Lessons from a high-flying networker

Cathie Reid has friends in high places — soon they’ll be stratospheric as she prepares to ride on Virgin Galactic.

Cathie Reid’s networking is truly out of this world

There are many reasons to train as an astronaut on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spacecraft — and getting to know interesting people at zero gravity is one of them.

Brisbane-based Cathie Reid is already well-connected through her social life, her role as managing director of the Epic Pharmacy Group, her board positions and membership of business groups.

However, accomplished networkers such as Reid step outside their “comfort bubbles” and can build relationships anywhere.

So why not make friends in space? Reid’s husband Stuart Giles bought her a ticket and the first space flight should be in around a year’s time, depending on where Reid is in the queue of up to 700 ticketholders.

Reid says she has been keeping in touch with some of the people she met in training, and during their week-long retreats at Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands (naturally).

The other ticketholders are a mix of those who have scraped together whatever they could afford for a $US250,000 ticket, successful entrepreneurs and high net worth people.

“There are very few people you meet anywhere in life you don’t learn something from,” says Reid. “Everybody has their own interesting story and their own pathway to where they are today and, regardless of the circumstances that you meet people in, I find I am fascinated by peoples’ stories, by what they have done.

“It all just adds to your own learning and your own knowledge base,” she says.

The company she co-founded, Epic Healthcare Group, includes Epic Pharmacy, Epic Digital and the Epic Good Foundation. Epic also founded Icon Cancer Care, now part of the Icon Group, which is Australia’s fastest growing provider of integrated cancer care services.

Reid says she realised the power of networking across disciplines and groups when she joined three very powerful groups: the Telstra Business Women’s Awards Alumni (she was the National Business Owner Award winner in the 2011), Business Chicks and the Commonwealth Bank’s Women in Focus group.

“That is a powerful triumvirate for me because they have been able to introduce so many connections and make so many dots on that page. The friendship and the support and introductions from people who might be from a completely different industry, but the challenges of being a woman in business are the same and the desire and ability for us to open door for each other is incredibly powerful.”

Proving that you can discover and build a new business partnership anywhere, Reid met entrepreneur Dr Catriona Wallace at a Women in Focus dance in Port Douglas, and became an early financial backer of Wallace’s Flamingo Ventures.

Six years later, Flamingo is ASX listed and Reid the board chairman.

“If anyone had asked what was the best pathway to chairing an ASX-listed company, I doubt that anybody would say was to get themselves on the back of a half bed semi-trailer in the rainforest in South East Queensland,” she says.

“After a few champagnes and pretending you are a back-up singer, you start a conversation with somebody and, five years later, you find you are the chair of their company.”

While Reid has been talking about the importance of her female networking groups, it is worth noting there are no shortages of men in her contact file.

“I think when you are in business, meeting men is never a challenge. They are everywhere. There are very few events you go to that aren’t male-dominated still.”

Reid says she uses social media to keep tabs on her network. When they post something on Facebook, Instagram Twitter or Linkedin, it reminds her to get in touch.

Social media is also a lifeline when you live in one of the nation’s smaller centres.

Patrice Brown is an environmental adviser and board director, based in Rockhampton. Growing up on a remote cattle property in the Brigalow country in Queensland without electricity, a trip to town only occurred a few times a year.

Sent away to boarding school at the age of 12, she thought Rockhampton looked like New York.

Like Reid, Brown uses social media to tap into what are people are thinking and she makes sure she seeks out people with different opinions to her own.

“I’m networking with people I normally wouldn’t network with.

“I think the thing is always to have your eyes and ears open to what is working and what is going in the right direction. And remind yourself, on a daily basis, that you have only got one life,” she says.

She takes the same approach to dealing with all levels of government.

“If I ever get invited along to a political event, I will always go — whether or not I vote for these people. Eyes wide open, it is important to be able to listen to and appreciate all forms of government.

Brown is the CEO of CQC Consulting, non executive board director (Gladstone Area Water Board) and was Queensland Telstra Business Women’s Entrepreneur for 2016.

Brown says she maintains a contact list in a spreadsheet, with details about what people do. She has a good memory for people’s stories and she will often fill her staff in on who they will be meeting.

“Coming from the country, we do like to know who is who and how they are connected. I think that goes a long way in my networking because I care about the personal lives of people as well.

“It is remembering those stories.”