Faye McCann is a business mentor, and international speaker, working with business owners to help them become more visible , gain more clients and make more money.
She’s the founder of Faye Mac Consultancy.
Think about every major career move, every significant client, every breakthrough partnership you’ve ever had in your career or business to date.
I’d bet good money that most of them had a moment of in-person connection somewhere in that story.
The tech industry forgets this. With its focus on scaling, AI and automating we try to automate the most human part of business: connection. But actually the power of in-person communication is more powerful than ever before in 2026.
When you’re in a powerful room (really present, not half-distracted by your phone notifications), people remember you and buy from you. They remember how you made them feel. And in an industry where everyone is competing for attention online, being someone people physically remember is a superpower!
Speaking on Stages: The Fast-Track to Authority
If there is one thing that has accelerated my visibility and the growth of my business more than anything else, it is getting on stages globally. Not podcasts but in-person stages, in actual rooms, in front of actual audiences.
The person who can stand on a stage and translate business and industry into something compelling, inspiring, and actionable becomes the person everybody wants to work with. Everybody wants to hire. Everybody remembers.
My signature messaging talk is built around exactly this idea. Because your messaging on social media is key. Get your message right and the doors open. Get it wrong and you can have the best product in the room and still leave with nothing.
I’ve had bookings that took me from Newcastle to Dubai, Miami, Singapore, and beyond, not because I’ve got the biggest social media following, but because I turned up, gave everything on those stages, and left rooms full of people who felt something. My sessions use audience interaction and 60-second challenges so that by the time I walk off that stage, everyone in that room feels like they’ve already taken a step forward. That’s what you want when you speak: not applause, but action.
Get comfortable being in front of people. Your message is worth being heard.
Retreats: Where Transformation Actually Happens
Online learning is brilliant. I offer it, I use it and I advocate for it in the businesses I help mentor. But the fastest, most lasting transformation happens when you take people out of their normal environment and put them somewhere different, like hosting a retreat.
There is something that happens on a retreat, when you’re away from the emails, away from the daily noise, surrounded by people who are all there with serious intention.
My retreats — from the Essex Retreat to the Thailand experience — are not holidays with a bit of business bolted on for fun. They are immersive, high-energy experiences designed to crack open what’s been holding you back and give you the clarity, the strategy, and the community to move at a completely different pace.
The principle is always the same whatever industry or part of the world you are in: surround yourself with the right people, in the right environment, with no distractions. The results speak for themselves. People leave having made decisions they’d been sitting on for two years. They leave with partnerships formed at dinner that turn into six-figure collaborations.
For tech professionals specifically, retreats offer something uniquely valuable: the chance to think at a strategic level, rather than just the operational one. When you’re always in the business and workplace, you rarely get time to work on the direction of the business. A retreat forces that space. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your own growth.
Attending events to make connections
I hold my own events which are all about helping business owners be challenged and stretched, along with strategy sessions that get into the real stuff.
Events aren’t just about speaking on stages, simply being in the audience (and a room full of people who get it can really help). Hosting your own events can take this to the next level because you can control and cultivate the connections.
How to network-even if you don’t feel ready
- Find your event and commit. Go as you are. The most valuable thing you bring to any room is your authentic self.
- Start small with stages, like a local breakfast networking event or a panel at an industry meetup. Every time you speak in front of people, you get more comfortable, more compelling, and more known.
- Invest in a retreat. The ROI on the right retreat is unlike anything you’ll experience.
- Go into every room to give, not to get. The people who win at networking are never the ones who walk in calculating what they can extract.
- Be in the room. That’s where the conversations happen that change everything!
