Networking Unleashed: An Interview with Natalie K. Jackson and Michael A. Forman, Professional Speaker
Host Michael A. Forman interviews Natalie K. Jackson, founder of Crescent Consultancy. They talk about uses networking as a strategic tool and how to make the most of your networking experiences.
This episode of Networking Unleashed with Michael A. Forman discusses the following:
How intentional networking and strategic listening serve as foundations for building businesses and strong organizational cultures.
Effective networking is not transactional (collecting business cards) but relational. Building community, trust, and memorable experiences.
Customer Experience and Employee Experience are inextricably linked reflections of the same organizational culture.
Influential leaders focus on asking better questions rather than providing answers, which helps uncover underlying organizational signals.
Natalie shares her journey in launching Crescent Experiences, a community designed to remove the friction of traditional, high-pressure networking. By focusing on skill-building (such as golf events) and smaller, curated groups, people can relax, be themselves, and build more authentic relationships.
Highlight the importance of approaching networking with a mindset of "How can I help?" rather than "Who can help me?".
View the full transcript of Natalie and Michael's discussion:
0:01
Welcome to Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections, the podcast where meaningful relationships
0:07
become lasting opportunities. I'm your host, Michael Foreman. Today, we're
0:12
exploring a different side of networking, not as a way to collect contacts, but as a way to build
0:19
community, strengthen trust, and create experiences that remember
0:25
that people remember. Our our guest has built a thriving business by helping
0:31
organizations improve customer and employee experiences while creating a
0:37
networking community where meaningful conversations lead to real growth. If
0:43
you've ever wondered how authentic relationships can transform your business and your leadership, you're in
0:50
a great conversation. I would like to introduce to the podcast Natalie
0:56
Jackson. She is a professional in everything I just spoke about and I was
1:01
very interested in this podcast because this definitely is in line what I go all
1:07
the way across the country talking about. So Natalie, first of all, welcome
1:13
to the podcast. Thank and just give us the cliff notes of how
1:19
you got where you are today. Sure. Yes. Thank you for having me. And for me, I
1:25
learned about project management and customer experience and employee experience along the way and figured out
1:32
how to carve that into something that I get to focus on every day. So, I was in-house in certain roles. I was at big
1:38
consulting, boutique consulting, and had a few aha moments that I feel like there's something here because I don't
1:44
see a thread that runs through everything where we put our customers or clients or patients or donors or members
1:51
in the center of things and considering how our employees show up and so much of that has to do with choices that we make
1:57
as humans. So parlayed that into starting Crescent Consultancy about
2:02
three years ago and then at the start of the year Crescent Experiences.
2:09
That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I can't wait to start asking some questions. Okay. Okay. So, you've built
2:16
a business around customer and employee experience. Do you believe the quality
2:21
of a company's relationship ultimately determines the quality of its
2:26
customer experience? And if you do, why? I definitely do. I think so much of what
2:34
I see there's such a gap between how employees and leaders and others show up
2:41
and how that translates into what we're doing. So I usually ask the question when I enter an organization, what's
2:47
your brand promise? How are you showing up? Is there anything in there that explains how you show up? And oftentimes
2:53
they'll say, well, we have a brand promise, but it doesn't talk about that experience and how it actually feels, how it feels for the customers and how
2:59
it feels for the employees. And I think to bridge that gap is by building those relationships both internally and
3:06
deliberately with our customers. And a lot of that has to do with listening.
3:12
Absolutely. And when I go around and I do workshops and I educate the employees
3:19
on the customer experience, I often have to educate the seuite executives because
3:27
if they don't change then the whole nothing changes in the organization and
3:32
you know that as well as I do and it's very important. It's few and far between.
3:38
Yes. Yes. I love to hear you say that. That's something having worked in helped
3:43
in a cons consulting capacity a very large organization some in the med device [clears throat] space and others
3:48
setting up a CX a customer experience department what I realized a few different times is that if we're
3:54
building this department in one piece of the organization but we don't have like
3:59
you said that full alignment about just how we want to show up how we want to measure what decisions we can make how
4:06
to empower everyone it stalls out they don't necessarily have all of that influence to make a change throughout
4:13
and access to leadership and the board and all other employees or sometimes their customers or patients or employees
4:20
and sometimes they don't even have the full budget to go make those nimble changes that come up. So yes and yes
4:27
I suppose it all boils down to the culture of the company and the culture
4:32
as you well know starts from the top. It doesn't start from the bottom. So if we
4:38
don't change what's happening at the top, nothing will change at the bottom.
