Effective Networking: Tips & Strategies from the Escapee Collective

Brett Trainor (: 00:00

Thank you everyone for joining us. I'm to see it's more and more familiar faces. So it's good to see everybody actually taking time to, to join us. So for tonight, we may have to do a couple of mysterious of this because I do think that the networking aspect is so important. Really under appreciated by me, especially in the early days. then just to partake in the process, but then realize when I started working with some newer folks.

But I had forgotten when I left corporate that networking wasn't something I did. I was looking for a job. now there's ways to do this. And rather you guys listen to me again for another 20, 25 minutes, I figured I'd pull in some of our eight beats that have Wes, my honor, and having this council networking to their, to their dips. I don't think that's me. David.

You yourself, please.

Brett Trainor (: 01:02

Embers helping numbers. so anyway, with that, that's the beauty of what we do. said, we've got Darren, Shannon, Claire, Grant, who are going to share some of their working strategies. I'll try to keep an eye on comments if you have them, but also, feel free to, you know, ask the questions. We'll try to save some, you know, a little bit of time at the end, but, yeah, I appreciate everybody joining and Grant, you've got the upper left quadrant.

So why don't we start with you and again, this is just, you know, share some of your tips and strategies and what's worked with you from networking and if folks have questions, just throw your hand up or throw it into the comments and I'll make sure, I'll make sure we get to you. Yeah. Yeah. Good evening everybody. Brett Cummings, I'd escaped. started an escape corporate about a year ago and then fully escaped in January. So been doing it for a while. think doing networking is always tough.

But there's some things that's, you know, I wrote down that came to mind that that's worked more effectively for me. Yeah. So if you're still at corporate, you know, I think one thing or two things that, that helped me when I was still there, was doing some things at LinkedIn and changing my headline to something vague instead of my job title, doing some,

changes with the about me, just so whenever I start, maybe pinging my ideal clients. And it could be, I went through the Rolodex and said, know, who doesn't work for my current organization anymore and has moved on, but might hire me to do something later. once I had that list, I started reaching out to those folks because they normally, you know, you can be a little bit more transparent with them about what you're trying to do.

out than if you're just blindly reaching out. So that's one thing I think you can do while you're at corporate. And then some other things that I found, you know, in the just local networking. One of the challenges I think is all of the networking opportunities, there's no central place for it. So finding where your community hangs out, it can be a challenge, but you can...

Brett Trainor (: 03:28

Use resources like alignable. That's hit or miss everywhere, but alignable is a decent website. If it's not hot and heavy in your area, it's probably a waste of time, but it might be what your small business owners or your target audience is trying to get away from LinkedIn and use something different. I know that's the way it is here.

is yeah, most of the small business folks in and around me are somewhere other than LinkedIn. Another good resource, probably the strongest resource, better than any chamber that I've been to is 1 million cups. So I don't know if you guys heard of that one, but it's one, 1 million cups. If you go enough times in a row, you get a coffee mug. But there's at least in the Orlando chapter,

there's tons of people there. it's pretty startup -y or techie, at least in Orlando. but you know, lots of people they meet every week. but there's usually 35, 40 people, you know, nice coffee time ahead of time and networking time after. So that's an, that's another good resource. and then I would say, you know, just in general, you know, look at them.

the Meetup app as well. So Meetup, cause in my area, it's, there's a lot of different things outside of the chamber that gets posted on Meetup and they're all free to attend, but it seems like these sub communities of small business owners and entrepreneurs are kind of setting up things at least around me and in Meetup. So again, it's, it's hard to find.

you know, what's the most effective in my geographic area, but if you're trying to go local, I would say that those are some good local resources.

Brett Trainor (: 05:33

Brian, just to maybe a couple of quick questions about the podcast or music that you were a couple, because one of the questions, you know, I get asked a lot is around around messaging with the network. So when you were reaching out to folks, was it just head a reconnect? I'm thinking about starting something. You just gave us an idea of what, what your messaging was or maybe how to get involved from when you were a corporate to when you left corporate. Yeah.

