Cornered

I just did a one!

What's a 1, you ask???

Well, I can't take credit for the term, but it means that I met with another person who monopolized the conversation for most of the time.  My friend, Sandy Pirwitz, who is a BNI Director, is the one who coined the phrase several years ago when caught in a similar situation.

But I think it's more embarrassing and frustrating for me because I'm known as the networking guru.  I should be able to manage better, right???

WRONG

This person watned me to know how wonderfully intelligent he was and also that he is an authority about everything...including areas of referral networking.  Including.......(fill  in the blank).

I had asked to schedule the event because this person had expressed a complaint about a program I oversee.  I wanted to hear his concerns and then hopefully solve some of those issues.  That didn't happen because this person didn't want solutions.

What did I learn from this situation that will help YOU in the future?  I wish I could give some really good advice here, but the only thing I have to say is just don't schedule with the type of person a second time.  Once burnt is enough.

Maybe you have some advice for me?????

Be There, Be Square!

More times than not I like to be there when I introduce two people.  Why?  Lot's of reasons!

1.  I usually learn something new about both even if they have been my friends for a long time.

2.  I can help to control the conversation.  It's easier for me to finesse the chat toward the reason for the intro than it is for either of the two to steer it.

3.  If there is something that "goes wrong" during the conversation, I can be aware of it and either attempt to fix or at least share my observations.

4.  It's helpful to have a third pair of eyes watching for body language.

5.  I can ask a pointed question without seeming like I am selling.  I'm just an interested third party!

6.  I may see an alternative for either or both parties, that neither of them would think of alone.  Again, because I am a silent observer, it gives me time to think.

7.  As the "organizer" of the introduction, I can act as the host, getting the conversation started, eliminating that awkward time of who should talk first!

What other reasons can you think of for being at the introduction of two people?

MINI change?????

So most of you know that I drive a MINI and in fact, I'm now on my second one, having compiled 190,000 miles on my cute little yellow '03, I now have a new, Laguna Green '12.  I love my car because of the way it drives and also the playful attitude of the whole company.  It's the "we do things and think differently" from the rest of the world.

When I picked up my new baby in March, my sales person, Brad Paris, told me to get the first oil change at 9,000 miles.  The dealership is a little over two hours away so I have to plan for something like this.  The middle of the September I am going to be in that area because we are going to our granddaughter, Kaitlyn's, 13th birthday party on Sept 15th, a Saturday and luckily the dealership has service hours on Saturdays.  This past Saturday I called to schedule that maintenance and also requested that they look at my dash to get ALL the dash lights to light. (I'm just weird that way!)

Within seconds I felt like I was talking to a "regular" car dealership.  The service adviser told me that I didn't need an oil change till 15K or one year, whichever came first and that my car would let me know with a message on the dash when that was so.  When I questioned him about my advice from Brad, the sales person, the service adviser again said that it didn't need to be changed. 

End of conversation about that.  

OK, so I asked about scheduling time for them to look at the dash lighting problem.  I was advised that they did NOT do diagnostic work of Saturdays that I would have to schedule time during the week.  I told him him that that solution would not work for me.  He said, "Well, we can't do diagnostic work because we might not get done and then you would be stranded without a car."  I asked, "But doesn't MINI provide loaner cars?"  You guessed it, "only on weekdays."

The light at the end of the tunnel is that I emailed Brad, the sales person, of my dismay.  To his credit, on a holiday weekend he immediately emailed me back asking me to call him on Tuesday while in my car, as he thinks he knows what the dash issue is and how to solve it.

What's this got to do with networking?  Well, networking is all about relationships and how they are maintained.  We usually think about this between two people, but it certainly can happen between a person and a company. 

Brad, the sales person, has at least made an attempt to keep my relationship intact with MINI. 

The service adviser?  I hope that he has come back from the holiday weekend with a refreshed attitude!

