Helen watched her parents try network marketing when she was very young.  She decided it was all ‘shoulder pads and high heels’ and felt certain it didn’t work.

20 years later, having met someone ‘very human’ building a network, Helen actually asked her outright, “How are you being successful when you seem like such a nice person!”

Fast forward a few years and Helen had created more than a million USD in network marketing – and spent most of it.

Helen says she did a lot of things right – and a lot of things wrong.  She wrote The Networker to pass on those lessons – the novel is fiction inspired by her experiences building her business.

Helen, tell us about I Built A Network and what made you decide to work in this area?

When I had my second daughter I wanted to hibernate – I just didn’t have the energy or inclination to coach anyone at all.  Seeing good team members quit because of really common challenges – from criticism from friends, to a negative spouse or very limited time and money – I had the idea to write a story.  When you’re struggling, it’s easy to look at successful people and convince yourself they had special bullets or that they’d never understand you’re going through.  So The Networker is about the very real experiences of a woman building her business from scratch.  ibuiltanetwork.com is the blog that sprang up around the philosophies that help Sally (The Networker’s heroine) stay the course.

Why is networking so important if you are trying to build a personal or professional business brand?

Relationships are the backbone of any business.  Working with the people you already know, to raise awareness about your business, to gather referrals and to generate customers is common practice in almost all businesses from hair salons to fitness centres, from accounting firms to dental practices. But what a lot of network marketers need to remember is: it’s about helping, not hunting.  Be professional and put in the effort to upskill.

Can you share 3 tips as to how people can become more confident to put themselves ‘out there’ into the networking space?

I’m an introvert, so traditional networking events used to be very uncomfortable and tiring for me.  I couldn’t compete with the squeals of delight, hugs and business card swapping I’d see happening between the extroverts in the room!  But introverts are often really good observers and listeners, and these are great skills for networking.  Listening to people, saying a quiet hello and having a good chat with someone – these are good ways to make the one to one connections I find most rewarding.

What traits do you think are important to be a successful leader or business leader in a person’s community?

You can only push people so far with the still far-too-common leadership practices of shame and criticism.  Nobody thrives under criticism and in the long term it’s actually exhausting.  But helping people to catch sight of their own potential is a really fantastic way to lead.  It’s energising to see what people can do when someone believes in them.

And what’s next on the agenda for Helen Jamieson?

I’m running a Kickstarter for the paperback version of The Networker – there are thousands of women out there about to give up on their business.  But they just need a nudge to see things differently.  With the right tools they can get past the things that stop most people in network marketing.  The Networker is as enjoyable as a novel but as useful as a textbook.  Like one reader said, ‘it’s so good, you won’t know you’re working!’

Favourite place that you have travelled to and why?

I’ve travelled a lot and have been to 18 countries but my favourite would be New Zealand – it’s where we live now and it’s a superb place to raise our kids.

What do you to relax?

I read books!  In the bath, by the fire and tucked up in bed would be my favourite book reading spots.

What mantra do you live by?

It’s so hard to choose just one but…one that’s served me very well is the Japanese proverb about success: fall down 7 times, get up 8 times.

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