How to Network When You Don't Like Networking

- [Narrator] This is an audio course. No need to watch, just listen. Welcome to the latest edition to LinkedIn Learning, podcasts. We've curated some of the best business podcasts and made them even easier to listen to. Each episode is split into sections. Use the links in the contents area to skip to whichever section you like. We're always looking for new ways to help you learn, and we'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks for listening. - [Interviewer] Devora, I understand that you identify as a strong introvert and yet you are now doing all sorts of speeches and writing about networking. What is the story here? - [Devora] Networking is not exclusively for extroverts, I've discovered. So, it started off when I was teaching a lot of seminars and building connections, and creating new relationships, and sustaining businesses, and I suddenly realized that all the so called, excellent networking advice didn't work for me and I started doing the opposite. And who would've ever guessed, it's a whole new method of networking that works for many people. As a matter of fact, the majority of people, traditional networking advice does not resonate with them and they do far better, myself included, by honoring who they are and accepting their natural temperament. - [Interviewer] Okay then. Well, so then that's intriguing and so what would be an example of honoring your natural temperament versus violating it? - [Devora] So, traditional advice says get out there as much as possible, constant contact, and never eat a meal alone, and that kind of advice makes most of us want to run and hide, crash and burn (chuckles) and proclaim ourselves to hate networking and be terrible at it. So instead, if you work with understand who you are and then create a system that honors how you get energy. For example, introverts get energy alone whereas extroverts get energy with others. - [Interviewer] Certainly. Well so then, can we hear some cool case stories associated with folks who tackled some of those approaches and saw fantastic results? - [Devora] Sure, I'll give one about myself when I wanted to get my book published for the first time. So I was at a conference and there were about 40 different publishers there and so traditional wisdom would say meet all of them, because that'll maximize the possibility that you'll hit it off with one of them. But I knew as an introvert that that would drain me and that it would also feel really inauthentic, so I wouldn't be bringing my best foot forward. So instead, I did research in advance, which I always recommend people do, found and identified one publisher that I thought would be a really perfect fit