Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections. An Interview with Sabine Gedeon and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Aug 19
- 32 min read
📍 Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, building Profitable Connections, the podcast where we explore the art and impact of powerful relationships in business and life. I'm your host, Michael Forman, and today we're diving deep into one of the most transformational concepts, informational in networking, developing a connector mindset.
Joining me is someone who just doesn't talk about connection. She lives it. She's built her career around understanding ecosystems, elevating success circles, and helping people turn their relationships into real results. If you've ever wondered how to move beyond surface level networking and actually tap into the full force of the people around you, this episode is your playbook.
We'll unpack how to find your support ecosystem, build career momentum through connection, and engage your network in a way that drives long-term success, not just short-term wins. Get ready to shift your perspective and sharpen your networking game because today we're not just making contacts, we're making moves.
Let's welcome to the show. Sabine, Gideon Sabine. Thank you, Mike. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I loved that that introduction. Yeah I work hard on it. So I just, why don't you just give us a little insight of your background and we'll take it from there.
Absolutely. I'll cut to the short of it. Today, like I run a business that is a professional development firm. So I work with individuals and organizations who are looking for coaching in the space of executive coaching, leadership development. I do a lot of workshops for organizations and associations as well.
And I. Part of why I feel like I've been able to remain in business today is for the use of my network or being able to leverage it in a way that is mutually beneficial. But that actually started in my corporate career. When I first started corporate America, right outta undergrad, I majored in hr.
Went into hr. I'm also a background, I'm an immigrant from Haiti, so I came here just shy of four. First generation, everything. And that's important because the narrative that was taught in my household was, you gotta work hard, you gotta work hard. The way to advance in life is to work hard. And so that's the model that I applied, did all the things, was the first and whatnot.
And then I got into corporate America and I was working hard. I was. Taking on all the extra projects at the time. FaceTime was a big thing, right? So you get in before your boss, you leave after them leave your emotions at the door, all those messages. And I even also took on all the dots and dots as a.
As a coin is a term coined by one of my former managers, and dots are development opportunities that suck. So basically it was the projects or the things that no one else needed to do, no one else wanted to do, but needed to get done. And of course, my hard work mindset, I'll take on the dots thinking that was going to somehow elevate me or at least get me the recognition for the next step.
And it didn't. I learned then at 23 or 24 that the reward for hard work is more hard work. And so that's when I started observing the people around me. I started asking the question of okay, wait a minute. What else do I have to do to move ahead? And I started paying attention to some of my colleagues who were navigating seamlessly, easy throughout the organization.
And I refer to, I refer it's a few people, but I refer to them as one as Bob. So if anyone's listening, your name is Bob, please don't take offense to this. But I started observing Bob and what I noticed that Bob was doing differently than me was that he was having, meetings with our manager or the senior level manager.
At the time, I didn't even know that term was called a skip level meeting. He was getting invited to projects and doing things that like, I was just like, wait a minute. How do you get that? He's, I used to say mediocre at best. It sounds a little harsh now. But, I observed and rather than sit in my bitterness and resentment, I was just like, okay, if Bob is able to get these.
Special projects, or he's navigating his career differently because he's one, having conversations with people who are in positions of, authority or influence. Two, he's letting them know what it is that he wants to do next, and then most importantly, he's finding out what's important to them, what's on the horizon.
He's positioning himself for those opportunities. And so I started to apply what Bob was doing in my corporate career where, yes, I had mentors, I had coaches, but I was starting these conversations more strategic, where I'd go in with the senior leader instead of asking, Hey, tell me about your career and how you got here.
It was more. Oh, so you know, you've been in this role for a while. Where do you see yourself next? What are some of the challenges? What are some of the things that might hinder you from moving towards that? And as I uncovered these things, that's when I started to, one, find people, resources, whatever I could be of value to support that, to build that relationship and move forward.
And so that was the long of the story. But I took what I learned in corporate because that. That's change really catapulted my career until I got to the place in corporate where I was just like, ah. I don't wanna do this anymore. This is not where I see me fulfilling at the time. My purpose and my great legacy and I stepped out and started my business at the same time we were just talking in the green room.
