I went to my childrens award presentation on Saturday for dance, singing and drama. The lady presenting the awards talked about the importance of the network and how important the role it played for those wishing to persue a career in the arts. In fact she said its importance could be as high as 50%. This  got me thinking about how the phone could help build your network. In persuing your dream, how much are you leveraging the use of the phone to make those all necessary “cold connections”?  It can be so time consuming, going to face to face functions to network. Even then, you can not be assured of actually speaking to the person, who may be able to influence your path to success. So how can you use it more? Make a list of the most influencial people who could help you build the most effective network and start calling them tomorrow! Remember start the call about something which relates to their world not yours!!