My Pinnacle Network

Grow Your Business Through Networking

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Like networking

The word like has a lot to do with successful networking.

First, we tend to want to do business with people we like. It’s human nature. The same goes for leads and referrals. If you have a client who needs an accountant, are you going to refer one who you like and enjoy their company or somebody who you’re okay with but wouldn’t be your first choice to break bread with at social gathering? All things being equal with their accounting skills, you’re more likely to refer the person you like.

We founded My Pinnacle Network for a different kind of like. Business owners whose customers are other businesses travel the same lanes and tend to run into the same types of issues. This lends itself to discussions that can lead to referrals.

For example, a while back we had a meeting with a PR Works client to review upcoming press releases. Before the meeting starts, the client asks if we know any IT vendors. Apparently, they were having some issues with their current IT company.

Now, it’s possible that conversation could take place in a business-to-consumer scenario, like working with a realtor to purchase a new home. Yet it’s probably more likely in a B2B scenario.

This article from Inc. Magazine takes an even deeper look at the role likability plays in networking.

Read the Inc. Magazine article.

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My Pinnacle Network and Windows 10

I’m thinking about downloading Windows 10 before the free upgrade expires at the end of the month. Frankly, it scares me to death. Which is why I’m asking my network-My Pinnacle Network-for their reviews of Windows 10.

Why?

When you are considering a purchase, what’s your first step? First, you want to find out as much about that product as you can. Second, you want to know what people who have purchased that product think. That typically means reading reviews online.

Chances are, you will not know one of the people posting. Maybe you can trust their opinion, maybe you can’t.

With a networking group like My Pinnacle Network, you not only have a resource for referrals, but a trusted source of feedback.

What makes a “review” from an MPN member even more reassuring is that it’s coming from a fellow B2B professional and business owner and that makes a HUGE difference.

Why? You don’t really know the context of an online review unless that person shares it. Fortunately, some folks do. But there could be ulterior motives for that review (e.g. that person might be an affiliate). Also, as a b2b professional, you have a reasonable idea of what your fellow networker is using the product for. Also, if they are in your networking group, you know you are going to see that person again, you tend to be a bit more honest, good and bad.

What that means is you might get a review that shares the benefits but points out a drawback or two. And the real beauty is you can have a real-time dialogue with that person. Part of that dialogue can include the question: knowing what you know, would you make that purchase again?

So, the next time you are looking to make a big business purchases, you still want to read the online reviews. But seek out other opinions from your actual network. It might help save you from a purchase you regret or, even better, get you off the fence to buy something that will benefit your business.

Now, about Windows 10…has anybody downloaded and what do you think?

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My Pinnacle Network announces July 2016 schedule of B2B networking meetings

My Pinnacle Network recently announced a full slate of business-to-business networking meetings for July. My Pinnacle Network meetings are as follows:

My Pinnacle Network – Mansfield, Wednesday, July 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 20 Cabot Blvd., Suite 300, Mansfield, MA 02048.

My Pinnacle Network – Marshfield, Thursday, July 7, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., 165 Enterprise Drive, Marshfield, MA 02050.

My Pinnacle Network – Westborough, Tuesday, July 12, from 8 a.m. – 9:30 a.m at Digital Federal Credit Union, 18 Lyman Street, Westborough, MA 01581. Please note, this meeting regularly meets on the first Tuesday of the month and is only meeting on the second Tuesday for July 2016.

My Pinnacle Network – Newton, Thursday, July 14, 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at 29 Crafts Street (Aflac offices), Newton, MA 02458.

My Pinnacle Network – Braintree Third Thursday, Thursday, July 21, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at 100 Grandview Road, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Braintree, MA 02184.

My Pinnacle Network – Bourne, Thursday, July 28, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m., 550 MacArthur Blvd. (Route 28), Bourne, MA 02532.

Only one B2B professional will be selected for each category. Those categories can be found at http://mypinnaclenetwork.com/about/categories.aspx. Prospective members are encouraged to attend a My Pinnacle Network meeting before committing to join.

If you are interested in attending a meeting in your area, please contact Steven V. Dubin at SDubin@MyPinnacleNetwork.com or 781-582-1061 to RSVP. There is no charge to visit a My Pinnacle Network meeting.

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My Pinnacle Network in the news

My Pinnacle Network Founder Steve Dubin was recently quoted in an article entitled “5 Networking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them”.  The article was posted in the Crossroads – Jobseeker News on www.net-temps.com. Here’s Steve’s tip:

Not reciprocating the favor 

People also want to meet you because of your connections. We’re all hooked up in some way or another. Steve Dubin, co-founder of My Pinnacle Network, cautions against becoming this kind of connection.”You know the guy. Very outgoing, loud, lots of back-slapping. The problem? He is the ‘black hole’ of your network. He is the ‘one way’ street who gladly accepts personal introductions but very, very rarely reciprocates.” People are there for the connections just as much as you are. Be sure you’re giving back.

