they're leading and it's about how they feel about what's going on with the company. Okay, so I'm going to give you an example. So we're writing a book on the power of questions. Just look just Full disclosure, right? We're actually writing seven books. We found out as I shared with you before we hit record.
We're actually writing seven books one of them the first one's on the power of questions The idea is you have to care enough to ask. Okay So scott man, who's a retired lieutenant colonel green beret wrote a book called. Nobody's coming to save you a Green beret's guide to getting big stuff done.
It's not stuff but it's you know, right? There's a g rated show, right? So right, so he tells the story of this company that hired him to come in and be their speaker at their annual meeting, and there's hundreds of people sitting in the audience, large company, large group of people, and the CEO gets up and says, I'm going to order.
I'm going to introduce Scott Mann, our speaker here in a minute, but I wanted to go through a real quick slide deck and catch you up to speed on where we are as a company. He looked out into the audience and the CEO had just started with his presentation. He looked out in the audience, Scott did, and all of his people were on their phones.
He had lost them and it'd been a matter of seconds, Michael. Okay. Now I would submit to you that if that same CEO had gotten up and said, Hey, I'm going to introduce Scott Mann here in a minute, but I wanted to go through this slide deck real quick and share with you where we are as a company.
Let me ask you a question. You're out there on the firing line every day. You're the ones that are out there making it successful. How do you think we did this year? What do you think this slide deck is going to say? Does anybody want to take a guess? All you have to do, Michael, is get one or two people to raise their hands.
That's all you have to do. Enter into a dialogue with them, okay? It's this tribal mentality that if one person in the audience is talking to the speaker's talking to all of them. Okay, they're paying attention. They're not looking on their phone. They're rubbernecking to try to figure out if they know who that person is that is talking directly to the CEO because they haven't had a chance to and they want to.
It literally comes down to your ability as a leader to engage your people. Okay? I interviewed a lady the other day that worked for Whataburger for 20 some years. And she had a CEO that she basically worked directly for him. Okay? So I call her my, I call her my CEO whisperer. Okay? She said he would go into meetings with people that were two and three levels below him.
And he would sit with them and he'd take his, he'd take a pad of paper in and he'd Closed the door and he'd ask him, So how are we doing? How are you doing? What's helping you to succeed here? What do you need to help you succeed here? And this man, the CEO would take notes. Do you know what happens when you ask people about themselves and they tell you about themselves?
It happens. You bond. They bond with you because that's their favorite subject. Now grandparents and parents will tell you that their favorite subject is their grand is their kids and their grandparent grandkids. It's not true. The reason why their kids and their grandkids are their favorite subject is because it's them.
They're an extension of them, right? They are the fruits of their life. Make sense? Okay, and all the investment that they've made raising those kids and grandkids. But their absolute favorite person to talk about is themselves. So all you have to do is ask people about themselves, and they will literally pour into you what's going on with them.
You just have to, you just have to care enough to ask. They will tell you what's going on with them. If you sit there and take notes, do you know what happens? You validate them. Of course. Yes. What you're describing is yes, it's a leader. I go through a whole thing of saying difference between leaders and bosses.
And a leader teaches leaders. Yeah. Bosses just shout commands. Yeah. So a leader is teaching leaders to lead. Yeah. And the only way they learn is by listening to them. But you had so many things that were that hit the nail on the head in so many different areas I couldn't keep up. Okay and that's all I can come out and tell you.
Okay, so now let me just one second, just gonna bring this back to your spouse just a little bit. How can asking the right questions improve communication? Between spouses. It's actually very simple. It's a great question, but it's very simple and it comes back to the same thing we were just talking about.
So if you ask your spouse about how they feel about a particular decision or you ask them how they feel about the way that you treated them at a party, or you ask them how they feel. About your communication with them, it gives them an opportunity to share with you how they're feeling and they feel validated.
They feel like they're more of a part of that relationship than they ever have been. I'll give you an example. Years ago, I was teaching a class on the DISC, which is basically behavioral assessment, behavioral traits, right? And I was, and I've been teaching it now for 30, for 33 years, but it was about 30 years ago.
And I was standing up in front of a group of people. And as I'm standing up there talking and I'm teaching it, My mind went to I've never had this conversation with my wife So I went home and I sat with my wife that night and I said listen Do you mind if I ask you a question? She said sure I said, what do you think your behavioral style is?
She goes. I have no idea. I said would it surprise you to know that you're an sc? S is stable they're they don't like change. They're real steady. Okay. A C is conforming. They follow every rule. Okay. I'm an, I'm a D I am 1000 percent of D. In fact, they sell a search party 30 years ago for the other three.
