Building a Support Network That Empowers You

[00:00:00] Do you ever feel like you’re doing it all on your own? Like you’re juggling your career and your job and your family and everything in between and don’t have the support that you really need to truly thrive.

Here’s the problem. No one ever succeeds in isolation, yet so many of us choose to surround ourselves with people who unintentionally hold us back or simply don’t understand what our goals and our needs are.

 In today’s episode, we’re gonna talk about how to build a support network that truly empowers you one that’s gonna lift you up, keep you accountable, and ultimately help you achieve your goals.

You’re listening to The Next Step with Corrie Lo, where we transform overwhelm into confident action. I’m Corrie LoGiudice, keynote speaker, coach, and working mama for here to help ambitious women just like you take the next step, whether that be leadership at work, at home, or in your community. Let’s get started.

There have been many, many times in both my life and career when I knew I didn’t have the right [00:01:00] people surrounding me. And normally the number one sign this was the case was when the people surrounding me didn’t experience something that I very recently had experienced. 

 So as an example, when I made the very difficult decision to step down from my 15 year career as senior vice president running my family’s business. Granted, I was a fourth generation entrepreneur running my family’s business, but I couldn’t necessarily look to that support network when it came to starting my own business in a completely different industry.

Right? Which for me, I went into coaching and training coming from electronic distribution, very, very different.

I knew the direction that I wanted to go with my career. And I also knew that my ability to be able to reach that level of success that I envisioned for myself was going to rely on who I had surrounding me, who had actually already done it before.

I needed people who are not only going [00:02:00] to believe in me and my vision, but we’re going to hold me accountable towards actually achieving it.

So here’s the thing. Your network isn’t just about who you know. It’s about who challenges you and inspires you. The famous motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said it best, you are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with.

Now, through my career since I’ve noticed multiple very common pitfalls that both myself as well as my coaching clients and audiences that I speak to have encountered when it comes to our support networks. The first one is surrounding yourself with people who are complacent or completely dismissive of your goals.

All right, so this one, a lot of times it comes from them not believing that whatever it is that you want to do is achievable or worse yet, not being able to see themselves doing it. So therefore that you can’t possibly do it, right? These are very toxic individuals to keep in your circle while you’re trying to achieve something specifically.

Another one is [00:03:00] staying in networks out of obligation rather than alignment. So great example of this would be when you join a networking group, looking to connect with other professionals and maybe, you know, refer each other business and staying there for over three years, despite no one else in the group ever referring you business when you do.

And lastly is not proactively going out there and seeking connections that match your current goals and aspirations. Right? A lot of times we kind of stay complacent with our current circle because it feels safe instead of going out there and actively seeking the people that are going to bring you to the next level.

So let’s break down five really simple steps that you could take to audit your current network as well as improve upon it. So step number one is exactly that you’re going to audit your current network.

Reflect on the people that you’re spending the most time with. Are they truly supporting you and helping you with your vision or are they inhibiting or hindering your growth?

 Usually for [00:04:00] my coaching clients and speaking audiences, I recommend that you make a list of like the five people you spend the most time with, and then list out specifically, how are they helping me and how are they preventing me?

Next step is to define your ideal support network. Think about the qualities and values that you really need in your support system.

And again, this comes back to talking about personal values, which we covered in episode two. If you haven’t checked that out yet, I highly, highly recommend it where we go through selecting four core personal values and then creating a five year vision surrounding it.

So, as an example, some things that you might value include accountability, connection, and encouragement, uh, along with being in a specific field, right? Those might be the things that you’re putting the most value and emphasis on when you’re going to look for adding connections to your network.

From there, the next step is pretty straightforward. You go out there and you seek those aligned connections. 

You can find groups or individuals who align [00:05:00] with your goals and your vision who are working towards the same thing, or maybe have even already achieved it. Some great places that you could do this can be within your already warm personal network by letting folks know that you’re seeking out people with these specific skills and values.

Or you could go to places like Facebook groups or join a mastermind or you know, potentially reach out to mentors, right? These are all great places. You just got to kind of put the word out there and proactively go out there seeking these individuals.

One great, super easy, actionable tip that I’m going to challenge you to do right now is to join a networking group that meets in your local area, say once a month or whatever. Sign up for the next meeting today. You’ll thank me later.

The next step is, and this is in addition to the making new connections, right, would also be to strengthen your existing connections.

 Sometimes it’s as simple as deepening the relationships you have with the connections already in your network versus having to go outside of it to [00:06:00] find other individuals to, to fill that, that gap.

This week, I challenge you to set up a coffee chat or maybe even do a Zoom call with somebody who inspires you to ask them how you can support each other.

And very last step, as you’ve built this great network and it’s working for you and you have the support that you need and you’re starting to feel the benefits of it, it’s time to be intentional and give back.

Great networks are built on mutual support. So make sure that you’re showing up for others the same way that you want others to show up for you.

Great examples include, you know, offer to mentor somebody, share resources, or just simply cheer somebody on when they share with you a big win.

So there you have it. Today we talked about why your network matters and how to build one that really supports your growth.

So your next step is going to be to audit your current existing network, the top five people that you spend a lot of time with, and identify just one person this week that you [00:07:00] can either meet up with, connect with, who aligns with your goals and your aspirations. 

 For additional tools and ideas, you can feel free to check out my networking cheat sheet. We’ll link to it in the show description.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I know that building a support network truly takes effort and intention, but when done right is really going to help you take your life and your career to the next level.

Next week, we’re going to be diving into how to find a mentor, right? So if through part of this process, you’ve identified that you need somebody more specific with skillset outside of your own to help you get to that next level, as opposed to a group, this is going to be the episode for you. 

I’ll see you there. 

Thanks for checking out the next step with Corey Lowe. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review. Together we’ll transform overwhelm into action and we’ll keep taking the next step towards competent leadership. See you next time.