BY SUSAN ELDRIDGE
Effective networking is an opportunity to create public interest in your work, connect with your audience, expand your community and develop high quality relationships.
Most importantly, networking is about sharing, not getting.
Developing good personal connections creates high quality, long lasting relationships to support your career. Using networking as an opportunity to share your life and career journey takes the pressure off the expectation of specific income or employment. In addition to the obvious places like post-concert receptions, networking can happen any time you meet interesting people – whose lives are of interest to you. Your network can comprise supportive family, friends and colleagues from a wide range of professions.
It takes time to develop a network where opportunities and information are shared genuinely with supportive colleagues; and where you are known as a trusted member of that community. Here are six tips on how to get there.
1. Be yourself
It is important to be yourself to develop long lasting, meaningful connections. Not all musicians are outrageous extroverts, many are shy and introverted and find it challenging to speak about themselves with confidence. A helpful strategy to support confidence when speaking about yourself is to spend time developing a well-crafted bio or performer statement. Taking time and energy to think and write about yourself will make it easier to articulate what makes you unique and memorable. This can give you the confidence to be positive and genuine when meeting new people. Speaking consistently with passion and enthusiasm will inspire others to care about you and your work.
2. Quality not quantity
The best way to make genuine connections is to focus on developing relationships with people you genuinely like and want to stay in touch with. The digital revolution and social media have made everyone on the planet a click away, but it is impossible to develop useful and valuable relationship with dozens of hundreds of followers. Concentrate your time and energy on a select group of individuals who have the time and interest to support you through your career journey. Once you have made a connection, follow up straight away. If that person has invited you to meet or send a sample of your work, do it right away.
3. Mentors
Mentorship is a mutually beneficial relationship which involves a more experienced person helping a less experienced person to achieve their goals. Consider having mentors for the different aspects of your life and career and value the individuals who choose to take on this role in your life.
4. Speaking about yourself
Traditionally, musicians have expected to let the music speak for itself, but increasingly we are required to speak about the value of our work to audiences, collaborators and supporters. Public speaking allows you to create compelling stories about yourself and your work and is a skill that is important in to developing your network and achieving career goals.
We often think of public speaking in narrow terms, such as standing in front of a large audience or delivering a presentation. But public speaking is about effective communication. Effective communication engages your listener, delivers a clear message and makes a persuasive call to action.
Musicians communicate complex emotions and ideas without the use of words in performance and just as we pay close attention to musical dynamics, phrasings and gestures, we can use the many nuances and colours of language to great effect.
The challenge is to find an approach that fits your personality and strengths. We flagged the issue of introverts earlier – finding a speaking style that is comfortable for introverts and practising speaking with trusted colleagues in a safe environment is particularly important.
5. Small talk
Small talk is a common segue into creating new and valuable relationships with potential supporters. It allows you to get a sense of each other while building a connection and smoothing the initial uneasiness of meeting for the first time.
Make it your goal to connect rather than impress and find out about the other person. Practice the art of small talk as this will give you a better feel for the rhythms and niceties. Make your opening remarks start with the word ‘you’, let the other person finish, and keep the conservation pleasant. If you find it hard speaking off the cuff about yourself and your work, write down common points that you might use and have these on hand when practising small talk.
6. Perfect posture
Good posture can improve your image, diction and delivery. Stand up straight and tall with your shoulders back and your hands in front of you or at your sides and keep eye contact. Breathe deeply and experiment with different paces of speaking as you may find you feel more comfortable and are better understood when speaking slower.
Effective networking is a valuable and rewarding long-term investment throughout your career.
Get Busy Now
5 Minutes: Make small talk every time you purchase something today. The weather is always a reliable starting topic or compliment the other person on something they are wearing.
30 Minutes: Choose two sentences from you bio, refine the text to be spoken aloud and practice presenting these words in front of a mirror.
1 Hour: Start a mailing list for a newsletter or updates about your career. List the names and contact details of all the people you connect with in an Excel spreadsheet then next time you are performing, send them a personal invitation.
For more from Susan, visit her website at www.notablevalues.com. Check out industry advice in IgniteLab events held by the University of Melbourne here.
Image of Susan supplied.
Main image US Mission by Eric Bridiers via Flickr CC2.0.
