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How to network as a mental health professional
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Hello and welcome to The Business of Psychology. I can't believe it, but this is actually the final episode of season three, which has completely taken me by surprise! But don't worry, you don't have very long to wait until season four; season four is launching at the end of December just in time for the new year. It's not a big long gap this time, just long enough for me to get some juicy interviews recorded for you.
Today we're talking about networking, and how to network effectively as a mental health professional, because I know that this is something that causes a huge amount of anxiety for a lot of you. It's something I used to really hate and I now really love, and I think the difference for me is that when I go to networking now, I'm not going like the first day of school, trying to impress people, trying to make new friends (I often do make friends), but actually I always go to networking with a strategy. There are always some key things that I'm looking to get done while I'm there and that helps me in two ways; it helps me deal with my anxiety, because it reminds me of my values and how going to this networking session, which might initially seem quite scary, is taking committed action towards my values, so that really helps. But also, it helps me because it helps me to make the time to prioritise it, because we all have massively long to do lists and if you're listening to this when it goes live in November and you're anything like me, you are probably finding that your calendar is getting fuller and fuller and fuller as Christmas approaches. Which is terrifying, isn't it? But it's the reality; we're all really busy people and so making the time for networking is difficult to do if you might end up just going, drinking a lukewarm cup of tea and having some biscuits. That's not really worth your time. But if you do it strategically, then networking can be one of the most valuable ways of bringing new work into your business, collaborating on bigger projects, and basically reaching more people. I think it's a great way to get referrals but it's also just a brilliant way to accelerate any other projects that you're trying to work on at the moment. If I'd never been networking, for example, I wouldn't be collaborating with Pregnancy Sickness Support, which I'm really proud to be doing at the moment. I also never would have established my practice in the way that it was in Plymouth. When I got down there, it was the first networking event that I went to where I met my friend Nicky, who is an antenatal teacher, and we put on a huge event for all of the pregnant women in Plymouth and we went on to work together in lots of different ways that were really exciting for me. So I'm a really big believer in networking, but you do have to do it in the right way.
So today, I'm going to share with you six things that I think you need to think about going into any networking session, and by the end of this episode I hope that you're feeling excited to get out there and give networking a go.
Set some goals
The first thing that you need to do before you go to a networking session is set some goals. What do you need help with at the moment that somebody from a different professional background might be able to help you with? What do you want to find out about local services? What could you find out about your ideal clients from the people at this session? Are you looking for collaborators for a project at the moment? If you're looking for referrals, then think about who it is you need to refer to in your practice, and look for those people because it is very, very likely that if you establish that relationship where you're referring to them, they are also going to want to refer to you. For example, in my perinatal practice, I desperately needed a perinatal physiotherapist to be able to refer to because so many of my clients who have been through birth trauma, have difficulty with the pelvic floor, pelvic pain, those kinds of issues, and I knew I needed somebody local to me who could see them in person. So I went networking, looking for that person and I found her, and we now refer to and from each other, so it works really well. I went with the intention of somebody to refer to and then got somebody to refer to me as well, which is always helpful. So that's the first thing you need to do: have clear goals. I usually recommend having about three things on my list when I go in because you never know you might get a room full of people who just don't know anything about your ideal clients. I think it's unlikely, but you may, so it's good to have two or three things on your list that you're looking to get out of that session.
Plan your take home message
The second thing you need to think about is your take home message. Plan two or three sentences about who you are and what you stand for, that you want those people to remember when you leave that room. It's key here not to go into too much detail and to just lead with the thing that is your absolute priority at the moment. At the moment I'm really trying to grow my Instagram account @ThePregnancyPsychologist, so when I go to a networking session, I'm likely to have this take home message in mind, or something like this.
‘So I'm Dr. Rosie Gilderthorp. I'm a clinical psychologist, and I specialise in mental health in pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. I really want women to know that mindfulness can help with sickness in pregnancy, so please share my new Instagram account with everyone you know who is pregnant.’
You see how that's a couple of sentences, I think three sentences (one of them is quite long) and so I can use that whenever I need to introduce myself into a new group, I can use that if they have those sort of round robins where you all go round the circle introducing yourself, this is exactly what I would say. I'll have planned that in advance, because if I don't, you can guarantee that I'll come up with some really long spiel about how I'm running a social enterprise, about how there are several different sides to my business, and I do consultancy, and I do therapy, and I do Psychology Business School, and all of that stuff will come out, when actually that's just going to overwhelm people and they're not going to remember what I'm about. At the moment, my emphasis when I'm networking is about building that Instagram account, so that is the thing I want them to remember, so that is all I'm going to tell them about myself. Bare minimum information leading with the thing which is your absolute priority.
Take any opportunity to speak and share your take home message
That brings me on really to point number three, which is that make sure when you're there you take any opportunity to speak and share that take home message, because sometimes it will be optional, sometimes they'll say introduce yourself if you'd like to. Really you must do that! To get the most out of the session, as many people as possible need to hear that message from you. It's not a sales pitch, this is you letting people know who you are and what you stand for, so that if they ever need you, or if they've ever got somebody in their life that needs you, they remember you. Think of it as a public service; if you don't do this clearly, and if you don't take every opportunity to do it, people are not going to know that you exist and all of you are doing really important work, and people need to know about that work. So take that very, very seriously and make sure you do take those opportunities to speak.
