After a business trip to England, I was reminded of the importance of making connections and being real. It became the focal point of our experience. With business transactions moving online, many with endless telephone message loops, it’s become essential to make personal contact wherever you can.
The business aspect of our trip was to create opportunities for GreenRoom Exchange, our world music non-profit and to further launch Lee’s music projects. Trying to do this online through email and websites has netted nothing. We have to make connections.
Making genuine connections is what makes you successful in any field.
Here are some thoughts on how.
TO CONNECT, ASK QUESTIONS AND LISTEN
Showing interest and learning from others is essential to making genuine connections. We’re trained to give our elevator speech, to talk big about ourselves, but what makes you feel valued and important comes from how someone pays attention, shows interest, listens and asks questions. We did that with several people, creating trust in one another out of our mutual understanding. Now we know we can work together – we created a connection.
WHO YOU KNOW IS STILL EVERYTHING
If you’re like me, you’ve worked hard to develop your skill set and professionalism, but as one of the agents we met said, talent is only 15% of your success. Building a team of people who know you, believe in you and will lift you up is the rest. We watched this work in real time. The agent sent a text to a club owner in NYC and within 5 minutes Lee had a prestigious gig at a well-known club.
BE YOURSELF, IT’S YOUR BEST SELLING POINT
When you make your pitch, it’s your authenticity that makes the strongest point. Our value driven organization creates unity, dispelling stereotypes about people from other cultures through music. We do this by being personal, providing hospitality. It resonates with people – it’s real. Our culture is being destroyed by the focus on money, power, and monopolies, when what we need is connections, networks and cooperation. It all starts with connections. It’s already working for us.
How does this work for you? Reach out is you’d like to address it.
