It’s the first day of fifth grade, my daughter got her fifteen minute warning sixteen minutes ago, and she’s still in bed under the covers.
“Can you turn off my fan?”
I enter her room ready to yell but something in her tone compels me to comply.
With the fan off, smiling, she throws off the covers and starts getting ready for school.
She’s been getting out of bed for the past 15 minutes, she tells me, but every time she throws off the blankets the cold from the fan chases her back into warm comfort.
And it gets me thinking about your Elevator Pitch.
Because even before COVID we all faced networking headwinds.
Leaving work, driving to the networking event, finding parking, driving home afterwards.
Sometimes it doesn’t seem worth the effort.
And while any particular event can seem like a waste of time, it’s important not to judge a networking event by the number of sales or the number of leads.
It’s better for your sanity to focus on the conversations.
Most conversations will be… Stilted. Awkward. Even painful.
But the good conversations – those are like a ray of sunshine through the clouds.
And good conversations with interesting people are the gold of networking.
Seek out good conversationalists.
Invite them to coffee.
Get to know them.
Develop trust.
That’s where leads come from – from the trust that develops over many conversations with people you enjoy talking to.
That headwind – expecting sales and leads from networking events –
Turn it off.
Don’t let it blow you off course.
Instead…
Expect to start conversations.
Expect to meet interesting people.
Expect to continue those conversations with those interesting people outside the context of the networking event.
That’s networking!