I, I left corporate America, started the business, and then moved across the country to California and. San Diego where I knew barely anyone. So as you can imagine that was not an easy experience, but I leveraged what I had learned earlier in my career, which was networking. And so I took to LinkedIn, I took to local events, and that's how I was able to build my business.
It'll be seven years in July as of the time of this recording through my network in a brand new city in a not a brand new industry, but definitely a new business. That's great. And really, you went to the school of hard knocks. I tell everybody, I went to the school of hard knocks. I learned what not to do before I learned what to do.
And really I, from what I hear is that you learned, I. What to ask. You didn't just let life happen. You have to just, you have to go for it. And I really found out at an early age that it's not gonna be given to you. You've gotta take it and you've gotta see the opportunities. 'cause they're all around us.
You have to see the opportunities and you have to seize the opportunities. So that's very good. Okay, so let's set the tone a little bit. You talk about developing a connector mindset, what does that mean in practice and how can someone start building it today? I. Great question. So mindset in general, right?
We know I, as a business owner, I've had to learn the hard way. 'cause when I was in corporate, we didn't talk about mindset. And before Carol Dweck with her book mindset, that wasn't a, it wasn't as much of a common thing. I'm a firm believer that our mindset, which are our thoughts, our beliefs, and the emotions that we've attached to certain things, is 80% of our success in any venture, right?
So whatever goal you have, 80% of your ability to be successful in achieving that thing is going to be around what you think, what you believe is possible for you, moving towards that. And then 20% is execution. So when I think about the connector's mindset and the way that I teach it is really around most people.
We talk networking. 'cause this is our life, right? For most people, networking is like a four letter word, right? Like it is just the thing that no one wants to do. It's bad, it's icky, it's all the things, all the labels, right? And so how when people have that mindset around something that is probably.
Outside of communication, I think the greatest skill that you can have it's really important to help them break down. Okay, what challenges or roadblocks are you having towards that? So when it comes to the connector mindset, it's really a understanding of this is you building a relationship with someone else.
There are lev, there are certain elements that I include in that. So with the connect connector mindset, it's, taken from Stephen Covey's highly seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You make deposits before you make withdrawals. So what does that mean? That means that if you're looking to connect with someone, and I think I heard you share on one of your earlier podcasts.
You have that that framework of form, right? You're. You can't get to form unless you've actually asked some questions, unless you've actually, taken the time, invested the time to understand what's important to this person. What do they have going on? Understanding how you can help support them.
So I'm really big on, and Bob Berg is another the Go-Giver, right? So it's when you meet someone, identify what's important to them, what do they have going on? You looking at your resources and your capacity and then giving to them and when the time is right. Asking. So that's the first thing about a connector's mindset.
I. The second piece is really you doing a value assessment. So not a values assessment we have our values, our core values, but a value assessment. So you assessing yourself, what are your skills, what are you good at? What are you bring to the table? What is your know, what is your knowledge?
What do you know? Who do you know? What experiences have you had that could be of support to another person? And then what are your opportunities? And so your opportunities could be the places where you have a gap, you're not so good at it, right? Let's just say you and I met at a networking event, right?
And so you asked, oh, so tell me about yourself. I'm an executive coach, a leadership development consultant. I've been here in San Diego for the last seven years, but quite honestly, I'm at a point right now where, my, I need to build my community here locally. And so having the opportunity to network and navigate.
The business community here would be really helpful for me. So if you saw what I did with that value assessment, like I talked about my skills, I talked about the things that I was good at, but then I also infused, this is where the opportunity is, right? So now that's given that person a op.
The space or an opportunity to use the word again to say, oh, really interesting. Tell me more. Or Who would be a good person for me to connect you with? And so it's doing the work. It's almost, you have to do the work upfront before you even step into a networking room or a Zoom or any virtual place.
But you're getting clear on what you're bringing to the table, what your opportunities are. You're building the confidence. To be able to articulate that to someone else, and then you're also ready to give so that you don't have that block of I, what if they ask me for something? Or what if they, what if they're expecting something of me?
You've done that pre-work so that it's a nice natural casual exchange. You touched on so many points that were so relevant to what, to network, what networking is, but one thing you said, 'cause you're very confident in what you're doing the mindset you're, you've totally accomplished what you've set out.
