Self Promote and Succeed Chapter 6: Networking for Introverts

Chapter 6 Networking for introverts Massive best selling book campaigns are almost always the result of the people with whom authors surround themselves. Look at Tim Ferriss and how he broke into best selling status. He'd made connections with bloggers by attending a lot of events and networking like a machine for years before Four Hour Workweek launched. Sometimes surrounding yourself with successful people is about learning from their success. Other times it's having friends who promote the book on your behalf to their big audiences. More than cash flow topped Amazon because of my network and the book being a great match for them to promote to their audiences. When you see a nonfiction author topping the charts at launch and they aren't a celebrity, look to see who supports that author. Chances are there are celebrity influencers helping to peddle that book. Authors who sell a lot of books in bulk coming to that soon, do most of those sales because of relationships that connect them to people who buy books in bulk. On her podcast, Book Marketing Mentors, Susan Friedman said she sold 500,000 copies of her book to one company with whom she'd worked as a consultant. From a strategic goal perspective, you can already see how networking helps with every bigger picture Somebody just dropped a laptop. From a strategic goal perspective, you can already see how networking helps with every bigger picture goal you might have. If you want to sell books, you may uncover big bulk sale opportunities or the ability to reach a lot of people through someone else's audience for the goal of becoming an authority. The more people know who you are and respect your expertise, the more credibility you gain. If your book goal is to generate leads or grow your platform, other people's audiences or the right connections can be all you need to reach that result. You might be thinking, where can I meet some new people? My friends aren't cutting the mustard as far as the goals I have for my book and my business, IRL always wins. You need to be face to face to build relationships. I attended six virtual conferences during the pandemic and didn't make any connections despite having a virtual booth at four of them. I had plenty of conversations, but there just weren't connections. There is a big difference. I went to one event last month and my friend introduced me to someone she knew I'd connect with. She was right. Three days later we were working together. We had already been connected online twice before, but it wasn't until we met in person that we actually bonded and developed synergy for a business relationship. Where do you find events so you can network with people who share your interests? Finding local events is a great place to start. If you're into real estate, look for investor groups. If you're into health related subjects, find groups with similar interests, maybe running groups or cycling groups. Check out eventbrite or meetup.com if you have a business, joining a local chamber of commerce could be really valuable. Unless you're in a very small locale, you should be able to find people with common interests. Next, I recommend finding educational or training courses you can attend in person. People who go to courses in person are a tiny, tiny percentage of the population, but they are the kind of people who take the time to show up and are generally enthusiastic about what they do. Choose courses with topics that you need to grow your business. Look for industry specific conferences as well. If you're a podcaster, check out events like she Podcasts, PodFest and podcast movement that provide amazing educational and networking opportunities financial experts might enjoy. Fincon speakers should definitely join nsa. Just start asking around and you'll uncover some great options. Prep your networking if you are naturally extroverted and meet people easily, you can probably skip this part. This is more for the people who are wallflowers like me. If I go to an event without a plan, then I leave without having met many people. Unless an extrovert somehow befriends me. Many events have apps where you can start to network in advance. Other events have speed networking which is also fantastic to get some fast one on one connections. Either works well because you'll want to set meetings before you arrive so you're guaranteed some valuable conversations. If it's meetup, you can also see in advance who else is attending. Review the participant list to find people you want to talk to and even plan what you might want to talk to them about. This is where I say to be strategic, it's okay to be a social media stalker. Maybe you went to the same school or have a common friend. Having something in common can really help with breaking the ice. You may even be able to reach out to them on the platform's app and set a time to say hello. If you have a common friend, you might ask for an introduction leading into the event so you have a connection waiting for you there. This is also where it's really useful if you have a highly extroverted or connected friend you can lean on for introductions. My friend Deb Cole is an extreme extrovert and knows everyone. At most events I can meet tons of people just by being her sidekick. Dale Roberts of Self publishing with Dale networks like a boss and almost always knows people with whom I want to connect. He's kind and generous in making introductions, so I've come to rely on him to meet someone if I want to avoid a cold. Outreach Years ago, I taught people how to raise money for real estate investing. After I shared my advice about networking, an attendee came up to me afterward and said, I'm not good at these things. What should I say to people? I shared my personal Put the