Networking In Your Spheres Of Influence
Today's topic is having to do with building rapport with those you know and those you don't. It's lovingly called socializing, but the industry also loves its 'jargon' and will call it networking.
Attend industry events such as Conferences, and meetups
Join online communities and forums relevant to your niche
Industry Events
Conferences and meetups are excellent ways I learned of to ramp up my access to people around me. When it came to finding out who's part of my "sphere of influence" it was extremely beneficial to my success to be reminded of a little something called the 5W's!
Who do I know in my industry? Nowadays, we are quite lucky to have the benefit of networkers gone before us who played crucial roles in creating the tools we use everyday like business cards, graphic suites for promotional outreach and online platforms for our websites like sketchbookartists.com or artstation.com for one, and community portals like Meetup.com or alignable.com for a second.
Online Communities & Forums
Where do I go to meet these people? Once you know who your target market is it's time to get onto the platforms I mentioned as well as our more popular online social networks like facebook.com/MySketchBookIllustrator, and instagram.com/sketchbookillustrator/.
You'll notice I did my best to keep consistent with my branding. Which is to say my name at the end of each social profile is Sketch Book Illustrator or some form of it. The more exact across the platforms you can be the better! Naturally!
What tools? What do You do? What can I find on your platforms?
If you're like me, and getting your illustrative stretch on then creating a marketable business card is an easy one. But don't do what I did when I first got a batch of premium business cards...
...I somehow lost all sight of my worth and the true value of my skills in the business of Illustrating, and was uber-willing to bend over backwards, take the chump-change, and work slave labor conditions to get my name established out there. You know what? Maybe you should make that same mistake, because it may just take feeling the pain of that abuse before you can really understand the error of that path.
What I learned from handing out business cards like crazy, and brain-dumping on everyone I met was that was the hard way to network, and turned quite a lot of people away because they either were NOT in my market, or they just didn't like people getting up in their bizness to sell them on something they weren't ready for or didn't want in the first place. Which leads me to the next W.
When do I take action?
How about after you have figured out what it is you offer, how you deliver it, who wants what you've got, and where you can be found? This is the recipe if you're looking to read ahead. Who, What, When, Where, & Why; not necessarily in that order, and not always just one of each of them. There are multiple considerations for each of the 5W's.
Back to the when...I really am serious about the preceding paragraph as the inherent step that should be seen here is the asking of many questions. If you don't have a map and a clear vision of who you are as an illustrator you'll swim around chumming the waters for other illustrators who DO know what their game plan is.
That's where I'll leave it today - in your capable hands to deep dive on your passion and vision on becoming a pro illustrator (that I am taking steps on with you) - after which you will undoubtedly be prepared to digest the next issue dealing with Cold Networking, or the people you build rapport with that you really don't know, yet you believe there is synergy between you.
In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you for your constructive thoughts on my website or work that I may have already completed for you. Click the button to add your thoughts to my Google Reviews!
My thanks in advance for your assistance.