When I was in corporate, it was a little cryptic. Hey, it's been a while since, you know, we've connected, what are you into now? How's things going? And then when I would get them on the phone, would, after the 10 minutes of what you've been up to, I just told them what I'm preparing to do. what I found, I was a little nervous at first, but what I found, I think a lot of people just respect what you're trying to do. And if...

they're not in position to directly hire you. They'll most often, as always, it's somebody that enjoyed working with you. They'll try their best to connect you with somebody that might need some support or need your help. Afterwards, think, you know, look at that, definitely had way more momentum in months three and beyond. And I think it was because I was a little bit hesitant and

the first couple of months with just directly asking. You know, so I think, I think it's okay to, if you're out of corporate, you're on your own. You got to be a little bit direct with folks and tell them, yeah, this is, this, this is what I want. Yeah. Hey, if there's something I can help you with, or I think I can help you with A, B or C. I would love, I love working with you before.

You know, I would love to do it again. I don't know about everybody else on the call, but I would, I would assume it's 75, 80 % of the time your first client's probably going to be somebody that's in your direct network. So, so go after it and don't, don't tiptoe around. Just say, here's what I do and do well. I know that you probably have a gap there that I could help you fill. Why don't you let me help you fill it?

Brett Trainor (: 07:55

Yeah, it's such a good point. It's something I, in hindsight, I after a long time, like two years and I was on a club, maybe a few people didn't help me. Right. was, it was way too stealthy. Again, hindsight's 20 -20. So I think that's really good advice. Just get out there, have conversation, rebuild. mean, with folks. It's a good, connect with everybody I've talked to in 10 years, even if nothing materializes. Awesome. All right. So hang tight, Brandon.

st of: 2023

I kind of had a feeling it was coming and had been trying the job market, just really not landing anything. To give you an idea, I'm a data scientist. I do a lot of work with programming, generative AI, things like this, and was just not getting hits anywhere. so kind of, I want to say September, I said to my husband, you know, we may want to think about

like me freelancing, starting up something. And so when I got this heads up that it was going to happen, it was kind of funny because I got a sneak peek that it was coming on December 1st, which is a Friday. And it just so happens that that Thursday, November 30th, the state of Colorado where I live officially recognized my LLC. So corporate quit me on that Friday. That Monday I posted to LinkedIn.

hey, I'm really excited to announce I'm starting this new thing. I already have the web domain and an email address and everything set up and it was great. So I've been doing the freelance thing for call it eight months now. And I think we wouldn't be in this setting if we didn't understand the importance of networking. But one of the things that I found really important

Brett Trainor (: 10:18

is where to network. like I'm seeing some of the chat about chamber of commerce events and things like this. Well, I live in a really small town on purpose. I don't people very well. And so I live in the mountains of Colorado. I do not live near a major city. I'm like two hours from Denver is the closest I am to a major city. So it's about finding where your people are and going to them. I mean, going to them can mean a lot of things like we're going to each other online right now.

But before I was doing corporate, well, before my last job, I was working in developer relations. I spoke at a lot of conferences. Before I was in tech, I was a professor at the University of Illinois. I spoke at a lot of conferences. And so kind of the thing that I wanted to come to was the idea of that going to where your people are at conferences. Meetups are great. If you live in big towns, I don't. We don't have meetups here unless you want to go skiing, which look me up.

but for me, it's even if you're talking about the, I, know, you don't have somebody who can pay for you to go to a conference. Conferences are always, if you've never run one or organized one or been on a committee for one, they're always desperate for people to volunteer and they will, you know, cut you deals. They'll give you free admission to these conferences. You know, treating this as an investment in yourself and in your career. Sometimes you do have to shell out out of pocket for these things.

Another thing about going to where your people are, LinkedIn, yeah, I've got a lot of people that follow me on LinkedIn. I do a lot of blogging, so I'm trying to get my content out in front of people, but you have to do it where they are. Data scientists, the good content isn't on LinkedIn. It's not on LinkedIn blogs. There are other blogs that it's on. And so I've done a lot of blogging content there.

And some of my posts get 60 ,000 views. And it's just because I'm putting that content where the people are. A couple other things I wanted to say, somebody brought up webpages. My webpage is terrible. Don't look up my webpage. I'm not even going say what it is. You'll probably find it. But there is an importance of demonstrate. Show me rather than tell me. so especially if you're in tech, this idea of having a portfolio.

