Free webinar

Focused Forum:

An Experimental Webinar with Ian Summers

Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Time: 3:00 PM PST / 6:00 PM EST
Duration: 1 hour
Host: Ian Summers

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Are you in for something different?

There were lots of questions at the conclusion of each of Ian’s liveBook’s webinars and the format made it challenging for live Q & A. So… we decided to try something new, where most of the webinar hour will be about your questions. Here is how it will work. Ian will announce a topic a couple of weeks prior to the webinar. You are encouraged to send him (iansummers@heartstorming.com) your questions around that topic no later than three days prior to the presentation date. Ian will open each webinar with a ten-minute presentation. He will focus on a selection of your submitted questions for the rest of the meeting and will take additional questions and observations via the webinar’s chat tool. That’s why we call it a Focused Forum.

Focused Forum Topic This Month:
Networking: A Powerful Tool in This Economy

The more people who know about you, your talents and your abilities, the more easily you will attract the opportunities, assignments, resources, people, ideas, money and results that you really want!

Be a Resource: Put the people in your network in touch with each other. The value you offer to the other person is the network you bring to the relationship. This creates a much strong positive impression.

Host your own Network: Start your own group. I have a client in Phoenix who hosts salons for creators from a variety of fields and backgrounds every month. There are seats for only 12 people who clamor to register because it is so valuable and lots of fun. It also provides an opportunity for each person to network.

Rep Darwin Bahm was the master of this kind of networking. He would invite art directors to join him for dinner and a basketball game. It was a great way to meet the people Bahm represented along with a few other art directors. Why not break bread?

Ian Summers’ liveBooks Webinar Archives

Missed the first three seminars? Go to the liveBooks Webinar archive to find my past multi-media presentations. You can watch and listen at your leisure.

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Networking and Some Related Challenging Quotes

Networking is a powerful marketing tool. The more people who know about you, your talents and your abilities, the more easily you will attract the opportunities, assignments, resources, people, ideas, money and results that you really want!

1. Create a Presence

People prefer to work with people they know and like. The industry wide concept of traditional repping and the art buyer system keeps prospects from knowing you. Find ways to know the decision makers in your world. Make the first move, in a friendly, helpful way.

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
George Bernard Shaw

2. Plant a Garden
Plant seeds. Remember to water them. They are often a wonderful surprise. If you have an entire garden of unknown flowers, imagine the surprise when they bloom. Instead of offering your business card, ask for theirs. This allows you to water the seeds and to be more proactive. Rather than waiting for your phone to ring, reach out to your network.

You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it’s a little thing; do something for those who have need of a man’s help, something for which you get no pay but privilege of doing it. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers live here, too.
Albert Schweitzer

3. Ask Questions and Listen to the Answers

Make your conversations about the other person; not about you. Ask questions that invite conversation. Listen very carefully to what people share with you. Paraphrase what they said to be certain that you understand and to let the other person know you were listening carefully. Find ways to stay connected over time so you can create seven different ways of staying in touch with the person (phone call, email, postcards, lunch dates, sporting event, etc).

I no longer ask the young man’s question: How far will I go? My questions are now those of the mature person: When it is over, what will my life have been about? First as Martin Buber taught, life is meeting. We come alive only when we relate to others. Secondly, we are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great dramatic leap in results. Finally, we are here to finish god’s labors. One of the sages of the Talmud taught nearly two thousand years ago that God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. Why? So that we could be His partners in completing the work of creation.
Harold Kushner

(more…)

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Are you a person with a high degree of knowledge or skill in a particular field:

Ace

Authority

Master

Professional

Proficient

Wizard

Crackerjack

Then you are an expert!

Experts are More Likely to be Treated as Equal Collaborators

An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of knowledge, technique, or skill whose judgment is accorded authority and status. The expert differs from the specialist in that a specialist has to be able to solve a problem and an expert has to know its solution. The opposite of an expert is generally known as a layperson, while someone who occupies a middle grade of understanding is generally known as a technician and often employed to assist experts. A person may well be an expert in one field and a layperson in many other fields… In contrast, the opposite of a specialist would be a generalist, somebody with expertise in many fields.

From Wiktionary

Collaboration means to work together with a common goal. Collaboration is often associated with creative endeavors. In a collaboration, each party brings expertise that the other does not have. This, of course, increases the possibilities of creating something new.

Those who can identify what makes them experts are more likely to be recognized and invited to participate in collaborations. What is your expertise? What makes it different from these who are technicians? Are you a specialist or a generalist?

Think back over your career and identify the times where you were present as a collaborator rather than an executor of other people’s ideas. What did this feel like? What were the results? Describe the perfect collaborator.

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