Episode 14
Season 2
How to Stand Out from the Crowd with Your Business
Welcome Colleen Valadez, Founder & CEO of Preferred Networking Solutions, to Saturday Soundbites. This powerhouse of a networker brings her expertise to the podcast!
She shares how different times zones and oceans between you and your target audience should not be a barrier to growing your brand in your respective space. Colleen is a believer in connecting and even before the pandemic was preaching the importance of growing authentic relationships.
Now that so many of us have gotten used to connecting virtually, we have to rethink how we stand out from the crowd and grow our businesses.
Tune in and learn how to leverage virtual networking events, and how to put your best foot forward in a new community!
In the end if you are connecting others and growing their reach, you will benefit from their connections as well.
Learn more about Colleen Valadez and Preferred Networking Solutions to get connected.
[00:00:00] Veronica: Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I'm your host, Veronica Sofer. And here at 70 soundbites, we talk all things, visibility, strategy, public relations, marketing, advertising, branding, all the things that help you grow your business and really support a strong visibility strategy because that's what we love.
[00:00:18] And we've got guests that always bring good value and connect you with resources and tips and strategies. They're going to help you in this space to grow your business. Now, if you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites. If you're watching on Facebook or on YouTube, drop us some comments so that we can connect with you.
[00:00:37] And if you're catching the replay, just put hashtag replay and we can connect. So I'm going to go ahead and get started with today's episode. We are talking about networking solutions and this is something you're going to want to take notes on. So I'm going to bring on our guest right now. Coleen Valdez.
[00:00:52] Thank you so much for joining
[00:00:53] Colleen: us. Happy to be here. Good morning. Great.
[00:00:57] Veronica: So let's talk about what that means. Network networking solutions. I immediately, I want to go to technology, but, uh, I want you to kind of fill us in and tell us a little about what that is and how it can help you grow your business.
[00:01:12] Colleen: Very good. So, you know, before the pandemic hit the natural networking. Process was to, you know, meet in person and meet frequently and go to different types of networking events and different things that were happening so that you could really be part of the community and have people, you know, put a name with the face and be familiar with you.
[00:01:36] And after the, you know, during the, this whole process of the pandemic, we realized that, Hey, we can still connect with each other. We're going to be on, you know, on these virtual. Platforms talking with each other, meeting with each other. And the thing that we learned most was that, wow, we could actually do a lot more networking coming into just like what you said, this kind of a solution coming together, you know, meeting with each other on different time zones in different states, uh, even international.
[00:02:06] So we've had so many wonderful things, actually morphing and, and, uh, Coming into play with us because we have been able to go and learn this process and get, get used to it, you know, get used to being on, on, uh, the virtual background, virtual solutions. Yeah. It's been a wonderful process so far. Well,
[00:02:27] Veronica: good.
[00:02:27] And how did you, um, get into the space? What's what's your background? Clearly you were networking in person before the pandemic. So what got you to this?
[00:02:36] Colleen: You know, it's funny. I, I had a really long and strong, uh, sales career in the hospitality industry, uh, in my younger years. And I veered off and went into a completely different career.
[00:02:49] I was a fitness trainer and some friends of mine had invited me to. Uh, networking a weekly networking event. And I was a little shy about it. You know, I was a little reserved, they had asked me two or three times and I finally said, oh, okay, I'll go. And immediately I went, oh, I see the benefit of this. I see the value in it.
[00:03:08] Um, we were connecting with people. I was connecting the people I knew with the people that were in the, in the group. And. Shortly thereafter, I became, uh, you know, a really big part of the process, meaning that I became one of the directors of one of the networking chapters. And then I became a chapter consultant for several chapters and boom, you know, fast forward years later, I have my own company doing the very same.
[00:03:34] And it's been wonderful. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
[00:03:38] Veronica: I love it. And so what does, um, what does it look like for folks when they are successfully networking? Virtually? Because some people, um, feel like they can just go and listen and turn their cameras off. But I, I know that you've got a lot of expertise in this area.
[00:03:54] So tell us what a successful, uh, virtual networking event might look.
[00:04:00] Colleen: Well, first, I want to say the difference with this for people that are more, a little bit on the introverted side. Um, you're not, face-to-face, you're not standing up and projecting people. Aren't looking at you and judging you. And that's where the, all the fun comments that came out about, oh, they're only seeing you, you know, from here up.
