Get Comfortable Networking!

What an amazing day! I spent the day with my two boys and a good friend of mine with his two boys skiing. The weather was amazing and I am always so pleased when we pick a perfect day.

I love the fact that when it comes to "networking" there's no rule that says you can't have fun while doing it? After all, would you rather be limited to doing your networking at those wonderful,well organized networking forums in your local community or meeting people that have figured out there's more to life than being in the office on a perfect Colorado Rocky Mountain ski day?

I surely am not taking anything away from those local organized networking forums and have attended my share myself. However, if that's all you did each week and spent the rest of the time surfing every job bulletin board the rest of the week, you'd be certifiable in less than a month!

Take today for example. Even with my boys and friends with me, I ended up on a chairlift with someone I did not know. I may never see this young man again in my life,but for the 5 or 10 minutes we spent on that chair we just expanded our network,not just by 1,but by everyone I know and everyone he knows. Even if you have nothing to sell or he has nothing he wants from you,other than to maybe shut-up, if you simply use F.O.R.M. (Family,Occupation,Recreation "hey that's a good start" or Money) you can learn some amazing things about complete strangers in just those few moments together.

In fact, one of my favorite things to do is to see how long I can go learning about my new friend before they learn a thing about me.The wonderful thing is you'll be grinning from ear to ear while you're doing it which makes you all the more interesting to get to know! Have you ever bumped into a sour puss and said to yourself,wow there's someone I'd like to meet?

Anyone worth knowing will be dying to learn something about you before you slip away. Oh,if you never leave yourself or them with some way to make contact later it was good practice,but ultimately not very beneficial for either of you.

So, be sure to have some easy way to exchange contact information. You may never have need for it for many years down the road,but you never know? And isn't it wonderful that when you woke up today, you had no idea you would meet this person and what you might learn?

Try it next time you're out and about and the more you do it the more natural it will feel to both of you! Set a goal for yourself to meet 1 new person a day, then 2,then 5, then 10. Think how much your network will grow in one year's time? P.S.- I made 5 new friends today!

Like Warren Miller says, "if you don;t do it today, you'll just be another year older when you do!"

Be Blessed & Have Faith!