Why is networking, and surrounding yourself with the right people, so important?
If you run your own business, you may well spend hours upon hours on your own. Gets a bit lonely doesn’t it? Productivity can be a challenge. Sometimes we don’t know where to turn for a sounding board. Where to go to share ideas, celebrate successes, or commiserate on the low points.
We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur and Motivational Speaker
This is so true! Often those five will include family or friends, but it’s important we think about who we are spending time with in our business lives. We need the right people around us to make things work.
What happens when networking works?
At the end of 2017, Anna and I met at a networking event (another important element of being an entrepreneur is getting out there, something we can all be apprehensive about!). Subsequently, we met numerous times, became each others’ client, and just clicked. We are quite different but share similar visions. We have fun together and we have the same positive mindset and attitude to life.
One day we decided to get together and talk about running a workshop. An hour later we had the bare bones of We Are Tabono – and the rest, as they say, is history!
As well as Tabono being a fantastic programme that we both get incredibly excited about, we also get to spend time working together. This has huge benefits on productivity, accountability, idea generation, sharing of skillsets and keeping each other company through the ups and downs!
What does that mean for me?
When we talk about having the right people around you, it might be about team members or business partners and associates. In our case, we have our Experts. They bring an invaluable contribution to our programme, but we also love spending time with them. But it might also be about coaches, mentors or accountability partners. It might be about meeting other entrepreneurs at business events or networking meetings. It might be about booking time to see friends or family members.
But always ensure that you spend time in the right, positive, encouraging company. If you don’t have that with your contacts, things can start to feel heavy.
Making sure that you surround yourself with the right people is a key part of the Tabono programme. To find out more, hop over to Module 9!