Stephanie Bonte-Lebair

If you want to use LinkedIn for networking - consider sharing who you want to connect with on LinkedIn that is a good referral partner - not just an ideal client. That way, your connections will see a win/win possibility - not a "I might be sold to" energy.

It's not enough to just share opportunities. You must share the RIGHT opportunity with the RIGHT person and have an end game in mind. Collaboration can look like cross promotion on social media, exchanging speaking engagement information, entering into an affiliate relationship, or creating something that didn't exist before you knew them! CREATE the opportunity you really want and then INVITE the right person to collaborate with you on it. We teach 5 Empowered Partner Strategies to help make this successful. 1. Cross Promotion 2. Speaking 3. Joint Venture 4. Affiliate 5. Creative Collaborative You don't have to wait for opportunity. You can create it yourself and then maximize your networking efforts.

Relationships in networking really means PARTNERSHIPS. Focus on a few really great collaborative partnerships and you'll never worry about an ROI from your networking efforts again. Follow these 5 steps to Build Empowered Partners. 1. Identify your E.P. 2. Hold a discovery call with your E.P. and choose a strategy 3. Make an agreement so it's reciprocal 4. Follow through 5. Follow up Build Empowered Partners for true networking success.

Yes - offer value first - AND - if you feel like you give more than you receive, have a strategy in place to turn that relationship into more. It's not enough to hope that karma will bring it back to you. Goodwill doesn't mean you can't carefully monetize relationships over time. Give more with ideal collaborators who have complimentary services and similar audiences to you - and then ASK for reciprocation to build the equitable relationship. So many people are afraid to ask and come across as salesy - and those same people often struggle with monetizing their networking efforts. Give to deposit into the relationship currency - and then be strategic with how you invite them into a reciprocal relationship.

If you meet "nice" people but it's not translating into more clients for your business, it's probably because you don't have a consistent relationship building strategy in place. It's not about attending as many meetings and having as many calls as possible. It's about being strategic with where you show up consistently. Engage regularly with your most important potential collaborators and partnerships. That is what produces results over time.

One of the biggest pain points for networking is feeling like you give more than you receive. This is usually due to (a) not choosing the right group of people who truly compliment your services and have a similar ideal audience to you and (b) not having a clear strategy. Reciprocity needs to be planned - not assumed. Finding the right group is about being intentional and choosing quality over quantity.