Let's go back about 10 years in your corporate. Environment and your mindset was completely different, very quickly. How did you shift that mindset from that corporate world to where you are today? Yeah, it's a really great question. So back, if we go back 10 years networking, if it was a four letter word, now it was something else before, right?
It was just that you walk into a room, you grab your drink, you grab your cheese plate, and as soon as you go to put something in your mouth, someone walks up to you like, Hey, what do you do? Or, you're exchanging all these business cards and then never did anything with them. Luckily for me I had the same senior manager who gave me the dots.
Acronym she, when we would go to networking events and granted I was also in recruiting in the earlier part of my career, which required me to be out and about having conversations, meeting and greeting. But I think my work forced me into that space. But when I went to just casual networking events, she used to gimme the charge of, you need to collect at least three business cards.
It within that event, and then you need to follow up with these people. And so that was something that I started doing from a networking perspective. And so that became the tactical side of it, right? This is what I do. It wasn't until when, probably. So I didn't share this part. The last organization that I had they moved me around quite a bit.
So within a two year period, I went from living in Connecticut most of my life, to Houston, to Charlotte, and then West Palm Beach, right? And so if we really tracked back 10 years ago, that was the catalyst for me to change my mindset. Because now I didn't have the community that I had, most of my life.
And so knowing that you're moving around every eight months, you have to get into whatever city environment that you're in, build relationships, understand who people are. Be able to make the best of that, knowing that you're going to leave. And so for me, the catalyst was actually all of the moves and the external things that were happening where I realized, okay, this is I'm here for a while.
I gotta build relationship really quickly. Build rapport, gain the trust of the people that I'm working with, the people that I'm, around in community, and then move to the next place and do it all over again. So I didn't understand to answer your question or finalize it. I didn't understand that there was a mindset shift that happened.
I think I did it more so out of necessity because of the situation that I was in. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? So you don't really know you have to do until you have to do it. It's like you don't know what you don't know. Very good. Okay. So what role has your network played in your biggest career breakthroughs or pivots?
I. Yeah, that's another really great question. So I'll go back to when I first moved out here to San Diego. Like I said I knew a handful of people and I had signed up with this, it was like a challenge. Some Facebook group challenge the conversation challenge. And at that time, moving here, I had a limited amount of savings trying to get this business up.
And so literally I took to LinkedIn and this is, this was my strategy. I would not advise it. And LinkedIn doesn't let you do it as much anymore anyways, but. Literally, I identified and scoped out everyone who was like in HR related role. 'cause that was my background here in San Diego. And every day I set a goal of reaching out to a hundred people here in San Diego.
And the, and it wasn't about like gaining business, it's literally I'm here in the city. I don't know anyone, but HR was the common ground. And so I would just send out messages or invites. Hey, I'm new to San Diego. Would love to connect with you. And I said, yeah, I'm like starting a consultancy in a leadership development firm, right?
And so every day, I think for about six months, so just almost six months, Monday through Friday, not took the weekends off, but reached out to a hundred people. Then when they would connect with me, I'd follow up and say, Hey, thank you so much for connecting with me. If you ever wanna do back then we did more in-person stuff.
If you ever wanna meet for coffee or lunch, please let me know. I didn't, I can't remember what the statistics were, but probably maybe 20% of those thousands of people that I reached out actually came back to me and maybe some of them we met up with, some of them, like we just kept in touch. But I remember vividly, probably around the fifth month of doing this I got someone who like booked a discovery call.
And, I got on the discovery call not knowing who this person was or where they were coming from, and they were like, oh, such and such gave me your contact information. She said the name, and I the name didn't even register to me. I was like, I have no idea who that is. I'll ask her later. Long story short, Michael, that turned out to be the biggest contract that I have had in my like entrepreneurial.
Career to this day. And I can tell you the person that she said gave me, gave her my name. I reached out to this person. I was like, by the way, like, how'd you get in touch with me? Or How'd you know about me? She was like, oh, I put feelers out with my network. So it's almost like the person who ended up being the recommendation was someone I had no contact in, but the seeds that I had sown over that five, six.
Month period is what allowed enough people to get to know me, see that I was genuine, throw my hat in the rink that, led to that success. One thing that I try to teach all of my clients is that you're not only talking to the people that you're talking to, you're talking to their network of people.
