Start creating business friendships

My mother once told me, “You've got to be a friend, to make a friend.”

I believe this bit of information is the key to unlocking the floodgates to our creative businesses. It’s all about putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes. If you had a problem, how would you want the person you came to for help to treat you?

The above principle also rings true in meetings, not only with clients, but with other creatives. If you’re going to HOW or CFC for the first time, and you strike up a conversation with someone else who is new to the conference, you both have common ground from which to start a new friendship.

You've got to be a friend, to make a friend. This little insight will work wonders in helping you hurdle you fears about being in a new place and meeting new people. You could talk about how many people are around, how shy you may be, who you’re excited about hearing speak and so on.

I read an awesome tweet the other day that said, “You don’t have enough business because you don't have enough relationships.” So, if you shift the perspective of your encounters with people, you will move forward in your career successfully. Start creating ‘business friendships’ instead of adding more ‘contacts’ and meeting with ‘prospects.’

Intentionally changing the language that you use to describe the folks you work with will change the way you perceive them. You’ve got to change who they are in your head before they become someone different (and better) in your life.

Are you targeting prospects? Or are you developing business friendships?

Special thanks to Clint Walkingstick from Eye Say Design.