190: Become a Master Networker By Using These Strategies to Build Meaningful Connections

Welcome to the She Thinks Big! Podcast. Get ready to level up your thinking and expand your horizons. I’m your host, Andrea Liebross, your guide on this journey of big ideas and bold moves. I am the best-selling author of She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary.

I support women like you with the insights and mindset you need to think bigger and the strategies and systems you need to turn that thinking into action and make it all a reality. Are you ready to stop thinking small and start thinking big? Let’s dive in.

Hello, my friends. Welcome to the She Thinks Big! It's Time to Level Up Podcast. I have to get used to saying that, it's a lot. I am not used to saying it, but we're going to give it a whirl. It's exciting. It's exciting when you change and you rename something. It's a lot of work, too. We can get into that, but something else that's a lot of work that I want to talk about today is networking, finding clients, making connections.

This episode is inspired by a conversation we had in our mastermind about, is it really worth going to these networking events? Do you have to go to these networking events? If you do, which ones are the ones to go to? How do you make them worthwhile?

This really ties into our discussion this month about relationships. I wanted to outline for you what I think might be helpful to, number one, prepare to go to a networking event and decide which ones to go to, then what to do when you're there and what to do afterwards.

So there's the before, even the before, before making the decision should you go, then there's the before prep, then there's while you're there, and then there's afterwards.

Each of those components do matter. They matter. I think this podcast episode is totally worth doing because this is something that comes up over and over again. Now, even though those of you who have online businesses where your audience is everywhere and anywhere, you can go to networking events too, whether that be to find new clients in different cities across the country or even to just create some camaraderie among other entrepreneurs or to help you become a thought leader.

When you're at these networking events and you say something that is of value, you are fueling your thought leadership. This might be noteworthy, this episode. You might want to get out a pen and paper because really networking opportunities involve a strategic approach to building relationships and leveraging connections.

Remember a few episodes ago, I talked about connecting, conversation, and conversion. Well, this is playing off of that. How can we turn these connection opportunities into conversations that inevitably end up in tangible business outcomes?

So here we go. Are you ready for this? All right. In deciding which events you want to go to, which networking events you want to go to, I think it is really important to research the attendees. Who is going to be there? What are their roles? What are their interests? What are their companies? Does that align with the people you want to be in contact with? Are they actual clients of yours?

Going to an event thinking you're just going to create some referral relationships is kind of a cop-out, I'm going to say, unless you're the kind of business that you totally rely on those referral relationships.

But I want you to have the attitude where you're going in and you're going to find clients. You're not going to find referrals or just referrals, you're going to find the actual clients. Are they going to be in the room? That's going to help you decide whether or not you should go.

Number two, deciding whether you should go. What would be the goal of you going? What do you want to achieve from this networking event? These at least go together. Is it to find new clients? Is it to find business partners? Is it to gain industry insight? What is it? You need to have clear goals regarding why you attend networking events.

Then you have to see if the right people are going to be in the room. I think the third piece of the puzzle is, is it a place where you are going to have the opportunity to offer value? Are you going to be able to share your thoughts, your ideas, your expertise in a way that is structured?

Is this a structured networking opportunity where you are part of a speaker panel or part of a workshop or at a roundtable? Or are you talking to people one-on-one but in a structured way? Cocktail parties are not the best because, at a cocktail type of event, you're not really there to give them your opinion. You're there to connect and chit-chat, but you're not really there to give value or ideas.

But if it's something that's structured like a panel, a workshop, a roundtable, or even just a speed dating thing, those are structured and then they are platforms for where you can give value.

Focus on how you can help others, whether that's through advice or resources, rather than just promoting yourself. You want to offer value. Is the structure of the event going to be one in which you can easily offer value?

So the client that I was talking about this with at the mastermind on the mastermind call, she kept saying, “I'm going to all of these like open houses and grand openings and meet and greets,” and they're really just cocktail parties. She said, “They're just not doing it for me.”

But she was a speaker on a panel discussion and that was totally of value. Someone realized what an expert she was in her field and they came up to her afterwards and said, "I want to work with you." “I want to work with you” is not likely to happen over a glass of white wine talking about what you're doing for July 4th. But “I want to work with you” could happen once they hear words come out of your mouth about what you do, how you do it, why it's important, and how you have something that they need.

Going back just to review, what are your goals? Are you there to get clients? Are you there to just create referrals? Are you there to get industry insights? Who's going to be there? Are they the right people? Could they align with what your goals are? Number three, is this an event where you can offer value in a structured setting? I think those are the three most important things that you need to think about when you are considering what events to go to.

If you're the speaker at a networking event, a lot of network groups have featured speakers each month, that's like a bonanza. Go be the speaker because you're establishing yourself as the expert.

Now let's pretend you're at the event. You need to be someone who is engaging and listening actively. When you are having conversations or even if you're up on stage as part of a panel, approach this with genuine interest, ask questions, listen attentively.

Nine times out of ten, if you listen attentively, you're going to figure out what the other person's needs are, what their interests are. So you've got to ask questions that actually pull those things out of them.

A lot of times when I do a speaking engagement, before I begin, I ask people why they're there. Or I ask, "What's the biggest challenge they're facing in their business right now?" So then, when I'm speaking, I can address those things. That's me engaging with the audience and then listening to what they have to say.

