Ways to Give

In the past week, I've met with several people who when I asked what kind of help they were looking for said, "I want to be mentored by people more successful than I."

One young woman said that the mentoring didn't need to be anything formal, just that she wanted to link with other successful people to watch and learn from them.

Sometimes we get so caught up in figuring out how to give referrals to each other, (and that's not bad) but we forget that many times we have other important "things" to give. Mainly time!

I am so proud of the Certified Networker community of grads here in NW Ohio. You see, we have two versions of the course being taught here. One is what I call the "public" class where the students are business people. The other version is the accredited class because Davis College has decided that the CN course should be part of their curriculum. The Davis College student is typically NOT the traditional student. Most are a little older and most work full-time along with going to school. Still they don't have as much business experience as the "version 1" students.

One challenge has been that the Davis Students have not taken advantage of the power of the CN community, especially after they are done with the course. We've tried several ways to make better connections, but just haven't hit upon the right combination. Enter Linda Kuns, State Farm Insurance representative and CN grad. She developed a mentoring program, organized the mentors and along with Nick Nigro, Davis College placement director and CN grad/trainer, connected the version 1 grads with the current Davis students. I think we are going to have better success this time, helping to mentor these students. I'll let you know how it goes.

All fourteen mentors are busy. Probably they really don't have the extra time needed for this project. But they are willing to carve a little extra out so they can give that precious commodity -- their time. I'd like to thank Tracee Swank, Megan Coyle Stamos, Sue Greene (2 students), Linda Kuns, Kay Somoyge, Julie Cantu, Angela Crosby, Mike Williams, Joe Francis, Fred Altvater, Anita Dotson, Allison Adkins, Cheryl Engfer and Barb Mullholand for being willing to take that extra time. You are what our community is all about.

What do you give in addition to referrals?