4:44
That's true. Okay. Sure. There was a very quick example. I was out and about at speaking of networking at a
4:49
networking event and I happened to meet the CEO of a company where I had purchased business insurance from and
4:56
through an agent. And it was we were chatting in a group and I will not name names of course, but it was one of those
5:01
moments where I was so excited. I'm one of your clients and sure I might be a small client, but I'm a client. And
5:07
there were no questions. Not how are we doing, not what do you think about us, not what was your experience, who are
5:13
you working with, which agent, zero questions. And that is if that's indicative of the culture, there isn't
5:19
that curiosity there or that wanting to keep growing. That tells me something for when renewals come next year.
5:25
You just really said the difference between being a boss and a leader. And
5:33
without you saying the words, that was he just was basically a boss shouting
5:38
the what to do and having his minions do it without truly believing what he was
5:45
saying. Yeah. So I understand that. Okay. You created a a networking community centered on
5:53
learning and meaningful conversations. What did you see missing from
5:58
traditional networking that inspired you to build something different? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. For for
6:06
me, I mentioned I went out on my own about three years ago and yes, I was in
6:11
a sales and business development capacity and delivering and working with clients, large ones too. But I didn't I
6:18
wasn't out selling what I do and my own services. I had it the team, the departments, the business. When I
6:24
stepped out on my own, I realized and I have an advisory board and they're kind of like, Natalie, this is when you're
6:29
selling yourself. It's a service. I'm not selling a product at the moment. And that made me realize I need to get out
6:36
there in a different way. I started to join networking groups in a more formal capacity and have to talk about myself.
6:42
And for me, I had to do quite a bit of self-reflection. Which rooms felt the best for me? Which ones where I could be
6:49
myself? Which ones couldn't? I didn't like the formal ones that had 60 people and you had 20 seconds to give a pitch
6:55
or 30 seconds or a minute. And I'm in some of those and I love parts of them, but I was finding my own kind of
7:01
friction in the process and my own learning that I started to think, okay, what makes me feel like I can show up
7:07
with me? Where am I finding that I'm actually connecting with a human? What's leading to those natural referrals,
7:13
partnerships, collaborations? And I think it was just my own journey of having and the whole self-discovery that
7:19
goes with that to say, "Okay, what's going to feel good for me?" And so we did a pilot at I feel like I can say the
7:26
name at Tailor Made. It's we did a pilot to help women learn golf because I'm thinking what's something that motivates
7:33
me if I don't have to just stand and say, "What do you do? What do you do?" in a conversation, but rather I can gain
7:39
something else and to learn a skill. I thought there's a couple things missing. We want a setting that's comfortable.
7:44
People want to learn a new skill, I think, and golf, especially on the women's side, there's like something
7:50
missing there and it's intimidating. Decided to just do a pilot since Tailor Mermaid already has a robust internal
7:56
program to teach golf to the women employees. We they said yes and we leveraged that to do a pilot. I got to
8:02
invite about 20 executive women in January to come to their the kingdom, the headquarters. And what I noticed
8:09
about that, it was beautifully done and their brand is so high-end. It was wonderful and the lessons were great.
8:15
But we asked each of the women, "Why did you sign up for this? What made you want
8:20
to be here today?" And their responses were like, "Golf, for this specific one, golf is intimidating or the men walk
8:26
really fast or I never I'm always helping at the tournament, but never participating in a tournament. I want to boost my business this way." All these
8:33
different reasons came up. And because we had a relaxed setting, I'd say out of the 20 women, like 18 of them came up to
8:39
me and said, "Can we please do more of this?" And just that loud voice of other
8:44
women feeling so energized and excited to be around each other in a comfortable place and learn something. That was like
8:51
that one moment. And I won't make the story too long, but fast forward, I had to think about it a little bit and said,
8:57
"You know what? We can't host everything at Tailor Made. That's a once in a-lifetime thing. How can we keep this
9:02
feeling going?" popped. I thought perhaps let's start our own something like this. So, it doesn't mean that it's
9:09
only going to be women forever, but starting a women's collective where it's skill-based connection. So, kind of what
9:16
you were saying to take out the formal networking to take out the need to pitch. It's the human showing up in a
9:23
place to just relax their shoulders and show up and get to know people for who they are. And of course, that's when
9:28
natural connections happen. So for that particular track we've had we're
9:33
approaching our I think fifth event because it's new for this year our fifth event in golf and it's been really well
9:41
received. It's so nice to see the interest from different places. And because it's women to start, the
9:46
different men in the networking circles have referred their different colleagues, their wife, their friend, their whoever to come join with these
9:53
other executive women who want to learn something. And we're going to do some offshoots in wellness, which I'm happy
9:58
to share more about. But I noticed that it didn't always feel comfortable for me
10:04
in certain rooms and from listening to other, in this case again, other women.
