Get Actionable Advice Delivered To Your Inbox - Free!
Learn how to become a marketing ROCKSTAR, create profitable products & services, and
reach your maximum potential so you profit in business & life – get Kick-A$$ Tips.
“I can’t believe you give this stuff away for free!” – Iviana B.
The allure of self-employment is powerful. Who doesn’t want to be their own boss, work when they want to, from wherever they want to, and have complete control of their income potential?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. Becoming self-employed is a life-changing undertaking. I ...
So by now you already understand the importance of creating killer content when using content marketing in your online business. After all, isn't that what the web is about? Content?
As you well know, the Web is far from lacking resources on how to become a ...
If you’re an aspiring female entrepreneur looking for a way to break into business online, but you find yourself at a loss for ideas, this post is for you! I work with women who want to launch an online business, but often aren’t sure how ...
If there is one thing that stumps people the most when it comes to “going self-employed” it’s finding a solid business idea. In fact, one of the most popular posts on this blog is 51 Online Business Ideas for Female Entrepreneurs. And as it turns ...
Meet the Competitors
Twitter: @Garyvee
Gary Vaynerchuk aka “The Wine Library TV guy or Gary V.” – If you’ve been exposed to the online world for any length of time you’ve probably heard of Gary V. He’s become something of a social media legend to many. From ...
I remember when I first starting thinking about becoming self-employed, I felt so lost. I just didn’t know where to start. I didn’t have a business idea. I didn’t know how to fully test my business idea. I didn’t even know if I had what ...
Learn How YOU Can Design a Website with Thesis!
In the video below Thesis creator Chris Pearson shows you all the handy-dandy features Thesis offers right out of the box. If it looks too easy to be possible - it's because it is! Thesis is simple, ...
I don’t care how much technology advances our ability to “connect,” “share,” and “communicate” with one another - nothing can replace the effect that in-person networking can have on the long-term success of your business. If you need more clients now, go out and MEET some.
That said, if you’re not a natural born networker, you can leave a really bad impression on others if you don’t polish up your interpersonal communication skills. In today’s video, I’m going to share three things you should (or shouldn’t) be doing to maximize the effectiveness of your networking.
Networking is a ton of fun if you get it right, so do yourself a favor and watch the video! Have any networking horror stories to share? How about some extra networking tips? If so, leave them in the comments below.
Click here if you prefer to read the transcript (but you’ll miss out on the bloopers and editing tricks!):Click here to view transcript
Hey, Marlee with marleeward.com here, Helping You Become A Self-Employed Superstar! That’s my little superstar move that reminds me about Saturday Night Live skit. You know, I should probably edit out the bloopers, but I think they make for humor, right?
So, anyway, before I got all confused about what I was going to say, because I got caught up in my Saturday Night Live superstar skit, I was going to talk to you today about networking. That’s because a lot of what I recommend for the self-employed professionals that I work with is to make a lot of direct contact in order to generate leads for their business.
Really, even with all the technology that’s available to you today, there’s nothing that’s going to help you acquire new clients more quickly than making direct contact with them, and one of the ways that you can do this is through networking.
Well, I’ve been doing a lot of networking recently myself, because I’m preparing to do a local live event here in my community, and I’ve really wanted to get to know a lot of the local businesses in town. And so, in doing that, I’ve been exposing myself to all kinds of networking events. I’m actually blown away by the number of networking events that there are in my city, and I’m sure that they are doubled in bigger cities.
But there are so many opportunities to get out there and meet people directly, and it’s a great way for you to become more confident and to be able to talk about your business more effectively and to figure out exactly whose needs you can meet best.
But what I want to talk to you about today is how to network properly, because I have come to develop a couple of pet peeves as it comes to networking through my experience.
The first one would be for people to be so anxious to tell you what they do and what they sell that you can tell that they’re not listening. So, if you’re going out and networking with people and you’re just waiting for them to finish speaking so that you can say what you do and what you sell and see if maybe they’re a lead or they know someone who’s a lead, you are not going to benefit at all from the experience, because people can see and sense this immediately. I call it wearing “the scent of desperation.” Do not do that.
