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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Hello, everybody, and thank you for being here with me today. Today's chat will be about networking mistakes. But before I start, I will kindly ask you to subscribe to the podcast on the platform you're listening to. This way, every time we have a new episode, you'll be notified. Thank you. And let's get the show started. In our interconnected world, globalized world, networking is crucial to growing as an individual and, of course, in your industry. And networking works, obviously, in two ways. Today's specific will be on personal one-on-one in the live world, as opposed to the online world. But certainly, a lot of these mistakes also happen in the online world. Although for the online world, we will do another session somewhere down the track. So interacting and exchanging experiences with other people's ideas and concepts are fundamental to us broadening our horizons. So as job seekers, entrepreneurs, and leaders, if you don't network, what you're doing is you're missing out on a rich stream of new contacts and businesses that can definitely drive profits, relationships, and increased understanding of the marketplace, especially you know, the current environment we're living in, and also how refined and leverage the brand's messaging that's your personal brand. And, of course, the business brand organizational brand. So this is, you know, this is not something that is like another one of those things that are should I or shouldn't I; I can tell you, from my own experience, a lot of people that haven't got networks, what happens here is that you know, plodding along, things happen, everything's comfortable and then bang, you know, business goes down, ie last two and a half years with COVID with a lot of people or they get retrenched at work, big problem, or they get reshuffled in a position, you know, and into a new position that they don't enjoy. If you haven't had the networks, the connections, and by networks, I mean, connected networks, right, then potentially you left, you know, alone on an island, a bit like a lone wolf. So, I suggest you listen to the seventh episode of this podcast, titled the importance of networking and true connections. And you'll learn a little bit more about how you can apply this specifically to your life. And in today's episode, we'll discuss the biggest networking mistakes and how to avoid them. So let's get started with the first mistake. And that one is not building real connections. You know this is a common one, so people want to obviously connect with people for the sake of connecting. But that intention from the start is not a real connection. And you're going to have some of those in your database, your red hot red book, regarding these connections, that you know, that you can incorporate, obviously, as part of your whole strategy to leverage opportunities, business, personal brand, etc. But also, if you're not going to have a circle of real connections there, especially for the opportunities you're looking for down the track, then, you know, that's not going to have that much pull. So real connections are important from that perspective. And by real connections, of course, it's a human face-to-face connections, as opposed to a connection on Facebook with somebody you've never met, you've never spoken to anyone you have no interest in ever building a true relationship with. So this is, I think, important and will help sort of declutter your Little Red Book because it will have obviously valuable real contacts in there as opposed to, you know, names or numbers that just fill up detail. The second most common mistake is making a contract with some interest; you know, you have no real long-term intention to do anything with them. But you could do that again for different reasons, you know, because, remember, image is perception, and we are also talking about connections, including on LinkedIn. Perception is just as important as the real thing. I know this will sound a little bit paradoxical from what I mentioned earlier, but yes, you will have some connections that run. Really, you couldn't care less about right? But depending on who they are, that can't just be anybody. Right? So, if it's, for instance, if you had Richard Branson as a connection and Elon Musk, right, you might never have the opportunity or know even real interest ever to connect with them and deal with them or whatever. But they actually look good as part of your connected networks. So again, that's a perception. And that's where at times, that might be intentional. If it's intentional, and you're doing it for that type of reason. Well, then, that's fine. The common question for me is, alright, John, I get a lot of invites on LinkedIn; you're not gonna want to get really selective? Again, it depends on the individual, every individual, on what your strategies, you know, and then, of course, the tactics come after that. So I can't really answer that. But what I can say is this, okay, stop being a snob. Okay, this is very important because the snobbery element of part of the ego, again, is not going to help you build real connections. Okay, so this is something to be aware of and how you do that. And by the way, I've been there as well. So it's not like I'm trying to sell you or sing you the gospel, right? Now, the reality is, as I've said, In my previous episodes, you gotta be willing to make mistakes; I've made more