Welcome back to Branded: your comprehensive guide to creative branding.
Networking is something we know we need to do, but how can we do it well? In this episode, we're sharing a few tips for networking in social and professional settings so you can grow your brand.
We talk about our own experiences networking (both positive and negative) and the more memorable mistakes we've made over the years. Take some of these ideas and level up your networking for your next event.
Key takeaways:
1. Networking Requires a Giving Attitude: The episode stresses the importance of going into networking events with a giving attitude. Rather than focusing solely on what one can gain, the emphasis is on contributing, building relationships, and offering value to others.
2. Follow-Up Promptly: It is essential to follow up with new connections within 48 hours of the initial meeting. This prompt follow-up helps ensure that people remember you and can lead to further conversations and opportunities.
3. Side Hustles Are Important: The discussion highlights the significance of having a side hustle. It serves as a fallback position in the event of a job loss, and it also helps maintain an active professional presence if one's main job status changes.
4. Authenticity Matters in Personal Branding: The episode emphasizes the importance of being authentic when building a personal brand. It discusses how being true to oneself, even in choices of attire and demeanor, is vital for establishing an identity and remaining true to one's values.
5. Physical Appearance Should Not Determine Networking: The hosts share experiences about how making assumptions based on outward appearances can lead to missed opportunities. They stress the importance of looking beyond appearances and focusing on the value individuals can bring in a networking context.
Have a branding question you want us to answer? Email us at hello@listentobranded.com!
What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts. And I'm Sara
Lucy. And this is Brandon, your comprehensive guide to creative branding. And
on this episode of the podcast, we're going to be talking about
networking. And we've definitely talked about
networking before four, but I think we're going to look at it a little more
in depth today and maybe even look at it from a
couple of different perspectives. Because networking
in your day to day operations or even networking at some of your
local networking organizations could be completely
different than the way you network at a conference. Yeah, I think
with a conference, everyone is in the mindset of they
want to do business, and that can be a completely different take
versus if you're just going to a networking event, which is more
just connections. But even in social
settings, I've networked at weddings, I've networked at parties. Maybe that's
just because I can't turn it off, but it's also,
you meet different types of people from different walks
of life. When you're at a networking event or you're at a conference, everyone there
has something in common versus if you're just in a social setting. I feel
like everyone is super unique. As
entrepreneurs and brand builders. Can we ever really turn
it off? I mean, we kind of need to be networking
24/7 yeah. And it can get annoying,
honestly. I was literally at a wedding over
the weekend and someone brought, like, they mentioned that
they want to write a book someday. And I'm just immediately go into, okay,
well, I have friends in the publishing world, so send me an email. I can't
turn it off. Right? Just being like, oh, that's awesome. I'm just like, okay,
who can I connect you with? How can we get this done? Your book will
be out next.
You know, I went to the success north Dallas Young executives
on Tuesday night and I just went there to, I go every month
just to support the organization. And I met some people. Before I knew it,
they had my book in their hand and we were taking a group photo
and I made these connections and I made these new
relationships, and you just never know when that
opportunity is going to present itself. Yeah.
And one of the things that I have learned the hard way, that has been
a piece of advice I've gotten, but I still have not listened to it,
is number one rule of networking. Have a free
hand. Don't have both of your hands full because people
are going to try to shake your hand. And every single
time I'm in a situation, my hands are full.
I'm trying to shift things from one arm to the other, awkwardly go in for
like an upside down handshake. And it doesn't help that I'm left handed, so I'm
usually holding things in my right hand, but then they want to shake my right
hand, so then I have to switch everything over or give them the awkward, we're
on the same side handshake. But at the same
time, doesn't that create a memorable experience?
Don't they go, oh, you're the girl. That had all these,
you're the hot mess I met. You're the hotness, that
hot mess that I met there at that event. It's going to be
a mess. May as well be a hot one.
