Networking Tips

Networking-Connection: Just Three Names

YIKES!

Did you create a list of things you vowed to do differently this year- and yet, you still haven’t made a dent in the list months later? You are not alone. It happens to all of us!

Maybe you decided to:

Find a new position (a job to which you actually want to jump out of bed in the morning and run towards)
Look for more collaboration partners (who do you really enjoy working with?)
Build more clients in a particular market (could ask for referrals from existing clients)
Carve out more personal time for friends (you cannot believe you did not speak to her at all last year-so embarrassed to get her holiday card!)
Identify volunteer opportunities to share your passion (there are people who need your help, but I have not contacted them)
Call your cousins more often (didn’t you have a great time at Christmas!)

Now let’s get you started in a manageable way….

Here is an exercise you that will get you started- quickly and simply!

Pick three names. Seriously, no more than three names of people who you want to reconnect with, want to get to know better, want to approach for referrals, owe a return call from six months ago, etc. You get the picture. You know who they are! In fact, you probably think about them often and have let so much time go by that now you are afraid to call or write.

Write the three names on a piece of paper. Next to each name write everything you know about them. We will call these Connection Points.

Connection Point Examples– likes wine, has three daughters who take ballet, vacations in Michigan, is a copywriter, is a morning person, used to watch a lot of television years ago, loves fast food, has lived in that house for 30 years, youngest child left for college last year, is related to you and therefore you have all kinds of information about them but nothing very recent, used to work at IBM with Sally, just expanded their business, recently updated their website, works in an industry that is struggling, etc.

Now decide on ONE Connection Method for each of these three people. Telephone call, stop by their house, invite for coffee, Skype conversation, handwritten note, email, invite to a yoga class, note through social/professional networking site, etc.

For each of your three people, circle a few of the Connection Points (what you know about them) and commit to including these with your Connection Method. It serves like an icebreaker and adds some intimacy to the connection. You are reminding them how you are connected or what old stories you have shared, while at the same time not giving the appearance in any way that you want something and are reaching out after all this time to ask for help. It aids in making the conversation/email/note less awkward and more personalized. For some of the people on your list, the connection is just long-overdue but not awkward. For others, you will rely on these connection points.

Consider for each person what you have that might be able to help THEM- a further connection, a resource, a conversation with an adult every once in a while for that stay-at-home mom friend, a monthly breakfast collaboration meeting, book suggestion, etc. Write some of those ideas next to the person’s name as well.

The Ultimate Goal- Make a face–to-face meeting with each one of them as a follow up to your initial connection! Even if you start with an email or a phone call, your ultimate goal is to be sitting in front of each of the three in an engaging conversation.

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Now what you have is a list of three names that are part of your Connection Strategy.
Beside each name you have some reminders of what you know about them and some talking/writing Connection Points to use.
You have committed to HOW you will reach out to them, what Connection Method you will use.
You have a good starting point for how you can help them-what you can offer them.
And…. A plan to meet up with each of them over the next few weeks.

Not so overwhelming now, is it?

I included my list here as well so you can take a sneak peek.

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Inside the Brain of Bryn: Connection

Inside the Brain of Bryn, there are many thoughts on CONNECTION.

Connecting is one of my passions. It conjures up thoughts of enjoyment, shared interests, laughter, interesting conversations -with me out in the world being authentic.

When I am connecting, I am not struggling for the “right” words.
When I am connecting I am not trying so hard to impress people that I’m not listening to them.
When I am connecting, I am thinking about how I can help that person – through advice, people I know, ideas I have or simply witnessing an idea or experience they are having.
When I am connecting, I am comfortable in my body and my clothes.
When I am connecting, it is easy to plan that next get-together to collaborate.
When I am connecting, I don’t need to TELL people about my business or my career ideas and shove a business card in their hand. Instead they are naturally curious about me and ASK to connect with me.

Ask questions. Set a goal to find out one new thing about someone and to share one thing about yourself.

To get started, practice on people you know well. Practice when the stakes do not feel very high. Practice just talking to neighbors, community members, colleagues at work, vendors or customers, family members and friends.

It is incredible how dialogue changes when you are asking questions and being yourself in the conversation.

Remember the feeling! You will bring it with you to your next seemingly high-pressured networking event and transform your experience!

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Mind Your Business: LinkedIn Marketing for Entrepreneurs

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, LINKEDIN CAN ACTUALLY BE A POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

LinkedIn isn’t just for job seekers anymore. But where do you and your business fit into the mix? As an entrepreneur, how do you get found and what are the best practices for updating your profile and communicating with other users? Can LinkedIn really help entreneurs find clients and get business?

Link to this Mind Your Business partnership post, co-authored by my awesome #brandexpert #girlboss friend extraordinaire, Cody McBurnett, along with yours truly: executive career coach and LinkedIn expert Bryn Johnson of the Bryn Johnson Group. Together we are sharing on the ins-and-outs of using LinkedIn as a business owner.

