IAM1414 – Coach Helps Business Leaders to Network like a Fox

Nancy Fox is the founder of The Business Fox, a career and business acceleration coaching & training company, and the founder of Leap Forward Women's Initiatives, empowering high-caliber professional and executive women in the new world of work. She is a former senior executive who has coached and trained Fortune 500 companies and leaders across the country, is a national keynote speaker on networking and peak performance, and the author of the acclaimed book on business networking, Network Like A Fox: A Targeted Approach To Building Successful Business Relationships In-Person & Online.

• CEO Story: “The only thing it takes to be a great coach is to be a great coach.” the answer of the training coach when Nancy asked if she could do it to be a coach. If you want to be something, be something. This is what Nancy did and the rest is history. Coming from a strong background in the executive position.
• Business Service: Corporate training in management, leadership, sales, and communication skills. Coaching leaders. Business development coaching.
• Secret Sauce: A natural dot connector. The right people to introduce to.
• CEO Hack: Workout discipline. Taking out the distractions like being addicted to an iPad or any gadget is mentally draining as well.
• CEO Nugget: 3 words that made a difference in Nancy’s life – How, not, if. How (you work on a solution), if ( you train your mind to doubt).
• CEO Defined: Freedom and accountability. Accountability to other people – walking the talk, setting the example.

Website: thebusinessfox.com

leapforwardwomen.com, networklikeafox.com

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Transcription

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00:23 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEO's without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is to I AM CEO podcast.

00:50 – Gresham Harkles

Hello, Hello, Hello. this is Gretch from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nancy Fox of the business Fox and fractional connections. Nancy, super excited to have you on the show.

01:02 – Nancy Fox

It's so great. I've been waiting to have this conversation with you for a long time. Gretch, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

01:09 – Gresham Harkles

Yes, I'm excited to have you on as well too. And it's funny enough, I was going through some of the previous contributors to our site and I was so excited to see Nancy was on our site even before we connected in many different ways. So super excited to have you on the show. And of course, before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Nancy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's working on. Nancy is the founder of the Business Fox and co-founder of Fractional Connections, a career in business acceleration, coaching, and training company, and the founder of Leap Forward Women's initiatives.

Empowering high-caliber professional and executive women in the new world of work. She is a former senior executive who has coached and trained Fortune 500 companies and leaders across the country and is a national keynote speaker on networking and peak performance and the author of the acclaimed book on business networking Network like a Fox, a targeted approach to building successful business relationships in person and online. Nancy, super excited to have you on the show again, my friend. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

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02:08 – Nancy Fox

I really am. I'm ready, ready, ready.

02:12 – Gresham Harkles

Awesome. Well, let's get it happening. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:20 – Nancy Fox

Well, I never thought I would ever have my own business. I mean, I, you know, my whole makeup is really climbing the ladder in the corporate world, which is what I did for the first part, a long part of my career. And I was in the women's underwear business for a long time. And that was sort of an accidental, you know, an accidental success experience because I really loved, you know, it's just a great match of creativity and strategy. And I got to travel the world and I got to meet some great people, and I created great products. And then the world really changed. Just like we're going through a big change now. The world of that whole industry changed dramatically.

And I could see the handwriting on the wall that everything was moving offshore, everything was going to be, things were moving online, and I saw that things were going to be really different, and it was no longer going to be the satisfying career that I wanted. And I knew I needed to make a change. But at the time, this is going back, you know, a really, I've been coaching for, you know, 23 years already. At the time, nobody was starting their own business. Like, this is, it was either you were an entrepreneur or you were, you know, an executive. That was it. Like, those were the two choices. So it was not in my makeup. You know, nobody really was guiding you. Nobody really said this is how you do it.

It was very new, and I accidentally landed on a training course and a coaching experience, and I realized that I really liked being a participant and learning. And then I said, I wonder this also really, maybe this is something I would really like to do myself. So I asked the coach on the training course, I said, you know, I've got a lot of business background and a lot of experience. Do you think I could be a really, I could be a good coach? Do you think I could do what you do? And he said the only thing it takes to be a great coach is to be a great coach. So he basically did the old, you know, if you want to be something, be something. So that's what I did, and the rest is history.

