Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Ramsha Khan and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Nov 13
- 23 min read
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Welcome to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections, the podcast where we turn relationships into real results. I'm your host, Michael Foreman, and today we're talking about one of the most overlooked aspects of networking, how your relationship with money shapes the relationships you build with people.
My guest is an expert in financial planning and a psychology of money. She helps people not only create smart financial strategies, but also rewire the beliefs that hold them back from abundance. Together we'll explore how mindset impacts the way you show up in your network while financial confidence makes you.
Makes you a more magnetic connector and how you invest in your relationships with the same clarity as you invest in your wealth. If you've ever wondered how money and mindset influence how money and mindset influence your networking success, this conversation is going to open your eyes and maybe your opportunities.
I'd like to welcome to the podcast Rosha. Listen, we've been fr friends for a while now. We've been going to the same networking events and I'm so thankful to have you here to give us some of your wisdom. But Rosha, why don't you give us a little about your background and welcome to the podcast.
Sure. Thank you so much for having me on here, Michael. We have known each other for quite some time and you've given such a great impression to me and everybody else that we've connected with, so it's an honor to be on here. But a little bit about myself. My name's Ram Shahan. I stay in Atlanta, Georgia, work as a wealth advisor, run my own practice with a firm called North Star Resource Group.
And alongside, I also produce music and DJ as a fun little hobby of mine. So I like to keep myself sane with my music and I like to keep myself sane with my career, absolutely. Absolutely. It actually sounds like a good mix. But Okay. So let's delve into the questions Sure.
That I've got prepared for you. The first one, how does financial planning influence the quality and strength of someone's professional network? That's a great question.
Financial planning is a strategy. It's very intentional. And I think that goes into networking as well. When we're networking with people, we have to go in with a goal of being intentional about who we wanna meet, why we wanna meet them, and what we wanna do moving forward with them. And that's the same thing when it comes to financial planning.
It's where are we, where do we wanna go, and how do we get there? And so I would put those two things together because. In order for us to have a good financial planning strategy we need to be forward thinkers. And I think that goes to networking as well. For example, when we go to any type of networking event, whether that's a local link or the chambers, our goal is to connect with like-minded people that we like, trust and wanna do business with.
And in my opinion, that's also what financial planning means. That's so true. That's so true. You've really come across, you have to be focused on what you want to accomplish. Networking is exactly the same way as the financial planning. You have to have that end goal in sight, so you have something to shoot for and something when you're aiming for that, you can actually break it apart.
Yeah. And work your way to the goal. Exactly. And one more thing I'd like to add on to that is it's a fluid, like financial planning for me is a very fluid document, a fluid item, and a fluid plan, meaning at any point it can change. 'cause life changes for us at all times, right? We can have kids one day and all of a sudden now we've gotta change our plan or we're moving out of the state.
We gotta change our plan, we wanna buy a house, we have to change our plan. And that goes to networking as well. 'cause sometimes. We're not looking to meet the same type of people every time. We're sometimes we're looking for people that'll, that we can connect with in one aspect of our business, or maybe we can connect within a personal aspect, or someone that we can even refer to.
It doesn't even have to be somebody for us. It's somebody that we're referring to somebody else. So as, as much as a financial plan changes, so does our strategy for networking and growing personal relationships. It's, that's so true. You're actually what I call a professional connector and you're putting two Yeah, I like that.
People together and they, and you have a, they have a need. And listen, if you get something out of it, that's one thing, but that's really not your main goal when you connect two people together. When you put two people together, you say, okay, look, you have a need, you have a want, a desire. You go together and I'll, you walk away and you wind up getting more business that way than trying to push what you're selling.
Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. In your experience, do people with healthy money mindset, with a healthy money mindset approach, networking differently from those with a scarcity mindset. That's a great question. I would say yes. And the definition of m Money rich, or could you repeat what that was?