But the thing that really spawned this conversation was
I downloaded an ebook of 120 ways
to power network. And I looked through it and like, wow, this might be good
for us to cover some of these and kind of bring it to the forefront.
Yeah, that was one that really stood out to me. And then another
one was, don't be a snob. Make sure that you're talking
to anybody and everybody. Yeah. And this one really
stood out, especially because I look a lot younger than I am.
So I have had a lot of people kind of just snub
me in a networking setting because they assume I can do
nothing. What can you possibly bring to the table, Sara? At my
age, for real, we all. Need to know that. Yeah. Thanks,
Lisa. Credit where credit is
due is immortalized
forever. Forever.
But I remember back, it was in my first job, and I
was actually the one that created and ran an internship
program for the company. So I would go to these
events where students were allowed to go as well. They got like, free
entry so that they can network with companies and try to get
internships and stuff. So I remember me and
Renee, who was my coworker, same age as me. We're
talking to a full size adult who she used to work
for. Do I qualify as a full
size adult? Is that what you do? I'm still like an adult with training. Thanks,
I appreciate that. Thank you. But we were talking to a full size adult, and
this student sidles up in between
me and Renee and the full size adult and just has her back
to us and starts elevator pitching the
woman. And it goes on for a, like we were in a conversation. So
me and Renee are now just standing there like, all right, rude.
And then after she feels like she's made her case,
she turns to us and is like, oh, so where do you guys go?
And we're like, we represent our company. We're here
to find potential interns. And she's like, oh,
do you want my card? No, I do not.
Not even a little bit. And then she walks away. And I'm pretty sure the
woman she talked to who did take her card threw it out.
Because even if I was a
student, you don't just turn your back on someone and. Oh,
God, it was not good. Yeah. I mean, it can be hard
to not make those assumptions right out of the gate, you know what I mean?
But it reminds me back in the day of when I sold cars, this was
way back in the day. There was an incident where
everybody was on the floor. It was a slow day at the dealership, and this
guy pulls up, and he's in this beater of a mini
truck. You can look at the truck, and you can see that the entire dash
is covered in cigarette butts. This guy gets out of the truck, he's
wearing, like, coveralls, and he's less than clean. We'll
put it that way, because I'm trying to be polite here. The entire floor,
all the other salespeople, they vanish, right? I get with
this guy because they left me there to take him on, and
I show him around the dealership. We finally find a vehicle that he's looking
for. Dude writes a check at sticker.
No negotiation. Just writes a sticker, full price for this van.
And, of course, still nobody believed that this cat could even do this. Well,
they verified funds, the check cleared, and I sold this guy a
van at sticker price. No negotiation. Because
everybody else made an assumption based on his
appearance. And, I mean, I couldn't have been more than 21 years old at
the time. But that lesson stuck with me, and it's very
applicable when it comes to networking. Regardless of these events
that you're at, regardless of someone's outward appearance, there's still
an opportunity to make an amazing connection. Regardless of
what you may think right. Out of the gate, it's definitely not
uncommon for me to be misjudged based on I look
like a child. I've seen it happen, but it's also, I feel
like, for you, it happens. We've had a lot of conversations with people.
One was recently about how we dress and how
what you wear when you go to these events means a lot about
how people take you seriously. Sure. And your uniform is
either your hoodie or your quarter zip with jeans and sneakers.
And it was even said, like, oh, well, that's fine. You're just a
podcaster. Exactly. That's exactly what was said.
I'm still sort of somewhat taken aback. And
even just yesterday, I was in a hot seat of a
mastermind. And it's a fairly high end mastermind that I
don't necessarily feel comfortable being a part of because it's such a high end
gig. Not that I don't consider myself a high end cat, but I'm talking, these
cats are high end.
