The Art of Working a Room!
Esther Stanhope, The Impact Guru
TEDx speaker, award-winning author & personal Impact expert helping FTSE 100 execs get promoted, speak like a leader & win pitches with more presence & confidence! Parent, broadcaster & 80% Perfect Club founder
TIP – Rule one of networking – take the pressure OFF, don’t talk shop (business) straight away, break the ice with the here and now – “Amazing firework display…or ….would you like sauce with your hotdog?”. Stick to inconsequential chit-chat for the first 3-minutes at least!
As well as the CHS Conference the other week, I also co-hosted a fabulous networking breakfast – for the PA Forum with the brilliant Daniel Skermer, at Birmingham Uni’s Exchange building opposite the ICC.
It was brilliant. I’m still giggling now. My tips included; how to work a room, how to break in, how to break out (dump with dignity) and how to “DO” small talk.
I’ve always been pretty good at small talk, building a rapport & breaking the ice having produced 12.5 thousand hours of live talk radio at the BBC in my career. I was the queen of creating compelling conversation out of thin air! The trick is to pick something, anything you have in common at that moment.
So, for instance today…Nov 5th in the UK it’s bonfire night. I bet you could come up with an observation about that couldn’t you? And if you’re not in the UK, why do we celebrate it?
However, when you’re face to face with a stranger at a conference, no microphone and no producer to give you permission to speak, it’s a different story, it can be seriously awkward. How do you know what to say without sounding stooopid?
Becky shared her story of being stuck in a corner with a senior exec for an entire Christmas party. She was trapped and couldn’t escape the conversation where he talked AT her ALL evening. She was too afraid to speak, interrupt or move position. She became a networking-phobic… until she met me!
Ha ha, now she knows exactly what to do…dump with dignity, and politely hand him over to someone else!
Recommended by LinkedIn
Jas, the photographer (top right wearing the hat) was blown away by the tips…this is what he shared on LinkedIn
“The journey from Network novice to Network Ninja is never a straight line but in the words of the fabulous Esther Stanhope…
Talk about the here and now, it’s something you have in common with everyone in the room, smile and hold your head up high and if you end up talking to someone who isn't interested in connecting, dump them with dignity.”
#NetworkingNinja #Confidence #Conferences #PublicSpeaking #CareerSuccess #InnerConfidence #Networking #SpeakUp