For most of us the holidays are filled with celebrations, fun, and... stress. Whether it's getting just the right gift for someone or cleaning for a holiday party, there are a lot of things going on. One thing that doesn't need to stress you out: trying to decide the right way to share your holiday wishes with your networking partners! It's a Big, Hyper-Connected World It might seem like a small thing, but in the 21st century, our networks are wide-spread and very diverse. In fact, the most successful networks are heterogeneous (which is a fancy way of saying that there's a lot of different types of people in them). So it does make … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Add Some Swagger to Your Personal Brand
As far as personal brands go, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" is a pretty good one. Everyone knew who James Brown was and why he was so good at what he did. And it helped that he had his own personal hype man, Bobby Byrd, who would tell everyone James's many titles and sterling attributes before, during, and after his songs. Unfortunately for you, though, there's no hype man following you around who will brag about your professional track record. And we don't hype ourselves, either. We don't let our network know about our strengths, experiences, and the successes that we've had. This comes back to haunt us when we reach out … [Read more...]
The 6 Simple Secrets to Effective Holiday Networking
It's a cruel irony. As the end of the year approaches there are more demands on our time for festivities and celebrations and time with family. There's holiday travel and children off from school who need minding. There are parties to go to and presents to buy. And at the same time we also feel the looming pressure of year-end goals and unfinished plans. How can you balance working and personal fun during the holidays? Why Holiday Networking Rocks If you are building your professional network, it can seem like you have to take the holidays off. It can be much easier to throw our hands up and say, "I'll put my focus on my … [Read more...]
The Two Networks Young Professionals Need for Success
Who should I target when I'm looking to build my network? I mean, who should I actually go out and try to meet? Who should be on my radar? I don't even know where to start!!" This stream of questions came from a recent college graduate after I had spoken at an alumni networking event. She was running into a common problem that many young (and not-so-young) professionals face when starting their network: creating a connection strategy. It used to be that you would network with whomever was in your general physical location. With the arrival of LinkedIn, Twitter, and email, though, it's possible to research and reach out to professionals … [Read more...]
The 30 Minutes Between You and Your Dreams
I sent my latest draft of Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks and What to Do About It to the editor last week. I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about it. And a little surprised. If you had asked me at the beginning of the year if I could write a nearly 200-page book, I would have demurred and said that I didn't have the time or the patience to do it. Writing a book was a pipedream. So how did I do it? And why should you care, even if you don't plan on writing a book anytime soon? One Step at a Time Like many of us in this information-soaked age, my attention span is not the greatest. In addition I run my … [Read more...]
Someone in my Network is Talking Smack about Me!
"Don't wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig enjoys it." - Mark Twain I was talking with my massage therapist the other day, and as often happens, our conversation turned toward business development. At one point (right when she was working on the knot in my right shoulder), she shares, "Someone in my networking is bad-mouthing me, and I don't know what to do!" This is a big problem for her, because as a solo practitioner, she gets all of her clients on her own. She has built up a robust business solely on relationships in our community - both through client referrals and from the recommendations of various centers of … [Read more...]
Create a 19,900% Advertising Bump in 67 Seconds
A few months ago, I went to a birthday dinner for a friend at an Italian restaurant in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. It was a fun night - great conversation, delicious food, and pretty tasty wine. I'd never been to Saporia Trattoria before, but I had a good experience and I said to my girlfriend as we were leaving, "Hey, we should come back here sometime." Now, Chicago has a lot of great restaurants. So even though we enjoyed ourselves, it wasn't necessarily on the top of our list to get back. But I had signed up for their mailing list when we were paying the bill (I get excited when small businesses do marketing right so it's … [Read more...]
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