Networking can be fun

I had a great meeting last week with Mark Parbus of Unlocked Potential to reconnect now that the new year is well underway.  The conversation turned to the idea of networking and how so many are so uncomfortable with it.  When I ask my clients and colleagues what thoughts come up when they hear the word networking, the answer is usually negative.  Networking has gotten a bad rap when all it truly is – is making new connections and building relationships – and that can be fun!

Many of you know I used to be shy so I was where some of you are in my discomfort with it.  So, I thought it would be helpful to share how I (and Mark) make it not only easy but fun.   We shift our focus to the person we are with! 

Instead of going to a meeting wondering what we will say, how we will come across, how we will sound and what the other person will think of us (all of which adds stress to the meeting) we think about what we can learn about the person we are meeting with. 

Being curious about others is fun.  Learning how others got where they are and have achieved success is fun.   Understanding what others are passionate about and what they need to be more successful is fun. 

One of my favorite resources is called How To Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes, a book of 92 tips for getting more comfortable meeting people and cultivating relationships.  My favorite tip? Make others feel special!

It’s your turn to discover how much fun you can have meeting people!

Different Perspectives

Back in high school, I completed an assessment tool that indicated I was “good at” merchandising.  Now as a high school student who did not think out of the box as I do now, I dismissed that assessment thinking “I don’t like business, marking or sales”  That was my interpretation of “merchandising” from that limited perspective. 

In the last few years I have begun to look at that initial assessment from a whole different perspective and I can see how clearly it has and does continue to show up in my life.

My new definition of merchandising is “the pulling together of ideas, information or objects to create something new or different”.  Here are some examples of when that has shown up in my life:

As a Career Counselor I excelled at helping my clients craft resumes and hone their interviewing skills – pulling together their experiences so they became their markeing tool.  As an artist I have always loved building mosaics – pulling together pieces of broken china, glass and ceramics to create an art piece.  Now in my cooking I find I am drawn to pulling together whatever ingredients I have in my kitchen to come up with a delicious meal.

You see, deciding to look at this strength of mine in a diffent way, helped me find a common thread through many areas of my life that I previously thought were unrelated.  It also serves as a “compass” to help me make choices of what activities to engage in and how to approach them.

What, in your life, do you want to look at differently?  What effect do you think that would have on your life?

Using What You Have

Using what you have is something I have always focused on – both under great economic conditions and challenging ones like we are facing now.  To me, using what I have is one of the ways I use my creativity – and it also feeds my value of not letting anything go to waste.

One of my recent passions is cooking, but lately I am doing it differently.  Instead of having a menu of planned recipes for every day or night of the week, I have found it is much more fun to have many ingredients on hand then pull together a meal using what I have in front of me.

Using what I have also shows up in my decorating – moving objects from one room to another, finding different uses for objects I have, or perusing my attic for a forgotton piece – transforms my whole feeling about my space.

What if you looked in your kitchen cupboards, your attic, closets and around your rooms and started thinking out of the box – using what you have in new and different ways?   Think about the money you can save.  Think about the creative juices you could start flowing…