I walked into a Wilson coffee shop for a professional networking event dressed like I had a meeting on Wall Street.
Most of the room was casual, although one of our hosts, was dressed sharply enough that I was not entirely alone. I had simply done what I tend to do: showed up all the way.
I am Brooklyn-born, direct, talkative and still a little rough around the edges. I am not naturally quiet; anyone who meets me figures that out quickly, but I care just as much about hearing people’s stories as I do about telling my own. I listen, ask questions and catch the little details that help me understand what someone really does and what they may need.
That morning, one conversation connected my 25+ years in HR and payroll, my experience evaluating HR technology, and the sales instinct I developed during years of New York hustle. I did not walk into that coffee shop expecting it. I walked out with an actual business idea that has already led to more connections, and a meeting over coffee tomorrow morning that has nothing to do with it but may lead to another opportunity down the road.
That is the real power of networking. It is not about proving that you are the most impressive person in the room. It is bringing what you know, staying curious about what others know, and recognizing the moment when two professional paths unexpectedly meet.
Opportunity cannot knock if it does not know your address. My favorite verse in the Bible that always stood out me is simply this: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”-Matthew 7:7. I didn’t pay attention for a while, until the same teaching appeared years later in Luke 11:9. That’s a serious answer to a knock!
But honestly, sometimes you have to put on the suit, walk into the room and introduce yourself.
