Episode 34: Ditch the Pitch: The Networking Strategy That Actually Works

In this episode of Main Street Success Stories, host Jennifer Kok sits down with Sara Barco, business and networking consultant and founder of 52 Connections. Sara is passionate about helping business owners strengthen customer retention and build authentic connections. She shares her unique approach to networking, why traditional hard leads groups don’t work for everyone, and how entrepreneurs can find the right networking opportunities that fit their personality and business goals.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by networking or unsure where to start, this episode is packed with insights on how to make it easier, more natural, and ultimately, more effective for growing your business.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
🔹 The truth about networking: Why it’s more than just exchanging business cards.
🔹 Different types of networking groups: How to determine which one is the best fit for you.
🔹 Why hard leads groups work for some, but not all: How to choose what is right for you. .
🔹 How to set networking goals: The key questions to ask before joining a group.
🔹 Tips for overcoming networking anxiety: How to walk into a room with confidence (including an unexpected tip about reading body language through people’s feet!).
🔹 The non-monetary benefits of networking: How networking can provide support, collaboration, and personal growth beyond just sales.
🔹 How to build meaningful relationships: The importance of showing up consistently and giving before asking.

Meet Your Host: 

Jennifer Kok has been a business owner for over 25 years and is now a business coach guiding small businesses to level up and increase profits. She turned her first business into a franchise and successfully sold it 20 years later.  She was passionate about building a business and a family at the same time.

Today she works with creative business owners who are tired of not getting paid enough for their hard work.  She walks them through the 3-step process she developed to allow them to Create More…Earn More…Stress Less.

What if I told you that growing your business doesn’t have to mean working more hours? What if—right now—you could be sitting on untapped profit without even realizing it?  In the free resource I’m going to walk you through the exact 3-step framework I used to help a client increase net profit by 193%—without adding more hours to her workweek. Read how you can do it too. 

 https://nextwavebusinesscoaching.com/profit-boost 

Connect with Jen: 
https://nextwavebusinesscoaching.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferowenskok/

Meet our Guest: 

Sara Barco Founder, TRUE Self Consulting & 52 Connections Customer Retention Detective | Connector | Relationship-Driven Strategist 
Sara is the visionary behind TRUE Self Consulting and 52 Connections in 52 Weeks, dedicated to redefining the way business leaders, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs connect and retain customers. With a background in Social Services and Emotional Intelligence, Sara blends strategic thinking with a relational approach to help businesses turn prospects into loyal advocates. 

https://www.52connections.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-barco-468760111/

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Transcript

Jennifer Kok (00:01.968)
Hi, Sarah, it is so nice to have you on today.

Sara Barco (00:05.708)
Hi Jennifer, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

Jennifer Kok (00:08.806)
So for those that don't know you, can you give us just a quick little background on what you do and who you are and who you're helping and all the things?

Sara Barco (00:18.306)
Yeah, thank you. I love to tell people, so I'm a business and networking consultant. I a couple different hats with True Self Consulting. I describe myself as a customer retention detective. I love to find the clues and the missing opportunities, discover where our customers or patients, depending on our going along the journey. And it's really a...

customer focused journey I take them on to understand, to solve the mystery of how to keep our customers coming back for more. And then I'm also the founder of 52 Connections as you know, to the networking community for business leaders, nonprofits and entrepreneurs. And I like to say I make networking easy. I try to help business leaders and nonprofits and entrepreneurs ditch the pitch and really organically have conversations that we want to have with one another so we can understand those missed opportunities in those conversations as well.

Jennifer Kok (01:08.574)
so needed. Well, first of all, I love that you are a customer retention detective. That is really a fun niche for your business, because we all know customer retention is so crucial, and it's so expensive to find new clients. So the fact that you are helping business owners out there keep their customers is huge. And maybe someday we can dive into that. But today, I really wanted to dive into networking, because like you said, you are the founder of

Sara Barco (01:14.158)
Thank you.

Jennifer Kok (01:35.96)
a networking group in West Michigan for those listening outside of Michigan. both, Sarah and I are located in West Michigan and it's called 52 Connections. How long ago did you start this group?

Sara Barco (01:48.248)
So this is our fourth year in this networking group. And yeah, I can share a little bit how it started, but it really just kind of started off because of the challenges in networking that existed. So we are now going strong into our fourth year.

Jennifer Kok (02:01.134)
Okay, so fourth year, that was about what, just post COVID?

