February 25, 2025 • 16 mins
Networking goes beyond mere exchanges of business cards; authentic connections can make all the difference. This episode discusses the value of in-person networking and contrasts it with online platforms.
• Importance of real-life interactions over online connections
• A unique roundtable format at networking events enhances engagement
• Alignable, LinkedIn, My Collective Network, BNI: Exploring effective networking platforms
“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.
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The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're back Trader Tuesday.
Here we are.
I want to go over a couple ofthings about my week last week
and all the networking.
I got in and I got to tell you,if you're not networking and
getting out there and, you know,kind of doing the shaking hands
and kissing babies, as they say, you really do need to.
(00:20):
You're not going to get as faryou know, in person, as person,
or online, as you would inperson is what I'm trying to say
, no matter how much LinkedInyou're on, and I'm actually
becoming an ambassador inAlignable and it's great and I'm
doing well on Alignable, Iguess.
However, there's just nothingquite like meeting people in
(00:41):
person and I got to tell youit's a game changer.
I've been networking since geez2009 or 10, I think it was so
right after I got out of the AirForce and I became a BNI vice
president of course, not rightaway After I think it was six
months or a year I was in my BNIgroup up there in Grand Blanc
(01:04):
and I was like you know, I'lltry the vice president thing.
It was cool.
I don't think I got anythingmore out of becoming a vice
president than, you know, justbeing a member, but it was good
training or you know whatever,either way, right.
So I did want to mention whereI was and what I did, I guess,
and that way you can take a lookat it if you're in the Metro
(01:26):
Detroit area too.
The first one I did was with itwas called my Collective
Network and Cindy Spahr is theone who owns and runs it and did
a speed networking event upthere in Rochester, michigan,
and it was fun.
It was cool because you know,some people were like, oh, it
(01:49):
wasn't a very big showing, andsome are like.
You know, I like the smallershowing and that's me actually.
I liked that we didn't follow acertain protocol because I
think only was it one, two,three, four, five or six of us I
think seven was Cindy, I think,is what showed up and I liked
it because we did like a kind ofa roundtable discussion.
(02:11):
It was a perfect introductionfor me into the group because it
wasn't pressed for time.
You know, I think we did two ormaybe it was five minute, I
don't know.
You remember elevator speeches.
Two or maybe it was five minute, I don't know.
You remember you know elevatorspeeches and got to go into a
bit more detail about yourselfrather than just doing a quick
hit.
You know speed networking kindof a thing which is usually from
(02:33):
my speed networking events.
Usually it's a one or twominute kind of elevator pitch.
So I think it was, I think itwas a five minute.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
If you've ever been speeddating, it's the same thing,
where you just kind of give alittle bit about yourself, what
you're looking for and all ofthat kind of a deal.
But, like I said, that one itwasn't really a speed network,
(02:54):
it was more just more likenetworking and roundtable
discussion, which I found ideal.
Cindy also owns another groupthat's more of a Christian-based
.
That is called I'm looking heremy Christian Business Network.
That's her other one and thatone.
(03:15):
Of course, I think they openwith prayer and other things of
that nature.
Yeah, my Christian BusinessNetwork, things of that nature.
Yeah, my Christian BusinessNetwork.
But both of them are onLinkedIn under her name and it's
cool.
She's all over the place withall the different.
What do you call them?
I guess not chambers.
(03:35):
It's like different groups, Iguess.
Yeah, different groups indifferent areas.
So I'm in one area of MetroDetroit and there's another one
and then there's one up northand I think there's one more on
the east side, right in the lakeI believe.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, butyou can find all that out and
she does all kinds of differentthings within that network.
(03:57):
So there's the speed networkingone I was just talking about.
Then they do another one.
It's a business-to-businessvirtual networking.
Then there's another one wherethey do kind of like an
educational deal, which I'mgoing to be hitting up, I think,
next month Either way itdoesn't matter and so I'm going
(04:19):
to try them out.
You get two free visits and thenyou're asked to commit for the
year, and I'm not sure ifthere's different plans or
whatever for being a member.
