Networking Now:

A couple of weeks ago, one of my employees attended the launch of my friend Keith Ferrazzi’s new book, Who’s Got Your Back, and she came into the office the next day raving about the presentation Keith had given. “You would have loved it,” she said. “He talked all about how success is created by developing relationships based on trust and how important accountability is to achieving goals–his stuff is right on point with everything you emphasize that effective networkers do.  Plus, the stories he told to illustrate his key points were really, really powerful!”

I’ve known Keith for quite a few years now, and I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that he gave a great presentation. After all, not only is he an extremely interesting guy, he’s the epitome of a master networker. He has one of the most diverse group of contacts of anyone I’ve ever known, and his first book, Never Eat Alone, is a bestseller. After I read Never Eat Alone, I found myself constantly referring to it in conversation and recommending it to people. Who’s Got Your Back is just as influential, and I have no doubt that it’s on its way to becoming Keith’s second bestseller.

No matter what it is you want to achieve, building relationships with the right people–people you trust who will hold you accountable so you can’t fail–is the strategy for success. With this new book, Keith offers the blueprint for accomplishing any goal.  It’s a must-read for anyone wondering how to develop meaningful relationships through their networking efforts.  If you aspire to achieve more in business and life, Who’s Got Your Back outlines some imperative strategies to get to where you want to be.

To learn more about Who’s Got Your Back, click here.

Also, Keith is currently traveling throughout the U.S. promoting the book. If you’re able to catch one of his presentations, I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed.  You can find out the exact cities and dates of his book tour by clicking here.     

Last year I started writing for a great company called Ponders & Principles, which publishes a “Thought-A-Day” software program called Ponder Pearls, and I’d like to offer all of my blog readers a free Ponder Pearls subscription. 

Ponder Pearls can be installed on any personal computer, and each day positive, entertaining and inspiring thoughts are delivered to you via a small window that pops up on the bottom right corner of your computer monitor.  The program contains a remarkable array of categorized thought series ranging from content by bestselling authors such as Brian Tracy and yours truly to sacred world texts, and you can also choose from a variety of themes such as “innovators and entrepreneurs,” sports coaches and athletes,” “Founding Fathers of the U.S.” and many, many more.

Hundreds of excerpted thoughts from my books and seminars are included in the Ponder Pearls software, and I’m in the process of sending in even more of my content to be distributed daily.  When I started using Ponder Pearls last year, I was so impressed by it that I invited Alex von Allmen of Ponders & Principles to come present the software at the 2008 BNI National Conference in Orlando.  The BNI directors and members who attended the conference loved the Ponder Pearls concept; I’ve had many of them contact me since then and say that they love getting my networking content and the other daily thought series they selected delivered to them daily.

So I invite you to take advantage of the free subscription to Ponder Pearls that I’m offering.  Once you’ve used the software for a few days, I’d love to hear what you think of it. So feel free to come back and leave a comment.

Getting your free subscription is easy:

1. Click on the gift card graphic above.
2. Enter “bni” in the “Gift Code” field (under the blue Ponder Pearls logo banner).
3. Create your free Ponder Pearls account by following the prompts.

Enjoy this FREE service. If you have any questions, simply e-mail Erin@bni.com.  

Let me know what you think.

I’ve spoken to tens of thousands of people and written many books and articles on networking, referral marketing, sales, business and success.

I’ve had many questions on these topics over the years and I have recently decided to compile the best questions and my answers to them as part of a project that I am doing with my good friend Alex Mandossian.

If you could ask me just one question about networking, referral marketing, business or success, what would your most important question be?

Post it here on this blog.  I’ll be answering your questions as part of my project with Alex as well as here on this blog site.

OK, what are you waiting for?  Post that question while it’s fresh in your mind.

Thanks!

I’ve always said that I “refuse to participate in a recession,” and I just co-authored a new e-book on business and success that helps people learn how to go about doing just that. 

The book was co-authored with 11 of the world’s foremost authorities on business. It’s called The Way Out!–Your GPS “Guided Path to Success,” and it is a road map for how to steer clear of the recession and drive toward success and prosperity. It was published by iLearningGlobal with the goal of giving people everywhere turn-by-turn directions to help navigate away from challenges such as the current economic state, and toward the destination of their personal, professional and financial goals.

You can download the e-book for free by clicking on the picture of the book cover to the right. The reason we are distributing this book for free and prohibiting it from being sold is because it is our sincere effort to offer a real bailout and stimulus package to businesspeople and organizations worldwide so they can get out of debt, create security and, ultimately, prosper.

You can read my article, “Networking Mixers: Break the Ice, Build Your Contacts and Grow Your Business,” on page 49. The rest of the book is full of tremendous articles by other iLearningGlobal faculty members. A few examples are: “How to Get RED HOT in a Cool Market” by Terri Murphy, “How to Sell in a Tough Economy!” by Don Hutson, “Deciding to Decide: How to Thrive in Chaos” by Marsha Petrie Sue and “Freeway of Life” by Brian Tracy.

