📍 Epic Engagement Adventure: Michael Whitehouse, Networker Extraordinaire and Guy Who Knows A Guy

Interview with Michael Whitehouse

RJ Redden: [00:00:00] Hold on to your goggles. It's time for the epic engagement adventure.

Hello. Greetings, grasshoppers. You know who this is if you don't Epic Engagement Adventure's here, uh, today my friend. Today we have The Guy Who Knows a Guy, his name is Michael Whitehouse. That's right. He's pointing at himself right now. Let me tell you, the first time that I met Michael, it was at a big networking type of thing, and this guy wrote a blog article about me and then sent me the link and said, is it okay if I post this on my blog?

And I'm like, Yeah. And then I thought to myself. This one has moves. Uh, this one knows how this flow goes. And so I am so proud to introduce you, Michael Whitehouse. Michael, welcome to [00:01:00] the show.

Michael Whitehouse: Thank you. I should write more blog articles about more people that just occurred to me, cuz I've only written, I, there's very few I've actually written blogs about, but I mean, with the, you got the goggles and the whole thing.

Because I, I went to that event and I was thinking like, Hey, this is business. So business is gonna be serious and everyone's gonna be serious in business. And fortunately I do have the serious business look and I hide my, my geeky side cuz you know, I couldn't do the serious business thing. And then I see you at that event and everyone's like, Oh, Rj yeah, no, she's great.

And I'm like, Wait. But she's looks very obviously geeky in a professional networking setting. Wait a minute, that's brand differentiation and it wor oh, oh, I love the business world now. This is exciting.

RJ Redden: Well, and I was so excited because brand new way, brand new thought, you know, uh, there's so much, so many things are taught traditionally, right?

Mm-hmm. and, uh, and folks kind of tow that line, but not you, Michael, uh, you presented me something [00:02:00] whole different, and, uh, that's only one of the reasons that I'm having you here today. Please tell the people who you are, what you do, why you do it.

Michael Whitehouse: All right, so I am Michael Whitehouse, The Guy Who Knows a Guy, and back in 2014, I wandered into a networking event.

I didn't say wandered. I strolled confidently into a networking event. I was moving to an area where I knew nobody and had a half baked idea for a business. At the time, I thought I was fully baked. It was not, it was half baked. So I had no job, no business, but I knew I needed a network. Someone told me what the main chamber of commerce was in the area I was moving to.

It was driving distance. So the day before I moved to my new apartment, I went to my first networking event and I started meeting people totally during on fire. I didn't know how to network, I didn't know how it was supposed to be done, but I, in retrospect, I realized almost for a place of imposter syndrome, I knew I had nothing to offer.

The only thing I had to offer was the other people I was [00:03:00] meeting at these events. So I started introducing them. Before you knew it, I was like, Hey, do you know the mayor of this city over here? Because I've been, I'm like, No, I don't. Oh, you probably should. Let me connect you. Oh. Do you know the person who runs the biggest event in the county?

No. Okay. Let me connect you because, you know, we live in a relatively small county for by New England standards. Uh, and so, so even the biggest, most influential people aren't rock stars. And so they were open to being introduced. And of course, to me, I'm like, Wow, I can meet these people. Oh, Um, cause I realized they're all just people and they wanna meet people.

And within six months I'm making introductions to movers and shakers. And a few years later I realized, Huh, I seem to know a thing that other people aren't doing. It's easily replicable. Why don't I write it down? So I wrote it down and I wrote this book. The Guy Who Knows a Guy, um, and. And I, I basically, the main reason I wrote the book besides to share what I knew was so I could put [00:04:00] author in my bio, um, because, you know, when you're an author is one step off from expert.

And I wanted people to think better of me. So I wrote a book and it's actually a chapter in the book where I talk about the, the value of writing a book for the sake of writing a book. Because once you write a book, you're an author. It's not like good book author, it's just, I mean, there's best selling author, one step above, but author is author.

Your book can be full of spelling mistakes and incomplete sentences and incoherent thoughts, but if it's got an ISBN number on the back of it, you're an author. I like to think mine.

