Work is often one of the most rewarding yet stressful things. Whether you’re running your own business or working in an employed role, you’ll encounter unique stresses and challenges that stem from your job, business, clients, and industry. Juggling work life as well as home life can take a toll on one’s mental health. It’s difficult to know exactly what’s going on in someone’s life that might cause them stress, but we do know that it has a tendency to build up over time, which can lead to burnout, anxiety, a sense of isolation, or worse.
There are many different ways to manage and deal with stress, from counselling to meditation to exercise. But one often overlooked way to handle mental health challenges is by connecting with others, which can be done socially, but also professionally through business networking. Beyond supporting professional growth and expanding business opportunities, networking can also provide significant mental health benefits for both entrepreneurs and employees. Here’s how:
1. Connection and Emotional Support
One of the main issues that arises when discussing mental health is that people feel isolated and lonely. While social media and video games are often blamed, one real cause of this feeling is a disconnect from community. There are countless reasons someone might feel this way, and we’re not going to go into them all. But for professionals, business owners, and employees, feelings of isolation can be caused by working from home, workplace bullying, stress and overwhelm, or running your own business when the people in your life don’t.
The magic of business networking groups is that they’re a place where businesspeople can feel that they belong. It’s a place where like-minded owners, partners, employees, and self-employed professionals can connect, share, and support each other. It’s also a place where you can be heard, seen, and accepted for where you are right now in your business journey, and that’s what really makes a difference.
As you build trust within your networking group, you can share your experiences, challenges, and stresses with others who understand. While they may not have experienced the exact same situation as you, but they’ll likely have some ideas that can help. And even if they don’t, sometimes it’s good to just get these things of your chest and know that you’re not alone on your journey.
Having a network of people who understand what you’re going through with the highs and lows of business is invaluable for dealing with stress and uncertainty and supporting your mental wellbeing.
2. Accountability & Motivation
When you’re overwhelmed, it can be easy to lose focus and motivation to do your work and achieve your goals. Networking groups are an effective way of regaining that focus and motivation. The supportive environment in networking groups encourages people to set and share their goals, discuss their progress with people who understand their business challenges, and get support to achieve them. When you have a vision of where you’re going and the support to get there, it can greatly reduce the stress of feeling like you have to do it all on your own.
When you share your goals, objectives, and challenges with members of your networking group, they’re going to follow up with you. So you’ll be more committed and motivated to achieving those goals. Because the groups (usually) meet weekly, it can also be more motivating. The regularity of the meetings and updates creates and maintains a steady and focused momentum to continue working on your goals and eventually achieve them.
Beyond simply achieving your goals, the vibe of your networking group can also act as a motivating factor. The support system of a networking group where members celebrate each other’s wins, give and get support with challenges, and share practical advice can be incredibly motivating. When you’re surrounded by others who are achieving their goals, it can be inspiring and make you more determined to achieve yours.
Having access to regular check-ins, collective motivation, and group encouragement is one of the reasons that a networking group is a great tool to help wth your accountability and motivation. Seeing steady progress towards achieving your goals is an easy way to lower your stress levels.
3. Build Confidence
Connecting with people in networking groups is also a great way to get validation for your ideas, feelings, and business challenges. Self-doubt is common among professionals; it can be hard to have confidence that you’re making the right decisions and doing the right things for your business or company. When you share with others, you receive feedback that reinforces your value and abilities.
Your networking group is like your own personal hype-squad. Because you’ve created a genuine connection with the people in the group and you showcase your knowledge through your presentations, they get to know your personal and professional skills. This means that any time you’re not in a good headspace, the other members will be there to reassure you, helping you see your strengths more clearly, guiding you through rough patches, and filling you with confidence.
One of our favourite things about our groups is being able to celebrate everyone’s successes. For people who work alone or in small teams, celebrating successes of any size can easily be overlooked in favour of just moving on to the next task. But having a space where you are celebrated is essential to building your confidence. It helps you to step back from day-to-day stresses to reflect on and appreciate the work you do. You should feel proud of your achievements.
Positive connections with people who will celebrate with you and hype you up are great for mental health. They reduce feelings of isolation and uncertainty, helping you build resilience so you can tackle any challenge and seize the opportunities that come your way with confidence.
