Networking Revamped: Four Steps and One Mindset Shift to Build High-Quality Connections - Joe Sweeney

Networking: you either love it or you hate it. But is it really a necessary skill?

Joe Sweeney thinks so. In fact, he's built a career around coaching others on the power of networking. Through his insights, entrepreneurs have built successful businesses, individuals have achieved their career goals, and professional athletes have multiplied their reach.

We sat down with the New York Times best-selling author, executive coach and speaker to understand networking - what it is, what it isn't, and how educators, students and employers can build their networks and achieve their goals.

In this episode:

• Why so many people hate networking - and the one perspective shift that will change your mind
• The four-step process to building relationships
• How to make asking fun (and how this technique got Bob Costas to come to Milwaukee)
• What educators should say when asking employers to support their program
• What students need to know before they start networking

And much more! Don't forget to check out the resources at the bottom of this page for more from Joe Sweeney.

3 Big Takeaways from this episode:

1. The #1 success tool in business? Relationships. Forget what you know about networking (the pressure to give away all your business cards or collect as many as possible...). Joe shares a single perspective shift around what networking truly is. Once you understand the purpose of networking, you'll build stronger, more valuable connections that will bring you success in life and work.
2. The four-step process to networking: You'll have to listen to the episode to hear the four steps, but remember this: the process is simple, but it's not easy. There will certainly be roadblocks and challenges in the way, but Joe shares some examples on how to work through them using the four steps.
3. Educators, ask yourself: what's in it for the employer? When building vital education-industry partnerships, often each party is primarily concerned with their own needs. Instead, approach the partnership by seeking to understand what the other will get out of it. Educators - if you need support from employers, make it clear what they will get in return.

Resources

More about the Bob Costas and Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame story: https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/1995sportshall

To learn more about Joe Sweeney, visit his website: https://joesweeney.com/

• Networking Is a Contact Sport (Amazon)
• Moving the Needle (Amazon)
• After Further Review (Amazon)
• A Light Shines Through Us (Amazon)

Connect with Joe Sweeney on social media:

Twitter  |  LinkedIn  |  Fa

We want to hear from you! Send us a text.

Instagram - Facebook - YouTube - TikTok - Twitter -
these types of people, one ofthe most common questions we get
is How do I work with otherpeople in my network? How do I
work with private employers,perhaps to help fund some of the

(00:49):
projects that I'm working on? Orsome of the learning that is
happening in my classroom? Howdo I partner with these
individuals to stand up newprograms, we get those questions
all the time, we thought it wasentirely appropriate to bring
today's guests on to talk alittle bit about all kinds of
things, including how we createthat network that can pay
dividends over time, and perhapsmore importantly, how we can

(01:11):
create a network that allows usto help others. Today's guest is
an old friend of mine. And whenI say old, I mean by many years,
not by age, Joe Sweeney issomebody who mentored me
probably 30 years ago. If you'renot familiar with Joe, you're
going to be familiar with him.
He's done just a whole host ofincredible things. My name is
Matt Kirchner. I am the host ofThe Tech Ed podcast, my great
pleasure to introduce somebodyfor whom I have a great deal of

(01:34):
respect, Mr. Joe Sweeney. Joe,thank you so much for joining
us.

Joe Sweeney (01:39):
Hey, thanks for having me. Man, I gotta tell
you, you get better lookingevery time I see you. That's why
you probably can't wait tilltomorrow, because you get that
exactly.

Matt Kirchner (01:47):
And I'll be honest, that gives our audience
an example and an idea of howugly I must have been 30 years
ago, if after 30 years, everytime you see me, I get a little
bit better looking. But I'lltake that as a compliment.
Perhaps we're both aging well,you look phenomenal and
fantastic. And, and have hadsuch an amazing career that
continues to this day, Joe. Andwe're really excited to hear not
just about where you've been,but what you're doing now. And

(02:09):
then, as we suggested in theintro, how we can work with our
educators with our industrialemployers, and others, to really
create these phenomenalpartnerships. So I want to start
here, you know, we have a lot ofindividuals that listen to this
podcast that are involved inadvanced manufacturing, whether
on the technical education sideor the employer side, do I
remember right, early on thatyou were involved in the

(02:30):
manufacturing sector, as you getyour career going,

Joe Sweeney (02:32):
Matt, actually, that was really my first job.
When I was out, I got my MBAfrom Notre Dame, and I didn't
want to work for a big company.
And this is before Google days.
And I wanted to own and operatemy own manufacturing firm. Why?
Because I love building things,right. And back then, and I
didn't have any money, I think Ileft Notre Dame with a negative

