There Are Always Opportunities to Meet New People
I was in the process of preparing a PowerPoint set of slides for an upcoming presentation I will be doing the other day when in the middle of my material the following quote appeared in front of me. The quote is “If you are not INSPIRED by the people around you, go meet some new people.” I thought about it for a moment and realized some pretty special people that I have met in 2020, are now new professional acquaintances of mine.
All of the new people in my life are in entrepreneurial businesses. I have met all of them online, given the current health restrictions and prohibition on in person meetings in my area of the United States. And, many of them live far from where I live, either in other states or even other countries. My chances of meeting many of them in person would really depend on if they happened to be traveling to my area of the United States, or I to their area.
I have met all of these individuals through professional online networking meetings. While the health crisis that has occurred in our world has definitely limited in person contact and activities during 2020, it almost has in a way that most of us were unaware, made it easier to meet people that you may have found more difficult to meet in the past. When going to in-person meetings, usually geography and time to get there is a restriction. Unless one is going to a multi-day conference to which they are traveling and planning to stay a few days, or if they are willing to drive a long distance both ways to get to the event, some events are just skipped because of the hassle of the travel involved to get to them. Some people on the other hand, are difficult to meet in person because their schedule has them traveling frequently, where now they are more likely homebound in one place. As such, they may be far easier to meet.
Some of you may say, I’m not in an entrepreneurial business. What benefit is it for me to meet others that may live far away from where I do? The ways of the world in terms of business hiring are different today than in the past. A company can have their Human Resource and Recruiting staff in one location but have locations in multiple places for which they hire. Even long before the pandemic I remember one of the attendees at my job search group in New Jersey connecting with someone in her field in California. They connected, shared information and a telephone conversation, and the person in California recommended her for a position that fit her background for the company for which her contact worked at their New Jersey facility. Our attendee got the job, and was singing the praises of a presentation that she had seen at our group on the importance of building your network on Linked In with people from all different locations that shared an interest in your profession.
Connections don’t all have to be job related. Perhaps you have a charitable cause with which you are involved. Or I am sure you have seen many activities having gone “virtually” that were previously in person. Have you considered attending any of them? Once attending, have you taken the step to learn of others who were on the same session, and shared contact information with them? Now here’s the really key question. Have you made the effort to FOLLOW UP with them, and set up a private conversation just you and the person you met? If not, why not? If so, have you found you and the new person in your life shared things in common? Have you set up a process to connect regularly? (I for example now have monthly follow-up check in calls with a couple of the fellow people I have met in 2020, who perform complimentary tasks to the type of work I do in my profession).
2020 has been a difficult year no doubt, and frankly it does not look like things will be the way that we knew them to be when the year started for a long time to come. (Sorry about that for those you are VERY FRUSTRATED about that). However, you have it in your power to connect with others, to make the most of the tools and technologies around you and look to connect with other like-minded people who both you may be able to assist, and at the same time be in a position to receive assistance from them.