Holiday Networking Ideas: Simple and Quick

For those of you who have ever spent more than an hour with me in your lifetime, you know that two of my passions are Christmas and Connecting. The joy I receive from the twinkling lights, snow, beautiful childhood songs echoing through the streets (or my apartment), and gorgeously wrapped gifts I have realized is so similar to the thrill I feel when I meet someone and find a connection- even the smallest little thing. You are a Wellesley woman? You can’t go a day without coffee either? You used to live in my neighborhood-Don’t you love Washington Heights? You have cats you adore also? You are from Upstate NY-no way?! And the list goes on!

During this holiday season, there is so much encouragement to spread hope and good cheer. I encourage that wholeheartedly myself. However, for many the holiday season also comes with a tremendous amount of pressure- both in terms of time and financial expectations. The challenge is that it is also the perfect time to be connecting and spreading that cheer to people you will want to build deeper relationships with next year and beyond.

You might think, “Bryn, it is difficult enough to finish all the holiday shopping, attend all (or at least some) of the parties, and decorate for the holidays. I have no time or energy left to connect with MORE people”.

No worries! Below I have offered a few ideas to help you leverage both your limited hours in the day and your drained bank account during this festive season.

My brainstorming session on this topic began with several assumptions:

You need rich and prosperous connections to build your career, associations or volunteer activities next year.
At this moment, you estimate that you have less than 2 hours to focus on this connection activity before January 1.
It better not cost a fortune because you are “all in” this holiday season!

Strategy, it all begins with Strategy! Not the kind that requires an entire career networking plan (but note to self: if you do not have one of those, you might consider building one)

What I am suggesting here is a 10 minute exercise: Clear your mind. Put yourself in a quiet spot where there is little chance of interruption for 10 minutes. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and take the following steps:

– Reflect on your year- big moments of elation, tough challenges, and lessons learned then write the 4 people’s names that come to mind in reaction to that reflection

– Think about what the first few months of the new year will look like for your life, career, community activity, etc. and write down the first 4 names that pop in your head in association with that image of next year.

– Write the 2 people that nag at you in the back of your mind. They seem to always be on your “to do” list. Maybe you promised you would call/write/lunch but never did. Maybe you met the person and thought, “I really want to spend more time with this person and now it just seems embarrassing how much time has elapsed.”

THERE- you have 10 names! That wasn’t hard was it? Any repeats? You can consolidate the list of course and now you have less than 10. But no more than 10 here please. You do not get extra “connection points” for making a long list that will be too long to tackle and ultimately end in defeat.

Beside each of those names, write the action that you plan to take to reconnect. Remember, we want to keep this simple, but also stand out in the crowd.

Even with dear friends or former colleagues who might be waiting to hear from you, at this time of year being a bit original will only help you to make the quality connection for which you are aiming. Therefore, I would personally suggest that you stay away from emails and ecards. Inboxes are flooded this time of year with offers, end of year issues, and those very same emails and ecards that I am suggesting you avoid.

Let’s think creatively here-but still adhere to the last two principles of this exercise: not time consuming or expensive. Here are a few suggestions of mine. Hopefully, they will prompt a few of your own that are specifically linked to your community, your industry or area of the world.

Make a minimal donation in their name. Do you know that they have a certain passion, charity, or do a tremendous amount of volunteer work at a certain organization? The organization will be thrilled with any $10 or $15 donation they receive and you can often request a card or an acknowledgement email to be sent to the person you are honoring with the donation. I love when people have done this for me-rather than bringing me a small gift I may not need or food I do not eat. You get the picture. Very personal and all about them and their interests. Completely “in service” to them.

Send a New Year’s Card. Really. These work brilliantly. First of all, they are nondenominational (Happy Holidays or blank cards work great for this). Plus, the holidays are winding down. You have time to write the card and it will be received when their mailbox has been cleared of holiday cards, catalogs and gifts. The card should include three components: A wish for Happy New Year – a line about the connection you have made in the past (great volunteering with you at the PTA meeting-who knew we had so much in common)– and a line about the connection you hope to make in the new year (I will give you a call later in January when things have calmed down and we can schedule a time for lunch) Be certain that whatever you add here is reasonable for you. This is your chance to offer next steps that will be followed through with and it is up to you and only you to make that happen. So do not over-promise.

Create a Social Media Call-out. For those of you who love social media like I do, this will be a fun and effective way to connect- but only if two factors exist. 1. You love love love social media (because this connection activity should not be a chore) 2. The person you are targeting ALSO loves social media (maybe you even met them there!)

Here are a few ideas:

Twitter: Create a tweet that talks about them. Use their handle of course. Talk about a special offering they have if they run a business (providing them with a little publicity) Talk about the impact they have made in your life/career. And then- tweet it at least twice over the course of a few days so it will get more exposure.

Facebook: Dedicate your status to them with the same premise as Twitter. Write about their impact, the special project they are working on, their website, the contributions they made to the community, etc.