1. The best thing that you can do in a networking situation—whether you’re an extrovert or you’re an introvert—is to go into the environment and genuinely seek to learn about people.
Get to know their names. Get to know where they’re from. And I want to challenge you to make sure that the first question that you ask is not, “What do you do?” Instead, you can maybe give them a compliment and comment on something that they’re wearing or something that you heard them say. Maybe you can ask them where they’re from or what some of their interests are or how often they’ve been attending this particular networking group. There are hundreds of ways to open a conversation that don’t start with “What do you do?” So, my challenge to you in your networking opportunities is to not do that.
The second thing is, even when you’ve exchanged business cards with someone at a networking event, that does not give you permission to put them on your email newsletter. This drives me crazy! I am on so many email newsletters now that I’ve never given expressed permission to be on that are actually not even providing useful information, which is another thing- if you’re going to send out your newsletter, please make sure it’s good.
And it’s happening time and time again. Some of the worst part is, they’re not even using email marketing providers, and so there’s no place to unsubscribe. I have to mark these people as ‘spam’ or send repetitive messages asking to be removed from their list, so on and so forth. So, please, don’t do that.
2. If you do want to reach out to someone through email after you met them at a networking event, the best thing that you can do is send them an email and let them know that you appreciated meeting them, perhaps give some kind of clues so that you can jog their memory about having met you, and then invite them to sign up for your email newsletter in the body of your email and follow that up in the signature portion of your email.
That’s the right way to do it, and if people are interested, they will. But, please, don’t go invading people’s digital privacy by putting them on your email list without actually having expressed permission to do so.
3. The last thing that I want to encourage you to do when you’re networking with other people is find ways to connect others with people that you may have previously met.
This is a great way for you to expand your network quickly, and you’ll find that there are overlaps in networking groups within your community and there are overlaps amongst people who know one another.
And so, you’ll find that as you introduce yourself to others and introduce those people to other people that you’ll get known in your community as someone who’s a really great networker, someone who’s friendly and personable, somebody who people like. And even though that is a skill that you have to develop over time, especially if you’re not a people-person per se, it’s one that will benefit you immensely.
So, those are my three little tips. I hope you will take them to heart. I hope you will get out there and make direct contact with people, so that your solo business has the opportunity to flourish and grow. And I hope that you will swing by marleeward.com and let me know what you think of this video.
Thanks so much for watching. I look forward to talking to you again – very soon!
Pssst….Are you part of the kick-a$$ tips crew? Well you should be. Get in on the goods -> click here.
I’ve got a theory (yet to be proven, but probable) that your physical fitness is inextricably linked to your business success. That said, if you want to do exceptionally well in your business it would behoove you to take exceptional care of your body. In today’s video, I’ve got a great solution for even the [...]
If you’re self-employed or if you’re considering self-employment, it’s likely that you’re a go-getter, an achiever, and a person with a vision for your life. And sometimes that vision for your life, and the life you desire to create, can be so vivid, motivating, and alluring that your ability to enjoy the journey is suppressed [...]
If you’ve been around long enough, surely you’ve been approached by a parent, sibling, cousin, or friend about a “new business opportunity” that could lead you to 6-figure paydays. After lending your ear you discover that all you have to do is make a small investment to get started and then recruit people to sell [...]
A flat tire on your way to a conference. A bowl of cereal…but no milk. A negative health report from the doctor. A marketing initiative that flops. A negative balance in your checking account. A client requests a refund. A perfect hair day caught in a sudden downpour. No matter how big or how small, [...]
HOLLA! I’ve got a video for you today…but keep reading. I’ve been doing A LOT of one-on-one coaching sessions lately, and I’m learning so much about the commonalities we share as self-employed professionals - especially when it comes to starting up and starting out. One of the biggest frustrations I had when I first wanted [...]
Sometimes the hardest part about being self-employed is simply getting things done. As a solopreneur you juggle lots of hats– especially when you first start your business. And until you can start to delegate tasks, and build a team to support your one person show, you have to be ultra-disciplined and organized if you plan [...]
