The Trading Post

From Online to In-Person: Networking in the 21st Century

• Trader Stu • Season 2 • Episode 1

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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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Speaker 1:

And we're back Trader Tuesday. Here we are. I want to go over a couple of things 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. You're not going to get as far you know, in person, as person, or online, as you would in person is what I'm trying to say, no matter how much LinkedIn you're on, and I'm actually becoming an ambassador in Alignable and it's great and I'm doing well on Alignable, I guess. However, there's just nothing quite like meeting people in person and I got to tell you it's a game changer.

Speaker 1:

I've been networking since geez 2009 or 10, I think it was so right after I got out of the Air Force and I became a BNI vice president of course, not right away After I think it was six months or a year I was in my BNI group up there in Grand Blanc and I was like you know, I'll try the vice president thing. It was cool. I don't think I got anything more out of becoming a vice president than, you know, just being a member, but it was good training or you know whatever, either way, right. So I did want to mention where I was and what I did, I guess, and that way you can take a look at it if you're in the Metro Detroit area too. The first one I did was with it was called my Collective Network and Cindy Spahr is the one who owns and runs it and did a speed networking event up there in Rochester, michigan, and it was fun. It was cool because you know, some people were like, oh, it wasn't a very big showing, and some are like. You know, I like the smaller showing and that's me actually. I liked that we didn't follow a certain 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 of a roundtable discussion. It was a perfect introduction for me into the group because it wasn't pressed for time. You know, I think we did two or maybe 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 elevator speeches and got to go into a bit more detail about yourself rather than just doing a quick hit. You know speed networking kind of a thing which is usually from my speed networking events. Usually it's a one or two minute kind of elevator pitch. So I think it was, I think it was a five minute. Anyway, it doesn't matter. If you've ever been speed dating, it's the same thing, where you just kind of give a little bit about yourself, what you're looking for and all of that kind of a deal. But, like I said, that one it wasn't really a speed network, it was more just more like networking and roundtable discussion, which I found ideal.

Speaker 1:

Cindy also owns another group that's more of a Christian-based. That is called I'm looking here my Christian Business Network. That's her other one and that one. Of course, I think they open with prayer and other things of that nature. Yeah, my Christian Business Network, things of that nature. Yeah, my Christian Business Network. But both of them are on LinkedIn under her name and it's cool.

Speaker 1:

She's all over the place with all the different. What do you call them? I guess not chambers. It's like different groups, I guess. Yeah, different groups in different areas. So I'm in one area of Metro Detroit and there's another one and then there's one up north and I think there's one more on the east side, right in the lake I believe. Anyway, it doesn't matter, but you can find all that out and she does all kinds of different things within that network. So there's the speed networking one I was just talking about. Then they do another one. It's a business-to-business virtual networking. Then there's another one where they do kind of like an educational deal, which I'm going to be hitting up, I think, next month Either way it doesn't matter and so I'm going to try them out.

Speaker 1:

You get two free visits and then you're asked to commit for the year, and I'm not sure if there's different plans or whatever for being a member. I thought it was $200 or $300 a year, which is right on par. Actually, bni, I think BNI is up to $1,000 a year right now and that's a lot, and BNI is. I don't hate it. I'm not saying anything bad about BNI, I'm just saying it's a, it's a second job, it's like having a part-time job. So you got to meet every week and then usually mine was at 7 am and you know you have to come with a referral or a closed business or a thank you or something like that. I can't remember all of it, but it's a lot of pressure to show up to the meeting and if you don't have that you get kind of like a strike against you. You get so many strikes. So there's a lot of other networking 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 we run it like BNI, but except for it's every other week instead of every week. We don't have to have closed business, we don't have to have a thank you, we don't have to have a referral. Of course it's encouraged, but it's far less pressure. And the neat thing is, of course it's included in our membership with the chamber. So that's nice.

Speaker 1:

And then the other one I want to talk about and I've been this one a few times. This is Velocity. Now what they do. Just clicking around here on my computers I got all my LinkedIn pages open. They are a business incubator, accelerator and co-working space. So if you've ever been to a co-working space, you know that you got tables, kind of like lying out in the middle of nowhere, kind of like cubicles, and then you just pay. I think in this place is $100 a month and I think there's one in Rochester as well at the same price. It's $100 a month and there's different 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 square feet. Don't remember the exact specifics here, but you get for $1,700 a month you get your own office. You can have, I think, up to well, however many you can fit, I guess in the square footage A little mini kitchenette.

Speaker 1:

It's cool because it's also sponsored and ran by the Macomb County School System or Business. I think it's OU Oakland or something like that. I can't remember the exact all the specifics. If you want to know more, just go on to their page on LinkedIn under Velocity and it's the Business Consulting and Service Group in Macomb County. So you've got to have a business in Macomb County and they have others around, so it's not just like this place only. This just happens to be if you have to have a business in Macomb County to get help from Velocity and they help you with getting funding. And they help with one lady who said that she got a laptop from the group. It was like a grant. They also help, I think, with grant writing and all that. I mean there's a lot to it. They do a lot.

Speaker 1:

So I can't, I'm not, I don't work for them. So I'm not going to, like you know, go into all the specifics, but I will say this the Founders First Fridays that they do is very cool. It's like, you know, networking in the beginning, then you kind of networking in the in the beginning, then you um, kind of go around the room and do your introductions and again it's kind of like an elevator pitch and then, uh, you know, more networking afterwards and I've already I'm kind of like making friends there and I get to know everybody and, uh, you know, it's not you don't have the awkwardness when you first walk in for the first time. I guess you want to say so. I hit that up every first Friday of the month and then also today I just got back from one.

