By Janus Boye
Whether you are introverts or extroverted, we can all level up their networking skills.
"From Workout to Last Call" is a new book due out by our Canadian networking expert Paul Abdool and the book title is analogous to always being ready to represent you and your company.
The concept is simple, if you are awake at a conference, you should be “working”. When Paul says working, he is not saying that you should always be selling or pitching, but you should be ready to network by showing up from sunrise to the last opportunity to converse with someone.
In a recent members' call, we heard more about the upcoming book (due out in June) and Paul kindly shared a few recent networking insights.
Networking is clearly a very relevant topic to this community, so we had a good conversation, also on the networking skills of introverts, but let’s start with taking a closer look at the book.
A practical guide to networking
Canadian network expert Paul Abdool is due out soon with his new book titled: “From Workout to Last Call.” Paul also leads our Canadian peer groups
The book comes with this lengthy subtitle: A practical guide to networking, increasing social capital and succeeding at events, trade shows, and conferences.
In our conversation, Paul shared how trust is the key element to the social capital and the relationships you will build at events. As organisers we can do much to create the right atmosphere for this, but the book covers it from the view of you as an active participant from the early morning workout to the last call.
The workout can be the morning run as at the Boye conferences, or if you chose to lift weights in the gym and meet other event participants.
With last call in the book title, Paul refers to the last thing happening at the event, whether it’s some karaoke bar, late night table tennis or even if it’s you returning to your loved ones. The book is packed with practical tips for how you do the networking part without feeling dirty and keeping your integrity.
These different activities are what Paul calls networking moments. Let’s dive a bit more into those.
Networking moments
A key networking moment - Paul Abdool enjoying morning yoga on the beach at a past event
From sunrise to sunset, you need to get in the mindset of networking. The moments are numerous, and you need to stay focused and remain disciplined throughout the day. You won’t be perfect, but if you are aware about the types of networking moments, they will remain in your subconscious and allow you to act in the moment.’
Here’s just some of the moments, that Paul covers in the book:
Workouts
Meals
Designated Mixers/Networking Time
Seminars/Sessions
Hotel Lobby
Elevators
Escalators
Buses to Events or Offsite Socials
Introverts versus extroverts
Paul Abdool networking in a hotel bar while at an event. The book also covers how your body language impact networking and how you invite people into the conversation
Networking is not natural for most people, and there are different types of personalities that like, dislike or are neutral about networking. The reality is you need to practice and work at it.
Most people think extroverts are at the top of the networking food chain, but as Paul said in the call: While it might appear that extroverted are awesome at an event, they need to practice networking as well. Extroverts make rapid connections like butterflies going from flower to flower, but they need to work on a few things too like:
Slowing down, listening and building trust
Taking notes and caputing information
Scheduling next steps and follow up
As a rule, introverts don’t want to be the center of attention, which allows them to focus on the person they are talking to. They are naturally better listeners; therefore, they build trust and real long-term relationships. Like an iceberg, you only see a little bit of them until you get under the surface … or until they let you.
Learn more about networking
Paul has more details about the book on his website: paulabdool.ca
We have also covered different aspects of community in previous posts on this site, e.g.:
What community means to me (2023)
For further reading, there’s actually just a few books on this angle of networking. In the call Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive from 2005 by Harvey Mackay was mentioned. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi is also a classic on relationship building.
Finally, while there were no slides in the call, you can lean back and enjoy the recording below.