RJ Redden: You're an author.

Michael Whitehouse: I'd like to say mine's better than that, but that's how I got there. And then in 2020 there was this little pandemic thing, which blew up everything and forced me to do the thing I should have done all along.

Uh, also created the opportunity to do the thing that I really should. Which was lean hard into my own entrepreneurship. Cause I kept, I basically bounced from mediocre sales job to mediocre sales job. And [00:05:00] cuz I, I decided I wanted to go the, you know, the sa I, I tried running a business, It was a game store, never made money.

I tried some other things, didn't make money. Okay, I'm gonna settle down and do the responsible thing, you know, get a job. But the jobs I got were sales jobs and I kept not making much money and my wife basically had to support me for many, many, many years. And she is an amazing. Very patient woman who never lost faith in me long after I lost faith in myself.

Um, she was still staying there with me. So when 2020 came, I said, I'm gonna lean into my thing. I'm gonna figure out what the heck it is. Partly boosted by some of this government assistance, um, and then later supported by gig work, DoorDash, Uber, and I'm like, I'm just going to ride this out. Cuz I realized I could drive Uber and make enough to pay the bills.

I didn't have to go get some sales job. And for me, I'm an extrovert who likes to drive. So Uber's not even at work. It's like 30 bucks an hour to listen to podcasts and meet strangers. It was awesome. In fact, sometimes I still do. I don't have to do it now, but sometimes I do it just for fun. [00:06:00] Because it's, you never know who's gonna get in the car. They're going to parties, they're going to the casino, they're, you know, I drive on weekends, it's so much fun.

But, so I leaned into that and for a year and a half, explore like, what am I gonna be doing? And finally, uh, Phil Pacha, who we both know, he said to me, You know, I go, sometimes some people get paid to make introductions. Not a lot of them. There's very few, but there are people who get paid just to make introductions.

And I was like, What? That's like someone selling you, You know, some people get paid to drink beer. Yeah, except I can make introductions all day long. I can't drink beer all day long, so, So yeah, I started shopping that around like, so I talk to people I know and say, Hey, so people get paid to make introductions, how, you know, what do you think about that?

And finally, one person basically said, How much do you want? I was like, What? He's like, Yeah, you've got all the events. You send me the people I wanna meet you save me all the time. And that's what became networking concierge. How much do you want me to pay you for that? I'm like, Ah, uh. By May of 2022, I had a [00:07:00] six figure business doing that.

Um, now I'm starting to lean back into some programs, some training courses, some things like that. But my focus is on doing the thing I naturally do and love doing, which is making introductions. And that's the main thing, my main business. Uh, and that's pretty much brings us up to date in a very condensed form

RJ Redden: That was condensed and knowing you I am impressed. Uh, yes. Well, and it's, it's one of those things where we think we have to do so many things to make a living, to eat a, you know, tiny little existence out from the world where when you zoom back, and especially you Michael, with what I know you're passionate about, get, giving introductions, never gets old for you.

It just never, it never is gonna go, Okay, well that's run it's course. Um, because you're passionate about introducing people, it helps [00:08:00] you be creative and expressive and, uh, you know, I mean, I'm just, uh, I'm so glad to be on your list of people that you, uh, introduce people to. It's really, really a great place to be.

By the way, everybody just get to know Michael, you need to do this, you need to do this. Uh, he is not scary at all. Uh, gosh, that What a beautiful story, cuz I, you know, I can't remember when I met you, but it was before the big boom, you know?

Michael Whitehouse: Yep. Uh, yeah. June 21.

RJ Redden: June 21. June, 2021. Uh, gosh. Well, so, so tell me, you know, what kind of, what kind of successes, you know, you kind of mentioned, uh, six figures, that's always success.

Mm-hmm. , I think you're also, uh, bringing in somebody to the business.

Michael Whitehouse: I am bringing my wife into the business. So Nice. After seven years of her supporting me, [00:09:00] uh, I'll finally be able to support her. And so she's gonna be working with me. She's also gonna be working on her own. Um, she has a, a glow forage craft business. She uses fricking laser beams. Pew boo.