And because I've gotten so many referrals from two and three people removed that, I'm like how did you get my name and it give me the name and it didn't ring a bell. So I asked that person, oh, Joe, what's his face? Gave me your name. I'm like, oh I know Joe, but I didn't know you. And I want to thank you for the referral and everything else.
But it's amazing that you can speak to a person like at a Chamber of Commerce event. 45 people, but you're talking to those 45 people's network and it goes on from there. So yeah, so the power of networking is just un an incredible thing. Incredible. You emphasize ecosystems. How can somebody identify and tap into theirs if they don't know where to start?
So you actually you set it up perfectly with what you just said, right? That we're not just engaging with a person, but we're engaging with that person's networks, right? And so when you think about ecosystems and you think about networking, most people are gonna think about professional, right?
Who are the people that I work with now, the people I've worked with, maybe past clients, right? Think about it bigger, right? So there's, there's our personal ecosystem. That's the friends, the family, right? There's the community ecosystem. So that's the city that we live in, the town that we live in, the, like all of the things, right?
The people who take care of our lawns, right? Like they're part of that ecosystem. When you think about finances, right? That's the, if you have a banker like that's your banker, that might be your mortgage loan officer. That might be, yeah, I don't know. Your financial advisor, right? So there are these ecosystems that we have educational, right?
So that might be the people that you are part of your alumni that might be past professors that you've worked with, right? When we start to look at it from an ecosystem in these categories, we can see that our networks are so much larger than we believe them to be. I think I was listening to something not too long ago and it said the statistic where most people know about 600 people.
Like maybe like people that you can actually name that you've engaged with. So now take that 600 to, and multiply that out to their 600. That is huge. And when I talk about networking from the perspective of looking at your ecosystem. Ecosystems. Most people don't even think about. Oh yeah, my, my realtor is part of my network, right?
My investment banker is part of my network. Oh, the person who does my taxes. That's part of my, that's part of my network. And so it's really broadening out, not just from the people that you deal with on a day-to-day basis, or maybe one or two times a year, but looking at the, I think it's five or six ecosystems overall.
Of individuals, and I think the most underused ecosystem and this is a tricky one 'cause friends and family aren't going to be your clients as like they're never going to be your clients. But if you can get friends and family to understand what it is that you do, like they are your best.
They can become your best supporters and marketers. I have to stress that they have to know what you do. 'cause I have family members. Who are close to me who still don't know what I do. So there's that. They just have to understand and understand who it is that you wanna partner with, and usually they're your biggest advocates that can spread the word.
Yeah. I have a lot of family members that say, what do I do? Oh he talks to people. What do you mean? He talked I'm not go across the country, I go on different stages. I go into big business, I do workshops. I do a whole lot. I don't just talk to people, but that's a whole nother ball game. Okay.
So many people think networking is just about meeting people. How do you move from connections to real mutual support? That's a really great question and networking is so much more than meeting people. 'cause we meet people all the time, right? It doesn't necessarily lead into anything. So I'm really big on human interaction and human relationships, but.
Systemized processes in the background. So for me, like I mentioned, when I was meet, I was reaching out to a hundred people on LinkedIn every day, right? There was a spreadsheet that I was systemizing it, there were calendar invites that were reminding me to follow up with people. There were things that were happening in the background Then.
Over time, all these cool tools that have come up have really shifted that. So for me, and this is, and I'm speaking from the perspective here of my, what I consider my personal network, right? So not my broad network. I have 14,000 people on LinkedIn, right? I don't know all of them, but there is a circle, there is a core group of about a hundred people that I am intentional about keeping in touch with now at this stage in my life and business, like I can't remember all these other people, all these people all the time.
So I keep, I use a tool like Streak and I don't know if you've ever heard of streak, S-T-R-E-A-K. So it's a Google problem. Is it a CRM? Is that a cr Yeah, you can use it at that. Yeah. It's a Google Chrome plugin. And what I love about Streak is that I can go in and, say, all right, on May 15th, I spoke with Michael.
This is what we talked about. Let's set up follow up for three months from now. Three months from now, there's a calendar invite. It creates a calendar invite, and I get an email the day before that says, Hey Sabine, you need to reach out to Michael. And I could put notes in there, right? So I use streak for my personal network.
