Live and at Lunch with BRNG and LinkedIn
Contact: Sheila Carmody (518) 366-6148

Albany, NY (4/10/2012) – Twice a month in Albany and Saratoga Springs a group of business professionals gather in a private room at a local restaurant to focus on professional development, build business relationships and one other thing — lunch.
It’s a form of communications being surpassed in many ways by electronic communications but still invaluable, especially in light of electronics overload.

“Mixing it up — networking online and in person — is a good idea,” said Bonnie Ausfeld, Founder and President of the Business Referrals Networking Group (BRNG) that meets for lunch and has a LinkedIn group. “And we’re a direct referral group so you need to get to know people face to face.”

The “boutique” networking group, called that for its smaller size with one representative from each industry, has seen an increase in activity – more members around the table – probably in part because of LinkedIn, and member sponsorships.

The group has plans to expand into Westchester County, where they’re currently seeking a business leader for the new chapter.

“I think people value the opportunity to get together with other business professionals more than ever because they spend so much time engaged with their phones, laptops and apps and on LinkedIn,” Ausfeld said. “They need a break from the electronic media.”
The original intent of BRNG was – and still is – to create an opportunity for business leaders to meet for lunch, share information, build relationships and obtain “direct” referrals from its membership and their networking resources. During one meeting at BRNG you’re sitting between a divorce attorney and an interior decorator and the next meeting a banker and someone from a local animal shelter.
That’s what prompted Migdalia “Micky” Jimenez, an RN and Director of Healthcare Services for a provider of home care, to join BRNG five years ago.

“I was impressed by the variety of leaders from all different business sectors,” she said. “It was a change from many of the organizations that I belong too that focus on one specific area, such as health care or the Hispanic community.”

Given the existing data and research, it is clear that face-to-face meetings are used less frequently, according to Prof. Richard D. Arvey, the National University of Singapore, who studied and wrote a white paper on the value of face-to-face business meetings.

But they are beneficial. “There are nuances associated with hand gestures, voice quality and volume, facial expressions and so forth that aren’t captured in email discussion, chat rooms and the like.”

Ultimately, a combination of the two – electronic and interpersonal communication – is considered most effective, Ausfeld said. And one thing BRNG has that LinkedIn can never have – dessert.

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Home Care Services Professional receives leadership award from Minority Business Association

Albany, NY – Migdalia “Micky” Jimenez, a member of the Albany chapter of the Business Referral Networking Group (BRNG) and Director of Healthcare Services for Belvedere, received an award in April from the Minority Business Association for the same reason she joined BRNG – diversity.

Jimenez, Director of Healthcare Services for Belvedere, was one of four New Yorkers honored for their leadership in business, by the Statewide Association of Minority Businesses at a dinner at the Crown Plaza in downtown Albany. She was nominated by Hiscock and Barclay attorneys. (Pictured from left to right are Melissa Zambri and David Glasel from Hiscock and Barclay and Jimenez.)

Business professionals have opportunity to interact with and obtain “direct” referrals from a larger diverse business network through BRNG.

“I enjoy the camaraderie developed among the professional members at each meeting. What also distinguishes the group from other professional associations is that it is comprised of members who represent a wide variety of different lines of businesses,” Jimenez said. “This is something I truly value and find it broadens my knowledge in other industries, besides the group is positive, and enjoyable to be The New York State Puerto Rican/Hispanic Legislative Task Force, Somos El Futuro conference.”

For more information on BRNG, contact Bonnie Ausfeld at beaconresources@gmail.com or go to
http://beaconresources.com/business-networking/brng-chapters.
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What are you doing with your career that is “Tedious”?  Is your career purposeful? When your feet hit the floor in the morning do you look forward to going to work? Are you in it simply for the money, taking care of your family, or are you fearful of change? The latter one is the one most often keeping people in careers that are “Tedious”.