For the other five networking mistakes to avoid, click here.

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Was Muhammad Ali a good networker?

With all the tributes that have been pouring in since Muhammad Ali passed away on Friday, it’s probably safe to say nobody has asked this question. And let’s be honest, prize fighting doesn’t exactly mirror what B2B professionals do. Still, there are a few things we can draw upon that bear mention.

Let’s start with Ali’s verbal brand: I am the greatest! While this rubs many the wrong way, Steve Melanson, the Godfather of Verbal Branding would be proud. In less than five seconds, that signature line makes a statement about his ability and provokes conversation. It’s doubtful that Ali uttered those words nobody responded.

On the surface, this verbal brand appears to break a cardinal rule: do not oversell or overhype your capabilities and abilities. In Ali’s case, with a few exceptions during his career when he was banished from boxing, the statement is true.

Besides being individually good at what you do, develop a network of others who are also at or near the tops of their field. Is it a coincidence that Ali had one of the greatest trainers in boxing history in his corner, Angelo Dundee? Not really.

Another sign of a good networker: having others sing your praises. Could Muhammad Ali risen to the heights that he did without Howard Cosell? It’s an interesting question. But in your business networking and marketing efforts, it’s equally important to have somebody who is a champion of you or your products or services.

Perhaps the ultimate trait of Muhammad Ali that would benefit all people in business is one of resiliency, both inside and outside the ring. After being banned from fighting, it would have been easy for Ali to call it a day. He did not.

Inside the ring, he took a lot of punches. Yet he always got back up, win or lose. In business, you will win some, you probably lose a few, too. How you respond dictates the level of your success.

Rest in peace, champ.

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Discount available for Business Fundamentals Boot Camp

photo of Greg DeSimone
Greg DeSimone

MPN-Mansfield Member and Catapult Advisory Group President Greg DeSimone will be presenting at another  Business Fundamentals Bootcamp event, to be held on June 10, 2016 at the Wellesley Country Club in Wellesley, MA.

Greg has arranged a special offer for you and your clients of 50 percent off!  This offer can be redeemed using code DESIMONE50 at http://www.bfbootcamp.com/2016MWT. This pass is subject to availability and will expire on 6/3/16.  So please don’t delay if you would like to attend as the previous events have sold out!

As with past Business Fundamentals Bootcamps, there will be an all-star cast from the local business community as speakers and panelists for this event, whose theme is “Growth Strategies for the Scaling Company.” The Bootcamp Series is designed especially for owners and C-level professionals at growing businesses, with an emphasis on the tactical and operational expertise needed to manage such companies.

Speakers and panelists will lead sessions focused on marketing, finance, law and human resources for the event’s 50 – 100+ attendees (based on full or half day event). Participants will have the chance to learn from and ask questions of some of the most experienced mature- and growth-stage service providers in the area.

Again, this pass is subject to availability and will expire on 6/3/16.  So please don’t delay if you would like to attend as the previous events have sold out!

To learn more about the Bootcamp series, visit www.bfbootcamp.com.

 

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My Pinnacle Network announces June 2016 schedule of B2B networking meetings

My Pinnacle Network recently announced a full slate of business-to-business networking meetings for June. My Pinnacle Network meetings are as follows:

My Pinnacle Network – Mansfield, Wednesday, June 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 20 Cabot Blvd., Suite 300, Mansfield, MA 02048.

My Pinnacle Network – Marshfield, Thursday, June 2, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., 165 Enterprise Drive, Marshfield, MA 02050.

My Pinnacle Network – Westborough, Tuesday, June 7, from 8 a.m. – 9:30 a.m at Digital Federal Credit Union, 18 Lyman Street, Westborough, MA 01581.

My Pinnacle Network – Newton, Thursday, June 9, 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at 29 Crafts Street (Aflac offices), Newton, MA 02458.

NEW LOCATION – My Pinnacle Network – Braintree Third Thursday, Thursday, June 16, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at 100 Grandview Road, 4th floor conference room, Braintree, MA 02184.

My Pinnacle Network – Bourne, Thursday, June 23, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m., 550 MacArthur Blvd. (Route 28), Bourne, MA 02532.

Only one B2B professional will be selected for each category. Those categories can be found at http://mypinnaclenetwork.com/about/categories.aspx. Prospective members are encouraged to attend a My Pinnacle Network meeting before committing to join.

