Life Kit - How to make networking less awkward

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Shaking hands, sending cold emails and asking for coffee can feel unnatural. Networking expert Robbie Samuels explains how to create meaningful job connections in more authentic ways. This episode originally published on October 2, 2022.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey everybody, it's Marielle. I recently went to a conference and there were lots of booths set up and presentations throughout the day. But the main event, the reason everyone was actually there, was the networking. I'll be honest, the whole, here's my card and let's get coffee, it feels awkward to me. And sometimes at these events, I just want to hide in my hotel room. One study from the Harvard Business School found that just the thought of professional networking can make people feel dirtier. Participants developed a sudden and disproportionate interest in soap and toothpaste.

But in that same study, there was one group that didn't feel grossed out. Senior executives, because they weren't looking for anything. They didn't need anything. In fact, they were full of resources, like budgets and information and introductions and guidance and mentorship. That's Robbie Samuels,

a virtual design event consultant and recognized networking expert by the likes of Forbes and the Harvard Business Review. He says the key to networking is to approach it not with a mindset of what you need, but rather what you can offer. Think about it like giving rides to the airport. If you become known as a person who's always giving rides to the airport, the day you need one, you're going to get a ride. So I think for me, it's like I want to be seen as that giver. And I'm most likely to want to give to others who give as well, not necessarily to me,

but who are those who are also contributing. So that's how I'm thinking about networking. It's like really broadening the pot of what we're all going to tap into. Networking might make you cringe, but it's part of the hidden job market. So on this episode of Life Kit, a no-cringe approach to networking. Reporter Andy Tegel talks with Robbie about how to reframe your relationship with it. They'll share tools for less awkward, more productive interactions, and give you strategies for how to build professional relationships that stick. If you had to define it, do you have your own definition of what networking is?

Well, I believe the relationships are the answer to any business or life challenge. So anytime we need something or I think about what I need in the world, I think, who do I know that would know something about this? And it may end up being that I'm going to hire that person or they're going to refer me to someone that I'll hire. It might just be they'll spend 15 minutes with me helping me solve a problem on my website. And I feel incredibly abundant because of that, which makes it easier for me to think about practicing the philosophy of abundance that I have, which is to give away knowledge.

To me, if I give away knowledge, it's not to plead to me the same way giving away time or money might, but I'm actually going to increase the possibility for those all around me and support my network in the process. Robbie, I'm actually going to increase the possibility for those all around me and support my network in the process. Robbie, I'm curious, do you have any favorite stories, any personal stories of a time that your network came through for you in a big way? Well, in a lot of ways, network is an insurance policy. We don't want to have insurance. We don't want to pay it. But every

month we pay our little premium, it means we're covering ourselves just in case. No one's excited that they get to use their insurance policy, but you're thrilled that you have it when you need it. And I think the same thing with my network. For years, I was working in a nine to five. And the whole time I was supporting others in my network. I was meeting with people at coffee shops. I was, I was sharing and giving. And when I decided I was going to focus on building my own business, there were all these people who are rooting for me, who'd been working with me in various capacities, who referred me, who wrote me, you know, ref great references, made introductions, but it's because I didn't stay underground for all those years and then pop up out of nowhere. And this sometimes happens. I'll be on LinkedIn or I'll get an email from someone I haven't stay underground for all those years and then pop up out of nowhere.

And this sometimes happens. I'll be on LinkedIn or I'll get an email from someone I haven't talked to in five to 10 or more years. And they have their resume attached. They're like, I'm looking for a job. And it's like, I can't remember who you are. That's really difficult because these people are clearly desperate, but they haven't been paying monthly their contribution into their network. And that can look different to different people,

but it's about even when you're on the high and you're feeling really successful in life and everything's going well, don't forget that there's other things you can offer. Now, I noticed you mentioned some timeframes in there. You said you were paying monthly into that insurance plan and you had someone reach out and you hadn't talked to them in five years.

What are your thoughts on keeping that network fresh, keeping that alive? Well, really, you got to find something you can maintain. So for me, you have different circles or spheres of people that you're trying to connect with. And so your closest friends you're going to see on a regular basis, or if you don't see them for a little while, it'll be easy to pick up. But if it's an associate or sort of a friendly colleague that you see once a year at a conference, what I love about the world that we're now in, where Zoom and other virtual platforms are part of our life in a bigger way, I no longer wait a year to see people at a conference.

The time that it takes to deepen a relationship has actually gone down because the repeat exposure is what builds the relationship. So it might have taken multiple years to feel a real friendship. It can happen much more quickly. So I think looking for organizations that host weekly and monthly activities that attract the kind of people you enjoy being around, that's one way to nurture. Another way is to not just write happy birthday on someone's wall, but do anything else that's a little bit more. And it could just be texting if you have their phone number.

