It’s true, I like a drink as much as the next person. Well, maybe a little bit more than the next person, but not as much as the person after me!
Anyhoo…
Drinking is very important in business.
Even if you don’t like alcohol, that doesn’t mean that drinking shouldn’t be a key element in your business. You don’t have to drink alcohol.
Last week I went down to the London Lunch in Victoria, and what a great day it was.
In fact, it was so good I decided to miss my planned train and get a later one.
I’ve not been to one of the meetups for nearly two years, and when I got there I realised how much I missed it.
It was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
What makes these events so great is not just the people you meet, but the ideas you get.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t go to the pitch events. They’re not for me. I’m not interested in seeing webinars on stage.
Which, if we’re being honest, is what they are.
You get a bunch of speakers on stage, they’re “training” you to achieve a goal, there’s some decent-ish content, before they hit you with a $1000, $3000, $10000 or higher offer.
That’s not for me.
I’m not interested in buying a product for that amount. I never have, and I probably never will.
Doesn’t mean they don’t work or aren’t effective, it just means they’re not for me.
Why?
Because, to a reasonable degree, I like to figure things out for myself.
Some ways of marketing and making money just aren’t for me, I’m not comfortable with them, they don’t fit into my lifestyle, and whether they work or not for the coach, they would never work for me.
But the smaller networking events, then ones which are purely networking, these are great fun.
I’ve even registered for a couple of others local to me in Peterborough and Cambridge.
I won’t get to all of them, but I’ll get to some of them, and I’ll be trying to get to the London Lunch regularly.
If you want to maximise the benefit that you get from these networking events then you need to do these two things:
1) Make sure you don’t go to sell to people
There’s nothing more irritating to other marketers than going to a non-pitch event and being pitched.
Not only do you not want to pitch to people, you want to focus on getting to know people.
Nobody wants to be sold to by someone they don’t know, and wants to promote for someone they don’t know.
What that means is, the best way to do to business is…
…to get to know people!
2) Listen to everything everybody says
It doesn’t matter who it is, it could be a complete newbie or a seasoned veteran.
Listen to EVERYTHING that everybody has to say.
Why?
Because you never know where you next $100k idea may come from.
It’s highly unlikely anybody is going to give you their complete game plan, and it may not work for you even if they did.
But by listening to everything being said you start to get your own ideas.
Maybe take a notebook so that you can make some notes, but do it discreetly after the event, do not do it while you’re talking to people, that’s just rude.
It’s amazing trees can sprout from a kernel of an idea.
A lot of folk at these events are only interested in listening to what the well known or seasoned marketers have to say. And yes, there’s value in that, but there’s huge value in listening to someone who’s not already formed by the industry and may have an completely new approach to something.
For example… I was talking with some very seasoned and large traffic providers at the London Lunch, and I hope to be doing business with them shortly.
But during a conversation I was having with them and a few newbie marketers, I got a kernel of an idea from something one of the newbies said.
Nothing complicated.
Very simple in fact.
And I’ve got no idea why I haven’t already done it, or why most people don’t do it.
It would make life significantly easier, less stressful and kickstart a business five times as fast.
So, it’s something that could make a huuuge difference!
I’m going to share it with full Online Hustle members later this week, and it’s so simple it could be written in one sentence.
But the bottom line is, find local networking events, the free ones, and go and meet people, it will be the quickest way to grow your business and get ideas.
If you want to become a full member, this is the place to do it, and it’s just five bucks a month.
https://michaelwilding.com/join-the-online-hustle/
