Bob Littell With NetWeaving International

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have an old friend, Bob Littell, with NetWeaving International. Welcome.

Bob Littell: Hey, thanks for having me, Lee. So great to see you again.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to get caught up. Please get us caught up. What’s been going on in your world?

Bob Littell: Well, you know, you you had kind of said, give everybody who may not be familiar with the net weaving concept a little, little background. This is a 25 year old concept. And the reason why I actually came up with it initially, and I’m sure that a number of your listeners can identify with being in a large room. And what you’re sort of expected to do is to have these conversations with a bunch of people and find the perfect prospect for you. That’s the goal of most people who go into a networking event of any kind. Well, frankly, I just felt uncomfortable doing that. And so what I started doing is I would have brief conversations with people, and I try and get around to five, ten, 15 people. But what I try to do is find people, frankly, who I just liked talking to, talking with, and frankly, after having a short conversation and then I’d move on to someone else and almost invariably I’d find somebody who all of a sudden I said, you know what? I just had a conversation with Joe over there, and I think the two of you would really enjoy meeting, and I’d drag him over or her over and introduce the two. And so what I just found that I got my real enjoyment out of being in a networking event by just having good, friendly conversations with people. And if I had a short conversation with someone who was all about, well, let me tell you, enough about you talking about me.

Bob Littell: Why don’t I talk about me for a while and it just got a little overwhelming. So net weaving. Reverses the traditional concept of networking. Instead of asking yourself the questions, can this person help me? Do they know somebody I need? Do they have resources or information that would be helpful to me? Net weaving just flips that around and you train yourself to ask yourself, who do I know who might benefit meeting or getting to know this person? Or secondly, what resources or information do I have? Or someone in what we call my trusted resource network that once again might be useful and might actually help develop and create a trusted relationship with this individual. So that’s kind of the basics, but the action step of net weaving really entailed setting up meetings, usually a one on one first, and then at that one on one meeting, trying to identify someone who they would really like to meet and setting up and hosting that particular meeting. And that’s how some of these what I call ripple effect stories. And we can talk about some of those later, how they took place is that I’d make some introduction and then host a meeting, and then they would turn around and host a meeting for someone else. And it just created this ripple effect of positive energy that ended up being some amazing things. So that’s the short description.

Lee Kantor: And I think a key component of it is really the intent, right? When you go to one of these, um, events where there’s lots of business people, some people historically have gone there with the intent of I have to find that golden ticket person that’s going to buy my stuff. And when you go there with the intent, like you’re describing and you’re like, I’m just here to meet people and connect people, it takes all the pressure off and it just makes it a much more enjoyable event.

Bob Littell: Yeah, I’m very proud to say. In fact, I’m getting ready to have a conference call with a zoom call with him later on this week is my good friend Jeffrey Gitomer, the world famous, uh, speaker and crazy guy. Uh, Jeffrey one time quoted in one of his conferences saying, Bob Littell is the only person who I’ve ever met who totally gets what networking really should be all about.

Lee Kantor: So now I didn’t.

Bob Littell: Have to pay.

Bob Littell: Him.

Lee Kantor: That’s a bonus. Um, so, uh, you’ve been doing it for 25 years. You were kind of in a break for a period, and then you’ve relaunched.

Bob Littell: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you’re, you’re a you’re a perfect classic example of what we’re doing today. The most powerful form of networking. Net weaving. As I said before, you first have someone who you met at one of these meetings and the 1 or 2 people that you want to follow up with, I make notes on the back of their business cards so that when I send them an email, I almost always try and reference some comment that they made. Then I call up and assuming that it’s somebody that I want to set up a one on one hosting meeting, I mean, a one on one meeting that just the two of us. Then when I decided that this is someone I’d like to introduce to someone else, that’s where the real difficulty starts. Because in the old days, almost all the meetings were in person, and the higher up you go in power and influence, the more that you find difficulties in scheduling busy business schedules. Uh, travel. Travel to and from the meeting, setting up and picking the place where you’re going to meet. And frankly, the reason why I sort of got discouraged was how few people were recognizing the power of hosting meetings to make the introduction of two people, because what often would happen is a lot of the connections I was making, frankly, were above my pay grade.

