Question 163: Yesterday you said to meet 100 people. How do you maintain all of those relationships?

Ah, great question! So you're at the DV Expo in September, you meet 300 people over the course of the 3 days, and from those, keep 100 cards because they are the people you "connected with." Now it's time to maintain the relationships. The key is to break it down into manageable chunks.

Here is a 7-step plan:

1. Take a few moments after meeting someone to write down personal notes on his/her card so you can easily remember what to refer back to.

2. Compose a general "nice to meet you" note.

3. Prioritize your business cards by people to whom you want to contact first.

4. Divide the follow up of 100 people by a 5 day work week (20/day) or 2 weeks (10/day) and divide the cards up accordingly into a neat piles of 20 or 10.

5. Plan the hour or two into your schedule for the week (or two)

6. During your scheduled time, personalize the general note for each person, based on your notes. This can be by email or in a greeting card*.

(*More personal, and my preferred choice, if there's a physical address on the business card. These can be bought in advance or even ordered with your name on them)

7. Send them out.

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE is asking for work or reminding them you're available in this note! Tempting as it may be, stop yourself. Create the relationship FIRST, work will follow.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.theGreenlightCoachBlog.com

Question 162: I hear you're the Keynote speaker at the DV Expo. Very cool! You know I'm a director, should I go?

Everyone in the entertainment industry should go! It's a Digital Video Expo which means, anyone who works directly with digital video, wants to work with someone who works with digital video, and/or wants to meet someone who works with digital video AND may know someone you want to meet, MUST BE THERE.

Not only will there be cool techie stuff to check out, there will be educational programming (including yours truly doing the keynote speech on "the business side of the business"and a breakout room on "the keys to success at a networking event.")

And of course, in my book, the number one reason to attend the DV Expo is because it is an opportunity to network with thousands of people. That means that you can potentially add 100 new contacts to your contact list. In question 157, I was asked the "minimum number of people one should know." I answered 100. I broke that number down over twelve months. You can meet them ALL in 1-3 days!

Get your butt to the DV Expo!

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.thegreenlightcoachblog.com