Post-Stampede Networking - now is the time!

So today is the day people wander back into the office from days of Stampeding and whooping it up in tents, bars and hotels (ballrooms and conference centers I mean). You look in your pockets and on your desk and see all sorts of cards from the last 10 days. Business cards, scraps of paper with names and numbers. Now is the time to act!

You can take the approach of most people - can't completely remember where you met each person, didn't make any notes on their cards and generally feel a little uncomfortable with just the idea of randomly calling people. No real agenda or reason to call (that you remember). So the cards will sit until next week. Hopefully then you will have more initiative and courage to make those re-introduction calls. Or maybe not.

Then there's the approach of people following our Stampede networking tips. You, like everyone else, return to your office with a stack of business cards and phone numbers. You have made notes on everyone of those cards and can at least piece together where you met each person and what you talked about. Now is a critical point ... what are you going to call about?! Too often people call with the "Hey, I am just touching base" message. Completely ineffective! So with each person you are going to call, plan to:

a) Remind them where you met;
b) Make reference to what you talked about in the beer tent (regardless of if it was personal or work); and
c) Give them a reason for you to keep talking, get together and build a relationship.

If you use these three keys and get back to each of the cards you have this week (starting Tuesday because Monday might be a little quick to pounce) then you are going to find business in those cards! Guaranteed!

Don't waste the opportunity to make use of all those great Stampede moments and contacts! Now is the time to act with a great offer and strong confidence that, even sober, they need what you are selling!

Who Owns Your Time?

Just returning from a networking/peer luncheon, one of the resounding issues was that of time management and who has ownership of your time. In your 8 hour day, how much of it do you dictate and how much of it is dictate and determined by you? If you are spending more than 50% of your time with your tasks, timelines and schedule being dictated by someone else then you have a productivity problem!

While other people are all too willing to fill your calendar, fill your task list and fill your head, your job is to fight them off and take control again. Your job is:
1) To recognize that your time is YOUR time and that no one makes you do anything ... you accept it.
2) Allow people will work around some of your guidelines for your time when you set them, communicate them and stick to them
3) Each day establish what is most important in your day and what YOU need to get done to maximize the impact (not just the workload) you can make.
4) To set time guidelines that give you more freedom and not become more cumbersome
5) Look at what you can delegate in your work and personal life to free up time ... list off 10 things you don't like to do and start there.

Taking all your cues from other people and allow them to manage all your time is easy. No, it is. Unfortunately it also put someone else's convenience, plan and agenda ahead of yours.

You need to start to test the boundaries of what you can control TODAY. When people take control of even small pieces of their time they start to realize they control all of it! Recognition of control is the first step in time management that many courses and books forget to mention! Yet great time management starts in your head not in your calendar. Need help breaking through the barriers on your time, ask us for help.