Enrich Your Life With Your Network

Taking up a suggestion by business coach Josh Spector to “offer to reply with advice,” I’m always glad to comment about my niche, performance marketing, but it’s September. Since we are on LinkedIn, social media for professionals, with graduates heading to college and starting careers, I thought I’d share my #1 piece of career advice for success.

Nurture your network.

Relationships account for every position in my career after my first one (over a dozen), countless new clients, recruits, and incredible vendors. Certainly most of all, wonderful friendships.

Referrals from colleagues, clients, and suppliers mean the world. But those don’t come without giving first. Helping others find jobs, employees, and opportunities gets and keeps the ball rolling. Reach out and check in periodically; sometimes for no reason at all.

Tips from a couple of my mentors and a friend:

1)?Keep notes on everyone you meet. Who introduced you? What was the occasion? A trade show, webinar, LinkedIn group? Help yourself remember the important things: anniversaries, birthdays, family members, mutual friends and groups. Note: this advice was from a car dealer. Seriously. You find mentors in surprising places.

2) Write handwritten thank yous. Gotta give my Mom initial credit for this, but this habit was ingrained by a boss to follow up every meeting with a card. That’s why I’m so pleased when Elizabeth Cottrell wrote “Heartspoken: How to Write Notes that Connect, Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire.” Psst…it’s a great gift for young professionals.

3) Remember to "water the flowers" by cultivating your relationships. I first heard this when a friend told this to her daughter as we were heading out to meet a colleague after work. This expression captures perfectly the most important part of networking.

I feel so strongly about the power of networking to enrich lives that I put together a couple of digital downloads, one documenting how several successful top experts used Dream Networking and another with a challenge to “Meet Someone New Every Day.” What a difference a little effort can make.

I’d be delighted to answer questions about ways to reach out and touch someone. I’m glad to share ideas for finding mentors or getting in front of people at companies you want to work for or do business with.

Thanks, Josh, for the inspiration.