What If Networking Didn't Feel Like Networking?

What if networking didn't feel like networking? In this episode, H.B. and Robin Pasley sit down with Nate Jorgensen of Firestorm to flip the script on one of the most dreaded parts of growing a business. Forget the elevator pitch and the sweaty-palmed small talk — Nate shares three simple questions that turn any room full of strangers into a web of strategic relationships. If you serve the hospitality industry, own a commercial space, or just want to grow your business without feeling like you're selling your soul, this one's for you.

Welcome to Design To Help Your Business Grow, where we design the unforgettable.

If you need to create unforgettable experiences, then branded interior design is your secret weapon … because we don’t do boring.  Design to Help Your Business Grow. Pasley Commercial Interiors.

Transcript

Networking Without the Pitch

Design to Help Your Business Grow — Pasley Commercial Interiors Podcast

Season 2026, Episode 1 | H.B. Pasley, Host | Robin Pasley, Design Principal | Guest: Nate Jorgensen, Firestorm

H.B.: Nobody really wants to walk into a gathering with that nervous, sweaty feeling — like every person you meet is someone you're going to have to pitch. That anxiety is real, and it gets in the way of something far more valuable: genuine connection.

Robin: Totally.

H.B.: It doesn't even matter what your opening line is. When you lead with curiosity instead of a sales agenda, the whole room opens up.

Robin: "Who let you in?" — that's actually my opener. Works every time.

H.B.: (laughs) That's exactly why it works. People want to tell a story they already know. Let them.

Welcome to the 2026 season of the Design to Help Your Business Grow podcast. I'm H.B. Pasley — founder, growth advocate, and co-host here at Pasley Commercial Interiors in Colorado Springs. With me as always is Robin Pasley, our founder and design principal — and yes, I'm also married to her. We are a commercial interior design firm and contract furniture dealership, and our whole philosophy is this: your space is your brand. We specialize in spatial branding — integrating your business identity directly into your physical environment — with a particular focus on hospitality interior design, medical office interior design, and commercial office spaces across Colorado.

This season we're leaning hard into the hospitality space. If your business is about hosting human beings and delivering an unforgettable branded experience — whether that's a boutique hotel, a restaurant, a medical aesthetics practice, or an event venue — this podcast was built for you.

Today's guest is Nate Jorgensen with Firestorm, a B2B relationship-based networking organization with chapters across Colorado. Nate, introduce Firestorm.

Nate: At its core, Firestorm is business-to-business, relationship-based networking. It's about building strategic partnerships so that you can make more money — and do it by genuinely helping other people first.

H.B.: What business owner isn't interested in that? So tell us — how did you get connected with Firestorm in the first place?

Robin: I'll take credit for that one. H.B. met you and then connected us.

H.B.: That's right. Nate and I actually met up in Denver — our mutual friend Steven Van Dies had a great group together. Good people, good bourbon. Nate, tell us what your experience with networking was before Firestorm, because I think it's a story a lot of our listeners in the hospitality and commercial design world will recognize.

Robin: I've always been a people person — but I hated networking. My only prior experience was one of those groups where you punch a card, check a box, and basically show up to be sold to. I went once. That was enough. I would have rather cold-knocked doors than walk back into that room. So when H.B. introduced me to Firestorm, my first reaction was — can't you just do this for me?

H.B.: (laughs) I remember that conversation exactly. And here's what was interesting — there was a real gap in that moment between what networking actually is at its best and what most people think it is. The best version of networking isn't selling. It's building a relational environment where the goal is to get the other person to win.

That's actually very close to how we think about commercial interior design. We're not just specifying contract furniture or choosing a color palette. We're creating a branded interior environment — a physical space that communicates your values before you say a single word. The room does the work for you. That's spatial branding.

H.B.: Okay — let's give our listeners something they can actually use today. A lot of my clients — hospitality operators, medical spa owners, commercial real estate developers — tell me the same thing: "H.B., I love what I do and I love my clients, but I dread walking into a networking event." What's the practical advice? How do you walk into a room and show up generously instead of desperately?

Robin: Three questions. That's all it takes. The first one is: "What brought you here tonight?" It's about how they got to this specific event — which almost always involves a person. That question opens a story they already know how to tell.

Nate: Is that literally the first thing you say when you walk in?

Robin: "What brought you here tonight?" — yes, that's the opener.

Nate: So you're talking about the actual live interaction, right there in the room.

H.B.: This is the real script. And here's what I love about it — you don't need to know a single person in that room. You don't need a business card or an elevator pitch ready. Just be genuinely curious about how they got there.

Robin: Exactly right.

H.B.: You can even admit it's your first time. The question gives you permission to be a beginner. "How did you get here?" opens the door for both of you.

Robin: (laughs) "Who let you in?" — that's my version.

H.B.: Because everybody wants to tell something they already know. Most people at a networking event are just as nervous as you are. They're not quite sure what they're supposed to be doing. But they do know how they got connected — and that's an easy, comfortable story for anyone to tell.

Robin: The second question is: "What's been great about the last six months?" And the third is: "What's a problem you've been trying to solve?" That last one is where the real magic happens — because now I know exactly how to connect them with someone else in my network.

H.B.: That's the whole philosophy underneath all three questions: I am genuinely interested in you. Not in what you sell, not in what you can do for me — in you. And people feel that. It's not a tactic, it's a posture.

Robin: Yeah.

