Leigh Thomas Brown cuts through networking anxiety with a simple formula: start with a greeting, ask about someone's background and career moves, then look for ways to help them. He recommends civic groups, Meetup, and Facebook groups as venues, and tells nervous people that the worst outcome is just finding the wrong room.
How do you start a conversation at a networking event when the room is full of people and some of them know each other and some don't? What do you do? Well, you could always walk over to somebody and get me on this. You could say, "Hey, I'm Leigh Brown." Although you probably should say your own name, but just walk over and say, "Hey." Why are we trying to make everything so complicated, y'all? They're probably going to ask you, "Oh, well, hey, are you new here?" If they're established, they'll have some comfort in the room, and if they're new, they're probably going to say, I'm new here. Can you help me out? And you can say, I'm new here too. Let's just meet each other. Conversations are not as hard to start as we've all been led to believe. We've just gotten used to having the crutch of text. And by the way, AI and text can never replicate you. So just think about these conversations as a chance to get to know somebody. Ask them where they're from originally. Ask them their job they had before the one they're in now. I have found that to be a very interesting conversation because most people have changed professions personal lives. Ask them what they came from before they landed in copy or sales. They'll tell you, and they'll probably tell you why they made a transition. It could be that you find somebody who's looking for work, and you can say, "That's fantastic. Would you like me to share your post on LinkedIn? I'll be glad to help." You may not have a right connection, but you may. And start thinking again in that attitude of abundance. How can you help the person you're talking to? You won't be new in the room for long, I can tell you that. Now, if you're wondering which rooms to walk into, again, think about your passion places, but you can also try the traditional networking places. Rotary Club may have an opening for your profession. The BNI groups, the Business Networking International, you have to find out if they have an opening, but why not call and ask? They may have had somebody drop out. You can reach out to churches. There's Kiwanis groups. There's Lions Club. You may have moose, elks, wherever you are, there are going to be civic organizations. Now, they may have dropped off in numbers and be smaller than they used to be. But you know what? Small rooms are fantastic because you'll get to know people faster. You can go to Chamber of Commerce events. The opportunities are actually endless. In fact, if you go to Meetup as the website or the app, look at Facebook, you can find places to go. And if you're the nervous Nelly sort, you're a little bit of an introvert, take a friend, take a spouse, take a teenager. They won't want to go, but they will. And go, just go. What's the worst that could happen? I will tell you, I think REALTORS® and mortgage lenders and other professionals don't network because they get really laser beam focused on the worst that could happen. So, here's what I ask my coaching clients, "What is the actual worst that could happen?" And they'll say, "Um, um, nobody talks to me." Okay. Does your life end because nobody spoke to you? No, it doesn't. It might be the wrong room. If nobody spoke to you at a networking event, You're not in the right room. Hooray! They told you that quickly. Now you can get out and go somewhere else. But what's the best that could happen? The best that could happen is you make any connection at all. One connection with somebody. You learned their name, a little of their story, you got a LinkedIn invite, and you've decided to follow up with a cup of coffee. That's the best outcome. Nowhere in that spectrum do you go out of business and get cussed out or get chased out of the building. If you do, there's other factors at play. So maybe don't catastrophize everything and start realizing that building this network is the best thing you can possibly do.