[00:04:19] So it's a little less pressure actually to, to be on video. Now, our backgrounds, you know, I just have normal household backgrounds, which is what you're looking at at mine. This is real, this is my house. I'm sitting in the middle of my living room. That's my kitchen behind me. And so you have to get used to that.
[00:04:38] You have to look at that and say, is this acceptable? Um, and the other thing is that when people come in, they either, a lot of times they might come in late or they'll see, the screen will be off. It's really hard to connect. With the energy of another individual when their screen is off, because you're not seeing the real them, you're not seeing the real background.
[00:05:03] You're not feeling you can't get a feeling and you have to really be auditory. Really good at listening. To what that person is saying. Um, but the connections are definitely not as real. If you don't have your camera on because people want to see you, they want to, they want to see who you really are and get a feeling of that connection, even though they're on the virtual platform.
[00:05:27] So it's very valuable to have that on and just get used to it. Especially if you're camera shy like me, I am not, I don't love being on camera and I'm always like, whoa.
[00:05:39] Veronica: And the irony is that you've got a virtual networking solution and you know, like being on camera. I love it. So what are some other mistakes that you feel people make?
[00:05:50] Um, as, as they're trying to connect and grow their business and share their brand and share their story and their services.
[00:05:58] Colleen: Well, um, gosh, there's a lot of different things to talk about. I've picked up a couple of things, but you know, some people think that just being on Facebook or just being on Instagram is really going to grow their business.
[00:06:12] And that's not really. It's a portion of it because you do need to have, you do need to get used to social media and being part of it. But really you need to be able to connect with somebody on some level, in some way, you need to connect with a group. You need to connect with your community and you need to turn up, you know, and be involved.
[00:06:30] And that doesn't mean that you have to, you know, join every non-profit group that's out there or say yes to everything. You don't have to do that, but you've got to have a fair share of. Uh, blend, let's say we're, you're giving back to the community in some sort of way. You're contributing in some sort of way.
[00:06:49] And you're making connections for other people. I think that's probably the most successful thing is being able to say, oh my God, I know somebody that is going to love. You want to talk to you? I know somebody that, or I know somebody that can help you get through this. Uh, being an entrepreneur, it can be a lonely scene for some, because you have to be your own facilitator director, moderator.
[00:07:11] You know, you have to do all of that stuff for yourself. So it's very valuable to get out there and get connected and have people that can support you and just know that listening to others is really. Really important people want to be heard. It's not just about you, the entrepreneur getting out there and chasing, oh, listen to me.
[00:07:32] This is my business. This is what I do. Buy my stuff, you know? It's always like, listen to somebody else first and then it'll come back around to you for sure.
[00:07:42] Veronica: Absolutely. I think that's so true. Um, and I think now more than ever making those personal connections, because like you said, our bandwidth of people now has been widened in, in a way that it wasn't before it used to be, if you just went to rotary or Kowanas, or maybe some other networking group, um, your sphere of influence.
[00:08:03] Was somewhat limited, but now if you're doing this on the online space, you can be working with folks all over the country and all over the world. Um, so I think that's really great advice. How are some other ways that people can really stand out and make an impression? Because I don't, I don't know about yours, your group in particular, but share with us how many people normally are in one of these sessions.
[00:08:24] Colleen: So we have currently 10 chapters running and we can have anywhere from 10. Twenty-five people in a group, we have to cap it out. Uh, really 2020 is really the good spot because we only meet for one hour. And this is another thing about being on a virtual platform is we're saving time. We're saving money, but we got to stick to the program.
[00:08:50] And so we, you know, we're, we're like, we're going to stick to this one hour. So what we ask you to do you, we give a structure, please say what you need to say, and please say, You know, in, don't take up more time than everybody else. We need to give time to everybody. So we have to kind of learn how to answer those questions that someone's asking.
[00:09:11] And sometimes somebody will ask a question, I'll ask somebody a question and they'll answer the question, but then they just keep going on and on and on. And I have to kind of go, okay, you answered the question. Let's, let's move on to this other subject. So, um, Ask me the full question again. And how do
[00:09:28] Veronica: you stand out when there's 20 people in the room?
