Episode 145: The Biotech Networking Playbook Part 1 – How Preparation Creates Better Connections

Good networking doesn't start when you walk in the room.

Exactly, Elaine. It starts when you get clear enough to be useful once you're there.

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to BIO from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive in residence at Tulane School of Medicine. And joining me today is a familiar voice on this podcast and my guest host for the next 3 episodes, James.

Howdy. I'm back. Again, that's getting old. I guess I should say, I'm still here.

You can't quit me.

You're still here. Yeah. You can't quit me.

It is the end of the year, but still, it's time. Absolutely. And it's like you never left. And I certainly don't have you trapped in a room here at all and keeping you hostage and bringing you out only for podcasts.

I'm too busy hugging people and have sunburn rub off in awkward spots and getting sunburns in San Diego. So, you know.

That's kind of a perfect lead-in to our conversation over the next 3 episodes, which is networking. Although I don't always bring hugging into my networking, but you certainly do.

Always do. It's my brand.

It is your brand. But one of our more popular episodes has been about networking, and I have studied this subject extensively, which we'll talk a little bit about. And I thought it would be helpful to kind of share our tips, our tricks, our ways that we trick ourselves into enjoying networking that we have learned over our many years of professionally and unprofessionally doing this. And so, I thought we would go through a series of sort of the beginning, middle, and end, the prep for networking, the actual networking event, as well as how do you follow up?

Yeah.

post-networking. So, the next 3 episodes of this podcast are going to be focused on those. So, today, we're going to be specifically talking about the before, the prep. And to me, this is the one where, one, I shine because I'm all about the prep. And it's also one of the most underappreciated, overlooked pieces of networking. Networking isn't just about walking into a room and being charming and walking away with a stack full of business cards. Really good networking is about building relationships. And for our many scientists out there, this can be hard. We're not known for human interaction, so.

Well, and it's funny you say human interaction because you have taught me this, that prep is often misunderstood. It's not something that makes you robotic or rehearsed or, you know, oh, I am Elaine, here are the things I will say, or I am James. But it does, and I'll admit this because I used to not be as much of a prep person, it reduces your anxiety when you walk in the room. Where you can actually be present. You can actually engage with people on that human level. And as we're going to talk about over all 3 of these episodes, it really does come down to being human and building relationships so that you're able to convey both a personal connection, but the business connection and help people understand what you're working on or what your abilities are, how you can help them or what help you need. And it frees you up to listen better and do that active listening, which we'll talk about.

Yeah.

Later on in another episode.

Yeah, we often think of communicating as a soft skill. It's not. It's super, super hard. And as scientists, if people can't understand you, remember you, see ways to help you, then your science just isn't going to go very far. But the good news is, frankly, it's a skill. And you can— yes, there are people that do it naturally. And I would say that my co-host here is very good at being natural and naturally charming. And you can walk into any room unprepared and probably be Just fine. But it's a skill you can learn. It's one you can practice. And—

I do walk out and collapse afterwards, though, because like—

Well, of course.

I recharge in quiet, which no one ever believes, but it's true.

Well, yeah. So what's our perspective? So my— I bring the perspective of someone that I am not shy by any shape or form, but I am introverted. I don't enjoy being around people that much, to be honest, but it's a big part of our job, right? I prefer intimate connections. And that can be hard when you're talking about a giant conference. But this is something that I knew is important. So since I was a little girl and I read Miss Manners books, I am a sorority girl that has been trained on this.

You're a Chi Omega.

I am. Don't you sing the song?

I was an Owl Man. I know. Okay.

