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Welcome to the Growing Careers & Companies Podcast with Allison S. Weiss. Today, we talk about relationships. We go through useful tips on how to get better at networking and building relationships. Allison gives us expert advice and insight on her own experience in the relationship-building field.

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“The more that I help others, the more that I serve, the more that I show up and give, the more that I personally will receive.”

At the heart of all of our interactions, whether we’re running companies or growing our careers, is relationships. As many of us are getting back into the conference circuit and face-to-face meetings after spending so much time in the digital world, brushing up our relationship-building skills is important.

We would like to share some expert advice from a couple of well-known industry pros and Allison’s own experience in working in the relationship-building field for the last 12 years.

First, let’s look at Bob Burg’s book The Go-Giver. He shares 5 key principles on how to have truly valuable relationships.

1. Value. Your true worth as a person is determined by how much value you give to others, as opposed to being focused on how much you receive.
2. Compensation. Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
3. Influence. Your influence is in direct proportion to how abundantly you serve and help others and put their interests ahead of your own interests. 
4. Authenticity. The most valuable gift that you have to share with others is to offer yourself, your unique gifts and values that nobody else has.
5. Receptivity. The key to giving effectively is also to stay open to receiving.

We have a link to the video overview of the book in this episode’s resource guide.

Another great resource is Gary V’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook book. It has a similar concept but in the social media world. The “jab, jab, jab” means “give, give, give”, and the “right hook” means “to ask”. So make sure you give 3 times before you ask. 

In the second part of the episode, Allison shares 6 of her favorite core relationship-building principles.

1. Creating value. Whenever you meet someone, ask yourself - how can I help?
2. Be a thought-leader. Think about what you want to be known for. What specific expertise do you want to share with the world?
3. Prepare for the meeting. Be ready to ask great questions or have good insights, you have to be prepared.
4. Find a common ground. Understand, listen, and ask the right questions to figure out what is important to this person and how are you similar.
5. Be memorable. Strengthen your relationship with the people you want to get closer with by sharing something that utilizes the information that you've learned about them. Make sure that you’re following up using the tidbits of information that you've learned about the person.
6. Show up consistently. Reach out at an interval that you think is appropriate for that particular person.

Don’t forget to try to put these ideas into practice.