The Beauty of Networking

I have had a couple of wonderful experiences this week that have had a positive effect on me, both professionally and personally, all due to networking.  Professionally, because it has helped me in building my business and personally, because it gives me the warm fuzzies when I can help people and when people say positive things about our firm and I find out about it.  I truly believe that staying true to your beliefs and philosophies (as long as they are positive and ethical, of course) and extending that to as far as you can reach makes for an extremely successful and fulfilling life.  And today's networking tools make it possible to extend far beyond what it did just 5-10 years ago.

I got out of recruiting for a couple of years - right before 9/11 changed our lives.  But before I did that, I made a spreadsheet of all of the people I could think of that I'd been in contact with over the years and included as much information as I could.  I'm not in the practice of stealing databases and I was working for a small firm at the time, so I did it the hard way.  As I suspected, I missed recruiting, and dove back into it with my spreadsheet and got on the phone.  And then I discovered this new thing called Linked In.  "Well, this is pretty cool,"  I thought, and soon realized that I could find almost anyone and re-connect with them and by God, find people I didn't even know!  So, I combined my old school methods of picking up the phone and calling people in my business circle and using cyberspace to connect with others I didn't know yet, and it has been a fortuitous cycle. 

This week, I have gained another new client due to networking (and hopefully because our firm has a good reputation), found out a lead I gave to someone turned into their dream job, and set up a dinner with two of my clients on opposite coasts that most likely never would have met - this in order to help them expand their network AND discuss the world of Procurement and Sourcing (and hopefully have some fun too!).  I am about to make a move back to Atlanta, where I have kept up a network, and am going to propose an idea I have for a charitable program (more to come on this) to a couple of what some might deem my competitors, but I just see as a opportunity to extend our knowledge to those who REALLY need it.   And this is the beauty of networking.