Navigating the Web of Success: Mastering Networking and Collaboration with Sara Branch

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Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Rhonda Pearson, where we will dive deep into the world of networking, collaboration and partnership, unlocking the secrets to a successful team working within innovation.

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Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional or just someone eager to understand the power of networking and collaboration, this podcast is your go-to resource.

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Join us as we explore the stories, strategies and insights from experts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.

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Tune in to Ready.

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Set Collaborate podcast on a journey towards achieving your goals with host Wanda Pearson.

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Welcome, welcome to Ready Set.

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Collaborate with Wanda Pearson.

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I am so excited to be on this podcast with Sarah Branch that I met and I tell you, sarah, networking is a key to success, wouldn't you say?

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Oh, absolutely.

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Nobody can sit in isolation and make progress.

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Yeah, yeah, you really do.

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And I tell you, I started getting out.

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When COVID happened.

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I was out already.

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They call me the networking queen.

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They probably call you a networking queen too, right.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, but then I got out and did a lot of networking when I left corporate and I'm going to talk about your bio in a minute when I left corporate after 36 years and I didn't know how to network, I said I don't know, but I had that social work in me, so I like working with people in the community.

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So I actually started with BNI, taught me how to network, and once I started to know how to network, how you have to do it, know and trust people to do business with them, with you.

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That is how I actually started getting more into the other networking groups.

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But I'm excited to be not.

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I never looked back Sarah at corporate.

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I said I'm done, I'm done, I was.

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I didn't have the age but I had the year, so that was a plus of that one is.

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But thank you for being on my podcast and I'm going to talk about your bio a little bit here and then we're going to dive into some questions.

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Sound good, that sounds great.

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Thanks, oh, I forgot to tell you.

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So the sponsor is WD Pearson Associates, where I can coach, connect you and actually help you with our services with LegalShield, idc and small businesses.

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So I would love to be able to connect with you to tell you more about what our services are about, too, sponsored by WD Pierce Associates and our services in Legal Shield.

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Sarah, let's get down to your bio, because you got a lot Girl.

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I'm looking at your bio.

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Great, you're in Georgia.

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You're in Georgia, peach.

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Huh, I am Born and raised in Atlanta.

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Yeah, that's awesome.

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So Sarah is an Atlanta neighbor.

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Yes, actually, in the city of Atlanta.

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She is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and has been in sales training and software training for her entire career.

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Yes, growing her sales and sales training career, she realized the value of maintaining a business network.

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A good network provides leads and referrals.

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So true, before automation, she kept business cards organized and all her co-workers out.

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I'm sorry, she kept business cards organized and all her co-workers knew she had a connection for just about any type of business.

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That's great, that's great.

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She has won awards for personal and team sales.

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Also, she has created award-winning training courses and events, as well as been recognized as a top classroom trainer.

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In 2021, she was ready to leave the corporate world and started looking for a business to buy.

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She and her husband researched business opportunities that will complement his existing business coaching practice.

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More than a year later, after much due diligence, they bought a network and action franchise that will complement his existing business coaching practice.

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More than a year later, after much due diligence, they bought a network and action franchise and in March of 2023, she left her corporate job to become a self-employed entrepreneur.

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Yay, sarah, that's what it is.

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Network and action is a business networking concept that blends 21st century technology with traditional face-to-face meetings, and it emphasizes training its members to be better networkers.

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Most of the job changes she made in her career came about because of her network, and she found networking action from recommendation in her husband's network.

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Today, sarah is going to share a few of the skills, techniques and resources needed to get connections to build a profitable network, because connections change everything.

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That is well said, sarah.

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I tell you that is so good Because, like I said, I didn't do networking before.

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My husband was in sales, my father was in sales and I said, see, I'm a social worker, I would never do sales.

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I mean now, don'll never say never, right.

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Exactly.

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That's great.

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Because you never know what God has planned for you.

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Never know Exactly.

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So I'm going to ask you a few questions, we're going to dive into it and then you can dive on.

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I want you to talk about what you do and how you do this.

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But the first question I want to ask how important do you think networking is for collaboration, and why?

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Networking is.

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You can't have collaboration without networking.

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You've got to know people.

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Not only know people, but know what their skills are.

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And once you've learned their skills then you can start matching people to for collaboration, for referrals.

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But collaboration, more than anything, I think, is how people really get to know each other.

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You work on a project together, you help solve a problem together.

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That collaboration really cements the know and trust process and from that point you become a trusted source.

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Whether it's for referrals or for knowing people, whatever it is, you are a full trusted source once you've gone through the collaboration process.

