How to Better Answer the 3 Questions You Always Get Asked When Meeting Someone New

This post is based on an article from The Art of Manliness and even though it's used in the context of meeting someone socially, it can also apply when you're meeting someone at a networking event.

Almost every time you meet someone new, there are three questions you will probably have to answer during your conversation:

• What’s your name?
• What do you do?
• Where are you from?

These three questions are so common, and you answer them so frequently, that it is very easy to get in the habit of answering them the same way, again and again, without thinking. You probably get bored with your own answers, so you don’t put energy and effort into offering them in an interesting way. “Hi, I’m Joe. I work in public relations for an energy company downtown, and I’m from the Midwest but moved here a couple years ago.” Zzzzz…

You might even feel like Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day – going through the exact same routine time in and time out. It may even contribute to why so many of us dread meeting new people.

Yet it’s worth upping your game in this area; how you respond to these three common introductory questions can greatly impact your first impression, how memorable you are to a new acquaintance, and whether your relationship ever gets past first base, so to speak.

In this post I will outline 6 specific strategies for answering these almost inescapable questions in ways that are distinct and memorable. I will also share advice from experts in communications, linguistics, and networking about how you can stand out from the pack.

He then goes on to talk about 6 Ways to Make Your Answers More Memorable, which are:

1. Repeat Your Answer.
2. Ask a Question.
3. Tell a Story.
4. Be Clear and Avoid Trying to Be Overly Clever.
5. Create a Personal Association.
6. Find Your Inner Black Sheep

This list is then followed by several examples of how you can make your answers more memorable. Take a few minutes to check it out and you may find yourself looking for more people to introduce yourself to!

Interesting days

Tomorrow - Lucky Penny Day, Turtle Day and Title Track Day 

Thursday - Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, Escargot Day, Tiara Day and Brother's Day

Next Wednesday - Loomis Day, Water a Flower Day, Mint Julep Day and Senior Health & Fitness Day

June 23 - Let It Go Day, Public Service Day, Typewriter Day, International Widows Day and International Women in Engineering Day

How to be one of the top producers in your company

Today's blog post is closely related to yesterday's. Go ahead and read it now...I'll wait for you.

Welcome back! Now, we can continue on with today's post.

When it comes to your business, there are only 4 types of people in the world:

1. Current clients
2. Former clients
3. Future clients
4. Everyone else

You want to spend the most time with your current clients, then your former clients, followed by new clients, and little to no time with those who will never be clients.

 It's far easier to get current clients to buy more from you than to get new clients to buy anything.

So, make sure that your clients know that you care about them because about two-thirds of people stop doing business with a company because they think the company doesn't care about them.

Make a list of your top 100 clients and send them a card EVERY month. SendOutCards makes it easy, and inexpensive, to do this. Joe Girard is the World's Greatest Salesman according to the Guinness Book of World Records. How did he do it? By sending out cards to every customer who bought one of the 13,001 cars that he sold during his career. He had a team of assistants whose only job was to send out the 14,000 cards he sent to his customers and others that he felt that he needed to be in front of every month. But today you only need a SendOutCards account and a list of your top clients.

You do need to add new clients to your business from time to time. And if you really want to get to the top of your company, follow up! Fifty percent of salespeople do not follow up at all, but only about two percent of people purchase on their first exposure. In fact, it takes 90% of purchasers between five and twelve exposures before they decide to buy, yet only 10% of salespeople follow up that many times. Simply follow up with your prospects 5 - 12 times and then send them a card every month forever and you'll be at the top of your company.

DO NOT send a sales or marketing card. In fact, only one or two of the twelve cards should be business related, the rest should be thank you, happy birthday, happy holidays, congratulations, etc. I'll be glad to work with you to send the proper cards to your clients and prospects.

How much will this cost you? Less than $25 per customer per year.

If you want to find out more, click here or email me.