Sara Barco (02:04.566)
Yes, yep, absolutely, 2021. Yeah, yeah, what I noticed that was happening was after COVID, we really weren't coming back to the networking that we had been doing before. And as a consultant, as a business consultant, I needed to build relationships with people. I was only working with clients face to face.

Jennifer Kok (02:06.364)
Did that spark the need for this? Do you feel like coming off of that?

Sara Barco (02:29.824)
And so none of that Zoom, none of the Zoom stuff existed for me in that world then. And so I felt that fear happen of like the missed opportunities there that I was having with clients and all of that was kind of vanishing a little bit. And so I really started to dive into solutions of what those challenges, the opposite of the challenge. So all these challenges that were coming up, what was the opportunity or solutions that could come from them? And it really came down to one day I was thinking,

Gosh, if I could meet with just one person a week for 52 weeks, I could keep my network going. And then, wow, if I'm feeling that way, I bet other people I know are feeling that way too. So it was an organic reach out to 52 people I knew to say, Hey, how do you want to do? Do you want to do this thing? Do you want to be part of a book with me? I'll create the book, a catalog of members and we'll have a headshot and all of our information and we can all just reach out warmly to another. No cold calls. We all, we all said yes.

and it's just grown from there. Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (03:30.022)
So the premise is 52 conversations, basically one a week. And if we would just be intentional, make the effort that we can see a huge difference in not only our community of people that support us, but also potential leads, potential customers.

Sara Barco (03:37.08)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (03:46.67)
Absolutely. That's the foundation. And it comes from a very connection focused space. And so the philosophy is connecting first. We are not competitive in any way, shape, or form. We're very collaborative. So it's the connection first philosophy. if you do that and you focus on the connections and the relationships and actually having organic conversations, the rest of it happens organically too.

Jennifer Kok (04:12.668)
Okay, so let's unpack that, because I really love that. You know, I talk to business owners all the time, and one key strategy to get more customers in your door, get more clients in your door, grow your business, grow your revenue, is networking. And we hear this word, networking, all the time, and I think there's a lot of misconception about it. You know, some people feel like it's cold call sales, cold calling.

Sara Barco (04:30.328)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (04:37.838)
And there's all sorts of different groups that you can get involved in. So let's kind of unpack that for folks that are, they know they're supposed to network, they feel the pressure, and they're just kind of like, where do I go? So let's talk about, first of all, Hard Leads Group. I've been a part of these multiple times over the 20 years of owning my cookie and cupcake business. And the Hard Leads Group was developed where only one person from that industry was in the room, correct?

Sara Barco (04:49.763)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (04:58.52)
Mm-hmm.

Sara Barco (05:04.684)
Right?

Jennifer Kok (05:05.892)
and you would show up with your five business cards and there was this pressure to kind of trade business cards and also, you know, refer people to each other. Is 52 Connections a hard lead?

Sara Barco (05:20.834)
No, we're the opposite of that. every single, there's a lot of challenges like when we're talking about.

you know, hard leads and different kinds of groups that I was also a part of when I started before COVID. I was a part of a leads group. was part of all different kinds. I mean, we're never short on opportunities for networking and the pressure, the pressure is real that you feel from some of those groups. And after COVID, those challenges that were coming up for me was I didn't have the availability to be in the same, you know, in the same room every Tuesday at 7 a.m. I didn't have the ability to find a sub every time. I felt like I was letting that group down a little bit.

like I didn't show up the way that I truly wanted to. I might have had referrals that I wanted to refer outside of that room. Like I really had trusted relationships that I had built in other spaces and there was this obligation. Those spaces worked for me for a while and they work for a lot of people. There's a lot of unique qualities in B &Is and chambers and road, like every single networking component piece we have out there is so unique in so many ways that I believe works for people in the space there and for different seasons. And my season had come where I

like I couldn't participate the same way. So the challenge existed again to find that solution of what does that look like. So all of those is what formed 52 Connections. we don't have those attendance mandates. We don't have those same, you know, it's every Tuesday at 7 a.m. or every this we have a broad range of times, a broad range of days, a broad range of virtual, in-person, personal, professional development. So that that hard leads doesn't happen again.

like finding that community that works for you. I'm not a hardslees person, some people are, and I value that about them. Like that's their structure.

