Tag: marketing

7 KEY HABITS OF SUPER NETWORKERS

I have been doing a lot of things lately to sharpen my axe.  You know, getting better at ME!  Personal Development is one of the most vital essentials to finding and enjoying success.  I’m far from being a “Know-It-All” but I’m confident if I keep on doing the very simple daily disciplines, I’m going to be constantly improving myself and be a better contributor to my team’s overall success.

And today I wanted to share something I had read some time ago that really inspired me to stay on course with my objectives and my goals.  It’s my belief if you incorporate some of these fantastic practices, it will surely lead you to some very magical discoveries and personal successes along the way.

7 Key Habits of Super Networkers

BY  LEWIS HOWES

The ability to network successfully can be one of the greatest assets in business. It allows some people to find incredible opportunities, while others just watch from the sidelines.

Effective networking isn’t a result of luck — it requires hard work and persistence. What does it take to be a super networker? Here are seven of the most important habits to develop:

1. Ask insightful questions.
Before attending networking events, get the names of the people who are expected to attend and search social media sites like LinkedIn to figure out which topics they’re probably most interested in. For people who are already in your network, don’t assume you know everything they’re up to. Find out what they’re currently working on — or perhaps struggling with. This attention to detail can go a long way at your next one-on-one lunch or dinner meeting.

2. Add value.
One of the most powerful networking practices is to provide immediate value to a new connection. This means the moment you identify a way to help someone, take action. If, for instance, you know someone in your network who can help a new connection with a problem, drop what you’re doing and introduce the two individuals.

3. Learn their ‘story.’
Ask successful entrepreneurs to tell you how they got where they are. Most people think of this as an exercise in rapport building, but hearing these stories can tell you a lot about a person’s approach to business. The more you understand your networking partner’s mentality, the better you can add and extract value from your relationship.

For example, some entrepreneurs pride themselves on working 16-hour days and doing whatever it takes, while others focus on being strategic and waiting for the right opportunities to open up. These are clues that can not only allow you to see what people value, but also what working with them might be like.

4. Share a memorable fact.
When someone asks, “What do you do?” don’t give a canned elevator speech about your company and career. Mention something personal that defines who you really are. Maybe you have a passion for playing an instrument or an obsession with collecting antiques. These are also “things you do,” so make it a point to share them. Such personal details can help lighten the mood and get people talking.

5. Keep a list.
What’s your routine after attending a networking event or meal? If your answer is, “I go home,” you’re probably going to miss out on opportunities. Write down important topics that came up at the event. This habit can help prevent opportunities from falling through the cracks and give you something to reference in conversation the next time you meet. You can also develop a reputation as someone who’s on top of things.

6. Make small promises and keep them.
No matter how small a promise you make — such as sending an email or returning a phone call — delivering on that promise reflects on your character. By following through on your word, you start building a reputation for trustworthiness, which is exactly how every great networker wants to be perceived.

7. Reward your ‘power’ contacts.
Keep a list of your top five to 10 networking partners and do something each week to add value to one person’s life or business. You might send them a book or set up a lunch to introduce them to one of your other contacts. This habit can help you be proactive about staying in touch with your most powerful contacts. Just as with fitness or investing, the most successful people are the ones who choose to be consistent in their actions.

source: Entrepreneur, 2012

GO AHEAD I DARE YOU

Go Ahead, I Dare You

How many times in our lives have we heard that?  It amazes me how many times people are challenged with those words and then fail to take action on the actual dare.  What is that?  Mostly it’s fear.  People are terrified of failure, rejection, and the repercussions of falling short.  And for fear of failure, they never take the first step.  And then at the end of the day they are bewildered of their lack of success in their lives, their personal development, and their lifelong accomplishments.  In order for things to be different YOU have to be different.

 

Let me help you shape your thinking a little better.  If I told you right now that you were never ever going to find success, would you get upset with me?  What different course of action would you start to take?  Chances are you’re here reading this today because you’ve reached a point of desperation.  you’re finally mad enough about your current situation, you’re finally angry enough you’re looking for quick answers and you’re looking for answers to get yourself out of a lifelong rut.  Tired of the rat race.  Well how bad do you want to achieve success?  Would you become more passionate about wanting to prove me wrong?  You have dreams don’t you?  Have people close to you told you that you can’t do that?  Ask yourself, what have they done with their lives?  Have your dreams been suppressed over time by the mental meltdown of corporate America?  Winston Churchill’s father told him as a teenager that he was a “social wastrel.”  But Sir Winston Churchill went on to become one of the World’s most influential leaders.  He stuttered as a kid.