There's definitely levels to this game, folks. And one of the
people that were on the call, she pulled up my website, which has
photos of me on stage, and there I am
in my three quarter little zip up, and I've got these
stark white sneakers and my jeans, and I'm doing
my thing. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't
just somewhat embarrassed of the fact that she pulled up my
picture in that uniform in
front of this particular crowd. But it's
you. It is. And that's the benefit of being an
entrepreneur. That's the benefit of being who we are. That's the benefit of
building your own personal brand, is you have that
opportunity to be you.
So many people live their lives in this
bubble that they have to be in
order to be, quote unquote, successful. And this whole
podcast is about building your brand and building your personal brand
and securing your personal identity and being successful
within that personal identity. And someone in that
same mastermind yesterday asked me, they said, if we paid you $300,000 a
year, would you consider coming to work for us?
Yes. And of course I said yes.
Yeah. Where's the contract being recorded? Witnesses? This
was an offer. It is recorded. And don't think for
a minute I won't play that back for them here. As soon as they post
on your new ringtone. Yeah,
but at the same time, I sat back and I went,
would I. Would you want to work for someone? Again? Would I want to work
for someone? They're offering me, they didn't really
offer, but hypothetically offered $300,000 a
year to travel and speak for their
company around the country. And
that sounds amazing, but is it really
amazing? Because if I was to do that,
do I still get to be who I am? Do I still get to wear
the red hat? Do I still get to wear the three quarter zip up or
the hoodie? Do I still get to wear my Jordans everywhere I go? And
that's something that, and we've gone off on a freaking tangent here
very much. Yeah, we'll come back
to the networking thing here in a minute, but I think that's what you have
to ask yourself. And I'm going to take this back to networking.
Now, networking allows you that opportunity to be yourself,
but at the same time, we have to be cognizant of the fact that the
other people in the room may be looking at it from the same
perspective. They're there in their brand, they're there
in their comfort zone, they're building their own
personal brand, they're running their business from their own perspective.
You just used every form of there in the same sentence. And the english
language is nonsense. It's all about pronouns, baby. It's 2024. So
I want to make sure I'm inclusive. That's the whole goal here.
So I'm being very inclusive
in my description here of what we have to
take into account when we're networking. And
it's easy to make that snap judgment. And Sara, you led me down
this path. I'm going to blame you for this. You led me down this path
because of the youthfulness of your outward appearance.
You're 28 and you are young and you're put
together, and a lot of people will make these
outward assumptions just based on that. And that's
something that we have to avoid when we're in these networking situations.
Regardless of whether it's someone that appears to be young or in
the case of that cat that I sold the van to, older,
and who is perceived to be as
not in a position to buy a brand new vehicle, let's put it that way.
I'm going to give another networking tip. I just have to say. At that wedding,
someone told me that they thought they were at least a decade older than me.
Yeah. And they were 27. Yeah. And they were younger.
Yeah. So they thought I was a teenager. So
we're just going to leave that there. One of the things when it comes
to social event versus conference, I think the way
we follow up on connections is
also different. And we talked about following up with, like, when we talked
about business cards and when we are exhibiting at conferences and such. But if
you're just attending or you just meet somebody out in the world, I
feel like at a conference setting, you follow up with an
email, but at a social setting or a networking setting, I
would follow up with just a LinkedIn connect or with like a little message,
a note about what we talked about or something. Is that just
me? Is that weird? I don't
think it's weird by any stretch of the imagination, but I think we tend
to be somewhat short sighted in these
scenarios. I literally just followed up with a guy that I met
on Tuesday night at the young executives meeting, which was a local networking
event. I literally just followed up with an email this morning. Now,
we followed each other on LinkedIn that night, but
what good is that? Well, you include like a message. Well, yeah,
you have a little message. You go, oh, great. Yeah. Great connecting with you, too.
Thank you. Let me know if I can do anything to help. And then you're
good. I'll usually, hey, great connecting with you here.