(02:53):
net worth of 50,000. But I wasdetermined to own my own
manufacturing company. So man, Ispent two years in the library,
going through resource guides,and I built 1300 manufacturing
names between Minneapolis andChicago. We wanted to live in
Wisconsin, where our familieswere from. And I wrote every one

(03:16):
of those manufacturing firmslooking for a mentor that would
take me on let me buy thecompany. Long story short, I
found someone in Waukee did asuccession plan, I ended up
owning four manufacturingcompanies. So when you look at
all the things that I've done, Ialways still consider myself a
manufacturing guy. Well, then

Matt Kirchner (03:35):
we asked exactly the perfect question as we begin
our conversation today to putsome of that into context. As
you know, Joe, I spent my wholecareer up until about seven
years ago, when I dedicated mythe rest of my career to
securing the American Dream forthe next generation of STEM and
workforce talent spent thatentire career in manufacturing.
And you're exactly right, thatfeeling at the end of the day of

(03:55):
looking over your shoulder,seeing a sea of parts on a
shipping dock, seeing a truckfull of product that's leaving
your facility, and knowing thatyou had a part in making that
just such an amazing feeling,isn't it? Alright, that's the
reason that I love it, loved itand continue to love it as well.
So let's get into it a littlebit more deeply. Now you're a
notable keynote speaker, you'rea best selling author, a super

(04:16):
successful entrepreneur, as ouraudience will continue to learn.
But you're really focused andprobably perhaps that success is
a result of your ability tobuild these just incredible
networks. And so before we getinto the actual methodology, or
the steps of building a network,help our audience understand in
your words, Joe, why it is soimportant to create a strong

(04:36):
network and to be able toleverage that network for it to
be able to help people and to beable to support your own dreams
and aspirations.

Joe Sweeney (04:42):
I think if you really take an inventory of
business and life, I'm convincedthat your number one success
tool in business isrelationships. And I think
really the quality of yourbusiness, the quality of your
life is really based on thequality All of your
relationships in the quality ofthose relationships are based on

(05:05):
how effectively you network inconnect with others. So I think
it's the number one successtool. And again, it doesn't just
apply to business I and again,I've spoken to hundreds of 1000s
of people, I don't know, anyonethat doesn't want a better
relationship with their coworkers, their spouse, their
family, because I think it's thenumber one most important thing

(05:26):
that any of us can aspire to inlife,

Matt Kirchner (05:29):
you always had such a gift for putting things
so succinctly and saying thatthe quality of your life is
really directly proportional tothe quality of your
relationships, it's really hardto say it any better than that
really kind of talks to theimportance of building those
strong networks and of havingindividuals that we can lean on
that support us in our endeavorsand so on. There are some
misconceptions about networking.
And I've lived through some ofthese, I think, if you do it for

(05:51):
the wrong reasons, or if youjust see networking as a reason,
or a way, or a method to improveyour own Latin life without
helping other individuals, thatmight be one. But what are some
of the misconceptions that existin the world that people might
have about networking? Well,there's

Joe Sweeney (06:07):
a lot of them, Matt, but let me start by saying
this. Stay with me. I hatenetworking. I hate represents I
hate what our mindset is aboutit. But just think about it.
When your listeners hear theword networking, what do they
think they think about an alphamale at a cocktail party? Are
you down with their businesscard, about I think I just

(06:29):
realized was 13 years ago, Iwrote this book networking as a
contact rate

Matt Kirchner (06:32):
book, I read it cover to cover, by the way, a
gift from one of our mutualfriends. phenomenal book.

Joe Sweeney (06:37):
But I think you know, every book can be boiled
down to one sentence. And Ithink the reason this book
worked, it helped people toreframe what networking is, in
this book, in one sentence, isto blow up our perception of
networking, networking, and thisbook is a place we go to give
and serve and not get. And mostof us think about networking, I

(06:59):
gotta go to that networkingevent. Because I gotta get three
leads, I gotta get two businesscards, I gotta get I gotta get.
And then they call and say, Hey,Matt, this networking thing
doesn't work. Versus when we goto those things. How can we ask
better questions to connect withpeople? How can we figure out
how to help other people,because I've written four books.

