Episode 104: The ROI of Virtual Education and Networking

In this episode, we explore the powerful intersection of education and networking and how both can yield substantial returns on investment for our businesses. We share our experiences and insights on how fostering connections and continually learning can transform our approach to client engagement.

What We Discuss:

• Understanding ROI in Networking: We unpack what return on investment truly means in the context of building relationships. By sharing stories from our own networks, we highlight how connections have led to new opportunities and collaborations.
• The Value of Continuous Learning: We discuss why investing in education—whether through courses, workshops, or conferences—enhances our expertise and credibility. We’ll share specific examples of how learning new skills has opened doors and helped us serve our clients better.
• Building Meaningful Relationships: We explore strategies for turning networking into meaningful relationships. We emphasize the importance of authenticity, active listening, and follow-up, showcasing how these elements can lead to deeper connections and increased trust.
• Real-Life Success Stories: We share inspiring stories of clients and peers who have successfully leveraged education and networking to grow their businesses. These anecdotes illustrate the tangible benefits of investing time and resources in these areas.
• Actionable Takeaways: By the end of this episode, we provide practical tips on how we can all start to see the ROI of our networking and educational efforts. From setting clear goals to nurturing relationships, we outline steps we can take to maximize our investments.

Additionally, we want to invite you to our Finish Strong: Start Fresh Summit on November 5th and 6th. This is a unique opportunity to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, gain insights from industry leaders, and kickstart your journey toward achieving your business goals. We’ll be diving into powerful strategies and sharing tools that can help you finish the year strong and set yourself up for success in the new year. Don’t miss out on this chance to invest in your growth—register now!

Join us as we navigate the exciting landscape of education and networking and uncover how these investments can lead to incredible opportunities for growth and success in our businesses!

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• Have a question? CONTACT US at info@thepursuitofbadasserie.com!

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Lynn Howard

Hey there, I’m Lynn.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the Pursuit of Badasserie: the Podcast. We are back again with another topic that every entrepreneur needs to know about when it comes to online education.

Cations, summits, conferences, do you need to know to get the most out of those experiences?

Lynn Howard

We’re gonna go over it today Yeah First of all, if you’re not attending summits or conferences virtually you really are missing out Like I know that a lot of us want to have that in-person touch that face-to-face that like in the presence of and Yes Absolutely, so do that.

However, post-covid there’s so much more opportunity to be able to expand yourself your network your business Your contacts so much And so that’s why we’re really talking about that this today because we feel that People are leaving money and opportunity and potential on the table So one of the first things regardless regardless if it’s virtual or not Amanda and I are big believers in setting goals like what do you want to get out of it?

How many if it’s a network event, like, how many people do you want to meet? What’s your objectives, right?

So, if it’s a networking event, how many people do you want to meet? What’s the type of person that you want to meet?

So there’s also doing a little bit of research there, but that goal setting, if it is a more of a course or a summit, then it’s what you’re going to gain out of it.

Like, what’s the thing that you want to pull? What’s that nugget that’s going to make it worth it? And again, you can use these tools or these tips that we’re giving you both on and offline, but we know that people drop from all when it comes online, even more so.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Even more so, you know, and I’m guilty of it too, because there are plenty of times that I sign for an online or virtual conference or a training or a workshop or something, and then at the same time, I’m making dinner, and then I leave to help my kid with something, and then I have to, like, real quick go get the mail, and it’s still on, and I attended, and yeah, I didn’t get anything out of it, and

And then it starts to snowball into this idea that, oh, well, I never really get anything out of those online ones.

And it’s not because they don’t have great information. It’s because I wasn’t fully invested in them and taking the time and energy to really figure out what did I even sign up for?

What was the purpose of me signing up? And that can vary greatly across all sorts of platforms. There are times that I sign up for virtual conferences that aren’t even necessarily within my niche.

But I want to see, like, how do they do their CRM? Or what’s their email sequence like, or maybe it’s something like, oh, I heard about this one speaker.

want to see how they speak and what their topic is. And so it might not really even be necessarily about getting information.

So when we say, what’s your goal when you come to a virtual conference or summit or anything like that, it can vary widely.

Like I said, there are lots of times that I attend seminars online that are just for fun. maybe I do want to learn about archaeology in Peru.

Like maybe… That’s what I want to gain out of it. I did take one of those, pretty fun. Anyway, it’s, and they were talking of Zoodoo and Katie, it’s very cool.

Anyway, so there are lots of reasons to take it. I think it’s important that you set up, we think it’s important that you set up that expectation as you’re signing up of, do I really want to get out of this?

