Mixed Greens Masterclass: Building Your Network Like a Master Gardener

00:00:02 [Lisa] Hey, everybody.

00:00:04 [Lisa] Thanks for joining.

00:00:05 [Lisa] I know we're just coming off a break, so we'll give everyone a few seconds to hop back in and get settled.

00:00:13 [Lisa] While we're getting ramped up, if you wanna pop your name and where you are in the world in the chat or anything you're hoping to learn today, that'd be great.

00:00:21 [Lisa] We'll start networking right out of the gate, just at least getting to know each other.

00:00:25 [Lisa] And then formally kick off and, I don't know, I'll give us another thirty seconds to a minute.

00:00:51 [Lisa] Alright.

00:00:52 [Lisa] Feels like we have a good quorum, and then we have a lot to talk about, so I don't wanna waste any time.

00:00:57 [Lisa] We'll jump right in.

00:00:59 [Lisa] I'm Lisa from Lettuce.

00:01:01 [Lisa] I am also a solopreneur, so I'm in the same seat as many of you, actually working with Lettuce as all of us are in a fractional or consulting basis.

00:01:12 [Lisa] And I have also had the honor of working to pull together this panel that you're about to hear today, and I promise you it's gonna be a great value.

00:01:20 [Lisa] A couple of housekeeping before we jump in.

00:01:22 [Lisa] Our session's gonna run about forty minutes.

00:01:25 [Lisa] We will have time for Q&A.

00:01:27 [Lisa] So please, if questions hit your brain, let them hit the chat, pop them into either the chat or the q and a section, and we'll be watching that box, and can, you know, maybe even put them in from a moderator standpoint as we're working through the session, but we'll definitely leave time at the end.

00:01:47 [Lisa] So let's jump into today's panel.

00:01:50 [Lisa] Today's panel isn't about collecting business cards or making shallow connections.

00:01:55 [Lisa] I actually promise you we're gonna go deeper into really what it takes to cultivate a network that supports your business growth.

00:02:01 [Lisa] We wanna explore how successful solopreneurs approach networking and not as a chore as I think many of us worry as we come out into this chapter of our careers, but really as a strategic intentional practice.

00:02:14 [Lisa] This panel will bring together three experts who've mastered the art of building powerful professional networks.

00:02:21 [Lisa] Michelle Warner, I have actually learned from personally and was one of the first purple people we reached out to when we were thinking about the solo summit.

00:02:30 [Lisa] She's an MBA who took a networking class in, while getting that degree.

00:02:35 [Lisa] And she is a creator of networking that pays a system that delivers reliable leads and constant referrals.

00:02:42 [Lisa] Khalil Dumas brings invaluable insights from times at DoorDash and Nike, but he, in the end, is a, entrepreneur at heart and is currently building two businesses.

00:02:55 [Lisa] And Shaina Anderson is the founder and CEO of Hello Generalist.

00:02:59 [Lisa] She's built seven teams from c c through series b acquisition and has served as chief of staff at Yelp before starting her newest venture.

00:03:10 [Lisa] So let's start in with a maybe a little softball, get us warmed up.

00:03:14 [Lisa] Michelle, do you wanna start by telling us, and we'll go around to all of you, is there a system or a strategy, which I know this to be true for you, that's really the foundation you use to create meaningful beneficial connections?

00:03:29 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:03:30 [Michelle] I I will be as brief as possible.

00:03:32 [Michelle] For me, the system comes in thinking before you're ever in a networking situation.

00:03:36 [Michelle] Right?

00:03:37 [Michelle] A lot of times we think about networking, we think about being put in a room or put in a situation where you're just free for all, and let's go have small talk with folks.

00:03:45 [Michelle] And for me, the the best way to network and the best way to do it strategically is to not put yourself in those situations and instead take some time ahead of time to think through who should I actually be connecting with.

00:03:57 [Michelle] I always tell folks that the same way you have an ideal client or an ideal buyer persona, you also have an ideal connection persona of what is that profile of the person and why should who you wanna be connecting with and why.

00:04:09 [Michelle] And when you have that in mind, then number one, if you are ever in a room full of a networking situation, you can go find those people who fit that profile really easily.

00:04:18 [Michelle] Or even better in my world because I'm an introvert and I do not like being in those spaces.

00:04:22 [Michelle] I'll go hide in the bathroom all day long.

00:04:24 [Michelle] You can proactively go find those people yourself and make meaningful one on one connections or solicit introductions and go find those folks when you're clear on who you're looking for.

00:04:34 [Michelle] So that's my biggest hack is, like, let's spend five minutes before doing the actual networking and thinking through who you who you wanna network with, which I know sounds simple, but it's amazing when you go through the exercise, how much clarity you find there, and and people who don't do that ahead of time and and just kinda hope that they get lucky by meeting the right person and haven't really thought through who that person is.

00:04:54 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:04:54 [Lisa] I love that.

00:04:55 [Lisa] I think that it feels even more, more helpful when you're thinking about staring at that LinkedIn connection page, which I have done.

00:05:03 [Michelle] Right?

00:05:04 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:05:04 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:05:04 [Michelle] So many folks kinda look at those LinkedIn connections and think, oh, this is who I should be networking with.

00:05:09 [Michelle] No.

00:05:09 [Michelle] Those are your followers or, you know, some of them are, but there's there's so much science around, you know, you can maybe be connected to a hundred and hundred fifty people max including your personal life.

00:05:19 [Michelle] It's like, let's be really specific about why you wanna be connecting with people and who what those people look like.

00:05:24 [Michelle] Go find them.

00:05:25 [Michelle] Go look into your LinkedIn for the people who fit those profiles.

00:05:28 [Lisa] That's great.

00:05:29 [Lisa] Khalil, do you have a system or a strategy that gets you going?

00:05:33 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:05:33 [Khalil] Really aligning with with Michelle here as well.

00:05:36 [Khalil] I think strategically, if you're really clear on your ICP, I really teach three different principles in the strategic realm, which is first, you know, be intentional.

00:05:44 [Khalil] Don't just collect business cards, collect, you know, really build trust.

00:05:48 [Khalil] That's what it all comes down to is really treating this like a seed being planted and like a good farm.

00:05:54 [Khalil] You need to nurture those seeds over time.

00:05:55 [Khalil] You can't just go and ask for fruit right away after you plant them.

00:05:59 [Khalil] You have to actually put in the time and invest in that person and also kind of reframe the way you're thinking about networking.

00:06:06 [Khalil] Yes, this is something where we're looking for energetic alignment, but to be frank, we're looking for opportunities.

00:06:11 [Khalil] And, actually LinkedIn did a a study, and they said around 60% of those connections that are weak ties actually lead to generating new business and new job opportunities.

00:06:20 [Khalil] So getting excited about meeting new people, getting excited about those potential opportunities is huge.

00:06:25 [Khalil] The other side of this is the tactics.

00:06:27 [Khalil] As you start to hit that critical mass, as you start to network a lot more.

00:06:31 [Khalil] Right?

00:06:31 [Khalil] Setting one, networking goals, two, utilizing CRM so you can fully nurture and really make sure that you have context as you're engaging people over time, and and start to look at ways to automate some of those follow ups and automate some of that nurturing, which is something we'll get a little deeper into later.

00:06:47 [Khalil] But wanted to really echo Michelle in terms of getting clear with who you're trying to connect with is the absolute first step.

00:06:54 [Lisa] I appreciate that you're using some of our lettuce puns as well as seeding questions that we're gonna talk about later.

00:06:59 [Lisa] Thank you.

00:06:59 [Khalil] You're you're picking up on it.

00:07:01 [Khalil] I love it.

00:07:01 [Lisa] I'm weird.