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Absolutely, and that's why, sarah, I named the title of my podcast Ready Set Collaborate.

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Yes, I love it.

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It's wonderful.

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Yeah, I named it for that reason, because we all have to collaborate to be successful.

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When you collaborate, you network, because a lot of people when COVID happened, I actually got in my office and that's why I created my brand, wd Pearson Associates, where I was actually collaborating with other entrepreneurs to be able to how can we connect?

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And, just like you said, network and action how we can refer.

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So people come to me and say Wanda, do you know someone that does this or that?

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And so I said, oh yeah, I know that person.

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And I started thinking.

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So a lot of people say, when you have a conversation with Wanda, you may end up being on her webinar or her podcast.

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I was talking to you because I want to get your business out there.

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I want to get my business out there.

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How can we help each other?

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And that's exactly Exactly so.

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It's great to be able to have and when you said you did network in action, I said, ok, yes, I have to have her on my podcast.

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That's good, that's good.

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So let me ask you something.

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So can you share an example of a success collaboration that emerged from networking connections?

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Oh wow, let me see.

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I would have to say that my husband connected me with a person in his group simply because that person needed some unusual financing for paving equipment and I had to go talk to three or four different people who knew somebody else, who knew somebody else, and we put together three different people who were in the financing business who were able to come together, put a package together and help this gentleman buy the huge multimillion dollar piece of equipment that he needed for his paving business huge multi-million dollar piece of equipment that he needed for his paving business.

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And so that would not have happened if we hadn't had, first of all, the connection, of course, from my husband and that was his client and the three different people in the financing business who were able to collaborate and come together with the package that the man needed.

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So that's a fairly recent one.

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That's awesome.

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That's awesome.

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I'm glad you shared that, because it may not be one person, maybe two people, three people, to bring them all together to help that person, and the thing about it when you refer, and because I'm getting referrals from people I met years ago and I was networking in person, and also people who refer me from other clients, but that really makes a big difference with that.

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So let me ask you something here what strategies do you recommend for building and maintaining a strong professional network?

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I actually have a course that I've created on building a strategic networking plan, and it's a very specific process.

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Let me tell you where the idea came from.

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So I've been in sales all my life sales training, all that kind of stuff.

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If you Google sales training, you'll come up with a long list of companies that have sales training.

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If you Google networking training, you don't really get anything.

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Nobody has had a course in network how to network so I decided to create a course that is eight steps long, and step one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

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That will not only let you create and develop a strategic plan but implement that plan and track it.

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Much like you had a sales tracker, I've got a networking tracker that you can use to see how effective your networking is.

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So the first thing everybody really needs to know is their target audience.

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I think a lot of business people think they know it because of the experience they've had over time.

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But it always helps for a business owner, every couple of years or so, to sit down and say okay, I've been at this for a while, let me look at my target audience and see if it's really still the same people that I thought they were to start off with.

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And once you figured that out, the next step is not always obvious to everybody, and that is find out where your target audience hangs out.

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What conferences do they go to, what industry gatherings do they go to, and find a way to be in the same place at the same time as your target audience.

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That is a really good way to expand beyond just your immediate geography is to go to somewhere else where your target audience is hanging out at a conference.

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And then I go on to teach people what to say and what to do when you get to a conference.

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I teach them how to develop list of questions.

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I teach them how to very graciously interrupt an existing conversation so that they can get in a group of people and meet people and all of that to keep track of it.

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But the first two things that aren't always obvious to people is know your target audience and find out where they are and go meet them where they are.

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Everybody thinks your target audience is going to hang out at the networking groups that you go to.

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Not necessarily the case, so that's awesome.

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I love that.

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I want you to share that at the end as far as what your courses and how you can get into that.

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So I love that.

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I love that you actually and you know what that's true you don't see on Google network training.

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It's like you're learning it.

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You're thrown into it to figure out how to do it.

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So, no, that is awesome.

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So let me ask you another question.

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So, now that you do this and what you're doing now, how has technology, such as social media or online platforms, influenced networking and collaboration?

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Yeah, that is a very interesting question, I should say, because it is now put multiple layers in the process the capabilities, what am I going to do?

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How am I going to try it?

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And unfortunately, social media, to a large degree, has overwhelmed people.

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But if you're a professional person, I like to use a customer relationship management system, a CRM, to stay in touch with people, make sure that I'm either sending them a newsletter, sending them a text, something that gives them value, and LinkedIn is a very valuable resource because once you've posted content on LinkedIn, you can keep track of who has commented on your content, who has said oh, that's great, tell me more.

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And that is a wonderful way to get referrals, leads and to keep track of people who are actually interested in your content.

