 I'm Ray Mitchell, I founded 6-4 Web Design and Marketing made for you, and I am that angry-looking black guy up there. I am an angry guy until you actually get to know me, right? So, why this talk? It's a very practical thing, but I've learned to go to word camps, I really enjoy dealing with the WordPress community. Meet a lot of great people, and at the end of the conversation I go, well, can I have your business card? I don't have a business card. We in the WordPress community really don't do a good job of promoting ourselves, even among ourselves. A lot of times we don't do a good job of promoting ourselves, but the people could actually hire us and give us work and actual money that we could use to eat and get a beer bill and all that other good stuff, right? So, this talk is about that. Let's get comfortable with networking. I was not comfortable networking. I had a business before I started doing design-related stuff, and I did not have a high opinion of networking. Networking is really for people who like to schmooze and slackers who don't like to go to their jobs. You don't really do that unless you really have to, and I started this business. I had no clients, so I had to, right? So, I was fortunate to join Chamber of Commerce, and I met some people who said, hey, you should come to these networking events and go out, but I really did not see a lot of value in it. I just started this new business. I had this fancy new website that I built myself. I was tweaking it and stuff. I was doing some consulting work. I had training materials and all sorts of survey instruments, and this guy kept saying, Ray, you got to go out to the networking meetings. Ray, let's go to this leads group. Ray, we got to do this. Chris, I'm working. I got this stuff going. I'm working. Chris said to me, one simple thing that changed my perspective, Raymond, networking is the work. How many customers do you have today, Ray, while you're so busy working? No, don't have any. Networking is the work, because that's the way we go out and meet people. That's the way we tell people what our services are. That's the way we get customers. So, very quickly, I learned to like networking. It was good. I got customers, and you meet people, and you meet interesting people when you go outside of your office. Get outside of the cubicle and go out and interact. So, isn't networking just about exchanging business cards? Why do you need the network? It's good, because it allows you to talk about yourself. We just heard in the last presentation, you need to speak to your customers. One way of doing that is getting outward people large, speaking to the customers. In person, face to face, hand to hand, knee to knee, sometimes at the table, and really doing that. You can do that while you're networking. There are a lot of places and a lot of opportunities that go out, but networking needs to have a purpose, right? Someone smarter than me gave me these three objectives for networking. I think it's important. There's three things. You can build a relationship when you're networking. You can build your knowledge, or you can work to build your bank balance. All about going to networking meetings, right? If you think about WordPress and WordCamp, this is a great opportunity to knock all three up at the same time. We build relationships. There are people I see once a year, and when I see them at WordCamp again, we smile, and it's great. That's a relationship you've built. Definitely you have the ability to build your knowledge by coming to a networking event like this. If you meet the right partner, if you get that one right idea, you will build your bank balance. It's important to get out in network. In terms of networking, where do you go to network? It says where do you go to network, but very quickly I cut through it and put a stripe there. Where do you go to build relationships? Because the whole purpose is if you build a relationship and you have that relationship, somebody is going to refer you because of that relationship. Someone is going to do business with you because you seem like a person of great integrity, a fun person to be around. Because they have that relationship, they're willing to do business with you or give you business. So build a relationship. Don't focus on the networking. So you can go to networking events. You can go to the Chamber of Commerce because they're sure to have lead meetings. In the Uber, with the Uber driver, because you always get to talk with them about what they do when they're driving, and they learn a little bit about what you're doing. Conferences, like this one. Association meetings, in line with the supermarket. At your kid's soccer game. There's always something to talk to. You don't always have to talk about your business first, but you should talk to them. So part of that talk is to have a good elevator pitch. The elevator pitch for that 30 second commercial is the way that you talk about your business and the way to get somebody to know you pretty well. So I give a fancy little introduction, but really what I do is I'm very Mitchell and I help small businesses actually grow using online content. As opposed to saying I'm a web designer or I'm the webmaster. Because everybody knows what the webmaster is. Everybody knows what a web designer is. But people want to know how they can make their business grow. And that's the difference. You kind of want to leave them with that idea of getting to say, well, how do you do that? And that's where you get to begin to build that relationship. Because you're answering a question. You know a little bit more how you satisfy the needs of your customer. So first pro tip for the afternoon. The person who says, so what do you do? The person who says that first is the one that wins. Well, what do you mean? Well, if you say what do you do first, you hear what they need. What they're interested in. So if you've asked them and they had an opportunity to talk, they turn it around and ask what you do. And this is the time to couch or position your 30 second commercial to satisfy their need. To talk to them in a way how you solve their problem. You can actually tell your response