4. Collaborative Problem Solving
One of the great things about a networking group is drawing upon the experience in the room. It can be like having a room full of business coaches at your fingertips to help with the growth of your business. Whether it’s advice on specific industry knowledge, validation or feedback on the decisions you’re making, or just guidance as you move through your business journey, they’re there to help.
Brainstorming and working through your business challenges with the other people in your networking group can be immensely beneficial for your mental health and stress levels. When you have big challenges, they can feel overwhelming, which can make it hard to make decisions. By sharing with the group, you’re essentially reducing your mental load and giving yourself space to make an informed decision. You might even find solutions you hadn’t thought of, which are better than the ones you had.
Instead of shouldering every business decision alone, you can get an experienced second opinion (and third, and fourth, and so on). This helps you make better-informed decisions and can greatly reduce the overwhelm, stress, or anxiety you may face with decision-making.
5. Continuous Learning
Your networking group is a fantastic platform full of learning opportunities. With every hour of networking time, you’re learning more about general business—new ideas, strategies, and best practices that you can implement to improve your business.
Most networking groups have presentations from members, where you learn more and more about different industries. While what you learn might not be entirely related to your business or of interest to you at that time, the knowledge you gain can still be used to help others in your life. However, the truly powerful insights often come from simply talking to other professionals. Here, you can discuss new ideas, ways to improve efficiency, solve problems, or even tips, tricks, and tools of the trade. You can discuss just about anything work-related that you want to learn more about.
With more information at your disposal, you can tackle anything that comes your way. You never know when something you learn in a networking meeting might actually be helpful!
6. Opportunities & Outsourcing
One of the most well-known benefits of business networking is building relationships that lead to new opportunities. Sometimes these new opportunities can create a little more stress to begin with, but in the long run they’re often some of the most useful and stress-reducing things.
These new opportunities can look like partnerships and collaborations between two or more members of a networking group. These can be what we refer to as a Power Circle, where they refer clients around the circle as needed. They can also be partnerships that are more business focussed that help to reduce workload, streamline the business, or increase profitability.
A lot of the time, these opportunities are referrals for new customers or clients. New clients coming in regularly can be both a blessing and a curse. If you’re already overwhelmed with enquiries, it can be stressful. However, if you’re at the opposite end of the spectrum and worried about not having enquiries, these referrals can be a blessing. Not having to worry about finding new clients is one of the easiest ways to reduce a bit of stress.
Other times, these opportunities are more behind the scenes. We see a lot of people collaborating by outsourcing to each other. These opportunities could be project-based partnerships that reduce workload, using each other’s services ongoing to help streamline the business, or a one-off project recommending and setting up tools to increase profitability. One of the best things about these kinds of opportunities is that they allow you to shift focus from what may be stressing you out to doing more of the work that you enjoy and that actually brings in money.
Opportunities that ensure your business runs smoothly are incredibly beneficial to a more balanced and less stressful business experience.
7. Stress Management and Work-Life Balance
A regular topic of conversation at networking groups is stress management and work-life balance. It’s something that everyone, whether they’re business owners or employed, are seeking.
Through conversations at your networking groups, you can learn some of the techniques and strategies that other people use to cope. Everyone faces similar challenges with managing their time, reducing work pressures, and maintaining healthy boundaries. The key is to have healthy ways to handle and manage these challenges, and everyone has their own approach. You might learn some tips and tricks, exercises, or tools that others use to help them manage all of the above.
Sometimes, you’ll meet people in networking groups who can help you with managing your mental health and work-life balance. Coaches are a great example. Both business and personal coaches can help you build and follow healthy habits, work through mental blocks, and develop a long-term plan to benefit your mental health. You might also find someone like a yoga instructor, personal trainer, or massage therapist who can help you manage your stress levels.
There are many ways to deal with stress, and by learning from others, you’ll be better prepared to make changes that positively impact your own well-being.
It’s important to have healthy ways to handle the stress of your day-to-day life. Business networking is an often-overlooked way to manage the unique work pressures that can take a toll on one’s mental health. The meaningful connections made in a networking group create a connected space that fosters emotional support, motivation, mentorship, continuous learning, and reveals opportunities to lessen your workload.
By embracing networking, you can find both professional growth and personal well-being, creating a sustainable and fulfilling career.
