i'm katrina seti and i'm dr greta d this is leader lab welcome back to leader lab where we're focused on networking yes and i think today's topic is talking about the elephant in the room do you like networking not a lot of people do you think about how uncomfortable networking actually is and when you actually go to an event whether it's in person or virtual it's awkward you're like well what questions do i ask who do i talk to how do i make an impact in such a short period of time what do you think greta oh yeah i'm the same way i'm not a big fan of networking it causes me a lot of anxiety it's usually anxiety leading up to the event like i'm fine once i'm in it once i'm having the conversation but it's all the what-ifs prior to the conversation starting with someone exactly and so we want to do something to help us strengthen our ability to network in those moments and one simple thing we can do is set a smart goal what we know about smart goals is that they're specific measurable actionable realistic and time-bound so set a small goal that you can rely on in the moment and that might be a stretch goal for you or it might be a very tiny tiny goal that's really doable for you specifically so for instance it could be a stretch goal meaning you walk away from an event with two people's emails that you're gonna connect to the next time around or it could be very small to the point where your goal is to just ask one person one question where did you grow up that could be that simple right so set one small smart goal to help you strengthen your network i love it i love it and that's something that i do currently so for me it's all about just doing it and so i need to set my goals around what do i need to accomplish so each month i focus on three internal conversations that i need to have and three external conversations that i need to have inside my company and outside and just setting that goal helps push me past that initial anxiety and worry about all the what-ifs that are running through my mind i love it it helps us to focus on what's important that one goal so that we can strengthen our network what's going to be your one goal your small smart goal see you next time on leaderlab