This time last week I was at The Networking Retreat run by Stef Thomas.
I’d booked my place pretty much as soon as Stef released the dates – I knew I needed to invest some time & energy into my networking – much as I love it, I felt I was in a rut – no new prospects coming in, no clear vision of a way forward that would be beneficial to my business.
So, no pressure then Stef – off you go & fix all that in a day & a half.
Well of course I didn’t expect that – but I also didn’t expect to be challenged as much as I was either. Having been actively networking for well over 5 years, there were certain elements of my networking behaviour I thought I had nailed.
I hadn’t.
I am a confident public speaker – well used to speaking & presenting at events from conferences at Olympia to 4N meetings in Lincolnshire. I actually enjoy getting up in front of large groups of people & presenting – which I should do – if I didn’t, then I’d be in the wrong job!
But having the time & the focus to really pull apart my elevator pitch really made me realise why I wasn’t getting great traction from it. Having the support, not just from Stef, but also from the other members of the group to really drill down & find a pitch that said what I wanted to say was fantastic.
Going to the retreat also gave me time to think about the ‘why’ of my business. Not something that many business owners get to do regularly as you are busy in your business a lot of the time, rather than focusing on your business.
It’s taken me the best part of this week to really think about the impact The Networking Retreat has had, not only on my networking, but on how I feel about my business all together. There are changes ahead – but changes I feel massively positive about having had the opportunity to think them through, and decide on a path that works for me & for my business going forward.
And as part of that, I’m now committed to talking more about what I do, and how well I do it (and if you want more help with that, you need to speak to Chris Marr at The Content Marketing Academy), as well as restructuring a few things to reflect where I want to be in my business in 12 months time.
So – in a nutshell, I’ve written this post to answer the question put to me at my networking meeting this week – ‘yeah, but you’ve been networking for ages, was it really worth it?’.
Yes. Yes it was.
Was the networking retreat worth it?
Yes—the networking retreat was worthwhile because it created focused time to improve my message, reconsider my business direction and make practical decisions about my next 12 months. Although I had more than five years of networking experience, I had stopped seeing enough new prospects and needed an outside perspective on what was no longer working. The value was not simply meeting more people. It was having structured space to examine how I described my business, why I was networking and which changes would better support my future goals.
For an established networker, a retreat can be especially useful when regular meetings feel routine. It provides distance from day-to-day delivery work and turns vague frustration into clear actions.
How a networking retreat can improve an elevator pitch
An effective elevator pitch is not just a short description of a service. It should help the listener understand who you help, the problem you solve and why a conversation with you is relevant. At the retreat, reviewing my pitch with Stef Thomas and the other attendees exposed gaps between what I intended to communicate and what others actually heard.
- Start with the audience or type of client you want to reach.
- Name the business problem or outcome that matters to that audience.
- Describe your role in clear, everyday language rather than using broad labels.
- Ask peers what they think you do after hearing the pitch.
- Revise the wording until it is accurate, memorable and easy for others to repeat.
That peer feedback matters because networking referrals depend on other people being able to explain your value confidently when you are not in the room.
Who can benefit from a networking retreat?
A networking retreat can benefit business owners who already attend networking events but feel that their activity has become repetitive or is no longer producing the right conversations. It is not only for people who are new to networking. In this case, the attendee was already comfortable speaking publicly, had presented at events including Olympia and had participated in 4N meetings in Lincolnshire.
The retreat was valuable because the issue was not confidence in a room. The issue was direction: attracting new prospects, communicating the business clearly and deciding where the business should go next.
- Established networkers whose referrals have slowed down
- Business owners with an unclear or outdated elevator pitch
- People who need time away from operational work to plan
- Confident presenters who still need sharper positioning