Have you ever wondered what effect networking within your community might have on your success in business?
If so, you’re not alone!
Especially during this pandemic, many have discovered the importance of showing their community that they really care about others. This choice to treat others the way we want to be treated is having a great impact on the way many entrepreneurs thrive in their businesses.
During this week’s episode of Do The Damn Thing, Shannon Mackey discusses the importance of networking with Nancy Matthews. Nancy is an international speaker and a best-selling author of the book entitled: “The One Philosophy.” She is also the Co-Founder of Women’s Prosperity Network.
Nancy Matthews leads a very busy life as a single mother and spends most of her days coaching women by helping them to get out of their comfort zone and be the best they can be. But the real key to Nancy’s success revolves around treating other people as the One.
But, what does it mean to treat others as the One? And how will that help you and your business?
Be sure to watch our video now to find out how she does the damn thing!
Read the script:
Shannon: Well, hello. Welcome back. We are so excited about this interview. I want to start it off and get you guys excited about how you’re going to benefit from the next 30 to 45 minutes by telling you about the number one trend that all of us are hearing about in 2021 in regards to networking. We like to call it, ‘building relationships and connecting’, that sort of thing. This is what everybody’s talking about. How do we do that? What groups do we become part of? How do we build up those relationships?
I am speaking to a massive thought leader and a very accomplished person in this, Nancy Matthews. I’m just going to take a second. We’ve shortened her bio to reveal what an amazing woman we’re about to talk to and how she can help us.
Nancy Matthews has leadership skills and is a marketing expert. She is a master NLP practitioner, which I had to look up. It stands for neuro-linguistic programming. It’s a fascinating field of study to understand human behavior, communicate more effectively with other people, and fast-track your personal development or professional growth. She’s also a co-founder of Women’s Prosperity Network… opens in a new window to Women’s Prosperity Network website….
Nancy is a bestselling author and has been featured throughout the media, as she has shared the stage with many of today’s leading experts and thought leaders. She’s been in business since 2002 and has developed several multi-million dollar enterprises, all while raising two beautiful children on her own as a single mother. Go, Nancy!
Nancy has more than 30 years of experience and adds the perfect blend of business expertise, authenticity, and heart to all of her endeavors. Nancy and her sisters founded Women’s Prosperity Network in 2008. They’ve had the privilege of serving thousands of people through their collaborative network, educational and inspirational programs, coaching, and mentoring.
She is the author of The One Philosophy, Visionaries With Guts, the highly acclaimed Receiving Your Riches course, and the best-selling series: Journey to the Stage. These are many of the topics that we are all talking about right now.
Before we dive in with Nancy, the award that we at HipCat are giving her is for her impactful connection with marketing with love. Nancy is receiving this award for the connections that she has created in her community with Women’s Prosperity Network and beyond. It goes way beyond that with all of the lives that she’s reached. We can all learn so much from her and her sisters’ work.
When I went digging into your community, Nancy, I discovered that what you and your leaders are doing. I literally got so excited about this interview. I just kept going, “Yes, yes, yes! Love them! Love everything!” Especially when I read your mission statement. It says, “A movement and sisterhood of women coming together in collaboration as a massive force for positive change in the world.”
I have to tell you something cute. My 25-year-old daughter is kind of like my co-producer. She does videos, and she was prepping me before this call. She goes, “Mom! Remember, what are we doing? We’re changing the world through marketing with love.” And I’m like, “That’s Nancy’s mission!”
Nancy: It’s totally the mission. We are so aligned. I am humbled and grateful to be here. And, I have to tell you, as you were looking me up and going, “Yes, yes, yes!” When we host our events and ask for audience interaction, we say, “Give me a yes, yes, yes!” And I’m like, “Wow, my website’s creating that.”
Our whole conversation today about networking and wherever we’re going to end up is all about how to come from love in all you do. And when we can be the master of ourselves and our emotions and learn to come from love in every scenario, you will have success beyond your wildest dreams and make that positive impact in the life of everybody you meet.
Shannon: It’s everything from ourselves to our family to our clients to our business. It means everything to us.
Nancy: It’s not always easy to come for love, especially if you got disappointed or got let down somewhere along the way. It takes a lot of self-mastery to be able to continuously come from love.
Shannon: One of the top trends in 2021 involves networking. And here you guys have been doing it since 2008. It’s not a new concept because you guys have been doing it for so long, and you built such a pretty darn amazing community of powerful women. Can you tell us what inspired you to do that back in 2008?