The prep I learned, honestly, that might make people turn this podcast off immediately, but the prep I learned in a sorority was immensely helpful. And what I Kind of do a version of now today. And I also read a lot of books, which we'll be talking about, and I'll drop those obviously in our show notes. But for prep, what does that exactly mean? I think that that can be a really, a really important piece. And before I go to any type of networking event, I always want to know who all going to be there. That's the biggest thing. And then I want to know my objective. What do I want to get out of this networking event? Is it— it's not for the ranch dressing and carrot sticks, for sure. In fact, I rarely eat at a networking event, it is so that I can do XYZ. Right now, raise money. I'm always raising money. So I'm very specifically looking at if I can get the guest list of who's going to be there, who's going to be the speaker, who's going to be on a panel. I will 100% do that. If you're going to a networking event like BIO, a lot of those things obviously are built into it as part of the partnering system. And back in my Sorority days, we actually had to do— so just, this is going to be a really dumb story, but I'm just going to tell it anyway. So when people go through rush, we had 1,000 girls coming through rush. And we spent the entire week before rush memorizing every single profile of every single girl that walked through our doors. We knew everything about them. We knew if they got first place in trumpet, and therefore we can introduce them to somebody in the marching band in our house. We knew everything about them. We went through slideshows of— yes, slideshows. I said slideshows, like actual overhead projectors of every single person. And now I use that similar prep. However, I use ChatGPT to help me do that.

Mm-hmm.

I put in the attendee list, I put in my meetings into ChatGPT, into a template that I developed many years ago to help me know exactly who I'm meeting with, who I want to talk to. What I want to talk to them about, and then a little bit about sort of how I need to follow up with them.

And often that comes down to, what do I need to learn from them to determine if there, there's a good relationship, or what should I be conveying that they likely need to learn from me? And this is where this is different from our first time we did this when chat wasn't really a thing yet, Elaine. And now we're in the native AI version of this prep where you can say, hey, Put yourself in their shoes or put yourselves in the shoes of a strategic partner or an investor or another small company that might be a collaborator because of this and this. And what are questions they might have that I can try and answer where you can walk in having actually researched and known that. So when one of those comes up, or you can say, think of questions that I haven't put in here that I might be asked, that just help you not be put off when that comes in where you're like, I hadn't thought of that. At least you have something or something adjacent to it you can pivot to. Which really helps.

Yeah, no, that's a great point. Part of the prep is so that you can make them feel more comfortable, that it shows that you've done your research and not in a creepy way. And we'll talk a little bit about that.

Um, you often say, I just do my light professional stalking.

Just professional stalking. In the days of LinkedIn, everybody does that, and that's just part of the deal. But it really enables you to find conversation points. that you can have with them, whether it's, I saw that you're an alumni of this college, or I saw in your portfolio of investments that you've invested in XYZ, and that brings you to a nice transition point of, here's why we would fit into your portfolio. Again, like you, like you said, James, you have to understand, like, why on earth would they want to meet with you? What would they find interesting about this conversation? A great book around that is Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's really about listening and understanding that person. So, when I say I research somebody, it's so that I can help them feel more comfortable. I can think of things to say to them at a networking event. And especially for investors, it shows that you know what you're doing and that you researched them and took the time.

Yeah, and a lot of it comes down to, I think, A, getting the things that are work-ish, but B, getting things that are tangential to work. If somebody's interested in AI and healthcare, you and I could talk about the for AI in healthcare, or if it's early-stage investing, we both have done that. And we can talk both about our personal experience as investors, in addition to the fact that you're raising money for your company. I'm trying to help the companies of San Diego and Connect raise money. And we can empathize a bit and open in ways that I think respect their worlds a little more prior to the ask or getting to the things that we really want to know to advance the business. And so it's less about, here's how much I know about you, but more the, I care enough to know enough about you to move forward. Yeah.

And remember that you're not going to— yes, you're going to have an attendee list. You're not going to meet everybody on there. What you're going to do is prioritize.

Despite me trying to drag you to meet everybody, you're going to refuse.

Oh my God. Absolutely not. Get out of here. I didn't do that at my own wedding. You're going to greet every one guest and there's a receiving line. That was like one thing I will not do is that receiving line. Absolutely not.

