Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Leader By Design podcast. Today's episode, we are talking about creating connections and networking. And following from last week's episode, we're going to get a young leader's perspective. Emmy, I have with me today. So if you're involved in business, then you understand the power of creating connection and networking. Emmy's still at school, not in business yet, but has some work on the side also. So she's learning the power of creating connections and networking. So you. You'll get some learnings from this. You'll get a young person's perspective. And if this interests you, then stay tuned.
G'day. I'm Brendan Rogers. I've built a thriving business creating confident leaders who achieve the results they always wanted along with the lifestyle they always dreamed of. How do you become a confident leader? By focusing on three key.
Developing character, building confidence, and creating connection. This is the Leader by Design podcast.
Emmy, welcome again to the Leader By Design podcast. My co host.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Thanks for having me back again.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Always a pleasure. You've turned up for. Actually, you've turned up for a third Friday in a row. Something must be working for you.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: I think so. I think everything's going really well. Yeah.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Excellent. Excellent, Amy. So today, as we said in the intro, we're going to talk about creating connections, which is a term we like to use because we had a meeting last week. I'm running a event for a company called ET Australia, and it's about networking. But one of the core things was because of their alumni and their student cohort and also their adult training college cohort, they didn't really want to use the term networking because it puts people off. One of the questions you asked me is, what the hell is networking?
And I explained it to you, I think. So. What did you take from that? What have you learned about this weird term, old stuffy old man term called networking?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Networking is what we do every day. It's building connection with people, talking to people, using their connections to help you with your own personal use as well. And how can. How can. Yeah, how can you benefit from it? And can you get something out of it as well? And what can they get out of your personal network and your extended network as well?
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. We talked about your friendship group.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Didn't we?
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: So how is. How is your friendship group a network? How do you create connections in that?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Well, I don't know everybody that they know. They don't know all of my friends. But if I say I needed a favor, I could reach out to them and they could Be like, well I don't have this but I could ask such and such and they might be able to lend it to me and you can then use it and then I can get this information off them. So using my small network to reach out to other people's network as well.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Absolutely. So it's that, like we said that, that, that power of connection and, and the opportunity to create connections. Why do you think young people like yourself, young leaders like yourself would resonate with something like creating connection rather than calling it networking?
[00:03:16] Speaker B: I think because we do it all the time. As a young leader, what you aim to do, you aim to build connections with your school community, different families, different people you serve at work. And you don't know it as networking, you just know it as talking to people, making that connection when you talk to somebody you didn't actually know that had a title for it.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. It's, it's really. I mean networking is a bit of a stuffy terms sometimes. I think in my world, in the business world, that networking, one of the things we do struggle with in. So myself, I run with some co hosts of some friends of mine, we run an event called LinkedIn Local Central coast and it's effectively a networking event. But we're really focused on creating connection, building relationships.
We don't get many young people to these sort of things.
Tell us why.
What doesn't interest you about coming and spending some time with decent people and creating connection?
[00:04:14] Speaker B: As young people, we're not used to out talking to people. I think using our phones as well a lot we're used to just talking over social media or talking on messages and going out and building that connection isn't something we're familiar with all the time. I think it's that step out of your comfort zone, something you're not used to, something, oh, this could be really scary if I went and tried this. And something people might not want to experience out of their comfort zone because it isn't what is normal to them, it's something different, something new.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Let's talk about how this opportunity came for us to work together. So you're, as we said in last week's episode, you're from Central Coast Sports College, you're doing an internship through the college with myself and my business. How did it come about?
