You probably despise networking. You think of networking as wasting time and you don’t like to go to events with no direct outcome. Are you appalled by “coffee meetings” with people who never plan to support you but happily take your free advice? Know that feeling?
You probably heard me say this before: For me, time has an immense value and since I started my business I’ve come to the conclusion that I have three major priorities: 1) My health, 2) My time and 3) My support group (including my family and partner). Without these you cannot run a successful company of one.
In order to use my time effectively and to the best possible outcome, I am constantly reviewing my “networking” strategy and have become very strategic about building connections in a way that suits me but also generates business. At the same time with recent health challenges, working from home and restrictions on events I had to think of other ways to “network the network”. The team working the net already indicates that there is work involved in building and maintaining mutually beneficial business relationships. AND while this comes natural to expats and other people from more relationship-based cultures, it requires energy for people from strictly task-based cultures.
The secret to making peace with “networking” as I often explain in my talks and workshops such as “#Networking4Nerds” is to treat your business relationships similar to other friendships and to be a giver.
Here are my five recipes for working your net:
1) Connect those who would not meet
A big benefit of being a networking queen or king is that you can organize connections. Think about who would need to know whom in your network in order to move ahead one step with one of their issues. Maybe a friend needs a new job or a business contact wants a new client or needs to solve an immediate problem at hand. Risk a little discomfort. Set them up for a “Professional Blind Date”. Trust your judgement and see what happens.
Over the last few years I have made several professional introductions. Mainly I helped my clients to find jobs that they would otherwise not even know. I also benefit from introductions so I try to keep the karma of connections spinning.
2) Accept that Relationships require work
As in a good marriage you want to keep the relationship alive by making it beneficial for both parties. Once you know too many people you might just react once you are asked but even a small advice to a junior colleague might help them to move ahead in their career or move out of a job where they have stopped to learn.
A lot of professionals I know have lost the ability to trust their managers and colleagues. Being a mentor for a more junior professional in your industry can be really motivating for this person.
3) Share your knowledge and expertise graciously
There has never been a time where too much knowledge was hurtful. It’s also impossible to shock people with well-written report summaries or other insights you have about your industry. Start posting on LinkedIn. Tell people what you know and how you view the trends. In a worst-case scenario you get a negative comment. Be bold and bring in your unique perspective to the world.
4) Help others and increase your self-esteem
It sounds like a boy/girl-scout value but “a good deed a day keeps the shrink away”. When you help your contacts then you will feel more self-respect and wake up with a smile on your face. It always makes me so happy when a client tells me they found a job they love or that a connection was really helpful.
It’s even more fun to just support people in your network (for FREE). Give them likes, +1, endorsements, retweets and hearts when you are not paid for it. It’s a great way to give people appreciation and we all could get a bit more of that especially in the corporate world.
5) Challenge yourself and treat networking as a game
I often ask my clients to set a networking target. That includes that they must give before they take. So it could be a small weekly challenge such as meeting a person you never meet for a coffee. You could also offer to connect someone to someone else because you know they share a theme, hobby or interest.
These connections really seem to bring out most amazing collaborations. You obviously want to ask permission before sharing details. You could implement a score card on your whiteboard and whenever you helped a connection you add a smiley there. Imagine how that will make YOU feel.
Let us know in the comments how you scored and how you made a difference in someone’s life this week?
The weather is chilly and grey if you live in Zurich, Switzerland right now. You might have thought about going to your home country for the holidays and that might not have worked out thanks to the pandemic.
The year was undoubtedly a recipe for disappointment and mental stress in many ways. We can’t meet our families at home due to governmental restrictions but hopefully things will be better next year and we will get through this alive.
This time of the year usually feels very quiet but this year it almost feels as if time came to a halt. We (our team) thought about ways to inspire you and we came up with this compilation of books.
Here is a compilation of our 12 best books to read from our team to all those who are looking for inspiration on how to change their lives for the better.
NOTE: The inclusion of Amazon links for each book should help you make your purchase as easy as possible, though we would recommend you order through a local bookstore to support the local community. I’ve mentioned my bookstore at the end of the list. The books are in no particular order and we would be interested in your opinion on them as well.