Bob Littell: And when you hosted those kind of meetings, in many cases it allowed me to get invited into a, you know, a whole new network of people who, frankly, I had not been involved with prior to that. And so consequently, when zoom came along and when all of a sudden I realized that I could set up one or 2 or 3 zoom meetings. This this is my second. I’ll have two more zoom meetings this week, because now it’s as easy to set up a meeting or to host a meeting to make an introduction of two different people as it is sending a text or an email. And that’s why I wrote an article that, um, maybe I’ll send or send you a link that you could include in the post, uh, information that sent out a two part article in Sales and Marketing magazine on why net weaving is is exploding in popularity now, and it’s largely because of the ability of zoom and other forms of virtual online face to face communication.

Lee Kantor: Now, when things are done virtually versus in person, are there some kind of tips or or tactics or advice you can share to get the most of the virtual meeting? Because a lot of times in person, obviously there’s the energy of people in a room together. There’s all the subtle cues. And are there some things that you can share that can help somebody have a more effective virtual meeting?

Bob Littell: Yeah, hiring dancing women to be in the background can really be effective.

Lee Kantor: That helps. Okay, wait. I’m writing that down. Wait.

Bob Littell: It is more expensive. It is. What I find is that the virtual meetings do not take that much away from an in-person meeting. If you handle the meeting correctly. Now, what do I mean by that? The first thing is, when you have the one on one conversation with the individual, you’re trying to find out who were the key people that this person would like to meet. And what’s surprising is in many cases, this is not somebody who I know. They tell me someone who they would really love to meet. And in many cases, especially if it’s a high level individual, what I will do is I will ask them to send me their bio, and then I will make a send a that bio along with an email, knowing that my first conversation, if it’s a high level individual, is not going to be with the individual, it’s going to be with his executive assistant. And so I would start out by saying, um, uh, I’m sorry, but what is your oh, Barbara. Um, you hopefully. You remember I sent an email and I copied you on it, uh, about an individual who I think your boss would really enjoy meeting. The two of them have very similar backgrounds, and they’re working on some projects that I think might be of interest to both of them. And so I’m wondering if this is someone who you think, based on the bio, if you would share that with him, would like to meet and I’ll check back with you and see if and almost always then after they look up the bio, if I’ve done my homework correctly, it’s almost always would love to have that meeting be so nice to set it up.

Bob Littell: And then that’s that’s all there is to it. So it’s being creative in the way you set it up, listening. And it’s a puzzle. It’s putting pieces of a puzzle together of what is a meeting and a communication? For example, I’m hosting a second meeting this week and this one is in person. I’m putting together a fellow who’s with one of the senior VP of one of the largest construction companies in Atlanta, um, and putting together with someone who literally helped run six of Ted Turner’s companies back in the in the heyday of when Ted Turner was just doing unbelievable things and buying companies and doing all kinds of stuff. I was amazed that the two of them didn’t know each other, from just the fact that both of them were so high profile in Atlanta, and once again, they both have a high interest in cars. And so the two of them, uh, I can’t wait to be part of the conversation.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that a mistake that people make a lot of times is that they focus in on maybe their exact target, rather than maybe people in and around them. Um, a lot of times I think the phrase is called weak ties. Those are the people that aren’t directly connected, but they’re around your periphery that you can maybe access a little easier, and then you could leverage that.

Bob Littell: Well, two points, two points to be made there. One is I define meetings as either strategic or non-strategic. A strategic meeting is where I already have in my mind how the two people would really enjoy, why they would really enjoy meeting and getting to know each other. A non-strategic meeting are ones where these are just two good people that I’ve just really enjoyed having a conversation with. And frankly, some of those meetings that I’ve set up that I had no idea up front. I just felt the vibes. I felt the body chemistry of the two of them. And some of those meetings had been some of the most fun, and some of the ones that have created amazing things that none of us had any idea prior to having the conversation. The second point, though, I was really influenced by research by a fellow named Mark Granovetter from Stanford. And what he the research that he had done showed that if you imagine a target and three circle with a bull’s eye being in the center, the bullseye represents your primary circle of contacts. Depending on the size of your network, that might be three, four, five, maybe even ten people who you’re dealing with on a daily or at least a weekly basis. The second circle, the secondary one, are people who are coming in and out of that primary circle on a fairly regular basis, maybe every couple of weeks or every month.

Bob Littell: You just kind of reconnecting. Everyone in that third circle is what we would call a weak tie. They are someone who, over your lifetime, your career, you at one time had a good relationship with, but you’ve lost touch and contact. And so I literally make a habit every week. And if if your listeners, if they do nothing else than follow up on this piece of advice, every week I go back through emails, through past correspondence, and I come up with two people, three sometimes, who I haven’t talked with in usually two to 3 to 5, sometimes even ten years. Uh, there’s one individual that I’m now working with that guess what? I may end up being an executive producer on a. Science fiction movie. It’s too long to tell the tale, but he used to, uh, come to one of my book clubs, and he’s now written a science fiction novel called The Cloud, which was, uh, considered the best science fiction book of, of 2023. And so who knows? It’s just it’s just so much fun when you kind of approach net weaving more as a game than as something you have to do.

Lee Kantor: So, um, where what’s kind of on the roadmap?

Bob Littell: Well, I told you why I kind of dropped out of the game for a while. Um, and when I decided to get back in. I said, you know what? This is my legacy. What do I want to leave as the legacy? And I got to thinking, I years ago, I had developed something called the Net Weavers Aptitude Assessment Quiz. And the new website that’s going to be launched within the next week or so, which is Net Weavers Inspire. The first thing that will happen when you go to the website. You will take this free quiz. And first, the quiz has has a series of statements and you grade yourself from 1 to 10 on how applicable that statement is for you currently. The first category is your attitude towards the concept of altruism. Doing something for someone without any expectation of how you’re going to benefit. And so there’s five questions there that or five statements. And you grade yourself from 1 to 10 with ten being boy that’s me I do that all the time. Then the next three categories are the three skill sets of net weaving being a connector of others with their needs, problems, opportunities and mind rather than your own learning how to position yourself as a gratuitous resource for others. No expectation of gain. And the third in line with the first two is building a trusted resource network, made up of people who either you have vetted as being exceptional at what they do, or they come so highly recommended to you that you immediately trust and want to have them in that in that network. So part of what I wanted is I wanted to have a course.

Bob Littell: And so now we’ve developed a course online called the NetWeaver Diplomat. And the great thing about this is we’ve got it on a platform that allows me to translate it into over a hundred different languages. So you come to the you come to the website, you take the free exam if you like what you see based on your score, because your score will either say you’re a natural. Netweaver been doing this all your life. You just never had a word for it. In fact, that’s what Arthur Blank, the testimonial on the cover of my my book The Heart and Ardent Weaving, said. The second category, a little lower score, is Annette Weaver. In the wings you see a few areas that you can improve upon. And then Annette Weaver’s apprentice, meaning you see a lot of areas that you could improve on, but you love the concept and you want to improve. And then I struggled with what do I call that bottom low score. So I finally came up with a politically acceptable that’s a net weaving skeptic. Oh, nobody does anything for someone without thinking of how they’re going to benefit. And there’s two areas of that. One is, though, people who are scoring low because they’re just starting a career, and they really have never thought of all these skill sets and ways. And that, for example, I’ve done a number of programs there at CSU’s executive MBA program, and part of where I really get excited is helping people launch a career with Net weaving in mind. I sure wish I’d realized or been taught these skill sets coming right out of college. I don’t know where I’d be today, but, uh, but I know I would be even more above where I am today.

Bob Littell: So anyways, now those are the first two. You actually do upgrade to take the course and also have access to all 50 of the business book summaries. And I mean these are Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Stephen M.R. Covey, Jeffrey Gitomer. These are some of the best business books out there that I, with author’s permission, I wrote, and those are terrific as what I call follow up and follow through value added ways to add to the emails that you’re sending out, either wanting to set up a meeting and providing information up front, you would ask, what’s a better what’s another way to set up a meeting? That’s a great attachment to send an article that you and a some one of the book summaries that you know, would have interest be of interest to the high level individual you’re trying to to connect with. But the final area that I’m really excited about is I want to leave a legacy of inspiring people to create their own ripple effect. Stories where you make a connection, you make an introduction, you host a meeting, and then those people, when they try and turn the table and say, Bob, this is great, but how can we help you? You simply ask them to pay it forward and do the same thing for someone else or someone else. And it creates that ripple effect. And I want to create a whole library of stories by category of people who have done that and the amazing things that end up happening. So that’s that’s kind of the goal is to create that platform and get people involved.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you, um, how do you kind of explain this concept to a lot of the young folks who are not? I guess I don’t know if the word comfortable is the accurate word, but they don’t do a lot of in-person conversations. They don’t do a lot of even zoom conversations now. They prefer more of the impersonal texting. And, you know, not almost not in real life interactions. So how do you kind of help them either see the value or open their minds to, uh, to this concept?

Bob Littell: Well, actually, it’s a great question because, frankly, I’ve created a new word called a catalyst connector. And in some cases, I hate to say it, but the new generation of young leaders in many cases are not comfortable with net weaving. And so I another one of my goals is to create an army. And I’ve already got a number of people that are willing to fall into that role of actually calling up with the young people and showing them by doing it, how to make those kind of connections. And frankly, it’s a little bit the same with highly technical financial service people like CPAs and attorneys. And, you know, the jokes about an actuary, you know, an outgoing actuary because he’s looking at the other person’s shoes rather than his own. Um, and yet I’ve had some success stories with very highly analytical people by not just telling them how to do it, but actually showing. And that to a little, a little extent is what we’re going to be doing with this new Project Atlanta Way 2.0, where we’re going to be using net weaving as a way to create leader to to to inspire leaders within the city of Atlanta to work on major projects together and collaborate and and connect with each other in ways that they might even be uncomfortable doing. But we’re going to make them.

Lee Kantor: It’s so interesting because every person in business knows that referrals are kind of the key, and if you have a system for referrals, you’re going to be in great shape. And then this just kind of aligns perfectly with that type of thinking.

Bob Littell: Yeah. And you know, we’ve only got a few minutes. So let me end with or at least cover one thing that I think is so important because a referral is a risk on the part of the person making it, you, you know that you’re not going to go to a networking event and have somebody immediately say, oh, my best client is so-and-so. Let me make an introduction. You have to build trust. So I had had quite a few people at the not quite a few, but a number of people who would come up to me at one of my talks and said, Bob, I heard you speak a while back. And I had to be real honest with you. I’ve been doing a lot of your net weaving and I’m not seeing little, if anything, come back. And so finally, I really developed a a way to determine what the problem is. First, I’d ask them, tell me how you’re doing it and all. And a lot of times what would come out is they’re still net weaving, networking. They’re implying after they help someone. Well, you know, it sure would be nice if you happened to come across someone who needs my services. I’d love to have you refer me. You can’t mix the two. Net and knit weaving is not an attack on traditional networking. You have to do both to be successful, but you can’t mix the two. The second reason I discovered was the world is made up of givers and takers, and when you knit we for a taker, they will take and take and take. And you can do it till the sun doesn’t shine and nothing will come back around because they just have.

Bob Littell: They’re missing the reciprocity gene. The third one is the most interesting though. And it’s a weakness that we all have, especially if it’s a high level connection. So you introduced me to Arthur Blank. And guess what? I take ownership of that new relationship. And unless you follow up a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month. Hey, Bob, whatever happened to that connection introduction that I made with you? And oh, my gosh, Ashley, I forgot you were the one that introduced me to him. Gosh, I really am sorry I never got back. He introduced me to so and so and we’re now. We’re best friends. So we forget the girl that brought us to the dance. And it’s a I see that happen a lot. But frankly, Lee, there’s one other category and it’s the hardest one. It’s where you’re having this conversation with someone, and deep down inside you’re saying to yourself, I’m not really sure I would feel comfortable introducing this person to someone else. They didn’t come across to you. Maybe it was their dress, maybe it was vibes, whatever. But frankly. Once again, a referral is a risk on the part of the person making it. And if they don’t have confidence, what’s the solution They have to become more. They have to change their image. For some people it may not be possible, but I make suggestions of taking different workshops on creativity, how to how to how to make yourself not just acceptable, but the wow factor. So somebody would say, wow, no one has ever done that for me before.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, connect with the community. What is the coordinates? What is the website?

Bob Littell: The website is is you can we’re going to get there where you can get there one of three different ways. You can either go to net weaving, dot com, Net weaving international.com or the new Net Weavers Inspire, which will be launched within the next week or so. And once again, we hope that, uh, those who love this concept will spread the word and become ambassadors of the concept because not only is it good for your business, but, you know, research has shown that there’s such a thing as endorphins in the brain when you help someone, that just gives you that satisfaction feeling and that makes that energizes you, makes you better at everything you do. It’s a great way to build your business, but it’s actually a great way just to live your life.

Lee Kantor: Well, Bob, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Bob Littell: Well, thank you again for having me. And let’s stay in close touch. And remember, I want to have you involved in this Atlanta way 2.0 as well. So we’ll talk to you about that later. But thanks again for having me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.