Behavioral styles, and they still haven't come back. It's not good, right? It's, I'm all D, man. Usually people are a mixture of those things. Not me. I am, that's it. I am right. And here's the thing. So I shared with her. I said, listen, there isn't a single thing in my life that doesn't change on a regular basis, which is her greatest fear, change.
And there's, and I always want to bend and or break every rule I come across. And all you want to do is follow them. Her favorite thing to say to me is you can't do it that way. And she wags her finger when she says it. Okay. And I said that just, and then she goes, what does all that mean? I said, all that means.
Is that you're perfect for me and she started crying. Okay. Now I asked her. Why are you crying? She said because I didn't understand until right now how much you actually get me how much you appreciate me That works I can't say anything about that. Okay. So let's switch a little bit and say, how do you use question?
How do you use questions to build meaningful connections at networking events? Great question. So what I do is I try to find something about that person that's interesting. Okay, and it might be their shirt Okay, it might be that way that they cut their hair. It might be a piece of jewelry.
Okay It could be anything Okay. I'm one of those people that, and I don't know if you know this, but there are a lot of people that think that if you notice a woman's shoes, you must be, not necessarily a man or what are you know, or a manly or whatever. That's not necessarily the case.
Okay. They've got a particularly attractive pair of shoes on. I'm going to say something. Okay. I oftentimes will say something about their nails. And it'll be something along the lines of my daughter had her nails done. She's 24, and she's all that in a bag of chips, right? She had her nails done, and they're similar in color to what you had done, right?
And I just think they're gorgeous. They just they just really pop, right? That kind of thing, right? And so I'll get into a conversation with them about that, or I'll get into a conversation with them about something they said at the networking event, or, they were, whatever, right?
And and we'll get into a conversation and we'll start talking about what they do, where they work, why they work there, how happy they are, that kind of thing. And then, at some point I'll say, so when you're not working, what do you do for fun? Okay. Now, a lot of people think if you ask that, you're like coming onto them or something, and it's not the case.
You're just getting to know them outside of business. Okay. And one of the ways that you're going to get to know somebody in a deeper way, in a more meaningful way is to get away from the necessarily necessary business stuff and start talking about the stuff that they want to talk about, which is their kids, their spouse, their house, their, vacations, whatever.
And, sports. What are they into? What are they, that kind of thing. And so we'll get into conversations about that, but I'll ask them about them. Easy way to remember something like that, because I use all of that you're saying, which is probably no surprise to you, but I use it, but I have something that I use called form f o r m family.
Occupation, recreation, and a message. Everything you just said, you can sum up into that word and you can draw from it whenever you can. And I too, when I'm speaking to a woman, a girl or something, I'll notice her nails. I'll say, my wife does it exactly the same way, or she chooses the same color.
So you're letting them know that, Hey you're not interested in that way, but you're actually talking about. Their shoes, their nails, or something else. And you just start the conversation. That's a very good way of doing it. What question do you recommend professionals ask their mentors or supervisors?
You touched on this before, but, with the pad and the pen and he, the CEO was actually genuinely interested. But give us, give me a question or something that they, you can ask a mentor or ask your supervisor that will help you. How can I add value to you? What can I do right now that I haven't been doing where I can add value to you?
Because people respond to it. Okay. Leaders respond to their, to the people that they're, that are working for them being enthusiastic about helping mentors. So one of the things that I think is a real misnomer for people and where they miss the mark a lot of times with mentors is. Mentors want to give back.
I, so this lady I was telling you about that was at this screening on Saturday and I told you I was channeling you, okay? One of the things that I mentioned to her was I, she, or one of the things she said to me was she said, I'm working on an SBA loan. And I said, great, what's your business plan look like?
And she goes, I don't have one. And I said, do you know you have to have one for an SBA loan? And she said, no. And I said here's what I would suggest. Go talk to the Service Corps of Retired Retired Executives. And she's The what? I said the Service Corps of Retired Executives, SCORE, right? And I looked it up and I sent her the link.
I'm not joking, right there, standing there, right there. And the idea behind it is, these retired executives want to help you. They're part of this, they volunteer for this in order to give back. Okay? The thing that makes, that sets you apart from other people that are out There are a lot of people out there that will approach a mentor and say, Hey, can I take you to lunch?
Hey, can I pick your brain? Do you have any idea how many people come to me and ask me if they can pick my brain? And do you know what my response is? Absolutely. It's slim pickings. It won't take very long. Okay. I have three brain cells left and you're welcome to them. Okay. But if you walk up to somebody and you say, I want to pick your brain, what does that say?
