Latest / Business & Marketing Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs | Email List & Leads Growth | Organic Strategies | Create Online Business Success! / Episode 126 - Networking Strategically: The List-Building Strategy Hiding in Your Contacts - Live Coaching Session

Transcript

Episode 126 - Networking Strategically: The List-Building Strategy Hiding in Your Contacts - Live Coaching Session · Business & Marketing Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs | Email List & Leads Growth | Organic Strategies | Create Online Business Success!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever left a networking event, either in person or virtual, exchanged a few nice to meet you're, and then nothing?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: No follow-up, no system, just a lonely business card sitting in a drawer somewhere.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, today's episode is a little different.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're about to sit in on a real live coaching call.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: No script, no do-overs, and probably very little editing.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just me and my guest, Karina Klaus, working through exactly this problem in real time.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've ever wondered how to actually build a strategic network instead of just collecting business cards, stick around.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: This one's going to feel like you're in the room.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Ready to grow your online business without losing your mind?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're in the right spot, my friend.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Create Your Online Business Success.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Tracy Beaver.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And this show is all about practical strategies, creative ideas, and sanity-saving solutions that you can use right now.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let's crank up the dial on your business growth and make it fun.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's create your online business success.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, Karina, I want to welcome you in to the podcast Create Online Business Success and also my YouTube channel.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited you're here and that you're willing to do this live coaching session because it is going to help so many other business owners to work through the questions that you had.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And interestingly enough, the topic today about networking, that's how we met.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's so very meta of us.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: We met because of the free networking sessions that I host for the members of my free Facebook group.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's kind of cool.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love for you to introduce yourself and share with everyone who you are and who you serve and your story on how you became an entrepreneur.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited you're here.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my story.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been actually I I've been an entrepreneur for quite some time now.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: I um, well, like you, I started in corporate.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: I've been a corporate misfit, I would say, for quite some time.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I used to be completely in love with my job, completely in love with corporate, but at some point I kind of fell out of love with it more and more.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I always had this desire of I want to travel more and I wanted to start my own business.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I've yeah, I think it took me three years to actually take that step and to start it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: I took so many business coachings and classes, but I could just never get myself to actually, you know, take that step.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, then COVID did it for me, which really helps.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: So during COVID, I was, you know, I said I was kind of furloughed for a year.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, very luckily sat at home and uh was not allowed to work, but still being paid.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I was very fortunate.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: And uh now or never, this is the time.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is the time.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I realized um, yeah, it was it was a journey, took me some time, but I finally managed it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And since then I have been uh yeah, self-employed, have been an ever entrepreneur.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right now it's actually my second business.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like back then, I like in corporate, I used to work in um recruiting, head hunting, that kind of stuff.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I started my first business there as well, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Start where you are, they say.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I started with that, and then over time I decided, okay, this is fun, and being self-employed is fun, and I was able to create pretty much my dream life.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: But at some point I just realized, like, oh, this is not a whole body yes anymore.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like this business is not, you know, it's it's not, it was a head business, but it wasn't really touching my heart.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't really, I didn't really have this gut feeling that it was right.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that's when I changed it to um to make it make it a coaching business, actually.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been a little bit of a transition for me.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm in the beginning steps of scaling the coaching business.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And tell everybody what you well, who do you serve and and what kind of coaching are you doing?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh funny enough, I'm doing sales coaching.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: So what took me so long to to start uh my first business was I just hated selling.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: I just felt like oh I was back in recruiting, I was in the operations part.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: So we were kind of the direct, you know, we kind of the salespeople sold something that the operations had to serve, you know, to kind of deliver, but we couldn't because they sold things, we couldn't deliver.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so I had a very difficult relationship with sales, I thought.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I have a psychology background.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, it was always like, oh, I'm a psychologist, I want to help people.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, selling just felt like the opposite of helping somehow.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I always honestly kind of was looking down on salespeople, you know, those were the manipulative, weird, you know, sleazy, sleazy people that themselves and arrogant and you know, telling you whatever you need to hear so you would sell and so you would buy from them.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: So well, turns out when you want to start your own business, sales is a part of that.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: When you hate selling, well, you cannot help anyone, you know.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's why it took me so long to actually start my business.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, but when when I had that figured out, took me two years of of figuring it out.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: But when I had figured it out that I've actually fallen in love with selling, it just went through the roof.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, that's also when I realized, okay, I wanted to do something more coaching related.