Tag Archives: challenge

International Women’s Day

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My celebration of  International Women’s Day began by wearing my favorite red shirt in solidarity with my wife Julie Lovison who has been the owner of a woman owned business for over 25 years. She is the Director of The Lake Shore Music Studio providing piano lessons for all ages in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.  The celebration continued by attending the Chicago Gay & Gay Friendly Business Referral Network’s “Business Lunch & Learn” coordinated by my friend Cindy Weigel co-owner of Roxy Insurance. Cindy was unfortunately “under the weather” (get well soon) so the meeting was capably hosted by  Shae Lewis co-founder of Mission 2 Organize.

We were asked to say something in support of International Women’s Day. Since this is a Gay & Gay Friendly Group Meetup I must give the quote of the day to one fellow (sorry did not get his name) who said, “I love women – – I just do not LOVE women.”

My wife was surprised when I told her that as part of my comment I proclaimed her to be my “Entrepreneurial Hero.” The reason for this is because she has accomplished what nearly every entrepreneur hopes to do. She has created a successful business that has allows her to make a living doing something she loves to do. Not only that, she has built a lasting relationship with her clients that keeps them as repeat customers, and she is able to fill the majority of her new business requirements through referrals. She has a clear message with a clear value proposition. She does one thing and she does it well. Brava!

The speaker for the lunch an learn was Sue Reddel – Media & Marketing Consulting who shared ideas and tips related to social media marketing. Jim Spangler had his card drawn at the previous meeting which allowed him the opportunity to provide a five minute “shameless self-promotion” of his enterprise which is as an Independent Consultant for Arbonne. Jim did a great job providing an overview of the company and their features as a “green” manufacturer providing safe environmentally friendly personal care products. I also learned in my conversation with Jim that he is an actor who will be appearing soon in the musical “Gypsy.”

My other significant new contact of the day was with Kirsten Ramos, President of Elevate Performance Solutions, Inc. who provides personal communication coaching for leaders looking to be more effective and others who just have issues when it comes to presenting themselves to a group or even in one-on-one situations. Kirsten presented herself very professionally and thematically attired in a bright red sweater. I look forward to learning more about her services.

 

I was happy to see my friend Mark Hurwich who coaches individuals who have become “stuck” and feel as though they are not enjoying the success they should be having, or are just feeling powerless and having trouble getting past a difficult place in their life.  Mark can help you “Reconnect to Your Core Intention” to get unstuck. He has an seminar that you can learn more about at Concentrated Coaching.

Also in attendance was funeral officiant Margurite O’Connor and my buddy, realtor Bernie Small. I thought I would use this opportunity to revive a video clip I took of them a few years ago. Bernie is participating in my challenge to meet 100 new people in 100 days. This meeting is day 48 of the challenge and I’m at about 59 people so still a bit ahead of the average.

 

 

Lincoln Square Business Networking and Happy Hour | Chicago

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business card arrayOver the past few years I have enjoy attending the Lincoln Square Business Networking and Happy Hour hosted by Dr. Katie Ray at the New Day Spa on Lincoln Avenue.  Dr. Katie a chiropractic physician, offers NETWORK SPINAL ANALYSIS™ (often called NSA or simply Network Care) which utilizes, as I understand it, a light touch which is far less aggressive than the chiropractic approach many people usually imagine. She always gives a short, five minute or less, demonstration at every meeting and graciously shares the spotlight with another service provider who gives a one or two minute introduction of themselves. It’s a well-run meeting in a light and cheerful atmosphere with a comfortable vibe. The BYOB policy means there are a few bottles of wine available to wind down the day as well as some antipasto or light nibbles to keep your tummy from grumbling.

As I walked in this past Wednesday I was happy to see Raquel Soto who I had just become acquainted with the day before at our very own Business Card to Business Meetup. Raquel provides coaching services to help improve your business or personal life.  Some other new contacts included Jake Ennis, Project Coordinator at Robert Half, Kara Buffardi, CEO & Founder of Craveity Marketing & Branding, and Daniel Lona strength coach offering personal fitness training in the River North area. Jeremy Cohn can improve your range of motion and provide relief of lower back pain utilizing the Alexander Technique. Ty Parris just moved here from California, offering commercial real estate financing and Edward Sablan of First Financial Credit Union can help you with your personal financial needs – – but ask him about his podcast.

