Business people, I have a question for you. How you answer it could be the difference between living a life of mediocrity and one of abundance. Here it is:
When you network, are you “working the room”, or are you “building your future”?
The differences come from both your Attitude and your Actions. Let me explain.
When you go to an event because your boss makes you, you will just work the room.
When you go to an event with the mindset of meeting people to whom you can sell your product, service, or business opportunity, you are mostly just wasting your time…and annoying the people you meet!
When you just go through the motions, do your 30 or 60-second “elevator speech” a bunch, and grab business cards, you are doomed to failure.
You see, those mindsets and actions are what the majority of people do…who also are doomed to failure.
Please know this: that is what I used to do, too. I HATED to network! My personality is that of an Introvert. At any gathering, I would rather be having a root canal than get around a lot of people I do not know.
A couple of years ago, I was at a networking event. The speaker – interestingly enough – was there to discuss how to network better. She started her talk asking the audience to shout out their answers to this question: “On a scale of 1-10, how comfortable are you networking?” I heard a bunch of answers – everything from very low to very high. As everyone got quiet, and just before the speaker was about to say something, I piped up and said, “point 8!” That’s right: less than a 1. She – and the audience – laughed.
After the meeting, a friend of mine named Walter came up to me and said in all seriousness, “How dare you, Scott?” I thought he was being funny. He was not. I said, “What do you mean, Walter?” He said, “How dare you say point 8? You are one of the best networkers I know.”
I said, “Thank you, Walter. But her question was not ‘How GOOD are you?’. It was ‘how COMFORTABLE are you?'”
I went on to tell him how I am wired socially to be a wallflower. It is just that I DECIDED to become a great networker. I DECIDED to have a great attitude about meeting new people. And here is the key:
I DECIDED to meet people in order to see how I could SERVE THEM.
That’s right: I quit going to events to meet people just to make my prospect list bigger. I started going to meet new people in order to see how I could connect them with someone else, how to educate them about the area if they were new to town, etc. I went to events to be a connector, a helper, a servant. Here is the funny thing that resulted:
I was blessed in return.
Over time, people started seeing me as a man who wants to serve others. As a result, people started connecting me with other people who they thought could help me in business. That is the right way to network…and, in my opinion, the right way to live.
Go forth and serve others. You will be blessed!
