We’ve been discussing the various aspects of your community: who you want them to be, who you must be for them to want you as a community member, and today, Where must you be to meet these people?
Here’s a fact: people with same values, principles and virtues tend to frequent the same places:
Gyms (patriots)
Churches
Synagogues
Restaurants
Grocery stores
Social events
Clubs—not nightclubs but speaking clubs, rotary clubs, etc.
Networking events
There are probably more but that gives you a good start. Once you have come up with these places, the next step is to devise an action plan, based upon the most leveraged ideas you’ve come up with, to schedule yourself time to get out to these places…
(upbeat music) - Welcome back to our series that-- (laughs) - Calm down over there. - Gonna have some punch. Welcome back to our series. - Welcome back to the-- - Okay, okay, okay, okay. We've been discussing the importance and the impact of your community, and we're well into the series now. We've taught you how to define who your community members, that you want to be, who they should be. We've talked to you about who you have to become so that they'll be attracted to you and various aspects of your community, who they are. And just as well as who they are not, who you want them to be, who you must be. And today, the question is, okay, James and Barisabah. In fact, I'll just ask you Barisabah. - Uh-oh. - If we're gonna meet our community, where do I need to be to meet these people? - Well, I think it depends on your values. - It really does. (laughs) But it's very much dependent upon your values because here's a fact. People with the same values, principles, and virtues tend to frequent the same places. - You're not gonna meet them in a club unless your values are clubbing. - Well, not a nightclub, but what about a speaking club or a rotary club, something of that nature? So people of the same values, principles, and virtues tend to be in the same places. So where can you meet these people? Well, let's say the gym. Now, it's a really interesting phenomenon because Barisabah and I go to the gym several days a week together and we didn't really think about meeting people when we went there. - No, but we liked the gym and it's very close to our home. And then come to find out almost every single person in the gym is a patriot. - Yeah. - And so are we. And so it was really interesting that even that energy was in that place even though we weren't going after it. And that's a key point we'll talk about a little bit later. Another great place to meet people is in churches. You can meet them in synagogues, the similar restaurants. People with the same values, principles, and virtues tend to be in the same restaurants. Grocery stores. You know, we used to go to a particular grocery store and we don't go there anymore because it seems like the people that went there wanted to wear masks all the time and really weren't that nice. And so we don't go there anymore. But there are grocery stores where you can go with similar people. - Farmers market. - Values, principles, virtues. We go to the farmers market. Social events and networking events. We already talked about clubs, not nightclubs. Unless that's your values and virtues which hopefully is not. But rotary clubs, speaking clubs, clubs of that nature. Networking events. And here's a real key insight to networking events. You know, Bertha and I went to an art show some months back. And we dressed up nicely. It was one of her favorite artists. What's his name? Do you remember? - Richard McDonald. - Richard McDonald, if you're watching, we just gave you a plug. He does great artwork on the human anatomy. - Great sculptor. - Great sculptor on, and you can look him up on Instagram, certainly. But we went to this event and we weren't really planning on networking and we weren't working the room. Key point. When you go to a networking event, please don't work the room. - How many business cards do we give out, Bertha? - Zero. - Zero. We have some. We have a nice business card with our URL on it and with our picture on it. - Yeah, it's important. - That's important. - We're not hunting. That's so important. You're not hunting. You know, it has a QR code on it and it has our picture. And that's an important thing too to consider because if you just have your name on your business card, no one's gonna remember who you are. The mind thinks in pictures. But we don't give out business cards. If you go to a networking event, you'll find that most people are handing you their business card and wanting to tell you what they do and how they can provide service to you because they're hunting. - Yes. - Don't hunt. Attract. Attract people. - Call them to me. - What I frequently share with my one-on-one clients is you're in the card collection business, not the card distribution business because 99 times out of 100, if you come home with a stack of cards, what are you gonna do with those? Trash, throw them away. And so they do that with yours as well. So network, but network wisely. There's probably a lot more places, but hopefully that gives you some good ideas and a good start. When you come up to these places, the next step is to devise an action plan based upon the most leveraged ideas that you've come up with. Scudge yourself time to get out to these places and please remember, key point, community is about relationship. It's not about... - Hunting. - Hunting. As we stated, we went to the gym and we weren't really intending to meet and network, not at all, we were intending to work out. And yet we've met some really nice people there who have common values and virtues and never ceases to turn me off and maybe it's probably you too. When you attend a network in a van and some type of people that you're talking to obviously have absolutely no interest in who you are or what you're doing. They're the room scanners, you know, who those people are. - You're talking to them and they're looking over your house. - They're looking around the room for their next best-- - I'm like, I'm over here. - Their next best mark. No, all they care about is trying to get you to fulfill their needs. Whatever their needs may be. This can often be unsaid, it's often unverbal, but people pick up very quickly on your energy and your body language. So be genuinely interested in people and the people that you're speaking with. Remember, you're not looking for a quote mark. You're looking to potentially build a new relationship with someone who may be a long-term part of your community. Maybe, maybe not. You don't always do that. But you want someone that you have an interest in and that you have common values for choosing principles. Final thought, you know, I used to teach sales and influence at AT&T School of Business. I can promise you that there's a principle that is timeless and is cross-contextual. Even though this isn't typically a sales situation, take the principle and apply it to all your interactions. Write this down. Your ears will outsell your mouth every day of the week. True. Be a good listener. Be a great listener. Be a genuine listener. So now you've got some work to do and some things to do. So get busy. Be grateful and you will be grateful. Thank you so much for a few moments of your day. Thank you for being here. And we'll see you next week. God bless. 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