Networking Audit: Who Has Your Back and Who Holds You Back
A networking audit in three steps, from Gil Petersil's CHANGES webinar: list your five people, review who gets your week, and start making introductions.
A networking audit is a scheduled review of who gets your time: the five people you spend the most of it with, who you gave your week to and why, and how many introductions you made. Gil Petersil, who has helped launch more than 200 masterminds and ran the first CHANGES webinar, uses it as the first exercise with new clients. His one-line summary of what it does: "It just helps you understand who's got your back and who's holding you back." Below is the audit in three steps, in his words and mine, with the parts of the recording where he explains each.
Why a networking audit before any networking
Most people answer "how good are you at networking?" with a seven out of ten and no evidence. Gil asks a different question: who are the five people around you, and where are they going? At the CHANGES webinar, from 1:22:08 (opens in a new tab), he put it bluntly. "You can be anything you want" is a lie if you do not have the right people around you. Describe your five, he says, and he can read your life without knowing anything else about you.
That is the point of the audit. Not to judge your friends, but to see the shape of your week before you decide what to change. Gil runs his every three months. I built a weekly version into the CHANGES mastermind, because the people around a founder in a new country change fast, and most of us never notice.
Step 1: Who has your back, who holds you back
Write down the five people you spend the most time with. Not the five you like most; the five who get the hours. Next to each, answer three questions:
| Question | What you are looking for |
|---|---|
| Where are they heading in the next two years? | Direction. Same as yours, different, or standing still |
| What do you talk about? | Problems, plans, or the same complaints as last month |
| What happened the last time you shared a goal? | Help, silence, or a reason it will not work |
The pattern shows up fast. One client of mine, a founder who had moved to Vilnius, found that four of his five were former colleagues from the job he had left, and every conversation pulled him back towards it. He did not cut anyone. He added two people a week from the world he was moving into, and the five changed on their own within a quarter.
Gil's warning on this is strict, and I agree with it: nobody gets where they want to go alone, and the wrong five will stop you with love. The right five do not need to be mentors. They need to be moving.
Step 2: Audit your calendar, inbox and WhatsApp
The five tell you about your circle. The calendar tells you about your week. At the webinar, from 54:22 (opens in a new tab), Gil described the habit that separates people at what he calls level three from the rest: auditing your calendar every week to see who you gave your time to and why, auditing your inbox for the calls you took, and asking of each one why you answered.
The weekly version takes twenty minutes on a Friday afternoon:
- Calendar. List every meeting. Mark each one: moved me towards the goal, maintained a relationship I want, or neither.
- Inbox and chats. Scan the people you replied to. Who did you give an hour to by text that you would not give a minute to by phone?
- Archive. Gil talks about cleansing and archiving people out of the network. I prefer a softer word: let the conversations that only drain go quiet. You do not need an exit speech.
- Count. How many of the week's hours went to the five from step one? How many to people who hold you back?
Do this four Fridays in a row and the calendar starts to look different without any dramatic decision. My post on time management techniques covers the other side of the same week: what to do with the hours you free.
Step 3: Make introductions
The audit ends with giving. Gil's benchmark for what he calls level four, at the same part of the webinar: "Level four is making introductions five to 10 times a week." Earlier, at 40:10 (opens in a new tab), he gave the rule behind it: "You want to show up in a network, be ready to make introductions." Then the question to ask yourself: in the past seven days, how many people did you introduce to each other?
Most people answer zero. Start with one a week:
- At the end of each conversation, ask what the person needs this month.
- Keep a short list of what the people around you are looking for: a supplier, a hire, a client, a doctor who speaks their language.
- When two items on the list match, send one message to both. Two sentences each: who the other person is and why you thought of them.
I said the same thing from the host's side during the webinar: one right introduction to the right person can change your life completely. Introductions are also how I fill my own pipeline, as I explain in LinkedIn personal branding for founders: giving comes first, and the clients follow.
The audit for a career change
Founders are not the only people who need this. If you are changing careers or starting over in a new country, the five people around you decide which jobs you hear about, which skills you pick up and whether you believe the change is possible at all. Run the same three steps with the new career as the target: who among your five works in it, who could introduce you to someone who does, and who tells you every week that it is too late. My guide on how to get your first clients starts with the same list of people who already know your work, for the same reason.
Run it with a group
Gil built the audit into his masterminds because a group holds you to it. The CHANGES mastermind does the same: a weekly call, a hot seat, and a standing question about introductions made. My notes on what a mastermind group is describe the format, and the full webinar with Gil is on that page with timestamps.
If you would rather run the audit one to one, it is the first exercise in my coaching for founders entering a new market. Book a call and bring your five. We start there.
Questions and answers
What is a networking audit?
A review of the people who get your time and attention, done on a fixed schedule. You list who you spend the most time with, who you gave time to in the last week and why, and who you introduced to whom. Gil Petersil, who runs the exercise with his clients, says it shows you who has your back and who holds you back.
How often should I audit my network?
Gil Petersil audits his every three months. I do a short version weekly, on Friday afternoon: calendar, inbox and chats, one line per person. The quarterly version goes deeper and changes who you spend time with.
Who should be in my five?
The five people you spend the most time with, not the five you like most. Write them down honestly, then compare where each of them is heading with where you want to be in two years. The audit is about direction, not about dropping friends.
How many introductions should I make?
Gil's benchmark for his level four is five to ten introductions a week. Start with one a week. The point is the habit of asking what the people around you need, and connecting two of them when you can.
Is a networking audit only for business owners?
No. The same three steps work for a career change: the people around you decide which jobs you hear about, which skills you pick up and whether you believe the change is possible. Employees, founders and job seekers run the same audit; only the target changes.
Work with me: Career and business coaching