FEBRUARY MEETING - RECAP

Well... a new year, a new location and a new look to our website! I think our room at the Queen Street United Church will work out perfectly! Thank you to Charmaine of Wholesome Foods for a wonderful lunch and to Joanne Jehu of Faithlife Financial for her informative talk on personal finances and achieving our financial goals. Next months guest speaker is Bookie Bell of Bookie's Entertainment Services... I can only imagine what she has in store for us!

Next Meeting:
Friday, March 2nd, 11:30am to 1:30pm at the Queen St. United Church

Welcome New Members!
Bookie Bell - Bookies Entertainment
Mary McClintock - Cozy It Up
Eileen Thompson - CAPS
Our membership is now at 33! And growing stong!

Member Reminders:
• Please check your link at the right to make sure all information is correct.
• Forward any testimonials, tips, insights, etc.. for next months newsletter.
• Let me know if you are interested in being a guest speaker for an upcoming meeting.

Note: There are also vendor tables available for $10.00 which also gives you 5 minutes of "talk time" to promote your business. Let me know if you are interested.

Wishing you a very successful February and I look forward to seeing you again next month.

Warm regards,
Heather Chapman

November 2006 pics....

Full Days

In two days, I feel like I've lived through at least a week!

Yesterday, was official International Networking Day. I started the morning with a Networking Breakfast at the Toledo Club, then had a one to one meeting before being the lunchtime speaker at the Sylvania Chamber of Commerce. As soon as that was done I jumped into the little yellow Cooper and drove to Pittsburgh for their evening celebration.

The PA event was awesome for a number of reasons.

Over 300 people participated.

Scott Ginsberg was the keynote speaker.

AND

The networking game/exercise was over the top!

The idea behind it was that each person had established goals they wanted to achieve at this event. As they talked with others, they were to ask each other about these goals. There were also worksheets to note what was needed. As the networking continued, people started to connect people to others to solve their challenges.

Personally, I was trying to connect with someone from Malaysia for one of the CN grads here in Toledo. While I didn't make the actual connection yet, I know the person who can make it happen.

Someone else, Neal Griebling, wanted to know about starting a Board of Advisers, or Board of Action. Sandy Pirwitz, who went with me, and I were able to give him information because I have a board of action and she happens to be a member of that board.

We also helped my friend, Michelle Donovan, by talking about the Certified Networker training. Sandy told one woman, Anne Martin, a Mary Kay representative, that she just had to do the program. Anne had considered taking the course in the past, but with Sandy's endorsement, my bet is that she will register for a class real soon.

Wow! Deanna Tucci Schmitt and her team put together one heck of a celebration. I am proud to be her friend.

How did you celebrate International Networking Day?

Quality vs Quantity

This is an unbelievably busy week.

Yesterday was the first day of our one to one networking contest. I had five appointments in all, and also had to get the oil changed in my car, so that it would be ready to travel to Pittsburgh this afternoon for their International Networking Day celebration. My friend, Sandy Pirwitz, Sandy's Stuff for Women, is going with me. We'll have a giant four hour, one to one on the way there and then the same tomorrow morning on the way back. This trip will hinder our ability to get lot of numbers (of one to one meetings) for the contest, but I look at it as quality, instead of quantity. Sandy and I are in Master Mind together and also have known of each other for a long time, but this will be the first time we have time to really discuss thoughts, ideas and beliefs. Our relationship will hit a new, more solid level as a result of the trip.

With whom would you like to have the luxury of a 8 hour conversation?

If I Can See It, I Can Understand It

Garr Reynold's post on simple posters is ingenious. For me looking through the examples, I had two reactions. One was to be in awe of the way the messages were powerfully, yet simply, transmitted and the other was that the posters made me laugh. I don't think that was what was intended, but that's what happened for me. I am still thinking about those images, even though I have physically moved away from the blog. I can still see them in my mind's eye. Go to his post to link to others.

Visuals are an important part of every presentation. I must admit that I have a challenge in being creative when I'm using visuals. But for those who are asking their referral partners to find speaking engagements for them, this is important information.

Thinking back to other visuals a speaker used, I still remember one vividly. The speaker, Gayle, was a personal trainer. She held up a white piece of paper with two parallel lines drawn on it. Between the lines were lots of black dots. She explained that that was the way bones looked that are not strong, with the black dots being weaknesses in the bone structure. She then held up a second simple white sheet of paper, with the same parallel lines. Only this version had many fewer black dots. She explained that it showed the very same bone after several months of weight-baring exercise. Wow! Gayle got her message delivered with a punch. She had several people talk with her about using her services. The visual was also easy to talk about with others, maybe even with a quick scribble of the pen to help the description.

