So what did he do to create trust so  quickly. Here is an overview of his philosophy:

1. Talk more about “who” you are and “what” you stand for rather than “what you do” Christian began by very quickly telling me what matters most to him–his children, helping kids who are disadvantaged getting books and learning to read, getting healthy (he wants to keep to his established exercise schedule and forming an alliance network of people who have similar and complementary values and skills
2. Asked what mattered most to me. In Networlding we call it “The Exchange.” It’s not about just giving. Givers end up actually with less than they intended usually. It’s also certainly not just about taking. Takers end up with lots of connections but poor or mediocre opportunities on an ongoing basis. Exchangers get the most out of their work by spending time exploring “mutually beneficial” opportunities. It’s not an easy thing to do but the results are so much more effective. So when Christian asked me what my five top goals are this year, we were then able to talk about our mutual synergies–where we could work together and where we might refer or introduce one another.
3. Deliver a “WOW” offer. I will never forget our first meeting as Christian’s “WOW” offer was to give back what he calls his 10X. Take a look at his social networking article on this offer that he has now turned into a signature offer of his that differentiates him greatly from thousands of others I have met.

What signature offer have you created to differentiate yourself from others? How can you both make a living AND make a difference? Who do you know who has made a WOW gift to you like Christian did?

The article continues on to share that this new organization will continue to provide exceptional word-of-mouth marketing programs that leverage the power of their pre-existing relationships with top bloggers such as Liz Strauss Successful-Blog.com.

The company has locations in Austin, Seattle and Houston.  Ivy Worldwide is recommended by community influencers as the best company with the best approach for word-of-mouth marketing. For more information, visit Ivy World Wide.

With Networlding we emphasize that there are “Givers,” “Takers” and “Exchangers.” We advocate that there is a big difference between each of these three. Of course we all know about “The Takers.” They are usually the subject of most talks by top networking experts.

Instead, I focus on how “The Giver” is different from “The Exchanger.” An example is a good friend of mine who is the poster child of “The Giver.” She gives and gives and gives but then, at the end of each year, she often ends up with little in exchange. Why? Because she did not ask for anything in return. And, because she is so busy giving, she doesn’t have time to really realize the benefits of an exchange.

Exchangers take time qualifying others as to  how they can create a more mutually beneficial exchange of support. In Networlding I reference our “Seven Levels of Support” that help people understand what they have to give and what they can request in exchange. In an exchange, just as Ivy Worldwide has made explicit and part of how they implement their online campaigns, the upfront knowledge and agreement as to what a good exchange would be results in a mutually beneficial outcome that can ripple(just like an good networking initiative) beyond all participants most hopeful expectations. The “Network Effect” created then cannot be compared to transactional campaigns that have only a goal for immediate gratification and a limited vision.

STEP NUMBER 1:

Create Your Values Foundation.

We all have values, but what are your top four and, if you can, what are they in level of priority?

Carol had been what we call in Networlding “baseline networking” for years. She was at the top of her game working as Director of HR for a large organization. However, the long hours and an intense travel schedule left Carol feeling that her personal life lacked balance. From layoffs and career changes to being sought out for competitive executive positions, Carol had been through all of the ups and downs of corporate life.

As she began thinking about what she wanted her future to look like she thought more about her childhood dream of being a physiologist. Carol appreciated valued-based business and aspired to start an individual psychology practice of her own.

With these goals in mind Carol took the first step in Networlding and identified her top four values:

• Spirituality
• Connection
• Making a difference
• Achievement

With these values in mind, Carol decided to leave her six-figure salary and return to graduate school. By understanding her values Carol will not lose sight of them through her process. With her values in mind she is more apt to meet others with similar values and build a network of people around her that will help maintain these values. She will also vocalize her values more often and make requests to be introduced to people who hold similar and complimentary values.

