Excuse me while I hop on my soapbox, for a moment.

(Delicious, luxurious, vanilla-cake-batter scented soap, of course 😉

If you feel like you’re investing a ton of time + energy into “networking” — but none of it’s translating into new clients or sales — I have a really simple question for you:

Are you networking with your peers … or your customers?

‘Cause 99% of the time, they are NOT the same peeps.

Spending $500 a year on a membership to your local Professional Association of Certified Whatevers… is networking with your peers.

Hanging out on blogs (or community forums) written by + for life coaches, when YOU are a life coach, too… is networking with your peers.

Going to a conference on graphic design, put on by leading designers, for other designers… is networking with your peers.

None of those things are “bad.” At all.

They’re just not the best ways to get in front of the people who actually want to HIRE you + BUY your stuff.

It’s kinda like being an actor, hanging out in the Green Room backstage, chilling with fellow thespians, snacking on sliced cheese + grapes, swapping gossip about who booked what role, and who’s hooking up with who. Fun? Sure. Profitable? Not really.

Your audience is waiting out in the theater. Not backstage in the chill-out lounge.

And that is all I have to say … about that.

Soapbox moment = complete.

Now, action time!

I want you to start networking — online + offline — in a more productive way.

And I have a solution that’s redonkulously easy.

Call or email one of your all-time favorite clients — you know, the one you wish you could clone, seventy times — and ask them:

Where do you hang out? Which blogs do you read, which podcasts do you download, which conferences do you go to, which clubs do you belong to?

Grab a list of their favorite spots. And start showing up … THERE.

Repeat this with a couple more all-star clients, until you’ve got a brand-new shortlist of hang-outs. Places to pitch yourself as a guest writer. Places to pop onto the airwaves. Places to apply to be a speaker. Places to advertise, if that’s your jam.

Start doing this, and I guarantee … your networking will start to pay off.

p.s. As a little Halloween treat, check out this Sexy Pumpkin Manifesto I coerced my student & sexy sentence slinger Jamie Jensen into making. 🙂