Brad Eather (00:00)
Hello and welcome to the Selling's Creative Podcast, a podcast exploring creativity's role in sales, leadership and business. I'm your host, Brad Eather a digital communications consultant supporting B2B businesses and professionals add social to their bow.
One of the paradoxes of modern life is that we've never been more connected, yet so many of us has never felt more disconnected.
We walk through a world where our guard is up, where every scroll feels like a sales pitch and where genuine connection can almost feel impossible. It's in this backdrop that networking, a word that was once synonymous with relationship building has become a word tainted by ulterior motives. But the reality is that authentic connection has never been more valuable. The difference is that today in a distracted world,
It requires more intention. And that's exactly where my next guest comes in. John Watson is a recovering accountant turned connection coach. He frustrated business owners and introverts rebuild their confidence and learn to network with purpose. He's a founding member of the Lekker network, the host of the right place podcast and a believer that we're all just
one conversation away from changing our trajectory. Welcome to the show, John.
John Watson (01:25)
Thanks, Brad. Really excited to talk to you today and thank you for a wonderful introduction.
Brad Eather (01:29)
I mentioned at the top, you're a recovering accountants. Can you walk me through that transition from accountant to connection coach and what role did networking play during that transition?
John Watson (01:43)
Well, great question to start I was a chartered accountant here in South Africa for probably two decades I was never your normal chartered accountant. I had no delusions of grandeur in terms of being a partner at an audit firm climbing the ranks in high finance. But I used my degree to open up amazing doors for me. But what that led to was a real... ⁓
I would say an aptitude for connecting people and bringing people together and helping people solve problems through connections. So networking got my start as a chartered accountant, but it also became the thing that I became known for. Bringing people together, helping connect people with problems with people that had solutions. So to go way back, when I qualified as a chartered accountant, I was looking for a job.
applied to all the big firms and they didn't get anywhere fast. Then, I'd been playing golf with my dad and a friend of his, let's call him Uncle and he had a small firm. because I knew Uncle Trevor, I started talking to him and said, hey, can I come and work for you? run out of options. So actually, my first job that I got was through networking. And because I had...
Obviously impressed the person on the golf course and that translated into a business relationship. So right from the get-go, helped me my first job, but I obviously didn't know it as networking then. I just knew it as a guy giving me my first job. But subsequent to that, everything kind of fell into place. Every single job I got wasn't through a normal application process. It was through knowing people, connecting people.
seeing what they're up to and wanting to be a part of their journey as well.
Brad Eather (03:33)
So from that early stage when you're talking about you just just knew a guy didn't really understand the concept of networking. How's that idea developed? What why what how do you see networking as a function now?
John Watson (03:47)
Well, I see networking as an unbelievably untapped skill that you can develop. And I truly, truly believe, as you said in the introduction, that you're just one conversation away from changing your trajectory in your business, in your life, in your professional life, in your whatever angle you need assistance with. You're just one conversation away. And the problem is that people have put networking in a box that networking is just for sales.
And I say sales is maybe 20 % of networking. The other 80 % is you can network with people and find investment partners for your company. You can learn how they are using AI. You can find better people to do your marketing. So networking can solve a myriad of problems, not just sales problems. But the trick is that you have to have conversations with people. You have to put yourself out there intentionally to have these types of conversations. The better
the conversations you're having, the more chance you're going to have of having that one conversation or multiples of this one conversation that changes everything for your life or even your business.
Brad Eather (04:55)
why do you think people find networking challenging?
John Watson (05:00)
think they find networking challenging because it's uncertain. You literally don't know what's going to happen. We would rather rely on throwing business cards around or sending out mailers and things like that because that is almost a minimal amount of effort. Networking requires showing up. It requires leaving your home, leaving your office and normally going somewhere, unless it's a virtual networking event, obviously. So it requires a little bit of effort.
