Use These 6 Secret Networking Strategies at Events & Conferences to Be Remembered

Taylor shares her most effective in-person networking strategies, including some not so popular but highly effective tips on WHO to approach in the room (and it's not who you think).

From wearing bright colors to starting conversations with compliments, Taylor provides actionable advice to help listeners navigate networking events successfully. She also discusses the significance of asking engaging questions, maximizing networking ROI, and utilizing digital connections over traditional business cards. The episode concludes with an invitation to the Power Table Live conference, encouraging listeners to apply these strategies for better networking outcomes.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi friends, welcome back to the Power Table podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Smith, and today I'm excited to share with you what actually works for me when it comes to in-person networking. These are my smart, kind of secret, often unspoken networking strategies that have done really well for me in the past. And it's something that I think is glossed over. And we assume everyone knows how to network effectively and easily. And it's not always that easy, right? It's a little uncomfortable and a little nerve-wracking to sometimes put yourself in a room where you don't know anyone, or you feel like you aren't as advanced as other people, or it's just a new environment. So hopefully these tips are gonna help you have some tools so that you feel prepared going into a new environment or maybe a more advanced room for the first time. And in this episode, I'm not gonna tell you hand out your business card. Actually, I don't even carry business cards. This is instead the stuff that will actually help you show up with confidence, start real conversations, make meaningful connections, and open the doors for those relationships to develop. So whether you are headed to your very first networking event ever, or you are headed to your third year returning to the Power Table Live conference, spoiler alert if you haven't grabbed your tickets yet, this is your reminder to do that now. These networking tips are going to be the reason people remember your name. You get invited to come on podcasts, you get invited to teach in other people's communities, you have people become clients after meeting you in the room. This is the stuff that works for me. So let's get started. The first one is wear a bright color so people approach you. I see people make the mistake often of wearing dark, muted colors. Black, gray, navy blue. Navy's maybe okay. We won't hate on navy entirely. But let's, I'm gonna go after black and gray with my knives out. These are colors that generally, if you were in a corporate setting, would be appropriate. However, they don't do you any favors in the entrepreneur world. This is actually psychologically proven. People make 60 to 90% of their first impression about you based on color. And it's also been proven that if you wear a warm, bright color such as pink, red, or orange, or a brighter shade of a color such as bright blue, green, or purple, you appear more energetic, more open, and more approachable. This is proven by studies over and over and over again. And yet, so often when I go to networking events, I usually wear a bright pink, orange, yellow, something like that. I am like the only one in a sea of neutrals. It makes you easy for people to spot and engage. And in particular, they say that pink and red, people are 70% more likely to approach you. So if you are an introvert in particular, going up to people is a little bit uncomfortable. Wear a bright color, such as pink and orange, because more people will approach you as opposed to you having to approach everyone. This makes you really easy for people to connect with and notice. And the whole point of going to networking events is to make connections. So go out there and get noticed. Wear that bright color. I promise you, you try this one time, it will change things around for you. It's such a simple tip, and not enough people do it. And they're staying in those dark colors that blend in. And frankly, people's eyes, they're overstimulated at an event, they will glaze right over you. The second one, and this one I've talked about before, but it is easy for anyone, and it's just a good reminder. When you open a conversation with someone, especially if it's one-to-one, not necessarily if you're jumping into a group, but if you're talking to someone one-to-one, start with a compliment and a smile. I loved your question earlier that you asked the speaker. It was great. Or hey, this dress that you have, absolutely iconic. I love it. It's so pretty on you. People instantly relax when you lead with a little bit of warmth and a compliment, and it's going to make you relax too. So it's a great way to open up a conversation. People are also more likely to remember you. That is also scientifically proven if you complimented them. Now, my third tip, and this is one I think that I have not heard very often. And some of you are going to be wildly uncomfortable when you hear this. It comes down to who you approach and who you decide to talk to because you want to actually maximize your ROI and your time there. You want to get good results from the networking events that you go to because the time you spend networking is time you're not serving clients, not creating content, not marketing, not upskilling. So it needs to pay off for you. So who do you actually approach in the room? A lot of introverts or people who are uncomfortable will default to approaching and talking to other people they see standing alone. And this might be your biggest mistake in the whole networking event. Now let me tell you