I want to learn the topic? I want to interact with the people? Do I want to come away with contacts?

Watch how they present, watch how they do their systems. There’s lots of reasons to get involved, and as long as it’s clear, you will get something out of that experience every single time.

Yes.

Lynn Howard

You did touch on one other thing that I definitely want to stress as well, although it wasn’t your main point, be actively engaged, pay attention.

If you are, and show up, like those two go hand in a hand. How many of you, let us show up and so we’re just watching you, have sign up for something and don’t show up.

I’m, I’m. And offline, but you know, it’s easier to do it when it’s online, right? Because because you’re like, no, nobody will miss me or whatever.

You’re not going to know anybody. But showing up is like the first thing, but then also being engaged in it, turn off everything else, put your phone away exactly what Amanda was saying.

So make sure that you’re actively engaged in it. You’re taking notes, you’re asking yourself questions. And one of our, really like our bonuses that we love, you know, because we put on summits and different masterminds and different things like that, master classes, but we always encourage either if it’s our people who are putting one on or that we’re putting one on.

We always encourage our attendees to at least take one nugget out of each section, out of each presentation to apply.

Even if it’s something that doesn’t come directly from the speaker, and maybe it’s a thought that came from my

But if you’re going to the intention to pull something out each speaker, each hour on the hour, to pull out and apply, then it can drastically shift your business, or if it’s personal stuff, maybe your personal life, in just little actions.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Absolutely. it’s not just the action of absorbing that information or taking it away that and we talk about this all the time.

We’ve done podcasts on it, the implementation, the speed of implementation particularly. As you’re coming off of these conferences, submits, experiences, just having just writing down in a notebook that you want to do x, y, z, isn’t enough.

Because a lot of times you write down the notes, write a little sticky note, and you put it next to you, like, oh, that’s a really good tip.

And it fits on that sticky note. And then three months later, you’ve got this crumbled little sticky note with some scratchy writing on it.

You’re like, well, don’t know what this was when you throw it away and you never actually implemented it. yeah, it was a great

But if you don’t put it into the action, then it was kind of lost on you in its full effectiveness.

So we love to block out time outside of any online event to actually put it into action or to absorb it.

Again, it’s not always about a business action thing. Maybe it’s more personal, maybe it’s more trauma related, maybe whatever the case, but there needs to be some processing time and action time after every single one of your online encounters.

Or maybe it’s time to reach out to those people and actually start the first step of really networking rather than like, oh great, got 15 emails and then you don’t do anything with it.

Which I have done before and I hate it when I do it because I’ll come up with a networking and in-person networking, I’ll have all these business cards, all these contacts, all these conversations in my head, and then something will come up and then it feels weird to reach out to them three weeks later and be like, oh yeah, remember I

a talk with you three weeks ago, we stood next to that one place and it just doesn’t feel as genuine.

Feels like an afterthought because it is. And so if you can do that implementation right away, you will get so much more out of it, whether it’s implementing an action step, whether it’s reaching out from a networking standpoint, whether it’s researching a topic you want to research, whatever it is, putting in the action right away, not only will let it seep into your brain so that you can do more with it later, but it will start working in your business or your life right away because sometimes things take time for them really to see the results, but you have to put it in action in order to see any results.

if you can block out that time after any online event to really do that, it will absolutely change the way you see networking and online events and some of some things because it will change the game for you.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, absolutely. know, while you’re talking, and we should have probably prompted with this or start with. This is that you can break up events, again, on our offline into three segments before, so what you do before, the during the event, and then the after.

And so we’ve been kind of jumping around between the before during and the after, setting those goals, creating that space, making sure that you can show up actively during, you’re going to be taking notes, figuring out what you want to implement, but same focus after, like Amanda said, that follow up and follow through.

It’s great to have that time already bucketed out in your calendar, pre the event. One other thing that I really enjoy doing pre-event is I will look at the lineup and sometimes it’s even conferences some it’s I don’t even go and register for, but maybe some of these people on the poster, interest me, but especially those that I’m going to attend, I start following the speaker.

I start following the facilitators because I want to learn a bit more about them. I want to connect with them and those that I really like the presentation, I just did this recently.

Those that I really like the presentation, I will actually message them even before and say, Hey, I see that you’re speaking at so and so summit.

Like I’m really excited to see you. And it’s just that extra step. And I was actually pleasantly surprised at this last summit that I did this.

was a women’s summit. There are a ton of women that were involved in. I probably, I don’t know. I think in all because it was like a week long.

The speakers, there’s probably about 40 speakers. And I think I messaged about a fourth of them because I was interested in them.

saw their profiles and almost all the message went back and said, Oh, are you speaking to obviously on our profiles?