The people who have built relationships with this is. Past clients. These are prospects or leads. These are individuals and organizations that, I hold dear to my circle. Now, the CRM, the official CRM which I use for active campaign, that's what I keep for like leads and prospects and businesses.
So I separate the two out because I think. There's the value of that larger network and keeping in touch with them in like more automated spaces. But the people who are actually the ones that you're giving referrals, they're gonna give referrals. You need to add that human touch or that extra touch. So that's what I use that system for.
I think that. Yeah, that answered it. Yeah. Very good. No, it did, it answered it perfectly. Let's talk about career circles. What are they, and how can someone build and revive theirs right now? Great question. So I'm gonna res respond to this in the sense of most of the people that you're dealing with are entrepreneurs.
I have a career circle for people who are in corporate trying to build their board of advisors. But I got this from the notion I think her name is Jane. I can't remember her her last name right now. It's called from the book, the Super Connectors. And so I read this book years ago and she gave the concept of you're five, you're 50, and you're 100, right?
So these are like the circles of people that you maintain contact with. And so your top five are usually like the people who are like closest to you, right? So it could be the husband, the wife, the kids, a mother, whatever the case may be. The top five people. I like to say these are the people that you're not afraid to ugly cry in front of, right?
This is your support circle, and it could be best friend, whatever it is, but these are the top five people, and you're likely keeping in contact with these people at least every day, if not every day, at least once a week, right? So that's your core circle. Then you're 50. Then your next level is your top 50.
These are individuals that are a lot broader, right? And these are considered the people that are part of your circle of influence. And these can include, clients past employers. They can include, people you've done business with. If you're part of a chamber, people within the chamber.
These are individuals that you're touching base with at least once a month or maybe every other month. But that there's a continuum connection where you are touching base with these people. And then the larger group is the top 100. This is like your most. Fluid, right? Because people are gonna come in and out depending on what happens in life.
So there are people that for a few years, you're really close with, you're keeping in touch. They're a part of the chamber. You see them every month, and then something happens and you don't see them for a while. So this top, this next level of 100, these are the people that they're the farthest removed from your day to day.
So maybe you're touching base with them on a quarterly basis. Maybe it's, even more than that every six months. But these are people that somehow they came into your circle. Maybe you met them at a networking event. Maybe they were a referral at some point that didn't materialize, but you wanna keep them in your orbit.
So when I, you think about these success circles or these career circles, it's really helping you maintain who are the people that I want to touch base with. As we talked about, if we really know 600 people, none of, I, I don't know about you, but I don't have the capacity to keep in touch with 600 people.
But when you can narrow it down to these core one 50, this allows you to create a schedule, whether you're putting it in streak or your CRM or whatever the case may be, to have that those touch bases of what's happening with them. And then as people leave, of course you'll meet new people. So that's where that comes from.
I will tell you in all honesty. I really tried the 150 people of keeping in touch and keeping track. For me personally, that was a lot as you can imagine. So for me right now, it's, I just focus in on my my core 50 and then, or I'm sorry, my core five. Then my next level 50. And for me, that, that feels authentic, that feels genuine.
I do, I love connecting people. When I'm like, Hey, what is it that you need? How can I help support you? I don't wanna have to ask 150 people that and then not follow through on being able to support them. It's it's so very important and 50 seems to be a very manageable number.
Yeah. So you really don't want to go more than that. And if you go less than that, you're not really living up to your potential. So 50 is a very good number, and as long as you can stay up on it, it's good because I always, I educate as many people as I can. The follow up. People is more important than actually meeting the person.
Yeah. So you have to always keep and what I do, I have a secret sauce for follow up, but after all that is done you wanna stay in front of them, but you don't wanna be annoying. So you put 'em like, into a newsletter or something else like that. So you always keep your name in front of them.
So it's always good, but the follow up is so very important. Okay. Can you share an example of when a, when your success circle helped you overcome a major challenge or seize an opportunity? Yeah, so literally just last year I, not to go into the details, but I had this brand that I had built for quite some time and I was actually in the process of relaunching it and.
