Guest Blogger
Wherein Our Heroine Hands the
Keyboard Off.
I am heading back to Maryland this
morning. Last night, my mother was presented with the "Esprit de Coeur" award
from the New England Women in Real Estate. She spoke on the subject of
networking - making connections. So, this morning I present my mom, Carole
Sawdon, as my first "guest blogger." Here is the text of her
speech.
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It
is such a pleasure to see all of you here tonight—old friends and new
friends. Thank you for
coming.
Hard to believe that
it’s been over 20 years since those early days of meetings at the Meridien
Hotel (we grew too large for their ballroom). We wore business suits—with
skirts—and floppy silk bow ties. People still smoked in public buildings
and we had wine at lunch.
Imagine!
We were new to each
other and to the networking concept and unsure how to
proceed.
We were
EARNEST—we WORKED at it—after all the word IS net---WORK,
isn’t it? Work surely implies
protocol.
So, we took lessons
and learned where to wear our nametags for optimum eye-contact when shaking
hands (on the right). We learned to keep “our” cards and
“their” cards in separate pockets for ease of exchange—and we
learned to be sure we had pockets. We learned to make lists for follow-up and
follow-through. It was and is good stuff. It’s important to have a
framework and to be
organized.
But what experience
really taught us is that –you never know. Infinite possibilities exist in
every encounter. Here’s one of my favorite examples: Joan, an attorney
in Philadelphia went to her first CREW convention reluctantly because her
practice was a local one. In convention overload, she slipped out of a session
to sit in the sun for a brief respite and struck up a conversation with a
project manager for a developer from the West Coast—also similarly
overloaded. Nice chat—good sharing of information. Some months later
the West Coast developer was buying property in Philadelphia and the project
manager suggested they call Joan. It was the beginning of a great team. Who
would have thought? After all, they were really playing hooky—not usually
classified as “work.” Your next deal might come from the person
ahead of you in line at the sign up table tonight—or the person next to
you now. You never know.
I do
know that the process repeats itself every time we’re in a new situation.
We aren’t ever allowed to finally check the box marked “done.”
We also think it’s a whole lot easier for HER to go to a meeting where she
knows no one than it is for ME. Besides, SHE probably knows people anyway.
She’s a leader, she’s a hero, she knows how to do
it.
I like the perspective
contained in something Will Rogers said, “We can’t all be heroes
because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”
It’s actually a great spot—the curb—you meet a lot of nice
people there.
Thank you again
for the honor of being here. Now I’m going to leave this parade and go
back to my spot on the curb. Someone I met earlier is saving my
place.
Posted: Thursday - April 15, 2004 at 06:27 AM
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