One of my favourite things about networking is that you never really know who is coming next.

Not your next client.

Not your next referral.

Just... the next person.

They might work in an industry you know absolutely nothing about. They might be at a completely different stage of business. They might have come along because somebody convinced them to attend at the last minute.

And five minutes into the conversation, you realise you have far more in common than you expected.

I love that.

Because as strategic as I believe networking should be, there also needs to be room for surprise.

Not Every Connection Needs an Immediate Purpose

We talk a lot in business about knowing who we want to meet.

And we should.

Being able to describe your target market, your ideal referral partners, your collaborators and the people you would love an introduction to makes networking much more effective.

But that doesn’t mean everybody else in the room becomes irrelevant.

Some of the most interesting people I’ve met over the years were not people I went looking for.

There was no little voice in my head saying: “Yes! THIS is exactly the person I needed to meet tonight!”

Sometimes it was simply a good conversation.

Then another conversation. Then six months later, something happened.

An introduction.

An opportunity.

A collaboration.

Or perhaps nothing business-related happened at all, and they simply became someone I was very glad to know. That counts too.

People Are Full of Surprises

The funny thing about meeting someone for the first time is that you know almost nothing about them. You know what is written on their name badge. Maybe their job title. Maybe what they tell you in the first 30 seconds.

That’s about it.

You don’t know who they know, what they did before their current role, what they’re planning next, or what they’re brilliant at outside of work. You certainly don’t know where either of you will be three years from now.

People change careers. Businesses evolve. Interests become businesses. Colleagues become business owners. Introductions become friendships.

And people who seemingly had very little reason to know each other can become incredibly valuable parts of each other’s worlds.

That’s why curiosity matters so much.

Strategic networking doesn’t mean turning every event into a military operation. You don’t need to walk through the door with a clipboard thinking, “Target one located. Target two approaching the cheese platter. Proceed.”

Please don’t do that.

Know who you would like to meet, absolutely. Ask for introductions. Be intentional. But also leave a little room for the person you didn’t expect to meet.

Talk to someone outside your industry. Say hello to the person standing on their own. Sit somewhere different. Ask someone what brought them into the room.

You never know what you might discover.

Somewhere out there are people you haven’t met yet who will become part of your story.

That sounds wonderfully dramatic, doesn’t it? Cue the music!

But think about the people who matter in your business and your life today. At some point, every single one of them was someone you hadn’t met yet.

You didn’t know what the relationship would become. You simply had the first conversation.

So yes, be strategic about networking. Know who you want to meet and why. But stay curious about everyone else too.

Your next brilliant connection might be someone you never thought to look for. And that, for me, is part of what makes networking so much fun.

Happy Connecting!

WLC