Michael Morgan, author and motivational speaker, explores the power of networking and how it shapes careers, personal growth, and opportunities. He shares insights from his book, The Power of Networking, and recounts his journey from working at major corporations like JP Morgan, Amazon, and Walmart to thriving in cybersecurity at Netskope.
Discover practical strategies to build meaningful connections, maintain professional relationships, and leverage your network for career advancement. Michael dives into the psychology of communication, the importance of asking for what you need, and how simple conversations can open unexpected doors.
Beyond business, he shares his passion for running marathons and how the lessons from endurance sports apply to life and success. Whether you’re looking to expand your professional circle or take bold steps toward your goals, this episode will inspire you to embrace networking as a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. Tune in now!
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Epic Connections: Building Strong Professional & Personal Networks With Michael Morgan
Welcome back to another exciting episode of the show. I am honored to be joined by Michael Morgan. Michael, tell us who you are and what you do.
Thank you for having me on your show, Zander. My name is Michael Morgan. I am an Author as well as a Motivational Speaker. I published my first book in 2024 called The Power of Networking. Currently on tour, I would say, speaking at conferences, universities, companies, and organizations. On top of that, I have a pretty vast work experience.
I’ve worked for JP Morgan, Chevron, Amazon, and Walmart. I’m currently working at a cybersecurity startup called Netskope. I’ve worked in financial services, oil and gas, tech, retail, and cybersecurity. Through all my work experience, I was able to write the book and now I’m giving guidance and advice to other people to help them.
The Fun And Simplicity Of Networking
That is awesome. I love networking. I think it’s fun. In my opinion, it’s not as hard as people sometimes make it. I wanted to know what you think about networking because you obviously wrote a book on it.
I look at it as fun as well. To your point, I know so many people who are scared, and they see it as an intimidating and overwhelming task. They don’t want to put themselves in the situation. They think, in the worst-case scenario, I’m going to go to this networking event and not going to get along with anybody or have any meaningful conversations.
Honestly, a lot of the time, when I try to encourage people to get into these networking situations and events, they realize it’s not as bad as they thought. They get meaningful conversations and make some meaningful connections out of it. Personally, I look at networking as part of my job. Within my company, I network outside of my company on network. I’m focused on a certain amount of time per week, per month, where I’m trying to build those relationships and maintain relationships.
Years ago, I was asked to give a talk about networking, and I thought, “I know how to network. A super social person. I like to talk to people and stuff.” I thought, “What can I do?” What I want to say to the readers is, “You all, there’s networking that is so easy. Think about people that you went to high school with or college with or worked with right there.”
If there are ten people that you went to high school with, I’m sure you can think of them. In this day and age, it’s much easier to find people. We do a Google search. Look on LinkedIn, whatever. You could probably find people reach out to them. Even if you haven’t talked to them for 10 or 20 years, it doesn’t matter. “Just calling. Interested to know what you’re doing.”
Top Tips For Effective Networking
Right there, there are 30 people that you get to network with and they’re people who already know you just because you don’t work at JP Morgan anymore. That doesn’t mean you don’t know people who still work there. Why couldn’t you call them and go, “We’re both motivational speakers.” We have a network, and we call people who know us and might be able to say, “Michael is a really great speaker. Why don’t we bring them in so we can talk to the managers or whatever.” What are some of your tips for people on how to network?
I’d say, first and foremost, you have to put yourself in situations where you can meet new people. As I said, I know some people are more intrinsic, and some are more extrinsic. I wouldn’t tell people to jump off the deep end and go to an event that has 10,000 people and they have to make thousands of connections. If you’re not at least putting yourself out there, you won’t be able to make new connections. At my job, most companies have employee resource groups. Joining those groups is an easy way to meet other people who might be outside of your team or outside of your function with whom you can build relationships.
If you’re not at least putting yourself out there, you won’t be able to make new connections.
I like being in the office. My job is currently fully remote, but whenever possible, I make the trip to the office so that I can meet new people. I could build relationships even with the people I already know. There’s something to be said when you have that face-to-face interaction as opposed to over a Zoom call. Outside of work, I’m joining different organizations. In Austin, I’m a part of an organization called Cyversity, which is trying to get more diversity in cybersecurity. I work in cybersecurity, so that’s a great way for me to meet other people outside of my job.