Katie does a great job of mixing business with pleasure at this event. It’s a fun way to connect with some familiar faces and make some business contacts while getting to know a few new people and learn more about them, not just about what they do. This meeting was Day 41 of my 100 Day Challenge to meet 100 new people. With the people I met here I am ahead of the one per day average at about 56. The thing to keep in mind tough is the challenge is about quality not quantity. The goal is to make some kind of meaningful connection, that’s what makes it valuable and fun. Welcome to my network.

Who I met at Life Creative / Thinkubator Chicago Event February 2017

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This week I attended a very interesting and inspiring open house and networking event at Life Creative on Chicago’s near west side. I really had no idea what I had agreed to attend so I was very impressed when I came into the main area which is probably about 20,000 square feet of open space, with a number of interesting gathering environments.  The space is billed as a 70,000 square foot creative campus. Besides being a flexible event space it is a resource center for event planners and creative producers such as photographers and videographers who need access to props, furnishings, backgrounds and other decorative assets via a monthly membership plan. I was delighted to bump into my old friend Bob Shaffer who is the onsite floral designer. I knew Bob when he owned his own floral shop on Armitage Avenue and his kids studied piano with my wife Julie.  Several months ago I ran into him at the new nature center near Western and Peterson. He told me then about this cool creative space where he was working but I had no idea how cool it was until this visit.

If I understand it correctly this particular event was a collaborative venture between Life Creative and Thinkubator. There is a relationship between the two which I do not fully understand at this time but suffice it to say that there is a meaningful synthesis which I hope to learn more about. I am not sure where I learned about the event but I registered online via Eventbrite and was surprised to get a quick follow up welcome email from the Thinkubator host Gerald Haman. Gerald was mention several times over the evening by multiple people as a kind of genius and someone worth knowing. So I’m looking forward to it. We did speak briefly and he was very informative and personable.

After grabbing a glass of wine from the open bar I immediately spotted JD Gershbein, who I have met superficially face-to-face a few times over the years, but have come to “know” much better via LinkedIn where we both gather on a daily basis.  JD is a “Thought Leadership Coach” and LinkedIn guru providing profile writing and other LinkedIn related services.  If anyone wants to know anything about LinkedIn and how to get value from it, JD is the go-to-guy. He was accompanied by his branding designer Debra Kocis of envisionimpact.com who’s work speaks for itself because JD happens to be one of the best branded business people I know – -so if Debra has anything to do with his success I would not hesitate to recommend her.  JD’s brand is largely focused on his distinctive personal persona which includes a shaved head, big smile, distinctive round glasses and crisp shirt and tie.  The glasses are obviously a play on his company name “Owlish Communications.”  J.D. reinforces his brand through artfully done social media memes that share pertinent business information arranged around his face, which is his brand image.  I had a great time hanging out with these two. No surprise to encounter them at an event emphasizing creativity.

I had a brief chat with the CFO of Life Creative who after learning that I produce video, quickly walked me over and introduced me to Laura Kelly, Executive Producer for RevDigital who is apparently the video arm of the Life Creative/Thinkubator alliance. I was intrigued to learn more about their presence on Comcast Channel 392. I understand from Laura that it is a regional channel covering Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin (I believe) on which they are promoting paid placement. In other words you can buy air time. They will be broadcasting coverage of this event on March 1st at 8PM. I will set my DVR for sure.

The inspiration for attending this event was partially part of my quest to increase my sphere of influence and expand my network by meeting more people. I am 25 days into a challenge to meet 100 new people in 100 Days. I am joined by 18 other people who have signed on to share the journey with me, one of whom, John Jones, small business accounting expert was also in attendance.  I also had a chance to visit with  Andrea Nierhoff, anti-aging specialist and hair designer who I know from my buddy Bernie Small’s Logan Square networking group. Andrea introduced me to retired CPD officer Craig Roberts who was on hand to investigate details related to a police/firefighter fundraiser he is involved in putting together.

The passed hors d’oeuvres were delicious and while hanging around one of the food locations I had a nice conversation with “creative thinkologist” (my term not his) James Feldman. His business card/brochure explains “What 3D Thinking Can Do for Your Brain.”  I have to say that just a few minutes with him got me thinking, so I would say he’s on to something.  I also enjoyed speaking with fellow marketeer John Benandi and look forward to continuing our discussion sometime soon at the Nil Tap on west Foster Avenue.

I ended up the evening much where I began, interacting with Debra and JD joined by Bohdan Gernaga of tymedesign who apparently does beautiful interiors and architectural design as evidenced by the few smartphone photos he shared with us.