10:09
They're seeking something just where they can just be themselves and be relaxed.
10:15
Yeah. I'm known as a network strategist and because I develop my own networking
10:21
group about eight months ago and it's a weekly group at night, I get either 10
10:27
companies or 15 companies or whatever the case may be. But I created it so
10:34
that you don't have to pitch yourself. What I teach is you don't pitch
10:40
yourself. You pitch the feeling you give after your job is done. So you never
10:46
say, "Hi, I'm Michael and I'm a a network strategist and everything." No, I'm just turning conversations into
10:53
clients and I'm helping you keep all the money that you leave on the table and things like that. And after a while,
10:58
they say, "Mike, what do you do? I don't." And so that that's what I'm trying to keep up. So, I know exactly
11:05
what you're saying and kudos to you for you having the fifth one because that means that it's working.
11:11
Yes, it's working. And referrals are it means so much to me that because it means that
11:18
you're getting out there and you're actually doing it. So, that's very good. Thank you. Networking is often measured by how many
11:24
people you meet. Should it instead be measured by how
11:30
many people become better because they know you? I like that. Very fitting to that that
11:36
feeling, right? Yeah. I don't think it's it's an interesting one and I know you have these conversations all the time,
11:43
right? It's interesting because you hear that can sort of canvas and get the numbers and it's a numbers game and I
11:50
believe that there's validity to that. the perseverance and the wanting to stretch and explore the network out
11:56
there, but I really like the kind of the emotional connection, relational
12:02
connection, and people feeling authentically passionate about what they encounter. And I see it. So, I'd say I
12:09
more in the camp of the second one, the second part of what you said and just
12:15
the excitement that I observe when people are connecting each other. I hear about those super connectors. I've
12:21
worked with for a while. I saw how they interact and they did this and they did that and it felt so great. And you're
12:27
going to get much higher quality referrals when it's coming from that authentic emotional place rather than a
12:34
colder one. Oh, I thought you should meet when you drop in the LinkedIn. Which one's going to land better? Which one's going to convince you? Clearly,
12:41
it's the emotional one. Yeah, I'm known in this area as a super
12:47
connector because I have to do it at least one or two times per week and I've
12:52
been doing this for four years. Yeah. So, one or two times per week, I take two people, I put them together, I back
12:59
away and I say, "Go at it." But I'm connecting the two of you. And I really
13:05
the pandemic I use that as a line in the sand. Pre- pandemic,
13:10
networking was more transactional. You have $3. I have a widget. We're going to exchange it. I'll build up my
13:17
customer list and that's all I had to do. But post pandemic, it's become more
13:23
relational where I used to go into a networking event, come back with 200 business cards and say, "Look how good I
13:30
did." Yeah. When I did horrible, I it's not nothing. So now when I go to a networking event
13:36
and I go twice a week by the way to a networking event, I come back with 10 15
13:43
cards because that's all that I can properly follow up with, create a relationship with and everything else.
13:50
And you get so much more out of that than the other way. Yes. I'll tell you, I was at an event
13:55
last night. It's been a busy week this week. This was a very cool one. Three companies sponsored it. One of them,
14:02
Pacific Lending, I was invited through I brought a friend of mine and it's funny because I just I we were on a a hundred
14:10
gosh over 100 foot sailboat here in San Diego. It was the America Cup replica.