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: As I said, I have a psychology background.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And people always asked me, you know, you know, like you said in the beginning, like, how can you like how do you even start this business?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: How do you do this?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: And people like what I what I noticed most of the time, people loved what they did.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: They just hated selling it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I decided, okay, I know how it helped me back in the beginning.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all about helping people to fall in love with sales, basically, to get rid of their sales blocks.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: I work a lot with subconscious with a subconscious mind.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, helping them fall in love with sales, I think is the easiest, the easiest way to put it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Nice, nice.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I like that very much.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so let's dive into your questions about networking and talk about how we can use that visibility to grow our email lists and bring in more clients.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I always like to know where my um clients are trying to go in a coaching session before we talk about how to get there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So if this conversation today was wildly successful, which I think it will be, what would be different for you three months from now?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, to me, it's all about strategic networking.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just like you said in the introduction, I'm really good at connecting with people and I'm always excited, and people are excited to meet me.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then as you said, we we exchange details, but then nothing happens.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe that's the German in me, but I I just want a strategy behind that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to have, you know, a kind of a list of people that I know exactly who to call for what.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I want actually, yeah, I want it to be fruitful.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: I want things to actually get, you know, come out of it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's most important to me.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, got it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: So so what you're looking for is something resulting from you making all these connections.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe more it's more referrals.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe it's more collaborations for both parties.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's more clients, right?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, for sure.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yes, we're we're businesses, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, it's just networking is such an important part of it's such an important sales channel, also.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you mentioned to me that you're starting from zero.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me exactly what you mean by that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it seems like it, uh I mean, I have a big network, but yes, but for the old business, it was all for the recruiting, lots of corporates and so on.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And for the new business, um, I have been hiding it for for the past uh year, I would say, because I was fully booked all the time.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I didn't want to.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: But now I feel like uh now I'm in a in a transition from doing one-on-one only to actually offering a group program.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So now I'm I'm ready to you know receive more people, uh, to to meet more people.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: But the thing is because I've been hiding it for the past year, my list is quite small and I haven't really been talking about it much because it was referrals only.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like now that network is kind of used up and now I'm I'm just open to um yeah, to receive a very small email list of 200 people.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's not really small.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you picture 200 people in your living room, that's a lot of people.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: That is very true.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's easy to forget.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right, correct.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do you have any other communities that you are building?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, do you have a free Facebook group?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have a school community or maybe one on mighty networks or circle that's free for people to join to be in your world?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, I do not.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: No worries.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I always like to ask kind of what you've got going.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like you have such an amazing network that you were able to build to this point based on referral, which is amazing.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And now we need to get you out into the world more visible to attract some of that cold traffic to warm, warm them up, to come then convert them into this group program that you've got.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really exciting.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so tell me about the last networking relationship you had that actually turned into something meaningful.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Can you remember one or two?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think it always depends because it's usually people that that you just remember, right?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: They they kind of stuck somehow with you.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I mean, I'm I'm connected to so many people.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to have a lot of coffee chats, but um, honestly, there was no strategy behind it.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: So when it turned out into something that it was more like me thinking of someone, I love connecting people, but um it hasn't happened so much the other way around, but also because I'm just starting, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I've never really asked someone to to think of me.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, the only thing that that comes up right now is people you just remember, even though I would like to have some kind of software that would help me remember, but uh I don't have that set up yet.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we don't need a fancy software system immediately.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I've had my business now going on eight, seven or eight years, I think it is.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, just in the last couple of years did I find it necessary to actually use a true CRM software system.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So just know that you're not behind on that.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's just probably not something you actually should be, you should be, it's not anything I don't think, it's not anything you should be thinking you need to pay for right now, I don't think.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think you can track it with a Google Sheet or something like that.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, now I know you're a psychologist, so I want to ask, what do you think happens in your in your mind after you meet somebody that you'd really like to stay connected with?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: What happens in my mind, I mean, I remember them for some reason, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: So they there is something that makes me want to stay connected with them.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then are you following back up with them later on?