‘Networking is exhausting’ was the first draft title when I contemplated blogging about networking a year or so ago. True, that is not as gripping a title as the early unofficial title of Penny Power’s advisory book ‘Business Is Personal’, namely ‘Business is a Mindf**k’. Nevertheless, networking can often be exhausting, but unfortunately for many people, and especially in business, it is also essential. I am writing this about a half hour before my next networking event, the ‘Friday Wind Down’. It is a good and worthy event. but what with the day I have had and the looming ‘to do’ list, it might as well be called the ‘Friday Wind Up’.
Looking back, I went into business in 2010, after my Civil Service career came to an abrupt end when the coalition decided what it really didn’t need was Civil Servants. I realised the importance of networking immediately, and went to a gathering or two, steeled myself to talk about myself in front of perfect strangers in 60-second showcases, and got on with it. It didn’t feel great. The prevailing atmosphere was that of a group of suited sharks circling to find another suited shark they could take advantage of. Then, when another PR treated me with what can only be described as hostile contempt (some PR’s can be like that to their fellows), I decided to build my business on reputation and personal engagement, without any of that nasty networking stuff.
I did OK, and in some respects had some stand out moments, and did some work that made a real difference to clients who found themselves in publications or talked about through channels they would never get into. But it was hard, it was lonely, and growing was slow. The slowness was ironic as in an early networking meeting I had held up a Spitfire cannon shell circa 1939 and declared my PR could be as effective as that object, which indeed could be true, however boastful it seems. The things you say to get attention. I think that is what rubbed Mr fellow-PR man up the wrong way. Memorabilia envy at it’s worst.
Wind forward to 2019 (when I decided in 2010 not to network, I really meant it), and I decided to have another go. That has led to a lot of things, including meeting Penny Power and other remarkable people, and I will be chronicling more past and present networking stories in this series.
Darren Weale
October 2020
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