137: How Networking Helped Me Grow My Business Without Social Media

In this episode, Jules White shares how networking and building genuine relationships has been one of the most powerful growth strategies in her business - and how it can help you to market your business without relying on social media.

Jules reflects honestly on her own journey with networking, from never having done it before, to tracing many of her best clients, collaborations, and friendships back to those early groups she joined. She also covers the downsides - the time commitment, the occasional awkward conversation - and how to keep perspective when your inner critic shows up.

Key Takeaways:

Approaching Networking with an Open Heart: Learn why going into networking events without the pressure of needing a client changes everything - and how a more open mindset can lead to opportunities you never expected.

Incidental Networking: Jules explains how some of her most powerful connections have come from simply being in the same room as other business owners at workshops, accelerator programmes, and local events, without it feeling like formal networking at all.

Making It Easy for Others to Refer You: Discover why having a clear, simple "ask" - not a sales pitch - makes networking far less uncomfortable and far more effective.

The Downsides of Networking: Jules talks honestly about the time investment, the unpredictability of who you'll meet, and how self-criticism is often the biggest barrier to showing up.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 077: How to Attract Bigger Brands to Your Event Venue Website - Jules mentions Jenny Moore, who appeared in this live website audit episode
• Michelle Warner's Networking That Pays — Jules recommends exploring Michelle Warner's work on intentional networking and finding your ideal connection avatar
• The Website Success Hub — find out more about Jules's services and how she helps small business owners get their website working for them

Transcript

Introduction: Networking to Escape Social Media

Jules White: Hi, welcome back to the Website Success Show. It is Jules here, and today I wanted to talk about one of the most powerful ways I've grown my business in the last few years.

I wanna talk about networking and growing relationships and how it can help you to escape social media and really grow your business in a way that feels good for you. I am gonna talk about some of my own experiences with networking, some of the goods and the bads, and how you can approach it with an open heart and realistic expectations about what it can and can't do for your business really.

So back at the end of 2021, I decided to leave my salon job and go all in on my business.

Jules's Background & Starting the Business

Jules White: Now about halfway through and probably should say as well. And I'd never done any formal networking.

When I think about back to my salon days, I, it had never been something that had crossed my radar. I'd never been in a corporate role and it just wasn't something that we really did in, in the salon role.

And I look back now and I think, well, actually that probably could have been really helpful, just taking some time out of the salon and spending it to grow relationships, even just in the village we were in really. Just even attending the local chamber or something like that could have been really helpful for the, for the salon in general.

But I'd never done anything like that and didn't know how that could help me. Really didn't know the, the power of building relationships really, but mid 2022, I'd been you know, been working at home on my own for a few months and I was feeling really lonely.

Discovering Networking: Loneliness & the FEA

Jules White: I'd gone from literally touching people all day long in the salon and having lots of team members there and lots of clients coming in. Even if it was a day where I was in the office, I still would be back and forth to reception and bringing people through and just having general chats with people.

And I always considered myself an introvert. That being said, when I, did a Myers-Briggs, the 16 personality test, it said I was 50% introvert, 50% extrovert.

And that feels about right for me actually, that, that there is this real contrast between sometimes wanting to be out and talking to people and then other times just wanting to hibernate with my hood up and, you know, just keep, keep to myself really. And that's something that I now recognise and when I am networking, I do take that into account.

But I'd never realised how much that helped me, how much I needed that contact with people, and how much of, I actually was quite a sociable person, really, which I would never have considered myself that. But I had, I was having a chat with a friend, I think I was having a really hard week or maybe even a hard month, having a chat with a friend, and she suggested, well, why don't you just look for some local networking groups?

She sounds like you need to get out and talk to people, but need to get to know people who are in the same sort of position as you, people who are growing their own business or just, just get out and talk to people. And she suggested that it could solve a few problems in my business.

So not only the loneliness, not only the feeling disconnected, but also getting some clients and getting to know people and learning more about how to actually run a business. So I looked around.

I put aside the fears about networking well, because it was completely alien to me, and I found a local networking group, which I joined. And did some networking online as well.

I can trace many of my connections. I think I could probably pretty much trace all of my connections back to those networking groups.

