How To Build An Inner Circle That Leads To Success

Oct 12

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Building your inner circle is a non-negotiable part of running a successful business. Whether you're a visionary CEO who struggles with understanding finances or a bookkeeper who shies away from marketing their services, an intentional community of connections can help you reach new levels of fulfillment and a sense of belonging in a space that can feel lonely sometimes.

Amanda Foust is a certified high-performance coach who helps success-driven leaders to perform at higher levels to gain more clarity, increase productivity, and have greater fulfillment! Her mission is to help these leaders to manage their mindsets, increase their energy, positively influence others, and keep their passions and purpose clear and alive.

Website // Instagram // How To Build An Inner Circle That Leads To Success Guide

The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hi everyone and welcome back to the Badass Business Squad podcast. I'm your host Katrina Widener, and I'm very excited to be here today with Amanda Foust. I am personally really excited for the thing that we're going to be talking about. We're talking about building your inner circle and like having that really be a strong proponent of your success in your business. Which if anyone listening knows me, you know that I am huge on community and I'm an extrovert and I love talking. And so I'm just like, "This sounds perfect, right up my alley!" so thank you so much, Amanda for coming on today!

Amanda Foust: Absolutely, thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk about it too!

Katrina Widener: Yeah. Yeah, okay. So we're going to dive into the nitty gritty of kind of how we can do this and the importance of it and all of that great stuff. But before we do Amanda, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself to everyone, that would be amazing.

Amanda Foust: Yeah, so I'm Amanda Foust and I'm a certified high performance coach, but I also run a full service marketing agency Homegrown Writing Collective. I run two different businesses but we overlap in terms of who we serve, which is high performers, the visionaries, the heads of companies. And a lot of times their needs overlap, and so they're able to tap into both sides of the company. The coaching side where I help them develop their habits, develop their connections network, and then the marketing side, which is obviously to market their businesses and their companies.

Katrina Widener: Awesome! Thank you so much for talking about that. I love that the way that you're approaching it is kind of from the twofold. Because that also really is exactly what most of the people who are listening probably need right now, right? That like little bit of coaching support, little bit of marketing help.

Amanda Foust: Yes! I was finding that it was kind of naturally happening. Like if I was coaching someone, they were naturally needing help with their business marketing.

Katrina Widener: Yeah!

Amanda Foust: Having a marketing client, then a lot of them were the heads of their company as high performers and they were needing help with coaching and habits and all that. So it just kind of organically happened that way.

Katrina Widener: That makes so much sense! So much sense!

Amanda Foust: Yeah.

Katrina Widener: Okay, so when we're talking about building like this "inner circle", let's just like start with the basics for people listening. What exactly do you mean by that? What does that look like? What does this... how does this operate?

Amanda Foust: Yeah, so I am all about intentional community and so I am an extrovert as well. I love people. I love relationships, and so what I was finding is that people who were reaching levels of success that I wanted, but also having levels of fulfillment... Because obviously success on paper... it doesn't matter if you're not feeling that sense of belonging and fulfillment as well! Those were the people who were really integrated in communities and very intentional with their communities. So as I was coaching through the years and noticing that, I started to realize that building an inner circle with intention was what helped people find success and fulfillment at the same time. And when I say building an inner circle, I mean choosing people in your life who basically fill different gaps that you have in your life and your business, and they're kind of the experts in those things.

So if you're the visionary? Having somebody in your inner circle who is more logically like organizational minded. If you are somebody who may be more shy and timid, then they are really great putting somebody in their inner circle who's a better at networking, better at connections. Because then they can kind of tap into those connections where they lack. So just finding those people who fill the gaps and being intentional with providing value to those people, but also receiving value themselves.

Katrina Widener: That makes a lot of sense, and I think about like... you and I talked about how we're extroverts, right? We love community. We love networking, all that kinda stuff. But I definitely have friends who are not that way and then are like, "Hey Katrina, I need someone in this realm. Do you have any recommendations?" Or, "I'd really love to work on this project. Do you know people who I could maybe talk through this with?" Et cetera, right?

Amanda Foust: Yep.

Katrina Widener: So yeah, it's just like, "Oh yeah. Well, what if we were intentional about that?"

Amanda Foust: Yeah! Well, and even like another example would be, I know people who are more creative minded visionary CEOs may not be like very good with their money or their finances or that kind of thing. So putting someone in their inner circle who is like more of a financial specialist.

Katrina Widener: Yeah!

Amanda Foust: And this isn't just like going and hiring out these roles. Sometimes you're hiring, but sometimes you have people within your community who you can just grab a cup of coffee with and pick their brain. Like half of the people that I've built relationships with are what got me to where I am today, and those have all just been organic inner circle relationships.

