Does Meeting Everyone You Want to Meet at a Party HAVE to be called Working A Room?
I’m not sure when it happened for me…oh hang on! I know exactly when it happened….I know the moment Making Friends and Having a Blast at a party became “Working a Room”!
It was at Sundance Film Festival. I was there for the second time in 1997! I was having an absolute BLAST! I was helping out with the It Photographer for the Fest, and getting in to all the best parties and Movie Premiers. I was going to the parties after the movies where everyone talks about how great the movie was and eats great food and waits for the big party of that particular night to kick off.
At this particular party, I was doing what I always did…going all around the room, talking to just about everyone, not handing out business cards and not asking for them. I was just making friends the way I did it…with anyone who seemed interesting. I was having an absolute B L A S T ….
and then…I scootched up to visit with the friend by whose invitation I was there, at Sundance. He was, he said, in awe. I didn’t understand. In awe of what? ..so I asked him and he said, “I’ve never seen anyone work a room like you!’
I didn’t know what that was, but I wasn’t sure I liked it, though I’m pretty sure my friend meant it as a compliment. It halfway felt like a compliment, but what I was doing wasn’t “working” at all…at least not for me. But from that day on…I felt like when I started circulating around the room to meet everyone…and do what used to be “making friends” …now suddenly, I was WORKING. ICK.
And that is how it has stayed for me, until TODAY!
There is no reason I can’t continue on as I did then, having fun meeting everyone in the room. No reason whatsoever. I don’t NEED to carry business cards. I don’t NEED to collect them. None of us do..all we NEED to do is float, smile, have fun and connect. And really…we don’t even NEED to do that…but if we WANT to “work a room” without WORKING…then that’s what we can do. Just Float.
For me, this somehow shakes off that crazy feeling that for all these years really shook up the way I connect with people. Setting out into a room full of potential clients, customers, …now returns to being a room full of potential FRIENDS. …DARN! You know…THAT is what has been missing for me ever since I reclassified what I was doing based upon ONE COMMENT by a friend…even though it was meant as a compliment…(and I’ve used it as such and posted it as a testimonial) …but it’s not really what I enjoy doing...I don’t ENJOY “working a room”…not at all! But I DO RELISH making as many new friends as I can at every fun event that I go to!
I think one way to assure this is carrying fewer business cards, (if any at all!) and also, to not search out one person over another. Connect with those whom appeal to me…reach out to those who spark my desire to meet them…and let everyone else flow by me. Just Have Fun. Do it the way that FEELS GOOD!
Yeah, I know…funny how I always come back to that, isn’t it! hehe
All my love, Laughter and Joy,
Heidi
Heidi & Co - Joy Injection 