They’re in the same industry, the same function. I’ve joined a national black MBA association, another organization that’s just professionals trying to excel in their careers. I attend conferences regularly. There’s a conference in Austin in two weeks called InnoTech, which is a cybersecurity focus of the conference. That’s another way for me to meet people. I’m joining organizations, attending networking events, attending conferences, and finding these different opportunities to meet people as much as possible.
The second piece is maintaining the connection, which is the hardest part. It is very easy to make a new connection, but it is difficult to maintain it. Similar to what you were saying, I try to leverage social media. LinkedIn is one of my favorite tools, and I can see someone in my network who’s just been promoted or just started a new job and just obtained a new certification. I’ll reach out and send a note like, “I haven’t spoken to you in a while. Congratulations on your new job. Would love to catch up. Do you have 30 minutes for a phone call or 30 minutes for a Zoom meeting?”
I’ll try to find different opportunities where I could just regularly reach out to people, whether it’s a message on LinkedIn, whether it’s through text, whether it’s through email, but I’m trying to find a good cadence for each individual and everyone might be different. There are some people in my network that I speak to every week. There are some people monthly, some quarterly, but I’m making sure that I’m regularly keeping in touch with people so there’s not a lapse in time where five years pass, ten years pass.
What I’ve seen throughout my career is that people will make a connection. They won’t speak to them for 5 or 10 years, and all of a sudden, they need something. “I need a referral. I need a job. I need help with my resume.” Now, you start reaching out to people when you need them. That could rub people the wrong way. Start burning bridges where you haven’t talked to me in five years and the first time you reach out is when you want something.
I’ll say the counterpoint to that is if you’re just reaching out to reestablish connections because, again, that happens. Life gets going. There’s that person and you don’t want anything from them. You just want to reach out and go, “How are you? What are you? I’m curious. What are you doing?” That’s a way for me to reestablish that connection. Down the road, I might say in six months, I think I want to speak at a cybersecurity conference. I’ll keep Michael in mind. Maybe I didn’t talk to you for six months or a year, but I reach out and go just, “What are you doing? Are you still working in cybersecurity?”
Just get curious. Most people, just from a psychological standpoint, will talk a little about what’s going on if you ask them questions about themselves. They’ve got a new job. They’re doing this or that. Social norm usually means that people ask what you’re doing in return, which is an awesome opportunity for you to share, “I’m so excited. I just came out with a book.” You get to drop that you have a book now. You’re not bragging. Understanding the psychology of communication is key.
I completely agree. To your point, I don’t see anything wrong with if there’s been a lapse in time. You haven’t spoken to someone in a while and you’re just reaching out to reconnect. I agree. People appreciate when others reach out and just check up on them. “How are things going work-wise? How are things going in your personal life? How’s your family? How’s your partner? How are your kids?” Their interests, “I know you’d like to run. When was the last time you ran a race? I know you like to travel. What’s the last place that you’ve been to?” Just getting to know people as individuals and reaching out and checking up on them. It makes a world of difference. People appreciate it.
People appreciate when others reach out and just check up on them.
Being Specific When Asking For Help In Networking
One of the things I’ve found, and warning, there’s a short story that comes along with this, which is when you’re networking and you’re reaching out because you do, you’ve had connections, but you’re asking for something, make sure that you ask for whatever you want specifically because lots of people want to help you, but if you go, “Michael, can you help me?” That’s too general. You may get nervous and go, “I don’t know. Are you going to ask me to help you move? Are you asking me for money? What is it?”
The story I have is Tip O’Neill, who was the Speaker of the House of the Congress for about 35 years. He’s from Boston and he was at an event. This woman came up and said, “I didn’t vote for you in the last election.” He’s like, “Why not?” She said, “You didn’t ask.” I love that story because we don’t get exactly what we don’t ask for. Even if it’s really nervous about asking, the worst someone’s going to say is no, and you’re no worse off than you were before you asked.
You didn’t have what you needed. You don’t have it now. You’re no worse off. Amazingly, people may go, “I can help you. Here’s what I can do or I’ll know I’m not the right person. Let me put you in touch with that person.” As you know, having worked in the corporate world and some big corporations, just cause you worked at Chevron doesn’t mean that everyone and you know your team, maybe your division, but you don’t know the field engineers or whatever.
You’re like, “Hold on, let me find out. Let me use my network inside to find out who you should talk to.” You can find that person and go, “I’ve got this friend of mine who has a great opportunity. Could he or she talk to you or whatever?” I know that happened to me when I worked at Intel. People call me all the time and I’m like, “There’s 30,000 people. I don’t know who that person you need to talk to, but it’s an adventure. Let me see if I can figure out who that person you should talk to is.”
