The Lost is Found

No, I have not been living under a rock. Just a pile of stuff on my desk!

Nuff said!

I have a few minutes before I leave for Chicago to present to The Outlook Group. It was a referral from one of my CN students, Megan Coyle Stamos. Thanks Megan for making such a great connection.

This morning I was in Findlay, which is about 30 minutes south of here. I attended the morning session for GreaterFindlayInc and also helped with the new member orientation afterwards. Jeremiah Gracia, VP of Business Development for GFI, led the session. Why would I drive through driving rain for such an early morning meeting? The reason is that my goal is to get to know the Findlay community better. I do that by scheduling future appointments with people I meet at these events.

Interestingly, one person I met, Robert Thomas is the franchise support person for Joe Reidling, a new owner of Embroidme. Robert works from Minneapolis. Most might have ignored him, but after the formal session, I walked over an intro'd myself. We talked about BNI, as he recommends that all of their franchisees join BNI. But while he knew a little about it, he want to know more. It was great that I could give him some information and promised that we'll talk later about additional information. He wants to help those who become members of BNI to understand what they need to do to get the best out of their membership.

As the conversation continued he wanted to know more about Certified Networker. In the end, he asked for my card to pass on to someone in charge of the Midwest, as Robert thought this person might want to know how it could help their organization.

All because I wanted an outsider to feel welcome.

People can feel like outsiders, even if they live in town.

What have you done lately to make an outsider feel welcome?