Special thank you to our sponsors Planable and Leadfeeder.
Ever felt that awkwardness when networking? Say hello to our guest, Amy Pruitt, who's here to transform those cringy moments into meaningful connections. We're dishing out the secrets to making networking work for you, from locking in real appointments to hosting your own events. Say goodbye to pointless card swapping and hello to boosting your professional rep. We've even got a workshop coming up to sharpen those skills, so stay tuned! This episode is just the start of a series that'll turn you into a networking pro. Check out our show notes for more info and to share your success stories. Let's network like a boss!
Your Biggest Takeaways
Meet Amy Pruitt
Amy has been designing professionally since she was five years old. Ok, that's a stretch, but she DID win her first bicycle in a Toys'R'Us design contest. With her company AP Creative Designs, Amy creates full-scope rebrands for successful businesses that are ready to level up. She's also a #boymom and wife, living with her family and two dogs in idyllic Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Resources
Follow Amy on LinkedIn
AP Creative Designs
Network in Action
Upcoming Workshop
5 Ways to Network without Feeling Awkward
Website: https://www.sarahnoelblock.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnoelblock/
Newsletter: https://tinymarketing.me/newsletter
Tiny Marketing Community
Click here to ask a question about the episode
Special thank you to our sponsors Planable and Leadfeeder.
Ever felt that awkwardness when networking? Say hello to our guest, Amy Pruitt, who's here to transform those cringy moments into meaningful connections. We're dishing out the secrets to making networking work for you, from locking in real appointments to hosting your own events. Say goodbye to pointless card swapping and hello to boosting your professional rep. We've even got a workshop coming up to sharpen those skills, so stay tuned! This episode is just the start of a series that'll turn you into a networking pro. Check out our show notes for more info and to share your success stories. Let's network like a boss!
Your Biggest Takeaways
Meet Amy Pruitt
Amy has been designing professionally since she was five years old. Ok, that's a stretch, but she DID win her first bicycle in a Toys'R'Us design contest. With her company AP Creative Designs, Amy creates full-scope rebrands for successful businesses that are ready to level up. She's also a #boymom and wife, living with her family and two dogs in idyllic Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Resources
Follow Amy on LinkedIn
AP Creative Designs
Network in Action
Upcoming Workshop
5 Ways to Network without Feeling Awkward
Website: https://www.sarahnoelblock.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnoelblock/
Newsletter: https://tinymarketing.me/newsletter
Tiny Marketing Community
Click here to ask a question about the episode
When I started networking professionally, I shifted the goal to not how many pieces of you know three and a half by two inch information cards that I get, but how many appointments did I?
Speaker 2:set. Hey friends, it is Sarah Noelle Block and you're listening to Tiny Marketing. Today we're getting into something that everybody feels awkward about and we're launching an entire series about it networking. I know that for years I felt so awkward trying to network because it felt ick. It gave me the ick for real because I thought who everybody I'm talking to thinks that I'm trying to sell them right now, when I'm just trying to make friends? Today I am sharing my conversation with Amy Pruitt and she's going to talk about why you should host your own networking events, and she gave some really valid points. So in today's conversation you're going to get the lowdown on why you should host your own networking event, how to get started doing that and how to make them not awkward. So stay tuned. But before we go, my son, dean is homesick today and he wants to say hi.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Dean.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Dean. That was Dean for you. Now stay tuned, as we one. First we're going to talk about my sponsor, planable, and then we'll get into the conversation. Hey there, fellow marketers, before we dive back into the conversation, I've got a game changer for your content strategy. Imagine a world where the headache of coordinating, reviewing and approving content for social media, blogs and newsletters just disappears. Struggling with team collaboration on content We've all been there, and it's precisely why you need to hear about this tool. It's named Planable. Planable is revolutionizing the way teams collaborate on content. Picture this crafting and seeing your posts exactly as they'll appear, live across different platforms, all from one dashboard. Yes, please. The beauty of Planable it drastically cuts down the approval time for your posts. What used to take hours can now be wrapped up in minutes. Whether you call Planable your unfair advantage or secret weapon in your content creation toolbox, it's changing the content collaboration game With its beautifully designed interface you'll wonder how you ever did content planning without it.