I met some amazing people and I really feel like that was one of the turning points in my business, and it massively helped in terms of feeling lonely and just feeling like, feeling alone basically. Not just lonely, but feeling alone in my business.

I feel like the networking that I've done and got to know, getting to know different people, especially the local groups that I've joined, has helped me to have more friends than I've had for many, many years. I've got a lot more friends than I had when I was back in my salon days, and certainly back in the post-COVID salon days as well, which was a tough time.

You know, I think we were all, um, we all felt a bit disconnected at that point, really. But I look back now and I can see how much of a difference that made to me.

Now, one of the things I did was I joined Carrie Green's Female Entrepreneur Association, and I know exactly how I stumbled upon Carrie Green, and I feel like this is really poignant to the direction of my business. But even back in 2022 when I found Carrie in the FEA I Googled, can you grow a business without social media and one of Carrie's YouTube videos came up and it was very inspiring.

If I can find it, I'll link to it in the show notes and I think it was maybe a couple of weeks later, the members club opened its doors and I joined. And I got to know so many people through being part of that membership, they used to do networking calls, which is something they've stopped in the last year or so, which is a real shame because I've, I met some great people on their networking calls.

They used to call them networking parties and they really were a great way to get to know people all across the world. I've met some friends over in America and Canada and plenty of UK friends as well, and it's so funny how when you start networking and start getting to know people in different places, how you often end up stumbling on the, upon the same people as well.

There have been some amazing things that have happened from becoming part of the FEA and I can trace lots of the people and lots of the, the, the other networks that I then found from being part of that so I'm very grateful that I have that in my life, and I'm very grateful that I got to know those people and built those relationships and those friendships as well.

Incidental Networking & NatWest Accelerator

Jules White: One of the things that I have found has been a bit easier than going to organised networking groups is kind of incidental networking. Where you are together in a place with other business owners and you get to know them whilst you're doing something else.

So for example, I'm part of my local NatWest accelerator programme and I've got to know people with that. You know, there, there's time within in between lessons and in between what they're teaching us around the lunch times.

There's times where we can get to know other people in the group. And even just introducing ourselves and hearing about other people's successes and struggles.

It's all networking, it's all growing relationships, it's all getting to know people. And I've actually had clients come from that.

I've had quite a few clients come through the accelerator from, I guess part of it is not being afraid to speak up in the group. So if you are ever at those kind of events, any business development events or if you go to any workshops or anything really, even personal stuff, if you're somewhere where you are talking to other people and the conversation leads to what do you do, you never know who needs what you do or who meets somebody tomorrow who needs what you do and they remember you.

So the incidental networking definitely feels a little bit less pressure. It feels a little bit, I'm gonna come on to like the downsides of, of networking in a minute, but I've found that that's been some of, some of the most powerful networking I've really done in my, in my business is just getting to know people through happening to be in the same place at them, doing the same thing, trying to learn the same thing or support each other.

And that's been really helpful for me.

Approaching Networking with an Open Heart

Jules White: One thing I would say and I, this is something I've probably learned over the years, is to approach networking in that I'm not gonna get a client from it. So not go into a networking event, whether that's online or in real life thinking that I'm gonna meet a client there.

That definitely does happen, and that's happened a lot with me in my business where I have met people there who then said they wanted to buy from me or they've joined the, the membership, the website growth club. But I like to approach networking with a really open heart towards it and to really think of how I might meet friends.

I might, I might get some support, I might meet somebody who can help me solve a problem in my business. I might just become better known for what I do.

With networking, I always feel like it's not the people that are in the room right now, but it's everybody that they know. And actually, when you think of it that way, it doesn't matter how many people are in the room.

If you are networking with five people or you're networking with 50 people. Then if you think about their network beyond that, then that's where the real power comes in.

And also it then removes that pressure. If you go into an event, not thinking about, I've gotta get a client from this, I've gotta get a client from this.

I've gotta talk about what I do. I've gotta sell, I've gotta sell, I've gotta sell.

If you come into it thinking, who knows what will happen from this, who could be here, that could change the direction of my business? I think going into it with that kind of attitude takes so much pressure off, allows you to be a bit more relaxed, allows you to be there and be thinking about who you can help as well.

Because if you connect somebody else, if you help somebody there with even just a little bit of advice or with some support, or even just being an ear saying, yeah, I get that. I feel like that sometimes as well, then who knows what will come from that one interaction?

