The Importance of Having A Circle of Advocates
This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.
Mr. Bill Kenney is an entrepreneur known for the two business that he has
founded; Test My Pitch and MEET. He was a guest of ours during Startup Istanbul
2018 and delivered a speech in which he oriented our audience, and gave them
general tips when it comes to the validation of their ideas, the real definition of winning, and other matters.
One of the topics that Mr. Kenney dealt with during his session was ‘tribe’. Tribes are used to be known as small communities where people live while sharing common traditions, language, and beliefs. However, now it is used as a marketing term that refers to building a community and learning how to grow the people that are advocating for us; it is thus mainly about a person’s network of people.
We all want people cheering for us and always supporting us for the work that we are doing by sharing all the good things that a good tribe brings. It all starts in big rooms such as the conference room where sessions are held during Startup Istanbul; people are strangers to each other at first, but then, they start building more intimate
relationships and getting to know one another closely through having big or small conversations that would allow us to know what their definition of success is and what their biggest challenges are, they will be learning those things from us as well which would lead to finding common interests or points between each other, and who knows, you might end up doing business together.
The most crucial and important thing during these events is definitely not the number
of business cards that you go home with since for most people it represents a
necessity that can not be ignored while it does not mean anything. But, it is about
how many people did you actually connect with and got to know better, and how
many will you for sure connect with after the end of the event. It is the continuance
that matters in all this.
A huge reason why people tend to build a circle of advocates is to get feedback on
what they do and how they do it. When you take the time to invest in other people,
have lunch or dinner with them, or even a simple walk, it could lead to strong
connections, thus hard feedbacks.
All of us want to hear good things and
compliments concerning our work, but if those good things might lead us in the
wrong direction, then maybe they are not very good and beneficial things after all.
This is how important building relationships and having advocates is; when they give you feedback, they will give you the truth. Whether it is bad or good, their feedback will only have the goal of helping you do better with what you are doing, not pushing you in the wrong direction.
Sometimes you need to be okay with hearing what the truth is, and what that hard feedback might be.
https://youtu.be/WD4NtDaLspo