Networking As An Introvert

Ahh networking..being an introvert by nature, I have always hated the traditional "networking" term. Some people love showing up to a networking event not knowing a soul in the room with the goal of getting to know everyone. I am not one of those people. I've always loved the saying, "Introverts start with 5 coins per day to give out with each interaction they have and extroverts start with 0 coins and try to accumulate as many as they can."

Over the past couple of years, I have realized that you are only 1 conversation, 1 interaction, 1 decision, 1 thought, etc from changing your entire life. I have had to reshape my perspective around the term "networking" to less fear based and more growth based. I try to go into a networking event with a couple goals in mind.

1st: To be genuinely curious about other people's stories. Where are they from, what do they do for work, what do they do for fun, etc. 

2nd: To see if there is anything I can do to help them. While the majority of networking events I attend are real estate investing related and with being a realtor, I can throw out my thoughts on questions they have or even recommend contractors/vendors in the area if they are needing help with things around the house or at an investment property.

Trying to remember those two things when attending a networking event, at least for me, has helped. It was real challenge for me to attend networking events, but my comfortability has definitely increase as I have shifted my mindset and just attended them consistently over the past couple of years.