I thought it was $200 or $300 ayear, which is right on par.
Actually, bni, I think BNI isup to $1,000 a year right now
(04:41):
and that's a lot, and BNI is.
I don't hate it.
I'm not saying anything badabout BNI, I'm just saying it's
a, it's a second job, it's likehaving a part-time job.
So you got to meet every weekand then usually mine was at 7
am and you know you have to comewith a referral or a closed
business or a thank you orsomething like that.
(05:03):
I can't remember all of it, butit's a lot of pressure to show
up to the meeting and if youdon't have that you get kind of
like a strike against you.
You get so many strikes.
So there's a lot of othernetworking groups out there that
don't have as strict a policy,including the one I'm in in the
chamber at the Rochester Chamber.
It's called a PNC group and werun it like BNI, but except for
(05:29):
it's every other week instead ofevery week.
We don't have to have closedbusiness, we don't have to have
a thank you, we don't have tohave a referral.
Of course it's encouraged, butit's far less pressure.
And the neat thing is, ofcourse it's included in our
membership with the chamber.
So that's nice.
And then the other one I want totalk about and I've been this
(05:54):
one a few times.
This is Velocity.
Now what they do.
Just clicking around here on mycomputers I got all my LinkedIn
pages open.
They are a business incubator,accelerator and co-working space
.
So if you've ever been to aco-working space, you know that
you got tables, kind of likelying out in the middle of
nowhere, kind of like cubicles,and then you just pay.
I think in this place is $100 amonth and I think there's one
(06:16):
in Rochester as well at the sameprice.
It's $100 a month and there'sdifferent tiers.
You can go up from there, right.
So one of them is I think it's$1,750 a month for I forgot how
many square feet.
Let's just say it's 500 squarefeet.
Don't remember the exactspecifics here, but you get for
$1,700 a month you get your ownoffice.
You can have, I think, up towell, however many you can fit,
(06:38):
I guess in the square footage Alittle mini kitchenette.
It's cool because it's alsosponsored and ran by the Macomb
County School System or Business.
I think it's OU Oakland orsomething like that.
I can't remember the exact allthe specifics.
If you want to know more, justgo on to their page on LinkedIn
under Velocity and it's theBusiness Consulting and Service
(07:00):
Group in Macomb County.
So you've got to have abusiness in Macomb County and
they have others around, so it'snot just like this place only.
This just happens to be if youhave to have a business in
Macomb County to get help fromVelocity and they help you with
getting funding.
And they help with one lady whosaid that she got a laptop from
(07:21):
the group.
It was like a grant.
They also help, I think, withgrant writing and all that.
I mean there's a lot to it.
They do a lot.
So I can't, I'm not, I don'twork for them.
So I'm not going to, like youknow, go into all the specifics,
but I will say this theFounders First Fridays that they
do is very cool.
It's like, you know, networkingin the beginning, then you kind
(07:47):
of networking in the in thebeginning, then you um, kind of
go around the room and do yourintroductions and again it's
kind of like an elevator pitchand then, uh, you know, more
networking afterwards and I'vealready I'm kind of like making
friends there and I get to knoweverybody and, uh, you know,
it's not you don't have theawkwardness when you first walk
in for the first time.
I guess you want to say so.
I hit that up every firstFriday of the month and then
(08:08):
also today I just got back fromone.
They did a thing it's called theRoadshow and this one was for
AI.
So this guy helped you with howto give the proper prompts for
AI, how to go through it, how todefine it and knock it down
into a reasonable use for yourbusiness.
(08:30):
That way, you know, becausesometimes when you go into AI,
they picked on, not picked on,but utilize chat GBT in the
presentation and you know whenyou first enter your prompt
you're going to get, you know, acouple of pages worth of stuff
and then you know you narrow itdown to like 10 words or less,
tell me what you meant and allof that.
So I thought it was pretty cool, beneficial.
(08:51):
I never really boiled it downreally all that much before.
I liked how they did that withknocking it down.
