Your Friday news to help you unleashing your power! (Come we eat grandpa!)

Hello !

How have you been? How was your week?

My week started phenomenally, but something crept in on Tuesday night that made it into one of the most “Yuck” weeks I had in a long time. So, today is Friday, I am to meet with my bestie tonight and with that, I will eradicate Wednesday and Thursday (and maybe a little bit of today) out of my calendar. Those days have never existed! Period! 😂

At first, I need to share something with you that I stumbled upon the other day. As I am preparing my work with a new client for a branding for her new venture, I found this online on Reddit:

It embodies EVERYTHING that a brand can do for you, in this case a very important point – the font. It’s the same as with the comma, it’s a seemingly small thing that matters the most:

This small detail, choosing the right font for your brand, choosing commas at the appropriate places, you immediately make a certain impact on anyone who interacts with you in one shape or the other.

Admittingly, the Germans definitely overuse the comma in their language, whilst the English could use a little more at times, but that is now more of a linguistic thing than what my point is. 🤭

This tiny, hilarious venture into the language that creatures pictures and emotions, I’ll be moving on to something that is important in every business, and therefore brand: Networking!

(Did I hear an “Ugh, booooring!” there somewhere? Bear with me, it’s not as you think it is 🤭)

In my favourite network, the ONLE network, the question for this month is, to give one word that describes networking for you. Mine was “fun”, and here’s where I want to start my Friday Seaweed & Salt goodness for you.

When I started out in the business world three years ago, networking was horrifying and terrible and “Eek, I need to speak with people and in front of a room!!!” (Terrible for an introvert!). It didn’t help that I was taught all the “wrong” things as of what to do, so my mindset was not very good in the first months. Then I found networks that were a little bit more human, and I adjusted my mindset, and suddenly networking became easier, but it still was not something that I genuinely would have labelled as “fun”. My labels were “necessity, waste of time, energy draining, for what am I doing this?” Fast forward to this day, I can say that I am looking forward to my meetings in ONLE and meeting all the fantastic people in there.

So, what happened? How did my mindset change?

I believe that it was down to finding THE network for me, that is right at this moment in time. I am a human who longs for connections beyond the “What do I have to sell/what do you have to sell” attitude. I long for conversations that feed my brain and soul, and I long for more than just the afore mentioned business attitude.

It is true after all that people buy from people in our small business world, isn’t it? Even when we think we don’t do that, it is ingrained in humans to gravitate towards those in whom we see similarities with ourselves (it doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative, we just do it).

The right network at the right time helps tremendously in becoming comfortable with having to speak to a room. 121’s that let you get to know people and their deeper drivers, let you feel more connected, and you can build relationships. And apart from the connection and building relationships attitude, it is tremendously important to me to have people who do not cold sell all the time.

Maybe I could describe networking groups in the way of Sales vs. Customer Service? One is relentless and the other one is nurturing (when done right!)? 🤭

Of course, the personal growth that one goes through during a business journey also contributes to the behaviour and mindset that we have towards something, and we all know that, don’t we?

But it also needs this bit of Universal intervention, and the wisdom to acknowledge an opportunity when it comes our way, to find these gems that benefit us so much, don’t you think?

Having said that, I am going to sign off, but not before I recommend listening to this week’s episode of Kardamom & Chili – Unleash your magic!.

Last week we had spoken about “How to find your ideal SUPPLIER”, and this fed straight into this week’s episode about “What do you expect as a client from your supplier?”

In all honesty – and yes, I am biased – I do love the conversations with Vera as we come up with a different angle on topics so very often, and it makes so much fun! I mean, isn’t it amazing how much we all think in a certain direction (e.g. finding our ideal client), but never think in the other direction?

So, this week’s episode is once again packed with great insights, and is surely as entertaining as the others. So, head over now or do it later with a drink when you’re in the garden, and enjoy yet another view onto the world from us geeky introverts.

And with that, I am wishing you the most A-MA-ZING Friday and weekend,

Yours truly, Heike 🤘🌊🤘

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