Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to aim to leave any gathering as
Speaker 1: a smarter person. This mindset is far more helpful than
Speaker 1: aiming to leave a certain impression or aiming to accomplish
Speaker 1: a particular networking goal. It is absolutely doable and can
Speaker 1: change the entire experience of an event. Today's tip, like
Speaker 1: a few we covered a few weeks ago, comes from
Speaker 1: Amantha Ember's new book time Wise. This book covers strategies
Speaker 1: from various experts and successful people on how they work
Speaker 1: well and create more time for fun. One of these
Speaker 1: tips is labeled stop trying to be the smartest person
Speaker 1: in the room. Now, you personally might not be going
Speaker 1: into any gathering bragging about yourself as the smartest person
Speaker 1: in the room, but I would say that most of
Speaker 1: us don't want to appear dumb, and that mindset affects
Speaker 1: how we act. Amantha interviewed an entrepreneur named Scien Tad
Speaker 1: who started a very successful company, but found herself deferring
Speaker 1: to people who would tell her various things because she
Speaker 1: assumed they knew better and she didn't know as much,
Speaker 1: and she didn't want to be found out as not
Speaker 1: knowing things. Needless to say, this didn't always work well,
Speaker 1: as people made bad decisions that she could have redirected
Speaker 1: if she'd spent some time thinking about it and asking
Speaker 1: better questions. Tad said she realized that she worried about
Speaker 1: asking questions that might make her seem stupid. I needed
Speaker 1: to shift my thinking from wanting to seem like the
Speaker 1: smartest person in the room to wanting to leave the
Speaker 1: room being the smartest person. And it meant that I
Speaker 1: needed to ask questions constantly, and I needed to not
Speaker 1: care whether it made me look like an idiot, even
Speaker 1: in stakes where we don't need to ask important business
Speaker 1: defining questions. I think this mindset of aiming to leave
Speaker 1: a gathering smarter than when you went in is important
Speaker 1: if you are going to a networking event, for instance,
Speaker 1: Rather than worrying about whether everyone thinks you are accomplished
Speaker 1: and smart, go in with the goal to learn something,
Speaker 1: figure out how someone else's business works, be introduced to
Speaker 1: a new topic, learn about a book you should read
Speaker 1: or a podcast you should listen to. Let people refer
Speaker 1: you to others who know a lot about something that
Speaker 1: you want to know more about. The upside of going
Speaker 1: in with this goal is that it is incredibly doable.
Speaker 1: We can always learn something if nothing else. You can
Speaker 1: leave a gathering with a restaurant recommendation and thus be
Speaker 1: smarter about the local food scene. But if you go
Speaker 1: in hoping to learn more professionally, people will want to
Speaker 1: share knowledge with you. They will want to introduce people
Speaker 1: in ideas to you. Whereas when you go in with
Speaker 1: the goal of making people think certain things about you,
Speaker 1: that pushes the information flow in a different direction. You
Speaker 1: are less open and receptive, and that limits how much
Speaker 1: you can gain from an event. Now, I won't go
Speaker 1: as far as to say that any question is okay
Speaker 1: if I have specifically asked for someone's time, I think
Speaker 1: it is important to invest the time in preparation so
Speaker 1: I know enough about them and their business and whatever
Speaker 1: I want to learn from them that I ask good questions.
Speaker 1: But in most regular networking gatherings this isn't necessarily the case.
Speaker 1: We are all approaching the gathering from the perspective of
Speaker 1: wanting to meet people and get something out of the event.
Speaker 1: Going in with the goal of getting more knowledge means
Speaker 1: you are highly likely to do that and people will
Speaker 1: be quite open to helping you out in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the move of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
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