I was recently at a networking event where a woman I had just met totally blew up my spot by talking AT me for way too long. As I silently begged for the floor to open up and swallow her alive, my left arm began to quiver from the weight of the mouthwatering raviolis that I was eager to devour. That’s when I knew it was time to shut homegirl down.

As funny (and straight up crazy) as this scenario sounds, so many of us get wrapped up in “selling” our story to others every chance we get. This approach to building business connections and opportunities is way too hard and ineffective. There is definitely a better way...