 Okay, so this is part two for networking and meeting people face to face, doing face to face networking. If you haven't seen part one, then I'll link to it here. If I figure out how to link to it on the screen, otherwise I'll link to it down below. I'm not very good with all this stuff. So, but anyway, as I mentioned before in the first video, networking is something I've always hated and loathed really, but after many years, in fact, I've probably delayed a lot of my business because I didn't go networking. After many years, I realized I need to be receptive to networking and actually do it. And so I just started keeping notes to try to help me and try to systematize it. So I'm basically sharing my notes. They go in chronological order. And so in the first video, I got up to the point where you arrive there, an overall strategy once you get there at the networking event. So I'm going to continue from there. The next point that I have, let's go back to my notes, oh, it's a strategy for meeting people. So when you're meeting people, there are a couple things. This is the part that I hate. This is the part that I dread, right? Because when you're meeting people, you're just saying, hi, I don't know who you are. You don't know who I am. What do I do? What do I do? And many times these people look all like they know everyone already, and so why are they going to talk to you? And anyway, so there are a couple things to keep in mind, at least that I keep in mind. If you see, first of all, if you see one person walking by themselves, preferably a bit lost like you, that's perfect. These are the people, these are the easy targets, the people you want to target. Many times, at least in my experience, these are the less outgoing people, because the more outgoing people have already found people to talk to no problem. I hate those guys. I don't know how they do it. But anyway, these will be the more introverted people. So sometimes it'll take a bit to get out of them. And chances are, if you're like me, you're a bit introverted too. So it might be a bit of work. But realize they're in the same boat as you are. So they're going to be happy to talk to someone. So just talk to them, you know, and just start out talking to them and see where it takes you. Because these are the easiest people to approach. They want you to approach them. And so these are the ones. So when I'm going to my section, the baseball diamond that I explained before, if I see someone by themselves, that's probably who I'll target first. Also because I know I'm helping them out in a way. And they're looking for someone too, so I can feel helpful in that sense. If there are two people talking to each other, this is usually what we want to avoid because we're like, oh no, they're already in a conversation. I don't want to interrupt. But keep this in mind. If there are two people talking to each other, they either A, already know each other, in which case they know they should be networking at this event. And but they're probably too shy to do so well. They're in their comfort zone because they're talking to someone they know. So if you approach, you allow them to network and you're doing them a favor in a way because you allow them to network with someone new. And they feel more secure because they have their buddy there and they can actually network and meet someone new. So it's actually good to approach them, you know, if they know each other already, if they're already friends. Another scenario, the B is that they don't know each other and they just met and they're just networking, in which case it doesn't matter. The more the merrier, right? They're there to network, they network with one person, they network with another. Suddenly you have a group. And suddenly, once you have a group of people, then you can sort of pick which one you like more or which one you have more in common to network with. So they don't mind that either. So when you see two people talking, don't feel intimidated. Go there and talk to them because no matter what the scenario, chances are they'll be happy to talk to you. So three people talking, I have this down as well. It's basically the same story. Even if a new guy came up, you know, why not? If some new guy came up and joined themselves to two people, why not another person join and make it a group? Once again, the more people you have, the more you can kind of pick and choose who to talk to. So at that point, I know it's hard when you have three people huddling and talking, but chances are if you kind of walk up to them and show that you're there, they'll open up and include you in the conversation. It's for the most part, you're at a networking event. That's what they're there for, right? Having said that, my next thing is to treat all people like friends. When I go up to these people, these group of people, I try to treat them as if they were my friends. You wouldn't interrupt your friends. If they're in the middle of talking, in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of explaining something, you wouldn't say, hi, my name is so-and-so, blah, blah, blah. You don't do that. You kind of wait in the sidelines and wait for a lull in the conversation, for a pause in the conversation for you to enter. So treat these