Speaker 2:Ready to upgrade and streamline your approach to content creation, Head over to plannableio and sign up for a free plan today. That's plannableio. And here's the cherry on top. Plannable is giving you 30% off for the first three months when you upgrade to any plan that fits your needs. That's right. Any plan. All you need to do is use the code PLANNABLE30. That's P-L-A-N-A-B-L-E-3-0 at checkout and you're ready and all set to transform the way you manage your marketing content. That's PLANNABLE30 to lock in your 30% discount for three months. I always go to networking events alone because of that exact thing that you were just talking about that if I know someone, I'll just hang out with them the whole time and then I don't actually get to know anybody.
Speaker 1:It's super tempting. Yeah, so like one. One thing that I would recommend anybody do, regardless of whether you enjoy networking or not, is know why you're going like, have an agenda, have a. You know we call them KPIs, key performance indicators. So like, how do you know if this event went well and it's? You know it's not. How many business cards did you collect?
Speaker 1:What I, when I started networking professionally, I sort of shifted the the goal to not how many, how many pieces, how many scraps of you know two and a half by three and a half by two inch information cards that I get. But how many appointments did I set? And what that looks like is hey, you know you're walking around with your calendar, I'm walking around with my calendar. I definitely want to get coffee with you. Can we open up our calendars right now and go ahead and set that up? Oh, that's smart. And what that does differently yeah, what it does differently is one you're doing future you a favor. You don't have to go home and write the email to set the appointment. Two, your fallout's gonna be less. Just like a sales funnel Every step where there's friction you're gonna have fallout. And so if you're really interested in speaking to somebody and following up with them, setting the appointment that day, and then you can still send a follow up email to say, hey, it was really nice meeting you.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to seeing you next Tuesday for coffee at blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, that is so smart, so you get something on the books right away. You don't have to worry about like forgetting somebody when you really wanted to hang out with them again. Yeah, and yeah, really cuts down on that follow-up time. One thing that I really wanted to touch on today is why you should host networking events, not just attend them. So what would be like you own a networking franchise? What would you say the biggest benefit is of owning that platform?
Speaker 1:what would you say the biggest benefit is of owning that platform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I joined or I bought it because I was doing so much networking for the design business and this just felt like you know, wow, if you really want to get known, if you really want to become the guy that knows, a guy right To always be the person that is thought of as well-connected in terms of you know, man, I don't know a business attorney to talk to you or to refer to you, but I bet she does you know, if you want to be you know sort of, it raises your profile in the community in a way that other forms of marketing just doesn't do. You know, I mean, if you think about the time and the money invested in putting on a networking event, you can't just do one just like any form of marketing, consistency matters and it is the sort of thing that builds over time. But if you think about your return on investment in your time and in your energy and in your money to a lesser extent, putting yourself in a position to be the connector is worth more than you put into it, I promise.
Speaker 2:So how did you get started doing that?
Speaker 1:I was invited to go to a network connection event by one of my clients. Actually, I had a brand design client who was in Houston, texas, which happens to be where NIA got started and she flew me out there. She was preparing for a major rebrand, big deal. So we went out there for a few days and she invited me to her NIA meeting and I said, sure, you know, I had no expectations, had never heard of it before, and I went and, long story short, after that weekend I came home and I bought a franchise because because I was so experienced in going to chamber events and Women Connect and local stuff and Rotary and B&I, all these things I'd done all those before. I had all these things. I had done all those before this one hit different.
Speaker 1:You could tell that the aim of the organization was really to help people grow their businesses. It wasn't to create a breadth of how many business cards you have, how many referrals did you send last month. It was really about forming a cohort of people in your community that work together, that help each other, that sometimes wind up going into business together, but at the very least you become the go-to subject matter expert person to see in your industry and it's not really cheating. I guess it's kind of cheating, you think about it, but, like hosting your own events puts you in that position. You get to you know, cut the line and be the one that everybody knows is the, you know, the authority on putting these events together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you own the platform rather than having someone else take ownership of that. There's so much power, right?
