My turn to network
Jul 26, 2007 Writing, work work work
The way I’ve got it divvied up is that Brett does the easy networking (the socializing with food kind) and I’ll do the hard-core networking. So this morning I went to this speed dating kind of networking where everyone lines up and you get 90 seconds to pitch, they get 90 seconds to pitch and then there’s 90 seconds more to wrap it up.
I don’t really see myself getting any work from these kinds of events. I wouldn’t mind a one-shot job from a small business but truthfully I know that my living lies in bigger companies who can keep sending work my way. The people who come to these front-line networking events are usually in sales either for themselves or for their company. Like one person I talked to sells clothes at those home parties people do? And someone else was selling their hotel as a venue for conferences. Neither of those people are in any position to hire me. But here’s why I go to these things now while I have time (because I hope to be so busy in the future that they slide off my to-do list):
- I appreciate finding out what’s happening in Columbus. For most of my writing career I’ve been telecommuting and except for a brief stint as a stringer for a Jewish newspaper here in town (cut short by Madison’s arrival) pretty much all of my writing work has either been for national magazines or for custom publishers in other towns. I like seeing what my city has to offer.
- Besides telecommuting, my only grown-up job (read: not childcare or food service) was at the shelter, which was absolutely NOT a corporate environment. I don’t really understand the 9 to 5 world. I’m still learning the dress code and the language and — most significantly — the values. This outsiderness I think is an asset in some ways because it’s awfully easy for me to separate the rhetoric from the reality. It’s very easy for me to cut through what someone’s saying and ask questions to figure out what exactly it is they need. But I’ve definitely got a learning curve to understanding water cooler thinking. It’s pretty foreign to me.
- A big huge part of networking isn’t getting a job from that handshake; it’s connecting other people so that they will, hopefully, connect you. So even though I’m very unlikely to buy wash-and-wear culottes (and even less likely to host a party given the fashion taste of my friends) or to put together a business conference at a local hotel, I very well might meet someone who’s looking for just the right outfit for her next vacation or is thinking about holding a workshop but isn’t sure where. Sometimes networking is about finding other people work and prospects but one hopes they will do the same for you.
- I also know that the things I’m learning here definitely apply to having a creative career. Networking face-to-face is making me less intimidated by editors or by the business side of publishing. It doesn’t seem as rarefied a world as it used to because I’m understanding in a very concrete way that it’s a business. I’m also understanding that the more I can appreciate how it for the number-crunchers and the more I can help them, the better luck I’ll have being successful.
For a long time I really resisted the reality of being a writer in America today, which is that it, like any industry, comes down to profit. I wanted it to be about artistry and craft and skill and it can be, but it’s also about marketing and money. It’s HUGELY about marketing and money. I was watching someone I know from a distance who’s had a recent surge in success and a third person was ranting about how unfair it is (life is unfair) and I said that this person was having this surge because this person was great at marketing. If I were a numbers guy, I’d totally hitch my wagon to that train even though I agree that this third person is more talented, a nicer human being and has a better body of work. But this third person doesn’t want to sell-out. I get that but it’s hard to be successful at a game if you don’t want to play the game.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Well, there’s selling out, and then there’s completely abandoning the ideal all together. Sometimes I think selling out is necessary. We have to pay the bills, if you’re an artist, if you can’t paid for your work, you’re going to use the majority of your time and energy doing something else to pay the bills. How does that advance your artistic product?
In other words, you have to balance the idea with the day-to-day reality of living.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
“Balance the ideal.” Laptop mouse got away from me again.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Finding the balance is huge. Even the most talented writers - fiction or NF - will get nowhere unless they put out the effort to make others aware that they exist. I’ve struggled with the whole sell-out concept, and what makes a person a real writer, ad nauseum. You know what? I think there’s always going to be someone who thinks that certain works don’t qualify as “writing” (and I know mine fit that category for some). But, for now, this is what I’m doing and the best writing in the world isn’t going to put dinner on my table if I can’t find a market for it.
July 27th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I agree with your take on networking. When I first started networking in so many groups, I realized that people were there to sell me things, while I was there to get to know them and help them. Now I strategically network in groups and with people that are well connected so that I can connect them with my circle of influence and they connect me with theirs. We are all givers.
Creating Boomerang Networking as a skill and art through my Pay It Forward Relationship Networking concept, maybe more people in the “networking” world will become givers.
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone helped each other through the “servant” mentality just for the sake of helping someone rise up in their personal or professional life?
Give, give and give unconditionally. I hope you find groups that are giving you the boost you need in your business soon.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Thanks Sharan! I’ll be browsing your site.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:34 am
I am afraid I am one of those that doesn’t want to play the game. Or maybe I am incapable of it… sigh.
July 29th, 2007 at 11:07 am
But here’s the thing — not playing the game is only a problem if you’re going to define your success by the game-player’s say-so. I think there is more than one way to be a successful creative artist and public acknowledgment is only one of those. And that thing — public acknowledgment — is always in reach if you choose at some point to chase it. But it sure isn’t the be all and end all of the work!!!!! (Unless you want to make it that and I think doing that will make a person crazy.)
I’m happiest with a little bit of both — the work of writing creatively and occasionally getting it out there. But the work means the most to me. The publishing is gravy. And since I switched to focusing on getting corporate jobs, I’m a lot happier with my creative self!!