Tim Johnson’s SuperBlog

If you turned up at the park on a Sunday morning to play football you wouldn’t put yourself forward as a superstar striker when you’re a just rock solid defender.  Seems obvious, but why do so many people turn up at networking events pretending to be something they’re not? Possibly it’s fear; a self-imposed image of what a ‘successful’ business person should be; or an attempt to come across as expert at everything. 

 There’s no point in pretending to be something you are not. This is different from being prepared and putting your best foot forward, which are valid strategies.  Pretence just wastes so much time, effort and energy; perhaps more importantly it slowly erodes the soul.  It wastes time because it’s a flawed strategy, as sooner or later you’ll be found out. Things will start to unravel, all the work and effort up to that point will be wasted and your reputation will erode with it.

So what’s the answer?  Use networking to do away with the need for pretence by working with others who perhaps have the strengths and skills that you lack. Running even a micro business is more complex than most people realise. In good old corporate times you got a pre-packed chop from the fridge and put it under the grill; in other words there were other people doing all the stuff that allowed you to shine at what you did. Running your own business is a whole new ballgame. To get that lamb chop on the plate now requires finding a field with woolly creatures in it, stalking one, killing it, and preparing the meat before lighting your own fire to cook it. So don’t try to disguise your weaknesses or gaps; work with others who are good at some of those other things, allowing you to be good at what you do.  In this way, building a team through networking lets you scale your business on a low fixed overhead and develop a profitable partnership mentality. Then you don’t need to pretend to be every member of that football team, just play in the position you’re good at.

If you were to turn up at the park on a Sunday morning to play a game of football you wouldn’t volunteer yourself as a super star striker when in fact you’re a rock solid defender.  Seems obvious of course, but why do so many people turn up at networking events pretending to be something they are not?  (probably fear, a self imposed image of what ‘successful’ business person should be, or picking up perceived norms from more traditional networking events). 

There is no point pretending to be something that you are not (as opposed to being prepared and putting your best foot forward, which is an entirely different thing) because it just wastes so much time, effort and energy, and perhaps more importantly it slowly erodes the soul.  It wastes time because ultimately it’s a failed strategy, because sooner or later you’ll be ‘found out’ and things will start to unravel and all the direct work and effort  up to that point will be wasted, and your reputation will erode with it.

So what’s the answer?  Networking in many ways is about building teams, and teams work best when there is range of different skill sets and personalities.  Running even a small micro business is more complex than most people realise as to get a lamb chop on the plate requires finding a field with woolly creatures in it, stalking one, killing it, and preparing the meat before lighting your own fire to cook it – in good old corporate times you got the pre-packed chop from the fridge and put it under the grill – in other words there was an army of other people doing the ‘other’ stuff that allowed you to shine at what you did.  When you are running your own business it’s a whole new ball game.  Don’t try and improve your weaknesses or ‘gaps’, work with someone else whose good at those things so you can be good at what you do.  In this way it is possible to scale your business with a low fixed overhead with teamwork and profitable partnership mentality.

Proud Lupins

Whilst wandering around my garden the other day I noticed how the flowers are so different from each other, from the humble herb – chives, to vibrant poppies and proud lupins.  What strikes me is that there is no attempt by the flowers to try and copy each other; they all shine in their own glory.

Humble Chives

When it comes to networking this is not always the case, so often I see people trying to be something different to who they really are.  What a waste of time effort and energy for everyone.

Vibrant Poppies

Networking is about teamwork, working with people who have complimentary strengths to your own.  You wouldn’t offer yourself up as a star striker for a football team if you were in fact a solid defender, so why do people try and do this at Networking events?

We all know the days of the job for life are long gone, but what hasn’t gone is the notion that we are defined by our job.  Isn’t still normal that the two commonest questions when we first meet someone are: what’s your name, and what do you do?  (Yes there maybe some small talk in there too, and the questions may be a more subtle than that – but the overall premise is the same).  So, “Hi my name’s Charlie and I work for ‘super-bank’ in the city…”, becomes the norm.  Now Charlie keeps working with ‘super-bank’ does well and starts climbing the ladder, and then is flattered to be head hunted to join a team at ‘excel-bank’.  Excel-bank is more dynamic and is going places, the bonuses start to flow, and the “Hi I’m Charlie, I’m doing really well at Excel bank….”, train is alive and well.  Charlie revels in the status, security, perks, and support that Excel-bank provide. 

The credit crunch arrives and the fantastic deals don’t look so fantastic any more, and Charlie becomes just another statistic.  He out on a limb, all the other banks are in a similar place, so a switch to a competitor is not possible any more.  He’s ok though, he’s got a good settlement and a few thousand stashed away, he’s a smart guy and he’ll work something out.

