Episode 210

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Published on:

5th Nov 2023

Keeping Track of All the Things at a Virtual Networking Event

"Join us on the Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast as we prepare for the upcoming JV Connect in December 2023. Discover how to navigate virtual events, make meaningful connections, and ensure you leave with booked appointments. Learn the art of keeping track of everything in a busy virtual event, and don't miss out on valuable opportunities. Whether you're looking for joint venture partners, prospects, mentors, or accountability partners, this episode will equip you with the essential tips for success. Tune in and get ready to maximize your networking experience at JV Connect. Visit JV-connect.com and register to put these strategies into action. Don't miss out on this insightful episode by your host, Michael Whitehouse, and stay tuned for more valuable content on the Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast."


Mentioned in this episode:

JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023

Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com

Transcript
Michael Whitehouse:

Hello and welcome once again to the Guy Who Knows A

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Guy podcast as we count down to the

first JV Connect in December:

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Of course, if you're listening to

this later, it's still relevant

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because there's another JV Connect

coming up every three months.

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JV Connect is not the kind of thing

you go to once a, ah, I've been there.

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It's kind of like saying, ah, I brushed my

teeth once, I don't have to do it again.

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You do it again and again,

because you always need to

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be meeting new, great people.

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And JVConnect is the place to do that.

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So, every week I'm sharing with

you some tips that you can use

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at this event and any event.

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But specifically, this event is optimized

to work with the way I teach networking.

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So if you really wanted to put

this to use, Go to jv connect.

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com.

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Be sure to register and join us and put

to work what I'm about to teach you.

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So what am I about to teach you?

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I asked around, so what

do you guys need to know?

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And one person asked, how do I keep track

of everything going on on a virtual event?

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There's so much going on.

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There's so many people, there's so much

talking, so much going on in the chat.

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How do I keep track of all of it?

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So I don't leave and say,

whew, that was overwhelming.

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And now what?

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So first.

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As always, begin with the end of mind.

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Why are you there?

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You're there because you

want to make connections.

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You're not attending just to have

fun, although it's gonna be fun.

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You're not attending just to meet people,

although you're gonna meet people.

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You're attending the payoff from this.

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The score, the KPI, Key

Performance Indicator, is booked

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appointments with great people.

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that you want to connect with.

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Now, this could be potential joint

venture partners, it could be prospects,

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but that's not really what you go

to a networking event looking for.

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It could be possible mentors, it could

be possible partners like collaboration

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partners, or even accountability partners.

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It could be someone, you know, you maybe

gotta coach each other, support each

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other, so you're doing something similar.

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Someone to share ideas with, create

a little mini two person mastermind.

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You know, know what you're trying to find.

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Imagine that there's a networking genie

there who will say, What is your wish?

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I will give you any introduction you want.

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And you can make an introduction, you can

make a wish, to the networking genie, and

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they will give you whatever you ask for.

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There's going to be

hundreds of people there.

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So you want to know what you want.

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Now, now you know what you want.

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So you're going to be going into

the rooms, looking for those people.

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And once you're in there, a lot of

things are going to be happening.

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A lot of people introduce

themselves, you're going to hear

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a lot of intros, you're going to

hear a lot of things going on.

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A lot of these rooms, there's

going to be some sort of

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activity or task or challenge.

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You're going to have to

see how people interact.

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It won't just be the,

you know, introduction.

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Yeah, you know how, what I do is, and I

do this, and here's what I'm looking for.

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Yeah, you'll have that, but you'll also

have a breakout, maybe we're building a

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giveaway, or a breakout where people are,

are, the task is to build collaborative

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programs, build programs together.

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And people say, well, I have

this asset and I have this

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giveaway and I can teach this.

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I could also teach this.

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I also have this that I could

add to someone else's program,

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but I don't market it primarily.

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So, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

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So it gives you the opportunity to

learn all kinds of things about them.

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And here's the thing.

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The first thing you want to be

doing is keep an eye on the chat.

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The chat is going to be kind

of the, the business end.

