RewardMe Networking: existing friends and family
Your existing contacts, for most of you, are your most important contacts. I say that because they probably have the longest history with you and are the most personal. They are ones that are likely to care about you more (remember, most people don’t have the true cores of Networking). All the other networking activities are mainly trying to expand this group of people. This isn’t a sale; it’s a relationship, and maintaining existing relationships are just as important as getting new ones.
The easy part about this one is that: you already know how to do most of it, or else they wouldn’t be your friends in the first place. Now the only thing you have to work on is to apply some of the cores and principles to it.
The No.1 rule in this is to ALWAYS MAINTAIN CONTACT INFORMATION. If you still know how to contact your friends from elementary school, middle school, and high school (and I mean all of them), how much bigger would your network be? True, some of them haven’t done that many amazing things in their life, but I guarantee you that all of them know someone that you don’t, something that you don’t, and some place that you don’t. Even if its just one thing per person, with all these people that you lost contact with, isn’t that still pretty amazing? Perhaps it’s impractical to actually know all of them, but we must first know the ideal before we can work towards it.
Following with the principles given before, the next rule is to actually contact and checkup on your contacts. Once a year or however long is appropriate for that specific person, send an email or make a call. Check how are they doing and if their life is going well. It doesn’t need to be the best conversation, but just remind them that you still exist and still care. You’ll also have a good idea of the things they will be able to help you at if there is ever such need.
Now remember that during this process, you must always maintain the 6 cores introduced earlier in this guide. They must be ingrained in you. They must become who you are. With that in mind, when you talk to your contacts, always make them feel that whenever they need help, they can come to you. Again, think about how you can help others (that in itself is an opportunity!) not how others can help you.
Be a good friend, and you will receive good friendship.
As for your family, they can’t really run away, so all I can say is to treat them well. Family is valuable because they are usually the people who “would” give you the most care and help. Many people forget to maintain a good relationship with family members until they need some kind of help. This is because most people know help will come anyway. Don’t abuse this relationship. There isn’t much to say about this, just don’t be the donkey in the family; be the one with the carrot.
