Accountability Partners

Tonight we had our monthly telebridge call for aspiring authors with Dr. Ivan Misner. The topic was accountability. He first asked if anyone on the call had a story they’d been telling for years, but had never written down. 6-7 people piped in with examples, including me.

Then he made us accountable - to him and the entire group - by telling us that we had until a certain date to write the article and send it to him. He asked for agreement, which everyone gave (like who wouldn’t?). Then he said that he will be sending out a list to the entire group (about 70 people around the world) that either says “Here’s their article” or “They didn’t fulfill their commitment”.

You could hear a couple of people on the call gasp.

So what do you think? Is fear of public shaming enough to get me to write the article? Actually my word is good enough, and I don’t need the shaming piece to get the job done.

It will be interesting to see who steps up, and who does not. As my friend Dan Boisclair says, All excuses are equal, pick one, mine’s peanut butter.

My topic? You Can Meet People Everywhere. Ewww….I need a better title. The story is about attending things you might not be happy about but by making yourself go you never know who you might meet. The more exposure you have, the more business you will get. That kind of thing.

If you’d like to be considered as a contributor to my article, post a comment here and tell me either an off-beat place you met someone important to you or how you start conversations with strangers. Or whatever you’d like to say on the topic. Because I have to go now…I have an article to write!

Quotes That Don’t Fit

I am a collector of quotes. I have them taped all around my desk, I even created a website where one of the features is that you can sign up to receive a Quote of the Day from my collection. While I often don’t connect with a particular quote, it isn’t very often I run across a quote that makes me stop and think - No Way! Here’s one such quote:

Robert L. Schwartz says “The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and an actualizer… He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen.“

Has this been your experience? It sure isn’t mine. I have started several different ventures over the years, and while I might have thought I knew how it was going to go, I soon discovered that there was so much that I didn’t know that I thought I knew that….well…the journey is always a series of lessons on its own.

To me an entrepreneur needs to go with the flow, make decisions on the fly, and use her experiences and expertise to make the best decision that can be made with the information at the time. To me making a bad decision is better than making no decision, and no decision actually IS a decision. Things can always be changed as you go, but to me any movement is better than standing still. I am an agent of change, and it doesn’t frighten me. Quite the contrary, I revel in it!

So what do you think? Did you know how it was all going to work, step by step, before you started your last adventure? I did not, but I still enjoy the ride!

Networking Gnomes

A friend of mine who I believe to be intelligent, classy, sophisticated and wise, has a thing for gnomes. Yes, gnomes. Those plaster of paris, red-hatted garden statues that just scream for smashing. But she loves them. So what do I do? I keep sending her gnome cards, gnome cartoons, gnome references. I think the whole thing is HYSTERICALLY funny, and thank goodness, so does she.

What does this have to do with networking? If you want to build a stronger relationship with someone and stay top-of-mind, find something they are crazy about and then send them snippets. If they like dogs, put a dog sticker on the envelope with their invoice. If they are wild about the Green Bay Packers, forward them a picture of a Green Bay logo on a garage door (okay, you kind of have to live in Wisconsin for this one, but you get the idea). Anything that says “I know you like this stuff and even if I don’t get it, I like you and am thinking about you”.

In marketing it is said that you need to touch someone 7 times before they pay attention - but adding a Gnome cartoon to a letter of introduction might just be the way you can open that door faster. But not with me….they creep me out!

Coaching & the Catholic Guilt Trip

There are many ways to get someone to do something. One that works well on me is a little ride on the Catholic Guilt Trip. Although I no longer attend mass, if asked my religion I answer “I was raised Catholic”. Those who have been on this trip smile & nod. We’re joined in a cultural sort of way.

So yesterday my friend, Sue, who is part of the same author’s coaching telebridge group that I am sent me a story to read and comment upon. She’s going to send it in for possible publication, as the man who is mentoring all 80 of us has requested. He invited submissions two months ago, and last month did a fine job of scolding us - because apparently not one person submitted anything.

Sue is wildly competitive and I’m easily pushed by guilt, so she and I make a good pair. She rose to the occasion by writing up a story she told me, and I stepped up after receiving her piece and wrote one of my own.

So in two weeks when the next call happens I won’t have to feel so guilty, and Sue can feel like she’s won. And we’ll be contributing authors (hopefully) to www.networkingnow.com.

If there’s something you’ve been putting off doing, my suggestion is to find a person to buddy up with who will hold you accountable to what you say. Today’s quote, from Unknown, “Integrity is turning intention into action.”

Hello fellow beans!

All right, here we go….I’ve been avoiding this for too long. What you say? Beth M. Anderson doesn’t want to give an opinion? Easy to do when you have people asking you questions, much harder just to go for it. So here goes….

This blog is for the ramblings of a professional networker who has friends and colleagues all over the planet, thanks to BNI, Business Network Int’l, the world’s largest word-of-mouth referral organization. Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, is mentoring a group of BNI people who want to write, and he says a blog is something I should have, so now I have one.

Let’s see where this ride takes us. Please bear with this geeky end-of-the-line baby boomer who is getting to know this new set of tools…