Author, Professional Speaker
& Professional Relationships Strategist

Connecting is not enough

Professional relationships underpin so much in terms of business and career success. Our contacts can provide us with support, insight, advocacy and opportunities. Yet so few people or businesses really focus on how to build, nurture or leverage their relationships.

Let’s talk

What support do you need?

Whether you are responsible for business development, bringing on talent, arranging a sales conference or running a networking event, Andy will help you to make professional relationships count. Whether you want to generate referrals, leverage your contacts, break down silos, do your job more effectively or boost your career, relationships matter.

When you get most of your customers through word-of-mouth marketing, it makes sense to have a proper referral strategy in place.

If you want to give and receive support from people you know, you need to develop your strategic relationship-building skills.
And, if you’re growing your network online, you need to know how to get the best out of social media.

With two decades of experience in networking and professional relationships, Andy Lopata will show you the way.

LATEST FROM THE BLOG

The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring – Available Now

Professional Relationships

7 Relationship Mistakes That Cost Leaders Influence

In today's fast-paced and increasingly interconnected professional world, leaders who fail to approach their professional relationships strategically risk more than just missing potential opportunities. Influence, impact, and innovation all hinge on the strength and depth of those relationships. Here are seven common and costly mistakes that can erode your leadership capital - and some practical advice on how to avoid them.

Are You Using Authentic Language?

I recently ran a prompt on Chatgpt, asking it to identify ten blind spots in my business based on what it knows about me. It's an interesting exercise, one I recommend, and I'm working through the suggestions to see what I can take from each to further develop my work.

Teamwork

Surrounded by Idiots!: How to deal with badly behaved people at work

We've all worked with a Kevin. Maybe you’ve even been a Kevin. Kevin, who features in the book Badly Behaved People by Zena Everett, was the head of a computer services sales team, managing 15 people in an open office environment. He was a good manager - except for one blind spot: Kevin had a habit of losing his cool, often unleashing angry outbursts directed at his computer, phone, or even frustrated customers.

Asking for Support

‘Networking Advice Needed’

I was walking through the City of London on my way to a lunch meeting last week when I saw a young woman standing opposite The Bank of England holding up a homemade sign. Something about the sign caught my attention....

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

We worked with Andy Lopata on a series of executive sessions with an international bank.

Andy brought his expertise and tailored it specifically to the needs of the industry. His insights into leadership and vulnerability were particularly powerful, encouraging a shift from a traditional hierarchical approach to a more vulnerable and authentic leadership style.

Andy's techniques for building resilience, promoting psychological safety and addressing biases and behaviours were incredibly valuable. In addition, his focus on creating inclusive workspaces that respect diversity and foster trust has been instrumental in shaping a strong culture within the organisation.

In summary, Andy's sessions were insightful, highly tailored and a valuable resource.

After meeting Andy at our EMEA conference in May 2022, we started a working group with senior professionals from Latin America to implement his Relationship Matrix.

We have been working together and putting Andy's experience and expert advice into practice over the last few months to improve our networking.

In doing so, our small group have either identified or been introduced to 50 connections who can help them achieve their objectives and created 16 supporters or advocates who will proactively support them.

We organised a workshop with Andy for our business unit on how to leverage professional relationships. Andy delivered a highly engaging and first-class workshop for the cross-functional team which has led to a more strategic approach to building relationships both internally and externally.

Andy provides excellent content and practical advice for all. Within my team, I have seen a change in mindset particularly with regard to accessing difficult-to-see customers as a result of his methods :)

Andy delivered a great presentation on 'Meaningful Mentoring' at our recent conference. His passion and conviction for his subject are infectious and his delivery is excellent and engaging.

Delegates left the session energised and saying they would be encouraging their team to identify mentors and mentees in future and begin their own mentoring programmes.

Andy has been coaching and mentoring me over the past 12 months helping me to develop professional relationships and often beyond.

He is very experienced and is excellent at communicating his ideas in a way that I understood and was able to implement.

Through his encouragement and great advice, I have been able to advance and develop many of my existing relationships and, as a result, I have a much greater confidence in my own abilities as an advisor through their affirming feedback and increased referrals.

I have also felt more empowered to reach out to and engage with new people and develop new relationships.

Julia Montes Alonso - Mindset

Juan Garza - Expense Reduction Analysts

Mark James - Sobi

Samantha Davies - PM Forum

Dan Mindel - Cardano Advisory

Positively contributing to climate change

We believe in meeting our environmental responsibilities as a business, particularly one where national and international travel is often required.
To this end, we contribute monthly to the environmental organisation Ecologi. Ecologi facilitate the funding of carbon offset projects and tree planting around the world. Their mission is to reduce 50% of global CO2 emissions by 2040 and responsibly plant millions of trees every year.
You can find out more about Ecologi and their work here.

Author, Professional Speaker& Professional Relationships Strategist

Ready to proceed?