(07:19):
And I think part of the messageof all four books a theme is
when you help other people getwhat they want, you'll get
everything you want in life, andmore. And I'm an example because
I'm not that smart. You know,me, I'm not that talented. But I
think I've lived that philosophyfor 60 plus years. And I think
that's one of the things when Ileave this earth, I want

(07:40):
everyone to know that my lifewas really about trying to help
other people get what they wantsuch a

Matt Kirchner (07:45):
powerful message.
And by the way, I do know youand you are pretty smart, self
deprecating, as well, but Butobviously, an incredibly,
incredibly intelligentindividual, but with the power
of creating those relationships,and with the power of helping
other people been tremendouslysuccessful in so many different
ways. And that's a lesson that Ithink I probably learned a
little bit later in life than Ishould have, which is that your

(08:05):
networking is exactly right.
It's not about how many peopleyou know, how many business
cards you collect, you know howmuch money you make at the at
the hands or on the backs ofother individuals. It's all
about how can you help otherpeople and I think about
individuals in my life that havecreated tremendous networks. And
they're the kinds of people thatI always look to help me first.
And I always put my interestsahead of theirs. And guess what,

(08:27):
when they call in need a favorwhen they call in need some help
when they call and ask foranything. And it doesn't even
feel like they're asking forsomething. They're just saying,
Hey, can I kind of get a littlehelp here? Those are the first
people that you step up, and yousay, I'll help you in any way
you can. But it's because inpart, I want to help them as a
starting point. And in partbecause I would never want to
feel like I wasn't I wasn'thonoring the way that they had

(08:49):
helped me in the past. Solooking for those opportunities
to help individuals soimportant.

Joe Sweeney (08:54):
Yeah, man, I always say this to you know, you're
connected with someone, whenthey pick up a phone, they call
you and they say I need a favor.
And your answer is, the answeris yes. Now, what's the
question?

Matt Kirchner (09:05):
Exactly? Exactly.
Yeah, that was actually a lessonI learned from my father years
ago, which was when somebodycalls in, ask for a favor, never
never answered what say yes, andthen figure out what it is how
you can help them. And that's agreat, great lesson in life. So
you know, now as we drill down alittle bit more into the actual
process of buildingrelationships, you know, you
teach a four step process. And Ishould note, by the way, that
the book that you referenced amoment ago, networking is a

(09:27):
contact, contact sport. Like Isaid, I read it from one end to
the other. I think I've probablyread it more than once, and I
went looking for it on mybookshelf last night. And I
couldn't find it. And I knowwhy. And the reason why is that
I lent it to somebody else,because it was such a great
book, but phenomenal lessons.
And it's a book by the way, thatwas a New York Times bestseller
if I'm not mistaken, whichreally speaks to the power of

(09:49):
the message. But in that bookand others you talk about a four
step process to buildingrelationships. So tell us a
little bit about those foursteps show.

Joe Sweeney (09:56):
Well, I have to start out and say I'm
embarrassed to talk about it.
For one thing. It is so simple.
The process, and I speak allover the country. And I tell
people, Hey, you brought thisguy in here to talk about this
four simple thing. But if youthink about really moving the
needle in life, it's most thingsare really simple. They're not

(10:18):
easy to think about losingweight, losing weights really
simple. You just exercise moreand eat less. But it's really
hard to do, we got to 35% 33% ofour population was obese before
COVID. Now it's over 40%. And sowhile it's very simple, it's
hard to execute. And those foursteps are this and I'll give the

(10:39):
four and I'll just take a secondto explain each one. To be a
great networker. The fourth stepis asking, listening, taking
action, and then believing andreceiving that when you're
helping other people, you'll geteverything that you want and
more. So let me break that downasking people so what do you
mean ask? I say you got to askbe intentional. You got to ask

(11:00):
persistently. You've got to askwith a mindset of giving. Matt,
how can I help you? You've gotto ask creatively. You got to
ask outside the box. And thenumber one thing about asking is
you got to make asking fun. Ifyou can figure out how to wait
to make asking fun figure thatout. You'll never work another
day in your life. And I'm proofof it. And so you know, and you

(11:24):
were there I think 25 years agoor so when Bob Costas came I
wasn't segment on Bob Costaswhere I kept asking him I was
persistent. I, but he wouldn'tcome to Milwaukee. And finally I
sent him I knew he lovedstadium, Brad's from County
Stadium and the secret stadiumsauce. So I sent him all of

(11:44):
that. And eventually he said,Yes. And I think part of that is
I figured out how to make askingfun. So So first step is ask.
Second one is listen, you know,God gave us two ears, one mouth,
use him in proportion. But mostof us think Networkers are
yapping all the time. In fact,they do the complete opposite.

