 Okay, so if you watched my previous video, 10 confidence tips for artists, which I will link up here and of course below this video as well, then you might be ready for a bit of a challenge and I really hope you are. Today I'm talking about getting out there face to face and building your network the kind of old fashioned way if you like. Yes, I am talking about business networking. Now before you switch off, I want to let you know that I actually think this is one of the most fundamental powerful marketing strategies that you can use to build your art business today. It's been a little bit forgotten and it's something that a lot of people don't talk about, but it's what I use to build my business back in the day and I am definitely going back in to do exactly the same now. I often hear things like, oh, I went networking once, it didn't work. All right, I'm going to explain in this video why that sentence is so wrong and what you should be doing instead and the one key thing you need to be focusing on in order to be highly successful with networking. Well, hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel. My name is Sophie and I help artists just like you to build successful profitable businesses doing what you love. Now if you'd like to learn more tips and tricks to how to build that successful business, then you're in the right place. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and of course hit that bell to get notified every time I post a new video. Okay, let's talk about business networking. It is one of my very favorite subjects and of course, while everyone's been in lockdown, it's been impossible to do face-to-face events and a lot of people have been doing sort of similar things online. So group Zoom calls and, you know, all those sort of online meetups. But I want to stress that it's not quite the same as actually going into a room full of people, shaking someone's hand, saying hello and having a conversation. Networking is a way to build relationships and ultimately friendships over time. We know that business is all about people, right? When we think about building a business, it's people related. Everything about it is people. It's people who are going to come into your shop. It's people who are going to come into the gallery. It's people who are shopping online. People who are going to subscribe to your email list. People who are going to buy your products and services. People who want to stay in touch. People who are going to have questions. It's a people business. Everything we do is about people. So why then do we often hide ourselves away behind a nice Instagram carousel, post that up and then wonder why, you know, our network or our business isn't really building? So your goal here and your focus here is to meet people, create relationships, build friendships and of course to go on to create win-win situations. Now the caveat here, it's not going to happen overnight. All right. You're not going to go to one event, shake somebody's hand and they're going to buy something from you. That's not at all what it's about. So when I mentioned at the beginning that phrase, it didn't work for me. Well, number one is it's not an overnight strategy. You're not going to go to one business networking event and make a huge sale and suddenly build the business. It's about building relationships. So that's what I want you to hold on to when I give you these tips. So before we dive into that, we need to work out, well, how are you going to find events to go to? What sort of networking events should you go to? Should you go to the free events or should you join something that's more paid? So of course, there are lots of different types of networking events. Some will be nice local groups that are free to attend and others will be more of a kind of club or a membership situation. I'm going to recommend a mixture of both. So assuming that you have a bit of a marketing budget, once you find a group that you think is really going to work for you, I suggest in actually investing in a couple of memberships. It's definitely what I did and it made all the difference. The people that are going to invest in themselves and their business to be part of a membership are far more invested in their time. And they're going to find out more about you and they're going to work out ways they can help you and you are going to do vice versa. Free events, people often kind of it's a toe in the water. They dip in and out, they go, they're not quite as committed. So for sure, mixing the two things up is a great way to go. How are you going to find networking events in your area? I would suggest Google them, have a good look, maybe look on Eventbrite or Meetup. And here's the thing, you just need to find one event to go to, go to that event and then when you're there and talking, you can say to people, what other events would you recommend? And that way, quite quickly, you can build up a list of networking events in your area. OK, so now you've found an event that you want to go to. You're going to register that for that event before you turn up. There's just a few things to think about. So here are my kind of 10 tips of what to consider when you go business networking. So number one, have a kind of goal in mind of how many people you want to talk to. Now, initially, on your very first event, your goal might be just to get there and start to feel good about chatting to people. But after you've been a few times, you really want to go with an intention. So you might say, my intention is to meet three people and really connect with them today. So knowing that you can go and when you walk into the room, you can start looking for people that you naturally are drawn to and that you think you might want to meet and have a conversation with. So the next tip is think about being the host rather than a guest. Now, this one I learned from an event that I used to attend here in Brighton in the UK, where I'm filming this video today. And I used to go regularly to an event. I think it was called First Friday. Used to be on the first Friday of the month and there was a gentleman there and he would be on the door every time I turned up. And so he would meet everybody who arrived. I assumed he was running the event, but sometime later I discovered he wasn't running the event at all. He had nothing to do with it. His strategy was to be on the door, meeting and greeting and connecting with everybody that came through the door. So I really like this. And I thought that's something to think about, not that you necessarily have to do that. But if you think about being the host rather than the guest, you're going to make sure that you're going to go and say hello and make eye contact with as many people as possible. My next tip is about asking questions. All right, the last thing you want to do is hello. My name is and then verbal vomit onto the person because that's not what they're there for, right? You want to lead with questions. It could be that the other person is just as nervous as you might be about being at their event. Perhaps it's their first event as well. So you could say, OK, where have you come from? And that gives a great opener. OK, I've actually come just around the corner or I've traveled an hour to get here. You know, what do you do for a living? Where else do you go? What other events? What other events do you go to? All right, so you want to be thinking about those W questions. They will open up the conversation and get the other person chatting. They'll feel a bit more relaxed. You'll feel a little bit more relaxed because ultimately you want to do 80% listening to 20% speaking. OK, so that leads nicely into the next tip. Be genuinely interested in the other person. Now, we've all been to events where we connect. Somebody comes marching over and you just not feeling a connection. You're thinking, OK, why am I really meeting that person? So instead of just watching the clock ticking and thinking, OK, I can talk to this person for a couple of minutes and then somebody over