LinkedIn: You can dedicate your status here also-and even link it to your twitter account with an easy LinkedIn function. Also, LinkedIn is a great place to show your appreciation with an unsolicited recommendation! It does not have to be lengthy. Maybe a paragraph or two but the impact will last throughout the year.

Instagram: Tag them in a photo that brings back great memories of a time you spent together or experience you shared. Like one or more of their photos and COMMENT to provide a little insight about the person you know to all of their followers.

Have fun connecting and reconnecting with these people. Taking action on less than 10 people before the beginning of the year (10 minutes on each one is all!) and reap the benefits throughout all of the new year. I am now off to do this exercise myself.

Happy Holidays to your and your loved ones!

Career Self-Care: 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Career

With all the priorities swirling around in your head and the messages you are being bombarded with out there, my guess is your brain is overrun with “self-improvement” ideas. Get more exercise. Eat healthier. Spend more quality time with family. Learn a new language. De-clutter your home. Travel to exotic lands. Buy a summer home. Meditate every morning. Host elaborate holiday parties. And the list goes on and on. So much pressure.

Here’s my question. Is your career on that list? If you are similar to most other working people, your answer is NO. Your professional relationships, promotional opportunities and career visibility are not on that “self-care” list. Your career lies neglected and it might just be time to brush off the cobwebs and put a little zing back in your work life!

Here are 5 steps you can weave into your calendar — your weekly or monthly routine — to ensure that that while you are busy managing all those other areas of your life, your career goals, dreams and imaginings do not gather dust – forgotten.

Step 1: Revise Your Career Goals.

Everyone has career goals, but when was the last time you wrote them down? How outdated are they? Do they reflect who you are today and the current life and work situation you are in?

Wait- WHAT? You have no documented career goals? STOP RIGHT THERE. This is where you begin. Right now. Read no further. Grab a piece of paper, a post-it note, a receipt from the grocery store or the notes feature on your Smartphone (It does not need to be pretty, it just needs to be done). Just start dreaming. Step away from this article and take 30 minutes to think about where you want to be in a year. Forget 5 or 10 years- things change too quickly in the world, in our personal lives and in our work environments. But over the next 12 months, where do you need to be? What do you hope to accomplish? What thinking or experiences do you hope to access? Is it time to expand or contract? Time to broaden or specialize? Think about your career trajectory as a series of baby steps leading you to this one goal a year out. How will you feel when you achieve this? Write that down, too. Ideally, you will come back to this goal list time and time again to check in on your progress.

Step 2: Update Your Story.

When was the last time you revised your resume? Is it up to date or reflective only of a position you held many years ago? Does it tell “your story” and bridge the gap between where you have been and where you are going? If not, take the time needed to update that document. You should always be “ready” just in case that perfect opportunity falls in your lap (even if you love, love, love what you do!)

Oh and that LinkedIn profile of yours. Each and every day, people you know and people you don’t are reviewing it. They are looking for you. They are discovering you. Recruiters, college friends, potential employers, collaborators, community members, and more. Are you proud of “your story” on LinkedIn? If not, log in and begin revising.

Step 3: Start Networking Again.

Don’t panic. I am not necessarily talking about the stuffy networking cocktail party with endless introductions and flying business cards. I mean, you could attend as many of those as you’d like. However, I find that if you really loved those intense networking events of forced smiles and people with whom you will never follow-up, you would already have several of them scheduled in your calendar.

Instead, think targeted. Think phone conversations. Think cups of coffee. Think planned lunches. Think weekend walks around the neighborhood. Who are the people with whom you have been meaning to connect or reconnect? They pop into your head but you never take action. Those influential industry players, former coworkers, and fun parents at your children’s school. Everyone could be a possibility. I love a great networking strategy, but I am recommending that you start simple. Plan a meeting with someone. Anyone. It’s like dating. You just have to make time and get out there.

Step 4: Build Your Circle.

Who is in your trusted career circle? When I teach clients about this concept, I am not referring to spouses, siblings and parents. Of course, those people are critical for support and love. However, I am referring to that extended circle of people with whom you talk “careers”. People who refuel you. Help you see situations differently. This group could include a mentor, colleagues in your industry, a career coach, highly motivated professionals, etc. People who can commiserate with you. Create pointed solutions. Talk through dreams, ideas and challenging situations. Practice interviewing. Explore options. In short, people who “get you” and understand where you are in your career trajectory and goals.

Step 5: Learn Something New.

The ultimate in career self-care is time to yourself to learn something new. Explore a topic. Get a certification. Delve into a new area of interest. Decide to become more of a generalist or focus in and specialize as an expert in a particular topic. Heck, it might mean just reading that pile of magazines or books on your bedside table. I am not thinking degree program. I am thinking blogs you love and articles you have bookmarked and never read.

The theme here is keep it simple. Five actions you can take to revitalize your career. Focus on your career self care and find a way to fit it into your already jam-packed schedule by taking baby steps. Forward movement in baby steps. You will quickly begin to feel the sense of accomplishment and relief.