Speaker 1:right, right, right right. That's a good way to put it. It's real estate that you own.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly so you were able to do that through a franchise. How would Joe Schmo be hosting their own?
Speaker 1:Good question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. That's a great question. So one thing to think about is what's the goal? Again, if you're attending, you want to have a goal in mind. If you're hosting an event, you want to have a goal in mind. So, like with any marketing, is the goal brand awareness? Is the goal to find new clients? Is the goal to find new clients? Is the goal to find referral partners? So, based on whatever your goal is, let's say your goal is to build out a network of referral partners. So, and let's say you work in a, you know, in an industry where you often are referring. Let's say you're a real estate agent, because that's just low hanging fruit an example.
Speaker 1:So if you're a realtor, who are some folks in your you know, in your zone that are going to be good referral partners? They might be mortgage brokers or home inspectors or general contractors. So what I would do would be to reach out to some of those people and say, hey, I'm, you know, I'm going to go to this bar on Main Street and I'm going to, you know, host an event there. Who do you know in your industry that's looking for, you know, more clients, looking for referrals, and sort of make branch out from you know. They say like, do what you know.
Speaker 1:You sort of branch out from a place of these are the folks that I need to meet, these are the folks that I can help and that I think there'd be some good reciprocity and start from there and maybe you can get someone to co-sponsor it with you. So maybe it's like the real estate agent and a you know a closing attorney host an event together and then you know, marketing is easy on Eventbrite and linkedin and all those sorts of things. But if I were to start it, I mean you don't have to be a part of an organization just to host a networking event. You can do that anytime you want. I think smart people make it a part of their regular marketing schedule, whether they're hosting or attending. I think the people who are doing really, really well, even in quote unquote tough times people who don't experience those tough times are the ones that are consistently hitting the pavement.
Speaker 2:Amen. Yeah, it makes all the difference in the world the relationships that you've built along the way and maintaining those relationships. So you're saying just get started doing something like you would if you were hosting friends. You get a table at a restaurant and you have someone else in your industry to invite people. You invite people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'll tell you what we do with NIA. I mean this is so at network in action event, yeah, meetings and open events too. I, as the franchise owner, I always buy everybody's first drink. So I buy your first glass of wine, your first beer, and I always provide appetizers for the room. And what I like to do is I go to you know, we also do it sort of in this twilight time sort of between business and after hours, so it's like 3.30 to 5, 4 to 5.30, that sort of time, which is really nice if you have young kids and you don't want to be out networking every evening after work.
Speaker 1:So I go to the place, I go to a restaurant that I think would be a great spot for it. I walk in when I want to host it. So I walk into a restaurant. If a restaurant's open at 3.30, they're dead at 3.30, right. So I say yeah. So I say what would it be like if I brought 20 to 25 professionals in here, bought everybody a drink and bought some apps for the room? Would that be okay? You know, looking around like could you know, this time of day when you're pretty dead, would that be all right? And I mean, I've never. I've never paid a room fee, because if you can do it at a time where the business is already slow, or even if you can't do it during the, during the workday, you know, most people are more than happy to get a guaranteed you know ticket of however many drinks that comes out to, and you can always find places that'll let you do it for no cost.
Speaker 2:Let's take a quick pause because I want to talk about one of my sponsors, leadfeeder. Hey there, fellow entrepreneurs and B2B marketers. Before we dive back into the conversation, let me introduce you to a game changer in the lead generation arena Leadfeeder. Now, we all know the struggle of identifying those elusive website visitors and turning them into valuable leads. But what if I told you there's a tool that not only promises but delivers on supercharging your lead generation and sales efforts? Enter Leadfeeder. Imagine having the power to identify companies visiting your website, track their behavior in real time and seamlessly integrate it all with your CRM.
Speaker 2:Leadfeeder is not just a tool. It's your secret weapon for efficient and targeted lead engagement. What sets Leadfeeder apart? It's the ability to provide detailed insights into visitor behavior, helping your sales team prioritize efforts and close deals faster. With customizable notifications, lead scoring and GDPR compliance, leadfeeder is changing the game. Ready to revolutionize your approach to leads and deals? Head over to leadfeedercom for your free demo today. That's L-E-A-D-F-E-E-D-E-Rcom. Don't miss out on the future of successful lead generation with Leadfeeder. So how has hosting networking events impacted your business?
