Episode 23 – Curiosity, Connection, and LinkedIn: Building Relationships for Growth with Janice Porter

Todd Bertsch: 0:10

Welcome back to the Bolt Podcast. I’m Todd Bertsch and I’m thrilled to be your guide on this inspiring journey of personal growth and leadership. Together with my guests, we’ll dive into transformational stories, uncovering how small, intentional changes can create massive positive results in your life From overcoming challenges and setting impactful goals to building lasting habits and living with confidence, health and positivity. We’ll explore it all and if you’re ready to embrace a growth mindset and unlock the best version of yourself, then let’s spark that transformation today. Today’s guest is Janice Porter.

Todd Bertsch: 0:47

Janice has an innate curiosity which she has leveraged into building business relationships and teaches others how to do the same. Her passion is working with people who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking, and she does that using online and offline strategies. Linkedin training is a huge part of Janice’s business. She believes all business professionals need to have a magnetic LinkedIn profile and that LinkedIn is a platform for attracting new clients, strategic partners and referrals. Staying connected and nurturing relationships comes next, and Janice shows clients how to implement a tangible touch follow-up system to do just that. Janice really values the friendships and business relationships she makes when she meets someone new and is always thinking how may I support you? Listeners get ready for a great episode. I’m so excited for this conversation, janice, welcome to the Bold Podcast, my friend.

Janice Porter: 1:44

Thank you so much, Todd. I’m really excited to be here and to speak and share my stuff with your audience.

Todd Bertsch: 1:51

Right your life’s work. You’ve been at this for quite some time, so you’re coming to us from Greater Vancouver, right, vancouver, bc, canada, yes, where it?

Janice Porter: 2:01

snowed, yes, a couple of days ago. It’s unusual for here, but once every few years we get a dump of snow that throws everybody for a loop, and that’s what it did.

Todd Bertsch: 2:12

Well, I feel like everybody’s getting that lately.

Janice Porter: 2:15

We’re in Ohio, so we’re accustomed Right, you’re used to it.

Todd Bertsch: 2:18

We have shovels and salt and hats and mittens, but it’s all good right.

Janice Porter: 2:23

Absolutely.

Todd Bertsch: 2:23

It’s all a mindset and you just pivot and be curious.

Janice Porter: 2:28

Well, and actually I just wrote about this in my newsletter yesterday. It’s about perspective. My little granddaughter, who’s five and a half, was so excited because she got to be on her sled all day, because it was a snow day and they didn’t go to school and she was out in it all day long. Me, I was worried about how I was going to get to my doctor’s appointment because I have to drive, and it’s all about perspective.

Todd Bertsch: 2:51

It is yeah. And speaking of newsletter, I love your newsletter. So, listeners will include a link to that in the show notes. Definitely check it out. It’s very thoughtful and there’s good stuff in it every time, and I know, janice, how hard that is to produce good content on a weekly basis, right, yeah, that is really, really challenging.

Janice Porter: 3:11

Well, you do one too.

Todd Bertsch: 3:12

I do.

Janice Porter: 3:13

Yeah, yeah. So you know too.

Todd Bertsch: 3:15

I do. That’s why I’m speaking from the heart.

Janice Porter: 3:17

It’s a passion play right, yes, yes, but every now and then I get and it’s a stay in touch play too.

Todd Bertsch: 3:25

All right, we’re going to get to that segue. So I was doing a little little digging, a little research on on Janice. Obviously, you and I met a couple of months ago when I was on your show. We had a great conversation and we started to build a relationship. But I did some further digging and so you were in the telecom space for a long time.

Janice Porter: 3:46

I was. That was kind of fun actually, because my first life I was a school teacher and there were some things about teaching I love teaching, always a teacher but bureaucracy in the public school system was not my friend. I did not like that and I eventually found a way that I had to leave. I was trying to get pregnant more information than you need but anyway it was an opportunity to get out. And then, after I’d had my second daughter, I got an opportunity to do some contract training at the telephone company and I said, oh yeah, sure I can do that, I can teach.

Janice Porter: 4:22

You know, soft skills is what they wanted customer service, telephone courtesy and then I turned that into basically a long career in training on telecom equipment and voicemail came in and voicemail equipment and programming your phone systems and things like that. And the whole time I was there I was a contractor and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want to be an employee. I wanted to have control over going to my daughter’s basketball games or taking her to swimming lessons or whatever. So I mean my husband probably would have preferred I had a full-time thing there, but I didn’t. It can come back to haunt you, but it was great because it allowed me some freedom.

Todd Bertsch: 5:09

And I loved what I was doing because I was teaching. So, yes, I did work in the telecom industry and I thought that was interesting because technology obviously has changed quite a bit. Right, and I feel like correct me if I’m wrong, but this was kind of your segue into creating and building relationships, because communication obviously is key and the telephone system and still is a big part of business not as big as it once was, obviously, with email and all these chat features and AI and all those things. So that was your segue. And then at some point you decided to go out on your own and you’ve been self-employed for what? Over 20 years now.

Janice Porter: 5:40

Yeah, it’s scary really.

Todd Bertsch: 5:42

Yeah.

Janice Porter: 5:42

Yeah, it is over 20 years, but I did a lot of trial and error and a lot of not really being a business person.