00:07:02 [Lisa] I'm here.

00:07:03 [Lisa] Okay.

00:07:04 [Lisa] Shaina, what about you?

00:07:05 [Lisa] Do you employ a system?

00:07:07 [Shaina] Yeah.

00:07:07 [Shaina] I do.

00:07:08 [Shaina] And, like, we're we're clearly all on the same page.

00:07:10 [Shaina] We're like, my whole networking approach is easily summed up as all I wanna do is make new friends.

00:07:17 [Shaina] And the more I can find ways to get personable and truly make friends through this, the better.

00:07:24 [Shaina] One really specific system that I've grown to like is is what I call the LinkedIn intro swap.

00:07:32 [Shaina] So it's taking that scary moment where you're staring down your LinkedIn connections, and it's a really practical way to get you to, to use it.

00:07:40 [Shaina] So, I'll tell you what it is right now.

00:07:42 [Shaina] You can open up LinkedIn and do this with me.

00:07:44 [Shaina] So, basically, you need LinkedIn premium, and you need to pick a friend who you think has a similar, level of connections that you do.

00:07:53 [Shaina] What you do is together you go into LinkedIn.

00:07:56 [Shaina] In the search bar at the top, you start to describe your ideal persona.

00:08:01 [Shaina] For me in my business, it's a startup founder.

00:08:03 [Shaina] For this example, type founder in LinkedIn, hit Enter, then click People, should be on the left side of your screen, and then click All Filters on the right side of your screen.

00:08:15 [Shaina] With all filters, you can search by that friend that you're swapping connections with and look for their second degree connections and filter even more, like Khalil and Michelle are talking about, for the exact ICP that you're trying to target, location and language and, business, industry and so on.

00:08:35 [Shaina] And then what you do, you find those people, you make your list, and then you, you know, write warm intros for each other.

00:08:41 [Shaina] So, you know, I think what you're gonna get today clearly, like, you're gonna get this really cool mix of deeply practical ways to do things, mindsets of, like, how to what to do when you're finally in the room with these people.

00:08:53 [Shaina] So, yeah, I'm stoked.

00:08:54 [Shaina] Khalil and Michelle, this will be this will be fun.

00:08:57 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:08:57 [Khalil] Absolutely.

00:08:58 [Lisa] We're gonna stick with you because I wanna go a little bit deeper on where you started of you're out to make friends, and then you gave us a great technology example, which is brilliant.

00:09:09 [Lisa] I haven't heard that one before.

00:09:11 [Lisa] But I think I'm curious too of how do you ensure that those connections feel genuine and not transactional, that you keep maintain that human touch?

00:09:20 [Lisa] Because that in the end is what friends are about.

00:09:23 [Shaina] Yeah.

00:09:24 [Shaina] Like, you know, using the LinkedIn intro swap method, your whole goal is to avoid this AI driven dribble of a cold email.

00:09:36 [Shaina] That's what we're trying to avoid when meeting people.

00:09:39 [Shaina] And you've all been in your email inbox or DM inbox and have seen the, like, fake personalization cold emails that you get, that's what we're trying to avoid.

00:09:50 [Shaina] So with an example where you have a system around meeting the friends of your friends or or working the connections that you already have available to you, What I do is I write a really practical, basic, double opt in intro request.

00:10:06 [Shaina] Lisa, if you and I were doing this together, I'd make a list of people that you're connected to that are in my ICP.

00:10:14 [Shaina] And you and I would talk about it.

00:10:16 [Shaina] Not everybody that I wanna meet that you know is a true connection that you can ask to meet me.

00:10:22 [Shaina] So I'm then the people that you are willing to intro, I'm gonna write a little warm intro script for you.

00:10:27 [Shaina] This is Shaina's deal.

00:10:28 [Shaina] I think you guys should meet.

00:10:29 [Shaina] This is why, And then send it.

00:10:32 [Shaina] You're looking for that human to human intro.

00:10:35 [Shaina] You're looking for that friendly intro rather than, again, that AI fake personalization or cold outreach without any context, especially in the fractional work world where I spend my time.

00:10:50 [Shaina] People who know you and the people that know them are the ones that are gonna hire you especially as you're getting started.

00:10:57 [Lisa] Does anyone else wanna build on that question?

00:11:00 [Lisa] We can go to the next.

00:11:01 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:11:02 [Khalil] I think, just adding to that too, you know, really really trying to come from a perspective of not what can I get, but how can I help?

00:11:11 [Khalil] I always find that to be a really nice reframe, especially, you know, to get over the transactional nature that really focuses us then in the space of listening, which I think is really, really important.

00:11:22 [Khalil] And, you know, from a psychology perspective, helping first always improves reciprocity and strengthens bonds.

00:11:29 [Khalil] I mean, think about it from your own interaction, which is a nice exercise to do.

00:11:33 [Khalil] If someone comes to you right away and asks, you know, what can I get out of you?

00:11:36 [Khalil] You're gonna kind of be like, what's your motive here?

00:11:37 [Khalil] As opposed to how can I help?

00:11:39 [Khalil] So, you know, really wonderful points.

00:11:41 [Khalil] I just wanted to add that a little bit.

00:11:42 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:11:43 [Lisa] I love that.

00:11:44 [Lisa] Oh, go ahead, Michelle.

00:11:45 [Michelle] I was gonna add on also.

00:11:46 [Michelle] We're talking around it a little bit, but I just wanted to name it, like, specificity.

00:11:50 [Michelle] Right?

00:11:50 [Michelle] And I talk about, like, you can stand out like a sore thumb in a really positive way because there is all this AI, and I see comments about just how bad cold pitches are on LinkedIn.

00:12:01 [Michelle] You take twenty seconds and say something specific about a person, and whether they're talking about something publicly that you can compliment them on or tell them that it landed for you, That's remembered.

00:12:11 [Michelle] I get that same dribble of AI stuff, and then I get the one person who's maybe seen me speak and follows up.

00:12:18 [Michelle] And it takes twenty seconds.

00:12:19 [Michelle] This is not a a paragraph that I get from them, but just a real quick point.

00:12:23 [Michelle] Saw you speak, heard this podcast, this stuck with me.

00:12:26 [Michelle] I remember that person for years at this point because they have taken thirty seconds, and no one else takes thirty seconds.

00:12:31 [Michelle] So this doesn't have to take hours of your time.

00:12:34 [Michelle] You can really use the fact that nobody else is putting in an effort, frankly, to your advantage.

00:12:39 [Shaina] Yeah.

00:12:40 [Shaina] You're you're you're making friends.

00:12:41 [Shaina] Right?

00:12:42 [Shaina] I think that's what you guys are both talking to.

00:12:44 [Shaina] It's how would I approach someone that I wanna be friends with?

00:12:46 [Shaina] I probably wouldn't send them some weird AI written cold outreach.

00:12:50 [Shaina] I tell them that they I they smelled good or that they hey.

00:12:53 [Shaina] They make good cookies that they brought to the event, and I liked the cookies.

00:12:57 [Shaina] Yeah.

00:12:58 [Shaina] So go get it.

00:12:58 [Michelle] I call it stop, drop, and thank you.

00:13:00 [Lisa] If you have

00:13:00 [Michelle] a moment where somebody comes to mind, just stop and, like, send them that quick message and specifically tell them why they came to mind.

00:13:06 [Michelle] It goes it's normal.

00:13:08 [Michelle] It's human interaction, and sometimes we forget to be humans in this process.

00:13:12 [Khalil] Absolutely.

00:13:13 [Lisa] It's so great.

00:13:14 [Lisa] And we're gonna pick back up on that human thread.