At the I without knowing it, I got served as cease and deist for the APOR portion of the brand name by someone who had the trademark, even though they weren't operating in my particular space. But they, their trademark covered the executive coaching training space. And so they exercise their right to serve the cease and desist.
And so as you can imagine that was gut wrenchingly painful to have to experience as a business owner. And not only just as a business owner, but like this was something that I had been dreaming up since 2017. So I was still in corporate as I was like dreaming up what like my business was gonna be.
So there was a lot of emotional attachment to to the name and to the vision that I had put towards it. Nonetheless, it was what it was. But honestly, I, looking back, it was probably the best thing to happen to me because again, when you're genuine, when you give before you ask, when you truly have the heart to support people, when it comes time for you to need that, people are gonna turn around and do the same thing for you.
And so I had a a colleague, and this was someone that I had brought on as a consultant or a subcontractor when I had another opportunity. And in conversation I was just explaining to her this is what I have going on and these are my backup plans. And at the time, she had an opportunity for a subcontractor should come on.
And so not only did I, was I able to go in and subcontract and, generate revenue from that particular project. The project that I worked on actually was it was part of a program that I had developed, but it was developed, right? But because I was subcontracting that I had the time and space to really further develop it.
And so not only did I gain by working with them. Now this program is this more, so much more robust program that I'm, I've been taking to the market and organizations have been have been saying yes, and I've been able to implement it. So it's like the thing that was the catastrophe my network came through for me.
And not only did they come through for me in the short term, but it's also resulted in, earnings well past that particular project. Yeah, you would be surprised at where success finds you and you get your success from your failures. Or things that stop you because if you, I'm sure you have the same mindset that I do, they say no, you can't do that.
What do you mean I can't do that? I'm gonna do it. I may go around you, I may do it a different way, but I'm gonna do it. And that's the mindset that you have and that's why you're successful today. Okay, so in your experience, what are some common, what are the most common mistakes people make when trying to network or build influence?
Ooh let's do the trying to network. 'cause I've had a couple of those lately, right? Especially on LinkedIn. And I'm sure you experienced this, right? So it's the, Hey, let's connect. Or I noticed your thing. Let's connect. And no sooner do you hit the accept button, here they are. I'm a financial advisor and I can help you with this.
Or I'm da and I can help you with this. And it's just you know nothing about me. You cannot help me with anything. Or better yet, I had this example this perfect learning lesson. So last year I did a talk and I did it on networking for this organization. And one of the people who was there, she connected with me.
We had an exchange back on LinkedIn. And, I left it like, obviously I just taught this right? If you ever need anything, reach out to me. So it, it was probably almost a year 'cause she just reached out about last month. So maybe we'll say 10 months since I've heard from her, since we've talked, since we've connected, engaged in any capacity.
I get this message on LinkedIn and it's just Hey I'm looking to connect with marketing people, and I figured why not come to the queen of networking for some help? And that was it, Michael, like it was just like. Oh, okay. Like luckily we had the like chain of communication where I could go back and be like, wait, who is this?
What did, how did she find me? And so that is a misstep, right? So you two things. You don't wait till you need something to connect with someone. That's first and foremost, right? You build the relationship over time. And as whether it's a. Platonic relationship, a male, female, whatever the relationship is, it requires an investment of time, right?
So that's first step. Second, I'm looking to connect with people in marketing what. There are 9 billion people on this planet, right? That could be anyone. Be specific. Be specific about what it is that you're looking for, and how that person can actually help you second or third. It would've been helpful if she would've said, Hey, I've noticed that you're connected to these people, or I've noticed that you have connections to these companies, right?
Is there anyone in there that you can help connect me with? And so it's just, it's the you wouldn't walk into a networking event. I think that's where the challenge is when it comes to online networking, right? Like you, I wouldn't walk into your chamber and be like, oh yeah, Mike, connect me to all the people in hr.
You'd look at me with a awkward look on your face. What? But I feel like that. Understanding that awareness goes out the door when we're doing it on a like social platform like LinkedIn. So again, one, make sure that you're staying in connection with that person. Two.
Help them help you. Who is it that you're looking for? How will that help benefit? And then third, again, going back to the give before you asked, you should have started with a, Hey, how are things going with you? What's new? What can I support you? So I think it's just the decorum of. Dealing with a human being and not having that mindset of networking is all about an exchange for something versus that networking is actually about collaborating with people so that you can get what you need, they can get what they need, versus a, I'm gonna take or I'm going to only be the giver in a situation.
