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Building a business shouldn't mean losing your mind.
Strategy, Solutions, & Sanity is the real-world business podcast for owners and leaders who are serious about scaling — but don't want to drown in chaos while doing it.
Host Samantha C. Prestidge cuts through the noise with practical insights on hiring, delegation, team building, operations, and leadership for family businesses and second-stage entrepreneurs.
(No vague "10x your mindset" fluff here — just the strategies, systems, and sanity moves you actually need.)
Each week, you'll get short, actionable episodes that help you untangle the bottlenecks, lead with more confidence, and build a company that runs smoother — without losing the heart, hustle, and humanity that made you successful in the first place.
Whether you're navigating early team growth or getting ready to finally step out of the daily grind, this podcast gives you the tactical tools and real-world advice to build your business the smart, sustainable way.
👉 Follow Strategy, Solutions, & Sanity for practical strategies to help you lead, grow, and actually enjoy your business again.
I've got two simple rules and one habit that I hold onto all the time when it comes to networking to make sure I still enjoy networking and that there's some kind of ROI for it to even have a spot on my calendar. 📍
Welcome to Strategy Solutions and Sanity, the show for family run businesses and serial entrepreneurs who are done letting chaos run the show. I'm Sam, business and team strategist and your No Fluff Guide to Making Business Simple and Fun. This is a quick cast, a short, sharp dose of strategy and action because I know sometimes you just need that quick next step to get your sanity back. So let's get into it.
So I have talked to a lot of friends and and business colleagues and a common sentiment I hear is like.
Oh, I love connecting with people, but I hate the networking part of it 'cause that just sucks and I don't like the small talk and yada yada. Or in general, they're just like super burnt out from networking. And I've been there actually in 2022, I pretty much quit. I. All of my networking groups that I was a part of because I was like, I'm spending way too much time with people who can't serve me.
And I have no interest in being friends with these people either. So like why do they have a spot on my calendar? And that might sound a little bit harsh, but business is business. And if we're all honest with each other, it's super easy for our calendars to get packed. 'cause life gets busy. And so there has to be a reason why it's on my calendar.
So I had quit all of my groups. I had tried to totally reclaim my time. I was burnt out on connecting with people, and I was like, this is not the place I want to be because I know that there are some awesome opportunities out there.
If I can connect with the right people, how exactly do I do that? And not get burnt out from networking. I had to really reassess the rooms and the places that I was showing up in. And I actually just recently left a group as well that I had been a member of this past year. That seemed super hopeful, but because I have these rules and I have these expectations when it comes to networking, it was super easy for me to just be like, nah, I need to quit this group as well.
I'm gonna spend my time showing up somewhere else. So what exactly are those two rules for me to decide who's worth networking with and who's not?
Rule number one is that there's gotta be a two way street. I don't wanna just mooch off of somebody because I'm too much of a giver and a people pleaser to be able to mooch off someone and not feel guilty.
So I need to be able to provide value to them. But I also have to respect my own time and my own expertise and make sure that I'm also getting value in some way. And value can look different . For most of us value's gonna be that we can send each other leads.
There's some kind of actual profit that we can make by knowing each other. Okay. That is like top, top priority when it comes to networking. That being said, I also look at value in other ways. If you don't have referral partners, I would not be considering. Looking for networking partners that provide other forms of value. I would be focusing on who are your referral partner, networking people.
If you've got awesome referral partners, then you can also find value in people that can provide some kind of emotional, personal, professional development alongside with you, and speak with you at a similar strategic or intellectual value in your business. This happens for me with oftentimes with people that have similar, that, that offer similar services that I do. For instance, I had a guest on Strategy Solutions, and Sanity, Bonnie Schutz She has, she has another virtual assistant agency we offer. Virtual assistant services at Auxo not only that, it's not like she was an a VA agency offering International VAs, no.
She's based in the same city that I am in and also has a team of US-based VAs so. We are in direct competition of each other, but we take a very collaborative approach and we can brainstorm with each other. Another great example of this is an upcoming guest on the show, Jesse Hernandez, with Depth Builder.
He offers very similar training, development, lean leadership services that I offer to clients. He's a little more niched than I am in certain construction spaces. But we have very similar service offerings in some regards, and we take a collaboration over competition, let's brainstorm together approach, and we both find value in that when it comes to networking, or at least I hope he finds value.
If he doesn't, he can comment on this and tell me that I'm lying, but I am pretty sure he finds value in that. So there has to be some kind of two-way street there. My second rule for networking is that I've gotta enjoy talking to you. I have to be able to find you a decent human being and not consider you a total jackass for me to wanna continue working with you.
There have been people that I'm like, oh wow, we could be really great referral partners, but I would not wanna sit down and have lunch with you. I would not want to grab happy hour with you. If I don't think that you're a decent person, why would I trust you with my clients? Even if you offer a good service and you've got great reviews, I'm just not gonna continue networking with you.
So I've got to respect who you are as a person and want to get along with you. That doesn't mean I have to agree with you on everything. For example, I'm a super faith-driven person, but I've got some great networking connections with people who are not faith driven and are super woo, and we still find ways to collaborate with each other.
So at the end of the day, it's just about, are you a decent human being? Would I trust you with my clients? Do I wanna have a conversation with you I mean, I feel like that's a pretty basic check box to check. Uh, but some people don't meet that criteria for me, and that's okay. They're just not my people.
So those are my two rules. And then I've got one habit that I have implemented over the years that helps to make networking practical, fun and still profitable for me. And this rule is how I rank people. So I have custom fields in HubSpot, and I will rank people as either a top referral partner, mild referral partner, or poor network. And so I have my own definitions for those things. I also then put them at what stage they are almost similar to like a sales pipeline. Like what deal stage somebody is. I will put a stage for where I am with that networking connection, whether I'm still establishing the relationship, whether we're buddy buddy and you know, we can shoot the shit whether I'm just kind of staying warm with them and they're more of like a, just a lead referral type of thing, not a brainstorm kind of thing.
I have to have some kind of way to rank people and stay organized in that. 'cause if I don't, then my people pleasing tendencies will come out and my whole calendar will be filled with non- valuable meetings, so I have to stick to those two rules and have some kind of ranking and organization system in my CRM for me to be intentional about where I invest my time.
Those are the rules that have helped to make networking profitable and fun Again, for me, I'd be interested to know what your own decision making or what your own rules are around networking and avoiding those connections that really don't lead anywhere.
📍 As always, if you have any questions around business or team strategy, operations, delegation, hiring, et cetera, I'd love to dive into that answer for you.
Either find me and message me on LinkedIn. You can search Samantha Cordero Prestidge or email me at info at A-U-X-O-S-V s.com. Send me your question. I'd love to dive into it a the future ask me anything quick cast episode, and hopefully today's breakdown on strategies and my rules was helpful for you. See you next time.