people like friends. When you get there, just pretend like it's a group of friends, a group of people from your school or something like that, and just wait and then after a while be like, hey, how's it going? Hey, I'm so-and-so and blah, blah, blah. And so be kind of natural about it. You don't want to impose yourself. Also remember that everyone you talk to is a good contact. Even if someone says, I'm interested in Smurfs and that's what I do, don't discount that person right away, okay? You never know, A, what that person might need or who else that person knows. So everyone is a potential good contact. Don't be, obviously don't be mean to anyone. I shouldn't have to say that. Anyway, just remember everyone's a good contact. In terms of avoiding people, they say there's no one you should really avoid, which is probably true. There are some people I tend to avoid. Like if two people are in a corner sitting down, for me, the big thing is sitting down and talking to themselves. Then they're kind of unapproachable. Cause if I approach, I'll be the guy standing up while they're sitting down. And many times these people already know each other. They're obviously not networking if they're sitting down. And it really depends how the chairs are, that you could be networking while sitting down. If you're at a table, then you have to sit down or stuff along those lines. But like recently I went to an event and there were people basically sitting on the couch, facing the window away and having a glass of wine. And I was kind of sort of trying to hover around there and I realized, what am I doing? These guys know each other. They have no interest in talking to other people. So those I avoided. So, gauge for yourself. But for me, that's what I have in my notes. So next, so you've been able to meet these people, approach them, and now you have to talk about something. So what are the topics of conversation to bring up? First of all, I mean, you know, no politics, no religion, I guess. But my, what I have in my notes here is first of all, be yourself. Don't try to be who you think they want you to be. If you're in a meeting of very professional people, don't try to act more professional than you are. If you're a meeting of entrepreneurs and they're all cool and hipster, don't try to be more cool and hipster than you are. Be yourself. I know it sounds so trite and it's so difficult to do in a way because you're like, what is it? But I don't know. For me, honestly, after I've had a beer, I'm a lot better at it and more relaxed, although I try to postpone drinking until later. But anyway, this will just come with time. Just keep it in mind to just be yourself. Don't feel too awkward about being yourself. You're not gonna click with everyone, but the ones you click with are the ones you're supposed to click with. Second of all, ask questions, ask about them. And no one doesn't like talking about themselves, right? Especially if there's someone who's interested and find things you have in common. You want them at the end of the day to have spoken more than you. That should be a goal of yours. So go them, well, what do you do? What are you interested in? Why are you here? Are you interested in the speaker? What's your interest in the speaker? Oh wow, cool, you went there? How was that? Oh, I've heard so much about that. That must be awesome. Keep them in conversation. Keep them talking. Find points in common. Say, oh, I went to that too. Did you like it? I thought it was awesome. Keep them talking. And that's sort of at least my goal, what I tried to do. And to have them talk as much as possible. Third of all, be open to sharing, but don't over promise. And by this, I mean, if they're looking for someone, if they're like, man, I need someone to do this, or I've been looking for a good insurance person or this, that, and the other, be like, I met some insurance people the other day. I can totally try to put you in touch. Be open about that. Share your context. Don't try to hoard context. That's stupid. You can share as many contacts as you want. And once you share, you can say, you can be like, look, this is the person I just met. You don't have to vouch for them, but you can always share context. Don't over promise. Obviously, if they say, I need a good banker, be like, I know the best banker in the business. I'll put you in touch. Totally hook you up. It'll be awesome if you don't know any banker, because why would you do that? A lot of people do that just because they want to sound cool or be more useful, but don't do that. Try to be a good contact for them, but be honest about it. And that's the thing. When you get there, you shouldn't be trying to sell your business. In fact, you shouldn't be selling your business at these events at all. I tried to be a good contact to them and be useful to them in some way or another because then they'll seek me out. And at least in my experience, that's been a good tactic. I have some don'ts here. Don't scan the room while they're talking to you. If they're talking to you, you're 100% on them, totally interested in what they're saying and you don't want to be looking around the room for anyone better. And definitely, definitely don't be looking at your phone while they're talking. Even if it