Networking, LinkedIn and Building Relationships with Richard Carpenter

This week on Live & Linking I’m chatting with Richard Carpenter, Director of Enterprise Assist Limited and someone I’ve known for a long time. Richard describes himself as a business consultant, but there’s a lot more to what he does. He works with businesses at different stages of maturity, looking at what they already do well and where they need additional skills, experience or support. He’s also been involved in starting around 36 companies, so when Richard talks about learning business, he really does mean learning it the hard way.

Naturally, we spent quite a bit of time talking about networking because Richard is, in my opinion, a networking king. What I particularly enjoyed was hearing about how nervous he was when he first started. He actually turned up at a networking event, sat in the car and drove home without going in. His solution was simple but brilliant: arrive early, get into the room before everyone else and start building conversations before it becomes a room full of strangers. Richard also shares his idea of finding the "beacons" in a room, the people who seem to know everyone and are having a good time. Find one, get introduced and suddenly the room becomes a much easier place to navigate.

We also get into why networking isn't simply about finding clients. It's about relationships, knowledge, friendships, introductions and being around people who can help each other. Then we turn that thinking towards LinkedIn, including Richard's hugely successful post which generated 241 comments, 704 likes and around 18,000 impressions. The question is, if networking is something Richard is brilliant at, why isn't he doing more of it on LinkedIn? There's a lot here for anyone who feels nervous about networking, isn't sure which events to attend or wants to start treating LinkedIn more like a real networking event.

Timestamps:
00:45 Richard Carpenter
02:07 Business consulting and business maturity
03:20 Operations, marketing and finance
07:05 Richard's networking journey
08:43 Overcoming networking anxiety
12:15 Finding the "beacons"
14:20 What networking is really about
16:31 What makes a good networking event
20:16 Networking over a meal
25:28 Roast My Post
26:03 Richard's successful LinkedIn post
27:22 Why Richard doesn't post more
28:01 Turning networking into LinkedIn content
31:06 How to contact Richard

Guest contact details

Richard Carpenter
Director, Enterprise Assist Limited
Email: richard@enterpriseassist.co.uk
Phone: 07904245948
Website: www.enterpriseassist.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcarpenterenterpriseassist

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