How Playing it Safe is Costing You Clients

We're sure you've heard that our ancestors were "hunters and gatherers". That goes back to the time of the caveman. The theory goes that "the men would go out into the wild to hunt down the beast and the woman would gather what they could, but staying close to the safety of the cave." Even though, our collective living situations may have changed (we're not in caves anymore or being hunted by saber-toothed tigers), Paige and I see and speak to a lot of people who are still approaching networking and potential clients with the same extremes our ancestors used to survive. Let's look at two types of networkers: 1) There's the Networking Warrior, who is aggressively hunting down their next lead whether that is at a networking event, a party or a workshop. They see their "prey" as having a dollar sign on its forehead and this warrior is going to do everything in its power to "bag" its prey and "bring home" the next client. 2) On the other side of the scale is the Safety Seeker. This is the business owner who avoids networking and connection all together, who doesn't want to leave the (perceived) safety of their home. If they do go out to a networking event, they are usually seen hanging out on the periphery or grazing at the buffet table, keeping their mouth full so they don't have to talk to anyone about what they do. Now these are extreme examples, but we've all met plenty of people who could easily fall into either category. It's bad news bears to go out and try to "hunt down" clients just looking to get paid, but it also does you no good to stay "safely" locked up in your house, where no one, including clients can find you. As you know, the key to most things in business and life is to adapt... to grow... to EVOLVE. And the key to successful networking is to evolve, to come toward the middle and bring the energy of the Networking Warrior and the Safety Seeker together into your networking (and your business). When Paige and I first started in business, we almost never left our house. We were scared to death of networking and as you can imagine, we had a lot of difficulty finding people to work with us. But once we left the "safety" of our house, we began having authentic connections with people, finding out what their true desires and struggles were and we began to get more clients, and naturally our business and life started to turn around. We were talking with a client the other day and we worked with her to reframe what networking was to her. We helped her to see it as a real opportunity to have real connections with real people, so she can begin really helping them change their lives. A few days later she sent us an email telling us she had gone to a networking event, she had a great time and set up 5 follow up meetings for the next week. That's 5 new people that now have an opportunity to experience her amazing and transformative work - and the only reason they received this amazing opportunity is because she left the perceived safety of her home and went out and connected with them. Your Authentic Assignment When was the last time you left the safety of your home or office to go out and network with some potential clients? If you said in the last 2 weeks - AWESOME! Keep getting out there, keep having authentic connections and keep following up with your new connections. If your answer was more like never - go to Google right now and type the words "business networking" and then the name of your city. Or you can type "chamber of commerce" and then the name of your city. Now, go to one of the results, click on the tab that says events, and look for a networking event that take place in the next 2 weeks - and go to it. And remember, when you go, you are not going there to be a warrior or a safety seeker, but a gatherer - collecting connections, conversations and possibilities. You can SO do this! We believe in you, and let us know how it goes.