The surprisingly heavy package from Amazon Prime turns out to be bird seed, so we haul it out on the back deck, help our daughters fill the bird feeder, then wait for the onslaught of birds…
On the first day,
No birds visit our bird feeder.
My youngest asks
“Why birdies not like food?”
I don’t have a good answer.
On the second day,
No birds visit our bird feeder.
My oldest, wiser to the ways of the world, asks
“Daddy, does the bird feeder need new batteries?”
I don’t have a good answer for that one either.
On the third day
A yellow finch
Success!
Sort of.
I mean, one bird.
Really?
One?
Why doesn’t he tell his friends?
Hey! Free food!
And it gets me thinking about your Elevator Pitch
Because that’s the attitude so many people take with their Elevator Pitch.
They put it out there
And then,
Disappointed by the lack of immediate response,
Then pull it back,
Grumbling that business networking doesn’t work.
Yet, just like food in the bird community
It takes time for your message to spread.
Days.
Weeks.
Sometimes more…
I’m working on an exciting opportunity this fall that has been years in the making.
Now that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait years to see results.
Far from it.
I’m willing to bet that your results are much closer than you think.
If you know where (and how) to look.
And, of course, this isn’t the first result I’ve gotten from business networking.
But it never would have appeared
If I hadn’t been consistently networking
For years.
That’s the beauty of business networking.
It’s gets better (and easier) the longer you do it.
If you attend one networking event then give up
It’s like pulling down the feeder.
You short circuit the whole process.
The process that brings
Avalanches of opportunities
To your door.
Patience.
The Elevator Pitch is a marathon.
Not a sprint.
Give it time to do its work.