And the problem is you're not guaranteed that you're going to have return on effort. So what I tell people is if you do nothing, nothing is going to happen. If you do something, you're going to get some information. And the information that you're going to get from your networking effort, there's a couple of metrics, I think. You're going to get information like, this was a good event to go to. I should put this on my radar. I should go there more regularly.
I met this person, I'd like to find out more about them. We're gonna connect on LinkedIn, I'm gonna follow them, I'm gonna engage with their content a bit. Or you're going to get information about, like, this was a waste of time, this was the wrong event to go to. And all of that helps you. And information is power. And the more information you have, the better you can then navigate the networking space. But if you're trying to almost get the value, or...
get guaranteed value from your networking efforts. This is where we can, like I say, run out of talent. We put so much pressure on ourselves, we want a guaranteed return, we want a $5 million deal on day one with the first person that we converse with. And that's just not how it works. The best people that are getting the most value out of networking understand that it's a long game, but that the more you play the game, the better you're to get at the game. And that's when there's almost this exponential return.
on your networking, but you literally have to start somewhere.
Brad Eather (06:53)
Cause speaking to, well, there was another podcast that I was listening to around networking and they were saying, they were expressing the feeling from a young person's perspective that networking feels a bit icky. And I think what you sort of outlined there is there's a mindset piece coming into a networking situation. Maybe the lines have been crossed at some point over the last
20 years that the function of networking is actually not what we've been taught. Would you agree with that? And how would you sort of reframe it?
John Watson (07:33)
Well, I think networking
has got a bad reputation because it has been used in the past to, like I say, throw business cards at people, literally run up to people, here's my business, buy my stuff, this is what I'm about. And no one really takes the time to learn who am I actually talking to, who's in front of me. So that's why networking can feel quite icky because it's very transactional. It's very, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours or...
I'm not going to talk to you if there's nothing in it for me. I'm not going to help you if there's nothing in it for me. Everybody has a network. Every person that you meet at a networking event or at a lunch or at a business breakfast or at a golf day, everybody has a network. So the person in front of you might not be your ideal client, but they might know people that you need to know. They might know people that could be your client. They might know people that want to invest in your business or collaborate.
But we want to go straight from conversation to sale instead of learning who the person in front of me is. So if you take the pressure off yourself that you don't have to sell, but you actually had a networking event to learn, then you can unpack this person in front of me and have a regular conversation because I'm not thinking sales. All I'm interested in is who is Brad, who is Ben, who is Susan. That was an interesting conversation. And you want to impress them with your lack of selling and your more interest
interesting you're more interested in the person in front of you and that's a different conversation then Hi, Brad. This is my company. This is my this is my business card. When can we set up a demo? I'd love to do this that and you're you almost bamboozled the person Bombard them with who you are and what you are So I think take a step back and like guys people buy from people. Let's connect on the people level Let's have multiple conversations
where can learn who these people are and what they're doing and what they're up to. And maybe that conversation will lead to the right conversation where I meet a client, a partner, a collaborator.
Brad Eather (09:39)
Cause the other thing that networking sort of speaks to, it sounds like an extroverted activity to do, but you've got a different opinion on that. And you actually think that it's got some real legs for an introvert. Can you sort of walk me through why you think you refer it, I think you refer it to as the introvert advantage.
John Watson (10:00)
Yeah, 100 % Brad. So the difference between extroverts and introverts is something that people often miss. Extroverts get energy from social interactions. They want to talk to everybody. They like to dominate the room. They like to tell these weird and wonderful stories about what they got up to on the weekend, what's happening in their business. And you see extroverts at events and there's 20 people around them and everyone's laughing their heads off.
because of these outrageous people. And I know I'm generalizing here, but I do it on purpose. The opposite is introverts lose energy from social interactions. However, because introverts are better one-on-one, that means they are better at one-on-one conversations. If you've ever spoken to an extrovert at an event, you might see that they start looking away, their eyes glaze over, because it's...