spotlight on the other person. Often I will say something simple like what brought you to this event? Or have you been to this city before then? After listening to their answer, rather than waiting for my turn to speak, I asked follow up questions like what's been your favorite session? Or what's been your favorite takeaway so far? Generally speaking, if you're smiling, having fun, laughing, listening to people when they talk, and asking a few good questions, you'll be miles ahead of a lot of the other people who are at these events. And never eat a meal alone. Find a buddy. That's how my friend Deb Cole and I became friends in the first place. She challenged the audience at an event where she was a speaker to not eat alone, so I invited her to lunch. Invite other people who are alone to have a meal or drink with you so you can make new connections. Building relationships with other authors, influencers, or experts in your industry can be the single biggest thing you do to sell a lot of books as an author. The Speaker's Edge the second time I'd ever given a talk to an audience was at the Toronto Investor Forum in front of 600 people. My first talk took place before a dozen people in a small room at a community center, so it was a big change in experience. Before I went on stage at the Investor Forum, I was shaking so badly that I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk on stage. My memories of being on stage are limited, but it must have gone well because I wound up speaking at nine more forum events over the next few years. In fact, I became one of their featured speakers. This experience also unlocked what I found to be the most powerful advantage an introvert could ask for, and that is the ease of connecting with others. When you're a speaker, people know who you are and come to you. Networking also can be easier as a speaker. If you're a speaker at an event, you can often ask for a connection to the other speakers through the event organizer. If they won't connect you, being a fellow speaker can go a long way toward initiating a conversation. The other upside of being a speaker is that you can build your newsletter, sell books, and have a captive audience to talk about your subject and share your expertise. Speaking supercharges your networking. This isn't a book about building a speaking business, but many people write a book for that reason. For many others, the goal of their book is more frequent or higher paid engagements. The two go so beautifully together. If you are a speaker without a book, you're leaving money on the table. And if you've written a book not not giving some talks about your book subject is also leaving money on the table. It can seem daunting, but if you add one thing to your platform building efforts, I highly recommend honing your skills as a speaker and saying yes to any opportunities to get in front of your ideal audience, whether it's paid or free. When you're the speaker at an event, your name is automatically in front of attendees, organizers and other speakers. You can walk up to just about anyone and say hello with ease, but the odds are you'll be approached first. Your network expands, as does your authority what is an Influencer? We used to ask Book Launchers clients to give us their dream influencer list so we could help them prepare for outreach to boost their book launch and promotion. The lists we typically got included Brene Brown, Dave Ramsey, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Tony Robbins, or Will Smith. That wasn't working, so we got a researcher on our team to do the work. Sure, these celebrities are influencers with mega power, but the challenge of focusing on a list like this is that you can rarely get past the gatekeepers. You can spend years trying to get in front of those superstars and not have anything happen. It's easier to build momentum with people who are celebrities in small spaces and grow from there. Cold outreach is one of my least favorite things to do, so I understand any author's resistance to influencer outreach, whether it's asking for endorsements, reviews, or promotional support. That is why I rarely do it without doing some groundwork first. I usually try to find a connection point, even if it's weak. That's where a more strategic influencer list makes more sense. It's far easier to tap friends of friends compared to someone who is seven degrees of separation away from you. Ideally, it's best to build relationships before you need them so you so you can call in favors for your book launch. At some point, however, you'll need to do some influencer outreach and make some asks to understand what that entails. Let's discuss influencers and what matters for you the nonfiction author Influencers have always been a significant sales tool, whether they were actually called that or not. If your goal is solely book sales, influencers should be one of your biggest points of focus beyond ads. A powerful influencer helps you sell your book, but they are also a wonderful way to grow your leads and your platform. Influencers are notable people, thought leaders, media personalities or celebrities. They have invested years and thousands of hours building an audience and establishing some kind of authority. Some influencers aim to be at the forefront of fashion or other industry trends. They help by lending you and your book their credibility. A note in their newsletter, a smartly crafted blurb, or an opportunity to share a stage is the difference between selling 100 copies and selling thousands of copies. But not every influencer is the influencer who matters for you and your book marketing. You need someone respected who has a platform to share your message with an audience of your target readers. Just because you connect with someone who is on tv, for