You're Networking Wrong. Do This Instead

7 NETWORKING TIPS THAT ACTUALLY WORK (From someone who builds community) 1.LEAD WITH CURIOSITY, NOT YOUR PITCH. Ask someone about their work before you offer yours. The person who listens first is the one people remember. Not the one with the smoothest elevator pitch. 2.KNOW WHAT YOU CARRY BEFORE YOU WALK IN. You cannot give what you have not identified. Before any room, ask yourself: what is one specific thing I can offer someone tonight? Not “let me know if you ever need anything.” One specific thing. 3.THE EQUATION IS SIMPLE. WORK × TELLING. Serendipity is not random. It follows a formula: what you do, multiplied by how many people you tell. If the work is not there, no amount of telling will save you. If the work is there and you tell nobody, nothing finds you. 4.STOP LEAVING THE ROOM EARLY or GET TO THE ROOM EARLY. The best conversations at any event happen in the first and last thirty minutes, before everyone arrives and when the performers have left and only the real ones remain. Stay for the in-between. That is where community actually forms. 5.ONE COFFEE IS WORTH A HUNDRED TEXTS. Before you leave any room, find one person you would genuinely have coffee with next week. Exchange numbers. Then actually have the coffee. The follow-up is where the relationship starts. Everything before it is audition. 6.PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE ALREADY DOING THE THING. The fastest way to become a person who does a thing is to spend time among people who already do it. Stop looking for mentors. Start looking for rooms. 7.TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FOR THE ROOM. The better you know yourself, the better you show up for everyone else. Self-awareness is not selfish. It is the entry fee for being genuinely useful inside any community. Join us for the next edition of LinkedIn Local Nairobi. The room awaits. (Link in bio). #linkedinlocalnairobi #community #nairobi #networking #entrepreneurship @Hackhouse Africa