14:16
America's Cup replica was very [clears throat] cool experience. Beautiful on the bay and yeah about 60 people or so. The appetizers, drinks,
14:23
everyone was having a lovely time. There were overlaps the sort of referral partners, different banks, all that. And
14:28
I'll share with you these are the cards that I came back with and I had such good conversations. That's not 60,
14:35
right? So, and this is a writing down each one. This person was in this group and that's really interesting and this
14:40
person with a nonprofit and this is an expert in AI and really meaningful conversations that yeah, I think they
14:46
could lead to things. So whether that's a connection for someone else or potential client, who knows? Here's a
14:52
little tidbit for you for when you network and everything else. The followup is so much more important than
14:59
actually meeting the person. So on the back of the business card, write down
15:04
the date, the name of the function, and something you spoke about. So the next
15:10
time you look at the card and go, I don't know where the hell I know him from, but I know him. Turn the card over
15:17
and you can read and say, "Oh, that's right. That's right. I have a I have a secret sauce, so to speak, for followup.
15:24
Yeah. And it works. And it just it changes the the 2%. You have a 2% chance of them
15:34
answering your emails the first time, a 2%. So I brought that up to 75%.
15:42
So it's really incredible thing. But that's something else. Okay. something.
15:48
Some people walk into [laughter] Yes. Yes. Some people walk into a room
15:56
asking who can help me. Others ask how can I help? How does that single mindset
16:03
shift change the relationships build trust? People build trust.
16:10
I really like that question and I might have a different take on it. So the how
16:17
can you help definite or how can I help I believe builds trust but what I've observed as I've had to move through
16:24
these different rooms and think of even my clients in different sales roles I've observed that getting to know the person
16:33
and talking about whatever in their life or that day or the thing that they're
16:38
facing or whatever they're feeling or the lunch or whatever it is in whatever setting for me that comes first. So, I
16:45
feel like if I lead in with a little bit of that, like a little small talk and a little how can I help? We don't have a
16:50
rapport yet and what they don't know what to ask or I don't know what to give and we don't know anything about each
16:56
other. So, I feel like I I from my experience just getting to know them and
17:03
about them is I'd say first and then we can find those connections and I as
17:10
humans look for what's common. Oh, we live in the same neighborhood. Oh, the kids are at the same school or I love
17:16
that restaurant or I just did that or this breakout or I do more of that and
17:21
that leads to I think more of a richness even and the trust building before we
17:26
get to that unless there is a true immediate need then it's a hold on a sec you need to meet and I that does happen
17:32
and that's actually very fun when it happens but I'd say it's one in every five times.
17:38
Yeah, that that's true. And for me, it's one in every 10. But I go in with what's called a servant's heart.
17:44
Yeah. I go in thinking, what can I do to help this person rather than looking for what
17:50
they can do for me? And I have a little thing called form f that I keep in the
17:56
back of my head. Family, occupation, recreation, and a certain message. So I
18:03
can talk to them about anything. Their children, their grandchildren, their occupation, their recreation, where did
18:10
they go for vacation. I can get all that going because there's a the know you like you. Trust you. Then they'll do
18:17
business with you. Know you. Everybody knows you likes you. That narrows this
18:22
just a little bit, right? But trust you. There's a wall between the two of you.
18:28
Yeah. And you're breaking that wall down. and that trust level is going up, that's
18:33
when you can start to to do all that. So, it really comes in handy. It does. And I was just gonna that the
18:41
the hosting I you're a host, too. Of course, I have had the aha that
18:47
when I'm hosting something, I feel I can help curate that environment so that can
18:53
happen more. And that's why we're talking about the events. The events are 12 to 14 people and everybody gets a
18:59
chance to talk and everybody gets a chance to feel the like I'd say almost like the hospitality the experience of
19:04
it and it's curated it's personal and every you know that fosters it accelerates what you just described
19:11
you being the host you do that you can control that you can guide that and as
19:18
soon as somebody starts getting off that tangent you can you have the authority to bring them back in.
19:23
Yeah. And so it and you're absolutely right. It's just it's such a wonderful feeling when you can bring other people
19:32
up. You can help somebody else or connect somebody else or just whatever
19:37
the case may be. But and really that's the reason why I got into business
19:42
because I'm in the business of helping others. Now I may educate them. I may
19:50
take them. I may mentor them. I may they may be a client of mine but it's all the
19:55
same. Okay. So let's say customer experience and employee experience are
20:01
often treated as a separate strategy. Are they actually reflections of the same organizational culture?