And then when they accept it, then I'll say, let's continue the conversation, and
I'll actually put my calendar link in the chat. And that's great. That's an
excellent next step. You know what I mean? And I think that's
what so many times we fall short of, is not taking
that next step. Now I'm sitting here breaking my arm, patting myself on
the back for just sending an email to a guy I met on Tuesday night.
Right. But my point there is I at least
followed up. We followed each other on LinkedIn. He had a
copy of my book. So we also took a picture which was posted on LinkedIn
and posted on Facebook. So we put ourselves out there in
that regard. But what's going to come of it from beyond that
if I don't send that email and go, hey, man, appreciate meeting you on
Tuesday night. Appreciate you taking a copy of my book. Would love to continue the
conversation. Do you have a calendar link? And if not, here's
mine. Let's get together. Let's talk.
And again, not trying to break my arm, pat myself on the back, but I
think that's such an overlooked step. So many times
when we're networking, we just don't follow up. I mean, going
back to the hot seat that I was in, in that
mastermind, I had a gentleman follow up with me after the fact
on LinkedIn that said he wanted to work with me and
gave me, dude blew my mind. But this was an example of how
well this individual does follow up. He
wrote, like, paragraphs of input
in LinkedIn after we came off this hot seat call in
that mastermind, and I was blown away because he took the
time to really engage and really take the
relationship to the next level. And also, here's such a
big part. So many times, and this is even in that list
that we were talking about when we first got the episode going. So many times
we go to networking events. And what's our goal
to get? Our goal is to get, to take,
to find, to secure that next lead, to get
that next. That's not what networking is all about. That's
what getting out there and getting involved and meeting other people is all
about. We have to go from a giving perspective.
And I keep going back to this, and maybe this should
have been the episode. Was Larry in the hot seat? I don't know.
Next episode. Yeah. And it scared the living daylights out of me. But
I gave freely of information that
I don't want to give, that I really probably not even probably,
I just don't want other people knowing about me, about my
business and where I'm at. But guess what happened when I
gave. You got back. I got back
and they gave free. I mean, super freely. It was,
was, it was the direct opposite of what I expected to
happen. And it was really amazing. And I think if we go in there,
not just, yeah, you're laughing. No, I'll tell you why I'm laughing. After
you. I think I already know why you're laughing. And it's just another Larry check.
I don't know. You don't? No, I don't. Okay, cool.
Well, now I'm off track, because now I need to know why you're laughing.
So my great grandfather, I think it was my great
grandfather, he used to have a saying, when
you lay your breads upon the waters, they come back to you
in sandwiches, which is like when you give, you
get back more or something. It's
a great saying. That's the greatest saying I think I've
ever heard about. Right. But it got even better. Oh my
God, my sister, so she, in
college, she didn't drink much, but she had one, I think it was like
their senior day, and they all got a little hammered. And she was
trying to remember what this saying was. So she
just starts rambling about soggy sandwiches.
Nice. So now anytime someone talks about, like, it's give
more than you receive, I'm just like, you don't want soggy sandwiches.
So that's why I was laughing, is because you need to lay breads and
get sandwiches. Definitely not where I was going with why you were laughing. But
I love a good soggy.
Honest. We can learn a lot
from soggy mean.
That's, that's my whole thing, man. Going to these networking events and the young
executives where I went Tuesday night, it's just an extension of another
networking organization, which is just success north Dallas.
There's a gentleman that has been going to
success north Dallas for months now.
And one of the cool things that we do there at the organization is if
you are in transition from one position, potentially,
to, ideally, another position, meaning unemployed. We're trying to
be very cordial here and not say, if you're looking for a job,
but if you are looking for a job, there's an opportunity
for you to get up and say, hey, I'm so and so, and this is
my background. This is what I'm looking for. And hopefully there can be a connection
made that will put you back in the role that you're looking for. And
this poor gentleman is always at the main
meetings, he's always at the young executives, and he has yet to find
that role. And I firmly
believe, because I know I've heard his background and he brings a lot to the
table, but there's also that. And
I don't just want to pinpoint this cat, but I'll turn it back on myself
as well. There's always this air of,
I just need a job, I just need a connection. I just need to make
it work. I just need.
That comes off this cat, and it's a little
off putting at times. And that's something that
I know. And I say this, I know it because I know I do it,
too. I'm very guilty of
going into networking opportunities with an air of
desperation, with an air of, oh, this is my chance to get a
client. I've even done it in speaking gigs.
I'll go to an opportunity to speak, and
I guarantee you that I'm reeking of if I
crush this talk, I'll get some clients. And it just doesn't
work. It's never worked, and I don't believe it'll ever work. So
that's something that we need to be cognizant of when we go to these events,
is, what are our true intentions?
Because even if we try to mask our true intentions, people can
see through it. And we need to go to these events with
an attitude of giving, with an attitude of contribution,
with an attitude of relationship. And
that goes far and above an attitude of getting
something back in return. Yeah, I think that really highlights the
importance of networking, even when you don't need anything at all. Because if then
you do find yourself in that position where you're looking and you
do need, you already have people you could personally reach out
to because they're already part of your network.
But one of the things that I think
millennials, and we kind of
invented the side hustle, and I
think side hustles are so important just because,
come on now, we invented the side hustle.
No, I was, for millennials, where you. Were in a
thing, you were just hustling. Oh, I just hustled
it. Side
hustles. Okay. We may not have invented it, but we perfected it.
Okay. All right. But it's so important to
have something like that on the side so that if you do lose your
main position, you have something
to fall back on. Not even just for the income standpoint, but
if you're on LinkedIn and you have your position
as unemployed, it might as well say dead.
No one wants to talk to that person. No one wants to connect with that
person. So if suddenly my company goes under,
so instead of being president, favorite daughter media, I have to
rely on something else, and also branded and all of that. But
if I have a side hustle, I can just fill in and all these side
hustles, I can just swap it out with
a side hustle so that I still have a position. Because
if it just says nothing like unemployed, the same
what we were just saying you shouldn't do, other people are going to see that
and say there's nothing they can do for me. So that's not going to get
you anywhere. So having a side hustle can be really important
in the case of losing that main job.
I'm a huge advocate of side hustles, and I wholeheartedly agree.
You got to have a side hustle. I may have gone side hustle a little
too hard when I was still the corporate guy back in the
day. I may have been side hustling on company
time, but that's neither here nor there.
But no, I love it, man. And that does open up those opportunities.
I think the biggest takeaway here today from this
conversation is go into your networking opportunities
with something in each hand. So you have to struggle a little. Bit to shake
hands so they'll remember you. So they'll remember you. That's one of my
takeaways. Speaking of remembering, though.
Yeah, I just want to throw this one out there. Throw it out there. We
talked about follow ups and now about remembering. Make sure
you're following up within 48 hours, because if you wait longer than
that, they will not remember ever having met you unless you're like a celebrity and
they're ever going to forget you or something, or you really embarrass
yourself or something. Maybe. You ever read that? Remember
that? Yeah. But for the most part, they're not going to remember. So
make sure it's within those 48 hours that you're sending that follow up. Yeah.
Thank you for scolding me, because I really meant to follow up yesterday with this
individual that I followed up with this morning, but his card fell out of
my wallet. I was like, oh, my God. Oh, yeah, I better follow up here.
So, anyway, man, hopefully you guys got some value out of this
episode. I think Sara and I really conveyed some
of our own experiences here and some of the things that we've learned over the
years in networking and putting ourselves out there. So hopefully, you can gain
some insight from this and move forward in your networking
efforts and continue to grow your own personal brand. So if you did
find some value, do us a favor. Hit that subscribe button so we can continue
to bring you this amazing content each and every week.
And with that, I'm Larry Robert. I'm Sara Lohse. We'll talk to you next week.