Janice Porter: 5:50

I was a teacher. So even when I worked at the telephone company we had a scheduler in our department and she would book the calls for us and we’d go out and I didn’t have to find, I didn’t have to market Todd, I didn’t have to find my own business. So that was the biggest. That and the financial side of things were the biggest things for me when I started my own business. So a lot of trial and error but, yes, I could be my own boss, which is what I really liked.

Todd Bertsch: 6:14

Yeah, and is that so? I was going to ask you what you love most about being self-employed. So the flexibility and that control, I think it’s the flexibility I mean.

Janice Porter: 6:29

There’s so many ups and downs when you’re your own boss, but it’s just the freedom of being my own boss. I don’t know. There’s two things. One, when I was figuring out what I was going to do for my next gig, so to speak, I was also dabbling in the network marketing industry, or it used to be called multi-level marketing.

Janice Porter: 6:42

He either loved it or he hated it, and I found it fascinating, and I did try a couple of companies with products that weren’t speaking to my heart, and I think that was part of the problem, along with the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing and what my experience in the network marketing industry did is. It taught me, it gave me the opportunity for personal development, because there’s a lot of personal development, growth that can happen because they offer you often the leaders in that field, the influencers, if you will, of that day, the people that the Les Browns, the Bob Proctor, all of these people that really teach you how to be the best person you can be, and so for that I was really grateful, because I did a lot of personal growth along the way.

Todd Bertsch: 7:30

That’s awesome. Yeah, I think one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about being self-employed and owning my own business is that flexibility, especially having starting a family. I have a 13-year-old daughter and to be able to not miss those events, because they don’t happen again I have a 13 year old daughter and to be able to, you know, not miss those events because they don’t happen again.

Janice Porter: 7:48

I wouldn’t miss them for the world.

Todd Bertsch: 7:50

Right, and that’s how we run our business too. It’s, we call it family first, and you know, work, work will be there. We’re not. We’re not in a life or death situation, we’re not surgeons over here, we’re just in marketing and yes, it’s important, our clients are important, but a family always comes first.

Todd Bertsch: 8:05

So, yeah, definitely that is a huge benefit of being self-employed and being an entrepreneur. Certainly, there’s a lot of downsides as well, but we have a lot of serial entrepreneurs that listen and who have been on the show as guests as well, so I always find it interesting just to talk with others to hear about their experience. Good Well, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it and you’ve made a great career out of it, and would you say that you’ve found your purpose?

Janice Porter: 8:32

Yes, definitely, because, as I said at the beginning, I love to teach and when I got involved in training on LinkedIn and I had a big light bulb moment because this was the vehicle that would allow me to actually teach again in a big way, like with my network marketing side of things, I do teach, but it’s not the same. It’s not quite the same as the actual process that I go through with people on LinkedIn and I’m teaching and that’s what I love to do. And so, yes, helping others move forward with whatever it is and use LinkedIn as a tool, that’s really been special. Plus, I got to say you mentioned you were on my podcast. I love podcasting, I just love it.

Todd Bertsch: 9:13

So I do too, and that’s great. I was actually great segue I was going to talk about and mention. Janice has a podcast called Relationships Rule. Ironically, it’s a great show. You’re approaching 300 episodes which is really kudos Congratulations. I mean that’s a long running time for anyone out there, so I don’t know. That’s several years.

Janice Porter: 9:35

Five years, I think.

Todd Bertsch: 9:36

Five years, five years, and every week right I haven’t missed a week.

Janice Porter: 9:39

I think I did a repeat sort of favorites once, I think in Christmas time. And I did one at my 100th episode. I did like a repeat thing. I don’t know what I’m going to do for my 300th. I’m still trying to make that happen. So yeah, but it’s exciting.

Todd Bertsch: 9:56

You have a little bit of time, but yeah, that’ll be a good one. Yeah, okay, cool. Well, again, congrats on that, and I’ll have that in the show notes. Listeners definitely check it out. It’s a great show. She has great guests ask great questions and it’s in the top 2.5% of all podcasts.

Janice Porter: 10:10

So that is.

Todd Bertsch: 10:11

I don’t know ratings stats right.

Janice Porter: 10:15

I know whatever they mean.

Todd Bertsch: 10:15

Yeah, right, you can take what you want out of it, but there has to be some way for us to gauge, right, yeah.

Janice Porter: 10:20

And I think the best thing, though, is when you get so. Every week, we mentioned, I send out a newsletter, but I also send another one out every week, which is to announce my podcast guest for the week. So that goes to my list, and this week I got a quick note from someone who received it, and this happens on occasion where this person says you always have such interesting guests.

Janice Porter: 10:41

Janice, thank you or something and that’s always goes to your heart, right when people will do a review for you or they’ll make a comment and say that guest was so interesting and so that’s really fun. I like that.

Todd Bertsch: 10:52

It is Wow. And if you were to ask me like what one of my favorite parts of podcasting is, one, it’s the learning and and the relationships that I’m building, just like you, meeting people that I would have never met before, from all over the world, fascinating stories, but every now and then getting a text or an email. It just says hey, man, man, that episode hit, hit home with me.

Todd Bertsch: 11:13

Thank you, you know it’s every now and then I you know, to be honest, I don’t get a ton of it, but it’s just that little nudge, that little words of affirmation which is my love language. So I definitely appreciate it and it’s just that fuel right To keep going.