Money. Yeah, money mindset. Yeah. A healthy money mindset. Healthy people with healthy money mindset develop habits from early on. They're very disciplined and focused on. Achieving a win-win situation because success doesn't come until both parties are happy with where they are versus a scarcity mindset that is the type of people that when we meet, they're just trying to sell you something.
You can smell it, you can feel it, you could hear it, and there's no win-win situation. At the end, you just see someone pitching their product or services to you rather than someone looking to collaborate and build a relationship or a partnership. So those who have healthy money mindset under.
That money is created when two parties agree on it together and both come out with successful outcomes. Now you really consider yourself a fiduciary, right? Yeah, more so than I work more planner. I'm legally obligated to work in the best interest of my clients. Yes, and there you go. So you have to, by law.
You have to try to get to the best of for your client. Exactly. And again sorry to interrupt Michael, but it always blows my mind when people say, by law you have to do the best thing for people because I feel like that should be a standard, that we shouldn't have to have a law to be doing right by others, especially when it comes to their money and taking care of, their financial future essentially.
So for me, it's not my fiduciary is an honor title more than it is a job title for myself. Yeah, you know as well as I do, there are plenty of people out there waiting to. Take somebody's money, yeah. And not do anything for it. So there's people, that's the mindset, like that mindset than yourself.
So you have to work twice as hard to have that trust value, that trust factor. So you have, this, know you, like you, trust you. They'll do business with you. And that trust factor becomes so important, especially somebody in your field. Yeah. What is the biggest financial mistake professionals make when investing in their networking efforts?
Ooh, that's a good one.
One of the worst financial mistakes that they make when it comes to investing in their network. Sure. Is not taking the opportunity to build a face-to-face connection. For example, some people would rather save $2 than to go out and have coffee for $2. I think the digital world has changed business completely.
Now we have the opportunity to sit like this and we don't need to go anywhere. We have the comfort of our room and. Our water bottle, we don't really need to pay for anything. However, there is a big disconnect in my own opinion when we're sitting like this versus when we're meeting face to face that the energy's very different.
The relationship that's being built and developed is very different. For example, if we met like this, it would be very different versus when we went to our bagel shop and ha sat outside in the heat and talked about all our, all of our ventures. That leaves a lasting impression for both parties as well as a great memory to look back on versus so many times I've sat on Zoom with people that.
I can't, if I'm being honest, it doesn't leave a lasting impression on me. It's a scheduled 30 minute call versus an open schedule when you're meeting somebody and the money investing into a networking really just goes into, take that time, drive over and meet somebody. Sure, you're gonna pay a little bit of gas money or sure you're gonna get a little coffee.
You don't even need to get coffee. But it's the effort that matters. And if both parties are putting in the effort, it shows the. The want to grow and develop a relationship, and you get to see who's really worth putting your time into if they're putting their time back into you as well. Absolutely. And I really found there was like a line in the sand, the pandemic.
Yeah. Before the pandemic people were more, they're treating these types of calls as transactional. Yeah. I have three widgets. You have a $2, okay, you're gonna buy my widgets and that's gonna be it. But after the pandemic, it's really become more relationship. Based. Yeah. And when you go and meet, so even if you're talking over Zoom, you have to realize that's a person behind the camera.
Yeah. And you have to treat them accordingly. Yeah. So you don't feel, you don't feel the vibe of the person, you don't feel the vibe of the room, but you can, as long as you can put yourself with that other person, then I feel that you can create a relationship, not just a customer. Yeah, I'm so about That sounds, yeah.
Time is money. I know we all hear it. We all see it. Time is money. And if we're gonna invest anything to anybody, it should be our time. Showing them what's valuable and, yeah. I'll leave it at that. Okay. Okay, sure. How can someone budget their time? Speaking of time how can someone budget their time and resources for networking the same way that they would for a financial plan? Ooh. Book it on your calendar. Schedule it. When you have something in front of you and that they're, what you're doing the next day. It's much easier to follow a plan that's already created than it is to create a plan out of thin air the day of.