Right now is a good time to plan for a new career. Will you be ready when the job market recovers? Even now there may be a job that an employer had downsized yet finds that he/she really needs to refill. “Fear” of Change is what typically makes people keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

Make that decision today to remove the Fear of Change and stop the merry-go-round of being in a career where your work is “Tedious”.

Hundreds of thousands of people are looking for a job in an economy that appears to be not recovering. What can an individual do to distinguish themselves from other applicants?

Look at yourself as though you are a product and/or merchant in a crowded market. What makes you high-quality merchandise? What distinguishes you with your customer service and relationships from your competitors?

These are only some of the questions we ask our clients during our program called “the listening resume.” The information we gain enables us to begin the process of writing a professional resume for them.

Every resume we write is a direct reflection on our career planning services. Our career planning service has been built on trust and rapport with our customers who then send us referrals.

We have been in business for 30 years. Things have changed a great deal during that time. Today we utilize technology to communicate with our clients globally. Each client is unique and individual regardless of geography. www.beaconresources.com

Sometimes when you succeed in your goals you also fail to achieve your goals. How can that be?

Setting a goal large or small is a common practice especially on New Year’s Eve. Having a strategic plan for your business sets a policy and standards for everyone to work towards. Everyone knows the plan and all systems appear to be a GO and yet there is a weakness that will result in failure to achieve the ultimate goal. This is the goal that makes or breaks a project. You may have achieved your own personal goal yet it does not matter when the end result fails the overall strategic plan.

The questions begin to service:  What happened? Why did I not see this coming? Going to the point of failure and tracing back to the beginning will sometimes lead to the reality that respect and trust were given to someone that had not yet earned it. You realize that you handed over your respect and trust based upon someone else’s opinion rather than your own. You were working based upon someone else’s Perception, which was their reality and not yours. Respect and trust cannot just be handed over. Respect and trust must be earned and respect must come first.

Once the reality of Perception versus Truth failure turns into success as the experience will go with you throughout life like a suitcase that never gets unpacked.

People work with people they Respect and Trust. Make sure that YOU are a person that can be counted on to help others achieve their goals and not someone that pulls the rug at a critical point to success.

What have you learned grasshopper? “Say what you mean and mean what you say with honesty and integrity.”  Never over promise and under deliver.

Today we live in a fast paced digital communication arena where we are exchanging thoughts, ideas and spending our advertising dollars in the digital medium. For the workaholic this can be a saving of time and dollars as he/she can be multi-tasking pretty much as warp speed.

However, with anything there is a “cause and effect”.  Digital arenas can take us away from the face-to-face where we can see and hear the responses from those we are communicating with. It reminds me of the difference between actors receiving “silent” applause feedback from their work in film (the audience may applause in the theater but unless the actor(s) are there they cannot hear it) and the “standing ovation” stage actors receive immediately during and after a performance.

Both have their place and benefits. Try to give them both equal times. Slow down and see what’s in front of you. It just might surprise you.

Decisions

Every decision we make in business determines the course of some type of action or actionable step. Decisions can have a profound effect on the business not just in the immediate day-to-day operations that might make the company more competitive, but also for years to come. Decisions can result in failures as well as successes. Statistics for entrepreneurs indicate that 9 out of 10 fail within the first 5 years.

Knowing these statistics, some entrepreneurs move forward with a dream and passion. Later down the road when asked, “What was their “defining moment” to move forward and start their own business, most can actually pinpoint that moment. Sometimes it was simply because they got fired or laid-off from their job.

How do you make a “career-defining moment” decision? The first step is to become keenly aware of all the facts and circumstances surrounding what you are contemplating doing – the pros and cons. Next determine how your decision might impact your family. Think through your decision and remember life is full of challenges and opportunities.

Take your challenges and turn them into opportunities.

Sad Day for America!   The S&P lowered our rating from Stable to Negative. Our President appears to have lied when he signed the agreement with the Republicans to reduce spending by 38.5 million dollars this year. If what has been reported turns out to be true, then he now is planning to ignore what he signed in regards to the Czar’s salaries.  Could “Joe Wilson” have been on the mark last year when he blurted out, “You Lie?”