And you had them sign bottles of wine and that was way better. And you got to see them years later. And I don't know why we don't do that at biotech partnering. We should totally. Institute, sign a bottle of wine that you leave for us. That should be our new thing.

There you go. Ooh, the calling card. If you always bring wine to an event, one, your bag is going to be full, but you might be very popular. But you do want to make objectives when it comes to any event. One, it makes sure that you accomplish them and it makes it a little more bite-sized, a little less overwhelming. And the thing that we all love as scientists, it makes you more efficient. So I, once I meet my goal of whatever that objective is, and it's always changed depending on what I need to do and what the event is. once I accomplish that objective, I can bounce and leave. So, that's sort of one reason to make it as efficient as you possibly can. And so, pick the targeted people you want to meet with, whether it's the keynote, a panelist, whatever it may be, and already have that sort of teed up. But if you're just going to a random networking event and it's just a cocktail party or whatever, or you, maybe you can't get the reception invite list or that type of thing, I think a good general objective, and I think we've talked about this before, Is meet 3 to 5 new people. That's it. That's a simple objective of— that makes things very bite-sized, very doable in terms of what you can accomplish at a convention.

Especially for an introvert.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I was like, if anything, I can meet 3 new people and then I bounce. And it— there's a lot of different techniques. I sometimes stand by the buffet or the bar because that's where people are naturally going to congregate anyway. And so it's a real fast way to check that box if you need to. So—

Until I out you for it and one of them retracts her introduction and says, I retract my introduction, go meet someone new, which is one of my favorite moments ever.

Oh God, that's why I don't tell you my objectives, because then you hold me to it. It sucks.

But even before you can do that, you have to kind of step back and in prep, I think it's, it comes down to building your story pitch and ask in advance. And, and it, and that's not, that's not the full download of everything you're looking for. It's, it's that doorway, or basically if, if you're standing by the bar and someone's waiting long enough for their drink to be poured. It's that, so it's short enough to be during the pouring of a glass of wine, or you're short enough for a short walk down the hallway as you're going to meetings. And you have to have that story, pitch, and ask in that 30-second bit. It has to be just enough to get people interested. And Elaine, I'm curious your thoughts on that, because how do you go about crafting that for yourself?

I went to a, I feel like it was almost like a, it was pitched as a how to pitch yourself, how to talk to anyone type of thing at the University of Oklahoma, put on by the Career Development Services. And it, it really focused in on, it felt like I was in theater camp or something because it felt very improv-y. But, and we did a lot of vocal exercises that felt really dumb and silly at that, that part. But the pitch really is important and everything of like how the timbre of your voice, The way that you shake hands, all of that plays into it. And then, of course, the 3 sentences that encompass what you do and what you're trying to convey when you're at a meeting are always really important. And you practice, practice. And we talk about elevator pitches. That's not a throwaway line. You will find a moment where you're in an elevator, especially at JPM, where you're introducing yourself and what you're all about. And you don't want to just vomit words about your pitch. You want to have it incredibly practiced. Natural, but practiced.

Yeah. And that, that practice, you don't wanna practice so much that you sound rehearsed and you don't wanna do exactly, you wanna get the concepts down, but not the exact words. 'Cause oh my gosh, if it's the exact words, you start to sound like robot Elaine or robot James, and then you're not engaging and people don't fall in love with you and they don't wanna do business with weird people, or they do because they're also weird people. That's how Elaine and I bonded was over weirdness. But I think one thing, we're getting closer to time, Elaine, but one thing we haven't talked about is a bit of the materials and how they matter, but they're not the full relationship. But what are some things you should ensure outside of prepping for the meeting, some things you should ensure you have updated in advance of going in?

