Master the introduction

Bringing people together is wonderful, when done right

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to make better introductions, ones
that put awesome people together and help nurture your relationships too.
The first part of this tip is to realize that

(00:25):
you should make introductions. I know some people listening to
this are natural connectors, and they spend their entire lives
thinking about which far flung corners of their networks should
be brought closer. But for many of us, this is
a far more acquired skill. It's taken me a long
time to realize that if I like an admire person

(00:45):
A and I like an admire person B, there's a
pretty good chance that person A and person B would
get along, or at least have enough in common to
have a productive phone call. Some people don't have space
in their lives for any more connections, but those people
are relatively rare. This game of introducing people is one
in which you can bat eight hundred or so pretty easily.

(01:09):
That is, if you take the second part of this
tip to heart. For an introduction to work, you need
to ask both people if they want to be introduced Now,
this might seem like an unnecessary step, given if you
know both parties well enough to be making an introduction,
they are likely to say yes. But sending each of

(01:30):
them a note or calling them ahead of time to
get permission does a few things. First, it gives you
a chance to explain who the other person is without
that person being part of the audience, so you can
be a bit more straightforward about why the introduction will
be useful to each person. This also means that when
you do send a note introducing both parties, each will

(01:51):
know who the other person is and why they should
be connecting. When people fail to do this, it can
just be confusing. I've gotten in doctory notes for people
that just say you two are awesome and you should connect.
And while I have no doubt that the other person,
let's call her Bath, is awesome, I'm doing some frantic
Google searching to figure out who she is before responding

(02:13):
to the email, and then I guess totally wrong about
why we should be connecting right now. Beth might want
to talk because she's also into podcasting, but my Google
searching turns up that she wrote for a publication I
used to write for, and so I think it's maybe
something about that both of us will waste time trying
to figure this out. There's always the chance that you'll

(02:33):
find out an introduction isn't a good idea right this
second too. Maybe one person is about to depart for
an offline month long retreat, or you were about to
suggest someone sending her resume to the other party's company,
and you find out that Party B just got fired
and it's a bit of a sore subject. Again, these
are unlikely scenarios, but finding this out ahead of time

(02:57):
saves you all from wondering why Party B is and
responding and if you did something offensive, Party A might
not be happy to be introduced and reach out and
get crickets in return. I'm sure she'll forgive you eventually,
but why take the risk. Double opt in introductions are
the way to go. But when you do these, you
can make all sorts of wonderful things happen. People get

(03:20):
hired and get new long term clients, They make new
friends and meet new lovers. You change the world for
the better, and that is a great use of time.
In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,

(03:42):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me in email at Before Breakfast podcast.
At iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out

(04:06):
with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.