Most women business owners walk into a networking room and leave with a stack of cards and no real leads. You know the scene.

Clusters of people talking, a plate of hors d'oeuvres, and that moment of deciding where to stand. You ask the question everyone asks, "what do you do," and you get a polite answer back. Nobody gets curious. Nobody remembers anybody. The cards end up in a drawer or lost in a contact list you never open again.

In this episode, I break down why that happens and what to do instead. Networking for leads isn't about the exchange; it's about intentionality. Instead of asking what someone does, ask what brought them into the room tonight, or what part of their work lights them up right now. Those two questions build real connection in under sixty seconds, and they're the reason people remember you, refer you, and take your call afterward.

I also walk you through the follow-up system that turns a business card into a client relationship: a same-day thank you, a scheduled check-in email three weeks later, and a simple yes-or-no decision about whether to stay connected. This episode is built for creative professionals and women business owners who are tired of posting on social media and calling it lead generation.

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You're invited to the in-person Fully Booked Workshop on Tuesday, October 20th, in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where I teach 12 women how to turn networking into a strategic machine. Over $100K made just from networking, with no pay-to-play or paid ads.

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Welcome with your host and business guru, Nakisha King. This podcast is the ultimate destination for women creative entrepreneurs who want to break free from burnout.

If you are overwhelmed by client demands and feel like you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right place. Now let's dive in for steps to take back your time and see simplify your workflow. All right, Nikisha, take it away.

Hello and thank you for joining me today. I'm your host, Nikisha. First and foremost, today is a special podcast just for you.

It's for the woman business owner who knows networking is the answer and have no clue that networking is not walking into the room with either a digital business card or business cards handing it out, walking out of that room. Leads will never become leads. Clients will never come from those leads because there's something wrong with that step.

You, you're skipping the most important parts and that's what this podcast is about today.

So if you are a female business owner or non binary or you identify as a woman and you're listening today and you're asking yourself, how do I get more leads? Welcome to the iconic CEO podcast where networking is, is one of the most amazing ways to feed leads into your business.

So what we're going to do today is talk about what's happening right now and what will happen once you attend a workshop I'm giving in New Jersey or once you take some of these pointers that I'm giving you if you're not located in New Jersey. Game changer. First and foremost, let's set up the scenario. You are walking into a room that was built for networking.

It's either an industry networking space. If you are in real estate, that's what it is.

If you're a wedding professional, you're walking into a wedding event, professional networking opportunity.

If you are a creative professional, interior design, builders, contractors, trades, women, you're walking into a space where there's opportunity to connect with these people and become a referral source for them. Now you walk into this room and I want you to know there's clusters of people talking. Do you hear them? They're talking and conversing.

Some people are standing up, maybe snacking on a couple of a hors d'. Oeuvres. Some people are talking and you're walking in either by yourself or with a friend.

And for that second, you by yourself or your friend is deciding where are you guys going to plant yourself and what's happening in this scenario, if you're by yourself, you might just stand by Yourself. Remember, you're here for networking, but it's not comfortable walking into a conversation.

And if you're with a friend, you're so comfortable with your friend that you figured, one, we came and we're just going to converse with one another. But that's not the point. That's not why you're here. You're nervous and the nerves are showing up.

And when the nerves are showing up, you are either alone and by yourself or you're with a friend. And guess what? Everyone's approaching you guys. So say, for instance, one or two people approach you because you didn't approach them.

And somewhere in this exchange, your business card comes out. Digital or paper, the one that gets lost in the contactless, AKA digital, or the paper that gets handed but really doesn't have any value.

So one day, just sit somewhere and you're giving cards out and what's the question you're asking? Well, well, what do you do? And of course they're not going to say, what a boring question.

But they're going to hear the question and answer you, because guess what, it still starts a conversation. Nothing wrong with that question. What do you do? And then they're going to ask you it back.

But the problem with this, no one is getting curious because the interest of what you do sounds like everyone else who's in your industry. So what happens is no one gets really deep and curious. They tell you what you're doing, you go, oh, okay. And then you say what you do. Okay, okay.

Oh, it was nice meeting you. I hope we can connect. Here's my business card. Would love to speak to you. And then they move on to the next person. And you remain standing silently.

Nothing going on.

Now after that, you go home, you have a stack of business cards, or better yet, you have business cards on your contact list, but you don't even know where they are because you, they, you added them to your contacts and you don't remember their name. So now you just have a list of people in your contacts that you have no idea about and you won't find ever again. However, we change the game.

So you walk into this room with a friend by yourself. That scenario never change. And you go, I want to be intentional with my networking. I want to be strategic.

I'm going to approach five people today, and I'm going to create a connection. If you're with a friend, even better yet, you both look at each other and you go, here's the deal.

We're going to meet five new people and we're going to come back and we're going to look at who we met and I'll tell you about them and I'll even refer them to you so that you can connect with them. And you refer me to your five and we can connect with them.

Now, you went from five people to 10 because your friend who came with you is doing the same thing. Get that? So now even a better strategy. You walk into this room, you're going to meet five people.

You have decided who they are by either their energy, maybe what they're doing. There's something about them that draws you to them. Intentionality, presence, notice that's on now.

You walk up to them, you go, hi, my name is Nikisha. It's a pleasure to meet you. But instead of asking them what they do, what if you went deeper?

What if you were able to ask them what brought you into this room tonight or today? That's a question that allows someone to tell you a little bit more about them.

