Full of Yourself?

We all must believe in ourselves, that we are unique and different from everyone else that does what we do. We must know what it is that makes us the person with whom others want to engage in business or to whom others refer their networking partners. We must believe that we can be the best at what we do.

When we are promoting ourselves or just networking with others, we must “drop our ego” outside the meeting venue. We must not let our own image of ourselves overwhelm the others whom we meet and with whom we converse. We must dial our egos down to not be rude or obnoxious. We must stop trying to convince everyone how great we are.

We must learn to walk a very fine line in our relationships. We must believe in ourselves, but we must never make our networking partners, or anyone else, feel that we are so impressed with ourselves that we are not able to help someone else. Self-promotion must be second to Gratitude Marketing.

We must be approachable; we must be the person with whom others want to engage in either a business relationship or a networking partnership. People do business with, and refer business to, those whom they know, like, and trust. These are not status levels that come easily, and they are not reached if others believe we are too “full of ourselves” to form partnerships.

Networking partnerships are an important aspect of our business. They should be the objective of all of our marketing. If we do our marketing well, sales will fall into our laps. If we do our marketing well, networking partnerships will come to us easily, and partnerships will provide us the opportunities for our business to succeed.

We all know people who are very good at what they do. Some of them will tell us so at every opportunity. Others will ask us how we are, discover what we need, and see if they can help us discover the solution to our needs, no matter what those needs are or who can provide the solutions. They may not be able to provide what we need, but we will not forget what they did for us, and we will recommend them to others.

At the same time we will remember those people whose egos prevented them from discovering what we need, or how that need can be solved. We will remember how they told us that what they have to offer is just what we need no matter what would help us. Their advice may not always be the best or even the worse, but their demeanor will prevent us from wanting them as partners.

Marketing is everything that we do, everything that we say, and every behavior that others see or cannot see. If our ego is overwhelming, our best talents may never be known by others since we have given them the impression that we don’t care about anyone except ourselves.

We must discover what others need and how we can help solve those needs. Can we form a networking partnership with them? Can we come to know, like, and trust them, and can they do the same with us? Please leave your comments here, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Let’s build partnerships and succeed.