04:31 – Gresham Harkles

Nice. Well, I absolutely love that. And, you know, it kind of even speaks to me often. We say and we feel like we need to go outside to get something, to take that next step or to be whatever we want to be. But everything you have that you need is already within you, and it's kind of lean more into that and to be excellent at your craft. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear how you're working with your clients, and how you're supporting them. Could you take us through some of those ways that you are supporting the clients and making an impact?

05:00 – Nancy Fox

There are some people who really just want to coach, and some people who want to train and some people don't want to do either one in this advisory arena. When I began, I was doing a lot of corporate training in management leadership, and sales and a lot of different communication skills. And I was doing, and I really, I loved the training. I loved getting in front of an audience of a team of people. I loved doing strategic training with the leaders, and then there would be follow-up coaching beyond that. So I liked both. And I found that both were very, very rewarding. And then eventually I started to do a lot of business development coaching.

But I think for me it was always really a combination of getting in front of groups of people and training and speaking, and then also the individual coaching along the way. I started to really enjoy the networking part of what it takes. It was my lead generation approach. Some people do cold calling, some people do advertising, and some people do a lot of different mechanisms. I chose networking as my lead generation mechanism, and I really loved it. I got good at it, and I'm now looking at the next. Now I think for me, it's really been an evolution. When I'm complete with something, I'm hungering for the next learning experience, the next iteration of how I am going to serve next.

And now, as we've seen over the last when the pandemic hit, it really didn't affect me or my business that much because I had been coaching virtually for, you know, I've been doing everything virtually for three or four years already. But I really got to sit back and think about, okay, I have a feeling. I think I'm going through the next. There was a feeling of pivot. You know, I needed to pivot on something. I just, and again, I didn't know what that would be. And I knew that I wanted to work more with women, which I began to do. And, but there was more, and there's more, and there's more not, but, and you know, there's like, there's this. The landscape is different. The entire. We've had like a volcano, you know, it's a combination of some earthquakes, some volcano.

Sometimes things have spilled over and layered over, and sometimes the earth has cracked open and you're in a new universe now. So I think we're in a new universe in many ways. We're still seeing this shimmying and shaking and things haven't shaken out yet. You know, you see Elon Musk requiring people to come back to work and being hard and fast about it, and then you see other companies saying the hybrid approach is really right, but what's really deeper is what people, what happened for people was for the very first time, they had time to sit back and think about what they really wanted in their careers.

08:14 – Gresham Harkles

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that kind of analogy you talked about with the earthquake, with the volcano, I would say with snow, and then probably even sunny days the next day. It seems like there are so many different things that are happening at the same fall, same time, and just unsure of how everything's going to, I guess, level out or what it's going to end up being. You hear the phrase the new normal and what that ends up being. But I love how you kind of sound like you've had your pulse to at least maybe the starting of that change and be able to kind of understand that. Do you feel like that's part of, like, what sets you apart and makes you unique is what I call your secret sauce, that ability to kind of navigate and understand that and be able to kind of create solutions for those changes?

08:57- Nancy Fox

I think. I wish I had a better ability to be at the forefront of a pulse. I think this particular project is an example of recognizing that we are at the tip of the iceberg to feeling the pulse of it. I do think in this case that's true. I don't know that it is a natural bent of mine. I do think that I'm a natural connector of the dots. I see dots connecting all around me so I can see the right people to introduce to each other. In the connector, I can see the matching of this arena with that arena working together. The partnership affiliate marketing world is going to explode.

Also, every single SaaS company that I have been interacting with in the last six months has a partnership program, and they're looking for, we used to call it referral sources, but they really are in partnership because as we're collaborating in circles and as the, as we are involved in our social networks, we can really. That's why the expansion is so great. It's like things can explode. We didn't have that ability before social media and before, but, you know, you get into the right social circles and you can have a major, you can have a viral hit with the right people. So, yes, but mostly, no, but the connecting of the dots, I think, is my secret sauce. If anything, I think that would be.

