Networking excellence with Andy Lopata

You're seen as an expert in networking. How did you become one?

AL: I was invited by my father to join his business, 19 years ago. He had just set up a business network along with a partner. I had quit my job in order to become a freelance writer, and he asked me to come and help out while I got my business off the ground. That was it... I had never heard of networking before he set up his business. But, I took to it like a duck to water. It was something that I was doing anyway - connecting people, and helping with opportunities for other people, but I didn't know that there was a name and approach for it. 

I then became more involved in the business and didn't become a freelance writer in the way that I’d imagined. After a few years, I recognized a need within the groups that we were running, to develop some training for them. That training was very successful, and certainly caught the attention of the industry. From there I found out about the professional speaking community, the Professional Speakers Association as it was then, and it built from there.

It's easy these days to consider your networking volume rather than its value. We all have huge stacks of people in our LinkedIn networks and email address books. How do we best make use of them and how do we manage for value over sheer numbers alone? 

AL: My business strapline is "Connecting is not enough”. I think that the focus on numbers and scale of networks is misguided. There is too much of a focus on breadth of the network, and not enough on the depth of the relationships within those networks. It's not networking when you don't have any relationships – that’s just exchanging clicks. Real networking is built on trusted relationships that take time to develop. I don't accept every request on LinkedIn; I want a genuine connection. I want a conversation.

In your experience are people more risk-aware, perhaps risk-averse, when it comes to building business opportunities and networks? 

AL: There is an element of being risk averse, particularly when it comes to helping other people and recommending them. Sometimes we have to take a chance; we may position a referral or a recommendation but have to give some background information in terms of how well we know someone. I have done it today - where I introduced someone and explained how we met, but I don't know them personally; they seemed to be a good fit for a need. I made it very clear to the person that I was recommending them to, that they were deciding for themselves and not just doing so based on my recommendation. 

To be honest, what stops people from networking isn't really risk as much as the willingness to invest some time and effort in doing it. We seem to think that networks happen and grow automatically, and that as we know people, they automatically help and support us. It doesn't work like that. You have to invest in your network and support it. I think that there are so many different challenges tugging at us for our attention, putting pressure on our time, that we sometimes find that difficult to focus on and build into our day-to-day work and our strategies. To me it's not so much risk-aversity, it's actually focusing on networking and taking it seriously. 

What about the power of saying no? Not every person or opportunity will lead to something positive.

AL: Absolutely. You're not serving your network if you say yes to every opportunity which they put your way. In addition, if you say yes to every invite and connection, you're not in a position to serve all of them. You can go to networking events and be on multiple networks and have tens of thousands of LinkedIn connections if you accept all of the requests. But, how do you serve all of those opportunities? You have to draw a line. That sometimes means missing out, but overall, it means that you build a stronger business and career.

Are small businesses still rather parochial? How do they build networks across borders and countries where further opportunities might be found? 

AL: You can find larger SMEs that are parochial, and you can find microbusinesses like my own which are global. It depends on who you serve. Is the corner shop at the end of my road, acting as a newsagent for the local community, parochial? They probably are, because why would they be global? There's nothing in their business model that would necessitate that. 

However, for me as a small business, it serves me to go global because I build my client base, I spread the word further, and I build further opportunities for myself. It's very easy to do now. With social networks and blogs, your message can be heard all over the world in minutes. If you use such networks to develop and maintain relationships with people in other countries, then they may open additional opportunities for you. I think the key message is that size no longer dictates the scale of the business in terms of its global reach.

For leaders who own their businesses, are their personal and business brands effectively the same thing? Is that a healthy thing to do? 

AL: I think that, increasingly, our personal and professional brands do merge. With the growth of social media, people see all sides of you, and I see that as a positive thing. It might mean that you tailor how you act in public - which might not be a bad thing for some people. I have recently blogged on this - if we can come across as human in our professional dealings, people are more likely to want to engage with us, and I think that's what Richard Branson does so well. People engage with his personality. That has proven to be very powerful for him over a number of years.  

I recently wrote a blog post on the back of the celebrations by the French and Croatian presidents at the World Cup Final, where they were both so visibly human beings. Whether it's hugging the players or jumping up and celebrating France's win, they acted as themselves and that made them more engaging. People appreciate that, and politicians too often try to craft an image that’s a long way from their own personality. I think that's to their detriment. It's the same in business.

Further information on Andy, including his blog, resources, and booking details, are available at his website and Twitter @andylopata.