1 – Do Over by Jon Acuff
About: When life isn’t how you want it to be, whether you still lust over your dream job or still think about taking that alternate path in life. “Do-Over” as the name suggests aids in this predominant struggle to achieve the most out of life. Jon Acuff highlights the four elements in life, which all successful careers collectively share: Relationships, Skills, Character, and Hustle!
Get that new edge in your life by investing yourself in what truly matters. Hurdles are inevitable so it’s better to hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.
2 – Banishing your Inner Critic by Denise Jacobs
About: You are your harshest critic, right? But how do we know when enough is enough? Banishing your inner critic helps you identify your core self, whilst eradicating the copious amount of self-doubt a person deals with. It’s time to unleash your most productive, creative, and positive self!
Denise Jacobs provides an intuitive read on how one can master certain power practices to uphold your core strength and overcome self-doubt, time to break free!
3 – The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
About: Ignite your passion, reinvent your creativity, elevate your confidence, and burst open like your ideal self! The American author Julia Cameron guides you on the spiritual path to creative bliss. To book itself provides in-depth exercises and trusted methods to rejuvenate your artisanal self.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary/dp/0143129252/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=The+artist+way&qid=1607938262&sr=8-2
4 – Give and Take by Adam Grant
About: Success is always known to be a combination of hard-work, determination, and willpower, amongst many other factors. But the main idea is the same, we as an individual must strive for it. Yet in this modern world, where everyone is interconnected at almost all points in their life, going solo isn’t the right approach. As Adam Grant aptly named the book “Give and Take”, the core message is encompassed by it. As an esteemed professor and an award-winning researcher put it “Being a giver is not good for a 100-yard dash, but it’s valuable in a marathon”.
5 – Company of One by Paul Jarvis
About: It’s not all about working big, sometimes you have to work smart! The Company of One by Paul Jarvis truly encapsulates this exact mentality. Working on what situation, timings, and ideology suit you best. At this scale, you’ll build your company around your life, and not the other way around.
6 – The Middle Finger Project by Ash Ambirge
About: Having a breakdown just thinking about your day? Or maybe some tyrant boss has made your way to that promotion a minefield? Well, sometimes you’ve to stick it to the man and flip the finger to the gods above. Ash Ambridge uses her humorous and fresh writing style to hook the reader on her journey of overcoming imposter syndrome. Sometimes you need to be your own hero, through all the tacky, ugly, and nasty process. The only thing stopping you is you, so kick it and live it how you want to!
7 – Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
About: No one is perfect or can hustle through life without fear. Much like happiness and anger, it’s still an emotion at the end of the day. The author works around fear and exposes the underlying problems that may cause it. We as humans fear failure or rejection which stops us from achieving and ultimately stunts our growth. Jeffers has therefore mapped out a series of tests, to feel our fears as nothing more than an emotion.
8 – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
About: The Alchemist truly is a modern classic, its mystical story has inspired generations and sold millions of copies along the way. This tale of wisdom and wonder follows the journey of a boy Santiago. A mere shepherd’s boy, whose belief in his recurring prophetic dream takes him to Egypt in search of treasure.
9 – Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
About: Elizabeth Gilbert is a household name by now, empowering much of the youth through her series of captivating books. Big Magic delves into the process of the author’s own creative perspective and her thought process. It truly is a manual on embracing and making the most of your creative side, it’s broken into six segments, each of which contains more food for thought. The six topics are as follows: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity.
10 – Lessons from Life by Steven Darter
About: By questioning his own decisions and reflecting on his placement in life, Steven Darter takes us on an emotional journey to find the purpose of life. Steve truly hooks the reader with his visual storytelling, combining both personal and professional experiences along the way. Lessons from Life pushes you as a person to rethink your choices no matter what age group you lie in.
11 – Searching for God in the Garbage by Bracha Goetze
About: We’ve all been into unhealthy food addictions, at times munching on just sugar and carbs. Thought of switching up your dietary habits right there and then may have popped in your mind before, here’s how Bracha Goetze a Harvard graduate decided to do exactly that. She’s kept her journey transparent from becoming an observant jew, to completely cutting of unhealthy eating, and finally beating anorexia!
