You're Not Too Busy to Network - You're Just Doing It Wrong

Let’s be real for a second!

You've created something tangible! You've navigated difficult calls, handled teams, and continued your week with your Monday faces on, even though the quarters were rough! However, at some point, you noticed that there was a hush in the air, the sense that you're just too close to the issues you have on your own or that people around you just don't seem to understand you.

Sound familiar?

If you’re a founder or CEO or a senior executive, that tension isn't weakness.

It's the natural consequence of getting good at what you do. And the solution isn't a new software tool or a marketing playbook. More often than not, it's executive networking done with personal growth in the plan.

It’s the natural outcome of the fact that you are getting good at what you do. The answer may not be yet another new software tool or a marketing playbook. In most cases, it's networking, and done right!

What Nobody Tells You About Success

“It’s only you and nobody else when you reach the top of success" has become such a cliché, which is kind of true for many leaders as well!

It is often the case that the bigger the role or position you have, the fewer people reach out to you or open up to you. You can’t be fully transparent with your team either. You also can’t completely entrust your board members, and neither can your friends outside understand the nuance of what you're navigating.

So you must be thinking, what do leaders do then? They go ahead on their own. They depend on their gut instinct and don't ask other people for their validation.

Here is the thing: the best leaders don't work that way. They're mindful and purposeful in their choice of companions. They look for rooms where they have dealt with the right people, where the result is growth, and where there are others around who share the risk as well.

This is what really matters about executive networking, not meet-and-greet with people at a conference, but actual, sustained networking with other peers who are working at the same level of authority as you.

How Peer-Level Connections Look

Soar a little and consider the last time you had a conversation with someone who understood you have to pay the bills, you have to make a change, and you are technically on all the time.

This type of connection doesn't occur by chance. It's developed by common experience and deliberate vulnerability and by ongoing interaction over time. This is why great performing executives are making the switch to the best CEO peer groups, intentionally formed and facilitated groups focused not only on networking, but on transformation.

The difference between a networking event and a well-designed peer group is just about as great as the difference between a floppy gym membership and a trainer who comes to your door.

Effective peer groups induce accountability. They make a mirror. They make relationships that can often be the most beneficial of a leader's career.

Curation - A Big Gamechanger

Well, not all networks are created equally. We've all had that LinkedIn connect that never goes anywhere or that business dinner where everyone's just pretending and not networking. When so many leaders have grown skeptical about “networking”, it's because it is not something that everyone does on purpose.

With a curated CEO network, the script is completely turned around. How many times have we wished for a conversation with a more ambitious, open, and sincere audience who are open to ideals, ideas, and concepts in order to grow and improve themselves as well as others?

You get rid of idle chatter and begin to solve problems. You no longer control your image, but you share your true challenges.

This is the mindset thatAndrea Sullivan and James Orsini, have about vYve, the community we are co-founding based on the Inspiration and direct support of Gary Vaynerchuk. vYve is a personalized, 6 to 12-month growth program where the expert coaches connect with the trusted practitioners to a curated network of ambitious leaders from a variety of industries. Members can't only access coaching, they can access each other!

The Compounding Effect of the Right Community!

Executive networking and its compounding effect are underrated. One conversation leads to another introduction. One introduction, one collaboration. There is one collaboration that results in a revenue stream, a hire, or a strategic move that you would have never landed had you tried to do it on your own.

Members of vYve have found business growth opportunities and tens of thousands in cost savings across the organization and staff, just by sitting in the right room with the right people posing the right questions. One member expressed, as the others did, that the value was returned in one coaching session.

Another expanded the number of people her brand reached to more than 100 million on the different platforms as she paid attention to the strategic feedback from the community.

These aren't anomalies. They occur when networking is given more credence as a business strategy than an add-on.

Are You In The Right Room Yet?

The important question to think about: Are the conversations you're currently having pushing you forward, or are they keeping you comfortable?

If you're an ambitious leader and think you've reached your potential, or perhaps you're on the rise and you're in it alone, it's possible it's not just a consultant or another course. It could be executive networking in a community just for you!

Let’s Get You The Right Room!

vYve is a platform for leaders who are thinking about taking the next step in their business, to the next step in their lives. There's a place here for an entrepreneur building a business, a business leader seeking a next-generation business career, or a CEO who wants a peer group they can trust to match their growth.

Join a 15-minute Discovery Call with the vYve team and discover how a handcrafted community of peers and coaches can help you discover your next breakthrough

It's free of charge.

The most crucial room that you're going to be a part of is a room in which people are all growing, you included.