Mark: This is Dr. Mark Page, I’m the founder of 5 Star Genius. I’m honored to have with me
as my guest today the award-winning designer of the Network 360 mobile app Melina Shaw.
Welcome, Melina.
Melina: Thank you so much. It’s so great to talk with you, Dr. Mark. Thank you for having me.
Mark: Now, a lot of people might think that networking maybe is kind of hard and that you already have to be involved or know everyone for
it to work. Would that be an accurate assumption?
Melina: I mean, yes, it definitely can be. I think networking comes naturally for certain people, and I
think for other people it takes practice to make it perfect.
Mark: Do you think it really is possible for a business to grow just by networking?
Melina: Of course, most definitely.
Mark: So now maybe how can someone who sort of is kind of shy sort of maybe succeed at
networking?
Melina: It’s this really simple foundation of getting familiar with the events going on in the valley and
being prepared of walking to an event and approaching people. I think once you are comfortable
with approaching people and getting the foundation of starting a conversation, it can lead to many
different avenues.
Mark: I think for a lot of people it’s … They’re all there for networking, so to kind of just walk up and
start talking, it’s okay, well, they kind of expect it because you’re networking.
Melina: Exactly. That’s definitely true.
Mark: Can you maybe give an example of how a person can attend a networking event and maybe
join in the conversation without feeling kind of dorky?
Melina: I think the best way to answer that is when you’re walking to a
networking event, you want to know who is going to be there. You want to feel the room out. You
want to look around and see who is standing where and what conversations are going around, and
you almost kind of want to walk the room, and you almost want to take in different conversations
from different points of the room. A lot of times people are very scared to interrupt a conversation,
but at a networking event, you kind of have to do that to interact. I think the first part of walking
through a room, you want to ask people who they are and what they do, and that will generally lead
back to you. People are going to ask you exactly who you are and what you do, so it’s kind of like a
circle effect.
Mark: When you are kind of walking around the room, is there some advice that you have about kind
of breaking the ice or how to kind of maybe make an interruption when, again, you may be a little
shy, maybe just getting started out with this. You’ve been doing it for a while, but is there kind of a
little piece of advice that how to get somebody to kind of just go for it?
Melina: I guess the best advice I could give is you know your business and you know what you’re
looking for, and it’s almost like you want to walk into a room and you want to create friendships. At
the end of the day, you don’t want to walk into rooms selling anything right off the bat. You almost
want to sell yourself before you’re selling your products or your service. I say that because a lot of
times people come up to me and they just throw their business card at my face without telling me
who they are as a person and why they’re there at the event. I guess the best feedback I can give to
anybody as they’re networking is, you know, walk into a room and you’re looking to create
friendships. That’s really the foundation of what networking starts at.
Mark: If I have a business and some employees, would it be okay if they went instead of me? Would
that be a good way to do it?
Melina: Absolutely. I mean an employee can definitely … I mean, if you’re talking about you owning
your own business and you’re sending out people under you, I mean absolutely. If they could attend
… Depending on how many employees you have, you can send one to one event and another to
another event, but I think in that circumstances, it’s better to do that because you can have one
person focusing on one of your products or one of your services while the other employee is
branding or focusing on another product or service. A lot of times you don’t want one person to walk
into a room and hit somebody with A, B, C, D, E.
You almost want to walk into a room and say this is what I do, and this is why, and I’d like to get to
know you better and see how I can brand this product with you. Yeah, if you have employees under
you, it’s definitely probably the better route, and you can probably work with each one of them
saying you’re going to go to this event, you’re going to focus on this product, and this service only,
and as for the other employee, you’re going to go to this event and focus on the other product and
the other service.
Mark: To kind of get you spread out to more and more people so more people find out about you?
Melina: Right, and that’s another positive way to look at it.
Mark: Alright, so you’ve won some awards with your mobile application there. Congratulations.
