Like many people I did not think about doing what I do now, when I was a child. Nobody wakes up one day and says, "I think I will pursue a career in networking. Maybe I will run a chamber of commerce or something like that..."
What Did Kerry George Want To Be When She Grew Up?
Like most little girls, I wanted to be an actress. Then I went down a different path. Eventually, I became a business owner who just needed to get more clients. I was a single mom who entered into the business world as a means to try to make enough money to support my family and to give them the things that they were going to need as they were growing older and looking at college.
I had a knack for marketing so I thought that I would turn that into a business, much like other business owners who think that they are good at something or they have a good product to sell. The problem was I really didn't know anything about business and I really knew even less about how to get clients for myself. The bills were piling up, and I was in debt, and I needed to do something fast that was going to turn that situation around.
I stumbled on networking by accident. A friend of mine had been to a networking meeting so they invited me to come along and meet some people from industries who might hire me for my marketing services. Someone there showed an interest so I decided to go to another meeting. It did not take very long and I landed my very first customer networking, by following up with somebody that I met at a networking meeting. Then I was hooked.
It motivated me to go to networking meetings more regularly. I attended a weekly group where people got to know like and trust me and it became quite profitable. I compared my success there to another group that I was attending monthly. I realized that while I enjoyed the monthly group, it was more of a social setting and it was not actually delivering new customers to me.
I found a mentor who had a lot of wisdom and years of experience in the networking space. He helped me to overcome biases that I had about networking that were holding me back. I thought that exactly the right people had to be in the room for it to be worthwhile for me. I believed that I should land a client right in the meeting. I figured my connections should have a certain level of status for them to have any value. He showed me that these expectations would keep me broke and that I would miss money on the table because I was overlooking opportunities. He taught me how to make connections and how to make money even when the candidates did not at first appear ideal.
One of the best lessons that I learned about networking during that time was when I went to a meeting that was two hours drive away. It was extremely inconvenient, early in the morning, and on the day of a massive snowstorm, and only four people showed up. It was difficult to not be discouraged, but I followed his lead as he treated everybody there like they were the most important people that could be there and we began the meeting anyway. I wrote $70,000 worth of business at that poorly attended meeting. As a new business owner that was remarkable! I discovered that day that it was not the size of the event that mattered, and it had nothing to do with my preconceived ideas of who was going to be a good customer.
Over the next decade I learned a lot about networking. I liked networking so much that I decided to let my marketing business go. Along with some partners, I bought a networking organization and soon after I bought another one. I started working with those who had been networking for more than 25 years and I gleaned everything that I could from them. I did interviews from people who were wildly successful at networking. I asked them all kinds of questions about why they were making so much money going to networking meetings. I took that information and I created courses that I can share with our membership base to help them become more successful in their networking endeavors. This is where our boot camps came from and how we developed the foundational pieces to our Networking Success Path.
Who Is Kerry George Today?
Today, I love what I do. What is there not to love? I get to work with entrepreneurs day in and day out. I get to help troubleshoot their challenges. I get to assist with their challenges. I get to participate in their journey. I get to do all of this online and sometimes in live meetings while drinking coffee, wine, and beer. I get to be the friend of movers and shakers and see the world through their eyes. It is an exceptional life!
We have been able to take business owners from every industry and give them a great return on their investment for networking with us. For many of our members networking is their sole method of marketing. It sustains them in good times and bad. These are real people in business for themselves like John Neilson who owns Franklin Auto who has had a really great year even with the events of 2020. People who needed networking, who needed each other for support, and who bought in to all of the things that CIBN Connect offered for them.
Over the years we have added components to assist our members with their social media and online challenges. This was an area that I held a lot of expertise in and I was really to share it with our organization. The Social Media Boot Camp has been a game changer for many of our members who are struggling and frustrated. In the more recent world pandemic that we find all of ourselves in, this information about social media and online training has kept many of our business owners and business from going out of business. It has helped other members in our organization tap into new sources of revenue in the greatest economic challenge of our times.
Networking works! Social media works! These things together creates a new form of social networking that is unstoppable. They will work for you in your business as well.
And connect with me Kerry George on LinkedIn. Let's network!
As the CEO at CIBN Connect, Kerry George inspires business owners with vision and passion and allows them to thrive in every circumstance.
Kerry is a professional networker who has attended over 6000 networking meetings and has been a keynote speaker for hundreds of online and live events.
As you can imagine, a few things have gone wrong in running that many events. Kerry always keeps a sense of humor during the chaos, which has allowed her to continuously be in good spirits to help other entrepreneurs work through their stuff. (linkedin.com/in/kerrygeorge)