Mastering the art of networking and advocacy

What a room full of amazing spirits.

The panel on Wednesday shared with us their individual journies on how they used their network and various networking skills to grow their own personal brand and business. Here is an overview of some of the key insights from the view of the panel members.

Angela shared with us her honest career story which included opportunities in London on her honeymoon and Rowan shared his and hilarious hungover “buying sausages at coles the day after his wedding” that got him his last job. Briony highlighted how she had grown her business with her own style to networking and Tony shined with how his influential networking skills created his global business and the Million Dollar Lunch (that rightly awarded him an OAM for what he has done for Children’s Cancer).

If you are new to networking and shy, Angela advised to observe and listen. Listening is the key. Rowan also recommends putting others perspective into consideration instead of yours. His shoe example was golden. Tony outlined you need to be clear on what is your objectives are for the evening of networking. Tony also gave away some key tools to use to initiate networking (Tony)
– Hello I am Tony McGinn and you are?
– Use their name…. so … what do you do?
– What brought you here tonight?
– Listen and respond if you are asked the same, be succinct in your answers
– when you are asking questions, the nervous is not on you.
– Ask questions but make sure they are open-ended questions
And look for an exit if it’s not going as you plan.

Angela then kicked off with a group exercise, everyone split up into pairs to test the tools. Emphasising to listen to what the persons looking to achieve, or what do they do well, or what challenge are they facing? Using this info you can then use your little black book in your head to think of key people that would benefit from either meeting this person, or this person could benefit from meeting. Use the time to really inquire about the other person, then look to (if you can) pay it forward by thinking of how you can help this person or someone you already know that could benefit from meeting this person or the company they represent. Regardless the culture or industry – we should all take a few lessons here!

Check out the photos from the events below