I actually gather people's mailing addresses, not everyone's, but some people's. And so if birthdays are coming up the next month, I'll send a birthday card. If I notice that they've got a new house, I can ask them a new address and send them a welcome home card to their new address. So these little touches doesn't take a ton of my effort compared to getting in a car and traveling to a one-on-one meeting. But it amplifies your ability to be there for people in the moments they really need to be. I like that a lot.

Inclusivity is a big part of this conversation. You have a great concept on this. Please tell us about being a bagel versus being a croissant. Yeah, it's the title of my first book and it's also croissants versus bagels is also the focus of my TEDx. Basically, there's always that moment when you walk in the reception of a cocktail party and you see people standing around these tight clusters, these shoulder to shoulder bagels that are impossible to break into. But if one person shifts their body language and makes space for others to join, you can visualize now there's a bit of a croissant, there's an opening. So it's both going into the room, looking for those openings, but also what can you do to be the croissant?

Because remember, you set an intention coming here that you want to meet people. So it's being aware of what is your body language saying about how approachable you are and also the mindset shift. Oh, right. I'm here to meet people. Let me be clear on that. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I went to a conference recently and I was jazzed about it. And I left after three days and I was like, I don't know what just happened. It drains so much of your emotional and your mental battery meeting all of these people. You have all these business cards and you don't know what to do with them. It takes a lot of intentionality, a lot of awareness. And that just because you meet a lot of people doesn't mean you're meeting the right type of people, right?

Absolutely. The effort up front before you leave the house of doing that kind of planning and strategy work is what will make it more successful. You could spend one hour at a networking event, whereas I'll spend three hours, stay to the end, stacking chairs, and you might still end up with a better result because you went in with a really clear sense of what your goals were. And I just met a lot of people. And so it's not about volume. It's not about extrovert versus introvert. It's about being thoughtful about what you're trying to achieve in that moment.

And if you track those higher priority business cards, you could put them in different pockets. The other thing you can do is turn the corners down. When you then drop those cards on a table, the ones the corners turned down will stand out to you. And if at all possible, take a pen and quickly after the conversation, jot yourself a little note and make sure you put the date that you met them and maybe a-up, you're much more likely to follow through. And it's only that follow-through of the follow-up that is going to lead to those relationships. Meeting you one time isn't going to lead to anything. It's if we make a commitment to talk, that's when we're developing a real relationship. Right. I want to talk a little bit more about inclusivity because there can be inherent power imbalances when we're talking about networking, right? You might feel like you need to let certain behaviors or attitudes slide when you're first meeting somebody.

How can you stand in your power and live up to your values when you're in a tricky situation like networking, when you're really hoping to get a job, when you're trying to get in front of the right person and maybe those things don't align? Well, I have two thoughts on this. The first is be yourself. So, you know, find your people that appreciate and share your values. That is the best advice I can give to anyone. We're all just trying to belong and fit in and find our people. The other is to be careful about

how we use our language to either include or sometimes not include people who are standing right in front of us. Are we being truly welcoming? If the thing you're about to comment on is the thing that everyone's going to comment on, that person's name or their accent, by the way, we all have accents, we all have skin color, we all have hair texture. Sometimes we call out those differences, that's not going to help that person feel really welcomed and included. And if you build a connection with them over time and you're at the point where you're really, I don't know, sharing each other's grandma's recipes, then you can ask questions about where their family came from and all those other things you're curious about.

Let's talk a little bit more about game plan, how to warm people up, how to get in, how to get out. Thoughts on what does that look like? What's the best way? Simplicity. I think that if you don't have enough information to say more than this, just say, hi, my name is, and just extend a hand and be welcoming and smiling and encouraging. Just being open and being curious in a helpful way. I think the other thing to remember is that inevitably someone's going to say, hey, what do you do? And we have to stop using that line and be responding as if we're a prisoner of war, name, rank, and serial number. We need to be thinking more about

the I help blank do blank so they can blank. And if you do this right, the answer you're going to get back to that statement is how, how do you do that? And when you then share maybe a quick client story that illustrates this, now you're into a conversation. Anything else that should absolutely be in a networker's toolbox, maybe in person or online? One of my favorite things to do online to stand out at a networking event or a webinar or any kind of online event is to be a person who shares resources in the chat. If a speaker mentions a book or a website or a TEDx, I will go and find the link and put a thoughtful comment into chat with the name of the book. Really easy to be that person in a virtual space and a great way to, again, offer value in a room and be seen and noticed in a bigger room. And I've taught this to a lot of

