Meet for lunch?
Never eat alone!
Hey
There are 2 interesting trends that are happening:
We are entering a post pandemic world
The world is heading for a recession.
Irrespective of whether you run a startup or you work for one, we all need to prepare ourselves for recessionary time ahead.
Apart from upskilling ourselves, the smartest way to go about building leverage is doing what 99% people won’t do is..networking. That is, meet others (now that we can after 2 years break) from your industry and build a long-term relationship.
Success in any field, but especially in business, is about working with people, not against them.
As somebody who is quite an introvert, I often avoid meeting people, but here I am - am trying to pack my December with lunch and dinner meetings and reaching out to individuals from different areas of interest (entrepreneurs, investors to musicians, chefs).
So what changed? Perspectives from Keith Ferrazzi.
I’ve come to believe that connecting is one of the most important business—and life—skill sets you’ll ever learn. Why? Because, flat out, people do business with people they know and like.
Careers—in every imaginable field—work the same.
5 Key atomic ideas from Keith’s book “Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time”
Never Eat Alone
Never Eat Alone explores the importance of keeping your social calendar full to build and maintain your network. Avoid being out of sight and out of mind, and grow your connections with breakfast, lunch, and dinner plans throughout the week.
Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone. —MARGARET WHEATLEY
Networking: Developing the Right Mindset
The key to successful networking is to add value to help others to succeed:
Don’t keep score. Contribute generously to others and be willing to ask for others’ help. Adopt the philosophy that everyone has the potential to help and be helped.
Crystallize your mission and strategy. It’s always easier to achieve something with a proper goal and strategy.
Have the courage to ask. To build a network, you must be audacious enough to put yourself out there and risk rejection.
“Poverty, I realized, wasn’t only a lack of financial resources; it was isolation from the kind of people who could help you make more of yourself.”
Build your network long before you need it
If you build a basis of understanding and trust with someone, you can sure count on their help when you eventually face a problem you can’t solve alone.
Nobody likes a leech, who only comes to you when they need your help. Everyone wants to feel respected and valued.
Wherever you are in life right now, and whatever you know, is a result of the ideas, experiences, and people you have interacted with in your life
Develop the required networking skills
Do your homework: Develop your name list of specific people who can help you achieve your mission and short/mid-term goals. Always prepare before a meeting.
Approaching new contacts: Learn how to warm up cold leads in advance (do not make cold calls) and manage gatekeepers artfully.
I believe that every conversation you have is an invitation to risk revealing the real you.
Do the Reps
Be visible.
Follow up consistently.
Master the art of small talk.
Your goal for conferences should be to meet like-minded people who can advance your mission.
Expand your social circle. Learn how to connect with the super-connectors and link your circle with someone else’s.
Make friends with Super-connectors
Super-connectors are people who know lots of people. They are known for having hundreds or thousands of contacts, and their contacts often come from different walks of life.
If you are not a super-connector yourself, you should try to build up a good relationship with one. You can greatly benefit from knowing such a person.
Your network is your destiny, a reality backed up by many studies in the newly emergent fields of social networking and social contagion theory. We are the people we interact with
Happy networking! Again, do not eat alone 🙂
Get the book if you wanna dive deeper.