The Messenger Destroyed the Message

Okay, here's the complaint.

POWERPOINT

Again I was the victim, along with about 50 or 60 other people in the crowd.

The message was good.

The delivery ruined a good message.

The presenter, a government employee, used PowerPoint to back up his presentation. Or really, he read from his slides. Luckily, he only had a little over 10 minutes and had narrowed the number of views. If he'd had more time, I might have resorted to sucking my thumb.

Now tell me, even if you are going to be a bad user of PowerPoint, how many words should be in each bullet point?

Try fifty!

And it was legal verbiage. Isn't that nice. Not only did I have to squint to see the mini words on the screen, but when I finally engage my brain, it is convoluted legalese.

This man could have delivered a memorable talk, and could have even backed it up with PowerPoint, using it to backdrop images of his message.

PowerPoint. It makes most of the presenters of the world even worse than bad.

That's all for now folks.

How Can I Help?

My client, Fred Schmitts, owner of Mobil Lube, did a huge favor and invited me to the Fresh Brewed Business produced by GreaterFindlay, Inc. I was impressed. They combined networking, dissemination of important community information and a little bit of education mixed in for glue.

And they stayed on their timeline.

Another client, Kendra Saldana, Smart Sites by Kendra, was asked to deliver the networking educational moment. She did a bang-up job. She first gave the "Webster's" definition of networking, reading from her notes. Then she looked up and said, "but really what we need to do is to find out what each of us needs." In other words, "how can I help you?"

Immediately after that on the agenda was the four-minute networking scramble. In the past, I've heard from my students that it is just people passing their business card as quickly as they can before they move on to the next victim. Kendra of course had asked us to use her question.

Interesting.

Everyone I asked that question, either had no idea or just said, "I could use some more business." (Or even funnier, one guy said, "I really don't need any more business, I've got all I want in Findlay."

Interesting.

Come on world. Get a little creative. Find an answer to that question before you attend your next networking event. If you don't know what you need, then no one else knows how to help you.

Attention Grabber

Really, I get so tired of people saying, "I can't focus on one industry because I've tried it and it just doesn't work." So they bump along the bottom of the river like a carp, taking care of whatever falls down to their level.

Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's not so good.

This week I was meeting with one of my new BNI chapter members. She happens to be a copier sales person. In a passing comment she mentioned to me that in her short time with her company that she had sold one of the electronic filing systems.

Knowing that the price tag makes it a major purchase, I was just curious as to which law firm or CPA firm she had cracked.

Wasn't that at all. It was a medium-sized, local trucking firm.

The amazing part was that she hadn't thought about calling on other transportation companies.

Until I asked.

Additionally, I have three people to introduce her to. A CPA; an occupational, health-testing company sales person and a financial planner. They also, all have truckers as customers. The four of them are going to get together as a group very soon to see how they can help each other.

What can I say but, they set themselves up for success when they each told me that they work and want to work with more trucking companies.

Do you have anything to add to this, either for or against this concept?

What Will Be on the Road Next?

Today I was driving north on Rt 23, headed for my 2 o'clock appointment. This is what was on the highway in front of me. It is the most gigantic load on a truck that I have ever seen.

It was a convoy.

There was a vehicle in front with a huge sign atop saying, "Oversize Load"

Same thing for the car behind it.

As if I needed a sign to know it.

It kind of made me laugh, cause all I could think was that the driver sure had a full load.

I wanted to get around the convoy as soon as my little Mini could run. (And it likes to run fast.)

As continued north, I thought about how the whole scene might mimic networking -- or at least those events where there are people who are so obnoxious, that they have a OVERSIZE LOAD of themselves.

People run around them just like my Mini; as fast as they can!

And that's all I've got to say tonight!

Wrinkled Shirt

Seth Godin posted about a blind squirrel eventually finding the nut. The gist of the post was about people being unprepared or even thinking ahead whether they are looking for a job or marketing their business.

The story of the person looking, but not really looking for a job made me laugh. A couple years ago I was at a networking event when a young man introduced himself. He worked for a mortgage company and I'm sure his boss had told him to get out of bed and attend the morning event. He obviously had not thought about this the night before, because his blue oxford cloth shirt had been fished from the bottom of the clothes basket that morning and was being worn wrinkles and all.

Talk about marketing. There was no way I would ever consider that young man for my mortgage. But even more so, there is no way I would ever consider that company. The boss just doesn't understand that marketing entails more than the ad in this week's newspaper.

Book News

If you've read this blog before, you probably know that I love to read and write.

Just this past week I got the official word, that yes, I am a contributing author to Ivan Misner's new book, Masters of Sales which will be officially published in August. Ivan told us that the original 100,000 word manuscript had been pared down to 70,000 words.

Of course, I'm one of the no-names in the book. Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy, Martha Stewart, Jack Canfield, Harvy McKay and Tony Robbins will be mentioned on the cover.

It's been so long since I submitted my article because the publisher, Entrepreneur magazine pushed back the publishing date. They wanted it to coincide with their annual August sales issue of their magazine.

So the fun begins. It will be a busy fall promoting the book. Can't wait.

Helping Each Other

Sometimes we think the only way we can help other business friends is to send business their way. That thinking is nice, but way too narrow!

Wednesday, my friend, Angie Weid and I met at Panera on Dussel to work on our BNI commercials together. Angie is our chapter VP and had expressed how difficult it is to do all the VP stuff and ALSO have a good commercial. I had experienced the same difficulties several years ago when I was president of a chapter.

As a result of that conversation, Angie gave the best, most memorable commercial yesterday. You see, Angie is an engineer, a rocket scientist. She has several patents to her name. Her business is organizing. Up till recently she has focused on the Senior Citizen market helping them when they move from one living arrangement to another.

Serendipity has helped her to see a different type of client to address.

Recently a business owner hired her to clean out the desk of a former employee. This desk was a mess and had been for several months. Using her technical skills, she figured out what was important to save and what she could get rid of. She also created an organized system for all the software disks that were in a jumble in the drawer.

Fast forward to Thursday's BNI meeting. Angie stood, and showed a plaque she had received for one of her patents. She told about some of the stuff she knows (ceramic strength, aluminum something, etc) and explained how this knowledge can help her to clean out the desks of people who work in technical trades. She even asked for a specific referral to the Ford Maumee Stamping Plant, which will be closing in the future and is laying off people. This is the perfect spot for her to make a difference. She can clean out and organize the information these people are leaving behind.

I'm sure Angie could have come up with this idea for her commercial all by herself, but taking the time to do it is sometimes the challenge. Having an appointment to work together helped both of us to think about our commercials in advance.

Thanks, Angie!

What has someone done for you lately?