Original subtitles

Hello there.

Are you a networker.

Are you a connector.

Do you like networking with other people.

Do you like making those connections making those business deals.

Do you like crushing it and getting to know new people and and always building up your network so it

becomes larger and larger and that's what you do all the time.

Then this is not the course for you.

If that's the case if on the other hand you when you're honest with yourself tell yourself that maybe

that's not the type of person you are and that maybe you don't like going to networking events you don't

like you know constantly meeting new people you don't like networking connecting and doing all that

stuff and you find yourself very often making excuses not to go.

You find yourself telling yourself that it might be more productive for you not to attend these events

in fact maybe you actually decide to do all your work and your marketing and sales and everything online

so you don't actually have to meet people face to face then you are more like I am.

And that actually means that this course is for you especially if you don't like networking or maybe

you'd feel like you don't need face to face networking.

This course is for you.

So let me explain a bit about myself and where I come from.

I literally set up my business so I wouldn't have to deal with other people so I wouldn't have to network

face to face with other people.

I was a freelance translator and that was great because everything's online and I can just do all my

translation online.

And then I gradually built it up so you know I have my small my own small agency.

And however all of that was also a lie.

You know just I deal with freelancers and I deal with freelancers for everything not only for the translations

but for my Web site designed for lead generation for sales for whatever it might be.

Everything's online.

And you know I was doing everything that way.

I was very happy including with the clients and with the agency's idea with anything like that.

Everything was online and so yeah what happens.

Well the interesting thing is I am actually the opposite of my sister my sister who she's a freelance

consultant.

She's the opposite.

She's all bubbly and happy and loves to talk to new people she loves going to these events she always

comes back with you know best friends from these events who end up being her friends of traveling and

then bowling and you know whatever it might be.

And she's very much outgoing and very good at talking to people and starting conversations.

She always got those genes and I didn't get any of those because I'm very much the what's now called

the introvert.

Back in the day I was that's called a very shy person or not a people person.

And that's what they would say you know or just over you know I'm still kind of awkward when I meet

new people because I don't want to talk about.

And so you know that was the whole thing that would go back and forth.

She'd say Oh you should totally now work.

You should meet people face to face that really upset really helps.

I'm like No because I just come off as awkward and I don't like being there and I can they can tell

I don't like being there.

And she's I know it'll still help out Bob.

And for years this will go ahead and I kind of just was like OK whatever because I have my own business

and my own business was doing OK.

And then what happened is you know life happened and I got married had a kid and you know I realized

OK look I'm in business I'm trying to make my business work and you know having this set rule for business

that I don't meet people face to face is sort of an arbitrary rule to have especially when you're trying

to run and grow a business.

And I said OK let's try to be an adult about this and you know let's look into it and see if it's actually

worth it in terms of as a business decision.

And I decided OK I'm going to do it I'm not going to do it just to spite my sister and say how you were

wrong.

Networking doesn't work.

I'm like I'll actually try to do it and actually try to make it work.

And so yeah that's what I did.

And I am I'm quite a methodical person.

This probably comes from growing up in Switzerland where people are quite methodical.

It also happens because of my grad school was in finance and economics that's where I got my master's

in.

So I like I'd still to this day I use decision trees and game theory matrices to make my decisions because

I find them useful.

And so that's the same thing that I applied here and I tried to apply a certain methodology to networking

to all the various steps that occur with networking and that's what I'm sharing here what I'm going

to share in this course is my experience.

So stuff that I've been through and that I've seen other people do and go through it through for networking

and for it face to face networking for networking at events whether they be professional events or non-professional

events.

And we'll get into that a bit more later on and I'll talk in this course about what to do beforehand

how to pick what type of events to pick how to you know what to prepare before you go to these events

how to act once you get to these events what to talk about with people at these events and obviously

what to do after the event as well as a follow up.

And yet these are things that I found very useful for me as an introvert because quite frankly a lot

of the advice that was out there was very often you know to invite people to lunch to talk about this

and that to bring I mean stuff that for us introverts is very hard to do you know and it's at least

for me it was hard you know when I get up there at that moment to actually just act natural and talk

about myself.

I mean you know that's not something that you're thinking about at least for me I'm thinking way too

many things at that point in time and it's just hard and awkward.

So anyway this course talks about the steps to follow so that you can make networking work for you and

it can be fruitful for you in a business sense because what I've found is that actually it is very good

in this day and age even when you do everything online like I do.

It's very good to meet people face to face a big thing about doing business online is that anyone can

be online anyone with an email address you know and and so being able to meet people face to face and

kind of get a feel for them face to face really helps out.

And it's kind of invaluable.

And so I've been look at and I've been to a lot of events that were useless and for a long time mostly

events I went to where use because I wasn't getting anything out of them.

And but once I started applying this methodology it actually became a lot more useful.

And now on average for every event that I go to I will get one either client or deal or referral that

actually goes through something that actually earns my business money not something like oh we should

do business and then you never hear back from them but and you know it's been a question of trying to

honing the right events.

What to do at these events and how to act and and proceed over the over the course of these events and

membership in organizations associations whatever that might be.

So anyway I just kind of want to give a rundown is pretty much a brief rundown of my methodologies and

how they work and how I apply them for networking face to face and if you're like me and somewhat introverted

shy not a people person then then I think you'll find this course useful.

And if you're one of those who is outgoing and you're like Hey Jim how's it going.

Joe Long time no see Bob then.

Then you're probably doing fine with networking already.

And so this does might help because you've probably never applied any methodology before networking

but you're doing fine you're doing fine.

But for those of you who are not doing fine with networking and who maybe don't even want to do networking

because you don't think it's useful I mean to tell you that actually is quite useful.

And even if you're an introvert and you feel like you can do everything online and you don't have the

need for it it can be quite useful.

And so I wanted to talk about why and how it can be useful and kind of the pitfalls also to avoid so

that you don't end up wasting a lot of time talking to other people who you know maybe are let's face

it if you talk to a bunch of other people who are in the same boat as you then it's very hard to help

each other because you're all in the same boat.

And so what are you going to do.

And so anyway I run through all of this and try to help you find the right events.

And once again what to do to these events how to maximize the productivity the bang for your buck for

all these events and then try to follow up later on.

And yep that's pretty much it.

Hopefully you can find a useful and hopefully you can let me know how it went.

I would love to hear from you if these methods work for you how they worked for you maybe something

didn't work for you if you have any comments if you have any questions if you have any constructive

criticism I'd love to hear from you also because I can use that to build on this course and actually

keep making it better because I want to make this course the best course it can be for for all of you

you know for anyone who is introverted and and going into networking and so yeah please let me know

how it went and I want you thought about it and let me know if you're able to apply the methods and

how it worked out for you I'd love to hear from you about any of that and yeah that's pretty much it.

So without any further ado I'll let you get started with the course.

Thanks by.