As I write my post today I’m flying across the country to my help my Mom. My grandma just passed away yesterday and today’s trip was meant to be a chance to see her before her passing, but I didn’t make it. So, in a swirl of emotions and the beginning of a new work week I’m struggling to meet deadlines and make flights and wondering why it’s all worth it.

Does my work even matter, from an eternal perspective? I’m then reminded that we humans are hardwired, created to seek connection, connection with others, connection with something bigger than ourselves. In that same way, our work as business owners and professionals has meaning as we seek and perfect the art of that connection. We strive to connect with our clients to provide them with the products, services and lives that they ultimately desire.

Modern marketing is all about connection and knowing your clients in order to best serve them with your unique talents and knowledge rather than creating a product or service in a vacuum and then finding the best gimmick to get others to pay for it. So, are you connecting well? We all can be better, I suppose! Here are a few tips that have worked for me and may help you strengthen your connection with clients, prospects and referral partners:

1. Be yourself – With the growth of digital marketing and social media, authenticity has become an important trait for today’s professionals. Try interjecting some more personality, humor and vulnerability into your messaging and allow that ‘connection’ to happen with your network.
2. Ask questions – So often we forget that the best way to connect with prospective clients is to stop talking and selling and start asking good questions and listening. We all want to be listened to! Most people ask questions and don’t listen to the answer, so be intentional in perfecting the art of active listening.
3. Go where your tribe is – Focus your best efforts on your target market, your ‘tribe,’ the people you connect with the easiest and most often. Not that you can’t sell or work with anyone outside your tribe, but if you focus your efforts on the folks you connect with the easiest, you will be more successful with less effort. An added bonus is that you’ll enjoy your work more too because you’ll be working with people you actually enjoy.

I recently read that one of the first commandments that God gave Adam (even before Eve and the apple happened) was to work (see Gen 2:15). Adam was told to work in the Garden and tend to the plants and animals, to provide for himself and his coming family. So, one could say that our work, our individual career ‘creation’ is the purest form of purpose, God given. So yes, even in times when life events and our families take precedence, it does not have to deplete or erase the importance of our work, our mission, to create connection with and for our clients and the communities around us.

Thank you for connecting with me today!

🙂 Melissa

(I love helping entrepreneurs and independent professionals build successful networks using social media and effective communication. If I can help you, please drop me a line.)