- BDAILY PREMIUM -
Andy Lopata is a professional relationships strategist and author, who specialises in nurturing business relationships and mentoring leaders.
From freelance writing to developing training courses, Andy moved in to exploring networking and how to focus on building professional connections.
He spoke to us about his advice for business leaders, how he got to where he is, and his new book, Connected Leadership.
Tell us about your career journey to date - how did you become a professional relationships strategist?
In my late 20s, I quit my corporate career to become a freelance writer. My father had started a business network with a business partner a few months before and he invited me to work with them while I found some writing commissions.
Of course, I never became a freelance writer - and never looked back. We grew the network into one of the largest in Europe before my father and I exited seven years later.
During my time with the network I had developed training courses for members and also presented to external organisations, initially to promote the network and then to teach some of the major components of networking.
After one failed business venture after leaving the network, we focused the business on speaking, training and mentoring networking strategy.
After many years of explaining how networking is more than just business cards and events, I finally recognised that I needed to reposition how people saw what I do to better reflect the work that I actually did. And that’s when I started talking about professional relationships rather than just networking.
How did you go about building up your client portfolio and network?
I teach referral strategies, it’s one of the most important components of the work that I do. And the majority of the work that I’ve generated has been through word-of-mouth, recommendation and referral.
In addition to that, as a professional speaker a lot of people have approached having seen me present at conferences and events and I’ve also had enquiries come through my books, videos and podcasts.
As fits someone who teaches professional relationships and networking strategy, I have also been very focused on where I have developed relationships and which events and networks I’ve invested time in. That has made a big difference to the quality of the business I’ve been able to attract.
What motivated you to write your new book Connected Leadership?
This is my lockdown book! As we came into lockdown, I recognised that events and training were not going to be an option for me and for the business for the foreseeable future and I needed to look at how that would impact my business model.
I was already in the process of focusing much more on mentoring then on presentations and training and had identified the need to work more with business leaders themselves rather than just with their teams. But I needed to let people know about the new focus and the new material.
In addition, since I repositioned my work from networking to professional relationships last year, I developed a number of new models and ideas.
The initial plan was just to write a short e-book outlining these new ideas and presenting a new image of what I do. But as I developed the plans for the e-book it became clear, not just to me but the people who advised me, that there was a much greater depth to what I wanted to share. And thus was born Connected Leadership.
Why do you think it’s important for leaders to nurture and utilise their professional relationships?
For someone to have reached a leadership position in their organisation, it’s quite likely that they already understand the importance of professional relationships. After all, it’s those relationships that smooth our way forward and help us through difficult challenges. But that doesn’t mean that they are focusing on or strategic about their professional relationships.
That lack of focus means that opportunities go begging. It’s our networks who can help us to bring in new opportunities, find solutions to challenges that are holding us back and to win over the people who we need to support new ideas.
If you don’t focus on the key relationships you need, nurture and maintain them when you don’t need their help, and develop new ones where gaps exist, you’re going to be without the support you want when you most need it.
Professional relationships underpin the solutions to so many challenges that leaders face, so we need to invest the time in making sure they’re strong and in place when needed.
What are 3 tips you would give leaders looking to invest in their professional relationships?
**Tip 1: **Understand what your biggest challenges are at the moment and how other people can help you, then ask for the support you need. This, of course, assumes that those relationships are strong enough for it to be appropriate for you to ask.
**Tip 2: **Rather than trying to meet new people all the time, invest in the relationships that you already have. So many people build big networks containing many shallow relationships. If you can focus on nurturing and deepening your relationships, you’ll have a much more robust network and deeper support when you need it.
Tip 3: Recognise the support doesn’t flow one way but neither should you be seeking a quid pro quo. Operate with an abundance mentality, seek to support your network whenever you can without expectation of anything in return but also be willing to communicate when you need help and ask in a way that makes it both easy and a pleasure for others to support you.
What has been your proudest career moment to date?
I have been lucky in many proud moments in my career. Each time I publish a new book and the physical copy arrives in the post, it’s like taking delivery of a new baby. Those moments are very special. Standing on stage in front of big audiences at some of the most famous venues in the world have also been incredible.
But perhaps the proudest moment was receiving the recognition of my peers when I was awarded the Professional Speaking Association Award of Excellence in 2017. There have been fewer than 30 recipients of this award since the founding of the Professional Speaking Association and it means an enormous amount.
What has been your biggest business challenge and how did you overcome it?
It seems that business is one continual rollercoaster of challenges! We have had many on the journey and have had to be very resilient in order to keep going and overcome them. And, of course, that makes success more satisfying.
Perhaps the biggest challenge was when my father and I exited from the business network we ran and started a new online network; many years became before they became commonplace. People didn’t quite understand what we were trying to achieve and didn’t buy into the new idea, while the costs to develop the technology we needed went through the roof and swallowed up the money we had made from selling our shares in the previous Business.
Ultimately it was the support of my network, through a mastermind group, that helped us to change the direction we were headed in. They help me recognise that the business was never going to succeed because it wasn’t something that I was emotionally invested in. I had agreed to run this network as a compromise with my father so that we could both leave our previous business together. But my heart wasn’t in it.
That mastermind group helped me to both recognise that and understand what type of business I did want to run. They then helped to support us to make the changes we needed.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
I must admit that I always struggle with this question. I’ve had many people who have inspired me at different points in my career without one person really standing out above the rest. Working with my father for over 20 years has been a defining experience. We are very different personalities and that’s really helped me, he has provided the perfect balance to my way of doing things and, if I’m honest vice versa! It hasn’t always been smooth sailing but I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.
I studied politics at university at a remarkable time in the world. While I was at university, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the Berlin Wall came down. I was lucky enough to see both Mikhail Gorbachev and FW de Klerk speak in London shortly after those events as well as speak on the same stage as FW de Klerk years later. Nelson Mandela will be named as an inspiration by so many people of my generation and I’m no different, while Mikhail Gorbachev achieved fantastic change in the hardest circumstances.
As an avid reader of political biographies we can learn so much from great leaders in history when running our own businesses.
And as a professional speaker I’m in a very fortunate position of having people around me who are hugely inspirational - it’s their job to be so. It almost seems to be unfair to name individuals as I know so many great people but I have to mention people like Richard McCann, who has built a successful life as a speaker and an author after his mother was murdered by a serial killer and he spent part of his youth in jail for dealing drugs.
And David Thomas, who turned around what was perceived as a failed childhood to become a world memory champion, appear on Oprah, write a New York Times bestseller and become one of the most inspirational speakers in the world.
Paul McGee, who wrote the best-selling book SUMO, has shared many of the challenges that I have faced and it’s one of the most generous, giving and inspiring individuals you could meet.
They are just three of the amazing people in my network and I find myself in a very privileged position where I’m surrounded by inspiration every day.
What is your motto in business?
I have a quote that I repeat in almost every presentation, from Elizabeth Asquith Bibesco, the daughter of the former British Prime Minister and an author and poet. Bibesco said “Blessed are they who give without remembering and receive without forgetting”. That is certainly the philosophy that underpins everything that I teach.
In terms of the motto for my business, if there is any, given all of the ups and downs that we have had and the times when we wondered if we would be able to carry on, I think it has to be “No Plan B”. Without an escape route, I’ve had to plough on and make things happen and that’s why I’m still here today.
What piece of advice would you give business owners right now?
Don’t try and do everything on your own. You are surrounded by people who have wisdom, expertise, experience, connections and a different view of the world to you. If you can tap into that amazing resource you will find it so much easier to achieve everything that you dream of.
By Chloe Shakesby, Bdaily
An extract of Andy Lopata’s book Connected Leadership is available in the Bdaily Premium Resource Centre
