004 Lessons Learned From Places You Are Not Supposed To Be + Professionalism In Your Networking
This episode delves deep into the realm of leveraging challenging situations for personal and professional growth. It emphasizes the importance of staying adaptable and resilient, qualities that are crucial for anyone looking to thrive in dynamic business environments. Through various anecdotes and personal experiences shared in the episode, listeners are encouraged to view every situation—no matter how challenging—as a learning opportunity. This mindset not only fosters personal growth but also enhances one’s ability to navigate the complexities of business management and development.
Furthermore, the discussion highlights the significance of effective networking and community involvement as pivotal elements for business expansion and personal development. It provides practical tips on how to extract valuable lessons from every encounter and use these experiences to fortify one’s business and personal competencies. The episode underscores the necessity of maintaining a positive and proactive attitude, even in the face of adversity, which can transform potential setbacks into valuable growth opportunities.
If you find yourself facing challenging situations or feeling stuck in your personal or professional life, remember that each experience holds valuable lessons. Embrace these opportunities to learn and grow. Join us in further discussions and engage with a community that supports and uplifts each other through shared experiences and collective wisdom. Reach out for more personalized guidance or join our next interactive session to enhance your coping strategies and resilience in business and life.
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0:00-5:00 - Introduction to the episode, acknowledgment to the traditional custodians of the land, and the importance of community involvement and support.
5:01-10:00 - Recap of the past week's events, including weather challenges and community engagement at the Geelong podcasters meet-up.
10:01-15:00 - Insights from recent events attended and the introduction of a new online course in entrepreneurship.
15:01-20:00 - Discussion on the importance of continuous learning and development in business.
20:01-25:00 - Strategies for managing business responsibilities and the significance of effective marketing.
25:01-30:00 - The challenges and rewards of balancing business growth with personal commitments.
30:01-35:00 - Exploring the potential of professional networking and its impact on business success.
35:01-40:00 - Deep dive into personal experiences at networking events and learning from every situation.
40:01-45:00 - Practical advice on handling adversity in professional settings and maintaining a positive outlook.
45:01-50:00 - Conclusion of the discussion with key takeaways on resilience and adaptability in business.
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Zoe G'day, everyone and welcome to this week's video, confidence, connect with your host. Zoe wood, the video confidence coach, want to welcome everyone to today's live stream. We've got a jam packed live stream ahead of you today with a bunch of podcasting recordings that I plan to do today, as I do with all my video confidence connects, I intend to have this hour as an opportunity to talk with people if they need some guidance or rid of my time but maybe can't afford it. That's what this live stream is about, being available to you guys as well as an opportunity to show up at the same time every week, to be there to answer your questions, and also take this opportunity to do some of my marketing activities for my business, to intend to help you guys with what you're working on. So today I'm going to start off with an acknowledgement to country, and then we'll get into the meat of today's live stream. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians and owners on the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to elders past and present, and I stand with traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in their fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
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And I thank everyone who is joining us today for the live stream of the weekly video, confidence, connect. And for those who are unable to watch us live and only watch us on the replay, that is okay, feel free to put your comments in the description, like your comments in the comment section another description, and I'll make sure my best do my best to answer them either in the actual comment section or answer them in a future live stream. So for myself, there's been a lot happening this past week. For those who are maybe watching this in the future, or maybe if you're around the Victorian area where I based myself, it was very wet and windy this week, like my hair is more crazier than usual, to be honest, because it's just been fried by the wind and the water and just so I say that with I hope everyone is keeping safe in this wild weather that we're having, and I hope everyone is able to keep warm during this time as well. And with everything that we've accomplished this week besides the weather, of course, last week, on Friday at from one to 3pm at Cafe, go in Geelong. We had the the monthly Geelong podcasters meet up. We met a few people, and that's awesome, and great to see. I had a couple people reach out afterwards, saying, Sorry, I couldn't make it, and that is okay. That is the point of having a monthly catch up, is that it's available for people who need it. And in the future, we may be looking at virtual events, but that's because this is an opportunity to be able to interact with the community in a face to face manner. So I worked with a couple of different people on podcasting ideas. We had a nice discussion, and, yeah, we had a really enjoyable time speaking of which, from the Geelong podcasters last this week, actually, the payment came through for that event, and we donated $90 to the wadawurrung Aboriginal Co Op. Is a local Co Op that I volunteered with about 10 years ago now, and I continue to donate funds to them, and they do a lot of great work for the wadawurrung community. So $90 and that's just from this event that's just passed. So we're doing really well, and we continue to grow our numbers when and donating to our charities. So if you are interested in coming to any of our future Geelong podcasters events, please feel free to just donate, even if, even if it's $5 that money does get sent to the charities. And I make sure that that gets sent to the charities, because I provide proof in following social media posts, the event and ticketing platforms just take a while to actually send their money through. But I. Things are going to take time. I've also spent this week following up participants from my last week event. On Monday, I held a event for the Geelong Small Business festival called podcast Power Hour. Been it's been great to get feedback from you guys and follow up and see how I can help and serve you in the realm of podcasting, because, of course, you signed up for a podcasting power hour event. You probably want help with podcasting, so it was nice to have an awesome chat with the people that I was able to get a hold of regarding podcasting, and hopefully the stuff that we talked about is giving you those next steps to be able to grow on your podcasting journey. I also attended an event this week with Entrepreneurial Operating Systems. I believe it's a worldwide, worldwide conglomerate company that helps leadership, training and alike, and that's probably what I'm going to be, probably, most definitely going to be getting into in the