Interesting days

Today - Goth Day, Sherlock Holmes Day, Maritime Day, Harvey Milk Day and International Day for Biological Diversity

Tomorrow - Lucky Penny Day, Turtle Day and Title Track Day

Next Tuesday - Biscuit Day, Learn About Composting Day, Put A Pillow On Your Fridge Day and Paper Clip Day

June 22 - Take Your Dog To Work Day, Onion Rings Day and Chocolate Éclair Day

Relationship Marketing Summit

Wow! This was an amazing event! I'll go into the specifics in a minute but I'd first like to thank two people. First, I'd like to thank my friend and fellow SendOutCards referral partner, Kelly Pangilinan, for letting me drag her to Las Vegas to attend this event. And I'd like to thank Kelly's brother, Kirt Kosmicki, for letting us stay at his place in Vegas! If you're not friends with Kelly, I highly suggest that you send her a friend request. Unfortunately, Kirt doesn't have a Facebook account yet.

So, what is a Relationship Marketing Summit? Obviously, it's a summit about relationship marketing! But what does THAT mean? Let's break down the terms:

What is a summit?

Summit has a couple of meanings that are relevant to this discussion:

• the highest point of attainment or aspiration
• any meeting or conference of top-level officials, executives, etc.

The Relationship Marketing Summit (RMS) brings the top leaders of SendOutCards together to help you attain the peak, whatever that peak may be, in your business, as well as your personal, life. The summit talks primarily about business, although aspects of your personal life enter into it since this is a personal development, as well as a business development, training seminar. 

The leaders at the summit I attended on Saturday in Las Vegas included Kody Bateman, the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of SendOutCards; Steve Schulz, the President of Field Operations of SendOutCards; Jordan Adler, author, speaker, network marketing leader and top income earner at SendOutCards; Gayle Zientek, owner/broker with Network Team Homes Realty; and Jennie Potter, Executive Referral Partner with SendOutCards.

Now what about relationship marketing?

According to Techtarget.com:

Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales. The goal of relationship marketing (or customer relationship marketing) is to create strong, even emotional, customer connections to a brand that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion and information from customers that can generate leads.

The RMS can help you grow your business by showing you how to build relationships with your clients or customers.

Some of the things discussed are things that I've talked about here such as personal branding and "I am" statements. Kody talked about both of these concepts, while Jennie talked about the power of I am statements! Jennie's story was amazing!

Gayle talked about how she brought her real estate company to 100% referral based while closing on 50+ homes a year! And she talked about how a $2 greeting card brought her $70,000 in commissions...that's a 3.5 million percent ROI!

Right now there are only a few more RMS' scheduled, although there will be more added in the future, as well as a 2 day Grand Summit coming up in Salt Lake City in August of next year. Tickets to the RMS's are $39.95, while tickets to the two day Grand Summit will be $149 but are available for $99 for a limited time!

Contact me for more information about any of the upcoming events.

Interesting days

Today -  I Need A Patch For That Day, Rapture Party Day, Waitstaff Day and Memo Day

Tomorrow - Goth Day, Sherlock Holmes Day, Maritime Day, Harvey Milk Day and International Day for Biological Diversity

Next Monday - Hamburger Day, Amnesty International Day, Brisket Day and Menstrual Hygiene Day

June 21 - World Music Day, Go Skateboarding Day, Dump The Pump Day, Daylight Appreciation Day, World Humanist Day, Selfie Day, Make Music Day, International Yoga Day, World Giraffe Day and Peaches ‘N’ Cream Day

Your weekend guide to interesting days - May 19, 2018

This week

Sunday - Top Gun Day,  Frog Jumping Day, Leprechaun Day, International Hummus Day and World Bellydance Day

Monday - Accounting Day and Chicken Dance Day

Tuesday - Straw Hat Day, Chocolate Chip Day and Nylon Stockings Day 

Wednesday - Sea Monkey Day, Drawing Day and Horse Rescue Day

Thursday - Pack Rat Day, World Hypertension Day, World Telecommunications Day, Notebook Day, Neurofibromatosis Awareness Day, World Baking Day and Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Yesterday - Bike To Work Day, No Dirty Dishes Day, Endangered Species Day, Pizza Party Day, International Virtual Assistants Day, Visit Your Relatives Day, Shades Day and Museum Day

Today - May Ray Day, World Whisky Day, Learn To Swim Day, Plant a Lemon Tree Day and World Fiddle Day

Next week

Tomorrow - Pick Strawberries Day, Be a Millionaire Day, Weights & Measures Day, Quiche Lorraine Day and Clinical Trials Day

Monday - I Need A Patch For That Day, Rapture Party Day, Waitstaff Day and Memo Day