Sara Barco (07:08.65)
I think if we get even deeper into that, I think it's what we have been exposed to that we seek out in the beginning because there's really not any fundamentals of networking out there that exists to take people, say brand new in the networking space that I've never done it before, to just, they're just kind of exposed, right? And they just kind of do what they've been told to do or what they see and they're mirroring it. And the overall feel is that's scary.

Networking is scary, networking is hard, networking is time consuming, networking is this, there's a lot of negative impositions on it. So we go in with that and some of, sometimes...

If that resonates with us, if we want the hard leads, right? If those feel right, that is the right piece, that's our space. But if it starts to feel like, don't really resonate well, or it starts to feel like a rub instead of like this kind of collaboration thing, it's probably a sign that another type of networking group is the best fit for you.

Jennifer Kok (08:12.058)
And I think you said something that I think is so important to remember is that there's seasons. I have been part of a lot of hard networking groups and they were tremendous for me. I got really good customers from it and I was able to refer people. So you're right. It works for some of us. It works for some industries better than others and there's seasons for everything. And so then when we start to figure out, I think one of the hardest parts of networking for business owners is to figure out

Sara Barco (08:27.116)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (08:41.744)
where to show up. So we've got that. We've got something like your group that's very collaborative. There's also industry-specific groups. If you're an interior designer, you can go find other interior designers. There's also gender-specific. There's women in business. There's all these different. So how do you, I know what I tell my clients, and I'm curious to hear how you tell somebody to find the right fit. And how do you figure out where to go?

Sara Barco (08:43.597)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (08:54.348)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (09:02.733)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (09:08.8)
Mm-hmm because really like we said there's so many opportunities out there and so what I what I like to tell people is Really think about first the networking goals that you have and spend some time processing through that because

Again, no fundamentals, right? To start us off. And I think people think about personal and professional goals, but they don't really stop to think about networking goals. And so what are those? If those goals are, you know, I want to get two new clients a month, you know, and that's like kind of the drive or is the drive, well, I'd like to meet two new people and have sat like figure out this community. Like I'd like to figure out what this group is about. If we know kind of going in what those questions are, what's my philosophy? You know, what do I want to feel when I'm in the

room? What do I want to be able to talk to others about and start kind of having some of those, you know, questions that you can ask other people or questions that you would like to be asked or what's the overall...

Like, you know, do you, do you feel like you resonate in that of the philosophy that you have matches the philosophy of the group? Are those their attendance mandates there? Are you going to be able to participate? Things like that. what is the expectations? Those are the questions that I think we should ask ourselves before. I'm a, I'm a solid believer in, in getting things uncovered in the front end so that we don't have to uncover all the clues on the back and scavenge later. So as much as we can think about on the front so that we can be present in the room so that we know kind of how

we feel is good or what we feel is gonna matter and what we feel is important to us personally. How much time do we have? How much availability? Things like that so that we can really be present in the room that we're in and actually feel what the room feels like. And I recommend trying different spaces, going to some visitor days, checking them out because again how are you gonna know?

Sara Barco (11:00.82)
if you haven't experienced it in the room with people too. We're really good at saying to people, you should try this group or you should go to this group or you should, you should, you should, and maybe, right? But it has to be the timing has to work, that everything has to align. And then when we get in the room, we want to be present to fully wrap around that.

And talking to the facilitators, spending some time talking to the people that organize the group that are facilitating the group, asking the facilitators specific questions, you know.

What are the expectations of a member for a type of group like this? If I can't come every Tuesday, is that okay? Things like that. And then, do you have members that have been in the group maybe for a long time or a short time that I could talk to? Getting to know those members that have just joined and committed versus that have been there for three, four years, you're gonna get different perspectives also as well. And I think those conversations are important to have.

Jennifer Kok (11:59.696)
Wow, those are some great tips and you know, a lot of us don't think about having networking goals and you're right. And you know, let's unpack that a little bit too. I feel like it also can't be something where it's just all about me, me, me, me, me. You know, you cannot walk into a room and just expect to pass out 20 business cards and just talk about yourself and we've all seen people do that. And so I think it's really important, you you said a lot of key things about not only researching the group and talking to the facilitator, talking to some members of the group.

Sara Barco (12:04.864)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (12:12.046)
Exactly.

Jennifer Kok (12:29.658)
But giving it a try, I always say you have to go a couple times. You're not going to be able to go once and really get a feel for it. And ask more questions than you answer. I'm a big proponent of that because then that shows somebody that you truly want to get to know them, get to know their business, because after all, networking really is about building relationships and becoming remembered.

