If it’s a people business, you’ll need to get to know more people and it is here that the real networking comes in. Making yourself known and likeable to the musical community should become a priority. Join the local branch of your trade association. In the U.K. there are the Music Producer’s Guild and the Association of Professional Recording Services, to name two we’ll explore later in some detail in the book. Organizations such as these frequently hold lectures and events to which you can go along and rub shoulders with your kind. For U.S. based associations, see Appendix F-1, The Tape Store.
Networking is not simply about being in the right place at the right time. As with any industry, you need to gain the confidence to make an impression, which will start with a few introductions where you’ll need to have your elevator pitch—something that quickly describes what you do and who you do it for. It’s a crude business term, usually reserved for those people outside of your indus- try. Nevertheless, you may choose to prepare one for your industry. Keep it short and make sure you have a business card to hand if you want them to remember you. As we’ll cover in the next section, it’s important to get your brand right and to reflect the work you do.
If networking in person is not something that comes naturally, take some tips from Will Kintish (see sidebar) who knows a thing or two about the art! In his book I Hate Networking (2006, JAM Publications), Kintish explores the fears and countless solutions to getting through the barriers of networking in business.
WIll kIntISh on netWorkIng
don’t network? don’t succeed!The word network often strikes fear and dread into people or they immediately have strong negative thoughts about it. Manipulative, scheming, selling are just three words associated with this all-important activity. The irony is we all network from the time we start to talk. In my view, it is simply building relationships, either new ones or reinforcing existing ones. “I’m going networking once this week” implies you’re going to spend the rest of the week sitting in a darkened room with no access to the outside world. It’s just communicating, be it face-to face, on the phone, or more and more through the computer. Social networking or social media (the phrases can be interchanged) is becoming the dominant method of communication. As someone who acknowledges he is a little quaint and old-fashioned, I fear for the future of interpersonal communication. There can never be a substitute for attending gigs or industry events, no replacement for the smile, the eye contact, and the reading of the body language.
Building relationships
The three key steps to building new relationships are
1. Get to know more people by attending more gigs and events. 2. Start to get them to like you and build rapport and affinity
3. Continue past Step 2 and build trust to create long-term meaningful, sustainable relationships
I believe the reason the word attracts such negative views is because many people simply don’t know how to do it effectively and, more importantly, ethically. This can result in rude and discourteous behavior which includes people being too pushy or, if they realize you’re not the person useful to them, they begin to look around the room or over your shoulder.
Remember that the type of personality someone has does not prevent them from being genuine or polite. People do have a choice.
Why attend gigs and industry events? You go to
n Raise your own profile n Gain useful information n Understand your marketplace
n Meet people who may one day collaborate with or work for you n Meet key industry people and decision makers
n Get to know what others do
n Get others to know what you do and offer n Help others with their musical challenges
This list is not exhaustive. Consider for a moment all the potential opportunities you will miss if you don’t go. I say regularly, “If you don’t go, you’ll never know.”
fears and concerns
Apart from the negative press networking has created, we all have the basic primeval fears when it comes to walking into a room full of strangers.
1. Fear of failure 2. Fear of the unknown 3. Fear of rejection
Let me share with you some tips and ideas to help you overcome those fears which should then give you more confidence to attend more events.
fear of failure. You won’t fail when you spend time asking good questions, listening carefully, and following up in a professional manner when an opportunity arises. When you focus on the other person and show interest, people start to like you quickly. You need to be genuinely interested and when the conversation comes to an end, move on in a polite manner. When you hear something you don’t understand, ask them to explain in more detail what they mean. Many people love talking about themselves and showing they know something you don’t. This will endear you to them. You only fail when you don’t turn up, you do too much talking, you are impolite or, in my view worst of all, don’t follow up when you think you could move the relationship to its next stage. When you ask permission to contact someone after an event and they say ‘yes,’ no one can accuse you of pestering or annoying them.
fear of the unknown. Walking into a room where you have never been before and knowing no one is scary. Even I hate walking into a room full of strangers so I always avoid it. How? Simply by planning my day carefully and arriving early. I have presented for a decade asking tens of thousands how they feel and I can confidently say 98+% of people have similar fears.
Every room you have ever been in and every event you attend in the future is always formatted in exactly the same way. There will never be more than six formats. There is the single person standing against the wall. Couples stand in open and closed formats as do trios. Then there are the scary groups of four or more. My advice is to avoid the closed-formatted groups unless you know someone in there. Approach singles or open groups with a smile, good eye contact with a phrase like “Please may I join you?” or “Please may I introduce myself?”
fear of rejection. Most people won’t make that first move for fear of rejection. Fear, for me, is an acronym; it stands for False Expectations Appearing Real. We walk into that room full of negatives. “No one will talk to me,” “I am not going to be interesting,” “What if I’m judged as uncool and found wanting?” Most people are friendly and polite so leave those words behind when you arrive.
All I say is believe in yourself, walk in and tell yourself you are a nice person and remember most other people are nervous. If it is an industry event they want to meet you, just like you want to meet them. The chances are they will be feeling the same kind of insecurities that you are, even if they are more experienced or further up the professional ladder.
Warning. You will meet the rare lesser-spotted R.I.P. This is the Rude Ignorant Pig who will reject you, walk off, or just ignore you. Give them short thrift when you encounter that behavior and move on.
Will Kintish is a leading UK authority on effective and confident networking both offline and online. His company runs workshops on both face-to-face networking and LinkedIn. He has become a leading expert in getting great value from LinkedIn and regularly runs web-based seminars on all its aspects. Visit www.linkedintraining.co.uk and www.kintish.co.uk for further free and valuable information on all aspects of networking. or call him on +44 (0) 161 773 3727.