About Beth Bridges: Speaker, Trainer, Author... Networker!

I attended over 2,500 networking events in 10 years.

At the time, I was the Membership and Marketing Director of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. I had a very small marketing budget, but a lot of willingness to get out of the office and build connections.

  • I went to other chamber events, association meetings, open houses, after hours, and luncheons.
  • I developed new events for my chamber such as leads clubs and speed networking.
  • I would meet with any business owner in the city to learn about their needs and help them make connections.

Eventually, I learned that you can’t keep doing more and more networking. That’s when I developed “Networking on Purpose” and got very strategic about networking.

Now, I write, coach, and present to people around the world, sharing the strategies I developed for myself.

Bob Burg with Beth Bridges

But how did it all begin?

A young Beth shakes hands with another boy

When I was a very little kid, my parents couldn’t take their eyes off me for even a moment. We’d be in a department store and I’d run off. They’d panic, only to find me making friends with everyone at the checkout counter.

I’d never met a stranger and I would talk to anyone.

You could say I was born to network. But I won’t … because I believe that it’s a skill, not a talent. Everyone can have good networking skills and every can build a stronger, more valuable network.

I see my inborn extroverted tendencies as having given me the opportunity to more quickly learn these skills and be willing to do a LOT of networking so you don’t have to spend so much time learning it yourself.

I not only write about, speak about, and teach networking, I live it!  I’ve obtained practical, real-world, valuable results through my personal and business networking:

  • I connected with New-York Times best-selling author Bob Burg on Twitter. He wrote the foreword to my book, “Networking on Purpose.”
  • I launched my book and it reached #1 in two categories on Amazon, simply by asking my network to purchase it.
  • I’ve obtained new jobs with one email and one Facebook post (that same post brought me my first consulting client).
  • I’ve found my best friends and obtained coaches and mentors through networking.
  • And I’ve built an entirely new marketing business based solely on networking referrals.

I’ve done everything anyone could want to accomplish through networking!

Why "The Networking Motivator?"

When I started showing up at every networking event in town and began developing connections with hundreds of people, my friends started calling me a “networking guru” and “queen of networking.”

While I appreciated their kind intentions, I didn’t really like the image these phrases conjured up. They sounded like someone sitting on high, raining down wisdom on other people.

It wasn’t like that at all.

I was in the trenches, right there with everyone else. Okay, I was often right behind them, giving them encouragement and (metaphorical) friendly shoves.

I was working hard to motivate my friends by showing them how much benefit there was in using a networking strategy.

Beth Bridges headshot

Official Bio and Other Accomplishments

Beth Bridges is the author of “Networking on Purpose: A Five-Part Networking Success Plan to Build a Powerful and Profitable Business Network” which she wrote after attending over 2,500 networking events in 10 years. She has since leveraged networking to speak to organizations across North America, land a dream job in 18 hours, and launch a digital marketing agency without advertising. She shares a simple and easy-to-use strategy to help new networkers, provides detailed techniques on how to comfortably navigate events, and provides details on using advanced techniques for executives and experienced networker.

Other Accomplishments (random things that I’m proud of):

Media Mentions and Articles

4 Networking Tips for Marketing Consultants on Insureon.com

New Year’s Resolution: Time to Re-Evaluate Your Network on The Network Journal

20 Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Networking Challenges on YFS Magazine

Virtual Assistant Tasks: 40 Entrepreneurs Share Their Outsourcing Experiences on Microtask.com

10 Networking Mistakes That Make You Look Completely Unprofessional on Fashion Beans

2013 Top 100 Social Media Friendly Chamber of Commerce