to the things that they need most. Alright, I don't really like to talk. I don't know what to talk when I get with people. So I'll solve that problem for you. Ford them. Ford. Easy conversation starters. You don't have to use all of them at the same time. But these are a couple of things you can rely on in order to have a good conversation. You can ask them a question about their family. You can ask them about their occupation. So what do you do? You can ask them what they like to do for fun. You can ask them about their dreams. You know, I like to travel. What do you like to do? Their desires. What do you like? And that's one way to start a conversation. It's not necessarily a conversation for a conversation steak. It's about building a relationship. The second pro tip is assume that you're going to see them again. You don't have to get everything out of them in that interaction. You don't really have to focus on doing your sales page right then. Sometimes it's good enough to get the person's name and talk to them for a little bit. And assume that you're going to see them again. Because the worst thing that it's going to be is you're seen as that sales guy who just wants to press. They won't want to talk to you anymore. The other thing you don't want to do, we talked about Ford, don't burp. When you mean something for the first time, stay away from bad jokes. Don't talk about your uncomfortable childhood experiences, right? Don't get engaged in conversations about religion and politics. That brands you sometimes in an unfavorable way, right? And networking, you may think it's about you and your business and getting the things that you want, but it's really not about you. Like the song says, you probably think it's about you. It's not really about you. It's about what you can do for other people. Because if you're seen as being a problem solver, a helper, a solutions giver, people will like you and they'll remember that. And they'll want to return the favor. And that favor may be getting you some business. So it's good to be with people and help people first. And that will help you. Lastly, follow up is everything. Once you meet with somebody, make plans to contact and connect. Connect with them on LinkedIn. Say, hey, when we get back to town, I didn't know you were going to a word camp. But since you were right in the same city where I am, let's get together afterward. Build that relationship and continue to work on it. If you do these things, you'll find yourself very quickly getting comfortable with networking with other people and very comfortable in building relationships that serve your business. So I'll ask the question that I ask at every word camp. Do you have a business card? Thank you. Again, we have a couple of minutes for questions. So who's first? I can't see all of you at the same time. Right here in front. For me, it's looking like a tennis match. Who's going to be? I noticed that you said that a lot of times it's not the best for a sales person to push. And a lot of times when you're asking for sales advice, you get kind of the opposite advice where they say the impulse is the most important thing, get them to buy on impulse. So what do you have to say about that? Do you think that maybe in this field it's not as good? Or that the relationship is more important? Relationships are always important. You can press for sales, but it just depends on the environment. If the customer is looking for information, if they've approached you first, then they kind of know what you do. You're already good ways down the funnel if they're already approaching you and ready to have that kind of discussion. But in casual circumstances, a lot of people when you're meeting for the first time in a networking event, you're meeting them on the road or in a conference, they don't know who you are, they don't know your reliability, they don't know your product. It's going to be hard for you to sell and close a sale on that interaction. So better to build the ability to send them some more information or talk to them again or invite them out for coffee. Why don't you invite me into your shop and let me see what you do? That's a better way of building a relationship that will lead to a sale. Another question over here. Thank you very much. What do you recommend for handing out business cards? I don't love to carry business cards with me myself. I go as myself as a person like that. But sometimes you need to share some contact details. What do you recommend to hand out like a digital business card? Do you have something set up? I would say have a business card. It doesn't have to have everything you do, but it should have your phone number and email. Even if you trade under your own name, Ray Mitchell will have a business card, email and phone number. Because somebody's going to want to get in touch with you and they may not have a pen and they may be somebody who you really want to get in touch with. I heard somebody talking about the electronic ways that maybe Instagram use and things like that. You're not going to make a connection with my father and you're not going to make a connection with me trying to send me something electronic. But if you give me a piece of paper, I'll have it. If I wanted electronic, I can take my phone out and take a picture of it. But don't rely on that as the only means of being able to make a connection. Those cards will last for hundreds of years because they work. Okay, thank you. All right, we have time for our final question over here. Thanks, Ray. When I come to these, I get a stack of business cards at the end. Thankfully, what's the best thing to do with this big stack of cards that I have at the end besides connect with them on LinkedIn? If they're well designed, you can actually call. Hey, we met at WordCamp. I'm the guy with the red flannel shirt. We talked and you start the conversation in Fordham. Tell me a little bit more about your services. Tell me a way that we might be able to partner or I can help you. They may never call you back. They may not even be willing to take your call, but some will. And you'll build a relationship that way. Thank you. Thank you very much.