We say that we speak. But it started this conversation and this ball rolling. So that way I’m starting to develop a relationship with higher.

I love all individuals, even though I’m an audience member, because they might not see me in the audience, right?

We might not actually get to me, but I am being proactive with that connection and that engagement free, and then obviously with the follow up and follow through.

If I watch it, then I’m going to send them. If I do participate and I watch it, then I’m going send them a message afterwards about the things that I enjoy the most about their presentation or maybe questions.

yeah, so kind of the before the journey and the afters, how you want to kind of break things up.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Yes, that’s one of the best tips to be able just to reach out to them first and even better because we all would hope and now our audience knows that we like efficiency.

So if you contact them ahead of time, then it leaves you one less thing to do after the fact.

So you’ve already contacted, you’ve already made connection. You’ve already started that process so that when you do the follow up and the follow through, it’s like one less.

point of contact you really have to make it’s one less like, oh, where’s that email? have to look at this person.

You’ve already done it. When you had more time and you didn’t have all the action thoughts in your head, you’ve already done that step.

So, honestly, it definitely takes less time mentally if you do that ahead of time rather than waiting till the end because you’re already prepped and ready to go.

And if you have something to say to the speakers or to another participant, it’s already half the work’s already done.

So, it definitely helps on that front.

Lynn Howard

Yeah. Another thing that we would suggest is, regardless if you know the facilitators of the summit, the networking, et cetera, if you have the ability to be able to, and what I mean is, if registration isn’t closed, if the registration is opened to other people, and even if it’s not, share that you’re going.

Share that you’re going on your page, even if you’re not affiliated with them. If people can still register and you see people, like, that

at last conference I was talking about, I sent it out, I sent it to Amanda, I sent it to all different types of people because I came across, and Amanda does the same thing, when we come across them, were like, oh my god, we have to be on this and we’ll send it to the people who we think would really be able to benefit from that.

Share it on your social media, push it out, we could all use help, like we can all use help promoting our businesses, promoting what we do, and it doesn’t matter if I know them or not, if I think it might be beneficial to some people on my network, I absolutely want to pass that information along.

Shame on me for not doing that, and so, but even like if you’re super stoked about it, or if you know the facilitators, or somebody who’s speaking, post about on your social media, share it in your newsletter, share it on your email list, to say, oh my god, my girls, Leonard and Amanda, they’re going to be speaking on someone’s summit coming up, obviously, if it’s our summit, want you to share that too, if you’re our people, but you know,

It’s cool even if it isn’t or something. If we’re highlighted, it shows that you’re connected with high-level individuals or that you’re proud of the people on your network and you’re showing that you’re a Down-E-S-B-H, as we like to say, and that you are sharing the wealth, like you’re sharing that connectivity, if you would, and promoting without necessarily anything in return.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

It’s definitely a giver’s gain and we 100% advocate for that and, you know, for a long time, when I was much younger, this was before online virtual science and things were really a thing.

was really more like in-person stuff. I’m not saying that online science didn’t exist that it just wasn’t as readily available and easily accessible as it has been in the last five years.

But I often felt like I was gatekeeping by not telling people about it. Like, oh, well, I’m doing this really cool thing, but I don’t want anybody else to know, because I want to be the expert in that now.

And that was young, super competitive, a little bit fixed.

Lynn Howard

Two years ago. I’m just kidding.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

shame, shocking, horrible reply. No, was when my early 20s, when I didn’t want anybody to have an edge on me for anything.

Lynn Howard

was so hilarious.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

I could totally see that.

Lynn Howard

Oh, you could totally.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

I absolutely did it. I would hoard over the information, because I didn’t want anybody to have it, but me.

And I recognized this young Amanda. You have the right intentions, sort of. But the idea is that it doesn’t cost you anything to share.

It doesn’t do anything except elevate, and we all go up together. So we can’t stress enough how important it is to really share that information, if you think other people will benefit.

Because ultimately, that’s why people put on summits and conferences and treats the things they want people to benefit from their knowledge and to share it and find an easier way or better way or simpler way or whatever way to get stuff done or do the thing.

So don’t be afraid to share you don’t have to gatekeep. You could still grow and be amazing and be your own careful self don’t gatekeep to learn from my mistakes please.

Lynn Howard

I love that you know it’s interesting I I can hear some of you thinking well I don’t know I don’t know if it’s gonna be good I don’t know if you’re ever saying I can hear I’m in your I’m in your head today like I can hear you I see the hands going what I will say about that is is that you just preface like hey Amanda like I saw this I’m not affiliated but I thought of you like I’m I’m signing up I don’t know anybody but you know I thought of you make your own decision so that way you kind of like protect yourself if you feel the need to.

