Now more than ever, “networking” is almost universally agreed to be one of the most important ingredients for a successful business. Not only do you need to network with your target audience to sell your product or service, but you need to network with peers within and outside your industry to ensure you’re up to date on the latest developments and insights.

Building the strongest relationships possible is an important skill that every modern business owner needs to have – but in a way that suits your personality, your business, and how you best relate to other people.

Our guest on this episode is an expert on relationship building and the many different ways people express themselves in networking situations.

Michael Roderick is the founder of Small Pond Enterprises, where he helps thought leaders and entrepreneurs create referable brands. We’ll dig into referable brands in the episode, but the short version is: it’s crucial to have a brand that’s accessible, influential and memorable.

Michael is incredibly generous with his knowledge – you can tell he’s fascinated by human behaviour and what it takes to build a brand that’s engaging, valuable, and sustainable. We kick things off by talking about how he built his business around his expertise in networking. He describes his networking framework and how to implement it so that you and you peers are giving each other the best support possible. And we also dive into his process for accessing anyone and how to make your core message and overall brand more referable.

Michael and I also discuss his content strategy and why it’s worked so well for him to be a daily presence in his audience’s inboxes. And he gives us some actionable steps for making your brand more referable right now. There’s a lot in this episode that you can implement right away, so be sure to listen in!

And, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out my Influencer Outreach Checklist. It’s got everything you need to start building meaningful relationships with the people in your industry that you’re most excited to meet.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• How Michael transitioned from high school English teacher to Broadway producer to networking specialist in a few years.
• The different roles people play while networking and how each can impact the referability of your business.
• How to curate your network so you get the most helpful feedback, supportive contacts, and peers that you can help, too.
• Whether or not you should be vulnerable in your public marketing and relationships with other entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
• How to access people at a higher level in your industry and build relationships with them.
• What’s working right now in Michael’s business and how he keeps up a consistent conversation with his target audience.

What Mastery means to Michael:
Being in a place where you trust the work you've done and let things flow.

Turning point:
There's plenty of them, but there was one instance where I had banked on a big client and turned down other work only to have that client back out and had to start from zero.