Networking Events are a Petri Dish of Serendipity

I used to go to a lot of networking events. And networking events were very stressful for me. Very stressful, in fact, to the point when I first got into real estate. Now, before this, I built a couple of businesses that didn’t require me to go to networking events. It was very simple just to build a business, go get customers, right? But real estate is this activity that requires you to know people. You have to like, the more people you know, the more likely you are to make money to get deals coming your way in real estate. And so I had to learn networking, and I remember having so much anxiety induced stress whenever it came to going to these events. Truly, here’s an embarrassing story, and it might be hard to believe if you watch me now and you think, oh, he’s very good on camera, he’s very good at public speaking on stages and all that stuff.

You think, I’m going to be an extrovert, and I’m just naturally this way. The truth is, I’m not. This is a skill that I’m practicing, that I’m honing, that I’m getting better at over time. But in the beginning, it wasn’t this way. And when I would go to networking events, it would cause me so much anxiety that more than one time, more than once, I would drive across town to the networking event, and I would sit in the parking lot in my car for 20 minutes, and then I would turn around and I would go home. I wouldn’t even go in, I wouldn’t even talk to people. I would just sit in my car at the parking lot of the event, and I would count that as a win. I’d said, you know what? I got here.

I came here. This was good enough for today. We’re going back. Now. Obviously, that didn’t move any needles forward in my businesses, but did for me, because it was like, gradually getting me closer and closer. Now, as I started working up the confidence to go into the networking events, I started setting the goals very, very low. And I said, I’m just gonna spend ten minutes in there. I’m gonna try and meet one person.

Ten minutes in there, meet one person. That’s very doable, right? And then as time goes on, I started to get more and more comfortable, and I could stay longer, and I can meet more people. But this is all to say that it was very, very stressful for me. Now, I, having been on the back end of going to these events, I see the value of them, not just within real estate, but within everything that you do as an entrepreneur. As a business owner, if you’re trying to grow, if you’re trying to get around other people who are thinking very like minded, you can expand your skills, or maybe partnerships, maybe you’re looking for potential partners or potential clients like you go to these events for that. I think there’s a lot of value there. And the frame that I want to share with you today is the petri dish of serendipity. This is how I think about networking events and events and conferences and everything like that, because when I go to an event now, somebody asked me the other day, he goes, what do you hope to get out of this event? And I said, well, I consider these networking events to be a petri dish of serendipity, which simply means I don’t know what I’m going to get out.
But I know by being here, I’m exposing myself to that opportunity. And if I wasn’t here, there is no opportunity to be had. There is no probability of fortune smiling kindly on me. By being here, I put myself in the arena. I put myself in the way of luck perhaps occurring. And that’s how I think about these events. Now, the petri dish of serendipity, I got this concept when I was reading about, oh, I forget his name. That was Alexander Fleming, I can’t remember.
He was a biologist who discovered penicillin by accident. When he went on vacation, he left his petri dish of this bacteria out, and then when he came back, a mold had formed and it was eating all the bacteria. And next thing you know, penicillin, voila. So the petri dish of serendipity came about because he left his petri dishes out and he got really lucky. Sometimes that happens. And so I want you to think about that in your own life. When you’re, if you’re thinking about networking events or just in general, how are you stepping into different petri dishes of serendipity? And I’ll share with you what I consider to be the most powerful, most potent petri dish of all, that everybody listening to this needs to take advantage of. It is social media.

It is putting out content just like this, the content that you’re consuming on this podcast or if you’re watching it on YouTube, this is exposing you to opportunity. It is putting you in the way of serendipity, perhaps occurring, but that only occurs if you’re actually creating content and sharing it about what you do, about how you can help people. And then by reaching out to people in the DM’s, this is how you grow a business in 2024 and if you’re not doing that, you’re leaving money on the table. You’re leaving opportunity on the table. So what I want you to think about today is what are you going to do to maximize your probability of serendipity being introduced into your life? How will you step into the petri dish today? I want you to think about that and I want you to go act on that. Go drive across town, sit in the parking lot if that’s what it is. Go on social media and create an account. Create an Instagram account that you don’t tell anybody about and make a post.

Just dip your toes into the water. I promise you, if you do this consistently, you will develop the skill. It won’t be so bad. But on a long enough timeframe, you will have untold opportunities come to you. I promise you. You just have to believe me long enough for you to see the proof in the actions and then you can have the belief yourself. Now that’s going to do it from you guys and gals. I’ll see you guys in the next episode.

But until then, stay hyper focus, my friends.