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So the conversation, the video,

the audio, that's the main channel,

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but the chat is the secondary

channel to put information in.

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So you want to be keeping an eye,

especially for private messages, because

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if you introduce yourself and you say

something compelling and interesting,

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and somebody wants to meet with you,

they're going to shoot their calendar

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link over in a private message.

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in the chat.

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So don't ignore that.

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I do also recommend people put their

LinkedIn in the chat, because if

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they can't find you in the chat,

if you missed their message, they

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may reach out to you on LinkedIn.

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It's easy, it's easier than email,

because you can just go on LinkedIn,

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hit a connection request, and in

that note say, hey, saw you at JV

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Connect, wanted to connect, here's

my calendar link, let's hook up.

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Easy peasy.

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One click as opposed to email you have

to go to their email and then oh look

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I have all these emails to read they

get distracted So I I do recommend

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that but pay attention to the chat

as well as you can And side note

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don't litter the chat don't increase

the noise What you drop in the chat

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should be very simple, very concise.

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Keep in mind, people are looking

at this chat while they're

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listening to people talk.

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And while they're trying to parse their

introductions and things like that.

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So if you have a page long introduction,

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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For 27 years, we have been in the

business of helping all these people.

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And here's a link, and here's

an event, and here's some

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other stuff, blah, blah, blah.

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Yeah, no one's reading that.

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Put a list.

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You know, one sentence, maybe two,

who you are, why you're interesting,

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LinkedIn, website, email address, phone

number, calendar link, why you should

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reach me, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,

bullet points that people can consume

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while listening, and it really shouldn't

be more than 10, maybe 15 lines.

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If it's paragraphs, it's too long,

and it's cluttering the chat, and it's

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not useful, nobody's gonna read it.

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Probably, because nobody goes

back to the chat and reads it,

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which I'll get to in a second.

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But, do be paying attention,

look for those messages.

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If you're doing it right, people

are sending you messages to connect.

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That's how you win.

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And, send other people messages.

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You're going to send

them messages to engage.

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Now, I don't keep track, for the

most part, as I go, of what's going

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on when I go to an event like this.

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There's a fire hose, I put my

bucket up, I try to catch someone.

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I'm not trying to catch every single

person, because I'm not super organized.

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If you are super organized, Awesome.

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Fantastic.

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Have a notepad.

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Have a place to copy notes to.

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Have an open notepad file.

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You know, or a Google Sheet

or whatever it might be.

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But if you don't have

any of that, no problem.

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Just pay attention to the chat.

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Calendar link comes in.

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Hit the button to open that up.

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And so you're ready for it.

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And the way the event is set up...

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There's going to be breakout rooms,

where kind of the action happens.

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And then you come out, there's

a little bit of education.

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There might be a sponsor,

there might be a a break.

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Sometimes you do breaks.

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There might be, we're gonna

teach you something, or talk

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about something, or, or whatever.

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And, yes, I'd like you

to pay attention to that.

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That's good stuff to do.

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But that's also an okay time to go to

that calendar link that you just got.

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And book a time, right?

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That's an okay time to, to

clean up some of this stuff.

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It's an okay time to reach out

to some of these people that

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you have talked to in the chat.

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You don't have to keep

track of everything.

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Just get it done.

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Get it done right there.

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It's built for you to be able to do that.

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And that's one of the great things about

this not being an enrollment event.

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This is an enrollment event?

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I need to hold your attention on

me throughout the entire event.

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I don't want you going over, booking

appointments, doing all that stuff.

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No, I need your eyes on me.

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This is an enrollment event.

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I win if you win.

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I win because you book a bunch of calls,

because you connect with the right

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people, because you come out satisfied

saying this event has been awesome.

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I've got to buy another ticket right now.

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I've got to go to the next one.

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I've got to tell my friends.

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So, if that means you're not paying

attention to me while I'm sharing things

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in between breakouts, that's totally okay.

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If you don't have anything

to do, pay attention.

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I might have something useful.

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We've got some really

smart people sharing stuff.

