2017 Recommended Books: "Build Your Dream Network" by J. Kelly Hoey

I was fortunate to hear the author of Build Your Dream Network, J. Kelly Hoey, speak at the University of Tampa this year. A poised, funny, articulate and natural speaker, I enjoyed her down-to-earth style. She was interviewed with some pre-arranged questions, which was fine for the environment that we were in, but I’d certainly love to hear her go off-the-cuff; I’m quite certain she would end up sharing some unrehearsed Tweetable moments. (It seems that she could be a bit of an imp, if given the right stage. But that’s probably just me seeing a lot of myself in her. I’m guessing we could share some saucy conversations while we admired each others’ unusual shoe collections.)

Ms. Hoey’s book is all about effective networking. And God knows I have written some heated blogs about the fine art and the genocidal degradation of this important skill. It’s annoying to swim through an overpopulated ocean of nibbling fish at an open networking event to find that one person who is operating on the same plane. And thank you, Kelly, for writing this book to help these nibbling fish, swimming in the desperate red ocean of “I can offer just about any service to anyone for a monetary exchange,” to understand that networking is not a game of collecting tons of business cards. It’s not about making as many contacts as you can so that you can add email addresses to your annoying and unwelcomed newsletter that, I promise you, I am not going to read and will rapidly unsubscribe myself with visible disgust. Networking is not about that at all. Man, that modus operandi must be exhausting and frustrating.

As the author sums up neatly, early on in the prologue: Networking is a way to go about solving a problem. When you know people, and those people know what you do, success knows how to find you.

A few of the gems that I dog-eared and highlighted in my coveted, personally autographed copy of Kelly Hoey's book:

• It’s not a question of what you know or who you know, but rather who knows what it is that you know. Who knows what sets you apart? (Meaning: you need to be top of mind when somebody needs your particular skill/value.)
• Understanding the importance of networking internally and externally. You can’t overlook the importance of making strong connections simply because you currently have a job. Cultivating relationships up, down, and sideways on the corporate organization chart is vital at all stages of your professional journey.
• How to know whether to join a networking group? If your internal answer is not “Heck Yes!” then it’s no. Trust your gut and don't overextend yourself by joining too many things that aren't meaningful.
• Undertake your own community-building efforts because you care really deeply about the subject matter or topic, not with the aim of a definite outcome or result.
• Use technology with the aim of getting offline, and always grab the chance to have an in-person IRL (In Real Life) meeting.
• Tighten up your pitch inside of any networking platform. Know your audience and avoid open-ended, generic asks like “if you can think of anyone who…” 

Kelly Hoey sprinkles the right amount of stories and external perspectives through Influencer interviews to show examples of her processes at work. She includes fun infographics and bulleted outlines with valuable, step-by-step procedures for things like maintaining a polished, complete LinkedIn profile, and how to effectively and meaningfully connect with people on a specific social/business platform.

She also offers meaningful time-saving hacks (that, as a bonus, help to preserve your sanity in this hyper-connected, addictive world of technology-induced social validation) like:

• Setting my email auto-responder to manage expectations of people reaching out to contact me and to manage my own priorities.
• Deleting social media apps from my phone and scheduling time to check social platforms on my laptop.

Build Your Dream Network is a book that is helpful to both introverts and extroverts. Although, the content is abundantly “All Spiced” for me--meaning that there is SO much information provided in a not-exactly-linear way, I can see it overwhelming the networking newbie who may want to implement just a few of these morsels over time. [Chapter summaries at the end with bullet-points of main ideas, or summarized check-lists of to-do’s could help to better digest and implement the strategies methodically. I can actually see this book broken down into a step-by-step series for networking newbies, to seasoned networkers, to veteran connectors.]

That said, as a self-proclaimed professional connector who lives for personal IRL moments and balks at new technology that will keep me chained to my computer or phone (my personal hell) I found both affirmation for some of my personal networking approaches and some new nuggets of gold from J. Kelly Hoey. And she writes in such a way that I feel she and I have made a personal connection, which is at the heart of what this book is all about.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE "BUILD YOUR DREAM NETWORK" ON AMAZON

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