there that looks good, connect with them, make eye contact, really be genuinely interested in them because you don't know who that person knows. All right, you might have decided, oh, no, this is a no go. I'm going to move strict past this person. I'm not remotely interested. But if you genuinely form an interest and you really listen and you ask the questions and you have a conversation further down the track, you might find that their brother owns a gallery that's really hard to get into that because you network together and because you formed a connection, they will pass you on as a warm lead. All right, so this is the way the networking game works. But if you go with the intention to say, oh, who do you know? What can I get out of the event? It's not about that. It's what can you give and you want to think about connections, connect with that other person. So my next tip I find is really powerful. All right, you want to think about actually giving a referral or a lead or some help. So as you're talking to the person, remember, your goal is to have three conversations. For example, that might be, you know, there's hello, hello, hello. But you want to have three longer conversations with people that was your goal. So that's three bits of help. So as you're talking to the person and they say, oh, you know, this, this and this. And you said, you know what, actually, my friend does that. I could absolutely recommend them or I use a tool online for that very same thing. Anywhere where you can give help because that person is going to remember you. You are the person that gave them a lead, that gave them a phone number, that gave them a contact. It doesn't matter where it goes. You want to be thinking about giving. You want to give the help first because, you know, down the track, it's going to be reciprocated, right? That's the way it works. OK, my next tip is super important. It's probably the most important thing. It's a fundamental part of business networking. And you need to have something like a 10, 20, 30 or even a 60 second little introduction about who you are and what you offer and to whom. So otherwise known as an elevator pitch. See, business networking events can vary. You might go to one where you mix and mingle and all you're going to do is speak to one person at a time. Or you might go to an event where it's more of a sit down breakfast or dinner. And at some point you have the opportunity to stand up and introduce yourself to the room. This is a powerful moment. If you get that opportunity, everybody on the room is focused on what you do. Now, I have further tips on that and I will make another video on that. But for now, let's just think about it. You know what my powerful introduction is because you heard it at the beginning of this video. Hello, my name is Sophie and I help artists just like you to build a stable, successful business doing what you love. All right, that's really easy. So if I say that to somebody in a networking event, their brain can immediately go, oh, I've got a friend who's an artist. Actually, they could probably really do with your help. Whereas if all I say, hello, my name is Sophie and I'm an artist or I'm an art business coach or I'm a business coach, it's a conversation stopper. All right, so we need to have that little introduction what you do and for whom. So your audience, what I do is help you grow a profitable business and I'm doing that for artists. So you've got to work out what it is you do. So you might be an abstract painter and you specialize in working with corporates. So you might say, hello, my name is Sophie. I'm an abstract painter and I create large canvases for corporate spaces, for example. The person you're talking to might say, wow, actually, my business has a really large entrance office and could really do with some amazing art on the wall. Now, right there, you potentially get a lead to put your artwork into an office situation straight away. All right, you were not expecting that, right? That can happen. It might not happen and it won't happen at every event, but it definitely can happen. So you must work on that sort of captivating introduction. Your artist introduction that explains what you do and to whom. My next tip is to make sure to either exchange business cards with everyone that you've had a good conversation with. So you might have created a physical business card. Or these days, quite often, we sort of have an online thing. So you might just swap your contact details. And then you might say, hey, you know, where's your preferred platform? Oh, I hang out on LinkedIn. I hang out on Facebook. I hang out on Instagram. Or you might simply take that email and or their phone number. But it's a way for you to stay in touch and follow up with any conversation that you've had, right? My next tip is one of my favorites. And that is keep some notes about the person that you've spoken to. Because when you see them again, maybe in a week's time or a month's time, if it's a monthly networking event, you sometimes might be thinking, oh, goodness me, I know that person, I've met that person. What was it again? And you might have a reference in your bag and you go, oh, yes, I know, we were speaking about this. Or you might do a follow up email. You can say, hey, it was great to meet you at Sunso event today. You know, I hope your project XYZ goes really, really well. Look forward to seeing you at another event. Follow up is also really important, but you can only do it effectively if you remember what you were talking about. So make some notes wherever you've put their name and contact details. And that leads me absolutely to the next tip. Follow up on everybody you've met. All right, there's nothing worse than having a conversation, just leaving, going home and forgetting all about it. That will happen to you, by the way, you'll go to an event, you'll meet somebody and they won't follow up. So you want to be the better person, do the follow up. You know, ask them if they're going to another event. Can they recommend other networking events? Just keep the conversation going a little bit. Now, you might say, I haven't got time to do that. You'd need to make the time. This is about growing your business. And these are people that you've met. So you wouldn't make friends at a party and then never contact that friend again. This is pretty much the same thing. All right, carve out the time to go to the event and follow up afterwards. OK, all right. So my next tip is all about the bigger picture. You want to focus on friendships and relationships and not in your head. When can I mention that I've got an exhibition coming up and I'd love them to come? When can I mention that I've got a workshop that I need to fill? When can I mention that I need something? All right, this is not about selling what you have. This is about building your network. This is a medium to long term burn, but could underpin everything you're doing. Like I said, back in the day, I built my entire business from networking alone to a bit of PR thrown in, right? It's super important and you will meet other people at the event who don't understand that's how it works. They come over and they want to sell something to you immediately that you can make your excuses and move away and move to somebody else. Remember, it's about win, win experiences. All right, so sometimes you might even just need to demonstrate to that person that that's not the way to go about it. You listen to them, you honor them and you move on. So I hope you've enjoyed today's video. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty passionate about networking. I really love business networking and I hope that you're inspired to do it as well. Thank you so much for watching this video. Make sure to watch other videos in the marketing playlist that I've got those links below this video and I'll pop a link up here so you can watch more marketing videos, more ways for you to grow your art business. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you on the next one.