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We just had The folks from InfiniteList,

they're a done for you giveaway program.

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So, you know, if you've heard about

giveaways as a list building tool,

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they do all the work for you, you

just have to send out a couple emails.

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It's really cool.

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They're going to be coming in talking

about giveaways, just sign them up,

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and some other things like that.

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But, what?

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Me get distracted?

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Who?

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Yes.

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Okay, so, as I said you are going to

want to have a place to copy notes to.

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Because sometimes it's not as simple as

a calendar link, sometimes you want to...

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Grab someone's info and copy it down.

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Sometimes they don't give you a calendar

link, maybe there's just an email

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address, or LinkedIn, or whatever.

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You're gonna get to it later.

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Copy those things over in real time.

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Do not assume You'll just save the chat.

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Now you can save the chat.

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That's totally cool.

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If you haven't done it already,

there is a setting in Zoom that

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lets you automatically save

every chat from every meeting.

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I recommend you set that to being on.

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They're not very big files and it avoids

that, Oh, I forgot to save the chat.

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So definitely do that.

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And for the love of God,

log in from a computer.

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Do not try to log in from a phone.

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You want to log in from a phone?

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Fine.

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Don't complain about not having the

chat, and don't ask people for the chat.

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If you're logging in from a

phone, you're sitting in the

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balcony and you're watching.

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Alright?

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You're not fully engaged in the event.

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It's fine, you gotta do what you gotta do.

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But I'd come with the right equipment.

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You know, you don't go to an event

without dressing up properly.

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Don't come to a virtual event without

being on the right Technology, right?

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That's just my, my little rant there.

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Again, I'm not gonna stop you.

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You wanna be on your phone?

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Be on your phone.

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I don't care.

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But it's gonna be much, much harder

to communicate with people if you

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are not on a laptop, desktop device.

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So, keep place ready to take notes.

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Copy those over, if you need to, you know,

cut and paste, do that kind of thing.

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What Kendra recommended, what she says

she does, is she has a Google Sheet ready.

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So, she has a, she already has

the header set up for what she's

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going to want to keep track of.

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And if she sees something interesting,

she puts that information right

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there in the Google Sheet.

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And then afterwards, she can

follow up by going down the sheet.

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She's my VA, she creates orders,

she's really good at that order thing.

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Me?

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Not so much.

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So, if you are one of those orderly

people, have a Google Sheet, or a

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notepad, or something ready to copy

content into, so you're ready to

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follow up when you have a moment.

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If you're like me, and you're like,

ah, I don't need more stuff to

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follow up with, that's too much work.

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No problem.

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Just do it right then and

there, calendar link, bam.

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See someone you want to meet?

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Shoot them your calendar link.

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BAM!

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Your calendar link should have questions.

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I believe I've talked about this in

a previous episode or somewhere else.

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I know I talk about this all the time.

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Your calendar link should have questions.

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Questions should include,

Where did we meet?

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Don't start your conversation that you

have in February because you met so many

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people saying, Where did we meet again?

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Waste of time.

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One question, where do we meet?

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Another one, who is

your ideal introduction?

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Who would you most

likely be introduced to?

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That's a great one.

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Something like, what are

you working on right now?

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Or what's your biggest

frustration in your business?

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Or anything in that space that

gives you that understanding.

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You know, questions like that.

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And you can also use this.

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I, on mine, have a question that says,

Can I add you to my email community?

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And most people will say yes.

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Now you're growing your list.

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They can always unsubscribe

if they want to.

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Now don't do this if your list is

one of those pitchy, spammy lists.

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You don't want your network

or partners on there.

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But if your list is high quality,

valuable content that people like

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getting, then yeah, ask questions.

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Can I add you to my community?

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A lot are going to say yes, they're going

to get it, they're going to love you.

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If you send emails like I do.

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So, that's, that's kind of

my tip, a couple tips for

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keeping track of everything.

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And the biggest thing, don't

worry, don't worry about it.

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You're not going to catch everything.

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You're not going to get every opportunity.

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This is an abundant space.

