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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. Before we start our chat today, I commonly asked you to contact me on social media. what Twitter is John underlined Michael, LinkedIn is John Michael and you can find me as image Group International on Facebook. Today, I will introduce to you a new series of podcasts based on the following topic. Your life matters, and what will we be doing is exploring opportunities that fuel your entrepreneurial spirit. So this series of podcasts is designed to help CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs, and also aspiring entrepreneurs to discover the hidden potential that lies within themselves to create meaningful and successful careers and businesses. Through a series of podcasts, you will learn how to identify and nurture your passions, develop your skills and talents and create a personalized plan for success. The series will also explore common pitfalls, including dispelling myths and how to build relationships potential clients, partners and investors. Ultimately, this series will help CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs realize some of the unrealized potential and make their entrepreneurial ambitions a reality. In today's episode, we'll dive into the reasons why you should network with people mostly, who share your interests, goals and visions, and discuss practical strategies to help you establish valuable connections in your industry and beyond. Okay, let's get straight to the point. strategic networking virtually is in the top three leading skills you can have. 

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That's why opinion and specifically is so powerful that is there next to common intelligence. So networking with the right people, like wide that a lot at times can provide access to resources, powerful collaborations, alliances, opportunities that fuel your personal and professional growth, and of course, your brand visibility, and motivation. These benefits can help you and your business thrive and succeed. Let me explain to you what that means. A practical example of why networking with the right people is important is because you need people to build and leverage possibilities. Of course, it all starts with the power of one, but then it leverages two people, groups, etc. So let's say you need to find resources to fund your business. And as most startups have experienced, where do you go when the normal banking channels are at times difficult or close. This is where strategic networking comes into play. By connecting with people with similar interests, though, remember, it's not a prerequisite similar ideas and goals, you can tap into a wide range of resources that can help you fund your business. And these resources could be in the form of financial investments, loans, equity, or grants. One of the best ways to network with the right individuals. That means outside of course of your circle is to attend events and conferences that relate to your industry or interests. These targets and events can provide an excellent opportunity to meet people who share your entrepreneurial spirit, and your ideas will be welcomed and can offer valuable insights and advice. You can also join select that online communities or social media groups related to your niche and connect with people who are actively involved in the same industry where interest in my experience, the most powerful connections are a referral, a personal bounce from a trusted colleague. However, that takes time to build that sort of level of trust. So if that's not available to you, I recommend finding the right people, groups and events that could support you and then they should be researched first say you don't waste your time and energy attending them and wasting obviously a lot of limited time and resources on events that are going to give you any results. As an avid networker from a young age, I can share with you that I wasted valuable time in my early years with events, overloaded with tire kickers, these were people that were hanging around giving up business cards, like confetti, without any real interest to build the relationship first, and you can pick these people, because they are very easy to pick, bottom line. And in other types, you know, the big smile, or the charm and the sleazy to the brim, it's all about them, as opposed to really looking after and creating a win win in the relationship. Another reason why you should network with the right people is to establish solid relationships, you know, partnerships and alliances with a long term view. After all, they are an essential aspect of any business. And without networks and alliances, you end up working too hard, because you're actually working by yourself. Okay. And lone wolves, of course, don't get to build big operations, that's the way it is. Now, you might say, well, I don't want to have a big operation. 

