Business Networking Strategies - How to Build Real Relationships That Grow Your Business

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the Develop-a-Nur podcast, where we work on getting better step by step, professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. We are continuing our season of building better businesses. We're building better developers. We are Develop-a-Nur. But building better developers is easier to say. So, we're going to go with that. My name, not that hard to say, I'm Rob. Rob Broadhead. I'm one of the founders of Develop-a-Nur, also a founder of RB Consulting, where we help you solve problems, basically, is the nub of what we do. Is we work with you to understand your business. We talk through how you do it. It's basically educational you as well, because you're going to explain to us what are the ins and outs of your businesses. What is it that makes it valuable? Where do you add value? Where are you separating yourself from the competition? And then we take our knowledge of technology and all the tools that are out there and how to build technology teams. Look at what you have and then find a way to craft a specific recipe for you to move forward in a better way with technology, leveraging that so that you can be more productive and make better use of that huge investment that we call IT. Now, good things and bad things. So still in the midst of it. I think I mentioned this one before, was that we got a cash offer on our house, but we had to be out in two weeks. It is almost that time. Another good thing, bad thing that's a part of that is we're going on a cruise in hours from now and we will be on it. We've had it planned for a while. We're going to cruise for a couple of days. We're going to be mostly out of touch. So lots of work stuff that suddenly I'm not going to be able to get to for a few days. There's a lot of other stuff that I'm sure is going to be going on. We've had inspectors at our house. We had all kinds of crap going on, trying to move, trying to get everything out of the way. So it's very good because we're going to be able to get a lot of stuff done quickly and we're going to have a little vacation here and all that kind of stuff. But it's also bad because stress. The other thing that makes it bad is Michael. He's over here. He stressed me out because he hasn't introduced himself yet. So I'm going to let him do that and take a little bit off my plate. Introduce yourself, Mr. Michael. Hey, everyone. My name is Michael Mollash. I'm one of the co-founders of DeveloperNer, Building Better Developers. I'm also the founder of a company called Envision QA, where we take test-driven development approaches to building software. We work with small to mid-sized businesses, clinicians, essentially anyone who has software that's not really working for them or their business, for their product. We come in, we help you assess your current situation, figure out the ins and outs of your processes, and we help you work through a plan to basically make the software work for you, not you work for your software. So if you find yourself where you're working writing notes on papers or putting Post-It notes all over the place because your computer doesn't do it or it makes it easier, you have a failed process. We will help you fix that. Today, I want to focus on this episode. I want to focus on promoting your business. Really, it's a little bit about networking, but I want to talk a little bit about maybe thinking outside of the box because this is one of the things that I think we miss way too often. We think about networking as like we've got to get a bunch of business cards and we've got to go to some lunch, we eat some rubber chicken, we have the same crap that everybody else has, we shake some hands, everybody swaps business cards, and hopefully, magically, everything happens. As you may have learned because we have talked about, we've interviewed some really good networking people in the past. There's several sites we've talked through, so you can go back through the interview season, the epics that it was are like 80 some odd episodes or whatever it was that we did that were all interviews. There were a lot in there that were really good about taking different approaches to networking. Now, some of them were digitally based. We talked about podcasting and writing books and all these other little things that were out there, but this one, I want to talk a little bit more about the in-person kinds of things. Now, one of the things that I think we don't consider often enough is just getting out there and doing something that you're wearing your business shirt or you may have a business card or somebody may talk about your business, but you're not really there directly to network. One of the things that happens on a regular basis everywhere, no matter where you're at, there are going to be things, there are going to be some sort of, usually they're charity events of some sort, so maybe a work day or something like that. It could be something like very hands-on. You could be working in a soup kitchen and maybe they want to get the local community in there. Around Christmas time, a lot of times, you'll get people will go together and they'll purchase gifts and then take them to certain places. Maybe during the summer when kids are out of school, they'll go deliver lunches and stuff to the neighborhoods that are, you know, poverty neighborhoods and stuff like that. Or it goes on and on and on. There's a lot of stuff out there and a lot of it is, it's related to some community building event of some sort. So it's really what interests you. So if you're interested in helping