I’m proud to be a part of this project, and I strongly encourage you to read through the book and refuse to participate in a recession by putting the powerful tools it offers to use. By the way, if you’re not familiar with iLearningGlobal, it’s the world’s largest, highest-quality online library of professional and personal development content by the world’s top speakers, authors and thought leaders.  If you want to learn more about iLearningGlobal, please CLICK HERE.

When you download the free e-book, let me know what you think about it here on this blog.

My friend Jan Vermeiren has a new book out called How to Really Use LinkedIn and, put simply, it’s a must-read for anybody who wants to grow a business through networking. Even if you’re already a member of a referral or network organization, Jan offers powerfully advanced strategies on how LinkedIn can help you get even more out of your membership.

The fact is, it’s vital in any economic situation–especially a bad one–to have a network to fall back on or build upon. New opportunities are now open to all of us, thanks to the internet, and LinkedIn is one of the most valuable websites to provide networking on a professional level. More than 34 million people now have a profile on LinkedIn, and the question most people ask is: “How can I benefit from this website without spending too much?”

How to Really Use LinkedIn shows you how to use LinkedIn by giving you a short, step-by-step plan to get immediate results. It also offers advanced strategies for finding new customers, a new job, employees, suppliers, experts and people who can help you get your job done faster. Jan also gives answers to the 24 most frequently asked questions and an overview of 22 little-known LinkedIn features that can make or break your networking activity on LinkedIn.

CLICK HERE for more details about the book, free webinars, and more.

I just read a great book called Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company.  Co-written by my good friend, bestselling author and corporate consultant Stewart Emery along with former Apple industrial design director Robert Brunner, the book begins by asking if you, in fact, matter to your customers.

Think about it . . . this is a really important question.  Has your product, service or brand established an emotional connection with your customers to the extent that they’re invested in your lasting success?  If you disappeared, would their lives be diminished in some way?

As the book explains, when you know how to use design as a complete strategy, starting with the ideal customer experience and then building an internal supply chain to deliver in a way that exceeds expectations, you’ll create products, services and experiences that truly matter to your customers’ lives–and your business will thrive.  However, the reality is that few companies know how to create great design, and even fewer know how to implement a design strategy that will secure enduring success.

This book offers tremendous value to anyone who reads it because it clearly outlines how to transform any business into a design-driven business that follows in the steps of companies such as Nike, Apple, Ikea and BMW, all of which use design values to make a positve difference in the lives of their customers.  The authors also include some really great stories of successes as well as missed opportunities, all of which make it a really interesting read.

Well done, Stewart: I love the book.

To find out more about the book, click here.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Speakers-Authors Networking Group (SANG) in Las Vegas and got to spend some time talking with my good friend Marci Shimoff.  Marci is one of the teachers in the movie The Secret and I met her some years ago at a meeting of Jack Canfield’s Transformational Leadership Council, of which we are both members.  While in Vegas, Marci shared with me some ideas from her new book, Happy for for No Reason. I found her ideas about finding happiness amid a recession to be particularly valuable, so I’d like to share them with you here.

Marci’s “Rx for the Recession,” as she calls it, is to follow these four simple techniques:

1. Reach out and touch someone.  Schedule time every day to call or visit someone you love or care about.

2. Anchor yourself to silence.  Take a moment to step off the hamster wheel of your everyday activity and just “be” for a change  . . .  sit quietly, close your eyes and breathe.

3)  Become a “joy juice barista.”  Your brain contains natural happiness-enhancing neurochemicals–endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine.  Use this to your advantage by releasing those chemicals as much as possible through proper nutrition, exercise, getting plenty of rest, and–simply enough–smiling.

4) Don’t just stand there, express yourself.  When you’re being creative, the parts of the brain associated with fear, anxiety and worry are less active.  So instead of stewing about the state of the economy, think of a creative project you can begin or a workshop you can take.

“In times of uncertainty,” Marci says, “when the events in your life seem beyond your control, the key to staying afloat–and even thriving–is to find that place of unshakable peace and well-being inside.  Join the ranks of the resilient by becoming ‘happy for no reason.’  It’s the best Rx for the recession there is.”

I can tell you from firsthand experience that Marci is a person who really walks the talk.  She has achieved a significant amount of success by putting her ideas about maintaining a positive mindset into action. I highly recommend her material to all.  If you’d like to find out more about Marci and her new book, click here.

I’ve often talked about how blogging is a great way to get yourself known and establish a lot of credibility with your readership.  The thing is, however, that to really make the most of your blog, you need to be posting at least once or twice a week. If you don’t post enough, people will lose the incentive to come back time and time again.

People who are just starting out will often struggle to come up with enough ideas to allow them to blog this frequently. If you face this problem, check out my new TV episode on yourBusinessChannel where I describe nine different popular subjects for blogs. The show is available to watch for free by clicking here.