Yep. You should always I have thousands of connections also with LinkedIn and. One thing that I've always noticed is that the people that are truly interested in a relationship, not just the client, aspect of it, but a true relationship, they start out like we're standing next to one another.
Hey, Michael, how you doing? What's going on? Da. They start out, there's a whole paragraph before they ask. Yeah. So if you treat it as if you're talking to 'em or talking to the person, it'll go so much further. Okay. You've built strong networks. What are one to two daily or weekly habits that keep your relationships thriving?
I love that question. So something that I have been doing, so I've, I had a podcast or I have a podcast, it's just on break, and I've been on a lot of podcasts and obviously I talk to people and you're gonna get this question after the fact too, but like, when I get off of a podcast, I'll always ask the hosts like, what do you need?
How can I support you? Are you looking for guests? What kind of guests are you looking for? What topics? And so I have a whole spreadsheet that I have been tracking of podcasts that I've been on, the links, what we talked about. And so as I'm meeting people, and it doesn't have to be other like podcasters, but as I'm meeting people out and about at events, maybe on podcast or whatever, and I ask them what are you looking for?
And especially with entrepreneurs, like it's always around marketing and business development and whatnot. And if I hear that they have a podcasting strategy or podcasting is part of their marketing strategy, I'll say, oh, okay. What are the topics I. I go in, I look at my list of podcast relationships that I've built, and I'll say, Hey, okay, I'm gonna introduce you to this person.
And so for me, that's one of the things. And I do that EV biweekly. That's biweekly. The second piece is I do a lot of virtual coffee. So I go to events and I'm always like, okay, let's connect on LinkedIn. My strategy is usually if I meet someone in person, I connect with them on LinkedIn immediately.
During that time, I say, Hey, let's set up a virtual coffee or in-person coffee if they're here. During that conversation, it's really just to get to know them, understand what they going have going on, who it is, what it is that they need. At the end of the conversation, I always ask the question, what can I do to support you?
And if they're like, oh I'm looking for this, whatever it is. Okay, cool. I think I might have someone that I can connect you with. I literally set a goal. Michael I started it this year. I'd never set it as a goal before, but this year I started setting it as goal. Every week I have to connect at least two people with each other.
So like literally it gives me so much joy to be like, Hey, let me do this warm introduction to someone. And now that I've actually set it at a goal as a goal I, every week there's at least two or three connections that I'm making. Again, that is. That is nothing in return. That is me. It goes off of that Zig Ziglar quote where he is just you'll get what you want if you can help more and more people get what they want.
I am, I'm butchering that. That, that's right. I'm a big Zig Ziglar fan. But I too, I do that. I have not said that as a goal, but I average two to three. Times a week where I take two people and I put them together. I refer each other and I step away. Yep. I just did it this morning and they both, thank me so much and everything, but that's not the point where I am in my circle, I am known as I, I get two people together.
Yeah. And I love do just like you. I love doing that. I love doing it. It gives me such a good feeling that I can help. 'cause I know it's gonna come around. I know it's gonna come back around, but that doesn't take away from the feeling that I helped two people. Yeah. So I really enjoyed that.
Yeah. It is an amazing feeling. So I label people like that as super connectors. And I feel like everyone should have a super connector in your life. And I'm usually the super connector, so it's, I don't have a super connector, but I'm gonna find one. But, I'm usually that person and what I explain to people is when you have a super connector in your life, you have to understand that you're not bothering them.
Like they actually. Generate joy off of connecting people. And so that's not something to abuse, of course. Certainly you don't wanna abuse that, but just understand the gem that you have when you have someone who actually generally enjoys it. Okay. Good. Good. Let's elevate the conversation just a little bit.
How do you approach networking differently when it's about long-term success versus immediate gain? Yeah, that's a really great question. And I'll just, if it you don't mind, I'll use a personal experience, so Oh, absolutely. Here in, in San Diego in particular, being like, I feel like I still, I'm still the new kid on the block, even though I've been out here almost six years I have realized that the culture here.