Brett Trainor (: 12:44

This applies to other fields as well, but having a place where somebody can go and see your work is really important. And being at a conference, you're speaking to it. Here's some work that I've done and that's great. Being able to point to a portfolio also really important. And then the last thing I wanted to hit on, just because I was having a conversation with somebody earlier about this, going to a conference isn't for everybody. I'm just going to use that as my little soapbox here. But neurodivergent people,

I see you and I know that not everybody does well, you know, at these types of events. So finding that place that works for you personally to go where your people are, whether it's blogging at a particular place, whether it's going to conferences, whether it's, know, maybe, maybe you speak well and give good presentations, but you just don't do it well in front of an audience. Create a YouTube channel, create a blog. you know, the way I found Brett was on TikTok, you know.

Maybe TikTok's not your thing, but YouTube is. Just getting yourself out there so people see what you're doing. And you can point to that thing of, hey, yeah, my friend who is my first person with a contract, I know you have this need. Check out this video that I did or check out this code that I've got available online. Because yeah, those first contracts are going to come from people that you know very likely. So I'll cut off there.

That's good Claire. I think to write the content, it's definitely, you want to speak to your target audience and we're going make change over time. That's why it's an important start. With a target to get started, you can always expand, but reaching the niches does make sense. But one follow up question for you Claire, within your network, as you were kind of yet a day's notice, maybe a little more tonight, do you start reaching into your network before that faithful day or did you go?

pull out after the day let you go? I went full out afterwards. I did not reach into my network. Just, you know, I was licking my wounds kind of thing. But the people I did reach out to, and I actually wrote a note to myself to say this and I neglected to say it, within your network and like, you know who these people are. There are those key hubs in your network that know everybody. You don't have to, you know, just

Brett Trainor (: 15:09

Spray and pray on who are you going to reach out to find find those handful of people? They're probably going to be at most five of them in your network. I call them super nodes. They're the people everybody's connected to. It's the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Find the Kevin Bacon's in your network. Those are the people you reach out to and say, Hey, here's what I'm doing. Really excited to tell you about it. If you happen to know of anybody who might be interested in these types of services, I'd appreciate the connection.

you're not, waste a lot less time now by reaching out to those people. Yeah. Good play prioritized. I'm sure learning played along to you, right? It's not that, you know, connecting and hope you get a business in the state. It happens and it happens, it's that, you know, people that introduce you to connections, fixed degrees or seven degrees. make it look like it's fun. So, well, awesome. All right. Hey, Claire Shannon. There you are. You ready to roll? I'm ready to roll.

So, and just so everyone knows, you're getting all this advice and it's all wonderful. Try not to get overwhelmed by it. You need to find the things that gravitate towards you and what you're able to handle when you get started. And then if it doesn't work, try something else. Just have all of the resources at your fingertips. Just wanted to ask the group for you, is your ideal client, who in the room, ideal client, you want to work with somebody who has money to pay you?

Anyone? Okay, very good. That's awesome. Here's the good and bad news. Your clients who have money to pay you are working hard and they don't have time for networking. So they're not out there doing it. Your job is to meet the people who are working with the clients that have the money who want to pay you. So I encourage you to think of that when you're deciding where and how you're going to network.

I can tell you that my personal best referrals have been from people who are just working with my ideal client. So get to know who your ideal client is, but don't start out getting out there asking for those people to be introduced to. Ask for introductions to those other partners that are doing some of the same work with the same size of people that you like and want to be around.

Brett Trainor (: 17:32

I wanna also encourage you that introductions are really meant to expand your network and get to know people. I've met a lot of people out there networking and you're right, there are some amazing super connectors out there and you'll talk to them and they'll say, who do you wanna meet? And they'll give you a list of 25 people and you pick them off the list and you go do that. And that's a method. For me, as far as where the success goes is...

really getting to know some of the people asking every question I could ever imagine. I come from a place of curiosity all the time anyway, which can get really annoying, but I can tell you I will walk away from meeting knowing exactly what someone does as deeply as I possibly can. And so when there's a chance to introduce, I know exactly how to introduce. If you're in my network and we're making introductions, it's not me throwing something on LinkedIn and saying, hey, you should meet this person.

I'm going to tell you exactly who I'm introducing you to and exactly why. And because I make those efforts, the return on that for others who are introducing me is much more quality, much more significant so far into my experience. Nod to Don, I think he's probably heard more about what I do more than anyone has ever wanted to.

but also Don has made some of the best introductions because he can go, I know who does that. I know who does that well. And, and that has made every difference. So, so you don't have to have a network of 7 ,000 people for things to work. It's a small network of the really good stuff. and, just a quick answer to the question about what, about maybe websites and other things. My opinion on that is it doesn't really matter where you start.

