After the InvestHer Summit in Paris, I had signed up for a few local events in town, including a wine and cheese education class at the Wine Museum in the 16th.
In conversation, I would invite folks to join me the Saturday afterwards. “Hey I”m going to this interesting thing, want to join me?” Amanda joined me and we had some great laughs. We also deepened our relationship from ‘moderator and panelist’ to friends! This is her here, fingers crossed I successfully open this wine bottle without destroying the label.
Following up with leads after a big conference, trade show or even networking event can feel overwhelming.
Here are crowdsourced answers from my community of women leaders of what they do:
Immediately connect at the event with the contact on LinkedIn and turn on the “bell notification” to get their posts to comment, like or repost.
Take notes on the phone or a business card, and sift through them immediately after the event. Write a summary so fresh ideas don’t get lost. Put the notes in a dedicated folder to reference later. High light the connects you wish to follow up with.
Draft a template for email followups, and be sure to share your social media handles so they can follow you back. Suggest an action item such as “Subscribe to my newsletter”
In the spirit of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done Methodology,” list the names, list the next action step. Is it setting up a phone call? Is it inviting them to your newsletter or is it sharing a freebie lead magnet you created with helpful tips?
In the followup email, share one thing specific you remember from your conversation. Bill Clinton was often labeled as charismatic because of his ability to remember very personalized details about the people he met. He systematized it He would write a person’s details on the back of his or her business card and recall it in a later conversation. That personalization and memory went a long way in saying “I heard you. You weren’t just another face in the crowd.”
If you are still waiting to see where the connection could go, a great question to ask is: “Are you attending the next event/tradeshow? or “What’s the next event you are attending?” Its a light-touch way to ensure you will see one another again.
STEP 2 Take stock of your core values. Build a vision and strategy around it.
I interviewed Lisa Druxman, CEO of Fit4Mom. Each week, when she sits down to schedule her time, she takes stock of her values, creates a vision around it, creates a strategy around it—then schedules her week.
I’m creating my vision board for the rest of 2023, 2024. Want to create yours and share it? Join me July 29th.
STEP 3 Think critically about ‘who you need to become’
The worthy inquiry then becomes: “Who do you have to BE” or “Who do you have to become?” in order to be the person who books this block of time and follows through with it.
There needs to be a motivating factor.
Here is what I do to think daily about “The Who I Need to Become”
5 journal prompts
- Where are you right now?
- What are your wins for the last 90 days
- What are the wins you want for the next 90 days
- What do you want in the next year?
- What do you want in the next 3-5 years?
These are priming questions. The answers to them live in the front of my notebook. I review them before I start journaling. It helps to “prime” my brain, as Dr. Ben Hardy indicates. Then I start to journal from the perspective of this future self.
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I also have a journal practice at night, because this is when I review my day. Sometimes I feel like I did nothing. I was unproductive. Its not until I sit down to write all the things I did, that I realize, “Wow I actually did a lot!” It also generates new ideas for the next day. It helps me plan and prioritize my next day. More on this in a later post.