And so that goes to financial planning. 'cause so many people are like, oh, I can invest today and I'll invest a little bit tomorrow and when I have this money, I'll put it away. But that's not a plan put into stone, it. It's all up in the air. When things are all up in the air, they just float around, and so when we have a structured plan, it really helps us stay focused and intentional about the activities that we're doing. And that goes to networking. For example, I have all of my networking events scheduled on my calendars and blocked off. Every single week when I know it's happening, so that way I know where my priority is during that time and that my focus is not gonna go to anything else.
I'm gonna prioritize going to these sessions or meeting these people, not focusing on my own business and then a block out time for my own business as well. This is very true and it's important to do that. That time blocking, it's actually a thing, time blocking, but I use my phone, my computer calendar, and I have a desktop calendar also, just to make sure that I don't miss anything.
Yeah. But I block out. A time, a set time during the day for my business. Yeah. I block out, and then networking at night and everything else. But if I don't block it out, then somebody else may get that time. And I'll have to either excuse myself or whatever the case may be. It saves you.
Heartache. So I have, I agree. If you can block out the time, just as Ssha says that you can block it out, that will help you tenfold when you're trying to do things down the road. So can I ask you a question, Michael? Sure. Off that, there's been so many times people struggle finding where their priorities lie.
Sometimes their calendar is there, there. Their Bible, they live by it. They rule by it. But some people allow others to dictate their calendar, and I think that when we start our business, it's difficult at first prioritizing and do we wanna focus on other people?
For example, you said that there was a time available, somebody will take it, but you have something that you have to do. Where, what do you decide you're gonna go with that person that decided to book it? Or are you gonna focus on your own priority? So how did you start making. Those decisions clear and more stern for yourself?
What I did was I blocked out the time from now till December. So the set networking opportunities that I have that are every week, I automatically block that out so nobody can touch that time. And I fill in the time when I'm behind my desk, when other people are filling in. So to speak that, that time.
But when you have, when you get up, when you get a little bit more when you get a little more opportunity, you can have an assistant and that assistant will now have control of your calendar. So that's where you're gonna say to your assistant, you have to make sure that you don't allow somebody else to occupy this time.
So I work very hard. At not letting anybody sneak an opportunity, sneak an appointment in while I'm going and I'm planning on doing something else. So I have plenty of times when off my website or somewhere else, I have my calendar link and people can make an appointment for a consultation for anything like that.
So as long as they use the calendar invite. It's blocked off. Yeah, because that works directly with my calendar on my computer. So it takes time. It takes your, a straight mindset and if you follow it accordingly, then you'll be, then you'll be successful. If you're willy-nilly and you're just using a paper calendar and somebody else is gonna make an appointment, you're gonna get all messed up.
You have to be structured and organized, and that's a very difficult thing to do. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. Okay, so have you seen networking play a direct role in helping people achieve major financial goals? Goals, networking. Yeah, you never meet. You never know who you're gonna meet when you're networking, you never know who needs you and who also you need back, I think that because of the digital world, it's so easy to go out and build lists and go to LinkedIn and connect with a thousand people, but you never know someone's true needs until you have a conversation with them. And so networking allows that, conver that conversation to build, the first 30 seconds or one minute of you talking about your services and listen to the other person's services, get a chance to see.
Is there something that I can help this person with? And is there something that person can help me with? And so when it comes to networking, for example, I've had people where I've shared a presentation and I've talked about let's just say like a 401k how to make sure your 4 0 1 ks invested properly or what options you have if you're leaving a firm with your 401k.
And people don't realize that until they know what they don't know, they don't know what to act on. Don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. I say this to the high school students and college students that I coach 'cause they're not sure about a networking event or where they can help.
I said you're networking every day of your life. In your circle of friends, in a department store, in a grocery store, you're doing everything. When you're online and you hear a conversation behind you, you just don't put your earmuffs on and look forward. Listen to the conversation and if you can if you can add any type of smart or anything to their conversation, then.