What's this have to do with networking. Well, we all network, to in the end, gain more business. If the message that others hear from you is easy to pass on, obviously they will pass it on. If it is more complex, and not so simple, nothing will happen. Simple!

Did you have the same reaction to the Japanses smoking "manners" posters?

Making it All Work

My friend, Michelle Donovan, owner of Pinnacle Training Services and a co-hort in the Certified Networker training cause, posted to her blog about the call to seriousness concerning developing a word of mouth referral network.

So many people don't realize that, as Michelle says so well, "It takes a commitment to implementing a new system into how you do business. It takes a seriousness towards networking with your referral network to produce results. (read more here.)" I couldn't have said it better.

Networking has a connotation that it's just about hitting the Chamber Business After Hours event, or collecting new business cards. I'm not going to discount those activities, but those are just the surface. It's what happens after those measures that brings the pay-off.

Here are five steps you can take to advance your word of mouth marketing strategy.

1) Identify specific people you want to meet. It is the hallmark of a great networker if s/he knows those people before the event happens. But sometimes that is impossible. The important part of this strategy is to single out just a few people to focus on.

2) Make a time to meet individually with the targeted people. You have to find out if there is synergy between the two of you. If that's not there, nothing will ever happen and you can move on. If it is there, you have established a foundation for a profitable relationship.

3) Figure out if there are ways you can each help each other. You may not find this information at the first meeting, but at a second or third meeting, you need to share your business goals with each other.

4) Strategize about how to help each other. It's not just about passing referral business to each other. In fact, early in the relationship, it may be more about making introductions or getting speaking engagements for the other person. Instead of going to networking events alone, you may go with this referral partner to find people for her/him to meet.

5) Commit to action for each other. Yep, that's just another way of saying, "set goals." You may want to help someone and also have the best intentions. But life will get in the way unless you set and commit to doing specific acts for the other team member. This doesn't have to be a big production. It can sound like this, "Before the end of next week, I will contact _____ to schedule time to introduce the two of you." I'll talk more about this in another post.

What strategies have you used that have helped you gain more word of mouth business?

Somebody Really Gets It!

The International Networking Week contest begins Monday, February 5. Many people have registered at the Certified Networker of Ohio website to participate. I am so excited about the effect this contest could have on the businesses of the people who get it! They realize that this three days can be like a shot of concentrated orange juice, with the infusion of lots and lots of energy. Kathy Stringham is one who clearly has it all figured out. Kathy and her husband, Dale, are the owners of several Coffee News franchises in SE Michigan and NW Ohio. Read Kathy's email to me.

"I decided last night to join the contest and it has been a pretty interesting day. I sent out that e-mail you received last night and people started to respond with times. I even have a couple of new referrals to people I wouldn't have thought of and those people set appointments with me too.

I am setting appointments with people because of the contest but I realize the power these appointments will have going forward. The response I am having makes me realize how many people I touch and hopefully I can positively impact them too."

That email made my day, because there had been some scuttlebutt that people could not participate in the contest because it would take them away from their business day. Yeah, I was pretty stunned by the comment, but realized that I probably had not done a good job of communicating about the benefits of being a contestant.

Kathy continued to make my day with a second email.

"I wanted to send a note to thank all of you in advance for meeting with me next week. I look forward to having fun, getting to know you better, learning more about each of your businesses and of course drinking lots of coffee.

If you have a question about our scheduled time please call or e-mail. I have some homework for you - I want to use the 6 Degrees of Separation principle and see if we can make some connections within my appointments. I am asking you to bring the name of 3 people or 3 businesses that you would like a connection to. I will keep a list of those people during the 3 days and share it with each of the people I talk to. If I find someone who has a connection to the person or business you want to meet, I will introduce you to them the following week. Make sure you are specific in your request."

Now I ask you, does Kathy get it???? Do you have someone you've met who displays the same networking savvy that Kathy does?

A Snake in the Walls

Last night I attended the annual meeting of the Way Library Foundation. At dinner I sat with the new president of the board, Jody Foster and her husband. I had known Jody in passing, as our board only meets quarterly. I found out what a funny and neat lady she is.

Her husband, who is quite the lover of nature, told us that for a period of time they had a Boa constrictor lose in their house. The Fosters happen to live in one of the historic homes in town, so that snake had plenty of mice to eat. Jody said that the whole time it was on the lam, that several of her friends would not come to her house. When they finally caught the snake again, it was quite a bit larger around than when it got out of its cage.

The whole time this story was being told, Jody just sat there with a bemused look on her face. I understood a whole new sense about Jody. She's going to make the best of any situation and she's not squeamish at all.

What's the most interesting animal you've had in your house (excepting spouses!)?