Most business owners are networking plenty and still not seeing the referrals they expected. The Develop Your Champions Workshop walks you through the four phases of ChampionOS™ that turn casual contacts into Champions who actively grow your business.
Develop your Champions Workshop — Second (2nd) Thursday of each month from 11–12 PM ET
Learn how to use ChampionOS™ and Connect, Serve, and Ask® to intentionally turn professional connections into trusted Champion Relationships. Leave with a clear, proven system for building relationships that open doors and grow your business.
The Problem: Plenty of Networking, Not Enough Referrals
Ask a room of business owners one question: who feels like they’re networking a lot but not seeing enough real referrals? Most hands go up.
It isn’t for lack of effort. They go to the meetings, collect the cards, connect online, and promise to follow up. What they don’t have is a system for what happens next. Casual contacts stay casual, and the few referrals that do arrive feel random.
There’s a name for the difference. Business networking is opportunity: you show up and see what happens. Word-of-mouth marketing is intentional: you build toward it on purpose. And in my experience, Referral Partners are less predictable than Champions. A Referral Partner shares your target market. A Champion is fully invested in your success, the way you are in theirs.
The Develop Your Champions Workshop is the how. It’s built on ChampionOS™, the framework H7 uses to turn casual contacts into Champions who actively grow your business. It’s practical and immediately usable: not theory to admire, but steps to take this week.
WHAT IS A CHAMPION?
A Champion isn’t defined by titles or income.
A Champion:
🚩Shows up consistently
🚩Leads with intention
🚩Builds real relationships
🚩Executes when others hesitate
At H7, we build Champions—on purpose.
What Happens in the Workshop
The goal is to equip you with the ChampionOS™ framework so you can intentionally build high-trust Champion relationships that create opportunities, collaboration, growth, and long-term business impact.
You walk through four phases, in order:
- Open the Door. How Champions show up.
- Build the Bridge. How Champions listen differently.
- Earn Confidence. How Champions create collaborative opportunities.
- Become Champions. How Champions build ecosystems, not isolated referrals.
Each phase works the same way. You learn the idea, then you take part in it: the room shares its own ways Champions handle that phase, so what you take home includes what the people next to you are already doing. The facilitator adds a real story from a real relationship, and the key points go into the chat so you leave with them in writing.
The workshop closes with a 7-day commitment: one action to move someone closer to Champion.
Here is each phase, and what it asks of you.
Phase 1: Open the Door
How Champions show up.
Champions arrive with clarity, curiosity, and intentionality. They build real connection and look for alignment before they look for opportunity. Curiosity, listening, energy, and a generosity mindset do the work a pitch can’t.
Three habits make the first interaction count:
- Show up prepared. Know who you are, who you help, and the kinds of opportunities you’re looking for.
- Schedule the next conversation before you leave. Don’t leave a promising connection to chance. Book a meaningful follow-up Connect, Serve, and Ask® one-to-one before the meeting ends.
- Share your story. Your three words and a short personal introduction help others understand who you are, what you value, and how you help.
One small move makes the follow-up land: put why you’re meeting, including any help they offered, into the calendar invitation or scheduling link. The meeting has a purpose before it starts.
After roughly 1,000 one-to-ones, I noticed that the conversations that went somewhere all had one thing in common: we’d found real common ground before we talked business. That’s Open the Door, and everything after it depends on it.
This week: before your next meeting, get clear on who you help and the opportunities you want, and book the follow-up before you walk out.
Phase 2: Build the Bridge
How Champions listen differently.
Champions build trust by listening with intent. They lead with curiosity, empathy, and genuine interest instead of pitching themselves, and they listen for specific things: the other person’s goals, challenges, priorities, opportunities, and what success looks like for them. That’s how you learn how people win, and where the hidden opportunities and leverage points in a relationship are.
Listening is half of the bridge. The other half is a clear, intentional ask, so others understand the opportunities, relationships, and connections that are most valuable to you. A vague ask gets a vague answer. A clear ask gives someone something to act on.
Both halves showed up in the conversation that changed how I think about one-to-ones. By December 2016, I’d done nearly 1,800 of them. In one, a financial advisor named John Altieri stopped halfway through and asked, “How can I help you?” I gave him a specific ask: the industries and roles I wanted to meet. He came back with 11 introductions. Eleven, from one conversation. He had listened well enough to ask the right question, and I answered clearly enough for him to act.