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, usually.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: I like to ask people when their birthday is for the first thing, but also just when I think of them or I try to, you know, when I see on LinkedIn, for example, then something happens that I like to comment on their post, for example.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then are you reaching back out to further the to have another conversation?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you have a coffee chat with someone, and are you thinking about where that person could fit into your business ecosystem?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then also are you thinking about what doors you could open for them?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't so far, but it's interesting questions.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: So when I'm when um when I was in corporate sales, it was all about networking.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was all about building relationships and making connections.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: That is what made me so successful in sales.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't focus on the sale, I focused on getting to know that other person and seeing how I could be of service.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I help my clients and students do in my business visibility made easy program is as you're saying, you want to be more intentional about your networking and you want it to actually lead somewhere.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So when I look at business, um, some people will call it a pipeline, some people will call it a funnel.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: I like to use the visual of a conveyor belt because it's easy to visualize and it's also it actually moves.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I help my students do is think, okay, this person has stepped onto my conveyor belt because we connected on social media, or we connected in the DMs over something in common, or we were both at a virtual networking session, or we had a coffee chat, or somebody referred me to this person.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so now the connection is made.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're visible, they're aware of you, and they're on your conveyor belt.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're having that coffee chat, when you're DMing in that conversation, I always help them understand that it needs to be intentional.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: There needs to be a purpose to it.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I am, I've become kind of particular about who I do coffee chats with.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I need to be able to see that there could be a true connection so that it is worth my time and theirs.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, I'm looking to have coffee chats with people that maybe could could be potential clients, but not necessarily.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, definitely collaboration partners.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: We share the same audience, but we don't compete with each other, referral partners, affiliates for my program.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then also I'm wondering what I can do for them.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And because the more people, what I found is the more people we help, and you know this, the more people we help, the more they will remember us and in turn want to deliver that back to us as well.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're going into the coffee chats, are you in thinking intentionally about where could this person land in my ecosystem?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, exactly as you just mentioned about uh for now I'm looking mostly for collaborations um and I'm looking mostly for referral partners and this exactly this idea of okay, we have the same target audience, um, but we don't butcher each other when it comes to the to the offers.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that is what I'm looking for, yes.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, perfect.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk through building a strategy for you.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, in in preparing for this call, I I thought maybe a three-tier system might be really easy to help you organize your content, your contacts based on three different tiers.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the first tier is go-to referral partners.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And these are people that we want to intentionally invest in.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um I'm sure you know you can keep track of them like on a Google Sheet or a Trello board, but those go-to referral partners are people that you meet over a coffee chat or in the DMs, and you're like, okay, I could see where my clients would need you, and I could see where your clients would probably need me.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's where you have that discussion about um, do you have room on your roster for another referral partner?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So does that make sense for one of the tiers?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: But how many referral partners do you think um make sense?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because I feel like I have too many by now and nothing really getting comes out of it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, that's a great question.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to have so many that you're you're scattered and you like you don't want to have 10 referral partners for branding and website design because you're not gonna run across you're you're not gonna have that many referrals to send to cover all 10 people in a short period of time.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: What we really wanna do is pick one or two that are really good at what they do and send our referrals to those one or two people.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then but then also see how reciprocal they are.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we're having that discussion with them about being referral partners, it's not just you sending them things.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're wanting to partner with people that are willing to refer you when their clients need a sales coach.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would just pick one or two, your go-to people, your favorites, the ones that you really gel with that you know are gonna take good care of your clients, and then see how the relationship unfolds.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because what I found is um, the more I can concentrate on those one or two people, the more referrals I can send them over time, the more they're gonna send back to me.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then also we're able to have those discussions of, oh, I'm I just applied to this really cool summit.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Karina, I think this might be of interest to you too.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And before you know it, you're not only sharing business referrals, but you're sharing collaboration referrals.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they were on a cool podcast that that you should apply for.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you were on one and you could recommend that they apply for.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it it by focusing just on one or two people, it really begins to deepen that relationship to the point where you true you become true colleagues.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's talk about tier two.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, tier two, I decided to put in this category uh your peers and collaborators.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So this is where um, you know, you have business besties and colleagues.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're not they're not necessarily good referral partners, but as I was mentioning, with collaborations, you're able to peer-to-peer help each other open doors to get on more stages, speak on more stages, whether in-person or virtual conferences to attend, um, virtual networking to attend, um, you know, uh bundles to submit to, podcasts to be on.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: So do you have a category like that?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: I do not.