example, doesn't mean they're the best person to promote your book. Will your reader know who they are? Will your ideal reader trust what they say? Does their audience act on their recommendations? It's much better to find people who are well known for their work in your industry or a very similar industry. You may not know who Canadian athlete Patrick Velner is if you aren't into CrossFit, but if you wrote a book on improving your athletic recovery time, I can almost guarantee getting Uncle Pat, as he's known to his fans, to endorse your book would be a huge commercial boost. Judging by the volume of his paid product endorsements, a lot of companies appreciate his influence with with the CrossFit community. If your book ties your business concepts back to Texas Hold' Em Poker, then getting a shout out from professional poker players Phil Hellmuth or Jennifer Harmon could be a game changer. Not everyone knows who they are, but what matters is whether your ideal reader does or not. It's much easier to connect to folks who are niche famous than people who are world famous and the value will be just as high or even higher if they are the right influencers for your book. Making the Ask Mind your mindset first. Instead of feeling needy or self conscious when approaching an influencer, do it knowing that your reader needs you to take this important step to help them find your book. You've written the book to have an impact, and it will only do that if you find readers. Additionally, if you can make any outreach part of a relationship building goal versus a transactional goal, you'll likely feel better about it and most likely your results will reflect that. So how to begin? Do something that might get an influencer's attention in a natural way. Your inclination might be to send an email, and you can, but it's worth brainstorming other ways that are more organic. I'm far from a big time influencer, but I do have a robust and enthusiastic community of YouTube besties. I value comments and engagement tremendously so. So when someone comments on every single video, they get my attention and I remember who they are. Steven Searle has commented on my YouTube videos for quite some time, so when he connected with me on Twitter, I connected back. One day Stephen posted a request for pictures of people in dinosaur costumes with his book. My son happened to have a dinosaur costume, so I bought his book and got my son to pose holding the book. Steven didn't ask me directly, I I just did it to support someone who supports me. Of course, if he'd asked me to do it, I would have Other ideas to garner attention include going to an influencer's event and finding a way to get an introduction. I highly recommend posting on social media your favorite parts of their event with pictures. Speakers love this and will notice. You could also apply the advice they've given and then post on social media the results of that advice with a thank you. Jesse Itzler has talked about how he hired his former right hand Amanda McCrate into his build you'd life resume byl r company. She's now gone on to start a company of her own which he has enthusiastically supported. She was one of the first people to take the Bylr program and posted her results along the way. That got his attention and he hired her for the amazing and surely adventurous job working alongside him as he did Ultraman races and hosted all kinds of wild adventures for his community. It doesn't happen with one post or one comment, but being a true fan, a regular supporter, implementer and commenter can be invaluable to many influencers. That's friction free connecting at its best. Of course you can also try good old fashioned email or messaging on LinkedIn or another platform. But here's what you should not ask Can I send you my book to read and write a review? Will you please retweet this to your audience? My book is relevant to your audience. Will you share it with them? Our companies have a lot of synergies. Can we chat to discuss how we can help each other? Or the one I hate the most? Can I pick your brain about something. I get more than a dozen of these a week and while I sometimes give them a polite reply, the answer is always no. If you're trying to connect with someone else who has a big audience already, I can guarantee they won't give your message a second look. Things that might work, however, if you ask them to contribute to your book or request advice is to find another way to make it easy for them to say yes. As an example, I was invited to speak at two different online summits on the same day. One made it clear my participation was contingent on my promoting the event to my list. That was an instant turn off because it felt as if the person only wanted my participation to access my audience, not me or my content. The other one went like I see your videos each week and I just love them. I have to ask if you would participate in this upcoming summit. We have other experts like X and Y and we'd love to have the book Broad participate too. I knew X and immediately said yes. The organizers showed an appreciation for my content as their reason for reaching out. They didn't ask me for anything apart from appearing on a panel, which was easy for me to do, and they also established their credibility by naming someone I know and respect in the industry. Plus, it was an interview so I didn't have to prepare a talk. I could just be me. Think about what you can ask for that is an easy yes and makes the other person feel valued, not used. Be a sniper, not a torpedo. You have to be patient and focused to achieve your goals. Take the time to aim. If you still have difficulty creating connections, send your desired influencer something of value. Robert Workman was a client of ours who successfully got his books