Find Your Connection
Working for myself, I’ve been slowly attending more networking events, not only online but also in person. Lots of people. Lots of conversations.
With each conversation, I want to connect.
Be purposeful.
It’s easy to show up wanting to sell my business.
It’s easy to show up treating it like a performance.
It’s easy to show up nervous that it won’t go well.
Too many times we put pressure on ourselves to make a pitch.
Say it right.
Be perfect.
Instead, we should think of these events as an opportunity to learn, connect, and grow our network.
Michelle Golden’s TED talk highlights five questions to ask others at networking events to be a more effective conversationalist:
- Where do you work?
- What inspired you to do that? How do you do what you do?
- What do you like about what you do?
- What was your job like when you first started?
- How do you approach your job now?
By starting general, then digging deeper, you’ll learn more about the individual, a nugget of their job history, what they like about their job, what they’ve learned, what inspires them, and how they’re growing in their business.
Think of marketing yourself as facilitating a conversation with the other rather than constructing a thoughtful and persuasive elevator speech.
Think of tuning into the given audience and making the content of your message relevant.
Think of relating to your audience by listening to what they say and tying in part of your story.
Then, each networking event will have purpose and connection.
