The Importance of Being YOU

When thinking about networking, it’s left me thinking about some of the other things I’ve heard from my clients, which is feeling inauthentic during the networking process.

I hear them - when you’re selling yourself, it can feel artificial and forced at times!

However, I like to remind them that the most important thing when networking, is being yourself. You don’t need to have the perfect sales pitch, know exactly what to say, or have the exact words to please everyone you’re interacting with. You just need to be yourself.

When you’re networking, you can think of yourself as the product - but I urge you not to think of it as selling yourself; it’s more so showing what you can do and how you can bring value to things. And you cannot show people what you can do, or where you value lies, without being your true self.

I know it can be difficult at times - I still struggle with it, especially here on LinkedIn, because I don’t want to be playing a character or projecting an image. I want to be me.

I promise the effort of being true to yourself is worth it.

I promise that networking will get easier over time.

I promise you’ll find value in trying.

You have so much to offer the world - don’t be afraid to go show it off.

Tell me in the comments - do you see the power in networking?