We all make platitudes about – business being about reputation, it’s about who knows you and who you know – and yet how many people strategically ensure they are known by the right people?
In this Vlog, Grant discusses how today, online networks give you the opportunity to reach out and connect with people that, perhaps in the past, would have been unavailable
I was working in a recording studio, back when I was a teenager, with a well-known record producer. While we were chatting, he suddenly turned around to me – he said ‘Grant, you’re never gonna make it in music.”
I thought it was rather brutal and I said to him why? I was expecting him to tell me I wasn’t a good enough keyboard player or arranger or whatever it was, and instead, he said to me this; he said, ‘you don’t go to the right parties’.
It was actually one of the best business lessons I ever learnt.
In actual fact, most of the good work I ever got in the music industry did come from connections at parties and socialising with the right people. We all make platitudes about – business is about reputation, it’s about who knows you and who you know – and yet how many people strategically ensure they are known by the right people?
It seems to me that people are just not very strategic about the way they network. Let me give you an example: Have you ever written down the 30 or 50 most important people in the industry in which you work or the sectors with whom you work?
Once you’ve done that, have you made an effort to reach out to them? You could ask them to be interviewed. You could ask them to guest blog for you. You could just invite them for a coffee and a chat, but by being that strategic and that clinical, in a very short space of time, you can ensure that you are known by the movers and shakers that can make a big difference to your business.
Today, online networks give you the opportunity to reach out and connect with people that, perhaps in the past, would have been unavailable. Although you shouldn’t discount offline networking as well. Ultimately, I always say business is a contact sport. You have to get out there and meet people and shake hands and rub shoulders and connect with the right individuals. Otherwise, you’ll always limit your potential.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to network at my next party. [Back screen projection of 12 year old’s birthday cake] …I didn’t mean any party!