first of today's podcast that we will be recording. And I also started a new course, so an only online course with entrepreneurship. So I just finished my previous two a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm going in and again, yay, academia. I want to be able to learn more about running a business and helping out other people to do so, and to do so, I need to get online courses. I'm just not very good at the academia part. But I digress, we will continue to do what we can. So I hope that I'm serving you guys and things are working out for us, just making sure that all the live streams are kicking in. Because last time, it kicked out halfway through, and that was fun, I had a couple of people mention, like, Hey, your live stream cut short. I'm like, yep, unfortunately, that was going to happen, and it has happened here. So I'm going to get started on the podcast that we're recording today, some nice light podcasting topics. Talking about lessons learned from places you're not supposed to be is then a nice topic, a nice ring to it. And the other podcasting topic I have is professionalism in your networking. So these are two things, two stories that I've come across that one from the event that's happened this week, and one from a very interesting story that I came across last year that may be an interesting story to drag you on through these podcasts that I record are for the video, confidence coach cast my weekly podcast that is going to be released today. I just ran out of time, so after this live stream, I'm going to edit that and get that out to you guys on all of your podcasting methods or channels, as you like. I release them on Spotify and Apple podcasts, and then they get disseminated through there. And yeah, I'm still, honestly still working on the podcasting process, but that is okay. That is going to take time. And honestly, I've just spent the past couple of weeks working on client work, as opposed to working in my business, as opposed to on my business, and we're slowly, slowly changing that as we work through the month, work through the week, we are nearing the end of August, like tomorrow or today is the end of August. So yes, we'll get through this month together, because we've done we've gotten this far. So I'll leave you to it, and we will get going with our first podcast of the day. You
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lessons learned from places you're not supposed to be. Stay tuned for this episode of the video coach, video confidence coach cast where we're going to discuss how to get the best out of events or trainings that you are attending that may not be the right fit, and you find that out when you're actually in the event. So as you can probably imagine, today's story is going to so the story that I'm going to discuss is for an event that I attended this week, and I will give you a couple of pointers that I use for a couple of events that I go to. The first thing that I want to stretch out to for a lot of business owners is if you are taking the time to attend trainings to develop your knowledge, to complete and to consistently evolve your knowledge in the areas of. Business or in the areas of work that you do, I commend you. You are taking the time and energy to grow yourself and your business, and you are taking that time to do so. So I commend you for doing so I'm going to tell you that now, because there are so many business owners that I come across where and this is usually a default response of, I am too busy. I am too busy. I am too busy when, if they took the time to, you know, go into maybe an even a half hour training of, hey, here's how to organize your calendar so you actually have time to breathe and not burning yourself out. That would be a good investment of your time. You can then action that into your business, and you're no longer, oh, I'm always busy. I'm always busy. I'm always busy because you you're actually taking that time to regenerate and replenish yourself. And I'm not talking purely on people who provide services for their work. This is also people who provide products as well. I have a couple of clients who are artists and who sell, who do both products and services. So they, for example, they would sell their art and versions of their art. When I say versions, I'm talking, you know, prints as well as jewelry, as well as Canvas and other other aspects of their art on things. And then there's also services. So say, for example, they may provide workshops, or they might provide tutorials or online courses. You know those type of service, type of work, for example, like that is a very broad generalization there. But what I mean by bringing this up to you is that you can always be busy, sure, but when that comes the detriment of your own business and as your as your own self, it comes into the detriment of you and the way that you work, then that's not a great sign for you, and it's a bit of a stress that things are too overwhelming for you. So say, for example, you may be making the most money that you ever have in your life, but you're not following up your leads. You're not actually fulfilling the best. You're not giving the best that you can to serve the clients that you already have, and people are feeling cheapened by the experience, and they're not going to come back to you, and you're going to have to work even harder to get the new people, because word will get out, and then just a developing cycle. And all you can see by that. Now, of course, I am not a business coach. I am a marketing coach. Comes with the territory of video confidence coach. And I am saying this to you as one business owner to another, as opposed to someone who's recommending that you take on my coaching. Because there one thing that I do find very interesting when talking to business people or seasoned business people, is that they have a tendency of thinking that marketing is a separate side to your business, that you as the leader in your business, you as the founder of your business, don't need to think about marketing. Now I'm not just saying this because I am a marketing coach, but I'm going to say this now that marketing is a very fundamental part of your business. Any activity that you are doing that is promoting the work that you are doing to people outside of your direct contacts, as in, like your leads, is marketing. If you are attending networking events, you are marketing. If you are dropping in flyers you know in local neighborhoods that you work in, you are marketing. All of these activities fall under marketing because you are telling people what you do. You are providing the solution to their problem, your marketing, and, of course, other aspects of your business, like operations, finance, your staff, if you have any, are very all important pieces of the pie. But when it comes to focus and attention, marketing usually has a tendency of being put on a very, very low run when, for example, things get busy, and then you have a tendency of just dropping the focus from marketing, when, instead of it being a consistent machine that runs in, that runs in the background. Of course, this takes time to set up, but once that starts going in the background, you can regularly and consistently not have to worry about marketing yourself to a ridiculous degree because, oh no, I've run out of clients. I run out of money. Oh crap, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start losing money now. Okay, okay, I need to start marketing now. That is hopefully not what you're doing, but if it's if it's happening for you now, that is okay. That is fine. It's not something you want to see. It's not a feeling or situation you want to be in again