Some times the dudes I meet really fill me with energy. After gathering 116 prancing foxes for the 116th day of Christmas I really needed the energy. Oh yeah and Judy calls ladies dudes all the time so she is awesome just for that.
I met Judy Dejno a few years ago through the now defunct West Allis Lightening Volleyball Club. Judy is now an executive coach. In order to help grow my business I have been meeting with executive coaches because they are coaching the people I want to serve. It was great to have just read Anatomy of Peace because Judy believes in the human side of coaching. It was great to have her share how deeply she believes in that method of coaching. She told me great stories of how her adult children work at LinkedIn and how they celebrate as a company when a person is promoted either inside of or outside of the company. Judy reminded me of the need of coaches to have coaches. I have let some of those relationships lapse as I am building my company but they are on my list of to-dos now. We also talked about how some of the executives she coaches long for employees to show more ownership level interest in the business. It is exactly what I hear about IT staff as well. It will generate a blog on why IT showing ownership is important. Looking back on the conversation with Judy, I have to admit I was really nervous going in. Judy was one of those connections that was not long term. It showed me how valuable any connection can be. I left the meeting with Judy with 3 new ideas for my business and a lot of energy. I recommend talking to Judy she is an amazing person.
Later in that same day, I diligently signed into a Dreambank webinar at noon. After 15 minutes of really bad music and these absolutely fascinating red glasses staring at me, we got to meet Adam Buchanan. There are 2 things I took away from Adam’s presentation and the first has nothing to do with his topic, influencer marketing. If you want to give over the top awesome presentations combine your passions. Adam is a bee keeper and the way he weaved a story of influencer marketing from beekeeping would have been the envy of old Mark Twain himself. He used the hive, the honey and the bees in such a great way that you could see the bees at work in your mind. Now the second take away is that Adam not only knows beekeeping, he knows influencer marketing (aka blogger relations). He first explained the difference between influencers, advocates and ambassadors. Then his three key tenants of proximity, honesty and expertise made perfect sense to me. Not sure who the social influencers are for SE Wisconsin small to mid sized business executives but it definitely gives me another avenue to research.
As always if you don’t have time to meet either of of this weeks dudes feel free to sign up for a coffee or lunch with me here. I would be happy to talk more with you about why you should talk with them.