Networking & connection 2:28 · Transcript included
Sally Burleigh, founder of SB PR, on the 3 steps to making real connections.
Whether you’re scaling a company or making waves in an industry, connections are a key part of the journey. Sally navigates rooms like few people can, so Jess asked her how she does it. Her answer is a simple three-step habit: do your research, use it to start a real conversation, then introduce people to others on the same journey.
Interviewed by Jess Wilson · Influential Women Series · The Pillars, Sydney · November 2026
Three steps to making real connections.
- 01Take a genuine interest. After meeting someone, Sally goes straight onto LinkedIn and reads their work history, hobbies, courses, school and degree. Next time you meet, you know more that’s relevant than two hours of small talk would tell you.
- 02Use it to cultivate a conversation. What you’ve learnt about someone gives you a real way in. A shared employer, a passion for racing cars, life as a dance mum: a core understanding of the person lets you break the ice straight away.
- 03Introduce them to like-minded people. Because she knows people’s backgrounds, Sally can connect them with others who share them. She especially loves putting founders together, so people who are nervous can meet others who’ve had the same ups, downs and challenges.
Full transcript
Lightly edited for readability.
Jess Wilson: …at the kind of ground level of it as well, when it comes to scaling a company, or even just making waves in an industry, connections are such a key part of it as well. And you, unlike anybody I’ve seen, navigate conversations or rooms. You are so good at knowing each person who’s there, and how their business might collaborate with another. You’re so good at making connections. How do you do that? Is that natural for you, or how does that come about?
Sally: Look, I think it is natural. I think that it is something that I’ve learnt from a very young age: any room I went into, I was always never overwhelmed by anyone who was in it.
Sally: But especially in this day and age, I always say, even I do that: I go straight home, or I pick up my phone and I go straight onto LinkedIn, and I link in with that person, and I go through their history. I go through their work history, or I might even go through their hobbies, or their courses, or it might be the school they went to, or the university they went to, or the degree they did. Somehow, when you see them the next time, you know more about them that is relevant than sitting there for two hours getting them to tell you about their story.
Sally: So first of all, I’ve taken interest in them. And second of all, I’m using that information to cultivate a conversation. And then third, I’m then able to introduce them to like-minded people, because I found out their backgrounds. And it means you can break the ice straight away with, you know, “She worked at your company,” or “She’s a dance mum,” or “He races cars,” or “He was a professional tennis player,” or something like that. That is a core understanding of that person, so they can just have a chat, and through that chat, then you can actually realise that there’s another reason that you’re speaking.
Sally: And I love doing that. And as you know, I do especially love putting founders together, because other founders need to see that other people are on the same journey. They might have had the same ups and downs, the same challenges, they might have had massive success, and then they can help support someone who might be feeling a little bit nervous, or not able to put one step in front of the other.
Sally: So I do love doing that. It’s absolutely my life purpose, I think, sometimes. But I genuinely love it, when you see people that might be a bit more nervous than I am, and can feel that they’re connecting.