One Person Per Picnic Please
A Lesson in Networking
When my business partner Katrina and I launched our business a year ago (yes let’s pause to celebrate this!) we knew we’d have to hustle to get our little executive search firm off the ground.
We made calls, sent emails, asked for meetings with leaders in the nonprofit and foundation space, many of whom graciously opened their doors to us. We had coffee dates and Zoom meetings, attended community events and drove countless miles across the region to meet with folks. We did this not to get immediate contracts (because it doesn’t happen that way), but to invest in relationships. It was invigorating, but at times we also felt ourselves burning out.
The good news is, our first year in business was a success beyond our benchmarks and expectations. As we move into Q-2, we are excited to be partnering with some great nonprofits and foundations in Minnesota. Turns out 80 percent of our current contracts are with organizations and people we have known for years, or with new clients who were referred to us by those organizations.
At a recent retreat Katrina and I had the opportunity to celebrate our successes, explore our areas of growth and our challenges, and focus on how we can do an even better job of serving our clients.
At the end of the retreat that evening, we were going to another event we both truly wanted to attend. At one point I looked at Katrina, who was working on a couple big client projects and balancing a family and so many other things and said “Look, we don’t both need to go to this event. I’ll go. We don’t need to be everywhere at the same time, all the time.
She replied, “Yeah, sort of a one person per picnic strategy.”
This simple statement was an aha moment for us, and probably the most important thing that came out of our retreat. We realized that most of our business last year, and so far this year, resulted from doing good work for people we already knew and then being asked by others to do more good work. It was not the result of scurrying from one event to the next.
Building a business is both deliberate and organic. While you do have to hustle, you also have to realize the best way to build a firm is to show up for your clients with all your energy and do good work for the clients you already have, and value and nurture those relationships. Basically, stay in the moment with the people currently around the table.
That means sometimes turning down work that isn’t a good values alignment. It means sometimes leaving money on the table because taking on another client would take away from showing up as our best selves for the clients we already have.
I recently read an interesting article from Voices Without Borders that said “If you spend more time building and doing good work than networking, you won’t need to ‘network’ at all. The richest opportunities don’t come from who you know—they come from who knows you. Instead of asking for referrals, become the person who gets recommended naturally. Instead of chasing big names, attract them by being undeniable.”
We’ve all seen those squirrels scurrying back and forth in the roadway trying to decide if they should get run over or keep crossing the road, right? I once heard someone say “The road of life is paved with squirrels who couldn’t make up their minds.”
Being a squirrel in business can be exhausting, and from a sustainability standpoint, also deadly.
So instead of scurrying through the rest of 2026, this year will be about Pierson Henry continuing to do focused, human-centered work for our clients. We’re putting our energy into truly becoming “undeniable” … and maybe attending a few less picnics in pairs.