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 Business Networking in Austin Blog
By: Scott Ingram
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Networking Karma The give and take of networking is probably best described as networking karma. It doesn't always make sense, and in the end you'll generally get back what you've given. Give a little, get a little. Give a lot, get a lot.
I recently heard networking described in terms of a bank account. The idea is that you've got to open an account (relationship) with a deposit. The more you deposit the more you can withdraw. Of course you can't be overdrawn. This is a good explanation in that it clearly describes the fact that you need to first help other people.
However, in the real world of networking things don't always follow such a simple cause and effect pattern as a bank account. Following the bank account example you can't make multiple deposits at one bank, and then take withdrawals from another bank that you didn't even know existed. Where the benefits of networking come from are often a surprise.
Zen Networking
The payoff from networking usually comes from where you'd least expect it. Because of this unusual way that your good deeds will be rewarded it doesn't necessarily matter who you do them for. Many times it's better to help out someone who theoretically could never pay you back.
Don't take networking too seriously. You'll become frustrated very quickly if you spend a lot of time trying to plan your outcome. It rarely works the way you think it will, but it does work!
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Networking and Blogging, Blogging and Networking Last week my friend, Thom Singer, asked me to be a guest blogger on his Business Development / Networking Blog.
The guest blogger concept is something Thom is planning on doing every Friday. I think this is an incredible idea. I talk about why in my guest post on Thom's blog: Networking and Blogging, Blogging and Networking
Happy Networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Networking - It's Personal Great networking really isn't about business at all. It's about people. Referrals, word of mouth, and more business are really just side effects. Don't get me wrong they're great side effects, but they come later.
I'm sure you've heard over and over again that people do business with people they know, like and trust. There are a couple of major points here. The first is that people do business with PEOPLE. That's the first distinction. The second is that these people that they do business with are those that we know, like and trust.
If we're wanting people to get to know us, like us and trust us should we really be talking about what we do? NO! The relationship comes first. We need to get to know each other as a person. If you're not been reading my blog for very long go back and read some of my earlier posts about questions. Ask people personal questions, get to know who they really are.
This is also the reason why my blog is so personal. I want people to know what's going on in my life. Read about what's important to me and realize that I'm a real person. Especially for the folks who haven't had a chance to meet me. It's important that they know that I'm not a boring networking tip machine, and that I'm approachable. I want them to feel comfortable walking up to me at a networking function, or just picking up the phone and calling me.
Give this some thought the next time you find yourself at a networking event. Are you only talking about what you do, or are you talking about who you are? Are you only asking about what someone does, or getting to know them and what's important to them?
A little shift in perspective can have a major impact on your results.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | It's Going to be a Girl!!! Emily is exactly 20 weeks today. We're expecting on January 9th, 2006. We went this afternoon to have the ultrasound. Everything is perfect, all of the measurements are just right. We're both very excited to be having a baby girl!
For your viewing pleasure here are the pictures. They're actually very clear. Usually these things are like reading tea leaves.
 
 
In case these do look like tea leaves to you let me explain. The first is a profile that clearly shows the face. The second is another profile shot with her feet up over her head. The third is a rather prone position. The round bits are cheeks, and not the ones that have ears outside of them. The fourth shows her cute little feet!
Emily is doing great. She really wanted a girl so she's ecstatic! This little girl definately takes after her mother and is VERY active. At one point it looked like she was swimming laps in there.
That's it for tonight. I'm going to catch up on some sleep while I still can.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | What do you do? Are you as tired of this line as I am? I'm tired of hearing it, I'm tired of asking it. I think it's time, as a networking community, that we try and move beyond this overused question.
I asked my friend, Steve Harper, to post his insights about this very topic on his blog: The Ripple Effect. He was kind enough to oblige and wrote: "Dippy Do & Networking TOO - COME ON ORIGINALITY....WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?" Thank you Steve for taking the time to do this for me.
Steve is also the auther of the book The Ripple Effect which is available to NetworkInAustin.com members at a discount on our book list. I highly recommend Steve's book. It'll give you some good insights into the relationship aspect of networking, and will show you that what comes around goes around even in business.
So... What do you do?
The real problem with this line is that it does nothing to move us in the direction of a personal connection with the person we've just met. Really all it does is opens the door for a canned and over used elevator speech. Yuck!