12 – The Elegant Out by Elizabeth Bartasius
About: The Elegant Out showcases the story of Elizabeth herself, where she escapes an abusive relationship, a tedious eight-to-five job and delves into her goal of publishing a book. She puts her thought of expanding her family with a new baby aside to focus on her writing, but the announcement of pregnancies from her social circle and her husband’s unwillingness for another baby put her in a dire situation that complicates into frustration and depression. Thus Elizabeth is put in a precarious situation and must make an executive choice between separation or a baby.
I hope these books will inspire you. Please note: We have added AMAZON to ensure you know which book it is. However, I would very much prefer if you ordered through a local bookstore. My neighborhood bookstore BUCHHANDLUNG HIRSLANDEN orders and delivers to your home address in Zurich during the Pandemic.
Email: lesen@buchhandlung-hirslanden.ch.
AND, if you liked this please sign up to our reader’s list here.
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Presence has become increasingly important as we are always pulled in so many directions and “energy flows where our attention goes”.
We can hardly survive a day without our smartphones anymore and when we are offline or have low batteries it creates feelings of anxiety. I have an ongoing experiment where I am trying to increase my productivity and get more done by using less and less resources (money, paper, time, people).
I would like to summarize the learning for you and you might want to follow me in this experiment.
I want to simplify my life. I am always looking for topics that are complex in our shared, multifaceted lives today and I think about how to deconstruct them and make them simple again. (In my work as a Global Mobility Expert, this is essential.)
In a MasterMind Group we are all considering getting a paper planner again because we feel that our digital tools are just not doing all the tricks. I also feel that often paper gives me a higher sense of security than an app. Obviously, I am trying to reduce paper where it is not needed but there are areas where paper just beats digital tools.
Here is our Four-Step Approach to Digital Control:
1 – Start with an App List
To write this I started an app list I am regularly working with. The app list became very long. I am not even sure I finished it yet. It’s more a toolbox now than a list.
- Email Accounts – 4 live accounts, 2 or 3 email ID’s that I never check
- LinkedIn – Inbox
- Facebook – Inbox
- Twitter – Inbox
- Instagram – Inbox
- Slack – Inbox (Member of 4 channels at the moment)
- WhatsApp, Signal, FB Chat and other chat apps
- Seminar Apps such as Whova, Geneva
Once you have completed your app list review my simplification principles and check which ones apply to you. Do you have other principles for simplification you wish to share?
2 – Develop Your Simplification Principles
- People over Robots! Any personal message is better than an automated response.
- Move from DIGITAL to ANALOGUE on purpose. Use paper strategically.
- Delete unused apps from your smartphone.
- Turn your phone off from 9 PM to 6 AM. Give it a space for the night outside of the bedroom. (You will still hear the alarm!)
- Use Post-it for visualising what is important to you. The idea is: One thought, one post-it.
- Say “No, thank you…” or “yes, if…” to any proposal for meetings, work and tasks right away. Commit fast and decline fast. Don’t ponder on decision forever.
- When asked for meetings give two options only.
- Always set a deadline by when another person should come back to you.
- Wear black most of the time. On Wednesdays add a colour. Stop ironing during a pandemic.
- If you don’t know what to wear because you don’t know if the occasion is formal or not, wear a black suit.
- Choose your social media channels wisely. You are probably on too many.
3 – Write your 2020 Accomplishment List
Go through the RockMeApp archive and review all that you have accomplished in 2020. Check if there are open items that you wish to close within the next two work weeks.
4 – Participate in our online Workshops
I lay awake on a Saturday night that I had just enjoyed with my partner and our neighbors and even though it was only Saturday I felt a creeping dissatisfaction about all I wanted to achieve the next working week. I am not sure how you feel but the fact that I attend most meetings online now creates more anxiety when a topic is really important to me. I feel that in a physical meeting I would be able to show my emotions better and usually I can be very convincing in such situations and achieve what I would like to achieve. Oftentimes, the point of such a meeting is to bring the other person or persons to an action or a decision.