Following is an overview of these tools:

Website Grader – Useful tool for measuring the marketing effectiveness of your
website, get a free custom report in seconds with advice for your website

MarketingProfs – A great resource for case studies, insights, and best practices from
peers and experts in marketing

HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog – Articles about business strategy and inbound Internet
marketing

Web ink now – Online thought leadership and viral marketing strategies from award-
winning author David Meerman Scott

HubSpot – Internet marketing software that helps you get found by more prospects and
generate more qualified leads and sales

CrowdSpring – A site offering custom designs that you choose from actual custom designs, not bids. The average project gets
a whopping 80 entries. They have a money back guarantee
25 entries or a full refund, including the small fee for the services. The site boast over 46,000 creatives.

Zmags – The next generation in online publishing. The site is great. Take a look at my ZMag! For more information, view the zmags blog.

What do you think? What are your top ten or fewer favorites of the year?

7.    How do you use networking to support the success of others? When you use the word “connector” that’s what I am. I connect people. I sent out emails today to three people I met on Friday connecting them to others I believe can help them. I even talk with the people I am connecting to make sure I know how they want to connect. It is not about me but about what I can do for others.

8.    What are your top values? – That’s a hard question for me to answer. I have hired a life coach myself to help me identify what they are; I think I know what they are but I want to really get some clarity in understanding. I want to help others but what ultimately I want out of my life? What is the piece that drives me?

9.    What attributes do you bring to the job as a leader that are related to the skill of networking? – eg.1. creativity, 2. innovation, 3. team building. – I try to find creative ways to build my network. I created a mastermind group to that end. I just got a testimonial from one member who is part of the group, who at first did not know if she would get something out of the group. She said she has learned so much and has made life-time relationships.

10.    What public figure has raised in your eyes the standard of performance of networking? I would say that two people here that I know would be, first, the president of our chamber in Gilbert and the vice president of one of our local hospitals.

11.    What is your number one strategy for success? Mine is just sticking with what goal you have set. This is from the  Disney movie “Finding Nemo” which is funny but in that movie there is a little blue fish called Dori. She says at some point to Nemo’s dad, ”Just keep swimming.” There will always be roadblocks but you need to “just keep swimming.”

12.    What role does social responsibility play in your life as a “Linkable Leader”? – I guess we each have a responsibility if we are going to be a connector that we understand that role. I went to a meeting at the chamber for a committee I am on and we were talking about why people don’t renew their memberships. They go to one event and if they don’t get a client they give up. They need to understand that you are going to events to open relationship possibilities and from that come clients.

13.    What is something you have not done as a leader you would still like to do? The one thing I would like to do is write a book. I have shared that with you and I do believe that it is one thing that is part of being a leader is giving back. I would also like to speak more.

14.    Please name the best networker you know and why. Besides you (Melissa Giovagnoli), there is Kathy, the president of the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce.

CEO Myron E. Ullman III from JC Penney – Holding back about 60% of inventory . . . far more than just the 20% held back last year.

CEO Kip Tindell from Container Store – Cut prices in his store across the board by 16% this year.

CEO Steve Sadove from Saks – Hesitant to cut prices but has done so by using different fabrics to lower costs.

CMO Barry Judge from Best Buy – extending their offerings to include things like “electric cars.”

CEO Gary Friedman from Restoration Hardware – Actually raising prices on some great new designs in furniture.

So with everything and anything going out there what do you think? What do you think retailers should do?

I. Chapter One – November 11, 2011.  Reminiscing about our beginning days in the Innovation Center that opened the year before on October 10, 2010…  What did we set out to accomplish?  What were our motivations?  What resistance did we encounter?  Who encouraged us?  What people were instrumental to our early success?  What role did networlding play? What was it about the Innovation Center concept that truly caught people’s interest and passion?  How did we leverage outside ideas and our blogosphere community to help enhance our vision and accelerate our progress?

II. Chapter Two – A day in the life of the center as it is “today” (11-11-11) – The user experience.  What are the key differentiating attributes of the user experience?  How are people using the Center?  What value are they generating/receiving?  What makes the Center so successful?  How has this changed over the last year?

