Never Apply for a Job Again!: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest (18 page)

Professionals services providers (lawyers, bankers, doctors, CPAs, therapists)

Business owners (dry cleaner, gardener, hair stylist, store owner, club)

Religious organizations

Personal development/support groups

Community groups/volunteer associations

Sports activities/teams

Internet social networks

But there can be many more as you really think about where you would recognize others and where you would be recognized…

Places You Frequent

The gym:
Perhaps you’ve never actually said hello to that person who is always working out beside you, but she would surely recognize you.

Neighborhood coffee shop:
Again, maybe you haven’t actually met them, but there are lots of people you see all the time.

Inherited Networks

Your spouse’s or partner’s networks in all of the previous examples:
By association, you have an inroad with these folks simply because of the name recognition of your spouse, whereby you are easily “recognized.”

Your parents’ networks in all of the previous examples:
We’re always going to be someone’s kid, no matter how old we get…and this is also an avenue of easily inherited recognition.

Kids’ schools and activities:
The kids with whom your child interacts also have parents and guardians, and these are easy connections to make because you are “recognized” by that association.

Mining Your Networks

Now that you have a good sense of the many networks you belong to, you want to start digging and listing all the names (or faces if you don’t know the names) of the individuals who would comprise each group.

It’s important that you look
all the way back
in each category when you do this exercise. In other words, your friends and your customers or vendors from jobs from years past won’t immediately come to mind, but you want to mine them.

I usually give my workshop participants a little game to see who can come up with the most people in each category within three minutes. The winner receives a standing ovation. Get a timer or look at the second counter on your watch and set it for three minutes. Fill out as many names/faces in the two inches you have under each category.