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, not yet.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's easy to develop.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have some business, business besties that we're all we've been together for years, and there's like four or five of us, and we are continually, you know, hey, I got this uh application for this summit.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think you guys would like it.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or I was on this podcast.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to to um connect you with the host?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's intent, it's people that are willing again, check check their vibe.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're willing to give to you as much as you give to them.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, we don't want a huge group here.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: We just want a core, a core group that's willing to stay connected.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And also what I found with my business besties is we get on Voxer and it's really great to have access.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you could do you could do WhatsApp, you could do Voxer, but it's a great way to feel not so alone in building this business.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So you can pitch and catch ideas and things like that as well.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: So so tier three, I I thought it would be good to have your general networking contacts.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And these are people that you're meeting.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: You're not sure yet if they're a tier one or a tier two, you're not sure yet where they fit in, but you've met them and you think they're cool and it needs a little bit more uh research with them and and deepening that relationship to figure out where they should go, if they should go into tier one or tier two at all.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So where are you currently keeping track of the people that would be in those categories?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Just on my mind.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so they're all in your mind.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're not actually written down anywhere.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's not a problem.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we can fix it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: What I found for me, even when it comes to things like managing my time during the week, if I don't intentionally write things down, I will forget.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Things cannot live in my head because I will forget.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, somebody will say, Who do you know that's a great website designer?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sitting there going, Oh my gosh, I met her three months ago.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: I can see her face.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember her name.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that is not a good feeling for me.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about a simple system that you can use.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do you like a Google Sheet or an Excel spreadsheet?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, please.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you could make this and you could set it up and it'll evolve with you over time.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: But at a basic level, you could list all their names.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: The next column that would be handy would be the date you met them and where.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: The next column that would be handy is what was the conversation.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because when so, like if I'm having a coffee chat with somebody and um I know I want to follow up with this person and deepen the relationship, but they're sharing something with me like maybe it's summer and the kids are home and they're driving them crazy.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or, like, for example, I had one gal, we had a coffee chat, and I said, I would love to stay connected.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, I would too.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: She said, but just know that my mom is having surgery and the next, you know, 30 to 60 days, I may be AWOL and you know, not online very much.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, cool.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's something I'm gonna note because the next time we get back together, I want to ask her about her mom.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where I would put those things in that.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: What was the conversation?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: What are some things that will help you remember them and move and and and have something to say when you do follow up with them?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then another column could be Um, are they tier one or tier two?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, do you want to move them over?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Or you could even have a tab.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, like you could have your general Google Sheet, um, and then a tabs at the bottom for the first tab is the general contacts.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: The second tab could be tier one, and the third tab could be tier two.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're moving people from the general over to tier one and tier two so you can see who your deepest opportunity where your deepest opportunities are.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Does that sound like something that would be doable?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: I just feel like, oh, isn't there a software for that?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: I guess I I imagine that there are much easier ways to do that, right?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And there probably is.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the um I don't I've not used a true CRM system um until just a couple of years ago.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Back in corporate, we had one that was proprietary to the companies that I worked with.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I know there are some out there like HubSpot, I think is one, and and um um, oh gosh, Salesforce is another one.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Those may be too fancy for what you need right now.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the one that I use is called Group Track.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it enables me to pull in every contact from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, everybody that's in my free Facebook group.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: As long as I can find them on social media, in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, I can pull them into the CRM.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the limitation of that one.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: If I met somebody in a networking session that is only on Substack and they do not have a social media profile anywhere else, I can't manually input them.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a little bit of a limitation with that one.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: But that's the one that I've been using because you can actually put people into a pipeline and set a follow-up date, set yourself a task that you know pops up and reminds you.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um let's see.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about how often you should reach out.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: How how do you feel about reaching back out once you've had the conversation?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, completely fine.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: I just feel like it has to make sense.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just what you said as you said earlier, intentional, because otherwise I'm all I'm having all day is coffee chats and that's not gonna help.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I always kind of feel like, okay, I need to have an actual reason to set up a coffee chat.