00:13:17 [Lisa] We'll just say I heard an anecdote this week of someone that works in partnerships talking about when you approach someone, you think about your going to their front door and you always wanna ring the doorbell with your elbow because your arms are so full of what you're bringing to the table.

00:13:32 [Lisa] It's such a good thing.

00:13:33 [Lisa] I'm gonna use it all the time now.

00:13:36 [Lisa] That's it.

00:13:36 [Lisa] Let's loop back to this human piece that maybe isn't as positive as where we've been of networking makes people feel anxious.

00:13:44 [Lisa] So, Khalil, can you think of a way that you kinda get around that uncomfortability of network?

00:13:52 [Lisa] How have you pushed through barriers where maybe you felt anxious in the past?

00:13:58 [Lisa] What are some tips to kinda just get over that natural human nature?

00:14:02 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:14:02 [Khalil] It's something I get all the time, folks asking about, you know, just anxiety and discomfort within networking.

00:14:08 [Khalil] I think the biggest starting point is just reframing network as learning and not selling.

00:14:14 [Khalil] You know, I think one of the biggest things where where anxiety is spurred is this need to impress as opposed or this need to perform and or per and impress instead of thinking about it as something that's more curiosity driven.

00:14:26 [Khalil] So that always grounds me when I get into these bigger events, and I I know there's gonna be big names here, and I'm really excited to meet them, really reframing this in terms of what can I learn from this person, and really just being curious can kind of help, again, distract and not not help you have you leading with with anxiety?

00:14:44 [Khalil] I think again in in big networking events, I think this is where this is most common.

00:14:48 [Khalil] I really try to conscientiously not focus on volume and focus on that one on one interaction and going deep as opposed to surface level.

00:14:56 [Khalil] Again, that opens up again that more of that human element really walking away from an event where you feel like you actually know someone.

00:15:02 [Khalil] So again, it's all of these different reframings.

00:15:04 [Khalil] I think when we approach events, our imaginations can run rampant going in.

00:15:08 [Khalil] So it's really controlling it and getting more tactical in terms of how you're approaching the situation.

00:15:13 [Khalil] And and and lastly, find your networking style.

00:15:16 [Khalil] I mean, I I love going to big conferences.

00:15:19 [Khalil] I love being able to kinda figure out and go through a room and have that high volume.

00:15:24 [Khalil] I enjoy that.

00:15:25 [Khalil] Not everyone enjoys that.

00:15:26 [Khalil] I actually was just talking to my mom about this.

00:15:28 [Khalil] She's like, I really wanna just find smaller networking events where it's really, really curated to what I'm trying to learn and the people I'm trying to connect with.

00:15:36 [Khalil] And that's perfectly okay.

00:15:37 [Khalil] So whether it's a big, you know, a a a bigger event or a smaller event, really trying to find the environment that works for you, reframing and leading with curiosity can really help overcome anxiety and discomfort within networking.

00:15:50 [Lisa] That's great.

00:15:51 [Lisa] Anyone else have a thought on get that pit out of your stomach or push through it?

00:15:58 [Shaina] I love the notion of finding your own style.

00:16:01 [Shaina] Like, one of the the things that I always go back to when, like, I I feel I'm a startup founder, and I feel a ton of pressure to do the, like, build my brand on LinkedIn thing or, like, be the the thought writer of my generation thing in order to grow my business.

00:16:20 [Shaina] What I've had to realize is, oh, no, wait, there's a whole pie chart of how I'm going to grow my business.

00:16:26 [Shaina] And my slice of persona on LinkedIn or thought leader can be as small or as big as I want it to be.

00:16:33 [Shaina] Just like networking and the input that that's going to be into your business leads.

00:16:37 [Shaina] It can be as small or as big as you want to be.

00:16:40 [Shaina] So if you find yourself really struggling with the idea or thought of big outreach and networking, it's also okay to drop it in favor of other strategies.

00:16:50 [Shaina] I've had to give myself lots of grace and permission about weeks where I don't post a thing on LinkedIn.

00:16:54 [Shaina] My business still survives.

00:16:57 [Shaina] Khalil, I think that's a really good point.

00:16:59 [Shaina] Know thyself.

00:17:00 [Khalil] Yes.

00:17:01 [Khalil] Absolutely.

00:17:02 [Michelle] I love that point as well, and I'll kinda give the opposite example because I'm a founder too or or was a startup founder in the tech space, and I'm not good in those big rooms.

00:17:11 [Michelle] And when you are a founder, like, you're expected to be in them.

00:17:14 [Michelle] But I had a really unique advantage, and and if anyone else is an introvert listening, a lot of times we do better at these events if we were somehow able to give ourselves a job.

00:17:22 [Michelle] Right?

00:17:23 [Michelle] Sometimes some of the generic advice is like, oh, go be a volunteer.

00:17:26 [Michelle] Well, I was in a situation where, I was fortunate.

00:17:29 [Michelle] I could book any keynote I wanted.

00:17:31 [Michelle] I had, like, a lot of media buzz around my company, but zero sales.

00:17:34 [Michelle] I could not sell anything to anyone.

00:17:36 [Michelle] But what I was able to do thinking about that theory of give yourself a job, I started turning down the keynotes and saying, would you give me a panel instead?

00:17:44 [Michelle] And with a panel then, all those people who wouldn't give me the time of day, I was able to reach out, and it happened to be local governments and nonprofits I was trying to connect with.

00:17:52 [Michelle] Well, all those folks don't feel heard.

00:17:55 [Michelle] They don't feel like anyone's ever listening to them.

00:17:57 [Michelle] So So I was able to say, come sit on my panel.

00:17:59 [Michelle] I want you to tell your story.

00:18:01 [Michelle] And guess what?

00:18:01 [Michelle] Then I was able to turn that into give myself a job at an event I needed to be at and also finish my networking goal of connecting with these people who, again, would not give me the time of day, but I was able to give them some value and say, I'm gonna hand you the stage.

00:18:16 [Michelle] Go tell your story.

00:18:17 [Michelle] And then after that, you know, we you know, they became my customers, and you were able to have that conversation.

00:18:22 [Michelle] But just thinking through those different ways that you can, that that fit.

00:18:26 [Michelle] What assets do you have?

00:18:27 [Michelle] What are you good at?

00:18:28 [Michelle] Are you good at in a big room?

00:18:30 [Michelle] Or if you're in a small room, or you're not good in a big room, how can you look at other assets that you have and flip that into a way to get to meet people?

00:18:38 [Lisa] That's great.

00:18:38 [Lisa] And it kinda leads into the next question that we had.

00:18:41 [Lisa] Michelle, coming back to you, we're looping back a little bit to something you said earlier and maybe reframing what you the last point you shared of, how do you qualify those potential connections?

00:18:52 [Lisa] How do you find the criteria of who's really worth spending your time and energy on?

00:18:58 [Lisa] We have limited resources and a lot of people out there.

00:19:01 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:19:01 [Michelle] You know, for me, I am a big fan of not thinking about trying to network with your direct potential clients just because I think then you're starting from scratch every single time.

00:19:10 [Michelle] So, again, I think about this ideal connection avatar profile, and I'm thinking about who is likely to know my potential clients over and over and over again.

00:19:18 [Michelle] So I know that I get a lot of business if I am guest teaching, if I am speaking, if I'm running workshops within paid programs where people have already gathered.

00:19:27 [Michelle] So I think about who owns these audiences that I wanna get in front of.

00:19:31 [Michelle] How can I go make friends with them and build relationships with them so that every cohort they bring through, every year, they invite me back as a teacher, and I'm always going to be in front of my ideal clients?

00:19:41 [Michelle] And I'm able to meet them in a little bit more of, like, I don't know the right word, but I'll just call it like a a powerful way.

