Erudites Networking Group is a global networking group and community of like-minded business professionals interested in exchanging knowledge and ideas, encouraging, and facilitating referrals, and giving back to the community. Erudites began as an organic expansion of the innovative approaches founder Liz Capants was already using with her EBC Associates search consultancy firm, which she started in 2007.

Built on a reputation

With a philosophy of building long-term partnerships with companies and candidates, EBC was already coaching candidates on resume building and strategic interviewing as well as providing innovative ways to bring candidates and companies together. In a business that tends to be transactional, EBC is unusual in that its mission is to connect, refer, and provide other resources for candidates and companies. Adding networking opportunities to support businesses and executives in transition was a natural next move.

Erudites Networking Group was formally launched in 2018, and was holding twice-monthly meetings and curating corporate sponsored events to generate business growth in the New York City area, prior to the pandemic. As the resulting economic slowdown either displaced people from their jobs or prompted them to re-assess their careers, the group’s networking activities transitioned from in-person to online. The silver lining? Moving meetings to Zoom has allowed Erudites to expand globally, creating a broader and richer network of professionals who help spread the word about each other. Members of the Erudites Networking Group act as force-multipliers for each other, whether they are seeking to grow a business or seeking a new career opportunity.

In every adversity

The pandemic really ignited some of the things Erudites (and EBC Associates) had been doing. Erudites Founder, Liz Capants notes, “So many executives had to pivot and do something else that the focus turned to transferable skills. For many, there was a real challenge in moving from a corporate mindset – where your identify is tied to a position and a company — to a more entrepreneurial mindset in terms of selling and branding yourself, creating your story, and using social media channels to attract companies to you by sharing your expertise as a thought leader.” The most important thing is to take action in discovering what that change might look like and building a referral networking process, according to Capants. “Having the proper resources behind you and developing a referral network of people who know you and your capabilities and can refer and recommend you is key, and helps reinforce your brand.”

In networking, quality is more important than quantity. Capants notes that sometimes a deeper dive in a more select group with a collaborative approach gets better results and generates better referrals. “When you create a network of people who are endorsing and selling your services, this is so much more powerful than saying it yourself. That’s the basis of branding and referrals in a global networking group, which is what Erudites offers. This group evolved organically, through working with business owners and executives to help them network and connect, especially if they didn’t have the time available to network. In this group, members are actively working to market each other. The key is to always be able to network and have contacts you can tap. Who you know will be the key to getting that next job or landing the next client.”

Interested in learning more about membership in the Erudites Networking Group? We’d love to hear from you!