But then, when I started to think about my week I felt there were so many small and urgent tasks to worry about that I would not be able to adequately prepare those critical meetings where I would want to be fully present and prepared. And in order not to let anxiety dominate my thinking I did what I usually do in such situations: I fell asleep. I woke up refreshed, made myself a cup of coffee and started to work. Methodically I moved from one minor task to the next to set up my mind for success the next week. Then what happened next was that I was able to take my mind off the small tasks before the end of the weekend and I could focus on the “big wins” again.
And yes, it is easy to worry but usually action helps me the best to get out of the state of worry. What often blocks my flow is not a lack of motivation, it’s rather a feeling of having too much to do and too little time for fun and play. Here, as an entrepreneur I developed the habit of allowing myself to not be reachable for anybody on certain days and just work in my pyjamas if I feel like it. If I work on weekends, I usually schedule time in the morning so I can still go out and spend time with my loved ones in the afternoon. I even leave my phone in its bed for several hours on the weekend to be more present for my partner and friends.
I know what you are thinking now: “But what if a major client is trying to reach you and you are not responding for hours? Or what if there is an emergency? Or what if you wish to google something quickly? Or what if you forget important tasks because you have so much on your plate?” (And then, when you think of all that, you stop your activity and you decide not to follow your idea of starting a business because it suddenly seems “unrealistic” and “building castles in the skies”, and “it won’t be good for my old-age pension if I don’t get a regular salary…”, and “I don’t have enough experience, money, support to start my own business…”)
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt a major change was about to happen in your career or life but you were too frightened to even start? You might not call it “FEAR”, you will probably think it is “REASON”, but believe me my friend…all those stories you are telling yourself why it won’t work are based out of fear. This fearful voice was probably borne a long time ago when you were a child and you were probably born into a culture where taking risks was not encouraged, where everyone believed in planning, predicting and pushing through.
I think we all have experienced this issue before and I would like to call it the “mountain of tasks” that leads to a block in activity. It’s similar to sports. Once you stop doing sports it is really hard to be motivated again.
Dealing with Monday Anxiety
I believe that there are two ways to deal with the Monday Anxiety I am describing above. One is that you engage in your purpose. You clearly define why this task helps you to fulfil your purpose in life and on earth.
The other trick is to hack the “mountain of tasks” into smaller bits and pieces, make it doable and start with a small baby step. Therefore it is important to create a system that helps you keep an overview of your tasks. Most of you probably have developed a system over the years to track tasks and projects. However, what I am noticing and have talked about in the last two blog posts is that we are starting a lot of work and it remains stuck in Work-in-Progress because of various factors.
I would like to encourage you to complete your Work-in-Progress before 24 December 20 and see how that makes you feel. If you cannot fully complete a project, define a new milestone that you would like to have achieved by 24 December 20. List all those milestones on a wall where you can see them, either by using post-it notes or a hand-written task list.
Developing Weekly Practices
I read that you will perform a habit if you are able to run the same task on 21 consecutive days. Considering the year-end is approaching fast and we literally do not have a lot of time left before the Christmas holidays I would suggest you use this time to develop one weekly practice to enhance your visibility on social media and network more effectively on LinkedIn.
I would like to suggest that you develop your social media muscle. Here are a few ideas of what you could do. Remember to set the goal low. You could say: I will work on social media for 25 minutes every day.
These are the tasks I will try to perform in one week.
1) Start the week with LinkedIn endorsements. Endorse five of your contacts each week for 1 specific skill.
2) Reach out to at least two contacts for a virtual coffee meeting.
3) Write one blog post of at least 800 words and offer it to bloggers in your industry as a guest blog.
4) Read one industry report and write a short summary and share it with three LinkedIn groups in your industry.
5) Conduct a free webinar on a topic you have mastered and publish it.
Kind regards,
Angie.
Homework: Build a new weekly practice and add it to the RockMeApp
I would like you to think about a weekly practice you would like to develop and then run this task for 21 days. It is important that you do not raise the bar too high. An example could be that you practice German for 25 minutes or that you clean up your desk before you leave the office or that you read for 25 minutes in the morning. Even if you read anything you are excited about this practice will enforce your wish for learning. The topic could be on fly fishing or in my case Bollywood trash.
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdeyqpjgrGdxMQunxZDsruzW5HdAPJTtJ
