6 Steps to Free Publicity

Chapter 13

Schmoozing That Puts You in the Public Eye

Anne Boe of Encinitas, California, took the idea of being her own best press agent farther than most. Everywhere she went—meetings, airports, parties—she introduced herself to strangers and invited them to do the same. As a way to create unpredictable opportunities, it worked. During a speaking engagement once in Washington, D.C., she left the banquet to get something from her room upstairs and found herself in an elevator with a man she’d never met. “I wasn’t going to waste 10 floors,” she remembered, “so very quickly I said my usual, ‘Hi, I’m Anne Boe. I do career management and networking. What do you do?’ The man saw my speaker badge and said, ‘I’m not a speaker. I write about speakers.’ ...