Janice Porter: 11:28

So Well, and also it’s. I think it’s important to understand as a podcaster that it’s not about the zillions of downloads, it’s about the loyal audience. So think of it that way, and you don’t have to go look every week at how many downloads it got, because that’ll drive you crazy. Just keep going and be grateful for the loyal audience that you have, and it’ll grow.

Todd Bertsch: 11:51

Yeah, no, that is great advice, thank you. Yeah, I’m in my fifth month, I think, approaching my 22nd, 23rd episode, and you’re right, at the beginning I was all about and I’m just trying to figure out hey, is this thing even resonating at all? And then, at some point, you’re just like you know what I need to go back to my mission, and I have my mission printed out. It’s just, you know, to help one person. If I can help one person think about cultivating a growth mindset, or shifting their mindset, or becoming the best version of themselves and using one of the techniques we talk about, or just getting inspired, then it’s all worth it, right? So, absolutely, anyhow. But so, yeah, check out Janice’s podcast and let’s talk about LinkedIn. So sure, linkedin, that’s, that’s your baby, that’s, that’s your platform of choice, right? So you really feel like LinkedIn is the platform for business and obviously it has definitely made a name for itself, especially once Microsoft purchased the platform. I think they’ve really done a good job with it.

Janice Porter: 12:54

I don’t know. I think the jury’s out with that I don’t know. It’s changed a lot when Microsoft took over, and not always in a good way, but it is what it is. So you know we. But just like any other huge conglomerate kind of business, you can’t get through to anybody. You can’t. You know like it’s very you don’t know when the changes are coming. Now we can do this.

Todd Bertsch: 13:16

You know stuff like that. Oh yeah, Right, yeah, that’s just gonna, it’s just gonna you, just you just roll with it. Exactly Right.

Janice Porter: 13:23

But when it comes to business small business particularly now, because that’s my focus is small business owners and entrepreneurs, sales professionals I think that a lot of people let’s see there’s over a billion people now on LinkedIn and it’s growing. Like every two seconds somebody joins, growing like every two seconds somebody joins, but only what A few like a very small percentage of people actually use it to its degree that it can do something. So there’s still so much there that’s untapped and I see it as the biggest online networking tool that is underutilized.

Todd Bertsch: 14:00

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. Obviously, being a marketer by trade and owning a marketing company, I’ve been devoted personally I try not to. Before I kind of did this transition, the bolt and speaking and life coaching. I tried to not be personally on my phone on social media Facebook, instagram, any of those you know but I’ve always been committed to LinkedIn, you know, I see that, as I’ve always seen it as kind of the Facebook of business, so to speak, and you’re right, I’ve created a lot of relationships, you know.

Todd Bertsch: 14:34

I’d like to ask you a question, though, and get your thoughts on, so I get, as you become more popular, let’s say more visible you know I get a ton of requests, ton of in-mail people trying to sell me something, and a ton of requests of people, obviously, that I had no idea, from all over the world. What is your take on? Do you recommend just accepting anything and everyone, or do you recommend really looking at what their business focus is, what their career is all about and if there is some alignment, before you accept that?

Janice Porter: 15:09

Right, I think with inbound connection requests you get to be discerning, you get to decide. So if somebody reaches out to connect, and my first impression whether it’s the photo that’s beside the connection request-.

Todd Bertsch: 15:23

If they have a photo. If they have a photo, that really bothers me. Well, if they don’t.

Janice Porter: 15:27

That’s one rule. Just don’t even go there.

Todd Bertsch: 15:29

Okay, just ignore it, right Right.

Janice Porter: 15:32

And then, if they have one, and I go to their profile and I take a quick look, my first impression, which I call, like the above, the fold you just see that first part and I don’t like it, then I’m not going to bother.

Janice Porter: 15:45

If they’re in a foreign country, that I, you know, I feel like you know it doesn’t feel right to me. I won’t accept it. If it’s somebody that looks like I might be able to help them, or, um, I’m curious as to what they might be reaching out to me for. I’ll take a chance because I can always disconnect from them if I want to. True, true, right, but I feel that you don’t have to just connect with people you know. How else are you networking? How else are you going to meet new people? However, I think the power is in the outbound connection requesting, because you get to choose who you want to reach out to. But when it comes to inbound, just be discerning. You get your gut feeling and if you don’t, you can always, as I said, disappear. And, by the way, if you ignore somebody’s connection request, they don’t know.

Todd Bertsch: 16:38

So it’s fine, there’s enough people out there. Yeah, good advice. I find it interesting and actually quite comical. I’ve seen this a lot lately. I’ll get a person who will like the last or the most recent three or four posts of mine, and then I just know, I just did it. This morning I seen this guy and I’m just like yep, and then, there it came Ding and the pitch yeah, Come on, man.

Janice Porter: 17:05

And actually that makes me think of two other things. One, when I said that, yes, if you decide to accept it, don’t just accept it. Take it one step further, though, and say send a message right, Thanks for reaching out to connect, I noticed that you blah, blah, blah, or I’m curious how you found me, or is there something I can specifically help you with? And if they pitch back at you and that’s happened to me where I’ve said sorry, not interested, and that’s it, they’ll never do it again. So you’re connected, maybe, or they’ll disconnect from you or whatever, but that’s not what you were talking about.

