Former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt once said I'm not the smartest fellow in the world but I sure can pick smart colleagues. Building a high impact community of people around you who are smarter or more experienced than you in a variety different areas is one of the largest things you can do to fast track or up the ante on your own influence. Essentially having a speed dial of your own A Team, I know it's certainly been one of the challenges in my own journey. How do you find the right people and then when you found them how do you approach them. How do you not sound like some strange deranged stalker. How do you come across as professional but still be open enough to discuss some of the actual challenges and roadblocks that you're currently facing? How do you get that mix right?

Luckily for me obviously and luckily for you my next guest has decoded it all. Janine Garner is the author of the newly launched "It's who you know - how a network of 12 key people can fast track your success". She spent 20 years working across the world in corporate marketing roles with some of the world's largest brands. She then went on to be the founder and CEO of the little black dress group which is one of the most influential women's networking groups in the country. She was listed as one of Australia's most inspiring women by Madison magazine. And if that is not all impressive enough she like me started out in Australia knowing no one as a backpacker so we chat a little bit about that.

We went right in to the difference between how we're all connected right now but not really connected We've got more contacts than ever before but less engagement and we're feeling less engaged and less connected than we have done previously. We talk about finding your board, finding your board of people around you who's going to help you get where you want to go. We talking about value exchange, we talk about how do you know when it's time to move on from a certain contact or a certain group of contacts. And how do you make that shift. We also talked about the role of courage. Big one for me. Role of courage and certainty in a reaching out and getting those connections.

Buy the book: http://janinegarner.com.au/product/its-who-you-know/

Find out more about me and the work I do at juliemaster.com and follow me on instagram jules.masters

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 126: SQLSaturday Edition