 Is there somebody you know who you find is always helpful to you? You enjoy who they are Well, if that person were to ask for your help on something wouldn't you readily come to their aid if they Were seeking to build their business and they had they they needed more clients Would you look around to see if you know somebody who could use their services? probably yes because that person has Connected with you in heart You enjoy who they are they enjoy who you are they've been helpful to you and of course you want to find opportunities to be helpful to them as well So this this this is seems to be This is kind of this kind of heart connection and these friendships seems you know, it's it's becoming more and more rare, unfortunately I think especially in the age of only being people You know connecting with each other online, etc. But why can't we take that same kind of friendship? Online as well Okay, and that's kind of the message I have for you today I want to encourage you to do is to think about building your network of kindred spirits Even if you don't live next to each other and you can't see them a lot But if you can connect in this, you know using social media and create a network of kindred spirits Then when you need business when you need some help You'll be able to reach out and the reciprocity is natural so of Right now if you look at your social media your Facebook friends your LinkedIn contacts the people who follow you on wherever other social media you use Instagram You know, maybe use Twitter or Pinterest or whatever There are already There's probably hundreds of people by the way, right in your social media network and Out of those hundreds of people there are probably at least a few people Who you would love to be in that kind of friendship with? Where you know, you enjoy their company. I mean at least online you can you enjoy the kinds of things they kind of They they share online they seem to be open to you and and seem to enjoy who you are as well and You are relevant to each other professionally in some way like that, you know, they might be a referral source for you They might be a potential client. They might Know others who are potential clients or referral sources and similar to you like you might be a potential client of theirs Or might know others who could be potential clients. So you're relevant You're related professionally not that you're competitors or whatever, but that you you could help each other professionally as well besides enjoying each other's personal Characteristics, right? So there are probably at least a few people in your in your existing social media network who are like that Now the question is are you keeping in touch with them regularly? When it comes to social media, it's easy to get distracted and just Be paying attention to whatever Facebook serves us, right? Well Facebook is doing their best with their algorithm, right to try to Show you postings of the people that they think you you like and like you back, right? But it's not always it's often not accurate I find so So my encouragement to you today is to have a thoughtful mindful look at your Facebook list of friends When was the last time you did that you go to your Facebook profile? You click on friends and you start looking down the list of friends or again linked in contact same thing When was the last time you look at your LinkedIn connections, right? Probably not for a while. So have a mindful look at your list of Facebook friends your LinkedIn contacts Even the people you email with like look go to your email inbox and click on the sent folder You know the people you sent emails to Right look at these places and online groups you're in offline groups You're in but look at the places where you connect with your network and ask yourself to start writing down the names of the people that you just Feel personally Connected with or you wish you were personally connected with you like who they are they seem open to who you are and they might Like who you are and you're connected professionally. So again three three characteristics You like them They seem to like you and you are relevant to each other professionally. Okay, write these names down All right, and then make a plan to keep in touch with these people Not because you need something from them But because you care about them and this is the radical idea. This is why networking Doesn't work for most of us who are heart-based entrepreneurs is that networking most of the time is really really fake Right you hear from somebody that you haven't heard from in a long time and you get the sense that they want something from you It's awkward and it's forced. It's fake and nobody likes it Not the person reaching out. They don't like it and you don't like it either, right? But when you have a real friendship and I'm when I say friendship I don't mean that you know, you're you're talking every weekend or whatever I'm just saying that you you do keep up with each other every now and then you do try to help each other as much as possible Then when you need help when you need referrals when you need ideas for your business It gets it becomes natural to reach out to that person. I hope it is if it's not natural Maybe you're a helper and you just help everybody and you never ask for help and that's that's something that is A practice that you need to develop is reaching out to the people who whom you've been helping And let them know that you need that help not that you're expecting that they must help you because you've helped them But at least give them the opportunity to help you because friends like helping friends and I think if some people who are always helpful to me I would love the opportunity to help them. Of course I would You know So same thing. There are some people who would love the opportunity to help you, but you're not reaching out for help So how can they help you right? So that's it's very simple So look at the places look at your Facebook friends list LinkedIn contacts, etc the list of people that are in your network who Has do you feel mutual connection with and is relevant to to you professionally and you to them and Are you I have you made a plan to keep in touch with them regularly? So Simple plan right I use something I called social media caring up with the link in the comments later of how I do it But basically on Facebook you can use a friend list You can create what's called friend lists a list of clients a list of whatever it's called friend lists They don't know they're part of the list, but you can then look at your newsfeed only with the postings from those people You could select which you know which newsfeed you want Oh, I only want the newsfeed from these five people then you're only seeing the postings from them So that's a very simple plan where you're surfing Facebook anyway You might as well look at your friend lists postings their postings instead of just random postings from what Facebook wants to serve you The other thing of course is you know once a month you look at this list of people and Say whom have I not whom haven't I reached out to you recently just to see how they're doing Maybe you go to their Facebook profile you go to wherever they're active on social media see what they're up to just say hello and say Hey, I really liked it when you post about that If there's anything, you know, what what what are you up to and you know share what you're up to So just kind of keeping in touch. You don't have to keep in touch once a month But even if you do that Thoughtfully once every three months you're doing a better job of keeping in touch with that person than most people in their network I promise you right so that's all if we if we all Were mindful about who those kindred spirits are in our network and we kept in touch with each other on a thoughtful Basis and a truly caring basis not because of networking, but because we truly care Then everybody would have enough connections. I believe and everybody would have enough business, right? So that's that's all that's all I want to say I Encourage you to go take these steps and any comments or questions. Let me know below. Take care