Speaker 1:It's so funny. It hasn't been as directly, so I've been told by some of my members that I don't remind them that I'm a designer often enough.
Speaker 1:Actually no, because when I'm like, you mentioned that when we were talking so I've gotten that feedback like tell, remember to tell people that you what you do. So because I can get into the mode of hostess right, I'm getting into the mode of making sure everybody else is getting what they need and making connections. So I haven't gotten as many direct referrals. But what's happened is I've started to become seen as a go-to subject matter expert in the community and I recently got asked to do a speaking engagement where I was speaking about branding. Someone in the audience at that engagement wanted me to come and speak to her team. So it's interesting that it's leading like through a side door to these other opportunities. And you know they say if you want to get more speaking gigs, do speaking gigs yeah, building your authority, essentially, yeah, you're building the authority and when you invite these people, that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:I would kind of circling back to the cattle call and how that doesn't serve most people. All of our meetings have a structure and this is something that anybody can do. So, whether it's a simple, you have everybody play a game. Speed networking is a really great structured activity. So you've got, you know, just like speed dating, you sit people down, you've got teams of A and B. The A's stay put and the B's move from seat to seat to seat, and so you get a little mini one-on-one session with about 10 different people. You know, facilitating it that way.
Speaker 1:Or I've seen people this is not an NIA one, but I've seen this done before where they do the human bingo, where you have to go around and find someone in the room who was born in January. They have to find somebody right who's never broken a bone or whatever it is, and so there's like icebreakers have a structured activity. And then the other thing that that allows you to do is at some point during the night you get to take the stage, take the microphone and say hey, you know, thank you guys, so much for coming. I really want to get to some good, you know, networking for you guys. I got this really cool activity before we get to that and then you can launch into anything you want. Really, you've got the attention. They're all there, you know, because you've organized it, so you get to use that platform to promote.
Speaker 2:I have a question so if you're hosting a networking event, can you intermingle that with education, like bringing in an expert guest, or so you can kind of do that twofold, where you are building relationships with potential referral partners while also networking for your business?
Speaker 1:I think that's a brilliant idea and that's actually something that I don't do enough of which is bringing somebody in, either a speaker or a coach, a business coach or something like that. That's an awesome idea. They're always going to be happy to have the gig right. Usually they'll do it for freer or very low cost for the exposure or you know, depending on what their situation is, and the people who attend get the benefit and they're like, oh my God, you got to go to Sarah's next thing. She always puts a great, she always puts a great event together.
Speaker 2:Yeah puts a great she always puts a great event together. Yeah, yeah. Now, one thing that you mentioned in our pre-call is that you have really out-of-the-box networking activities to get people a little bit more comfortable, so it's not so awkward. What kind of activities would you recommend other people do if they're hosting a networking event?
Speaker 1:That's a great, that's a great question. I'll tell you a couple things that really worked for me and a couple things that flopped.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I've had things that flopped hard and you know what it is. You just like, you just have to learn. Oh, my God, I'm cringing right now. I'll just remember you. So things that work.
Speaker 1:I did a network around the holidays a couple years ago. It was like November. We wanted to do something elevated. I was collaborating with a new event space and so we were kind of putting our heads together and thinking what's a cool way to have a networking event that also kind of shows off the event space, that also kind of shows off the event space. And the owner had mentioned to me that on his off hours he's a jazz musician, he loves to play jazz piano, and I said, got it Networking with live jazz. And so we were like, what would it be like? You know we're in this event space. We had, you know, a quartet sort of on a stage all the way at one end of the room and it was loosely structured. We wanted to let the music sort of take center stage and be this, you know, lovely backdrop, but then also something that people could go and stand and, you know, enjoy the music if they wanted to just listen and it just it was it made for great marketing like networking. Networking in the key of jazz, I think, is what we called it. So that was. That was one that worked well.