Since you don’t know anything, so that shouldn’t be, I guess why we’re saying this is it shouldn’t be a provider of you sharing the knowledge that’s out there and allowing others to make the decision for themselves.

But especially, I will say though, if you have strong influence over the people that you know, you should preface that, Hey, I don’t know them.

I’m not affiliated with them. Or if you are, tell them and tell them why more in detail, because you do want that transparency either way.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Absolutely, absolutely. So when it comes to attending, we have our before, our during, and our after steps. The other thing, which I’m kind of, I’m just scrolling back in my head over this last 15 minutes, we’ve been talking, active listening is something we haven’t mentioned, but Yeah, I, I think it’s almost because with

What that goes without saying, actively listen, really actively listen. And that’s, we talked a little bit about shutting off all distractions, creating space for them.

I would say engaging is different than actively listening, yes. Yes, so please, please, please, when we say to cut off distractions and really engage in it, we definitely mean like, my mom’s coming out.

like, I’ve seen years, really active listening. So all I could think about just then. Really actively listening to the speakers, really actively thinking about how you can plan this into your, implement this into your business, really thinking outside the box, seeing a speaker and their topic for more than just the surface area.

Lynn has spoken about this a couple of times when she went to a conference and somebody was talking about fear sounding, I believe, or a fear aspect.

And she was like, this is how I resonate and how I offer. And ultimately, that was, the only thing to gain from that speaker.

So instead of shutting yourself out to the one thing they say that you don’t agree with, open yourself up to all the other things they say that you could resonate with.

Lynn Howard

Or the way that they do it because that was my big lesson is like look at how they percent at the front of the room.

So depending on like what you do as a profession, if you’re going to be speaking, if you will like that knowledge, like you can also, and Amanda and I, we teach this and you know next in 2025, we’re going to have licenses for our signature programs, and we’re going to have them doing the same thing.

It’s not just about learning the content, it’s about learning how others present content, how they engage with the audience, how they keep their energy up, how they flow, the way that they present themselves, the way they is like paying attention to all the full

picture is super important. I love that you added that active active listening absolutely.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

And there’s lots of times that Lynn and I have exchanged on many platforms, this means or videos like look at the way they talk about this look away and it’s not, you might not even be information that we don’t know, but it’s the way it’s presented that’s different or it’s the way they did the advertisement or the way that they did a caption or call to action or whatever system.

So again, there’s a lot to be learned in a conference or a summit that is beyond just the subject matter.

So we absolutely encourage you to seek out both within your niche and outside of your niche just to learn something new.

There’s so much opportunity to learn and to experience while in your pajamas at home.

Lynn Howard

So there’s I would suggest for you not to be in your pajamas if you’re going to a summit or networking event.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

It’s on top, the job is on the bottom, no?

Lynn Howard

I would suggest, I even put on perfume, but I love perfume, you do.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

But, you know, in a good way, you always smell great. I, on the other hand, in like, like a mullet, just on the top, party in the bottom, on an online event, at a real networking event, please wear appropriate tires when you’re wearing a bunch of I would say that, overall, I am fully fully man, there’ve been a couple of times, and I’m afraid that, like, I’m gonna forget, and like, I’m gonna be the dummy who stands up with my little party shorts on.

It’s very least, the fuzzy socks, it’s winter’s coming.

Lynn Howard

In your next words, I’m just saying, with a 80 degree winter, yeah. We want you to not shy away from the online summit, see online events.

events, the online networking, which yes, we would prefer in person. So here’s the benefit. Like we give you some nuggets, but here’s the benefit of this.

First of all, hello, you’re expanding your global network. Like if you can listen to people from all the world from the comfy of your own home and not have to pay to go and watch them all on stage in saving you a out of money, but also like comfort and headache and all that stuff.

like, hello, like there’s a benefit and with people from all over the or maybe not, maybe all over the States.

I mean, maybe not from this. Usually the summits aren’t and the networking aren’t all from the same like five mile radius, right?

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Absolutely. I mean, I would love to just be in London on to to say and in Paris on Thursday and, you know, Ethiopia on Saturday, but that can’t always be the case.

And this is the only way that I could ever do this. I have the ability to connect with those people from Houston, from Hawaii, from wherever I am, from Bangkok.

And that is something that is invaluable in your business. And there’s just learning the way different, how you might be able to adapt that to yours.

Unreal, the amount of knowledge that you can gain from just getting out of your mile radius.