But wherever you start, stick with one and do it really, really well, and then move on to the next one. If it's going to be LinkedIn, kill it. Go in there, kill it on LinkedIn before you move on to Instagram or TikTok or whatever. Do something really well.

Brett Trainor (: 19:38

No, it's good. A follow up. I agree with the, know, build the relationship. It's kind of the goal. Good things happen if you do connect, my, I was interviewing somebody at the podcast section before this and she threw out that she likes to, asked about the other person first. Right. So for networking, you get to know each other. So consciously I didn't realize I'm always in, I always want to learn what you're doing, Shannon. What are you up to? What is it?

is actually better if I, if I have to go first down now that it's comfortable, give them telling you this, don't need to tell me that I don't know. So again, maybe it's just a little trick with the trade. You can get the other person to back to the curiosity. You have to gen, but I like to hear the other person's story first before I tell a lie story. And again, curious that you guys feel that way is the same, but that was one of my thoughts on this today that I didn't realize.

It's a funny dynamic out there because whether we realize it or not, people are suspicious of us when we're going in and having conversations. So note that if you're asking lots of questions, they might think you're just gearing up for a sales pitch. So make sure you don't do that, right? Make sure, know, start with your intent. Hey, look, I don't do networking for the sake of networking. I do it because I want to support my environment and the people that are around me.

I'm going to ask a lot of questions. and it's because I really just want to be able to refer you in the right way. And so I think if they understand that they're, they're less likely to hold back and not tell you anything because they're worried the pitch is coming. Don't pitch in an introduction ever do nothing like that is my advice. There should never, ever, ever be a pitch coming out of your mouth until someone calls and says, I want to buy your services. Then you can pitch your ass off. But before that, hold it back.

No, it's absolutely right. Again, that book you recommended that too long. Are you saying you're really having a bit a portion of your story? But yeah, it's the same. Don't pay an ass. Right. one thing to go into that is don't be an asshole. Thanks. I'll stick with me forever. But the other thing that I took away from that book was somebody's offering me something, but it just doesn't make sense. You don't have to take it at that time. Right. If there's an introduction, it doesn't make sense. You know, don't.

Brett Trainor (: 21:59

take it just to take it, save it to what you need and say, Hey, right now I'm just looking for more people to join it. when you come across anybody that's, you know, unhappy in corporate, send them my way. Now maybe somewhere down the line relationship, I can go back and ask them, say, yeah, I'm trying to get connected, but it's like, there's no, do you know anybody there? So just it's a little things like being, be a good kid, it's part of it. But I think you don't have to take something, somebody's off playing it, it just doesn't make sense. So.

Exactly. And the more you're aware of that and not just acting out of desperation, I think it's easier to do. So for those of you who are wondering that is Save Your Ask by Chris Tuff. Thank you for posting that, Nate. Yeah. I still get to get that into a post, either link that or don't get asked for. And this, the rest of the book kind of goes over all the places. Still recommend it. So, all right. Thanks, Shannon. Don, last but not least, the other night we were telling you that

a super connector. I'm getting sorry, but I'll let you do your own watching person. I'll shoot a lot. No, you know what? I'm going to wait a couple of minutes till everybody goes and looks at that link and then comes back to the meeting here. Thanks. But glad you did that, Nate. That's that's I've heard very good things about that book. I'm going to echo a lot of what everybody has already said, beginning with.

Do you know your ideal client profile like the back of your hand? Who is it you really want to sell to? Shannon, I think, mentioned it. Anybody that can fog a mirror and write a check could be a customer. But will it be a customer that you want to work with? And if not, you don't want to network with people that'll introduce you to people like that.

but you first have to be very clear on who your ideal client profile is so that when you're networking with someone, for instance, Shannon, she and I have been playing phone tag and email tag today, because I think I've got an opportunity where I can work with Shannon and someone else only because I know what Shannon does really well. And I know she does things I don't do and I do things she doesn't do. And this is the real goal and value of, you know, I think as Brett said, build those relationships.