00:19:47 [Michelle] Right?

00:19:47 [Michelle] I can go in front of them as the expert, and I'm not sitting there trying to meet them one to one.

00:19:52 [Michelle] I'm always being I'm I'm building these relationships that multiply over time and continually get me in front of the clients that that cycle through year after year or every six months, whatever the cadence may be.

00:20:04 [Michelle] And that has been really effective for me is thinking through that question of who owns my audience that I'm trying to, get in front of, and how can I make friends with those people?

00:20:14 [Michelle] Again, so there's a multiplying effect, and then I can meet my clients that way.

00:20:19 [Lisa] Just proof that that works.

00:20:20 [Lisa] That's how Michelle and I met.

00:20:21 [Lisa] And then now she's here in front of all of you.

00:20:23 [Lisa] So Yeah.

00:20:25 [Lisa] Smart thinking, Michelle.

00:20:28 [Michelle] I I think depending you know, all industries are different, but if you have some of those industries thinking through building that because then you have a stable network, and you're not having to restart it all the time, as clients come and go.

00:20:39 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:20:39 [Shaina] Shaina, I think this is also

00:20:41 [Lisa] a good place to kind of come back to you because you've created a community.

00:20:44 [Lisa] You've created one of these places where, you know, Michelle's going to find her audience, but you're actually creating a place for people to go in and network.

00:20:53 [Lisa] Can you you know, what have you learned from that effort of community and how well it can help solos with their networking?

00:21:01 [Shaina] Oh, yeah.

00:21:01 [Shaina] So so my company, Hello Generalist, you can think about us as part recruiter, part platform to handle contracts and payments for fractional work.

00:21:11 [Shaina] And then part community of people offering fractional operations work to startups.

00:21:17 [Shaina] And the benefit, you know, is probably immediately obvious.

00:21:21 [Shaina] You know, when you're put in a Slack, in our case, with a bunch of people who are talking to a variety of the same customers, what ends up happening is that we've tried to create a culture inside HG where people can raise their hand and say I talked to a potential lead.

00:21:39 [Shaina] I'm not the right person for it.

00:21:41 [Shaina] Here's why.

00:21:42 [Shaina] Somebody else should talk to them.

00:21:44 [Shaina] And it's probably one of you because we're offering something of a similar nature.

00:21:48 [Shaina] We have tangential customers.

00:21:52 [Shaina] So HG is one of tons of online and IRL communities at this point.

00:22:00 [Shaina] A quick Google for your niche plus the word community will help you find them.

00:22:05 [Shaina] There's plenty of free, not just paid resources.

00:22:09 [Shaina] And as of last year, something that we've started to do, because our members are asking for it, is more meetups around The US.

00:22:17 [Shaina] So in major U.

00:22:18 [Shaina] S.

00:22:18 [Shaina] Cities, you know, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, places where we have big density of members.

00:22:25 [Shaina] We bring people together just for the sheer fact of getting offline, making friends in person, being able to have this real human touch that everybody here is talking about.

00:22:35 [Shaina] So even if an online community isn't your thing, there are endless meetups at this point for independent workers looking to meet each other and just be a direct business referral channel to each other.

00:22:47 [Shaina] It's really powerful.

00:22:48 [Shaina] So go seek it out.

00:22:50 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:22:51 [Lisa] So, Khalil, referrals are game changers for solo businesses.

00:22:55 [Lisa] You've created a really good referral ecosystem.

00:22:58 [Lisa] How do you keep that juice to keep people motivated to send opportunities your way?

00:23:03 [Lisa] And I'll build on that just a little bit too because I see a question in the q and a of, like, in that, how do you also feel like you're giving value back?

00:23:11 [Lisa] That you're not just speaking.

00:23:12 [Lisa] Maybe that'd be part of your answer, but

00:23:15 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:23:15 [Khalil] No.

00:23:15 [Khalil] This this is I I love I love the referral ecosystem.

00:23:18 [Khalil] It's ever changing.

00:23:19 [Khalil] As someone that leads a fractional growth firm where our deal size are anywhere from 10 to 25,000, I also lead an exec search firm where our deal start around 80,000.

00:23:27 [Khalil] The referral systems actually remain very similar.

00:23:30 [Khalil] And I bring that up to just level set with with everyone in the room, no matter where you're at, these things work.

00:23:36 [Khalil] I think the biggest thing first and foremost to focus on is value.

00:23:40 [Khalil] Right?

00:23:40 [Khalil] When you're working with a client, doing the best job you can do first and foremost in your first couple of deals really sets the groundwork to be able to ask the question, who else needs this?

00:23:50 [Khalil] Who else can benefit from this?

00:23:53 [Khalil] Right, as that first marker.

00:23:54 [Khalil] So we have to create value.

00:23:55 [Khalil] We have to be ready to deliver, on the things we say we can deliver on.

00:23:59 [Khalil] From there, we can add incentives.

00:24:01 [Khalil] Right?

00:24:02 [Khalil] Revenue shares, things like that to really get our current partners or current clients incentivized to send us those leads.

00:24:09 [Khalil] That's something that's worked really well in both of my firms.

00:24:11 [Khalil] I mean, we're we're primarily referral based.

00:24:14 [Khalil] So when we do a really great job somewhere, that network and that founder has been incentivized to introduce us.

00:24:20 [Khalil] And a lot of the times we find that they're not really even incentivized by the revenue share side, which I really thought would have been a a bigger slice of the pie.

00:24:28 [Khalil] They're really incentivized by the fact that your name now is validated and they trust you, and now they're willing to make those introductions.

00:24:35 [Khalil] So it's really about how you can strategically deliver value.

00:24:39 [Khalil] It's it's the give to get rule.

00:24:41 [Khalil] I mean, it's it's it's classic, and creating value first, is really important.

00:24:45 [Khalil] And then from there, it's just a compounding effect.

00:24:48 [Khalil] If you continue to do a great job, folks will continue to refer you out.

00:24:52 [Khalil] Obviously, there's a lot of minutia within the referral system.

00:24:55 [Khalil] I think contracts are really important just to make sure that both parties are are understanding kind of what they're getting or not getting from that referral side.

00:25:03 [Khalil] And then, again, automation, is really important here as well to be able to track those referrals, to be able to, again, give gratitude when those introductions are made and to follow-up with updates, etcetera.

00:25:14 [Khalil] So, again, it it's it it sounds more complicated than it really is, but it all starts with with creating that value.

00:25:21 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:25:21 [Lisa] That's great.

00:25:22 [Lisa] Shaina, any examples of creating value that you've done that's worked well to get that referral network going?

00:25:30 [Lisa] You know, the way I always try

00:25:31 [Michelle] to think about it is how can I make whoever I want making the referral, how can I make them look better?

00:25:37 [Michelle] So to say it directly, you know, if I can insert like, if their clients working with me makes their work go further, then they're gonna be incentivized to to refer.

00:25:47 [Michelle] You know, I do I have a networking course, and so I put that inside of a lot of basic business building courses because the people teaching those courses don't wanna deal with the networking piece, but they know that if I show up and do an hour long training, their people are gonna get better results from the training they provide.

00:26:03 [Michelle] And so they're very happy to have me, and that's how I think about building value is how can I make that person look better, and how can I make their work go further?

00:26:12 [Michelle] That's great.

00:26:14 [Lisa] Any other bills on that one?

00:26:16 [Lisa] There's a word I've heard in this conversation or two words, I suppose, weak ties.

00:26:21 [Lisa] Apparently, you'll say it, but, Michelle, I know it's a big one for you.

