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Since the first of the year, I can honestly say that I’ve been to more networking events than I have in probably the past two years combined. Isn’t that crazy to think that we had an entire year of zero networking and then all of a sudden… BAM! It’s Networking Nancy time. I’m personally fascinated by the idea of networking, and I’ve thought of writing a presentation about it … but that’s for another story. Most recently I’ve found myself falling into the black hole of… Myself: “Hey, how are you?” Person 2: “I’m good. Super busy!” or vice versa and then the conversation fizzling and there really being no depth to the interaction.
I left one event feeling like I had almost wasted my time other than showing face and passing some business cards out. We all know that meetings and events are raging more than ever and that we are all dying for some vacation time.
So, I sat at my desk and typed into google “Positive words to use instead of BUSY”. And plenty of options came up but one response from a huffpost blog published in 2015 had the phrase “Intentionally Full” and I thought, WOW, that hits home! It goes to state “Can being busy mean that your life is rich and varied and you chose to have it that way? A lot of the things we complain about being busy with are things we intentionally and joyfully chose to bring into our lives.” And I’ve never agreed more. Being in our industry and honestly just the south, I feel as though we all have the urge to say “Busy but Blessed” because we are all so grateful. But what if we responded with “Intentionally Full”? There could be plethora of different meanings to this phrase which in turn could lead to a window of opportunity to dive deeper into how someone TRULY is. In return, New-Be Nancy would have something to further a conversation she is eager to have and Wasted Nancy wouldn’t have to drink 3 glasses of wine to get the courage to start a conversation. The next time you are at an event, try intentionally switching up your responses. I think you will be surprised at the different types of conversations you can unearth and true relationships you can form.
Speaking of networking events, shout out to Game Terminal for hosting that exceptional and engaging mix event. The vibe was fun, the games were entertaining, and the drinks were cold! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that many pinball machines in one space before. I’m certainly going back with some friends soon… who wants to join? I hope to see you all at the Cambria Nashville Airport August 17th for “The Power of Showing Up”. This is one of my absolute favorite topics and I’m excited to see Mr. Tom Morrison drop some knowledge!
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