The art of networking.
As a young child I had what people called a presence. As I grew up I would be the girl who would be driving the car before I was of age, and purchasing the beer with either no ID or the fake ID. (And if that didn’t work, I was the one asking the older boys to buy…) I always got what I wanted because I was always able to ask, I truly cared for people and I was nice. But as the years passed by it became more and more challenging to carry this presence with me. I started modeling and life became weird, it was about who you knew, who knew you, and your networking abilities.
I remember being able to walk into any room and have all eyes on me. Totally overwhelming, I got use to it. I was young. I had my “hair,” “legs,” an outfit, my smile, and who was on my arm to make it easy.
There was a lot going on in my 20s, lots of people, lots of late nights, lots of truth or dare. Then it stopped. “It” meaning the magic, the ease. When I turned 26 my life fell apart and I was forced to make some fairly large decisions, I was to either turn left and end up in total tragedy, or turn right and try something else. I didn’t officially chose a direction, but a direction was definitely chosen for me.
I went underground for what seemed like an eternity, I had to stop doing everything that was familiar to me and learn how to live differently. I learned to blend in and be subtle. WOW that was a game-changer. I also learned the art of shaking hands, and NOT HUGGING!
Holy crap! Everyone in the industry gave hugs, I couldn’t stand it, but I was a part of the show, so I hugged too. (I hated smelling like other people, still do today…) During that time of discovery I even learned how to mix business and spirituality, how to turn the conversation about me to about you, where to invest my time/energy and truly evaluate my intentions with each relationship, it was an awakening time.
As I see it my journey to The World Domination Summit this week will be an entry point back into the working world and how I use to live all the time, my networking game is being turned on!
How am I going to do this? There is Tactic One— The “flow” plan, just show up and go with the flow, and then be disappointed if I don’t get the results I want… be totally tore up about not meeting someone or getting the information that I am looking for… that would be tragedy.
HA. NOT. No, I’m not just showing up… and going with the flow. Nope. I’m opting for Tactic Two — The “lose” plan. The whole goal of me going to this specific summit is to meet my people, people in my industry, people who I relate too, people who I want to play with… I want to meet these people live, in person. Who are they!? What do I need to do? I need to take straightforward actions. These are the very specific networking steps that I have planned out and will take:
- arrive early
- sign up for all activities that are intriguing to me
- say hello to people, smile!
- have business cards on me at all times and hand them out
- My business card is a bit quirky so it will be easy to talk to someone when I hand it over to them
- carry small pad of paper with me to take notes
- or install bump app
- pre summit send out invites to people I’m interested in meeting
- get on social media and talk about why I’m at the conference
- ask people how I can help them
- ask for business cards or contact information
- write follow up emails immediately upon meeting—that night and then the following week
- volunteer to clean up or help out where I can
- leave late
As the days go by I will let you know how it goes! My goal is fairly small – meet 100 people. Do you think I can do it?
What do you think?
Until next time.
Hugs, and cheerios.
Lane