My Process for Preparing for a Coffee Chat
“I must have sent out 15+ invites/inquiries about setting up a coffee chat and I got my first ‘YES’... Only, now what?”
YOU LANDED A COFFEE CHAT!?! Congratulations! That’s something worth celebrating in and of itself. I’m a firm believer that when we stop to celebrate & appreciate, our energy changes, and thus we call more of that into our lives. I highly recommend incorporating more of this into your daily life.
How to build relationships in business
Coffee chats are an incredibly powerful tool for building your business social network. This network will be filled with people that know you, understand what your goals are, cheer you on, and present opportunities for you.
Building relationships in business is crucial and it’s especially crucial if your goal is to work in sports business. If you don’t believe me, just check these out:
“Networking is the No. 1 written rule of success in business”
“Ask anyone in sports for advice on how to make it in the industry, and the answer is unanimous. Network. That, plus a passion for the grind and a tough-as-nails work ethic.”
“Understanding the many approaches of how to network in sport business can put you ahead of your peers in the job front. The connections you make can spruce up your resume in preparation for potential employers.”
After you take a moment to celebrate, get everything “tech” set up and ready to go. If you’re chatting over Zoom, set up the schedule, get it on your calendar & share the link with them. If the call is happening in a few days time or a few weeks time, set a “follow up” reminder. This doesn’t have to be super fancy.
There are a few ways that you can tackle this: get an email scheduled (if it’s pre scheduled to go out, you don’t have to worry about this later on. It’s a one and done). Another option is to set up an alarm reminder or Google calendar reminder to shoot them a quick reminder the day before.
Afterwards, you’ll move onto the research stage.
Don’t go overboard here. Use the platform that you connected with them on to find out more. If they have other social media platforms connected, then you can do a brief look over.
Reflect on your objective - what’s the reason that you reached out to this person, what are you hoping to gain from this conversation, what can you contribute to them? This is going to be the pivotal factor that will help guide you throughout your prep work.
Note that you don’t want to spend hours and hours knee deep in researching them. You want to focus on the basics that will help you lead the conversation.
The mindset aspect is super important here. Go into your search in the mindframe of “is this something we could chat more about?” and “is this something that we can connect and bond over?”
Here are some of the things to lead your search:
School - which school did they attend? What did they go for?
Current role - what is their position? Who is their employer? What responsibilities do they have?
Path - what was their path to getting where they are?
Your next step is to review any articles that they have written or that’s been written about them. Pro tip: check out their LinkedIn for articles and do a quick Google search on their name. This is open to great opportunities. The conversation could go something like,
“I noticed that you were featured on ___. I found it a profound article that flipped the switch on my thinking about __. Specifically, when you mentioned ___, I started thinking about ___. I had one question for you about the article you wrote (insert quote), can you tell me (insert what your question is).
Here’s what you should have at this point:
A general understanding of who they are and what they do
A connection point
A question for them that relates to an article that they wrote OR that they were featured in (this shows your credibility and that you took a few minutes to do some research. It displays how interested you are in them and the authority figure that you view them as).
Preparing for a coffee chat
Start a brain dump of conversational topics.
Use this as the foundation for the call, it’s something that you can fall back on. The nitty gritty - what do you include in this brain dump?
Your connection piece is the beginning, adding emotional value to the conversation. It’s so much easier to have the rest of your conversation when you’ve bonded over something at the get-go. It shows your personality, and you can have a brief chat about it.
Are you both alumni at the same school?
Are you both fans of the same team?
Did you both grow up in the same area?
Sprinkle in some questions based on your research. What did you learn that you want to know more about? This can include:
What made you decide to go into __ ?
How did you decide on __ school for __ program?
Was the program what you thought it would be?
What are your day to day responsibilities?
Now that you have the brain dump completed, start thinking about the flow of the conversation.
It’s as if you’re the host of a party - what flow would make the most sense? If you’re new to networking, create an outline of this flow.
I’ll share an example of how I like to lead my coffee chats below.
Start the conversation on a light note - crack a joke or make a connection.
Show your appreciation - thank them for taking the time to speak with you, clarify your intentions for the call, let them know how you plan to conduct the conversation & ask if they’re okay with that.
Get into the really fun stuff - start asking your questions. I recommend starting with an easy question. An open ended conversation so that you can learn more about them. People are typically very open and willing to chat about themselves. A great starting place is about their history, how they got to where they currently are.
Flow with the conversation - if questions pop up that you didn’t previously think, ask them. You are not glued to sticking with the questions that you originally developed.
Remember to discuss the article that you read about them - do this earlier in the conversation, it sets the tone. You’re now letting this person know more about you. What skills does this display? It shows that you’re willing to go the extra mile, you’re prepared, you’re interested in data and research, and you’re capable of sparking conversations from the things that you’ve heard/seen/learned.
When you wrap the call - flip the script, come from a place of service now. They’ve helped you and they took time out of their busy day to hop on a call. What can you do for them?
Building relationships in business
Your follow up - what are you going to do after the call to show your appreciation. Send them a message and take notes on what they mentioned. Over the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled for anything that might be interesting to them. Can you send them an article, introduce them to someone, tag them in a video or a podcast that they might enjoy.
At this point, you have a blueprint for running your coffee chat. Your coffee chats are yours. Play around with the above template and make your own game plan for the call.
Getting yourself ready for the call is also an important part of business networking. If you’re a rookie to networking (or a seasoned veteran), it’s totally normal to have some nerves. Chatting with someone you don’t know can be a nerve wracking experience. You want to make sure to do a pre-call ritual to get you in the right frame of mind.
What the heck do I mean by that? Let’s look at sports for a second. Athletes have pre-game rituals. Some show up to the stadium or field HOURS early to be in the space. Some listen to music. Some do a light workout to get their nerves under control. Certain athletes also have superstitions that help guide some of their game day decisions.
Sports business networking
So what is your pre-networking ritual going to be? Here are some prompts to consider:
How can I shake off my nerves?
What normally calms me?
How can I ground myself?
What song can be your pre-networking hype song?
It can be challenging to come up with something that feels like it’s “perfect”. What’s the workaround for that? Test. Play. Adjust. Nothing that you come up with is set in stone, written in permanent marker. Meaning make your adjustments. If something feels out of alignment, then make the change(s) needed.
Networking is what you make of it. It should be a fun activity filled with possibilities for growth. Allow yourself the opportunity. Step outside of your comfort zone and have the conversations.
If you haven’t already started, no sweat, start building relationships for business today.
It’s time to start building your sports business network. Learn more about my customized networking plan.