Networking can be intimidating, an energy drain or ….extremely productive. Some 40-something and 20-something tips on how to make it easier.
When I go to networking events, what I found is that if I go early, there are so few people that I can get in a meaningful conversation. There are the events where you already know it will be meaningful. But sometimes you don’t know until you get there if it is going to be meaningful to you. More often than not, it’s the organizers that are the ones that know everyone, or are the experts in the topic you are interested in. So you can have a conversation with them before they get distracted greeting one person after another. You can also find out who the key people to meet are. So just go early. And only have one glass of wine. – 20-something, 7×7 Mentoring Salon
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At the beginning of the year map out the 5 or 10 people that you want to meet. Put them on a list and throughout the entire year research and strategize how to build relationships that can connect you to those people…and meet them. Make it your goal. For me, I don’t care so much about going to every event and meeting every person. I mean it’s great to meet other people but I have very specific people that I want to meet and know what I want to learn from them. I think it makes it really impactful. Often women don’t network as much as men and therefore don’t make those meaningful connections. When we slow down and actually figure out, “Where am I right now? Who can I connect with who can get me to the next level? How can I meet that person?”, it is going to help build meaningful relationships. You can meet fewer people and actually get personally or professionally to that level that you want to go next. – 40-something, 7×7 Mentoring Salon
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I think there’s something about being extremely strategic in this world we live in. We have so much information coming at us. I am extremely strategic when I go to a networking event. The bigger it is, the more closely I look at that list and see who the people who I need to meet are. I research and identify events where there are a lot of people or that are in a format that will be extremely productive. Then I look at the entire room and say, “The people I need to meet are in that corner. That’s the corner that I need to be in.” So being really strategic about it. – 40-something, 7×7 Mentoring Salon