Networking 101

[RonKujawa]

I suck at networking. In the past, the whole concept made me scared, apprehensive and a little angry. It's gotten better over the last few years, mostly due to attending the Taxi Road Rally. The lobby bar has been most influential in helping me approach it from the perspective of hanging out and making new friends. Viewing people as people and not resources. Anyway, I was listening to a podcast by Tim Ferriss who wrote the Four Hour Work Week in which he drills down how he approached networking at SXSW a few years back. He is a little more methodical in trying to further his agenda, but much of what he covered I found really practical. I thought some of you might get something out of it too.

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/26/ ... cord-time/

[mojobone]

Great post. I actually bought his book, but I couldn't finish it in four hours.

[mojobone]

I loved the bit about 'ignorance is bliss'; it reminded me of when I was at a weekly local event called Chicago Nights, hanging out in the wings beside the stage, listening to a bunch of blues heavyweights layin' into a funky shuffle groove, when the drummer yelled over at me, "Take the throne!" I was horrified; what, ME? I'm a guitar player, so I stalled. "What?", I yelled back. "Take the throne, I gotta pee!" (in Chicago, the jams can run long and the beer will flow) So, I shifted in as he shifted out, one leg and one stick at a time, as he let off the pedals and moved aside; somehow without disturbing the groove, but the first time I hit Merle Perkins' snare, I nearly lost the handle, cuz it was dialed so tight I coulda launched that drumstick six feet in the air. (six feet above the drumhead, not the floor, I keed you not)

So there I was, a hick from the sticks, playing drums behind Johnny B. Gayden, who at that time was James Cotton's bass player and a very fine frontman in his own right, and he was proving it right in front of me. What I didn't know at the time was that Merle had been the drummer for Big Twist & The Mellow Fellows, who were the biggest blues act in Chicago, (barring Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor, who seldom played in town during the mid-90's) for like, 10 years, prior to Twist's unfortunate demise. The best blues show I've ever seen, lifetime, was Twist's band, with his mentor filling in on vocals, cuz that was the night he'd had his first heart attack, and that show was held at Indiana's oldest bar, The Knickerbocker, in my hometown of Lafayette. (it was the second heart attack that did him in) If I'd known it at the time, I'd have been too terrified to play a note, because it was the first time I'd ever played drums in public.

To this day, I have no idea how Merle could have known I was even capable of taking over for him, (cuz I sure didn't know it) or even that I'd ever played a drum kit. I'd met him like, twice and had been introduced to him as "a pretty OK guitar player." When somebody sees something in you that you don't see in yourself? THAT'S my favorite kind of miracle.

[RonKujawa]

That is a FANTASTIC story!!! Love it!

[mojobone]

Yeah, that's one of those things, I still can't believe that actually happened, and I was there. Then again, maybe he just really had to pee.