Speaker 1:

They did a thing it's called the Roadshow and this one was for AI. So this guy helped you with how to give the proper prompts for AI, how to go through it, how to define it and knock it down into a reasonable use for your business. That way, you know, because sometimes when you go into AI, they picked on, not picked on, but utilize chat GBT in the presentation and you know when you first enter your prompt you're going to get, you know, a couple of pages worth of stuff and then you know you narrow it down to like 10 words or less, tell me what you meant and all of that. So I thought it was pretty cool, beneficial. I never really boiled it down really all that much before. I liked how they did that with knocking it down.

Speaker 1:

And, of course, you go into breakout groups and meet people that way, trade business cards, all that good stuff. So you know, the old school trading business cards and networking and rubbing elbows, I guess you could say, is not gone. It is definitely here. I think it's here to stay, no matter how well the online presence becomes with networking is just not the same. That being said, I'm going to go ahead and talk about Alignable, because Alignable nobody knows about Alignable, by the way, like I talked to people like oh, I'm in Alignable and that was Alignable. You know, they've been around since I think I just Googled it 2015. And then my company joined in 2019 and that kind of took over the account this summer, this last summer, I guess you could say in 2024.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, so what I like about Alignable versus LinkedIn, and why I'm kind of hitting this one hard, is that you can narrow down your target to just the local area, so you're not talking to people all over the world on LinkedIn. I don't want to say it's a waste of time, but it's kind of a waste of time to go through everything, reply and try and really hit, I guess, linkedin that hard. I have never gotten a solid lead off of LinkedIn. No one's ever called me, messaged me or told me they wanted to sign up because of it. However, I have on LinkedIn alignable like multiple times from everywhere, and so now our company 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 really taken off for me.

Speaker 1:

So I was actually wanting to start my own local networking group, because the other cool thing with alignable is that you can go to local chapters. There's these, uh, local areas that you can meet up at like networking, and there's the ambassador program like I just mentioned, and then, uh, go to all these different meetings, which I find, um, you know, like I already told you, I'm a networker from way back, so I like the whole in-person thing and then you stay in contact online. I mean, also, you can, you know, get in contact online and then it makes it easier to talk in person once you kind of know them a little bit online. But I think the real deals happen in person. So that's why I'm into the Alignable gig right now.

Speaker 1:

Also, the cool thing with their events they have these things where you can sign up. It's like Zoom meetings or Zoom calls and there's different topics. The one I'm going to in a half hour is their new Alignable 360 launch. They call it the Networking Revolution. There's 1,935 new Alignable 360 launch, so they call it the networking revolution. And there's, wow, 1,935 registered attendees on this. So you know, usually probably half of that will show up, but still that's 2,000. So 1,000 people might be on this call and that's really impressive. That's cool. So, anyway, all I'm saying is that it's, you know, check out Alignable.

Speaker 1:

If you're not on it yet and you're a small business and you're trying to target the local area and not deal, I don't again not saying anything bad about Nextdoor app, but I don't want to deal with Nextdoor app because I'm on Nextdoor and it's super easy, like Facebook, to get carried away with it and you go on these tangents and you go down these different rabbit holes. At least, if you're in a rabbit hole on Alignable, you're in the business rabbit hole. So I still feel like it's beneficial, productive and like there's I don't know. I don't want to say there's no lost time, but if you're commenting and things of that nature, you're going to see your views on your page go way up. That's a lot like LinkedIn, but with LinkedIn I feel there's a lot more distractions on there and they do these little videos. Now they're doing these shorts. It's addictive content. That's, of course, like TikTok stuff and I just you know I try and avoid LinkedIn a little bit because I don't know. Like I said, I haven't got much out of it and I think it's pretty distracting. And one thing about Alignable is it controls how many people you connect with. So the nice thing is you're not getting a bunch of if you're on LinkedIn, as you probably know people looking for jobs, linkedin.

Speaker 1:

I think the first and foremost reason for LinkedIn, I believe, was for job hunting or for headhunters or for businesses looking for employees? I'm not really sure. I mean, linkedin has been out a while and it's kind of evolved a lot, but I thought that was the original intent of it. Now there's the sales what's it called? I'm on here right now.

Speaker 1:

I know, like I said, I'm not talking bad about LinkedIn, literally using it as we speak, but there's different advantages and perks for different platforms. 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 thinking about using it, but I'm going to go ahead and give the Alignable thing more time to brew, because now I'm getting involved in the ambassador program, getting trained up on that and also, like I said, I have to do two meetups per month for the ambassador program and mine is geared more towards I always I'm a family man, right.

Speaker 1:

So I brought my family to a chamber event because I really don't like missing too much family time. So when I go out at night I feel bad and I want to go back home. So I figured, why not bring the family to networking? So the whole idea behind my events is geared for children and to teach them how to network and not be afraid to look people in the eye and shake hands and do all of the things that creates real profit or real money for your business if you're an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1:

I used to do it with my grandpa and go out and network and I thought it was always fun, super overwhelming at first, but you've got to get over that and then, once you're in it, it's kind of like an um, kind of like an addiction. Right, you just want to go back and uh, and and do it again because it's just like. It's kind of a little high, you know, uh, meeting people like that and talking and uh, everyone's talking about their business and they can really, you know, hear the passion and everyone's voices and not kind of just online complaining about things that they can't control. So that's why I like the Alignable gig. Anyway, but that's it for now.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to go too long on this with the networking things, but definitely check out. If you're in the area Velocity, I think you get to live or have a business within Macomb County. For the Velocity they're on 18 Mile and Sterling Heights. Then, uh, the other one was alignable and then my collective network, which is all over the place she's um. Just like I said, go to her web page and you'll find her information on that. So that's it from the trading post. Traders do over and out.