Want to Stand Out? Here’s how it’s Done
You know how fast a bad reputation spreads, right? Not even reputations either; just the word on what kind of person you are spreads quickly. Like the time you threw up in middle school, and you had the nickname Pukey McGee for the next two years… yeah, that kind of word about who you are.
Most of the time word spreads quickly about something dumb or mean that you have done. If you’re in business, it can be a killer. Bad customer service? Everyone’s talking about it. Poor product? Your sales drop. You smell like beef and cheese? Everyone knows you’re not the real Santa.
Fortunately, there’s a way to tip the scales in your favor.
The Prerequisites for Being a Stellar Networker
Now, before I divulge the ultimate secret, there are a few things that you have to have under your belt before we can begin.
You cannot have a bad reputation already.
Sorry, this isn’t a magical cure that will fix what you have already messed up. In order to remedy that, you might need to take a good hard look at who you are as a person and ask if you’re in the right industry.
The other prerequisite is that you have to be attending networking events regularly, and you have to attend enough of them that the people at one event are at least a little bit of a different crowd than the people who will show up at another event. If it’s just the same 7 people over and over, well, sorry you need to expand.
Okay, now on to the juicy details on how to rock it.
To Make Sure You Stand Out, You Have to…
Talk about other people.
We all love to gossip; even those who claim they don’t gossip love to listen in and spread gossip around. It’s super easy to talk about how the leader of that one group is an idiot, and the guy over there has a drinking problem. But ultimately, that’s just going to circle back around to you and make you out to be the bad person. You’re the one that silently (or not so silently) judges everyone.
Instead, stop talking bad behind peoples’ backs; start talking good behind peoples’ backs.
- When someone isn’t around, talk about how fun they are.
- When someone isn’t around, mention how smart they are.
- When someone isn’t around, explain how talented they are.
You can see how this won’t work if you don’t have multiple groups with different crowds. At one group, you talk about people from the other group. Then, when those people inevitably bump into each other, they talk about how you built them up and complimented them when they weren’t around.
Now you look good in their eyes and more and more people are going to want to spend time with you so they can be the recipient of compliments for other people.
TEDxBillings is where you can Meet Awesome People
Now, if all you do is compliment people, but otherwise you’re a terrible human being, well, this won’t work for long. But if you’re awesome, then we want to get to know you so we have something to brag to other people about.
And that means joining the community at TEDx Billings. How do you join? I’m glad you asked.
You can join the Facebook Page so you get all the announcements right away.
You can shout from the rooftops that you’re a TEDxBillings supporter.
We highly recommend doing both.