To give you something to think about, here are the first five ideas from the show:

1.  Write a “how to” blog (much like this one). Share your best tips about how to do something you know all about.

2.  Lists.  For some reason, people absolutely love to read lists. Think of a topic relevant to your field of expertise (”The Top Five Faux Pas of Networking,” for example) and start listing.

3.  The Straw Man argument. Set up a premise and then argue against it.  This always makes for interesting reading, and you get plenty of blog comments if you choose a controversial subject.

4.  Case studies. Discussing case studies from your professional work and the lessons you’ve learned from them makes for a great blog. Just watch the word length. Ideally, blog posts shouldn’t be much more than 500 words, so split the case study over two posts if you need to.

5.  Interviews.  Have you interviewed anyone knowledgeable or well-known recently?  What did they say?  Write about it.

I share the rest of my tips in the show–take a look.

A business contact of mine telephoned me awhile back to ask why I wasn’t including writing in my business training anymore. I had previously included it in my training sessions because I think it is an extremely valuable way to establish credibility in business. However, when I checked the numbers, I realized that only about 2 percent of the people I trained in writing really picked up on the message and followed through.

In other words, 98 percent of people I trained never used the advice at all. So of course I stopped teaching it. Well, my business associate asserted over the phone that I should be training on writing regardless of the small number of people who were doing something with the advice because, he claimed, the results for the people that do take action are absolutely phenomenal. He urged me to include writing in my business training because it is worth teaching for the sake of those 2 percent who get amazing results.

In my most recent show on yourBusinessChannel.com, I talk more about how this business colleague of mine took my advice on writing years ago and turned his business around. By his own calculations, he tripled his revenue by becoming a well-published author of business articles.

Watch the show HERE and then think about how writing might help you increase your business revenue.  Will it take hard work and dedication? Yes.  Is that hard work and dedication worth the results you will get? Definitely.

The Top 10 Sales Articles site, an initiative of The Sales Corporation , provides a single location where time-strapped sales leaders, sales professionals and publishers can locate the top sales articles published every week.

Each week The Sales Corporation selects the very best sales articles from the major article sites, which have been written by top sales experts from around the world. It culls through articles until it finds the 10 best pieces of sales advice, and then each Sunday it announces the Sales Article of the Week.  The weekly winners compete for monthly honors and ultimately the Top Sales Article of the Year.

In March of this year, salesopedia published an article of mine entitled “The 10 Commandments of Networking.”

The article was picked up by The Sales Corporation and it has been nominated, along with 11 other articles written by different sales experts, to compete in the running for the title of the #1 Sales Article of the Year.

To vote for The 10 Commandments… article or one of the other selections, please click on the graphic to the right:

If you voted, I’d love to hear what you thought of the article.  Please leave a comment below.

About a year ago, I posted a blog called:  “Networking, a Soft Science? Only to College Professors!”  OK, I’ll admit it–I was on a rant about how we don’t teach networking in colleges or universities.  But in my defense, there were many, many, people who identified with this frustration according to the numerous comments posted on that blog.

Today, I’m here to tell you that there may actually be a change on the horizon.  Yes, a university dean who believes that social capital is a relevant topic in business.  “Not possible,” you say?  Well, that’s what I thought, too, until I met Ibrahim Helou, the new dean of the School of Business & Public Management at the University of LaVerne.

As crazy as this may sound, he actually believes that emotional intelligence and social capital are relevant topics to cover in business school.  To make this even more amazing, Helou’s background is in accounting and finance. Wow, I don’t know what to say. This just shakes up my whole world view about academia.

According to Helou, business should focus on issues relating to long-term organizational sustainability.  He says that the ”three pillars” of organizational sustainability are: people, planet and prosperity.

The “people” part includes long-term employment, social capital and empowerment.  The planet involves social and ethical responsibility and prosperity is about the long-term financial success of the organization.

Did you notice that “long-term” is a recurring theme here?  I did.  He believes that there has been an overemphasis on short-term profits to address monthly or quarterly revenue reporting in corporations.  This short-term view has helped lead us into some of the current financial issues we are experiencing today.

Well, Dr. Helou, I’m impressed, especially with your interest in social capital and emotional intelligence.  Now all you need to do is convince the faculty.  Let me know how that works out for you. 

We may not teach networking in college, but I’m pleased to say that it’s part of the online curriculum at iLearningGlobal.tv. I’ve recently been asked to join the faculty of iLearningGlobal, and I’m honored to announce that I now have downloadable articles, audio recordings and even several video presentations done specifically for the iLearningGlobal website. 

The iLearningGlobal community has brought together top trainers and speakers in all areas of self development, personal improvement, business training, life skills, tax and financial strategies and much more within a very impressive portal.

iLearningGlobal members enjoy a growing library of these experts in an amazing high-definition, full-screen video format along with audio programs, e-books, webcasts, classic videos and much more.  iLearningGlobal members have access to hundreds of titles 24/7 on their personal computers, laptops and even mobile devices.

To see a sample of one of the videos I recorded for iLearningGlobal, click here.

I believe iLearningGlobal has discovered the future of online self-development education and training, and I’m pleased to be part of it.