Solo Summit Recap: The Solopreneur’s Guide to Building (and Maintaining) Meaningful Connections

You run a solo business—but that doesn’t mean you need to do everything completely alone. 

Your relationships with other people are some of your most valuable assets for landing new projects or clients, expanding your products or services, exploring new areas, improving your skills, and growing your business. 

But building and maintaining professional relationships is hard (and, honestly, a little nerve-racking). You want to be straightforward, but not too salesy. Assertive, but not aggressive. Friendly, but not too familiar.

Fortunately, building your network and forging partnerships as a solopreneur doesn’t need to be quite so complicated. In the “Romaine Connected: Strategic Partnership Development” session of Lettuce’s recent Solo Summit, the following four experts shared all of their best tips and strategies:

• Amy Nelson, Founder of The Riveter
• Melanie Altarescu, Founder of ask&offer
• Baily Hancock, Connection Strategist at Overlap Collective
• Marcus Sawyerr, Founder of EQ.app

Here’s a quick look at some of the biggest takeaways from that session, so you can build beneficial bonds (without all of the butterflies in your stomach). 

Find Your People

“It’s not who you know. It’s who knows you,” said Marcus. Yet, while branding and networking are important, they often leave a bad taste in the mouths of many solopreneurs.

“Nobody I know likes networking, myself included, because it implies this transaction,” Baily explained. “When, in reality, that’s not how partnerships work. That’s not how relationships work.” 

Instead, try to flip the script on what networking means for you and your solo business. As Baily said, so much of it is “really just about people meeting other people and seeing whether they’re the right people for them. And we get to define what ‘right’ means.” 

So, how do you find the “right” people to focus your time and efforts on? The answer will be unique for everyone, but Melanie said it’s important to recognize “what it is that you need and what you can offer others.” Once you know those things, “You’re really looking for some alignment,” she added. 

Melanie also recommends creating a “vetting tool for yourself of what you’re looking for in a partner, so that you can kind of give yourself an objective point of view. What are the questions you want to ask before you engage in a partnership with someone?” 

Your questions could be about audience size, engagement, specialities, industry, brand values, or anything else that’s pertinent to you. From there, you can use an AI companion to create a vetting tool based on those factors and assign weights to them. 

Finally, when starting new relationships, don’t get too hung up on a person’s current title or status. “I don’t think you want to write people off based on their title,” explained Marcus. “Help them out, support them, and they’ll support you.”

After all, you never know where a person will end up or how you might reconnect with them in the future. “Something that I tell my community is ‘people are portals,” shared Baily. “To opportunities, to clients, to everything good in this world. It is likely going to come through somebody opening a door for you. So don’t write anybody off.”

Starting the Conversation

There’s quite a bit of effort and elbow grease involved in finding people you want to connect with. But figuring out how to naturally start a conversation with them is when the nerves really kick in. 

Melanie recommends skipping the vague or generic introduction emails and instead getting specific. “Here’s what I noticed about you. Here’s a little something about me. I would love to discuss how we might support one another,” she said. “You should be very straightforward, like dollars exchanged or no dollars exchanged. Those types of details can really help to grab someone’s attention.”

Once you’ve made that initial connection and had your first call or conversation, put things in writing—what you agreed to do, what they agreed to do, the timeline, any financial agreements, and more. “You’re just making sure,” Melanie added. “Because oftentimes people hear different things.”

Don’t get a response to your initial outreach or end up getting ghosted by someone after your initial chat? Try not to sweat it too much. “Sometimes you’re going to get burned,” Marcus said. “Someone’s not going to follow up with what they say they’re going to do. It just happens.”

The important part is not to let that discourage you from continuing to expand your network. Rather, look at it as an opportunity to find another tactic that might yield better results. “You have to try things,” he explained. “Experiment and be agile.” 

Keep the Momentum Going

It’s easy to place so much of your focus on meeting new people. But, at the end of the day, successfully maintaining your relationships with the people in your network is where you’ll really see your efforts pay off. 

“Being part of a community where you know that you’re going to see the same people regularly without having to make a big effort is my one best hack for building relationships quickly,” shared Baily. That consistency helps you keep in touch and strengthen those bonds in a very low-effort and low-pressure way.

So, she recommends seeing “if you can find some sort of recurring circle, meet-up, or community that has regular events. Get in there and just start talking to people.”

Can’t find something that fits? Create that community for yourself. “I call them circles of belonging,” said Baily. “Where you show up, and you know that there are people there who are ready to support you at a moment’s notice. But it’s not because it’s the first time you’re asking. It’s because you’ve put the work in.”

And, while you certainly don’t want these relationships to be entirely transactional, you also can’t be afraid to clearly state what you want. “I think people make the mistake of not dreaming out loud in front of others,” added Melanie. “There’s nothing wrong with telling people, ‘Hey, this is my vision down the line, this is what I’m trying to build, and I’m looking for help in the following ways.’” After all, it’s hard for people to fully support you if they don’t understand what you’re working toward. 

Stronger Connections for a Stronger Solo Business

Even if you run your business alone, you don’t have to grow it alone. By identifying people who align with your focus areas and goals, approaching conversations with clarity, and nurturing your relationships over time, you’ll build a network that supports you—not just with opportunities, but with perspective, accountability, and some much-needed encouragement. 

Learn more about how to develop strategic relationships by watching the full session or check out the complete video library to get more insights from the other experts at Solo Summit.