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Do you cringe when you have to go to a networking event and give a 30 second “elevator pitch”?

Do you avoid networking groups all together?

Don’t!  Networking is one of the best ways to build your business and build a relationship with other professionals in your community.

Networking has changed too!  It’s not passing out your business card to 50 strangers and never hearing from them again.  It’s sharing your story and listening to other people’s stories.

First thing you can do is change your perspective.  Instead of walking into the room and thinking

“What do I need to say to get these strangers to refer me business?”

change it to:

“I can’t wait to meet all of these people and learn how they can help me and my clients”.

Networking isn’t about you.

It’s about being helpful to other people.  The most important people that networking can help with is YOUR CURRENT CLIENTS.

Think about it.  If you are pet sitting at someone’s house and a water pipe bursts – wouldn’t it be nice to call on a plumber that you have built a relationship with through networking vs picking one at random through a Google search?  Wouldn’t it be nice to tell your clients “I know Plumber Bob through my networking group, I see him every week, I’ve gotten to know him personally and I trust him”.

That adds VALUE to you because it brings VALUE to your clients.

Before you started reading these words, I bet the image above caught your eye. Am I right?

What exactly about it got your attention?

The colors?
The lion?
The giraffe?
The action?

What FEELINGS did the picture invoke in you?

This answer is going to be different for everyone.  Did you focus on the lion or were you more drawn to the plight of the giraffe?  Think about the INTENT for each animal.  It’s completely different!   Eat or be eaten.

WHAT IS THE INTENT OF THE IMAGES IN YOUR CONTENT?  

Large dogs, medium, or small?
Cats?
Horses?
Distance you have to drive?
Pay via credit card or check?
Monday-Friday midday visits or vacation overnights?

Are you building your ideal client avatar?  If you’re not, you should be.  It will streamline your marketing efforts, be more cost effective, and it will attract clients that you love working with.

We’ve talked WHAT your ideal client looks like.
We’ve talked about WHY you should keep an ideal client in mind.

Now we are going to talk about HOW to reach them.

It’s easy:

Give them what they want: and they all want INFORMATION about things that are IMPORTANT to them.

Do you want to love your job? Do you want to avoid burnout? Do you want to be proactive so you can avoid problem clients? Do you want to land your ideal client the majority of the time? Of course…

Have you seen a post on social media and cringed a little bit? Thought "they're going to regret that one"? While you want to keep the "social" in your posts, there is a little bit of etiquette that you want…

Ask any pet sitter why they got into the business and you will usually hear an answer related to their passion for pets.

Here at PSO, we share your same passion for the safety and well being of animals.  We love to hear your stories of the rescues you volunteer for, the dogs and cats you may be fostering; this generous and giving community we are a part of is astounding.

Which is why we want to give back at the conference.  Each year we choose a non profit to sponsor and this year we are proud to announce that we are teaming up with Pilots N Paws!

A national organization of volunteers whose hobby just happens to be airplanes.