To turn around and say, oh, hi. Excuse me, but you were talking about this. I heard you and I do this, and then you turn back around. You don't have to sit there and wait for a conversation if what you said was interesting enough they'll tap you on the shoulder and say, what? Could you explain that a little bit further?
And then, you have exactly. So many times, Michael, tell me if you've seen this too, people wait to be asked. What can you do for me and us sitting there waiting for those types of opportunities is, in my opinion, it's it. I've never really seen a lot of success come from that. No it's true.
And I, I just I just had a very good friend of mine on the podcast, and he's a realtor down in Florida. And he always, like when he walked into a, he just told me a story when he walked into a store, a person thought he worked there and said can you tell me where this is? He said, yeah, come on, I'll show you.
And by the way, do you own a house? Or do you rent? Are you thinking about buying? How about in six months? Here take my card. And that's how it started. Wow. But he initiated the conversation and the guy probably never even thought about it, but yeah. And he is, that's why he does very well with where he is.
But you have to take the bull by the horns. If you wait for everything to come to you, you're gonna wait a very long time. Yeah, I believe in the law of attraction, but you gotta put out what you want back. You can't just sit there. No, it's true. It's true. Okay. How can a person's beliefs about money either help or hinder the relationships they build?
Ooh, wonderful question. I've said this before with other people, and I'm a true believer in this, psych research shows that when we grow up in two different patterns. Either we. Support all our money because we don't know when the dec next dollar is gonna come from, or we spend all our money because we don't know when the next dollar is gonna come from.
And so those two mindsets come from seeing our family situation, nature, nurture the environment that we're really raised and born in and how that money mindset was developed there. And it seeps into our subconscious as we grow up. And so when we grow up. That can hinder relationship building because of the same, one of the questions you asked earlier about healthy mindsets versus non-healthy mindsets.
Now all of a sudden you're thinking one track mind and me rather than, wee, we little bit of French there for you. But that I'm a big believer in that because if we don't, if we have that mindset of spending every money, we're gonna give out everything and never receive anything back, nor expect anything back, which is a positive or a negative thing.
But we're not working for charity. We're working, right? We're building a business, not doing charity work. Or the other is we take from everybody and we don't give back. And where is any relationships gonna grow from there, that's true, but also I factor age into it because the older that people get, the mind shift, mind changes and let's say a single person and all of a sudden they get married.
So they don't think about just themselves anymore. They're thinking about their spouse. So now all of a sudden it's a, goes from a me, to a wee, we wee, and then all of a sudden they have children. And then all of a sudden, let's say in, in, in my case, I thought solely about my wife and children, I didn't think about myself.
So things changed a hundred percent. Yeah. By how old you got and your age. And all of a sudden you realize you know what? I'm getting older. Do I have my finances in order? That's where you reach out to a financial planner or somebody else. Or if you're friendly with somebody, you talk to them about it, but it changes with age.
That's something you should really think about because it's different if you're talking to a single person in their twenties. As opposed to a married person in their thirties. Now I agree. I completely agree with you, and that's why I'm a big advocate on plan early for your future. If you plan on getting married, if you plan on having kids at least have some type of draft put together so that you're not thinking fresh, then, sometimes it's a little too late to start planning.
Your kids are 15 years old and you wanna start for college education. Okay, maybe we're a little, we could still do it, but maybe we're not gonna get the same results as if we had started when they were three or four years old, so it's always. I agree, it's always once you get to that point, you have more responsibility and then you start really thinking about, financial security much more importantly at that time.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. What advice do you have for people who feel it's too early in their financial journey to network with high level professionals? Oh, I think people get scared with high net high network professionals because of either titles, PhDs, or how much income that they make.
But we have to remember everybody's human. Outside of our titles and statuses, we are all skin and bones and a soul and a heart, that are all trying to make it in this world. And so there should be no reason to be scared because eventually you wanna put yourself in an environment of and surround yourself with people that you desire to.
Become or build a lifestyle of, and if you wanna be a wealthy, successful person, you surround yourself with wealthy, successful people, not be intimidated by them. There's a saying where you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with. So I make it a habit to put myself in places and rooms that where I'm surrounded with people who are much more successful than me.
