I want to go on a little journey of thought…the goal is to get it around to business, so stick with me here.
Last week, my husband and I went to a piano bar in Mission Viejo. We were having fun, drinking and listening to music. We had planned on attending with some of our current friends, but they got busy, so we went just the two of us. I love my hubby, and we have fun together, but after awhile, we tend to want to talk to people around us (we like chatting). Anyway, we were seated by 2 people who were on (what we found out to be) their second date. They had known each other in HS but just recently reconnected. They were fun, seemed really nice and we exchanged names, but that was it. After we left, both my hubby and I made the comment that we wish we had more time to talk with them as it is tough to meet other couples/people once you’re out of school. In order to meet people now, you must make a conscious effort to talk with people at friends events, your children’s friend’s parents or with work colleagues. It is tougher and tougher to find people who are in the same place in their lives and who want to build new friends.
How can we connect this to business?
First, meeting clients is much the same way – unless you go out to events and make it a goal to introduce yourself to other people, it is difficult to find new clients just in everyday life. You must work hard to connect with people in a way that you can share what you do, and learn what they do, so that you may connect each other to other people as well as yourselves. Second, just like you don’t meet someone and ask them to marry you – you don’t meet someone and immediately ask for their business. It takes work, repeat visits, and time to connect in order for someone to trust you enough to want to work with you. Finally, we need to think about business like we do friendships in that we need to treat business contacts with respect, sincerity and honesty. People want to work with people they like, so it is important to be likable as much as a business persona as a friend.
Do you find it easy to make new friends? What about finding new clients? What tools do you use or events do you attend in order to make it easier?
Oh, and if you’re and Orange County local, looking to connect, I would love to see you next Wednesday at the Fairmont in Newport for the Gingerbread Village Holiday Tweet Up from 6-9pm on December 16th.
Related posts:
- Social media friends vs Real life friends
- Business expectations are like dating…
- How can we get ourselves better connected to eachother?
Kirsten