I agree. I think it’s critical to be upfront about your intentions. There are different phases of my life. There are different things that I’ve needed. I’ve moved plenty of times for work opportunities for school. I’ve lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Texas, Washington, and California. Sometimes, I’m networking because I live in a brand new city in a brand new state that I’ve never been. I don’t know the places to go. I don’t know where to eat food. I’m just trying to meet people and build a new group and support system in that city. I’m interested.
It’s critical to be upfront about your intentions.
Where did you live in California?
I lived in Oakland. I was in the Bay area.
I’m in the Bay area. I’m like, “When I saw that you worked at Chevron, I bet you he was probably going to like San Ramon or something like that.”
I interned with Chevron in San Ramon, but it was only three months for an internship. I returned to the Bay area to work for Walmart. The office was in San Bruno and I lived in Oakland.
Do you miss the Bay Area?
There’s good and bad with the Bay.
I get it. I feel you.
I love the options. I’m originally from New York. I’m from a big city. To be in the Bay and have San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Berkeley, you can go to so many different places, and there are just completely different vibes, options, and things to do. The thing I don’t miss is the cost of living.
No one said paradise was cheap. That’s all I get to say.
I agree. It’s a world of difference living in Texas and there’s no state tax compared to California is completely different.
I get you. I grew up in Boston, but I really don’t like the weather on the East Coast. I don’t like snow. I don’t like humidity. Here I am, and it’s perfect. People are like, “It’s so expensive.” I’m like, “Every place has its challenges, be it weather, cost, whatever.” There isn’t state tax, but Texas has had some challenges with the power sometimes.
How Career Journeys Shape Personal And Professional Growth
There are challenges everywhere. One of the things I talk about is epic journeys and stuff like that. Certainly, your varied career has been an epic journey. How did you work for all these different kinds of financial services, retail, oil and gas, and cybersecurity? Did you sort of envision that you’d work in all these different industries?
Not at all.
How did you get to where you are if you look back?
Honestly, a lot of it was networking. It ties into exactly what I said in the book. I went to Penn State undergrad. When I was at Penn State, I was president of an organization called Black Male Leadership Symposium. Also, I was the treasurer of my fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi. I put together an event on campus where I brought in representatives from JP Morgan to come and speak to members of both organizations and help prepare them for the next step in their journey as we’re getting ready to graduate. Let them know what JP Morgan was looking for in professionals.
This is a way for JP Morgan to identify talent that they could potentially bring into the company. One of my fraternity brothers, whom I’ve never met, I didn’t know; he already worked at JP Morgan. He found out that I would put together the event, and he heard such great things about it. He reached out to me and asked if I was interested in JP Morgan. At the time, I hadn’t applied to JP Morgan. I wasn’t pursuing JP Morgan.
I was just trying to put together events on campus because I looked at myself as a leader. There was somebody who happened to be my fraternity to whom he reached out. He told me about a program. He connected me with the right people. He prepped me for the interview. That’s how I was able to get my foot in the door within JP Morgan. At that time, I didn’t even realize the power of networking.
I had my reasons for joint of attorney at the time I did on campus, but I had no vision that this could open up the door for me to build connections with people and be able to get my foot in the door at JP Morgan. That’s how I was able to get my foot in the door there. With Chevron, when I was at Carnegie Mellon for my MBA, one of my former classmates used to work for Chevron, and I landed an interview with Chevron.
I told him and he prepped me for that interview and he told me there are certain things if you work for a company that you know that you cannot just find on a website. He told me specific information about working at Chevron and things that he liked. When I brought up an interview, they were looking at me like, “How do this stuff?” I laughed it off and I said, “I did my research, but my research was my network.”
The power of networking. Honestly, I know that it’s a mutual appreciation society of networking, but it really is so true. Putting out, if you want to talk to a company and you put out to your network, “I really want to talk to someone at Chevron, Walmart, whatever. Does anyone have a contact? You can put it out on LinkedIn or whatever.” You can look through your LinkedIn connection, and see if there’s anyone who has a connection to Walmart, all of that. Sometimes asking, “Does anyone know?” You never know.
Epic Life Moments Beyond Work
Someone who is totally unrelated to where the company you want goes, “My uncle works there. I worked there years ago and I still have contacts.” It’s amazing what we get when we ask for the things that we want and need. Now, outside of work, Michael, what epic things have you done or traveled to? We all have done epic things in our life. I think people discount the incredible things that they’ve achieved. What’s one or two things that you look at and go, “I’m really proud of doing that.”