Tuesday - Goth Day, Sherlock Holmes Day, Maritime Day, Harvey Milk Day and International Day for Biological Diversity

Wednesday - Lucky Penny Day, Turtle Day and Title Track Day  

Thursday - Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, Escargot Day, Tiara Day and Brother's Day

Friday - Towel Day, Tap Dance Day, Don’t Fry Day, Wine Day and Geek Pride Day

Saturday - Dracula Day, Blueberry Cheesecake Day, World Lindy Hop Day and  Paper Airplane Day

Next month

June 13 - Sewing Machine Day and International Axe Throwing Day

June 14 - Flag Day, Jerky Day, World Blood Donor Day, Bourbon Day, International Bath Day and Farm Workers Day

June 15 - Nature Photography Day, Flip-Flop Day, Smile Power Day, Magna Carta Day, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, Lobster Day and Beer Day Britain

June 16 - Fudge Day, World Juggling Day, Fresh Veggies Day and World Tapas Day

June 17 - Turkey Lovers’ Day, Apple Strudel Day, Eat Your Vegetables Day and Tessellation Day

June 18 - Go Fishing Day, International Sushi Day, International Panic Day, Splurge Day, International Picnic Day and Clean Your Aquarium Day

June 19 - Juneteenth, Sauntering Day, Garfield The Cat Day, Cherry Tart Day, World Sickle Cell Awareness Day and Martini Day

The week in review - May 18, 2018

Monday - "Happy Mother's Day" I hope you all enjoyed your day! "By the time you read this, Mother's Day will be over for this year. But make it a point to celebrate your mom as often as possible. You'll be glad you did! And so will she!"

Tuesday - "How to network effectively" Casey Eberhart teaches the right way to network for your business. "If you attend a network event without a pre-developed well thought out plan that results in profit before you step foot in the door, you’re dead in the water. You’ll be swimming upstream with everyone else trying to squeeze an ounce of profit out of it with zero results."

Wednesday - "A Better Way to Network" Maybe you don't need to even join networking groups or attend chamber mixers. "An excellent source of weak ties is Facebook. Most of your FB friends can be considered weak ties. And many of those could also be dormant ties...someone who was once close to you but now you're only Facebook friends."

Thursday - "For the ladies #TBT" Featuring the women in SendOutCards! "But why the emphasis on women? Because the network marketing profession is made up of 70% women. Not being a woman myself, I can't say for sure why this is, but from what I've seen and heard it's because network marketing can fit in around the other things in their lives...being a wife, mom or employee, it offers women (and men) time and money freedom."

Interesting days

Today - Bike To Work Day, No Dirty Dishes Day, Endangered Species Day, Pizza Party Day, International Virtual Assistants Day, Visit Your Relatives Day, Shades Day and Museum Day

Tomorrow - May Ray Day, World Whisky Day, Learn To Swim Day, Plant a Lemon Tree Day and World Fiddle Day

Next Friday - Towel Day, Tap Dance Day, Don’t Fry Day, Wine Day and Geek Pride Day

June 18 - Go Fishing Day, International Sushi Day, International Panic Day, Splurge Day, International Picnic Day and Clean Your Aquarium Day

For the ladies #TBT

This post was originally published 2 years ago:

I may be pretty dense sometimes, but when I see or hear the same thing three times in just a few hours, I pay attention.

Some of you may have seen this video that I shared on Facebook about how Moms use SendOutCards:

And then on the SendOutCards weekly corporate call, it was announced that there will be a call on Sunday at 5:00 PM PDT to discuss women in SendOutCards...the number is (425)440-5100, pin 551099#

And lastly, Jordan Adler had "Busy Young Canadian Mom Builds a Group of Thousands" on his call right after the corporate call. Here's the replay of that call.

But why the emphasis on women? Because the network marketing profession is made up of 70% women. Not being a woman myself, I can't say for sure why this is, but from what I've seen and heard it's because network marketing can fit in around the other things in their lives...being a wife, mom or employee, it offers women (and men) time and money freedom.

Here is a blog post on this subject from February of last year:

Approximately 70% of the network marketing industry is made up of women according to today’s interestingly entitled blog from Empower Network “Scheming in Urinals While Dissecting the Secrets that Motivate Women”.

