What’s the name of that Cher song ……. “If I Could Turn Back Time”, that’s it!  As you may have gathered my first ever networking meeting didn’t go according to plan 🙁

I went along to my local group which had resumed after the summer break.  The meeting itself was good, everyone was really friendly and welcoming, the venue was nice,  the problem was me!  I think I must have broken just about every rule in the book of successful networking.  Somehow I ended up sitting by myself for about 10 minutes before the meeting started whilst everyone mingled by the coffee.  I know I should’ve got up and joined them but the longer I sat there, the more difficult it was to join the conversation.

You see I’m good at what I do – I know I am but I’m not good at selling.  Put me in front of a client and I’ll tell them why they need a Virtual Assistant, give me an Excel spreadsheet to maintain and I’ll sort it, but put me in a room full of strangers & I’m back to being the quiet girl in the corner.    This is something I’m going to have to improve on as I have no sales team working for me, but one thing I do have is determination!

I’m going to another group meeting later this week and I’m determined to join in as much as possible.  Everyone is different and we all have our own personal challenges to overcome – I guess networking is mine!

But then the world would be a boring place if everyone was the same, wouldn’t it? 🙂