 Hello people. So today I want to talk about an issue that's near and dear to my heart and Actually, actually quite the opposite. I want to talk to you about something that I've that I've hated for so long Something that I really never liked and that's networking. I face-to-face networking and I've really been I Never felt comfortable with this. I never liked it. I've always tried to find in a way what I do Working online is a way so, you know of having of not having to network And and do all this face-to-face stuff and I've found pretty much every excuse in the book not to attend these events and When I do attend these events and it's awkward it sticks with me the awkwardness of it and every time I want to go to another event You know, I remember how awkward it was how I didn't get any contacts from it And so I should never go again and I've literally come up with so many excuses not to go I mean I've had in fact for a while what I would do is sign up for these networking events And when it came time to go, I really didn't want to go so I tell myself Oh, I could go to an event and probably not get anything out of it or since I feel guilty not going I'm gonna work extra hard on my other stuff now and that'll be better than going to the event Basically, I'd find any excuse. I could not to go to these events better Certain point I had to realize that you know It was time to suck it up and actually go to these events because you have to no matter what you're doing If you're an entrepreneur if you're a freelancer You need to meet people face-to-face and in a way if you're working online You know, especially if you're working online and you don't get to meet people face-to-face Your competition is a lot of other people like you who maybe don't like meeting people face-to-face and don't like doing that So it's a way to get a step up and and to kind of stick out from the crowd if you do go to these events And you have to go so because of all these issues that I've had doing it. I've created Basically notes for myself of what to do and you know every time I some come across something good I can't I just jot it down because otherwise I won't remember so I can use it for the next event And so what I have now are kind of step-by-step notes that that I apply and They're sort of in chronological order what to do like before the event during the event after everything like that so that's I'm gonna go through them now and hopefully you can find them useful and So without any further ado, let's start going through these. These are my step-by-step Tips and tricks I'll come up with a better title later. Anyway step-by-step instructions if you will to Networking to face-to-face networking. So let's start off first of all First of all how to pick which events to go to And this was always an issue for me because I'm trying to go to the ones with a lot of people because there's more chance I'll meet someone but then again it just ends up being a crowd of people and you exchange a couple business cards here and there and then I don't know that's it. You don't get to talk anyone to anyone in depth So in essence my recommendation for you and this is what I do myself is I try to find ones I'm comfortable with I try to find ones if there's something I'm interested in so I'm here in the States But I'm from Switzerland. I speak Italian I lived in Taiwan if I find stuff to have to do with this or languages in General then that's something I'm interested in if I find I don't know anything else that I'm interested in and it can change You know sometimes when the weather is nice I like to go hiking or maybe it might be restaurants or something like that if it's something that piques my interest Then that's probably something good and so same with you if you go through these events and try to see if there's something good Now I have another video by the way where I list where you can meet people face-to-face Some of the basics are meetup.com And another one is internations.org Otherwise you can just look in your area of the Chamber of Commerce or whoever is having meetings It depends what you're looking for really Meetup.com is pretty much probably the safest in terms of finding something in your area So be sure to check that out and then yeah, so once again find something you're comfortable with and and so that you feel more at ease because Even if you have fewer people going or it's not really related to your work It doesn't matter for now. That's what you want something that you'll go to also find something convenient Because it could be something you're comfortable with but it's you know an hour outside of town or half an hour even You know, you're gonna have to drive there after work, you know you're gonna find every excuse not to go there and You know it starts raining. There's traffic. There's anything like that and you won't go So find something that's convenient that you can get too quickly as well because again You want to maximize the chance that you'll go you want to choose things. You'll actually go to At the beginning, I wouldn't concentrate too much on how many people are going You can do that later. It look if it makes you feel more comfortable than yeah, you know There's a safety in numbers then yeah on the other hand if it's something you're interested in if they're discussing Harry Potter books and you're really into Harry Potter books and only two people are going all the better, right? Because then you'll have three people and you know, you know You won't just be stuck there an anonymous person with 50 people But it'll be three of you actually talking about Harry Potter and you'll actually make two real contexts So evaluate for yourself. What works best? My one recommendation will be don't find too many of these at least to the beginning find one or two that you want to attend And that's it and then later reevaluate, you know next week or after these events But you know, don't don't find like ten different events You're gonna attend during the next week because you won't attend them and you'll just feel overwhelmed And it it'll be too much. You won't want to deal with that So that's in terms of finding places to go Then once you found these meetups or whatever events that you want to attend the next step is the preparation So like I said, I get pretty paranoid about this and this might seem like too much to you But this is what I went through so this these are my recommendations once against you once again to you I'm just getting them these from my notes. By the way, first of all is how to get dressed Many times I sign up for an event and I don't know if with entrepreneurs Do they want to be in t-shirt and be kind of more hipsterish or are they more serious? So maybe everyone's in a suit and tie in which case I don't want to be the only one in t-shirt and