And, of course, you go intobreakout groups and meet people
that way, trade business cards,all that good stuff.
So you know, the old schooltrading business cards and
networking and rubbing elbows, Iguess you could say, is not
(09:13):
gone.
It is definitely here.
I think it's here to stay, nomatter how well the online
presence becomes with networkingis just not the same.
That being said, I'm going togo ahead and talk about
Alignable, because Alignablenobody knows about Alignable, by
the way, like I talked topeople like oh, I'm in Alignable
and that was Alignable.
You know, they've been aroundsince I think I just Googled it
(09:35):
2015.
And then my company joined in2019 and that kind of took over
the account this summer, thislast summer, I guess you could
say in 2024.
Anyway, so what I like aboutAlignable versus LinkedIn, and
why I'm kind of hitting this onehard, is that you can narrow
(09:55):
down your target to just thelocal area, so you're not
talking to people all over theworld on LinkedIn.
I don't want to say it's awaste of time, but it's kind of
a waste of time to go througheverything, reply and try and
really hit, I guess, linkedinthat hard.
I have never gotten a solidlead off of LinkedIn.
(10:17):
No one's ever called me,messaged me or told me they
wanted to sign up because of it.
However, I have on LinkedInalignable like multiple times
from everywhere, and so now ourcompany is kind of becoming more
of like a Great Lakes region,more than just Michigan and
Toledo.
That's where we always targeted, but now I'm getting people in
Indiana, of course, ohio,michigan, and it's kind of
(10:39):
really taken off for me.
So I was actually wanting tostart my own local networking
group, because the other coolthing with alignable is that you
can go to local chapters.
There's these, uh, local areasthat you can meet up at like
networking, and there's theambassador program like I just
mentioned, and then, uh, go toall these different meetings,
(11:01):
which I find, um, you know, likeI already told you, I'm a
networker from way back, so Ilike the whole in-person thing
and then you stay in contactonline.
I mean, also, you can, you know, get in contact online and then
it makes it easier to talk inperson once you kind of know
them a little bit online.
But I think the real dealshappen in person.
So that's why I'm into theAlignable gig right now.
(11:25):
Also, the cool thing with theirevents they have these things
where you can sign up.
It's like Zoom meetings or Zoomcalls and there's different
topics.
The one I'm going to in a halfhour is their new Alignable 360
launch.
They call it the NetworkingRevolution.
(11:47):
There's 1,935 new Alignable 360launch, so they call it the
networking revolution.
And there's, wow, 1,935registered attendees on this.
So you know, usually probablyhalf of that will show up, but
still that's 2,000.
So 1,000 people might be onthis call and that's really
impressive.
That's cool.
So, anyway, all I'm saying isthat it's, you know, check out
Alignable.
(12:07):
If you're not on it yet andyou're a small business and
you're trying to target thelocal area and not deal, I don't
again not saying anything badabout Nextdoor app, but I don't
want to deal with Nextdoor appbecause I'm on Nextdoor and it's
super easy, like Facebook, toget carried away with it and you
go on these tangents and you godown these different rabbit
(12:28):
holes.
At least, if you're in a rabbithole on Alignable, you're in
the business rabbit hole.
So I still feel like it'sbeneficial, productive and like
there's I don't know.
I don't want to say there's nolost time, but if you're
commenting and things of thatnature, you're going to see your
views on your page go way up.
(12:48):
That's a lot like LinkedIn, butwith LinkedIn I feel there's a
lot more distractions on thereand they do these little videos.
Now they're doing these shorts.
It's addictive content.
That's, of course, like TikTokstuff and I just you know I try
and avoid LinkedIn a little bitbecause I don't know.
Like I said, I haven't got muchout of it and I think it's
pretty distracting.
(13:09):
And one thing about Alignableis it controls how many people
you connect with.
So the nice thing is you're notgetting a bunch of if you're on
LinkedIn, as you probably knowpeople looking for jobs,
linkedin.
I think the first and foremostreason for LinkedIn, I believe,
(13:30):
was for job hunting or forheadhunters or for businesses
looking for employees?
