J. Kelly Hoey - Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships in a Hyper-Connected World

Build Your Dream Network

An easy-to-use guide to the art of networking in the new economy... Kelly marvelously succeeds in instilling in her readers the attitude that whether one is attempting to secure a job, find a publisher, or finance a new business venture, tapping into the right network is the answer.

Publishers Weekly

Were a collaborative species, only succeeding when we work together. Build Your Dream Network is about building a network where people can get stuff done, sharing in mutual success. It offers seriously good advice for people who want to network in a manner thats genuine and effective. I wish I had it thirty years ago.

Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and craigconnects

How does someone without connections become a must-know influencer? Kelly Hoey shares the new rules for transforming from outsider status to the name everyone keeps hearing aboutgiving passionate innovators and trailblazers the opportunity to truly change the world. Brilliant tips that are essential in the new economy!

Ophira Edut, The AstroTwins, www.astrostyle.com

I wish I had a copy of this for every person who has networked into my inbox to ask for assistance in advancing their business or career, and has asked for connections the wrong way. Id hit them over the head with Kellys book... and then make them read it! Build Your Dream Network will help you avoid concussions and successfully connect with people who can help you get to where you want to be.

Alison Levine, author of New York Times bestseller On the Edge

Anything worth doing requires a team of champions and supportersand this book is the essential guide for how to cultivate that team long before you need it.

Marci Alboher, vice president of Encore.org and author of The Encore Career Handbook

To define Kelly Hoey as a connector would be a major understatement. Shes a super-connector because people know she gets things done. Id advise everyone else to work to earn the same badge of honor.

Tara Hunt, digital marketing executive and author of The Power of Social Networking

The digital world is filled with social media gurus [but] Kelly is a guru who uses traditional and social media tools to help people focus their efforts and achieve results. She has a profound ability to build strong networks, but more powerful than that, she understands when and how to activate a network, and how to leverage connections to build value.

Elizabeth Talerman, CEO and managing partner of Nucleus

Everyone thinks of networking as that gross thing done to others. But what if you knew what Kelly teaches you about it? You would learn that your networks are how you make your ideas mighty enough to dent the world.

Nilofer Merchant, award-winning entrepreneur, TED speaker, and author of The New How and 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra

A savvy, fun, and engaging bible for intelligent and authentic twenty-first-century interaction. Insightful, encouraging, and entertaining, Build Your Dream Network takes you step by step through the dos and donts of networking online and offline, with lots of targeted advice along the way. Rich with insights from key experts, this will fast-track you toward building successful, meaningful, and long-lasting relationships with people that matter. Highly recommended!

Dr. Sue Black, OBE, and author of Saving Bletchley Park

Im a big fan of Kellys and I love her new book. Build Your Dream Network is a great new guide that paves the way for you to harness the power of relationships and reap the rewards of networking. An absolute must-read.

Porter Gale, keynote speaker, adviser, and author of Your Network Is Your Net Worth

D O YOU RECOGNIZE anyone here?

I smiled and whispered in my friend Janets ear, Yup. Thats Ivanka Trump standing right behind you. And Tory Burch just walked in the door.

We stood in an elegant, full-floor duplex apartment on Park Avenue, where seventy-five carefully selected guests were gathered for a private reception and dinner with activist Malala Yousafzai. The guest list included Trumps, Kennedys, and Tisches. It was not a crowd Id ever imagined mingling with when I first began my career in the beige Bay Street offices of the corporate law firm Miller Thomson.

Back then, at age twenty-three, I had no idea what I really wanted to be. Law was not some well-thought-out career plan; it just seemed a safe bet. Looking back, I think of that initial career as fulfilling more of an expectationmuch like the predictable forward motion of a conveyer beltthan a proactive choice. And, really, what else do you do with an undergraduate degree in political science and economics? Back in 1988 you packed your poli-sci degree along with your big hair and mom jeans and headed off to law school.

Pursuing a passion project, starting a business, working remotely, or having several careers at oncethese ideas were inconceivable. Back then they meant you either couldnt hold down a job, were unemployable, or simply lacked focus. Sharing was not a source of income, and working from home was not a real job.

Confined by the vision of my immediate connections and the economic times, the best career plan I had imagined was being rewarded with lock-step promotions up the corporate ladder. In other words, I had drunk the work hard and get rewarded and promoted corporate-for-life Kool-Aid.

And that exactly described the pretty humdrum treadmill of my career until 2002, when I took steps to actively change direction.

How? Looking back, the common thread to my professional life (which has zigged and zagged from suits in office towers to coworking spaces to coffee shops to private airplanes, VIP rooms, and speaker podiums) has been networks and an active focus on creating powerful connections.