This week: in your next conversation, find out what success looks like for the other person before you say a word about yourself, then have a clear ask ready for when it’s your turn.
Phase 3: Earn Confidence
How Champions create collaborative opportunities.
Confidence is earned through collaboration, not claimed in an introduction. Champions create opportunities by aligning strengths, connecting ecosystems, and co-creating value that helps everyone grow together. The tools are practical: strategic introductions, resource sharing, and wins you build with someone rather than for yourself.
Three moves drive it:
- Look for collaborative overlap. Identify shared audiences, aligned values, complementary services, and mutual growth opportunities. Where those overlap, there’s something to build.
- Share a short success story. A clear example of the value, transformation, or results you create for others makes your work concrete and easy to repeat.
- Make it easy for others to recognize opportunities for you. Communicate your ideal clients, your strategic partners, and the problems you solve best. People can only refer what they can recognize.
It all comes back to proof. Words about your value don’t earn confidence. A story with results, a useful introduction, and a resource shared at the right moment do.
This week: write a short success story and a one-line description of the problems you solve best, then share both with one person who should know them.
Phase 4: Become Champions
How Champions build ecosystems, not isolated referrals.
This is where a relationship stops being a series of favors and becomes a shared growth engine. Champions build long-term ecosystems through consistent collaboration, mutual support, shared accountability, and ongoing opportunity creation.
A Champion is someone who shows up consistently, leads with intention, builds real relationships, and executes when others hesitate.
It isn’t an accident, and it isn’t one-sided. Champions intentionally decide to support each other, and they back that decision with mutual commitment, consistency, and long-term growth alignment. I’ve watched it happen when trust, alignment, consistency, and opportunity come together and two people become Champions for each other. The rhythm below is how you create that consistency on purpose.
The mechanism is simple: recurring strategic conversations, not random or reactive communication. Set a Champion Opportunity Session™ every 4–6 weeks with a short agenda focused on opportunities, collaboration, introductions, goals, and growth. Put it on both calendars.
This week: pick the one relationship closest to Champion and schedule the first session.
Why Every Business Owner Belongs in This Room
If you grow your business through relationships, this workshop was built for you. The reasons you might skip it are the reasons it matters.
“I’m already networking a lot.” That’s the problem it solves. Activity isn’t the issue. What happens after the first meeting is, and that’s exactly where the four phases pick up.
“Referrals are already coming in.” Good. Are they predictable? Referral Partners are less predictable than Champions. The workshop shows you how to turn the relationships you already have into a rhythm instead of a surprise.
“I don’t have time for more meetings.” The framework replaces random, reactive communication with a short recurring conversation every 4–6 weeks. It’s designed to put your time where it compounds.
“I’m not sure anyone would want to be my Champion.” Champions are chosen from both sides, through mutual commitment. The first phase asks only that you show up clear, curious, and generous. You don’t have to start by asking for anything.
“I’m new to this.” Phase 1 begins at the very first conversation, so it works wherever your relationships are right now.
What You Leave With, and What Comes Next
You leave the Develop Your Champions Workshop with four things you didn’t have when you walked in:
- A framework. The four phases of ChampionOS™: Open the Door, Build the Bridge, Earn Confidence, and Become Champions.
- Practical moves for each phase. What to do before, during, and after every conversation.
- The room’s best ideas. The key points from each phase, in writing, plus what other owners are already doing.
- A 7-day commitment. “In the next 7 days, I will ___,” one action to move someone closer to Champion, said to the room.
When you master these four steps, you stop just networking and start building a small circle of Champions who reliably grow your business.
Join us live
- Develop Your Champions Workshop: Thursday, October 8, 11 AM–12 PM ET
- RSVP: Reserve your spot
If you’d rather start with yourself, the Become a Champion Workshop is next: Wednesday, October 21, 2–3 PM ET. Sign up here.
Champions aren’t born. They’re built.
Clay Hicks
Founder & CEO, H7 Network
After 10,000 recorded one-to-one conversations, I built Connect, Serve, and Ask® — the relationship methodology behind ChampionOS™. My purpose is simple: lift others up, unite them, and take no credit for their success.
Find a group near you and see it in action.
