Lara Nieberding

Who recommended: Lynne Waymon

What I am reading: Make Your Contacts Count (Networking Know-How For Business and Career Success) by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon

Where in the book: page 17

Why I am reading: Learning how to network. Cause believe me, I have no CLUE!

Which quote: “Networking is the deliberate process of exchanging information, resources, support, and access in such a way as to create mutually beneficial relationships for personal and professional success.”

How this quote adjusted my thinking:

I like starting with a definition because all too often I march into a situation thinking I know what I am doing only later to find out I could have had more positive results if I had understood the definition. For example, marketing. I thought marketing was making a logo, buying some advertising and calling it a day. I have since learned “marketing is telling people what you do over and over.” (I learned that from C.J. Hayden’s book Get Clients Now)

So networking to me is a time when I have to listen to one sales pitch after another. I think of a networking event as a chance to see a new product, learn about a new book in a presentation format. In other words, I am in the audience and I am watching a demonstration.

I never thought of networking as a deliberate process. I never thought of networking as a support group. Now, I am intrigued to learn more about what networking really encompasses.