Three steps to building meaningful relationships

At a networking event, someone approached me and said “Joe, you seem to be all over social media, everywhere I look I see you! How do you build meaningful relationships with people online. Especially when there is so much activity and it all seems so overwhelming.”

I looked at him and thanked him for the compliment.

“Building meaningful relationships both online and offline is hard work, it does not just happen automatically. If you do take the time to learn how to build your network of trusted relationships, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.”

He wanted to know HOW! So he asked me the following question that most people do not ask but everyone should be asking this!

“Joe, I get that meaningful relationships are important and that its hard work but I have two problems, first of all, I do not have the time to reach out to my ideal relationships. I am too busy working and putting out fires to be networking. Second, It’s super awkward to reach out to people that I do not know. I feel like I have nothing to say. What is a practical strategy to make time to be proactive and to break the ice with new contacts?”

He wanted a practical strategy to build relationships.

It is a very good thing he asked me that question because I have been thinking about this for a long time.

For way too long, I have been looking for the “time” to build meaningful relationships and I had a real fear of rejection. I also did not want to build relationships with people that will be wasting my time and their time.

There are over 7 billion people on this planet and I only have time to get to know a few hundred per year. I need to make sure that I am meeting the RIGHT people otherwise, I will never get to my goal.

Here is what I said “There are three steps to building meaningful relationships. The steps are Identify, Leverage and Grow. You first have to understand who you want to meet, why you want to meet them and you have to get to know yourself a little better. Once you have a foundation around your most ideal contacts, what you want from them and what you can give them. Then you can try and leverage the people you already know. If you are in business for a few years, there are many relationships that you have that need nurturing that you are probably ignoring. You must recognize, strategize and prioritize your current relationships so that you can properly leverage them and you can properly leverage the ones that you will be adding in the future. Finally when you have a clear plan about how to handle your current contacts and connections you move on to the final stage of relationship building which is GROW. For me it's all about creation, location and action. That means that you will NOT make time to build relationships if you do not have a plan. This three step plan WORKS for me and my clients. I created 9 hours worth of classes around this and every single person that took my classes have said that it's the most transformational networking education that they ever experienced.”

He was impressed with my knowledge of networking and the fact that I actually have a strategy. 

“Joe, Can you help me identify who I need to meet with and then assist me in leveraging my current connections so I can grow my network?”

I was glad he asked because, I am now offering a new solution that will enable people to leverage LinkedIn to get you qualified meetings each month with people you actually want to build relationships with.

Want to find out more? Setup a call with me. www.ajaxunion.com/talktojoe

Looking forward to speaking to you!

Joe Apfelbaum

Ajax Union