At the top of today's agenda was the goal to exercise these three basic rules:
"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.
If you don't ask, the answer is always no.
If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place." ~ Nora Roberts
So this morning I spent a few hours distributing my resume and pitching my elevator speech to 10 IT service providers/computer repair shops in Traverse City -- this was cold networking without job leads. Sure, it's a scary prospect going into a place and selling myself; but what did I have to lose except a few minutes of my pride? In the words of the Chinese proverb, "One who asks is a fool for five minutes; one who doesn't, remains a fool forever." After a few pitches, my delivery was very polished. Good practice for interviewing in the very least!
Well this afternoon, I received a call from one of the IT providers to schedule an interview with me Wednesday, YAY! This "fool" just landed an interview :)
P.S. A couple weeks ago during an interview with local phone company for an Network Operations Specialist, I was asked how I felt about cold calling. My reply was this:
If you had asked me a couple years ago, my response would be to crawl and whimper into the nearby corner. But now, having launched my own self-sustaining business, I've approached the cold call with a different mentality. I believe in my product (myself) and am passionate my service (computer repair), and as such, I know I have the zest, energy, confidence and charisma to confidently pitch my elevator speech to anyone. If the answer is "no thank-you", I don't take it personally. I'm learning that if I don't ask, the answer is always "no"...I'm find out that as I ask, sometimes the answer is "yes"!
