First Word

Fresh off a wonderful lunch with a colleague, I decided to come back to the office and blog about the importance and value of networking in business. My colleague has run into some serious barriers in her business. She's either been confronted with people who essentially want to pay her $20 to write an entire magazine article or $10 for a newsletter or get no business at all. First, readers and business people, do you have any idea how insulting it is to pay a highly educated, skilled professional $20 for an 800-word article? While some folks don't value writers and think we do this out of sheer passion and love for the craft, the truth is we have to eat. People pay their babysitters more than $20. So faced with either being devalued or not finding work, she was considering a move back to corporate. I decided to give her the "chin-up-young-grasshopper" talk and discuss what she could be doing to avoid the collision course with the worst-case scenario. Those of you bus...

No you didn't! Traveling with my absolutely favorite gal pal and financial planner Cindy Fuzie, who I will from now on call The Fuze, we had an absolute blast when we went to Reno eWomen. Now the blast, of course, did not happen at the actual event. Nope! We headed with two good friends/client over to the Peppermill where we bonded in the bar. I have to tell you I have made more strong connections with people at networking event by hanging out in the bar and just socializing. You will actually see it's relationship building not sales. Conferences and events are great but nothing is better than really getting to know someone outside of the events. I know this might sound strange, but I tell you I have built more relationships in bars that you might think I'm a lush. Truly, I drink a little but it's the time when people let their collective hair down and just chat. In these conversations, you can discover whether or not you even like the person. I think in business you...

I'm all about intentions right now. I have a few great projects simmering on the burner, and I'm promoting and networking and connecting. Yesterday I decided I was going to aggressively pursue some angles to get my screenplay out there and find a script agent. So, I started thinking about all of the ways I could do it. Pretty soon, things started to just move forward -- a few inches at a time but none the less forward. I want you to know one thing -- all of this effort and what I'm trying makes me uncomfortable. I am not someone who feels entirely comfortable being pushy or aggressive. Now that is not to say that I'm not good at networking, but while it might appear to those who know me that I'm extroverted, it's not entirely the case. I've had to push myself to color outside of my comfort lines to become extroverted. You cannot run a successful business without comfortably going out and meeting new people all of the time. I've known many associates who ...