Tim was excited for his wife. She got a promotion with a new title and a nice raise. The only problem: They had to move from Atlanta to Denver. He's a freelance website designer and can work from anywhere, so he figured he can work from Denver just as easily. But once he gets there, he realizes that the network of colleagues, clients, and cohorts he had been plugged into is now missing. He's struggling to find work, doesn't know who to connect with, and a little depressed. How can you make sure that doesn't happen to you when you move to a new town? Starting Over Instead of Adding On It can be daunting enough to go to a party or … [Read more...]
The Right Way to Make a Networking Introduction
Remember "connecting the dots" when you were a kid? Starting with a page full of random points, you ran a line from dot to dot (following the numbers, of course) and got a picture of a flower, animal, or your favorite cartoon character. The "hidden" picture had revealed itself and you had a piece of art to hang on the refrigerator. Good networkers approach professional relationship-building in the same way. They find ways to make connections to create something that wasn't there before. One of the most fulfilling parts of networking is making connections between two people who could benefit from knowing each other. When you look … [Read more...]
The Cool Kids are Leveraging their Alumni Network on LinkedIn
Of all the networks we build in our lives, one of the earliest and deepest networks we create is that of our alma mater. People take their connection to their school seriously (just watch the boosters at any basketball game). The fundraising department at your school depends on that when they have students call and ask you for money. Take me for example. I'm a busy guy and I don't have a lot of spare time just laying around. But if you want to have 5 minutes of my time, call me and tell me when you graduated from Northwestern University. I'll definitely give you a few minutes. Use LinkedIn to Stay Connected In the past if you wanted … [Read more...]
How to Ask For Help On LinkedIn
One of the challenges with using social media for business is that it's so new. LinkedIn has over 500 million professionals on it, but it's not even 15 years old yet. It makes perfect sense that we're still grappling with how to actually use the platform in our day to day business lives. Especially because in business, there's a lot on the line. We know that if we post an embarrassing picture on Facebook, a few of our work friends might see it. But if we make a mistake on LinkedIn, all of our professional connections will see it and it could hurt our career. I was recently talking about how to ask LinkedIn connections for help with a … [Read more...]
5 Places You Should be Networking this Summer
I don't know about you, but once the thermometer hits 80 degrees the last thing I want to do is put on a suit and go to a networking event. Here in the Midwest, we try to squeeze in as much fun as we can in our seemingly too short summer. But that doesn't mean your networking should slow down in the summer. In fact, it should be hotter then ever; everyone's in great mood and there's a lot more sunshine! You just have to go where the people are. Here are 5 great places to network when the sun is out: 1. Cookouts Whether it's for your neighborhood association, your kid's little league team, or your church picnic, summer cookouts are … [Read more...]
3 Keys to Introducing Yourself to a Group
At some point in your professional career you are going to have to stand up in front of a group of people and introduce yourself. It might be at a formal networking event where everyone is going around the room and giving their “elevator speech”, or maybe it’s a professional conference where you are each introducing yourself during a seminar or a break-out session. Whatever the scenario, you are going to be standing in a room of strangers, telling them who you are. And like it or not, they are going to make judgments about you based on how you introduce yourself. They are going to decide how competent and skilled you are in your … [Read more...]