The BIGG Successs Show
Beyond Networking
A leading networker shares tips on how to make quality connections. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss how to make quality connections. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Today on The Big Success Show, we welcome Melissa Gebanali. Melissa is an author, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur. Over 11 books, four have been on the best sellers list and one was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. - Oprah! - Yes, that's right. We love Oprah. She's one of the world's leading... - Yeah, I love Oprah. That's right. She's one of the world's leading experts on networking and has appeared on the Today Show. CNN, CNBC, Fox, and now The Big Success Show. She was recently named the best networker in Chicago by cranes, and Melissa, welcome to The Big Success Show. Thank you, both of you. It's a pleasure. Well, what we thought you could bring to our audience today would be some of your top networking tips, because everybody's looking to be a better networker. So, what would be one really good tip? Well, the one thing that I'll say, and the operative word, just like tissue became Kleenex, networking will become net-worlding. So, I turned the noun into a verb, and world became a verb. So, when you net world, you really change the way you think about building networks so that they are opportunity expansive instead of opportunity limiting. So, for example, many people will net work for a particular goal, such as I'm going to meet two people at this event. A net-worlder would say, "Okay, I'm going to meet two people that I could have a long-term relationship with and build opportunities not only for myself, but for that other party. What would that look like?" And, "What would it look like if it was a transformational opportunity?" And, "It wasn't just for myself and the other party, but, or if you will, the greater good." What I like about what you're saying, Melissa, is there's this talk about speed networking, and, you know, it's not about relationships. It's about the number of cards you have in that, and it just seems to me like that. It just totally goes against the grain of what net-worlding or networking should be all about, which is establishing relationships. Yes, and I call that the overstuffed roller deck syndrome. So, you confuse activity with accomplishment, because the way you really leverage a network is by really thinking about who would be good connections for you. So, in net-worlding, we start with people who have similar and complementary value. That changes things, and the unique thing online now is that you can get quality and quantity by being really specific about what you're asking for, and you have the ability to provide a forum for vibrant exchanges. So, it's not about people taking, and I'm not always about people just giving, because we have what are called net-worlding support exchange cards, and we have seven levels of support. And, if you think about it, you know, supporting people emotionally, supporting people by providing information. That's another level. Supporting people by providing knowledge, which is information plus experiences. You save people a lot of time and money if you share your knowledge. Supporting people by promoting them. That's just what you're doing with me, and, you know, my goal then will be to put you on my blog and link with you, so you can cross-promote. The Internet offers that at low no cost with a tremendous return. And then you can also support people through what we call wisdom sharing. What's the 20% that will have an 80% return? Which your organization, what you're doing, is all about wisdom sharing. And then if you do all that, we say in net-worlding, you'll create transformational opportunities. And if you create transformational opportunities, then the final layer is community, which means you can create the greatest good for the greatest number, because now you have things you can share with the whole world. You make it all sound so simple. Yeah, it's fun. All right. Well, coming up, we're going to talk with you about your net-worlding community and how our listeners can get involved. Today, we're talking to Melissa Javanali, and she's offered us some ideas on how to become a net-worlder. And Melissa, can you tell us how people can get involved with net-worlding? Yes. The most interactive one we have is networlding2.org. And that's a community where you can actually put up your own profile, build your own private circle of support, and grow that. So it can be a special interest group. And the goal there is for people to help support one another in achieving their respective goals. The other place, as I mentioned, is net-worlding e-learning, where you can get six free lessons that show people either how to network for sales, grow their business, et cetera, or networking for jobs because I'm very passionate about helping people who are looking for jobs. And then I'm a huge fan of helping people create intellectual property. So the other thing I'll do, if somebody's really serious and only if they're really serious, I will help them with book writing because it's a labor of love, but it's something that after doing 11 books myself, I do love to help people get their messages out in a book form because that's intellectual property that years and years and years later will still be a great investment. Well, you are an amazing woman, to say the least, and it was a pleasure getting to know you, and thank you so much for being a part of the big success show today, Melissa. Thank you. I look forward to talking to you again. You can get a written summary of today's show and find the links to Melissa's site that she mentioned on ours today at BigSuccess.com. Next time, we'll talk about the entrepreneurial rollercoaster ride. Woo! Look on, no hands! We're going up. We're going down. Oh, we're going up again. We're going upside down. Until then, here's to your big success. The big success show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC]