Category: Articles

Is Your Message Not Reaching Even The Green? Try A Different Club

Sometimes getting through to folks these days seems like trying to drive a 500 yard hole with a putter alone. You just never seem to get there. Let’s face it, and particularly with the advent of all of this technology, we are all overwhelmed. Our inboxes overfloweth (smile).

I am a huge user of email and I probably spend more time than most in managing and replying to messages yet, there are several folks who I correspond with regularly who rarely acknowledge, let alone reply to, my emails. However, by selecting a different “club”, I often get immediate responses from these same folks. My advise is to mix it up. So let’s take a look in the bag and see what we have available. Certainly, there are many not mentioned here but, these are the so very obvious ….. Continue reading “Is Your Message Not Reaching Even The Green? Try A Different Club”

What Good Is Having Email If You Rarely Look At It?

Is it like the tree that falls in the forest? If nobody heard the crash, was that sound ever made?

Yesterday I got involved with a conversation on FaceBook about email and your inbox. Let’s get more specific. How about unread messages in your inbox? To your left is a partial screen shot of this conversation. I have “fuzzed” the names and faces to protect the innocent 🙂

One guy actually has close to 13,000 unread emails! Incredible! Another goes on to say that he has over 56,000 but does not specify how many of those are unread. He further states that “if it’s a month old and I haven’t read it and no one followed up or hollered, I delete it”. Another gentleman, not on this screen shot, basically said that if somebody wants to get ahold of them, they know to text or call. Certainly, this got me to thinking. Not only did it truly open my eyes to the real world, it also encouraged me to examine certain phenomena that has a tendency to piss me off real bad 🙂 Continue reading “What Good Is Having Email If You Rarely Look At It?”

The Evolution of Face-To-Face Networking Groups

My very first blog post on February 8, 2009 featured this same image and it is only fitting that my first post of 2010 do likewise. More importantly, the topic of this entry is the “Evolution of Face-to-Face Networking Groups”. The times, they are a changing.

If you have previously been to this site, you will know that I am a huge proponent of all forms of business networking and actually run B2B networking groups as a business. We began with one group in November 2007, added another in the last quarter of 2009, and launched our third group at the beginning of this year. I am planning at least one extra group for this year and will then decide whether to continue the expansion. Only so much “Craig” to go around. Continue reading “The Evolution of Face-To-Face Networking Groups”

I’d Love To Give You That Referral …. But

I have been incredibly busy this past week getting everything put into place for the launch of our third NetWorks! Boise group on January 5. This will be a Tuesday breakfast group code-named … Sunrise. How original (smile). Oh well, it works.  I’ve been thinking about the topic of this post for some time now and, in fact, it was originally created on one of my Posterous accounts that I don’t really promote as of yet. Still, the topic is timely. If Christmas is about “giving”, it only makes sense that I see so many “takers” these days (smile). Here is the original post in its entirety and please have a fun and safe Merry Christmas and New Years!! …..

Referrals are the “holy grail” of all networking activities. When you are provided with a referral, there is a better than average chance that, if anybody gets the sale, it’s going to be you. A good referral is like gold. Money in your pocket. It can range from “Please use my name” to “They are expecting your call” to “I’d like to take you out and introduce you to …”.

Now, let’s take a moment and think about that person who is providing you with this referral. If I give somebody a referral, I need to do so with 100% confidence that:

Continue reading “I’d Love To Give You That Referral …. But”

Your First New Investment Should Be In You

The economy continues to languish and, if you are like me and a lot of other folks, whatever investments you did have prior to this recession took a major hit. Suddenly, your plans for early retirement have been …. “modified”. Certainly, there are signs of life and we all know that things will someday be back to “normal”. Personally, and I tend to be very conservative, I am watching the economic indicators climb back up and am awaiting the right time to jump back in. The real question is … “Jump back into what?”. I’m a little queasy on stocks and not that much more comfortable with real estate. Precious metals are interesting, I just really wish that I had bought gold when it was at $400. Continue reading “Your First New Investment Should Be In You”

The Hot Dog Vendor

This one is a real oldie but a goodie (smile). I have no idea who wrote it but can tell you that I have had a worn out photocopy of this in my files for at least 30 years. Same tale holds true today. Feel free to substitute your company name, products, and chosen form of investments (smile).

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He sold very good hot dogs.

He put up sign along the highway and advertised in the newspaper telling how good they were.

He stood on the side of the road and cried: “Buy a hot dog, Mister?”

And people bought. Continue reading “The Hot Dog Vendor”

Networking Remains A Contact Sport

I really wanted to use a picture of a fight but …………. (smile). With all the hype surrounding Social media as a way to make contacts, it reminds me that it is even more important to meet contacts. As others have properly pointed out, it’s not about numbers, it is about conversions. And, in my experience, conversions occur face-to-face. Networking is still very much about “pressing the flesh” and “meet and greet”. Why do you think they have TweetUps? Even good little Tweeple recognize that, at some point, they are actually going to have to speak to each other in order to take the relationship to the next higher level (smile).

What social media really is, as Justin Foster puts so well, “old rules, new tools.”  It’s still communication. Social media excels in the areas of branding and initiating some form of contact. Case in point. I was having coffee with Jacob Nordby the other day and as some people were leaving he stopped this one gal and said “Aren’t you …..”. And, yes, she was. They had never met but recognized each other from Twitter. This is a result of branding. Jacob was initiating a form of contact. Mission accomplished. And there are many avenues to get to that goal. Honestly, while social media can be a lot of work, by the same token it encourages folks to be lazy where it counts. Here are some of my favorite, and proven, old school methods: Continue reading “Networking Remains A Contact Sport”