00:26:24 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:26:26 [Lisa] How have or how can we think about these seemingly peripheral connections actually help us build our business?

00:26:33 [Lisa] And in that, I also wanna go back to you said maybe not networking with your current clients.

00:26:38 [Lisa] Is that what you said?

00:26:38 [Lisa] Is your best strategy?

00:26:41 [Lisa] So I think maybe talk from that on the way out would be interesting, especially as someone who was gonna start asking her current clients tomorrow for some referrals.

00:26:48 [Lisa] So I'd love that piece of advice now.

00:26:54 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:26:54 [Michelle] Khalil, do you wanna go?

00:26:55 [Lisa] Or

00:26:55 [Khalil] I've I've I've I've I've been for Michelle.

00:26:57 [Lisa] Whoever wants to take it, we can we have time, guys.

00:27:00 [Lisa] Yeah.

00:27:00 [Khalil] Go ahead, Michelle.

00:27:01 [Shaina] Go ahead.

00:27:01 [Shaina] Okay.

00:27:01 [Michelle] I'll take it.

00:27:02 [Michelle] So weak ties that folks don't know are the people who are kind of on the peripheries of your network.

00:27:06 [Michelle] They're the people I always say, like, they know who you are, but you probably aren't in each other's business all the time.

00:27:11 [Michelle] You worked with them a year ago, former colleagues, something like that.

00:27:14 [Michelle] And that is you know, research shows that that's where a lot of business actually comes from because the strong ties are the opposite of your weak ties, and those are the people who are in your business all the time.

00:27:24 [Michelle] And the weird thing about that is you would think that they would bring in the most referrals.

00:27:27 [Michelle] However, they have probably already helped you as much as they can by the time you think to ask them for help, because you all know the same people.

00:27:35 [Michelle] And so your strong ties are really not as valuable as the name would imply.

00:27:39 [Michelle] So it's these weak ties who know people who you you don't know who are really great people for for you to be connected with.

00:27:46 [Michelle] Problem is the name weak ties exist for a reason.

00:27:49 [Michelle] We're not very well connected with them, and we don't usually think about them that much.

00:27:53 [Michelle] If you don't if you've never heard this term and you don't know it exists, odds are you have a ton of weak ties that are floating around in space that you've never really invested time in.

00:28:01 [Michelle] You just vaguely think, oh, that guy I worked with a year ago, maybe he could have helped me.

00:28:05 [Michelle] But you haven't put in the time to build the relationship.

00:28:08 [Michelle] And so then when it's time when you realize that that person can help you, now it's awkward time because you haven't talked to them in a while, and now you don't feel like you can ask something of them.

00:28:17 [Michelle] And this is not to keep beating the drum, but this is why I'm a really big fan of these ideal connection avatars.

00:28:22 [Michelle] Because if you can think through what is the profile of someone who might be able to help me or can probably help me, then you can look at kind of the weak ties in your life and decide which ones of those actually fit one of these profiles.

00:28:33 [Michelle] And, therefore, do I want to invest more time in keeping that relationship up over time knowing that there's something collaborative we could do or that it will be worth my time in the future and kinda letting all the other weak ties go.

00:28:45 [Michelle] Because there's hundreds of these people around.

00:28:47 [Michelle] Right?

00:28:47 [Michelle] And you wanna get focused on maybe who the best 50 of them are.

00:28:51 [Michelle] So when I think about weak ties, again, I'm first thinking about how can I know which ones are worth my time and worth kind of adding to what I call a permanent network?

00:29:00 [Michelle] And then how can I, over time, build that relationship?

00:29:04 [Michelle] And I saw in the q and a, someone said, you know, I've had a good network, but I haven't maintained it.

00:29:08 [Michelle] What advice would you have on retrieving those dormant past relationships?

00:29:12 [Michelle] And this is where I come back to the stop drop and thank you.

00:29:15 [Michelle] Like, if you've decided you want someone in your network and you haven't talked to them in a while, I always reach out.

00:29:20 [Michelle] I remember something specific, a project we worked on together, a business dinner we were at.

00:29:24 [Michelle] Like, what was some core memory that we hold together?

00:29:27 [Michelle] And I'll just drop a note and say, hey.

00:29:29 [Michelle] I was thinking of you.

00:29:30 [Michelle] I know it's been two years since we chatted, but, gosh, that dinner and that lasagna we had are, like, whatever connective moment.

00:29:38 [Michelle] It you know, I I thought of that the other day, and so I just thought I'd reach out and say hello and see how you are.

00:29:42 [Michelle] And that is such a low, it's just an easy way to reach out and see if they're still there and interested in having a conversation, bringing those people back.

00:29:52 [Michelle] So that was a lot.

00:29:53 [Michelle] I'll throw it over to Khalil because I'm sure you have

00:29:54 [Khalil] a lot.

00:29:56 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:29:57 [Khalil] It's like one of my it's one of my favorite things to to really talk about.

00:30:00 [Khalil] You know, a lot of the business we had was, you know, coming from events, we'd meet someone and then, you know, down the road, we we engage and boom, there's opportunity.

00:30:07 [Khalil] You know, Lettuce is even an example of that.

00:30:09 [Khalil] I've got the fortunate meeting the head of marketing at an SF Tech Week event, and all of a sudden we hit it off and here I am.

00:30:14 [Khalil] So it really gives you the ability to also flex your ever evolving brand and your ever ever evolving person.

00:30:20 [Khalil] I think with those stronger ties, there's already preconceived notions of who you are and what you do.

00:30:25 [Khalil] And as that evolves, it becomes a little bit harder to reframe those existing connections to what you're you're now doing.

00:30:31 [Khalil] And so that weak ties really open and and to Michelle's point, doesn't really have a full grasp of everything you do.

00:30:37 [Khalil] So it's really your time to to get in there and shine.

00:30:40 [Khalil] But, you know, really figuring out which weak ties to, really cultivate comes down to the alignment.

00:30:47 [Khalil] Not only, you know, again, how it fits in your business, but again, energetically.

00:30:51 [Khalil] After an event, after, you know, podcast recordings on my side, which is another form of networking, it's really clear who energetically drew me in, even if I didn't know them.

00:30:59 [Khalil] And so it's just really important to then re engage into Michelle's wonderful point.

00:31:04 [Khalil] Find some of those common points, you know, compliment folks, really create that environment, start to warm up that that tie to become a little bit stronger.

00:31:12 [Khalil] So, many examples, I would say around 50% of the business we have come from weak ties, people we had never engaged with before.

00:31:19 [Khalil] And then all of a sudden there's energetic match, there's a need, there's obviously budget, and then we're off and running in the business world.

00:31:26 [Khalil] But also getting deeper, there's an energetic match and, we become, you know, strategic partners or channel partners as well.

00:31:33 [Lisa] Khalil, you're using a lot of human words like energy and connection.

00:31:38 [Lisa] But I think as Solos, we also are starting to realize there's a new tool besides our own humanity of automation that can really help with networking.

00:31:48 [Lisa] Do you have automation tools or processes that you've built in place that have helped you?

00:31:53 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:31:54 [Khalil] I think one of the the my my favorite, and it's in the handout, that I attached here.

00:31:58 [Khalil] So if anyone wants that as a as a leave behind, I walk through exactly the system I use.

00:32:05 [Khalil] Whenever I'm on virtual calls and sometimes even in person, I first always start off with with utilizing Otter, letting people know that the call is being recorded.

00:32:13 [Khalil] There's so much that happens in a conversation that you're gonna miss naturally.

00:32:18 [Khalil] And so it's just really great to be able to put aside the need to really feel like you have to take notes actively so you can really listen, to what the person's saying.