buzzes, leave it there, okay? You're not looking at your phone, not looking at your watch, you're not looking at the room, you're looking at them, that's it. You can look at your drink a bit if you're drinking, but yeah, that's it. If you're talking about what you do, at a certain point they're gonna ask you what you do. If you're talking about what you do, ask yourself why the other person would care. So when I talk about what I do, I try to relate it to what that other person told me they do, if possible. If not, like recently I was talking to a physician, retired physician, doctor, I'm like, this guy isn't in business anymore, he's not looking for any business. He was a doctor and I don't do medical stuff. So what do I have in common? He started talking about technology and how it's really cool these days and then physicians are able to use it. So I just went with that, and he asked what I do and I said, technology's been changing what I do too, but I kind of try to bring it more to his stuff that I know he's interested in. And after a while we got to the fact that he had lived in Austria and had this international aspect and blah, blah, blah, and it actually became good, but you have to play around with that and try to see why they would care what you're talking about. You just say, this is what I do and I do it and I'm awesome. Okay, you know, what are they gonna do with that information? As a bonus, what I try to do now, if I can, is when people ask me what I do, I don't just say, oh, I'm in translations, I'm a freelance translator, I'm a translator, I have a translation agency, I don't do that. I try to find something to be excited about. So this will be like a project lately. So if you've taken on a new project recently, if they ask you if you're a freelancer and you can just say, you know, instead of saying I'm a freelancer and this is what I do, you can just say, you know, say, so what do you do? You'd be like, actually, I'm just about to start this new project, I'm really nervous. It's this new, you know, graphic design thing, but it's a big bank and I don't know how to go about it. You know, this shows excitement, shows involvement and it draws them a bit more into it. So if you can find a certain event, something to be excited about or nervous about for every time they ask you, then it's a lot better than just saying I do this, this and that. That's what I've repeated 50, you know, times to everyone. Find something a bit more spontaneous. And that's pretty much it. I see, I'm actually just gonna finish it up with a couple tips that I kind of give myself here. So first of all, if you can at a certain point find the organizer. You want to find whoever organized the event and this could be, you know, whoever set it up on Meetup or if it's organized by a certain sponsor or anything along those lines, try to find at least one of the organizers. They're, A, they're good contacts to have for future events. B, at least next time they organize something, you'll definitely know someone because if you know the organizer, next time you come, that organizer will definitely be there. And so it'll be a good contact to have. That's the thing, a lot of these times you go to an event, you meet someone, they won't be at future events. And so anyway, you know, which means you're starting to meet new people once again, but you find the organizers, those can be good. I'll give you bonus points if you can ask them to introduce you to someone. And you know, if you can talk to the organizer, be like, oh, this is what I do and you know, I'm interested in these type of people. Do you know if anyone like that is here? If you can make the conversation get to that, then that's really good. So I, yeah, definitely bonus points to be able to do that. Another way to get bonus points and a lot of bonus points, double bonus points, is if you offer to help with their next event. This is a great way to feel less awkward because if you offer to help, if you're like, hey, do you need someone to help out with you know, laying out the food next time or preparing the drinks or something? And you know, if they say yes, then next time you're in charge of laying out the food, which means you don't have to walk around feeling awkward. You can now actually just, anytime you feel awkward, just go and rearrange the food. As I said, you know, people will come up to you and be like, oh, is that something, something? You'd be like, oh, those are called zones. You know, they're good. They'll be like, oh, you're the chef? No, no, I just volunteer to help. But you know, it starts conversation. And so yeah, volunteer to help is great if you can swing that. Another tip I have is don't just hand out cards willy-nilly to everyone. People just, you know, do them or they have their standard response when they reply to everyone they've met. It was great meeting you yesterday. If you need anyone in insurance, let me know. And those go nowhere. The only exception to this about handing out cards all the time is if you have a really cool card because then it's a conversation starter. And there are cool cards out there if you see, you know, the see-through ones or this and that and the other because then you can be like, oh yeah, here's my card. And they'll be like, whoa, where'd