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So I believe in a customer relationship management system and LinkedIn is the two primary ways to get and keep a valuable network.

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Absolutely.

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I love that because actually that's what I do with my LegalShield clients here.

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I send newsletters out because I like I'm an educator, I like to educate and empower and to share my what I know with my clients and say, okay, I'm reaching out to you and let you know I'm thinking about you.

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But here's my newsletters with some good information, education on this.

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I love it.

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And as far as LinkedIn, also with blogs my marketing manager we just had this conversation earlier today and we talked about that.

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As far as because a lot of times you send out newsletters, sarah, people don't open those newsletters, so how can you get them to open up those newsletters?

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What those newsletters?

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So how can you get them to open up those newsletters?

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What's the best way to do that?

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And we were just talking about that today.

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So she is great.

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I said, yeah, you're the marketing guru, you do whatever you have to do to help me do that, and she does.

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She's great at doing that.

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And so actually, my next, after my other series, I'm going to be having a marketing series as well, which is great to help people.

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But that's a good answer there.

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So tell me about using collaboration to build a network.

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And then I want you to tell me about your networking action.

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Okay, so I'll start with collaboration.

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Collaboration if you're really intentional about collaboration, it just becomes a way of life.

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For example, when I meet somebody new and I meet them in a networking event, that's what we're there for is to be connected at the networking event.

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But once you're talking to a new connection, you should always ask them oh, do you know anybody who does landscaping?

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Do you know anybody who is a personal injury lawyer?

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Do you know anybody?

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Ask them immediately if they have someone in their network that you'd like to be connected to, and everybody will help.

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Also, another thing is to ask to get a one-to-one appointment.

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Most people wait until after an event and they've collected business cards to go home and think, huh, how am I going to get a one-to-one with this person?

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And what I teach people to do is have your phone in your hand and say, hey, Wanda, we need to get a one-to-one.

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Open up your calendar, let's see when we have time, and my closing line that I use is I would love to know more about what you're working on, and I'll tell you what I'm working on.

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Let's see how we can help each other.

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Yeah, I love that and I actually tell Dennis too when he comes to the now group that's why.

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But I say, take out your phone and schedule those one to ones for people, because you just never know.

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Because once you get home you say, okay, I have to do this.

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And now I went to one Friday but I got sidetracked with the grandkids.

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So I said I'm trying to follow up now about the good conversations I had with them.

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That's great.

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So tell me about your network in action.

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Okay, as you read in my bio, I was ready to get out of the corporate world and my husband and I decided we wanted to find a business that would be complementary to his existing business coaching practice, and he too owns a franchise it's called Action Coach.

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He also has a master's degree in industrial organizational psychology, so he can go pretty deep into people and how people work at work and help companies with that.

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But we thought there had to be a way that we could find a business, as I said, would complement each other, and, through a networking friend that my husband had, he was invited to a network and action meeting several years ago and after having attended for four or five months, he came back and he said, sarah, networking action is exactly what you need to do, because you can get people in a group.

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You network people.

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He and I talked about passing leads back and forth.

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So that was, those were the decision criteria that we used, complementary to my husband's business, and something that would match my personality, which I'm an extrovert and I love to talk to people.

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I love to connect people.

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Yeah, that's awesome.

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I'm the same way.

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I'm the extrovert and my husband's the introvert.

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Right exactly, Bringing those together.

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Okay, then I said I'm still training even though he was a salesperson.

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He was a salesperson.

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He said, okay, why don't you?

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I said, but I don't know sales, but I got out there and just started doing that.

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I just started being myself.

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But no, that's great.

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I love how you and your husband work together.

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And you bounce things off and you give these to him, and he gives these to you.

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Now, that's collaboration.

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It truly is.

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It truly is, it truly is.

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That is collaboration.

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No, I love it.

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So let me ask you another question.

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So what role does trust play in a successful collaboration and how can networking contribute to building trust?

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Yes, that's what we're all looking for.

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Right Is to work with somebody we know and trust.

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And I look at networking and collaboration slightly differently.

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Networking is where you go to meetings, where you go to conferences, and your goal is to be connected to people whom you think should be part of your network.

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And it isn't until you really get to know those people that you start.

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Your mind starts thinking oh, we could work on a project together.

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Oh, I should introduce this new connection.

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Let's call him Joe.

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I need to introduce Joe to Sally, because Sally needs the skills that Joe has.

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So networking comes first, and then collaboration really happens in your mind when you start thinking of all of your connections and how they could work together.

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To me, that's the difference between networking and collaboration.

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Absolutely.