Take business cards that make it easy for people to connect
The fourth thing that you can do is make sure that you bring business cards that make it easy for people to connect with you. You might see people saying that business cards are dead, we don't need business cards anymore, but actually, if you're going to an in-person networking event, you can use business cards in a really smart way. If you go into Canva now, you can create a QR code which links to any webpage you want it to. So depending on what your current priority is, you can put something like your Instagram account on a QR code on the back of your business card. If I went and I said my message about wanting people to share my Instagram account and follow me on Instagram, I can then hand out a business card that means they can scan it in front of me and they're following me before I've left the session. You can do that with your LinkedIn profile, you could do that with a landing page if you've got a freebie that's relevant to the people at that networking event, or you could do it simply to your website if you just want people to be aware of who you are and what services you're offering. I always do that these days and I find it really helpful. I think people quite like the fact that it's a physical business card, and they only cost a couple of pence per card to get printed, so that's the way that I do it. But when I've been too disorganised, I've also just had it as an image on my phone so people can just scan the QR code straight off my phone. That's another tip; if you realise that you're going to an event tomorrow and you haven't got time to do business cards, just get the QR code on your phone and they can scan it from there. But make sure you've got an easy way for people to get in touch with you and stay in contact with you.
Bring your helpful best
The fifth point I want to make might seem obvious, but actually when we go into networking, because we're nervous, we often go into a bit of fight or flight thinking and it can really shut down our ability to think in a kind of social way. By that I mean that we often start to get really focused on what we want to get out of the session and we forget that we're in a social situation with other real human beings. Actually that really disadvantages us because one of our superpowers as mental health professionals is being helpful and thinking creatively around other people's problems. So something that I'd really encourage you to do when you go to a networking session is think about how you can give to the other people in the room much more than you want to take from them. Just listening to the conversations people are having, what difficulties are they having in their business at the moment? I guarantee that as a mental health professional, you will have a useful perspective on the majority of problems that people are going through in that room. Even if you think, 'oh I've only been in business for five minutes, I don't know anything about it', think about everything you know about relationship dynamics, about working with teams, about supporting people through stressful times; all of that stuff is going to be highly relevant at a networking event. Almost every event I go to somebody ends up telling me about something very stressful that's happening in their business. Sometimes the only advice that I can give them is make sure that you're taking time for you, make sure that you're regulating before you're speaking to that person (often they don't know what that means, so I would talk to them about making sure their nervous system isn't working against them when they go into that difficult meeting). Anything that you say, anything that you do that is helpful for people will lodge in their memories, and they will remember you as a helpful and competent individual, even if it is completely off topic from what you do for a living. Never forget that about networking; you're there with real people, and bring your helpful best for that session, and people will remember it.
Be yourself and dress comfortably
Number six. The final point I wanted to make is be yourself and dress comfortably. Something that stuck with me from childhood is I don't really like wearing really smart clothes. Something about it makes me feel uncomfortable, it's just not really me. I've always worn trainers, I've always worn jeans, I'm just somebody that prefers to be dressed casually. Every now and again I like to get dressed up and do my hair and all of that stuff, but generally, for work, I'm all about being approachable. I'm all about being seen as a normal person who happens to have some knowledge about psychology that can be helpful. I'm really not about looking super smart, super corporate, but when I first went to networking events, I thought that's what I had to be. So I forced myself to wear heels, I wore shirts, and I just felt so uncomfortable I could barely speak. Nowadays, I show up fully as myself, and if people like that energy, if they like the way that I am, then brilliant, they're a good fit to work with me and refer people to me. If they don't like that, then I wouldn't be the best person to help them anyway. I've just come to really accept that and since I have, I find it so much easier to go into networking sessions and have a good time and talk about what I want to talk about and get something useful out of it. So if you're thinking, 'oh I've got that networking session coming up, what am I going to wear?' my answer is wear what you would normally wear for work, wear what you would wear for your clients, wear what you would wear for going for a coffee meeting with a colleague. Please don't try and make yourself into what you think somebody at a networking event should be, in any capacity. So for me, the biggest hang up was about clothes and what to wear. But also, you know, if you don't feel the need to go in with your laptop, go with whatever you would feel comfortable taking to a regular event, a CPD training. Take your notebook, take your diary, or don't take any of that if you're the kind of person that just rocks up with their phone, then be that person. I guess, overall, it's just about doing what you feel comfortable with, and not trying to apologise for yourself.
I hope that has given you some useful tips for networking and getting the most out of any networking sessions that you go to. I wanted to finish the series on networking because I know that it is the most powerful way of growing your business. It's also the most resilient way of developing your marketing strategy in a recession, in my opinion. I think that Google can mess with us, ads can become really expensive, everything can change in the digital marketing landscape, but what will not change is that professionals will need other professionals to refer to when something goes beyond their expertise. So if you build up those referral pathways in your local networks, then you know you've got that security that work will keep coming in through those networks even if the whole of the digital sphere goes to pot and it becomes really difficult to advertise using social media or Google.
I hope that's useful. As I said, I will be back at the end of December to bring us into the new year with a fresh new season of The Business of Psychology. As ever, I would really love your feedback, I'd love to hear how you get on with networking. Find me over @RosieGilderthorp on Instagram, I'd love to have a conversation with you there.
If you haven't already, I'd really appreciate it if you could rate and review this podcast. It helps us to reach more people, and it'll help us make a bigger splash when we come back with season four, so I'd really appreciate that. Thank you very much every single one of you for listening to the show. I've really enjoyed this season and I can't wait to come back with season four.
