Review - The Introvert's Edge to Networking

I received an electronic ARC of this book via Netgalley for an honest review.

This book does, at its core, have some useful advice that I hope to work into my life. That said, it could have taught its lesson in a fraction of its length--and in my opinion, at least, would have been stronger for it. Most of the book's advice centers around identifying your professional passion, identifying a niche audience for it, and then--in essence--crafting a clear mission statement and using that when you meet people.

The biggest issue I had with this book was that, despite being an introvert who struggles with the idea of networking, I spent most of the book feeling like the target audience was a person I both am not and have no desire to be. A considerable portion of the text seems to be aimed at a hypothetical reader who is already either a small business owner or else very successful in their field of passion, working in a capacity that specifically involves sales to wealthy clients. As a government employee whose interests (if not actual employment) are more in public history and cultural resource management, it's a bit of a leap for me to try to apply a lot of this to my own life and career goals.

While the stories that Pollard tells throughout the book do illustrate the method he suggests using to network, they often serve to bulk up the length of the book without adding much substance. The various ways in which he has dazzled everyone he meets (as long as they're affluent, powerful, and/or own a business that caters to the affluent and powerful) is not particularly interesting to me, but I suppose it might have more appeal to someone who really sees themselves in the "business world" or aspires to entrepreneurship.

All that being said, many of Pollard's points doubtlessly are good advice for anyone. Convey your passions clearly and succinctly, be an engaging storyteller, don't try to be everything to everyone but instead be very good at what you are and do. In the end, what I got out of it is that the principles that apply to writing good interpretive signs and exhibit labels probably apply to telling people about yourself, too (though of course Pollard never puts it in those terms--he's "The Rapid Growth Guy," not a cultural resource management/interpretation/public history guy).