It’s always good to know movers and shakers. Fortunately, the Women’s Global Network in San Diego, California has no shortage of high caliber women!

Tired of suits and the typical restaurant setting, the Young Professionals Group took networking to the next level. We traded in our heels for tennis shoes and our usual sit-down meal for a catered bag lunch on the beach. Despite the heat, a hike at Torrey Pines was a great way to build relationships outside the traditional avenues of networking.

Here are a few highlights:

Katie Skow
Entrepreneur Goddess
www.entrepreneurgoddess.com

The key to doing business is connecting with others. It is really that simple and that complicated at the same time. In order to do business, you need to connect with others and in order to connect with others, you need to have access to the connectors of the world. How do you do this? You could place an ad in the newspapers or yellow pages, but why wait for customers to go to you? You need to be going to customers.

That’s where networking comes in handy. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Kym Yancey, former CEO of matchmaker.com and current President of eWomen’s Network. While speaking, Yancey covered the Three T’s of business: Time, Talking, and Touching.

Time: Take time out of your life to really know others. Slow down and take the time to make a real connection with someone. If you are always running around, you will meet everyone, while never really getting to know anyone and make a true connection.

Talking: Talk less and listen more. The more you listen, the more business you will get in return. Yancey claims this is the key to networking success. The trick is to take the focus off of you and refocus the attention onto others. Highly successful people rarely ever talk about themselves, they ask about others and listen intently.

Touching: Touch hearts, minds, and souls. If you have touched someone’s life in a special way, you will be remarkable.

Other tips for networking:

1. Venture into places you can’t imagine yourself in and that’s where opportunity awaits you.

2. Go to networking events to give. You are not giving enough until you give to someone who could never pay you back in a million years. In the beginning, Yancey suggests you should “give to get” which is a start to eventually “give to give to give” with nothing expected in return.

How do you network?