LinkedIn: Your Million Dollar Network - Matt Cretzman

0:00Welcome to The Proven Podcast, where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. everyone says networking is about collecting contacts. Today's guest, Matt Kretzman, proves it's about rebuilding your entire life. He's proven that strategic relationships on platforms like LinkedIn aren't just career boosters, they're life rebuilders. The show starts now. All right, everybody, welcome back. I'm excited about today's show because this one talks about tragedy all the way to radical success. So, Matthew, thank you so much for being on the show. Oh, no, it's my pleasure, Charles. It's going to be a lot of fun.

0:33It's For those that are listening, I think we're going to take you on a ride today. Absolutely. Let's start that ride. You know, you've been through some stuff and most people have no idea who you are. And for those of you who are paying attention or don't know, go get some tissues. There's going to be some stuff here. So this is this hurts a little bit. So let's get into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm actually right now where I'm reporting from is this little town called Buddha, Illinois, which is it's two hours outside of Chicago. I'd never heard of Buddha until one of my best friends moved here.

1:01and um and i just wrapped up uh visiting my parents and and doing a conference over in toronto and um and wanted to route through here but as we kind of get into the backstory you know my life has been always about relationships um i you know my one of one of the the leaders in my life that i admire he said your destiny is defined by your relationships and so you know john maxwell says you know you're the sum average of your five who are your five that you're spending most of the time with. And as I look back on my life, that's always been the constant, like the, the, the, the biggest decisions that I've made in my life was because somebody spoke into that or somebody had influence over me.

1:36And I, I, I, I know liked and trusted them and there was a lot of respect. So back when I was young, I, I went on a couple of trips to a few different countries and fell in love with, um, fell in love with travel. I mean, I grew up watching Indiana Jones, right. That we were, I think we were from that era. Um, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, man, is that a job? like because i want to be that right can i do that yeah yeah funny thing did you know with indiana jones it was originally not going to be him it was going to be the guy from magnum pi it was going to be uh tom sellick was the original person who was cast but the tv show wouldn't let him out of it so they had to bring in harrison ford but now i can't imagine anybody other than harrison ford doing it he's so iconic he's so iconic i know yeah yeah and the young indiana jones chronicles i don't know if you ever watched all this stuff yeah it's so good yeah so i mean that you know travel like anyways yeah that's what i grew up watching that stuff and i was like man i just love the adventure the travel the pursuit of you know beating the bad guys and winning and and so when i took trips at uh you know like trips overseas and and throughout latin america as a young kid my first trip to mexico was 2001 my first trip to the dominican republic was 2003 and coming from canada and toronto you know growing up in suburbia uh it just it blew me away i was like how are people living in these conditions how is this like this is what is actually what most of the world I think is actually experiencing as light.

2:52And, uh, and so from a young age, I was like, man, I really want to do something to help these people and, uh, just make an impact on their lives and kind of improve their situation. So, um, very young, like that was inside of my heart and that was my focus and my goal. So later on just to accelerate the story, ended up getting married in 2007, had my first kid in 2008. I was 21 when I got married and I was a week 22 when I had my first child, her name was Aslyn. She was born eight days after I turned 22 and she made me a dad and it was super special. I love being a dad. I've, I ended up having three girls, so I have no clue what it's like to raise boys.

3:26Um, maybe a little bit because I am one, but from this perspective, like I'm a girl dad through and through. And so I had Aslan in 2008 at the time I was working as a, uh, as a used car salesman, though I was not that used car salesman. Okay. I was an honest used car salesman. That's right. Might be an oxymoron. That might be, you know, I'm trying to come upstream, man. Maybe not so much. You know, I'm changing. I'm trying to change the trend. It sounds like a campaign, you know, like, yeah, there you go. And so, yeah, I was doing that. And then it came to time where I was like, all right, I'm ready to do this thing.

3:58I'm just going to launch out. So I started a nonprofit organization in January, 2010, quit my job, packed up everything, put a bunch of stuff in storage. This was in Southern Ontario. And I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go and live in Latin America. I ended up setting my sights on Dominican Republic and being a Canadian, it was pretty easy for me to get into Cuba, whereas Americans, it's a little bit harder. Yeah, we can't do it. Complicated. Totally different. Yeah, exactly. Side note, there's actually 11 provisions that allow Americans to travel to Cuba. Yes. Yeah. We'll save that for the bonus episode.