than most people again, so I have no, you know, no hassle, sharing that, basically, yes, I've done that as well. And that's why I'm also passionate about what has actually worked and what hasn't; in my experience, the next most common mistake is you're not listening; this is important because listening is essential. Now, I was at a function last week; it was a great function, I was one of the speakers. And of course, what happens generally is if you're one of the speakers, after the formalities of speaking, a complete people come up to you, and there was a line that wanted to speak to me. And there was a guy there that virtually did not read the queue, about when you meet a speaker and a networking event like this, you know, you're not gonna, you're not gonna hog all the time with them. And basically, keep on telling them your story without listening back. And that's what he was doing. But that evening was very polite to him. And, of course, I said, Give me your contact details. And we'll have a conversation next week. So listening is essential here. Now, the reason I listened to him is that he had a great story, okay, he had a great story, but he didn't have the cues to know when to stop. At the same time, from his perspective, he wasn't listening to me; I had to tell him three times, just give me your contact details. And I'll come back to you. So this is very important, you know if you want to make comments, judgments, and so on, do it after you've listened because in most cases, trust me, people have not listened; they might have heard it but didn't really listen. So how do I avoid that? Again, I mentioned in some of my past episodes about if relationships, relationships are everything. Certainly, my style is a Relational Approach, to business, to friendships, too, you know, my own family relationships, it's all about relationships. So what that means is, if you're serious about that, okay, then listening is essential. And something that we can all do. The fourth networking mistake is letting fear get the better of you. Now, this is a really interesting one. If you're looking at a function again, on, you know, negotiation, or whatever that is part of, you met somebody at a networking function, and then you meet them for a coffee or whatever, and then you start doing a deal with them to start negotiating or whatever. And you've got all these fears going on and letting go of the fear. And we all have them, by the way, is, you know, part of you becoming authentic, right, from the perspective of, well, first of all, accepting that you've got the fear, but then letting go is understanding that when you do that, okay, what you've got is an opportunity to get better at the networking. And at the same time, you have nothing to lose because what are you afraid of? The big one that happens specifically with networking, though, is big names, big speakers, big titles, all that sort of stuff. But treat the person that you're networking with us just, you know, like yourself, like, like a normal human being that is there like you, okay, that hasn't got all the answers doesn't matter. You know, how many titles they got next to their name. The reality is they are just normal human beings with two arms, two legs, and one head; I like you. So letting go of that, I think, is very, very important from, you know, letting go from a fear perspective is very important. Otherwise, you're going to fumble, stumble and not come across as the authentic you. So this is something that I found, of course, as a speaker on stage, the last thing I want is for people to be nervous around me and, at the same time, feel that I'm more special than they are. Because I'm not, that's the same thing for anyone. And anyone that understands that and really wants to make a difference to people and people's lives. This is, I think, a very important way of being, about look, forget it, there's nothing to be afraid of, you know, and if you stuff up, it doesn't really matter, because you'll be alive to try again. And finally, the last mistake is to shop only when you need something. So this is common, it's so common on LinkedIn, for instance, you know, you haven't had contact with somebody for a long time. They contact you, that's great, fantastic, great, you know, great that we've connected, and then instantly, within 24 hours, they're asking you for something. Okay, so you haven't been in contact with me for 10 years. And now I'm like your best friend, right? That's not how you network. Networking is about cultivating relationships. Okay. And any experienced networker knows they can pick that. And it happens. Of course, as I said, on LinkedIn every day, everyone's your best friend until they ask you for something that really is unreasonable. I'm not saying don't ask, by the way, it's just that at times, if you're gonna ask people for favours, or you want something, or you want them to help you hope, you know, you've done that first before you've actually asked, this is essential. Because if you haven't, then you're playing with, you know, I'm not saying don't ask, okay, because as I said, sometimes you got to live in a paradox, from the point of view of some rules just get thrown out the window. But I would prefer that last; you've had leverage from the perspective of at least you've done something in the past, conditional or unconditional. And now's the time to ask some sort of favour back. How do I avoid a lot of this? Well, remember, in the market context, you know, there