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:

I caught up with Tony Scelzo in a noisy coffee shop recently, and we talked aobut some of the changes at Rainmakers.  An integral part of the Indy small business community, working with AddressTwo, they have automated the process of making strategic connections and managing contacts. 

 They are, as Tony says, the eHarmony of business.   To learn more, listen to our conversation:

Yesterday,  I had the opportunity to attend a really cool, unique Rainmaker event focused on social media marketing. The name of the event is Socially Awkward, and it’s chaired by Will Hardison. Will is heavily involved in social media and wanted to create an event that celebrated the medium.

It was fun discussing Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook with other professionals and learning how they use it to grow their business. In addition, we had a group activity designed to demonstrate how powerful  ”ReTweets” can be as part of a business development strategy.

One really neat aspect of the event was a live streaming Twitter feed  set up on stage, showing what attendants were saying about the event. Here are some examples:

• RT @willhardison: Great group at #rmsociallyawkward !!!
• @roundpeg Rt festival #rmsociallyawkward @epicallysteve looking for skateboard students
• @ShawnieQR: I helped make 8 connections today at #RMSociallyAwkward which is awesome!!!
• @ShowMeReg: @Rainmakers #rmsociallyawkward last fri of every month!

This provided a  running commentary for the event and was fun to follow.  Even people who weren’t in the room could participate in the conversation.

I had a great time at this morning’s Rainmaker event. It gave me some terrific insight into how powerful social media can be and how I can use it to help Roundpeg grow. For once, I didn’t mind being a little “Awkward.”

Last week I had a chance to see my old friend Doug Edge as he presented to Rainmaker’s Incubators.  A serial entrepreneur, Doug is one of the two founders of Rainmakers. (The one most people don’t know about.)

In his remarks, he shared the Three “R’s” of Entrepreneurship.

Research-from market surveys to interviews with other business owners, this is a critical first step for every entrepreneur.

Risk-you have to take chances, recognize you may lose your investment, so be sure you understand the risks up front, and be prepared.  If you aren’t willing to take the risk, it is unlikely you will reap the rewards.

Reward-When it comes to being an entrepreneur, sometimes money is not the only, or most important reward. What you learn and who you meet along the way are important benefits you will take with you to your next venture if you are a true entrepreneur.

Last week I had a chance to see my old friend Doug Edge as he presented to Rainmaker’s Incubators.  A serial entrepreneur, Doug is one of the two founders of Rainmakers. (The one most people don’t know about.)

In his remarks, he shared the Three “R’s” of Entrepreneurship.

Research-from market surveys to interviews with other business owners, this is a critical first step for every entrepreneur.

Risk-you have to take chances, recognize you may lose your investment, so be sure you understand the risks up front, and be prepared.  If you aren’t willing to take the risk, it is unlikely you will reap the rewards.

Reward-When it comes to being an entrepreneur, sometimes money is not the only, or most important reward. What you learn and who you meet along the way are important benefits you will take with you to your next venture if you are a true entrepreneur.

Yesterday, at the launch of Rainmakers Incubators, Kristian Andersen of Kristian Andersen + Associates, gave a wonderful presentation about what he believes are the three elements of a successful start up;  people, money and product.  As a graphic designer, as a venture capitalist and the founder of an incubator he is well positioned to talk about that subject.

Here are just a few highlights from his presentation in which many of his remarks ran counter to “tradtional” wisdom:

People: Many people say partnerships are a bad idea.  Interestingly, Kristian’s dad told him that partnerships were a bad idea. But Kristian advocated that you need to find other people who will share the workload and will bring different perspectives and different ideas to create more potential solutions. ( I love the idea of creative collaboration) Kristian did warn about the dangers of unbalanced commitment.  Too often, one partner contributes significantly more, so if you are going to create a partnership be sure to define roles up front.

Money: When young firms are looking for loans or investors, tradional wisdom has been to try to get as much as you can on the first round because you may not be able to go back for more.  Kristian suggested just the opposite.  He reccomnends small business owners take a more conservative approach; wait as long as you can before you go for funding.  Then ask for as little as you possibly can get by with to run the business.  If you begin to get some traction, and need additional funding you will be in the position to ask for more and give away less of the business than you would in the early stage .

Product (or Service): This is the core of any business, and Kristian suggested successful products are focused, distinct and simple. Here his advice was more along tradional lines, reminding busines owners they can not be all things to all people.  Understanding the opportuniteis of the “Long Tail” and offering a product which meets the needs of a well defined niche provides a solid foundatoin for a business.  Finally, he reminded the group to keep their value proposition simple.  It has to be something you can explain in10 seconds or less.

