One of our recent focuses as of the last year or so, has been to “upgrade our peer group”.

Now, I’m careful when I say that. It doesn’t mean cutting out your old school friends, or anyone without their own business. It’s not basing your friend’s worth on their financial situation; which can be as interchangeable as anything else in their life. It’s more a conscious effort to surround yourself with the type of people who represent your values and / or where you’re heading.

So, what type of people do we want to surround ourselves with?

For us, it’s passionate, driven, inspiring entrepreneurs. People who are building themselves a future and above all, loving what they do. We have an events company, so we’re especially interested in the experience-led sector. What’s the use of living in the best City in the world, if you don’t know where to go, or who to talk to when you get there?

How to get them to meet you?

Now we’ve identified the types of people we want to surround ourselves with (that’s the easy bit), how do we get them to want to spend time with us? I mean, I’m a funny guy, but they don’t know that yet, do they? And what am I going to do? Walk into their bar and tell them a knock knock joke?

From a lifetime in sales, I know one sure way to get people on side, and that’s to add value.

But is adding value really enough? For me it’s adding value, without expecting anything back.

Always being that person, someone can go to, and treating their problems like your own. But then not calling them a week later saying, “well I bought you a pint last Thursday mate, so it’s your round tomorrow”. This, selfless attitude, will separate you from most people in their lives and ironically make them want to start doing things to help you, without you asking.

But how to add value?

Well, the way we solved that particular riddle, was to think about what most of these venue and experience owners wanted, more than anything else - customers!

How about we create a podcast, where the whole premise of the show is to interview the owners of the coolest concepts and experiences in London. You come on, talk about your business for half hour (and effectively yourself) and we’ll market it for you - for free. Hopefully we’ll have a beer whilst we do it and little bit of a chat before and after.

From there on our events business can start sending over group bookings and we can be even mindful of relevant introductions, that will help them grow. This is great for them, but it’s also great for us! All the while, we’re fast becoming known as super-connectors to our clients. The people who know the people to see in the places to be.

What next

This was a great start, but once we got to series three and two years has elapsed, it becomes very difficult to stay in the mind of 30 or so different, very, (very very) busy people.

The next thing for us to do, was what we do best - host an event. But instead of inviting all and sundry for a three-hour repertoire of mediocre entertainment and generic speeches, how about we get you in front of 25 other entrepreneurs?

And how about we do away with all the fluff and just get to know each other over a few pints and some shared experiences. How about instead of having the mindset of competition, we decide to talk about our ideas and collaborate for our mutual benefit.

Well, I’ll tell you what, it works!

Now all of a sudden, we’re hanging out at the weekend and with each other’s families at festivals. The group are getting together every other month and deals are being done over hilarious anecdotes at quality places. No-ones here for the freebies or skipping from person to person trying to sell you something. You know everyone in the room is a serious player.

Key points

I suppose the key points to remember, if you really want to grow your network with other business owners (or anyone who is time scarce for that matter), you need to offer something that is entertaining and that adds value.

If you do something really fun, hell yeah, they’re likely to come along. But eventually, they’re going to have to start prioritising. If you run a business, it’s quite easy to start feeling like you’re not doing enough and so the little jolly’s with your mates are often the first things to go.

If you offer something of great value, but it’s boring, eventually they’ll just hire someone else to come and do it for them. They’ll be willing to pay the money if it shows a return, but their time, is a much more lucrative currency.

If it adds value and they enjoy it, you’ll keep seeing them. You’ll get people asking you when the next event is and offering to host. You’ll have people texting you for a game of golf or a local gig.

Jim Rohn said “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. Whether that’s strictly true or not, it certainly has a huge influence. So pick where you want to be and surround yourself with people on their way, or already there.

Stuart Groves is Head of Vibe at leading creative events agency, Shout About.