[00:09:30] How do you stand out?
[00:09:32] Colleen: Oh, so. First off everybody is different. Everybody has a different category of what they're doing. We have a structure to the meetings that allows us to pull information out of each and every person. So sometimes I might say, all right, so right now we're in like last month was February and I love the hallmark channel and the hallmark channel was calling February, January.
[00:09:58] So I was asking very various questions about what do you mean. You know, what do you love to do? What do you love to do when you're not doing this fabulous work that you do? So for instance, my name is Colin valid. As you know, I own a networking business. What I, what I do when I'm not doing this is, you know, I love watching the food network show.
[00:10:19] I have an 18 year old son. He's very athletic. I hang out with him, whatever, whatever. So we ask these kind of intriguing questions and we, it allows us to learn so much, so much faster. And it allows us to bond, you know, without other person, because they almost always say something really intriguing, really unique or really funny.
[00:10:42] A lot of people are really funny and a lot of our, especially the guys there in the chat saying really funny stuff to each other and I'm like, okay, boys, stop writing notes to each other during class, you know, kind of a thing. And you could just see everybody lighten up like Christmas trees. They're all having fun and they're bonding and that's the important.
[00:11:02] Veronica: Yeah, the definitely you don't want to discourage the bonding, but you also got to keep the, keep that balance. Um, where are your chapters at or where are they based
[00:11:09] Colleen: out of? So most of them are in the south bay area. We do have some in Los Angeles. We do have one in Las Vegas. We are looking to continue the growth in Las Vegas because it's, um, it just started, so we've only got about eight in there.
[00:11:27] Um, we've got people from Arizona. But, but most of the people are from a lax lax corridor all the way through Pellis Verdi's in San Pedro. Gotcha.
[00:11:42] Veronica: Gotcha. So if someone's interested in participating in either preferred networking or some other virtual type, um, format, what are some things that they need to be looking for as they're shopping around for the right type of group for that.
[00:11:59] Colleen: I'm sorry, say that
[00:11:59] one
[00:11:59] Veronica: more time. Yeah. What kind of, what kind of structure or what, what should they be looking for? Um, when they're looking for a group to connect with for, you know, sometimes, um, I've got a realtor in mind that I'm thinking, and she's very, um, and she's very chatty and she loves to connect.
[00:12:15] So I know she'll do really well with one group of people, but maybe not so well with a different group. Um, because like you said, in some of these online. Um, opportunities. There's there's a lot of structure. So how should someone be approaching, looking at a group like this to join?
[00:12:32] Colleen: You know, it's hard to know before you go on, you usually get a recommendation from somebody else saying this, oh, this is a really good chapter for you or, and we offer category exclusivity.
[00:12:45] So there aren't going to be three real estate agents. So that's the thing that you want to know is if you go online and you look at what you know, each chapter has, or they could just call me direct, text me. However they want to connect, but I usually will find the right chapter for them. And we're always looking to open new chapters as well.
[00:13:05] So we want to, you know, uh, jump into. The orange county area. So that's what we do is we look at and talk to them direct. We ask a lot of questions of who they are, what they do, how do they do it? What, you know, what makes him feel happy and inspired? Why do they want to go to these kinds of meetings? And then we find them the right spot.
[00:13:27] So that's really what you kind of have to do is just to ask the questions of the people that are facilitating the.
[00:13:33] Veronica: No, that's really great advice. And if someone's interested in connecting, um, we've got the website preferred-networking.com. Um, what, w what could you expect? Um, if this is something that they wanted to look in, you come and visit, you get an invitation, you answer a lot of questions, and then what happens after you've created those connections?
[00:13:54] What can some, what should someone expect from a benefit of joining a group? Like.
[00:13:58] Colleen: Yeah. So what we do is, um, we invite them in, we have them come in a couple of times and we also offer for them to, depending on their category and what time slots work for them, what days of the week worked for them? We will say, Hey, you can.
[00:14:13] Go visit all the chapters and just see who's in there. See who you resonate with, see which categories you resonate with. See if there's already a power partner in there for you that would want to bond with you and do work with you already. Um, so I asked him to do that, but we give them a couple times around.