(12:04):
They'll ask a good question. Sitback and listen. And I think the
third step a lot of us ask, andlisten, Matt, but a lot of us
don't take action, and we startcreating excuses. This is one of
the best books I've ever readabout overcoming excuses. Wayne
Dyer excuses be gone. And whathe said in there are the book

(12:27):
can be broken down again, yourreaders don't have to do it.
I'll explain it in 20 seconds.
When he wrote the book, he sentout 5000 surveys had 10,000
responses and charted the top18. And the number one excuse
for not taking action is I'mjust too busy. And I like that
in my talks, because that's thenumber one excuse all of us make

(12:48):
for not networking. I'm just sobusy. And if you can figure out
how to network from networkingas a contact sport, you realize
you're networking all the time,you can do it at the grocery
store, and your kids volleyballgame. And then the last one is
believing and receiving. Again,if you help other people get

(13:08):
what they want, you'll geteverything you you need in more
in life. So those are quickoverview of the four steps.

Matt Kirchner (13:17):
Absolutely. Well, there's so much to unpack there.
First of all, I was indeed atthat event where backcast has
spoken. It's got to be at least25 years ago, but it just to put
that into perspective for ourlisteners at the time. If memory
serves. You are the president ofthe Wisconsin Sports Authority.
That was the Wisconsin SportsHall of Fame dinner at which the
likes of and I won't get themall but Robin out on Bonnie

(13:38):
Blair. I think Dan Jannsen thebig Oh, I think all of them were
inducted that year. And therewas no Maguire. Yeah, and now my
way Oh, my goodness and my almamater Marquette shame on me for
missing that one. I'll neverlive that down. But absolutely
how McGuire as well. And BobCostas was the served as the
emcee. And I had an opportunitythat night, actually to meet him
which was was a pretty specialopportunity for me as well. But

(13:59):
he did he got up and we'll haveour producer link up the episode
or the speech rather in the shownotes. So we'll let our
listeners take a look at thatgot up and told the story of
your incredible perseverance andpersistence in getting him to
calm and then a little insidebaseball that I hope you're okay
with me sharing. We have amutual friend who was working
with you at that time. I want tosay that at the end and he maybe

(14:21):
even said it publicly thatbackcast is not only came and
spoke but he donated hisspeaking fee back to the
organization I believe becauseof what a special night it was
so so just a there aren't toomany nights in my life that that
stick out as poignantly as thatone that was a really special
time. It really speaks to allfour of the steps of networking
asking listening taking actionand believing and receiving a

(14:43):
and you think about all the allthe blessings that have been
been bestowed on you if I may,over the course of time because
you helped so many peoplereally, really a great story and
a great example of how we cancatify the importance not just
the importance of networking butbut why we do it and how we do
it and I love The fact that thesteps are simple. I think the
best things in life are simple.
But it is taking that, you know,taking the action and actually

(15:04):
having the discipline to walkthrough those. It is the part
that that's so important. Youknow, you mentioned Joe, as we
were getting started here yourtime in manufacturing. I know
that's one of the questions weget quite frequently from
educators, and we teed this upin the introduction. You know,
we spend a lot of time in theworld of technical education,
STEM education. And we've seensome really interesting
partnerships between privateemployers and educators, I would

(15:27):
point to Ashley furniture in theWanaque family and the way
they've supported technicaleducation in western Wisconsin
would point to SC Johnson andFisk Johnson and his supportive
things at Gateway TechnicalCollege, metal craft and
Mayville, large Wisconsinmanufacture are close to a
billion dollars in revenue now,I believe, has supported four or
five different high schools thatto the tune of a quarter million

(15:49):
dollars a piece by the way tobuild out new stem labs and new
tech ed Labs has been really,really fascinating to see that.
But one of the questions that weget quite frequently, Joel, from
our educators is how do we goabout building those
relationships? Well, my answeris always, you know, start off
by asking for help not money.
You know, if you just go tosomebody and say, Hey, we're

(16:09):
building this new tech, Ed wing,we want $100,000, you probably
they're not going to get it. Ifyou ask for their opinion, their
help, you might get somewhere,but what would you have? What
advice would you have for theeducators, whether it's a dean
of principals, Superintendent, ateacher that's trying to find
opportunities to fund a newprogram and needs to build a
network with their privateemployers in order to do that?

