Do you hate networking? Maybe you imagine that it's just sucking up and brown-nosing. Maybe you’re just feeling shy. These are common concerns, but they shouldn’t stop you. Today’s guest will tell how to set these worries aside and start making important connections that will help your business grow!

This week, I speak with Marsha Shandur, a Networking Mentor and Storytelling Coach. In short, she helps people tell personal stories so that they can use them to help promote their business. Marsha also helps people overcome the barriers that they perceive are stopping them from properly networking and making connections.

In this episode Marsha and I talk all about the power of networking. Marsha shares some great tips as well as her own personal experience on how to get over fears and jitters surrounding building professional relationships. We also discuss how to make connections with big shots without letting our own fears get in the way.

We continue the conversation with a chat about Marsha’s approach to storytelling and how we can use that in our businesses as motion designers. Marsha breaks down the way we want to tell these stories and the types of stories to tell to get the attention that you want.

How has networking helped your business grow? What worries did you have to overcome to make those connections? Tell me about it in the comments!

In this episode:

Top tips for networking that will have you fearlessly making connections at your next big industry event
Not letting your “dork goblin” get in the way of networking
How to approach the big shots without fear in a way that will make a good lasting impression
Making and leveraging personal connections when you need a favor
How to use your own stories to attract the clients that you want to work with

Quotes:

“I don’t like to call it networking. I like calling it making industry friends.” [2:44]“You think that these people who you think are big heroes get a giant mailbox full of fanmail everyday and they just don’t because people are lazy and also because we don’t tend to thank people in our culture.” [20:32]

“I really believe that all anybody wants in life is, one, to feel truly seen and heard and understood and feel like they belong; and two, to feel like they’ve been of service, to feel like they left the world better off than they found it.” [21:58]

“Having emotion does so many amazing things in your stories. I feel like the biggest mistake people make is that they leave out emotion.” [42:29]

Links:

Find Marsha Shandur online

Follow Marsha on Facebook | YouTube | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram

Check out Marsha’s secret special page of resources just for Motion Hatch listeners!

Jeff Goins

Portfolio Life podcast

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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035: How to Network and Make Industry Friends w/ Marsha Shandur

Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business

035: How to Network and Make Industry Friends w/ Marsha Shandur