Advocacy & Community
Advocacy is more powerful than mere referral
It is the Active support of an idea!
What do we mean by ‘advocacy’?
When you know, like and trust someone and you are having a conversation with another person in business who raises a problem they would desperately like to solve and you say something like:
“I can’t believe you just said that! I know someone who specialises in solving exactly that problem.
From my experience with them, it would be great for you to have a quick chat with them to gain their thoughts on your issue.
Also, I know they are very happy to help people who may not be ready to proceed just yet.
As you might expect, they always have a great deal of work on but if you like I can have a chat and see how they are placed. “
When they say ‘yes’ (they’d like to meet with the person you are advocating for), you then contact the person you are advocating for and then get back to the person who may be able to use their services.
You proactively work to arrange the meeting (even though you have no immediate direct benefit).
Why does Advocacy work so well?
- Because you are not selling yourself!
- Instead, you are enthusiastically promoting someone else.
- And as we all know only too well:
- Anyone can promote anyone except themselves!
- When you genuinely trust that someone you have come to know can be of invaluable help to someone else, it is very easy to get excited about ‘going the extra mile’ to advocate for them
- The payback for you putting in this effort is that you build enormous trust with the person you are advocating for and
- The law of reciprocity says they will advocate for you
- And often they reciprocate in a much bigger way than you could have possibly imagined!
- The law of reciprocity says they will advocate for you
You can only genuinely be excited about advocating for someone you like and trust
What is trust and how is it built?
When someone in business is considering a potential business partner, employee, supplier, consultant or customer, what do they most want to know about the candidates before them?
- Do they have integrity (will they do what they say they are going to)?
- Are they consistent?
- Are they good team players?
- Are they prepared to ‘go the extra mile’?
- Are they loyal?
- What is their emotional intelligence like?
- Do they have initiative and creativity?
- Do they have leadership potential?
- Do they have aligned values?
Many people “talk a good game” at the interview but turn out to be quite disappointing 6 months down the track.
When you are helping someone to build their network, over a period of time, you will come to know the answers to the above all-important questions.
As time goes on you begin to like and trust certain people because they continually demonstrate the right attributes to you.
You are going to be genuinely excited about promoting such people to others in business because you know they will do their best to perform (short and long term) – just as they have demonstrated when building their network with you.
So, in effect, when you advocate for someone you are doing 2 people a great favour
- The person you are advocating for
- The person you are advocating them to
Community
Working with like-minded others
It is incredibly uplifting, inspiring and motivating to be working in a community of like-minded others.
It’s great to be associated with influential and experienced leaders who want to help aspiring others.
It feels great to know you are making a difference to someone’s life and the only condition is that they “Pay it forward” (have you seen the movie?)
Your Attitude is the key
At the Connect Collaborative we encourage successful people to help others such as you
- You don’t need to be currently in business
- Often it pays to build your trusted relationships and in the process discover ideas and mentors that will help you choose a business that will help you live the way you’d like to live rather than becoming a slave to the business
- You may already have a great job or income stream
- Dig the well before you need the water!
- Enhance what you are currently doing and build the network for future endeavours
- Engage with a great community of like-minded others
- You may lack confidence
- Others can help
- You may have failed in several ventures
- Maybe what you were actually lacking was an advocating network and some good mentors?
- Are you time poor?
- When is that going to change?
- Perhaps it’s worth thinking about how you are spending your time
- What are your options for setting up a better future?
- Start by building a relationship/trust-based network and see what ideas you discover – you may be pleasantly surprised
The post-COVID environment provides the opportunity to see things differently!