The well earned rest, the holidays, and the catching up on all those odd jobs are all sorted.  Somehow reading another book doesn’t have the same appeal now that there’s ample time to do it.  It’s starts getting a little unnerving to see the expenditure outstrip the income month on month, even though the reserves will last some time yet.  His circle of trusted contacts at Excel and Super just seem to be too busy to take his calls, and meet for lunch, the ones that left at the same time are beginning to sound despondent so Charlie gives them a wide berth.

Charlie decides that self employment is the way forward, after all he’s seen so many people half as capable as him running their own business, and it was easy to spot improvements when he was in his bankers’ chair.  He set’s up a business, gets stationary, website, and a few adverts sorted.  It’s exciting times, it’s great to have the freedom to decide what to do and when, and dream about the future success that will be with him soon.  He contacts all his friends and colleagues, and after much coffee and plenty of lunches he starting to pick up a few bits of work,  and as he starts to get busier he spends less time on coffee and lunch and concentrates on delivering a spectacular service.  He’s confident that as he demonstrates how good his work is, more work will naturally follow.

The problem is that the contract was a one off project with nothing to follow up with, and as he’d let the coffees and lunches slide, there is not much else in the pipeline.  He’s had enough of aggressively waiting for the phone to ring from enquiries from the website and his adverts, so he gives networking a try, as he’s heard that it’s the new big thing.  So he goes along, armed with business cards and leaflets explaining how wonderful he is, and makes a concerted effort to try and sell himself to as many people as possible, after all isn’t that what networking’s about?  He recognises that the work doesn’t flow straight away so he attends lots of networking events, and carries on selling hard.

A few months on, and the results certainly don’t justify the effort. The work’s not coming in quick enough, the fun gone out of the business, it gets increasingly lonely and isolating pretending to be super successful whilst watching the bank balance slide.  Fortunately in one of the networks he attended regularly he let it slip that things were not going quite as well as he always claimed, and that actually he was finding it quite tough, that he was pissed off with networking, because it just seemed to be a talking shop where nothing really happened.

It was from following up from this conversation that Charlie stopped selling hard in the network, concentrated on building relationships (which was new for him because people just did things because of his position in corporate life), simplified his pitch so it was easier for people to fix up appointments for him, built a support team to outsource services to and to provide motivation and advice, whilst at the same time offering his help and support to others.  It started turning round, and whilst the whole rule book of self-employment was different, and the financial rewards always seemed a month or two away, he knew that he could never go back and be a wage slave again.

The 3 commonest networking myths that I come across are:  closed 2’s and open 3’s, 6 degrees of separation and the perfect elevator pitch.

There is the notion that the way to work a busy room full of people more effectively when networking is study the science of body language of the way groups of people stand and chat.  The idea being that if you understand the patterns of the way people stand you can work out how to join (and leave) different groups of people.  The problem I see with this is simple: there are 2 types of people, those that love entering a room full of people they don’t know, and those that don’t.  If you love it then you’ll little or no fear doing it, you will do it with confidence and will have no need to study the body language of groups.  If walking into a room of strangers fills you with fear and trepidation then having a whole load of extra ’science’ to worry about as well will only make things worse.  I know this from my own personal experience, and I’ve found the best solution for those of you who are naturally shy is just to do more of it – the more events you go to the easier it gets.  With repetition it progressively gets easier and easier.

With 6 degrees of separation the idea is that you are only 6 steps away from anyone else in the world through the existing people you know.  Putting aside that this came from an experiment in the US for delivering a package, there are 2 main problems with this as a networking tool, firstly are you likely to want to suddenly do business with someone who is a contact of a contact of contact…. etc?  Probably not!  And secondly with social media (Twitter etc…) it’s much easier to contact people direct so there is no need for the tortuous linking.  But if you are going to contact direct then you need to get your pitch right:-

Enter the perfect elevator pitch! Sure it’s important to get your message across clearly and succinctly making it clear what the benefits are for the other people involved, but often what I’ve seen is the perfect pithy elevator pitch only to find when you look behind the cover the book is an entirely different story.  And then the whole thing unravells and has cost a whole bunch of time and effort.

So the solution?  Be yourself, so your messages are consistently what you are about and the value you offer.

Many people are attracted to buy a franchised business because it offers a ‘business in a box’ solution, where the product, systems and branding have been worked out and all you have to do is to buy into the system and you’ve bought yourself secured employment through your own self employment.

Why is it that so many people seem to lose their shirt and become  very disillusioned ?

The reason lies in differences in perception between franchisee and franchisor.  The franchisors are keen to sell their franchises, obviously – it’s their business,  and are going to be putting their best foot forward and describe how their best people are doing, or what the best case scenario is.  The prospective franchisee is a willing candidate to lap this up as they want to think that they are making a good decision and want to hear that it’s all going to turn out alright.

The outcome typically means the franchisee raising tens of thousands of pounds for a few days training, a manual and logo.  They are then left to fend for themselves often in significant isolation to try and build a business that they know little about and trying to appear as an expert when trying to build a client base from scratch.  This is a painful experience and doesn’t match the original expectations.