About Networking
‘About Networking’ Transcript
00:00:09:06 Hi everyone! I’ve made a New Year’s resolution for business
00:00:14:15 which was to go to more networking events in 2020.
00:00:19:23 I’m not a huge fan of networking events if I’m honest
00:00:23:23 It feels a little bit like dating, and I am not interested in doing that
00:00:29:11 I feel a little bit uncomfortable talking about our business and what we do
00:00:33:22 with completely random strangers who 9 times out of 10 are not that interested
00:00:38:21 but just waiting for their turn to talk about what their business is and what they do
00:00:42:18 So, I don’t love them, but in my role as MD of Lean Consulting it is part of my job
00:00:48:13 whether I like it or not. I’ve got to go out and generate new business.
00:00:51:15 I’ve got to go to these events. I also feel really uncomfortable
00:00:56:24 just walking up to a random stranger and starting to talk to them
00:01:00:10 and that’s really silly, I know, I do, and I know lots of other people out there
00:01:04:15 have the same problem. I’m quite an outgoing person but I still have that
00:01:09:22 moment of like, what if they don’t want to talk to me and that real feeling
00:01:15:07 of self-consciousness that happens before you initiate a conversation with someone
00:01:19:03 but most of that, if not, all of that is in my head and I just need to get over myself
00:01:24:16 and just go and do it. So, yesterday I went to my first networking event of 2020
00:01:30:10 I survived. It was actually quite a lot of fun. I didn’t have any problem
00:01:35:01 I walked straight up to someone that was standing on their own
00:01:37:12 and it was a morning networking session, so I said
00:01:40:24 “It’s pretty early, did you have to come from far? Did you have to travel far?”
00:01:45:09 and they started talking about where they live and where they work
00:01:48:15 and the conversation just went on really organically
00:01:50:24 and another guy came over and joined and went over and spoke to someone else
00:01:53:22 The whole thing was far more painless than I built it up to be in my head
00:01:59:06 so, I’m looking forward to doing some more networking events this year
00:02:03:13 and hopefully, they’ll go as well as that one did.
Recent Comments