Today I’m excited to feature a guest column by Natasha Alladina. She writes:

You know those missed connections ads on Craigslist?

Well, I realized something. I’ve had a bunch of missed connections in my professional life.

Both in real life and on LinkedIn.

A couple of months ago I went to a CLE and found myself nerding out hard. I approached the presenter afterwards and let him know how much I had learned in that hour. He gave me his card and said to reach out if I had any other questions. I meant to. But I didn’t. And now it’s been two months.

Likewise, there have been a couple of times I’ve received interesting comments on LinkedIn posts and meant to follow up. But then life got in the way. Missed connections. Who knows how many I’ve had.

Why do they happen? -You don’t reach out in the first place -You fail to follow up.

I’ve been guilty of both but am working to change that. I’ll be emailing that presenter from the CLE a couple of months ago. And I’ve been more intentional about reaching out on LinkedIn.

You never know if a connection will pan out. But I don’t want to be left wondering what if.