Profitable networking is not a personality trait. It is a set of small, learnable pieces, starting with the seven seconds someone decides whether to remember you. Most people walk into a networking room with a stack of business cards and no real plan for what happens when someone asks, "So what do you do?" They answer with a job title. The room nods politely. Nobody remembers them by the time the coffee runs out. Here is what I have learned after enough of these rooms to lose

An introduction to Networking Notes - and why networking in the Valley deserves more than a LinkedIn post. There is no shortage of advice about the art of networking. Most of it sounds the same: show up, shake hands, follow up. However, there is a shortage of practical, local, and honest content about what networking actually looks like when you are a small business owner in the San Fernando Valley trying to grow something real. That is exactly what this column is for. Networ