That's a question that allows someone to feel like, oh, you are actually interested in me, because we want to know why you in this room tonight? What are you looking for? How can I help you? That's an intentional question rather than what do you do?

Now you ask that question, you can ask it five times, or better yet, you can even ask to another person, what's the part of the work that lights you up the most right now? Can you imagine you've just asked someone a positive question that's going to put them in a positive energy field.

When they speak to you, they're going to light up because they're going to tell you what. What they love about their job. And at the same time, they're telling you what they do. The question is everything.

It's the thing that connects people in under 60 seconds. And there's so many more that you can ask.

But I wanted to make sure I give you this just in case on October 20th you're not coming or you're not in the town. I wanted to be able to give you this question just in case you're not in New Jersey for my October 20th workshop.

Now, five people, those questions, who do you think they're going to reach out to? Because they connected to that person more than anyone else in the room.

Who do you think when they go home, they're going to be like, nikisha really asked some great questions. I want to learn more about her. Who do you think is going to take the actual initiative?

Or when you reach out to them to Be like, yes, let's get on a call. I'm happy to give you a calendar date. This is why networking strategically is everything.

This is why on Tuesday, October 20th in Berkeley Heights, I'm actually hosting a full day workshop. 8:30 To 4:30 and lunch is on me. I'm going to teach you how to strategically network in your business.

How to use networking to generate leads and connections that will take your business from 5% leads to 90% leads. You have to show up if you want leads. You can't just keep posting on social media and thinking that's going to get you leads.

And trust me, quality leads doesn't come through social media. You know what I'm talking about.

So when you go home now with either your stack of business cards or your cards and your number, by the way, when you get a digital card, guess what? I'm going to show you how to put it in a place you can actually find it on your phone that's not in your contacts, that doesn't get lost.

There's two strategic ways you can do it. Completely up to you, but I will. I'm going to show you this on Tuesday, October 20th.

So make sure you're there so you can steal these great ideas that I'm giving in the room. Now you go home with your stack of cards or your contact list.

But what if instead of them sitting there the next day looking at you piling up, what if you had an easy process to get it into a system and, and with one click and emails written up for you and you give some dates and times? Yes, you can send your calendar link if you want to. Or better yet, they don't even have to think.

They can look at a date and time and go, this one works for me. And you send the invite. Or you can send your calendar link and they can choose it themselves.

Because here's the thing, if you left an impression, they want to speak to you. So they'll be happy to choose that date and time.

Now, once they choose that date and time and you show up in the full amazingness you are at the end of the call, what if I told you there's one thing you have to answer? Do you want to connect again? Yes or no? And when you choose that simple answer, a whole sequence, a personalized email is sent out to them. Yes.

Without you doing anything to make that email personal, without you having having to write the email up. Personally, I got a really amazing system for that. 2.

In three weeks they get an email from you with an intentional Question three, another three weeks pass and now if you wanted to speak to them again, they get an invite to schedule a call with you. And if not, you don't have to worry. That's off the if you don't ever want to connect with them again, no need to.

Maybe they were not a good referral source for you. Maybe there was not someone you were interested in talking to.

May maybe they just had a lot of negative energy and he was like, I don't want any of that. This is what strategic networking is. This is what I teach in the iconic CEO accelerator.

This is what shifts us from complaining about not getting enough leads to having a business that generate over 10 leads a week. If you're a solopreneur, because sometimes to get to that number, you have to do a little bit more than just post on social media.

I love strategic networking because I know what it has done for my business. I know every time I step in that room, my ideal client is in there because my intention of the room I step into has purpose.

And every time I speak to that person, I don't want to sell them a thing. But if I know they have a problem and they desire more, I know exactly how I can help them.

So on Tuesday, October 20th in Berkeley Heights, this is your invitation. If you heard what I said and was like, man, these are the problems I'm having. This fully booked workshop is just for you.

To make it even easier, I'm going to put the link in the show Note, you'll have access to it. All you have to do is click it and all the information is there.

And if you are not in the New Jersey area or the New York area or the Pennsylvania Philly area, guess what you can do? You can take the little tidbits that I gave you and you can run with it. So let me give you those tidbits again.

If you're outside of the area, one, you walk into the room, you focus on five people. That gives you some form of energy you want to meet. Two, you walk up to them, you introduce yourself and you ask a question.

Here are two that I'm going to give you. What brought you into this room tonight? Or what's the part of your work that lights you up the most right now?

Three, you definitely reach out to them the next day. You don't have my system, but you send your email with your link or calendar, dates, availability and you book that call.

And once you're done booking that call, when you get off that call, you write a personal thank you for showing up. Thank you for taking your time to be with me and you. Schedule an email to go out in three weeks to check in on them. Be better.

Be better than everyone else so you can be the company that stands out. Be better so you don't shrink but you expand. Be better. Be better for you. Be better for your family.

Be better for all the things you desire, all the things you want through this business. Be better How? By becoming strategic. By actually thinking outside of the box.

Stop listening to those people who tells you about an electronic digital card and nothing else. There is so much more to networking than a digital card. Be better. This is all I'm leaving you with today.

Thank you so much for joining me at the Iconic City CEO podcast. I look forward to seeing every one of you in the Tri State area.

Well, can't be every one of you since there's only room for 12 and I only have nine more seats for my fully booked workshop on October 20th Tuesday, October 20th from 8:30 to 4:30pm in Berkeley Heights and lunch is on me. I cannot wait to see you there. The link is in the show notes. I look forward to being a part of your scaling of your business.

Have a great day and speak to you soon.