You Don't Say

Friday I had a meeting with Gary Bright. He works for Century Health and is an ambassador for the GreaterFindlayInc. This means that he wears a red blazer to GFI events and welcomes participants as they come in the door. So I knew who Gary was, but I didn't really know anything about him.

VP of Business Development for GRI, Jeremiah Gracia, suggested that Gary would be a good person for me to get to know. So I contacted Gary and he graciously agreed to meet Friday afternoon at Coffee Amici's in Findlay.

Now, let me tell ya', I had wrongly assumed the Century Health was a durable medical goods company and I figured that Gary was a marketing representative, selling wheelchairs and hospitals beds and other medical things. That's where it is really important to connect with people.

Because of our meeting today, I now know that Century Health is a non-profit mental health agency, focusing on emotional wellness and recovery for adults. This is Gary's second stint with CH and he made the decision to return because of the integrity displayed by both the agency and the executive director. His job is to get out into the community to let people like me and other people know of the services they can provide.

We also talked about how funding is always a challenge for non-profit agencies today and that he's always open to ways he can help bring in more money. He said that he is confident that the money they do spend is done in a manner that is very stewardship-like.

Gary talks R-E-A-L slow. I am more of a hard charger. I can tell you that after spending 45 minutes with Gary near the end of a very busy week that I felt very calm.

So, stop assuming that you know what someone does. At your next networking meeting seek out one person to really find out what they story is!