Lunching with Lions

Thanks to her early years accompanying her professionally itinerant father, Patterson came to think of herself as the “Professional New Girl” who was always dealing with a fresh environment where she knew nobody. She’d gone from New Jersey to the Dallas suburbs, “where old money mingled with new and my classmates popped the collars on their Ralph Lauren Polos and cuffed the hems of their madras plaid Bermuda shorts before they left for the country club.” The years of needing to make new ties and friends shaped her, she later realized, into “a natural connector,” somebody who was still “painfully, tragically uncomfortable walking into a room full of strangers” but who could nonetheless do it and triumph. In the course of her chatty and smoothly involving book, she lays out a series of pithy observations and tips for people in the business world who face the prospect of networking with less confidence than a “Professional New Girl.” In a series of easily flowing chapters, she focuses on some of the ways people navigate networking events incorrectly or poorly. Effective networking is about far more than shaking hands and passing out business cards, she asserts: It’s about building relationships based on genuine respect and affection. “It’s hard to connect with people when you’re unhappy, and it’s damn near impossible to connect with people when you don’t like and respect them,” she writes. “Because (ahem!) we do business with people we know, like, and trust.” Throughout the personable guide, Patterson adopts a tone of jocular chiding combined with helpful pragmatism (sections are anchored with a series of “Prompts and Activities” to help readers codify her valuable suggestions). Readers who’ve dreaded networking or been frustrated by failures will no doubt discover some of their errors pointedly probed here, which may be uncomfortable. But they will also find an enormous amount of worthy advice in these pages. A fun and demystifying manual that seeks to humanize networking.

KIRKUS REVIEWS

Lunching with Lions will help you overcome networking fears with insight and awareness. Katherine shares her own journey of overcoming her aversion to networking to subsequently leading one of Denver’s fastest-growing professional networks for women business owners.  She encourages business owners to approach networking like everything else in their organization – by setting concrete goals, creating actionable strategies, and tracking their results. People will be using this book as a tool to expand their networks for a long time."  

DR. IVAN MISNER, FOUNDER OF BNI AND NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR

“Lunching with Lions” is the most comprehensive book on networking on the market today. KP helps readers overcome their fear of networking by delving into the why, where, and how of getting out there and making connections. She covers every aspect involved in the process, including determining your objectives, crafting an elevator pitch, figuring out what groups are the best use of your time, and how to get comfortable walking into a room full of strangers. But most importantly, she emphasizes that networking is about building relationships that will benefit you both personally and professionally. Every small business owner should read this book."

MOLLY GIMMEL, CEO OF DESIGN TO DELIVERY INC. AND BOARD CHAIR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS

"KP shares her networking experiences in a candid, practical and easy to read fashion allowing you to learn and grow through applying the “How To’s” with a strategy designed for your success." 

TAMMY URBACH, 4BR CEO & FOUNDER