I’ve talked about this before. You. Me. Every person has three, count them 3 assets in life:
- Reputation
- Relationships
- Time
Reputation is earned – and can be rebuilt. Relationships ebb and flow. These are your renewable assets in life.
Time is non-renewable. Once it is wasted, it is gone. You can’t scramble to earn it back – or give it back.
Which is why I drone on about not wasting people’s time. Why VALUING their time by extensively preparing before reaching out, never asking someone a question you can find the answer to with a basic Google search…HOWEVER (you knew this was coming) don’t use the “savings of time” as the rational for not valuing (i.e. compensating) someone’s expertise aka reputation.
Organizers of paid for profit virtual conference and events can be notorious for this. Now that the speaker doesn’t have to travel….they should “give” their insights for free. Really??? Are conference attendees buying tickets to your event because they want to learn from someone you’ve lined-up or what…the event value rests on speaker content not mileage expense reimbursement. If the foundation of your business model is under-valuing the reputation of experts, disrupt yourself by re-thinking your business model.
The #BYDN bottomline is this:
Just because someone else can answer something quickly or find the answer faster or direct you to the answer – doesn’t mean you should ask them to provide you with the answer you need, unless and until you’ve put in the work by doing the work to show them YOU value their expertise or reputation or even better, both.
Continuing on the topic of online conferences and virtual events, check out the timely #BYDN podcast episode “How to Network at Online Conferences and Virtual Events“.
Find detailed show-notes for this episode of the podcast here on the #BYDN blog.
Want a copy of the networking checklist I created for the Women in Tech Summit? Find it here. Use this guide before your next online gathering to maximize your network building opportunities.
My #BYDN networking ask!
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