And it doesn't necessarily mean high net, net worth. Sometimes it's high wisdom too. Some people have a lot of. And experience that they can share and we can learn from. So regardless of whether you build a business with them or if there's a relationship that develops through that at the end it's a great learning experience, a great lesson and a great place to be to open your mind and grow your mindset as well.
What do you say to the person that they say it's too early for me to think about my financial future.
It's never too early. It's never too early, and it's never too early that. When did you start thinking about your financial future, Michael? What, when you were younger, what was your take on, what was your mindset on money? I didn't start thinking about it until my late thirties. Which is good.
Some, better than never, right? Yeah. A absolutely. And then you had to figure out 'cause I was married with children, I had to figure out okay, do I have that extra couple of dollars that I can invest and things like that. And I made it a habit that regardless of, I made it like a bill, right?
I have to pay all these bills the end of the month. That. Was part of it. So that money had to go away and then whatever else left was the expense that I can throw around and not worry about, but I learned that I'd say late thirties, that I had to really figure it out.
And I'm glad I did today. Good. And you're doing super successful, so I'm happy to hear that too. Are the parallels, are there parallels between diversifying investments and diversifying a professional network? 100%. I, if you see. If you, I, some people are structured and have a niche, and I think having a niche for your business is important, but at the same time, you don't wanna limit yourself to your opportunities.
Where op when business comes knocking at your door, you don't say buy and slam it in its face. You take what you get. And also if somebody's coming to you, especially my industry, if someone's coming to me. Asking for financial help, it is a lack of my fiduciary responsibility for me to turn them away.
In my heart, I'm not gonna say, you know what? You're not making X amount of money, or You're not a high net worth client. I don't really wanna work with you. And so I keep my doors open to anybody and everybody. However, I also wanna focus on mastering the insights of. Specific industry, so that way I can be more knowledgeable in that field.
For example, with business owners, business owner solutions, or for example, practice owners, right? How do dentists pay off? Or dentists, doctors, they have high student loans. How do we plan a structure for that? So becoming an expert in whatever field you wanna work with, but not limiting yourself is a great way to grow.
That's the parallels for diversifying your investments as well as your network, a little, advice from my end, from the networking end of things. Focus on what you want to do. So if you want to focus in on not only business owners, because that's too broad, if you want to focus in on business owner medical practice, that's okay, but are you going to focus in on, on, on business owner medical practice?
Dentists. Okay, now you're laser focusing and you have to go, or physical therapists. And you have to go in and really see what's going on in their world because, there's a lot of costs in with being a doctor, but the, one of the biggest costs is malpractice insurance. Yeah. So you have to figure all this stuff out and say, okay, you know what and then you have the person going to the health insurance and people like that.
And I've worked with people, I've had clients that are in those fields. That's why I know what it is, what it takes. So you have be very careful. And another thing I want to add is you never know. Where your next opportunity's going to lie. So it's, you have to change your mindset to be aware of other opportunities.
Because if your mind is closed off to that, then you won't see it. Yeah. If you and I, if you and I walk into a room and I can come up with whatever I wanted to say, but you say, oh, this is great. I walked out with three clients and I said I didn't walk out with any, because your mind was open to opportunities and my mind was closed.
So that's okay. I agree. Okay. So what role does trust. Both financial and personal play in creating long-term profitable connections? Oh man. There's no relationship without a, without trust. If we think to personal relationships, we talked about this in the beginning. Yeah. Also, I'm a big believer once trust is broken, it's very hard to rebuild that relationship too. So when you have a foundation that you're building with somebody and that trust is that structure that you're building that foundation on, you wanna be very careful with it. You wanna be very.
Diligent about it. You gotta take care of that person in front of you. If you say you're gonna do something, you gotta do it. You know that, that kind of stuff. If you can't, you gotta communicate. Trusted communication are big when it comes to building lasting relationships with people without trust.