Nancy: So, let’s remember what was happening in our country here in the States in 2008. We had just started this massive recession, depression, or whatever it is that you want to call it. And it’s not unlike the crisis we’re in today. People’s lives are turned upside down right now because of this pandemic. And back in 2008, people’s lives were turned upside down because of the economic crash.
But prior to Women’s Prosperity Network, I owned a title company, a real estate investment company, and I was teaching people how to buy and sell properties. When all of this came about, I had already been transitioning out of the title company and mostly doing coaching seminars and lots of real estate investing.
On the cusp of the market shifting, what we discovered was that people were feeling hopeless, frustrated, and not knowing how they were going to do business or how they were going to make money, especially if they had a job that was suddenly gone.
We recognized that the best thing we could do was offer a place for people, women in particular, to come together. There’s always a way to make money, regardless of what’s happening in the economy, the environment, and in your life. It’s about applying proven strategies that stand the test of time, combined with mindset mastery, to actually apply those strategies.
That was the mission behind creating Women’s Prosperity Network. And the reason for women, in particular, was because of myself and my two sisters, and our personal journey. I was a single mom, and I always had to provide for my kids. So obviously, there were men in the picture at some point in time, but not for a very long time. I was the one that was self-sufficient. I needed to provide for my kids. So I always worked. I had a second job. I did whatever I could to provide financially for my kids.
I had some friends and women that I knew that were staying in miserable, abusive marriages because they didn’t know how to earn their own money. So, part of the impetus mission underneath it is that every woman has the power and the capacity to earn. We wanted to provide a vehicle to equip them so they could be free to make choices and not have to be bound because he’s making all the money.
My sisters, Trish and Susan, both came up in the ranks of corporate America. They saw firsthand how women got paid less and were looked over for promotions time and time again. My sister, Trisha, is known as the results revolutionary. She has always been a revolutionary on everything since she was a young girl, standing up for people who didn’t have the venue to speak for themselves.
In all of this, we came together to have women recognize their brilliance and greatness. We do that by bringing other women together who shine the light on them. We give them a space to express what their passions are and what their desires are. And then, we equip them with the strategies and tools to take their messages and their products and services to the world.
Shannon: That is just so beautiful.
Nancy: What’s really interesting is if you had told me in 2006 that I was going to be leading a women’s movement, I would have told you that you were looking into the wrong crystal ball. At the time, I had my own misconceptions about relationships with other women. I believed those cliches about women not lifting each other up, and women are catty, and women are bitches. Or if you go for success, you’re deemed a bitch, so you have to be timid.
What I found by being in this community, being connected to so many amazing women, and getting to meet people like you, who are up to great things in the world, is that when women come together in a spirit of support and excellence, and collaboration, it’s like this alchemy happens where together they go further. As a matter of fact, one of our catchphrases in Women’s Prosperity Network is: “We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.”
Shannon: Oh, my gosh. I absolutely love that because I think that should be the spirit of relationship building, networking, and connecting. Everybody has their genius. So many people are open to building those relationships right now. Have you seen a shift in the past year? Have you seen this awakening to support each other?
Nancy: Right now, there’s an undercurrent of fear and uncertainty that can either motivate you to take action or cripple you into paralysis. The uncertainty is real. We can’t be certain about what’s going to happen, when we can travel again, and when can I do in-person events again.
The key is to be able to focus on what is available right now in this moment that I do have control and power over. And the thing that we always have control over is how we are in connection and in relationship with whatever people are coming into our experience.
Let’s talk about networking a little bit. In the traditional sense, networking is, “Hey, I’m Nancy. I’m wonderful. I do all this great stuff, and my life is fabulous. Let’s do business together. Here’s my card.”
Those types of quick connections – I call that the business card drop-and-swap, or I call it card-bombing. That is not a real connection. That is not relationship building. That is really kind of starting it off in your typical, sleazy sales type of approach, which doesn’t resonate.
When you network and when you meet people anywhere, the key to building that relationship begins with you committing to being the one who recognizes that every single person has value and that in that moment, you’re there to discover and learn about them. Is there synchronicity on some level? Is there some alignment? Can you be joint venture partners? Do you need their services? Do they need yours?
When we show up to networking with the intention of pitching your products and giving out 50 business cards – that doesn’t work. I don’t know if it ever worked, but it definitely doesn’t work today.