cancer patients or if you're interested in teaching more people about baseball or whatever it is, there's a wide range of stuff you can do that all of these are, they're really, they're giving back. It is an idea of some sort of community service in some way, form or fashion. The bonus is that if you're one, I mean, you're going to feel good doing this and it's something that you can do. You can give back, like I said. But the other thing is this gives you really an opportunity if you're thinking about it to talk about your business, to get to learn what other people are doing and to see where you may fit in and to get to know your community, particularly if you're some sort of a more of a traditional bricks and mortar kind of a company. If you're somebody like me and you're completely virtual, then, you know, it may be a little different. But in those cases, we'll talk about that a little different more in the next episode. But there, it may be somewhere you want to do more, you know, online gatherings or virtual meetups and things like that. But in person, there are obviously there's the meetups. You can go to meetup.com even though they are, you know, they're charging now. There's a lot of stuff they've switched around in that. But you can also find stuff through Facebook groups. You can find there's going to be some LinkedIn things and stuff like that. Some companies you'll find that they will do happy hours or some will do virtual happy hours, things like that, where you can, you can sort of hang out and get to know some people. And those are the things I think that you really want to look for. So one that it is not repetitive sounds, you know, bad, like redundant or something. But it's no, it's more like it is a repeating event of some sort. So yes, you will see the same faces over time will start to recirculate. But the nice thing is then you get to actually have time to know these people. And it's not like the speed dating things that are out there in a normal one where you're like you got 30 seconds, bam, go. All right, we do everything in the world. It's a lot of money. Awesome. And everyone else is like, hey, we do the same thing. Great. OK, swap a business card and you're done. Now, this is something where you actually get to spend some time, get to learn what they do and whether they are even a customer, because some won't be. There'll be a lot of people out there that have nothing to do with you as a customer. But maybe there's somebody that you can refer somebody else to. And that eventually does get you to a customer. And we've talked about that before in some of our interviews where we talk about having these expanding rings of where there's some people that are like ideal and you really need those. But then as you get further out, those people, you really your business doesn't need them. But that doesn't mean you don't want to talk to them because they may connect you to somebody that's in that inner circle, that inner ring. So whatever you do on a regular basis that is social and hopefully there's at least something you do, it could be as easy, as simple as like, you know, or as anti-social, I guess as like go into a library. Maybe you go to a library on a regular basis and you go to like a book club or a crocheting club or something like that. I mean, you could do some of this very milktoes, not usually connected to network or anything like that. But those are actually sometimes some of the best things to go to. If you're going to any kind of a hobbyist thing, if you're into like cars, you go to a car show or if you're, you know, if you're if you go to like, you name it, if you like to go to circuses, if you seem like to go to movies or if you like to go to, you know, shows like concerts and stuff like that, there's groups that will do this and you will find groups that are within the genres of whatever it is you're doing. You know, I don't know that there's like heavy metal crochet groups, but you never know. There's probably like, you know, the hardcore grandma crocheters and then there's like the young kids that are just like, hey, I want to try it. Those are the kinds of threads, for lack of a better term. Those are sort of like the themes that you want to look for in your groups because you want to find something you connect to. And this is just what we talked about when we talk about like writing a book or doing a podcast or anything. Find something that interests you enough that it's like, OK, this is something I enjoy doing anyways. And then while you're there, think about how you can introduce your company into it. Now, you can be obvious and you can have like a hat and a coat and a shirt and shoes and shoestrings and, you know, have a little laser that points in people's eyes and it burns the image of their logo or something like that. OK, don't do that. But there's a lot of ways that you can get people's attention. And some of it can be very subtle and some of it can be not so subtle. The subtle approach I personally prefer is like if you have just like, you know, you happen to have wear your company shirt from time to time or just occasionally drop that, well, you know, the company I work at, which sometimes will, you know, often enough will lead to, well, what is the company you work at? What do you guys do? Thinking about those things, one is going to be a way to get genuine kinds of networking going, is to really get to know people and get that going. But the other thing is that just thinking about how you will approach that, how will talk about your company when it's with, you know, your drinking buddies or somebody like that is like, how do you do it when you're not