Janice Porter: 17:42

And secondly, if they say oh, I noticed you, this, or I saw you on so-and-so’s post, now we’re talking. Now we’re talking, Now we can have a conversation. But the thing is, they’ll reach out to you. You don’t know if it’s them personally, or if they’ve got someone doing it for them, or it’s a robot. You don’t know until you actually ask hey, thanks for reaching out. What was it that attracted you to my profile or how did you find me? Something that makes them actually talk back to you?

Todd Bertsch: 18:11

Right, right, yeah, I love that. Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s changed a lot and, like you said, as I’ve become more visible, you could really spend a lot of time in there.

Janice Porter: 18:20

You can, but you can also make it part of a routine, so you’re only there 20 minutes a day or whatever, or maybe in the morning you’re checking for messages and notifications and then maybe later in the day you’re going to read your newsfeed, or, as I do in the morning, there’s some games on there. I love these two games that a lot more lately.

Todd Bertsch: 18:42

Yeah, I’m just like I do Wordle every day and then I do these two puzzles that are on LinkedIn.

Janice Porter: 18:49

But I’ve noticed that, see, that’s another way to reach out to people, because you see who in your network also does them. So now you could reach out and have a conversation with them. Hey, did you right, if you wanted to. Yeah, right, right Because it’s all about communication, building relationship with like-minded people.

Todd Bertsch: 19:07

Right and having some common interest.

Janice Porter: 19:10

Yeah, exactly.

Todd Bertsch: 19:11

And really just taking the time right.

Janice Porter: 19:14

I think yeah, so that’s why I said, though, you can restrict your time, but you could make your time. Instead of just scrolling, you can make your time worthwhile. You could be checking your notifications and seeing who has posted something that might be of interest, that you want to go look at, rather than scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Go directly to that post, make a comment. And, by the way, don’t just like a comment, don’t just like a post. There’s no point in just liking it. Say something, show your viewpoint on something. Yeah, yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 19:48

I agree. So you talk a lot about having this magnetic LinkedIn profile and, in fact, when you and I had our first conversation, you called me out.

Janice Porter: 19:58

Did I, oh dear no.

Todd Bertsch: 20:00

I didn’t say you called me out, but you gave me some advice and said, hey, you should probably take a look at your profile. And you were absolutely right. I did not deny that. In fact I took your advice and I did make some changes. I was just not in a position to put my message out there yet because I was still kind of figuring out really what my angle was, as I’m kind of transitioning into this second act of mine. But I did go back recently and tweak it. So any other kind of tips or advice you have on yes, Because something you just said just know that it’s fluid.

Janice Porter: 20:35

It’s a living document. You can change it anytime, right? You don’t need to put it there and leave it there forever. The thing you don’t want to leave there forever also is your headshot. You need to change it every couple of years.

Janice Porter: 20:46

You need to stay up with the times but with your profile. When I say magnetic, I say optimize your profile. Fill in as many of the sections that you can, including things like if you volunteer somewhere, if you belong to some organizations and maybe that organization is not work-related, Maybe it’s because you have coached football all your life and so you belong to the local organization for amateur football or whatever because then people, if they’re paying attention, can see those things that are important to you and use those to start a conversation. And in the big parts of your profile, like the headline, like the banner and like the about section, Make sure that, as a business owner, you’re speaking to your target audience.

Janice Porter: 21:37

It’s not a resume. It’s not I’m this, I’ve done that, I did this, I’m whatever. It’s not because people don’t care what you’ve done until they know you care about them. They want to find a match for them. They want to know that, oh, he’s speaking my language, yes, I could use. He knows that I need you know personal growth, or that I’m ready for you know to think about a new way that I want to present myself, and that business transformation or life transformation more so for you, I think. But if they see you as the compassionate person that cares about them, then they’re going to reach out and see what you have to offer.

Janice Porter: 22:15

So, that’s where a lot of people make that mistake of making it all about them. It’s yes, we want to know some things about you in there, but we want to know first and foremost are you having this problem? Do you identify with this? Then I can help you. That’s kind of the feeling that I like to build with clients about sections who are business owners in particular.

Todd Bertsch: 22:39

Yeah, that make sense. Yeah, it does. Yeah, I totally agree, and I think we’re really focused on kind of the sales leadership aspect of LinkedIn. But let’s be honest, it’s a great recruitment tool as well. I mean, if I’m in recruitment mode, I’m not even looking at resumes, I’m looking at your LinkedIn profile first. So it better be tight, updated and have a photo. I mean, let’s just call it out, I don’t care what you look like.

Janice Porter: 23:07

Well, that’s funny, because you want it to be a. You want it to be professional. I don’t want to see a picture of you with your dog or your baby, unless that’s part of your business. Right, right, you know but there was something else you just said from a recruitment standpoint. I know what what you were saying about recruiting. I like I don’t work a lot with job seekers. I don’t work a lot with job seekers, but that’s a different angle and the about section would look differently for someone looking for a job than it would for a business owner.

Janice Porter: 23:35

But it does need to be filled out, it does need to be complete, and I just think that there’s so many things that people leave unfinished. Oh, I know what I was going to say. There’s also. I was training a young woman a couple of weeks ago and she works for a company and I was doing actually the sales team in this company. I was doing all of their profiles with them and a couple of things.