Lynn Howard

Yes, yes. It gives you a global experience without having to stamp your passport. So all the benefits that come with that, not just the convenience, but the knowledge, like Manasad, the expansion of like different.

cross-cultural experiences and different things like that and when you it’s interesting because I’ve been doing a lot of online global networking with a particular group recently that I’m trying to help build and the majority of the chapters are in the UK right now but they do have some about four other countries and we’ve been having talks with the the person running it about like okay how can we get how can we get the rest of the individuals to think more global like even if they can’t do business level or they don’t want to do business global what is the benefit of them to think more in a global mindset and it just helps you feel like not as alone too like you get to see like somebody from across the pond or in Southeast Asia and in Alaska they’re having the same problems in their business they’re having the same hurdles that they have to get over you can bring

and so around it differently. Obviously, to me, if it’s a networking function or a summit or what not, but you’re able to see it through different lenses, which absolutely can help you feel like you’re not so alone in your journey.

Yeah, there are so many benefits, so many benefits, but obviously we highly recommend being networking, going to some minutes that additional learning is so important.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

We need to be investing in ourself, that’s also through education, that’s through networking, that’s through expansion. Absolutely, and investing in your business is and yourself is the absolute best investment we are going to make.

And I mean, if you want to go from the U.S. side, it is a tax write-off for those of you who do attend paid events, but what I get out of it, what we get out of it is more than just a tax write-off though, I do appreciate those.

It’s the experience. Experiences is the implementation of new things. It’s a different way of seeing things. It’s the reaching out and with like minds or different minds and able to glean what we can from that.

It’s so beneficial. And how many conferences do you think you went to last year? Well, I should say in this year.

In 2024, how many conferences do you think you’ve been attending or speaking at?

Lynn Howard

By facilitated. Even including the ones I facilitated too. mean, just in March, I had five that I facilitated M.C.D.

but don’t know. Probably conferences spoke at M.C.D. or attended at least 10. I want to say 15 though. Like if I’m counting the virtual, like all of them.

I think that’s a great question Amanda.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

I know I’ve been to at least one a month. Yeah, even if it was just like a one day quicker one.

mean, I will honestly say I have not done a great job participating in all of those for one reason or another.

However, I have at least registered and attended one a month this year, and I foresee it being more next year.

I can actually, I already know because I’m going to be, I already have slated myself to speak at more events next year.

Lynn Howard

Wait, now we’re going to our conferences, because I know I networking, because that would also be like, that’s crazy.

have lots of them.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

I was going to say, one week to at least double, if not more. Yeah, that’s like one a week, sometimes.

So we challenged you, look at this last year of 2024, look at how many educational events you attended online or in person, and see if could increase that in 2025 or even purposefully increase it.

Correct. That’s it. We don’t want you to select sign up for 15 and never really show up, to actually show up, be engaged, implement,

them, challenge yourself and see what you can learn. See if you have bit one more or two in by then for the year.

know I’ve I’ve at least three that I’m signed up for in the next two months of 2024. So see what you can do to really expand your knowledge, expand your network and grow your business.

Lynn Howard

Yeah. And I would say look for ones that are an alignment of I mean, yes, you know, if you want to learn something cool, but you definitely when you have the intentioning your purposeful about it, you can actually look at it through eyes to say, okay, how can this benefit me?

How what can I maybe derive from this or take from it? So yes, we I love that you’re challenging them to add on a few more, but we would want you to do it in the right direction.

Absolutely.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

100% actively in those limits, not just signing up to rack up numbers.

Lynn Howard

Yes. All right. So Oh, if you feel like somebody else can benefit from this podcast, go ahead and hit share, send to them, go ahead and hit subscribe.

you’re enjoying our pursuit of the bad, the pursuit of bad as a podcast, we can’t even speak, make sure that you’re subscribed to our channel so you get all of the podcasts as they’re dropping notifications.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

And along with that subscription, you will also be notified when we speak, when we have conferences, when we do events, when we do virtual events and in person events, and obviously we want you there.

We have a summit coming up ourselves next week. We hope that you attend. It’s the finished, strong, start, fresh virtual global summit and we want you there.

Lynn Howard

We’ll put links in the show notes if you’re watching late.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

It’s for November 5th and 6th of Though I’m sure by the time if you’re listening to this late, we’ll be one.

I’m sure we have one going on if you’re listening to this late. We want you there. Make sure you are following us and subscribing so you get all that information as it comes up because we want to see you there.

We want to help you implement. We want to see your business grow. That is what we do and what we love.

Lynn Howard

What we love. Yes. So, I guess, Amanda, till next time.

The Pursuit of Badasserie

Get after it.