regarding your business. So in that case, we're going to start changing that. And you can start changing that by going to training events, going to online courses, or even just online webinars from people that you may have met or maybe come across either in your LinkedIn feeds or anything like that. And I highly recommend, if you are part of any chambers or any councils or any unions that you check out what offers that they have in regards to training events, maybe even free because you are a member or other events that are either. Lower cost because of that membership situation. I know for a fact that with my local chamber, the Geelong Chamber of Commerce I attend, I want to say, realistically, they run. Say, out of every five events I'm attending at least two to three, mainly because I want to get my most out of my membership, but I also want to take this as an opportunity to low and to grow and develop my skills and also network at the same time. That's also another positive when going to these types of events be in person or virtual. And you can also use this opportunity to, you know, learn more things about your local community that you can then use to better market yourself make changes in your business to maybe provide a service to a not forgotten part of your target audience, but maybe less thought about part of your community, and they definitely need your services. Boom. Done. You found that out through attending a training course. So the story that I want to get through in today, and I'm probably dapped on a little bit too much already, haven't even got to the story yet. Sorry. Of today's podcast, I attended an Entrepreneurial Operating Systems event, which is a worldwide company, um, and they seem to run these regular events and also fireside chats with various people, important people throughout communities. And I attended event where the fireside chat was with Jeremy, the CEO of the chamber of that I attend. So I went to this event not knowing an entire not knowing a lot about EOS worldwide, or whatever. They're called Mr. Worldwide Pitbull. I attended it mainly in the headspace of, hey, there's a lot of people that are attending this event that I know that I want to connect with. I'm also in town where this event is taking place. I feel confident enough that I can go to this event and get something out of it. Let's attend. So I didn't even do that much research, to be honest, on EOS and the background. I just knew that it would be about leadership. And of course, when it comes to marketing and being an authority in a space, being an authority in the space, leadership comes intact. So I went anyway. And as I was sitting there, and I was networking with other people and some people that I already knew, and arguably most people in the room I already knew. So I made sure to beeline for the people that I didn't know and rekindle my connections with the people that I did know. When we sat down to speak, I was going through the booklet, and I was listening to the speaker, Chris, you did a great, great job. Hats off. It was very clear that this event was very much pitched at people who had minimum 20 staff or running very large companies, and this event was aimed at The leadership team of those companies.
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That is not me. So when that kind of, when that Penny kind of dropped for me, I thought, Oh, crap, I'm going to be here for an hour and a half and I'm not going to learn anything. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, like, I, you know, fought a windstorm to get here. Oh, I've networked, which is great, but, like, there's a networking like, you know, there's the 10 minutes of networking before an event and after event. 20, like, 20 minutes worth of networking is not going to be worth sitting down and having all these really big words being shoved at me. And even though I have never been in a leadership position of a very large company, I have been in leadership positions throughout my life, and it was nice to actually feel it was actually nice to sit through this presentation and have Chris actually break things down to a very reasonable level where the knowledge and stuff that even though there was a fair bit of rhetoric and fair bit of knowledge based stuff that I already knew, to be honest, it was nice a good reminder to be able to utilize that In my marketing, but also to utilize that in my own business operations. Because when I do work with my personal assistants, I need to be able to convey things to them so to have an idea of like, okay, what exactly do I expect of them to be able to write that down some really basic things like that. And this got me thing. This event got me thinking about how I seem to have me personally, I seem to have a very interesting knack of being able to get anything out of any event I attend. Because when I've spoken to other small business owners, their mentality is a little bit on the blinker side. When you know, when you have a horse and they have the blinkers, these things on their side of their eyes to be able to allow them to focus on what's in front of them. A lot of business owners when attending the event, or attending events or going to trainings, and if they don't immediately get what they sought when they came to the event, for if they don't immediately get what they want out of it, they immediately disregard the entire event. So. Or training, for example, and I'm going to tell you now that's a bit of a worry, because when people are standing at the front of these events or providing these virtual trainings, I'm going to tell you now that it takes a lot of balls, it takes a lot of chutzpah to be able to stand in front and present something to a group of people, especially a group of strangers. You may not know this and say, for example, they may have done the same presentation 50 times over, but every time they present something new, it is unique for them, and it takes a lot to be able to stand there in front and present something to you. So when you're there learning, giving them the courtesy of, you know, providing eye contact, writing down notes, or, you know, not just staring at your phone like typing notes. I know for a fact that I like to type notes on my phone because I consistently, I'm able to recall notes that I've typed in my phone better than I do when I type it down. And to do so. My apologies for those watching. My hair is giving up a little bit today. Back on track. Zoe providing that respect to the person who's presenting. And say, for example, you may not agree with everything that the presenter is saying. I know that I came across that a little bit this week, but that is also okay. You're allowed to have your opinions, but providing some respect, especially to an event that you have attended, that you have agreed to attend to, you know, you've signed the you know, you got to, bought a ticket to the event, or you signed up for a ticket for the event, you know, provide the courtesy of, you know, giving respect to the presenter. But as I was sitting in their event, and as I was mentioning and retort retorted, retorting to myself in my head about how I'm able to get something out of each event I attend, I was eagerly listening and watching the presentation as it unfolded, and being able to actively see something within the presentation, within the room, within the presenter, within The stance, within the stance, within the energy that's created in the room, and then write that down for my own events, for my own future events. And you may not be the type of person who's going to run workshops or who's going to run trainings of any kind, there's a good chance you will be, because