More Than WE Know

 I’m an impatient gardener.  I like to buy plants already in bloom, put them in the ground, or even in pots,  and get immediate rewards. I feel quite a sense of accomplishment even though I have actually done very little work. But blooming plants like that are usually annuals; they arrive quickly with a lot of color and show and then disappear just as quickly when the season is over.  Perennials on the other hand, take longer to cultivate and are slower to bloom- but they stay with me season after season.

I try to balance my garden with both annuals and perennials. Both have their purposes and both are needed for vibrant surroundings. Some quick efforts for solace now, to perhaps be forgotten when the season ends, and some to be cultivated slowly over time with bigger and more colorful blooms returning year after year. 

I was thinking about all of this today as I planted bulbs: tulips, crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths.  It takes a lot of faith to plant bulbs.  There is an entire fall and winter between when you plant the bulbs and when you see the results.  It is only when the winter has become unbearably long and bleak and you are just about ready to give up - that the first green shoots make their appearance.

It helps me to think of my networking efforts like gardening. Some of my efforts result in quick returns. I meet someone, we hit it off, we decide to do a project together, and it is fun and invigorating. But sometimes afterward, life gets in the way, the intensity fades and we drift apart. 

At other times, it feels like my efforts are never going to pay off. Perhaps I am not meeting people interested in my business or what I have to say.  It begins to feel hopeless and that I should give up.  And then, someone reaches out and connects - someone I haven’t heard from in a while, or someone who heard about me from a friend, or someone who found me through my writing on the Internet.  And suddenly, all that effort and waiting pays off! 

In reality, either type of connection can lead to long-term relationships. There is a season and a rhythm to networking that we can sense if we take time to slow down and feel it. We just need to keep putting ourselves out there, digging and turning, cultivating our networking garden - being thankful for the quick blooms and having faith in the seasons.

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I accomplished one of my goals for the week -  getting us settled in our new site.  I fixed the comment section in the about page (take a look!) and tested the backup and disaster recovery process.  After that, I decided we were ready to roll!!

So, take a look around our new digs.  Check out the previous posts - in case you missed one before. 

And keep coming back - there will be more changes, additions and of course,  posts, coming soon!!!

WE’re glad you’re here!!

Liz

Today I attended a lecture given by Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy-Mather. Shelly Lazarus has been named by Fortune magazine as the 26th most powerful woman in business and by Forbes as  one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.  

It was an intimate women’s networking event.  Shelly’s speech was insightful and empowering. I will write more about her actual words in a future post, but for today I want to tell you about what happened right after she finished speaking.  

Immediately following the speech, a few women gathered around her to talk to her personally.  I went up, shook hands, introduced myself, and thanked her for her speech. I told her the profound impact it had had on myself and the women I had brought with me.  She thanked me and we exchanged a few pleasantries about the corporation I work for and her association with it.  I walked away feeling pleased with the connection.

Afterward I spoke to Diane, a friend of mine, and asked her how her conversation with Shelly had gone. She said, “It was great - I introduced myself and told her where I worked. I asked her if there was anything I could do to help her reach her goals.  She told me that she knows someone in my corporation and it is her birthday today. Could I be sure and take her birthday wishes back with me to her.”

I was amazed. The actual request - taking birthday wishes to an acquaintance is a small thing and Diane was happy to do it.  Not only was she sincere in wanting to do a favor, it gives her an opportunity to reach out and meet someone in her organization that she would not otherwise have had a contact with. So, in her way, with this simple request, Shelly acted as a connector for my friend.

The most amazing thing to me was that, even with my focus on networking, it just never would have occurred to me to ask the CEO of a $9 Billion company, and one of the world’s most powerful women,  whether I could do anything to help her.  I would just have assumed that there wasn’t!

This was a major eye opener for me.  It underscores that at its most basic level,  networking really is about reaching out to help others, making connections as people, and being open to wherever it leads. 

The best networking assumes that we all have similar needs and that we can all help each other to succeed.

What limiting beliefs are you putting on yourself and your networking efforts? Are you assuming others aren’t interested in meeting you or that you have nothing of value to offer?  Is that a valid assumption, or is that just something you are telling yourself to avoid embarrassment?

I’m interested in hearing your own networking insights and experiences. Please share either below or directly through the contact form. 

This week I went to a training program put on by the fantastic organization, Women Unlimited.  Women Unlimited promotes leadership among women and places an emphasis on the value of networking.

During one of the program breaks I met Jan Figueira, CEO of Girls, Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.  I was very excited as I have been interested in Girls, Inc. for some time.  Their mission “Inspiring All Girls to be Strong, Smart and Bold” resonates with me and aligns with the mission of MoreThanWEKnow.