Speaker 1:Um, trying, oh, fun venues. So, um, there's a friend of mine who hosts a monthly meetup at the drive show. Do you guys have drive shacks? You know what this is? So think a bowling alley. But instead of bowling, bowling, you're golfing. So you rent a bay. Okay, it's really cool, we have similar ones, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure there are different brand names.
Speaker 1:The one near us is called DriveShack, and so you rent a bay and you can get, you know, your beer and your very average nachos. But the idea is that you're there and there's an activity and what that does is that takes the pressure off of you thinking, oh my God, I've got to go and I've just got to talk to all these people I don't know. If there's an activity, you can go watch the activity, you can participate in the activity, you can, you know, joke with somebody about how the person doing the activity is, so you know awful at it or great at it or whatever, and it gives. Having an activity that's not just networking sort of takes the pressure off, and that kind of leads to what I thought was going to be an awesome success, but was a total failure. But the 11 of us who were there still talk about it, which was I. Had this idea to do networking and karaoke.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, you mentioned that why tell me what I didn't know was a flop? Now I know you mentioned that People are telling me I didn't know it was a flop. Now I know it was a flop.
Speaker 1:But what was crazy was everyone I told about it was like oh my God, that sounds awesome, that sounds like so much fun, let's do that. Oh, definitely Come. And so there's. It's one thing if a networking event doesn't have very many people at it, I've had successful networking events where five people came, because if only a few people come, what that means is those who come just get this richer, more in-depth experience. And if you, you know, if you I mean, I had one of my, one of the best networking events ever, and I think it was like 15, no, it was over 20. It was over 20 people registered on Eventbrite or Facebook or however.
Speaker 1:I did it. And I think it was like 15. No, it was over 20. It was over 20 people registered on Eventbrite or Facebook or however. I did it, and then five people came. So what we did was we just got a table, I bought everybody drinks and apps and we just sat there and we talked about how everybody's business was doing and how we could each help each other, and it became this really cool mastermind thing, that's more intimate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I got to know those people and one of them wound up joining my, you know, nia group and that was awesome and you know. So now we've become close. But the so the karaoke thing, I had one of my, one of my NIA members, who by day does social media marketing for other companies, by night he's karaoke DJ, and so I hired him and we got the venue and we had like special drinks and we had the.
Speaker 1:This restaurant down the street, you know, brought in platters and it was so exciting and 11 people and like the first few people like came in the door early and are like right on time and I was like, hey, guys, let's get warmed up. And you know, the DJ did a couple songs to sort of, you know, get people going and then like no one else came out and so, you know, we wound up but we kind of turned it into a thing where everybody sang, even the people who swore they were not going to sing. So everybody got a chance to sing and it was kind of like we were all laughing together and sort of making, you know, making fun of ourselves and singing silly songs and I mean it wound up being a lot of fun, but it felt like a friend gathering, more than a networking event.
Speaker 2:A lot of fun, but it felt like a friend gathering more than a networking event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get what you mean, so like it was still enjoyable, but you guys didn't actually get to the networking part, yeah yeah, because most of the people who came already knew each other from one way or another and so as a networking event it was a flop. People joke about it all the time like you're gonna throw another. You know networking karaoke event and I might, I might do it again, but no, I. You know there's so much of the same out there that, just like any any sort of marketing, you know, if everybody's going right, go left, sort of idea what what's? How can you spice it up? You know know, maybe it's hosting an event at a cool venue. You know, axe throwing, knife throwing, stuff is really happening right now. That could be a fun networking thing, an activity to take the pressure off. I would think is a great way to start.
Speaker 2:So I know people are going to ask this question how do you get people to go? How do you get people to actually sign up for, discover and attend your events?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so the ways that I do it specifically and just. You know, when I bought the NIA franchise, I was the only owner in the state of North Carolina. There was nobody else doing that. It's not like we had name recognition. Nobody had heard of us before. So there are a couple of ways. I mean it's a long game. One is go to other people's events and talk it up. Game One is go to other people's events and talk it up.