It might be a little bit off-putting for them because there isn't a group, or you're not as exciting as them, and then they go and look for a group and they want to dominate. That's just how they are. There's nothing wrong with them. But introverts can really have amazing one-on-one conversations because they're better one-on-one, and because they're not going to, they're not feeling the pressure of owning the room or working the room as is often said.
So I say the introvert advantage is that introverts are good at one-on-one conversations. And one-on-one conversations is where the magic happens. Where you can really explore a person, who they are, what they're building, what they're up to. The other thing is introverts are really good listeners. So listening is such a foundational aspect of networking that we get wrong because we're so interested in selling. We're so interested in, just need to get this person signed up to my mail or I just need to book another demo or something.
Introverts are really good at listening because they're quiet. Because they're quiet, they're listening. They're observing, they're seeing. What is this person actually saying? that's what's interesting what they said. Let me follow up on that. Also, because introverts are quiet, no one is expecting you to be the life of the party. No one is expecting you to stay until the last drink you served at the bar after a networking event or anything like that. So when I coach introverts, I say,
If you manage your energy correctly, you can be in and out of a networking event in 45 minutes. Even if it's a three hour event, you can be in and out, you can conserve your energy, and you can get a lot of value out of it. The problem is introverts are trying to become extroverts when they should be trying to become better introverts. If you understand the brain of an introvert, if you understand how introverts think and the advantages that they do have, you can unlock those for yourself.
and not pressuring yourself to become an extrovert. We don't need more extroverts, we just need better introverts.
Brad Eather (12:52)
was having a conversation on a previous podcast with a gentleman called James Michael, and it was particularly involving the of being an introvert as a seller. And it came down to the same, same things, the ability to listen being one, something that stuck out to me when, when we were talking about it is that, even if you identify as an introvert, you still have the ability to
move into a state of extrovertedness as you're gaining the, let's say mustering up the courage to have that first conversation. In that moment, that might feel very extroverted and uncomfortable, but then you can settle back down into your introverted state. And that was something that I found really powerful because it allows, it gives that person that's feeling uncomfortable a timeframe, a moment to...
lean into an extroverted state and then come back to where they really feel their most natural self. Is that something that you found in your coaching as well?
John Watson (13:54)
100 % Brad, 100%. What I tell people is you need to prepare yourself to attend these events. The challenge is during the day the introvert loses battery power. They lose energy because they've interacted with a lot of people, they're doing the normal day-to-day work, they've got family issues. So by the time you get to the end of the day, your battery is a little bit low, you need to recharge. So if you're going to attend a networking event that day,
you need to give yourself breathing room in order to recharge your battery. So that's the first thing I coach people on. You can't have back-to-back meetings and then expect to be your best at a networking event. And then you get to the networking event and the first person you talk to irritates you and you bugger off and you've had it and you say networking is a waste of time. Networking is not a waste of time. And you can't blame the networking event. You need to blame your lack of preparation or your lack of giving yourself that breathing room.
That's the first thing I always talk about. Then preparation is key. Just like your present, you might be a speaker at an event, or you're hosting a webinar or something like that, people prepare. So when you go to an event, prepare something. And I always challenge introverts to prepare three things, and I call it the power of one. Aim for one conversation. Don't put it on your to-do list that I want to speak to 20 people and book 10 demos.
and whatever. Aim to have one good conversation. That already takes the pressure off yourself. The other thing that you can do then is prepare. What are you going to tell people? And I say you must tell them three things. must tell them one positive thing that's happened in the last week or the last month. Maybe you've hit your targets for the month, or you've just come back from Bali, or you've just had a successful product launch. Just have one good new story to share. And then have one thing to give.
So you can give a book recommendation or podcast recommendation or a free ticket to an upcoming event or a free demo or something like that. Something very easy that doesn't cost anything to really give. And then have one thing to ask. And don't ask for money and don't ask for sales, but what person do you want to connect with? I want to connect with someone in finance that can help me restructure my business loan or.
