| Stefanie Zizzo Stefanie Zizzo 919-744-9722 Meet Your Coach |
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Are you often uncomfortable in situations when you must interact with people you don’t know?
Are you longing to cultivate new relationships in your professional life?
Is being connected to people important to you, but you just are not sure how to do it?
Whether you are embarking on a career transition, are self-employed and need to market your services, or just want to cultivate relationships with colleagues, you will have to reach out to people.
Relationships, whether personal or professional, develop over time and are based on trust. But first impressions are critical, as they determine whether you will have the opportunity to develop a stronger relationship.
So how do you do it? How do you connect with a total stranger, make a great first impression and have them wanting to hire you, promote you, or do business with you?
STEPS FOR SUCCESS
Define who you are: your purpose, passion, gifts, strengths, qualities, and accomplishments. Who are you really?
Clarify what you want: your intention in getting noticed, known and connected. Why is it important to you? What do you hope to gain? To offer?
Identify who you want to connect with: Is it a potential employer, someone in a particular industry, someone in your company…? Choose who you want to reach and try to learn that persons (or industry’s) needs and goals.
Define your environment: think about your own needs and values, those that you would like fulfilled, including how you work best, the type of people you want to work with and the type of people you want to learn from.
Create your own mission statement: include the benefit that will be received by your efforts, the impact you will have on others – your purpose and passion.
Develop your marketing pitch: who you are, what you do and how you do it. Your pitch should condense your key skills, experience and achievements into a few short phrases, with a strong focus on what you are offering, what needs you are filling. When complete, it will feel right to say and your passion will ignite when you are saying it – even if you are shy!
Develop outstanding communication skills: Conversational skills project your personality, show your sincerity, and make people feel comfortable with you, and you with them.
Create and define your image: You must not only make your exterior appealing to your target audience, but also make it a genuine reflection of your inner self. If you feel confident, you will be more confident.
Become 'the authority' in a specialized area: define your niche in relation to areas you have expertise, have the most knowledge, have the most passion. You want be seen as someone who clearly understands the needs and challenges of your desired target market, role and/or industry, and one who has the knowledge, skills, experience and qualities to address those needs and challenges.
GETTING OUT THERE
Focus on others: If you are shy, the best way to approach a stranger is to keep the focus on them, not you. Ask questions, focusing on how you can make them “feel special”.
Begin to meet new people: Challenge yourself to meet at least one new person each week. It could be a referral from someone you already know or someone you meet on line at the grocery store. The more you try approaching new people, the easier it becomes.
Strengthen existing relationships: Contact people you know and ask them out for coffee or lunch. Tell them what you are searching for – new contacts to grow your business, new employment opportunities, new friends with your interests… Ask them if they would be willing to introduce you to who they know.
Use e-mail as your first introduction: as it allows you to take your time to craft your message. Be brief and to the point – including how you heard about them and why you are interested in talking to them or meeting them. If they respond, the lines of communication are now open.
Attend events and seminars: that are coordinated within your community, the local chapter of the professional association that relates to your field, through the continuing education arm of your local college or university…
Attending a meeting gives you an agenda, a reason to be there. It allows plenty of time to observe who is in attendance and decide who you would like to meet. It also gets you noticed even if you don’t say anything.
Look for guides, teachers and mentors: Friends, family, colleagues and coaches who can support, motivate and help you create an atmosphere that respects who you are while challenging you to do more than you think you can.
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