Networking Death Row

I begrudgingly attended a few weeks ago a new networking organization that recently launched here in Austin. It was billed as being a "different kind of networking group" with strong focus on developing relationships rather than just leads. The invitation came from someone I know here really well and he was mainly interested in my perspective of their supposedly new core concept and ultimately their "hot offer" to join up.

I used to have a salty old dog district manager from my days with Xerox that had a saying that went something like, "You can put perfume on a pig but it's still a pig and son, pigs just plain stink." I never forgot his lesson. Just like a leopard can't change its spots, you simply can't make something appear to be something that it so obviously isn't. It was great advice and I heard it ring through my cerebral chamber more than once during this event.

It always amazes me how many eager professionals believe that thrusting a business card in your face, before even knowing who you really are, will somehow unlock King Solomon's mines of opportunity. Can you, just for a minute see the unhappy and quickly becoming miserable Steve in your mind's eye? Good job!!! This group that was so focused on being different that almost by extension of its new fangled approach promoted the same casual and assuming business prostituting that every other group does out there in the world. Just now remembering how miserable I was in their "mixer activity" almost made me throw up in my mouth a little....again!

Don't get my wrong, I really try hard not to make fun of these kinds of events. I understand that for some business people they absolutely have a purpose and a place. I also know most people who attend think they are giving their best effort to promote and grow their business. I just have a fundamental disagreement as to how they go through the motions of actually doing it.

But people I am not a cheap first date. You can't show me a flashy business card and a million dollar smile and expect my wallet or contact database to automatically open. It is soulless and I would never want to do business with, nor share opportunities with, people who go through the motions because they have to. Call me crazy but that's just me! Yay...I am a networking prude. You can say it! (SMILE)

If you have read my BLOG for any length of time you know that networking in these kinds of environments isn't how I grew, now three successful companies. But I know you might be saying to yourself, "But then why do you keep going Steve!" I think I go because I am either gluten for punishment or I do really have a screw loose.

Seriously, I keep going to these better mouse trap events and end up getting my tail caught in an endless string of 30 second elevator speeches and "so what do you do?" questions. I go because I guess I do keep hoping that someone will really do more than talk about creating a different approach and actually do it. Hmmm wait a minute...someone has, I think it's called The 8 Minute Ripple! More on our latest successful event soon.

As my friend and I got up from the table where the networking lunch portion had just ended he could tell I was ready to bolt. It might have been the Clark Kent looking for a phone booth kind of air I had about me or the fact I really needed to get out there before the heebee jeebees that I had developed started catching. Seriously, I thanked my friend for inviting me and knowing his business suggested he try it again without the Ripple Man sitting across the table from him looking like a prisoner outside the execution chamber.

My last word of advice to him was go back and join if you think it is a fit.

He passed.

Ripple On My Friends!!!

But whatever you do...

STOP NETWORKING. START CONNECTING.™

Clutch Time Even When It's Ugly

So as most of you know I am a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Well last night they played the Buffalo Bills and boy was it a game! Dallas had a chance to start with a record of 5-0, something they hadn't done since the early eighties, and Buffalo, well they were just supposed to be plain bad. The game was supposed to be a blowout in favor of the Cowboys all the way.

If you could see my jaw set you would know that 'supposed to' didn't, and still doesn't set well with me.

Anyway, you are likely asking yourself, "another stupid sports analogy Steve?" To which I would reply YUP!

The Cowboys played horrible. They looked flat and Tony Romo our Quarterback threw four interceptions in the first half alone. Can anyone say UGLY?!?

It would have been easy for the Cowboys, and more specifically Tony Romo, to pack it up at halftime. They looked defeated. They looked like they had already been beaten. And let me tell you, most of the second half didn't do much to improve their outlook.

Yet.....they kept fighting. They kept coming back.

They hung around just long enough to make the right plays happen when they needed to.

Defeat is a funny thing. It wants you to give in. It wants you to say, "I am so far down that I could never think of getting up." I know that's what Buffalo was hoping defeat was telling Mr. Romo and the rest of "the boys."

We all face times in our lives where things don't go our way. Tony Romo had statistically one of the worst showings of all time but he didn't give up. He didn't let those whispers of defeat ring forever in his ears. Nope! He knew they could win if they just played hard enough to give themselves a shot.

How many of us give up at the first sign of defeat? How many of us let defeat whisper sweet nothings in our ear as we give up on our hopes and dreams? How many people fail to be clutch even when things get ugly?

Fortunately for us our personal and professional destruction doesn't happen on Monday Night Football in front of millions of football fans. No, I suspect we quietly take our defeat in private and we hide it and what it does to us from the world.

What if you could be like Tony Romo and step out there on the field of life and refuse to give up...refuse to quit? What kind of Ripples might you find yourself creating in your own personal self-confidence and ultimately in your own self-worth?

As Tony Romo watch the winning field goal sail through the uprights to win the game, I suspect he was winked at old defeat and said, "Go away. I hear Buffalo needs you!"

How 'bout them Cowboys!!!!

Believe in yourself even when the odds and the world are stacked against you.

Ripple On!!!

Steve

Be Inspired Today

I want you try something today. I want you to take ten minutes this morning and write down all the things, objects, activities, places, etc. that inspire you. Just get a blank piece of paper and start writing. There does not have to be any order, just let your mind out of the box to play for a bit. Allow yourself to have some fun as you keep that pen moving.


After fifteen minutes I want you to stop.

Take a look at how big your list is and look at each item. Which of the items on your list most tug at your heart? Put a star next to each of them.

Now with your top inspirations starred, look at each one of them individually. Which of them stand out? Concentrate on only those. Read what you wrote, close your eyes and see yourself doing the activity or standing in front of the object that inspires you. Take a full mental minute to transport yourself to that place where you find inspiration from that object, activity or place and just allow yourself to be there.

After you have gone through this exercise....take a quick inventory of how you feel. Does any one of these things inspire you more than the others? If so, take a few minutes to take an action to get yourself closer to that which inspires you. If it's a piece of art that inspires you, find a picture of it on the Internet and print it out. If it's a certain type of music, download it now into your IPOD or grab that CD and put it in your stereo. If it's a place, find some pictures from a previous trip and put them out or....and you have to love the power of technology, use GOOGLE MAPS to pinpoint the area and use that picture as the background on your desktop.

Bottom line...do something!

Do this exercise, and I mean really do it, and notice what an amazing impact it can and will have on your day.

Ripple On!!!

Steve Harper