RJ Redden: Oh, I may need to get in touch with her.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah. Yeah. She, she can make all kinds of cool stuff in that glow forge. So she, she does that kind of stuff and it's just gonna be, it's gonna allow her to, to work the way she wants to work. Um, cuz she's not, she's not digging the corporate environment so much anymore.

I mean, But it's the wrong is she cares too much. Um, the corporate environment, most people like, they put up a shield and they're like, Okay, not my job. Oh, looks like that's on fire. That looks a, looks, looks like a u problem. Whereas she'd be like, That's on fire. I need to take care of it. I need to take care of this.

I need to take care of that. Which is she, she works like an entrepreneur. She gets paid like an employee. Oh yeah. She was covering someone's job cuz it was vacant for a while. Um, and I asked her, I'm like, she got two jobs. You getting two [00:10:00] paychecks? And she's like, Ha ha ha. And I'm like, I'm not kidding. And she says, Yes, someone else that there's a, a real estate investor who, uh, she's a property manager, so a real estate investor who, uh, who rents that number of apartments and, and re rents them.

And, and he said the exact same thing. And I'm like, Yeah, that's how entrepreneurs think. You do two jobs, you get paid twice. If I'm covering someone's job, I expect to get paid for it. You know, I'll have clients say, Hey, do you wanna do this other thing? And I'll be like, Sure. It's gonna cost this much more. It's not like, Hey, since you're working for us, you're also gonna do this the hell I am.

That's not how this works. But if you're an employee, they can say, Hey, could you just cover this other complete role for like six months? Yeah. And we'll give you like, uh, you know, a couple hundred dollars.

RJ Redden: Yeah. Oh, you're, you're just auditioning for your next thing? Yeah. We just wanna see how you're gonna No, no, no, no, no, no.

Michael Whitehouse: Uh, but yeah, she got promoted and then she had to cover her old job for six months. Um, so [00:11:00] yeah, it, it was awesome. So, so, yeah. So I'm excited to bring her on because for one thing, she'll be happier and happy wife, happy life, and is very, very, very true. Um, and also she is really good at the stuff I'm not good at. So if you want to be successful, do the things you are good at and not the things you're not good at.

So I'm not good at systems, funnels, copywriting process, which is part of why I don't have programs other than I go meet lots of people and introduce you to the best of them. Um, which is very simple. Yeah, logistically simple program. But I don't have courses, funnels, um, any of that kind of stuff in place, just cuz I don't have the mind to put it together.

So I, I am gonna start doing like a monthly webinar. I, I think, cause I do have some programs where I know some stuff I can teach. It's pretty straight, you know, I have Inner Circle, which is get on a Zoom call with me once a week and ask me any questions you want. So I, you know, open up my brain and you can take whatever you want from it.[00:12:00]

Um, and it's, it's priced according, it's fairly low cost program cuz it's pretty easy for me to run. I'm just kinda like, Oh yeah, I answer your question. Sure. But for the people who need it, like, An entrepreneur who will tell them about everything that's functioning in their business can sometimes jump you ahead six, 12 months.

Cause they're like, Oh, that's how you maintain an email list. You know, basic things of like, how do you build an email list? Well, you get people to sign up to. No, no. What website do I log into to put an email list on? Like, some people are at that stage and they could spend six months banging their head against the wall or trying to do a BCC list or something cuz they don't have that.

So that's why I'm creating that. But, but, uh, she's gonna be able to help me, you know, do that next, next level thing. Um, and, and those kinds of, you know, on the DISC profile, I'm high Id, she's much more Cs. So we'll have, Yeah, we'll have the full, the full profile and then we will rule the world. Not rule the world.

That sounds like a lot of work, but [00:13:00] yeah. We'll have a much more big and successful business.

RJ Redden: Yeah. Yeah. Having the systems that surround your business is, uh, I mean, to me it's key. And to me it's not always where I go first. I always just wanna step in front of a camera. Can't I just, can I just step in front of a camera?

