I just spent the past ten days on a beach tour road trip with my family, dog, and all. It was incredibly relaxing and very much needed after keeping ourselves locked inside for so long. A couple of weeks before we left, I had started a power zone training program on Peloton that was designed to improve my fitness. It’s based on the concept of FTP, or Functional Threshold Power which basically means that whether you’re a young Olympian, or a somewhat older woman like me still recovering from a car accident, you can take the same classes and push yourself to an equivalent extent if you follow your tested zones. This particular program is five weeks long so while it may not have been the best planning in the world to have started it two weeks before vacation, I went for it, thinking I would pick up from the class where I left off when I returned.
It didn’t quite work out that way. I hopped back on the bike this morning only to find that I was expected to be where I would have been without a break, with the instructor cheerily informing me that this was the second to last class before the final FTP test. Other than gently paddling on a floatie in the ocean, I really hadn’t done any exercise over the past week and a half so let’s just say I have some catching up to do, and the idea of taking a fitness test this week felt like I was being thrown into something I just wasn’t prepared for. But, the good thing about muscle memory is that I know with a little work I’ll get my groove back on the bike.
As we were touring around hotels and restaurants, my family and I noticed a similar lack of preparation by the staff. The hospitality industry has been particularly hard hit by COVID and many of their workers were laid off and found other things to do. While some of them have returned or perhaps will in the future, it was clear that the server at a high-end restaurant who didn’t know how to open a wine bottle, the pool server who never brought us a menu or drinks without being chased, and the cleaning staff who kept pointing fingers and saying “not my job” when we tried to get someone to clean our room, were not the seasoned team I’m guessing these establishments once had. Something tells me they thought they could pick up where they left off before the pandemic and have time to train everyone, except that the rest of us were busting to get out there and relax so their experience is a bit like being thrown into a fitness test without having warmed up.
A lot of what we took for granted as entrepreneurs will take some attention to get our muscle memory to kick back in again. We have spent the last 16 months getting used to having meetings on zoom, not paying attention to whether our suits still fit (which in my case explains why I’m so fixated on my exercise bike), chopping up our days into 30-minute meeting increments, and working from morning until night. What are we missing in all of this? Humans!
Sure it’s tough to beat the commute for those of us working from home and I don’t expect to give that up any time soon. I do think that I spent way too much time in traffic before the pandemic and I’m happy with some of my efficiency gains since then. But there’s a balance.
There is a secret formula to growing your business and it consists of three simple things that you must do each and every week without fail.
- Have a strategic conversation with someone new.
- Have a strategic conversation with someone you already know.
- Make a connection between two people you know who don’t know each other.
That’s it. If you do those three things each week, I can guarantee you that your business will grow. And despite running a marketing firm I will tell you that you should do those three things before you invest a dime in your marketing.
What do I mean by having a strategic conversation? If this isn’t part of your weekly routine, it’s actually simpler than you might think. If you’re having a strategic conversation with someone new, then the purpose is to form a relationship. That will typically work best if it’s an in-person discussion for an hour while sharing a meal, although if you only have 30 minutes over zoom then I’d say go for it. Something is always better than nothing. There is actually science behind the idea of sharing a meal together though. There was an Oxford University study in 2017 that showed when people share a meal together they tend to increase their life satisfaction. Regardless of how or where you meet, there is a proven formula for strategic conversation. For however much time you plan the meeting, half of it should be led by you and half by the other person. My personal strategy is to always let the other person go first so I can better tailor my part of the discussion to be more relevant to them.
When the first person begins, it’s helpful to share personal information in order to make a connection. A good start is to talk about what inspired you to start your business and what you have done so far to build it. This shouldn’t sound like a well-rehearsed speech, but be more of a natural sharing that encourages conversation. Then you can build into describing what your company does and the kind of connections you’re looking for. A good connection may be a potential client or another type of professional who can refer you to potential clients. These are always my favorite because they’re like the gift that keeps on giving. Be conscious of the time so you can give the other person time to share their story as well. As they are talking, it’s a good idea to take notes. First, it shows that you’re paying attention, and second, you can reference them later to remember the ideas you discussed. Before leaving the meeting, be sure to come up with at least one potential referral for them. This doesn’t mean that you need to identify a client each time, but ask them which profession tends to be a good source of referrals and identify someone in that profession you know. Maybe you can introduce them to another networking group you’re a part of. At first, this may seem like a challenge, but if you’re having a strategic meeting weekly with someone new, then that’s 52 new people annually you can connect to one another, on top of the people you already know.
The second step of having a strategic conversation weekly with someone you already know should be easy. Find someone in your network who is a good referral partner, or who can connect you to one and grab a coffee, a beer, talk on the phone while you’re driving to your next meeting, go for a walk together, run a common errand together like grocery shopping, jump on a zoom, or if your week is total chaos, have an extended text exchange. Examples of these conversations could start with, “hey I just met this guy and wonder if he would be a good connection for you”, or “I have an idea for a service we can collaborate on”, or “what would you think of doing a webinar together” or even, “I’ve had a crazy day, can I pop over to your office with a bottle of wine?”. Get creative and find ways to reconnect.
We’ve all let our networking slip during the pandemic and our connecting muscles are feeling a bit out of shape. But the good news is that we have networking muscle memory, and with a little effort, we’ll be back to taking these 3 critical steps to growing our business in no time.