Talk to Strangers: How Everyday, Random Encounters Can Expand Your Business, Career, Income, and Life (18 page)

Consider or answer . . .

 

• How do you think a follow-up note nurtures a relationship?
  
 

 

• What “next step” could you propose after meeting your ideal new connection?
  
 

 

• What mode of communication, e-mail, voice mail, snail mail, phone, or in-person, do you think has the greatest impact for a follow-up?
  
 

Practice . . .

Step 10: Make Everyday Encounters a Way of Life for the Rest of
Your Life

It will always be through the people we meet and get to know that we are able to monetize opportunities and realize our hopes and dreams. The awareness and techniques you have developed here should provide you with a capability that will serve you for as long as you want to expand your business, career, income, and life. The minute you leave your house each day, you step into a world full of power portals—and you will find them wherever you go if you keep your eyes, ears, and mind open.

Consider or answer. . .

 

• Which parts of all the skills you have learned in this book have been the most difficult to embrace or implement? Which have been the easiest?
  
 

 

• What, if anything, would keep you from embracing or implementing the principles and methods presented in this program?
  
 

 

• How many new connections do you think it is reasonable to discover through everyday encounters on a weekly or monthly basis?
  
 

Practice. . .

Conclusion

“The world is my oyster” is an often-quoted line from Shakespeare’s
The Merry Wives of Windsor
, and it has been adapted to modern times to remind us that opportunity is all around us, if only we will make the effort to open up to it.

If you want to expand your life by expanding your universe of connections, you need look no further than the person sitting or standing next to you, behind you, or across the room from you, every single day. All it takes is the courage to take the road less traveled, to invite conversation, to tap into the desire we all have for direct human contact—even as we text on our smartphones and tap away on our computer keyboards.

I leave home every day believing the world is a friendly place, that I can meet just about anyone, that everyone I come across has something to offer, and that I, too, have value to give. And whether the opportunity is obvious or not, the potential is for money or friendship, immediate or long term, I have enriched my business, my career, my income, and my life through those I’ve encountered, right outside my door.

It always has been, and always will be, through the people we meet and know that we achieve our goals and expand our lives. We can’t do it alone. So when we meet someone who can help us along in our journeys, if we can return some value in kind, it is more than likely a perfect chance to find the pearl that sits waiting inside the oyster that is your world.

Index

Accessibility

Achievement, synchronicity and

Action steps, following up on

Aesthetics

Airplanes:

creating random encounters on

potential of random connections on

as random connecting venue

starting conversations on

Airports

Aligning interests with connections

case study

and communication style

for continued contact

and personal preferences

for relationship building

and relationships based on similarities

suggested items for

Anonymity

Approaching potential connections

guidelines for

overeagerness in

in traditional vs. random networking

Asking questions:

and continued contact

to find leverage points of connections

in focused communication

importance of

interrogating vs.

personal

setting the stage for follow-up messages by

starting conversations by

topics to ask questions about

Attractiveness, success and

Availability:

beliefs of random connectors about

cues about people’s

of people in public places

at traditional networking events

venues with assumed

Availability factor, of venues

Awareness of others, demonstrating

Beliefs of random connectors

about their own value

and limiting vs. expanding beliefs

openness and availability of strangers

and random connection mastery

and
Talk to Strangers Mastery Program

on value of relationships

on world as friendly place

Body language

Body posture

Books, as conversation starters

Buffet, Warren

Bumper stickers

Business cards

Business connections

Business proposals, introducing

Business relationships

CEOs:

random encounters with

retired

Chemistry, in-person communication and

Circumstances for random networking

improving quality of interactions

increasing number of interactions

and venues for random encounters

Closing statements:

setting tone for follow-up with

for undesirable connections

Clothing, as conversation starter

Coffee shops

Comfort, creating

Commonality, of people

Communication:

cross-gender,
see
Cross-gender random connecting

focused,
see
Focused communication

in-person

one-way

random encounters vs. typical

sustained,
see
Sustained communication

Communication skills:

of men vs. women

and relationship quality

Communication styles:

aligning

of men vs. women

Communicators:

focused vs. unfocused

great

Compliments

Conferences

Confidence:

and beliefs of random connectors

in cross-gender random connecting

and expertise

of master random connectors

and your value proposition

Connection

Contacts, network of

Continued contact

Conventions

Conversation(s)

alignment on topics of

case study

ending

focused

guiding

guiding, to outcome

overheard

redirecting

and relationship building

unstructured

very focused

Conversation starters

bumper stickers as

business cards as

and clues about receptiveness of people

and information people broadcast

of master random connectors

technology as

Copy shops

Credibility:

and expertise

and follow-up messages

and online connections

and online presence

and your value proposition

Creep factor

Cross-gender random connecting

flirting in

importance of gender differences in

mistakes women make in

personal questions in

tips for men

tips for women

types of differences between men and women in

Curiosity,
see
Interpersonal curiosity

Current circumstances, opening statements about

Danko, William D.

Deductive thinking

Directness

Discovery process

Doctor’s offices

Dog walkers, starting conversations with

Driscoll, Anne

Effort

Elevators:

circumstances for random networking in

as random connecting venues

starting conversations in

E-mail messages:

following up with

sustained communication with

Emotional intelligence

Emotional state, connections based on

Enthusiasm, situational

Equality, gender differences and

Evaluations, of potential connections

Everyday encounters, potential of

Expertise:

in cross-gender random connections

positioning yourself as an expert

and value proposition

E-zines

Facebook

Face-to-face communication,
see
In-person communication

Family members, as leverage points

Fearlessness

Filters, of men vs. women

Flexibility

Flirting

Focus:

of communication with men vs. women

and continued contact

of follow-up messages

Focused communication

asking questions in

impact of

listening in

unfocused vs. focused communicators

Focused communicators

Focused conversations, follow-up messages for

Follow-up messages

focus of

of master random connectors

in monetized connection case study

and opportunities from random connections