How To: Build a Powerful Personal Network

As a team of professional talent recruiters, our jobs are quite dependent upon networking, but what we strive to inspire in our clients, our candidates, and our networks, is the power of their networks as well. Be it professional, or personal, the right people, the right relationships, can help you uncover new opportunities, develop new relationships, and possibly expand your knowledge in a given industry or skillset.

Rarely will you meet a successful individual who does not have a string of contacts that they would credit for helping them get to where they are today. They have a phone tree of people that they can call on to help fill in gaps of knowledge, skills or connections, focusing on leveraging their contacts, rather than doing or knowing it all on their own.

The TalentFund team has simple steps on how to build your own personal network, how to grow, learn and succeed in your personal or professional lives: just reach out. Reach out to people you have connected with in your life, whether it be from a former colleague, a classmate you studied with, a familiar face at the coffee shop you visit before work. Start to identify who is in your network currently, and who could be in your network with a little bit of work.

Then, keep in touch. Ask them to grab lunch or coffee once a quarter. Send them relevant news or business articles that you find and think they may be interested in. Call them and run an idea by them. By making yourself a frequent contact, you may be surprised to see how often they reach out to you in return, asking for advice, sharing tips or contacts.

Lastly, learn from professionals. Networking has become an industry of its own, with motivational speakers, podcasts, books, even training seminars developed to help teach and empower people to learn the art of networking. Some of our favorite resources on the topic are this book and this article, both offering unique views on how to build and cultivate personal networks. And of course, reach out to the TalentFund team! We would be honored to help you network and make meaningful connections.

No matter how you choose to approach networking, what your goals are for building your own network, or how you want to be viewed within others networks, it is a simple human truth, that we are meant to be connected and we are meant to interact and grow from one another. Go find your people, and see how they can inspire and impact you!