An introvert's guide to networking | Rick Turoczy | TEDxPortland

Talk about experiences you are not prepared for. You may not know it, but you're sitting in the middle of one of the most amazing and vibrant startup communities in the United States, and it's not just tech startups every day in every corner of Portland. people are reconsidering reinventing and innovating any number of products through clothing bicycling donuts banking saw some innovation in donuts this morning donate inside a donut pretty innovative education healthcare nonprofits we even have people innovating on how Companies can better collaborate with local government I try and track and promote all of this as best I can, but a lot of this is grassroots and hard to track, so it makes sense that when people look to get involved in the startup community they end up finding the way to me.

Rick Taurasi and while helping the people of Portland connect isn't in my job description, it's the work I do every day. I am not alone, there are many of us working on this effort to build a community, it is not an easy job and we have to do it. do it anyone can do it literally anyone I know because I'm probably the last person on earth that anyone would choose to do this job I'm not an extrovert I'm not an extrovert and meeting new people makes me extremely uncomfortable I think it's probably the best way to give To give you a glimpse of the personality I have, is to take you back and introduce you to my best friend from kindergarten every day.

The first thing I did when I got to school was find my best friend as soon as we met. we would immediately hide in this little tent in the corner of the classroom just the two of us, we are practically inseparable and we would spend hours in that tent just me and my best friend golden walnut now this was the Montessori school, I understand that parents can be a little creative with the names, but look, golden walnut was not one of those creative names for boys, I think you see where I'm going because my best friend in kindergarten was actually a solid friend of walnut, although seriously at that time so.

We've referred to that type of behavior as being shy today we see it more as being an

introvert

clearly pretty aggressive

introvert

no offense nut so it's true if someone who prefers to hang out in a tent with a nut can make this work of community building with enough confidence. You can also do this community work even if you're an introvert like me because introverts are counterintuitively really good at these things. I think it's because we're comfortable with being uncomfortable, we've gotten used to being in uncomfortable situations because for us every interaction with another human being is pretty uncomfortable, introverted or not.

I have found through my experience that it is easier for anyone to meet face to face because it is not as scary as a group of people. By the way, as scary as attending an event. Hello to all the introverts watching the live stream right now. I see them and now I can, for the first time in history, confirm that meeting face to face is not so scary. being alone on stage talking to 3000 people. I called these individual meetings collecting points. in collecting points. I get to meet new people with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives.

I can get out of my comfort zone. zone and I am better, at best, I can capture points that have the potential to benefit other points that I have managed to collect. Now being an introvert is not the only reason why people avoid connecting with the startup community sometimes it is because they think that they don't do startups or that they don't have anything valuable to add, but the fact that you don't do startups is exactly what that makes your ideas valuable. The startup community has added more than enough of our own echo chamber, what is needed. now there are new opinions, a diversity of ideas and people with new and new experiences and backgrounds, not more of the same because unfortunately I think it's pretty obvious where that more of the same behavior has taken us.

Collecting points can be time-consuming, but it can be done. If the most efficient people tend to open up about the food they just had for lunch, you've probably talked to a lot of people over meals, it's the family dinner dynamic or the watering hole effect, and in my experience, a cup of coffee is the smallest possible instantiation of that dynamic. for the shortest period of time, a cup of coffee helps people open up, it helps us as humans connect and connect faster, so building a community, collecting points can happen simply and quickly, while we drink A cup of coffee and someone to have it with is the best of all. helps you both collect the point so efficiently but still intimidating because a lot of people care about providing value during that short period of time of the coffee meeting, so let's be honest, most people I've had a coffee meeting they are told that I am completely useless.

In 99.9% of the coffee meetings I have, I mean, I listen, I drink my coffee, I ask some questions and sure every now and then I have an idea or something that may be valuable, but that is a rarity and it is good because collecting the points isn't even the most valuable part of building a community for me, it's the hardest part, but not the most valuable. The real value comes long after you've consumed caffeine, potentially days or weeks after you've had that meeting. The real magic happens when I have the opportunity to step back and reflect on that point after reflection, that point gains context, gains connections, begins to provide value to all the other points.

I see that it is no longer a single point of reference, now you could say. Those connections, aren't they common sense? Talking a lot about common sense here, my perspective on common sense is that common sense isn't common, frankly, it's just common to you, so it makes a lot of sense to me why I need to hook up the former project manager. management at a huge multinational corporation with the founder of a small local blockchain company to me, I can see why I need to connect the dot that is struggling with rethinking venture capital with the dot that is successfully churning up extravagant flavors of ice cream, those connections are It's obvious to me and because of your unique experience, because of what you focus on day in and day out, because of your points, you can see connections that I can't see, someone else can see connections that neither you nor I can see. but to them it is obvious that this is how community is built by connecting the dots that only you can see, but this does not happen naturally, if we leave it to nature, it will not happen as fast as we need it to. it doesn't happen at all building a community is artificial there is absolutely nothing natural about this especially for an introvert like me and despite what we have been taught not everything artificial is bad sometimes humans come up with some pretty artificially amazing things, like coffee and golden nuts, so that's enough. of the talk and enough of the theory, let's be tactical if this struck a chord with you and you really want to get started.

I don't know, maybe you're an extrovert or something. I don't understand you, but I understand everything I ask of you. What you have to do is just schedule a coffee meeting with a new person, just go get a new dog, but if that seems like too much, trust me, I get it. All I ask is that you simply say yes to the following coffee invitation. say yes and you will still manage to collect too No, you both will, that's all you have to do to build a community, the reflections and the connections, you will find out.

I am sure, in fact, I am convinced that at this moment, every person. in this audience with your existing points you know someone that someone else should know and you are the only person who can make that connection because you are the only person who can see that connection because to you it is common sense so let's use your common sense. and your common sense and common sense to collect and connect those dots and build a better, more united community for all of us, two cups of coffee at a time, thank you.