you get that? And you'll be like, actually I got it from, you know, my friend who does printing and blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever it might be. If you are a graphic designer or a printer or anything like that, you have a cool card. That can be your conversation piece. So then yeah, then hand out as many cards as you want. Leave them lying around. But otherwise, if you just have your standard business card you don't wanna go up there and be like, hi, here's my card. Hi, here's my card. Hi, here's my card. Because you know what I do with those cards that I have no use for? They're my bookmarks. And because otherwise they just pile up and I know there are people I'm never gonna call again. And so yeah, I have my useful cards that I keep but otherwise, I mean, they're there in the books. What else do I have here? Oh, and look happy. Always look happy. And this is the thing I notice. When you see people, you'll notice this when you walk around. When you see someone and they're there the drinks say, you know, and they're holding a drink and they're like, you know, they're a lot less approachable than if they're with, you know, okay, you don't wanna look like a doofus being happy by yourself like that. But you know, have a smile on your face and be like that. And you know, when you see someone be like, hey, you know and smile almost like you know them and that way they'll feel closer to you. So you constantly have that smile. It really does help. It's weird and it's just might seem odd and artificial but have that smile. Trust me, it really does help. And you'll notice it when you go there and you're talking to other people and you notice some people are smiling and some aren't. Try to see who's more approachable and who isn't because it just clicks with you. The people smiling are so much more approachable. Keep that smile there. And that's about it. You know, after this, that's an event. And so what I have here is after each event what I do at least and what I recommend is to give yourself a prize. In fact, decide on this prize before the event. There's a burger place you always want to go to, the pizza place you always want to go to, that big ice cream you want to get, get it. Calories after a successful event, don't count. Or if you want to go drinking in a certain place or whatever it might be, give yourself some sort of prize because you deserve it. And especially when you're trying to do this, it's something to look forward to and it'll be that much more motivation to go to these events. In terms of follow-up, like I mentioned before I would not email everyone. I know a lot of people say always email everyone and try to keep in touch and do all this and that. So many people do that these days that unless you have something personal with them, it really doesn't work. And that's the key. If you have, ideally you left something hanging with them. So you said something like, you know, they said they're into whitewater rafting. You're like, oh, I'm totally into it as well. Do you know any good place? They're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You totally have to try this place. Then you can email them and say, hey, you mentioned a whitewater rafting place. What is it? It just gives you a chance to follow up. Or if you recommended a certain restaurant that they should try and be like, oh, this is the restaurant I said you should try, definitely check it out. A great article you should read or, you know, whatever it might be, some type of follow-up. If you have one of these types of follow-up, that's what I use my pen for, by the way. I write it on their business card because otherwise I'm gonna forget it later. But I write it down whenever I get a chance and so then later I can email them with that specific thing in mind. And it does give you the chance to follow up with something real and not just like, it was great meeting you if you ever need my services, let me know. What else is there? Actually, that's pretty much it. Don't email everyone. Yeah, and that's all I have for now. Hopefully you can find these useful. Again, there's video one, which I linked to down below and this is part two of networking. And I really hope this helps for your networking in person because it's really something that everyone out there needs. And I know I hated it and it took me, I mean, I'm still getting over it actually. And so I might even come back and change or add to this in the future because I really still feel uncomfortable when I go to these things. But it's getting better and better. And I've been recently going to more events. I've gone to the Italian Consulate event. I got invited to the Rotary International. So I feel like I'm getting a bit better at least at these. And so I just wanted to share my notes for these. Hopefully you find them useful. If you have anything to add, definitely let me know in the comments because I'm always curious to hear about this. Otherwise, if you did find this useful, don't forget to click thumbs up because that always helps to know which videos are useful and which aren't. And don't forget to subscribe for more videos about freelancing, entrepreneurship, stuff like that in general. And that's it. I'll see you in the next video. Thanks, bye.