The definition of networking I use is: Networking is a process by which you can create meaningful business contacts and relationships to further your career and enhance your professional life.On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most difficult, networking is a 5. Building friendships is a...

As you know, each week I publish a list of our new members and I ask each member of our august body to call at least one person from the list. I sometimes spend close to a full day out of my personal schedule to review new member candidates. I only ask that each of you call one person &#82...

I was recently reminded of one of my favored approaches to networking that I discovered in the early 90’s. (Sometime in the late-90’s I stopped calling some of the things I was doing “scams” and started calling them “approaches,” which for some reason those in polite society found more acc...

I would be the first one to agree that finding ways to keep in touch with your business contacts during a job search is more art than science. That said the old saw “out of sight, out of mind” applies here.At the end of my two year job search which began in 1991, I had about 1,400 index ca...

Since about 90% of our membership is male, I hope no one will be offended if I let you all in on a little secret – most men don’t have a lot of friends. I am not altogether certain why that is, but it really doesn’t matter because making new friends is actually a lot easier than most peopl...

It is a sad fact of life that no one ever has enough friends. Men in particular (and our membership is 90% men) seem to have a difficult time making friends.The whole “guy thing” sort of works against us, I suppose. Men are supposed to be strong and never need help from anyone. Remember wh...

I am sometimes surprised how bashful financial types can be. Although Matt’s rule of networking is “any excuse will do,” many members of The FENG do hesitate picking up that phone and asking for help.Our goal in The FENG is to take away their excuses and get them to call us. As Forrest Gum...

As all of you know, The FENG is a circle of friends, not a fee for service. In order to join, someone needs to sponsor you. That act of friendship is how everyone gets started. It is one of those dumb things I came up with at the beginning of time itself that I believe has made our network...

For those of you who are new to the networking process or who claim to not be very good at it, please know that even I am still learning.Friends are always in short supply, especially when it comes to managing your career. But, unlike all the consumer goods available just by taking out you...

Networking is what The FENG is all about. And, it has a lot of not so obvious twists and turns, one of which I am going to go over tonight.I hope all of you are becoming pros at using our Member Directory Search feature and calling up other members. I hope that those members you are contac...

Sailors are a naturally friendly lot. (Yes, another sailing analogy!) As one of the other couples my wife and I met at a marina pointed out, it would be considered more than a little strange to go to a motel or hotel and start introducing yourself to other people and ask them if they wante...

In our male dominated society called The FENG, one of the biggest challenges I face on a daily basis is getting members to ask for and accept help.I am sure we all know that traditionally guys don’t ask for directions at the gas station. It is much better to drive around and around totally...

Back at the beginning of time itself when my good friend Ed Devlin was running what was to become The FENG, he invited me to join. (I don’t know what he was thinking.)Seeing the networking opportunity for my own job search, I immediately offered to act as social chairman for our small gath...

I suppose that at times being a member of the runaway train we call The FENG would appear not to lend itself to a whole lot of warm fuzzies.Ah, if only we could return to those halcyon days when there were only 50 of us and on a good day 15 of us would gather around that small table in the...