Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great Friday and a great conclusion to the week. Today I want to talk to you about growing your network. Your network is the most important and valuable asset in your life and business. Anyone in your network can be a potential client or someone who can get you in touch with one, so let’s go over a couple of tips and tricks on growing your network.
A great starting place for growing your network is starting with the network you already have. You have your friends, family, old clients, current clients, and anyone you have come across in the past. Talk to them, see if you can help them with what they are doing, and see if they can help you by putting you in contact with or introducing you to someone they know in your field. Listen to what they do and what they need. Ask questions, ask if you can do anything, ask for help, and most importantly, follow up.
Starting with your immediate Circle of Influence is again a great starting place, but to grow, you need to break outside your circles. You have one for work, with all of your colleagues, one at home with your family, everywhere you go, you have a Circle. You gotta break into the Circles of the people in your Circles. Ask for an introduction, and ask for help putting your name out there. If you don’t ask, nothing is going to happen. If you ask, the worst outcome is them saying no.
Another tool you can use to grow your network is social media. Everything is on social media nowadays. It’s not enough to have an Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn account: using it consistently and engaging with people on each site is the way to grow your network. Posting consistently, commenting on other people’s posts, engaging with others’ accounts, and DMing people asking to chat about your industry, what they do, etc. Once you learn from others and use social media to its fullest potential, you can gain knowledge and connections for a lifetime.
Think long-term with these connections. These are the people who can grow your business and build your reputation. These shouldn’t be just one-off conversations, like, “Hi, can we connect”, if you continue to follow up, have consistent meetings, podcasts, lunch meetings, or emails, and keep your name in their mind. It is also not uncommon to get shut down. You will get rejected more than anything else. But you learn from your mistakes, try again, fail, and try harder. Remember to stay in touch and follow up. People might take a couple of tries to follow up but keep at it.
I hope you learned some valuable information on how to grow your network, and I’ll see you next week.