once you get to a level of authority in your space, you want to be able to teach other people to do the same. But if that may not be the space where you're heading right now in your business, you may just be working on your service and your product. To be able to watch someone do their thing, to be able to present and learn from them, and even if it is to learn not what to do from them, write that down, review it later on, and action it in your own business is going to be way more impactful than just sitting there as if you're back in primary school at the back of the class, zonked out of your mind because you're absolutely bored. Hopefully, as a business owner, you are an adult, and you are there to learn, to grow, to adapt your business. And there's been plenty of times where I've attended events and it has not been what's on the tin. It hasn't been what was described to me or what was pitched to me. I attend the event, and it's like, Ah, great. I'm glad I wasted that time, but I then look at my notes and realize that I've taken the opportunity to do these, do these things. So say, for example, if you're attending event now, I want to stress the event that I attended this week with Entrepreneurial Operating Systems was a great event, like I learned a lot, and I'm even pitching that into my own business. I'm working with my peers at pas at the moment, like I'm already impacting a lot of these things that I learned from the event, even though it was very much pitched at companies with 20 people, I digress. So not saying this about the OS event, I'm saying this about events where you attend and say, for example, my rule of thumb is, if I'm halfway through an event and I haven't written a note, or I haven't written anything down, then that is a huge red flag. That is a no no. And if you're in a virtual event, or if you're in a or, say, for example, you're on Zoom, or you're on teams or something like that, and you have the option to leave if it gets to the halfway point and you haven't taken any notes, say goodbye, make an excuse if you feel like you need to and leave. That is, to be honest, that is what I do in my events or events that I attend. And say, for example, if you're attending one of my events, either a virtual workshop or an in person workshop, and if you're halfway through and you haven't gotten anything out of it, put your hand up. Let me know. Say, Zoe, I haven't gotten anything out of this. You know, answer the question about that. I do my best as a presenter to make sure that everyone walks away with at least one simple action to do next to help grow their marketing and their business. But it's also okay if that's not sitting with you, and if that's not working for you, that is okay. I would love for you to have the confidence and hopefully know me well enough through my marketing. Efforts to be able to say, hey, Zoe, I, you know, I'm not getting what I need out of this. Here is a question for you that I would like an answer to. And I would, you know, I'm going to respect you for asking that question, and I'm going to answer you because you took that time and that confidence to be able to reach out and say, Hey, I'm not getting what I need out of this answer this particular question. Because I know for a fact from running events, honestly, for the past, what are we up to now? I've been running events for at least 13 years, at this point, that if it's halfway through and no one and someone is not getting what they need out of it, then I've done I've done a disservice. I've done the wrong thing. And to be able to hear that and be able to see that and have knowledge from that is going to be more invaluable to everyone in the room, as well as myself as the presenter. I digress. So back on track. Zoe, I have my notes in front of me, and I continue to ignore them, because, of course we do. Zoe, but if you're in an event and say, for example, you can't leave because maybe you're in an in person event, and it would be rude for you to leave and or maybe you're there to maybe support someone, or maybe you're there to support a fellow business owner that you said, Yeah, I'll attend your event, or, you know, I'll attend your training, or you know you're there to support someone. Again, you don't want to leave. You don't want to be mean. So what can you do? Well, you can pivot your thinking and think about these, follow these following topics that may help you alleviate that sense of dread when attending an event. So what you can do is, instead of thinking about the topic of the event, so say, for example, it may be something that you're not completely interested in yourself, or it may be something that maybe they're talking about 101 and you're on like, 305 like, there's a bit of a disconnect on the knowledge that they're teaching that is okay. What you can do is look at the presence of the speaker, see how they move, see how they act, see how they talk. Is there anything that you can pick up of what they're doing that you can then implement into your own marketing, into your own trainings, into your own work that you're doing, how you present yourself at a networking event, how you present yourself in your day to day life, how you present yourself to clients and to potential customers. What can you take from them? That is from what you can see from other people in the room that is holding their attention. For example, you can also take notes from the presentation. Is there something about the presentation, the style, the colorings, the way that things are laid out, that is really holding someone else's attention in the room? Okay? Write that down. Write what notes if there's something useful on the presentation. So say, for example, I learnt from workshop. I
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want to say about 10 to 12 years ago, honestly, that I was watching a presentation which had these little color codes in the bottom right hand side of the presentation slides that determined, hey, we're going to go through these next five sections. These all have different colors. You'll be able to tell what section we're up to by the color that's on the bottom of the screen. And there's all circles to the bottom right hand side. And I took that note, wrote it down, and then action did in all my future presentations. So again, if you've ever attended an event by me, usually a online presentation, because in person, I usually like to do away with the presentation slides. If that is a possibility. Again, you can see those colors. I've made it my own. I've jigged with it over the past 10 years, over top, over the past 12 to 10 years, as you could probably imagine. But I use this on every presentation that I make, because it works. It keeps people engaged, and people don't need to ask, Oh, where are we up to? Zoe, I can, you know, I'm losing interest in whatever we're talking about. Okay, I can see that, you know, the color has changed at the bottom of the screen. We're immediately moving on to the next presentation, or the next stage of the presentation. Cool, awesome. I could hold on to this. Zoe, while you're also there, look at the room presence. Are you seeing a lot of people on their phones? Are you seeing a lot of people like actively looking at the speaker and engaging? How are they holding themselves? Are they like looking at the speaker and then looking off to the side? Are they, you know, sniggering in the back, was a little bit of that on Wednesday, which was interesting. You know, two fully grown men sniggering at the back, you know, Jinky, you know, elbowing each other, which is very interesting to see, to be honest. Again, what are, what can you get from the people in the room? And then, what