FastPitch Site

Dr. Miser recommends them, so I’ve set up a free business profile. Still investigating whether it’s worth the investment of cash on top of time….click the image below to see my profile on FastPitch.

This Month’s SuccessNet

This month’s Art of Networking article in BNI’s newsletter that goes out to over 100,000 people worldwide!

Internet Forums Can Make You the Expert by Beth M. Anderson

BeneathTheCover.com

And the next day I get recognized again on www.bni.com for being published on the website www.beneaththecover.com.

Amazing visibility and recognition right before conference!!

Every Interest Has a Network

See my article in the November 2007 issue of SuccessNet. This monthly newsletter has a subscription base of over 100,000 people. Exciting!

http://www.bni.com/successnet2005/successnet05/Nov_2007/story.shtml

Small World Update

So I get a phone call from the guy I met, and after we talked for a bit it looks like we’ll be working together. The part of this that strikes me the most is when he said “I need to work with someone I trust.” My brain asks - why does he trust me? Why? Because he asked around the Yacht Club about me, he knows our mutual friend Steve trusts me, and we made a connection. It’s all good. Visibility (I left my cave and went out and socialized.), Credibility (I got connected with someone who is connected to me in a couple of ways.), Profitability (he’s hiring me).

What are you doing this week to increase your Visibility and Credibility?

Widen Your Network

I was volunteering at the Information Booth at Laura Days last weekend and a friend said to me “Gee, you’ve only been in town six years and you know lots more people than I do! How did that happen?”.

A photographer from a nearby town called me on Monday and we got into a conversation about the people he wanted to meet. Turns out I know just about all of them. He wanted to know “How is it that your network is so broad?”

Both questions got me to thinking…how DID I meet all of these people? The answer? I got involved. When I first moved here I had a gallery and wine bar in the busiest part of town. I was also business partners with someone who had lived here a long time, so that also helped. But I joined the local community club, volunteered on the committee for a 150 year event, stepped up when asked to participate in the local festival. Basically, I got out of my cave and got involved.

Now six years later I am the resource for all things website related in the area. People call me with questions, bring me all kinds of business, and I have a wide recognition factor in the area.

I’ve always said if I wrote a book on moving to a small town, the first advice I would give would be to “do retail” whether it’s weekends pouring coffee at the local shop or ringing a cash register at the gas station - because you meet everyone that way. But if that doesn’t do anything for you, I think volunteering is the next step. And go to the meetings, bring ideas, speak up, work hard, do the job no one wants to do (once, anyway) and people will notice you, remember you, respect you. This is the beginning of the VCP process - Visibility, Credibility, Profitability. Small towns are a great way to get VCP.

Connecting Everything and Everyone

I took some friends sailing yesterday, and before we even got on the boat I had found the common ground between them. Andrew is a business consultant who works with companies to help them better manage and market themselves. Sue is an organic dairy farmer. What could they possible have in common?

All I said to Andrew was, Sue & her husband are organic dairy farmers and he says “That’s great! I’ve been wanting to meet an organic dairy farmer! This is perfect! I have an idea.”

And there it was - a connection was made between two disparate people in my life. They spent quite a bit of time on the boat talking about Andrew’s idea. We’re all going to go over and look at the operation, introduce Andrew to Chuck, and see where it goes from there.

The world is small and connected, but only if you are awake and present in your own life. Be interested in others, and the connections will come to you. Once you start connecting people, your circle gets larger, your friends do business with each other, and everyone benefits.

Pay attention to those around you, and remember that every profession and every interest has a networking connection buried in the middle of it.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. - Dale Carnegie

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!