Best networking advice: it's just having a chat – Lianre Robinson
Everyone tells you networking is "just having a chat". So why can't you make yourself do it?
You've been told to stop overthinking it. It's just a conversation. Just be yourself. Just go and say hello. You know all of that – and you're still stood near the door with your drink, doing maths about when it's acceptable to leave. If that's you, you're in the right place. At MAD//Fest I asked Lianre Robinson – CEO of The Marketing Academy Foundation, and about as credible on this as it gets – for her best networking advice. Her answer was the reframe, and it's a good one. What happens next, when you're actually in the room, is the reason this series exists.
"We separate it and think it's some kind of serious thing. Actually it's just about having a connection, having a chat with someone, finding common ground – all the things that we do every day."
Lianre's reframe is the right one: drop the word networking, walk in curious, assume there are good people in the room you haven't met yet. She tells the young people she works with at the Foundation the same thing – go in open-minded, don't make it transactional, and let the conversations lead where they lead.
The people who are great at networking make it sound easy: just be generous, just have a chat. If you're brilliant at your job and still freeze before hello, "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Nobody who freezes in a doorway is doing it because they hadn't considered that a conversation is a conversation. Understanding the reframe isn’t the block. In the beginning the thing that gets in the way isn’t your ability to rationalise (or not).
Instead, I like to think of it as getting in the reps. You practice enough times, in a safe space, so that when the pressure is on (so to speak) you no longer worry about doing it in a loud room, on a Tuesday evening.
You don't fix this fear with “just” a better explanation. You fix it with reps, on purpose, somewhere built for it safe practice.
Lianre Robinson is CEO of The Marketing Academy Foundation – the charity helping talented young people who might not otherwise get a foot in the door build careers in marketing. You can learn more about the important work they do at https://www.tma-foundation.co.uk/.
Full transcript of Video 2 – Interview with Lianre Robinson · CEO · The Marketing Academy Foundation
Susi: What’s your name and what you do?
Lianre: My name's Lianre Robinson. I'm the CEO of the Marketing Academy Foundation.
Susi: What's the best bit of networking advice you've ever received?
Lianre: Thinking about it as not doing networking – thinking about entering the room, meeting people, just having a chat, and more in line with how we are in the real world. We kind of separate it and think it's some kind of serious thing, and that we have to approach them in a particular way. Actually, it's just about having a connection, having a chat with someone, finding common ground – all the things that we do every day. That's how I kind of approach networking, and think, "Oh, there's probably some really cool people in this room that I haven't met yet."
Susi: I love that, that's so nice. Why is it important to get good at networking?
Lianre: What I actually say to a lot of the young people in the Foundation is that it's more about just creating opportunities for yourself, and finding ways to connect with people that don't immediately have to feel very transactional. Creating opportunities. You never know who you might meet and where those conversations might go. It might just be that you leave with something interesting and insightful and funny, or whatever it might be. Those conversations, those connections, might lead into your next job or your next big opportunity. You never know – so just go in really open-minded and keep creating more opportunities for yourself through networking.