about the room itself. If you're in an in person event, what can you see around the room that is making it more welcoming and inviting to have a presentation in is there something that you can install or something that you can do within your own in person shop or in person setup? Or, for example, maybe they have like these really. Be, you know, small like mints or something on the table. And you think, Oh, this would work really well for my, you know, consultations that I have at cafes. I'll make sure to, I'll write that down, actually review it later on, and action it to be able to incorporate that in how I talk to people. Because with the work that I do, some people get nervous and to be able to have something that they can chew on or they can focus on, will help them. For example, I don't know when you start opening your mind or start instead of closing it off or turning on those blinders and slowly, slowly, like focusing your vision to the point where you're bored, to be able to open up those shutters and be able to see okay, this presentation may not be for me. Okay. What can I learn from this? Write it down. What can I review later on, I honestly give myself 24 to 48 hours when reviewing notes to be able to look back and see okay. You know, I wrote maybe I wrote down a note thinking that, Oh, I should run weekly presentations. And Zoe, I don't think you have the energy for that. Let's scratch that idea off. Again. I review that like 24 to 48 hours later, that might be something that you might need to do as well. But again, what can you get from the room? And if worse comes to worse, and I'm going to highly doubt this, but if you are in Be it a virtual or in person presentation about a topic that you are semi interested in, and it is going horribly. What are they doing wrong? And what can you do better? Write that down. There has been a few presentations that I have been in, you know, over the past couple of years that have not gone well for the presenter or the speaker, and again, I do my best to be there, be present, be smiling, be supportive, but also write this stuff down like I write my notes down saying, Hey, don't put people into a box. Don't force people to do something when they're not comfortable to you know, one thing that I noticed from a presentation that I saw, I think it was last year, where it was clear that they were talking at level like three or four, when everyone in the room, except for me, because again, I was there to support, not exactly to learn, was at like, 102 maybe 103 at best. So I kept finding myself putting my hand up asking really basic questions, because I could see that everyone else in the room was very overwhelmed and confused. So whenever they started spouting jargon, I would put my hand up and say, what does that mean? Or like, I have no problem throwing myself under the bus about seeming stupid or looking dumb, because it's not dumb. I'm asking questions that everyone else in the room would say, would look at me and go and nod and immediately go, yes, I want to know the answer to that question too. Be able to, if you have the ability to control it, try your best again, you're being supportive. Someone is taking the initiative to stand in front of a room or stand in front of a camera and present their knowledge base. Do your best to support, and if you need to, and if you feel inclined, provide feedback afterwards, you know, do a little bit of a sandwich, you know, provide a bit of good feedback, maybe submittally feedback, and then again, follow up with the good feedback. Try your best to be able to give people the support that they need. And again, I recommend 24 to 48 hours, not immediately after let them breathe, let you breathe. Be able to review your notes and give yourself that opportunity and chance to be able to again, you are there to support them, even if that's not exactly what you did when you first signed, first signed up. And I'm going to tell you now that for myself, I do endeavor to grow my knowledge and grow, you know, my connections in my business and the networking that I do, which means that not every single event virtual law in person that I attend is going to be great, and that is okay. That's okay. There's going to be the gamble. Like, I'm not really a gambling person, but I gamble when it comes to attending training events because I want to learn and I want to grow, but I'm not always going to get everything out of it that I intend to, though I do my best to provide space, to support the people who are do it, who are going out on a limb and providing this training, and to be able to take what I can from it, and again, if I can't take what the actual topic that they're talking about, what can I see in the room? What can I see from other people? What can I see from the presentation itself, and what can I see from other people's reactions in the space, and if it's virtual, same thing applies. What can I see from other people who have their cameras on in a virtual setting? What can I see from the chat? Are they regularly, you know, putting in links that they are referring to or sources that they're citing? Are they actively making sure that people are aware of what. Part of the presentation that they're up to. Are they keeping to time? Are they answering questions as the presentation goes on, so you don't leave people hanging? Or if they made it quite clear, like I do with most of my presentations, that, hey, I'm going to talk for the next 20 minutes, and then we're going to answer questions for the next 40 like, do you know that ahead of time? Or is it people like, boom, straight in, we're going to do this, and you're going to do this presentation with me. Is that, what's happening? What can you learn? What can you gain from the event? Because even if you aren't supposed to be there, I'm going to tell you now that throughout my small business career of 15 years, so far, over 15 years, I should say I have been in so many places I'm not supposed to be. I'm too young, like I started my business when I was 14. I am too inexperienced, despite the fact that I can answer all their questions. I'm a woman. Yes, you'll be surprised how often that still comes up. I have been in so many places that I'm not supposed to be in, and that is okay, but I'm going to be there anyway, because I want to grow myself, I want to grow my business. I want to grow my clients. I want to be there to support them, and if that means that I have to learn things to do them better, then I am going to do that. And you can't stop me because you're sexist, racist bigot that wasn't directed at you oil Watchers or listeners that was directed at some of the people that I've dealt with over the past couple of weeks. But again, rolling back to everything positive, I hope you've taken the lesson from today's podcast, and it is a bit of a Longy today, but I want to give you that opportunity to reflect and think and maybe take this opportunity to maybe look at a couple of notes, be them written in paper, or maybe in a note taking software of some kind that you can look back and think, Wow. I, you know, maybe I attended an event for the Geelong Small Business festival, or maybe an event that you went to early on this year, and you still haven't reviewed the notes from that that's okay. Take the, you know, five minutes to look over your notes, see what you can action in your business now. Doesn't have to be just marketing. Doesn't have to be just, you know, trainer, you know, training or workshop based, it can be anything to do with how you operate your business, how you conduct your finances, how you improve your routine, or how you can make the work that you do for your clients better.
