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It’s late Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in the car with Ken on our way to Maryland to attend the Direct Selling Association’s annual meeting.  We’ve recently been accepted into the DSA after a one year review period, so there was never any question - as far as Ken was concerned anyway – that we would attend the 3 day gathering chock full of speakers, seminars and shmoozing.  I, on the other hand, was not so sure of mind. 

It’s not that I’m not a “doer”.  I’ve repeatedly mentioned how jam-packed each day is with 3 active, involved children and a growing new business. This past weekend was no exception.  We jaunted off for this business trip at 4pm after a weekend that included our now 6 year olds chocolate dipping birthday party, a soccer practice, soccer game, lacrosse game and 2 hour dance recital (oh yeah, and the dress rehearsal for that dance recital too).  Not to mention all the packing and preparation of itineraries that needed to be completed for our 3 kids (and the dog) to be ready for their weekday stay at Mimi and Pop’s.  And after all that, here I sit with a four hour car ride – just Ken and I (meaning no turning around to yell at someone whining, poking or throwing snacks, no listening to an annoying movie playing really loudly from the backseat and no stopping every half hour on the hour for someone to pee).  And how am I choosing to spend this time?  I broke out the laptop and I’m blogging while I ride shotgun.  Obviously I’m not one to sit idly – literally.

So now that I’ve established it’s not laziness, why the hesitation to attend the DSA event?  I’m not a schmoozer by nature.  And, while I am ambitious, I am not a corporate ladder climber (never was).  I don’t even like the word “networking”.  It makes me think of scheming, manipulative, do-whatever-it-takes to succeed kind of people.  Events such as this conjure up (I admit perhaps naively) those types of opportunistic people and their descriptors.  My husband, who has been working from our house for the past 18 months, is desperately in need of a little traditional corporate pow-wowing.  He thrives on the art of idea exchange and the business small talk of the eye-to-eye meet-and-greet.  I on the other hand am a phone person.  I guess that characteristic has its roots in my cold-calling days.  I feel more in control during a conversation when I have access to my notes, my computer and I can stand and pace while I talk (another throw back to cold-calling).  And then there’s those lunch meetings.  Call me self-conscious but it’s hard to concentrate on the business at hand when you’re worried about whether or not you have a piece of lettuce in your teeth or a hunk of bread hanging from your lip as you try to delicately eat and sound intelligent.

That said, I’m all about out-of-the-box thinking.  In this case the “box” is my house.  I started my home-based business at home.  And, that’s where it primarily still is.  That’s my comfort zone.  But, I’m going to practice what I preach over the next few days and try to have an open mind to all the necessary networking.  The world is small.  And, the direct sales world is even smaller.  I get that who you know doesn’t necessarily translate into who you are – but given that we’re new and unique to the channel (not to mention looking for angel investors…), I also get that it certainly can help.  We shall see…