Janice Porter: 24:00

One she didn’t want to put a lot of things on it. She was very private and she thought that, you know, she didn’t want to put that down or this on her profile, which is a shame because it is a social media platform and so you want people to know enough to reach out. And the other thing was another one there was one of the sales guys who had, like we weren’t first level connected yet we hadn’t connected with each other. So he was on my second level and I could see John P as his name and I said did you realize that I can’t see your last name? And he said sometimes they say no because it’s a default setting and so they don’t know. But in this case. He said oh yeah, I only want my first level connections to see that. Well, he said oh yeah.

Janice Porter: 24:49

I only want my first level connections to see that. Well, again, it’s a networking platform. It’s a social media platform, so if they don’t know your last name, that’s kind of weird. So that’s my take on it anyway.

Todd Bertsch: 25:00

Yes, especially if you’re a salesperson.

Todd Bertsch: 25:03

Exactly, I mean you have to be out there, you have to be hitting the pavement, and I would hope that you would want every competitive advantage you could get which LinkedIn is going to give you that tool. So there’s still a lot of people that, especially in the B2B sector manufacturing that just haven’t got on board with LinkedIn yet, and you’re right. You see, definitely there are some profiles and some industries that are more focused and spend more time there and are more interactive, so to speak, but for sure. So, okay, cool, well, yeah, definitely LinkedIn is is a great tool and, um, but, yeah, be intentional with it and I like to bookend my day, so I start with LinkedIn and I do my posts and I look at other posts and interact, and then I’ll go back at the end of the day or in the evening and look at messages.

Janice Porter: 25:53

So you don’t do anything to do with outreach to people, you don’t build your numbers or try to find some people for you, because you’ve got a good, you’ve got a podcast now, so that’s a really good lead in to people.

Todd Bertsch: 26:06

It is and honestly, janice and I’m not boasting, but I haven’t had to like I’m have so many people reaching out to me that I have a hard time just keeping up with that. But every now and then I will see somebody who’s liked a post or something and I’ll see that they’re an author or entrepreneur or in the leadership category or life coaching, and I will definitely reach out.

Janice Porter: 26:28

So so you mean that people reaching out to you to be on your podcast?

Todd Bertsch: 26:32

No, just in general.

Janice Porter: 26:33

Just okay. But, as I said, you can control it if you outreach and you are searching for the right kind of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 26:41

I haven’t had to be that intentional and proactive with it yet. I’m pretty busy and booked, you know, through several months out. But yeah, every now and then I’ll see somebody and I’m like, yeah, I want to.

Janice Porter: 26:53

I want to connect with this person.

Todd Bertsch: 26:54

I think it would be good. So, yeah, I I would say I’m doing it, just there isn’t a real intentional effort for it, but that could change. Right so let’s talk about curiosity for a minute, cause that is one of my favorite words of all time.

Janice Porter: 27:09

Me too.

Todd Bertsch: 27:10

And you talk about it a lot as a leadership tool, as it seems to be a core aspect of your business and building relationships. Tell us a little bit about just how you perceive the word and how you’ve integrated this into your role and in your teachings with uh it started for me more so than any other time, when I started my podcast, or actually before I started my podcast.

Janice Porter: 27:34

I have always been curious and ask questions and and and try to get you know. Tell you a little story of one time my husband was golfing and he and his friend you know how they pair you up sometimes with other people so that you can go out as a foursome. And so he went out with his buddy and this couple and he came back and he said oh, we had a nice golf golf game with this couple from Australia and I said oh, great. I said where were they from? Why were they here? What were they? You know what? I asked him a million questions, janice, we were playing golf Like he didn’t ask them anything.

Janice Porter: 28:10

Now, if that had been me, I would have had their life history by the time the golf game was over.

Todd Bertsch: 28:15

Okay. So yeah, it’s interesting because it kind of has the same dynamic with my wife. We’ll go meet somebody, or we’ll be out with a couple, and maybe someone else comes in that we’re not familiar with or have a relationship with yet, and she’s very quiet and I’m asking a ton of questions and I’m like what’s your LinkedIn profile? And I want to learn about this person.

Janice Porter: 28:33

And she’s like, why are?

Todd Bertsch: 28:34

you always kind of in sales mode, or even my daughter will say that.

Janice Porter: 28:38

But it’s not sales mode, it’s curiosity right? I just love to right, I love to learn and you never know.

Todd Bertsch: 28:44

I’m going to learn something from that person. Most likely there could be an opportunity. I mean, let’s be honest. You know what’s the old saying always be selling. You know what I mean. I do, I do, I totally do, and open and curious honestly that’s because you and I think the same way.

Janice Porter: 29:02

That’s why we both agree. But I read this book before I started my podcast. It really got me going. And it’s not a heavy duty book. It’s a book called A Curious Mind by Brian Grazer. Did I tell you about this book?

Todd Bertsch: 29:16

No, but it’s actually on my list. Oh, is it? Okay, talk about it.

