So a week ago the masters class had a week long workshop on entrepreneurship held by Chris Murphy and Debbie Fraiser, the idea behind the weeklong course was to introduce us to a more business orientated approach to our work.
One step towards monetary success is to take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses.
One glaring weakness I have that I acknowledge fully is my unwillingness to engage in social situations.
Generally in bars where most networking seems to take place. The reason for this is largely fear based, what to say etc.
My answer to this has been to download the audiobook of Dale Carnagie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. Its really helpful and one of the main lessons in the book is that ultimately people are self absorbed and if you can get people talking about what interests them most then you build a strong foundation for conversation. Also REMEMBER peoples names!!! Something I am terrible at, one tip for doing this is once you hear their name use it in conversation with them, they wont mind or find it strange in fact people love to hear their own names. find out their name and use it in conversation easily this has the effect of making them feel that you know them and they feel comfortable.
Smile more and say hello was another one probably an obvious one yet I tried smiling and saying hello at everyone on the way to the shop the other day and realized how little people actually do it i also realized that it has a positive effect not only spreading a little love but also if you make it a practice, training yourself to step out of your comfort values.
Having listened to the audiobook several times I chose to test my new found skills in a couple of ways.
The first was a networking event at the W5 in the Odyssey. there was a visual effects exhibition on with work from Ireland’s growing film industry some heads from the industry were there speaking at a conference. I went along to the talk asked the second year masters students I went with questions about who was who, listened to people introduce themselves and got a feel for who would be best to approach at the end. I heard an audience member introduce himself as someone involved in health research and that he was involved in a crossover of health and creative industries. I approached him afterwards and spoke of what side of things he was interested in etc told him what idid offered my services etc it was only when we were swapping cards that I realized my card gives one web address for some paintings and drawings, for my other 3D work and my blog twitter etc I would have to explain verbally how he could find them which no doubt he will forget. basically my web presence is fractured and needs to be unified and my new cards need to clearly express that.
whats next?
More networking
Build website
Business cards
Offset Dublin?
also currently reading Twitter Marketing For Dummies