What’s interesting is that everybody in my SendOutCards upline is male…my sponsor, his sponsor, etc. up 5 levels above me. So, where is the other 70%? How do I meet them? How do I interest women in how to take charge of their lives? How do I show them that network marketing is the answer to the question “How can I make money to help support, or in the cases of many woman totally support, my family while still having time to spend with my kids and/or spouse? Where can I go to be taken seriously?” The answer, in my opinion, is network marketing. Someplace where 70% of the work force is facing the same challenges and where many of them have succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations.

According to the EN video men want to know about how to make money in the business, and yes that’s part of what I want from SendOutCards, but what I like about SOC is that the primary purpose is helping people keep in contact with one another. Two years ago it was a 3 week ordeal to send a birthday card to a friend, but in the past 11 months I’ve sent out 323 greeting cards to friends and family…that’s an average of about 1 card a day. I’ve sent birthday cards, and anniversary cards, and thank you cards and nice to meet you cards. That’s what SOC is about…letting people know that you’re thinking about them and that they’re an important part of your life. And it’s something that I’m glad I’m doing whether I make money at it or not!

So, if you’re a part of the other 70% and you want to get started in a business that will support what’s important to you then please contact me and we can discuss how SendOutCards may help meet your needs. If you’re part of the 30% that want to know how to make some money you can also contact me. But either way, you’re invited to try it out, totally for free and with no strings attached by going to www.sendoutcards.com/144087.

So, watch the video on how Moms use SendOutCards, listen to the recording of Jordan's call about how a busy Mom built a group of thousands (mostly other moms) and then listen to the call on Sunday and find out how you can build the life of your dreams.

Interesting days

Today - Pack Rat Day, World Hypertension Day, World Telecommunications Day, Notebook Day, Neurofibromatosis Awareness Day, World Baking Day and Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Tomorrow - Bike To Work Day, No Dirty Dishes Day, Endangered Species Day, Pizza Party Day, International Virtual Assistants Day, Visit Your Relatives Day, Shades Day and Museum Day

Next Thursday - Aviation Maintenance Technician Day Escargot Day, Tiara Day and Brother's Day Maybe I should send a card to mine

June 17 - Turkey Lovers’ Day Apple Strudel Day, Eat Your Vegetables Day and Tessellation Day

A Better Way to Network

This post is the 2nd of two parts on networking, be sure to check out the first part here. Today's blog post is based on a podcast from The Art of Manliness.

The podcast interviews David Burkus, the author of "Friend of a Friend". One of the first things that David discusses is weak ties, which is something that I've written about, and dormant ties which were strong ties that may have weakened over time or distance...such as a former college roommate or friends from the military. I actually work with one of my friends from the military but I've also lost touch with some that even though we work for the same company, we're not in the same office anymore.

Where can you find weak ties? They're all around us...anybody that you've ever met but you don't interact with on a regular basis is a weak tie. An excellent source of weak ties is Facebook. Most of your FB friends can be considered weak ties. And many of those could also be dormant ties...someone who was once close to you but now you're only Facebook friends.

Here are some of the topics discussed in the podcast:

• The common approach people take towards networking 
• Why traditional networking methods don’t work
• How David’s “friend of a friend” approach to networking flips that old model on its head 
• Recognizing the networks you already have
• What are weak and dormant ties? Why are they more powerful than strong ties?
• Managing your weak and dormant ties in order to keep them alive 
• How to find the structural holes in your network 
• Why “silos” are important 
• What extroverts and introverts can learn from each other in regards to networking
• What makes for a “super connector”
• How do you manage your network once it starts to grow?
• Why managing your relationships needs to be intentional 
• How to cultivate a diverse network 
• The idea of multiplexity in our networks — why our connections can be relevant in multiple contexts and facets 
• The perhaps funny idea that should be the guiding principle of networking 
• The “Don’t Believe the Hype” Principle

Listen to the podcast and find out some ways that you can strengthen your network.

Interesting days

Today - Sea Monkey Day, Drawing Day and Horse Rescue Day

Tomorrow - Pack Rat Day, World Hypertension Day, World Telecommunications Day, Notebook Day, Neurofibromatosis Awareness Day, World Baking Day and Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Next Wednesday - Lucky Penny Day, Turtle Day and Title Track Day  This song is the title track for the "Happy Together" album by The Turtles 

June 16 - Fudge Day, World Juggling Day, Fresh Veggies Day and World Tapas Day