Sara Barco (12:33.539)
me.

Sara Barco (12:40.876)
Yes.

Sara Barco (12:52.834)
Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

Jennifer Kok (12:58.364)
So a lot of people say to me, okay, I'm gonna go, I signed up and it's, you know, Thursday at 9 a.m. and then Wednesday night rolls around and they start overthinking it and especially the introverts in the room, you know, and it's funny because a lot of us, think, like to call ourselves introverts and I wonder if sometimes we hide behind that a little bit. And so what do you say to somebody who, you know, there's nothing worse than walking into a room.

Sara Barco (13:11.763)
Yeah

Sara Barco (13:17.646)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Sara Barco (13:26.508)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (13:26.564)
and you're feeling a little uncomfortable because this is out of your comfort zone, you're feeling a little intimidated, and everybody knows everybody, so you think, and you walk in and there's all these little pods of conversations happening, and they all kind of look at you, and you just don't know where to go. What are some tips to help overcome that first step fear?

Sara Barco (13:34.872)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (13:43.074)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (13:46.592)
Yeah, absolutely. First step is if you have a person or another couple people that you can go to this networking community with, bring them. Invite them to go because there's nothing more scary than walking in the room and feeling like everyone's watching me. The first networking group I ever walked into, was like, I bug-eyed, I can imagine bug-eyes, and I just turned around and walked right back out because I was terrified. I didn't know anybody, didn't know what networking was. We all have that first

Jennifer Kok (14:12.348)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (14:16.576)
time and it is scary right? We can prep ourselves up, we can you know prepare, but it's a little terrifying when you really have to do it. So I say if you have a person or a couple people then you can create that own pod yourself and so you have those people instantly. But then there's also techniques for really learning to observe body language of others so you can scan the room and see people that are turned out. So if you're looking in room and everyone's kind of in a circle turned in versus turned out,

You can start out by looking at people's feet. Their feet speak a language. So if a foot is turned outward, they're inviting in. And so it's kind of like a nonchalant. They're not even probably planning it, but they're open. So you look for the people that are open. then. yeah.

Jennifer Kok (15:00.912)
my gosh, I never thought about looking at people's feet. I'm always like, I gotta make eye contact with somebody who might smile at me. That is a great, great tip. And you might also see some cute shoes that you might wanna add to your wardrobe. Okay, so you look at people's feet, love that.

Sara Barco (15:07.534)
Yeah, that's good too. Yeah. Exactly.

Look for the openness, look for the people that are, I kind of look for people that are talking with their hands because also if people are crossed arms or hands in their pocket, they may not be as open or they're, you know, engaged in that conversation. But if they're showing exhibited signs, outward signs, they're open.

And then I always tell people it's, hard to remember in the moment, but it's so important to acknowledge that every single person in the room is just as terrified as you are. And again, it goes back to what are your goals coming in the room? And I think we just need to sometimes take the pressure off of us and say, you know what? I'm not here to pass out 10 business cards or to throw them all out. I'm not here to talk to everybody. I'm here to talk to the people that are open and engaging and that we have conversation with.

and that's going to happen when it's meant to happen. And I think if we can release some of that pressure organically, it just kind of like lightens that whole mood and we can walk in with whatever happens here is okay. It's just, and everybody, really everyone feels the same.

Jennifer Kok (16:21.916)
You know, it's interesting you say that because I've talked to some business owners who almost kind of give a networking group like an ROI. They give it a metric. They give it a rating. And, you know, I've been to some, and I'm sure you have too, where you walked in and there were three people there. You know, it a snowstorm or just for whatever reason it's a new group. And you immediately, you know, let's be honest with ourselves, think to yourself, gosh, this is a colossal waste of time. But you know what? One connection.

Sara Barco (16:31.021)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (16:45.986)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (16:48.462)
I've walked out of that room with one connection that turned out to be a great connection that connected me to other people. And so I think we have to manage our expectations. And like you said, quit putting this pressure on what we're hoping to get out of it. Because really, what we're hoping to get out of it are people that are going to remember you, that are going to become part of your network. So let's talk about the results of putting some effort into networking. I know for me,

Sara Barco (16:52.994)
Yes. Yes.

Sara Barco (16:59.574)
Sure. Yeah.

