I met Tony Scelzo at a Rainmaker’s event.  The conversation was lively and fast paced, with the appropriate amount of trying to impress each other.  We exchanged business cards and went on our way. But that conversation was the beginning of a relationship which would change the course of my business.

A few days later, Tony called and asked me to be a part of Rainmakers Advisory Board.   If you have ever had a conversation with Tony, you know there is lots of energy and when you walk away you realize you agreed to something.  Often, you are not sure what it was you agreed to.  That was the case during my first phone call.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was signing up for, but it felt right, and so I took a chance and said yes.

I said yes to being a speaker, board member, hub chair and ultimately president. Rainmakers introduced me to hundreds of people.  Many of my closest friends, clients and business resources were people I first met at a Rainmaker event. I refined my public speaking skills and the platform help me establish myself as a player in the small business community.   In return, my involvement with Rainmakers created processes which helped grow the organization to more than 1,600 members.

For more then seven  years, if you wanted to find me, all you had to do was show up at a Rainmaker event.  Most mornings I started my day with a conversation with Tony. We talked about Rainmakers and Roundpeg and the ups and downs of small business ownership. We shared employees and employee stories.  Tony always had another great idea and I had a hard time saying no. That is how I got involved in  The Buzz, the ill-fated Rainmaker University, and even the Rainmaker’s Golf Outing 

Saying yes to Tony opened a lot of doors and changed the way I looked at building connections.   I can’t imagine what Roundpeg would be like today, if I hadn’t said yes back then.
Over the years, I gave a lot of presentations at Rainmaker events. This is one of my favorites: