Brent Edwards shows SMB owners and newcomers how to build a professional network that compounds — before you ever need to make a withdrawal.
GROWTH PILLAR: Networking & Community
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Newcomers to Canada / Leaders building systems
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A practical framework for diversifying your professional network, showing up with visibility and credibility, and making the right ask at the right time.
Most people network when they're desperate. Brent Edwards teaches you to build before you need it.
In this Canada Growth Network Power Hour session, Brent — founder of BrentCanada Experiences and author of The Ultimate Guide to Professional Networking for Newcomers to Canada — shares the mindset and tactics that separate generous networkers from transactional ones.
He spent seven years as Key Account Manager at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. He watched the best networkers in the room — real estate professionals, financial advisors, public affairs specialists — and reverse-engineered what they had in common. Consistency. Visibility. Generosity. And zero desperation.
The big reframe? Your professional network is a portfolio. You diversify it. You invest in it steadily. And you never make a withdrawal before you've made enough deposits.
In this session you'll learn:
Connect with Brent Edwards: Connect with Brent on LinkedIn Visit BrentCanada Experiences Email: mail@brentcanada.info
Resources mentioned in this session: Ontario Career Lab — volunteer coaching program connecting professionals with Grade 9 and 10 students across Ontario Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC)
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Brent (00:00)
Nice to see everyone today. And great to see that we've got a very diverse geography of attendees. Bernie and I actually met, funny enough, through a networking group that I belong to and Bernie's connected with in Glasgow, Scotland. Just shows that during the pandemic, there were so many ways that we could connect.
our mutual friend Willie Nicol, an ex-policeman in Scotland who is now a personal growth coach, is the one who connected Bernie and I, even though I live in Toronto and Bernie lives in Ottawa. So it just shows the power of networking. So thanks so much for ⁓ inviting me to speak today. I've got some ideas I'd like to share with you from some of my own personal experiences with professional networking.
Looking forward to any questions that you have. think we'll make active use of the chat today. I help newcomers to Canada and small business owners with ⁓ improving their business development skills and really strengthening them because a lot of them have had experience selling but not necessarily in the Canadian environment.
So to begin, I'd like to actually have you close your eyes for a sec and just think back six years ago this week. Think a bit about what you were doing the second week of March, beginning of the second week of March of 2020. And think a bit about your financial portfolio.
Brent (01:15)
moment.
Brent (01:34)
at that time. Think about the stocks and investments that you had, where you had to put your money, what kind of industries you were invested in. And just consider that for a minute. OK, so open your eyes. So if you were like me, you probably had your money in what I would call some of the beach stocks. So those were booking systems.
Brent (02:00)
I'm Sam.
Brent (02:02)
eating organizations like restaurants, you may have had them in accommodations, cruises, hotels. Well, everyone knows what happened on Friday the 13th of that week. We went into lockdown, the stock market dived, especially for all those industries and sectors for the next several years. And it just shows the unpredictability and not knowing the future. So part of my
⁓ thought process today is to share with you around some of the benefits of diversifying your portfolio, not your financial portfolio, but your professional network portfolio. And how important that is, that you're thinking not just this week and what you need for your business, but where you want your career to be in five years. And whether your professional network will help you get to where you want to go in five years. So with that said,
We're going to talk about chatting with strangers and how diversifying your professional network can help you grow your business. So some of the things that we're going to talk about are discovering your ecosystem in terms of where you're networking today and where you might consider networking. Some secrets that I've learned from effective networkers, especially during my seven years as the key account manager at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. Some tips on raising your in-person
your visibility at in-person events. And I also have at the end a special volunteer opportunity for you that those of you in Ontario might be able to benefit from. So what is networking? This is something that I think we've got a very experienced group on the call. But when I'm sharing with newcomers to Canada, it's really our organized approach to building professional relationships.
One of the key things is there is not a timeline, even though it's reciprocal. So it's not a transactional approach. It's really around building relationships. And it is a lifelong skill. So whether you have your own business, you're changing careers, even for young people, the ability to develop professional relationships is very important. So as I've learned from personal experience, networking can assist with
many of the priorities, whether it's starting your own business, I did a year ago, growing your existing business, finding customers and suppliers. Interestingly, I found a couple of suppliers of mine in this group in Scotland that I'm a member of. It's a great way to find employees and collaborators, especially ones to do podcasts with, as I've found, researching new markets, and raising your profile of stakeholders. So it's all around business development strategies. So networking is
as a component of how you develop your business. So what I'd like you to do now is to put your answer to this question into the chat. So the question is, what occupations do you think are the most effective at professional networking? And I won't give you the answers here. My answer is, you can put down which you found makes the most sense.
Okay, so let's look at some of answers people gave.
Sales, marketing, comedians. there we go. That's a good one. Sales. Any other suggestions?
HR, yes, people, of course, recruiters. Hungry people, yes. Hungry for business, yes. So what I found just in my time with the chamber is some of the most effective networkers have come from several different areas. So these are some of the events that I've attended. A lot of it was with roundtables, with
government ministers and different stakeholders. And the people that I found really effective in these situations, in cases, were people who were involved in real estate, people in financial services, and people on public affairs. So public affairs, we may think them as lobbyists, but a lot of cases are involved with stakeholder relations or community relations. If I was in a real estate agents, and maybe people from like
speaker-4 (06:06)
room with.
Brent (06:09)
the Ontario Real Estate Association, people from financial services, whether they were self-employed or in insurance or banking, they were all very much involved with developing professional relationships. So what did these folks have in common? In lot of cases, they were very visible. They were active in the events that we were participating in. They achieved consistency in terms of if we were hosting an event.
or a minister, they'd be sure to be there. They were always engaged, had follow-up questions. They held themselves accountable. And overall, they were really generous. So it wasn't a case of they were there to pitch or to sell, but they were to help or provide assistance. In a lot of cases, you would find it in the sessions that we had where there was advisory sessions with government. In a lot of cases, they were there pointing out the
unanticipated consequences of government policy, but doing it in a way that seems very helpful. So I have asked them for some of their own tips and suggestions on what they would suggest to people who are just learning networking or wanting to improve it. So number one was, of course, when you're going to an event, never sit or stand with people you know. It just makes things way too easy for you to
Lean on the people that you already know. You also, in terms of your body language, may be in a situation where you're closing off the discussion to other people to join. Follow up within 24 hours. If you want to be memorable, you need to be able to follow up, send out a message. In lot of cases, maybe you'll have a message that's developed in advance. But make sure that you do, or else you risk being forgotten.
Have a call to action when speaking to someone. the call to action may be something as simple as, hey, I'm going to be going on a podcast. You might want to listen. It may be, I'm going to another event. Would you like to come to join? I can send you an invitation to the event. But something that where you're adding value. Don't be afraid of meeting strangers. And strangers can be people that are not people that you're used to dealing with. It could be.
If you're self-employed, speaking with people who are working in a large organization or a different type of sector or a different industry. One thing that I coach on is never make an ask of a new contact right away. It's very similar to if you were to meet up with someone at you had just met at a dinner party. You might make a $0.05 ask.
but not a $5,000 ask. So the example, a difference would be, a 5 cent ask would be, hey, do you know of a good moving company that I could use because I'm moving next week? The $5,000 ask would be, hey, I've just met you. Would you happen to have a pickup truck? We could really use an F-150 to move my apartment next week. That's not something you would ask of someone.
It's really treating these relationships as if you were making deposits into a bank account. And of course, you'd never make a withdrawal from a bank account until you had made a lot of deposits. And the deposits are being able to build the relationships. Making sure that you engage meaningful new contacts by offering some of your advice and making sure that there's opportunities for everyone to have their voice heard. So you don't want to dominate.
The discussions, you want to make sure that other people are brought into the conversations.
So I'm going to ask if you could put some ideas of where are you finding your network? Where are you finding people to connect with? So of course, you can put in the group that we've joined today. But other suggestions, where are you finding new people to add to your network?
Referrals from existing clients, LinkedIn, and personal events referral partners.
Conferences, LinkedIn, My guys said hobby groups, kids play date groups, yes. I remember those days quite well. East Trade Winds, Phoenix Business Exchange, Grand Exchange, and the Hive, perfect.
And from guests on the podcast, referral partners, virtual events, live groups, all great, great sources of ⁓ information. So let me give some other suggestions on other places that we might find people. So these are some other ideas. So chambers, commerce, and boards of trade. I was involved in the chamber world for seven years.
In Ontario, there's actually 150 chambers of commerce and boards of trade. There are also chambers of commerce around the world. The World Chambers Congress happens every two years, and it's actually kind of the Olympics of the chamber world. There are going to be representatives from about 120 countries coming to Toronto next year for the event. The event was held last year in Melbourne, Australia.
And for the benefit of Francis, it was actually held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2023. There's also business improvement areas, community groups, conferences, conventions, trade shows, which is an area that I'm actually doing more work with my clients on. Networking clubs, which is one we're we're part of. But there's also other networking groups. There's networking groups for newcomers, both to Canada and the United States. There are networking groups. I'm part of a group that's
designed for newcomers to the Netherlands as well as in Scotland. There are referral groups, co-working spaces, as you'd mentioned. There's also small business training sessions that are run by municipalities or city governments. Post-secondary institutions run. Open houses, conferences, events. So we're talking about colleges, universities. Of course, alumni associations. Trade associations. There is a trade and professional association. It's where for virtually
every occupation or industry that you can imagine and even ones that you haven't even thought of. There's also buying groups and advocacy organizations. So there's a lot of different places that potentially you can look to and may not have considered to date. How to build your visibility and impact. So some of these organizations I've mentioned have presentations by local businesses.
A lot of the chambers of commerce and boards of trade have what they call before eights or after fives, which are networking groups. The mayor's breakfasts are usually well attended. There's all kinds of sponsorship and speaking opportunities that are available. Each of them also have an award gala. It's a big fundraiser, of course, for the chamber world. The Ontario Chamber, which I was part of, decided to move to an online television production.
because of the events from six years ago this week. And actually it's continuing as a TV production. But most of the local chambers have award events and there's speaking opportunities. There's access to political leaders, there's policy and administration committees and board work. All chances for you as a small business owner to raise the profile, give value back to your community and bid visibility and credibility with stakeholders in the community.
So if I was to make some suggestions on raising visibility and credibility, there are three areas of suggestions that I would make. The first one is mindset. And the mindset is really around curiosity about the other people, not just the other people in the room, but the other people who are not in the room that the people in the room know. So part of this comes back to don't judge a book by its cover.
One thing that I've learned solidly is that you'd never know who the person was that you've met. You don't know who they know. You also don't know who they may become. So a lot of people I met who kind of fall into the kind of error of, here's the people in the room. And ⁓ maybe my own, I don't see my customer in the room.
I don't see a potential supplier in the room. This isn't for me, and it's not something worth pursuing. But what you don't know is who the people in the room also know. Assuming even today, each of us probably know several hundred, if not thousands of people. And you're not just meeting the individuals in the room today, but you're also meeting the people that they know. And don't make assumptions about that.
A lot of the focus needs to be on how you can help the people in the room. Yes, it's a selling opportunity, but in lot of cases, you really need to build that relationship and trust before the people will even consider you as a supplier. So what can you do to help them out? In a lot of cases, I suggest to my clients that they try to find minimum three people at each event that they're able to assist.
Be prepared. So we talked a bit about this earlier around. Business cards and optimized LinkedIn profiles, those are really table stakes for any conversations that you're going to have coming up. Another kind of tip would be to have a thoughtful question to ask a panelist. I recall an immigrants in tech event that was held at the Royal Ontario Museum a couple of months ago. So I attended.
Brent (15:28)
car.
Brent (15:50)
And there was a session with a number of tech entrepreneurs. There was some from Vancouver, Calgary, there was some from Toronto on stage. I asked a question and actually had people come up after the event and give me their business card because in asking the question, I gave like a 10 second ad on what I did. But I was able to connect with many more people in that room because they knew who I was.
and what I was interested in because I asked the question. And I've done that a number of times where you are likely, you may be afraid about asking a question, but in lot of cases, if you've got the question, the odds are 80 % of the other people in the room probably also want to ask the same question. So that's another way to, again, raise visibility, credibility, and potentially meet new people.
I'd also suggest the 20-second and 60-second introductions, similar to what we're today on our call. But that's something to have available, but I wouldn't necessarily use this as a pitch. Again, you're there to help the people out as opposed to there to sell. And you're considering people who actually not in the room. And the third tip is around being a generous networker. So part of it is having a
Follow-up strategy within 24 hours. Recalling your conversation, similar to going back to remembering people's names. And then immediately finding a way to add value. could be somebody that you're connecting them with, bringing them news of interest. It just shows that you were thoughtful and you remember something about what they were looking for. So these are a few words of wisdom about networking that I live by. I think the one that really
works most for me is from that great Tom Cruise movie from 1996, Jerry Maguire. There's so many great quotes in there, like to business, but the one where he's in a conversation with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Cuba Gooding's asking for a raise as a wide receiver with the Phoenix Cardinals. And he's asking Jerry to show him the money. And Jerry comes back and really says to him,
You know, help me help you. The more that people know what you're looking for and how you can help them, the more people are going to be willing and able to help you out. So that's kind of a summary of some of the tips I want. There's a couple I wanted to share with you.
one of the first things you would want to ask, instead of saying, what do you do? Tell me about your business is more indirect. At least this is in a Canadian business environment or Toronto. So, you know, it's different in other parts of Canada, but it's like, you know, how do you know the organizers? How did you find out about this event? What brings you here today? So you're, you just want to have a relaxed conversation with people.
And it's not that you're there to pitch. Because when people are in pitch mode, and again, there might be differing opinions on this, I think that in some ways that pushes people away. There's a time for pitching. I've got a background in sales. But there's a time also just to build a relationship and find out about the people. And I think that's kind of what you want to
I'll share with you about a networking event I went to So it was a speed networking event. So there were some elements I would probably repeat. And there's some elements that maybe I would add to. So they actually had people sit across from each other. There were about 20 of us, 10 on each side. And then they had a host who basically would have people
You know, the right side of the table, you talk for two minutes, people got up and high-fived and sat down. The other people talked for two minutes, they rang the bell. You moved a seat to the left and you got to do it all over again. So it meant a lot of people. It also depends on how big the room is and how many people you've got because we had about just right number. And, you know, people could hear each other because they were
across the table. that format worked for that size of room and that number of attendees. look, I've got all my badges here. But it's helpful, right? And then I know that people also will handwrite. They'll give you a marker, and they'll say, like, you
Handwriter, but sometimes it's hard to read. You can stick it on your code. for some women who are wearing a dress, it's really not conducive. It tends to fall off. That's not helpful. So then if you You have a lanyard. Lanyards are professional. have one like here. These ones actually hang nicely.
and they're big enough and can read. So if you're running an event, maybe invest a bit more. Be prepared in terms of people confirming in advance. And have something where you can read the name and a little bit about them. This one even had barcodes on. So again, this was a huge conference. But some of those tips would help circulate people. And I think also, scattering within the event,
some speaker. it's almost like a natural excuse where we're going to network for 15, have a speaker. It gives people an excuse to go to the bar or the food station. And it naturally will have people circulate more.
please connect with me on LinkedIn if you're not already connected. ⁓
Here we go. So one thing I'm actually doing is coaching small business people with attending conferences, trade shows, and conventions. And this is actually me. This is at the PDAC conference actually from last year. But if you're interested in completing a self-assessment survey, please contact me on LinkedIn. And I'm happy to share it with you.
The second opportunity, this is B for the folks in Toronto. I'm actually part of the Ontario Career Lab. So this is a volunteer coaching organization that has been set up by the Halton Industry Economic Council. And they are in conjunction with the Provinces of Ontario's Ministry of Education.
conducting coaching sessions with grade 9 and 10 students across the province. So the goal is to reach 310,000 high school students to have informal career conversations during school hours. And they're looking for coaches. And the coaches just need to be adults from any occupation, profession. And what happens is that the organizing group coordinates with the high schools.
On average, we'll get like about 140 students come out and about 20 coaches. And during the course of an hour or two, the coaches take turns with small groups of students, six or eight at a time, explaining about their occupation and career journey. And for most of us, it's fairly secure with us and not necessarily ending up where we thought we would. But it's important for them, the students, especially at those ages till
to learn about that and learn about different occupations because in most cases, they probably know what their parents may have done or their relatives or close friends. So if you're interested in that, again, this is the province of Ontario. Please let me know. There is a fairly simple registration process, and there's also, of course, a vetting process. But I'm happy to share more details with