Friday, July 18, 2008

Networking Makes the World Small

I had the unexpected pleasure this week of encountering several women who are part of my social network in a far away place, Dallas, Texas.

Imagine the feeling of seeing someone you’ve been watching online, read their articles and regularly read their newsletter…but have never met in person.

I found myself this past week, walking through the eWomen Network tradeshow when I caught a glimpse of a familiar profile. You should know I came to this event knowing only one person, my mother. (But that is another story.) Surprised to find someone I might know, I touched the woman’s arm to get a better look and discovered Nancy Juetten of
Main Street Media Savvy from Seattle in her signature blue dress.

Again, I had never met her in person, only seen her online. Based on the content of her website, articles on
Biznik and e-newsletter, I refer clients to her fairly regularly so you can imagine my surprise to meeting her in person.

Later that weekend, I found Nancy in a huddle with some women from Seattle and met Marcia Brixey, author of
The Money Therapist and Lori Richardson of Score More Sales. Again, both only online acquaintances, we had a chance throughout the weekend to connect and learn more about each others goals and specialty.

After this experience, I am challenged to pick up the phone and call those I follow online. Better yet, if they are within proximity, I will travel to where they are. I am confident the alliances we began this weekend through the extended personal connection will pay off for all.

The small world phenomenon is rampant in the Portland Metro area leading me to state my belief that in this town there are only three degrees of separation rather than six but this is my first out of state scenario.

What about you? Have you experienced the small world outcome of great networking? Tell us more!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kathie,

It was great to meet you in Dallas, and I am convinced in the value of a signature look, now more than ever. I linked to your blog post from mine, and I hope many of my readers come to value your contributions to the world.

Lori Richardson - Score More Sales said...

Kathie,
It was great to meet you too! In fact, speaking of "three degrees" of seperation, i think we both concluded that we HAD briefly met at an event before, or at least I had seen you at one.

Always great to make a strong connection in Portland. We will definately build on this fortuitous meeting.

Lori Richardson
Score More Sales & Score More Fundraising
Seattle