Week 13: The Art of Building Good Relationships

An Accountant's’ journey to navigate the landmine ‘Field of Everything’ but Accounting. 

I am writing "52 Cups of Espresso" weekly update on a Startup Journey for a #workleisure lifestyle brand. Documentation of lessons learned and advice along the way. See where the journey began here. Read on and join the conversation.

This past week, I’ve had quite a few people ask me about how I get connected with others in a new field. This week, I met and spoke in depth with Mike Casavant, a Creative Writer and Business Consultant, he is an all around good person and excels at relationship building. I generally document how I meet my features in the beginning of each blog, and I will also provide some of his advice throughout the blog as well. I cannot emphasize the importance of having the right people around you in the forming stages of a company. I can attest that relationships I’ve built along the way have fundamentally shaped my journey. These individuals you meet can often end up being your confidants on the most important decisions, as well as the guiding forces along your journey. 

Saturday afternoon, similar to a movie scene, where the protagonist is staring at the computer with a flashing cursor, I was mulling over how to revamp my marketing strategy. All of the sudden, I get a LinkedIn pop-up message from Mike Casavant. It started out with a funny response to my previous message, and then he ended it with “How are you doing today?” Instead of a typical response of “Good”, in the moment, I blurted out “marketing strategy problems”. Next thing you know, Mike offered to get on a call right then to help me brainstorm ideas. Practically strangers at that time, I was surprised and taken back by that response, I said ‘yes’ to the phone call subsequently scrambling to view his profile, so I can pretend like I knew who he really was. Thoughts going through my head. What does he do? Why is he being so nice? Is he a mind reader? Is he obsessed with his business card?

Soon, we got on a call and after fifteen minutes of me talking about my dilemma, he was able to quickly pick apart my problem. To revamp my marketing strategy, physically talking to ‘customers’ is important, I was making assumptions about what they are thinking and what their pain points are, but it’s important to confirm or deny these assumptions through talking. 

To that advice, I had plenty of excuses. “I don’t have a product in hand yet”, “My friends would be too kind to give me the truth”, “I can’t afford a focus group like the big companies!”. 

Mike simply responded, just reach out to them on Linkedin and “ask”, it’s free. When you speak with them, gather all the pictures or mock ups you have, or simply explain it conceptually.   

Mind blown, it was so simple. As an entrepreneur you are so used to your own way, it’s hard to see through the fog you have created. It really took a second perspective to point that out to me. 

Through further conversation, I learned more about his background. He has held many roles over his life, football player, chef, member of a boy band (Maybe it was hardcore rock band, sometimes my hearing is bad), physical trainer, executive coach, business owner and currently finishing his first book while helping business owners identify transactional solutions. I was amazed at all the different roles he’s had over his life, however, there is one commonality, his persistency at each job until he excels at it. Consistently looking to make his next move that would improve his thinking and his skill set. While wildly different, each job is an elevation to the next, and every time he follows his gut and puts 100% devotion and passion to each role. Most importantly, Mike is genuinely interested in people and their problems. It fascinates him to the Nth degree to understand pain points and how to resolve them.

His story is better told himself; tune into his podcast interview on Bold Moves by Mandie Mutchie. Where he talks about his transition from each job or role. 

Podcast Interview Here

Some may call his many roles Job ADHD, but I came to the realization that this is what entrepreneurs are made of. In some sense, they are constantly looking for failure, because they know every failure will lead you closer to success, and every success is just another excuse for more failure. 

This past week, I had readers reach out and ask about how to find and build relationships. Since this is clearly one of Mike’s strengths, I’ve asked him to share some tips:

#1 – Just Say Hello and Don’t Be Sensitive. All it takes is a “hello”, and making that first touch point of connection. Don’t be afraid of not getting a response or that you won’t hit it off, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll survive another day.    

#2 - Be Genuine and Authentic. Actually, Mike does not condone ‘networking’ events. He believes if you are networking for the sake of networking, you end up with a whole lot of surface discussions with acquaintances that may not necessarily lead to meaningful lasting relationships. Instead, just be genuine with whomever you come across, ‘networking’ situation or not.

#3 - Offer value. It doesn’t mean you should offer help whenever you need something from others, some of the greatest networkers genuinely enjoy helping others. Always, lead with helping others in mind, and do not expect reciprocity, you might be surprised at the depth of connection you could make along the way. Furthermore, if there’s someone that is hard to reach or you know is constantly bombarded with many connection invites or outreach, you should do your research in advance and get to know that person first and offer a value proposition based on that research. 

#4 – Bring Positivity. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a bad day, but it’s how you approach it that matters. Especially as an entrepreneur, you can’t dwell on things that has passed, a mistake today is a lesson tomorrow. Negativity simply serves to drain the spirit of yourself and others around you, it’s important to look up and bounce back from a negative situation as fast as possible.

#5 – Be Open and Flexible. It’s important to understand what others are doing, even if they are not in your field. Everybody’s multi-skilled and multi-talented, and it’s possible they could open your eyes on point of views you’ve never considered before. 

#6 – Use social networks. Leverage platforms like Linkedin or Shapr App (Tinder but for professional connections). Shapr was how Mike met Quentin Allums, CEO of Mad Genie, and ended up partnering with to help him grow the company the last several months. Gone are the days where you have to meet in person, everyone can be just a message away. Case in point, how Mike and I connected.

Leaving off with a quote from Mike...

Literally put forth every part of your being into becoming the best at what you love, and often times that means working against the grain. If you love what you do, try even doing it for free as a side hobby, until you figure out how to build a profitable business from it.  

Mike’s journey and thoughts reminds me of a powerful quote by writer Joseph Campbell, in The Power of Myth:

“Poets are simply those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss. If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

Mike, we hope you continue to follow your bliss. 

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Lisa Hu / Share this using #52weekstartup 

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