Speaker 1:I've done this thing before where I would make a QR code for my upcoming event and I would make it my screensaver on my phone. So when I'm at the networking event, I'm like, oh my gosh, you should totally come to my thing next week. Scan it right then and there Take it right to the Eventbrite. Make it really easy for people. Rights to the Eventbrite make it really easy for people. I usually do Eventbrite. I don't think of Eventbrite as a partner in terms of. I don't think that they help me get visibility. You can pay for that, but I never do. I just use it as a place to hold the information and to keep track of my orders and RSVPs and then just put it everywhere you show up. So for me that's LinkedIn, I would email. If you've got a list of folks in your business contacts, email to all of them. Hey, I'd love to see you at this event, maybe if anybody else from your company wants to come share this with them. It's a lot of just hands-on, person-to-person word-of-mouth work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's like anything. There is no easy way to do it. That's basically how you learn podcasting too, is you guest on other people's podcasts? Or, in podcasting too, is you guest on other people's podcasts and you, you know, invite the audience to listen to your podcast after they've had a taste. Is that what happened with yours? Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I mean, there's no other way to build an audience but to borrow other people's audience. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Right now and if you know one other sort of cheat or shortcut if there is one is if you know somebody who's already a monster connector, like if you know the person who's always at every single event, or they've got, you know, 5,000 followers on LinkedIn. Maybe trade services with them or see if you can make it worth their time to help promote the event. Maybe you can co-promote something together. Maybe let them be a speaker at your thing and then they can help share the word with their platform.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point. That's like partnership marketing Anytime you're partnering with someone, even if, like, they aren't part of the event, but they're willing to promote it in exchange for you promoting something of theirs. Right, get that visibility, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I know those people. It's so funny Like I don't as much as I do this, I don't think of myself as that person, but I know who those people are in my network right, clearly that person.
Speaker 2:You just don't realize it.
Speaker 1:It's possible that I am and it hasn't sunk in yet, but I think of like, oh, if I really want to get the word out, who should I talk to? And I bet, if you think through who's in your personal network, you've got those people too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I like someone popped into my head immediately when you said that Okay, before we move on to the topic two, which, for listeners, that's in a whole other episode, so don't get excited. Is there anything else you want to touch on on why you should host your own networking events?
Speaker 1:We kind of covered it. But just to drive home the point that there really isn't a magic bullet with marketing Everything that's going to work it's just like weight loss right. The things that are going to be sustainable, that are going to work over time, are slow and steady. It's not a quick fix. It takes that. You know. Nobody wants, nobody likes to hear it, myself included. It's a long game, it's a ground game. It's one, it's one-on-one conversations and the more of those you have with people, the more the more of those. The more of those individual conversations you have there is, the more of those individual conversations you have. There is a cumulative effect of it and sometimes you get incredible deals right out of the gate. Sometimes people want to hire you, sometimes you get big deals out of it, or also a referral partner, and that's great. But usually it's slow and steady, wins the race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a snowball effect when it comes to authority, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, yep, all right, so where do you spend time online so everyone knows where to follow you? Yeah, so the only social media platform. I'm putting my eggs in the basket of this year, kind of like what you were talking about in a recent episode. I'm doing LinkedIn. If you happen to be in the triangle area of Chapel Hill, come and hang out at an event.
Speaker 2:Don't worry about. Don't worry about if your event has five people come or 20 people come. It's more about building those connections and you'll get that snowball effect, and partnerships are key in the beginning to be able to get the most visibility to your event. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you really enjoyed this conversation with Amy and you have some plans going forward to host your own networking event. It can have a huge impact on your business and let me know if you do. You can.
Speaker 2:If you're on Apple podcasts, then in your review, let me know if you ended up enacting any of the things that we talk about on this show. Or if you're on Spotify, just write and review, because I appreciate that and I appreciate you. I will see you next week and just a reminder this is a whole freaking series, so get excited to learn more about networking all month long, and we will be hosting a workshop this month as well. I'll put the info in the show notes, but if you want to join me, live and we're going to be talking about how to network not so awkwardly, how you can really do it with ease and comfort. So make sure you hit me up and join me and chat with me. All right, see you next time.