There is Ground School for pilots in training, so could there be Ground School for geese? Is there even such a thing?

I enjoy being a student of the unexpected. I never know where the next gem of insight will show up. What I am about to share with you is something I learned on the fly . . .  pardon the pun.

I have learned that being open to the gifts that may arrive suddenly and by surprise provides space for opportunities to present themselves. On this particular occasion, I found myself drawn to watch the activity of a group of young geese.

I was having a game of golf and at the fifth hole was a pond of water longer than it was wide. I could not help but notice the considerable number of geese in the water.

“That’s rather odd,” I thought to myself. This did not look like one of those times when the parents of this year’s goslings were out for a swim with their brood. It appeared that all the geese, save for one, looked to be about the same size and likely about the same age.

After a little study, I noted that this was a flock of young geese appearing to be swimming in unison . . . well . . . more or less in unison . . . moving across the length of water. Some of the geese were fast, some were slow, and some needed extra time to get upright in the water after performing unintended head-over-heel style flips. Sound interesting? The synchrony of the geese swimming together . . . or trying to…caught our attention so much so that we joined the pairs of spectator geese that had now gathered around the pond, and we watched.

Without warning and without so much as a whisper, something interrupted the geese in the water. The geese began to gather at one end of the pond and then began to make their way across the pond to the other end. They appeared to be following an older lead goose and imitating what the lead goose was doing.

When moving in one direction, they seemed to be floating like hovercraft without moving their wings or creating a ripple in the water. When they arrived at the pond’s edge, some would simply turn around in preparation to go back the way they came. Some would attempt underwater somersaults . . . where . . . more often than not . . . they would tip over sideways, scrambling to keep their bodies upright with their feet in the water. It was funny to watch them trying to carve out a space for themselves . . . not unlike trying to make a space for yourself in a crowded tai chi class.

When the geese were in position in the water and comfortably separated back at the original end of the pond, the leader began flapping his wings and making noise until they were all following along. Then the class began to move across the water with feet propelling them as though they were getting ready to walk on water. When the lead goose reached the other end of the pond, the flapping stopped. The bodies of the goslings settled into the water as they simultaneously turned around and headed back to the other side of the pond in preparation to repeat the exercise. This carried on several times.

From where I was standing, it felt like I was on the observation deck during Goose Ground School training exercises. After all, a few minutes of distraction from playing golf couldn’t hurt.

It became apparent that there was only one explanation for what we saw. This had to be Goose Ground School. The geese born this year were being groomed for their long-haul flight. They were being trained in important goose migration skills like formation take-off, wind-direction assessment and wing muscle-mass development. When the instructor goose leading the pack thought the students had had enough practice for one day, flight class abruptly ended with all the young geese stepping out of the water to join their parents for grazing snacks.

I wish I had had my phone with me so I could have recorded the whole event. How many times have you said, “I wish I had . . .” or “I wish I would have . . .?”

It takes a particular mindset to be open to observing the gift or receiving the information that appears in only that one single moment. Being able to attend a lesson at Goose Ground School that day was an unexpected pleasure. No one minded that we took a few extra minutes at Hole Five to savor the sight.

What does Goose Ground School have to do with getting your business off the ground? For me, it all boils down to an attitude of being open to receiving unexpected gifts that may show up from time to time. Sometimes those gifts are in the form of opportunities happening right before our eyes. We have but to pay attention.

Opportunities to do business are everywhere. Sometimes you simply have to get in the water. Sometimes you have to take flight lessons to get your business off the ground . . . and sometimes you find ways to delegate certain tasks to others who are experts at what they do and who can lighten your load.

Sometimes in business and in life . . . that’s all it takes . . . a consultant, an expert, a teacher, a mentor, a coach—someone who will share their experience and enrich our abilities to take advantage of life’s unexpected gifts and achieve success.

By Donna Dahl

Donna Dahl, M. Ed., MNLP, is a leading executive strategist and catalyst for change. Through her neuroscience-based coaching, she is well-poised to disseminate skill development, empowerment, and engagement. Donna has an award-winning track record, and she is the author of Lessons I Learned from the Tortoise, a five-star rated book designed to challenge the reader to consider mindful change.  She welcomes discovery calls.

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.

Join us!

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)