428 - Do you know how to network professionally?

It's only been a few months since I was invited to a new online networking meeting with a group out of Australia called BX Networking.

I expected it to be like every other business networking where you meet and greet, give your "Elevator Pitch", listen to a 10 minute presentation and pass business referrals.

Instead, it was all about relationship building. Others talk about it, BX Networking has it at its core.

@Matt Alderton, CEO and Founder, has grown BX Networking into the largest networking organization in Australia and New Zealand.

Now they are branching out globally and it's spreading like wildfire.

I attended the first ever BX Networking event on US soil, right here in Austin, Texas.

From the moment I walked in, I felt embraced and welcomed.

It was such a joy to meet people I had met on LinkedIn and only seen on zoom meetings.

@Matthew Pollard, Best Selling Author of The Introverts Edge brought BX to the US, together with Matt Alderton and @Terry Burgan, BX's Sales and Marketing Director.

They brought us the next generation of business networking.

BX expands further than the traditional networking where the main focus is on the initial referral and closed business.

Another unique aspect is to ask yourself who you can help today, rather than wondering who will buy from you,

In every meeting you also have three 1-2-1s (one-to-one) where you meet with another attendee face to face for 10 minutes.

The focus on those meetings is to help the other person.

Change the way you think about networking.

Genuinely meet people and focus on how you can help them.

The room was so much more alive with people wanting to help each other.

Do you know how to network professionally?