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Well, again, lone wolves, you know, normally survive in the wild by themselves. This is not what we're talking about here. This is, you know, if you want to be a songwriter, that's fine. But it's still going to collaborate to leverage opportunities. So collaborating with other businesses we know can help you reach a broader audience, obviously, expand your reach, and of course, create new opportunities. And all these essential benefits are essential in the digital age. So to establish partnerships and alliances, you need to network with other like minded or even better the right individuals who share your vision and goals. Now, the reason I'm saying lightwind, that at times, as you know, and right is this, you can definitely build relationships with people that are not like minded. But in my experience, what happens is, if you're gonna growth mindset, and you know, the other side has what we call these a stack mindset that is not interested in growth, so you're not really like minded, so you're gonna be sort of, you know, there's gonna be a lot of friction to sort of convince one to the other, that this is going to actually be the effective way of you guys do maybe business. But having said that, this is where your own skills come into play there where you can definitely convert or transform a relationship with somebody that's opposite of his the way of being yourself. And, of course, we've done that many times. But that takes a lot of patience, and certainly a long term pupil. One effective way to be referred by a trusted connection, as I noted earlier, is, of course, is to also take, you know, select the networking events where you've built those relationships, and then even even ask for referral, or about now, you will not want to do that when you've had, you know, some sort of relationship and you've got interest like each other. It's really funny on LinkedIn, you get people that reach out to you say, Can you recommend this person? Or can you introduce me to this person, you don't even know these people that come in, in cold, and it's like, What is the matter with you, I mean, I would never do that in a million years. Because my own integrity from the perspective of putting my name my boughs in reference to yours, I don't even knowing is a big problem. And of course, in my early days, from a perspective of being generous and open a lot of opportunities, we did that, I certainly did that as well, and I got birth. So this is you learn lessons in life early. So then, of course, later on in life, you don't have to relearn them again, hopefully. So depending on the event, you might be able to access the guest list prior to the event. Or of course, you'll be able to check the guest list at the door as you enter. And of course, the option then is at events when you're there is to engage in discussions with your target list. So this is important because networking, again, with the right people and targeted list, you will have at least the opportunity to craft unique, you know, business partnerships that are strategically minded, as opposed to ad hoc, that autonomous might be also contrarian, or left field, you know, and controlling or left field is an essential component to think. Because remember, it's and we mentioned this in other episodes, where everyone is saying, looking and feeling the same things while no one's saying thinking or feeling anything, because everything is the same. So this is where contrarian thinking is essential. And we've noted before also, we're in a poet, crisis world right now. And the more contrarian thinking you can get into your way of being the better for you. I promise you that. So partnering with other businesses that complement your products or services, of course, then you can create unique offerings that attract new clients, and of course, clients that you might never have thought could become your clients, and of course, generate more revenue. So to achieve this It's necessary to at least introduce a contrarian way of thinking and identified business that you can add value with your offerings beyond the common approach, I guess you're going to think a little bit outside your normal sphere, we're thinking that this could be in the forms of complementary products, or services, shared customer bases, where even shared goals and values. And this is where you need to do some research to, of course, identify some of those traits. So then you can create some sort of relationship that, you know creates wins for all of them. So once you identify these potential partners have build rapport, and some level of trust, you can then approach them and discuss how you can work together for mutual wins. Another example of that is, of course, a LinkedIn, you get all these constantly, all these emails, specifically say, Can we do a partnership? Can we get together? Can we create a collaboration and get them people? You know, having said that, that could work if the if you want to do a mutual seminar together, or a certain workshop, or a coaching program, as an example, but you still have to do your research, I would not take anything on that first glance, it's essential. Remember, we're also corporate fraud, and fraud against the consumer right now is out of control. Again, one other big trend that we're experiencing, especially in a country like Australia, right now, I think we're the leading on the planet right now. Because basically, at times people do business with people without having done the research. And I get it also, sometimes you could do the research and still get ripped off. But at least you've sort of covered as much as you can, on the basis possible. In my experience, the opposite in reference to building you know, the relationships, we're talking about other shocks in the marketplace that I've just noted before, in the online fraud, that are generally short term thinkers, okay, looking for a quick tail. And this is where your awareness has to come in your self awareness. So if you don't want to become shocked by beware of the waters ahead. And finally, by connecting with other businesses and individual, you share your vision and goals, you know, some common purposes, and you can tap into networks, and also then network clients and vice versa, that can expand your reach as soon as whoever you're going to be networking with, you're not in competition with it's a bit of a dicey game, when you're in competition, because what will happen there is eventually the egos will come to clash, okay, and this is the problem with that. So if you're too similar, that could be a problem as well, because they go, unless it's a maturi, let's have an evolution, there he goes, will come up. And of course, somebody will feel they are better than the other. And before you're not, you're going to have problems. 

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So let me share with you what happened with one of my startups, this is a true story when I started to network with the right people. And the story goes like this, one of the startups I was involved with was in sports management. It was a startup. So I was introduced to my potential partner by a trusted friend, to get to meet this guy, and of course, possibly launch a sports management firm together. So we met, I liked the guide, I found the most authentic, and certainly hard working here and never give up attitude. And of course, that indicated to me that you know, every fool that he has every hurdle that he has to jump over, he will not give up. So I trusted him. And that is what won me over, I trusted him. So to practice what I preach during negotiations, I could have ended up having majority control of this new company. However, to create a win win was I decided, of course, first myself is always going to get a win first itself. And then together, we created this Win Win where we both had an equal 50 in the share in this new business. And he felt what the right thing to do. Did that at times create challenges between us, of course, for sure, because personally, goals are always there. And However, and this is the thing, doesn't matter how much work you've done on yourself, it's always going to be that however, what happens is you through all the ups and downs, certainly in a more effective manner, because the trust element was always the foundation of our partnership. And that's what this whole business was based on the foundations of the building, if I can use that term, we're very solid from day one, because they had high trust level. So that's the importance of foundations. And that's why I constantly bang on about this. Because if your foundations are loose, I promise you eventually the house will collapse. And that foundation is a reason we grew our firm globally and of course had a lot of fun along the way. So in conclusion, network do the right individuals is crucial to any business. So start thinking strategically stop thinking network and from a strategic point of view so you can take your business to new heights and if you're an introvert, I know you'll get big breakthroughs one way or the other. That's my experience with introverts when they start networking, although initially they might have been a little bit shy to do that. So while folks, that concludes today's episode, as always, I appreciate you taking the time to listen. And I trust you found that helpful. If you gain value from this episode, and I hope you did, please leave a rating on Apple podcasts and subscribe to receive more valuable information in the future. Thank you again for tuning in. And I'm excited to share more insights with you next week.

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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.