How to Work a Room: Networking with Diane Darling

And students, if you think that maybe you're too young to network or this doesn't apply to you, I would just challenge that in the sense that within this next year or two you are going to meet people in a test environment, SAT, ACT.

You can befriend them.

Again, just building relationships before you need them, just encouraging them in the test.

You will meet people at preview days or visits, college tours.

You will meet people definitely at orientation.

[laughs] You know, my parents met at orientation.

My dad gave my mom a phone number.

It was the wrong number.

She thought he wasn't interested for months because he never called, and then they bumped into each other and they married.

So you will-

[laughs]

You will network in all of these scenarios.

And so understanding what it is, which Diane and I are gonna talk about a little bit, and then how to do it is really important for you, because all of us need that skill.

And I would say that that's probably one of the top what we would call soft- ... skills.

It's not a trade skill, it's not a, you know, educative skill like, um, pedagogy, just to use that big word.

But it is a soft skill that every person needs.

And so that's why this conversation to me is really important to you, because it is one of those things we are transferring down, not just trust, but this value of a skill that is really necessary in this day and age.

Probably even more so I would say than 10 years ago, because so much can happen digitally.

It's very true.

So in the speaking world right now, there's a discussion going on about AI, and people are using AI for their little what's called a sizzle reel.

It's a video that shows you I'm a speaker and why you should get hired.

And, um, the CEO of a speaker's association said, "Meeting planners now wanna see raw video because they don't wanna see it's been edited, because y- they can't trust it.

They cannot trust it." So people are really looking to be authentically connected to you, and you are giving them that opportunity to get to know you.

You know, as Chrissy said, it may be at orientation, it may be in class.

You know, are you somebody who shows up? Do you do your homework when you are on a team project? You know, how do you work with different people? How do you treat people? It's not always the smartest person who gets things done, it's often the person who knows how to build connections.