To make matters worse, the Saudi gov’t has decreased its output of oil, stating that there is a glut in the market place. Gas prices have risen to over $4 a gallon in 6 states including NYS.

Note one and all, reducing our AAA rating is like losing the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. This is our Gold Standard. How did the White House respond to this? The White House’s comment was that the S&P is playing Politics.

I’ve been concerned about this happening for over a year. My fear now is that our currency will disappear and President Obama will cause to happen what he stated he would like to see when he was on the campaign trail before becoming president; he stated he would like to see an “International Currency.” There wasn’t a single journalist that called him out on it. I really hope that Obama does not get his way. Congress appears to have blinders on here as does the media.

“What’s In It for me?”  More times than not, when I’m pre-screening an applicant for membership in my networking group, BRNG, this question comes up in some form or another; perhaps not directly, though the emphasis is there.

What I focus on is educating applicants that networking is about becoming part of a forum where you increase your visibility and share who you are and what it is that you do, and where you have the opportunity to connect with people you may have not ever had the chance to connect with or even thought of connecting with.

This type of networking forum may enable you to establish your expertise with people that may have heard about you, yet had not had the opportunity until now to meet you.

In BRNG, for example we focus on professional development, relationship building and providing members with “direct referrals,” where the member can use another members name to connect with that “direct referral.” This type of referral is known as a “warm call” rather than a “cold call.”

Over the years I’ve attended hundreds of networking events. I’ve watched people move through the room like an expert networker and others that are there simply to give out as many business cards as they can in that short period of time. The latter based upon my experience will not generate connections nor profitability.

So, how do I answer the question, “What’s In It for me?”  My answer is always the same, “If your application is approved…”

1. Members come to connect and not to focus on selling their products and services.
2. Members come to focus on relationship building and to learn more about each other.
3. Members learn through our professional development programs the value of following up with someone they meet or have a conversation with via telephone, email or through social media.
4. Members are encouraged to meet one-on-one with other members in between the meeting to become more familiar with whom they are as a person and to develop that trust and rapport that ultimately generates cash flow for both of them.
5. Members come to understand that networking is not about connecting with the “one quick sale” low hanging fruit; rather it is about creating an environment that takes them on a long journey that bears fruit time after time.
6. Members learn that it is best to give until you think it’s not working and give even more. The rewards come back to them way more than they ever thought would happen.

In the end, Networking is an art form; one that should be cultivated and mastered. It takes time and effort, yet the rewards are bountiful.

There are as many answers to this question as there are goals. Some might answer that they simply don’t have the time to do what they want to do. Another might be that the money isn’t there. Still another might answer that they don’t have the talent or ability or even the self-confidence to achieve their goals. All of these might be true, however they are typically generated by fear.

The fact of the matter is that most successful people consistently set challenges for themselves with short time frames to achieve them and then find a way to make it happen.

Starting is generally the scariest part of setting a goal. Once set, however you have to hold yourself accountable to achieving it. It doesn’t have to be difficult. Start with 15 minutes a day and work towards your goal and before you know it, you’ve built the momentum toward the finish line.

Begin today…Write down and start moving in the direction of achieving your goal.

How do you get beyond the status quo - “this is the way we’ve always done it, to changing the way people think about a product, service, idea, event?

Effective Communication…Anticipate Trends and incorporate them before you need to react to them and then communicate these trends to your customers in a way that will enable them to understand that breaking the paradigm could give their business a real opportunity to grow.

Paradigm Breakers are typically people that grasp the concept of knowing where their business needs to be at least 3 years down the road. It can be a courageous decision to make, yet most successful people are paradigm breakers. They think outside the box and are willing to take the heat for their ideas and innovation.

Building trust first and then effective communication can transform your business model from ordinary to extraordinary.