selling? We're not really like you're not really selling your services directly to this person. You're really telling them about your company. And guess what? A lot of times that that approach is going to be one of the best ways that you can turn, you know, create that into a an elevator pitch of some sort. So there's a couple of things I want to throw out there. Let's see where Michael's mind is wandering. Thanks, Rob. So right off the bat, you know, you talked about, you know, promoting your business, going to community events, you know, maybe volunteer, do things like that. And you talked about meetups, which are very important as well. But if you are in an area that where meetups might not work for you or Facebook groups, and that aren't really like if you're in a small town or you're not like Nashville, but maybe like Jackson, Tennessee, which is a little bit smaller, but growing massively, there are other outlets to look at. And if you have no idea where to go, go out and just walk to town. So one of the first things I did, because me and my wife moved to Jackson in the middle of COVID, everything is closed, you know, no one's around, nothing's open, you don't know anything. Well, as the world reopens, first thing we did was we went to town outlets and just started walking around seeing what's there, what businesses are there, who's open, you know, what is there to do. And then we found local magazines. So don't always go digital. You can also find like a lot of towns or businesses have local flyers. Now you have the Penny Saver, you have the Nashville scene or the Rage, if it's even still around. Jackson has a couple of different magazines. They've got like the Jackson magazine. There's another one for Pickwick and a couple others. But what's interesting about these is it highlights those social events that Rob was talking about. There's like these galas that go on all the time for charity benefits, silent options, golf tournaments. These are great little things. If you find something that you're into, go to these. Just go check them out. If you like them, just start talking to people. And then one, you might find a social scene that you might, you didn't know that was there, that you find is fulfilling. Two, you may make some new friends. But three, the best part is, is you're at these events, talk to people, listen to them, ask them, hey, what it is that what do you do? Oh, you have a company. What is it that they do? Going this route, it actually reconnected me with the Chamber of Commerce again. I used to be a member out in Williamson County. And that chamber wasn't really great at networking. But the one here in Jackson is fabulous. They host once a month, free happy hour meetings where everyone goes to a different business once a month. And you spend two hours networking, free food, drinks, and all that. Look for things like that. It doesn't always have to cost you money to go out and network. And if you go to something like that, you also get to meet other like-minded business members in your community. Plus, that also introduces you to those other events like Rob was talking about. Because it's like, oh, through the chamber, hey, we're offering that or we're doing this benefits drive or hey, we're doing this volunteer drive, things like that. It can grow from there. Other things to kind of think about that I kind of stepped into is look at your local community or I guess we work type offices. Some of those offer networking hours or free hours where you can just go in, hang out, check out the area. Those are interesting places to network because if you go through that period, when it's like the open hours, it's more open. People are more talkative. It's not always as everyone's heads down working. So that's another place to kind of check out because you might run into someone that is like-minded like you that, hey, they could use my services or hey, I could use theirs. Some other things to think about too, like restaurants, you know, you mentioned happy hour. If you do want to go out and network and find areas around businesses, one of the areas in Jackson anyway, that's interesting is this new little restaurant pub that opened right across from the courthouse. And interestingly enough, all the lawyers tend to go over there right after court gets out of session or they go to another local restaurant right around the corner. If you want to kind of engage with other businesses or lawyers or depending upon who your target market is, go to those areas where they frequently hang out. If you're looking for, you know, to help lawyers go to places where lawyers hang out after work. If you're looking for baseball, Fenix, go to like your local towns, baseball games, go to a high school game, go to a college game or go to like a AAA or, you know, smaller venues are usually better. I actually find like the what's the sounds that's like what AAA or some of us. They're more open, they're more family friendly. People are more engaged in talking and enjoying the game, but it's more of a social time than just watch the game and, you know, drink some beer or eat some hot dogs. So there's a lot of areas and ways that you can network yourself in your business. And there's also other ways where you can just go out and kind of immerse yourself in your community, in these groups to listen to what it is that they're talking about. What are their problems? Are these your customers? Are these your target customers? If they are, great, you're in the right area. If they aren't, could they potentially be? Or should you shift and go to a different type of meeting or a different type of networking or social event to get yourself in