11:24. – Gresham Harkles

And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:33 – Nancy Fox

My hack is okay, I'm going to give you a crazy hack because I was really, I was really, I was falling off the wagon. I'm a workout, you know, I'm pretty disciplined in my work habits. That has not really been my issue. But I will say maybe about four to five months ago I just couldn't get, I worked out the entire time of the pandemic every day. But when about four or five months ago, I just couldn't get it together. And I was so mad at myself. So I know that when I don't work out on a regular basis, it affects this, it affects everything. So I said, what am I going to do? And I realized my problem. I found out I'm addicted to my iPad. So the first thing in the morning I'm on my iPad.

I'm not like, what? I'm not on TikTok or anything like that, but I'm watching videos, I'm answering emails and I realize this. So now it's 3 hours later, I'm up very early, and now it's 08:00 and I've lost the morning and my energy level is drained because I'm on the iPad. I said aha. So what I did was on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which are my workout days, the iPad on Sunday nights, on Tuesday nights, and on Thursday nights is out of my, out of my bedroom. And because it's not in my bedroom, I'm out the door, and into my gym by 615. And so I'm done working out by seven. And that's working. Go figure.

13:00 – Gresham Harkles

Yeah, that's what I love about hacks.

13:03 – Nancy Fox

And then I'm ready for the day and I'm so pumped and I'm energetic and my productivity level has gone through the roof.

13:10 – Gresham Harkles

Yeah, I love that. You know, you shared that because I think so many times. What I love about hacks is sometimes we think it's the biggest, best software or the latest gadget or whatever it is. Sometimes it's the quote-unquote small things that are actually huge things. So giving you that opportunity to kind of move that, I won't say a distraction, but just something that may be taken away from your mission that day, to have that out of the way so that you can take that opportunity to work out and propel yourself towards having a phenomenal day.

13:37 – Nancy Fox

Exactly, It was a distraction, and it was a physically draining distraction and a mentally draining distraction.

13:44 – Gresham Harkles

You're absolutely right then that makes so much sense. So I appreciate you sharing that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something that's been featured in your book that you would tell your favorite client, or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

14:04 – Nancy Fox

I think the thing, there are three words that I think have really made all the difference for me. And the three words are how not if. So that means something you want. It's how not if. As soon as you say the word, if you have trained your mind to doubt, it's that simple. And as soon as you ask your mind how you're working on a solution, and it's so simple, use it and you will gain. That's, it's, that's, it's just that simple.

14:36 – Gresham Harkles

Absolutely. And I love that you said solution. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different questions, unquote, CEO's on this show. So, Nancy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:47 – Nancy Fox

Freedom. It's freedom and accountability.

14:52 – Gresham Harkles

What makes you say the accountability part?

14:55 – Nancy Fox

Well, when I say accountability, it isn't only about accomplishing. It's really about accountability to other people. I look at being a CEO leader as walking the talk. You are accountable for setting an example. And that is the part of my coaching training that I think was the most precious of all. It isn't. How many great questions can I ask people or how great their results are? It really is about when I, if I do what I say if I do what I say I'm going to do, and I demonstrate that and I don't let up on myself around that and I don't excuse myself. I now haven't, I have a right to coach other people around it. The second I don't do that, no one has any, no one feels I have any integrity. And they're right. So walking the talk is really important to me.

15:50 – Gresham Harkles

Nancy, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Get a copy of your book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

16:05 – Nancy Fox

So you can find me on LinkedIn.com in businessfox. You can find my book network at Fox@networklikeafox.com. I've got a free chapter on there. And feel free. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. I'm the business on Instagram. I g and I'd love to connect with you. So definitely reach out to me and if there's anything, if you have any questions, I love to. I'm a big networker. I'd love to meet with you. So I'm there. I'm all, I'm down for that.

16:38 – Gresham Harkles

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. And definitely let me echo that as well, too. She's also a really big giver. So I appreciate you tremendously for teaching us, and for giving us so much today. Of course, to make everything easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes, too, so that you can get ahold of Nancy. But Nancy, love everything you're doing, excited about everything that you're building. And I appreciate your time today and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:58 – Nancy Fox

I just want to say you are the best. Gresh, talk about a giver. You are the ultimate. And I am so grateful that I got a chance to meet you and work with you and now share with you on your show, on your great show. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

17:09 – Gresham Harkles

I absolutely Appreciate you.

17:11 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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