If you are interested in attending a meeting in your area, please contact Steven V. Dubin at SDubin@MyPinnacleNetwork.com or 781-582-1061 to RSVP. There is no charge to visit a My Pinnacle Network meeting.

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How your mother taught you not to procrastinate

Hang up your coat! Put away your toys! Pick up your shoes! These may not break your top 1000 of memories of your mother. But it should because she was teaching you a lesson on how to avoid procrastination. Like many of us, I decided to wait until later to learn this.

Procrastination is a problem for many B2B professionals. With all the books, all the coaching, etc. our minds will tell us it’s easier to not do something than to do it. In doing some work for a professional organizer, I found a way to develop the habit needed to minimize and hopefully remove procrastination from your life. The irony is that it was a lesson my parents tried to teach me years ago.

According to the professional organizer client, procrastination is clutter. If you think about it, she’s 100 percent correct. Those e-mails you need to send, the books that need updating and other tasks on your to-do list clutter your mind and probably keep you from things you want to do. It can have a snowball effect in your mind and you get up getting nothing done or, worse, not performing to your desired level.

So, what do you?

Start by removing the clutter?

You’re probably saying “Oh, is that all. Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, that’s because you think of clutter in the big sense. To eliminate procrastination, you can start with baby steps and work your way up. And that’s where we finally tie into what Mom and probably Dad tried to teach you way back when.

If procrastination is clutter and clutter is (fill in the blank), just remove the clutter and you are actually doing something and NOT procrastinating. That can start with papers on your desk and putting them into the recycling bin. It feels better to work from a clean desk as opposed to a messy one, right? And you’re probably more productive.

You can start small with tidying up your desk or work space to larger more important items. Because even though you are only picking up a piece of paper or two or whatever that small task might be, you are actually removing procrastination. When you think of it that way, it actually makes you want to remove more. After all, who doesn’t want to remove procrastination in their lives?

And that brings us back to dear old Mom. How many times did she ask you to pick something up or put something away? Yes, she did not want your stuff lying around. But she also was teaching you how to remove procrastination in your life.

Thank you, Mom.

Happy belated Mother’s Day!

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Networking by phone dos and don’ts

In a perfect world, you can sit down with everybody in your networking group for a one-on-one. That’s why My Pinnacle Network encourages members to conduct one-on-ones before and after meetings so they do happen in person. When that’s not possible, it’s fine if the next-best option is to hold one-on-ones via phone–as long as you treat it as an in-person meeting.

What does that mean? Well, if you conduct a lot of conference calls, you know exactly what that means. In fact, I wrote a blog/newsletter about it not too long ago:
‘Is that your dog barking in the background’ and other teleconference faux pas.

The long and short of the blog is that your call deserves the same level of focus as an in-person meeting. So, find a quiet place and prep accordingly.

To read the entire post, click here. You can also read the sequel, Teleconference hell – You called in your favorites.

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Networking confidence: One more thing your mother was right about

ka-broucherGrowing up, how many times did your mother remind you to stand up straight? Begrudgingly, you complied, probably just to keep her from reminding you all the time. But what you didn’t know was Mom was trying to make you a better networker.

Okay, that was probably not exactly what she was thinking. Yet how you present yourself at a networking event does impact how you are perceived and the level of attention people give to your message. In short, those who stand up straight are more likely to be heard than those who don’t.

This was just one of the many nuggets gleaned from a presentation given at the last My Pinnacle Network-Westborough meeting by Alyssa Dver, co-founder of the American Confidence Institute (ACI) and author of Kickass Confidence.  Posture was just one example Alissa used as to how you can learn to be a better networker. After all, we can all remind ourselves to stand up straighter, right?

Alyssa also debunked the myth of the “born networker”. It may seem that some people take to networking more naturally than others, but there is a very good reason as to why. Chances are those individuals grew up with a role model in life who was a good networker. As children are prone to do, they modeled the behaviors of those around them until those behaviors became their own.In other words, those born networkers learned how to network–just at an earlier age.

Perhaps the most telling and touching part of the presentation occurred at the end of the meeting. Members, to a person, shared how much they received out the condensed presentation (our format allows for 20 minutes for speakers; Alyssa typically conducts much longer workshops). Yet Alyssa shared how even the founder of ACI has to work on confidence as she confided this was the first speaking engagement she had had since losing a parent. Based on her presentation, you never would have known.

For more information on ACI, visit www.americanconfidenceinstitute.com. You can purchase Alyssa’s book, Kickass Confidence, on Amazon.