I'm not really sure.
I mean, linkedin has been out awhile and it's kind of evolved
a lot, but I thought that wasthe original intent of it.
Now there's the sales what's itcalled?
I'm on here right now.
I know, like I said, I'm nottalking bad about LinkedIn,
literally using it as we speak,but there's different advantages
(13:53):
and perks for differentplatforms.
That's all I'm saying.
But anyway, on Alignable,there's that sales navigator,
that's what it's called.
And yeah, I mean I'm thinkingabout using it, but I'm going to
go ahead and give the Alignablething more time to brew,
because now I'm getting involvedin the ambassador program,
getting trained up on that andalso, like I said, I have to do
(14:15):
two meetups per month for theambassador program and mine is
geared more towards I always I'ma family man, right.
So I brought my family to achamber event because I really
don't like missing too muchfamily time.
So when I go out at night Ifeel bad and I want to go back
home.
So I figured, why not bring thefamily to networking?
(14:36):
So the whole idea behind myevents is geared for children
and to teach them how to networkand not be afraid to look
people in the eye and shakehands and do all of the things
that creates real profit or realmoney for your business if
you're an entrepreneur.
(14:57):
I used to do it with my grandpaand go out and network and I
thought it was always fun, superoverwhelming at first, but
you've got to get over that andthen, once you're in it, it's
kind of like an um, kind of likean addiction.
Right, you just want to go backand uh, and and do it again
because it's just like.
It's kind of a little high, youknow, uh, meeting people like
that and talking and uh,everyone's talking about their
(15:17):
business and they can really,you know, hear the passion and
everyone's voices and not kindof just online complaining about
things that they can't control.
So that's why I like theAlignable gig.
Anyway, but that's it for now.
I don't want to go too long onthis with the networking things,
but definitely check out.
If you're in the area Velocity,I think you get to live or have
(15:40):
a business within Macomb County.
For the Velocity they're on 18Mile and Sterling Heights.
Then, uh, the other one wasalignable and then my collective
network, which is all over theplace she's um.
Just like I said, go to her webpage and you'll find her
information on that.
So that's it from the tradingpost.
Traders do over and out.
And we're back Trader Tuesday.
Here we are.
I want to go over a couple ofthings about my week last week
and all the networking.
I got in and I got to tell you,if you're not networking and
getting out there and, you know,kind of doing the shaking hands
and kissing babies, as they say, you really do need to.
(00:20):
You're not going to get as faryou know, in person, as person,
or online, as you would inperson is what I'm trying to say
, no matter how much LinkedInyou're on, and I'm actually
becoming an ambassador inAlignable and it's great and I'm
doing well on Alignable, Iguess.
However, there's just nothingquite like meeting people in
(00:41):
person and I got to tell youit's a game changer.
I've been networking since geez2009 or 10, I think it was so
right after I got out of the AirForce and I became a BNI vice
president of course, not rightaway After I think it was six
months or a year I was in my BNIgroup up there in Grand Blanc
(01:04):
and I was like you know, I'lltry the vice president thing.
It was cool.
I don't think I got anythingmore out of becoming a vice
president than, you know, justbeing a member, but it was good
training or you know whatever,either way, right.
So I did want to mention whereI was and what I did, I guess,
and that way you can take a lookat it if you're in the Metro
(01:26):
Detroit area too.
The first one I did was with itwas called my Collective
Network and Cindy Spahr is theone who owns and runs it and did
a speed networking event upthere in Rochester, michigan,
and it was fun.
It was cool because you know,some people were like, oh, it
(01:49):
wasn't a very big showing, andsome are like.
You know, I like the smallershowing and that's me actually.
I liked that we didn't follow acertain protocol because I
think only was it one, two,three, four, five or six of us I
think seven was Cindy, I think,is what showed up and I liked
it because we did like a kind ofa roundtable discussion.
(02:11):
It was a perfect introductionfor me into the group because it
wasn't pressed for time.