I'm looking to connect with someone in the marketing agency. So if you prepare these things, then you are going to the networking event with some ammunition. And you've taken the pressure off, you know what you want to say. And then around all of this is be clear on who you are and what you are and what you're building. The problem with introverts is because we don't practice, we get to an event and somebody asks, hey John, what do you do?
And then we mumble something and we weren't prepared and we confuse the people or we miss this opportunity to spark a connection. So really dial in, I would say you can call it your elevator pitch or the signal that you're sending to people. And practice that, say it in the car. You got to be able to say that because remember you drive into the event. Everybody else there, there's a little bit on edge maybe, they've also had a long day. But if you come across with a little bit of confidence in
who you are, what you are, you're going to stand out even as an introvert. And then people are gonna say, it was lovely to talk to Brad. It was so interesting. He just came back from Bali and he had that launch and he recommended this podcast. That makes you memorable. You didn't have to dominate the room. You didn't have to jump up and down. You didn't have to pop champagne corks or anything like that. But you could own your space as an introvert because you were prepared to do so.
Brad Eather (17:41)
what you're talking about there is the abundance mindset that you often speak about and I think something that people get maybe a bit confused is this, this give and ask that you've just talked about, but you've framed it really nicely. people think that if you're going to give something, it needs to be extravagant. If you're going to ask something, it needs to have a commercial value.
Explain to me sort of some of the different strategies that you think about when you think about.
What could I give? What could I ask that's relatively low touch?
John Watson (18:16)
Yeah, exactly. So the abundance mindset something I've always adopted before I knew it was called the abundance mindset. Is that you don't get poor from giving. Giving opens doors. Giving attracts people, right people to you. If you live with your hands closed and you don't share in it for me and you've got the scarcity mentality, you firstly repel the right people and you sometimes even attract the wrong people towards you.
But because I live with my hands open and with a generous spirit, people remember that. So people remember that Brad gave a good podcast recommendation or a good book recommendation. And then when they see you again, they're excited to see you because the last time you gave them something. Super low touch, didn't cost anything, and it might have made a massive impact in their life.
If I'm just holding all this information, I'm missing out on so much because thinking that I'm going to run out of opportunities and I'm going to run out of conversations, I'm going to run out of connections. And believe it or not, you actually are because of your mindset. So if you've got an open, abundant, positive, generous mindset, people are attracted to that. People want more of that because it is scarce.
because a lot of people out there are just in it for themselves and they haven't got this how can I help you mindset. So when I'm talking to someone, I'm listening to them, I'm gonna ask them questions, I'm gonna show more interest in them, and I'm thinking how can I help this person? Or what book can I recommend to them? What podcast can I recommend to them? What tip, what quote can I give to them? And these are low touch, small little things just to help encourage them. And that might just plant a seed in their head and they'll come back to you and say, hey John,
I told you everything that I did, but I don't know anything about you. And then it activates a different conversation where you then get to talk about yourself and what you do. Because you've impressed them so much with how you went about it. You didn't try and anything. were useful. were generous. You gave them something. And now it's a different conversation. Instead of bombarding that person, you almost repel them trying to...
to get them in your sales funnel or throw your business card or book them for demo or whatever the case may be. So if we change our mindset, we can really change how people perceive us. And then people start talking about you in different rooms, rooms that you're not even in. And that is like the ultimate goal of networking. was so impressed by Brad, tomorrow I'm gonna tell my boss about Brad. My boss is gonna click on Brad's LinkedIn and Brad is gonna say, hey Brad, we went to the same school.
Awesome, man. Let me get you in. Let's have a chat. Let's see where it goes. And that's the ultimate, ultimate of networking. When people start, you build this reputation out there. People are attracted to you. They come up to you at events. They want to talk to you. And you're an introvert, or you're a quiet person. So people almost start networking on your behalf because they had a good experience with you.
But it starts with yourself, it starts with your attitude, it starts with how you approach things.