[00:14:31] We have an online application that they can fill out. We do not. Ask anybody to pay large fees in advance or commit to any time. They only have to commit to the month in the month pay for the month in the month. And so, so it's, uh, it offers, you know, I don't want to any, uh, barriers to entry. So we have our rates a little bit on the lower side, so people can just come in and see who those people are.
[00:15:00] And they come a couple of times we have a staff, you know, we have a, um, Administrative assistant who will connect with them, do all the followup. We let them know, okay, these are all the things that we're doing. And these are the value added things that we have to offer. You do not have to do these things, but they're available for you.
[00:15:19] If you would like to participate in, for instance, our, um, personal development piece that we offer, um, And so we have a team that follows up and we give them the instructions of what to do. And often I'm the one, you know, involved because I want to know who these people are. I really love to be able to answer the questions myself and talk to the person specifically.
[00:15:44] I don't have a huge squad of people answering all those questions. Because I want to know each and every person. So I go, oh yeah, I know that person. Let me, let me talk to this one over here. Let me put this one in this chapter over here. So we walk them through the process and it's a pretty friendly process.
[00:16:01] And they'll know, after one or two times, um, you know, if they're, if they're resonating with that chapter or if they want to try a different.
[00:16:09] Veronica: So it makes complete sense. I like that. And so what's your ideal, um, what is your ideal candidate look like? Um, it sounds like it's someone who's eager to learn, but not necessarily the big extrovert.
[00:16:21] Um, so what does, what does that ideal person look like? You know,
[00:16:24] Colleen: it's funny because having a blend of introverts and extroverts can be really fun. It's a good mix to have on board because the personalities do. Blend really well together like that. So every anybody that is in service of the community, uh, whether they're a person doing hair or whether they're a financial planner, you know, it can be any blend of those things coming together.
[00:16:52] Um, that's what we're looking for. You know, anybody that wants to be part of our group, we want to talk to them. And if, you know, if they're very chatty that's. We just say, okay, you can be really chatty. You just have to do it in a certain,
[00:17:07] Veronica: okay. Well, Coleen that's fantastic advice. Um, any, uh, uh, parting words you want to leave someone who's considering this?
[00:17:17] Colleen: Well, I, I, I would like to tell people that being in a network group is super important. It goes a really long way, and it allows you to have a group of support. Everybody needs to have a networking support group where they can work through questions about their business, strategizing about their business, learning more through others, you know, about their business, watching what somebody else is doing and talking about going, oh, that was such a fabulous idea.
[00:17:52] I want to do that next time. You know, when I do my presentation or my show and tell, we kind of call it that and you get to a chance to bring. You know, on who you are and what you're doing, and you just learn so much and you build a whole new family and we have in these 10 chapters, it's the, it's amazing.
[00:18:12] The bonding that happens when you're in groups like this. So everybody that's an entrepreneur should be in some sort of group like this, no matter what end of the spectrum you're on, you should be involved in some capacity with your.
[00:18:27] Veronica: Yeah, I agree. A hundred percent. And that's why I was so excited to have you on and folks need to go to prefer-networking.com to learn more.
[00:18:36] Colleen, I appreciate you making yourself available to people and, um, letting them know that you're the person to reach out to. I've enjoyed having you on this.
[00:18:44] Colleen: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and so nice to meet you. And I hope to talk to you again soon,
[00:18:49] Veronica: Veronica. Likewise. All right guys, that's some really FinFET fun foundational tips that queen gave you guys about networking, connecting.
[00:19:00] Whether you're doing it in person, or you're doing it virtually how you show up and how you be bold to take advantage of those opportunities are really going to help you grow your business and grow your brand. Cause that's what it's all about. So make sure you connect with her. The show notes are going to have all the links that you need, and I hope you've enjoyed this episode as much as I have as always.
[00:19:18] You can find me@veronicavsofer.com. You can follow me on Facebook, on YouTube and on LinkedIn. And I love bringing you guests that bring you tips and strategies about growing your visibility because at the end of the day, Networking marketing, advertising, public relations. All of these things really come together to grow your visibility strategy.
[00:19:36] So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you hit subscribe. If you are listening on our podcast, otherwise leave us some comments on YouTube or Facebook, and I'm sending you lots of positive and energy and light and.