How do you pick a networking group? How do you know it's a good group for you? And how do you analyze if you're getting the benefit if you're getting the profit if you're getting a good rate of return on all the time and energy that you put into a networking event? This is a question that I've talked to many clients about because so many clients will pick a networking group and spend so much time and energy in that group when it's not very valuable for them. So I’ve done networking for over 20 years. Now, I haven't set foot in a networking space in over 10 years and that is another video for another time. But in the space of me networking and in the space of me being around networking and seeing networking groups from start to them thriving, I have been able to grasp what is it that makes a networking group good for you and I came up with a little formula to help you decide if you should stay in a networking group and if you should join a networking group and that kind of thing. I have never shared this publicly before and here you go! So this is what I have found. If you want to work through this exercise with me, just pause the video throughout this and if not, I am going to run right through it. I am going to start with what a networking group is. A networking group is a group where you talk about your business. Where you are meeting other people.
It is usually either you are meeting clients or you are meeting referral partners. Referral partners are people that can naturally send you business or can send you business. They are partnerships. So that means that it's not just a, “Oh they maybe could.” It is someone that you have made a partnership agreement with that you are going to send business back and forth. So I want to talk a little bit more about referral partners
probably in another video. How to pick them and that kind of thing. This going to touch on a little bit of the word referral partners And I want you to understand what that is. In a networking group, what that is is the space again where you are sharing about your business. That can be everything from business groups. You are talking about BNIs, Yellow Ties, and People in business. There are thousands of them. Or you can be talking about stuff like your trade associations that you are a part of. That kind of thing. It can also be activities that you are doing Such as if you are doing Knights of Columbus or anything like that. That can be a networking group. It can also be your Chamber of Commerce. It can be your Alumni groups for university. All those where you are talking about what you do in the world can be a networking group. You want to look at that. I have also had clients who had their volleyball team be a networking group because of who is in that group with them. And they do it for that purpose. It is kind of like what is really your commitment and purpose of the group And then really being focused on getting that value from it. There are four things that I have found that have made it worthwhile to spend your time and money and resources in a networking group. I believe that every single networking group that you spend your time in should have at least three of these four elements.

The first element is that your ideal client should make up the majority of the room. When I say the majority of the room I mean over 50% Over 50% of the people in that room at any time are your ideal client. Now, not just a client, your ideal client you want to make that distinction.
Number two is that majority of the room is your ideal referral partner. I did not just say referral partner. I said your ideal. If you do not know what your referral partners are then that is talking to the business, mentors, or hiring a coach or consultant to really figure out what those are because referral partners are a huge piece of growing a business. It is one of those little diamonds that if you can really grab onto you. Just get a whole bunch of business coming in the door. Your ideal partners are people that can easily have you in conversations and will – and will. We will do another video on referral partners again. Referral partners can be things such as a mortgage person and a real estate agent. Those are really natural referral partners to each other. Ideal clients are the majority in the room. Ideal referral partners are the majority in the room.
The third one is education. Sometimes you attend a networking group just because it's educational. I start my business - my first marketing company - when I was 24 years old and so I was a new young pup. Going into a BNI group and really seeing: How do you network? How do you talk about your business? How do you give presentations about your business? How do you do elevator speeches? How do you do 1 to 1 get to know you meeting? How do you make referrals? All of that was so educational for me and helpful. I was also part of a mastermind that was about marketing and having people come in and really talk about what they're doing and having those discussions which is really good again- educational based business because I knew marketing and I knew marketing of products but wanting marketing for smaller business was another thing so that was really cool. and it was all based on referral marketing which was even more nichey so that was educational. so I deal clients, I deal with referral partners, and educational are just fun. sometimes we're part of a networking group just because we like the people and it's fun. so that's worth bonus points, it is so if you have a group that is your ideal clients, and educational and you have fun going. cool if it's your ideal referral partners and your ideal clients and its educational awesome.
I really believe from watching to make your time valuable, it needs to have at least 3 of those 4. if not it is worth looking at are you getting the rate of return. Now how do you calculate that? Most people will say the event is free and I've got a referral so Win! It's not that simple. Some people says I pay this fee and I got referral and it covers it Win! No.. What most people miss is that their time is money So you have the fees of the group if you're in any, your travel time there, your gas time there, if you have to buy lunch or breakfast or coffee what that cost is you also have you're getting there a little early or late, don't just calculate the time because usually we go a little earlier and later to network. You have all the 1 to 1 get to know you times so how much time you spending going out with these people and really getting to know them. Now if you're not doing that, you are wasting your networking group. It's really important that you get to know those people because people do business those they first know, and then they like and trust. So that's the biggest power of a networking event. If you just show up at the event and never get to know anyone- bad idea. now there is a strategy to who you spend your time getting to know and who you don't. I can talk about that in another video if you like let me know. But it is important to do that- you want to play all out in a networking group. If you just sneak in and sneak out you are wasting your time. So that is following up with people, doing 1 to 1s You also want to do a leadership role in the group or do something that gets you seen because the more you're seen the more the people will say "Ok they are valuable" "They're giving resources, they're giving time they're giving energy to the group- they're more willing to get back." So that's again playing all out in a group which that can take time. You know doing power point presentations or scheduling things or attending meetings or being a part of the membership committee. So you need to take all that time and consideration too when you're thinking about is this networking group effective for you. Your follow up time, it's so important to follow up, this can be sending referrals, sending a book you were talking about, sending a link to an article, whatever it is. So doing a follow up afterwards, saying "Thanks for meeting"Here's this. It shows you really were invested in listening which is important. And that's another video too on how do you really make these 1 on 1s effectives. If you're interested in that, let me know Check in the links below because I might post links to some of these as I do them- by the time they come So after you take all that time, and it's going to be a lot of time. You want to times it by your hourly rate and see where you're at Most times clients are like "Oh my goodness" and when they get to that point because it's a lot! And then you want to track your referrals and what closed business you got. So that way you can look at the two and say "Did I get as much out of this as I put into it" Now if you don't have a way to track that, let me know I can do videos on that as well. Because you really want to be sure that you are tracking "Ok, this person came from this group I'm in and they referred this much and this much closed" and you also want to make sure that it's your profit from it and not just the closed amount because your time is valuable so if you say this goes for this much and you haven't taken out all your costs to do that business- that can be your problem too so you kind of want to look at your closed business and also look at what is your actual profit from that closed business. What I usually find is that networking groups are not as effective and they're not getting as much value as they think and they spend a lot of time on them. I adore networking groups I'm committed that you find the networking group that's the biggest bang for the buck for you because you have a lot of stuff to do as a business owner and as a person in this role. So spending your time wisely makes a big difference.