Brad Eather (21:32)
a post that you put up not too long ago, essentially personified different types of people at a networking event. And one of those people was the connector. but what I'm hearing within what you're saying there is that a connector is not necessarily someone who just connects people to people, but people to information as well.
John Watson (21:55)
100%. So people, the way I do it is I consume a lot of content, I write a lot of content, I attend a lot of networking events, my whole world revolves around networking. So brain, how it works and how it compartmentalizes information and sets it up and sets up conversations is built around connecting. So when I'm having a conversation with someone and you mention something, I'll say, hey, I read an article on that. ⁓
I just met somebody like that. And because I've repeated that multiple times, thousands of times, hundreds of times, at different events and different interactions with people, I'm very used to it. It becomes almost automatically to me. So I'm not just connecting necessarily people with people, like you said, but people with information. Hey, I saw a webinar like this. Or I learned about that on.
diary of a CEO, and you share these tidbits of information with people and it really points them in the right direction. So I think if you consume something that's useful, bring it on board as part of your ammunition, as part of your, as your gives that you can share with people or write about it on LinkedIn, that you just point people to the right post and then they interact with your LinkedIn, they see, Brad's all about this, Brad's all about tomorrow communications Brad's posting about this and Brad's posting about that.
So then you start connecting people with your world and they see you in a different light. They see you as a useful person to know. Remember at these networking events, people want to put you in the box. So what signals are you giving them to put you in the right box? You don't want to be put in the box of this weird random guy that I met and there's probably hundreds of people in that box. You want to stand out and Susan's a useful person to know. I wouldn't mind talking to them again because I got a lot out of it.
And again, this is introvert to introvert or introvert to extrovert or extrovert to extrovert. want to be put in the most useful box. So a little bit of work on yourself and have this mindset. And as I promise you, it's going to help you. You just have to start doing things slightly differently.
Brad Eather (24:02)
At the top of the podcast, I talked about the world that we live in and how we need to be a little bit more intentional about going about networking. How do you, how do you coach being more intentional about the specific communities that you might be targeting or wanting to join?
John Watson (24:23)
coach people two things in terms of intentionality and it starts with your mindset first. You have to have an intentional mindset. I think we've covered that quite a bit. And the reason your mindset is so important is that everything happens twice. It happens first in the mind and then in real life. If your mind is wrong and you've got bad perceptions about networking or you keep making the same bad habits, you're going to keep repeating the same results in real life. So have an intentional mindset and we've covered that enough.
But then I show up, I'm there intentionally. And I'm there intentionally to make a good impact. I'm aiming to have one good conversation. And I'm aiming to leave the event on my terms and impress the right people. I'm not just going there to wing it. I've done a little bit of preparation. And that's when I'm going to start seeing better results for myself. I'm going to start there's a bit of return on investment here. When I choose events,
I choose events that are going to suit me, but also going to stretch me. don't want to keep having the same conversations with the same people in the same rooms. That's just going to keep you there. You want to almost stretch yourself and go to a larger company event or an industry-wide event or a city-wide event or a state-wide event where there's going to be a lot more people. And you want to expose yourself to the high levels. And this is another thing that I coach, is networking up.
You always want to be aiming up.
If you're comfortable with where you are, then you almost don't have to network. I'm ticking along at I've got a million dollar a year business. I'm happy with that. But if you've got aspirations to grow your to five million dollars, well, I should be talking to people that have five million dollar businesses or ten million dollar businesses. It's different conversations to people that have one million dollar businesses. So then I start being intentional about where I go.
Where am I seeing? What events I attend? And I put myself out there to slowly go one, one, one, one, one up and have these conversations or just be exposed to it. Sometimes you don't even have to say anything at these events. You can just go and listen to the speaker, how people do things, to what people are talking about in terms of using AI or how they do their marketing, how they do their website, how they do their product rollout, whatever the case may be. So I become intentional in doing that. And that's where
I can start having these conversations that can change the trajectory of my business. But it starts with intentionality.
