Over the last couple weeks I have had the luxury of being able to travel and go to various conventions such as Affiliate Summit and Pubcon all major online advertising conventions. The main purpose of going these conventions is to (A) Learn Something New (B) Network and or which rarely happens or which rarely happens (C) Develop long lasting Friendships that have nothing to do with business. I know this is a very cut a dry terminology toward going to conventions but for the most part its true.
With saying that, there are usually one or two people at these conventions who are possible clients or intellectually savvy individuals who you want to connect with and the challenge is always how do I connect with them in a transparent way? In other words how do I connect with them without giving off the impression that I want to either milk them for information or just milk them for their business?
I have come up with the Common Enemy Theory toward building relationships that has nonetheless worked perfectly as I go to these random conventions. It’s a very simple concept to understand. Whenever I connect to somebody new as a matter of building a solid foundation for a relationship I always try to find one thing that I agree upon with my opposite and usually when you both fundamentally dislike someone or think somebody is full of shit you connect on such a deep level that a sense of trust is born. I call this the “Common Enemy Theory of Human Relations” whenever you are with someone and you are having trouble stirring drama in the conversation find one person or one aspect of the day that you both despise and build upon that topic and that will develop instant rapport.
