About a month ago I had a referral from a friend of mine, so I met with a young marketing director from a legal firm. He was willing to learn about my coaching attorneys in behaviors of confidence. One area he agrees they struggle in is connecting the dots - getting outside their typical "research" behaviors to network, seek business and build referral relationships.
Not only was this a no-brainer for me to meet him, it was for him, too, as he saw me as a conduit for his ability to connect more effectively to those within his firm while he guides them in effective networking and marketing practices.
Today I met with a lady (Linda Watson)who has simply made a practice of not eating alone. In town once a week for client work, she regularly lines up a young professional to eat with so she can support them in their connections. She and I met through LinkedIN about a year ago and have remained in touch simply out of her desire to be of help, eventhough we're the same age.
What I expected to be a relationship-building, fun occassion became that and then some. She took it to the next level with supporting my efforts in finding new presentation audiences. Immediately she recognized the value of my work and began giving me ideas. Although I didn't question our meeting, I didn't see it's full value coming. Fortunately I kept it on my schedule and kept an open mind to just go with the moment.
In this case it required I see the networking puzzle as something more than a simple case of logic. Linda is a marketing director of an out-of-town accounting firm - what possible business contact could she be for me? Well as it turns out, she answered that for me (without my asking, of course).
She found the way to connect the dots in her network with the ones in mine, zigging here, zagging there, despite my target market. Instead, she saw a need and proposed it.
I like drawing outside the lines - creating designs that aren't logical. And that's what happened during today's luncheon. I was open to meeting with her, for whatever reason, and she was open to finding a connection, in whatever way she could.
Like she said, "Once people start talking, there's no telling where they end up. It starts with simply saying, Hi."
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