When you are an entrepreneur, who you know makes the all difference.
To know people, you have to talk to them! And usually, in a way that is not related to your business.
This may simple and straightforward, but it has been a huge lesson I have had to learn.
For some reason, I thought I could run a successful social media management business – without being social! I took an online course about social media managing, called Let’s Get Social. I thought: “Yes! I can do this work and I like it… now I just need some clients. Wait, why aren’t I getting clients? What am I doing wrong?” One day in a Facebook group, I made a post saying I didn’t want to offend anyone who had tried to friend me, but I did not friend people I didn’t know. This spurred a debate in the comments about whether to use a personal page for business connections. Some of the comments were a little harsh. I felt ashamed and did start to question myself. A few days later, I was listening to a coaching call by Kate Buck Jr., who taught the LGS course and she gave her take on the debate. She said she made most of her connections through her personal page when she started and that if she had to do it all again, that is still the way she would go. Her excellent point was that you could get to know people by “friending” them, forming connections and building trust – then they might become customers and/or recommend others to you. My epiphany was realized: I needed to connect with people to be successful. Setting me up for my next lesson: I needed to be vulnerable.
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