Winter – a time for hibernating: staying indoors, rugged up, pining for summer, looking out over your dead, lifeless garden…or is it? In fact, gardeners know that despite appearances, their gardens are not dead at all over winter – they’re simply resting, generating the energy to burst back into life with a vengeance come spring. That’s why green-fingered experts use the winter as a time to cultivate, not hibernate. A time to put in the planning, preparation and pre-work to make sure their gardens bloom beautifully in the months ahead.
Winter networking
I love gardening (despite living in an apartment!) and of course I love networking, and it occurred to me that there are a lot of similarities – many of the tasks we do in the garden over winter have their equivalent in networking.
Here’s my top five ways you can use the winter period to prep for a glorious spring of networking and get your business blooming and booming.
- Reflect and plan – the most important lesson about winter gardening is to realise that the garden is not dead. It’s simply taking a break from growing – it’s re-energising. This is therefore the time to reflect and plan – how do I want my garden to look in the spring? What plants do I love and want more of? What layout do I want – new beds here? A shrub there?In networking, we also need to take this time to re-energise. Winter can be a great time to look back at the past year and understand where we made our best connections, which networking activities generated the best relationships, and what do we want more of – or do differently – in the year ahead?
- Get out into the garden – of course it’s very tempting to stay under the doona in winter, but great gardeners get outdoors, even when it’s dark and cold, and use the time to prepare for spring.In networking, dark mornings may make us feel more inclined to sleep in rather than get out for some early morning connections. But true networkers realise that networking is an all year round commitment and that it’s so important to put in that prep work even when it is cold and dark outside. At Fresh, we run events over the winter – like our Speed Networking – to help encourage you ‘out into the garden’ to keep up the good work even when the nights are long and there’s a chill in the air.
- Do the groundwork – for gardeners, winter is the time to do all the prep work for a glorious spring and summer. It could be mulching and feeding to protect and nourish the soil, clearing away dead leaves and debris, or pruning dormant trees and shrubs.How can we learn from this as networkers? Quieter times over winter are a great opportunity to nurture and feed our relationships. Long-time Freshie Ben Mitchell, uses the winter season to call all his customers, to keep connections alive. Maybe you could use the winter to work on your newsletter, so that you stay uppermost in the minds of your connections.
The networking equivalent of keeping the dead leaves and weeds at bay is to protect our mindset, keeping negativity under control. Pruning may mean a commitment to spending less time with the connections that simply take without giving, or on activities that don’t generate positive outcomes.
- Sow the seeds – gardeners know that unless they plant or sow in winter, there’ll be no show in spring and summer.It’s the same in business – what we sow now, we reap later. As a travel agent, my customers are not going places so much in the winter, so I use the time to promote trips for the summer and stimulate interest in early bird offers. I know I’m sowing seeds now that will flower in the spring.
- Clean and sharpen your tools – gardeners rely on having the right tools. They use winter to sharpen their shears, service the lawnmower and tidy up the toolshed.
In networking, your most powerful tools are your pitch and your presentation. How long is it since you reviewed them to make sure they’re still hitting the spot and helping you to create great connections? If you’re new to Fresh, have you attending the Fresh Academy training on pitches and presentations yet?
Gardening is all about knowing your seasons and which jobs to do when. Winter can be seen as the ‘dead’ season, but those in the know realise it’s the time of year for doing the vital jobs that ensure that spring and summer are full of fruit and flower.
So know your networking seasons – and use the quieter times to do the prep work for growth. If you do a little every day, come spring, your networking garden will be blooming with great connections.