00:32:27 [Khalil] And from there, I've built automations using make and Zapier to be able to take that transcript and run it through an LLM that has been trained to talk like me.

00:32:37 [Khalil] Again, I think there's a lot of value in manually doing this process that I'm talking about first.

00:32:42 [Khalil] So you can kind of find your voice and find how you would like to be received.

00:32:46 [Khalil] Just because AI is helping you doesn't mean that it's not personable.

00:32:49 [Khalil] It's it really starts with your existing frameworks.

00:32:51 [Khalil] I think where people go wrong is they try to insert AI before they've even really fully understood what it is they're trying to do or how they're trying to come across.

00:33:00 [Khalil] And so then AI comes across as very robotic.

00:33:02 [Khalil] So once you're able to use like an Otter transcript, it it speaks like it.

00:33:07 [Khalil] It's literally you.

00:33:08 [Khalil] And so AI is just then putting it and templatizing it for you.

00:33:11 [Khalil] So right after a call, when the when I hit end record, the Otter transcript's over, it pushes to an LLM.

00:33:18 [Khalil] That LLM synthesizes it into an email draft and into a notes into a Google Doc and automatically drafts it in my Gmail, which gets me about 80% of the way there.

00:33:27 [Khalil] So all I have to do is really go back, humanize it a bit, add things that it might have missed.

00:33:32 [Khalil] And then from there, it also creates click up tasks for me to nurture, to follow-up.

00:33:36 [Khalil] It adds a calendar reminder so that I can nurture that relationship.

00:33:40 [Khalil] These things feel transactional and they feel a little stiff, but really what it's helping me do is hold myself accountable.

00:33:46 [Khalil] When I have 10 conversations in a day, it's really hard for me to be able to fully grasp every part of those conversations.

00:33:54 [Khalil] So I've found that, you know, I spent around 20% of my day in in follow-up, sometimes even 35%.

00:34:01 [Khalil] And it's because I spend time really making sure that, I'm bringing value.

00:34:05 [Khalil] But after I built these automations, I now spend about 5% of my time in that world and can spend the last, you know, hour of my day or thirty minutes in the middle of my day judging things up and sending out emails.

00:34:16 [Khalil] So that's been really helpful.

00:34:18 [Khalil] This is an automation I've been kind of screaming from the rooftops because I'm like, if we're not all utilizing some facet of this, I feel like we're we're not getting the full breadth out of those conversations.

00:34:27 [Khalil] So, again, feel free to take a look at that handout.

00:34:30 [Khalil] I really tried to be specific because it does get technical, but there's definitely a crawl, walk, run here.

00:34:35 [Khalil] You don't have to have that full system set up.

00:34:37 [Khalil] Even just setting up Otter today, if that's a practical takeaway, you're gonna really, be surprised at how much time that saves you.

00:34:45 [Khalil] But, yeah, that that's that's my that's my automation that I love.

00:34:48 [Khalil] I have a lot of other ones, but that's my primary one that's been a huge time save.

00:34:53 [Lisa] That's great.

00:34:53 [Lisa] Shaina, do you have any that you use?

00:34:55 [Lisa] Or I think the other thing that what Khalil was saying was striking me is just that sense of how do you make sure you have enough time and make the networking a priority when there's 100 other things coming at you.

00:35:08 [Lisa] So you could answer that question any way you want.

00:35:11 [Shaina] Oh my gosh.

00:35:12 [Shaina] Yeah.

00:35:13 [Shaina] Absolutely.

00:35:13 [Shaina] I mean, especially if you are already into running your business and servicing customers, networking will often fall the last thing on your list.

00:35:25 [Shaina] It's taken me a long time to set up any sort of AI automation.

00:35:28 [Shaina] Like, clearly, you're clearly an expert at that.

00:35:31 [Shaina] You know, I'm on the crawl side of that journey.

00:35:34 [Shaina] And when I think about it, like, the basic building blocks for me that I can hold myself accountable to is that CRM, or at the most basic, a Notion database or a spreadsheet or a searchable document where I can take quick notes on when I met somebody and what we talked about.

00:35:53 [Shaina] And then going back to LinkedIn over time to make sure that I am connected to those people, that they're seeing posts from me, that I'm engaging with content from them.

00:36:03 [Shaina] And that as we inevitably, again, in the crawl stage, as I lose track of those weak ties, I can go back to that searchable notes or database in Notion, or I can go back to my filters in LinkedIn to really remember who these weak ties are, and make a plan to engage them that way.

00:36:23 [Shaina] But I echo what both of you are saying.

00:36:25 [Shaina] I think back to our very first customers at Hello Generalist a few years ago, we're from weak ties.

00:36:32 [Shaina] So it's I think there's proof points here across the board.

00:36:37 [Lisa] Michelle, I think as you know, automation's kinda helping us rein in the opportunity the time and the structure.

00:36:48 [Lisa] And I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit here because I didn't tell you I was gonna ask this question.

00:36:51 [Lisa] But after I first saw your networking that pays course, I wrote down your, like, do this on Monday, do this on Tuesday.

00:36:58 [Lisa] And I found it to be helpful because it was like, oh, I can check off this list when I start my day every day.

00:37:03 [Lisa] Can you talk a little bit more about that structure?

00:37:06 [Michelle] Yeah.

00:37:06 [Michelle] And this is, again, just to get people moving is I talk about five different types of outreach.

00:37:11 [Michelle] Well, technically, four that you can do each day of the week.

00:37:14 [Michelle] So we talk about five five minutes a day to reach out reach out to one person with one of these themes each day.

00:37:20 [Michelle] And Monday is the thank you.

00:37:21 [Michelle] We've talked about that.

00:37:22 [Michelle] And a stop, drop, and thank you.

00:37:23 [Michelle] That's a way to keep in touch with your weak ties.

00:37:26 [Michelle] It can also be used to, as an introduction mechanism.

00:37:30 [Michelle] On Tuesday, I like thinking about introductions.

00:37:32 [Michelle] Whether you're introducing two people in your network, if it makes sense, don't force it on people, or you're asking someone for an introduction of somebody that you need to know.

00:37:41 [Michelle] Wednesday is a little bit of a misnomer, so we'll move we'll skip Wednesday for now.

00:37:45 [Michelle] Thursday is an ask day.

00:37:47 [Michelle] And a lot of people look at an ask day as I need to ask for referral or I need to ask for a really big thing.

00:37:53 [Michelle] But I encourage, like, really small asks because as humans, we build bonds by helping each other.

00:37:58 [Michelle] And so there are a lot of very, very tiny asks that take, like, thirty seconds, two minutes or less for somebody that you're asking to, to complete, and that actually really strengthens the bond.

00:38:07 [Michelle] So on Thursday, we wanna ask something, and because that builds your muscle memory to be able to then ask for the big stuff.

00:38:14 [Michelle] And then Friday is just catch up day, and you're checking in with people.

00:38:18 [Michelle] You know?

00:38:18 [Michelle] How are the twins, Khalil?

00:38:19 [Michelle] What's going on?

00:38:20 [Michelle] Just personal moments that you know of, folks.

00:38:22 [Michelle] I spend a lot of time in my Instagram DMs on Fridays, seeing what people are up to and just saying, wow.

00:38:27 [Michelle] That looks like fun weekend plans or whatever.

00:38:29 [Michelle] Because if you can be specific in that, the bonds are strengthened and you don't have to talk to people as much.

00:38:35 [Michelle] Again, I saw a comment here saying, oh, I heard your weak ties.

00:38:38 [Michelle] You have to really connect three to four times a year.

00:38:41 [Michelle] I'm not telling you, if you are really specific in your connections, and you're drilling down to moments that you have shared, that can be one or two times a year because they're much, much more sticky.