Shannon: I was talking to a network guru banker guy, and he goes, “I still have drawers full of business cards.” But what’s so interesting is that it is hard at times because of our emotions and fears. We have business stuff to worry about. So, to stay at that higher level of fun, and love, and joy, we have to constantly ask ourselves, “Who have I served today?” We need to go into these communities and listen to these people so that we can become part of their culture, and then say, “How can we serve you?”
And then we need to give them something. You could just say something like, “I just watched this really cool video about this doctor giving a lecture on improving your immune system.” I want to share that with the people in my communities cause I don’t know how long it will be up. Simple little things like that keep us positive, especially since we are on this rollercoaster right now.
Nancy: You touched upon the exact reason I wrote the book: The One Philosophy. I know that in the heart of every human being is this desire to care about other people. We want to be able to care about other people. However, there are a variety of reasons that we don’t. Either somebody wronged us, or we have memories or prejudices that maybe we don’t even realize. Or maybe we’re focused on, “I have to make a sale. I’m stressed out. How am I going to get all these things done?”
It’s all of those factors that stand between us and a real connection with another human being. When I speak about the One philosophy and treating each and every person you meet, every single time you meet somebody, treat them as the One. When you think you’re in the presence of someone who’s the One – your next best client, your spouse, somebody who’s going to make a hookup to introduce you to Bruce Springsteen – we tend to pay a little bit more attention. We listen more carefully. We focus. We have a more vested interest in that other human being because we think they can do something for us to help us.
And when I first had that realization in my own behavior many years ago, I was like, “Ooh, that doesn’t feel good. I know everybody matters.” So, I started an experiment. What would happen if I started to treat every person as the One? I would be really eager and excited to meet them and find out about them. I would be curious if I didn’t understand. And what happened in that experiment over the course of a couple of years was life-changing for me and for every single person that I met.
What I realized in this is that people would open up to me and tell me what really mattered to them instead of pitching me their elevator speech. People shared what was really happening for them in their lives instead of just pretending everything was perfect. A true connection got created. By treating them as the One, I became the One that made them feel valued, heard, and important. And that’s what we’re all seeking.
Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said. They’ll forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Shannon: I think it’s brilliant. That’s shown in your work from your website and from your community, where you are helping so many women.
I have an interesting story to share. I was on a mastermind. One of Darren Hardy’s lessons right now is basically that women are taking over the world. So, you need to employ some bad-ass women. You need to take care of bad-ass women. Gone are the past days. Really, women have the power now. So, the more that we can support the younger ones, the older ones, the ones pivoting and restarting, the better it will be for everyone.
We have so many people at HipCat Society that are coming to us from all walks of life and different stages in their journey. You’ve probably seen that too. Being able to support on so many different levels is what we’re really excited about. And I see you guys doing the same thing. Do you have any fun stories about the One philosophy, maybe from one of your members or your family or something that came from that?
Nancy: Oh, my gosh. I have so many because the first book originally came out in 2013. I’ve been speaking about it since 2010. So here’s a good one. There was a woman named Joy. She and I were board members together on a project to build an orphanage in Ghana, Africa. She had gone to Africa and then came back. She was shipping sneakers to these kids in Africa. This was several years ago, so she went to the post office. And she had this big, big box that she was carrying. The post office line was long, it was crowded, and everybody was just waiting. While waiting at the post office, most people get a little cranky.
So while Joy was carrying this box, she bumped into the person in front of her, and she’s like, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
And then the person turns around and says, “Hey, let me help you put it up on the counter.” And she said, “Oh, it’s addressed to Ghana.”
And she said, “Yes, it is. I’m sending sneakers to these children that I’ve been working with and helping them.”
And the woman says to her, “I travel to Ghana every month. I would be happy to take your supplies.”
This kind of thing happens all the time. Now, let’s take a look at how that interaction could have gone differently. What if Joy was a person who was herself feeling cranky, tense, and upset. And then she bumped into the lady and didn’t apologize. Maybe she didn’t even notice.
But, she has an awareness. She’s read the book. She comes from this spirit in her heart so that when she bumped into the woman, an instant connection happened. It was a positive connection and a heartfelt connection.
This could happen in any scenario. I have another story where somebody was actually driving in the car and listening to a CD on the One philosophy. She happens to be an attorney in Tallahassee. She’s actually one of my certified trainers because I have other people that go out and teach about the One philosophy. And she’s driving in her car, and all of a sudden gets hit from behind and then bumps into the person in front of her.