I mean, you know what I mean? But having those things, I'm so glad that she's coming on. Mm-hmm. , honestly, you are living my dream. You are living my dream. Um, and now I don't know if my wife would ever really wanna work with me, um, but I wanna retire her. Yeah. Yeah. She has stood on her feet so long, years and years and, uh, I wanna, I wanna get her doing stuff that she wants to do just cuz she loves it.

Michael Whitehouse: Uh, so, so my wife and I, we've worked together [00:14:00] at sci-fi conventions. So we, so we know what it's like to work together. We actually, so, you know, some couples and they work together. It's like, uh, whereas we are, we have a better relationship when we're working together. It gives us something to talk about.

Yeah. It gives us project to work on together. Uh, and also we'll be doing different parts of the same thing and she won't be doing mission critical things. So I, I think that's where the stress comes, uh, comes in where like if she's doing the billing. And I'm like, Why aren't these bills sent out? We need the money.

We don't have the money. Cause you didn't send the bills. You know, we, it won't be that kind of thing. She'll be building the systems for the future if she doesn't build the funnel for six months. She doesn't build the funnel for six months. We don't have the funnel. You know, it's, it's not, it's not things, you know, she's not running life support.

Um, so it takes, takes a lot of the pressure off the, the, the business, business, personal relationship.

RJ Redden: Uh, well, so, so the [00:15:00] main question, uh, the question of the hour, Mr. Michael, how do you engage your audience? Tell us everything.

Michael Whitehouse: Well, how do I engage my audience? So I'm gonna respond to James' comment that I saw.

Um, cuz say, he says, I downplay my skills as a writer. So I'm good at writing. I'm not good at writing that converts. Um, but the way I engage in writing. Is the same thing that makes my audience like me, I think also makes it not make them give me money. Um, so I'm still working on finding that balance, but when I write copy that I put in emails, blogs, whatever, I'm not starting the point of I'm selling a thing. How do I sell it?

A lot of copy that you read, it's clearly like I'm telling a story that's gonna lead you down a path and you start reading and you're like, this isn't even a story. This is, you know, when I was young, my parents used to take me to the beach and I always enjoyed the star and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like, [00:16:00] this is, it's, it's a fake story. It's a plastic story. Whereas when I tell a story, you know, sometimes my email will, you know, I'll write an email on Wednesday about something that happened on Monday in my life. Um, and then I'll tie it back cuz I'm, I use my email, my email list, like a social media platform, like my own personal social media.

So I'll say this thing happened yesterday, today, this morning I woke up and, you know, fairly immediate stuff, partly cause I have ADHD and I can't remember anything about past last week. So I can't tell old stories. I, they're gone to me. Uh, but, but yeah, so, so I, I make it very personal, you know, if you read my emails, you actually know to some degree what's going on in my life.

Like, you can actually kind of follow along and then... what I usually end up having said at the end, I'm like, Oh, and if you wanna learn more, my inner circle program might be beneficial to you. So here's how you join it. But it's kind of like, I feel like I should probably sell you something at the end of all this writing.

Uh, I've [00:17:00] got this thing you could buy if you want or not, you know, whatever. Um, but that's how I create that, is that authenticity and a platform I've discovered really rewards, authenticity is TikTok. I look like your typical tiktoker, obviously.

RJ Redden: Oh, sure. Yeah.

Michael Whitehouse: So, so TikTok, is it, it's come a long way since it was musically. Um, it is no longer a a, I mean, it is still a site where people do goofy dances and tell jokes and whatever you want is on TikTok. But the discovery algorithm is so good. It, it's, as far as I can tell, nobody can figure out how to hack the discovery algoritm. So nobody really knows like what, what the way to do to manipulate it is.

Which means all you could do is just make the best content you can and it will direct you to the people who should see it. Uh, and more than Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube. It seems [00:18:00] to do that. And I say this because my content is simply, I pull my phone out and I express opinions about things like the labor shortage.