You know, I think we did two ormaybe it was five minute, I
don't know.
You remember elevator speeches.
Two or maybe it was five minute, I don't know.
You remember you know elevatorspeeches and got to go into a
bit more detail about yourselfrather than just doing a quick
hit.
You know speed networking kindof a thing which is usually from
(02:33):
my speed networking events.
Usually it's a one or twominute kind of elevator pitch.
So I think it was, I think itwas a five minute.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
If you've ever been speeddating, it's the same thing,
where you just kind of give alittle bit about yourself, what
you're looking for and all ofthat kind of a deal.
But, like I said, that one itwasn't really a speed network,
(02:54):
it was more just more likenetworking and roundtable
discussion, which I found ideal.
Cindy also owns another groupthat's more of a Christian-based
.
That is called I'm looking heremy Christian Business Network.
That's her other one and thatone.
(03:15):
Of course, I think they openwith prayer and other things of
that nature.
Yeah, my Christian BusinessNetwork, things of that nature.
Yeah, my Christian BusinessNetwork.
But both of them are onLinkedIn under her name and it's
cool.
She's all over the place withall the different.
What do you call them?
I guess not chambers.
(03:35):
It's like different groups, Iguess.
Yeah, different groups indifferent areas.
So I'm in one area of MetroDetroit and there's another one
and then there's one up northand I think there's one more on
the east side, right in the lakeI believe.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, butyou can find all that out and
she does all kinds of differentthings within that network.
(03:57):
So there's the speed networkingone I was just talking about.
Then they do another one.
It's a business-to-businessvirtual networking.
Then there's another one wherethey do kind of like an
educational deal, which I'mgoing to be hitting up, I think,
next month Either way itdoesn't matter and so I'm going
(04:19):
to try them out.
You get two free visits and thenyou're asked to commit for the
year, and I'm not sure ifthere's different plans or
whatever for being a member.
I thought it was $200 or $300 ayear, which is right on par.
Actually, bni, I think BNI isup to $1,000 a year right now
(04:41):
and that's a lot, and BNI is.
I don't hate it.
I'm not saying anything badabout BNI, I'm just saying it's
a, it's a second job, it's likehaving a part-time job.
So you got to meet every weekand then usually mine was at 7
am and you know you have to comewith a referral or a closed
business or a thank you orsomething like that.
(05:03):
I can't remember all of it, butit's a lot of pressure to show
up to the meeting and if youdon't have that you get kind of
like a strike against you.
You get so many strikes.
So there's a lot of othernetworking groups out there that
don't have as strict a policy,including the one I'm in in the
chamber at the Rochester Chamber.
It's called a PNC group and werun it like BNI, but except for
(05:29):
it's every other week instead ofevery week.
We don't have to have closedbusiness, we don't have to have
a thank you, we don't have tohave a referral.
Of course it's encouraged, butit's far less pressure.
And the neat thing is, ofcourse it's included in our
membership with the chamber.
So that's nice.
And then the other one I want totalk about and I've been this
(05:54):
one a few times.
This is Velocity.
Now what they do.
Just clicking around here on mycomputers I got all my LinkedIn
pages open.
They are a business incubator,accelerator and co-working space
.
So if you've ever been to aco-working space, you know that
you got tables, kind of likelying out in the middle of
nowhere, kind of like cubicles,and then you just pay.
I think in this place is $100 amonth and I think there's one
(06:16):
in Rochester as well at the sameprice.
It's $100 a month and there'sdifferent tiers.
You can go up from there, right.
So one of them is I think it's$1,750 a month for I forgot how
many square feet.
Let's just say it's 500 squarefeet.
Don't remember the exactspecifics here, but you get for
$1,700 a month you get your ownoffice.
You can have, I think, up towell, however many you can fit,
(06:38):
I guess in the square footage Alittle mini kitchenette.
It's cool because it's alsosponsored and ran by the Macomb
County School System or Business.
I think it's OU Oakland orsomething like that.
I can't remember the exact allthe specifics.
