Man of the People

Once in a while, and quite rarely, you attend a presentation and you really GET what the speaker is conveying. He/she speaks to you on a higher level, creating that “Vulcan mind meld” that only Mr. Spock could manage, it was so true and strong.

I felt that message from David Volkman, (whose last name appropriately translates to “man of the people”). I heard him speak this past winter and I imagine I appeared to him to be a bobble-headed doll in the rear window of a car--my head kept nodding up and down in agreement with what he was saying. I am pleased to say he is now a good friend, colleague and trusted referral source.

David is an articulate, humble, honest individual; his primary business role is a financial advisor, but his self-appointed duty is show others how to engage in smarter, more effective networking, what he calls ROIT, as any financial maven would look at it as: return on invested time spent networking.

I recently interviewed him for 40 minutes, which you can listen to by clicking here and you’ll hear him speak glowingly of his simple, yet unique thoughts on creating an effective network, one in which your helping someone, who needs your assistance, becomes so strong a feeling that they voluntarily offer to help you back as a way of saying thank you.

The gist of his message: Imagine if an incremental sliver of the business world operated this way….then some would get on board to help others, the infection would spread. It’s a 180 degree reversal of what chambers of commerce, leads groups and speed networking meetups are teaching.

Start a relationship, ask in person to get involved in what that person’s business needs really are, then offer to satisfy their need by voluntarily introducing a person that you already know well to help them. They can do the same for you or someone else.

Brilliant, right? Networking to David is a cerebral activity, one in which we have to consciously remember to thank and return the favor. That takes extra brain cells.

Life Lessons
Self-made business entrepreneur in high school, the funds from the sale of the business he started in high school were used to put himself through college. David learned from his mother and grandmother some of the life lessons that became his philosophy: help others when you have the opportunity while you take care of your own family.

Fast forward…he was stopped by a rabbi after giving a presentation this spring for Harvard Business School to a combined overflow audience of 9300 people (as he says: “suddenly I became a rock star”) and reminded that his message at its most boiled-down essence is Talmudic: help out someone else without any expectation of receiving anything in return.
David’s message contains 3 core elements:
1. Do something nice for someone else. Add a nice smile (he has that!), charisma, engage someone in a way they were not expecting. This gets a memorable response.
2. Do something that makes you feel good in the process. That leads to a more honest and open conversation about who you know that can help them. They feel your sincerity and you come across that way as a volunteer of your trusted resources
3. Ultimately something that will be good for your business will result. They will remember you for your help and either offer to help you sometime or you can ask them.
Now do it again.

Working the room
David’s tactic of entering a room full of people he doesn’t know is to stand back a while and watch the body language: arms crossed in front, hand gestures, eyes trolling the room for the next prey. Identify only a few people whose stance, eyes and conversational abilities point to their being interesting and engaging. If he is asked for his card, he gives it; if not, he moves on. He’ll only spend time with the ones who appear experienced in powerful networking, likes attract. A good night is one in which he hands out 3 cards. Smart operating on his part: the rest of the people will never commit to more cerebral networking anyway so it ruins the ROIT.

Strategic Friends vs True Friends
Quoting him from the interview: “It’s the relationships that you have with your friends that add richness to your life. If you have the opportunity to help them-to truly help them-that’s where you’ll find your relationship catapults to a whole other level.” These true friends will always rally to your side vs. strategic friends who may not be reliable.

“If you can systematically do something where you put yourself in a position, or at least have a chance to do something like that {truly helping someone}, then the most amazing referrals will happen…What if you systematically did this? Suddenly you are not networking where it’s work…it’s now fun. You don’t want to stop doing that-it’s a way of life.” Pay it forward.

Elevator pitch: a wrap
Elevator speeches are just boring and too long. David’s wraps up who he is:
“I am an independent financial advisor. I help people organize their finances to help them get to a better place.”

I know David has helped me reevaluate my brand equity and connection assets to get to a better place. His sincerity and humility are admirable. His passion is infectious.

My suggestion for some time well-spent: listen, really listen, to the interview. Read more about him.

Don't know "squared"

Don't know "squared." (If I could figure out how to make the superscript 2 on this, I would have!) That means someone who doesn't know what he/she doesn't know.

Now that the definition is out in the open, why bother blogging on this topic?
Because many people think it's perfectly acceptable to proclaim they know it ALL. And they try it all, sometimes not so successfully. Or at least they don't know how unsuccessful they have been until an expert lends a hand.