Maybe it was the two glasses of excellent red wine and excellent tuna sushi, but I had a really good experience and was really inspired by the space and the people I got to spend time with. It takes a bit of doing for each of us to step out of our comfort zone, show up someplace and just start talking with random people. But when I was a kid, some “dime stores” would sell a paper bag with unknown contents for a dime or quarter. You had no idea what you might get, but every now and then it was a small treasure. That’s what makes it fun.

Meet 100 New People in 50 Days

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Remember at the beginning of 2009 when Obama was in his first 100 days of office and expectations were so high?  At that time I decided to see how much I could accomplish in 100 days by concentrating my efforts on my new book “Turn Your Business Card Into Business.” Well that 100 days set the groundwork for a number of activities which have carried me through to the present day. So the message is short. Spurts of concentrated effort can pay long term dividends.

Here is my new concentrated effort. My plan is to make an effort to meet 100 new people in the next 50 days. I may achieve the goal a little sooner or a little later. That’s what we will see. I plan to blog about my activities here and introduce readers to the people I meet and just see where this leads. We are all out networking to some degree, but I want to illustrate what we might learn from a concentrated effort.

 I am going to give myself a leg up and begin April 27th and continue until June 16th. I have no rules about this, we’ll just let it progress. I’ll be happy to get your feedback as I go along. You can even help me out if you want to introduce me to someone or suggest an event I should attend. Updates may be daily or every other day depending on my activity.

The beginning:

 Day 1 April 27, 2010. I wanted to start with this because it shows there are a lot of ways to network. Today I met (1) Joe Corroccio of AuthorsRoost via the phone. One of my book video clients Beverly Flaxington author of “Understanding Other People” mentioned that she had an article featured there. So I checked it out and liked what Joe was doing with his podcasts and contacted him. After a fairly lengthy conversation we found there is indeed a synthesis between our two author related websites and we are currently exploring ways to joint venture.

 Day 2 April 28, 2010. I had lunch today with (2) Jim Kepler of Adams Press  .  Jim and I had both attended a meeting of the Midwest Writers Assn and happened to begin chatting as we were both walking out the door of Hackney’s in Glenview where the meeting took place. We stopped and exchanged cards and agreed to follow up. We did, and that culminated in lunch at a restaurant in Rogers Park. We learned a lot about each other and I believe that this might well be as Bogey said in Casablanca, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” 

In the early evening I attended a networking gathering of a the Linked N Chicago Group which as you might have guessed was bunch of folks who use the LinkedIn social media tool. It seemed like a good chance to maybe meet face-to-face some of the people I have met (or not) online. I brought my buddy Bob Solomon along who is the relentless promoter of Video Catnip a video designed to provide your cat with hours of television enjoyment. The meeting was held at the 33 Club on Wells Street in “Old Town” and just a few blocks away from my wife’s piano studio.  So Julie joined us towards the end of the event.  One of the first people I spoke with was (3) Mary McFarlin, IT management, and this meeting’s hostess. Mary mentioned that she is part of a kind of networking meeting organizer’s alliance which may be of benefit to my businesscardtobusiness networking group, we’ll follow up on that.  A related contact was (4) Jonathan a marketing research expert who might be a good speaker at one of my upcoming networking meetings. (5) Ricca Slone provides legal services and has already invited me to another networking event next week at Ann Sather’s Retaurant in LakeView.

(6)Sara, (7) David, and (8) John were job seekers. Sara is looking for work as a meeting planner I was able to give her a lead with (PMPN) Professional Meeting Planners Network. David was a very nice guy seeking a marketing management position with a NFP.  I was able to introduce him to a friend who is an accountant specializing in not-for-profit organizations. John is looking for a VP leadership position with a software firm. (9) Shane is a hair stylist at SWERVE next door to the restaurant. I have 20% OFF coupons if you’re interested. I directed him and his associates to my blog article right here about how to promote your hair salon or spa.  (10) Susan Carter is a sales associate with Caldwell Banker and we spoke about the possibility of my creating a video for her website. The last person I spoke with was (11) Brad DeSent, President of Apex Consulting Group. His firm provides “cloud computing” solutions for small and large firms. I noticed on his website that they are offering a Lunch and Learn Seminar, “What does Cloud Computing Mean for My Business?” at Walker Brothers Original Pancake House in Lincolnshire, June 23rd. Check out the details on their website.

Okay so I have begun my quest by meeting eleven new people, only eighty-nine more to go. I will blog about it here and give a shout out to as many as I can. In this way you too can benefit from my networking and by doing so we can cast a wider net.