Sara Barco (17:07.928)
Yep. Yeah.

Sara Barco (17:13.581)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (17:14.926)
When I am, and I go through these moments and seasons where you just kind of don't feel like leaving your home. I'm a solo entrepreneur, I'm behind my computer, and you're just kind of like, eh, I don't feel like getting out of my yogas. But there's something about when you step into a room and have conversation with people outside of a screen, it kind of re-energizes you for your business. I have found it brings a little more energy into my business, and it also just helps me feel like, hey, I'm doing something today.

Sara Barco (17:28.866)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (17:37.752)
It does.

Jennifer Kok (17:44.504)
I stepped out, I'm doing something, I'm making new connections and maybe one of those new connections will either refer me to somebody or become my best client. You what else do you feel networking does for us? Not only tangible, but emotionally, confidence.

Sara Barco (17:44.686)
Mm-hmm.

Sara Barco (17:53.186)
Yeah, yeah.

Sara Barco (18:00.47)
Mm-hmm.

Sara Barco (18:04.118)
Yeah.

It's a great question because that's one of the, what's one of the biggest areas I try to teach about too, is it's not always the metric of revenue as far as like measuring our ROIs. A lot of key metrics focus first, formally on the revenue piece. And I focus heavily on the impact. And so I try to teach people if we can get outside that monetary ROI and move into a space of non-monetary, what does that look like? And there's so many opportunities that we don't even realize.

Sometimes we don't even understand our own value when we're coming into a space like that and it takes others around us to say, what? You didn't realize you were good at this? You're amazing at this. Or, well, what if you tweak this to this? How does that feel? And, that feels so much better. Being in a space where you can talk about practice, you can practice your introductions. It was from my space of 52 Connections where someone did a workshop on our introduction that I came up with the customer retention detective because it

encouraged us and we had to practice over and over with trusted individuals, with people that we knew were going to support us and cheer us on and encourage us and also give us truthful feedback. So being in the right networking space allows you to have those people. It allows you to have the support. It allows you to wear the non-professional hat sometimes and just be able to wear the challenge hat. Like today I'm struggling. I could use some help and being able to overcome some of those things as a team. To have a room that you can present, you know, a presentation

presentation to that could also lead to future presentations in other industries and organizations because this room helped you modify it.

Sara Barco (19:44.338)
tweak it to the point that it was refined to where it was really valuable for other people on the outside too. There's just the value of understanding how to show up. Sometimes again, no fundamentals of networking. We do what we see. Whereas if we get around those with our same philosophies and really value connecting and networking and get out of the transactional space, we can start to see the value of showing up for others first, having those real conversations, and then what a real relationship actually

develops maybe not just one referral, but ripples and ripples and ripples of referrals and not just for us, but for others. So all of those non-monetary like ripples, I think are one of the biggest impacts that by you being in an networking community or several that are impactful for you, because I don't believe we just have to be part of one. Like there's so many out there. We can find a few that are manageable for us in the right fit that when we're a part of those communities that align with us,

there's so much impact we can make beyond ourselves and in our communities as a whole that we don't start to see until they're right in front of us and we're like, that's what they're talking about. That's the difference.

Jennifer Kok (20:59.238)
You know, I love how you said impact and also serving others. I feel like business owners at the heart, that's what we really want. And then when things get hard, we start getting caught up in the revenue and spending and expenses. And you're right. And like, let's use networking to just get back to the roots of who we are, share with what we want to do, you know, what we hope to accomplish with our business, who we want to serve. And you just never know. That's why it's called a network or a web. It's like one person knows one person who knows one person. And now all of a sudden,

Sara Barco (21:06.189)
Yeah.

Sara Barco (21:15.682)
Right. Yeah.

Sara Barco (21:24.814)
right.

Yes.

Jennifer Kok (21:28.58)
you have this huge outreach going on on your behalf when you don't even know it.

Sara Barco (21:34.018)
Yes.

You just you said something there too that's so key and so important. I think when we're searching for our our tribe, our network tribe of people that we want to spend those key times with, having people that are going to bring us up to the next level too because I think that's a missing element in a lot of black and white networking opportunities that are out there. It's just you know we go, we network, we exchange the cards, we pitch, we talk a 60-second commercial and all these things but we're not providing opportunities for others.

the room to lead. We love to serve, right? And serving is good. We also like our call to lead and help others rise, I believe. So if we can see that so clearly, because we're connected in a space of people continuously that care, we start to see where others have leadership potential and growth and we can help them, you know, the mentors in the room and the ones that are doing help bring them up. And I think that's such an element in networking to be able to see everybody and have those relationships.

and really grow together.

