When most people think of Networking, they think of awkward cocktail party banter, reaching out to power players to ask a favor, and contending with shameless self-promoters.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be any of those things!
Let’s reframe and take the negative association from a natural human inclination to build genuine, mutually beneficial long-term relationships.
This is by no means an exhaustive list,
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz, at the MJCCA book festival in Atlanta.
He is probably the warmest, most entertaining, and authentic veteran actor out there! Winkler told stories about meeting Robin Williams as a young unknown comedian and how he immediately knew Williams was a genius. He also shared details about his lifelong friendship with Happy Days co-star Ron Howard and how much he enjoyed directing Dolly Parton.
What stops you from speaking up in a meeting?
What stops you from reaching out to someone when you need their advice?
What stops you from going up to someone you have never met and starting a conversation?
What stops you from exercising more?
What stops you from eating more protein and complex carbohydrates?
What stops you from waking up earlier?
The topic of a recent keynote I gave this week was Own Your Confidence: Maximize Your Sales.
The focus was developing deep, authentic confidence that results in customers liking you, trusting you, and wanting to do business with you.
Please also listen to my conversation with master sales trainer and global sales speaker Chuck Reaves (below).
Confidence is crucial in sales and can significantly impact a salesperson’s success.
The ultra-modern convenience of Artificial Intelligence systems like ChatGPT and Waze has taken a lot of complex tasks off our hands, like collating information and writing generic blogs or navigating our way out of a traffic jam. But, however sophisticated and brilliant Artificial Intelligence becomes, there are certain things these systems will never be able to do for you. They are the very human features of interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence as embodied in the following:
In every presentation skills class, at least one participant asks how to get around their tendency to use filler words. Also known as “crutches” and “disfluencies”, they are words like “umm”, “you know,” “like”, “ I think”, and “right?”.
While there is nothing wrong with the occasional verbal filler, especially because it can make the speaker more relatable, excessive use of fillers is usually a sign of inexperience and nerves, and their effect can be both distracting and even irritating.
Powerful presentations can persuade, influence, and inspire your audience.
In addition, the ability to present information in a compelling way and develop your overall presence is critical to your career advancement.
Here are seven things to think about every time you share information with an audience of one or one hundred.
1. Who is my audience?
2. What do I want them to THINK,
No one changes the world while playing catch up; that is why cultivating the agility to act swiftly and smartly in any given situation is one of the keys to managing the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. I know from personal experience how hard it is to find a balance between thinking a situation through and acting too quickly. Indeed, overcoming “analysis paralysis” is easier said than done. Nevertheless, developing the agility to transform rapidly increases the likelihood that you can withstand and even thrive in the face of whatever comes your way.
