I, Jess, have been in business long enough to know that most of the advice about growing an agency is wrong.

Post more content. Run ads. Build a funnel. Optimize your SEO. Hire a VA so you can focus on higher-level work.

None of that is bad advice. Most of it is genuinely useful. But none of it has moved the needle for Up After Studios the way one thing has: being in the rooms with people who actually run business.

Q1 in 2026 is almost over. And the clearest thing I can say about what’s working right now is this: the content is the credibility. The room is the pipeline.

Why networking got a bad reputation (and why it deserves a second look)

Networking as a PR problem. The word conjures a certain image: a conference room, bad coffee, a stack of business cards you’ll never look at again, conversations that feel like auditions.

That version of networking doesn’t work. It never really did.

But there’s another version: the kind where you actually build relationships with people who respect your work and think of you when someone they know needs what you do. That version works extraordinarily well. It’s just slower and it requires showing up consistently rather than transactionally.

Most of my best client relationships started with a conversation. Not a cold email. Not an ad. A conversation with someone who already trusted me or was trusted by someone who did.

The difference between being in a room and showing up in one

I joined Powerful Women Rising this year. It’s a networking group for women in business and I want to be honest about why I was skeptical before I joined: I’d been in enough groups that were more about vibes than value and I didn’t have time for that. What changed my mind was specificity. The group is designed around actual business owners doing actual things. The conversations are real. The connections are warm. And the expectation is that you show up, not just that you pay dues.

That’s the difference I’ve been thinking about: being registered for a group vs actually showing up in it. The former is a line item. The latter is where the business actually comes from.

Showing up in a room means coming with something to offer, not just something to ask. It means following up. It means being the person who refers someone else before you ask to be referred.

What Q1 actually taught me

I set a goal at the start of 2026: networking over content volume. Content builds credibility. Networking builds pipeline. I wanted to get the ratio right.

Here’s what I’ve learned three months in:

• Content and networking aren’t competing priorities, they’re compounding one. The content gives you something to talk about in the room. The room gives you real problems to write about in the content.
• The best conversations I’ve had this quarter started with someone saying “I saw that thing you posted about…”
• Your reputation travels faster in rooms than in feeds. One genuine conversation with someone who knows 10 people in your target market is worth more than 30 LinkedIn posts to an audience that may not need your services or products.
• The follow-up is where 90% of the value lives. Most people are good at the introduction. Almost nobody is consistent about the follow-through. If you want to stand out in networking, the bar is genuinely low: just follow up when you say you will.

What this means practically for Q2

For the rest of 2026, my focus is simple: two networking events per month minimum, consistent follow-up, and content that’s good enough to be worth referencing in a conversation.

I’m not chasing follower counts or worried about going viral. I’m building a business that grows the way it has always grown best: through trust, through relationships, through doing work worth talking about.

If you’re an established business owner who’s been treating networking as a “when I have time” activity, I’d gently push back on that. The time is now. The room matters. Showing up consistently in the right ones is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for your business in 2026.

The content is the credibility. The room is the pipeline. You need both.

One more thing before Q2

If you’ve been following along this quarter (reading the blog, seeing the posts, lurking on Threads), thank you. Genuinely.

Up After Studios is a boutique agency doing big work for clients who care. If you know someone who needs a partner for their website, social media, or brand — our Referral Program is live. When someone you refer becomes a client, you both win.

And if you want to understand where your own business marketing trends heading into Q2, the FREE Marketing Audit is here. Brand, web, GBP, social, lead gen — all in one place.

See you in Q2.
Cheers, Jess