Persistence has many benefits

I'm a great believer in one to one meetings and invest time in these regularly also encouraging my fellow Athena members and visitors to do likewise. But why?

Well at networking meetings and other events, there is often not the time to really get to grips with people's business in detail. In a one to one meeting over a coffee, lunch or drink, you get a chance to get to know the person's business; what kind of clients they are looking for; how you can help them and they of course,  can find out the same about you. We women also have the edge here of getting to know the person behind the business too so we get a real holistic picture and through this we, I believe, excel at building that relationship.

From this point, we may use services, hopefully will tell others and in some cases may have discovered a potential partner in some aspects of our business. Don't however always expect that it will all fall into place immediately.

In November attending a Cappucino Connections for the Athena City group I met Sasha Kader from Sakr Design Ltd and we hit it off really well. We both wanted to meet again but Christmas was getting in the way and we committed to a January date. Then in mid December I met Sasha again at another Athena event and we talked further. At this stage she was no longer a stranger and I felt I was truly starting to build this relationship so when we met for our one to one in January, I was there to really get clear about her business and had in mind being able to tell others about her and find her clients.  In this meeting we had no people distractions, no sound distractions and as she spoke I realised the breadth of her offering and her expertise and it became clear that not only was I now able to tell others about her but she was also a very serious contender as someone that could deliver the integrated service that I was looking for for MediaCoach

Today, Alan Stevens and I met with Sasha and are delighted to be working with her to develop the next stage of business.


The moral, well,  always invest the time and it will pay off. Will keep you posted as to how things develop. I know it's going to be a great experience.

Blogs, blogs and more blogs!

Having been through a time of clarification recently, I've spent many hours recently sorting out my blogs.

I believe it's true to say that when I starting blogging I decided to have one blog which allowed me to talk about everything I do. However, that doesn't really suit anymore so I now have three blogs.

This one, Heather Waring's Business Pazazz! is the blog for my business which includes my networking and work through Athena, my one to one clients, my work as Business Manager to MediaCoach and all other business related issues.


Heather Waring and the East End Girls is where I get to talk about all the great walks and adventures I do with my fabulous walking group, the East End Girls. This year, we have yet to decide on a challenge as such but some of us will be going to France in early September to celebrate our 5th birthday in Burgundy at Les Cerisiers, run by Mark and Janice of http://www.thereallybigdreamcompany.com 

Finally Heather and Teresa walk the Camino is just what the title says and you can find out what we've experienced so far as well as following us as we walk further and get closer to the French/ Spanish Border. Next trip is in May.

A word of warning though, as all of these blogs are about different aspects of my life the content is likely to overlap as one often informs the other. Which ever blog you choose to read or follow, do enjoy and please comment. You can of course follow all three and if you gain insight, information, entertainment and joy, please encourage others to follow too.

Thanks.

Athena Networking is the best

Today I attended the Chingford Athena meeting which brings it to a total of 4 Athena meetings this month. It's not my usual practice but it's been a real privilege to visit all the groups in my area this month to do the Business Support Topic (BST) and on the back of that launch our Athena Walking Initiative.

I've been talking about 'Bonding and Belonging' and the importance of both of those and then taking the opportunity to remind members how we can make it all happen and grow our business on that back of it. It's all been very well accepted which is great and I can honestly say that all our groups, that's those in West Essex and the City, are really good at bonding and belonging. On my visits, it's been great to see some familiar faces and to meet new ones too. I now need to do the follow up, that will be one of my targets for next week.

The BST has been a great springboard for launching Athena Angels which is our Athena walking team and we're going to do the Maggie's Night Hike in Sept this year.  The response has been fantastic so thank you to all those who have registered their interest, I'll be in touch very soon. Having trained a team of 16 wonderful women in 2006 to do the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Walk, I'm so excited about sharing all my tips and techniques, introducing all these lovely ladies to so many great walks and seeing them experience all the great benefits of training in a team. I know we'll have a ball.

Here are my team on day one of the Breakthrough Walk.

So watch this space for updates of our progress. First step is to find out what everyone is capable of so far!

No such thing as a banal tweet

I was recently asked to write about 'How Twitter can boost your networking and bring you new clients' for a newsletter I write for regularly. I've been on Twitter for more than a year now and am loving it - it's by far my favourite social networking tool and I have been giving talks to my local Athena groups about it and how to use it to your benefit.

Of course the comments that people make are interesting especially those who to date have not tried it but have picked up, usually through the media, info regarding the fact that it's all about what you had for lunch! I love the turn around that often comes when I explain what you can write in 140 characters and how it can promote and leverage your business as well as increase your networking.

One of the things I mentioned in the article was that 'I might even comment, as I did yesterday, on the blackberries on one of my favourite walks. That tweet got about 10 responses, with people sending recipes, saying I’d inspired them to go out and commenting on the importance of getting out in the fresh air.'

That tweet is still getting comments and the discussion has gone on over the weekend. Now that's exactly the kind of tweet some might label as 'banal' but it's my experience that tweets like this are the ones that really heighten your profile because they are the tweets that people relate to, the ones that show people you may be like-minded, the ones through which people get a feel for you and as they build the relationship, they want to do business with you at all.

Yes, people go to my blog and website when I tweet, yes, they ask for help and assistance but this tweet is the one that's got the most responses ever.

As Joel Comm, the man who wrote Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time would say tweets like this are ‘a little bit of human interaction’