Building Relationships and Connection to Find Clients
Feb 25, 2021
This week on the podcast I’m joined by Nikki Tapley of The Inspire Network. Nikki is a networking expert as well as an entrepreneur, investor and business coach.
The Inspire Network is an amazing community of women, centred around building networks and relationships. Nikki’s passion is supporting women to thrive whether they’re new to business or have been trading for some time.
Nikki networks for a living and feels very privileged to be able to do so. She feels networking is massively misunderstood, but once you know how it works, it’s a huge amount of fun.
What’s at the Core of Networking
At its heart, networking is about building relationships. This is the same for every aspect of building a business. It should follow that anyone who has an interest in business, also has an interest in relationships and people.
Building the Online Community
Nikki became the leader of The Inspire Network just before the first COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020. Whilst the network had a 12,000 strong community on Facebook, numerous in-person events backed it up. Suddenly in-person meetings couldn’t go ahead so Nikki pivoted to take it wholly online. She found that business owners were turning to their support sources for advice online, including Facebook.
Although initially Nikki wasn’t known within the network, the members knew each other. Her task over the past year was to focus the community on being helpful and beneficial to each other. It also had to be manageable and sustainable for the owners.
The Difference Between a Facebook Group and a Membership Community
Facebook groups are often made up of people with differing agendas. They often promote their content without interacting or forming the necessary relationships to build and strengthen their business.
Members of communities such as The Inspire Network have made a commitment to their business. They recognise their business is important enough to invest in.
Whatever type of business you’re in, you have to get clients from somewhere. Many of Inspires members are health and wellbeing practitioners and therefore share a common interest. This leads to forming relationships, forging partnerships and opening doors for each other.
The understanding is that whilst you’re sharing your knowledge, others are sharing theirs too. You can add lots of value for your clients through trusted referrals, and others refer clients to you too.
Working together women succeed – no-one can exist in a silo.
Other Opportunities Inspire Offers
The Inspire Network also provides masterminding, training and other opportunities to help your business grow. They aspire to be the team that many small, female-led businesses do not have. One which is a valuable use of time, where women feel safe to talk about challenges and share wins, whilst building support networks and helping each other out.
One of Inspire’s internal sayings is: “We want to help as many people as possible, as much as possible, for as little price as possible.” Nikki and her team are working on making this happen by developing more training opportunities for their membership. Currently, there’s a free monthly masterclass, often led by a member, giving them an opportunity to showcase their knowledge.
From my personal experience of The Inspire Network, it was an absolute no-brainer to sign up. It’s affordable for any small business and the value provided is exceptional – find out more information from their website.
Podcast 54 Show Notes:
- (01:50) What’s at the Core of Networking
- (03:10) Building the Online Community
- (07:30) The Difference Between a Facebook Group and a Membership Community
- (09:22) The Benefits of Being an Inspire Member,
- (14:12) Other Opportunities Inspire Offers
Connect with Nikki and The Inspire Network:
