Transforming Networking into Lasting Relationships with Rachel Rozen: Episode 65

Discover the inspiring journey of Rachel Rozen, a former chief customer officer who unearthed a natural flair for networking during a year-long sabbatical where she connected with 300 people. Learn how she exponentially expanded her network which led to her founding her business Connection Catalyst. Rachel’s story is a testament to the incredible opportunities that arise from following your instincts, even if it means embarking on a solo trip to Japan that fosters growth and adventure.

In this engaging conversation, Rachel and I discuss the art of building and nurturing professional relationships. We explore the impact of personalized notes and consistent engagement on platforms like LinkedIn to foster meaningful connections. Uncover the dynamics of turning professional interactions into genuine relationships, and how treating networking like a “net worth network” can be akin to building a lasting piggy bank of connections, moving beyond mere transactions to create enduring bonds.

Join us in this enlightening episode of the Resonate podcast and transform your approach to networking.

Connect with Rachel

LinkedIn: @rachel-rozen
Website: www.connectioncatalyst.me
Free Monthly Webinar: Book here

Aideen Ni Riada: 0:03

Welcome to the Resonate podcast with Aideen. I’m Aideen Nreida, and my guest today comes from New York. Her name is Rachel Rozen and I’m really excited to introduce you all to her. Rachel is a former chief customer officer who transformed her career by connecting with 300 individuals in a year, leading to founding her business Connection Catalyst. Known for empowering professionals to turn icky networking into sticky, lasting relationships, Rachel helps individuals and teams grow their net worth network. I’m really curious about how you got to do the work you’re doing now. You mentioned in your bio and your introduction that you took a year and you met 300 individuals in one year. What prompted you to decide to do that and what was the pearl of wisdom that you got from that situation?

Rachel Rozen: 1:09

Yeah. So when I left my role as a chief customer officer, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next, and so I traveled for a few months and then the time that I took off, I was calling it my learning sabbatical. I was trying to figure out what was next for me. I’ve been hospitality my entire career, from cooking to running restaurants and hotels from the front of the house standpoint, and then went to the tech side of things, and I really enjoy being around customers. But I realized that it was super draining for me and I didn’t want to do that work again. So I wasn’t sure what was next for me. And then I realized I had been working so much that my network wasn’t very wide or very deep. I only knew the people that I worked with and I only knew my clients, and that wasn’t that many people when you really think about it. And so I had to start from scratch to figure out what I might want to do next. Think about it. And so I had to start from scratch to figure out what I might want to do next. And I thought maybe I want to be a chief of staff and work directly for a CEO and see leadership from a different vantage point and then maybe become a COO, because I’m very operationally focused, but the chief of staff role is very wide as well. So I started by talking to chiefs of staff from Fortune 500 companies to non-profit and everything in between, and I ended up talking to about 40 different chiefs of staff. And that was really the beginning of my networking journey, because from there I just kept getting connected to more people, so I just kept getting more introductions. So for every one person I talked to, it introduced me to maybe two more people. So I just kept getting more introductions. So for every one person I talked to, it introduced me to maybe two more people, and so it just kept multiplying. And then I was also involved in a few different community groups, specifically around career transitions, because I was looking for my next role, and people kept coming to me and saying, or sending people my way, saying you need to talk to Rachel, she’s been doing all this networking, you need to learn from her how she’s doing this.

Rachel Rozen: 3:07

And I realized that there was truly a skill set around networking and I didn’t even know that I had it, but because I had been in so many relationship-facing roles or in the industries that I had been in. From a hospitality standpoint, it’s all about making connections with your guests. And then when I was in customer experience on the tech side of things, it was a relationship that I was building with my clients, and that’s all the same skill set, really, that leads towards being great at networking. I just didn’t realize it and I never thought that I was good at it, so it just kept multiplying. Okay, I meet one person or I’m going to meet somebody else, and the more I did it, someone.

Rachel Rozen: 3:52

Then I’m part of CHIEF, which is Women’s Executive Network, and someone within that group had heard me speak about networking. I’d been getting a bunch of consulting jobs as well. And they said, Rachel, can you do a webinar on this? And I never talked about it other than one-on-one conversations. I said, sure, I’ll put something together. And that was the beginning of okay, there’s something more to this. And so it started with just, you know, having conversations to a webinar to then, okay, let’s build a business around this.

Aideen Ni Riada: 4:22

I love that. It’s so, so organic and, you know, it’s sometimes when we’re trying to decide what to do, it’s like we come up with an idea in our head and we try to make it happen, when sometimes what we, what we feel led to, or what’s right in front of us, can be guiding that process. If we can let go of our preconceived ideas of what should be or what we would want it to be, we realize, oh, I’m perfectly suited for this as a role or to, you know, start this business. Well, congratulations on following through on that idea and making it something. You know that you, you know, are really serving people in this way. Do you have any interesting stories about, like, random connections, you know, like, like or from a client? Maybe you know how weird these, you know this investment that we’re making in whatever our piggy bank of, but do you have any interesting stories about what can happen from that?

Rachel Rozen: 5:29

Yeah, so I’ll tell a story that actually brought me to New York City. So when I turned 30, I was living in Seattle Washington, working for Hyatt at the time, and we got free hotel rooms all over the world. I always travelled domestically, but I really wanted to take a big international trip and celebrate my 30th birthday. So I ended up going to Japan for 10 days and was all over the country Was this with other people.

Aideen Ni Riada: 5:56

I’m just curious. It was by myself, okay.

Rachel Rozen: 5:58

By myself. I wanted to take a big trip and I made a pact with myself when I turned 30 that I was going to go to a different country every year in my 30s, which I did, but that’s another story. But on my 30th I was waiting for the bullet train to go from Tokyo to Kyoto. And this was before iPhones were as good as they are today and I had to get a special plan to use in Japan. And this girl comes up to me and she’s super hungover and we’re standing on the platform waiting for the bullet train and she’s like can I borrow your phone? My friends left me, I don’t know where they are, and I was really, you know, a little hesitant to give her my phone. But I said you know what sure you can borrow my phone. I don’t know how she had their numbers, but her phone was dead and we ended up talking the entire way on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Rachel Rozen: 6:57

She was actually I just turned 30 as well. She was from Australia. I was telling her my story, she was telling me her story. She had recently left her full-time job and became a freelancer.

Rachel Rozen: 7:10

I believe it was in communications, and I had been working for Hyatt for eight years and I was just really unhappy and didn’t want to stay there because I didn’t feel like I had an opportunity to grow within the company at that point. And she said to me Rachel, you’re not married to Hyatt. You could literally do anything you want to do. And when I came back from that trip a couple months later, I ended up quitting, had no job, moved all the way across the country to New York City, and didn’t have a job at all. It took me about a few months to find something no-transcript, open myself up to say hey, yeah, you can use my phone, but on top of that, we continue the conversation on the train as well. So it wasn’t just a transactional interaction, we actually had a conversation. Unfortunately, I never met her again, but she was someone that came into my life for a reason in that moment and really helped change my trajectory, because I would have never be where I am now if I didn’t hear that piece of advice.

Aideen Ni Riada: 8:20

That’s amazing. Yeah, the wisdom of strangers, exactly. Yeah, that’s awesome. I worked for Japan Airlines for nearly five years as cabin crew.

Aideen Ni Riada: 8:32

So I don’t think I ever took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Kyoto was one of those places that I somehow didn’t get to. But I, when you said someone walked up to me, you know, on the train station, I was like, well, it obviously was a Westerner. Like, cause, you know the Japanese, they wouldn’t be asking that Well, they would be less likely to be asking someone, you know, who looked different, for help. So, but you explained it all beautifully. That’s such a lovely story.

Rachel Rozen: 9:01

But on the other, end, which is kind of also great, was when I got to Osaka, which is another city that I went to, I was lost. I had no idea how to get to where I needed to go and this girl helped me, who wasn’t from Osaka I don’t remember what city she was from. She was a student and her English was really good and she was so excited to talk to me and practice her English. But she didn’t know Osaka so she couldn’t help me get to where I needed to go. So she asked another couple to help me and they didn’t speak any English but they walked me all the way to where I needed to go and I had to get on a bus and made sure I got on the bus because I had all my luggage with me before I to make sure that I got to where I needed to go.

Rachel Rozen: 9:46

And so you know, a lot of it is just humanity and hospitality and just helping one another, regardless. If you can communicate with them, it’s how can you just make an impact in someone’s life Like? I’ve never forgot those two people or those three people in Osaka. I don’t know that I’ll ever see them again, but they saved me because I would have never have gotten to my destination if they didn’t help me get to where I needed to go.

Aideen Ni Riada: 10:11

Yeah, we all need each other. I think sometimes there’s an attitude, especially in, you know, in the Western kind of culture, that you know you stand on your own two feet and you figure it out yourself and you shouldn’t actually need a lot of help and that needing help was a negative thing. And I think that that’s so detrimental because, in reality, the people who make big things happen, there’s always a team of people behind them. There’s at least one or two other people that are 100 with them. So those relationships we have, they’re like gold, like that you say. They’re, you know, like having money in the bank. They are like gold. They’re it’s like a treasure of um, of a resource and um.

Aideen Ni Riada: 10:58

This concept that you’re talking about, of seeing each relationship as an investment, is just um, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a gem in in of wisdom. And that I think, especially in business, sometimes it’s so easy to forget because you just think, oh, I go to an interview and I do my interview and then I either get the job or I don’t. But these days we need relationships to find where the interviews are or get a recommendation, so that different ways that people are interacting are going to help us to get where we want to go are interacting are going to help us to get where we want to go.

Rachel Rozen: 11:37

Absolutely, and even if you think about from an interview perspective and this is something that I coach people on as well is, even if you didn’t get the job, try to stay connected with the interviewers that you had, because you never know where they’re going to go to next and the opportunity that they had in the moment may not be the right fit for you right now, but it doesn’t mean something else isn’t going to come along, or the person that they actually offer the job may say no, so maybe you might be the next best candidate and they offer you the job. There’s always opportunities to connect with people and I wish I knew that earlier in my career, because I really took it for granted. All of the jobs that I ever got was through networking in some way. This was the first time that I didn’t get a job through networking, so when I left my role as a chief customer officer and I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, I didn’t have a strong enough network to help me get there, so I had to build it from scratch, because everything was related to the industries I had been in prior, but I wanted a change and I didn’t have anybody around me to help me get to that, so I had to start all over again.

Rachel Rozen: 12:42

So I really recommend to people is don’t just connect with the people that are in your industry or in your role. Try to broaden your horizons and expand the network of people that you know, and you can do that not just from a business standpoint, but it could be from your passions. Like I mentioned earlier, you might play pickle ball, you may be in a running club or a book club. It could be anything that you enjoy doing, but what do those people do for work? How can you make connections with them as well? Because you might need them at some point in time as well, or they might need you. You never know.

Aideen Ni Riada: 13:20

So when it comes to, let’s say, a practical example, like you’ve been to the interview and then you’re like, oh, how do I stay connected with that interviewer? What? Like not everybody kind of knows how to do this. Please tell us a little bit of what the advice would be to someone who’s pretty new to networking. What would be their next steps?

Rachel Rozen: 13:43

So the best way today is, honestly through LinkedIn. So you should make sure that you’re connected with them through LinkedIn. When you send a thank you note, I generally say send it through an email, but you can also send a message on LinkedIn if you’d like. But whenever you’re connecting with someone on LinkedIn, always connect with a note. And the reason why I like people to connect with a note is you can be specific on how you met them, because you can go back to that later. So if I met you, Aideen, I think we met through another networking group and I probably specifically said this is the group that we met in. Can’t wait. I think we met through another networking group and I probably specifically said this is the group that we met in. Can’t wait to meet you or something along those lines. So I know how we met and I recommend the same thing. So thank you for the interview at XYZ Company, or great meeting you through there.

Rachel Rozen: 14:30

But then the next piece is really following their content, talking to them through the posts that they are posting about and providing your thought leadership on the information that they’re posting about. Or, if you’re following the company still, what are the things or big things that are happening in the company that you can then have a conversation with them about, whether it be a congratulations or. I saw this article that you can relate back to the interview that you had. We talked about this. I thought you might be interested in this article as it related to this topic that we talked about in the interview.

Rachel Rozen: 15:09

There’s lots of different ways in which you can continue to connect with somebody. It really is just dependent on how invested you are in those conversations and with the people that you have had those interviews with, and you’re not necessarily going to click or stay connected to every single person, but if it’s important to you, you’ll find ways that the intersection of things that you talked about or things that you’re interested in can relate back to them and just continue to have a conversation. And again, most of the time it’s going to be through LinkedIn, but there could be opportunities as well to say you know, I didn’t get this job, would love to continue to have a 30-minute conversation.

Aideen Ni Riada: 15:56

You know, maybe not related to that, maybe you have advice for me or something exactly. Okay, cool, that’s really cool. Um, something was coming up in my mind about you know noticing when you have a connection with people, because you know you could have three people on an interview board but one of them might be just more warm or may under may show more understanding or more interest in you and we’re not always noticing who would be an easier to kind of stay connected with, because not everybody has that like. Some people have a demeanor of like don’t contact me again. How do you coach your clients to kind of start to notice those kinds of cues?

Rachel Rozen: 16:40

Yeah, I mean I think it’s important to still kind of treat everybody in the same way, because you just don’t know what someone’s going through Like. They could also just had a bad day, you know, they could have been lost in the count, they could have their kids sick at home. I mean there could be a million reasons why the interview just didn’t go well. So when you’re leaving that interview, I still want to treat everybody in the same way, still make those connections. But we also want to be paying attention to you know people’s demeanor and how they are treating us. And if you feel disrespected, then obviously that’s not someone that you want to stay connected with because you’re not making that connection with them at all. But for the most part, if you can continue to have at the bare minimum connecting with them on LinkedIn with a note and following their content, it’s just a great way to have continuous potential opportunity of connection.

Aideen Ni Riada: 17:43

Now I’m really curious about this idea of your net worth network. What in God’s name do you mean by that? And tell us more.

Rachel Rozen: 17:52

Absolutely so. When you think about networking, I like to think about it from a piggy bank concept. We’re always talking about the give to get. What can I give somebody? What can I get back? So every time that I’m giving to someone, I’m making a deposit into my piggy bank or an investment, and when I need to get something back from someone, that’s when I’m getting a withdrawal. Okay, what you don’t want to happen is to go bankrupt. So you want to keep making those deposits and meeting new people. But the people that you’re meeting, you want to continue those relationships with them too. It’s not a one-time transaction. It’s a continuous opportunity to reengage with them and build on that relationship over time. And the more you build on those relationships, the more is in your piggy bank and your net worth will continue to grow, because we really want the opportunity to have lots of people around us, and people from all different perspectives, so that we can help them when they might need it. But also we know that we can call on them if we need something as well.

Aideen Ni Riada: 18:57

Do you think a lot of people underestimate the value of connecting with new people, especially like we kind of have our go-to people, but sometimes we stay in our small zone and we don’t really make an effort with others?

Rachel Rozen: 19:12

Yeah, absolutely. It’s really interesting because if you think about how many people you are connected with, it’s actually hundreds of people. You interact with people all day long. Whether you’re going to the grocery store or you’re walking down the street or at work, you’re always interacting with people. But those are often transactions. They’re not necessarily building relationships. And it’s interesting. Esther Perel, who is a relationship therapist, was on Brene Brown’s podcast maybe about six months ago or so, and she recently was touring, I believe, just the US, but she was bringing people together in person to really connect. And one of the things that she said around social media is that today many people have thousands of followers, hundreds of thousands of followers, but when it comes time to go on vacation, they don’t have anyone that can feed their cat.

Rachel Rozen: 20:15

And it’s so important that we build as possible that they can help us whenever we need something. But we don’t always value those connections that we have or want to build upon those connections as well, and so when we’re thinking about networking, it’s not just the people that are in our circle today, but who can we keep adding into our circle. And it’s interesting because we often tend to spend time in the same circles, and so if we’re in the same circles, we’re recycling ideas, versus if we go to find different circles or we add new people into our circles, then new ideas start to formulate as well.

Aideen Ni Riada: 21:04

Yeah, do a lot of your clients find undervalue their own contribution, like they don’t realize how, how much they have that would be useful to others in relationships. They might think, oh, nobody needs to know that, or, you know, I won’t bother doing this because who cares? Kind of thing.

Rachel Rozen: 21:27

Absolutely. And the thing is that we all have life experiences. Everybody has gone through something, have dealt with something, have experiences and learnings that could help somebody else, and you never know what somebody else might need or how you might be able to help someone. So even when you go into a conversation, a lot of people say have something to give back. But I like to say if the conversation ends up being 90% you taking and 10% giving, that’s okay. But if you’re listening truly to the conversation and learning about that other person, you may have something to give at a later point in time. So it doesn’t always have to be in the very beginning.

Rachel Rozen: 22:12

And I have a framework called the three I’s which goes around the give to get theory, and this goes in both directions. So when you’re talking to somebody, can you make an introduction to somebody else that might be able to help them? The second I is information Can you provide them a resource, whether it be a book, a podcast or advice that could help them on something that they might need? And the third I is an invitation. Can you invite them somewhere that’s going to benefit them, so that could be to another community, that could be out to coffee, that could be to dinner, to a webinar, where is a place or a space that might give them the opportunity to benefit whatever their needs might be?

Rachel Rozen: 22:58

And sometimes when you’re in a conversation, you end up speaking more than the other person so you don’t get enough information from them to make those connections. And that’s where the follow-up occurs and you might just say it was so great meeting you. Aideen, I know we didn’t get to talk as much as we’d like. I’d love to follow up with another conversation. Can we schedule another 30 minutes and find another time to connect? Or, if you live in the same city, see if you can go for coffee, just finding the time to continue the conversation, so it’s not one and done, and then there’s more opportunity to learn about the other person.

Aideen Ni Riada: 23:36

That’s just beautiful. I mean those three points. The other person that’s just beautiful. I mean those three points. So you have the introduction to someone else, information that they may find useful and an invitation to something. Now what do you do? If you’re like me and I’m like what we call at home here is OCH obsessive, compulsive helpful, which means that I’m always offering people information and inviting them. So sometimes you have to judge it carefully to know what that person would be open to receiving from you.

Rachel Rozen: 24:08

Yeah, a big thing I like to say too is just stay present in the moment. Pay attention to people’s body language, how they’re talking. Ask questions before you’re giving one of those three I’s to Fully understand what their needs might be, before you say just do this, because people aren’t always receptive to feedback. You get more receptive to feedback once people hear you, see you and value you as an individual, and the more questions you ask and be curious to get to know them, the more likely you’re going to start building that rapport with them and then they’re going to say oh yes, that makes sense. I appreciate that information. Whether they use it or not, it shows the value that you want to provide to them, especially when you’re genuine, sincere in the way of your delivery and not doing it in a way of oh, I know better than you or you need to do this because I’ve done it this way and this is how it has to be. If you’re really truly trying to help them, they can see that sincerity come through in the way that you’re speaking.

Aideen Ni Riada: 25:18

I know that because I love to share stuff. So I’ve got that that you know instinct. Naturally not everybody does. They need to learn how to do it. But sometimes I’ll say something like you know, would you be interested in hearing about this? And before I go, oh, I have to tell you all about the thing. So at least that’s a question that helps them to give me the feedback as to what is right for them at that time, because it is a lot to do with timing. When you you know maybe an invitation to the CEO of a company is too much for you, that day you know because you don’t feel like you have your business plan ready or you don’t have a proposal ready. So timing can be an issue for people too, right?

Rachel Rozen: 26:05

Yeah, absolutely, especially with introductions. I never do blind introductions. I always like to do a double opt-in. So if I was going to introduce you to somebody else, I may say Aideen, I think it’d be really great for you to meet John Smith and let me just connect with him first and make sure he’s open to the connection as well. So then I will talk to John and say I just met a Dean, I really think you’d make a great connection. Would you be open to an introduction? And he might say you know, right now is not a good time, can you come back to me? Or he might say, yeah, absolutely happy for the introduction, but always make sure that you check with the other person first before you make that introduction, because you never know what’s happening on other people’s calendars. And the one thing that is probably my biggest pet peeve is when people say my network is open to you, my network is not open to you. My network is my network. I’ve built that network and my people that I’ve built within my network. I need to protect them.

Rachel Rozen: 27:07

In order to protect them. I need to check in with them before I make an introduction to somebody else.

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:12

I really like that Because.

Rachel Rozen: 27:13

I never know what’s going on. You never know what’s happening on their calendar. Are they going on vacation? Do they have a board meeting they need to prepare for? Are their kids schedule crazy? There could be a million things going on in their life. You don’t know what’s happening and so you don’t want to just assume and make that introduction, because then it’s also a bad look on you. When I introduced you to John and I didn’t check with John first, and then John never connects with you.

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:41

Yep, yep, I’m very aware of this as well, even on social media, that you know. There’s a setting on Facebook where you can hide your friends to like strangers. So only people who are already in your in that network see who else is in that network. And I always because I had a situation where I met someone in person and mentioned briefly a friend’s name um, because I thought maybe they might be interested in something to do with this as well and that person went beyond me that they kind of cut me off and went directly to this friend of mine and was like oh so Aideen said you might be interested in this, when I hadn’t introduced them at all. So you have to. Sometimes people do you know, step you know in in the wrong way, or they can be too enthusiastic as well. So I like that idea where you’re saying that you know you want to protect your connections, you don’t want them to feel harassed by anyone and you want to make sure that the timing of the introduction is right for them.

Rachel Rozen: 28:48

Yeah, exactly. And if we go back to the piggy bank scenario, for example, your network is your net worth.

Rachel Rozen: 28:54

It’d be the same as just opening up your bank account and giving someone your pin to your ATM and saying here, take whatever amount of money you want, you don’t want to do that because, then you’re going to become bankrupt because people are going to lose trust in you, because a lot of networking and building relationships is about building that trust and if people can’t trust you, then you’re really going down a slope. That’s not not good. You really want to be in good graces with the people that are in your network you mentioned earlier about the importance of you know meeting people in person.

Aideen Ni Riada: 29:31

So because a lot of us have gotten quite settled in our ways online, you know, especially with covid, kind of shutting everything down, um, do you tell people like I’m sure you suggest to people to try and get out and meet people in person, but what’s the advice you would give someone, kind of starting that from scratch.

Rachel Rozen: 29:50

Yeah, so I am a big proponent of meeting people in person, but it’s also about how much energy it takes for you, and that’s really dependent on the individual. So, for example, for myself, I know that I cannot do more than two in-person events in a week and that’s my max. One is really where I feel at my best, because it’s much more energy draining for me to be out and about. I live in New York City so I have to get ready, take the train, get to the place, have the event, take the train home, decompress after. It’s a process to go out when you don’t realize that before COVID it was just a normal daily thing, but I didn’t realize how draining it was and that’s why I was getting so burnt out was because I was nonstop going. Now I try to conserve my energy and so I do things, so I ensure that I can be my best self throughout my entire week, versus I’m burnt out by, let’s just say, thursday and Friday. I can’t do anything. I don’t want that to be the case anymore. So I really try to help people individually and what I tell people is think about what your energy is like by the end of the day and then by the end of the week and then by the end of the month, how are you feeling based upon the events that you’re going to?

Rachel Rozen: 31:07

And what do those events look like? Are you going to very large conferences? Are you going to cocktail parties? Are you going to happy hours? Are you going to small dinners? Where are the places?

Rachel Rozen: 31:18

And varying them can make a difference too, because you may feel better in a situation where it’s maybe a group of eight to 10 people versus being in a place where there’s hundreds of people and that’s even more draining for you. So you don’t have to do everything, but you do want to do trial and error, figure out what makes sense for you and start with a goal. Maybe it’s I’m going to do one event a month, or I’m going to do an event every other week and then just keep building on that and seeing how you’re feeling with that especially. You know we’re still technically coming out of COVID and in many ways, people aren’t back to their routines pre-2020. And so we have to build back up to that again.

Rachel Rozen: 31:58

And what does that look like? And it doesn’t always have to be business related events that look like and it doesn’t always have to be business related events. It could be social events too, like going to a concert or going to a pickleball game. You know there’s different ways in which you can get out there and meet people and also, depending, you may just want, you know, time on your own, and that’s totally fine too. But finding that right balance for yourself is really individualized.

Aideen Ni Riada: 32:26

Well, I’m sorry to say, we’re going to have to wrap up now, and is there anything, any last pearl of wisdom that you’d like to say to the listeners, or anything you want to reiterate before we finish?

Rachel Rozen: 32:37

Yeah, I really appreciate the conversation, Aideen. I mean, the one thing that I would say is that anybody can network. Even if you’re starting from scratch, you’ve had a network for a really long time. It’s really about building that habit and that muscle to continuously be building conversations, meeting new people and following up with people that you’ve talked to in the past, that maybe you’ve lost connection with, and that could be as easy as just sending a text message and saying hey, I’m thinking about you and starting a conversation. You just never know who you’re going to meet, when you’re going to meet them and how they can help you or how you can help them.

Aideen Ni Riada: 33:16

I love that Like. So notice what. Who is in your kind of network already that you may be not investing in? With that you could people that you like, people that could help you in the future, um, yeah, so that’s a really lovely way to start if you’re starting from scratch. Absolutely. Thank you to everyone who’s been listening. We really appreciate your time and if you have any questions for me or for Rachel, we would love to hear from you. In the show notes, I’ll be giving the details for Rachel’s website and her LinkedIn profile and, of course, she has a lovely opt-in for you as well if you’d like to connect with her. Thank you all for listening. This is Aideen from the Resonate podcast. Take care, bye-bye.