It just says, I want to take whatever's left of you. And I want you to give it to me. Okay, don't do it that way. Walk up to a mentor and go, what can I do to help you right now? What can I do? Because I want you to mentor me, but I don't want this to be a one sided one side, one way street. I want to be able to help you.
Is there anything you can think of that I can do? Can I raise money for your foundation? Can I help your kids? Can I help your kids school? Can I right? What can I do? To give back okay now, by the way, just so you know be prepared that the answer may be nothing but the fact that you asked The fact that you asked and you offered that will go miles with these people because they deal with people all the time that are like, what can I get from you?
What can I get from you? What can I get from you? What? Why would you start that? Why would you start a relationship out like that? That's probably the best suggestion or the best thing to ask. It's probably the best piece of advice I can give to my listeners right now. Just what you just said, because that gives both sides of the equation.
It gives you something to offer as well as take it. So listen, you always think to give and not receive. Okay. So if you were the mentor, you're always looking to give, but if that, if you, if somebody came to me and asked me that question, the, my whole feeling would change on the whole thing. So that was the best piece of advice that I can that you, I, that I can think that you can give.
Okay. Can you share an example of how a well crafted question helped you overcome a challenge? Wow. Absolutely. Absolutely. So a couple of, so three months ago, a very good friend of ours passed away. He was six years younger than me. It was a sudden, he died at home by himself, heart attack. And he was somebody, I'm not joking, Michael, if you had met him, you'd have thought this guy will be lived to be 150 easy.
Okay. At 52 he passed away and his 14 year old son just lost his way. He was already headed down a road that was not a good one. And when his dad passed away, he catapulted into a the absolute wrong way. And I'm good friends with his godfather. His godfather was the one that introduced me to his dad.
And so we were all, the three of us were friends and our friends And I'm sitting with the, with his godfather and he's telling me about the kid and they put the kid in a military academy and all this kind of stuff. And the kid's 14. And so I asked him, I said, so what's, what is your conversation like with him?
What's your, what are you, right? And he said he said he doesn't want to talk to me. He, the last time I saw him, he called the police on me and all this kind of thing. And it was really bad. And I said, okay, I said, you've got to go sit with him and you've got to go have a conversation.
And the conversation needs to be. Talk to me. Tell me how you're feeling. Tell me what's going on. Tell me what's wrong. Talk to me, share with me how you're feeling. Share with me what's going on. Cause it's all bottled up inside of him. And I said, and it's festering and it's getting worse.
It's just awful. And so he went and he met with him three times. I gave him sample questions, the whole thing, and he couldn't get anywhere with the kid. In fact, he felt like he went backwards. So he called me up and he said, listen, it's desperation time. I think I'm losing him. He said, I feel like you're the only person on the planet that can reach this kid.
Will you come have dinner with us? We're going to take him to dinner Saturday night. Will you come have dinner with us and see if you can reach him? So I sat down with him and I said, let me ask you, let me ask you a question. Are you happy right now? And he's no. I said, okay. What would be, where would you have to be happy?
Because I know he doesn't like the military academy he's in, he hates it. And I said, so where would you need to be? He goes this high school or this high school. I said, okay. How do you get there from here? How do we put a plan together to get you from here, from where you are now, to where you're happy?
And he said stop. And he turns to his godparents, and he turns to his mother, and he goes, what is this? Why am I here? Who is this? What is this? Why is he asking me all these questions? Okay. Defense mechanism. The wall went up. Okay. I said, listen to me. I knew your dad. I was fond of your dad.
You don't remember this, but you and I spent Easter together a couple of years ago. Okay. I was fond of your father. And I know that if your father was here, he would want you to be happy. I'm here because of your dad, and I'm here to try to help you. So if you'll work with me, we'll put a plan together. You and I together, okay?
Just you and I. I'll never judge you no matter what you say. I'm not gonna judge you. Okay? And we're gonna, if you're okay with it, we'll put a plan together. You just have to work with me, right? And so we kept talking. We ended up exchanging phone numbers. We're now working together. He's now behaving. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing.
He went off to spring break last week with his mother. And his brother and he was a good kid. He was the kid that she knew before. Okay. He didn't call anybody. He didn't call police. He didn't write. He didn't do any of that stuff. Didn't lie. Didn't, get upset. He's really behaving correctly.
He's starting to understand all this. And all of it's coming from questions. All of it's coming from How are you grieving for your dad? How, what was your relationship like with your dad when you were growing up? What are the, and here's the thing, Michael. Nobody ever asked that kid any questions.
