Get Out of Your Cave

Posted on 19. Jan, 2012 by in Blog, Networking 20/20

This is the cave you need to get out of. - Photo by Exsodus

Your daily routine is a trap. A cage. A cave from which you rarely venture forth to see the light of day. You do the same things at the same times day-in and day-out, you go the same places and you see the same people. The exact same people. You may love them or hate them but they are the people you know, and you are comfortable with them.

But the the truth is, no matter how comfortable, happy, or resigned you may be about seeing only the usual people every day, if you aren’t meeting new people, you aren’t networking. And that’s what you’re here to learn, right? Networking.

It may scare you, it may make you uncomfortable, it may make you feel nauseous, but you need to get out of your cave, walk into the sunlight and present yourself to the world; how else will it know what you have to offer?

And, of course, there are many different ways you can do this. You could call up a friend who you haven’t see for a while and renew your ties with them. You could follow up on a referral that a friend gave you ages ago. You could visit somewhere you haven’t visited before. Anything to get you out of that cage you’ve been living in.

Going to conferences is a great way to get out of your cave and meet new people. You’ll have an easy conversation topic with anyone that you meet because you can assume that they’re also interested in the topic of the conference if they decided to come. And people will be in a mood to meet new people, because that’s what they expect to do at a conference. This is all in your favor if you’re not quite comfortable with meeting new people yet.

If you want a bit more of a challenge, you could just charge out into the world; start talking to people that you meet at the supermarket, go out to a new restaurant for dinner and make conversation with a stranger, or even join a group that you’d previously been interested in but never got around to joining. Any of these free-form ways of meeting people will suit the more confident networker just fine.

Whatever your comfort level is, and whatever way you choose, just make sure you are meeting new people, and not falling back into the same old rut of seeing only the same old people.