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Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós
TheSmart Business Growth podcast is your go-to for real talk and real strategy – grounded in over two decades of sales and leadership expertise.
Hosted by sales growth expert and TEDx speaker Nicky Miklós, this show is for ambitious business owners and sales leaders who are scaling businesses – and refuse to choose between high performance and having a life.
Expect pragmatic conversations, proven frameworks, and practical tools to shift your sales culture from reactive to revenue-driving. From systematising sales to developing your next generation of confident leaders, Nicky shares the thinking and strategies that help you build momentum that lasts.
You’ll also hear powerful insights on redefining success, breaking up with burnout, and finding your own version of healthy hustle – that sweet spot of growth without the relentless grind.
It’s time to lead smarter, sell stronger, and grow without losing yourself in the process.
Welcome to Smart Business Growth. Wherever you listen to podcasts, Nicky's waiting to welcome you.
Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós
The Core Four: Who You Actually Need in Your Network | Janine Garner & Nicky Miklos
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Big ideas. Small time investment.
Welcome the latest "Quick Wins" episode! Bite-sized cuts from the Smart Business Growth Podcast — built for business owners and sales leaders who need insights fast.
Networking isn't a numbers game — and if it feels icky, you've been taught it wrong.
In this Quick Win, Janine Garner - international speaker and best-selling author of It's Who You Know - breaks down the Core Four: the four types of people every business owner and sales leader needs in their network.
You'll learn:
- Why transactional networking is broken and what to do instead
- The Core Four: Promoters, Pit Crew, Teachers and Butt Kickers
- The question every leader should ask their team: "What role do you need me to be for you right now?"
- Janine's annual January network review for staying intentional with her time and energy
Want more? Listen to the full conversation with Janine for applying the Core Four to your top clients, the Network 10 daily habit, and her "Thank You For" process.
Find Janine on LinkedIn or at janinegarner.com.au
Take the free Smart Business Growth Audit at nickymiklos.com
Buzzsprout tags (plain keywords): networking, sales leadership, business growth, janine garner, core four, business networking, sales strategy, client relationships, smart business growth, business owner
Learn more about Nicky at nickymiklos.com
Grab The Growth Code™ here!
Get your a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life at www.healthyhustle.com.au
Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com
Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley
Janine (00:09)
Well, fundamentally, just to take one step back, I think we've got networking all wrong. I think we've all been fed an absolute furphy lie, explanation of what networking is. And so many of us are scared of networking because of that teaching and that understanding, which fundamentally is transactional and it's icky. It's a numbers game. It's, you know, surface level conversation. It's fundamentally about trying to get the sale.
Janine (00:39)
And the four groups of people are promoters. These are the people that believe in you, that will stretch you, that are like your marketing machine, your walking billboard, they rave about you. They're all about wanting you to become more.
Janine (00:55)
There are your pit crew. These are the people that really care about you. And it cannot be husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, cats and dogs. It's who professionally has got your back. Who are the people that, yes, are gonna give you the high five, but when times are shit, which in business, it's tough, they listen, they understand without judgment, they don't go into drama or gossip, they give you the biggest hug that you need, and then they ensure they get you back on track.
Janine (01:29)
And then the third group are the teachers. And these are the ones that want you to know more. These are the ones that are willing to share with you everything they know. All their learnings, all their wins, all their strategies, everything that they are noticing and seeing right now, they're sharing it with you because they want you to know more. And the reality is, in this world of tech, which most of it is based on past, the only competitive advantage any of us have is what we think.
Janine (02:03)
And then the final group, the butt kickers. Like it's so easy to follow shiny stuff. It's so easy to get taken off track. You and I have talked about this multiple times, Nicky. The hardest thing in business right now is staying the course. It's doing the boring work. It's doing the reps. It's staying focused.
Janine (02:23)
And we're in a world where we are constantly being bombarded with try this, do this, try something different. But that ability to stay the course and do what you're saying you're going to do is really hard. And this is where the butt kickers kick in. And there are too many of us that think we can do it on our own. That surround ourselves with yes people. That tell us we're awesome. Or that think we're doing everything, but the reality is we go back to the very thing that's an easy way of thinking or an easy way of doing, or we add things to our list so that we can tick it off.
Janine (03:00)
We need that person that's going to push us and say, hang on, you said you were going to double your revenue this year. What are you doing? Oh well, Janine, I'm sitting behind my computer writing content and da da da. I said, yeah, but how many offers have you made? How many conversations have you had? How many coffee meetings? How have you tapped into your network? And this is what we need. So we need promoters, we need pit crew, we need teacher as individuals, and we need the butt kicker.
Janine (03:31)
And this is the thing where this IP, this framework is bigger than the network of you, because I'll often go into organizations and I'll say to leaders, you need to ask your team, what role do you need me to be for you right now? Do you need me to be the promoter right now? Do you need me to be a pit crew? Do you need me to be the butt kicker? Do you need me to be the teacher?
Janine (03:53)
And that's why, as I said right at the beginning, I look at my network, personal network, every single January. And it evolves based on what my goals for the 12 months are. Doesn't mean I sack people and stop being friends with people, but what it means is that I'm very intentional and focused about where I'm going to invest my time and energy and who I'm going to surround myself with that's going to help me get to that next level.