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I love it, I love it.

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And then Billy makes it and that's that's what we come in.

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You know that person.

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You can trust them to refer them to a person, because that's your reputation online, right.

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Absolutely, absolutely.

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And I tell you, one of the big things is integrity.

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Integrity makes a big difference to me because when I got out and started networking after leaving corporate, I noticed that where's the integrity with these people?

00:19:00.403 --> 00:19:05.003
So one of my my guys I actually started networking with and he said, wonder, can you do a presentation?

00:19:05.003 --> 00:19:06.247
I said, what do you want me to do it on?

00:19:06.247 --> 00:19:08.342
And I end up doing it on integrity.

00:19:08.342 --> 00:19:11.771
Ah, that really makes a big difference.

00:19:11.771 --> 00:19:12.734
And I still got my.

00:19:12.734 --> 00:19:15.442
I still got my, my presentation on integrity.

00:19:16.025 --> 00:19:17.229
So that's great.

00:19:17.409 --> 00:19:31.546
No, yeah, it really makes a difference and and you want to make sure that you are referring that person that you trust and that they're going to be taken care of, because Sarah referred me to that person, yeah, so let me ask you something, and this is tips.

00:19:31.546 --> 00:19:37.538
So can you provide some tips for effective communication and relationship building within the professional networks?

00:19:37.558 --> 00:19:44.884
Yes, yeah, the best way to build relationships with people, once you've met them, is to ask them questions.

00:19:44.884 --> 00:19:49.088
Find out what's going on in their world, what's going on in their business?

00:19:49.088 --> 00:19:50.950
How long have you had your business?

00:19:50.950 --> 00:19:53.592
What made you decide to start the business?

00:19:53.592 --> 00:19:56.615
What problem were you solving by starting your business?

00:19:56.615 --> 00:20:07.351
People will tell you about them and their business, you about them and their business, and hopefully, in return, the other person will turn around and ask you questions.

00:20:07.351 --> 00:20:22.724
But the most effective way to find out what's going on in someone's business, or in their world for that matter, is to ask questions, and I like to work with people to develop lists of questions, because they'll be different depending upon the event that you're attending.

00:20:23.244 --> 00:20:29.589
Whether it's a business association morning breakfast, whether it's an industry conference that you've gone out of town to attend.

00:20:29.589 --> 00:20:34.713
The questions are very specific to the event that you're attending.

00:20:34.993 --> 00:20:35.835
That's what I like to do.

00:20:35.835 --> 00:20:49.503
I like that and I'm going to ask you because I talked about this in your bio, when you put in your bio about to share food, skills, techniques and resources needed to be to get the connections to build a profitable network, because I like it.

00:20:49.503 --> 00:20:53.540
Connection changes everything, so tell me a little about that, how that works there.

00:20:54.082 --> 00:20:56.244
I like and I don't remember who said this.

00:20:56.244 --> 00:20:59.148
I I don't remember, but I like the phrase.

00:20:59.148 --> 00:21:04.195
Your network is your net worth Exactly.

00:21:04.195 --> 00:21:21.866
And if you read books written on networking by all sorts of people, I've got three or four favorite authors, but they always tell you that you should have in mind the group of people who fit a certain purpose in your life.

00:21:21.866 --> 00:21:32.663
For example, if you know that you want to have people close to you could solve all sorts of problems, then you're going to have a group of people that are closer to you.

00:21:33.045 --> 00:21:37.923
Some people call that the circle of influence, some people call that a genius network.

00:21:37.923 --> 00:21:43.741
Whatever you want to call it, they are the most trusted, most capable of the people in your network.

00:21:43.741 --> 00:21:52.364
Then you may have a network for a particular geography or you may have a network for a particular business function.

00:21:52.364 --> 00:22:07.125
You just have to be able to think and say okay, this network serves a particular purpose and I need to put the type of people who fit that network in there and you keep track of them.

00:22:07.125 --> 00:22:20.765
I keep track of everybody on a spreadsheet before I put them in my CRM, so I know exactly how I met them and the circumstances under which we made the connection, so that I think that's very important.

00:22:22.468 --> 00:22:23.068
I love it.

00:22:23.068 --> 00:22:24.832
I love it and that really does make.

00:22:24.832 --> 00:22:25.954
That makes a big difference.

00:22:25.954 --> 00:22:28.367
Yeah, because that connection changes everything.

00:22:28.367 --> 00:22:28.990
It really does.

00:22:28.990 --> 00:22:33.130
Yes, because it may not be this year, next year, may not be that time, but it's always.

