Sharing the love.

In his books, Love is the killer app and The likeability factor, author and speaker Tim Sanders makes an enormous point about the importance of, in his own words: “sharing the love”.
According to Sanders, to “Share the love” means, sharing your knowledge and experience and your network with the people around you.

A concept that not only I, but the millions of people who in the last few years have become part of the conversation by writing a blog or reading and commenting on a few of these, or by creating a personal profile in a social network, or by producing or listening to different podcasts agree with. Do you up load and watch videos in YouTube? Then you too have joined the conversation.

But there is also another somewhat forgotten or better said underestimated form of connecting with people: meeting them face to face by participating in different events, workshops, conferences and seminars in which besides communicating our ideas, we can learn a lot from what others have to say too.
It’s in these occasions that the door is completely open to establish a real connection with people. You may not be able to connect with the entire audience sometimes, but be it by being a speaker, an instructor or part of the audience if you can connect with at least one person with whom you can share your experience and learn from theirs, or help him/her by putting her in touch with the right person within your network, then your day’s job is done.

I must confess that due to my job I have the enormous fortune of doing this all the time.
Just in the last to weeks alone I had the chance to collaborate with three different groups:

First, by delivering a keynote about on-line marketing at Monster.com’s global leadership conference.

Then a week later as an instructor and host of the Agency training seminar we do at Google Mexico.

And finally, as a co-host in a conference about the importance of On-line Marketing in the travel industry in Mexico.

An all three were great!

It’s really incredible the level of interaction and the dialog you can achieve when you participate at this type of events. The possibility of connecting with greatly talented people is huge and, as it frequently happens, a well leveraged opportunity will always lead to a new and better one; and the doors you open to and for others will always open both ways.

But beware though. This is not about preaching how much you know or bragging about your big list of “vip” contacts. Someone who assumes such a position is not really open to conversation and is not opening his eyes, ears, mind and heart to really listen, learn and understand what others too have to say.

And one cannot really share this way.