Networking on a Cruise
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Brooke Greening: All right. Here is our next question. It is about networking. I have just two more business cards left. Dun dun dun. We get picked up for a cruise with Dave Ramsey and their whole crew plus EntreLeadership at 11:30 AM I updated our phone contact records. I'd figured we'd just tap our iPhone to share with people that asked for business cards instead of telling them we forgot them at home.
My question is, what would you change about our cruise network strategy? All right, that is a great question, and the agony of wanting to know how to be able to network on a cruise ship. I'm a little bit jealous because right now it's about 40 degrees and raining, but I've got my matcha, so let's go. Here it is.
I absolutely, you can change in regards to your iPhone contacts. I think that's a great idea. It's gonna be easier for you. You're not gonna lose their contact information. They won't lose it. You can probably implement it into your CRM a lot easier, have it be paperless. That's fantastic. They also have other apps to be able to do that, so you are on the right track with that.
But if I can encourage you and encourage all those who are listening when we're talking about doing networking, especially at conferences, cruise ships, summits, whatever the case is, when we have spent a good amount of money to be able to show up and be in those rooms, we don't want to wing it. We want to be able to be intentional.
So that's what I'm gonna tell you. In regards to changing your network strategy. This is what I want you to do. You're going to make, we are gonna have one piece of paper. It's gonna take about 10 minutes and you're gonna divide it down the middle in half. On one side, you are going to write, you're gonna have the title be Potential clients on the other side.
You are going to write it and it's going to say. Potential referrals. Those are what that's, that's how you're gonna first start. This is how you're gonna be able to be intentional as you're walking around on this cruise ship. What you're going to do is you're going to ask yourself. Because usually you're gonna get a list.
A lot of times when we go conferences, we get a list of attendees, different things like that. Or maybe you've also talked to these people before. Maybe you're in another online community with them, so you have an idea of who's coming. So that's what you wanna be able to do. You're gonna say, who are five to 10 people that I wanna connect with in regards to potential clients?
I feel like it would be a good fit. I think I could be able to serve them, and it could be a good relationship. Then on the other side, who are five to 10 people that you would like as potential referrals? This is, these are the people that you want in their, your corner. You're looking at them that maybe they're doing really exciting new things with their business and you just wanna learn more about it.
You wanna be able to talk to them. They might be able to connect you to those potential clients. They might not, but they're just people you want to get to know 'cause you feel like they're good human beings and. You just wanna continue to build those friendships. That's what I want you to do First, you're going to write those lists down and then you're actually, I'm gonna give you another little tip.
The super low hanging fruit on those potential clients, those would be the ones that you've maybe had a conversation with, but things haven't moved forward that much, so you wanna add them to that list as well. Then you're gonna do just a little bit of homework, because what you don't want is to walk into the room, you see them, and then you just kind of freeze and you're not entirely sure what to say.
I. That's not fun. That's not an enjoyable time for anyone. But you also don't wanna be like, Hey, salesy. And you get a card, and you get a card. Like that's not you either. So you just wanna be intentional and you want to talk about them. Everybody really enjoys being able to talk about themselves and their business, so by you doing a little bit of research, you can be able to have good.
Questions to talk to them about. So what am I talking about in regards to research? You're gonna look at their social media, LinkedIn, whatever it is, wherever they are at, you're gonna look at it not in regards to diagnosing the problems that they have so that you can fix them and they can hire you, but you're going to look at that from an eyesight of curiosity.
What is important to them? What is important in their business? What drives them, what motivates them? Those are the things that you're looking for so that when you talk to them, you have something intelligent to say in regards to like, Hey, I saw that you were just, you just took your company on a work retreat over in Colorado.
What were some of the most impactful things that you found there? Something just as simple as that can help to open that door of conversation and to continue to talk to each other and see if it would be a good relationship. So that's what I want you to do. I want you to take about 10 minutes, write down the people you're looking for, and then do your homework so that you can be intentional.
And the beautiful thing is when this is happening and you're coming into that networking with a mindset of serving them instead of being served. Then even when other people come up that you had no idea who they were, or it just happened to, maybe you were in the dessert line or whatever the case is, and you started having a conversation by you being able to be intentional, it helps those conversations as well.
So I'm gonna share a quick story in regards to how I did this, because it's really important to me that if I tell people to do this and I'm telling my clients to do this, that I am doing it as well. So, just as an example, I was headed over to the StoryBrand Summit. I've been a certified guide for going on five years, and so I had been to that summit a good bit. It was like my third one. I knew a lot of people because we had, we have an online community, so we had that going for us, but I did the same thing on my flight there. I had my list, I split it down the middle and I wrote referral partners and potential clients, and I just thought to myself, who do I want to meet?
Who can I be intentional with? Who can I. Serve and learn about their business and see if it can be something that I might be able to help them with. And then when I was there, I was able to find those people, have those great conversations, and then other people I met I was able to have conversations with, and because I was focused on them and not myself, they were able to open up and share about some of the frustrations they were having with their business.
After that, we decided, Hey, it's probably good for us to be able to have another conversation. So we talked again and then they became one of my clients. So you can really choose to be intentional, choose, choose how you wanna do it. You wanna go into networking and just kind of relax and chill. You can do that, but I promise you, if you are intentional, it will make a big difference and it could be life changing for your business for this year.
All right. Enjoy the cruise and let me know what other questions you have.
