Skip to main content

Tell Your Story

How to Make Your 1-2-1s Memorable...become your audible business card!


Networking is about being 'Known - Liked - Trusted' that's true, isn't it?  And, everyone knows that the best way to achieve that is through the 1- 2 -1 meetings with fellow business owners and networkers. Eventually, you will walk away with a pocket full of business cards from people who have talked about: Who they are: Where they are located: What they do: Who they want to talk to.

In fact, by the time you get home, you may not be able to remember the name and/or the face of the person who gave you the card or gave the presentation. There is a quote I live by from Patricia Fripp
"People will not remember what you say, as much as what they see when you say it. So how do you become memorable in a room for 10 - 20 - 30 or more fellow business owners.

Would it be OK to take you through two experiences from my own networking experience?

"In December 2013, Martin suffered a stroke while crossing the road in Tamworth, just as a double decker bus began to back up. The driver had no idea Martin was there and would have continued reversing until a member of the public alerted him..." Do you think we listened to Martin's story?
Do you think we were keen to talk to Martin about that experience and how he overcame it?
Do you think we remembered Martin more readily than if we just had a business card?"

"What is it you do? I was asked recently.
"I mentor business owners who use the words 'Sleepless nights - Anxiety - Dread' as their turn to speak approaches. But your presentation was brilliant so you're probably not my ideal audience," The delegate was an HR professional and I am a sole trader. "I also present on stage and tell stories," I said to keep the conversation going.
"Ah, I've written a book!"
Now I was interested. "Can I ask you about it?"
"My grandfather was killed on the first day of the Somme and on the 75th anniversary of the battle I decided to visit the battlefield and find out more about where he was buried." He was quiet for a moment. "When I was over there there was no record of his death or even injury. He had disappeared, I wrote a fiction story about what happened to him after the battle."
Do you think I remember the business owner and that his business is HR?

If you have a story...tell it and become memorable.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Thoughts On The Tao Of My Thoughts #3

 Never Tell a Lie Because the Truth is the Tao Does this make the Tao an unreachable goal? This one is more difficult. You see, I've lied. In fact, I probably tell a lie a day in one form or another. Hands up who has gone against the Tao already today! What is a lie? That's a question we should be asking ourselves more and more often because of the propaganda which has been dividing us for the years since when? Trump, Boris, Brexit, Blair, Baroness Thatcher or back into history. We are being lied to all the time and, depending on our particular political bias. Is the Bible a lie? Adam and Eve (where did the name Adam come from?) The Quran? The Torah? I don't know. I know what I choose to believe, and that will also take me into the realms of lying for many people. The truth dying! When do we die? The last breath? A few minutes later when the brain stops? When our soul/spirit leaves for the next journey? I could go on. I believe that like the Tao, the Truth is the Truth. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Would You Talk To A Complete Stranger? The 6 Magic Words To Start A Conversation!

  I sat in Temperance Cafe, Leamington, today, working on StoryTelling Corner when a couple came in and sat down close by. I heard the man talking about the cafe and guessed that he's been before but his girlfriend had not. "Have you seen downstairs?" The man nodded but the girl replied "No". I love the cafe and described the history of the building and the special place the basement plays in the entertainment quality of Temperance. "Do you like stories?" I asked. Her face lit up. Pure energy and joy transformed what was an already attractive woman into a picture of real beauty. Her eyes lit up. Her mouth opened wide in a smile even as she began to gush about her love of Victorian tales and myths. Her Liverpool accent became stronger as excitement streamed from every pore (I hold my hand up as a male old enough to be her grandfather) the rest of the room disappeared into a haze as we spent, what, a few seconds, a few minutes talking about telling stor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Talking About Your Shit...powerfully.

Talking About Your Shit...powerfully. “They don’t care about you!” How often has that been the mantra of content marketing and is it set in stone? You have an opportunity to have a 1-2-1 with another business owner and talk about each other’s business and then you move on. “What benefits will I get from that conversation?” So ‘Yes’ we don’t care about the business owner more than we care about how the conversation will work for us. Then, that same business owner stands up for a 20-minute slot which is more about him and general tips to help all businesses or a personal story. Yesterday I was at a meeting where a man stood up and talked about ways to pay for goods without cash. He mentioned PayPal, Worldpay and one other but I cannot remember it because these services were not for me. I moved on. After the round of pitches, we listened as he stood to do his 20-minute slot where he began with a date and the death of his wife at 32. I listened. H...
Post a Comment
Read more