Episode 17: Patti DeNucci: Networking with Intention

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In this episode of The Manage Your Message Podcast, host Jim Karrh discusses networking with “The Intentional Networker” Patti DeNucci. Networking can be an approach/avoid topic, in that most professionals appreciate the importance of building relationships yet many also find it uncertain and uncomfortable in practice. Patti offers proven and practical tips that any Message Manager can follow, and does so with humor and understanding.

Patti has a background in marketing, freelance writing, and public speaking. She started DeNucci & Company to help businesses connect and network in a more successful way. She is also the author of The Intentional Networker: Attracting Powerful Relationships, Referrals & Results in Business. She is currently working on a follow-up book on conversations.

During the episode, Jim and Patti talk about how some people network incorrectly and ways to improve their efforts. They share some provocative studies on personality types and the implications for their networking approaches. Patti shares her insight on networking lingo that needs to go and the best ways to share referrals with others. She explains how valuable timing is and the importance in following up.

Jim talks about the importance of a network when it comes to growing through the conversations in and around your business. Patti follows with three foundational steps to networking:

Step 1- Knowing who you are as a person, and recognizing how that plays out socially and in your business personality

Step 2- Understanding what you want from a big-picture perspective as well as daily habits

Step 3- Showing up consistently, while keeping in mind Steps 1 and 2

Jim and Patti discuss personality types including introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts (who exist in the middle of a continuum). Jim brings up Professor Adam Grant and his original research on the personality type which tends to excel in sales. Grant found that ambiverts do the best overall, in large part because they naturally move between sides of a conversation. Extroverts can build a large network because they get their energy from talking to others. Introverts can easily find their energy depleted in social situations, yet also have strengths in listening, observation, and context. Patti encourages introverts to go to events prepared with questions in order to get the conversation rolling.

Jim brings up the topic of social media and how to communicate. He and Patti go back and forth on statistics regarding face-to-face communication vs. online communication. Patti gives advice on best ways to share referrals like asking permission first. She recommends quality over quantity when it comes to networking relationships. You are generally only one or two degrees away from people you want or need to meet. Patti also describes ways to reconnect with lapsed relationships.

The episode closes with Patti’s example of making connections while focusing on timing. Share what you do rather than blatantly ask for opportunities. She recommends the question, “What are you working on?”

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Links:

Learn more about Jim Karrh: https://jimkarrh.com/

Follow Patti on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattidenucci

Purchase The Intentional Networker: Attracting Powerful Relationships, Referrals & Results in Business by Patti DeNucci

Check out Adam Grant’s article: “Rethinking the Extraverted Sales Ideal: The Ambivert Advantage (2013),” Adam Grant, Association for Psychological Science

Purchase Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Check out Jonah Berger’s joint research article: “Communication Channels and Word of Mouth: How the Medium Shapes the Message (2013),” Jonah Berger and Raghuram Iyengar, Journal of Consumer Research, Inc.

Check out the Life is Good company: https://www.lifeisgood.com

Find Jim on Twitter: @jimkarrh

Connect with Jim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkarrh

Listen and subscribe to The Manage Your Message podcast: iTunes and jimkarrh.com/podcast/