why. And I say this with as much love and intention and care as I possibly can, but wallflowers are very rarely the best connections for you to make in the room. They're very rarely the people who have accolades, experience, resources, connections for you. They're very rarely the people who are there to hire with intention who might want to hire you. They're very rarely the event host or the podcast host who might want to have you on their podcast. Usually the person standing alone is a person who is unprepared or is there without a goal. And it is also okay to go talk to them. It's okay to see someone, notice someone, be kind, go introduce yourself. It's totally okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And I definitely still do that. However, if we're talking about ROI, that person is actually the one least likely to generate a good result for you or to become a good connection for you. And instead, you want to look for the people in small groups, the people who are talking to others. Look for a circle you can join and just walk up to people. You know, I feel like it's best when you try to aim for a group of like two to four. Um, but join in with a simple like, hey guys, mind if I jump in? Hi, I'm Taylor. It's so great to meet all of you. If people are already in conversation, they're actively there to get results just like you. The person who's standing in the corner, standing against the wall, has their phone in their hand, they're not actively working to make connections. And that should be a red flag for you. And it's also encouragement for you. If you heard this and you're like, oh man, I didn't even realize that's why people weren't approaching me is because I was giving off I'm not serious energy. Here you go. This is your sign. Actively, if you're gonna attend an event, actively talk to people. There should not be a point more than five minutes, more than three minutes long if you're at a networking event where you are standing by yourself. You should never let that be the case because that's just wasting your time. And you're not, I think, listening to this podcast to waste your time. And I don't think you would go to a networking event to waste your time. So if you want the best results out of a room, that's my tip that nobody really shares, but don't approach the wallflowers and go for the people who are in the middle of the room. Go for the people who are already talking to other people. Okay, number four, ask really good questions. Don't just ask people what they do. Instead, try to frame the question of like, what are you really excited about right now? Or what's been the best part of this event for you so far? Um, try to approach it with a little bit more curiosity and less basic. Tell me about your business. What do you do? You can ask those questions, but go beyond those, right? One of my favorite ones is just the goal-oriented. What are you working on right now? What are you excited about? And then number five and number six are related, but um, I don't hand out business cards and I don't ask for business cards. People will ask me for one and I don't give it to them. They're just gonna throw it away. It's kind of pointless. And instead, I'll say, hey, I don't have a business card. I do have blanks, I have a digital one, but also what's your social media profile? So they'll tell me what their social media is, their Instagram or LinkedIn. I'll look it up, follow, and screenshot it. So then I know who to follow up later because I've got all the screenshots of people I connected with. And they're when they get home and they open up their Instagram or LinkedIn, they're gonna see that I followed them. That is so much more valuable to me, a follow and a digital presence than that business card, they're gonna lose. Then the last tip, and I don't always do this 100% of the time, but I do often try to do it, is take pictures with the people that you meet. This is something I see more and more. I love when people do this. They'll like be like, hey, can I grab a quick selfie really quick, quick picture with you? And then it's great if you want to post and tag them, like, hey, met this amazing connection, got to hear about her business. That was so cool. But even if you don't post publicly, DM that selfie to the person that you met so that they have a picture of you and they remember you. This is good for their memory, it's good for your memory. And then you can actually like say, hey, here's our picture. It was so great to meet you today. Love chatting with you. That's a great way to open the door for more conversation in the future. Wow. Okay, I just crammed a lot into 10 minutes and I got right to the juicy stuff. I hope you guys enjoyed that. The key takeaway from this episode is that networking can be done really well if you have a strategy in place. You leave with energy, you're there to make connections rather than sell and really get to know people. But there are some strong ways that you can get more out of your networking. I would encourage you to try at least two of these at your next event and watch how much more connected you feel and how much more you feel like the event generated a good ROI for you, whether that was clients, collaborators, or new opportunities. And if you haven't grabbed your ticket to Power Table Live, April 22nd, 23rd in Destin, Florida. This is your chance. We don't have that many tickets left. I would love for you to come in the room, join us, use these networking tips to make more connections and surround yourself with a strong, active community of women who get it at the number one visibility and personal branding conference for female founders. You can find the link to grab your ticket to Power Table Live in the show notes of this episode. And with that, my friends, I will talk to you soon.