4:28Bonus episode. Bonus episode. So, you know, as I was traveling, just kind of presenting my mission to people all over the US, I went up traveling to 45 different states and I've been all over the place and people love my vision. Like, you know, we get it. We're going to we're behind you. We're going to support you. And everything was going great. It was it was super special. October 20th, 2010, Maddie was born. And so the height of my travel, which was 2010 to 2013, I had, you know, I had a two year old and a newborn. And it was it was tough. We just we you know, we grinded. I can tell you many, many stories.

5:05Again, bonus episode of driving all night. pulling over at pit stops and falling asleep in the same bathroom stall that I had just driven three months prior because I was so exhausted. That's, you know, real talk, you know, but when you're starting an early stage, even company or organization, that's what you got to do. Like, you got to, you got to put in the grind and you got to put in the work. And for me, I was very mission driven and focused. I really wanted to make a difference. So it kept me going up until, up until one event that just so radically changed my life and i still feel the ripple effect of what that was even to this day so to set the stage maddie loose uh maddie and aslin aslin was three maddie was 18 months we had pulled over in north carolina we were traveling to ohio for a conference and um as i was driving through northern north carolina mount airy other side note fun fact um Um, Andy Griffith show was filmed in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

6:04And that's, that's really old. I know I'm not even that old, but I know that stuff. It's good to know these things. There you go. You're driving through. I was driving through, yeah, North Carolina and being a Canadian, this was February in North Carolina. And I wasn't that concerned about the snow because I grew up in the snow. But what I learned that day and since is not every state or place has the same infrastructure to deal with inclement weather such as snow as Canada does. And so as I was driving north with my family, we were, you know, driving along and I'd see a car in the ditch here and a truck in the ditch over there.

6:43And I was driving the speed limit being very careful. And Aslan, you know, she was falling asleep and so was Maddie. And we came to a bridge just before Mount Airy. And as we drove over that bridge, our tires actually hit black ice. I didn't see it. And so they stopped, you know, they just lost traction. The back of the van started to swing out. Kids were asleep, thank God. And I remember my wife at the time, you know, just woke up just screaming as we're just careening out of control. And so what ended up happening was the van spun off in the middle between the North and South highways. There was this large green space.

7:22And in the green space, there was this big interstate pole and our van came to a collision halt right on Aslan's door on that interstate pole. And so a bunch of smoke, glass shattered. I was, you know, a little bit disoriented. The airbag punched me in the face and it kind of fractured my nose a little bit. And, and it was just, it was a scene out of a horror movie. It was, it was, it was unreal. And so, so I ended up, uh, I drive with my shoes off. So I wasn't even wearing my shoes. My phone went flying. So I jumped out of the, the, the driver's side window and came around to the other side of the van.

8:01And that's where I looked. And I mean, that side of the, of the, of the vehicle was just a complete disaster. It was a wreck. Like it blasted the door. Um, Aslan was there kind of slumped over and imagine like being a dad, like at that moment, I'm like, I don't know what I do. Do I pick her up? Do I not? Do I, you know, where's my phone? I can't call 911. And so I was just frozen. And I remember just, you know, shouting out, you know, God, don't take my child. I was like, you know, just don't take my child. And, and I remember scooping her up and holding her and her body kind of heaved a little bit.

8:35And I was like, oh, thank God she's alive. What ended up happening later on was I found out that that was actually her body just express, you know, expelling all of the air that was in her lungs. And, um, and I, and I, you know, I held onto her to the last minute. And so there's a lot that I could tell about that story. That's not for this podcast, maybe a bonus episode, but there were so many miracles that happened after that event that just brought so much healing and, and, and meaning I would say to what was a tragedy, uh, as an obviously ended up passing away, uh, the community wrapped their arms around us and just just blessed us immensely.

9:12People donated burial plots. They covered the funeral cost. It was it was actually live streamed on the local news, WXII, NBC affiliate. So many people tuned into the live stream, Charles, that it actually it froze and shut down. And it just caught the it caught the local local news. It just went around. And now because of the nature of my organization, all of our supporters, which there were hundreds, if not thousands of them. They were all tuning in. And one tweet that I sent out was really what set it into motion. That was the one domino. I remember laying in the back of the ambulance and I had my phone in my left hand and I sent out a tweet and I was like, we were in an accident.

9:50Don't know if Aslan's going to make it. Please pray, hashtag retweet. And that got retweeted a number of times. And that's what kind of set the domino in motion and of just all these people around the world, just loving on us and helping us and supporting us. Now, we carried on. And since this, I think one of the main themes of this talk we're going to have is relationships. And so one of the relationships that came into my life was somebody who he was a pastor of a church in North Carolina. And he had been helping people in India for 30 years. And he had a great organization doing great work in India.

