Networking and Personal Branding
Networking may just be the single most important aspect of building a business. It is the culmination of strategy, commitment, consistency, and personality to grow your business. You first develop your Brand identity to figure our who you are and what you stand for. Read more about Branding HERE. Then, you seek out and develop relationships with other people, businesses, and organizations that share the same goals, similar personalities, or stand for the same principles. You develop these relationships to form friendships. The result? All parties involved now have new resources to reach out to each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You can assist and support each other on all your endeavors, market each other to your own client base, and in turn develop trust with these clients that trust the organization you have befriended. Networking is the key to business success!
Networking Is Fun:
Networking involves joining groups, going to events, and participating in activities. All these involve meeting new people in fun and exciting ways. You get the opportunity to have some fun experiences while making some new friends and building professional connections, It can be in a formal setting or a very relaxed environment both with their own set of scenarios. Building connections also gives you the opportunity to talk about your business. I would venture to guess that if you are trying to start or grow a business, then you probably enjoy whatever it is and therefore get excited to talk about it? What better time to talk about it and all the great things you want to do with it than when looking to build connections with people that can potentially support it. Plus, who knows. Maybe you meet a new best friend along the way!
Why Not to be Nervous:
It can very extremely intimidating to start networking. It is easy to go down the rabbit hole asking yourself a thousand questions. What if they don’t like me? What if they don’t think I know what I am talking about? What if they reject me? What if they know more than me? What if I am unable to form a relationship with anyone? And frankly there are thousands of variations of these questions. The harsh reality you have to accept is that all these will probably be true at some point. AND THAT IS OKAY. In fact, that is kind of the point. Not sure who said it, but the quote that “failure shouldn’t be feared. It should be enjoyed because it provides the opportunity to start over but a little more intelligent.” You will not be successful at every single attempt you make. The strategy with networking is both to do so in volume and with consistency. You don’t become best friends with every single person you meet in your life do you? No! You are hate some people, friendly with others, and bring others in as if they are family. Networking s the same. But in every situation you learn something and evolve and that is good! If someone doesn’t like you or a relationships doesn’t work out, then who really cares. There are literally millions of opportunities out there. Simply try again. If they don’t like you then it is for the best that it didn’t work out. This is your business and you should want and accept only the absolute very best (relative to you) for it. The sooner you accept these facts, the sooner you find freedom and start looking forward to these attempts rather than dread them.
How Do I Plan to Improve My Networking:
Currently, most of my efforts are currently in building a social media presence on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn to name the primary targets. As I transition out of the Army and out of my very time consuming position, I plan to participate in local Art events, mountain bike festivals, and things of the sort. I want to volunteer at these same events to meet people and develop these relationships. Eventually, I would like to use these relationships to leverage potential collaborations and ultimately meet some people that work for some of the bigger companies that work with these events to start nurturing these relationships.