That's got me so many hits, um, you know, Gen Z in the workforce. Uh, cause a lot of what I talk about is how the world is changing. And if you think you're gonna get a job and live on a paycheck, good luck buddy. Um, and how you can start a business. You can be a gig worker, all these different things. And the key thing I've found, if you wanna get big on TikTok, is share authentic opinions.

Something you really believe and know what you're talking about. But that's a bit controversial. Now don't bait controversy cuz then I think people will see that and be like, All right, this guy. But, but you know, if you're a bit controversial when I post about the labor shortage, then I get a whole bunch of people on one side being like, Yeah, these greedy corporations and that's why I quit my job and that's why I'm an Uber driver or whatever.

And then the other side, you get the people who are like these lazy kids, they don't wanna work anymore and then they start arguing in the comments and engage. Um, but the things you remember is negative [00:19:00] comments are just as good as positive comments for the algorithm. Cuz engagement is engagement. So whenever someone posts something negative you don't need to argue with them. You just need to say thank you for your opinion, because their opinion is worth another 50 to a hundred views. So that person who's, who's basically saying, You shouldn't be talking, you're totally wrong, just expose you to a hundred more people.

So haters are awesome on TikTok.

RJ Redden: Haters are awesome!

Michael Whitehouse: That that's on the last six weeks, I have two posts that broke under 50,000 views. I've gone from a thousand followers to 5,000 followers by simply stoking the conversation on there and keeping it going. Now, what I have not figured out is what to do with it.

I, I've had a couple people who have reached out to me and say, Hey, I saw you on TikTok ,I wanted to connect, but not many. So there is another art form to putting the right link in the bio and that kind of stuff, which I haven't really haven't put any attention to. But I built the 5,000 followers just by [00:20:00] sharing my opinion. I think a lot of people, I, I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk video and this guy was saying, Yeah, I've pre-recorded seven videos and I put them on TikTok. I wanna make sure I can do one a day and B blah B blah. And I'm worry the people this and that. And I'm like, I just started shooting videos and I was running with a hundred followers for months.

I was like, I have opinions. I'm gonna talk to my phone and share them. Uh, now I need to actually say somewhat consistent in what I talk about now that I actually have a following. Cuz if I start talking about like geek stuff, my following was mostly there for economic stuff, they'd be like, Okay, what are you talking about, buddy?

Yeah. But, but it, it's, the biggest mistake people make I think, is they think too much about it. They're like, Okay, my content's gotta be perfect and formatted and exciting and engaging. And one, they never start cuz they think too much. Yeah. And two, it's too hard. They won't enjoy the process. They won't stick with it.

You know, my podcast, my, my interview, my, The Guy Knows a Guy podcast in order versus Superpowers Podcast. I've [00:21:00] optimized them that if I, if I put them up myself, it takes about 10 minutes past the interview. Um, I now have VA who does all that for me. Um, but when I was doing it myself, I got it down to under 10 minutes to get the cover photo, get everything together, get it up.

I found the right tools. I used Captivate that automatically creates blog posts. Um, but I created a system that was efficient enough that I'd keep doing. Cause I realized if I had to do it, and it was when it was taking 45 minutes an hour. I was putting out an episode over three weeks. Cause I'd be like, Oh, I gotta put out another episode.

Yeah. Okay. As opposed to, Oh, I didn't put an episode this week. Okay. Uh, yeah, yeah, let's do that right now. Um, I, oh actually sometimes when, when I got backlogged, cause I kind of forgot about one of my podcasts, I got backlogged, one of my, my guests. Even when we said, Hey, my episode, when's that coming out?

And I was like, Uh, 20 minutes. Hold on. Yeah. put together, Boom. Your episode's out. Here you go. Um, Because, Yeah, I, I had it recorded. I just hadn't gotten around to, to doing [00:22:00] it cuz I'm not always super on top of things. Um, but, but, you know, I, I optimize it to make it simple enough that I'd actually do it.

The best system in the world is useless if you won't do it. So that optimization is key.