20:09
Yes. Well done. Yes. No. [laughter] Yeah. That's it. One more answer. We're
20:16
done. Yeah. It is that's there's different ways of approaching it, right? I do believe very
20:22
much like I I use the definition for customer experience. You can say the same for employee experience. It's brand
20:27
activation across every single thing that you do and that is every single thing that you know a customer and an
20:33
employee does and experiences. They must go hand inand
20:38
I know some will use the term now like total experience to try to bring that to light. I do still believe that there are
20:44
different approaches. So much like you would take a stakeholder group or a persona and you would do a journey map
20:50
across all the stages. You're going to focus on one particular we'll say persona, right? So you're
20:56
thinking about your client. You're going to go and do that. You want to put the overlay of what the employees are experiencing, but I really enjoy looking
21:04
at the employee experience from what does the brand look like to employees? How are we getting our word out there?
21:10
Are we how do we have a robust onboarding program? What are we doing for training? Are we fostering
21:16
engagement? Are we thinking about what's going to happen when that employee moves on? Are they advocates or are they kind
21:23
of bad mouthing the company? That's so important in its own right. But we're asking employees and leaders to show up
21:30
and serve who the person who is buying our product and service. So we really do need to link those.
21:36
And it all comes back to the culture of the company. That's right. on how that so the
21:42
experience is always I owned restaurants in my before life and I treated my
21:49
employees very well because if I didn't do that how can I expect the waitress to
21:56
treat the customers so well so I treat them well then they'll treat the the
22:02
customers well and it's a big loop but they felt very good plus they always knew that I had their back as long as
22:08
they didn't do anything stupid I had their back and and that goes a long way. It really does.
22:14
Yeah. And I'm sure you set the parameters on here's how we show up and here are our expectations and here's
22:19
where we have that freedom and here tell us when it's working great. Right. That is the culture that's
22:24
fostering that openness. I'm a military guy. Yeah. So when I came out and I went to
22:31
business, I set things up that strict right down to the uniform to everything
22:38
else. And but we I had customers tell me how nice it was that all the waiters and
22:45
waitresses all I didn't let them wear jeans. I didn't black sneakers, the
22:50
whole thing. And they all look sharp. And of course they all all the clothing had to be clean when they came to work.
22:58
And believe it or not, that was a big one. Okay. So, what's one leadership
23:04
behavior that quietly destroys trust inside an organization and one habit
23:12
that consistently strengthens it? That's a tough one. Well, it's tough because there's I think that there's a
23:18
very long list, but for the first one, destroying trust, I think again based on observations and seeing
23:25
how much employees and teams rely on who's
23:30
setting that stage and who's setting that culture. Leaders who maybe haven't
23:36
done the work to get out of their own way. I think that's one of the biggest blockers and aren't
23:43
bettering themselves and thinking about really strong you mentioned like servant like a servant leadership model or just
23:49
taking that extra mile to think about the human and how the way that you show up affects other people. I see that
23:55
quite a bit and that limits employees to know I just employees like teams,
24:01
leaders, whoever, right? It limits the organization from moving forward when they feel like there's sort of that like
24:07
a wall there. I've noticed and I think that can be across any small team any large team and then the flip side those
24:13
who do the work and are for me I guess selfishly because I live very much in
24:19
the experiential space I see experiences that thread through every single
24:24
function and department that is measurable that does contribute to growth and ROI when I see a leader who
24:30
gets that and can pan out a little bit and look across everything and want to collaborate like I work with chief
24:37
commercial officer ers who willingly collaborate with chief technology officers and COOs to say what is that
24:43
experience that we want to deliver and what do we need to change? I'll help with that. That to me is helps them get
24:49
to that next place and leveraging those like you could take any structure whether EOS or scaling up or just like
24:56
lean or any of those disciplines just rising above and finding that thread throughout and teaching employees to
25:02
show up that way. I'd say those are that's the positive. Oh, great. I agree
25:08
100% on all points. So, kudos. Facilitated countless conversations.