What we're really trying to do is to open the door into this persons world. Who are they? Why are they here? What is the meaning of life? Getting to something personal is what you're really trying to uncover. This is easier to do if you do as Steve suggests and don't take yourself or networking so seriously.
Now I'm not suggesting that you avoid the topic of business completely. It's still important and that's probably why you're there at a networking event in the first place. What I'm suggesting is that you move beyond and outside of business to learn something REAL about your new friend. You don't need to be pushy and overzealous. Just let the conversation develop naturally. I think you'll find that you're able to develop better rapport and more trust by taking this approach. Keep this up and more business won't be far behind.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | You'll Get Out What You Put In In networking, much as in life, you get out what you put in. You'll probably notice that the most effective and productive networkers are those that are the most involved.
Look around the organizations you're involved in. If it's a Chamber of Commerce look at the Ambassadors. In a larger organization look towards those that serve on committee's or on the board of directors. You'll generally find that these people are the ones who get the most from their participation in that organization. Interesting coincidence...
Think about a membership organization and think about what type of people receive little or no benefit. It may not be entirely obvious at first, because the people who aren't getting any benefit probably aren't even there. Another interesting coincidence...
Obviously my point is that it's important to get involved. At the very least Show up! If you're not actively participating on a regular basis you're very unlikely to receive any benefit. The next step is to get more involved. Volunteer to serve on a comittee, or to help check people in at the next event. Demonstrate your expertise. If you're an accountant offer to help with the bookkeeping. Contribute, you'll be amazed at the coincidental business you'll pick up.
As Woody Allen says: "90 percent of life is showing up."
We've even redesigned the ranking system for NetworkInAustin.com members to reinforce this philosophy. Now the more complete your profile is in our business directory the higher you'll be ranked. All of the details can be found in the new member's area.
If you look at our business directory now you'll see exactly what I mean. Look at the members who have already added information to their profiles. If you know any of these people you know that they're the ones who typically reap the most rewards. These folks tend to be actively involved in all areas of their life, and get the most rewards in all areas of their life as well.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | The Critical Importance of Rapport This past weekend taught me a very valuable lesson about how absolutely critical rapport is in a relationship. Without rapport there really is no relationship.
Think about it. If you don't feel a connection to someone on some level, does anything they say have any impact on you? Isn't the opposite true? Won't you be more likely to discount most of the things that person says or does?
It was an amazing lesson to watch unfold. Especially since I wasn't the only one involved who was having these feelings. Hearing what other people thought about interacting with this person whom we had no rapport with was incredibly reinforcing.
Lesson learned: You MUST have rapport BEFORE you can have any type of positive relationship.
Rapport becomes critically important especially in a sales situation. If you've not connected with your prospect it would be nearly impossible to close the sale. Same goes for a networking relationship. You're never going to get referrals or assistance from someone who doesn't feel some level of connection with you.
The good news is; building rapport is easy, especially with awareness and practice. We build rapport through finding connections and associating with the other person. This may be through similar interests, history, desires, beliefs, or experiences. It can also take the form of a physical connection. This can be done through the process of matching and mirroring. (more on matching and mirroring in a future blog post)
Whatever form the connection takes doesn't matter. As long as it's there. Without it the relationship will NOT move forward.
Build rapport, connect, and start a relationship. That's what networking is all about. In fact, it's where every relationship starts.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Question: What do YOU want? 
Well, here you are again reading my blog... Why?
This blog really isn't about me. It's about you. I hope you get something out of your visits here, and reading my posts about networking, business and occasionally me. Unfortunately I don't really have any way of know who is reading this. So tell me! As a reader of this blog help me to give you more value.
I'd like some input from you about the "Business Networking in Austin Blog."
- Why do you read it?
- What do you hope to learn?
- What would YOU like to know more about?
Will you do me a personal favor? Please take 3 minutes right now to send me a quick e-mail. Send it to scott *at* networkinaustin.com. It doesn't have to be pretty, just a quick brain dump with your thoughts and what you'd like to read more about.
I appreciate your taking the time to read this blog, and I especially appreciate your input.
With Gratitude,
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Questions: A Powerful Networking Tool I've just returned from vacation with Emily. After a couple of days in Cleveland, OH for her cousin's wedding we visited with Emily's parents outside of Syracuse, NY. On our way to the airport we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I actually got a descent fortune from my fortune cookie:
"Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential."
Wow! A fortune cookie that gives networking advice.
Questions are a truly powerful tool when it comes to building good solid relationships.