I certainly don't know it all. I don't perform dentistry on myself. Nor do I think I can figure out how to bury all the gremlins and demons that I encounter in my business and personal life. But I know enough to ask for expert advice from seasoned experts. I might have to pay for it. Paying a fair price for continual service and attention is part of what I expect to have to do.

Put another way, I am as good as my vendors so I keep great company. I choose who to represent. And...my clients get more than just plain service. They get 110% of me. Good service is already hard to find today. Great service is rarer.

For those who don't know what you don't know, I suggest you ask for, and try to get, experts with a little gray hair. Experience and expertise go hand-in-hand.

I can recommend a bunch of great experts. Just ask me if you need a referral to a great service provider in whatever area you need help.

Why are some people so RUDE?

What a week!

Obama is heckled and called a liar in the Capitol by an elected official! Imagine!

Pity the young singer at the music awards ceremony accepting an honor for her musical talent only to be interrupted and preempted by a rude and obnoxious celeb upset his favored singer did not win. At least the honoree kept her cool.

Not so in Flushing Meadow. Did you see the tennis player explode in anger and unsportsperson-like language on the US Open tennis court? $10K and an apology later, it's all but forgotten.

Today a former client called to let me have it, for nothing I did wrong. It was entirely her fault and she can't come to grip with the fact that she messed up. A shame.

Finally a friend was just laid off from her job and given 1 hour to clear out. No warning.

I sometimes feel like the world has gone mad and taken formerly polite people down with it. We all want what we expect is ours, and we want it now, in just the way we expect it to result. Dealing with our errors and disappointment is tough. But there is a proper way to do so, and with grace. Let's all try to find that grace.

Myself included, I suppose...

Sage advice

Aim with your heart, adjust with your head, and always, always, always, do all you can.

A new client sent this to me; thanks, Linda! It epitomizes what we all need to do better, continuously, in our business and personal lives.

No soapbox ranting form me. The words themselves say it all. Let's all practice this!

Guest Blogger Lesley Mattos Tells Us How NOT To Be Treated as a Client

From her blog Adesso Albums entitled,

"Authorize.NOT"

Friday, July 3, 2009 by Lesley Mattos

About 11:00 p.m. Pacific last night, there was a fire in the data center in Seattle, Washington where the credit card processing company for our e-commerce site is located. It was almost 12 hours before Authorize.NOT, as I like to refer to them now, resolved the issue but it took them 9 of those hours before they reached out to their customer base through Twitter.

The scary thing about this is that the Companys back up servers were impacted by the fire as well. Now I'm a very (VERY) small business compared to Authorize.net and even I know that redundancy means more than one copy of your important data and more than one place for it to reside. For God sake, they're the #1 credit card processing company in the world, you'd think they'd know that too!

Whoever is tweeting for them is now singing the praises of their response to the situation. The "tweet" - "Been on conf. call with the team for hours now. Impressed with how calm & meticulous they have been thru this entire event." Great. Next time try communicating that you've got it all under control the instant the issue arises so your customers aren't pulling up a blank website or calling a number that says the company is closed for the holiday weekend. Communicate with YOUR customers so that they can be proactive with theirs. It's not rocket science, it's just good customer relations.

Absent any information, here's what we did for our customers who were unable to complete purchases of our unique instant photo guest books to use for their wedding guest book, baby keepsake album, birthday or wedding shower guest book:

* We checked to see who had abandoned their shopping cart since the outage

* We sent an email to each of them, informing them about the outage and letting them know that we'd contact them again when the situation was resolved

* We offered them a 10% discount on their order when they did come back


The good news (and there always is some) is that I'd bet that someone has lit a firecracker under the "calm and meticulous" Authorize.NOT team are thinking long and hard over this holiday weekend about redundancy and beefing up their crisis communication plan. Let's hope so!

I'll be there

No, I won't sing this in falsetto like Michael Jackson.


I will, however, be there to support you as we approach the renewal of your merchant account contract ahead of its expiration. The idea is to keep you running with the best processor at all times.


But, price and quality go hand in hand.


Just because someone comes in and offers you a better price doesn't mean better service or support. Show me the better price and I will analyze it, describe what is being offered, and if it appropriate for your business or organization, I will meet it or beat it at the time of the contract renewal.

If I have done anything right during our relationship, I hope I have added integrity, high level of service and continuity to your processing, from contract renewal onward...