And I think that's the magical part of it, really.

Knowing Your Ask & Ideal Connection Avatar

Jules White: One thing to do, I think before you go into networking and with this in mind, really is make it easy for somebody else to understand what you do, regardless of whether they would be likely to become a client themselves. It's a really great idea to go into it being really clear on what you do, who it's for, what problems it solves for them, and why people should choose you as well.

So what makes you different to all of your competitors and the way that other people do what you do. And it's also really good to have a, um, like an ask question.

So rather than asking people to buy from you, instead of that, you are more asking, do you know anybody who is this, this, or this? So for me, I'm trying to find communities who need education around websites, SEO, AI visibility, especially for women with established businesses.

Even just asking the question of, do you know anyone who's got a community like that? And so you are not asking someone to buy from you.

You're not asking them to share your stuff, you're not asking for anything like that. Maybe you're just asking for ideas, for connections, ideas for people that you could then follow up with.

Or if they say, oh yeah, my, my best friend has got a business mentoring group, and you've built up a bit of a rapport with that person and you've had a good conversation with that person maybe asking, would you be willing to introduce me? Or could you give me their details?

Could you pass my details onto them? Asking something like that, I think is a lot less pressure than asking somebody to buy from you.

And, and it just feels a lot less icky, I think. So thinking about that, when you are going into these kind of conversations.

Who is a good connection for you? Whenever I have one-to-ones with people, if I've, if I've met somebody during networking and then we decide to have a coffee chat, then I will always ask about who a good connection is.

And quite often people can't answer that question, so they will then tell me about who their ideal clients are. But actually, if you get out there and meet lots of people who also work with your ideal clients, then it's much easier than trying to find clients, one at a time.

I really like Michelle Warner. She is the networking that pays lady.

I would definitely recommend checking out her stuff. I'll put a link in the show notes.

But she talks about networking with intention where you actually think about who is your ideal connection avatar. So rather than an ideal client avatar, actually who is a good connection for you?

Who would be working with the same people that you work with but isn't a competitor of yours? And even just spending a little bit of time thinking about that, it can also help you then to understand where those people hang out.

So then you can be a bit more intentional about the kind of networking groups you're looking for, where you can think how can I make connections and build relationships with people who also have my clients? And that's, I think, one of the most powerful ways to make networking a really good return on the amount of time that you spend on it.

And coming onto that,

Downsides of Networking

Jules White: let's start talking about the downsides of networking. Obviously, one of the biggest downsides is time.

So it takes time to do networking. It takes time to spend time in these networking groups.

And if you are not in a place where it's eventually bringing people into your business and you are not making good connections and you're, and maybe even if you're not following up on those connections, we can end up being really busy. We can end up, end up being kind of busy fools really where we are doing all this networking, but not necessarily thinking about how we can make the most of it.

Obviously you can't control who's in the room as well. And I have had a couple of conversations at networking events and I would definitely say, I think this is one of the things that puts people off is that just, you never know who's gonna be there.

You never know who you're gonna have to talk to. You never know if people will talk to you, which I think is definitely, you know, it is, it is a bit awkward walking into a room.

It can be really scary and awkward and can be very, very uncomfortable. Especially if you do then get somebody who is a bit of an idiot.

I have only ever been asked once if I have a degree in web development, and that was from a guy at a networking event, and I'm sure he didn't ask it to be an idiot, but it was just, you know, I, I, it made me feel about two feet small, you know, and it's, it was not good. But that's, I think that's, you know, the, the, that's one of the few times that I've been talking to somebody at a networking event and it's been a bad experience.

The majority of people are good, the majority of humans who are out there are kind and helpful and just trying to get through their own day. They're also going through those same experiences of feeling a bit awkward, not knowing what to say, sometimes feeling self-critical.

So I think if we understand that and if we understand that everybody there is also in the same boat, I think it takes some of the pressure off ourselves. I definitely have a thing of needing to fill conversation.

And feeling really awkward if I'm not the one keeping a conversation going. And I always used to feel this back in the salon where a lot of the other therapists that were there were much more chatty than me.