RJ Redden: It is absolutely key. Yeah, I, I, I, I know how you feel. I, uh, I need to, uh, it is on my list to start TikTok as well. Uh, I'm glad to hear that you're having a great experience with it. I, I know a lot of people who have, I think what has thrown me off is, again, that consistency mm-hmm.

Um, but, uh, I, I feel it, man. I feel it could be great. Uh, I feel it could be some good storytelling.

Michael Whitehouse: Good question is: basically, how often do you have opinions?

RJ Redden: Well, I, I don't know if I'd get on with my opinions.

Michael Whitehouse: Well, business opinions or, [00:23:00] Yeah.

RJ Redden: Yeah. Um, I would love to, uh, you know, I've been doing this, I've been doing a short series on, uh, LinkedIn, most days. And what I would love to do is get on and after I do the LinkedIn part, do a TikTok of those same material, just shorten it up a little bit. Yep. Um, and, uh, and yeah, you know, it's in a different platform. Little bit different content. See, see, see what happens, you know? Um, but that's, uh, I had never heard before that haters are a great thing on any platform. I have never, but it's probably not for the thin-skinned, I would assume.

Michael Whitehouse: I dunno. And, and, and you have to look at, Well I think about TikTok cuz I think it's 80 characters in comments. So they're really short comments. Um, like on Facebook you get into a comment discussion with a person who knows how to read.

Like you can have a, now the nice thing is you can have an actually really interesting conversation on Facebook cuz you can go into [00:24:00] paragraph. And sometimes I've had people who start, as you know, they seem like haters and trolls. Then you're like, Oh, you just have a different opinion. They, okay, Oh, here's your sources. I see where you're getting that from. Here's my sources. And you can actually learn something. TikTok, you really can't do that cause you can't put links in the comments. And it's just like, ah. But so when you realize that you've got someone who like their username is user 1 2, 9 7 4, 6 3, they have no profile photo and they're just like, You're stupid, stupid.

Um, you know, it doesn't really hurt your feelings. You're like, you're a Russian bot, obviously. Um, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So are you a Russian bot or are you an Iranian bot or are you a Chinese bot? That, that's, that's really the only question you have for those kinds of people. Um, and, and of course, because they are either, you know, just honestly trolls or they're professional trolls.

Cause there are people out there who are paid by certain governments to like stir the pot. You don't feel bad again, getting real snarky with 'em, you know, [00:25:00] Alexandra Hamilton type arguments. It's fun. Um, um, but you can also just kind of ignore them and just say, Thank you for your contribution, or, thank you for your support. That's great. When someone's like, You're the stupidest thing that ever stupid did. Thank you for your support.

RJ Redden: Um, the Bartles and James guys, thank you for your support. Yep. That was from a long time ago.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah. But even on Facebook and LinkedIn. All all comments are good comments. Um, so they're, I think LinkedIn's a bit pickier. If they're too short, they don't count as much, but, uh, negative comments don't tend to be short. No. Most people don't comment like you're dumb. You know, they'll usually tell you why you're dumb. And if they do it, the, the more they do it, the more the algorithm's like, Oh wow, this person really cares. And it's really interested in engaging.

So yeah. So negative comments can be useful. It just, you, you do need to condition yourself to not take it [00:26:00] personally. Yeah. When you get that negativity. But that's, that's either people have to really love you or you have to be contentious. Those the two ways you're going to get that engagement. Because all the platforms want things that are gonna make people keep coming back.

Arguments make people come back. Oh, notification. There's a new comment on the post I'm arguing on. I better get back in there and make sure I don't lose the last word.

RJ Redden: Uh, I'm definitely gonna lean on the side of love and not contention. Yep. Uh, my, my skin ain't thick enough, uh, for contention, so, but you know, no matter where you are on that spectrum, uh, my gentle, beautiful listeners, uh, you there, that is a place that is a place where, you know, we're so conditioned, uh, to believe that the, you know, whatever algorithm we're on, sucks, or we don't even know what the word algorithm means. It means system. Um, and you know, [00:27:00] we just are conditioned to going, nobody's gonna listen to this. But TikTok's different. Mm-hmm. I'm really glad you brought TikTok up.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and the fun thing with TikTok is most of the trolls don't make videos.

