My Pinnacle Network

Grow Your Business Through Networking

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Dress for Success a success

One part of a My Pinnacle Network meeting is our Two-Minute Drill. A recent one—Dress for Success—sparked a lot of different stories and views on how your attire plays a role in your own personal success and success in winning over current clients and prospects. This included a story about a somebody wearing an AC/DC t-shirt to a client meeting and one member’s experience of birthing a baby shark! Let’s call that a topic for another day.

One prevailing thought on the topic of dressing for success was how it has evolved over the years. Conventional thought was that men wore a suit, shirt and tie, or a sport coat at the very least and women similarly were attired in business dress suit or slacks, with proper sweater or blouse. Yet many of the stories shared spoke to a new theme of dressing for the occasion or the person.

Several people shared stories where clients told them “not to wear a tie the next time.” Or when the member didn’t wear a time for a client visit and were told, “I’m glad you didn’t wear a tie.”

The more you hear these stories, the more you realize how what you wear impacts you and the person you are visiting. Some clients or prospects want to keep things casual. Others may appreciate the importance you place on a meeting by dressing more traditionally. You really do have to know your audience and dress accordingly.

Yet perhaps the most important audience you need to dress for is yourself.

A sub for one of our members in Westborough illustrated that point by sharing a story about playing competitive hockey in high school. Shirt-and-tie was mandatory dress for games. In college, he played club hockey. Come-as-you-are was the code. When the team didn’t get off to a great start in his first season, they internally adopted a dress code. No more sweats or jeans. Button-down shirts and nice pants were required. Almost on cue, the team began playing at a much higher level.

Interesting.

As you can see, dressing for success can play out in many ways and is very subjective. For example, one rule of thumb yours truly learned a long time ago: it’s much easier to take off a coat, undo a tie and a button then it is to convert a t-shirt and jeans into a suit or even business casual attire. Like I said, everyone’s experience in this arena can be very different.

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Before and after: The best part of a meeting?

This one is an oldie but goody for almost all networking groups:

photo of empty conference room for a networking group

Arrive 15 minutes early. Plan on staying at least 15 minutes after the meeting ends.

There are many benefits to this strategy. Here are a few:

  • Being one of the first gives you time to network with the meeting host or early attendees. The host will typically be a well-connected person.
  • Other people arriving early are also guests or people you might have not met before, each with an address book of names of people you may not yet know.
  • It establishes your commitment to the group. It’s human nature but people do notice who is usually early or just on time.
  • During somebody’s verbal brand/elevator pitch you may have thought of a possible lead or intro. Planning on staying late gives you time to follow up.
  • One-on-ones – Set them up at the meeting. Waiting to set up a one-on-one until your back in the office leaves opportunity for it to slide through the cracks.
  • Staying later gives you the opportunity to catch up to talk to people who may have showed up as meeting/event started.

The time before and after a networking event provides a rare window of opportunity to learn more about people, set up meetings and increase your exposure to like-minded B2B professionals. Sure, you can call, text or e-mail the people in your networking group in between meetings. But more often than not, you will get the most out of these folks when they are right in front you—either at the meeting or at a one-on-one.

The tip here is leave yourself enough time before and after the meeting—at least 15 minutes—so you have the best opportunity to optimize the real-time human resources you have in front of you.

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Is there a greater network?

It’s Veteran’s Day. We thank all veterans for their service to our great country. Thank you.

In writing that sentence, another thought comes to mind. Is there a greater network than our veterans?

Think about it. There’s an instant bond whenever two vets meet. It could be two entirely different branches of service. Their time in the service could be decades apart. It doesn’t matter. The bond of being willing to put your life on the line for your country ties these men and women together forever.

Now, there’s no comparing a networking group to veterans. That’s pure folly. Yet in running networking groups like we have over the past seven years, it’s difficult not to admire the veterans for more than their service, but their commitment to each other.

Happy Veterans Day. To our members who also served in our armed forces, Thank you.

Who is the veteran who comes to mind first when you think of Veteran’s Day? Post your gratitude on our Facebook page.

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November location for My Pinnacle Network-Pembroke meeting

For the November 7 meeting only, My Pinnacle Network-Pembroke will meet at 20 Corporate Park Drive, Suite 170-180, Pembroke, MA. The meeting will begin at 9am as usual. The photo here shows the exterior of the building, with the meeting site circled.

My Pinnacle Network-Pembroke will return to its regular meeting site, ACTSmartIT, in December.

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Sit or stand

Before you start saying that’s a bit of a personal question, we’re talking about networking meetings. And the question revolves around whether or not to sit or stand when you give your verbal brand (formerly known as elevator pitch). Yours truly took a little different approach the other day at My Pinnacle Network-Westborough’s meeting and not only stood but invited the group to do so as well.

That begs the question as to whether or not it is better to sit or stand when you give your verbal brand?

My Pinnacle Network is different from many other groups for a number of reasons. The most obvious is that we’re strictly for business-to-business professionals and business owners whose customers are other businesses. Another is that while we do offer a meeting structure, we try to be flexible in terms of the amount of time you take for your verbal brand. Along those lines, you can sit or stand.

No matter what you choose, you do want to take several things in mind before you stand or sit. 

First, you want to make sure you are both seen and heard. If chairs are in a horseshoe and you’re sitting on either end of the shoe, some might not be able to see you and that could impact how well they listen.

Second, standing or sitting, you still want to make eye contact with people in the room as you present. Again, you can do that sitting or standing. Just remember to do it.

Speak loudly so that everyone can hear. One of the benefits of standing up is that it is physiologically easier to speak louder than when you are seated. Something about being stretched that makes it so.

Finally, don’t succumb to peer pressure. If you prefer standing when you present and the rest of the group sits, you should still stand when it’s time to deliver your verbal brand. Or vice versa. 

