jeanwhaleywilliams

Joel Sarfati, Executive Director of 40Plus of Greater Washington, is noted for saying not to overlook any opportunity to network ― that it could be the guy at the dry cleaner who has the contact you need.

I was a little surprised awhile back when the guy from the liquor store requested to “connect” with me on LinkedIn. But he’s a nice guy; we know each other by name as he was always willing to schlep a case of cold beer down to my office when I was still working fulltime downtown. So we “connected”.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a job posted on LinkedIn in which I was interested, but don’t have exact experience. I searched for employees of the company and found that I had a 2nd degree connection to the founder/president who I could ask for an intro. Guess who it was? Manny from the downtown liquor store.

So I sent him the LinkedIn “Intro” request. But he never replied.

One morning, taking a cab to 40Plus for the Monday speaker, who did I see walking down the street? Manny. I rolled down the window and shouted, “Hey, Manny! Long time no see. Don’t you answer your LinkedIn Mail?” He smiled, waved and said he would check it.

Now THAT’S networking on the fly.

QUERY: What’s the most unusual networking opportunity you’ve ever experienced? Would you, or do you draw any “lines”? Do you think that in today’s economy coloring outside the lines might just be exactly what you SHOULD be doing to establish that important personal brand?