[00:04:59] Speaker B: I was stuck on a place to go and I knew what my interests were. I had my project of, like we said last week, the seven habits and finding an internship that relates to that. What could it be So I reached out to my LTI coordinator and she gave me a few ideas and Brendan was one of them. And it was fit riding with what I was learning at school. And it was a great suggestion. So following onto that, we sent an email. Tim, my advisor, gave Brendan a phone call, and from there we bounced back a few times and we secured it. We secured the email. So using our different connections in the school and how. Oh, I actually already had his number or Tim had his number. I know this guy, so I'm going to reach out for you as well.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: There you go. So, yeah, great point. It's through the connections and the relationship have been built. The relationships that have been built. So I've known Tim for some time and met him when I was working at the school. And also a lady called Julie Dolly Dolan, who's famous in the football circles, the. Especially the women's football circles, and Australian Matilda's legend, I know her very, very well and involved with some stuff outside of the college with Julie. And so through those connections, through those conversations, all of a sudden you're sitting here and last week you did your first podcast, and this week you're doing your second episode in a podcast, and there's going to be several more episodes to come. Did you ever think this was possible?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: No, I didn't ever think this would be possible at all. It was like.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: And how did it happen? Through your connections.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Through your connections.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: And we just don't know who other people know.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yep. And asking as well, do you know somebody who might be interested in that? And then giving you an answer for that as well.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: And isn't that such a great point? Like when you ask. But also, I know when we spoke last week, when you ask and you're clear about what you're asking for or what sort of help you're looking for or what sort of opportunity you're looking for, then people are more able to help you because you're more specific on where you need some support. We need some help.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: It makes a big difference, doesn't it?
[00:07:13] Speaker B: It does. It helps a lot.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Rather than just saying, can you help me get an internship?
Okay. To what? What do you like doing? What are you passionate about? You know, what are you excited about? That sort of stuff?
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Awesome. I'm pretty sure one of the answers would have been that if they said, what are you excited about? It wouldn't have been networking at the time, would it?
[00:07:34] Speaker B: No.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: But now you've learned a bit more about it. What excites you about networking? And these creating connections, talking to people.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: I think I find a lot of benefit of learning what people have done and how can their stories and their information help me with my project or help me with building more connections with people or learning lessons from what they've done? I think that's. Yeah, I really enjoy listening to what other people have to say and taking that on board.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: We mentioned last week also you're going for school captain. Your interview has been postponed by a short time. So you're going to happen next week. So we'll get an update on that in next week's episode.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: How do you use this newfound knowledge of creating connection, the power of creating connection amongst your school cohort and continue to develop relationships there?
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Building connections with my advisory. So students in my classroom. Building connections with younger years. How can previous internships at the school now form that connection with the younger kids? They looked at like you're like an older friend to them and that's all just because you reached out and asked. You were interested in childcare, so you did that internship and now you've got that connection, that network with a younger teacher or younger people in the school or even using different teachers and their knowledge. That's another connection there.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Fantastic.
We talked about a phrase earlier today as well and often say networking, connecting with people's about being more interested than interesting.
What did that mean to you?
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So being more interested than interesting. So being more interested in what other people have to say than sounding interesting. When you're like, you can still sound interesting when you're presenting something, but if you're really interested in somebody in what something in what somebody else has to say, they're going to be like, wow, she was really engaged and she was really, really wanted to know what I was talking about. And a lot of people really enjoy when you have that.
What's the word? Like care or like interest. Interest. Interest for what they're saying as well.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Absolutely.
How can you use this newfound knowledge to develop even stronger connections with people that come into your.
You're making all these great pizzas up in Longetty.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: But yeah, being interested in what they have to say. As a customer, you might walk into that place and not know what to order or I don't know what to have. And if. Okay, what sort of pizza are you feeling like today? Well, I can offer you a Supreme, which is different meat or vegetarian. So listening to what they have to offer or what they might be questioning about and sounding interested to their question and giving them an answer for it.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Now we are. You won't be able to attend, unfortunately. You're going to be hiking the Himalayas or something like that during that week. But the event that we're hosting for ET Australia is on the 20th of November, and it is a alumni spotlight slash connection building opportunity. We're avoiding the term networking because young people don't really get excited about that, but we're doing that on the 20th of November. We've created a little game with the help of our friend chatgpt. What's our game to play on that evening?
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Connection Quest.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Basically bingo, but not using the word networking as well.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: How about you give us a bit of a flavor of what this Connection Quest game's about? Like, what do we do and how do we make it happen? How is it going to be useful.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: For people building connections like bingo? You see if you can get lots of different answers. So in this game of Connection Quest, we put down different questions of finding somebody who has an interest the same as you, or somebody who's visited to a country that you want to travel to. And when you get five of those things and you've made that connection, you found something new about somebody else. And yeah, you build that connection, creating that trust as well.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Love it.
