If you have read any of my previous blogs about networking, you’ll know that I have been a member of 4N since 2010. And that I was a Regional Leader for 5 years before lockdown put an end to life as we knew it and the world became a much bigger online space. In my heyday, I ran 26 face to face meetings across 2.5k square miles.
And if you haven’t read any of my previous blogs – well, now you know.
I have been on a team for 4N for the whole of my membership. That involves giving up my time to run meetings. As a volunteer. I’ve been doing that the whole time that 4N has been online. The networking world has changed – my business has benefitted massively from being released from the geographical borders of networking in The ‘Shire and created so many opportunities. But that isn’t because 4N went online. It’s because I went with it.
Way back in the day when I first joined 4N, membership was talked about being like joining a gym. Remember that analogy for a few moments would you? Ta.
Now, things have been less than peachy in the online networking world for a little while. When lockdown initially happened, we all had a LOT of free time to fill. No travelling to see clients/go to meetings/conferences/events etc meant big gaps in our diaries. Some folks were furloughed, some were not, some were now looking at second income streams needing to step up and fill a gap, some were looking for social engagement now they were looking at the same 4 walls every day, but what connected us all at that point was we had TIME. Lots of it. So we filled it by creating and running lots of online networking meetings. And that was lovely. Initially.
Then we played the Lockdown Hokey Cokey for a while – are we in it/out of it/putting a toe in it/stopping it? That was exhausting. And then things started to settle down a bit and the thing I had been saying since day one – adapt to survive, plan to thrive – started to become a reality and a new way of working started to kick in.
People moved on. They had less time to fill with other things. And networking struggled.
At one point I ran 8 online weekly meetings. That was crazy. By August last year I was running 6 fortnightly meetings. My business was thriving, and I realised something had to give. So I stopped hosting as many meetings, and now focus on running monthly or pop up meetings instead.
Throughout all of this time, I heard the same things (and said some of them, I will admit) over and over again, especially from team members:
- I’m not getting any business
- I’m spending loads of time working for 4N and not my business
- I’m not seeing the kinds of businesses I want to work with
- I don’t think this is working for me
These are all valid opinions. Definitely. And should be shared – but then you have to turn it around and look at how to solve the problem.
I’m not getting any business
Are you asking for it? Do you have a killer introduction that explains exactly what you do, how it helps people and what they need to do to find out how to work with you? No? Then man up and get that sorted. Talk to my friend Caroline Andrew-Johnstone, book a Pitch Perfect session with her. Sort it out.
I’m spending loads of time working for 4N and not my business
Slightly more tricky here. I get it. I got frustrated about that too. So I changed a few things around and then looked at what hosting meetings was doing for me. What was I getting out of it? What did I want to get out of it? Ask yourself those two questions to begin with. If you are on a networking team or not, you still need to be clear about what you want to get from networking. Then you need to shift your mindset and look at the time you put into a team role as time you are marketing your business. Once I did that, everything slotted back into place. I’d lost sight of it, so once I refocussed on what I wanted to get from networking overall, from my team role specifically, and started to implement it, I stopped resenting the time spent doing it.
I’m not seeing the kinds of businesses I want to work with
Oh boo hoo. Poor you. Jeez this one makes me so mad. If you are not seeing the kinds of businesses at your networking meetings that you want to do business with – then get off your fat backside and invite them! Why on earth you expect someone else to do that for you is utterly beyond me. Inviting people to come and network with you is a great way to show them how well connected you are as a business owner. If you happen to be speaking at the event you invite them to, they get to see you evidence your credibility and expertise, as well as showing how well connected you are. And, if that wasn’t enough, they get to make new connections for their business too. Stop sticking your head in the sand and moaning about not seeing new businesses at your networking meeting – be proactive and find them/invite them and see what happens. You never know, it might actually work….
I don’t think this is working for me, there aren’t enough people at these meetings
Are you networking at other meetings apart from your own if you are not on that team? No? Then why should other team members support your meeting? It’s a two way street. You can’t just expect support because you need it. Give support. When you do, you’ll find it much easier to get it back. If you are not on a networking team, but are a regular punter, read the paragraph above again, and then ask yourself the same question – are you only networking at one group? If you want that group to grow and give you more connection opportunities, then put some effort in.
If you are running a business, then you have other things that require your attention other than networking. I get that. Unless you are running the networking organisation you belong to, it’s totally reasonable for you to not be spending 7 hours of your day thinking about networking. But it does need to be a BIG part of your business growth strategy. Networking is all about building connections and creating opportunity. If you are part of a networking team, then you have the inside scoop to make that work even harder for your business.
Remember the gym thing? Here it is. If you join a gym and want to lose 2 stone, you know you need to actually go to the gym, do the classes/weights etc to actually make that happen. Signing up for gym membership is NOT the pain point – as I was reminded in a recent conversation with Brad Burton, the founder of 4N.
But if you expect to lose that weight by simply joining the gym, paying your membership and doing the square root of diddly squat, apart from maybe turning up every now and then and spending more time in the spa than on the running machine, that 2 stone isn’t going anywhere.
If you join a network, wanting to grow your business, but expect all of that to happen by magic, with zero effort from you to change that, and get snippy about ‘networking not working for your business’, then you are simply just being a twonk.