Do you know the biggest networking mistake that you could possibly make? No it is not being shy, but it is actually ignoring the little guy. At every conference I have been to in the last few years I constantly see well-known people brush off the little guy.
This could be because they might not be well known or that they have little to no money, but the reality is there is a lot of value in them. You usually will not see the value out of these individuals right away, but over time you will.
For example, I was at a conference a few months ago where one individual who had no money needed marketing advice and was looking for free help. He chased down a few of the top marketers and no one wanted to help him out for free, but I decided to do so. After helping him for a few hours he became an evangelist and started going around telling people how great I was. And to make a long story short, one of the individuals he talked me up to ended up becoming a client that consistently spends 75k a month with my marketing firm.
Now in most cases when I help out people for free I usually don’t make money because of them, but that one rare occurrence can make it worth helping out people for free. So the next time you see a little guy, help them out. If you don’t, sooner or later you will make a big mistake.