I would say, number one, writing a book was a big milestone for me. Not a lot of people can say they’ve accomplished that feat. A lot of people in my network were surprised when I said, “I’m a published author. I’m very proud of that.” I’ll tell you number two. I’m big on personal growth and development and always looking for training to take certifications I can obtain.
Throughout my career, and this is after I obtained my MBA, I was able to obtain a Lean Sigma, a black belt certification. I was able to obtain project management professional certification. I was able to obtain Tableau desktop specialist certification. I was able to get a contract and commercial management certification. I’m proud of the fact that I’m continuing to identify ways for me to continue to learn, grow, and develop. I say that’s my second feat. My third is I’m big on fitness and health. I’ve run multiple marathons.
The Addiction Of Running Marathons
We’ll talk about that. I’ve run some marathons, too. Let’s get into that. How many marathons or half marathons have you run?
I’ve run four full marathons. Half marathons, I’d probably say over twenty.
I’ve done twelve halves, four fulls, and a 50K ultra.
I never mentioned it’s ultra.
I can tell you that I got into that because I was training for a marathon and my running coach had run like Iron Man and did ultras and he goes, “You got this.” He’s like, “If you can run a marathon, it’s only five miles more. Six months before the ultra that sounded.” “Yeah, of course.” The day I was running it, let me tell you, those last five miles were really long and really hard.
I can’t believe every marathon I’ve done. I usually hit the wall around miles 20 or 21. The last 5 miles or 6 miles to finish the marathon is a hurdle. The idea of running another five after that, I’m not pursuing an ultra marathon.
Also, I would like to make sure that there is a full disclosure. This was not what I call a Billy Goat, where most ultras are like you’re running up mountains and stuff. It was mainly on bike paths and stuff like that. It was off-road stuff, but it really wasn’t a huge portion of the race. It wasn’t hard. I was also really slow. Finishing is what counts. I think marathoning is I’m not running marathons or halves anymore. I’m older and it hurts too much. For you, what got you into wanting to run a marathon?
It’s an interesting story. My older brother, Dwayne, he’s a running fanatic. His goal is to run a marathon in every state. At this point, he’s at maybe 28 or 29 states. He started turning his passion into family trips. The whole family would go with him and we chair them on in different states. At a certain point, he started convincing me because I’m in decent shape. I work out, I play basketball. It’s like, “You should try a race. Start off with a 5k.” I did a 5k and then I moved up to a 10k. “I could do a half.” When I did a half, “I could probably do a full.”
This is something that I want to achieve. I want to see if I can push myself mentally, and physically to do something that I just never would have imagined that I just really started getting into it. Now, we do brother trips together where we travel to different States. Even though I don’t run fools anymore, I do have to do a full, and I’ll do a half. We just ran a race in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in October 2023. We usually run about two races a year.
That’s great. I have to say it’s strangely addicting. For most people, they’re like, “What do you mean?” I’m like, “You figure out that you can finish your first half,” and then you’re like, “That was really fun. What’s next?” I’d always dreamed of getting to run a marathon. It was one of those things. It was like, “Someday, I’d like to do that.”
I was working in the corporate world and just didn’t have time to work out. I try and work out at lunch, but anyone who’s worked in the corporate world knows that I was doing it to reduce my stress, but I was so stressed trying to get to the gym on campus to do the workout, to reduce my stress, to get back to my desk, to make a meeting, all of that.
I was like, “This isn’t working. It’s counter to what I’m trying to do.” I had a manager who was a runner. It was like, “You should run because no matter where you are, if you’re traveling, you could still go for a run and you throw your shoes in some clothes.” It doesn’t take a lot of room. It’s a great way to see a city that you’re in. I don’t know if you traveled for business. I had to travel quite a lot. I may have been in cool cities like Berlin or Shanghai or whatever. I was in the office, my hotel, and maybe a restaurant or two.
I completely agree. That’s one of the things. There are two things I love about running. One of my passions is traveling. Going on this venture with my brother and traveling in different states is getting me to go to places, cities, and states I’ve never been to. I get to new places. Even when I go travel to cities that I’ve been to before, I get to see a whole nother side of the city.