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My Pinnacle Network announces October 2019 schedule of B2B networking meetings.

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

My Pinnacle Network – Westborough, Tuesday, October 1, from 8 a.m. – 9:30 a.m at Digital Federal Credit Union, 18 Lyman Street, Westborough, MA 01581.

My Pinnacle Network – Mansfield, Wednesday, October 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., Mansfield BioIncubator, 241 Francis Avenue, Mansfield, MA 02048.

My Pinnacle Network – Pembroke, Thursday, October 3, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., ACTSmart Training Center, 70 Corporate Park Drive, Suite 1225, Pembroke, MA 02359.

My Pinnacle Network – Needham, Thursday, October 10, 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at Bullfinch Group, 160 Gould Street, Needham, MA 02494.

My Pinnacle Network – Braintree Third Thursday, Thursday, October 17, from 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. at 100 Grandview Road, 3rd Floor Conference Room, Braintree, MA 02184.

Only one B2B professional will be selected for each category. Those categories can be found at bottom of http://www.mypinnaclenetwork.com. 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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Grip it, don’t rip it. The professional handshake.

You can tell a lot about a person by his/her handshake. More importantly, there are a lot of people who will form their impression of you from your handshake. So, you want to take that into consideration before putting out your hand.

For example, you want to offer a firm handshake with fingers extended (web to web) rather than clumped together. Avoid the dead fish handshake but don’t go overboard with a bone crusher.

Beyond your shaking style, be sure to shake hands in the proper order. For example, if you’re introduced to the ownership team of the company, be sure to shake the hand of the owner before the intern.

Always shake hands standing up. If you are seated and somebody approaches you, stand up to shake his/her hand.

Here are some other tips:

  • Shake up and down only, no back and forth
  • Keep it brief, 2-3 seconds
  • Stand still when you shake, never walking or on the move
  • High and dry; better to wipe your sweaty palm dry.
  • Add a greeting and remember a name; “Nice to meet you, Bob” as you shake hands. It will help you remember first names.
  • Make eye contact, even throw a smile in there to deepen your first impression.

Now, if you know a person and you see them at an event, you may want to get a little more casual with a fist pump, high-five or forearm bang. If you must, that’s okay. Same with business hugs and the double check air kiss. Yet if it’s not somebody you know and you want to present in a more formal way, you’re pretty much always better off playing it safe and shaking hands.

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Author! Author! My Pinnacle Network author series.

One of the best ways to promote your business is through creation of an eBook. My Pinnacle Network has its own, written by yours truly, Joe D’Eramo. Yet that’s far from the first title I’ve written. In fact, I recently published the Kindle version of my first book, Recipes for the Roommate-Impaired.
 
 
This book first came out as a paperback in 1993. I co-wrote it with my former roommate, John “Walter” Reed. We’ve both gone on to different stages of life and bigger and better things. He’s a culinary consultant and owner of Customized Culinary Solutions.
 
 
So why the re-release?
 
 
First, I was inspired by the reboot of Beverly Hills 90210 (admit it, you watched it). More so, the recipes, after all this time, are damn good—the meatloaf, mac and cheese and tuna noodle casserole are to die for; best BBQ recipe out there, too. Second, and more importantly, I got tired of looking up the pages in the paperback, placing it down on the counter, repeat…. you get the idea. So, I went for it and it’s now available as a Kindle on Amazon.
 
 
I’ve priced it very low, $2.99 for the reboot. This is your one-time opportunity to own THE BEST MEATLOAF RECIPE in the world! I kid you not and will refund your money if you can find and serve me a better one.
 
 
As for our author series, if you have written a book or even a chapter in a book, send it our way and we’ll feature you in an upcoming edition of our newsletter.

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When to get personal in business

In My Pinnacle Network, we refer to the elevator pitch as your verbal brand. For sake of clarity, we will use E.P. in this piece and over the next several weeks. Yet every one of us should not only reconsider what we call our elevator pitch but how we deliver it and what exactly we say.
If you fall into the camp that tries to fit as much as humanly possible into your E.P. before you run out of breath/pass out or the person you’re talking nods off or, worse, walks away, you are far from alone. Of course, you will eventually be alone because elevator pitches done like that do not work. That’s because the goal of the E.P. is to make the listener WANT to know more and start asking questions. If you attempt to tell them everything, you will not only run out breath and deplete their attention span, you take away their reason for wanting to know more.
One of the better ways to get people to list to their elevator pitch is to listen to theirs first. So, E.P. pointer number one is to come up with a conversation starter that creates a more comfortable opening than, “what do you do?”. My Pinnacle Network Founder Steve Dubin offers the following:
Do you know exactly where your next prospect is coming from?
Try it out. Yet be prepared if the answer is “I don’t know”. Then, you might have to jump in with your answer.

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Ninja surprises

Last year’s Networking Ninja awards had a surprise award–an Unsung Hero honor for yours truly. This year will also have two surprise awards–Rookie of the Year and Lifetime Achievement. We will announce both at the ceremony on Tuesday, April 16 at the joint networking event of My Pinnacle Network and the South Shore Networking Professional Group, held at the Cask & Flagon in Marshfield.

Speaking of the Ninja awards, this is the FINAL week of voting. If you do want to cast your vote for the best B2B networkers you know, you can do so by clicking on the button at the bottom.

The categories for the Networking Ninja Awards are:

  • Best Connector – helping bring people together)
  • Most Ubiquitous (appears to be at every networking event)
  • Most Altruistic (does most for others)
  • Brightest Beacon (adds energy to networking events)

To vote, click here. Use the pull-down arrow on the far right in the Nomination Category to select the category. You may vote for My Pinnacle Network members or other B2B professionals in your network.