First Friday Book Synopsis

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run…
Rudyard Kipling, If

Lifetime corporate employment is dead; we’re all free agents now, managing our own careers across multiple careers across multiple jobs and companies.  And because today’s primary currency is information, a wide-reaching network is one of the surest ways to become and remain thought leaders of our respective fields.
Sticking to the people we already know is a tempting behavior.  But unlike some forms of dating, a networker isn’t looking to achieve only a single successful union.  Creating an enriching circle of trusted relationships requires one to be out there, in the mix, all the time.
Set a goal for yourself of initiating a meeting with one new person a week.  It doesn’t matter where or with whom.
Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time (The Ultimate Networker Reveals How to Build a Lifelong Community of Colleagues, Contacts, Friends, and Mentors)

———–

Okay.  Time to state the obvious.  2010 is gone.  2011 is nearly 8 days gone.

Every day, every week, every month, they all fly by.  And you think about things you intend to do – will do – absolutely will do! – in 2011, and the first week is already gone.  Did you do what you intended to do?  This week?

This is not a blog post about time management. (although, of course, it is).  It is about one thing you need to do (one thing I need to do), with time in 2011.

We’ve got to get intentional, disciplined, regimented, about networking and marketing.

It does not matter what your job is.  You need to be marketing all the time.  And to market effectively, it helps to know the people you try to market to.  Call it what you will; customer cultivation, relational customer strategy.  This much is sure – if you did not do any of that “stuff” to make that happen in the first week of 2011, then that week is already gone.  And the second week starts… in the blink of an eye.

So, here’s your challenge for 2011.  Schedule time, every week, for networking and marketing.  (AND! Keep your schedule!).  Decide now which day of the week you will set aside for a lunch meeting with a client/potential client/potential customer.  Set aside some time every week (every day) to use whatever social media or other media you can find (Twitter; Facebook; your blog; old fashioned letter or notecard writing).  See somebody.  Write to many.  Keep at it.  Quickly.   Every 60 seconds is racing by.

A very good, now retired Real Estate Agent in our neighborhood called all of this “farming.”  She always planted seeds, and she always kept in touch with all of her “A List” clients”  She never knew when one of them would be ready to buy, sell, move – or when they would have a friend in need of a good agent.  But this she did know – when that moment came, they would think about her, and know how to get in touch with her.  And she was ready to help.

What about your client base/customer base?  Is it expanding?  Are they thinking of you?  Do they know how to reach you easily?

Quick, there is not a minute to lose.  Market; network; this week, every week, of 2011.

The minutes, the days, the weeks, the months, they are all so unforgiving…

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run…