Evan Carmichael breaks down face-to-face networking: match your style to your personality (extroverts hit conferences, introverts try speaking), target people connected to your ideal customers, and build real trust in person. Dan Weinerger, a Home Video Studios franchisee, shows how it works by inviting Evan to speak and staying supportive.
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Using face-to-face networking to grow your business. So I got a great question from one of my Patreon supporters, love you guys, Dan Weinerger, who wrote in to ask me, hi Evan, I'd love to see a video on using face-to-face networking to grow your business. For me, this is a bit of a tricky one. And I think, number one, you have to figure out what style best fits your personality. Personality. And so if you are the type of person who is outgoing, energetic, loves talking to people, Type A personality, then you need to be all over face-to-face networking. You got to be going to networking groups, you got to be going to conferences and trade shows and being out meeting people. You know, you'll have a lot of great business success and you'll also be happier because that's what you like to do. You need to be surrounded by people. For myself, I'm not that Type A personality. When I go to networking events, when I go to conferences, I don't go to conferences anymore unless I'm speaking at them. You know, I'm not the guy who's going to go up to every booth and say, "Hey, I'm Evan, here's what I do, is there a way to work together?" I don't talk to the guy next to me on the airplane. I don't know, I'm kind of shy, I'm kind of introverted. It may not come across in the videos, But I am. And so for me, for my business to take off, I had to find another way to stand because if it was going to rely on me doing sales calls and going to these networking events and conferences to attend, it wouldn't work because it doesn't fit my personality well. So instead, I focus more on thought leadership and I'm the guy who speaks at the conferences. and as a result people come up to me and make connections, and I'm happy to talk to people, I'm just not the initiator usually. And so that's worked out for my style very well. So I think first of all, if you're thinking about using networking in your business, it's figuring out what is your personality style. Do you like talking to people and do you like being around people a lot or not? And there's no right or wrong answer, it's just figuring out your personality style because Being truthful with yourself will help you devise a strategy that works for you. Number 2 is when you're networking, you want to network with the right people, right? You want to make sure that the people who you're connecting to are your target audience or know your target audience. You know, if you're a real estate agent or if you're an insurance salesperson, then your network is everybody. You know, you can sell to anybody, then that's what you should be doing, right? You're out meeting everybody because they could all be potential customers for you. If your target audience is a specific group of people, specific industry, then you want to network strategically. You know, maybe joining a networking group won't be the right fit for you because you need really targeted referrals. So make sure when you're networking, you're networking with the right group of people. My third thought is when you have the chance, meet people face-to-face. You get so much more done and you create such a strong personal bond when you can meet somebody face-to-face instead of just over the phone or just by email, just over social media. It's amazing what it can do to create a relationship even if it's only one time. For my business, most of it is done internationally. I'm based in Toronto, Canada, but most of my clients are actually American, and so my deals are done typically over the phone and email. But whenever I get the chance, if somebody's visiting here, if I'm working with a local client, I like to go meet them face-to-face because it builds the relationship, it builds trust, and other opportunities come out of it beyond just this one set thing that we're supposed to do. So those are my thoughts on networking for entrepreneurs. It can be a huge boost for your business if you do it properly. And a quick story on Dan— so Dan was the one who asked me about this video. Dan is a great networker, and Dan has been a fan of my social media channels for a while and has commented and been active and involved, and He actually invited me to come and speak at his event that his company was putting on. He works for a company called Home Video Studios. He's a franchisee. And he invited me to come speak. And he picked me up from the airport and he hung out with me on that first night. We went for dinner. And, you know, he was always just a resource and being super helpful. Even afterwards now, he's keeping me up to date with what he's doing and sending in videos and supporting more of my stuff. Dan is just a master networker. And if you guys want to learn more about networking, maybe I'll have to have Dan on and we'll do a Google+ Hangout and share some tips and strategies. If you guys are interested in that, leave it in the comments below and we'll make that happen. But those are my initial thoughts on networking. For those of you watching, if you like this video, you can subscribe to the channel. You can support me by clicking on the link in the description and leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Your comments mean a lot to me and I really appreciate it. So thank you and I'll see you soon.
