Hack: Successfully Build Your Community with 1 Hour/Week
Psst… I have a secret. It’s going to change the way that you look at networking.
If you’ve been in business for a few years, chances are you’ve heard the saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Along with this saying, comes the understanding of how to accomplish this. The technical term would be ‘networking’, the not-so-technical term would be ‘community building’.
Here’s the thing - most of us delay networking because we just don’t have the time. Rather, we don’t think we have the time to dedicate towards cultivating an engaged network. It’s false. I call BS.
You can successfully build your business social network with 1 hour per week. It’s the art of business networking.
Business Networking Tips
Let’s talk about the strategy here and how you can develop your playbook.
Prep Work
-Gain clarity - get as clear as possible about your objectives, why do you want to build your business social network? (note that this can be anything from gaining a mentor to developing more like minded friends to landing the potential for a collaboration). This will act as your roadmap. It’s going to help you determine who you are going to reach out to.
-Service - how can you be of service to the people that you’re reaching out to?
-Determine the platform that you’ll be using - LinkedIn, IG, FB, Clubhouse, Twitter, etc.
-Decide on your plays - what is the first step in this relationship going to be? My suggestion is asking to hop on a 20 minute coffee connect call to get to know more about (insert reason that you’re reaching out to this person).
Great, now that the groundwork is laid you’re able to craft your 1 hour/week networking plan.
The art of networking
Time blocking & scheduling is going to be very important when it comes to networking. Allow the person you’ve reached out to flexibility with the coffee connect call. Be flexible around their schedule. After all, you’re asking them for a favour through this request. It’s connected with your business networking etiquette.
Pause. Let’s put this into perspective for a minute. Which one sounds better?
“Hey Jen, I came across your profile and __ stuck out to me. *insert background about yourself, how this is relevant, why you’re reaching out*. __ especially stood out to me because ___. And I was wondering if you might have 20 minutes to hop on a connect coffee call to chat more about it. I totally understand if this isn’t the best time for you.”
OR
““Hey Jen, I came across your profile and __ stuck out to me. *insert background about yourself, how this is relevant, why you’re reaching out*. __ especially stood out to me because ___. And I was wondering if you might have 20 minutes to hop on a connect coffee call this Tuesday at 9am EST to chat more about it. I totally understand if this isn’t the best time for you.”
As you can see, it's a subtle difference. Which one are you more likely going to respond to?
My preference is the first one. It doesn’t impose a time frame. It allows time for more of an open ended conversation vs giving a time and the conversation ending if that doesn’t work for said individual.
Pro tip - 20 minutes for a call is a sweet spot. It gives you the time to get to know someone, move past the pleasantries and have an actual conversation. But it’s not so long that you’re over imposing your welcome. You aren’t asking someone for a prolonged time.
The truth is most of us have 20 minutes that we can spare. During our busier periods, that’s not always the case. That being said, it's low commitment for both parties involved. Remember that networking is playing the long game. This means that successfully growing your engaged business social network isn’t going to happen overnight.
The key is sticking to the time allocated. If you ask for 20 minutes, stick to 20 minutes.
The exception to that is if the other person is leading the conversation. If it’s a conversation that’s flowing well, recognize the time. It’s okay to stay on the phone for a few extra minutes, but acknowledge this and ask your contact if they can accommodate.
“Practice creates confidence. Confidence empowers you.”
It goes back to business networking etiquette rules, this comes down to being respectful of other peoples times. Remember that you’re asking for a favour and they’ve given you the gift of time (something that they’ll never get back).
To paint the picture, reverse the situation. If someone asked you for 20 minutes of your time and it turned into 1 hour, without any sort of acknowledgement, how would you feel? More importantly, would you be willing to help this person further?
Probably not.
My recommendation is aiming for two connect calls per week. That brings you up for 40 minutes of time spent for the week. Pro tip - depending on who you’re hoping to network with, this can be two virtual coffee chats. If you’re strapped for time, virtual cuts down on the additional travel time. As the world slowly returns to normal (or the new normal), virtual is a very acceptable way of engaging with people.
That leaves you with 20 minutes to play with. Allocate 12 minutes to research. Research includes: determining who to reach out to, a bit of background on them (a.k.a. the reason that you want to connect in the first place), and questions for the call.
Set a timer with various intervals to keep you on track for that 12 minutes. If you have extra time to go over, account for that extra time. An example of this is: 7 minutes on outreach (finding people & sending messages) and 5 minutes on developing questions for the call.
My recommendation is to wait to develop the questions until someone has confirmed a virtual coffee chat with you.
But wait, there’s a part of the equation that’s missing. I did this intentionally. As you’ll notice, the follow up is not included here.
Why?
You can track this for your following week’s allocated time. Let’s say you only confirm one networking call that week, you have an extra 20 minutes to reallocate and play around with.
Know that networking is as unique and individual as each person, so if something that I’ve mentioned doesn’t feel authentic to you, adjust it. There’s a very unique art of networking that develops the more that you do it. You aren’t tied to one particular way. Make it your own. Adjust when you need to, test new methods to see what lands.
Let’s do some math.
We’re going to examine this from a 90 day game plan for networking.
For this equation, there are 4 weeks in a month.
During these 4 weeks of consistently networking based on the above 1 hour per week plan, you’ll have had 24 virtual coffee chats.
For argument’s sake, let’s say you reach out to 4 new people per week. That’s 84 people that you’ve connected with over the span of 90 days.
Note - when you first start reaching out, know that it might take people a bit longer to get back to you or they may not. Either way, that’s okay! It’s just something to factor in to show that your numbers might not match the above example.
90 day game plan for networking
Why is building relationships important for business?
In business, it really comes down to who you know. To gain more opportunities, land speaking engagements, obtain more sales, be seen as an authority figure you have to build a reputation for yourself.
That reputation isn’t built from sitting in your office cubicle, clocking out, going home, and repeating that for 40 years.
To be seen as an authority figure and a leader, you need to network. You need to build meaningful connections with other industry professionals.
Here’s the thing. The majority of us are replaceable to an organization. Unfortunately, that’s just the truth. This stresses a level of importance on going above and beyond, bringing in value to an organization.
Your business network acts as your security blanket, your coach, and the people in your corner of the ring.
When you successfully develop a social business network, you’re exposed to new opportunities. It could increase the sales revenue that you bring in. Introduce a new big client for your company. Facilitate paid speaking gigs or written article opportunities. Your network could expose you to new job opportunities. You could now have a soundboard, a friend, a mentor.
The possibilities for what it could lead to are endless.
Remember that when forming your network, you want to come from a place of service. Go into it with the mindset of “how can I help __?”.
Most people working in sports business understand the importance of networking. Most people that want to work in sports business understand the importance of networking. This means that there are a lot of people out there trying to build connections.
You’re spending 20 minutes chatting with someone. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not a lot of time. So if your goal is to build a long term relationship, be memorable and make sure that it’s mutually beneficial.
More on that later.
For now, test out this 1 hour per week networking plan. Let me know how it goes!
Short on time? Confused about where to start? Explore my done for you customized networking plan.