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone, if you're finding you have a coffee chat with someone and you're like, okay, this person could be a tier one or tier two, how often do you think that person would naturally expect to hear from you?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think it totally depends on the person, right?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: There are there are people who are happy to find their business bestie and then they would love to hear from each other every day, and there are people who are not.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, it totally depends on a person.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so some so tell me, like when you follow up, is it things like I saw this article and I thought of you, Tracy, so I wanted to share it, or I heard your podcast episode, it was amazing.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I liked about it, or maybe you know they're going through a launch and you're checking back in.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: How did your launch go?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is that does that feel natural, natural to you?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Is that kind of the way you're following up right now?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that to me is the most natural thing.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: I agree totally.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and uh and we've already talked about this a little bit, but another great way to stay connected is by being a connector.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: The more because you know this, the more people that I serve by being a connector and opening doors for them, the more they're going to remember me and that will come back to me as well.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: So so that also helps to keep them in your pipeline, keep them in your world and remembering you.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, let me look at my notes really here, really quick here.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: What questions do you have for me?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um I love your ideas about the tier one, tier two.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's new.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't thought of it that way.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: I was always I was aware of the referral partners.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's a system that I've um that I'm I'm looking to implement.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: But as I said, I was more busy preparing my own program that I thought, okay, let's let's focus on one thing first and then on the other.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then I started implementing that and I felt like I need a better strategy to it because I'm reaching out to too many people.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess it also takes some sifting and sorting um before you really find the ones who are an actual mesh.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: As you said, the ones that that you like to serve, but also to who who are happy to have this kind of relationship, right?
• 26:03
  unknown: Right.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I'm at that stage where I'm really just I I guess also I just have to talk to more people and then really have that, you know, make it a little bit more intentional.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because right now I sometimes get a little bit frustrated when I think like, okay, this was a fun coffee chat, you know.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it was fun, but it wasn't really I I feel like sometimes not everyone is so aware of um the value a relationship like that can bring, and people are more interested in having coffee chats.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I sometimes feel like okay, I need to find the right people or spot them immediately and and cut the others so that it's you know, you know, that so that I find someone who matches my level of business.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Let's put it that way.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, not level of business, but my intention about what this is supposed to be.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: They share the same mindset of let's connect with intention so that it's not just uh having coffee with a friend.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's let's talk about our businesses, let's see where we could help each other.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I love your sifting and sorting um visual because that's exactly what it is.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it can get frustrating.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: There was a coffee chat I had about a week ago, and my our dog has had had surgery.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: So my husband was home for part of the day while I was doing my calls so that he could watch the dog um for me so I wouldn't be interrupted.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: So he was sitting on the couch listening to this chat.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was supposed to be a 30-minute call.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: This lady talked for 27 of the 30 minutes.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I could not get word in edge wise.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I got, I finally, this sounds terrible, but I finally just set a timer on my phone for like two minutes and I set my phone really close to the speaker because I thought I've got to get out of this coffee chat.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: I can't be on here for another, you know, we had 30 minutes we set aside, and I hadn't had a chance to share anything I did.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I let the timer go off and I told her, I said, I'm so sorry, I've got to get to my next, you know, obligation.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, thank you so much.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I closed my laptop and my and my husband said, I cannot believe you didn't get to say anything for that entire call.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I can't either.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I walked away from it like you you were feeling you're like, sometimes this is frustrating, right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was for I was like, well, that's 27 minutes.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm never gonna get back.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: But it happens, and um, and it's that sifting and sorting that feels like it can take time.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's interesting because um I don't know.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think you by now it's it's you would you would have an idea of not you but you in general, um, to who the right people are, right?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I I often get and this is maybe also why I I suggested this topic for today, because I feel like I don't know.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm trying to establish these connections and I I give it so much of me and I'm I'm connecting and I'm sending the opportunities, but then I kind of feel like people don't really um yeah, don't don't really give anything back.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: And at some point I'm also feeling like, okay, you know what, then then I'm also not gonna send anymore because otherwise that this is this is not sustainable for me, right?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess that's the point where I am.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought maybe okay, I want more of a strategy, but I think like by the but but everything that you explained to me felt like, yeah, that makes total sense and it's very close to what I'm already doing.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe the problem is not not so much I don't have a strategy, the problem is more like I probably need to talk to more people.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think just I think being intentional about who you allow on your on your schedule.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and and I I have to share, it doesn't always feel good when somebody reaches out to me and says, Hey, you want to do a coffee chat?