I have been networking for 14 years since I owned my first business. I belonged to BNI a breakfast group, 3 Chambers, and a Wedding Assoc network group. I received many leads and enjoyed the contacts I made. I still speak to many of those same people today even though I am in a different business as I sold my Florist when I had my daughter 6 years ago. I have recently became the licensee of my own network group called www.thejoyofconnecting.com but I also belong to the American Business Womens Association, and go to many seminars that train on the art of networking. I truly believe it’s an art. When I first started networking 14 years ago, I used to think, what can I get out of this? Now after many years I have learned its about what you can give back to others. A great book on this is by Bob Burg called Endless Referrals. My life has changed dramatically for the better in the last 14 years, with many things attributing to that. When I go to a networking event, I try to connect with someone and give them ideas for them to reach more customers and then during the next few weeks until I see them again, I am looking for people that I can refer them to. A perfect example is last week, I met a lady that has a childrens newspaper. We sat for 30 minutes and brainstormed on all the people that could help her. It’s a blast helping others. Remember, you don’t have to network in groups, the key is learning how to do it where-ever your at.

Any thoughts or comments on how you network and what works for you is appreciated.

I went to my first speed networking event this week. I have been attending this monthly group for a few months, but this was more one on one. I had a great time and learned a lot about peoples professions, but more on how people go about networking and the things they tell about themselves or their company. There was a little confusion on how to set this up as far as making sure everyone talked to each other. We did miss a few people. I would like to hear if anyone has some imput if they had done this before. I think its a great idea. We had one minute to talk to each person and then they got to talk to me. It was a little noisy so we had to pay close attention to each other.  I may try to implement this sometime into my own networking group I host, called www.thejoyofconnecting.com