Networking Through Introductions
The Question To Ask: “Who do you know that you think I should know, and would you introduce me?”
My spectrum of relationships is extraordinarily wide. Far more than anyone that I know. It covers race, economic class, education levels, spirituality, geographic location, types of work, and a range of personal characteristics that define people in ways that I have a difficult time grasping.
In the early 1980s, I served a large urban church as their community minister. I met all sorts of people from global corporate executives, professional sports teams owners, alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless people, and committed community development citizens.
Over the years, I’ve lived in a rural Southwest farm country, an Appalachian mountain community, a Southern middle-class family neighborhood, and in one of the premier resort communities in the country. I am now in an urban neighborhood that is gentrifying.
My podcast, The Eddy Network Podcast, has opened up opportunities for me to meet people. In two and a half years, I have interviewed over 200 people from 27 countries worldwide. This selection of humanity shares a lot more in common than the people that I have lived near over the past fifty years. The differences are real and fascinating.
The secret to meeting all these people is the simple idea of “networking through introductions.” I’ve concluded that most people are not taking time to introduce people to other people.
How do I know this? By the low number of people who reach out to me wanting to connect based on someone’s recommendation that we should meet.
People settle for what they believe is sufficient for whatever is important to them. We are not talking about going the extra mile or ascending to a new level of performance. They settle for knowing people who are just like them, and so reinforce the same ideas and practices that their circle of friends and colleagues do.
I suggest that this is a risky pattern of behavior because real progress and advancement comes through the people you know who demonstrate how new ideas matter.
The key to these relationships comes from practicing the skills of networking through introductions.
In the sections below the paywall, I’m going to show how to develop the skill, discipline, and habit of networking through introductions.
This post, like all Circle of Impact posts going forward, will be designed to train and equip people to perform at a higher level of impact. It is a small investment for what could be a significant return.