Biz of You Spotlight: Networking — Building the Business of You
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In this episode, Connie covers the fourth part of the five-part fluid career system, Networking. It’s all about creating that value exchange and building your village to help you reach your potential. She explains how it fits into the overall system and why it’s so critical to career success.
Transcript
Connie: Networking your way to implementing your plan is the fourth component in our five part fluid career system. It's hard to bring to life any vision, mission, plan, without people. At the end of the day in this component, our focus is to bring your plan to life with people. We want to link the research that you've done in spotting, the trends and the insights and the plans that you've created with creating your compass.
We're gonna match that all up with potential people who can help you achieve your goals and objectives. And then it's about helping you build the networking foundation to do it. A lot of people are afraid necessarily to maybe reach out of their first degree connections, because it is uncomfortable to try to connect with people that you don't know.
Networking sometimes can have a negative connotation associated with it because of past experiences where it has felt very transactional and very uncomfortable. But what we want to do is help you build that foundation to do it. And it's not about the systems and tools. It's not about going on the next social media platform and connecting with as many people and getting as many followers it's really about helping you prepare.
And so we'll help you through that and then subsequently learn how to deliver value and ask for help. True Networking is a value exchange. It's two ways, not one way. So we want to support you in this journey to give you insights and guidance on how to do it effectively so that you are truly expanding your village.
And one that wants to mutually help one another. That's why you have a network, you know, at this point, you've really done your research. You've laid out an initial plan. So now it's time to act and make those activities in your plan, real through people.
There are myths in networking. One of which is that, you know, your first degree connections, those that know you best are going to be the ones that are most likely to activate on your behalf, which unfortunately in many instances isn’t the case.
Reason being is that there is still this inherent selfish versus service mentality with your first degree connections. This notion of “me” in most cases still comes before we there's self-preservation and self-interest involved. It's primal actually, particularly if you work in the same field and industry, and it's probably more prevalent now in light of the pandemic where everybody is feeling quite uneasy and, and nervous about where they stand and are looking for stability.
So versus being more helpful and paying it forward, most people may be more closed off and wanting to make sure that their own position is stable in some form or fashion. And so what's important to realize is the opportunity, the real opportunity is expanding outside of your first degree connections and getting to those second degree connections.
Those are the ones who will know you in a different capacity. Who will have a positive impression of you because your first degree connections are the ones that hopefully will have made the introduction, have something great to say on your behalf, but they will provide a different level of information and subsequently a broader network for you to tap into.
And by you having defined much more clearly what it is that you want to do, why, and how you're looking to do it in creating your compass, you could convey that to this new network. And subsequently they may all jump on board and want to support you and open up their network to you, or at least provide important data insights and advice. Some more data like spotting the trends to help guide you on your journey.
Networking really mirrors the system that we're teaching you. If you think about it, you're researching the trends. You're researching in this case the type of people you want to connect with, and you're identifying those linkages that can create opportunities in creating your compass.
What you're doing here is creating the plan on how you are going to connect with those that could be mutually beneficial. Also, you've got to create the plan on what you're going to say. Yet there's probably a lot of fear in reaching out to them in the first place. So you have to prepare for change. And at the end of the day, you're likely to build this skill because networking is not an innate skill for many. In fact it can be really terrifying.
So we want to be able to show you a way to prepare and connect in a way that's truly authentic. Realize this whole process is a marathon, not a sprint. It really does take a village. You build multiple villages across industries. And it's also not based on who you know, which I think many people assume just the size of your network is really what helps you move forward.
The reality is it's how much time you spend with who you know. It's that depth of engagement and relationship in addition to building out your network is what's going to be impactful for you. Realize this is also a muscle that you can build. The more you work on this, the better you'll be.
And subsequently your network will be stronger as you put more work into it. And so a few tips on what to think about to make it real. When you're looking to engage, when doing the reach out, this is a great saying from one of our wonderful podcast guests, Marc Angelos; “be brief, be bright, be gone.” So in a cold reach out, you have to contextualize who you are, why you matter to them.
Not “Hi, I want to connect” and nothing behind it. There's no context. You have to really let them know why you matter in terms of their world, the problems that they have, and then thank them for their time. And also remove yourself from the conversation. It's not about “me”, “I”, it's really about “we”, “you”, how you support them and make sure that it's a value exchange.
So, how do you get started in terms of identifying those people that could help you bring your plan to life? Well first step is assess and map your immediate network by aligning where you want to go based on your compass to those people who have a relevant connection or who have knowledge, insights in the industries, roles or interests that you're in.
And so with your first degree connections, you can start to prioritize those people who are most closely aligned with where it is you want to go first. And those first degree connections aren't just the ones in your LinkedIn network, your first degree connections include your family, your immediate family, your nuclear family.
It can include your really close friends that you have. Maybe it's those neighbors that you hang out with on Friday nights or over the weekends. Maybe it's professors that you've worked with, maybe it's coaches or mentors or cousins, but don't necessarily limit it to those who you immediately connect to on a frequent basis. Think broad.
But what you want to do is first find alignment fundamentally in where it is you want to go, what it is you want to do, to those people that you already know that could have a natural connection to that. So if your desire is to move into a product management role at a tech company, maybe it just so happens that your uncle works at one, or maybe he has a best friend that happens to work as an executive in one, but your uncle may be able to give you some insight, cause he might have some knowledge.
And then subsequently he could connect you to that friend, but to break this down and make it comfortable for you, it always starts with who you know, but you're prioritizing and you're assessing. So you're first assessing you're mapping and you're prioritizing those first degree connections. And based on that, you know, again, determine if it's low, medium, high alignment to those goals, objectives, and interests that gives you the launching pad to start having the conversations. To start acquiring information on whether or not you're going down the right path potentially, or maybe they can then give you insight on new skills to build.
They can give you data and information on how to augment your plan. But really what they could do is introduce you to those people who have the depth of expertise in those industries, in those roles, in those disciplines that you want to move into. And so what you're trying to do is identify who in your immediate network can not only provide the guidance, advice, or insight, but can link you to those that are almost more directly aligned to where you want to go.
Resources
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