Coincidentally, Jan had attended the program with the idea in mind of recruiting some talented women to participate in Girls Inc. as volunteers, board members, etc.  During a break, Jan and I discussed the possibility of collaborating.  It turned out that due to logistics, it won’t be possible for me to work with her organization directly.  But Jan offered to put me in touch with the leaders of several branches closer to my home and work (in CT and NY).

Jan and I both had successful networking connections yesterday. Even though it was a coincidence that we met, it didn’t happen entirely by chance. This successful networking connection occurred for several reasons:

1)  awareness;  I had been researching non-profit organizations and had in the back of my mind that I wanted to get involved with one that aligned with my vision.  

2) intention; When introducing herself, Jan publicly announced her need for additional support in her organization and her interest in making contacts with women who shared her vision.  

3) action; Jan and I both made time to reach out to each other despite the busy day

4) connection; Jan and I both kept our minds open to possibilities even when the original purpose didn’t work out.  By offering to introduce me to other Girls, Inc. leaders, Jan acted as a connector for her network.

When networking, we don’t always know how our original intentions will play out.  But by being aware of our needs and setting an intent to achieve them, we open ourselves up to opportunities.  When we take action, we create results - and if we are open-minded we can see the possibilities in those results even if they aren’t what we originally had in mind. 

Spend some time thinking about what you need in your network right now. What roles are missing?  Are you looking for partnership, support, new ideas, new opportunities? Whatever it is - make it clear in your mind and then start communicating it to the world.

What are your networking stories? I’d love to hear about challenges and success!

As I mentioned yesterday, one of my goals for this week is to move this blog to its permanent home.  I’m pleased to say I am making good progress on this goal.

You may be wondering why I am bothering to move my blog. Afterall, Wordpress is free and the new site  isn’t.  So, for all you bloggers and aspiring bloggers out there, I will give you the pros and cons of using a free site versus a paid hosting site.

First of all, let me say that Wordpress.com is fantastic. It is very easy to use and there is a lot of support in the forums.

It is perfect for the blogger who is inexperienced,  budget-constrained, time-constrained, technically challenged or just wanting to use a simple blog as  a hobby.  With Wordpress.com you can literally get a blog up and running in less than five minutes.  I know, because I did.  And once you do, you never have to worry about back ups or disaster recovery because Wordpress handles all of that for you.

So, why change?  Wordpress does have a few limitations, especially when you get into commercial blogging.  In the new site, I’d like to create some options to allow you to:

• subscribe to a newsletter
• sign up for free e-courses and tele-seminars
• download free articles and e-books
• purchase e-books, mp3 files and other informational products

Having a commercial blog also enables me to potentially earn a little money on affiliations or advertising to help pay for the cost of hosting and maintaining the blog.

There are lots of hosting companies available. I went with ICAN because they work very well with wordpress blogs and they were recommended both by wordpress.com and other blog experts. 

The biggest concerns I had with finding a host were availability and cost.  Wordpress.com blogs are pretty much always available becauseWordpress has a good server network. I wanted to find a host that guarantees similar availability and provides 24×7 real-time customer service.  I also wanted a reasonable price:  ICAN costs about $7 per month.

The biggest challenges I have faced in creating the new site were:

• tweaking the “theme” that controls how the site looks; in Wordpress.com you can select from several themes but can’t make any changes; in the new site I could choose from over 2000 themes , but I found that the theme I wanted to use didn’t allow comments on the “About page”.  So I had to learn some html code and make some coding changes (this was fun!)
• wordpress.com has some automatic features like keeping track of blog statistics and filtering spam comments; the new site only has the features that I add so I needed to find plug-ins (pre-written code) that did both of those things; there are lots of other plug-ins that I will probably explore over time but for now I wanted the minimum features that I was already getting for free
• wordpress.com automatically backs up my posts in the case of a disaster; the new site doesn’t do that; I need to back up my site and keep track of the file; if there is a disaster, I will need to restore it myself from the backup; I haven’t tried this yet - but I will this week before moving us over there

At the end of the day, putting your blog on a paid host server provides more freedom but demands more responsibility.  Blogging on wordpress.com is truly worry-free.  Blogging in my new site will be a little more challenging.  But I’m excited about the opportunities to offer more and interact more.

Please check out the new site and let me know what you think!  Do you like the theme I chose? Do you like the way the information is arranged? What do you think of the new header? And how about those comments on the “About page” - not too shabby, eh?

Stay tuned - if all goes well with the backup/recovery tests  - we should be over there by the end of the week!! 

 update 09/21 - WE MADE IT! WELCOME!! - Liz