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I might already know a little bit about them or I'm looking at their profile and I can tell what kind of business they have.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I know like, like I'm in a very large uh women's membership, and in that community, we have a lot of different businesses, and a lot of the women are developing products to take to market to get on store shelves.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's not really I can't there's no referral I can give them.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's no collaboration with their audience or them with mine that would make sense.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I did that coffee chat, I would need to go into it knowing that I'm just gonna get to know this really nice person, right?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's not any real potential there.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: But it kind of doesn't feel good.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's hard for me to say no to people, but I have to really protect my time.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like if you looked at it that way, that you would have less coffee chats but more intentional ones?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, likely.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Likely.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm I'm just always telling myself, okay, you never know what else it might be good for, right?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because their neighbor might be the perfect contact.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: So usually I feel like there is, you know, every connection is a valuable connection.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, as you said, we also have to protect our time because otherwise the day is over and we we cannot make progress in our own business, right?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: So what if you thought about this?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So so let's get you set up on just to start out with a Google Sheet or a Trello board or Airtable, just to start out, and then as you're researching CRMs to see what if there is a software out there that would help you do this more um automatically, but then maybe focusing on the 25 people that you most want to intentionally stay connected with over the course of the year.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: 25 or less.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um because then I think, as we talked about, you know, one or two people in each referral category, over time, that's gonna build you more of a community of people, the business besties, the colleagues, the collaboration partners and community that are gonna lead to more more intentional connections and better referrals and better collaborations.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Does that sound like that would be helpful?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it does.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's exactly also um, I think that's that's exactly the input for saying, okay, 25 max and make those intentional and make those work, and then you can still so it's a let's see how much sifting and sorting it takes to find those 25.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm very determined to find them because I do think there's a lot of value in that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I do too.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Anything else you want to talk about or or ask about it before we close our close the session?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm good.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, thank you so much.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like more right now, I'm just so eager to get this list going.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, thank you so much.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're welcome.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for being here and being willing to have the conversation because as I mentioned, this is gonna help a lot of other people that are thinking about the same thing.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, I'm doing all this sifting and sorting, and you know, is this really the process?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna hear that, yeah, it kind of is, and and a way to organize, you know, on a basic level, organize the contacts that they're making.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: So do you want to tell everybody where they can find you and connect with you?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, on my website is karinaclass.com.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: But also, well, I'm I'm building right now.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: You said I said I was not uh active on Facebook, but I'm um I'm building my Instagram channel now, which is uh hey, it's Kareuna Class, and um very happy to connect there.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, my friends.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: The whole heart of what I teach inside business visibility made easy is based on what we're talking about today, making sure that that content that we have on social media, the visibility that we are having through the networking, getting us into more conversations, making more connections, being in community with other people, that drives more visibility, which then leads to more conversations and the business just starts to grow.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're watching this on YouTube, I want you to go grab your spot on my VIP wait list for when we reopen the doors to business visibility made easy this fall.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Go to tracybeavers.biz forward slash VIP.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: The doors are not open yet, but they will be soon.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're listening on the podcast, the doors are now closed by the time this episode will air.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you go get on the wait list as well.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Go to tracybeavers.biz forward slash VIP wait list.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know you hear me say this every single week.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Don't go it alone.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Being an entrepreneur is hard.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: It is a roller coaster.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of sifting and sorting, like Karina and I talked about here.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Some days it feels electric and other days you feel invisible.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if you feel like you're alone in that, you are not.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: You are absolutely not.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: We all have days when we feel like that.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that is why we need to keep making connections, networking, having awesome conversations that help us stay in the game.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember to have a great balance of the week and weekend.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you to remember that when one of us rises, we all rise.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that is why we have got to keep cheering each other on.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Karina, thank you so much for being here.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for tuning in to create your online business success.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you found today's episode packed with actionable tips and inspiration.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, if you want to dive even deeper with me and connect with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that totally get you and understand what you're building, then join us in my free Facebook group.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: You get to promote your offers anytime, network with other entrepreneurs just like you, and possibly find some lucrative collaboration.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: Just search for be a confident entrepreneur, get visible, grow your email list and your income over in Facebook.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Or, if it's easier, just click the link in the show notes.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: We cannot wait to welcome you in.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's stay connected so we can create your online business success together.