00:38:51 [Michelle] So that's another way to be efficient with your time.

00:38:54 [Michelle] The more small talk and the more generic you are with your outreach, you do have to reach out a lot more because people are gonna forget who you are.

00:39:00 [Michelle] But if you name something that's gonna elicit an emotion from someone and you remind them of a time that's gonna make them laugh, cry, whatever, that's gonna stick, and they're gonna remember it sometimes upwards of a year.

00:39:12 [Michelle] And you can then reach out.

00:39:13 [Michelle] And so that's something that's really valuable again about that specificity and just catching up with people, but not in a generic way, not just saying, oh, hope you have fun this weekend.

00:39:22 [Michelle] No one's gonna remember that.

00:39:23 [Michelle] But, oh, gosh.

00:39:24 [Michelle] You know, I I know that you said the twins were about, you know, thinking about starting to walk or crawl and how's that going?

00:39:29 [Michelle] What happened?

00:39:30 [Michelle] Those things, stick with folks.

00:39:32 [Michelle] So having those themes helps people, open up their brains to think how could we how can we do this and and get over that hump of of those those first outreaches.

00:39:43 [Michelle] Really?

00:39:43 [Lisa] You're a I was gonna come to you because you're a master of what he just said.

00:39:47 [Lisa] I know from our very first conversation, we bonded over twins, and I grew up ten minutes from where Khalil is currently sitting.

00:39:54 [Khalil] Yes.

00:39:55 [Lisa] So core memories there.

00:39:57 [Lisa] But I saw you writing something down in the middle of that too.

00:40:00 [Lisa] So jump on in with your thought.

00:40:02 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:40:02 [Khalil] Two things.

00:40:03 [Khalil] I mean, I think the the biggest area and Michelle, like, such a great point, and it should be a main point of specificity.

00:40:10 [Khalil] Early on, there there's so many things in all of us in this room.

00:40:14 [Khalil] We're experts in a lot of different areas.

00:40:16 [Khalil] We can really do a lot of different things.

00:40:18 [Khalil] But in the world of scaling your solo business, you do have to put yourself in a little bit of a box so folks can really understand what it is.

00:40:26 [Khalil] And don't think about that as, you know, the end all be all.

00:40:29 [Khalil] That's just how you get your foot in the door.

00:40:31 [Khalil] I'm such a huge proponent for land and expand, leading with and then expanding outward.

00:40:36 [Khalil] You know, in in my business, I really pride myself in being a fractional growth executive, And that can really take two different threads.

00:40:43 [Khalil] It can be, an operations front or in the marketing front, but I don't lead with all of it.

00:40:48 [Khalil] I lead with what I think that founder really needs and keep the rest of my back pocket for when it's strategically relevant to what we're working on.

00:40:55 [Khalil] And I think that's something that I've struggled with in the beginnings of this was trying to do way too much out the gate and overwhelming my weak tie and my strong ties, honestly.

00:41:05 [Khalil] And that's been such a game changer.

00:41:06 [Khalil] It's getting really clear and specific, with what I'm trying to offer, not only from my business, but also as a partner.

00:41:13 [Khalil] Because, again, that's where energy comes into play.

00:41:15 [Khalil] If you notice a founder's, you know, carrying that boulder around and you have some insight to kind of help lift that burden, that's just as valuable as building an automation that saves them time.

00:41:25 [Khalil] So really, really great point, Michelle.

00:41:29 [Shaina] I I so hear and and relate to what you're saying there, Khalil.

00:41:32 [Shaina] I I've named my whole company using the word generalist, which is quite counter to the point you're making and is quite countered to how we coach people into setting up their fractional practice, which is to define where their skills spike the most, and start there.

00:41:50 [Shaina] I you know, an example that kind of weaves together what you're both talking about, which is the system behind networking that you use.

00:41:57 [Shaina] One of our members, Ben, was telling me recently, he's trying to define the the the biggest pain points behind his fractional COO practice.

00:42:09 [Shaina] He's trying to get really clear on who his core customer is, really clear on how they talk about the problem that he could then solve, you know, so that he can then build his materials around this.

00:42:18 [Shaina] And he set a goal for himself to hold six calls a week, so at least one a day during the weekdays.

00:42:26 [Shaina] And he's employed all of these different techniques to get there, a funnel to his ultimate goal of holding calls with with who he believes his target customer is.

00:42:34 [Shaina] He's been able to use those calls to get curious, to make friends, and ultimately get really clear on how do they talk about my world of operations?

00:42:45 [Shaina] How then can I adopt and refine how I talk about it right back to them?

00:42:50 [Shaina] So, you know, on the other side of this sprint, he's had 60 something phone calls under his belt.

00:42:55 [Shaina] He's got a great pipeline of customers, a great new way to talk about his business.

00:43:01 [Shaina] And he's now thinking about, okay, after this sprint, what do I wanna do for the next version of my system here?

00:43:08 [Shaina] Michelle, I thought your Monday through Friday system is really excellent and does the same goal for people, which is give really clear structure to how to engage with people each day.

00:43:18 [Shaina] That's great.

00:43:20 [Lisa] Shaina, I wanna stay there for a second because I think a lot of times, especially as solos, when we're worried about our pipeline, we think about networking as that referral.

00:43:28 [Lisa] But sometimes and the reason we're all here at the summit is there's a lot of learning to be had by connecting with each other.

00:43:35 [Lisa] And I know that you have shared that you did that in a previous role, but that it was really valuable for you of networking for learning.

00:43:42 [Lisa] Can you talk to us a little bit about how you approach that?

00:43:47 [Shaina] Networking for learning.

00:43:49 [Shaina] You know, I think back to when I had a a full time job last.

00:43:53 [Shaina] I was a chief of staff.

00:43:55 [Shaina] And what was cool about the world of Chiefs of Staff is that there's a ton of communities where people in this newly popular role were trying to get together and figure out, like, what's your job?

00:44:07 [Shaina] What's my job?

00:44:07 [Shaina] How can we all do this better?

00:44:10 [Shaina] And that's really where I first come to appreciate, what it what happens when you surround yourself by people who do the same thing as you, but perhaps just different flavors of what you do.

00:44:22 [Shaina] Those chief of staff communities that I joined helped me understand very directly how other people are approaching the specifics of the role and their company.

00:44:33 [Shaina] And that's made its way directly into how I built this business now where community is at the core.

00:44:39 [Shaina] You know, networking for learning, you can think of as another echo of a way to bring curiosity to those conversations.

00:44:48 [Shaina] A way to engage people that you admire and you want to learn more about or you want to learn from.

00:44:55 [Shaina] So it's yet another mindset that I think you could put on as you're approaching people that you view as smart and successful and want to get to know more.

00:45:03 [Shaina] Hey.

00:45:04 [Shaina] I saw this thing you posted.

00:45:05 [Shaina] I'm wondering if you're willing to talk me through how you did this on facing a similar challenge.

00:45:11 [Shaina] What a great way to start a new relationship and bring that back to your business or your customers.

00:45:19 [Lisa] Alright.

00:45:20 [Lisa] We've hit about five minutes left.

00:45:22 [Lisa] We promised we'd leave time for q and a.

00:45:25 [Lisa] So I know there's a couple already in the q and a, but if people have others they've been sitting on, start to pop those in.

00:45:30 [Lisa] Well, I just also jump in with a couple, offers that we have from Lettuce.

00:45:38 [Lisa] First is if you wanna keep or start to turn the learnings from the summit into action, we're gonna have a thirty day challenge.

00:45:48 [Lisa] The solo challenge kicking off on Monday where we're gonna have a little piece of content from a bunch of the sessions that you can engage with to just kinda putting in this everyday structure, start to to build out from what we're all learning over the last couple days.

