Networking and Personal
Brand Skills
Heather White is a thought-leader,
public speaker, coach, and author with a
passion for demystifying the art of net-
working and for developing practical
networking strategies that can be im-
plemented immediately to get results.
Heathers company, Smarter Network-
ing, works with many international
businesses, SMEs, and higher educa-
tion institutions including.
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Heather White
Abstract: Effective networking helps you to stay informed,
increases your profile, improves performance and opens
doors for you. Whether you are a business consultant,
entrepreneur or student the discipline and skills which
networking require will help you achieve success. Net-
working starts with your career or business goals, focus-
ing on who you need to meet, what message you want to
leave them with and how to build authentic, sustainable
relationships with these people going forward. Whatever
your situation, this article will guide you through each of
these steps with tips, illustrations and ideas which you
can adapt to suit your own personality and circumstances.
To build dynamic business relationships, people need
to understand you and what you want so having a clear
personal brand is a vital part of being a successful net-
worker. This article will take you through a step by step
process for establishing your personal brand and demon-
strates how to use it in many different scenarios. It will
also help you plan for events and offers advice on how
to follow up with people and stay in touch.
Key words: Networking skills; Personal brand; Impact
and influence; How to network; How to work the room;
How to create a networking plan; How to stay in touch;
Finding a job; Finding new business; LinkedIn
Introduction
Whats your situation? Do you want to find an internship,
find your first job, find a new job, move industries or sector,
find an investor, find business opportunities, or perhaps move
country? For some of you it could be a number of these!
In broad terms, you need three things to succeed:
knowledge, skills, and connections.
This article is going to focus purely on finding connec-
tions and developing relationships so that you will get
what you are looking for.
By the time you have finished reading this article, you
will be able to find the right people, have the right impact,
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 Networking and Personal Brand Skills
clearly articulate your key message, and be
memorable (for the right reasons).
The challenge I have writing about net-
working and personal brand is that everyones
situation is unique and special. Cultural
differences, how much work experience
you have had, and even your gender all
play a part in how you interpret this article.
Introverts and extroverts will approach this
subject with differing emotions and those
who arent sure what it is they want may
find it more challenging.
Whatever your situation, you will get more
from this very practical articleif you take my
tips, illustrations, and ideas and adapt them to
suit your unique background, personality, and
circumstances. If I were in your shoes, I would
take these ideas and talk to someone you respect
and ask their opinion, ask how they network,
and what they do. You can never get enough
advice about how others achieve success.
My Personal View about Networking
Let me share my personal views about net-
working and personal brand with you so that
you understand why I have approached this
subject in the way that I have.
Its vital to me that I am authentic and
sincere in my reasons for building and sus-
taining a relationship with anyone. I would
never be false. I get excited meeting people
and developing and exchanging ideas; I love
sharing knowledge and connections. In fact,
what gives me the greatest buzz is making
connections for others. I honestly believe that
putting out my hand and being willing to listen
does change the world for myself and other
people. Networking is one of the most exciting
personal development tools I have ever come
across. Networking is a powerful marketing
tool as well. This doesnt mean that I dont get
scared and that every day I have to move out
of my comfort zone but thats why learning
how to network well is still exciting for me.
Are Networking and Personal Brand
Important?
Yes, networking with a broad range of people
will help you develop your skills, confidence,
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and knowledge. To get to where you want to
be, you need your connections to understand
who you are and what you want.
What Is Networking and Personal
Brand?
Networking is about building relationships
with people who can be of mutual service
so that opportunities open up and you both
acquire knowledge, wisdom, and connec-
tions. To build these important relationships,
people need to understand you otherwise
they cant help you and vice versa.
How Do Networking and Personal
Brand Work?
In a nutshell, two people meet and have a
chat, both are willing and respectful and
look for ways to be helpful. During the
conversation, trust and likeability are built
up. Both parties share their expertise and
experience which builds credibility and un-
derstanding. People stay in touch and over
time offer help with knowledge and con-
nections as a result of which opportunities
come about and careers, performance, and
resources develop.
Networking works on three basic levels:
trust, willingness, and an understanding of
each other.
I love this quote from Jeff Bezos, chief
executive officer of Amazon, which he said
many years ago: A brand is what people say
about you when you are not in the room.
(Miligan, 2004, p. 45)
So, networking is about meeting and get-
ting to know people and for them to get to
know you. This means they need to under-
stand you. Do you know what message you
want to leave people with? If you dont, or
cant articulate it well, then you are leaving
it up to fate.
What Might Get In Your Way?
As with any skill development, personal in-
teraction or marketing objective there are
risks and barriers. Throughout life there
will be setbacks but if we dont put ourselves
out there, how will we grow? You could look
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 Networking and Personal Brand Skills

at networking as simply another project to Its Never Too Early to Start

learn and improve on.
I promise that the act of networking will
bring you masses of opportunities. Just work-
ing hard and focusing on technical expertise
wont in and of itself give you the breaks
you are seeking.
It is your mindset or attitude about net-
working and personal brand that will be your
biggest hurdle rather than any practical issues.
Yes, time will always be an issue and yes,
you will meet some scary people and yes,you
will occasionally face rejection but anything
worth fighting for is worth getting out of your
comfort zone for. So lets do this!
Six Steps to Effective Networking
Ive studied thousands of successful network-
ers over the last 16 years, captured what it
is they all do (in various ways), and broken
it down into six steps:
Never start networking when you need
something, its too late by then. You
will be far more successful if you start
planningyour activities now so that over
the next 6 to 12 months things can start
to happen.
Job and Business Timelines
TheReality
If you are at university, and depending on
where you are with your studies, youll be
looking for a number of opportunities over
the next 12 to 36 months including jobs to
supplement your income, internships, place-
ments, and, of course, employment for when
you finish.
If you are an entrepreneur or business
consultant, you are likely to be looking for
investors and business contracts over the
next 3 to 12 months. On average, it can take

Six steps What they all do

1. Mindset Whether they are natural networkers or not, introverted or extroverted,
successful networkers understand its importance and develop a way that
works for them.
2. Plan Scatter gun networking doesnt work because most people are time-poor.
Successful networkers often have a clear idea about who they need to meet,
who could make introductions, and where they need to show up.
3. Personal brand Successful networkers work out their key message, the impact they want to
create and who needs to understand them.
4. Staying in touch Networking is a long-term commitment, and so successful networkers stay
in touch. They see how they can be of service to their contacts and add value
while still keeping their message focused and relevant.
5. How to work a room While most successful networkers focus more on one-to-one relationships,
they also attend events to meet certain people. Everyone has their own
approach to this but they know how to move around to meet the right
people.
6. Social media Successful networkers use social media for two main reasons:
1. To promote their brand through opinions and thought leadership
2. To enable other people to do their due diligence and check them out
So everything needs to stack up.

up to six months (if not longer) to find your
first opportunity, and so its never too early
to start to build up you network.
Before I go into exactly how to do this,
lets get your plan going first.
The PlanSomething Simple Is All
You Need
From this moment on and for the rest of
your career, you are going to be busy. Time

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