Get In The Room: The Marketing Strategy That's Growing Fitness & Wellness Businesses

You say you want brand deals, corporate contracts, speaking opportunities, and a network that actually opens doors.

But are you showing up in the rooms where those things actually happen?

In this episode of The Sweat & Equity Show, host Ari Belgrave breaks down one of the most underrated business growth strategies in the fitness and wellness industry — getting in the room. Not online. In person.

Ari shares how in-person networking has been one of the biggest drivers of her seven-figure business — from landing long-term brand partnerships and corporate contracts to building relationships that created opportunities she couldn't have planned for.

You'll learn:

• Why proximity is one of the most silent limiters of growth for fitness professionals 
• How to choose which events and conferences are actually worth your time and money 
• The real reason brand deals and corporate contracts happen in rooms, not DMs 
• 7 practical tips for working a room even if you're introverted 
• Why the most valuable relationships are built before you need them

Whether you're a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, studio owner, or wellness entrepreneur — this episode will challenge you to think differently about how you grow your business.

Content grows visibility. Conversations grow opportunity.

ABOUT SWEAT & EQUITY: 
The Sweat & Equity Show is for fitness and wellness professionals who want to build sustainable businesses with more ownership, leverage, and longevity. Hosted by Ariel Belgrave, the show explores what it really takes to grow your income and impact in this industry, with honest conversations on business models, revenue, partnerships, burnout, mindset, and the shift from practitioner to operator.

CONNECT WITH ARIEL:
Instagram: @sweatandequityshow
Gym Hooky Instagram: @gymhooky
LinkedIn: @ArielBelgrave

JOIN THE NEWSLETTER:
Subscribe to The Sweat & Equity Insider for deeper business breakdowns, behind-the-scenes examples, and frameworks for fitness and wellness professionals building with more strategy and less guesswork.

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: 
If this episode resonated, subscribe to The Sweat & Equity Show, leave a review, and share it with 3 fitness or wellness professionals in your network. Better businesses start with better conversations.

Creators and Guests

Host

Ariel Belgrave

What is Sweat & Equity Show?

The Sweat and Equity Show brings insights, clarity, and tactics for the modern fitness and wellness business owner to grow and thrive on their terms. Global speaker, advisor and wellness entrepreneur Ariel Belgrave, peels back the curtain on about what it takes to build, grow, and sustain an enduring business in the industry. No gatekeeping allowed!

{
"characteristics": "public.accessibility.transcribes-spoken-dialog",
"language": "en-US",
"language-name": "English (US)"
}

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a session at a fitness conference. There were bosses in that room

decision makers, brand leaders, people with big budgets that can open doors. And I remember

looking around and noticing the connections being made in real time, and the fitness and wellness

professionals who would have absolutely benefited the most from being in that room were not there.

And I kept thinking, gosh, they're at home posting, stressing about the algorithm while the room

where business gets done was sitting right here, half empty of the people who needed it most. And

it's why I'm recording this episode today. I've got a whole lot to say, so let's talk about it.

Welcome to the Sweat and Equity Show. I'm your host, Ari, and this show is where we have real

conversations about what it takes to build, to grow and scale a business in the fitness and

wellness industry, to go from a creator or practitioner to a founder, a CEO and an operator.

Today, I want to talk about something that I've been doing for years. That has been one of the

biggest drivers of my career and business growth that I believe is one of the most underrated

strategies right now in the business period. It can help you increase your revenue, give you more

opportunities, and open doors in ways that you couldn't even plan for. And no, it's not a funnel.

It's not a content strategy. It's getting in the room like physically being in spaces to network

and to learn in spaces where the right people are gathered and real conversations are happening.

Because sometimes you walk into a room not knowing that the person you're about to meet is

going to matter to a version of your business or you that doesn't even exist yet. So let's get into

it. Now, before I get into the strategy, before I tell you how I think about being in these rooms,

how I choose these rooms, how I move in them, I want to talk about why this conversation feels so

right and urgent, like right now, because I don't think the timing is an accident. I think where we

are as an industry right now is exactly why this matters. The digital landscape is exhausting right

now. Friends, you're posting, you're creating content. You're showing up consistently. You're

doing what everyone says to do, and it's working kind of you're visible. People know who you are.

Maybe your community is growing, maybe your business is growing. But the bigger opportunities,

the bigger brand deals, the corporate contracts, the dream clients, the support that actually can

change the financial picture of your business, those feel a little farther away than they should.

And if that's you right now, I want to encourage you to add some source to your marketing or

visibility strategy, because here's what I've been seeing happening in this industry as of late or

last few years. Honestly, as everything has moved online, as tools have gotten more accessible and

the noise has gotten louder, a lot of fitness and wellness professionals have gone all the way into

digital, which makes sense. That's where the advice is. That's where the big success stories you see

are being told. But I've been in rooms recently where the conversations are happening at a level

that I think a lot of fitness and wellness professionals don't even know are being had.

People are talking about the future of fitness and what's actually trending in large groups,

small group and personal training right now, and why the models that worked five years ago are

being redefined. They're talking about retention strategies, marketing funnels and content engines,

and how to build something that actually lasts beyond trading time for money. They're talking

about technology and AI. They're talking about the studio KPIs that actually matter if you're in a

studio. The metrics around people, process and platforms and how to use them to make smarter

decisions in your business. These are not conversations happening in your Instagram feed, at

least for our industry. They're happening in rooms and in going all the way into digital. A lot of

people in our industry have quietly walked away from what I believe, the very spaces where the

most important conversations are being had. I'm seeing a lot of people sleep on something. This

industry was literally built on. Physical presence, real connection,

in-person trust. That's legit. The foundation of what we do in our industry. But somewhere,

somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves that impact and scale meant moving everything

online. But I actually think the opposite is happening right now. Hear me out on this. Because

so much has moved to screens, the value of being in person has gone up. The value of being face to

face has gone up. The value of being memorable in a room of someone being able to feel your energy,

hear your voice, understand your vision and get excited about it. Real time has gone up, and the

people who understand that are going to have leverage that content alone cannot create. And I'm

not saying don't build online. Clearly I'm about that digital life. I'm a content creator. I have

this podcast we're speaking online. I'm saying don't only build online as you think about what

your business looks like in 2026 and beyond. You have to be asking yourself. Who needs to know me

in person? What rooms do I need to be in? What spaces should I be showing up in? Where people can

see me? Hear me? Feel my excitement for what I'm building and decide if they want to be a part of

it. The future of this industry belong to the people who built smart online and show up

powerfully in person, not one or the other. Both. And honestly, I've already been doing this for

quite some time. When people look at what I've built, the partnerships, whether it's corporate

brand, the contracts, opportunities, I think it's an easy assumption to make that I got that place

with all my content and I get it. Why people can think that I show up consistently online, I create

content, I have a presence online that reflects what I do and what I stand for. So yes, content has

been based, content has played a role, a real one, and I'm not minimizing that. But if I'm being

honest, a significant portion of generating seven figures in revenue in my business in some way

traces back to being in the room. It always traces back to being in the room. And not just any room.

The right rooms, intentional rooms, rooms where I can build genuine and meaningful relationships.

Rooms where decision makers are hanging out. Rooms where I can learn and grow. I don't solely rely on

DMs, emails, or hoping that the right person sees my post to get opportunity. I've made it a

priority since my corporate days. Honestly, to always put myself in spaces where there's an

opportunity to learn, to connect, to be remembered, and to have the kinds of conversations that just

don't happen any other way. This is absolutely a marketing strategy, too. And when I think about the

high level marketing strategy that has worked for my growing business and brands, I'd say it's two

things and I call it my two C's content and conversations. My content grows.

Visibility. Conversations grow. Opportunity. Content is how people find me. It's how I build

trust at scale. It's my introduction to people who don't know me yet, but conversations. On the other

hand, conversations are where the relationship actually deepens, where someone goes from knowing

who I am, to truly understand what I'm building and what my goal and visions are, where trust gets

created faster than any caption ever could, where someone feels my energy and my conviction about

what I'm doing in this industry. Most of you have heard this reference as networking and being told

you need a network more, but I refer to it as conversations because I personally feel

networking has become one of those words that feel so transactional, so stiff, and just all about

collecting context. For me, it's about quality over quantity. For me, it's about aiming for

conversations in this space which can start in the room and then end up digital. I think about

collecting perspectives, collecting relationships, insight, access, trust, and proximity. Content

introduces me. Conversations create the opportunity, and thinking about it this way has

been a game changer for my business because the opportunities that have been, I'd say the most

significant in my business, the ones that took me to high five figure months, that opened real doors,

that created the kind of partnerships I actually wanted. Those did not come from a DM. They came

from being in a room, a real room, a real conversation, someone experiencing me in person

and decided that they wanted to work together in some way, bring me into their company to speak,

invest in my product offering, create an opportunity for me to be a brand ambassador. I

wholeheartedly believe one hour having conversations in one room can do more than five

hours on a screen making content. I'm just saying. I also believe that choosing not to be in rooms

is very well costing you and your business. Let me paint a picture of what the cost of this bill

actually looks like. Imagine the version of you three years from now who never got in the room,

who keeps posting, kept showing up online, kept doing all the things digitally, but never invested

in being physically present in spaces where decisions get made. That version of you has a

ceiling. And the frustrating thing about that ceiling is that it's invisible. You won't always

know why the brand deal went to someone else. You won't always know why. The speaking opportunity

never came. You won't always know why. Your network never opened the doors you needed. You just know

that something isn't moving the way you want it. That invisible ceiling is proximity, and it

is one of the most silent limiters of growth, I'd say in this industry and others. I've been in

rooms and watched it happen in real time. Brilliant, talented fitness and wellness

professionals who have worked really hard and their work can speak for itself. Nobody in that

room knows who they are because they were never there. The people who got the opportunities

weren't just the hardest workers, they were the most present. And so many of you are missing out.

And speaking of missing out. This is a perfect segue into what I really wanted to call out in

this episode. After speaking in attending at different conferences and events in the past

month. Your girl has been outside. Outside because there were a few things that stood out to me that

were just hard to ignore. One there aren't as many people of my generation millennials and even

Gen Zs. There aren't many of us in these spaces that there could be. At the same time, these spaces

aren't always designed or curated to attract our generation and the younger generation. So there's

a clear gap between what I would say legacy leadership who want to share wisdom, and the young

operators building for the future of fitness and wellness. Two there aren't always a lot of people

who look like me as a woman, as a black operator, Where we have friends. Where are we at three. The

rooms I was in were actually very valuable, like very valuable, incredibly valuable. And I

spoke about this on my Instagram stories and had some meaningful conversation that gave me more

context into how people are feeling about this and why they aren't there. And what I realized is

that a lot of people are counting themselves out of rooms that could genuinely take their business

to the next level. They are counting themselves out because they assume the room is not for them,

because they don't see representation, or that they don't belong because they feel like they

need a bigger title first, more money first, more followers first, more credentials first. And listen,

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that being one of very few or oftentimes only in a

space does it stir a feeling up. It absolutely does. There are many rooms I've walked into where

I am well aware that there aren't many women like me. There aren't many people who look like me,

sound like me, come from the same background as me, or move through the industry the way I do. But

I've also had to learn that choosing to opt out of these spaces is expensive, and have had to

challenge myself, honestly, since the start of my career to shift my perspective of the value I'm

actually bringing to these spaces, whether I see representation or check all the credential boxes

or not. As a matter of fact. Now that I think about it, choosing to opt out of being in these spaces

would have taken the biggest hit on my education and career. I would have never applied to Boston

College, a predominantly white institution. I would have never applied to JP Morgan out of college to

work in banking with a psychology degree. I would have never applied to work at JP Morgan. Simply

knowing that it was a male dominated industry. I would have never taken the leap to grow Jim

Hookey and go all in. Because I had an HR background, I would have never climbed recently,

Mount Kilimanjaro, because I didn't see black people who are climbing mountains like that. I

would have never showed up at industry events knowing I'll be the youngest one there. Are you

getting what I'm putting down? I don't wait. I shift my perspective because the reality is I

bring value to that room the moment I walk in. And that room is better because I'm in it. I bring

things that nobody else in that room has my perspective. My background, my way of seeing things,

my difference. If I'm one of few, then that 100% means my perspective is rare in that room and

rare is valuable if I'm not there, that perspective is simply missing. That's their loss,

and I know that having this type of confidence and courage doesn't just pop up overnight. Right

as I talk about it. So I want to call out something that I also know holds true, especially

in some of the conversations I've had in my DMs. There are times when hearing people say a room

doesn't feel like it's for them. And sometimes that is absolutely real. It is absolutely valid. I

felt that too. But sometimes I'm going to keep it real here. It's fair, it's self-doubt. It's

waiting for proof of belonging before you're willing to show up. And the truth is, most of these

rooms are never going to come with a sign that says, yes, you belong here. You come right in. That

work is internal. Deciding you belong is not something a conference website is going to do for

you. That is a conversation that you also have to have with yourself before you ever walk in the

door. I've personally had to work through this as well. As a matter of fact, the more rooms I get

access to, the higher up I go, the more I find myself needing to go back to that same reminder

and instilling empowerment in myself, saying, Ari, your leadership belongs here, your creativity

belongs here, your lived experience belongs here, your difference belong here. And when I walk into

a room, having already had that conversation, I don't shrink. I don't apologize for being

different or being there. I don't wait to be validated, I am present, I am grounded, and I am

ready to learn, to grow, to meet people. I do not need to be successful to be in the room. I need to

be in the room to become successful. And I think for a lot of people, that's the first room they

actually need to enter. The one inside themselves where they decide they are worthy of the bigger

rooms. Because if you don't settle that internally, every external room, I promise you, is going to

feel harder than it has to. And listen, I don't want you missing out because you are sitting

around waiting for whatever it is. Because while you're waiting to be fully ready to be fully

represented, to be fully confident, fully qualified, someone else is out there buying that ticket,

showing up, making the connections, having the conversations and making moves on their business

goals. I have seen fitness professionals miss a conversation that would have completely changed

the game for how they think about their business. I have seen brilliant, talented coaches lose a

brand partnership not because they weren't the right fit, but because someone else was in the

room and they worked. So yes, you are actually missing out when you are not prioritizing being

in these rooms. Don't underestimate it. You may be missing a conversation that clarifies your next

move and introduction to someone who knows exactly who you need to meet a future client, a

future collaborator, a future sponsor. A peer becomes a real friend and trusted thought partner,

a room that normalizes the kind of success you are still treating like a fantasy because it's

real. Every last one of these things has happened to me just because I was in the room. Corporate

contracts and speaking engagements that started with a conversation at an event, consulting

relationships that began because someone heard me speak on a panel and walked up to me afterward.

Long term, long term brand partnerships that started with a handshake and an intro to the head

of marketing, connections to people or resources that brought my business to a whole nother level.

I quickly learned that your network can open doors that hard work alone cannot. Hard work is

necessary. Trust me, I know this, but it's not sufficient. Hard work without proximity can keep

you working in circles. Hard work without relationships can keep you isolated. Hard work

without access can keep you overly dependent on just hoping to be discovered through content

instead of being connected. Now, I've shared that I've made it a priority to be in rooms, but I'm

not saying go to every conference, every summit, every meetup. That's not the vibes. You have to be

strategic about where your time and money go. So while I'm searching for what rooms to be in, there

are three core questions that I have top of mind that lets me know if it's worth my time and

investment. First is what season? Ari, are you actually in right now? Not in general right now.

For me, when I went to conferences I attended this past month. My intention was really

specific. I wanted to share what I was building with sweat and equity and understand how to grow

it beyond the podcast itself. So I was paying attention to sessions about content engines,

social media, platform growth and marketing funnels. I was listening for what people were

saying about scale, and how to build something that doesn't require you to be everywhere, all the

time. I was also paying attention to things I can share with my audience, paying attention to what

was being talked about in the industry, what trends were happening and training modalities, how

people are thinking about large group versus small group versus personal training, what the

metrics look like for businesses that are actually growing versus the ones that are stuck.

That's the kind of intelligence you just cannot get from scrolling online. All of that shaped with

sessions I attended, who I sought out, and what conversations I leaned into the room has to match

where you are, not where you were six months ago. Not where you want to be in two years. Right now.

Second, who is likely to be in the room? And I just don't mean the speakers, although they're valuable

too. I mean the attendees who is investing in being there? Who are the people making decisions,

building interesting things, thinking at a level that could stretch me. Because sometimes if people

sitting in the seat right next to you are just as valuable as the people who are on the stage. Third,

will this room stretch me? I do not only want to be in rooms where I feel comfortable. I want to be

in rooms that expand me, rooms that challenge what I thought was normal. Rooms that raise my

standards. If you are always the biggest dreamer in the room, it may be time to find a different

room. Because when you're surrounded by people who are already operating at the level you want to

reach, their normal becomes your baseline. What they consider ordinary, the way they pursue

opportunities, the standards they hold becomes the new floor for what you think is possible. Osmosis

is real. Proximity to excellence shifts you. And on the flip side, when you stay in the same

environments far too long where everybody thinks the same, that starts to shape you to when you are

in the right room, your ambition starts to sound normal. Your big ideas sound normal. Your standards

rise because the room has a different standards. Sometimes that bruises your ego a little. Not a

bad thing. Sometimes it shows you where you've been thinking too small. Again, not a bad thing.

That is growth. And speaking of growth, I do want to call out that growth and being in these rooms

often has a price tag. Yes, I know conferences are not free travel and hotels are not free, and I

don't want to act like the barrier isn't real because there's some of you it is. So I definitely

want to share some quick thoughts here, because not every room cost a flight in a hotel. Some of

the most valuable spaces I've been in have been local a dinner, a mastermind, a small event

hosted by someone in my city, and one of the most underrated strategies for getting into rooms that

you can't afford is serve your way in. Serve your way in Bu. Volunteer at the conference. Offer to

help with the event. Reach out to the organizer and ask if there's a way to be involved. You can

find them on LinkedIn. I've seen people get access to rooms that would have cost them thousands of

dollars, simply because they showed up and offer something. If you're a creator, that could be a

good way for you to get in as well to produce content. That is the operator mindset. Finding a

way when the conventional path isn't available yet. I also want to note I don't only go to

fitness and wellness industry events. For a lot of my early years, the rooms I prioritize were full

of women entrepreneurs and completely different industries business. Finance. Tech.

Law media. Because honestly, I felt like a lot of people in the fitness and wellness industry were

doing the same things, and I always look for ways to bring my own sauce to whatever it is that I do.

The way I've navigated corporate contracts is different from anyone I know in this space, not

because I'm more talented or smarter than anyone, but because I learn how to do it from people in

other industries, in rooms where fitness professionals simply weren't present. Being in

rooms outside of your industry is one of the fastest ways to develop leverage inside of it.

Okay, I've been speaking about the value of being in these rooms, so I feel like I owe it to you to

actually give you an example of one of many examples, actually, of how being in a room created

incredible connection. So let's run it back to last year when I was attending the Connected

Health and Fitness Summit for the very first time, I was invited to speak on a panel and was

actually super excited to expand my network in the industry, across tech, across everything that

was there. And one of the things I loved about the summit was that they had an app to help

facilitate networking between attendees and listen. If any event has an app where you can fill

out a profile, I complete it always and you should too. Profile pic, bio interest sessions I'm

attending. Don't tempt me with a good networking time. But seriously, if I'm already attending to be

in this room, I want to maximize that room. And filling out the app is a great way to do that. So

I filled out the app and because of that, I ended up connecting with a now really good friend of

mine, Kathleen, who is the CEO and founder of coach 360. She connected with me through the app and we

set up a meeting to connect while we were both there at the time, she was actually in the midst

of building the 360 platform, a career platform for fitness and wellness coaches. And because I

was a coach myself and my profile made it clear what I cared about, she reached out and wanted to

connect. We spoke. She shared her vision. She ran the concept by me. I gave her feedback. I shared

what I was focusing on in my own business at that time. it was genuine and it ended with me saying,

hey, let me know if there's any way that I can support your launch. Simple. No grand strategy, no

trying to figure out what I can get out of it. Just support and genuine excitement that we had a

chance to connect, especially as women at this event, because it was predominantly men. And what

came from that has been such a beautiful example of why I believe in being in the room and leading

with generosity. When she launched coast 360, I was a guest writer for a few articles. I've connected

her with people in my network, and on the other side, she's introduced me to incredible people.

Been so supportive of all that I've been building in the last year, and rooted for my work in ways

that have genuinely mattered. And most recently, when I told her I was launching this podcast, she

immediately introduced me to a YouTube strategist who used to work at YouTube and left to help

creators grow on their platform, she said. You need to talk to David made the introduction of her

email ASAP. David and I connected. He gave me feedback that has been incredibly helpful. And

just a few weeks later, we got to meet in person at the Health and Fitness Association conference

in San Diego. When he told me he was leading a session there, I was there, front row and center to

support him, no questions asked. Kathleen led to David. David led to better decisions and how I'm

thinking about editing and posting on my YouTube for this. And all of it traces back to a

conference, an app, and a meeting that I intentionally made happen. But what I really want

you to sit with is this when I met Kathleen, Sweat and Equity didn't exist. It wasn't even a concept.

I knew in some where my future. I wanted to create a podcast one day, but I didn't know it was going

to be this year, this show, this topic, that relationship was built before I even knew the

future version of me would need it. That all came from one connection, one room, one app profile,

one conversation, one willingness to show up. And that is exactly why I would always say you never

know. You never know who you're meeting. You never know what future version of your business

they may support. You never know what opportunity or introduction might come months or even years

later. That ROI of being in the room is not always immediate, and I can tell you firsthand. Kathleen

is one of many examples I'm going to tell you. Sometimes you leave with a clear next step,

sometimes with a connection that turns into something quickly, and sometimes you walk away

with something that may be a little bit more quieter. A shift in perspective. A relationship

still unfolding, a seed that will make so much sense later and that still counts. In fact, that

might be the most valuable thing of all. And I actually want to pull something out of that story

with Kathleen that I think is easy to miss if you're just hearing it as a nice example of

networking working out in my favor, because there's something specific that Kathleen and I

both did in that first conversation that I think made everything that followed possible. And it's

something I see a lot of people skip all the time. We actually told each other what we were building.

That's something I've been intentional about, even as I've launched this podcast, as I've attended

recent conferences and shared more about what I'm building with sweat and equity. People want to

help not because I had a perfect pitch, but because they could hear it. They could feel it.

They could understand the bigger vision I have for this podcast, and think about how they might

be able to support, or who they can connect me to. People cannot connect dots for you if they do not

know what dots you are trying to connect to. Many people are building quietly and then feel

frustrated that nobody's helping. But people can't help what they don't understand. They can't

connect you. If they don't know what you're focusing on. They can't refer you if they don't

know what you're building. Period. You don't have to share every detail. You don't need to have

everything figured out. But if you're in a room with smart, generous, connected people and you

never actually say what you're building, you are actually making it harder than it needs to be for

you to find support on your journey. So say the thing. Say what you're building. Say what you're

excited about. Say what direction you're moving in. Talk about your goals. Give people something to

work. And I have to talk specifically about brand deals. As I talk about this, one of the number one

ways I've created not just one off partnerships, but longer term relationships, is by being in the

room in spaces where brand decision makers are actually present. The head of social, the head of

influencer marketing, the CMO, someone connected to the person who who's making the call, who has the

big budgets. When I'm in those spaces, the conversation goes so much deeper than I want you

to post this content. It becomes, how do we get you involved in our brand long term? Could you consult

with us on this? Could we bring you in as a speaker, a voice, a host, someone who can shape the

strategy, not just execute the deliverable? These conversations happen more naturally in person

because people get to experience my depth, my perspective, beyond content. They get to understand

how I think. They get to feel my presence and my joy. They get to see that I'm not just someone

with followers. I'm a real brand, a real thinker, a real operator. And one of the reasons why I go to

business focused events specifically is because most people in our industry is not. Brands are

their friends. There is leverage in doing the things most people keep talking themselves out of.

There's leverage in showing up in spaces that aren't saturated with the same people. There is

leverage in being one of the few who decide to invest in proximity. I'm a creator who doesn't

only go to creator events. That's what I'm saying on that. Okay, now last thing I want to share with

you are some of my tips. For once, you've made that decision that you are going to be in the room

proud of you for, that reality is working. A room is a skill and like any skill, it gets better the

more you practice it. So I'm going to give you seven of my favorite tips in hopes that it can

help one. Prepare. Like actually prepare. Set an intention, not pressure. Not this giant checklist

of things to do. Just one clear answer to this question. What will make this event meaningful?

That intention shapes everything. Which sessions you attend, who you seek out, what you lean into,

and make sure you look at the schedule, who's speaking, what feels the most relevant to where

you are right now, and if there's an app you know this was coming. Use it. Fill out the profile in

advance. Add your interest, make yourself discoverable and see who's attending to follow

the energy, not the script people can feel when you are running a playbook. They can feel when you

are not really listening. Pay attention to what lights someone up when you're speaking with them.

Follow the thread of what they're excited about and stay with it. People literally release

dopamine and oxytocin when they talk about what they love. Their pace quickens and how they speak.

They lean in their eyes. Change when you see that. Stay there. Don't redirect because you have an

agenda. That's where real connections happen. Three. Remember that you belong there. I'm going to say

it again. Remember, you belong there, friend. Trust the work you've put in. Walk in like you already

know. They're going to be glad that you're there. Walk in with an open mind and a genuine presence.

Don't try to be someone you're not. When you carry yourself with that energy, people rise to meet it.

Most of connection is energetic permission that you give to yourself first.

Four. Don't self deprecate your way out of your own authority. There is a version of humility that

reads as charming. And then there's a version that quietly costs you your credibility. Oh, I'm just

starting out. I'm. It's nothing. Really. I just got lucky. You might think that you're being relatable,

but what you're telling people is to not take you seriously, and then they don't. You are allowed to

own what you've built. Let people meet the most capable, the most dope, the most grounded version

of you. Because that's a version of you. You're working to be five. Move fast when there's a spark.

If a conversation you're in feels aligned. Don't let the moment pass. Say, let's set something up.

I'd love to continue this and get their contact before they walk away. An actual plan, not a vague

let's connect. Some time that disappears the moment you both move on. Momentum is connection's

best friend. The energy of that in-person moment is at its highest right now in the conversation.

Use it. Get the email. Put something on the calendar. Connect with them on LinkedIn six. This

one is for my introverts. Focus on presence, not performance. Some of the most memorable people in

a room are not the loudest. I can tell you that firsthand. They are the most present. They ask the

thoughtful question. They listen well. They make people feel seen. They follow up. That counts. Maybe

for you, that means getting there early before the crowd. Maybe it means choosing 1 or 2 key sessions

instead of trying to do everything. Maybe it means preparing a couple of simple questions so your

mind doesn't go blank when you're in that conversation. One thing I've learned is that the

more interested you are in another person, the more interesting you become to them. So if you

don't know what to say, start there. What brought you there? What are you building right now? What

has been the most exciting for you lately? You don't need to have the perfect line. You need to

have presence. So be present. And lastly, follow up like a whole human, not a

transaction reference something they actually said in your conversation. Send them a link, a

thought, something relevant to what you may have talked about. Prove you were actually listening,

not just networking. That kind of follow up, I'm going to tell you it works. It's so rare that it

almost always gets a response. And that's how you turn a conference conversation, a summit

conversation, a dinner conversation into a real relationship, in a real relationship into a real

opportunity. So I hope those tips helped. Let me know how it goes and if you try it out. Now, as I

close this out, I was sitting here thinking about what's one word I can leave with you that will be

all encompassing of everything I just shared here. And the word that comes to mind is presence.

Because that's what all of this I feel like comes down to presence. Not perfection, not a

perfect pitch, or a perfectly timed follow up. Just a willingness to show up and be in the room

physically, intentionally, and open to whatever the room has for you. Because you cannot always

predict which conversation is going to change things. You cannot always tell which person is

going to remember your name, open a door, or introduce you to the exact right someone six

months from now. But if you are in the room, none. But if you are not in the room, none of it can

happen. The opportunities you are asking for to not only live online, a lot of them are in the

rooms, real rooms with real people having real conversations and the only thing standing between

you and those rooms is the decision to walk in it. So I want to leave you with this. Find one event

in the next three months, one conference, one summit, one mastermind, one retreat. Something you

haven't been to before, something that feels slightly outside of your comfort zone and

register for it. RSVP for it. Pay for that ticket. Show up with a clear intention. Get to know the

people in the room and follow up like a whole human, because some of the opportunities you are

asking for are sitting in rooms. You keep talking yourself out of. Entering your leadership. Your

creativity and your ambition belong in that room. So step into it like you belong there, because you

do. Thank you for being here for episode four of the Sweat and Equity Show. If this one hit, share

it. Send it to someone who needs to hear it and leave a review. Subscribe. It generally helps this

show reach more people in our industry who need it. I'll see you in the next episode, but more

importantly, I'll see you in the room.