It's no secret that face-to-face networking is a valuable tool for building successful business relationships. With much of our business being conducted online these days our opportunities to meet with clients and contacts are fast reducing. So how do we make the most out of our brief face-to-face interactions?

Here's how to build instant and lasting rapport no matter the amount of time you spend with someone.

Do not fall into the error of the artisan (instructor) who boasts of twenty years' experience, while in fact he has had only one year of experience, twenty times.

Are you learning in life? What are you learning? How are you learning, changing or growing? Are you repeating the same patterns over and over and over? Or are you recognising a pattern that doesn’t work for you and doing something to make change?

“You should do that.”
“You should know that.”

How does it look, sound and feel when you read this?
Does it make you feel ‘bad’, as if you are a little kid ‘in trouble’. Does it make you feel or look inadequate or even 'stupid'?

Should is a controlling word and it can bring up other people’s insecurities and baggage. Instead of using should, replace it with could.

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.

Goethe said the above statement over 200 years ago and it’s still true today.

You do make an impact on the people around you. You do have the power to motivate and inspire or to spread gossip and disempower. You affect the climate in your home and your workplace.