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I love networking!
I love growing it and I love nurturing it.
How do you grow your network organically though?
Think less…LinkedIn copy and paste outreach and more serendipitous connections.
An old mentor of mine tasked me with the mission to speak to at least 3 strangers a week. Now, she was a very confident woman that could approach a complete random person in a queue in Pret confidently and think nothing of it. For us mere mortals, this seemed a very daunting task. Bear in mind, this was also pre covid when it wasn’t quite so easy to hide behind my zoom screen.
I liked this approach though, thinking of growing my contact base by an extra 3 people a week meant it wasn’t with the intention of finding clients or professionals to work with. It was about making real genuine human connections. Striking up a conversation with a stranger that could well become your new yoga instructor.
Fast forward 5 years later, I still try and keep this habit up and forming a wonderful community in the height of lockdown certainly made this a lot easier. My network is so full of diverse individuals. Some strangers became friends, some did indeed become clients. Some, well they remained strangers (we can’t get on with everyone!). The richness of my network though means I could probably introduce you to a good plumber, a fantastic lawyer, a medical role play actress and even a jingle composer.
For those of you that want to challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone and grow your network – this article might make it all a little less scary. It has some great strategies from Georgie Nightingall on how to break away from the autopilot script and how to pre-frame your interaction.
For anyone that wants to be one of my new ”strangers” of my week – reach out anytime, I love a good chat :).
19 Comments-
I know some of my friends in the community will love this article Alex Pitt Nicola Twiston Davies Caoimhe Kelly Mike Richardson Joan Langley James Bebbington Silvia Janska Shalaka Laxman Duncan Dalzel-Job Zarir 'Zed' Vakil Faris Aranki Lexi Radcliffe-Hart Rebecca Beck Maria Evans PhD Bryony Ireland Rob Wright Pete Domican Aušrinė Keršanskaitė Saira Chaudry Carolin Greiner Tina Orlando Vic Mistry Lara Hayward Janis Chan
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How funny, I came on today to drop a note and see if I can book in some coffee chats with the TPC community. Meant to be!
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Lovely article and interesting read; many of these techniques I teach my clients in so it’s great to have them validated. It all begins with a conversation and it doesn’t matter how you start it…
I think I’m going to look up Georgie
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Loved this, thank you for sharing! I really like the idea of breaking away from the script and I just asked my friend how he would rate his day out of 10 (he said 8) 🙂
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Yes! Breaking away from the traditional script that doesn’t require people to think too much is a way more interesting conversation. I spoke to a child psychologist recently (actually was one of my strangers) and she was telling me that as adults we should use the same approach we use to communicate to children. Take the generalisation away from our questions and be much more specific and intentional. If you want a specific answer…ask a specific question. I’ll practice this on you at our lunch in a couple of weeks Shalaka Laxman 😂
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Haha yes please, looking forward to it!
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Back in my Aerospace days, I broke out of the comfort zone habit of going to conferences, exhibitions and trade shows as a group, with the natural tendency to cluster together in the lunch line, over coffee breaks and at dinner events. I learned to love going on my own to roam the room.
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Introvert who learned to extrovert!
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Thanks for that, Fiona! Reminds me of Louie Rahil’s very short article I saved back in 2020, “Marketing is the art of talking to strangers” (which left me musing that marketing should be the art of engaging with strangers, this being a critical build; otherwise, we might make the grave error that marketing is uni-directional – all push & no pull). If anyone wants to read it, hit me up. Can’t seem to find it online anywhere anymore…
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So simple but how many of us actually do that! I’m guilty of staying stuck behind a screen ’networking’ on Linkedin
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What a fascinating article. I wish we taught these skills at school. I was terribly shy as a young person, and rubbish at networking until fairly recently. And even then coming to the TPC networking event in London last month pushed me right out of my comfort zone! But it’s such a valuable skill, both professionally but also personally. There are some great podcasts, and a book called Together, by Vivek Murthy on the power of human connection.
Think I’ll now try and adopt the strategy of speaking to three strangers a week as well
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Really interesting article, Fiona! Thanks for sharing it. There’s also Malcolm Gladwell’s book ”Talking to Strangers” which is well worth a look see! And of course ”On Connection” by Kae Tempest.
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Late to the article but a great one, thank you for sharing! As a northerner in London – the whole topic makes me smile. When I first moved to London, I was taking the rubbish out and all I did was say “hi” to a neighbour, I got a surprised look as if I was mad…that conversation ended there! It was a bit of an adjustment from the north. Also reminds me of Fox’s biscuits advert with “London needs biscuits” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=losScM-v1F0 – maybe an offer of snacks is a different way to break tension! Thankfully, lockdown has helped connections / conversations, in some ways, it’s also reversed in lockdown for me, personally. Easier to speak to strangers than people I have known for a long time but that maybe due to trying to foster networking. I do know, I prefer community over networking alone.
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We should have badges for us Northerners ’Northerner, say hi’ just like those ’Baby on Board’ badges they have on the tube; then we could all talk to each other!
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Networking is so important