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336Events Magazine Articles

Networking 106 – It starts with a chat

Maybe you too should strive to meet people, start a conversation and see where it goes. Let your conversations lead you towards the next conversations and who knows, maybe you’ll find your opportunity of a lifetime if you first focus on building relationships through your networking activities.

Here is the 6th Article I wrote for 336Events.com

by Teddy Burriss Social Networking Pro

I talked with a businessman today who has an opportunity beyond his wildest dreams. And, it all started with a simple chat.

Steve (names changed) went to a local networking event and ran into Doug. They talked for a few minutes despite their respective businesses being totally irrelevant. Shaking hands they parted and began visiting with others at the event.

Fast forward a few weeks; Steve is sitting in a local restaurant having breakfast when Doug walks in. They acknowledge each other and chat briefly before Doug moves on to his own breakfast table.

Steve and Doug begin to run into each other more frequently. With each new encounter they briefly chatted about lots of different topics. Often their short conversations were about life and community. Very little business chatter.

As the weeks and months go by Steve and Doug continued to run into each other and were beginning to develop a friendship. Eventually they begin to schedule to have breakfast together a few times a week.

With each new encounter and chat Doug starts to share stories about a project he is working on. An interesting project that Steve is very interested to learn more about.

Doug started to ask Steve questions regarding how he would handle different aspects of the project. The two began to confide in each other more and more about lots of different business topics.

Soon Doug presented Steve with a proposal. Doug needed someone he could trust with the right amount of experience and desire to help move the project forward and into success. He told Steve that during their chats and breakfast meetings he had begun to trust and respect Steve’s opinions, skills and passion to create success.

Soon thereafter Steve became a partner in the project with Doug. The two of them are creating success and rewards together.

The point of this story is to further explain the benefit of a good conversation.

Doug and Steve’s relationship started with simple chats about life and community. As they engaged in conversation they began to trust each other and opened up more and more about ideas and projects that you would only share with someone you trust and respect.

In a typical business conversation their would be a need for NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements), Confidentiality Statements, Resume’s and Letters of References. However, these two got past all of these legal and often relationship restricting documents by first learning about each other as a person. They built their relationship prior to diving into business discussions and deals.

I’m not discounting the need for business protection systems like NDAs; however creating a relationship first makes everything else easier.

How does this pertain to you? Maybe you too should strive to meet people, start a conversation and see where it goes. Let your conversations lead you towards the next conversations and who knows, maybe you’ll find your opportunity of a lifetime if you first focus on building relationships through your networking activities.

This series is brought to us by Teddy Burriss, a world renowned Social Networking Coach. Teddy teaches “Networking for Mutual Benefit” and “Building Relationships through Social Media.” Teddy is an accomplished author, public speaker, avid social media engager and blogger.

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