III. Chapter Three – Opening Day October 10, 2010.  What did the beginning structure look like the day it opened?  Did we have all 30 kiosks in there?  What was our business and revenue model?  What initial mistakes did we make? What fortuitous events helped make it happen?  What was the initial public reaction?  What near-disasters did we finesse?

IV. Chapter Four – The first week.  What happened during that first week of the center being opened?  What did we learn?  What did we commit to fix?  How did it change our assumptions or operating models?  What would we have done differently from the beginning of only we’d known…

V. Chapter Five – The early months.  What happened within the first 90 days?  What were our first 3 major initiatives?  How were they germinated?   how did we get them to the stage of moving to engagement with design engineers from a couple of the companies in the center (check out www.inventright.com or www.edisonnation.com for examples of companies).  Who were our first corporate sponsors?  What made them decide to participate?

VI. Chapter Six – Crisis!  What unexpected event happened ~ 4-6 months later that nearly caused the Center to collapse?  (A little dramatic effect that occurs in every good story…)  How did we rescue it?  What help did we get from an entirely unexpected source?  What sacrifices were we forced to make that turned out to pay huge dividends later?  What seemingly unrelated sub-plot first mentioned in the prologue and carried along at a low level of intensity in Chapters I-V suddenly emerges as an unexpected, vital component of our success?

VII. Chapter Seven – The Center – 2nd Generation.  How did the Center emerge better, stronger and with more innovative impact as a result of the events in Chapter Five?  How did we know that the Center was now completely out of danger and would be an extraordinary success?

VIII. Chapter Eight – Events in the Center.  What kinds of things went on during that first year – especially those that could only have taken place in the unique environment of the Center?

IX. Chapter Nine – Impact of the Center.  What tangible, measurable results has the Center produced in its first year?  What additional kinds of activities are there underway that will yield even greater impacts an dividends.  Where did we create unexpected value?  What didn’t we expect that happened?

X. Chapter Ten – What’s Next?  Having spent the first nine chapters in reflection mode, now we pivot and look to the future.  Sister Centers are now in various stages of opening in San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, London, Prague and Milan.  Interest has been expressed from unexpected sources – DARPA, DOE and other leading-edge US government agencies want to develop a similar concept to help drive early-stage innovation on government projects.  NASA wants to build a Center dedicated to establishing a manned base on Mars.  The World Bank and Gates Foundation want to fund the establishment of local Innovation Centers across Africa to help foster self-help solutions to the daunting problems of Aids, energy, food and tribal feuding — from the same people that these challenges affect the most.

———————————————————–
So, beginning with Chapter One, what ten companies do you think should be part of the center?  Would you choose any of the companies from this list of the twenty-five most innovative companies identified most recently by Business Week? Who would be your ten and why? Please comment and get your colleagues to comment. We’ll let the majority rule and off we go! Check out Business Week’s 50 Most Innovative Company list for 2009 to help with your choices.

I have been working with executives on LinkedIn since its beginning and have found, again and again, that people need help figuring out how to leverage its power for their job search. With the statistic floating out there that 86% of the way people get jobs is through networking a tool like LinkedIn that has over 40 million professionals on it with the average age between 40-42, one would have to pay attention to this tool. But what’s the 20% focus you should have to yielf an 80% return. That’s where you start.

First, make sure your profile is as strong as it can be. It should have key words that hiring professionals would use. One of the best ways to figure out what these words would be is to do a key word search by clicking on the “People” page of LinkedIn (top left-hand corner in the navigational bar on the site). Search for keywords you would think would be used in searching for your job but also think out of the box. For example, since leadership is something that many employers search for in a candidate, if you are seeking a management position, put a keyword search in that includes some variation of that keyword. I just searched on the keywords “leader” and “marketing” with the title of Sr. VP of Marketing. I found 16,356 people referenced with those closest in my network listed first. I then reviewed a number of the profiles to see how they were constructed. There were hundreds of great models to emulate.