There's, people do you, you've said this right, and you've heard this. People do business with people they know and trust, right? And when you're new to a city or when you're new to an environment, and when you're new to, I think Southern California in its culture, it's very much stranger danger type where people are nice, don't get me wrong.
People are very nice. But building that trust. That trust takes a very long time. And so that first year that I was here, which is why I navigated using LinkedIn first and then building the relationship in person. And even to this day, I walk into some organizations that like I've been part of or I've done things with them and people are still like, I'm sorry, what's your name?
And.
Every one of these meetings. And not to mention that I'm the only woman of color in here, you, you realize that it is what it is. And so for me that giving before you giving, before you ask that, sowing those Cs, that being of value of people, I have learned that my environment, this is what the environment requires because this is the business culture here.
And there are organizations here, there's one organization in particular. It's similar to a Vistage, if you're familiar with like Vistage. Yeah. It's very familiar. Similar. And so just like Vistage, you can go in, you can like do presentations, you can do workshops, and you can do talks.
Whenever they ask me, like my answer is always yes, right? Because this is an organization where their members are individuals that I want to build relationships with because. I know the long term. It's a long term play, and I also understand what the reward is for that. And so I've gone in, I've done multiple talks for multiple of their groups.
I've presented, I've done all those things because I understand that this is not about a. I did this. So you give me that. This is more of a long-term. If I'm going to be successful in business here locally, and this is where the local business people are, this is where I wanna invest my time, my energy, give value because I know we know like those seats come back at some point.
That's great. And that was a perfect answer. It really was. I thought I would get you a little bit with the question, but you answered it perfectly. Let's bring this podcast full circle, and if someone listening is feeling stuck, isolated, or like they have no valued network, what's the very first step you recommend they take?
Yeah, I'm gonna ask you to do that value assessment. That's gonna be the first thing, right? Because that is a mindset and that is a perception that person may have, right? So you get down to what are your skills, right? What are you known for? Where do you have expertise and what are your strengths?
And I forgot to say this before, but when it comes to the strengths, oftentimes what we think are our strengths really aren't our strengths. And I say that because, we can walk into a room and walk in to walk up to someone and spark up a conversation and be okay with it. Not everyone can do that.
So we may have not seen our ability to network as a strength, or better yet, our ability to connect people and connect the dots for people as a particular strength. And so when it comes to our strengths, if people are sitting around oh, I don't really have any strengths, or I don't have valuable strengths, ask the people around you.
Ask the people who know you best one, especially family, they're gonna tell you the truth. And two, if you have colleagues, just ask them like, what is it that you've noticed that I do really well? Because sometimes we'll be surprised at what people take notice of as a core strength of ours that we take for, because.
It's just what we do. So getting clear on what your strengths are and then being completely honest with yourself about where your opportunities are. The opportunities are important because it, that adds that level of humility when you can say to someone, Hey, I'm really good at this. I'm really good at that.
This is what I'm looking to do, but I really have I'm really struggling here. People genuinely, naturally want to help other people, right? I truly believe that. My heart or hearts, maybe I'm naive, but I believe that people really wanna help others. And so when you can humble yourself and say, this is a shortcoming, whatever term you wanna use, and this is where I could really use your help because I've seen you do this well, or I admire this about you, people are gonna jump on board and they're going to wanna help you.
So first and foremost to answer the question, right? Start with challenging the mindset that you don't have anything to bring to the table. And you can do that by building up your confidence and doing that value assessment. And then when you're asking others what your strengths are and you're hearing other people tell you what they admire about you, what they think you really do well, that's an immediate confidence boost right there.
Yes it is. Yes it is. Sabine, I can go on talking to you for another two hours. Thank you. You are very easy to talk to and you really come with such a great amount of knowledge, whether it's from your corporate background or your learning every day. And I see that you learn from every customer you're learning from, whether it's list lessons or books or whatever.
But you're doing a fabulous job, Sabine. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you either to be coached or just to say hello, how can I reach you? Thank you for asking that. So LinkedIn is where I hang out. You can find me on LinkedIn. My handle is my name, Sabine Gideon, or you could reach out to me via my website@sabinegideon.com.
That's beautiful, Sabine. I will speak with you soon. Thank you, Michael.
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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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