An Intro to We&Co

hi and welcome kind of excited because we're launching our YouTube channel and our podcast and that's a pretty big step for us and a lot of resistance had to be overcome ah resistance a topic we're going to cover later have you ever wondered why some businesses Skyrocket with referrals While others barely get up off the ground with them or maybe you're curious about the secret sauce behind building a thriving professional Community as you build your brand I'm Jana henan founder of we andco and with years of experience in networking community building and referral marketing I'm here to spill the beans on how you can do the same so what is We&Co We&Co was born out of pain I know everyone thinks oh you should start a business out of passion but it was out of pain that the passion was born Sidetrack for a second I am a firm believer that a lot of very successful business businesses are born out of pain after all I could be completely passionate about rubber band collecting and while it could turn into a viable business it might be futile as well anywh who here's my story I moved out to Malaysia in 2006 and was thrown into the wonderful world of networking referrals were easy to come by and at one point I had clients in nine different countries fast forward to 2016 and I found myself back in the United States with a daughter in toe and no real Professional Network I didn't hardly know anyone in my town long story short I was starting over from scratch luckily I remembered the old Doge it's not what you know it's who you know and this is especially important in business so I joined a few networking groups the problem was I wasn't seeing the referrals I was accustomed to overseas I realized a couple of different things one the professional culture here was very different from Southeast Asia people in the United States have to know like and trust you for first and thank you to Josh Lind for always preaching that to me two I needed a networking strategy something we'll cover later on down the road so I got to networking and I networked for a few years without getting hardly any referrals despite me spending time and money on building those professional relationships started becoming a little desperate because I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted to see I wasn't successful and I'll own it I didn't understand the culture here and I did didn't have a strategy for a couple of years I actually lost money networking coupled that with being a single mother I slowly became disheartened I knew the power of referrals I had experienced it myself firsthand you are way more likely to close a warm referral over a cold lead I found myself spending 10 to 15 additional hours a week networking building those professional relationships spending money on networking groups Chambers of Commerce and setting those oneto ones or face Toof face as we call them me to Weise with other professionals trying to understand their business a little bit better how I can refer to them and vice versa but I still wasn't seeing the referrals sure I had friends I still I'm still friends with a lot of them to this day but at the same time there's this Balancing Act I like to call it the fulcrum yes I want to have friends I want to have those professional relationships I do want to build those relationships but at the time there's a reason why it's called business business sinness we're all here to make money as well and making money is Fun the problem is is that your time is a finite resource you can always go out spend money and go back and make more money but how you spend your time you will never get that back once it's spent It's Gone Forever fast forward to July 2020 and this pain that I had experienced for a few years finally transmuted into my now passion which is maximizing professionals time while making them more money hence the birth of weano we're here to transform your business interactions into meaningful relationships that Foster growth loyalty and a sense of belonging while saving you time and making you more money our mission we aim to empower professionals to harness the power of referral marketing we believe in creating a world where businesses grow not just through transactions but through meaningful relationships and Community Support what will you learn with us the art of building a brand that people can't stop talking about strategies to transform customers into brand Advocates tips to harness the power of referral marketing how to network effectively and efficiently and how to be fun to refer to again we maximize professionals time while making them more money have you ever joined a professional networking group that met up once a week the meeting itself is about an hour and a half but with drive time and networking before and after it turns into about two two and a half hours every week and the meeting structure is kind of the same kind of stand up you do your 30 seconds someone gets a spotlight around once a year um for like an eight minutes or 10 minutes or something like that the point is is that's an easy two two and a half hours out of your week networking not including upholding those kpis the kpis are traditionally you're not allowed to miss so many meetings in a certain amount of time you have to pass four referrals a month you have to invite a visitor once a month and then you have to set up a face-to-face or onetoone meeting or what we would call a mewi once a week while there's nothing wrong with this I still wasn't seeing the results despite always hitting my kpis and surpassing them as I got to know more and more professionals I realized that while some of them were seeing success with this model there were others like me that weren't eventually I joined leadership positions thinking oh this will gain this will Garner more clout in the community right it ended up being a huge time suck it literally was like a part-time job I was spending an additional 10 to 15 hours a week just helping grow my networking group then Co happened and a lot of the networking groups fizzled out um the whole professional networking scene changed during the quarantine stuck at home with a seventh grader um who was now doing virtual schooling I had a little bit more time than I was accustomed to and I kind of wrote out all the pros and cons of traditional networking what is it that I would have liked to have seen when I first landed back here that really would have helped my business and helped put me in a position where I can help other businesses so I wrote down these pros and cons and voila We&Co was born not only did we come up with a structure and a system that helped maximize professionals time while helping them make more money we put an emphasis on building professional relationships and automating the networking process more on this in the future without giving away too much we have a ton more content that is primed and ready to be published that goes in-depth into networking business dos and don'ts and even principles you can apply not only in your business but in your personal life as well your challenge we challenge you to do what I did how much is your time worth how much of your business is built on referral marketing how much time do you spend networking what can you do differently so you can spend more time making money we call these income generating activities a lot of times people go out networking and they're just hitting up every single group every single event that they can and it's kind of like a machine gun approach to networking which hey in some areas in some professions that works but it doesn't work in all yes the law of propinquity is important the law of propinquity States hey the more I see you the more likely I'm going to refer to you right but being all places all times that's not good for your business either again there's that fulcrum that balance point that we have to find to find out more follow us on our social channels hit that subscribe button and follow the we andco movement again we aim to be the networking group that makes its members the most money while saving them time also if you're a leader in your community and would like to be the go-to business resource for Professionals in your area perhaps apply to become a We&Co Ambassador you get all the clout all the notoriety without having to take on a part-time job I'm Yana henan and thank you for taking a few moments out of your day to join me [Music]