Janice Porter: 29:19

It’s fascinating because he, as a young boy, has always been curious and was interviewing people as a young boy and then as he got older, he’d interview more important people in his world and he still probably interviews people, because that’s who he is. And I just found it fascinating and that’s what got me thinking about it when I was starting my podcast. And I don’t know, I just love finding out more and sometimes a question will come to me like from left field and when that happens, whoever I’m talking to will say, well, that’s interesting, I’ve never been asked that before. Or wow, that’s it, you know, and so I guess I have that gene. That’s all that. I’m just curious and I think it’s important to hone that skill, especially when you’re in business for yourself, because it’s the core of networking. That’s why I always say with LinkedIn, online networking, I need to see on their profile something that not everybody pays attention to. So when I teach people to do their about section, we do a section at the bottom called specialties, and we do it because it’s for keywords.

Janice Porter: 30:34

So you want to for the SEO of the profile, you want to put some keywords, usually some words that are in their headline, but we’ll repeat them down below. But I also say to my clients okay, what do you do when you’re not working? I’m an avid golfer, I’m a family man, I coach my kids baseball. I’m a dog lover, I love movies, whatever that is. I add those in there, sprinkle them in, so that someone who’s paying attention can pull those things out as conversation starters. But it’s only the curious person that will do that.

Todd Bertsch: 31:06

Yeah, yeah, it’s interesting. And I wonder too you know, like you said, you and I were just kind of naturally curious and have stayed that way Can somebody hone that skill or learn that skill? You know if they’re not you know, if they’re not generally a curious person.

Janice Porter: 31:24

Right, it’s a really good question and I think if you find well, first of all, from my perspective, if I find something through my research, let’s say, that will light that person up and get them starting to talk, then I’ve done my job, being curious and asking the right questions because you can see them light up when they talk. You asked me about my granddaughter. My whole persona changes. I could talk about her forever. I’m so excited about her. Can can someone learn it? I think they can, but I think, think it has to be from whatever if, cause I know with my husband he’s not that curious, but if you get him talking about something that he loves, then he will be more curious about it. He’ll ask questions of that person if he finds that common bond right. So you know, sometimes I’ll come home and say, boy, you were really talking at that party today, but it’s because somebody was asking him about basketball or something you know. So I don’t know, it’s just really interesting or something you know.

Todd Bertsch: 32:30

So so I dunno, it’s just really interesting. But yeah, I think it. It really goes back to a mindset and having an open mindset which a big part of having an open mindset is curiosity, yeah, exactly.

Todd Bertsch: 32:38

So it doesn’t mean I need to be interested in something I already know and elaborate on it. It’s being open to anything right, open to everything and anything. So we can go on and on about that. That’s one of my faves, but I do want to talk about this tangible touch follow-up system, because that sounds really unique and I think it could be a valuable tool for our listeners. So tell us a little bit about that. What is that about?

Janice Porter: 33:04

Did you experience it? Did I send you a card?

Todd Bertsch: 33:07

I don’t know, did I?

Janice Porter: 33:16

Yeah, so, okay. So the whole point of a tangible touch in my case, this is sending cards and gifts, and they are the whole thing about the tangible touch, about the I’m just going to grab something because I want to. I only have a Christmas card sitting in front of me here. Oh, here’s one. Okay, valentine’s is coming. So the thing about getting a card in the mail is it takes someone from their head to their heart, because when you get a card in the mail, you’re not expecting it usually.

Janice Porter: 33:45

You don’t get very many of them anymore and they always get opened. Do your emails get opened? Not always, I skip through, or I know what that is, so I don’t open it. Do my texts? Yeah, they get answered, but they don’t have emotion the same way that sending a card to somebody does so for me. I really feel as though I mentioned to you earlier that I had dabbled in network marketing, and the company that I’m affiliated with when it comes to sending cards and gifts is a network marketing company. But you don’t have to be an affiliate, you can just be a customer, and the big premise that they live under is their umbrella name is called promptings, and we always talk about acting on your promptings.

Janice Porter: 34:31

So if you meet somebody, you do have a great conversation with them, as we did the first time we talked on Zoom. I might ask you for your address and I’ll send you a card. You weren’t expecting it. You might’ve expected an email. Thank you, it was nice to meet you, but you don’t necessarily expect a card and sometimes what are you going to do to spread that, you know, by doing something nice for somebody? Sending a card for to somebody is one of those things, because it’s going to be unexpected, just to say hey, I like you, or thanks for being you, or you know a funny joke or whatever. This one that I just held up I sent to myself because I was testing a new card editor for the company at one of many people. So it’s for Valentine’s. Can you see this, todd?

Todd Bertsch: 35:19

I can yeah.

Janice Porter: 35:20

And I’m going to give it to my granddaughter, so I put pictures of her inside it.

Todd Bertsch: 35:24

Nice.

Janice Porter: 35:25

And then sent her a message that I love her and then I put a silly little thing on the back so it came to me, but I’m going to put it in an envelope again and give it to her because five, right, but yeah, so just so many things you can do. Don’t do it when it’s I mean, do it when it’s expected. Systemize things if you want. If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, you can systemize things that keep you top of mind, let’s say quarterly with your clients, so that they remember you and they’ll remember to refer you until the next time you actually have to meet with them to do their car insurance or do their life insurance or whatever For realtors. It’s a great thing for realtors because I have a story of a friend of mine who bought and sold three houses over 15 years, used a different realtor every time because not one of them stayed in touch.