So you make a video and someone disagrees with you. They disagree with you on the little 80 characters, and you can reply to comment. With videos. So they're there, they're like, You were wrong, this reason. And so then you reply with video. That comment appears on the video and then it's you for up to three minutes.

If you do a long form video saying, and I've had a, I had one, I, I mostly do the one minute cuz I need to be really interesting to keep you for three minutes. But I had one where, where someone was, I was talking about the labor shortage and they, they said, Here's an idea. Let's tax all those people on welfare and make them work. And, you know, something along those lines. So I, I vi I video replied to the comment and I opened with, Wow, this is so wrong. I'm gonna need three minutes to [00:28:00] answer this one . And just dove into tearing it apart on video. You know, good solid rant. People love a good rant, Uh, and just went at it. And even if I, I don't think the guy even commented again, but even if they did, I'm responding with a three minute video to which they get 80 characters of text.

RJ Redden: And if so, lemme lemme get this straight then. Like you, as the content creator can respond in video, but they can't?

Michael Whitehouse: Uh, anyone can respond in video. They just don't.

RJ Redden: Oh, they just don't.

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now there is certainly it could happen that another content creator decides to video respond to your stuff.

Um, that's, that's what stitching is. It's where they, Yeah. They take the first, they take five seconds outta your video and then they respond to it. But you're not usually gonna get a troll. It's hard to troll someone in a video, um, cuz a troll like, just sounds like an idiot. Um, cuz you have to be like, you're wrong, you're dumb.

And, you know, then you could [00:29:00] respond to that and be like, really that's, that's your response that you have to me. Um, you know, if you're comfortable on camera at all, then you probably have the advantage. The trollers, like it's sounds stupid. I, I had won this world was hilarious. We're debating economics as we, we often do.

Cause I had job policy and whatnot and, and he said, Take a basic economics course. And so I replied, I was like, I believe I did take one of those at the beginning of my university days at the end of which I got my degree in economics. Yeah. . I, I I, I did a video, um, where it was, where someone was, Yeah. They were just completly of in LaLa Land.

RJ Redden: Beautiful. Oh my God. I'm gonna have to see that.

Michael Whitehouse: I did a video, but again, I don't have any idea how to use the, I don't know how to use the effects. I don't know how to use the, the filters or anything. So I did video with my, with my diploma behind me, and I used my old phone as a prop, and in the video I'm calling UMass my, my al mater.

Then I'm [00:30:00] like, Hey, UMass Economics department. I just found out from this guy on the internet. Everything you taught me is wrong. We gotta change the textbook.

Yeah, so, so I did the, the classic one-sided conversation, um, about how, you know, this random, random dude on the internet who doesn't even have a profile picture just told me that everything we learned is wrong. And you know, we gotta fix this. We gotta get this guy in there, rewrite all the textbooks, rewrite all the theory, everything we learned is wrong.

Random dude in the comments told me. Think up to 1500 views on that video and a lot of law comments. It was, But that's thing, you know, if the haters bug you, I think that that's the frustration when you, like, say you make a Facebook post and somebody replies for something really ignorant. The best you can do is comment back, but it's still text, verse text, like there's no boom fit it.

I mean, you could make a new post to reply to them, but it's still text versus text. You can't, [00:31:00] you can't over-shout them. On TikTok when somebody makes a really dumb comment, you can get louder than them because you can respond. Now, this does depend on you being good on, like, if you're not comfortable on camera and you're like, Oh, uh, uh, uh, TikTok not your platform, but if you're comfortable being on camera and you can get a good, get a good energy flowing, um, then it, it's a great platform for that.

If a hater bugs you enough, you can just demolish some another video and that one might go viral. There you go. So there, there's nothing they can do that's negative for you. They can give you more attention and they can give you more material, and that's all a hater can do.

RJ Redden: Wow. That sounds wonderful. Uh, you're making me wanna jump back into that.