Yeah. I mean, LinkedIn, that's the obvious one right there. LinkedIn always should be updated. I know it feels like Facebook for old people, but it really is how we get information out there. And I think you also need to have a good set of business cards. that really convey what you're working on. And then at investor meetings, I actually carry with me little postcards, about 3 by 5, that gives, on the front side, gives us our raise, our lead indications, and our timeline. And on the back, a summary of our data, that type of thing that I can very quickly hand to someone. They've been a huge hit, weirdly. I really thought in an age where everything is digital that no one would want tangible things, but They have been incredibly—

Small, they like it. And I'll say, I'm just going to give you a shout out. I was so proud of you when you sent those and you were terrified of my feedback because I am a marketing branding person. I am a less is more person and you have finally learned less is more. And so I honestly think if you're willing to link your investor card as part of the show notes or for you to throw it out on LinkedIn, I will find it as this comes out. You have a perfect example of the right amount of information, the right amount of clean white space, because you need to give the eye room to rest in your prep materials as well. And that goes for even if it's something for your meeting where you're reading, you just want bullet points you can scan quickly to find. You don't want a page full of information. And the same goes for your leave-behinds. You don't want to cram everything on it. You want to cram enough, just enough. You don't want to cram, you want to list just enough to get interest, but then have a lovely QR or your LinkedIn or something super simple. Because QRs are a thing thanks to COVID. They had died and then they came back. It's one of the things COVID did give to the world was that QRs actually are very useful for business.

And you can use things like DocSend so that you can see who actually opened your pitch deck. I mean, so our QR codes lead to a pitch deck. You can set it up to where people put in an email. You can set it up to where they don't. It just depends on how you feel about it, but you make it easy for them to find you. But I cannot tell you how much those materials have helped me at networking events. I went to a conference. Where everyone had to go around and give their pitch. So the thing that we all practiced and we knew our pitch very well, but then I got to slide that across the table and say, and here, this gives a summary of what we're working on and more details. And you can access our pitch deck at our QR codes. And every investor that grabbed it loved it. And I could see the other people at the table eyeing each other. Damn it.

I need to have that. Yeah.

So having that prep material ready to go, easily accessed, your business card, your packet that you have read on the plane that has a description of everybody that you Including their photos, so when you see them, you know they're there. And their photos so that you know that you're meeting with the right person too. So, and making this little dossier for yourself as you walk into a meeting gives you a lot of confidence. And if there's a profile or software that you use for the conference, make sure that you have it updated and that you have all the things that you want people to find you by. So that search engine optimization on your profile is incredibly important. So take a look at that. Don't just rely on your previous one and use a photo, make it as compelling as possible. comprehensive as possible so people will find and maybe even recognize you because they've gone through the system themselves.

Yeah, I know, you guys, since this is all about prep, in addition to prepping for meetings and industry events, we also prep for podcasts, and our producer Ian lets us know when it's about time, which he has right now. So let's wrap this one up so we can move on to the second of our 3-part series, Elaine.

Yes, which will be out the following week of this one. So thank you for joining us for this first episode in our series of 3 on networking.

On our next— If you had to summarize it, how would you summarize today? What's—

oh, if I have to summarize it first?

Yeah, why not? Let's give people a little closing wrap-up.

Oh no, you— since you're the guest host, I'm gonna put it back on you. How about that?

Oh, okay. Well, I think this comes down to, given what I've heard you talk about in this, obviously preparation I think is about clarity and in a way almost generosity, or as I always like to say, genuineness, because it allows you to know who you are And know who they are and let them know that you cared enough to make a conversation useful. Yeah.

And that prep is probably for me one of the most important things that you can do before a networking event, not just for yourself and lowering your anxiety and making you more efficient, but as you said, making other people feel comfortable and bringing them into the conversation to where they don't just want to network, they actually want to connect with you.

Because you love to have a plan. And I love that you said it lowers anxiety because Having a plan is great, but that plan needs room to breathe, and you're actually able to breathe yourself if you're less anxious because you had a plan, which is something you have taught me, Dr. Hamm.

Absolutely. Plan matters. And that sets us up perfectly for the next episode of what happens when you actually get there. You've prepped, you're ready to go, you're confident because you have this incredible dossier that you've created and you read on the plane. Now what's next? And stay tuned in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou.

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.