10:27He invited me to come to India. And I'm like, Indiana Jones style. Yo, let's go. You know what I'm saying? And so I went to India. and it's it again like i'd been i traveled a little bit but when i went to india that's when another another shock i was not prepared for what i was about to witness um and i didn't know there are 35 million orphans in india um and the condition that they live in is i mean it's it's horrific it's unbelievable it's horrific um and so i went one of the guys that i met um he was the one that was in charge of kind of managing our itinerary and driving us around his name was Danny.

11:03We went on that trip to India. We became friends just because we were, you know, side by side that whole 12 day trip. And at the end of the trip, he kept bugging me like throughout the trip. It's like, Hey, let me know when you have a few minutes, because I want to come and show you something that I'm working on. And so we were just so busy. But at the end of the week, he had a window and I was like, cool, let's do it. So I jumped on a scooter, drove over to this, this place, maybe a mile down the road. And I pulled up to this tiny building, this tiny house that was clearly under construction.

11:32And what he ended up telling me was he and his wife took out a loan from the government because they were so, so burdened about caring for the orphans of India that they were willing to take out a personal loan to build a building, build a small house and care for as many as they possibly could. And he just shared his vision with me. And I took a picture, a few pictures that day. I still have it. I reflect back on it. But what, what ended up happening eight months later as we continued to have, you know, a friendship and build a relationship and a level of trust. He called me one day and he said, Matt, I'd like to ask you a question.

12:09Can we, I'd love to team up with you to build this orphanage. I'd just like to know if you, would you mind if I named it after your daughter? And I was like, you know, tears just streaming, like, I would love to, man. Uh, it was a dream someday, a bucket list. If one day I could, you know, have an impact like that and just do something so incredibly meaningful. And it came much sooner than I thought it would. At the time, I was probably 26, 27 years old and, you know, had young kids. I had Lucy in 2013. And so I had like two young girls and and to find such meaningful fulfillment through something like that, it just it has become one of the greatest honors of my life to help these kids.

12:48And the interesting thing I'll say about where I'm reporting this from right now, I'm actually in a city where another one of my closest, dearest friends that walked through all these seasons of life with me, he lives here in Buddha, Illinois. So I'm here hanging out with my friend Chontha, who's just been such an amazing anchor for me throughout my life. And so to speed up the story, I ended up moving to the Dominican Republic in 2013 to 16. My heart grew for India so much more. I was like, I need a better home base. I can't base out of the Dominican if I'm going halfway around the world with my family.

13:21And so they essentially spun the globe and I'm like, where should I live? Dallas looks great. And so I settled on Dallas, moved to Dallas with the intention of continuing to serve and love and help grow our organization in Asia, really in India. And that's when real life hit. And the van that was spinning in 2012 felt like it continued to spin. And in 2016, when I moved to Dallas and I had my two kids. That's when my wife left. And I was now full-time single dad. And I had lost almost everything except my kids. I lost my organization because I couldn't travel anymore as a single dad. I lost my sense of identity because I had done that my whole life.

14:04And the cost with which it came, I felt a great sense of grieving over all the blood, sweat, and tears and the life that it cost for me to build what I have built. That was then taken away you know my self-respect was taken away I was used to being flying you know flown over to conferences and speaking in front of hundreds if not a couple thousand people and and I had really settled on you know where I am in life and I'm very happy and I'm content I'm excited about my future only to have all of that taken away and in 2016 to 18 those are what I call my wilderness experience where I was just wandering and I was searching for what's the next thing I don't know and I would assume that there's no doubt somebody who's listening to this podcast that is either going through that experience, they've come out of that experience, or they're about to go into a period of time like that, a season, life comes in seasons.

14:58And there's going to be a season like that where the unexpected happens. And it may be very difficult. So you've gone through all these things, which most people will never experience in their lives. They've never experienced loss on that level where life happens and then a community rallies behind you and then you build these relationships. And then even after all this healing that, you know, life just continues to happen. There's a 67 % failure ratio of all marriages in the United States. That's just, it is what it is. It's a better chance. I wouldn't get on a plane that had a 67 % failure ratio, hence why there's no ring there.

