Networking Insight

Wearing Appropriate Attire is an Extension of Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is how others perceive you in the marketplace.  You want to make sure that your brand is seen as positive. In fact, your brand is your networking identity.

Your actions, demeanor, personality, expertise, and appearance are all important considerations that make up your brand.  When interacting with others, you want to make sure that you come across professional and leave a good impression. 

Make sure that you are dressed appropriate for each situation. Do some research and even ask what is the appropriate attire for a meeting that you may attend.  If you don’t know, then a safe bet is to wear professional attire.  Rarely, will you be over dressed. 

It is important that you dress to at least the level of the person who you are meeting.  If you are meeting with a senior executive, then wear professional attire. You want to set a good impression. 

When attending events, find out what others may wear by researching the organization website or asking people who have attended in the past. Either way, you can’t go wrong with professional attire or even business casual. It is not a good idea to dress casual because you want to come across professional.

You never know who you will meet so you want to put your best foot forward and come across as professional as you can. Take your appearance very serious because it is a big part of your personal brand.

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Social Networking Humor

7 Ways to Build Credibility with Your Network

Your network is one of your greatest personal assets so you need to nurture it on a frequent basis.  Make sure that you stay in front of your network and continually add value.  Over time, you will be seen as a credible source.

Below are seven ways to build credibility with your network:

1. Share interesting and valuable information in person or electronically.

2. Connect people in your network as you find synergies.

3. Speak in public or at private events about your industry or expertise.

4. Write thought leadership articles.

5. Update your network on your career activity via sources such as LinkedIn or email newsletters.

6. Host your own business events to bring people together.

7. Stay active and visible in your business community by attending events, volunteering your time, mentoring other people, etc.

What other ways can you think of?

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Book Review: Recommended by Andy Lopata

Recommended was written by Andy Lopata who is one of Europe’s leading business networking strategists.  He writes for several business magazines and is frequently quoted in the national press in the UK.  Previously, he was managing director of the UK network Business Referral Exchange. He is also the author of ...and Death Came Third! The Definitive Guide to Networking and Speaking in Public.

The book is broken up into the following sections:

• Why You Need to Get Recommended
• The Foundation of the Ultimate Referrals Strategy
• How Your Network Can Help You Generate Referrals
• How To Get Your Network To Refer You• Tools You Can Use

The author is a world renown networking authority who shares some techniques on how to close more sales by generating referrals through your network.  Building relationships is a key business technique to build trust and credibility. People buy from those who they trust and know.  Andy shows you how to build a network of “champions” who will often refer you business.

Recommended will show you how to maximize the potential of your network. The author lays out a plan to put together a referral strategy, which can produce longer term clients who will have a higher lifetime sales value to your organization. Learn how to spend more time cultivating your network to generate business rather than having to cold call or continuously meet new people.

Andy practices what he preaches so this book teaches you the successful techniques that he has used to grow his companies. Throughout the book, he shares some stories to illustrate his points.

Whether you are an expert networker or a novice, the book is a practical guide that will reinforce that you need to build strong relationships to generate quality referrals.  Learn from a seasoned and recognized networking expert.

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EFactor Presents: Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs - Chicago Event

Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs 

You may have a brilliant product, but do you know how to market it? Without a cutting edge marketing strategy event the most amazing products can fail.

Founders are not always the best marketers and often their product suffers as the result. An exciting new social media campaign can easily bring recognition, new customers, and ensure the success of your business.

Don’t let your company suffer! Join EFactor for an information packed event that will bring social media and marketing professionals to teach you everything you need to know about startup marketing. Learn from a panel of leading experts how to develop and implement an exciting new social media marketing strategy. Network with fellow entrepreneurs and meet marketing professionals to ensure your company’s success!

Join us to discuss:

• What are the newest cutting edge Social Media Marketing trends?
• How to create the right marketing strategy for your startup?
• How to build the right marketing team for your company?-How to avoid common marketing and social media mistakes?

Speakers Include:

• Charles Gardner, Special Counsel, Much Shelist (social media attorney)
• Mana Lonescu, Lightspan Digital (social media expert)
• JD Gershebein, Owlish Communications (LinkedIn expert)

Event Details

Date: 4/18/12

Time: 6:30-9:30pm

Location: Much Shelist, 191 N. Wacker, 18th Floor, Chicago

Price: $10 Early Bird, $15 regular, $20 at door

For more details and to register, go to EFactor.com

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Social Networking Humor

Build a Network of Peers

Building a strong personal network has always been important in the business world. The Internet makes it much easier to find people, but building a relationship with other professionals takes time. 

You should strive to build a diverse network of people with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds. The more diverse the network the better the opportunity to tap into its collective power. 

In fact, with each person who you integrate into your network, take the time to get to know him/her so you are very comfortable with one another. You should be so comfortable that you can call this person a friend or peer. You want to get to know each other on a first name basis.

Build a network of peers so you can call upon anyone at any time and get the help that you need.  Focus on quality not quantity when building your network. Spend time with certain people in your network so you can get to know them very well.

The following types of people can be integrated into your network fairly quickly since you may already have an established relationship based on your activities. You can already call them peers so make sure to leverage the power of these ties.

• Family
• Friends
• Co-workers
• University alumni
• Neighbors
• Church / temple members
• Charity volunteers
• Industry groups

What other peer groups can you think of?

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Seven Truths About You by Brian Tracy and Christina Tracy Stein

Seven Truths About You

By Brian Tracy and Christina Tracy Stein

Authors of Kiss That Frog: 12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives inYour Life and Work

Your natural state is to be happy, peaceful, joyous, and full of excitementat being alive. In this natural state you wake up each morning eager to startthe day. You feel wonderful about yourself and your relationships with thepeople in your life. You enjoy your work and derive a great sense ofsatisfaction from making a contribution that makes a difference. Your primarygoal should be to organize your life in such a way that this is how you feelmost of the time.

