Tuesday, January 23, 2007

A great read - "Never Eat Alone"


I am absolutely LOVING this book that reads like a novel by Keith Ferrazzi. He is so incredible and I can't put it down. I'm of course reading Build it Big along with the group and LOVE it as well but this book goes along nicely and if you're an over achiever in the reading department I highly recommend it for those of you focusing on recruiting as well.

He really talks about building relationships vs. networking. I try to always use the 3rd party approach myself when talking to people about the business because it gives both of us a way out if they themselves are not interested and I can always go back to them again if they've helped me in the past. I make sure to "reward" those that bring me leads such as e-card thank you notes or a small token of my appreciation (bigger tokens in the future). I find that people really do just want to be appreciated and it's important to make sure that you do it and often! :)

The other thing he says is that you need to be all about the "giving" to others and helping to find them a great connection or favor and in return it will come back 2 fold. I can honestly say that this has been experienced by myself many times over. The more I help my teammates succeed, the more parties, consultants, and $'s seem to come MY WAY!

I'm so excited to start working with my coach on the 5th. It's so funny I don't think I shared this yet with the team but Biznik.com is a great networking site which apparently if I'd read the fine print, is not so cool with the party plan type of business. I've ran into this before but not from a site LOL. The owners of the site actually found me and REMOVED me from being a member last week. This of course is AFTER I'd made my relationship with Karrie my coach. I was pretty pissed about it because I just felt ousted and talked to her about it. When she told me that "things happen for a reason and the important part was us meeting and now I probably didn't even need that site" I knew she was the one for me!

Postive Attitude = Positive Action was the slogan I used in running for Parliamentarian in DECA in High School. Most of you probably don't even know what DECA is but if you do know what Future Business Leaders of America is, it's pretty much on par. Being a state office for WA was my biggest accomplishment in High School and did so much for my later career. I learned early that no one was going to hand feed me success. From my parents, DECA teachers, and experience in life I recognized that success is a choice and I choose it now!!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Shawna,
I read what you wrote about feeling "ousted" with interest. We aim to be exceptionally clear about what we define as "indie business," so if you felt ousted perhaps we need to do a better job. Have any suggestions for us?

-Dan McComb, Biznik co-founder

Kelsey said...

Don't forget, too, that BizNik is how I found you! ;)

- Kelsey

UB Queen Bee said...

Comment here for Dan and I'll email him as well, A type personalities are not the best at reading the "fine print" - I think the organization is great but I wish it would open up it's doors a little wider as there are many great networking companies that are not your average "spamming" marketing companies that could really benefit from this type of environment and the workshops and connections would have been huge for me (such as the blogging workshop, etc.) so I'm bummed to miss out on that becaues I don't fit the "mold" - sometimes that's just life and I realize I have to just go with it :)