is, of course, an increasing connection. Right? Okay, it is essential to establish a good and reliable network of contacts. And what's important about that is your inner circle, who is your inner circle, you haven't done an inner circle, while you better create an inner circle in the circle normally rounds out to around six people, that's your inner circle, you know, could be your lawyer, could be your accountant, could be your own personal fitness coach, it could be your business coach could be, you know, your image, consultant, whatever. Okay, this is your inner circle, whoever you trust at that level. And generally, I'm not talking about family here; I'm talking about external, which will have no emotional baggage associated with the relationship. And, of course, I can say something objectively, a bit like in a mentoring relationship. So communicating and establishing good relationships, right, are as crucial to placing yourself in a market; by the way, this is, you know, I'll keep on talking about relationships, relationships, relationships, but even for transactional and positional power, people that might not have a lot of personal power, okay, relationships are still the key there, okay. Because part of that is a spider web of connections, okay, it's still a relationship, even if it's a transactional one. Again, it's so it's not like people that are just transactional have got no relationships; it's just different types of relationships. Networking is more than just meeting people. It's about reminding you to make real connections. So real connections now don't mean, you know, you're gonna have 5000 Facebook friends, right? All of the 5000 LinkedIn connections are our real connections. No, no, no, no, these are social connections with perception; okay, the real connections will generally be your inner circle. Okay, and let's keep it simple, 50 people, 100 people, whatever, but it's going to be something around that level; it's not going to be something like 1000s because you can't physically keep that many real connections at that level, because you can't service them. Okay. And think about this, you know, it's like what my grandmother used to say. So you say your real connections and friendships are normally one hand. And what does that mean? Well, it's manageable; the moment you bring to hands and more, as you know, as a metaphor, it becomes much harder to manage. So how can you then have 1000 connections and call them real connections? Now they are mostly acquaintances or relationships from the past that might have known you or whatever, but they're not real connections, right? Unless you've built that, and it's just impossible to do that because you simply haven't got the time or energy to do that. Having said that doesn't mean you can't be in my 1000 or 5000, or 10,000, or whatever, right? But are they real connections? That's something that you've got to ask yourself. So this is something to reflect on. And how you would do this also is, you know, but making a list of all these connections, be like a database. And then, if you like, it can even give them a writing system, you know, I, B, C, etc. Okay, 123, whatever, whatever you choose, just to get a sense where they sit about this concept or real connection, of course, and about power as well, and how they would come in from a business point of view or a networking point of views, you know so that you can leverage opportunities. But of course, understanding how much power they have, as well as also part of doing the analysis of the real connections that we normally deal with that clients, and then create, of course, whole networking, what we'll call into the database to build these connections and grow them. Look, the final bit with networking that I want to add is this, you got to learn how to speak to strangers. It's one of the most valuable skills there is. And most people can't do that effectively. Why? Because fear comes in as we mentioned earlier, but I want to leave it with that with this particular little story. You know, when you were, and I think I've mentioned this in some of my previous podcasts, but it doesn't matter. You know, when you were five and six, it's worth mentioning, okay. My mother said not to speak to strangers. And she was right. Okay, you're a little kid; you need safety. And, of course, strangers were perceived as a danger. But what happens with us as human beings because we all carry baggage, we carry the past, we carry, you know, subconscious messages from a long time ago, that message now as an adult, you know, you're 2535 4555 Whatever. If you're carrying a story, and you're afraid to speak to strangers, what you're actually doing is self-sabotaging yourself to new opportunities. And, of course, new opportunities open up new possibilities. And having spoken about this many, many times, and with the entrepreneurial spirit, you're going to need to have that mindset, okay, if you want to maximize some of the possibilities you want to create during your time on this earth. And this is something to reflect on. So yeah, if you need any help with that, I'd love to share more with you if you're interested. But bottom line, I hope you got something out of today's chat. I want to thank you all, and as always, you can also find me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook.  I want to thank you all I look forward to next time and, like always, wish you a great week. Cheers. 

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.