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Take that opportunity to review your notes, and you should be able to do it relatively quickly and easily when you can find the notes. Hope you have a beautiful day, and I hope you enjoyed today's podcast, and I look forward to seeing you on the next one or hearing me on the next one you decide. Oh, and as a video, confidence coach, as you can probably mention, I run coaching opportunities. You can check that all out on my website, At VCC, dot training, slash Coaching. All right, see ya.
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G'day, welcome to video, confidence, coach, cast, and today we're going to discuss professionalism in your networking. That may seem like an obvious question. Zoe, well, not even a question, more of a statement, but I'm going to tell you now there are so many people who run very large companies who aren't professional. And we're going to follow a story that I had the interesting time to witness late last year, not necessarily in your networking opportunities, but this story should hopefully enlighten you on how other people may view some of your behaviors. Welcome to the video, confidence coach, cast with me. Your host, Zoe the video. Confidence coach, I help with personal branding, growing it through the power of video for women and non binary folk throughout Australia, I need to work on my elevator pitch of it so. Day, I wanted to delve into a topic that I very much enjoy, that is not necessarily a topic that I host. Is, for example, I run, you know, maybe some events once or twice a year regarding the networking topic. It's a topic that I hold very dear to my heart, because I network realistically once a week on average. And previous to the start of the pandemic, I did this realistically about two to three times a week. I do not recommend that you burn out rather quick, but I've networked a lot in my business career so far, and I intend to do that throughout the rest of my business career, because networking is very important, as the saying goes, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and especially in localized or regional communities, kind of like Geelong, I say kind of like because we're not very regional, but we still have that mentality. It's always good to network, and it's always the best thing to network with other people, especially like minded people. I always found myself growing up that I was able to go into a networking event with a lot of confidence and a lot of stress off my shoulders, because I know we were here to talk about business, to talk about your business, talk about my business, and all the things that come into in clutch with that when attending family events, I didn't exactly know what to talk about because life, I guess, but at a networking event, we can talk about business, and I can definitely do that. Got a lot of practice with it. So I wanted to start off with a story today about a grumpy comedian from Melbourne. And this may seem a bit strange, though, but bear with me. So last year, I attended a local comedy festival, the Geelong Comedy Festival. It was its first year running, and I attended an event late on a Saturday night with a partner of mine, and we were enjoying this, I think, not a burlesque show, per se, but it was a show of very many, many, many different acts. And the event was already running 40 minutes past due, which was a bit of a worry. But it was also a case of, like, showbiz stuff happens. It's okay. We're here for a laugh. We're here to be entertained. And we were instructed at the start of the event that, hey, just so you know, there has been some major train delays from Melbourne. Today, we're doing our best to get all the acts that we're going to come and perform tonight. Most of them are from Melbourne, and they're going to come as they trickle down, but they may be an opportunity that we may not have. Everyone that we want on board. Please stick with us as we, you know, continue the show on, regardless, the show must go on and all that. And of course, this small crowd that I was in was like, Yeah, sure. Like, you know, we're here to be entertained. We understand that things happen. And yeah, we totally get it. So we're there again, being supportive as we can to win during this event. So we saw great, magical acts, great burlesque acts, some really fun, enjoyable opportunities of just laughter. And, you know, really had a good night, essentially. And there was like, you know, fire twirling without fire because it was indoors, so it was like baton twirling. And it was really enjoyable to watch and to see the last comedian, however, was interesting. So this gentleman came on, rocked on, like, there was a lot of like, you know, drum rolls and a lot of excitement. And he started talking. And his type of comedy is not exactly my cup of tea. He is very much, it was very much a grumbly, angry comedian, which, for some people, sure works for them. Go ahead, it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. So I'm like, okay, you know, hopefully this 10 minutes moves quickly. That's fine. He proceeded to talk. So he had a 10 minute set. So I think he had a five minute set, but it ended up being 10 minutes and he spent the entire time talking about the Melbourne trains. And it was like, okay, that's, you know, that's unfortunate for you, mate, but understanding that, like, you know, we're in Geelong, like you've come down to us, and is this your material? Like to talk about the, you know, state of the public transport sector that we all use in some capacity. And, okay. And then he quickly turned from talking about the trains for about three to four minutes to the audience. He mentioned a few things about, you know, different suburbs around Geelong, which was, you know, haha, kind of funny. You know, there was some stereotypes around the type of people in Geelong, sure. Haha, sure. Why not mate? It's fine. But then he started getting angry and aggressive, more angry and aggressive that he already was when he first came into the set that he had and he started. Making some pretty offensive comments, and it's like, okay, sure if that's what you do. Fine. Cool. Again. Now, of course, most, there was a fair few people in the audience who just started booing and hissing, because it's like, are you supposed to be the villain in this scenario where you're entertaining us, hopefully, supposedly. And then he started getting quite agitated and quite angry at the audience for having a reaction that wasn't just laughter. And then proceeded to point people out and comment on their attire, and again, not in a positive way, but a very aggressive way, and started blaming the audience on his poor performance, about how hangry he was, how