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1. Join groups and attend meetings.
2. Be a good listener. Utilize the 2-1 Rule: Try, by
pointed questions, to get to know essential infor-
mation about someone in two minutes. Give them,
in return, your own essential information in one
minute. Make your answer “low-key dazzling.”
That means you don’t oversell yourself, but you
don’t sell yourself short, either.
3. Follow up any contacts with e-mails or short notes.
4. Keep a record of every contact, and the information
you gleaned (e.g., family, kids, interests).
5. Prioritize contacts.
6. Don’t be a gadfl y. Only make occasional and appro-
priate contact.
7. If you run across an article online that might be
of interest to a contact, send the link to them.
8. If something big happens (a contract, a great re-
view, taking on an agent), let your contacts know.
But don’t tell them everything about your life.
9. In the words of Joseph Story, a former U.S. Supreme
Court Justice, “Be brief, be pointed, let your matter
stand lucid in order, solid and at hand; …”
10. Review your contacts list frequently, expand it
intentionally, and work it systematically.
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