Here's how the book came into being:
Long an avid networker, in part because I just love to meet new people but also because it's a major part of my marketing, I started last August putting up tips on my Being Bruce Brown blog on how to effectively participate in live business networking events. I'd observed others networking successfully (or not) and also have found what works for me (and doesn't) in those same events. So I figured it could be helpful to others if I posted my best ideas on how to make the most of those events.
After posting a half dozen tips I got a call from my good friend and former business partner Alfred Poor, who has a cottage publishing company called Desktop Wings (which doesn't really run from a cottage, but rather from a barn in eastern Pennsylvania). Alfred suggested there could be a book project if I had more tips. At the time I had identified 26 tips but was only writing and posting one per day. Alfred suggested I get the number to 31 (which was easy) and we'd work together to create a book.
So that's where the book came from. Calling it Volume I. of the 31 Days to ... Series is another whole story.
The book is short. We intentionally kept each of the 31 tips to just one page, which meant a lot of cutting and editing from the original blog posts. The point is that this is a book that distills just the important value points for busy business people. It's not a scholarly study, it's not full of case studies, this is stuff that works. Or advice that should keep you from wasting your time at networking events and instead getting the greatest benefit.
In the process of writing and publishing "31 Days to Networking Event Mastery" we sent an early draft to 70+ people around the world, including other authors of business, networking, and marketing books as well as some business coaches and consultants we know or to whom I was introduced in the process.
I was elated by the response, not only the kind words that so many had, but also their generosity with their time and sharing. Many people made comments or suggestions to change or tweak the book that we were able to incorporate. We didn't choose to include case studies or anecdotes or add graphics, all of which would have been helpful, because I wanted to stick to the original idea of writing a short book that would actually be read by busy business people. I even considered just writing one sentence per tip, to get right to each point with less chance of confusion and to minimize the time, but in the end we decided to stick with one page per tip. I hope, if you buy the book, that length works for you.
Our various reviewers wrote that this little book would be a great time-saving value for networking beginners as well a good list of reminders for seasoned pros. We kept the price low so that shouldn't be a barrier for someone to buy it for themselves, for friends, or maybe for their employees.
The best way to buy one or a few copies is via Amazon, where you can find it with this link: "31 Days to Networking Event Mastery". If you want to buy 20 or more copies, let me know and we can probably work a bulk deal. Also, if you are interested in 20,000 copies or more, we can do private labelling and would be happy to talk with you about it.