Nate: That's Robin to a T. Anytime you're in conversation with her, you just feel completely at ease. There's no agenda in the room.

H.B.: And here's what I love most about those three questions — none of them ask the one that goes nowhere: "So, what do you do?" That question sends everyone straight into utility mode. It's like asking: what's your function? What do you sell? What's your ROI to me right now? Dead end. But those three questions? They tell you why someone does what they do, what matters to them, and who they are. That's way more interesting. And — everybody's favorite topic?

Robin: Themselves.

Nate: Exactly. Getting someone to talk about themselves is actually pretty easy. The 80/20 rule at any networking event: let them talk 80% of the time, you talk 20% through great questions. Ask, then kick it back to them when they ask about you. You're making deposits into the relationship bank account in real time. They walk away thinking that person is exceptional — not even realizing they did most of the talking.

H.B.: Let's talk about the Firestorm framework. Give us the origin story and the structural foundation — what does someone actually get when they join?

Nate: Firestorm was founded by Phil Pelto in Minnesota. At the time, he was selling custom suits and trying to reach the C-suite — but they wouldn't give him the time of day. So instead of pitching harder, he started identifying who else had relationships with his ideal clients. He built friendships with those people first, and they made the introductions. That strategy — identify your strategic centers of influence, build genuine relationships with them, let them open the doors — that is the Firestorm model.

H.B.: And you feel it immediately when you meet anyone in the Firestorm community. The first thing they want to know is who your ideal client is — so they can help you find them. That's rare. Every time I meet someone in the organization — even after 15 minutes — they're already thinking about your ideal client. Not their own.

Robin: Right.

H.B.: Who are you after, and why? And is there someone I know who could get you closer to that person? That's the spirit. Walk us through the structure — what do members show up to? What do they get?

Nate: There are 17 chapters from Colorado Springs to Loveland, plus a few virtual chapters. Chapters run 14 to 18 members, capped at 22. Meetings are weekly, one hour and fifteen minutes, same agenda every time. Each seat in a chapter is industry-exclusive — no conflicts when it's time to make a referral. The membership platform includes a full learning management system: how to build your ideal client profile, how to identify your strategic centers of influence, how to make introductions, and how to build, nurture, and leverage relationships over time.

H.B.: So everything we've touched on in this conversation — that's essentially the curriculum.

Nate: Exactly. It's the blocking and tackling. You can watch every video, read every book. But to know and not do is to not know at all. The discipline of actually applying these fundamentals — consistently — that's where the results come from.

H.B.: Robin, you had something to share about specific impact — something Firestorm has done for you personally.

Robin: Besides the fact that I actually like networking now and I used to dread it — so thank you for that.

Nate: (laughs) Well done.

Robin: One of the things I love is the sheer size of the Denver network. As a member, I can attend any chapter meeting or social event across the whole Colorado network. I could literally fill my week with Firestorm events. But here's what matters — it's not just calendar filling. It's calendar filling with like-minded networkers. Every one of those events, I walk away with strategic connections that are actually relevant to the work we do at Pasley. Hospitality clients, commercial real estate partners, marketing professionals who serve the same B2B space we do. The quality is consistently high.

H.B.: Nate, I want to turn this around and ask for your strategic advice. We've learned over the last few years that some of our best and most energizing commercial interior design work lives in the hospitality space — boutique hotels, restaurant interior design, event venues, medical aesthetics clinics. These are clients who deeply understand that their physical space is their brand. If you were advising Pasley Commercial Interiors on building a stronger hospitality footprint in Colorado — where do you start?

Nate: First: get hyper-specific about the type of hospitality client you want to serve. Location, revenue range, project size. Get that ideal client profile crystal clear. Then ask: who else is serving that same client? Think broadly — digital marketing agencies, SEO firms, commercial real estate brokers who specialize in hospitality, business brokers, social media consultants, merger and acquisition advisors. These aren't your competitors. These are your strategic centers of influence. Build real relationships with those people, learn who they love to work with, and see where your ideal clients overlap. That's where referrals flow naturally.

H.B.: Notice what just happened — Nate answered that question for us, but he also answered it for every business owner listening who's trying to figure out how to build a healthy network. The framework is universal.

Here's an analogy I keep coming back to. Think about the difference between a spider's web and a fishing net. In a web, there's one spider at the center, and everything that gets caught serves the spider. In a net, every knot holds the structure together — and what you catch feeds the whole community. Most people think networking means going out with a rod and reel, trying to land one client at a time. That's exhausting and lonely. What Firestorm is doing — and what we try to do here at Pasley Commercial Interiors — is building a net of relationships held together by shared values, shared clients, and shared goals. You catch more, and you share more. That's how a thriving commercial interior design community in Colorado actually gets built.

H.B.: If someone listening wants to connect with Firestorm, what's the move?

Nate: Head to myfirestorm.com — all the contact information is there. Call me, text me, email me, or send up a smoke signal. And if you visit as a first-time guest, there's a free download that walks you through building your ideal client profile and mapping your strategic centers of influence. It's a great place to start.

H.B.: That resource is genuinely useful — we've used it ourselves. Thanks for being here, Nate.

Nate: Thanks for having me. Always.

If you're ready to create an unforgettable experience for your clients, branded commercial interior design is your most powerful asset — because we don't do boring.

Design to Help Your Business Grow.
Pasley Commercial Interiors | pasleycommercialinteriors.com | Colorado Springs, CO