a little more situation where you're talking to the right people? I think this, you know, that brings it up to mind. The classic, I guess, that were if you go back, you know, now a couple of decades where everybody would go play golf and get a lot of business deals done out while golfing, which is honestly, when you think about it, it's like the perfect way to do those kinds of things because you're with a small group for hours, you're walking around, you're just, you know, you're chit chatting about whatever. So it's a captive audience to some extent and actually very valuable, very good way to do that. And so anything you can think of that is in that vein, which includes, you know, if certain people hanging out at the local places for happy hour, or if everybody goes to Friday night, they go hang out at a certain restaurant, or Saturday night, they go and they'll go to dance at the local dance hall or whatever it happens to be is you're going to be able to find people that will probably do this on a regular basis. You get to know some people, you'll see the same kind of faces. An example that I'll use out of my own experience, which is little different is that we actually have a whole, you know, a little group of friends that the only reason we know each other is because we went to concerts that we went to local bands, and you go to enough shows and you get to see the same faces. Then sooner or later, you start talking to people. And there's all these people we know that we would never know, except we've gone to a bunch of different shows, they've gone to a bunch of shows. And now we've actually expanded. And it's amazing how many people have expanded the relationship outside of that. So you'll meet, you know, maybe meet people for dinner before a show, or you'll go somewhere after a show, or you'll talk about another group that you found, and then everybody will go to another show together. There's things like that, that you find that commonality, you get to know some people, and then you can sort of work in some of your networking. It is a slow burn. This is not something where you're going to like just go out there and say, like, this week I'm going to get 500 contacts doing this. This is a little different approach, but I think it's a very valuable one because what you're doing is you're building true relationships and not just swapping business cards and shaking hands. You're actually going to have people that you get to know, and they're going to feel, you know, people buy from those that they know, like, and trust. And so that's where you're going to get, you know, definitely the no, but you're going to give the investment so that they like and trust you, and that's where you're going to start getting some really good customers somewhere along the way. Not everybody is going to be, but you don't need that many for this to be a worthwhile investment. Challenge for the week. What is your favorite thing to do outside of work, because we love our work? What's your favorite thing to do? And then if you do it weekly, find one way, just one time, strike up a conversation about your work with somebody, some way, form, or fashion, even if all you're doing is you just like, you know, in a silly way, almost are like, hey, guess what happened at my work the other day, or where I work, this happened, or yesterday at work, where you're just like beating that drum so that eventually somebody's like, fine, I'll buy it. Where do you work? Or something like that. Test the waters. Be sensitive to how conversations go, where they may actually be an opportunity for you to sort of like stick your foot in the door and say, oh, by the way, that's something that I do, or that my company does, or that we are building, or something along those lines. I think it'll be a very, it's one of those things that will be a very insightful, good learning experience as a challenge if you don't do this already. And if you do, do it twice as much. I don't know, pick a number, do a multiplier, but I think it is something, it's like, see if there's maybe a different way. If you do this on a regular basis, let's say you play golf and you do networking while you go, pick something else. See if there's something else that you do that you can now expand that into a different venue or line of work, whatever it happens to be. That being said, first, shoot us an email because that is always the best way to just like make this better each time. Give us an email at info at developernure.com. You can leave us contact form, any kind of contact information you want on our contact form out on developernure.com. You can hit us up, follow us, respond to us, send us all kinds of suggestions of that on X. We are developernure. Facebook, we have a developernure page. You can go out to developernure channel out on YouTube and you can see this and you can see the link to the YouTube page. You can see this and hundreds, literally hundreds of other content and pieces of work that we've done over the last, I think it's like seven or eight years that we've been on YouTube. That's now becoming something that we are like have been there. We are established. We've been there a while. And of course our website, tons and tons of content there. Always looking for feedback. Let us know. But for now, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week. We will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Building Better Developers, the DeveloperNure Podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, anywhere that you can find podcasts. We are there. And remember, just a little bit of effort every day ends up adding into great momentum and great success.