Evan Carmichael is a media guru. He is the face of a YouTube channel that is watched by millions. He hosts a workshop in Toronto where he teaches 25-30 people in person how to create content. But how does he define himself? “Introvert.”
Evan explained during my recent interview with him in Toronto.
“I’m an introvert. I don’t do networking super well. I do it through what I know. For example, Youtube. I’ve helped a lot of the big names in the thought leadership space with their channels. The what I know created the leverage to create the who I know.”
“The what I know created the leverage to create the who I know.”
He went on to offer several steps for introverts to network successfully. I’ve broken them down for this article.
Evan Carmichael’s Networking Strategies for Introverts
#1. SPEAK AT EVENTS
“I speak at events. So, I speak and then people come and talk to me after. I’m not going up to them.”
#2. WEAR BRANDED GEAR
“Whenever I’m at an event, I always wear my branded gear. So, if it’s an entrepreneur event or youth event, people will recognize it. I’ve got ‘Evan Carmichael – Believe’ on the back [of my sweatshirt] and then the airplane.
So it’s like, ‘I’ve seen that somewhere.’ And then people come up and they say, ‘Are you that guy?’ And that creates a conversation.”
#3. WEAR AN ITEM THAT DRAWS ATTENTION
“If I didn’t [have branded gear], then I would try to have something that would bring attention to myself. People always ask me about my shoes – these Japanese wrap shoes. So doing something so that people will come to me instead of me reaching out. So whether you like cowboy hats or some crazy jersey or chains or whatever, wear something that creates conversation to make it easy for people to find you.
“…wear something that creates conversation to make it easy for people to find you.”
#4. BE IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM
“I always go to the middle of the busiest room and I don’t talk to anybody. I pull up my phone and I start doing Instagram video DMs, and what it does is it creates energy. So instead of being at the back of the room on the phone or in my room, I go to the middle of the room and I’ll just start doing Instagram video DMs.”
“instead of being at the back of the room on the phone or in my room, I go to the middle of the room “
Now, I get a lot of people DM-ing me, but maybe you don’t have a lot of people following. Maybe you have fifty. Awesome. Make a video message for all of your fifty. Say, ‘Hey Jim, thank you so much for following me. I really appreciate it.’ It raises your energy, people see it. As soon as I’m done doing one of the messages, invariably somebody’s going to come up and talk to me afterwards. That gives permission to create the conversation.”
“The hardest part is probably creating the conversation. Going up and approaching, to me, sounds terrifying. So I do it through marketing. I do it through speaking. I do it through branding. I do it through having something unique. I do it through raising my energy with the video DMs. These are specific tactics that people can leverage so that people come and find you. Cause if you’re buried in the corner at the event, head down, nothing exceptional will happen. Nobody’s gonna want to talk to you and then you’ll probably leave after 45 minutes and say, ‘This sucks and I wasted my money coming here’ and all that kind of stuff.”
What do you think about Evan’s advice? What’s your strategy for networking? Let me know in the comments below!
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