As a business women and the self proclaimed “Queen Networker” I am constantly teaching your two most important assets in your business are:
1. Your Time – lots of people think it is money and my belief is you can always get more money, you can never make up for lost time.
2. Your Contact List – the people you know and do business with, the ones who trust you, like you and know what you do and would refer business to you.
These two are invaluable assets and it is so critical to know and appreciate that. And today I was reminded also to be very grateful for the relationships you have built.
Time and the power of relationships are the foundation of what Team Women stands for. In his book, Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazi’s definition of networking is “Connecting – sharing my knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates and empathy and compassion in a continual effort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing my own. Like business itself, a connector is not about managing transactions, but about managing relationships.”
Keith shares “Later in life, as I rubbed shoulders with business leaders, store owners, politicians and movers and shakers of all stripes, I started to gain a sense of how our country’s most successful people reach out to others and how they invite those people’s help in accomplishing their goals. I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get.”
The relationships you build truly are priceless and I had an amazing reminder of that in my own life in the last 24 hours. Like most of us, I wear many different hats and explain it by saying – I have my fun business – I have my business which pays the bills and I have Team Women which is my passion. And one of my “intentions” this year is to successfully spend time growing and creating more success in each of them.
One of my goals this past weekend was to get all three monthly newsletters done for my three businesses. I am blessed to be married to my wonderful husband Kevin, who the TW Staff lovingly calls Tech Support. He provides all my fabulous graphic support in addition to working a full time day job. So on weekends, we really have to crank it and crank we did this past Saturday and Sunday. All day Saturday was spent preparing and publishing newsletter number one and it went out about 9 pm Saturday evening.
Sunday at 8 am we were back in the office working on newsletter number two and we completed it at 10:30 last night. Ok, we would have been done sooner, but we did take a Super Bowl break mid day. Kevin was ready to go to bed and I just wanted to do one more thing which was to send this newsletter out, so I could start bright and early on the Team Women Newsletter this morning. In retrospect, I just should have gone to bed and sent newsletter number two out this morning when I was not so tired. I know I am a morning person and almost always take that into account.
So, when I selected the group to send the newsletter to instead of clicking true I clicked false on the people to receive it. Each time I publish a newsletter; there are a certain amount of return mails for bad email addresses etc. And when those started to come in, I figured may as well clean up some of these while I am up. I started getting a funny feeling in my stomach when I saw the bounces were coming from people who I had not intended to get it. How on earth did it get sent to them, when they did not have the right box checked in my contact management system? By 1 am this morning I was sickeningly certain of what I had done wrong and was mortified.
In Team Women we have a policy of focusing on one core profession and I had accidentally sent info to the wrong group of folks and was just sick about it. I was embarrassed and so upset I knew I had to immediately send out an explanation and apology letter. So at 2 pm this morning I am in waking Kevin up to come help me send out another email which he did. (He is a keeper!) By the time I got to bed finally it was close to 3:30 and then I could not sleep.
When I woke this morning, I was afraid to turn on my computer because I thought people were going to be angry at me. And here is a sample of what I found awaiting me in my inbox:
~ No problem, I sure all of us had done this at one time or another. Get some rest.
~ HI Judy, No worries…I have 3 lists too and I know how it is.
~ Dear Judy, Do not stress about this…it is okay? Thank you for the heads up.
~ We all make mistakes. Please don’t worry – I did not take offense and if someone did, they need to get a life!
~ Not a problem at all. Believe me, I wish there were a recall button on mail sent that you could pull back in 30 seconds or so. Actually, I think there is but maybe I just imaged it.
~Judi Don’t be so hard on yourself. It was an innocent mistake. Hopefully everyone is selective about what’s really important and this error was not a big deal. I would not take it personally if someone was offended by it because he/she probably has other issues.
~Don’t worry about it, Judi? It was good information anyway. I didn’t snack during super bowl, except for an orange and I mostly worked and came out only to watch the Boss!
~ Judi, No problem – accidents happen and when we are running on extra we have afew additional ones.
~ No worries!!
~ Not a problem! Not to worry!
~ It does my heart good to know someone as accomplished and wonderful as you are makes the same goofy mistakes as I do sometimes. I can’t imagine that ANYONE in Team Women is inconvenienced at all. I’ve deleted my entire Team Women Blank mailing list THREE times now as I’ve tried to rearrange recipients. What an idiot! Can’t wait to see you next week.
~ Not a problem. I have done this once or twice in my career….
~ I enjoyed the newsletter! Hope you had a restful sleep
~ Don’t worry, Judi. We all make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up and have a great week!
Yes, I have been crying very grateful tears this morning for the compassion, understanding and support I have received. Yes, there were a few who asked to have their names deleted and were very nice about.
My point- When you belong to a chapter of Team Women it is about a lot more that getting a referral at every meeting. It is about forging powerful, loyal relationships to support you through out your entire career. All success begins by giving and coincidentally (as Keith says) your business will begin to grow also.
I am so thankful and abundantly grateful to be blessed by some many wonderful people in my life. Thanks for being there. And please let me know how I can support you.
Keep Networking,
Judi