Michael Whitehouse: Very welcome.

RJ Redden: Sounds so good.

Michael Whitehouse: Well, and, and what I did was, uh, I'd walk my daughter to the bus every day. And so on the way back, it tick took about two or three minutes to get back home. So I'd record the video as I walked back. So if you look at my [00:32:00] TikTok, there's a lot of videos of me walking down this like wooded path that's our street.

Um, so there's these videos of me talking about whatever walking down the street. Um, and you can tell based on the background, like if I had to re-record it, . Yeah. If I start with the mailboxes, then you know, I did it in one take. If I start you. Walking towards the house, you know, I got home and decided to do it again.

Yeah. But, um, but yeah, so, so it's finding those, if you have a minute, um, and someplace quiet enough to record, and actually it's noise cancellation now. So even like you're walking down the road and there's cars going by, you hit noise cancellation.

RJ Redden: They, they do keep developing that app, which yeah makes me happy. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, things like Facebook haven't been developed. You can do something new now, uh, in what feels like a long time. Um, yeah, so fantastic. Well, so [00:33:00] folks, if you are looking for engagement, you feel comfortable in front of the camera, TikTok, you can't lose. Uh, it sounds like you just can't lose.

Um, whatever mode you are gonna use for engagement, please choose your weapon wisely. Uh, know where your people are, visit them, encourage them, love on 'em. They'll come back to you. Uh, and uh, with that, I think I'm gonna wrap up this beautiful episode. Um, by the way, you can get a hold of Michael, uh, on TikTok.

Uh, he is @ The Guy Who Knows a Guy. Mm-hmm. . Uh, so go get him. Uh, I think that's also your website, isn't it?

Michael Whitehouse: Website is the guy who knows. Guy knows a guy with no the, so it's okay. Alright. Not a guy who knows. A guy in TikTok know the, it's just a guy who knows a guy. Cause I couldn't get the guy who knows a guy.

Um, [00:34:00] on websites, sadly, but yes. Um, I actually confirm that is the right one. Yep. There it is. Perfect. Up to fifty, one hundred and twenty eight followers.

RJ Redden: Woo. Uh, that's some cool stuff. Uh, and yeah, listen, uh, no matter what you think of TikTok, Michael is a absolutely genuine. Superhuman guy, uh, who knows many, many, many people.

Um, so, excuse me, Uh, get ahold of this man. Uh, do it. Follow him on TikTok. Uh, write him, smoke signal him. Whatever you need to do, get on his list of people that he knows because, uh, okay. No smoke signals people, uh, but, uh, a series of beeps. Try that.

Uh, and, [00:35:00] uh, with that we'll, uh, wrap it up today. Um, just want to let everybody know, got an event coming up October 12th, Power Networking. Speaking of networking, uh, doing some power networking with Jane Powers that crazy redhead and I are gonna, you know, we're gonna. Thing. Uh, we had a wonderful success last time.

A lot of people came, a lot of people show up that I didn't knew, didn't know, and uh, and it was an amazing time. So if you wanna meet some awesome people, uh, then Power Networking. And it's on October 12th, we're on LinkedIn, so find us. And, uh, that's all I have. My friends.

Michael Whitehouse: I, I'd totally be there, but I'm going to a live networking event like in New York City. Oh. With like standing up and like drinking wine and handing out actual cards. It's crazy.

RJ Redden: That does sound crazy. Uh, although I would [00:36:00] say go QR code handing out cards has become, uh, you know, uh, but, uh...

Michael Whitehouse: Oh no, I'm all about cards. That's, that's, I've maintained strong opinions about that because with cards, the cards go in my pocket. And I will then get home and I will take the cards out and that is my to-do list. Yeah, if I scan QR codes, I've got contacts in my phone, I will have no idea who I talk to, No idea who I need to follow up with. So, um, so always carry these one business card cuz you might run into me.

RJ Redden: And if you do, it's gonna be a great day, my friends.

Uh, so that's it, bots of love, and I'll see y'all later. Hi.