When it comes to growing a new business that is not yet well known, networking can be your best friend. There are many ways one can network with other businesses and entrepreneurs. One of the best ways to network is by collaborating with people who are in the same business field(s) as you and share similar goals you have. Recently, I have started to network more than usual and as a result, my fan base is growing on my social media pages. through networking I have also gained some meaningful friendships and I just so happen to collaborate with one of them on their recently released podcast episodes. In this article, I will discuss how my first collaboration experience went and how you too can grow your fanbase through networking.
It was in the winter of 2018 when I shared my article from my current blog for the month in a writing group on Facebook. The group is called, "Writer's Group," which you can still network on today. When I first shared the article, my only goal was to gain more viewers. Little did I know now, I would meet a guy whose name is Nate from the group and we would later become friends. After checking out my article, he sent me a message on messenger. We soon learned that we had more things in common besides being apart of the writer's group. Me and Nate have goals to become public speakers, has participated in public speaking, and has connections with Prince George's Community College. We met in person a couple months later when he came out to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus to support me at an event I was hosting. From that point to now, our friendship has grown and we have been in the frontlines to seeing our personal challenges and wins as we navigate the entrepreneurial world. Last year in November, he would ask me if I would be interested in appearing on his podcast when I returned back from Spain. I of course said yes.
Nate's podcast is called Life Tips. On his podcast, he talks about his experiences with how he broke into his career and how his immediate circle and life changed just by finding his calling for public speaking. These days, he collaborates with other podcasters and entrepreneurs who shares similar experiences as him and discuss their take on life. Just by reading the summary I gave Nate about his podcast, you can already tell that he has a lot of interesting people featured on his show so it was a huge honor for him to ask me if I would like to be apart of his movement as a featured guest speaker. We recorded the episode on Sunday, May 24th, and would air publicly on the 8th of June.
During the recording, Nate and I used a couple of video chat apps since we had to social distance ourselves because of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. The topic discussion for the episode was on my life as an entrepreneur, writer, and teacher. We even talked about how we've been while remaining on Maryland, U.S.A's lockdown; both sides of the story on how we met and became friends; and a sneak peek on what's happening in my romantic life. It felt like we were just having one of our regular conversations over the phone. I had a very good time and I am very grateful to have Nate as my first collaboration when it comes to the Dear Ms. Aphrodite organization. Before the episode ended, I shared my advice to future writers and people actively dating during the pandemic. You can check out the episode by clicking on this link:
Now that I have shared my experience on my first collaboration and how it went, I'm now going to share you ways you to can network with like minded people in order to create future collaborations.
1. Share you talent (ex. article blogs and YouTube videos) on all your social media accounts
2. Join Facebook or any other type of online groups that relates to the field of your business and business goals relate too
3. Add relatable hashtags to your posts then like, comment, and follow on posts that share the same hashtags as yours
4. Look for local events to attend that focus relates to your business and entrepreneur goals
5. Looking within your circle of friends who has a starter businesses or just businesses in general and see if there are ways you two can collaborate with one another (This might be the best choice for your first collaborations before you start getting noticed by others)
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| The very first day me and Nate and I met in person |
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