Donna Fisher had written about networking already and wasn’t necessarily looking to write another book about it –— until Jerry Teplitz asked her to collaborate with him on an element of networking that had never been written about before.
The result was “Switched-on Networking: Balance your Brain for Networking Success,” a 253-page book that shows how to do Brain Gym exercises and movements combined with Fisher’s networking strategies to have a positive impact on your business success.
“In this book with Dr. Teplitz and the Brain Gym processes, he’s able to demonstrate very specific processes to assist people to switch their brain regarding any aspect of networking that’s been challenging, uncomfortable, difficult or awkward for them,” Fisher says. “So it does give a whole new element to it.”
Q. What is different about the approach you and Teplitz describe?
The idea is about balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain so you are working with the whole brain. Then you’re not just working logically or just working creatively with all aspects of the brain. The Switched-On part applies to the fact that we basically switch off that part of the brain that relates to some negative networking experience that we have.
So let’s say that we have a negative networking experience, or let’s say we really bought in to the idea that our parents told us not to talk to strangers. That’s in our brain, and that part of our brain possibly will override wise choices for common sense where we are in an environment to network, and it’s appropriate to meet someone new. The idea is to switch off that part of the brain that is causing us to relate to that past negative experience and switch it so that we become able to make wise, positive choices based on current information.
Q. Would people who are already familiar with networking find the techniques helpful?
I think it can be helpful to people at any level of networking. I just have this philosophy that we always have the opportunity to grow, learn and expand. We are learning more and more about the brain, how the brain works and how we can utilize that so the data is new information for a lot of people — for people who have been networking to be able to now apply that is a whole new thing.
Basically, the first half of the book is the brain optimization information. The second half is the networking skills information with the brain processes applied to each situation. For instance, one area is on how to approach people and how to have conversation. If people had difficulty in that area then they are told which brain process will help them best in switching that to a positive. So they are able to go through the process and the great thing is that people can say, ‘I’m already good at that, that’s not an issue for me,’ or then they can say, ‘Oh yeah, that shows up sometimes as an issue. I think about calling someone and then I talk myself out of it, or I think about going over to say hi to someone and then I avoid doing that, or I know it’s important to follow up right after I meet someone but I procrastinate.’ So they can see for themselves what are the areas that if this was switched for you, your networking would become easier, natural, effective and efficient.
Q. What is the major component that drives successful networking?
My thing all along, even before this book, has been to share information about networking so that people can have more fun with it. When they have more fun doing something, they are going to do more of it. Then they are going to get more value from it, and so are the people around them. Networking is not necessarily about meeting people. It’s very easy to meet a lot of people. But the thing is, are you connecting with people? So instead of thinking about meeting people, think about are you connecting with people, and what would have you connect with people more.
How to reach: Donna Fisher, (713) 789-2484 or www.DonnaFisher.com