Joe Sweeney (16:27):
Okay, so here's what happens a lot in
fundraising. I've been on a lotof boards, I think 28 boards,
but half paid half nonprofit,people are always saying, we
need money, we need money. Andwe need to stop that mindset and
say, and I don't care if it'sfist Johnson, or Ron Wanek, or
whatever. What's in it for them?
Why would they want to supportour technical school? And here's

(16:50):
the answer it without going downa rabbit hole about higher
education, people are startingto realize for the first time in
my lifetime, college educationmight not be the answer. And I'm
just read a whole study. I don'tknow if it's the Wall Street
Journal mat, about someone whogoes to a private school, and
studies liberal arts comes outwith $128,000 in debt, versus a

(17:12):
person that goes to a technicalschool does a apprenticeship
program, you know, they've got80,000 they've they've earned,
are they the bank after fouryears versus 130 of debt. And
not everybody needs to get afour year degree. And I think
with the rising cost of collegeeducation, and a lot of people

(17:35):
coming out, can't get a job.
Because people don't want tohire someone with a Bachelor of
Arts in gender studies. And theyended up working at Starbucks
for 70 bucks an hour. It was acheese maybe I was always good
with my hands, right liked towire things. Maybe I should have
been an electrician or aplumber. Plumbers are $100 An

(17:58):
hour right now. So I think backto your question, the answer to
why what's in it for employers,we can help supply your
workforce because as you know,the number one challenge, I hear
this from all the boards, I'm onall the banking clients that we
deal with on bank boards. Numberone challenge in America is

(18:18):
labor. And there's a lot ofreasons for that. But go back to
your original question. We needto have company support, which
you're doing, because you willhelp fulfill their workforce
void, which is their number oneproblem. I would start with
that. Wow.

Matt Kirchner (18:36):
I mean, that's exactly right. And going back to
what's important to thoseemployers, and starting with
that point, very articulate, bythe way, explanation of the
challenge facing manufacturingfrom so many different angles,
Joe, and also some of thechallenges that we have in
education and what whateducational pathways people are
choosing. So lots and lots ofgreat points there. So let's

(18:57):
turn the topic now to networkingfor industrial employers. And
you teed this up perfectlytalking about the biggest
challenge of the companies onwhose boards you serve. And I
serve on a number of privatecompany boards, corporate
boards, manufacturing boards aswell. And you're right,
everybody is saying our biggestchallenge is finding great
people, can networking be asolution to that problem for

(19:18):
industrial employers,manufacturers that are looking
for more talent to fill theirmanufacturing plants and
operations?

Joe Sweeney (19:25):
Absolutely, it can.
But I think a bigger issue,Matt, is to stop and ask, why do
we have that problem? Again,without getting down a rabbit
hole? Go, I'm on the board ofTallinn bank and Wintrust to
bank. You know, we have this ata board meeting about talent.
And this is actually in and outof COVID and all of that. And we
kept talking about the problemand solutions. But instead of

(19:48):
asking why why do we have theproblem? And again without
trying to be critical here Matt,if you know how to game the
system and what I mean by thatis if you can understand all the
government handouts today, youcan make $45,000 and I broke it
down to the board. So why wouldyou if you could stay at home
and make $45,000? By the way,tax free? People have challenged

(20:11):
me on this. But I've got thefacts on this. It's not an
opinion. Why would you go to 16or $17 an hour as a bank teller
or at work at Starbucks, andmake 32 or 34,000 a year,
perhaps. And here's the otherproblem. 40 or 50 years ago,
people would be embarrassed totake government handouts. I

(20:34):
don't see that today. I thinkpeople brag about how they know
how to game the system. So Ithink we've got to have a
fundamental problem with ourgovernment and not incentivizing
people to go to work. And sothat's a whole nother topic. So
it is can networking help usfind people? Absolutely. But I

(20:54):
think before you we run outthere and spin our wheels, we
got to stop and say, Why do wehave the problem? What can we do
to mitigate the problem? And howcan we overcome any of these
challenges as a business to getus to go from where we are to
where we need to get to?

Matt Kirchner (21:13):
If you're able to sit at home and make $45,000 a
year? That's a great question.
Why would you go to work. And sowe do need to change that
paradigm a lot, plenty to workto do there. And there, there
again, is probably an hour longpodcast that we could we could
dive into but you make some asalways some really good, some
really good points. Let's talknow about the students that
listen to this podcast. And youknow, I think a lot of times we
hear that word networking, andyou're right, there's this

(21:36):
stigma that's attached to it. Isit ever too young to start
building your network? Is it it?
Should our students if you're ahigh school student, they
Technical College communitycollege student, the university
students? Should they bethinking about their networks as
well?