Katrina Widener: That makes so much sense! Okay, so for the people who are listening who are like, "Cool, cool. Want to do this." but how?" Or like, "How do I know... how do I start knowing who I need to bring in? How do I meet these people?"

Amanda Foust: Yeah.

Katrina Widener: Like how would you recommend they get started?

Amanda Foust: Yeah, so usually what I recommend is just evaluating and being reflective on those gaps in your life. So deciding like, "Okay, what areas are my strengths, and what areas am I weak in? And do I need to go out and hire out those things? Or can I literally just tap into somebody I know, or somebody who I know who knows somebody else?" Right?

Katrina Widener: Right.

Amanda Foust: With all those webs of people. And when you're looking for your inner circle, it's looking for those people. It could literally be somebody you follow on Instagram, who you've connected with that you're like, "Wow. They have something that I don't have, and I would love to tap into that in some way." And again, it's that mutual exchange of value. So it's not necessarily going and saying, "Hey, can you help me with this?" Instead it's like, "How can we help each other? How can we work together?" And I've been able to see both that be effective for my clients and in my own life with helping me move forward. So I don't know... have you ever read the book Who Not How by Dan Sullivan?

Katrina Widener: I have not, but that sounds like it would be a book I would like to read and I will now take a note on that.

Amanda Foust: A great, great book and I've been recommending it to so many people. And the concepts of the Who Not How book is kind of what I've been talking about for years. It's not about "How do I get to this level, or how do I learn this concept?" Instead it's like, "Who? Who can help me get there? Who can I tap into that can fill that gap that I can't fill myself?"

Katrina Widener: So when people are going through and getting started... either they've like worked with you and you guys have talked about this concept, or listened to a podcast like this and get really intrigued by it. When people are first getting started out, do you see a lot of times they have like some mental blocks or barriers around like, "Let's reach out to some new people"?

Amanda Foust: Yeah, a hundred percent. I'm going to answer that question with this. The marketing side of my business. So many marketing agencies are all about like ads and views and like getting email subscribers and getting all that, which is great. I mean, obviously like...

Katrina Widener: Mm-hmm.

Amanda Foust: We help with that too. But the things that we found to be most effective is connections. And so when we have worked with clients and taught them like how to pitch themselves, how to reach out, how to build community. That is when people see the biggest results, and that's what kind of helps us stand out. So when you said mindset blocks, I'm playing back all these conversations with our clients that are like, "Well, how do I do this?" They're very salesy in how they want to reach out, and it's like, "That's not what we're talking about."

When we're talking about building an inner circle, those are like true relationships and it's not going out, and saying one connected piece and then jumping straight into a sale. Or jumping straight into trying to get something out of them. Instead it's like truly caring about that person, seeing how you can add value, and then if something comes of it, great. And if not, at least you have that relationship and connection.

Katrina Widener: Cool! So I'm like imagining it might be helpful for everyone listening if we kind of maybe do an example of how you can actually walk through that conversation with someone. We're not like going to role play for you guys here, but just thinking about like... Okay, so say I am a creative and I'm wanting to reach out to someone who's maybe like more systems, logical or financial based or something like that.

I have realized that I already have this date in my life. I'm looking to like actually make this conversation. I've maybe even found someone that I think would be really cool to connect with. That I like their vibe, I like what they talk about. How would you even just recommend they get started? Like send them an email? Follow them on Instagram and DM them?

Amanda Foust: Totally. So first you gotta find out where's the hang out? Like if they're on Instagram, but they haven't posted in a while or you don't see them like very active? Then that's probably not going to get you very far.

So figuring out like, are they a podcaster? Are they on Instagram? Are they on LinkedIn? Wherever they are, finding them there and then touching base with them by sharing exactly what you just did. Like, "I'm seeing that you're very good in these things, and that's an area where I lack. But this is an area where I have a strength, that I'm really good at. And so I would love to just like jump on a coffee chat with you and find out what system are you using right now that you love?" I know for a lot of our clients, since organization is such a difficult thing, we're always looking for like certain platforms that can help support them in that, so they're not going to have to worry about it. So finding out like, "What's the latest platform you found to be the most helpful? Or what's your biggest tip?" Or different things like that, and then just asking if you can have a coffee chat and get to know them.

But usually if you lead with some sort of compliment, some sort of connection, and then also not try to like sell your services or talk about what you do, but instead just show an interest in what they do? Oftentimes it can lead to something else. And we also recommend audio as opposed to writing it out because when you hear your voice, it's just a lot more connected than getting those messages. Because there's a lot of robot messages out there too!