Brett Trainor (: 24:21

and get to know who does what so that when you're introducing people to other people, you know, again, like Shannon said, I hate to steal your thunder, but actually you stole mine because you went first, that you're introducing the right people for the right reasons and you are telling people why you're introducing them. Otherwise, it's just like you get an email and says, hey, Brent, meet Ruth.

Done. and Ruth are gonna get that email and go, why? Who's Ruth? Who's Brent? So please do a sentence or two that just says who Ruth is, who Brent is, and why they should meet each other. Kind of help with that. And again, based on the relationship you've built with one or the other, probably both. Think of yourself. How do you like people introducing you? Who do you want introducing you?

Do you want Donald Trump introducing you? Not politically, but I mean, do you want that type of person? Do you want Kamala Harris introducing it? Whatever. Try to relate to the person that's going to broker that intro for you as well. And then you find your people, find your tribe, right? Your vibe attracts your tribe. Someone said, I'm sorry, I don't remember who. When you find your...

place to communicate with people outside your own office. Go there, live there, understand it. Understand it really well, and then find people who seem to resonate with you. Follow them, comment on their stuff. This is another way to network on LinkedIn in particular. there's someone in Brent, someone in your world that is a knowledge leader, a thought leader, you go there and you

comment on a post they made. And guess what? Your post, your comment is now viewable by their network. So you've just introduced yourself to a whole bunch of new people you never knew before. But make sure it's a good comment. Make sure it adds value. It's not just a great post, Brent, and you're out. Don't just press the like button. And by the way, do at least eight words.

Brett Trainor (: 26:43

at least eight words. Otherwise, LinkedIn will ignore your comment. You just scroll by, click the button, keep going. That doesn't show any kind of interaction or any belief or you're not giving any value to yourself or the person you want to network with. So you understand your ideal client profile, understand your ideal referral partner. Who is the best person that knows the people that you need to know?

and then get to know that person really well. Again, this is all under the auspices and the umbrella of building that strong relationship with a few people. I would be willing to bet if you had 20 people that know your business really well, and you give them introductions and they give you introductions, you're both gonna do well. Now let me ask this question too. Everybody understand the distinction between referral and introduction?

Brett Trainor (: 27:46

What's the, anybody want to voice? I know you do, Shannon, you can't sneak up on me like that. Anybody, who wants to offer their opinion on that?

Brett Trainor (: 27:58

Not all at once. Please don't rush the sage. I'll give it a shot. Done. Go for it. Well, referral to me sounds a bit more on the endorsing for a specific reason. Well, introduction feels more general, generic and not action oriented, just like, you should meet this person. So a referral to put that in three words after a referral, you're expecting a transaction. Right.

Somebody is, probably. And how many of you are transactionally oriented versus relationship oriented? If you sell services, you ain't selling commodities. You're not selling bags of sugar.

Brett Trainor (: 28:43

Okay, so make sure that that's really clear. Thank you for that, Ruth. I appreciate it. Good answer, Exactly that. And how much pressure is put on you to make an introduction versus making a referral? Anybody else wanna play? Lacey, you're really driving me nuts with all your talking here.

Brett Trainor (: 29:05

Nate? Anybody?

Brett Trainor (: 29:11

I feel pressure both ways, either way, all the things, right? Cause it's, it's our name on the line in the end. if you're expecting, like say you refer, refer someone to me with the expectation that I'm going to, they're going to hire me to do something. And I goof up the job. Doesn't that place a little more pressure on you? Of course. Where if you just say, Hey, Neil,

Meet my friend Don.

You don't have anything riding on it really, other than we happen to know each other through this networking stuff. But if I mess up the discussion with Neil, that's on me, not on you necessarily. least not to the same degree, Yeah. Would you agree? Sorry. I do agree. I was worried that Neil wouldn't do this, but others like immediately launch into a pitch with that person that I just introduced them to and it still looked bad. I get that it's a different tier. And that, you know, that goes.

Brett Trainor (: 30:18

everybody that I speak with and who loves to be pitch slapped here. Anybody? Me neither. So there again, you're just making introductions. And I think Shannon was circling this point is you're trying to make introductions to people that call on your ideal client profile, but don't compete with you. And once you get to know who those people are,

and know them well so that they can trust you, then you'll start to do that referral thing between each other. But it all starts with an introduction. Make sense? The last thought I will leave you with is the five Gs. Ever heard of these, Shannon? Anybody else? Five Gs? Give, give, give, get that. Give.