Brad Eather (26:55)
So you're talking about networking up and moving from a room of $1 million businesses to $5 million businesses.
I can understand that a lot of people would be nervous doing that. How do you coach the confidence piece in terms of being able to push yourself into those situations, even though you're probably feeling like a duck out of water?
John Watson (27:20)
I'm going to use an example from a podcast that I saw recently with Daniel Priestley, where he shared this story about a group of millionaires and billionaires that gathered in Bali at this villa, and he overheard some of the people talking. And these are multi, multi-billionaires, millionaires, very successful. And he says, what was eye-opening was that everyone was struggling with something. Everyone had some issues. And these are people that are...
massively successful, but they're struggling with something, or this isn't quite working, or this product failed, or this launch failed. And he said, in other conversations he heard, people said, no, they're just winging it. They don't know if this is gonna work. They've thrown in half a billion dollars into this thing. They're gonna see how it goes. And he said, that just showed him that the same struggles that you have when you run in a $10,000 business or a $100,000 business, you're going to have when you run in $10 million business or a...
billion dollar business. You don't know if it's going to work. So take the pressure off yourself that you have to perform at a certain level and have everything figured out because even the guys 10 levels above you don't have everything figured out. If you understand that then you can approach these events or these people that you see at these events and just you just want to learn from them. Maybe you don't want to hand out or you don't you're not asking for money or anything you just want to learn from them.
If you see someone famous or you know someone who's going to be speaking at an event, then will hopefully be time to talk to them afterwards or there'll be a bit of a Q &A. Then do a bit of a background research and say, hey Daniel, how did you go from Australia to the UK? How did you move your business from the UK to America or whatever the case may be? Those are the type of questions and the preparation that can just give you an insight into.
what they were thinking about, how they were doing things and how they approached it. Again, being slightly intentional, being slightly prepared will give you that confidence. To just wing it at these networking events, you can only go so far. So if you're a really nervous networker, then prepare yourself. Don't have back-to-back meetings the whole day. Take the afternoon off and think about who's speaking at this event? Let me do some research on them because then if I come across at the event that I know more about the speakers,
and the sponsors and the event and other people. People start, you know, but Brad, do you know the speaker? You're talking like as if you know the speaker. Like, no, I just did some research or I checked out their LinkedIn. Again, you can impress people without even impressing the speaker. So a little bit of intentionality, I think, will give you that confidence. The confidence comes from repetition, from doing this often. And like I said, don't blame the networking event. There's nothing wrong with the networking event unless it was a really badly organized, badly run event.
then you can blame the event. But if it's a stock standard, solid gold, strong networking event, you do a little bit of prep, you can get a lot out of it. And I think that's where you can get the confidence. The confidence comes from showing up in the repetition. A friend of mine, Charles Schwann, here in South Africa, he worked out, what is 1 % better every day? And he said it's 15 minutes. If you spend 15 minutes a day,
working on your networking or working on your pitch, your signal, how you ask questions, maybe your pose, how you structure your body, look in a suit, whatever. If you do that 365 days of the year, you're going to be an absolute solid gold networker. So 1 % better days is 15 minutes. Just that little bit of intentionality is going to give you that confidence and it's going to give you that
that gonna help with your mindset as well when you get to these events.
Brad Eather (31:13)
agree, I think that that idea of the 1 % is, it all comes down to intentionality. What can I improve slightly in, it doesn't necessarily need to be about networking, it could be in anything that you apply yourself to. Just adding a little bit of intentionality is how you incrementally get better. Throughout this whole, well, of summing it up,
It seems to me that this whole mindset piece around networking sort of comes down to three elements. is my interpretation. Preparation, practice, and then learning.
you think about applying the learning to whatever you're doing? if I'm going into a networking event and the idea is not necessarily to sell, it's just to get myself out there, prepare for whatever's possible. But I know that I'm going to learn something at the other end. How do you go about applying those learnings to?
your business or your next product or whatever you're trying to achieve.