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You're going to be surrounded

by dozens or hundreds of people.

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There might be a hundred people who

would be good for you to meet with.

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Maybe you're going to

follow up with 20, of them.

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That's awesome.

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That's 40 follow ups.

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How great is that?

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Who cares about the 60 you didn't get?

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Think about the 40 you did get.

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And all the 60 you missed?

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Come back in March.

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Come back in June.

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Come back in September.

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You can meet them then.

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You only have so much time to follow up.

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So don't worry about,

Oh, I missed something.

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Oh, I missed a follow up.

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I missed a calendar.

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Don't worry about it.

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If it's meant to be, you'll see

them in another breakout room.

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Entrepreneur'd happened because I met

Laura Lake in a big breakout room and we

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sort of connected but didn't really gel.

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And then we made each other another

breakout room where she was there and Eli

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Delaney was there and a few other people

and we started talking about entrepreneur

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and we're like, Oh, this would be great.

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We should do this.

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And then, we did a one on one,

there's going to be a couple, we're

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going to do that, a couple speed,

speed networking one on ones.

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And there I was with Laura Lake, and

I was like, we got a new entrepreneur.

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We do, we got to do it.

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And it was a year later when the stars

aligned, and we were able to actually

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put that together, and yes, there will

be another entrepreneur next year.

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But, it was meant to be, so it happened.

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Plenty of people at the event I

didn't end up connecting with,

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wasn't meant to be, didn't happen.

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It is what it is.

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You know, so don't stress

out, don't freak out.

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If you come out with, 10

good, 5 good connections.

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If you spend 2 days and come up with

5 really good connections, that's

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a good investment of your time.

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10, that's a really good investment

of your time, for, for that much time.

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Think about any networking event

you've gone to, any hour or 90 minute

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networking event, how many really good

connections did you come out with?

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Usually it's 1, maybe

2, 3 if you're lucky.

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So if you go to a 14 hour event, and

you come out with 30 connections,

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That's over to an hour pretty solid

if you come out with 45 even better

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But pretty solid pretty solid

investment time plus you're gonna.

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You know learn some stuff You're gonna

get around some people you're gonna be

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seen by people you'll see and be seen

so a lot of good stuff happening There

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if you are not yet registered for JV

connect You should get on that because

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the rates gonna be going up somewhat soon.

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It's going up regularly It's a a

ramping rate, so it's not one of those

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like there's no early bird in regular.

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Nope 30, 50, 70, 90, 110, 130,

150, depending on when you get it.

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And I don't know when you're listening.

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So I mean, I can tell you the prices

now, but go to JV dash connect.

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com.

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When you go there, hit the

register button and that will give

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you the details on the pricing.

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So I look forward to seeing

you at the next JV connect.

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Whenever you're listening to this,

hopefully you've found this valuable.

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If you have maybe share it with

a friend, tell someone about it.

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And if you don't know, I do

a daily motivational podcast

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called morning motivation.

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So search wherever you listen

to podcasts for Morning

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Motivation by Michael Whitehouse.

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It's really gotten a lot of

traction, so check it out.

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You might like it.

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A lot of other people do.

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And be sure to check out our next

episode with another great interview.

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Do I know which one it is?

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No.

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But you probably do, because you've

got the podcast list in front of you.

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So, check that out.

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We've got some awesome

interviews this season, and, of

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course, awesome solo content.

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And do share it with your friends.

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This is Michael Whitehouse,

the guy who knows a guy.

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You are the listener, I am the podcaster,

and hopefully you learned something.

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See you in the next episode.

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The Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast
They say it's not what you know, it's who you know, and it's true that a network is one of your most important assets. A network is not something you're born with. It's something you build. Every week, Michael Whitehouse, the author of The Guy Who Knows A Guy, and established connector in Southeast Connecticut will interview experts and entrepreneurs from Southeast Connecticut to share their expertise and experience with you.

He'll also answer your questions directly on topics of networking, sales, marketing, entrepreneurship and more. Email in your questions in text or audio format. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/guywhoknowsaguy/support

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