\u201cGo to networking events!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPost on social media!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStart a newsletter or blog!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These are all bits of conventional wisdom that are propounded ad nauseam, and we\u2019ve all grown quite cynical about them. This is due to a very simple but important misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
I will often tell clients that there is no silver bullet. No one thing that will launch your career or business. No secret formula. And all of the above is good advice. Sorry.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetworking feels like a waste of time, I meet these people and don\u2019t have time to follow up with them. Plus everybody at them is desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reason it feels like \u2018a waste of time\u2019 is that your expectations are inappropriate. And so are most other people\u2019s.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why most of the people you meet at these events will fall by the wayside. But every so often, and I\u2019m not saying very, somebody becomes a collaborator, a service provider or possibly even a client. Or they enrich your life in some other unexpected way. Or vise versa. And if you hadn\u2019t been at that stupid event to meet them…or reached out to them on LinkedIn…<\/p>\n
My father used to fish. When the water was still and there wasn\u2019t nary a nibble, he would throw some bait in the water. That\u2019s called \u2018chumming.\u2019 It would attract the fish, and since fishing is about patience, eventually, one would go for the bait and he\u2019d catch it.<\/p>\n
Chumming is especially useful in ocean fishing because the ocean is so vast. And while business can seem like a small world, it\u2019s vast as well.<\/p>\n
This is how we need to think about all<\/strong> promotional and marketing activity.<\/p>\n It\u2019s chum in the water. If you\u2019re not catching anything, keep chumming. And even when you do, nothing lasts for ever so\u2026.never stop chumming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cGo to networking events!\u201d \u201cPost on social media!\u201d \u201cStart a newsletter or blog!\u201d These are all bits of conventional wisdom that are propounded ad nauseam, and we\u2019ve all grown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n