Brett Trainor (: 31:12

Yeah.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. As soon as Laura tells me what she does, if I can think of anybody in my LinkedIn network, or if I just use the search bar in LinkedIn, and I just do these five introductions for her right away, and any of them even sort of pan out, Laura will be likely to want to throw me a bone and give me an introduction or two. It's human. It's the law of reciprocity. It's psychologically proven that it's real.

So that's, are my thoughts. I was going to give John an example of that one. Also, we talked about riches in the niches, but important for networking that you know, so one thing because human nature and I do, I was guilty of this when I get better is we can do a lot of things. And so when we're getting introduced, we want to tell people, well, yeah, this, this, this, and this problems. never, we never, this, okay. So you got to pick one. Hopefully, you know, what's point you're getting. And.

No, it's like, and Don, I, again, super connector knows that they, I'm looking for unhappy Jackson is incorporated. It's pretty simple. It's, it's, so he knows who I'm connecting, but your example of being that person, it's a multiplier too. Right. And the example is Rob Johnson, you know, colleague now that, you know, has podcast, has business and it happens to be an escape being reconnected.

Had a good conversation, connected again. I made a couple of insurers. He made a couple of these, been on my five desks and been on his. And now we're working at doing a project and this all happened because Don connected us. And all of a sudden my network went like this. And we're both gonna remember Don as being the guy that connected us in that original relationship. So I think, don't underappreciate the value of being the connector. We should have that opportunity. Something I didn't completely appreciate. A little better job, but.

Brett Trainor (: 33:38

And the other thing is that you don't connectors, but if it's coming from them, you know, it's good. Right. So Shannon, we have known each other. You know, we're like quality connections. made huge and the same with you. That if it's coming from you, I know it's somebody that I, that I need to meet. So it's hiring that reputation or just bill quickly by, by doing that. then looking at, I think you marketing is we're talking about networking, but there is a ton of value. So,

Awesome. So there's a point where you. Sorry. It is fun. There's a, there's a point where you also start protecting certain networking connections. Yeah. Right. So you don't just give anybody to anybody. you have kind of your top tier folks who, who, you're only, they're, mostly untouchable unless something's really hot. I'd agree with that. how do you get that? By building relationships. And so, you know, you're.

You know, talkable and then you go and spoke soft to the, so it just, you know, it's something we didn't necessarily do in corporate, but you did a little internally with amongst other teams. Cause you know, where the power of these swords with all sorts of things, not necessarily outside. It actually kind of refreshing just to meet a lot of people. I get energy every, I don't want to have another networking session, but it's, know, very brutal. It not work out, but again, we've got two new people.

that know a bunch of buggers. So it is a numbers game, but don't treat it as a numbers loan. That's kind of backwards. That's next. I'm making orange sayings. anybody have any questions? really appreciate the color of these Sharon. This one's good. I've got the page of notes. Just listen. So, thoughts to anybody else have any, so I'm odd. Yeah. Sorry, my camera's not working. I would have turned it on. My question is.

What's your guys's playbook after sending an E? This is networking with someone. Let me set the stage, You're reaching out to someone that maybe you don't have network connections with, but you know their line of business, you know their potential customer, but you have no second degree, third degree connections. So you're sending a LinkedIn message. You may follow up with an email. Like what has been a strategy that has worked in order to be the bait and hook?

Brett Trainor (: 36:03

Cause right now finding that some individuals I don't have that first or secondary grade connection with. so it's proven to be a little bit difficult cause email response wise is not there, but curious to see how you guys tackle that.

Yeah, they don't think about, about commenting on posts and stuff like that. Yeah, that's one way. the other thing I'm on is if since you know their business, quite well, hopefully, then you can say in to your point there, Brent about, okay. I saw a post about this topic, sub topic in their business. I could add, and I agree with three of the five things you said, but these last two, I think this.

And you kind of start that conversation that, you could DM and say, Hey, I noticed your last three posts talked about whatever. Have you ever thought about blah, blah? That would be a way to cold outreach. Help them, help them at first. I always try to help them as best you can with the, with the knowledge that to Brett's point earlier and Brent, it'll come back. It'll come back 10 X.