A Few Rambling Thoughts

OK, so I had coffee with Becky Robinson, owner of weaving influence, this morning.  We had met at the HEELS Boot camp at the beginning of the month when I heard her speak.  I was so impressed with her topic and her presentation style, that I just had to schedule time to get to know her better.  Like her curly red hair, Becky spirals energy and also asks great questions.

Becky is an expert in the social media setting, so I knew that I was in trouble since I hadn't blogged since the end of July.  Ya' know, life gets in the way!  I'm letting a few weeds get ahead of me tonight so that I can put a some words down for the masses to read!

What am I excited about???

Two things!

Our tenth anniversary event is coming up quickly and our 10/10 breakfast event is about 2/3rds of the way to a sell out.  My good friend, Scott Ginsberg, is going to be our keynote speaker.  Interesting fact that I found out this morning.  Becky went to the same college as Scott.  People can register at here.

Second thing!  I am charged up because Nick Nigro, our amazing trainer at Davis College, just started another Connext Nation class last week.  Davis is still the only college in the USA that offers a word-of-mouth marketing class to their students.  It is my hope that we can convince other colleges to do the same in the future, but in the meantime, take your hat off to Davis!

What chargin' your batteries at the moment?

Will Ya' Get a Business Card

OK, right up front here I am going to admit that I have broken some very important rules of networking in the past and will probably do so in the future.  Just last week, I forgot to take my phone in to a networking event and thus didn't have my calendar with me.  Notice, the word FORGOT.  I had brought a guest with me and we were busy talking.  At least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

So with that being said, I want to talk about a networker who made a conscious decision to not allow others to get back to her.  This person gave me her card and asked me to sign her up for our upcoming course preview.  I told her that I would be happy to do so and would send her the details via email if she would give me her card.  She did.  I didn't look at it.  Bad girl.  Both of us.

Later, I started to react to my promise with the aforementioned card.  All the information on the card front had been scratched out except for her name.  On the back she had written the URL of her multi-level marketing site, which I did visit in the hopes of getting a way to contact her.  It was just a general site with no apparent way to make that connection.

This person made a conscious decision to make it impossible for others to connect with her.  I have absolutely no reason why she would have done this, other than this might have been her subtle way of getting people to her website so they would purchase from her.

WRONG!

What do you think?

PS.  The card is now going in the trash so I won't have to obsess over it any more!

PPS.  I am not the only one she shared cards with as another networker made a comment to me about the same issue with this person.

Givng but not Getting

A couple months ago I received a call from someone I didn't know, but they used the name of someone I did.  This new person we'll call Herb, wanted to schedule an appointment with me.  I very carefully explained that I was not interested in what he was selling, but that I would be happy to meet to see if there might be a way I could help.

The day of the appointment he was very appropriate and likable.  I could think of several of my acquaintences that would be good connections  for him.  I have since taken my time to make those personal introductions happen, three different times.

Also, I happened to meet another new person, let's call her Sally, who would benefit from meeting Herb, so I asked Herb to come to a networking event where Sally was going to be.  Herb agreed.  At the last minute Herb bowed out.  "Something had come up."  Herb also asked me to save him a seat in a preview that we give of our course, which is basically two free hours of training. I'm sure you've guessed it, last minute, "Oh gosh darn, something has come up."

While I meet new people with no expectation, when I go the extra mile to help them, I expect that they will want to enter into the concept of giving back to others, too. 

Is this too much to ask?

Chairs and Networking

In our home I am the one who keeps the dining room chairs snug up to the table when they are not in use.

Recently someone who was providing services in our home, would leave for the day with the chairs slightly away from the table and also each angled a little toward the other. At first this bothered me and I would put them all straight! Then one evening I really looked at the situation. The way they had been left actually made me want to go sit there. It had hints of a previous conversation, too. Actually it invited me to come be part of the scene.

I got to thinking about this. I preach approachability in the networking world having borrowed that term from Scott Ginsberg. I asked myself, "Am I uptight or am I approachable?" What little adjustments can I make to allow people to feel comfortable entering my space?

I don't know the answers yet, but I'll be thinking about this question all week.

What would you do?