00:46:03 [Lisa] Go to lettuce.cobackslashchallenge to find the information on that.

00:46:09 [Lisa] As well as then if you're there and you're interested in lettuce, you can, get a free month from us with the code solo VIP.

00:46:18 [Lisa] And then again, Khalil has an offer in his handout as well, which is pinned to the top right above the chat.

00:46:26 [Lisa] Transitioning to the q and a, Khalil, I saw two questions, I think, about how you use make for the trigger relays.

00:46:33 [Lisa] Can you help us out?

00:46:35 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:46:35 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:46:35 [Khalil] Absolutely.

00:46:36 [Khalil] I use Make for for those trigger relays.

00:46:39 [Khalil] For for those of us that are just getting started in Make, you really are just charged by operations.

00:46:44 [Khalil] So, you're you're allotted a certain amount of operations.

00:46:47 [Khalil] And each time I mentioned those different environments that Make is taking and automating, those are kind of, again, those trigger relays that are happening each time.

00:46:56 [Khalil] So I'm utilizing that to be able to create that full stream automation.

00:47:00 [Khalil] You can do a lot on the free version, but you know, spending about 20 a month to be able to get extra operations to make more lengthy automations, is really important.

00:47:10 [Lisa] Great.

00:47:11 [Lisa] There's a question here.

00:47:12 [Lisa] I don't know who wants to take this one.

00:47:14 [Lisa] You guys can jump in.

00:47:15 [Lisa] How do you know when to give up on an unresponsive connection you're trying to reignite?

00:47:23 [Lisa] Make you laugh.

00:47:24 [Shaina] That's voluntary.

00:47:25 [Shaina] Oh, yeah.

00:47:26 [Shaina] Okay.

00:47:26 [Shaina] Great.

00:47:26 [Shaina] Well, you know, I've I'm of two sides, to this one.

00:47:31 [Shaina] One side is that, if I've learned anything from the sales leaders in my life, it's you're gonna follow-up with those great leads forever.

00:47:39 [Shaina] And finding the right ways to engage them in a personal, meaningful way, I think is the ticket for me.

00:47:48 [Shaina] We just closed two customers this week who I met a year ago and who we've been in the follow-up game with for a year.

00:47:55 [Shaina] Things that told me they were worth it.

00:47:57 [Shaina] I have I use Superhuman, the email inbox that tells me when they're opening it or if they're opening my emails.

00:48:04 [Shaina] So I have some sort of signal that I'm not just getting lost or that I'm annoying people.

00:48:10 [Shaina] I'm sure there's all sorts of, AI automations.

00:48:14 [Shaina] Clearly, you probably have a great insight here into other, you know, ways to know that somebody is engaging with you.

00:48:21 [Shaina] You're not just dropping things in the void for being a pest.

00:48:25 [Shaina] So that's I think that's where I'll land on it for this conversation.

00:48:29 [Shaina] If there's any sort of indication, keep following up.

00:48:32 [Khalil] Yeah.

00:48:33 [Khalil] This is something, my team has, fought me about and I really feel strongly about, you know, automations in the sales world.

00:48:43 [Khalil] We get them so much.

00:48:45 [Khalil] I mean, from LinkedIn to your email, you're just constantly inundated.

00:48:48 [Khalil] And that's why, you know, Michelle's point of like adding some personability is great.

00:48:53 [Khalil] And you can build automations that do that.

00:48:55 [Khalil] And even when we did that, it just, there's just something about it.

00:48:59 [Khalil] When you're really trying to reignite someone that automation just doesn't fill that gap.

00:49:04 [Khalil] You know, I like to say, you know, if I've reached out more than three times, typically it's just not a good time.

00:49:10 [Khalil] I think that, you know, either folks aren't seeing your message.

00:49:13 [Khalil] So first of all, Mixmax, if we have not heard of this or have not used this, it's one of my favorite tools.

00:49:19 [Khalil] It lets you know when someone's opened an email and at what time they did it.

00:49:22 [Khalil] So you can even see if, are they even getting this?

00:49:25 [Khalil] So I think that that that's part one.

00:49:26 [Khalil] So if they are getting it and they're still not responding, it's the way you're framing it.

00:49:31 [Khalil] They've either already made their mind up and they're too busy to get back to you or you're not asking the right questions.

00:49:36 [Khalil] When I get down to it when they're not being responsive, one of the questions I love to ask is, hey.

00:49:40 [Khalil] You know, I'm really excited to meet because of x, y, and z.

00:49:43 [Khalil] Is now not a good time?

00:49:45 [Khalil] And and that at least gives them an out and gets me an answer.

00:49:49 [Khalil] But sometimes, you know, as we all do, there are just times when, you know, those connections just fall off.

00:49:54 [Khalil] And so I think what's more important is to define for yourself when you're ready to walk.

00:49:58 [Khalil] And for me, it's about three touch points, and then, you know, I'm I'm out.

00:50:02 [Khalil] And and, again, there there has to be something really significant there for me to commit to that.

00:50:07 [Khalil] But I I don't, to your point, like, I I I don't ever advocate for using automation to kind of pester folks, but, you know, that is kind of the name of the game and it's what we're seeing right now.

00:50:15 [Khalil] So it is a differentiator if you can be really cognizant of that.

00:50:20 [Lisa] We're at time, but there's a question in here that had some votes.

00:50:24 [Lisa] But it's an interesting question.

00:50:26 [Lisa] See if we can have a good answer to it.

00:50:29 [Lisa] I think the core of the question is if you're asking some we all have these, like, casual LinkedIn connections, right, where they're in our LinkedIn network, but we don't really know them.

00:50:41 [Lisa] And if someone's coming to or if you're going to someone and they say, you know what?

00:50:45 [Lisa] I'm not really comfortable making an intro.

00:50:47 [Lisa] I don't really know that person.

00:50:49 [Lisa] Is there anything we as the asker can do to help them get over that hurdle, that can actually help incite people, I suppose, incite our stronger connections to help us reach some of their lighter connections.

00:51:04 [Lisa] Is that question making sense?

00:51:05 [Lisa] I I didn't read it word for word.

00:51:07 [Lisa] I was trying to summarize it a little bit.

00:51:10 [Shaina] I think that for me, the most successful intro asks come when I come in with a really specific reason of why I should get in front of this person.

00:51:22 [Shaina] And there's some sort of double, triple opt in place where the person I'm asking is saying yes.

00:51:28 [Shaina] The person that I want to ultimately meet is saying yes, and then we're able to meet together.

00:51:33 [Shaina] But it's specificity of why I'm trying to get in touch with them.

00:51:37 [Shaina] It's often framed as helping them or curious about their work rather than trying to sell them.

00:51:43 [Shaina] So I think it comes back to specificity and framing for me.

00:51:48 [Lisa] I like that we came full circle right where we started.

00:51:52 [Lisa] I think specificity is a theme of this conversation, and I want to specifically thank each one of our panelists.

00:52:01 [Lisa] Michelle, Khalil, Shaina, thank you so much for your time.

00:52:04 [Lisa] Thanks to our audience for sticking with us even for a few extra minutes.

00:52:08 [Lisa] And I hope everyone joins us for our closing keynote.

00:52:10 [Lisa] It's been a great day.

00:52:12 [Lisa] Thanks, everybody.

00:52:13 [Khalil] Thanks, everybody.

00:52:13 [Michelle] Thank you.

00:52:14 [Michelle] It's wonderful to be here.

00:52:16 [Shaina] Great to meet you guys.

00:52:17 [Shaina] Bye bye.

00:52:18 [Michelle] Bye.

 

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