Joe Sweeney (21:50):
The answer is you're never too old for
anything. You're never too youngfor anything. So they answer
your question. You're never tooyoung, to network. But here's
what you have to figure out. Ithink, number one, and this is
hard for young people. What doyou want? Wow, that's a whole
process. Number two, who canhelp you in that process? And

(22:11):
what I always try to tell youngstudents, I never tell them what
to do. I tried to start bysaying, I'd invite you to
consider that's much lessthreatening than to do this.
Find a mentor. Find someone thatyou say that's somebody that's
doing something that I could seemyself doing someday, and and

(22:32):
search out mentors, I did thatwhen I was in my 20s. And I
wasn't afraid to pick up thephone and go meet with someone
and say, Hey, tell me about yourjourney. Here's what I'm
thinking about. Could you helpme on that? And here's the
excuse young people use man. Oh,god, that's Sweeney. He's really
busy. He doesn't have time forme. Or Matt, he's so successful.

(22:55):
He's got his own podcast. Whywould he want to talk to little
me? If you look at steady,really successful people, Bill
take the time to do that. Imean, I remember I did this once
with a guy, you might have heardof him down in Racine called Sam
Johnson. I mean, here's thepatriarch of the Johnson one, I
asked him, and I was able tomeet with him talk to him, he

(23:16):
couldn't have been a greaterguy. And so I think the
perception that younger peoplehave is people won't stop their
life to give me advice. And thegreatest business people I've
met, have realized it's theirresponsibility to mentor and
take time for the youngergeneration.

Matt Kirchner (23:32):
You know, I'm evidence of the fact that Joe
Sweeney was never too busy tomeasure somebody else, because
as I've already mentioned, earlyin my career, you are always
great about spending some timewith me, you know, seeing me for
half an hour, I tell people,

Joe Sweeney (23:44):
you'd always try your best beer, Matt.

Matt Kirchner (23:47):
All right, well, that's another lesson for our
students, well, just make surethat they're a little bit
further in their college careerif they're walking into
somebody's office with a sixpack, but that can work as well.
But you know, just just thinkingback on all the conversations
that I've had with folks, and ifif a young person or really
anybody sends me an email, textme ask for help through their
parents or whatever, I've neversaid no, not once, you know,

(24:10):
you'll always carve out 15minutes, a half hour or even
more for those individuals.
Absolutely true. And then theother thing, you know, you talk
about, you know, know what youwant or decide what you want.
And one of the things I tellpeople is that's really, really
important. But that decisionisn't it is also isn't a life
sentence, right? So you candecide what you want today. And
maybe five years from now whatyou want is a little bit
different. So when you're whenyou're deciding what you want,

(24:31):
it's what you want now, andmaybe that makes it a little
less intimidating andoverwhelming. When you think
about where you're going. Youknow, Joe, you've had so many
different interestingfascinating phases of your
career and one opportunities ledto another and there's always
been a common thread I think ofhelping other individuals when
you as you progress through yourcareer, but you spent quite a
bit of time working withprofessional athletes and

(24:53):
helping them build theirnetworks helping them build
their image and build theirbrand. I'd be curious if There's
a story a specific story fromthat time in your life that
really sticks out to you. Thatmight be interesting to our
audience.

Joe Sweeney (25:06):
Well, I think there's a lot of them, I can't
tell a lot of them. But youknow, this last summer, my wife
and I went to Kenton. And we gotinvited and spent four days with
Leroy Butler, who was inductedin the Pro Football Hall of
Fame. And that was just someaningful to be with him after
in all the time that he had aGreen Bay. And you've talked

(25:28):
about this, and Brett was a bigpart of that SMG. And people
always say, tell me the greatestBrett Farve storytelling. And,
you know, and I'll tell you thegreatest bread farm story ever.
where and who Brett Farve istoday, whether you love bread or
not. And he's spoken about thispublicly, I'm not speaking out

(25:49):
of school. Yeah, a lot ofaddictions. And it's been
written about whether it wasalcohol or bike it in or
whatever the greatest RedsterPark story ever, is, he overcame
all of it. All of us have deepdemons inside, some of us talk
about them, some of us don't,some of us hide them better than
others. But Brett was on thefront page of the paper all the

(26:12):
time. And people talked aboutall this. And I give Brett Farve
a lot of credit, because heovercame these addictions that
had he not he would have beendead 10 years ago. And so
without getting in the weeds ofall of that, to me, that is one
of the great stories ofresurrection, how someone was
down, addicted. And if youreally understand addiction, and

(26:36):
I've been through rehab five orsix times, not for me, but for
friends that are going throughbad addictions. If you really
understand addiction, theopposite of addiction is
connection. And if you reallyunderstand networking,
networking is about connection.
And Matt, I'm writing my fifthbook will be out this summer,
there'll be my best book by far.