25:15
Have you noticed that the most influential people tend tend to ask
25:20
better questions rather than provide better answers? I love this. I listened to your
25:27
conversation with Priya. Yes. from the other day and that because that's a lot of the messaging or what
25:33
was coming out for me when I got to have my own perspective was that gap in listening. Yes, 100%. The momentum that
25:41
can be felt when you keep listening and keep asking questions and although I'm talking a lot today, sitting quietly
25:48
really does draw out the most. That's my job is to keep you talking. [laughter] Okay. That's right. That's right. You're doing
25:53
that. But yes, you learn so much and if you pay attention to the undercurrent,
26:00
the tone, the body language, like listening between the lines is as valuable we know as only the words only
26:08
mean so much. So that influence to be able to draw
26:13
patterns and signals from conversations is very powerful and I think there's an art to it.
26:20
Absolutely. It's called active listening. And there's an 8020 rule. You always have the other person talk 80% of
26:27
26:34
person and figuring out what they're saying and ask them questions about what they're saying.
26:39
That's right. So, it really comes out to 955, but it's an 8020 rule. I do interviews with my
26:46
clients across their customers or their clients, but very much their employees to get that sort of baseline. Some might
26:52
call it like a 360, but they're interviews to draw out signals. And I noticed just very recently, we had a
26:59
senior leader join a volunteered to join a call when I like to meet one-on-one with leaders. So, we had two team
27:06
members and the leader and that was the ratio of who spoke up. That leader spoke
27:11
the most. And the team members who we were there to listen to, I think they
27:16
probably spoke five minutes in the call because that trust wasn't there. The baseline wasn't there and I couldn't
27:22
properly actively listen. No, you brought the person in that would make them shut up.
27:27
Exactly. Which I don't like to do. Yeah. No. You know, regardless of how it
27:32
happened and you had I don't know how you could tell them, but that's the reason why you couldn't get the
27:39
information out was because he was there. Yeah. No, it's true. Yeah. So,
27:44
yeah, there's a there's something to it that for sure to keep in mind. AB: Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. If you
27:52
could redesign networking from scratch for today's world, what would you
27:57
eliminate and what would you keep and what would you add?
28:03
Can you ask me one more time? Okay. If you could redesign networking from scratch in today's world, would you
28:11
what would you eliminate? What would you keep? And what would you add?
28:17
Okay. I would eliminate overly formal rooms that are too big.
28:24
Okay. I would eliminate keep or add. I would keep the ability to create our own spaces and
28:31
to just to meet each other and to ask good questions in a place that's maybe
28:37
yeah accessible. Um and I would add we're starting to do more human
28:42
connection. It's I do a ton of these podcasts and
28:49
everybody's always trying to stuff AI into the conversation because that's the new buzzword and I try to tell them AI
28:57
is a great tool, but it's not a replacement for networking. That person to person, that
29:04
feeling of the vibe of the person, feeling the vibe of the room, getting the idea of what's going on around you.
29:11
AI cannot reproduce any of that. So true. And so I can tell them because they are
29:19
they have AI companies. They're trying to network or communicate with certain other industries. And I say that's
29:25
great, but don't approach them as if AI is your company. AI is a tool. It's a
29:33
quiver in your arrow and that's all it is. because otherwise you'll never
29:39
you'll make it here to a certain point because people oh my god we have to have
29:44
AI soon as they realize what they have you can't go further. So
29:49
yeah we haven't talked about AI at all until that moment. So I it's because you know what I
29:56
especially in networking it's important but it's not the most important. what
30:01
you do is a whole lot more important than any AI company because you are
30:09
bringing people together. You're you have the emotional when I go on a stage. I just my earlier meeting here's the
30:18
difference between AI and me going on a stage. AI can't bring the emotional what
30:25
I bring to it emotionally. Also, if the room is big enough, and I've had this
30:30
happen also, is that I hear my own heart in my ears because I was so nervous
30:37
because I was talking to 300 people after the first five minutes that goes away and everything's all good. But AI
30:45
can't reproduce that. I can't. They'll tell you exactly what to say, but what
30:51
about the pauses and everything? And it's just not the same. All right. I didn't mean to take your time, but
30:56
No. No. It's I see it. It's when you're preparing for something, it's easier if you can internalize what you want to say
31:03
rather than reading a script. Unless you're acting even then that you have to embody and become your character, right?