Second, explore the Company pages of LinkedIn to further compare your profile with others at the targeted companies you have chosen and to identify the right “Tipping Point” of connections you can make into those organizations. Again, let’s take the terms marketing and leader at the Sr. VP level. This time I search through organizations like Intuit, a top software company out of San Francisco. I found they currently have the following number of employees on LinkedIn:

* San Francisco Bay Area (500+)
* Greater San Diego Area (500+)
* Tucson, Arizona Area (500+)
* Greater Los Angeles Area (500+)
* Dallas/Fort Worth Area (500+)
* Reno, Nevada Area (278)

I was able to get a great snapshot of the organization. I found this company has thousands of active employees on LinkedIn. This means that I should be able to gather deep wisdom about what that company wants in an employee and, further, to connect with enough people who can help me network my way into the organization.

Third, get yourself a support group with whom you can share your job search experiences. I always say the best group to start is your own. This could look like a weekly call with others who are in a job search mode or a face-to-face meeting where you keep sharing your search techniques. My clients are constantly telling me how tough it is to face the daily loneliness they feel during a job search. But you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out and connect.

There are so many strategies you can use to accelerate your job search. I’ll over more in upcoming weeks. The important thing is that you do have a process and you do have a support network who will help you with direction and connection. So many of my clients find that they are able to learn and master networking when they have a sound framework that is tailored to their unique backgrounds. Finally, the best news about learning how to network better and to use all the new low-cost no-cost, online tools is that networking is something they can always use in their new positions to grow their careers. In other words, networking is a skill you never want to have get rusty. It can always be useful.

Bonus Point: If you who purchase the program I created that contains the comprehensive tools–the combination of the networking process and LinkedIn strategies and basic and advanced usage training (all for the low price of $79) you will receive a free coaching session with me to even further tailor your job search. However, this offer is good for only a limited time, so if you are interested, visit http://budurl.com/6figurejobsearch.

Career Coaching Experience

Helped over 4000 people on their LinkedIn Profiles
18+ Years of Experience
Specializing in Senior Managers and C-Level Professionals
6 Figure Jobs – partnership as “The Networking Coach” for more than six years

I was just recently reading about a Twitter conference that served up the following set of promises that included:

1. building communities
2. providing customer service
3. changing brand perceptions
4. and increasing revenue

Now of course there could be more promises but let’s just take these and really think about all the stories you are hearing that deliver the promises set forth above. Weighing in on these promises are a lot of people who are not getting results. Why?

Could it be because they are pushing their way into communities, not delivering on customer service and plain, just not listening to the models being shared for effective social networking? Check out this great video and then come back to this question, “What can you do today to start a more effective social media campaign?”

I think that social media is a “layering” process. In my talks I share that it is like Baklava, one sweet layer after another. It keeps adding up and, as it does, the layers create a great result. So I am not going to go into great detail offering case studies that prove that social media marketing is effective. I’ll save that for future blog entries. Today, I just want to offer up a metaphor that will, hopefully, get you thinking and, if you will, just try a bite of this dessert!

All three roles are telltale signs of an evolving focus from a product to customer-centric culture – - with the ‘north star’ being improved patient outcomes.  It’s Barron’s belief, and core to the future state of healthcare, that whether ‘customer’ is defined as consumer, doctor, nurse, healthplan, hospital, pharmacy, or otherwise – - we need to consider the ‘whole person’ in how human health is addressed.

The shift from treating sickness to enabling wellness is a fundamental principle around which Barron’s work is centered…whether that means employing (e.g.) nutrition guidance, exercise programs, electronic health records, academic medical centers, innovative solutions, or non-traditional delivery channels.  It’s a recognition that the pharmaceutical industry – - and their healthcare brethren – - must fundamentally move beyond the pill. Check out Barron on LinkedIn!