She was going slow, and there wasn’t major damage. But she had a choice of reaction. She goes, “Well, if I was going to be the One in this scenario, how would I show up?” So instead of being angry and upset, she got out of her car and said, “Oh, my goodness. Are you okay? Let’s all take a moment and find what we can be grateful for in this moment.”
It turns out that the person in front of her that she hit was a former client that she hadn’t seen in a long time. So, how we treat other people in every single scenario transforms what happens next.
And let me just say that I am on a mission. I know that the more people begin living the One philosophy and seek to find ways to love one another, then we will heal humanity. We will unite humanity. Every single person has this power and this capacity.
Lots of people say, “Nancy, I want to be that way, but I’m so stressed out. I have to pay my bills. I want to be that way, but how can I be kind to my ex-husband who’s not paid me child support?” Well, as I’ve said, it’s not easy. The principles in the book are six simple principles that give you guidance on how to live every day as the One.
Shannon: I hope everybody goes out and reads your book. I totally believe in it. I think that this is exactly what we need. We need to send this message out to people that are already kind of doing it. They’re saying, “This is how I want to do my business. This is how I want to take care of myself, my family, and other people around me, whether it’s the janitor or the CEO.
It’s just good. And it’s joy, and it’s love. For example, we started giving to Charity: Water… opens in a new window to Charity: Water website… right away as a company, even before we could afford it because we wanted to just start that generosity and meet these people that were giving, so we could make sure it stays centered around our why, our marketing with love, and being generous and empathetic and everything else in business that they normally didn’t talk about. Now it’s becoming this awakening to have these conversations with others.
Nancy: You know what? We have to thank the millennials for that. Let’s rewind to the conversation we had before about life back in 2008. Our millennial children saw their parents lose their jobs and lose trust in a financial system. They saw their parents suffering. And I do believe that the downfall that happened in 2008 is what led to this awakening, particularly for our millennials.
I’m going to go out there and say that right now, we’re going through another tumultuous phase. I have faith that on the other side of this is the next level of what’s better for humanity.
Shannon: I agree with that. It was needed. Everything that we’re going through – it’s all about just having the right mindset.
So, I have one last question. If you could just give a word of advice for people that are going into Facebook groups and trying to build their community and are kind of new to networking, what tips would you give them to be successful at this?
Nancy: Begin by being interested and curious about the people you meet. And seek ways to share about yourself more than your business. So, for example, at Women’s Prosperity Network, we run our networking events and our mastermind events differently in one little shift in the question that usually happens at networking events.
If you’re at a networking event, what’s the typical question that someone asks? For example, I’ll say, “Hi, I’m Nancy.” And they say, “What do you do?” So, ‘what do you do’ tells me nothing about you or your passion, your interest, or anything like that.
So, rather than answering people with what you do, what we prompt our members to do is answer the question: How do you serve others within your business? So, for example, I could say I’m a business coach. That doesn’t tell you anything about me. It doesn’t tell you anything about how I serve.
So, if somebody says to me, “What do you do?” I would answer something like, “I’m mostly known as a vision architect because I work with people who have a vision to accomplish something great in their business or their life, and I’m able to put that blueprint together of how to bring that vision to life.” So, it’s very different than saying, “I’m a business coach.”
Shannon: If you had said that to me, I would definitely remember you.
Nancy: And that’s what you’re looking for. So, get clarity for yourself on how you serve others in your business. In that way, when you’re introducing yourself, you can tell people how you serve because that’s what people really care about.
Shannon: That is so awesome! Thank you so much for this. I could sit and talk to you for so many more hours. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that someday in person because I just feel so aligned and connected to you.
I want to thank you, and I want you to please remind everybody right now how they can find you.
Nancy: I’ve often said that I’m very googleable. So, you can simply Google me and you’ll find me all over the place. You can find me at nancymatthews.com… opens in a new window to Nancy Matthews website… or womensprosperitynetwork.com… opens in a new window to Women’s Prosperity Network website…. And on either one of those sites that you go to, I’ve got some free resources to support you in being the One.
Please like us on Facebook… opens in a new window to Hipcat Society Facebook page…, follow us on Instagram… opens in a new window to Hipcat Society Instagram page…, and connect with Nancy by email at Nancy@NancyMatthews.com.
