Guest Post: Networking, holiday style!

If there's one thing I learned first-hand this year, it's that nothing beats getting out of your own, little space and meeting people in the flesh. Not that social media isn't great! It is; it's how I found all these awesome people to meet. People like today's guest author, Dave Hardwick, whom I met online when he posted a link to my blog, communicatrix, on his blog, then met in person on my trips up to Seattle this past fall.

Dave has a few interesting things to say about meeting people, as well. Enjoy!

A major snow system or two ago, Colleen invited me to write a guest-post.

What an honor!

I was humbled!

I had NO IDEA what to write. 

 

What could the self-employed readers of a marketing blog possibly need to hear from a recruiter in the tech sector? What could I say that would even begin to be helpful? And while we're at it, why would Colleen, whom I met randomly via our blogs and then in person up in Seattle, ask me to do this, anyway?!

Then it hit me: networking! We met...via networking! We became friends...via networking! And not in the usual, stand around at an event, handing out your business cards way, but in the strange, serendipitous, bonded-over-common-interests way.

So yes, I'm going to recommend networking, but an unusual kind. A holiday kind. It goes like this:

1. Look around the homes around your home. How many of them have people inside them that you know? Have you partied with them in a while? Create a list of 10 you don't know yet (and, for safety's sake, don't go visit someone who gives you the heebie-jeebies. That little voice in your gut is not to be dismissed!
2. Go make some gingerbread or holiday-appropriate cookies (6 or 7 dozen). If you're SERIOUSLY baking challenged, either try out sugar cookies ('cause they are simple beyond belief), or brownies (ditto), or get a friend to help you, or worst case, go buy them (but then, that would miss two key parts of this lesson, frugality and giving a gift that keeps on giving).
3. Decorate them. Again, holiday appropriate for your intended audience.
4. While you're waiting for them to cool, type out the recipe on your computer and title it, "Colleen's Christmas Elf Cookies". Ha ha. Actually, put your name in place of 'Colleen'. You want them to remember you. Then print them onto 3x5 cards.
5. Put them on paper plates and wrap them in saran wrap. Or, stick them into quart- or gallon-sized Ziplocs, depending on quantity.
6. Put a bow on your cookie container of choice. Also put on a nice tag that has your name on it so they know who it came from.
7. Get your party clothes on. Warm party clothes, as appropriate.
8. Go out and deliver the goods. In person. Knock on the door, TAKE A BIG BREATH, introduce yourself, get their names, wish them a happy holiday, etc. Maybe even get into a conversation with them! My guess is that because you just handed them a recipe, they'll give you all kinds of fun lines for you to play off of. Like, "Wow, my mom used to do this." Or, "Gosh, my favorite Holiday treat is rum balls." And, "Have you ever had holiday peanut brittle?"
9. Use your wit, intelligence, and most importantly the air you breathe and talk to them.

I bet this will end up be the most holiday fun you've had in a long while. And who knows what kind of doors it may open for you in the coming year?

Comments

[Elizabeth Rose]

Thanks for the post! As someone who just moved in to a new neighborhood, this sounds like a great way to get to know my new neighbors, as well as practice some networking.