Talk. Connect. Grow.

You show up at a networking event, ready to expand your professional circle. But as you start chatting, it feels like everyone has the same agenda: sell, sell, sell. Business cards are flying, elevator pitches are rehearsed to perfection, and you can tell when someone’s just waiting for their turn to talk. But what if networking didn’t have to be that way? What if, instead of seeing every conversation as a transaction, you asked yourself one simple question: “How can I help this person?”

I still remember the first networking event I attended after moving to Saratoga. It was late summer, 2021. I had my stack of business cards and a rehearsed elevator pitch. I shook hands, exchanged cards, and moved on—boom, another name in my contact list. By the end of the night, I’d “met” 20 people. But how many did I actually remember? Or, better yet, how many of them actually remembered me? And on top of all of that, would they want to do business with me?? Here’s the spoiler — none of them did. But now I know why…

Are résumés dead? Of course not. Not by a long shot. But even with the right experience, skills, and a shiny polished CV, you’re faced with the same reality—résumés don’t open doors. People do. Set the time machine back to March of 2014, and I had just been laid off from a company where I had spent the previous 9 years. Like a bucket of cold water. I was suddenly in job-hunting mode, scrolling through listings and sending out applications because it was now, very literally, my new full-time job. But the opportunity that actually led to my next step? It didn’t come from a job board—it came from a player on my YMCA hockey team.