Do you feel like your career or business is stuck? Are you looking for a way to reach more people?
Are you trying to find a way to increase your monthly income? Or looking for a connection to hook you up with a new job?
People always emphasize the importance of networking with others in your field. They say that it's one of the fastest ways to speed up your career or grow your business. But they also don't tell you all the other benefits that come from it.
We looked at 3 reasons why you should consider attending events to expand your network.
1. Challenge your Comfort Zone and Build Confidence
Introverted or extroverted, networking will push you out of your comfort zone. This is because networking will expose you to new people and ideas.
You will learn and become more confident in your manner of approaching people. You will develop knowledge about the new topics these people find interesting.
The more you attend networking events, the better your social skills will become. It will be easier for you to find common points of interest with new people.
The people that you meet will also see the confidence that radiates from you. This confidence will make them drawn to you
They will be curious about the person that you are and the ideas you talk about.
All in all it's a skill that becomes easier the more you do it. This confidence then translates to other parts of your life. Your business, your career, your relationships etc.
Being more comfortable talking to new people can make it easier for you to pitch your ideas to a new customer. You can even be more confident when asking for a promotion or a raise at work.
Now isn't that something that should inspire you to push and get out of your comfort zone?
2. Networking Increases Curiosity
Curiosity is one of the things that keep us learning. Yet, it's like a muscle, if you don't use it, it looses its strength.
When you attend networking events, you learn something important about connecting with people.
'You learn to make yourself interested.'
Becoming interested in what people share; makes it easier to make meaningful connections. The people you meet will reciprocate your curiosity with curiosity.
You will continue to learn about their interest, as you make deeper connections with them.
Increasing your curiosity can expand your knowledge to new ideas, events, or people. It can expose you to things you never considered important before
These things can be the stepping stones to a new life, business or career you never dreamed about.
3. Networking Increases your Connections
As social beings, we long for genuine and intimate connections.
But because of the fast paced world that we live in, we settle for the quick like or comment we get from social media.
These are not the meaningful connections we need to give our life meaning.
Networking is usually done in a less professional environment. It should be relaxing, and filled with sharing your ideas while learning from others.
You will experience a different type of connection when you remove the distractions. You will learn how to take time to understand a person.
You can meet people to help hold you accountable on your journey. You can meet people who inspire you as they share how they overcame the same problems you face today.
You can even meet people who might have another contact or connection to help you get where you want to go.
The possibilities are endless.
The Issue?
I know that as a busy professional or an entrepreneur, you may not want to set time aside to go to an event.
It may be very hard to attend events that don't fit into your schedule or need and unreasonable commute.
But I do urge you to make time to network.
Surround yourself with people who are also pursuing a goal. Be motivated and inspired by the work others are putting in.
And you never know, they may be the key that brings everything together when you least expect it.
Where Do You Go to Network in Belize?
The problem is, where do you go to do this? And, who has time for it?
Most networking events are sporadic. This is because there is so much that goes into organizing them. But this makes it hard for you to build and maintain relationships with the people you meet.
It's even harder to try and make these events fit into your schedule.
Do you want to expand your network and gain these benefits?
The Challenge:
I challenge you to join our networking event this week.
The event takes place the first Thursday of every month. Starting this Thursday October 6th, 2022.
We use google meet, to join from home. We limit the number of people that can join to 50. This will make sure we can arrange small enough groups for you to have one-on-one time with the people at the event.
click HERE to sign up.
If you want to learn some networking tips, check out an older blog post HERE.
And comment below to share other networking events that happen in Belize.
About GiggedBz
Being an entrepreneur or managing a household can be very stressful. Somedays you really just need some help. And I'm sure we can agree that good help is hard to find. This is why we made, Gigged.bz.