Katrina Widener: Yeah! Which also this is just a complete sidebar, but one of the tips that I learned too in sending audio messages, especially on like Instagram or something is to be like, "Hey Amanda. I love your feed, I'm going to send you a quick voice message." And then send the voice message. Because I've learned that people, if you just send the voice message or kind of like, "Oh, what is this? I might not go into it." But if you give them like a quick little introduction of just like, "Hey, I'm a business coach. Love this thing about you. Have a quick question, let me send you a voice message." It feels so much better to people. Because it's like you're setting expectations.

Amanda Foust: Absolutely, yes! A couple things that you said that were so great with that too, is using their name. Because then it helps them see that you're not just like sending this same message to everyone. And also like using a connection piece, that's specific to them. Not just "Love what you're doing!" But like, "I love blank." Also I know for me, when I first started this and other people who have that mindset block of like, "Oh, I don't know how to do this!" I know explaining to them, "Just be vulnerable and say you're looking for community." One of the first people that I did this with, that just like snowballed into a ton of other connections? I literally was just like, "Hey, it's lonely being an entrepreneur."

Katrina Widener: Yeah.

Amanda Foust: "And I love seeing what you have created. I would love to like connect with you on a friendship level. On a colleague/peer, that type of level," that way they know like you're coming in not trying to sell them because I genuinely wasn't. I just wanted to include them in my inner circle because I respected and looked up to them. So when you speak to them as like a peer and colleague, and you show a little bit of vulnerability? They're a lot more open to being a part of your inner circle as well.

Katrina Widener: It feels like it should be so obvious, right? That if we're just like, "You know what, like I'm looking for community," people are going to be like, "Oh cool!" Like, "I'm here for community!" But you're right! It is like that little bit of vulnerability, so I'm glad that you also mentioned that because I feel like that's going to be super helpful for people.

Okay so maybe now they've started this conversation. They've even had their first meeting. I know one of the places that I struggle with, especially for instance with this podcast, have so many amazing conversations with people. We connect, we talk, we are like, "See you on Instagram afterward!" But it's hard to maintain a relationship after that initial connection!

Amanda Foust: Yeah.

Katrina Widener: So how have you seen that work for people in the past or for yourself? Or what would you recommend for people who are like, "All right. So we had the first connection, but we want to continue to be in each other's lives. But do we just like sporadically be like, 'Hey. Want to do a zoom meeting again sometime? Just check in?'" How do you approach that?

Amanda Foust: Yeah! No, I have two answers for that. The first one is always have something planned in that first meeting. So when you meet with them, you have your coffee chat, goes really well. I'll usually say something like, "Hey, I'd love to like stay in touch. What's the best way to stay in touch with you?" You know? Some people aren't in their Instagram DMs. I know sometimes mine can get buried and I don't see them. I know for me if you email me, my assistant's going to see it. She's going to make sure it's on my radar a lot better than me, and so I'll say like, "Yeah, if you email me and reach out we'll definitely stay in touch." Or, you know, sometimes it's like planning a collab together.

Katrina Widener: Yeah.

Amanda Foust: Like, "Oh, I think it'd be really great if we did this collab together." Like just always having that next thing. And then also something that I've seen really effective with both something I do, and my clients do, is be intentional each month with planning your reach outs. So I have a list of people I've connected with in the past couple years, and every month will choose, "Okay, who is it that I want to make sure I reach out to?" In this guide that I have, Building an Inner Circle that Leads to Success, it maps out the different types of people to be in your inner circle to get you thinking like, "Okay, who do I even want? What types of people do I want?"

So oftentimes I'll look at that and be like, "Okay, am I struggling with my mental health a little bit this month, and I need to bring someone in that can help me in that supportive role? Am I really in visionary mind, and I really need somebody to come in and like, bring me back down and help me stay organized? Like, what is it that I need?" Do I just need an encourager?" And so I'll write down their names and then I make sure that we set something up for that month or the following month so that we're maintaining those relationships.

Katrina Widener: I really like that way to approach it too. I think that oftentimes people will be like, "Well, I'll reach out to you when the time comes up." Instead of being like, "I'm going to make it an intention to sit down and do this." Also for everyone who's listening, she mentioned her guide, we will link that in the show notes and in the transcription. So you don't have to like go digging for it, we will provide that for you. But I think that is something that people are really going to be able to say like, "Well, I could reach out to like two to three of my connections a month and just have a coffee chat and plan a collaboration, or do whatever." however that looks, and make it feel like something that's not quite so nebulous or abstract right? Of like, "Okay, well I'm building this inner circle. But what does that actually look like?"

Amanda Foust: Yeah, yeah, yeah! And having like intentional questions too, like "What's your biggest struggle currently in your business right now?" And they all... I mean, everyone has one, right? That takes like two seconds to think of a struggle in your business, and oftentimes I know someone to connect them with because I have a network of people!

Katrina Widener: Yeah!

