Creative Networking

[00:00:00] Brittany: Today, we are going to jump into networking. If anyone knows me, they know that I am an introvert, but I'm also an extrovert. It's very strange. And I think 2020 you just proved. That I actually do need people in my life being isolated was really hard for me, but I've realized that I only liked being around people that I like. So that's a problem with networking, right? 

[00:00:19] Rob: Only a little bit, in the regards of meeting new people and growing a business. 

[00:00:23] Brittany: Yes. Yes. So that is really hard for me, but I like to feel comfortable once I'm comfortable, we're besties. I just wanted to talk today about five of my favorite things that I've done and that we've done as a business to network that have really made it more comfortable for me, just to get a little creative with how to network, So one of the first things I did when I moved to Savannah was I got involved with an organization that I feel strongly about their mission. We believe in the same things. It's been actually really great. I ended up being on a board now, and to be honest, I, 95 inside. So most of my best friends are in their seventies, which this organization has just kept that up because all of the people I hang out with are in their sixties and seventies typically.

[00:01:04] So I love them. They've been great mentors to me, and they've actually been able to network for me outside of. That organization,, which is nice, but they're also anytime they hear someone's starting a podcast, or they want to start a podcast, or, they're looking for someone to do their website.

[00:01:20] My name always comes up, which is been really great. So I would say if you've moved to a new place or you're just in a place where maybe you've stopped meeting people, join an organization that you can volunteer for, that has the same mission as you it's been really good for me and our business.

[00:01:34] Rob: That makes me look forward to my next trip to Savannah mostly because all of your friends will be absolutely down with eating dinner with me at 4:30 and then being in bed by 8:30. It's like a dream come true, 

[00:01:44] Brittany: correct

[00:01:45] Rob: Yes. 

[00:01:46] Amen. And I know Brittany and I have talked about podcasts conferences before, and we're going to reiterate that here, but we'll put a little spin on it. The first podcast conference we went to together. We didn't really make great use of the online tools that were available, because we weren't aware that they were there.

[00:02:04] They weren't really marketed to us in a way to be like, Hey, you have all these ways to connect with people prior to going to the conference. And it made it really difficult to try and make those connections. Especially cause, the podcast community is fairly close knit. The people who are not brand new, they know each other.

[00:02:21] it's like seeing old friends, which is great, but then it's like being back in high school where you're nervous to break into a crowd, a group of people talking. So sometimes you just shy away. So that was really the kind of float pod that we stepped into in our first conference.

[00:02:35] Brittany: But I think this latest conference that Brittany went into. And she can hit more on this. she did a lot of pre networking and I think you'd probably say it was safe to say that made networking a lot easier the second time around. Absolutely. And also I'm all about positioning and being strategic.

[00:02:52] So I also put myself at the registration desk, so I volunteered always a good thing. And I put myself at the registration desk, so I could introduce myself to people in a very natural way because. That's just how I roll. Like I'm always going to put myself in a situation that works for me and makes me comfortable. Otherwise I'm a hot mess. 

[00:03:10] Rob: Hey, I'd like it work to your strengths, right? 

[00:03:13] Brittany: Hey, you got to work towards something, Amen.The other thing that I've done since I moved to Savannah. And for those of you that haven't been following the podcast, I moved to Savannah on a whim and just bought a house and decided I didn't know anyone. So I just, like I said, I've had to be creative on how I meet people. So I joined a meetup group and my favorite one is a kayaking group and it's been amazing.

[00:03:33] And I've met a lot of people that. I have done a lot of different things and we talk about kayaking and stuff, but then we get into other facets of our lives, what we do for a living, how things are connected, those types of things, and business always comes up. So that's actually been a great way for me to network for our business, as well as just like making new friends.

[00:03:51] It's been great. And you get an activity out of it. I fallen in love with kayaking. If you are in Savannah, you should definitely do a kayaking trip on one of our rivers here. Super cool. 

[00:04:01] Rob: And with the meetups, even before you moved down to Savannah, when you'd come visit in Baltimore, we would actually go to business networking meetups.

[00:04:10] So , there are specific ones for that in most cities. The only thing I'd warn people to watch out there, a lot of them you'll look and they suddenly have a ticket price for the networking events. And you got to dig a little bit deeper and see who's putting on the event. ' cause sometimes they're actually a marketing scam where it's just a company that they go around the city over and over again.

[00:04:33] And it's just bringing the same people together to get them to buy a ticket. And you actually never meet anybody outside of that circle. Not that those aren't great people, but I need to meet more people. If I'm going to pay to go to networking events than just the same, five or 10 people, 50 times.

[00:04:49] Brittany: Agreed. And there's great networking events with your chamber of commerce and things like that. They have, a small business networking group pretty much in every city. [00:05:00] So that was really great for us. we actually had a lot of fun when I lived in Baltimore for the summer, when we were, focused on starting our business and things, we actually had a lot of fun at the business networking event.

[00:05:09] Rob: speaking of the business networking events, I will say, if you even look at local restaurants near you, A lot of them are starting to throw little parties like that. So they're starting to pop up. Some might be themed or they might be geared towards, business women or specific business verticals.

[00:05:27] So keep an eye out for that, because that can be a great way to also meet other small business owners or other podcasters in your area, which, you know, if you're trying to get away from the zoom version of doing this, which I think it's a lot harder to network, even if it's a virtual cocktail hour, a lot of people are inclined to stay on mute.

[00:05:48] It's not very comfortable to be on a screen with 15 or 40 strangers and feel like, yeah, I want to take the lead and introduce myself. So it can be a lot more comfortable to do that. In-person and, have an appetizer, have a drink, do a kind of a meet and greet around the room. Tell people about what you do.