into airport bookstores with a rather unconventional approach. His follow up after a sales call to carry his book was sending a box of cookies. Yep, and it worked. My friend Scott Sylvan Bell, the Hawaiian shirt guy I mentioned in the branding section, sends amazing gift boxes full of his favorite Hawaiian local finds to people with whom he wants to connect. If you know someone loves something, take that into account. You're taking the time to personalize your outreach, which will be far more meaningful to that person who doesn't love a thoughtful gift. This is again where you can be a bit of a stalker. Eavesdrop to find ways you can help. Most influencers are on social media or they do live streams or podcasts. Listen for clues as to how you can help them or connect with them. Please don't tweet someone and say how Can I help you? They don't know you, nor do they really want to share where they need help. I mean, who likes asking for help? They are going to ignore you or be uncomfortable with the ask. Instead, listen and pay attention. You may find the perfect gift, whether it's a physical item or a donation to a cause they care about. As I mentioned before, knowing someone who knows someone is a great way in. This is also where being a part of a group like entrepreneurs, organization, NSA or some other community can be valuable. You can post in your group that you're looking to connect with someone and you may just find another person who can offer an introduction. Deliver value to others. Frequently think of others and offer support if you can. For example, you can offer to connect people with common interests, messages or expertise as you come across them. If you put in the work to listen and learn and then follow up with a generous, thoughtful offer to assist people, they will remember and begin to recognize you. Often they will ask you how they can return the favor. Voila. You've got an easy opening. Even if everything I've mentioned worked or you need added momentum, there's value in highlighting the work of others. Take Stephen Serrell, who has launched an Outstanding Creator Award series. He gave me one and now I'm promoting it wearing the medal he sent to me when I shoot videos. I definitely know who he is, and now so do many more people in my audience. Jim James does something similar by collecting experts for his podcast and then taking the best interviews and turning them into a book. I'm in his second volume of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur book. 50 more experts share their ideas for your company to stand out. The same approach can work if you do a series of articles, videos, podcasts, or expert interviews. Not everyone you ask will say yes, but some will, and you'll build some powerfully strong bonds with people who are influencers in their space. All of this is work, but that's why it's effective. Most people won't do it, making it that much easier for you to stand out. Who is on your list? You need to form two teams and the earlier you identify your players, the better. Team one consists of people on your influencer list. When you're making this list, know what you want to ask them or why you think they'd be great for your book. Remember, your influencer list doesn't have to be full of famous people, they just need to be names the majority of your ideal readers will know like and respect. Team 2 consists of people on your Book army list. Your book army is a network of people you know who will support the book. You aren't always going to look to these people to actually buy and review your book because you only want ideal readers doing that and Amazon doesn't want friends and family writing reviews. But they make up the basis of support that connects you to others, posts on social media, and helps build the groundswell of momentum and activity that every book launch needs. This list includes your friends, family, colleagues, clients, social media followers, professional or community groups, event organizers and email subscribers. This is your LinkedIn network, your alumni list, your mom's friends, and so on. Ideally, these folks are people who will love your content and want to support you. You know most of them in person. Even if your book has launched, having a book army you can count on is useful to rally your book for relaunch, get more reviews, promote a 99 cent giveaway, or have an event. Don't worry my fellow introverts. There are plenty of ways to sell books while you hide behind your computer screen without speaking to others. But you should not rely on those methods alone if you have hopes of making it big as an authority, selling a lot of books, or growing your brand or business from your book that requires handshakes, lunches and asking real people for help. Chapter Summary 1. The Best Way to develop relationships that will support your bigger picture goals and possibly lead to friendships is to make connections in person. 2. Networking and influencer outreach are marketing tactics that benefit almost every strategy and author goal. They can sell books, unlock opportunities, grow your platform, and generate leads. 3. Speaking engagements are a way to supercharge your networking, sell books and grow your platform. Say yes to these opportunities so that you can grow and expand as a public speaker. 4. When doing influencer outreach, look for people who are niche famous versus Hollywood style. Famous niche influencers have fewer gatekeepers but can have just as much impact on an audience even if that audience is smaller. 5. Focus on relationship building instead of transactional relationships when you reach out to others. Even if you don't receive any support for your book or your other professional goals, bringing people into your sphere as an author can make your life richer in many ways.