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| Greetings!
In the United States, June is a very popular month for weddings.
Just as a marriage between two people requires care, attention, and nurturing, so does your business. In fact, business success often represents the marriage of preparation and opportunity.
These Nuggets will prepare you to seize the networking opportunities that come your way. Enjoy! |
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June's Top Tips
1. Although in-person networking is vital to business success, don't limit yourself to face-to-face connecting. Take advantage of the groups on LinkedIn to showcase your expertise and profit from input of business professionals whose interests are similar to yours.
2. Seaking of similar interests...Remember you can also connect while having fun. Make time for activities you enjoy, whether an archery league, a community choir, or anything else. You'll meet like-minded people, which instantly gives you common ground on which to start building valuable connections.
3. When you do connect with others, they'll inevitably ask you what kind of work you do. Don't waste these golden opportunities by using a trite, boring description of your services. Instead, develop a way to describe how you create highly desirable outcomes for your clients. |
How's This for Success?
When Teresa Thomas-Carroll took over as Director of WIN three years ago, she knew she wanted to develop the organization into a vibrant community of powerful and supportive women. Through her skill in and commitment to fostering valuable connections, Teresa has seen WIN's membership increase seven-fold and its e-newsletter subscribership increase from barely 200 to over 1500.
Her constant focus on creating value for all participants is illustrated by the current "Bring A Guest" promotion: Each guest invited by a WIN member can save $10 off her first WIN event by registering at www.mnwin.org and entering the code 1stxguest. And the other half of this win/win deal? The referring member is entered into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to Ciao Bella restaurant.
(By the way: I love Italian food, so I hope that those of you who take advantage of this offer will mention you heard about it from me.) |
1. Even those who strongly prefer in-person networking tend to appreciate Skype. As long as you and your conversational partner both have access to webcams, you can see each other during real-time conversations. You can take advantage of this free tecnology whether your web camera is built into your computer or is a "clip-on" model you attach to the top of your monitor.
2. Want to make more connections through public speaking, but worried you don't have enough material? Then pecha kucha may be the perfect format for you. Pronounced PAY-chahk-cha, this Japanese phrase meaning "chitchat" describes an event where all speakers are given exactly six minutes and forty seconds to speak on the topic of their choice. Where does the 6:40 come from? Each presentation is composed of 20 PowerPoint slides, and you speak about each slide for just 20 seconds before it automatically advances: 20 X 20 = 6:40. Best of all, the slides show images, with little to no text: no "death by PowerPoint"! Learn more here.
3. When you're following up on a networking contact by sending a document, make sure the attached file is sent as a PDF (portable digital format) file. This looks more professional than sending just a word-processed document, and there's free software available that allows you to convert documents into PDFs with a simple click and drag. Magic! |
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Client Connections in Action
With my colleague Rebecca Metz from Modern Inconveniences, I'll present a two-part workshop on The FUNdamentals of Follow-Up on Tuesdays, June 15th and June 22nd. Early-bird registration ends today, June 8th, so sign up now if you're ready to dig out from the mass of business cards burying your desk.
If you like planning ahead, put WIN's Networking Factory on you calendar for Wednesday, August 18th. This highly interactive networking sampler allows you to jump into fun, facilitated networking that gets you to connect in a meaningful manner that goes way beyond trading business cards. |
Thanks to my friend Flickr.
Here are this month's heroes who graciously allowed me to use their images, posted in the Creative Commons area of Flickr, in this issue of Networking Nuggets:
purple triskele by shiftercat
light bulb by aloshbennett | |
The Roman philosopher Seneca claimed that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
Wishing you a year of abundant luck and dazzling success,
Kathleen Client Connections
Life is good. |
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