Lessons in Networking

When I became my own boss, I began networking like my life depended on it. (It kind of did!) I sat down and brainstormed a list of people that I should reach out to and ask if they’d be willing to meet for coffee or lunch. (This was pre-COVID, clearly.) The list included people like my former boss, people who were well-respected and well-connected in their networks, and people who ran their own businesses or were in consultant-type roles.

I began chipping away at the list and noticed some interesting things:

  1. Everyone I asked was willing to meet with me. Maybe this won't come as a shock to you but as a new entrepreneur at the time, I was worried that my ask for a meeting might be inconvenient to people. I was deeply appreciative that people were willing (and often very excited) to give me some of their valuable time.

  2. For almost every meeting I had and crossed one person off the list, I added at least 1 more person to the list based on my conversations. After learning about someone's journey and sharing where I saw myself going with my new business, the people I met with naturally thought of others that I should be talking to. This made the process of keeping my networking ball in motion pretty easy.

  3. I didn't need to have a lot prepared ahead of time. The first few meetings were with people I knew pretty well so I didn't feel a need to prepare a list of questions or do research on them in advance. This helped me gain confidence and a sort of rhythm that worked well as I started meeting with people whom I had no previous experience talking with. I always made sure to check out their LinkedIn profile so I had some familiarity with their background, and having 1-2 very open-ended questions always seemed to propel the conversation forward in productive ways.

I know that networking doesn't come easy to everyone so my hope in sharing these takeaways is that you get some ideas and gain the confidence that you, too, can be a great networker!

I'm curious to know, what do you find to be the most challenging part of networking?

Previous
Previous

“In God we trust. All others bring data.”

Next
Next

Why You Need to Relentlessly Prioritize Customer Service