As a fully functioning, fully mature adult, you should be doing things everyday that move you toward the fulfillment of your potential. You should feelgrateful for all your blessings in every area. If you are unhappy ordissatisfied in any part of your life, something is not right in your thoughts,feelings, or actions, and it needs to be corrected.The starting point in unlocking your full potential is to realize that you alreadyare a prince or princess, deep down inside.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. -- AbrahamLincoln

No matter where you are today, or what you have done or not done in thepast, you need to accept seven essential truths about you as a person:

1. You are a thoroughly good and excellent person; valuableand worthwhile beyond measure. No one is better than you or more gifted thanyou.Only when you doubt your essential goodness and value do you begin toquestion yourself. The inability to accept that you are a good person lies atthe root of much of your discontent.

2. You are important, in many, many ways. To start with, youare important to yourself. Your personal universe revolves around you as anindividual. You give meaning to everything that you see or hear. Nothing inyour world has any significance except for the significance that you attributeto it.You are also important to your parents. Your birth was a significant momentin their lives, and as you grew up, almost everything you did was meaningful tothem.You are important to your own family, to your partner or spouse, yourchildren, and the other members of your social circle. Some of the things youdo or say have an enormous impact on them.You are important to your company, your customers, your coworkers, and yourcommunity. The things you do or don't do can have a tremendous effect on thelives and work of others.How important you feel largely determines the quality of your life. Happy, successful people feel important and valuable. Because they feel and act thisway, it becomes true for them.Unhappy, frustrated people feel unimportant and of little value. They feelfrustrated and unworthy. They feel "I'm not good enough," and as aresult they lash out at the world and engage in behaviors that hurt themselvesand others.They don't realize that they could be a prince or princess inside.

3. You have unlimited potential and the ability to create yourlife and your world as you desire. You could not use your entire potential ifyou lived one hundred lifetimes.No matter what you have accomplished up to now, it is merely a hint of whatis truly possible for you. And the more of your natural talents and abilitiesyou develop in the present, the more of your potential you can develop in thefuture.Your belief in your almost unlimited potential is the key to becomingeverything you are truly capable of becoming.

4. You create your world in every respect by the way you thinkand the depth of your convictions. Your beliefs actually create your realities,and every belief you have about yourself you learned, starting ininfancy. The amazing thing is that most of the negative or self-limitingbeliefs and doubts that interfere with your happiness and success are not basedon fact or reality at all.When you begin to question your self-limiting beliefs and develop beliefsconsistent with the incredible person you really are, your life will begin tochange almost immediately.

5. You are always free to choose the content of your thoughtsand the direction of your life. The one thing over which you have completecontrol is your inner life and your thinking. You can decide to think happy,fulfilling, uplifting thoughts that lead to positive actions and results. Oryou can, by default, end up choosing negative, selflimiting thoughts that tripyou up and hold you back.Your mind is like a garden: if you do not deliberately cultivate flowers,weeds will grow automatically without any effort on your part. If you do notdeliberately plant and cultivate positive thoughts, negative thoughts will growin their place.This simple metaphor about the garden explains why so many people areunhappy and don't know why.

6. You are put on this earth with a great destiny: you aremeant to do something wonderful with your life. You have a unique combinationof talents, abilities, ideas, insights, and experiences that make you differentfrom anyone who has ever lived. You are designed for success and engineered forgreatness.Your acceptance or nonacceptance of this point largely determines the sizeof the goals you set, your power of persistence in the face of adversity, theheight of your achievements, and the whole direction of your life.

7. There are no limits to what you can do, be, or have exceptthe limits you place on your own thinking and your own imagination. The biggestenemies you will ever face are your own doubts and fears. These are usuallynegative beliefs, not necessarily based on fact, that you have accepted overthe years until you no longer question them.As Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, "What's past isprologue." Everything that has happened to you in the past has been apreparation for the wonderful life that lies ahead of you in the future.Remember the rule: It doesn't matter where you're coming from; all thatreally matters is where you're going.

For more information please visit http://www.briantracy.com, and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

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Founder Institute Chicago - Ideation Bootcamp & Spring Semester

Below is information about an event that I have organized for the Founder Institute:

Chicago Startup Ideation Bootcamp

Date: April 3, 2012

Time: 6-9pm

Location: True Partners Consulting LLC, 225 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 1600, Chicago

The Startup Ideation Bootcamp provides expert advice with real-world practice. The evening begins with talks by leading startup Founders designed to teach you the components of good and bad startup ideas. Then, attendees can share their ideas with both experts and peers to receive constructive feedback. The evening format is based on the best practices of the Founder Institute, the largest pre-seed incubator in the world.  This hands-on, intensive workshop will be led by David Culver, Co-Founder of Forward Momentum and George Deeb, Managing Partner of Red Rocket Venture Partners. Light snacks and drinks will also be provided by our venue sponsor True Partners Consulting LLC.

Space is extremely limited so register today at Ideation Bootcamp.

Spring 2012 Chicago - Now Accepting Applications!

The Founder Institute is the World's Largest Idea-Stage Incubator. In fact, over 500 technology founders across five continents have already launched companies with the help of our company-building curriculum, expert feedback, and peer support. Are you next?

Who should apply?

Anybody who is passionate about building a technology company is welcome to apply: idea or no idea, full-time job or unemployed, young or old, male or female, experienced in business or straight out of school. We also support a wide range of technology industries: including digital media, software, biotech, cleantech, ecommerce, advertising, consumer electronics, and more.

For more details and to apply, go to New Founder Application. The Early Bird Application ends on April 15.

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