So they would be talking about Love Island and EastEnders and just keeping conversation going for the sake of it and very, very surface-level conversation. And I would always feel like it was a, it was a, um, failure of mine to not be able to always keep those conversations going.

But now I look back at it now and I realise that some people didn't want that surface-level conversation and the clients who did tended to carry things on themselves. Whereas for some people just coming to the salon and stopping and not having to talk, not having that expectation, just having some silence, especially for people who've got young kids as well, just coming in and not having to do anything other than have somebody do a treatment on you, whether it's nails or facial or whatever it was.

Just stopping for a while. I think now I realise that was a gift for a lot of clients.

And actually being okay myself with uncomfortable silences is a skill that I have that I am working on. I was gonna say, I've overcome, I definitely haven't overcome it.

I still have that feeling, but most of the time that doesn't happen as well. So downsides to networking are time.

The occasional idiot that you might meet, your own self-critic is the biggest downside really. But if we can think of it, that everybody in the room is not really paying that much attention to what we are doing.

They're not really, you know, if you, even if you, I dunno, drop your, drop your cup. I was gonna say, actually this is something I did recently.

I went to a big networking event in my local town, a big International Women's Day networking event, and when you walked in, it wasn't that clear where to go, where to get a coffee, I definitely felt awkward straight away in there for a while anyway. And I walked into the place where you could get teas and coffees, I'd taken my aluminium water bottle with me and I filled it up from the water cooler, went to put the lid on and dropped it.

And luckily at this point that room was fairly empty or there, certainly there were, it wasn't that empty. There were plenty of people in there, but they were more around the edges of the room.

Whereas later in the day, I literally would've soaked everybody stood near me. But back in the salon days, I was always a legendary, clumsy person.

And it's so typical for that to happen. But even now, nobody else would remember that that happened.

And it was one of those things, it was, you know, it happens. And I think being aware of that and being aware of how critical we can be to ourselves, I think is helpful and is helpful when we are also thinking about the other people in the room as well.

So rather than going into it thinking, what are people thinking of me, just going into it with an open heart and with the feeling that everybody is in the same boat really. So

Amazing Outcomes: FEA Masterclass & Surprise Talk

Jules White: some of the amazing things that have come from networking for me have been, when I joined the Female Entrepreneur Association, I was very active in the community. I joined the networking call.

So I was always, you know, to always see my face there and would get to know people through there. So I became known in the community for what I do.

And my amazing friend Jane, who I met through the Female Entrepreneur Association, said to me, you should offer to do a masterclass around SEO. And immediately my inner critic comes out and says, oh no, they wouldn't want me to do that.

They, they had people like Marie Forleo and Denise Duffield-Thomas, and all sorts of big names who have done masterclasses in there. And then somebody else who I know through the Female Entrepreneur Association said, oh, my neighbour has done a class for them and she's not a big name.

And I thought, why not just go for it? So I, I sent them an email and I asked if they would be interested in me delivering something for them.

And they did. And so I now have a masterclass in the Female Entrepreneur Association that I've recently done an update for as well.

And is content that will bring clients into my business for years to come. And that all came from just being part of the network.

Another thing that happened, I was introduced to a new network locally to me, an in-person one by the fantastic Jenny Moore. Jenny came on and had an audit of her website on episode 77, so have a listen to that.

But Jenny knew about this new networking event that was going on locally to us, and she asked me to come along with her, which was fantastic. I really enjoyed the event and I was a bit nervous before I went in.

And I'd only been in the room, I think about two minutes when I was introduced to the host, Jenny introduced me and what I do. And the host said, oh, our guest speaker who was supposed to be talking about SEO tonight is sick.

Do you fancy standing up and doing a talk? And it's one of those things where I hadn't even taken my coat off at this point.

And I was like, yeah, of course. Yeah, that's fine.

So I didn't have any notes. I didn't have anything prepped.

I had done a few talks by this point, so it wasn't something that I'd never spoken in front of people before, so I was fairly confident that I could just get up and have a chat about SEO. And I stood up at the front and talked about what I knew, answered questions and felt that amazing connection with the people that were there.

It was honestly one of the, the moments in my business where I felt my true calling and that passion to educate people and to answer questions and just to stand there and feel how much of a difference that SEO can make to people's lives. And it was amazing.

