How to go from "stranger" to "friend" in sixty seconds flat!

Do you dread going to your next business networking mixer? Don’t know anyone when you walk in the room? Do you feel like standing in a corner, holding your drink, waiting for the right moment to bolt out the door?

When I recently made a very quick move across the country for urgent family reasons, I found myself in a new city with no clients, no connections, no friends, business or social, and no network. I was on my own, having to rebuild a whole new client base from scratch.

With my bank balance quickly disappearing, and not wanting to get a “real” job (gasp!), I decided to focus on building, from a standing start, a network of friends that could help me in finding clients for my business. And I had to do this fast!

In doing so, I quickly realized that there are four principles to quickly turn “strangers” into “friends”: