The Power of Strategic Introductions and How to Ask for Them

Health of the Victoria falls bridge lies in Zambia. The other half license and Bob way. And all of it. Straddles the Mighty's MBZ river. In October of 2019, I free fell 111 meters off that bridge strap to the body of a woman who I had been introduced to by a thoughtfully written email. Welcome to episode 54 rhyme discussing the awesome power of strategic introductions. This episode is sponsored by Nickerson. A full service, branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency with team members in Boston. LA. Miami and New York city. Visit them@nickersoncos.com. You don't have to go. As far as I did. You don't have to plan trips and attempt death defying acts together. But strategic introductions are some of the most absolute best ways to create long lasting relationships. And there is science to back this up. There's a concept in social network theory called triadic closure. Which states that if two people who do not know each other, share a common connection. They will bond more quickly when they meet via this connection. It's similar to the friends of my friends or my friends idea. My network is made up of a number of beautiful relationships that only exist because someone in my network took the time to say, Hey, Do you know, Julie Brown. I think you guys should know each other. Let me connect you. Or because I took the time to think about who I wanted to be connected to you and ask someone in my network, if they would be willing to make the introduction. As I look back on the list of amazing kick ass guests we've had on the podcast over the past year. I would be remiss if I didn't mention which of those guests were the result of a strategic introduction. Summer Martin was the result of a strategic introduction summer lives in Texas. And I never would've had access to her without someone connecting us. I was introduced to Lydia denworth by my friend lisa Nickerson's who, you know, as a sponsor of this podcast. I'd ask Lisa, if she would connect us after I saw Lydia or present on Lisa's lunch with Lisa YouTube show. I had been researching Nicole Kahleel and discovered we had a mutual friend. So I asked that mutual friend, Erin to introduce me to Nicole. Maya. And I had known each other for years, but our original introduction was through a mutual friend who thought that we just had to know each other. When I discovered precious Williams, I learned that we shared one, just one mutual connection. Cleone Mainville who graciously offered to connect us. Dr. Marissa Franco, whose episode is one of the most downloaded episodes was the result of a strategic introduction from a person I actually never met, but who I became Instagram friends with during COVID. And Joe solely also came from a strategic introduction. Strategic introductions work well, if you know who you want to be introduced to why you want to be introduced and also who in your network has a strong enough connection to that person to make the introduction for you. In chapter five of my book, I lay out my five tips on how you can ask the people in your network for a strategic introduction. Here are those five tips. No, who you would like to be introduced to and why? If you don't have a specific person in mind, but you are actively trying to grow your network, at least know what type of person you'd like to be connected to. Two. No, who within your network has the strongest connection to that person? In introduction from a top five person will go a lot farther than an introduction from someone the other person doesn't know particularly well, or hasn't talked to in a very long time. Three. When you make the ask, don't just say, Hey, can you connect me to so-and-so without letting that other person know why you would appreciate the connection and what you might possibly be able to offer to the person they are connecting you to. So for me, if it's for this podcast, I could say I'm doing an episode on X, Y, and Z. And I think my audience would benefit from so-and-so's experience. Would you be willing to connect us? Four. Include information that your connection can easily send to their contact. This information will provide context for the introduction and make it easy for them to send along or copy and paste without too much hassle. So for me, that would be a link to my website or link to stats on this podcast, maybe. List of previous guests, anything that shows my social proof and why this person might want to be connected to me as well. And fine. Be respectful. If you're a contact, doesn't feel comfortable making the introduction. There are a number of reasons why that might be the case. I don't take it personally. Simply look at your network and determine who else might be able to assist you with this introduction. Those are tips for when you want to ask someone to make a, strategic introduction for you. But to be a kick ass networker, you should also be looking at your relationships and asking yourself, who can I connect so-and-so with? What connections in my network would benefit from knowing each other. I love when I get an email that connects me to someone I don't know, because that other person has already done the leg work by saying, Hey, you two should know each other for all of these reasons. I'm surprised you haven't already connected. If I get an email that says something to the effect of Julie, I want to introduce you to my friend, bill. Like you, he's a skier mountain. Biker adrenaline junkie, who also appreciates a nice buttery Chardonnay and oh yeah. He's in our industry. And as a member of so-and-so organization, I already love bill and I haven't even met him yet. This is how triadic closure paired with a fun and thoughtful introduction can change your networking game. And it's also a very efficient way to grow your network. You haven't even left your computer screen and potentially amazing relationships sitting right in front of you. So your homework for today is to look at your network and think. Are there people I know who would benefit from knowing each other. And then connect them in a fun and thoughtful way. If you're interested in some fun examples i have some in my book for you to look at and use as inspiration for your next strategic introduction This week, the drink of the week is high noon spiked seltzer. Listen, I'm not a canned. Spiked seltzer fan at all, but I really, really like these and they have quickly become my go-to thing to throw in my golf bag cooler. They are very popular on the golf course. It's a mix of real vodka, real juice and seltzer. My favorite right now is the pineapple. I don't know why they taste so much better than all the other seltzers on the market. They just do. If you go to the website, they have these real. They have these funny zoom backgrounds that you can download, or if you're doing like virtual happy hours. Are we still doing virtual ones? So, if you're doing virtual happy hours, they have fun backgrounds. All right, friends. Thanks so much for being here. This was a fun episode for me to think back, just even just how strategic introductions have affected this podcast and made it so much better. Remember to like subscribe and leave a review and share it with your friends. And until next week, Cheers.