Todd Bertsch: 36:20

Interesting yeah.

Janice Porter: 36:22

But common, really common.

Todd Bertsch: 36:24

Right really common.

Janice Porter: 36:25

So the ones who care. There’s a book by this. I think he’s passed now, this car salesman His name was Tom Gerard. In the States somewhere, tom Gerard, he sold more cars than anybody else at that time, totally because he sent cards every single day. He sent cards to people every single day. They come in, they go for a test drive. Take your picture Now. You can take the picture, put it on a card, send it to them. Here’s your dream car that you wanted. You’ve got their driver’s license when they go for the driving test or to test drive it, so you can grab that, send a card to them, even if it’s a handwritten note. This allows you to systemize things and do it more consistently, because lots of people now like systems and they want to do everything that way. Anyway, you get me off on a tangent. Sorry, I should stop, but I love it. I love the whole idea of card sending and showing people that you care and spreading that kindness, movement, gratitude.

Todd Bertsch: 37:30

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. I absolutely love cards. I think it’s. Yeah, I loved getting this card in the mail. You know we don’t get a lot of mail, but most of the mail is junk, and same with email. I love when it’s personalized. I love when it’s a handwritten note as well. They do take time and effort, but that’s the whole idea. So when somebody receives that, it’s like oh, wow, and even if you’re, I love your system too. You know systemizing it and adding a photo or something. And digital you know digital, yeah, so that personalizes it. I can use my handwriting font, I can put my own information.

Todd Bertsch: 38:07

Just the idea of it, just the gesture.

Janice Porter: 38:09

It’s the message of it. I actually interviewed a woman. I saw her on Facebook and she was being interviewed by a friend of mine who’s also part of the company I’m with, and I reached out to her and I ended up having her on my podcast a few months. A couple months ago, november she actually I had it air the day before National Kindness Day, which was November 14th.

Janice Porter: 38:32

And her name is Tracy Gates and she wrote a book called A Few Kind Words, and this book is her story of her relationship with her dad, but also how she chose to write a card or note to a person every day for a year, and not only did it change that person’s life in the moment, but it changed hers forever just by doing that. She didn’t know who she was going to write to any particular day. It might be someone at the grocery store she ran into, or she went to jury duty and she said she talked to this lovely woman that was signing people in and she got her the address of where she worked and sent her this note about how wonderful she had been and how kind she was to everybody, even though people were giving her a rough time. These kinds of things that make people’s day, though people were giving her a rough time.

Janice Porter: 39:27

These kinds of things that make people’s day and you know it was a beautiful book and she’s a lovely person and it’s, it’s, that’s the, that’s the whole. I guess the. The epitome of what I’m trying to do is what she’s doing. It’s wonderful, yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 39:40

Awesome, yeah, we’ll. We’ll include links to the books you mentioned as well, okay. Yeah, that’s great, I love it. Janice, have you seen, with the way that work has changed, this would be. One of my concerns with this is that people are not in the office. Have you, you know, if you take the time to do this? Are they getting that message? Are they getting that card?

Janice Porter: 40:06

I say that because that’s one of the biggest things. People ask me how do I get their address? They won’t give me their address, or how do I? You just ask. But you see, I’m a curious person. So, as I’ve built rapport in the conversation, towards the end of the conversation I’ll get my pen and I’ll say by the way, would you mind giving me your mailing address? I just send cards. I like to send cards. That’s the only reason I’m not selling it or anything Like. If I see any hesitancy in their face, most often they just say, oh sure, and then I’ll say is that your house or is that your office? No, it’s my house. Okay, cause I want to make sure that I have to put a company name on the envelope or not. So I’ll say thank you. But you know, generally speaking, I don’t have any trouble doing it. So it’s, it’s massaging that muscle, it’s getting comfortable doing it, right.

Janice Porter: 40:55

Because, usually I don’t have any trouble Right. Okay, and most often they say, oh yeah, sure, and I’ll put it in the chat or whatever. So you just have to ask, you know. And so you don’t make that the barrier.

Todd Bertsch: 41:08

Okay, I like it. Be honest, hard on your sleeve, yeah Right. And if, like you said, if you’ve actually built a relationship with somebody that you’re going to send a card to, they should be open to giving an address.

Janice Porter: 41:21

Yeah, and if they’re not, okay, I’m not going to push it. Yeah, right, right yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 41:25

Okay, awesome, all right. Well, this has been so good, janice, I do want to just kind of talk a little bit about networking and nurturing, because I know those are big aspects of the work that you’re doing and obviously just a big aspect of sales and building relationships. So tell us a little bit about any tips or tricks or what your philosophy is on networking and nurturing these connections that you’ve built.

Janice Porter: 41:49

Okay, the very first thing I would say about networking is follow up, Really follow up. You know, if you go to a networking event and I haven’t done that for a long time I do my networking on LinkedIn, but it’s the same thing when you network, be interested. Be more interested in the person and what they have to say than worrying about them knowing what you do.

Todd Bertsch: 42:11

Okay.

Janice Porter: 42:12

Cause that will come if there’s going to be a relationship. The best compliment when you’re networking is at the end of a few minute conversation, where that person has talked your ear off and they go this was such a great conversation, let’s have coffee next week. And they know nothing about me. But I’ll say sure, that’s great. Should I give you a call and we’ll set it up? So now I’m in control. Okay, so then you can follow up and when you follow up, you set up that date. Now they’re going to say hey, you know, I don’t really remember anything about what you. Well, I never said anything, Right, so I let them do all the talking.