When you're there, find common ground. That helps build rapport. When I'm speaking to a group, 99% of the time they're female entrepreneurs and we all have the same common struggles. So I can speak to that, that's common ground.

If it's a bunch of moms, I can speak to that. If it's people who are becoming empty nesters, I can speak to that. Find something where you can create some common ground because that's going to help you build rapport. It's going to help you establish yourself as an expert for that particular type of person.

When you're there, number one, you've got to engage and listen actively. Number two, you've got to figure out how you can create common ground. Then numbers three and four should come, I shouldn't even have to say this, but you should have an elevator speech, an elevator pitch that clearly explains who you are, what you do, and the value you provide, and you should have some way of someone to connect with you, either through a digital business card, a paper business card, although I haven't seen too many of those lately.

I'm using something called Popl, that's super helpful, but you've got to have a way for them to connect back with you, aside from just their memory bank, and you need to share those things. Maybe it's a QR code. But that's what all has to happen at events.

All right, so now we've been to the event. We've decided on what event we're going to. We went to it and it's the next day after the event. Here comes your opportunity that sometimes we miss because we get busy and we don't plan time after these events for the follow-up.

So, what should this follow-up look like? Well, I think, first of all, you don't really have to follow up with everybody in the room. I want you to organize and prioritize the people that you met.

Sort through those contacts, note things that you talked about, and prioritize those with the most potential for business opportunities. So you've got to sort and prioritize, and then you've got to send some personalized messages, reach out.

Express your interest for further connection. How can I help you? I would love to help you. Do you want to set up a call to talk about this further? You've got to send personalized follow-up messages. I really think that is important.

You can connect on social media, you can send your personalized message through social media, actually, but connect on LinkedIn, on Instagram, add a little personalized note in your connection.

Then you've gotta schedule some follow-up meetings. You've gotta have time on your calendar to do the follow-up. Sometimes it's not helpful to go to a networking event right before you go on a two-week vacation because you're missing that follow-up window of time.

Plan for these follow-ups and arrange the follow-up meetings or calls. They went to this event too, they know you're probably looking for a business opportunity, just like they're looking for a business opportunity. Get specific about when you want to meet and the purpose of the call because that call is going to be the first step in building and nurturing a relationship.

How do we build and nurture relationships? You've got to remain in regular contact, send articles, relevant articles, check in with them periodically. Sometimes we feel a little odd doing this, but people don't mind if you reach out and say, “Hey, how was July 4th?” or “I saw this article and I think you'd really benefit from it, or I think you'd really enjoy it, I think you'd find value in it.”

That article is a way for you to consistently offer value. It wasn't just like you offered value at the event, you're consistently offering value. That's going to, again, help you establish yourself as the expert.

Another way to nurture the relationship is to invite them to another event you're going to. Invite this new person to a meeting, a webinar, or an event you're going to that you know would align with their interests and would be beneficial to them too. That's a way to nurture a relationship.

So nurturing, you've got to have a follow-up meeting. You've got to then remain in regular contact. You've got to offer something of value, and you've got to invite. I think inviting is awesome.

Something that I think we don't do enough of is track and measure the results of these networking events. I ask my clients in my mastermind calls, “How do we know which ones are valuable?” Well, which ones have you gotten results from? Are you tracking this? Are you measuring it?

But it's hard to track and measure if you don't have goals. So if the goal is to create three new clients, did you create three new clients from this networking event? If the goal is to put four more people into your pipeline, did you put four more people into your pipeline?

That's going to help you determine in the future what kinds of events you should be going to and whether or not it's worth it. Because networking is a continuous effort. It's continuous, and you're always tweaking it and making it better.

If you regularly attend something, that's going to be helpful. You're going to become more and more familiar with the people there, they're going to become more and more familiar with you, and you can build relationships that way.

But if you're regularly attending an event, a meeting, or a group that you're not gaining anything from or doesn't align with your goals, which you've clearly defined, then maybe you shouldn't be going. Maybe these people aren't the right people, even though you thought they were.

Last, my friends, be patient, be persistent. This takes time. You've got to nurture connections. But if you approach your networking with a strategic, and I'll call it value-driven mindset, and you consistently follow up and nurture your connections, you really can create business opportunities.

You never know where your next client is coming from. I love the saying, “Your next client is coming from sources known and unknown, expected and unexpected.” My coach shared that with me and it is something that I constantly go back to. Your next client is coming from sources known and unknown, expected and unexpected, and that, my friends, really is part of networking.

You just never know who you're going to meet. But because we only have so much time, money, and energy, we do need to be strategic in where we're positioning ourselves. Okay. Until next time, think bigger. Keep thinking bigger.

Thinking about things like this, being strategic about things like this, is part of thinking bigger. You're giving yourself thought options. This is the T in TRUST, and then you're taking action. That's the other T in TRUST.

The real problem with networking events and the reason we don't want to go sometimes is because they're uncomfortable. But if you can push past that and realize that the only problem really is that feeling, they're so worthwhile. All right, my friends, until next week, keep thinking big. See you soon.

Thanks for tuning into the She Thinks Big! Podcast. If you're ready to learn the secret to unleashing your full potential, don't forget to grab a copy of my book, She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary. It's available on Amazon and at your favorite bookstore.

And while you're there, grab a copy for a friend. Inside, you'll both find actionable strategies and empowering insights to help you navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship and life, and step confidently into your extraordinary future.

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