That's why when I got into the third question with him, he stopped and turned to everybody and went, what is this? Like he's being ambushed or something, okay? Everybody just ordered him around. He told me that his childhood with his dad was like living with a drill instructor. His dad was a Marine.
Once a Marine, always a Marine, right? It's very you mentioned it earlier, when you said there are bosses and there are leaders. Bosses order people around, and they expect them and require that they just do what they were told. Leaders go in and sit with somebody and say, listen, we are here and we need to be here, right?
How do we get from here to here? You're our expert. You're the person on the firing line every day. You're the one making us successful. How do we get here? Okay, so here's what's going on here. Great. How do you factor into this? What can you do to help us get there? Are we being unrealistic, right? Okay. And what happens is they get engaged.
They feel like they're part of the process. They feel like they're, and it's, they feel like it's part of their decision, right? Because it's, they're owning it. Okay. This kid is putting a plan together to put his family back together. And he asked me a very poignant question that a 14 year old would ask you, right?
He's like, why do I have to put the plan together? I said I could do it. I could put the plan together and hand it to you. But if I put it together and I hand it to you, who owns it? He goes, you do. I said, if you put it together and hand it to me, who owns it? He goes, I do. I go, who needs to own it? He goes, I do.
All of a sudden, okay, you mean early as a parent and as a friend. Okay. You can pull so much out of these kids. If you just ask teenagers love to do the Heisman, we call it the Heisman. They love to say, talk to the hand. The last thing in the world you can do the worst thing in the world you can do as a parent is just throw up your hands and go whatever and walk out the door.
Okay, you need to stand your ground. You need to care enough to ask. Okay period. And you're going to lose that kid. If you walk out that door because you just proved to them through your actions, not your words through your actions That you care more about yourself than you do about them That's how you lose your kid And by the way, there are people out there that will care more about your kid and the kid will find them and typically They don't have their best interest at heart
Very good. That's more of an answer than you wanted. I get it. But no. No, that's right. That's right which actually You answered pretty much my next question all in one. Okay. To wrap things up, okay. What's one question my listeners should start asking today to enhance their networking skills?
That's a great question. I would say is this, if you're going to a networking event, Ask yourself this question. What do I want out of that event? And what am I willing to accept before I leave? What's my goal, and what's my minimum, what's my minimum amount? In other words, If you wanted to, if your goal is to meet eight people then you need eight people and eight people's contact information before you leave tonight.
Okay. But ask yourself that question. The other thing that you want to do, pardon me, the other thing you want to do is you want to ask the people that are in the networking event, what do you do for a living and how can I help you? How can I help you succeed? Okay. It's all about, it's just like when we were talking about mentoring, right?
Because what's going to happen is when you go to these networking events, you're going to meet people from all walks of life. You're going to meet people from, different industries, right? And different life stories and different sets of, we call them frames of reference, right? They have life experiences that have helped them to look at the world the way they look at it now.
They can teach you a lot. They can teach you a lot. You can help them in the process, right? Just figure out a way, ask them, what's your single biggest challenge right now? And how can I help you with it? It's great because again, you've hit so many different things on that one answer. Because you, first of all, whenever you go to a networking event, you always look to give rather than receive, but the main question, the main thing that you would ask that I would ask if I was talking to you and we were sitting in a networking table, I would say, how can I make you more successful?
How can I be a good referral source for you? And I say this and do this without you even knowing what I do. But I am there to give rather than receive. Absolutely. Mike, I have to tell you, I can go on for three hours talking to you, but I'm afraid we can't do that on this podcast. So if anybody wants to get hold of you, either a talking about a book, coaching, mentoring, or just to say hi, how would they get hold of you?
So it's really easy to get me on LinkedIn. My cell phone number and my email address are on LinkedIn. So when you hit the contact info for me, you don't just get a LinkedIn link. By the way, that's a recommendation for the people that are listening to this. If you're on LinkedIn and you want to do business, don't send people on a loop.
Okay. If you put your contact information where it says contact info. Instead of a link back to your profile, they're all they're doing is going back. Come on, man, right? So you can message me through there. Of course, you're welcome to send me an email. You're welcome to call me. Like I said, my cell phone number is on there.
You can also reach me. You can just type in the Mike Lytton experience in Google and there's all kinds of ways to get me. I'm at reo760. com, the whole thing. Super easy to get a hold of. Mike, thanks a lot for coming on the podcast. And I really had a good time. I did too.
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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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