[00:06:06] But I am seeing a lot more of that. At least in our areas, it seems to be appearing a lot more. 

[00:06:11] Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. and I think we're finally, 20, 22, I think people are just ready to get out. start focused on being out with people, because like you said, the zoom thing, I think we're all over it. A little bit. 

[00:06:22] I personally hate zoom, but I'm just going to say before 2020, nobody wanted to have a video call. We would just have a good old fashioned phone call, which even that I was apprehensive about, I'm like, can you just text me? if we weren't doing a podcast, like just text me and now everything.

[00:06:38] Rob: Is a video call. It's a FaceTime call. I'm like, you don't need to see my face. there are days if we're not recording, I'm like, I don't want to do my hair. Now I have to do it. Or I have to go find my digital hat and put it over my head. So you don't see how bad this looks.

[00:06:51] Brittany: sometimes we're just exhausted. don't make me get on video, but it's definitely way more popular than I expected it to be. But I do think that people are a little bit burnt out from it. 

[00:06:59] Rob: Definitely. [00:07:00] So I think that is, giving more rise to the in-person networking events, which that kind of brings us to what we did last year, where we couldn't find one.

[00:07:09] So we threw our own and pounded the pavement. We went into small businesses, we had printed up invitations and we invited people to come have some drinks. And honestly, it was just a way to try and meet other small businesses. In our area and we actually had a great turnout, like it was nerve wracking. We weren't really sure who was going to show up.And we had almost a hundred people appear. So that was pretty exciting. 

[00:07:34] Brittany: It was awesome. I'm not going to lie. I recommend this to everyone. If you just want to throw your own party for your business, it's so fun. It was so fun and it forced me to be the hostess. Which. Puts you in a different mindset.

[00:07:46] And once I knew that I was hosting the party, it was like, okay, I'm going to sit at the front. I'm going to get everyone a name tag. I'm going to show them their wonderful goodie box. That's right. It was a box people. If there was no bags at our party, it was a box. It was beautiful.

[00:08:00] And we were the talk of the town, not going to lie. Everyone wanted that box. 

[00:08:03] Rob: Yes, it was a very popular box. one thing we're very good at is marketing and presentation. So we do not go small and actually, we had an invented pop-ups like our app yet for the guests or hosts connection thing.

[00:08:16] But this was one of those initial forays for us finding people to guest on our podcast and really pushing our podcast to a whole new group of people who had not yet heard of us, because one, they weren't podcast consumers and two, they just didn't consume their media in the marketing channels that we utilize, So, it's one of those, if they're not where we're advertising, we're going to them. And that was the best way to do it. We literally went to them to their business and brought them all to a central meeting point where we could converse with them and they could also converse with each other. And a lot of people, it seemed like also make cross connections. So it didn't just benefit us. It benefited all of those people as well. 

[00:09:00] Brittany: Yeah, I will say. Some of those people . We still are acquaintances. Some of them were really good friends with, we hosted our party at one of our client's bars. It was amazing. It was so fun. And I stayed up late, which I never do.

[00:09:13] I stayed up late actually with another client. We don't need to talk about it, but it was so fun. And., it puts you in a position where you don't have a choice, but to talk to other people and they expect you to talk to them. So it's not weird where most of the time, if I have to go to a party by myself, it's a little awkward because I'm like, am I supposed to be talking to everyone?

[00:09:30] do they want to talk to me? I'm an overthinker. So no one usually gives a shit just for the record. Everyone's too worried about themselves. So it's really not that big of deal. I've had to have that pep talk with myself and I've gotten a lot better. Rob can attest to the fact that I've gotten a lot better about networking, but I will say throwing your own party was the easiest one for me.

[00:09:47] Rob: I agree. It's still probably my favorite out of this list. Although thinking about the self-conscious factor, you just met. I'm thinking too, our first guest who arrived and the poor person who arrived right on time, [00:10:00] we both just went after him. we're both trying to talking about, so I felt really bad that in retrospect, I'm like, oh, we probably came off way too strong.

[00:10:06] Brittany: Or maybe he felt really popular. You don't know. 

[00:10:08] Rob: Yeah. You might be right. You might be right. 

[00:10:10] Brittany: I'm just saying I was looking good in my little party dress, so he's probably just thrilled. 

[00:10:14] Rob: There's that confidence. 

[00:10:16] Brittany: See that's what your own party does for you and maybe a couple of shots. 

[00:10:19] Rob: Oh yeah. Did we mentioned that we had an open bar for everybody for two hours that really helped loosens people write up.

[00:10:25] Brittany: we did some appetizers as well. it was a really fun party. And if you want to see pictures go to our website, they are there. It was super fun. 

[00:10:33] Rob: So if you had to pick out of these five, would you still go with throw your own party as your favorite? 

[00:10:38] Brittany: Absolutely. It was so fun. And like I said, I think it also gave us the event planning too, because there was a lot of work that went into that. We're very meticulous. We're very detail oriented. I mean from name tags on the boxes. And we like refolded and we reorganize every single box so that it was , perfect. So they were all presented the same. we handed out the boxes in a certain way. it was very detailed on how we threw this party and that was fun to see it executed in a way that really lived up to our expectations.

[00:11:07] Rob: I agree. And now I look forward to us doing it again. 

[00:11:09] Brittany: Welcome to round two in Savannah coming this summer.

[00:11:13] I hope you love these tips on networking. I hope they help you. And I hope that you get out there, you network and you are successful. So thanks for tuning in. Please listen, like, and follow the podcast and we'll see you guys next time.