flustered he was, and blaming us for that. And we're all sitting here being like, not mate. You. You came in, you came onto the stage like this. This was all you mate. And during the end of that, you know, at the during the end of his set, he then pointed to me at the back, and at the time, I was wearing a mask, because even though I was vaccinated, I was still on and off fairly sick due to long covid And a couple of other situations, and I was instructed for a very long time to continue wearing mask. I do not wear a mask anymore because I am just honestly sick and tired, and it just impacts what I need to do. There's a whole other story about that. But ultimately, I was there with a mask in this room, and me and about three other people, I think, were wearing masks. He pointed at me and commented about the mask. And because this was around Halloween time, and there were some people having Halloween parties. I thought, Oh, the bar at the back, there must be people wearing Halloween masks at the bar at the back of the venue. Okay, I will turn around and have a look. And then he proceeded to double down, saying, I thought, you know, I thought you were a man. Okay, haha. Is that funny? So again, the whole diatribe that I'm making of this. And of course, by the end of it, the atmosphere in the room became incredibly tense, incredibly agitated. People, a couple of people even left at that point. And because me and my partner knew that the show wasn't going to be over yet, we were like, okay, he's gonna stop eventually, right? All in all, this was a fairly negative experience, and it was quite overwhelming. And despite the event that this same event, the same festival, I mean, I attended a really inspiring, you know, story about a trans individual and the comedy around that, and it was so nice to hear their story, and this again from the same Festival, and then attending this event, like two or three days later, and getting this so now, of course, this entire story, as you can probably imagine, I left that event quite overwhelmed, but also just quite frustrated. Of why did I invest my time into this? Why did invest my money into this? And, you know, so there were some of the acts that were really good, but then that was an incredibly negative and also, you know, terrifying experience. I'm in a room full of strangers and him being here. Hang with the one again, man with the microphone, the one being silenced is
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the one that has the floor interesting. The reason that I bring that up and how this story even connects with networking. Zoe, and apologize if I've brought your mood down a tad, I'm going to tell you now that this type of mentality I have seen so often at networking events, it is ridiculous. I have seen this type of mentality of I am angry, therefore I'm going to make you angry so much in professional networking spaces, and not just at networking events, be them in personal virtual but at Coffee meetups, at connections where you're supposed to be there to talk about your business, about your clients, about referrals you can possibly give each other. And you come in with the negativity of 1000 sons for what benefit you are there to serve? You are there at this networking event at this one on one What have you you are there to serve, and you can't do that if you are just angry, if you are just aggressive, if you are blaming everyone around you for a problem that you are facing. Now, of course, at networking events, especially with people that you know very well. It is okay to bitch and moan. It is okay to gossip a bit. That is okay you're there with people that you know, but don't do that with new people. Don't do that with people that you haven't met before and don't entirely know their vibe. It's like you know going on a. First date with someone. I would not expect a first date with someone to go through someone's life traumas. Sure you can talk about their past, about things that they've experienced. Sure that's normal human interaction, but when you start using that as the opportunity to vent about everything in your life with someone you've only just met that can be a bit worrisome. Now, of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, as there always are, but at networking events, you are there to serve the people around you. You are there to get referrals of other business owners, and you are there to learn and grow yourself and your community and your network. That is what you are there for. You are not there to be angry and aggressive, and I say that to the white men in the room when it comes to networking, leaving your personal problems at the door and doing your best to network with focus and intention or representing your business positively should be your goal and networking events. And as I said, there is always exceptions to the rule, but do your best to grow your community in a positive way. Yes, may things may not be positive right here in this moment, but you're attending a networking event, so hopefully you're doing it with intention, and not just there because you have to, or for example, if, say, for example, if something has happened to you or to your family or to your staff or to your business at all, maybe attending a networking event shouldn't be high on your priority list. Maybe focusing on what you need to focus on may be the priority, and that is okay if you need to do that, sure, but do not blame other people in the room for your business not succeeding the way you want it to, and that's okay. Not everything is going to be your fault, but it's not the fault of the people in the room who have come there to network with you. Apologies if that sounds a little bit DD at you. I'm not saying that to you, dear listener or Dear watcher. I'm not saying that directly to you. I'm just saying that to if you ever come across people like this in your business journey, in your networking journey, there are going to be people like this. They don't leave their troubles at the doors, and they're just going to be angry and aggressive or bring down the entire mood of a conversation. And that's okay. You know to avoid those people in future, you know, to be like, Okay, I'm not going to get in a conversation with you there. For example, there was one person who I am actually good connections with. Now we regularly speak on a regular basis, but when I first met them, they not doing well in their personal life, and they every conversation they had with me would just bring down the mood so drastically and so aggressively to the point where it was like this second or third time that we talked, and they would see me at an event and go straight for me. And of course I would be like, hey, welcoming, glad to