A little over 20 years ago, I met a fraternity brother for a beer after work one day. I had just moved to Tampa a few months earlier and was having trouble breaking into the community. Unlike Miami, Orlando, or anywhere else in Florida, most people that live in Tampa are from Tampa. So, my friend’s invitation and his capability to build a vast social network made me very curious. If I ever needed to know how to build a network, it was then.
So, I asked him … “How do you keep in touch with so many people? You seem to be talking to everyone from school and around Tampa. How do you manage that?” His answer was an idea that I still use today…
“It’s not that hard. I stole it from an old-school insurance sales guy. You’re a math guy – you’ll love it. Every week I look at two letters in my rolodex (remember, this was 1995 when we had rolodexes). I review every name that starts with those two letters and I write down names of people I’d like to connect with. Here’s the math: there are 26 letters in the alphabet and 52 weeks in the year. If I cover two letters every week, I’ll review everyone in my database four times a year.”
Idea for this Tuesday: Try the 2-letter per week idea. You don’t have to contact everyone on your list, but at least you’ll review everyone. For example, I just did O and P for this week. Even though I have 252 contacts whose last names start with O and P (60 O’s and 192 P’s), I only wrote down six names of people that I’ll reach out to this week. Think about it though – I’ll call / email / text / etc. six people this week to simply stay in touch. Maybe we’ll schedule lunch. Maybe we’ll chat back and forth. Maybe I’ll just leave a voicemail that’s not returned. All of this is ok – I’m doing my best to reach out to these people and maintaining my relationships.
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