I recently attended a Multi-Chamber Networking event that included several Chicago area north suburban chambers including Deerfield, Des Plaines, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Skokie and Wheeling.
I called several individuals after the event and asked them about their experience. Most of them shared with me that it was not a good use of their time.
I attended the same event and felt that I had a great experience!
Why did I have a great experience and feel that it was an excellent use of my time and at the same time; why do they feel that this was not a good use of their time?
What is the difference?
The most important questions that you should be thinking about and asking yourself before you walk through the doors to enter any networking event are:
How can I help the individuals that I am meeting today?
What can I give?
What expertise do I have that I can share?
Where & when can we meet again to learn more about each other?
Why should I invest more time with many of the individuals that I meet today?
Many individuals enter the networking event with “Baditude” instead of “Positive Attitude!”
They enter the event thinking about “What am I going to get?” When in life did we “get” something before “giving something”?
Yes, for many of us, our devoted parents and ancestors made incredible sacrifices before we ever breathed the words “Thank you!”
Then we grew up and got into real world and found out that a lot of giving comes before any getting!
For some reason, most of us enter a networking event expecting it to provide an outcome that is different than the rest of our life experiences. We want the rewards before paying our dues! We want a full-ride scholarship to Harvard with a C average! We want to be a member of the New York City Ballet after achieving an award at the Peoria Ballet Competition. We want to be an NFL Player after playing on the local community college football team!
Now is the time to change you mindset and enter every networking event thinking about what you have to give! We each have a wealth of expertise in our specialized field. Decide to bring immediate value to the conversation and share your expertise right now! Your unique value proposition will shine through. Individuals will want to know more about you and will be interested in taking the conversation to the next level. Set up the next steps; individual meetings with the intention of building long term trusting relationships.
We build long term relationships and are delighted to hear what our clients and business associates are sharing on Social Media!