When I would go to, let’s take a Philly or DC. When I would travel there normally, I may meet up with friends and family at restaurants or places like that. When I run 26 miles through the city, I see a whole other side of the city. Probably wouldn’t have ventured before. To me, it’s a way to explore and see new places, and even places I’ve been to before, to see another side of it.
What was your favorite marathon?
My favorite marathon would probably be the last one that I just did. My wife and I traveled to Spain. I ran a race there. I ran a full marathon in Madrid, which is very different from running a marathon in Spain compared to the US. Everything’s a little bit later out there. I don’t even think we started the race until maybe 11:00 AM, which is right in the hottest part of the day when the sun is coming out.
Trust me. I know because I was fortunate enough. I get a corporate-sponsored bib for the 2014 Boston Marathon. I got to run Boston, which was incredible.
I can imagine.
I grew up watching the marathon, and my ten-year-old brain said, “That’d be fun to do someday,” with no idea that 26.2 miles is a very long way. Anyway, I got it. My younger sister’s massage therapist does work for Adidas, who’s the big corporate sponsor, says to me offhandedly when I’m running marathons, “Would you ever want to run Boston?” For people who don’t know, most runners are like, “Yeah, hello.” To have Boston on my resume. Anyway, Boston being the oldest continuous marathon in the world and being New England where we’ll do it the way we’ve always done it.
The elites don’t go off until 10:00. I didn’t go off until noon and it was not hot, but it was a warmer day than I would have liked. I totally get you where most marathons start at like seven in the morning and you’re done by sometime between 10:00 and noon, depending on how fast you’re running or not fast or whatever, but you’re done before the real heat or the heat is just setting in when you’re almost done. One thing to start a race and you’re like, it’s already hot and it’s only going to get hotter.
I felt like the hottest part of the day. In Spain, they have siestas. A lot of restaurants will close down for like a couple of hours before they open up for dinner at 7:00 or 8:00. When we finished the race, we can’t find a place to eat. We’re struggling, looking around, “How is everything closed?” It was definitely a little bit different, but it was an amazing experience on something completely different than all the races I’ve done here in the US. I enjoyed it.
Overcoming Challenges And Growing Resilience Through Marathons
I think we learn a lot about ourselves, our resilience. I think there are a lot of metaphors, at least for me in my professional career, that I pull from marathoning, and that we’ve all had what I like to call the grindy miles. Like you’re running and it’s just not, this isn’t a good mile or two for you. It’s hard. It may be hot, your feet start to hurt, you may get a little crampy or you lose your pace.
You just can’t find your breath or your pace. You do keep moving forward the same way you do in life. It’s not sunshine and unicorns every day, but I think there’s a lot of learning that comes from it. I don’t want to say putting yourself through that, but taking on that challenge and discovering that you can actually achieve it even when it gets hard.
I completely agree. A big component of racing to me is mental toughness, where your mind over matter and you’re pushing yourself through and overcoming an obstacle. You could definitely relate that to any work situation. As you said, sometimes, at work, you may be stressed. You may feel as though you’re overwhelmed with the amount of work that you can do, but you can push through it. You can overcome. You can find a way to work smarter, not harder, to make sure you get the job done. There are so many ways you can apply what you’re doing on the course when you’re running races to anything that you do in life.
Michael, I want to thank you so much. This has been a really fascinating conversation talking about professional and personal goals and achievements. I want to thank you so much. How can people get ahold of you? How can they find your book?
I have my own website. It’s MichaelVMorgan.com. Feel free to go to my website. I have a Contact Me form. You can reach out to me directly. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Michael Morgan, PMP because I have the PMP certification. It’s an easy way to find me. Feel free to send me a message, reach out, or connect. I’m here to help. I enjoy helping people. I want to make sure that everyone achieves and excels in their goals. I’ve been through a lot of experience in my career, so I can definitely assist. Don’t hesitate to connect with me and reach out. I’d love to hear from you and hopefully, we can talk soon.
Thank you so much. I want to remind everyone that if you’re ready to begin your epic journey, go to EpicBegins.com. There’s a host of tools there. Reach out, get ahold of me. I want to help you step into your epic. As always, I want to remind you that epic choices lead to the epic life that you want.
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About Michael Morgan
Michael Morgan obtained his BS from Penn State University and his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Coupled with his educational background, he has over 15 years of work experience across companies such as Amazon, Walmart, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Chevron.
His ability to build and maintain his network throughout his educational and career journey has been fruitful in his success. He has a passion for teaching and inspiring others to achieve their goals, which has led him to write his new book “The Power of Networking”.