(27:00):
And it's it's get everything youwant. Through the power of
connection. It's called thepower connection. And again,
that's it answers every questionin life. Why do people drink too
much? They're disconnected? Whydo marriages don't work? They,
they're disconnected. Why dopeople die young, they're not

(27:21):
living their true mission inlife. And they're disconnected
from who they are to what theydo every day. So it's called The
Power of connection, it's comingout. And it's, to me, it's the
it's networking on steroids.
Because when you say the wordnetworking, it's really code
word. It has been forconnection. I'm done using code

(27:41):
words, it's gonna be the powerof connection.

Matt Kirchner (27:46):
I love it. That's gonna be a fascinating read. I
guarantee you that I will pickthat up. And as well, many of
our listeners, I'm sure afterhearing a fascinating
conversation, you know, we aretalking as we were preparing for
the show here today, Joe aboutyou know that some of the topics
that we wanted to chat about andyou asked you know who who comes
up with the topics and I'm goingto tell you that this next
question is, this one is mine.
This is one that I that Ihonestly wanted to know about,

(28:06):
you know what's going throughJoe Sweeney's head these days,
and in part because I've beenable to watch your amazing
career unfold for so many years.
But it'd be interesting to knowif your perspective on what is
truly important to life, hasthat changed as you've continued
through life? And if so, how?

Joe Sweeney (28:23):
Yeah, I wrote a, I wrote a book here, Matt, a
couple years back maybe fiveyears ago, called after further
review. And I tried to take 14lessons from the game of
football, you know, afterfurther review comes from the
official that says, Afterfurther, but the point of all of
the book is to get people toreflect more about their lives.

(28:45):
And I think it's probably thenumber one challenge we have.
And the reason that's socritical, is that many of us
never hit the pause button,going into the locker room, like
a football team does review whathappened in the first quarter
and second quarter, and thenfigure out a game plan for the
third and fourth quarter. And soyou ask, how is my perception?

(29:07):
How are things changed? I thinkthe best chapter in the book is
chapter seven or eight, it's thefour quarters, there are four
quarters in a game of football.
And if you really think aboutit, there's four quarters in the
game of life, you know, fromzero to 20, we get educated from
20 to 50. We're raising kidsbuilding our career. And if
we're smart, we go have ahalftime experience. And when a

(29:29):
halftime experience reallybecomes impactful is with one
thing we realize or you realizein that period in the locker
room at halftime, we're allgoing to die my life as we know
it is going to end. So the realquestion becomes what are you
going to do between now and thetime you leave the service? And

(29:49):
so you know when I'm in thethird quarter where if you do it
right, hopefully you realizeit's not about you. You don't
have to buy anothermanufacturing call. Putting your
get on another board. It'sreally how do you do a better
job of serving people? And, andeach quarter has different
rules. But you know, has myperception change that I'm not

(30:10):
as hard charging as I used tobe. And I, when I speak, Matt, I
end my talk with this, I do therocking chair test for the
audience. I asked them topretend that they're 96 years
old, they're in a nursing homesitting in there depends on a
rocking chair, reflecting ontheir life. And the question

(30:32):
that I asked the audience is togo there, and ask yourself, what
would my life look like? If itreally turned out? Great. Now,
that's a hard question. I didn'tweekend retreat, answering that
one question, then I want you tocome back to today, and figure
out what you've got to dobetween now and the time you

(30:53):
leave this earth in order tohave a great life. And I part of
that whole segment is I say, ifyou've ever been on the deathbed
of, of someone who is dying aparent, a grandparent, a spouse,
a buddy, all people want to talkabout are two things, the
relationships they've built inthose special moments in time
that we've we've had withpeople, because at the end of

(31:15):
your life, that's all peoplecare about. They don't care
about your cars, your houses,how much money you made. And so
that's why the value ofrelationships, networking, and
connection, are so critical,because it's the number one
thing we want more than anythingin life, a deeper connection to
ourselves with other people intoa power greater than us. But

