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Welcome to Designer Discussions

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with Jason Maria and Miriam

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. Today we are going to talk

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about the power of networking . Welcome

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to the Designer Discussions podcast

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with Jason Maria

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and Miriam Tune

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in each week , where we talk about

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marketing , pr and business advice

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for design professionals . Talk about marketing , PR and business advice

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for design professionals .

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This is a good topic , miriam , because

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oftentimes , as small business owners , we're

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often in our own

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little world and one of the best

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ways to grow your business

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is to network . You

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hear this a lot , but oftentimes people think that they have to go out to a meeting and meet people

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. We don't have Maria on today , but she had talked about how she's not

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very social , but there

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are ways that you can network without having to

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be out there . One of the ways

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that we all know about is social media . That's

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one of the ways that we all met . Actually

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, we had met on LinkedIn and

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just by having conversations

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and talking we had met

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and then we connected . We saw

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that we had a lot of things in common and then

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from there we have built a business

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relationship . So that's just one

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way to network where you don't have to be out

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there meeting others if you have

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social anxiety , so obviously

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you want to . At the heart of whatever

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it is , you want to be involved in

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your local groups , whether

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that be ASID , whether that be

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NKBA , aia

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, nari , any of

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the organizations that are

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national . They usually have a local chapter

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and all of these

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chapters have either monthly

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meetings , quarterly meetings

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or some type of meetings that you can go

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to and be around like-minded

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people . Oftentimes you'll

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connect with others that you have things

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in common with , and I've

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met others at AIA

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meetings or NKBA meetings

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that we've had things in common and we've actually

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done work together . We've done joint projects

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. From that networking , you

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can also meet at a lot of

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these local or regional

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groups . You'll often have allied

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professions at these meetings as

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well , where , if you listen

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to any of our past episodes about social

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media , you'll hear how we talked

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about if you do like a live

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event or if you do Instagram

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live or whatever , you could tag people . If

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you tag any of the ally

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professions or the vendors that you work with

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and they are either

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on it or they like it , you now open

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yourself up to their audience . That's

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an aspect of networking . So

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networking is just one of those

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aspects that you want to get into

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, especially as a small business owner , because

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business development is a big

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part of growing the business

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and networking is a part of that

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. So we had talked about social media . Networking is a part of that . So we had

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talked about social media . We had talked

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about joining one of your local

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organizations . You can

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also think about networking

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with your immediate audience

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, your family and friends , letting

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them know what you do . Oftentimes

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I'll hear that my uncle

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or my aunt has no idea what I do

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and I'll say

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why do they not know ? Because if they knew

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now , if they meet people that

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may be interested in what you offer

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now , that can help to grow

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your network . So just talking to

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your own family and friends , letting

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them know what you do , how you

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do it , then they're more knowledgeable

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. So if they're out networking or

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if they're out talking to other people

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now , they can refer

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you or reference others to you

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, either as a network , as a client

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or as a as a

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colleague

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. What you do

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is very important , because I

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can't tell you how many times I'm

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at networking events and I'll

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hear people say my brother has

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no idea what I do , my mom has

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no idea what I do , and I'll say why is that

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? Because

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you don't know who they know or who they may come in contact with . And by having them

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know what you do , like I said , it just opens up

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your network . So that's

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just a simple way . Where

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you went to college , that's a simple

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. Oftentimes colleges have networking

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events or if you're

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not living in the same area where

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you went to college . You can get access

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to the directory to see where

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they have local events . So I'm a

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huge Ohio State fan and they are

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always having watch parties . So

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every time I head to a watch party I'm

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meeting new people , even

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though it's not around the business that I

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do , it's around what we all love Ohio

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State football . But in

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that meeting we're talking to

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, and I'm talking to

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, other professionals in other professions

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and we're networking . They're

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learning about what I do , I'm learning about

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what they do . So if I happen to come across

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anybody in that industry , or vice versa

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, it's helping to grow my network

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yeah , I think you covered

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really most

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of the the best ways to network .

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the one I would add is and

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you mentioned a little bit too but go into actual

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events , like for me , whenever I

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go to KBIS or another

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trade show , it's a really

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great way to network with

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other industry professionals , be

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it like in in the construction

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and design industry and , for me , with

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media , because all the media are always

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at the big trade shows . So

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, if you have an audience , if you you

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think about your um target

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audience of of potential

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clients or just people that are important

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um stakeholders in in your

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business , like go and

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attend the events where those people

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are , because there's really nothing

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like networking in

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person . I'm like it's great to

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network on LinkedIn or in Facebook

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groups or wherever

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that may be , but there's really no

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nothing that compares to talking

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to somebody live

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. So I would say , whenever you can

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, you know , try to it's

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it's we're not always motivated to

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do that Um , I think a lot of

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people are not . You know , it's like Jason's

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, like the very outgoing type

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you know , maria is

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the more um less

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likely to put ourself out there . I'm somewhere

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in the middle , you know . So I kind of have to make

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myself do these things , but then when

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I'm there I really enjoy it . So I

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really try to do that as

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much as I can . So I'd definitely say

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live events , don't

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neglect those .

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Miriam just said that I'm more outgoing

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. Honestly , if you knew me in high school , I would not

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have been . I would classify myself

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more of an introvert . Extrovert

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and there's actually a term for

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this Ambivert , ambivert

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, that's what it was , yeah , so where you're

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an introvert at heart , but when you're around

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others or you're more of an extrovert

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and , honestly , that happened because I

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am a business owner and it's

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just a a part of . If you want to grow

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your business , you have to . It's just an aspect

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of networking , so that's how

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that grew out of that . One

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of the things I want to touch on as as

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we end this is that at any

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networking event whether you're

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at a live event , whether you're

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on social media , whether , I had

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said earlier , talking to family or friends

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, you're at one of your college events

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or whatever , whatever it is however

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, you're networking make sure you

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follow up . That's vital because

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you're going to meet a lot of people just

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in life , just by networking

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, just in general . Anyone

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that's interested or has

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interest in what you have to offer

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, interest in what you said , or anybody

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that was referred to you make sure

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you follow up with them . We

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deal with a lot of the clients we

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work with on the marketing side , where

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a lot of deals are lost

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, are on the follow up . So

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making sure you follow up with them

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, whether it's through email , whether it's through

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call , whether it's through X message , however

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it may be , following up is one

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of the best ways that you can

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make sure that connection lasts

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and it turns into a professional

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connection . Whether it turns into a client , whether

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it converts , following up is

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vital . Those are just a

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few things we want to talk about in terms

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of networking , and I wanted to address

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this topic because , as a small business

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owner , like I said , networking

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is vital for you to grow

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, whether it's locally

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, regionally or nationally . Networking

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should be an aspect of what you do

9:06

to grow your business . This is

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just one of the things we want to talk about today

9:10

and we hope to hear and see you all

9:13

in two weeks on Designer Discussions .

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