Networking at the Frog Pond

Darcy Rezac’s – The Frog and Prince

What does a frog pond have to do with building you support network?

Like the princess looking for her prince, you’ll have to kiss a lot of frogs to build a good network. And to find the frogs, you’ll need to hang out at ponds.

In Darcy Rezac’s book “The Frog and Prince”, Darcy talks about way to build and maintain your support network. With a “fun” backdrop of frogs, ponds, and insightful anecdotes, Darcy gives you plans and advice that should help you ribbet with the best of them – and avoid croaking.

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Easy to read

Darcy uses a relaxed tone in this book to talk about networking and learning how to network. Two topics that are easy to stress about.

I’ve previously given my simple rules for networking here – and one of the keys is to relax.

And that’s just what I did while reading stories about frogs and humorous tales of networking. Darcy relates otherwise stressful networking situations into frogs, frog politics, and funny frog situations.

When you’re done reading, you’ll start to see frogs in your own life and you’ll know the steps you can take!

Networking is for everybody

I’ll admit that I have friends who don’t think much of “networking” (heck, I probably have relatives who don’t think much of networking), but more often then not, their feelings are based on a bad impression left by someone who networks badly. The “Hi, how’ya doing? I sell insurance…” kind of networking that gets everyone to scurry…

Darcy explains that it doesn’t have to be that way – and with a little work, you can be singing with the frog chorus, helping others, building relationships, and having a good time at it.

Knowing what to do

Good networking isn’t always intuitive or easy. And while I don’t recall a class in “Networking” during my school days, it is something that can be learned through practice.

The chapters of the book lay out the who, what, where, when, and how very well – the key being that you have to start somewhere and you will get better as you continue to work at it.

Attitude of giving

Darcy emphasizes at the beginning of the book that you network by thinking of ways to help other people, not by thinking about what you will get.

He writes:

“When I first tell people that the most powerful secret of positive networking is discovering what you can do for someone else, I sometimes get skeptical looks. However, the responses after the idea settles in are quite amazing.” [Emphasis Darcy’s]

He takes it further:

Good things happen to good networkers and those they touch – because of what they put into their relationships.

This is another example of Give First Economics!

Permission to Network

One more point to make – if you understand that networking is about giving, it’s easy enough to extend that. When should you be giving? All the time! When should you be networking? All the time!

Give yourself permission to network (help others) in every situation you find yourself in.

When you look at it this way, it’s easy to understand why networking energizes others – and you’ll feel this way too.