The Networking Must Go On

With the recent fame of my first television appearance, I just missed out on the opportunity to be seen again Tuesday. Something about a little fire on the other side of town seemed to draw the media away from the press conference I was going to be speaking at, so they postponed it until later. All sarcasm aside, I am glad, and we are very fortunate that things weren't much worse than they turned out to be, but they are bad enough as it is.

Despite all the events of the day, the networking must go on.

The press conference was for a new group my office is involved in starting called the Rising Professionals. A great place for young professionals to get together and build relationships with other young professionals in the community.

Tessa Nelson from the Colorado Springs Business Journal writes a great article describing the importance of networking and gives some solid basics on how to network. The one statement that sums it up for me is:

You have to sell yourself to the person that you are talking to and make them want to talk with you. Walk up and introduce yourself, tell them where you work and what you do, or if you don’t have a job tell them that you have recently graduated, what your degree is in and what you are interested in doing.
Whatever you talk about, exude confidence and be genuinely interested in what they have to say. Make sure you ask questions about them and what they do. The conversation is going to be short-lived if you only talk about yourself.

Good point Tessa, and it was great seeing you last night.