BAPC – 2: Leave Your House
I know, it’s been a long stressful day, the phones have been ringing, email pouring in, and you’re tired – hungry – and just want to get home, get into something more comfortable than the dress-for-success wear you’ve been sweating in all day. Feet up, beverage in hand, dinner in the oven, family and feline/canine companions nearby for conversation and cuddling – with some good music, a good book, a shiny magazine, or some television to make everything come back into balance.
What do you mean there’s a After Business Mixer at the Art Gallery? A TweetyMeet at the local pub? An awards banquet for a local philanthropic organization that you do volunteer work for? There’s always something. Something more to make demands on your time. Sometimes it’s even a networking lunch “in the middle of my work day” – who wants to go to that?
You do.
Trust me. While we may isolate our selves in the Cold Call Cubicle Empire, or the solitude of a home office (Starbucks), we may need to get out more. We need to get out in front of new people more. We need to remember that building a professional community doesn’t mean limiting our circle of connections to those we already know, and it doesn’t mean only connecting to people through the magic of the Internet.
It means face time. It means awkward social moments. It means introducing yourself and starting conversations. It means managing the balances in your life to include some “getting out there” time – at social, semi-social, or purely professionally focused events. It means putting yourself forward in the physical realm as a real person who can demonstrate that you are as brilliant, knowledgeable, witty, insightful, and inspiring as your online profile might suggest. People still want to connect to real people (like them!) to build their hopes and dreams, find partners to achieve their goals, create circles of trust, and ultimately, to help them understand themselves and where they fit within that larger circle of community.
Yes – I know. You are shy. I’m shy too. Unless I’m running an event, I’m very uncomfortable in a crowd of people I don’t know. So let’s find each other at the next “networking event” and be shy together. Yes – I know – days are long, work is hard, and you’re tired. Me too – but a couple hours a month to Link Up in person here there and at various other professionally toned events is what all the profile pic avatars and LinkedIn connections and Tweets are all about, isn’t it?
Don’t know where to go? Check out your local Chamber of Commerce, or join one of many Associations of Like-Minded Professionals (there are more organizations, Horatio, then you could have ever dreamed of). Find a Hobby group. Just get out there! Put on your name tag – smile – extend a hand – make a connection. In real time and space. You never know when you will be the perfect answer to someone’s professional challenge du jour - or who might just buy you a drink and tell you a fascinating story and become a lifelong friend.
See you there. Say hi. I’m the shy one in the corner, but you’ll recognize me from my avatar.
Next up – Know Your Neighbors. Tell me about the great networking groups or opportunities exist where you are – maybe you can help someone else out there connect!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ian M Rountree, SuHurrell. SuHurrell said: New Blogpost! BAPC – 2: Leave Your House http://bit.ly/aW0pVK [...]
[...] are lots of places to get to know your professional neighbors (and yes, you have to leave your house). Chamber of Commerce events, business networking groups, organizations like Toastmasters where [...]