In Dale Carnegie's book: How to Win Friends & Influence People Mr. Carnegie tells us that to become a good conversationalist we must listen. He tells a story about being at a party and having a conversation with someone. In that conversation all he really does is listen. Later, this person describes him as a great conversationalist.
The secret is active listening, and questions are the key ingredient to ative listening. Through questions we can learn all sorts of things about someone. Not only will you learn more about the person you're networking with, they'll also think more highly of you since you're genuinely interested in them.
The best way to do this is by asking open ended questions that can't be answered by a simple yes or no. Get them talking. Learn about them, their background, their family, etc.
Ask good questions and unlock your own unlimited potential.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Ask for what you want As I say over and over again, networking is really about relationships. It's having those strong relationships that allow you to get the things you want.
You're very unlikely to get what you want until you ask for it. So ask!
It doesn't get much simpler than that. Just make sure that you are specific and clear about what it is you're asking for.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Your Competitor... Your Greatest Ally? I attended an interesting presentation late last year in which I first heard the term: “Coopetition.” A combination of the words Cooperation and Competition.
After spending some time thinking about the concept I decided at the beginning of this year that I no longer believed in competition. Having adopted that mindset for the last 6 months has really shown me that doors that you couldn’t even see before get flung wide open when you embrace this way of thinking. I’ve even started referring a lot of competitors to each other.
Here’s the way I see it. As long as you go in without preconceived notions and an open mind, you can have a great meeting with your competitor. 90 percent of the time you’ll find that there are a variety of things that your company does better than they do, and there are several things that they do better than you. Therein lies the opportunity. If you can find these areas, and find a way to work together to take advantage of these expertise you’ll both win!
I know, I know. You think I’m nuts! Humor me. Pick up the phone right now and call one of your competitors. Tell them that you’d like to get together for lunch, a cup of coffee, or better yet a couple of beers. Be up front! Either tell them on the phone when you’re setting the appointment what your agenda is so that they can prepare themselves, or make sure you explain the purpose of you’re meeting at the beginning of your time together. Better yet, have them read this blog post (you can use the ‘e-mail this page’ link at the top of the page).
There are other reasons to network with your competition as well. Read my friend: Thom Singer’s August 2nd post entitled “Competitors As Friends” on his Business Development/Networking Blog. In this post Thom suggests some other compelling reasons why you might want to build a good relationship with your competition.
Look for other opportunities as well. Do they service a market that you’re not interested in? Refer that business to them. Maybe they’ll be willing to call up their old prospects and refer them to you. Imagine the power and goodwill that would be created in your own mind if someone that you decided not to do business with called you and said the following: “Ms. Prospect. I know you’ve decided not to do business with us, and that’s ok. In case you still have a need for wacky widgets I thought I’d offer to connect you with our competitor. I want to make sure you get what you need, and they might be a better fit for you. Should I have them give you a call?” I don’t know about you, but I’d probably fall out of my chair. I’d also have a really great feeling about both companies.
The possibilities are endless. Try it! What’s the worst that could happen?
Have a competitor experience you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about it. Send me an e-mail: scott |at| networkinaustin.com.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Setting your networking expectation level Networking isn’t always easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. Instead it takes consistent time and effort to pay off. As long as you expect that your networking efforts will take some persistence and a lot of patience you’ll be fine.
Based on my own experience and conversations with others; having your relationships building efforts produce results in a substantial way will probably take between 6 and 18 months. Of course there are a lot of variables that will influence where you will find yourself within that range. It’ll depend how frequently and effectively you’re connecting with others. Your line of business will have an impact as well.
Someone who’s going to 3 meetings and getting together with 5 different people on a one to one basis every week is going to experience results faster than someone who’s only attending 3 networking meetings each month. You’re going to get out what you put in as long as you’re using common sense. I wrote in an earlier post about the right amount of networking. Find what works for you. Most importantly, be consistent! Going to 7 meetings in one week and then not showing your face again for 4-5 weeks isn’t going to produce very good results.
Your profession is going to have an impact also. If you’re in a very competitive industry such as real estate, insurance, website design, etc. expect that it’s going to take longer. Trust that as long as there are no major differences between you and your competitor’s offerings, relationships will win out. You’ll just have to build better, stronger relationships than your competition. As my friend Jim McCullick who runs Networking Austin frequently says: “If you touch people’s bodies or money it’s going to take longer for you to get referrals.” He’s absolutely right. Anytime you’re dealing with a high level of trust it’s going to take more time to earn those referrals.