If you want to know more, justgo on to their page on LinkedIn
under Velocity and it's theBusiness Consulting and Service
(07:00):
Group in Macomb County.
So you've got to have abusiness in Macomb County and
they have others around, so it'snot just like this place only.
This just happens to be if youhave to have a business in
Macomb County to get help fromVelocity and they help you with
getting funding.
And they help with one lady whosaid that she got a laptop from
(07:21):
the group.
It was like a grant.
They also help, I think, withgrant writing and all that.
I mean there's a lot to it.
They do a lot.
So I can't, I'm not, I don'twork for them.
So I'm not going to, like youknow, go into all the specifics,
but I will say this theFounders First Fridays that they
do is very cool.
It's like, you know, networkingin the beginning, then you kind
(07:47):
of networking in the in thebeginning, then you um, kind of
go around the room and do yourintroductions and again it's
kind of like an elevator pitchand then, uh, you know, more
networking afterwards and I'vealready I'm kind of like making
friends there and I get to knoweverybody and, uh, you know,
it's not you don't have theawkwardness when you first walk
in for the first time.
I guess you want to say so.
I hit that up every firstFriday of the month and then
(08:08):
also today I just got back fromone.
They did a thing it's called theRoadshow and this one was for
AI.
So this guy helped you with howto give the proper prompts for
AI, how to go through it, how todefine it and knock it down
into a reasonable use for yourbusiness.
(08:30):
That way, you know, becausesometimes when you go into AI,
they picked on, not picked on,but utilize chat GBT in the
presentation and you know whenyou first enter your prompt
you're going to get, you know, acouple of pages worth of stuff
and then you know you narrow itdown to like 10 words or less,
tell me what you meant and allof that.
So I thought it was pretty cool, beneficial.
(08:51):
I never really boiled it downreally all that much before.
I liked how they did that withknocking it down.
And, of course, you go intobreakout groups and meet people
that way, trade business cards,all that good stuff.
So you know, the old schooltrading business cards and
networking and rubbing elbows, Iguess you could say, is not
(09:13):
gone.
It is definitely here.
I think it's here to stay, nomatter how well the online
presence becomes with networkingis just not the same.
That being said, I'm going togo ahead and talk about
Alignable, because Alignablenobody knows about Alignable, by
the way, like I talked topeople like oh, I'm in Alignable
and that was Alignable.
You know, they've been aroundsince I think I just Googled it
(09:35):
2015.
And then my company joined in2019 and that kind of took over
the account this summer, thislast summer, I guess you could
say in 2024.
Anyway, so what I like aboutAlignable versus LinkedIn, and
why I'm kind of hitting this onehard, is that you can narrow
(09:55):
down your target to just thelocal area, so you're not
talking to people all over theworld on LinkedIn.
I don't want to say it's awaste of time, but it's kind of
a waste of time to go througheverything, reply and try and
really hit, I guess, linkedinthat hard.
I have never gotten a solidlead off of LinkedIn.
(10:17):
No one's ever called me,messaged me or told me they
wanted to sign up because of it.
However, I have on LinkedInalignable like multiple times
from everywhere, and so now ourcompany is kind of becoming more
of like a Great Lakes region,more than just Michigan and
Toledo.
That's where we always targeted, but now I'm getting people in
Indiana, of course, ohio,michigan, and it's kind of
(10:39):
really taken off for me.
So I was actually wanting tostart my own local networking
group, because the other coolthing with alignable is that you
can go to local chapters.
There's these, uh, local areasthat you can meet up at like
networking, and there's theambassador program like I just
mentioned, and then, uh, go toall these different meetings,
(11:01):
which I find, um, you know, likeI already told you, I'm a
networker from way back, so Ilike the whole in-person thing
and then you stay in contactonline.
I mean, also, you can, you know, get in contact online and then
it makes it easier to talk inperson once you kind of know
them a little bit online.
But I think the real dealshappen in person.
So that's why I'm into theAlignable gig right now.
(11:25):
Also, the cool thing with theirevents they have these things
where you can sign up.