Jennifer Kok (22:37.66)
You know, I always say that each business owner needs their own like board of directors, if you will. They're five people, you know? And, you know, I kind of have a metric for the five. You you want one that's somebody that's older than you, who's been there, done that. I always say, surround yourself with somebody younger than you, who can keep you relevant, keep you on the hot trends. You know, you want somebody in your industry. Let's not look at them as competition. Let's figure out how we can help each other grow. And then it is good to get outside of your industry as well.

Sara Barco (22:42.572)
No kidding. Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (23:06.554)
You know, so there are industry specific groups, but then there are groups where we all come together. And then lastly, you really just want to find, even if it's just a couple of people that you can be transparent with, know, business ownership can be really lonely and it can be hard. There's great days. We wouldn't do it if there weren't great days, but there are those days when I think all of us would probably say at one point or another, we had that, what the heck have I done moment? And I don't know if I want to keep going moment and having somebody who gets it.

Sara Barco (23:18.072)
Yes.

Sara Barco (23:30.984)
for sure. Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (23:36.132)
and that you can be real with can make all the difference between throwing in the towel today and keep going tomorrow. So I really thank you for sharing kind of some tangible tips for people that are a little freaked out about networking, but also just sharing the results. And the results are so much more than dollars and cents. There are a lot of on that, that 71 % of a lead, if it's a warm lead, if it's been referred to, is going to become a client. So there are real reasons for it.

Sara Barco (23:42.987)
It certainly does.

Sara Barco (23:51.042)
Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (24:05.574)
But more than that, it just helps business owners get out of their own way, keep skilling up, make some new friends, learn something new, all the above. So tell us a little bit, for those that live in West Michigan, tell us a little bit about 52 Connections and how we can find some more information and how often are you guys meeting and what is your, I know you've shared a little bit, but give us a way that we can learn more.

Sara Barco (24:14.946)
Yes.

Sara Barco (24:18.327)
Mm-hmm.

Sara Barco (24:25.582)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So 52 Connections in 52 Weeks is a networking community for business leaders, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs. We are a hybrid community. So we meet virtually and in person all around West Michigan. We also now have members outside of Michigan. So we have North Carolina, Virginia, have Colorado members, and so they are obviously are virtual and they're able to stay connected. We have a lot of touch points in our community because one of our biggest

and goals is to make sure that we stay connected. We don't just connect once and then forget about one another. So in our community along, we do two virtual networking opportunities a month. We rotate those bi-weekly and then we have three in-person networking opportunities around different locations of West Michigan that we rotate in Attaway County, in Kent County.

And then in the Holland Zealand area. we kind of rotate around those. And then we have every week, we have personal and professional development. So we have workshop, a workshop, a lunch and learner, a mastermind where someone in our community is the expert in the room sharing more about what they do to help us understand what they do to outside networks. Or we bring in an expert from outside that may not be represented in our industry. along with that, have quarterly, socials where we do things like folding. don't know if you've heard of folding where it's like football.

Sara Barco (25:51.888)
ball bowling that we do.

Jennifer Kok (25:52.883)
yeah, yes.

Sara Barco (25:54.924)
Yeah, so we can see like the lighter side of each other, right? So we can just hang out as people together and connect that way. We have quarterly visitor days where we, it's invite, you know, we're very intentional with our networking. So we want to bring in people that are focused on connection first, on building relationships, not transactional networking. And we have those visitor days and we travel together. We share opportunities together. We have a membership hub where we all stay connected. It's a platform that we always see each other. We can share.

things, we can ask questions, we can put out our challenges, we can offer solutions, we just, we notice when we're not in the room. And then we just have ongoing communication with one another that way.

Jennifer Kok (26:37.22)
what a beautiful community that you've built. Notice when someone else is not in the room. Wow, that is really powerful, Sarah. Thank you so much for sharing this today. And I will put a link to your website for 52 Connections and your consulting business in the show notes. So thank you so much.

Sara Barco (26:40.686)
It's great. Yes.

Sara Barco (26:46.508)
Thank you.

Sara Barco (26:52.428)
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate this. Thank you so much, Jennifer.