It was absolutely incredible. And I, as I say, I was feeling nervous before I went into the networking event and I just took a few minutes just to think I don't know what's gonna happen with this networking event.

I don't know what's, who I'm gonna meet. I dunno what's gonna come from it, but just feeling that open-heartedness before I went in.

And I think that was one of the most powerful things that really helped me just to embrace what happened and to just really appreciate that fantastic time in my business. Another network I'm in, which is an industry-specific one.

So it's a local networking event for beauty professionals. I've been along to that a few times and I've met a few clients through that.

And I think being in the room with people who then have been your clients and who can then shout about you, appreciate what you do, understand what you do as well, that can also be really powerful in terms of, spreading the word about what you do. At this beauty networking event, my client Kim was telling everybody in the room how much of a difference it had made to her business from working with me and how just one session working on her Google Business Profile had actually changed her business and had ended up with somebody finding her, buying from her, becoming a partner in her business and.

Massively skyrocketing her success. And her words were so kind and it was amazing to hear that.

And I think we all sometimes need to hear that, how this is the work that you've done and the impact it's had in my business. And I think there's something magical about being in the room in that sort of situation as well.

And even for people who haven't become clients yet. So Dawn, who's a part of a business accelerator I'm on who hasn't been a client of mine, all we've done is had a few conversations.

She's had a new website built, and I just had a chat with her about some of the questions to ask before she made that move. Because she was telling me that she's getting clients from Google right now, and she'd had this new website and I talked to so many people who have been in that situation, and they come to me too late.

They've already moved, they've already lost all their traffic, and then we are then in a panic mode trying to actually recover some of that. But the chat with me gave her the confidence to have the right conversation with her developer.

And the next time I saw her, she was again saying to the group how much of a difference it had made to her and how much it had helped her. Just purely having a conversation with me.

And with all of these situations, with all of these networking events, with all of these people that I meet and have conversations with, I didn't know what was gonna happen. And I think that's the big thing and the wonder of this really is you never know.

You never know if the person that you meet today or tomorrow is going to be the start of something amazing in your business. But getting to know people and building relationships has brought me so many clients over the years.

Not necessarily directly, sometimes directly, but not necessarily. And it's been a massive, massive growth strategy for my business.

Relationships vs. Algorithms: SEO & Final Thoughts

Jules White: Unfortunately for me, SEO is a really competitive market online. So as much as I am working on my own SEO this year standing out is tough.

And it's a lot tougher than, than most of my clients. They have a much easier time actually showing up for what they do than I do for SEO.

But it's still there and I'm still working on it because I still want to be known for the things that I do. And I'm exploring more of the ways where I can actually make myself stand out within the competitive SEO industry, but the relationships that I've built, no algorithm can take that away.

And there are so many ways that we can market our business. Some of them are very active and some of them are more passive.

With SEO, and showing up in search, there's lots of work to do at the beginning. So when you're first optimising your website, especially for your core pages, when you're first doing that, it feels like a lot of work there to begin with.

It's, it's front-heavy, but once you've done that work, that keeps paying dividends for years to come. So the work that you do on your SEO today pays dividends in 3, 6, 9, 12 months and beyond and keeps bringing clients into your business, years to come.

In the Website Growth Club, at the end of phase one. So we are wrapping up all of the work that people have done on their core pages and really celebrating how far they've come.

In helping to bring clients into their business in a more sustainable way. So that rather than posting all the time and hoping, they can focus on bringing clients in who are looking for what they do, and then they can spend their time building relationships, whether that's relationships through networking or through guest talks or through.

Collaborations, or referral partners even. They're building those relationships that can bring clients in right now.

Action Step & Closing

Jules White: So this week have a think about where you can do some networking. How can you grow your relationships?

Even if you just spend a little bit of time just sit and meditate and think about all the billions of people in the world. You don't need all of them or even a small percentage of them to be your customers.

So think of one conversation you can have this week that can help to grow your relationships, either in a big or a small way, and just be open to the possibility. That relationships are one of the best ways to grow your business.

And if you'd like to get your SEO in order so that you can connect with clients and customers at the point they're looking for your business, then visit my website, thewebsitesuccesshub.com. You can find out more about how I teach people and tell people what to do to get their website working for their business.

Thanks for listening, and I'll see you soon. Bye.