31:08
Okay. So, let's bring this podcast full circle. When people leave one of your
31:14
networking events, what do you hope that they've gained beyond a new business
31:20
opportunity? Yeah. And the model that we're starting up, they will have learned something.
31:26
they will have felt like they could totally be themselves. They felt I've heard it right. They felt
31:34
like energized. When's the next one and how can I support? So, they'll feel motivated to do more and I've noticed
31:42
they'll I want them to feel inspired to go find other ways to kind of keep going.
31:48
Absolutely. And Natalie, I got to tell you, you're a great podcast guest. I
31:53
could probably talk to you for another two hours about certain situations and
31:58
we could do this all day long. So, right, it was really that good. But if
32:04
somebody wanted to hire you for your services or just say hello, how could
32:10
they get hold of you? Yeah, of course. LinkedIn is always a great option. Natalie K. Jackson, not
32:16
Natalie Jackson, as there are so many of them. my website the crescentcons consultancy.com and our events are I
32:23
wouldn't say invite only but reach out to me directly if you would like to be included we have aluma site out there
32:29
for the crescent experiences local to San Diego good and you can see on my LinkedIn all
32:36
the different speaking opportunities and networking things that I do and it's
32:41
really incredible when you have the right people doing it so if you are
32:47
championing the this idea of the networking groups and meetings. You're
32:52
doing a great job and just keep going the way you're going. Thank you so much. It's been so nice
32:58
meeting you. This this this was a fantastic conversation. The biggest takeaway, the best networkers
33:05
don't just build don't just build connections. They build communities. They create trust, invest in people,
33:12
leave every conversation better than they what they found it. If you enjoyed today's episode, like, follow, and
33:19
subscribe to Networking Unleashed, building profitable connections so you never miss a conversation on networking,
33:25
communication, leadership, and building relationships that create real impact.
33:31
And if this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who passionate
33:36
about people and purposeful leadership. If you're looking for a keynote speaker, executive communication coach, or
33:44
workshop leader to help you help your team communicate more effectively, build
33:49
stronger relationships, and turn conversations into opportunities,
33:54
visit michaelform.com. Again, Natalie, thank you so much for
33:59
coming on the podcast. You were wonderful. Thank you so much. I enjoyed the conversation.
34:10
Hello. I would like to welcome you to the Fusion Alliance Business Expo 2.
34:17
That's right, we're having another networking expo. Now, this one is going to be even better than the first one in
34:24
March. This one is October 22nd held at Ion Restaurant and Event Center, 6000
34:31
Medlock Bridge Parkway, Georgia. Now, this is your chance. This is your chance
34:38
to showcase your business, connect with the community, and gain unmatched exposure. This event is designed to
34:46
highlight your thriving business and is a mustattend gathering for most local
34:51
leaders and entrepreneurs. So, now what's what is there going to
34:56
be? First of all, it's free admission to the public. So, come one, come all.
35:01
There's going to be a large audience to see your business. You're going to gain new customers, build your brand, and
35:08
establish strategic partnerships. So whether you're looking to gain new
35:14
customers, build your brand, or establish strategic partnerships,
35:19
Business Expo 2 is the place to be. Don't miss your chance to be part of
35:24
this exclusive annual showcase of John's Creek's best businesses. Remember, it's
35:31
October 22nd. Remember that. October 22nd between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and
35:37
400 p.m. The location 6000 Medlockbridge Parkway, John's Creek. You can go to the
35:45
website and it's www.fusionalliance.info.
35:52
F us n l i n.info.
35:58
You can get all of it there. You can be a vendor. You can be a sponsor. Or if you want, you can just come on and enjoy
36:05
it. So, come on down. Everyone else is going to be there and just enjoy yourself.
36:11
A wrap, folks. A huge thank you to our guests for sharing such incredible insights today. And of course, a big
36:18
shout out to you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in and spending your time with us. If you're interested in my
36:26
digital courses, being coached, or having me come and talk to your company,
36:31
just go to Michael and fill out the request form. Remember, networking isn't
36:37
about being perfect. It's about being present. So, take what you've learned today, get out there, and make some
36:44
meaningful connections. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review,
36:51
and share it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration. Let's keep the conversation going. You can
36:58
find me on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or my website
37:03