I attended LA’s Largest Mixer last week at the Shriner’s Auditorium. Large Expos are like Disneyland for me! Not only did I meet some of my online friends but I met a WHOLE bunch of new friends, and learned about some new networking groups for the calendar. However… a funny thing happened on the way to the car….
I had parked at the very top of the building…(got a great snapshot of the LA skyline) and at the end of the event, when a large group of us piled into the elevator…what do you think happened? Nothing! We all stood there like zombies staring at the floor numbers over the door. I had to do something, so I said..”OK…Everybody exchange cards! Who wants to give their best Elevator Speech? Now everyone is laughing and digging out their cards…I held up a fist full of cards and said, “Who wants the Los Angeles Networking Guide?” Everyone snatched up a card.
I was the last one off the elevator on the 6th floor, but I had a big smile on my face because I went a bit out of my comfort zone (yeah, really), to address a crowded elevator and produce the response I had hoped for…to make people laugh and to get them to reach out to others in some small way.
Noted author Neale Donald Walsch says “Life begins at the edge of your Comfort Zone”. You don’t have to wait for a “networking event” to expand your network. There are people you need to meet all around you! They are standing next to you in line at Starbucks…sitting next to you at your kid’s soccer game…Standing next to you in awkward silence in that elevator. The first move is yours and opening lines are endless. “Do you work in the building?”.
