This is a course about blogging. About writing from your computer.

And now, I'm going to tell you to get off it, to get outside, and to meet other people.

It is one of the crucial parts about getting new business.

We all hear about networking. Building your network.

And this isn't just about LinkedIn while that's important.

I want you to start thinking about relationships.

When you go out to that event and when you go out to that social gathering,

you want to meet as many people as possible

but don't just go out there and start, you know, throwing your business card around.

Actually make relationships with the people. Talk to them. Listen to them.

Hear what they have to say. You're going to go a long way if you listen to them.

Because they're going to remember you were that guy or girl who listened to them

rather than saying, "Hey, look at me! I'm doing all these great stuff."

I also would like to talk about the fact of thinking about

the different types of events you can go to.

Different? I call them beer and coffee events.

A coffee event is somewhere where you go maybe one on one.

You call up someone and say, "Hey, can we grab coffee?"

There's no set agenda. You're just building those relationships.

Maybe it's a followup to just someone you met at a bigger event.

The beer events as I'd like to call them are larger social gatherings.

It's not really intimate. There's a lot of people. It's usually louder and more going on.

It's harder to actually network close with somebody.

But you're going to meet a lot of different people and it's good to get out there

and hand that business card out and meet different people.

So the critical thing is, while technology enables us to connect with people around the world

from our computers, you must get away from the computer

and actually meet people face to face.

I always joked about how handshakes and hugs will trump shares and likes.

Keep that in mind. You're going to build this audience who are going to read your blog.

But the more you can meet these people face to face,

the better success you're going to have by getting business from your blog.

Get off the computer. Meet those people.