 

Are you waiting for your ship to come in?  That’s like playing the lottery thinking you’re going to win.  Chances are you’re not!  Let me just tell you, you’re ship is NEVER going to come in!  The fact is, you’re going to have to swim out and get it!  For you to attain the level of success you desire, it’s never going to come easy.  Like everything else, you have to pay your dues.  And with that comes lots of trial and error.  Failure after failure.  That’s what we call “Sweat Equity!”  You have to grind, grind, grind and you have to fail, fail, fail.  that’s how you WIN!   When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he was asked why he was able to persevere since he had failed in previous 2000 attempts.  He said, “I never failed at it, I just found 2000 ways it didn’t work!”  Different mindset.  So let me ask you, how many times have you attempted something and gave up telling yourself,  “Ahh, it doesn’t work?  Five times, 10 times, 50 times before you finally gave up or someone told you that you were crazy?”  And that’s all it is for you to achieve greatness, a different mindset a different perspective.  A different path than what you’re on right now.  And guess what?  You can do it!  In order for things to change, YOU have to change.  What inspires you?  In order for you to become successful, you have to be willing to come out of your comfort zone.  Quit worrying about what people think about you.  Chances are the voices you think you might hear come from those who haven’t taken action on their own dreams but have succeeded on stealing yours and many others countless times. Successful people have failed, failed, failed, their way to success.

WHAT ACTIONS STEPS SHOULD I TAKE?

Great question!  A significant reason you’re not where you want to be right now is because you’ve never had a game plan.  You’ve never had goals.  And that’s not entirely your fault either.  I’m just speaking the truth here.  I know it hurts but in order for you to get where you want to go, you have to recognize too where you’re coming from so you can see your progress and chart your successes along the way.  That way as you get to the next level and the next and so on you’re seeing growth and are more likely to see things through to your goals.

So lets take a few minutes now and define some realistic goals.  And since you’ve never done this before, lets start with something easy.  A 90-day goal.  What’s the purpose of this goal?  And what’s the penalty for not reaching this goal.  See there has to be a penalty as well as a reward.  Growth.  We’re taking baby steps here now so we can see progress, so you can get used to defining your road map to success.  The easiest way to set an end goal is to discover your “Why.”  If the why is insignificant the goal will also be insignificant as well.  Most people are struggling financially, Agreed?  Ok, So let’s see if we can get you on a path that will start to earn you an extra $500-$1000 per month part time.  Would that be nice?  Great!  That’s simple, that’s easy to do.  Oh well you might be saying, “I’ve never done that, how am I going to do it now?”

George Washington was once asked about his plan for chopping down the cherry tree.  He said he was going to go sharpen his ax for 3 hours then take 15 minutes to chop down the tree.  So my suggestion to you is we need to start sharpening your ax right now!

I’m also going to go out on a limb here first and tell you something I already know about you.  You’re not much of a reader are you?  Thought so.  Most people I find in their struggles is that they’re not readers at all.  If they are they’re not reading the right things.  See if you’ve never chopped down a cherry tree, you’d need to learn how to do it.  And what better way to sharpen your ax and learn how then by reading about how someone else did it the wrong way and then read how someone else did it the right way and then do it the way that was most successful.  So you see my friend, by reading, you shorten your own learning curve and find out the right way verses the wrong way to do something.

SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES

Here’s one for you.  99.99% of people who are successful in whatever their profession are for the most part veracious readers.  There are many common denominators of Successful people you may want to make a note of herein.  Successful people are Type A individuals.  They’re Leaders.  They know what they want.  They make quick decisions, they have quick wit and their confidence is very bold.  They’re clearly focused.  They’re full of energy.  And if you’re witness to someone like this then they may come off as arrogant to you but chances are they are not.  It’s just a different aura that they constantly carry around.  And if you surround yourself with people like them then chances are some of their success, their attitude, their moxy, and their focus, their energy, and their confidence will bleed its way in to your composition and go a long way to help you in elevating yourself to the next level.  It could be a defining moment in your life to be able to shadow, model, and create a new you.  A more confident, vibrant you.  So if you aspire to transform yourself in to this kind of person, then you have to start reading to learn what the ingredients are for this type of massive overhaul.

What’s the process?  I’m going to assume already that you don’t like to read?  Many people I have mentored over the years in your predicament don’t.  And that’s ok, but if we’re going to commence to going down a different path to help you achieve financial success and gain the ultimate goal of having time freedom, then we have to become masters of the mundane.  Again we will start by taking some baby steps to get you on the right path.  Can you read 10 pages of a Book every day before you start your day?  Good.  Simple enough right?  Can you do that for the next 90 days?  How about the next year?  Let me show you how we can compound that.  If you will read 10 pages of a books I recommend to you from my list, and you will do so for the next year, you will have read 3650 pages of books!  Wow Right.  But it gets better.  If the average book is 300 pages, then I will have had you reading 15 Books over the next year!  Pretty Impressive huh?  You Bet!  So if I have you reading 15 Books over the next year and it’s 15 of the books that I want you to read, let me ask you, “Do you think I can change your life?”  Absolutely!  This is what you have to do!  this is where you learn it.  you read to learn how other people became successful, how they failed time and time again and you learn by their mistakes so as to shorten your own learning curve and rise to greatness much quicker than they did to get where they are today.  Why will you get there quicker than they did?  Because technology is much better today than it was yesterday but the rules remain the same.

 

So to find out what books you need to start with on your journey to a successful life email me and I will follow up and design a plan along with you that’s going to provide you the necessary ingredients to get you sailing in the right direction.

Thanks for reading!  You’re on the right path.  I will eagerly look forward to helping you get where you want to go.  Godspeed!

By:  Hadley Starkey