stuff like that What I've done is usually for all these events you'll find pictures of past events Whether on the website of the organizer or on the website of the event itself meetup.com is great because they always show pictures Internation stuff like that and so you can kind of get an idea and That usually I just look at that and get an idea if I have to evaluate I have evaluated with the upper half like if I see some people in t-shirts some people in blazer and shirt and Stuff like that. I try to go a bit higher, you know a bit on the top half, you know, not higher than anyone else But it's better to be a bit too overdressed and a bit too underdressed if that makes sense So you see people in t-shirts and some other people in a collared shirt with a blazer at least we're a collared shirt You know be on the upper half of that and then what else timing so for timing I usually because I Used to get paranoid about finding a place and being there on time turns out anytime they have an event If it starts at 5 30 people will start trickling in around 6 so shoot to arrive around 6 Now this is different if there's a speaker or a lunch or anything that has to start on schedule If someone's speaking at 1 p.m. You need to be there before 1 Usually they'll say to be there by 12 30 if someone's speaking at 1 because they'll say networking for 20 minutes And then we'll go into the speakers and blah blah blah, so if that's the case be there by 12 30 Or you know 12 40 if you want but you want to give enough time a to talk to people before you get in Mb to be there by the event if you arrive after one They're not going to let you in probably in which case it's a wasted You probably forfeited whatever you paid for it and you definitely wasted your time, so That's the only thing about timing really you don't have to be on time except for specific circumstances the next is a set of goal and So this what I've been doing Usually it'll be something like you want to make five contacts in one meeting or one really good contact or something along those lines You probably won't stick specifically to that goal, but at least it gives you something in the background to be shooting for and You can adjust this goal as you go along It'll depend on what you want and it can be something tangible like I want five business cards by the time I leave you know and this might not make much sense because business cards could be anything But it'll give you something in the meantime you out of those five business cards one person will be interesting or Anyway, it gives you something to shoot for so I usually think it's best to at least have some sort of goal for when you go Whatever it might be another tip take a pen have a pen handy before you go just Cuz you know many times you'll meet someone and you'll want to write a note on the back of a business card Oh, you're running what want to write your personal phone number on a business card or I don't know something like that Just have a pen handy it it'll come in handy. So remember to bring one And the only other thing in terms of preparation is to research the type of event Certain types of event require certain things if you go to a networking event, you're gonna have to get up and Present yourself, you know in two or three sentences, but you're gonna have to have something ready if you go to other events Sometimes they require you to find a contact and so just research what type of event it is If it's a speaker see what type of speaker it is recently I went to a speaker a guy who was talking about Russia and you know people were asking me They're like, so why are you here? Are you interested in Russia stuff like that? You'll want to you don't want to be caught completely, you know out of the blue with no answer So research the type of event just so you kind of know what's going on And you know again if you're going to a Harry Potter event presumably you're interested in Harry Potter along those lines So that's it in terms of preparation So let's see where we are in time. I might have to divide this up. But anyway, what let's keep going Another thing is once you get there now there are a couple things to do once you get there one person Explained this strategy to me and I kind of like it depending on the event if it's an event with a lot of people He called it the baseball diamond strategy where you get in and so as soon as you get in and I kind of like this actually if you're going to a place where you know nobody and it's a lot of people Treat it like a baseball diamond for those of you who aren't familiar with baseball once you get in Or if you're standing on home base, then you have first sorry home plate home base I'm not very good at baseball either. Anyway, if you're standing on home, then you have first base second base third base if you're Entering it'll be first base second base third base. Sorry. I'm facing you. So it's mirror image, but Anyway, it just gives you an idea and so he said what he does is goes first to first base and That's where he shoots for that's his target and he goes up there and Figures out the situation there and I'll get into it later about how to meet people and talk to them But here I'm just talking about the overall strategy Then once you're done there talk to one person five minutes whatever it might be Then you go to second base after second base you go to third base and and then after that You go to at least for me, you know, because I kind of like that for a big event And then after that I'll head to the food or bar section Because the food or bar section first of all by that point I'll want a drink or something to eat presumably and I don't like going there right away because then it kind of I Don't know because once you're there, you've got nothing else to do So first I try to meet people and then I go to food or bar section Good thing about going there is people are always there So if I can find a way to hang out close to there Maybe start talking to someone set my stuff close by then I'm gonna constantly have people revolving So it puts me in a good position to talk to other people so that's the overall strategy and And next we'll talk in terms of strategy of actually meeting people but I think I'm gonna divide the the video stop the video for now and And continue next time and about networking and so there'll be a part two anyway That's it for part one and I hope you found this useful and and don't forget to watch part two I'll link to it once it's up and ready And if you found this useful, please don't forget to click thumbs up because that helps me know what's useful And what isn't and feel free to comment with any strategies you might have because I'm curious to hear about them And that's it. I'll see you in the next video where we have part two about networking face-to-face. Thanks. Bye