In my special report, What I Know For Sure: Lessons Learned in 10 Years of Business, I list 75 topic areas that I have bumped into over ten years. And every day in October, I will randomly choose one of the 75 and expound on it. So here’s today’s:
You must begin filling your Rolodex from day -450.
That means, 18 months before you start your business,
start collecting your contacts! And real contacts, not
Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter contacts. Then never stop.
Your Rolodex is THE currency of your business success.
My ex-husband will never, ever be out of work as long as he lives. Why? Because he’s a relationship building master. Now, not when it comes to marriage, mind you, but for the more distant relationships, he’s sheer genius. By the time he and my daughter are done with dinner at a restaurant, he’s made at least two life-long friends. Imagine how many times they’ve gone out for dinner in 16 years…how many times he’s met someone new, and you can begin to picture the size of his Rolodex.
In business, he is known far and wide for his friendliness and reliability–but that’s not why he makes life-long friends in every deli, bank and business meeting–and why he’ll never be out of work. (Drum roll)…It’s because he extends a superficial relationship into something more meaningful, then maintains it. My daughter is a junior in high school. He is still sending presents to the daughter of her second grade teacher. The only reason I even *remember* my daughter’s second-grade teacher is because my ex extended that relationship (extended it beyond school by becoming interested in her upcoming nuptials, etc.) and then maintained it by sending an anniversary card and a “congratulations on the new baby” card…and to this day, a birthday card or present for the teacher’s daughter.
I bust his chops all the time because so much of the time he’s brown-nosing–especially in collecting business relationships or any other that will help, say, my daughter get into college or get in good with the field hockey coach. I’m more, well, pure-hearted with my relationships (no agenda)…but then again, I don’t have his Rolodex. I’m more passive with relationships. Hell, I don’t even make friends in a restaurant, let alone friends who’ll one day be reading my eulogy.
I always say: how we do life is how we do business. How we do relationships in life is how we do relationships in business. And sometimes what works in life does NOT work in business: I can have a light hand with relationships in life because I’m highly independent and love my own company–but in business, loving my own company ain’t going to get me business.
So, I ask you–how full is your Rolodex? How easily do you collect relationships? My ex does it, as I illustrated above, just as easily in his personal life as he does in his business life. If it’s not so easy for you in life to extend and maintain relationships, it may be challenging in business. But here’s the only advice on that: get over it. It’s actually been challenging for me to get over it, and I’m a work in progress, but we must ALL take a page out of my ex’s book. In fact, he should write one, don’t you think?
Get all 75 tips PLUS an invitation to join me in celebrating 10 years on a free call October 7th! http://inspiredleadershiptraining.com/10Years/report/
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