people. And even people who are shyer or more introverted, they aren't really sure of their own value, they can fall into the habit of doing this and sort of rise up from the crowd in a really nice way. Yeah, I love that principle of yours is to offer value. But for new grads or for people reentering the job market, this part might feel tricky. You know, not everyone has a TEDx talk or a link to a beautiful portfolio

at the ready. You know, thoughts here on people who are a little bit unsure of their space or their lane or their value, what they might do. Right. So, I mean, my mantra was to show up and add value. But you get to think really broadly about what that looks like. So you might say, oh, you're planning an event. I'd love to come to your meetings and take notes. I'm really good at taking good notes and I'll also organize them in a fashion that makes them immediately. You can email them right

after and they'd be great meeting notes for everyone. They'll know everyone, other action items. Like that's a great skillset. And you could be a really young person who develops that skillset and end up in a room full of senior executives who don't want to be doing that anymore. It could be that you're inviting someone into a new geographic area and you're welcoming them by helping them get settled in by telling them like some favorite restaurants or places to go. If they have kids, maybe you're going to share with them some tips about things to do with kids in the area. So it's about making things simple to do and realizing like if the space you're in, what might people want to know that you know? And then being ready to share in the moment and not hesitate. I think we want to find people we have something in common with as a

starting point. And when we're doing business or hiring people, I think having those things in common can really help. When should you be networking? Because every interaction you have, an opportunity to network, are you only supposed to be networking when you're looking for a job? So if you're at the DMV or the RMV, motor vehicles, and you had an interesting conversation with someone while you're sitting there for three hours, that's networking. At the DMV. Okay. Why not? If you mind your own business all the time and have blinders on, you'll miss opportunities when they are right in front of you. And this is where I really do believe that

serendipity is more likely to happen if you know what you're looking for. So if you go in with a clear understanding of what is the moments you're looking for, what kind of people you're looking for, you'll start to find them in moments you wouldn't expect. And that is, it's so amazing. It feels like serendipity. It feels like a gift. But I really think in a lot of ways, luck is good advanced planning. And if you do the good advanced planning, you're just going to be luckier all the time. And I really strive to find those really lucky serendipitous moments in my life, but I also put some effort into helping

them happen. When we think about networking, we're often, when we think about who is networking or why we're networking, often it's job seekers, right? People straight out of college or people who are looking to reenter the market. Is that the prime time to be networking? Are those the only people that should be networking? Or is this a 24-7 gig? So you might love the job you're in and wonder, why would I be networking? But seeing all the people being bought out and all the chaos that can come from these mergers and acquisitions, we realized that those nine to five roles aren't as secure as they once appeared. And so it's really a good idea to be networking all the time.

Now, my wife does a great job of this. She's a shy extrovert. So she's not the big, shiny person in the room. But she volunteered for an employee resource group, got involved, became the global chair of that employee resource group. When there were layoffs, she organized a spreadsheet where people can write each other LinkedIn recommendations. And this was for people who had just been let go and people who were still there.

And by doing so, she added over 100 people to her LinkedIn connections and was sort of seen in this, wow, you know, that's a really nice thing you just did. And that's another simple thing to do. And so she's done that. She's done a lot of cross department collaborations. You know, it's like you volunteer for like a task force, you know, or like a one-off subcommittee or an ad hoc thing. It just gives you a reason to meet a lot of other people. And she's made a lot of lateral shifts in this particular job. There are a lot of people who see her as a person who gives rides to the airport figuratively, and they're going to want to help a person who's always doing that.

And they'll recognize her name if she reaches out. So that's an example of always kind of be on the lookout for how you can support your network. And she loves her role, doesn't have any desire to leave and hopes to stay there for a very long time. And yet, here's still ways that she's getting her name out there and being of service and providing value. I like that a lot, Robbie. Any last thoughts, feelings, anything that I missed? I just think that we just need to start to re-engage and connect with the people in our life, whether those are LinkedIn connections or Instagram followers, in a way that is meaningful and not necessarily always looking to meet new people, which can feel exhausting, but to really re-engage and support

and connect with people who are already in our life, who are already in our network, and it could be from five or 10 years ago, if they remember your name and you'd be happy to hear from them, then why not reach out? That was networking expert Robbie Samuels with LifeKit reporter Andy Tagle. For more LifeKit, check out our other episodes. We have one on mentorship, another on quitting your job, and lots more on everything from parenting to finance. You can find those at npr.org slash LifeKit. And if you love LifeKit and want even more, subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash LifeKit newsletter. Also, we love hearing from you. So if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, email us at lifekit at npr.org.

This episode of LifeKit was produced by Sylvie Douglas. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan. And our digital editor is Malika Gharib. Megan Cain is our supervising editor. And Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Claire Marie Schneider and Margaret Serino. Engineering support comes from Stu Rushfield. I'm Arielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.