I was thrilled Kristian could make time to start the day with us.  I know I wasn’t the only person in the room who wished he had about an hour more to visit with us.   And if you missed Kristian’s comments, but want to connect to the start up community here in Indy, check out nex month’s Incubators event, where we will have another fabulous speaker .  The meeting will be the first Tuesday morning in March at 7:30 at Loon Lake Lodge.  Hope to see you there

If you are based in Indy, I would hope you will check out the Rainmaker Main Event this Month.   It is always a good time, but this month even more fun, since I will be the featured speaker.

I could tell you all about myself.. ( whatever) or simply let Rainmaker Founder do it for me.

The meeting will be Tuesday Night, October 27  at 5:30.  The cost is $20 for members and $35 if you are not.   Hope you can make it!

And while I am on the subject of shamless self promotion, this blog has been nominated on a few local Top Fifity Lists and I would love your support!

Check out: http://top50indianablogs.com/ and http://ow.ly/vEma and vote for your favorite blogs! ( I hope I am on your list!)

Written by Melinda Cooper

I am going to my first real networking event in the morning and I have to admit… I am a little nervous. I’m a social girl and I can social network on Facebook and Twitter all day long, but can I network face-to-face? It’s not like I can go around the room and click on people and anonymously (for the most part) select ‘add as friend.’

So here I am searching on our *new* site up a storm under the ‘Networking’ category taking notes from Lorraine’s blogs (since she’s a self-proclaimed networking junkie). Trying to figure out if there is some special strategy to working a room.

So far I have collected these. Old to some but new to me.

http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/04/chris-brogan-gets-networking/

- I especially like that No. 1 is ‘Be sexier.’ Wasn’t expecting that to show up on any type of networking top 10 list!

http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/06/small-business-networking/

- This is a more recent blog but I wanted to know exactly who was going to be there. It’s sort of like a family reunion of sorts it seems and I don’t like to be blindsided by crazy aunts.

And to show I’m the fair-and-balanced journalist (Marilyn Weaver would be so proud)….

http://www.rachel-levy.com/how-to-network-effectively/

- Some super basic basics with some amusing bites

http://blog.shareresults.com/12-tips-for-social-media-newbies/

- A shorter (and better HTML-ed) version than the site it links to. Discusses the notorious Tila Tequila and uses emoticons. Easy to follow

I can now breathe a sigh of relief and go into tomorrow’s event feeling more prepared then before. It will probably be my first of many. Check out more networking events here. And who knows… maybe by this time tomorrow I’ll have added you as a friend.

No I am not talking about Obama.  I am talking about me.  Tonight I step down as President of Rainmakers. It has been an amazing three years, in which I have met  incredible people, learned  and grown so much, and seen my life and business move in directions I would never have anticipated.

And so, as I get ready for my last speech as President, I have really struggled with what I want to talk about.   In the last three years, I have given more then 100 speeches, so what is left to say?  After weeks of planning, I have decided to keep it simple, and focus on one theme – ATTITUDE.

I did have a nice 3 part concept working, attitude, action and accountability but attitude was running about 11 minutes, so with a few thank yous along the way, there isn’t much time for the other two.  And  if you have the right attitude, it is easier to move toward action.

So tonight I will be talking about attitude, how you determine the outcome of your day, by your approach.  Why this topic and why now?  There are lots of things in the world which distract and impact us as individuals and as small business owners. There are things I can not control, but I can control, how they make me feel, and how I react in response.

And there is power in attitude!  Ask any doctor about the patient who lived or died, long after all medical treatments had been exhausted.  Patients Will themselves to Life and Will themselves to Death every day.   That same powerful energy can will your business to life or death.

I know the economy is still depressing, and many companies are struggling, I simply choose to focus on what I can do to be successful now. I chose to act with enthusiasm despite the outside world.  I choose to make today great, and as a result it will be.

So if you can’t make it to the Rainmakers Main Event tonight, you just got the short version of the speech, and if you do, you get to hear the stories which go with the message.

As a Networking Junkie, I love building relationships and partnerships.  And teaching others how to do that as well.   Not all my ideas are original.  Actually I have mixed my own experiences with best ideas from a number of people and made them part of my routine.

Check out this post from DuctTape Marketing talking about getting creative with partnerships. With it’s emphasis on strategic relationships, it sounds like the writer is truly a networking junkie!

So who are your most creative partners?