Archive for the ‘Networking’ Category

I’ve been in writer’s jail for nine weeks. This past Sunday at precisely 8:25am, I completed the 41st and final chapter of my new book on networking. The title is Networking Ahead: your GPS for driving business and professional success.

The book is due out in September. If you want to reserve a copy of the book now, email me at Kathy@MarketingMotivator.net

The truth be told, I’ve been thinking about and talking about writing a book for several years now (you too?). I finally pulled it out of my head and on to paper.

Are you curious as to how I got it done?

Click here to read the inside story

Networking expert  Kathy McAfee is the special guest this week to be interviewed by Pete Winiarski, president of the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement. The topic of the interview was how to be more effective with your networking and relationship building so that you can create more fun, freedom and fulfillment in your career, business and life.

Kathy describes that the real purpose of Networking is Relationship Building – a purposeful exercise to build mutually beneficial relationships.  That’s an interesting perspective given all the 1-way “transactional” conversations you might hear when you go to a networking event.  Or, think of all the requests on Twitter or Facebook to click here to buy now – without the relationship first.  (This is one of the biggest mistakes people make.)

Click through to download the interview highlights and access more resources and ideas on how to get more success (and have more fun) with your networking and relationship building.

I attended a wonderful ‘s networking event last night hosted by Reid & Reige law firm and their Women’s Alliance. The main activity was speed networking. The purpose of the speed networking exercise is to make multiple new connections in a short amount of time and to practice and get more comfortable giving your elevator pitch. If you haven’t experience speed networking yet, look for opportunities to do so.

In addition to meeting new motivated women business leaders, I learned a valuable lesson. Be careful not to use too many “I message” when you introduce yourself. You might even count how many times you use it in a 2-minute introduction. For example, how many times do you find yourself starting a sentence with the word “I”?

Click through to read why I think this is a real networking turnoff and what you should be doing instead.

Today I read an blog post by Karen Burns, author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Carer Advice You Can Actually Use, about the 50 Worst of the Worst (and most common) Job Interview Mistakes.

Some of the mistakes are pretty obvious, some are shocking (would anyone actually think about lighting up a cigarette in an interview???)  Other mistakes were more modern, like forgetting to remove your Bluetooth earpiece.

My motivation of re-posting this insightful article is to ask you to read through this  list of the worst of the worst job interview mistakes with an eye towards networking and relationship building. Some of these same mistakes occur when we network with other people.

These unconscious behaviors and negative actions can put a real damper on the conversation and can ruin any first impression that you hope to make. The results: it is unlikely that you will develop a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship with the person you are networking with. More likely you will create the “yuck” response. That is the opposite of the law of attraction; it is the law of repulsion. Click here to read about more…