(31:36):
guess what, Matt? We don't talkabout that stuff at the cocktail
party we still meet,

Matt Kirchner (31:41):
right? No, not certainly not often enough. And
that's such a powerful answer,Joe, that I'm actually going to
make the conscious decision notto respond to it, because I want
those words that you just sharewith our audience to resonate
with them. Just absolutelyincredible answer to that
question. And I'm really gladthat we teed that one up. One
last question for Joe Sweeney.
And this is a question that weask in one form or another to

(32:02):
pretty much every guest joins uson the tech guy podcast. And we
always get some fascinatinganswers. So you talked about,
you know, where you are in thethird quarter your life, what
you know, what you might like tobe able to say about your
quality of your life, or whatyou accomplished and what was
important when you're 96 yearsold, and in the rocking chair.
Let's go back some, you know, 81years before that 96 year old

(32:26):
individual, and let's look backat that 15 year old Joe Sweeney.
And if you could sit down andgive some advice to that 15 year
old young man, what would youtell him?

Joe Sweeney (32:36):
You know, man, I've been asked that a lot. And I
thought about that question. Youknow what it really is code for
me your regrets in life tellyou, that's what it really is.
But here I thought about that.
And I what I would have done isI would have told myself to be
more patient, be more observant.
There is a book out that yourlisteners ought to get it's

(32:59):
called entrepreneurial DNA. Ittalks about the four types of
entrepreneurs, an entrepreneur,there's something called a
builder. an opportunistsalespeople are opportunists, a
specialist and an innovator. Andwhether I like it or not, I'm an
opportunist. And that's not anegative. That's, and all the

(33:20):
deals I've been involved incompanies 1213 of them, the
greatest successes I've had iswhen me as a opportunists have
partnered with a builder, I wishI would have been a builder. And
so I want to listen to more tomy guts, I would have done more
what my guts were telling meversus what I thought society

(33:43):
wanted me to do. And if I had todefine the two different parts,
first half and second half, thefirst half, I was always
driving, driving all the time,and trying to make things
happen. You know, my mantra was,if it's going to be it's up to
me and all that. Now, in thesecond half of life, what I'm

(34:03):
trying to do, and I would havetold my 15 year old self, this,
but maybe you need experience toget there. Now I instead of
trying to drive, I try to listento what life is trying to tell
me and then help it along theway. And I found out through
hard knocks. That's a mucheasier way to live life than
driving all the time. That'sit's exhausting. After a while,

(34:26):
and I've started a lot ofdifferent companies and a lot of
different industries and changejobs and change careers. That's
exhausting to get up to speed.
You got to be a quick learner.
But you can do it if you knowhow to network and get knowledge
from other people. So I wouldhave told myself be more patient
and made a lot of investmentsand things that didn't work out.

(34:48):
I should have listened to myselfinstead of investing to what the
mob was telling me what what Ishould be into.

Matt Kirchner (34:53):
Well, I love the way that you put that and listen
to what life is trying to tellyou and then help it along the
way and may end In some ways,maybe that is the mantra of an
opportunist, right. So so youlisten to see what's coming at
you, and then find a way to tohelp that get to something
better to get to get tosomething good. So I think
that's really, really good.
Really good advice too damn

Joe Sweeney (35:14):
strong. Go, Matt. I was too headstrong all the time.
So

Matt Kirchner (35:18):
I heard a little bit. Yeah, well, I knew you back
then. And I want I won't argue,I won't argue but always for the
right reasons. And the gentlerand more introspective, Joe
Sweeney is a fascinating one aswell. And I'm gonna, I'm going
to apply in that those first twoquarters of driving and pushing
probably are what position youin so many ways to help so many
people today and help so manypeople, by the way along the

(35:41):
way. So So listen to what lifeis trying to tell you. I'm glad
we listened to what Joe Sweeneywas trying to and successfully
told us today on the tech edpodcast. I was great to be back
with an old friend and justreally appreciate your all your
insights in the time that youtook with us on the podcast
today.

Joe Sweeney (35:56):
Great being with you, Matt. Appreciate it.

Matt Kirchner (35:58):
Thanks for joining us for this episode of
The Tech Ed podcast. If youhaven't already, subscribe,
leave a review and if you likedthis episode, share it with a
friend. New episodes launchevery Tuesday. So listen in next
week.