John Watson (32:28)
I always see learning as going hand in hand with reflection. Let's say I've attended an event and it was an event on AI. There were a couple of different speakers and they really spoke amazingly about the future of AI and the impact on business or marketing or sales. And as I'm making my notes, I can't document everything that they've said. I can't take a photo of every single slide unless you're one of those people and you see them at events. take a photo of every single slide.
What I need to do afterwards is reflect on what I learned, write down what I learned and see how can I apply it to my business. Remember a lot of things that you do learn is just nice to know. nice to know that I can also do that. it's got no impact on my business my sales funnel or whatever, but it's interesting to know that.
There's things that might have an impact on my event. I then need to go and reflect on those things the day before or the day after, and write them down say, these are the three or four things that I learned. Okay, what can I do differently? And then even take that to your team. So guys, I attended this event yesterday. This is what was said. Can we just talk about this for 10 minutes? Have you seen something similar? And then just activate those conversations again with your team.
If you just keep it to yourself, it becomes as nice to know and a week later, can't remember what you learned and it's kind of slipped out of your mind because life is taking over and you're busy again. So you need it again, like take that 1 % of your day, that 15 minutes, write it down, reflect on it, but then do something with it. Either take it to your team. If you don't know quite what to do, ask somebody, hey man, I learned about this or there was this new product that was mentioned or this new AI solution.
Have you used it? Have you seen it? If you can't talk to anybody and you're running solo business, then check it out on YouTube or go to the speakers LinkedIn. Maybe there's a bit more information there. If something has triggered your thoughts on, this is interesting, or I need to do this, or I need to do this more, then make sure you do that. Be intentional, set some time aside to reflect what can I do differently going forward.
Brad Eather (34:38)
It's really interesting over the course of 16 conversations I've had how reflection seems to be the core ingredient that pushes progress. And it's the one thing that seems to be missing from a lot of people's processes. so it's really nice to hear that again, coming up in a different context this time, ⁓ because when it comes to creativity,
I think that the ability to be creative is in your ability to reflect and in some ways associate one idea with another and find the gap in the middle. Which leads me onto my last question. John, what's your definition of
John Watson (35:26)
Well, Brad, I knew this question was coming up and I've prepared and thought a little bit about it because, I mean, we can go down a completely different rabbit hole. I mean, I'm a, I think I'm a creative person. I like being creative, all in my own boring, recovering account in space. Creativity for me is the art of connecting the dots that other people don't see. And again, this is people, information, ideas, opportunities.
and I really get a kick out of doing it. I really get a kick out of talking to somebody and later during the day thinking about that conversation and then something pops up and be like, ⁓ I must tell Susan about Brad and then send in a quick email and making it happen. That to me is using your mind for the greater good but also being creative. I also see my creativity as taking a whole bunch of ideas
and bring them together in a logical flow and say, okay, we're gonna do this and that should lead to this and that should lead to that. So I'm always trying to make my creativity useful for other people and meaningful. And yeah, I get a kick out of it. It is a creative space to work in, in the connecting and the coaching and the networking space. it has like applied connection. It's not just connection.
superficially, but like there's a little bit of creative thought applied to it.
Brad Eather (36:56)
Yeah, totally get it. Makes complete sense. I like the answer. where can people find you if they want to get in touch?
John Watson (37:08)
Well, the best place to find me is on LinkedIn. I'm quite active on LinkedIn. And if you want to know what John's been thinking about, I've probably posted about it on LinkedIn ⁓ very recently. So that's just a John Watson connect ⁓ on LinkedIn. And then we've got the Right Place podcast as well, ⁓ where you've been a guest as well. And people can check that out. Otherwise, yeah, follow me there. I've got all of my links there, my link trees there as well with some other, some other.
interesting links.
Brad Eather (37:39)
Well, to everybody out there, thank you for listening to the Selling's Creative Podcast. If you've enjoyed the episode, make sure to like and subscribe. And in the meantime, happy selling.