00:22:33.170 --> 00:22:45.074
You have them in that and I like that you keep a report on the network and I love that part there, so I definitely want you to share that at the end and how you people can get in contact with you.

00:22:45.074 --> 00:22:48.061
But I really appreciate everything that you just talked about here.

00:22:48.061 --> 00:22:49.846
This time goes by so fast, sarah.

00:22:49.846 --> 00:22:51.189
It does.

00:22:51.509 --> 00:22:52.330
It really does.

00:22:52.711 --> 00:22:59.133
I was having a good conversation with it at that time already, but tell people how they can get in touch with you.

00:22:59.819 --> 00:23:05.181
Yes, my name is Sarah, without an H and branch like a branch on a tree.

00:23:05.181 --> 00:23:24.230
So if you write my first name and last name together, sarah, branch at network and actioncom, that's my email, and my personal cell phone number is 4 0 4 3 1, 010-3678.

00:23:24.230 --> 00:23:37.291
And make sure that if you call me, that you leave a message for me Because, as most people do these days, if you don't recognize the number coming in, they don't answer it.

00:23:37.291 --> 00:23:39.585
But please leave a voicemail so I know what you want.

00:23:39.585 --> 00:23:42.391
And that's another thing.

00:23:42.391 --> 00:23:51.604
When people call me and leave me a message, one of the things I do immediately is put them in my contact list and my phone so when they call me back I know who it is.

00:23:51.604 --> 00:23:55.984
And that's another technique I teach people when they go to networking events.

00:23:55.984 --> 00:24:07.008
If you connect with somebody, make sure you get either a physical card or an electronic card and immediately put them in your contact list so you know who it is when they contact you.

00:24:07.259 --> 00:24:08.243
And where you met them at.

00:24:08.243 --> 00:24:08.685
Okay.

00:24:08.726 --> 00:24:08.926
Yes.

00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:13.327
Especially when you go through so many networking events now, so give me your email address again.

00:24:18.933 --> 00:24:31.567
It's sarahbranchcom, so sarahbranch at networkinactioncom, and your phone number again, it's 404-310-3678.

00:24:32.990 --> 00:24:35.512
Okay, great, that way, people all get this here.

00:24:35.512 --> 00:24:38.240
So you have been incredible, god.

00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:39.323
You taught me a lot of things.

00:24:39.323 --> 00:24:39.943
I appreciate it.

00:24:39.943 --> 00:24:40.424
Oh, thank you.

00:24:40.424 --> 00:24:54.875
I thank you for being on the Ready Set Collaborate podcast and make sure you share, follow and subscribe to our podcast, because that's how we can share our knowledge.

00:24:54.875 --> 00:25:04.267
Sarah just shared her knowledge, so you want to make sure that you share that information with other people, because a lot of people are getting out here now today, sarah, that don't know how to network.

00:25:04.267 --> 00:25:11.229
So you are great to say, okay, this is how you network and you have to get out there and we have to be a little bit more out there.

00:25:11.229 --> 00:25:12.441
A lot of people are introverted.

00:25:12.441 --> 00:25:16.368
This brings you out more so when you start meeting people.

00:25:17.191 --> 00:25:21.768
But thank you so much once again, sarah, for being on my Ready Set Collaborate podcast.

00:25:21.768 --> 00:25:34.029
I truly appreciate you, so remember, make sure you subscribe, follow and share, and also make sure you like my YouTube channel, the Debbie D Pearson Associates.

00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:45.991
Like the YouTube channel and subscribe to it, because all of my podcasts I'm slowly but surely getting them on there, sarah, on YouTube as well, so you're hearing us on the podcast, but you can see us on YouTube, all right.

00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:48.445
And thank you for inviting me, wanda, this was wonderful.

00:25:49.008 --> 00:25:50.352
Oh, you are welcome and thank you.

00:25:50.352 --> 00:25:51.603
Thank you for being my guest.

00:25:52.405 --> 00:25:53.067
Oh, you're welcome.

00:25:53.569 --> 00:25:54.010
Thank you.

00:25:55.500 --> 00:25:59.365
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Ready Set.

00:25:59.365 --> 00:26:00.346
Collaborate.

00:26:00.346 --> 00:26:11.148
For more information about the host head to WDPearsonAssociatescom and that's P-E-A-R-S-O-N.

00:26:11.148 --> 00:26:12.613
Want to connect?

00:26:12.613 --> 00:26:26.713
Send an email to Wanda at WDPearsonAssociatescom and, as always, stay tuned for the next episode of Ready Set Collaborate.

Navigating the Web of Success: Mastering Networking and Collaboration with Sara Branch

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