I had a light bulb moment one time. The switch was turned on by a great guide that helps from time to time. Like all self employed people during the Great Recession I was chasing the Yankee Dollar. I was going through the desert looking for the oasis of money.
My guide asked me how my personal marketing was going? I basically said that I was too busy chasing money to market myself. As the words came out of my mouth the light bulb came on and my brain said you are stupid pretty much at the same time as my friend did.
You see marketing yourself is a core element of your business success. My number one marketing tactic has always been my networking. No total strangers have come out of the blue and said I want to work with you. My network created my river of opportunities.
I often get emails from people saying things like please accept my apology for the delayed response in accepting your connection request. I have been pretty busy lately and I am behind on my LinkedIn requests. Today I think you have to drive down both sides of the road to succeed.
Networking needs to be a parallel path to your work activities and should not only occur only after you have finished your busy work.
So what path is your networking on? Is it a first thought or an afterthought?
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Watch my video on “How to Rise Above the Crowd.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkO7efleWX4]
You are absolutely right Hank. Marketing yourself is THE priority for anyone who pursues a path of self employment or owns a business. Networking is a skill and as you have mentioned correctly, it does not occur so obviously to us when and how to use it.