Bianca Jonte, a marketer and entrepreneur, breaks down how to build a network that actually works. She covers auditing who you know, offering value first, following up consistently, and the difference between mentors and sponsors who can open doors.
My name is Bianca Jonte, and I'm a marketer, strategist, and entrepreneur. And through creative storytelling, I help full-timers, freelancers, and even small business owners storytell their professional equity with style and integrity. Bad networking is essentially a whole bunch of tactics without a strategy. It might be going to a whole bunch of conferences, going to a whole bunch of networking mixers, connecting with so many people, and actually not building some level of ROI to the connections that you've made because you didn't have a goal in mind. You just wanted to meet people. Think about your own personal value, your expertise, your experience, your skill set, your relationships, your reputation. Where is most of your leverage? Where is it that you can actually offer something to somebody that can be helpful? You want to be able to find the person that may be potentially lacking in an area that you're not that strong in, but maybe They need some help on where you can extend value. And now it's a match made in heaven. One of the ways that I would approach this as a Black business owner myself is to think about what it is that I'm looking for. I'm a big proponent of inner work and doing your own self-audit and just being self-aware first before you start to reach out over into the eco-webs of, you know, anything. So first, what is it that you actually need? What is it that you feel like you're lacking? Being able to work backwards and say, okay, I know how to do this, or I need to improve this skill set. That I would love to have someone that has been there that I can talk to that would be able to help me do that. 2, audit your network. Who is it that you know already? Are there people that you reached out to and you just did not follow back up? Maybe I can circle back on some of these relationships and really start to match it back like a puzzle piece. Or now that I know that, hey, maybe I've over-indexed in this one area of my business, I have a whole bunch of marketing folks, but I need to actually have more support over in operations. I'd love to talk to a COO or something of that sort. You wanna network across, not just up and down. Think about all the networks that we are actually a part of. Sometimes I think we forget. We have our alma mater, we have our friends, we have our family. Maybe there are fraternities, sororities, business organizations, professional networking groups, digital communities, your neighbor, everybody. There are just a lot of people that we know. Sometimes you'll find your unofficial mentors on video platforms that you're able to watch. Maybe that's on social networking platforms. You're following their pages. I've seen the best practices of getting integrated into network is where you can find conversations going and insert yourself over into the conversation. You're not asking anyone for anything. You're extending value. Maybe you're following along with a hashtag and there's a conversation going along. You sharing your thoughts on that might get a couple retweets. Another piece of it is thinking about it from digital communities. Everyone is able to teach you something you don't know and you vice versa. So maybe these are magazines that have now launched a digital community, or maybe these are ERGs at your company. Maybe these are webinars. You jumping on the webinar, hearing one or two things that a person may have said over on a panel, follow up with them, shoot them a note and say, hi, you were on this webinar and you shared this one insight that stuck with me. Thank you so much for sharing that. I have more thoughts and I actually saw this article or I saw this conversation that maybe might be relevant to you. Either way, if you're open to a 15-minute virtual coffee, I would love to do that. Here are 3 times. All the best. Make sure you introduce yourself, all the things. But that follow-up, the magic— if there's one thing I could tell you is the magic is in the follow-up. Find those professional platforms that are very specific about networking. They're more than likely going to open your emails now more than ever, particularly because companies are now transitioning over into digital transformation. They're embracing it, right? The email rate is likely way higher Right now because of the fact that we're home. So I would say even before you even do that outreach, believe that someone will answer you. Great mentor really is someone that is going to hold you accountable, knowing that there is a level of insight that they have to the side that you want to get to. Your sponsor, they're there primarily to propel your business or your career forward. They think about you when you're in the room and they advocate for you. So think of it this way, mentors are to mentees, sponsors are to protégés. Great mentees ask great questions. And they also follow through on their word. And they also follow through in keeping up with updates. So something to consider. Let's say you connect with somebody that you super duper admire. The first approach is, tell me about yourself and tell me about your experience. Or it is, I've done some level of research and I've been following you for some time. I had such an interest as to how you got from point A to point B. And I would love to hear more about what was your thought process behind that. That's impressive. People People appreciate when you've done some level of homework ahead of time. You are helping them think about themselves in a very different way that they don't typically have to answer. As a small business owner, particularly in the Black community, I have noticed that there is a reluctancy to bring people in. It's like a feeling of trust that it's like, uh, like, I don't— I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this on my own. And even just being Self-made. I'm going to put that in air quotes because people that are self-made get help, right? And you're not inclined to know everything. What you are inclined to know how to do is how to pull in people that know something better than you to propel your vision forward. What is it that you know? What is it that you don't know? How can you find ways to outsource and find people as freelancers, employees, partnerships, and really make a match made in heaven without having to do all the legwork that you just don't have the capacity to do? One of my late mentors taught me this, and I'll never forget it. He said, in order for you to be interesting, be interested. At this point in time, everyone's emotions are relatively high. So what a better time to just ask someone, hey, I know that we're on this call to talk about business plans, but like before we jump in here, I like to just start the conversation off and just check in like, how's your spirit doing today? That's where people will feel the most human. They'll feel the most connected with you is that you care about them.
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