We did some editorial work for Porter Gale’s book Your Network Is Your Net Worth, published this June by Atria/Simon & Schuster. I was a fan when I was working on it, and I’m a bigger fan now that Porter has done such a masterful job of bringing this book to its fullest potential.
Porter’s book is so invigorating, smart, and approachable to a range of readers—not just self-promoters or people who love to network. It’s a wonderful step-by-step guide (packed with networking tips) for those of us who may be introverted or out of practice socially. I particularly recommend it to writers, creative entrepreneurs, designers—basically anyone planning to bring a book, product, online initiative, or artistic work to the public. I love this passage from the introduction:
“The old way to network involved climbing a ladder while pushing others down or to the side for individual benefit. The past was about competition, pursuit of materialism, and ‘keeping up with the Joneses.’ Networking all about your position in the game and the number of degrees on your resume or titles placed after your name. This process worked for some people, to be sure, but not for most. Thankfully, networking has evolved from a transactional game into a transformational process. It’s not just about ‘who you know,’ it’s about ‘who you are becoming as a person.’”
Among the many intuitive, but you’d-never-thought-of-this-way-by-yourself, networking tips and strategies are:
- Give Give Get: Porter explains how you can help others professionally while not expecting anything in return, but knowing how to receive help or mentoring when it comes to you.
- Shake It Up: This strategy focuses on the hidden benefits of making changes to your favorite routines (based in a positive mind set). Make minor shifts in daily routines such as where you get coffee or where you go on a Sunday afternoon in order to meet more people–and then take more dramatic steps.
- Power Pockets: Porter stresses the importance of defining, finding, and participating in the particular places, events, and groups that accelerate your networking.
- Build Out Your Core: Most of us undervalue and fail to understand the potential and power of our closest friendships and professional relationships—our core circle. We tend to take the allies we know the best for granted. Porter shows you how to break down the barriers that reduce the strength of these go-to relationships and instead focus on how core supporters can help you find new contacts to address weak spots in your professional life.
I don’t usually write up many of the books we work on—this book seems so particularly relevant to creative professionals in our time. Grab this one.