I never thought I would say this, but I just love to meet new people. Coming from a person who is afraid of people, or least has been for most of her life, this is big! The thought of sitting across a table from someone I hardly know used to terrify me so much. But as I started doing it (action brings clarity!) the terror slowly started to fade, and I realized that it was just another human being sitting across from me over the Starbucks Coffee, who had a story to tell, just like me. Once I took out the “I am a salesperson” bit, I was left with “how can I get to know them, and potentially gain a new friend?” So now when I meet people, business us usually the last thing we talk about, and once you’re friends, it comes so naturally that you should ask how you might be helpful to each other.

Suddenly networking takes on a whole new term, more like friendmaking.