MCC Birthday Bash – what I learned can help your business

Local networking group, Motor City Connect (MCC) celebrated their three-year birthday with a big event, loaded with great speakers. As a business owner myself and someone who enjoys social media and networking, I went to see what I could learn for my own business and personal gratification. In two different rooms, each speaker had a 15 minute slot immediately followed by the next speaker – so there was always two presentations going on all afternoon. I managed to catch some great info and some inspiring messages. So, I thought I'd share some of what I learned here.

Blending your personal & professional life. The first speaker I saw was Bob Shenefelt of I Matter. He was sort of a modern day spirit guide for working souls lost in the digital age. It wasn't a bunch of guru mumbo-jumbo. It was stuff that really made sense in today's over-connected, always-on world. I may have learned more things I can use for business in other presentations, but his was the one I enjoyed the best. The official title of his talk was "Welcome to the Age of Wisdom" but it was really all about how to blend all aspects of you life into a harmonious middle ground. A place where it's okay to play a little at work and work a little at play. He talked about the old way of life kept work and home lives very separate. Now, with digital and mobile technology always keeping us plugged in, it's hard to make a distinction and to find time for just ourselves. It was a 10-minute balm for the workaholic soul.

Rebuilding our social capital. Next up was Kieth Zendler of People Movers, which is a community-based site. He talked about how over the last 40 – 50 years, our communities have been in a cycle of less and less community involvement. He sited the book "Bowling Alone" – which sounds like a good read – in how we vote less, go to community meetings less, do less business with our neighbors, etc. It's been about a 40% drop over these years, losing our social capital. This brings increases in poverty, health issues, political unrest – all as an offshoot of the breakdown of our ability to work together. Lately, through social media and networking, we're starting to come back out of it. To rebuild relationships, you need to think about what you care about.

Be a great entrepreneur. Zendler says to do this, you need to 1. Care. If you really care about peoples problems and try to solve their problems, you'll gain customers. 2. Connect – get out there and get involved in your community. It's where you're going to meet other top entrepreneurs who may become your clients – after you build trust in a non-business relationship. The 10% who are really involved are the influencers who shape the things we do. Connect with them. 3. Communication. Share with each other. You need to get out and talk to everyone. That's why the explosion in social media has occurred, because of the dearth of ways to communicate with each other. 4. Cooperate. Work together and help each other out. As you help other business, they'll help you. 5. Commerce. Get out and do commerce. Get out and do business with your friends, with people you know. There's nothing wrong with that. 6. Celebrate. Go out and celebrate your successes with those you've built relationships with.

Learn how to learn. In my next session, Kimberly Kassner of EmpowerMind taught us a new way to learn. She said we could all learn how to memorize a list of 10 random things. Then she took us through a visualization exercise that really worked. She took the things and put a visual story in our minds about it. That was hours ago and I can still remember the list. It's MCC, coffee cup, winning lottery ticket, pizza, Blackberry, love, money, Terry Bean, birthday cake, wine. I think I'll have to drink a lot of wine before I forget the list she taught us.

Using your Chamber of Commerce for business. I kind of stumbled into this one. I thought I was going to another session, but by this point the presentations had gotten behind the timeline. So, I sat and listened to Jennifer Roosenberg of the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce. I had thought, even though Yaffe's not a huge company, we were too big to try and make connections through the Chamber of Commerce. But once Roosenberg outlined all the ways that your business can benefit from being a part of it, I may just have to check out our local Chamber. Some of the things she outlined, I hadn't thought of and they really made sense.

Getting more out of your Blackberry. This is what I thought I was seeing in the last one, Dave Peckens, one of the area's true Blackberry experts was going to tell us how to be smarter with our smart phones. Trying to make up time, he kept it short. But packed good info and good humor into his short presentation. The women in the room seemed to really like the way he told us you could sync up two Blackberries with a list app that the wife could add things to a shopping list when the husband was out shopping and it would cue the husband in that more had been added. Our office has Blackberries, so I may just have to get Dave to come in and help us be a smarter office with our smart phones

Want the sale? Don't use these words. One of the better presentations for my business was this one by Fred SaintArmour. He talked about words you need to eliminate from your vocabulary when you're talking to a prospect. First he said get the "whyne" out of your mouth. When you ask anybody why they do something, it puts them on the defensive. Instead of why do you use XYZ company, ask "what conditions would you need to have happen to make me your supplier?" Instead of why, "what was the reason" or "what circumstances made this happen" type of questions. Or start with "I'm curious" or "I was wondering" He also said to eliminate "but" (get the but out of your mouth) because if you say "I like that, but I think you should do this" you're really saying you don't like it. You can simply say, "I like that. Did you ever try it this way?" Same meaning but without the implied insult. Finally, he said to eliminate "just" as in "I just wanted to send you a quick email." The word just trivializes what we're trying to do. It means the same if you write "I wanted to send you a quick email." SaintArmour had some other great advice, like actually asking for the sale. 

I saw some other good presentations, meet and networked with good people and talked to some of the businesses who had displays as well. Did I mention they had birthday cake? All in all it was a good day.

Mike McClure, Partner at Yaffe and networking guy.