Bob Littell, Creator of NetWeaving, on Building the Relationships That Grow Your Practice (The Price and Value Journey, Episode 161)
If your networking efforts feel hollow or one-sided, this episode reframes the whole game. Bob Littell, creator of NetWeaving and author of The Heart and the Art of NetWeaving, joins host John Ray to explain why leading with genuine service, rather than a thinly veiled pitch, builds the kind of relationships that actually generate business. For professional service providers who feel stuck doing traditional networking and wonder why it’s not working, Bob’s framework offers a practical and principled alternative.
Bob lays out the three core skills of NetWeaving: connecting others with their needs in mind, positioning yourself as a resource people know they can call on, and building a trusted referral network over time. He also shares a fourth, often overlooked reason NetWeaving fails: the person doing it simply isn’t yet as referable as they think. From follow-up discipline to the way you present yourself online, Bob walks through how professionals inadvertently undermine their own word-of-mouth.
The conversation also covers Bob’s “GLP” questioning framework, which moves conversations from global to local to personal for moving beyond small talk at networking events; how to host a connection meeting so it actually energizes both parties; and what Adam Grant’s research on givers, takers, and matchers means for how strategic you need to be in today’s business climate. If you’ve been giving without seeing much return, this episode will help you figure out exactly why and what to change.
The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of the Business RadioX® podcast network.
Key Takeaways You Can Use from This Episode
- NetWeaving is not a replacement for traditional networking. You need both, but NetWeaving asks you to lead with the other person’s needs, not your own agenda disguised as generosity.
- The three pillars of NetWeaving are connecting others without keeping score, positioning yourself as a known and accessible resource, and building a trusted referral network you’ve personally vetted.
- If NetWeaving isn’t producing results, run through the three diagnostic questions: Are you connecting givers or inadvertently serving takers? Is your help truly no-strings-attached or is there a subtle ask embedded in it? Are you following up to make sure you get credit for the connections you make?
- Being referable is something you have to work at. Your website, your social media presence, and the way you communicate all signal to potential referral partners whether they can confidently send someone your way.
- Asking better questions is a learnable skill. Bob’s GLP framework, moving from global industry challenges to local company issues to personal focus areas, helps you listen strategically and identify where you can genuinely help.
- Hosting a connection meeting well means doing your homework on both parties beforehand, sharing bios so neither person shows up cold, and framing the introduction with specific reasons why you think it’s a worthwhile meeting.
Robert S. Littell, Chief NetWeaver
Bob Littell is the creator of NetWeaving and the founder of NetWeaving International, known globally as the Chief NetWeaver. Over a 50-year career in the insurance and financial services industry, he served as Chief Marketing Officer for two insurance companies, ran his own national insurance brokerage agency, and built an independent consulting practice that included expert witness work and writing for publications including the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
In 1999, Bob created the word and concept of NetWeaving, a Golden Rule and Pay It Forward approach to building trusted business relationships. With the blessing of Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of the book on which the Pay It Forward movie was based, NetWeaving is now recognized worldwide as the business version of Pay It Forward. He has authored three books on the concept: Power NetWeaving, The Heart and Art of NetWeaving, and Raising Your R&R Factor.
His work has drawn endorsements from Jeffrey Gitomer, Bob Burg, Daniel Pink, and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons.
Bob’s NetWeavers Inspire platform at netweaversinspire.com offers free access to both books, a NetWeaver Aptitude Assessment, a NetWeaver Diplomat certification course, and more than 50 business book summaries, all at no charge.
John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey
John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.
John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include business coaching and advisory work, as well as advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, coaches, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
John is a podcast show host and the owner of North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®. John and his team work with B2B professionals to create and conduct their podcast using The Generosity Mindset® Method: building and deepening relationships in a non-salesy way that translates into revenue for their business.
John is also the host of North Fulton Business Radio. With over 900 shows and having featured over 1,300 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in its region like no one else.
John’s book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices
John Ray is the author of the five-star rated book The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices, praised by readers for its practical insights on raising confidence, value, and prices.
If you are a professional services provider, your goal is to do transformative work for clients you love working with and get paid commensurate with the value you deliver to them. While negative mindsets can inhibit your growth, adopting a different mindset, The Generosity Mindset®, can replace those self-limiting beliefs. The Generosity Mindset enables you to diagnose and communicate the value you provide to clients, which allows you to price your services more effectively in order to receive a portion of that value.
Whether you’re a consultant, coach, marketing or branding professional, business advisor, attorney, CPA, or work in virtually any other professional services discipline, your content and technical expertise are not proprietary. What’s unique, though, is your experience and how you synthesize and deliver your knowledge. What’s special is your demeanor or the way you deal with your best-fit clients. What’s invaluable is how you deliver outstanding value by guiding people through massive changes in their personal lives and in their businesses that bring them to a place they never thought possible.
Your combination of these elements is unique in your industry. There lies your value, but it’s not the value you see. It’s the value your best-fit customers see in you.
If pricing your value feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar to you, this book will teach you why putting a price on the value your clients perceive and identify serves both them and you, and you’ll learn the factors involved in getting your price right.
The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers worldwide. Follow this link for further details.
