This month's guest was Mike Pagan. Mike is a consultant and speaker. it gets difficult to tell whether people are consultants who speak to get business or speakers who consult to sustain business legitimacy. All I can tell you about Mike is that he's a good speaker - natural, funny, down-to-earth and only very slightly dodgy in his sense of humour.
Mike's topic was effective business networking. Useful for a networking event. I offered to do this topic for them a few years back - not being famous enough naturally gets in the way there! Mike told us about:
- Networking Jack Russells - the people you can't shake off once they've latched on to you. Mike's advice? "I'm sorry, my head's about to explode. Nice to meet you, bye!"
- Moodhoovers - (It's all posh in Mike's house, they call them "Dysons") people whose own attitude drains the energy out of everyone around them
- Business Card Croupiers - the people who start to sell to you before you've even finished the introductory handshake! Mike's advice - one pocket for the cards of people you want to keep in touch with, another for the cards that are going in the bin as soon as you get back to the office.
And this:
"The biggest error I made when I set up my business was when I believed I could do it on my own."
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The event itself was combined with the summer barbecue of The Cardiff Club, so half the audience spent the evening somewhat bemused that their social evening included a speaker telling them how to network for their businesses. the other half spent the evening bemused that their networking function included a hundred people who were not involved or interested in business! Having said that, I made at least one networking contact with someone who was only there for the social stuff.
It's true what they say - opportunities can crop up anywhere as long as you're looking for them.
All the best,
Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd
http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com
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