So the idea there is before you send out that email to say, Hey, I do X, and Z. And I want you as a customer to do what you just said, go first. Right. Okay. Yeah. What, Don's talking about is earning it. You haven't earned the ask yet. So you got to get in and, and, and build a little relationship for before you, before you jump in and try to get. Yeah, I agree with that. I'm going to give just like my hot take here, which is that I absolutely hate email.

I find like if somebody is just sending me an email that I do not know, I have no context around, I very rarely read them. But I also have a very unusual email strategy, which is that I don't read it. So that's a subject for a different conversation. But if somebody is sending me an email or a DM on LinkedIn and I have zero other context around that conversation.

Brett Trainor (: 38:14

I just know that there's a pitch coming and I am very unlikely to respond to it. So how I know that, what would make me break that would be if somebody attempted to establish the relationship first. know, engaging with content is a great thing. I'll get people who will reach out to me and be like, Hey, I saw your blog post on this or your comment on that. I really wanted to ask you more about it. It's not like, Hey,

I want to ask you more about it because I have this thing I'm trying to sell you. It's the engaging in the conversation first. So maybe it's not the give, give, give, get, give, but it's the let's get to know each other a little bit here first. Before I even mention, by the way, I've got this idea that I could help you with. You're much more likely if you've established a relationship with somebody to get them to open that email.

If you don't have that relationship and it takes time, mean, I'm not going to deny that, but if you don't have that relationship, mental bandwidth for your email just does not exist as much as you would hope. I call it popping above the clouds. You've got your clouds, right? And then you need that person that pops up in your comment and you're like, who's that? And they pop up again, they pop up again. And you're like, who is this? Right?

Those are the ones that bells and they're in your DMs and you're like, it's a person again. Now they're kind of stalking me. are you? You know, but like, I like the balloon. I was picturing a gofer as you were talking to like the popping up out of the hole. That's how I tell all my mentors, my mentees. I'm like, you need to pop up the cloud. You got pop up. You know, don't see you. Yeah. I gave you my, my simple strategy with, you know, LinkedIn is just to get the connection first.

They have watching something new, I'm looking to connect business owners in this area. Most are receptive to the connection and then just see you read the room, right? If some will ask more like they get curious, like what is your background? Others will all within it just may take a little bit more time, but most people are into that first connection. And I don't know again, how relevant some depending on who our target audience is, but you know, if you're a person that you're targeting and you on a podcast.

Brett Trainor (: 40:38

Listen to that episode, drop them a note and like didn't say they have heard you on XY podcast, love the content. I get a 98 % acceptance rate on those, didn't connection requests for more. I don't care how famous or not famous or wherever they are. It's, I think the same thing with my work. If you come across the blog posts they had or something along those lines that you just made the effort to beat something or heard something and compliment them. It was a long way.

Hopefully you're actually enjoying it and got value from it. It's better to not just compliment, but better to take the conversation to the next step. Demonstrate some understanding or even if you don't understand it, ask a question. Like not just, you know, it's like that. think it was Don who said it of don't just like give somebody a comment on LinkedIn, know, hey, great posts, like really engage with it. Give it more than the eight word minimum for.

for LinkedIn to actually get it into their databases and whatnot. But like just demonstrate that you really, you know, did engage with their content. Share it is what I think one of the most subtle and yet nicest way to do it. You share it to your crew. say, these guys are great. Did you see this? This is really interesting. And you're not, you're just the vessel, but that is a, a nice way to get on somebody's radar. That's me. I was thinking too about the,

wedding fractions like tips reference movies on this when I Forget Luke Wilson's character John Ryan does up to that secretary But I really loved your position paper on Micronesia you read my paper, right? So instant connection right thing on that I'm a ruin. Hey, I it while I was sailing the guy happens via sail or tell I'm not saying be accepted but there's ways to confide change with let's folks and

Any other thoughts or is that a good place to start this session? Just want to mention that was extremely helpful. Appreciate that everyone. I appreciate it. Now and thank you everybody for taking the time. And again, as we're growing and learning, you're figuring out how to work better with each other and send ideas or suggestions that you want to see these over some different topics. We're wide open, we want to provide as much value as possible.

Brett Trainor (: 43:01

We don't add on the answer, so definitely open to thoughts and suggestions.

All right. One way to enjoy the rest of your evening was coast people. We'll catch up very soon. Thanks. Bye, everybody.