It's like Zoom meetings or Zoomcalls and there's different
topics.
The one I'm going to in a halfhour is their new Alignable 360
launch.
They call it the NetworkingRevolution.
(11:47):
There's 1,935 new Alignable 360launch, so they call it the
networking revolution.
And there's, wow, 1,935registered attendees on this.
So you know, usually probablyhalf of that will show up, but
still that's 2,000.
So 1,000 people might be onthis call and that's really
impressive.
That's cool.
So, anyway, all I'm saying isthat it's, you know, check out
Alignable.
(12:07):
If you're not on it yet andyou're a small business and
you're trying to target thelocal area and not deal, I don't
again not saying anything badabout Nextdoor app, but I don't
want to deal with Nextdoor appbecause I'm on Nextdoor and it's
super easy, like Facebook, toget carried away with it and you
go on these tangents and you godown these different rabbit
(12:28):
holes.
At least, if you're in a rabbithole on Alignable, you're in
the business rabbit hole.
So I still feel like it'sbeneficial, productive and like
there's I don't know.
I don't want to say there's nolost time, but if you're
commenting and things of thatnature, you're going to see your
views on your page go way up.
(12:48):
That's a lot like LinkedIn, butwith LinkedIn I feel there's a
lot more distractions on thereand they do these little videos.
Now they're doing these shorts.
It's addictive content.
That's, of course, like TikTokstuff and I just you know I try
and avoid LinkedIn a little bitbecause I don't know.
Like I said, I haven't got muchout of it and I think it's
pretty distracting.
(13:09):
And one thing about Alignableis it controls how many people
you connect with.
So the nice thing is you're notgetting a bunch of if you're on
LinkedIn, as you probably knowpeople looking for jobs,
linkedin.
I think the first and foremostreason for LinkedIn, I believe,
(13:30):
was for job hunting or forheadhunters or for businesses
looking for employees?
I'm not really sure.
I mean, linkedin has been out awhile and it's kind of evolved
a lot, but I thought that wasthe original intent of it.
Now there's the sales what's itcalled?
I'm on here right now.
I know, like I said, I'm nottalking bad about LinkedIn,
literally using it as we speak,but there's different advantages
(13:53):
and perks for differentplatforms.
That's all I'm saying.
But anyway, on Alignable,there's that sales navigator,
that's what it's called.
And yeah, I mean I'm thinkingabout using it, but I'm going to
go ahead and give the Alignablething more time to brew,
because now I'm getting involvedin the ambassador program,
getting trained up on that andalso, like I said, I have to do
(14:15):
two meetups per month for theambassador program and mine is
geared more towards I always I'ma family man, right.
So I brought my family to achamber event because I really
don't like missing too muchfamily time.
So when I go out at night Ifeel bad and I want to go back
home.
So I figured, why not bring thefamily to networking?
(14:36):
So the whole idea behind myevents is geared for children
and to teach them how to networkand not be afraid to look
people in the eye and shakehands and do all of the things
that creates real profit or realmoney for your business if
you're an entrepreneur.
(14:57):
I used to do it with my grandpaand go out and network and I
thought it was always fun, superoverwhelming at first, but
you've got to get over that andthen, once you're in it, it's
kind of like an um, kind of likean addiction.
Right, you just want to go backand uh, and and do it again
because it's just like.
It's kind of a little high, youknow, uh, meeting people like
that and talking and uh,everyone's talking about their
(15:17):
business and they can really,you know, hear the passion and
everyone's voices and not kindof just online complaining about
things that they can't control.
So that's why I like theAlignable gig.
Anyway, but that's it for now.
I don't want to go too long onthis with the networking things,
but definitely check out.
If you're in the area Velocity,I think you get to live or have
(15:40):
a business within Macomb County.
For the Velocity they're on 18Mile and Sterling Heights.
Then, uh, the other one wasalignable and then my collective
network, which is all over theplace she's um.
Just like I said, go to her webpage and you'll find her
information on that.
So that's it from the tradingpost.
Traders do over and out.
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