📌 Networking events can be a real waste of time if you aren't deliberate with your words. You might be thinking, I already know how to introduce myself - you don't, unless you've written it down, crafted it, edited it, and rehearsed it ad nauseam.

Steps to follow:

Write down single-sentence answers to the following questions:
〰️ What do you do for a living?
〰️ What is the highest priority project you're working on right now?
〰️ What do you need the most help with right now?
〰️ What do you love to talk about, or know more about than most people?

Craft your introduction by stringing the first two sentences together, then finessing them so they don't sound like a robot wrote them.

Here's mine:

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Hi! I'm Mallory. I'm the founder of a paid virtual community called The Old Girls Club, and I lead community-led growth for Mercury (banking for startups).

Right now, I'm really focused on meeting high-impact women to invite to my community, and on designing and building a scaled program to help more founders build successful companies.

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Craft a few go-to questions or statements to weave into networking conversations to achieve real ROI from brief encounters, focusing on getting what you need and finding others with shared interests:

Here are some examples I use:

I love meeting people like you who have spent a lot of time with early stage founders - what do you find they need the most help with?
I'm always looking for more high achieving women to bring in to my community - do any come to mind that I should meet?
Have you seen any interesting companies building in the gender equity, social interaction or education access spaces lately?

Go forth and network efficiently!