When you’re having a blast zip lining down a gorgeous mountain, the LAST thing you want to think about is networking, right?
Wrong. And I have quite a story to prove it.
Our family spent a week vacationing in Costa Rica last winter, and we booked a zip line experience for one afternoon. A zip line is a long cable, sometimes running as far as ¼ mile, which tourists snap onto and ride to experience both the thrill of the ‘zippy’ ride and the scenery they’re zipping through.
On our zip line experience, there were 7 cables going down the mountain, and it took a couple of hours to complete them all and get back to the main building. Much of that time is spent waiting in line for your turn on the next cable. So we struck up a conversation with some people next to us in line, including a family from Los Angeles.
My daughter Kelly was talking about her job first job out of college, in the communications department of a major university. When she found out the family was from Los Angeles, she waxed eloquent about how much she’d LOVE to move to LA, and would enjoy the challenge of working in private industry rather than a university setting.
After each zip line down the mountain, the conversation would resume. It turns out the husband-wife from the family we were talking with owned a small business. Kelly wasn’t trying to ‘sell’ them, she was just engaging them with her experiences, in a relaxed setting. She can be a very compelling and animated presenter, and as we neared the end of our adventure I looked back to see a semi-circle of people a bit spell-bound by her as she held forth.
A few days later, she flew back to resume work at the university. The first day back, the phones were very busy with students calling with various admissions-related questions. Kelly happened to pick up a call, and the caller asked for Kelly by name. The caller said, “This is _______, do you remember meeting us on the zip line tour last week?” which of course Kelly did.
The caller continued, “Well, afterwards my husband and I talked…and our company does have a job opening—we thought you would be a perfect fit for it…if you’d be interested.” Kelly did her homework, flew to LA to meet the company principals (again) and other employees.
She’s now the director of marketing for this small but successful company, all because of a conversation on a zip line tour. That’s the power of networking, and illustrates how you never know what a simple conversation—in ANY setting—can lead to. In the business networking world, the “3 foot rule” is often cited, meaning that if you’re standing within 3 feet of someone, try to engage them. It may be just a small talk conversation, but a simple ‘what do you do?’ can sometimes lead to a valuable relationship.
In Kelly’s case, it led to a 3,000 mile relocation and a life-changing event…to a job she loves, in a location she loves. In other words, it was a conversation well worth having.