Amanda Foust: And so it's pretty easy to be like, "Oh my gosh, I have this friend, or I have this colleague who would be really great at helping you with that. I'd love to connect you two." And then they're like, "Oh great!" And then often when you say your struggles and they're thinking, "Oh, I know somebody!" It's this ripple effect.

Katrina Widener: Yeah, I love that. I love that so much. Because I do think it is lonely to be an entrepreneur. We've talked about this on the podcast beforehand. It is something that can feel really isolating or that like everything is on your shoulders all at the same time. makes. It makes much sense to people to say like, "You have your friends and your family members, but oftentimes they're not entrepreneurs." And so to be able to be like, "I have this inner circle of people who get it." Maybe it becomes one of those relationships where you do talk all the time and you're in each other's Instagram DMs or you're sending voice messages, or whatever all the time. But maybe it is something where you just are like, "Well, we're checking in every six months and seeing how we can help one another!" And to have those valuable relationships where they actually get what's going on as an entrepreneur.

Amanda Foust: Yes!

Katrina Widener: That can be huge!

Amanda Foust: Absolutely!

Katrina Widener: Okay, so when you first started out doing this, what are things that you wish you had already known? Or what's something that you like wish you could go back to your past self and impart wisdom about?

Amanda Foust: Yeah, I wish I knew the power of this early on! Because I naturally am like this, like I naturally love building relationships, providing value, asking questions to get support, that kind of thing. But early on I would watch the people around me who were starting businesses or becoming coaches, and I was watching them just use marketing as a tool of just like, "I'm going to pay for a bunch of ads, or I'm going to pay for followers," Whatever the "pay for blank", right? And I didn't follow that, but I always questioned that like, "Okay, should I be doing this? They're growing so much faster. I'm not growing," In the early years I didn't feel like I was growing very fast. And then all of a sudden when I realized like, "Okay, how can I tap into what I am gifted that, and what I love doing and what I'm naturally doing? I'm naturally talking to people, having these coffee chats, that kind of thing. How can I tap into that as a tool for marketing?" When I did that, that's when everything exploded. And in like two years, I made more progress than I did in the five years leading up to that. Simply because I just led with relationship, and so being able to now help my clients duplicate that same thing and be able to lead with relationships? That's something that no one can take away, right? Like there's no algorithms in relationships that can change overnight and make you lose things.

Katrina Widener: Right.

Amanda Foust: Or, you know, being hacked. Whatever, all those silly things that can happen. Those horror stories. That can't happen in relationships as long as you're showing up really well, you can control how you're showing up in relationships. I just wish that I would've seen that as the super power that it was early on, and just like utilized it and leveraged it more.

Katrina Widener: Do you by any chance know your Human Design?

Amanda Foust: I have done that and I cannot remember what it is! I need to look back, but I have done it!

Katrina Widener: I'm like sitting here, I'm just like, "You have to be a 4/6 personality profile!" I don't know if that sounds familiar?

Amanda Foust: I don't remember. I thought they were like names?

Katrina Widener: There's over 2 billion configurations of Human Design, because there's so many different like intricate parts of it. So like at a main level, you're probably like a generator or manifesting generator, I would guess. If that sounds like there's like...

Amanda Foust: I've heard of that, yeah.

Katrina Widener: Yeah! There's like manifestor, generator, projector, reflector, et cetera, et cetera. But on a smaller level there's personality profiles. I'm just like, "Yep. I bet you're a four/six."

Amanda Foust: I'm going to look into it now.

Katrina Widener: Yes, yes! Okay well so, this has all been amazing and I really, really appreciate everything you were talking about. And also the reason I brought up four/six for people who are listening too is the four means the networker, essentially. So it's just like your conscious personality being a networker would make so much sense to me.

Amanda Foust: Yeah.

Katrina Widener: And it is! It's like the power of relationship and the power of authentic community, an authentic connection, as opposed to the "Let's do a coffee chat and see how we can help each other," and then walk away and never talk again.

Amanda Foust: Yeah.

Katrina Widener: Or not even have that first conversation in the first place. So I really appreciate everything that you've been talking about, and so my last question is just for everyone who is listening who maybe has questions or just wants to follow you and be in your world, where would you recommend they follow up with you after the call?

Amanda Foust: Yeah, so they can either follow me on Instagram at @amandakayfoust and it's K-A-Y not the letter K. And then they can also follow me on www.highperformanceinsider.com, which is my website, and that's also where they can get that guide or some other freebies as well, when it comes this.

Katrina Widener: Perfect! Thank you so much for sharing all of this, I'm really excited for everyone to start making some connections! Also for everyone listening my challenge for you is to find one person to bring into your inner circle. Just one and see how it feels. Just try it out and I'm sure you'll love it! So anyway, thank you so much Amanda, for coming on. This has been amazing.

Amanda Foust: Thanks for having me!