Today on "Ask a Career Coach", I answer a question - "How do I grow my network if I'm shy?"
Hi, I'm Lana and I'm a Career Coach with Two Steps Forward Consulting. And today I wanna talk about growing your network as a shy person.
A lot of people are uncomfortable contacting strangers for the purpose of growing their network, and that is perfectly fine. Networking, like any other skill, can be developed. You have to practice it, and you will get better at it over time.
So, before you begin, you need to prepare a criteria of who you want to connect with. This will make it so much easier to actually contact the right people. In your preparation, you will develop a short script of how to introduce yourself and what to say later if they reply.
On LinkedIn, everyone has a profile, though not all of them are completely filled out. But still, take a moment to read their profile and look for some commonalities, something that you can talk to them about. Maybe you used to work in the same city before. In the same industry. Maybe you have something else in common like an interest or a skill.
If you manage to find a few things in common and have a chat with this person about some of those things, congratulations! You are no longer complete strangers. This should make it easier to contact them in the future if you're looking for information or advice.
If you're still on the fence about networking with strangers even after doing the prep work, please get in touch with me and we'll go over it together.
Thanks for watching! Until next time. Bye!