Nope. No one likes you, nobody wants to do business with you, right? You build business with people you like. What was it like? Trust. No. And trust. No. And trust. Exactly. No and trust, right? And I really believe without trust there's nothing that can be, there's no relationship that can be developed, especially in a world where today trust is so scarce.
Fine. Scarce may not be the right word, but it's very hard to be trust. It's very hard to trust people easily today, everybody. It's just a crazy world today, Michael. So trust is hard to earn as well as give it. It is. And when you go to a networking event, you have, if you go in with what's called a servant's heart.
You want to give and not receive. And if you go in with that philosophy, then it takes all the pressure off your shoulders. You're not there to try to sell them anything or do anything for them. You're there for the other person. So one, one line that I've always. Used and was very accepted was at, let's say, a networking table or something else.
And they, and I'll, I'm with you and you tell me everything that you do and everything else. I say, you know something, Raha, I like you. I like what you do for a living. I like how you do it. How can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you? And if I've done my job correctly?
You start say, I don't even know what you do yet. And that's perfect. So if you go in there with that thought, with that feeling, then you're never, you never can go wrong. Yeah. And you release all that pressure. And for people who are building re referral based businesses, trust is their highest priority because no one's gonna refer anybody to somebody that they don't trust, right?
Because that's their line, their credibility and their name and friend that they're putting in front of this person that, that's looking for business. And it trust goes beyond just building a relationship. It goes to many aspects of networking and growth overall. Trust Bill I what I call social capital, right?
It's your social capital. So when people have that much trust in you, then you have a great amount of social capital. Now, if you do something wrong or bad or something to make them not trust you, you really go into that social capital. So unless you have an abundance Yeah. Of the social capital, if you're just starting out.
You do something where they're not gonna trust you, then what? You're below the line. Yeah. Then all of a sudden you're out and you owe them and you know it. And as you said, it's much more difficult to get them back after they lost your trust or you lost their trust or it's something else. It's like going back to finance.
Just one last thing to add on this. It's like the concept of deposits and withdrawal. Each person is a bank account. If we just deposit money, we're building up that, that, cash balance, and cash value. However, if we keep taking from them, if we keep withdrawing, eventually at some point we're gonna overdraw ourselves.
That's, and that's, we owe them something. And that's where now we're lacking our, we're not building anything because we've taken so much out from them. They're overdrawn, we're gonna get overdraft fees. They don't want a relationship with us. The bank's gonna say, bye-bye. You know that's the social capital.
Yep. That is exactly it. The deposits and withdrawals, it's all built around Trust. That trust factor. But you're building your social capital. Okay, so let's bring this podcast full circle. Sure. If you could give one money mindset networking tip that would pay the biggest dividends, what would it be?
Ooh. To start just to, to review and have a plan. That's really it. Most people just don't have a plan. They go in and look at, ask questions about investing or what's this stock doing or what's this Bitcoin doing? And I think that it really depends on your overall picture. Write down where you wanna go, and then consult with a financial professional on how you wanna get there.
And that way, regardless of whether you're gonna follow that path, if you want to, you have that right in front of you. You have the steps that it takes to move forward to that path. Okay, Rosha, that, that was fantastic. You were a great guest and you must be a great financial planner because you gave me all the answers that I, I asked questions, so I'm thinking that you are very good at what you do, but if somebody wanted to get hold of you just to ask you a question or bounce something off of you or have a consult with you, what's the best way for them to get hold of you?
So they can reach me on LinkedIn. My LinkedIn is Rosha Khan if they can reach me on my email rosha dot con@northstarfinancial.com, or they can shoot me a text message. Now, everybody's texting these days, 4 7 0 8 7 0 19 41. So if anybody wants to talk, I am happy to just have a conversation.
I think that. Even conversations just give people mental peace and peace of mind. So you know, I'm always happy to be that financial therapist as well. That's great. That's great, SSHA. I look forward to talking to you again. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me on. It was a pleasure.
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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 and share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
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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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