All of that being said… Austin is a different place. I think the culture in Austin and to a larger extent Texas is one of helpfulness and friendliness. I’ve never been anyplace else where people have been as open and willing to help. Ask anyone who’s new to Austin. We all notice it. It’s probably why the folks who come to Austin almost never leave. That culture makes networking here a little easier than in other parts of the country.
On average it’s probably best to expect that your networking efforts will take right around a year to reach a point of critical mass. Realize that building quality relationships through networking is an investment. It takes time to accumulate that wealth, and when you do it will pay dividends for years and years to come. Now there’s something to appreciate!
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Austin Business Trade Show Over the last few weeks we’ve been working with Nick Taylor who is organizing the Austin Business Trade Show. We’re proud to be onboard as a Gold Sponsor of this business to business event to be held at the Palmer Event Center on October 4th, 2005.
Along with our sponsorship we’re able to offer members of NetworkInAustin.com a 15% discount on vendor booths (and they were reasonably priced to begin with).
I will also be facilitating some structured networking during the event. Not only will you be able to learn about some other businesses, you’ll also have an opportunity to begin building some relationships through networking.
Tickets for this event are an absolute bargain! NetworkInAustin.com members can attend for only $5.00 (no I didn’t leave out a digit or misplace the decimal point). Even non-members can attend for only $10.00. I doubt that’ll break anybody’s bank.
I look forward to seeing you there. Stop by our booth and come to the facilitated networking. If we haven’t already met please introduce yourself. It’s always a blast meeting the folks who are reading my blog.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com | Blogging for Business Business blogging is certainly a fairly recent phenomenon. Now that it’s here I think it’s here to stay, at least until it gets replaced by something better. I also think blogging for business presents some pretty unique opportunities.
The biggest opportunity in using a blog for business is using it to position yourself as an expert. The traditional route to demonstrating professional expertise is through writing articles, books and speaking. All of those except for speaking tend to remove the personality of the expert. What I mean by that is if you were to write an article or a book. By the time it’s been edited it’s really just information. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but would anybody know the difference if it was your name as the author of the book or my name? Generally your personality is removed from these vehicles. A blog on the other hand because of its tendency towards stream of consciousness and opinion tends to leave ones personality intact, if not accentuate it. From my perspective that’s a very good thing. We all want to feel a connection to the people we’re doing business with. In most cases we do business with people, not companies. A business blog allows us to demonstrate our expertise while at the same time building rapport and making a personal connection to our reading audience.
Blogging is a great way to develop content for those books and articles. A good blogger will post to their blog at least a couple of times a week. This forces us to write on a regular basis. Do this long enough and you’re going to have a pretty substantial set of content. This can easily be turned into articles or even a book. I’ve only been blogging for about a month and this will be my 17th post. I didn’t even realize how much I’d written until I just went back to count the posts. Imagine how much content you’ll have after several months or years of regular contributions.
Search engines love blogs! I can’t tell you how easy it’s been to promote this blog. Having also worked on positioning NetworkInAustin.com in the search engines I can tell you that promoting my blog was 10 times easier and has been 10 times more effective. There are hundreds of blog directories out there. It’s very easy to get your blog listed under very specific categories that pertain to the topic of your blog. This brings in readers who are actually looking to learn about what you’re talking about. That and because they change frequently and have very good content the search engines can’t get enough of them. There are even free services out there that you can use that will tell 15-20 of the top blog directories that you’ve made a recent post. With the click of a button you can tell all of these websites to come and read your blog and index it on their site. This can get a little technical. Let me just tell you that it works, and you wouldn’t believe how well. Then when you link back to your own website frequently it helps boost the position of your own website. It’s a win/win!
A well written blog can be very viral in nature. I’ve already had blog posts that other bloggers have talked about or commented on in their own blogs. Blog readers will also forward a link to a good blog post to a friend that might be interested in that topic. All of this benefit for something that only takes an hour or two each week.
Members of NetworkInAustin.com have the ability to blog for FREE as part of their enhanced or Lifetime membership. Our members can receive all of the benefits that I talked about above. Plus we’ll not only list your blog in our networking resources section, but we’ll also help you promote your blog and get listed in a lot of those directories. If you’re not a member I hope you’ll join us. If you’re already a member give us a call or shoot as an e-mail so we can help you get started.
Happy networking!
Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com
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