Episode 24: Faith-Based Business Networking

In this episode of Bella in Your Business, Bella offers up a recording of talk she gave to a faith-based business networking group in her area. In the talk she discusses approaching networking from a faith-based point of view. She says that successful networking results from: Listening Caring Taking time to build trust Influence Finding "family" in networking She offers some quick, but poignant tips: Better to get a card then leave a card Go to a lot of events. Arrive early and leave late Get around people that you like Ask someone out for coffee Don't be a "promoter" of your company Networking is always about "them" and not you. Don't be afraid to cast your net or you won't find those relationships Ask God to be your Holy business partner Shine your light! Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 24 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Hello, and thanks for listening to Bella in Your Business. A little while ago, I did a talk to my local church group. We used to have this really cool business networking group where a bunch of Christians from all around town would get together once a month and just share. We used to bring in guest speakers, have some lunch, have some roundtable discussions, and it was really uplifting. As many of you may know from my journeys, my faith is something that's pivotal in my life. It's something that helps ground me, and it's definitely that faith, which is you walk by faith, not by sight. Oftentimes, things in life are just so confusing. Things don't exactly make sense, or we might not have the exact answers for them. So I really feel like it's a big part of who I am, and I'm very open about it. If you're in my flock of birds, if you fly around with me on Facebook or maybe have some of my products or have done some sessions with me, chances are you probably already know this. But I decided to take this recording that I had and kind of put it out there. So I am putting it out in faith. If it for some reason rubs you the wrong way, or it’s some churchy or Bible verses that somehow offend you, I get it. No judgment here. Go ahead and skip to the next podcast. But if this is something that you find refreshing or even encouraging in your life, I definitely suggest that you take the moments to listen in on it. I'm about to talk about the connection between your business and your faith, and I hope you enjoy it. So here's a little piece of me to you. Networking—that's what we're all here for. How did we all hear about this? It's your first time. I'm just curious. The bulletin? Perfect. Yeah, I'm in the church. Okay, I've been playing the phone for a while. Definitely. Gentleman in the back? Facebook. Love it. Perfect. Well, networking comes in many forms. A lot of people think that it's just doing what we just did—standing up, saying our business name, shaking hands. Throughout this whole thing, I'm going to share a lot of my experiences in hopes that you'll kind of learn a little bit from it. I haven't always been this outgoing. I haven't always wanted to get in front of people. In fact, I'd rather talk to you at Airways Arena right now, where we're in this intimate group. I used to despise networking. I used to go to that many groups and think, oh, well, no one hired my business, so it was useless. I used to get scared. I used to be a wallflower. I didn't know what to say to people. I used to try to give all my business cards to as many people as I could. I thought it was a business card game. But soon I learned that that's not what it's about. A lot of you already know that, but I just kind of wanted to start off with how a lot of people think that's what it is. Raise your hand if you've ever kind of felt like that—scared to get up and say something or walking to a meeting where you don't know anybody. It's very intimidating. That fear right there, 2 Timothy tells us that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear. So right then and there, whenever you feel that, you automatically pass it down to the devil because it’s not from God. It’s the devil trying to get in between you and your company. On the tables, there’s actually an outline—it’s actually more for me to make sure I don’t go off on tangents—but you can follow along as well. So there are four steps that I broke through. I’m going to talk really fast and go through this really fast because we don’t have a ton of time. The first thing that you have to do in order to be a good networker and really connect with people is care. You’ve got to care about them—enough to start the process, enough to get out of bed or off the couch or out of the office to actually come. You’ve got to care about people. You’ve got to care about getting out and facing that fear. You can’t stay home alone or in your office—nothing’s going to happen. So you’ve got to care enough to get up. When I realized that I was going to networking meetings just to meet friends, the whole paradigm shifted for me. I know that one person is coming here today, and that’s my friend. And if that means that I’m sitting up against a wall as a wallflower, the room can work me, because I have no idea who my friend right now is. Just taking that first step to get out and care about it will get you a long way. Philippians 2:4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” That is like, if you have to sum up networking according to the Bible, in my eyes, it’s right there. Because networking is never about you—it’s always about somebody else. You’ve got to learn to get friends, to engage with other people, and then they’re going to care about you. Show that you care about others, and they’ll gravitate towards you. The second thing is to listen. You’ve got to listen to what someone else says. How are you going to know what needs they have, what they like or dislike, what they find good for their business? You’ve got to listen to people’s hearts. All of this goes in line with evangelism, too. You’ve got to know people. You’ve got to care about them. You’ve got to listen to them. Make people feel important. Simple things you can do in conversations—just use their name. They now know that they exist in your world, that you remembered who they are. Association games are great. I’m terrible with names. Talk about what interests them—it will take you far in building positive relationships. Another thing you can do while you’re listening is not only listen, but stop trying to solve people’s problems all the time. Sometimes people just want to be heard. A simple encouragement of “I understand what you’re saying” goes a long way. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification…that it may give grace to those who hear.” Encourage them—it goes a long, long way. Trust is earned over time. You all know I have a pet sitting company, so I’m going to give you a quick analogy here. Who has a rescue dog or knows someone who has a rescue dog? When you first got your dog, he didn’t automatically trust you, right? You had to build that up. You don’t just bring a dog home that’s been battered or sitting in a shelter and say, “Sit,” and they sit for you. You’ve got to build that trust. Relationships are just like that too. You’ve got to get people to trust you. It takes time to get that trust. Jeremiah 10:23 says, “I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We’re not able to plan our own course.” So what I mean by that is—trust that God’s going to guide you through that too. Not only will you just build trust with people, but trust that God’s going to speak through you, that He’s going to help shine your light. People want to see your light. So after they know you care, after you’re listening, after you’ve spent the time—now you can have influence. Matthew 5:16 says, “In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” I have two people in networking that I’ve known for three years. I call them Grandma and Grandpa. They’re not my real grandparents, but I see them all the time in networking events. We hug and we kiss each other on the cheek. They’re also Christian, and we’ve grown so close that that’s what we call each other. At their networking events, they introduce me as their granddaughter. Through networking and building those relationships, it kind of becomes like your shared family. The same thing with my “Uncle Dave” of networking. When I’m feeling down or unsure about growing my business, I call up Uncle Dave and we meet at Paradise Bakery. He gives me motivation. That all happens from building relationships. People come to me for that same thing too. I used to work at Starbucks across the street from Walmart. I worked drive-thru at four o’clock in the morning, and there were these two people I worked with—Candace and Josiah. They were always happy. I’d be mad, tired, and they’d still be happy. It made me mad that they were happy. I finally asked, “What is in you that makes you so happy?” They invited me to church. I came, I got saved. That was the short version—but they shined their light. They influenced me because we had a relationship. Networking is about casting your net and working it. It takes time. It’s not about walking up and giving cards. It’s better to get a card than to give a card. Why? Because if you’re only giving out your card—it’s all about you. When you go home, you can’t follow up. You have no net to work. So I never give out my card unless people ask for it.