Todd Bertsch: 42:45

Right.

Janice Porter: 42:46

So networking is. For me, is everything. It’s finding out whether there is a fit, it’s whether there’s any opportunity, and that’s why I prefer to be in control online as to who I’m talking to, as opposed to going to a networking event and have not done any homework and don’t know who’s going to be there and whether they’re my people or not, because that’s what a lot of people do. They go to network event after network event and they don’t really meet anybody because they’re not their people.

Janice Porter: 43:14

So do your homework ahead of time, know who’s going to be there, and I always say here’s what I’ll give you. There’s five people you should meet in a networking event. You should meet the organizer, because they know everybody.

Janice Porter: 43:26

You should meet the person at the registration desk, if there is one, because they can point you to the right people, because they usually know everybody too. You should meet the speaker if there’s a speaker, because you want to make sure that you sometimes, when you meet the speaker before they’ve gone up to speak, they will be thankful that somebody actually talked to them and will probably refer to that person, if they’re a good speaker, in their conversation. You know, like Janice said to me when we came in here today, blah, blah, blah and then and then two, what I call hubs, people that know everybody. Those are the people you need to meet the people that know everybody, cause then when you leave they all know you Right. And the people that know everybody, cause then when you leave, they all know you right.

Janice Porter: 44:09

And yeah, so that’s important and then follow up. As I started to say, follow up, follow up, follow up. So, with the people that you’re, you know that you really want to follow up with, make sure that you send them something within 24 hours you know in text or an email that says it was great to meet you, follow up with whatever the next step is going to be, and then send them a card as well.

Todd Bertsch: 44:30

Yeah, I absolutely love it. I struggled with this for a while, Janice, and I’ve been intentional about it recently where I have kind of a system. Now I definitely have a bad memory, so I have to. I love business cards. I know a lot of people don’t have them these days or don’t believe in it.

Todd Bertsch: 44:49

I still believe in it, but it’s great for me because then I at least have something to hold on to and then I can immediately when I get back to my office, I do a reach out so I try to connect on LinkedIn, but I say, you know, I add, include a note if I, if I can, and say, hey, I just, we just met at whatever this chamber event or this networking event. You know, it’s been a pleasure meeting you. We’d love to you know, learn more, connect with you. So I’m tying in that event so that they know I’m just not some regular guy, because maybe they won’t remember me, but also doing it very soon.

Todd Bertsch: 45:20

So you’re absolutely right, I love that and I’ve just started doing it and it’s I’ve seen a lot of success with it and it’s helps me because once it gets longer, I totally forget or get caught up in some other tasks, Right? So great tips.

Janice Porter: 45:34

Okay, good.

Todd Bertsch: 45:36

Yeah, awesome. Well, we’ve learned a lot today about building relationships, linkedin so much good stuff. I’ve really appreciated our conversation today. Janice, if you could leave our listeners with one last thing, one big takeaway what would that be?

Janice Porter: 45:55

I think, probably, that it really is all about relationships and you need to show people that you’re interested in them, which I just alluded to with networking. You want to be interested more than interesting. Think of it that way. So you want to be interested in the other person because that makes them feel good. And you want to make them feel good first. You want to show that you’re Be curious, show that you’re interested in them, and then they feel more comfortable, they let down in them and then they feel more comfortable, they let down their guard and then you can start opening the relationship, building the relationship, because for me, that’s what it’s all about. And one last thing that I always say at the end of my podcast stay connected and be remembered. So in order to do that, you have to send cards or you have to pick up the phone. You have to show that you’re interested in people on a regular basis, that you haven’t forgotten about them and they won’t forget about you.

Todd Bertsch: 46:51

Then I love it. Two big, big nuggets. We’ll definitely have that in the show notes and if you have a link to one of these card companies that you use, Janice, I’d love to include that in the show notes as well I’d be interested in, just if you’re if you’re able or open to sharing what you utilize. I love it. I love cards. I love getting yours. I look forward to the next card.

Todd Bertsch: 47:14

I hope to get at some point, but yeah, it’s been. It’s been great getting to know you. I love what you’re doing and it seems like you you found your passion, which is just a beautiful thing, right. So, we’re both blessed to be able to do what we love to do and have these conversations on a Friday afternoon, so I appreciate you, thank you for your time today and wish you all the best. It was my pleasure Stay connected.

Janice Porter: 47:39

Yes, absolutely, and I love what you’re doing. Keep up the good work doing your podcast, todd, and we’ll talk again soon.

Todd Bertsch: 47:46

Great. Thank you so much. Bye now. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Bolt Podcast. You’re on an inspiring journey of growth, transformation and joy, and I’m honored to be a part of it. If you found this episode valuable, please like share it with your friends and consider leaving a review. It means the world to us. For show notes, resources and to subscribe to the weekly Motivational Monday newsletter. Please visit toddbertsch.com and don’t forget to follow us on social media at the Bolt with Todd B for more inspiration. Remember, real change doesn’t happen overnight. Folks Start small, stay consistent and watch as your growth unfolds. See you next time.