chat, happy to chat with you. I'm going to go this way now. But of course they would still want my attention and still want to talk about things. And I had to say, and I had to say, point black to them, mate. This is a business event. Let's talk business. And like I pointed to a couple of other people in the room, saying, hey, they your reputation has got out rather quickly about being negative, about being, you know, not being positive. If it's not a good space for you to network right now, do not network. And of course, again, I'm saying this to a full grown man in front of me at a busy networking event, and he got a bit dejected. He took it out to heart. He walked out into his car, and honestly, I didn't expect him to see him again. And then he came back about 1020 minutes later during the speeches or presentation part of the event, and he apologized to me. He said sorry, and endeavor to do better. And he did. His actions actually reflected what he said he would do. And now we are good business associates. I refer to him. He refers to me like we're on good terms. Now, yes, there was a little bit of a hard conversation that we had to have about, not necessarily energy levels or being positive or toxic positivity. It was more just your personal life. Is your personal life. You're here to discuss business and network with other business individuals do that. So one thing that I have is a nice rule of thumb for a lot of the events that I happen. And if you are listening to the podcast, there was a podcast that we ran that may come out soon or has already come out. I've called Lessons Learned from places you are not supposed to be. And I discussed about my rule of thumb when it comes to training events, that if it's halfway through. And I haven't gotten anything out of it, then this isn't for me, and I'm going to head out, or I'm going to make my excuses and leave, or just, you know, if it's a virtual event, just peace out, and that is okay. Your time is your your time is precious, and that is okay. And that's the same with networking events, that, for example, halfway through the networking event, if you have not reached, and I don't want to say a goal, but if you haven't spoken to anyone who could be actively be a lead, or anyone that you know you're going to follow up with halfway through the event, maybe this event is not for you. Maybe you know if you're not enjoying yourself, if you're finding that you're being like left out of conversations, or if it's getting to the point where, okay, halfway through the event, the people that I've spoken to are, you know, not the right people for me. And there's no one in this room that I could realistically, you know, communicate with. Okay, then I'm just going to leave them, say my goodbyes and head out. And then, you know, not to attend that networking group or event, or type of event in the future. Now, of course, do not, you know, completely cast off. For example, if you had a bad experience during networking, do not cast off networking entirely, because there is so many businesses, so many in, you know, times in my business where I haven't had a good networking experience. So I just gave a break for a week, for a month, however long, however long time I needed, and then I got back on the horse, and I got three clients off the bat. And of course, that's not necessarily going to happen for you, because, of course, I can't replicate my own experiences with you, but networking is a very important. Building your network. As a business owner, is so important to be able to rely on other professionals inside your space, outside your space, to be able to get things done, to be able to, for example, I have so many clients coming to me, being like, hey, Zoe, I need this. And I go, cool. Go to my little online Rolodex. Cool. This is the person for you. Here is the contact details. Boom, done. This is business baby. So when you are as a networking professional or as a professional in as a business owner or building a personal brand, do your best to be flexible and to be calm and do your best to put them forward, to put, you know, the person that you're talking to forward, doing your best to listening and listen to them, and, you know, help in any way that you can serve them like you would a client, because the people that you serve at these networking events are going to be the ones to give You leads and referrals and potentially and be your clients in the future. I know that's something that I have definitely run into a lot. There's, I want to say good 50% of my clients at the moment are people that I networked with in the past. I helped them, I served them, I provided them some useful next steps, whatever we did to at the conversations or networking events that we had, and then, boom,
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you know, two, three years later, five years later, think, seven years later. In one case, they become my clients, and they become my consistent retainer clients as well, because I am what I say, I put my best foot forward, and my personal brand is fairly consistent when it comes to networking events, and doing my best to help the people that I am there to network with. And having that confidence and professionalism is key when you're trying to be a thought leader in your industry, if you are trying to build your personal brand, if you are trying to be the person who knows what you're talking about in your particular niche, or, you know, value sector, or like, whatever you're trying to do with the work that you're trying to do in your business or your personal brand, show up, be there, help people who are in front of you and network as efficiently as you can by helping the people in front of you. So thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the video confidence coach cast. I understand that it was probably a bit of a rambly one, but I thank you all the same. Hopefully you will not be like an angry white male comedian, and you can do your best to feel better about the situation if you are interested in networking, or if you're interested in attending any of my trainings or receiving any mentorship regarding networking in a small town, feel free to reach out to me at Vcc dot training where you could find out all my updates and information about mentoring, because that's one of the services I provide. Or we can just book a 15 minute chat and have a good chat about networking and next things that we can do to better work ourselves in Geelong or in the small regional town that you are located in. I look forward to hearing more from you. Bye. You.
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Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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