15:28Um, so in that you started thinking about, Hey, relationships matter and how we can leverage relationships and there's different platforms and there's different ways to do it. I know you've written a book about that on how to jump into those relationships and how to kind of influence and connect in those relationships. When you're doing that and you're going into that, what have you learned? Tell me more about your book on how you can leverage this. Because, you know, I get everyone has, thinks that their tragedy, whatever's going on, is the worst that ever happened. And for them, it is. It's kind of like when, you know, you've got little girls, when they first start crying that first time because they, you know, they hit their hand or they touch something warm, that's the worst pain they've ever felt in their lives.

16:03So yeah, there's other people who have inoperable bone cancer who are going through much more, But to that individual child, it's the worst they've ever come across. So everyone's pain they're going through is the worst they've ever gone through. But when you have the ability to look at other people saying, Hey, you lost a daughter, you lost a wife, you lost everything, all of these things. And yet you're still done this. Okay. How do I get out of that hole? How do I get, get back up and running? And you've always said it, you know, relationships are core of that and how to access this and leverage this and make sure that you present yourself in a way that you are engaged with.

16:33So tell me more about that and the platform you use and the book and all that. I love this. I love this. And thank you for the segue. This is this perfect. So 2019 was was another year that changed my life and for the better. That was that was the pivotal moment where in that year I figured out a couple of things and it set me on a different trajectory. And I will say, like, you know, the mindset that I had all through those years, though, there were certainly highs and lows and ups and downs. And I felt good one day and horrible the next day as I was just on this constant pursuit for what's next.

17:042019, I met somebody who became a mentor to me. And so I always tell for people that are going through a tough season, or they're looking for a transition, who are the people that are where you want to be? Who have who's gone through what you've gone through, they've come out successful, and they are at a level of life that you want to experience, reach out to them and ask them for help. You know, and, and maybe, you know, there are some that will accept that and be open to that. And some that might reject that. Fortunately, for me, it came through an intro, a friend saw where I was at. He's like, Hey, you seem to have some marketing skills.

17:32You've done a number of marketing things. Let me connect you to Brad who runs a marketing company and see if he's got a spot. And so I met Brad, talked to Brad. He offered me a spot, hired me in 2019. I figured out everything that had to do with starting a marketing agency and running a business. And these are the, these are the skills. And this is what I love about where we're at in society. We live in the gig economy. We're in a skill economy where I went to school meant nothing. It had no bearing on my success in business and into the next stage that I was going to step into. It was 2019 all about learning skills.

18:05For me, and there's a lot of skills that you can learn. There's more skills than ever that you can learn. So what are some of those skills that you learned that you got to leverage into? Because a lot of people are going to want to have some really practical, tangible, what do I do? How do I get out of this? I get finding a mentor. What are the skills that we get in? How do we get to that point? Yep, yep. Okay, so for me, the skills that I learned, LinkedIn became, you know, for whatever reason, I had a draw to LinkedIn, a pull to get into LinkedIn. So I jumped in on LinkedIn. My perception of LinkedIn was a place that I would spruce up my profile if I needed a job.

18:35It was essentially a digital replica of my resume. Um, what I didn't know, uh, but soon discovered was LinkedIn is, it is in my opinion, one of the biggest gateways to unbelievable opportunities more so than any other social media platform in my experience. Um, and for a number of different reasons, because on LinkedIn it is, yes, now it's become a content hungry platform. 0.5 % of the total user base on LinkedIn consistently create content and they're approaching a billion users. that's a lot of empty space, right? Like LinkedIn wants people to fill that empty space. But the second thing and why I love LinkedIn the most, at least initially was it's a platform to connect with people.

19:14It is a business first platform where people are expecting and get on there to do business. And that business is done through relationships. And it's also done, those relationships are formed by having the right conversations. And so what I learned was, and to get to your question about what skills, my skillset that I developed was I became really, really good at finding and starting finding the right people and starting the right conversation with the right person in the right way. And we're talking about total strangers. So that's really the question. And I think through this all the time with my clients, like, how do you find the right person and start that conversation at scale?

19:54That doesn't make them feel like they're being spammed or they're a sales target or they're just a number. Right. And I think that's why, you know, only 0.5 % or whatever it is. And LinkedIn actually creates content and pushes it out because they don't know how to do that. So if I'm in a situation, and one of the things we love going is getting really tactical. If I'm sitting there going, listen, I thought LinkedIn was just my resume in a different format, which is what most people think that LinkedIn is. How do I present myself so that it is in a way that is going to get that engagement, that is going to build that relationship?

