 Working at home can be fun and offer great flexibility, but sometimes you just need to get out and be with other people. We're gonna talk about different places you can go to connect and network with other individuals. The pantry, I've been working from home now for about 17 years in a few different roles, mostly in the meeting planning industry. But even though I work from home, I still need to get out and meet with people. Now luckily I'm in an industry that is very social and I'm able to attend conferences, travel to see hotels and to see clients, and see a lot of people along the way. But if you're in a position where you don't get to travel and you're stuck at home if you're working from home, you still need to get out and connect with people and maybe even take that burden off of your family members when they come home at the end of the day. So we're gonna talk about a few places that you can go to connect with other people. And we'll talk a little bit about figuring out what types of people we need in our lives and what gaps we still need people to fill now that we're working from home and out of an office setting. As I mentioned before we get out there and start meeting all of these great and wonderful new people, you may want to do a gap analysis using a mind map. If you're not familiar with mind maps, I've done a blog post and a video on mind maps that you can find up here. And basically what it is is a visual representation of an idea. In this case, the idea is mapping out all the different people in our lives that feed our different needs. Perhaps in this case you just wanna map out all the people that feed your business and professional life. Through that process you might be able to identify gaps or figure out what types of people you still need to meet in order to achieve certain goals or achieve certain milestones in your career. That way you can target what places you go to because you know those types of people are hanging out in those places versus others. Now that you've drafted up your mind map and perhaps a gap analysis of the different people that you'd like to meet, let's talk about some places that you can go. Place number one, the good old coffee shop. I love coffee shops. It is so energizing when I go into a coffee shop. Not only can I get a lot of work done with the great wifi, but just the energy in the room. Maybe it is the caffeine that's in the air, but the energy and the buzz, the people talking, people laughing, sometimes even kids in the room. It's just, it's such a great change of scenery for me. I find I'm really productive when I go into a coffee shop because it shakes me out of my routine of just sitting in my quiet little home office here. Place number two is shared or co-working spaces. You may have heard of these places and there might be some in your community. What a great place to hang out. So the design of these spaces is a shared office space designed for entrepreneurs or solopreneurs. So you can gather there to either just work on your own but obviously to meet other people and maybe even rent some shared space for a little while. Again, to shake up that energy and that creativity that you might need. Shared office spaces differ from community to community. I would recommend Googling co-shared space or shared office space and the name of your community to see what pops up and then go and take a look at those spaces. Some spaces even provide printing facilities, shared office supplies. Each community is different so take a look at what's in your community and don't forget to take a look at the people who are hanging out there. Number three, connect with your mentors. Ironically, I just did a blog post on mentoring a few days ago so you can check that out up there but connecting with your mentors on a monthly or even a bimonthly basis. For starters, it gets you out of the office but while the amount of knowledge that you can learn from a mentor and how that just shakes up the whole hums of your week, it's so energizing. In fact, I just met with my mentor this morning and I have a ton of great ideas about leadership from him that I'm looking forward to implementing in the weeks ahead. So go and meet with your mentors and again, if you don't have a mentor, find opportunity in your life to connect with a mentor and start meeting with them. Place number four, chamber of commerce events. Now maybe the chamber isn't a great place for you to make new business contacts because it just isn't your industry to hang out there but there's still so many great people there and it is a reasonably priced event for you to attend. So attending a chamber networking event or even a chamber luncheon, they can sometimes bring in speakers that speak to topics that interest you. Hanging out there, you're going to meet some interesting people and again, it's just a way of shaking up your daily routine, maybe even getting you out of your pajamas and into some dress clothes and heading down to the chamber luncheon. So check out the chamber luncheons in your community. Place number five, connecting with your colleagues and friends. Whether you've just started working from home or you've been there for a number of years, chances are you've met people along the way that are in the same industry you're in and hopefully the same city. I hope you get opportunity to go out and meet with them and do ad hoc team meetings outside of your office space. So whether it's at a restaurant, a coffee shop or even if you invite your colleagues over to your house, still meet with them regularly, talk about industry best practices. Again, just infuse that energy into your day once in a while. Place number six, volunteering. Finding the right volunteer role that speaks to your passion, you're bound to run into other people that also share the same passion. So again, what a great way to not only give back to your community or to your industry, but to be surrounded by like-minded individuals and just again to chat about your passion will keep your creativity high and your energy high for when you return to the office. Place number seven and my personal favorite are conferences. I'm in the conference industry so I better like conferences and these are great places to meet people. So you're gonna meet friends new and old when you go into a conference and most conferences if they're set up right will have opportunities for you to network. Whether it's the welcome reception on the first night or even workshop sessions built right into the agenda that you can connect with people right in the workshop area. Throughout the conference, you're going to meet a ton of people and stay connected with them after the conference ends. Follow up with them. Make sure that you connect with them again at a future event. But conferences are a great way to meet people and of course a great way to get out of your office for a few days. By getting out there and meeting new people your energy levels are bound to go up. So is your creativity. So is your productivity. So if you're working from home, of course enjoy the flexibilities of working from home but don't forget it to get out there and meet with other people and keep your energy high and stay social, stay relevant in your industry and keep connecting with others. You can find additional work from home resources over at my website productivitypantry.com. I even have a self evaluation tool if you're thinking about working from home or if you work from home already and want to find out if this is still a good fit for you. Enjoy the next event that you attend and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.