You know what, here's a thought. How about. I reckon there's an opportunity for you to trial Connection Quest with your classmates before the 20th of November comes around so we can test it.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: That sounds like a really good idea.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, let's do that.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Let's do that. Yeah. I'm sure they will love that.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Good team bonding. Good advisory bonding experience.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: You're going to have to lead that process, you know.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Comfortable with it.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: You'll nail it. Well, you've helped me create it.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: So you know it as well as I do.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Look forward to it.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: This should be really exciting. Yeah.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: So we'll make sure we set a date for that after this episode and we can report back to our listeners around the results and then we can adapt whatever you think maybe didn't work as well and we can adapt it for our event on the 20th. So we'll. We'll test it out.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Yes. Sounds like a great idea.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: What else we haven't spoken about. Is there anything that really, now, again, from a young person's perspective, that ability to connect with people, that. What would you say to your colleagues, either your work colleagues at the pizza place or your student mates, about how powerful networking or having these connections can be in your life?
[00:13:05] Speaker B: I think the more you put yourself out there, the more you talk to people, which is the more you build connections, and that's more connections that are then going to be beneficial for you. So I think the more you talk and even if it might be once again outside your comfort zone or something you're not used to, you'll definitely find benefit out of it somewhere. Even if you find some little aspect out of this whole thing, it's like, wow, I took this away. Even if I didn't find interest in the whole thing, I still found this little aspect of it.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, true story. In my bad old days, many, many years ago, I was 21 and I've been working for a company for three years. And my father knew the state manager or knew a lot of people in the organization, but knew the state manager. And I'd won a very big.
My team that I was involved in. We'd won a very big football match on the Saturday and I didn't make it back to work until the Wednesday because we celebrated fairly hard and for a fairly long time. And where I realized the power of connection and relationships and trust was that I really should have lost my job. And I was very close to losing that job. It was only the power of connection and the relationship that my father had with the state manager that they were able to, let's say, salvage the situation. And I returned to work on the Wednesday and I was sober and I was ready to work again. I had a stern. I was talked to very sternly about my conduct and behavior and letting the team down and all that sort of stuff. But that was through the power of connection. Not my connection, but somebody who believed in me again, my dad and obviously the state manager. And thankfully, because if I'd lost that job, it could have changed my whole trajectory in life potentially. I wouldn't be able to do maybe what I'm doing today. So there's the power of connection.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Save my ass.
True story.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: I don't know if I've ever shared that story on the podcast, but it seemed appropriate today. The power of connection, I guess.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it relates really well.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Emmy, I think we are done. I really appreciate again your continued insights on some of these things we're going through, which again, forms part of the whole leadership landscape. And leaders being able to create connection, network with people, whether that's directly with their team and helping to develop their team, they've got to have those connections. They've got to build that trust. We talked about know like and trust and that's all a process to follow and to build from. And that's, that's basically what networking is, whether it's social media, again, Instagrams, and I know you're not LinkedIn, but LinkedIn's a business platform. So they're all connection building, they're all networking building activities. And like you said, it's not always about what I can take from that network. Actually, we don't want to think like that. We want to think, how can I add value to the network? How can I create an opportunity for somebody in my network, how can I help someone in my network? Whether that's one of your friends wanting to meet somebody that you know that they're really interested in learning more about or something that they really need to be able to help them, you might be able to get access to those sorts of things. Or like your parents in real estate, somebody's, one of your friends is going to come to you one day and say, hey, can you get me a house? And your parents are going to do them a great deal on a house. Absolutely. So once again, thank you very much for coming onto the show and sharing your insights on creating connection and networking.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Thank you very much. It's been a great episode.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Yep. Fantastic. So once again, everyone, thanks for listening. This has been a young leader's thoughts on creating connection and networking. I hope you've taken some insight from this about my own little thoughts and thrown in a bit of a dodgy story about my past life in there as well. If you're enjoying the show, please rate and give a little review for us and share it with other friends who you think might get some value. Whether you're 17 years of age at Central Grave Sports College or some other school, you can get something from this. Or whether you're a more senior leader, you can get a really much simple or not simple, but a grassroots perspective on what networking is to some young people. Because I know when you and I, like I said earlier in the show, when you and I or I was talking to you about networking, one of those questions you asked me again to reiterate is, Brendan, I get sort of what we're doing and what you're saying, but can you just explain to me what networking is, please? So again, really great example of where when we're stuck in our own bubble, sometimes we don't go back to grassroots and think about these things. Thanks again, guys. We will catch you next week. And Emmy, you will be back next week.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: We'll be back.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Look forward to it. See you then.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: See you then.
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