20:20What are some of the things that people can do that are tangible, that they can sit down and say, oh crap, I just heard Matt. This is awesome. I'm going to pull over. I'm going to do this on my phone. I'm going to do this right now on my laptop. I'm going to stop listening to the podcast. I'm going to write down. I'm taking immediate action. What are some of the things that they can do immediately? Here's a step. And I just did this. Here's a process. Very, very tactical. And I just did this with my dad two days ago. Okay. It took us about two hours. And you're probably going to need to be on your laptop to do this because I don't think LinkedIn lets you do it from your phone.

20:50But, you know, listen to this later and follow the process. Step one, go to your LinkedIn profile and you can download your profile as a PDF. Download your whole profile as a PDF. Step number two, sign up for a Claude.ai account. It's free. If you pay the$20 a month subscription, you're going to get access to Claude projects, which I'm a big fan of. Go and do it. It's 20 bucks. It's totally worth it. OK, that's step number two. Step number three. You're going to go and upload that that that PDF on the Claude. Right. And then you're going to tell Claude. You're going to tell Claude this because the first thing that's really important for you is your profile.

21:24Your profile is it's your digital billboard. You got to have a dialed in profile. Right. And you're like, oh, I'm not a good writer. I can't think about how do I position myself as an expert. to be anything you don't have to do that exactly exactly so take all this stuff go into claude give it your pdf and tell claude in just like you were talking to a human hey claude my name is so-and-so i've given you a pdf for my linkedin uh profile i want you to help position me as an expert look at my experience and here are some things that i'm passionate about let's work sequentially through my profile so that it comes i can produce something that's highly optimized and professional enter boom claude's going to analyze all of it it's going to do all the hard work and it's going to spit out this amazing copy for your headline your about section your experience maybe even like your uh you know your banner and just work through it go back and forth hey claude i like this but i don't like that tweak this fix that whatever just like you were talking to an editor or a graphic designer and it'll do all the work and then you can go to canva you know canva of course like update the banner and stuff like that clean up your profile and you'll be amazed.

22:25Like you'll be amazed what happens when you just do that one thing, you'll feel better. And that will give you the confidence, which I think is the reason why most people shy away from being really active on LinkedIn is because they're either insecure or they don't feel like, you know, they present themselves in the right way and they don't have any clarity on, you know, what's my authority? What's my expertise? I love that you started with that. And because I've had this conversation with people all the time, they're like, what do I say to someone? I was like, listen, if I told you the absolute perfect thing to say in a networking environment and you walked in naked covered in dirt with your hair messed up having bedhead I don't care what you say it's probably not going to convert I love that you said we got to start with your profile we got to clean you up because if you're walking into a room this is digital networking you've got to present yourself in a way that integrates and connect in a really really high way so using cloud AI and I am there's a lot of people who are nervous about AI I'm not nervous about AI in anywhere you should perform.

23:17I think it's the greatest tool on the planet is a virtual fleet of employees for me. I use it all the time. I absolutely love it. Do I think it's going to take thing, take over a bunch of different stuff? I don't know. I don't know. All I know is that for a lot of companies that I've worked with, like content creators and all that, I'm like, y 'all guys might want to get more skillsets because it's going to hurt. Things are going to change. You know, ghost riders got eaten alive, eaten alive. Yeah. Almost a hundred percent. It's over. It's over. Sorry, guys. If you're a ghostwriter right now, contact Matt.

23:47He'll teach you some new skill sets. You're going to need them. That's what it is. Sorry. It's like the people used to be the window knockers back in England. They would knock on your windows in the morning to wake you up. And then alarm clocks happen. You're like, well, sorry. You got to pivot. It is what it is. Sorry. It is what it is. Okay. So someone goes in, they use Claude. They've redesigned this. A lot of stuff that people run into that is a problem is, how do I connect? I mean, we connected over LinkedIn. How do I connect? How do I reach out? How do I do this? Um, obviously the best way is just to send naked pictures.

24:17No, that's not right. Um, so no, that's Instagram. Okay. That's yeah. That's, that's only fan or something. Um, but I also love what you said that, you know, LinkedIn is specifically designed. They're there for a specific reason. You know, you go to an event that's all about knitting. You don't go and talk about how to make sushi. It's a knitting event for God's sakes. Same thing here. They're here to do this. There's so many people who try and do business on Instagram. and I'm like, it's a little harder guys go to the path of least resistance. So if you're sitting there and you've gone through cloud and you've optimized your profile, how important is social proof?